Why Is Everything So Disappointing? | The Road Up 8

Hey, what up?

It's Mark Carter.

I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

So when I was in fourth grade, I took on the trumpet, talked my parents into giving getting me a trumpet.

I took on the trumpet, talked my parents into getting me a trumpet, and it was the first time in my life where I ever gave myself over to feigned devotion.

Okay, I couldn't have articulated that at that point, but that was where I began to kind of pretend I was into it, but I wasn't really into it.

I would go to my teacher every week, mr Grossberg, and I would say, hey, I'm ready to play my little tune that I was supposed to play, and I would play it, and it would be horrible, just like the last week.

But I was pretending like I don't know what's wrong with this thing.

I feel like I'm doing the right stuff.

Of course, I practiced the night before and then go in and nothing changed.

I hadn't developed any discipline yet, and so all I could do was feign devotion.

That was my first experience with that.

There's an infamous, not kind of American, not really American who is known for feigned devotion.

That is Benedict Arnold.

Most of us know about this guy.

You see his picture on the screen.

Everybody just whispered traitor.

Yeah, he was the most infamous American traitor.

So he started out pretty good at the Battle of Saratoga.

He kind of distinguished himself.

He was pivotal in the winning of that battle, and over the years, though, his superiors didn't really appreciate him enough as much as he thought they should, and so he began to have secret talks in 1780 with the British, and they promised him money and they promised him position, and he was supposed to betray West Point and give it into the hands of the British.

Well, that didn't come to fruition, and now he is infamously known as the most treacherous American probably that we've ever heard of.

You guys know about that.

He had feigned devotion.

We're going to talk a little bit about feigned devotion today.

We're going to talk about why is everything so disappointing, why is everything in our life not seem to?

Even when it's good for a minute, for a little while, it doesn't seem to stay good.

We've been in this series called the Road Up, and we're kind of coming to the end.

Now we're getting to the place where they've kind of made their journey.

Okay, the Israelites, they're coming to the summit, the summit of Mount Sinai.

This is where they're going to hear the 10 commandments.

This is what Moses sent.

This is what God sent Moses to do is to get them and bring them back to this mountain, and now he's going to tell them the deal.

He's going to give them the relational pitch, he's going to give them the possible covenant that he wants them to accept.

Now, god's concern, though, is that they're going to maybe feign devotion.

There's a lot of gods in their time, a lot of folks that people were kind of like well, we better pay attention to this.

You know the God of the rain over here, and the God of the countryside, and the God of the ocean, and the God of that nation, and you just never knew which God you might disappoint and which one you might please, and so they just kind of like ran the gamut Everybody had lots of gods.

Hey, man, let's just make sure everybody's okay.

And God is going to throw it on the gauntlet, and he's going to say I want you to have one God, I want an exclusivity.

I want you to be only mine, and it's easy to feign devotion, like you feign devotion to all these other gods you don't really care about.

God says but don't forget, I'm the one, I'm the one who rescued you, I'm the one who pulled you out of slavery.

I'm the one who brought you to myself, and my whole game in doing that was I was trying to woo you, I was trying to get you to be exclusively mine, and that's what he's going to pitch to them today.

He's like I'm the one who got you out of all that trouble.

I'm the one who wants you to make a commitment to me.

I don't want you committed to all these other little false gods.

In 1998, probably I brought Kenziezie out.

We were up at Lake Superior.

I brought her out in the morning as the sun rose and I said Kenzie, will you marry me now?

If she would have said, whoa, slow the flow, bro.

If she would have said you know, I think you're nice, but there's a lot of guys coming around in the years ahead and I just want to keep my options open.

So how about this?

How about like I'll just, I'll keep you on the line, you'll stay in the cell phone.

You know how about if, like, when I have trouble with the wifi, I'm calling you and we can hang out, and like you'll just be one of the guys who was around.

How about that?

I would have said, kenzie dear, that is not what I asked.

I did not ask to be one of them, I asked to be the exclusive one that you turn down everybody else for the rest of your life.

For that's a little bit what God is doing.

In fact, this language in the 10 commandments, it's contractual language.

