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ANNOUNCER: This broadcast is sponsored by the friends
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We thank you for helping to spread the love of Christ
throughout the world.
You're watching a presentation of Kerry Shook Ministries.
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KERRY: Right now if you had to define your life
in one word. What would it be? Hectic, fun,
crazy, overloaded, overwhelmed, stressful? How many of us, if we
had to define our life in one word would use the word,
centered? Centered. The result of centering your life is
centered relationships that are unshakable when the earthquakes
of life strike. How do have a centered life? You follow the
first two commandments in the Ten Commandments. So would you
stand in honor of God's word and let's look at Exodus chapter 20
and just follow along with me. These are the first two
commandments and they go together. Then God spoke all
these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall
have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself
an idol or any likeness of what is in Heaven above or on the
earth beneath or in the water underneath. God says, I demand
to the center of your life and if you put anything other than
God at the center of your life, then it becomes an idol. If I
substitute anything other than God as first place in my life,
it becomes an idol. And even good things that God created for
our enjoyment we said last week can become idols. We don't have
idols of stone and wood and gold and silver like they did in
ancient civilizations but we still have our idols
nonetheless. Can a career be an idol? Sure. Can sports be an
idol? You bet. You know there are so many things that are good
that can become an idol in our lives. It all depends on what's
at the center of your life. If anything other than God is at
the center of your life then there's an idol there in your
life. I want you to think of your life like a wheel and in
the center is the hub, the core, and that's the most important
part. That's where all the power comes from and then you have the
spokes of life and the spokes would be things like if your
married, marriage, family, work, hobbies, dreams, goals, those
are the spokes of the wheel. Your relationships, the spokes
of the wheel and if you allow one of those spokes to become
the center, the hub, then you have a faulty center. Even good
things, if I allow my marriage to become the center of my life,
then that's an idol. Anything that you substitute for God at
the center of your life becomes an idol and an idol is a faulty
center to build your life on. One of the first things that
begins to happen when we move anything other than God into the
center of our lives, is a loss of control. When you have a
faulty center your life begins to spin out of control. The
amazing thing is you think you're controlling everything.
You think you're making the choices. You think you're doing
what you want to do. It's like I'm not going to follow God. I'm
going to do what I want to do. I'm not going to listen to
anyone else. No ones going to put their rules on me. I'm going
to live by my rules. I'm going to do what I want to do and the
problem is idols begin to control you. The reason why God
says, no idols, is because he knows that whatever is at the
center of my life will control my life. He knows how important
the center of your life is because you will build your
whole life around the center of your life and if anything other
than God is at the center of your life then it will start to
control you. Idols control us. It says in Psalm 115:8, those
who make them, idols, will be like them and so will all who
trust in them. You'll start to become like whatever you put
your trust in. You'll start to become like whatever is at the
center of your life. You will gravitate toward your God. You
were made to worship. You were created to worship and God
created you to worship him by putting him at the center of
your life but if you don't worship God, you will worship
something. You will put something at the center of your
life. You were made to have something in the center of your
life. You always have something at the center of your life. So
what is your life revolving around right now? Is it work? Is
it family? Is that dream? Is it that goal? Is it that
relationship? What is your life revolving around right now? If
it's revolving around anything other than God, you have a
faulty center and eventually things will spin out of control
because that idol, even if it's a good thing that you've put at
the center of your life in place of God, it becomes an idol and
eventually it controls us. That's why God says put me at
the center of your life because I will be in control of your
life and I love you more than anyone else. I care about you so
deeply and have the power to make a difference in your life,
to give you prevision, to watch over your life, to balance your
priorities. You see the spokes of the wheel come into balance
when I put God at the center of my life. That's why Jesus said
this in Matthew 6:33, but seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness and all these things will be given to you as
well. See if God is at the center of your life all the
spokes begin to fall into place. He says I will balance your
priorities. I will provide for your needs. I will center your
life so it's unshakable in the shakiest times. Now the problem
is when comes to the spokes of the wheel usually what we do is
we have our relationship spoke and those of you who are
married, the marriage spoke and the work spoke and goals and
dreams, hobbies, of course family and then we give God a
spoke of the wheel of our lives. And we say, God you get a slice
of the pie so I'm doing pretty good. God you're in there. You
know you're just as important as my hobbies. I just want you to
know and generally that's what most people do. They'll say, you
know what I really want God to be first place in my life so I'm
going to give him a slice of the pie. I'm going to let God have
his portion in my life. He's going to get a spoke of the
wheel and God says, I don't want a spoke of your wheel. I demand
the center of the wheel because that's where all the power comes
from. If God's not the center, you have a faulty center, and
you have no power to make it through the pains and the
difficulties of life. Storms come into every life and if you
don't have God at the center, then you don't have a hub that's
strong enough to power you through when the pressure is on.
But God says, I want to be at the center of your life and so
you see how that works? God's at the center of every area, he's
at the center of my relationships, the center of my
finances, the center of my marriage. He gets first place.
