This morning's so good to see you all here for a Sunday morning service.
Find your seats please, grab a song, but go to hymn 173.
We'll get started this morning, hymn 173.
Love lifted me, hymn number 173.
When you found your place we'll sing it out together on that first now 173
I was sinking deep and sin him number
173 lift your voice on that first now I
Was sinking deep and sin far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stayed within
Sinking to rise no more
But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me, now save that life
Love lifted me, love lifted me
When nothing else could help
All my heart to him I give, ever to him I'll cling, in his blessed presence live, ever
his praises sing.
So mighty and so true, merits my soul's best songs.
Beautiful loving service to Him belongs.
Love lifted even me.
When nothing else could help.
Love lifted me.
that completely saves. He will lift you by His love out of the angry waves. He's the
master of the sea, His will obey. He, O Savior, wants to be the Saviour today.
That's good.
Man, good start to our singing this morning.
We want to go before Lord and ask His blessing on the service.
So I've asked for the Fidel Gonzalez if he would lead us in prayer, please.
Father in heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We thank you for this beautiful weather, Lord.
We ask you to bless our voices as we lift them up to you in praise.
Please bless faithful word of Baptist church and Pastor Anderson.
Fill him with your Holy Spirit and let his message be edifying to us all.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Man, up a few pages, 175, hymn number 175.
It's just like his great love him number
175
Begins a friend I have called Jesus whose love is strong and true lift your voice on that first together now
175 a
Friend I have called Jesus
whose love is strong and true
And never fails how we're distraught no matter what I do
I've sinned against this love of His, but when I knelt to pray,
Confessing all my guilt to Him.
The sin clouds rolled away, it's just like Jesus rolled clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day It's just like Jesus all along the way
It's just like His great love Sometimes when clouds of trouble
Be dim the sky above I cannot see my Savior's face
His wondrous love, body from Heaven's mercy seat.
Reholding my despair in many bursts of clouds between.
And it shows me He is there.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day.
It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like His great love.
When sorrows clouds o'er take me and break upon my head.
When life seems worse than useless.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day, it's just like Jesus all along the way, it's just like his great love, oh I can sing forever of Jesus love divine.
It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day It's just like Jesus to fall along the way
All right, at this time,
we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin,
slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one on the inside.
We have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six,
Wednesday nights at seven is our Bible study.
It says second Chronicles 36.
That is not going to be this Wednesday.
That's going to be next Wednesday,
because this Wednesday we have a special guest preacher.
We've got Pastor Jonathan Shelley coming out
and preaching this Wednesday at seven o'clock.
So if you don't normally come on a Wednesday night,
make a point to be here this Wednesday night
to hear Pastor Shelley and to be there for that.
And then we will finish Second Chronicles next week after that.
So many times are listed there below,
as well as Salvation and Baptisms.
And then across the page is the note
about the online soul winning marathon.
This is where they use like a randomized video chat software.
So they're actually face to face talking to people
just like you would out soul winning door to door,
but it's online.
And so they had a total of 59 salvations,
which is incredible.
And so that website tends to be really receptive.
There's definitely a lot of weird people on there, a lot of skeevy people on there,
because I actually did it the other day, and it was a wild ride, but, you know,
they're getting so many people saved on there, it's really awesome. And so congratulations
to everybody who worked on that and participated in that.
and let's keep that going.
And then below that is just a note.
Parents, please supervise your children
before, during and after church services.
Just make sure they're not running around,
rough housing, tearing the place apart.
And then on the back,
we've got typically on Wednesday nights,
donations of food and other items
that are over on the left here.
So be aware of that.
There's usually a lot of good free food on Wednesday nights.
And then keep praying for our expectant ladies
that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy
and delivery below that other upcoming events.
We've got the donuts coming up on the 23rd.
We got Pastor Corbin Russell preaching on March 12th.
We've got the Bahama cruise mission strip coming up
on March 23rd.
And by the way, Steadfast Baptist Church
has a crew of people right now as we speak.
In the Bahamas, doing a bunch of soul winning
throughout the Bahamas this week,
so be praying for them that they would be successful
with that and get a lot of people saved.
The Bahamas such a great place to go soul winning.
Really a huge need there because like I've said
over and over again, you ask people in the Bahamas
if they're saved is just no.
Do you know for sure you go to heaven?
You're gonna get so many no answers,
but they're actually really interested.
And in fact, you know, even after they get saved, a lot of times they want to keep talking
about the Bible and stuff.
There's just a lot, there's a lot of interest there, but unfortunately there's a lot of
ignorance of what the Bible says about the Gospel, which is obviously the ideal mission
field where people want to know the truth, but they don't know it yet.
Well, let's get it to them.
You know, I'm really excited about this year,
all the trips that people from Faithful Word,
myself included, people from Steadfast,
other churches are just,
we're hitting the Bahamas hard this year.
And I mean, we are gonna evangelize the Bahamas.
I mean, I think we're gonna make it to where virtually
everybody in the Bahamas is gonna get
a clear presentation of the gospel who wants one.
You know, I know that sounds crazy,
but I mean, we're just hitting it that hard, folks,
over this year and, you know, more years
if that's what it takes.
And so, be praying for the Bahamas.
Pray for the big group that's out there from Steadfast.
I'm going to be out there myself later this week and so yeah it's a lot going on there
and so be praying and think about joining one of these trips as well and I think that's about it
for announcements so let's go ahead and sing our next song. All right you should find the
You don't have an insert, please raise your hand.
You'll receive what we'll sing it together on that verse to Jesus every day.
I find my heart is closer drawn.
Let's sing it out together.
To Jesus every day
I find my heart is closer drawn.
He's fairer than the glory of the golden purple dawn.
He's all my fancy pictures in his eras, dreams and more.
Each day he grows sweeter than he was the day before.
The happy, happy fancy, this side with golden shore.
Oh, prayer, the pistol's sweeter than he ever was before.
His glory broke her body when I saw him come afar.
He's fairer than gold.
a star. He felt for satisfies by longing spirit or an oar. He took close to sweeter than
he was the day before. The hat did not even seem beside the golden shore. Oh, there no
Sometimes everybody comes to speak with me.
He pulls me to his bosom when I jump and climb and breathe.
I love the Christ who all my burdens in his body pour.
