3 Questions To Expose Modern Idols Today

Hey, we're Todd and Julie Mullins, Senior Pastors here at Christ Fellowship Church, and we're so glad that you're tuning in for service today. Yeah, Christ Fellowship is one church that meets in lots of different locations, including right here with you. Yeah, and our prayer for you today is that you would sense God's love for you. See, I don't personally know all that you're going through today and what you're up against, but God does. And He hears your prayers, and He knows your name, and He's right here for you today as you call out to Him. Yeah, thanks again for joining with us today. We love you, and we're praying for you. You gave it all so that we could experience life and life to the full. God is more in store than you have in mind, and I believe so much more than is going to blow your mind. Welcome home, church. Come on, let's stand up all over this place today. Hey, can we name-drop the name of our God, Healer, Savior? Come on, let's name-drop Him today and praise His holy name. Let's sing together. I know a name That can empty out a grave I know a name It's the only name that saves And it's worthy of all praise I call you Jesus I call you, I call you Healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you Savior

Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name I have a key With dominion over death He holds the key Yes, He does In His holy hands, God is He is the key That has crushed the servant's hand A resurrecting reign I am I call you Jesus I call you, I call you Healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you Savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name, chains break, tribes won't sway. Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake. Every time I call your name, chains break, tribes won't sway. Every time I call your name, the gates of hell shake. Every time I call your name. Come on, somebody call the name of Jesus today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sing, where, oh, death is now your sting. Where, oh, grave, your sting. Anyone have victory in Jesus, a hope and a future today? Where, oh, death is now your sting.

Where, oh, grave, your sting. Where's your victory? Where's your victory? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sing. Dead things come alive, dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus. Dead things come alive, dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus. Dead things come alive, dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus. Dead things come alive, dead things come alive, in the name of Jesus. Jesus, I call you, I call you healer, risen in reigning power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you, Jesus, I call you, I call you, you're worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Oh, every time I call your name. Yes, Lord. I pray into the atmosphere, Spirit of God, you're here. You have all authority. I pray over my heart and mind. I am healed by your stripes. Your blood declares that I am free. In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray, calling all the power of heaven. I proclaim, every weapon pointed against me. Must break in the mighty name of Jesus.

And I draw a permanent boundary line. The enemy has no right to come near my family. And no scheme could ever undo God's plans, no matter the circumstance. The cross has sealed my death. The cross has sealed my destiny. In the mighty name of Jesus. I pray, calling all the power of heaven. I proclaim, every weapon pointed against me. Must break in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. I know all the power of fear and darkness. Must know every key to every victory. I hope in the mighty name of Jesus. I will not fear. I will not fear. When the enemy comes near. On the doorframe of my life is the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear. I will not fear. There's an army of angels here. I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a truth worth celebrating today, whether you're in the room or joining with us online. That on the doorframe of your life, if you've accepted Jesus, His blood has drawn a permanent boundary line around you. Do you know what that means? That means that the enemy can scheme and plan. He can form every weapon that he wants to form, but Scripture says that it will not prosper. Scripture says that you are protected on all sides, that nothing can come against you. We declare that. We proclaim it. But the reality is we live in a fallen world. We live in a world where we're going to face trials and tribulations. Jesus actually said to us, take heart, because you're going to face hard times. But that encouragement, take heart, is because Jesus has overcome anything that you and I might possibly face today. I don't know what you've come in here with today. Maybe you came in here with a diagnosis that's now become your identity. Maybe a doctor said something about you or over you, and now you just think that's who I am. I am cancer, or I am anxiety, or I am fill in the blank. Maybe you have a mental health struggle today, as so many of us do, and you're walking in here going, I am anxiety, or I am depression. No, you are created in the image of God, and there is no weapon that's going to prosper in your life.

