The Subtlety of Idolatry

So the title today is The Subtlety of Idolatry. The Subtlety of Idolatry. The Deception of False Gods.

That really stands out, doesn't it? Luis did it, and he said, I'm not sure about the hand, if you want to keep it. I'm like, oh, let's keep it a little dramatic. The Subtlety of Idolatry, The Deception of False Gods.

But let me tell you up front what idolatry is. It's anything that we put before God that grabs our affections. It drains our time.

It affects our habits. And it refashions our passions. Take a picture of that.

You're gonna need to remember it. And one of the questions I do get a lot, whether it's on social media or email or people here, like, but Shane, I do this, is it idolatry? You know, I've got a friend of mine, they've got season tickets to like the Angels, you know, or Padres, and I'm like, you know, it's fun, and bring your family, but if it's like, you're putting that before church every time? Not the World Series on a Sunday morning, and you've been, you know, don't feel, but you know, if it's coming before God, like you gotta, you know, that's the priority. And you can fill in the blank with anything else.

If your job becomes idolatry. One of the things I saw, you know, it wasn't when I was growing up, many of you, if you're older, you know as well, but when I started coaching Little League many years ago, by the way, you have to be some tough skin to umpire Little League. Parents, my goodness.

I did one game, and I said, no more, I'm hiring them. But Travel Ball came into existence, and like, that's the God. It really was.

That no more church, weekends. Our son was, you know, he's nine, he was really good pitching for All-Stars, and I had a pitching mound at our house, and we had people telling us, sign him up for this Travel Ball team. I go, we got churches, that's fine, we'll take him for the weekend, don't worry.

I'm like, take my son for the weekend and travel? Like, but that was the focus. And we would never see them at church. No, I get it, you can't have one or the other.

I know, it's challenging, and I think we need to do sports. I love sports. It's very healthy.

But when you start to, when that's your God. By the way, do you know the percentage of kids who make it to the big leagues? But did you know that every single one of them will stand before Jesus? And we get so focused on these things, and I mean, you fill in the blank. Is there anything that comes before God? That's your priority.

Making the money, building the career, portfolio, passions, because it is true. I saw it a lot more growing up, too. I mean, church attendance was pretty regular.

Now I think it's like 1.5, there's not 1.5, but they take an average, 1.5 Sundays a month people come. It's like, it's dumbed down to where now, it's if it fits in my calendar. Okay, what is taking the place of your time with the Lord in church? And of course, summer, wow, we've got Havasu.

We've got the beach, we've got the ocean, and I encourage people, we tell people to take breaks. Please, take a break. Susie's on break, Maddie's on break.

You know, you have to, it's very healthy. But if that's your passion all the time, I gotta go here and do this, and we'll get to church sometime. I'll get to God's Word sometime.

I'm too busy. It becomes idolatry. It's what takes the place of God.

And anything can, family can slip in there. Uh-oh. You ever heard that term helicopter parents? Right, and it's always about their kids, always about the family, and they're putting that first.

So anything that grabs our affections, drains our time, it affects our habits, and it refashions our passions. I saw this a lot, of course, in the fitness industry. That can become very idolatrous if you're focused on the external and not the internal, and it becomes a form of idolatry as well.

Now again, all these things can be good, as long as they have their proper perspective in your life. And the pull of idolatry is subtle, isn't it? It doesn't, if you saw the end result, you wouldn't take the plunge. But it's a subtlety, and what happens is, less time pursuing God, and more time pursuing the idolatry.

That's how it's subtle, it creeps in slowly. Like, ah, okay, this, and I'll miss this, and I don't have time for God's Word, this. And it begins to creep in subtlety.

And before you know it, you're way far away from God. Where did the drift begin? A long time ago, it's subtle, that's how it pulls. Because who's gonna begin to walk away from God by choice? And so we are in Acts 15, verse six, and the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter.

How many of you remember what the matter is? Hopefully some of you, if you were here last Sunday. Some of the religious leaders were saying, okay, you believe in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised. Basically, you have to follow the customs of Moses.

Yes, Jesus, thank you for the cross, but you also have to do this, and do this, and do this. And be careful of those religions. If you dig deep enough in most religions, and you research it, you will get to where it talks about, yeah, you really have to do these things.

You have to do these works. And that was, if you remember, that's one of the big points of the Reformation, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And Martin Luther got upset at the book of James because faith without works is dead, and the Roman Catholic Church used that.

But the Scripture in context makes perfect sense. If you don't have works, obviously, you don't have genuine faith. It wasn't promoting works-based religion, it was showing the true condition of the heart.

And so they said you have to also follow the law of Moses, and there was a big dispute. As you can imagine. So Peter rose up, and he got bold.

