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Ezekiel 14 is one of those seminal passages in Scripture that show what God looks at.

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He looks at our heart.

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I want to tell you about the idols of the heart because everybody has idols in their

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life and you've got to be asking the question, like, what do I mean by an idol?

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Because the impression we have is of some figurine, some statue, or some temple that

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you go to, and we would say in America that we don't have any, we don't have these kind

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of temples, we don't have any statues in our house that we worship.

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I'm talking more about what I think is more scriptural about the idols.

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Idols of the heart would be those things that are misplaced in their order of importance

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and are greater than our relationship with God, more important than our security and

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significance found in Christ.

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So it's not a bad thing most of the time.

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I mean, it could be, but I'm speaking of even those good things in our life like marriage

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and family and our job and our finances, those things are important.

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But if they get misplaced, they become an idol in our heart.

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So the question of whether one has an idol in their heart might be to ask the question,

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what's that one thing or what are those things in your life that if it was taken away would

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also just cause you to just go into deep, I'm not talking about grieving, but into such

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deep despair that you wouldn't know what to do about your life.

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That's an idol.

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That's an idol in your life that you're so focused on that thing.

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It could be a romantic relationship.

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It could be making a lot of money.

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It could be being seen as successful.

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Everybody's different, but that would be an idol of the heart.

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Well, in the Old Testament, the elders of Israel come to Ezekiel asking him a question

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and Ezekiel has an interesting answer.

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This is actually Ezekiel 14 and he gives an answer that these men were not expecting

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and he talks about idols of the heart.

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Here's what he says.

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Now, some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me and the word of the Lord

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came to me saying, son of man, these men.

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So he's talking about the elders who've come to him.

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These men have set up idols in their heart, underline that.

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Idols in their hearts and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity.

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Should I let myself be inquired of at all by them?

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In other words, God is speaking through Ezekiel to the elders and I think it's fascinating

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what happens here.

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He doesn't say idols like they would think of the high places in Israel where people

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worshiped idols, but rather idols of their heart.

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He continues in verse four, therefore, I speak to them and say to them, thus says the Lord

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God, every one of the house of Israel who sets up idols in his heart, underline that.

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Idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity and then

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comes to the prophet.

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I, the Lord will answer him who comes according to the multitude of the idols in his heart

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that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart because they are all estranged from

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me by their idols.

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You see what's happening here is that God is identifying the reason that Israel has

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fallen into idolatry outwardly in their behavior, in their worship is because they have idols

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in their heart.

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That's the issue.

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That's, that's the crux of the matter is the idols of their heart.

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Verse six, therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God repent, turn away from

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your idols.

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I think now he's talking about even the physical idols in Israel, turn your faces away from

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all their abominations for any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who dwell

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in Israel, that would be non Israelites, non Jew who separate himself from me and set up

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what idols in their heart, underline that and puts before him that which causes him

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to stumble into iniquity.

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Then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me.

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I, the Lord will answer him by my

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I will set my face against you, against that man, make him a sign, a proverb, and I will

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cut him off from the midst of my people, then you shall know that I am the Lord.

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Ezekiel 14 is one of those seminal passages in scripture that show what God looks at.

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He looks at our heart.

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And in 2 Chronicles, we read that the eyes of the Lord move across the whole face of

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the earth, looking, searching for those whose hearts are completely His.

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He said of David, here is a man who is a man after my own heart.

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And even with all that he went through and the sin that David committed, even later in

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the New Testament, he was still considered a man after God's own heart.

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So God looks at the heart.

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If you remember the story of David, 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel goes into Bethlehem looking

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for a new king, they don't know that he's clandestine.

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Even the house of Jesse doesn't know why he came to Bethlehem.

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And he can't figure out who's the right person to lay hands on.

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And he looks at Eliab, the oldest, and he's thinking, oh, it's going to be Eliab, because

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Eliab is the tallest, probably the finest looking, maybe the most intelligent in the

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family.

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I don't know.

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But something definitely caught the eye of Samuel.

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Much like Samuel, when he had gone and identified Saul, he was the tallest, he was the most

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handsome in all of Israel, it says.

