Turning From Idols (1 Samuel 7)

Jordan, Zane, and special guest Jorge converse about walking away from our own idols and toward Jesus.

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello, all my clear path friends. Uh, here we are, another scripture podcast. This one is gonna be a little bit unique. Jordan and I are sitting here in the church lobby, and we have our our new friend Jorge here with us.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Hello, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yeah, uh Jorge's a cool guy. We've gotten to meet him over the uh a couple times in the last couple months here uh at the Stay Express motel nearby. And uh Jorge's in the middle of of doing some life change. And so Jordan and I were hanging out, we were planning on just recording a scripture podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

And then Jorge, he actually offered. He's like, I'll jump on your jump on your pod.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

He volunteered to join, so here we are.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

In the middle of life change is kind of the understatement. Maybe, maybe Jorge, tell us tell tell them what happened just today.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

So I was just kind of hanging out there at the stay, like I normally do, and um somebody said, Hey, they're giving sandwiches. I want to go get a sandwich. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna go get one. I'm hungry. So I went over there and then started talking to Jordan, and and um they said, Hey, you want to change? Are you ready to change your life? And I said, Yeah. And so here I am, and I'll be taking off tomorrow to uh Louisiana to um change my life around.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah, some rehab and some Jesus, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yes, that's good. Yeah, he's going to a friend of ours, actually, the Clear Path people some know from years past, Stephen, who's they're going to um they really help men focus on repenting, turning their life to Jesus and and getting clean from different I mean, I mean the truth is we we both know this, like whether it's a drug addiction or whether it's things that seem less benign, we all have these aspects, the idols and and and sinful aspects of our life that we really cling to.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah. And so we were talking about that, and it brought the scripture up. We've been reading the book of 1 Samuel, and this is in chapter 7. I'm gonna read a little bit, just starting in verse uh, let's see, verse 2, I guess it is. Then all the people of Israel, okay, actually, let me give a little context. The Philistines had stolen the Ark of the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark has now been returned to Israel. And so there is a returning of the presence of God, both symbolically and literally, I suppose, in this scripture. And the people of God are responding to this and responding to the prophet Samuel. So that's what's happening. It says, Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord. So Samuel said to all the Israelites, If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the ashtraiths, and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the Israelites put away their bales and ashtraiths and served the Lord only.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

And uh I think when we read that that we you know, if we're honest, we all have something that we can that we can identify with that we need to lay down. Uh even before meeting Jorge earlier today, uh some of us were praying before we went out to before we went out to do walking with Jesus, where we go out and help give food and share the gospel and everything, we were even praying and just talking about God's call to us to just return to him and not have our own our own idols of success or our own idols of what outcomes would be, but just to return to Jesus and the cross of Jesus and the love of Jesus. And uh Jordan, you were talking about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, and I I think to like to get even context on idols worship in the in the ancient world, they worship idols in different ways to get things that they need. And so they had this general view that the gods were you know were angry at them, and if they offered sacrifices, they would appease these very you know angry, violent gods. And you know, whether it was getting food, getting rain for their crops, or whether it was, you know, good uh birth for their children, they would they would offer these sacrifices to these idols uh to get the things that they wanted or needed. And I think that that is really where, you know, whether it's drugs or what whatever it is, whether it's our pursuing idol I you know, idolizing our work, what we the exchange we make is the trusting in these gods um to get the things that we need. And it's really easy. And I think I, you know, this is this perfect picture in scripture of returning to pure trust in the Lord. And that's you know, it's like a it's a heart position, but it's a but it's a practical position that I that I really am truly in my life uh depended on him, not dwelling on on how I can solve my problems, not dwelling on how I, you know, I can um accomplish what in my own power, but trusting in him.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah, um I I agree with you 100%. And Jim, when you're saying all that, I'm kind of just in the back of my mind, I'm thinking of um all the things that we kind of like, you know, idolizing, whether it be music or shoes, material things or whatever we put our importance in, it's really not kind of takes us away from God, you know, kind of put it takes us away from his purpose and things that are not important. And I'm just kind of like thinking of all the things that we kind of put in our lives or uh whether it be social media or this, just a lot of just a lot of things that we that we don't really need and kind of just pretty much distractions.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, and the victory, he's even talking about victory, like that if they will turn, that they that God is gonna be with these, God's gonna be with them. And I I do think that there is this reigning in life that Paul talks about in Romans that the Lord wants for us, but it but the kind of blessing that God comes comes with submission to him and and and grace from that place.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah, Jordan, one thing that you were you've talked about recently is that we want to be a church that is both high invitation and high expectation. Is that a high challenge?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, and I'm not the first person to come up with that.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Right. I know that you're quoting that from somebody else. So we've talked about that a lot recently, though. That we we want to be a church that, yes, is of course high invitation. We want anybody to feel very welcome to come and join in with following Jesus and our church family. But we want to be high challenge, like we want to call people not only to feel comfortable in the church and then but kind of leave their life as it is, but to actually say yes to Jesus and tearing down all those idols.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

