Jesus is Better than Everything Else
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I am one of the pastors here. You are a sinner. But, it gets worse. The Bible tells us that sin, what we often think that sin is primarily us breaking rules or disobeying God, but the Bible tells us that sin is actually worse than that.
It's deeper than that. That it's actually that we love other things more than God. And then, because we love things more than God, because we value them over them, our affection over Him, our affection is set on them rather than Him, then we sin, then we disobey. This is actually what happened in the garden. Some people are like, I don't understand the Adam and Eve story, why that was such a big deal, why, you know, he says a tree don't eat the fruit or whatever, and they do, and then everything falls apart from there. That feels a little crazy.
But really, what happened was, prior to thinking the fruit was delicious, prior to thinking that it was more flavorful, they had to believe that it was more flavorful than God. That it had to have, their taste for God had to die first in order for them to have a taste for it. And that's actually the fundamental issue in the human heart, is that we were designed to love and to cherish God. He made us for Himself. And that's beautiful, that God, when He designed the world, He made us to enjoy Him, and Him to love us, to cherish us, for us to have Him as our highest affection, because He is the highest good in the universe.
And rather than do that, we trade Him out for smaller things, that ultimately cannot carry the weight of our worship, and carry the weight of our love, and that's called idolatry. Today's going to be a little bit different than normal. A lot of times we just go to one passage, we walk right through it. If you want to turn to Colossians, Colossians chapter 3, we will get there. But first, we're going to look at a few different places throughout the Old Testament that will be on the screen.
So we will all look together there, but we will get to Colossians 3. I have two sons. I have a four-year-old and a one-year-old. He's like one and a half. My one-year-old came out big, healthy, sleepy, loud, you know, baby stuff. And then about six months into being a human, he started getting really red.
Four to six months started getting red and itchy, and his skin was scaly, and he looked gross. And he would scratch himself so much that he would bleed. So we had to start like zipping him up in bags at night, which now he's hooked on, and we don't know at what age we're going to be like, bro, you don't have to sleep in this bag anymore. Maybe he's like seven. The first time he goes to do a sleepover, we'll be like, you've got to zip him up in this sack. But he scratches himself.
He would scratch himself until he bled, and we started figuring like there's something wrong here because most people don't look like this, so we've got to figure out what's going on. And at one point when he fully kind of transitioned to just being bottle-fed, he got way worse. And so we were trying to, you know, you start mixing in like oats and stuff in his bottles, and he actually started just throwing up every night. And we were like, well, this is a problem. Like he's got to be able to keep food down. So we took him to the doctor.
The doctor had been seeing him and kind of giving us some creams and stuff. We finally brought him. We're like, hey, this is worse. This isn't just like dry baby skin. Like we got problems here. And what you want when you go to a doctor is you want them to figure out what's causing the symptoms.
Like we can see the symptoms. You don't want the doctor to just be like, well, he looks red. Like, yep, it's true. It seems itchy. Yep. All right, cool.
We'll rub some like jelly on that and see if it gets better. It's like, no, like, you're just like, let's figure out why. Why though? Like he's throwing up. Like, let's figure out. I am no doctor, but I figured that out.
That's why I brought him here. What you want is them to find out the symptoms. It turns out he's allergic to eggs, wheat, milk, peanuts, and oats. So every night we were taking milk and putting oats in it. We were trying to kill him. And it turns out when you stop poisoning him, he is the pastiest white kid you've ever seen.
It's really hard. You take him out in the sun and you rub sunscreen on him and you can't tell where it is. Like, where you've covered and what you had and it's the same color. So, but we had to find out what was causing the symptoms. And that's actually what we're going to try to do today. We looked at idolatry.
We talked about in general what it was. Last week we said we actually can have idols. We can make idols of anything. That you can take any good thing and you can turn it into an idol. That you can love money too much. That you can love work too much.
That you can love your family too much. And I know in America that sounds crazy but we can. We can take something that is good that was meant to be a good thing. Romance, love, work, children. And then we can move God out of the way and we can elevate it to a place it was never meant to be. So that we begin to look at something that is a good thing.
Begin to treat it like a God thing. And we begin to say without you I can't have life. I can't be happy. I can't have joy without you. And so maybe as we've walked through this some of you have begun to see these things in your life. You've begun to go yeah I do care about work too much.
I do care about my children too much. I'm supposed to care about them but I've begun to place them too high in my life so that everything's built around them and I have to have them happy and I have to have them turn okay or I'm not going to be okay. Well here's the thing. When we begin to identify yeah work yeah romance yeah I have to have a girlfriend or I just don't feel alright. It's like okay well that's actually just a symptom. In reality there's something deeper than that.
In reality that's actually just a tool. It's just something you're using to get after what you really want and so that's our goal today is to look beneath if we've discovered surface level idols we're going to try to look beneath them to root level idols. It should be a lot of fun. Let's pray and then let's start looking at some scripture. God we ask for your help today that your Holy Spirit would not only help us see our surface level idols the things that we are using the things that we are pursuing the things that we love inordinately but that you would help us to see why. Why is it that that has been elevated to a position that it ought not to be in?
Why is it what is it that we believe it offers what is it that we believe it gives us that we might find our joy our life our fullness and satisfaction in you because it can only come from you. Let me ask this in Jesus name. Amen. So like I said we're going to get to Colossians but we're going to start in a few places in the Old Testament to get us started so the first one is going to be on screen it's Jeremiah 2 we started here three weeks ago and what we're trying to do today is see that the essential element of idolatry is looking to something other than God to get what only God can give us.
