Idols: The Sin Beneath the Sin

Well, well, well, good morning Twin Lakes. How y'all doing this morning? Y'all good? I tell you, I am peacock proud and hyena happy to be here this morning. I am so, so glad, so excited. Always a blessing when I can come to foggy Northern California. I love it. The sun is overrated, I tell you. It was good to pull out a jacket this morning. So it's just so good to be here. Thank you so much.

We planted this church about 18 months ago, and I tell you, it's been such a great journey. Gospel Center Multicultural Intergenerational Church there in Southern California. So as you think of us, or you think about the sun, think about Jesus Christ and Fellowship Monrovia in our little church down there, and would you keep us on your prayer list as we seek to do the work of the Gospel in Southern California. Amen? Amen.

Well, y'all don't give a brother long to preach, so I'm going to get into the text pretty quickly here. Y'all put a clock on a brother real fast. So if you would turn to the book of Exodus, that's where you can find me this morning, the book of Exodus chapter 32. We'll look at verses 1 through 8 this morning. Book of Exodus chapter 32, verses 1 through 8. Normally, the courteous thing would do to give you time to find it, but I ain't got that kind of time this morning, so you just catch up when you get there.

Verse 32, verse 1, here we go. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come make us gods who will go before us." As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. After they sat down to eat and drank and got up to indulge in revelry, then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'" Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for the privilege to gather together with the family of God, fellowship, one with another. God, I pray during this time of fellowship that you would tune our ear to your voice so that we might hear you ever so clearly. Father, would you turn our heart toward you so that we might experience all that you have for us this morning? God, it's to that end that I ask that you would stand in my body, think through my mind, speak through my vocal cords, those things you'd have us say no one do. Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh, Lord, you are my strength. You are my redeemer. Would you have your way in this place today? In Jesus' name, every heart said amen.

Well, this is a familiar passage of Scripture. If you grew up in church like I did, or if you're a newcomer to this church thing and you're just kind of checking it out, even if you've never been to church, but if you've just seen Prince of Egypt, you can catch up real quick this morning. This is, we pick up the story. The children of Israel, God's chosen people, God has sent Moses to deliver them out of captivity from Egypt. And they are on their way. They've come out of Egypt. They've parted the Red Sea, so they've gotten to the part to where Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston sing the song. And they've split and they've walked on dry land. I want to keep everybody in check here. They've walked on dry land. By this time, Moses has gone up into the mountain and he's received the Ten Commandments. He's come down and he's already presented the Ten Commandments. And you will see there in the Ten Commandments, the First Commandment is very significant. The First Commandment says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

I would argue that you can't break the other nine commandments without at first breaking the First Commandment. Now think about it. You can't break the other nine without at first breaking the one. And you can't keep the other nine without first keeping the one. So it could be argued, I don't want to make this argument today, but it could be argued that there's really ultimately one sin beneath all other sins. It's one sin that's beneath all other sins and that is the sin of putting other gods before the one true God.

See the danger, the danger of me, I grew up in the Holiness Church and in the Holiness Church, they taught me all the stuff, what to do and what not to do. It was all the dos and the don'ts. So I learned real quickly what the regulations, what the rules were for salvation, the dos and don'ts, the instructions to follow. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't drink, don't cuss, don't chew, don't date girls that do. You know, it's just like this clear rule and the problem was my hands learned well how to follow the rules, but my heart was far from God. And you can get to the place to where your hand knows what to do, but your heart is distant from God.

You're not getting it, I can tell, let me help you. I'm a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, although some of my professors would take issue with the word student. You know, I'm one of these students, man, you know, you got those that get the syllabus for the class and they sit down and they go through the syllabus and they put a plan together for the quarter. They get dates and they put due dates and expectations and rules and they take the reading and assignments and they lay them out and they know, I don't do all of that. I like to, what I like to call, some people would refer to it flippantly as flying by the seat of their pants. I don't like that kind of language. I like to think that I like to live my life spontaneously according to the movement of the spirit so that in that moment, if God desires to do something, I can respond to the spontaneity of God.

