Idolatry (EP 90)

I have a huge announcement before you guys continue to watch this episode of the podcast guys may 18th We are doing our second live podcast show in my home state at Lanna, Georgia We're gonna be at the Cobb Energy Center may 18th for worship and a powerful word guys I am so excited to be back in the same city that God took me from death to life If you guys want to come out to the hometown live podcast show may 18th go to ticket master and search up Bryce Crawford and get your tickets today guys. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys on May 18th Go to ticket master search price Crawford get your tickets to the live podcast show may 18th. Love you guys now enjoy the episode What's going on guys welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce and today buy the title of this episode We know exactly why you clicked on it. We're talking about idolatry What doesn't mean to have idols in our life? How do we know if we have idols in our life and what do we do about the idols in our life? We're gonna be diving into that diving into the scripture What a scripture says and then I'm really gonna highlight We're gonna be kind of like quote mining a few different scriptures about idolatry that are just kind of like basic statements about idolatry But I really want to hone in on this one story In the old testament that I really believe that we as believers can fall into a trap or just we as human beings Can fall into a trap with in idolatry, but we need to first identify What does it mean to have an idol in your life? What is an idol? An idol is when something matters more than what matters most the thing that takes your full captivity Your full control and the thing that sits on the throne of your heart now. Here's the interesting part. Okay Holy spirit does not split rent God does not split rent what I mean by that is some of us say oh Well, I want 50% of God and then I want 50% of this thing in my life because I can't choose it and and you know The Bible actually tells us that a house divided on itself cannot stand Meaning when we sit on the fence. Let's say we give God say God. Here's 99% of me But there's 1% of me that is devoted to this idol. We're still unknown by God Because there's 1% we're holding back and giving this thing full attention to so an idol is when something matters more Then what matters most now before we go into idolatry with the verses say what matters most Jesus Christ now. Why is Jesus Christ greater than money fame status sex women All of these things idols or even false gods. Why is Jesus greater than that? Well out of all religions Jesus Christ is the only God that meets humankind where they're at because he recognizes that they're broken Jesus Christ is the only God out of any labeled religion that doesn't say get yourself together before you come to me He's the only God out of all religions that comes down meets humanity where they're at shows them how to live it and then Displays the ultimate act of love and kindness by laying his life down for his wicked broken creation So that the price can be paid slate is wiped clean and we're found free in Christ now The first verse I want to jump to about idolatry here is gonna be in first John 5 verse 21. Okay first John 5 verse 21 says little children keep yourself from idols This is how John the disciple ends his letter of first John now I know it's a really big statement But I want to bump up a few verses first John 5 10 because I believe first John 5 10 Um set really sets up verse 21 He says whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself Whoever does not believe in God has made himself a liar Because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his son And then versus later he says little children keep yourself from idols Sometimes we fall to idols and we and we submit ourselves to things other than Christ Because we don't fully understand the freedom that we have in him Maybe that sin you keep going back to feels familiar You know what's gonna let you down, but it just keeps it's familiar You recognize it you understand and it's like you know I know this thing is hurting me, but I'm gonna keep going back and back and back to it because it's the only thing I know of And that was me for a lot of my life I was the back half of first John 5 10 Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar when we don't put our trust fully in God And we're saying man God, I don't really believe who you are who you say you are Because I don't believe in the testimony that God has done through Jesus Christ And that's what sin is idolatry and sin is substituting ourselves in the place of God Idolatry is not only allowing something to matter more than what matters most But idolatry is substituting Yourself in the place of God saying God your ways aren't higher than my ways When Isaiah clearly says no God your ways are higher than my ways your thoughts are higher than my thoughts So God I'm gonna trust you and that's why the Psalmist David praise Psalm 139 search my heart God and know me Because even David says you know, I think I know myself good God you know myself way better than I know myself So God I need you search my heart God and revealing me the areas of my life that are keeping me wicked So why would people? Turn to idols it's because they don't fully believe the truth of Jesus Christ They don't fully believe that Jesus really is who he says yes Now I want to flip to Colossians 3 When someone Surrenders themselves to Christ We are born again our old self-esteader new self has been given out love what this letter is And into the church of I always pronounce the wrong Colossia call Colossia. I always pronounce it wrong But chapter three we're gonna hone in on verse five, but we're gonna lead read the first few verses before it Colossus 3 verse 1 if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth So right here in chapter three the first two verses he's kind of referencing back to Matthew chapter six where where Jesus is like Don't store treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal Because when you when you believe fully that Christ is who he says he is and you're gonna think like Christ You're gonna seek the things of Christ. You're gonna seek first the kingdom of God and all things will follow Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God When Christ who is your life appears and