Firm Foundations: Week 2

The second week of our series. Now, I know that all of us,

pretty much all of America knows the Ten Commandments. But what we want

to do is look at the reasoning behind the ten commandments that we've been called

to live out, and remembering that these commandments are still in effect today.

And so let's prepare our hearts to receive from the Lord and ask them to

just talk to us today. God, we come to you. Now,

Speak to us, Speak deep to our hearts today, Draw us near to

you today, and give us your wisdom in Jesus' name. Amen. Now,

I don't know about you, but would you agree that God has done

a spectacular job creating not on the universe, but a beautiful earth. Can

I get an amen? Oh? I'll tell you what you know. There's

nothing I love more than just looking at a beautiful scenic view. It does

something to my soul. And think about the times. Maybe some of you

have been out to the Rocky Mountains, a grand canyon, the Smoky Mountains

are two beautiful rivers or lakes or oceans, And think about what we'll do.

We'll save up money, we'll save up vacation time. Some of us

will get on planes with crying babies. Some of us will get in mini

vans with two little kids in the back, pulling each other's hair and drive

a thousand miles just to look at the ocean and say, ah, this

is my place. This is my place for years. Whenever I go to

a state for the first time and I know there might be some scenery there,

I will make my first stop either Walmart or Target, and I will

grab a folding chair put in the back of the rental. And then whenever

I go buy a beautiful place that just surprises me, I'll pull the car

over, I'll sit in that chair and I'll just soak the view in.

And then as I returned the rental car, I will donate that chair to

the back of that trunk in case that the next person who has that vehicle,

just in case they run across a blessing. Now, I know all

of us would agree that rivers, ocean's lakes, mountains, they're just beautiful

scenery. But for some of us, there's some other things that we love

to look at that we believe is just absolutely beautiful, and we believe that

they're scenic. And for me, one of the things I love to look

at on equal par with the things I just mentioned, is old rustic factories.

Anybody with me? No, am I that weird? Am I that

weird? I love old? Isn't that beautiful? Look at that? I

just find that so beautiful. And I love the old rustic factories and I

love to look at a matter of fact, for many years, on my

way back from Pittsburgh, I would purposely take Route seven, which would take

me along the Ohio River, because along the old Ohio River is all of

these old factories. Matter of fact, several times when I went to Chicago

over the years, I would actually take a different route just to go by

Gary, Indiana, just so I can see those big steel mills, and

I just absolutely love looking at those images. Now, I would assume that

this love of old rustic factories comes from growing up with ak Still literally in

my backyard, Like there's my house and a couple of houses, and then

ak Still, which is one of the biggest coke plants in the United States,

And every evening of my life I could still hear that even today,

the sound of the steel slabs dropping, the trains moving little by little,

and every day when I was at elementary school, we had. Our elementary

school was only separated from the steel mill by a railroad train track, and

I would often sit in the classroom while I was doing my homework, I

would look out at ak still and I would just daydream. So there's just

something I can't explain it, but there's just something that does something great to

my soul. Whenever I see an old rustic factory. Now you might be

saying, how can you find beauty in that? Well for me, and

I see the building of America. I see the building of one town.

I see generations of families that was blessed. I see America being built.

When I look at those and it does something to myself. Now, I

am aware that factories calls a lot of harm to our land. Matter of

fact, Dick's Creek goes right by my neighborhood. Everybody knew you can eat

any fish you want, except for the ones we have three eyeballs or two

heads, or if while you're a fishing the fish actually grabbed a hold of

the line and started doing tug of war with you cut the line. Okay,

I know they do some harm, but man, I just love look

at him. You know now that I've got no O, and I still

love looking at him. Almost every time I see an old factory and I'll

be staring at it, thinking, oh, this is cool. I love

looking at this, and I'll be driving around looking Almost every single time.

