Kingdoms at War
Transcript
If you ask that question, what's wrong with the world in any group, no one says, what? Wrong with the world? I think we're good. Pretty sure we're crushing it right now. I'm pretty sure ISIS and Ebola is how things are supposed to work. I don't know why we would want to try to fix this.
Nobody does that. The truth is, everybody in this room may have a different opinion on how to fix the problem that we have, but nobody has a question as to whether or not we have a problem. Like, systematic, history-wide, worldwide problem. Right? So we're in our third week of talking about Jesus as king, that Jesus is a king and he's an eternal king.
And so here's what I want us to look at today. If Jesus is an eternal king, and if there is cosmic level problem, a cosmic level brokenness in the world, doesn't that kind of get put on his plate? Like, if he's an eternal king, if we're going to believe that, if we're going to say that Jesus is an eternal king that rules and reigns over creation forever, isn't this problem kind of his problem? That's how that works. So if you're a king and you're over a kingdom and your territory is fine and you're at peace, but everybody's dying from the plague, your kingdom's not doing so hot.
Or if everybody's well-fed but there's an army advancing, you can't, as kings, say, oh, we're doing good for another week or two until they get here. Like, you can't do that. And this is who we would take this complaint to, correct? It would be on his plate. So, like, nobody's gone to the mayor of West Columbia and said, what are you going to do about ISIS? What's your plan for fixing Ebola in Africa?
Nobody's saying that to the mayor of West Columbia, and if they are, he's going to be like, leave. Like, I have no, like, I've never sat down and written a letter to President Obama that was like, dear President Obama, what are you going to do about the ridiculous amount of potholes on the road to my house? Like, that's not going to make it to his desk because that's not his level of problem that he deals with. Does that make sense? So if we have a cosmic, worldwide, everybody agrees that there is an issue, that there's brokenness, that something is off, that this isn't how it ought to be, then doesn't that go to the king of the universe?
If Jesus is that king, doesn't that get put on his plate? So what we're going to do, we've taken the past two weeks and we've kind of looked at how Jesus' kingdom advances in a really personal manner. So we've looked at when Jesus shows up and declares that he's king, you can no longer remain neutral to that, just like if someone walked into your house and declared themselves king and owner of your house. You can't remain neutral. You can't be like, uh, all right, sounds good. Can I sit on my couch?
Like, you've got to address this problem. So Jesus shows up, declares himself king of the universe, and so we have to respond to that, and we said that we can respond like the wise men do in Matthew chapter 1 and 2, where they worship, or we could respond like Herod, where he tries to kill Jesus and defend his kingdom. Last week we looked at how we respond to Jesus as king, and that's through repentance, which is just acknowledging that we're sinful, that we're broken, and that we need him, that we need him to accomplish on our behalf what we can't accomplish, that we're not going to fix this problem, and that we need him to do it. So what we're doing today is we're zooming out.
We're going to take a very wide look at what the kingdom is, what Jesus came to accomplish, how he addresses this issue. I'm going to tell you that the Bible does agree with you that there's an issue, and it does say that Jesus addresses it, so it does actually get put to his desk. And we're going to zoom out. So if we were going to look at the kingdom, what we've kind of done is we've zoomed in on how it actually plays out personally. So if I was going to talk to you about the Roman Empire, we could zoom in on some random guy.
We could talk about Milanitis, the guy who sells horseshoes. And we could learn some things about the Roman Empire, but we wouldn't learn the wide scope of how it got started, how it ended, where its territory was, by just looking at this one guy. Just like watching Honey Boo Boo tells you something about America, but not everything about America. It's telling us something. You can learn some things, but just not everything that you would need to know, hopefully, about America. And so what we're going to do is we're going to zoom out.
I'm going to pray, and we're going to look at Jesus' kingdom as it affects, as it works on a bigger, more cosmic level. God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather and to study your word. I pray that you would reveal to us, show us, teach us about your kingdom, about how it works, and how we are invited into and involved in it. So God, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, in Jesus' name. Amen. So we will be in Matthew chapter 4 and 5.
So we've looked in Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 2, and 3, and now today we'll be in 4 and 5. But we're going to start, zoomed out a little bit further. So we're going to go to Colossians 1, we're going to show it up here. This is in the book of Colossians. We studied this over the summer, and I just want to point something out to us. So it says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So in Jesus, we have redemption, which means He buys us back, He makes us His again, He forgives our sins, which means there's brokenness personally in our lives, and that Jesus forgives that, that He steps in and takes our place and forgives us our sin, and that through that, He invites us into His kingdom. So the first half of that says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Here's how the kingdom works. We've said this repeatedly, but a kingdom advances against another kingdom. Kingdoms are by their very nature militant. And so Jesus' kingdom, if He's an eternal king, is going to advance against a much larger issue than just the small answers that we would give to what would fix the problem.
So that if I was going to raise an army, if I was going to begin to take over territory, if I was going to begin to claim area, I would start with my neighbor's house because I can declare war on that. Like it's pretty even. I can go over to Mr. Kirchtoffer and tell him that I'm claiming his house. He's like 90, but he's been in like every war that America's ever fought. So I don't know.
I think I could take him, but he's scrappy. I can't declare war on Russia. I mean, I could. We could decide right now that I'm going to declare war on Russia. Y'all could vote. We could say we were doing it.
Russia wouldn't care. Wouldn't do anything about it. They wouldn't even show up on their radar. See, what happens is when Jesus shows up and declares that he's a king, they think, okay, militant advance against the enemy. And everyone in the room thinks, Rome. Jesus is going to overthrow Rome.
Here's something I know. When I asked earlier what the problem with the world was, none of you immediately thought Rome. They're the worst, but they're no longer existing kingdom and they're funny hats. And they're still showing up in our movies like Gladiator. If we could just get rid of Rome, we'd fix the problem. But that's what all the disciples thought.
When Jesus showed up and he said he was going to set up a kingdom, they all thought, okay, he's going to overthrow the Romans. But the truth is, three, four hundred years later, if he'd have showed up, everybody would have thought he was going to attack something else. He was going to handle something else. If he showed up a hundred years later, they would have thought he was going to handle something else. If he showed up today, we'd say, hey, here are the issues. Attack these.
Advance your kingdom here. And if he shows up a hundred years later, the answer would be different. So he's going to zoom out. He's going to see much larger issues than we see. Roman Empire lasts like 400 years. Jesus has bigger fish to fry.
You see, he has a kingdom that advances against the domain of darkness. When it says that Jesus, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son, what it's saying is that that's the war that is being waged. That Jesus is not advancing against the Romans because he's got much bigger enemies to deal with. Just like America could declare war on Russia and I can only declare war on Mr. Kirchstaffer, which now I'm thinking about it, I may need some allies, so we'll talk afterwards. You face enemies on your same level.
And so when they say, aren't you going to handle the Romans? It's not even on Jesus' radar for what his kingdom advances against. He's going to advance against the domain of darkness. So here's what's happened. When God created the world in the book of Genesis, he creates it, he says everything's good except for Adam shouldn't be alone, so he makes him a teammate to go through life together. He gives them both dominion, so he makes man and woman in the image of God and he gives them dominion over the earth and then he says that that's good, that he declares this good and right and then there's the creation that he has rebels against him and so that his good order fractures.