you also will appear with him in glory put to death therefore What is earthly to you sexual and morality impurity passion evil desires and covetous which is idolatry this is very important What does the writer of Colossian say idolatry is sexual and morality impurity passion evil desire and covetous all falls under the category of idolatry because when you Prioritized sexual morality money Thing status passions evil desires these things take the place of God You know what idols are in our lives Idols are things that we think are better than our self-worth So if we idolize women or men we say oh that person's better than me. I can never get them And we just chase it chase it chase it chase it chase it or money. Oh money is way better than me It's way more valuable than me so I got to seek it seek it seek it in the more money I can't well if you're not satisfied with the amount of money you have right now Then if you doubled your bank account you sure as heck would not be satisfied with the money in your bank account So you just keep chasing chasing chasing idols in our life are things that we think are more valuable than ourselves And Colossian says look if you have been born again If your eyes are set on Christ then seek the things that he loves seek his kingdom and put away the things that take you away from his kingdom Idols take us away from a necessity of God And that's why sometimes suffering is good Because these idols keep our gaze off of him, but when our gaze is on Christ Man, we just fall in love with who he is and his character And it's crazy because he's fleeting things that die and that person don't satisfy us But who God's character and essence sustains is when our eyes are on him You know what blows my mind about Egypt is when royalty and Egypt would pass away their sarcophages Which are basically coffins boy, they'd pimp these things out man They put gold all on them put some jewels on them and then inside the coffins They'd you know they'd wrap the body and and and mummy cloth and burial cloth and then they'd put some jewelry in there You know, it's crazy Is all these bodies are still rotten today but this gold where did it go? I went nowhere These idols man these idols Last verse I want to flip to is in Psalm chapter 16 verse 4 before we close out with the story from the Old Testament Psalm 16 verse 4 The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply The sorrows of those Who chase after other gods shall multiply Man that breaks my heart King David says you'll never find what you're looking for The more idols you have in your life The greater your sadness will increase And to be honest man if you're someone who's struggling with depression Maybe you're partially struggling with depression because you got some things sitting on the throne of your heart that shouldn't be sitting there Like I said earlier, you know idolatry is when we think that other things or people are more valuable than ourselves And so if you're chasing that significant other right now and they're not giving you the type of day time of day because you think that they're more valuable than you are than whoa whoa whoa You need to love your neighbor as yourself before you can you know love other people the way Christ loves other people or love other things or enjoy things the way that Christ enjoyed and love things you have to first See yourself the way God sees you You know why like idolizing significant others is so difficult in today's society the number one What what am I trying to say that the the number one idol? I believe in America today is dating or romantic relationships and the reason that idolatry and romantic relationships is so big right now in today's society is because it's a form of love and Today's society says oh well, you know if you make me feel excited if you give me the butterflies Then I'll decide to show up for you in the highs and lows and then if you give me the butterflies And I decided to show up for you then I'll choose to be faithful to you or not whereas Jesus Christ says no No, no, no, no, you choose to love me and because you choose to love me You show up despite the conditions and when you show up despite the conditions that stirs your affections for me the number one Idol in America today is romantic relationships because it's a form of love It is deception sometimes to a point now. I'm not saying romantic relationships are bad That's not what I'm getting at but what I'm getting at is sometimes we trick ourselves into saying that's love But when our significant other becomes God on our heart Then we become extremely more disappointed when the best love the best relationships are when each significant other is trying to out serve each other And when each significant others gaze is on Christ then you guys begin to draw closer and closer and closer to each other And that's the best way you can love each other But if your significant other is sitting on the throne of your heart, then you're gonna be extremely disappointed a lot deeply saddened You're gonna be controlling got to know their every decision got to know their move and if they're with you then you're happy But if they're not with you, they're not happy and then you become controlling them in native because they're on the throne of your heart And I love what King David says in Psalm 16 he says look if you're chasing after idols your sadness is just gonna increase Or maybe maybe it's some significant other maybe its Netflix or food well, how much food do you have to eat to numb the pain? Well, you fill yourself up, but then when the hunger comes back you gotta keep eating keeping and keeping and it's equivalent to an alcohol or drug addiction like you can't Numb the pain unless the feelings there, but you have to continuously go back to these things And oftentimes the more and more idols we have in our life in our on our heart the more idols we have in our lives The more times we turn to things other than Christ We become more depressed and our life becomes invaluable and if I'm talking to you right now If you've got idols in your life and you hate your life, they give your life to someone who wants it If you hate your life, give your life to someone who wants it who wants your life Jesus Christ When I was 17 years old, I was gonna take my life because of depression and anxiety and I thought I wasn't valuable enough and now that I'm reflecting