I sense there's people here today and watching online that your marriage is in a place where a divorce lawyer would love to get his hands on it. But not today, because of what Jesus can do in your life. He is the ultimate Redeemer. He can restore. He can reclaim, and He can rebuild. And what we're going to do right now, and we've done it over the past few years as a church, is we're going to open up the altars, and our prayer team is going to come forward, some of our pastors and some people on our team that we trust. And on the doorframe of your life is the blood of Jesus Christ. But sometimes you need someone to remind you. Sometimes you need someone to pray with you. And I'm talking to the people who are sitting far away from my voice right now. Maybe you've never wandered down to receive prayer. Can I tell you, there is nothing like having somebody proclaim the Word of God over your situation, to join you in prayer, proclaiming peace over broken circumstances, praying hope where there is brokenness or where you may be fearful. There is courage today. So wherever you find yourself, I want to encourage you, the band's going to continue to lead us in worship. You can make your way out of your seats down, even right now as I pray, you can come down to receive prayer. And Holy Spirit, I pray that people would encounter your presence today. God, I pray that you would give us courage to step out. And maybe the thing that we haven't even said to anybody else, the trial we're walking through, the circumstance that we're facing, God, that we would come down to receive prayer. God, because on the doorframe of our life is your blood, that there is no weapon formed against us that's going to prosper. We pray this in Jesus' name, everybody said. You can make your way down for prayer today. When the enemy comes near On the doorframe of my life Is the blood of Jesus Christ I will not fear, I will not fear There's an army of angels here I'm protected on all sides By the blood of Jesus Christ

I will not fear, I will not fear When the enemy comes near On the doorframe of my life Is the blood of Jesus Christ I will not fear, I will not fear There's an army of angels here I'm protected on all sides By the blood of Jesus Christ In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, calling all the power of heaven I proclaim, every weapon formed against me It must break, it's in the mighty name of Jesus In the mighty name of Jesus For I know, all the power of fear and darkness It must go, it's every key to every mystery Yes I hold, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Maybe we've made this complicated ♪ ♪ More than it was ever meant to be ♪ ♪ Hasn't it always been about the same thing? ♪ ♪ So Lord, bring us back to simple things ♪ ♪ For You are the centre of it all ♪ ♪ My heart belongs to You, my Saviour all in all ♪ ♪ You're the one I hold close to ♪ ♪ For the beauty of Your Name, my soul will live to say ♪

♪ Jesus, I love You ♪ ♪ It's You, Sir, we're to sit here at Your feet ♪ ♪ Keep us awake to what's important ♪ ♪ Just like Mary chose the better thing ♪ ♪ Oh, You'll be the centre, so You'll be the centre of it all ♪ ♪ The centre of it all, yes, my heart belongs to You ♪ ♪ My Saviour all in all, You're the one I hold close to ♪ ♪ For the beauty of Your Name, my soul will live to say ♪ ♪ Jesus, I love You, oh, how I love You ♪ ♪ Oh, with all I am, oh, how I love You ♪ ♪ Jesus, I love You, in my whole life, for Your glory ♪ ♪ My whole world, for You only, everything ♪ ♪ For the honour of Your Name, in my days, tell the story ♪ ♪ In my days, tell the story, let it be ♪ ♪ I'm Your only, everything, for the honour of Your Name ♪ ♪ In my whole life, for Your glory, my whole world ♪ ♪ For You only, everything, for the honour of Your Name ♪ ♪ For the honour of Your Name, in my days, tell the story ♪ ♪ Let it be, I'm Your only, everything, for the honour of Your Name ♪ ♪ In my whole life, for Your glory, my whole world ♪ ♪ For You only, everything, for the honour of Your Name ♪ ♪ In your days, in my days, tell the story, let it be ♪ ♪ I'm Your only, everything, for the honour of Your Name ♪ ♪ Oh how I love You, oh how I love You, Jesus I love You ♪ ♪ Oh how I love You, oh how I love You, Jesus I love You ♪ ♪ In my whole life, for Your glory, my whole world ♪ ♪ For You're all the everything, all the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ In my heart and face, tell the story, let it be ♪ ♪ For You're all the everything, all the honor of Your name ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

Come on, would you pray with me today? God, that is our prayer. God, that everything about our lives would be centered on You, that God, You'd be magnified and honored, not just with the words that we sing today, but God, with the people that we are, with the lives that we live, that it would be lived for Your glory to bring You glory and honor. It's in Jesus' name we gather. It's in Jesus' name that we sing these songs and pray. And everybody together said, amen, amen. You can be seated, church. It is so good to have you with us. Wanna welcome everybody at all of our Christ Fellowship locations. Good to have you with us. Everybody joining with us online. And a very special greeting to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces joining with us from around the world. We are continuing to pray for you as you fight for our freedom and for the freedom of innocent people all around the world. We're praying for peace across the Middle East and around the world. We're praying for our leaders, for our president,

