5 September 2021 | Quick Fix: Surprised by an Idol

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so hey good morning everyone welcome welcome yes it's sunday morning so glad everyone's here to worship here in the building we're also glad people are here joining online uh let's all stand together as we go to the lord and worship and let's sing with our full hearts [Music] when all i see is the mountain you as i see through the shadows your love surrounds me there's nothing to fear [Music] with my hands lifted high oh god the battle belongs to you and every fear i lay at your feet i'll sing through the night oh god the battle belongs to [Music] and if you are foreign [Music] for jesus [Music] when all i see is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'll sing [Music] you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadow you win every battle nothing can stand against the power of almighty god [Music] you go before us nothing can stand against [Music] [Applause] one more [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he's [Music] the bible says this is the day the lord has made i will rejoice upgrade where we are today no matter what your circumstance there's always something on the forth that we can pray for this is the day [Music] that you have made whatever comes i won't complain all my hope is in your name and now your joy awaits my [Music] love is a failing for what i am [Music] you are my god faithfulness [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] and as we lift our hands the heavens open [Music] our lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah we are grateful for all that you've done for us lord we thank you for your faithfulness we thank you that you are here in this place god we thank you that we can sing today is the day that you have made god we can be grateful we can rejoice and be glad in that god where i thank you that we can just be here and be blessed by each other's voices by the truth of your word and by the truth of hearing each other proclaim your word in our own ears god i pray that you would just receive our praise in this place god we thank you for your presence we thank you that you are here god we thank you for sending jesus that we might be grateful to pay the price for our sin thank you in jesus name amen [Music] my sin nothing but the blood of jesus what can [Music] nothing but the blood of jesus for my pardon for my pardon this i see nothing but the blood of jesus for my cleansing this might be nothing but the blood of jesus is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] makes me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] please [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] nothing but the [Music] amen let's all pray together [Music] god we thank you so much thank you so much for the blood of jesus that we just sang about lord we know that in christ we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of god's grace and god i thank you for that grace that you sent jesus to dwell among us to live with us to do ministry with his disciples and the people around him and to give his life ultimately as a sacrifice for us that we can experience such beautiful mercy and grace that we can live this new life according to that sacrifice and so god as we think about that truth as we think about what that means for us that there's nothing but the blood of jesus that can save us there's nothing but the blood of jesus that we can depend on to give us new life and to fill us completely so god i pray right now as we think about those words as we think about the message that we'll hear today that we would remember that truth we would remember the sacrifice that christ made for us that we can live so god we give you this time today we give you this day and we give you our worship in jesus name that we pray amen amen well good morning again uh before you have a seat why don't you turn to a neighbor say hi to someone greet them maybe wave if you're online in the chat on youtube you can go ahead and say hi to everyone in the chat meet a new friend get an email address something like that [Music] welcome again i'm tim i'm one of the pastors here at island ecc and we want to welcome you here to the church here on sunday we're really glad that you're here with us and if you couldn't tell as you walked in you may have noticed a few changes in the room we are beginning a brand new series called quick fix and this is going to be a lot of fun this is a big series that we're really excited about because this is looking at in kind of a fun and creative way the idea about how sometimes we look for quick fixes in life to really feel deep deep needs sometimes we go for the counterfeit option rather than the true option which is god and so this is a way that we're going to kind of look at these ideas and have a little fun with it but we want it to be very memorable for everyone and what we're going to start next week is when you walk in you're going to get a little souvenir a little gift and these things are to kind of help you think about the series as we move on as we go through each idea as we go through each topic you can have something to remember the series by every day when you're walking through the city now another way we want you to remember this series and an even deeper way is with our quick fix study guide now this is really really great for everybody in the church especially if you're in a care group uh you can your care group leader probably already has a bunch of these for you but this is a study guide that will go through each sermon each each topic and dig really deep into each topic throughout the week so you'll hear it on sunday you can talk about it a little bit more with your care group now if you're not in a care group feel free to grab a bunch of these and get some friends and say hey let's let's go through this quick fix study guide together so we can really dig deeper into these topics that we'll be looking into another way to kind of keep the conversation going and we're really excited about especially for our folks who are joining online is that we're changing up our dem summary after service conversation we're going to be calling it quick summary for the next few weeks and this is something that we started back in our covid lockdown days when we were online only we have kind of a after service conversation with some dim sum which is really cool so if you're able to catch that online you know what i'm talking about but now we're actually going to be doing it live on the second floor so we have more room for people to join if you'd like and the prayer and the hope one day is that we can all have dim sum for everyone uh but that's we're holding on for that for later we can't do that just yet so quick summary will be right after the service here on the 11 or at the 11 30 service it'll be right on the second floor if you'd like to join here if you're online just hang out we'll be we'll see you in a little while after that uh so a lot of great things a lot of exciting things for this series uh we're really happy about now we want to let you know about some stuff that's happening too uh a lot of different uh opportunities for you and one thing you can do is you can go on our what's happening page and see all the details that we have for stuff but a big one that we want to highlight is a new conference coming up it's a faith and work conference it's called purpose versus paycheck and this is a idea that we're looking at with this conference uh that it really helps us to think about how does my work life balance with my faith life are you kind of thinking maybe sometimes do my work and faith you know kind of go together do they connect or how can i live out my faith while i'm at work or how do i live life a christ-like life whenever i'm dealing with stresses at work maybe some ethical issues or politics or even your work-life balance and and how to kind of live that out the best way possible and so this is a really good idea for anyone who works which is most of us here to kind of figure out how to live your faith out and your job and to see how am i how am i contributing to god's kingdom with the work that i do so this is coming up on october 9th it's a saturday you can sign up or you can actually get your tickets