Acts 19:10-34 - Finding Victory

Acts chapter 19 is where we're going to be together today. Acts chapter 19. And as we've looked at this particular section of Scripture, I want to remind you, if you've not been here, if you have just refreshing where we are. As we looked at the book of Acts, especially lately, we've been studying the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, and we're on the last missionary journey that's recorded of Paul in the book of Acts. Even though it's believed after the book of Acts ends, the Apostle Paul continued on missionary journeys. Acts chapter 18, verse 23 is where the beginning of his third missionary journey starts. And as we looked at this together, we recognize that when Paul goes on his third missionary journey, he actually doesn't go to any really new cities everywhere he goes on. The third missionary journey is made up of cities he visited on the first and second missionary journey where churches were established. And so the Apostle Paul is now traveling and encouraging those churches and seeing them strengthened in the Lord. And as he started this journey, if you remember, he left from Antioch of Syria, which is just north of Jerusalem. And he and he goes northwest into the to the area that he first visited on his first missionary journey, the region of Phrygia and Galatia, which the cities of Iconium, Lystra, Derbe are found there. And after he visits from this area, he travels southwest to the city of Ephesus.

And one of the things we talked about in the city of Ephesus is just how influential Ephesus was, especially in the first city, or, excuse me, the first century. As we looked at Acts chapter 18 into chapter 19, we're introduced to two prominent figures that minister in Ephesus. One was the Apostle Paul, and the other was a man named Apollos. And we discovered with Paul and Apollos they were also from prominent cities. Apollos was from Alexandria, a very prominent city in the Roman Empire, especially as you get into the third, fourth, and fifth centuries of Christianity. Alexandria is one of the top four largest in population in the Roman Empire. So was Antioch of Syria, where Paul was from. And both of those guys are now ministering in Ephesus. And Ephesus is the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. Now, one of the things that's interesting about Ephesus is that this city was well known because it had one of the Seven Wonders of the world, which was a temple dedicated to the goddess goddess Artemis. In fact we studied at the end of Acts chapter 18 a temple called the Parthenon in Athens, dedicated to the goddess Athena. And it was on top of the Acropolis, a very prominent place in history, a very prominent temple. But the temple dedicated to Athena in the city of Athens, paled in comparison to the temple that was dedicated to Artemis.

In fact, that temple was seen as four times the size of the temple dedicated Artemis. So. Or excuse me to Athena. So this temple to Artemis in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world, people traveling all over the world to see it. And one of the activities that took place in this temple was prostitution and dedication to this goddess. And because it was such an influential temple, and Ephesus was such an influential city, that practice permeated the city of Ephesus. And but what you discover is that when the gospel reaches Ephesus, the city is transformed to the point that it influenced all, all of Asia. And at this point, Asia is not a continent. Asia is represented in a providence or just a region. But nonetheless, the gospel goes forth out of out of the church that's birthed in Ephesus, and the city begins to radically transform. And you're seeing the tension of that as it builds as the gospel's first pronounced. And in the book of Acts, chapter 19. And so we see this radical transformation, and from this we begin to learn in our own life. Okay, what can we take from the city of Ephesus that helps us learn about our own faith journey as Ephesus discovers this victory? How do how do we as people discover victory today? And we're really recognizing in terms of defeating, defeating the adversary in, particularly in idolatry, how the enemy likes to use idolatry to corrupt who we are as people so that rather than discover identity in the Lord, the reason for which we were created, we try to look for it in other things in this life, which leads to us being bankrupt as people.

You know, when we think about how do we find victory? We're looking to how to move from what holds us down, to discover who we truly are. And for all of us. I think it's important to realize, like idolatry brings destruction to the soul. Has a tendency to over overpromise. Or it doesn't just have the tendency, it always does. It overpromises and under-delivers. We as human beings, we look for something to help us have worth, value and meaning. And idolatry becomes that temptation of saying, look, I want to feel important. What's something in life that can make me feel special, appreciated, or important? And so whatever that becomes apart from the Lord, that's where idolatry is discovered. But what we find out is when we put our hope in an idols in that moment, it might temporarily satisfy, it might even bring us a source of happiness, but ultimately it will eventually land with us being bankrupt, whether it's financially or just spiritually. And so when we talk about finding victory, one of the things I want to be careful with is just helping us recognize as people, even in terms of our own spiritual pursuits, we can create idolatry in our own spiritual pursuits.