and for those leading our troops, that God, you would just watch over us and our nation. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, we are continuing our series today, Close Enough. And our tagline for this series is that we wanna identify and crucify casual, comfortable Christianity, because we don't want any of that in our lives or in our church in Jesus' name, right? Julie started off the series last week by saying that Jesus didn't kind of go to the cross for you. He didn't almost suffer for your sins. He went all the way. And he's looking for some followers that are gonna go all the way in following him. And she started off by helping us understand that close enough is not good enough with some pictures that presented this principle. And I got a few of my own pictures today, all right? So let's say you're a parent and you're baking some cookies for your kid's birthday. And like Jefferson, he loved SpongeBob when he was growing up, even though we didn't like SpongeBob. He liked SpongeBob. And so you try to bake these cookies, but when they come out of the oven, they look like this.

Yeah. Or maybe you get your kid that new pet toy called Fur Fluffs. Have you seen these things? And they actually call them pets. But when you take it out of the box, it looks like this. Yeah, it's because you bought it on Timu. I think that's where you got it, right? Or because the cookies didn't work, you order a Cookie Monster cake for the birthday party. But when you open the box up from the bakery, it looks like this. Yeah. Close enough is not good enough. That's the title of the message today. And when it comes to your faith, let me tell you, close enough faith is not good enough faith. Close enough Christianity is not good enough Christianity. In fact, last week, Julie said that you might be a close enough Christian if you blend in more than you stand out. That you look like everybody else, talk like everybody else, act like everybody else. You might be a close enough Christian if you obey selectively. Just the parts of scripture that don't cramp your lifestyle too much.

Or you pray occasionally when you need something from God. Or if it's been a long time since you've been convicted or corrected by the Holy Spirit, there's a good chance you're a close enough Christian. Now, the goal of this series and the goal of the message today is not to condemn any of us because we're all on a spiritual journey. But it is to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us and show us any place where there's anything that might be trying to take His place of priority in our lives. So today, I wanna talk about one thing that affects every one of us. In fact, the Bible is repeatedly very clear that this one thing you better be on guard for or you will be a close enough follower of God and your faith won't count. In fact, the first two commandments in the Bible of the 10, big 10 commandments, the first two deal with this one thing. Let me read it to you. Exodus 20, verses three and four. God speaking, you must not have any other God but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. The New Testament.

ends up having countless warnings about idols. Here's a couple. First John 5.21 tells us to be on guard for idols in your life. You gotta watch out for it because they're gonna try to find their way into your heart. First Corinthians 10 says, you must keep away from idols. Like if it looks like an idol, smells like an idol, you gotta run from it. And you may hear these words in scriptures and think, well Todd, I don't have any idols in my life. Like I don't have any little statues of fat Buddhists sitting around. I don't have any little carvings that I bow down to. Can I tell you something? An idol is anything, even a good thing, that when it becomes the main thing, it becomes a bad thing. It's anything. Another way to say this might be, it can often be a good thing that becomes a bad thing when we make it the main thing. So that means it could be anything. And so today I want us to identify and crucify any idols that maybe are trying to find their way and their place into our hearts and distract our attention and devotion away from God. Is that okay? There's a story in the Old Testament that even if you haven't read much of the Old Testament, you may be familiar with this story.

It takes place right after the Israelites fled Egypt. Moses goes down and confronts Pharaoh and takes the people of God out of Egypt after 400 years of being slaves. He leads them across the Red Sea into the wilderness towards the Promised Land. And about two months into the journey, they come to this place called Mount Sinai. And in Mount Sinai, Moses goes up the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights to meet with God. And somewhere along the line, the Israelites begin to grumble. And this is what they say in Exodus 32. It says this, when the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. Come on, they said, make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses who brought us here from the land of Egypt. So Aaron said, take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, sons, and daughters, bring them to me. All the people took the gold rings from their ears, brought them to Aaron. Aaron took the gold, melted it down, molded it into a shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, oh Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Aaron saw how excited the people were. So he built an altar in front of the calf.

