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Well, I'm glad you guys are here, and my name is Nick. I'm one of the pastors here at Point Community Church, and so it's uh it's good to see you. And uh I'm just real encouraged already by just what we've sang about, what we've talked about, and uh hope that you feel that way as well. Um I kind of chuckled last week when Harley got up here and kicked off this new series on idolatry because for those of you who've been with us over the past eight weeks or so, really, you could go past that even back into uh March and February. Uh, we tackled some very difficult topics. We've been tackling some very difficult topics as we worked our way through the book of 1 Corinthians. And uh one of those was we talked about money and how God wants us to view our money, uh really his money that he's entrusted us with. Uh we talked about sex for six weeks, and uh that was uh a great conversation, though an intense one. Uh and then last week Carly said, Hey, so I know some of you are relieved that we're done with this conversation about sex and we're moving on. So we're gonna talk about idolatry. It's like, great. Just what we were hoping for. We were like, couldn't you like throw us like a grace series or like, you know, God's love, you know, like why idolatry? Well, again, um, a couple things. One, I hope you know that as we've talked about these difficult issues, we don't have to shy away from our struggles because we have grace in Christ. And so we're always talking about God's grace, and hopefully, every week what you walk away with is not a to-do list, uh a set of behaviors that you need to go home and change and work harder, but that you see the beauty of Christ, who he is, what he is doing, you see that we have the Holy Spirit's power, you see that this gospel that tells us that we're sinful but loved and forgiven, like it all comes together so we can talk about hard things without having to feel so crushed by them because we have hope. We have hope, and we know our identity is not in our behavior, our performance. God's love isn't based on how we're doing in these lists of behaviors, external behaviors, but it's ultimately about what Christ has done stepping into our place, even in our mess, even in our disobedience, even in our rejection of Him, even in our failures, Christ is strong, and He is stepping in, giving us hope, giving us life, and giving us a chance, uh, a rescue for our soul, like we just sang about. And so that being said, um, we are going to continue this conversation about idolatry. And I love this uh this picture. It's kind of funny to me. Like this is like this ominous clouds in the in the distance here, destructive idolatry, you know, because idolatry does destroy. The problem with idolatry, though, is it's very subtle, it's kind of sneaky, it's under the under the current, uh, it's under the hood, if you will, it's hiding, it's lurking in the shadows. So we don't always know that that's what we're dealing with, that's what we're struggling with, is idolatry. Uh, but I can tell you this morning that if you'll listen, and if you won't tune out, and if you won't push away from the table, and if you won't just say, you know what, I got better things to do with my time than to be uh told that I'm an idol, uh, idol worshiper. I think if you'll listen, God has some things to say to us that will convict us, but that will also free us. And that's my hope is that we wouldn't just feel conviction of sin, but we'll find freedom uh from these idols, from this enslavement to idols, which I think we all are struggling with, and I'll make that case this morning. So last week's discussion, conversation was on how idolatry destroys our relationship with God. And this week, what we want to do is we want to talk a little bit about how our relation, our idolatry, our worship of idols, actually is destructive in our relationships with people. Okay? It has not just a vertical impact, which may seem pretty obvious, when you reject God, it's gonna impact your relationship with God. Uh, when you worship things other than God, it's gonna impact your relationship with God. But it also influences and impacts your relationship with people. Okay? So I want to ask you to pull out your Bibles, and it's gonna take us a minute to get to this point that we're driving at, but I want you to hang with me because we're working through the book of 1 Corinthians, and I'll just go ahead and tell you on the front end as we read this, even the fact that the idolatry in this particular passage is not like real obvious. Okay? When you read it, you're not gonna go, oh wow, like okay, I see idolatry there, other than the fact that Paul is addressing uh eating meat that was sacrificed to idols. But the thrust of this text, the focus of this text is not actually on the idol in the believer per se. At least that's not what it sounds like, but I want you to hang with me because I think you're gonna see this come together as we work through it. Now, if again, if you're not a believer, if you're if you're an unbeliever here in the room, uh, which every week we have people who come that are not believers, that are not, they're not Christ's followers, they haven't given their life to Jesus, they haven't put their trust in Christ. Um, I want you to make sure you understand that uh we are not asking you as an unbeliever to just start behaving like a believer, okay? We're not asking you, and we're in fact this this conversation, there's parts of it that may not make sense to you, okay? But I I would say some things at the end of this time today that I think are very important for you to hear as someone who may be exploring faith or maybe who is just kind of navigating doubts, confusions about faith, uh, because there are some ideas in this text today that that apply to you, and particularly one at the end that I want you to hear. So don't check out if you're um if you're just kind of you know long for the ride or you're exploring faith. Um we're glad that you're here, we're thankful that you're you're here, and we want to encourage you as you're you're working through some of these difficult texts, because as a believer, we're working through difficult texts, it's hard stuff, okay? So that being said, 1 Corinthians chapter 8. I want us to begin in verse 4, which we actually read part of this last week, but