Idols In Your Heart?

So this question that we're going to deal with tonight, and I like, I typically like to have two or three questions just to have some variety. But I think that this is such an important one that I have two or three or four or five different aspects about this to look at. And because it affects every single person in here, there's not, none of you are going to hear this question and say, well, that doesn't, that doesn't regard me at all.

This comes from a sister in our own church. And she writes, Hello, Brother Tim. Not that you have to answer this question right away or anything, but it's come to mind multiple times.

So something that she's thinking about in recent days. So I thought I'd submit it in case you feel inclined to answer. My question is, so here it is.

How do you approach areas of life or certain situations that arise that may not be sinful in and of themselves and may even be necessary, but may easily become an entanglement in your heart or may easily seem to become idolatrous . For example, I recall having conversations in the past with sisters about the subject of fasting and how a fast could start off well, but then the motive of losing weight could easily creep in. Now I'll just stop right there. You know, one of the things that when I took the COVID vaccination, now you might be one of these anti COVID vaccination people.

That's all rabid. And why would you do that? And we can't understand how you would possibly do that. The thing is that Ruby and I were traveling and there were countries in Europe.

You could not even come into their country, into their airport, unless you were vaccinated. This had nothing to do with COVID itself. I was willing to trust the Lord.

The Lord can save us. If we drink poison, he can save us from disease. We'll die when he wants us to.

We were totally ready to commit that to him. I asked, I asked Dan, I asked the medical friend that helped Ruby a lot with eczema and, you know, different medical people had different opinions on it. In the end, it was like, it was so becoming so difficult to fly anywhere if we weren't vaccinated.

And so we got it. Now, you'll never convince me that the vaccination is harmless. Because once I took it, I was sick for five straight months.

And I felt like my immune system was just shot. And I was hearing all this stuff about other people that stuff was happening. And there's a big Polish guy over in the UK.

And I was telling him about being sick for five months. And he just said to me, kind of mocking me, because he was really anti vaccination. But he said, you've been genetically modified.

And it's just going to be that way the rest of your life. And I thought, no, no, I am not genetically modified. I'm going to prove him wrong.

And Sam Patron came over at that time, and he was telling us about the keto diet, and about how, you know, just how he had been researching it for the sake of the health of his wife, which had had tremendous benefits. And so I said, Ruby, we got to get radical. But you know what happened? During that first stretch is I didn't do it to lose weight, I did it to reset my immune system.

Now I experienced a whole number of other health benefits on top of it. But that's why I did it. And I remember James, James had me on Skype or WhatsApp or something.

And he said, like you, you're not looking healthy. So look at your neck. And, and para over there was saying, we're watching you disappear right in front of my our eyes.

And and I was fasting a lot. And but the health benefits I was beginning to feel tremendous, I knew it wasn't looking so great. But I knew that once I did this for a while, I was going to jack the protein and start working out and just, but anyways, the reason I'm saying all this is because I really recognized the benefit of fasting.

It was like the first time in my life where I was really fasting for health reasons, not for spiritual reasons. And so what the sister is saying here, actually becomes something I started wrestling with. Because then when I was fasting spiritually, knowing the benefits of fasting for health reasons, were there, they were in my head.

And this is why I understand this. I understand what she's talking about. She's, she's not just, I mean, she's talking about anything that may not be sinful in and of themselves, and she says may even be necessary.

Why can't I think if you have a proper understanding of Scripture, you'd understand that fasting probably ought to be necessary when you fast is what Jesus said. And so she says, you can start this fast and start off well, and I'm sure what she means is you're tuned into the Lord and you're doing this, you're fasting for the Lord. Isn't that how, is it Zechariah? But then the motive of losing weight could easily creep in.

Another example would be needing to buy something new, like a house or a car, but not wanting your heart to go after it in a way that seems to move it away from the Lord. Thanks for any insight. So you see the nature of the question.

This really has to do with idolatry. This has to do with allowing something to move your heart away from the Lord. It has to do with liking something too much or loving something too much.

Now, when I first put this all together, I kind of thoughts were coming and boom, I knocked this out. Actually before the last time we did the APT. And the sister that actually submitted was here at that time.

She's not here tonight. And so I threw it all down. But as we were traveling, we were all in the UK, I was thinking about this and I thought, you know what, the answer here probably needs to be, I think the thoughts that I had put down originally are going to be worth your consideration.

But I started thinking, maybe the answer needed to be a little bit more broad. And I know that we tend to be wired different. And I know that some of us, like sometimes I hear brothers say that his conscience is pretty thick, he's not very sensitive.

And then there's other people whose consciences are extremely sensitive, overly sensitive, overly introspective. And so we get people, we get some people, and you know, this happens in preaching. It's like you come in with a shotgun.

And you know, that guy's sitting over there with a high this thick, very insensitive, you got to really kick the guy to get him to wake up to what you're trying to say to him. And boom, you hit, you know, you're using the buckshot. And the stuff sprays the sister sitting over there, who that wasn't the one you were aiming at, but she's got a really sensitive conscience.

And all of a sudden now she's doubting her salvation. And that kind of stuff happens in the church. And so I thought, you know, you know, one of the things I can remember when we had a girl in the church, and she was declaring that it was wrong for one of the sisters in the church to have a nose ring.

And there's been other things over the years. We really have to take Colossians seriously when it comes to legalism. Legalism doesn't produce godliness.

Legalism doesn't smash the flesh. All it does is stir it up. Lists of rules and the do's and the don'ts where God hasn't spoken, but people want to declare their convictions.

We got to be really careful there. And so I thought, okay, it's important for us in all these things, we've got to apply the Word of God. And by the way, we've got to be applying the Word of God to our consciences, because these are conscience issues.

It's like, how do you know when you're getting too close to the fire? How do you know when something's not exactly right in the heart? Well, we need a sensitivity. We've got to have consciences that are sensitive. And the thing is, if you're going to have a healthy conscience, you want it to be active for one, but you want it to be, you want your conscience to be enlightened.

And where's the light going to come from? I mean, I hope you recognize this is a Bible study, and we've got our Bibles with us, and it's got to be the Word of God. And so to avoid legalism, I want to ask you this, to avoid legalism, what are the kinds of things that you would stress to somebody? I mean, if you're dealing with, you just want to fight legalism. You don't want people running around with their convictions.

You know, people can come around with convictions about nose rings. And some people can come around about convictions about what kind of car you drive. You know, somebody pulls up in our church in a Mercedes, and it's like somebody's ready to condemn them, but you've got to drive a Ford.

Well, does the Bible say that? Or you get a house, somebody gets a house, and it's so big, or it's in this part of town. I mean, it's very easy for us to set up a standard for ourselves, and then we see somebody else and we don't like it. And we don't want that in the church.