He gets the first part, the first place in every area of my
life. God says, I want to be first in all the important areas
of your life. Now there are three idols in the scripture. We
briefly mentioned them last weekend. Three idols that the
people tended to fall into worshiping over and over again,
three main idols, there was Mammon, the god of money and
success, there was Baal, the god of sex and pleasure, and there
was Moloch, the god of selfishness and violence. And so
I want us to look at these same three idols today because I
believe these are the same three idols that people worship
everyday in our modern society. First is the god of Mammon and
by the way it's god with a little g, all these gods. He's
the god of money and success. And look what Jesus said in
Matthew 6:19, do no lay up for yourselves treasures on earth
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in a steal
but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where
neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break
in and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also. No one can serve two masters. For either he will
hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the
one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
Underline the last phrase. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Now
Jesus wasn't saying that there's anything wrong with success.
There's nothing wrong with financial success. There's
nothing wrong with material possessions. It's just when you
try to put them at the center of your life, they move from being
treasure to being Mammon. When you do something with what God
has given you to make a difference in the lives of
others, to do something for all eternity, then it's eternal
treasure and God says it's okay to lay up for yourselves
treasures. Jesus didn't say it's really bad to have treasure. No
he just said it's really stupid to put it all down here on this
earth. That is not long term investing. That's
shortsightedness when you're down here just a few short
years, 60, 70, 80, 90 years and then eternity is billions upon
billions upon billions upon billions and then it's just
begun. He was just saying, hey you really ought to invest,
invest wisely. Don't invest for the next year, don't invest for
the next twenty years, don't invest for the next one hundred
years, invest for the next one million years. Think ahead. He's
saying here there's nothing wrong with finances. There's
nothing wrong with success here on this earth. It's just when it
becomes the center of your life, it gets destructive immediately
and you can't have God at the center of your life if money and
possessions are at the center of your life. So how do I make
Christ the center of my finances? Well Jesus told the
parable about a man who was me centered in his finances rather
than God centered. And that's what is all comes down to. Am I
going to be me centered or God centered? If I'm me centered
then my life is going to spin out of control. If I'm God
centered then my life is unshakable. So this man was me
centered and here's what he did. In Luke, I want you to look at
it with me, chapter twelve, it says here, and he told them this
parable. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop,
he thought to himself. What shall I do? I have no place to
store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I will
tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will
store all my crops and grain and my goods and I'll say to myself
you have plenty of good things, laid up for many years, take
life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him. You
fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you, then
who will get what you've prepared for yourself. This is
how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but
is not rich toward God. Now here's what I see here, this guy
used eleven personal pronouns. He said I will do this, I will
build this, I will store this, I will do this. This guy had an I
problem. That was his disease. It was egonomics. He had an I
problem. It was all about him. And I want you to underline the
phrase at the very beginning. The ground of a certain rich man
produced. The ground produced it. God produced it through the
ground, not the rich man. He said, I'm a self made man. Look
what I've done. Look how amazing I am. And it just keeps coming
in so I'm just going to build bigger barns and I'm just going
to build a bigger bank account and I'm just going to do all
these things and all this investing and all this building
and I'm going to do amazing things because I'm amazing. I'm
a self made man. I've worked hard to earn all this. I'm just
going to live it up now. And God said, you fool, don't you
understand that everything you have comes from me. Everything.
Who gave you the ability to work? Who gave you your very
life and health? And who gave you your very breath and who's
going to take it away tonight? You fool. Tonight, you're gone.
Tonight you leave it all behind for your kids to fight over and
for the government to take a lot of it. Tonight, it's over with.
You see this guy didn't understand that it all comes
from God. I don't think Jesus was saying that it was wrong for
him to be financially successful. In fact I know Jesus
wasn't saying it was wrong for this man to be financially
successful. What he was saying was, this guy didn't appreciate
where it came from and this guy didn't give any of it back. And
so you're rich but don't feel guilty about it, just do two
things. If you want to make sure that you're God centered in your
finances. Now we're talking about the toughest one first
because when we put God first in the practical areas of our
lives. You know I don't just want to say, hey put God first
and it's going to be wonderful. Just put God first. Everybody
let's just put God first and you go out going, yeah I'm putting
God first. No God says I want to be first in the important areas
of your life. And God knows finances are important to us and
if God is not first in this area, then we might as well just
go home, because this is the tough one. So let's deal with
the tough one first. So #1 acknowledge that it's all from
God and be grateful, enjoy what God has given you. Enjoy it.
It's all from God. Secondly, give back that first ten
percent. You give back the first ten percent to put God at the
first place in that slice of the pie. You give God the first ten
percent. That's why scripture says in Proverbs 3:9 and 10,
honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income
and he will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow
your wine vats with the finest wines. Underline the first part
of all your income, not the leftovers. Not if there's
anything left at the end of the month, the first part of all
your income. And then Deuteronomy 14:23 says, bring
this tithe to eat before the Lord your God at the place he
shall choose as his sanctuary. This applies to your tithes of
grain, new wine, olive oil and the first born of your flocks
and herds. The purpose of tithing is to teach you always
to put God first in your lives. And Jesus confirmed this passage
and it's important for us to understand what the tithe is.
