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Have you ever let something good in your life destroy something that was better? Have you ever let something good in your life destroy something that was better? I'll give you a silly example. For example, maybe you have been at uh a dinner and you've had this incredible meal, you've really enjoyed the food, right? And you've eaten and eaten until your appetite is completely gone and the meal has been good, but you didn't realize that lurking back in the kitchen was that which was best. Your favorite dessert is there in the kitchen, and by the time it comes to dessert, you have absolutely no room for dessert because you let that which was good get in the way of that which is best. You guys know what I'm talking about here? Okay, silly example, but I'll give you something a bit more serious, a bit more serious. Um, for example, this happens in many ways in life, but maybe you have a hobby or a passion, something that you really enjoy. It is a good thing or it has been a good thing in your life. Maybe that passion is like restoring old cars. You're into like working on and restoring old cars, and so you get out in the garage and work on your cars and that's your thing. But as you're out there, it becomes more and more of a passion to an obsession to the point that it actually has a detriment on that which is most important in your life, which is your marriage. And that which is good gets in the way of that which is better. Make sense? Another example. Maybe you have a really good job. You love your job, you're good at your job, and you work hard, you work well, but your work, even though you find it rewarding, is eating away at your family. The relationships in your family. And if I was sit to sit you down and say which is more important, you would say your family, but that which is good, your job is eating away that which is better. You see, this is a common thread in life. This is something that we struggle with off and on. We struggle with things getting in the way of things that are actually better, and and I would say that this happens on the grandest scale in our lives, in this. We let things get in the way of that which should be the biggest thing in our lives. We have this tendency to let stuff that's often good get in the way of our relationship with God, which is best. And anything that does this, anything that gets that those good things that get in the way of that which is best, our relationship with God, when that happens, you call that thing an idol. An idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as a substitute for God. I didn't come up with this definition. This is by a man called Richard Keyes. And I like this definition because what it says is an idol is something within creation. As you read that, you're reminded that when we put something that is created in the spot of the creator, that just doesn't make sense. When we put it out in a definition like that, we're like, oh yeah, idolatry, worshiping something that's created as more important than the thing that actually created that thing is silly. That's nonsensical. It doesn't make sense. And so I like this definition, and it kind of helps us kind of frame up this conversation today because we're gonna talk about idolatry. Now, some of you are breathing a deep sigh of relief because you're like, well, thankfully we're not talking about sex. Because we've just done six weeks on sex, right? Through this, through this uh series that we've just gone through. But I'm gonna warn you that I really do believe this, I mean this seriously. This series or this message even today could be just as impactful, just as, I mean, if I'm really raw, as brutal, if you would allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you today, because I believe that idolatry is deeply rooted in all of our hearts, not just some of us. The sex series wasn't something that we just decided to talk about, by the way. It wasn't like we're like, okay, what do we do now? Let's talk about sex for six weeks. No, we've been journeying through 1 Corinthians, and as we've gone through 1 Corinthians, we've kind of gone section by section and said, okay, what does the text say? And then go through that. So when we did the sex series, we were just saying, okay, what does the book of 1 Corinthians tell us about the function and dysfunction of sex, of marriage and singleness and all of that conversation? And now we finally arrive to chapters 8, 9, and 10 of 1 Corinthians. Now, 1 Corinthians is kind of interesting in that if you look at these chapters, the way that some of the themes and the concepts are woven together are just kind of interesting. And they're beautiful. It's beautiful how God scripted his word here, but it's a little bit like spaghetti, a bowl of spaghetti, in that there's these thoughts and concepts all kind of woven together, and because of that, what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 this week, and then we'll look at 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 next week, and then the following week we're gonna come back to 1 Corinthians 9, okay? Because there's these themes that are kind of all wrapped up into this bundle, and that's how we're gonna pull them apart during the next few weeks, okay? So just stick with us. If it feels like we're jumping around a little bit, it's because uh God used Paul to write this text, and when he was doing that, he would focus in on something, and then he'd move over here, and then he'd come back again, okay? So that's kind of the reason that we're moving