The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: The Lord is ONE

Episode Date: May 19, 2019

God will not cuddle with, make room for, or share HIS throne with idols. He smashes them. For the glory of God and our own joy, so should we. Click the 1 Samuel Resources tab for the full study journal, summary recap videos and more.

Amen, amen. I hope you're ready for this. It's going to be a doozy today. Grab your Bible's First Samuel. We're actually going to start in, we're going to study chapter 5, but I'll tell you about chapter 4 in just a second. We're in this 12-week series called Prophets Priest and Kings study of the book of First Samuel. And if you were here last week, we were in chapter 3 where Samuel, he receives God's call in his life. And essentially what Samuel does is, he says, God, my answer is yes. What is the question? And he says, here I am, your servant. Speak, Lord. And so we said that everybody's yes, your role in the fulfillment of God's plan for your life or your role in the Great Commission, your yes could look very different depending on who you are.

Some of you he'll call to the Congo and some of you he'll call to the PTA, whatever it is, you know? And for some folks, we were asking if you feel like God is calling you to full-time vocational missions or ministry, then write yes on that card and turn it in. And we had 172 people take their first step. and what it means to have that kind of call of God in your life. So you 172, way to go. You have no idea what you're stepping into. Trust me.

But praise God. Hey, so we're going to study 1 Samuel chapter 5 today. We're going to talk about idolatry because nothing sets up for beach baptism like idolatry. But that's where we are. But in order for you to understand, chapter 5, we kind of get a glimpse of chapter 4. So here's what's happening. In chapter 4, verse 1, the Bible says, The Word of Samuel came to all of Israel, which is really important because in chapter 3,

the Bible said the word of the Lord was rare in those days. So Samuel is stepping into his calling as this upcoming priest of Israel. He's preaching the word all over the place. And then the Israelites go to war against the Philistines. It's kind of the epic battle between the Israelites and the Philistines over and over all throughout the Old Testament. And so they do. And they're getting whipped. Like 7,000 people die on the first day.

And so Eli, he's a priest, and he's got two sons and they're super bad. All right. One's name Hoffney and the other is Phineas. And so these kids, they're terrible, man. They're really terrible. They're like seducing women in the temple. They're stealing. Like people bring their offering to God and they take part of it. It's not good at all. And Eli, the priest, he doesn't do much about it. He's like at work all the time at church, so he never really like messes with his kids. And so these kids, or they're grown men by this point. And they say, we have an idea. Let's go get the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of God. And let's bring the Ark of God to the front of the battle lines. And then surely we'll win, because I'm sure when they were growing up in Sunday school, they heard stories about like Joshua and the Battle of Jericho and that kind of stuff. And so that's what they do. They go get the Ark of God and they carry it into the battle. And when they bring it into the battle, all of Israel just cheers and claps and think, all right, well, we're good to go now because, you know, our God is bigger than your God kind of thing.

Well, they go to war the next day and they get crushed, like 30,000 people get squished. And the reason is this, and I think it's important. I think it sets up what we learn in chapter 5. You see, essentially what Phineas and Hoffney, I almost said Furb, but it's not him, it's Phineas and Hoffney, what they were doing is they were essentially using the almighty sovereign God as an idol, as a trinket, as like a rabbit's foot. And just mark this down. God will not be a means to your end. God will not be a means to your end.

There is no little magic equation that you can do to put God in your debt as if he owes you something. There's no like beads you can rub and pray or cross you can rub and pray or sign you can make to make God do anything for you. You see, the heresy in that is that when we treat God that way as a means to our own end, then what we're saying is I am one. And God responds to me that I am preeminent, that I am before all things. And if I go to church and if I tithe and if I say the right prayers and if I, whatever, if I do this, then God owes me that. And that is just a Christian version of idolatry. And God will not be used as an idol.

You see, every single idol is based on an if-then-conditional relationship. And ultimately, when any human beings all throughout the world worship an idol, it is really a means to self-worship. So like in the biblical times, when they worship a corn god, nobody loves corn that much. Nobody's like, oh, I've just got to worship corn. No, what you're doing is you're worshipping the corn idol because you want the idol give you what you want, corn. Or the reason that you would worship a fertility God is because you want them to give you what you want, which is a baby. And sometimes Christians can kind of try to treat God that way. God, I will do this for you, but you owe me. And God don't play around with idolatry. He just doesn't. And so they bring the ark in, doesn't go good at all. Because God will not be a means to our end. And so they get whipped. Phineas and Hoffnyi get killed. And the Ark of God gets taken. And so somebody from the war runs back to town. Eli is sitting on a stool. The Bible says he's old and fat and can't see well. And he goes, how'd the war go?