See, Satan shows up in the form of a snake in Genesis chapter 3 and he deceives Eve and her husband who was with her wasn't deceived but he joins in passively, lets her be deceived, watches and then just partakes in the rebellion understanding what he was getting himself into. Not fully, but he went tricked. And at that moment, God's good creation rebelled against him and there was a cosmic level brokenness and darkness enters into what was once light and good. And when Jesus comes back, when he shows up and he says he has a kingdom, he doesn't mean I'm here to overthrow the Romans, he means I'm here to reverse the effects of sin and brokenness in the world.
I'm here to advance against the domain of darkness that began with Satan, sin, and death. And can we agree that death is a bigger enemy than the Romans, than the Russians, than ISIS? Death's a bigger issue. Death wins, you just gotta wait a little while. So he says I'm gonna face a cosmic level enemy because there's cosmic level brokenness and this is I'm a cosmic level king, I'm an eternal king, so this is what I advance against.
So that's what Jesus comes to set up his kingdom against, that's what he comes to advance against. And here's the thing, so we would say, okay, hold on a second, hold on a second, so the world, we sinned, we rebelled against God, there was brokenness, Satan enters in their sin which just means that we no longer love Jesus like we ought to, we no longer love God, like they ought to, but they chose to make themselves God, they chose to care more about themselves than anything else and so we would say, well why doesn't God just get rid of evil? Like if he's God, if this is a cosmic level problem, we all agree there's something wrong with the world, why didn't he just fix that? Because he'd have to get rid of all of us because of the collateral damage at this point.
You see, when the United States gets into a conflict with a country like Iraq, or Afghanistan, which we've been over there hanging out for 10, 15 years now doing stuff, we have the capability to make that a black spot on Google Maps. Y'all understand that, right? Like the United States has the capability of creating craters where there used to be countries. we don't because of the collateral damage of the people who are a part of things that would get caught up in it. And so God could erase evil but he'd have to erase us because the truth is we've actually joined in the rebellion. We're selfish, we're greedy, we're a part of the problem.
Russ was very correct when he raised his hand and said he was. I am. We're a part of the rebellion and the brokenness, the sin that pervades the world. It's infected our souls. And so, God has an option, show up and destroy everything and get rid of evil. But he cares about us.
So what Jesus does is he comes to live a perfect life. So he doesn't rebel, he doesn't get infected, he doesn't join the domain of darkness but walks in light and then he dies in our place for our sins. So that he's headed to the cross and he's going to die so that darkness, our darkness can be put onto him and so that his light, righteousness can be given to us. So that our sin can be put onto him and so that his good things can be given to us. So that he who didn't deserve to die can die on behalf of those who do so that he can swap places with us.
He's advancing against the cosmic enemy which is sin. Ephesians 6 says this, it's a sister letter to Colossians. It says, For we do not wrestle and wrestle there just means hand-to-hand combat to the death. So it's not like WWE where they get to come back after they wrestle. It's like gladiatorial things where it's like, you lost, you don't exist anymore. Too bad.
So we don't wrestle, we don't have hand-to-hand combat to the death against flesh and blood which means our problems aren't worldly problems but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So that Jesus' kingdom advances against darkness wherever it shows up. And see, the thing is when we say that these are issues, when we name off ignorance, when we name off racism, when we name off all the things that cause problems in our world, those are just a part of how darkness shows up, how sin shows up and works itself out. But it's not the biggest level problem.
So, Jesus chooses to show up and handle the actual problem that we're facing. His kingdom advances not against the Romans but against darkness. He has a kingdom of light that advances against darkness. So, jumping to Matthew 4, we're going to look at Jesus walking around and doing some of the stuff that he does. and it helps make sense of a lot of what Jesus did while he was on earth. It helps clarify, at least for me, a lot of what Jesus is doing. So, what we've looked at is that Jesus has a cosmic kingdom that advances against a cosmic enemy, Satan's sin and death.
He came just for the sole purpose of going to the cross so that he could die and so that he could disarm, as Colossians says, that he disarms the rulers and authorities, putting them to open shame because he canceled the record of our debt. So, the enemy wants us caught up in this and he wants us to be destroyed. And Jesus pays for our sins so that he was destroyed on our behalf so that we don't have to be destroyed as we place faith in him. Here's what Jesus does, Matthew 4, 23, 25. We looked last week at verse 17 where it says Jesus showed up and from that time Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So, he repents, he declares that the way we respond to the kingdom is repentance. Admitting that we're broken, admitting that we're wrong and we need him to show up and then he starts telling us what he did. And he went throughout all Galilee, this is verse 23, he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, that's where Jewish people gathered on Saturdays, not unlike this, what we're doing right now, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel, which means good news, the gospel of the kingdom. So, he's proclaiming, he's going around in Galilee, all this area, this area in Judea and he's proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, that he has a kingdom, that it is coming and that it is good news and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
So, his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, which is spiritual enemies, epileptics and paralytics and he healed them and great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. So, Jesus walks around and I think most of us are familiar with this, Jesus walks around and he heals people, casts out demons, which the Bible is very okay with spiritual things. We're Westerners, we're not for the most part. Like maybe we like that show where they go around and they talk to ghosts or whatever, which I was watching that one time, they were in an ancient Chinese lair.
Chinese people have layers, tomb, I don't know what Chinese people have, but they were in one of these and they're walking around and they're looking for a ghost and they got like that little boom, boom, you know, ghost detector thing they have because they sell those, I think it's sharper image if you're looking for one, if you think you have a ghost in your closet or something, boom, boom, boom, and then this 2,000 year old Chinese ghost comes over and says, get out and they freak out and they run and you're like, oh my goodness, there's a ghost and then you're like, wait, that ghost spoke English. So that was weird. Like this Chinese guy, he's been dead for a long time so he's got time to read and he's like, I'm tired of all these Americans coming in and poking around, and I need to learn English so that I can freak him out because every time I whisper Chinese things, they're just like, what was that? So he learned English just to get rid of, but no, the Bible, we're not super okay with spiritual things but the Bible is.
