(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. All right, here we are in Joshua chapter 7. We see the story of Achan, and before I get started this morning, let me just say that, you know, the more, you know, there's this idea that, oh, you know, there's this Old Testament stuff, and then there's this New Testament stuff, and I've even heard people say, you know, as far as doctrines and things like that, that, oh, that's, that's in the Old Testament kind of thing. But what I want to show you this morning is how relevant the Old Testament actually is to our lives. And, you know, before I get, get started, I want to show you that, you know, the Old Testament is, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. I'm going to show you that this morning and how the Old Testament applies to your life, you know, and how, you know, the struggles that we have today, the mistakes that we make today are no different than the mistakes and the struggles that people in the Old Testament went through. You know, it's all the same thing, you know. This is going to be kind of a shotgun sermon, you know, this morning. I'm going to offend pretty much everyone, I'm pretty sure. But it's, it's equal opportunity offense, all right. So I'm, it's going to, it's going to get everybody. I was thinking about that when I wrote the sermon, but that's just the way it is. So don't feel like, oh, I'm offended. Well, you know, just wait. Somebody else is going to be offended a little bit later on, okay. So first of all, we're going to, we're seeing the story of Achan, but we're going to go and we're going to look at a few different stories in the Bible. So you say, go back to Joshua chapter 6. You say, what was the big deal, you know, with this, this whole story of Achan? I mean, the, the, the punishment was pretty severe, right. So what was the big deal? But look at Joshua chapter 6 and look at verse number 17. And the Bible says this, it says in Joshua 6 verse 17, just one chapter back, it says, and the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are into the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all that are within her house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. So of course, this is Jericho. This is where Rahab, you know, lived. This is the first city where, you know, they invaded the Holy Land, where they were coming to take possession of the land finally. And the Bible says that everything in that city was a curse of the Lord. And yea, in any wise, keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest you make yourselves accursed. And when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. So basically, what was accursed? Everything was accursed. Everything was accursed in that city. And if you touched it, you were accursed too. Okay. So, you know, you say, what were these things? Turn to Psalm 115. Turn to Psalm 115 and look at verse number four. So we see that these accursed things, you know, were the things that were in the city. And, you know, look, they became something to Achan that accursed him. All right. And in Psalm 115, the Bible says, you know, talking about the heathen, it says their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. So look, gold and silver here became Achan's idols. And that ended up destroying him and his whole family. So look, these idols that he, that he, you know, that took his heart away from the main purpose, they ended up cursing his family. You know, to touch the thing that was accursed, you became accursed, is the point of this story. Psalm 135, I'll just read it for you, verse 15, the Bible says, you can turn to Exodus chapter 20, the Bible says, the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. So look, idols, the first thing I want to show you this morning from the story of Achan, and then we'll go into some other stories, is that idols are more than just molten images. They are more than just, you know, gods that are made of gold and silver. They are things that take, you know, our attention away from God. You think about these people and moving into the Holy Land when they cross the Jordan River, you know, they had been waiting for 40 years or more to actually take possession of this land. And right away, this guy takes his heart off the actual gold that they're there, and he starts just accumulating wealth, he becomes focused on, you know, stuff, right? He becomes focused on, you know, the things that were in the city, the material possessions that were in the city. And God said that all those things in this case, were accursed. All right. But look, let's get back to the basics on idolatry. What was the reason against literal idols? Look at Exodus chapter 20, in verse number three, where the Bible says, you know, this is a well-known verse of the Ten Commandments, the Bible says, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is an earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I the Lord, and this is what I really want to focus on right here, I the Lord God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So look, we serve, I mean, the God is talking about not having other gods before you, lowercase G, he's talking about not making images of idols and literally worshiping those idols. But then we see this thing that God is a jealous God. We see that God is jealous towards us. We know that jealousy in the Bible is a good thing. Envy is a bad thing. So jealousy is when, you know, you are, you know, protective of something that's yours. And envy is when you're, you know, coveting something that does not belong to you. So the Bible says God is jealous, and rightfully so because look, you belong to him. You belong to him. You know, to the guy that thinks, you know, what do I owe God? You know, what do I