And then he announced tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord. The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking and they indulged in pagan revelry. Okay, so get the picture. God just rescued these people after 400 years of slavery. They witnessed firsthand the power and presence of God. They saw the plagues happen. They just walked across the Red Sea on dry ground, right? They had been for the last two months having manna dropped from the sky, bread, fresh bread every morning with no carbs in it, just drop it from the sky. And here they look at this gold cow that they build and they declare, these are the gods who brought us up out of the land of Egypt. Have they lost their living minds? This is absurd. So what can we learn today about ourselves from a story that took place thousands of years ago? Well, it's really important that we know the backstory to this story. At the beginning of Exodus, when God actually sends Moses down to confront Pharaoh, God tells Moses in Exodus 4, verse 22, he says, then you will tell him, you will tell Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son.

I command you, let my son go so, look at that, so he can, what? Worship me. So there was a reason for the release. There was praise in the purpose of this freedom that was coming. God wanted his people to be free so that they could worship him and know him personally. They could know his power and his presence in their life. It was for a relationship. In fact, when you study the book of Exodus, you will see that worship is this key theme that is woven throughout the entire book. Later in Exodus 20, when God is giving the 10 commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, he starts by saying, and God spoke these words, verse one, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you up 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 of any form of anything, heaven above or on earth beneath or the waters below, you shall not bow to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a what? A jealous God. Now, for some people, you see that word jealous and you think, well, that feels kind of like a petty word. Like, God jealous? Like, isn't jealousy bad? Well, that's the way we see it and we think of it,

but in the original word here, this word jealous actually means he is so enthralled with you, that God's love for you is so all-encompassing, so all-consuming that he doesn't want anything to vie for your love back for him in this world. Nothing of creation. He doesn't want you to worship creation. He wants you to worship another creator. But don't miss the point. The point is worship. I mean, before God even gives the commandments, he reminds them that he's the one that set them free. It was him that delivered them, not some God, not some idol, not some cow. It was Yahweh, the great I am. And the reason this is important for us is because when we forget where our help comes from, our hearts begin to wander and we'll worship something else. Look again at verse four. He says, you shall not make for yourself an image, that word means idol, in the form of anything. Guess what that means in the Hebrew? Anything, like nothing, like don't make it, nothing. No, you can't make, not your marriage, not your kids, not your business, not your body, not your bank account. Nothing can be made into an image that you could worship. Nothing should capture our hearts.

And the reason this is really important is because when you worship the wrong thing, it will lead you down the wrong path. Anytime you or I worship or get consumed with or focused on the wrong thing, it will lead you down the wrong path. You worship money? All you gotta do is just, I gotta get more of it. I never quite have enough. You might have plenty, but y'all, I just, I don't know. You worship beauty? Well, you're never quite beautiful enough and you're comparing yourself to everybody else, right? You worship popularity or success? You worship success, you're gonna constantly be climbing a ladder, and miss out on what life is really all about. And so the Israelites, they began to worship this golden calf. And did you catch at the beginning why they created this idol? In the very first verses there in Exodus 32, it says, when the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, come on, we don't even, you make us this God because we don't know what happened to this fellow Moses. It was their impatience that led them to an idol. When God or Moses didn't move as quickly as they wanted,

they moved on. Because idols always promise a quick fix. Idols, they always promise this like instant gratification, like feel good in the moment, a moment of comfort, a moment of release. But idols always over-promise and always under-deliver. So when God wasn't moving as fast as they wanted, and sometimes we do the same things, don't we? I mean, the moment that we don't think God is answering our prayers or he's not moving as quickly as we want him to, we will turn to something else that we can touch or handle or control. We love to control the situation. And so we put our hands on something that we can control, something that we can make, something that we can form, something that we can build, something that we can fashion so that we can actually feel like we're in control. When God seems silent, we often look for a substitute. When God feels distant, we look for something else to deliver us. But the truth is, think about this, while they were building that idol, God was actually building their future. He was on the mountain with Moses talking about the future relationship they were gonna have because when he was up there,

he wasn't just giving Moses 10 commandments for a bunch of rules and regulations. He was trying to help sons and daughters who used to be slaves know how to be sons and daughters. He was trying to help people that have been in captivity their whole lives know what it means to walk in freedom. He was trying to help them understand that they don't have to produce to be accepted anymore. They can have this relationship with God. You know, when I read this, you have to ask the question, where did they get all that gold to make, they were slaves for generations, slaves upon slaves upon slaves upon slaves. Where did they get enough gold to make a big old, cause you know that wasn't like. That was like probably solid gold. Where do they get enough gold? Well, the simple answer is God gave it to them. Because when you look back in the story, in Exodus chapter 12, when they were leaving Egypt, God made the Egyptians give the Israelites gold and silver, and it says anything they asked for. It actually says that the Israelites plundered the Egyptians on their way out. Only God could get people who are a bunch of slaves, their pockets full of gold as they're heading out. And they should have been leaving with nothing. They should have just been happy to get out, right? But they're leaving with gold in their pockets,

