Finding the I in You

Habakkuk 2:18-20 | November 29, 2020

Have you ever been disappointed?

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln failed in his bid to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

When a friend asked him how he felt, it is said that Lincoln replied:

“Like the boy who stubbed his toe – I am too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh.”

To encourage our teachers as they go back to school after a holiday week, I offer the words of a t-shirt I saw recently that said, “I am disappointment in you’re grammar.”

Disappointment comes in many shapes and sizes.

And sometimes we just really don’t know how to respond to disappointment.

Perhaps that is how the prophet Habakkuk felt.

• He had a problem
• His nation was out of control
• His country was filled with sin and injustice

There was selfishness and violence and pride everywhere and he was pleading for God to help. 

And God told Habakkuk that He would help.

God had a plan – a wicked nation known as the Chaldeans, were coming to take over.

That probably wasn’t what Habakkuk had in mind.

He was probably wanting God to come in and wipe out the wicked people that were already in charge – not bring in new ones.

He was probably wanting God to bring a time of peace and comfort to the nation. 

He was wanting God to protect them and serve them, not overwhelm them with destruction.

But God’s ways are not our ways.

And His ways are perfect.

Sometimes that is hard to remember.

And let’s be honest, sometimes that is hard to believe.

But it is extremely important for us to believe.

Because if we forget, we will be tempted to wander down a very dangerous path. 

To wander down the path toward what we might call the ultimate sin.

God is going to speak to Habakkuk about that sin – the sin that is above all other sins.

What is that sin?

Listen to Habakkuk 2, beginning with verse 18:

18 What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood?

 

18 For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols.

The sin above all other sins is idolatry.

Why?

Because idolatry seeks to replace God.

Idolatry seeks to make something or someone more important than God.

Moses was speaking to the people one day and he said…

Deuteronomy 4:32-35 (ESV)

For ask now of the days that are past…whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.

There is no other God.

So how could you possibly replace Him?

Think of it this way:

What if you could create the perfect spouse?

• The perfect husband
• The perfect wife

What would you include?

• Strong
• Beautiful
• Handsome
• Loving
• Kind
• Generous
• Fun to be around
• Wealthy

And I’m sure you could fill in some more ideas. 

But would any of you add this to your list of what you are looking for in a husband or a wife…

Has complete control over my life.

Yea, you don’t normally hear that one in the wedding vows.

Why?

Because when we put together an ideal:

• Spouse
• Parent
• Pastor
• Politician
• Boss

We would not include any attribute that involves that person having control over us. 

We do not like to be controlled.

In some way, shape or form, we are all control freaks.

And whether we want to admit it or not, this is how most people approach God. 

We want to create God in our image.

We want God to be more like us.

We want to approach God with a cafeteria-style attitude. 

Take the stuff we like and ignore the stuff we don’t.

We like the idea of God:

• Providing for us
• Protecting us
• Caring for us
• Loving us
• Even saving us

But we are not keen on God having control over us.

Which is an interesting idea when we consider that an attitude like that is the exact opposite of Christianity.

This is what Jesus said…

Luke 9:23

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

The very call of the gospel is a call that says:

Deny yourself and give Christ complete control of your life.

The Apostle Paul said…

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (ESV)

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all…that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

The love of Christ controls us and compels us.

The very nature of what it means to be a Christian is to surrender to Christ – to cede control of our lives to the One who saved us!

The very nature of what it means to be a Christian is to live first and most for the One born in the manger.

That is Christianity.

So, we can see why creating God in our own image is a problem. 

It is counter-Christian.

Someone has said that’s why the opposite of Christianity is not atheism, but idolatry. 

Everything we are able to do and everything we own is to be used for the glory of God. 

If we are not using who we are and what we have for the glory of God, the only alternative is that we are using those things as idols.

Now most of us would not dream of bowing down before a statue that we made with our own hands.

But is there anything in your life that gets more worship than God?

