Uncovering What Truly Rules Our Lives

Oh man, crossing family. I am so glad to be with you

today. I just have to say this on the

front end. My heart is incredibly full. 25

years ago, my best friend in high school, I would start

periodically praying for him to have a relationship with Jesus

Christ and those prayers for him to find.

What I found in Jesus have intensified in the past couple

of years. And I got a text message from my

mom last Sunday, and we just celebrated the baptism of my

friend on the baptism video 25 years after I started praying.

And there's a couple things I need to tell you about that one.

My heart is just so full at the goodness of God.

And I know there's some of you you've been praying for a

really, really long time. And you have people that you

care about deeply, that you want to find an intimate, personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. And I just want you to know that

God is your ally. He's not your enemy when it

comes to the salvation of the people you love, that he is

predisposed to rescue and redeem.

The Bible says that he is not slow as some understand

slowness, but he is patient, wanting everybody to come to

eternal life. And when you are praying for

someone to come to faith, remember there's three parts.

There's your part, there's God's part, and there's their part.

And hear me, you can't do God's part, and you can't do their

part. You can only do your part.

But you need to know that God always, always, always is doing

His part. And don't give up praying, don't

give up believing, don't give up sharing the good news.

And I need to also just say thank you because to those,

specifically to those of you who serve and to those of you who

give here at the crossing, you made it possible and you

participated in answering a 25 year old prayer.

Because my friend Kurt didn't find his relationship with Jesus

at the 48th Street campus where I I am preaching.

He found it at our Keokuk location that you guys help

support. And I just need you to know I

am. I'm just very, very thankful to

you, and my heart is very full because we serve a really good

God and I am so thankful to be in ministry alongside each and

every single one of you. And I want to welcome those of

you joining at our different locations, those of you watching

online and those of you who are a part of The Crossing inside,

and specifically those of you who are here for the first time

or the first time in a long time.

This is my personal belief that you are surrounded by some of

the best people on planet Earth, and our hope here at The

Crossing is very simple. We want everyone to find an

intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And if you are at one of our physical locations or you're

watching online, I want to encourage you take advantage of

the QR code on the seat in front of you.

We change it every single week. You might be going, yeah, six

months ago, I did it. Well, just so you know, there's

been a lot that's happened in the last six months and we are

regularly updating it. So that way you can have the

tools you need to take your next step, get connected and make a

difference. In fact, if you were to hop on

there right now, you'd see this thing for the frigid 5K.

And I've signed my entire family up because we had so much fun

last year making a difference and we're looking forward to the

opportunity to make a difference with you this year.

We had over 700 people in participate in the 5K last year

and here's what we do as a church.

We take all the profits from the your registration and your

T-shirt sales and we take all of that money and we give it to

ministries that specifically help men and women, boys and

girls, be rescued and rehabilitated from sex

trafficking. So we picked a cold day, we go

on a long walk and then we take all the money and we send it to

make a difference. And I'm telling you, whatever

you had planned on that Saturday probably isn't as important as

that. So I hope you guys will join us

because it'll be a great day with a lot of fun.

Now to get in the message, I got a confession to make.

And this is always hard for me because I don't like bragging

about how wealthy I am, but I don't want to hide it from you

either. I think a couple years back I

kind of told you guys that Jennifer and I were 100 heirs

and and you know, then we became 1000 heirs.

And the way we, you know, we kind of celebrated it is we

bought electric toothbrushes. OK, I'm just we're so wealthy

that we now have robots brushing our teeth and we got them.

We're a part of a exclusive club, and you can go in there.

And because of your status, you get insider savings and deals

that aren't available to the public.

And so I was at Sam's and I saw that they were they had a deal

on electric toothbrushes. And I I bought two of them.

And well, let me pause for a second.

The first 2-3 days after we had this, Jennifer and I are like,

driving around the car going, man, this stuff is incredible.

Like, I it made me wonder if I owed everybody I've ever hung

out with before. I got an electric toothbrush, an

apology because my teeth have never felt better.

I mean, it's it's fantastic. And it's got the little timer

built in that lets you know how long you're supposed to stay in

there and just let the robot do its work.

