[SERMON] Dethroned: The Idol of Self | False Idols

In the final message of the False Idols series, Pastor Cyle confronts the most dangerous idol of all — the self. Drawing from Genesis 3, Luke 9, Romans 1, Jeremiah 17, Proverbs 3, and Galatians 2:20, he traces the root of self-worship from the Garden of Eden to modern American culture, showing how the human heart naturally elevates personal will, feelings, and pride above God. The message calls every listener to a daily act of surrender — to step off the throne of their own heart and crown Jesus instead, because real freedom and joy only begin when Christ truly reigns.

Transcript

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So we are continuing our series and finishing our series called False Idols today. But uh and really we've been talking the idols are a real thing. We struggle with worshiping other things besides God and life. Idols we've been talking about for a couple weeks. Uh last week we prayed for quite a few of you who signed up. Trapper Surrender, there were a lot of names. We prayed for you. I went through it throughout the week. Hopefully, you've been working on some of the things that God's been speaking to your heart about. Uh, I know that we're talking about this as staff. We're also trying to hold each other accountable and making sure God's number one. And so uh yesterday I was thinking about um I was driving, and so I I've got a new car, that's a thing. So um the last year and a half of my car struggles, you guys have been on the journey with me. We looked back at how much we spent on cars, and we're like, we we kind of just bought a car, made car payments. So that's what we decided to do instead of keeping that up. And so we bought a car. And uh it's a newer car, which is great, but here's the thing. Uh I'm I love like yesterday we were driving, and I love that I could just drive, and my car will keep itself between the lines, and you don't even have to put your hands on the wheel anymore. So it's just great. And you just keep driving until it yells at you to put your hands back on the wheel. So uh and uh sorry for those middle school boys I was driving parents, I really was paying attention. Um but and ultimately, and it'll like auto-target the car in front of you behind you and keep you equidistant behind them, which is great, because then you don't have to keep your hands on the wheel. But what you realize is that it'll keep up with the speed of traffic. So I looked down, I was going 86, and I'm like, oh, it's not because I was going 86, the driver in front of me was going 86, and my car just wanted to keep up with it. So it's its fault. It's fault. Yeah. But I'm the kind of guy that needs like uh it needs a car that drives itself. So I I I can't afford a car that drives itself, but I I'm I'm the target audience for that. I I hate driving more than anything. So but it made me think about driving. So I have a question for you. Who I want you to raise your hand, I want you to participate. Are you a better driver than the average driver? If you believe so, raise your hand. Okay? It's a lot of hands. I've got teenagers drop raising their hands that don't even drive. So, like, I don't even know how this happens. I will tell you that I am not. So if you see me, run. So uh yeah. Run. No, I do I hate driving. I think driving would better be used for more time for work because I love the work. I love to spend my driving time working. I love when someone else drives so I can just work while they're driving. Like to me, it's a just a lack of productivity time is driving, and I do a lot of driving, and that's when normally I call people. Because when I call him, I'm usually calling him when I'm in between places. And so the call is going to end abruptly because when I get there, I'm I'm gonna be at a meeting. Like, I'm gonna and I don't come early, I come on time. So, like if I'm gonna get a nine o'clock meeting, I'm gonna be there at nine. So, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. But I'm gonna be there. So it's like, hey, I gotta go. See, and that's the time we have for calls. And so I love, I would love to have a car that just drove itself completely autonomously. That's like the dream. And so someone was telling me in Nashville they have Ubers that are self-driving. I'm I'm excited about that. I know some of you are terrified of AI, and we should be. I've seen Terminator, but um I think our kids are gonna have to live through that. We're gonna, I'm gonna die before all that. So um, but here's what statistics say about drivers. 93% of drivers believed that they were better than the average driver when asked in the survey. Now let me ask you this, Math Wizzes. What is average? 50%. I would have I I at both services, only one person has answered the question. So we are not at math church, so obviously. 50%. Uh also I was at the uh John Chris thing. And who went to John Chris the other night? Okay, Friday night. So it way up in the way up in the on the balcony, someone goes, woohoo! And I looked at Patty and said, that's Julie. Uh was it Julie? But it sounded like Julie. And you kind of know Julie everywhere by the woo-hoos, by the way. So totally has nothing to do with anything, but yeah, woohoo. Yep. But this is what we think of ourselves in society. We believe that we are just above average all the time. And I regularly tell you the statistics say we're about 75% of people think that they're above average, but uh I wouldn't search some more studies that have been done. 60 to 85 percent of people, when asked, say that they're above average. Now, what percentage of you of people do you think say that they're in the 10%? The top 10? Anyone want to guess? 