Lets talk Idols

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Made for Mondays Today. Justin here. Hope you're having an amazing day. It is June 12th on your radio dial. And so whether you're listening to this on Mondays or listening to this rest of the week, I'm so glad you're tuned in with me today as we engage with life this week. Today, I want to talk a little bit about idolatry, and we'll engage a little bit in what it means to have an idol, what is an idol, and how to destroy your idols, how to name your idols, and then how to move forward beyond those idols. I think it'll be fun today. Welcome to Made for Mondays. You were Made for Monday. Mondays don't own you. You own your Mondays. Now let's go forward and see what our week has for us. Before I jump into Made for Mondays today, I wanted to take a moment and actually share something with all of you. And so I recently released a book. It's a handbook. It's not a long one, it's really a reference book called, called Lost Mom. Now what those of you know it or not, my mother passed away last year, July. And she wrote a handbook back in 1996 called Death in the Aftermath. And on Death in the Aftermath, my mother took some time to merge her thoughts as a paralegal and a minister of the gospel. And together my mother wrote this book to help people plan funerals and everything. I serve as a pastor in my community here in Vallejo, California, and one of the things I have to do with my job is help plan funerals and navigate through death and dying. And so I decided to do as the chairperson of mother's estate executive, her estate is I took that reference book that she had, the Death and the Aftermath, and merged it together with some thoughts I had on how to navigate grief. And that's this book, Lost Mom. Now what literally all it is is a book that navigates through what to do up until a year after losing a parent or losing a close loved one. Now, I put Lost mom. You could put Lost dad, lost Auntie, Lost Friend, Lost dog, whatever that is for. And each chapter is dedicated to unpacking that. I have a chapter that's simply called navigating through Hospice, a chapter called reflect on navigating through your raw emotions, a chapter called Circle, dealing with people, namely family after great loss. I have a chapter called Pause and what it means to plan a memorial or funeral. I have a chapter called days and how to navigate different days and holidays, their birthdays, and then the second half of the book is for my mother and we take a moment to actually talk through death, Christianity and judgment and what is death? What is the soul, the second coming, the great resurrection. Then I take some time and actually give you and I'll show you this. Those of you who are watching on YouTube will get a chance to see this. My mother actually prepared this and it was so cool. Is my mom actually put in here a living will and in this living will it literally gives you an entire in the appendix. Sorry, it's taking me a second to get there. In the appendix I give you a funeral flowchart and and then also in the appendix I give you a full fledged living will. You can literally copy and paste an entire living will, put your name in it, put your spouse's name in it, put your family's name in it. It's an entire living will. The goal here is to make sure that if you are preparing for or planning for a funeral that you're ready to do so and that you also can navigate through the different layers of grief and pain in life. So that's my next book, Lost mom now what? I'm writing a much more extensive one on some other topics at the mom, but right now that's the most recent book that came from Justin Lester, Lost mom now what? You can get it on Amazon, just Amazon.com, go ahead and grab it. Grab a copy of Lost mom now what? And have some fun with that. All right, let's jump into my made for Mondays today. So what is idolatry? Let's talk about it. An idol is a person, a position or pursuit of your life that captures way too much of your affection or your attention. An idol can be anything really. That's going to be good to you. Idols often aren't negative things. Idols are can be your job. If you're a student in college, your college major, your next job, your new job, your physical appearance, your favorite television show or time on Facebook, time on TikTok, time on Instagram. You turn your friends into idols. You turn your kids into idols. You turn ministries into idols. Spouses can turn their other spouse into an idol. You don't really notice an idol has become an idol until you begin to see how you are honoring that thing, that person, that situation in your life more than you're honoring God. And what idols end up doing is distracting you from the grace of God present in your life. All idols purpose serve to do is to keep you distant from the father, keep you distant from the love of God, and keep you distant from owning the grace of God on your life. Idols are almost never a bad thing. They're just something you become obsessed with that become a God thing. They're a good thing. That becomes a God thing. And for many of us across the screen, many of you listening