There's this one quote that comes to me, and it's his quote that came

to me over and over and over again. It's from a famous theologian,

or it's accredited to a famous theologian. His name was John Calvin, and

John Calvin supposedly said that the human heart is an idle factory. The human

heart is an idle factory, meaning that our soul is constantly in search for

things on this earth that's gonna bring us pleasure, peace our purpose, other

than God bringing us pleasure, peace our purpose. And let me tell you

sadly, after twenty five years of full time ministry, I can tell you

right now, my heart is still a fact that produces idols. There are

times where I'm so close to God that I can't even imagine chasing after anything

else, or wanting anything else, or finding my identity in anything else other

than Jesus. And then out of nowhere, the furnaces of my heart they'll

get stoked and they'll start to heat up. And the next thing I know,

I'm chasing something, something that's I feel like it's gonna bring me greater

identity or greater value, or something that's gonna maybe help my self esteem go

to another level, or my dependency, something for me to trust in.

And let me tell you about this factory in my heart. It has one

goal in production, and that goal is to play something, anything, any

desire, anything else on the throne of my heart besides God, my savior.

Look at me, everyone today. The battle for who sits on the

throne in your heart. This is the battle of your life. This is

the battle that you will fight until the day you die. Is the battle

of our life. And so as we head into the second week of our

study on the Ten Commandments, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna look

at the heart of the Ten Commandments. We're gonna look at Commandment one to

two today, which addresses the battle for the throne of my heart. All

right, so let's do this. Let's go ahead and jump into the text

today, and let's look at Exodus chapter twenty, starting with first one.

Exodus twenty, starting with first one, it says, God spoke all these

words. And God starts out by simply saying this. He says, I

am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the

land of slavery. Do you hear that I'm the Lord your God. I

brought you out of Egypt. I brought you out of slavery. And so

what do we see? Even before God gets the tech commandments, God has

said, hey, just say, you know, let's be clear before I

give you any of these commandments. I'm the hero of your story. Okay.

See, you would still be slaves in Egypt if it was not for

me, if it was not for me saying you are my children and I

will rescue. And he reminds them that under this different so called divinity named

Pharaoh, that they were slaves, but now they're children of God. In

other words, God is saying to them, all right, listen up,

we're under new management. There's a new CEO, there's a new contract,

and all of you have been promoted from slaves, and you've been adopted as

children of the King of king and the Lord of lords. And instead up

building monuments to these false gods, here's what you're gonna be doing from now

on. We're gonna build up a holy nation of a royal priesthood. And

here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna become a nation that has set apart,

that is gonna show the world who God is. And out of this

nation a Messiah is gonna come. And this Messiah is going to save this

world. And you will be my chosen people, and I will be your

God. So from the very beginning, God is saying, all right,

we're under a new management. It's a new day. So he begins with

the foundational commandment that all the other ones are built upon. Let's look at

it, and goes on a city. You shall have no other gods before

me. You shall have no other gods before me. Now, why would

God start out the ten commandments with you shall have no other gods before me.

I think we have to understand a couple of things here from the very

beginning today. Number one, remember they're coming out of four hundred plus years

of idle worship. So there was a false God for every single need that

they had, For every single need that they could not explain in nature,

they had a false God for. So there was a god that if you

need a crops, pray to the crop God. If you need it rain

for your crops, you pray to the rain God. If you need it

better weather, you pray to the Sun God for every need. If you

wanted to make sure your cattle stayed alive, you pray to the cattle God

for every need. And by the way, don't act like this is crazy

or naive. Listen, when your whole life, when your whole life depends

on whether or not that crop comes in, are that animal lives, are

your family suffers and dies, you will get desperate. I wish I had

wrote this earlier this week, but this just came to me. When we

really think about it, false gods come out of desperation for something we need

in our life. False gods come out of a desperation for something we need

in our life. And so here they are. They're coming out of four

hundred years of following all these false gods of Egypt, and then all of

a sudden, God intervenes and he says, hey, listen, Pharaoh,

let my people go. Pharaoh says no. So God says, you know

what, I'm gonna have to systematically defeat every single one of your gods,

so that you will know that I am the True God, that I am

the King of Kings, I am the Lord of Lords, that I am

the Creator God, that I am the all powerful God. And so in

order to do that, God brought about ten plagues, and each and every

single plague destroyed an Egyptian god. I got a little list up here for

you, and it's just showing that every single plague correlates with the god of

the Egyptian culture. Now I want us to consider the ninth plague for a

moment. Ninth plague is my favorite plague. Is it okay to have a

favorite plague. It's kind of weird, but I have a favorite plague.

