Christian-ish: Week 3

Well, I want to begin today by asking you to

think about what are some of the priorities in your life.

Do you have a list of priorities or things that

are important to you, Maybe some financial priorities, or if

you're in school, you might have some education priorities. What's

on your priority list? I'll share with you one of

the priority lists that I have. Sometimes I casually look

at what houses are for sale here in our area.

Now I'm not looking to move right now, but I

know someday in the future, as our family grows and

our needs change, we will move to a different house.

And so I've got kind of a priority list of

things that I look for. Number one is location. I

want to be close here to the church. I want

to be close to Lauren's works, like good, good location.

And then the second priority that I have is a yard.

I've got a son and I've got now we have

a dog, and so I need I need a fenced

in yard to contain that chaos. You can't control the chaos,

You just got to contain it. And then the next

priority when I think about.

A home is I need a basement.

You know, if you have kids, you know kids come

with stuff, things, stuff, toys, play sets, all this stuff,

and so I need a basement for the stuff. And honestly,

as shepherd starts to make friends and he wants to

spend time with his friends, I want our home to

be a place where his friends want to hang and

come and visit. And so I need a basement for them.

And there's one more thing that goes on my priority

list when I think about a home. And you may

think this thing is silly. I never thought that I

would want this thing in a home until I had

kids and.

Dogs and all these things.

And it may sound a little pretentious, but I need

a mudroom. I know it may sound silly, but I

need a mudroom because I've got diaper bags, I've got

I've got toys, I've got strollers and car seats just

overflowing scattered.

Throughout my house.

I need a designated place for the mess. You know,

I need a mud a mud room. So those are

some of my priorities. But think about your priorities in life.

What are the most important things on your list for life?

What are the things that are your priorities.

I mean, for some of us, it's faith.

That's that's why you're here at church. Faith is a priority. Family,

your job is a priority. Maybe you've got school. Education

is a part of your priority. Like what are your

priorities in life? And then how do you how do

you rank these things? Like how do you decide what

is number one? Number two, number three? Like how do

you organize your priorities? Well, I think for those of

us who are Christians number one, we would probably all

have the same answer.

Right, what would be number one?

God?

Right, God would be number one.

He would be our first price, and then number two

maybe family, and then next for some of us it

might be a job or school, And you could go

on and on and start listing your priorities, you know,

planning for retirement, and you know all these things. But

for those of us whose faith is in Jesus, He's

the lord of our life. Faith, God is number one.

We're in this message series titled christian Ish, and it's

this idea that many of us say, we are Christians,

we believe in Jesus, we want to go to heaven.

But our actions and our decisions in life don't fully

follow and obey and trust Jesus. Doesn't life have a

way of interrupting your priority list. Doesn't life have a

way of disrupting what gets first place? You see, a

christian Ish faith puts God second. God is first in

our words, but he's second in our lives. For some

of us that the job gets first priority. I mean,

you gotta make a living, you gotta pay the bills,

you gotta pay off that debt, gotta you know, do

the job, and so God just gets ranked second. For

someone else, it's a relationship. This relationship with this person

is the most important thing. Maybe you're planning to get

engaged or planning a wedding and it's taking all of

your time and resources and energies, and that's number one,

and God is number two. Or what about college students

so much pressure to finish school on time, to get

good grades, to minimize the debt. And so right now

school is number one, and after I graduate that then

God can move into number one. But right now he's

number two, and before long we're living a christian Ish

life with a faith that puts God second. Do you

know what the Bible calls of faith that puts God second.

It's called idolatry. It's called idolatry. You may be familiar

with the ten commandments. The ten commandments are like God's

priority list, his ten most important things, his ten lists

of priorities. And we read about these commandments in Exodus

chapter twenty. God says, number one, you must have You

must not have any other God but me. You must

not make for yourself an idol of any kind. Would

you say idole, an idol of any kind of image

of anything in the heavens or the earth, or in

the seas. You must not bow down to them or

worship them. For I the Lord, your God, I'm a

jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any

other gods. So these are the first two commandments. These

are top on God's priority list. No other gods, no idols.