today if you go to our what's happening page you can go see the information and find out all the details and actually get your tickets for it as soon as possible you can do that we're joining with some other churches with this conference so it'll be really really great but again all of those details are on the what's happening page now some more stuff that's happening especially in the fall which we love to do is we kick off all of our ministry events there's a lot of things that are happening last week we looked at all the family events that are happening and we're going to keep doing that over the next few weeks as we look at our church and this campaign we're calling we're the church because we have every age every demographic in this church and so we want to be able to minister to each one and today we're going to take a really special look at our women's ministry as we keep going into the church as we are the church so let's invite shirley and quan up on stage here in a minute and let's get going with we're the church here we go [Music] all right we are women and we're the church these two ladies right here are leading our women's ministry and we know quan and shirley very well but maybe we don't know them as deeply as we want to so you've probably seen them around over the years but we want to get to know these ladies a little bit better before we talk about what's happening in our women's ministry and so what we've done is we have done a deep dive into their facebook profiles and stalked them over the last week and we've gone and we found some photos that were on their profile that they have no idea what we're gonna show okay and we're gonna show these photos and we're gonna say hey what's up with this tell us more about these photos okay are you guys ready okay now you guys know this is the second service right we did other photos in the first service these are all new so this is not this is not staged okay so here we go let's take a look at the first one we have oh so tell us more about who's that guy that is alex my better half and this was actually on an amazing trip on the river nile before covet went crazy it was you know such a gift when we look back and you know we were in our i don't know what you call it but uh uh yeah it was a beautiful mountain it's beautiful yeah it's beautiful and then we went diving to in the red sea can you imagine i couldn't believe when we were diving i'm thinking moses may have walked past this sand you know did you see his footsteps at all no metaphorically in my spirit i did gotcha okay great all right shirley you ready okay okay let's see what we got here tell us more oh i actually i remember this yes so we have a bunch of durian lover among the staff team so we have this durian party on the second floor um and this is a my amazing team katie and quan and we uh it's so good this is actually a quick requirement to be a team you know be a part of the women's ministry no i'm just joking you have to love your i'm just joking here but uh it's amazing photo the durians is so good it's bought by pasta albert and quan so uh yeah join us if you love durian yeah and this was last year and i believe you can still smell the durian on the second floor right yeah it's still there last night durian it's awesome all the shut down yes okay quan one more for you let's see what we got oh look at that yes that that was me attending a cheap pal making class and this is the very first chi pao that i made recently and i i love sewing because my mom and dad were both uh tailors and dress makers and i've i know how to sew but i never know how to sew a chi pao i really wanted to kind of really hone my my skill and do something different that's beautiful yeah that's really you should lean a you should leave a class for us i know well and this is what i could do when i retire right but you're never going to retire because women's ministry stuff is happening okay all right uh surely for you let's see what else we got okay so tell us a little more about this this looks like a progression oh this is uh a floor living room where um my care group used to meet um lol the character is called love the lord ll and my amazing sister here rachel we're practicing worship and we just put a camera there and just just i'm so grateful that we took this photo it's a really good memory that we had really fun time and great time together and she's also my bright maze yeah very dear sister yes that's great well sisters uh you guys are awesome sisters yourselves so tell us a little bit more about what's exciting with the women's ministry right now what's exciting yeah jesus does no always the answer always the answer no seriously seriously as as we have um lent in leaned in into you know who jesus said he is um we have we have found that he truly is the answer and the good news of god is the answer to all the different questions of life that we have you know and that's what keeps the girls coming back time and time again you know that and the sisterhood i you know i don't know whether you know but uh the the village is actually an umbrella over a wednesday gathering thursday mom's group and you know midweek bible studies and i've just seen in the past year that that sisterhood just blooming and flourishing and not just in the um meetings when we get together but actually outside of it you know through uh cookery classes celebrating birthdays prayer over zoom um you know play dates and all that and and it is really shown uh how that true friendship that deep authentic realness of of connecting with one another is you know faith and life integrated yeah and isn't that what we all long for right and this is how god made us to be too to have that raw and redemptive community that we are part of and that is what we we do that is what we do as we come come together and yeah uh we're so excited for more of that this coming season yeah awesome can you tell shirley can you tell us more about the sisterhood so one thing that is very unique about the sisterhood is diversity so last year we uh study uh we went on the study and go we went through a study and we were asked how our community reflects the kingdom of god and at the village whether it's in mom's group or various bible study or at the village gathering we are actually gathering women's of all ages different ethnicity group and different background life stages but we all gather for this one reason the name of jesus and isn't that wonderful and you know when we gather it's we also want to create the space where it's okay to be not okay and it's safe we can be vulnerable and as a place where sister come together and encourage each other to just dive deep to lean into and to desire to know more about jesus and to know jesus in a more intimate and personal way so come join us even though you don't love durian but we don't do that in the village gathering or mom's group but come join us because we do see that you know there's a place for you and come to be known and understood and heard and seen yes and so you know whether you're a seeker you don't have to be a believer whether you're a seeker you have all kinds of questions that you know you don't know what the answers are and that's what we welcome you know or you're a believer and still have a lot of questions that you don't understand that's what we're looking for come lean in join us the sisterhood and god jesus is waiting for you yes yes amen yes thank you guys so much really appreciate it thank you um our ladies we're the church and we're so excited that we get to celebrate all these different ministries that will be launching and so if you'd like any more information about our women's ministry you can check our website and our women's section also you can look at the what's happening page to see everything that's happening there too so we're really excited about that and we're also really excited about the sermon series so let's all get ready for quick fix [Music] [Music] don't you need this [Music] [Music] what you need the quick fix quick fix [Applause] [Music] oh such pressure to dance now my goodness wow hey it's great to see everybody here uh you know this is a long awaited sermon series uh this is what we kind of call a souvenir series where we kind of pull out all the stops right we don't dance every week we don't