He's saying hey, this is the deal, this is the proposal I'm making, and the first thing that I want to do is I want to ensure that you are mine.

So here it goes.

Exodus 20, verse 1.

Exodus 20:1

Then God spoke all these words saying I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or earth beneath, or water under the earth.

See, people had all kinds of little chess piece gods that represented all these different things he says.

Don't even make any.

Don't do it.

Even if it's about me, don't do it, because it can't adequately represent me at all.

You might think that that little cow represents, you know, some kind of like Egyptian God.

Anything you could create is something that I made and somehow diminishes my glory if you try to think I'm that thing, that thing is less than me.

So don't even make anything, because y'all ain't got anything like me.

I am unique and I want a unique relationship.

Verse five says you shall not worship them or serve them, for I, yahweh, your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

Let's deal with that real quick because I don't want to distract you for the rest of the message.

He visits iniquity on the fathers of the children to the third and fourth generation.

Okay, so there's really there's passive judgment of God and then there's more active judgment of God, and this is just who God is.

He's presenting to them.

I just want you to know if you're going to marry me.

Here's who I am.

I need you to know this.

The passive is something that we're probably all used to a little bit.

It is the judgment that comes with sin.

Sin is its own judgment on some levels, like sin has its pleasure for a day, but then it results in a lot of pain.

And he says your families are going to experience this to the third and fourth generation If you give yourselves and often in that time there could be three or four generations in one household and so if someone gives themselves to certain types of sin, that's gonna bleed onto everybody and hurt everybody.

And that happens today.

You see this, okay, if one person in the family is addicted to alcohol, that's going to bleed into other people.

If one person's family is so addicted to lust that incest becomes a part of the deal, well that's affecting everybody.

If someone has such a spirit of anger that they'll just like, they'll throw a couch and nobody thinks that's a big deal, well that's bleeding into the violent nature of the entire family for a couple generations to come, and not even just the folks in the house, it's probably their kids and maybe even their kids.

So that passive judgment on sin just trickles down and the warning there is so you don't want this on your kids, so don't do it Like, keep it out of your family.

But there's also another, more active version, and we see this so clearly.

When God eventually, years from now, in fact 820 years from this moment God is going to finally be fed up.

He's going to say guys, I gave you the deal, I gave you my heart.

I wanted you to do this my way.

We made the covenant and you were going to obey me, but I promised you that I'd be so sweet to you for a thousand generations.

But after a time you guys have so ignored me and so disregarded my commands.

In fact, it's only like a hundred to 200 years that they followed God at all, really, in that entire 820 years.

And God says I'm done, I'm kicking you out of the land and letting your enemies come in and take you over because you have hated me, and so I'm bringing my judgment on you Now.

What's so trippy?

They were gone 70 years.

70 years is between three and four generations.

Come on, somebody.

That's on purpose.

Even them being punished was only 70 years compared to 820.

God's kindness is never ending, my friends, but God does warn them and he warns us.

The New Testament is more clear about this, in the fatherhood kind of a way to sons and daughters, saying there will come a point where I'm going to bring my loving discipline on you to train you to be more representative of Jesus Christ.

That's true, but it's always done in kindness, it's always done in tenderness.

But he wants these people to know for the future guys, if you keep betraying me as a nation, yes, it's true, I will eventually let Nebuchadnezzar come in and take you over and cart you guys off to another land.

But even then I'll bring you back because I'm so doggone awesome.

You can find out about that in the book of Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations, all that kind of stuff.

But here's what we're talking about today but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commands.

Because God is a jealous God.

We must downgrade his competition.

God's a jealous God.

What that means is we've got to downgrade his competition in our lives.

We've got to take a look around our lives and say what competes with him.

Let me downgrade that, because he's going to get jealous if I don't.

God is a jealous God, for I, yahweh, your God, am a jealous God.

What does that mean?

And why does God get to be jealous?

Anybody wondering that?

Like, isn't that a sin.

How come we can't be jealous, but he can be jealous?

That feels a little off, right?

I mean, paul tells people in Romans and 1 Corinthians don't be jealous.

It's messing you up, it's hurting you, don't be jealous.

So why does God get to be jealous?