Not good. We lost the ark of God and both your sons died. And so he falls off his stool, breaks his neck, and dies. It's in the Bible. So what it says. And then that's all it says about it. So when we turn the page, this is the context that we pick it up in in chapter 5 verse 1. It says, when the Philistines captured the ark of God, that's what that was all about. They brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. And then the Philistines took the ark of God and they brought it into the house of Dagon. And they set it up beside Dagon. Now here's what they do.

They are going to treat the Almighty God as common. They are going to put God on the buffet line of deities as if you could go to the corn god for corn and Israel's God for whatever he wants. And I'm just telling you, God doesn't play that game. He will not play that game. Verse three, and with the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face forward, face downward, on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. And I'm sure they probably thought the priests were like, that Dagon youth group, what had they done to the temple? Okay.

And so they took Dagon and they put him back in his place. But when they arose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen. had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon, and the head of Dagon in both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left. You see, I don't know if you know this, but where I'm from, this is pronounced Dagon. This is, I don't know, maybe you've heard the phrase, this is where it came from. It's like, we can't keep this Dagon idle upright.

Every time we come in here, the dagon on the dagon on floor and the dagon on temple. Somebody cut off his dagon head and his dagon hands. We need to get the dagon thing back where he is supposed to be. That's where that word comes from. So the reality is this is that God don't play with dagon idols. Whatever the dagon idol is in our life, he won't play. Why?

Because he is one. He is preeminent. Just like, like God doesn't do second. God will not be on the buffet line of deities. your life and you go to him when you want a little bit of him. That's just not how it works. Just like God is full of mercy and full of love and full of justice because he is just and love and mercy. He is also preeminent.

He is before all things. He is the one thing that drives everything. And the reality is that every idol and every single person will one day kneel before Jesus Christ as Lord and Maker. That the heavens will open up and every tongue will confess and every knee. will bow that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, whether that means you do it on judgment day when you die or when the trumpet blasts and he returns. You got two options. You can bow or you can bow. That's all you got. And some people will say some dumb stuff like, when I meet Jesus, I'm going to ask him, you ain't asking nothing, Scooter. You're going to fall on your face in trembling fear because the

glory of God will be shown around you. And if you bow before you leave this earth, then the good news is he says, stand up my son or daughter, well done, good and faithful sermon. But if you stand up now and say, forget you, I got this, then forever and ever and ever, you will bow in humble submission and separation from the almighty eternal God. God does not play around with idolatry. In fact, in the Old Testament it says this in Psalm chapter 115. It says, not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name.

give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness, why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell.

They have hands, but do not feel and feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. those who make them become like them. Do you know that we become what we worship? So do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. In other words, stop trusting in idols.

Now, I don't think that we are worshipping the kind of idols that were there in the Old Testament. Isaiah says, who would worship an idol? You take one block of wood, you cut it in the thirds, you use one third to carve an idol and worship it. You use another third to make a chair and sit in it and use the final third to throw it into the fire to keep you warm. It's the same block of wood. What dummy would worship an idol? And I can tell you what dummy. The one you got ready with this morning.

It's the one that was looking at you in the mirror. Because the reason is that every single one of us, by nature and nurture, had this propensity to worship the created things instead of the creator. And so that's what's happening here. And so then the people of Ashdod, the Philistines, are like, we've got to do something different about this. Verse five, he says, this is why the priest of Dagon and all who entered the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to that day. You see, here's the thing. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Do you know why the reason that you should get baptized today if you've never been baptized as a believer?

Because it is the declaration that you are bowing before Jesus as you know. your Lord and Savior and not the things of this world. In fact, it's more than just bowing. If you get baptized today or whenever, what's going to happen is you're going to ask, you're going to come out to the water with one of us, and we're going to say, who is Jesus Christ to you? And you're going to say, he is my Lord and Savior. And then we say, upon your public profession of Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, I baptize you, my Christian brother or sister, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the reason that we dip you back is because you are saying, I am dead to the old me.

And it is like we are burying you in a watery grave that is the Atlantic Ocean. And then as the water washes over you, it is a symbol of what the blood of Jesus has already done to cleanse you. Because the Atlantic Ocean, especially in Jacksonville Beach, ain't cleaning nothing. Okay? There's a lot of stuff in there. And then, just like Jesus is the proto-toko from the dead, he is the firstborn from the dead, in a same way we are, we won't hold you under for three days like he was in there, maybe like three seconds.

And then when you come up out of the water, it is to show the whole world, the whole world, that the old you is dead. You are not bowing down to today's idols, and the new you is resurrected with Jesus. And all that he has, now you have. That's why baptism is such a big deal. That's what we're doing.

Now in this place, they put the ark of God in the temple, the idols bowed down to it. They're like, what are we going to do? And so here's what they decided to do in verse 6. The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. See, God wasn't playing around.