more than they needed. Yeah, because that's the kind of God we serve. He's a caring God, a sovereign God, right? He gave them these gifts. The gold was a gift that they turned into a God. It was a gift from God that they actually used to make a God. I wonder what gifts you and I have turned into a God. I wonder what gifts God has given you, a talent or abilities. That's a gift from God, but you've actually turned it into a little God. Look what I can do. Look what I got, right? Maybe it's a financial blessing that every good gift comes from God. And you're like, it's on a shelf. Look at that, it's in my garage. I got 12 of them. I mean, we've turned it into a little, little gods in our life. It could be a relationship. Every relationship you have in your life is a gift from God. And yet we can idolize that person or idolize that relationship and be all consumed with that or our career. There's all these things that can distract us from the things of God. I wonder what gift God has given you that you've turned into a God. Sometimes our biggest idols begin as our greatest gift.

One more point from this part of the story and then we'll move on. Why a cow? Like, why did they make a, of all the images they could have made, why did they make a cow? Well, when you study ancient Egypt, you discover that the Egyptians worshiped cows. So their worship was actually shaped by the world that they grew up in. What the people around them valued, they begin to value and actually worship, which is why we got to be on guard because our world tells us there's some things we're supposed to worship. Like we're supposed to worship success, right? Do whatever you got to do to be successful. We're going to worship money because the more you get, the happier you'll be. Or we got to worship being liked and followed on social media and having a brand and an image. We got to worship all of that because that will make you significant. See, most of our modern day idols are not going to look like a golden cow. They're not going to look evil. They're actually going to look essential. They're going to be these everyday items that find their way into our life

in a different way. And they take a priority in our life. It could be our work. Our career. Maybe we find our identity here. It's something we can build, something we can own. Now listen, I think God wants you to be successful at your work. Work is from God. Work is not a bad thing, it's a good thing. It's a gift from God. And I believe that he wants the work of your hands to be established. But he doesn't want this to become an idol in your life. He doesn't want this to become where you get your sense of satisfaction and your sense of identity. He wants that to come from him. For a lot of us, it's our image. Yeah, yes. How we look, yeah. And we forget that we are actually made in the image of God, that we're actually to be a reflection of the image of God. And instead, we start to protect our own image and our identity and how we feel about ourselves. And the problem with this is it just gets us consumed with who we are.

And this, all of a sudden, we become an idol. Our comfort, what I want, how I feel, what makes me feel good. This becomes an idol. For some people, it's, oh yeah, here we go. It's politics. Oh, I didn't leave you out. Don't worry. Okay. Now, listen, let me say this very clearly. I believe we're supposed to be involved in the political process in our nation. Thank God that we get to be a part of declaring biblical values when we vote and standing up for. Truth, so please hear me. I believe that with all my heart, but this is not to become an idol. A lot of times I've seen people, and their ideology becomes idolatry. So it's okay to have these values that you believe in, and that you stand up for, and that you are even vocal about, but don't let an ideology become an idol in your life. For some, it's a hobby, right? Nothing wrong with hobbies. Hobbies are good. I'm just not very good at this one, right? But there's some people that's consumed with hobbies,

or it could be this possession. Woo, did you see this little car? Yeah, like something you've got, something you have, you get consumed with this. Again, possessions aren't bad. Just make sure your possessions don't possess you, right? You gotta be able to give it up and sacrifice it, right? But a lot of times, we actually, we don't just have these things in our lives. We put it on a pedestal, and we spray paint it gold. Woo, yeah. We idolize it, and we go this, this, this, this. We get consumed with the things that God has given us to enjoy becomes a priority in our lives. I saved the last one, probably the most dangerous idol for last. Any guesses what it is? Port St. Lucie, Boynton, what would y'all say? Money, money, money. Money. Moolah. Racks and stacks, right? Right here, woo. Yeah, we believe that if we get more of this, we're gonna be more content. We get more of this, we're gonna be more satisfied. We get more of this, we'll be happier. Our family will be happier. If we just get more, more, more, more.