He day he broke so sweeter than he was the day before.
The half cannot be fancy, beside the golden shore.
Man, good singing, everybody.
Take your hymnals now.
Turn to hymn 276, hymn 276, just to give you all a heads up.
This one is formatted kind of weird in our hymnals.
You see there's the first verse.
Don't go straight into the next verse.
The chorus is kind of hidden in between the music there.
So does everybody see that?
Just a...
kind of gaze where you're at okay 276 so be careful with the verses and the chorus kind of hidden
same tune but 276 where he leads me I will follow him number 276
I can hear my saviour falling I can hear my saviour falling I can hear
As river falling, take my cross and follow along.
All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around,
let's turn to Colossians chapter three.
Colossians chapter number three.
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one.
Follow along with Brother Dan as he reads,
Colossians chapter three, starting in verse number one.
Colossians chapter 3 the Bible reads if you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God
Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.
Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry.
For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
In the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them.
But now ye also put off all these.
Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds,
and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Schifian, Vaughn nor Free, but Christ is all and in all.
Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering,
for bearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness,
and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body
and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged.
Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye servants as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing God.
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord,
and not unto men. Knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance,
for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the
wrong which he hath done,
and there is no respect of persons.
Father in heaven, thank you for your son Jesus Christ to die for all our sins and rose from the dead
I also thank you for the earnest of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of your children for you know who you who are yours
I pray that you please bless Pastor Anson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word
So that we your children would be edified and that we all would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
In Jesus name I pray man
Men, this morning I'm continuing the Revelation 21.8 series where the Bible says,
But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and
Hormongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
And this morning we're going to talk about idolaters, idolaters.
And so these are sins.
that bring God's wrath upon the unsaved.
And so obviously we're saved.
We have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're going to heaven no matter what.
But at the same time, we want to live a life
that is pleasing to God.
We don't want to be chastised by God
or for God to be...
displeased with us or just we want to make him happy, right?
And so we don't want to participate in any of the sins
on this list.
And so this morning we're gonna talk about idolatry.
Now, if you would turn back to Deuteronomy chapter number four,
the first thing we're gonna talk about is literal idolatry
because there's literal idolatry,
then there's a more figurative usage of idolatry.
in the Bible. Now, what does the word idolatry mean?
Well, if we just break down the actual etymology of the word,
it literally would mean serving images. Okay? Serving images is what it would
literally mean. And of course, we know that we're talking about
bowing down to or praying to images when we talk about idolatry. And then when we
talk about
You know, the idol itself, we're typically talking about what the Bible calls
a graven image or a molten image.
So the Bible says in Leviticus,
you're turning to Deuteronomy 4, but in Leviticus 26.1 it says,
ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image.
Neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it,
for I am the Lord your God."
He's saying, look, do not set up any type of a picture or image or carved image or graven image to bow down to it, right?
You don't bow down before.
any type of image and it doesn't matter whether this is two-dimensional or three-dimensional,
you don't bow down and pray to images because that is idolatry when you are praying to images.
Look what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 10.
because the Bible says in verse 10,
specifically the day that thou shouldest,
excuse me, the day that thou stoodest before
the Lord thy God and whoreb,
when the Lord said unto me,
gather me the people together
and I will make them hear my words
that they may learn to fear me all the days
that they shall live upon the earth
and that they may teach their children.
And ye came near and stood under the mountain
and the mountain burned with fire
under the midst of heaven
with darkness, clouds and thick darkness.
and the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire.
And watch this, this is very important.
You heard the voice of the words,
but saw no similitude, only you heard a voice.
So Israel has this very close encounter
with the Lord God Almighty at Mount Sinai.
And this is a tremendous event in history
where God and man come very close to one another.
And yet, he says, in this encounter, when you're at Mount Sinai and you heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, out of the midst of the cloud,
remember, you did not see any image, you only heard a voice.
And so he's saying, do not worship an image because there is no image to worship because you have seen no image of God.
And so, it's very clear that even if you're making an image of the correct God,
it is still idolatry and it is still wicked, you know.
So, for example, you've got pagans from other nationalities like Greeks or Romans or Chinese or whatever,
where they have their sort of...
nationalistic kind of paganism, you know, their folk religion of their ethnicity,
where they got their little Thor or Zeus or what, you know, depending on the ethnicity, right?
All these pagan gods. So they're bowing down to idols and worshiping false gods, right? Or if you had
an idol of Buddha or something and somebody's praying to that little Buddha idol or the laughing Buddha
or whatever, you could say, well, the problem here is that they're worshiping
another God. It's not the God of the Bible, but yet, even if you had idolatry that is supposedly
directed toward the correct God and you say, oh, I'm worshiping the Lord, I'm worshiping Jesus,
but I'm using this image to do it, it is still idolatry. You're still serving images.
Now, look what the Bible says in verse 15.
Take ye therefore good heat unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude, on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
Lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth,
lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seeest the sun and the moon and the stars,
even all the hosts of heaven shouldest be driven to worship them
and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."
And so what God is warning about is all forms of idolatry, even idolatry that's directed at the Lord.
No matter what the image is of, you do not serve images.
bow down to or pray to images.
Now, if you would flip over to Acts chapter number seven.
Acts chapter number seven.
And, here's the funny thing, when people try to justify this thing of, you know, praying
to pictures of Jesus, or bowing down to a statue of Jesus, or having images of Jesus
in the church that we venerate, or kiss, or look at, or whatever.
This is what they'll say.
They'll say, well, no, we're not actually praying to this image.
We're praying to Jesus.
It's just that the image sort of helps us focus or something.
On a picture of a random dude is what they're focusing on.
But it's like, oh, this picture just really helps us focus.
And it helps us concentrate or whatever.
OK, well, thank you for explaining to me how idolatry works.
Thank you for explaining to me why humans love idolatry.
Thank you for explaining to me why false religions all over the world use idolatry
and why God has to tell us not to do it.
Thank you for explaining to me why you like idols.
But let me explain something to you.
in the book of Acts when they're selling little Diana statues
and saying, great is Diana the Ephesians.
Let me explain to you right now is that those people
did not think that that was really Diana either.
And when they were praying to their little Diana statue,
they weren't actually, you know, serving the statue,
you know, we're really serving Diana.