around a little bit. So why are we talking about the worship of idols? Why are we talking about this theme of idolatry? Well, if you go to 1 Corinthians 8, which we're gonna do in just a second, but if you turn there, the very first words that you'll see are these: about food offered to idols. Okay, so it doesn't take a genius to be like, oh, we should talk about idolatry here. Like it's obvious there in the text, but I want to give you guys a little bit of a warning. I don't want you to be tempted to think that what's been discussed here is about some ancient carved image that and the and the issues involved with bowing down and worshiping these ancient carved images. When we talk about idolatry, we're talking about something much more. I'll use the words of Tim Keller, who has a lot of books and resources, some articles that are really helpful on idolatry, and this is an excerpt from one of those articles. He says this the Bible does not consider idolatry to be one sin among many, and thus now a very rare sin, only among primitive people. Rather, the only alternative to true full faith in the living God is idolatry. Did you guys hear that? The only alternative to the to true full faith in the living God is idolatry. If you're not worshiping God, you're worshiping something else, is essentially what he's saying. And so as we look at this issue of idolatry, even though it may have some specifics to it, we must see that it has truth to speak to our hearts, whether you're a Christian in this room or not a Christian. Because I believe both of us struggle with idolatry, worshiping other things. We are designed to worship, and we're going to talk about this, we're designed to worship God, and we're continually struggling with worshiping things other than God. Now I hinted at something earlier. I said just then that this message is for those of us who are Christians and those who aren't Christians in the room, and I want to explain why I believe that that's true. And I want to use a personal example. I have a passion and a hobby in my life, and some of you are aware of this. I like to mountain bike. Okay, that's one of the things that I really like to do. And so I have some friends that I'm bride with and all of that sort of thing. Now, the interesting thing for me to note is that there are times, and I'm just being honest here, there are times in my life where I look to this hobby in a bigger way than I should. I look to it to give me satisfaction or to give me meaning of fulfillment, and that's not the way that it should be. When it crosses that line, it goes from being something good in my life to being something bad in that it's become an idol, right? But what I want to point out to you is that some of my friends who I ride with who are not Christians, they struggle with the thing in the same way. They also like riding, and they also at times will let that thing be what defines them. They'll let riding be the thing that, you know, gives them the highest highs and their lowest lows. And what I'm trying to point out to you this morning is Christian, non-Christian alike, this conversation's for all of us, because we all struggle in this area. We all struggle with letting things take the place of God in our life, whether we're Christian or non-Christian alike. What I'm essentially trying to say is this idolatry infects all of us and affects us in many ways. Idolatry infects us all and affects us in many ways. Why is that? Why is idolatry such an issue? Why is it so pervasive? Why do we see it everywhere? Well, it's because we're drawn to idols from within and we're drawn to idols from without. There's things inside of us that are pulling us towards idols. There's things from outside of us that are pulling us towards idols. Another way to say this is uh again, a quote from somebody who's written a really good article on this, a good gentleman named David Pallison. He says this idolatry is a problem both rooted deeply in the human heart and powerfully impinging on us from our social environment. Basically, what he's saying is your heart is bent. You're messed up. Sin has caused you to want to look to other things other than God to give you satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment. But he's saying not only that, the whole culture, the whole world in which you find yourself is screaming at you that you should be worshiping things other than God. So your influence from within, your influence from without. And for so there's a whole bunch that we could say about idolatry during these this little mini two-week series that we're gonna do. But for our sake today, what we're gonna focus in on is how idolatry impacts our relationship with God. So to start us out on this, we're gonna go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and I'm gonna ask you to turn there with me in a Bible. You can look it up on your Bible app on your phone or grab a real Bible in front of you. Uh we'll have the words on the screen also, but 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is where we're turning to. We're gonna start in verse 4. Here we go. About eating food offered to idols, then. We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him, and we exist for Him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through Him, and we exist through Him. However, not everyone has this knowledge. Let's pause there. I want to point out to you the quotation marks up the top, there in verse 4. It says in one of those quotes, there's a couple there, but it says in one of those, there is no God but one. Those are in quote marks