Live Sermon | No Idols

The Second Commandment sounds simple until you realize how creative the human heart can be. We turn to Exodus 20 and ask a question that cuts through religious noise and modern distractions: who is actually sitting on the throne of your life?

We talk about idolatry the way the Bible does, not just statues and ancient carvings, but anything we treat as our source. Along the way, we explore why God says He is “jealous” and why that jealousy is not petty but loving and protective. We also draw a bright line between resources and the Source, because money, jobs, retirement accounts, and even government can quietly become functional gods when our trust and attention revolve around them.

Then we go straight at the big claim at the center of Christianity. Jesus says He is the way, the truth, and the life, and we explain why “all religions are the same” doesn’t fit with what Jesus actually said. We share accessible historical evidence for Jesus outside the Bible, including references to Tacitus and Josephus, and we ask the honest question every skeptic has to answer: if Christianity is true, will you become a Christian?

If you want a Christ-centered sermon on the Ten Commandments, the Second Commandment, and practical spiritual growth, press play and listen with an open Bible and an open heart. Subscribe, share this message with a friend, and leave a review that helps more people find it.

Transcript

Welcome And Scripture Reading

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Kenneth South First Podcast, where we're building transformed lives one message at a time. Each week you'll hear Christ-centered sermons from Dr. J. Perry Fowler, rooted in the truth of God's Word. This is where real faith meets real life, because a life built on truth is a life that lasts.