do this kind of backstage every time but once a year we've done a souvenir series and we hand out little souvenirs to people kind of as a way to remember what you've heard on sunday and take it into your life so come back next week for those and this has been planned i think it was a year and a half ago but because of covid we pushed it back pushed it back so there's a lot of pent up energy if you cannot tell but this is a series called quick fix and uh we named it that because um we are going to be talking over the next few weeks about the idolatrous ways in which we we settle for something less than what god actually has for us we we settle for a quick fix rather than the deep and abiding presence of god in our lives uh so we are prone to this right here immediate gratification right in a world that is increasingly convenient and fast-paced where microwaves not only heat our food in seconds we expect to get results in seconds as well and the the idea of long-suffering or persistence or grit sometimes is evasive immediate gratification comes in the form of impulsive buying some people call it retail therapy right i'll just buy something to make myself feel good uh it comes in the form of junk food it comes in the form of procrastination uh i'll just put things off to hard things off and do the things that i love now so a quick fix when you drop in to 7-eleven because you're hungry and you grab some snack some food it it satisfies you for a moment right but it doesn't satisfy you well it rarely has nutritional value to it and in a similar way spiritually speaking we are prone to settle for quick fixes rather than the real nutritional abiding presence of christ we can unwittingly settle for counterfeit idols that pop up in our lives and so that's what we're going to be looking at our worst behaviors are not simply bad choices i mean they are bad choices but they're not just that that our worst behaviors before there was that bad choice to say those words or do that thing or retaliate in that way there was something stirring within us there was a deep need within a need to be vindicated a need to be relieved a need to seek pleasure or comfort there was a deeper need within us a motive that existed that drew you into making that irrational um consequential choice right that led to that behavior and we're gonna say it's idolatry uh not idolatry like you typically think of it but idolatry nonetheless i like de tocqueville's um definition of idolatry he says this that it's taking some incomplete joy of this world and building your entire life on it taking an incomplete joy something that god has established to give you joy but making that supreme making that um the culmination of your life the thing that you pursue above all others saint augustine called this disordered loves disordered loves this idea that you can love a lot of things but if you get the order out out of place the proportions wrong that this disordered way of living life will will lead you to inevitable deep disappointment you know we talk about this word a lot around here first right seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you matthew 6 33 our address is 6 33 kings road if you know one verse please know this first lok samsam in one day right thank you flawless cantonese [Applause] after 10 years i could say the address of the church in multiple languages seek first the kingdom of god it has the sense of of priority doesn't it this ability discern what is first and second and third and to get the order right see left to our own we would pursue things out of order we would seek first our career our family our security our finances we would seek other things first but in order to not have disordered loves in order to not concede idolatrous living as a necessary path it requires some scrutiny it requires some honest reflection upon our lives so that that seek first advice that god gives us becomes actually our way of living it's difficult though because as john calvin says our hearts are idle factories think about that image is it deep within you that you and i are constantly churning out different forms of idols of things to worship things that grab our attention shiny aspects of life that that garner up all of our motivation and affection it's what we worship you know when we worship we think of images like these of people gathered in public worship or personal private worship a variety of different faiths but worship is actually what it is that you serve whatever you serve is in effect what you worship now i hope that you worship today in church that you worship the one true god not just in song or prayer but in in all of who you are that you worship him because not doing that actually leads us to places that are that are not good for us you know the first of the ten commandments says this you shall have no other gods before me and if we're reading a list of those ten commandments most of us run right by that and give ourselves a check right do you think no i'm a christian i have the right god the multiple choice selection i chose the right one i don't have any other gods but but you know the reality is is that apart from other genuine faiths that exist most of us create god's all the time things that we serve things that we give our souls to oftentimes most of the time without even our awareness listen to what martin luther has to say about this first and greatest commandment in the list of those ten commandments you shall have no other gods before me luther says this where the heart is rightly set toward god and this commandment is observed all the other commandments follow so the first commandment is to shine and give its splendor to all the others therefore you must let this declaration run through all the commandments see he would go on to say that you do not break any of the other commandments without first breaking the first commandment for example you shall not lie he would say if you lie you are doing it for a reason and you are doing it to serve a purpose greater than serving god you you fabricate something so that you look good that you create a narrative or an image in other people's minds about who you are so you fudge the truth you exaggerate you lie and in so doing you break the first commandment to not serve any other gods you serve yourself instead all the other commandments he says fall under this the greatest one to have no other gods before the one true god so with that being said we could say then that idolatry is the fundamental root of all of our sins and all of our problems we don't often think of it in those terms because we think of idols as as physical god-like statues that are created that sit on a shelf or sit in a temple but but used in a bigger sense idols we can say or are anything that is more fundamental than god is more fundamental than god to your happiness to your meaning in life to your identity that anything that comes in there and kind of nudges god out and speaks louder to these issues is is an idol see often idols are taking good things and turning them into ultimate things so it's not just um idolizing something that's obviously bad but something like family something like career like education like your appearance like all of those things are good you should manage you should do well with all of these things but to exalt those things to kind of an ultimate level is to take a good thing and turn it into an ultimate thing now as you rack your brain to try to figure out where are idols in your life uh it might help to remember this that if you lose a good thing then you're sad about it but if you lose an ultimate thing you're devastated see that thing has been so definitive at your very core as to who you are as as to your success in life about how you feel about yourself if it's taken root and taken over and become ultimate then if it's gone you're devastated you are simply ripped apart i'm gonna give you some good news and some bad news about idols okay the first is this that idols are powerless to deliver they simply will not deliver to whom then will you liken god or what likeness compare with him an idol a craftsman cast it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for it silver chains he who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move an idol that is inanimate an idea that