Idolatry is worshiping anything above God. The rich young ruler, he came to Jesus and said, Well, I have to do it to go to heaven. He said, I'm glad you asked. perfect. Obey every law of God. And that crazy dude said, Got it. I've been doing that since I was a kid. I'm in. And he said, Whoa, slow down, buddy. Wait a minute. Let me really see if you have obeyed everything. Let's check and see if you're an idolater. So everything you've got, everything, give it all the way to the poor. Come follow me. And he said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't want to do that. I want God plus my stuff. He was an idolater because he was willing to walk away from God in heaven to keep his stuff.
[00:03:37]
Idolatry doesn't have to be seen with a wooden idol or a metal idol. Idolatry happens on a regular basis. In our culture, in Florida, idolatry is normal. I want to follow God, but I got this better deal. I want to go golfing this week. And the Dolphins are playing next week. And we don't really have God as the... I want to go golfing this week. I've done it. It won't really have God. century. Instead, we have a thing where we worship. And remember what worship is, is worth. What's worth it more to you? Is your money worth more to you than God? That rich guy said, yeah, my money's way more. I'll go back and think about this later.
[00:04:31]
For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power to God have. You look at the universe, the world, and you say I can't make this. Somebody made it. God says I'm showing you how powerful I am. You don't have to see me. Look at my hands or what I've done. I've created this thing. And He goes on so there is no excuse.
[00:06:13]
People in America set their heart to be God, when they walk in a room, they think they're looking at you, you're like, hey, aren't you looking at me, I walked in the room, you should be, I'm not, I'm the center of the universe. People are offended if they don't notice you coming in. I mean, and hey, I want it. Everybody should do what I want because I am the leader. We have this one simple mindset of always be me, me, me, and everybody should bend up.
[00:09:41]
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you, found in you. I don't know exactly when he turned against God, but it sounds like it was maybe while he was actually in the garden. He was there guarding and being God's servant, and on the spot he turned and went straight for the people that God had created to try to destroy them. Jealous maybe? He saw what the plan was. They were going to become higher. The Bible said they were going to be higher than the angels.
[00:13:09]
When God had Moses throw it down, it was a declaration of war. And you know what? They used the snake, vultures and other things as their symbol that they were gods from the snake of Eden and traveled all the way through. Their religion was based on the power of the serpent. So God said, I want you to understand what I'm really saying. When you go in and throw your rod down, I'm not saying that I want you to be like them and have snakes of religion. I'm telling you, my power is going to destroy their power. Their demonic fallen angels and all the powers that they believe in, I'm going to destroy them. I'm declaring war.
[00:17:28]
Every strength of plague that hit them was a direct defeat of their gods. Everything he did, they were worshiping their gods. They believed their gods took care of them. Their gods did this. He knocked every one of them flat. He just destroyed them all. So, this was not a world physical thing. This was a spiritual thing that happened.
[00:18:45]
A symbol turns to an idol when its presence is needed to worship God and artificially make his presence feel real. They built churches all over the world with this massive stuff so when you walk in you'll feel like it's majestic presence of God. Cathedrals. They're all made to give you an artificial feeling of God. doesn't live in a building. You know where the church is? Where we the Christians are here when we leave this is not just an empty building. We are the church.
[00:22:11]
When you have shallow religion you get turned into idolatry. You have to feel artificial ways to feel like you're of God.
[00:22:46]
They confessed their sin. The old generation did not. Therefore, the people came and said, we have sinned, we have spoken against the Lord. Please pray for us so that you won't destroy us. And so as they prayed for help, God said, Yahweh said, make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover. Moses made a copper serpent, mounted it on it, and put it up on a standard so it would stick up in the air. And he said, when anyone was bit by it, look at the copper serpent and recover.
[00:24:38]
God refused that. He made them individually choose to trust him. You personally look at me. You need to hear me. You need that so I can deal with it. So after 40 years ago in the defeated states of Egypt, he said, look to me. Trust me. I have the power to heal. Don't you remember? Your parents talked about it. You lived it. I have this power. Trust me. I need you to make that choice. I'm not going to force you and forgive you and heal you. I'm going to allow you to respond to me. And so the response is what we have to do again today.
[00:26:04]
Idolatry is deep in the church. It really is. It's deep in our culture. You can look at these other people and think they're idiots because they bow down to stuff, but you don't understand. They saw these demonic forces. Those magicians did miracles in front of them just like God did. They were used to this kind of supernatural stuff. That's why they worshipped these gods. They were afraid of them. They would kill them. They did all kinds of stuff. They had powers. It was unbelievable. They had a reality check in their lives.
