Gods At War Part 2 | Good Thing? God Thing? with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected

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point during this message you feel called to

make a change in your life, text CHANGEME to

97000. Now enjoy the message. Everybody just

still loves our second gathering, so we're glad

you're here. Thank you for joining us. Just a

couple additional announcements. A big thank

you to all those who volunteered for our Kids

Camp 2025 last week. If you're here and you volunteered

at our Kids Camp, stand up for me, please. Thank

you. Thank you so much. Alva, be excited about

serving your kids, man. Now, we had over 100

kids. They grew closer to Jesus. It was an amazing

time. Again, thank you. It wouldn't have happened

without all of our volunteers. Tonight at 6 o

'clock right here, if you want to hear about...

The Dominican Republic missions trip that ended

last week, all of our teens and leaders will

be sharing a panel discussion, 6 o 'clock tonight,

right here. If you want to hear what God is doing

in the DR with missions, and you're an adult,

you may want to be excited about our adult trip

next year. And one last announcement. If you're

an Orioles fan, we learned that there was a faith

night on August 12th at Orioles. And we're going

to buy tickets and go together as a group. So

if you would like to be a part of that trip,

stop by the Welcome Hub, sign up. We need 16

people to get the discount for the tickets. So

if we have 16 people signed up, then we will

go as a group and participate. Faith Night includes

worship after the game and testimonies from several

Orioles players. So it should be a fun trip.

If you want to go, like I said, sign up at the

Welcome Hub and we will take care of ordering

the tickets. So last Sunday, if you did not know

and you were not here, we kicked off our July

series, Gods at War, by discussing idolatry.

And we learned that idolatry is actually the

issue. Now don't get me wrong, sin is usually

what we focus on, but it's just the fruit. Idolatry

is always the tree from which the sin grows.

So we establish that behind every sin that I

have, behind every struggle that you have, is

a false god that is winning the war in our lives.

Thus the title of our series, Gods at War. Now,

throughout that talk, we asked several difficult

questions as we tried to identify some of the

gods that we wrestle with, that we are warring

with in our hearts. If you missed that talk,

I want to encourage you to go back and listen

to it on our YouTube channel. It's entitled American

Idols, and it's surely to challenge you in your

relationship with Jesus. Because see, it's been

my prayer all week that you discovered if you

struggle with jealousy, It's not necessarily

you're a jealous person. It's that chances are

you've made stuff a God in your life. If you're

anxious and worried, a lot of the time, it's

not that you're an anxious person. It's that

perhaps you've made comfort and security a God

in your life. If you're losing with lust, maybe

you've made sex a God in your life. You've struggled

with gossip. Maybe you made what other people

think. about you, a God, in your life. If you

find yourself to be legalistic, religious, and

self -righteous, maybe it's because you've made

religious rules into a God of your life. If you're

proud, maybe it's because you've made yourself.

An image of God rather than God himself. See,

behind every sin that I struggle with, that you

struggle with, is a false God that is winning

the war. And see, for many followers of Jesus,

their focus is always on the sin. They focus

on the sin in their life and on this mental determination

to stop doing that sin. I can't do it anymore.

And if you really get to the point, it's not

necessarily the sin. Because below every sin,

underneath every sin is a false God that's winning

the war of our hearts. And until that God is

defeated and removed, we're going to constantly

be frustrated. Until that God is cast out of

our hearts, we will not know what victory is.

So we have tried to identify some of those gods

in week one. And now we're talking about how

do we focus on and make Jesus our number one

priority. For you, the question is, What are

some of the gods that you're struggling with?

What are the gods at war within your heart? And

if you're like me, and most of you are, then

you'll probably find that some of the hardest

gods to defeat in our heart are the gods of pleasure.

And before we jump into our first thought, I

just want to open in prayer, invite the Holy

Spirit to come. Because this is one of those

talks where it can radically change lives. And

when that happens, there's a lot of distractions.

Even in our first gathering, our technical equipment

didn't work. Shocker. So I want to silence those

distractions and invite the Holy Spirit to radically

change us today. Amen? Holy Spirit, come. God,

we're just thankful for what you want to do in

this gathering on this Sunday. Change us. Make

us more like your son, God. Reveal to us any

areas that are not lining up with you. And more

importantly, God, give us the courage, the faith

to step out and be changed. In Jesus' name, amen.

