 Alright, go and turn your Bibles to Job 38, if you will, Job chapter 38. So just by way of introduction, of course, if you're familiar with the book of Job, you had a man named Job. The Bible says was a righteous man and God allowed Satan to try Job to tempt Job. And Job, of course, most of the book is his dialogue with these three friends of his who were accusing him of being an evil wicked person. And of course, we know Job was not an evil wicked person. They, of course, did not apparently understand the concept that God, not every time something bad happens to someone is a judgment of God. Sometimes it can just be God testing or trying someone. But Job got a little out of hand. Job gets to the point where, and you can see this happen throughout the book as it goes on, where Job starts to get a little high-minded. He starts to almost blame God in a sense for what's happening to him. God comes to Job, and before he deals with his three friends, he kind of sets Job straight a little bit. That's what the next couple chapters are about. And so as we are here in Job chapter 38, let's go ahead and start in verse 4. Verse 4, Job 38, verse 4, the Bible says, God speaking to Job, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. This verse is essentially the whole chapter. This is God is basically talking to Job and putting him in his place and saying, do you know who I am, Job? Can you do what I can do? Can you? Do you know what I know? And so the title of the sermon this evening is, Inferior. And I want to show us three different areas that we are inferior to God. And most importantly, how that applies to us and what we can do with our lives because of that. You don't have to turn there, but let me read you Isaiah 55 verse 8, where God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, say at the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So this evening, the first way we are inferior to God is in knowledge. Is in knowledge. Verse 36 in Job 38, if you want to look there, says, Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath put, who hath given understanding to the heart? Verse 18, God says, hath thou perceived the breath of the earth? Declare, if thou knowest it all. So God is making the point here, and one of the areas that, you know, Job, you are inferior to me in knowledge. You know nothing compared to what I know. And we would all agree with this this evening, but you say, okay, but what does that matter for me? What does that, how do I apply that to my life? Well, if we know this is true, we know this is true that we are inferior to God, specifically in knowledge, then why do we see so many people running, people who are believers, people who are saved, running to other sources of knowledge other than the Word of God? And look, I'm not saying that there's not a good experience out there, good knowledge out there by people that are maybe not even saved. I'm not saying there's not good books you can read and things like this. But as a Christian, it should never be able to be said to you that the first place you go for knowledge and instruction is somewhere other than the Bible. We always, if we really believe this is true, if we really believe that we are so inferior, all mankind is so inferior to God in knowledge, the Bible and the Word of God should be the first place that we go for instruction in our lives. Why so often do people go to wisdom, all wisdom it seems, all wisdom from all sorts of places except for God? When do you keep your place there in Job chapter 38? So that's the first way we're inferior to God is in knowledge, and there's some things we can apply there. But the second way, this evening from Job 38 that we are inferior to God is in power. There's too many verses to read here in Job 38, but I'm going to read you a couple. Verse 12, God says, how's thou commanded the morning? Verse 35 says, God says, canst thou send lightnings? Over and over in this chapter God is asking Job, he's like, can you do all these things? Can you exercise this great power like I can? You don't have to turn there, but Psalm 115.3 says, but our God is in the heavens. He have done whatsoever he have pleased. Look, we can't do that. We can't say that about ourselves. Turn to 2nd King 17. Keep your place there in Job, but turn to 2nd King 17. Jeremiah 32, 17, I'll just read for you, says, Oh, Lord God, behold, that was made to heaven and the earth by thy great power in stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. You can't say that about us. You can't say that there is nothing too hard for us. All throughout history, man, no matter how advanced technology is, mankind has been pushing the limits of both himself and the machines he creates. Why? Because man has limits. Man cannot do, there's plenty of things that are too hard for mankind. So how does this apply to us? Well, we know that God has great power, so as a Christian, make sure you're on the right side of that power. Here's what I mean about that. God's power, you can be one or two spots if you're saved. You can be saved, and God's power can be on your side. It can be protecting you. It can be fighting for you. It can be winning battles in your life. Or you can be saved and be in sin, and that same power will be fighting against you. That same power will be against you in your life. It will be chastising you, it will be punishing you. So what side of that power do you want to be on? You're there in 2 Kings 17, look at verse 36. I think this is a beautiful illustration of this. 2 Kings 17 verse 36, the Bible says, But the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with, notice this great power and distressed out on him shall you fear and him shall you worship and to him shall you do sacrifice. So here specifically referring to when God brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the plagues and all the miracles that God did. That's a perfect illustration of this because to one group of people, the Israelites, that power, that