They could have said the exact same thing.
Every idolater could say the exact same thing.
Right? The person with the Buddha statue is going to readily admit to you that that statue is not actually Buddha and that when they pour
milk on the head of their little Hindu statue and when they pour honey on its head and when they throw flowers at their Hindu God,
they know that that image is not the literal Hindu God.
Right? I'm sure there are some bozos who think it really is or something, but honestly,
we all know that when people are bowing down to images, they are praying to what the image
represents. They are worshiping what the image represents. And when God says, do not serve
images, do not pray to images, do not bow down yourself to images. It's like, well, I know
I'm on my knees in front of an image, but I'm not bowing to the image. I'm bowing to what
Folks this kind of logic is just a lame excuse for idolaters
It does not hold water. It doesn't even make sense
Say, oh, well, I know, you know, this isn't what it looks like, you know
I know I'm lighting incense in front of this image, but I'm not I'm not serving the image
I'm serving the what the image represents so is every idolator of every religion so is every Hindu so is every Buddhist
What is your point?
Right, and so this is a don't buy into these excuses if you see somebody
bowing down to a picture of Jesus and praying
to that image
What do I mean by that? They're they're to that image meaning they're facing toward that image and praying
Well, they're not really praying to the image, they're praying to Jesus to just use the image.
That is a foolish distinction that means nothing in the eyes of God.
God said,
Do not use images to worship me.
You saw no image.
You don't know what I look like.
Don't make an image.
All you heard was the Word of God.
Look, if you want to know who God is, it's in the Word.
You want to get a picture of who God is? Read the Bible.
You want to get an image of who God is?
Read the Bible. The Bible is what you need.
The voice of God is how you get to know God, not a picture of God.
And isn't it interesting that as we read the Bible,
we find no physical description of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
We have all these chapters, after chapters, about the life of Christ,
his birth, a little bit about his childhood.
his ministry, his death, his burial, his resurrection.
And yet, while Jesus is walking on this earth,
we don't have physical descriptions of him
talking about things like his height, his build,
his eye color, his hair color, his skin color,
you know, his hair.
You don't get any of those kind of details, do you?
And if it was so important that we have this image of Jesus,
then why don't we have an image of Jesus?
Right? Because all these different false religions, Roman Catholics, Armenian, Apostolic, East Orthodox,
they all have different images of Jesus. They're not consistent.
Now you may think it's consistent because you're just really used to the Catholic Jesus.
because Roman Catholicism is big, unfortunately, in the United States.
But guess what? I have an 1,100-year-old, or I have a facsimile, I should say,
of an 1,100-year-old Armenian manuscript of the Bible,
and in that Armenian manuscript there are images of Jesus in there,
and they look absolutely nothing like the Roman Catholic images of Jesus.
Nothing like it's it's a clean shave in Jesus different hair different face everything about those images is different
And so, again, we could pull out other ancient manuscripts, ancient artwork, and you will
find, especially in the first several centuries AD, you'll find that the pictures are all
over the place.
Now, later in the Renaissance, some queer painter came out with a really good painting
that everybody kind of agrees, hey, this is the final draft or whatever, 1500 years
after Christ lived.
These images are just made up, you know, it's funny.
Somebody showed me a picture of like Obi-Wan Kenobi
in somebody's house and said,
hey, you know, I told my grandma this is Jesus
and, you know, she's been praying to it every day.
And it's, you know, Obi-Wan Kenobi
from the prequel series.
And so, you know, you might as well, literally, you might as well put up that picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi and pray to him.
Because it's no more or less the real Jesus than what they're selling down at the Catholic bookstore or anywhere else.
And by the way, the Bible specifically says it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
And then why would Jesus have long hair?
That's a false doctrine anyway.
Jesus would have had the normal hair and clothing of everybody else.
That's why in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas didn't say,
grab the guy with the long hair.
He said, it's the one that I kiss.
He had to do something to identify him because he didn't look that different
than the rest of his disciples.
He was looking like a normal, masculine man.
And so there's an idea out there that says,
well, in the Old Testament, we couldn't make images
because we'd never seen God,
but now that Jesus has been on the earth,
now we have seen Jesus,
and so now we can have pictures of Jesus.
Okay, well then, why have no pictures survived
from Jesus' lifetime?
Not a single picture had survived from Jesus' lifetime.
And the pictures that do show up from 100, 200, 300 years later are, first of all, 100 years after the fact,
second of all, they're all over the place. They all look different from one another, okay?
If God wanted us to now worship images of Jesus, why is there not a single verse in the entire New Testament that says,
pray to images of Jesus, bow down to images of Jesus?
And yet instead what do we have is just verses that keep telling us to avoid idols.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Look at Acts chapter 7 verse 39.
It says,
And look at verse 41,
and they made a calf in those days
and offered sacrifice unto the idol
and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
So notice they are making a sacrifice
unto the idol, the Bible says.
But then if we go back into Exodus,
when...
Aaron makes the molten calf, he says,
these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought the up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it,
and Aaron made proclamation and said,
tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.
So Aaron says, we're going to do a feast serving Jehovah God the Lord.
But he's using an idol to celebrate that feast.
And how does it get interpreted in the New Testament?
Well, they're serving an idol.
When you're having a feast to the Lord and you're using an image to do it. Well, then you're serving an idol
You're not serving the Lord. Okay, and the East Orthodox when they walk into their church. They kiss
images
That is serving images. That is idolatry
If you are kissing a picture, that is idolatry.
If you are bowing down to a picture, that is idolatry.
You are kneeling before a picture, that is idolatry.
When you are pouring milk or honey or sprinkling flowers on the head of an image,
that is idolatry, okay?
And it's sin, it's wrong, it's wicked.
And also, I have another question.
If, all of a sudden, it's okay to, you know, make an image of God because Jesus is God
and Jesus dwelt among us and yada yada, then explain to me why every single denomination,
every single religion that worships pictures of Jesus also worships pictures of other people.
Right, isn't it funny how it's not that they just worship Jesus because every religion that worships a picture of Jesus
You know what else they worship a picture of Mary?