Like this Chinese guy, he's been dead for a long time so he's got time to read and he's like, I'm tired of all these Americans coming in and poking around, and I need to learn English so that I can freak him out because every time I whisper Chinese things, they're just like, what was that? So he learned English just to get rid of, but no, the Bible, we're not super okay with spiritual things but the Bible is. The Bible is very clear that there are spiritual powers, spiritual things that we cannot see,
That there is an enemy on a cosmic level, that Satan is real, he was created by God, he is not as powerful as God, it's not a yin and yang thing but he is real, demons are real, the Bible is very clear about that, doesn't go into explaining a whole lot of how they work, what they do because the Bible is very focused on Jesus all the time and the Bible is very clear that Jesus has authority and power over these spiritual beings and at no point does the Bible get demon focused although they are there. So Jesus shows up though and he heals people and he casts out demons and he heals paralytics
And he lets blind people see again and I always just kind of thought this was like something he did on his way to the cross and it was just something he kind of, he did because he was God and he could and so while he was here he might as well heal people because it would be kind of rude not to because he can and so when people ask he should that's only, just good manners I always just kind of felt like it was that or maybe it was just he was going to show us that he was God and so like by healing someone
He shows us that he's God but I always felt like they were separate things I always felt like teaching, telling people about the gospel and healing people and even the spiritual warfare stuff which is what the stuff dealing with demons and stuff gets called a lot that they were separate things and that the kingdom was kind of somewhere over here but the truth is when Jesus heals somebody he's actually just pointing to the work that he's going to do on the cross when he casts out an evil spirit he's just pointing to the work that he's going to do
On the cross because all he's doing is advancing his kingdom against the domain of darkness which is sin and the effects of sin which is death and pain and brokenness and so when Jesus walks around on earth healing people when he walks around on earth meeting needs of those who are hungry and broken and outcasts when he walks around on earth welcoming people in who are isolated all he's doing is in every way advancing his kingdom against the bigger problem
Which is darkness pain sin Satan death so when Jesus raises someone from the dead it's not a parlor trick or just something to show that he's God it's actually what he's going to do on the cross which is reverse the effects of sin which bring about all these things so Jesus walks around doing this on earth and it's not separate from from the the kingdom
And it's not separate from his work on the cross so Jesus let me just this is helpful to understand Jesus when he goes to the cross inaugurates his kingdom when he walked around on earth he begins to proclaim that the kingdom's coming when he goes to the cross and he dies and then three days later rises again he inaugurates the kingdom which means that the kingdom exists now
And on that bumper video it said the kingdom is already but not yet that's a good way to say it the kingdom already is here but it's not yet fully consummated it's not yet fully rationalized realized pretty sure what I just said before that didn't make any sense but if it sounded good it did alright moving on that he inaugurated the kingdom it's already
But not yet but it's not fully yet realized which means that when he returns and destroys all of his enemies and welcomes those who've had their sin covered that at that point is when every tear will be wiped away from every eye there won't be pain brokenness sin anymore everything will be grace mercy love it'll be back to the way it's supposed to
So when Jesus walks around on earth and he heals somebody he's pointing to what he's going to do on the cross and he's pointing to how the kingdom's going to eventually work because there is no cancer in the fully consummated kingdom there is no brokenness death and pain in the kingdom and so he's saying when he tells somebody I'm healing you and the kingdom of God has come near he's saying this is what it's going to be like and this is what
I'm going to accomplish on the cross and that's that's how he advances against the actual enemy so he wasn't wasting time he was actually moving his kingdom forward every time he healed somebody every time he pushed the enemy back because he's advancing against the domain of darkness okay so chapter 5
Says that Jesus seeing the crowds he went up on a mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and then he says a bunch of stuff that we don't that seems the exact opposite of how we would understand the world to work so he says blessed are you who are hungry blessed are you who mourn blessed are you who are persecuted and it's like I thought blessed meant good stuff that sounds terrible
But what his point is is that his kingdom is working in an opposite way it's an upside down kingdom as opposed to the way we would think the world works that he didn't come to make everybody happy and whole now that he didn't come to fix everything now but he came to take care of our big problem which is that there is brokenness that there is pain in the world
And that it's caused by sin and he's saying blessed are you who are hungry now because you'll realize that there's brokenness pain and you'll turn and find me but verse 13 is what we're going to look at how we get to be involved in the kingdom you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown
Out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world okay who's the light of the world who's the light of the world you are okay who's he talking to disciples people listening to him followers of his who else does the bible say is the light of the world Jesus yeah we're in church
That's the correct answer to most everything Jesus okay so Jesus is the light of the world and says that he's the light of the world and then at this point he turns and looks at his followers and says you are the light of the world Jesus is the light of the world his followers are the light of the world that's a pretty
Amped up promotion for those who would follow Jesus so that's an important role if it's what he fulfills as well and then he says that his church that the people that follow him are this he says you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand
And it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven okay Jesus' kingdom advances against the domain of
Darkness and then he looks at his followers and says you're the light of the world just right after he's walked around healed he's gathered big crowds and he's shown how the kingdom advances against darkness he then looks at his followers and says you're a part of this this is what you're supposed to do
This is what this is supposed to look like you're the light of the world we're advancing against darkness you know there's something great about light before we get into that God cheats just so y'all know when he gives illustrations when Jesus gives illustrations about who he is and what he did he created everything
We're going to look at some parables he gives next week about what he's like see when we're going to give an illustration about something we have to think okay I guess it's kind of like a tree and we have to think about what already exists but when God was creating things he got
To make it however he wanted to so when he says you're you're like light or I'm light or I advanced against darkness he already set up how darkness and light work so it's really not fair does that make sense like he created it so it gets to work how he wants it to work when God says that he's lighter that he advances against
Darkness do you know what's beautiful about that light never has a hard time getting rid of darkness it just doesn't he don't turn on a light in a room and it's got to take five minutes for it to push the darkness out of the room that's not how that works darkness is the absence of
Light so Jesus's kingdom advances against a domain of darkness and his followers are a city on a hill and the light of the world that we actually have because of Jesus the ability to advance against the domain of darkness when he says they're a city on a hill in that day when you needed something
A city was a great place to go it had walls and there was safety in a city there were certain cities that were actually cities that there were cities of refuge so if something was bad was going on or you did something bad you could actually run to the city and it was basically like home base so like you made it in the city like I can't get me I'm in the city you got to have a
Trial now you can't just kill me out there in the street and that was what they did so you went to the city to have fairness to have rule to have law to have protection if you needed something you went to a city because the city would have it and so what he says is that the church is a city on a hill that can't be hidden and that good works are to point to the father that people should see the
Church's good works and point to the father and give glory to our father in heaven so what Jesus says is that he's got a kingdom that advances against darkness in all forms and he's got a church that exists on the mission to advance that that we get to be a part of the same advancement against brokenness against pain against poverty against hunger against the enemy's work to bring about strife and pain and hurt that's what the church gets to do
And he empowers that and he accomplishes it but that's us so very practically how does that work what do we get to do what does that look like as we join Jesus on his mission I just want to cover a few things just to make just to make this this very practical so it's practical so we can understand what it looks like for us to join him to be a part of advancing the kingdom against darkness so we see that he heals people we see that Jesus so he meets
Physical needs we see at different times where Jesus feeds people so he meets physical needs that way as well he talks to his followers about being generous about giving things to people who are in need he also deals with spiritual ramifications of things so he addresses sin he addresses spiritual enemies so like we get to join in all of these things as the kingdom advances first thing we do real practical ways we pray the church gets to pray which
Is just us understanding that we don't accomplish this that we need God to show up that we need Jesus to be a part of moving this kingdom forward that if this is going to advance against the domain of darkness if we're going to push back darkness in West Columbia and Columbia we're going to push back darkness where we live we're going to need Jesus to show up so we pray we understand that it's what he accomplished on the cross for us that moves things forward anyway so we pray as the church we pray we give generously
