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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. I'll go with him through the garden. I'll go with him through the garden. I'll go with him through the garden. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. Where he leads me I will follow. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory. And I'll go with him, with him, all the way. Where he leads me I will follow, where he leads me I will follow, where he leads me I will follow. I'll go with him, with him, all the way. Alright, at this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter number 3. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1. Follow along with brother Dan as he reads. Colossians chapter 3, starting in verse number 1. Colossians chapter 3, the Bible reads, If ye 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 ye 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 thing's 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 ye 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, Scythian, bond 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, longsuffering, forbearing 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 ye 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 I 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, who died 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 are yours. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word, so that we your children will 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, amen. Amen. Man, 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 whoremongers, 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 going to talk about idolatry. Now if you would turn back to Deuteronomy chapter number four. The first thing we're going to 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. Uh, so the Bible says in Leviticus, your turn to Deuteronomy four, but in Leviticus 26 one it says, Ye shall make you no idols, nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye 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 four verse ten, because, uh, the Bible says in verse ten, specifically the day that thou shouldest, excuse me, the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, 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, ye 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, you know, 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. 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've got their little Thor or Zeus or, you know, depending on the ethnicity, right? All these pagan gods. So they're bowing down to idols and worshiping false gods, right? So 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. They'll like this of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth, lest you lift up, lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven. And when thou seest 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, you do not bow down to or pray to images. Now if you would flip over to Acts chapter number 7, Acts chapter number 7. 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, you know, 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. 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 something 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 worshipping 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 the image represents. 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 serving the image, I'm serving what the image represents. So is every idolater of every religion, so is every Hindu, so is every Buddhist. What is your point? Right? And so this is, 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? To that image meaning they are facing toward that image and praying. Well they're not really praying to the image, they're praying to Jesus, they're just using 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 1100 year old, or I have a facsimile, I should say, of an 1100 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. It's a clean-shaven Jesus, different hair, different face. Everything about those images is different. You know. 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. You know, later in the Renaissance, you know, some queer painter, you know, came out with a, you know, a really good painting that everybody kind of agrees, hey, this is the final draft or whatever, 1500 years after Christ lived. But 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. Then 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 has 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 to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us, for as for this Moses which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. 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 thee 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 a 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 are 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 you're kissing pictures of 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. It 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, they won the fight. 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've got to kiss these images. Because guess what? People who are actually real ones won't kiss those pictures. 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 ancient churches and whatever. And, oh, here, you know, 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've got to cross yourself on the way in. 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 that's what they'll say. They'll try to go back to the Greek and say, well, we don't, we don't do this word, this one word for worship. We do this other word for worship. Right? You know, we don't latrevo because that's the idolatry. You know, we, 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, uh, 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 idolaters 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 in a 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, you know, 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? You 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 that I'm not worshiping the image. I'm worshiping 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, 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 five, verse five, it says, this you know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater 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? Uh, but if you would flip over to Matthew chapter six and we'll, we'll get a very clear explanation of why covetousness is idolatry. Now, 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 10 Commandments says, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, but then in a parallel passage it says, thou shalt not desire thy 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 some 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 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. There are, 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 6 24, you can't serve God and mammon. Therefore, so verse 25 is continuing the same thought. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you 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 serve God, trust God, 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, 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 worshipping or a person that you're worshipping, 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've got to put church and serving God, reading your Bible, soul winning. You've 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. You know, the Bible says positive things about money in the book of Proverbs. It 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 that 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're 100 pounds overweight, you know, like, I don't think you won that basketball game or whatever, you know. But obviously, sports, 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 fun. 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 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 and 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 would 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 that. 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 here'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. I'm not going to make, and speaking of games, it could be for some people video games. They're just obsessed with gaming and they just spend 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 strategy guide right here. Here's the cheat sheet right here. But it could be music, right? Some people, 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 it amazing how miserable they are that they can't stop taking drugs and getting drunk and harming themselves? 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, 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 100% 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. It's just how many degrees and how many accolades they can get, how much they can learn. 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 worshipping 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 sermons 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 and 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 who go soul-winning all the time are really solid on the Gospel. You know, I mean, how could you do a lot of soul-winning and be effective at soul-winning 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-winning, you know, eventually you're going to get solid on it. It's going to be real clear to you, you know, 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, man, 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. 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 going to have more balance by doing the work of God than 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 going to become this great physicist or whatever. Great. You know what? But always keep God number one. Always keep God. 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, oh, physics is going to 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 existence. It is 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. You're not romantic enough. And to do this right after Valentine's Day. 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. The 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. Amen. That's right. You just do. And you know what? If you put your romantic relationship above Jesus Christ, you say, well, I have both. You know, I have the love of my life and I have Christ. Great. Amen. Make sure Christ is always number one. Amen. Oh, 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. Right. 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. Amen. 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 this way. 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 Sunday. 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 was more important. 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 I'm not down on romantic. You know, I think that 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 is 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 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 going to choose Jesus Christ every single time. And the teenagers, they're thinking, I wouldn't. It's because you are a teenager. That's why 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, I was 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, you know, sports, music, money, education, career, romantic love, relationships. And here's a final one. And this, if you were offended by the last point, this point is probably going to, might even offend you a little more. Family, right? Family. Family is everything, right? Family is the end all, be all. 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 by the end, he realizes he's got to put family above everything, right? Where's 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 love is off the table for them. Does that mean that their life just might as well be over? No, teenagers. They could 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 going to make, you know, 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 about. And 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. For I'm 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 so ever 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. 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'm 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, 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, then 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 try to cultivate those relationships. But you know what? If you find yourself in an 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 got to 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. Nowhere 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. Okay. 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 that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that 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 be all. 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 extended family coming together. And you know, you Hispanics, you know, you don't even need to listen to this, but you can 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. Us white people aren't as good at this apparently. But here's what's funny is I've been to these gatherings. They're so fun. They're so beautiful. It's so fun. And all the cousins and the 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 going to 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, beautiful music, 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 our heads 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 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. All right, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals, please. Go to hymn 304. Hymn number 304. Nothing between my soul and the Savior. Hymn number 304. Sing it together on that first now. Hymn 304. Nothing between my soul and the Savior. None of this world's delusive dream. 304. Sing it out together now. Nothing between my soul and the Savior. None of this world's delusive dream. I have renounced all sinful pleasure. 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, then nothing between. Nothing between life's worldly pleasure. Abbot's alive, though heartless they seem. Must not my heart from Him ever sever? He is my all, 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, then nothing between. Nothing between like pride or like station. Self or friend shall not intervene. Though it may cost me my tribulation, I am resolved, 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, then nothing between. Nothing between and many more trials. Though the whole world against me convenes, watching with prayer and blood, self-denial, I'll triumph at 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. So that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Nothing preventing the least of His favor.