Of idolatry is looking to something other than God to get what only God can give us. Looking to something other than God to receive what only He can provide what only He is able capable of giving us and so Raz started this off here it's in Jeremiah 2 God at the beginning of this chapter has referred to Israel as His bride
He says I remember when you were my bride and you followed me around in the wilderness He's like I look him back and I remember how good it was and then He keeps going and He says that they've swapped Him out so He says be appalled oh heavens at this be shocked be utterly desolate declares the Lord the reason He says oh heavens is because the heavens all of creation
All of angelic world understands fully who He is so He says you want to hear something crazy you want to hear something that will make your jaw drop to the floor you want to hear something that will destroy you and make you desolate my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and they have hewed out cisterns
For themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water okay so Raz explained this a cistern is a man-made bowl that catches rainwater they can be nice none of them are as good as a fountain of flowing water when you live in an arid climate actually when you are a human but more so when you live in an arid climate water is life
You have to have water to live you have to have water to have crops this is we're in America where we take it for granted but if you quit having water come to your house if our reservoirs run out if that big old water tower doesn't have water anymore we got problems and you will move or you will die that's how it works so the people in this arid climate
Would go to places where there was running water you want to be near a river you want to be near a fountain that's where you would set up life because without water there is no life and if you were if there was no water if there was no running water you would dig a big cistern and it would catch rainwater but nobody who was near a
Fountain dug a cistern because you didn't need to there's a fountain there's flowing water here you don't I don't need that and so what he says is I'm a fountain forever pouring out life forever clean forever fresh forever new and they have swapped me out for a hole they dug if the city
Came to you and was like hey we're going to run water out here and you were like no I don't need that I got an above ground swimming pool we got all the water we need you'd be a moron that's what they did they swapped him out for flowing
Water they swapped that out for an above ground swimming pool but it had a hole in the liner it doesn't even hold the water it says it's broken it fails they're going to die that's what idolatry is this is actually Augustine who was an African church leader in the
Beginning of the church he actually says that sin is a disorder of love that we love something out of place so that God says that we've swapped him out for something that won't suffice but then he keeps going and in Jeremiah 3 it starts this way I want to teach y'all something real quick go to Jeremiah
3 Oh never mind I can't teach you yet I'll have to do it on the next slide you have played the whore with many lovers and would you return to me declares the Lord lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished
So this is how God sees idolatry he's talking to Israel he says you were my bride you swapped me out I'm a fountain of living water where all the good stuff comes you built yourself a cistern and you're a whore look look and see where have
You not been ravished that when we go to something other than God to receive what we are only meant to get from God he sees it as being a whore and an adulterer he keeps going verse 9 if you move down in Jeremiah 3 he says
Because she took her whoredom lightly she polluted the land committing adultery with stone and tree so we were meant to find our good things in God but that we go to some idol that's what they had stone idols and trees that they would bow down to
And worship and he says that you've run around on me that you were meant to receive joy and hope and satisfaction and fulfillment in me and you've run to something else pursuing what you were only meant to get from me in something
Else he sees it as adultery see at the bottom says Jeremiah 3 1b if you see that written what that means is it's just the back half of the first verse sometimes it'll say 1a that's actually about to come up that just
Means it's the front half so that's just coaching y'all up on what that means because otherwise you're all like what on earth I don't see a 1b it just means back half because the front half had more to it that we would have to explain so I decided rather than showing that I just
Explained this you're welcome go to the next one Jeremiah 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands with their idols they have committed adultery you see what happens when we run to something other than God we're actually seeking from it what we're meant to only
Have in him and so the question becomes not just that oh I figured it out I love money no no no why what is money telling you what God level promise is money making to you that you're believing oh no no I've elevated romance too high
You know I was sleepless in Seattle it tricked me and ever since I've been sleepless in Columbia it's like yeah okay but what did it promise you what did it promise you that you bought into why why is that
What you've based life off of what God level promise I will fulfill you I will make you whole I will bring you joy so that you're looking at something and saying if I don't have you I'm not okay I'm not okay you see when we lose a good
Thing we're sad when a good thing is attacked we're angry that's right that's how it's supposed to be but when we've placed something in the place of God we begin to not just feel sad or angry we're devastated we're resentful to the point of we can never forgive someone and it's because we've elevated and said I have to have that or I'm not okay you've stolen
Life from me so here's what we're about to do as we ask this question why I'm going to show a chart all right we're going to walk through this chart now we have found this to be helpful this chart is not found in scripture the things we're going to talk about the concept is found in scripture but the specific
Ones we're going to talk through aren't found in scripture so don't argue with it and get real upset and be like well it's like no this is just to be helpful it's a tool to help us see something what we're trying to see is that we can have a surface level idol but we're actually trying to pursue something underneath it so we're going to do four there could be more there could be fewer
It's just it's just chart to be helpful okay deep idol my life only has meaning if my worst nightmare is people around me feel my problem emotion is it's like a like a really sad game show all right first one power deep idol of power meaning that beneath your surface
Level and I'll explain how that works in a second we're going to walk through all four of these is power my life only has meaning if I have success influence or I win worst nightmare humiliation or failure people around you can feel used problem emotion anger next one approval
My life only has meaning if I have affirmation relationships or I feel loved my worst nightmare is rejection or loneliness people around you can feel smothered problem emotions cowardice can't hurt anybody's feelings can't correct anybody because you need freedom next one comfort
Life only has meaning if I have freedom privacy no stress worst thing ever stress demands people around you can feel neglected because you're supposed to care for them but you just don't problem emotions apathy I would help but so far
Away control life only has meaning if I have self-discipline certainty and standards worst nightmare is uncertainty people around me can feel unloved problem emotion worry or anxiety again this is to be helpful we're gonna leave this up for a
Second I'm gonna walk through and show you some things this is to be helpful to help you see there can be something underneath that your idol is actually working to serve so let's talk about money for a second
Because money is very helpful for us to see this it makes this really clear nobody likes money just because they like money I mean you might would have a few like you might have some money that's like hey look this money's from Mexico isn't that
Neat but you haven't worked really hard to have tons of that it's not super helpful here nobody hoards monopoly money you only care about that for the seven and a half hours you play that game someone was like
Hey things seem to be fun can we try to work to destroy these relationships that we've built over time let's play monopoly yeah I didn't want to like my grandmother after today see we only like money because
It's a tool it accomplishes things for us so you and your spouse might both have a money idol but you argue about money all the time because you actually have
Something underneath that's at work so let's walk through them real quick if you have maybe the deep idol of power and you love money so maybe last week you were like oh I
Just care about money too much I'm working too much I'm just all I care about is money it's like okay but why so if it's power maybe
You realize that one of the best ways to have power in life is to have money you can exert influence you're in control
Of what's going on around you you can have people want to talk to you and want to know you you can affect if
You have enough money you can have people that will come ask your advice on things one of my favorite movies ever is Fiddler
On the roof he sings that song if I were a rich man one of the lines in it is the most important men
In town would come to call on me they'd ask me to advise them like Solomon the wise and then he says and it
Doesn't matter if I answered right or wrong because when you're rich they think you really know and maybe you realize if I have
Money then I have influence I have power the more money I have the more points I have scored in life the more it's
Obvious that I'm winning maybe it's not that at all maybe it's approval so you realize one of the best ways to get people
To like you is to buy them things if you want people to smile at you pay for the pizza boom instant approval be
The person who gets the cheese dip for the table I think I just found my best friend like you just maybe find this
It's one of the best ways to get people to appreciate you maybe it's not that kind of approval maybe you just realize if
You have nice clothes and a nice car and you have the newest stuff people just want to be around you maybe growing up
You were the kid who had the Atari or the N64 or the Playstation 4 just depending on what age you grew up in
The basketball goal whatever you just found hey this is a great way to get people to want to be around I'm annoying but