But since we've been going through this sermon series about

habits, I've been trying to notice that there's certain

things I do and I've been trying to like force myself to change

it. And I didn't know this before I

had an electric toothbrush, but I'm a bottom first brusher.

Think for a second because you're like, I didn't know those

existed, but now you know whether or not you are one.

OK How many of you guys are bottom first brushers?

Yeah. OK.

I'm trying to make the switch to a top first brusher just because

we're in this series on creatures of of of our.

Yeah. So the problem is, is when you

have an electric toothbrush and it's got all those settings.

It's got like, you know, baby. And then it goes all the way up

to like Briggs and Stratton, you know, like you got a jackhammer

in your head and when you catch yourself bottom brushing and you

go to make the switch, you got to do it very carefully because

otherwise you start rattling the teeth, loosening your brain and

you'll chip a tooth. And then I got the electric

toothbrush going and I go to brush my tongue.

You guys all brush your tongues or you just got one.

You brush your tongue. We don't brush, we don't brush

both of them. Just this is the first one.

Well, it's what happened. It's my first time with the

electric toothbrush and I go to brush my tongue and I mean it

really started moving my tongue around and it it pseudo tickled

and then I sneezed. And if you've never blasted

sensodyne through your nostrils, that'll clear you right up, you

know, spackling with some cold dates.

I'm awake and so you just got to be real careful.

But I've been trying to notice things that I do out of habit

and I've been trying to change them because we're creatures of

habit. In fact, we've learned this

between 40 and 95% of human behavior.

How we think, what we say, what we do are habit based.

If your life is based on the decisions that you make, and

your decisions are largely based on your habits, then there are

some uncomfortable truths. You guys know this.

We've been talking about it. We are creatures of habit, which

means that our habits form us. But the good news is that if you

change your habits, you can change your life.

And what we've been noticing is we've been going through this

series, is that our habits and our sins have both a vertical

and a horizontal component. Vertically, our habits, our sins

impact our relationship with God.

Horizontally, it hurts our relationships with the people we

love and the people we're trying to reach for Jesus.

Which is why it is so important for you and me and those of you

at all of our locations to get control of your habits before

your habits get control of you. And one of the areas, one of the

habits, one of the sins that impacts us all deeply, is

idolatry. God made it super clear when he

was giving the 10 commandments that idolatry was a big deal to

him and our relationship with him.

It shows up in Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God, who

brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

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

in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them.

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the

children for the sins of the parents to the third and 4th

generation of those who hate me, but showing love to 1000

generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The irony is those of you who know while Moses is on a

physical mountain getting the 10 commandments from God, the

people of Israel are down in a physical valley and they're

frustrated with God. And so they tell everybody to

bring their jewelry, their gold together and they make for

themselves an idol in the image of a calf.

So while God is on the mountain with Moses giving the 10

commandments, and the first two are saying you're not going to

worship any other gods and you're not supposed to make any

image, guess what the people of God are actually doing down in

the valley doing that very thing.

Most of you probably have heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach

and Abednego, that they were taking his captives out of

Jerusalem to Babylon. And they are told that they are

supposed to worship an image 90 feet tall out on the plains that

was made of gold. That when the music started,

when the band played, that they were to bow down and worship it.

And they said you can play your music, you guys can bow down,

but we're not. And so they played the music and

everybody around them bow down. But these three guys said, yeah,

not going to do that. So then they brought him forward

and said, look guys, we're going to do the music thing like one

more time and you're going to want to bow down.

And if you don't bow down, we're going to throw you in this fiery

furnace and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego go.

Appreciate you telling me that. I love hearing your truth.

What you need to know is you can play the music one more time and

you can talk about the furnace, but we're not bowing down.

And if you throw us in the fire, our God can save us.

But if he doesn't save us, we're still not bowing down.

And you might be thinking to yourself, I love this sermon

because, Clayton, when you're talking about pride, I was

guilty and we were talking about complaining.

I realized how much I hate this church, right?