it's just a better way to get on to this text, and then we're gonna read all the way through the end, and as we go, I'm gonna make some comments about this, alright? So just um it may take us a minute to get through it. Here's what it says about eating food offered to idols, then. We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no one, no God but one. Now, first off, let me just quickly say this. Uh, Paul is answering questions that the Corinthians had. Okay, from beginning in verse uh chapter 7 on to the rest of the book of Corinthians, Paul's actually answering questions that they had written to him. And so, about, when he says about uh eating food offered to idols, someone in their question to Paul had said, What do you guys think about this? Paul, what do you think? Should we eat this food or should we not eat this food? And so Paul's trying to address their question. He goes on to say, uh, for even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods, notice little G, lowercase g, gods, and many lords, lowercase l lords. Yet for us, believers in Christ, followers of Jesus, the church in Christ, for yet for us, there is one God, big G God, right? This is the real God, this is the legitimate living God, the holy God, the creator God, the Father, and 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. Now, if you know the book of Colossians, this sounds very similar to what Paul writes in the book of Colossians in chapter one, where he says, Everything exists by God and for God. And last week we said that exact thing. There's only one God, and everything was created by him, and everything exists for him. For his glory, is how we would even say that more clearly. However, not everyone has this knowledge. So Paul's saying not everybody understands this to be true. And that's the case today, correct? Maybe even for you in this room, you haven't landed the plan, and whether you believe that God of the Bible is the actual God, the one true God, or that Jesus Christ is God's Son and God who came and lived and died and rose again. I mean, that's that's a lot, that's a that's a big idea to get your brain around. It's hard and it takes faith, okay? But he says, however, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience being weak is defiled. Now, notice something here. He says, not every he says that some of you have been so used to idolatry up until now. Um, it's interesting, in Paul's day, it was so normative for people to be worshiping in these different temples. They go to these different places and sacrifice to these different gods and worship these idols, like these statues, literal statues of these deities that they had made. Okay? So it was so normal, it's just part of the culture, so they didn't really think anything of it. It's just this is this is the life we live, this is the place we live, this is the this is what you do. Now think about that just for a second because I want to at least make one connection here, in that the reason why idolatry is hard to sniff out and it's hard to identify is because so many times the idols that we have are so common that we are all just like, what's the deal? I thought everybody does this. Are you with me? This is just normal. So everybody, everybody does this. Everybody has this kind of uh house or this kind of car, this kind of stuff. Now you guys are already saying, like, well, what are you talking about, idols and cars? But we'll get there in a minute. But just what I'm saying is that what becomes normative in the culture, you just start to absorb and you go, well, this is normal, right? And so we have to be really careful to be aware that as Christ's followers, we don't just absorb things and adopt things because that's what the culture does. That's called syncretism. That's when we just become just like the culture, there's no distinctiveness. I hope you know this, but if you're a Christ's follower, you're called to be set apart, to be different, to look different, to view the world through a different lens, and then therefore behave in different ways. It's part of being a Christ's follower. And if we follow Jesus, we're gonna look distinctive. Now, he goes on to say, um, food will not make us acceptable to God. There's so much in this, but what is he saying there? He's saying this external behavior is not what makes us acceptable to God. I hope you hear this. We say this a lot from here. From this platform, whoever's teaching, whoever's preaching, we say this, and I want to reiterate this point. You do not get saved, you do not enter the kingdom of heaven, you do not come to God the Father, you do not have a relationship with God based on your external behavior. It's not about the things you do or the things you don't do that get you into heaven. Are you with me? And so he's saying food, this is a specific instance, food does not make you acceptable to God. So if you eat the food, or if you don't eat the food, that's not ultimately how God decides you're in or you're out, or you're accepted or you're not accepted, right? That's an external behavior modification deal, which many people will tell you, well, you got to jump through this behavior hoop, then you can get to God. You gotta clean yourself up, then you can get to God. You gotta do these four things and check these boxes, then you can get to God. That's not the case, and we'll talk about that more and why. But notice this, he says, food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don't eat, and we are not better if we do eat. So be careful, self-righteousness, right? Hello. Self-righteousness, when we start to do good things, then we're like, look at me. I'm so good. I'm such a good Christian. Everybody look at me, right? He says, be careful of that. But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. This is really what Paul's driving at here. Okay, this is his main point he's making from the text. He's saying, you have freedom, because you're in Christ, to eat what you want to eat. Because you understand that these idols aren't really gods. These aren't really deities. You're not worshiping them by eating these idols, by eating this food. That'll be interesting. You could eat the idol too. But and we'll talk about that in a minute. Um, but here's the thing. So, I well let me finish reading this because this will help you understand what he's actually driving at. He says, For