owe God? I mean, to the unsaved person. You know, to the unsaved person that sits there and say, what do I owe God? Right? Well, I mean, he created you. He created, he not only created you and everyone that you know or ever have met or everything that you've ever seen and this universe that you live in, but he actually, you know, provided a way for you to have eternal life. I mean, that, so what do you owe God? Even to the unsaved person, everything is the answer. You owe God everything. And as a saved believer, you should know this, that you owe God everything. But look, most people, you know, you know, he justified you. Think of it. He created you and justified you, and he offers that to you for free. So what do you owe God? You know, everything. But most people don't even try to find out, you know, what they owe God or anything, right? No matter how, you couldn't justify yourself, no matter how hard you tried, most people won't try at all. But look, God, back to the point, God is jealous of you individually. So anything that takes your heart away from God, turn to Ezekiel chapter 14. You say you're just making some connection. No, turn to Ezekiel chapter 14. God is jealous. He's jealous for you. And in Ezekiel chapter 14, look at verse number one, the Bible says, now we could read verse and verse and verse and chapter and chapter on what I'm about to read you, but we've got a lot to get through here. Look at Ezekiel 14, verse number one, the Bible says, Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols, where? In their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face, should I be inquired of all by them. So look, idolatry can just simply be in your heart, something that takes your attention away from God. God wants, he requires your full attention, is what the Bible says, right? Now turn it back to Exodus and look at verse number 32. So anything that takes your heart off of the Lord can be considered an idol that you have in your heart. Okay. And look, here's, here's what I really you say, I've heard that before. But here's what I really want to get across this morning. Here's what I really want. You know, this is the worst part of it. Are you in Exodus chapter 30? Look at verse number 20. This is, of course, the story of the golden calf, they made a literal idol, and they worshipped it. Okay, so we can have idols in our heart. But these people made a literal idol. But it's the same concept. Because the idol, the physical idol, God is jealous because he wants us worshiping him, right? For the idol in our heart, God wants our full attention. It takes our heart off of him. It's the same thing. But look at what God did in verse number 20 of Exodus 32. As part of the punishment, we know many people died, and there was great punishment. But look at verse number 20. It says, and he took the calf, which they had made, this is Moses after he sees them worshiping the golden calf, and burnt it in the fire. So he didn't just burn it up. Read the rest of the verse. And he ground it into powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. So look, he ground up the idol, first of all. So the Lord will grind up your idols is the first thing I want to get across. All right? And it's interesting, though, that he used the idol itself to punish them. I mean, that's not an accident what happened right there. There's a lot of symbolism and things that we can learn from that verse. He literally, he cursed them with the idol that they left, they they used to leave him. I mean, he ground it up, and he made them drink it. I mean, that was on purpose. That was a specific command that God had, you know, Moses do. He cursed them with it. So you say, you know, I don't have a golden calf. I don't worship a molten image. But look, we're gonna look this morning, all that was just matter of introduction. We're gonna look this morning, turn to Luke chapter 14. We're gonna look this morning at modern-day idols. And we're gonna look at how we can apply this Old Testament theory to our modern-day idols, keeping in mind that God will still destroy those idols, and he will turn these idols that take our attention off of him into curses for us. Okay? And I'm gonna give you at the end, you know, I'm gonna give you something kind of interesting happened to me last night. I'm gonna give you, so if you get all offended, you know, from the sermon this morning, I'm gonna give you an example in my life that kind of ties all this together that just kind of popped up last night when I was talking to my wife. And I want, so look, I've been down this road. So I'm talking to you about things that I've seen and things that I've experienced this morning. Look at Luke chapter 14. Let's look at some idols that the Bible says that we will struggle with in our life. In Luke chapter 14, you know, we see Jesus making an example here. Look at verse number 16. And Jesus is giving an analogy here, and he says, So here we see these people that were, you know, we could apply this to salvation. We could apply this to just, you know, living the Christian life towards God. But we're gonna look at these three excuses, these three examples that Jesus is giving. and see how, you know, they apply to us today. All right? So look, what was the first excuse that the person made? He made this. He made, you know, I have bought a piece of ground, he said. You know, this is talking about, you know, creating idols of worldly possessions. You know, of things that, you know, making them, you know, your idols. Now look, this is a huge one. for me, because when I grew up, like, literal, literal land was a huge idol. When I grew up, even into my, you know, adult life, like, land, where I come from, is an idol that takes people their whole life, and they never get out of it. It becomes like, just how much land can you own? That that becomes the place where you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and you have to live, and that's the purpose of people's life. You know, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, you know, just comparing other people to other people, oh, he only owns 600 acres of land. Yeah. I'm serious. Oh, you know, because it becomes how much you can accumulate, how much land you have in the land atlas, is what becomes the definition of people's lives, common, where I come from. You say, that sounds weird, but look, how many acres of land that you can accumulate, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter two. Ecclesiastes chapter two, and I've seen this part too. I've seen those type of people completely cursed by that philosophy. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two, and look at verse number four. This is Solomon talking about, you know, the things that he's accumulated in Ecclesiastes chapter two. Look at verse number four. He says, I made me great works. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in all of them, of all kind of fruits. I made me pools of water, to water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house. Also, I had great possessions of great and small cattle, above all that were in Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and gold, and a peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women singers. Look, he's talking. He's saying even, like, any kind of treasure that anybody treasured anywhere. If it wasn't even gold and silver, he's like, I got that stuff too. He had the power to basically bring anything, any stuff, any material possessions that he ever wanted, that anyone on the earth could actually even think of, to bring to himself. He says, so I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. So here's the thing. I mean, you ever heard about, like, you know, keeping up with the Joneses? You know, when we lived in Texas, we moved to Texas, and it was huge there. It was this thing where, you know, people lived in these huge houses, and it was all about people would, we literally knew people that would move into a huge house, and right away, they would just start talking about the next neighborhood that they wanted to move into. They didn't even enjoy the things that they had. You know, I mean, they, so look, Solomon played the keeping up with the Joneses game, and he won. I mean, he won. He won the game that none of us will ever win. I mean, he literally says here, he says, he increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. So he was the richest, he was the smartest, everything. He won the game. So what did it get him? Look at verse number 18. Look, God cursed him with this goal of his life. God cursed him with it. Look, he literally is saying, I hate the way I spent my life. He's an old man here. He's saying, I hate the way that I prosecuted my life. He was trying to get joy, he was trying to get happiness, and that joy never came. And also, the next generation, we know because we have the Bible, the next generation was cursed, all was lost in the next generation. I have seen that so many times, personally. They accumulate all this land and all these possessions, and they leave it to the next generation, and it's gone in a few years. It's the same. If you, so if you think, man, and I've met this person too. I used to kind of be sort of this person. If you think, oh man, if I could only just get to this point, and then, you know, I'll be satisfied, and then, you know, I'll be able to do all these good things for the Lord, if I could just get right here, at that point, you know, it won't be an idol to me, and then, at that point, I'll start serving the Lord, and doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Look, that joy will never come. That line will, you'll never get there. You will either never get there, or you will never realize you've gotten there. Because it will never be enough. You know, if my bank account could just hit this mark, I'll be happy. You know, accumulating wealth, all of it. You know, I mean, look, is it bad to save money? No. If it becomes an idol, meaning, what do I mean by that? If it gets between you and the Lord, God's gonna destroy it. God's gonna grind it up, and make you drink it through a straw. We serve a jealous God. So it takes, look, it takes some maturity to, you know, live a responsible life, save some money, and not let that become an idol to you. That takes some maturity, right? You always have to remember that God wants your undivided attention, period. Alright? So don't get caught up in what everybody else is caught up in, because that's all anybody else in the world cares about, is how much you can accumulate, and the unsaved, especially. The unsaved, I mean, I'm a little shocked, actually, that as I get, you know, into my 40s, and I'm a little shocked that when I see people my age, that people haven't actually thought about their life, to the point where they're like, you know what, what's the point of this life? What do I want to do with my life, other than just, you know, have a good time and make a bunch of money? That's all anyone cares about. Go back to Luke chapter 14. So we see that your possessions can become an idol. We need to be careful. Let's look at the second thing. The guy that has, in Luke number, Luke chapter 14, in verse number 19. The Bible says this, it says, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. So it's not that he has the yoke of oxen that were his idol, but he wants to go and use them. And I pray thee, have me excused. Look, he's saying, I can't go because I've got work to do, is what he's saying. Now look, we're talking