is powerless an object of worship that simply cannot produce that cannot in this case move it's why tim keller says this an idol will always break your heart because no created thing can bear the freight of your deepest hopes or the weight of your soul's longings and so to discover idols in our lives to unmask them for what they are and to replace them with the one true god this is not a process that should bring about shame or defensiveness it is a liberating process to identify uncover and then replace because idols they don't work they don't satisfy like a quick fix it fills you up it gives you a dopamine hit for a moment but then is gone and yet god all along is saying do not settle for counterfeit idols they are powerless to deliver but they are powerful to deceive idols seduce our hearts when we look at these old testament passages in most cases uh we're looking at actual physical objects of idols but for you and me this this remains more of a of an uh an object of our affection a fanciful imagination a daydream that you have uh idols seduce our hearts in ezekiel it says this son of man these men have taken their idols into their hearts and they've set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces god says that i may lay hold of the hearts of the house of israel who were all estranged from me through their idols idols are seductive and the result of being seduced by these shiny things is that they they im enslave us as well they take our hearts and they estrange us from god and they enslave our wills see i am convinced that that this is an unnecessary series for us as i encounter christians in the journey struggling to make sense of their faith integrate their what they believe with the the seven day week that they enjoy there's so often this expressed disappointment or sense of lack i thought it would be more now in reality it's what living this side of heaven is about it's the already and the not yet this this tastes that we have of what it will be that leaves us suspicious or at least wandering wondering why it's not more there is this foretaste that will only be fulfilled when we are face to face with christ there is a longing but but apart from that that we all have oftentimes there is a disappointment that need not be there there is a lack that need not remain that way and i i think that it can be remedied by us discovering what it is that we're worshiping without even knowing it apart from god because see these idols they enslave us and they estrange us from god and so if we do not identify dismantle and replace them in our lives we are left then to this perfunctory performance of religious ritual instead of this intimate and dynamic faith with god in jeremiah it says this do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry but you said it is no use i love foreign gods and i must go after them idols are attractive frankly we wouldn't pursue them we wouldn't build our life around them if they weren't seductive and attractive but then when it's too late we realize that i must pursue that i know nothing else that this thing must be a part of my life idols demand our dependents they woo us in with a counterfeit message reward us just enough to keep us there and then demand our dependence in isaiah he says this from the rest he makes a god as idol he bows down to it and worships he prays to it and he says save me you are my god not only what you're thinking right now but i assume you're thinking this is irrelevant to me because i'm really not doing that i come to church and i say god you are my god but nowhere else do i say that right you have not gathered the family around and sat down and bowed down before them and said you family or my god you've not sat in the lobby of that massive building where you worked and you've not bowed down and said you hsbc oh my god you haven't obviously done these things and so you would might conclude not applicable write a big in a across this whole sermon and and miss the the nuance that i think is required of each person to realize okay i'm i'm not saying it but maybe i'm living like it maybe my emotions betray me maybe the inordinate amount of anxiety i have about this thing or that thing exposes actually that i am enslaved to this good thing that i have made an ultimate thing romans chapter 1 if you want a homework assignment read romans 1 this week it's a great description about this this narrative of all of mankind of all of history and kind of what we have done the apostle paul writes this he says they have exchanged the truth about god for a lie and they have worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator is that that is our tendency sometimes easily observable and sometimes more subtle and insidious but nonetheless to exchange the truth about god for a lie the truth that god is sufficient that god completes that god is the source of all good things that he is the joy giver that's truth to substitute would say god i like that but in case you're not providing the joy i need when i want i'll provide some of my own feel free to bless it feel free to join in but i'm going to worship not just you but i'm going to worship other things as well they exchanged the truth of god for a lie and they worshipped and served the creature see whatever you serve is what you worship they always come together it's a package deal whatever you serve you worship whatever you worship you should serve that these are not separate categories and so what we give our lives our emotion our resources what we give our enthusiasm to what we serve really reveals what it is that we are worshiping or about to worship when we think of idols we're going to think about them in two different categories one we'll call near idols near idols would be more obvious things right maybe your career your spouse your family relationships a hobby that you have addictions that have taken a bigger hole in your life these would be things that maybe you could see and name or at least others could see in you and could name but what we're going to do is take it another level instead of just trying to manage our behaviors we're going to say there's something far more important and that is to not just identify and dismantle these but to say why did you get here what what truth about god did you relegate and substitute for a lie that led you then to have idolatrous relationships with otherwise good things and that would take us to not near idols but what we'll call far idols and that looks deeper that's where we get a little squirmy and uncomfortable it's that reflection therapy-like session that makes you look within but the unexamined life is not worth living and so we're going to examine life together and we're going to look at these far idols motivations like comfort power approval and control this will outline the the messages in the coming weeks to go deeper into each one of these and help you in your journey to uncover unmask dismantle and replace these things with a proper proportion because idols always disappoint comfort power approval and control when i was a young kid i mean young so two three maybe i was the oldest of three children and my mom was able to stay at home and raise us she wasn't working outside of the home and so she was able to give great amount of attention to each of us but especially me because i was the oldest when there were no other siblings and she just had me you know as many parents with their firstborn you you pour a disproportional amount of energy and attention into raising that child right you definitely slack off later and become more balanced but that first child right is the guinea pig child like you try all the new things and that's what they did and i remember my mom i would sit in her lap she was at the kitchen table she would open up the newspaper remember those and she would point to numbers and teach me numbers and prices of things 1.23 cents and i remember she also had this map a map of the united states and she would teach me to be able to identify by shape the name of each of the 50 states now california texas florida easy but to take it up a notch find south dakota or delaware and remember which one is iowa and idaho everybody gets those confused but i would master this over time and it would become a party trick of sorts friends would come