But now, I mind you, with that kind of spontaneity, there are risks. There are times when I would walk in the class and I'd look around and see, everybody got a paper on their desk. I'd lean over to my neighbor and say, "We got a paper due today?" I'd say, "Yeah." I'd say, "I'll be right back." I'd have to go out and write the papers. But I'll never forget that was this time I was taking Dr. Glenn Stassen's class, a kingdom ethics class, and I was doing something and my syllabus just happened to fall open. And I noticed, I've got a paper due next week and I know about it early. Praise the Lord! The spirit of God has spoken and he's brought it to my attention. So, I'm just telling you, I was excited. I got my paper done and I got it done early. This really never happens to me. So, that was a little bit of arrogance. I'm just going to be honest, church, I was arrogant. I turned the paper in and I said, "You ain't even got a grade that jacket, so, hey, wait and it happen. You can have it." So, I turn it in arrogantly and they pass out the papers and I'll never forget, I'm sitting in class and he's passing out the papers and passing them out. And I get mine, I don't even look at mine, I'm just looking at everybody else thinking, "If there's a curve on this bad boy, I'll put it through the roof. I'll put it through the roof."

So, I'm looking around and I finally look at my paper. At our school, I don't know if they do this where you guys are from, but at our school, they don't put the grade on the front sheet. They put on the last sheet. They make you look through all the comments and stuff. So, I look and I already see it. Great content. I'm thinking, "I know." It doesn't tell me, I know. I flip back to the last page, red, big circle. It said, "F, wrong assignment." I fear that there will be many who will stand before God and he'll say, "Great content." Your hands learn how to do everything right, but he'll pull back the layers of our heart and he'll say, "Wrong assignment." I got your hands, but I didn't get your heart. You learn how to perform for me, but I didn't get your heart.

This morning, I want to talk about idolatry and the danger of idolatry, the danger of setting, how do I say it, the danger of taking normal things and making them ultimate things. Are you with me? I can already tell. Amber, you pull out this Exodus passage. You're talking about a calf, a golden calf. Come on. This is Northern California. I know we're a little different around here, but come on, calves? We're not out here worshipping calves. We may have a lot of weed and marijuana up here, but we ain't got a lot of calves. Come on now. Don't look at me funny. You all know the marijuana content in Northern California is high. Just walking around, I was getting dizzy outside. What is that, man? What's going on out here? That ain't all fog. That ain't all fog. So Albert, as different as we are up here, we ain't that different. We don't have golden calves. I don't want you to know, I'm not talking about golden calves. I'm not talking about worshipping and bowing down in images in your front yard. I'm not talking about idols that sit on the front yard. I'm talking about idols that hide in the heart.

The Children of Israel knew what this was like because Moses had ascended up. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," giving them the clear command. And we find the Children of Israel in chapter 32, verses 1, and they are looking and waiting on Moses. God and Moses are up there doing their whole glory cloud thing again. This has taken them a long time. Now mind you, God has brought them out of Egypt. They walk across the rest of the world. They've seen some of the greatest miracles of all times. They've seen God's hand deliver them and bring them up out of Egypt. They've seen the great power of God. So it's not a question of if God is here. It's not a question of, "I wonder if God is paying us any attention." No, no, no, no. It's not a question. God has shown himself to be faithful. He's shown himself to be strong. But they're looking and they're waiting and simply put, God has just taken too long.

They literally say in the opening of the text, "We don't know what's become of Moses. We don't know what they up there doing. He could be there for all we know." So they're frustrated at God's lack of response. They're frustrated at Him taking His own time concerning their agenda. They have expectations. They have a timeline. They had a certain structure. They thought they'd be at a certain place by now. They thought they'd be at a certain location by now. So out of their frustration with the timing of God, the moving of God, He's not following the script. He's not following our instructions. Don't He know we down here waiting? What's taken God so long? Anybody ever been there before? I know, I know, I know in church we always talk about how God showed up right on time. I know we always talk about how we needed Him by Wednesday at 2 o'clock. And we always testify and thank Jesus He came Wednesday by 2 o'clock. But just for a few moments, can we talk about the times when we needed Him at 2 and at 2 o'clock He said, "Absolutely."