Legalism isn't healthy in the church. And so, okay, let me just ask you this. If you were dealing with somebody, maybe, that had overly introspective, overly sensitive.

Let me just ask this question. Is it okay? Like the sister asking this question says, and you know how this can happen. You want to buy a new car.

Well, if you're wired like me, I came back from the UK, and we needed to get a new car. So, I'm the kind of guy that's going to research it. I'm going to start researching.

I'm going to find out the most dependable. I'm going to do my research. And then I'm going to go after a certain car.

I'm going to narrow it down to these things. And you know, you can kind of become absorbed in that. You get involved in something, and it's like you want to buy something.

You start doing all the research, and you find you're thinking about it all the time. And you're even sitting in the service, and the guy's preaching, and you find your minds on it, or whatever. So, here's a question.

Is it okay to really like something? Like you know what I could really get absorbed with that I kind of have to keep a distance? I can really get absorbed with guns. I love guns. And you know what I could really get absorbed with is the Detroit Lions.

Like I have to, I don't know where they're at right now, because I keep my distance. Other teams, I could be exposed to something, and it doesn't grab my heart. I remember when I worked as an engineer, and all of a sudden, the guy behind me started talking about the Spurs.

And you know, typically the Lakers knocked them off all the time. And he's like, oh no, they're the best team this year. They're going to beat the Lakers.

And all of a sudden, since moving here, that had never fazed me a bit. It like comes and grabs me. And then I had to fight against it.

And the year they lost against Miami, I was devastated. I have to fight this thing. It's like these things can come out, but is it okay to really like something? I mean, you know, the thing is, we get something like Jesus comes along.

We know this. He says, you can't, he brings in the things that we tend to love the most. You can't love your child.

You can't love your grandchild. You can't love your spouse. You can't love these things more than Christ.

But, and even Luke, the way Luke says it, hate. But you know that that's, what do we call that? When you start using terms like hate, when you don't really mean hate, hyperbole, you overstate something. This is a way of communication.

We often, we, and we understand it when we each do it. We say always, or we say never. We, we overstate things and we all understand that's not to be taken exactly literally.

Because at the same time, Jesus sends his apostle along and he says to the husbands, you're supposed to love your wife like Christ loved the church. And the thing is, I think for all men, that actually brings us higher than we've ever been before. And so how do you, how do you go higher than you've ever been before? But then you stay, I mean, it's okay to really like your wife.

It's okay, even commanded to really like intimacy with your wife or your husband. I mean, this is the way scripture talks. And then you get things like this.

It's actually a demonic thing. When somebody comes along and they say, you can't eat that food. And you can't enjoy intimacy in marriage because you can't get married.

And that's, that's people that are flirting with demonic doctrine. And so those things are good. God has given us everything to enjoy.

I remember, I don't, I went to John Piper's conference a number of times 10, 15 years back. And I can remember going there one time and he's acting out. He's, he's talking about these things about not overly loving what God gives to us.

But his thing was, you can really like the things that God gives and God gives us things to really like. And he pictured, he was acting out eating lemon meringue pie. And he was eating it.

And just the fact that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you do to the glory of God. But that doesn't mean you can't really like lemon meringue pie. In fact, maybe the more you like it, the greater glory you can give to God.

And he pictured eating it and he's like, Oh, thank you. And so you have that kind of thing. And then this text always jumps out at me.

As for the rich in this present age, you know, this is found in first Timothy six, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. So you see where the emphasis is. But then he says this, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

And I find, do you ever find this, that there are some Christians that just seem like they can't enjoy anything. It's like their houses are barren. Their, their, the menu for their food is barren.

Brethren, do you realize that the comforts of life and the pleasures of life and the delights of life, they come from God. All, all the extra things. Have you ever noticed God just doesn't give us what we need.

He gives us more, more over and above. He did. It's not just the bare minimum existence.

And it's, it's like he delights in that. You know what? God could have really created everything Brown, but he didn't. He gives us color.

I was absolutely amazed. Alberto, when we were down in Mexico, he took us to this waterfall. I have never seen more butterflies in my life.

Big ones and little ones and all colored ones and red ones and orange ones. And it was, that's, that's the God we have. He gives us, he gives us the enjoyments.

He gives us the delights. He gives us the pleasures of life. I mean, we have the kind of God brethren.

Do you realize we have the kind of God that sends his son from glory and the first miracle that he says, John, write it down is turning water into wine at a wedding. Now, if that doesn't make a statement about the kind of God we have, he paints the sunsets so that my wife runs out and across that field, she says, wow. My wife is, is more impressed by the Texas sunsets than I tend to be, but she runs out there.

God created mountain ranges, all the mountains in Monterey. I don't know why Alberto told me, I said, how many times have I been here? He says, I think you've been here about 20 times. And then he came back and said, no, I think you've been here about 30 times.

Well, that seems like a lot, but I never noticed the beauty of the mountains down there. Like I noticed this time is they've had so much rain. And it's just the thing about our God is he isn't bland.

He likes color. He likes diversity. He likes all of that stuff.

And over against, you know what the devil likes you to believe? Just what he wanted Eve to believe. God's a killjoy. God sucks the life out of everything.

He sucks the fun out of everything. He takes the pleasure out of everything. The devil wants us to believe that, that God is some kind of petty tyrant and he's just, he's mean and he's cruel and he's a slave driver and don't go to Jesus because it's all, it's so boring.

And, and these the devil, we read about the, his fiery darts and a lot of his fiery darts is, well, you know, if you follow God, children, don't ever believe this young people that, that, Oh, it's going to be so miserable. Jesus says life and life more abundantly. That's what the promise is.

And, and you know what the devil likes to do too. And I found this, I tend, I tend to have a more sensitive conscience, but it's like a lot of times the devil coming along and saying, no, you can't do that. You can't have that.

It's sin. But if you really start thinking about scripture, well, it's not sin, but it can come with such violence and ferocity that your conscience, cause you just feel like you got to do it or you're disobeying the Lord. The devil likes us to think like that.

But you know, you know, what protects you from all of that is knowing the word of God that he's given us all these things. Now look for freedom. Christ has set us free.

We are free people. And yet at the same time, doesn't the apostle come along and say, but don't use your freedom as an occasion to the flesh. I mean, we need to take our freedom and all of this freedom to love freedom, to give freedom, to sacrifice freedom, to follow Christ.

So that's the first thing that I want to say, any other thoughts on that? Just as far as the liberty aspect, we don't want to be legalist when we talk about this, because the truth is that, you know, if you're, if you're fasting and you think about the health benefits of it, I mean, is that a crime? Yes. I understand. We want to keep our focus on the Lord, but just because that thought comes into your head and you know what one of the things is, oftentimes we can't control our thoughts.

