Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 So good morning village church East. That is completely my fault. And, uh, now I'm now I'm really, I, I have a very big reverb now. Hopefully if we're online. All right, sorry about that. Everybody at home that is completely my fault. I didn't turn my a pack on and now you can hear me. Good morning village church East. Uh, my name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here, although you'd never know
Speaker 1 00:00:22 At Villa charities, and it's my privilege to welcome you to our service this morning. We're excited to be able to bring God's word
Speaker 0 00:00:30 You again this morning. And especially as we enter into this new
Speaker 1 00:00:33 New year exit the old
Speaker 0 00:00:35 Year and look forward to better, better things ahead. Um, it is interesting to me how much we need to rely on Lord for all of
Speaker 1 00:00:43 Those things. Uh, and we just
Speaker 0 00:00:45 Keep getting reminded of that day after day,
Speaker 1 00:00:47 Day after day, if you're watching us on the, um, VC east.org website, and you're following along in the chat room, which again,
Speaker 0 00:00:58 I appreciate Megan saying that this morning, we do encourage you to talk as much as you like to during the service this morning, you'll know that, uh, I've been spending some time in prayer this morning for all the different requests that'd be going on. And I just want to, I don't want to take any time this morning to pray. We've, we've spent a lot of time in prayer already, but I just want to bring you up to date on some ways that God is actually answering pers. Uh, some of us have been praying for Robert and Joan. Robert actually is out
Speaker 1 00:01:23 Of the hospital. He had, COVID had a really big bout with COVID found a tear in his lung, repaired a mop. And, uh, he now is in, um, in rehab. And so that is such an answer to prayer. And so Robert and Joan, if you know them just want to give you that update. Um,
Speaker 0 00:01:42 All of the other prayer requests, many of him been praying for the different prayer requests that you've been seeing online. And we just need
Speaker 1 00:01:48 To really trust in God as to these prayers. I've been praying in an interesting way these days. I, if you've been following me on my Facebook page, uh,
Speaker 0 00:01:58 Actually some seasons of my life, I began to pray and see God answer prayers. Like never before. I don't know if my eyes are more open to it, or if it actually is happening that way. But I think God is just proving himself to be very, very,
Speaker 1 00:02:11 To us, very kind to us and us.
Speaker 0 00:02:13 So we've been praying for an enormous amount of things. The list keeps getting longer and God just keeps answering prayer and answering prayer and answering prayer. And so
Speaker 1 00:02:22 Just want to spend a minute and we'll give him some thanks for that. Before we dive in God, thank you for being the kind of God who listens, not just listens, but loves to answer. Show us how great you are, how mighty you are by interjecting
Speaker 0 00:02:37 Your power into our lives in various different
Speaker 1 00:02:39 Ways and answering prayer, just baffling doctors and baffling us at times because we just,
Speaker 0 00:02:46 I don't know any way out of the situations we find ourselves in. And yet you
Speaker 1 00:02:49 Us in the middle of the deepest poles, will you give us the, the greatest peace you, you even give us a joy in those tough times. And I do pray for Dan this morning. He's heavy on my heart, that his family watch over him. Just give him, give him that joy, give him that courage that he needs as he shared with his family about the situation with cancer for the very first time, may your blessings flow over that family. And there's so many others. Lord, we do give thanks for Robert. Thanks for answering prayers. We look for, we pray with expectant hearts because we know you love to, you love to answer prayer. So blow us away every day, blow us away every day and help us to acknowledge how good you are. Thanks for all these songs this morning and the theme of our day so far that you are good. Now, as we open your word, Lord, let our hearts be open to what you have to say to us because you are good and anything you have to say to us today, Lord, we want to receive with a, with a humble, ready spirit. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. I have to make
Speaker 0 00:03:56 Fashioned to you this morning. I didn't say it in my prayer, but I do have to confess something here this morning and it's deepened my heart. It's actually something
Speaker 1 00:04:04 I don't want to do, but I need to tell you right away. I took a test this week. It was a test called how spiritual are you? I took it online and I failed the test. I am not spiritual at all. In fact, let me read to you my exact results. I did so poorly on this test, that the test rebuked me for taking the test.
Speaker 0 00:04:29 I think you could do as bad as I could do on this test. Listen, this is my,
Speaker 1 00:04:32 As a result verbatim, you are not
Speaker 0 00:04:35 Be ritualistic at all. You are not spiritual. You may be a responsible and intelligent,
Speaker 1 00:04:42 But people see you as a shy self centered skeptical person. That's that was my result of taking this test. Now you're probably thinking of yourself. Well, Craig, I agree with the rest of it. You're you're you, are
Speaker 0 00:04:56 You skeptical and self-centered but I would get the shy thing. Maybe that's what you're thinking.
Speaker 1 00:05:00 That's what I thought actually here. Let me read you the questions. All right. The first question is, do you believe in being spiritual? That's the only one I got right. By the way I put yes. I believe in being spiritual all the time
Speaker 0 00:05:13 Questions after that says, they said things like, do you met? How many hours do you
Speaker 1 00:05:17 Meditate per day? Do you believe in energies and crystals for healing? Does it? How does a picture of a sunset make you feel? I just wrote in there it's a picture of a sunset. Uh, what element do you feel more connected to earth, wind air or fire? I wrote none of the above. And so I failed the test. I am not spiritualistic at all. And what amazed me is every question on this internet test, which presumably comes from intelligent people. If it's on the internet, you can trust it. No, sorry Sarah. Sorry. Every question on the test had to do with something related, something created. How do you identify?
Speaker 0 00:06:01 And if I, with a sunset, how do you deal with crystals? How do you, what do you think of? Uh, what was the other one? What do you think of wind earth? Air fire. Which one is connected? Which one?
