Matthew 19 verse 16, and you see the banner behind me? We're doing Ten Commandments, a series on the Ten Commandments. And I'm not gonna go one a week, I'm gonna do two a week. Now there's a couple reasons behind that. Number one is I think I can get a little bit more in on two a week. Number two is Hope Chapel's gonna have all their Christmas decorations up in five weeks. So bye-bye banners for a while. So that kind of motivated me and also we're here in Matthew 19 on Jesus talking about the Ten Commandments. What a perfect tie-in. It's something I've been wanting to do for about a year now. So verse 19, I'm sorry, chapter 19, verse 16. Now behold, one came and said to Jesus, to him, good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And some of you might be asking this tonight or even listening to this later on the radio or the internet. You're asking, okay, what must I do to have eternal life? And I'm gonna give you the answer tonight. So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. but if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, the difficult part about this sermon is I could spend a half hour just on what we just read. This whole phrase, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. Mormon, Jehovah Witnesses, different groups will say, see? See, Jesus is saying he's not God right here. Well, if you weigh scripture against scripture, there's dozens of other verses that contradict that, that he is God. He is the son of God. He is good and he is part of the triune nature of God. I and the Father are one. But what we think he's doing here, myself and many other commentators, is he's acknowledging, he's telling the man, why do you call me good? I mean, if only God is good, why are you calling me good? Are you recognizing that I am God? You just called me good, and only God can be called that. So he's kind of confirming, hey, do you know who I am, and is that what you're confirming in this? But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Now this is also interesting because we don't do anything to enter into life. You're not gonna find salvation by keeping the commandments. How do we know that? Because there's a lot of other verses that say that we are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith. That salvation comes through grace and through faith, not by works, lest any man boast. There's nothing we can do. So what's Jesus talking about here when he says, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments? Well, it's interesting, keep here, in the Greek language means to retain possession of. So I'm keeping, I'm retaining possession of or to store in a regular place. So if somebody stores God's commandments in a regular place, if he keeps them in a regular place, if he possesses them, it's almost like keeping the course. If you keep the commandments, it reveals the heart. In other words, keeping the commandments does not save you, but it does reveal if you're truly saved. First John, whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. So Jesus here is saying if you keep the commandments, this is how you enter into eternal life, basically you know a person's heart is right before God if they want to keep the commandments. And I've seen this many, many times, I'm sure you have. You can tell if there's fruit in somebody's life by how much they love God. Do they love Him? Do they love His Word? I'm not talking about perfection, I'm talking about when they fall in sin, they want to keep His commandments. There's guilt, there's sin, they want to please God, they want to please their Father. They want to keep the commandments. And it's interesting, you know what happened 500 years ago on today's date? Halloween. The Reformation. Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. Actually it wasn't, what, 499 years or so? I was off a little bit. So that's what we, on October 31st, and it's interesting, I went and I looked this up. The first two points he had, now if you're not, don't know what this is, Martin Luther came out of the Roman Catholic Church, he had tons of Grievances, tons of issues with the church. I mean, why are you charging people money to spring their relatives out of purgatory, to build the big cathedral there? Why are the priests saying, you're absolved of these sins, go and sin no more, and penance, and all these things? He's challenging the church on all these things, and that started a lot of the Reformation. People saying, yeah, why does the Pope have all this authority? Why are they going away from the Bible? So the first two points he's challenging are very interesting. Number one, he said, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed that the entire life of the believer be one of repentance. So see, repentance isn't just, you go sit in a booth, you tell this guy on the other side of the screen what you did, and he says, okay, go son, you're free of your sin. Then he comes back a week later, and a week later, and a week later, and a week later, and a week later. That's not repentance. Repentance is, it's a whole life of repentance, because the person wasn't changing. They were just saying, okay, here's what I did. The priest would say, okay, now your sins are forgiven, then he'd go out and do it again. Then he'd come back with a bunch, and then he'd go back and do it again, as if, you know, you can just keep exchanging it. So the first point there is, it's a life of repentance, a believer, a true believer has an attitude of repentance, don't we? Somebody who's truly been forgiven, who truly follows Christ, repentance is a hallmark of their life. They repent, it's a sign of getting back, and not repentance for salvation, Repentance, I should probably clarify that too real quick. When the Bible talks about believe and repent, at some point a person is convicted and they repent, they cry out to God, they say, Lord, I am a sinner, I need a savior. I need you, I'm repenting of my sin, I'm repenting of my old lifestyle. And they are converted, they are born again. But once that happens, you don't live a perfect life. There's stumbling, and there's fumbling, and there's mistakes, and we did this, and we sin. And you go and you repent, and you repent, and you change your mind about this. Lord, I'm repenting about how I've been treating my spouse. I'm changing my mind. I'm changing my attitude. