Exodus: The Perpetual Factory of Idols

As we near the end of our journey through Exodus, we arrive at a heartbreaking chapter: the Golden Calf. In Exodus 32, we see the Israelites—freshly rescued from 400 years of slavery—abandoning their vows to God. They break the covenant mere days after making it. But before we judge them too harshly, we must recognize that we, too, are prone to wander. As John Calvin noted, the human heart is a "perpetual factory of idols." This sermon explores why we create idols, what they cost us, and how we can find freedom through the Greater Moses, Jesus Christ.

Key Points

1. The Context of the Crime The sin of the Golden Calf wasn't just about breaking a rule; it was spiritual adultery. The Israelites had just entered into a marriage covenant with Yahweh (Exodus 20), promising to have no other gods. Yet, while on their "honeymoon," they turn to an Egyptian idol. Taking something created and placing it in the position of the Creator always leads to destruction.

2. Why Do We Make Idols?

• We want something NOW: Moses was delayed on the mountain, and the people grew impatient. Delay either deepens our faith or detours it. Often, when we feel God isn't moving fast enough, we turn to idols for immediate relief.
• We want something we can HOLD: Yahweh is invisible; the gods of Egypt were tangible. We crave physical things to put our trust in.
• We want a Genie, not a God: An idol like a golden calf cannot speak, correct, or demand holiness. The Israelites wanted a god they could control so they could indulge in whatever behavior they pleased without conviction.

3. The Cost of Idolatry Idols demand sacrifice. They over-promise and under-deliver. While following Jesus requires sacrifice, He promises life and rest. Idols only demand more of you. Furthermore, you become like what you behold. Just as the golden calf was rigid and stiff-necked, God calls the Israelites stiff-necked. Whatever you worship will shape your character.

4. The Greater Moses When God threatens to destroy the Israelites, Moses steps in as a mediator. He even asks God to blot his name out of the book to save the people. God says no to Moses, but centuries later, He says yes to Jesus. Jesus is the Greater Moses who took our sins upon Himself, granting us positional holiness before God so we can pursue progressive holiness in our lives.

Conclusion

Every person is wired for worship; the question is not if you will worship, but what. Idols are sneaky, often masquerading as good things (family, politics, comfort) that we have made ultimate things. When we bring our idols into the presence of God, they will eventually shatter. God is a gracious Father who welcomes us back every time we choose to cast our idols down.

Calls to Action

• Recognize Your Idols: Look closely at what you crave (comfort, control, power, approval) and identify what has taken the center seat in your life.
• Repent and Confess: Do not justify or minimize your idolatry. Call it sin, confess it aloud, and ask Jesus to cover it.
• Renounce and Replace: You cannot just remove an idol; you must replace it with the true God. Bow your knee and consciously return the throne of your life to Jesus.

Transcript

If you've got a Bible. Can you open it up to the second book of the Bible? It's called Exodus. It's at the very beginning of your Bible. And we are nearing the end of a sermon series where we've been in the book of Exodus for the entire school year, anyway, and I'm going to be sad to see it go.

It's been rich. It's been a good time in God's Word. So I'm going to warn you right now, I'm going to read an entire chapter. I'm sorry. Stick with me here.

Read along with me. We'll start next to this 32. Exodus 32.

When the people saw that Moses was so long. Underline that so long in coming down from the mountain. Maybe your Bible says delayed and coming down the mountain. Maybe you read the message and it says for ever.

They gathered around Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. And Aaron answered them. Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron, and he took what they had handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.

They then said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. And afterwards they sat down to eat and drink and to go up and to indulge in revelry.

And then the Lord said to Moses, go down, because your people, Moses, is is up on Mount Sinai at this point. Go down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt. They've been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They've bowed down to it, and they've sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt? I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they're a stiff necked people. Now leave me alone, that my anger may burn against them, that I may destroy them. And then I'll make you, Moses, into a great nation.