God is number one. What comes to your mind when

you think of the word idol, I mean maybe for

some you think about that show American Idol that's what

comes to mind.

Or you might imagine a little gold statue.

Or a little shrine, or some New Age crystals or

something you know, ancient like that.

And it's easy to think that.

Idols are irrelevant in our modern time, like we don't

have idols. That's something ancient, that's something in the past

and history, but not in our modern time. However, the

Old Testament is not the only place that addresses idolatry.

The New Testament has a lot to say. The First

John five twenty one we read, dear children, keep yourselves

from idols. The Bible's clear idols are not outdated. Idolatry

is a problem for every single human being because idolatry

is not just little statues and little shrines or ancient temples.

Idolatry can be anything. There are modern day idols.

See.

I like the way that the New Living Translation interprets

this verse we just read.

It says, dear children, keep.

Away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.

If you're taking notes today, the first point about idolatry

is that an idol is anything that takes God's place

in your heart. It's not just gold statues, it's not

just shrines. Idolatry is anything. There are modern day idols.

And here's the thing about modern day idols. They're more

dangerous than little statues and little shrines because modern day

idols are hidden. Modern day idols are secrets of the heart, secrets.

Of the.

Anything can be an idol. A relationship can be an idol.

A job, a career, a number in the bank account

can be an idol. Possessions can be an idol. All

of the classic things like power and sex and money

and wealth, those can be idols. A reputation of self image,

a social media platform can become an idol. There are

modern idols. I want to pause and recognize for a

moment that you might be thinking to yourself, Well, Andrew,

I hear what you're saying, but I don't have any idols.

Like I'm here at church, I'm a Christian. I worship God.

I don't worship those other things other people might, but

I worship God. I don't have any idols.

And I get it.

I understand because that's exactly what I thought about myself.

Before I wrote this message. As I was preparing this.

Message, I genuinely prayed and asked God, like, God, are

there are there any idols in my life that I

need to recognize? Like? And I sincerely thought, like, I

don't think I have any idols. Yes, I've got temptations,

Yes I've got weaknesses, and I've got sin issues and

struggles that I want to work on. But like I

worship God, I don't have any idols. Let me tell

you something. If you want God to get really honest,

really fast, pray that prayer. God show me the idols

of my life very quickly. I started writing down, and

I had a list of about eight things in my

life that could be idols.

And as I was.

Praying and reflecting over this list that I had, the

Lord revealed something else to me. The Lord showed me

that these eight things, this list is not eight individual idols.

These are not eight distinct idols. These are all symptoms

of one big idol. These are all the expression of

one ugly idol. Do you want to know what the

idol is in my life? I'm embarrassed to say this,

but the idol I struggle with is me, though I

do not like to say that. I mean, I know

I can trust you to be vulnerable, but I myself

in the idol because I want to be number one.

I want to make the decisions. I want to be

in control. I want to be self sufficient. I don't

want to submit to somebody else's well. I want to

be number one. And all those things that God showed me,

those are just symptoms of the idolatry of myself. I'll

give you an example. When I was writing that list

down and asking God for idols, one of the things

on that list is preaching ministry. The thing I'm doing

right now, preaching God's word. It is the thing I

love to do the most. It's the thing I'm called

to do, it's what I'm equipped to do. But even

a good thing can become an idol. How so well,

if I corrupt the ministry of God's word to feed

my ego, to feed my self esteem, to congratulate myself,

to feel important, to feel valuable, then I have turned

it into something for myself instead of worshiping God. Another

example is my reputation. It's important to have a good reputation.

The Bible tells us to have a good reputation, but

I'm tempted to rely on my reputation for my value,

for my security. If I'm known as a successful person,

if I'm known as an educated person, an accomplished person,

then I feel more secure, I feel more confident, I

feel more self sufficient. I also recognize that idolatry shows

up in my life when I'm really stressed. When I'm

really stressed out because when I'm stressed, I start thinking

about me, my wants, my desires, my comfort. And when

I'm stressed, I don't want to be interrupted. I don't

I get irritated if somebody or something interrupts me or

interrupts my agenda.