And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, the Ark of God of Israel must not remain with us. For his hand is hard against us and against Dagon, our God. And so they sent and gathered together all the Lords of the Philistines, and they said, this is a very important question. What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? It's a very important question. What shall we do?

Now, this thing wasn't just a little box. In case you're new to Bible study in the book in Exodus and then again in Leviticus, God gives Moses very specific instructions to create this little thing called the Ark of the Covenant or the Ark of God. It was two foot by two foot by four foot. All right? Some of you have seen a documentary on it called Raiders in the Lost Ark. Okay. And so it was inlaid with gold. It had these, um, inside of it was the laws of God, the Ten Commandments.

And on top of it were two little cherubim, these little like chubby angel things with their wings outstretched. And it made what looked like a throne, but there was no image on the throne because what resided there in the Holy of Holies, in the temple, was the Shikina glory of God. And it represented the very presence of God. In one time a year, the high priest would come. come into the place inside the Holy Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, and he would shed the blood of the lamb, and he would sprinkle the blood of a perfect spotless lamb over the Ark of the Covenant, and on top of it was this thing called the Mercy Seat. Literally in Hebrew, the Hillisterium, translated perpetuation in English. And they did that year after year after year.

And so that thing, that box, that thing that symbolized the presence of God is in Ashdod, where these people are. and they asked this question, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with this? Because as long as they rebelled, they were crushed by it. I read a whole bunch of commentaries. Commentaries are just smart, old people talking about the Bible. Not one of them gave this answer.

You know what one of the options of the people, the Philistines were? They could have surrendered. Somebody could have said, hey, what should we do with the ark of God? I know. Why don't we worship him? why don't we bow our lives down to the one that created us and say it ain't about us it's about you instead what every single one of them tried to do is try to control god instead of surrender control to god let me ask you what are you going to do with the presence of god

Pontius pilate in the new testament will say it this way what should i do with this man named jesus the most important question you'll ever ask yourself what are you going to do with jesus now honestly I hate to ruin your Sunday. A lot of you treat Jesus like the Philistines treated the Ark of God. But you're going to try to control him, kind of keep him in his place, and when you need him, show up and say, okay, I need a blessing now. And I'm just telling you, God doesn't play that way.

One of my greatest fears as the pastor of this growing church is that you, like these people, could be in the very presence of the Almighty God and never surrender your life to him. So all they do for the rest of this chapter is they try to move the Ark of God, they try to move the presence of God to different places. They go to Ekron, they get crushed. They keep going to these cities with different weird names like Palacca. That's not in there. But, you know, just these random places seem random.

And everywhere it goes, they just get crushed. They get tumors and people get sick and all this kind of stuff. And so eventually they say, man, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take the Ark of God. We're going to put it on a crate or a cart, and we're going to get two milk cows, and we're just going to see where they take it. it. And they let them go out of town, and it's the weirdest that the milk cows just take a right, go all the way to Israel. So here's the point. We're not even close to being done, but here's the point. God will not cuddle with, make room for, or share his throne with idols. He smashes them.

For the glory of God and our own joy, so should we. Now, listen, man, if you're showing up to church right now, and I ask you, what is an idol in your life? I think most of us would be like, I don't have idols in my life. I worship God. But here's what we like to do, especially as like Southern Church-going Americans. We know that God's on his throne, but we want him to just kind of move over a little bit to make room for our comfort. And move over a little bit to make room for our vocation and move over a little bit to just make room for me up there too, would you? You see, again, we're not talking about carved images.

Tim Keller wrote a book called Counterfeit Gods. I would highly, highly, highly recommend that book, counterfeit gods. And in that book, he defines an idol this way. He says, an idol is anything that you love, cherish, worship, value, or find identity in more than God. You see, in this one initiative, we're asking this question for two years. Is God the one thing that drives everything about you? Like, does God drive the way you think about you? Does God drive the way you think and feel about your vocation?

Do you find your identity in him? Or do you find your identity in your role as a mom, your role as a dad? Anything that begins to take that ultimate place in your life is an idol. John Calvin says that our hearts are idol-making factories. You see, every single person, regardless of what you think you believe, that we are all worshippers, Every single one of us are worshippers. And the reason is because we were created in the image of God. The almighty sovereign king of the universe created us and breathed life into us.