Why is it that we can sit in an arena with our favorite music group or in a stadium with our favorite team and feel a sense of anticipation and excitement and wonder?

And yet far too often on Sunday mornings anticipation and excitement and wonder have very little to do with our worship of the one, true, living God?

Now someone might say…

“Well, that’s your job, pastor. If I don’t get excited at church, then it is your fault.”

“You are supposed to play the kind of music that I like, and you are supposed to shout some bold and catchy things from the pulpit that get me excited about being a Christian.”

Years ago, when I was a much younger lad, I was struggling with one of the leaders in the church.

One Sunday at lunch I made a comment about how I just couldn’t worship on Sundays because of how distracting that one leader was.

My future mother-in-law graciously responded, “No one is responsible for your worship but you.”

After I pulled the knife out of my back, I immediately realized she was right.

The music and the preaching and the temperature of the building and the comfort of the seats all have some level of importance, but a true Christian should be able to worship God anywhere at any time.

Then again, someone else might say, “Well, I come to church to be reverent. I’m not coming to church to hoot and holler like I’m at a concert or a football game.”

Okay, then maybe let’s use a different kind of test to think about idolatry:

What do you do with your free time?

How do you spend your money and time and energy?

Is the primary agenda of your life centered on Christ or something else?

Someone put it this way, what if Jesus were to sit down with you and go over your schedule from last week or your schedule for this coming week?

Would he see your life bending toward or leaning toward him or would he see your life bending toward or leaning toward something or someone else?

Jesus put it this way…

Luke 6:47-48 (ESV)

Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

What about the church – what is it that the church of Jesus Christ is trying to build?

Dave Miller

My dad spent most of his long ministry pastoring three churches. One of those churches no longer exists. Another hired an adulterous crook as pastor and nearly folded before another pastor nursed it back to health.  Another of those churches has dwindled gradually through the years. In other words, my now retired father cannot point to any of the churches he pastored and say, “This is the monument of my ministry.” 

Dave Miller

No, there is no pile of brick and drywall my dad can point to as the monument of his success. But there are people all over the world who were led to Christ and impacted by his ministry. He has made a difference, but the measure of that effect is not seen in organizations or institutions or buildings. The measure of ministry is lives changed by Jesus Christ.

Is the church using her time and energy and resources to build lives for Jesus Christ?

Or is the church just building religious idols to enjoy and feel proud of?

Are we as Christians, with our lives and with our families, using our time and energy and resources to build lives for Jesus Christ?

Or are we just building family idols and career idols to enjoy and feel proud of?

God was telling Habakkuk:

“The Chaldeans worship gods that they built in their own image.”

“This wicked nation that is coming to destroy you, has built idols that will tell them what they want to hear.”

“They have built idols that they can control.”

“They have built idols with their own hands.”

And what did God think about such idols?

Listen to verse 19:

 

19 Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!'  To a mute stone, 'Arise!'  And that is your teacher? 

 

19 Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it.

God says, “Woe!”

Woe is a warning. 

A warning from the person who is really in charge to those who think that they are in charge. 

Woe to you who say to a piece of wood:

“Wake up! I need your help with a problem in my life!”

Woe to you who say to a statue carved from stone:

“Teach me! I need wisdom for life!”

Geoff Thomas

The whole Babylonian empire was trusting in speechless, immobile nonentities that had been made by Bob the builder and Clive the carver and Mick the metal worker.

The dumbest, most ignorant, most mentally deranged person in the world is wiser and more powerful than an idol.

Why?

Idols are not real!

We can dress them up in lots of ways.

We can make believable claims about how they are lucky charms. 

But they are not real!

The Apostle Paul was writing the folks in Rome and he described rebellion like this…

Romans 1:25

they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator

That is a dangerous exchange!

A fatal exchange!

Without Christ, our hearts are so sinful that we will do everything we can to avoid the reality of God.