And he said, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God chose from among us that by the mouth of the Gentiles, they should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And if we had time, we'd go to the Old Testament, where God said he will bring a light to the Gentiles. And Peter felt his calling as well.

Paul, primarily to the Gentiles. And so they said, so God, who knows the heart, he acknowledged them, he acknowledged the Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did us. Here's the defining mark of Christianity.

As believers, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you as a temple. How awesome is that? But you might say, well, I sure don't feel like that. Well, that's the hard part, because we can quench and grieve the Spirit.

Look at those two words, quench the fire of the Spirit and grieve, make sad. And when you do that, it's, you ever been there? You're pretty miserable. You're pretty miserable in that state.

And that's why he said here, God gave them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. How did the apostles know that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit? Look, you can't look. You can't look at someone, is that interesting? It was the outflow.

It's the outflow. They had the Holy Spirit. As we get through the book of Acts, you're gonna see more of when the Holy Spirit would come upon people.

It's incredible. And that's where they get that controversial tongues. Anybody hear that term tongues, speaking in tongues? Well, what do you believe? What's the church believe? Well, we believe the Bible.

I love just believing the Bible, what it says. You have a much harder time saying that doesn't happen anymore than I do saying, yeah, it does. Because I have scripture.

Paul dedicates a chapter or two on it. He actually says, when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with. The perfect is Christ.

We see dimly now, but then when Christ comes, we'll see face to face and we won't need the gifts. Love will never fail, but prophecy will fail. Tongues will cease.

These things will be done away because you don't need them anymore. But it wasn't just tongues. That's not evidence.

It's the overflow of the Holy Spirit. They were worshiping. They were singing the praises of God.

They had been changed. They were repenting. So they saw the fruit.

So if there's no fruit, do you truly know the Savior? Because that's really the litmus test. There is fruit. Now, it could be a little apple on an apple tree and somebody else has lots of apples, but there's some fruit there.

One fruit is the conviction that you're not where you need to be. The prodigal son was convicted. But they said, hey, we saw.

We saw them experience the Holy Spirit just like God did to us. And what God did to them was in the upper room. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, waiting for Him.

Jesus actually said, go and wait. I will send the promise of my Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon them in the upper room and then they went out and preached the gospel.

And every time they would preach, the Holy Spirit would come upon the believers. And they call it baptized in the Holy Spirit. We're all baptized into the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit.

And then as you're living out your faith, there's subsequent feelings of the Holy Spirit when you get filled with the Spirit. And we need that. I'm learning that.

We need that. Paul actually said, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he contrasted it.

Do not be drunk with wine, which is debauchery, something you put in and you act a certain way, but be filled with the Spirit. So there is a choice involved. And it happens primarily as you're pursuing God, as you repent, as you get your heart right, as you fuel the fire of the Spirit versus quench it.

That's how it really is evident in our lives. And God made no distinction between us and them. So there was no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles.

I'm happy for that. Aren't you? Purifying their hearts, because I'm a Gentile, as Gentile as they get. I did my DNA testing on one of those places.

I think it was like, I don't know what it's, 90% English and German and Irish and all that whole, you know, European thing. No Jewish in me. I was thinking, oh, there should be a little bit.

Between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. By the way, I think that's why there is so much hatred for the Jewish community in our nation is because there is a spiritual ramification to that. We know that Israel isn't saved.

We know that the government is corrupt, just like any government. We know there's many Jews who do not believe. They reject God.

They reject the Messiah. But God's Word says a lot still about the land and about what He wants to do and the people. And that my boss is a Jewish carpenter, as is all of you.

So there's something special about that. So they said, now therefore, why do you test God? Why do you test God? Now this is, I almost had a whole sermon for this. Because did you know that God actually a few times says, test me in this.

Wait a minute. Don't test God, but God says test me. And then they say, don't test me.

Well, what's, I remember I did this, I had a debate at the college, or I spoke at the college back in, I don't know what that was, 2018. And it said, put God to the test. And some people got bent out of shape.

And they used these kind of verses. But I said, well, look at these other ones. So to put God to the test the right way is, God says, test me in this.

My Word says this. And if you do this, you'll see the results. Just test me.

Testing in the wrong way is doing what we know we shouldn't be doing. Hey, don't test me. Big difference, isn't it? Big difference.

Because what you're doing, you're putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples. This imagery, you know what a yoke is? You ever seen the, like, you know, back in the day, the oxen, and you'll see in pictures where they have these big yokes around their neck, like these wooden things. And the oxen would actually be, the other side is the yoke is long, and the oxen's head's in it, and so is the other oxen's head's in this big yoke.

And it keeps them straight, right? And pulling together. And it pulls. And he's saying, why put a yoke on them that they won't be able to carry? On that note, that's why the Bible says, do not be unequally yoked.