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have did that. Anger got the better half of me. And it's this repentance. And not all the time walking around woe is me and beating ourselves up, but there should be a brokenness about us, a humility, a repentant heart. It's interesting then the next point in the 95 thesis, he said this, this word about repentance cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance. That is, confession and satisfaction as administered by the clergy. In other words, that's what I just explained. It's a sacrament. They're going, they're a priest, I did this, I did this, and I did this. Okay, go my son, and go in peace. And they would go, and then they would still, and they would come back. And also, the priest isn't a mediator. We have one mediator, Christ Jesus. You don't go through a man and he says, okay, your sins are forgiven you. See, and people sometimes get mad, why are you coming against the Roman Catholic Church? I'm not, I'm just saying here's where they differ from the Bible. And these are biggies. Either I confess to Christ or I confess to a man. Either I go to Christ or I go to Christ's mother as co-redeemer. These are big deals. You know the old bumper sticker, I saw it around town, it said, if you can't find Jesus, look for his mother. That's heresy. That's heresy. If you're saying the Pope is above the Bible and you can buy your way out of purgatory, that is heresy, that's dangerous. So when they come out and say that, true biblical preaching has an obligation to come out and challenge it. Here's what you always have to remember, error, actually truth rather, truth doesn't run from scrutiny, it invites it. So the truth of God's word will not run from scrutiny. What scrutiny is, it's like let's look at the truth. Let's look at the truth. I just actually ran into a guy the other day at the gym. He's got a big, he's proud to be an atheist on the back of his shirt. Atheists build hospitals, they don't pray. Atheists get things done, they don't pray. And so I said, well, when's the last time an atheist has built a hospital? So hopefully I'm gonna get lunch with him next week, but I just listened a little bit. I could not resist, I could not resist. So I wanted to sit and talk to him about the truth. Did he want to? No, you want to get out of Dodge. Not right now. You know, evolution, the more I studied science, he said, and how things came together. How did all this just happen? If you want to sit down with a Mormon and watch them wiggle in their seats, remove the Book of Mormon and let's look at the Bible. No, let me go get my bishop. No, let's talk about... No, I don't want to. I'm feeling threatened. I think you're being mean. No, I'm not. Let's just look at the truth. They don't want to. They don't want to look at the truth. So truth invites scrutiny. So when I sit down with a staunch Roman Catholic and say, well, let's look at what you're, well, that was a long time ago. Well, no, they still teach it. Well, I don't believe it. Well, you're in an organization that does. I mean, let's look at the truth. So truth always invites scrutiny. That's why you'll see a Christian, you'll rarely see a Christian, at least who's well-versed in apologetics, they jump at the chance to sit down with somebody. Let me show you what the truth says. We're not afraid of it. We're not afraid of the truth. Well, God killed women and children in the Old Testament. Yeah, very hard. Or he had people kill them. Very hard and difficult, but I'm not going to disbelieve God because some hard passages in the Old Testament. Let's look at the truth. Also, we know that these groups, as they were grown up worshiping false gods and worshiping idols, would have led the children of Israel astray. They had to, God says, wipe out the entire land. They're defiled. And it's actually the sins of the parents who caused that kind of thing to happen. So let's not get mad at God, let's look at who caused that. It's the nations who rejected him. And then verse 18, he said to him, this is the rich young ruler, he said to him, well, which ones, which ones do I have to follow? Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all these I have kept from my youth. Which of course we know is not true, right? Because if you even look at somebody and start to lust for them in your heart, you've committed adultery. If you bear false witness, I know any of you watched The Way of the Master, Kirk Cameron back then, but Ray Comfort, they have a wonderful way of doing this. So you're, by your own admission, you're lying, thieving, adulterous at heart. Whoa, am I? Yeah, because all of us, have you ever lied? Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, I lied. Okay, well, you lied. Have you ever lusted after somebody? No, sure, well, you're lying. Okay, there's another lying. And you just go down the list. And they make a good point. When you stand before God, your good doesn't outweigh your bad. In other words, if you go in front of a judge for murder, and you say, yeah, you know, I did, but I took out the trash. I paid my taxes. I helped old lady cross the street. And you just go through this whole list. What's he going to say? I don't care. I don't care. Get out of there. You're going to death penalty. Because of that. So the same thing with God. It's not these little things we do that outweigh our bad. The Bible says we are fallen from birth. The Adamic nature, theologians call it. This nature we inherited from Adam. Adamic nature. And God says there's none that are righteous, no not one. That's why the cross. That's why this is good news. So he said, Jesus, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Now let's stop there for a minute. Why did he only talk about the last six commandments and not the first four? No other gods before me, no carved images, Sabbath, honor the Sabbath, don't take the Lord's name in vain. And you know what, I really couldn't find a good answer, and I thought about this a lot, and I wasn't sure, but I like what the pulpit commentary said. Perhaps Christ confines his list to the second table in order to make the man feel his imperfection in these ordinary matters, or to bring out his self-righteous spirit. Without love of our neighbor, there can be no true love of God. So that's something to think about. But the man said, listen, I have kept all these from my youth. Well, Jesus said, if you want to be perfect. Now, we think of the word perfect, and it's interesting. One of the difficulties with translating the Bible is you have this wonderful Greek language, or in the Hebrew, you have this wonderful Hebrew language, and then we take it and we put it into how Americans talk, or actually in the King James, how those in England talk, thy and thee and thou, and you try to explain. So this word perfect is probably not, when we think of that word, is one that we would, what Jesus is saying here. The word actually means, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have. It means if you want to be complete, if you want to, the eternal life there, if you want to be complete and in right relationship with God, there's completeness there. Go and sell everything that you have. Now, we know that selling everything we have and giving it to the poor will not lead to salvation. But Jesus, what he's doing here, is he's leading him down that path. He's saying, listen, you said you kept the commandments, but you won't even go and give up what you possess. That means that your heart's not right before God. He had much treasure. He didn't want to give that up, so he showed him. Listen, you love these things. It's idolatry. You love these things and you're not willing to give them up because if you give them up, then you can come and follow me. Now it doesn't mean, and people take it sometimes, that you have to sell everything. He's not saying that. Some people are called to sell a lot of things. I think materialism has got a death grip on our culture, for sure, and it's very healthy to get rid of a lot of things because the more you own, the more owns you. It is good to live simple lives, below your means, and not have all the, because these things do compete for us. We compete for our time and for our energy. What we're not willing to give up reveals a great deal. So this man was not willing to give up. It's funny, sometimes I'll read where people say, well, it cost him his life, and this man, I mean, we don't know if this rich young ruler took some time, maybe turned back to God later on, it's just not recorded, we don't know. But right now, he comes up to Jesus, says, I'm following all the commandments, what must I do to enter eternal life? Jesus says, sell everything and follow me. and it will show that your heart's in the right spot. And he said, I can't do that. Well, you can't follow me. And I thought it's interesting, following Jesus has a cost. Somewhere along the way we got away from that. And we think, well, where's my big savings? Where's my nice house on the hill? Why don't I have problems? I'm following Jesus. We know you're listening to a TV preacher too much, and not to the word of God, because there's a cost. Look at this football coach who just got fired, because he dared to pray on the field with his team. Wow. Or this other player who's pointing up, a football player pointing up to God, touching him, and the referee says, if you do that again, you're out of the game. Everybody's like, oh, what's going on? There's a cost. And actually, we're not paying any cost close to what they're paying in Syria and Iraq and Iran. There's a cost there. And I think if we tell people, I'm going to tell my kids as they grow up, there's a cost. Because what happens is kids get into, after high school, they get into college, and we just love Jesus. Why doesn't anybody else love Jesus? Why do they hate me? They're just confused and they don't understand. If you prepare them for the battle now, saying this is why they'll hate you. Darkness hates the light. They actually don't hate you per se, they hate what you stand for. It's amazing how you can have wonderful conversations with people, they love you and you're having a great time, as soon as you mention, oh, you're a Christ follower, then everything changes. They don't like that because now they're