So now our first step is going to be we're going to try to discover our idols so that we can repent of them. Okay? So that's, that's where we're going next. Now an idol of the heart, I would define an idol as anything your soul thinks it needs to have in order to be happy. Anything your soul thinks it has to have in order to be happy. Sometimes that can be a little tricky to spot because we, we enjoy God through His gifts, right?

That's a good thing. But sometimes it can morph into trying to get our joy from the gift instead of from God through the gift. Those are two different things. I'm trying to get my joy from God through His gifts, that's great. That's the more the better if I'm trying to get my joy from the gift. That's idolatry.

Now I've turned that thing into my water and my food and so on. How do you know? I mean, we enjoy God's gifts. We're supposed to enjoy God's gifts. If we didn't, God would be disappointed he gives us he gives us gifts. So that will like them right?

And so how do you know if you've crossed the line in from joint joint God through the gift to enjoying the gift itself looking to that itself as your water? There's a few things that I'll just tell you real quick tonight. The big answer to that is in the book, gospel, treason is a great, great resource for helping pin down what those idols are in your heart. But I'll just give you a couple of things. One is watch what the effect is when you lose that thing. Or you don't get that thing.

Is there a sinful response? If I'm enjoying God, through one of his gifts? was a sick one. say let's say it's my family. Okay. So I'm enjoying God through the gift of my family, I see my family, see my wife, I see my kids, it causes delight causes enjoyment.

And I like that, and I'm enjoying him through that. Then, if it really is God that I'm enjoying, then I don't have to have that particular gift. I could enjoy God through it another one of his gifts. Right? But if I'm looking to the family itself as what I need in order to be happy, then you take away that family and I can't be happy. Because all I've got left is gone.

What is it in your life that if it got taken away, and all you got left is God, that's not enough? You're not gonna be happy. There's your idols. There's your idol. And like we say all the time, our hearts are idle factories, aren't they? Because you just find an idol that way and it's like, okay, that's like everything in my life.

Another way to think of it is, think of God's gifts as straws. And the joy that comes as the water that you're drinking through the straw. Okay? So, my family or my recreation, or my food, this the stuff in my refrigerator or the, or my jeep, or you know, whatever. All this stuff is a straw to straw. It's through which I get enjoyment from God.

And if God takes away the straw so that all I'm left is with some other straw. No problem. As long as it's still the other end of unsealing the water no problem. I can still drink. I still got god I'm fine. Anytime I have access to God real water, I'm fine pickleball will take away all the straws and I just have to drink directly still okay.

But sometimes what happens to us is we put that stronger mouth and we drink like, Man, this thing. Every time we put this thing in my mouth, I get satisfied. I love this thing. And we fall in love with a straw. And so to help us with that every once in a while God will, like, remove the water. So we get those that stronger mouth.

And we're stuck. And so he's like, man, what's wrong with this straw is not what is happening. It's not working. Maybe I've had that happen where things that normally should make you happy, don't make you happy. You do your favorite activity and it's not working. You know, the guy who just lives for ski and then it gets up on the slope one day, it's just his skis like, not enjoying this.

It's not working. You hang around your favorite people and usually it makes you happy, but sometimes it's like, this isn't doing anything for me. It's not working. That's not working. That's what happened. I got all these straws and none of them are in the water.

You know, I'm trying to get enjoyment from this. Everyone smoke I just removed the water just to remind us it's a straw, not water. 100% of our enjoyment and satisfaction comes from God. This is why the psalmist say, I have there's nothing on earth I desire. Besides God. That sounds like overstatement, doesn't it?

Nothing on earth you desire besides God, come on, don't you like it until like a soft pillow. When you lay down instead of like a cactus on your head? I mean, you desire plenty of stuff on the earth. In fact, just in that same song, some 73 he lists a whole bunch of stuff that he desires on Earth. So is he telling the truth he says the only thing I desire is gone. Yeah, he is because he's saying, Yeah, I desire all this other stuff that only as straws ever as water.

