Despite what many say, there is only one way to God. You don’t need to search hard because God has searched you out.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered in July 2026. Unlike most notes in our sermon index, these are merely a summary of the sermon. Our Summer Services this year were all-age.
Judges 17 exposes the tragedy of manmade religion through Micah. He ignored God’s appointed way of worship by creating idols and inventing his own priesthood, yet wrongly assumed that God’s apparent blessing meant God approved of his actions.
Idols are not simply statues but anything that takes God’s rightful place in our hearts by becoming our ultimate source of identity, security, meaning or hope. Meanwhile the “gods” behind them are the deeper desires they represent—whether security, approval, control, success or significance—even when attached to good things like theology, church growth or Christian service.
Like Micah, we naturally exchange the Creator for created things. We must honestly examine what we fear losing, trust most, or turn to for comfort, recognising that every false religion and every personal idol is a human substitute for the one way God has already provided. In contrast to the lie that all religions lead to God, Jesus declares himself to be the only way to the Father. Only he offers forgiveness, acceptance and eternal security through his atoning death so that all who come to him will never be cast out.
Therefore Christians are called to reject superstition and self-made religion. Trust Christ alone, and cultivate a life of obedient faith, thankful worship, constant prayer and dependent trust. Enjoy God’s gifts without allowing them to become gods, because the only God who can never be lost is the one who holds his people forever.