OK. But today you're like, this is

awesome. This is a free day because

idolatry. And you're looking at your life

and going, I don't think I've bowed down to anything recently.

And me and my spouse and my family, we haven't, like, pulled

together all of the jewelry we don't wear anymore and melted it

down and made it into a graven image.

But idolatry. Idolatry shows up in different

forms. For us, we're devious forms.

Jesus gives us insight into this.

Look what he says in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer.

He asked him of all the commandments, which is the most

important, the most important. One answer.

Jesus is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our

God, The Lord is 1. Love the Lord your God with all

your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind and

with all your strength. And the 2nd is this Love your

neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater

than these. Now you need to know this.

We're going to be doing a much deeper dive on these two chunks

of scripture and the Great Commission on Super Bowl

weekend. And I want you to start thinking

now, who is a person that you can bring with you on Super Bowl

weekend to one of our services at one of our locations?

Because we are going to be starting something as a church

that those who go on it, I believe will be transformed by

it. And so I want you to be a part

of it. But until we get there where

we're unpacked this even deeper, I just want you to realize that

when Jesus is talking about idolatry, he would say anything

that gets first place in your life that's not him.

He would say anything that directs your heart, your mind,

your soul, your strength is worship.

And when you are worshiping a thing that is not Jesus, that is

idolatry. Kim Tim Keller says it this way.

The human heart is an idol factory.

It is anything more important to you than God.

Anything that absorbs your heart, your imagination,

anything that you seek to give you what only God can give you.

The easiest way to look at this is what is first in your life

when two things are competing for your time, your energy, your

effort, who wins? Let me put it this way, You guys

know that I'm married to Jennifer and she's awesome.

You know that? She obviously puts up with a

lot. I mean, yeah, a lot.

And God bless you and God bless her for it.

And let's just say my wife goes, Clayton, we're going to go on a

date night on Friday. And I go, that sounds awesome.

I love date nights with you. And then Cassie, a girl I hung

out with on high school, reaches out to me and she goes, Clayton,

what are you doing Friday? I want to hang out.

Somebody going, Where is this going?

Oh yeah, I'll be careful. So I'm like, I love my wife and

boy, I sure have great memories with Cassie.

And so I call it my wife. Say, babe, can we pick a

different night to go on a date night?

Because I'd like to go for a walk with Cassie and my wife.

You've met her. I bet she would handle that

really well, right? That's like the intro to a docu

series about how I died. That's what that is now.

OK then let's say a couple weeks later, I'm supposed to go to

lunch with Jennifer, and Cassie calls, She goes Clayton.

There's this new salad place in town.

Do you want to go and eat some leafy greens with me?

And knowing how much I love leafy greens, I called my wife

up and I go, Jenny, you're not going to believe this.

And you know how much I love you, sweetie.

Poopsie. Whoopsie.

You know I'm not using my pet names with you guys.

I don't trust you. We have them and I go snookums.

Can we reschedule? And she says why?

And I say it is leafy green Friday at that new place in

town. And Cassie wants to go.

You know what that is? I am on a path towards adultery.

That's what that is. I am prioritizing somebody who

is not my wife in my life. And that is the reoccurring

image that God uses in the Old Testament.

When he talks about idolatry in the human heart, when it comes

to Him, he says you are committing adultery on me.

Jennifer would be fully right to say, am I your first priority

relationally? And I'm going, yeah, except

anytime there's a conflict, I choose somebody else, I choose

something else. Idolatry is not necessarily you

bowing down and worshipping bad things.

Idolatry can happen when you put good things in the wrong place.

This is the part of the sermon when you're going to go.

Why did we come to The Crossing this weekend?

OK, so but just for the next 5 minutes, just suffer through

this with me because I'm on the journey with you.

Idolatry is when you put something good in the wrong

place. So let's just pick a couple

sports. Sports aren't bad.

However, when sports take precedence over your walk with

the Lord, it becomes idolatry. I'll talk to pastors of churches

that in that are in large communities where they have an

NFL team and they can tell you that their church attendance is

impacted by what time the game starts.