over aunts and uncles would gather around the map would come out and i would point to 50 states i remember my aunt was a high school physical education teacher and at one time she took me to her class with high school kids where she would teach them pe right and she would have me do push-ups now i know just by looking you're thinking he does a lot of push-ups all the time so i don't want to be obvious but when you're four it's a little easier to push up those 40 pounds than it is the 140 that i am now [Laughter] but i remember being in that classroom doing push-ups around all those high school students who were just massive figures to me as they applauded i thought wow i can get approval i can get people to like you just have to learn what they want to see you have to either just name the states or do some push-ups and then people respond and i go to school and i remember in the second grade i had a student teacher you know a student teacher right you have your main teacher but then there would be a college student studying education whose part of their internship was to be a student teacher and so this student teacher is probably 22 comes into the class and i'm like seven i guess and i was in love and she was too i have to i think it was mutual and i can remember becoming increasingly obsessed with this woman and raising my hand when i really didn't need help just to kind of get her to come over thinking about what day was she going to be there what should i wear on that day performing for her right in my little seven-year-old mind impressing this woman but see in each of those instances there was something that was formed in me because this teacher would at the end of the year write a note probably to every kid but i want to believe it was just me and in this note she wrote if ever i have a little boy i hope he is just like you right i was like of course you do what's not to love so whether it was naming the states for my parents friends or doing push-ups for my aunt's classroom or getting the attention and affection of my second grade teacher a pattern developed a pattern that would be tried and true and tested for decades to come that you simply have to do this read the room know who the people are what they like what they want and give it to them and then watch them applaud and watch them say good job wow i wish my kid was like you use manners say yes ma'am no ma'am thank you please be courteous open the door pull out the chair eat all your food say what a wonderful meal do all the right things jump through the hoops just learn what those hoops are and at the end the reward is certain and it's gratifying it's approval it's approval and as time goes maturity sets in if not dealt with that thing that started perhaps early in life takes on different forms but it also grows increasingly strong and deep so much so that you can't even distinguish when it's playing a role in your life because it is your life it's how life is lived and many of us give ourselves over to deeply seated patterns of idolatrous behavior planted by innocent even good events of child rearing events in our backgrounds patterns that we learned that became appetites that were insatiable and then fought with and often pushed aside a devotion to god himself believing i must have and if god threatens any of those or if we believe that he can't come in and provide them in a permanent way we will then routinely go back to the patterns we've known to the ways that we have practiced and we will worship counterfeit remedies counterfeit approaches to life that leave us shallow that leave us wanting that leave us curious bitter disappointed all because we were worshiping something never intended to bring us the stability the comfort the purpose that god does this can be really revolutionary in each of our lives see nobody changes bad habits just by trying oh you might change it for a moment or a week but in order to change a bad habit a bad thought pattern bad behavior it's going to require way more than just grit and self-control it's going to require looking back at the why why do i do that why do i respond that way why does that evoke such emotion in me why is that fear so prevalent to look honestly into the depths of who we are and to see what lies we've allowed to replace the truth of who god is and to courageously look at it name it dismantle it and move on i love what this scottish pastor says the heart is so constituted that the only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one that means that it's not enough to say yeah approval is idolatrous in my life or comfort is really what i worship that's a start but just to name that is enough it must be replaced with a greater love with something not counterfeit but true romans 12 familiar verses to many but here the apostle paul says this therefore i urge you i beg you i plead with you brothers and sisters in view of god's mercy in light of the gospel of grace by understanding who god is and what he has done in view of his mercy i urge you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god a living sacrifice that phrase it would have jarred the first century reader perhaps our familiarity with it causes us to rush on by but a sacrifice by definition dies right but here paul says no you filled with the spirit of god are to live your life in a way that you make yourself a living sacrifice that means that it's not a switch that you turn on or off but as a living sacrifice you have to keep coming before god offering yourself to him writing your thoughts and putting to death these things that threaten your singular obedience and affections toward him and paul will say this this is true it's not a lie this is true and this is proper not counterfeit not quick fix this is true and this is proper worship as we keep coming and putting ourselves on an altar and then finding ourselves crawling off because we're still alive we get back up on that altar and say god again i surrender god again i confess god again i thank you god again i worship god again i serve because you are the one true living god father we're so grateful for your word we're so grateful that your spirit is alive and at work in each one of us and i pray for everybody hearing this today god that you would convict us as needed and that you would comfort us as needed as well god that your spirit would truly help us to discern and to understand where it is that we have bought into a narrative that is ultimately destructive in our own souls that discourages us and convinces us that we simply must have a certain thing when in the end it cannot and it will not satisfy god we come before the one true god the waymaker we come before you the one true god the one who has fulfilled your promises the god who will never leave or forsake us the god that remains faithful even when we are faithless that you remain faithful and we thank you and we pray in the powerful name of jesus who died so we could live amen amen as we stand we have a chance to respond and really sing as an act of worship and declare that nothing is better than you i searched the world it couldn't fill me man's empty praise treasures their faith are never enough you came along put me back together [Music] every desire is now satisfied here in your life oh there's nothing [Music] nothing is better than you i'm not afraid to show you my weakness my failures and flaws lord you've seen them all but you still call me [Music] [Applause] [Music] your mercy and grace [Music] is [Music] [Music] nothing is [Music] to dancing [Music] you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're [Music] you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares [Music] you're the only [Music] you're the only one [Music] nothing is [Music] there's nothing better [Music] is [Music] you're the only [Music] you turn bones into [Music] you're the only one who cares [Music] amen what a what a great day to kind of stop and think about this whole concept of idols and the things that are in our lives that are really impulses that really kind of uh distract us from god as we're just saying you know we we searched the world but it couldn't fill us man's man's empty praise treasures that fade you know all these things that are around us and and i really think if you if you pay attention this week and i'm