convicted. And really a lot of this has to do with conviction. And there's a cost. Remember when there's, I won't say his name, but there's a fast food chain that's a Christian chain. They make a lot of chicken sandwiches. He came out and said he was in support of traditional marriage, and they got a lot of flack. And I'm sad to read that actually retracted some of that statement. And they, well, you know, we didn't mean to say it. People need to say, here, here's what we meant to say. It's going to cost us some money. This is following Jesus. We're not going to retract. We're not going to back up. I think that's the problem. They know we can just back up and count accordingly. Now, we're not supposed to go out and fight like a revolutionary war and be these, you know, warmongers, but we are called to stand our ground and say, hey, listen, here no more. You can mock Christ, but I'm not gonna turn from him. You can tell me to stop praying, but I'm not going to, and here's why, I have to follow God, not man. To me, these are wonderful opportunities to stand up. The person who owned this chicken restaurant, if he just said, you know what, that's my convictions, that's my beliefs, this nation used to believe if this nation doesn't get back to God, we're in trouble. What a wonderful platform instead of apologizing. So there's a cost. Look, Jesus said, anytime you're gonna follow Christ, there's a cost. There's a cost to pay. For some people, it's drink. For some people, it's drugs. For some people, it's a relationship with somebody else. For some people, it's status and recognition. For some people, it might not be as much money, because when you start to follow God, things change. Sometimes, He'll bless people, though. We don't know. I mean, I'm a big fan of God blessing people. Please, Lord, give us more blessings. And as we line up our lives with Him, I believe that blessings is often a blessing. Blessings are often a byproduct of following God, but it's not the blessings we think sometimes. It's what He's called us to in His Word. So let's look at the Ten Commandments briefly before I get off track again. The Ten Commandments, number one and number two, you'll find those in Exodus 20. Exodus 20. And God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. That's the first commandment. The second commandment, you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. The reason I want to marry these two is because to me, even though they are two separate ones, don't get me wrong, they actually, they are one, they fit together. Because if you have no other gods, if you have other gods before him, you're going to start to make things idolatry and put things first and these fit together. If a person doesn't have any other gods and God is number one, then the second one probably wouldn't catch him off guard. They'll be following both of these or they'll either be disobeying both of these. So the imagery we have here is not putting something before God and then not making for yourself an image in the form of anything. We don't do that anymore. Oh no, we just park them in the garage. Well, you wanna be honest? Donna Sermon, right? We don't have little idols, we have big ones. They're about $40,000 parked in a garage, and we pay another $250,000 for it to keep it nice and clean. And then when it held in there, put little dents in it, we got all mad and we had to go fix the dents in our car. We worship our idols. That's what this is, is putting something before God. You shall not bow down to them nor worship them. Well, we don't do that, right? We don't have things in our, I mean, little, you know, we're not mesmerized by a little statue. No, now it's a 44 inch screen, affectionately known as an entertainment center, you know. Now, I'm poking fun, and of course, are TVs bad and cars bad? No, but they open the door to idolatry. Idolatry is putting anything before God. I've seen people put golf, lose their soul over golf three times a week. They work to buy $15,000 golf clubs. They want to be this, they want to go to this tournament. Their whole life is revolved around golf. It's idolatry. That's their God. They're putting that before God. Listen, anytime God has to be in the background so you can focus on something else, you border on idolatry. Any of us can. I can put the ministry. The ministry can be an idol. Let's build a church here and here and here. It's all about the ministry, all about the ministry. Idolatry. God says, seek me, let me build your church. Idolatry. How many moms put their kids on the idol platform? Their kids, they idolize their kids. Their kids are everything, and that's idolatry. So it's putting anything before God. That's why he says, you shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. When an entity, a person, an object is worshiped instead of God, our passion for something outweighs our passion for Him and it draws us away. That's why idolatry was so, why it's so dangerous. Anything that draws us away from God becomes an idol and we begin to listen to that instead of God. I think Joshua said, choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve God. God, not the idols that your father served. At some point, there's a fight there to serve the one and only true God and not put an idol before him. Do you know how many men have wrecked their lives over the idol of career and the idol of chasing the almighty dollar? Yeah, they'll go to church on Sunday, but what's their real focus? Where's their real energy? Where's their heart at? That's the question. Where's the heart at? Because you can be very successful in business and put God first. We should be the best businessmen and businesswomen and fathers and husbands and wives. We should be the best because we're putting God first. And really here's the thing we have to remember. Worship is not just singing, it's positioning the heart. Because there's a lot of people who worship who are not seeking God with all their heart. I can take you to some churches where there's a whole bunch of young adults going like this for an hour, and they think they're worshiping God, and then they leave and they get high. And they put on their MTV and their, you know, 50 Cent, and all that stuff, just Lady Gaga. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? The older crowd's going, I have no... But see, we play a game, we play a game. We come into the house of God, we do some things like God's, you know, okay, I did my time, he's on my checklist, but then everything else comes before him. That's idolatry, and it draws you away. How many people have been drawn away from God by a relationship? Or a substance? It's idolatry, that's why. Now, a few points I want to clarify in this, because people think this is one thing I guess why Oprah doesn't believe the God of the Bible. She said, I was sitting in a Baptist church, well, I'm paraphrasing, I'm trying to remember. She was sitting in a Baptist church one day and they read that God is jealous. And she said, oh, it did it for me. Like, oh, I think there's a lot more to it than just that. Nobody's gonna, because jealousy can be good. What spouse is gonna not be jealous for their spouse talking to somebody else in the wrong way? Oh, I don't care about that kind of stuff. Might as well marry them. No, it's a healthy jealousy. So God's jealousy is, listen, I have an affection for you. I want that to be reciprocal. I want you to have an affection for me. And when you're not, when you're chasing other gods and I see you're destroying your life, I'm a jealous God. I'm jealous for you. What's wrong with that? I'd rather have God jealous for me than upset at me. So jealousy in that context is not bad. Also, take time if you want to read Ezekiel 18. God says he will no longer punish future generations because it says here that God visits the sin of the parents down to the third and fourth generation. And Ezekiel says, I will no longer. If a man turns from his righteousness and does what is evil, he will die because of it. If a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is right and lawful, he will live because of it. I will no longer judge the children for the sins of their parents, Ezekiel 18. If you get a chance, it's interesting. But on this note, and I get emails sometimes on the two words generational curse. Shane, do you believe in a generational curse? Now, I want to be careful here because I think many times we're saying the same thing, but I don't use that language because I don't think, well, my dad was cursed, now I'm cursed, I'm in trouble. There's this curse I've got to break someday. A curse is basically when you remove yourself from God's shelter of obedience to his word, following his commandments, loving him with all your, when you remove yourself from that, like in Deuteronomy, he talked about when the people begin to leave God, then there's a curse. When you follow God, there's a blessing. So a curse is when you reject God, you leave him. Theoretically, there's a curse there over your life because there's not the blessings of God flowing. So I don't believe in a gen, generational curse, but I do believe in a general predisposition, or generational. In other words, if a father was inclined to do this, so will the son. If a mother, so will the daughter. You've got to fight these predispositions. But to say, oh, my family's cursed, I've got to break this generational curse, I don't see that in the New Testament. I don't use that language. But I think what people are saying is predisposition. If a father has a problem with this, then the son, how about anger? Angry father, angry son. Father liked alcohol, son might. Problem with women, son might. Same thing on the women's side. So you see this, and it might be more in the DNA and different things, I'm not sure, but I personally don't use the word generational curse, or I don't teach a generational curse. that somehow you have to go and break and hopefully you can break it because if not, you're in trouble because it's your curse, your family's cursed. I don't see that I did. And again, there's there's Interesting books on the topic if you're interested. I think we make a mountain out of a molehill because I think people are saying the same things. Sin, the tendency to sin can be passed down. And the mistakes that a father made in his life can be, the consequences can flow into the family. So if you want to call that a curse, okay, I call it consequences. So a lot of times we're saying the same thing. Work, entertainment, status, recognition, relationships, addictions, are all forms of idolatry. Putting an idol first, putting things before God. I like what the New Testament says about idols. 