if someone sees you, the one who has this knowledge, dining, that what's the knowledge, has the knowledge that Christ is our salvation, that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. So you're a believer, if you have that knowledge. If someone sees you, the one who has the knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, won't his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols? Now, this is why this is a big deal. Because what Paul is saying, just so we're all clear here, maybe you don't need me to explain it to you, but I want to, um, is that they had these sacrificial systems going on in these temples, and there would be leftover. There would be scraps from the idols. And this meat that was left over that wasn't used in the sacrificial process would be sold in the marketplaces, but they also literally, you can see it here, they had places around the temple where it was kind of like a restaurant. You show up and you eat the idol, the food that was left over. It's kind of weird thought, isn't it? So they're sacrificing over here, but then they're like bringing some of the pieces out, cooking it, barbecuing it up, and then there you go. You just sit out there and hey, we're gonna go on a date night tonight, we're gonna go over to this uh temple and we're gonna eat the little leftover scraps from today's sacrifices. All right? That's what was going on. And it says that if these weak brothers, which we're assuming that then it would be like believers, it could even be unbelievers, which we're gonna get into more next week, they see you in there eating that meat that's been sacrificed to idols, and what could they assume? Well, that you're all about the idols, that you actually are in on this idol worship, that you are getting involved in idol worship because you're there, you're in that place, and you're eating that food, so you must not think it's a big deal to worship these idols. So maybe, maybe, just maybe, that could lead people to go, well, it's Jesus plus idol worship. It's not just salvation and Jesus, but maybe you keep your idols and you worship Jesus. Which that's a very American way to do life too. If I can have all my stuff plus Jesus, it'd be awesome, right? But see, here's the thing. We've got to be very, very careful because they did have the freedom to eat this meat, but Paul is saying to them, don't let that freedom, that right you have in Christ to eat that meat become a stumbling block to your brother. Now, let me give you one practical example. Now, hear me out on this because some of you come from different camps on what I'm about to say, but I think it's a it's an issue. Let me talk briefly about alcohol. Okay? Now, I haven't heard any sermons preached on alcohol in quite a while. What I typically heard growing up about alcohol was if you drink alcohol, you're not a believer. Or if you're drinking alcohol, uh, at a minimum, you're a very, very, very immature believer. And you don't understand that alcohol is damaging to you and, you know, again, it's ungodly. It is a sin in and of itself just to drink alcohol. Now, if you've read your Bible and you've scoured the text, as many of my Baptist fellows have, in my age group, looking for a loophole so they could drink. Let's be honest, they saw that it doesn't say in here, don't drink alcohol. It's not in the text. Unless people were taking a Nazirite vow, there were particular vows where they couldn't drink alcohol, but that was a commitment they made. But it doesn't say don't drink alcohol. It does say don't get drunk. It does say don't drink to excess. Because why? Because when you drink alcohol to excess, you're an idiot. All right? You do stupid things. You either get angry and rude and mean, or you can get violent. So alcohol can become a problem. I know people who have done some really foolish things under the influence of alcohol, right? That's why Paul juxtaposes the idea of getting drunk with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Both, you're under the influence of something and it drives your behavior, drives your activity, your actions. So what I'm saying to you this morning is we don't really have a public stance on drinking or not drinking alcohol at all, per se, because really the Bible says if you want to drink alcohol, that's fine, you have the ability to do that. But here's the thing drinking alcohol to excess is a sin, and drinking alcohol that would cause your brother to stumble into sin is actually a sin. You could actually lead your brother, your brother who struggles with alcohol addiction, alcoholism, getting drunk, can't control it. If you drink in such a way that to actually lead them in that, you could actually be sinning. In fact, notice what he finished, we've got to finish this section. He says, this then the weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. They're starting to not see the lines real clearly here. He says, now when you sin like this, the brothers against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. Whoa. He just elevated that like way high, right? And remember, he's talking about food to idols. Something that they're consuming in their freedom. And now he's elevated and said, When you choose to ignore your brother's stumbling, when you choose to ignore your brother's weakness, you are not only sinning against them, you're sinning against Jesus. Wow. Well, that's that's pretty high, isn't it? Now, again, I hear people in my age group and younger all the time defending alcohol and saying, well, that's their problem. That is the problem right there. The fact that we don't care. The fact that we don't even, that we would put alcohol at a higher level of value than people. That's a problem. Right? So we have to be very careful about this. We have to be very aware of this because the Bible does speak to this issue. Now, again, some of you guys are mad, some of you are like, okay, great. Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, catch this. I love this about Paul. He's so strong. He says, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never again eat meat. It's just like, look, if it's gonna cause an issue, I'm not even gonna eat it. I'm just not even gonna go there, I'm not gonna do it. So that I won't cause my brother to fall. I have friends who've said they're not gonna drink alcohol purely because they don't want to cause anybody to stumble. And some of you in here who've done dealt with alcohol addiction, abuse, or whatever, you know, you would appreciate that. Right? It'd be better. Just be easier not to be around it, not to have to struggle with it, not to have to be tempted with it. Because it doesn't tempt me in that way, because I have no desire to be tempted in that way, right? It's just not it's not what I are where I am. It doesn't make as much sense to me. But to someone who's really been there, that's that's a hard thing. And we should love our brothers, we care about them enough that we would be willing to even give up a freedom, a right, if it was necessary, in a particular context or maybe at all. So the point is that just as I said, eating food or not eating food does not save you. Drinking alcohol or not drinking alcohol does not save you, does not make you right with God. It's just an a behavioral issue that could have eternal implications. It could actually offend a weaker brother, it could actually even keep people from walking in obedience to Christ, it could actually cause people to stumble in sin, right? So we have to be very careful about these issues. So, this is what's going on in the text and how I think it relates to one issue of today. There's lots of other issues that are here, some that are a lot more subtle, and some that are a lot more like easy to pill to swallow, maybe, for some of us in the room. The point is this I thought it's interesting that Paul's talking about idolatry, these food sacrifices to idols, and all the while he's pointing to the fact that these people have made an idol out of their freedom. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Let me make the connection here. He's talking about food sacrifice to idols, but he's actually talking about how they've taken their freedom and turned it into an idol. They're like, you know what, we don't care. This freedom, we have it, we're gonna do it no matter what. That has been elevated to the level of an idol in their life. This is how idolatry that may be here, first and foremost, an offense to God, then becomes a horizontal problem, a relational problem. Now, I'm gonna springboard from this onto multiple things, so you're gonna have to hang with me. But I think that you'll start to see that idolatry is much bigger than just simply an offense to the God who made us and who loves us. So, an idol, I want to give you a quick overview. Um, because this issue is so big, because it's such a massive problem, um, last week was an incredible start to this series uh to really work through this. For me, I went home like thinking, man, I've got some issues to work through here. Okay? I feel that way again, and so I want y'all to feel my pain today. So here we go. I'm inviting you in to my conviction. An idol is anything more important to you than God. An idol is anything more important to you than God. That's a simple definition. Uh, Tim Keller says this about it, uh, kind of in that same vein. He says, an idol is whatever you look at and say in your hearts, if I have that, then I'll feel like my life has meaning. Then I'll know I have value, then I'll feel significant and secure. That's what an idol is. Just making sure we all understand when we say idol what we mean. Uh Martin Lloyd Jones says this about idols. He says, and this is so extensive, it's on the screen. Listen to these words. It may take us a minute to even to absorb it, and I encourage you. Um I don't have it uh printed out for you, but I'd love for you to really marinate on this. Here's what he says. Well, an idol can be defined most simply in this way. An idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that God that should be occupied by God alone. Anything that holds my life and my devotion, anything that is central in my life, anything that seems to be vital, anything that is essential to me. You notice those words central, vital, essential. Uh an idol is anything by which I live and on which I depend. Anything that moves and rouses and attracts and stimulates me is an idol. An idol is anything that I worship. Anything to which I give much of my time, attention, my energy, and my money. An idol, anything that holds a controlling position in my life, is an idol. I don't know if it can say any more about it, right? Like that's just so extensive, so expansive. And here's the reason I give you that definition this morning, or what these these words from Martin Lloyd Jones is because I don't want anybody in here to feel picked on in isolation, all right? I want to make sure you understand we are all in on this. In fact, I would say idolatry is not a rare experience or struggle. It is a pervasive one. It is not a rare thing, it is not a unique thing. Every single one of you, and I can say this with confidence, is an idol worshiper. Because I know my own heart and I know that I am. I know that we all are idolaters in different ways. And there are multiple things that I could bring up and kind of pick at the culture about, but I know my own heart and the struggle to elevate things into God's place in my life. To make something that's not God be a God. You see, this idea that it's not rare, but it's actually pervasive, it might be implied in this definition that we just gave. But I would say to us, we are all driven in our behaviors by something. Right? Your behaviors aren't just in isolation. They are not, they are connected to something. What are they connected to? Our behaviors are a direct result of what we worship. Our behaviors are a direct result of what we have put our trust, our hope, our security, our identity, our worth in. They flow from that. Okay? So because of that, um, you know, sometimes you ask the question, well, what's motivating you? What's driving you? Which is actually a really good question if you're a Christian. What's driving me? What's motivating me? Because that's a good way to expose idols. David Pallison, who's a counselor, a Christian counselor, he wrote an article we actually quoted from last week. I think there's an even better question he points at, because he gets, after spending time with people, it's not just about what is motivating you, but maybe something different. Listen to this. The deep question of motivation is not what is motivating me. The final question is who is the master of the pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior? In