And this becomes this idol in our life. You remember the story in Matthew 19 where Jesus encounters a rich young ruler. And the rich young ruler says to Jesus, he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, he approaches him as good teacher. How you come to Jesus will determine what you get from Jesus. So if you only see him as a good teacher, then maybe you'll get a good lesson from God. Maybe something that you can add into your life, but he'll never be Lord of your life. But he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, that question is also absurd because you don't get an inheritance by doing something, you get an inheritance because of relationship. But Jesus plays along with him. And he says, well, what you need to do is keep all the commandments. To which the young man says, I've done that my whole life since I was young. I have kept all the commandments. Jesus didn't even call his bull on that. Like, he's just like, okay. So then Jesus said to him in response in verse 21, that go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Now we don't build a theology on this one verse that this is what everybody's supposed to do because this is the only place in scripture I can find where Jesus commands a rich person to give away all their money. So don't build a theology on this. But Jesus was making a point. Jesus was going beyond his morality to his idolatry. He had kept the commandments, done all the right things. His morality wasn't the issue. His idolatry was. Which means that you and I can do all the right things. Know all the right scriptures and still have idols in our life. But this man, he didn't know what his idol was until Jesus asked for it. When Jesus asked for it, it exposed what his idol was because he couldn't give it up. And if you can't put it on the altar, it's an idol. Earlier in the same gospel of Matthew, in Matthew chapter six, in verse 24, Jesus says that nobody can serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, you'll be loyal to the one and despise the other. And then he says, you cannot serve both God and what? Money. Now, if you've been around Christ Fellowship before, you've heard me say that I didn't think

when I first started studying the Bible that God would say you couldn't serve both God and money. You would think he would say, you can't serve God and the devil. But then when you think about that, nobody woke up this morning going, am I gonna serve God today or the devil? No, nobody. But every day, you and I have to make the decision, am I gonna serve God and what he wants, or am I gonna serve me and what I want? My preferences, right? Or am I gonna put God first? Am I gonna put myself first because I can't serve two masters? Only one could be number one. And Jesus is saying in this verse right here that money or the love of money and what it promises is actually the number one competition for your heart. Remember, we're talking about idols. And Jesus is saying here that the number one idol you and I need to watch out for, you cannot serve both God and money. We need to watch out for this idol that sets itself up in our life. And again, if you've been around Christ Fellowship, you know that the word money there in the original language is what word? Mammon, mammon. But if you had just been reading it

and you didn't know what mammon was, you would go, well, I don't even know what mammon is, so I'm not serving it. So the translators put it in as money, but the better translation would be you cannot serve God or mammon. And mammon was the name of an Assyrian god of riches, an actual idol out of Babylon. Babylon was the place where in Genesis they built the Tower of Babel, trying to get to God on their own. It was a spirit in Babylon that said, we don't need God. We can do it ourselves. We can get to God ourselves. We can get to the heavens ourselves. We don't need God. And the spirit of mammon says the same thing today. If you get enough money, then you've got enough, you can take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your future. You don't even need Jaira. You be Jaira. You be your own provider. You take care of yourself. You take care of your family. You take care. Instead of saying, God, every good gift comes from you, and so I'm gonna trust you to be my supplier. See, a spirit of mammon makes promises it can't keep. Spirit of mammon says, you get more money,

you're gonna be happier. Your marriage will be better. Your kids will be better. You'll have peace of mind. Oh, you're gonna feel significant. It promises things that only God can give, because only God can give you peace of mind. Only God can give you a good marriage and take care of your kids and take care of your future. Only God can do that. You know, in the Bible, as I was studying it again over the last couple of weeks, there's this cycle of idolatry that you see played out over and over again. Different generations, different leaders, different circumstances, same cycle. And it usually starts with a blessing. Almost every time it starts with God blessing his people because God likes to bless his children. God rescues them. God provides for them. God protects them. You see it here after the Exodus out of Egypt. You'll see it when they go into the Promised Land. You'll see it during the reign of David and Solomon. There's a blessing that comes, but then the blessing turns to complacency. In fact, Moses warns Israel in Deuteronomy chapter eight, when you have eaten and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God,