Which means that as followers of Jesus we realize that he left his throne to give everything on our behalf to die in our place for our sins and so that everything we have is now held with an open hand it's his and it's whatever he wants us to use it for and the Bible says that that we've already been given everything in Christ and you know what that means it means you have nothing to gain you've already been given everything in Jesus and you have nothing to lose because you've already been getting everything in Jesus and so Christians are generous we give generously we open our wallets we
Write checks we help pay for things for people we give to local churches we give to missionaries we we give we pay for food we give generously if we own something it we share it we serve just means we give up our time our energy and our effort to push back darkness which means that it's Christians run soup kitchens do hospice care run clinics because Jesus did that because Jesus met physical needs that way because Jesus said that he didn't come to be served but to serve and so we get to join in the kingdom advancing as we push back the tangible effects of sin which is sickness and pain and hunger so Christians get to join in and advance the kingdom in a small way when we do these
Things we fight for relationships it's sin that tears up relationships every relationship you've ever had go poorly is due to sin and nothing else unforgiveness saying mean things to each other being too prideful to to communicate once something went poorly and so Christians know that Jesus overcame way more to have a relationship with us overcame everything and so we fight for relationships we're not okay with awkwardness just so you know that's a rule for Christians that's a rule here we're not okay with awkwardness not awkwardness like man that person makes conversations awkward because they breathe through their mouth not like that awkwardness like there's something weird between us and we're not
Going to talk about it awkwardness like they hurt my feelings but I'm not going to say anything we don't we don't that's that's not okay amongst Christians because we fight for relationships because Jesus gave us the ability to overcome it means that we fight for relationships with people who don't seem to have friends we befriend them because we know that Jesus went out of his way to befriend us who weren't very friendly he did not sit in heaven and say man that chad is one cool cat I want to get to know him he didn't he didn't say it about any of you either he overcame it for us and befriended us and cares about us because he's great so we fight for relationships we tell everyone about Jesus so it starts off by saying that he went around proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and that's what we do we tell everyone about Jesus we tell
Everyone about the hope and the life that can be found in him we tell everyone about how he's affected our hearts on a very real basis we tell everyone about the fact that we're messed up we can't fix this but Jesus came live the way we were supposed to died in our place he lived the way we were supposed to and died the way we were supposed to so that we don't have to die the way that we that we were supposed to and that we can have his way that he lived applied to our account we tell everyone about Jesus it is not an invitation we talked about last week it's not an invitation to come be amazing it's not an invitation to come have good morals it's not an invitation to come be really good behaviorers it's not it's an invitation that repentance is I'm messed up I need Jesus okay so we pray we give we serve we fight for relationships and we tell everyone about Jesus and you want to know
What's true we can do that anywhere we get to be a part of the kingdom anywhere I was having a conversation earlier this morning God wants Christians to be contractors and to stay contractors God wants Christians to be doctors and nurses and to stay doctors and nurses God wants Christian bus drivers Christian school teachers Christian plumbers there's no hierarchy in Christianity when it comes to following Jesus so it's not like foreign missionary Pope I don't know where you come from Pope foreign missionary bishop pastor Sunday school teacher deacon others who follow Jesus and read their Bible some others who don't read their Bible like it's not there's not like categories for it and God isn't like if you do this you're more special that's not how it works now there's supposed to be pastors and missionaries and they're supposed to be leaders in the church but they're supposed to be Christians who go to school forever
And then go do something else that they learn how to do they're supposed to be Christians who go to school to learn how to do something and then go do something that has nothing to do with what they learn how to do and they use that job to pay off their school debt and that's what because we can do this anywhere we can be a part of the kingdom anywhere you can do that at work you can pray for your co-workers say my boss is an idiot we'll pray for him most bosses are idiots pray for your heart while you pray for him see how you can so you pray you pray for your co-workers you pray that Jesus would show up that he would work in your in your place of work you can give this hey let me take you out to lunch hey I brought an extra honey bun in my lunch you want it people love carbohydrates give be generous you can give you can go out of your way to serve people when you hear hey I realize you're having car trouble can I can I help with that you
Can serve so if there's car trouble and you know how to fix it you can serve if you don't know how to fix it you can be like here's 10 bucks good luck is the gas tank on empty no I'm out of my expertise level here's $10 talk to a pro like you you can serve you can hey I've realized you're coming up on a deadline can I stay late and help you do that you can fight for relationships which means you show up early you stay late you talk to people and not just the people that are going to help you advance you can you can when you have the opportunity for someone who nobody else at work likes which every work has those people if if your work doesn't it might be you you can go out of your way to talk to those people to to share a time with them to say hey to them to ask them how they're doing you can fight for relationships at work and you can tell everyone about Jesus when you get the opportunity to share about Jesus when you get the opportunity to tell them about
What you have in Christ and the truth is if you're doing those other things you'll get opportunities and if you're doing those other things people won't mind listening to it because it won't be like hey I know I don't know you and I've never talked to you but here's this pamphlet or let me shout things at you it'll be no that's just who I am this affects how I exist in the world let me talk to you about Jesus you can do that at school you can pray pray for your the other students you can pray for your your instructors teachers professors you can give you can hey notice you miss class you don't copy my notes you can serve you can go out of your way to help people hey I'm doing pretty good in this section I don't mind helping I don't mind helping you study this hey I'm doing terrible in this section will you help me study this which isn't serving
But you may need to ask somebody that some point fight for relationships you can sit with the people that nobody sits with you can talk to people in class that nobody talks to you can do this anywhere and God wants us to do it everywhere that we are the light of the world which means that where you are God has you there on purpose some of you think my job is terrible and I want a different Job and God's holding on to your collar and saying nope I got something more important for you to do than just make money I got something more real and eternal and long lasting for you to do than just get a degree I got way better things for you to do than just play a sport I've got you here for a reason and we can do that everywhere you want to know what's
Beautiful about what we talked about last week that we approach the kingdom through repentance we're gonna be terrible at that there are gonna be days where we're the worst at it we don't pray we don't give we don't serve somebody tries to talk to us we're like hey shut up I'm not here to be your friend and then we get to repent and God doesn't love us more on the days that we get it right and he doesn't love us less on the days when we get it wrong we get to follow him in repentance Jesus has already accomplished everything on our behalf for those of us who placed our faith in him he's already done all of this for us and he's invited us into a cosmic level world-changing mission you see the disciples when Jesus rose from the dead and they look at him in
Acts chapter 1 and they say at this time you're gonna set up your kingdom you're gonna overthrow the Romans now and he says not now I've got a mission for you more people need to be invited in because at that point Jesus could have set up his kingdom and he would have saved all the people who knew him at that point and he would have destroyed everybody else and he hasn't done that yet because he wants all of us that know him to be everywhere infecting the world with the truth that we have in Jesus and spreading the kingdom band's gonna come up and play we're gonna sing and then we get to go be the church we get to go be a part of God's cosmic level mission we get to be a part of pushing back darkness by sharing food by praying for people by building relationships by serving people in tangible ways we get to be a part of
The kingdom advancing in our city every day and it's beautiful that everything that you do gets to have a level of intentionality to it now that you didn't understand or comprehend or or know or fully think about all the time we actually get to be a part of the kingdom advancing in our city when we go to work this week when we're having a random conversation with someone this week I'm gonna pray we're gonna sing God thank you that you did not solve the problem of the Romans I thank you that you showed up to handle a cosmic level brokenness in the world that you have a better vantage point than we do so that you address sin God I thank you that you've invited us into that that in your grace you didn't destroy evil and in your grace you're not coming back just yet so that we continue to to serve and love and advance your kingdom
In tangible ways and point people to Jesus we love you we thank you I pray that your Holy Spirit would empower us to be that to be a city on a hill to be a light in the world and God help us repent as we follow you we love you we praise you in Jesus name amen house and let's go 감사합니다 you you you you you you you
All Gods but God
Transcript
So how we doing? They always give me a hard time for asking how everybody's doing. I think we've moved beyond that point, so I'm going to start asking questions like, How was your week? How are your finances? How's your mom doing? Those kind of questions.