Speaker 1 00:06:13 Yeah, connected more with everything was, was related to something creative. So I have my own test for you. This one. Are you ready? I'm gonna do a test test. All right. All alright. We're going to do a test this morning. What? I want you to
Speaker 0 00:06:27 You at home too. I'm I'm assuming you have, normally you might have more than one.
Speaker 1 00:06:31 The person around, maybe you're by yourself. If you're by yourself, just ask yourself this question out loud. We won't think you're psychotic. Okay. So here's the question. I want you to
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Somebody that's with you. You could do that here as well. Turn to somebody who's with you and ask them this question. Actually, I'll ask you the question you tell the person next to you. The answer,
Speaker 1 00:06:51 The question. Describe God. Go describe God. Read at home. Describe God. Come up with anything. Holy. Okay. Everywhere. Any other good ones? No words to describe him. All right. Interesting. Here's here's here's some other questions to go along with that. What does God look like? What are God's features? What drives God? What makes, what, what demands is he allowed to make from us? Now? I was going to play you a little clip from the office where Michael is meeting with his crew
Speaker 0 00:07:47 Drew in the office. Michael had Dunder Mifflin. He had just hit Meredith with his car and he was afraid that they're going to Sue him into oblivion. And so he sat in there, the office and I'm not going to do this, but I really, really want to do. And in Michael goes on to try and describe God,
Speaker 1 00:08:03 The body of an, of an, of a, of a Cocker doodle. And he's got the head of a, of a fish. And it's
Speaker 0 00:08:12 Just, it's hilarious because he's trying to
Speaker 1 00:08:14 Describe God. It is a natural flow of the human mind to grasp spirituality by comparing it to something we know. All right, let me say that again. It is a natural flow of our human minds to grasp
Speaker 0 00:08:33 Spirituality or to grasp God
Speaker 1 00:08:37 By relating
Speaker 0 00:08:38 Him to things that are created
Speaker 1 00:08:40 Around us. And then here comes your way in a single command and blows all that up out of the water. Jump in with me.
Speaker 0 00:08:51 We are in the second command and Exodus chapter 20, where at Sinai with the children of Israel, this is commandment number two. And God says you shall make not make for you
Speaker 1 00:09:01 A carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth question church. Why is this number two? Why is this number
Speaker 0 00:09:19 Two on the big 10? I mean, if you're making a list of 10 really
Speaker 1 00:09:23 Important things, you're going to, you're going to
Speaker 0 00:09:25 Whittle them down to the bare set. Why is this one
Speaker 1 00:09:28 Number two? Well, I have an illustration for you and here
Speaker 0 00:09:35 I'm walking off camera for a second and now I'm back. Hey
Speaker 1 00:09:38 On camera. Now I want to introduce you to this
Speaker 0 00:09:43 Little doll here. And I want to tell you
Speaker 1 00:09:45 That this is Beth. Let's pretend you've never met Beth. You've never met my wife. You don't know my wife, but I would have
Speaker 0 00:09:55 Tell you, well, this is my wife. This is, this is Beth. This is an image. But this is the woman who brings
Speaker 1 00:10:01 Joy to my life. This is the woman I've
Speaker 0 00:10:03 Given my life to. This is a woman who has borne me four wonderful daughters.
Speaker 1 00:10:08 The woman who I belong to, this is her. Now you'd look at me and you'd say, Craig, that's the dumbest illustration I have ever heard. Good. Hopefully it'll, it'll make an impact. Then by the way,
Speaker 0 00:10:20 This is big bird, but it's the smallest doll I've ever seen in my life, which is kind of ironic in itself. So if you've never met Beth,
Speaker 1 00:10:28 If you've never met my wife and I were to say to you, okay, here, here she is. This is, this is my wife. This is who she is from now on. When I say, when I talk about Beth, what are you going to think about? You're going to think about big bird. Well, small bird right now, Beth.
Speaker 0 00:10:46 It's probably going to have a conversation with me when I get home. So I just want to tell you, I did not approve this.
Speaker 1 00:10:51 <inaudible> with my spouse. This is the dumbest thing you've ever seen, right? And I'll probably have
Speaker 0 00:10:58 Conversation with Beth. And she'll say the same thing. That's the dumbest illustration I've ever heard
Speaker 1 00:11:02 Because this in no way represents Beth. God says the same thing to us. God will have no representations.
Speaker 0 00:11:18 And that we understand that God will have no representations. God says, literally I will not be limited
Speaker 1 00:11:24 To your small brains. I will not
Speaker 0 00:11:26 Be limited by your small imagination. I do not reside in objects. In fact, in Isaiah 46, verse five, he says to whom will you
Speaker 1 00:11:36 Can me and make me equal and compare me that we should be the same. You see, when you talk about God, it is very interesting that the mini
Speaker 0 00:11:49 You even begin describing God, you bring them down a notch. God
Speaker 1 00:11:54 Is different from us. He's Holy, he's separate apart from us. And when we verbally try and explain who he is, like the spirituality tests that I took, we automatically begin comparing him to other things that he created. God said, I'm not going to have any of that. I am not to be imaged by anything. There's nothing that you should look at that you will one day say, Oh, look, that's God, God knows. This will be the inclination of our heart. He knows that we are magnetically drawn to the idea of comparing what we know to something we see taste, touch, smell, or feel. And God says, I don't want any of that. In fact, this may blow you away. How many of you know anything about the arc of the covenant? Have you heard of the arc of the covenant before? This is the old Testament arc of the covenant that they ended up putting some of the Holy objects in some manner and stuff like that goes in the Ark.