A Pilot Who Refused To Let Go

What The Commandments Demand

Why The One True God Matters

Historical Evidence Jesus Lived

Jesus Claims Divinity Without Apology

The Question Every Skeptic Must Answer

Lee Strobel And A Changed Life

Inconspicuous Idols Sources And Resources

Godly Jealousy And Real Love

When Money Becomes A Prison

Prayer Invitation And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Good morning. Good morning. God's good, isn't He? He is good. He is so good in our life. I want you to take your Bible, turn to the book of Exodus. Exodus. We study through the book of Exodus. That's what we've been doing for several months now. It's a gift to be able to study the Bible in the way that it's actually read. I love to do that. I love to go through the verses, verse to verse to verse. And it's such a gift that God allowed us right after Easter to land right upon Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20 has the Ten Commandments. So if anybody ever asks you, uh, where are the Ten Commandments? You say these words, Exodus chapter 20, you got it. All right, here we go. The Bible tells us that verse 1. Now we studied this last week. I'm going to look at the second commandment today, but I'm going to read the whole thing because it's so valuable to read God's word. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God. Let me say it again. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself, here is what we're looking at today, any idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord, here it is again, your God. Notice what he says about himself. I am a jealous God. That might surprise you. I'm a jealous God, a God, visiting iniquity upon the fathers and the children on the third and fourth generations and on those who hate me. But I show loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me. And notice what he says, keep my commandments. So one of the reasons why we study the commandments is so that we can keep them. And God gives us a promise here of what he's going to do as a result. He said, You, of course, are going to be able to enjoy life when you keep his commandments. And that's what he says, but showing loving kindness to thousands. How many of you want to be part of the thousands? Thousands to those who love me and say it with me and keep my commandments. I was reading an article. I love history. If you don't know me very well, one thing that you probably should know about me is I love history and I love to go to sometimes archives. And I went to the archives of LA Times and I went back and I looked at a story. The story came from September the 3rd of 1987. It was a story about a man named Hank Dempsey. At that time, he was 45 years old. He was a pilot. He was flying what we know to be a small beachcraft 99. He was doing that carrying cargo. Only him and a co-pilot were on the plane. One day they were leaving Portland, and as they were flying, they had left and they were about five minutes out, more or less. And what happened was suddenly there was a sound in the back of the plane. And so what happened was Hank, who was the pilot, turned over the controls to the co-pilot, and he went back to the back of the airplane. And when he did, they hit some turbulence suddenly. And when they did, Hank fell backward, and suddenly the co-pilot noticed that the back door of the airplane was wide open. Well, immediately he didn't know what to do, so what he did was he called in for emergency landing. They turned around, went back to Portland. But there was one question when he landed. Where is Hank Dempsey? Well, they found Hank Dempsey very easily. And matter of fact, it's gone down in the FAA archives. What happened with Hank Dempsey is as evidently he fell against the door. The door flung open. He came out of the plane, grabbed hold of the ladder on the door, and was hanging upside down, flying at 200 miles per hour. And amazingly, he never let go. He never let go. As a matter of fact, this one act in FAA history has gone down, and they said that he descended 4,000 feet at 200 miles an hour and lived to tell about it. One Federal official, who, by the way, refused to let his name be identified for some reason, said this. He said, I would think it would be impossible to hold on at that speed. It would take iron nerves, strong muscles, and an ironclad refusal to let go. But guess what Hank did? He held on. Now when we read the Ten Commandments, what we learn is we hear a lot of thou shalt not, right? You're used to hearing that. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. And in this, the word not is a Hebrew word, it's the Hebrew word lo, which means this. It means you shall not become weary. You won't give up. You must hang on for dear life. You know why? Because these commandments are commandments that God gives us. They're not always easy to keep. But this seems to be one of the easiest ones to keep, which basically says, don't make for yourself an idol. How many of you have ever been out chopping wood? Or maybe cutting wood out in the forest or something, out on your land. How many of you would admittedly say, when I did that, I cut down a tree, I had a stump, or I cut off a log, and I looked at it and I said, I think I'd like to make an idol out of that. I mean, most probably most of us say, that's never a temptation in my life. I've got number two taken care of, right? But yet that's not really all the rest of the story. And this morning we're going to kind of look at this when it we're told, listen, you should hang on. Literally is