If I have an N64 people will be my friend maybe it's comfort so you need money you work hard but the goal is
To then use your money to defend you from discomfort biggest couch biggest television door dash uber eats used to be you could just order
Pizza around here now you can have someone deliver mcdonald's to your house why would you do that you have money and you love
Comfort you can have how amazing is that I'll sit on my couch I'll watch stranger things someone will knock on my door and
Hand me food I don't need to be in a community group I'm good I got friends I got food I got a couch
Leave me alone maybe it's control you don't have to worry about the future because you have money you can pay for something for
Your children but then you use it to dig your hooks in I'll pay for the wedding no no not that color no no
Not that music no no I'm sorry I wrote a check I am in charge now maybe it's not that malicious it's just so
Nice to have some money in the bank because the future isn't as scary transmission goes out I got this I know nothing about
Cars we're okay it's just a good way to be in control now that's just four you can put success up there you can
Say that's the primary one you can put something else up there this is just to help you see that if you've identified a
Surface level idol in reality it is just think back to the ancient Greeks and they had the Parthenon where they had all these
Different idols that they worshipped and they had Artemis and they had Ares and they had all these different ones that they would worship
They were just a means to an end Ares helped you win your war Artemis kept you influential and made you successful Aphrodite brought
About beauty and love and the reality this so I'll serve this I want comfort I want control I want power I want influence
I want love I want approval I want romance so I'll serve this alright now it gets really scary let's take approval let's follow the life of a young
Lady she just wants approval she just needs people to look at her and smile and clap you guys from zero to fifth grade
She is a little princess perfectly well behaved made good grades she memorized things she did all the stuff in front of people and
It was celebrated it was beautiful it was good to see and not a bad thing to be doing but in reality she just
Has this hole in her heart she needs approval that's what she was running off of then middle school things got weird it's like
What happened to our perfect little angel but the reality was nothing happened to her she just found a better idol surface idol to
Serve her approval God she got to middle school and it turns out it was other middle school girls that's that's that's where she felt the most
Approval and when she didn't have that approval it's where it hurt the most wasn't coming from mom and dad anymore it's coming from
13 Year olds so she completely changed her heart level idol didn't but her surface level did that was middle school she has high
School turns out it's boys best way to get approval so most of her life back in the day maybe that meant she was
At parties she was always decked out hanging at the mall maybe it meant she was in the backseat of cars now maybe it
Means she's on Instagram all the time sending out pictures and doing things that she ought not be doing with a cell phone the
Goal is just to get some likes just to get some approval just have somebody smile and clap she gets around some Christians all her friend group
Changes and now the best way to be approved of by Christians is behave say the right stuff so she's not in love with Jesus she's
In love with approval but she found that being around Christians is a good way to get encouragement they're super encouraging people you guys she
Starts behaving well they start clapping for so here's what happens she looks like she loves Jesus she falls into sin can't confess it
Can't let anybody know she pretends she hides she doesn't actually love Jesus she doesn't actually understand that he's a savior she doesn't actually
Understand she can confess everything she just needs approval and so what looked like great behavior and looked like a love for Jesus was
Actually just a love for approval and as soon as it came time to repent it came time to confess and it came time
To own some sin and to get rid of some evil in her heart she can't do it because she'll lose approval from her peers
And you could watch her life and it would seem like she'd gone through different phases but she hadn't she served one God the
Whole time you can do that with power you can do it with comfort you can do it with control you can see that
Something changes over time but in reality the deep heart level God that is being served maybe hadn't shifted at all just the thing
That seemed like it would best accomplish the Job at the time you see our idols are so often just a means to an
End because our idols have come along and they've promised us they've made God level promises I know when people meet me one of
The first thoughts they have is I bet he was really cool in middle school you'd be surprised to find out that is not true
I was not really cool in middle school I know be shocked be utterly desolate but in middle school at one point I thought it
Would be cool and it would make me from this color to like a bleached white blonde and then as I got closer to
It I was like not my whole head just the top just this part you'll be even more surprised to find out that that
Did not make me cool it did not look cool I didn't really know it right when I first did it I thought it
Was awesome and then the more grew out and often the people around us can see how stupid we look but we can't see
It it's one of the things we talk about in our community groups one of the ways you serve each other best is to help point out
To someone hey I think this is actually an idol for you come in tread lightly as you enter don't move don't back up
When they say no because of course they'll say no hey I actually think you value your children a little more you probably ought to
Just keep pushing there keep talking about it be calm but don't back up if they just say no I actually think relationships boyfriends
Mean a little bit too much to you because it's easier for us to see other people's idols than it is for us to see
Our all we need the church family we see our own idols because in reality so often they're good things and we love them
So it's hard to move off of them they're promising us something that they can't provide but we don't know that yet and often
When we are most frustrated with God it's actually him doing what he's done since the beginning he's grabbing our idol and he's punching
It in the face it's actually what he does in Egypt when he does the ten plagues he goes through and picks their gods
And just makes a mockery of them oh y'all have like a frog God watch I'm in charge of frogs because I always wondered
I read those and these plagues are so weird God was like I'm going to flex frogs that's a weird flex but okay it's
Like no he's actually picking a God they have and he's he's just putting their gods in a headlock you have an eye of
God turn it to blood how's that taste like he oh you have a God in charge of the sun sun doesn't work anymore
And he does that to us because he loves us he graciously at times will come in and just destroy one of our gods
It'll fall apart in front of us because he wants something better for us that can actually withstand the weight of worship that can
Actually fulfill the promises that it's making I remember being in middle school my older brother and my dad were arguing which was not
Uncommon I remember my dad looking at my older brother and double pointing because that's how he pointed I think he got used to
It from when he was smoking all the time and he would pop it out there I mean it was serious big forearms big
Hand he double pointed at him I've been practicing it now I got boys look here boy I've learned I'm a pastor my dad
Was not I've learned that my dad say phrases I have to work on because some of them I writing some checks that you
Can't cash you making some promises but if I have to take that to the bank it's going to bounce because there's no money
In that account you cannot provide for me what you have told me you can provide you have lied and therefore have no place
Here anymore you see what happens is our idols are telling us that they can give us life that they are chapter three I
Said we'd get there isn't it nice to know you had your bible hold open to some good news the whole time Jesus is
Just hanging out about to show us what he does starts off if then you have been raised with Christ so this is for
Christians if you are not a Christian this is offered to you but is not true for you this is offered to you but
It is not true for you but if you are in here and you are in Christ this is true for you provided through
Christ if then you have been raised with Christ meaning that when we do baptism this is one of the pictures we have in
Baptism is that you're buried with Christ that you're dead to your sin and that you are raised with Christ that you rise to
New life in Christ so it's saying if you've placed your faith in Christ that you've died to your sin that he died for
It that he nailed it to the cross that when he rose your life is in him now that's what it's saying if you've
Been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God you see so much of
Our idolatry is us seeking things us chasing after something saying if I could just have this then I'll be okay and what he's
Saying is if you're with Christ if you're raised with Christ set your mind on the things above seek the things that are above
Set your minds on things that are above set yourself set your mind put this more set your mind on the things that are
Above not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God and when
Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory you see our idols have told us your life
Is hidden in me if you can have me you have life you have the good life that's however you would define it you
Have comfort you have control you have security you have joy if you can have me the reality is only Christ can fulfill those
Promises and it's only in him that our life is hidden I had a friend and a co-worker who would do online dating he
Had been married when he was fairly young he had gotten divorced and he was older at this point and really wanted to get married
And he would do online dating and you guys when he would start a conversation and I don't remember what app he was using
And they would send winks or you know touches or jolts or whatever hearts whenever that happened he was through the roof she might
Be the one like he would just be giddy a bit much for me he would just be around me like okay you know he
Would be sending our messages or whatever and he would start sending too many messages and he would do you know he just it