So that prayer leads us to our first thought

this morning. When good things become God things,

then it's idolatry. See, we continually find

ourselves distracted by what feels good. After

all, our culture, right, within it, the motto

is, if it feels good, do it. If you have an appetite

for it, feed it. If you have an itch, scratch

it. Like, constantly make yourself comfortable.

If you've got this pleasure or desire, then go

ahead and satisfy it. So these gods of pleasure

are everywhere. And like I said earlier, they're

the most difficult to defeat because many of

these gods, they're not evil. They're not satanic.

They're not wrong. Instead, they're actually

gifts given to us by God himself that we as people

have turned into gods. We took God's good gifts

and turned them into gods that we worship and

follow and steal our time. We took a gift that

God gave us and we turned it into his primary

competition. Imagine for a second you're a parent

and you buy your child a brand new PlayStation

5 for their birthday. You take it home. Your

son or daughter, they're ecstatic when they open

up the gift. They give you a big high five, a

hug, a thank you. And in your mind, you think

it was worth every penny. Your child sets up

the PlayStation, begins to play. And as they

play, you see them experiencing joy, which brings

you joy. But after a few weeks, it seems like

all they really want to do now is play video

games. They're actually complaining about a loss

of connection and friendships that they're losing.

So you come home from work one day and you want

to spend time with your child. But your child

doesn't want to spend time with you because they'd

rather be playing games. What happened? The gift

replaced the giver. At least practically speaking,

the gift means more to that person than the one

who gave it. And this is what we've done in a

lot of ways with the gifts that God has given

us so that we can experience joy and comfort

and peace. We've turned them into a competition.

These are the gods that can be the hardest to

identify and to destroy. Listen to these words

from John Piper. He writes, the greatest enemy

for God is not poison, but apple pie. It is not

the banquet of the wicked, the dolls or appetite

for the banquet of heaven, but endless nibbling

at the table of the world. It's not the X -rated

video, but the prime time drive to triviality

we drink in every single night. The greatest

adversary of love to God is not his enemies,

but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites

are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple

pleasures of earth. For when these replace an

appetite for God himself, The idolatry is scarcely

recognizable. These are not evil in themselves.

These are not vices. These are gifts from God.

They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee

and gardening and reading and decorating and

traveling and investing and TV watching and social

media and shopping and exercising and collecting

and talking. And all of them can become deadly

substitutes for God. Do you see why these gods

of pleasure can be so dangerous? Because they're

gifts. And oftentimes, gifts given to us from

God himself, and we've turned them into competition.

Now, last week, we discussed Joshua chapter 24.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

And Joshua, at that point in Scripture, was about

110 years old. He gathers the nation of Israel

together for his final speech, and he throws

down a challenge in Joshua 24, 14 through 15.

Fear the Lord. Serve him wholeheartedly. Put

away forever the idols your ancestors worshipped

when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and

in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse

to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you

will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors

served beyond the Euphrates or be the gods of

the Amorites in whose land you now live? But

as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.

See, basically in these words, Joshua is saying,

everybody's going to worship something. It's

not a matter of when you will worship, who you

will worship. It's what you will worship. And

he's saying, choose today whom you will serve,

whom you will worship. And all the people, we

learned in Joshua 24, said, it's God. We're going

to worship God, the Lord God. And Joshua says

to them, then go ahead and destroy all your idols.

All your false gods that you brought into this

land from Egypt. Then we jumped into the New

Testament where we were reminded in John 1, 5,

21. Dear children, keep away from anything that

might take God's place in your hearts. Including

those good gifts that he's given us. Today, we're

going to jump ahead in the Old Testament. We'll

be reading from 1 Kings chapter 18. And between...

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

Joshua 24 and 1 Kings 18, hundreds of years have

passed in Israel's history. And a few important

things had happened that we need to know. First,

Israel is now split in two. You had the northern

kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom. The

northern kingdom was ruled by a king named Jeroboam.

Jeroboam had a real practical problem on his

hands in that Jerusalem was where the place people

would go to worship. But Jerusalem, of course,

was in the southern kingdom. He didn't want his

people leaving the northern kingdom for the southern

kingdom. He wanted them to stay away from that

land. So he gathers the people together and he

says, listen, down there in the southern kingdom,

traffic is horrible. The parking lot's a mess.