I'm selfish with my time.

So can you see how how these are all symptoms

of this one idol that myself is really the idol

in my life. My self sufficiency, trusting in my ability,

trusting in myself. And so my encouragement friends, right now

today as we hear from God's word, is to allow

God to speak to you. Would you have an open heart,

in an open mind, even if you may assume that

you don't have any idols, would you allow God to

gently speak to you and guide you today? After God

gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, he gave them

the priorities. He set the priorities. Well, it didn't take

very long for the Israelites to become christian Ish. See

what happened is after they left Egypt, they were on

their way to the Promised Land, and Moses was leading

the people through the wilderness, and they stopped at the

Mountain of God, Mount Sinai, and then Moses ascended to

the top of the mountain to meet with God and

receive instruction and guidance from God.

And Moses spent forty days on the mountain.

Well, at the bottom of the mountain, the nation of

Israel was getting a little bit nervous because Moses. They

could not see Moses was on the mountain, and they

were getting a little antsy. They were getting a little

anxious because they were in an unknown territory, unfamiliar territory,

and their leader they could not find him. So they

were anxious, they were nervous, they were insecure. And then

here's what we read in Exodus thirty two. When the

people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,

the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and to him up.

Make us gods who shall go before us. As for

this Moses, the man who brought us out of the

land of Egypt, we do not know what has become

of him. So Aaron said to them, take off the

rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives,

your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.

So all the people took off the rings of gold

that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron,

and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned

it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.

And they said, these are your gods, o Israel, who

brought you up out of the land of Egypt. This

is clearly idolatry. And make a golden calf a little statue,

and they say this, this is our God. They clearly

disobey God. Why why did they commit idolatry?

Well, what does our texts say in the very first verse?

Look closely at the first verse. When the people you

saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,

they were impatient, they were stressed. Moses was taking too long.

God was not doing what they wanted when they wanted.

Now, you probably don't have a golden calf.

But how often do we become impatient and panic when

God isn't doing what we want God to do? How

many times do we get irritated when God seems.

To be delayed?

Or do we panic and get nervous when God seems

to be taking too long? Your career isn't where you

want it to be, it's delayed. You want to make

more money, but the income is delayed. You dream of

being married, but you're still single and you're frustrated and irritated.

You want to move from renting to owning a home,

but there's nothing on the market it's delayed. Or you

have a deep heartfelt hope to raise children, but pregnancies delayed.

Idols make a false promise of security. Idols promise false security.

See the people of Israel. They were anxious, they were nervous.

Their leader had gone up on the mountain. He was

gone for forty days. They were nervous, and they were anxious,

and they felt insecure.

They didn't know what to do.

You see, an idol says, if you're feeling anxious, if

you're feeling nervous, if you're feeling frustrated, come.

To this thing to get what you need.

The idolatry thrives on our disappointments, frustrations, and anxieties. Where

does your heart turn when you're unhappy or stressed? If

I have this, I'll be happy. If I have that,

I'll be less stressed. If I'm with that person, I'll

feel better about myself.

If I have this title, this job, this thing.

This is what I need to feel secure. Where do

you go when you're hurting? Where do you go when

you're unhappy? You're in pain? So you self medicate with

drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. There's friction in

your marriage, and so to cope you use pornography. You're

fighting insecurity, and so you date around trying to find

that one person to help feed and minimize that insecurity.

Or you just have this fear of not having enough money,

and so you drive yourself and work long hours, and

work and work and hoard and hoard and.

So you don't lose.

Where do you go when you're on happy? Where do

you go when you're insecure? Can I tell you something?

Whatever you're feeling, I promise you. Whatever that thing is

that you're feeling insecurity, depressed, worried, fearful, angry, that that

smoldering low grade chronic frustration, that thing is not the

real issue.

It's a symptom of the real issue.

The real issue is that you were created for a

loving relationship with God, the Father. That the thing inside

of you, the void, the thing that feels like it's missing,

can only be satisfied by a loving relationship with God.

There is nothing in this world nothing in this life,

no person that can love you like him, who will

never give up on you and never let you down.