Therefore, we are made to worship and everybody worship something. Don't believe me? You've been to a Jags game? Sometimes they're not even much to worship. And yet, it is just the big worship service. People raise their hands. People sing. I've never met a person at a Jags game when we score.

they say, I don't really raise my hands. No, everybody worships. They do. You have faith. You believe. You believe in the impossible. This is our year. Our Messiah has come. Nick Foles. It's coming, baby, all right? Hey, I believe too. Whatever. Or, man, look, how about college football? Listen, I'm a Georgia fan. Do you know what we've seen when we score a touchdown at a Georgia game? Glory, glory to old Georgia. It's a hymn. I mean, it's a worship, too. I sing it with the rest of them, all right? You gators, you sing, get up and go. That's the dumbest I've ever heard, okay? I wish you would, whatever.

Right? You're Seminoles? Y'all probably don't want to talk about it right now, do you? Whatever, okay, see? You see, here's the thing. We all worship something. We're just made for it. And the crazy thing about an idol or a false god

or a little G God of this world is it's consistently making promises that it cannot deliver on. It cannot. I mean, you think about the things that are being sold to us every single day. What if you took at face value the claims of a commercial? Like if you were sitting around today and you were like, you know what? I'm not in very good shape and I don't have very many friends.

What can I do about that? I know Miller Light. Because every Miller Light commercial I see, there's lots of people having fun, everybody's super fit, and they're really good at beach volleyball. If you drink a lot of Miller Light, none of those things will happen to you. Fit becomes fat. You'll ruin your friendships. And I promise you, as your Millerite consumption increases, your beach volleyball skills

decrease, they are inversely proportionate to one another. I promise you. Or you're thinking, I need to make a name for myself. I need to be respected in this community. I need to people to see me and think. think, wow, I know, Lincoln. The car, Lincoln. Remember Matthew McConaughey was driving around those things for a couple years ago? Just randomly at night. I mean, he's so late, just riding around, twirling his fingers, just, all right, all right, all right. Amen. If you get a Lincoln,

fine, get you a Lincoln. But you will not be qualified to be a respectable person in our community. You will be qualified for Uber. That is all you're going to get out of. of it. You understand? And yet, what an idol does is it makes promises that it cannot keep. We live in a world that says, he who dies with the most toys wins. So they bait you down a road and then blame you for walking down it. It baits you down a road and says, the more you consume, the more life you have. And yet we get our consumer debt way out of whack, and then everybody blames you for being a servant to death. That's what idols do. Idle. make promises that they cannot keep.

Now again, an idol could be anything like sports or money or your job or family or a car or whatever it is. But what Tim Keller does in his book, Counterfeit Gods, which I think is brilliant, what he says is that those kinds of things, like a relationship, a girlfriend, your grade, your career, those are actually just surface idols. And those idols are a mean by which you really worship at the altar of what he calls a core or a deep idol. And he says, and I agree, he says that there are really just four core idols.

And if you always stay at the surface, you won't really deal with the idolatry in your heart, because then all you'll do is like behavior modification. You might change jobs or change relationships, but you don't really get down to the core of the idolatry in our heart. So he says that there are four core idols. Power, approval, comfort, control. Power, approval. comfort control. If you brought your journal and you go to page 21, we have a chart there that is

very, very, very helpful to help you begin to identify which one you think your core idol is. And again, I would highly encourage you to dig in. Those of us, I'm saying us because this is me, those of us that struggle with the idol of power, we're into influence, we're into recognition, we're into respect, we want everybody to know who we are. Oftentimes, we're we're we think serving is beneath us, we expect to be thanked. Honestly, you'd rather be feared than loved, as long as you're not ignored. And disrespect will drive you crazy. That's power. Approval. Some of you worship at the altar of approval. Acceptance is everything. You live for likes. Compliments are never enough. And when criticism comes, it's devastating.

even if people affirm you all the time it's never enough and in fact you have a hard time hearing a compliment without hearing the negative shadow somebody can say sally you look really nice today and what you heard what you think is did i not look nice yesterday okay that is just where you live comparison is killing you and social media is your drug of choice and if you worship at the idol of approval you would never confront a friend, never, because in reality, the friendship is more important than the friend. What they think about you is more important to you than their well-being. That's approval. The next one is comfort. You live for pleasure. It can be sex, could be food, could be laziness. Your house is always just the way you want it, and there's no way you would ever use that gift from God,

your home for a disciple group, because those bunch of slabs come in here and mess up your your new couch and that kind of stuff. Your vacations are epic. You can't remember your last three, but you know the next one's coming, and it is epic. Now, you've never done a mission trip because you care more about your environment than those people's eternity. And you always think more is mine. You get a raise, and immediately 100% of that you think is for you. This is comfort, pleasure.

And here's the crazy thing, man. You're greedy. I've never met a person that says they're greedy. I literally been doing this for 25 years. I've never met one person and says, Pastor, you know what my problem is? I'm greedy. No, no, no, here's what we say.