Can we talk about the times when you thought He was going to do this and you thought He was going to do that? But when He got done, it looked absolutely nothing like your plan. It looked absolutely nothing like your script. What do you do when God gets off script? What do you do when God gets off your plan? What do you do with the disobedient God? The disobedient God. A God that doesn't follow your instructions. A God that doesn't follow your script. A God that doesn't look at your prayer request emails and takes notes. A God that doesn't complete the to-do list that you've provided for Him.

See, religious people, we got to be careful. If you're on church, this is where you probably got to step up against us. Because religious people, we learn how to do this well. We learn how to manipulate and move God around. We will come up with this thing and our heart will... How do I say it? It's kind of like tag team wrestling. Anybody ever watch wrestling up here? I guess you all are busy smoking weed all the time. You all don't watch the wrestling. It's kind of like tag team wrestling. Adrian, come here. Help me out. It's kind of like this. Adrian, you be God. You be God. What's so funny? Is that a stretch? All right, yeah. And this is what we do. Watch this. Religious people, what we'll do is we'll say, "God, you are on the throne of my life. You are in full control. You rest, Roo. You are on the throne of my life. You are in control. God, my life is your life. I surrender to you. I surrender, oh God. Take me. Do whatever you want to do with my life. You, my life is yours. I trust you. Whatever you want, I will follow."

God begins to move. He's like, "God, this is... My life is going good. Jesus, thank you so much. This is going so good. I'm so excited about my life. Look at my kids. My kids are doing such a good job. They're doing... My kids, man, I just want to train up my kids. God, they're just doing so, so good. Oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, we got a family crisis. Oh, Lord. God, I need you to help my family. I need you to bring my family. I need you to work this out. God, you are so good. You just worked it out. You worked it out so good. God, everything's going so well. I'm just so excited. My supervisor wanted me with me. He wants... About my job, about my job performance. He wants... Oh, Lord, what does he want to talk about? Lord, I need you to... Oh, Lord, I got a meeting at two o'clock today, Lord. I just don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what will happen if I lose this job. He meets with me. You're laying me off. Lord, I don't have a job, Lord. I please, Lord, I need you to move on my behalf, Lord, Lord. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. I got a new job. Jesus, thank you. This is a job I've been praying for. Thank you. If you just trust in the Lord, God, I love this job. There's so many great things I want to do. This job is going so great. I'm loving this job. God, now that I got this good job, Lord, I'm just... You know, Lord, I'm struggling. I need to... I love to have a... I love to have a girlfriend, Lord. But wait, wait, wait. I want to pick her out. Lord... I love to have her, Lord. I love it. Lord, Lord, and now that she's here, Lord, would you just bless this relationship, Lord? Would you just... Lord, I just thank you so much for this relationship. Oh, Lord. Whoa, Lord. She crazy. Hold on, Lord. Oh, Lord. Wait a minute. This is crazy. No, I need you to get back on. She losing her mind. I need you to get rid of her. And, Lord, could you bring somebody else, Lord? Could you bring somebody else? Do you... You see what happens? See, we got to be careful because we'll think that this idea of Christ being on the throne is something that we can partner with.

As a matter of fact, some of us are good enough to... we're too religiously astute to ever ask God to get off the throne. We're too politically correct for that. We just know better than to ask God to get off the throne. So we don't want him to get off the throne. We just want him to scoot over. Just scoot over a little bit. Now, Lord, you... I want you to run it, but I just... I just got some ideas. I'm just... We could just work together. We could just do this together. That would be... that would be great because... Because my daughter... See, there are some things about my daughter that I just understand and I just... just take my advice. This is a bad idea anyway you look at it, right? Like it takes three seconds to realize this ain't gonna work, right? How do you think you look when you try to partner with God? How do you think you... when you try to get God to cosign? See, what we do is we use God to be honest. We... we'll never say it. We'll never say it with our lips because we're too politically correct. We'll never say that... that we don't trust him. We'll never say that he's not... he's not God enough. We never say that he's not strong enough. Not with our lips, but with our actions we say it all the time. To God, I really don't trust you with my job. That's why I'm in so much control. I really don't trust you with my kids. That's why I'm... I got so much anxiety because it's a lack of trusting you. You never say it like that, but you show him that all the time.

