Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected
or to give online, please go to hcv .church slash
connect or hcv .church slash give. If at any
point during this message you feel called to
make a change in your life, text CHANGEME to
97000. Now enjoy the message. Everybody just
still loves our second gathering, so we're glad
you're here. Thank you for joining us. Just a
couple additional announcements. A big thank
you to all those who volunteered for our Kids
Camp 2025 last week. If you're here and you volunteered
at our Kids Camp, stand up for me, please. Thank
you. Thank you so much. Alva, be excited about
serving your kids, man. Now, we had over 100
kids. They grew closer to Jesus. It was an amazing
time. Again, thank you. It wouldn't have happened
without all of our volunteers. Tonight at 6 o
'clock right here, if you want to hear about...
The Dominican Republic missions trip that ended
last week, all of our teens and leaders will
be sharing a panel discussion, 6 o 'clock tonight,
right here. If you want to hear what God is doing
in the DR with missions, and you're an adult,
you may want to be excited about our adult trip
next year. And one last announcement. If you're
an Orioles fan, we learned that there was a faith
night on August 12th at Orioles. And we're going
to buy tickets and go together as a group. So
if you would like to be a part of that trip,
stop by the Welcome Hub, sign up. We need 16
people to get the discount for the tickets. So
if we have 16 people signed up, then we will
go as a group and participate. Faith Night includes
worship after the game and testimonies from several
Orioles players. So it should be a fun trip.
If you want to go, like I said, sign up at the
Welcome Hub and we will take care of ordering
the tickets. So last Sunday, if you did not know
and you were not here, we kicked off our July
series, Gods at War, by discussing idolatry.
And we learned that idolatry is actually the
issue. Now don't get me wrong, sin is usually
what we focus on, but it's just the fruit. Idolatry
is always the tree from which the sin grows.
So we establish that behind every sin that I
have, behind every struggle that you have, is
a false god that is winning the war in our lives.
Thus the title of our series, Gods at War. Now,
throughout that talk, we asked several difficult
questions as we tried to identify some of the
gods that we wrestle with, that we are warring
with in our hearts. If you missed that talk,
I want to encourage you to go back and listen
to it on our YouTube channel. It's entitled American
Idols, and it's surely to challenge you in your
relationship with Jesus. Because see, it's been
my prayer all week that you discovered if you
struggle with jealousy, It's not necessarily
you're a jealous person. It's that chances are
you've made stuff a God in your life. If you're
anxious and worried, a lot of the time, it's
not that you're an anxious person. It's that
perhaps you've made comfort and security a God
in your life. If you're losing with lust, maybe
you've made sex a God in your life. You've struggled
with gossip. Maybe you made what other people
think. about you, a God, in your life. If you
find yourself to be legalistic, religious, and
self -righteous, maybe it's because you've made
religious rules into a God of your life. If you're
proud, maybe it's because you've made yourself.
An image of God rather than God himself. See,
behind every sin that I struggle with, that you
struggle with, is a false God that is winning
the war. And see, for many followers of Jesus,
their focus is always on the sin. They focus
on the sin in their life and on this mental determination
to stop doing that sin. I can't do it anymore.
And if you really get to the point, it's not
necessarily the sin. Because below every sin,
underneath every sin is a false God that's winning
the war of our hearts. And until that God is
defeated and removed, we're going to constantly
be frustrated. Until that God is cast out of
our hearts, we will not know what victory is.
So we have tried to identify some of those gods
in week one. And now we're talking about how
do we focus on and make Jesus our number one
priority. For you, the question is, What are
some of the gods that you're struggling with?
What are the gods at war within your heart? And
if you're like me, and most of you are, then
you'll probably find that some of the hardest
gods to defeat in our heart are the gods of pleasure.
And before we jump into our first thought, I
just want to open in prayer, invite the Holy
Spirit to come. Because this is one of those
talks where it can radically change lives. And
when that happens, there's a lot of distractions.
Even in our first gathering, our technical equipment
didn't work. Shocker. So I want to silence those
distractions and invite the Holy Spirit to radically
change us today. Amen? Holy Spirit, come. God,
we're just thankful for what you want to do in
this gathering on this Sunday. Change us. Make
us more like your son, God. Reveal to us any
areas that are not lining up with you. And more
importantly, God, give us the courage, the faith
to step out and be changed. In Jesus' name, amen.
