Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another mornings with the Masters, where we devote

ourselves to the Lord daily with you.

Today, we are coming to you from our current floorbed in the apartment we have noah with us

as well and so we are going to be picking up in new morning mercies and just be encouraged but if you

hear noah talking that is him just saying amen to the text. Okay? All right. Let's jump in. This is what it says.

You must never let your enthusiasm for the gift replace your worship of and service for the giver.

God asks a stinging question of the children of Israel at the beginning of the book of

Jeremiah, a question that should cause all of us to search our own hearts. It's in Jeremiah 2, 11 through 13.

It says this. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory, for that which does not profit.

Be appalled, oh heavens at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord.

For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that

can hold no water. It is a significant spiritual dynamic to consider. It was at the root of the spiritual failures of

Israel. It poses a spiritual threat to us all. What we celebrate as a blessing from God can become an

idol that rules and directs our hearts. It happens too easily and so subtly. The genuine obedience that was

the fruit of grace morphs into self-righteous pride that I parade before other people. The house

that I once viewed as an undeserved, undeserved gift of God becomes an idol that gobbles up the thoughts

and desires of my heart. That relationship that I once saw as a blessing from God's good hand

replaces him as the source of my identity. The theological knowledge that is the gift of the illuminating ministry

of the Holy Spirit becomes the reason why I look down on those who do not know what I know.

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