And the reason I say that is sometimes we don't even realize how much the culture in which we're raised in gets extrapolated into our faith journey without even us recognizing it. Even in terms of what it means to seek Jesus, we can conclude the purpose for which we were made in Christ into something different than what God intends for us to be. In fact, I could say it like this. Like maybe, maybe this morning, this could be you. Or at some point in your life, maybe it was you where you realized there was something wrong. There's something broken, and you need to make some change. There needs to be something different. And so you walk into a gathering, a place of worship, and you're looking for that solution. Like what I had. There's something wrong. I need to figure out how to how to make this different or improve this so I can become a better version of me and the focus of that type of worship get this is still Problematic because the center of it is still you. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with just recognizing putting your finger on here's a problem, but I want you to know that the solution is different than just becoming a better version of yourself.

And I think America, the way that we're taught in our culture, has the tendency of seeing our spirituality that way, that it's very much this autonomous way of thinking where God just simply becomes a leverage point for me to learn a better version of myself. And can I just tell you, that's not biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity is not about figuring out, how do I go from being bad to good or good to better? Biblical Christianity is offering you something altogether different. It's about learning to lay aside everything else in this world, to discover new life and identity in Jesus. I mean, that's why Jesus said to us in places like Matthew chapter 16, anyone who wishes to follow after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. So it's about relinquishing everything that you are to find who you are and who he is. And I could even say it like this. Sometimes I give it this comparison that, we might think this is a silly illustration, but if you take a monkey and you pull it off a tree and you decide, you know what monkey, you need a different experience. Let's let's see if you can find a better version of yourself and you throw it in the ocean. Don't do that. But if you did that right, you would. We could look at that monkey and be like, what is that person doing? Of course, a monkey's not free in the sea.

It wasn't made for the sea. It was made for the tree. Or if you see a fish jumping out of the water onto land, like a part of my life. In high school, I lived in mobile, Alabama, where they have something called a jubilee, where all of a sudden the oxygen just vacates the water. The fish panic, and they all just jump out and you get to walk around spearing fish and but fish jump out of the water. And if we looked at fish like that, we would think, how silly. Why would you want to do that? Fish? You're not free until you're living in the environment for which you were created. You belong in the water. And it's the same for you and for me. You're not free until your life is given over to the purpose for which it was created, and the purpose for which God has created you get this is not based on your performance, but based on a relationship with him. It's not until your life is given over to him that you surrender all that you are to the goodness of who he is, that you discover the freedom for which you were created only in Christ. You're not truly free until your life is given to Jesus. And so how do we find that victory? Well, I'm going to give you three points this morning, and I want you to know we're going to work through these points in a linear way.

But I really want you to understand that all these points at one time can be experienced, and it's important to just kind of see these, holistically in my life. So how do I find victory number one? Is this in your notes? Identify my idols. Identify my idols. We all have them. And like I said, they overpromise and under-deliver. What are they? You cannot change what you do not call out. And sometimes, if we're not careful, even our idols can put us to sleep. Meaning we don't even realize that some things in our life have become idols. And the way that this happens is God has certainly given you in your life a lot of good things, but our tendency is to take those good things and turn them into God things, things that we worship. And that's where they become dangerous, that we see them as an end and of themselves, rather than as a source from the giver of all good things. And we need to, rather than let those things master us, learn how to align them with the one who is the true Lord over us. God, how do I see this in light of who you are? So? So I'm identifying my idols.

And this is exactly what happens in Ephesus is the idols and the strictest sense begin to be identified. And in verse 23 it says, about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way Christianity during this time period wasn't really referred to as Christianity. That was a term that was coined later. Just a couple of times in your Bible, people that follow Jesus were referred to as Christians. Not not very often, but what they referred to as followers of the way, because it was this relational journey they were on with the Lord. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together with the workmen or the workmen in similar trades, and said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia. This Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. That is true. Right. Like putting your trust in the things of this world will not lead to where you hope it will. Verse 27 and there is danger. Not only that, this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the Great Goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worships.

