Exodus chapter 20, dealing with sin. Last week we mentioned some things with idolatry, and we're going to kind of overlap some of that, but also touch on some new things with idolatry. And at the same time, not only just touch on idolatry, but also get into the graven images. There's a lot of that that Baptists used to hold strong on that we have seemed to fall away from. I'll just mention that a little bit tonight and you can go and study that a little bit more. And I'm not going to say we're going to get through all the scriptures tonight. I'll kind of watch the time and see how the Lord leads. But there's a lot to deal with idolatry and all I'm going to do tonight is really scratch the surface. I know we'll read a lot, we'll go to several places, but you're still going to just be scratching the surface. Idolatry is a big subject in Scripture, but I hope it gives us enough information that we'll carry it back home with us and study it even more and help us to be what God would have us to be. I'm going to turn, as we said, to Exodus chapter 20, but before we read, we do want to look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come to you this day, Father, we're so thankful for the many wonderful things that you've done for us. Father, you've been good to us so much better than we ever deserve. And Father, we pray that you would lead, guide, and direct in the message. Father, you know the need of the hour better than we do. And Father, we pray that we would speak only the things that you give us. And Father, that we would not add to your words or take anything away from it, but preach your word. that we as your people could be drawn close to you, and those that are lost could see their need of Jesus before it's everlasting too late. Father, we ask for all these things, and we ask it in the name of Jesus, for He is worthy. Amen. In Exodus chapter 20, go and read, beginning in verse 3, It says, "...thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." Now, within this, of course, you've got, having no other gods before me, and we'll deal with that as we go through, but also the graven image part. And it says, look, don't make anything in heaven. You know, let me ask this question. How many of y'all have seen pictures or drawings or sculptures of angels? I'm sure y'all have. Do they ever fit what the Scripture says about them? Or did man make them how they wanted them? Let me ask you this question. Do you ever find a female name given to an angel in Scripture? or they all have male names. I haven't found a female angel yet. Not to say, well, I can't certainly say that there are any, because it's not written in Scripture that there are. Even Satan and his angels, when you look at them, they are all masculine. Every single one of them. Every single one of them has a masculine term, masculine name. Same with the angels of the Lord, like Gabriel and Michael. You go through and look at those. How many angels have you seen that were made to look like a woman? Probably at least 50% if not 75 or more. You ever wonder why that is? Let me also ask you this. You ever seen a statue of Mary? You got those, don't they? And if you go back and study, I believe it was the moon goddess that you had back in the Roman times and even the Greek times, it seems like her statue looks very similar to that one. Looks very similar. Like it's the same face. It's the same body. A lot of times even the same position. It's amazing that people have taken engraving images. And I'll say this. Take a picture of Christ. Is that what Christ really looks like? The pictures they have of Him? One of the things they always have Him is they have Him with long hair. There is nowhere in Scripture it says Jesus had long hair. In fact, New Testament says it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Shame for it. I mean, He's got curly hair, looks like a woman, doesn't He? A lot of times, as far as His hair is concerned, Man told me one time, looks like, you know, those pictures of Jesus, they got him ready to do some shampoo commercials with the hair he's got. But not only that, they got him to look handsome and he's muscular and all this, but the Bible says that there was nothing about him that was comely to look at. I'll tell you, a lot of people are going to be shocked when they meet Jesus, because they'll say, well, that's not the picture I ever saw of Him. I'll even tell you this, most of the pictures you see of Jesus were actually taken of one of the Pope's sons. And he was a wicked man, a vile man. If you want to go back and look at it, that Pope was and so was his son. But yet they've made the image of Christ after that Pope's son. A lot of people know nothing about that and they don't think anything about it and they say, oh this is Jesus. And I'm going, not the Jesus you find in the Scripture. Not the one that you find there. And so a lot of people have made some images that's wrong. And the thing is, used to in Baptist churches, you wouldn't see a picture anywhere of anything in heaven and anything on earth. Because they'd say, look, we just don't do that. They didn't, a lot of times, hardly ever put up a cross. And I understand the cross and different things and how that relates to Christianity. But you look through Baptist history, they didn't do a lot of that stuff. In fact, we malked it for years. I'm talking centuries. We said, that's not of God. God told us not to do that. That breaks the second commandment. That goes against what God has told us to do. I mean, there's messages you can find on this. But you go into Baptist