And a lot of people use that for marriage. And it's true, but actually the context applies to anything business. I see a lot of people really mess up their life when they get unequally yoked with an unbeliever, even in business.

Partnerships, marriage, of course, is the big one. So why are you putting a yoke on the disciples? We couldn't even bear it. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they were saved.

And really, that's the message of the Gospel. Saved by grace, through faith alone, through Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It really is that simple.

And then in verses 12 through 18, I don't have them all up there. Barnabas and Paul declared how many miracles God did through them among the Gentiles. So they listed the miracles, and they talked about how great things were.

And so then they said, therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. In other words, we decided don't add all these to-do lists. Okay, you accepted Christ, but now you gotta do this, and do this, and do this, and do this.

And be careful with kids, too. You don't wanna tell them, you gotta do this. You wanna encourage them.

This is how you build your faith. This is how you walk in the power of the Spirit. This is how you do please God.

This is how you live a life of repentance. But it's not, oh, you have to do this. God's gonna be really mad at you.

You know, you got Jesus, but you gotta do this. And you're putting a yoke. Who can carry that yoke? That burden for the rest of their lives.

So we encourage them in the Scriptures. We teach the Scriptures. But ultimately, they need to be led by God.

And so he said, okay, let's boil down to this. It's gonna boil down to this. Write to them and tell them, tell the Gentiles, to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from the blood.

Now, I could've showed you the commentaries. You know, they're like, whoo. I mean, they would get deep.

And I'm like, my goodness. Here's what it boils down to. All of these are connected to pagan worship.

So I made it simple. But instead of all this, all of these things are connected. So it's like, what in the world does, so I'm not supposed to eat things strangled.

I mean, by the way, practically speaking, that's a good idea because an animal does all the toxins are stored, released in the way you slaughter an animal. Again, we could get into all kinds of things. The life of the flesh is in the blood and how to avoid it.

But the bottom line is, do not follow the practices of the pagan worship, because they lived among the pagan worshipers. The whole empire was surrounded by pagan worship. But let's look at this word, from things polluted by idols.

So polluted means something on the outside gets on the inside. I love this quote. All the water in the world, however hard it tried, could never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside.

And then you can add to that, all the sin in the world, no matter how hard it tried, could never get in the Christian soul unless it gets inside. So we're around pollutants, aren't we? That's why it says, be in the world, but not of the world. So when you allow those things, those pollutants to come in, and they will derail you, spiritually speaking, and that's what he's talking about.

Avoid things polluted by idols. So what they would even do is, avoiding these things, they would go, that's why he said, don't eat the meat, things like that, because they would kill this calf, and they'd say, this calf, this cow is sacrificed to Molech. Hey, let's have a tri-tip.

And so their conscience should be, no, if it's dedicated to Molech, I don't feel good about that. And then what would happen is they say, well, okay, that's no big deal. All right, whatever.

And then they do that, and then, hey, why don't you drink some of this? Or why don't you go to this type of part? And they would slowly, subtlety, draw them away from God. So Paul just said, the title said, avoid all that. Now, if we had time, we could go into the verse where Paul said, don't worry about eating meat, don't let somebody judge you.

Basically, don't ask where the meat came from. If somebody feels compelled to eat it, that's fine. You can leave him alone.

That's, who are you to judge another servant to his own master, he stands or falls. But don't, you know, it's just, but if you know, like if I knew something like, hey, we just sacrificed this to, can you imagine being at a barbecue with your atheist friend and like, hey, this came from a cult up north and we'd sacrifice this meat to Satanism and oh, boy, yeah, I'm probably gonna pass. Do you have any chicken? Wouldn't you? I wouldn't eat that thing, I don't know.

I've never even drank that water, that's what's called dead water. What's it called? Liquid death? What? With someone with a marketing background, that's the worst marketing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, it takes off.

I see all these clips, like they cast spells over it before they, I don't know, but I just, why drink water that's called liquid death? I don't know, just, yep. I'm not picking up that water, I'll tell you that much. Again, don't judge me, it's my choice.

And then number two, the big one, sexual immorality. So avoid being polluted by idols, avoid sexual immorality. Anything outside of marriage between a man and a woman, that is sexual immorality.

And I shared an article on Facebook, I don't know the title now, something like consider this for pride month, and so I was like 1,500 shares and like almost 1,000 comments, I haven't read one comment yet, because I don't want to, you know, what's the point? I mean really, you post the truth, you just leave it that way, I'm not gonna go and debate somebody in their basement in Connecticut. I mean, God's Word is true, I said it, I said it. I don't need to say more.

You have questions, turn to the Bible. But it's anything outside of marriage is considered sexual immorality. But Jesus didn't use the word specifically homosexuality, chain, or He also didn't use bestiality, or pedophilia, or He used one word, pornea.