25% or more people believe that they're in the top 10%. That doesn't equate, right? Because we all think that we're better than average, we all think that we're typically elite or more elite than we are. And I think what this says about us as a society, when we look at just things like driving or whatever, we don't just struggle with sin, we really struggle with seeing ourselves accurately. When we're talking about idols, the problem with idols is we don't actually see, I don't actually see Kyle clearly. Like people have a different version of Kyle than I do of myself, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but we really struggle with seeing ourselves accurately. And the human heart doesn't drift toward humility. It's not like, well, I'm worse than everybody else because I'm more humble. We drift toward superiority. Well, I'm better than everybody else. Well, I gotta know me. I'm better than everybody else. I'm American, I'm better than the rest of the world, right? So, I mean that's that's the culture of America, right? That's we feel that we are superior, we have a superior military, we have a superior economy, or used to, than the rest of the world. So some of us, many of us, have grown up our whole lives being the superior country. We're no longer the superior economy, right, in the world. Um, but we used to be. My whole life, I've known that we were. Some of you, your whole life has been America was superior to everywhere else. And so you get this culture underlying that that believes it's superior. And so people in that culture tend to gravitate towards I'm superior to other people. And even in my own culture, in my own nation, in my own area, my own school, my own home. And that becomes a heart issue. Where when we follow Christ, we should be drifting more toward humility. We value others more than ourselves. But our culture does all the opposite. And the most dangerous idol, I think, isn't the one that's out there. We talk about sports, we talk about money, we talk about fame, we talk about all these things. The one that's the most dangerous is the one that's in here. That's the most difficult idol. We've talked about some of those other things, and they're dangerous, and they're traps, and they've trapped some of us. But the big one, it's in our heart. It's the idol that we struggle with. Because the greatest idol isn't just that we think that we're good, it's that we quietly believe we're better than everybody else. And I think this is a trap for Christians. I talked to you a couple weeks ago about my struggle in my freshman year of college. Well, I looked around all the heathens like, oh, these people in Michigan, they're going to hell. I'm the only good one here, right? I quietly believed I was better. I didn't go to a party where they're all drinking and I'm the only sober person because I love the Lord and say, oh, you guys are all going to hell. I just quietly believed they were all going to hell and I was better than them. There's a danger there. And I really had to have a heart check my freshman year college. I don't like the person I'm becoming. Because I was supposed to love those people. I was supposed to care about their soul. I'm not supposed to think how much better I am. I'm supposed to give my life and service of helping them know Jesus. And I think the hardest idol to dethrone, it's the one that looks back at us in the mirror. That's that's the real hard truth. The one you're looking at, you, that's the hardest one to take off the throne. Because you're like, well, I can take sports off the throne. I can take my hobbies off the throne, I can take crocheting off the throne, right? I can take my boat off the throne, whatever. But when you have to take you off the throne, that's the hard one for us. We can give up some of the other stuff, but it's that quiet belief that we're better than everybody, that's the hard one to get rid of. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, we have this Bible verse in Genesis 3, it talks about for God knows that when you eat of it, and it's talking about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that Adam and Eve were forbidden from eating, and then they're told by you're like the enemy, the snake, right? If you eat of that tree, you're gonna be just like God. That's why he doesn't want to eat you to do that, because then you'll be on the throne yourself, and he won't be up there anymore. And so it the Bible verse tells us for God knows that when you eat of that fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. So the sin, the sin is that Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. They wanted to be God, they wanted to be on the throne. It wasn't just disobedience. The first sin was self-exaltation. I don't want to just disobey God, I want to be God. For some of us in our life, you don't start your day thinking, I just want to disobey God today. You really just live that I want to exalt myself as God. I want to do me. I want to live for me. I want to have all the stuff that I want. I want to feel good and happy and live my best life, and I want to put myself on the throne. We have books about this, we have a culture about this, we have a whole, we have a whole section of publishing that's self-help. And it's all about making you the best version of you so you can sit in that throne and enjoy everything in your life and have your way, have your priorities, have your life. That's what it's for. It's about self-exaltation. Romans 1 in the New Testament says this of the culture, then. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature. We are our creatures rather than the creator. This is the culture 2,000 years ago, in a very modern culture which had all the trappings of modernity, just like we do today. And what what's being said of that culture is they exchanged the truth about God for the lie about the creature is greater. That's us. That's us. We are worshiping and serving ourselves. We have exalted ourselves to the throne. We have made ourselves into our own idol. We're not worshiping all those other creative things. Some of you are like, I don't worship any of those other things. But the truth is, you're worshiping you. Because your life is about what you want and your way and your will and your priorities, and it's not as focused on God's. Because focus on God's means obedience and sacrifice. That's the hard part. See, self-idolatry happens when we serve ourselves instead of God. Some of us, the real idol, it's in my heart, in your heart, that you idolize yourself. And you might not like yourself and still worship yourself. Some of you, I don't really like myself, Kyle, so that's not even a thing. Yeah. But you're living for you so that you do like yourself more, and that becomes the idol. See, idolatry begins when we prioritize our will over God's. God has a plan for your life, He has a will for your life. When you replace your will for His, you're on the throne, whether we like it or not. When you're all about your career, all about having stuff, all about making more money, all about having spending time your way, and it's not about God's way, you make yourself the idol. And that's tough. That's tough. Because it becomes all about leisure and all about sports and all about fame and all about pride and all about all this stuff. Having more, more, more. And not about what God wants for you. And I know we we beat up things like sports and going out making money and having leisure time. And I think all those things are good and balanced, but the problem is we're Americans, we don't often balance things. That's the truth of our culture. The truth is we just we're all in for what we want and not what God wants. I truly believe this. I've seen this in my life, I've seen this through all the counseling I've done. When you're living God's will, you're happier, you have more freedom, you have more joy. And guess what? All the things that God has for you, they come to fruition. You just gotta trust Him. When you're pushing your will over God's, you're miserable. You're on the throne, but you're not happy. If you know anything about history, you go through all the rulers. A lot of those rulers had really miserable reigns. Everybody hated them, and they kept trying to kill them because they hated them so much. It wasn't great to sit on the throne for much of history. So why do you keep putting yourself on the throne? See, in 2 Timothy 3, it says this for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud and arrogant. That sounds a lot like our society. This is Paul. He's writing about to Timothy, saying, Hey, this is what the culture is gonna look like. This is what's coming for you, this is what's coming for the world. And 2,000 years ago, it's the same. We are lovers of self, we are lovers of money, we are proud, and we are arrogant. Here's how I know I like to travel. Well, I go to other countries and they talk about Americans. This is what they say about us. They're full of themselves because they love themselves. They love money, they're really proud, and they're really arrogant about being American. Like it's it's not necessarily a good thing to be American in some contexts. Like, and sometimes you're supposed to just say, I'm Canadian, eh? Right? Oh, Americans, yeah, America's terrible. I'm Canadian, eh? Right? So I drank coffee at Tim Hortons, so uh, we're good. But this is how the world sees our culture, but guess what? It's not just our culture, it's us. We we absorb this culture, we become like this culture because this is what our culture pushes in the world. And a culture obsessed with self creates hearts that are resistant to God. And if you think about our culture, our culture is resistant to God. We live in a culture where every other religion's right, except for Christianity. My whole schooling at Michigan, I was I was the last graduating class of religious studies at the University of Michigan. I declared my major, and about six months later, they said, Oh, we're not gonna we're not gonna let that happen anymore. You can finish. Because my classes literally were telling me how every other religion was right except for Christianity. It was great for me, because I love a challenge. But that's the culture we live in. It's against us, and it creates a heart resistant to God. The one true God is resisted by our culture because it's a culture of self and it's not a culture of God. And you cannot follow Christ while sitting on your own throne. It's impossible. If you're sitting in the throne of your own heart, you can't follow God. You can't. Some of you are trying. I have tried at times. It doesn't work out. It makes you unhappy, miserable, unfocused, depressed, anxious, afraid, because you're putting yourself on the throne. And you think you're not there, but you're you're you're seated there, and nobody's getting you out until you decide to step up and get off the throne and let God be on the throne. See, Luke 9 tells us this. This is Jesus speaking. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Jesus is saying, if you want to come with me, you gotta get out of the throne. You gotta grab the cross that belongs to me, and you gotta follow me. And I'm the throne, then. I'm on it. I'm who you worship, I'm who you follow. And daily, here's the question to think about. Have you prayed today? Did you pray yesterday? Did you pray the day before that? Did you pray the day before that? Did you read your Bible yesterday? Did you read your Bible the day before that? Did you read your Bible the day for that? Did you go to Bible study? Did you go to life group? Did you call someone who you love and care about and say, hey, I know you're struggling, I just want to let you know I'm praying for you. I care about you. Do you need anything? Do you need a meal? Do you need a hug? Do you need to grab a coffee? Have you done any of that thing this anything like that this week? Have you done anything like that this month? When's the last time you remember doing anything that's not about you and it's about somebody else? See, if we're taking up the cross, it's daily. We are thinking about how am I growing and serving and how is Jesus on the throne and what am I doing to do that? It's not about how much more money I can make, how much more leisure I can have, what movie or show I can watch. It is about Christ. Now, everything's in balance. There's a rhythm, so you can do all the things you like to do in balance with making sure Jesus is your focus. Yesterday I got to hang out with middle school boys. I have a middle school boy, and so we we hang out, we play card games, we went to a competition yesterday. We all did terrible. Um, we did, we all lost. And uh at the end of it, we gather together, and I'm like, at my house, and I'm like, hey guys, is anybody mad? Really mad that we lost? And nobody was. Like, good, we're still safe, it's not idle yet, right? So, because I my rule is if I start getting mad about losing, it's an idle. I I care too much. And so we had that conversation. But the goal is while we're spending time together, it's about connection, community, being in relationship. It's not about the thing, it's about having fun, doing life together. Because the cool thing is you get listen, these guys have these awesome conversations and they laugh together and they challenge each other and they push each other. It's it's fun to see what's happening in their life. When's the last time you've done that with any group of people? Now I'm lucky I get to hang out with middle school boys who love games and I love games, so it's kind of a perfect scenario for me until my kids get old enough they don't play games anymore. Then I'll start calling all you guys and to come over. So get ready. I got four more years. But are you daily following Christ and turning the things in your life into a way that you follow Christ? Because discipleship begins where self-rule ends. If you want to be a disciple of Christ, which means you're a follower of Jesus who's becoming like him, that's what discipleship is, then self-rule of your life has to end. Has to end. And if you're ruling your life, if you're on the throne, you're not a disciple. I'm sorry, you're not. You're a wannabe disciple. But when you really become a disciple is when you step out of the throne and put Jesus in it and you say, I'm done ruling my life, I'm done being in charge, I want you to be in charge, I'm gonna follow your lead. And here's what here's what's happened: the crazy thing. If you just let him lead, life works out the way it's supposed to. I'm telling you, I promise you, it has for me. Like God continues to show up. And the crazy thing about when our when our church here lets God lead, he shows up. He shows up. Like he shows up financially, he shows up with time, he shows up with the right resources. Like, here's the thing. I was working and pushing this week to get our our big giant hole done out front. You guys have all hit it, right? Our big giant pothole on the driveway. Come in today. I didn't notice that it got it got taken care of. So I get Rob, who's our uh Rob is on the job, Rob, the bass player is takes care of our maintenance. So I get him and say, Hey, we got to talk about it. I got a guy, he's working on getting cold patch. Come outside, we go look at it. He goes, Oh, it's done. It's done. Somebody just volunteered to come out here and one of our people and took care of it. I don't even know who did. Whoever did, thank you. I don't know if you're in the service. You rocked, awesome. Uh nobody hit the pothole today. You guys didn't notice either, but guess what? It's got done. It just things happen when you let God lead. Right? Now we just can't do that all the way through life, but it's just one silly little example of how God continues to show up if you just trust Him. Just trust Him. See, real discipleship begins with self-rulens. You gotta just let God be on the throne. And and I'm gonna tell you the truth, there's been time that God's not been on the throne. I like my heart. It's a regular trap for all of us, for all of you. Like, you're not like, well, I'm on the throne. I mean, or God's on the throne. You know. When you start getting that little feeling in your gut, you know, uh-oh, God's not on the throne. I am. Jeremiah 17, 9. This is how you know the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Our hearts