Right isn't that interesting a picture of Mary because you think Roman Catholics like well, we'll have a picture of Jesus, but not Mary
Let's have a statue of Jesus, but not a Mary statue. They'll do the Mary statue more
They'll spend twice as much time with that Mary image as they will with an image of Jesus and then how about this?
What about all the saints right because when you walk into an East Orthodox Church by the way, it's required
It's not optional
It's required if you're Orthodox to walk into that church and you have to physically kiss
The icons and it's a you're kissing a pictures a bunch of crusty dudes
So, it's not just Jesus, it's just a whole row of crusty dudes and you have to kiss each
image of crusty old dude after another.
And the reason it's required is because they're trying to make sure you're not a spy or an
infiltrator.
That's how you show you're the real thing, goes back to the history of a thousand years
ago when there was a huge fight over images and the people who wanted to have the images,
And so they're like, okay, we want to make sure that we keep all the bad people out.
So to prove it, when you show up to an Orthodox church, you got to kiss these images.
Because guess what? People who are actually real ones won't kiss those pictures.
Would you pick would you kiss that picture?
What if you're just on a museum tour in one of these countries or something and it's like oh and by the way
Look when I was in Armenia, I did tour some of these like monasteries and and you know ancient churches and whatever and
And oh here, you know that they're trying to put candles in my hands. I said get that away from me
And I would not light a single candle
I would not light any incense and they're like, oh, you know, you got to cross yourself on the way
And I'd say well, I'm not going in then
I'm not going to do this junk, show me in the Bible and I'll do it.
Show me in the Bible crossing myself and I'll do it.
Show me in the Bible lighting incense to some crusty dude from 1500 years ago and I'll do
it.
I'm not going to do it.
And so no, I'm not going to light a candle, I'm not going to burn incense to images because
that is serving images because that is idolatry.
And this is what they'll say, they'll try to go back to the Greek and say,
well, we don't do this one word for worship, we do this other word for worship, right?
You know, we don't la trevo, because that's the idolatry.
You know, we do this other kind of kneeling.
You know what, don't be a big hypocrite, right?
Just flee idolatry is what the Bible says.
So that's point number one, I'm done with point number one.
which is literal idolatry, we've got to stay away from it.
In fact, by the way, it's a sin that gets you kicked out of the local church.
So, for the East Orthodox, well, the feeling's mutual.
You only want idolatres in your church.
In order to be East Orthodox, you have to be, you're required to be an idolater,
because you are required to serve an image on your way in the door.
It's a requirement, it's mandatory idolatry in the East Orthodox Church.
And when I say East Orthodox, you know what I'm talking about, right?
Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, whatever.
Okay, you're required to be an idolater.
Well, guess what? In a Baptist church, you're required not to be an idolater
because the Bible literally says that if anybody that is called a brother is an idolater,
to put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
and not even to eat with them.
And so it's the literal opposite of the Orthodox Church
being an Baptist Church where there's no idolatry allowed.
And look, if that sin gets someone thrown out of the Church,
it just shows God does not want this in the Church at all.
It's not like, well, we're against it,
but we'll have grace with people who are doing it.
Nope, if you're doing it, you're out.
It's tantamount to being a fornicator or an alcoholic.
That's what the Bible says.
So number two, though, let's go back to Colossians chapter three.
Number one, we said literal idolatry, makes you an idolater, right?
Want to stay away from serving images, bowing down to images, praying to images, and don't
even, don't even begin to say, oh, it's not the, I'm not worshiping the image.
Or more so what the image represents.
Yeah, you and every idolater on the planet are doing that.
You and every Hindu and Buddhist, yeah, I get it.
Thank you, that was super helpful.
Number two, though, is a more figurative kind of covetousness,
or figurative type of idolatry,
which is covetousness, the Bible says.
So literally idolatry is serving images,
bowing down to them, making them, and so forth.
But then secondly,
The Bible says covetousness is idolatry.
This is obviously not literal.
This is figurative.
So the Bible says in verse five,
mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth,
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry, for which things sake,
the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
Also, this is not an isolated scripture because in the parallel passage in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 5, it says,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
So, two different times in his epistles,
the apostle Paul tells us that covetous people are idolaters.
Now, what does that mean? Because obviously being covetous
does not mean that you're actually literally
bowing down to images or serving images or praying to images, are you?
But if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 6, and we'll get a very clear
explanation
of why covetousness is idolatry.
Now, first of all, let's just talk about
what covetousness is.
Coveting is desiring something
that does not legitimately belong to you, right?
So a synonym of the word covet is desire.
So for example, in the Ten Commandments says,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
but then in a parallel passage it says,
die neighbor's wife.
And so it uses those two words interchangeably
because covetousness is a bad desire
or typically it's desiring something
that you don't legitimately have access to
like your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's house
or your neighbor's car or anything that is your neighbor's.
That's typically the sin that we're talking about when we talk about
Covet. Sometimes people will use the word Covet positively, rarely, like, oh, I covet your prayers or something, you know
That's a rare sort of ironic usage of the word Covet, but the vast majority of the time
It is negative in Scripture. They're like I said a couple of rare positive mentions
But it's typically negative because it's typically a wrong kind of desire, but at its core, covetousness
is desiring something.
But when we talk about covetousness being idolatry,
we're talking about a specific kind of covetousness,
which is the big one, which is coveting other people's money.
The love of money is the thing that is in view typically in the New Testament when we talk about a covetous person or covetousness.
We're typically talking about specifically the love of money, right?
Which is the root of all evil, the Bible says.
Look what it says in Matthew 6, 24.
It says, No man can serve two masters.
for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other,
you cannot serve God and mammon.
Okay, and mammon is another word for money,
and it's sort of like a personification of money.
And so money becomes for many people a false God, right, and becomes an idol for them
because what are they serving?
They're not serving God, they're serving Mammon.
He said, you can't serve both, you're either going to serve God or you're going to serve Mammon.
And so many people today, their religion is money.
That's what is the most important thing to them.
That's what they're serving.
That's what their life is about.
Their life is primarily not about pleasing God.
It's primarily about making money.
And this is something that you could easily see saved Christians
who would never have a Buddha statue or Shiva the destroyer
or Goro from Mortal Kombat
or any kind of Jesus or Mary or saints in their house,
but then they could still become a covetous person, which makes them what?
an idolater. The Bible literally says a covetous man who is an idolater.