Speaker 1 00:12:49 Aaron's rod, rod, that budded, all those things go in. The arc. The arc of the covenant was actually not a hope chest idea. Although it did open and you threw stuff in there that was not the idea of the Ark of the covenant. The Ark of the covenant was meant to be the throne of God. How do I know that? Because on the top of the arc of the covenant, what was on the top of the arc of the covenant? Does anybody remember the mercy seat? It was a throne. The cherubim had there. You ever watching the antigens, the chair of them had their wings out and under their wings was a chair. And what was on the chair? Nothing, nothing was on the chair. Do you know why? Because God cannot be imaged. There is nothing that we can compare to God. He is completely separate from everything that he has made.
Speaker 1 00:13:47 And when the nations around had their parades and they paraded around dag on their God with the human body and the fish head or the no, no. Was it the other way around? I don't remember. Anyway, it was kind of like a mermaid there God, or, or all by all was, uh, the, the, the body of a human male strong and the head of a bull. When you looked at that, you said, Oh, there's by all. Or when you looked at the fish, you'd just say, ah, there's dag on the God or the Asherah pole. It was a pole that represented Asherah God will have no representation. None. God does not want us to make a visible image of himself from anything that he has made in the heavens above. That's a sky in the earth below. That's where we live or under the, under the ocean. That's what we cannot see. God gets nothing. Nothing can represent God, no images about a sacred and Holy and nothing that is made can compare to God. The point is don't make images
Speaker 0 00:14:56 Of God because they will quickly become idols
Speaker 1 00:14:58 For you. Now, there are two levels of idolatry that we have. The two levels are in level. One is intentional idolatry and level two is accidental idolatry. Let's talk about intentional idolatry. First. These are by
Speaker 0 00:15:16 Nature, inanimate objects. They are not
Speaker 1 00:15:18 Living. These are, these are
Speaker 0 00:15:21 Objects that cannot bring or do anything for us. These are objects that are easy to explain because we can actually see them. Intentional. Idolatry is one
Speaker 1 00:15:31 Easily. Identify the Hindus. For instance, a Hindu religion has over a million gods that you can choose from. And there are,
Speaker 0 00:15:41 Or actually several around our neighborhoods that you can go and you can see
Speaker 1 00:15:44 A God image that they will bring
Speaker 0 00:15:47 Sacrifices to. They will feed their gods.
Speaker 1 00:15:49 They'll bring food to these, these images. These are
Speaker 0 00:15:55 Identify, I actually read a composition from a Hindu and he said, each person is entitled to his own interpretation
Speaker 1 00:16:02 Analysis to his own subjective experiences provided. I find I found out, um, uh, analysis. Uh, I found, uh, experiences do all of these experiences do not contradict the larger Hindu views. Sorry. I get mistaken there. The principle of
Speaker 0 00:16:18 Worship, he says filters down to the man
Speaker 1 00:16:20 In the street when he focuses attention
Speaker 0 00:16:22 On one or more of the 3 million Hindu gods
Speaker 1 00:16:25 In goddesses, choose a God or a goddess that works for you. Now that's easy
Speaker 0 00:16:30 For us to go along. We drive along and we see the, the, the images and we say, that's not right. You can't make an image of the God we serve. Y'all way God,
Speaker 1 00:16:39 No images. However, we do kind of delve into this a little bit, and this might walk on some toes, but I do need to tell you my brother and I went to Europe when we were bicycling around right after I got out of school,
Speaker 0 00:16:54 It took about five months and we bicycled around Europe. And one of the things that we noticed that was kind of
Speaker 1 00:16:58 Interesting was every now and then there would be a little, little doll house kind of thing on a stand on the side of the road. And in there was like a little figurine we found out
Speaker 0 00:17:10 Later that that was, and you may know this. Some of you may know that's, that was St. Thomas,
Speaker 1 00:17:16 Uh, say Christopher St. Christopher, who is the, the guardian or the protector of the traveler. And so
Speaker 0 00:17:24 This would be the person that watches over you and protects you while
Speaker 1 00:17:28 Travel. Or if you're selling a house, you can put a
Speaker 0 00:17:32 Statue of, I think it's Joseph upside down in your backyard and your house will fat
Speaker 1 00:17:38 Faster. Uh, now some of you have heard of these things. Some of you maybe have actually done some of these things, and I'm here to tell you, well, let me go on. Before I, before I drive this one home a little further. When we lived in Madison, Wisconsin, there was a street that went down from the Capitol and we were down at the Capitol one day and we walked into this spiritual store. And when I walked in, there were all of these rocks, all these crystals, all over the place. And you can pick up
Speaker 0 00:18:05 Crystal that you really liked, or one that you wanted in it. And underneath it would say energy or love or joy or something like that. You buy the crystal and you bring it home and you would get the energy from it.
Speaker 1 00:18:15 Crystal. These are all forms of idolatry. Now you may say, well, see
Speaker 0 00:18:25 Greg, why would the, why would those things be a form of idolatry? And here it is. And please listen to me and, and understand what I'm trying to say, because you're giving God now
Speaker 1 00:18:33 Yes, to something made. Anytime we give God ness to something made, we are saying
Speaker 0 00:18:43 That there is a God character. There's a,
Speaker 1 00:18:46 Uh, uh, a thing about God that is innate part of this thing that he created. And I got to tell you, you don't need to do any of that.
Speaker 0 00:18:57 In fact, in scripture, this, this is why we, we don't you'll look around our church. You'll look around this place. You'll only see
Speaker 1 00:19:03 The one symbol and it's a symbol of the cross. We don't worship the cross. We worship what the cross stands for. We don't put images up anywhere because of this one command. Our hearts are magnetically drawn to give God ness to some thing. And God says, I'll have none of that because all
Speaker 0 00:19:25 Of the blessings of mine, God says are yours in Jesus
Speaker 1 00:19:29 Christ. You don't need to rely on anything that is made. You just
Speaker 0 00:19:35 Need to know all of those things are already yours
Speaker 1 00:19:39 Because of me. So we don't ascribe God power to anything. Now
Speaker 0 00:19:45 They're easy to identify. Those are hands we can touch. We can walk around.