I'm starting over. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. Lord, he said, why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Then the Egyptians will say, it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and wipe them off the face of the earth.

Turn from your fear, anger. Relent. Do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore an oath on your own self. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. And I'll give your descendants all this land, I promise them, and it will be their inheritance forever.

And then the Lord relented. He didn't bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. Moses, the mediator, turned, and he went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant of law in his hands, and they were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God. The the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

And when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, there is the sound of war in the camp. And Moses replied, it is not the sound of victory, and it's actually not the sound of defeat, it's the sound of singing that I hear. And when Moses approached the camp, saw the calf, saw the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them into pieces at the foot of the mountain.

And he took the calf the people had made, and he burned it in the fire. And then he grounded into powder. He scattered it on the water. And then he said, you guys have to drink this.

This kind of an interesting thing. I, I was reading this and reminded of my marriage, when sometimes I'll be upset with the kids and Tiffany will be like, no, clearly you can't handle this. I'll go in there. I'll take care of this. Obviously you're angry. You need a time out. And then she steps into the situation and guess who else gets angry?

Tiffany, this is God's like. Let me alone that my anger burn. And Moses like, no, no, don't get angry. And then Moses goes down the hill and he sees the dancing. He's like, oh my gosh. Rages, throws the tablets down ground, grinds it up, and he's like, drink it. You drink this right now.

I digress.

Well he got down and he said to Aaron, his right hand man. Man, what did these people do to you that you would lead them into such great sin? Well, don't be angry, my Lord, Aaron answered. You know how prone these people are to evil. And they said to me, make us gods. And I was like, you better not make us gods who will go before us.

As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him. So I told them, whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off. Then they gave me the gold and I threw it in the fire. And then walla! Like, out came this calf. You wouldn't believe it, man. I just threw gold in a fire and I didn't shape it at all.

It just turned into a calf. Crazy. Moses saw that the people were running wild, and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the Levites rallied to him. And then he said to them, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says.

Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor. The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about 3000 of the people died. There was a couple million camped. And then Moses said, you've been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.

The next day Moses said to the people, you've committed a great sin, but now I'm going to go up to the Lord again, and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses went back to the Lord and said, man, you were right to be super ticked. What a great sin these people have committed. They've made themselves gods of gold.

But now please forgive their sin. But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. And the Lord replied to Moses, whoever, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them and not you for their sin.

And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made. I know sometimes when we read the Old Testament, we read about violence, or we read about God's wrath. We read about God's anger. It can be a point of question for us. And I just want you to understand the wider context of this moment and why this was such a heinous thing the people of God did, and to get in touch with the anger that the Lord might have been experiencing in this moment.

I just want you to imagine something right now. Imagine that someone was unfaithful to their spouse. Imagine that someone breaks the covenant that they made with their wife, with their husband. Now, depending on your experience and where you're coming from, you know, some of you, you know, that's that's a cardinal sin because, you know, the devastation that brings for some of you, maybe you're indifferent and you're like, well, that happens all the time.

People make promises, they break promises all the time. But let me ask you another question. Can you for a second imagine someone being unfaithful to their spouse on their honeymoon? Not just sometime down the line.

But in a moment when a covenant is made. They've just entered in. They've just stood before a great crowd and said, for better or for worse, til death do us part. And they got days into that agreement before the spouse was unfaithful. Timing is kind of everything. It's the same sin, right? It's adultery.

But it's when matters. The people of God have just entered into a covenant. They are on their honeymoon. It was the marriage license that Moses pranced up mount Sinai to get signed. They've entered into a covenant with God. God rescued them. God brought them to himself. They're his treasured possession. They make a covenant together. This is right here at Sinai.

Exodus 20. Ground zero for the marriage covenant that we make one to another. This is where we source this idea of marriage right here at this mountain. So God says, I do. The people say I do. And then it's just a matter of days before they say I don't. You might remember that in this covenant, the first thing that the people had to promise is that I won't have any other gods before you.

