Idolatry is a Sorry Excuse for Love

Idolatry rarely shows up wearing a warning label. It usually looks like comfort, control, or “just one more scroll” when life feels heavy. We open Joshua 23 and sit with an old man’s farewell speech, where Joshua reminds Israel that every victory came from the Lord and every future loss will come from turning their love toward lesser gods. Then we make it uncomfortably personal: if everyone serves something, what are we serving when we’re stressed, lonely, or afraid?

We also slow down and compare covenants, because Joshua’s warnings make more sense when you see the bigger story. Israel’s life in the Promised Land is tied to obedience under the Mosaic law, but the Christian life is rooted in the new covenant of grace. Our blessings are not earned by performance; they’re secured by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. That changes how we read passages about blessing and judgment, and it changes how we fight sin. We talk about walking by faith not by sight, the dangers of legalism and “anything goes” Christianity, and why grace is the only path that keeps our eyes on Christ.

Finally, we land on the heart of it: the Holy Spirit doesn’t treat us like slaves. He leads us as sons and daughters (Romans 8), reminding us we’re forgiven, accepted, and loved. If you’re tired of striving, tired of shame, or tired of idols that never satisfy, this is a reset worth hearing. Subscribe, share this with a friend, leave a review, and tell us what “idol” you’re most tempted to run to when life gets hard.