So I wanna tell you about my favorite plague. My favorite plague is a

plague of darkness. And let me tell you about the plague of darkness.

It was a ninth plague and the plague of darkness. It was centered around

the god raw Ra was the sun god and raw was also considered their creator

god, and he was on par with our Jehovah God. So think about

like the equal gods. And every single night when the sun came down,

Raw will go into the underworld, and he would fight the Egyptian equivalent of

their devil, which by the way, happened to be a serpent, and

they would fight all night long, and then finally Raw would come forward,

victorious, victorious, and he would emerge and the sun came up. So

every single day for hundreds and hundreds of years, the sun would come up.

And the first thing that the Egyptian people would think is our God won,

Our God won again. Our God is faithful, our God is powerful,

nothing can stop him. And so there was incredible allegiance to the god

Raw Well, God sent this plague of three days of darkness. Now we

just recently experienced in the eclipse and we were blown away. We were like,

oh my, I mean we were freaking out. We were running all

around getting blinded whatever. But could you imagine three days of total darkness.

Can't even see your hands, can't even see your feet. And here's what

would happen. After about forty eight hours of you sitting in your shack,

not being able to see your hands at your feet, at some point you

would have to say our God lost, Our God was defeated. And it

absolutely blew up the religious system, absolutely destroyed their religious system. And so

here's what God did. God simply, one by one defeated every single one.

Because here's what God was trying to let them know. He goes,

all right, I know that you've been following this God and this God and

this god and this God and this God. But all those things that you

attribute to those gods. I created the sun, I created the moon,

I created the stars. I'm the one who invented the plant. I'm the

one who created the cattle. I'm the one who sustains their life. I'm

the one who invented water. I am the God, the creator, and

I am the sustainer of life. And therefore I have defeated each and every

single god. I am the Lord God Jehovah, the one and only God.

But the second thing we have to consider. The second thing we have

to understand. Why would he say, after all that thou shall have no

other gods before me? Is because you have to understand that they were a

polytheistic nation. How many of you guys know what polytheism is. Polytheism is

where you worship multiple gods. And then they were going to go to a

monotheistic nation, which is where you worship one God. And so God had

this time and while they were wandering around in the desert, to transform their

hearts and to get all the gods out of Egypt out of their hearts so

they can go from a polytheistic nation to a dedicated monotheistic nation. Before God

led them into Canaan, and Canaan was famous for their gods. So God

was about ready lead them into a polytheistic nation. And if they did not

go into that polytheistic nation monotheistic, they were gonna have problems. And Lona's

not about naive today, they have problems. For the next several hundred years,

the Israelites continued to run back to these false gods. So israel life,

they got a problem of false gods. And only do they have a

problem of false gods, they have a problem with idols. So God goes

into the second Commandment. Let's look at the second commandment. It says,

you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven

above or on earth beneath, are in the waters below. You shall not

bow down to them or worship him. And God is basically saints and Israelites

listen, Not only are we done with other gods. We're done with idols

as well, and this one for the idols of Egypt. And here's the

thing. He not only wanted them to get rid of the idols of Egypt,

but let's just be honest. As they start to follow Jehovah. God

knows humans. God knew that eventually they would try to make idols that represented

Jehovah, that represented God. And God was like, don't you dare compare

me to my creation. I'm the creator, I created the egle. Don't

make a statue of an egle that say it's me I created the bull.