Makes sense. Okay. You're referring to whatever sin that we'd like to do. Okay, all right. Yeah. Great clerk look, great clarification.

Thanks for bringing that up. So when I'm talking about the straw, I'm not talking about the sins that we commit, I'm talking about good gifts from God that we turn into idols. So that's the only thing I meant by the straw. Because when, because what as soon as I felt like I had to talk about that I should have been clearer. I felt like I had time with that, because as soon as I define an idle the way I defined it, then people start saying, Wait a minute, isn't it good to desire my family? Isn't it good to desire, exercise or, you know, sleep or, you know, whatever, some of this stuff that food, like some of you're here, because you're addicted to food, and you overeat, but you can't just cut out food, you know, right, because food is good.

And so at what point does it become an idol? And, and I wanted to talk about that because one thing one weakness that I see in that book gospel treason is, he does a great, great job in there in so many ways, but one thing that I don't like was one time when he says, something becomes an idol. Good things can become an idol in your heart when you want them to Much. And I don't I don't like that statement. I don't think that's a good way. Because what does that mean?

What? So what's the solution? If my wife becomes an idol in my life? What am I supposed to do? Like, just just go ahead and desire her but just less, enjoy her less, I gotta find a way to enjoy my wife less. I like her too much.

I gotta get it down to just the right level. I mean, how much are you supposed to enjoy God's gifts. I just don't like that idea that it's too much. I think the more the better. If God gives you a gift, the more you enjoy it, the better if I give my kids a gift, I don't want them to be moderately happy, the happier the happier I am. And so so it's not that you want it too much.

It's that you want it the wrong way you want it as the water instead of as a straw. So I was so the straw thing is I'm only talking about things when when good gifts from God get turned into idols. Now, other times the thing is just pure sin, sin, you know, and so when it's Just a sinful thing. Then the things I was saying about the straw. I didn't mean to apply that to since. But even the sinful idols we have typically what we're what our soul is craving.

The desire is sinful. But the appetite underneath it isn't necessarily sinful. It's a legitimate appetite. So a guy that desires adultery, that's wicked. But for him to have an appetite for sex, that's good. That's God designed that right?

So we have these appetites that are good. But our desires twist them around so that we started we start wanting to fulfill that appetite the wrong way and then soon, okay. Okay, great question. Why do I need to name these idols? Can I just go to God and say, whatever the title is, I just take it away. It's perfectly fine to pray that to say God, please take it away, but he won't always take it away.

Sometimes he wants you to fight it and In fact, most of the time, he doesn't just take it away. Rarely does he do it every once awhile he does, but rarely does he do that. Usually he wants you to fight it. And you got to know what the enemy is if you're fighting something so, so if I'm, if I'm hooked on, on alcohol and I'm getting drunk, and the issue for me, the idol in my heart is refuge. Like, I need safety, I need a break. I need refuge from the onslaught of all this problem in my life, and I just need to get away I need to run I need to escape.

And, and I'm looking for refuge. And that's my problem. That's my idol. If I miss diagnose my idol, and I think, you know, my problem is just pleasure. I just, I just liked it. I just like to indulge in pleasure.

And so that's why I drink and I gotta, I gotta discipline myself. Don't you know don't Don't be so wrapped up in pleasure. But that's not really the right diagnosis. Then I'm on miss some specific strategies that could go directly To the issue of refuge, what I need to do isn't to focus so much on on pleasure. What I need to do is focus on experiencing God as my refuge God is a refuge and I need to know I can learn somehow learn how do I how do I get to that I'm overwhelmed with all kinds of trouble, and I can go into my room, open my Bible, get on my knees, seek God and experience them as a refuge and come out a half an hour later. at rest, feeling secure, feeling safe feeling like I've I've escaped this onslaught.