And the second thing they had to promise is I won't make an idol. They just declared that, and days later, they've gone back on it. That's why this is so serious. And you should know that anytime we take something created and put it in the place of creator, it will end up in regret. It'll end up in weeping.

It'll end up in destruction. When you take something that's created and you put it in the place that belongs only to our creator, it's trouble. Please know that I in the Bible is synonymous with Harlot Tree. It's being unfaithful to the God that we've committed ourselves to, and God deals with it pretty seriously. So good thing that's for far off people and far off places.

Good thing we've moved on and we don't make for ourselves idols. This is not as bizarre as we'd like to think. Right in. This text has more for us. So if you're thinking, oh, silly people in a far off time and a far off place, I think this text has a lot for us. John Calvin famously wrote that men's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.

You're constantly producing substitutes for God. That was true 3500 years ago. It was true 500 years ago when John Calvin said it. And it's true today for us as well. We have this tendency to replace God as the center of all things. We have this tendency to make something, the latest thing in our life and then to our lives to revolve around it.

Right? And it's not just bad things. I know when we say idols, you think, man, you can take a bad thing and make it the most important thing, but you can also take a good thing in life, a good thing that God's given. And you can make it the ultimate thing in your life. And again, it'll end in regret.

It just can't bear the weight of your worship. Right? So one of the things I've noticed with kind of, I would say, the idolatry of our day, I think one of the major idols that I see people worshiping is the, I would call it like a political idolatry. I don't see a lot of people. People don't meet with me because they're converting to another major religion.

Often they're like, I'm out, I'm Hindu now, you know, that's not commonly the meeting I find myself in, but I find people converting to political idolatry pretty commonly, and what I see them doing is taking their God given desires and mapping them onto a political party. Political parties demand allegiance. Political parties are evangelistic. Political parties will excommunicate you if you don't toe the party line.

Political parties have a story to tell you about who the real villain is, and then they promise to save you. If you give them your allegiance.

Getting rid of God in our kind of secular, humanist kind of culture, getting rid of these ideas of the afterlife has produced us, mapping our desires onto politics and onto the here and now. This is an interesting article called America Without God. It's not written by a believer. It was written in the Atlantic. But I think this is really telling.

If secularists hoped that declining religiosity would make for more rational politics, drained of faiths, inflaming passions, they're likely disappointed, as Christianity's hold in particular has weakened, ideological intensity and fragmentation have risen. American faith is as fervent as ever. It's just that once what was religious belief has been channeled into political belief. Political debates over what America is supposed to mean have taken on the character of theological disputations.

This is what religion without religion looks like. Politics can become a thing that we trust in, a thing that we hope in a substitute for God. Politics, like religion, make promises. They require submission and our allegiance. They promise protection, they promise provision. And we have these God given desires that we can start to point towards. These God substitutes.

Our issues with idolatry stem from the reality that each one of us were wired for worship. You will at all times be taking someone or something, placing at the center of your life and revolving around it. You will declare the worth of something. I know when I say that you're constantly worshiping, some of you are like, I hate singing.

I'm glad when the three songs are over at the beginning. This has nothing to do with songs. You constantly ascribe value and worth to things, with your time, with your thoughts, with your affection, with your resources. You're constantly saying, this is worth it. This is worth it. This is what's worth it. And you will do this. Someone or something will always be in this place.

And the world's not made up of some people who worship on Sundays and other people who don't. Every one of us is ascribing value and worship with the way that we give our limited resources. So I want to look at this text together because I don't know about you, but when I read the Old Testament, sometimes I struggle with the violence that I see there, the blood.

But other times I struggle with like, how could these people be so dense?

Like, I read this text and I think to myself, you just got rescued from 400 years of slavery through ten plagues. You then crossed the Red sea. Once you got through the Red sea, water came from a rock because you didn't have any. And then bread fell from heaven because God sustains you. How quickly? Well, someone turn to idols.

