Stuck In Idols | Part 1

Hey, good morning. I'm

just like glad to not be dressed like Mr. Rogers. So and now with that, that kind of the crown theme there, should I be freaking in a British accent? I I don't know what's going on here. But hey, good. Hey, it's good to be here. I'm glad you guys are all here because today is a very special day in the history of Rock Point. It was on this weekend eighteen years ago that Rock Point was born. We started

church started. It's our eighteenth birthday. Yeah. Let's say and and so I we can now vote and be drafted. Still no drinking. But, no, eighteen years ago, we started. I know what you're all thinking, man, how old was Bill when he started the church? He goes, I was seven.

I was kind of like a Doogie Howser pastor or whatever. The fact that I referenced Doogie Howser gives away that I was not seven when we started the church. But no, it's good to be here. How about on three, we say happy birthday, Rock Point? How's that say? Not sing, just say. Okay?

One, two, three. Happy birthday, Rock Point. Kinda disappointed some of you didn't jump on two but

just kidding. No, hey. So as we start this new series, I normally start off with some kind of story. But today, to kick this series off, I want to start off with a series of questions and they're

reflective questions. I call them kind of those x-ray questions that will make you kind of look in. I just want you to think about them and just think about how you'd maybe answer them. They're under like the four basic categories. And the first category would be what I call the legacy question.

When you think about your life and what are you most proud of? And what do you want to be remembered for? That's a good question. And then there's the daydreaming question. Like when what do you daydream about? Like when you're alone and just in your own thoughts, what does what does your heart wander towards?

What do you spend most of your time daydreaming about?

Then how about what I call the coping question? When life is maybe tough or hard or difficult, had a bad day, bad week, what do you tend to run to to make yourself feel better?

And then finally, the nightmare question. What's your biggest fear or worry? What do you tend to worry about the most?

Or another version of that question would be, is there something in your life, either a thing or a who, that if that was taken from you, it would maybe make you question God and even life itself. Those are some pretty deep introspective type of questions. But they're good questions to ask ourselves because how you answer them

could possibly determine that you are stuck in idols. That you might be stuck with an idol in your life. And the Bible talks about these things called idols. It talks about idolatry.

And that's what we're going be talking about for the next few And that sounds, oh wow, this sounds really kind of like boring or really kind of like, idolatry, isn't that the thing where you have some carved statue that you stand in front of and go,

you know, or or something like that. Isn't that what it's talking about? No. What we're gonna see is it it means something much bigger than that. And and it's an important topic to talk about, especially in our culture, especially in the history of the church, the history of Israel, biblical history of people that are God's people, that it's one of the biggest traps

that God's people always fall for, this idea of idolatry. And here's why it's so important. Here's kind of the big idea for today and this whole series of why we're going to talk about this.

And it's simply it's simply this right here. Whatever controls my heart, controls my life. Whatever controls my heart, controls my life. So whatever captures my heart is going to direct my life.

And that's why this topic is so important. I'm gonna show you, we're gonna be in a passage today that's you kinda like it's kinda well known if you've been in church for a long time. It's found in Exodus chapter 20, and it's where we find God giving the 10 commandments to to the nation of Israel.

And if you don't know much about Exodus, second book of the Bible, and God called out a man named Abraham, says, I'm gonna form you a people. It was the nation of Israel. He goes, I'm gonna create this holy people. But from day one, if you look in the Old Testament, God never meant to say, I'm picking favorites and it's you and forget everyone else. He always said, I will bless the whole world through you. He always had a plan and Israel was supposed to be part of God's plan to know His love and to show His love. And if you look at the history of Israel, they had so many times where they forgot about that and failed about that. They had kings that failed over and over and over and over again, the

king would fail, the people would fail. And the number one reason why the kings would fail is they many of them, they turned back to God, they put their heart towards God, they did all these things. But then it would say this line, but they would never tear down the high places.

The high places were these altars to these other gods and the worshiping other gods. And that always led to their downfall. And to this day, I think in our lives, both personally and corporately as the church, that is the number one thing that I think stops us. And the problem is whatever,

you know, controls my heart, controls my life. And I believe idolatry is probably the missing piece as to why many of us, even though we love Jesus, are struggling in our relationships, are struggling to get through life, are struggling because we are stuck in idols. And so in this passage,

what's happened is God called Israel to be a nation, but then after he calls Abraham, biblical history, if you know the story, they end up in Egypt. They end up in Egypt for over four hundred years. They grow as a great people, but they end up enslaved. And then God sends a leader named Moses

who uses to to free the people. And now they've gone out into the wilderness. They're at a place called Mount Sinai where God actually physically manifests basically at the top of this mountain and and he's speaking out of a storm and and he speaks to the people and that's where we get the 10 commandments.