are a mess. We are broken, we are flawed, we are sinful, we are living in a broken world. Our hearts lie to us. It pulls us into the things of the world. It pulls us into making us sit in the throne. Because I want what I want, and I want it now, and I want it my way, and I want it the way I see it. And if we just get off the throne, let God do his thing, and we follow him, it's so much better. See, when feelings lead and scripture follows, self has become God. When you leave your feelings, I just want to feel good. I just want to feel something. When you lead with feelings instead of scripture, you start making yourself God. Scripture should be the lead in our life. And the problem in our in our culture is we have a culture that that really embraces the idol of self, which asks the question my truth matters, or says, my truth matters more than God's truth. This is a big, huge issue in the world. We have denominations that are fighting and splitting left and right because thousands of years of scripture, if that's unchanging truth of God's word, people are fighting because, oh, culture's changed, right? Things are different now. They're not the same way they were 2,000 years ago. And so we gotta reinterpret scripture based on how we feel now. And so my truth now matters more than God's eternal truth. Although his truth is before, time began, now, and then we'll continue. You on after, we're reinterpreting, and denominations are splitting. Some parts of denominations are staying true to God's word, and other parts interpreting with society and culture change, and they're splitting like crazy. I'll just tell you where we fall in this line, we're going to stay focused on God's truth, which means we're not always going to agree with the truth of culture, because culture is always changing. It's changing rapidly. And so you can't reinterpret God and His Word with your feelings. Because God's truth is eternal, it's unchanging truth. And when we begin to reinterpret things based on how we feel, we become our own God. We become our own God. And there's a danger to that. And then in Proverbs 3 in the Old Testament, I know some of you, for many people, this is like a favorite Bible verse of theirs. It says this in Proverbs 3, 5 trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. See that deceiving thing, we've got to give it all to God. We've got to trust him. Not the understandings that we have that the world has given us. That was the problem in the garden. Adam and Eve trusted on their own, their own desire and their own heart. Not understanding that God loved them and had a plan for them. He walked with him and talked with them. And he just said, Hey, you can have everything but that. Just don't do that. And they didn't trust him enough. They wanted what their heart wanted, that thing they couldn't have. But that's how a lot of us live. We often want that thing that we can't have or shouldn't have. And it bites us. See, whenever we elevate our opinion above Scripture, we crown ourselves king. And we do it all the time. Well, you know, I don't, I don't know about that. I don't know if I agree with that. I feel like it should be more like this. The moment we do that, we just get out of the throne, Jesus. I'm in the throne. Because I'm in charge, because I don't agree. And that was a problem with the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, they agreed until they didn't, and they kicked Jesus off the throne. And then look where we are now because of it. It's because the opinion is elevated. Philippians 2, Paul's writing to the church of Philippi says this do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. There's a sacronym we teach kids, and sometimes we teach here, it's joy. Jesus others you. That's supposed to be your priorities. Jesus others you. Love God, love people. Jesus others you. If you want to have real joy, it starts with Jesus on the throne. Others matter more than you, and then you're last. The American way, though, is yodj. You others Jesus. That's the American way. We're not supposed to do anything out of selfish ambition. We're not supposed to push our way, our desire, our plan. We're supposed to say, God, what's your plan for me, and how can I fulfill that? That may mean you don't get what you want all the time. I'm sorry. That's life. I want a house in Tuscany. I want a chateau in Tuscany. I've checked. It's like a million dollars. I've checked. Just for a small one. I'm not asking for too much. Um so I stopped asking for a yellow Lamborghini because I have one now. Somebody bought me one. It's about this big. Uh it's on the desk at my office. So I got what I asked for. Please don't make me a Lego chateau in Tuscany or buy me a Tuscany. Still hoping for that one. All right. Never gonna afford it, but I'm still hoping. But that's selfish ambition. Although I have located two lakes in Kewsy, Italy. We can put a church right between them and call it Heart of the Lake, so it's perfect. Um Corazon da Lagos. Uh so here we go. But we are supposed to in humility recognize where we fit with God, and others are supposed to matter more than us. He and his plan for us matters more than us, and we're last. And every day we either surrender to God or we serve ourselves. You're either choosing every day when you wake up to serve yourself, or you're choosing to serve Jesus. That's it. And you may throw out the day change over and over again. There's days where I wake up surrendering to God and ready to go, and then all of a sudden Kyle's wants