But we know that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, so, instead of worshipping God we will look for people and things and ideas to worship.

This is the great danger of trusting in ourselves and having way too much pride in our accomplishments and in our possessions…we end up making our own gods – and sometimes we don’t even know that we’ve done it. 

We create things or attitudes or philosophies or opinions or religious rules that compel us and train us to trust in ourselves more than God.

And God says woe to anyone who lives in such a way.

Now let’s go back to Habakkuk’s situation for a moment.

A wicked nation was coming to take over God’s people.

And the Chaldeans were going to scream and shout:

• “Your God can’t protect you!”
• “Your God is a failure!”
• “You can’t stop us from taking over the country!”
• “We are going to shut your churches down!”
• “Our gods reign, not your God!”

And it looks like they were going to be right, doesn’t it?

After all…

• They were going to conquer
• They were going to win
• They were going to rule

And maybe as they started taking over the country God’s people were going to start asking…

• “Where are you, God?”
• “Why are you letting this happen?”

Have you ever asked questions like that?

Where do we find answers for those questions?

God tells us – listen to verse 20:

20 But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

The scene is a similar to a courtroom. 

The bailiff stands and cries:

• “Hear Ye! Hear Ye!”
• “All bow!”
• “The Omnipotent, Ancient of Days is presiding!”

And the Lord of Hosts bangs the gavel, and everything falls silent.

Why?

Because he is God and there is no other!

Idols are lifeless but God is alive and well!

Do you want folly?

Then put your trust in yourself and your idols.

Do you want majesty?

Then bow your heart before the God of Israel!

What a gracious thing God does for Habakkuk. 

He reminds him of this sobering fact:

There is coming a day when every nation, tribe and language in the universe will bow before God.

• The wicked
• The unjust
• The prideful
• The selfish
• The evil
• The sinful
• Those who worship idols
• Those who worship God

All will bow down.

Remember, Habakkuk has just gotten the news that a wicked nation was coming to take over his country. 

He might have been thinking:

“Lord, could you let the everybody-bow-down-to-you-thing like happen right now?”

We feel that way sometimes too, don’t we?

“Lord, there is so much sin and evil and injustice in our nation right now.”

“It would be great if you could make all nations and tribes and languages bow down to you right now.”

That would be nice.

But it hasn’t happened yet. 

So, what do we do in the meantime?

God told Habakkuk back in verse 4:

Habakkuk 2:4

…the righteous shall live by…faith.

God is alive. 

He sent His Son to pay the penalty of your sin. 

Christ is coming again.

Believe it will happen. 

Trust it will happen. 

And wait. 

Dear Christian, we live by faith – not blind faith, but faith in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Before He left this world, Jesus gave his friends these parting words:

Matthew 28:20

…lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

I came across an article with the following title…

“Four Words That Change Everything”

And this is what it said:

 

To the single mom working two jobs and still coming up short every month: I AM with you.

To the one filled with anxiety and worry in this moment right now: I AM with you.

To the unemployed: I AM with you.

To the person that has no idea what their purpose or passion in life is: I AM with you.

To the insecure and unsure walking through life desperate for acceptance: I AM with you.

To the fake and the phony that has everyone believing that their life is more together than it really is: I AM with you.

To the depressed and the downhearted, the person that feels there is no light at the end of the tunnel: I AM with you.

To the married person that wonders how their marriage drifted to such a lonely and painful place: I AM with you.

To the angry and resentful that have been rocked by hardship and hurt: I AM with you.

To the abused and the broken: I AM with you.

To the isolated and lonely: I AM with you.

The baby in the manger, Emmanuel, God with us, grew up and said this…

“I am with you always.”

No idol can ever make that promise.

Come and worship!

Come and worship!

Worship Christ the newborn King!