Was too much and then whenever these conversations would die off or they would go on a date but he just would crash I remember
Looking at one point going bro you met her a week ago you should not be this sad and for all we know she is the
Terrible person maybe not the best advice I was just trying to think through here you don't know anything but the reality was he
Thought he believed that life was hidden in one of these females it was hidden his life his joy his hope his future was
Hidden and he just had to find it and so anytime it came around and anytime there was an opportunity for it he was
Through the roof because here comes life here comes joy here comes the fix to all my sadness here comes the thing I can't
Live without and when it would die off when it would stop he would just fall apart and in reality we're all doing that
Maybe yours is a little further down the road if I could just have this type of land if I could have this type of
Job if I could just have this if my kids just grow up and they're well behaved and people look at me and think
My life is hidden in them so that I'm something because my life is bound up in them and if they don't turn out
Okay I don't have life and I don't have joy and I don't have satisfaction so you've elevated your children so you've elevated your
Spouse so you've elevated your Job to a position that it cannot hold and you are asking of it something that it cannot provide and
Therefore you are dying and my wife likes me most days the day she needs me to perfectly fulfill her perfectly fill her up
Provide for her what only God can provide she will be very sad and I will be crushed I will not be able to
Sin I will not be able to confess I will not be able to fail she will need something from me that I cannot
Provide and if I do that with her the same do that with your Job you can do that with your friends you can
Do that with your children if you begin to believe that your life is hidden in them it will fall apart but if you
Are in Christ your life is hidden in him what my friend needed to learn how to do what I need to learn how
To do is when this thing begins to whisper if you just have me is to be able to look at it and say no no no no my life is not hidden in you my hope is not found in you when you appear when I get the rays when I get the thing
When you appear I will not suddenly be swept up into glory and find my life it will not happen my life is hidden with Christ in God and when he appears then I'll have life then I'll have hope then I'll have joy then it'll fulfill me fully and completely and that is where my rest is and that is where my hope is and so just as we have inadvertently removed God from his throne and placed something else there we get to actively remove that it's writing checks it cannot cash and then look to Christ and say my life is hidden in you my hope is found in you my joy is found in you my satisfaction my security
My comfort you approve of me and that outweighs everyone else's approval so that when I sin I actually can confess and I can walk in the approval that is provided for me by Christ I can be open about my sin I can be open about my struggles because I get approval from you I get joy from you I get comfort from you I get hope from you I am not destroyed by the things going on here because my life is not in them therefore they cannot take it away there is freedom in having our life bound up in a resurrected and ruling Christ and we are not free until our life is there
As long as your life is found somewhere here you are not free you are a slave you are bound and it will destroy you but when our life is in Christ we have life Augustine I quoted them earlier he says this he says you have made us for yourself oh Lord and our hearts are restless until it rests in you and that is the truth we were designed for God and we will not find satisfaction and fulfillment in anything else Raz and Matt
Are going to come back up our hearts will be restless until we learn how to rest in him until we learn how to look at him and say you are the one who approves of my soul you are the one who has died for me who has risen for me who has saved me you are the living hope and my life is bound up in you I will not find it anywhere else see the reality is that only satisfaction satisfaction can only be found in Christ rest can only be found in Christ fulfillment can only be found in Christ and if we are looking for it somewhere else it is too small to handle the weight
Everything else is just a little picture of what he is like none of them can actually handle what he accomplishes for us and Jesus Christ is jealous for us and loves us so much that he comes he challenges our idols and he dies and dies for our sin rises again that we might place our faith in him and not in anything else we put our hope in him and not in anything else we put our trust in him and not in anything else therefore we will not be let down we will not be put to shame as the Bible says it so often that no one will be put to shame
That trusts in him see there are things that we trust in and we get put to shame I dyed my hair yellow publicly wore shame on the top of my head but in reality I am so tempted to do that with other things that will put me to shame far worse that will fail me far more extravagantly that will fall apart and I have built my whole life on them because I will believe that my life is in them and it is not and everyone who trusts in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will not be put to shame
He can handle the weight of our life it can be hidden in him and if you have not trusted in Christ I would encourage you to do that now and for those of us who are in Christ I would encourage you to take this time to ask the Holy Spirit to help you see your idols to help you see what it is why you have believed their lies and to look at them and actively through the power of the Holy Spirit say you are a liar my life is hidden in Christ you cannot provide what you have told me you can provide but Jesus Christ can so we are going to
In a moment as they play we are going to pray through that and then when you feel ready to walk up and take communion if you are a Christian that is for you if you are not a Christian please do not take communion we want you to have Christ before you remember what he has done for you but as Christians as we repent as we tell our idols that they are liars and we trust in Christ we are going to walk forward and we are going to partake in his broken body and his shed blood for us knowing that we have died to our sin
That our life is in him and when he returns we will be swept up with him in glory and we will find our life that none of our idols can handle that none of our idols can carry that let's pray Jesus our idols have lied to our hearts and we have believed them forgive us forgive us for committing adultery for running to created things and begging them to provide for us what only you can Lord help us
To love you more seeing that you died for us that you rose again and that we trust in you our life is in you and help us to never believe that something else smaller can handle it we ask that in this moment that you would work in our hearts that we might see our idolatry and that we might trust and love you more
We ask all this in Jesus name amen arevideo there may be well
Never Satisfied
Transcript
Well, good morning. Hopefully you saw something on that video that you love and care deeply about. Part of our goal in this sermon series is to pick a little bit of a fight. So I'm glad to see y'all this morning. We are in the second week of our Idol series. We're taking just a couple of weeks to talk about the fact that we as humans are idolaters, meaning that we put something else other than God in the place of God as our highest affection.
This is what Raz talked about last week, that the first and greatest commandment is that we would love the Lord our God with everything we have and that that orders everything else for us. That comes first, and as long as we have that in place, then the rest of life will flow, function, work, make sense, operate the way it ought to. And as soon as that's out of place, we are disoriented. Our lives are disoriented and everything begins to go poorly. That's primarily what we're talking about, and that is idolatry. Now, there's a temptation for us culturally to go, okay, okay, okay, hold on a second.
Like, other cultures have idols. We don't. That's why we started that video. It starts off with a totem pole. It's like, yes, that's an idol, but we don't really have that. Like, if you went to ancient Rome or Greece or whatever, yeah, they have a temple set up to Athena or Artemis, or they have a temple set up to Aphrodite, but we don't do that.
And I would just argue that I think they were just a little more straightforward with their idolatry, and we're just a little more subtle with it. Aphrodite, they would have a temple set up to her. She was the goddess of beauty and sexuality. Okay. You might not worship Aphrodite, but Americans worship beauty and sexuality. When you're in line at the grocery store, check out the magazines.
That's half of what they're talking about. You may not have a festival to Bacchus where you're going to drink and celebrate in his name, but we're going to have a festival to something where we're going to drink and celebrate and give too much credence to comfort and to celebration. You may not think that you worship Athena, but our culture worships wisdom. We worship education. We place too much value in these sort of things. We don't worship Aries, but we do have the greatest military on the planet.
And some of y'all, see your little heart just beat a little faster because of how special and magic that is in the 4th of July in America. And we blow things up to become a country, and we blow things up to celebrate. We are a country, and there's this tendency to worship some of the same things. That they would worship Baal by having a giant bull statue that they bowed down to, that they worshiped, that they celebrated, that they hoped brought plenty and value and economic growth. And we have a giant bull statue sitting out in front of the New York Stock Exchange that you can go rub for good luck if you'd like.
We're just a little more subtle, but we're worshiping the same things culturally. And I want to argue with you today that you are in your heart an idolater. That I am in my heart an idolater, meaning that I place other things in the spot of God, expect them to give me what only God can give me, to save me, to give me value, to give me worth, and that ultimately this destroys and falls apart and cannot stand, that what I am worshiping cannot stand under the weight of my worship. So here's our goal. We're going to talk a little bit about idolatry. We're going to get our minds wrapped around that, make sure we're all on the same page conceptually, and then we are going to try to diagnose our own hearts today.