And I just wanna walk through this and and point out some stuff and show you why idolatry is such a big deal and then we'll define what it is and what we're supposed to do about it. So here we go. Chapter 20 verse one. Then God gave the people all these instructions.

I am the Lord your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me. Commandment number one, this talks about idolatry.

No other gods but me. And then the second one says, you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or image or anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. So there's the first two commandments.

You'll have no other god before me, you'll make no idols. Now if you believe that on the surface, it almost sounds like the first two are the same one. Isn't he saying the same thing twice? Well, they both are talking about idolatry, they're taking a little bit different angle.

The first one is the who you're supposed to worship God only.

And in this day and time, what the Israelites, what the people at this time would have a struggle with is they saw God rescue them. They knew that this God was powerful and he was God. But in this era, like, if you had every land had its own gods, and what people would do is they'd be like, okay, I'm going worship this God, but just to cover all my bases,

I want to make sure I worship the other gods too. And you say, you can't do that. So the first command is no idolatry.

I'm there's only one god and it's me. The second one says don't make idols and that's what they would do. A lot of times you have a statue in idols, so the word idol literally means a piece, like a representation. He goes, don't make these representations. So you're saying, okay, he's saying don't worship other gods.

Well, if he's saying don't make an idol and worship another god, isn't that same thing? No, he's saying don't use any representation to worship another God. Yeah, that's part of it. But he's also saying don't make any representation of me.

So the first one is who we're supposed to worship, God alone. The second one is how. And the how is worship me accurately, Come to know me for who I am. Don't don't twist who I am.

You can take the name of God. You can say, I come to church here. I worship Jesus. I love God. And then you start believing different things about God. You've made an image. You've made an idol. You created a different God. So he's like, hey, worship only me and make sure it's me that you are worshiping only.

Does that make sense? And and that's that's that's really, really critical. And and and as Christians, what I think we're going see in this series, I think a lot of us probably on the surface go, hey, I don't really have a problem with number one.

I think our biggest problem with idolatry amongst church people, Christians, is the second commandment. We make a graven image. We distort who God is to fit what we want. And that violates one of those commands. And it's interesting that of the top 10, the first two talk about this idea of idolatry,

this idea of getting it right. And it's critical. I mean, he says it's really important. He says, I won't tolerate it. And then look what he says next. He says, I lay the sins of the parents upon their children. The entire family is affected, even the children of the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. That sounds like he says, yeah, and if you get this wrong, I'm gonna curse you. If you get it right, I'm gonna love you. But that's not really. What it's saying is this is so important because what you choose to worship and how you worship and if you put up idols in your life, guess what your kids are going to pick up on?

It's not just about you. You're going to destroy your family for generations. God's not saying I'll destroy you, you're going to destroy yourself. And that's why he takes it so serious.

That's why he doesn't tolerate it. It's like being a good parent. There's things in your kid's life that when you see it happening, you're like, I cannot tolerate that. Why? Because you hate your kids and you're arrogant and you just want to eat right? No, because you actually love them, right?

And this idea of twisting who gets so first is God alone and don't twist who I am. The twist who I am is the reason he shares this is there's another story in the book of Exodus where Moses is up on the mountain and it's been too long and they get impatient. And what did anybody know what did Israelites do?

They melt down all their gold and they make this giant golden calf. Right? They copy the other lands. They're not trying to worship another god,

but they're trying to worship their god the same way all the other people do. They made an image. They still called a we are worshiping Yahweh. They used the name of the Lord. They used They they said this is God, the God who rescued us, but they made an image of him. They distorted who he was. And he says,

that's idolatry. Don't worship a distorted image of me. Worship me accurately because if you get this wrong, it's going to affect your legacy. Meaning when I ask you the first question, what do you want to be remembered for?

If you are an idolater, you will be known, at least in God's eyes, and your family legacy will be idolatry. And that's why Israel struggled. They were always running towards it. And I think we always run towards it because it's where our heart goes. And where our heart goes, our life goes.

And then, so he starts off, the first two commandments are about how we relate to God. The third one is two. He says, verse seven, You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse His name. Most of time we think that means don't use Him as a cuss word. But it really means it's kind of an offshoot of the the second commandment there. Don't distort the name of God. Don't use it in the wrong way. Don't like, as a as a communicator,

this is a powerful one for me because I'd be careful. As you teach God's word, you gotta teach it accurately. You don't misrepresent God.

So it's all about relating to God.

And then this fourth one is kind of a hand off. It's kind of a middle. How to relate to God, but also it's for us. It's the Sabbath. So it starts to transition. The first three are by how do we relate to God. Now it transitions to us and then it goes into how do we relate to others. See the pattern here?

