Introduction:
God's Final Word on Religion (Isaiah 44:6-20):
- There is absolutely No One Like Him (Isaiah 44:6-8)
- Idolatry is absolutely Destructive . (Isaiah 44:9-20)
- Because it leads to Nothing But Shame (Isaiah 44:9-11)
John 14:6 - “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Because it is the Height of Self-Deception (Isaiah 44:12-20)
- Because it leads to Nothing But Shame (Isaiah 44:9-11)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:28-01:37
All right, as we get started this morning, I want you to take 30 seconds to turn to someone next to you and tell them about your worst restaurant experience.
01:37-01:40
And I'm gonna share my worst restaurant experience with you.
01:40-01:42
All right, go, I'm gonna time you.
01:46-01:48
All right, time's up, time's up.
01:49-01:51
If you have a really good one, you can share it with me before you leave later.
01:52-02:00
All right, so eight years ago, my family was at a restaurant in Cranberry that is now closed for, maybe it'll be evident in a few minutes why it is now closed.
02:01-02:04
But to be honest, our dining experience was awesome at first.
02:05-02:15
The waiter was friendly, the appetizers were great, we had no complaints with the main courses, but then things took a sharp turn in the wrong direction whenever dessert was served.
02:15-02:23
We ordered this massive slice of chocolate cake that was supposedly delicious and could feed two to three people, so I was really excited about it.
02:23-02:27
And it arrives and it looks even better than I imagined it in my mind.
02:27-02:31
You could tell it has the perfect your cake to frosting ratio.
02:31-02:34
You can tell it's not gonna be chewy or dry.
02:34-02:37
And my family always makes fun of me for diving into desserts first.
02:37-02:39
So I let them kind of take a few bites first.
02:40-02:47
And then I took a massive chunk, I put it in my mouth and I immediately know that something is wrong.
02:48-02:54
I can sense something solid that tastes strangely metallic in my mouth.
02:54-02:59
So I immediately pumped the brakes on my chewing and I pull out the foreign object.
03:00-03:01
Do you wanna know what it was?
03:02-03:03
We actually have a picture of what it was.
03:05-03:07
It was a tack in my cake.
03:08-03:10
You all sound as surprised as I was.
03:11-03:17
So we call the waiter over to show him this instrument of death, almost scraped its way down my throat.
03:18-03:25
And his response was, "Oh, well, we don't bake the cakes "here, we have them delivered from somewhere else." Oh, that changes everything.
03:25-03:29
Suddenly I feel so much better about almost eating this tack.
03:30-03:36
And if memory serves me correct, I don't think they even comp this our entire meal, which is surprising because I could have been hospitalized.
03:36-03:39
I could have sued them if I wanted to.
03:41-03:44
At this point in the message, you might be thinking, "Okay, Taylor, I'm so glad that you're okay.
03:45-03:53
"I'm so glad that your throat is intact "to share this story about the tack cake, "but what's the point?" Rich, there's that pun for you.
03:53-03:54
I don't know if anybody else got it.
03:54-03:56
I put that pun just there for you, Rich.
03:57-04:05
I was thinking this past week that the lives of Satan are very much like that slice of chocolate cake that I had years ago.
04:06-04:18
His lies look appealing on the outside, and they may even taste great for a short while, but eventually you will bite down on that sharp edge of consequence and wish that you had refused his service.
04:19-04:26
Buying into the deception of our enemy brings immediate pleasure, but it leads to destruction in the long run.
04:27-04:29
This is certainly true when it comes to religion.
04:29-04:44
For thousands of years, Satan has had a field day leading billions and billions of people astray to make up new religions, to worship false gods, and to worship themselves rather than the one who created them.
04:45-04:51
He serves up this delicious-looking slice of religious cake that is filled with a deadly poison.
04:52-04:55
And the only antidote is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
04:57-05:00
We're in the second week of our new series called, Did God Really Say?