Message by Dow Welsh |

November 29, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

eso. Have you ever been disappointed ever had something that just didn't turn out the way you wanted it to turn out? In 18 58 Abraham Lincoln did not win his race for the U. S. Senate. A friend was asking him later how he felt about the situation, and Lincoln said this like the boy who stubbed his toe. I am too big to cry, and I'm too badly hurt toe laugh. Sometimes we don't know what to do when we are disappointed if our teachers that are going to begin teaching again tomorrow after a long holiday weekend, I offer this encouragement that I saw on a T shirt recently. I am disappointment in your grammar. Yeah, that's an apostrophe. Y ou are eat. You know, disappointment happens in so many shapes and so many sizes. It could come at the doctor's office. It could come at school. It can come at home. It can come listening to the news or watching the news. Disappointment surrounds us, and the truth of the matter is, sometimes we don't know how toe handle disappointment. We don't know what to do with it. That seems to be exactly what was happening to tobacco. A backup was in a fix. His country was falling apart. It was full of sin and injustice and wickedness and violence and selfishness. And he was pleading to God. Please, God! Help! Please, God, help! And God responded to his prayers Is that I am going to help. I'm sending a wicked nation. They're known as the cow Deion's and they're going to take over. You have to think back. I was thinking, Hey, we have enough wicked people now. You know, I really didn't want you to send us anymore. I was kind of hoping you'd wipe out the ones that air here. For now. I wanted you to do something a little different. A back of thinking. God, I thought you would bring a time of peace and prosperity and comfort to our nation. Lord, I thought you would come and protect us and care for us. It's really not on my radar that you would sin mawr conflict, that you would cause us to fall apart when we're already falling apart. That's just a reminder to our hearts that God's ways are not our ways. And his ways are perfect. And we need to remember that. And just for the sake of clarification, sometimes we don't believe that. I mean, really, we look at things that are happening were like God's behind this. His waves are not perfect, but we need to remember his ways are perfect. He never fails. He never messes up. And the reason it's so important for us to remember that is because if we don't, if we forget that we will begin toe, wander down a very dangerous path, a path that will lead us to what we could call the ultimate sin. And that's what God is about to talk to her back about now the sin that is above all other sins. What sin is that? Let's find out a pack of Chapter two, beginning with verse 18. The Lord, speaking to the box says what profit is the idol when its maker has carved it? Or an image a teacher of faucet for its maker trust and his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols, The sin above all other sins is the sin of idolatry. And why is it the sin above all other sins is because it seeks to replace God? It seeks to take a person or a possession or perspective or or a philosophy and to make those things mawr important. Thank God Moses was speaking to the people in one day. He said This and Deuteronomy, Chapter four for ask. Now of the days that are past whether such a great thing is this has ever happened or was ever heard off. Did any people ever hear the voice of a Godspeaking out of the midst of the fire? As you have heard and still live? No. Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself? From the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs by wonders and by war, by a mighty hand by an outstretched arm by great deeds of terror? All of which, the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Anybody ever heard of that? I got that. People said no. And then he said this to you. It was shown that you might know that the Lord is God and there is no other. There's no other God. So how how could you possibly replace him? That's that's why idolatry is so dangerous. You can't replace. There is no other. Maybe think about it this way. What if you were planning the perfect ideal spouse? Okay, You're putting together the perfect husband. Perfect wife. What would you include? Which include may be strong or beautiful or handsome? Kind fun to be around wealthy, you know, maybe some other things like that. How many of you when you were imagining your ideal spouse would put has complete control over my life? I've done a lot of weddings. I've never heard that novel. I promise to love, cherish and make him the control of my life. Why do you not hear that? Well, you don't hear that because when we put together an ideal spouse or an ideal parent or an ideal kid or an ideal boss or supervisor, teacher or pastor or politician, we never include in that list that that person would have control over us. Why? Because we don't like to be controlled. You may not know this, but every single one of us in some way, shape or form