What is wrong with you? Had I seen these things, certainly I wouldn't struggle with this. No way. I'm making a calf. And then I think about my own life and the times when I've been like, God, if you get me out of this pinch, I swear I'll serve you with my whole life. You get through it and you're like, seven minutes later, you're like, back to living the same way you live.

These people are reverting back to what they knew for 400 years, and it's pretty common for all of us, not just for them. So why do we make idols? Why do we produce these God substitutes? Why is there a constant conveyor belt in our life producing these things that we want to center our lives on? Well, the first thing is this we want something now.

When the people saw that Moses was so long, when they saw that he was delayed, they decided to take matters into their own hands. And again, just so you don't write this crowd off, know this, Moses been gone for 40 days. The last time they saw their leader, he was walking up into a consuming fire. And they haven't seen him for five and a half weeks.

So they're like, look, this fellow Moses, I don't know what's going on for him, but it can't be good. And I want to say to you, our impatience is directly connected to idolatry. We want something now.

When they saw that he was so long, and when they decided that God's not working. They took matters into their own hand. And I've just seen this before in our lives where we're seeing delay. And then, because of the delay, we feel justified to employ idols. We're wrestling with God over. We need a financial breakthrough. We decide he's not moving, that God's not working.

And then we take matters into our own hands. We stop trusting him because we need something now.

I've been, you know, I've had people come to me and say, I've been praying for a godly spouse for years. God's not moving. He's stuck. He's delayed in his delay. That guy will do. At least he's here. And at least he's now. And I know for some of us, we've been contending, God, give me peace, free me from anxiety.

And God doesn't appear to be moving. And we're still dealing with anxiety. But you know what is here and you know it is now something that can take the edge off. We need something here. And it's when God delays, when we feel like we have to wait. I heard one pastor say this. I thought it was so good.

Is that when there's delay, it's either going to deepen your faith or detour it.

When we read Hebrews 12 and we read about the Hall of Faith, all these men and women who stood in faith, they all have one thing in common, which is that they waited and it deepened their faith. It didn't detour it. They didn't decide God's not working when they couldn't see anything again. There guys up in a cloud of fire.

They're like, I mean, if he was going to come down, he would have come down by now. Let's take matters into their own hands. Which leads me to my second point of why we make idols. We don't just want something here now. We want something we can hold. We want something we can hold. Eugene Peterson says it this way.

We want gods that are not God so that we can be as God's. And here's the deal. They've just come from 400 years in Egypt where they can see these idols. They can see the gods of Egypt. Not only can they see them and see the temples, they probably the they were the ones who built the idols and the temples.

And it's like, man, Egypt had these gods you could see, and our God can't be seen. We want to have something. And so, sure enough, the golden calf is an Egyptian god. They went back to worshiping what Egyptians worshiped, but they put the name Yahweh on it. Well, at least it's here. We don't know what's going on up there.

God stuck. He's not moving. But let's make something that we can hold. And the last reason that you and I make idols is that we'd rather have a genie than a god. We'd rather have something we can control. We don't want a god that's going to challenge us. We don't want a God who's going to tell us what to do.

We want gods that are not gods, so that we can be as gods so that we can have it, hold it, and control it. We would like to be as God. This is interesting because when Aaron saw this, what was going on? He built an altar in front of the calf and announced, tomorrow there's going to be a festival to the Lord.

So the next day the people rose early. They sacrificed burnt offerings. Okay. Presented fellowship offerings. Okay. And then afterward they sat down to eat and drink. And then they got up to indulge in revelry. Some of your Bible translations say play again. If you're reading the message, it might say something more than that. I will let you put it together.

What was happening at Burning Man?

Guess who's not going to stop them from doing what they want to do?