Speaker 1 00:19:49 We can show each other, our little, uh, our little, uh, what does that, uh, big birds. We can say, look at this,
Speaker 0 00:19:57 This, this, this has power. This has energy. Hang onto this. Stick a rabbit's foot and rubbed. This it'll make it better to your private Jeanie. You could tell them
Speaker 1 00:20:04 What to do that. God wants none of that. Now the second one, the second one is harder to identify. The second way we do idolatry,
Speaker 0 00:20:14 We break this command is accidentally,
Speaker 1 00:20:18 Accidentally.
Speaker 0 00:20:19 Idolatry is idolatry of the heart, and this is harder to see. We may not even realize that
Speaker 1 00:20:26 Creating gods. When we create them, these kinds of goals,
Speaker 0 00:20:31 Odds are in our lives and represent anything. We would sacrifice
Speaker 1 00:20:34 Order to get whatever you're willing to get. That is your God. This is when I ascribe the ability.
Speaker 0 00:20:45 God has to be everything I need
Speaker 1 00:20:48 To something else. And it may not be the little Joseph. I buried back heads down in my backyard, but it may be something way down, deep in here. I want, and I'm willing to sacrifice something to get it. I have an idol of the heart. This comes through in last, uh, uh, appetites material. Every time, listen, every time you enjoy a gift from God, but in your heart, credit your enjoyment to something else. Other than God, you have found an idol and we are good idol makers, the first command and the second commandment go well together, commandment. Number one, God does not share his position with any other thing that has been made. No other gods and commandment. Number two, where we're at today is God does not share his image with any other thing that has been made. And you may look at me and say, Craig, is it wrong to enjoy the things that God gave us? No, it's good. Enjoy the things that God has given to us. Genesis one 28 literally says, have fun. Be fruitful. That means find success, multiply, have sex. Fill the earth, have lots of sex. Subdue the earth, enjoy all I have made for you, but do it in the confines of the way it's meant to be used.
Speaker 1 00:22:15 All of this God says is as good as I can make it. And it's all for you. Read Genesis one and two. It's amazing. God has created everything we know for our enjoyment. Enjoy it. I grew up in a Baptist church and that was a hard one to get through my head because it was like, no, Sean, everything everything's bad. Find a corner, hide in it until Jesus comes back. If you look at scripture, God has created everything so we could enjoy it. Have fun, enjoy your life. The problem is sometimes those things we enjoy become idols for us.
Speaker 1 00:22:53 And when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, it becomes an idol. When a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, it becomes an idol. We're doing sermon prep on this. And, uh, Matt souls, youth pastor at the other campus at Bartlett, we were sitting there and he said, you know, actually, somebody, somebody brought this up about Matt soul son, Colton Colton came up with an illustration. I was sitting there gone. I have to use that on Sunday nights. It's just too good. Colton. His son, his nine year old son came up with this illustration where he made a circle and he made a bigger circle. And then he made another little circle, another bigger circle, like you see right there. And he said, whatever, uh, God is at the center of your life. He's at the middle circle. And all those other things are things he has given to you to enjoy.
Speaker 0 00:23:46 But if you enjoy those things and push them to the middle
Speaker 1 00:23:49 Circle, God gets pushed to the outside circle. And whatever you lose in there is everything because you've lost everything to gain it. When you push to the center of your life, whatever
Speaker 0 00:24:06 It is, you push to the center of your life. You eventually pushed God
Speaker 1 00:24:09 Note that has become your idol. We do this often. God
Speaker 0 00:24:19 Wants to be the center of our lives. How do I know that? Because Jesus
Speaker 1 00:24:22 Said it. Remember somebody came to him and said, what is the first and greatest commandment? Jesus said, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, all means all, nothing left behind. God needs to be the center.
Speaker 0 00:24:40 In fact, when you come to Jesus Christ, Jesus, didn't try to sell himself like, Hey, try me since you've tried everything else, try me and see if it works for you. If it doesn't go back to the other things Jesus said, if you want to
Speaker 1 00:24:50 Call me, you take up your cross and you follow me, make no mistake about a church. God wants to be at the center of your lives so that you can enjoy the other things properly around you. But when those things become the ultimate things, you found an idol. If there's something
Speaker 0 00:25:09 In your life that has become an ultimate thing so that it supersedes what God
Speaker 1 00:25:15 For you, you are a good idol maker. Verse nine. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord, your God am a jealous
Speaker 0 00:25:30 God, Whoa, isn't jealousy a sin.
Speaker 1 00:25:32 No, neither is anger, discipline or wrath. They're only sin when they are not
Speaker 0 00:25:39 Done in adjust. And proper
Speaker 1 00:25:41 Way is it's a sin for a husband to be jealous of his faithless wife. No, it's just, it is just an, it is right. So what is the difference between God's jealousy and ours? Here? It is. We are jealous for what we don't have. God is jealous for what is rightfully is you say that one more time. We are jealous for what we don't have. God is jealous for what rightfully belongs to him. First Corinthians six 19. Do you know who belongs to God? Do you not know?
Speaker 0 00:26:15 So that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit within you, whom you have from God. So you are not your own. You were bought with a price. So therefore glorify God
Speaker 1 00:26:27 In your body. We are God's creation and God is jealous of us. And that's right. And that's just, that's what drove him to kill his only son so that we could find a relationship with him. That's how much God loves us. Keep reading
Speaker 0 00:26:52 Bowed down to them. Don't worship them. And if you don't, if you do, I will visit the inequity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation
Speaker 1 00:26:59 And of those who hate me, but show steadfastness, showing steadfast love to thousands
Speaker 0 00:27:07 Of those who love me and keep my commandments. You see, eventually your idol re
Speaker 1 00:27:12 Why are your worship?