because what is happening here is we're quoting back to the Old Testament and actually to a very famous passage, which is Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. And some of you may be familiar with that passage. That's the very famous one that the Jews repeat very regularly. It's the one that says, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. You guys know the scripture that I'm talking about? It's a very famous and core key text. But what Paul is saying to these guys as they're getting ready to have this conversation on idolatry, he says, Hey, let's frame up this conversation right. Let's do this right. He's got to say the first thing that we need to believe is that there is just one true God. And so as we get into this conversation, I want to help kind of frame us up as well. And so what I what we have in your notes there is this thought a solid understanding of idolatry and its impacts can only be built around these core beliefs. And we're taking these directly from the text that we just read. The first one is obviously this: that there is only one God. It's hard for us to have a conversation past this thought on idolatry. If we don't agree on this, if we don't come to terms on this, we can't continue. So the question is this: do you believe that there is only one God? This is a really, really, really important question for you to answer just in life in general, not just for our conversation today. Do you believe that there is only one God? Now, some of you would simply say no. I'm gonna imagine that in this room there's some of you who aren't Christians, and you're gonna say, Yeah, I'm not there. I don't believe that there is only one God. I haven't arrived there yet. If that's you, thanks for being here and participating in this conversation, that's really great. But what I would say to you, if you find yourself in that spot where you say, I don't believe that there is a God, that you have that view more of an atheist, if that's you, I would ask you, what is functioning in your life as a substitute guard for you? What is it, maybe a better way to ask it is, what is it that gives you your highest highs and gives you your lowest lows? What is it that defines you? Whatever that thing or those things are are operating in your life as a guide. Would you stop and consider that this morning? If that's the space you sit in, you're like, I don't believe that there is a God, well, look at your life because what you're gonna see are there are things that you have set up as most important in your life. And when you look to those things, what you're doing is you are worshiping those. And they're functioning as a God in your life. Again, Tim Keller from his article on idolatry says this since we need to worship something because of how we were created, we cannot eliminate God without creating God's substitutes. It's just the way we were designed. You, even if you're an atheist, are gonna look to things to give you satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment because as a created being, that's how you were designed. As a Christian, I strongly believe that. Now, back to that question. Do you believe that there is only one true God? Some of you would say that you believe in God, but he's one of many paths. You would say, if you say there's only one God, that's that's a little too exclusive for me. That's a little too narrow, right? This is a really popular view in our world and in our culture now. There's many paths, you know, they all kind of lead the right way. And to that, I would really challenge you that if that's the view that you have, you won't see idolatry as anything important. Because if there are other paths, if there are other ways, if there are other gods, why would God be offended about that? That doesn't really make a lot of sense. Essentially, you won't see idolatry, worshiping other gods as offensive to God. What I really would point you towards is John 14, 6, among many other scriptures, but I really do like this one. It's the one that says where Jesus was speaking, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's an exclusive claim, guys. And what I would say to that is we've got to realize that Jesus isn't okay with sharing his glory. He's not down with that. That's not okay. It's not okay for us to say, yeah, there's many paths. And so if you're not there at saying, yeah, I believe there's only one true God, I would challenge you on that. I'd say you don't believe the Bible then. You don't believe the teachings of Jesus. Because Jesus over and over made it clear. The teachings of the Bible make it over and over again clear that there is only one God and he is not okay with sharing his glory. Thirdly, to that question, do you believe that there is only one God? You may say, Yes, I believe that. And if you do believe in only one God, you can see that love for anything less or anything else than Him is offensive to His Lordship. My hope is that you would see and believe that there is only one God, because that is a great starting point for our conversation today. You know what it also does? That thought leads us to some other really good questions. Questions like, who is he? If there is one true God, who is he, and why on earth did he create you? Another two great questions. And actually, if you go back to the text we just read, they're answered there in that text, in answer to that question of who is he, he is the Lord and Father of all. He is the creator, he's the one by whom we exist. It's written there in the text. He's the one who designed you, he's the one who knows you. And