There's no open spots. It's just a bunch of woods.

You don't want to travel all the way down there

to Jerusalem. Just stay here and worship. In

fact, we have all these gods that you can worship

right. Here. And he goes into a building, pulls

out all the false gods and idols, blows off the

dust, and raises them up for everyone to see.

Now, do you know where all these false gods came

from? Egypt. See, the people didn't destroy the

gods. They just hid them away in the closet.

Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? We overcome

a sin. We move forward with Jesus. Six months

later, we're tempted, we give in, and that sin

overtakes us with power because we never dealt

with it properly. They had just stored those

gods away for a little while, and now hundreds

of years later, they're back with a vengeance.

In fact, as you read through Israel's history

in the Old Testament, if you're anything like

me, it's not real encouraging. Because it's king

after king after king entrenched in idol worship.

And eventually in 1 Kings 16, we read about this

guy named Ahab. Ahab, son of Omri, began to rule

over Israel in the 38th year of King Asa's reign

in Judah. He reigned in Samaria 22 years. But

Ahab, son of Omri, did what was evil in the Lord's

sight. Even more than any of the kings before

him. And please understand, if you read about

the kings before him, they were evil. But see,

one of the things Ahab did that really pulled

him down to a new low of lows was he married

a woman named Jezebel. She was the princess of

the Sidonians. So she comes in from this foreign

nation. Ahab makes her in charge of his religious

cabinet. So she finds all the prophets of God,

the Lord God, that she can. She has them killed

and executed. Then Jezebel sets up an order to

her primary God, which was Baal. Then she builds

Baal a temple in the northern kingdom of Israel.

And we must remember, we learned last week, God

is a jealous God. And eventually he had enough

of this idol worship and he's going to put a

stop to it. So he calls to his prophet Elijah

and he says to Elijah, I want you to go to Ahab

and deliver him a message which leads us to our

next thought. See, when living in sin, Jesus'

followers experienced God's active and passive

displeasure. Or you could say anger. 1 Kings

17 .1 we read, Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe

in Gilead, told King Ahab, As surely as the Lord,

the God of Israel, lives, the God I serve, there

will be no dew or rain during the next few years

until I give the word. So Elijah the prophet,

he goes to the king and he says, A drought's

coming. Now please, you have to understand, Baal,

the God that they had been worshiping, that had

been set up in the temple, primarily was the

God of rain. He was the God of weather. So God

looks at Israel as a nation and he says, okay,

if you're gonna worship Baal as your primary

God, the God of rain, then I'm gonna stop the

rain. I'm not gonna allow it to rain for several

years. And oftentimes this is what God does.

See, he sees an area in our life, that has become

too important to us. In fact, it's more important

than him, and he withdraws his blessing on that

area of our life. And many of us can relate.

Some of you, even this morning, you're frustrated

in areas of your life because you've made them

too important, and God said, okay, I'm gonna

remove my hand of blessing on that area of your

life. For example, maybe you put your marriage

ahead of God. Maybe you put your work ahead of

God, your finances. Some of you have put your

sports teams ahead of God or you put your happiness

ahead of God. Well, don't be surprised if these

areas suddenly are the most frustrating areas

of your life. Because God says, if you're gonna

put them ahead of me, I'm not gonna send the

rain. There's not gonna be a blessing. See, what

Israel is experiencing here is what theologians

would call the active anger of God. The active

anger. In other words, God's just not going to

sit by any longer and let you live in disobedience,

sin, and idolatry. Instead, he's going to actively

do something about it. And with Israel, he withholds

the rain. Now, there are other times he doesn't

work this way. Other times when we're living

in a pattern of sin or idolatry, we don't experience

God's active anger. We experience what theologians

call God's passive anger. His passive anger.

And this is where God says, I'm just going to

let you live with the natural consequences that

come when I am not first in your life. And we

read all about this in Romans chapter 1. Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 is all about idolatry. In three different

places in Romans chapter 1, Paul writes, God

Romans 1 · chapter mention

abandoned them to do whatever shameful things

their hearts desired. Let's read in Romans chapter

Romans 1:21–28

1, verses 21 to 28. Yes, they knew God. But they

wouldn't worship him as God or even give him

thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas

of what God was like. As a result, their minds

became dark and confused. So God abandoned them

to do whatever shameful things their heart desired.