on my life I had so many things that were idols in my life people pleasing pornography girls money Fame all of these things when I was 17 years old and I kept going back to these things because it was familiar Even though I knew it was gonna let me down and finally I came to the place where I was gonna take my life because I thought I wasn't valuable What is the value? Christ puts on your life his own I was just watching a podcast clip today on tiktok and I loved how this guy explained it He said man like Christ looked Through the gap of time and space Saw how valuable you were and decided to die for you saying even if nobody else gets it if they did it I'm willing to do it and I loved how he worded it It's so true Now last story I want to share about idol tree I think it's very prevalent now I believe we oftentimes as believers can fall into idol It's exactly like Israel does So if you guys know the story about Moses, you know, Israel Becomes enslaved to Egypt their in captivity their in exile God uses Moses to set the captives free and After the ten plagues, you know, the Israelites are leaving Egypt and you know Sometimes we miss over this key detail God allows the Israelites to basically loot Egypt Okay, so they get to ransack that place they get gold they get jewelry they get all this gold and then they escape Egypt They're like who ray man God you're awesome. Thank you. You let us escape and you allowed us to loot Egypt This was lit and then after they leave Moses does this thing where he goes up on a mountain to get the 10 commandments so he goes up there, okay? Now how many times in your life As God set you free from things or you've prayed so many prayers and finally you received the quote unquote freedom That you've been praying for or you've asked for this thing so many times and finally you get it And then Moses goes, oh he's all right guys, you know, I'm gonna be back I'm gonna go get these commandments and the law from God. I'm gonna be back It's gonna be Graham. I'm gonna go talk to him Then we're gonna come back and gameplay and strategize. We're gonna have the law the commandments is gonna be great Moses goes up on the mountain They get impatient This guy's taken too long It's like you and me man. God why aren't you answering my prayers? You just did it or we live in a society that's immediate gratification and we say oh man God you didn't give it to me immediately And so the Israelites said to Moses and God what we say to God all the time We don't get immediately what we're praying for if we think God is quote unquote taken too long screw off God So all the gold that God gave the Israelites when they left Egypt they take it Aaron and say hey Aaron Make us a false God to worship since this guy Moses has taken so long They build a false God out of the gold that God had graciously given them And when Moses comes down from the mountain, he's like what is going on? We just got set free. You just saw God do miracles You just saw this and and now you're worshipping a false God made out of the very gifts that God has given you We have to remember a couple things number one God's timing is perfect Number two Just because we don't get what we're praying for it doesn't mean God didn't answer our prayer. That means it's a no God answers yes or no Number three if God doesn't give us what we're praying for that means maybe we shouldn't have it. Maybe it's gonna crush us But number four prime example of what idolatry does I don't substitute God sin. We substitute ourselves in the place of God That's what happens And Moses is so like what is going on? Last piece of advice I would say to steer away from idolatry before we pray is In order for us to keep idols off of the throne of our heart We have to continuously remind ourselves of the glory and goodness of Jesus Christ And we have to continuously preach the gospel to ourselves if we lose sight of the free gift of eternal life and the free gift of Relationship with God then it allows idols to creep into our life If you lose sight of the gospel lose sight of Christ and you're gonna prioritize other things over God on your heart So I want to pray for us I want to pray that God gives us a couple things the strength to remove idols The strength to deal aggressively with our idols and the last thing for God to reveal idols in our lives so we can cut them down Jesus, I thank you so much for today God. I thank you that you love us God. I thank you that you sustain us And I thank you that when we seek you above all these idols above other false gods that you sustain us That are joy grows in you God and that when we don't seek you Jesus said that actually our sorrows grow our Sanus grows because because these idols are fleeting and and these idols want sustain us So God we ask for a couple things number one God help us deal aggressively with idols in our life God number two give us the strength to keep idols off the throne of our heart and God lastly We use search our hearts got search my heart search each and every watcher listener to this podcast search their hearts and go God help us know what idols are on the throne of our hearts that we can be fully submitted to you God We just want to be known by you and Idols keep us unknown from you idols keep us not relying on you and God But when we rely on you when we listen to you when we trust you that is the rich good life Not the American dream trusting use the rich good life. God. We love you bless you Jesus name amen Guys, thank you so much for watching and tuning into these episodes guys If you love watching and listening to these episodes aside from following us along on Instagram TikTok spotify you two I want to ask you guys would you guys consider partnering with our ministry Financially your guys is radical generosity is actually what continues to fuel and produce these podcast episodes and our evangelism videos So if you guys feel a burden to support this ministry reach lost souls with the gospel through digital and in person ministry Go to Jesus in the street dot org pray and ask God how should I partner with with Bryce and their ministry and Jesus in the street Ministry should I partner with them in prayer? Should I partner with them in finances? Should I partner with them in support whatever it may be pray and ask God how should I support Jesus in the street ministry? Love you guys see you guys next week for the next episode