the biblical view, we are religious, inevitably bound to one God or another. Catch this last section. People do not have needs. We have masters, lords, gods. Ouch. But true, right? Because what he's saying is that we're not just driven by needs, we're actually driven by our little G gods, our Lords, the masters that we put control of in our life. You want to know why we sin? Listen. We sin because we're idol worshipers. Every sin is a direct result of idolatry. So you would say, in essence, that idolatry is the sin beneath the sin. Idolatry is the sin beneath every sin. It is what's the motor that produces sinful behaviors and patterns and habits. It's idolatry, worshiping something other than God, making something other than God more the most important thing. Something occupying God's position in our life will drive behavior. Are you still with me? You haven't checked it out? Okay? Alright. So that means this. I want to make sure you understand this. Idolatry starts innocently, but it ends disastrously, okay? It starts innocently. All sin in our life is a perversion of God's good things. And I think this is really key because when God created in the garden with the story we get of creation, uh, each day of creation, if you've been in a vacation Bible school, kids, you probably have gone through one vacation Bible school that walked through the story of creation at some point. And at the end of each day, God says what? It is good. Alright? God's creation is good. And when he gets to man, he said, it is very good. Alright? So we know God's creation is good. We know man is very good because that's how God created us. So it's not creation that's the problem. It's the worship of creation that's the problem. It's the idolizing of creation. Some of you were here a couple weeks ago. We talked out of Romans chapter 1. Romans 1.25. Paul's writing there, again, beautiful, beautiful book of the Bible that tells us this expansive view of the gospel, the goodness of God. But until you can, before you get to the grace of God, you've got to talk about the brokenness of man. You've got to talk about how messed up we are so that you actually appreciate what Christ has done in stepping into our mess. But here's what he says in Romans 1.25 about the people, and he's specifically talking about the Gentiles. He says this they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. That's the heart of idol worship, right? Exchanging the truth of God for a lie and worship something created instead of the Creator. Well, that means that there are countless things that can become idols in our lives. I mean, think about that. All these things that God's created and are good can become an idol. That means that things, yeah, that even our good things can become an idol in our life. And we're going to talk about some of those in just a minute. It's interesting that in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5, and in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 5, Paul says the same thing. He says, he uses this idea that greed or covetousness is idolatry. Have you ever thought about that? What is he trying to say? He's saying that your lust, your desire for things more, for more than what God has already given you, is idolatry. This is why I say that every sin is derived from idolatry, because just like Adam and Eve in the garden, who had everything and still thought they needed something else. That is the problem in the heart of every human being, including myself. It's this covetousness, this lusting for more, this desire for more. And so it might start innocently, like wanting nice things. Is that an idol worship problem? Not necessarily. Wanting a good job, is that an idle problem? No, not when it's not necessarily wanting to eat a good meal, good food. Is that an idle problem? No, wanting to have go on a good vacation. Is that an idle problem? Like, do you see what I'm saying? We can keep talking through this. The initial desire for something good is not the problem. But when we elevate that thing and we have to have it, it's when we take something that's in our hand, God puts it in our hand, and we start to close our hands around it. And we start to tighten our grip, then we know that we've moved into worshiping an idol. We've made that thing an idol. We've elevated it to the status of God. And it's incredibly, incredibly destructive. So idolatry might start innocently, but it will end disastrously. And we'll talk more about why. But anything and everything can be an idol in our life if we don't have a broader perspective and realize that we were not made to worship the created things. We were made to worship the creator of those things. We were made to value, to look to God for our worth, identity, purpose, security, significance. Not to those things. You see, idolatry not only damages our relationship with God, it destroys our relationship with people. Idolatry not only damages our relationship with God, it destroys our relationship with people. Paul's already been talking in this passage saying your idolatry of your freedom, the fact that you believe you got this, you can just do whatever you want because you're free in Christ, is actually hurting people. It's damaging people. It has a horizontal impact. 1 Corinthians 10, we're not going to go there a lot today, but 1 Corinthians 10, Paul's still on the same thread. And he says in verse 23, he says this. He says, Everything is permissible. It's in quotes because that was a common phrase of the Corinthian people. Everything's permissible. We can do whatever we want. He's quoting them. But Paul says, but not everything is helpful. You guys probably have heard that before, right? If you've been in church. He goes on to say, everything is permissible again, but not everything builds up. Not everything actually benefits others. Not everything actually helps others. Because we know he's talking about that, because in verse 24 he says, no one should seek his own good but the good of the other person. One of the ways we know that we have idols in our lives is when we are willing to sacrifice people in order to get what we want. I would say it this way. When we worship idols, we will use people or we will abuse people. When we worship idols, we will abuse people, or we will use people or we will abuse people. Might sound cute because it rhymes, but the truth is