Well, here's really the reason God can be jealous because he's the only one who can be jealous and still love perfectly.

Jealousy has a negative impact on us.

Jealousy is the rightful desire to be exclusively belonging and the other one belonging to you.

That's true, but when it comes to us, when we allow jealousy into our hearts, it slowly turns into hate, it slowly builds resentment.

I can love you so much that I'm starting to hate you for how much you're hurting me.

God, uniquely, god, only has the power to love others and yet still always protect them, always be nurturing them, always be having their back, always be willing to forgive them.

He can love them without hating them.

That's why God can be jealous.

Plus, god is like the most important thing.

Okay, think about it this way we might all decide, as citizens of earth, to say son, you're done, man, we've had it with your bananas, we're going with the moon.

The moon is our guy now.

We're all about the moon.

Get out of here, sun.

The sun would be jealous, maybe, but it would also be like this is really, really dumb.

Guys, in eight minutes and 20 seconds, if I go out, all your lights are gone, except for the artificial stuff.

And even then, according to chat GPT, after only one week it's going to be negative 18 on the surface of the earth.

All the plants are going to die, which means all the animals are going to die, which means y'all going to be eating one another as you live underground until the last person has eaten the son's.

Like that's a really bad idea.

You can't live without me.

It's dumb to think you can live without me.

And God says whatever the idol is, whatever it is you're serving instead of me, whatever makes me jealous, it's dumb because you can't live without me.

I should be at the center, just like the sun should be at the center of our solar system.

Are we hearing this Jealousy though, man?

It has a negative effect on us.

Think about King Saul for a second.

Some of you know his story.

If you don't, that's okay, just roll with me.

King Saul, dude, he was kind of a psychopath before David.

You know he wasn't a great character.

But then for David, you know he wasn't.

He wasn't great character.

But then David shows up and people start comparing David to Saul and this dude goes insane.

Like he just his character, just nosedives man he's.

He's throwing spears at people.

He just becomes murderous.

Why?

Because jealousy has a warping effect on us.

So God doesn't want us to be jealous, but he wants us to know there is a godly jealousy.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 11 too I'm jealous for you.

He's talking to the Corinthians.

He says I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

He says I'm jealous on behalf of God.

I feel God's jealousy is another way to say it for you.

You're supposed to be belonging only to Jesus and you're giving yourself to these other little mini idols.

Here's a way that we could we could define godly jealousy.

It's an other centric desire for exclusive devotion, without hate or resentment, knowing that the jealous party genuinely is the best possible thing for the other party.

Yeah, that's what Jesus is.

He's the best possible thing for the other party.

Yeah, that's what Jesus is.

He's the best possible thing, no matter what other thing we can come up with.

And he says I want exclusivity.

The reason I can say I'm jealous is because I want exclusivity with you and my jealousy is never wrong, even though yours can be wrong.

I am exclusive, god says, and I won't share.

That's my deal.

Lots of folks I mean this is maybe the most common version of pseudo-religion here in America there's a sense of like I kind of believe in God.

Yeah, there's some kind of God, and if this is where you are, this is totally great.

I'm not dissing it, okay, but that's kind of the general like and I think God's supposed to help me.

And so you know, when I'm in trouble, I'll look up to him a little bit and hopefully he'll come through.

And for some of us, if he doesn't, I'm like who's that guy?

Forget him, he was.

She should have come through for me.

And as we look at God's deal here in the first six verses of the 10 commandments, that's not a deal he makes at all.

He's not like yeah, I'm just going to help you, no matter what, whatever he says.

Here's my deal.

Like, this is going to blow all of your paradigms out of the water.

My deal is you are exclusively mine, like I want to marry you and it's only us.

Every other God that comes into your life, you subjugate that thing, man.

You make that thing get on its knees and it worships alongside of you me.

Can somebody say amen?

Because you're going to get poisoned if you give yourself to jealousy?

But God is not.

See, god's love stays love even when it's challenged.

God's love stays love even when it's challenged.

That's why you don't have to worry that God's all mad at you.

That's why you can be like.

You can be faith confused right now, that's okay.

Wherever you are, man, just start looking at Jesus.