about the career or the work that's getting in the way of serving the Lord. Now look, we've got some men that work hard in this church, and that's great. That's what we want to be. But once again, we see that there's a line here that if your work becomes an idol to you, or your career becomes an idol to you, where it gets in the way of you and the Lord, you know, that's going to be a problem. So look, you are to have a job, you are to work, you are to support your family. But look, you can take it too seriously. I'm not saying, you know, no time for family, no time for church. There's no time for anything other than work. I've also been this guy. Look, nothing lifts a man up like when some things are going well in his work life. So you need to guard yourself here. There is nothing that will get you instantly prideful than when you go off to work and you have some success at work and things like that. And look at how awesome I am. Nothing will lift a man up like that. But look, it also exposes you to worldly influences because we're out to be out to work. We're out in the world that can make things worse. So don't make God grind up your work life and feed it to you. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 32. Let's look at a man whose success destroyed him. Remember Hezekiah? We just talked about him a couple weeks ago. Remember the Assyrians after they took over the northern kingdom of Israel? You know, they came in and Hezekiah, you know, was all stressed. He comes out, you know, Rabsheka, you know, was saying we're going to take over, you know, you as well. But look, and then after that to make things worse, he gets sick, like sick unto death. This guy's in a bad way. But look at 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and look at verse number 27. So basically he gets sick and, you know, the Assyrians are there and then they leave and then God, you know, saves him from them. He gets sick. He asks Isaiah. You know, he just has this humble prayer to Isaiah, ask God to, you know, extend my life. And God says, I'm going to give you another 15 years. He says, I'm going to give you another 15 years of life because he came and he had such a humble prayer. But look at 2 Chronicles chapter 32. This is after that. Look at verse 27. The Bible says, And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor, and he made himself treasures for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and for all manner of pleasant jewels. Storehouses also for the increase of corn, wine and oil and stalls for all manner of beasts and coats for flocks. Moreover, he provided him cities and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him substance very much. This same Hezekiah also stopped under the watercourse of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David and Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Like everything he's doing is just working. I mean, he's building all these cities for all his stuff. And I mean, everything that he's doing, like, look, there's times in your life where you may just be working and working and working and nothing's, nothing's turning out. But there's also going to be times when you go to work and things, I mean, things just start just working for you. And that's what was happening with Hezekiah. God was just putting things together for him. But why was God doing that? Look at verse 31. So here, these princes of Babylon hear about the works of this guy's hands and the success that this king of Judah is having. This is after the Assyrians were killed by God and sent back home. And he's having all these successes. These princes of Babylon, they come down to check it all out. Say, hey, what's going on? And look, the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him that he might know all that was in where? In his heart. Go back to 2 Kings chapter 20. Because look, after the Assyrians and the sickness passed, let's look at who, you go to 2 Kings chapter 20 and I'm going to read 2 Kings chapter 19 verse 19. This is who Hezekiah said he would be if God would save him from these situations. In 2 Kings 19, just go ahead and turn there. And look at verse 19. Let's look at it together. Look what Hezekiah says he will do if God gets him out of this mess that he's in. He says this in 2 Kings 19 verse 19. Yet, so he says, if you save me from the Assyrians, why should you save us, God, so that way we can show everybody and tell everybody that you're the Lord? Is what he says he will do. But look at 2 Kings 20 verse 12. And this is what he actually does. In verse 12 of 2 Kings 20, the Bible says, King of Babylon sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious ointment, all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. So look, these guys come there and what does he do? He just shows them how awesome he is. He just shows them, look at all this stuff that I have. I mean, is that telling them who the Lord our God is? No, he was tested and he failed. Because look, your flesh will love the praise of men. You men need to realize this. When you're out in the world and you're having some success, and maybe you're good at what you do at some point, which you should get good at what you do. But don't start loving the praise of men to where all you want to do is just show your storehouses and show your knowledge and show your wisdom and show all your stuff. Because all of your success and your skill, that all came from the Lord. Hezekiah was given all this and then he was tested and he failed. Look down at verse number 14. of Second Kings chapter 20. This is what happens. This is what will happen if that happens to you. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto King Hezekiah and said unto him, What said these men? And from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. Isaiah knows what happened. Isaiah knows the test that was given and the results of that test. And he said, What have they seen in thine house? He's like, What did you show them? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in my house they have seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. And he basically tells them, he's like, but you know, you didn't tell them about me. You didn't tell them about the Lord. And he basically tells them, you know, you showed them what was in your heart. And then he says, You know what? They're going to own it all. Is what happens. Isaiah tells Hezekiah that the people that he was bragging to and the praise that he loved, you know, from these people when he should have been, you know, focused on God in the heart that he turned to this all his success in his work is like those people that you showed all your things that's going to turn into a curse for you. And they are going to own it all. And they are the ones that end up taking over Babylon. Period. Go back to Luke chapter 14. So don't start. Don't take the success that God has given you and start, you know, loving the praise that people because look, it's not you. It's not you that created that success because look, you can work hard in your life. And God can bless that work or he cannot bless that work. I've been in both places. I've been in places where I was just working my tail off doing all the right things. Things just weren't working. But I've also been to the place where it's like, hey, you know, I'm still working hard and I'm still doing things, but I'm focused in the right direction. Also, this stuff's just kind of working for some reason. But it's God that does that. It's God that puts things together for you. So keep your heart in the right place. Or you know what? The people whose praise that you love other than God, you know, that's going to become a curse to you. Let's look at the last. The last excuse that they give in Luke chapter 14. Look at verse number 20. And the Bible says this and it says in another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So this guy can't go because you know, his wife, his family, right? His family, his wife is this guy's idol is who's taken his heart off of the Lord. Country, country, family, God, God, family, whatever. Look, you better get this order right. It's super important that you get this order right. It is God, family, country. That's the order. Look, these people that get these things, it could cost you your family. If you're saved and you get this order wrong, this could cost you your family. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look, family's a good thing. Don't get me wrong. As long as it doesn't get in the way of your heart towards the Lord. Okay? Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Look at verse number 17. The Bible says this, it says, wherefore come out from among them and be he separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. Remember Achan? Where it said, keep yourselves from the accursed thing. Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? Kind of sounds like it's the same thing. It's interesting that the language is similar. It's interesting that people think today that yes, I need to be separate. You know, I need to separate my children from public school, from this worldview that's being taught out here. Yet, they'll expose them constantly to family or cousins. I mean, that was huge in my family. It's probably huge in yours too. I'm just guessing. But look, turn to Luke chapter 12. Let's see what, I mean, they'll expose them to family members who will push the same worldview on them. Yet, with everybody else, we have different standards for some reason. You know, world bad unless they're related to us. Right? Well, let's see what Jesus said. Look at Luke chapter 12. Now these are some hard sayings here. Okay? These are some hard sayings. And look, I have been down this road, so I will say whatever I want. Because I have been down this road, and I have knocked this wall down myself. Is it easy? Who cares? That's where I'm at. And that's where I've been. So don't sit here and look at me and say, oh, you know, easy for you to say. No, I've done it. I have done it. Look at Luke chapter 12. Let's see what Jesus says. For from henceforth there shall be five in one household divided, three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father. That doesn't sound very good. I mean, a dad being against his son. I mean, that doesn't sound good. Does that sound fun? I mean, what's that going to do for the, you know, the Christmas Day celebration? Right? The mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the son. The daughter against the mother. The mother-in-law against, I mean, stop it. I mean, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Turn to Luke 14, just a couple chapters over. Now, this one's even, it gets even worse. You say, that sounds bad. That sounds ugly. That's not going to make for a good Thanksgiving dinner. Look at Luke 14 and verse 26. He's not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and even his life also. He cannot be my disciple. Wow. What in the world? But here's what's interesting. I mean, what, I have to hate my own father? What? Here's what's interesting. Luke 14 comes after Luke chapter 12. Did you know that? 12, 13, 14. If your family is completely on board with your Christian life and your standards, is there going to be any division? Is there? No. But look, there wouldn't be any division at all in that case. But Jesus is saying, that's not going to be the case all the time. As a matter of fact, the majority of the time, that's not going to be the case. I mean, how many people are