That's what if that's me, that's what I need to learn. But if I've got a different idol, if my idol is say, control, you know, some people get hooked on things because they, they want to be in control. I've even talked to people who their their thing is cutting they're addicted to Cutting themselves. And and they sit just because it is the one time I could actually be in control of when I feel something. So for that person is a whole different idol. And it needs to be addressed a different way.

They need to fight a different, different enemy they need. There's other attributes of God that for them are going to be the solution. So does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, I think I think you're right. There are people that get victory over and slaving sins without knowing all this.

And a lot of times it's because the problem for them really wasn't so much a satisfaction problem as much as say, power, spiritual power problem. And so once they started getting spiritual power from walking by the spirit of the stuff we talked about last week, that that gives them enough strength to overcome the thing because because that was the main thing they were lacking for other people is fear of God, you know, and so they get that and then they get victory. So, praise God, that a lot of times victory can come without knowing all the principles. that scripture gives us but I think the more of these principles that we learn, the better chance we're going to have to defeat the sin that's in us. And the more we understand the specific idols in our hearts, the more we know not only how to defeat them, but what to watch out for.

Because I've seen just example after example, after example of counsel ease who they're fighting in the wrong battlefield, and they, they don't realize they're craving for, for refuge, say, is an idol. And so they don't, they don't ever repent of it. They don't name it as something that they put in the place of God. They think it's perfectly okay. And it seems okay it seems perfectly okay to want safety, so want refuge trait that didn't seem sinful. And so they don't ever say that's idolatry that I need to repent of.

I need to turn from that and and seek that from God. And so at handicaps My guess is as somebody, if somebody were to read gospel, treason or to, or to understand these basic principles and not be able to discern what the idol is in their heart, it's probably they're just not willing to acknowledge it, because they don't want to acknowledge it. Because it's not that hard. I mean, this isn't rocket science, what is it that gets you all worked up when you lose it? I mean, most people can answer that matter of seconds. You know, and so, so it might be a situation where they just say, No, I don't want to, I don't want to.

I don't want to be finger on that as an idol. So I won't, I won't acknowledge that I'm looking for something else. And of course, then that's when it gets confusing, because if you're trying to solve two plus two, and you rule out four, it's complicated. Right? So yeah, and that's a good point. So if you're here and you're looking for the magic bullet, that little principle that's just going to wipe away your problem.

It's not going to do it. What's going to do it The godliness training the exercises, you know, that's the like, First Timothy four says train yourself to be godly that training will do it and and and the training is going to be things that will awaken your heart to the deliciousness of wisdoms banquet. And some in some cases, you'll never will necessarily know what the idol was, but all you know is well whatever it is, I don't want that anymore. Now I like this. So if you if you don't know what geor Donald's is, it's an enslaving sin in Chicago. Really good pizza.

So, yeah, yeah. So we'll get to that we'll get to the importance of like an accountability partner and all that when we get to the finger part. Right. Yeah, the general principles will help you even if you don't get down to the specifics very well. The general principle will help. I mean, it helped me out It changed a lot in me when I, when I realized that those days when I walk into the kitchen and open the refrigerator I'm looking at like, hundreds of dollars worth of food.

I mean, all this. It's like, nothing he, you know, and then I opened the pantry. And he, you know, and I'm, and I'm like wandering around and it's like, I just ate I'm not. When I realized when I just could finally talk to my soul and say, Daryl, you're not hungry for food. That's not what you're craving right now, this craving, you're feeling, it's a real craving. It's not proposed.

It's for something else. It's for the presence of God, when I would just you know, just wake up to that. It's like, oh, okay, that and that'll, that saved me a lot of searching around the kitchen and then some regret and everything else because it's like, I'm, I've, over the years I've taken this craving for the presence of God. I've translated into a craving for food, and it's not even what it is. No wonder the food isn't satisfying. Anytime I put food in my mouth and it's not satisfying, it's like, Okay.

I'm trying to feed a wrong craving with the wrong thing. Because when I'm really craving food food is satisfying. It tastes great. Okay.