Now it's okay to like you're not at the place you were once upon a time.

That's totally cool, because God's love will stay love, no matter what happens to you, no matter what you do, no matter how you defy him, no matter how you turn your back on him.

At this stage, while you're still breathing.

His love stays love.

He's always open.

Now the thing about God's love, though.

See, if it's real love, it can always forgive, but it's never okay with challengers remaining.

It's never okay with sin remaining.

It's never okay with idols remaining.

We just talked about my sweet girl, emily.

You know, dude, like, if she gets a little better, I'm not okay yet, I'm not satisfied.

Yet If she's still hurt, I'm like let's go, come on, we're going to get better now.

We're going all the way better.

We're not getting a little better, we're getting all the way better.

Well, we've all got the sin disease and we've all got the idol disease.

And God says it's not that I want you to just only have three or four.

I forgive you for everything, but we're slowly getting rid of all these idols.

I'm never satisfied until they're all gone.

Can somebody say amen?

Why?

Because he's a good father.

That's why and see, cs Lewis uses this illustration, so I'm stealing it from him but we're way more comfortable with a heavenly grandfather than a heavenly father.

You know what grandfather?

You've grandpas.

You know what this is like.

The grandpas really don't have any responsibility, so all they can, all they have to do, is keep the kid happy for a couple more hours, like that's it.

I give them ice cream and more sugar and whatever they want, cause they going home soon and they're the parent's problem.

We want a heavenly grandfather, that's just.

Hey, man, I'm okay with whatever you choose and whatever you're down with, and that's just fine, okay, but that's not a good father.

A good father cares about what you're about to do.

A good father cares about who you're becoming.

A good father is willing to give you a little bit of discomfort so that you become the right kind of a person.

A good father does care what kind of decisions you make, because they care who you're even representing him to be to the rest of the world.

The heavenly father cares about that.

So can we just contemplate as we go into the next part of this message?

God does get jealous of our actual things Like.

There's things in your life and in my life that God experiences the emotion of jealousy and his love stays love, but he's never satisfied with that thing staying in.

Now the mature need to hear this with no condemnation attached to it.

Okay, because it's easier for many of us, I think, especially here in the North, to just over feel guilt about stuff and we need to let that go.

We're going to give some good scripture that is going to challenge you, but don't receive it as heavy condemnation.

Hear it rather as a loving challenge of a good father that does get jealous, but his love stays love.

Somebody say his love stays love.

These idols.

You shall not make for yourself an idol.

All kinds of idols.

They had man, but we got all kinds of idols too.

They're just not little game pieces.

We've got sex idols, and work idols, and health idols, and environment idols, and money idols and national idols and all kinds of things that we say this is the ultimate, this is my steering wheel, this is my rudder.

This is how I know if this thing's okay, then I'm okay, and if this thing isn't more and more and more, then I'm not okay, because this is my little God.

Idols do whatever else they are of their worship.

They're saying I need this for my life to have meaning.

I need this for my life to be joyous.

Some ways that you can tell what some of your idols are.

I'm not the Holy Spirit.

I'm not putting this in you.

I'm just just reflect on it, just think about it.

The things that you daydream all the time about, that's a good candidate to be an idol.

If you can't get this thing out of your mind, I must have that Possible.

That's an idol.

On the flip side, the things that you have nightmares about, the things, the things that like, if this happens, oh man, that's my.

That's the worst possible scenario for me.

That's possible, that that is an idol too.

We're going to talk about that.

Some of our isms I think isms is often a translation for idol Okay, so my workaholism, that means my work idol, right?

My pessimism, that's really an idol of my own wisdom, forecasting that everything's going to go wrong.

I'm right, everything's going to go wrong because I'm worshiping my own intellect and my own understanding of the world and it's all just going to go wrong.

That's why I'm worshiping myself and, worst of all, in the context of this passage, worshiping idols is spiritual adultery.

Worshiping idols is spiritual adultery.

God says you're cohabitating with other lovers.

That I see as a threat, even if you don't see, and that's just not the deal that I want.

So we're talking about some idols and I want you to see that every one of these things in fact most of them they're a good thing.