great power was fighting for them. It was on their side. It set them free. It did miracles for them. It changed their life for generations. But to the people who were in sin, to the people that were against God, that same great power was accursed to, the Egyptians. So again, you have this, and this is a perfect example of this, where you have God doing a great miracle, utilizing his infinite power in an area into the people that were on the right side of that power. It was a great blessing. But to those who were against God, it was a great curse. So we know that we're in fear to God and not just knowledge but in power. So let's make sure that we fear that power and we're on the right side of it as Christians. Let's go back to Job 38. So we are inferior to God. The first area is in knowledge. The second area is in power. Third this evening, we are inferior to the Lord in dependence. What do I mean by that? I mean that we are inferior to the Lord in that we depend on him. Everything depends on him. Look at verse 41. Here's the third point God's making to Job here, Job 38, 41. God says, who provided for the raven his food? When his young ones notice this cry into God, they wander for lack of meat. Here God's saying, even the birds cry to God depend on the Lord for the next meal. All God's creation, perhaps the greatest way, salvation being the ultimate example of this, perhaps the greatest way that God is superior to mankind is that in his creation from mankind to the birds depend on God for salvation. We depend on God because we are inferior to him. Turn to Job 12. We'll finish here. Job chapter number 12. Here's a beautiful example of this. Here, Job actually says it perfectly here. This is towards the beginning of the book and Job is analyzing his situation and he says it perfectly. Look at verse 7. Here, Job is analyzing his current situation. He says, but ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee, or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. And the fishes of the sea declare unto thee, who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord of prophets. Job is saying, you know, good or bad, I know that God has allowed this to happen in some way. God is in full control. Notice verse 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, in the breath of all mankind? You know, we ought to realize not just as humans, but especially as saved believers that we are inferior to God in the fact that we depend on him for everything, from our salvation to having everlasting life, down to our next breath. So it's kind of the theme of this whole sermon, the same thing with the knowledge and same thing with the power in general in our lives, regardless of what area it's in. Let's make sure that, you know, God wants us to depend on him. This is not a burden on God. This is God wants us to pray to him. He wants us to depend on him for everything. Let's use that. Let's use that. Let's understand that, you know, we are inferior to God. But what does that mean specifically? What does that mean that God is omnipotent and all powerful? It means that he is able to protect us. He's able to give us knowledge. He's able to be there for us. So we ought to depend on that. We ought to depend on that and not turn to the world or other sources for anything. And understand that God is in full control and that God is the one we should depend on for every area of our life. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for this man's preaching tonight. I pray you'll be with the next preacher as he comes up to preach the Lord and bless the fellowship to come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Brother Luke. All right, guys. So the title of my sermon right here, the title is called, The God We Serve. So real quickly I'm going to kind of blast these things so that I don't want to run out of time and like, you know, be a little red in the face and everything. So here in Psalm 2 it says, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together. Against the Lord and against his anointed saying, Let us break their bands of thunder and cast away their cords from us. We that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. I think that this is a picture of a battle to come later on, a Gog and Magog kind of thing, you know, and it's just another example of an army that the world has never seen, almost all of the nations, all these wicked people from all over the world are going to come together and try to fight God, which right here in verse 1 of Psalm 2 it says, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The vain thing that they're imagining is that they're even a chance for God. Now how can they even, you know, the vanity of man, you know, to think that they can even stand up to him, that he would even flinch. He laughs, in fact, at this, at this. And over here in Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 5 it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up in his train to fill the temple. And all the times a train of a royal king or king, queen's garment would be like a symbol of power, of royalty, of, it was just a symbol of how much glory that they had in their kingship and their royalty, I guess, you know what I mean? But this vision, the train is filling this whole temple, his glory is filling this whole temple. And it says, and it stood above it, it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings with twain. He covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly. These seraphims are angels. These angels, you know, obviously they dwell in heaven and even in their design, God designed them to where they even, because they're creatures, remember, they're not God, they're not eternal. So even these beings need some sort of built-in failsafe, if you will, to protect them from the glory of God. They have wings covering their face just like how Moses could only look at the backside of God. They built into their design. There's this shield to keep them from