So that prayer leads us to our first thought
this morning. When good things become God things,
then it's idolatry. See, we continually find
ourselves distracted by what feels good. After
all, our culture, right, within it, the motto
is, if it feels good, do it. If you have an appetite
for it, feed it. If you have an itch, scratch
it. Like, constantly make yourself comfortable.
If you've got this pleasure or desire, then go
ahead and satisfy it. So these gods of pleasure
are everywhere. And like I said earlier, they're
the most difficult to defeat because many of
these gods, they're not evil. They're not satanic.
They're not wrong. Instead, they're actually
gifts given to us by God himself that we as people
have turned into gods. We took God's good gifts
and turned them into gods that we worship and
follow and steal our time. We took a gift that
God gave us and we turned it into his primary
competition. Imagine for a second you're a parent
and you buy your child a brand new PlayStation
5 for their birthday. You take it home. Your
son or daughter, they're ecstatic when they open
up the gift. They give you a big high five, a
hug, a thank you. And in your mind, you think
it was worth every penny. Your child sets up
the PlayStation, begins to play. And as they
play, you see them experiencing joy, which brings
you joy. But after a few weeks, it seems like
all they really want to do now is play video
games. They're actually complaining about a loss
of connection and friendships that they're losing.
So you come home from work one day and you want
to spend time with your child. But your child
doesn't want to spend time with you because they'd
rather be playing games. What happened? The gift
replaced the giver. At least practically speaking,
the gift means more to that person than the one
who gave it. And this is what we've done in a
lot of ways with the gifts that God has given
us so that we can experience joy and comfort
and peace. We've turned them into a competition.
These are the gods that can be the hardest to
identify and to destroy. Listen to these words
from John Piper. He writes, the greatest enemy
for God is not poison, but apple pie. It is not
the banquet of the wicked, the dolls or appetite
for the banquet of heaven, but endless nibbling
at the table of the world. It's not the X -rated
video, but the prime time drive to triviality
we drink in every single night. The greatest
adversary of love to God is not his enemies,
but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites
are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple
pleasures of earth. For when these replace an
appetite for God himself, The idolatry is scarcely
recognizable. These are not evil in themselves.
These are not vices. These are gifts from God.
They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee
and gardening and reading and decorating and
traveling and investing and TV watching and social
media and shopping and exercising and collecting
and talking. And all of them can become deadly
substitutes for God. Do you see why these gods
of pleasure can be so dangerous? Because they're
gifts. And oftentimes, gifts given to us from
God himself, and we've turned them into competition.
Now, last week, we discussed Joshua chapter 24.
And Joshua, at that point in Scripture, was about
110 years old. He gathers the nation of Israel
together for his final speech, and he throws
down a challenge in Joshua 24, 14 through 15.
Fear the Lord. Serve him wholeheartedly. Put
away forever the idols your ancestors worshipped
when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and
in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse
to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you
will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors
served beyond the Euphrates or be the gods of
the Amorites in whose land you now live? But
as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
See, basically in these words, Joshua is saying,
everybody's going to worship something. It's
not a matter of when you will worship, who you
will worship. It's what you will worship. And
he's saying, choose today whom you will serve,
whom you will worship. And all the people, we
learned in Joshua 24, said, it's God. We're going
to worship God, the Lord God. And Joshua says
to them, then go ahead and destroy all your idols.
All your false gods that you brought into this
land from Egypt. Then we jumped into the New
Testament where we were reminded in John 1, 5,
21. Dear children, keep away from anything that
might take God's place in your hearts. Including
those good gifts that he's given us. Today, we're
going to jump ahead in the Old Testament. We'll
be reading from 1 Kings chapter 18. And between...
Joshua 24 and 1 Kings 18, hundreds of years have
passed in Israel's history. And a few important
things had happened that we need to know. First,
Israel is now split in two. You had the northern
kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom. The
northern kingdom was ruled by a king named Jeroboam.
Jeroboam had a real practical problem on his
hands in that Jerusalem was where the place people
would go to worship. But Jerusalem, of course,
was in the southern kingdom. He didn't want his
people leaving the northern kingdom for the southern
kingdom. He wanted them to stay away from that
land. So he gathers the people together and he
says, listen, down there in the southern kingdom,
traffic is horrible. The parking lot's a mess.