This is what we do. We really treat him like he's a consultant. And we're... we're writing the script of our life. And we just want him to cosign if you could just initial the bottom pages, God. If you could just initial the stuff and God... and you're gonna love the script. I know you're gonna like it because I got all the stuff that you like in here. Like my kids, for example. They're gonna grow up and they're gonna be virgins. See? I know you like virgins. Your mama was a virgin. I know you like that. They're gonna grow up and, Lord, I want them to get great jobs so they could... so they could give money to the church. You like... you like folks giving money to the church. You love generosity. I know that. We got some buildings to build here at Twin Lakes. So we're gonna... we're gonna make sure... we're gonna make sure that they... that they give money. So when God interjects in the script and when failure shows up, we begin to freak out. Because at the end of the day, we want God to be a co-writer. But he's not interested in being your co-writer or your cosigner. He's not interested in negotiating with you. He is God. The God of all creation. He is the author and the finisher, not your co-writer. Do you understand what I'm saying?

You... you sitting here trying to... and we're so... we're so shallow. Watch this. We're so shallow. We... we think that we can impress God like we impress other people. Like... like you looking at you. You're like, "God, look at this. Look at this. Look at... look at... look at my house and I... I... this beautiful house we have and all this other..." And God is like, "I created the Grand Canyon." Do you really think I'm impressed with you? Your little marble countertops that ain't even real marble. It's the cheap stuff. It's the counterfeit. It's the off-brand anyway. You'd be amazed at how impressed we think God should be with our hands. But it's not about our hands. It's about our heart. And it's about one God being on the throne of our hearts. And when that one God is on the throne, our only posture, our only position, our only place, our only purpose is the place of surrender. Do you like that? You like that? There was a lot of great alliteration right there. Did you get that? Our only posture, our only place, our only purpose is surrender to the almighty God.

Idolatry is when you put other stuff on the throne that shouldn't be. That's when the idol worship kicks in. When you put your... and here's the scary thing about idolatry. It could be bad stuff, but it could also be good stuff that becomes God stuff. Did you get that? It could be good stuff, but it becomes an ultimate thing. It becomes this ultimate thing. It's not bad. It's good stuff, but you've made it... You've given it God-like expectations. You've put in Savior-like expectations on it. You know one of the biggest idols in our society? One of the biggest idols we have? Come here, my man. What's your name? Carlo? What's your name? Carlo. I got it right? Come on up here. Sit up on the stool. Sit down. No, no, no, sit down. One of my biggest idols as families are children. Hello. Y'all ain't laughing now. One of the biggest idols, we worship our children. And we wonder why they struggle getting in the seat that we've placed for them, because the seat is too big for them. It's too tall for them. It's a seat that should only be for God, but there you go. You put Savior-like expectations on your children. Thank you.

Let's do this. Excuse me, young lady right here. Could you come here for a second? Yeah, you. The one that just turned around. No, no, no. Not you. You. The one that keeps turning around. Hey, how you doing? You. Yeah. Get up there. What's your name? What's your name? Courtney. Courtney, how you doing? Courtney, have a seat. She's like, "Welcome. This is my first time here. I hate this." This isn't your first time here, is it? Okay, good, good, good, good. Some of us, if I could just get in a relationship, if I could just get a girlfriend, if I could just have a good relationship, then my life would be okay, and you begin to look to people to save you instead of God to save you. Do you see what I'm saying? And so poor Courtney, she can't ever win because you're expecting Savior-like attributes from her, and she ain't the Savior. She's nice, she's sweet, she's got a cute personality, she's got great fashion sense, but she ain't no Savior. You know what I'm saying? And she'll never be, but if you look into her to save you, you can see why the tension is there because you've got her in a seat that she's too small to sit in. Do you understand what I'm saying?