Sound familiar, that word? Pornography. And that's, in God's eyes, it's any type of, this wonderful gift God has given men and women that He joined together, nothing outside of, anything outside of that. It's very simple.

Very simple. Outside of that is sexual immorality. That's why Paul goes over a whole list of different things.

They said they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Now remember, there's a difference between somebody struggling, I think we have some strugglers in here, if I were to guess. Anybody perfect, see me in the prayer room afterwards, love to just say hello.

But some people struggle, but the others, it's a lifestyle. So when you say this is who I am, infidelity, or even fornication, sex before marriage, this is who I am. I don't care.

You will not inherit the kingdom of God because it shows your heart. You're not a believer. But if you struggle, Shane, I'm trying, I know what God's Word says, I'm doing great, and then I just had to, and then, oh my gosh, I'm back on track.

That's somebody's, I'm not giving you permission to do that, but I'm showing you there is a unique difference in the heart of the person. The heart is set on God. And we have to get rid of this whole I was born this way argument.

I mean, I've talked to guys, they just cheat. It's like once a year, they just cheat. Shane, I was born this way.

I just love women. Don't ever come tell me that, especially as a believer. Yes, God designed you to love one woman the rest of your life.

That's how you were designed. I don't care how you were born. We're all born to lie, to eat still.

That's why we need a Savior. So you can't embrace, it's not possible to embrace a lifestyle that God says is wrong and still be a Christian. That it's, I just don't see that throughout Scripture.

And when you're walking in God's will, there is peace. You're not jacked up. You're not confused.

You're not doubting God. You're not out of His will. You're not anxious.

Cause you know, you feel all those things when you're out of His will, don't you? When you're dating somebody, you shouldn't be dating and crossing the line. Is there peace? Confused? Is this God's will? Should we marry? Should we not? I don't know. I'm confused.

Lord, I don't know. Am I out of your will? And I'm anxious. But when you're walking in His will, obeying His principles, there's peace.

Great deal of peace in there. And I just want to say this so we know, no matter how many ungodly laws are passed, it will not change God's mind. No matter how many laws are passed, it will not change God's mind.

There's people, I get it all the time. The government, you know, the Supreme Court. Oh, well, yeah, let's go ahead and let's start in Deuteronomy.

Let's rewrite that one. Let's go to, yeah, you're right. Supreme Court, yeah.

So let's put up something from 1892. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation that this is a... The Supreme Court, 1892. You can look it up.

Now, they're not saying that everybody was a Christian or required to be a Christian or that there wasn't sin in the government. But they're saying, obviously, the nation was built on Christian principles. But Shane, what about slavery? Well, what about all the founding fathers and Christians who brought that to an end? Why don't you mention them? See, the Christians are always in the battle for abolition of slavery, for women's right, for the life of the unborn, for the orphans.

And Christians are always involved in those things. And you look at when the pilgrims came over in 1620, started the public school system so kids could read the Bible. You look at all the different constitutions of many of the first 13 colonies.

They said you cannot run for office unless you believe in God and in his son, Jesus Christ. They would have 10 commandment monuments. It was built on Christian principles.

And people don't like it. I don't know what to tell you. That's just the truth.

That's just, look how far we've drifted. We went, we haven't done 360. We've been at 180.

We need to turn back to God. It's called repentance. So 1 Corinthians, I've got to show you this verse.

I'm going to give you the rated PG version. There was kids in here. So flee sexual immorality.

People, guys, that would help a lot of problems. You don't contemplate it. You don't think about it.

You flee. You go to spam. You don't have to open spam.

Just delete spam. You can change your algorithms. You can have a computer out and open.

You flee. That's the only way to deal with it. If you think you're going to fight it, you're going to lose.

You're going to lose because the flesh eventually becomes too weak. This is amazing. Every sin that a man does is to outside the body.

But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. And I have just a theory that why so many people are upset with the transgender movement and I guess now you can become an animal. It's called furries.

Sometimes I think I'm in the twilight zone and going to wake up out of this. What in the world are we doing? But we love this community. We pray for them.

We want to lead them to the Gospel. But the reason they're so upset is because it's sinning against the own body. And there's never going to be peace in that.

Hollywood can be on your side. The government can be on your side. Every organization, every corporation can be on your side.

But still, that conviction. And that's why they said to avoid sexual immorality. And isn't it interesting, I didn't have the verses, but I just remembered yesterday, Jesus in Revelation said to the churches, avoid that woman Jezebel who teaches my people to commit sexual immorality.

And He mentions the doctrine of Balaam. It says the doctrine of Balaam in Revelation. And you guys know I've talked about this many times.