churches today, and they'll have a whole lot of pictures of Jesus up, and a whole lot of images up, and a whole lot of things that just doesn't fit Scripture. Just doesn't go along with it. And sad thing is, you get to Mary and some of those angels and some of the pictures of who they call as saints, and you ever seen people bow down to those images? Pray to them? Worship them? I tell you, that doesn't fit Scripture. And I tell you, there's a whole lot of people, especially with Mary, that have made her like unto a God herself. And I tell you what, she would be ashamed of all that. Because even when Peter and John tried to say, we're going to make an altar here, we're going to make one for Moses and we're going to make one for Elijah, God stopped them and said, you worship my son. You worship my son, you don't worship somebody else. Now if He did that with Moses and Elijah, you think it would be any different with Mary? And I'm just throwing all that out to keep it in mind. and keep it on study. I'm going to turn back and look at some other things and kind of ask the question to begin with, where did idolatry begin? Where did it begin? Now I'm going to go back to Genesis chapter 3 and I'll try as much as possible. I don't have all this just written down in order or going to go to it exactly in order, but we'll try to keep some of it close. But in Genesis chapter 3, I'm first going to read verse 5. It says in verse 5, "...for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." He asked us, has that type of idolatry changed in our day and time? I tell you, Satan has never changed his tactics because his tactics work on sinful men. And men like to make themselves their own God. That's the highest person in their list when you study human history, is themselves. And when Satan come and he tempted Eve and said, look, you're not going to die if you eat of that fruit that God told you not. In fact, you're going to be, your eyes are going to be open and you will be as God yourself. I tell you, there's a lot of people that have got so educated and so knowledgeable in our day and time, they about think that they're God, don't they? You can't question me. Even recently, and I'm not trying to get political or get into some of the current events or things that have happened recently, but if you listen to some of the politicians and some of the people in power sometimes, you hear the idolatry in their voice. To question me is to question science. Y'all remember that a couple years ago? We had an educated man in our government that said, if you're questioning me, you're questioning science. In other words, I'm beyond question. You cannot question me, which is really the exact opposite of true science. True science questions everything. But again, that's not a political statement. It's just showing you the mind of men. They say, I have all this knowledge. I have all this intellect. How dare you question me? I'm smarter and I'm greater than you are. And there's many that think that to this day. I mean, I've heard people talk about, well, some people shouldn't be allowed to have children. Some people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have certain jobs and have certain positions. You know why they say that? Because I'm smarter than they are and therefore their voice should not even be heard. Do you know what they're saying with that? My eyes have been opened, I have knowledge, and I am like a God unto myself. I know where they got that from. It goes all the way back to Genesis 3. Now, along with that, you turn over to verse 17 of Genesis 3, and this is when God is dealing with Adam. And he said in verse 17, and unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, curse is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow, shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. What had Adam put above God? He put his wife above God, didn't he? Look, I like to listen to my wife. I like to hear her opinions, but the day I listen to her above God, that's a bad day. The day she listens to me above God is a bad day. God is the authority. And there's many people that put somebody else's opinion. Well, I read this in this book, and this person said this, and I heard this, and I heard this point of view, and I heard that. And if it goes against God, they'll follow it. Well, this person's got a doctorate's degree, and they said that. There's not a person, I don't care how many doctorate's degrees you can get, there's not a single person that's wiser than God. I don't care what kind of paper somebody has on the wall, or how many papers they have on the wall, they're not God. They're still a human being and a man, and they can fail. We're to put God first, or else that's idolatry. You turn on over into Genesis chapter 4, and I'll pick up in verse 3. It says, "...and in process of time it came to pass, it came brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord. And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel in his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thou countenance fallen? If thou doest well," or in other words, if you would do like you were told to do, because the blood, of course, represented Christ. That's what it was representing in those sacrifices of animals. He said, "...shall thou not be accepted? And if thou doest well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." And so he's getting to the point, you're trying to make a false God. You're trying to make a false image. I've given you how to worship me, and Cain, you're not wanting to do that. You're wanting