Taken too far, that's what a lot of our idols are, and that's why they're hard to tell Because, well, this is kind of good.

Yeah, it is kind of good.

It just should never be ultimate.

And when we make it ultimate, we ask for disappointment, because every one of our little gods cannot actually be big God, even though they make promises like that and they're going to lead us to disappointment.

We'll see what I'm talking about here in a second.

So there's personal idols.

There's just idols that you might have just for you personally.

For some it's a romantic relationship.

Again, that's a good thing, but if it becomes the ultimate thing, every time you don't get that, you're disappointed.

Well, now life is disappointing because I didn't have that one thing.

That was actually because you made it that ultimate thing.

That's why you're experiencing so much depression that you don't have it.

Or maybe your whole idol is I've just got to make sure that my kids are successful, like I've got to set them up the right way and whatever their choices they make, I'm going to rearrange that and get them in the right place, and that's just an idol of your kid's success.

Maybe for some of us you got tradition idols.

Traditions can be a good thing, but for you they become for some reason they're sacrosanct somehow, like they are the ultimate thing.

And the danger with tradition idols is they sometimes compete with God and we choose their tradition because, well, this is how we've always done it.

And God says I'm alive now, today, let's do my thing, because I'm God, not your little tradition, god idol.

Obviously money, obviously the pursuit of power, but career advancement, meaning, how are we making the decision?

Is the question what do I put first when there's an option there?

If the question is always what benefits my career?

I'm not saying you shouldn't try to benefit your career, of course you should.

But if that's the leading question, then it's the wrong question, because the right question is well, if God's first and that thing is second, what does God want me to do?

And it is very possible that God could lead me in an entirely different way.

It's very possible that God might say I don't really want you to make that much money, I want you to make this much money.

Or I want you to make this much money, I want you to give this amount away.

We don't know.

God's vision for your life is not the American dream, just FYI, everybody.

Okay, like I've made you on purpose, for a purpose here, and it wasn't just to like live happily ever after.

You're going to live happily ever after if you stay connected to Jesus.

But here you have a mission, here you have a purpose, and he wants us to align ourselves with that purpose, and that means we're always asking questions about what's the best job or how do I want to position myself socially?

Okay, bring that up to Jesus.

But don't make that the leading thing, because that means it's an idol For some of us.

It's less personal, it's more cultural.

I have cultural idols.

You can tell if you have a cultural idol if you kind of subconsciously at least, think well, if it all goes south, this'll save us, this'll have our backs.

Okay, I love the military.

I'm super applaud, always applauding the military.

The military won us some wars, dude Like praise God.

I love the military.

But if the us some wars, dude Like praise God.

I love the military.

But if the military is like, whatever goes wrong, we need the military more and more and more and more and more the military, everything, honey, god, don't care about your military If it starts to oppose him like it don't matter, it's not going to win Like God wants our faith in God.

What about our tech?

Well, we, it's not going to win like god wants his our faith in god.

What about our tech?

Well, we're just going to keep getting tech.

And to my tech, you know robot appendages and you know we'll just kind of fix everything.

You know, whatever goes wrong, just put a chip in and it's all better.

Not that anyone necessarily really thinks that, but if we're always thinking well, tech will solve the problem.

No, god might use tech to solve the problem, but but God is the one that is first, not the tech.

Come on somebody Sorry, elon, what about?

I mean for some of us a little closer to home, what about?

As long as I have more and more property, I'm good.

As long as my investments keep going good, I'm good.

And that's really how I'm thinking about the next five, ten years.

I've got to think about how this is going to go.

Hey, man, think about it.

Think about it.

Yes, that's fine, but think about Jesus first.

God, this is your tool that you might want to steward through me.

What do you want me to do with it?

Like you're my God, I don it.

Pretty soon.

Pretty soon I'm dead.

So it ain't coming with.

What do you want me to do with it?

That's what is most helpful to you.

So what car I'm just going to give to my kids?

Hey, man, give hope.

Yeah, good, give some to your kids.

But God might know your kids will jack it up anyway.

So give it somewhere else too.

You know what I'm saying?

What will save us?

Jesus, that's it.

That's it.

That's it, that's it.