just being disintegrated by the glory of God, you know what I mean? I thought that was pretty awesome in itself. And over here in Daniel 2, verses 22, it says, Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changed the times and the seasons. He removed with kings and seteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. So this is when Daniel's praying to get insight on the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. So the wise men of that nation aren't killed by Nebuchadnezzar. And he gets the answer from God, and then he's kind of praising God. And right here is just another reminder that God's in charge. God has his hand on all things and if you're doing right, if you're doing what you ought to be doing, then God will obviously bless the things that you do and he'll answer the prayers that you're praying. And then over here in the book of Acts, Acts 17, 23 to 31 real quickly. This is Paul when he's in Athens at Morris Hill and he sees this statue of this unknown God and it says, for as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that hath made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Here is worship with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed in the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might fill after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. So Paul is kind of setting these guys straight, you superstitious goofballs, like do you think you're making this statue to this unknown God? Just so you don't miss any, let's just make another image, but obviously God doesn't want us to make images, he doesn't want us to pray to images, he doesn't want us to give glory to images, he wants us to give glory to him. The only thing worthy of praise, the only thing worthy of worship is him. He has the existence can only be because of God. God has the power of existence in himself. That's why he's outside of time, space, matter, he's outside of the foundations of reality that we're all stuck in, that we're all in, we have to abide by these laws of reality, these laws of physics, of life, and God is outside of that. That's how big he is, he's the founder of this, you know what I'm saying, he's the founder of existence in itself because in himself his existence, can existence even exist, you know what I mean, kind of a profound thing kind of ties in with the I am that I am, you know, a profound statement that only he can make. And over here in Revelation, I like this image, not this image, but this picture rather, Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16, and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself and he was closed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword and with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of lords and that's the God we serve. Let's pray Lord God we thank you for the glory and the might that is found in you the strength that we find from your great comforter and the gift of salvation that you gave for us the price that you paid and we're just we're always in thanks we're always in gratitude for the things that you've done for us Lord God every blessing every chastisement and I pray that you're with the next speaker tonight and I pray that you bless the fellowship to come and the Lord Jesus mighty name we pray amen and the next one Trevor. All right please turn your Bibles to James chapter four James chapter four just kind of want to start out like the the the idea that came for this sermon reading through James chapter four my wife and I recently earlier this month we actually celebrated our 10th year wedding anniversary so we went to the coast and took the kids and kind of just spent time together and drove over there enjoying the kids enjoying each other kids could play in the sand and when we were driving when the kids were sleeping you know we started reminiscing oh remember when we got married remember our honeymoon remember the day we got married remember remember when he was born remember when she was born you know remember all these life events that we've gone through and we've only been married 10 years and that's that's not a lot I know there's multiple people in this room that have been married for longer than that but I would encourage you if you're in that situation to take time to remember take time to reminisce and in doing that and reading our Bible my Bible this verse the set of verses in James chapter four came to mind and that's what I want to talk about tonight look down at James chapter four and verse 13 Bible says go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue their year and buy and sale and get gain whereas you know not what shall be on the moral for what is your life what is your life it is even a vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanish it the way for that you ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that the title of the sermon is life's too short you know looking back at these pictures and we pull up our pictures and look at oh wow and when our first was born and look at how little he is and look at how much he's grown look at you know all this is when we first moved into our house and different things and sometimes it seems to go so fast when you look back at see man that was just yesterday that was last year no that was 10 years ago that was five years ago life does go by fast and what I want to talk about tonight is things that we can get maybe wrapped up in especially in 2023 America that life is too short to get wrapped up in these things so first part I want to make is life's too short to spend it chasing dumb things or things that don't matter right the world has an agenda that they say we should chase success in business success in life means he that dies with the most has the most things that's that's not what the Bible says right that's a foolish ambition to chase covetousness the lust of this flesh the lust of this life alcohol drugs all these things these sins that can that you know 2023 America it's it's