And so it says in verse eight, Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week to work your ordinary work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day, no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, everything in them. But on the seventh day he rested, that's why the Lord blessed the Sabbath and set apart his holy. He says, we need to have at least one day a week where we're not working, we're not doing other things, that we are resting and a big chunk of that rest is worshiping.

I mean, that is the most common one I see so many Christians violate. That's why our church attendance is so sporadic. Why it's got too many other things going on? I've so many things going on, I'm just going to ignore God's fourth commandment in my life. And you know what? Jesus says in the New Testament,

you're not violating something that's hurting God's feelings. Jesus explained that Sabbath rest was established for our benefit. It's for us. So we're only hurting ourselves. And then he goes from that into how we relate to others. So then it goes,

honor your father and mother, then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord in the land the Lord your God has given you.

Some of you look like you have kids in here, so I'll say that again. Kids, honor your father and mother, then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord of God has given you. 13, you must not murder. Like, that escalated quickly.

I think that was right after that because if you have kids that aren't honoring you,

God says, you can't murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely against your neighbor. You must not covet your neighbor's house. You must not cover your neighbor's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey,

their condo, their beach house, their boat or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. And then he goes on, look, this is how serious this takes it. Then when God

shared this, he shared it from this thunderous storm and it says, When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram's horn and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance trembling with fear.

So the presence of God is a powerful thing. It was terrorizing. They were terrified. So look what they do. So they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak directly to us or we will die.

That's got to be a pretty impressive looking storm because these were people that were used to being outside.

But look what Moses says. It's kind of weird to me. He says, Don't be afraid, Moses answered them, for God has come in this way to test you so that your fear of them will keep you from sinning. Don't be afraid. God's come to make sure you're afraid.

Am I the only one that noticed that? That's my brain. It's saying two different things. The first fear is a terror. Like they don't know anything about God. They just see something scary. They see His power and they're afraid He's going to kill me.

The second one is no, God loves you. God cares for you. He's testing you. And that test is not like I'm sick of you guys not paying attention in class. Close your books, pop quiz. That's not what it is. It's the test is in the Testament. It says to make sure you can handle what you're supposed to make sure you are what you're supposed to be. It's like raising a child. You want your kids to grow up to be responsible. He says, I am testing you. I'm making you stronger. I've powered up. You're seeing my presence because I want you to have the right kind of fear. The fear of the Lord, as the Bible says, is the beginning of all wisdom. The best way I can explain it is that healthy respect, like a good parent. Like for me, I understand this because I had a good dad, but I also had a healthy dose of absolute respect for Sergeant Bush my life. And it wasn't an abusive,

bad, it was just that he was that he loved me. I knew he would sacrifice his life for me. But there was that tone of voice, that dad tone. And moms, you even have that mama bear tone. That one that you know your kids need to know that when you go there,

it's like the smoke is billowing and the lightning is thundering. And you're doing it because if you're a good parent, you could use that as an abusive parent. So don't get me wrong. But a good parent is doing that to save you. It's the tone you get when your little three year old is about to run-in front of a car ahead of you and you need them to freeze,

stop dead in their tracks. Right? You keep saying, oh, sweetie, honey, you don't want to go out in the street. It's dank. You're not going to do that, are you? If they keep heading towards that street, you go to that tone, don't you? And you're like, hey, my dad is like, son.

That's the fear of the Lord. It's that idea that you have to have that tone to say, Hey, I'm trying to save you. I'm trying to save you. I love you. I'm not trying to hurt you. That's kind of what he's saying. I want you to have that.

That's why these commandments are so serious. That's why why why he speaks this way. It's why he did this. And it's interesting. If you look at the 10 commandments, a lot of people, you've grown up in church where we distort and say, well, that's Old Testament. We're not under law. We're under grace. As if grace means I can ignore the morality.

I can ignore the heart of God. I can ignore who he is because I'm under grace, so it doesn't matter. The 10 commandments aren't a bunch of rules. It goes on to explain examples of how they should have laws as a nation of Israel. We're not under these things. We're not the nation of Israel.

But anything that declares the actual heart and nature and and and will of God doesn't change.

And that's why when in the New Testament, when someone asked Jesus, can you summarize the Old Testament? What's the most important command? He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets rest on this.

Well, do you think the 10 Commandments just laid out? It's the heart of God and it's the number one principle on how to love God, how to accept that love and grow in it yourself the Sabbath, and how to love others. So those I don't think because we're under grace, God said go ahead and murder.