And so you're starting to see, as the Gospels made known, it's bringing to light the conflict we have as human beings with these lesser gods, we pick that we call idols now, in the strictest sense, to us, the idea of idolatry here might look silly, I don't know. In my life and personal relationships, I have very many people that bow down to images in their home. I know that happens around the world. It's just not not necessarily often that I encounter people in America that way. And certainly there are people that tend to do that. But for some of us, this might be a little bit foreign, because in America we would say, well, the problem, in Rome is different than us today. Like in Rome, they bow down to all sorts of gods. In America, we barely have a god if one at all. And if we're being truly honest most of the time that God is just simply ourselves, we surrender and worship to ourselves. What makes us most happy? We think we're the most important thing. And so we look to ourselves for all the answers of life because it's that's what's most critical. But either way, whether you're bowing down to a statue, you're bowing down to a self or some sort of idol you've created, there's different ways idolatry can be experienced.

So what is an idol? If we just gave gave us a concise definition of what an idol is. I would say it like this an idol is anything we trust, love, or fear more than God. An idol is anything we trust or love or fear more than God. And if we put it in a question, we could ask it like this. What? What is it? What is it that I run to for security? What is it I turn to for meaning? What is it I seek for identity instead of the Lord? You know, at first an idol can look like a good thing. But what we discover is in the end, it destroys the soul. Idols are dangerous, and learning to identify them are important to our lives. And any moment in our lives, we can begin to give ourselves over to it. In fact, And in first John chapter five it says it like this. Verse 21 John writes to us who lived in Ephesus. He says, little children, keep yourself from idols. Now, if you're wondering who little children is in this part of the story, John lives to be, old. And so to him, everyone's a kid. And so he's encouraging us in this. There's what will destroy your soul and there's what Jesus offers you. In fact, it reminds me of an old legend. Some some argue that this is true.

I don't know. It might be true. It may not be true, but it's a great story. Someone to share it anyway. In the Arctic, there was this. This form of hunting that some speculate could be legend or actually happened. But what would happen in the Arctic is that hunters would sharpen the blade of a knife to the point that it would become like a razor, and then they would dip that knife in blood, let it freeze, dip it in blood, let it freeze over and over. They would practice this, and then they would take the blade of that knife and they would stick the handle in the snow, leaving the blade exposed. And a wolf would smell the blood, and then they would show up and began to lick the blade. And over time, at first they enjoy the taste of the blood, but before long, without realizing it, they don't recognize that the blood they begin to taste as their own, as their tongue has been sliced on the knife. And this begins to weaken the wolf to the point that the hunter is able to capture it. Because it's the same for idolatry in our lives. We don't realize often, as we begin that journey, the expense it brings to our soul, and ultimately without identifying it, can lead to our destruction. Your idols. While we think serve us, in the end, we end up serving them and they will devour us.

And so James is encouraging us to think in terms of this, helping us discover, where is where are our idols. And if we're not careful in our own lives, we kind of get lulled to sleep in the appreciation of them, that we fail to recognize the destruction that they bring. So if you got your notes this morning, you'll see under point number one, I've given you six, six tests. I want to just share with you real quickly here, six tests that we can just think through to determine, do I have some idols in my life, some areas that I'm not even considering where something might have crept in, and. And it doesn't mean that these things are bad things. And by the way, as we just go through the list, some of the things that are identified here doesn't mean it's necessarily has become an idol in our life, but it does help us to become aware because God has. God has blessed us with things in this world that are intended to really point to the greatness of who he is. And the question is, do they control us or are we given over to the Lord? So what are those tests for our soul that we can begin to ask? Like, do I have any idols? Well, number one is this there is the if only test.

The if only test. And I know you already know what this is, but it works like this. If only I had blank then I would feel secure. Then I would feel happy or then I would feel significant. And your answers reveal the idolatry of the heart. They could be things like approval, success, control possessions. They could be comfort if I then I felt that comfort. Right. Or if then I had this relationship or if then I had this sort of reputation or this sort of financial security, then. Then I would finally have arrived. This statement, what it points out to us, is something that referred to as functional saviors. I mean, we buy into the lie that salvation is finally achieved through this thing and what it would deliver to me. Idolatry says if I had this, then my life would be complete. But faith says Christ is my completeness, not my circumstance. Test number two would be this the emotional indicator test? Tim Keller, he wrote this. He said, your idols are often hiding behind your strongest emotions. Strong emotions tend to expose our idols. And so in that scenario, we should ask this question, what makes me most anxious? Or what makes me most angry? Or what makes me most worried or disappointed so deeply that my joy is gone? Idolatry says it this way if this is threatened, everything falls apart.