And then it says covetousness is idolatry. So it says it both ways.
It says it about the act and about the person both.
And so if you look at Matthew 624, you can't serve God in mammon.
Therefore, so verse 25 is continuing the same thought.
Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.
And then as we continue through this passage, it goes on and on
about how, look, God can meet our financial needs.
He can provide us with the food and the drink
and the clothing that we need and that we need to just
not get obsessed with money
where we're just thinking about money all the time
and start serving money instead of serving God.
And then this sort of culminates in verse 33
where it says,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.
And so the idea here is
that God must be number one in our lives.
And if God is not number one
and money is number one,
we are an idolater at that point.
because something has replaced God in our life.
So, I've got three points this morning,
and each point sort of becomes increasingly abstract,
because we start with point number one, which is very literal,
idolaters.
are people who are bowing down to literal images,
whether graven images, carved images, molten images,
standing images, even it could be a two-dimensional image,
if it's a God that you're worshiping
or a person that you're worshiping, it's still idolatry.
That's number one.
Number two, though, we're taking the Bible's cue
that covetousness is idolatry.
Which means that therefore having money as your primary focus instead of God makes you an idolater
But then we could take an even further abstraction with point three and say that
Anything that replaces God as the most important thing in your life could be seen as idolatry
in a figurative sense.
So it's like, you know, we're starting out with what the Bible talks the most about
versus what the Bible talks the least about.
Literal idolatry number one, number two, serving mammon instead of God
and then number three, anything that takes that place
of God in your life as being the one thing that you live for
the number one thing in your life that's supposed to be God.
In all things, Jesus Christ should have the preeminence in our lives.
and other things should not take that spot.
But you think about money and how it sucks people in
and people go down this road where it just becomes all about
nice houses, nice clothes, fancy cars, and everything like that,
and it can become a God in people's lives.
And look, why do we go to church on Sunday morning?
Why Sunday morning? Why the first day of the week?
Because you know what we're doing? We're seeking first the Kingdom of God.
You know, the first thing we do on the week is go to church, right?
What is the first thing we're supposed to do every morning?
Man, before you even get out of bed, before you even open your eyes,
you should already be thinking about the Lord, acknowledging God in your mind,
praying to God, reading your Bible, right?
You need to start the day off seeking God.
And at the end of the day, the most important thing is that he's your number one priority,
meaning that you're willing to sacrifice other things.
to make sure that you're serving God, right?
So, hey, if it means taking a lesser job
so that you can serve God, you'll do it.
Because the most important thing
is that you get your butt down to church,
not just how much money you can make
or how much you can achieve in your career.
You got to put church and serving God,
reading your Bible, soul winning.
You got to put those things
in their proper place in your life.
Now, here's the thing about things that can replace God in your life or become an idol
for you, is that many of these things are not even bad things.
First of all, money is not a bad thing.
The Bible says positive things about money in the book of Proverbs.
Talks about making money.
It talks about how money is useful and helpful, and Jesus talked about that too.
Jesus isn't some money-hating guy or something.
It's the love of money that's the root of all evil.
Money is a good thing, but it needs to occupy its proper place in our lives.
It's a tool, it's something that we all need to deal with,
but it is not something that should be the focus of our affection, our attention, our thoughts.
We're supposed to meditate on the Word of God day and night,
not be meditating on our bank statement day and night.
You know, and a lot of people, they wake up in the morning,
they're not checking their Bible, they're checking the banking.
First thing they do they hop on the bank website check their balance they check their stocks
They check their portfolio they check whatever they're reading the Wall Street Journal instead of reading the King James Journal right here
Okay, they need to be more focused on the things of God, but it's not just money
It could really be anything and again these aren't necessarily bad things. How about sports?
You know, I don't think that sports are a bad thing
I think this sports can actually be good for you and you know, especially if you're the one actually playing the sports
It always cracks me up how people like to take credit for the athletic achievements of other people like we won today
You know, it's like you you're a hundred pounds overweight, you know, like I don't think you won that basketball game or whatever, you know
but
Obviously sports even even let's say someone just really likes to watch sports, right? Look, here's the thing
Obviously, there's a lot worse things that they could be doing.
It's better than going to the bar and getting drunk every night.
It's kind of just a good, clean fun to be interested in.
Baseball, basketball, football, hockey.
Now, look, personally, full disclosure, I'm not into it.
I never have been.
I'm never going to be.
I've never watched the Super Bowl ever in my life.
Like, I went to a Super Bowl party one time, but it was just to hang out.
I wasn't watching the game.
I was more just socializing.
eating the snacks etc.
But the thing is but look I'm not against it. I'm not saying it's bad because you know what it is at least a good clean fund
There's a lot worse things people could be doing with their time, you know have a little entertainment
Whatever and especially playing sports can at least help keep you healthy and strong
And and you can live longer and serve God longer and so forth
But you know for a lot of people sports can become an idol though
Where their religion is sports and look
This is what's funny. We walk through my neighborhood a lot. I like to take a lot of walks
I like to take my kids on a lot of walks
and so we walk through our neighborhood and
There's this house in my neighborhood that is covered in I want to say Christmas lights, but they're not Christmas lights
It's basically just this super elaborate lighting setup as if it were Christmas lights
You'd expect it to be Christmas lights, but it's all about a football team
So it's like I don't even remember what team because that's how little I care even though I've walked by it probably a hundred times
But it's just the colors of that team
is lighting up their entire house.
They have a giant banner on the garage
and just all kinds of little shrines and idols
all over their yard, you know, to,
I mean, let's just say, this isn't what it is,
but let's just say it's the Green Bay Packers or something,
you know, because that is a team
that I've seen other people idolize.
I've seen somebody paint their whole house.
In Arizona, the color of the Green Bay Packers.
From Green Bay, Wisconsin, and you're in Arizona, and you're painting your entire house. It's like wow
I bet your wife really loved this idea
And it's like and you'll see people you'll see people driving a pickup truck and their whole pickup truck is just like a
Rolling parade float for one of these teams
And I mean you have these people who are just they're obsessed with it
It's their life and here's what's funny. They couldn't tell you the 12 disciples
But they could name everybody on that team.
They couldn't tell you the 12 sons of Jacob.
They can't tell you the 12 tribes of Israel.
