Quit Chasing Idols. Invest in the Eternal.

Providence Baptist Church

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I'm Alan Nelson, pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Central Arkansas. I want to talk just a moment today about a verse we read in our men's

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Bible study on Thursday mornings. We have a men's Bible study at a local donut shop. This morning we're in Isaiah 2, going through Isaiah right now.

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Isaiah 2 .18 says this, and the idols shall utterly pass away.

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The idols shall utterly pass away. I don't know what it is that you're chasing in life today.

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You know, obviously if it's sin, sexual immorality or greed or whatever, obviously you need to turn from that.

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You need to repent. But I want to go a little bit different direction because a lot of times, particularly in the

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Bible Belt, we chase things that aren't in and of themselves sinful. For example, we might chase sports or we might chase a career or we might chase success for our children or we might chase just providing well.

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It's not necessarily that we're greedy. We're just trying to provide well for our children with home or vacation or whatever it may be.

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But the reality is we begin to focus on these things instead of what

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God is doing in this world. And I'll talk about that more in just a minute. But we begin to put these, elevate these things at such a high priority that we don't care about the scriptures.

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We don't care about leading our family and family worship, prayer and Bible reading in the home.

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We don't care about the church. We don't care about evangelism. We just sort of live our lives.

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We try to be moral and we just kind of sort of live our lives and kind of exist and kind of do our own thing or go our own way.

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And the reality is this has become idolatry. And when we read the text this morning, we kind of ended up talking about this more.

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But the reality is all these things that we're chasing today, whether that be political idols or trophies or a raise or a college education for your children or whatever, all these things that we're chasing, one day they will utterly pass away.

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They'll be gone. I'm learning more and more as a husband and as a father that you turn around and your kids one, you turn around and he's 15, you turn around and he'll be 30.

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You turn around, you'll be a grandfather. You turn around and you'll be on death's door and your life will be over.

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Our life goes by so fast. James is so wise, the book of James, because life is a vapor.

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It's a mist, a morning mist that vanishes away. The sun comes up. It's gone. And so all these things that you're chasing, one day they're going to be gone.

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And so why would you not give your life to what God is doing in the world today?

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What is God doing in the world today? Unequivocally, the church.

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God is growing his kingdom through the church. That is, why would we not give our life to the church?

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Now, I'm not saying that we should, certainly not saying that we should partner or give our lives to any sort of false idea of the church, but I'm talking about the true church, biblically healthy church.

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That when we give our lives to what God is doing in the world today, we give our lives to something eternal.

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Yes, the idol shall utterly pass away, but you know what will never pass away? God's people.

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And so when we give our lives to the church, that means not just Sunday mornings, but also involving ourselves in the lives of church, thinking about how to serve the people of God, thinking about how to go on mission with the people of God, proclaiming the gospel, thinking about how to schedule our week around Sundays instead of scheduling

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Sunday around our week. Most people who profess to be Christians, they try to fit Sunday in their schedule, right?

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If it works out, they're going to gather with the church, but more often than not, it doesn't work out.

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Why? They're chasing idols. So my plea here as a pastor and some of you watching this, you'll know me,

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I'm your friend. Out of my love for you and my love for Christ and love for the people in my community,

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I plead with you, give your life to the church. Now listen, not just superficial, shallow

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Christianity, but robust, biblical, healthy churches.

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Life is too short for anemic Christianity. It's going to pass away.

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Instead, give your life to sound doctrine, to truth, to a healthy church, like Christ is worthy of a healthy church.

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Give your life there, get involved, open the book, see if I'm right.

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I am. Idols will pass away, but God's people will last forever. I encourage you to think about these things.

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I encourage you to think about your children. So what if your children succeed in the things of this world?

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If they don't have Christ, what we try to do oftentimes is compromise. Oftentimes God's indictment of his people in the

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Old Testament is not that they just utterly abandoned him, so much as they also tried to add other things to their worship of Yahweh.

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And so they tried to kind of keep Yahweh and then hold on to these other things as well. Some of you are doing that.

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You need to repent. You need to let it go. You need to realize that the idols will fall away.

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This video's too long for a lot of people to watch, I'm sure, but I hope you found this encouraging, even if it is challenging.

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Stop chasing the idols of the world and involve yourself in the church. However it is that you treat the church and think of the church, that's ultimately how you treat and think of Christ.

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Read Acts 9. Paul was persecuting the church. Jesus says, you're actually persecuting me. Get involved with the church and serve