saved? Soul winners? Few. So, how do I know? I mean, so when he's saying this, he's like, look, if there's division, that means that your heart still needs to be in the right place. Not there. Not there. Not with your father and mother. Not with your family. If there's division, your heart needs to stay the same. Otherwise, that's going to get between you and God. And now, we're in danger territory. Look, you say, how do I know if it's a problem? You know, well, here's how you know. Like, we don't believe in situational ethics here. Meaning that if drinking is wrong, it's wrong everywhere. If, you know, the language people use is wrong, it's wrong everywhere. Meaning television, media in general, if you think it's wrong, you know, in certain cases, it's wrong everywhere. So, you know, if they don't agree with the life you live, look out, because they'll be trying to influence your family. The cousins, don't get me started on the cousins. I mean, why in the world, okay, just think of it this way. Why would you pull your kids from public school, pull your kids out of the influence of all these otherworldly kids that are going to be pushing all this garbage and fornication and drugs and alcohol and all these different lifestyles? And just the worldview that's not the Bible worldview. Why would you separate from all that and then let them go out and play in the neighborhood after school with all the kids that just got out of school? Why would you, you know, separate them in the school environment and then let them just go out in the evenings and play with all the neighborhood kids? What sense does that make? Yet if they're cousins, it's no problem. See what I mean? Oh, we're related. So no problem. Hey, the cousins, those are the neighborhood kids. If there's division. And you'll be shocked at how early they start to influence your kids. You'll be shocked. Start injecting doubt into what you're teaching your kids at home. The adults will do it too. But the kids are even worse. Because it's subtle. It's subtle with kids dealing with kids and oh, they get to do this and we don't get to do that. Hmm. It's very subtle. So look, how do you do it? How do you do it? If it's a problem, if there's division, how do you do it? It's very simple. I'm going to give you a two-step plan right here. Alright? Here's what you do. You sit down with your husband or your wife or whatever you see. You sit down and you define what your standards are. Sit down, get a notebook, define what your standards are. That's step one. I mean, you should be able to do that. You should be able to know if you have children. Look, if you have children and you don't know what your standards are, that means you don't have any standards. So you just define what your standards are. That's step one. And then number two, you just compare all family situations to said standards. It's binary. You know what that means? It's a one or a zero. It's not gray. It's yes or no. Because if you start injecting situational ethics into your kids, here's what happens. They're going to start to think, okay, I come to church and I hear this preaching and my parents teach me the Bible and we do all these things. Oh, but this is how it really works. You see what I'm saying? There was this big mandate. Everyone has to wear a mask. Even when you're taking a shower, you have to wear a mask. All this stuff. So you have to wear a mask everywhere all the time. But I was interested in going to work. Okay, is everyone really going to do this? And no one really wears a mask. So it's kind of nice because it's not really taken seriously. That's what you'll do. That's what you'll do. You'll be like, oh, we have all these standards. We have all these things that the Bible teaches and this is the reason we do it. But here's what we really do. Here's what's really important. This is how it really works. Look, the one foot in, the one toe in, the three toes in and seven toes out. We've tried it all. The only thing that works is right off like a Band-Aid. Please, I've done it. I've been there. I've done it wrong. I've done it wrong a little bit better than that. The only thing that works is the Band-Aid method. That's it. And here's the thing. Here's the big one. You're going to offend people. You are going to offend people. I mean, don't try to offend people. But when you tell people, hey, you know, we can't come to that because this is just our standards. You know, whatever you guys want to do is fine. You know, don't be like, the Bible says in Leviticus that, nah, nah, nah, nah. No, not like that. But look, you could be as nice as possible and you should be as nice as possible. But when you just lay out your standards to people, people are going to get offended. It's just going to happen. I wish it didn't happen. I wish it didn't. And actually, when it did happen to us, I was surprised. Look, I didn't have somebody telling me like, I'm telling you right now, that people are going to be offended. I wish somebody would have told me because I could have at least been ready for it. But I'm telling you now. People are going to be offended. And, you know, it's a sad thing that you're going to offend some people and those people are related to you. Brothers, sisters, parents, the whole thing. Been there, done it, all of it. But it's just, you just sit down, you define your standards. And you compare these situations to your standards. It's that simple. It's black and white. Does God have a gray zone? God doesn't have a gray zone. You shouldn't either. Or, your family will become an idol to you. Your family will get between you and God. Your family, and you know what? And I'm going to tell you, God will judge you with it. God will judge you with it. And my wife is my family. So look, last