Don't make a statue of a bull and compare it to me. I am

the creator God. And whenever they would make these idols to say this represents

God, it devalued and dishonored God. So God says, listen, We're

not gonna do idols anymore. Now. This brought me to a question,

which, by the way, brought me a during this past week, a

lot of how would you call them? Like wormholes of study. I had

this question. I couldn't get this question out of my head. How did

we go from Adam and Eve walking with the Lord God to just a few

hundred years later, and we have a pantheon of false gods and an organized

religion with tons of other gods. How do we get from one god to

all these gods? Well, let me share with you what the Jewish,

basically the old rabbis, what they would agree upon, and even early Christian

authors from a couple of thousand years ago. Here's what they would say.

Here's how they would say, we went from one god to many false gods.

It simply it goes like this, Adam and Eve had three sons,

canaan Abel that did not go well. Okay, Abel's dead. But then

there's another son named Seth. Seth had a son named Enos, and it

says during the time of Enosh, during this time, it says, look

at this verse right here, it says that in Genesis four twenty six,

it says, and to Seth to him also there was born a son,

and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name

of the Lord. All right, now, pay attition that they began to

call upon the name of the Lord at that time. The Jewish rabbis and

in the historical books, they would say, no, no, no,

that's not the first time they start calling the Lord Lord, because we see

earlier Adam and Eve was calling the Lord. What they're talking about is,

during this time, there was a group of people that they would look up

at the stars and the moons and the planets, and they would say,

Oh, this is all of God's creation, and they serve God. They're

his ministers. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna honor them as

well, because if we honor them, that would be like honoring God,

just as when a king promotes certain people, if you honor his top officials,

that's like honoring the king. And so what happened was for a season

there people would honor this star and this star and this star or this planet,

and they would say, you know, this is almost like worshiping God

if we honor them. But then some men started to give some of these

stars and planets names, and then they started to focus on some of the

animals or some of the creative things. And then after a while they started

focusing on the rain God. They go, oh, we really need this

God. They started focusing on the crop God. Oh we really need this

crop God. You know, we could be attacked anytime, so let's focus

on this god of war, or let's focus on this god who delivers this

or that. And so after a while they start picking their favorite gods that

they kept going to. Now and listen, this might sound crazy to you.

Last night I was watching a television program. It was about farmers.

I have no life, okay, and it's about this family of farmers,

and they just planted all their seed, and all of a sudden, they

knew because the last couple of years crops weren't good, they needed some rain.

And all the men who own this farm, they're out by the truck

and they're looking at these dark clouds. And then, by the way,

these guys are total like nowhere even close to being Christians, and they just

kept looking at each other. Let's pray, let's pray, let's pray,

let's pray, let's pray. And when I says, I'm gonna do a

rain dance, and he started dancing around and all sort of stuff, and

they just kept saying, come on, we need this rain, we need

this rain. And all of a sudden they saw the rain come and these

farmers just started jumping up and down, hugging each other, swing each other,

and these are all men, and they're just hugging each other, loving

each other, swing each other around like this is the greatest day of our

lives. And I realized, Ah, their life, their livelihood desperately needed

that rain. Ah. Now I understand how easily it would have been to

follow idols back in the day. And so here's what happened. Over time,

they start focusing on their favorite idols because they wanted to make sure they

got run and make sure they had crops, make sure they had healthy cattle.

And over time it became blurred and God kind of fell out of the

equation. And then God calls Abraham. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis,

God calls Abraham. He says, Abraham, I'm gonna start a nation with

you. And by the way, there is only one Lord and one God,

not these all these other gods. But by the time Abraham came along

and said again, everybody, there's only one God, the cat was out

of the back. And now throughout the world we have a ton of idol.

As a matter of fact, during that same time, Egypt was the

first one to have an organized idol religion. Now the people sorry not worshiping

God, but they needed something more tangible that they can trust in. Now

you might be thinking, is it really that simple, James? One thing

leads to another. Originally there was good intentions, but a few generations later

people forget and all of a sudden they stopped following the creator God. Let

me tell you something. It's easy for our hearts to be to see.

Did I ever tell you about my first idol? Let me give you a

foray into my first idol. My first idol in my life was Hawk Cogin.

Anybody know him? And let me tell you some about Hawk Coke.