and desires creeps in, and then you gotta push it. I gotta put him back up there. And so we're like, I'm not here to beat you up. I'm I'm I struggle with this. We wrestle with this, we talk about this stuff as pastors all the time. We hold each other accountable to this. Like, this isn't like, oh, you terrible, awful people. I'm good. This is things that I struggle with regularly too. I have to make sure that God is on the throne in my life, in my family, just like you do. And so, what does this mean for you? Why are we talking about it? I think the real question is not, do I worship myself? You do. You all are a bunch of self-worshipers. You're on, some of you have you on the throne right now in your life. And I know that because I've been there too. And I sometimes get there as well. The question is not, do I worship myself? We do. I do, you do, we all do. It's we all have a propensity to do this because we're falling, we're living in a fallen, broken, sinful world. The question is really, where am I choosing myself over God? Where have I become my own God? And how do I fix that? And where is my weakness in life that I need to adjust? And what's my issue? Because we all got different issues. I have different issues than Ryan here's got different issues. My daughter, who's a teenager, has different issues of choosing herself over God than I do because we're different. And so you have to just recognize, we just have to keep asking ourselves the question, and we recognize I've I've sat on the throne that I need to get up and move and put Jesus there. Now, last night, Ryan and his son were over, and we were playing games, uh, card games with my son and I. And so my son and I were sitting on this bench. Now I have a wine runner, she loves me very much. I think you guys know this. Uh, we have a weird relationship, it's great. Uh but we were sitting on this bench, and normally she sits between us and she was for a bit, but she was down. My son stood up from the bench to play a card on the table. By the time he he sat down, seconds later, my big old dog, 60-pound dog, was laying underneath where he was sitting. So he sits down on her, and like he's like, Are you kidding me? And if you know my dog, this is a normal thing. The moment there's a crack, she's going to be there in place, and she's gonna be there. And the problem is, some of you are just like my Weimar owner. That is what you do with Jesus. The moment there's a crack, I'm on the throne again. He's off. Like I'm just gonna hop up on the throne and he's now out. That's some of you how the way you live life. You keep putting Jesus there and then you replace him. And you put him there and you replace him, and you put him there and you replace him. Some of you are just spiritual wine runners. Yeah. Because you choose yourself over God. So here are some ways that we choose ourselves over God. We we seek feelings over truth, comfort over obedience, approval over faithfulness, control over trust. Some of you just want to control your life, control everything about your life, your family, your situation, your school, your career. What if you just trusted God? Just let Him lead. What about feelings over truth? There are people who go from spiritual feeling to spiritual feeling to spiritual feeling, and when they stop having these spiritual feeling moments, oh God's not here. I'm gonna go check out somewhere else. That's why they church hop. They're just going place looking for feelings. The problem is there's God's truths everywhere that people are focused on God's truth. You can find it anywhere. Just be happy. What about pride over humility? Now, I know those are kind of general categories, so I have 10 specific ones for you. These may not be yours, but hopefully they'll they'll help you figure out where your struggles might be. How about a family that chooses activities over church? Now I know we believe sports, but sports is one of the biggest issues in our culture right now. And when our school districts are having stuff on Sunday mornings, I know it's a problem for families. It's a problem, it's a real problem. Because they don't prioritize church and family and relationship, but families that choose activities over church, this is a danger. This is taking God off the throne and saying, ah, well, you know, we gotta do this, or when my kids aren't gonna have the best future. When the truth is the majority of your kids are never gonna play sports again after high school, never gonna go anywhere, never gonna go anywhere after middle school. I've had so many kids tell me like they they how much they dislike or hate their parents because how they push sports and education and stuff. Like, you can have a rhythm of life that includes sports. I did. But you don't have to sacrifice Jesus. You can do all of it. Might mean some hard conversations with the athletics director or the coaching staff and say, hey, we're not gonna do this. Like, we have priorities. My kid's good enough, then you better make it work. What about the parent who won't correct her child? Because the modern culture says you can't correct anyone. The Bible is clear that we're to discipline our children. That doesn't mean go beat your children, it just means discipline. There's ways of discipline that's proper. But in our culture, you don't discipline kids at all. It's becoming a problem for teachers. I talk to a lot of them. What about the couple who avoids hard conversations? What about the individual who avoids hard conversations? One of the regular