sure you will for the next few weeks as we go through this series you're you'll begin to see how much is out there that's trying to distract you from god or distract you from what would really fill us and complete us and so uh as we go through this series keep thinking about these near and far idols that we have in our lives and we're going to really dig into the far ones as we keep going and explore those ideas but this is something that's so powerful in all of us and we're all susceptible to it so that's why the bible teaches us it's why the bible tells us how to to live our life and to to not fall for these things um so today is a day that we also have prayer after service there's a lot of things going on but we really do want to focus on prayer uh here after the service if you have anything that's kind of stirred in your heart or anything that you feel like you need to be prayed for or prayed with someone please feel free to come and do that we have volunteers up at the front you'll notice them by their jackets and so please come up forward to pray if or if you'd like to just sit in your seat and pray for a little while after the service feel free to do that as well if you're online and would like to pray you can go and fill out a prayer request and we'd be happy to pray for you there too but as we wrap up today let me pray for us as we walk out god we thank you so much for this great day lord i thank you for um the the ideas that we've heard and the challenges that we've been given to think about uh these idols that are in our lives the things that distract us the things that don't fill us the things that get in the way and i pray as we really pay attention to those that we would understand that they don't they aren't good that they don't give us anything that we need that you are the only thing that can the only thing that will the only thing that does complete our lives god i thank you for this church that has been so faithful to to come and to worship together and to to hear from your word and i pray as we walk out today that we would go into the city and shine light to those around us and show love to those around us supernaturally that gets them curious about what it is that we have in our lives that we are so faithful to so god we we thank you for this day i thank you for this this fun way of looking at a very serious topic that we can um know that there's no quick fixes in life that can fill us only you can so we give you this day lord we pray all this in jesus name amen amen have a great sunday and we'll see you next week [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey church hello everybody online we are here for quick summary we just finished the service we're still on stage which is really fun uh and i'm here with pastor brett who you just heard from and we are going to talk a little bit uh before we kick into the second floor in just a little while but uh what a fun sermon series right a good way to kick things off i think yeah it's great to see the energy in the room and the the props and extra energy i think all the staff have put into it yeah like you said uh a very serious subject but kind of a lighthearted easy to digest uh way to get us thinking about these categories yeah how long have we been planning this series you know i think it was supposed to be spring of 20 yeah uh a year and a half ago uh so the last time we did a souvenir series was a year before that yes so it's been two and a half years since we've done this and so we're back yeah we're back so for those of you who don't know we call it the souvenir series because every week except for this week you'll get a little souvenir to take home and so you can collect all five and you know it's it's kind of funny with the quick fix series we're kind of talking about not being lured by products like come back for more more products give our products but don't don't worship them of course of course yeah of course of course um you know i was thinking about you know you have uh one of our plex here um can you show look at all the first of all look at all the fun stuff that we have back here which is kind of fun if you're you're not here the staging you see on the on the on the stage here is also replicated throughout the building and so you see any uh prop up stores that happen throughout and there's products like this one that is looks like a legit product until you read it real close this is approval quality and it is addictive uh sliced and sweetened pineapples right our creative team did a fantastic job of of taking old empty cans and and making new products for them just to kind of get everybody thinking about these uh these aspects of faith and we're always trying to integrate faith into the the everyday nessible's lives and so we all go shopping we all run in 7-eleven you know we all eat junk food every now and then but to try to link that to our spiritual life and and help us to think about the deeper truths yeah even while we're shopping yes absolutely and if you if you get a chance to come here see this you'll notice that a lot of these brands are a little off they're a little bit different than what you expect because there are our kwik's brand of products which are kind of getting us to help think about the idea of all these quick fixes these these idols that are in our life and they're kind of everywhere so i hope you're online if you can make it to the first or second or tenth floor we'd love to have you here and come and do that um so just thinking about your message i loved all the quotes the tim keller quote i love the scripture all of it was was really good is there anything that kind of you wish that maybe if you had i don't know one more minute about five more five more minutes what could you say what would you want to add well i think my heart and my prayer is that you know the word idols most of us just give ourselves a pass we don't we don't think we have idols in our lives or we use it in a favorable sense like american idol is the one that has the best voice you know and you're my idol and um but it's spiritually speaking it's quite insidious and and very serious and so my hope is that people won't just be entertained and think about idols in other people's lives but really you know take it to heart and uh thus sharing my own story uh in a way to hopefully get people thinking along those categories but i think one thing i would share is the two greatest ways to identify idols in your life is uh to one is to identify your nightmare like what is like the worst thing that could happen if you lost something what would you be devastated by uh and and then the other would be to look at your your worst emotions like what are the what are the triggers that you have that bring out the deepest emotions in you that probably points to something that you hold really tightly and maybe too tightly and that might help you in in diagnosing what your your idols are so yeah a couple things there that's great and it really helps as we think about the series what are your nightmares you know what are your fears and why why are we holding on to those so much and maybe not focusing on god so we're going to talk more about this sermon right now here on the second floor so we're going to go over to pastor eric and kevin up on the second floor with the quick summary they get the food we don't you guys have fun all right good to see you guys [Music] [Music] all right hey everyone welcome we have made it you've made it digitally to the second floor guys hey everybody some friends this is cat good to see you guys deep thunder over here um you guys got something extra we didn't get because we were getting ready up here i saw that uh pastor tim and pastor brett were just talking and so um we're hoping that they dropped some good stuff always nuggets of wisdom from those two absolutely yeah well speaking of nuggets of wisdom we're gonna get some good things i think we have some special packages here today you are throwing that okay this is what we're having today whoa do you know what this is [Music] ricey substance it's very close yeah sticky rice with meat inside yeah one of my favs like the don't don't take my uh pronunciation yeah similar yeah so as you can tell we've switched up dim summary a little bit into quick summary and we've even