to worship me how you want to, yet I've told you how I want you to worship me. You know, there's a lot of people today that make these statements. Well, God doesn't care where we go to church as long as we go. Well, God doesn't care how we worship Him as long as we do worship Him. Oh, He cares. He cares and all across the scripture it shows that He cares. When there was people that even a man tried to stabilize the ark when it was being carried, God still killed the man. Because He said, you're not to touch that. Y'all didn't carry it like I told you to carry it. You didn't do like I told you to do. You're gonna die. when you have the split of the kingdom and you have Judah and Israel separate? Did God have respect when they started building temples and they started building places of worships in the mountains and other places? Y'all remember even the Samaritan woman? We worship over here in the hills and y'all worship over here in Jerusalem. How did He respond to her? He said, you know not what you worship. Now, that wasn't the main part that he wanted to get across to her. He wanted to point her to himself, but he let her know what y'all are worshiping isn't correct, because that worship is of the Jews. It's been set up to be here in Jerusalem, and y'all had a king set some other things up because he was afraid of losing power. But you see there, even how Jesus responded, God never accepted that worship, did He? He accepted that that had been given to them. How they were supposed to worship, how they were supposed to follow the Lord. That would take even back to Hosea when he said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They were worshipping things they did not know, they were having priests lie to them and tell them things that were wrong and God let it plainly be known. I'm not accepting that, I'm not going along with it. I gave you my word. I'll tell you this, back in Nehemiah's day, they worshipped a whole lot of things, but once they read the law, they found out they were far off from what God wanted. Y'all remember how they even had to divorce their wives and come back to God? Because they had married people that were not of God? They had married people in false religions and different things and they had to divorce them? Was God fine with them just worshipping Him anyway? Or did He say, no, you're going to worship Me correctly. You're going to worship Me according to the law, according to the orders that I've given you. And see, even here, Cain was trying to worship God and he said, oh, God's going to be fine because I'm still worshiping Him. I'm just doing the offering the way I want it. Did God accept that from Cain? Or did He reject it? He rejected it. And there's a lot of things being pushed today by people and saying, oh God doesn't care, God's love, God just wants us to worship Him anyway. No. God has a way for us to worship. I'll even go beyond that. He has a church that He set up through Christ that is the proper way of worshiping Him. And even the proper church has to worship Him according to Scripture, in spirit and in truth. and not in falsehood. And so when people say, you can just worship God anyway, you might want to come back to Scripture on that because a lot of them are committing idolatry and don't even realize it. You turn on over in the book of Genesis chapter 35, and I'll read verses 2 through 4, It says, "...then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean." and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem." So he takes all this and he says, look, y'all need to put this stuff away. We want to honor the Lord. We're going to worship. We're going to worship the true God. Y'all going to put away all these strange gods. I remember also in the book of Acts, you know, when people got saved, y'all remember how they took their books of witchcraft and they burned them? They didn't go to everybody else and say, y'all need to burn the books. They took their own and they burned them. They said, we're not worshiping something that's false. We're not going with something that's not according to the will of God. We're getting rid of it. We're getting it out of our lives. I tell you, that's still good to do today. Turn over to Exodus chapter 12. In verse 12 of Exodus 12, he says, "...for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment." The last few words are, "...I am the Lord." There's multiple scriptures you could go to on that front, but God made it very clear that all those gods of Egypt were false. And He said, I'm going to show them that they're false. They prayed to them. They tried to copy the miracles that God did, but it got to a point that even those priests of all the gods of Egypt, they couldn't copy what God was doing. And God was trying to prove a point. He said, your gods are false. I am the Lord. And I tell you, as much as He was showing it to Egypt and the rest of the world, He was mainly showing it to His people. You do not serve something else. I am the Lord. Now you turn on over in the book of Exodus chapter 32. Pick up in verse 7. It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf. and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." We know how they took that calf and they made an image. Of course, later on, you know, it was said that they just threw the gold in the fire and out came this calf. It was just a miracle. It just came out this way. We know that's not how it worked. They made that image. They did it how they wanted to. Notice what God said. He said, they have corrupted themselves. It's amazing, if you'll study