To kind of move it on beyond just how you're doing. But last week we began our Idol series, and so we started the first week. We were looking at Exodus chapter 20, and that's actually where we'll be again tonight. And we'll be on page 40 in the Bibles we have. If anybody needs a Bible, we've got some right here. They'll hand to you if you just raise your hand so we can all be on the same page.
But what we talked about last week was that we are designed as humans, created by God, to live in existence in relationship with God. And so that all humans are designed to live in a worshipful relationship with God. And that when that relationship was broken, it wasn't that we ceased to worship. It wasn't that we ceased to have a God. It just we began to worship other things. And so something else began to have supremacy in our lives.
And so what we talked about was if we are designed to worship and by default are going to be worshiping something, why would we want it to be God? And so what we discussed was that Jesus, we looked at Romans 5, Jesus rescues and redeems while we're weak, while we're broken, while we're sinful, that he buys us for himself through his death to save us when we had no merit of our own. So that we were made his prior to any amount of value or worth or goodness that we have. And that he's the only God that does that. That all other gods base our relationship with them and our existence in the world off of how well we're doing.
And Jesus bases it only, always, forever off of himself. And so there's actually a lot of freedom and joy and life in having Jesus be our God. And so that's what we talked about last week. So we're going to be in the same passage this week and we're going to kind of turn our focus. And I think for us in our culture, we don't think about idolatry very often, if at all. And so you may think about it as kind of something that people used to do or people in other cultures do.
I know that if you walked around in New Testament Rome, in the Greco-Roman world, they had gods for everything. I'm not kidding. They had gods for like everything. They basically just went through and if it was something that people appreciated, they were like, well, let's just give it a God. Let's just assign that a name.
Let's build a temple for it. Let's have a shrine for it. Cities had gods that, so there was like the big gods that most everybody knew about. And then there were a lot of smaller gods. And so they were like, all right, well, the sun and stars and storms, that'll be a God. And we'll have a God for beauty and sex.
And that'll be a God. And we'll have a God for – they had them for different cities. They had them for different vocations would have gods. I was reading Poseidon was the God of the ocean and horses. And I just don't know how that went in the God draft, like who was representing Poseidon. It was like, all right, we'll take the ocean.
And they came back around and they were like, all right, we also – we want horses. They were like, you already got the ocean. Yeah, but there's like not a lot going on there all the time. And he only has a few people to mess with, you know, and boats and stuff. So we want horses and we want fire.
You can't have fire and horses. You've got to pick one. Horses. We want horses. So I don't know how that worked out.
I guess that made seahorses really cocky because they were like the only thing that was both, in the ocean and a horse. And so – but that's – they had gods for everything. And the truth is we think about like, well, we don't really do that. Honestly, I think they just had a little bit more social integrity to go ahead and admit what they were up to. Whereas we would be like, ah, we don't do that. But if you're going to say that we don't, as a culture, worship power and wealth, if you're going to say as a culture we don't worship beauty and sex, we're kidding ourselves.
They just said, well, we're going to do that. We're going to care that much about it. Let's go ahead and just deify it, give it a name, and have a house we can go to, make it a little bit easier. And so really we culturally still have idolatry all the time. We'd say, well, we're not – but not like them. Like we wouldn't worship some sort of inanimate object that had some kind of image engraved on it, unless of course it was like green and folded and had an old dead guy's face on it.
Then maybe. Maybe we'd work for that. We wouldn't have big statues that represented things. Like they had Baal and he had a giant bull statue that you would worship a bull that would represent fertility and wealth. And we wouldn't do that unless, of course, we're talking about bull markets and we build one in front of the New York Stock Exchange to represent wealth and power. We wouldn't practice child sacrifice unless it was to the God of choice and personal freedom.
So to act as if our culture does not have idolatry, we just don't have names for it. The truth is it's all around us all the time and as individuals, idolatry isn't just something that other people deal with. It's a human problem. John Calvin said that the human heart is an idol factory, that from the womb, from birth, we are adept, we are great at making idols. And so what we're going to shoot for tonight is we just wanted to develop a lens for seeing idolatry in our culture and idolatry, more importantly, idolatry in our own hearts and our own lives. And so we want to just get a framework for how do we even begin to investigate this?
I remember growing up in school, it was just, and I don't remember exactly what year it was, but there was a year when I went back to school and like I showed up and I was like, there are girls here. And that had never really dawned on me before. Like they'd always been there, but I'd never really noticed them. And in some ways our goal tonight is let's pull back a little bit and start to look at where idolatry crops up in our lives. They're there. Let's just get a lens to see them.
That's what we're shooting for. And that's what we're going to be in Exodus chapter 20. So I'm going to pray and we're going to hop in. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you are alive and you are real and you are active. We pray that through your Holy Spirit you would lead us tonight.
That this would not be just a good get together of friends and a good talk and some good singing. But that God, it would be worship. It would be a gathering of your church where you, through your Holy Spirit, instruct and teach and admonish and use your word to enact your will. So we love you and we praise you and we pray this in faith that you will work among us. In Jesus' name, amen. Exodus chapter 20.
We're starting verse 1. And God spoke all these words. So this is God talking to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai after he's rescued them out of Egypt. 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. And so we see how God rescues a nation for himself. That he makes a people for himself and he rescues them out of slavery.
And we actually, this is just a small picture of when Jesus is going to rescue the world out of slavery. So the Egyptians were, the Israelites were in slavery to the Egyptians. But the Bible tells us that ultimately as humans we're enslaved to sin, to our own desires. And that Jesus would come to earth, be the son of God, that he would live perfectly on our behalf. He would die in our place so that we might have freedom in him. That we might have life in him.
So he would be killed on our behalf. That he would shed his blood on our account. Be buried, rise again to life and live forever. And that in him we can have life. And so we just see here a small picture of what ultimately God's going to do for all of creation, all of humanity. And so it says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. 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 generations of those who hate me. But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. We talked about last week that God doesn't set it up as here are my rules, follow my rules. Those who follow my rules are good. Those who follow my rules are bad. Breaking rules is bad.
He sets it up as object of worship. He says I am God and there are no other gods. And do not worship any other gods. And so we don't break rules. We don't break any of the other ten commandments until we've broken the first one. That it's only after we have taken something and put it in the place of God.
And said that at this moment you are more supreme to me. You are more real to me. You are more powerful to me than God is. And so I'm willing to turn from him because I see you as more supreme. And so the example I gave was if I was willing to lie to Anna or unwilling to confess sin to Anna or to my community group. What I'm saying is God I know that you don't like lying.
I know that you say that confession is actually good. That repentance is actually good. But approval of my community group of my wife is more important to me. Their opinion of me is more important to me than yours. And so we actually swap God out. Put something else in his place.
And that's what leads us into all other Acts of rebellion. So the first one is to actually break rule number one. Which is to place something else in supremacy. To remove God from where he is and put something else there. But he starts off.
He says you have no other gods before me. And then he. So what we did last week is we kind of turned towards God. And just said let's look at why we would want him to be God. What we're going to do this week is turn and take a look at all the other things that we can worship. So what does he say is idolatry?
What does he say we can worship? You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above. Okay. That is in the earth beneath. Alright. Or that is in the water under the earth.
