Last year my daughter got married.  It was a great day.  She went to Planet Fitness and met a High School friend, and they began to talk.  Very quickly, they fell in love, and I got the phone call asking if we could meet for permission to marry her.  She got married, moved out of my house, and started a new life with her husband.  Now she and her husband are taking on life together.  They work on the house, they clean up the yard, they go on vacation, and they deal with the challenges of life like frozen pipes.  Her love for her husband has radically changed her life.

I want you to keep that in mind when I ask you, ‘Has your faith in Jesus disrupted your life?’  Has your love for Jesus radically changed your life?

Jesus’ brother James wrote this.

James 1:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless… 19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? NLT

James says, that if you claim to have faith and it doesn’t disrupt your life, demons do that too.  That would be like my daughter saying she is in love with her husband, but nothing changes in her life.  She would still live at home.  She would never go on vacation with him.  She doesn’t work on the house or the yard.  She wouldn’t take on the challenges of life like frozen pipes with her husband.  That would be weird – right?

In this series, we want you to wrestle with questions like, ‘Have I given my life to Jesus?  Have I given Jesus ownership of my life?  Has my faith in Jesus disrupted my life?’

Sam asked, has your faith in Jesus disrupted how you view the Bible?  He said God loves you and wants you to have a great life.  A life of joy and meaning.  What does God do?  He gives us the Bible.  Sam shared that sadly, many people push the Bible away.  They don’t recognize that the Bible is God speaking to us so when they read scripture, it seems like a burden.

Sam shared this scripture.

Psalms 119:49 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. ESV

Scripture is where we can find spiritual life and comfort.

Last week I asked, has your faith in Jesus disrupted how you view grace?  We explained that grace is 100% God.  You can’t create it.  You can’t earn it.  You can’t make it happen.  All you can do is accept it.  And when we accept it, we must focus on God who He is, and what He did.  If we don’t, we will stay stuck.  This is how scripture puts it.

Romans 12:3 Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. MSG

To start today, I want to say, that everyone worships something.  How do we know what we worship?  It’s the thing that you believe will make your life better or more secure.  You think about it.  You want it.  You pursue it.  You want more of it.  Why?  Because you believe it will make your life better.  You trust it.  So ask yourself, what is it, that if I had more of it, it would make my life better, more secure?  Chances are that’s what you trust.  That’s what you worship.

When I ask that question, what is it that runs through your mind?  What is it that you want more of?  What is it that would make you feel more secure?  Let me guess how you answered.  In general, most people would say, if I had more money, my life would be better or more secure.  For some of you, that may not be true, but I venture to guess that the majority of us would say, that the more money we have the more secure we feel.  That’s not a surprise because in our culture, we put our trust in money.  The more money we have the more secure we feel.  We think about it.  We want it.  We pursue it.  We want more of it.  And without realizing it, it becomes the thing that we worship.

I want to share a stat with you.  I heard this on the news, looked it up, and wanted to share it with you.  In 2024, from January to September, the state of PA reported, that people gambled over $6 billion in sports betting. [Source: https://www.covers.com]

What do you think our culture worships?  What do you think we place our trust or hope in?  What is it that if we had more of it, we would be happy and secure?  Why would PA residents gamble 6 billion and not put that money into God’s kingdom, their local church?

It was no different in Jesus’ day so imagine how shocking it was when Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount.  Let’s read what Jesus taught.

Matthew 6:19 Don’t store up treasures here on earth where they can erode away or may be stolen. 20 Store them in heaven where they will never lose their value and are safe from thieves. 21 If your profits are in heaven, your heart will be there too. 22 If your eye is pure, there will be sunshine in your soul. 23 But if your eye is clouded with evil thoughts and desires, you are in deep spiritual darkness. And oh, how deep that darkness can be! 24 You cannot serve two masters: God and money. For you will hate one and love the other, or else the other way around. TLB

What do you think about what Jesus taught?  Did you know that about money?  Jesus taught we can fall in love with money.  Did you ever think that you could have an emotional affair with money?  Jesus was quite clear; over time we are going to end up loving or hating either God or money.

What do we worship?  It’s that thing we trust.  It’s that thing we believe that if we had more of it, it would make our lives better or more secure.

When the Children of Israel were freed from slavery, one of the first things God did was give them the 10 Commandments.  Let’s read a couple of verses.

Exodus 20:1 Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. NLT

God was telling them; that I am a real God.  I’m not a fake god.  I’m not an idol, a piece of wood.  And I love you so much that I rescued you from slavery.  And today, I’m making a covenant, a promise, to bless you.  I’m going to take you from slavery to the promised land, but you are going to have to trust me.  God immediately begins to explain to them how to be in a relationship with Him.  God gives them the 10 commandments.  Let’s read the first commandment.

Exodus 20:3 You must not have any other god but me. NLT

God started with, because I am real, because I love you, and because I rescued you, don’t have any other gods.  You see in those days, it was normal to worship the idols of Baal and Ashtoreth for reproduction, rain, and romance.  Why would they worship these idols?  They believed that these idols would give them what they wanted so they put their trust and hope into Baal and Ashtoreth.

As weird as it might seem to worship a wooden stick covered in gold, it’s no different today.  We have idols, they just look different.  We believe that there are things in this world that if we had more of, our lives would be better or more secure.  And those things, our modern-day idols.  And they compete for our love of God.

Later in verse 5, God explains His passion for us.

Exodus 20:5 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. NLT

Did you know that?  Did you know God has that much passion for you?  God is passionately in love with us and when we put our trust into something else, God gets jealous for us.  How many of you walked through the dating years and your girlfriend or boyfriend spent time with someone and you got jealous?  How many of you in your marriage felt like your wife or your husband was just a little too happy to spend time with someone else of the opposite sex and you got jealous?  What do you experience when you get jealous?  It’s that mixture of insecurity and anger.  That’s how God feels when we put our trust in something other than Him.  That’s how God feels when we want more of something and it’s not Him.