05:01-05:09
In which we're unpacking the different important doctrines and scriptural realities that Satan constantly tries to attack and undermine.
05:11-05:25
As he did in the Garden of Eden, Satan slithers into our lives to whisper questions of doubt into our mind so that we will doubt in the goodness and the trustworthiness of God.
05:26-05:31
Last week, we answered the question, did God really say that his word can be trusted?
05:32-05:40
And this morning, we're gonna turn our attention to the question, did God really say that every other religion is wrong?
05:40-05:44
Did God really say there's only one way of salvation?
05:44-05:49
Did God really say there's only one way personal relationship with him?
05:50-05:57
This is a really important question because your eternal destiny hinges on how you answer this question.
05:59-06:09
So let's open our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 44, verses six through eight, so we can fix our eyes on how God himself answers this question.
06:10-06:17
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last.
06:17-06:20
Besides me there is no God who is like me.
06:21-06:24
Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set up before me.
06:24-06:30
Since I appointed an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen.
06:31-06:32
Fear not, nor be afraid.
06:33-06:35
Haven't I told you from old and declared it?
06:35-06:37
And you are my witnesses.
06:38-06:39
Is there a God besides me?
06:40-06:43
There is no rock, I know not any.
06:44-06:48
So our outline for this morning is God's final word on religion.
06:49-06:52
Number one, there is absolutely no one like him.
06:53-06:55
There is absolutely no one like him.
06:59-07:09
So before we unpack the verses we just read, I'm gonna quickly give you the background of Isaiah so that we can fully understand the impact of what the Lord says about himself.
07:10-07:13
At this point in history, Israel is divided up into two kingdoms.
07:13-07:17
There's Israel to the north and Judah to the south.
07:18-07:20
And God's people are rebelling against him.
07:21-07:22
They are rejecting his leadership.
07:22-07:27
They are worshiping the false gods of other nations, and God cannot let this stand.
07:27-07:33
So as a consequence, he has the Assyrians come and invade Israel and take them into captivity.
07:35-07:41
Isaiah then warns the people of Judah that something similar is going to happen to them in the future.
07:41-07:43
The Babylonians will invade.
07:43-07:48
They're gonna destroy the Jerusalem, destroy the temple, and take them back to Babylon.
07:49-07:53
There is no avoiding the season of consequence.
07:53-07:54
It's going to happen.
07:56-08:08
But Isaiah also encourages the people of Judah that they shouldn't lose hope because the Lord will redeem them from the pit that they threw themselves into, and he will rescue them from exile in the future.
08:09-08:21
They must trust that he will save them from the Babylonians because he is the only true and living God, while the Babylonian gods are dead and worthless idols who can do nothing.
08:24-08:30
So as we just read, the supremacy and might of God is on full display in these verses.
08:30-08:34
In verse six, he says, "He is the Lord," which is the personal name of God.
08:34-08:38
We just were singing about Yahweh, which means I am.
08:38-08:41
He says, "He is the king and ruler of Israel.
08:41-08:43
He is their only savior.
08:43-08:46
He says he is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies.
08:48-08:51
I love this name of God because God has no need of armies, does he?
08:52-08:56
God is all powerful and no army can stand against him.
08:57-09:04
Think of the most powerful army you could possibly imagine with an unlimited amount of helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, and nukes.
09:05-09:12
That army is like a small buzzing gnat before Almighty God that he could just flick away no effort at all.
09:13-09:22
But this all powerful God has legions and legions of angels at his command that no human force could possibly stand against.
09:23-09:28
He says, "I am the first and the last." In other words, I've always existed.
09:28-09:32
I was here to start everything off and I'll be here to shut everything down.
09:34-09:47
And he says, "Besides me, there is no God." Notice he doesn't say, "I'm at the top of the heap He says, "The best and brightest God, "I'm a great option in the religion brochure." No, he says, "I am it.
09:48-09:58
"Besides me, there is no God." But I love how he throws down the gauntlet in verse seven and offers any challengers to come to him.