done that with our food in fact so much so that our sponsor 711 actually not our sponsor but if they want to pay for this segment they can uh we still need to make some of it because this is quick summary so we can make it quick now as i do this i'll pop it in the microwave uh how many of you guys 40 seconds that's good to know how many of your meals have come from 7-eleven in your life just like this it's a little embarrassing but i've been doing this life transformation recently so i haven't had this food in quite a long time so i'm really looking forward to this wait are we leading you into temptation you might be this this could be a past idol actually oh really well i mean quick fix if i'm running to get something i'll go and get actually the term one you know for 7-eleven with like the sesame sauce uh-huh and that would be like a quick snack that i would have um but i have stayed away for the last 10 weeks that's so good now yeah wow for you guys i will because we always say we're method pastors i feel like we should be method dim summers when i saw this i was like man brought me back to the good old days like drinking this all the time yeah like going to 7-eleven this was like you could only get this at the glass bottles with the glass bottles that's so good well hey uh we're following the chat here we hope you guys uh really enjoyed our new series hey welcome to you guys hanging what's up guys around here we got the live audience online in life they're coming some yeah but we're calling it a live audience anyway how awesome was the new series we had the dance the song the jingles so much going on so much going on yeah actually right before we jumped on you were calling out one thing you loved about the labels all the labels because from far away it looks like a regular frosted flakes box right that is actually something else and the ramen was something else so make sure you go in and check really closely because they've done a really great job do you remember some of the labels that you saw i think the ramen was power right and there was like a washington liquid that was like ultra comfort oh yeah that's so smart so smart guys as we chatted i may have overcooked it a little bit there wasn't a 40-second uh option option and then i got so just the enriching conversation just drew me in yeah so great new series um what is some of the stuff you guys are going to call out online that just stood out to you they loved us we walked through the message today yeah yeah i think someone like definitely when a pastor brett was talking about some of the idols the far ones and the near ones i'm like man like the newer ones yeah i can relate to some of them i'm a mom i have three kids i feel like the majority of my time is with my kids and i can definitely you know kids are good right they're great from god they are there's verses and stuff right arrows and your quiver all of that but you know i think if i put too much attention and too much focus oftentimes they can become you know i just want to control everything right and actually i see my son my eldest one he's actually in the audience right now oh this got awkward huh yeah i'm looking ahead to those four things and i think we're doing what you you guys were doing as we listen to the messages just trying to diagnose okay well what are my idols and this is like super hard because usually it's something good yep and uh usually that's the thing you're not self aware about um so what is yours well i don't know i'm just the perfect actually as we went through that list like pastor brett talked about approval that i don't feel like that was it for me but yeah somewhere between us we learn about uh control yeah um maybe we just stop on that one like i realized um did you bring that the the study guide study guide i can go run and get it no it's okay leon was messaging messing you can download that you can do it with a group we were peeking ahead to what's this week's uh study guide care group study and one of the opening questions is about like in adolescence like what did you use as a quick fix yeah it got me thinking about what in my childhood led me to need control and i had flashbacks to my dad going through this thing called a drive-through and whatever you ordered 10 minutes ago had to stick as the answer because he would panic and there was a 15 year old making minimum wage who he didn't want to disrupt and for some reason that got to me and we had rules in my house like hey you've already hung out with friends this week so you can't go to this other thing and so this idea of control my life needs to make sense right it doesn't have to be ordered but if it's out order it better makes sense why so one question that oh no what is a drive-through oh what is a drive-through you don't get out of your car you drive through order what you want two minutes later hong kong to be honest we really really do there's nowhere to park to do that that would be great okay someone take that and run with that yes for sure but i could tell from a young age why i'm like i need things to be controlled because the things that were out of control didn't make sense to me right so i stick on that what about you the question the warm-up question in the devotional guide that we want you guys to use is uh think back to your adolescence or an earlier stage in life what was a quick fix you used in your attempt to overcome a problem or difficult solution so type in the chat um a maybe an instance when you felt like you used a quick fix so i don't know like if i can identify like one of the four root or far idles but one of the quick fixes i used when i was growing up in school was something called spark notes have you guys like cole's notes huh what's kohl's notes that's the canadian version of sparks oh it's the same as pink it's the same as pink monkey pink that's what i would say okay it was the cheap site we're from all different places okay so if you're listening this is the way you cheat on your book reports right but we would always have to write a book record and i would never read actually the first book i finished reading was in college my third year in college i finally finished hunger games but up until then fire games college you said college college third year in college i was 21 years old yeah i finished my first chapter book and that was hunger games but up until then i read spark notes yeah which are like summaries of books and then i would use that for my book report what about books of the bible uh pastor kevin yeah was that still 21 yeah maybe later than that [Laughter] salvation comes at different times you're each one of us yeah anyway i had a friend in high school her quick fix was she would literally pretend to faint anytime she entered an awkward conversation or something she didn't want to answer and it carla gibson this goes out to you literally just mid-conversation like if you ask me something on air that i want to answer she would just go like this she just pass out and she would just hang there until you walked away oh she would knock him in that was a quick fix i mean not adolescence but i could see some trends following along definitely when i was a teenager there's a lot of shows i like to watch but now binging korean dramas is why so many i mean i watch multiple series at the same time because they all come out on different days yeah so instead of you know finding why i need to have this quick fix i just continue binging my korean dramas so let's let's do a deep dive on that like okay let's do it whoa um binging binging korean dramas right um why do why do you do that i mean the people are so beautiful the story lines are so captivating it's really hard to turn away i mean who doesn't and i'm really impressed that you actually pronounced his name correctly yeah yeah yeah his advertisements all over hong kong they're all possible i mean but he is definitely my favorite korean star anyway so beautiful people they're beautiful people but i think maybe it's an escape is your husband here he's a beautiful person he's also standing in the audience shout out to mike okay so let's take uh korean drama tennis or whatever right because these are the questions i'm asking is like i'm obviously not going to be aware of maybe what my idols are right and so uh you know pastor brett