A golden calf that can't move, can't speak, can't direct, can't determine what they're going to do. They want a God that's going to tell them what their itching ears want to hear. And this is some of the danger in developing a relationship with with AI. Well, you want to do away with something that confronts or challenges us, right?

I'm sure God would want me to be happy. Therefore, God substitutes. We want to worship on our terms, our schedule, in our ways. That's what we want. I was watching this. You. This is all around us. This invitation to be as God. I found myself watching a Burger King commercial and just really sucked into the messaging that we're taking in on a daily basis.

Would you turn your attention to the screen?

Burger King used to be king flame grilled burgers served by folks only. Happy when you had it your way.

No matter where or when or who.

Every meal felt special. Spotted at a Burger King because you felt special.

It was great to Burger King, but somehow, somewhere fast food just fell off, us included. And that's not good. So we started listening. I even gave my number out. Hi, I'm Tom, the president, and this is what you call this out on old restaurants. Slow service, simple mistakes. What is this? And this thing is just pitiful. How am I supposed to eat like a king when you're feeding me like a pest?

And that this guy definitely wasn't helping any of it, which. Fair point. So we fired the king and crowned you. Reinvesting nationwide. One restaurant, one team, one burger at a time in the iconic Whopper. It's never tasted better, thanks to you. Flame grill started. It never smashed in the bag after all. When we say you rule, we mean it.

And we're just getting started because there's a new king and it's you.

When we say you rule, we mean it. So we got rid of the king.

It's not a good thing that we would be worshiped. Doesn't go well for us or the people around us. So we've got these personal desires that are in the way of holiness. But another thing you need to watch, because I think it produces idolatry in our lives, is you need to also watch out for popular opinion, both popular opinion and our personal desires will pull you away from holiness.

And I love this picture. Like Aaron, Aaron's been so solid up to this point as Moses is right hand man, Moses comes down the hill and says to Aaron, how come? Why did you lead this group of people into sin? You've been such an amazing leader up to this point. And Aaron said, you know how prone these people are to evil.

They said to me, make us gods who will go before us. And as for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't even know where he's at right now. So they told him, whoever has any gold. So I told them, whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off. They gave me the gold. I threw it into the fire and then out came a calf.

There's a pressure that you'll face. The idolatry that our culture and our nations immersed in is the water we swim in. And often we just can't see it. So beware of your personal desires to be the king, and beware of the popular opinion around you. What happens to us when we worship idols? So it's not just that we do it, it's that something is done to us.

When we worship idols, the first thing is sacrifice. They give. It costs them to make this idol. So they take the gold that they have and they start throwing it in to make this calf. But guess what? It doesn't just cost to make it. It costs to keep it and they continue to make sacrifices. Look, you made great sacrifices to start your company and now you have to keep making those sacrifices.

You paid dearly to create the reputation you have as somebody who can handle it all. And now you keep paying, you keep having to sacrifice. Someone will pay. There's a cost and there's a sacrifice to our idolatry. And I'm not going to stand up here and say that following Jesus, worshiping Yahweh is not going to cost you. It is going to cost you everything.

It's not that idols require sacrifice and Jesus is free. He's not. He said, take up your cross and follow me. It'll be a life of sacrifice to follow him. Here's the difference. He doesn't overpromise and under deliver. And your idols do. They make all kinds of promises they can't keep. And then you keep trusting them to do it again.

You know how many times pawn has promised to satisfy you and fallen short, and you're still going to bet on that? You know how many times control has made a promise to you that it can't keep? You know how many times we've turned to food to comfort ourselves, only to get hungry like an hour later? Idols over promise and under deliver.

Jesus says he will reward us. There's life as we lay down our lives for him. The second thing that happens is corruption. Then the Lord said to Moses, go down, because your people, I love that gods like these are my people, is my treasured possession. Now they start worshiping idols and gods like Moses. You take care of your people.

These are your people. You need to deal with them.

