When Blessings Become Idols: Breaking Free from the Golden Calf Trap

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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris, and I'm thrilled to continue our series,

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The Games We Play with God.

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Today, we're talking about playing with idolatry.

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Idolatry isn't just about the golden statues or ancient rituals.

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It's about anything that takes God's place in our hearts.

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It's easy to fall into this trap, especially in today's world where success,

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relationship, and material possession often compete for our devotions.

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Our focus will be on the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32.

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Wow. So I want you to take the opportunity and read that.

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We talk about idols. In idols, we think about the golden calf.

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But what is taking the place of God in your heart?

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You know, is it fame? Is it fortune? You know, instead of reading your Bible, what are you reading?

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What are you doing? What are some things that you know you should be doing,

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but you decided that I'd rather do this? Is it YouTube?

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Is it I want to be famous?

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I don't know what that is. But let's see what happens when idolatry takes the place of God.

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And so if you ever struggle to keep God's first place in your life,

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this episode is definitely for you.

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So let's read from Exodus 32 verses 1 through 6.

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So a little background.

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Moses went up to the mountain to spend time with God.

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Left Aaron in charge. And so now Aaron is a priest. So Aaron was in charge.

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Just wonder what was going on in Aaron's heart, but let's pick it up here.

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When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain.

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They gathered around Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us.

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As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, We don't know what has happened to him.

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So Aaron answered them, Take off the gold earrings that your wives,

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your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me.

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So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

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He took what they handed to him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of

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a calf, fashioning it with a tool.

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I'm stopping because I'm seeing, like, before they left, they were slaves.

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And what did they, before they left to the wilderness, you know,

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Moses had the plague thing going.

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And God said, you will not leave empty-handed. And so the Egyptian women gave them silver and gold.

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So they were actually wearing the silver and gold in the wilderness.

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You gotta imagine this So they are blinging everywhere.

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They knew that Moses was going up to see God and talk to God about some things.

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So now suddenly Moses is gone and then they have this dumb spirit come upon them.

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We don't know what happened to Moses, but can you help us? Can you help us?

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And so it reminds you of the Korah spirit here, right?

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The Korah is like, Moses is gone, so let us play.

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So there's always, I don't know about you, but even in the church group or in

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any group, there's always this little pack of people, maybe one or two, sometimes it's four,

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that would say, I don't know if the boss is gone, let's do this.

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And pretty much changing the whole program sometimes when the boss leaves.

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Or if the pastor leaves for a vacation, if he leaves the wrong people in charge,

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They're trying to change the whole church just for the whole week or two that they're gone.

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You know, you're like, hold up. Hold up. What did Moses tell you, Aaron?

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How did you get this gold and silver? It was a blessing from God.

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Taking the blessings that God has given you and turning that into the idol.

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You ever done that before?

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God's giving you the blessings. And so you got the blessings from prayer,

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you got the blessings from tithing and giving, and now you've taken that blessing

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and you're making it into an idol.

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So that's why I paused. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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It says, and then Aaron, who was called, you have to read your Bible,

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Aaron was anointed and appointed like as a sidekick for Moses. So he knew better.

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He knew better. He could have told these fellas, Moses will be back.

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Let's have a little prayer session.

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Let's do some offerings. Let's just kind of wait.

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Let's wait, not kind of wait. Let's just wait to see what God has to say through Moses.

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But no, no, no. Aaron decided that he's going to put together an idol.

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Let's keep going. I'm just kind of amazed because every time you read the Bible,

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you get a new revelation.

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So you take what God has given you and you turn that into an idol.

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A new car. You can't go to church because your car, I got to wash my car.

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Why on Sunday? Can you watch it on Saturday?

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Got a new boat. God bless you. You're rich, but you can't go to church on Sunday,

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not even for an hour because you got to ride that boat on that Sunday afternoon.

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You got to get docked in by a certain time.

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You got things to do on your regular prayer time usually you have prayer on

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a Sunday or a Monday or whatever day you were at you're a small group but you

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can't do that anymore because you're too blessed,

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taking that idol taking that blessing that God has given you and making it into an idol leaving God out,

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used to read your Bible but now you're too busy with your new podcast you don't

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have time to read your Bible Why?

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Because it's bringing you money and it becomes an idol Let me just stop,

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let's go The Israelites grew impatient waiting for Moses And turned to an idol to fill the void Ouch,

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what are you turning to to fill the void?

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They replaced their trust in the living God With something tangible Something

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that they could control I'm going to say it again The Israelites grew impatient,

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waiting for Moses, and turned to an idol to fill the void.

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They replaced their trust in the living God with something tangible,

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something they could control.

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Idolatry often stems from impatience and a desire for control.

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When God's timing doesn't match ours, we look for something else to fill the gap.

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Just going to pause for effect, right? Because we wait for God and God's moving

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at his pace, his timing, because you got to get people lined up to bless you.

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So it takes a little bit because, you know, people don't want to be lining up.

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But yet they're lined up. They have to be lined up.

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But just because there's a little space in there, you're filling that gap.

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Like these people, the Israelites, took their blessings that God gave them and created an idol.