He traded the truth about God for a lie. So they

worshiped and served the things God created instead

of the creator himself. His good gifts, who is

worthy of eternal praise. That is why God abandoned

them. to their shameful desires. Since they thought

it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them

to their foolish thinking and let them do things

they should never be done. In other words, God

is saying, if that's what you want, that's what

you can have. It's his passive anger. And when

we live with the natural consequences that come

when we're not living in abundance and putting

God first, we're gonna experience feelings of

guilt. Shame, regret, anxiety, and fear. And

why is that? It's because we're living in a sinful

pattern. We're guilty of idolatry. And we're

experiencing God's passive anger. But again,

it could be an active anger. Whichever one, the

point is God is withholding his blessing on your

life. And if you'll turn it over to him. and

you lay it down at his feet, and you ask forgiveness,

you repent, you turn away, oftentimes he's going

to send the rain when we put him first in our

life. Amen? I still remember when Jess and I

first met. We were working together at Red Lobster.

I began to talk to her because I was attracted

to her. Jess had struggled with relationships,

so her immediate response was to point me to

Jesus. She wanted to get rid of me. I want to

be a missionary. I want to go all around the

world. I want to tell people about Jesus. She

didn't expect me to say, oh, well, tell me more.

And over the next year, we developed a friendship.

We would get closer. We'd become friends. And

then she would constantly, several times throughout

that year, reiterate, I don't want a relationship.

I don't need a boyfriend. They're my downfall.

I must have gotten dumped eight times throughout

that year. To which I said, I thought we weren't

dating. I was trying to learn out this whole

Jesus dating thing. I thought we were friends.

I thought, what's going on? A year after we initially

met, we found ourselves on a missions trip together

in Ecuador. And it was then that God spoke to

her in a vision that we were supposed to be together.

A year later, we would be married. So remember,

she has struggled with the idea of a relationship,

an idea of the opposite sex, and what's what

pulled her away from God. But when God spoke

to her, then God brought a blessing into her

life. Not that I'm a blessing. But let me be

real clear here. For those of you who are single,

this isn't a guaranteed formula. It's not something

where you can go to God and say, okay, God, I'm

putting you first in my life. Now send the rain

and bring someone into my life. That's what I

really want. That's not how it works either.

See, God knows our hearts, but he often does

operate that way. So don't be surprised if there's

some things in your life that have become too

important to you if God sends a drought. And

some of you are in a drought right now. It might

be a work drought where you're frustrated and

can't stand your job. It could be a financial

drought where you can't get all your bills paid.

It could be a marriage drought where you're not

on the same page. It could be a happiness drought

where you're searching for all the happiness

in the wrong places. And God is drawing you back

to him. He's inviting you to return to make him

first in your life. Then when we turn to him

and we look up to him, we will feel a drop of

rain on our face and we're refreshed. And so

many of you experience that every single Sunday

when you come here. You're in worship. You're

extending your hands. God sends the rain. You

feel the blessing on your life. You recommit.

You repent. You ask for forgiveness. You leave

this place in tears. And then Monday comes and

work happens and you're right back to where you

were. Because you've lost your faith. priority.

So God sends Elijah to says to the king, listen,

there's going to be a drought in the land a few

years past. There's no rain. God made his point.

And then he sends Elijah back to Ahab. And basically,

Elijah sets up what you would call modern day

cage match between God and the gods of Baal.

If any of you are looking to make a movie. this

would be a great movie. And we read in 1 Kings

18, 19 to 21, now summon all Israel to join me

at Mount Carmel along with 450 prophets of Baal

and the 400 prophets of Asherah who were supported

by Jezebel. So Ahab summoned all the people of

Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Now

Mount Carmel is kind of an ancient location where

God had been worshiped and it's where the people

brought sacrifices to the Lord for many years.

So they decide to meet on Mount Carmel. Verse

21 says, and Elijah stood in front of them and

said, how much longer will you waver, hobbling

between two opinions if the Lord is God? Follow

him. But if Baal is God, then follow him, which

leads us to our third thought this morning. Humanity

doesn't want to be forced to choose. We don't

like to choose. And we read in 1 Kings 18, 21,

Elijah stood in front of them. Stop hobbling.

Between two opinions. Choose God. Choose Baal.