it, over all human creation, how many people have bowed down to some image made by man. And we'll deal with that more just a little bit later, but there are so many that have bowed down to images. And I've gone into houses before where people have had images. If you've ever known some Hindus, you've probably seen some of their gods and their images. And they've got some little doll, some figurine. You've got Buddha and you've got some things in many other religions. Of course, that was also a big thing with the Egyptians' gods. They would have little symbols of an alligator or little symbols of a certain type of bird or whatever it might be that would symbolize a certain god. They sold them like crazy to make money. Of course, that was a big thing even with the Roman gods, wasn't it? They had people that literally made their living by making images of gods and little figurines and things to worship. And look, men would hold it in a pouch. Those Roman soldiers would take those things into war with them. in a little bitty pouch and they would take them out at night and light a candle and, oh, let me bow down and worship this God and say my prayers to these little bitty figurines that have been made. And people made a good living selling all that. That's why when Paul started preaching in some of those Roman cities, they hated him. Y'all remember one of the men that hated him was a coppersmith. And the reason he hated him and persecuted him is because he hurt his business. Because He is telling people, y'all need to stop bowing down to all these images and y'all just need to talk to the one true and living God. You don't need an image of Him. He's real. He exists. You can just talk to Him. You don't have to bow down to some image. But there's people today that bow down to all kinds of images and have throughout time. And sadly Israel did that quite a bit too. I'm going to turn and look at a couple of other things. Let's turn to the book of Joshua. First of all, in chapter 7, I know this will be a familiar account, but this is a type of idol worship. We know that Israel was told not to take anything as they conquered, that they were not to take anything, but they did. Achan, of course, took some things. He took it out of greed, and let's not be deceived, that greed is a huge play of idolatry. For the love of money is the root of all evil. And there are many people that have worshipped gold, silver, and paper. Doesn't it seem silly that people would worship paper? But they do, don't they? They'll worship those little pieces of paper all over the world and do anything to get it. And it's easy for money to become a god to us. Money in and of itself is not a god, it's an inanimate object. Money is not good or evil, but there are people that have made it a god unto themselves. And here we find with Achan, I'll read verse 13. Of course, here God has told Joshua, you need to get up. And he says in verse 13, "'Up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee. O Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.'" And I'll say this, there's a lot of times in God's people's lives they don't understand, they can't see the blessings of God until they get something removed out of their life. There are some people that a bottle means more to them than the Lord does. A drug means more to them than the Lord does. There are some people that their entertainment means more to them than the Lord does. Sometimes their own personal ambitions mean more to them than the Lord does. And until we get some things out of the way, we cannot see the blessings of God. Notice what God called it, He said, an accursed thing. There are some people that think that they are receiving blessings in life and they don't understand that they actually have a curse in their life. There are some things that have to be removed because it's actually cursing us. And I think about over in the book of Proverbs where it talks about a man that would make himself poor but is rich, and then those that would make themselves rich but were poor. And that's a good illustration even using money. You say, Preacher, we've got to sell everything and just be poor all of our lives? That's not what I said. But I'll say this, the Bible is very plain. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off. If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out. When Jesus was saying that, He was getting to the point, there might be some things you might need to remove. And I'll say this, if money becomes such a fixture, I'll use myself for an example and let you know some of my failures and things I've had to work on over the years. I had my own business when I surrendered to Preach, a lawn care business, and it was building up, it was doing good. And of course my justification was, well I got this business, I can make some money and I'll do good, but you know what I found out that I was doing? I got my attention focused on building up my business. That's what took my attention. Look, I saw that I could not stop that. If I was going to have that business, I was always going to be consumed with building it up. I was always going to be consumed about getting another customer, especially getting a different customer, and building it up. And I couldn't pastor. I couldn't do the things that God wanted me to do until I finally just sold the business. And I had that conversation with Susan. I told her, I said, look, I'm just going to have to sell it. I'm just going to have to get rid of it. I said, because I just can't do it part time. I said, I'm always willing to take on