1 John 5, 21, little children, keep yourself from idols. Keep yourself from idols. That word here, oh here's that word keep again. Keep, right, to keep watchful care of, to keep the course. Because in Christianity, I probably won't remember most of what I'm talking about, but remember this, there's no such thing as cruise control. Keep, there's a fight, there's a battle. You can't just push a button and say, I'm on cruise control now for the rest, no, there's a battle. Everything's contending, idolatry. Things are contending for our time and our energy, and idolatry is one of them. Colossians 3.5, put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Put to death. Now, this is interesting, because a lot of times we talk about God take this away, God take this away, and He will. But there's sometimes a fight. You have to make no provision for the flesh. You have to endure the temptation that you may be able to bear it. You have to not conform yourself to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You have to fight the good fight. You have to put on the armor. You have to use a breastplate of righteousness. the sword of the spirit. You have to keep yourself from idols. You have to put to death what is earthly. And many times people say, ah, God's not taking this away. No, because there's a battle and you've got to fight. We forgot how to fight. We forgot there's a satanic force working against us. And we have to fight. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And I think it'd be a good time, maybe during closing worship, to look, what is in us? What's earthly in me? Earthly, of our flesh. We have to put that to death. Sexual immorality, of course. Impurity. Impurity means there's just stuff in us that's not pure and right before God. Wrong passions, evil desires, and covetousness. Covetousness? Oh, that's in the Ten Commandments, we'll get to later. That is an epidemic. That's an epidemic in our culture, I believe, in America. Think about this. When your friends buy a big new house, do you want to downsize? Or do you want to supersize? I just bought this new Ford truck. They pull in the driveway. They have 0% financing and nothing down. You're like, mm. You know what, mine's three years old, I need a new one, it's time. And we want, like, look what they have, look what, and we want these things. That's why some of these shows on TV, like House Makeover or Mansions and all, I'm like, wow, man, it really fosters covetousness. The commercials we watch, it's like, why don't I have that? Especially Facebook. Man, remember how I joke about that often, everybody's either on vacation, they're at the gym, they're drinking a latte, they've just bought their new this, and they love their wife, and they have the best husband, and they love their brownies, and they just had the best chicken dinner that their husband made them, and they rub their feet, and the wife is off to the spa again, and they've got a babysitter for the third night in a row, and you just sit there and go, my life stinks. Facebook is not your friend, because none of the bad stuff, and it's an illusion. It's an illusion of what's really going on. Monitor it very closely. I'm worried for my kids growing up in this college, because they'll think everything. My kids, they'll say, I hate this day. Why do they hate this day? Because it's not going like they thought. And we have to teach that. What are we passionate about? What are we addicted to? How do we spend our downtime? Where is God on the priority list? The idol demands worship, and we'll fight for it. And idolatry, I know some of the kids, the guys have to go to the children's ministry now, and workers, but idolatry, you have to remember, the idol doesn't want to give you up. The idol doesn't want to be given up. The idol wants to maintain that position in your heart and my heart. We save money to purchase the idol, we work to maintain the idol, we become angry when we can't keep the idol, and we die following the idol. And I actually came across an incredible poem. I wanted to read with you. I've edited it down a little bit that I think is going to help a lot of people. It's very powerful. It's actually a poem on addiction, which addiction is idolatry. Did you know that? Anything that takes your heart, captivates your heart. Sexual addiction. drug, whatever it is, it's idolatry, because that's leading you. Now, God's not, it's leading you, it's idolatry. And I don't know who wrote it, many different things. I went on, even on Snoops, is that what it's called? You know, looked in, it's like, well, there's three different, we don't know where it came from. So anyway, author unknown, very, very, very good poem. Let me read it and put in context this area of addiction or idolatry. And if you need to get this to somebody, we gave you copies, it'll be in our sermon, obviously. So let me read that. I destroy homes, tear families apart, take your children, and that's just the start. I'm more costly than diamonds, more costly than gold. The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold. Just try me once and I might let you go, but try me twice and I'll have your soul. When I possess you, you'll steal and you'll lie. You'll do what you have to do just to get high. You'll forget your morals and how you were raised. I'll be your conscience. I'll teach you my ways. I take kids from parents and parents from kids. Just remember we had two friends in the church here that lost their kids to heroin over the last few years. I take kids from parents and parents from kids. I turn people from God and separate from friends. I'll take everything from you, your looks and your pride. I'll be with you always, right by your side. I'll take and take till you have nothing more to give. When I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky to live. If you try me, be warned, this is no game. If given the chance, I'll drive you insane. I'll ravish your body, I'll control your mind, I'll own you