Speaker 0 00:27:15 It'll will require your worship. It will demand your time. It will demand your attention. It will demand your money. It will,
Speaker 1 00:27:21 And you, and they will make demands that will require you to sacrifice to it. It has become your idol. When we bow down
Speaker 0 00:27:31 To an idol, it's just a matter of time before we are called to
Speaker 1 00:27:34 Sacrifice more than we want to. We can play with
Speaker 0 00:27:39 Titles for a little while, but eventually they will demand more than we're willing
Speaker 1 00:27:43 To pay. What does an alcoholic sacrifice for his idle? What does a money hungry person sacrifice for his idle? What does a student sacrifice to be popular to the popular idol? The idol of popular? What does a student sacrifice to her idol? What price do addicts pay for their idols? Listen, church. What has your idol cost? You idols always cost us something. And the long we worship at the alters of these idols, the more they require us to pay. Eventually you'll lose more than you planned on giving. What's the contrast to this. We do worship an image. We do worship an image. God alone is the exclusive image in all creation. And God became flesh and dwelt among us. There is only one image that we can worship. There's only one image, one person that that calls for us to worship him. Colossians one 15 talks about this person. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
Speaker 0 00:29:09 Of all creation. That means he is the prominent
Speaker 1 00:29:12 Person in all creation. He is the very image of God and in a culture where we are used to bowing down,
Speaker 0 00:29:21 Down to idols, making idols with our hands or sacrificing
Speaker 1 00:29:25 Idols in the heart. God says there is an image that you can worship, but it's not made. It's not created. It was, it was
Speaker 0 00:29:36 Revealed to us when the time was right.
Speaker 1 00:29:41 It is the person of Jesus Christ. That's why when you come to our services, we just sing about Jesus all the time. That's why we talk to Jesus all the time. That's why we pray in Jesus name. Why? Because Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the prominent image in all creation, but we don't prefer in our natural state to worship the image that God has given to us. So we begin tinkering in the Acme, idle manufacturing, plants, the rules
Speaker 0 00:30:16 Of this plant, the Rudel rules of design and plant
Speaker 1 00:30:20 Have been laid out for us in Romans chapter one, verses 18 to 24. And the
Speaker 0 00:30:26 Auto for the idol plant. When you walk through the doors and look up on the ceiling, you will see on written on the
Speaker 1 00:30:32 Wall where you can make the difference. There's much to choose from in this manufacturing plant. You can move to the first station. And when you get through the first station in the plant, you will see this is station number one, the idea, the idea, and the idea is what begins up here or in here, it elevates your deepest desires and the material you get to work with in order to make this idol is a material called suppression. Romans one talks about
Speaker 0 00:31:03 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of you
Speaker 1 00:31:08 And who by who, by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. You see, every person knows there's a God. It is built into our DNA. The only,
Speaker 0 00:31:20 Only way you can get around that truth is you've got to
Speaker 1 00:31:24 Suppress it, push it down. So the first table you come do, the first station you come to is a station called, uh, called the idea and the material you have to work with is suppression. Get rid of that idea and then start with your own idea. Once you have the idea made, you can carry that over to the station. Number two, station number two is where you paint it. And when you paint, whatever it is you're creating, you always have to use a dark hue. The dark hue is necessary because this is
Speaker 0 00:31:59 Where your imagination needs to take over. And you have to imagine that goodness,
Speaker 1 00:32:04 This and righteousness come from different places. The material your you work with here is straight up in gratitude. So you take a little bit
Speaker 0 00:32:15 And gratitude to the God who has been good to you. And you give thanks to something else.
Speaker 1 00:32:21 You take a little bit of
Speaker 0 00:32:22 A gratitude for the God who gives you joy and peace and mercy and hope and all of these, one of links, and you put it into this idle and you, and you mash it in there and you begin creating
Speaker 1 00:32:32 Your idol and making it look beautiful with a dark paint. Romans one verse 21 goes to say, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were what church were darkened. Take a little bit of dark humor,
Speaker 0 00:32:54 Paint up that idea that you're going to use to replace your knowledge of God, and then pick up your project and head to the next station. Station. Number three
Speaker 1 00:33:02 Is the exchange listed right above there. And do you
Speaker 0 00:33:06 Park yourself at the table and you pull your project up and put it on the table. And you begin, you begin working with this new, this new table, this new station called the exchange. This is where you exchange the small inclination you still have in your mind and in your heart to acknowledge God and you exchange it.
Speaker 1 00:33:23 The thing that you're making and the material you need to plow into this one is pride. Pride is a great material. You get a lot of, a lot of toughness on whatever you're making here. You put a little bit of pride in there. You elevate, elevate
Speaker 0 00:33:38 Other things to the place of God. And now you really begin to look at this thing and, and the exchanges
Speaker 1 00:33:43 Almost complete. Forget the God that I know exists. I've suppressed that. And now I put a little bit of pride into this, and now I can
Speaker 0 00:33:54 Because this, and it can, it can be my complete, I can exchange
Speaker 1 00:33:57 My, my love for, or my appreciation for this God. And put it into this thing. I'm making verse
Speaker 0 00:34:03 23, Romans one, they exchanged the glory
Speaker 1 00:34:06 Of the immortal God for images, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. You're beginning to make your wonderful idle. It's taking shape. It's looking beautiful. It's got a little bit of paint on there now, and a little bit of pride and you pick it up and you move to station. Number four, station number four is the consequence, the consequences, what this idol delivers for you. You begin to realize everything
Speaker 0 00:34:36 That you have put into the Seidel is finally
Speaker 1 00:34:38 Going to pay off. And your material work with here is regrets. You get everything, you think your heart desires, and you find out that what you have left. There's a lot of regret. Romans one goes on to say, therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies
Speaker 0 00:35:01 Among themselves because they exchanged the truth
Speaker 1 00:35:04 About God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forevermore, listen, God gives idle makers what they really want. God gives them up to what they really desire. And too many times they find out in station. Number four, material they have to work with is just a lot of regrets. Idolatry. One-on-one is this when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing? That's when you find your idol and you lose your soul when you pursue it. So what Jesus is a very image of God. That's why we worship him, but where can we look today to see something of the likeness of God?