09:58-09:59
He says, "Who is like me?
09:59-10:00
"Let him proclaim it.
10:01-10:02
"Let him declare it and set up before me.
10:03-10:23
"Since I appointed an ancient people, "let them declare what is to come and what will happen." So I'm not a wrestling fan by any stretch of the imagination, but this reminds me of the WWE when the heavyweight champion of the world is wearing that massive belt and he is challenging anyone to take him on if they dare.
10:25-10:32
It's like God is saying, hey, I'm the one and only, but if you wanna throw your God, if you wanna throw your religion into the ring with me, go ahead, I'm ready to go.
10:34-10:38
And we've seen people accept this kind of challenge throughout scripture.
10:39-10:49
way back in the book of Exodus, each of the 10 plagues were directed at a specific Egyptian God to show that they are powerless and can do nothing.
10:51-10:58
The 10 plagues were meant to embarrass the Egyptian people and show them that their gods are utter jokes.
11:00-11:13
In 1 Kings 18, there's an actual competition between the prophet Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal to see whose God is actually real, to see whose God is dominance.
11:13-11:14
They actually have a competition.
11:15-11:25
Both sides set up an altar with bull, with a bull and a wood on it, and they were gonna call down fire from their God to see who is real.
11:26-11:35
So the prophets of Baal for hours are screaming at the top of their lungs, they're dancing around the altar, they're cutting themselves to show their dedication to Baal.
11:36-11:36
But guess what?
11:37-11:39
Nothing happens because Baal isn't real.
11:40-11:52
And take some time to read 1 Kings 18, 'cause one of the most funny, hilarious chapters in the Bible where Elijah's making fun of Baal, saying maybe he's going to the bathroom, maybe he's sleeping, maybe he can't hear you.
11:53-11:55
But then Elijah raises the stakes.
11:56-12:01
On his altar, he has four huge jars of water poured out upon the altar.
12:02-12:06
And he makes a huge trench to have water surrounding the altar.
12:06-12:08
He does this three times.
12:09-12:16
And he calls out to the Lord and a fire comes down and turns the altar to dust and quenches all the water.
12:17-12:19
God literally smokes the competition.
12:21-12:28
And then he has Elijah slaughter the 450 prophets of Baal to show that there is no one like him.
12:29-12:33
So you can accept this challenge, but you're going to lose this challenge.
12:35-12:39
The Lord follows up this challenge with a word of comfort in verse eight.
12:40-12:46
Fear not, nor be afraid, have I not told you from of old and declared it, and you are my witnesses.
12:46-12:48
Is there a God besides me?
12:48-12:51
There is no rock, I know not any.
12:52-12:56
Again, God is telling his people, don't be afraid of what's to come.
12:57-13:06
They don't have to despair, they don't have to be hopeless, because unlike the Babylonian gods, God knows the future.
13:06-13:11
He not only knows it, but he plans it out according to his sovereign purposes.
13:11-13:16
When God says that something will happen someday, it's going to happen.
13:17-13:29
God says, "You are my witnesses." God's people have been witnesses for centuries to his perfect track record of making promises and then keeping those promises.
13:31-13:36
Their ancestors witnessed God keep his promise to deliver them out of Egypt.
13:37-13:43
Their ancestors witnessed God keep the promise of giving the land of Canaan into their hand.
13:44-13:55
He has been a steady, unmoving, unshakable rock of security and provision, despite their repeated disobedience and stubbornness.
13:56-14:04
This reminder of God's continued faithfulness should motivate them to be obedient and faithful no matter what happens.
14:05-14:10
Their belief in God should dictate their response to what happens to them.
14:12-14:24
So I was thinking this past week, how often do I contradict my beliefs about God's power, His goodness, and His faithfulness with my words and my actions?
14:25-14:28
I believe that God is all powerful.
14:29-14:33
but sometimes I live as if he is extremely weak and can do nothing to help me.
14:34-14:43
I believe that God is my provider, but sometimes I live as if my heavenly father has abandoned me.