all about stuff it's all about covetousness right life is too short to spend it chasing these things Hebrews 11 and 25 I'll just read for you talking about Moses it says choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season there is some pleasure in sin for a season a life's too short to waste it pursuing that pleasure there is much more much better things especially as saved Christians there's much better things that we should be doing with our time everybody on their deathbed nobody on their deathbed thinks back over their life oh man I wish I would have taken that taking that taking that promotion at work I wish I would have been able to buy a Bugatti right I wish nobody says that at the end of their at the end of their life they're focusing on oh wow I wish I would have been there for my kids more I wish I would have been more involved in my family wish I would have been more involved in church you man life's too short to spend life chasing things that don't matter the second thing I want to talk about is life's too short to spend it being stressed or anxious or discontented angry all the time bitter all the time life's too short to spend it with these feelings I would preface this by saying there is a there is a time and we should have righteous anger towards certain things we should have wrath towards certain things we should have righteous jealousy towards certain things but life's too short to spend it focused on that all the time in this room we're talking to a group of saved people right if everything in our life goes goes bad if from this point on everything is terrible the rest of our life and we die and we go to heaven it's still good we don't deserve anything good in this life God promises that we'll have food and raiment and with their with we should be content right God has a lot of things for us to do on this earth but we ought to remember like it's good to be it's good to have righteous anger it's good to have wrath towards certain things it's good to be righteously jealous to your spouse to those that need to be jealous over but we ought not spend our lives in that state turn to the Philippians chapter four please turn to Philippians chapter four I'll read for you out of first Peter five verse six says humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care upon him for he careth for you when it says they're your care it's not talking about the thing like say somebody that a nurse would care for a sick patient they're tending to their needs or it's not talking about us tending towards God's needs that is what we should do but this verse specifically in context is talking about the things that we have concern about our concerns our worries our anxieties are the things that we're preoccupied with says cast all casting all your cares or your concerns upon him for he careth for you that's a good point the maker the creator of heaven and earth as Job said he is all powerful he cares for you as an individual he has your best interest in mind for your life so that you could be an optimal server for him and his kingdom for the furtherance of his kingdom that's what our job is to do as Christians is to serve Christ and spread the gospel right Philippians chapter four if we're spending our life stressed anxious discontented with things angry bitter we're not going to be effective in doing that first Corinthians first excuse me Philippians chapter four if you're there look down at verse six be careful for nothing this is a command and again here careful is not talking about you know don't care about your personal safety run into the burning building this is talking about the things that you care about the concerns you have be concerned about nothing don't worry about things but in everything all the things that we would be concerned with but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God notice verse seven and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus a lot of times that the peace of God which passes understanding that's referred to people will say that if somebody loses a loved one or is experiencing a troubling time and that piece of God that that fits in that application but specifically in the context of these two verses Philippians four six and seven that's an if then statement so verse six is a command be careful for nothing and then it tells us how to do that in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that part is important let your request be made known unto God so if we're anxious about things if we're stressed about things if we're overwhelmed with anger with bitterness whatever the command is there to be careful for nothing how do we do that by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God if we're successfully doing verse six verse seven is a promise and if you do this and the peace of God which passes understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus so if we're stressed or if we're having anxiety about things and we're maybe discontent with certain things and how we are in our lives where we're at today what whatever the case may be we must not be doing verse six correctly life's too short to spend it being stressed out to be worried about things to be consumed with anger consumed with bitterness there's a lot of things in this world to be angry about there's a lot of things in this world to have wrath over but we ought not let it drive our life there's too many good things in this life we have salvation right if we have salvation the rest of our life like I said earlier could go down the road and and if we die and go to heaven praise God it's good right John 10 10 I actually while you're there Philippians 4 verse 6 notice in verse 11 it says for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content it's a learned process he is learned this by doing verse 6 and receiving the promise of verse 7 we can apply that to our lives as well life's too short to not have an abundant life as a Christian John 10 10 I'll just read for you