Speaker 1 00:36:03 Is there a place we can look at today that would be able to say, okay, that that is as close to comparing to God as I can possibly get. And you know what church there is, this is going to blow you away. And probably if you, if you've taken any theological courses at all, or you are, you've thought down this path, you probably know exactly what I'm going to say. God has refused to make himself, let us make him into any created image. So you know what he did. He created an image that we can look at and we can say that's as close to God as we can get that's as close to an example of the image of God, as we can get Genesis one 27. So God created man in his own watch church, you can say his own way and his own image in the image of God, he created him, male and female.
Speaker 1 00:36:57 He created them. Church, looked to the person in the room next to you and look at them and realize they are an image of the invisible God. Now that blows your way, right? Maybe it doesn't idols of this world were always treated with dignity and honor and respect because you could get something out of them. If you want to know why we are in love with people and why we sacrifice for people and why we bend over backwards for people, it is because they are made in the image of God. It doesn't matter what they look physically look like. It doesn't matter if they're challenged in some way. It doesn't matter. If they're fallen more than another image is we respect the image of God that we see created in the human person.
Speaker 1 00:37:51 We call life sacred because we see in it, the image of God. Now the image that you see around you in your image has fallen. It's broken. I know we don't image God very well, but that's why I'm glad we're at the Watts because we become better Christ followers. When we re, when we re reflect a better image of God, we are not the image. We are the image bearers. And when we live our lives in a way that Jesus would live, we reflect the image of God. We don't worship each other because we're not the image where the image bearer, we reflect the image of God. Number one, we don't make images. We become images. We image God in the way that we think we reason we speak. We love and we forget, listen, do you know why you speak? Do you know why you speak? You speak because God spoke first who spoke first humans are God God did. And he created us in his image. So if God speaks, we speak, who thought first us or God, God, do you know why you think
Speaker 0 00:39:05 And reason? Then you can, you can do these fabulous equations in your head is because God could do it first. And you're created as image. So you get to do it
Speaker 1 00:39:13 To do you know who loved first? Was it us or God, you have the ability
Speaker 0 00:39:18 To love because God loves. It's the kind of
Speaker 1 00:39:22 Whatever God is. He created us in him,
Speaker 0 00:39:24 His image, and we have the ability to reflect sin, screws
Speaker 1 00:39:28 All up in us. So we can't love unconditionally. We love expecting to get something in return. That is a fallen version of love. If you want to love, like, God loves you love unconditionally. You want to forgive
Speaker 0 00:39:43 Like God forgives you. Forgive unconditionally. You see, you have the ability to forgive because you're made in the image of God.
Speaker 1 00:39:49 I forgave first God. Anything that we do comes to us because we're made in God's image fallen, but we can
Speaker 0 00:39:59 Be redeemed. And so I would say to you, one more time,
Speaker 1 00:40:02 We don't make images. We become images. We become images of God. This is not the way that it was meant to be. We were meant
Speaker 0 00:40:15 The reflection of the image. Jesus came to show us what a proper reflection of the image
Speaker 1 00:40:20 Was. Did you know that when Jesus was created, he was called Emmanuel, which means God with us. That means when you look at Jesus, you look at him and go, Oh, that's how God would do it. And when can we watch Jesus do this? You go, Oh, that's what God would do. And you watch Jesus
Speaker 0 00:40:37 Died on the cross. You say, Oh, that's what
Speaker 1 00:40:39 God would do. You see?
Speaker 0 00:40:42 We do poorly because of sin. He did perfectly because he is similar.
Speaker 1 00:40:45 Yes, he is the perfect image of the invisible God. We are not, we are image bearers and what
Speaker 0 00:40:53 Never image we are becoming. It's only because God is doing
Speaker 1 00:40:56 Work in us. We reflect the image of God. Plus it's one 15.
Speaker 0 00:41:03 Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation. God provided a way for his image to be reborn in us. First Corinthians 1549, just as we have been born in the image of man of dust.
Speaker 1 00:41:18 That's all of us. We shall also
Speaker 0 00:41:20 Bear the image of the man of heaven. That's Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:41:24 You'll look like a human
Speaker 0 00:41:25 Being. Congratulations. Now you can be reborn into an image. You can look more like
Speaker 1 00:41:29 Jesus, maybe not in your facial features, maybe with shorter, taller. I don't know. I'm sure I'm heavier than he was a pretty sure about that. But you can
Speaker 0 00:41:39 Reflect the image of Jesus Christ. You can be like Jesus, not the way that he looks, but in the way that he loves
Speaker 1 00:41:44 He is and the way that he re reflects the image and the way that he lived out, the image of God for us to reflect this process begins when we worship the one, true God,
Speaker 0 00:41:55 We give up our idols once. And for all, second Corinthians three 18. And we all with unveiled face beholding, the glory of the God are being transformed. Say with me, church, we're being transformed into the same
Speaker 1 00:42:05 Image from one degree of glory to another. Do you know what that means? Some of us are slower than others. Some of us
Speaker 0 00:42:12 Less are faster than others. Some of us are more in love and we can't wait to change. Some of us are going, I'm still a little scared. We're being changed from one degree of glory to another, but we're all being transformed into
Speaker 1 00:42:23 Same image. You know, Christ is your savior. You're becoming a better image of God. Now, does that blow you away? You are the best thing that the world can point to for what looks like an image of God. We do not replace God's image. We reflect it in the world, cautions three eight, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene, talk from your mouth. Don't lie.
