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We were made to worship things. We were made to worship God, and that's where we find

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our true joy and our true happiness.

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We're talking about idols of the heart, and in the Confessions of Saint Augustine,

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you find at the very beginning of his kind of like a diary or an autobiography—that's

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really what I would call the Confessions—Augustine writes this, quote,

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Greater you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is your power, and of your wisdom there

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is no end. And man, being a part of your creation, desires to praise you. Man,

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who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that you

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resist the proud. Yet, man, this part of your creation desires to praise you. You move us to

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delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they

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rest in you. And so Augustine, probably a theologian of the heart, might be what I would

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call him, understood that our hearts are restless. Our hearts are seeking something. Our hearts are

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have a lack of peace until they find their rest in the Lord. And then when we find that rest in

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the Lord, we praise him. We were made for praise. We were made to worship things. We were made to

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worship God. And that's where we find our true joy and our true happiness. It's interesting that

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we have these idols of our heart that get in the way of finding our peace in Christ, in God.

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It's interesting to look at what happens to athletes, especially pro athletes who have an

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injury or they have to retire. A lot of studies have been done on this. They don't just need a

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surgeon for their injury, but they also need a psychologist. They need counselors. Because when

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that athlete realizes it's over, the career is over, they're not going to ever be able to compete

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at the level that they once competed again because of this injury or because of retirement.

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A lot of these guys go through major depression. They go through major despair and anxiety in their

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life because you see their identity, their purpose. The reason for living was to be a pro athlete, was

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to be great at their sport, and now it's all taken away. That's an example of an idol of the heart.

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People who lose their spouse either through a divorce or through a sudden death. Husbands and

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wives really struggle with the loss of their spouse. Again, I'm not saying this is necessarily

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an idol of the heart because you're grieving. I'm talking about those who just despair.

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They just can't get over it. That's an idol in their heart because it's a misplaced, as I said

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in my message before this, it's a misplaced love. Maybe the best way to describe it is

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taking a good thing and honoring it in our lives versus taking a good thing and making it the

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ultimate thing in our life. I think that's the difference. I would say the difference between

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taking a good thing and honoring it in our lives because vocation is something we should honor and

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we should work hard at our vocation. Finances is really important and it's a big part of our lives

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for sure. Our spouse and our marriage is very important, but it's taking a good thing and making

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it the ultimate thing. That's an idol of our heart. David Foster Wallace, considered one of the great

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writers of, I would say, the last 25 years. He died in 2008, so this would be in the 80s, 90s,

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and into the 2000s. His posthumous novel, The Pale King, which was published in 2011,

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was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2012. He committed suicide at 46 years of age.

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He was asked in 2005 to do the commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon

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College. I want to read a portion of this commencement because I think David Foster

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Wallace, who considered himself an atheist or an agnostic, had this one section of the commencement

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speech that's noteworthy. Listen to what he says.

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The day-to-day trenches of adult life, there's actually no such thing as atheism, which by

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the way, I'll just stop there and say that since this commencement speech was given way

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back in 2005 and then it was reprinted on different websites and stuff, atheists really

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got sideways over this.

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They didn't like what he had to say, but let me read it again and then you'll understand

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where I'm going with this as I read this part of his speech.

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In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there's actually no such thing as atheism.

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There's no such thing as not worshiping something.

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Everybody worships.

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The only choice we get is what we worship.

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And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God, he has a small g, some sort

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of God or spiritual type thing to worship, be it Jesus Christ or Allah, be it Yahweh

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or the Wiccan Mother Goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some inviolable set of ethical principles.

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This is important.

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Let's know what he says next.

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Is that pretty much anything else you worship is going to eat you alive.

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If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then

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you will never have enough and never feel that you have enough.

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Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly.

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And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve

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you.

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You worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid and you will need ever more

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power over others to numb you to your own fears.

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Worship your intellect.

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Being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being

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found out.

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But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful.

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It's that they are unconscious.

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They are the default settings.

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Now, I don't know what was happening in David Foster Wallace's life when he gave that 2005

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commencement that would lead three years later to committing suicide.

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At the young age of 46, I read a little bit on him and he did struggle a lot with depression

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his whole life and he was taking some medications for that.

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So probably more to it than we know.

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This was on to something.

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And I think it makes some people very uncomfortable because what he's talking about is idols of

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our heart.

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He's talking about false gods in your heart that, as he says, we worship money and things,

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they're going to eat you alive.

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That's what he's saying.

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If it's the worship of your body and beauty and sexual allure, it's going to eat you alive.

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And he seems to be saying there's something greater here that you can find meaning from.

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And the first name he mentions is Jesus Christ.

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And it's sad that Wallace never discovered what that was and never discovered a personal

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relationship with Jesus Christ.

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But you can.

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Do you have a vital, dynamic, growing, personal, powerful, intimate relationship with the creator

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of the universe, Jesus Christ?

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We put him first.

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We love him with all of our heart.

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We love him with all of our soul.

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It's in loving God with all of our heart that we find the greatest reason for the heart

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that we have.

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It's the heart that gives us peace, and it's the heart where the power of God is.

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And that comes through loving him.

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And Augustine got it right.

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Our hearts are restless.

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Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Christ, in him.

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I challenge you to dethrone the idols of your heart.

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Not take them out of your life completely.

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Not at all.

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Not saying that.

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If we're married, we're supposed to really love our spouse and our children.

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If we are in a vocation, I hope you love your vocation, enjoy it.

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We are to make money.

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I think we're supposed to—the mandate of Genesis 1, 27, 28, 29 is to have dominion on

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the earth.

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So I believe we're supposed to have dominion.

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But misplaced dominion becomes an idol in our heart.

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And so I challenge you right now to surrender to Christ if you've never done that.

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Surrender everything to him.

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If you have gone through a life of some pretty major failures, if you're at a place in your

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life where you know that, man, I can't keep living this way, it could be an addiction

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to alcohol.

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It could be—

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be an addiction to a woman or a man,

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could be an addiction to a religion,

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it could be an addiction to your job.

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I don't know what it is, but I know Christ wants your heart.

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And you're going to be restless

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and continue to be restless

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until you surrender everything to Him.

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So would you do that today?

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Right now, would you surrender

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the idols of your heart to Christ

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and say, God, I don't know how to change these things,

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but you do.

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I don't know how to make you first in my life,

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but you know how to do that.

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So I invite you into my life

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to become the passion of my life,

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become everything that I'm living for.

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Because you say that if I'll seek first the kingdom of God,

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everything will be added.

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Things will fall into line.

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Remember the thesis that I shared with you

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the last time we were together,

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and it was this idea that if you line up your heart with God,

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God will line up your life with Him.

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And that's what you're searching for is power and peace

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and joy in Christ, not in this world, but in our heart.

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So wherever you are, if you're driving,

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don't bow your head and close your eyes.

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But wherever you are, I just ask you to pray with me

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this prayer to surrender everything to Christ.

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Lord Jesus, I need you.

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I give you my heart.

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I surrender my heart to you.

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Lord, I have had these idols in my life

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that have been more important to me than you are.

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I surrender that to you.

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And I ask you, Lord, to be number one.

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I ask you, Lord, to be the most important thing in my life.

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I surrender my whole life to you.

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Take it, develop it, move me where you want me to be.

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Give me passion for you.

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In your name, I pray.

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Jesus Christ, I pray.

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Amen.

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Go after Jesus.

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All I can say is after doing this for 45 years

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of following Christ, I can tell you it's completely worth it.

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Nothing compares with it.

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It's where our security, our significance, our purpose,

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and our first love comes from.

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God bless you.