The devil has ways of communicating thoughts to us that we'd need to, we just need to be able to correct. We need to talk to ourselves like the psalmist did. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul talk to yourselves.

I mean, we need to have a conscience is laid out there before the Lord all the time. We need to, we need to examine things in light of the word of God. We need to talk to ourselves on a regular basis.

And you know what, it's, it's not wrong to think if I'm fasting for the Lord, but I happen to think about the health benefits of it, then, but the thing is, you want to just, you want to fast for the Lord and you want, I mean, if you're having a hard time and something's coming in, it's interfering with you, it's keeping you, I mean, confess it to the Lord. And it's not like, well, if I'm, if I'm struggling here with the health benefits of it, then what I shouldn't do it at all. Well, no, you, of course you should do it.

Of course you should fast, but your fast needs to be for the Lord's sake and, and going to him and seeking him in the secret. And if your father who sees in secret is going to reward you openly and, and anyways, there's a place to confess and ask the Lord for help and ask the Lord to keep your thoughts. And you know what, there's a way to keep your thoughts.

Brethren, there is a way, you know what the scripture says, set your mind on things above. You know, if there's anything that's true, don't ever say, I can't help what I think about. Now it's true.

The devil may come and put something in your ear and kind of force a thought that you have to fight against, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. You didn't, you didn't resist those fiery darts, but brethren, I'll tell you this as Christians, you need to be persuaded of what scripture says. You can set your mind on things above.

Say how? How? You tell me, how do you set your mind on things above? What's that? Yeah, fill your head full of scripture. I mean, if you're going to fast, go out and memorize Isaiah 53. Go out and memorize something.

Memorize the sermon on the mount. Memorize the whole book of Ephesians. Go out and do it.

If you, if you will work on memorizing, you will, you will very quickly fill your mind with things above or you start praying. I mean, brethren, if you're going to fast, one of the things you ought to be doing in your fasting is we call it the week of prayer and fasting. This kind goes out by prayer and fasting.

I mean, the idea is that when you're fasting, it's not, it's not you're fasting and then you're going off to work and doing all this stuff. The idea is that you're taking special seasons while you're fasting to pray. And if you're praying and you're calling on the Lord, and I'll tell you this, start praying for one another.

Start praying intercessory prayer. Start thinking about the needs. Start thinking about, usually we call weeks of prayer and fasting because something rather important is at hand.

Start thinking about that. And, and brethren, there are also, I mean, you know, if, look, if you're fasting and you're wanting to fast unto the Lord and get in that secret place, but you're pulling out your phone and you're pulling up the videos on the health benefits of fasting, what do you think your mind's going to be? And so you don't want to do that kind of thing. Any other thoughts there? As far as the language, it's okay to really like something.

I realized that depends on how someone defines it. But you mentioned 1 Timothy 4, where he mentions to be received with thanksgiving. Is that kind of, is that, is that synonymous with liking something or is it similar? Or what would be, is there any verse that uses the word like, or would just say it in a way where it's like scriptures? I guess I think of 1 Timothy 4, I'm receiving it with thanksgiving.

I probably like whatever it is, because there's thanksgiving there. I guess the word enjoy, that's a good word. And that's a biblical word.

And so it's like, you know, we use the word like, but if I say, I really enjoy that, that thing, that whatever, it's like, he's given us those things to enjoy. And so now you understand right here at the beginning, I'm dealing with the legalism aspect. I mean, we're going to move into where this becomes obviously distraction.

But I just think it's really important right at the beginning to recognize that look for freedom. Christ has set us free. He is master.

And he's given us his word. And if you can go to the word and find that there's something that he warns you against or tells you is damaging or tell he's very strictly with an imperative tells you don't be doing these things. Don't love those things.

Don't go here. Don't go there. Well, I mean, you got to take that serious.

And we just need to be very, we need to be so careful that the convictions we come to that we're, we're very careful that we're not. It's great to have convictions. Somebody has a conviction.

I can't have a TV. And you know, you say, well, David said that I'm, I'm not going to put anything useless before my eyes. And so there it is.

You can't have a TV or scripture talks about modesty. So my wife is always going to wear a dress or she's always going to do this. There it is.

You got to do that. Well, see, you don't want to come to these conclusions at the, I mean, it's scripture says certain things, but there's certain things that doesn't say, and you want to be careful. If you come to those convictions and that's the way you want to operate your family or your life, more power to you.

Just be careful that you're not pressing on other people, what they can and can't do. You know, you might not be like, I said, I could really love guns. I've actually had to kind of make somewhat of a vow before the Lord when it comes to that kind of thing.

There's certain things that I have, and I'm not necessarily recommending vows or anything, but there's just been certain things in my life where I felt like I needed to declare something before the Lord. But you know what? I can't because I'm doing that. I know the tendency it has to pull me in and absorb me.

And I don't want to be absorbed by that. And it's like, you know, once somebody was just asking me recently about hunting and fishing and golf and different things. And it's like, once I got saved, that majorly fell off.

It's like, I don't have any problem putting some meat in the freezer. But you know, I golfed one time, I went with Kyle and it's like, it's not even enjoyable being in the Texas sun out in the middle of the field. But you see, you can get absorbed by these things.

You start playing golf and you want to get better and it'll absorb you. It's amazing how much time men put into trying to get that little ball into that hole. But you think about, you know, and the money you spend on it, or there's things like skiing and snowboarding.

And of course, down here, that's not so much of an issue, but hunting and fishing. And it's like, I was just asked by some of the guys in Corpus, hey, come and fish. And it's like, ah, well, even there, it's just like, it's not even enjoyable.

I'm like complected. I get burned. I stand out there on the beach and just fry.

To me, that's not enjoyable at all. But see, the thing is, you start to get involved in those things. And next thing you know, you're trying to figure out, hmm, what's the best kind of pole? Is it the graphite? Is it the carbon? Is it this? And you're looking at it and, oh, who makes this and that? And you're looking at it and that's the best kind of reel.

It is amazing how we can get absorbed by things. But what you don't want to do is because you shy back from something, now you make this standard for somebody else. I cannot say to somebody, that nose ring is a sin.

That gun collection is a sin. Now, I mean, I have strong feelings about all sorts of things, but we have to avoid this legalism. So the next thing is this.

People with sensitive consciences, there can be a tendency to imagine that if I like something too much, it must be wrong. And I would say that one of the things that we can do at any time, and we should, we should be a people who are taking inventory. Because you know, we're not static.

And just because you take inventory today, doesn't mean you're in a good place a month from now. We need to be people that are praying and we're transparent before the Lord and we're taking inventory. And you remember what the psalmist did? Search me, O God.

