 Hello, this is David Diga Hernandez and you're watching Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. You've likely heard it said that idolatry is when you put anything before God, but there's actually much more to it than that. I want to show you what idolatry truly is, and then I want to show you how to keep it from destroying your relationship with God. Let me begin with a very simple point. The Bible makes it very clear that idolatry is sin. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 6 and 7 and 14 say this, these things happened as a warning to us so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the scriptures say, the people celebrated with feasting and drinking and they indulged in pagan revelry. So my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. So what is idolatry? Is it the worship of a false God? Yes, the scripture says in Exodus chapter 20 verses 3 through 6, You must not have any other God but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children, the entire family is affected. Even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. So those who worshiped other gods were punished and those who stood faithful to God were blessed generationally. Leviticus 261 says, Do not make idols or set up carved images or sacred pillars or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the Lord your God. So here we clearly see that when you worship a false God or when you set up an idol to worship that image that you are committing the sin of idolatry. Now that's probably the simplest definition of idolatry. The graven image or the worship of a false God, the religions of the world worship false gods. That's idolatry. Is it also to prioritize something or someone over God, as is commonly said? Yes idolatry is also to prioritize anything above God. It's not just the creation of graven images. It's not just the worship of false gods. It's not just following after false religions. It's also not properly prioritizing God. 1 John 521 says, Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts. So is idolatry the worship of a false God? Yes. Is idolatry placing anything before God? Yes. Look here in Colossians chapter 3 verse 5 and you will see that idolatry is also to have an obsession, an evil desire or even greed. So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust and evil desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person is an idolatry. Worshiping the things of this world. So worship isn't just the singing of songs to something. Worship isn't just the adoration of something. Worship can also be the obsession with something or someone. Worship can also be a craving for something. Worship is that evil desire, that strong longing for something. That is a form of worship. This is why sexual sins are a form of idolatry. So yes idolatry is the worship of false gods, the creating of graven images. Yes idolatry also is prioritizing other things before God. And yes idolatry also is an obsession or an evil desire or even greed. But I want to show you something. To make an idol is to construct for yourself a version of God that you find preferable. Idolatry is also the false perception of God. It's the wrong view of who he is. And we create these perceptions to fit our preferences. Idolatry is a false perception of God. Your emotions can construct a God. How you're feeling in that moment can change what you desire in God. Your intellect can construct a God. You realize that God can sometimes offend your intellect. Things that you think contradict who God is. Your ways are not my ways. That's what God said. My ways are higher than your ways, he says. Do you realize that there are things about God that will offend you? Now I know that's not pleasant to say but it's the truth. There are things about God that will offend you. And the greater the level of wickedness and perversion in your life, the greater the offense. People crucified Jesus not because he did anything wrong but because his very being, his very existence, who he was offended them. They didn't like who he was. The world today is offended at God. Why? Because they have a false perception of who he should be. He's not meeting all of their expectations. He doesn't say what they want him to say. He doesn't always do what they want him to do. He remains steadfast, unchangeable. He is who he is. So your emotions can construct a God. Your intellect will attempt to construct a God. Your peers around you, the people who influence you, will attempt to construct your view of God. The culture attempts to construct a view of God. The school systems, I call most of them indoctrination centers. The school systems of this world are trying to construct a view of God. Religion attempts to construct a view of God. And the result is idolatry. Look, there are going to be things about God that will offend you. There will be things about God that you don't like. Why? Because they contradict what you were taught. They contradict what culture says is right. They'll call you a bigot. You know why they call you a bigot? Because they think God is bigoted. They'll call you hateful. Do you know why they call you hateful? Because they think God is hateful. And so there will be all of these pressures coming against you. Not just exterior pressures from the culture and from people, but also interior pressures that will try to cause you to change your view of God to fit your preference. God does not fit all of your preferences. Not everything God does you will like. Not everything God says will sound right to you. And this is why we must know the Word. We must know God. We must know him by the Holy Spirit. Lest we construct for ourselves a perception that fits our preferences. And here's what happens when you begin to do this. When you begin to commit this sin of idolatry. So again, yes, it's the worship of false God. Yes, idolatry is prioritizing other things before him. And yes, idolatry can also be some desire or obsession with someone or something. Yes, that can be idolatry. But at its very core, at its very root, idolatry is simply a false perception of God. Those false perceptions