And I'm thinking to myself, when most churches offer multiple

service times on multiple days, how in the world can you not

make church happen and still get to the game?

What that means is, is that when there's a conflict between

church and a Bengals game and the Bengals win that conflict,

you know what that is? It's a Dollar Tree.

How come is it that you can have an NFL game and they can be

cold, rainy, snowy and people will navigate the roads, the

traffic and the weather to show up, pay a high price for

tickets, get absolutely pillaged when they try to buy a hot dog,

a piece of pizza, a couple of beers and some cheese curds And

they'll be happy that they went there.

And then those same people will show up at a church for free and

or they won't show up because it's a little cold outside.

Or if they do show up, they'll come up with a boy.

All the church cares about is money.

You know what that is? That's idolatry, just so you

guys know. People on staff at The Crossing

We love sports and we love our kids playing sports, and we're

heavily invested in developing them athletically.

But I love the example that our pastors set that they make sure

that the spiritual development of our kids remains primary.

Here's another one. Sex.

Sex is not bad. However, when we start using sex

to gratify our own selfish desires, when we use sex to

engage in activity with somebody who's not our wife, so that

means somebody I'm dating, somebody that I'm engaged to, or

somebody that I'm while I'm married, I'm engaging in sex

with somebody that I'm not married to.

You know what the Bible calls that?

Not just adultery. The Bible calls it idolatry

because you are worshipping you and you're trying to convince

somebody else to worship you too, and you take God's plan and

you prioritize your flesh over it.

Money. Money is not bad.

Money is a good thing, a necessary thing.

However, when we start living on 100 and 500 and 10120% of our

income, we keep buying things and attempt to make us happy.

And we never stop working because we need to keep the

financial plates spinning. Do you know what the Bible says?

That's idolatry. Government.

Well, I'm just making all kinds of friends this weekend.

Government is actually good. However, every time we have an

election, we find out that people all across the world, or

at least across the country, are way better Republicans and way

better Democrats than they are Christians, because we have to

deal with people who are basing the future salvation of the

world on the next election cycle.

They're more concerned with elephants and donkeys than they

are with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the lame of God.

The same people who say they get nervous about sharing their

faith have no problem at all telling everybody else who to

vote for and telling them that they're going to hell if they

don't vote for their candidate. In fact, this year, in the late

spring, we're going to do an entire sermon series on politics

and the church. Why?

Because I'm psycho, that's why. All right?

And we're going to address these issues.

And I know right now there are some of you who are already

frustrated that our church is going to be talking about

politics and you don't even know what we're going to say.

You know what that means? You might have an idolatry

problem. Family is a good thing, but if

you put your family in the wrong place, it becomes idolatry.

And it sounds super cute when people say this.

You guys have probably heard it. Maybe you can set it yourself.

You'll hear somebody say my kids are the most important thing in

the world to me, and when someone says that to me, this is

what goes through my head. That is a really cute way of

saying I'm committing idolatry because your kids should never

be the first place in your life. Think of everything that God's

done for you and then your kids. Enough said.

Like, look at the cross and then pull.

Go home today and just remove one couch cushion.

I'm not worshipping this kid, right?

And hear me, Some of you, you're trying to worship your spouse

and you're trying to spend your whole life trying to make them

happy. Them whole.

Them complete. And you know what?

They make a lousy God. There is no way, there is no way

that you can be the person that God created you to be as a

spouse, as a parent, if you're not a godly parent or a spouse.

And there's no way you can be a godly parent or a godly spouse

unless God is first in your life.

Working out is good, I've been told.

However, when it takes place of time with the Lord, it becomes

idolatry. That's why I stay like this.

So you know that I am poring over the word of God.

Actually, we're going to get into a cool series later on

about that. Hear me, people with 6 packs who

say that they don't have time for the Lord have an idolatry

problem. People will say to me, man, the

Bible is just too hard to understand.

But those same people know everything they need to know

about super sets tracking their macros.

Level 2 Cardio, Water Intake Minimums, Which supplements will

help maximize your effort. You you can figure it out.

I could just as easily, when we're talking about idolatry,

talk about our screen time. It's Sunday.