He wants the Lord to search him. Why? To communicate to him. Obviously God already knows everything perfectly about him.

The reason he's asking that is because he doesn't perfectly know him. And so he's asking God to search him and know his heart and communicate this back to him. When he says, try me and know my thoughts, David's not ignorant to the fact that he knows his thoughts.

It's David who doesn't exactly know. I mean, you can look and you can say, well, how do you not know your own thoughts? The thing is, what happens is we can know our own thoughts. But see, I start thinking, well, that gun collection's okay.

I know my thought. I think it's okay. But it's actually pulling my heart away from God.

So it's not okay. See, that's the aspect of my thought. And so search me.

Brethren, the thing is, we don't have to suspect that everything in our life is sinful just because we like it. I mean, I do believe that when a person is regenerated, they hunger and thirst after righteousness, that generally the desires of a saved person is not they're running around desiring evil all the time. We don't have to suspect these things.

We can be like Piper said, we can eat the cake and praise the Lord. And I heard John MacArthur talk one time about, he said, I'm free to go have a banana split late on Saturday night. But he said, then he's going to hardly want to wake up on Sunday morning.

He's got to preach twice. It's like, is that the, you know, and maybe this brings up some of the texts, you know, that, you know, these two texts, 1 Corinthians 6.12 and 1 Corinthians 10.23, all things are lawful for me. This is 1 Corinthians 6.12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. And then 10.23 says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up.

And brethren, what we want to do on a regular basis is we want to bring our consciences. And I was, I was mentioning this not all that long ago, I guess when I did the 26 reasons why we hear and then don't obey. And I kind of ended that message in really emphasizing that brethren, we need to emphasize this.

We need to bring our consciences before the Lord and before his gaze on a regular basis. We need to lay it out there. Brethren, we don't want to get to the place where our conscience is silent.

That is a very dangerous place to be. And we need to cultivate a conscience that is biblically informed. We want there to be constant talk between ourselves.

Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul. We got to be people that talk with ourselves and talk to the conscience and what's wrong and why does this bother me? And, and, uh, we have to be asking questions. All things are lawful.

Well, obviously what he means is all things are lawful that are lawful. There are things in scripture that are not lawful. It's not lawful for a guy as we've heard all about lately to become emotionally attached or physically attached to a woman.

That's not your wife. That's not okay. That's not lawful, but they're brethren for freedom.

Christ has set you free. We are really a free people. And outside of scripture there, you know, somebody, somebody just visited the church.

Alberto was telling us about the guy that, uh, some guy visited the church recently and he came in and he was, he was beginning to tell the people, well, yes, scripture is truth, but it's not all the truth. Well, it's like, he just, Alberto just ran him off right away. Now I would have asked him what is true that is outside this book.

I mean, give me an example. The problem is when you start setting up these extra biblical standards, it's, uh, that's no good. But the thing is we need to be locked into what scripture actually says.

And if we're locked into it, the truth is we are a people. That have been given, the son has set us free and we're not bound to all these religious systems and man-made lists and rules and that, but we do need to be asking this. Okay.

Things are lawful, but it's the question is not simply show me in the Bible where that's sin. Oh, I hate that. I hate when guys talk.

We had somebody in the church before show me in the Bible where it says that sin it's like, seriously, are you that shallow? Brethren, what we really want to be asking is questions like Paul was asking is, is it helpful? Am I going to be dominated by it? Does it build me up? You see, those are the three questions that Paul was hitting on. Yes, it's lawful. That seemed to be what the Corinthians were saying.

All things are lawful. And it seems like the way the ESV puts the quotation marks, that's a, they recognized exactly that the Corinthians were saying all things lawful and Paul conceded. Yes.

He does have to talk to them about the fact that the body isn't made just to eat and have sex and all this stuff. And it's not for that, but he comes, he focuses in on this saying that they had. And he said, I'll grant that all things are lawful, but you got to think deeper than just what's lawful.

What's lawful. What, what we break the law. That's sin transgression of the law.

That's sin. When God tells us to do that, he expresses his will and we go against it. But Paul says, you go deeper than that.

And then we start looking, is this thing a weight that's going to weigh me down? Is this thing going to slow me down? Does this thing really build me up? Is this thing going to be helpful to me? But it's like, that's where MacArthur was hitting on. He said, I'm free to have a banana split on Saturday night. Have you ever eaten a big old banana split, all that sugar and everything right before you go to bed? I mean, are you going to wake up Sunday morning and feel great? I mean, you may feel like you got a lot of young people.

It is amazing to me when all the young people started coming in the church and I started hearing some of these guys are staying up till two and three in the morning. It's like, you can't make it to Sunday school. Sunday school is at 10 o'clock.

Well, no, not if you're up till 4am, especially not if you're up till 4am and you're eating banana splits. MacArthur said, I'm free to do it, but it's not going to be helpful. Well, that's the thing, brethren.

You know what it comes down to is we're free, but we should use our freedom for certain things. And you ought to use your freedom to run this race as fast as you possibly can, live it to the glory of God, excel in this. That doesn't mean you can't ever eat a banana split.

You watch and see what I eat when Thanksgiving comes. I'm going to enjoy my freedom. But other than that, you know what? I'm not going to enjoy that freedom.

Why? Because I get migraines. Because it messes up my memory. It makes me feel like an old man.

It slows me down when I eat all that sugar. I don't want to do it. Start packing a gut when you eat all those chips and salsa.

It's great, but we all have to make decisions like that. Just because you don't make decisions to eat what I'm eating, that's fine. If you're young and you can eat all that stuff and you still feel good and everything, but you have to ask yourself, is this helpful? Does this build me up? Does this keep me going? And you know what? There's a great place to constantly, like I say, come and bring your conscience before the Lord.

Here's the thing. If you ask God to search you, you don't have to walk around feeling like guilty every time you start to like something or something is enjoyable to you. But if you, Lord, show me.

And you know what? If the Lord, if the Spirit of God is in this, the Spirit of God came to convict us. And if the Spirit of God is convicting, I'll tell you this, it is not going to be just like a thunderbolt of ferocity just because the Spirit of God is going to speak to you from the Word of God. And there is going to be a conviction and you are going to recognize it's just going to be best for me to not have certain things in my life because it's going to help me run faster.

Look, if you've got something in your life that's impairing your prayer life, or you know what? There were several times I tried to take creatine because I found that when I took it, I mean, if I threw some dumbbells around, the results, it just gave me energy. But you know what? I found it made me angry. And I just said, I can't do that.

Last thing I need to do is introduce anger into my family and into my marriage. Why would I want to take this? I mean, whatever the benefits might be, but it's like, do I have freedom to take creatine? Well, I've got you guys. If you're working out, you take creatine.