Oh, okay. What he's saying is that humans are able to make an idol out of anything. The category he included is all of creation, everything. So his options are you can worship things that aren't created. Wouldn't that just be you, God? Yep, you got it.
You nailed it. The only uncreated thing is God. So he says nothing that's created are you allowed to worship. You're not allowed to make anything into a God. You're not allowed to take anything that I've made and turn it into a God. Just don't do that.
Now, notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say don't enjoy. He doesn't say don't you dare appreciate anything that's been created. He doesn't say how dare you love something that I made. He doesn't say any of those. He says don't worship.
Don't bow down to and serve. So what we often think about when we think about idolatry is we think about the pursuit of the overwhelming desire for something bad. That idolatry is us turning from God to chase after something bad. But the truth is far more often we idolize good things. That God gave us for joy and pleasure and appreciation in life. To things that he gave us to enrich life.
Things that the Bible says are good gifts from God. The reason we do that is because it's actually a lot easier for us to believe that they will bring joy and satisfaction and fulfillment. Much easier. And that's why they'll begin to drift and take a place of supremacy. So most of us aren't like pet rocks.
Pet rocks are great. And they're going to bring the ultimate joy and satisfaction and value in life. I've got to have pet rocks. Like nobody like it's like dude that's just dumb. Like you can't even make that argument. Like I just like I don't even like we're not even going to debate.
I'm not even going to like we're not even going to go scripture there. I'm just going to tell you you're stupid. You go away. Like that's how that works. But we get into a relationship.
Like I'm far more likely to believe that Anna who's my wife can bring me ultimate joy and satisfaction and validation. That she can supply everything I need in life. I'm far more likely to let my heart begin to drift there. Because it's actually a good gift that God gave for me to have a wife. And there is joy there. And there is hope there.
There is satisfaction there. But it's not ultimate joy, satisfaction and fulfillment. There's not ultimate validation there. And so far more often we'll take something good like work. God designed work. Adam had a job in the Garden of Eden.
We're not going to get to heaven and sit around all the time. We got stuff to do. I don't know what it's going to be. I know it's not going to be as bad as the stuff we're doing right now. We're not going to be as annoyed with our bosses. But he had a job prior to the fall.
So God gives work. It's actually good for us. It's designed for us. And so as we get into it, there starts to be a little bit of, no, this actually can validate me. This actually can bring me joy and satisfaction and hope and fulfillment. And we take a good thing, we turn it into a God thing, and it becomes a very bad thing.
That is how idolatry plays out most often. Taking a good thing. So like I really want to make good grades and please my parents. Like I really just want to fit into it. I want my parents to be proud of me. God actually designed it to work that way.
You should want to honor your parents. But then when it becomes an inordinate desire, we take something that's good, base our life off of it, and it begins to destroy us. So we take a good thing, make it a God thing, and it becomes a very bad thing. Okay? So he lays out, not don't enjoy, not don't appreciate, not don't have fun with.
He doesn't say, hey, hey, I made steaks, but you better not eat them. No. God designed good things. Because there's meat in heaven, just so you all know. The Bible says there's meat in heaven. It says zero things about vegetables.
There's meat in heaven. There's no death in heaven, so I don't know how that works. Like, is the meat still talking to you? I'm not sure how this works. How do I taste? Delicious.
Now stop talking and trying to eat. I don't know. Y'all, we'll figure that one out. So anyway, what he says though, you shall not make for yourself carved image or anything, likeness of anything that is in heaven above or earth below. He says don't take anything and make it into a God. And he includes all categories because the truth is we are able to take anything and make it into a God.
Okay. But what's he say? He says don't, you shall not, this is verse 5, you shall not bow down to them or serve them. Don't bow down to them or serve them. So when you bow down, you're paying homage to, you're giving honor to something.
You're bending to something. And then when you serve, the word he actually uses there is slave. So don't be a slave to. Don't let your life be guided by in service to anything other than me. We talked about last week that that's actually for our joy that he says that because he's good and he's for our good. And so when he calls us to worship him, it's not begrudging submission, but it's actually for our joy.
When I was growing up, my dad, he explained this to me later and I've seen how it played out in the rest of life as well. But he was like when y'all were kids, I made like 90% of all the decisions that faced you. I just made them for you. You got to make about 10% of the decisions. As you got a little older, maybe I bumped that back to 80%. He said you weren't like a 12-year-old trying to decide what time you were going to sleep.
I had already decided for you. 9 o'clock. My older brother will tell you that you didn't necessarily go to sleep at that time, but you were at least in a bed with the lights off. You may stare at the ceiling if you would like, but you're going to be in the bed. He was like you're not 14 trying to decide whether or not you're going to get your ears pierced. I've already decided that for you.
Your options are don't get your ear pierced or have me assault you. Those are your options. We knew our options. None of us have our ears pierced because we valued our face more than our ears. But he was like I've made decisions for you.
And the truth is as you go through life, you have things over top of you that make decisions for you. Like when you get a job, when I go to Sears, which I won't be doing much more because they don't exist anymore. At least the one I was working at. We shut that thing down. I guess my sales weren't that good. But I knew I was going to wear clothes, but I had a certain like I could wear.
I knew I was going to be wearing khakis and some form of a blue shirt. Like I could wear black pants if I really got crazy. But I had decisions made for me. When I went to college and was playing football, I was on the team. I had a lot of decisions made for me. I was like where are you going to be most of the time running and getting yelled at.
Like that decision has already been made. Like that's when we place something over us, we serve it. And it does not work for us. It begins to make decisions for us. And so when God says don't worship anything, don't place something in supremacy over your life, don't serve it, what happens is if we place money as the pinnacle of what we're chasing, we think that I can control this. But the truth is it begins to make decisions for us.
Because if you're going to serve money, certain things are going to have to happen and certain things are not going to happen. When we place health there, when we place physical beauty there, decisions already begin to be made for us. And so when God says serve me only, the decisions he makes are actually like good ones that are healthy for us and enjoyable and there's life in them. And so he says don't bow down to and don't serve or slave for anything other than me. So I want us to take a second and to begin to unpack what it looks like for us to begin to identify these things in our hearts.
And again, predominantly, as we walk through this and as you begin to pray through this and walk through this with the Holy Spirit, this most often will not be bad things. Most often will not be things that are in and of themselves. You can immediately identify and be like, that's sinful. Most often in idolatry it will be something good that we've given an inordinate amount of power to, that we've begun to place in a place of supremacy. And so there's going to be automatic pushback and automatic defense for some of these things. But what we're not saying is all of these things are automatically bad.
We're just saying they should not take the place of God in our lives. I remember Anna and I were dating in high school and she was – we were pumping gas one time. Well, she had a Explorer. I couldn't remember what it was. She had a Ford Explorer. It was really big.
And she ran it into things. And after she ran it into a ditch, she got bumped down to smaller vehicles. She's gotten smaller and smaller with her vehicle, but she has not ceased to run into things. I was – you know, so at some point we may have to expand it back up just so that if she gets in an accident, she wins. But not worried about conserving gas, more like just winning an accident.
But she took her Explorer and she was on empty and she was with her tennis team and she decided she was going to go ahead and fill it. It was the first time. She had only been driving for a little while. First time she's ever going to get a full tank of gas. She was real excited because she was going from like E light all the way full. So she fills it all the way up.