what the language here is saying. You should hang on and not have any idols in your life. Now, when we look at that, we we realize that what that's saying is, is there are competing gods in our life. When you study the Bible, what you'll learn is the Bible says there is only one God. Somebody say that there's only one God. We call that monotheism, right? It means we believe in one God. Hero Israel, the Lord your God is one. And so we call that the Shema. And the Shema tells us that. The Bible teaches us there is only one God. But yet there are consistently these little gods in our life. Small G O D. And when we read that, we understand that the Bible even goes to quite detail of talking about idols, and behind every idol is a demon. There's something spiritual going on in our life when idols seem to creep into our life. So when we see this, we kind of have to let God just kind of get into our business here. And that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna let God get into our business here, and we're gonna look at the second command. We're gonna see what he is commanding us to hang on to, and that is the real and right God. He wants us to hang on to the real and right God and how to escape the lure of making new gods for ourselves. Now, how do we do that? The first thing we have to do is be sure that you're serving the one true God. Now, I want to just explain this. In our world today, there are between 4,000 and 10,000 religions. Probably most of you know that. There are between 4 and 10,000 religions. And the question is, how do I know that Christianity is the right religion? How do I know that? How do I know that following Jesus is the right, the way, as he said, the way, the truth, and the life? How do I know this? How can I be assured? See, in our world today, 75% of the world adheres to what is known as one of the big five. And among those, there's Christianity. 31% of people say they're Christians, uh, 24% say they're Islam, 15% say they're Hindu, and then of course, in Buddhism, there's 7%, and the rest of the final is a multiplicity, a plethora of different religions around the world. And there's some people that look in our world, and students, you're gonna see this when you go to college, when you hear this. Some people say, Well, y'all are all serving the same God. Now, probably you've heard that you're serving the same God. Let me just say to you, and that's not true. That's not true. It can't be true. And the reason why we can't be true is because Jesus made a radical statement. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one, somebody say no one. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus was very exclusive. And what Jesus said about himself is something that we need to look at. And we say, okay, was Jesus truly who he said he was? Was he truly Lord? Well, this is what he says. Jesus tells us that he is God. And I'm going to get into that in just a minute. But the one thing that separates Christianity from other religions is while other religions may believe that there is such a thing as Jesus, they do not believe that Jesus is God. But Jesus over and over communicated these God, his very behaviors, his very miracles. All this says Jesus Christ is God. He's one of the three: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They are three in one. We call that the Trinity. And God has revealed Himself in that way. But Jesus over and over said, listen, I'm God. He made it clear. He didn't really even have to say it, he just showed it. And he shared it. And I want you to see that in a minute. But a lot of people look at this today and they say, Well, how do I know historically that Jesus is God? How do I know that Jesus even existed? How do I know even that Jesus died? How do I know that the story of the gospel is true? Well, that's a good question. And by the way, I'm gonna just say this there's more evidence for the fact that Jesus Christ existed than Julius Caesar. You may have not known that. But over and over, outside of the Bible, there are multiplicity, there is a multiplicity of evidences and unarchived statements about Jesus Christ. I want to share a few of those with you just so you'll know. I know what I'm talking about here. I want you to see, and by the way, you can venture into that and you can study. Jesus said, if you seek me, you'll find me if you search with all your heart. Listen, I encourage you today, if you're an atheist or if you're another religion or whatever you are, I encourage you to do one thing. See if Jesus and what he said about who he is is true. See if you really, really can, if there's evidence that there's proof that Jesus Christ is who he said he is, and he said, Listen, I am God. Now, with that said, let me just kind of share some things that are outside of the Bible. For example, a lot of the people that give evidence to the fact that Jesus first off existed, and by the way, very few people that really study Jesus Christ doubt that he existed. And the reason why is because there's so much evidence to it. For example, Tacitus, a Roman historian, by the way, who believed in multiples of gods. He made mention of Jesus Christ. And this is what he said. He was writing a letter to Nero. And when he wrote this letter to Nero, this is what he said. What he said was, he said, Christ suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilate. So what we know is this back in history, there's historical documentation to prove that Jesus Christ, even by one of his own enemies, writing about him and saying, listen, Jesus