the next job and I'm willing to take on the next one. I said, I've got to make a choice. Either I do the business or I serve the Lord. And I'm not saying somebody has to sell their business to serve the Lord. That's not what I said. Or somebody has to stop working. I'm saying that was a problem for me. I saw I had a problem. I saw that there was something in my way. that I liked money, and I liked making more money, and I thought money was security. And I finally had to figure out to serve God as I needed to, I had to let that go. And that was very hard to do, it was very difficult to do. And it took God's grace to do it, but I had to let it go. There's a lot of times that people see that there's things in their life that are hindering them from walking closer with the Lord, but they don't want to let anything go. You know, I've had a conversation with a man one time. He had a job that had him where he couldn't be a father, he couldn't be a husband, he certainly couldn't be faithful to the Lord. And I said, what you need to do is let that go. And he said, look, the money's good, I've got to pay for this house, I've got to pay for this vehicle. I said, can you have less of a house? Can you have less of a vehicle? I said, nothing wrong with working, the Bible's all for it. I said, but if work is stopping you from serving God, I said, you need to change jobs. You need to change what you're doing. I know those are things that sometimes people don't want to hear. And sometimes I've had to tell that to some ladies before. They weren't raising their children. They were letting daycare raise their children. They were letting the schools raise their children. They weren't raising their children. They weren't being a wife to their husband. I said, you need to let this career go. You need to let this go. I know there's some that can multitask and do different things. I'm not trying to say one size fits all. But I saw people that were neglecting what God had called them to do and be. And they were doing it for money. I said, you need to let this go and be what God wants for you. Because the bigger house, the nicer cars, the nicer clothes, all the things we think are important is not as important as the thing God wants us to be. And sometimes we can't see that we let idolatry get in the way. And money can quickly become an idolatry. And it is in a lot of people's lives in America and a lot of people don't see it. And we must be careful with it. Now, later on in chapter 7, I'll pick up in verse 19. In verse 19 of Joshua 7, it said, And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight. Then I coveted them, and took them, and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Notice what he sold out his whole nation for. There was men that died in battle because of this sin. Women lost their husbands, children lost their father because of this sin. Because he saw the gold, the silver, the garment, and he said, I desire it. He made it an idol unto himself. Let me ask this question. How many families have been broken up because of money? Number one reason for divorce in our day and time in America, it's not adultery, it's money. How many women have sold out their families for money? How many men have sold out their children, their wives for money? It's caused a big problem. And even look at our nation, what it's done there. We're so greedy for money. 30 trillion plus dollars in debt. And you know what a pile of voters are asking for? Give me more, give me more, give me more. Greed. Greed. And as the Lord said, the deceitfulness of riches. It's tearing us apart. And people can't even see it. Idolatry everywhere. And they don't even see it's idolatry. And you know what it is when you're looking for the government to solve all your problems? What if you made government then? A lot of people don't say it. We might have in God we trust on our dollar bills. But I tell you for a lot of people it's in government we trust. And if I can get the right politician in, they can give me what I want, they can pay off my student loans, they can do this for me, they can pay all my medical, they can fix all my problems. And a lot of people don't even realize, they say, preacher, why are you preaching against socialism and communism? Because that's making government your god. And that is a dangerous thing to do. Look what it's done to marriages. In trying to end poverty back in the 1960s, with that war on poverty, you know what we did? We starved the family out. Women decided, I can just look to government and I don't need a father anymore. And the divorce rate started to skyrocket. Because they were trusting in government, instead of trusting in marriage and family, as God had told them to do. And let me tell you what that was. That was idolatry. There's a lot of people who don't want to hear that, don't want to believe it. But I'll tell you, the root of our problem in America is that we have made our government an idol unto us. Again, that's not a political statement, that is a spiritual statement. And the results that you see with the children, the results that you see with this attitude of entitlement, the attitude of, I don't need this, I don't need that, but I need my government check, and I need this from government, and I need that from government. You see in what's become an idol and everything that God's set up in the family and the way things are to be done by the family and the husband being a provider and the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church and the wife loving her husband seeing the importance of