And he was six foot seven three inches from heaveny, weigh three hundred and

five pounds, and he could whoop any man alive. And Hawk Hogan he

had. He had a workout set that I bought. I don't use it

anymore, the cassette tapes. I washed all of his matches. I had

his clothes. You know. I would make the belts, I had his

toys. I would go to school and I would talk about him. And

matter of fact, I was even willing to break commandments on behalf of Hawk

Hogan because I was a hawk of maniac Did you know the hawk of maniacs?

Actually had our own commandments. We had three commandments to begin with us

to train your body, forgive me hawk, say your prayers, eat your

vitamins. And then eventually he added a fourth commandment, which was believing yourself.

And so I was a little hawk of maniac and it got so far

that one Christmas I asked my mom and Dad. I said, I need

a sixteen inch action figure, action figure. Action figure, don't you dare?

Say dall to me outside action figure? And it was sixteen inches,

and so I wanted to make sure Mom and Dad got me the right one

for Christmas. So I grabbed a hold of my cat, pressed on it,

and as the little pulse came out, and I scratched the gift until

I can see an opening, and then I realized, oh, they got

me the right one. Mom and Dad come home and they go, what

is this? Why is this gift? All tour apart? And then I

broke three commandments. I lied and said, you know I didn't do it.

I buried false witness. I said the cat did it. And then

I didn't honor my mother and father. You see, I broke commandments because

I had a greater idol Hawk Hogan I cared more about Hawk Hogan sixteen inch

action figure than following the commandments. Now I get it, that's silly.

Let me tell you how the idols changed once I got a little bit older.

Success at any cost became an idol in my life. It didn't matter

what it was. It just depends on what stage I was in life.

My freshman year, I played on four baseball teams, a traveling team,

my school team, not whole team, and an all star team. By

my sophomore year, and well, my freshman summer, I was into three

different martial arts. I took them all at the same time. Kempo showed

a Khan and jiu jitsu, and I was like waiting for this cong fu

fight in an alley that never happened, and I was obsessed. But then

when I came to Christ at seventeen, I laid all those idols down.

I laid all those isles down, only to find that my heart is a

factory that produces idols, and I gotta keep watching for who's on the throne

in my life. Now you might have noticed, because I want to shift

a modern day. Now, as we kind of head towards the end here,

you might have noticed that I was going from false Gods of Egypt,

false gods of Canaan. I was talking about idols, and then all of

a sudden I went to did you just switch it up to Hault Cogan,

baseball and martial arts? Yes, I did. Let me explain why that

was intentional. I don't think you all got idols in your house. I

don't. I'd come to anybody's house and you got an eagle that you pray

to every day, or that you guys got a wooden bull that you're praying

to every single day. But what I do know is this that all of

us today, we're always having something that's competing for this top spot in our

life. There's always a fight for who's on the throne in our life,

and for every single one of us, it's a different thing, and they're

different in different seasons. So here's what I want to do now for the

next few minutes. I just want to define the modern day idol okay number

one, a modern day idle. The best way I can put it is

simply this, an idol is something that one believes protects them or provides for

them, that is given more devotion to than God. And we'll say this

again. An idol is something that one believes protects them or provides for them,

that is given more devotion to than God. And you might say,

okay, explain that to me. Sure, let me use the one of

materialism. Materialism is idle in our day because a lot of times we believe

materialism protects us. It protects us from looking like less than or that we

don't have enough, or maybe we're poor. But when we get nice things,

we believe it gives us status. Our things give us status. Career

career could become an idol because it protects you, yeah, from poverty.

But your career could easily become your God because that's where you get your reputation,

that's where you get your paths on your back, and so you're willing

to kill yourself and put everything else aside for your career. See, anything

that steps above our devotion to God can become our idol, can take the

top spot. And let me just share with you here's some of the things

that can become idol. So number one, a person. A person could

become an ide on your life. Did you know that you could be an

eye on your life? Don't raise your hand. But if you're a narcissist,

some mighty go. Yeah, if you're a narcissist, there's a good

chance you are your God. And if you think that's crazy, you're probably

a narcissist. So, you know, a spouse. I've seeing people just

put their whole trust in their spouse, children, a president, a pastor,

a boss, a singer. You might be thinking, a singer.