Christ, he's not only lived and existed, but he was tried under Pontius Pilate. And what we know is he experienced what they called or he called the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilate. So there you go. There's one proof that Jesus actually existed, and that it is even his enemies recognized that he died on the cross, that he experienced the most extreme penalty. But it doesn't stop there. There's Josephus, who is a Jewish historian, who said this about him. He said, About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man, for he wrought surprising feats, that's miracles. He was the Christ, he said. When Pilate condemned him and uh to be crucified on the third day, he appeared, restored to life, and the tribe of Christians have not disappeared. Guess what? We've not disappeared. You know why Jesus rose again from the dead. This thing is real. This belief that we have is based upon historical fact. Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again. And so, even outside of the Bible, there's evidence to such. And then there's stuff like the Babylonian Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud is a collection of writings by Jewish rabbis of that day. It's a big collection, and you can get that collection together, and in that you'll find one of the rabbis wrote of this on the eve of the Passover, Yeshua, that's the Hebrew name for Jesus, Yeshua, was hanged. And a lot of people look at that and say, well, okay, Jesus wasn't hanging, he was crucified. Well, let me explain to you. In the Jewish understanding of crucifixion, what they often called crucifixion was hanging. I'll give you an example. Galatians 3.13. There's the same word is used for crucified. When he talked about being crucified, they talked about and use the same language terminology of being hanged. Also, Luke 23, 39, you look it up, the Bible here says that Jesus was in the middle, and there were two thieves that were hanged. H-A-N-G-E-D, hanged there. And what we know is there's evidence and there's proof that this religion, per se, if you want to call it that, I call it a relationship. This relationship we have is based upon something historical. This event happened, Jesus did live, Jesus did die, and Jesus did raise again from the dead. It's a fact. And so while we have in our world, we have a multiplicity of people that look at Jesus and they say, we can't deny that he existed. They often will say, but who is he? For example, in the Islamic belief, they believe that there is a Jesus, but they do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe he's a prophet. Matter of fact, they elevate Muhammad above him. Why? Because of the fact that this is a different religion. This is a different belief. This is a different God. Either Jesus is God or He's nothing at all. And so what we find is Jesus declares that he is God. Matter of fact, the religious leaders, that was the reason why they crucified him. They called it blasphemy. And what they said was they said, He is declaring himself to be God. Let me show you why. For one, Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 30, I and the Father are one. How much clearer can he make it than that? Jesus is saying, Me and the Father are one. So Jesus is not only just admitting that there is God the Father and there's God the Son, but he says, we're one together. We're one together. We are God. But furthermore, what we know is John chapter 8, 58, Jesus said these words, he said, before Abraham, I am. Listen, before Abraham, I am. And this would have been familiar to Jews because when Jesus Christ said, I am, these are the words that were said from God Himself to Moses himself. When Moses was at the burning bush and he said, Who shall I say is sent me? He said, Tell him, I am sent you. Jesus was saying, I'm God. And by the way, that was a big issue. It was a big issue. Matter of fact, one of the first things that Jesus did after the temptation of the devil, he went to Nazareth, his hometown. He got up and he read Isaiah. And when he read Isaiah, he says, These things are fulfilled today before your very eyes. And his own family members, probably, definitely people in his community, took him out to the hill. It's called the hill of Preppippus. And when you go there, you can look and you can see down. Their intention was to throw him off a cliff and throw stones on him. Why? Because of blasphemy. Why? Because he declared he was God. So the question is today: who's your God? When we think about idols, we have to pause and say, who is the real God? And there is only one. So Jesus is either God, as it's been so often said, He's either Lord, lunatic, or liar. You decide. You have to decide. You cannot just walk past this and say, well, all religions are the same. They're not. By no means are they. We don't even believe the same stuff. We have different theologies. We have different understandings of who God is, and only one of them would be God. And Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man, no one, no one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is saying, I am the way and the truth and the life. So the question is today, not do I want to intermingle all the different beliefs into my life and just kind of say, okay, I'm going to kind of do a hodgepodge cafeteria style style, walk up here to this decision thing about God. Listen, you can't when you come face to face with Jesus Christ. He says, You're either following me or you're following idols, you're following the rest of the world. And as a big