Balak, King Balak hired Balaam, prophet of God, to curse the children of Israel. I just, I don't know, I love this. I would tell this story every month if I could.

But, and he goes to curse the children of Israel and he can't. He blesses them. Oh, and the king's all upset.

Why are you blessing them? And I love what he says, I can't curse what God has blessed. No witch, no hex, no demonic activity. I'm sure we've had plenty come against this church and cast spells and kill cats in the desert and what, and try to, I know it's sad, but they do weird stuff because they think there's power in that.

You have no power over my master. Your dark master has to submit to him. And so, you cannot curse what God has blessed.

Sorry, but, Balaam goes, but, guess what? There's a loophole. How many of you guys don't know what the loophole was? I know it. I don't think there's more of you.

You're just shy. It's okay. There's a loophole, though, to this.

King Balak, I'll tell you what to do. Jesus actually rebuked it. Go and send the Moabitess women into the camp of Israel.

And the men will be drawn away by God. So Jesus said, Balaam taught Balak how to subdue and seduce the children of Israel. All they had to do was they send down the Vegas crowd, the party animals.

And that influence drew the children of Israel away from God. Do you know that's what happened in the Old Testament? That's what happened. They would walk with God and they'd draw away.

Then God would spank them. Then they'd walk with God. Then they would draw away.

And then God would raise up a judge. And then they'd walk away. And then God would raise up.

It's like, whoa. Back and forth. Praise God, we had the Holy Spirit.

They didn't. That would've been tough. So how much more should we honor God? Because you're actually, if you just consider this, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

That will really make you think how you treat it. Am I quenching and grieving the Spirit? Or am I fueling the flames of a passionate relationship with God? But if you're feeling beat up, let me encourage you. God just says, come home.

That's it. Shane, I'm hooked to porn. I don't know what to do.

Get to this altar. Oh, people are gonna see him at the altar. No, people come to the altar for all kinds of reasons.

Or find an altar at your home. Find a prayer closet at your home. Repent.

I'm caught in same-sex attraction. We've had people in the prayer room been free from it. I've prayed with many people who've been free from it or wanna be freed from it.

That's the first step, acknowledging it. And then you get people around you, support. And then you gotta cut out the relationships that are pulling you down.

Hello? Hello? I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people. I gotta get out of the shade. Okay, give me your phone.

I'm gonna block their number. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute.

How bad do you want it? That's what it boils down to. Many of us don't want it bad. We cry, but we don't wanna make the changes.

Repentance hurts. Deep repentance hurts. But God says, just come home.

Repent. Acknowledge it. Receive the filling of the Spirit again.

Stop making excuses. Turn it over to God. It's a beautiful healing process.

So you don't have to leave here discouraged. Doesn't mean you'll be perfect once you leave out those doors. But it means you made a huge step in the right direction to recommit to God.

Because sexual morality destroys you from the inside out. I mean, I don't wanna get graphic and things, but you look at a lot of those interviews that they've did with serial killers and things, and it all started with low-level, subtle porn and things. And what happens? Because that monster grows.

It grows. And they get more perverted, more this, and you flee. Cut it out.

You can't manage it. You might be managing it now, but trust me, the day of reckoning is coming. Lay that at the foot of the cross this morning, and you'll leave here refreshed.

Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that God has given you? And it's not for your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. I'm gonna read a real quick excerpt.

It's a book I wrote, One Nation Above God, and anybody can access it right now at our church website, westsidechristianfellowship.org, for a lot more of it. But I wrote, the spiritual state of a nation simply reflects the spiritual state of her people. Spiritual decay undermines stability.

When the family deteriorates, the deterioration of the nation is close at hand. Sexual sin undermines health and often results in the death of a family, a marriage, and the integrity of an individual. The entire family loses.

And that's what sin does. It draws the life out of you and the closest to you. And sexual sin is idolatry, especially if you keep bowing to it.

So I'm gonna talk a little bit more about some practical application. Back to idolatry. Okay, we know sexual sin is idolatry and other things, but it's basically about who or what do I trust in? Crypto or Christ? That's real big right now, isn't it? Cryptocurrency is where everything's going eventually.

Crypto or Christ? Real estate or God's estate? Retirement or relationship? Insurance or His insurance? Health or Him? See, we start to focus on other things. These things become, or a relationship becomes idolatrous. How many relationships have drawn people away from the Lord? I used to have a good friend of mine back in 2011 speak for me sometimes.

He got involved with the wrong person and it just took him completely down a very dangerous rabbit hole. Back into prison. I've seen others.

Godly women choose the wrong person. Oh, but I'll lead them to the Lord. Well, maybe eventually, but it's gonna be a life of hell for a while.

And that's actually not biblical. If you've already said I do, you're in it. But if you still have the opportunity, make sure you look to God.