those are brutal realities. Brutal realities. You want me to tell you what's at the heart of every marriage problem? Idolatry. Idolatry. I want something, you're in my way. You're keeping me from getting it, or you're not giving it to me. Causes crisis, right? Causes conflict. Causes fights, causes anger. We'll talk more about what that means. Listen, when we worship idols, we will use people to get what we want. We will say, through this person, through this thing, then I can get my significance. Then I can get my security. Then I can get my worth. Then I can get my pleasure. Then that person can deliver. Listen, if that's your view, and maybe you don't even realize it's your view, your spouse is going to be crushed by your demands. So crushed. Because they can't be God. And so they're going to let you down. They're going to blow it. So you might say, well, here's my expectation. I should come home and our house should be clean. And you come home and it's not. And what do you do? Well, I thought I deserved a clean house because I was working and you didn't do this, and then boom! I've idolized a clean house. Because somehow that makes me feel like more orderly, secure, you know, significant. I don't know. It's interesting how it all works because it drives so much of the conflict. There's different ways that this shows itself up in the practical everyday life, but we will use people to get what we want. Parents will use their children to get their significance. One of the biggest tendencies in our American culture, remember what I said earlier, when you're in the culture, you don't always see your idolatry because it's like everybody's doing it. We derive our worth and our value based on our kids' performance. In the classroom, on a sports field, in their behavior in public, nobody's ever had that problem, right? I mean, nobody's ever been in a public space and had to like discipline your kid or deal with a kid that was being a punk. You know, nobody's ever had that problem. Happens all the time. And you know what's the one of the biggest difficulties as a parent when your kids are not performing well is to not find your security in their performance, to not find your identity in their performance. This is a battle. And our kids know it. And they play us. Because they know that we're insecure, they know that we're embarrassed, we know that they know we're struggling. Listen, the only way I can be the kind of parent who really parents my kids well and leads them to Christ is to first and foremost look up and find my security here, my identity here, to worship God, not worship my kid. And when I do that, then I can speak into their life from a place of security. And saying, you know what? Like, I want you to follow God, and I want you to stop behaving like that because you're making, you know, being a moron or whatever it is. So we we we can say it from a place of security. Rather than just embarrassment. There's more to be said on that, but I don't have time for that today. The bottom line is that we will use people, and if they don't give it to us, guess what happens? We will abuse them. We will abuse them. We'll get angry, we'll get rude, we will get mean-spirited, we will do all kinds of things to let them know they have let us down. They have not delivered the goods. You have not met my expectations, and so I'm gonna let you know it. I know none of you in this room ever do this, but you get home and things are not going well, and you like you start kicking the dog, and you like start like slamming pots and pans around, you slam the door, or you just you just not not slam it like as too hard, but just enough to like make your point. They're like, what's wrong? Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Just the fact that in your mind you're playing out, like, you've done nothing, you know, that I want you to do today. Totally not messing my expectations. You see, because we idolize things and then this behavior starts to flow out of us, this heart being driven by what we think we deserve. I mean, idolatry makes us emotionally insensitive, so we can't relate to other people lovingly because we're only thinking about ourselves. Because you guys know this, but every idol is actually propped up by us because we're really the idol behind the idol. It's really us that we're thinking about, it's really us that's consumed with us, and that's what drives these idols to begin with. Idolatry makes us callous or oblivious to the needs of others around us. Idolatry draws us away from our duties. In fact, we will enjoy our hobbies or we'll enjoy stuff at the expense of our responsibility to others. I'm not saying it's wrong, men or women, to have hobbies or to enjoy good things, but listen, if you are doing that at the expense of others with no regard for your family and their needs, I mean, having hobbies, you've idolized that, right? And you've neglected your responsibility. People are impacted through your idolatry. Idolatry leads us to demand someone to provide something for us. Idolatry leads us to be jealous of others when they succeed or they get that thing that we want. It causes this jealousy in us. So we get hypercritical and we walk around in our houses and we criticize people and we tear people down because we want what they have or what we perceive they have, and so you know what? All criticalness and that critical nature, that critical spirit that's in our homes at times, and we just tear people down. I mean, we are just like, you know, those people are terrible, and they this, this, and that, and that. And did you see that? And you see that. Why does that come from? Because we don't feel secure in ourselves in Christ. So we gotta tear people down, right? To make ourselves feel better. Idolatry is driving this. Idolatry leads us to do a lot of things that are hurtful to other people. Now, at this point in the message, if you're like me, you gotta be like thinking, man, either one, is this over yet? Or two, um I'm in the hurt locker. Like, this is bad news. And it is bad news, right? Because the gospel isn't just rainbows and lollipops and unicorns and you know, big party. The gospel is we are sinful creatures who are broken at the deepest part of us. And even if we are in Christ and in new creations, we still have this flesh that is warring and it's ugly and it's nasty and it's gnarly, and we're still