You've been brought up out of Egypt, but they've become corrupt. They've been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol. Cast in the shape of a calf. They've bowed down to it. They've sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt? I've seen these people, says the Lord to Moses.

They're a stiff necked people. You will become like what you worship. This is the first time that the people of God are described as stiff necked. That'd be a description of an ox, maybe a mule of a horse that's stubborn, that you're trying to steer them one way, but they're resistant to your direction. Right. And God saying this is a stiff necked group of people.

You know what else was stiff necked? The golden calf. They were creating rigid, unmovable, unwilling to bow down. It could not move. They were becoming like what they worshiped. And this is true for us. For better or for worse, you will become like what you behold. You will become like what you worship. That's what Psalm 115 says. So why do the nations say, where is their God?

Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him, but their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths. They can't speak. They have eyes they can't see. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have noses but they cannot smell. They have hands but they cannot feel.

They cannot walk. They cannot utter a sound with their throats. And then Psalm 115 eight says, those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. I think you've seen this phenomenon where people start looking like their pets, and I don't know if it's because they picked the pet that looked like them, or if they started to become they started to look like the thing that they spend so much time with.

But we've seen this before. We will become like what we behold, for better or for worse. Again, if we're beholding Jesus, we're promised that we're going to become more like him. But it's also true that if what you're beholding is money, that's what you're fixated on. You will become shiny on the outside and dead on the inside. That's what you will become.

And some of us have seen that and know that all too well. If what you're worshiping, what you're thinking about, what has your attention and affection is casual sexual encounters, you'll become trivial. You'll become an addict who's not just using this to get what you need, but you're being used. Your life will become shallow and transactional, right? And to quote 50 cent, you'll be having sex, but you won't have any love.

You won't have meaningful connection. Or how about insta face? If this is what you're looking at all day, insta face technology, because we're looking at it as reshaping our idea of beauty, and it's doing a great job of communicating this gospel to the masses. Right? So one of the legacies of social media in the last decade is this kind of cyborg look, which has been adopted amongst influencers called Insta Face.

This is how one writer for The New Yorker describes Insta Face, the gradual emergence among professionally beautiful women of a single cyborg face as a young face, of course. Paula skin plump, high cheekbones, it has cat like eyes and long, cartoonish lashes. It has a small, neat nose and full, lush lips. It looks at you coyly but blankly, as if its owner has taken half a Xanax and is considering asking you for a private jet ride to Coachella.

Good news for us today you will become like what you behold. Pay attention. Your eyes are the lamp of the body. What are you taking in? What do you see? You'll become like it. Okay. Last point. And then we're going to. We're going to get down to it and respond. How would one throw down an idol if they wanted clean hands in a pure heart and a revival, asking for a friend?

One of the lessons from the Book of Exodus that's been so powerful because when we think about the Book of Exodus, we think about getting free from external oppression. Egypt, you know, the crack of the whip. And, you know, honestly, that takes just a few chapters. But the rest of the book and many other books that follow. Deal with getting rid of internal oppression with these things that enslave you, not just the stuff out there.

God deals with that quickly. The stuff in here is actually the issue. So how do we get free? How do we how do we become a people free from idol worship? Well, the first thing you're going to need is a greater Moses. You're going to need a greater Moses and Jesus. Is that greater Moses? I think this exchange is so powerful because God says to Moses, I'm going to wipe these people out, and I'm going to start over with you.

And Moses has the audacity to appeal to God's heart and say, no, don't do it. Remember your promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't do that. Don't start over with me. Remember your covenant. Remember your promise. But then Moses has a question for God. And God says no to Moses. What's the question? Moses says, put their sin on me.

Don't wipe them out. Don't blot them out. Blot me out of your book. And God says, no, I won't do it. I will make the people who sinned pay. They'll be punished for their sin, not you. You won't be punished for their sin. But one day there will be a Greater Moses. One day God will say yes to that, and he will lay upon Jesus the sins of us all.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has done what's right in our own eyes. We've all worshiped idols, and we will have a mediator, the great High Priest, Jesus, the Greater Moses, go up the mountain and say, don't blot them out. Blot me out. I'll take upon myself their sin. And this provides for us clean hands and a pure heart.