things I hear from people is I don't like conflict. I'm not gonna do that. I don't like conflict. That is not God on the throne. The Bible makes it clear as Christians, we're supposed to have healthy conflict with each other. That's encouraging and build each other up and challenge each other to be the best like Christ. We actually have a culture of honor we try to live by, which is carry. It's over on the wall over there. It's care about what the people you care about, care about. Assume the best, restore gently, release bitterness, and ask the question, you might be right, but as a loved one, we actually believe that we should embrace conflict in a healthy, loving way that brings people closer together and not tears them apart. And you should do this as couples, you should do this as families, you should do this as individuals. What about a Christian who stays silent at work when they know they should challenge something, that they should say something's not right, or that share their faith? What about a person who justifies sin because it feels right? Well, I know the Bible says this, but like they don't live my life. I mean, this feels right to me. I kind of want to do this thing. Everybody else is doing it, it's okay. Just a little, little tiny sin. You know. What about an overworked Christian who who neglects God? This is a hard one for me. When I tell you this, these messages aren't just for you guys, for me. I love to work. I do, I do, and I am constantly asking myself, am I in balance? Do I have a healthy rhythm? Am I spending enough time with my wife, my kids? Right? Am I balanced? Because I do love to work. And there's times I'm like, nope, I love working way too much. And I've now moved God out just because I enjoy this so much that I have to then make a change in my life. I've had periods in my life where I've really struggled with that one. And so now I'm regularly reassessing on a regular basis and asking myself a question. My wife and I talk about this regularly. That's a struggle for me. May not be yours, but one of these other ones might be or somewhere, something else, not on the list. What about a person who refuses to forgive? Well, I just don't want to forgive that person. So hold on to it. They deserve it. Or a Christian obsessed with online image or in-person image. The way people see you matters too much to you. Or a leader who won't admit they're wrong. We often try to tell people, I'm sorry, please forgive me, and I'll do better. We try to say it regularly so you get in the habit of saying it. So at home, you can say it. I'm sorry, please forgive me, I'll do better. It's okay to say I'm sorry. It's okay. You're gonna mess up. You're gonna do things that hurt people, you're gonna do things unintentionally that hurt people. Guess what? I am a flawed human being. There are times in my message that I will say things wrong because I like to speak fast. And sometimes my brain and my mouth don't communicate. You're welcome to correct me if I miss mess up names or I say the wrong verse. You're welcome to correct me. I know nobody wants to do that because we don't like conflict. It's okay. Yeah, Julie will, right? Julie will for sure. Woo-hoo over here. You did that wrong, right? But if I say Mary instead of Martha, you're welcome to say, hey, you said it wrong, right? You could just also let it go, but but if it bothers you, say something. Here's the thing. You're always supposed to go after church. You're always supposed to go study the stuff. Like, I don't know if you know this. Go home, read the verses, see if I'm right. If I'm wrong, call me. I don't care, call me. Sometimes I might be wrong. I might have said it wrong. I might have meant something, said something else. My brain might have thought I said something, my mouth said something else. How many times are you guilty with that with your spouses and friends and families, right? It's okay. What I'll do is say, I'm sorry. That's not what I meant, or let's talk about it, or we'll watch it back together, or I'll just come up next week and say, hey, I said that wrong. It's okay to be wrong. We're not perfect. And what about a Christian who picks and chooses scripture? You got your favorite scriptures. We really like to beat people up, but you forget all the other ones that are your problems. That's when you're on the throne. I think the thing is we naturally drift toward elevating ourselves. That's our culture. And the problem is we're supposed to elevate Christ. That's the truth. Galatians 2.20 says this I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we die to our old life. We die. Old Kyle's dead. New Kyle is born. And when new Kyle is born, my life doesn't matter. I'm not on the throne anymore. He is. My priorities, my will is his. And the moment I start seeking what I want, I'm saying, come here, Jesus, get off the throne. I want to get back up up there for a bit. I like you, but I want to be back up on the throne because I miss it. That's what some of us are doing. It's Christ who we live for. And the throne of your heart has one seat. It's not a two-seater, right? It's not a two-seater. It's one. And it belongs to Jesus. So step down from your throne and let Jesus sit on it. Or the old phrase, get off your high horse, right? If someone tells you to get off a high horse, that kind of means you're on your throne, right? Step down from your throne and let Jesus sit on it instead. You'll be happier, you'll be more fulfilled. Yeah, you may not have your house in Tuscany or your yellow