I don't think He said, Oh, adultery is okay now. You know what? Children, forget your parents. God's very heart didn't change. And what He's sharing here is an important part. And when He shares this, the top two deal with idolatry. And even the third one, a case could be made, misusing the name of God is idolatrous.

And he's sharing it because he loves us. Because he knows what controls our hearts controls our life. And that's why the warning, that's why he says and so I would be willing to make a case as well as many other theologians that when we say God's top 10 commandments, it's his top 10,

a good case could be named it's God's two commandments with eight examples. It's how does this play out. That because if you look at all the other commandments, if you break any of the other eight, you have to break the first two also. The only way to break the other eight is to break the first two.

So the real issue in our lives is idolatry. It is having another God before Him. What do we mean by that? Because a lot of us aren't having carved statues. So let's define an idol a little bit clearer than that. So I love this. I got a few quotes for you today, so I wrote them down here because I can't remember stuff.

What is an idol? Doctor. Martin Lloyd Jones explains a biblical idea of an idol is this: Anything in my life that occupies a place that should be occupied by God alone.

That's good. Anything in my life that occupies the place of God. And then it says it goes on to say, It holds such a controlling position in my life that it moves and arouses and attracts me so easily that I get my time, attention and money to it effortlessly. Right? That's great. But I like it a little simpler.

So I think what it's saying here is, if you ask me to summarize it, it's saying, bottom line, whatever or whoever I give central value to in my life. An idol is whatever or whoever I give central value to in my life. Now don't hear what I didn't say. You're like, so if I value something else, I'm an idol? No. It's the keyword is central value. The

keyword is what do I put in first place?

So is there anything that I go, yeah, I love God. I'm going to serve God. I I I know his love. I love me. I'm be part of his family. I'm going to be a follower of God. I'm going to be a disciple of God. And you say, that's number one. What is the one thing that you're like, oh, but okay, for that, I'm going to ignore God on.

What do you push God aside to and go after it? Is it a money thing? I see it a lot with relationship issues, especially if you're like, I'm just sick of being single.

I saw it as a youth pastor. I saw it when I worked with young adults. I see it as an adult pastor. I see so many people say, hey, I know what the Bible says about how what a marriage should be like. It should be two equally yoked people. But you've been single for a while, you met someone, they don't know the Lord, they're far from the Lord, and you go after it anyways. Even God says, don't go down this path. That's not the smart way to go. Well, at that point, I'm listening to me and my heart that wants this more than listen to God. At that point, you just made an idol.

Does that make sense? And so it's whatever I give central value. You value lots of things. I value my wife. I value my kids. I value this family very, very much. I value this cool new building we're going go into pretty soon because it's awesome.

And it's going to be a great tool to be able to spread the love of Jesus and disciple. I value that. I value the Arizona Cardinals. I and so there's lots of things I value, but I can't put them in front of God. Otherwise, I made them into an idol.

Another way to put it is John Calvin, who I don't think I have never quoted John Calvin ever, but I'm going quote him right now so I have to make myself look smarter than I am. He said this, The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much. Catch that?

Meaning most of the things that are idols in our life aren't bad things. It's just that we want it too much. We put it in the place of God. So to crunch this all down, I'm going give you the Bill Bush paraphrase of what I believe an idol is. Most of time an idol is most oftenly a good thing that we make the God thing.

So now it's a bad thing because then it controls my life and takes me in a different direction. It's a good thing that I make a God thing. And what I mean by God thing is it becomes the primary means that I think I need for satisfaction. Yeah, I love Jesus, but I have to have this.

Yeah, I love God, but I have to and that's why we usually won't give God what He wants in our lives. If we're holding on to something, which we talk about a lot, a lot of those idols, money and stuff like this, I have to hold this because I need this more, God, and I don't trust you. Well, now, it's your idol.

Does Does that make sense? That's why God spends the first two commandments on this topic. Worship only me and make sure the only me you're worshiping is actually me. That's the first two because everything else gets messed up from that.

So what I want to talk about now is there's two kinds of idols, two types of idols that I believe we see through scripture.

And the one the first type is the ones you pretty much hear. You probably, if you've been in church very long, you think that this is what this series is going be about. I call them the fruit idols. There's the fruit idols and then the root idols. Fruit is what? It's hanging off the tree. It's a thing you can taste, you can touch, you see it. It's the obvious idols that we see in our lives.

They're the fruit idols. And that's the one we usually deal with, but the reality is what makes fruit taste good or bad? What is being fed? There's these root idols beneath it.