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Idolatry stems from the desire for control. God is moving too slow.

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I'm going to control this space.

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So I'm going to fill this gap with something else.

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Where have you placed your trust when God was silent or distant.

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Idolatry isn't just about physical objects. It's about the posture of our hearts.

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Anything we prioritize above God becomes an idol, whether it's a job,

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a relationship, or even our own ambition.

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You know, I just recently resigned from a job.

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And the job, and I don't usually, I don't resign from jobs.

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This was the first job I ever had to resign from since I've been working as a 15-year-old child.

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But this job wanted me to take, wanted to occupy all my space.

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And I was saying, like, that was the reason I was late on my podcast. All my space.

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They just, you keep this Outlook calendar, and they just wanted to fill every

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space. But I just refused to have that happen. I like to do my podcast.

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You promised me a work-life balance. I'm doing more work than life.

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And I decided that I want my life back. I want my time back.

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Spent some time praying to my heavenly father.

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Worked out, called it an exit strategy.

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And I did an exit strategy. On the day that I left that position,

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I had two interviews lined up.

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An interview that I had the day before.

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I left the day I decided to leave.

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They called me back. I mean, it's like when you trust God, your job doesn't have to be your idol.

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You have to be specific, though, because when I took the job,

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they offered me what I prayed for, but they lied.

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You will see another devotional I wrote. It's called The Lions and the Liars.

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It's so good. It's so good.

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But let's get back to this.

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Your job can be an idol. Your new boyfriend, your new girlfriend can be an idol.

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Even your dreams, your ambitions can be an idol. Whenever it squeezes out God.

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Exodus 23 says it best. It says, you should have no other gods before me.

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I'm going to say it again. You say, you should have no other gods before me.

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Small case, if you feel like you're going to squeeze God out so you can go make

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that money, then you're thinking like, okay, I can do this on my own until you can't.

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Until you can't. You tithe and you give, and then God will make room for you.

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I was like, I'm going to tithe on this little check, and I'm going to believe

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God that I ain't got to work this hard.

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I'm not a lazy person, but I can find something better than them sucking me dry.

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I couldn't even sleep at night because you're off schedule because you're working too much.

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Right and so if that's you then you

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need to kind of realize maybe your job has be become

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an idol and maybe you're not trusting you're

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trusting in your boss to be your provider and he gonna squeeze you squeeze every

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little juice out of you so trust in God tithe off of that that money you have

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and then trust in him and I guarantee you God will show up in a big and mighty way but let's go,

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So God said, he said, ye, you shall know that God's before me.

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God commands us to worship him alone, not because he's controlling,

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but because he knows that nothing else can satisfy our souls.

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Idolatry leads to emptiness, but worshiping God leads to fulfillment. You know that to be true.

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You work this job, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

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You work this relationship, you work your ambitions. And when you get that goal,

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when you get that promotion, it feels empty.

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You know, the job that I was at gave me a raise really quick.

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And I said, oh, that's a nice raise, but it didn't fulfill me.

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It was like, no, it's still stealing my time.

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It's still stealing my time away from my God, away from the things he told me

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to do. Remember, if God has told you to do some things, he didn't change his mind.

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Those things still have to be done.

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I'm just going to keep going. So what are the golden calves in your life that

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competes with God for your devotion?

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I don't know. You better write that down. What are the golden calves in your

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life that competes with God for your devotion?

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Let's keep going. The consequences of idolatry.

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The loss of God. The loss of God's favor.

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Wow. The Israelites decided to create a golden calf had devastating consequences.

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Where are they? The loss of God's favor. We need God's favor.

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Favor is more valuable than cash, more net.

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God's anger burned against them, and Moses had to intercede to prevent their destruction.

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God says every knee will bow. When he says you should have no other gods before me, he means that.

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And so while you put in this job, this relationship, or your ambitions above

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God, Do not be surprised if they get lost,

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if God decides to snatch those away from you or allow the devil to steal,

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kill, and destroy those items.

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He says, you will not.

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He'll say, ye shall not. When God put that shawl in there, that shawl is what it shall be.

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I don't know why the phone rings in the middle of my podcast. Sorry about that.

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Next one. I have it on.

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All right. A loss of favor. Number two, broken relationship with God.

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Idolatry creates a barrier between us and God, disrupting the intimacy he desires

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with us. So you got a broken relationship.

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You got loss of God's favor. That's why you feel empty.

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That's why you feel empty. And number three, corporate impact.

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The actions of a few affect the entire community, resulting in judgment and loss.

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I'm just going to have to repeat this because I was interrupted by that phone

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call and I had to put it on mute.

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There we go. So Israelites' decision to create the golden calf had devastating consequences.

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Loss of God's favor, broke relationship with God, and that act,

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those people, remember, I don't think it was a whole crew, but it was enough

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people that interrupted their conversation.

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Make sure you read the Exodus story. God had to stop talking to Moses to say,

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Moses, go check on your people.

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Go check on your people. they're down there. They didn't just make a calf. They had an orgy.