Put Jesus first.

That's it.

Subjugate it.

What about intellectual idols?

This is like ideologies.

This is how I think about the world.

This is right.

If everyone would just get on the same page about this thing, we'd be just fine.

Some of us might.

You might be tempted to think from time to time.

You might be tempted to think in the next several months, if everyone would just get on my side and we get the right people in there, everything would be fine.

Do you know history at all?

No, the problem is there'll still be humans.

Okay, the humans aren't going to solve it, and there's certain dramatic good can come from who's in office and what the laws are, absolutely.

But if that's our, this will save us.

Guys, we just got to.

God gets jealous.

When we're like we just got to get this to happen, god gets jealous.

He's like what?

You just need me, you need me and I can make some of that happen.

So why don't you come to me Again?

Guys, hear it rightly, I'm not dissing any of it.

We're looking at our hearts, we're probing our hearts.

You know what you actually think?

I don't know, but for some of us might get God jealous from time to time.

For some of us it's just intellectual, it's education.

As long as I've got my education and it keeps going further and further, then we're all good.

For some of us it's human reason itself.

Human reason is the ultimate thing, which is why sometimes it's hard for folks who have that as their ultimate to sometimes think about supernatural stuff and the idea that Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead.

And the problem is that that version of human reason you've deified that thing and forgotten that there's really smart people already that know way more than you that when they explain something, you're like I don't get it.

Man, whoa, that's too hard for me.

Someone sits you down on your sofa and like let's talk about string theory, and they walk you through it.

Now they're using human reasoning, but you're just like I don't get it.

Well, there's a whole bunch of stuff beyond human reason that's just higher, because God says my ways are higher than yours, dude, it does make sense.

You just don't have the hard way to understand it.

So human reason is a false God.

That's why we have to trust in Jesus Christ and what he says is true, whether or not I currently, in my current form, understand it.

Well, somebody For some it might just be hey, I just need things to not change.

Okay, can we just have things not change?

And I hear that you might have been hurt from change.

Something went wrong because things changed and you got hurt, and so now you're like I don't want that to happen.

Okay, yeah, but God moves man.

God changes stuff.

God keeps us dependent on relationship, not on just how we've arranged it.

I'll tell you one thing for sure it's going to change.

Stuff is going to change in your life.

Soon it's going to change, just like it's changed and then changed, and then changed and then changed.

It's going to change again because God wants us to say I don't need it to stay this way.

I need Jesus in every season, all day long, to stay this way.

I need Jesus in every season all day long.

I feel like there's a section of this church right now that's really giving me some amens, and maybe you guys are just really contemplative, maybe you're just like man.

That's a really good point.

I'm thinking about that Now.

I don't want to force you to do anything, but I'm just saying they're beating you.

So you know I don't want you to make a God out of winning, but they're doing it so far.

So what do we got to do?

We got to downgrade the competition.

We got to downgrade God's competition.

You shall not have other gods before me.

How do we subjugate these?

And every time we subjugate one, that thing is more safe.

That thing is more safe because now we're not worshiping it.

Now God doesn't have a problem with it, necessarily because we've taken its power to disappoint us away.

So I'm going to give you three, just little.

They're real quick, real quick hits.

These can help us evaluate some of our idols.

Here we go.

We need to move from I want to be entertained to I want to be edified.

We need to move from I want to be entertained, entertained to I want to be edified.

We need to move from I want to be entertained to I want to be edified.

Entertainment man, that's a big idol in this generation.

We just always need our entertainment.

I hope this is mine.

We just always need our entertainment and we're not thinking necessarily through I need to be edified.

Edified means I need to be strengthened, I need to be more ready for what's going on, and edification sometimes requires discipline to choose, not entertainment so that I can be edified.

What was my problem with the trumpet?

I had no discipline.

I couldn't get good in the week in between because I had no discipline.

I wasn't strengthening myself because whatever else I was doing, I was doing that.

And folks, there's a danger and it opens the door to all kinds of idolatries when I am looking at my schedule and say, well, I'm just going to stay open, I just want all my options all the time.

So I hear that I could go do that thing.