we are control freaks. We all are. You may think that you're not. You may think Well, I never try to control anything that's controlling it. Being passive is being a control freak. Being aggressive is being a control freak. Being passive aggressive is being a control freak. And whatever other terminology you want to use, we are all in some way control freaks, whether we really want, admit it or not. Sometimes we take that type of control freak attitude, and that's how we approach God do. We approach God and we want to create God in our image. We want God to beam or like us. We want God to do things the way that we would do things. You know what we do? We use Bible verses to say, See, God would do it the way I would do it. We approach God the way we step into the line of the S and s cafeteria. You know, we leave the turnips, but we take the apple dumpling right? We leave the stuff we hate. But we take the stuff we like. See, we like the idea of God protecting us. We like the idea of God preserving us. We like the idea of God caring for us and loving us. We even like the idea of God saving us but control. No, we don't like the idea of God controlling, which is interesting because an attitude like that is the exact opposite of Christianity. How do we know this is what Jesus, said Luke, 9 23. If anyone wishes to come after me and join Holland Avenue Baptist Church or join whatever church in the universe, if anyone wants to come after me, if they want to be a Christian, if they want to follow after me, that person must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow May. The very call of the Gospel is a call to deny yourself and give complete control to Jesus. That's the very nature of the gospel. The apostle Paul was writing. The folks at Corinth, he said, for the love of Christ controls us. Why? Because we have figured this out. That one has died. For all that, those who live for him might no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake died and was raised. What interesting language. The love of Christ controls us when when we wanna be control freaks, we have to take a step back. Oh, I'm supposed to be controlled by the love of Christ. I'm supposed to be compelled by the love of Christ. No matter what's happening in my life, I'm supposed to be controlled and compelled by the love of Christ. The very nature of what it means to be a Christian is to cede control to the one who saved you. The very nature of what it means to be a Christian is to first and most follow after the one born in the manger that is Christianity. So you can see why it would be a problem if you were trying to replace that. If you're trying to create something to take the place of God in his plan, in his ways, God is God and there is no other and idolatry in any form is counter Christian. Someone once said that the opposite of Christianity is not atheism. The opposite of Christianity is idolatry, because by its very nature, idolatry means that we're taking what we have, what we own, what we do and we're doing whatever we want to with it. When the reality is if we've been saved and redeemed and rescued by Jesus, everything that we have is supposed to be used for the glory of God. What we have, what we own, what we're able to do, our attitudes. All of it is supposed to be used for the glory of God. And if we're not using it for the glory of God, there's Onley. One alternative. Those things have become idols, people, places, things, philosophies, perspectives, possessions, opinions, attitudes. Those things become idols. If we don't use them to glorify God, most of us would never dream of bowing down to a statue in our den that we made out in the woodshop. But is there anything in your life that gets more worship than God? I mean, think about it. Why is it that we could go into an arena or a stadium? Thio Watch our favorite team or to listen to our favorite singer, our favorite band? And what happens while we're sitting there waiting for everything to start? There's this sense of anticipation, sense of wonder, sense of excitement. We can't wait for the band to come out on stage and do their opening number. We can't wait for the team to come out on the field. There's there's this excitement and this wonder, and yet as professing Christians, Whether we're on campus or watching online, where is that sense of anticipation, That sense of excitement, that sense of wonder when we worship now someone might say, Well, preacher, that's on you, man. It's your job, buddy. That's what you're supposed to do. You know, you're supposed to play the music that I like. You're supposed toe scream and shout some real catchy phrases from the pulpits and some things that make me feel good about my Judeo Christian values. Hey, man, it's on you. If I don't get excited, it's on you. If I don't have wonder. Many years ago, when I was just a we lad in the ministry, I was struggling with someone in leadership at our church, and I remember one day at lunch we were sitting there talking and I just said, You know what? I just can't worship anymore on Sunday mornings. All right, let me just hurt everyone's feelings