But they could tell you every single member of that team
and all the stats and all the...
You know what?
If you know way more stats about sports
than you know about the Bible, your priorities are messed up.
Unless you're doing that for a living or something,
unless that's your job,
unless you're like writing the sports column
for the newspaper, then okay,
you have an excuse to spend eight hours a day or whatever.
but if you're getting paid.
But I mean, look, it's just your hobby.
Great, have your hobby.
But you know what?
For every stat that you learn,
for every character that you learn,
for every famous little play that you learn,
you better be learning a Bible story,
you better be learning a Bible character,
you better be caring about the things of God
and not just living a life that is obsessed
with sports that don't matter in the end.
And look, you say, oh, you're just hurting my feelings about my hobby.
But there's the thing, my hobbies don't matter either.
I have hobbies that don't matter. You have hobbies that don't matter.
But at the end of the day, I'm not going to make an idol out of my hobbies.
I'm not going to make an idol out of a game.
And speaking of games, it could be for some people, video games.
They're just obsessed with gaming and they've just been hours and hours and hours of gaming.
Here, you know what? I just heard this new video game just dropped.
It's called the Omi TV soul winning video game.
Put on the headset and play.
Rack up some soul winning XP, amen.
You want to be gaming all day.
Here's a game.
See how many souls you can win to Christ.
Here study the manual. Here's the game. Here's the strategy guide right here. Here's the cheat seat the cheat sheet right here
But it could be anything could be music
Right, some people they're just they're super into music. They're obsessed with music. It's all about music
But you know what? I've noticed about these musicians whenever they make it big and really succeed and everything isn't amazing
How miserable they are that they can't stop taking drugs and getting drunk and harming themselves
Like if, and these are the ones who've made it and they're producing the music that they've always dreamed of producing
Millions of people are loving their music and enjoying their music and they're so happy about it that they go shoot up heroin
Apparently there's nothing at the end of that road is there?
How about education and look I'm a hundred percent for learning and studying and getting smarter amen
But for some people education is their God. It's more important than church. It's more important than the Bible
It's more important than serving God is just how many degrees and how many accolades they can get how much they can learn
And and even a lot of people within church, they're not actually fulfilling the Great Commission or doing the work of God
They're more just kind of worshiping their own intellect and just
studying theology all day in their little ivory tower
instead of actually getting out there and doing the work of Christ.
And by the way, the person who reads their Bible
and does the work that God told them to do is going to know and understand the Bible more than the guy who just studies the Bible.
This is ironic, isn't it? Because you think, oh, this guy,
all he does, man, he has devoted his life
to just study.
And he just wakes up in the morning and just 12 hours a day.
He's studying languages, he's studying theology,
he's reading the Bible, and he is the expert, my friend.
No, I guarantee you that somebody who has a more balanced life,
who does a lot of study, but then also goes out and wins souls to Jesus Christ
and actually preaches Spirit-filled service is going to end up knowing more.
Even if he has less study time or formal training or whatever.
You know, I guarantee you that there are pastors all across America who have no formal training,
who are, you know, what the world would say are uneducated,
but yet, even without all the degrees and accolades and training,
I guarantee you they know the Bible better because they're living it.
putting it into practice and by reason of use they have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil versus the guy who's just a big study
guy and isn't actually out doing the work because you get imbalanced you get
imbalanced you get weird ideas when you stop interacting with people and when
you stop actually putting the word into practice you want to know who has the
best salvation doctrine the people who do the most soul winning usually
The people that go soul-winding all the time are really solid on the Gospel.
You know, I mean how could you do a lot of soul-winding and be effective at soul-winding
if you're wishy-washy on the Gospel?
If you're wishy-washy on the Gospel and go out and do hundreds and hundreds of hours of soul-winding,
you know, eventually you're going to get solid on it.
It's going to be real clear to you.
You know, and because not only are you studying the Bible to find the verses to use out soul winning
Then you're deploying those verses in real life situations, but you're also having your idea challenged constantly
Because you're being challenged constantly by people arguing with you or not receiving the message and then you're able to really sharpen that sword, right?
And you're sharpening it and you're sharpening it. And the people who do a bunch of soul winning men, they know the Gospel, they know the salvation plan,
they know where the verses are, they know how to debunk every dumb argument under the sun because they've been out there doing the work.
Whereas if you're some theologian somewhere, you could just kind of go off on some dumb tangent.
and nobody's there to really keep you in check.
And then you get into this stupidity of Calvinism
and all this dumb predestination garbage that they believe.
Because again, you know, it's not real.
It's not based on reality.
It's not, and then these end times prophecy views
that don't even seem real.
But they were dreamed up in some study somewhere. No, my friend. You're gonna have more balance by
Doing the work of God then making a God out of education even if it's a Christian education, right?
Let alone secular education, you know, just oh, you know, you're gonna become this great physicist or whatever great
You know what but always keep God number one
Always keep God for seek first the kingdom of God always make sure that church is the most important Bible soul winning
You know make those things in their proper place and not just like all physics is gonna give me the answers to the universe
I'm sorry, but math doesn't have the answer. Sorry Pythagoras, but science doesn't have the answers
History doesn't have the answers
God's got the answers
So people make a God out of money
They make an idol out of sports
They make an idol out of music. They make an idol out of education
They make an idol out of a career a certain career that they have
An idol out of relationships. How about this an idol out of romantic love?
And this is a big one for the teenagers and the young adults that are out there.
They make an idol out of romantic love and let me tell you something.
There are many songs and books and movies and TV shows whose ultimate message is this.
Romantic love is the end all be all of existence.
It is the goal of our existences, the goal of our lives.
That is the message that is in countless songs, movies, TV shows, books, magazines.
They have made an idol out of romantic love.
And you have young people today thinking that if they can just find that special someone,
That is the ultimate goal of their life.
Their life will be fulfilled.
Everything will just fall into place.
They will have everything they want out of life.
This is just like everything else.
It doesn't matter if we're talking about sports,
music, education, put romantic love on that exact same list.
and to do this right after Valentine's Day.
I'm, am I heartless or what?
No, you know what?
Put romantic love, put romantic love right there
on the list with sports, career, music.
And look, are any of these things bad?
Not at all.
And look, we have a whole book of the Bible
celebrating romantic love, this song of Solomon.