If you have an iPhone, you've already got your notification.

Did you know that the average American could read through the

Bible every month in the amount of time that they spend on their

phone? Not, man.

I'm going to try and read the Bible this year saying like you

could have read the Bible this month if you'd have just said no

to the scroll. And just so you know, hear me

OK, tough part's over. I'm not yelling at you about

this. I'm in this with you.

I'm wrestling through this with you because all of us struggle

to keep God first in our lives. But idolatry has a way of

separating us from God and God's best.

Look what it says in Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

The acts of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality,

impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, Hatred,

discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,

factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this

will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

If you were to be put on trial today for being a Christian, and

the only evidence that you could bring was the areas of your life

where God is first, could you be convicted?

What's the first thing you do in the morning?

Is it prayer? What's the first thing you read?

Is it the Bible? What's the first thing you do

with the money you make? Is it to honor God with the

tithe and be obedient? What do you do with the first

day of the week? Is it Go to church?

Where is God first in your life and where is he not?

Wherever God is not first is idolatry.

I'll go a step further. When there's conflict about

which thing to do, that's idolatry because it shouldn't be

a conflict. Now I'm just going to give you 4

reasons why I believe you should put God first.

And these are for me personally, so you don't have to do anything

with them, but I just want you to know where I'm at.

First thing is he created me and he knows what's best for me.

That's why he should be first. He put me together, he knows

exactly what I need and he knows that life lived on my terms or

somebody else's terms is not the best life for me.

But if I live my life on his terms, it's what's best for me.

Second reason I do it is no one has done as much for me.

He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross on my behalf.

No one and no thing has ever done as much for me as he's done

for me. And if he wants first place in

my life, he's earned it. Third reason I belong to him.

The Bible says that I was rescued, redeemed, and ransomed.

I'm no longer mine. I'm supposed to belong to him.

You. If you're in an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus, he has rescued, redeemed,

and ransomed you. You don't belong to you anymore.

You belong to him. #4 The people I love need me to be a Jesus

first person. If you're wanting to be a really

good husband, if you're wanting to be a really Good Wife, if

you're wanting to be a really good dad, a really good mom,

they need you to be a Jesus first person so you can be

everything that they need you to be.

Because I cannot possibly be what they need me to be on my

own, but I can be everything that God wants me to be with His

power and His strength. To illustrate this idolatry

issue, I want to I want to take you to the store or to the Book

of Judges. Now for those of you who aren't

familiar with the Book of Judges, the people of Israel

have come out of Egypt and they've entered into the

Promised Land. And then after Joshua is gone,

the people have no leader. And the Book of Judges kind of

underlines the challenge that they're facing.

And they it simply just says this, that in those days Israel

had no king and everyone did what was right in their own

eyes, which is kind of a not true statement because they did

have a king. They had God who was their

leader, but what they would do is they would reject him and

they would neglect him. And so here's what would happen

to the Israelites. Tell me if this sounds familiar,

the Israelites would follow God for a while, and then they would

stop following God for a while and they would start worshipping

other gods. And then God would remove his

blessing because God's blessing only flows in the direction of

obedience. And so God would remove his

blessing from them and they would begin to suffer.

And then when they started to suffer, it would get really,

really bad. And then they would go, God, we

really need your help. Turn this thing around and guess

what God would do. God would raise up a judge who

would lead the people and would turn their affections back to

him, and he would restore them. And the people would do really

good for a while. And then they'd stop worshipping

God, and they'd start worshipping other gods.

And God would remove his blessing, because God's blessing

only moves in the direction of obedience.

The people would begin to suffer.

And then eventually they'd cry out to God.

Hey, we're in a pretty bad mess. We need your help.

And God would raise somebody up to turn.

You know what? These people sound like idiots.

You know who else they sound like?

Us. Isn't this us?

I've been in ministry so long, I've looked at my own life for

so long. People get fired up about Jesus.

Woo. I'm doing the God thing.

This is fantastic. I love it.

I think I want to do this for a little while.