But the fruit idols is the one we see. It's the one that's how we can kind of start this track of do I have idols in my life? Usually it comes from those questions I asked in the beginning. As you start to answer them honestly, you might start to identify some things that you would push God out of the way for. But to summarize them in categories, there's lots of things that could be fruit idols. I always want to give you a quick acronym on how I think of the categories

of these fruit idols. But here's something weird about the fruit idols. You see, idolatry issues always lead to identity issues. I just went really deep right now, okay? So I know I talk stupid, but this is super deep stuff now. I'm getting into some real

down there level that you might miss what I'm saying and miss the whole idea of this series. Our problem in our culture right now, even in Christian churches, we all talk about these identities we have. And then we all say, well, God made me this way, so I must be okay.

So now my identity is now twisting my view of God, which is the second commandment. We change God to fit what our identity is. But it doesn't happen. It seems like it plays out, identity changes God. But that's not really how it starts. It's the idolatry that leads to the identity issue.

Let me show you when we talk to these idols. I, items, the category of items. We turn a lot of stuff. Need for stuff is where you'd say money is an idol, be like the items. Wanting things, wanting materialism,

feeling good with that stuff. But what happens when I have that idol in my life? My identity starts to wrap around these idols. So then I become to have an identity that says I am what I have.

And that's why many of us struggle with money because if you have money, think I am what I have. I'm good. But what happens if God sends you to a valley of a shadow of death? And all of sudden, your life comes to the point that you don't have much.

You think there's something wrong with you or there's something wrong with God because obviously, I am this. How can this possibly be? I start to wrap my identity around what I have. Does that make sense? The next one is duties. Duties, not doodies. A bunch of eighth graders last night were laughing.

They're probably in their 40s or 50s, but they're acting like eighth graders. You guys are worse than youth ministry. It's duties, the things I do. That's And where it like, you know, it could be my workaholism, my work I am the things I do and accomplish.

Or in a Christian sense, we can bring this into our theological approach to God. It's called legalism. God loves me because I do all the things he tells me to do. No. Because God loves me, I should be willing to do all the things He tells me to do. See how different that is?

And so then we end up turning that into I am what I do. Oh, it's others. Others. You start to your idol is what people I need more likes. I need more friends. I need this. I need social media

kind of when that got started, that shows everybody is as idol. I got to have the most friends. I got to get past 1,000 friends on Facebook. I got to get this. I got to become instafamous or whatever you call it. I don't know. I still get a newspaper. But that turns into I am what others say.

And that could be good or bad. D no, not D L. Longings. I don't even know how to spell idols. Longings. This one's a dangerous one in our society. I've seen this come on strong. Longings is the things I long for, my feelings. This is a big one that I see affecting the church. You see a lot of arguments,

all these crazy theologians like, well, God must be this way. Why would he create someone this way? Why would this go? We're arguing about things of sexuality,

political stances, all this stuff. And it really comes down to sometimes the idol is the longing and I turn to my identity becomes I am what I feel and how that plays out in our society is people say, well, that may be true for you, but this is my truth, the term my truth. My truth, your truth.

Well, here's the problem. What if you have two diametrically opposed truths? They're completely opposite. How can they both be true? I mean, try that in math class. Well, teacher, I know you say two plus two is four. That's your truth. My truth is it's five. Teacher will go, great.

And you know what, another truth of yours is? F.

And the other truth is we'll be arguing about this next semester too when you're taking this class again. Truth doesn't work that way. No matter how much our society tries to twist it, it's not fluid like that. And if you are a Christian that believes it is, you have now violated the second commandment

because God declares He is true. He is absolute truth. There is no truth but Him and He declares what is true. So if you think truth is fluid, you just change who God is. See what what it's saying? It's a lot deeper than you think than just a to do list.

And so we become about our feelings. And the problem is we wrap our identity around that I am what I feel. So all of sudden, if God's truth conflicts with your feelings, I. E. My truth, you get really confused. How could God possibly be loving if he's gonna say, how could it's because you have an idol

that's formed an identity. Idolatry issues always, always turn into identity issues. And then the last one is the saddest one, sufferings. The things that have happened to you in your life, the bad things, I've seen this over and over. You wouldn't think people would make that an idol.

But there's something about if you've had tough things over and over again, you almost turn into an idol and you form an identity around it. You become what's happened to you. And that's where I see people that, you know, they go to recovery or they go to counseling and they just can't ever get past it.

And a lot of times, it's because you've almost idolized. You've turned you've formed your whole identity now around this is who I am. So if I let this go,

if I let go that bitterness I have towards that abusive jerk in my past or I let go of the parents and I just decided to let God, like, let His forgiveness, forgiveness

isn't unchaining the other person, it's unchaining you. But if I let go of that, somehow I've let go of my identity, of who I am. So we hold on. And that is a sad, sad, sad place to be enslaved with because you get stuck and you can't move past it.