Transcript

Joshua’s Farewell And Covenant Contrast

The Promised Land As Spiritual Life

Walking By Faith Not By Sight

Trust God’s Word Over Feelings

Two Ditches That Keep You Stuck

Idols Promise Love Then Wound

Abiding Means Time Alone With Jesus

God’s Faithfulness And A Serious Warning

Grace Covenant And Sons Not Slaves

Repentance Prayer And Worship Sendoff

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Alright, today we're in chapter 23 of Joshua. We got this week and next week, and then we'll be starting a brand new book. Nobody knows what it's gonna be, but it'll be in the New Testament. We're working on it, all right? 32 Jesus points, if you guess it. Not right now, though. Okay. So today, but we're in chapter 23 and our Follow the Promises, and today's sermon is called Idolatry is a Sorry Excuse for Love. Idolatry is a sorry excuse for love. So let me give you the context of what's going on here. Joshua is an old, old man, 110 years old. And he is just about to kick the bucket. All right. And he's giving his farewell address. So for these last two chapters, they're going to be the farewell address of uh Joshua to the nation of Israel. And basically he's explaining their entire arrangement that they have and encouraging them and exhorting them to uh keep God's commands. Because for Israel in the promised land, the physical land of Israel, their blessing was tied to their law-keeping, their performance. That's what it was tied to. So under the Mosaic law or all the law that God gave through Moses, the blessings were tied to their obedience. Now I bring that up because we're gonna read a lot of that today. If you do this, this happens. If you don't do it, this happens, okay? But for us, we are under a different covenant, a new covenant, the Jesus covenant, the covenant of grace. And in that covenant, our blessings are not tied to our performance, they're tied to Jesus' life and performance. And so we can be guaranteed that we will have God's blessing, God's favor in our life, because it's not dependent on you, it's dependent on him. And we enter into that agreement by faith. So that's the big difference that we're seeing today. But let's just dive into chapter 23 and see what old man Joshua has to say to us today, okay? Now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old and advanced in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, I am old. And they're like, Yes, you are. He says, I'm advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you. Okay, so in the end, we're all gonna say the same thing. Joshua could have taken credit for them. He's like, Aren't I the greatest military commander? I have led this nation, this army, and I've defeated all these other armies. I'm 16-0, right? We won the Super Bowl. I'm awesome. But he doesn't do that. He says it's not about me, it's about God. It's not about what I've done, it's about what he's done for me. And that's a heart that is governed by grace, a heart that understands grace, is when we're like, man, I really have done nothing to earn this. And it shows us how we get that rest also. You know, they had real rest, they had victory and they were living in that rest. And it was not by them fighting and winning the battles, but resting in the faithfulness of God and God's grace. And the same thing is true for us. When you get to the end of your life, you're gonna be like, Why did things work out? Not because of me. Why did all the blessings in my life come? It was not because of me, it was God's goodness to me. And we'll be able to see that the more clear the older we get. We'll see that more clearly, hopefully, if if we're going the right direction, right? All right, well, let's leave verse four. See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. And the Lord your God will expel them before you and drive them out of your sight, so you shall possess their land as the Lord your God has promised you. Okay, so he says they they still have some stragglers that they're gonna have to kick out of the land eventually. And he's like, You're gonna do it. It's gonna be okay as long as you keep your eyes on the Lord, right? And so for us, we've also been promised and given land, right? Uh, but it's we haven't been given physical land. We haven't been given South Padre Island. We're not planted our flag like this is for Jesus, right? Our land is spiritual. The inheritance we have is our spiritual life. Our our land is joy, our land is peace, our land is fruitfulness to God for his glory. Okay, that's the spiritual reality of the promised land for us. It's the victorious Christian life. And that's not something that you have to earn and something that's given by God. Just like they were given their land, we are also given the land. And like Ephesians 1:3, it said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings, blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So our land is our spiritual life. It's a land of joy in God. We're forgiven. That's that's the banner of our land. We're forgiven, we're accepted. We are loved. That's our identity in this land. Those are the that's the national anthem we have is we are that people. Um, and our the gates are wide open for anyone to enter our promised land. Uh, there's just one door to get into our land, though. And who's that door? Jesus. Hey, 10 Jesus points for you. So, and this land, this promised land, the spiritual reality is given. It's a gift, it's free. You do not have to earn it, but how do I take it? If it's free, how do I get it? Do we do we have to fight for it through our flesh and effort? Ah, I need to enter into the promised land that God's given me. Well, no, the Bible teaches us that we enter his promised land by one thing and one thing only: faith in Jesus, trusting in Jesus. That is how all of God's work in the world happens today, not just in the world, but in your life. It is the only way God deals with man is by faith. He refuses to deal with any man based on works. So if you're like, okay, God's gonna bless me because I gave a million dollars to Pastor Sean. We'll try it, but totally joking. No, God is not moved by your performance. He's not. One person who has ever lived is impressed with God by their performance. And that was hey, 13 Jesus points for you. It was Jesus. Jesus is the only person where God ripped open heaven and gave the scorecard. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hundred percent. Like he scored the touchdown, he won the game. It's Jesus. Now, when Jesus lives in you, you get credit for his life and his victory. And you don't have to perform, but you will be transformed. I just came up with that. Like that. That was the Holy Spirit. You that one's free. You don't even have to pay for that one. We walk into this land of blessings by faith alone. Does that mean I'm gonna be rich if I have enough faith? That's not the blessings that you're promised, right? You're blessed, but we're promised peace, acceptance, joy, the fruits of the spirit, the the blessings that are heavenly blessings are in Christ. God says these are mine, so I'm gonna I need to walk into this promised land like I own it. That's having confidence, faith in Jesus. That you have peace. It's a gift that's been given to you. You are accepted, you are forgiven. But you gotta walk in like you own it. You'd be like, I I know that God loves me. Well, but everyone else in your life hates you, it seems like. It's okay. The truth is, God's love is enough. God does care about you. God says, I'm free, I'm free from the domination of sin. That that God says he promised he set me free, but I have to walk in that freedom. I have to take steps to be like, okay, I am not a slave to this substance, I'm not a slave to this sin, even though it's being it's a temptation, but I'm going to walk in the freedom, not because I think I'm good enough, not because I'm strong enough, and not because I have done these things to surround myself with accountability or this or that or whatever other strategy I want to use. Only because Jesus Christ promises He is now my life. He promises I'm forgiven, and he promises to satisfy the needs that I really was trying to fill with this substance or with this sin. He is my life. And so faith is I walk in that truth. I say, okay, Jesus, you promised me that you're enough. So I'm not gonna go to that place, I'm not gonna participate in that thing, I'm not gonna do this because I'm gonna walk in what you promise me. And that's how to walk in faith. Like he said to the to the Israelites here, he said, they they had to um take the promised land that he had given them. Okay, that means by faith they had to take it. God says, I'm loved, so I'm gonna walk in the confidence of someone who is loved. Again, I don't feel loved all the time, but I can have the confidence and believe that I'm loved if my faith is in Jesus and his word that says, I love you, I care about you. And that's how to walk in that confidence by faith. God says I'm holy and righteous in my heart. And so I walk forward in faith to do holy and righteous things. That's how to walk in faith. It's it's a free gift of grace. It's not hypocritical for a Christian to do holy things. It's the opposite. It's who we really are. You're not being a hypocrite when you say, I want to pray, I want to love, I want to serve. And the devil will just come to you and say, You're an idiot. Look at what you did yesterday. Look, God is not impressed by you, God doesn't want you, God's probably gonna strike you with lightning. That's and and God is saying, What's the truth here? I love you, I care about you, and you are truly my child. The enemy loves to condemn you so that you don't step forward to take what God has given you because you you feel ingenuous about it. But faith believes God's believes God's believes God's word, right? That is a hard sentence to say. I'm not saying it right, I don't feel like faith can believe God's word. We'll do that way. Because in 2 Corinthians 5 7, it says, we walk by faith, not by sight. Walking through your promised land must be by faith, and it can never be by sight. What does by sight mean? Your eyeballs are part of your flesh, and they're an organ that you use to make your decisions of where you're gonna walk and what you're gonna do, who you're gonna like, and all these things. We when we use our eyes, we're using our flesh, and it's what it's symbolic of. It's the way you see things. But the problem is we don't see things that are spiritual. We don't see the way things really are in the spirit, it's not necessarily always true. And you can't make God's promises true for you by trying or by walking by sight in your flesh. You can't make his promises true because they already are true. And we walk in them by faith. My confidence is in Jesus, he's gonna keep his word for me. It's not about what I have to do or what I'm being judged for because I didn't do, it is all his faithfulness. So, what is Joshua trying to teach the children of Israel in this, you know, old man's speech? He's on his deathbed, he's telling all the people this. All right, I'm gonna give you two and a half, three lessons that Joshua is gonna give the people. The first lesson is trust God's word with faith. Easy enough? Lesson number one people trust God's word with faith. So look at verse six. Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from the right hand or to the left. So he's basically asking them, who do you trust? Guys, who do you trust? Do you if you trust in your feelings, you're gonna drift to the right. If you trust your mind, you're gonna drift to the left. But if you trust God's word, you can walk straight forward toward Jesus. Okay? You guys know uh if you if you uh distracted me, sorry. If you're uh trying to uh paint a line on a football field, right, and you you you you don't look down at the line, you look at something way off in the distance. Like for me it'd be that warthog right there. Is that a warthog or a some pig of some sort? Is it the javelina? I don't know what it is. It's a wart just a warthog? Okay. Do we have those here? Warthogs? Not here. So where'd that come from? That's straight from Africa? Where'd it go, Frank? Okay, learn something new. I was watching this show Alone. Do you guys ever watch Alone? Where they drop them off in the middle of nowhere and see how long they could live? Love that show. Anyway, this girl shot a warthog with a bow and arrow. It was really impressive. What am I talking about? Okay, straight line, look up. If you look down, you're gonna make a wonky, wonky line, right? We we all know that. Okay. Yeah, walk by faith, not by sight, right? If you trust your feelings, your feelings are flesh. So your feelings are not guaranteed to be right. They're not evil all the time, but they're not guaranteed to be right. Your mind also is not necessarily evil, but it's not guaranteed to be right. They're just flesh. So if you conform them both to the word of God, your feelings can line up with the word of God, your mind can line up with the word of God. That's what we're called to do. God didn't just fix your mind or your emotions when you got saved. He fixed your heart, your spirit, so you can follow Christ with your heart, but your mind and your emotions, you gotta correct constantly. And things will happen, and you're like, man, my emotions are crazy today. And God's, yep. Well, why don't you fix my emotions? That's not the plan here. I'm not gonna fix your emotions. I fixed your heart so you can keep your heart focused on Jesus, follow him, and your emotions will be they'll come back eventually. Your mind, we have to correct it. Oh, am I thinking right? Am I thinking gospel, or am I thinking with with my own ideas and my humanistic psychological ideas of what is going on in my life? Or am I listening to the word of God? And that's that's how it works. That's how to keep your on the goal, on the ward hock. Just remember, look at the ward hock, all right? Satan doesn't care which extreme you go into. If you're super emotional, Satan's like a rat. If you get super intellectual, Satan's like a rat. Because he doesn't care which side you go on. One of these is called legalism, and the other is called licentiousness. If you if you use law to determine what you're gonna do, Satan's cool with that. He's like, yeah, do that, because that doesn't connect you to Jesus. You don't need Jesus if you're trying to impress God by your own performance. And he also doesn't care if you're emotional. He he's he's uh he's down with that too. He doesn't care. He they're both the same to him, even though in the church, it's like we have legalistic people don't like licentiousness, licentious people don't like legalism, and they think they're at war when they're both wrong. The real way is to follow Jesus, keep your eyes on Jesus, and trust in his grace. It fixes everything wrong with a life of sin, it also fixes everything wrong with a life of legalism. That's the truth of the gospel. All right, lesson number two. So lesson number one was keep your eye the word of God, you know, trust in the word of God. Lesson number two is don't trust an enemy. Don't trust an enemy. All right, look at verse 7. Unless you go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. Okay, so all their gods, all these nations had different gods, and they were generally like demonic, you know, in their in their identity. We call these different gods idols. Okay, that's where you get that term. And in our world, people aren't bowing down and worshiping statues too often. It's out there, but generally, the idols of our world are anything that we focus on when we should be focused on Jesus. Anything we turn to when we should turn to Jesus Himself. So anything can really be an idol. When I say focus, I mean like he says here, serve and bow down to. Serve and bow down to. So these nations, if you got buddy buddy with them, they're like, hey, we got this cool demon that we talk to, you know, his name is Bob, and we we we serve him, we we focus on him, we listen to him, and if he says to do something, we we do what he says. And look how happy we are. And the Jews would be like, huh, interesting. But God didn't want them to do that. God said, Focus on me. I'm your God, I'm the only one that really loves you. They're demons, they don't love you. Their purpose is to destroy you. So instead of focusing or bowing down and serving idols, he says, focus, hold fast to the Lord is the word he used. Hold fast to the Lord. That means focus on him, serve him and bow down to him. Here's the lesson of idolatry, okay? Men are always gonna serve something. You're serving something, every person out there is serving something, every man is serving something. Either we're serving God or we're serving an idol. It just so happens most people's idol is themselves. Your politics can be your idol, your philosophies can be your idol, your own body can be your idol. You know, your TV can be an idol, your kids can be