right now for just a minute before I throw myself under the bus. Okay? What are you using as an excuse for struggling with worship? Is it a mask? Is it social distancing? Is it music? Is it preaching? Is address. Is it the temperature in the room? Is that the comfort of the sea? Whatever it may be, what are you using that's hindering you from worship? What's what's your excuse that's keeping you from enjoying God anyway? That day at lunch, I said, You know, I just can't worship anymore. E just this person is driving me up there such a distraction to me. I just can't worship. And my future mother in law said, No one is responsible for your worship but you And after I pulled the knife out of my back, I thought, She's right. She's right. Listen, the temperature, the music, the comfort of the seats, the cleanliness of the bathrooms. Sure, all those things are important, but a true Christian should be able to worship God anywhere, any time, under any circumstances. That's that's the nature of what it means to follow Jesus. Now somebody else might say, Well, I don't like your illustration, because when I come to church, I come to be Reverend. I don't come out like I would at a at a George Strait concert. I don't come out like I would a college football game. I come okay, fine. Let's let's switch gears and think of another approach to this. Another approach to ideology. What do you do with your free time, like when you're not at work? When you're not at school, what do you do with your free time? How do you spend your time and your energy and your money? What do you do with your life when you're not doing like the most important things that involve the most time in your life? What do you do? Is your primary agenda still the glory of God? Are you still seeking to worship and enjoy Jesus? Somebody put it this way, they said. Imagine if you had Jesus. Come sit down and go over your schedule from this past week. Or maybe go over your schedule from the week ahead. What would he see? Would he see you leaning toward him, are leaning towards someone else or something else? Where's the leaning in your life? Where Where's the lean in who you are? Jesus, put it this way in Luke, Chapter six. Everyone who comes to me and here's my words and does them I will show you what he is like. This is so good. He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. Let me hurt all our feelings again for a moment. How you doing with the flood of 2020 Has your foundation been when? This year. The stream of this year. Hit your life Where you solid gold, Christian for March and April. And then you were done. Or has your foundation continued to help you say Flood? Are no flood mask or no mask, social distancing or no social distancing election or no election? My hope is in Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of my life and nothing will not my house down. This is a great year. A great time. Ah, wonderful opportunity for us to say. My hope is built on Nothing less than Jesus. Blood and righteousness. I had two people last week say I really felt like I should amen, but I was scared to. Don't be afraid. Amen. Over fear. Okay, It's fine. What about the church kind of foundation? Does the church have in 2020 not just our church, but the church around the world. Where is the foundation of the church? You know I love about the video we watched earlier about Lottie Moon Christmas offering is that the Gospel has never stopped. Now I've said this before. There's this church has not been shut down for five seconds this year. Not at all. And if you think it has, you just don't understand the gospel. The gospel never stops. The work of the gospel never stops, It goes and it goes and it goes, Whether I'm involved or whether you're involved, it goes and it goes and it goes because the work of the gospel in the power of the Gospel is Jesus. So what's the church bill? Where's the church's foundation? In these days, Dave Miller was writing about his dad, who was a pastor. He said this. My dad spent most of his long ministry pastoring three churches. One of those churches no longer exist. Another hired an adulterous crook as pastor and nearly folded before another pastor came in and nursed it back to health. Another of those churches has dwindled gradually through the years In other words, my now retired father cannot point to any of the churches that he pastored and say, This is the monument of my ministry. And then he goes on, No, there is no pile of brick and drywall my dad can point to is the monument of his success. But there are people all over the world who were led to Christ and impacted by his ministry. He has made a difference. But the measure of that effect is not seen in organizations or institutions. Our buildings, the measure of ministry is lives changed by Jesus Christ, the measure of ministry. His lives changed by Jesus Christ. You know, one of the most humbling things for all of us to remember is that no matter how important you were at your job, if you work somewhere for 30 years or 40 years, you know what happens. 