But when the Bible talks about holiness, it talks about it in a couple of different ways. The first is positional. That is that you and I have holiness because of what Jesus Christ has done. But it also talks about a holiness that's progressive that you and I strive towards, that you and I grow in. It's confusing at times.

This is how it says. Hebrews ten says, we've been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Done deal. Okay. That's awesome. Then your two chapters later, Hebrews 1214. So strive for peace with everyone and strive for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Wait a second. Is this something I have because of what Jesus has done?

Or is this something I'm supposed to pursue and strive for? And the Bible would say, yes, both those things. We have something positionally before God because of what Christ has done, and we have something progressive as we pursue being like him in holiness. I like to say it this way that it's impossible to please God as judge. You stand condemned before him.

It's impossible to please God as judge. We're guilty and we need it. Advocate. We need someone to atone for our sin. And now, positionally, we're forgiven. We're holy as we stand before God. But it is possible to please God as Father with our meager attempts. My daughters come to me all the time, and they say, I made my bed.

And I go and look at it. And as judge, they definitely did not make their bed. But as father I can see their heart, their attempt at holiness and go, well done. That's awesome. Dad, I drew you this boat as judge. I'm like, that looks like a hot dog. That's not a boat. But as father, I can go.

Wow, what an incredible ship. When they come to me and they're like, I made you mac and cheese. It's the world's best mac and cheese. As judge, I'm like, no, it's not. Came from a box. But as father, I can be like, this is the most amazing mac and cheese I've ever had in my life. This is the world's best Kraft mac and cheese.

Do you understand that? As judge? You don't. I mean, even your righteousness is like filthy rags. But as a father, he sees us striving to be like him, striving to please him, appealing to his heart. And we can move him with holiness.

So if you're here and you're like, let's do it, man, I think I've got some idols cooking. How do I get clean hands in a pure heart and a revival? The first thing you have to do with your idols is recognize your idols, which is a little bit sneaky. I mean, think about this scenario that these people think they're worshiping Yahweh.

They don't think they're worshiping an Egyptian god. They think they're serving Yahweh by worshiping this golden calf. And sometimes our idols are sneaky. Sometimes, again, they're good things that God has given us like a family. A good thing where I can find myself going like, wait a second. Do I worship the church or do I worship God? Have I taken all my gold and put it into Radiant Church, or have I taken all the treasures that I possessed and pointed them towards him again?

This can be really sneaky subtle. In fact, this list is so helpful. Take a picture of this because I can't explain it because we need to do business with God. But this talks about your core idol of comfort, control, power or approval. What you'll crave, what it'll cost you, your biggest fear that'll come from it, and how others will feel around you.

The tax that they'll pay, and then kind of the problem emotion you'll deal with in life. As you read this long enough, you'll realize you have four core idols, not one. It's not very encouraging. So then one, once we do this, once we recognize our idols, we repent and we call it sin and we call it serious. We don't justify it ourselves.

We call it sin, and we ask Jesus to cover it. We don't defend the way we act. We call it sin. We ask Jesus blood to cover us. Oh, I'm just a controlling. I'm just a controlling person. I'm just a people pleaser. You know, it's like, no, there's a serious cost to this. I need you to call it what it is and call it sin.

And that's not just before you and God. I genuinely believe that you need to confess it. Because sometimes with our idols, it sounds preposterous and silly when we say it out loud. But just like we need to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord with our mouth. We need to confess that we've worshiped this thing. So I would encourage you if you want to be healed, not just forgiven, but healed.