may have mentioned like an elbow never saves anyone but it may help them become self-aware i was thinking i may need someone just to be like hey um this is it how i'm wondering what process we go through these things in our life that are so good and understand is this just a good thing we love or pursue or is this thing that has transitioned into something more right from something good to something ultimate so uh drama tennis yeah how do we let's say like these people surround their family or friends after service and they want to talk about this what kind of questions can we ask to kind of know is this thing well i think the the question that pastor pastor brett brought up was if you um lose it are you sad or are you devastated i think that's just like a hypothetical you run in your mind right i think you said with your kid right like if you lose your kid man devastating right but if i lose tennis i guess i'd be sad no maybe okay so maybe that okay here's here's how you do this mental gymnastic thing because is it actually tennis or is it because if i don't play tennis i don't care but if i'm losing in the sport of tennis then i'm devastated okay so then that's when you start to ana it's not the sport itself it's it's winning it's winning and it's victory right yeah that's tied into something maybe reputation management reputation management holy cow no i don't know i mean your wife's a counselor so i can tell you so maybe my reputation but i i think that i like winning because of the sense of feeling like i'm better than someone else yeah which then is i think rooted in my desire to appear maybe appear or be more powerful than someone else to know that there's a whole class of people in that class but a whole group of people groups deep seated worse at the sport than i am yeah right so then i guess my root idol is power right can i come full circle here yeah because i'm trying to analyze a good friend and also see myself it's not about playing tennis if it didn't exist you'd be fine it's about winning that almost in itself is a quick fix and i say that because so much in life that we try hard at takes a long time you don't get like talk about raising kids or your career there's not all these instant you did it you succeeded that looks good i used to love mowing the grass growing up because it was like progress revealed instantly and i wonder if you know as you meet with your counselor this week or go on date night with your life counselor if that's i i wonder if because that is satisfying to me an instant you did it right or you're progressing right there's something there's a scoreboard literally in tennis yeah and we don't have that in life right okay i'm going to write that down because i want to think about steven calvary says calderev is so real to his life i like his mentality he also yeah right and you know like i literally we're just having this conversation now and as we talk we're able to help each other ask different questions right and i think that's the whole point of the study guide and if i said oh my my thing is power or control i only mainly know that surface level so these guys who love me yeah willing to speak into that right um can ask good questions from a different point of view and the power but don't do it that's just an idea not right now we'll do this off camera but i feel like the power of community is that right like you're walking with people who love you who know you and can you know lovingly speak into areas that you might not see like blind sides that you might not see right so so important so i'm excited for this study as we we're in the same care group so this is going to happen live on wednesday so we're starting this conversation early we're in the sanctuary group so yeah so you can't avoid the question like um why haven't been in those k drummers why yeah like yeah you know what i think it's a place for me to escape you know from the busyness of life and i think all day i try to control and manage and coordinate um but i just need a break at the end of the day so it's not necessarily a bad thing i think if i you know watch six episodes a night and i sleep at three that's probably not a good thing i haven't done that in a long time just to clarify that's awesome it's like watching six movies right yeah that's what i'm really interested from this week and diving in as you guys dive in to find out okay what are those secondary the third level questions to help diagnose right what's good because that's good on itself yeah having some place to mentally check out is good now what are those questions we can develop to say okay now we know why you do it right the day is is hard and you get in there and you just want to to veg yes but you know i don't know what questions you know we might come up with as we do this as a group but in thinking through okay well what point does it become unhealthy is it about when it replaces something else you should be doing or when it's not choosing not to connect or choosing when it's avoiding so those are the questions that i think a group is going to be so helpful that you take around and you diagnose everyone's problems i'm feeling funny already no this is life but lovingly lovingly yeah that's good i think that's that's the power of community that we talked about absolutely um and and honestly so encourage you guys checking in from new places every time eddie you said shanghai bernard joining from toronto danny in macau uh who who was it daisy i wrote down day 19 of quentin oh wow and i could sense you at the end hang in there you have two days to now figure out your idols and um and then come out a new person yeah free and that's that's what we hope phil chen saw you on your exercise bike and quarantine watching service keep it up buddy yeah that's good um but i think that's our heart and we're going to be back here next week we're going to come with some of those second third level conversations and we want to hear about yours that happened throughout this week as we start examining our idols yes hey so if again maybe maybe you got this announcement maybe you didn't or you missed it but these are available to you online as well just go to you they can download the pdf right yeah honor what's happening or our church app is there make sure you guys take the take the week or you're processing through these things also you know pastor brett is going to be doing a devotional on wednesdays he's been doing that and these devotionals will be about these idols so you want to check it out because this is a whole whole person process right you can't just flick on a switch yep it's not a quick it's not a quick fix oh my gosh you know i think we got to keep telling ourselves that yeah that's actually not what we're going for that's right it's not a quick fix that's why we're taking six weeks to walk through it so we love you guys thank you for joining leanne thanks for for helping us process and moderate this whole thing um stay safe and quarantine stay healthy those of you who are scattered around the world in the diaspora of island acc we love you thanks for joining in and for all you guys who joined us here on the second floor thank you all we love you and uh we'll see you next quick summary bye everybody [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you've ever been a little tired when you need to be awake if you found some hair growing in an awkward place if your pet chameleon has escaped without a trace maybe you could use a little quick fix if you can't remember where you left your keys and phone if you're at a party and you'd rather be at home if you suffer from a broken heart or broken bone maybe you could use a little quick fix everyone scary you deserve a quick fix even if it's only temporary [Music] if you think going to the gym is all it takes to make you strong and it should happen in the time it takes to sing a song then you should try the antidote that doesn't take too long maybe you could use a little quick fix everybody wants a little quick fix don't you think you need a little quick fix [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Island ECC

Views: 3,321

Rating: 4.9322033 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: SNqdwh1kkCM

Length: 110min 35sec (6635 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021