She goes to pull out of the gas station, stalls out. Her car runs over across the road, gets stuck in the middle of everything. Then she has to get the whole team to come help her and like push it into a ditch. Really, really confused as to why her car no longer works. Because the one way she knows how to work on cars, which is similar to the one way I know how to work on cars, she doesn't have gas. Yes, I don't know what the problem is.
The problem was it was diesel fuel that she filled her car up with. Now, nobody would argue that diesel fuel is a bad thing. It just doesn't work well in a car that runs on gas. As we walk through this, there's a lot of things we're not going to argue are bad. They're not going to work well in the place of God. A marriage can be a really good thing, but it makes a horrible God.
Approval and relationships with people and being loved can make a very good thing, but it makes a horrible God. Good grades, hard work, wealth, money, possessions, all good things given to us by God, but they make horrible gods. So as we walk through this, be willing to sit with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to begin to train us to look for areas in our life that we are pursuing a good thing as if it is a God thing. So these are just some questions, and they may not, not all of them are going to apply to everybody. Some things may be helpful, may not be helpful. Take the ones that are helpful, use them, begin to sit with the Holy Spirit on that throughout this week.
This is actually why it's really important that we walk through life in community, that we actually get to walk through this process together. We get to begin to discuss, hey, I started thinking about this. How am I doing here? Have you all noticed this in my life, that we actually get to walk this out in this process? And so I'm just going to start giving some questions. The first one, though, area that we, since our hearts get tied to our idols, we see, we can begin to question our motives and our attitudes and our emotions when it comes to idolatry.
And the first one we're going to look at is guilt. So again, I'm just, we're asking some questions to help us begin to have a lens to identify. What is it in your life when you think back on it you feel most guilty about? You feel most ashamed of or you feel just heavy every time you think about it. You feel as if you failed in that area. Now that does not necessarily define idolatry, but it might.
It might be that you failed a God that you worship. And so you just can't get over this mistake that you made or this choice that you made because of what it was that you were trying to live up to but never did. So sometimes when we go to identify our idols, we can look towards guilt, anger. What do you get most frustrated about? When are you most likely to go off? And this will be different for different people.
So having someone interrupt your schedule or throw your schedule out of whack, probably always frustrating. But if you lose it, it's possible that you have an inordinate amount of hope and life and joy tied up in control and being able to be in control. If someone disrespects you and you fly off the handle, it's quite possible that we've got a little bit too much wrapped up in how other people view us and how much self-worth we have. Do they not know who I am? How dare they? So what do you get most frustrated about?
A lot of times we get really angry with... If there's someone that you're really angry with, a specific person, it's possible we're really angry with them because they're blocking us or denying us access to our idol. What do you fear most? What's your biggest nightmare? What do you automatically run to defend if it's addressed? Someone in your community group is like, Hey man, I just want to talk to you a little bit about this because I kind of see this in how you handle this area of your life and you automatically...
You've got like Bible verses loaded into a pistol to shoot back at them. This is why it's okay. What do you automatically run to defend? The last one's pride. What do you feel shows, validates you as a human? What do you feel you can always kind of rest in?
Yeah, everything else is going bad, but I've got this. What do you run to when life is crazy to show you that everything's still going to work out? You get on the internet, check your bank account? Anna and I do that if we either would like to cry or have a good laugh. I mean, what do you run to? What do you try to steer conversations to?
When you're in just a normal conversation, what are you trying to hope that it gets to? I was in a science class in college. And you had your class and you had a lab and we had a lab and in that lab, a teacher would be talking about stuff and there was a dude who would start so many sentences. And I don't remember his name, but I remember his nickname. He would raise his hand and be like, now this summer when I was in space camp, we used to be like, dude, I don't think that sounds the way to everyone else the way you think it sounds. But he'd try to bring it up all the time.
It wouldn't even really apply. He'd be like, now this summer when I was in space camp and we were learning about space rocks, photosynthesis. He was like, I don't even know. Have you ever seen people do this? I've done this. You turn the conversation in a really weird way.
That was a great story about your grandmother. Want to know how many push-ups I can do? It's like, dude, I don't even know. I don't know how you got there. But what is it that you're likely to try to show to people so that they can know, hey, I just want to let you know I deserve to be on earth.
What is it that when it gets attacked or affronted or assaulted a little bit that you just can't handle it? What is it that you're so proud of? The other way this shows up is what are you most annoyed by? What are you most likely to talk bad about? Because the truth is if you don't find much pride in something, you're very unlikely to talk bad about. So I'm never going to get in an argument about LeBron James and Michael Jordan because I could care less and I have no affiliation with either of those cats.
When you say King James, I'm more likely to think about the version of the Bible than the dude who dunks on people. Okay? That's just the way I am. You want to get an argument about Clemson and Carolina football? High five. Let's do this.
Up top. Matt, up top. Get in here, buddy. I have some association with one. I care a little bit about one. And so what are you most likely to talk bad about?
Will you go off on how somebody raises their children? I can't believe that they would have kids that acted like that because my value and worth is wrapped up in how good mine are. Okay. That's to begin to frame up in our brains how do we ask questions? How do we look at what it is that we seek to validate us to find life in, to find joy in? What have we begun to shift out and put in the place of God?
Now here's what happens. We talked last week and we went to Romans 5 and we talked about how Jesus rescues us while we're weak. How he rescues us while we're his enemies. How he does not base our standing with him off of us, which is really good news. That Jesus saves us outside of any merit or worth that we could ever bring to the table. But let me tell you what happens a little bit when you start talking about idolatry.
There's a little bit of come to Jesus and he'll fix all of this. Come to Jesus and he'll make all of this good. And a lot of times what we do is we just bring our idolatry with us and we slap a Jesus fish on top of it. We just kind of spray paint a cross over top of it. I, I, um, there's a whole segment of people that went through the true love waits thing. It didn't reach Australia, so Raz was really confused about it as we were talking about things.
But true love waits didn't make it across the pond. But, uh, what that was, was there was youth groups where they'd come through and they would do basically abstinence training for youth. And, uh, it was basically, you, you, you don't need to, the Bible says, not to, to fornicate, not to have sex outside of marriage. That, that that is not the way we're designed to act. That monogamous married relationships are the best ways to, to live life. And so you would, you would get like a promise ring or whatever.
And so the ideal behind it is actually really good and healthy and fine. But there were times that it was sold as put in purity work and Jesus will bring you perfect spouse. You do the work of behaving yourself and in comes great marriage. And there is a group of people, 20 to 30, 35, that are really mad at God because they put in the purity work. Mr. Prince Charming hadn't shown up.
Mrs. Perfect hasn't shown up. Hadn't worked out. And God owes them. Truth is quite often we come to Jesus with, okay, you're right. I shouldn't serve money.
I should give my money to the church. And if you give your money to the church, if you give your money to the church, he will open up the gates of heaven and he will flood you with possessions and things and wealth and power. So we come to God and say, all right, God, I'll give you my money as long as you're going to pay me back. So, Jesus, I will worship and serve you as long as you worship and serve money. Some of us come and get involved with church because it's the best way to have a good family. Jesus, I will be here.
I will serve and I will work. But my children better not rebel. And the truth is, God does bless. And it is a great way to raise a family that knows and loves the gospel. And it is a great way to have a good marriage. But God does not promise us all those things.