an idol, your spouse can be an idol. You can make an idol out of anything, you can bow down and serve anything. But guess what? None of them love you. Like God loves you. Your spouse may love you, but they don't love you like God loved you. Not even close. Even your own ideas can be an idol, but God He's telling you, I must be above every idol for your own good, because He truly loves you. You cannot trust idols. That's what the lesson is. They are not your friends, they do not love you. Every one of us struggles with idolatry. In my life, I went through a time where this was my not my wife. This was my idol. It was a picture of my wife on there, but where I would just constantly, when I was feeling, when I was going through something difficult, I'm like, let me just scroll for a little bit. Not good for my heart. Not good for my heart. It can happen to any one of us. And we all are going to struggle with sometimes it's our, you know, relationships. I've already talked about all the different kinds of idols. The nation of Israel, they had been blessed because they were abiding under Joshua's leadership in the Lord. And he's saying, if you fail to abide in the Lord, you're also going to miss out on his blessings. Because they're being in the promised land, that blessing was tied to their obedience, their abiding in the Lord. Look at verse 9. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations, but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you until this day. Listen to this verse. This is so cool. One man of you shall chase a thousand. Ah, just can you picture that? One guy with a sword chasing a thousand guys. For the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you. Now therefore, take careful heed to yourselves. Does that mean focus on yourself and make it all about yourself? No. It means be careful of what you're putting your trust in, what your heart is loving. That you love the Lord your God. Or else, if you indeed do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go into them and they into you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, but they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your side and thorns in your eyeballs, until you perish from this good land in which the Lord your God has given you. Dang, as harsh, that is a harsh warning, right? As Israel abided in the Lord, they saw God do great things for them and through them. And he's like, as you continue to abide, you're gonna see God do great things on your behalf still. He's saying spiritual strength is tied to abiding. What is abiding? A love, connection, and relationship with God through Jesus. That's how you can define abiding. And if you abide, he says you're gonna bear much fruit because abiding is all about love. Love bears fruit. He says, be careful that you love the Lord your God, Joshua said. And continuing to love the Lord your God takes diligence and time. Okay, for us to develop our relationship with the Lord, we invest time with him. What does that mean? Get alone for God's sakes. Get alone. You and your Bible and connect with Jesus. Somehow, some way. Every relationship depends on this intimate connection, spending time, investing time. I beg every single one of us to connect with Jesus alone. Oh, that's just not how I work. Yes, it is. That's how you were built. That's how every relationship works. If you do not spend time with someone, your relationship falters every single time. It works that way. That's how every relationship since Adam and Eve has worked. You spend time together, your relationship can make progress or grow. There's many things inside us and outside us that want to draw us away from that love. That love. We have to decide to love God. You're like, I'm gonna love God when He puts a heart of love in me for Him. I want God to do it for me. That's not how it works. Because the moment you became a believer, it says that God already put an eternal heart of love for Jesus Christ in you. So God's already done that. What does that mean? You already love God in your spirit. You're already perfectly connected to him. You have that. But to develop it and to live by it is 100% your decision. You know what God has never done? Hang on, I'm busy. Never every child who has ever said, Oh God, God has silenced heaven and focused on you. And he always will. His side of love is absolutely perfect. And he's telling us, guys, love me. Respond to my love by offering me your own love. Alright. Our mind has competing masters. Our mind can either love the Lord, the word hog, he's not a word hug, but focused on the word hug. Or our mind can go with what it thinks will receive love. And that's when we turn to idols. And that's why we must renew our mind through the Holy Spirit daily. Because our mind is just it will cling to anything that it thinks meets the need. Gives the what's the chemical dopamine. I knew Brad would know. But idolatry or loving things other than God will destroy you. That's what he's saying here. Until you perish from this good land which the Lord has given you. Wow. So these idols, they never advertise themselves as instruments of torture. Thorns in your eyeballs. I mean, that sounds horrific, right? But they don't advertise themselves like that. They present themselves as wonderful things. But we must see past that to the truth that God gives us. Idolatry is a sorry excuse for love. I'll say it again for the people in the back. Idolatry is a sorry excuse for love. You will never be loved by a thing, and you will never have all your needs satisfied and met by a person and a philosophy, a thing, an idea, even. None of it is the Lord. He alone is your completion