[00:29:41]
How did a good thing become an idol? That image is used for one thing. Believe in me, guys. If you look up here, I've defeated all the powers of darkness and I love you. Come follow me. And they looked and saw the truth. And then they kept going back and turned it into a place of idolatry.
[00:31:11]
You don't need a cross to look at to touch to do this kiss. You don't need a cross it has to be in a building so you have to see it before you can worship. You don't have to see it. The cross is a symbol that Jesus, like that, same lifting up. It's a cross to tell you he died for us. If you see all the visions and revelation and stuff, you know what? There's nothing ever talked about seeing a cross in heaven. The Lamb of God, but not a cross. The cross is a curse, it says. You don't want to use a curse. You want to use the blessing of the Lamb.
[00:31:51]
When your religion or your spiritual feeling only occurs when you use a symbol, such as a cross, to meet God, you're an idolater. You're an idolater. You can't come here to meet God. You can come here to meet our brothers and sisters as we talk about God, pray together, encourage one another, love one another. But you can't meet God in a building.
[00:32:58]
God's design started in Eden. Adam and Eve knew God face to face. God's design was a supernatural presence for us that we lost. And in that presence. he would have still been visiting and seeing us face to face. He did take care of them. He had all kinds of presence. His angelic beings were there, according to we find out from the prophet. So there was lots of stuff there. They were intertwined together. God wanted us in that high position. But what happened from that was they turned away from God. They turned away from God. They sinned.
[00:34:17]
We have no connection with God. We can't hear his voice. We can't respond to him because our spirits are dead. And so sin is in the world. And that sin is important to understand. Some of the things you can understand now that we're born, we're born with debased minds. We do things which are not fitting. We are full of wickedness in our culture. We're full of all unrighteousness. sexual immorality, wickedness, consciousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil -minded. Notice it didn't say evil act, evil -minded.
[00:36:33]
Brokenness is the evidence of those sins. When we're liars, we hurt people. We are in a circle that's nothing more than a prison of brokenness inside ourselves. Our spirit doesn't know God. We do what we feel like and what we think, and we hurt others. They hurt us. We're broken, broken, broken, and we do those things and can't stop doing them.
[00:37:56]
Jesus was sent to the earth. God sent his son, Jesus, to be our intercessor, to pay for our debt, to pay for our sin, the only one who could do that because Jesus came from heaven and he was the only one perfect. The wages of sin is death, but he never sinned even when he came. Therefore, he could replace us on the cross. He could trade.
[00:39:59]
The only way you can get here and into here is you have to repent, believe, and believe. But here's the problem. This is where it's stuck. People want to jump from here and just come to church and go. People want to get involved here and just go here. They think, well, just do this. You cannot get here in life without repentance.
[00:41:20]
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The only people that go to heaven, according to Jesus, are those that are poor in spirit. That word is poverty stricken. What that simply means is to repent. You must first realize you are sinful. You have your sin. You must admit you are an evil person. I'm not. I'm a good person. Everybody makes mistakes. No. If you want to go to heaven, just like they had to look at that snake. God says, when you look at my cross, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to confess. I am evil. I am a liar.
[00:42:12]
To repent, you must be grieved, so, so sorry for your sin that it hurts. No blaming, no excuses, no denial. 2 Corinthians 7 .10 tells you why. Look at what it says. Godly sorrow produces repentance. You can't jump over these steps. The Bible is clear. Paul made this clear. If you do not have godly sorrow that hurts your heart because of your wickedness, and you know you're evil, it's the only thing that produces repentance, and you can't go without repentance, because that's what leads to salvation.
[00:43:37]
The only way that you can be a common Christian, be forgiven of your sin, be anything near that, is if you don't come because grace is the divine influence upon your heart that brings you conviction, brings you salvation. And it says it's a gift even.
[00:45:05]
For by grace, divine influence upon your heart, you have been saved through faith. What did Moses have to do? Look and be saved by faith. I'm the all -powerful one. I can do this. But you're going to have to look at me and believe it. We cannot save ourselves. We can't make ourselves better. We can't repent without God changing us.
[00:45:29]
If you don't surrender your idols, you're never going. You will not go to heaven. But when you do, it's called being born again. The Spirit of God will come in and live inside you and change you from the heart. Like, Floods of mighty, righteous power will come flowing through you. You'll know the change because it will change everything about your life. It will change you and turn you into a person who can obey and who will walk with Him. We'll please God.
[00:46:29]