Speaker 0 00:42:49 One another. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and you have put on the new self, which is being, say with me renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator, God is making you into
Speaker 1 00:43:01 Something new, something that wasn't there before. You may have struggled with this stuff in the past, give it to God, let him make a new image out of you. An image that really reflects the image that we worship. The point is we don't make images. We become images. Number two, identify what you worship. Truly. Some of you like the, uh, idolatry spectrum or the, the, uh, the, the spectrum list. Where are you
Speaker 0 00:43:33 At on this list that we came up with last week for?
Speaker 1 00:43:36 Uh, for, uh, no other
Speaker 0 00:43:38 Gods. So this one, we did one as well, another
Speaker 1 00:43:40 Images, and here's a spectrum. So my question to you is where are you at on the spectrum? Number 10 is I worship physical things as God on purpose. I've got this little, uh, I wish I still had it up here, but I I've got my little, a big bird. I got my little big bird and I'm going to worship that. That's my idol. I can point to it. I can clearly see it. Craig, you don't know what you're talking
Speaker 0 00:44:07 About. I'm keeping my Adol. All right. That's number 10.
Speaker 1 00:44:09 You're you're there, but maybe you're not quite that far. Maybe you're only up to number eight. I worship icons because they are filled with goodness. So
Speaker 0 00:44:20 Crystals, I've got my stuff around because they're not my gods, Craig. I don't worship them, but they, they hold in them. Some God net
Speaker 1 00:44:27 Something that God has promised me. But, but, but these things really give me a feeling like peace or joy or lover. So I got my crystals where they need to be, maybe you're number eight. Maybe you're a little further down. I, I
Speaker 0 00:44:41 Talismans and statues and power, the power to control my life and my decisions.
Speaker 1 00:44:47 In other words,
Speaker 0 00:44:48 I may not have these crystals that I worship, but, but, but I have my own things that they give me the power over my life. Like I do a horoscope or I've got my rabbit's foot and I I've got my lucky charms, look at charms and whatever you got. But these are things that just kind of make my life.
Speaker 1 00:45:03 It's better. You realize that all you need to do is pray and God answers prayer. But we like to have these other things. These, these, these, these charms, because they help our lives be better. Maybe you're not quite that far. Maybe you're maybe you're a little more stringent. Number four. I willingly treat
Speaker 0 00:45:23 My desires pleasures as my God, knowing what the Bible says. I don't have any of these options,
Speaker 1 00:45:28 Craig, but I've got these things in my heart that I'm not willing to give up. I've got these things that I play with in my secret place. That they're my own. And I,
Speaker 0 00:45:40 Then what you're saying, it'd be better for me to give them up. But they do. They do give me a lot of
Speaker 1 00:45:44 Enjoy. They promise me things and, and true. They don't deliver all the time. But when I go into my closet
Speaker 0 00:45:50 And it's dark and it's just me and them, nobody knows, and I'm not hurting anybody. And I'm going to keep
Speaker 1 00:45:54 Doing that. Maybe that's you see, you're giving up
Speaker 0 00:45:59 Godness to that thing. You're saying that thing can give you what God promised
Speaker 1 00:46:04 And God doesn't give you enough. So you need to use this thing to maybe you're not that far. Maybe you're only a number three, probably. I'm not that bad.
Speaker 0 00:46:13 I knowingly give my first love to something or someone else other than God on purpose. This is the kind of person that says, Oh, I should give up this girlfriend because
Speaker 1 00:46:22 God wants me to, I'm not doing that. Am I not finding another girlfriend? I might not find another.
Speaker 0 00:46:28 The boyfriend. I know he's not all that. And a slice of bread. Sheree. Doesn't love Jesus. Sure. I'm sure God, isn't too pleased with the way that we have relationships, but he's really good. He's so good looking. She's super-duper she makes me feel great. I'm not, I'm not going to give that.
Speaker 1 00:46:46 Sure. God promises me
Speaker 0 00:46:48 If I live a certain way. And if I uphold my, my love for him first and not in this other thing, but I really don't want to give
Speaker 1 00:46:57 This. You push it to the center and, and God moves out to the outer circles. Maybe you're not that far. Maybe you're only a number two. I unknowingly give my love to something or someone else without realizing it. Maybe you're just this far. I don't mean to do it, Craig. But I realized that even in your sermon today, I might have something that, that has pushed God out of the center.
Speaker 0 00:47:26 No, I was doing it, but I realize I'm doing it now. And I got to really think about
Speaker 1 00:47:30 That. Something that your first love has become to be given, to see where we need to be as number one, I use no images to worship God because out of reverence for him, I allow nothing to take his first place in my heart. You have exited the idol manufacturing plant. This is why God demands first place. We are magnetized to idols. Number three, this is what I would say to you. No, your point of suppression, this is where you begin to understand. You have walked into the idol, manufacturing, Acme plants, whenever you suppress something, you know, to be true so that you can get something else you are in the idol, manufacturing plant.
Speaker 1 00:48:32 Here's the answer. Here's there's a question you can ask yourself. What takes your heart from God? The quickest? What takes God out of your mind? The fastest, but takes your heart from God. Suppression is aligned. You're willing to cross in order to convince yourself, these gods might be able to deliver more than God can deliver in your life. Here's the wha what would you, what would you suppress if I gave you $10 million? W w w would you key in neighbor's car, 10 million bucks. Would you, would you tell a small lie about somebody else? 10 million bucks? W what, what would it take to get you to suppress what, you know, God requires of you? What is that thing? Is it money? If so, how much Judas? I, this is my question for Judas. Did you negotiate the price? 30 pieces of silver? Maybe they offered him 20 and he, he negotiated them up. What if they offered him 20? What do you have taken it? If they offered him 10, what do you take it? We know his price was 30 pieces of silver. I wonder what he would have betrayed Jesus for. What would it take to, to suppress that knowledge for you? What would it take to build yourself? Start building a little idle.