Trusting God means relying completely on Him, on His character, on His promises, rather than on your human strength, on your control or your own understanding. Demonstrating confident dependence upon God regardless of changing circumstances. Why do I mention trust? Because some idolatry is a result of not trusting God.

We begin to trust other things and that becomes the idol in our lives. Let's reverse it. Not trusting in God is relying on our own strength, our own control, and our own understanding.

How many have problems with that sometimes? That's why the Bible says, lean not on your own. Because Lord, this doesn't make sense. I've gotta do something.

So I'll give you some practical application to think about this morning. Idols can't just be removed, they must be replaced. So you remove that, let's give it, since we're on this topic, you get rid of that bad relationship that you know needs to end, you better put God in there.

Something has to fill that void. Idols must be replaced with God, the things of God. Killing idols requires action.

You do have to fight this battle. Remember Josiah? How many of you remember King Josiah? One of my favorite kings, for sure. He read the word of God and he got ticked off.

Like man, he tore his clothes. I wish we should study it sometimes. He broke down the sacred pillars of Baal and Asheroth and he burned with fire, he removed them, he replaced them with God's word and the teaching of Scripture.

So the parallels into our life, to kill idol, is there an idol in your life right now? You have to break it down, you have to burn it, you have to remove it, and you have to replace it with something else. Burn it, trash it, don't give it to someone else. I remember God, when I first came back to the Lord, I'll never forget this.

Remember when CDs were in style? You guys know what CDs are? I found an old cassette tape. I'm gonna show my kids and see if they, we should ask, like, you know what this is? Oh, 8-track, you're going way back, LA track. Woo, 8-track.

I got some memories with that. We were up in the high Sierra mountains, my mom would grab that big 8-track, she would stuff that thing in and John Denver would come on. Mountain mama, take me home, country road.

And the country boy one, what was that one? Cakes on the griddle, life ain't nothing but a funny, funny riddle. Woo, thank God I'm a country boy. And then you gotta pull it out and put it back in.

And then after that was cassette tapes. I don't even know, where am I going with this? Let's see, CDs, CDs, CDs, CDs, eventually CDs on discs. You guys don't know, young kids don't, but I know what those are either.

But I had, like, the collection, you know how you buy those big, thick CD holders that hold 500? I'm like, man, I'm gonna go get some good money for this. You know, open it up, there's Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ozzy with the cross, right? I am Iron Man, Black Sabbath. All the, and there's some country ones too.

Remember Conway Twitty? Hello, darlin', it's me. See, I got, it's programmed. I'm trying to get rid of that stuff, and you guys, but I'm gonna bring all this to sell it.

And as I'm going out, God's like, trash can, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Mm-mm, Lord, and I put in my truck, I remember I'm driving, finally threw that away. And there's so much peace.

But we try to, you know, God deals with us differently. And it had to be burned and removed. I know people who literally, they would text me, I said, well, make sure it's in your backyard, and you know, it's not.

But they would burn their Ouija board, or their books on witchcraft, and the tarot cards they got. You ever go into Walmart and the stores now, they got Little Witch and casting spells for little kids, that's demonic. And don't sell it at God's show, just burn it.

Right, there has to be a strong stance. The stronger the stance, the more it pleases the heart of God, I believe. Because compromise doesn't come in.

I remember when I went through my movies, too. It was a process. You get rid of some, and they're like, mm, not those ones, not those.

A couple weeks later, you go back, you get rid of those, and you're not, ah, mm, got, right? And you just, it's a process of these things, because they draw me away from God. They draw you away from God. It's not God honoring.

Partial reform only leads to partial victory. The funny thing is, that was a sermon title that I was working on, and I'm like, well, just darn it, I gave it to you ahead of time. I don't know when that will be, but partial reform only leads to partial victory.

When you partially reform something, the Bible talks about removing it, because if you negotiate with the devil, he'll win every time. And then I was gonna talk about the snare of keeping the high places. This is one of the most interesting things to me in the Old Testament.

Dave, Don, you guys, I see you, you'd probably agree. The king is doing great things, right? The people are on fire for God, and oh, I'm getting so excited, I'm reading, and then it says, but the high places were not removed. But the high places were not removed.

Man, they're doing great things, but the high places were not removed. Now, they're divided, commentaries are divided. To me, it seems like reading them, studying the high places, obviously there are high places up on a hill, it's where sacrifice would take place.

My thing is, they probably left it for convenience. Like, we don't wanna travel all the way to Jerusalem to worship God, let's meet in the high place. But God has established one place to worship Him, and they would not remove the high places.

There could be other reasons as well. The bottom line is, they did not remove what God said remove. Be killing sin or sin be killing you.