So that's the Fruit Idols. And I'm going be honest with you, when we developed this series a few months ago and I was looking into all this, that was going to be the series. I was going to take one of those each week. Some are like, oh man, I wish you would. But then as I studied scripture and looked through, I realized

there is a root beneath all of these. And that's what we're going be looking at this series because every one of those comes from one of these roots because fruit is just a product of what it's fed. And so what I want to look at is the root idols and there's basically four of them you can see in Scripture.

There's four. The first one is power. Power. The power idol. The root idol of power is you have a longing for influence or recognition. Power is the first one. Control is the second one. Control. And that's a longing to have everything go according to my plan. None

of you are like that, right? Nobody has that. You're like that's my personality. You can have a more A type personality, but this is where deep in you, it's not just about being organized, it's about control is what I'm about. Third one is comfort. That's a longing for pleasure.

It also comes with a negative byproduct too or an avoidance of pain. You think life should always be about no pain, nothing but pleasure. And then the last one is approval, a longing to be accepted or desired. All through Scripture. As matter fact, if you go look at the temptation that Satan did with Jesus

when he took him out in the wilderness and tempted him, You see all four of those in Satan.

All of them. And here is why the root is more important. If you just take the fruit, it might be a complete you can have two people with the same fruit idol and it's a completely different issue in their heart.

And this is why money let me use money as an example just because it's the easiest one here. This is why money is such a huge idol in our life, a fruit idol in our life. Because money the fruit idol of money can come from any one or all of these in your heart. It's one of the idols that all of these will produce.

A lot of people have a deal with money, greedy, they're trying to hoard, they're trying to get money and has nothing to do with comfort. It has nothing to do with just wanting nice things. It's all about they want influence or recognition. We even have a statement that we have for money is power.

Somebody said, it's something I don't have. Money is power.

Control. So a lot of times we own money because you want to have everything go according to your plan. Well, if you have more money, you can pretty much make that vacation go more according to how you want it. And you can make you can be in more control. A lot of people pursue money because they want to be controlled. And think about why we don't honor God with our money. If I give it to God, I've lost the power. I've lost the control.

Or it could be the most classic explanation, I want nice things. And then the final one is approval. Last I checked, poor people don't have large entourages. And once a rich person loses his money, the entourage usually goes away.

Can you see how a desire yeah, money is an idol in your life. You know it because you pursue it. You won't honor God with it. You won't trust Him. You worry about it. You're always paranoid about it. I guarantee you, especially if you're a Christian and you're still wrestling with that problem, you have one,

two, three or four of these in your heart. And this is what we need to deal with. You can't solve a fruit idol, which I've tried in the past as a youth pastor, I did this all the time with teenagers. I feel bad if you were in my youth group back in the early days because I thought it was just

behavioral modification. I would yell at you, you have a money problem. Stop it. Like you're going to take a piece of fruit, oh, this fruit tastes terrible. Stop tasting so bad. That's not going to do anything, is it? You got to go to the root.

So for the next few weeks, we're going be unpacked, you're not going want to miss, we're going take one of these a week and scripturally look at it and say, what if that's the issue in my heart? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? And I think some of you by looking at those two lists

probably already instinctively, yep, I know the fruit idol and I'm pretty sure I know what the root is. So what are we supposed to do about it? Well, we'll talk about that later. Let's just close in prayer and leave you an absolute no, just kidding.

We got to leave with a little hope. So just a little simple to get us started here. What am I supposed to do about these these rude idols? How do I deal with the idol beneath the surface? Well, here's the thing. It's important to know what are your roots rooted in because now beneath the roots is the soil.

What am I rooting it? What am I rooted in? Guy named Thomas Chalmers puts it this way, The best way to overcome the world is not with morality or self discipline.

Christians overcome the world by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ. They overcome the world by seeing something more attractive than the world, Christ. He goes on to say, I repent, which is a big word for turn around, turn from it. I turn from my idolatry,

not by looking myself in the mirror and telling myself I can displace it in my energy, might or goodness. Basically, no, Stuart Smalley, I'm good enough, smart enough and gosh darn it, people like me. That doesn't work. I repent or turn from my lesser gods by remembering the great God who is above all gods.

You want to know a simple thing of what he just said there? Is you know how you get a little kid to let go of the toy that's their brothers and sisters that they want so bad? Show them a better one.

You can rip it out of their hands. You can push them. You can dominate them. You can control them. Or you can just say, hey, why don't you give me that? Here, I'll trade you. That's that's what God

this is why we need to spend time in our Sabbath worshiping God. That's why we need to be in the word. That's why we need to have community. That's why we need to serve. That's why we need to do all these things because it's being in the presence of God, being in the presence of Christ. The clear more clearly you see God in your life, the easier it is to let go of the idol.