Oh, let me tell you, Oh, let me tell you how social

media can influence. Several times when I was a youth pastor, I would

watch these kids go from having their own group of friends in the church and

they're so plugged in. Then they fall in love with this one musician and

the next thing you know is they're listening to this musician day and night.

Then they take another step. They start dressing like that musician. Okay,

they do that for a while, and then they get into a group of

friends that like that singer just as much as they do. And then the

next thing you know, they're following, well, the morality of that singer.

So if that singer believes this or this or this, they will let

go of their Christian values and whatever the Bible says they're gonna say, well,

such or such believes this, so I'm with them, and I will

and I watch this multiple times. Where they would go from I got a

good Christian group of friends, I believe the Bible. But then they fall

in love. They become obsessed with a singer, and then they start dressing

like a singer. They start hanging out with people who like the singer,

and now they have the morality of that singer. Don't tell me that that's

not an idol. Don't tell me it's not an idol. And don't tell

me I haven't been in somebody's house that has just a little too much Elvis

memborabilion, a little too many Elvis commemorative plates in their house. But it

can happen that quick. Also, as you know that a concept can become

a god or an idle in our life, like happiness. Are you willing

to do anything to be happy or power? Some people are willing to betray

everything to get into power. Some people beauty. Beauty means everything to them

and that becomes the top goal in their life. Our popularity or control,

or a promotion or even romance, our marriage can become an idle. I

never believe that romance and having a partner could become an idle on someone's life.

I have this longtime old friend and I have watched them over the years

become absolutely obsessed with romance, absolutely obsessed with romance. Three or four times

a day on Facebook. They will talk about the man that they want.

They will talk about craving, affection and romance, and they will post three

or four times a day, and then on top of that what type of

man they want. On top of that, they will post at least two

pictures a day of themselves and the best position. You know what the best

position is. It's right above your head, so it doesn't show any double

chins. Like this picture you're about racing behind you, you know, no

double chin. Little balding, but no double chin, So you can take

that off. It's hurting people's eyes. But this person will post about any

potential suitor, and if that person loves them or likes them at first,

they're they're like divinity. If that person doesn't like them, they're like the

devil and they get trashed like crazy. And this has been going on for

years. And see her idol is the concept of a partner are romance,

and nothing in her life is good unless she has that, and everything in

her life is bad when she does not have that. And by the way,

she's a Christian. So about every third or fourth week, God gets

one little prop on Facebook. But clearly concepts can become our God. Next

a thing. A thing can become an idol, like money or a fancy

house, hobbies. We won't get into that today. Okay, we talk

about that enough during the year. But anyways, possessions, cars, an

idol, is an unhealthy addictionist is something that you look for security, identity,

purpose, and you look for fulfillment and that rather than God. See,

originally the people they just wanted gods that would provide for them crops or

gods who would protect them from war. But then all of a sudden they

start following, well, our gods are even more subtle than that today,

like the God of materialisms that I mentioned earlier. So you might be wondering,

Okay, if a person, concept or thing has creeped into the top

spot of my life, how do I know that I'm struggling with some false

gods or some idols of my life. I want to give you four signs

of idolatry? Number one? Does it cost desperation in your life? Whatever

you're chasing, does it cost desperation in your life? Is there anything in

your life that you would save this too. I have to have this thing

in my life or my life is worthless. So if I don't have this

type of career, my life is worthless. If I lose this talent,

If I lose this status, this reputation, my social circle, if I

lose my money, is your life worthless? In your mind? Number two?

Is there an extreme fear of losing this idol? And that's where we

have to look at. Is your husband or your spouse or your wife,

your child, your beauty, your house, your money, if you lost

those things. I've heard people say if I lost this or I lost that,

I wouldn't even want to live, you know what. And that sounded

absolutely insane to me until I had a daughter. And you know, when

you're alone and you think weird thoughts as he might here ever have think weird

thoughts that you would never want everyone to know. This is my life.