14:44-14:52
I believe that God is in control of my future, but sometimes I live as if what happens to me is a total roll of the dice.
14:54-14:55
Am I alone up here?
14:55-14:58
Does this happen to anybody else besides me?
14:58-15:00
It's like no hands up, that can't be possible.
15:00-15:02
I'm gonna assume your hands are gonna be raised in your hearts.
15:04-15:13
But how can we claim to believe in and belong to the one and only God of the universe and then live as if he doesn't even exist?
15:14-15:21
What are we communicating to unbelievers in our lives and the watching world around us when we live in this way?
15:22-15:31
When we act like everyone else acts, when we complain just like everyone else complains, What are we communicating when we live in defeat from one day to the next?
15:31-15:37
What are we communicating when we spend our time and money just like the rest of our society does?
15:38-15:44
Well, what we're communicating is that our God's not really different than any other God that people believe in.
15:44-15:48
And Christianity isn't truly transformative and life-changing.
15:49-15:54
In other words, we paint an inaccurate picture of God and his gospel.
15:56-16:03
Listen, we'll never be perfect this side of eternity, but we should be making progress by the grace of God.
16:04-16:12
We'll never be stress-free in this life, but slowly but surely over time, we should be growing and our faith in Him should be strengthened.
16:14-16:32
If you're struggling to live into this reality that God is the one and only rock, I want you to take some time today or this upcoming week to remember how you've been a witness personally to God's provision and care in your life.
16:33-16:39
Maybe he'll bring up a time in your mind where he came through for you miraculously when it came to your finances.
16:40-16:46
Maybe he'll bring to mind a time where he brought you through a dark season of depression and discouragement.
16:46-16:55
Maybe he'll remind you of a time when he used an extremely painful and confusing situation to grow you closer to him.
16:56-17:05
The greatest way to build up your confidence in God's future provision is to look back at his many examples of past provision.
17:05-17:06
I almost lost that one.
17:08-17:13
You and I are witnesses to the greatness and faithfulness of God.
17:14-17:21
As witnesses, it's not just our jobs to know what he has done but to live in light of what he has done.
17:22-17:29
It's not just our jobs to know what he continually does for us, but to point others to what he can do for them.
17:30-17:32
Our God is the one and only.
17:34-17:37
Our lives should reflect that we actually believe that.
17:39-17:40
All right, God's final word on religion.
17:42-17:46
Number two, idolatry is absolutely destructive.
17:46-17:50
Idolatry is absolutely destructive.
17:54-18:00
So Isaiah moves from the greatness and uniqueness of God to talk about the foolishness of idolatry.
18:01-18:07
In a nutshell, idolatry is the worship of anything or anyone besides God.
18:07-18:16
We were made to worship our creator, but because of sin, we redirect that worship to anything but our creator.
18:17-18:22
In a few minutes, we'll talk about how we as modern day people are guilty of idolatry.
18:22-18:27
But for a few minutes, I want us to travel back over 2000 years ago to Isaiah's day.
18:29-18:33
I want us to see what he saw and what he experienced.
18:34-18:45
It was so common to see idols and little statues of false gods, and even God's people would buy these idols and worship them as they were led astray by other nations.
18:46-18:56
God's people were called to stand apart and be like no one else, but instead they chose to blend in and be like everyone else.
18:57-19:08
Idol making was extremely lucrative back in those days, but Isaiah provides two reasons why it is foolish and destructive to create and worship idols.
19:09-19:15
So idolatry is absolutely destructive, letter A, because it leads to nothing but shame.
19:15-19:18
It leads to nothing but shame.
19:19-19:20
Let's read verses nine through 11.
19:21-19:27
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit.
19:28-19:32
Their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame.
19:33-19:36
Who fashions a god or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing?
19:37-19:41
Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human.
19:42-19:44
Let them all assemble, let them stand forth.
19:45-19:49
They shall be terrified, they shall be put to shame together.