tempted to worship things other than God. But we can be honest about that because here's the truth. We aren't stuck there. We aren't. Listen, we are not stuck in idolatry. You might feel like you're in a rut right now, you might feel like there's no hope right now, you might feel like, man, how am I supposed to get through this? Well, here's the thing. We have a God who loves us enough to speak truth into our lives through his word. And he also has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to convict us and to reveal those areas of idolatry where we're enslaved. And then he also gives us the good news that there's grace. There's actually forgiveness for idolatry. We're not hopelessly lost in it. My wife and I were talking last night before bed, and uh, they're inside your guide today. We gave you a simple little tool. I don't want you to look at it right yet. I know everybody's like, I don't know. Simple little tool because we need ways to like combat idolatry. Like, practically, we've got to deal with it. And it's it's this fact that you know what? Like, just knowing that you're an idol worshiper or just feeling bad about it is not gonna fix the problem. As a Christ follower, we have the grace of God in our weakness. We have a God who meets us in it. He knew we would be worshiping idols, he knew that our hearts would tend to pursue other things that he created, and yet he still loved us. So, how do we overcome idols? That's what I'll finish our time with today. 1 Corinthians 10 31. We already quoted from 1 Corinthians 10 earlier, but 1 Corinthians 10.31 says this. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory. What does that mean? It means that in all of life, we can enjoy life and glorify God at the same time. That means I can actually have good things that God gave and enjoy them, and I can be God conscious at the same time. I can worship God through eating good food with people. I can worship God through having good drink with people. I can worship God through enjoying a hobby. Right? As long as I don't begin to elevate that into an idle status, we can actually enjoy what God's given us. We can God's good gifts, they're intended us to point him to him anyway. And so we can worship God. We can do everything for God's glory, and that's what we were ultimately designed to do. Not to give glory to something that's this created thing that's not going to last forever, but to give glory to God who made us, who loves us, who's for us, who's working in us. Here's the thing: we cannot simply remove idols, we must replace them. We cannot simply remove them, we must replace them. Can I just make a confession? I am an addict. And here's what I know. Every one of us in this room are addicts. I don't know what your addiction is to, but you have an addiction. There are things that you turn to and there are things that you look to to comfort you, to console you, to cope with life. We all have them. Uh that's what this document that I put inside your guide today is to help you personally have discernment as you work through that. But I'm an addict, and I know that for me, my addictions have run the gamut. Sometimes it's for the approval of man. I am addicted to getting the approval of people. Or I'm addicted to doing hobbies in the outdoors. That's a way to escape. I love those things, but if I take that too far, it can become an idol for me, right? It's an addiction. The point is this if I just simply say I'm going to stop doing that behavior and I don't replace it with Christ, I'm just going to find something else to fill that in. And I'm just going to start exchanging idols over and over and over. You guys have grills, anybody like to grill out? If you have a gas grill, you have a propane bottle, right? It's like you just take the propane bottle, you run the gas out of it, and you just take it down, you do the exchange. Literally, that's kind of what it's like with idolatry when we just exchange one for the other. It's like we just run it out of gas. Okay, that one's done. Let's put another idol in, right? Run it out, let's go exchange it. And every time we even have to pay for it, right? This is the reality for our hearts, this is the reality for our lives, that if we don't put something better, i.e., what we were created to worship God, into that spot of worship in our hearts, into that place of most importance, we'll just keep exchanging idol after idol after idol. We'll just run after thing after thing after thing. Accomplishment. And by the way, I hope you guys know this. You can take, again, really, really good things and keep just rotating them through. In fact, as a pastor, people can actually make mission into an idol. You can make all kinds of things into an idol because all of a sudden you divorce it from God and his glory and you make it about you and what you're doing and what it's all about fulfillment for you. So idols can, or they can't be just, they should not just be removed. They have to be replaced. And idols can only be replaced when we focus our attention and our affections on something better. And I want you to know this is a lifelong battle. So it's a war. When we sing the songs we sing on Sunday morning, Alex has said this a couple times before. I hope you know, we are warring against our idols. We are declaring, God, that you are what I need. You are what I want. We sing some of these songs, and I'm like, I want to believe that. I want to believe that, and so I'm going to say it in faith, but that's not how I've functioned this week. I actually was looking to other things than you, God, to satisfy me, to fulfill me. All kinds, again, of implications from this, but we have to put our attention and our affections on Christ. In fact, Colossians 3, 1 through 5, I already referenced it earlier. It's on your sheet, your insert that I put into the guide today. Colossians 3 says something really powerful powerful for us, and we'll we'll kind of unpack it together as we close out. Here's what it says. So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, so not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Okay? We have to, have to, have to, have to refocus our mind's attention, our thinking, and our heart's affection, right? What we love. We have to refocus that on Christ. And that is a lifelong battle, a journey for us. Would you agree? If you're a Christ follower, this is