There's no open spots. It's just a bunch of woods.
You don't want to travel all the way down there
to Jerusalem. Just stay here and worship. In
fact, we have all these gods that you can worship
right. Here. And he goes into a building, pulls
out all the false gods and idols, blows off the
dust, and raises them up for everyone to see.
Now, do you know where all these false gods came
from? Egypt. See, the people didn't destroy the
gods. They just hid them away in the closet.
Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? We overcome
a sin. We move forward with Jesus. Six months
later, we're tempted, we give in, and that sin
overtakes us with power because we never dealt
with it properly. They had just stored those
gods away for a little while, and now hundreds
of years later, they're back with a vengeance.
In fact, as you read through Israel's history
in the Old Testament, if you're anything like
me, it's not real encouraging. Because it's king
after king after king entrenched in idol worship.
And eventually in 1 Kings 16, we read about this
guy named Ahab. Ahab, son of Omri, began to rule
over Israel in the 38th year of King Asa's reign
in Judah. He reigned in Samaria 22 years. But
Ahab, son of Omri, did what was evil in the Lord's
sight. Even more than any of the kings before
him. And please understand, if you read about
the kings before him, they were evil. But see,
one of the things Ahab did that really pulled
him down to a new low of lows was he married
a woman named Jezebel. She was the princess of
the Sidonians. So she comes in from this foreign
nation. Ahab makes her in charge of his religious
cabinet. So she finds all the prophets of God,
the Lord God, that she can. She has them killed
and executed. Then Jezebel sets up an order to
her primary God, which was Baal. Then she builds
Baal a temple in the northern kingdom of Israel.
And we must remember, we learned last week, God
is a jealous God. And eventually he had enough
of this idol worship and he's going to put a
stop to it. So he calls to his prophet Elijah
and he says to Elijah, I want you to go to Ahab
and deliver him a message which leads us to our
next thought. See, when living in sin, Jesus'
followers experienced God's active and passive
displeasure. Or you could say anger. 1 Kings
17 .1 we read, Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe
in Gilead, told King Ahab, As surely as the Lord,
the God of Israel, lives, the God I serve, there
will be no dew or rain during the next few years
until I give the word. So Elijah the prophet,
he goes to the king and he says, A drought's
coming. Now please, you have to understand, Baal,
the God that they had been worshiping, that had
been set up in the temple, primarily was the
God of rain. He was the God of weather. So God
looks at Israel as a nation and he says, okay,
if you're gonna worship Baal as your primary
God, the God of rain, then I'm gonna stop the
rain. I'm not gonna allow it to rain for several
years. And oftentimes this is what God does.
See, he sees an area in our life, that has become
too important to us. In fact, it's more important
than him, and he withdraws his blessing on that
area of our life. And many of us can relate.
Some of you, even this morning, you're frustrated
in areas of your life because you've made them
too important, and God said, okay, I'm gonna
remove my hand of blessing on that area of your
life. For example, maybe you put your marriage
ahead of God. Maybe you put your work ahead of
God, your finances. Some of you have put your
sports teams ahead of God or you put your happiness
ahead of God. Well, don't be surprised if these
areas suddenly are the most frustrating areas
of your life. Because God says, if you're gonna
put them ahead of me, I'm not gonna send the
rain. There's not gonna be a blessing. See, what
Israel is experiencing here is what theologians
would call the active anger of God. The active
anger. In other words, God's just not going to
sit by any longer and let you live in disobedience,
sin, and idolatry. Instead, he's going to actively
do something about it. And with Israel, he withholds
the rain. Now, there are other times he doesn't
work this way. Other times when we're living
in a pattern of sin or idolatry, we don't experience
God's active anger. We experience what theologians
call God's passive anger. His passive anger.
And this is where God says, I'm just going to
let you live with the natural consequences that
come when I am not first in your life. And we
read all about this in Romans chapter 1. Romans
chapter 1 is all about idolatry. In three different
places in Romans chapter 1, Paul writes, God
abandoned them to do whatever shameful things
their hearts desired. Let's read in Romans chapter
1, verses 21 to 28. Yes, they knew God. But they
wouldn't worship him as God or even give him
thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas
of what God was like. As a result, their minds
became dark and confused. So God abandoned them
to do whatever shameful things their heart desired.