says the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy I Jesus Christ and come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly this abundant Christian life we get saved there's a lot of things to do on our plate God commands us as men to provide for our own families to love our wives as Christ love the church commands us to raise our children the nurturing admonition of the Lord we're supposed to read our Bible every day we're supposed to pray we're supposed to be in church when the doors are open right there's a lot of things to do on the Christians plate my son in the springtime we were driving tractor and I was kind of showing him how to drive tractor and we rented tractor it's a 500 horsepower tractor it's a big tractor and what we do with that tractor is we pull a chisel or a ripper so it's a shank that's about 20 inches down that goes into the soil rips up the soil breaks up the compaction layers it's a heavy load to pull that chisel if you're pulling a lighter load you upshift a couple gears you down the throttle so you're more efficient on fuel but on a heavy load you got to give it all the beans you got to give it wide open throttle in this Christian life we got a lot of things to do life is too short to spend it on foolish things to spend it worried and anxious and life's too short to not give it all the beans in this Christian life let's pray your Lord thank you for this church Lord thank you for this opportunity to preach thank you for all the people in this room we ask you to bless the next preacher and keep our hearts and minds open to your word in your name we pray amen by the max chapter 14 please book of Ezekiel in the major prophets in the Old Testament Ezekiel 14 what i want to talk about this evening is is a phrase that's found here in Ezekiel 14 it says the idol in their heart and obviously as Christians and one of the 10 commands we're not supposed to make idols we're not supposed to worship other gods but something that I think can get overlooked by a lot of Christians is an idol in their heart something else that's distracting them from God distracting them from the full potential of of service to God and I want to look at that here real quick so look down at Ezekiel 14 in verse one it says then came certain of the elders of Israel and to me and sappa for me and the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be inquired of at all by them therefore speak unto them and say unto them thus saith the Lord God every man of the house of Israel that set up his idols in his heart and put at the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and comeeth to the prophet I the Lord will answer him that comeeth according to the multitude of his idols so look at what God is saying here God is saying these people they've set up an idol in their heart even if they're still coming to worship him you know even if it's a Christian they're still coming to church they still have all the outward signs but they have an idol in their heart where there's something else that's taken their affection taken the place of God in their life God says should I answer them should I be inquired of it all by them they're coming to church still but why should I talk to them why should I answer them if they've got an idol in their heart so God takes this this is a big deal to God and you say okay well what is an idol in your heart well it's just an idol it's something that you worship in your life something that you devote more time more effort more love towards than God something that you trust more than God anything that takes the place of God in your life and I want to give you some some common examples of that I'm sure we can all think of some but what's a big one money a lot of people are way into money and that's what they're trusting they're you know they just say well I got my savings and I got all these stocks and I got x y and z I'm going to be fine if there's a recession or there's this or whatever there are a lot of people that are trusting money and as we know the love of money is the root of all evil and you're not supposed to don't let money become an idol in your heart someone where and I'm sure we've met these people us men who go out to work if you meet the guy who's just the workaholic and he's just out there because he loves money and he wants to make as much of it as possible and he wants to be a millionaire that shouldn't be us as Christians another another common one that that you see is a career or job where this becomes then an idol in someone's life where they say I couldn't move I can go to a good church what about my career what about my job I couldn't do this you know they I can't sacrifice anything for God I need to work on Sundays that's what my job is telling me and their career and their job becomes more important in their life and takes that position of preeminence in our life where God should be number one and it becomes their job it becomes their career and that should not be us as Christians look if you have I get it if you occasionally got to work Saturday Sunday Wednesday night whatever but it shouldn't be like oh I'd rather work on Sunday because I want to make money or because that's what my job tells me I have to do you should love God and not let this your career your job creep in as an idol into your heart this is another one this is really funny I have a great example of this from soul winning today sports okay this is probably the dumbest one that I thought of on this list and you say what brother max there are Christians who make sports and idol in their life oh yeah brother Benjamin and I ran to the guy today at the door and it's like we're coming from a whole fast Baptist church you know are you a hundred percent sure and you're on your way to heaven he's like yeah I'm a hundred percent sure oh well how do you know oh I'm watching the game right now it's really important I got to go that guy look if you saved great but he's got sports as an idol in his life that