The only person that should be sitting in this seat is the great big old God. Come on, Adrian, get back in the seat. All right. Thank you. Keep going. Thank you. The question that I want you to sit with for the next few moments, what are the idols that find themselves seated on the throne of your heart? What are the idols, what are the things bartering and negotiating, trying to get on par with God-like status in your life? That's the question I want you to begin to run through in your mind. Thank you, Adrian. As we get into the text, y'all can give him a hand. He didn't do much. As we get into the text, the Children of Israel will help us as we process this. What happens? Moses is up there, they're waiting on him, and he takes too long. So I ask the question, what do you do with a disobedient God? If you're anything like the Children of Israel, you replace the disobedient God. He's taken too long.

So they say to Aaron, we need to create a God because we want a God that we can literally push around. We want a God that we can literally move around and place him and set him up on our own terms according to our own time, according to our own desires. They would have gotten this concept from Egypt because in Egypt they would have multiple gods. So turns out they had come out of Egypt, but Egypt hadn't all the way come out of them. That was good. I'm going to say that again. Let me say this. They had come out of Egypt, but Egypt hadn't all the way come out of them. Got any Egypt still in you this morning? Got any of those ways from the old place? So what did they do? They went back to their ways of Egypt. Although God had been so faithful, although God had walked them through the Red Sea, although God had showed time and time again his faithfulness to them, in their moment of frustration with God, when he didn't follow their script, they went to what was familiar at the expense of the one who was faithful. Did you get that? That was good. Somebody ought to tweet that.

They went to the one who was familiar at the expense of the one who was faithful. What do you do when you find yourself frustrated with God? What do you do when God goes off script in your life? Do you replace him? Do you go to what's familiar to your flesh at the expense of the one who's been faithful to your soul and spirit? Aaron tells them, watch this now, he says, "Reach for the gold of your children, your wives, your sons and your daughters." They were longing for God, but they reached for gold. What are you longing for and what are you reaching for, and can you tell the difference? That was good. I'm going to say that one again. That was good. What are you longing for this morning and what are you reaching for, and can you tell the difference?

The children of Israel, what we learned from them is that they reach for gold and then they bow down and they worship what they reached for instead of worshiping the one that they were longing for. In their pursuit of God, instead of reaching for what they were longing for, they reach for other things hoping that other things would satisfy them. Are you all with me? No, you're not. Let me say this way. Some of us, let me bring it home. Let me bring it to your neighborhood. Practical, practical. Some of us, we're reaching for more money when we're really longing for security. You get that? We're reaching for more money when we're really longing for security. We're really longing for something that can only come from God, but somehow we think if I could just get more money, if I could just get more stuff, if I could just get more security, if I could get my savings up right, then somehow I can have security and everything will be all right.

Well, if you've been around this world long enough and I know folks that's got a whole lot of money and I know folks that's got a whole lot of little money and I'm telling you, folks with a whole lot of money will tell you that when they lay head to pillow, they're still thinking, how can I get more? This isn't enough. They're still working and longing for more because ultimately what satisfies the deepest longings of their soul is Christ in Christ alone and money can never ever feel that void. It can only be filled by the creator of all things, the God of our salvation. He is the one that you're longing for. He is the only one that can satisfy that desire, those longings. He is the only one that can hold you in that time, but in our effort and in our frustration or our inability to recognize that God is fully in control and that He can fully satisfy all things, we begin reaching for more stuff.

Now, how crazy is this? Father saying, I want to make more money for my family. I get it. I'm not talking about, you know, but these are people that they have homes, they have cars, they have food, be saying, I just want to work more so they work more hours, spend more time away from their family so they can amass more things for their family. So you're doing the thing, so you're leaving us for us? That don't make no sense. It's not good English, but it's great theology. That don't make no sense. So you're going to leave it, you're going to spend more time working so that your family can be happy. So your absence, the absence of you but the presence of your resources is supposed to somehow satisfy the family? Hello? When you say that, it really doesn't make sense, huh? Why are we living that way? Well, some of us do it not only just in the natural with our family, some of us do it theologically with God.