He traded the truth about God for a lie. So they
worshiped and served the things God created instead
of the creator himself. His good gifts, who is
worthy of eternal praise. That is why God abandoned
them. to their shameful desires. Since they thought
it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them
to their foolish thinking and let them do things
they should never be done. In other words, God
is saying, if that's what you want, that's what
you can have. It's his passive anger. And when
we live with the natural consequences that come
when we're not living in abundance and putting
God first, we're gonna experience feelings of
guilt. Shame, regret, anxiety, and fear. And
why is that? It's because we're living in a sinful
pattern. We're guilty of idolatry. And we're
experiencing God's passive anger. But again,
it could be an active anger. Whichever one, the
point is God is withholding his blessing on your
life. And if you'll turn it over to him. and
you lay it down at his feet, and you ask forgiveness,
you repent, you turn away, oftentimes he's going
to send the rain when we put him first in our
life. Amen? I still remember when Jess and I
first met. We were working together at Red Lobster.
I began to talk to her because I was attracted
to her. Jess had struggled with relationships,
so her immediate response was to point me to
Jesus. She wanted to get rid of me. I want to
be a missionary. I want to go all around the
world. I want to tell people about Jesus. She
didn't expect me to say, oh, well, tell me more.
And over the next year, we developed a friendship.
We would get closer. We'd become friends. And
then she would constantly, several times throughout
that year, reiterate, I don't want a relationship.
I don't need a boyfriend. They're my downfall.
I must have gotten dumped eight times throughout
that year. To which I said, I thought we weren't
dating. I was trying to learn out this whole
Jesus dating thing. I thought we were friends.
I thought, what's going on? A year after we initially
met, we found ourselves on a missions trip together
in Ecuador. And it was then that God spoke to
her in a vision that we were supposed to be together.
A year later, we would be married. So remember,
she has struggled with the idea of a relationship,
an idea of the opposite sex, and what's what
pulled her away from God. But when God spoke
to her, then God brought a blessing into her
life. Not that I'm a blessing. But let me be
real clear here. For those of you who are single,
this isn't a guaranteed formula. It's not something
where you can go to God and say, okay, God, I'm
putting you first in my life. Now send the rain
and bring someone into my life. That's what I
really want. That's not how it works either.
See, God knows our hearts, but he often does
operate that way. So don't be surprised if there's
some things in your life that have become too
important to you if God sends a drought. And
some of you are in a drought right now. It might
be a work drought where you're frustrated and
can't stand your job. It could be a financial
drought where you can't get all your bills paid.
It could be a marriage drought where you're not
on the same page. It could be a happiness drought
where you're searching for all the happiness
in the wrong places. And God is drawing you back
to him. He's inviting you to return to make him
first in your life. Then when we turn to him
and we look up to him, we will feel a drop of
rain on our face and we're refreshed. And so
many of you experience that every single Sunday
when you come here. You're in worship. You're
extending your hands. God sends the rain. You
feel the blessing on your life. You recommit.
You repent. You ask for forgiveness. You leave
this place in tears. And then Monday comes and
work happens and you're right back to where you
were. Because you've lost your faith. priority.
So God sends Elijah to says to the king, listen,
there's going to be a drought in the land a few
years past. There's no rain. God made his point.
And then he sends Elijah back to Ahab. And basically,
Elijah sets up what you would call modern day
cage match between God and the gods of Baal.
If any of you are looking to make a movie. this
would be a great movie. And we read in 1 Kings
18, 19 to 21, now summon all Israel to join me
at Mount Carmel along with 450 prophets of Baal
and the 400 prophets of Asherah who were supported
by Jezebel. So Ahab summoned all the people of
Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Now
Mount Carmel is kind of an ancient location where
God had been worshiped and it's where the people
brought sacrifices to the Lord for many years.
So they decide to meet on Mount Carmel. Verse
21 says, and Elijah stood in front of them and
said, how much longer will you waver, hobbling
between two opinions if the Lord is God? Follow
him. But if Baal is God, then follow him, which
leads us to our third thought this morning. Humanity
doesn't want to be forced to choose. We don't
like to choose. And we read in 1 Kings 18, 21,
Elijah stood in front of them. Stop hobbling.
Between two opinions. Choose God. Choose Baal.