completely, your soul will be mine. The nightmares I'll give you while lying in bed, the voices you'll hear from inside your head, the sweats, the shakes, the visions you'll see, I want you to know these are all gifts from me. But then it's too late and you'll know in your heart that you are mine and we shall not part. You'll regret that you tried me, they always do, but you came to me, not I to you. You knew this would happen many times you were told, but you challenged my power and you chose to be bold. You could have said no and just walked away. If you could live that day over now, what would you say? I'll be your master. You'll be my slave. I'll even go with you when you go to your grave. Now that you have met me, what will you do? Will you try me or not? It's all up to you. I can bring you more misery than words can tell. Come take my hand. Let me lead you to hell. That's idolatry. That's addiction. That's powerful. That's truth. That's how it works. It pulls and it pulls. That's why he said, little children, keep yourself from idols. Keep yourself from idols. Now, of course, I wouldn't leave you on that point because I want people to know that Jesus Christ sets them free. Christ and Christ alone sets them free. Now, here's where it gets difficult. Many people say, Christ took this away from me. I'm free. But many people have to fight for the rest of their life. Do you know that? Jesus doesn't take some things away. There are people in this room, you're one drink away from wrecking your life. You're one hit away from restarting a habit. You're one pill away from restarting what you know God wants. There's a fight there, there's a struggle. So Jesus, why am I still struggling? You're supposed to be right. But the freedoms in Him and resting in Him and carrying His burden and spending time with Him and looking to Him. and having him be your priority, because when Jesus is the priority, the idolatry and the idol has to get in the back seat, or they have to leave completely. Whoever's your priority, you will follow. That's why Paul in Romans says, whatever you choose to obey becomes your master. Who is our master? So the young man said, what good thing shall I do that it may have eternal life? What do I still lack? Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3.10 adds, there is none that are righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands. There's none who seeks after God. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. Oh no, Shane, this is so discouraging. Well, let's keep reading. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's very encouraging. That's how you smash an idol. You put Christ back on the throne. See, there's too many people that love to sit on the throne while Christ is still up on the cross. Actually, He needs to come back up on the throne. We need to get on the cross and carry our cross and put Him on it. I mean, put us on it, carry our cross, follow Him, allow Him to be on the throne. Through that relationship, that's how you destroy the idol. That's how you defeat the idol. Romans 10, 9, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Hey, I've got to come back to this almost at every sermon. Charles Spurgeon said about 150 years ago that every, just in the same way that every village or every town, every little town throughout England, they all lead to London. Every scripture should take you back to Christ and the centrality of Christ. We're here because of Christ, we worship Christ. We don't worship doctrine, we don't worship theology. We look to doctrine and theology to point us back to Christ. And anybody who says, I'm bored of that topic, is in a very hard spot. Their heart is not in the right spot. We should never be bored of too much of Jesus. Because it should be a fresh encounter. It's like taking a shower again. The world's so polluted. Just look at the news. We go out there, we're dirty spiritually. We come here, let Christ wash and cleanse. Let Christ wash and cleanse us again. So I want to remind you that though the road ahead may be uncertain at times, The solid ground beneath will never shift. It's all about who you know. And if there's people here now listening later on that don't know him, you don't have a relationship with him, you've just been playing games, I would encourage you to look to the word of God because it does not lie. It says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And this word belief here is interesting. It means to put complete trust in. I mean, there's people putting more trust in their social security than Christ. And I'm not going to tell you about how the government almost voted last night to allocate 150 some million or billion of social security. And they're going to have to start taking, folks. The retirement is not secure. I'm not being the bearer of bad news, but you have to trust in Christ alone. They're gonna have to take Social Security, they're gonna have to take from retirement to pay the deficit, to pay the debt. We've got ourself in a pickle, the Titanic has been hit. Wake up, where's our only trust? So I'm positioning myself when they say, there's no Social Security. That's fine, I trust in Christ. But I'm using wisdom, right? We all have to use wisdom, but who are you trusting in? Because the last time the stock market crashed, go online and find out how many suicides happened across the United States. Guns to the head, off bridges, pills. Why? Because they trusted in the wrong thing. It's idolatry. Come take my hand, let me lead you to hell. I'll show you the way.