Confess with your mouth what has become an idol. And when people are like, oh, that's no big deal. Go! No, it is a big deal. Get behind me, Satan! It's a huge deal. It's a really big deal. And I'm not just struggling with what every red blooded boy is struggling with. This is serious before God. This has been an idol, and I want to throw it down.

And then once you renounce it, you have to replace it. Guys. You can't just leave a void in your life. You will worship someone or something. So in that place we say, this is what's true. This is who can save. This is who can really deliver me. And this is who I'm going to put my trust in. And then I'm sad to tell you today we do it again and again and again.

I don't know if you've read that story in the Old Testament of Dagon, but there's this Philistine god that they keep putting in the same place as the ark. So the ark carries God's presence. They keep carrying this idol into God's presence, and then they wake up in Diegans falling over, and then they prop it back up, and they wake up the next morning and Dagon is falling over, and they propped this idol back up.

And then finally, the third time Dagon falls and he's shattered. Well, this is the way this works in our life. You keep bringing your idol into the presence of God, and it tips over. And then three days later, guess what? You prop the sucker back up again. Then it goes over again. Then you find yourself once again. You're like, I can't believe I'm doing this.

I propped it back up again. Eventually, that thing will break. You keep bringing it into the presence of God and it'll be shattered. But we do this over and over again. Do you know how many opportunities you've given your idol to fulfill you? It's not going to be just one to rewire the way you worship. You will do this more than a few times.

Okay. And God's totally. He's gracious. He's loving. He's compassionate, and he's going to welcome you with open arms as you confess again. You're like, I can't. I don't even want to confess this. You know how many times I've said, Trav, I'm going to do this differently? You know how many times I've said, God, if you get me out of this pickle, I'll change, I promise.

You know how many times I've done this? I'm just going to hold my idol rather than put it down, because I know how quick I am to take it back up. No, man. Let's go again. Let's throw that thing down, trusting that God can help us break through into some real freedom worship team. Would you guys come? Church.

Would you stand?

One of the most encouraging parts of this conversation about idolatry is that each one of us are prone to certain God substitutes. There aren't some people in here who fall prey to idol worship, and then others who are like, oh yeah, I did that once.

And what I'd love to do is just lead you if you've never done this before. What I'd love to do is what the Golden calf couldn't do. I'd love to bend our knee. I'd love to humble ourselves. We're not the king. And it's not good when everything revolves around us. And so if you can. And you'd be willing.

Would you hit your knees with me? And I just want to lead you through a prayer together.

Yeah. Some of you are going back to your Catholic roots right now. You're like, where's the pad?

Well, Lord, here we are. We want to respond. We don't want to be stubborn. We don't want to be stiff necked. We want to be responsive. And when your spirit speaks, we want to move. And I want to ask that your spirit would reveal idols operating in our lives, things that we are worshiping. That you would show us what's underneath our fear, that you would show us what's under our anger.

We also repent before you, Lord, like we we say, this is sin. It's not who we are. It's not our personality. It's not who you've called us to be. We've made peace with this thing over and over again, and we want to repent. We want to turn our back towards the idols and turn our face towards God. And we renounce this with our mouths.

And would you just use your mouth to say I renounce this thing in my life? Go ahead, you can do it under your breath. You can do it as loud as you like. But would you just use your own lips to renounce what has set itself up in your life?

And we receive you, Jesus, as our mediator, our great High Priest.

We call it what it is, Lord. It's it's sin, and it has separated us from you. But we once again come to the foot of the cross and ask that you would take our sins from us.

And, Lord, would you put faith in our hearts that something new is possible for those of us who are here thinking, I don't know how many times I've hit my knees and this thing is still upright in my life. I ask in Jesus name that it would fall in Jesus name. I ask that idols would be shattered in Jesus name.

Things propped up in people's lives for decades would come down in Jesus name. That is possible by your blood, Jesus.

You've made a way not just for us to be free from the externals, but be free internally. We want to walk in freedom and glorify you with greater freedom in our lives. You can go ahead and stand with me.