Speaker 1 00:50:05 What would you suppress if I promised you your favorite path to pleasure? What would you suppress? What would you suppress for a million views on YouTube? What would you be willing to put on? If I could guarantee you a million views on YouTube, what would you be able to just, just tweak a little bit. What would you be able to suppress that, you know, God wants you to do say or live? Like, what would you do for 10 million views or for a million views on YouTube? What would you suppress for life of fame and power? What would just listen? People have sold their souls for much less than 30 pieces of silver. That's how you know, you're in the aisle, manufacturing plant, whatever you would give is your sacrifice and whatever you would gain is your idol church.
Speaker 1 00:51:10 Jesus has given everything as a sacrifice to gain us out of love for us and from us. He asked nothing. His love is free. We live a life at a sacrifice for God, for the same reason. Not because he demands anything from us, but because he is the one we'd love and worship, we sacrifice basically for others because it demonstrates our love for the image of God. It demonstrates our worship to the true image. We become better image bearers, because we just want to look more like, God, we want to look more like Jesus does in this life. We love what God is doing in our lives. And I want you to know that God wants that singular place at the center of your life. More than any other thing, Paul, I think finally understood it. When he wrote Philippians three seven, with the inspiration of God, he pens, these words, whatever I had to gain, I counted as loss for the sake of Jesus Christ. May that be our prayer and the way that we live our lives, exit the idle manufacturing plant, lose it all, but gain Jesus Christ. That is when you know you're worshiping the one true image and you don't have any problems with idols. Let's pray, father God, as we come to you this morning, thank you for giving us this message.
Speaker 1 00:52:51 So many years ago at the Mount Sinai, when you gave your second command, no images are so much wrapped up in that. The incarnation of Jesus Christ, where you said to Thomas Thomas <inaudible> Thomas is asking to see the father. And you said to him, have I been with you so long? You don't get it. I'm the image of the father. Thank you. That in our fallenness, we don't understand what it means to love. We don't understand what it means to forgive. We don't understand what it means to love our enemies and do good to those who spurn us and hate us. We don't get that. So you came to show us how to do it. Thank you that you were the image of God. You image God perfectly, may our lives look more like yours every day, help us never to bow down or worship anything that you've created. Help us to bow down and worship you alone and want to live our lives out of a free love and Thanksgiving for what you've done for us. Thank you for this message this morning. And all of those who are online and following along with us may be with us. As now as we take communion, I pray in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 0 00:54:06 I'm to this time at the end of our service, when we, um, we take communion together,
Speaker 1 00:54:10 Tell you this is probably one of the, sometimes it's a hard thing to make a transition.
Speaker 0 00:54:15 Sometimes it's easy. This is one of the easiest
Speaker 1 00:54:17 Ones to make. The reason we do communion every Sunday is because, uh,
Speaker 0 00:54:23 The juice doesn't turn in anything and the bread doesn't turn it
Speaker 1 00:54:26 And anything. We don't need it to be healthy. Christians. The reason
Speaker 0 00:54:32 We take it every Sunday is we want to make sure that the gospel
Speaker 1 00:54:35 Is clearly spoken. Every single time we're together. The bread represents
Speaker 0 00:54:40 The body of Jesus Christ and the juice represents
Speaker 1 00:54:43 The blood of Jesus Christ. If you're at home, we would encourage you because of that, to just go and get right now, just rise up from where you are, grab some bread or crackers or whatever you have starchy around around the house, grab it and bring it back, give it, give it to the people in your living room or in your, in your room where you're at watching us online, grab something to drink. It can be anything because it's not
Speaker 0 00:55:08 The magic of the thing. See this, this is the easy transition. If you put too much emphasis in the Cracker and the juice, so that you say it becomes something else, you risk creating an idol.
Speaker 1 00:55:19 If I don't do this, I'm going to die. If I don't do this, I'm going to be cursed. That's not how this works. We do this because
Speaker 0 00:55:28 It reminds us of the gospel of Jesus Christ that God loved us and gave us his son
Speaker 1 00:55:31 And Jesus Christ on a cross like that one so that his body could be pierced in his blood could flow. And we could be forgiven of our sins. That blood spiritually covers us. And because of that, every promise is ours through Jesus Christ every day,
Speaker 0 00:55:50 Promise that God gives us as hours because it's guaranteed
Speaker 1 00:55:53 To us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The only reason we can talk to God in prayer is because we go through Jesus Christ and he lived a perfect life. He died a perfect death. He Rose from the grave and all of this so that we could be forgiven of our sins. We worshiped Jesus Christ because he is the image of God. If
Speaker 0 00:56:21 You're losing it on the Trinity, me encourage you to go to last week's message.
Speaker 1 00:56:27 God exists
Speaker 0 00:56:27 In three persons. God, the father, God, the son and God,
Speaker 1 00:56:30 Holy spirit, all God, three persons. And so, um, that's why Jesus is the image of the invisible God. So before we take
Speaker 0 00:56:40 This together, the reason we do this is because it reminds us of the sacrifice
Speaker 1 00:56:44 Vice for our sins, what it took to make us right with the father. Before we do that, I just want to give you a minute to pray. Just take a moment where you're at at home and silence, whatever confusion is around you right now, invite your family. If it's just, you sit in the silence of your home, take some time and pray to God in your head. It's between you and God. And will you just give him thanks for one thing, reminding yourself that he is the one that we worship. He is the one we thanks. We give thanks to, there is no other image. Would you spend a few moments in prayer?