But notice what is written. But the people were
completely silent. The people said nothing. And
all this week as I was reading these words. Why?
Why were they silent? And then God kind of revealed.
That's how humanity is. They were silent because
they didn't want to have to choose. They wanted
both and. They wanted God. And they wanted Baal.
Elijah's saying, no, choose one. But the people
remained silent. They wanted both. They said
nothing because we don't like to be forced to
choose. And I believe that's why many people
don't come to church or gather on Sunday mornings.
They would say, if you ask them, oh yeah, I believe
in God. I love God, in fact. I really do. I just
don't believe in organized religion. I don't
go to church. Why? Why would they say that? Well,
if you get down to it, I'm telling you, it's
this. They don't want to have to choose. They
don't want to choose. They don't want to hear
the truth. Romans 10, 13, everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved. They don't
want to hear the truth that it's about putting
Jesus first in our lives. See, they would rather
sit on a love seat. And for many of us, we love
to have God sit on the love seat of our hearts.
God, you're welcome to join me on this love seat.
But please understand you're expected to share
that with someone else. And that's what some
of us say. We say, God, you can share my love
seat, but I need to keep another space for Netflix.
I need to be able to binge watch my shows. It's
how I relax. Do you realize God doesn't even
care about the stuff you watch? He doesn't care.
He doesn't care about it. He just wants your
heart. See, we put God on the love seat of our
hearts, and we say, God, I'm going to share you
with. With my sports teams. After all, Sundays
are for football, aren't they? Or worse yet,
maybe we try to share God with something that's
completely opposite of who he is. You don't want
to have to choose between God and pornography.
You don't want to have to choose between God
and alcohol or illicit drugs. You don't want
to have to choose between God and fixing up your
car or decorating your house. You don't want
to have to choose between God and golf. See,
again, many of these things that we share our
heart with, they're not evil or wrong. But remember,
when good things become God things, then it's
idolatry. And God's going to step in and say,
no, that doesn't work here. And if you think
you're sharing God with something else in your
heart, God's not going to just sit around and
let you do it because he's a jealous God. And
he's going to challenge us to change. So the
stage is set. The people are watching. Who's
gonna win this great battle? You can hear the
anticipation. They're on Mount Carmel, and we
read in 1 Kings 18, 25, 28, and Elijah said to
the prophets of Baal, you go first, for there
are many of you. I mean, what a generous guy.
Gives them home court advantage, right? Choose
one of the bulls and prepare it and call on the
name of your God, but do not set fire to the
wood. So they prepared one of the bulls and placed
it on the altar. Then they called on the name
of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting,
Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no reply of
any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the
altar they had made. And about noontime, Elijah
began mocking them. Check this guy out. How do
you not love this guy? He starts trash talking.
Just throwing down on the prophets of Baal. Shout
louder! For surely he's the God. Oh, that's right.
Perhaps he's daydreaming. Oh, perhaps he's going
to the bathroom. Or maybe he is away on a trip
or is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they
shouted louder. And following their normal custom,
they cut themselves with knives and swords until
the blood gushed out. So you get the picture
here, right? They're dancing. They're shouting.
Eventually, they're taking swords and knives.
They're cutting themselves, right? This is one
of the reasons about tattoos, right? They're
just a re -inference that those of you that,
oh, tattoos are a sin. Again, God reiterating
when you're cutting yourself to other gods, that's
a sin, which leads us to our fourth and final
thought. Humanity sacrifices abundance for gods
of pleasure. 1 Kings 18, 28, so they shouted
louder and following their normal custom, they
cut themselves with knives and swords until blood
gushed out. Now when we read that, right, our
initial thought is we're beyond that, Chris.
That's primitive. But listen, I think we bleed
for our gods too. Some of you have bled for your
gods of pleasure. Some of you have sacrificed
your family for a god of pleasure. Some of you
sacrificed your career, your finances, your future.
Some of you sacrificed your reputation for a
God of pleasure. You have bled for those gods.
And quite often when we talk about idolatry,
again, so many people put, oh, that's Old Testament.
But there's plenty of scriptures throughout the
New Testament that references this truth. Look
at Colossians 3. Put to death the sinful earthly
things lurking within you have nothing to do
with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil
desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person
is an idolater. Worshiping the things of this
world. 1 Corinthians 10, 14. So my dear friends,
flee from the worship of idols. 1 Peter 4, 3.