I have to let you know. I used to have these weird thoughts.

I was so crazy about Caitlin when she was growing up. I'd bring her

gifts almost every single day from home, and I used to have these weird

thoughts. Man, if something ever happened to her, I wouldn't even want

to live. I wouldn't even want to live. And that's a weird,

weird thought now that I think back on it. And I remember one day

being in a sanctuary at my old church Crossroads and I was having this conversation

with God and I said, God, I'm gonna be very honest with you.

I don't know how this happened, but I think I love my daughter

more than I love you. And that's a weird thing to go through.

But sometimes we can love the gift that God has given us more than the

giver. And I said, God, I think I might love my daughter

more than I love you. And then she hit junior high and somehow the

Lord took care of that. It's a miracle. But the point is I

know this. I will never allow another person. I'll never allow my happiness

to depend on another person. But these are things that can easily creep into

our life. Last number three, are you willing to do anything, including

sin, to get or keep an idle? And this is where people will

cheat on their taxes, or they'll lie, or they will be shady and

their business deals. This is where people might even lie to their spouse just

so they can keep everything that they want. Fourth, does the absence of

this thing cause depression? If you did not have these things in your life,

are this certain thing, concept, or person in your life, would

it bring about deep depression? If that's true, this might be causing some

conflict in your life. So here's what we're gonna do today. If we're

gonna have someone come out, and we're just gonna go into a time of

discernment because I have a high belief that God speaks to us because we're His

children, and I believe He wants to speak to you right now. And

so what we're gonna do is we're gonna go into a moment of discernment.

And what we're gonna do is we're just gonna simply ask God, God,

is there anything in my life right now competing for the top spot, and

just let Him speak to you, and then I will lead you through the

next part. So let's just take some time, Let's close our eyes,

and let's ask God to honestly speak to our hearts. Today, and as

we continue in this moment of prayer and discernment, I just want to remind

us of a little story in the Old Testament. Earlier I mentioned that the

world was full of idols. But then God separated Abraham and he says,

I am the Lord God, I am one, and he was going to

start a great nation out of Abraham. But before God could bless the world

through Abraham, God had to rid Abraham of all of his idols. See,

Abraham didn't have idols that he carved. Abraham had a son that was

born to him after ninety some years of wanting a son. And God knew

that Isaac, Abraham's son, possibly had the top spot in Abraham's life.

And so one day God asked Abraham to choose between God or his son,

and Abraham choose to lay his Isaac down. And that's a famous phrase we

have nowadays of laying now something that competes for our love for God. So

what I'm gonna do right now is I'm going to ask you if the Lord

revealed anything to you about what's competing in your life for top spot. I

want you to lay your Isaac down right now and hand that over to the

Florida and ask him to take the top spot. Let's go ahead and just

take some time, all right, m God, we trust that you are

at work in our hearts today, for we know that our hearts are a

factory that produces idols. But Lord help us today to allow you to reclaim

the top spot in our life. And God, we want you to stay

there. So we humble ourselves before you and thank you for your grace,

thank you for your mercy, and thank you for showing us in love and

in tenderness in Jesus name. Amen. One of the things we like to

do about once a month here is we want to remind you that you are

first and foremost a child of God. You are his sons and you are

his daughters, and He loves you and he cares for you. And so

one of the ways we do that is we open up this time where we

have three or four prayer partners come up. So if the prayer partners want

to go ahead, come up, and we just offer up a time where

we just want to minister to you and pray for you and just ask God

to meet that need that you have in your life. So here's what we're

going to do in a moment, we're going to stand up, and then

those of you who would like to be prayed for, you're going to make

your way around to the censor aisle and then we'll direct you to a prayer

partner. But if you have you know something that a medical issue, or

it's maybe someone that you want to see come to Christ. Or maybe it's

a problem marriage, maybe it's a career issue, maybe it's a work issue.

Whatever it is, we want to partner with you and declare victory over

these things and ask God to enter me. And so we would encourage you.

Now, let us stand and in humility, let us come before the

Father and allow him to minister to So let us come forward and pray