he can't stop and talk to two other fellow Christians he's got that gentleman has sports as an idol in his life and that is not something any of us should have whether you play it whether you follow the team whatever don't let sports become an idol in your life and then kind of the last the last thing or or area that I thought of where people kind of create an idol in their heart is with other people or other relationships in their life you know if if there's you know whether it's it's you know your spouse or somebody else obviously we're supposed to love our family and our spouse and all that but you can't let other people in your life you can't and this could be some celebrity too people get that way as well but for us in this room it's more applicable that you need to put God first in everything you can't let somebody else anybody else even if you love them and they're saved or you know you can't let anybody else in your life take that spot of preeminence that God should have in your life and don't let an idol creep into your heart don't let an idol creep into your heart so we kind of saw what is an idol in your heart what are some common areas and I'm sure we've seen this in different people's lives maybe in our own lives as well to varying degrees but now what's the remedy for this what does God say about it look down again at Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel 14 in verse 5 it says that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols therefore say unto the house of Israel let's say that the Lord God repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away your heart your faces from all your abominations for every one of the house of Israel verse 7 or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel which separated himself from me and seteth up his idols in his heart and puteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a prophet to inquire by him concerning me I the Lord will answer him by myself and I will set my face against that man and I will make him a sign and a proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people and ye shall know that I am the Lord does it sound like God takes this pretty seriously yeah God's not playing around and if you don't put God in the position that he deserves in your life if you don't give him the worship that he deserves if you got something else that has your affection that has your heart so to speak if you have an idol in your heart God is going to have to forcefully remove that what does he say look at what was it the end of verse 8 where he says I will set my face against that man and I will cut him off you don't want that God will remove you and your life will not be good when God has to forcefully put himself back where he belongs in that place of preeminence as the priority in your life it's always better to just keep him there don't let anything else get to that spot and God I mean God warned them about this in Deuteronomy 11 you don't have to turn their back in the law God told them take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you unless you perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord give with you so God takes this seriously if you worship and obviously the application back in Deuteronomy was to physical idols but for us as Christians you know and obviously this all applies to having a physical idol or something in you know Hindus worshiping you know idols but us as Christians don't think that we also can't let something creep into that position of being an idol in our heart because it definitely can and we've seen it with people so don't don't let an idol creep into your heart because God takes it very seriously and I don't think any of us want to get to the point where God is saying I'll cut him off because you know because we've gotten so far into that always just keep your heart tender examine your heart make sure God is at that number one place that he has that number one spot in your life and if you do have an idol in your heart and you know we've we've different you know maybe you've been at a place where you've had that I know for me it was you know always like my car my truck you know or whatever and it's like that can get to a spot where it's like I'm spending way too much time and money and just I'm thinking about it too much and it's becoming an idol and it's taking away my time and my love and my affection for the Lord don't let that happen and if you have that get out of your heart get out of your heart it's so much easier than these alternatives that we've seen is Ezekiel 14 and the Deuteronomy where God's saying I'll cut you off from the good land like you I'll no more blessings if you don't get your heart right if you don't get rid of that idol in your heart so don't let it creep in examine your heart tonight and just to close 1 Corinthians 1014 says therefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry and again if we needed any more emphasis on idolatry being bad don't let it creep into your heart let's pray Lord thank you for this opportunity thank you for your word Lord I pray none of us would let any idols or anything creep into our heart that would take away our love and our affection for you Lord and please bless the other preachers this evening in the fellowship to come in Jesus's name men Brother George all right turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 32 we're gonna start off in verse 16 the bible reads there it says they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods with abominations provoke they him to anger they sacrificed unto devils not to God to gods whom they knew not to new gods that newly that came newly up whom your fathers feared not of the rock that beget thee that are unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee and when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters and he said I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be for they are a very forward generation children in whom is