I'm tired of all the rules. I'm just going to kind of do my

own thing. My life is completely falling

apart because I've been doing my own thing.

And now my life stinks. And then I go, you know what I

got to do? I got to get back to church.

I got to start following after Jesus and God.

I need you to turn my life around.

And God hears us and he starts to turn our life around.

Man, I'm loving this Jesus thing.

I've been reading my Bible all the time.

Things are going fantastic. I think I want to have an

affair. That sounds fantastic.

I'd like to have two different families.

I'd like to have no money, no free time.

I'd like to just destroy lives. I can't believe I did this.

God, you got to help me. Help me get things right.

Help me. God's so good, man.

He's great. He's always there for you.

I'll tell you what, he's fantastic.

I'm going to just be a crazy person.

This Is Us, right? This is not just other people.

This Is Us. And I just want you to know that

every. I mean, I love God and he's

fantastic. And we always talk about how God

loves us, and he does. But I just want you to know that

God sometimes claps back. Look what he says in Judges

Judges 10 · chapter mention

Chapter 10. Go and cry out to the gods

you've chosen. Let them save you when you're in

trouble in Judges 10. God's kind of like, Oh yeah,

you're here. Oh, let me guess.

Let me see if I can predict the future.

You're going to cry out and ask me to help you out of the

situation that you got yourself into because you rejected me as

your God. You know what?

He says. How about you cry out to the

gods that you've been serving? See, if they rescue you, it

impacts God. It hurts God when we put

something else in first place. One time the Israelites cried

out to God, and God appeared to a young man named Gideon.

And he says the Lord is with you, mighty warrior, and I'm

going to deliver you from what's happened to you.

And look at what Gideon says to him.

Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied.

But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when

they said, did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of

Midian. Gideon is wondering where God

is, but the people of Israel have been serving another God.

I need you to hear me. Our idolatry leads the next

generation to doubt. When God is not first in your

life, it will sow seeds of doubt in the generation that will come

after you. Gideon's going Where is this God

who performs all these marvelous acts?

The reason he hasn't seen the power of God is the people

stopped following God, and the power of God and the blessings

of God only flow in the direction of obedience.

So Gideon's family tree has story after story of how good

God is, but Gideon has none because he's never seen the

power of God because he's generation hasn't been obedient

to God. In your life, the areas where

God is not first will lead the people coming after you to doubt

his existence. God says I'm going to save you,

I'm going to rescue you, but there's something you need to do

first. Judges Chapter 6.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

That same night the Lord said to him, take the second bull from

your father's herd, the one seven years old.

Tear down your father's altar to bail, and cut down the Eshera

pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of

altar to the Lord your God on the top of its height, using the

wood of the Eshera pole that you cut down off of the second bull

as a burnt offering. So Gideon took ten of his

servants and did as the Lord told him.

But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he

did it at night rather than in the daytime.

Crossing family. Serious question.

What idol needs to be torn down in your life today?

What is the idol that is going to lead your kids to doubt the

goodness of God? What is the idol that's going to

veer you off track, take you down a road you never wanted to

go and take you to a place you never wanted to be?

Today, every single one of us have an opportunity to remove

that idol and put God first in your life.

Some of you, you might be going, man, there's just no way that I

can take this idol down by myself.

I've tried time and time again. I want you to know you don't

have to tear it down alone. You can grab the hand or you can

tap the shoulder of somebody who brought you to church or comes

to you with church. You can go find one of our staff

people, somebody who's going to be standing by the baptistry and

we'll come alongside of you and help you tear it down so you can

put God first in your life. And I hope you'll do that.

We're moving to a time, a decision.

I want to say this softly, but some of you here today you've

never started or intimate personal relationship with

Jesus. And I want to suggest that

possibly the reason why you haven't started that

relationship with Jesus might be because of idolatry.

It might be you thinking you just want to keep doing you and

you don't want to make God the center of your life.

You want to be around it. You just don't want to be

committed to it. And it shows up in subtle ways.

It might even show up in ways that sound good from the

outside. Like, I want to get serious

about Jesus. I just need to fix some things

first. Hear me.