You see, God's relationship with Israel was a loving, covenantal

protective relationship. Who led the Israelites out of slavery when

they got to the Red Sea and they were stuck

between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, Who made

a way through the waters, who swept over their enemies

when Israel needed food in the wilderness, who sent manna

from heaven God provided. They saw God's provision, They saw

God's protection, They saw God's providence. But when they get

to the mountain and Moses is gone for forty days,

they start panicking, Oh no, we need a golden calf

to make us feel better. How many times when life

isn't going the way we want, we look for something

else to make us feel better. Idolatry thrives on our disappointments,

our frustrations, and our anxieties. After the episode with the

golden calf, God gets really blunt with the Israelites. He

rebukes them for their idolatry, and then in Exodus thirty four,

God said something really interesting. God says something really unusual.

Look at Exodus thirty four, verse fourteen. He says, do

not worship any other God, for the Lord whose name

is jealous is a jealous God.

You say the word jealous.

One of God's names is jealous. Does anybody else think

that strange? I know someone's thinking right now. I had

a jealous ex once, and I can't think. I can't

think about God like they were crazy. I had to

block their number. I don't want to block God. How

can God be jealous? Of course, we know that God

is not a petty, selfish ex who stalks you and

tries to control you. Like, how is this who God is?

Because God is perfect, God is holy, God is righteous,

we need to understand the meaning of jealous in order

to understand God's character. In the Hebrew language, there are

two words that could be used for jealous and also

for envy. These two words are kanna and kana. I

honestly don't know the difference between pronouncing these two words.

Look at how similar they are kanna and kana. But

notice this first one here, This first one, kana means envy.

It's mostly translated as envy. It's used thirty six times

in the Old Testament, and whenever it's used, it's primarily

used to describe a human being who is envious coveting

something else. So a general definition of envy is wanting

something that isn't yours.

That's sinful.

I want your money, I want your reputation, I want

your house, I want your spouse, I want the things

that you have.

It's not mine.

That is envy and that is sin, and this is

used in the Old Testament to describe the sin of envy. However,

jealous is different than envy. There is holy jealous. Righteous

jealous envy is wanting something that is not yours. Jealous

can be wanting something that is yours. This is my house,

this is my property. I am jealous for what is

mine I have right to. I'll give you a story

to demonstrate this. When Lauren and I were young and

in college, we were dating and there was this young

man who knew Lauren when they were.

In high school.

They went to high school together, and this young man

had a crush on Lauren, and so he actually wrote

her a letter confessing his feelings and he asked to

see her before he left town. Well, Lauren felt uncomfortable

about this. She really didn't know what to do with this,

and so I asked her to give me this guy's

phone number, and I was going to give him a

call before he left town. And did I mention where

he was leaving town? Well, he had just finished military

boot camp and he was going to his next station.

And so I gave this guy a call. And I'm

a little bit nervous because he knows how to hurt people.

He's trained in weaponry. I'm just a pastor with a

Bible degree. But then I remember the Bible is the

sort of the spirit.

Just kidding.

So I gave this guy a call, and I tried

to be kind, but I was also very clear, and

I said, hey, Lauren and I are together, and you're

making her feeling comfortable. So I'm just asking you to to,

you know, not contact her anymore. And his military training

kicked in and he said, yes, sir, see, that's an

appropriate type of jealousy. God's jealousy pre hats and defends you. See,

God's jealousy is about protecting and defending his relationship with you. You

see this other word kannah means jealous and it's used

six times in the Old Testament. It is always used

to describe God's righteous jealousy. So he says, don't worship

any other God, for my name is jealous. I'm a

jealous God. He wants to defend his relationship with you.

He wants to protect you. He wants to come between

you and any sin and any idol that wants to.

Corrupt your life. God's jealousy.

Is demonstrated the most when Jesus died on the cross.

The gospel is about a jealous God. The gospel tells

us that God sees the sin and the idolatry and

the corruption in our lives, and he will not tolerate it.

He loves you so much that he set his son to.

Die for you. Story with Lauren.