We just say, I like nice things. Well, everybody thinks they like nice things. Your budget just depends on what, you know, determines what nice is. My redneck cousins in Dillon, South Carolina, that will be drinking PBR and eating moon pies tonight, they say that I like nice things. We get the nice moon pies and Pats blue ribbon, blue ribbon. You see what I'm saying?

But in essence, you think everything exists in your world for your own. comfort and pleasure. The fourth one is this. Control. Control. If you worship at the altar of control, you think everything must go according to your plan. Uncertainty threatens you. Faith is a philosophical idea, not a daily reality. You think you know best, and if everyone would just do exactly as you say, then this whole world would go right. I know this one well. You have to have the last word, you always have to be right. So Keller says that every idol, sex, money, whatever it is, sports, your family, what it really serves as one of these four core idols. Let's just, how many of you would say, I think power, I think power is my core idol. Anybody want to raise your hand? Okay,

power? Just a few of us willing to admit that. All right. Some of you look to your wife, you're like, raise your hand. Yours is power too, okay? Okay. Approval? Who's got approval? Who? Who? would say approval. Yep, a bunch. It's always the most. And you look at somebody. Approval too? Good job. Yeah, I feel good about that. That's great. Comfort. It's pleasure and comfort. A lot of folks, all right? And then finally, control. Control. Now, here's the thing. You really, you know, we exist. We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. You really want to deepen your relationship with Jesus this week? I dare you to take your take your journal and go to page 21 and in your disciple group, just talk about those things.

Just be honest, be like, this is the one I struggle with most. Now, for most of us, like me, I got some version of all four just swimming around in my life a lot, but I'm primarily a power control guy. Shocker, okay? Approval, I'm obsessed with the approval of one, and I know it should be Jesus, it's really aggression. Like when I leave here, if you're like, your sermon's terrible, I'm like, baby, how was my sermon? She's like, it was good. I don't care about you.

But power and control, man. Power and control. And I dare you. You want to deepen your walk with Jesus in your disciple group this week. Just talk about those things. Just say, here's what I struggle with, and here's how it plays out in my life. And let me encourage you. Go ahead and be honest on the first lap around the group.

You ever do that in your group? You ever be sitting in your group? And you're like, what are you guys struggling with? And the fourth guy in, he's honest. He's like, I need to go again. This man just said lust. and his wife's right here. We need to go, like, we lied on the first lap.

Just be honest on the first lap around, and I am telling you, God could begin to do a thing in your life to deepen your walk with Him. You see, what the enemy does is the enemy takes good gifts from God and twists them in our life. The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above.

And the enemy tries to take a good thing, wants us to treat it like a God thing, and that's a really bad thing. Like, think about this. God, he came up with the idea of the bone-in rabbi, cooked medium rare for the glory of God. You getting hungry yet? Let's see, you're vegans.

This is where you leave me out. I don't understand. See, us meat eaters like, Jesus, we have levels. You know what I'm saying? There's like, y'all just have, I don't know. like this amazing celery. I don't, you don't, there's not like a upgrade, but anyway. So God creates this boning rabbi.

And the enemy tries, tries to get us to terminate our worship upon the created thing. But what that thing was given for us to do, man, you order that steak, you cut into it with friends and family. And it stirs worship in us to worship, not to stay. but the creator of the cow. How good is our God? God gave us bacon. Every time you see bacon, you should think of the gospel. In the old covenant, no bacon.

In the new covenant of the grace of Jesus Christ, bacon. Can I get an amen? That's true. That's not the only reason he died, but it was included. That's a fact, all right? So the enemy takes a good thing like work. Work is a good thing. Work is a gift from God.

God has called us to be co-creators on this planet to rearrange the raw goods that he has given us for human flourishing. And then we take that thing, we can take work. You hear that fellow's work is a good thing, young man. Sometimes you've got to leave the cave, go kill something, drag it home, and eat, repeat. Okay, work is a good thing given to us by God. And then what we begin to do is we begin to worship that good gift that is work.

But we're not actually worshiping work. Work might be a means to an end whereby we serve that idol of power. because you know, man, you know the day they gave you that name badge that said, assistant to the general manager, you were like, yep, there I am. Begins to identify who you are. But it might not be that. The reason you worship work, it very well could be you worship at the idol of control. And when you're at work, you're the boss.

And you walk into the office and you say, do this. And people do this. And then you walk into the house and you say, do this. And everybody looks at you like, And you're like, well, I'm going back to work. And so you work 80, 90 hours a week. Or it could be money. Money is a good gift from God.

And then the enemy takes money. And it's not money that's evil. It's the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. But nobody actually loves money. We don't even have money anymore. We just have numbers on computer screens, right? We just have like cards in our pockets. and you may be using money to really worship at the idol of control.

