Guarding Against Idols: Embracing Grace and Authenticity

"In our efforts to conform to standards oftentimes these aren't defined by God, we tend to lose the very uniqueness that makes us special."

"You will never look more funny than when you're trying to be someone else."

"If we don't want the world and its systems and its ways to become idols in our life, then we have to own this aspect of our imperfect humanity where we thank God for the grace of God and that allows us to connect with other people."

"Often times, we have this feeling because we worship idols often in Christianity that we have to be someone we're not. And often times when we talk about perfection, we worship perfection in Christianity like my old man is dead, he's gone. But how many of y'all know it's The Walking Dead often in our Christianity where you're walking and your old man is kind of like right behind."

"Perfection is an idol. In other words, I worship the ability to be perfect, and when no one else measures up, I give no grace. It's all about perfection. But it's not going to produce anything; if anything, it'll hold a little bit of water."

"We have to kill the idols. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, 'Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.' Specifically, the sin we're talking about today is idol worshiping. It's easy to fall into it, to put Jesus second, third, or fourth on the ranks."

"One of the ways that we keep from worshiping idols is by making sure that our vision is correct, always keeping our eyes on Jesus. Often times, we get our eyes off Jesus and put them on other things like people, the world, money, perfection, sports, or even marriage. We need to refocus our eyes on what He wants to produce in us and through us."

"Often times we do the same thing, we'll condemn something but secretly we're doing the same thing or in a different form we're not authentic and I think that's the biggest issue that people have with church is that there's a lack of authenticity, there's a fakeness about it because we're on this journey of being perfected but we're not."

"If we make an idol of any creature wealth or pleasure or honor, if we place our happiness in it and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had by God only, if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern which we take a great deal of pains to hue out and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water and that dead and flat and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous."

"If we're looking to other things to fulfill us, if we're looking at other things to be our source, if we are looking at other things to bring happiness into our lives, comfort, satisfaction, joy, hope, confidence, then this is what idol worship looks like. And even though it may bring you temporary happiness, eventually it will corrupt you and it will cause you to become spiritually nauseous."