an everyday thing for us. We can't just like do it once and it's done. I wish that were the case. But it's an everyday, all-out war for what we're going to think about and what we're going to put our hope in, what we're going to put our affections in. That's worship, by the way. And so we need God's help. Notice he says, so then, if you have been raised. I said earlier that if you're not a believer, I was going to have something to say to you in specific about this issue. He says, if you have been raised. So then, if you have been raised. Now, of course, he's saying this like assuming Colossians all have been their believers. But the question I have for you is if have you actually put your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you actually received the gift of salvation? Have you actually stopped looking to something that's temporary to do what only God can do? And if you haven't, the invitation is this simple: God made you, He loves you, and without Him you will keep looking for substitutes. But nothing will fulfill you, nothing will satisfy you, and nothing can ultimately save you except for Jesus Christ. He offers that to you as a free gift. Not something you work for, not something you earn, something that you receive by faith. And if you're a believer in Christ, then you have been raised. You are new in Christ. And as I said a while ago, we're not lost in a hopelessness with idolatry. We actually have help. We actually have a new way of thinking, a new way of functioning, a new way of processing life and seeing idols for what they are. And so we need to, every day, through God's word, with God's people, through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit, we need to refocus our minds' attention on Christ. We need to rehearse the truth of who God is and what he has done. And then we need to express our affection to God for those things. Are you with me? That's how you make war against idols. You refocus your worship on God. You replace the worship of these idols back to God. So I say, you know, I have to have this food in order to be happy and to be satisfied and to be whole. Which I have said that before in my heart. Maybe I didn't say it out loud, but I said it in my heart. And I was so much so that I was angry, right? I was, we talk about being hangry. I've been there. That's idolatry, right? It's like letting something control my emotions, getting too lost into something temporary, looking for that to satisfy me. It's when I say, God, you know what? More than food, I need you. More than this thing that I am so like locked in right now, and like my mind is locked in on, and my heart is like just, mmm, I'm ready. I need you, God. We have to war for that, to see that. So that when I do sit down to the table and I take that in, I say, God, thank you. You're a good God. I worship you because you provided that. I worship you because you're that good that you would actually take care of my needs and even desires. So we have to replace our idols by refocusing our attention and our affections on Christ. I would say this. If you're struggling to do that today, let me give you a motivation for doing it. Okay? Because he says here, so if you have been raised in Christ, so if you have been raised in Christ, listen, um, in all idol worship, have you noticed that there's always sacrifices going on? Uh, I mean, from the beginning of time, these worships of these worship to these gods, they're sacrifices. They're killing animals, they're sacrificing. So some of us in this room might say, well, I'm not an idol worshiper because I don't sacrifice animals. I don't sacrifice, you know, to any sort of God. Listen, every single one of us are making sacrifices to the idols in our hearts. We sacrifice our energy, our time, our resources to idols. We do. We sacrifice. Catch this this morning. The only God who has ever sacrificed himself for us is Jesus. Not one of your idols has ever sacrificed anything for you. Because idols don't do that. Idols suck your life, they take your life. Jesus Christ gives life. He treasured us when we did not treasure him. He sacrificed himself for us when we did not sacrifice ourselves for him. He has given us a motivation in our hearts to pursue him, to love him. And guess what? In return, he gives us life. You see, he became the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have life this morning. Here's Paul out there dealing with all this idol worship and they're sacrificing animals and they're doing all this stuff. Why? Because there something has to, you know, you have to do some sort of sacrifice. There has to be some cost, some expense. Let me tell you, in Christianity, in the faith, in what the Bible teaches, Christ is the sacrifice that makes us acceptable to God, that brings us in. And that helps us to be free from worshiping the other idols that are taking our life from us. It frees us. I'm not the Holy Spirit in your life, but my guess is that every single one of you have something in your life you're worshiping other than God today. I'm just gonna take a stab at that. And I'm saying that because I know my own heart. And how even this week, as I've wrestled in my heart, I've been exposing idols, seeing them. Yep, I was treating Jada and the kids like that because of my idol of leisure time. I was, you know, treating people like that because I have this idol of, you know, I deserve this. I deserve that. We need God to rescue us, don't we? And the cool thing is that He has and He will. He'll meet us in that. Let's pray. God, thank you so much that you are, as we sang earlier, and as we're saying now, the rescue of our souls. You're the rescue for our souls because we are messed up. We have these issues where we continue to go back to idols. Even though you saved us, Jesus, for those of us who are in Christ, I mean, we've been saved, we've been given life. I mean, that text you just said, you are our life. You have given us life. And yet, God, we go and we seek life and other things that can't give it. And so I just pray, God, continue today to set us free from the slavery to idols. Set us free. God, my prayer is that if there's anyone in this room who is seeking to find life outside of you and has never received the gift of salvation, then today I pray that they would find it. They would experience the life that you offer them. And praise in your name. Amen.