And you hardly ever spend any money. Because what you want to do is when you log on to your bank account or accounts, there is a number there. And when that number is over a certain amount, it gives you the sense of control, like you are in control of everything, and everything is going to be okay. And you are looking for your security in a thing that can't provide it.

And then all you spenders are like, you get them, pastor, a bunch of cheapos. See, some of us to take money, and what we really are worshiping is the idol of comfort and pleasure. And so we, instead of money being a good servant for us, it becomes our master. Because all we try to do is by the shiny things of this world. Because you think that some kind of stuff, you think stuff is going to fully and finally satisfy, and it just never will. or you could use money and approval might actually be the idol that you worship. Like, you got a new car. You don't even really love the new car.

You just love that everybody knows that you got the new car. Or you're wearing an outfit right now. You don't even like it that much. You got mom jeans on from the 90s, but everybody tells you you look awesome in them. And you spend way too much money on a pair of pants that will not do anything for in here. You see, we can take a good gift of God. There's a good gift of God. Can I get a witness?

Amen. If you want to amen me, I'll amen me, all right. But whatever. Glory to God. This is God's idea in the context of marriage for procreation and recreation. Glory. He commands it in the Old Testament be fruitful and multiply. That's Hebrew for bow, chikin'wow, wow, wow.

That's what that means. And yet, you can begin to use even your spouse as a sanctified prostitute for your own pleasure. and misuse her. Or it might not even be about the immediate pleasure that you seek. Sex could be twisted to be a means to your end to worship at the idol of approval. And even though you know that sex is for married people and you aren't married yet, the reason you give yourself away over and over and over and over is for those few minutes, you feel like you have his approval.

Do you see how the enemy can take a good thing, twist it, so that we would worship the created thing instead of the created thing. I can tell you, every Christian parents struggles with this one, your kids. In a second, it is easy to begin to worship our kids. And I'm telling you, we should love our kids, we should disciple our kids, we should never worship our kids. Kids make a terrible God. A terrible God. And oftentimes, again, the deeper idol behind our children is really we're using our kids for the approval of everybody else in the neighborhood.

Like you're at the ball field, screaming your brains. out at your kid and you're not actually cheering for the first name, you're cheering for the last name because that's the name that represents you. Or you might be worshipping at the throne of control and you're going to control everything in little Timmy's life. Like there's a new version of parent called the lawnmower parent. Have you heard of this? The helicopter parent is the parent that always saves the day. The lawn more parent just gets out in front of Little Timmy and mows down every obstacle. And that could be you. And the reason is because control is what matters the most to you. Let me tell you, an idol in my life

that is a good gift from God can be you. It literally can be the bride of Christ that God has called me to serve the church of 1122 and its successes and its growth. It can be a very thing that if I'm not careful, I'll say scoot over in the throat of my heart, God, because I just need to put a little bit of 1122 up here. Now, does this mean I'm punting on 1122? 22, absolutely not, but I have to constantly pay attention to anything in my life, anything in our lives that begin to buy for the attention, the affection, the love, and the devotion that only the one true God deserves. You see, that's what an idol is. Now here's a warning. Whatever you idolize, when it fails you, you will demonize it. Whatever you idolize, whatever you lift up as a God in your

life when it lets you down not if when it lets you down you will demonize it this is why you hate your ex why you hate your ex i'm sure they did some stuff to you no problem that's not what i'm talking about but you treated him or her as they were going to be your savior and when they could not be now you want them out so let me tell you this whatever you do please please please don't ever idolize me or any staff person here at 1122 because i promise you you, we will let you down. We will let you down. I will let you down. There are people that don't attend our church anymore because I let them down. Write this down. I will let you down. There will be empirical evidence that you will see that I am a sinner that needs a savior. I won't call you

back or I don't send the email right or I offend you with my words or that's going to happen a lot. But when you understand, like this is just, we're just one body with many parts and we're all bunch of followers in this thing together and someone let you down, then you will be able to afford them the same grace that Jesus has afforded you. You see, an idol, whatever you idolize, when it fails you, you will demonize. You see, because an idol just says more, more, more, and is never fully and finally satisfied. Romans 612, Paul says it this way. He says, let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. That word passions in Greek, we talked about it last year, is epithomai, epithomai. Thomai just means desires.

Like every one of us have normal, natural desires. And epithomai is like an, it means like, to put epi in front of it, it's a modifier that means extreme or obsessive or epic. And Tim Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, he says this, you should pay attention to these emotions in your life. Because when you have these emotions, that are disproportionate to the event. You have a disproportionate emotional response to some event or thing. That event or thing is probably an idol in your life that is gaining control. He says this, pay attention to epi anger.