But faith says this my joy and stability come from Christ, not my circumstances or the third test. Is this the fear test? And we asked this question what do I fear losing the most? Is it my reputation? Is it my finances? Is my control, my influence, my family approval? Relationships, comfort? Whatever we fear, losing most often functions as an idol because it controls what we do rather than Christ. Idol says you must protect this at all costs. But faith says God is my refuge. And security test for is the resource test, the test of time and finances and energy. It's what consumes. We ask the question, what consumes my time? What consumes my finances? What consumes my mental energy? The idolatry says, give your life to what benefits you the most.

But faith says, my life, my time and resources belong to the Lord. I love the way Jesus says at the sermon on the Mount. He says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. It's often why periodically throughout the Gospels, you'll find Jesus talking about our wealth as people financially because he wants you to know it's a great indicator of what you truly love and what you ultimately worship. A couple years ago, we had someone speaking at our men's retreat that put it like this.

I really appreciated the way they said it, but they said, you know what would happen in your life if all of a sudden you got that promotion that came with a pay raise where you just decided the finances you were living on before that pay raise, that was enough, that your quality of life, where it was that you could just be content that just because you had a pay raise doesn't didn't mean you needed to also improve your status of life, because it doesn't add to the value of who you are and purchasing those things.

You discover that while you think you own them, rather they own you and you end up serving them rather than them serving you. And so he encouraged us like to think about what? At what point of your life, do you just feel content with the things that you have, and why is it that you think that you need more in order to be satisfied? What if, rather, what if rather than continuing to use those things on you, what? What if you used your resources to bless others? And I appreciated that there was like this place of just putting a cap on just my demands as a human being and just looking beyond me. But I would argue even further than that and saying what the people in Ephesus are actually doing is not saying, when I get to this point, that's where I'm going to be content. But what they're actually doing is surrendering.

They're taking away from the things that they've given over to, and they're actually turning it to the Lord. And maybe we could ask that with our own resources that we have as human beings, our time, our energy, or our wealth. Like, not only am I willing just to be content where I'm at, but would I actually surrender those things to the greatness of who God is? There's the resource test. There's the number five, the identity test. What makes me feel valuable as a person? Common idols of identity include your career, your success, your intelligence, maybe even your parental success. Or possibly, possibly your spiritual performance. And if you answer anything other than Christ and being loved by the Lord, you may be given your life over to a functioning idol. He says your worth comes from what you achieve. But faith says my identity is secure because I belong to Christ. And the last is this will be done. The suffering test. One of the clearest ways idols appear is when they feel threatened. And this is where we ask the question. When? This is taken away, do I lose my ability to trust in God? Idolatry says if I lose, this, life is over. But. But faith says, even if I lose, this, Christ is enough. Idolatry is. It begins by believing your idol will satisfy, but only really, in the end, discovering it actually devours the soul.

So you can't change what you don't call out. But identifying idols are important. And then in recognition of that point number two in your notes, identifying is not just enough. We have to do point number two and that is surrender my idols. Surrender them. And I want you to know, when this happens in our life, there's a there's sometimes a tension that builds. Because, well, we don't want to because sometimes we get so wrapped up in them. The thought of losing them. It also includes losing ourselves. And so we'd rather continue to go down a path of destruction, holding on to these things than letting go of them. And when you read about the church in Ephesus, this is the battle that you see taking place between two different groups of people. And in the next verses you read in verse 28, when they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So you're seeing one of the emotional responses we tend to have when someone steps on our idol. And sometimes we despair in losing it. Other times we get defensive in it and we attack. And this is exactly what's happening in the among the Ephesians, verse 29. So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him, and even some of the Asiatics who were friends friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Now some cried out one one thing, some some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. This sounds like protests in America, doesn't it? We don't even know. We just want to be angry about something. In verse 33, some some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hands, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. It's interesting when you go back and just historically look at these places in which are shared with us in the book of Acts, you can go back to the city of Ephesus today and see its ruins, and you can see this particular theater where this riot was taking place. It's an enormous theater that was thought to seat around 25,000 people. So you can think, this is not a small disturbance within the city and it's all over our love for idols. In fact, when we look at this particular passage as it relates to idolatry, one of the things that I want you to keep in mind is let's think about ourselves this morning rather than others, because sometimes we can load up passages like this and we're like, you know what? I know someone right now that needs to hear this, and we think it's our job to go tell them that they really need to let down these idols.