I chopped it out because it's not helpful. And every one of us have to think, what's helpful? What's not helpful? What slows us down? What speeds us up? I mean, we've got to bring our conscience out there. Anything else to say on that? So you weren't saying everyone who takes creatine will end up being angry.

That's the way I responded. I mean, different people respond to different things. So now here's the thing to consider.

This is the third thing. The first was we want to avoid the legalism. The second thing is we want to bring our consciences out and really ask, search me, oh God, is this thing going to be helpful? But the third thing is this, is that promise of the new covenant, anybody know where it's found where God says He's going to cleanse us from our idols? Now the classic texts that deal with the new covenant, there's three primary places.

There's some sub places like Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 18, but what are the most descriptive statements in the Old Testament about the new covenant? Where are they found? And where else? Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 32, and Ezekiel 36. You want the most descriptive statements. And it's in Ezekiel 36 that God says what concerning idols? He'll cleanse you of all your idols.

The text reads, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you. So if God promises to cleanse you from all your idols, and I'll tell you, any of you that have been a Christian in any amount of time, you know full well He does not cleanse them all the first day you get saved. It would overwhelm you.

It would destroy you. You know what He does? It's like running the hurdles. Any of you run track and field and run the hurdles? I did that.

You've got to take the next hurdle before you take the one down the track. That's kind of how it is with the idols. God has it figured out in our life.

Look, if He's promised to cleanse us from our idols, then guess what? You should expect a battle with idols. You should expect that there's going to be a series of these hurdles that you've got to get over. And have you ever noticed? You can't bypass one of the hurdles and go to the next one.

God won't let you. You are going to stagnate. You are going to be miserable.

You are going to, I mean, God will withdraw. Where is He? You're going to have all sorts of problems. You don't want to do that.

Our life is a battle of idols. You can't get away from that. As much as we are free, as much as we don't want legalism, we also recognize He's come to cleanse us from our idols.

And He knows how to do it. And so you can picture it much like this. The heart.

You know, I think Tozer portrayed the heart like a throne. And who's on the throne? And basically, what is an idol? You know what? Kings sit on the throne, and when you have somebody that comes along and challenges it, you call that person a usurper. They're trying to take that position.

It's kind of like Absalom. Absalom tried to take the position that belonged to David. He was a usurper.

Or Athaliah. You remember her? She was the one queen that the southern kingdom ever had. You remember her? She was a usurper.

And this is the idea that God is forced out of His central position on that throne. That's the kind of thing that we're talking about. These usurpers come and they're fighting for dominance.

They're fighting for attention. And what happens is the roots of my heart begin to attach to this stuff. And we can get to the place where the roots go down so deep, it's like we can't even imagine living without that thing.

It's like it's just going to be too painful to pull this thing out. The roots go too deep. And what's happened is God's gifts have taken God's place.

Oh, like I said, we're not static. God is in this constant series of hurdles of weaning us of these things, but it's not static. And it's amazing that we can actually jump a hurdle and far down the race we have to jump the same hurdle again.

Because that thing that once God helped us, and He gave us grace, and we got command of, and we took control of, and it's come back full circle, and it's got me again. And it's like, brethren, you can kind of feel it when you're waking up in the morning and it's like God isn't the first thing. It's like God and something in your life.

And, and, God and, yes, I'm serving God, and I'm a Christian, and this other thing, Christ, and something else has been really important. And that can happen. You know, you're searching for that new car, that new house or whatever, then you just kind of become absorbed with it.

And you wake up and it's, where's God gone? It's in that and. And our hearts have a tendency towards this thing. And so the classic example, I mean, you remember, this was the test, you have Abraham, we all remember that.

Suddenly, there's God and He says, your son. Well, if there was anything that Abraham valued, it was that son. Oh, he had Ishmael, but there was a promised son.

And Sarah was going to have this promised son. And after waiting all these years, and, and all of the barrenness, and, and, and then God says, go take that son up to Mount Moriah, your only son. Was it his only son? Well, it certainly was.

It was the son of promise. It was the covenant promised son. It was the, it was the son that was going to be the inheritor that was going to bring the messianic line that was through Isaac, these promises were given.

And now I'm supposed to take him up there and sacrifice him what was going on. I mean, I don't know if you've ever played this out. This was real.

And he doesn't know how the story ends. See, we do. So we can run right ahead.

Well, it wasn't that big a deal because he's going to be spared it. He didn't know that. This was his, this was the most loved, cherished thing.

And here it is, sacrifice. And then, yes, stay your hand at him. And he provided a ram out of the thicket.

But the thing is, it tested him. What did it test? It's like God, God already knew. But what it did was it brought out in the open.

I know your heart. I know your dedication to me. I know your commitment.

And you know what it is? Jesus is absolutely serious. Unless you forsake all that you have, you cannot be my disciple. And he is going to test that.

And I've said this before. I heard Paul Washer say that he heard somebody quote Luke 14.33. Unless you forsake all that you have, you can't renunciate all that you have. You can't be my disciple.

And the guy, he may have been preaching. And he said, but God will never require everything. And Paul thought to himself, that's funny.

I have found that God has repeatedly required everything from me. He requires everything. And you know what that was? In Abraham's life, it was all over again.

That commitment to renunciate all. It's all on the altar. And the thing is, brethren, we have to be where we can enjoy the lemon meringue pie, but it's on the altar.

He gives us these things, but we need to be ready when he comes and he says, lay that thing. And if you've never done this, you know what God said to me and Ruby four years ago? Lay your children on the altar. Go.

You don't know how hard that was. Cried for two hours when they went to China. And we didn't, they didn't know that if they were ever coming back, we didn't know if we were ever coming back.

When the holidays would come around, the pain inside, the sorrow inside, these, I mean, there's reality in all this. And, and you know, the thing about Abraham, you know that what jumps out at me is that in that account, it says he rose early in the morning. God told him to do it.

And he didn't delay. There wasn't a day or a week or a month. I'll get to it.

He rose early that next day. And he went that always jumps out at me. His obedience was quick.

It was swift. It was prompt. It was there renunciation.

Brethren, we have such a tendency, this possessive clinging to things, things we think we need. I come from a family where they, they clung to stuff all the time. And I just like, I'm, I'm watching my grandmother died and she collected these figurines.

You probably have no idea what they are, but I watched my grandma and my mom collect these figurines called hummels. They're super expensive. They pay hundreds of dollars for these figurines.

And my grandma dies and my mom gives me one. It's like, what am I going to do with that? But you just, brethren, you can cling to things. It's like, well, that, that dresser over there is solid walnut.

It's been in my family for three generations. And we can start clinging to stuff. It's like, we got to have that.