So we're going to study a few passages of Scripture, and then we're going to ask a lot of questions, and I'm going to coach you up on how to do that. But grab your Bibles, go to Exodus chapter 20. We're going to pick up where God is giving the law. So this is the first, this is His Ten Commandments, after He's brought the Israelites out of Egypt. I don't know if y'all have ever read Genesis. If you get the chance, it's a wonderful book.
At the end of Genesis, the Israelites are in Egypt, and the book of Exodus picks up, and it's hundreds of years later, and it says a Pharaoh came along who did not know Joseph, and they just saw that all these Israelites were here. They thought they were a threat, so they enslaved them. They're enslaved for 400 years, and then God sends Moses down to Egypt with a hit song that He's going to sing to Pharaoh about letting His people go, and they're going to march them on out. That's not true, but the song helps you remember stuff. He brings them out of Egypt into the wilderness, and God begins to give them His law, and that's what we're going to pick up, but we're going to pray before we do that.
So let's pray. God, identifying our idols is difficult. It is a difficult task for us to do. So we ask for your help. We ask for your grace, and we pray that you, through your Holy Spirit, would minister to us so that we might love you above all else. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, so Exodus chapter 20, and God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have no other gods before me. So he immediately goes into the Ten Commandments, but I want to point out something to us real quick. He starts off with, I am the God who brought you out of slavery. Now, here's how to obey. Here's how to follow.
That we sometimes want to get this backwards. We want to get to, God calls us to obedience. God calls us to morality. God calls us to good works. And then, He'll save us. Then He'll redeem us.
Then He'll work on our behalf. But that's not how it works in the Old Testament or the New Testament. You don't clean yourself up so that Jesus will love you. Jesus loves you. He cleans us up. Therefore, we obey.
In the Old Testament, God rescues them out of slavery and then says, here's how to follow. Here's how to obey. We always move in response to what God has already done. It's not the main point of the passage or the sermon, but I got to point that out because it's really, really good news. Verse 3. You shall have no other gods before me.
Meaning, first rule is that I'm primary. Nothing else gets to be in my spot. Nothing else gets to be in front of me. Nothing else. I'm number one. That's what God says.
I rescued you out of slavery. I'm number one. Now, I've heard people argue, I've heard my cousin argue, that that puts God in a very narcissistic position. If I elevate myself, if you elevate yourself and say, I'm number one, everybody needs to worship me and love me above everything else, that is a very narcissistic position because you can't handle it. You're not valuable enough to be worshipped like that. When God calls us to it, he's calling us to something that is for our own good because he is better than everything else.
He created everything else. All the little good things we have in life are just small pictures of what he's like that point us to his goodness. The one who created it, who thought it up, who exudes it. And so when he says, put me first, he is actually calling us to our own joy, not to begrudging submission. But he says, I'll be above everything else.
And the second commandment is, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. God says, I am a jealous God. I told my son that and he was like, well, that's bad because there's this idea that jealousy is bad, that it's a negative trait.
Greed's bad. Covetousness is bad. Jealousy can make us do inappropriate or bad things, but jealousy is not bad because God is jealous and therefore there's an appropriate type of jealousy. Let's talk about jealousy for just a second. This is actually really good that God is a jealous God. I, a while back I saw Oprah and she was actually talking about one of the things that led her away from faith was that she was gathered with a church.
She said the pastor said that God is a jealous God and Oprah said she sat there and was like, wait, God's jealous of me? And she was like, I just couldn't, I couldn't wrap my mind around that. That God would be jealous of me. Um, no, Oprah. He's not jealous of you. God's not in heaven going, you know, being God's pretty nice, but if I could just be Oprah, that would be the deal.
He's not, he's not doing that. He's not jealous of, he's jealous for, he's jealous over. It's a healthy, righteous jealousy that he wants our affection. He wants our love. I am jealous for or over my wife. So if we went to a party, I don't know where you're from, a hootenanny, a shindig, whatever y'all like to call it.
If we went to one of those and I looked over and there was an attractive man talking to my wife and they were flirting, she's blushing and giggling and I felt jealousy rise up in me, I would not be jealous of her. I wouldn't be over there thinking, you know, I dressed up and came to the party. He doesn't flirt with me. I don't see any guys hitting on me. I would, that would not be the jealousy I had. I would be jealous over her.
I would be jealous. I would, I don't want her to want to flirt with someone else. I want her, I want him to try and then be humiliated. And she's just like, gives him cold dead eyes and is like, get stepping. That's what I want. Because I'm jealous for her.
I want her affection. And so when he says that God is a jealous God, he says, you will have no other gods. You will not make any graven image, anything in likeness of heaven above or earth below or in the waters. Nothing, because nothing is comparable to me and I want your love and affection. I'm a jealous God. And that is appropriate both for him and for us.
You want God to be jealous. We're going to talk more about that next week, but we are too easily distracted by much cheaper, smaller, shinier, little temporary things that lead us to destruction and we want God to love us enough, to love our heart enough, to desire our affection so that he chases us down. So he's a jealous God and we are to have nothing above him. But as this passage explains it, what is an idol or what gets to be an idol or what would fit into the category of an idol? Well, anything that you would bow down to and serve. Anything that would take the place of God.
Anything in heaven or on earth or in the ocean. Anything. Anything that we would bow down to and serve. Anything that would steal our affection. Anything that would presume to dethrone God and assume his place. Romans 1.
We're going to quickly look at it. It'll be on screen. I'm not going to have you turn there because we're going to go to one other passage in the Old Testament and we're going to just look at those two in our Bibles. But Romans 1 will be up here. It says this. This is Paul talking about this conceptually for humanity.
It says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. You see that this is a heart level problem that we would love and worship something else. It's a heart level problem. That's why God is jealous for us. He's jealous for our affection and our love. Their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise.
They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. It is foolish to replace God with something else smaller than God and God loves us enough to address this. If you have children and they grow to be middle schoolers and they decide in middle school, I am no longer going to listen to the wisdom of my parents who know me and love me. I am now going to base all of my decision off of the four sixth graders I hang out with. I'm replacing my parents' wisdom and guidance with the wisdom and guidance of 12-year-old boys and girls.
That would be foolish and they would do stupid things and when we say, I don't want God here, I want something else here, I want this to give me value, I want this to give me purpose, I want this to give me worth, it's foolish and we do stupid things. That's what it's saying. They became fools. Therefore, verse 24, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Alright, so it says worshipped and served.
In Exodus, he says bow down to or serve. We're actually going to use those, worship or bow down to and the idea of serve, we're going to use those to help diagnose our hearts in a minute but we're going to get one more that's going to help us. So we're going to go to Ezekiel chapter 14. Here's what you may be tempted to do and you would not be completely wrong. There's a temptation to go, okay, okay, hold on a second. I know you're making your little point about how we're idolatrous but the biggest problem in Exodus and in Romans is that these people actually worshipped another God.
So not the God of the Bible, not the God revealed to us in Christ, some other God. Actually, Aphrodite. Not just the concept of love but actually Artemis. Not just the concept of war and power but actually Ares. that was the biggest problem, that they had actual idols, that Baal was an actual other God that they went after and you're saying, okay, so, bro, I'm here. Maybe you don't say bro, maybe you say, sir, I'm here. I'm not doing that.