And, look, I'm not telling you that's not your job. What I'm telling you is sometimes when you approach these conversations with people, they don't always go the way that you might build them up in your mind. And so just coming to someone and saying you've got an idol is not, not, not simply enough. Like, I want you to hear the entirety of what we're going to share this morning before you figure out how you might engage people in this world. Because the way we're going to end is the most important component. But I think it is critical for us to begin in this place that we war in our own relationship with the Lord, trusting that he's enough and we're reluctant to want to surrender. And one of the ways we discover that is recognizing what's welling up within us. And this is happening with the people in Ephesus as they're battling against the Lord. But on the other side of the city, there are some others who have begun to surrender to the Lord.

And the way that story unfolds is in verse 11 it says, And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jews, Jewish exorcists, undertook the invoking of the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims, let somebody. I'm going to read the rest of this in just a minute, but let me just stop there because I will tell you, in my life, I had something interesting happen to me when I was in high school. I a couple of times in high school, I broke my leg both times. It was my right leg. One time it was so bad that the doctor looked at me and said, I don't know if you're even going to be able to walk on this leg again. And he was wrong, so I appreciate that. But it was a pretty significant break. And I just I don't want to embarrass the person that did this. So I'll just say a person in my life before, right before I went into surgery, they were adamant that they would see me. And the reason they wanted to see me is because earlier in the week, there had appeared on television someone that said, if you send me your money, I'll send you a magic handkerchief, and if you put this on something, then it will heal it.

And so this person had spent their money on this magic hankie that they wanted me to have, that they thought would heal me. Now, I want you to know, in that moment I just took it as this person loves me and cares enough to take these steps, even though I'm not going to accept like believe this, right? So I didn't like malign them. And so what I what I want you to know though, is when you read this particular verse, God's intentions for you is to not take verse 12. Extrapolate from that. Now, this is how you need to practice in your life. This is something unique. And I'll tell you why. It's I think it's unique in a moment. But if God intended for you to take this verse and then create a business of magic hankies and sell that, Paul would say that many times throughout the New Testament for you. Okay. And not even sell it. Like if this was intended to be a practice of Christianity, you would find this repeated throughout the New Testament. You don't. It happens here. And this is the spot. The only spot. It happens. And the reason is because I think the uniqueness of the situation. So what is the uniqueness of the situation? Well, we're reading about individuals who have given themselves over to sorcery and magic, and they believe in these things, amulets, whatever.

They believe in these trinkets that give them a value that have power. And now they're discovering these moments through this particular example that there's something far greater in his name is Jesus. Now, this is a narrative in the Bible. And so when you read narratives, it's not always telling. You take this narrative and then make that apply to your life in every situation. It's just telling you this is something that happened and oftentimes in a unique way that's not to be repeated, but rather it's helping. Helping the people in Ephesus understand the greatness of who Christ is. And now all of a sudden, rather than just acknowledge that greatness, you see in verse 13 what people attempt to do, they attempt to just manipulate it for their own purposes. And this is what I warned us of at the very beginning, that we have this tendency in pursuing God to really not make it about the Lord, but make it about ourselves, that Jesus helps me go from bad to better. And that's not the point of Christianity. It's not about manipulating Jesus to get what you want. It's about seeing the greatness of who Jesus is and entrusting your life to him. But here they continue with the idea of manipulating.