It's part of, my mom has a whole wall painted red specifically for a painting of apples that all of her siblings wanted. And my mom got it and probably my brother wants it. It's like, well, if you give it to me, I'm just going to go sell it.

But we can become so attached to these stuff. It's so natural. They're just clinging.

And brethren, we got to, we do have to recognize this for the evil that it is. It really is evil. When we start to love these things, you see, the thing is you can love things.

You can like things, you can enjoy things, but it's when it begins to cost you, your relationship with the Lord, it's taking, it's like that adultery that I was talking about a couple of weeks back. You start giving to stuff what God wants. It's like the wife that starts giving to another man what the husband wants.

If my longing after God is strong enough, brethren, I'll tell you this, every one of you, if your longing after God is strong enough, this causes you concern. If you love the Lord and you desire a close walk with Him, you start seeing stuff pulling you away. You don't like it.

And so, where are we at with time? What time is it? What is it? Okay, I got 30 minutes. I didn't think he was. But brethren, the thing is you start recognizing your tendency of your heart.

You have a love for God. You love it when He's close and you're able to let go of everything else and you're absorbed with Him. You want to do something about it.

You want to do something to free up your heart. And I mean, look, one thing is put away the excuses. It's like we can say, well, you know, he started this out by saying we got liberty.

We don't want to fall into legalism. Yes, but you need to come back to what really builds up, what's really helpful, what's going to help you to have the most intimate walk with the Lord. And you got to put away all the self-defensiveness.

We like to guard ourselves and protect ourselves. It's like, look, if you're coming and saying, search me, O Lord, show me. And you're able to rationally look at Scripture and say, honestly, that doesn't help me.

That thing in my life. What? Give me some examples. What are the things that we can allow into our life? That if we're honest, it doesn't build us up.

It doesn't. It's not really helping me run this race better, get to the end better. TV.

Now, what if I watch sermons? What if I watch some missionary documentary? You don't know. So it could be used for good purposes, perhaps. Here's the thing I found about the TV as I tried to rationalize, or whatever it is you have, a computer or whatever, is I like to have the kinds of things.

Now, maybe you can come up with examples beyond the TV where this is possible. I like to have situations in the family that draw us all together. So growing up, we all ate together.

That drew us together. But we would have movie night. We would have these things and it pulls us together.

And again, like when you have children, we wanted our children not to be so sheltered. We want them to have certain exposure. We had some idea about what we were going to show.

But then we also, you know, we would get done watching and that wasn't the end of the story. Now we would have a debriefing time. Okay, what was wrong with that movie? And then we'd have discussion at various times.

And there was also, I mean, there's other factors that went in there. But like Evan would tell me that he would watch Dragnet with his dad. And you know what? When Joshua was growing up, there was things that I thought that was profitable.

Joshua was lost at the time if there were some things, like if we'd watch sports or something. I saw that as beneficial. Everybody has to weigh that out.

Maybe you can think of other things that you could do outside of that. But I mean, those are the kind of considerations that I gave to it. But what else? What could be? Now, see, the thing is, okay, you have a lot of that TV in our house.

And you say, well, we're going to have this. Yeah. Could you all of a sudden end up... there was a time we tried Netflix for a season.

There's so much garbage on there. That was for a very short season. And then chopped it off.

We never had outside TV. Or if we did, I don't know how we did. But... Although difficult, although the call to quit absolutely could be for wives and mothers managing our homes.

It could be consuming where it becomes, no, I'm called to do this. I must do this. I have to do this.

And it almost becomes like a market situation where we're not laying at his feet and depending on him and letting him renew us instead, on our own merit, trying to manage the home a little better. So it could be the manage the home. This is your responsibility.

You can take your husband and it can be his work situation. You know what? It's basically what we have to watch out for is that which we allow into our life that takes us away from doing the things that God wants us to do. And especially that which takes us away from the very things that we know are most calculated to aid our closeness and the sweetness with the Lord.

And so, you know, it's like a man in the ministry. Man in the ministry, even though he has a responsibility for his family, or excuse me, even though he has a responsibility for the church, he can't ignore his responsibility for the church or for his family. Why? Because if he's pastoring the flock and he's got a family, he's got a responsibility for both.

And the guy that comes along and says family first and then ministry, well, the Bible never says that. If God gives you three or four or five responsibilities, he expects you to be responsible for all of them and faithful to all of them. And there are times when the family has greater needs and times when the church has greater needs and you need to know how to parse out that time.

But it's like we all have so many hours in the day and God has called us to all sorts of things and we're supposed to run this race. Brethren, we want to run this race to win. We want to run this race to get to the end.

You don't want to be the kind of guy that's seeing how many idols you can hold on to and still make it. You don't want to be the kind of guy that leaves the weights that encumber us and slow us down and see how many you can keep wrapped around your neck and your shoulders and still make it. You don't want to be the guy that's fighting for the minimal, how do I squeak by, what's the least standard? I mean, we need to be honest.

Like we need to inventory. Where's that at? Where does this fit in? Is this helping? We really need to be asking and we don't want to attempt to excuse ourselves. But what I'm saying right here is, brethren, we got to get past this idea of barely, you know what we have to be? We just have to be tired of mediocrity.

We got to be tired of... You know what I watch and I've seen over 25 years or so of pastoring? Everybody is growing, but not everybody grows at the same rate. And some people fall out. And what I've found is some people, they're running fast and they pass other people.

Why? Because there's things that are true in their life that aren't true in the person they passed up. Now, they both may be genuine Christians, but you know what? Some people grow faster. Some people run faster.

Some people advance faster. And it just comes a time when we need to be sick of being the guy that gets passed by others. Being just barely making it mediocre in our life.

And then, you know, put away all the defensive mechanisms. Be tired of this mediocrity. And we need to really be specific.

What's in your life that's pushed God off the throne? I mean, what is it? Be specific. Point it out. Talk very plainly.

Because if you're going to... Look, so often we talk about cutting off the hand, cutting off the foot and gouging out the eye. We associate it because of the Sermon on the Mount. We associate it with sexual sin.

But you recognize that that is quoted again later in Matthew that's just general with regards to all sin. And look, if I've got this thing that is hindering me from making it to glory that I have to cut off, you need to be pretty specific. If I got to gouge it out and cut it off, then I need to really identify what it is.

I mean, you know, if a guy has a knife and he just goes to hacking on himself because he's just kind of unclear, well, that's no good. You need to be precise. And you know what? The violent.

Haven't we ever heard that? It's the violent who take the kingdom. There's got to be a violence. There's got to be a holy violence.

Look, when you're tearing out the roots of some of these idols, they go down deep. And as you pull them out, it's like pulling out part of yourself. It hurts.