Bottom line, that's the number one answer every week, but we're going to look a little deeper on how we do that, how we are able to do that. But that's the key. The issue is are you willing to look in your heart? Are you willing to ask those x-ray questions? Are you willing to even realize that you're stuck in idols?

And then are you willing to embrace the better thing, which is Christ? And that's where we're supposed to find our identity, is in Him, in who He is and who He made us to be, who He made us and called us to be. Not the idols, not the brokenness, not this Him and Him alone.

But I have to choose to embrace it. It's only by embracing His love can I get past these idols? Let me sum it up this way and then we're going to sing a song. I'm going to tell a story now. I call this story The Tale of Two Dogs because it's about two dogs I had in my life. And the first one

was we ended up with both dogs in the same way. And in the story, my mom kind of represents Christ and His love. And how we end up with these dogs is my mom rescues them.

She loves them. First one was a dog when I was three years old. It's one of my earliest memories. I wanted a dog, but it allergic and all this stuff, I had to get a so

she found out about a dog that had been wandering into a friend of ours, a fireman's place, he tells wild and kind of crazy and he kept coming around there. So he brought it home, but it ended up biting his daughter. Apparently, it had been a wild day about the vet said it was about a year older than me, so it was about four years old. And it had been living on its own all these years. You could tell it had been greatly abused at some point.

And so it lashed out. And so he didn't want to handle that. So he basically just chained it up outside. My mom found out about it and said that's not the way this dog should live. You can't I'll take it. So we drive over to get it. And the reason I could get this dog is it's a poodle, which we named Buffy.

So men, listen up. This is a manly story about me and my poodle named Buffy. But it looked like Cujo when we went to get it. And it looked kind of like it was really kind of like skittish and aggressive. My mom walked up and said, Hey girl,

hey. Got really close and looked at it and she goes, Hey. And she went, pulls out a snack because my mom was good like that. And it came to her and she got it in her arms, picked it, took it home. Wouldn't let me run around and be hyper with it right away, kept it kind of isolated.

She's cleaned it, loved this dog, talked to it, talked really nicely, always was showing it love, didn't raise the voice, didn't do it, like just kept showing it the love and kept saying like, you're with us now, you're a part of our family now.

And not to the psycho like she didn't call it her fur baby like some of you do. She's still a dog, but loved this dog.

And so it came alive. It started to act normal and started to embrace. And what was really cool is the love of my mom, as it accepted this love, it then accepted this new identity and it accepted that love of my mom, she saw this dog instinctively saw that love extends to these other people,

so therefore since she loves them, I'll love them. Which is what the whole last series was about. If I know God's love, I can show God's love. So this dog embraced the family and became a super protective dog. I had this dog. I mean, dog lived to be 21 years old.

From three till I was 20, my entire childhood, I had this dog.

And it was my pals, my buddy, I felt like it would keep an eye on me, we're sitting there, I mean, to the point that it was so loyal, because it had so embraced this new love. And then walked in that love and walked it out in the family, which we're supposed to be as Christians, if you don't catch the drift of what I'm trying to say. And how that worked was one night when I was 17 years old, so this dog is like 18.

I have like three teeth left. I'm home alone. It's a monsoon kind of night, the lightning and the wind is kind of blowing. And my dog is sitting there by our big sliding door and every time the lightning goes, she starts growling. Gosh, she's losing it.

She's losing it. One time a big bolt like lit up the sky really long. She jumped up, ran to door. I haven't seen her move this fast in front. I didn't even think she could move like that. It was like barking one way out. I finally said, Fine. I opened the door. I said, Go bark in a storm. I don't care. She ran out, bolted right around just like a few feet. Right over the side was our fence that on the other side was the alley.

And then just right out of my sight, she runs right over there and I hear go and attack. All of sudden, hear something kicking and moving and they're like, she got hit. And I hear continued attacking, and I hear something climb up on my trash cans and fall over into the alley, like a body go, and

then I hear footsteps through the alley. I run out there and look, lightning bolts, and way down the aisle I see a hooded person just running away. And I realized just minutes right there, there was someone within 10 feet of me staring in our window, in our door. And I didn't realize it, but Buffy,

the 18 year old poodle with three teeth did. And she was proud of that fact when she looked and came walking by me like, yeah, you know it. He'll know it too because I left one of my teeth in his leg. And I only got two. And I was like, this dog was loved so much that it embraced its purpose, its identity so fully

that it was willing to lay down its life in its old age to protect me.

When we had to put her down when she was 21, she just would not die, but she was really ill and falling in the pool a lot and a lot of pain. My mom says, You guys are doing it. Said it to my dad and I because she was just, I can't watch.