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But then it's interesting, because the Lord says to him that man looks at the outward

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appearance, but God looks at the heart.

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So God's searching for the heart.

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And here Ezekiel is saying, look, you elders, you have a counterfeit God in your heart.

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You have idols in your heart.

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And I'm going to give you some definitions here.

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I think an idol is anything that gives you identity, purpose for living, and happiness

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that's greater than God.

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Again, I'm not saying that these things are bad.

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I'm going to say, I'm going to give you some language here as we move along that they're

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out of order.

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Anything you rest in your heart more than God, it gives you security, it gives you purpose

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more than God.

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St. Augustine, in his book that I mentioned earlier the last time, The Confessions, he

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called it disordered love, disordered love, love that is out of order.

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Loving something as primary when it should be tertiary, loving something first when it

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should be second, loving something second when it should be third.

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It could be career, it could be family, it could be finances.

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Of course, you're supposed to love your spouse.

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I love Liz dearly, but am I supposed to love Liz more than I love Jesus?

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No.

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I love being a pastor.

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I love my vocation.

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I love what I get to do throughout the week and hour by hour during the day.

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I like being a pastor, but am I supposed to love being a pastor more than I love Liz?

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Am I supposed to love Liz more than I love God?

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So St. Augustine called that disordered love, being out of order in our love.

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We might think of idols as something like child sacrifice, and that certainly happened

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in ancient times, and it still happens today in certain parts of the world.

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So we might think of idolatry as child sacrifice, but all they care about is their career.

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All they care about is their money and making more money and moving up the ladder of success.

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That can be child sacrifice.

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The children of that family being sacrificed at the altar of success, having no time with

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their mom and dad, become angry.

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They get to be 13, 14, 15, 16 years old.

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There's this anger that starts to come out, and here's what's crazy, is oftentimes it

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derails the career of that person because they neglected their kids, and everything

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was about money.

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Everything was about success.

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And so in the end, they still lose.

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But that's child sacrifice.

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That's what I'm talking about.

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Idolatry of the heart.

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Idol of the heart.

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A career can become an idol of the heart.

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Even in marriage, I counsel couples on a pretty regular basis.

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Sometimes I get into these counseling sessions, and we're talking about an issue.

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And I'll ask the question, like,

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well, what if that doesn't ever change?

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What if that person never changes in that area?

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Well, then we're just gonna get a divorce.

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Okay, well, can you forgive them

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for what they've done wrong?

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Well, yes.

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And of course, that's always the right answer, by the way,

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when you're talking to a pastor,

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is yes, you can forgive them.

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But I know after a few times of discussion,

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it's not gonna happen.

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They haven't really forgiven.

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You see, there's an idol in their heart.

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The idol is that thing where they were hurt by that person.

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So that's what I mean by an idol of the heart,

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is that it gets in the way of our passion and love for God.

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Men and women, the question before you is,

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do you have some idols in your heart?

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We all do, by the way.

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And sometimes they're even good things, good things.

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I was counseling years ago this guy who was so angry.

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He was just always angry.

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And I said, you know, you come across as kind of an angry guy

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and he goes, yeah, I've heard that before.

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And I said, well, what are you so angry about?

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And he didn't know how to identify it.

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He had no idea.

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I started asking some questions

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and it was not what I expected.

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He wasn't angry at his wife.

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He wasn't angry about his job.

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He was actually angry at his son

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because he wasn't a terrific athlete.

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And so it was like,

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well, he's probably never gonna be an athlete.

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I mean, he's 18 now and I mean, he's okay,

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but he's not gonna be like this stellar collegiate

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NCAA All-American athlete.

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And he was angry because he had put his hopes

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in this young man becoming something that he never was.

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That's an idol.

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That was an idol in his heart.

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And it was something we had to identify.

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And fortunately for him and exciting for me,

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I was able to lead him through a process

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of surrendering this idol in his heart.

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And he got set free and his relationship

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with his son was really restored.

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So it was very, very exciting.

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But how about you?

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Do you have some idols in your heart

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that are hindering you from being all

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that God's called you to be?

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Well, we're gonna explore this a little bit more next time.