because prosperity can produce spiritual amnesia. When life gets good, we forget where the good came from. So the blessing turns to complacency. Judges chapter two puts it this way. Another generation grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. And when God has forgotten, something else is always gonna take its place. So that complacency ends up leading to compromise. When you study Israel, the children of God, they didn't abandon God right out. They just added a few other things in with God. They just added some stuff in. They looked at the other gods around the area and go, ah, we'll take a little bit of that, a little bit of that, a little bit of Baal, a little bit of Asherah, they just took a little bit. Because these idols promised rain, or they promised crops, or they promised security, or they promised prosperity. And so the Israelites thought, hey, why don't I just keep my options open? I worship God and a little bit of what's going on around me. See, that's how idolatry begins. It's not with this outright rejection of God, but this slow replacement of him, looking to other things for what only God can give us. And then in the cycle, the last thing we see is that idolatry leads to bondage. It says in Psalm 106, they worshiped their idols,

which became a snare to them. So idols promised freedom, but they always lead to bondage. And when you read through the Bible, when the people of God would turn away from God, it would lead to this oppression and bondage. But then when they would come to their senses, they would turn back to God and they would repent, and God would always forgive them. Say, come on back, let's try this again. The pattern is clear. God blesses his people. The blessing leads to complacency. Complacency leads to compromise. Compromise leads to idolatry and idolatry leads to bondage. You know, I wish our idols came with warning labels, right? Wouldn't that be better? We could avoid them if they came with warning labels, like, warning, this can consume your life and make you miss out on life. Warning, this is gonna lead to constant comparison and anxiety, don't get focused on it. Warning, cannot handle the weight of your worship. Warning, will demand a sacrifice but can't provide salvation. And warning, can never give you what it promises. So what is that one, two things in your life that as we've been talking today, God's been saying, hey, watch out for that idol. Be on guard against that thing becoming a main thing in your life.

God wants to be the main thing. I have three questions I wanna give you today. If you're wondering if there's something in your life that might be coming an idol, I want you to ask these three questions. Number one, does this lead me closer to God or distract me from him? Does it lead me closer? Is this thing driving me closer to God or is it distracting me from God? The second question, do I rely on this thing more than God for my comfort or my identity or my self-worth? And the third question is if God asked me to give it up, would I give it up without any hesitation? Would I try to hold onto it as long as I can? Don't turn the gift into a little God. I wanna give us all a moment to reflect on what the Holy Spirit's been speaking to us. He's been speaking to me all week long as I've been preparing this message about things in my life that I've started to allow to creep in, to kind of take a priority, and I've been consumed with it or focused on it or thinking, man, if I could make sure that happens, then Jefferson's gonna be okay, and my new grandbaby, you know, instead of just trusting in God. Not that there aren't other things we have to do. I'm not saying that. We just can't let it become an idol. And so I wanna pray two prayers today.

First prayer, I'm gonna give you a moment of silent reflection right where you are just to respond, to identify and crucify any idol that's been taking your devotion away from God today. The second prayer I wanna pray are for those of you that you need to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Like maybe when I talked about just tacking Jesus on, a little bit of the world, a little bit of God, a little bit, you're like, yeah, that's where I've been. But today, you need to make him Lord of your life. Put him in that first place today. And so that second prayer is gonna be for you. Would you bow your heads as we pray? God, we thank you for your word that brings revelation to our hearts. That a story that took place thousands of years ago at Mount Sinai could speak to us today about idols that we've built up in our life. Good things that maybe are becoming the main thing which make them a bad thing. I pray today that you'd help each one of us sacrifice that idol today and not let it have a place of devotion in our hearts. And so whatever that is for you, whatever you need to confess to God, just confess that to him right now. Say, God, I'm sorry for being consumed with this. I'm sorry that I've made this a priority. You are my priority. You are first.

As we continue to pray with every head bowed, if you're here today and you would say, Todd, that prayer about making Jesus Lord of my life, that prayer is for me. I'm gonna pray this prayer right now. It's about surrendering to God. If you would say, Todd, include me in this prayer, then right where you are, would you just raise your hand up? Yeah, hold it up high, all locations across. You want everything Jesus has for you, his peace, his forgiveness, his mercy today, and you're saying, I surrender. We're gonna pray this prayer together. All of us out loud, pray this prayer. Say, dear Lord Jesus. Dear Lord Jesus. Come into my life. Come into my life. I make you Lord of my life. Forgive me of all my sin. I want to be a follower of Jesus. And I will follow you every day of my life. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, let's thank God today for all those that made that decision for Jesus. You