I'm worshipping this one. I don't have this problem. Maybe you're not making that argument at all but if you are, welcome to Ezekiel chapter 14. Oh, I said that. I hadn't turned yet. I've just been talking, y'all.
Ezekiel chapter 14, we're going to see some elders come to the prophet Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord. Meaning they care about the Lord, they follow the Lord, they want to hear from the Lord. Here's what it says. Ezekiel chapter 14. Then certain of the elders of Israel, elders being leaders of Israel, came to me, this is Ezekiel writing this, and sat before me and the word of the Lord came to me.
Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? So these elders would have said they're worshipping and serving God. They're actually so much so that they're going to the prophet to find out what they're supposed to do. They're going to go ask him what things ought to look like. They're going to go talk to...
They're here. And God says, no, no. They've set up idols in their hearts. They actually love and worship and serve other things, not me. Should I respond to them? It's a rhetorical question.
God's going to answer it. Therefore, speak to them and say to them, verse 4, thus says the Lord God, anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idol into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to the prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols. It got scarier a second ago when we found out we could put idols in our heart. You actually don't have to have something that's a statue that you worship or serve. You don't have to have, you know, a big stadium where you gather with other people and shout and cry and worship some, I don't know, orange, you know, dressed up, I don't know, 24 year olds or whatever.
You touch a rock and praise all that stuff. You don't have to do that. You can put it in your heart. Just say, oh no, Gamecocks aren't in danger of worshiping the Gamecocks. It's a bad God right now. You're not placing your faith in them for your value.
But you're wearing orange, you're on the line, y'all. You're in danger. Jump ship before it means too much. Here's what he says. Not only can we put them in our heart, but we can actually have a multitude. I had somebody say that the bumper video we had a second ago, they were like, if you look too long at it, you might have a seizure.
It's frantic. Yes. And so are our hearts. That we have things that we love and that we worship and that we change and that we can have a multitude of things that matter more to us and that we value over God. So it says, the multitude of his idols that I may lay hold.
He says, I will answer him to his face when he comes to the multitude of his idols that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from me through their idols. Meaning that our idols lead us away from God. They make us estranged to him. So, we now have the three things that we're going to do to try to investigate our hearts. We're going to stay in this passage. We're going to pick back up here as we end, but we're going to take just a minute to try to diagnose our own hearts.
Now, Law and Order is a very popular television show and here's what they do in Law and Order. If you've seen one episode, you've seen all the episodes from what I understand. That's pretty much how Law and Order works. The first half is law. The second half is order. I don't really know if that's how it works but basically the police go investigate a thing.
They catch a person and then the second half is you get to jump ahead to the trial. That's what we're going to do. We're going to all play a game called Law and Order today. We're going to investigate our hearts and we're going to put ourselves on trial. I want to show y'all something as we step into this. I want to help us understand why we're approaching it this way.
Jeremiah 17, 9. This will be on the screen. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it. There's a distinct problem in what we're going to do today. You are going to ask your heart do you love something more than God? And your heart which is a liar is going to say no.
You're going to say wait, hold on a second are we talking about this? And the answer because we're going to ask questions that are real straightforward like what do you spend most of your money on? What do you spend most of your time? What do you daydream about? And you're going to think here's what I daydream about and then you're going to go that's not a bad thing to daydream about. That's a good thing to daydream about.
And because you're saying it to you and you're a liar and your heart is the one you're investigating you're going to go good point heart. And if you go heart have you been loving this too much your heart's going to go me? Moi? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We love that the exact appropriate amount and other people who don't love it the amount that we do they're messed up. We're right.
And you're going to go you make a good point there heart. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to answer all the questions as honestly as you can. There's in truth there's going to be some things I ask like what do you spend most of your money on? You can have quick answers too and we're just going to take that as evidence to try to figure out okay that's evidence. That's the cop part.
We're just getting evidence. We're just going to compile it so we can look at it so we can have enough evidence to go to trial. When we go to trial you know in the courtroom scenes where they're interrogating the person behind the little bench and then the lawyer the prosecutor goes over to the judge and says permission to treat the witness as hostile and the judge says permission granted that's what we're doing today. Permission to treat the witness as hostile. Your heart wants to deceive you and lead you down a path that will destroy you far away from God and we're going to treat our hearts as hostile today.
We're going to compile as much evidence as we can and then we're just going to go and say alright evidence isn't looking good heart and our heart's going to go shh shh shh shh and we're going to go permission to treat the witness as hostile and then we're going to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Y'all ready? Dun dun. Alright. That's what we're going to do. These are their stories.
Here's what we're doing. Here's what we're doing. Here's what we're doing. We've got three questions we're asking using what we saw earlier that we would worship that we would bow down to something that we would serve something and then we're going to talk about that we would have something that we have set up as a stumbling block of iniquity and that's the one I'm really looking forward to just because doesn't that sound like an awesome thing to investigate stumbling blocks of iniquity? So we're going to get there.
First one. What do you what do I worship or bow down to? So he says that we would set up anything that we would worship and bow down to. So worship and bow down means that we revere. The idea of worship is that we have something that we love and fear. That we love and fear.
A good example a good earthly example is if you had a good father. You should have loved and feared your father. Now there are messed up examples but we all maybe can picture in our mind a good example of a father that you would love and fear that you would know they loved you that you would want to please them you would want them to smile on you you would want their approval and also you would not want their disapproval. You would not want the quote unquote wrath of your father. That's my goal with my children. I have two boys that one day I'm going to try to fully help them understand what God is like and my goal is to be a small stand in of what that would look like that they might love me they might know I love them and that they might appropriately fear me.