decision, the question today is often, I often look at atheists, and atheists will ask a question. They'll say, Listen, uh, what do you believe about this? They want to kind of put up these, what I call smoke screens. They want to ask you about a million things about the ark, and they want to ask about creationism, they want to ask all this. And always want to ask one question. Let me ask you a question. And if you're an atheist, you're listening online, or maybe you're here today, or maybe you haven't decided about Jesus Christ, let me just ask you a question and you need to think about it. I pray it pricked right into your mind. It's a hook, and you can't get rid of it. That the Holy Spirit will use it in your life, it'll haunt you tonight, it'll haunt you tomorrow, it'll haunt you until you come face to face with a decision of am I going to find out if Jesus is God or not? The question is simply this if Christianity is right, if you discover that Christianity is right, will you become a Christian? That's a great question. Because, see, so often you'll go, students, you'll go to college and you'll hear all this stuff, and all it is is a smoke screen for somebody to say, Listen, I want an idol in my life. I want my own God in my life, I want my God to fit what I believe, I want my God to do what I want Him to do. Listen, you want to be God and you want a God that serves you. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's the decision that God wants you to come to, just like we see, of course, with Joshua. Now, question, listen, this whole thing of Christianity is a big decision in your life, but it ought to be based upon who is Jesus. Is he God? Is he not? And if he's God, serve him. Serve him. Turn away from idols, step away from worldly beliefs, and step into the footsteps of Jesus and begin to follow him. One man that did that was a man named Lee Strobel. Maybe you've heard about it. Uh Lee Strobel, I love, I love the man. He has many wonderful books out. He has uh, you know, even the movie out and Lady Strobel in his uh in his life. He said one of the things that changed the most in his life was his relationship with his daughter Allison. See, God's number one thing that he wants to use in your life. If you're a Christian, the number one thing he wants to use in your life is for you to be an exhibit A of the reality that Jesus is the true Son of God. He is God Himself. He's the second person in the Trinity. By the way, the Bible says be imitators of Christ. Be imitators of God. Why has God called you as a Christian? You're called to be different. And the way you do that is throw away these other idols. And you step in the footsteps of Jesus. Lee Strouble did that. And what he did is he had a couple of years. He was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Probably you've read about him. And what he did was his wife became a Christian, and what he wanted to do is he wanted in some way to rescue his wife, as he says, quote unquote, from this Christian cult. So he began studying, he began seeking. He began to try to determine who did Jesus say he was and did he really do these things. Is there evidence for it? And Strobel said it came to the point where there was more evidence and much more, there was a there was an avalanche of evidence that Jesus was actually, he not only existed, but he actually did what he said he was going to do. And he actually did die on the cross and he actually did raise again. He said it would have taken me more faith to believe atheism than it would have been to believe the true gospel. But I want to read to you what happened in his life. What happened in his life, he says, one of the greatest impacts that was made was on my daughter Allison. He said, Jesus changed me, especially my parenting, quote unquote. Prior to meeting Jesus, my inner rage and my drinking habits made my daughter, and I quote, Allison afraid of me. She would often run to her room and hide when she heard me coming to the door. Yet she witnessed a radical change in her dad's life that she could not miss after seeing that change. As a little girl, Allison went to her mom Leslie and said, I want what dad has. I love that. And that's what God wants for you. We as believers are to be examples. We are to be litmus tests for the people in the world to look at us and say, okay, does Jesus really alive? Does he live? You ask me how I love He lives? Yes, He lives within their heart, within my heart, within our heart. When Jesus comes in, He gets personal. I mean, He gets all up in your grill. He gets starts changing your life. He starts changing your habits. He starts changing your behavior. Why? Because these idols begin to fall away and you no longer serve these other idols. For you and your house, they serve the Lord. It changes us. And there's a lot of people that say they're Christian, but they never repented. They still have multiples of idols. They came and say, I want Jesus, but I also want this other idol in my life. And they're lost as they ever were before. Because they never repented. The Bible says, Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins will be brought out. What does that mean? Does that mean you're perfect? No. But what it means is you've made a decision in your life. I'm not just going to simply ascend to the fact that I know this is the truth, but I'm going to begin to walk in the truth. I'm going to walk with Jesus. That's the Bible, folks. And that's the beauty of the gospel. We don't have to live the way we would live in the natural flesh. We can live