God here is explaining to the Children of Israel, I’m real.  My love for you is real.  I love you so much I rescued you.  I’m leading you to better places.  Never put your trust in something that isn’t real.  So please, treat me like I deserve.  Place your love and trust in me.  I will take care of you.

If you have read the Old Testament, you know the rest of the story.  God keeps His convent and leads the Children of Isreal into the promised land.  They become the wealthiest country in the world.  However, over time, the Children of Israel got a king, and it got bad, and they split into two kingdoms called Israel and Judah.  During this time period, it was devastating how they treated God.  They worshipped idols.  They have sex orgies in the worship of idols.  They offered their children to be killed in the worship of idols.  When other countries threatened to go to war, Israel and Judah wouldn’t go to God for help.  They set up treaties with other countries to use their armies.  What happened?  God was jealous.  He was hurt and infuriated.  God sends prophets to tell them, but they ignore every warning God sends them.  They couldn’t stop putting their trust, and their love into idols.  Then finally, God allows other countries to come and destroy both Israel and Judah.  The story is just unreal.  They just refused to destroy their idols and put their trust in God.

Now today we read these stories and conclude we would never worship an idol.  It sounds so bizarre to worship a wooden stick covered in gold.  We can read these stories and think, ‘How dumb were those people?’  Who in their right mind wouldn’t put their trust, their love in a real God who loves them?  Who would ignore God and pursue an idol, it’s so obvious, so dumb, who would ever do that?  The answer may surprise you.  You would.  I would.  These stories are about us.  We have idols today; they just look different.

Let me ask you, what is it, that if you had more of it, it would make your life better or more secure?  That’s what you trust.  That’s what you worship.  That’s your idol.  It’s the thing that is competing for your love of God.

What did Jesus say when someone asked Him what was the most important commandment?

Mark 12:28 He asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ NLT

Do you see it?  God isn’t a fake god, God is real.  God is in love with you.  God has come to rescue you.  The greatest thing you can do is love God.  And to be even more clear, don’t have any other gods.  Don’t believe that something else other than God will make your life better or more secure.

Your greatest act of worship is destroying the idols of your life to love God.

Let’s fast forward to what Paul wrote to the church in Philippi.

Philippians 3:18-20 There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. 19 But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites. 20 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ. MSG

See that phrase, ‘Those who live there make their bellies their gods.’  That means, we take our desires and appetites and follow them.  And over time, they become our gods.  They control us.  That’s what it means to reject God and what He stands for to embrace an easy life.  That’s what it means to not give ownership of our lives to God.  Our desires and appetites determine how we live.

Did you know your desires and appetites can become an idol to us?   We need to start with, God has created you with desires and appetites.  They are good.  They make your life so much more fun.  Think about it.  Your desire for adventure, fun, sex, accomplishment, sports, shopping, friendship, all of it, is from God.  The problem is that our appetites will never satisfy us, we will never have enough.  Why?  Your appetites are short-term, and they will always leave you wanting more.  Example: I’m excited to eat a Thanksgiving meal, then I’m stuffed, and then I’m hungry again.  If we don’t monitor our desires and appetites, they can become sin when they control us.  That means what we want becomes so intense, that we are willing to violate scripture to get what we want.  It’s a sin when we know what is right and wrong and we do the wrong thing to satisfy our appetite.

Notice, our desires and appetites are not sin, it’s what we do with them that can become sin.  And that’s what makes modern-day idols tricky.  You probably think idol worship is dumb.  But today it’s a struggle to see how a God-given desire or appetite becomes an idol that controls us.

Let’s close and talk about our greatest act of worship, destroying the idols of our lives.

How do we know what is our idol?

First question.  Ask yourself, what is it, that if I had more of it, it would make my life better, more secure?  If you didn’t answer Jesus, that may be your modern-day idol.  You may have an emotional desire, a love for it more than your emotional desire, or love for Jesus.

Second question.  What desire or appetite has become a distraction to you?  What desire or appetite are you feeding and is leading you into open sin?  That may be your modern-day idol.

What do we do?  Remember, our greatest act of worship is destroying the idols in our lives.

Here’s what you do.  Bring that thing to Jesus.  That thing you want more of.  That thing that would make you feel more secure.  Bring that desire or appetite to Jesus.  Bring it to Jesus and ask, ‘Jesus is this a modern-day idol that I have fallen in love with?’  If you feel the answer is yes, do something about it.

If it’s money, it’s tricky because you need money to live.  It’s not wrong to make money and to be wise with money.  But it is wrong to be greedy while not having a meaningful relationship with Jesus.  The best way to destroy this idol is to give.  Take your money and give it back to God as a declaration, I trust You.

If it’s a reoccurring sin, it’s more obvious.  Get real honest with those around you and take dramatic steps to be held accountable.

If it’s an addiction like alcohol or lust or gambling and it’s growing out of control, get real honest with those around you and take dramatic steps to be held accountable.

If it’s laziness, engage.  Make the decision to take one step to engage your marriage, your family, your personal growth in Jesus, and your church.  Do one thing.

If it’s your attitude that comes out in your mouth.  Start your day and commit your life to Jesus.

If it’s rebellion.  Surrender your life to Jesus today.

What am I saying?  Listen, your greatest act of worship will be to destroy every idol in your life.  Find out what it is and do whatever you must to destroy it.  Why?  Because that’s when you can fully enjoy your relationship with God.

I leave you with this.  Has your faith in Jesus disrupted what you worship?