He's not interested in the work of your hands, he's interested in the reclining of your heart. So we don't have to go out and work for God. No, he says come in and rest in God and rest in the work that I've already done and completed on Calvary's cross. Do you see that? I'm still not getting it. Let me get it. Let me go another further. Some of us, especially men, pornography is running rampant. It's taking over our whole society and it's an epidemic not just in the world but in the church. The year 2011 is the first time where most of pornography is now viewed on the smartphone. It's the main source of pornography being viewed on the smartphone. And what's happening, we have men that are reaching for pornography and they're really longing for intimacy, intimacy, into me, see, see into me. I want to be known. I want to be vulnerable. I want to be known. I want to be understood. And I want to know. I want to have a connection that's deeper than my flesh. I want to be connected. And the only one that can see into you and still love all of you and to be the source of you is Christ in Christ alone.

So you're longing for the intimacy that can only come from your Savior, Lord and Jesus. But you find yourself reaching for what's accessible, what's cheap and what's familiar. Did you get that? See, intimacy requires this vulnerability, this idea of being known, this idea that you see all of me, the good, the bad and the ugly, and you still love all of me in spite of all that you see. It's this idea of me being able to be vulnerable and being known and connected to one that's greater than myself. That's what we all, that's our deepest longing, but in our longing, we end up reaching for what's familiar, what's easy, what's accessible. So we reach for pornography, and pornography is just this one-sided way of connection because the only one vulnerable, the only one naked is the one on the screen. And you can manipulate all the terms and all the dynamics, and you don't have to expose anything of yourself. So it creates this one-sided way of communication, this one-sided dynamic, and then that shows up in other areas of our life. That's why we're raising a whole generation of young boys that communicate through text message, through video game, and I'm not anti any of that kind of stuff, but I want you to see the problem that it causes.

All our text message, and I send tweets, and I send Facebook updates, and we create a society of men that don't know how to communicate, that don't know how to be vulnerable, that can send a text to a girl, but if you put them across the table from a girl on the date, they can't even talk. Because they're so socially awkward and weird, they can't put a paragraph together. Because it forces me to have some kind of conversation, it forces me to be vulnerable, it forces me, so we're sitting ourselves up, and we got men that talk like they tweet, "LOL, SMH, OMG, what's up?" It's like, "Who are you? What are you doing?" Because the problem is, we made pornography an idol. When we really should be longing for God, we reach what's accessible, and we put that on the throne of our life, and we bow down to it, and we worship it. We reach for money, and we put it on the throne, and we bow down, and we worship it. Some of us, let me keep coming to your neighborhood, some of us, we reach for control. I know you never call yourself control-free, you just never use those words. You like to say, let me see, this is you, "I'm just organized and administrative, and I just believe in getting things done right. I believe in working ahead of scheduling, having a plan. Is anything wrong with having a plan? If you've ever had to make that argument, nine times out of ten, you will control-freak, run amok." That's why your husband's sitting there, and he ain't laughing, he doesn't look like this, just straight ahead. He ain't gonna say nothing, but that is my house, right there, that is my house. He ain't talking about you, but baby, he ain't gonna say nothing.

You're control-free. You're reaching for control, but what you really long for is a savior. You long for someone that can save the day, but somehow you've now put on your cape, and you think that's you. And you fail to remember that even Superman had Kryptonite. You set yourself up to be the savior of the day, and at the end of the day, you can't save the day. Watch this, watch this, this is your nightmare, this is how you know I'm talking to you. This gets you in some kind of fog, and you're not sure if I'm talking to you, this is how you know I'm talking to you. If this brings you anxiety, what happens if you can't get all the things on your to-do list done? Dun, dun, dun! Because you say, "I gotta do this, I gotta do this, no, no, no, I just got to, I just gotta get this done." And if I don't get this done, oh no, if you don't get it done, what? What's gonna happen? The sun will come up tomorrow, the earth will keep rotating, we will all live. If you don't believe it, die. No, no, no, no, I mean it in the most Christian, theological, Holy Spirit-filled way, die. You know what's gonna happen when you die? People are gonna cry, we'll gather around, we'll come back, they'll make a nice video of you from when you were a child, and all the way up, and everybody come in there, send a bunch of cards, and send way more food to your house than your family could ever eat, and they'll send all these notes in about two, three days. People will get up, go to work, even your family, I know you think, "Well, they're not gonna make it, they won't be able to make it for about 25 minutes." And then they'll get up, they'll get dressed, they'll go to work, and they'll keep living because God is still on the throne. The problem is, you ain't on the throne. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you can recognize that God is the one who's in control, God is the one who's the Savior, not me. I long for a Savior, and that Savior is present. I long for security, that security is present. I long for intimacy and being known, and that intimacy is present, but it only comes through God. No longer will we bow down at the idol of money, of pornography, of control, but we bow down to the one true God, and that is Jesus the Christ. He is the only one that can save the day.