with Jesus and He'll change us, He'll transform us. And that's what we believe in this church. That we get into God's word. And the whole beauty of God's word is simply this. We live and we exist here in this church to experience transformed life through the truth of his word. God's word will change you. You say, well, I'm not who I want to be, but thank God you're not who you used to be. And that's the same for me and you. I hope Jesus' light shines and shines. I hope my finest moment was the moment before I see Jesus. Right? I hope my finest moment will be the moment before I see Jesus. I pray that I'll grow and mature in my walk with Jesus to the point where I will things just get better and better and better in my life. Change keeps happening, transformation keeps happening. Listen, that's what Jesus wants for you. And he wants it for me. The second thing is that we have to be alert to these inconspicuous idols. There's a lot of them. Listen, what we know is, is we know that God has a no competition clause. Did you know that? What he's saying is, you shall have no other gods before me. That's no competition clause. And he goes on and he says, Listen, you shall not make for yourself any idol. You shall not, verse 5, worship them or serve them. God, he says, I am the Lord your God. What he's saying is, he's saying, listen, I want no competition here. And what we hear is, as we understand what an idol is, first off, it's something that people create. It's something that, of course, back in those days, they would carve an image. And also it's something that replaces God. The biblical definition of real idols is simply this: an idol is a noun, a person, place, or thing or thought that you look to as the source, your source, let me say it again, your source, and makes you a student of what that means. What's it mean that God is our source? You know, a lot of times what we see is in the Bible, we see Samuel, for example, the prophet, he comes and what he says, remove from your midst the astera. That was like Baal's girlfriend. And then you have Baal, remove the astera, remove Baal's girlfriend, best way to tell you, from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone. Only one, just serve me. But yet what we know is they looked at, they wanted, they were so tempted, they said, okay, God, we want the Lord God in our life, but we also want to kind of keep our cheap idols over here. And that's what happened. Samuel says, No, this is not what God wants. Remove the Astra. And the reason why they wanted Astra is because it was convenient. They said and they looked and they said, okay, Astra, first off, everybody's doing it. Everybody likes Astra. Everybody thinks Ba'el's girlfriend is pretty cool. And so what we believe is, is and what they believed is they thought, well, what we'll do is we'll serve Astra and we'll serve God as well. Doesn't work that way. So Astra was something that and Baal were, you know, that I like to say they were the boyfriend and girlfriend God that they looked to for fertility. Every time springtime came, they would celebrate Ashtra and Baal. Furthermore, when every time a calf was born, a sheep is born, every time a baby was born, they would celebrate, say, this is the fertility God's blessing us. They look to them as sources. And you look at them and say, How many of you have ever been tempted to worship Baal? Anybody here? I don't see one hand in the house. It would be strange to see that because we just really don't even know. No, thank you. But yet there are many other things that we look to for the sources of our life. Listen, everything you have, everything you are, everything you will ever have is all coming from one source, and that happens to be Almighty God. Okay, now we said amen to that, and let me just say this is gonna kind of bite you in the tail end in a minute, but it's okay. It bit me in the tail end when I read it because I thought, yes, there's only one source in my life. But sometimes there's inconspicuous idols that hang around in my life. And what that is, is there's a difference between sources and resources. Say, sourced, resourced. Where do resources come? From the source. But so often what happens in our life, these resources are things in our life that we like, and we say, okay, that resource is what I'm gonna just kind of go to. And they're little inconspicuous idols in our life because God gives them to us, but what we end up doing is we go in and we worship the resource instead of the source. Let me explain this to you. What happens in our life? And by the way, is it okay if I meddle for a minute? Nobody's given me permission, I'll do it anyway. Um sometimes you go from preaching to meddling, but just let me give you an example. What we sometimes do, and I see this in our culture today, and I'm just gonna call it out, I'm gonna shout it out, I'm gonna just make it clear. There are some people today that look at our government as the resource. But they see, okay, that's a resource, but then they act like it's actually the source. Now, follow me. What happens is sometimes people spend more time looking to see what's going on in the government than they look at what's going on in the kingdom of God. While God has given us resources, what we have a tendency to do is that we look at that, and there's some people that look and they say, I'll live and die as a Republican, I'll live and die as a Democrat. And I want to tell you something today. Here's the fact that the future of America is not based upon our government, it's based upon