I could go to the Grove or I could go to that summer supper, I could go spend some time at God's Word right now.

I could do that.

But I want to leave all my options open.

So at the last minute, if something better comes up, better comes up.

That's more entertaining.

I might just do that, and what that's going to lead to is a life that's going in circles.

That never gets stronger.

It's well distracted, that's for sure.

Great.

You probably saw some great shows, but you never got any stronger.

It never moved forward.

So let's get a real, practical example.

You've set aside some time.

You're going to pray, man.

You got 10 minutes before you get in the shower.

I'm going to take this time to time.

You're going to pray, man, you've got 10 minutes before you get in the shower.

I'm going to take this time to pray.

I'm going to set the day right with Jesus.

Get in his word, read a little bit, bust open the Bible app.

Me and Jesus are going to get tight.

Maybe it's 10 minutes, maybe it's 20 minutes, maybe it's 30 minutes.

Whatever, it is right.

As you go to man, if I don't get two of those, they're going to be mad at me today.

They probably don't care at all, they probably don't remember.

But the enemy's telling you you better do that right now, or you've got the presentation ready for 9 am, but it could use 20 more minutes of just tweaking.

Yeah, you could do that, you totally could do that.

And what you'd miss is the practice.

You'd miss the discipline of getting stronger, so that a week from now you are stronger and you can represent better and you look a little shinier because you spent more time in the presence of the shiny one.

Come on, somebody say Jesus.

So that's one option.

Here's number two, so I can move from I want to be entertained to I want to be edified.

That's just a shift we got to make in our hearts.

It's number two, so I can move from I want to be entertained to I want to be edified.

That's just a shift we got to make in our hearts.

It's not that we don't do entertainment, it's just that we think through.

Yeah, but I got to prioritize being edified.

Number two is I move from I am the center of the story to I am a servant character in other people's stories.

I'm the center of the story to.

I'm a servant character in other people's stories.

Guys, this is the idol of self-importance, this is the idol of significance, meaning it's okay if it's about you for a little while, but it's ultimately got to be about me.

We got to bring it back to me.

It's got to benefit me At all costs.

We got to get my thing instead of really my focus being at all costs.

I can help other people get their thing.

I can just be a side character in somebody else's story and that can be the point of the entire day.

Like I can just not take inventory of how this helps me.

I can forget about my fitness for a second, for a day, for a couple hours.

I can forget about my hobby.

For a little while, I can forget about sports, because if I do, it's going to help me do this for that person.

It'll help them feel like God cares about their story, and so do I.

I don't have to be necessarily flawless as the center of the universe.

I can just not worry about that for a little while so I can be who the people around me need me to be to them.

So let me ask you this question Right now the people in your life who do they need you to be for them, and it would improve their deal.

Who do they need you to be?

For some, they just might need you to be for them, and it would improve their deal.

Who do they need you to be?

For some, they just might need you to be.

I just need you to be the guy who listens.

Just be a compassionate consultant in my life.

Don't share a bunch of stuff with me.

I actually need to process some stuff out loud and you're just gonna say, well, I want to do my thing and I want to tell you about it.

No, forget all that.

I'm going to make you the point of what we're doing right now.

I don't need to say nothing.

I just need to make you feel loved and special and seen.

Maybe for some, really what they need to do is less clowning and be a more dutiful employee, like that would make it about them instead of about you.

What about some of us?

Maybe we need to be able to actually share our pain.

Maybe you're like I'm the helper of everybody, but what people really need is I just share how hard this has been for you.

Otherwise, I'm just going to feel like I'm your project.

I just need you to like, actually be a real person that's vulnerable with me.

That's what I need right now.

Think about the people in your life.

You can't meet everybody's needs, but who is God asking you to be to that person?

It's a character in their life rather than the central thing going on in your life.

Who can I just be?

That it's not about me.

And then number three move from I want it easier and faster to I want to be rewarded when it's permanent.

Ie heaven, I want it easier and faster.

Oh my gosh, this is a cultural God.

I want it easier and faster.

I want you to shift to.

I want to be rewarded when it's permanent.

We got this God of ease, this God of like hey, man, let me just rest, let's all take it easy.

There's no rush.