Lamborghini or your self-driving car, you may not have any of those things. But you have joy, you have peace. You have Jesus. Because real freedom, it begins when Christ reigns. I promise you this. I promise you this. I had somebody ask me the other day, Pastor, so why are you here? So I go, that's a good question. All right. Um I've been here almost 10 years. Most pastors, four years and gone. So I've been here 10 years, May 1st. I'm excited about it. So I have no plans on leaving, so don't kick me out or anything. Uh, please. Uh but why are you here? That's a great question. Why have I not moved on to somewhere bigger and better? The church has grown substantially by a lot. Like uh thousand percent. So that means I could go to a really big church and work and make more money. The problem is that would be a Kyle desire, not a God desire. Because I am happy, I am free, I am content, I love my life, I'm having great relationships, I have friends, my family's happy. Sometimes freedom and Christ being in charge means you just follow his plan until he says the plan changes. That's what it means. And if you don't, if you're on the throne, you miss it. Because you're on the throne, you're driving your own future and your own plan in your own way, and you're probably pretty miserable. Probably getting all that you want, have all this money, all this whatever. But you don't have happiness, joy, peace. And so if you want that, it begins with freedom, but you got to put Christ back on the throne. And how you do that is your time and your talent and your treasure, they belong to him. They belong to him, they belong to him. And that means get to church daily, study your word. All right, get with people who are Christians and do life together. Love people who are lost. Do that. Here's one of the funniest things. We often tell people, hey, you gotta come to church every week. People, you know, it's hard for pastors. We have to say that because we're pastors. We want people you come to church. It's not because we want you to come to church. Because here's the funny thing about like modern church. When you don't come to church, we could have half the people in here. Tithe doesn't change. Doesn't because the people that give generally have it all set up electronically in 2026. So we get a half the crowd, it doesn't change. I don't know what you give anyways. I just get a monthly report and tells me how things are. They're stay pretty standard. The audience goes up and down with weather, whatever. Because coming to church isn't about getting people to give money. It's about if you're not coming to engage with God's word, how are you gonna have life change? You should go home and talk about this. I love when people tell me, hey, we talked about the message this week, and it's like we've been wrestling with some of this stuff. That's the whole goal. But I want you to do that Bible study. I want you to do that with your life group. We've got these friends things coming up, you're just gonna go hang out with other people and get to know them church. Like, talk about really spiritual things while you're doing it. And then watch what God does in you. That's the goal. Put him on the throne and then watch what happens in his life and your life when he's on the throne. And if you know this is a struggle for you, here's the thing. There's a time in my, there's times in my life where I've had to dethrone myself and put God back on the throne. And I can't tell you how many hundreds of times it's probably been in my life. But it's it's a regular problem being an American in 2026 that we we push ourselves and we've got to constantly re-evaluate. You need to reevaluate daily. Daily, because we're supposed to daily follow Christ. Take up the cross and follow him. And if you know you got a problem and you're on the throne and he's not, write dethrone on the back. Dethrone yourself. Get a process. All those people, every week, we pray over them. I look at this list, I pray for you. I pray for you. And just know this is a struggle of me too. I'm constantly, this week, I will constantly be reevaluating in my life. Where are my idols? Where is Jesus Christ? Am I too focused on the things I love, like work, or am I more focused on my relationship with him? If that's you, put dethrone and we'll pray. We'll pray. We can be a church where Jesus sits on the throne. And you think that sounds like something that should be the natural status of people in church. It's not, though. Let's dethrone ourselves and put him back on the throne. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for your son Jesus. Lord, we just we pray in our hearts right now that we know. We know whether or not we got Jesus on the throne or not. I just pray for anyone here who just is struggling and recognize, Lord, they're on the throne. And then maybe they don't know how to get off, but Lord, just through your Holy Spirit, help them figure out where to start. Where to ask that question, where is my struggle and how do I how do I resolve it and get Jesus back on the throne? That we pray we can be a church of people who are humble enough to recognize we often replace you on the throne. And then we do, we just need to get quickly get you back on the throne of our heart and our lives and live for you. That we pray that you we can recognize this this week. We can hold each other accountable to thinking through those things and struggles so we can have freedom in Christ and daily we can follow you. So we just pray this in his name. Amen.