come about as a result of many different pressures, exterior and interior. And when that false perception takes hold of us, something begins to change in us. Psalms chapter 135 verses 15-18, this is the result of idolatry. The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak. And eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear. And mouths but cannot breathe. And those who make idols are just like them. As are all who trust in them. You become that which you worship. Please hear me now, this is so important. Idolatry is destructive because you become that which you worship. When you worship the God of your emotions, emotions rule your life. When you worship the God of your intellect, intellect rules your life. When you worship culture's perception of God, then you worship culture. When you worship religion's perception of God, then you worship religion. Your perception of God will affect everything about you. I want to say that again. Your perception of God will affect everything about you. If you see God as angry and abusive, you'll be bound by religion. If you see God as liberal and willing to let anything slide, then you'll live in sin. Because you'll think he'll never punish me. He'll never hold me accountable for the choices that I make. And that perception of God dictates the way that you live. That perception of God changes your behavior. Now sometimes life demands that we bow to a different God. Now please listen here because this is a very important truth I want to share with you. I'm going to read Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. And then Daniel chapter 3 verses 14 through 18. And in these portions of Scripture, we find a very important truth concerning idolatry. Again, I want to establish this. Yes, idolatry is the worship of a false God. Yes, idolatry is prioritizing something else before God. Yes, idolatry can be an obsession or a strong desire for something or someone. At its core, those things are a false perception of God. But it goes even deeper than that. These false perceptions of God, how do they arise? Well, first and foremost, they arise when we don't know the word. Which is why we need to know the word. But I'm going to show you something else here. Daniel 3, 1 through 6. King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. And set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then he sent messages to the high officers, officials, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. So all these officials came and stood before the statue King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald shouted, people of all races and nations and languages listen to the king's command. When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, leer, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. Verse 6, anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Now, of course, we know the story. Three young Jewish men refused to bow, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Let's go now down to verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar said to them, that is the three young men who refused to bow, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I have set up? I will give you one more chance to bow and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace and then what God will be able to rescue you from my power? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. Now, this is so key, verse 18. But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty. We will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. In other words, even if God doesn't come through to rescue us, we're not changing our perception. Even if he doesn't rescue us from the fiery furnace, we're not bowing to the false idea of who God is. You see, to bow to that statue was to embrace a false perception of God. To bow to that statue was to change their minds about who God was. If they were to bow, they would be saying, it's not Jehovah, it's Nebuchadnezzar's statue, that's who we bow to. To bow to idolatry, to that sin is to change your mind about God. Even if God doesn't do things the way we wish he would, we can't change our perception of him. Even when he doesn't heal, I still believe he's a God of healing. Even when he doesn't come through like I think he should, I still believe he's a faithful God. Even when I experience tragedy in my life, I still believe that he is good. If I don't see the miracle, I'm not changing my mind. I still believe he's the God of miracles. If I don't see the healing, I'm not changing my mind. I still know he's the God of healing. If my circumstance doesn't change, I'm not changing my mind. I still know he is good. No matter what happens, no matter what anyone says, no matter what pressures come against me, I will not bow. I am not changing my mind about who God is because he's revealed himself through his word. He's revealed himself to me. I won't let a circumstance cause me to bow and change my perception. I refuse and we should all refuse to worship any other God. We should all refuse to prioritize anything above God. We should all refuse to have strong desire for something else to where it becomes an obsession and therefore an object of worship. We should all refuse to bow. We should all refuse to change our perception of who God is based upon what we experience. I will not bow. Neither should you. Father, I pray right now that you would give us revelation of who you are. Let us be firmly established by your word. And Lord, if the healing takes a little time, we still call you the God of healing. If tragedy should strike, we still call you good. If things don't turn out the way we want them to turn out, we still call you faithful because it's who you are. Help us to stand firm in that and who you are. To never bow. In the name of Jesus we pray. Some of you are feeling him right now. Some of you are feeling his presence right now. He's touching your life in a fresh way. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. And that is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you like information on how you can join our online church, go to davidhernandezministries.com. And now to your comments. These comments come from the video, How to Pray with Power. Three simple keys. And this was a lesson that I did in which I gave you three simple keys that will absolutely transform and improve and intensify your prayer life. So if you've been looking for some revelation on prayer so that your prayer life can go to the next level, make sure you check out my video, How to Pray with Power. Three simple keys. While you're at it, make sure you're following us on all of our social media platforms. Subscribe. Subscribe. Subscribe to us here on YouTube. And when you do, make sure you click that notification bell so that you can receive the notifications when we release new content. Also, don't forget to leave a comment in the comment section. And I may read it on a future episode of Spirit Church. Now here are the comments from How to Pray with Power. Three simple keys. Veronica Zunza writes, This changed my prayer life completely. And since then I have seen God working and answering my prayers. Thank you, David. Panashima writes, Thank you so much. I needed this message. This teaching was and will continue to be timely. Johanna Christie writes, Very appropriate teaching at the right time. I needed this message tonight. I thank God for this message. We get comments like that all the time. People say it was the perfect topic at the perfect time. And I'm telling you why that is. That's because this is the Holy Spirit's channel. You sense his presence. You feel his power. He speaks to you through it. Why? Because we've surrendered it to him. This is the Holy Spirit's channel. Rosemary Valdez writes, This word was for me. Thank you, Lord. I have been asking God to revive my dry bones. Thank you, brother David. God bless your life. And the final comment that I will read from this video comes from Josh C. Who writes, Praise the Lord for this message. Thank you, Pastor David. May God bless you and your team. When you walk in wisdom, God blesses your life. Wisdom brings the favor of God. Wisdom brings fruitfulness. And I want to show you something from the book of wisdom, the book of Proverbs. Chapter number three, I'm going to read verses nine and 10. Honor the Lord with your wealth. And with the best part of everything you produce, then he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine. Now, this is a bit of an older terminology that's being used here. Of course, most of us don't have barns filled with grain. And most of us don't have vats that need to be filled with good wine. But what we do have are resources that God has given to us. And what we do have are jobs and careers, our academic pursuits, our investments. That's what we have. And the truth is that the Bible teaches that when you honor the Lord with your resources that God turns around because of the way you honored him and blesses you financially. I call this financial fruitfulness. Now, I know these teachings have been abused and some preachers preach these things to an unhealthy extreme. But here's the simple truth. When you give to the gospel, God will increase you. Why? So that you can continue to give to the gospel and help ministries take that gospel all around the world. So will you join me right now in honoring the Lord? That's why we give. Of course, we understand that our giving helps to win souls. Our giving helps to spread the gospel around the world. Our giving helps in many different ways. It helps to expand the kingdom. But we give because we love him. We give because we honor him. It's a gift we give him. It's us saying, Lord, here is some of the best of my resources. Thank you for giving me the ability to bring forth these resources. I put them back into your hands. And I ask you to bless it and use it for your glory. And in doing so, you're honoring the Lord. When you give to this ministry, you're helping us to continue with all the events that we do. You're helping to keep the Holy Spirit School online open. You're helping us do all of our live streams. You're helping us with all of the media and the content that we produce. And all of the general expenses of the ministry. But most importantly, when you give to this ministry, you're honoring God. Now, I know some of us look at that and we read the verse, honor the Lord with your wealth and we say, well, I'm not very wealthy. Well, I want you to really think about the way we live compared to the way people lived hundreds of years ago. The way we live today in the modern world, we live very wealthy lives, whether we realize it or not. And even if you really are in a place where you're not experiencing the kind of wealth that scripture is talking about, all of us can do something to honor the Lord, whether we have much or whether we have little. We can honor the Lord with what we have by giving the best that we're able. For the person who has much, giving the best means something different for the person who has little. But all of us, when we give from our heart and we give to the work of God, we honor him. And so do it today. Honor the Lord with me. Help us fulfill our mission. Help us to expand this ministry. Help us to keep going and growing strong. Go to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate right now to give a one-time gift into this ministry or go to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. If you do partner with us, there are benefits that we want to give back to you because those monthly supporters really help us to plan for the future. Go to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner to see the latest partner offer that we have. And I know it will be a blessing to your life. And there are many different benefits, but the main benefit is that we're honoring the Lord and we are winning souls together. So one more time, one time gifts, go to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate to become a monthly supporter go to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner get behind this ministry stand with us help support us and let's win the world for Jesus together. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.