I picked up the phone, but Jesus picked up the cross,

and he died for our sins. Died in our place

to rescue us from idolatry. And three days later he

rose from the dead, so we can be forgiven and

we can have eternal life. And so when you say

this idol, this thing, this person is more important to me.

This thing gives me my security. You're saying this thing

matters more than the cross. The cross is the demonstration

of a loving, jealous God who will stop at nothing to.

Have a relationship with you.

So then, how do we identify and deal with idols?

What can we do about the idols in our hearts

and our lives? Years ago, winning was an unhealthy problem

in my life. I'm competitive. I like to win. When

I was a youth pastor, I would often play pick

up basketball with the high school boys in our youth ministry.

And the problem is I'm not a very good basketball player,

which means I lost more frequently, which made losing embarrassing.

And I'm a sore loser. I just put it that way.

And I remember one time, the last time I played

basketball with the boys in the youth ministry, I was

playing poorly. I was embarrassing myself, and I got so

angry with myself that I smacked the wall and said

some words that are unbecoming of a Christian. Let alone,

I'm becoming of a pastor. And so I decided that

day competitive sports is.

Not good for my relationship with God.

It's not good for my witness, it's not good for

me setting an example. You see. It was pulling me

away from God. Idols pull you away from Jesus. Idols

pull you away from your relationship with God. And so

here's a question you can ask yourself if you're trying

to discern is this an idol in my life? Ask yourself,

Is this pulling me away from Jesus or closer to Jesus?

Is this activity pulling me away from Jesus? Is this

person pulling me away from Jesus? Is this thing helping

me be more like Jesus? One day in the recent past,

it was payday, and that morning I was so excited

to log into my bank account and see my direct

deposit because I've got some financial goals, things I'm saving for,

things I'm paying off. And so first thing that morning

started working on my bank account and moving things around.

And I think I've shared before that for me, I

have some insecurities around money, worrying about not having enough

or worrying about not being able to pay for something unexpected,

And so.

That morning I was like lock.

And then I felt God's spirit gently prompt me by saying, Andrew,

you were more excited today to give your attention to

your money and than to give your attention to prayer

or reading the Bible or being in God's presence. See

that my attention was pulled away. Something got the best

of my attention. Idols pull your attention. Can you see

a theme?

It's pulling.

Idols pull pull you away from Jesus. Idols pull your attention.

And so there's two questions you can ask yourself. First,

what keeps you awake at night? What has your attention

at night? What are you worried about? What are you

stressing about? What's on your mind when you're worried at night?

The second question, what are you thinking about? First thing

in the morning when you wake up? What is the

first thing on your mind? What has your attention? Are

you reaching for your phone? Are you checking messages? Or

you think about the next social media post, the next workout,

the next fix. Like what has your attention in the morning?

What pulls your attention? Might be an idol? Earlier in

the springtime, I planted a garden in my backyard. And

I have this dream of like having a self sufficient

garden where I can get new vegetables and produce and

you know, feed myself from this garden.

And I've never done this before.

And so somewhere I read that mint plants are really

helpful at keeping away pests.

And mosquitoes and bugs.

And so I planted two mint plants in the center

of my garden. Well, I discovered that mint is an

invasive plant. And so let me tell you how my

garden is going. I've deemed my garden a snack garden

because it's not producing enough.

For a whole meal.

But I can get a few green beans every other

week I get I can get a pepper here and there.

You know, it's what a snack garden because the mint

plant is just overgrowing. The mint plant is thriving and

it's expanding, it's growing, and it's pulling water and nutrients

from all the other plants. And I've got to get

in there and trim it and cut it back and

all these things.

Idols pull your resources.

Idols pull your resources.

They pull your.

Money, pull your energy, pull your time, your effort. Idols

pull your resources. Very simple question, ask yourself, is am

I spending too much money on this? Is this where

God wants my money to go? You see the theme here.

Idols pull you away from Jesus. Idols pull your attention,

Idols pull your resource.

It's a pulling theme.

So what do we do. How do we deal with

the idols? You gotta pull idols up by the root.