19:52-19:59
So even though the makers of idols may profit in the short term, in the long run, they will not profit.
20:00-20:05
Their path leads to shame in this life and in eternity.
20:06-20:12
And not just shame for themselves, but for their friends who participate and all who worship the idols that they create.
20:13-20:24
Isaiah says that all of these men and women shall be terrified and put to shame when they stand before the God that they rejected and led others to reject as well.
20:26-20:32
You know, these sobering verses led me to think about the various founders of different religions throughout the years.
20:33-20:42
Men such as Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who may or may not have actually existed, but is credited with founding Buddhism in 5th century BC.
20:43-20:54
And Muhammad, like Buddha, may or may not have actually existed, but his legacy lives on in Islam, which is the second largest world religion with 1.9 billion followers.
20:55-20:59
Think of how many people that is, 1.9 billion.
21:01-21:13
Joseph Smith, who created the Church of the Latter-day Saints when in 1827, he says that he stumbled across golden tablets that added further revelation to scripture.
21:15-21:16
And he wrote the Book of Mormon.
21:17-21:29
Or Charles Taze Russell, who founded the Jehovah's Witness movement in Pittsburgh in the 1870s and denied the truth that Jesus is God.
21:31-21:36
L. Ron Hubbard, who is a science fiction fantasy novelist, created his greatest fantasy.
21:37-21:41
I think it's funny whenever a fantasy novelist makes up a religion that people actually follow.
21:41-21:47
He created Scientology, which is a cult that has over 40,000 members today.
21:49-21:50
These men are not prophets.
21:51-21:52
These men are not moral leaders.
21:52-21:53
They are not great thinkers.
21:53-21:57
According to Isaiah, these men are idol makers and blind guides.
21:58-22:04
All who follow their examples and roadmaps will be led to eternal shame.
22:07-22:11
You know, every other year, my family goes to Hilton Head, South Carolina for vacation.
22:11-22:15
And back before we had a ton of kids running around, we were actually able to do fun things.
22:15-22:19
Like, it's not really a vacation, it's more like a trip, right?
22:19-22:21
It's a great trip, but it's a little bit different of a trip.
22:22-22:30
Dan Thompson once said something, he said, "When you're vacationing with kids, it's more like parenting in a different location." And I fully, 100% agree with that.
22:30-22:35
But about 10 years ago, we went on a guided kayak tour of salt marshes.
22:36-22:39
And my dad and I were towards the back of the group and we were having a great time.
22:40-22:43
But at one point we realized that we can't see anybody else and that we're alone.
22:44-22:46
And I'm like, I have no idea where we're going.
22:46-22:48
But my dad didn't share my lack of confidence.
22:49-22:50
He was like, I know where to go, follow me.
22:50-22:52
And I was like, all right, I guess I'll follow him.
22:53-22:56
For 10 or 15 minutes, everything seems to be going great.
22:57-23:02
And then all of a sudden I hear our tour guide yell from behind us, stop, stop, stop!
23:03-23:05
You're heading into an alligator den.
23:05-23:06
(congregation laughing)
23:07-23:10
I couldn't have stopped paddling faster.
23:11-23:13
And he comes up to me and says, "What are you doing here?
23:13-23:16
Why'd you go this way?" And I immediately threw my dad under the bus.
23:16-23:19
I'm like, he said he knew the right way to go, but obviously he didn't.
23:22-23:26
I learned the hard way that day, though not every channel in the marsh led to where we wanted it to go.
23:27-23:32
My dad's a great guy with a lot of great qualities, but he's not a salt marsh tour guy.
23:33-23:37
So I should have been more careful of who I chose to follow that day.
23:38-23:44
In a much greater way, you have to be so careful of who you choose to follow in this life.
23:45-23:55
There are so many false teachers who will tell you they know the way to peace, they know the way to eternal life, but their path leads straight into an alligator den.
23:57-24:01
We live in a time, we are told there are many different paths to God.