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They had a party going on. As though Moses, as though they forgot the purpose

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of the, I call it the escape.

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The reason they left slavery was to go into the wilderness to worship the Lord.

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That was the whole purpose that God wanted to bring them into the wilderness so they can worship me.

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Let them go so that my people can worship me.

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When we get free from something that got maybe a bad relationship, a bad job,

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you got a new focus on transitioning from a new ambition that gives you more

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time to more peace, more space, it's for your time that you can worship the

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Lord, not to fill it with empty idol worship.

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Jonah 2a says, those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love

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for them. Jonah could talk.

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You know, Jonah has something to say because Jonah knew what happened.

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Jonah is supposed to go one way, he went another way, but he is up speaking into this one.

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He says, those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

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So you choose an idol over God's love.

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An idol that can't talk, see, can't do nothing.

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It moves when you move because it doesn't have legs, doesn't have arms,

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doesn't have a voice, doesn't have sight.

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I want a God that lives, breathes, and can move. Don't we want that?

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Idolatry doesn't just harm us. It causes us to turn away from the very source of love and life.

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How do we do that? How do we break free from idolatry? How do we stop playing

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this dangerous game of idolatry? Here we go.

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Identify your idols. Ask God to reveal anything in your life that's taking its place.

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Once again, Psalms 139.23 says it best. It says, search me, God, and know my heart.

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Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

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Surrender control. Trust God's timing and provision, even when it feels difficult.

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.

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And refocus your worship. Spend intentional time in prayer, worship,

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and the Word to keep God at the center of your life.

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Surrender control is trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your

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own understanding. That's found in Proverbs 3.5. Refocus your worship.

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Scripture, Psalms 95.6, it says, Come, let us bow down and worship.

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Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

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I went through that pretty fast. I'm going to slow it down just one more.

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Identify your idols. So ask God, Lord, what am I exalting above you?

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Number two, surrender control.

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Let go. Let go. I resigned from a job. I didn't know where I was going,

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but I knew I was leaving there. How about that?

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I knew I was getting out of that place, Lord. I want to do that.

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But before that, a Lord whispered in my ear.

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He said, I have a ram in the bush for you. And that was enough.

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Where's the ram? When am I going to see the ram? I really didn't care. The Lord saw my pain.

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He saw that I worked with excellence.

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You know, I did the job with excellence until the last day.

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I finished what I started.

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Only thing I didn't do is give a two-week notice because I didn't have two weeks

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to give. I was exhausted.

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And I ended well. And so I surrendered my control on what's next and let God do it.

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Number three, refocus your worship. Spend intentional time in prayer and worship

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in the word. Make that your center.

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That'll fill that empty hole. And I love the scripture. It says,

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come let us bow down in worship.

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Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

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Let's start over, start over fresh. Like I said in the first introduction.

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That God is ready for us to get serious about Him so that,

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serious about him so he can get serious about us. He's always been serious about

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us, but he wants to show off his children.

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You ever know how we dress up when we had that? When we, as our kids were young,

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we'd dress up our little boy and little girls in their little Easter suits,

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and we just want to show them off.

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And as they got older, we found different ways to show them off.

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God was ready to show us off, but we can't keep having these idols.

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He doesn't want to bless you and it becomes an idol.

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He doesn't want to do that. Can he trust you with a blessing without you turning

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it into a golden calf and then putting it as a worship to that thing instead of him?

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Can I hear an amen to that? So how do we do that?

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Let's declare some truth to refocus our worship on God.

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I decree that I will have no other God before the Lord.

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For he alone is worthy of my worship. I want to say that again.

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I decree that I will have no other gods before the Lord, for he alone is worthy of my worship.

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I decree that I would trust God's timing and resist the temptation to create my own solution.

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I think I got to say that again, because you know how we are.

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We like to create a plan B.

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God said, I am your plan. A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

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I decree that I will trust God's timing and resist the temptation to create my own solution.

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I decree that my heart belongs to God and I will worship him in spirit and in truth.

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What's your takeaway for today? I want you to reflect on an area in your life

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where idols may have crept in.

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Ask yourself, am I placing my trust in something other than God?

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How can I refocus my worship and devotion on Him?

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A challenge. Set aside 15 minutes each day to worship God without distraction.

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Use this time to reflect on His goodness and reaffirm your trust in Him.

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Let's close out in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank You.

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I thank You. I thank you for being the only one worthy of our worship,

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the only one worthy of our praise.

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Forgive us for the times we place other things above you in our hearts.

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Teach us to trust you fully and to wait on your timing.

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Help us to break free from the idols in our lives and to worship you in spirit and in truth.

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Or help us to not turn our blessings into idols, but to keep our focus on the

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provision of our blessings.

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And we trust in you, Lord God. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So good. Thank you for joining me on this episode. The games we play with God.

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Let's start playing with God, y'all.

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If today's message challenged you or encouraged you, Share it with someone who

00:23:12.273 --> 00:23:17.453
needs it and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we'll talk about

00:23:17.453 --> 00:23:20.953
game number seven, negotiating with God.

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Until next time, stay devoted, stay focused, and be blessed. Amen.