I told you about the garden of the mint. Leaves

are thriving, the vegetables are not. And I've got weeds.

I've got weeds. There is no helpful use for a

weed in my garden. And I can't tame the weed.

I can't trim the weed. I can't section the weeds

off to this corner.

Of the garden.

I gotta cut them out, the same as with an idol,

you gotta cut it out. You gotta pull it up

by the root. Someone listening needs to hear today, cut

out that sin that's on your phone.

Someone may need.

To cut out a friendship or a toxic relationship that's

pulling you away from Jesus. Do you need to cut

out that activity that's become an idol, that behavior that's

pulling your attention, pulling your resources. You can't tame an idol.

You can't trim it, you can't section it off. You

got to pull it up by the route. Earlier, we

talked about priority lists. Remember we what's first, what's second,

what's third? And we said God should be number one

on our priority list. But I want to be completely

honest with you personally, I don't like the idea of

God being number one on a priority list.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like lists. I'm Type A.

I like organizing things, crossing things off the list, checking

things off my to do list. The only problem is

my relationship with God is not a to do list.

And so I want to encourage you to shift your thinking,

shift your perspective. Stop thinking about God as number one

on a list. Think about God as the center of

your life, not at the top of a list. At

the center of your life. Do you know what geocentricism is?

Years and years and years ago, the smartest people in

the world, the most educated in the people of the world,

believed that the Earth was at the center of the

Solar system and that everything revolved around the Earth. Even

the Christian Church in Rome persecuted and condemned scientists like

Galileo who proved that the Sun is at the center

of the Solar system. See, the Sun is at the

center of the Solar system because it is the largest

It is the greatest body, and everything else revolves around

it orbits around it. The Sun has a gravitational pull,

so strong that it keeps everything moving at the appropriate place.

You see, our planet Earth right now is spinning approximately

one thousand miles an hour on its axis.

It's flying around the Sun.

At approximately sixty seven thousand miles per hour. It's gonna

take a whole year, three hundred and sixty five days

to make one revolution around the Sun. That's how we

get our seasons and fall and winter and spring and

day and night, and all of that is happening because

the Sun is at the center. The Sun is the

greatest powerful being. What is at the center of your life?

Who is at the center of your life? Because whatever

you put at the center of your life has to

be big enough, has to be powerful enough, has to

be great enough to keep everything else moving without flying

off into chaos. And so if I put myself at

the center of my life system, then I've gotta hold

everything together. I've got to keep all the parts moving.

I've got to be juggling it all, and it is exhausting.

But when God is at the center of your life system,

everything moves the way it's supposed to. When you put

Jesus here at the center, everything is in its appropriate place. Work, school, family, money,

your mental health. All of it is around Jesus, and

Jesus is powerful enough.

Jesus is big enough. His pulling power.

Keeps it all together. So what's at the center of

your life? Who is at the center of your life?

Nothing else in this world can keep your life together

the way that Jesus does, because no other person in

this world.

Laid down their life the way he did for yours.

So I want to invite us right now to respond

to what we've heard from God's word. Would you bow

your head and close your eyes with me today? I

want to extend an invitation. If you're here today and

you're realize that Jesus is not the center of your

life and you want to change that, then my invitation

is that you would simply repeat this prayer to God. Say,

Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner and I

need your forgiveness. I believe Jesus died on the cross

for my sins and rose from the dead to save me.

And today I confess Jesus is Lord of my life.

Jesus is at the center of my life. And now

as we continue to respond with our head's bowed and

eyes closed, nobody else is looking around.

It's just me. I just wonder if you.

Prayed that prayer, would you be brave enough just to

raise your hands so I can see you and tell

you that God loves you, Your sins are forgiven, Jesus

at the center of your life.

Jesus is the most support. G is gonna be guiding you.

Thank you, thank you, and now for all of us,

would you just take a moment and ask the Lord

open ended God, is there an idol that I need

to cut out? Take a moment and let him reveal

what he wants to reveal, and then I'll transition us.

I trust that if the Lord has revealed or shown anything,

that he will give you the faith and the ability

to obey him