24:02-24:06
We're told that all the different religions are equally valid and can teach us something about God.
24:06-24:12
It doesn't even matter if they're true because they can all offer some kind of wisdom and enlightenment.
24:13-24:16
But according to Isaiah, this line of thinking is foolish.
24:17-24:21
All religions do not lead to the same destination of heaven.
24:22-24:26
God doesn't reveal himself in different ways in all the different religions.
24:26-24:32
God has revealed himself in his word and in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
24:32-24:33
That is it.
24:35-24:39
Jesus once said, "I am the way, the truth, the life.
24:39-24:46
"No one comes to the Father except through me." He doesn't leave much wiggle room for debate, does he?
24:48-24:58
The only way to be saved from your sins and spend eternity with the Lord in heaven is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
24:59-25:01
You must believe that he lived a perfect life.
25:01-25:07
He died a sacrificial death upon the cross and rose again in victory over the grave.
25:07-25:13
You must trust in him as your personal savior and submit to him as the Lord of your life.
25:14-25:19
Every other way leads to eternal shame and destruction.
25:22-25:25
Maybe you're here this morning, you're not sure what you believe.
25:26-25:34
You've been putting off dealing with matters of faith and eternity because frankly, it kind of freaks you out and it makes you feel uncomfortable.
25:35-25:38
Turn to Jesus today and be saved.
25:39-25:43
Don't wait another second because you'll know how many seconds you have left.
25:45-25:54
Maybe you're here this morning and you slide up and down the belief scale from atheism to agnosticism to a general hope that God exists.
25:55-25:58
Some days you don't wanna believe that God is real.
25:58-26:01
You don't wanna believe that there's more after this life.
26:01-26:04
And other days you do wanna believe that.
26:04-26:08
Turn to Jesus today and be saved.
26:08-26:10
The evidence for God is overwhelming.
26:11-26:12
It's all around us.
26:12-26:16
You were made to know and be known by your creator.
26:17-26:24
Others of you have been trusting in your own religion of good works and performance for years.
26:25-26:27
Maybe you've been going to church since you were young.
26:29-26:30
You're playing the church game.
26:31-26:35
You hope that you can be good enough to work your way to God and earn his approval.
26:36-26:39
Turn to Jesus and be saved.
26:39-26:45
Stop trying to earn what was already freely given through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
26:47-26:53
So idolatry is absolutely destructive, letter B, because it is the height of self-deception.
26:54-26:57
because it is the height of self-deception.
26:59-27:00
This fan's really blowing my stuff around.
27:04-27:11
In verses 12 through 15, Isaiah walks us backward through the complex process of making an idol step by step.
27:12-27:17
To be clear, he isn't trying to give us tips or provide a YouTube tutorial for how to create an idol.
27:17-27:23
I don't want any of you showing up next week with an Indiana Jones looking idol saying, "Taylor, look, I followed Isaiah's instructions to the letter.
27:24-27:25
That's not what he's doing here.
27:25-27:31
He's providing the nitty gritty of making an idol to show us how ridiculous this process is.
27:32-27:34
So let's read verses 12 through 15.
27:35-27:38
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals.
27:38-27:41
He fashions it with hammers and works it with a strong arm.
27:42-27:43
He becomes hungry and his strength fails.
27:44-27:45
He drinks no water and is faint.
27:46-27:47
The carpenter stretches a line.
27:48-27:49
He marks it out with a pencil.
27:49-27:52
He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass.
27:52-27:57
He shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house.
27:58-28:05
He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.
28:06-28:08
He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.
28:08-28:10
Then it becomes fuel for man.
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He takes part of it and warms himself.
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He kindles a fire and bakes bread.
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Also, he makes a God and he worships it.
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He makes it an idol and falls down before it.
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So first of all, the carpenter has to decide what kind of wood he wants to make his God out of.
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Does he want to make out of cypress, cedar, and oak?
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I mean, this is a really big decision, right?
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This is a really tough decision.