God. Now understand this. God is not riding the back of an elephant or a donkey. And we let that just become some people so just that's all they can think about. What's happening in the workshop? What's happening in this, what's the Democrats doing? What's the what's the Republicans doing? And we've become so dismangled with everybody that we've do know what the problem is? Idolatry. We need to look again and do what God said. If my people will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then we'll hear from heaven. Do we not understand God is the one that blessed America before? And he can bless it again if we'll just get on our knees and make him God again. I told you I was gonna get to meddling. Say, well, okay. Let me just do one more. You know what happens so often in our life? God is our source. He gives us money, which is a resource. But you know what our whole focus comes on? Some people get up on Monday morning, the first thing they do every day of the week, they get up and they look on to see, okay, how's my IRA doing? But I want you to know your IRA is only a resource. God is your source. God's name is not spelled with it, it is a three-letter word. G-O-D, it's not spelled I-R-A. It's not even spelled J-O-B. God is your source. You know what happens when God becomes our source and we don't make these idle resources our God? What happens is we focus on God, our faith is bigger, our our testimony is stronger, we see God moving in our life, we see God working in our life, we see God provide what we need in our life, my God shall supply all your needs according to riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Half the anxiety, the worry that we have in this world is because our resources have inconspicuously stepped in and sat on the throne of our heart when God is saying, Don't you worship them? Don't you look at them as a source? I am God. I don't know what you do with that, but I'll quit meddling for a minute. But let me just show you one more thing. When he talks about this thing of idolatry, he says, we need to know how God feels. Do you ever think God feels about stuff? God has feelings. We think, oh, God's beyond that. No, he has feelings. The Bible says you can grieve the Holy Spirit. Do you know that? Let me how many of you in this room have feelings? All three of you. No, there's more than that. We all have feelings. Did you know God has feelings? You know what God says? The reason why he doesn't want idolatry in our life, let me just lay it out here and we'll go home. You shall not worship them or serve them for eye, verse five. Here it is right here. Just look at it. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Did you know God's jealous over you? It's the coolest thing. I mean, isn't it cool? God has jealousy. Let me explain to you. There's two times of jealousy. One of them is ungodly jealousy. Ungodly jealousy is simply this: it's a jealousy over something because it belongs to you. So if you're jealous over something that belongs to you, you should be. God is jealous over something that belongs to him. By the way, the Bible says every Christian is bought with a price. You are not your own. You ever thought about that? God's jealous over you because you belonged to him. Nothing wrong with that. And so if we serve other gods, he's going to be jealous about it. He's going to be struggling with it. Furthermore, there's an ungodly jealousy, and that's an ungodly jealousy, it's over something that you do not own. I always use this as an example. How many of you really think, you guys that are married, would really like for some dude to come start flirting with your wife? How many of you just think that's a great idea? I think I would, I talked to another pastor this week, and he said, he said he was talking about Elon Musk to this man, and he said, What do you think, you know, about the landing on the moon, all the stuff that's probably he's got on the future and stuff. And he said, Well, I as soon as that happens, I'm gonna put my wife on that jet or on that rocket, I'm gonna give her a one-way ticket. I thought, oh my goodness. By the way, that same pastor did that guy's funeral last Friday, so be careful. That is not a joke. That really happened. I'm not joking. But don't you want that to be the last thing you say to your pastor before you die? Oh my goodness. Anyway, but I want to tell you no man that loves his wife would want another man to flirt with her. I mean, I'm just gonna tell you, there are three things I love in this life. I love Jesus, I love Jen, and I love this church. And I would say I'm jealous over you to a certain level. But I'm definitely jealous about that girl sitting over here because I love her. She knows I love her. I drive her crazy. I mean, I do. I drive her nuts. I just can't stand it. But I love her. But I want to tell you, you start flirting with her, you know, you mess with the bull, you're gonna get the horns. You know what I'm saying? And you know, I love her all up in here, all up in here. You know what I'm saying? And you say, well, is it wrong for you to be upset like that? Yeah, it's never wrong. If someone belongs to you, and I don't own her. She doesn't own me. But the two shall become one flesh. So we belong together. And yeah. But let me just use this example. Ungodly jealousy would be this. How many of you know I drive a Jeep? I like my Jeep. I won't want to say I love my Jeep, but I really, really like my Jeep. But let's just say one of you shows up this next Sunday with a Wrangler Rubicon 392, high-end, off-road