And Jesus is not interested in serving our idols. So the truth is, there are Christian versions of all of those things we just talked about. Guilt? What is it that we still think Jesus is unable to save us from? What is it that we still think he's mad at us about? What is it that you think Jesus can't forgive you of?
Because the truth is, Jesus says he forgives and he redeems and he takes away all our sin. And it's never based off of us. And if we look at God and say that my sin, I know you forgive, I know you redeem, but there's no way you can forgive this. What we're actually saying is, Jesus, I didn't fail you. I failed something more important than you. If he's unable to forgive it, we're taking it as if there is a higher court.
Anger? What are you mad at Jesus about? What are you frustrated with God about? What hasn't he given you that he was supposed to? What hasn't he blessed you with that you thought he was going to by now? That doesn't mean you don't wrestle with God.
That doesn't mean you don't pray about things. But if there's a constant source of frustration and anger when it comes to God, it's possible that he's just not giving you your idol. Fear? Fear? What are you afraid God will ask you to do? What are you afraid he'll take away from you?
What are you hoping we don't talk about in the Idol series? Gotcha. What have you already been thinking? Well, I just kind of hope we don't cover that. And if we do, he's got a couple of verses here. And maybe I just won't be a part of my community group that week.
And pride. Oh, this is a good one. And I don't want to talk about it because I'm like all of these categories. What do you bring to God that you think somehow shows value and worth of why you are worth rescuing? See, we know that we're supposed to come to God with empty hands to receive grace. Far too often we're like, yeah, my hands are empty except for this really awesome thing I did.
It shows up in a couple of different ways. There's truth idolatry. Which is where we think we have the better truth when it comes to Christian truth. So we're the group that's got it together. We know the right things. We know how to study this.
We've got good hermeneutics. We get into a debate with an Arminian. We can crush them. Those Calvinists are morons. Whatever. We know where to go.
We know what version of baptism is the best. I would argue that we do. But I set them on this category. And what happens is you begin to take pride in having the best version of truth. We're the Christians who have it together. We begin to gain this air of superiority.
And the truth is we're not in Christ because we were redeemed when we were broken and weak and enemies. We're in Christ because we know the good stuff. There's gift idolatry. I really put in a lot of great work for Jesus. There are nights he goes to sleep just glad I'm on his team. That's what we begin to think.
That there's somehow because he uses us or because there's work being done. That we somehow have the good gifts. And that we're not rescued and redeemed because we're broken and weak. But we're rescued and redeemed because we can do good things. And then there's morality idolatry. I obey really well.
I am so obedient. You tell me a rule. I'll tell you how I haven't broken it. And we begin to think that we, our place in Christ is not based off of our weakness. Not based off of the fact that we were enemies and he rescued us. But based off of the fact that we can behave very, very well.
And God's disappointed in those who can't. Those who fall short. Those who are constantly gathering with my community group and confessing sin. They need to get it together. Those who gather in my community group and they confess the same thing. Two weeks in a row.
Three weeks in a row. Seriously bro? You can't get it together yet? You know Jesus loves me because I've got it together right? Don't think. Because we're a part of church family.
And because we say that Jesus is God. That this hasn't creeped in. That idolatry doesn't creep up in our hearts consistently. And so here's the truth. We'll come to Jesus with all kinds of things that we want him to serve and work for. And we'll get really frustrated when he doesn't.
But he says, I am God. And there are no gods before me. And Jesus is not interested in serving our idols. He'll have no part of it. And so the truth is, some of us are very frustrated with Jesus for not giving us something that we really want. That we know that if we just had this, we'd be happy.
Why is he punishing me? I've been really good. If I could just have this, I'd have joy. I'd have life. I was just hanging out with my brother and his seven-month-old daughter. And the way she interacts with the world, she's really cute.
She looks just like my brother did when he was that age. And he was a really cute baby. I'm just hoping that at some point, her face doesn't keep looking like his. Because that's not going to be a good look. But the way she interacts with the world is, ooh, what's this?
That's what she does. Like, I really want this. Let me put it in my mouth. That's how she interacts with the world. Anything. Electrical cord.
Shard of glass. This is shiny. Let me stick it in my throat. There are times when he's sitting with her, when they're doing something. She's crawling around playing. And she picks up something.
And he didn't even know it was there in the carpet or whatever. They have to dive and, like, wrestle things out of her hand. Because the only thing she wants to do is really just stuff it in her mouth. And she'll cry and fight and fuss because he just stole joy from her. She was about to discover how amazing needles were in one's mouth. And he took it away.
And there are some of us fighting and fussing and yelling at Jesus because he refuses to give us something that will ultimately destroy us. Jesus is willing to let you be unhappy for your joy. And he's not interested in serving your idols and giving you things that are going to destroy you. And the truth is the Bible would tell us that that is actually part of God's wrath. For him to let us have the things that we want that will destroy us. And it's his grace on us when he identifies our idols and when he blocks us from things that we would be able to tell ourselves and lie to ourselves that I will find joy and significance and value and validation and hope and life in this.
And the truth is if we walk through life always wealthy, always healthy, always being approved of, always in power, always having what it was that we thought would give us life and we never realize that it can't, it is God's wrath on us because we will die and realize that we were in rebellion against a holy God and we will face the God that we never realized we needed. All of our gods will fail us and it's God's grace on us when he keeps us from them. When Jesus demands that I am God alone and there are no other gods before me, it's for our joy, it's for our life, it's for our hope, and he is not interested in serving our idols. Let's read it.
And some of us have found this out. Some of us have gotten the thing we thought would bring us hope and joy and life. And we said, ah, it didn't. My heart lied to me. When Jesus died on the cross, he proved once and for all that he is good and that he is for our good. He shed his own blood, gave his own life so that we might actually have one.
He is good and he is for our good and he is to be trusted with everything. And so the Bible says, the prophet Ezekiel says that God is going to give us a new heart through his spirit. And so here's what I want us to do. As we walk this out in church family, as we gather with our community groups this week, I want us to begin to question our heart and begin to ask the Holy Spirit to show in us areas that we have been chasing after something where we have been deceiving ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to begin to renew our heart and give us a new heart so that we might actually chase after the things of God.
So that we might actually chase after things that bring joy and life and real fulfillment and real value and real satisfaction and quit chasing after cheap substitutes. The band is going to come back up and play. And I just want us to take some time to question our hearts. Don't trust your heart. Trust the Holy Spirit that gives you a new heart. And here's the thing.
Some of us will begin to be faced with areas that we have begun to trust and love and pursue something else and will feel guilty or ashamed of it. Don't. Be excited that God in his grace revealed to you something that was ultimately going to destroy you. Be excited that he loves you enough to step into your process and pursue you. That he is good and that he's for our good. And that he wants life and joy for us.
So as we wrestle with our idolatry, as we gather with our community groups to walk this out in normal life, be very excited that God has you in the place he has you. And that he loves you in his grace enough to pursue you through it. Jesus, we thank you that you are gracious. That you are good and that you are for our good. I pray, God, that you would wreck us with your grace. That for those of us who have come to you claiming faith but really pursuing something else.
Being willing to serve you as long as you serve our other God. I pray that you would reveal that to us. I pray, God, as we've pursued other things, good things, good gifts that you gave us that we've tried to turn into God things. I pray, God, that you would begin to reveal that, lay that bare through your Holy Spirit. Draw us closer to you where real life and real joy is found. We praise you for your grace.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.