The Bible celebrates romantic love.
Romantic love is one of the most beautiful things
in this world.
But let me tell you something, sports can be pretty beautiful too.
Food can be pretty beautiful.
Your career can be pretty beautiful.
Music can be pretty beautiful.
Let me tell you something, of course these are beautiful wonderful nice things. They're good things
And you know what if you're offended by what I'm saying right now
You've probably just been influenced by all this music TV movies and everything and look again. Yeah, there's romantic love in the Bible
Yeah, it's a thing. There's also sports in the Bible
I could also show you education in the Bible.
I could also show you career in the Bible.
I could also show you money.
I could show you positive mentions of all those things.
And they're good things.
And look, I'm telling you that romantic love is seen as some kind of an end-all, be-all
that if you can just achieve this, your life is complete.
Let me tell you something.
You could have the ultimate romantic relationship that has ever existed.
And if you don't have Christ, you have nothing.
You just do and and you know if you put your romantic relationship
Above Jesus Christ, let's say you say well, I have both you know
I'm I have the love of my life and I have Christ great. Amen. Make sure Christ is always number one. Oh
I just I just love my significant other more than anything in the whole world
Okay, great. Amen, but you better not love your significant other more than Christ
You know, I love my wife more than I love any human on this planet.
But off-planet, that's another story, because up in heaven, there's somebody up in heaven,
there's a man up in heaven that I love more, it's the man Christ Jesus, okay?
And so guess what?
Romantic love is a beautiful part of our life, but that's what it is, it's a part of our
life.
And you know what, I can honestly get up here and say that when I was a teenager, I thought
I was obsessed with meeting girls, that's all I thought about,
that's all I cared about.
And yeah, I went to church and youth group constantly to meet the girls.
Yeah, I went to that Super Bowl party for the girls, you know.
But the point is that, you know, I was on this quest for this holy grail,
okay, you know, because I thought that's the end all,
because that's what I've been trained to think by all the pop culture.
And here's the thing, I did find that ultimate.
I got married and my wife and I were super happy.
Cloud nine, I mean, we were poor.
We're living in a tiny apartment with nothing
and we were just so happy and we spent every second together
unless I was at work.
If I wasn't at work, we're just together.
I mean, just all Friday, all, you know, after work, all Saturday, all Saturday, like we were
joined at the hip, madly in love with each other, and it was like, I'm there, I've arrived.
Here I am.
But you know what I found out though?
It wasn't enough.
I wasn't satisfied, and you know what I found out was that the things of God were superior.
That's what I found.
And so here's the thing, I'm sorry, but I lived that dream.
I've been there, I've done it.
I found the love of my life and was just joined at the hipter
and hung out with her all day, every day
and thought about her while I was at work
and we had a great time.
But you know what, even while we were in that wonderful,
early phase of marriage, you know, before all the puking,
and all the morning sickness and all the challenges that have to do with giving birth and having a baby.
You know what? Even on cloud nine, I knew inside of me and felt inside of me, this is not enough.
This is not enough. Christ is all. And I knew that Christ and serving Christ and serving God
and that that's what's going to provide the real lasting joy in life
and the real meaning in life.
And so I'm not down on romantically.
You know, I think that if you, you know,
if there's any way that you can find that person and enjoy that, it's sublime.
But at the same time, it's not enough because it's just like your career's not going to be enough.
Just like sports aren't enough.
And you say, oh, it's just so crude to compare that to those things.
But honestly, I'm going to put it on the same list.
You know, it's it's it's beautiful. It's wonderful. It can be sublime, but it's just that and you know what?
I still love my wife. It's still sublime. We still tag those summits of
sublimity, but let me tell you something at the end of the day though if I have to choose between Jesus Christ and
That relationship. I'm gonna choose Jesus Christ every single time and the teenagers there think I would it
It's cuz you are a teenager. That's why
And I was, you know, and, but even when I was a teenager,
I still would have said, if somebody would have asked me,
hey, what's more important, Christ or romantic love,
I would have known the right answer is Christ.
But then if you looked at like how I spent my time though,
it's probably spending more time pursuing romantic love
than I was pursuing the things of God, you know,
if I'm honest.
But,
One more point here, because we said sports, music, money,
education, career, romantic love, relationships.
And here's a final one.
And if you were offended by the last point,
this point is probably going to might even
offend you a little more.
Family.
Family is everything, right?
Family is the end all, BL.
And again, we could point to maybe not as many songs
on the radio on this one.
But we could probably point to hundreds of movies and TV shows
where the message is, family is everything.
And, you know, the whole plot is just, you know,
career versus family.
And, you know, oh, bad man is, you know,
putting his career above his family.
And then, oh, and then by the end,
he realizes he's got to put family above everything, right?
Where's, uh...
God come into the picture here.
Where's church? Where's Christ?
You know, the bottom line is that people have made an idol out of family as well.
Where they've made an idol.
And let's get back to the Bible.
Go to Matthew chapter 10.
If you would, Matthew chapter 10.
Because anything that takes the place of God in our life becomes an idol.
Anything that takes priority above God.
And again, do not misunderstand the sermon.
I'm not telling you to neglect your career, right?
I want you to thrive in your career.
I want you to thrive in romantic love.
But you know what?
Here's the thing, some people in this auditorium,
romantic loves off the table for them.
Does that mean that their life just might as well be over?
No, teenagers, they can still live a wonderful,
productive, godly life and be happy and fulfilled
and have joy because guess what?
There's more to life than just romantic love.
And so for the singles out there,
for people that are struggling in that area,
or maybe it's off the table for them, or whatever,
hey, they could still live a great life.
So this should be an encouraging sermon for them.
For every teenager that it offends,
it's actually gonna make some lonely guy feel better.
So there you go.
But look, anything that becomes our religion,
Our most important thing our number one priority the thing that we think about all day and we wake up thinking
And then you know what I'm talking about you wake up thinking about stuff
You're thinking about it throughout the day you're thinking about it when you get home
You're thinking about it when you go to bed at night. Hey that ought to be the things of God
Look what the Bible says in Matthew 10 34 think not that I'm come to send peace on earth
I came not to send peace but a sword
From come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter
More than me is not worthy of me. Does this sound to me like Jesus Christ is
Telling you family above all else
Is that what he's telling you yeah blood's thicker than water the blood of Jesus
I mean, we're talking about Jesus who said,
who is my mother?