John Owen, isn't that cool? I won't say why, because I'm not allowed to yet, but I was able to, we took a brief tour of the Master's College, and I could stay in that library area all day. It said the complete works of John Owens. And I had all these books, all these things, and I just remembered the rich words of the Puritans.

And I used to read those when I came back to the Lord, I had John Owen and John Bunyan and some of the older Puritans write, and they were so serious about sin. Because they knew, William Gurnell, you won't hear that name very much. It's a big, thick book, The Complete Armor of God.

If you buy it, buy it in the modern language, because it's tough. But then they're just talking about hitting sin full on. And then now you listen to a lot of people saying, oh, it's no big deal, man.

Just come as you are and stay as you are. We don't want people to repent and talk about the cross and judgment, and oh my goodness, that's tough. No, be killing sin or sin be killing you.

You can't negotiate with this enemy. The Bible is radical. The commandments profound and the principles of the Word are priceless.

And at the core of idolatry is compromise, which fuels anger. Did you know that that idolatry in the life of a Christian, mainly, I don't know, women too, of course, but men, it makes you angry a lot because you're bowing to the idol and you know you shouldn't be. And it makes you angry.

And there's often addiction involved, and there's arrogance involved, there's pride involved. And this idolatry sets in when we become comfortable and spiritually lazy. Watch out, folks.

If you ever get a hard season, you should thank the Lord for it because it'll draw you back to your knees. Because comfort and spiritual laziness is the final nail in the coffin of a Christian fading away from God. We have to stay alert.

We have to stay vigilant. Look at this from Psalm. But they mingled with the Gentiles.

Mingled. You know what mingled is, right? Had a couple drinks. We serve God, you serve Baal, and they mingled, though.

And be careful, when you mingle, what entertains you, you begin to compromise. If you're not strong enough to bring them up to you, don't go down to them. You've heard me teach on that before.

Is it easier for me to pull somebody up to me or for them to pull me down to them? They mingled, and what happened? And they learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. It was so destructive that even a boy of abortion followed.

Did you know that? The children of Israel would learn the practices of the Gentiles, of the pagan nations. They would serve, they begin to serve their gods, and they ended up eventually giving up their children to Molech. Unbelievable.

They would have, what they would have never done. You've been there maybe before. What you never would have done.

And you get to a spot and you say, how did I get here? It's because of idolatry. So I'll just give you a few examples of idols that we kind of already talked about, but it's good to reinforce. Money and wealth can become, especially as you're young.

You see these guys making a million dollars on YouTube a year, or you see influencers on Instagram, or you see women forget that one of the most important jobs in the world is being a mom. I'm not against women working. I think it's up to you because you're young.

But we need to put things in perspective as well. Even men working too much, putting things before their family. So money and wealth can become idolatry.

What about fame and notoriety? These four almost, they took me out when I was younger. As a Christian, even, would bow. This was my God, and I would squeeze God in.

Not very much back then. Maybe when something bad happened. But that's what I, I think we even pulled up from the archives of video.

I'll make this real quick. First off, I wanna thank Wayne for being a great district manager. Our coordinator, Christine, for not letting anything slip by, and the whole staff out there in Lancaster.

I appreciate everything. Just keep everything positive. I wanna also thank Ray Wilson for making this possible.

Thanks. Thank you, Ray. Thank you, Ray.

In third place, Shane Eidelman. Woo! Why won't it take a lot of time? I know we're all hungry. I always am hungry.

What I wanted to start off, I wanted me to say something along the lines of how to motivate most of the counselors out there that want a chance, want a career, want to make something of theirselves. The main thing, I think, if I look back when I started, I started about three and a half years ago as a counselor. Wayne pulled me into his office, and he said, okay, let's see what you can do.

They told me what to do. I wrote 17,000 my first month as a counselor. Said, okay, I'm gonna take a week off or something.

He says, no, you gotta do it again. So I did it again the second month, hit over 10,000, the third month over 10,000. Then I moved into management.

He said, now you can hit 20,000 a month, month in and month out. So the job never ends. You just gotta go in there with the attitude that you're gonna do the best you can do, month in and month out.

You know, I heard something a while back. I don't remember who said it. You're gonna pay now or you're gonna pay later, but you're gonna pay.

So I'm paying right now to enjoy later. But that was my God, and that took me out. It was a little heavier back then.

You could tell. And for those interested, it was Family Fitness Centers started in San Diego. We were managing partners up here in Lancaster, opened the Lancaster and Palmdale Family Fitness Centers.

And then they merged with 24-Hour Nautilus and became 24-Hour Fitness. And that's where that kind of, and then I just, I worked up. It was my God.

Every seven days a week, I'd be just more money, six figures, in the 90s, my own custom home in Quartz Hill at 26. Still over there on M14 in Quartz Hill. Drive by sometimes and I remember those days.