But notice what is written. But the people were

completely silent. The people said nothing. And

all this week as I was reading these words. Why?

Why were they silent? And then God kind of revealed.

That's how humanity is. They were silent because

they didn't want to have to choose. They wanted

both and. They wanted God. And they wanted Baal.

Elijah's saying, no, choose one. But the people

remained silent. They wanted both. They said

nothing because we don't like to be forced to

choose. And I believe that's why many people

don't come to church or gather on Sunday mornings.

They would say, if you ask them, oh yeah, I believe

in God. I love God, in fact. I really do. I just

don't believe in organized religion. I don't

go to church. Why? Why would they say that? Well,

if you get down to it, I'm telling you, it's

this. They don't want to have to choose. They

don't want to choose. They don't want to hear

the truth. Romans 10, 13, everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved. They don't

want to hear the truth that it's about putting

Jesus first in our lives. See, they would rather

sit on a love seat. And for many of us, we love

to have God sit on the love seat of our hearts.

God, you're welcome to join me on this love seat.

But please understand you're expected to share

that with someone else. And that's what some

of us say. We say, God, you can share my love

seat, but I need to keep another space for Netflix.

I need to be able to binge watch my shows. It's

how I relax. Do you realize God doesn't even

care about the stuff you watch? He doesn't care.

He doesn't care about it. He just wants your

heart. See, we put God on the love seat of our

hearts, and we say, God, I'm going to share you

with. With my sports teams. After all, Sundays

are for football, aren't they? Or worse yet,

maybe we try to share God with something that's

completely opposite of who he is. You don't want

to have to choose between God and pornography.

You don't want to have to choose between God

and alcohol or illicit drugs. You don't want

to have to choose between God and fixing up your

car or decorating your house. You don't want

to have to choose between God and golf. See,

again, many of these things that we share our

heart with, they're not evil or wrong. But remember,

when good things become God things, then it's

idolatry. And God's going to step in and say,

no, that doesn't work here. And if you think

you're sharing God with something else in your

heart, God's not going to just sit around and

let you do it because he's a jealous God. And

he's going to challenge us to change. So the

stage is set. The people are watching. Who's

gonna win this great battle? You can hear the

anticipation. They're on Mount Carmel, and we

read in 1 Kings 18, 25, 28, and Elijah said to

the prophets of Baal, you go first, for there

are many of you. I mean, what a generous guy.

Gives them home court advantage, right? Choose

one of the bulls and prepare it and call on the

name of your God, but do not set fire to the

wood. So they prepared one of the bulls and placed

it on the altar. Then they called on the name

of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting,

Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no reply of

any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the

altar they had made. And about noontime, Elijah

began mocking them. Check this guy out. How do

you not love this guy? He starts trash talking.

Just throwing down on the prophets of Baal. Shout

louder! For surely he's the God. Oh, that's right.

Perhaps he's daydreaming. Oh, perhaps he's going

to the bathroom. Or maybe he is away on a trip

or is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they

shouted louder. And following their normal custom,

they cut themselves with knives and swords until

the blood gushed out. So you get the picture

here, right? They're dancing. They're shouting.

Eventually, they're taking swords and knives.

They're cutting themselves, right? This is one

of the reasons about tattoos, right? They're

just a re -inference that those of you that,

oh, tattoos are a sin. Again, God reiterating

when you're cutting yourself to other gods, that's

a sin, which leads us to our fourth and final

thought. Humanity sacrifices abundance for gods

of pleasure. 1 Kings 18, 28, so they shouted

louder and following their normal custom, they

cut themselves with knives and swords until blood

gushed out. Now when we read that, right, our

initial thought is we're beyond that, Chris.

That's primitive. But listen, I think we bleed

for our gods too. Some of you have bled for your

gods of pleasure. Some of you have sacrificed

your family for a god of pleasure. Some of you

sacrificed your career, your finances, your future.

Some of you sacrificed your reputation for a

God of pleasure. You have bled for those gods.

And quite often when we talk about idolatry,

again, so many people put, oh, that's Old Testament.

But there's plenty of scriptures throughout the

New Testament that references this truth. Look

at Colossians 3. Put to death the sinful earthly

things lurking within you have nothing to do

with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil

desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person

is an idolater. Worshiping the things of this

world. 1 Corinthians 10, 14. So my dear friends,

flee from the worship of idols. 1 Peter 4, 3.