Now, epi anger is not a word. He made it up. But you know, there's like normal anger. Like some kind of a cuss you on some JTB and they deserve to die. That's just normal. Not really. You see how I have like a power and control problem? why does that anger me so much, but it does.

And so when something normal in your life or good in your life is blocked, you can get upset, that's fine. But when something ultimate in your life gets stripped away or taken away, then you respond with epi anger. You blow up. You rage. You rant. Or you are epi offended.

You see, the problem oftentimes isn't even the offense. It's this like wound that you're carrying around. And somebody bumps into that wound. and you blow up. I'm telling you, an idol will mind its own business until you start jocke in with where it sits on the throne of your life, and then it will fight tooth and nail

to not lose its position. So like in my life, man, I struggle with the idol of power and control. I like for everybody to just do what I say, including all of you. But I don't live with all of you. But when my little people that I'm growing at home don't do exactly what I say,

say it's not a normal response. It's like an epi response. I have to pay attention to that. The next one is epi worry or epi anxiety. Again, there's like a normal amount of concern. If you got a phone call that your kid was sick, you would be concerned. That's normal. But if you begin to epi worry or be epi anxious to the point where the fear paralyzes you. In other words, pay attention to your nightmares. It could reveal to you the thing that you're worshiping above God. Or the third one is episadipat. sadness. Again, if you lose something good in your life and you grieve and weep, you should. You should. God has given us emotions to navigate life. But if there are things in your life that you believe are

ultimate and you think if that thing was taken away from me, I would despair and life would not be worth living. Then you have made an idol of something in your life. So then the real question is, so what do you do? Okay, now I dare you to walk through the hard, deep soul work this week. This ain't going to happen in this room today. I dare you this week with other Christian believers around you, people that you love and that love you. I dare you to do the hard work to dig around in some of this. Be with somebody that's going to be honest with you that can help point out some of these things with you. And you do that hard work to help identify what are the idols that could be in my life. But diagnosis is only the first step. An x-ray without work

afterwards is pretty useless. So then the question is, okay, so what do I do? I don't want idols in my life. I don't want to put my hope in a false God of this world that is always going to let me down. How do we dislodge an idol from the throne of our heart? You see, idols can't really be tamed. They can only be toppled. They really can't be crushed.

They can only be replaced. You see, again, in every single one of our hearts, because we were created as image-bearers, bearers of an eternal God, there is a throne and something will sit on that throne. The only way to remove the thing that is sitting on that throne now that we perceive as beautiful is a more beautiful thing has to take its rightful place on the throne. So an idol in my life years ago was like working out in bodybuilding. All right, I used to be into that like crazy. I know what you're saying.

Well, that's not a problem for you anymore. I know I took it too far. I'm just fat. It's whatever, okay? But for a long time, it was. It was like my whole world revolved around that thing. And again, in those moments, I don't even know that I would have admitted it as an idol. Because the problem with idolatry in our life is when we negotiate with ourselves, we always win.

And we are rational beings, and we try to rationalize everything, and all rationalization is is rational lies. That's all it is. But it is. until this one day happened and it was one thing that happened and it wasn't Jesus. I became a dad. I stood in the hospital and held my son

and I thought being a good dad is infinitely more important to me than what I looked like in the gym. And so I traded in the bodybuilding for dad bod. I got there much quicker than I would have hoped. But it did. And all of this happened, what I'm telling you is that there was this thing that I thought was important and beautiful, and then I held something more

beautiful and more important, and it was gone like this. It's happened in your life, too. It's happened. You were dating a girl. You thought she was awesome. You met another girl, more awesome. Girl one, not as awesome. This is as old as Shakespeare. Remember Romeo and Juliet? You know, before Romeo met Juliet, he was dating another girl named Rosalind. And his buddies weren't really into her, and he was like, no, Rosalind's awesome. And he wrote, some poems about her being like green grass or something like that. And then his buddy is like, dude, go to this party with me, and there's like a hundred chicks hotter than Rosalind.

Now it's very loose interpretation of Shakespeare, but that's what he's saying. And then he walks into the party and he lays his eyes on Juliet. And here's what he says about her and his old girlfriend. He says, but soft what light through yonder window breaks. It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill this envious moon who is already sick and pale with. grief. Rosalind who? That's what he said. She went for me in awesome to sick and pale. And Juliet is like the sun. You see, all that had happened in his life is that a more beautiful

queen in that instance took her place on the throne of his heart. So what do you do with idols in your life? If you just focus on the idol, if you just focus on don't drink so much and spend less money and watch your relationships, then all you will be caught up in and the rest of your life is behavior modification. And it'll work for a minute. Some of you're better at it than others. But what we must do is we must have a more beautiful king to take his rightful place on the throne of our hearts. Do you know why you have this insatiable desire in your soul that the things of this world just can't satisfy? Because you were created in the image of God.