And that was my God. That drove me away from the Lord. And it took God taking all of that out of me to bring me back to the Lord.

Because the idols will never satisfy. The idols will actually destroy you if given the opportunity. Money, wealth, fame, notoriety, looks, perception, right, health.

I talked about all that before. How that can become an idol. Many of you, how many of you focused on health? You know, you're really into the health.

Well, you're not gonna be honest. But you know, there's people in here more passionate than I am. And that can become your God, your idolatry.

And putting that before God and realizing that our breath, He holds the palm of our breath in His very hands. It's anything we put for God. That's why I cringe at that show, American Idol.

Could you think of a better name? No, no, I'm not gonna get, but American Idol, and what do they do? And then we run into those people, what do we do? I saw the interview about, I don't remember this, but there's a documentary out, I guess, on Michael Jackson. And one of his concerts, girls were like, Dodger Stadium maybe, were like just passing out. They're taking them out.

Like, and all these people just going crazy. Or you guys remember Beatles? You ever seen those videos? It's like, oh my gosh, people, they are just men. These singers are just women.

They actually don't have that great a voice sometimes. All they do is have the marketing machine behind them. Do you know you can get them in a studio? Some of the best music I have ever heard in my life is AI.

Me and my wife still go back and forth. I'll send her a song. She's like, it's AI, I don't wanna listen.

I'm like, oh, I love this song. Like, do you guys hear that song I played Wednesday? Him in his garment, AI. I mean, if you're taking, well, I should clarify so I don't get mean emails.

If you got scripture, the person producing it's a scripture, they're using a great voice and they just put together. Now, if it's some AI system doing all this, I got it. But it's just what we idolize, American idol.

Idols deceive. Idols deceive. I love Deuteronomy 29, 19.

They fell into idolatry and they said, I shall have peace. Even if I follow the dictates of my heart. And God says, yeah, as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

You'll never have peace. You'll never have peace. Here's why it deceives us.

There's an illusion of peace. I call it the new car smell. Right, there is, man, you're worshiping this idol.

You meet your celebrity friend. Your business is growing. Man, there's a euphoria about that.

But it will come at a price. Now, if God opens the door and you're excited about what God is doing in opening the door and pursuing God, maybe God puts you on a stage like American Idol or whatever and you use that to God's glory. Maybe God, that's different because you're there to make a difference.

It all has to do with our heart. Where are our passions and our desires? So here's the key I wanna leave you with. Repentance breaks the hold of idolatry.

Repentance breaks, so what has a hold? Can shopping become an idol? Can, you know, anything you put before God, repentance will break that hold. But guess what? You also have to remove the idol. You can't, oh Lord, I repent from bowing to the statue in my house, but I'm not gonna remove it.

And now we don't have statues. We have 50-inch entertainment centers. Worship puts God back on the throne.

Prayer fractures the influence of the idol. And the Word of God reestablishes the right direction and the right course for our lives. From Hezekiah to the walls of Jericho coming down and from David to you and me, worship also breaks that stronghold that the idol has.

So idolatry must be crushed. It's not easy. You know why it's not easy to break free? Because it has your heart.

Isn't that the challenge? It has your heart. You know it shouldn't have your heart, but it does. It's hard to break that free.

So maybe this morning it will begin with repentance. And cry out like the psalmist, let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord.

So guys, I know it's a heavy message, but you can break free of idolatry. And maybe some of you are fine. Maybe some of you, you're maintaining well.

But I know, if I know Christians, there's many in here who something has got a hold of your heart and it's challenging your relationship with God. It could be a number of things. You know because you're convicted about it.

I've had people come in the prayer room and there's so many examples like, hey, I know you talked about this, but my marijuana use is medicinal. Why are you convicted then? If it's no big deal, why are you coming to me trying to argue, debate something I didn't even know about? Now I know. Why just want... See, what's that conviction? I have to have a couple of drinks at night to relax, pastor.

Oh, you have to? Do you know what, it jacks up your sleeping. You don't have to sleep as well as you think. Watching these things, listening to these things.

What about the music today? Oh my goodness. I mean, is there a correlation between the music and social media and the epidemic of suicide among young adults? Absolutely. Has social media become an idol? That we look to that more and more and more and more and more and we become disgruntled.

Be careful with this topic of idolatry. Give it to the Lord this morning. Repent and say, Lord, cleanse me.

Cleanse me that I may be clean. And God will do that. For those here who do not know Jesus, the Bible's pretty clear.

It just says repent and believe. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Very simple, that's all you have to do.

Repent, acknowledge that I need God and believe in Jesus. And God says He will set you free. Because that penalty of sin can't just be released by our own good works.

It has to be His finished work on the cross that released us.