so, in answer to that question or to some of those core things that we've got to understand that I I've listed out in your notes, the first one is that there is only one God, but the second one is that you were made by him. You were made by him. If you want to get a good view of idolatry, you've got to see that you were made by him. And in answer to the last question of why did he make you, you were also made for him. If you go to verse 6, in the middle of that section of verse 6, it says that explicitly, you were made for him. To some of you, that may be a disappointment this morning. You're like, man, I thought life was all about me. No, you were made for God. For others of you, that may be a relief. You're like, whew, wait off my shoulders. That's good, okay? But whatever space you find yourself in, realize that you were made by God and for God, for his glory. You and I were created to worship God. That's essentially the framework that we're trying to build here before we go into idolatry. That's what we were created to do. Another word that we could use there, and one that I like to use, is designed. You were designed, you were made in such a way as to worship God. When we try to worship something that wasn't designed to be worshiped, there's always going to be negative consequences, negative repercussions, right? Like you don't, let's move away from the spiritual thought for a second and go to the physical world and think about that. When you take something that was designed to function one way and use it in a way it wasn't intended, things don't go well, do they? I don't know if you guys have ever been around a building or construction site where somebody's tried to use a chisel as a screwdriver. I've seen that happen. It has negative repercussions. Firstly, the chisel gets damaged by the metal that it's rubbing against. It's no good for what it was designed for. Secondly, it'll slip off and cut somebody's finger or thumb or whatever else. It doesn't end well. It wasn't designed to function that way. Another example, maybe you've been with somebody, or you've done this yourself, uh, where you've left the parking brake, the handbrake, on in the car and tried to drive with it on. And it's like, brrrr, you know, what's going on here? It wasn't designed to function that way. Maybe you've tried to use a blender without a lid on it, right? It wasn't designed to function that way. Like it sprays stuff everywhere. What the point I'm trying to make to you guys this morning is simply this. You were designed a certain way. And that certain way, Christian and non-Christian alike, hear this this morning. You were designed to worship God. And when you try and worship something else other than God, when you put something in that seat of most importance in your life, dysfunction is sure to ensue. Another way to think of this whole thing, and I want you to stick with me with this thought, is kind of to think of it like an umbilical cord. Now, think about what an umbilical cord is. An umbilical cord is the thing that supplies, when you are at the most frail point of your life, it's the thing that's it's the only thing that supplies life and growth to you, right? An umbilical cord is essential for a baby's development. And much in the same way, we were designed to be connected with God. We were designed to have this connection with God. And when something comes along and takes his place, it's like that cord is cut and it's trying to plug into something else, but it's not working. What it brings to us is typically death and dysfunction, busyness, distraction, desires, all these things disconnect us from God. Whenever we say I exist for and there's a blank, whatever that blank is, if it's not God, is gonna lead to negative things, right? If I say I exist for my marriage, I exist for my kid, I exist for my job, my hobby, my career, my house, my finances, I don't know what it is that you struggle with, but whatever that fill in the blank is, if it's not God, is going to bring dysfunction and ultimately gonna bring death in your life. This is the point I'm trying to make today. Idolatry severs our vital relationship with God and leads to death. That's what idolatry does. And if we continue on in the text, as we're going to in chapter 10, we're gonna jump down to chapter 10. We're gonna see what this looks like. Jump with me down to chapter 10, verse 1. We are gonna come back to chapter 9 for those who are um needing everything to be completed. I promise we won't skip over that completely. Verse 1 of chapter 10, 1 Corinthians says this. Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud. Now, when it says our fathers, it's talking about the people of Israel, God's special and chosen people, right? So it's saying these special and chosen people, all under the cloud, all passed through the sea. Verse 2, and we're all All baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness. We are going to keep reading, but I want to pause for a second. Because I want to point out that this passage should create concern for you. The reason that it should create concern is that the people of Israel, God's special people that it's talking about here, saw God in an amazing way. They went through the dry seabed as God parted the Red Sea for them. Every day God would lead them with a cloud. The cloud would cover them and it would give them shade from the desert sun. The visible presence of God. And then at night it would warm them as this pillar of fire. I mean, these guys woke up in the morning and there's food outside their tents that God was providing. If you want to talk about people who were exposed to God and the things of God over and over and over again, these people had it. And yet the caution in the text here is that even though God loved them and looked after them in so many ways, they still did not love him first and foremost. And let's be honest, we have that same issue. Let's read what the repercussions of that were as we read on in verse 6. Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did. Don't become idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, and he goes through several examples here, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play. Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people fell dead. Let us not test Christ as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes, nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. Now these things happen to them as examples and were written as a warning to us on whom the ends of the ages have come. So whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. No temptation is overcate taken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able to able, but with temptation he will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. This is a sobering text. Really sobering. This week, as I as I read into this text, and I would encourage you, if you're interested, to do the same, if you read into there, obviously there's several stories that he's referring back to in that text as he's talking about the snakes or the 23,000 people dying. If you want to read up on that, find a study Bible or an online study tool, and there'll be little links that will give you links back to what scriptures it's referring to. But if you look into those stories, what you're gonna find is story after story, and they're all sad stories, of God's people turning from him and looking up to other things, looking to other gods, looking to other things to give them satisfaction and fulfillment. And in their pursuit, what do they find? They find death. The warning is real. When we chase after other gods, we find death. There's a lot of stuff in this text, but I want to point out in particular verse 12 to you. Verse 12 is again a very sobering one because it says, Whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. And what I'd point out to you guys this morning is this idolatry is something that we are all, capital letters, all, susceptible to. We're all susceptible to this. We cannot sit here this morning and be like, oh yeah, I've heard sermons on idolatry before. Oh yeah, yeah, this is dangerous. I get it. Okay, cool. Moving on. This is something that we are all so susceptible to. So, how do we do it? How how do we keep ourselves from idols? I don't know if you noticed the last part of the text. By the way, there's some really good stuff in this text talking about God and his faithfulness and how when temptation comes, God will help us out. But if you go to the very end of the text that we read, verse 14, it says there in verse 14, therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. Now, I don't know if you thought about the wording here, but it's not like, hey, friends, you should just keep yourselves from idols. They're not very good, or just watch out for. It says flee. When you hear that word, that should conjure up images in your mind of running for your life. It says, flee from idolatry. How do we do it? How do we keep ourselves from idols? I don't know if you're aware of this, but this is one of many biblical texts that talk about running, fleeing, turning from idols. All through the Old Testament, all through the New Testament, time and time again we're told to turn and to run from idols. How do we do that? Obviously, if we look to the people of Israel, God's special and chosen people, they're not a very good example. We've already been shown that in the text. What about some of the other men of faith? What about somebody like Noah? Noah follows God, he rescues God's, he rescues a remnant, his family, and he saves humanity. He does this amazing thing for God. But if you read on to the part of the text that isn't included in kids' books, what happens? He grows a vineyard, he gets drunk, lays naked in his tent, exposed to the world, and curses his son. Not a great ending, right? Idols eat his lunch. He idolizes comfort, he idolizes his wine, he idolizes pleasure, and it ends poorly. Maybe Gideon. We look to Gideon. I'm just giving you guys a few examples of many. Look to Gideon. Gideon's this man used in amazing ways by God. He takes 300 men and takes on tens of thousands, over a hundred thousand men with 300 men. God uses them and they have this amazing victory. He takes some of the spoils from that. If you read on in the story again, the part that's never in the kids' books, and and what you read is he takes all this gold and makes an ephod, an idol, out of that gold. And then he sets himself up to live like the king of Israel, even though he isn't the king. And God's made it explicitly clear that Israel at this period doesn't need a king. He idolizes power and a physical idol. Not cool, right? Okay, David. You guys know where I'm headed with this already. David, powerful man, used by God, many victories. Go further on in his life, idolizes sex, power, prestige, pleasure, all of that stuff. He sleeps with one of his friend's wives and then has his friend killed in battle. What I'm trying to paint a picture for you guys is that when we ask this question of how do we keep our idols ourselves from idols, we don't. You can't. The key here is that it's hopeless by yourself. It's not