That's why. You were created in the image of an almighty eternal God, and it takes that almighty eternal God to fill in the eternity that he put in here. And comfort and control and power and approval will never be able to do it. You see, in fact, Jesus is the only one that can give us those things that we are looking for.

If you're looking for power, then you're looking for Jesus. Because Jesus alone offers ultimate power. Did you know for anybody that trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior that we are co-ares with him and all that he has one day will be ours? I mean, so what? You're the president of your company. That's a good thing. You should leverage that for God's glory. But the Bible says for all of us in Christ one day we will stand in judgment over the angels and be a co-air ruler with him for all eternity.

that the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave is the power that lives with inside every believer. Ultimate power is found in submission to Jesus. You won't comfort? You won't comfort for every believer in Jesus. The Bible says that the spirit of God dwells on the inside of you, and Jesus gives the Holy Spirit this in the name. He calls him the comforter. Jesus says, come to me all you who are weary.

and heavy burden, and I will give you rest for your soul. The New Testament says that in Christ Jesus, that you and I can learn the secret of being content in every situation. That's comfort. Can you imagine? Just imagine for a second. Regardless of the report, the teacher gives, the boss gives, the doctor gives, the bank gives. Can you imagine having contentment that none of those.

things could take away that can only be found in Jesus. If you're looking for approval, hey listen, so what if 100 people that you don't even know on Facebook like your lunch? What if you had the approval of the sovereign king of the universe? You see, the Bible says this, this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means for anyone who is in Christ, that you could never dissatisfy God. You have, because of what Christ has done for you, you have his eternal approval.

And you want control? You want security? That Jesus alone offers eternal security. That's right. Jesus alone offers eternal security. The crazy thing is to have ultimate control than you and I have to surrender control of our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

and that God works in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. You see, sometimes you hold preachers like me say something like this, that Jesus is better than anything that this world offers. You know, I don't really like that. I know I use that terminology sometimes, but I don't like it that much. Because Jesus is not merely or simply a better offer as compared to this world. Jesus is the only offer of life and everything else is death. I mean, it's like all of us are drowning in the ocean, and Jesus is the only life ring. And every other option thrown out to us is a weight that will take us to the bottom. Now, dude, some of those weights are a much funner trip on the way, but they all lead to death and destruction.

And Jesus and Jesus alone. Listen to me, Jesus and Jesus alone, is the only God that if you find him, he will satisfy you. And if you fail him, he will forgive you. that's who Jesus says. So back in Ashdod, they asked, what should we do with the presence of God? I would ask you, what will you do with this man named Jesus? And if you today are ready, if you are ready to reject the idols of this world, which will always let you down.

And I'm telling you, the older you are, the more life experience you have that affirms everything that I have said. Some of you have made all the money, you've gained all the approval, you've had all the position and power, you've had all the comfort, all the control, and yet something is missing, I'm telling you what's missing. It's the king of our hearts, the king of the universe, Jesus himself. And so if you were to say, okay, pastor, that's what I want to do. I want to dislodge this idol from the throne room of my heart, and I want Jesus to take his rightful place in my heart. How do I do that? It is as simple.

It's not easy at all, but it is very simple. It is as simple as A, B, C. First and foremost, you admit that you need him. You admit it. I'm not just a mistakeer that needs to try harder. I admit it. I am an idolater. I am a sinner in need of a Savior.

And the B is as simple as believing. I believe. I trust that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And the C is I confess. I confess. I say, Jesus, I'm not the boss of me anymore. more. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. And the Bible says you do that and you will be saved. That a more beautiful king, the king of the universe, resides in your heart. Your sins are washed away.

You were adopted into the family of God forever and ever and ever and ever. And you will know a comfort, and you will know a power, and you will know an approval as soon as you surrender control. Like nothing in this world could offer you. I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now. If you'll bow your head and close your eyes. And if you would say, that's me, that's me. I want that thing. I'm ready to admit I'm a sinner.

Believe on Jesus and confess him as my Lord. If that's you, then right where you are, no matter of the campus, would you just raise your hand? Would you lift your hand high and say, Father in heaven, here I am. I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. And Lord, I pray, I pray. I pray that you would give us eyes to see you. You would give us eyes to see the gospel, not merely as practical, but we would be overwhelmed

with the beauty of the gospel. You would transform us. Not because we try harder, but you would transform us because you overwhelmed our souls with what you have done on our behalf. God, I thank you that every single day you call us to reject the idols in our life and take up our cross day by day by day and god i thank you i thank you that when we find you you are more than enough and when we fail you that you have already forgiven us and god i thank you that there is salvation in this church this day we pray it in jesus name amen