I'm just about out of time. So here's the question. What are you longing for? What are you reaching for? Reaching, reaching, reaching. What are the sins? Most of all, I want you to walk out of here understanding that the sin beneath the sin is found right there in the desires of your heart. If you're longing for God, reach for Him. If you're longing for security, I'm telling you, it only comes from God. If you're struggling with anxiety over your kids and you keep putting them on the throne, I'm telling you, you will never... Jesus loves your kids more than you do. If you think God can't understand you sacrificing your child, ask Him, He sacrificed His for you. Now, you sacrifice yours for Him. That was good. I'm going to say that again. Where did Albert came from? We gotta write that down. He sacrificed his son for you. So now you give yours back to Him.

Let's pray. Every head bowed and every eye closed. If you're in this room and as you look into the confines of your heart, thin your heart, say, Albert, not only am I reaching for things outside of God's will for my life, I've grabbed a hold of some things. In my heart, I'm holding stuff outside of God. I'm reaching for stuff outside of God. By the power of your spirit, I see God and I know that I long for you because you are the only one that can satisfy. You are the only one that can sit on the throne. You are the only one that completes my deepest longings. David said it this way, one thing have I desired, and that will I seek after. If you're in here and you say, Albert, I've gotta do some deleting and get down to one thing. Because if I was to tell the truth this morning, there are many things. And by God's grace and by His power, I need to get down to one. That's you and if your heart is reaching out for stuff outside of God's will. If you say, Albert, my heart has got a hold of something and I've been holding on to it and today I need to let it go. If you want to surrender those things of your heart to God, I want to pray for you this morning. I want to ask you to do something. If you're ready and willing to surrender those things to God, and if you can see them and you know what they are, I love to pray for you. If that's you, would you just stand up right where you are? Just stand up right where you are. Stand up right where you are. Albert, there are some things that my heart's got a hold of that I need to let go. There are some areas where my heart has just been reaching, reaching. In my moment of frustration or in my moment where I desire intimacy, I'm not reaching for God, I'm reaching for things. And I don't want you leaving out of here with, with a longer to-do list of the things that you shouldn't do anymore. We're dealing with the sins, but I want you to see the sin beneath the sin. It's about your heart. He says, "Don't put any other God before me." Not the God of pornography, not the God of materialism, not the God of anxiety, not the God that will become your children, not the God that you call success, not the God of money, not the God that you call your job. No longer will we bow down to these worthless idols. There's one sin. Father, we repent of that sin. We say, "Father, you rule and you reign on the throne." We dethrone everything that's not of you, God, in our life. We take it down. No longer is it part of the command and control center of our life. And Father, it's not just something that we do this one Sunday in July, but it's something that we do every day of our life, every morning, morning by morning, new mercy I see, morning by morning, new dethroning I will do in my heart. Every morning, Father, help me dethrone everything that's not like you. In that moment of temptation where I'll reach for anxiety, where I'll reach for pornography, where I'll reach for materialism, if I can just get this done, then I can get that done. No, no, no, Father, I surrender everything. God, you rule, you reign. You are in full control of my life. Have your way in my life. Move by your spirit. No longer my desires, not my will, but thy will be done. It's not about me, but it's all about you and your glory. And I want my life to show forth your glory. I want my life to sing forth of your praise. I want my life to point to the one true God, and that is you, Christ in Christ alone. So, Father, maybe so in my life. Help me to deal with the sins beneath the sin. My heart is set on you and you alone. I surrender my hands. I recline my heart. And I say, Jesus, have your way. Father, would you do it today for these, your people? We surrender everything. In Jesus' name. Every heart said, "Amen." Amen. God bless you.