And in verse 14, seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Siva were doing this. So here they are coming in, provoking the name of Jesus to get evil spirits out of somebody. And then it says, verse 15, but the evil spirits answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul I recognize. But who are you? And the men in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them. So they fled out of the house, naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. So they're having laid out for them the significance of really who the Lord is. I mean, this is the reason why, as Christians, we don't practice sorcery or witchcraft because one, we're not just about manipulating spirits, and two, Jesus is more powerful. Why would you want those things when you have Christ, right? So they're seeing this laid out in front of them. And I want you to see what their idolatry led to. You get it in a very amplified way in verse 16, that the idea of idolatry is really about destruction. And it's a tool that the enemy uses demonic forces used to bring about your destruction. And the way it's amplified here is when they try to provoke and control these spirits. These spirits turn on them and it starts to attack them, even to the point that it rips off their clothes and they're running away naked.

I mean, when you read about demonic activity throughout the New Testament, one of the things that you discover is it's quickly linked to physical harm and sexual harm. Now, that's unfortunate because God created your body for a purpose and even gave you sexuality for a purpose. And in the Lord, they're wonderful things, right? They're things to delight over in the greatness of who God is. But when they're given over to the enemy, what the enemy desires to do is rip at the image of God in you, to degrade you as an image bearer of the Lord as you. You seek to worship the idol rather than the giver of all good things. And so it's amplified in this moment. And these people are seeing this played out, and they're wondering why in the world are we doing these things? And what we have is Christ. And so when I look at this third point, I gotta land this quickly. But this can I just tell you, this is the most critical point out of all of this? Because when you talk about identifying our idols, that's important. You can't change what you don't call out and surrender idols. That's significant. Being willing to turn those over because of the most important thing, which is this trust Jesus alone. Trust Jesus alone because our goal today is not about just letting go of your idolatry.

That's more of a religious way of thinking. A religious way of thinking is saying to you, look, you're bad. You should stop being bad. And we want to surrender our idols. So we quit doing the bad performance so we can do the good performance. That's not what God calls you to. The Lord calls you to so much more in him. And the answer to idolatry is not merely removing idols, it's replacing them with a greater love. Jesus didn't just take away there the identity and idolatry. He gave them something altogether new. In fact, Thomas Chalmers, who was a theologian in the 17th and 18th century, he was Scottish. He said this the heart must have the expulsive power of a new affection. When Christ becomes more beautiful and satisfying, idols lose their grip. And this is exactly what you see. Verse 17, it says, and fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord was extolled. And also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. A number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them, and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver, which is somewhere between 7 to $10 million today. So the word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily. What do they see? Freedom in Jesus.

The truth of who they are in light of who he is. The opportunity they have to know Christ when Christ becomes more beautiful and satisfying. Idols lose their grip. Can I tell you it's good to surrender them? But one of the things that helps you surrender them is the significance of Christ in your life. If I just close with this illustration, like, I moved to Utah a little over 20 years ago. I've lived here longer than I lived anywhere. This is home for me. It's beautiful. I wondered when I first got here, man, would I ever get sick of losing or looking at those mountains? And I got to tell you, 20 years later, the answer is still no. I hope 20 years later, the answer will still be no. But one of the things as you look at those mountains, they're breathtaking, they're beautiful. And there's a part of them that also looks a little bit daunting, overwhelming. Try to think to yourself, you see a mountain, you're like, I got to get to the top of this thing, but can I even do that? It's like, how does one do this, right? But then if you drive up, if you want to cheat and just drive to the top of one and you go up Little Cottonwood Canyon right up to Alta or Snowbird and start to ascend. And what looked at one point so daunting becomes becomes achievable.

And when you get to the top of those mountains and you turn around and you look at the valley, it puts everything else into a different perspective. And can I tell you it's the same thing with idolatry? Sometimes idols can so grip our heart. We think, how can I ever escape this? But the point is not just about letting your idols go. The point is about grabbing a hold of something far greater. And the more we walk in the beauty of Jesus, the better it puts our idols into perspective as we see the significance of beauty of who Christ is. We ask ourselves the question, why did I even stress about the things that God called me to leave behind. He's so much greater. He's so much better. He's freedom to the soul. C.S. Lewis said it like this in The Weight of Glory, and I'll read this and be done. He said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We're half hearted creatures, fooling about when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum, because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. The greatness of who Jesus is the is the great solution to the battle of idolatry that we wage against.