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How do you know what your God wants to be made out of?
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He then cuts down the desired tree and he shapes that wood into the likeness of a man.
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And then finally, he rounds out this process by plating that wood with metal.
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And at this point, you may be thinking, well, what does this really look like?
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So I thought I'd bring a show and tell item for you.
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The company that moved out of our new office space left behind a lot of really great stuff and some not so great stuff.
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And one of these not so great things is this statue that I think looks a lot like an idol.
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It's like a weird friendship idol with people doing like a huddle and there's even like a basin for sacrifices or maybe for a candle.
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I have no idea what this is about.
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I saw this and was like, I'm gonna use this for my sermon in a few weeks.
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So imagine that Isaiah is talking about an idol that looks like this in this passage.
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He put in all this work, all this time, all this care, and this is the end product, a hunk of wood and metal.
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Unfortunately, this is a complete waste of time.
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According to verses 16 through 20, look at what he says.
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Half of it he burns in the fire, over the half he eats meat.
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He roasts it and is satisfied.
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Also he warms himself and says, aha, I am warm, I've seen the fire.
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And the rest of it he makes into a God, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it.
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He prays to it and says, deliver me, for you are my God.
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They do not know, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts that no one can understand, no one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, have that I burned in the fire, I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten, and shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
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Shall I fall down before a block of wood?
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He feeds on ashes of the deluded heart, has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, is there not a lie in my right hand?
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Do you see the humor that runs throughout these verses?
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He is making fun of the fact that an idol maker would cut down a tree, have a block of wood that he forms into a God.
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And then the rest of that tree he used, he throws it in the fire to cook up some food.
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So you're telling me you're going to fall down and worship before an idol when the rest of the tree that it was made from was thrown into the fire.
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And the idol couldn't even save the rest of itself from being burned to a crisp.
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Is that really the God that you want to worship?
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He says that makers and worshipers of idols are undiscerning.
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They're deluded, they're blind.
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They lack knowledge and self-awareness to see that they are falling hook, line, and sinker for an obvious lie.
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According to Isaiah, believing that an idol of your own making will satisfy you is as foolish as thinking a mouthful of ashes will provide you any sense of nourishment.
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So I know what some of you are thinking at this point.
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Yeah, Isaiah, tell 'em.
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I can't believe that people used to do that way back then.
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Good thing we don't do that anymore.
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You sure about that?
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As 21st century Americans, we think that we're above idolatry because we don't have little statues in our closets that we bow down to or make sacrifices in front of, but we're just as guilty of idolatry.
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Everyone reach into your purse or your pocket to pull out that hunk of plastic that you look at all day, every day.
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Everyone do it, come on, you all have them.
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Pull them out, lift them up.
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You're all very slow today, let's go, let's go.
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Let me ask you a question as you're, no, don't flash it in my eyes, Rich.
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Let me ask you a question, do people worship this thing?
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I can't think of a man-made object that people worship more today.
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This is an idol for many of us.
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You don't believe me?
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Just look at that report you get at the end of the week telling you how much time you spend on your phone.
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I don't know about you, I get that.
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I'm like, it's even worse than last week.
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And compare that to how much time you spend with the Lord in prayer and in his word.
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How much time do you spend mindlessly scrolling through this device?
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I've really noticed how often this thing just jumps out of my pocket and somehow gets on the dinner table or on the table during meetings.
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Parents, we can get sucked into the smartphone wormhole at the end of the day.
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It's that truly engaging with our kids.
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So ask yourself, am I worshiping at the altar of the screen?
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Am I bowing down to it with an overabundance of my time and my attention?
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Let's move beyond smartphones.
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As I said earlier, literally anything or anyone can be an idol in your life.
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Your career can be an idol.
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You center your entire life and identity around what you do.
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Maybe you worship at the altar of food.
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When you're stressed out, when you're frustrated, food is your first source of comfort.
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Or maybe on the opposite end of the scale, you're overly obsessed with how you look and what you eat.