And actually letting God uh letting God work through us. Work through us, yeah, and and even just have first and only place in our lives, you know? Like not even just first place where there's like a close second, but but I would almost rather say only place where where we lay everything else down. Because I know that um for me, I would say that I can go in and out of these cycles where I don't ever walk away from Jesus at this point in my life, but I can go in these cycles where my mindset all day is God, what do you want? God, I'm listening to you. God, how can I follow you? Jesus, I love you. And then I go through sometimes I'll get in a cycle where I get a little distracted. I'm actually a little busy, whether it's trying to succeed in business or whether it is um what even sometimes it's trying to succeed in ministry in my own strength. Like, like I'll be trying to do good ministry for God, but not dependent on God. And so what becomes an idol is my own ministry, or sometimes what becomes an idol, I've even been in a point before my where an idol was my own worship. That I would come and I would be like feeling really good about myself for how for how uh exuberantly I was worshiping the Lord. And like the truth is that it started to become about me. And so I'm constantly in this battle to lay myself down, uh, the idols of my own heart now. And sometimes those idols are an ideal version of myself very frequently. That that's actually probably the strongest idol I struggle with is an idealized version of Christian Zayn.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and uh we I I would say that life is a journey of continual repentance, and I'm not saying that I don't believe this notion that you just live in the same sin forever and ever. Yeah, but it is a daily turning our face to him, yeah, and it is a daily encounter of him, and we we just we need his grace. And I don't know, it just came to me. We're reading that scripture, talking about really victory over the enemy, is what this is speaking about over the Philistines. And I'm like, victory is repentance, victory in the Lord is a life of repentance that I'm just constantly turning to him.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Or hey, whenever I uh right before we started this podcast, I was telling these guys what scripture I wanted to talk about. And I read it out loud one time, and or hey, I saw you tear up uh whenever I read this line. I think it was when I said this says, Commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. What what got you about that?

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Um to me, uh I just thought about immediately thought about my the idols I have in my life right now, the things that are keeping me away from him, which is um the drugs. Yeah, it's just just being blunt, um, because that's the that's just keeping me in the daily life of the things that I'm doing, and I know it's not not good and it's not serving him, and it's just um it just it it's a very dangerous point where you you you you come from a point of convict daily conviction and then it kind of starts gets to a point where like you don't even feel that anymore because you've strayed so far away from from God, and that's a really dangerous place to be. Um and I've found myself in that situation before, and I don't want to be there, and um I want to get closer to Him. So when you read that initially, that's what I was thinking about how how dark of a place, the dark places I've been where I could be um and where I don't want to go. So I just initially thought about that. That's whenever.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, and you've had a past where you at some points walked with the Lord. And so in this, it's very much in the same for you. Like you're returning to the Lord, and and I'm sure that there have to have been many nights when you thought that you were gonna change and like you were gonna deliver yourself.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Yeah, definitely, definitely thought, definitely had those those days where I thought I would do that myself, but um it's never that, never, never any, never anything of my own. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

And I I remember in my life so many times where I was struggling with sin, where I would go, man, why do I keep going back to that same sin? You know, people have all different ones that they'll return to. But when I look at most of those things in my life at this point, like the Lord has delivered me from it. And as many times as I would try, I would end up caught in the same cycle. And then it only took like the point where I actually surrendered and just actually let the Lord do it, that he took those things out of my life. And so uh I'm grateful that he's done that for me, and I'm excited for you, man, that that he's gonna do that for you.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm too very excited.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Well, praise God, amazing, amazing.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Praise God, especially deaths. All praise to him and glory to him. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Well, let's uh let's close this thing out. Jordan, you want to pray for everybody that's listening? Just whatever, uh, just encourage you guys right now to just ask the Holy Spirit, take 10 seconds. We'll give you 10 seconds of silence. Ask the Holy Spirit, even if it's small and hiding, ask the Holy Spirit what idol there is in your heart that he wants to address today. I'm gonna let Jordan pray over you guys to close us out.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Lord, I pray for the power to repent, faith, for the grace to repent that comes from the Holy Spirit. I pray that people would turn their face towards you and towards a godly community to encourage them.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I pray for the forgiveness of sins.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Blessing, lasting blessing on every person listening in Jesus' name. And may they be victorious in life. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

My brother.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Dude, so glad you're with us.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Yeah, I'm I'm very excited too. I'm glad I'm here too.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Everybody out there, uh, may the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you to change and have victory over sin.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Definitely. If you're if you're struggling with something out there, um, I encourage you just to turn to God, turn to Jesus and um just speak to him because he's always there, he's always listening, and he's never leaving your side. If you just rely on him and if you just turn to him and ask him for help, he's there listening. So I would encourage all to just do that and and help y'all in anything that you're struggling with. And God bless y'all.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Amen, bro. See y'all next time.