Hey, slow it down.

Man, let's just all.

Everybody keep calm, don't disturb anybody.

You don't have to do it today.

You can probably just do it tomorrow.

Just keep pushing it off, just keep procrastinating.

That's just fine.

Hey, you know what?

Probably the time is not quite right, or even if it is, it might be a little righter tomorrow.

So let's just wait till then.

How many got procrastination idols that speak to them quite frequently?

Listen to this Ecclesiastes 11.6.

Be sure to stay busy.

Plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow.

Perhaps they all will Be sure to stay busy.

Be sure to stay after it.

Be sure to keep doing stuff.

Don't just, like, always want this God of oh, I just want to just go push the snooze button again.

Hey, baby, for some of us you need to rest more.

You absolutely do.

But there's times when, all right, get back in the game, dude.

There's people that need help.

So I'm on middle a little bit.

There might be some.

Like you know, I could stay after, I could stay after church and help people for half an hour, or I could not serve and just get home, save 27 minutes every weekend, and that sounds like a good deal at first, until you realize the results, when that's all tallied up, okay, when you stand before the king of heaven and he's like, wow, you're going to be accruing reward on this this whole time, all those hours.

But now, well, yeah, you had your 27 minutes.

Good, I hope.

I don't know what you did.

Hope was good Because you could have had something that lasted forever.

You could have had something eternal and it would have hurt your flesh for a minute.

But that 27 minutes is over pretty quick, yo, what are we valuing here?

It might be that your reward would be if you don't just push through that stop that God is putting in your way.

Is this for anybody?

You just don't have peace about the decision.

You just don't.

Everyone thinks it's a good idea.

You think it's a good idea.

You can talk yourself into it, and the spirit of God is saying don't.

And he won't tell you why and he won't tell you how.

Just don't, just leave it, just leave it alone.

And if you leave it alone, your reward in heaven will be different, because he knows what that leads to and what that leads to and what that leads to, and what that leads to, what doors it opens and how it really does give you the desires of your heart, because you said no to impatience and said yes to Jesus.

And that's not for everybody all the time, but maybe it's for somebody Because you're thinking about what's eternal instead of what's now.

Here's what Jesus wants us to do.

What do we do about this?

We make a very holy trade.

Here's the great news.

You and I do not have to do this perfect, you don't have to like okay, never have idols again.

That's not going to happen, because we can't even always discern them.

What we do need to do is, as they bubble to the surface, we need to hand them off.

This is what Jesus says.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me.

Whoever wants to save their life, whoever wants to save their little idols, whoever wants to save their life, whoever wants to save their little idols, will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Jesus is such a good friend.

He says okay, these are going to like hurt you, they're going to disappoint you, they're not really going to give you the success or the feels that you want.

Bring them to me, trade them in and I'll give you me.

I'll give you more life.

Let me rule over how you interact with that thing and subjugate it, because I will not have rivals, but I'll give you life to the full.

I'll make your life way better than that stupid thing can, because I made your soul and I know what it likes and I know what it needs.

So what I want to do as we end this worship experience is, as we go into this worship time, or maybe even after, if he puts his finger on some, bring them to Jesus now.

Just bring them to him.

You don't have to know what to do with it, he knows.

Just say I give you permission, jesus, to mess with this.

Here's my idol.

Will you take it from me and then give me your life to the full?

Instead, you can do that down front, here as we go into worship and want to come down and pray.

You can do it at your seat, you can do it with somebody.

Maybe after church you're just in the hallway and be like hey, will you pray with me Because this thing came up and I just need to confess it to somebody.

I don't know what it is, but I know all your loves are safest in the hands of the one who loves you most.

Let's bow our heads, lord.

I thank you that you're not trying to steal from us.

You're trying to give us something we want to acknowledge.

There are definitely places that we have prioritized the wrong things.

We've put you second or third or eighth, and we need your help, holy Spirit of Jesus, to put you first.

We want that deal that you're giving everybody.

We want you to be the exclusive one if you'll teach us how to do it.

Here are our false, small, sometimes very much lying gods.

We don't want them.

We want to trade them in for you In Jesus' name, amen.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

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