and your life. I want you to remember a story. Do you remember the prophets of Baal? The prophet Elijah, he was battling with them in the great prophet Super Bowl. You know, Elijah was mocking them as they were trying to call down fire from heaven on their sacrifice, right? And because, and he was just having a grand old time making fun of them. He's like, maybe your gods are on the toilet, maybe they're hard of hearing. And he just was like laughing at them. And then what did they start to do? They started to hurt themselves, they started to cut themselves to try to get the attention of their God. That's crazy. Because idols, nothing about idolatry is love. They even knew the intrinsic thing about their idol was that pain was the way to get them to pay attention to me. God, on the other hand, was all about love. Elijah said, you know, he's like douse the thing with seven things of water, and you know, God's gonna burn it up. I don't care. And then he said, God, I know that you love me. It was all about love. It was never begging, it was never cutting yourself to make God pay attention to you. Because John 15 9 says, Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you, so abide in my love. The confidence of Jesus that he was loved by God is the same confidence he says you can have. I'm telling you, this cures all self-identity problems. Can you believe that God loves you? If you can believe it, that is where the path to healing is. So lesson number three is a warning to the nation of Israel that God is faithful both ways. You're gonna understand here in a sec. Verse 14. But this day I'm going to, I'm going the way of all the earth. Joshua says I'm dying, right? And you know in your hearts and in all your souls that not one good thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord God spoke concerning you, all has come to pass for you, not one good thing has failed. So, what does that mean? God is faithful to do good to you. His that's his desire and that's his plan. But verse 15, therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord God has promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things until it has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you, when you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he has given you. So God will be just as faithful to judge as he has been to bless. He's faithful both ways. And this is the harsh reality that the nation of Israel lived in. They needed to perform in order to keep living in the blessing of this promised land. What did they need to do? Just don't worship other idols. That's all he was asking of them. Keep it all, but all of it came down to love God with all your heart. And guess what? They couldn't. And guess what? Neither can we on our own. But this is what Jesus came and changed. He knew that no man could love God the way that he deserves to be loved. Not a single man in Israel loved God the way he deserved to be loved. They just couldn't. So God said, hmm, how do we get men? How can I bless them? How can I get them to actually be righteous and holy so that I can pour out all the blessings I want to give them? How can we do this? They need a different life. Their whole life comes from Adam. And every single person that's born is born with this problem that they can't love me. So you know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to kill them all. But not physically. I'm gonna kill that inner heart of rebellion and replace it with the very heart of my son, who's the only one that loves me perfectly. The son loves the father, the father loves the son. And so God says on the cross, when Jesus dies on the cross, our life of rebellion is placed inside him. And so that part of us that could not love God died with Jesus on the cross. But then Jesus rose from the dead so that he could share and replace that part that couldn't love God with an eternal love that always loves God. That's what you are now. You love God more than anything in your spirit. Your brain, different problem. He gives us the word of God, we have to learn to obey with our brain. But your spirit, your heart, brand new the moment you believe. Can you believe that? Yes, you can. And that is what it means to be a Christian. It's his love that's been placed in you. Now, obedience is not even a problem. You will walk in his ways and do his commandments, not because you have to, but because it's really what you want to do. You will. And God's not concerned about your failures, your trips, because he's gonna pick you up, and as a good father, he's gonna teach you to walk with him. He is not offended by you. He has nothing but fatherly love for you. And this is how the gospel works in our life. Israel had this harsh situation, but what about us? We are under a different covenant, the new covenant, where Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law. See, the children of Israel, they would be cursed instead of blessed if they didn't love the Lord. So what about us? Look at Hebrews chapter 6. But now he has obtained, Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, more excellent than what? Than the law or the priests under the law, inasmuch as he also is the mediator of a better covenant, better than what covenant? The old covenant, the law, that the Mosaic covenant, which was established on better promises, the covenant of grace that Jesus brings us is better in every way than the law. He says, For if the first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. So Israel, under the law, we are under grace. Two different covenants. Israel's standing was conditional based on their performance. Our standing is unconditional because Jesus has already fulfilled all the performance needed for the covenant. We just get the blessings. We're not blessed if we keep it all. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have it all. Because Jesus kept it all, he finished the work, and we share in his life now. That's how grace works. So beautiful. Look at Galatians 3.10. For as many as are of the works of the Lord are under a curse. So anyone who thinks they have to try to perform to please God, impress God, I have to go to church this much, I have to read my Bible this much, I have to do help these old ladies across the street. Okay, all good things, but if you think that's what God is measuring you by, you're under the law. If anyone's under the law, they're under a curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them. What does that mean? If you don't keep every single law in the Old Testament, you go to hell. From the moment you're born to the moment you die, you break it one time, you're guilty of all of it. That's God's standard. You're like, well, that's harsh. No, he's that holy. He can't let one little tiny cockroach into his heaven. He has to, it has to be pure, it has to be holy. You have to be completely pure and holy. Well, we can't. Haha, but there's a way Jesus makes us pure and holy by his grace. So, but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. So he says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles. That's you and me, hooray, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So through faith, through faith, through faith, it's through faith that we enter into this new covenant that's completely different from the old one. The new one is based on Jesus giving us what? His spirit. That's the new covenant. Jesus gives us his spirit by promise. So we are gonna be different from the inside spirit level, and it will come out through our outside over time, like fruit growing. And the spirit treats you as sons and daughters. That's the big difference, and that's what I want you to hear today. If you've heard nothing else I've said, I know I can be boring, but focus on this. The spirit treats you as sons and daughters, not slaves. In your heart, are you hearing God's voice as a slave master saying, Do this, do this, do this? Or do you hear his voice as a father saying, I love you? I accept you. I'm gonna take care of you. One of those is the voice of the Holy Spirit, one of those is the voice of the enemy that he likes to plant in your in your mind. Guys, listen to the right voice. Romans 8 14 says, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are slaves of God. Oh, it doesn't say that. Good correction. 52 Jesus points for whoever said no. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage. Again, to fear is your relationship with God defined by bondage and fear. A lot of people it is. But it doesn't have to be. It's not in truth. But you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, that means Papa or Daddy, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, not slaves, right? And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, brotherly adoption, if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. We share his life, we share the blessings that he earned for us, and we are truly children of God. So in Jesus, we can no longer experience God's faithfulness to curse. So that side of God's faithfulness we don't have to worry about anymore. He was faithful to curse Jesus on the cross. When Jesus said, My Father, why have you forsaken me? You remember that? And God was saying in that moment, I cannot treat you as my son. I have to treat you as a cursed one. So that every time we pray, My Father, why have you forsaken me? He says, My son, I am your father. And I have not forsaken you. And I never will forsake you. I will never leave you. And you do not ever have to worry about being under my judgment. I will never be angry with you. You are redeemed and you are loved. You never have to pray, My Father, my father, why have you forsaken me? Idolatry is still hurting people today. Because it causes us to miss out on the blessings that God has for his children. And grace teaches us to say no to idolatry and live sensibly because God writes his will on our hearts. We share the heart of our father now. And that's why we say no to these idols, not because we're scared of missing out on his blessings, but because we know the heart of our Father. So Israel lived in this if-then covenant with God, right? These conditions. If you do this, then this. We have a different relationship where it isn't. It is finished. Okay? You're not trying to keep yourself in the land. You're kept in the land by Jesus Christ Himself. So I call upon you to rest in the one who loves you and has made you a son of God, a child of God. He's made you clean, he's made you close, he's made you complete forever. Amen. Let's stand up and worship the Lord. Offer him our hearts and our love. Father, we pour out our struggles, our stress, our anxiety. We confess. And we release all our idols. There's nothing that matters to us more than you. If we have held anything back, Jesus, if we have clung to even ideas or philosophies, Lord, we open our hands and we turn to you in humble repentance. We we will trust in you and you alone, Jesus. We will cling to you in love, Jesus, because you have bound us to yourself in love. We're gonna believe that. We're gonna walk forward in it. And when the enemy comes and and tries to confuse us or distract us, we're gonna get alone with you. We're gonna listen for you, the voice of your spirit that tells us about your love. In Jesus' name, we stand in your presence. Amen.