That one day I'm going to try to fully help them understand what God is like and my goal is to be a small stand in of what that would look like that they might love me they might know I love them and that they might appropriately fear me. They're not going to check under their bed for me at night but I want my sons before they go to do something they know they shouldn't do to stop and think wait a second hmm that won't go well if I do it and I love my dad
And I know he loves me and I want to please him but that's what worship is that we would love and fear something and so what happens is God is supposed to be in that spot he's supposed to be at the head of the table that we're to bow down to him meaning that he has the most weight the most glory in our lives that he's at the head of the table and that everything else follows so that we're supposed to you're supposed to in life it's normal to have a hierarchy
If you go to make a decision you're supposed to have things that you consider when you make a decision if you are married you should consider your spouse when you make a decision if you don't they will remind you that you should have done that if you have children you should consider your children before you make a decision if you own four cats you have to consider your four cats before you make a decision it's just how life works this is why people in our church family are always asking
Somebody to watch their dogs when they go on a trip because they can't just leave their house and leave their dogs there that would be a problem when they returned that's how it works you have to consider but if you consider your dog in front of your children you're out of order in how you're making decisions you ever look on Craigslist and someone says hey took a new job moved to a new place couldn't take my dog trying to sell it for 50 bucks seen those
You're like yeah I've seen that I know what you're talking about okay ever seen one that was like hey moving to a new place we're downsizing a little bit and we had to get rid of one of our children it's fair we drew straws or we just picked the youngest one because they've been here the least we don't know them as well as we know the other ones but it does that because there's a hierarchy on how we make decisions we're following okay
God's supposed to sit at the top and therefore everything is what does God want from us what does he want from me then as I go to make decisions he's worshipped he's honored he's bowed down to then I look and think okay how does this affect family how does this affect finances how does this affect the problem is we move God from the head of the table and we put something else there as our guiding
Decision making thing that we love and fear some of us so love and fear what people think about us that all of our decision making all of our life is run through that something happens first thought is what will people think first thing we try to do is image manage first thing that we run to is to try to fix the story that's going to come out because one of the primary things for us that's taken this spot of not what does God want
What's honoring to him what is image management or maybe we put money there so your primary rubric for decision making the thing that you bend to that you bow to is how will this affect my finances and you can actually trace your life on more money more money more money would help money would help money would help money and here's the thing it's in our hearts so we make all these decisions in really small ways all the time without thinking about it you don't actually
Pull out your hierarchy chart and go which do I care more about money or children let me check the chart money but you might every day make little decisions that put money above your children that put money above the Lord does that make sense are we understanding that there's a there's that these things can get out of place and that we would begin to so here a few questions
Oh let me show you something else that happens with these before we ask the questions since I looked at them on it often the thing that we truly love the thing that we truly fear the thing that we truly worship if you're in this room it's very likely that you have recruited Jesus to help you get the thing you really want you've just enlisted him
You think that he's a really good way to get the thing you really want I'm gonna give a couple of examples I had a buddy of mine I met in seminary he said his church that he grew up in his mom went to at the end of their services they would stand up and they would say money come to me money come to me that they actually believed
In their their theology that one of the things they were supposed to do one of the things that God owed them was health and wealth and finances and so they actually when they gathered in public worship they I guess commanded money to come to them okay seems a little out of order this is actually one of the things
That's told people and is that if you trust Jesus he'll give you everything you ever wanted and that works fine it's actually not a bad theology until you read the Bible and you see the people who worship Jesus get a whole lot of things they
Didn't want and not get a whole lot of the things I'm sure they would have liked it would have been nice to have I was coming through I didn't go to a church like that but when I was growing up I was in a youth group we did true love
Waits for those of you unfamiliar with true love waits this is a kind of a program that youth students would do where you were told that you are not supposed to have sex before you get married for the record I know a church family that is correct
You should not and that you were told one of the things that went along with this was if you don't then you'll the Lord has someone for you you're waiting for your true love and so if you do not have sex before you are married God will bring you
Your perfect special someone now I'm sure this was taught in an effective healthy way that not that second part and I'm also sure that that second part was was broadcast as like a real true thing the Bible says and so what happened was you
Were not obeying God because he is glorious and he is good and he has redeemed us from sin and sin is why he went to the cross we're not obeying him because we love him and cherish him above everything else we're obeying him because that's the system you get in so that God will owe you when you get to the end of the line so then you have people who who I'm 35 and I have had sex with exactly zero people and where's my perfect special snowflake
Someone rainbow unicorn person that God owes me it's like well that was a cute story but it's not here the reason for sexual abstinence the reason to be chased is actually because God is more valuable and more beautiful and more worthy than sex not because down the line who give you this promised land person this happens all the time the thing we really want Jesus is just a good way to get us there this is what people say I I had to walk away I had to walk away from the faith because I brought
My children up in church and they all rebelled and they all ran off and it was just a big old train wreck and God let me down okay well he owed you something that's not like yes I would argue bringing children up in churches good for their souls because they're sinners who need Christ but not because it's a guaranteed fix people will say I trusted God and he let me down what it means is that I had a thing that he had to give me in order to be God and when he did not do that thing when he did not give me that thing he
Failed me because that thing is actually above him not that he's trustworthy but that he's only good in as far as he'll give me the thing I really want that's idolatry it's bad for our souls so here are a few questions as we gather evidence and we will do more of this in our groups this week what are you afraid of I'm gonna ask a bunch you may just want to jot down answers as you can think about them what is your biggest nightmare what's the thing that if it goes wrong everything's falling apart what do you daydream about what do you long for what are you frustrated
With God over because he owes you he should have given you or shouldn't have taken away what steals your affection what do you most look forward to when you're having a hard day what gets you through what thoughts do you comfort yourself with in decision decision making what do you consider most there's some people that I have heard say well God won't tell you to do that God won't tell you to go to another country because you have children God won't tell you to move to that neighborhood because you have children it's your first Job to your children to do this sort of thing I think considering
Your children and considering a neighborhood and considering what country you live in is a very wise thing to do and I think thinking that God can't tell you to do something else is a very unwise thing to do so is something taking precedence over him so that it's impossible for him to lead you because that thing is actually in charge what do you defend we only defend the things that we love some of you I could tell you you are a terrible cook and you would laugh and say yes and then if I said and you are unathletic you'd be like pause time out I need to show you some trophies I need you to see how many push-ups I can do I've had people in our church family tell me
I don't like you even like on their way out they were just a part of people in my group I don't like you my response to that okay seems fair like I if that same person had said because you were stupid I would have gone wait wait hold on a second like actually stupid or like relationally stupid like test score stupid or like I said a thing you didn't like because I don't care if you like me but there's something inside of me that wants you to not think I'm stupid you can hate me all you want I just need you to think I'm great that's what I want to defend does that make sense so there's something what is it that you run to what is it you try to steer conversations to what is it that you need people to know about you what is it that you use to elevate yourself or to lower other
People a way to find that the opposite direction is what do you most look down on others for is it because they're terrible moms means you probably place a lot of weight in being a good mom you need people to be bad mom so that you can be a good mom and so that you know that you're rising up in the hierarchy and that you have value and purpose and worth is it that people are lazy you look down on them you have no time for those kind of people then you probably place a lot of value in being a hard worker and you actually need people to be lazy so that you can be elevated so that you can have your purpose and your value and your worth found in that is it that other people are inconsiderate that's because you place a lot of value in being very considerate and that actually makes you a good person makes them the bad people there's there's a way that we
Do this in a way that finds our value our purpose and our worth in something other than God and therefore it helps us make decisions and move through life that was number one what do we worship what do we bow to second what do you serve what do you serve what do you put your time and effort and money in for I've said this before believe it to be true there are certain things in your life and in my life where when the opportunity comes your wallet just appears in your hand you didn't even think about it just was there that seemed like a reasonable price that seemed like a good thing to spend money on if you look mine what my wife's budget that is eating out we don't eat out fancy we just like having somebody else fix our food it's just nice you guys and then we have a kid with allergies it's made it really hard on how to do that because we gotta