20 years after here gone. Nobody knows who you are. Even if your name's on the building, they may not know who you are, and that's true whether you're a politician, a pastor and accounted a teacher or anything else in the universe. That moment never happens with Jesus. Everybody knows his name. Everybody knows the story, and if they haven't heard it yet, somebody will tell them the story. The gospel never stops. The gospel never stops moving. So is the church building the foundation of her life own and own again on the foundation of Jesus? Or is the church just building things to enjoy and be proud of? And our families and in our lives are we building our lives in such a way that we're helping people find and enjoy Jesus? Or are we just building church idols, career idols, family idols, house idols, car idols, whatever our idols, maybe just building things that are owned the foundation that when the flood comes and when the fire comes and when the wreck comes and when the pink slip comes that we're just going to be blown over, where is our foundation? What are we building on? God's telling him back the cow Deion's these wicked people that are coming to defeat you. They worship gods that they created with their own hands. They worship gods that they control and that basically tell them what they want to hear. They build them with their own hands and what does God think about idols like that? Well, he's going to tell her back. Listen to verse 20. I'm sorry. Verse 19. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood awake to a mute stone Arise. And that is your teacher. Behold, it is over laid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside of it. God says woe. Whoa! Because we saw last week was a warning. It It's from the person who's actually in charge to the people who think they're in charge. And God says, Whoa, if you say to a piece of wood, Hey, hey, wake up, I need to ask you some advice for my life. Whoa! If you say to a statue car from Stone, teach me. I need some wisdom. When Pastor said this, the whole Babylonian empire, the cow Deion's was trusting and speechless, immobile non entities that have been made by Bob the builder, Clive the Carver and make the metal work. Listen, the most ignorant, most mentally deranged person on this planet is wiser and more powerful than an idol. Why? Because idols are dead. They're not really weaken. Dress them up in a lot of ways. We can put a lot of stories around them to make people believe they really are a lucky charm, but they are not really, and to follow after them is rebellion against what you have create, been created to do, and that is to worship and enjoy God forever. That's inside of you, Paul said. The rebellion like that goes something like this in Romans Chapter one. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, that that's a dangerous exchange. That's a fatal exchange without Christ. Our hearts are so sinful we will ignore or reject the reality of God. But we know we're part of something bigger than ourselves. So what we'll do if we reject the reality of God is will find a person or a place or a possession or perspective or philosophy or something else or someone else. And we will start to worship that person or that thing will put all of our time and our energy, our free time into whatever that is. That's why it's so dangerous. To trust in ourselves, is so dangerous to trust in our possessions because we will end up making gods. We'll make God's will make idols and we won't even know we're doing it. We won't even realize it. We create things and attitudes, philosophies, opinions, even religious rules. We create those things. We train ourselves by those things. And ultimately we teach ourselves to trust in those things mawr than we trust in God. And God says, Woe. Well, woe to anyone who lives that way. Woe to anyone who thinks that way. Now let's go back back Just for a moment, remember, here's this scene. So a wicked nation is coming to take over. Some wicked people are coming to take over the Cal Deion's. We're getting ready to start screaming at the people of the nation. Hey, you know what? Your guy can't protect you. You know what? Your God, he's a failure. You know what? Your God, He can't stop us from taking you over. You know what we're going to do? We're going to shut your churches down and the ones we don't shut down. We're going to burn them down because you know what are God's reign and your God does not rain. That's what they were going to start saying. You know what it was going to look like. They were right. They were lucky. Charm words. We're going to look right. It was going to seem believable. Why? Because they were going to conquer. They were going to win, and they were going to take over. All of it seemed kind of riel. And maybe God's people were like, Well, ma God, what are you doing now? Why are you letting this happen? What's happening here? There had moments like that. Moments when you look around, you said God, why are you letting this happen? What should we do when we have moments like that? Well, God's going to tell tobacco Verse 20 but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the Earth be silent before him. It's