You have had enough in the past of the evil things

that godless people enjoy. Their immorality and

lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild

parties. and their terrible worship of idols.

And one of the main things, and when you look

to the New Testament that constantly is referencing

idols, is sexual sins and lust. And for so many

people in the United States, pornography has

become one of the most popular gods in our culture.

Citizens in the United States spent more than

$40 billion on pornography in 2024. Last year,

it grossed more than country music, classical

music, and rock music all combined. Pornography

grossed more than professional baseball, football,

and basketball all put together. It made more

money than ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox all put together.

And according to one research I did, it's the

number one searched word on the internet. 70

% of pornographic internet traffic takes place

between 9 a .m. and 5 p .m. every single day

when we're supposed to be working. And you tell

me the U .S. citizens haven't bled for our gods

of pleasure. They bleed. Some of you have bled

for the god of alcohol and you know the results

of it. Some of you have sacrificed your marriage.

To that God. Some of you have bled for the pleasure

of food. And you've sacrificed your health. To

that God. We bleed for entertainment. Binge watching

movies and series on Netflix. And other streaming

services. Many people waste their precious time.

Endlessly. Scrolling through social media. Sacrificing

a relationship with their children. For that

God of pleasure. Church we bleed. We still bleed

for our. Let's continue 1 Kings 18. Then Elijah

called to the people, come over here. They all

crowded around him. And as he repaired the altar

of the Lord that had been torn down. This was

the original altar that was destroyed by. He

took 12 stones, one to represent each of the

tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild

the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug

a trench around the altar large enough to hold

about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar,

cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces

on the wood. Then he said, fill four large jars

with water and pour the water of the offering

in the wood. After they had done this, he said,

do the same thing again. And when they were finished,

he said, do it a third time. So they did as he

said. And when the water ran all around the altar

and even filled the trench, basically Elijah's

saying, God's got this. It doesn't matter what

you do. There'd been dancing all morning, chanting,

cutting, bleeding. Elijah steps forward and listen

to this simple, humble prayer. At the usual time

for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the

prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, O

Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove

today that you are God in Israel and that I am

your servant. Prove that I have done all this

at your command. O Lord, answer me. Answer me

so these people will know that you, O Lord, are

God and that you have brought them back to yourself.

Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down

from heaven and burned up the young bull, the

wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked

up all the water in the trench. And when all

the people saw it, they fell face down on the

ground and cried out, Lord, he is God. Yes, the

Lord is God. God wins the war. It wasn't even

a challenge, to be honest. But the people, they

see the power of God, they destroy their false

idols, they remove the false prophets, and they

put God back in glory. And this is the challenge

for all of us. How do we defeat these gods of

pleasure? Because let's be honest, some of you

have a god of pleasure that's taken priority

over God in your heart. And you've tried again

and again and again to defeat it, to remove it,

but unfortunately it remains. Where's victory

found? Well, I want to introduce you to an idea.

I believe this idea is the truth that will set

you free for the very first time. 150 years ago,

a man named Thomas Chalmers introduced the truth

in a sermon that then became a book that reads

the expulsive power of a new affection. The expulsive

power of a new affection. In other words, the

most effective way. To remove a false God that

has a grip on your heart is to replace it with

a new God, a God of greater affection, which

leads to our one action step this morning, defeating

gods of pleasure. Church, we have to replace

worldly desires with a love for God. We have

to replace worldly desires with a love for God.

When we try to gain control of a false God in

our life by rejecting it, By focusing on that

God, you know what it does? It gives that God

more power. We empower that God. When I'm sharing

on Sunday mornings, I say, well, here are the

consequences. Here's what happens when you worship

this false God. It might lead you to asking for

forgiveness. You may be convicted, but it rarely

leads to long -term change. Why? Because there

must be an expulsive power of a new affection.

It's not just enough to resist it. You have to

replace it. You have to get rid of it. So a little

experiment that I read about this week that I

want to try on all of you. Right now, in your

minds, whatever you do, don't think about snakes.

Okay, don't think about the snake that's under

your chair, that's crawling through the chairs

towards you right now. That snake could bite

your toe. So how many of you right now, by show

of hands, We're just thinking about snakes. Okay,

for those of you who aren't, that's impressive.