hopeless, it's hopeless by yourself. And what I want you to see this morning is this our only hope is in Christ. The only way that you and I will be able to keep ourselves or to flee from idols, as the text tells us over and over and over again, is with the help of Jesus. You see, Jesus was this one man who came and lived among us. He kept himself completely from idols. He didn't submit to the idol of comfort or the idol of fame or the idol of sex or the idol of power. He gave it all up to God. In his own words, he came to serve and not to be served, to give his life as a ransom for many. That's Mark 10, 45, right? So he came with this posture, with this attitude that we have never seen. Unlike us, he looked to the Father for everything. He had that connection that that we were talking about, that connection earlier with God that was never severed. He is the perfect example of what it looks like to live free from idolatry. And as I just mentioned, he stayed connected with his father, except for one moment in time. And I want to point this out to you because it's important. Do you guys remember as Jesus is there hanging on the cross for our sins and the sins of the world? What does he say as he's stretched out on the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, he pursued the Father and yet the Father cut him off. Why was he cut off? Why did he experience separation from God? By the way, we hear that verse and we're like, oh yeah, that's sad. And we're thinking in our minds, he had this relationship with God, I get it, they're tight. But he'd had a relationship for eternity past with God. We don't understand that type of relationship yet. We don't. This depth of relationship that these guys had, and he is separated from God, and in anguish, he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And in that moment, what we see is that Jesus is experiencing the punishment, the banishment that we deserve for our idolatry. Even though he didn't idolize anything, he experienced our pain and our suffering. That's the gospel, guys. That's brilliant. I mean, there is hope, there is joy in that truth this morning. And so, what I want to encourage you guys with is this. Jesus gives us both an example and grace in our struggle with idolatry. By yourselves, it's hopeless. But with him, you have an example and grace. So, how do we keep ourselves from idols? Back to this question we've been talking about for the last few minutes. How do we do it? We look to Jesus for an example, and when we struggle, when, not if we struggle, when we struggle with idolatry, we turn to him, we run to him for his grace and we repent. Now I know we've talked about a whole bunch of different themes here this morning. I know we've kind of talked about idolatry and we've talked about some of the base stuff that we have to form up before we have this conversation. So I want to be really clear. I want to make sure that we're on the same page as we're thinking about this and kind of getting our heads around the conversation. And summarize what we're trying to say here. There's four things that I want to make sure that we're clear on. The first is that idolatry is real, it's pervasive, it's everywhere. It's in your heart, it's in my heart, it's in a Christian's heart, it's in a non-Christian's heart. Idolatry and the tendency, the bentness towards idolatry is all around us. Secondly, we are called to flee from idolatry, to flee from false gods, to flee from other things that would take the place of God in our lives, even good things. But we aren't just called to flee and run in a random willy-nilly direction. We're called to run to God. That's the third thing. We're called to run to God, to keep connected to him. Remember that that illustration with the umbilical cord. We've got to keep that connection with him, that vital connection for life, for growth. And the final thing that I would point you guys towards is this we must embrace the gospel when we fall into idolatry. We've got to reach out to Jesus, look to him, and get his help. I have one more quote that I want to read you guys, but it needs a little bit of a setup. This quote is again from David Pallison, but it's a part of an article that he wrote. And the reason I want to give it to you guys this morning is twofold. The first part of the reason that I want to give it to you is that it paints a really raw and real picture of what idolatry is like in our world and in our culture. And I think it's kind of the way that he speaks it out is quite good and helpful. So it gives us a picture. The second reason is that there's an encouragement in here that is just awesome. There's an encouragement to fight the fight, to live this life against idolatry. But the reason I need to set it up is as he's talked through this article, he's been framing it up in conversation paralleled with an old story from back in the 1600s that was written by a man named John Bunyan. It's called Pilgrim's Progress. Some of you are familiar with this story. This is the story, it's an allegory written by a gentleman who was in prison at the time. And this allegory is this beautiful picture, and he's framing up this conversation on idolatry by talking about Christian, the main character from this story, and his travel through a town or a city called Vanity Fair. And Christian, it's an allegory, so it's a picture of the Christian life, has to pass through. He can't go around. He has to pass through Vanity Fair. And Vanity Fair, Palison is saying, is a lot like our world and our culture. It's all these influences, all these idols, all these