It's like you thought you couldn't live without that thing. It feels like it's just tearing a part of your soul right out of you. And you know what will happen? Your flesh just screams piteously.

They're just begging you to stop. No, I can't live without that. No, this is too hard.

I can't imagine this thing. And violence is what the Scripture talks about. You know what? I was just with Sam Patron, Megan's uncle, great uncle.

And you know what he told me? He said, I love it that he made his own airplane with his own hands. He formed the fiberglass. He created this whole thing.

And the reason he did was because he and his brother owned a Cessna and he was taking the to Guatemala. But that Cessna, he always had to land in Mexico. And if you know anything about Mexico, they're always dishonest.

And he'd land in these airports and they'd rip him off and they'd charge him all these fees. And he just got tired of dealing with their dishonesty. So he made with his own hands kind of a hybrid aircraft with these swept wings that had the ability to gas up in Denver and fly all the way to Guatemala without having to land in Mexico.

And you know what you ask him about that airplane? And you know what he told me? He said, I liked it too much. And I got rid of it. You know what? I quit drinking coffee for 16 years because I felt like I liked it too much.

Now you might say, you sure that wasn't legalism? I mean, you could argue that way. But if you become convinced that you like something too much or it's a distraction or whatever, I'll tell you this. What is the nature of fasting? You know what fasting is all about? It's saying no to something that's lawful so that I might have more of God.

That pleases. When you choose God first. You know, sometimes we have this idea about this God who is just impersonal.

And in the reformed circles, there was actually a reformed Baptist movement called Arbca. They split over this. Whether God has passions.

God is a personal God. God all over your Bible tells you about what he feels and what he sees and how he responds. And, you know, there are promises that are made as I'm going through, as I'm going through James.

It's these promises are made to those who love him. All things work together for good. We know that there's this aspect of love.

God is looking for those that love him. That God is extremely pleased when we prioritize him. When we say no to things to say yes to him.

You don't think he's not watching? And he knows, brethren. He knows. He's watching.

He sees. Through my life, I've been confronted by these different things. And you can say, it's crazy.

I've had these battles. Yes, I ended up chopping a tree down. And I mean, I've made decisions with regards to money.

And I remember when Ruby and I were met each other and we were engaged and we were ready to get married. And we both had the same feeling that we were afraid that we would love each other too much. We wanted to love God more.

But we should be thinking that way. Some of you know about Don Johnson. And, you know, he's one day all of a sudden it comes into his mind, much like it did mine.

You need to offer up this tree I had to the Lord. And you know what? Don was in the place where it's his arrowheads. Sam was in the place where it's his airplane.

And you know what? The next guy may be able to have those things and it never becomes an issue. But I know this, God has these hurdles for each one of us. And the best thing to do is not fight them.

You get to a place where with confidence you recognize, yes, I think God wants. And you know what? For me, like the coffee thing, it wasn't permanent. It was for a season.

And sometimes it's for a season, sometimes it's for the rest of our life. But brethren, I'll say that if there's going to be a radical change in your life, you're going to make it. If you have to cut off a hand, you've got to cut off that hand.

If you don't cut off that hand, that hand doesn't get cut off. You've got to do that. You've got to make the decision.

If there's going to be a radical change, we need to be sensitive to the Spirit, sensitive to His convictions. Violence. The truth is, the kingdom has taken that.

You remember Bunyan. I love that picture where the guy says, put my name down. And he takes up a sword and he charges into the battle and he goes to hacking and giving and receiving blows and he gets in the gate of that city and he took it.

And he took it by violence. Brethren, your souls are at stake. My soul's at stake.

Violent people win this. People just play at Christianity. Extreme measures are required.

I mean, you can't get away from that. What do you think? Gouging out an eye, chopping off a hand and a foot. That's pretty extreme.

Many are just way too casual about this whole thing. There's one thing to do with an idol. Remember Moses? He took the calf that they had made, he burned it with fire, he ground it to powder, he scattered it on the water and he made the people drink it.

That's what you do with an idol. You just can't go on doing the same things. Don't do this pathetic thing.

Oh, I'm praying about it. Well, you pray about it. Brethren, you can't be passive.

But does this really answer the question? Something's lawful, I feel I strongly like it, it's necessary, I feel my strong affections with this thing. Brethren, one of the things that we want to do, you remember how the hymn we sing, the things of this world grow strangely dim? Does anybody know that song? What's the song? Exactly. We want to keep our eyes upon Jesus.

You know, one of the remedies for really being in a healthy place is love the Lord Jesus Christ more. That's the really safe place to be. Nurture that.

Spend the time with Him. Get where you can hear, I mean, read the song of Solomon from the right spiritual standpoint. And then, brethren, we got to be in a place of full surrender.

Unless you forsake all that you have, that text needs just full surrender, full surrender. What part of my life am I keeping from Him right now? Where's that idol? Where's that piece of time? Where's that stuff in my life? Where's the entertainment that I haven't fully surrendered? And you know, years ago, I did a message about obedience. I did a message at the Fellowship Conference, and I specifically brought up the fact that John Wesley liked to have, he was Methodist, he had ideas about the covenant, but he had what they called the covenant renewal services.

And I would just say this, David in Psalm 119 speaks this way, I have sworn an oath and confirmed it to keep your righteous rules. You know what Wesley found? That those services where they had covenant renewal, you know what I mean by covenant? The covenant is God has a part to play, we have a part to play, the covenant is where each of us fit in, what our part is in this relationship. And our part in the relationship in this new covenant is a place of total surrender.

You've been bought with a price. It's a place of total surrender. Edwards, Resolution 42, resolved to frequently renew the dedication of himself to God.

Resolution 53, resolved to consecrate himself wholly to Christ. These are things he revisited on a regular basis. One of Wesley's prayers during these covenant renewal services, I'm no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt, put me to doing, put me to suffering, let me be employed for thee, or laid low aside for thee, exalted for thee, brought low for thee, let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, I am thine, so be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen. These are the kind of covenants, brethren, it is a really healthy place to come back to the Lord and say it.

Lord, all of me, all of my money, all of my time, all of my life, it's yours. I all anew surrender all of it. I am yours.

I am bought with a price. Can you look to God and do that? Lord, all anew I consecrate myself, my time, my body, my eyes, all my members, my hands, how I relate to my spouse, how I relate to my children, how I relate to my singleness. Lord, I'm yours.

My mind, my will, my thoughts, my hopes, my dreams, my desires, all of it, I surrender to you. I'm a living sacrifice. Isn't that what Scripture says? We need to be that kind of living sacrifice.

Lord, I'm yours. Do with me what you want. I surrender my TV, I surrender my computer, I surrender my phone, I surrender it all to you.

Lord, all of it, it's surrendered. Do with me what you want. What would you have me to do, Lord? You need to be in that place.