no faith I just want to kind of just set the stage here Ezekiel 8 verse 16 the bible says and he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and they and their faces toward the east and they worship the sun toward the east now what I want to focus on today is tonight is the fact that many if not all religions outside of the bible are pagan so they don't believe the bible and the god of the bible then they're a pagan religion they're they're so if you reject christ then your default setting is satan okay so they're luciferian satanic bale worship a sun and moon and planet worship okay so satan makes all these pagan religions look appealing on the outside but down to the core it's all the same bale sun moon planet worship you know he's done it from the beginning yeah half the lord yeah half god said you know god doesn't want us to have other gods besides him satan said I will be like the most high and hinduism seekism buddhism Mormonism freemasons muslim Islam Judaism Catholicism they're they're all the same they're all the same in some form or some way so 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 14 it says and no marvel for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light therefore there is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works so uh let's take for example let's take uh Islam Muslims so um if you just look up in wikipedia you just type in list of occult symbols all these symbols will pop up right and um and you know muslims are in there this is their symbol here moon and pinnacle and these are occult symbols both of these and um a law it you could read about it it says a law is a moon god who married the sun god moon so sun moon pinnacle and this pagan religion you know corresponds to bale worship sun and moon worship and it has 1.9 billion followers with a beat okay so let's go you could turn there if you want uh second king's 23 23 and verse 5 and uh king Josiah did this he's a good king he won't get into details but it reads and he put down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of judah and in the places round about Jerusalem them also that burned incense unto bale to the sun and to the moon and to the planets and to all the hosts of heaven so you know I'm not making this up you guys can do your own research but you know the bible speaks for itself another example let's just you know keep it with what's going on today Israel Israel uses a hexagram which is a which is on the list of occult symbols when you look it up on Wikipedia even Wikipedia knows this so they say this is the star of David and they say they worship the god that David worships that's not true there is no star of David the bible the bible talks about a star of remfan who is a pagan god it corresponds to mulloch, bale Saturn worship there's the planet worship Baberjit Christ too so they're defaulting to satan this religion has 14 million followers probably way more than that go to go to acts chapter 7 and verse 42 the bible reads then god turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets oh ye house of Israel have ye offered to me slain beast and sacrifice by the space of 40 years in the wilderness yeah yay ye took up the tabernacle of mulloch the star of your god remfan figures which he made to worship them and i will carry you away beyond Babylon so this is a Steven sermon great sermon if you've ever read that you know Steven is calling them out for their idolatry and then they stone Steven and if you go down to verse 59 act 759 it says and they stone Steven so they killed Steven and Steven when they were stoning him he called upon God saying Lord Jesus Jesus is God receive my spirit you know so both of these both of these religions are pagan religions and they're christ rejecting default setting satan due to uh go to Deuteronomy well you're already well go to Deuteronomy 32 Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4 bible reads he is the rock talking about Jesus same god in the old testament Jesus is the same god in the old testament as he is in the new testament he is the rock his work is perfect and for all his ways are judgment a god of truth and without iniquity just and right is he so all that to say that we should be thankful that we worship the one and true god you know two billion people and what is there like 40 people in this room you know your chances are pretty slim you know if you're gonna get saved and we're all pretty lucky to be saved we should be thankful every single day um you know we should be thankful so much that we should go and preach the gospel because Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel once you're saved you shouldn't just run away with the gift everybody should go and preach the gospel it doesn't matter doesn't matter who who you are you learn the bible you know i wasn't always a soul winner i had to study the bible it took time for me to study the bible and but practice repetition you become a good soul winner if you just keep at it so turn to mark chapter 16 and we're gonna end here mark chapter 16 verse 15 15 through 16 and he said this is jesus talking unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and this is key right here this is why we should go soul winning but he that believeth not shall be damned do you do you guys want two billion people to go to hell because i don't so i'm gonna keep soul winning i'm gonna keep coming in church you know i want you know today was a great day soul winning today was a great day soul winning and um let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear lord i just want to thank you for this church i i want to thank you for soul winning i just this church has done so much for me lord so thankful that you sent pastor and his family here to teach us the bible i will always forever be thankful i'm never gonna leave this church lord until the day i die and um i just can't say it enough thank you lord and just bless everybody here bless this church and jesus name i pray amen