things that people are looking to for satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment. And so the picture that he paints with this is quite powerful as Christian and his companion are met at the gates by their friend, their very good God-honouring friend evangelist. And so we're going to read this. He has his part of the quote, and then we have the second part of the quote that I'm going to read for you. Here's the picture. People are idol makers, idol buyers, and idol sellers. We wander through a busy town filled with other idol makers, idol buyers, and idol sellers. That's who we are, that's the world in which we live. We variously buy and sell, woo, agree, intimidate, manipulate, borrow, impose, attack, or flee. But there is a bigger gospel. At the gates of Vanity Fair, Christian met a man who entreated him and his companion. And these are the words of evangelists to them. And this is the encouraging portion I want you guys to hear. Love this. Let the kingdom be always before you, and believe steadfastly concerning the things that are invisible. Let nothing that is on this side of the other world get within you, and above all look well to your own hearts and to the lusts thereof, for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Set your faces like a flint, you have all power in heaven and on earth on your side. Isn't that an encouraging word? We have all power in heaven and on earth. I don't want you guys to leave here today thinking, wow, all those Christians in history struggle with idolatry, and I guess I do too. You know, like that's not the thought that we're leaving here today. The thought is that we have all power of heaven and earth on our side. As I read this quote, as I think about this, I'm reminded of Romans 8.31. You know what it says? It says, If God is for us, who can be against us? And as you go on in that text in Romans chapter 8, it goes on to say in verse 37 that knowing all these things, even the struggles of life, the hard things, the struggles with idolatries, we are more than victorious through him who loved us. We're not victorious on our own. We're not victorious by our own effort or our own morals or our own good living. We are victorious through him who loved us. We can live a victorious life through Jesus today. And I really just want to ask you this simple question: Are you living in Jesus' victory today? Is that where you find yourself? As we talk about idolatry and the struggles of our hearts being pulled towards other things, are you living in victory today? I got two final thoughts for you. The first is this, and I'm asking both of these things because I want you to not let this be a hypothetical conversation. Let's make this real, let's make this raw and impactful for our lives today. The first question is this What are the idols that you are drawn towards? I want you to consider that this morning. What are the things that you were predisposed? What are the things that you are naturally drawn towards or have struggled with in the past? And what does it look like for you to flee from these specific things and run towards God? I'm not going to assume that all of you are in a terrible place this morning. Some of you may be in a great place, walking in Christ's victory this morning. If that's the case, awesome. Praise God, but think and consider, be sober-minded and realize that all of us are susceptible to falling, like we talked about earlier. So what is it that is likely to make you fall and have conversations with people about that? Maybe it's a spouse or a friend and say, hey, I just know that my heart tends towards this. I need you to check up on me. I need you to help me. Or maybe it's giving that thing over to God. God, I really do love my children, but they've become more important to me than you. Or they I can see that they could. God, would you help me in that? Be real, be raw with God this morning. The second thought that I have for you, and this one is a little bit harder, is to ask, what are the idols that you are embracing today? Not the ones that have potential. Yeah, that's great for some of you to think about. But some of you today need to ask, what is it that I am embracing right now? What am I looking to for satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment? What am I worshiping that isn't God? And as you think on that thing, as you're drawn towards that thing, is as I pray the Holy Spirit illuminates that thing in your heart. My prayer is that you would figure out what repentance looks like today in that thing. Now, if you're not a Christian and you're here, this is exactly where I'm talking to you. Because I want to remind you, if you're not a Christian, you need to move away from looking to anything else other than God. You just need to take a step towards him today and say, God, I need you. I'm struggling. I'm looking to all these things to give me satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment. And I'm realizing today that I wasn't designed that way. I need you. For others of you who are Christians, maybe, you are too are embracing idols. You're looking to things other than God, and God is dishonored with that by that. He's not pleased with that. And so I want to encourage you, if that's the place you find yourself in, repent, turn towards God. He is full of grace, he is full of mercy. And this morning you can turn from looking to those things to give you satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment, and look to God, because in Him and Him alone, you're gonna find true satisfaction, true meaning, true fulfillment.