If you could fix you, God wouldn't have sent Jesus to die

for you. If you could put it together, if

you could turn it around, if you could make it right, He wouldn't

have sent Jesus. The fact that Jesus came and

died on the cross proves to us, we can't fix us.

We can't get us right. It's something that God does on

our behalf, and our job is to receive what he has done.

And so if you're here today and you've never started a

relationship with Jesus and you're putting it off because

you're trying to put it together first, I'm just telling you,

that's just not going to work. That's not how it works.

The good news is, no matter how much we've messed up, no matter

how far we've gone in the wrong direction, God is ready to heal

and restore what's been broken. The Bible says this Lean not on

your own understanding, which is what a person does who doesn't

have an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus.

You're doing what seems right to you.

You're leaning on your own understanding, Boss says.

Lean not on your own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him. That's God.

Put him first in every area. And then what does he do?

He blesses your obedience, and he will make your path straight.

Some of you you're trying to figure out, man, I've got all

this going on in my life. I just don't know quite yet how

I'm going to fit God in. I just want you to know God

doesn't plan on fitting in. God plans on taking over.

You're going. I mean, it's kind of like me at

Thanksgiving. Like you get your plate and

you're looking at like how long the the line is of food and

you're trying to figure out how much of everything you can put

on the plate. And then you know at the very

end is the Oreo fluff, and Oreo fluff is different.

Like Oreo fluff, it can't touch gravy.

They can't touch Turkey. They can't touch.

What's the what's the weird potatoes.

What are those called? Sweet potatoes.

Thank you. God bless you.

You can come back. Yeah, those right.

And you're sitting here going, how you get all.

You got your plate done and you got all this stuff and you're

going, how am I going to get the Oreo?

That's why I'm here. That's the only reason I came to

this Thanksgiving. It's because there's Oreo fluff.

I'll give you guys the recipe next year.

I'll bless you. And so you know what you're

trying to figure out? How do I put this on there?

And that's what a rookie does. That's what a person doesn't

know any better. That's what a non Christian

does. You know what a saved person

who's been to a Thanksgiving before does?

You don't try to fit cookies and cream on an old plate.

Oh no, no, no, no. You go back to the front of the

line and you grab a new plate the platter size and you

designated as holy under the Lord.

You keep the small plate that keeps your mom and your wife off

your back about your heart disease issues, and you set that

plate down, and then you dedicate yourself wholly to the

Oreo fluff, and you put all the Oreo fluff you want on its own

plate like Simba. You carry it back and you got

one plate for all the Oreo fluff.

And then you got another plate, a secondary plate that if you

get through with the Oreo fluff and you're still hungry, then

you'll eat the, what's it called, sweet potatoes.

Then you eat the sweet potatoes. The Bible actually says this,

that you don't try to fit God in.

He comes to take over. He comes to make you new.

And when he makes you new, he gives you a new plight.

And he says this Seek first the Kingdom of God, and then what

happens? And his righteousness and all

these other things will be added to you as well.

He's saying, come after me first, and it will take care of

the rest. And if you're here today, you've

never started a relationship with Jesus.

Don't put it off to the rest of you who already have a

relationship with Jesus. You will never be the wife you

were supposed to be, never be the husband you were supposed to

be. Never be the parent that you're

supposed to be. Unless God is 1st and there is

an idol in your life, because there's an idol in mind.

And if we don't tear down that idol, it will lead to doubt in

the people that are going to come behind us, and we need to

tear it down. Maybe you're going to come to

the steps and pray. Maybe you need to bring somebody

with you. Maybe you need to come over and

borrow a staff member and we'll pray alongside of you.

But you and I have an opportunity right now to put God

where He belongs, and I hope you don't miss it.

Would you stand with me, Heavenly Father?

Do a work in this church? Do something that only you can

do, in ways that only you can do it give us the courage to walk

after you and to chase after you and to put you first.

God, our lives belong to you, and they are better when they

are hidden in you and God. I pray that today you'd give

every person in here not just the clarity of what they're

supposed to do, but the courage to walk it out.

And you know my pray. Amen.