You have had enough in the past of the evil things
that godless people enjoy. Their immorality and
lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild
parties. and their terrible worship of idols.
And one of the main things, and when you look
to the New Testament that constantly is referencing
idols, is sexual sins and lust. And for so many
people in the United States, pornography has
become one of the most popular gods in our culture.
Citizens in the United States spent more than
$40 billion on pornography in 2024. Last year,
it grossed more than country music, classical
music, and rock music all combined. Pornography
grossed more than professional baseball, football,
and basketball all put together. It made more
money than ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox all put together.
And according to one research I did, it's the
number one searched word on the internet. 70
% of pornographic internet traffic takes place
between 9 a .m. and 5 p .m. every single day
when we're supposed to be working. And you tell
me the U .S. citizens haven't bled for our gods
of pleasure. They bleed. Some of you have bled
for the god of alcohol and you know the results
of it. Some of you have sacrificed your marriage.
To that God. Some of you have bled for the pleasure
of food. And you've sacrificed your health. To
that God. We bleed for entertainment. Binge watching
movies and series on Netflix. And other streaming
services. Many people waste their precious time.
Endlessly. Scrolling through social media. Sacrificing
a relationship with their children. For that
God of pleasure. Church we bleed. We still bleed
for our. Let's continue 1 Kings 18. Then Elijah
called to the people, come over here. They all
crowded around him. And as he repaired the altar
of the Lord that had been torn down. This was
the original altar that was destroyed by. He
took 12 stones, one to represent each of the
tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild
the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug
a trench around the altar large enough to hold
about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar,
cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces
on the wood. Then he said, fill four large jars
with water and pour the water of the offering
in the wood. After they had done this, he said,
do the same thing again. And when they were finished,
he said, do it a third time. So they did as he
said. And when the water ran all around the altar
and even filled the trench, basically Elijah's
saying, God's got this. It doesn't matter what
you do. There'd been dancing all morning, chanting,
cutting, bleeding. Elijah steps forward and listen
to this simple, humble prayer. At the usual time
for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the
prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, O
Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove
today that you are God in Israel and that I am
your servant. Prove that I have done all this
at your command. O Lord, answer me. Answer me
so these people will know that you, O Lord, are
God and that you have brought them back to yourself.
Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down
from heaven and burned up the young bull, the
wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked
up all the water in the trench. And when all
the people saw it, they fell face down on the
ground and cried out, Lord, he is God. Yes, the
Lord is God. God wins the war. It wasn't even
a challenge, to be honest. But the people, they
see the power of God, they destroy their false
idols, they remove the false prophets, and they
put God back in glory. And this is the challenge
for all of us. How do we defeat these gods of
pleasure? Because let's be honest, some of you
have a god of pleasure that's taken priority
over God in your heart. And you've tried again
and again and again to defeat it, to remove it,
but unfortunately it remains. Where's victory
found? Well, I want to introduce you to an idea.
I believe this idea is the truth that will set
you free for the very first time. 150 years ago,
a man named Thomas Chalmers introduced the truth
in a sermon that then became a book that reads
the expulsive power of a new affection. The expulsive
power of a new affection. In other words, the
most effective way. To remove a false God that
has a grip on your heart is to replace it with
a new God, a God of greater affection, which
leads to our one action step this morning, defeating
gods of pleasure. Church, we have to replace
worldly desires with a love for God. We have
to replace worldly desires with a love for God.
When we try to gain control of a false God in
our life by rejecting it, By focusing on that
God, you know what it does? It gives that God
more power. We empower that God. When I'm sharing
on Sunday mornings, I say, well, here are the
consequences. Here's what happens when you worship
this false God. It might lead you to asking for
forgiveness. You may be convicted, but it rarely
leads to long -term change. Why? Because there
must be an expulsive power of a new affection.
It's not just enough to resist it. You have to
replace it. You have to get rid of it. So a little
experiment that I read about this week that I
want to try on all of you. Right now, in your
minds, whatever you do, don't think about snakes.
Okay, don't think about the snake that's under
your chair, that's crawling through the chairs
towards you right now. That snake could bite
your toe. So how many of you right now, by show
of hands, We're just thinking about snakes. Okay,
for those of you who aren't, that's impressive.