like a courtroom scene. Bailiff stands up here, You hear? You all rise. Presiding is the Holy Anointed true God of the universe. God, Banks, the gavel! The whole room fills with silence. Why? Because he is God and there is no other. There's no other God. God is alive and well. God is alive and well. He waas and is and is to come. He is holy! Holy holy! You want some foolishness in your life. You trust yourself. You want some foolishness in your life? You trust your idols. Do you want some Majesty in your life? Do you want some hope in your life? You want some confidence in your life? Then bow your heart to the God of this room. Bow your heart to the one true God who is Holy, Holy, Holy! There is none. Besides, what a gracious thing that God is doing for tobacco, right? He's reminding her back of this thing that's going toe happen. I mean, really think about this. This thing is going to happen like it's going to happen. It's not a prediction. It's a guaranteed promise. And what is that thing that's going to happen? Every tribe, every tongue, every nation Everyone is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody. Wicked sinful. The selfish, the prideful, the evil. The Democrats and Republicans, the Libertarians, the Red Party, the Blue Party, the Green Party, the Pink Party, the Rainbow Party, the people who worship idols and the people who worship God. Everybody is going to bow to Jesus Christ. This is a moment that has already set in stone in history, and that's what God reminds the back of he says his back. I know you have this news, this news, that things will get ready, get really bad and that things aren't going to suddenly magically get better in your nation. But but remember this promise truth, this guarantee because the back he's got to be thinking, Man, I love that God sounds really good. Could we do that now? That'd be really nice. Could we just go ahead and do that? Now the whole everybody bow down? That would really be helpful. Have you ever had a day like that? If you had some days like that in the last few weeks, where you went in God, there's so much going wrong in our nation right now would be really good if you just went ahead and had everybody just bow down to you now that that'd be great. But guess what? He hasn't. So what do we do? Well, God already told back it back in Verse four. He said the writers in 2020 2019 2021 2077 The righteous will live by faith by faith by faith, God's alive God sent his only son to satisfy the penalty of my sin and your sin. And we should believe that Jesus is coming again because he promised to come again. And why should we believe it? Because of his birth and his life and his death and his resurrection and his ascension, we should believe he's coming back. We should trust in the truth that he's coming back and we should wait. See, we live by faith, not blind, stupid faith, not faith in a religion or denomination or an institution or even the nation. We live by faith in Jesus. We live by faith in the birth and the life and the death and the resurrection and the ascension and the return of Jesus. We live by faith in things that air riel. We live by faith in a Godthat's alive. We live by faith in a risen savior. And because of that faith, we always have hope. Always have. Before Jesus left this world, he said something. Some party words to his closest friends. What were they? He said low. I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. I came across an article once it was titled forwards that changed everything. Four words change everything, and it laid out a very interesting little outline that I want to share with. You. See if you can find yourself in any of this to the single mom, working two jobs and still coming up short every month. Jesus says. I'm with you to the one filled with anxiety and worry in this moment right now, Jesus says, I'm with you to the unemployed, to the person that has no idea what their purpose or passion in life is to the insecure and unsure. Walking through life desperate for acceptance, Jesus says I am with you to the fake to the phony that has everyone believing that their life is more together than it really is. Jesus said. I am with you to the depressed, to the downhearted, to the person that feels there is no light at the end of the tunnel, Jesus says, I'm with you to the married person that wonders how their marriage drifted to such a lonely and painful place. Jesus says I'm with you, and I would add to the single person that thinks they're never going to find the right person. Jesus says I'm with you. To the angry, to the resentful that have been rocked by hardship and hurt to the abused, the broken, the isolated, the lonely Jesus says I am with you. The baby in the manger Emmanuel God with us grew up to say four words to change everything. I'm with you and he says, I'm with you always no politician, no pastor, no parent, no person. I can promise you that. No, idle. I can promise you that. But Emanuel can and he has. And he will continue with the hope of the gospel to Sadie. I'm with you. So come in. Worship. Com and worship worship. Christ the newborn, Jane.