hardware, interior leather upgrades, 470 horsepower, 6.4, Hemi V8 engine, limited production, raw power, elite capability, and premium presence all in one. I better stop there. Here's the thing. And I sit and I go, man, why can't I have one of those? Man, I just really don't like that Mark got one of those. I might even get to the point where I have ungodly jealousy. God, why didn't you let me? You know, what's in with me? Why can't you give stuff to him? You know, I'm nicer to you than him. Not really. That would be ungodly jealousy. I want to tell you, God has a right to be jealous over you. Do you know why he loves you? The thing is, is so many people look at this and they don't understand it, but 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3 says this for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. That's what God's word says. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Jesus Christ. That's the word of God. So God's jealousy over us is because of Jesus. Can you even comprehend today how much God loves you and how excited he is and how much he looks forward to you as a believer, as someone that walks with Jesus, how much he longs to take you on that glorious day, on the married step of the Lamb. God brings his bride together, and it's espoused that he gives us to him. It's the bride of Christ. God can't wait for that. That's how much he loves you. That's why we should prepare ourselves, stand before him, say, no more idols. I'm gonna follow Jesus. I want him to live through me. Because you are not just somebody to Jesus. You're somebody he knows, you're somebody he came for, he's someone that chose you, he's someone that intentionally and purposely, in his relationship with you, has come and said, you are mine and I am yours. He is jealousy over insecurity, he is in, he is jealous over the intensity of his love. That's it. And so the question really is not, does Jesus love me? It never has been in your life. If you really know who Jesus is, the question is not, does Jesus love me? The question is, how much do I love Jesus? And that's why we have the second commandment. You know, I was reading in the McGuffey Reader a story about a man who really, really loved his money. And what he did is he built a house and he had a sub basement. A sub-basement is a basement below the basement. And what he did is he built it there. It was very, very well concealed. That's where he kept his money, that's where he kept his gold, that's where he kept all his stuff, and he would go down there, and it's just like any other God you have. You want to get your hands on it, you want to get personal with it. And he sat down there with this gold and all this stuff, and he would just get his hands on it. He would have his own little private worship service with his gold and silver and his money. And one day he was down there and he was just, you know, more or less worshiping his own little idol there. And the steel door. There was a wind that blew in through the basement because the door was left open upstairs, and that clang of that iron door clanged shut and it got stuck. And the man was there and he couldn't get out. Well, nobody really knew about the door, they didn't know about the sub-basement, they just thought he disappeared until years later when they tore the house down. They saw the sub-basement, and there they pried open that steel door, and there was this man hanging in skeleton form over the top of all of his money and all of his gold, staring in a worshipful what was left of a gaze at his idols. I want to tell you, there are idols, and let me give you a warning, idols that you can see as resources that have never been your source because the resources come and go. How many of you know that? Resources are not eternal. And they just they give some little temporary thrill or temporary needs that they're meant to be. They're just resources that you're gonna need more next week. You're gonna need more the next week, but you'll never need more of Jesus. And that same Jesus will not bring you into a path of death, he will bring you into a path of life. And that's why he says, I am the way. I am, say it with me, the truth. And I am the life. No man comes to the Father but say it with me, through me. That's the word of Jesus. So what will you do with Jesus? Lord, across this room, we all have decisions to make this morning. Some Christians deciding, okay, are there idols in my life that they really gotta go? God's jealous about this. Others that are struggling with these idols, and they just don't know if they they want to just. Yield themselves to the to the to the living power and presence of Jesus living in their life. They don't know if they want to give up themselves as an idol and really humble themselves and receive you as their Savior. I pray they will. I pray they would call upon your name right now and say, Jesus, I know I've sinned. I know you died for my sins. I know you rose again from the dead. I believe these things. And Jesus, today I'm asking you to come and live in my life. Live in my heart. Take over, be my Lord and my God. I will take my step away from all the things that are the idols in my life. And I will seek you first. And all these things, as your word says, will be added unto me. Thank you, God, that we now can decide and we can respond to the decisions now in this invitation time. Help us to do that for your glory and for your praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together.

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