night, so we see here, I mean, those are some pretty decent categories there. We got, you know, anything that gets in between you and the Lord, even in your heart, God will consider an idol and he'll curse you with that idol. He will use your idols. He's jealous. I mean, he's jealous of you, for you. He wants your full attention. He wants your full attention. So we see that it could be land, it could be work, it could be work. It could be career. It could be your own family. But look, last night, for some odd reason, I went to an old YouTube channel that I had. And I don't spend time on YouTube, but I did last night. That's why it's odd. So I went to this old YouTube channel and I had, you know, like hunting videos when Garrett was small. And I had like some power plant stuff on there. And I had all kinds of sheep stuff on there, like stuff from the farm. Right? I was pretty set up. I was sending people videos of certain animals, you know, that I could, you know, I was running a business, right? And I still have those videos out there and I started watching that stuff. And, you know, I was thinking when I was watching that stuff, it's like, how can I, how can I make you all understand? Because I don't think you all really understand, actually. Like what, you know, do you know that we tried to move into, we moved to Sacramento in 2016? We tried to move in 2013. That's three years earlier. I tried to move to a couple different places. But you know what I did? I applied for all these awesome jobs. And I'm like, you know what, if I get like the CEO job, I'll move. If I get this huge job, then I'll move. Nothing panned out. Think about it, three years. That's three years of my life. Three years. Gone. Just like that. I mean, I'm watching these videos last night and I went over and I told my wife, because I'm watching these videos at the farm and I'm seeing everything. I'm seeing all the panels, I'm seeing all the fences, I'm seeing all the buildings. And I'm like, I built all that. I built all that. And let me tell you something, when I built something, I built it for the next generations. I built it, it lasted 60 years. So I didn't, I mean, the business, the whole thing, I'm just looking at, oh, I can't, I literally told my wife, I can't believe that I did all that. And my stomach sank. I'm watching it and my stomach sank. And you say, why, do you regret? No, my stomach sank because when I listened to myself talking on those videos and I looked at all that stuff, I saw a man walking along the edge of a cliff. I was walking along the edge of a cliff. And it could have cost me everything. Because I know, look, success. Would I have had success? Maybe. Would my career have worked out? Probably, maybe, I don't know. It would have cost me with it. I would have destroyed my family. Because guess what? We had no church. We went to a church. Limited spiritual life. My wife and kids went to church a lot by themselves on Wednesday night. I got too much work to do. I had no respect for the pastor. He was lazy. I had no spiritual life. There was no soul wedding. Never got one person saved. Do you think I didn't offend people? Do you think I didn't offend people after I spent years building that place with my own two hands and people saw me do it? People were offended. I had my own jewel of my family that I had rebuilt with these hands to move to California. Are you crazy? You know how mad people were? They thought I lost my mind. They thought I went nuts. It's not like I spent a year there. I spent years of life in labor there. Everyone in my family, on this side of my family, they worshiped that place. And so did I. I was brought up since I was this tall to worship that place. Then I had the privilege of being the one to rebuild it and restore it. This is my thinking when I was doing it. And it would have cost me everything. It would have cost me my children. Because I know how they would have turned out. Because I'm watching the cousins, how they turn out. But then just another worldly situation that plays out the same way. So of all that, when I'm watching that, and I'm like, man, all that. Best move I ever made. Thank God for having mercy on me. Look, ultimately, to take my energy and my time. I told my wife when we finally decided to move. Look, in 2013, it's like if I get this and I get that and I get this, I got tested then. I got tested then. But those things didn't pan out. I told my wife when we moved in 2016, I'm looking at house prices, I'm looking at prices in Sacramento, and I'm just assuming that I'm going to lose everything. That's where I was at. I assumed that I would lose everything. And I told my wife, I don't think that we'll be able to afford a two bedroom apartment in Sacramento. And she said, I don't care. I'm 39 years old and I'm ready to shake the extra sketch and just start over. That's where I was at. That's where you need to be. But guess what? That's where I was at. God never required it of me. I quit my job and I didn't even have a job. I never thought I would be that type of person. That's who you need to be. God never required it of me. God blessed me like crazy. I don't even know what I'm doing. I have a job. I have a house. But I don't care. I don't care about those things. This is my business. You are my career. This is my energy here. Get your heart focused in the right direction. And it's all or nothing. Or it won't work. You gotta be willing to give everything up. What else can I say? I've done it all. I've shaken the extra sketch. That's what you need to do. Because anything, please listen to me, anything that gets in between you and God, God's gonna rip it down. Because he's jealous. He's jealous for you. He's jealous for you. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.