You're ruining my example. Good job. Feel very

proud of yourself. Okay, let's take it a step

further. Let's switch gears. Don't think about

snakes. I want you to think about an ice cold

Dr. Pepper. It's a hot sunny day. You go inside.

You take a sip of water. It's not enough. And

you crack open an ice cold soda. It tastes so

good. So how many of you think about snakes now?

Yeah, no one. None of you thinking about snakes.

Because you're thinking that Dr. Pepper looks

good. And you're like, what's the point? It's

not enough just to resist. It's not enough to

resist. And sometimes when we focus on something,

we are giving it power. We have to replace worldly

desires with what? A love for God. And when we

replace it, that's when we break free. John Wimber,

founder of the Vineyard Movement, says it this

way. The more I think about sinning, the more

I sin. But the more I think about just loving

Jesus, the less I seem to sin. falling in love

seems to be the key. Wimber is suggesting that

personal righteousness and avoiding sin, they

can be counterproductive when we focus on them.

Instead, he says, no, the importance is falling

in love with Jesus, learning who Jesus was, learning

how he lived his life, learning how he spoke.

It decreases our sinful behavior. Why? Because

this is kingdom theology. It's the belief that

a personal relationship with God through Jesus

is the driver of our spiritual growth and change.

See, when we believe that actively pursuing a

love for Jesus rather than focusing on avoiding

sin is the key to abundant life. God must be

our greatest pleasure. That's why John tells

us in 1 John 2, Don't love this world nor the

thing it offers you, for when you love the world,

you do not have the Father's love in you. Jesus

tells us a parable about our treasure in Matthew

13. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure

that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his

excitement, he hid it again and sold everything

he owned to get enough money to buy that field.

See, when God is our greatest pleasure, all those

lesser gods and temptations, they just... fade

away. Psalm 37, 4 says, take delight in the Lord

and he will give you your heart's desires. And

the best way that we can draw closer to God,

that we can connect with God is through worship.

See, when we worship God, and I don't mean just

singing songs. Listen, if you haven't learned

this about HCV yet, it's not about you coming

in and singing songs. Do we want you to sing

songs? Of course we do. Do we want you to raise

your arms? Of course we do. But we want you to

do it out of a love for God, not out of just

singing karaoke on a screen. Right? We want you

to do it out of your love and desire for God.

Worship is not about checking your watch and

wondering when you're going to go get lunch.

Worship is not about caring what the person beside

you thinks when you are weeping or crying. Worship

is about prioritizing Jesus, the exclusive power

for him to set you free. And as we do that, then

those gods that are ahead of him fade away. Amen?

But some of you are here today and you've never

been in a relationship with Jesus. And now God

is saying to you, are you going to be like the

people that Joshua expressed? Choose who you

will serve. Are you going to be like the people?

And just remain silent when Elijah posed the

question. See, Jesus is the key to abundant life

and we gotta put him first. And some of you haven't

made that a priority and thus the reason you're

falling further and further and not being happy

or experiencing abundant life. So we're gonna

pray a simple prayer. I'm gonna invite all of

us to pray it together. And if you've never prayed

this prayer, pray it with all of us because I

believe God wants to radically change your life.

Jesus. I'm broken. I'm full of doubt, shame,

regret, sin. Change me. I believe you're God's

son. I believe you died for me. Make me new.

Set me free. Fill me with your spirit. Help me,

God, to serve others. In Jesus' name, amen. If

you prayed that prayer for the first time, see

me as you leave. Hug me. Text me. Do something

because I want to tell you to get baptized. But

before we go, we're going to worship. And listen,

for some of you, I want to challenge you to worship

like you've never worshipped before. Sing to

God, not to the band. Sing to God, not the screen.

Sing to God, not to the people beside you. This

isn't a show. Make it a personal encounter between

you and Him. Amen? Now, there was three words

of knowledge. Our prayer team will be here on

the right. to pray for you as you sing in worship.

You have pain in the lower part of your stomach.

You have an inner ear infection in your left

ear. You have cervical pain closer to the base

of your neck. If any of those are you, we believe

God wants to heal you. If you have any other

need while we worship, get up here and get prayer

because God's in the business of releasing miracles

in this house. Amen? Let's stand together and

let's worship. that you are working now.