Who are my brethren?
He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples
and said, behold, my mother and my brethren,
for whoever shall do the will of my father,
which is in heaven, the same as my mother
and sister and brother.
And you know what?
For a lot of people in your life, as you serve God,
Christian friends will replace many of your family members
in your life.
And for many of you,
For many of us, I should say, you know, brothers and sisters in Christ will replace
biological relatives as being the most important people in your life.
And you say, ah, this is so terrible. Really? Because I can't seem to find that in my Bible.
I seem to find the opposite of what you're saying in my Bible because and look, I am 100% for
you
striving to have a good relationship with all of your family members.
But, you know, for me personally, the only relationships in my life that are really non-negotiable
are my mom, my dad, and my wife.
Those are non-negotiable, you know, because I have a commitment to those three people
that's unique.
I must honor my father and mother, it's a commandment of God, and I must be faithful
unto my wife, unto death.
These three people are the three people that I have just supreme loyalty to but even those three people guess what I
More loyal to God
Than any of those three people right God has to be number one
But here's the thing look I love all kinds of other people
You know the cousins and aunts and uncles and different people, but you know what?
None of them is absolutely essential to my life.
They're just not.
And you know what?
If they're not helping me serve God,
if they're holding me back from serving God,
if they're not a blessing to me,
if they're not encouraging me,
if I'm not blessing them, if I'm not encouraging,
you know what, I'm totally fine with cutting
any of those people loose at any time.
And just moving on.
because I got all kinds of brothers and sisters right here in the house of God.
And like I said, I'm a hundred percent for
extended family and having a great relationship with your family and I think
you should always strive to live peaceably with all men and
and try to cultivate those relationships. But you know what, if you find yourself
in extended family relationship that feels like a one-way street,
sometimes just move on. Now look, you got to honor your father and mother
and you gotta stay with your spouse.
Those aren't optional.
There's your trifecta right there,
but you know what?
These other relationships are optional, period.
And you know what?
If those people are helping you
and you're helping them, great.
But if they're leading you into sin,
if they're a bad influence on you,
if they're a source of frustration in your life,
if they're just self-centered one-way people,
leeches, toxic people, cut them loose.
No where does the Bible say, honor your cousin in the Lord, honor thy auntie.
Is that what it says?
Honor thy son and daughter.
Is that what it says?
No, it really doesn't.
And again, we in our culture in many ways have made an idol out of the family, where
people will put family.
But what does the Bible say?
He the loveth, father or mother, more than me, is not worthy of me.
He the loveth, son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me.
And those are the most like primary relationships outside of a spouse.
And yet even those have to take a backseat to Christ.
How much less aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc.
And so many people have made an idol out of the family
and have decided that that's the end all beyond.
And let me tell you something, I've been to
large family gatherings, right?
And large family gatherings can be beautiful.
Where you have all kinds of people coming together all kinds of cousins and siblings and and extended family coming together
And you know you you Hispanics, you know, you don't even need to listen to this
But you could tell me a thing or two about this, but you know because it seems like Hispanics
They always have really big family gatherings with all the extended family
So they're doing a good job of keeping on good terms with all those people of us white people
aren't as
good at this apparently but
Here's what's funny is I've been to these gatherings
that are, they're so fun.
They're so beautiful, it's so fun,
and all the cousins and aunts and uncles and everything.
And you know, it's like woohoo, you know.
But you know what's kind of funny though,
is that a lot of that is a little bit of a veneer,
a little bit of a facade.
And like kind of the longer that you're around.
It's one of those things that seems real perfect and ideal at first
But then like the longer you see it and the longer you're around it, you know
You kind of realize there's not as much there as you thought and
Let me tell you something
That's the way all of life is
But the one thing that is never gonna leave you feeling empty is
The Lord
You know, I've been look I've been serving God for decades and I love it
not tired of the Bible, not tired of church,
not tired of serving God, I love it.
Whereas there have been a lot of other things
that have come and gone in my life.
This is the constant.
And so I hope that you'll understand
that only serving Christ is worthy of that number one slot
in your brain every day, all day,
thinking about meditating on.
And so I encourage you to put God number one in your life.
And so, number one, we don't want to be a literal idolater,
like a Catholic or Orthodox or Armenian apostolic.
Number two, we don't want to be covetous,
desiring and loving money, because that's idolatry.
And number three, we don't want to let anything
take that number one spot in our life,
even if it's something really good, like family, romantic love.
I mean, those are really beautiful things.
Even if it's some beautiful athletic pursuit,
career, education, whatever it is,
let's keep the Lord always as the God of our life.
And our religion be about him and nothing else.
Let's bow hands and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you so much for the fact that Christ died
for our sins and was buried and rose again.
Lord God, help us to be able to honestly say
that Christ is our life.
And Lord, help us to enjoy all of these other things
in moderation and all of these side quests in our life.
But Lord, help us always remember that the main quest
is to know Jesus Christ and to serve him.
And it's in his name we pray, amen.
Man, all right, ladies and gentlemen,
take your hymnals please.
Go to hymn 304, hymn number 304.
Nothing between my soul and the Savior.
Sing it together on that first now hymn 304 nothing between my soul and the Savior
Not of this world's delusive dream
304 sing it out together now
nothing between
my soul
Jesus is mine, there's nothing between
Nothing between my soul and the Savior
So that His blessed face may be seen
Nothing preventing the least of His favor
Keep the way clear, there's nothing between
Nothing between life's early pleasure, habits of life, though heartless they seem, must stop my heart from him ever severed.
He is my all, there's nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and a Savior So that His blessed face may be seen
Nothing preventing the least of His favor Keep the way clear when nothing between
Your friends shall not intercede, though when they cause me much tribulation, I am resolved, there's nothing between, nothing between my soul and my soul.
the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor.
Keep away clear, let nothing between, nothing between.
Watching with prayer and blood, self-heal my own
I'll triumph and last with nothing between
Nothing between my soul and the Savior
So that His blessed face may be seen
Nothing preventing the least of His favor
Keep the way clear, there's nothing between.
That gets taken this morning.
We are dismissed.