So we had to take him to that. We get there. My father, he heard so many bravest man I ever knew. This is the one time in my life I was braver than him and he was coward. He wouldn't go in there. So I carried her in there. And I held her as she died.

This was a stray dog that had this identity that made it mean and rough to get through that ended up living, absolutely loved and became an absolute loving dog. We got another dog about halfway through the tenure with this dog. It was when I was in middle school. Got it the same way.

My mom just scooped it up. I was playing a baseball game and this dog was just came out and he was young, was little, he was fast, was like part greyhound, part rocket ship, I don't know, but it was so fast. They're trying to get it, ran, ran, ran, ran. Every time you try to catch it and if you try to catch it, it did one of two responses to you. When you first try to get it, it would act like it's a game. If you got too close, it acted like you were a threat.

So you're either a game or a threat. Game or and nobody could get it. It's running, running, running, running, running, and all of sudden my mom somehow it's running and tries to jump away from me and she's like catches it with a snack. Here you go. And basically,

you're one of us now. And I'm like, don't fight her. Don't fight her. She's like trying to get away. She's like, it's okay. It's okay. And we brought this dog home, named Sandy because of the color of it. I'm like, Sandy? There's a grease reference for And so then

as we're she's doing the same thing, loving the dog, loving how I play with the dog. And the dog, you know, they had fun and all that. But you know what? It could never stop being a runner. It was one of those dogs. It's like you couldn't open a door with it nearby. If you're going outside, you'd be like,

How did it go?

And was looking at let's go. And it just would run and you couldn't crawl it. It would take forever. We couldn't get it back no matter what. And if you chased it, at first, it's a game, but if you kept getting a if you started to be more like, hey, you need to be more forceful with it, it would think it'd go, think you're a threat and it would growl at you and

try to fight you if you got too close. Back and forth, back and back forth. Finally, one day I came from school, Where's Sandy? I want to play. My mom was like bawling. She goes, You can't. I go, What happened? I go, She got out. I did everything we do to try to catch her.

I pleaded, I was nice, I chased her, she thought it was a game. I got more forceful, she thought it was a threat.

I tried to beg her. I finally just sat down on the side by her house and held treats and held my arms. I go, come here, babe, come here, come on, come on, and just talked to super nicely inviting her to come to me, get down on her level.

She just wouldn't stop running and she ran out in the busy street and got hit by a truck. Your dad's burying her right now.

And I was like, why? And my mom was like, mom was actually tore up. Her heart was hurt. She's like, why couldn't it just know how much I loved this dog and why couldn't she get it? Why did she think it's a game or a threat every time I came near?

That's the issue we're talking about when we talk about being stuck in idols. God wants you to accept his love. He wants you to see the better thing than what your heart is going after. And you need to trust him. You need to embrace that identity in him. But which dog are you right now? Which dog is in this fight?

Are you truly embracing that love? And by that being in his presence and learning to love the way he wants you, learning to love him and love others and live out that life? Or are you like my second dog, Sandy?

Every time God has got a game to you. He's coming to church, I'll come when I don't have anything better to do. I'll be there consistent, but, nah, life's got a little busy. I'd rather do this. I'd rest for my time, my money, my things and other things. And and it's just a game.

And then when you get in a moment like this where I get a little bit throat punchy and God gets a little bit too close, now it's a threat. And some of you are growling in your heart right now. Some of you are wanna snap.

The only way you're gonna get unstuck is to realize that just like my mom loved those dogs, God loves you. And you have to see that as the better alternative.

So would you stand? We're gonna sing a song and I want this song to be our closing prayer. If you want to embrace this, the song is called My Worth Is Not In What I Own. Something like that. Is that close enough? Yeah. Was it. Good. I think I give it a different name every time.

And it's not just about the things. It's really describing that we aren't what we have, not just stuff, but we are who has us. Make this your prayer.

My worth and my unworthiness and my value fixed, my ransom pay at the cross.

This is our prayer and our cry.

You and you alone, may you be the satisfaction of our souls.

There is nothing else in this world I can compare to you. You are the well that does not run dry, the living water that quenches the thirst and desires of our heart.

May we not run to any other.

Thank you, God, that you are the satisfier of our souls. As we go into our week, God, I pray that you would illuminate our hearts, that you would reveal the idols, the altars that we've set up, whether they be hidden in the the deepest, darkest places, God, may you light it up, That we may tear them down.

That we may find the satisfaction that we desire so deep and the only one that can satisfy in Jesus Christ. So, God, we make this our prayer. We make this our desire. We love you. We worship you. It's in Jesus' name. We pray all of these things.