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Listen, working out is great.
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I should do way more of it.
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Dieting is great.
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Being healthy is great.
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but this can be taken to an unhealthy extreme.
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Maybe for you, it's money.
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Whether you have a lot of it or a little of it, you can fool yourself into believing that having more and more will make you feel secure and satisfied, but it never actually does.
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Others of you have made an idol out of relaxation.
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Your life is summed up in the song, "Working for the Weekend." You live to ski, to fish, to shop, to golf, to travel.
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None of these things are bad in and of themselves.
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These are all good activities that we should enjoy, but they should never be the end goal of our week.
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God gave us rest and relaxation so that we could recharge our batteries, so that we can have more energy to serve him and carry out the mission that he has entrusted to us.
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Rest and relaxation were never meant to be the finish line.
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They are pit stops that help us to reach the finish line.
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Let's hit even closer to home.
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For many of us, our families have become more important than God.
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Yes, scripture calls us to care for our spouses, to sacrifice for them.
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Yes, we're called in scripture to love our kids and provide for them.
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But you know what the Bible never calls us to do?
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To worship our family.
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He never calls us to do that.
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If you center your entire life around your kids, what's gonna happen when they move out someday?
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You're gonna feel empty and directionless.
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If you look to your spouse to give you what only God can provide, they're only gonna let you down continually.
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All of these things, all of these people I've mentioned need to be put in their proper place.
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If you do not prioritize the Lord and put him first, you will end up worshiping his good gifts to you instead of using these good gifts to worship him.
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Good things can quickly and easily become God things to us.
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You know, none of us can say with a straight face, I don't have any idols.
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God's always number one in my life every single second of the day.
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None of us can say that, myself included.
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I don't know what your personal idols are, but I do know that all of us need to do the hard work of rearranging our priorities and goals on a daily basis.
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The weeds of idolatry need to be pulled out of the soil of our hearts constantly and quickly before they grow larger and choke out our dedication to the one who is truly worthy of our worship.
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This is hard work.
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It's messy because it requires you to be brutally honest with yourself.
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It also requires you to ask others to be brutally honest with what they see in you.
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It's difficult because it requires you to care more about God and his glory, more than your comfort and your preferences.
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So as we close, let's circle back to our major question for this morning.
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Did God really say that every other religion is wrong?
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No matter how our culture answers this question, God has definitively declared that there is no one like him.
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He is the one and only.
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He has definitively declared that every other religion is destructive act of idolatry that leads to nothing but shame and self-deception.
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For everyone in this room who doesn't know Jesus, I once again wanna plead with you to turn to him today.
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repent of your sins, turn to Christ, submit to him as the Lord of your life and your personal savior.
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Don't leave this room this morning without making the most important decision of your life.
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For the rest of us who are believers, I wanna remind you that it is not unloving to believe and to preach that every other religion is wrong.
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We graciously share this hard truth 'cause we care about people.
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We gently and lovingly share this hard truth 'cause we wanna protect people from biting down on Satan's tat cake of lies or heading into an alligator den of false teaching.
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Let us hold fast to this biblical truth even though it's not popular, even though it's not fun to believe.
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Let us stand firm that our God is the Lord.
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He is our redeemer, He is our savior, He is the one and only, He is our rock of security.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for who you are and what you do in our lives.
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We come to you and we admit that we so often worship other things and other people rather than you.
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Lord, may we have our gaze redirected to you, have our eyes fixed on Jesus and all that he does.
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Lord, if there's someone in this room who doesn't know you, Lord, open up their heart to the truth they may believe.
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And for the rest of us, Lord, help us to follow you.
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Help us to dedicate ourselves to becoming more like you.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 44:16-20
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are some examples of living as if God doesn’t actually exist?
Why is it so hard for people to accept that there is only one way to eternal life and a relationship with God?
What is idolatry and why is it so destructive? Where do you see idolatry in your life and what can you do about it right now?
Breakout
Pray for one another.