family. I tell you what, the end of that, the root of it, is idolatry. And a lot of it comes down to the love of money, greed. It's done a number. Now you turn over later in the book of Joshua in chapter 24, and I'll probably try to end here tonight, and we'll try to pick up with some other scriptures a little bit later. But notice what Joshua said, we'll pick up in verse 14 of Joshua 24. As they were going into the Promised Land, Joshua was giving them some commandments. And of course, it came from the Lord. You can go back over in places like Deuteronomy chapter 6 and other places and it will be very similar to this. But he says in verse 14, Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt. and serve ye the Lord." Notice what he goes back to. They had gods on the other side of the flood. In fact, that's one of the reasons that God destroyed the world, because of all the idolatry. But he also goes back and says, y'all don't serve those gods in Egypt either. He said, you need to serve the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood are the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. But the sad thing is, a few generations later, they would serve other gods, wouldn't they? They would serve the gods of the Amorites and the Hittites and all those. And we'll deal with more of that, Lord willing, next week. You know what's troubling me? And I say this, I know it troubles the Lord. There's people that serve things that are not of God. Years ago, and I don't know how many it is, but somewhere back in my family timeline, they were serving idol gods. I don't know what all family ties I have. I know Scottish is at least on the fairly side. I know that much. And people might ask me, why don't you focus on your Scottish heritage? I said, why would I? I'm not ashamed that my family comes from Scotland. I'm not ashamed of that. But I don't want to go back to the idolatry that existed with the Scottish people before Christianity got there. No doubt some of them even came out of Catholicism. Of course, before Catholicism, they were in some other heathen religion. And they probably wore different things, went around naked, of course, with Irish and Scots. You had the kilts and different things of that nature. People were like, well, why don't you put on a kilt and do this? Why do I want to go back to the things God's called me out of? Wherever Christianity has gone, God has called people out of all the false stuff that came before. I don't want to go back to that. Even as a Southerner, there's some things in Southern culture and different things, there's things that I can say is godly, there's some things that are not based upon the Lord, and the things that are not based upon the Lord, I want to forsake those things. You know, I come across some that say, well, you know, I'm a redneck, so I gotta drink, and I gotta be rowdy, and I gotta have a short temper and all this, and I said, well, you're not wanting to be godly. If being a redneck's more important than being godly, is that not idolatry? And I could say the same thing if I got over with some of those in African things, couldn't I? Well, some of them would get these big ears or the big lips. You know, I got to wear these dangly earrings that's immodest because, you know, that's just part of my heritage. No, forsake those things. Forsake those things. Put away those things and put on the Lord. That's what needs to be done. And I'll say this, we've been indoctrinated in America by humanism. I believe it was back in the 1930s that our Supreme Court ruled that humanism was a religion and it was being taught in school. They can say there's not a religion being taught in schools, but they push one every day. And the most popular religion they push is humanism. And a lot of Christians don't understand that they were geared to think in a humanistic way and not a godly and righteous way. And when you trust in Christ, you've got to put off some of those things that were taught to you by the world and put on the things of Christ. And there's a lot of people trying to be humanistic while at the same time saying that they're Christian. No. You need to choose you this day who you're going to serve. If God's Word goes contrary to something you've believed all your life, you need to follow God. And you need to leave the other stuff behind. That's what you need to do. Because if we don't do that, we're committing idolatry. When we say our thinking in the world is more valuable than our thinking in Scripture, that's idolatry. And you see it here that he said, what y'all need to do is make a choice. Who you gonna serve? Who you gonna follow? Y'all gonna serve the gods on the other side of the flood? You gonna carry on the tradition of the Egyptians? You gonna behave like the Amorites? He said, or are you gonna serve the Lord? We need to have those conversations with ourselves. And we need to make sure that we're walking with the Lord, being what He would have us to be. We'll try to pick up with some of these other scriptures next week, a little bit more on idolatry, but I pray it could be a blessing. And I pray that we can see that we need to serve the Lord in sincerity and be what He has called us to be. And if you're here and lost, I pray that you see there is no other way to be saved than by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is God's one and only way of salvation. but leave upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This is the message God has given us. If you have anything upon your heart, I invite you to come. I have a verse of a song.