to me in your car, listen to me. While you work out today, you can think about some areas in your life where you have different idols. Idols that get your attention, idols that get your affection, idols that maybe for you, those of you who are single, you are idolizing your future relationship, and you've created an idol out of a person that doesn't even exist. Those of you who are across the screen and you're idolizing your next job, and you've created an idol about another job, and what it does is it distracts you from owning where you are, where your feet are. Be there. So if I'm worshiping my next job, I don't see the blessing of the one I have. If I'm worshiping having a relationship, I don't see the blessing of the singleness that I'm in. If I'm worshiping another check. I don't see the blessing of taking care of the harvest I have right now. And if I'm so consumed with something else, if I'm worshiping my spouse, I'm not making sure I'm taking care of myself. I'm worshiping my children. I'm not taking care of who I am as an individual. And what happens, scripture tells us, is now we put something in direct opposition of God. I'm going to tell you who's always going to win is God. So I'm not here to beat you up today, but what I do want to do is ask you some questions to think about what are some idols in your life? Because it may not be the thing you think it is. So let's name your idols and let's destroy them. So here's some questions I want to ask you and think about these, or write these down or ponder these. When it comes to your idols in your life, number one, what are you most afraid of losing? What do you spend too much money on? Where do you seek approval, and from whom do you seek approval? What are you most passionate about? What do you fear the most? What consumes your thoughts, and is there something you'd rather be doing that is not a spiritual discipline? I want you to let those sink in, and I want you to think about what one or two of those questions really, really agitated you, not negatively. I'm not trying to harm you. But of those questions, which two do you have a definitive answer for? I can tell you this. It's not a matter of where you spend the most time is what's most important to you. It's where you spend most of your money. When you take a look at your bank account at the end of the month, where have you spent most of your money? Take away your mortgage or your rent and take away the general bills. You can't do anything about electricity and water, but where's the rest of your money going? Is that where your affections are? Take a look at your text message logs. And who do you worry about texting you or calling you? Or who do you wait for the most to text or call you that could be an idol? When you name that, then I want you to ask yourself these two things. Do you find and stake your comfort and your happiness on that thing? And does it compete with your love for God? Now check this out. I'm not saying this because I'm perfect. All of us have idols in our hearts. The moment you name one idol, you begin to see there's other idols in your life. I've learned this trophies create just as much clutter as trash does in our lives. And really, idols are nothing more than trash. Don't keep yourself from idols by trying harder. You become so intoxicated with the grace of God that you're too consumed with the beauty of God in your life to notice any other God. I want you to look around you. If you're driving on the freeway, if you're driving to work, if you're working out, I want you to look around you. Do you see where you are? Those of you watching this on YouTube, do you see where you are? Do you see the favor of God that's on your life? Do you see the text message that came in your phone? That person wishing you good morning? Do you see the picture on the background of your phone of that individual that you love? Do you see the job you're working at? I know you've complained about it, but it helped pay your bills last month. Do you see where you are? Do you see the favor and the blessings and the grace of God where you are when you become that intoxicated with the favor and the beauty of God in your life? Idols don't have a place. So let's get rid of the idols. Let's get them off our mantles. Let's put them in the right place. They're a good thing. Our spouses are good things. Our kids are good things. Our parents are good things. Our jobs are good things. Having social media is a cool thing. You look great. Your favorite TV show is cool. Your major is solid. Your income in your resume is good. A good thing. But it's not God, his old song that said turn your eyes upon Jesus and take hold of his beautiful face and the things of the world go strangely dim when I take hold of his beauty and grace. Let's get rid of our idols this week. Let's get rid of all of our distractions and let's focus on who God is to us. Let's say our affirmations together. Repeat after me. Say I am me. I can be me and no one will stop me from being me. You have an amazing, amazing week. You were made for Mondays. Mondays don't own you. You own your Mondays. Now go and win your week. God bless you.