You're ruining my example. Good job. Feel very
proud of yourself. Okay, let's take it a step
further. Let's switch gears. Don't think about
snakes. I want you to think about an ice cold
Dr. Pepper. It's a hot sunny day. You go inside.
You take a sip of water. It's not enough. And
you crack open an ice cold soda. It tastes so
good. So how many of you think about snakes now?
Yeah, no one. None of you thinking about snakes.
Because you're thinking that Dr. Pepper looks
good. And you're like, what's the point? It's
not enough just to resist. It's not enough to
resist. And sometimes when we focus on something,
we are giving it power. We have to replace worldly
desires with what? A love for God. And when we
replace it, that's when we break free. John Wimber,
founder of the Vineyard Movement, says it this
way. The more I think about sinning, the more
I sin. But the more I think about just loving
Jesus, the less I seem to sin. falling in love
seems to be the key. Wimber is suggesting that
personal righteousness and avoiding sin, they
can be counterproductive when we focus on them.
Instead, he says, no, the importance is falling
in love with Jesus, learning who Jesus was, learning
how he lived his life, learning how he spoke.
It decreases our sinful behavior. Why? Because
this is kingdom theology. It's the belief that
a personal relationship with God through Jesus
is the driver of our spiritual growth and change.
See, when we believe that actively pursuing a
love for Jesus rather than focusing on avoiding
sin is the key to abundant life. God must be
our greatest pleasure. That's why John tells
us in 1 John 2, Don't love this world nor the
thing it offers you, for when you love the world,
you do not have the Father's love in you. Jesus
tells us a parable about our treasure in Matthew
13. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure
that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his
excitement, he hid it again and sold everything
he owned to get enough money to buy that field.
See, when God is our greatest pleasure, all those
lesser gods and temptations, they just... fade
away. Psalm 37, 4 says, take delight in the Lord
and he will give you your heart's desires. And
the best way that we can draw closer to God,
that we can connect with God is through worship.
See, when we worship God, and I don't mean just
singing songs. Listen, if you haven't learned
this about HCV yet, it's not about you coming
in and singing songs. Do we want you to sing
songs? Of course we do. Do we want you to raise
your arms? Of course we do. But we want you to
do it out of a love for God, not out of just
singing karaoke on a screen. Right? We want you
to do it out of your love and desire for God.
Worship is not about checking your watch and
wondering when you're going to go get lunch.
Worship is not about caring what the person beside
you thinks when you are weeping or crying. Worship
is about prioritizing Jesus, the exclusive power
for him to set you free. And as we do that, then
those gods that are ahead of him fade away. Amen?
But some of you are here today and you've never
been in a relationship with Jesus. And now God
is saying to you, are you going to be like the
people that Joshua expressed? Choose who you
will serve. Are you going to be like the people?
And just remain silent when Elijah posed the
question. See, Jesus is the key to abundant life
and we gotta put him first. And some of you haven't
made that a priority and thus the reason you're
falling further and further and not being happy
or experiencing abundant life. So we're gonna
pray a simple prayer. I'm gonna invite all of
us to pray it together. And if you've never prayed
this prayer, pray it with all of us because I
believe God wants to radically change your life.
Jesus. I'm broken. I'm full of doubt, shame,
regret, sin. Change me. I believe you're God's
son. I believe you died for me. Make me new.
Set me free. Fill me with your spirit. Help me,
God, to serve others. In Jesus' name, amen. If
you prayed that prayer for the first time, see
me as you leave. Hug me. Text me. Do something
because I want to tell you to get baptized. But
before we go, we're going to worship. And listen,
for some of you, I want to challenge you to worship
like you've never worshipped before. Sing to
God, not to the band. Sing to God, not the screen.
Sing to God, not to the people beside you. This
isn't a show. Make it a personal encounter between
you and Him. Amen? Now, there was three words
of knowledge. Our prayer team will be here on
the right. to pray for you as you sing in worship.
You have pain in the lower part of your stomach.
You have an inner ear infection in your left
ear. You have cervical pain closer to the base
of your neck. If any of those are you, we believe
God wants to heal you. If you have any other
need while we worship, get up here and get prayer
because God's in the business of releasing miracles
in this house. Amen? Let's stand together and
let's worship. that you are working now.