I'll do it. I bow. Nothing held back.

No reserve. Brethren, say this. Say it to the Lord.

No reserve. Nothing is held back. I no longer resist your right to do with me what you want me to do.

My appetites, my future, my final years, whatever's left in this chapter of life, my tongue, my daily decisions, all of it. And you know what Scripture says? He works in us to will and do of His good pleasure. It's not like we're separate from Him.

Brethren, you have to believe this, that if you come to Him resigned, He will work in you. He will cause good things. Lord, I'm willing for you to make me willing to do your will.

I mean, help me here. He doesn't ask us to perfectly surrender or be perfect, but we're coming and we're broken and all anew. I think Wesley hit on something.

We should be doing this on a regular basis. In fact, even if we had services like this, because that's what they did. They had services of this flavor and they found it to be really helpful to God's people.

And so, brethren, the thing is we hesitate. And why do we hesitate? Because we really feel like if we're in control of our lives, we can do a better job than the Lord. What we're really afraid of is if I am totally surrendered to the Lord, what's He going to take away that I don't want Him to take away? What's He going to require of me that I don't want Him to require? You know what He's going to require most likely? Isaac.

That thing. Well, will He ask me to do what I don't want to do? That's the question. Because the thing is we all have things in our life that we can't imagine living without.

It's like if it's all abandoned, we can hardly bear the thought. What if the Lord requires that? But brethren, I'll tell you this. You know what it all comes down to? An issue of trust.

Do you really trust Him? Is the Lord going to demand from you anything that will harm you? Will He ever do that? I mean, what are we really saying when we say, no Lord? We may not say it in those terms, but we're saying it. No Lord, not that. Not over there.

You can't have that part of my life. I can't surrender that to you. I'm afraid you're going to do something I don't want you to do.

When I weigh it all out, I mean at the end of the day, I think I know better how to run my life in that point. I'm convinced that if I surrender it to you, I'm likely going to be miserable and my needs won't be met and I won't be happy. Oh, brethren.

What's that? That's it. It all belongs to Him. It's all.

And it comes down to an issue of trust. Does He demand unconditional surrender? You better believe it. He does.

But He doesn't require it as a tyrant. He requires it as the kind of God that sent His Son into the world and His first miracles to turn water into wine. What is that communicating? And you know, in the end, He didn't take Isaac away.

And He provided a substitute. But don't think that that's going to happen every time He calls you to go to Mount Moriah. Let me ask you, what has He ever done that you can look at your life and question His character? Like, there it is.

He did this in my life. He's not good. There it is.

There's the proof. Brethren, what has He ever done? You know what He says to us in Scripture? He's saying to us, trust Me. He's constantly wanting His people to trust Him.

Has He ever given us any purpose to believe He's not worthy to be trusted? And you just think of the price of holding out. Does it make you happy? Does it fill you with joy? Because what happens is when you hold out, He tends to withdraw. And have you ever found that when you surrender all, there He is again? And there's His face and there's His smile.

If you habitually live your life and you're just saying, yes, I know what the Lord wants me to do, but I'm not going to do it. Then you know who you are? You're the rich young ruler. And if you're the rich young ruler, then it's not going to turn out well with you.

Surrender difficult? Yes. I'm not going to tell you. But I mean, we see the end.

He's got good purposes for us. He means to wean us from our idols and save us from everything we need to be saved from. And guaranteed, if He wants to take it away, we need to be saved from it.

Or we need to be saved from the affection that we have for it. Is the Lord going to stretch us? Is He going to take from us at times things? Yes, we did not want to leave our family behind when we went. There are things, there are all sorts of things that throughout my life, the Lord has required.

Is it difficult? At times are we ready to break? At times are we ready to complain? I mean, brethren, all we have to do is turn our eyes to the cross, turn our eyes to the garden, see Him down there. You think, I mean, Father, if it's possible, take this away from me. Did God the Father stretch His own Son? Did He demand things? I mean, see Christ there.

You behold the agonies of the cross and it's like, you watch the Savior take that cup to His lips and drink that down. You see His surrender in the face of just unspeakable terror and the wrath of God. Not my will, but Thine be done.

And then He calls us, follow me. That's the life we should be in. Not my will, but Thine be done.

And the thing is, the Gospel always gets rid of all the complications. There's a simplicity in this. There's one Lord and it's not me.

And He tells me, you hear His voice? Give it all to me. Unless you forsake all that you have. Yes, Lord.

That's what we want to say to Him. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

You are enough. I have you. Though you strip all else away, I'm satisfied.

Brethren, I want to end on this. Don't approach, you know what one of the problems is? There's a lot of Christians that approach the Christian life just from the standpoint of what I can't do or what He's going to take away. Brethren, get out of that mindset.

Start living your life from the positive aspect. You know what He wants us to do? What does He say? All those on His right? I was a stranger and you took me in. I was in prison.

I was hungry. I was thirsty. All these things.

The widow and the orphan. We talked about that not too long ago. You got the Isaiah 58 promises.

The hungry. Take the stranger into your house. Jesus said, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

Go learn what that means. Brethren, one of the things we have to stop doing is living our life all about what we can't do. Do you recognize Christ saving us? All the things we can do.

It's like He's given us now. He's put the Spirit within us and He's given us the responsibility to go do what He did. Where He was the light of the world, now we're the light of the world.

Where He was the one that was going around and He was doing good and He was preaching the gospel, now that's our responsibility. Brethren, one of the things is, you will find that if you're filling your life with all the good things and all the positive things, it doesn't become all consumed with what you can't do and what He's taking away. Brethren, don't just live this negative idea about can't do that, can't do that, can't do that.

Think about all the things He's calling you to do. There's a big life He's out there. There's a big life in following Him.

Anyway, just think about these things. These are just some different thoughts on idolatry. Lord, we pray that You'd help us love You above all, be committed, be sold out, all on the altar, following Christ.

Lord, You've given the promise and I'm going to ask You to keep that promise. For every one of Your sons and daughters in this room, You've promised to cleanse us of our idols. And Lord, we're holding You to that promise.

Whatever the cost, whatever the stretching, however painful it might be, we see Christ put that cup to His lips, surrendered. Thy will be done. Lord, we want to be living right there.

Lord, we know that there are things that have grown down into our hearts. We know the battles. We know the uprooting of some of these deeply entangled usurpers that have come to try to push You off the throne.

Lord, we want You on the throne. We want to be surrendered. We want it all on the altar.

We want to forsake all. Lord, we don't want anything to keep us from the fullness of what we might have. Lord, I pray for these brethren, that they would be able to all over again renew their commitment to be totally sold out.

We're bought with a price. We're not our own. To live in light of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.