Figure out how we gotta cook for him no matter what some of you that sounds crazy to you you would never eat out that's because your wallet magically appears in your hand for something else that's where your money goes because that's what you value that's where your time goes because that's what you value some of you labor over how you look over how your body looks and our hearts immediately want to say yeah but that's good being healthy is good it is and maybe that maybe you're it's in an appropriate place or maybe your heart's a liar some of you have the greatest television and sound system and couch that the world has ever known and whenever it comes to a new gadget or a new thing your wallet just shoots out of your hand your credit card number just spews out of your mouth gleefully and you get all tingly because this is what you really love or
If somebody needs this kind of thing you would serve for you would work for you would labor for it and then somebody else asked for some service or some time and you have no time for it there's so people who who can have have everything that has ever happened in the marvel cinematic universe perfectly aligned and in their brain they know when things happen and which soul stone was which and all of this sort of thing and they read all the articles and then you say have you read your Bible and they say man I really don't have time somebody's been at the gym every day this week and then you say hey we're hanging out with our group tonight I gotta get to school I gotta do my class work that we have time for some things that we actually value and we don't have time for the things that we don't and there's something that's gotten out of place in our hearts what do you serve where do you put in time when you
Picture your future what's changed what have you earned what have you achieved what have you become what are you laboring for right now that you're saying if I can just have this then I'll be okay then I'll be happy all right number three what is your stumbling block of iniquity this is the phrase that came from Ezekiel he says they put idols in their heart they've set their stumbling block of iniquity in front of their faces what we're asking is what makes you fall into sin this is what Raz was talking about last week that if something we love something more than God it takes precedence over him and here's the thing we don't break any of the other commandments unless we've broken the first one that something else is in God's place if you love God with all your heart with all your soul with all of your strength with all of your mind with all of your mind with everything that
You have and you get the opportunity to sin you say no because he has stolen our affection but when we sin what we're saying is I would actually rather have this thing than God I'd actually rather have his his love her love I'd actually rather have money than than what God has for me it's what makes us fall into sin so the questions are what are you willing to sin to get and what are you willing to sin to keep for example some of you are perfectly have perfect integrity when it comes to money you wouldn't take a dime off the street but everybody around you believes that you can bench press 50 pounds more than you actually can't you would not lie about another person you would not lie to anyone about anything unless they called you on a Saturday and asked you to help them move and then you know I really wish I could but one of my kids is sick and like you just
What are we willing to lie to protect what are we willing to lie to to earn to save what are we willing to sin to get some of you follow Jesus love Jesus he's he is everything to you you come in here and you hold your hands up you sing and you cry we don't hold your hands up because it's in here but you hold your hands up at your house maybe maybe when you're riding in your car you help the other people in your group see their sin you help lead them to the Lord and help them understand him and then you get a boyfriend you get a girlfriend and it matters so much to have that relationship to have their love to have all of a sudden some of your standards some of the things that you would have held out are no longer true suddenly you're willing to put sex on the table because it's a good way to keep a boyfriend it's a good way to make somebody happy and yes you understand that's sin but is it really that bad of a sin and is it that big of a deal and aren't we haven't we culturally kind of moved on from that and it really just means this is a thing that I love more than the Lord that I want more than him that I think will bring me more joy more fulfillment some of you are willing to serve with your time but your wallet will not you will not give money to another soul some of you are willing to give your money away all day long but you will not get out of your house to go do a thing in service for another person because it would rob of your time and the reason you work so hard and make so much money is so that you can have all your comfort time all your leisure time to yourself that we have these things that we defend that we work for because they ultimately that we love them more and cherish them more than the Lord and we lie to ourselves and try to cover up as much as we possibly can this is why culturally the United States the Christian church in the US is confused about romance and we have done whatever we can to undercut what the Bible says about marriage
Divorce sexuality sex before marriage homosexuality that we act like the American church at large just kind of walks into that realm and goes well does it really say that does it really mean that and then there's some Greek words there that we can kind of play with you know really this is why I love when the Methodists were going to vote on this and all the African Methodists came over and were like what are y'all talking about and they were like well you know it's like no well you know what y'all are crazy one of my favorite things were the African Methodists were telling the other Methodists like this doesn't make any sense we just haven't bought into y'all's idols so we're not on board with the things y'all are doing to the scriptures we do this with sexuality and we do it with money we have a lot of little cute justifications for finances we have a lot of cute justifications for romance
But that's because culturally we love those so much more than we love the Lord what leads you to fall into sin most of these things are good things that we've put in the wrong place usually it's something that God gave us as a gift like finances like health like beauty like our spouse we've just put them in the wrong place I know this happens every time when I sin against my wife and I'm willing to confess it to the Lord and I'm willing to confess it to the guys in my group and I am not willing to confess it to my wife it is because she is bigger and scarier than God to me we've taken something and put it in the wrong place and when that happens we actually are asking it to accomplish something it cannot accomplish and it will either crush us or we will crush it because it cannot stand under the weight of being God if you place your children in the place of God and they have to turn out perfect for you to be okay and they have to be the best little children for you to know that you're saved and you're okay if you do this with your spouse if you do this with your girlfriend
If you do this with your finances it will fail you or you will destroy it and God in his grace and in his jealousy let's beg him to make it fail quicker so that we might have him to help us to see the weakness in it quicker to help us to see into our own hearts so that we might know this is actually what it says in Ezekiel if you look back at 4 it says therefore speak to them and say to them thus says the Lord God anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to the prophet I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols that's our hope is that the Lord will answer us in our idolatry to help us to see it he says
That I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from me through their idols that God wants our hearts therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God repent and turn away from your idols turn away your faces from all your abominations for anyone of the house of Israel or the strangers who sojourn in Israel who separates himself from me taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to the prophet to consult me through him I the Lord will answer him myself our hope is that the Lord would show us our idolatry so that he might have our hearts above all else Matt and Bianca are going to come back up because of Christ
We have hope that Jesus died to save his enemies that he died to save idolaters that when we go astray and our hearts are too easily swayed by something if we have placed our faith in Jesus he will bring us back he will redeem us he will rescue us he loves idolaters he died to save idolaters that when you see idolatry in your heart it is not that you have lost your salvation and run from God it is that you have been estranged your heart has fallen in love with something that is less beautiful and we get to trust him to redeem us and to save us and to forgive us if you are not a Christian it is because you believe something is better than Jesus
And when we walk off into sin it is because we believe something is better than Jesus and we get to repent we get to turn back and say Jesus you are more glorious you are more beautiful you died to redeem those who hate you and when we see him doing that he steals our hearts when we truly see what Christ has done when we really believe the things we sing on Sunday when we really believe the things we study he steals our hearts because your money will not die for you it will demand that you serve it but it will not serve you your idols will not be able to stand under the weight of your worship they will not rescue you but Jesus Christ will your work your desire to be in a position of prominence will not forgive you if you fail it
But Jesus will and our hope is in Christ who redeems us out of our idolatry who changes our hearts who steals our hearts through his love and invites us into a more beautiful love story than we could ever imagine as he rescues and redeems the people for himself in a moment they're going to sing a song and we're going to sit and reflect and we're going to ask the Lord to help us see our idols that we might repent and when the song is finished we will then be able to take communion where we will remind ourselves that we need Jesus Christ to die for us that we might have hope that our hope is not in our hearts ability to love perfectly our hope is in Christ who loved us perfectly
And who died for our sin so we're going to ask the Lord to help us reveal our idols while they sing we're not going to stand and sing we're going to listen we're going to reflect we're going to meditate we're going to prosecute we're going to repent and then we're going to take communion we're going to celebrate that Jesus Christ loves sinners died to redeem them and that he loves you more than you love him and that he's jealous for you let's pray God we ask for your help right now we ask for your grace that you would let our lies to ourselves be obvious and evident that you would answer us yourself
In the multitude of our idols that we might see Christ fully and completely that we would know that he is enough that our hope is in him that we might repent and be forgiven and changed and loved and welcomed we ask this in Jesus name Amen
Getting the Basics Right
If you’re listening, you’ll soon realize a handful of videos were played during this sermon as a part of an illustration. Below you will find copies of those videos so you don’t miss anything!