The word tithe just means ten percent. Nothing mystical,
magical or spiritual about that, it just means a tenth. Ten
percent. Now why did God say ten percent? Why didn't God say five
percent or why didn't God say twenty percent? I don't know. I
don't know, but he said ten percent but I do know the
purpose behind it. Underline it, it's the very last part of that
last verse. The purpose of tithing is what, to teach you
always to put God first in your finances, no in your lives, in
your lives. The purpose is to put God first because God knows
if he's first place in the important areas of your life,
he's first place. If he's not first place in your finances or
in your relationships, he's not first place. It's as simple as
that. Well let's move on from the god of Mammon. He's probably
the biggest god that we all struggle with, that people
struggle with today but here's another one that we all struggle
with today, Baal, the god of sex and pleasure. Baal was the
fertility god and there were temple prostitutes, all kinds of
vile things in Baal worship. It was all about fulfilling your
fleshly indulgence, doing whatever you just feel like
doing and there were no rules. No boundaries. Except when you
would get into Baal worship, the more you would get into it the
more Baal supposedly would demand of you and it would
become very destructive, self mutilating. The prophets of Baal
would cut themselves to show how much they were dedicated to Baal
and it was very destructive. It's amazing. It was all about
being free to do whatever you want to do but it's like any
idol, then you're caught and you're not free anymore and it's
destructive. Now when it comes to God's gifts there are always
boundaries and let me just say this. We're going to talk more
about sex in this series but sex is a gift of God. It's a
beautiful, wonderful gift of God. It's not bad. It's not
dirty. It's not wrong. It's a beautiful sacred gift of God for
our enjoyment in the marriage relationship. There are
boundaries on it. It's within the bounds of marriage. And it's
like any of God's gifts, if you break God's rules on
relationships, it comes back to hurt you. You don't break God's
law. God's law breaks you. It's like fire, one of God's gifts.
In the fireplace contained in those boundaries it warms you,
outside the fireplace it can burn the house down. It's
destructive and that's the way it is with sex. God says my
rules for what I created for your enjoyment, this powerful
amazing gift is to bring unity and oneness and enjoyment and
pleasure in the marriage relationship and so you
shouldn't be ashamed of it. It's not bad. It's not dirty. But
it's reserved in the boundaries, the powerful boundaries of
marriage. Before marriage, outside of marriage, it's
destructive because it's not just a physical act. It has deep
and profound spiritual and emotional ramifications and it's
very destructive emotionally, spiritually, sometimes
physically, but when we follow God's rules for relationships
there are blessings. Outside of God's rules, it becomes *** and
*** is all about I want what I want when I want it. I'm not
going to wait. I'm not going to follow God's rules. I'm not
going to do it God's way. I feel like doing this and if it feels
so good how can it be wrong and so I'm going to do what I want
and that's ***. *** is all about taking. Love is all about
giving. *** says I'm going to take what I want. Love says I'm
going to give. Let's look at the next idol, Moloch, which you can
wrap all the other idols into. It's the god of selfishness. It
had the head of a bull and body of a man and in the middle there
was a hollowed out place in this idol where they would burn a
fire and then they would put their children in the fire,
usually the firstborn. And this is where they would sacrifice
their firstborn children, their children to this god Moloch.
This god of selfishness and talk about the ultimate selfishness,
they thought if they sacrificed and burned their children in the
fire to Moloch, then Moloch would bless then and they'd have
a great life, they might be famous, everything might go
really well, be successful and everything work out. Can you
believe that? The ultimate act of selfishness, sacrificing
their children, you think of Christ, the ultimate sacrifice
when he gave his life but the ultimate act of sacrifice was
Christ's sacrifice, the ultimate act of selfishness was
sacrificing children to Moloch. And we would say today, well
that's horrible, that's heinous. We wound never do that and yet I
see men and women sacrifice their children everyday to the
god of a bigger bank account or a bigger house or more success
at work and they're never there for their kids. Sacrificing
their kids each and every day to the god of selfishness. I see
men and women sacrifice their children at least once or twice
a week I see someone or talk to someone who has committed an
affair, committed adultery, and it destroys the whole family.
Why, because they felt like, because it felt right but it did
destroy the family and their kids. I see people sacrifice
their kids each and every day to the god of selfishness. I see a
lot of parents who never put God first at the center of their
life and so everything else is more important. You know the
sports activities of their kids, all the lessons of their kids,
everything else, sleeping in on the weekend, everything comes
before God and their kids know that and they sacrifice their
kids on the alter of selfishness and their kids realize that
Christianity doesn't mean anything. It's just something
you talk about but you don't really do. See I want to break
it down to something that really helped me years ago when someone
showed me this. This circle represents a non-Christian and
this is the throne of your life, the center of your life, the
captain's chair of your life and for a non-Christian, it's me,
it's I at the center calling the shots, playing God and then
Christ is outside. And then all the priorities, these little
dots represent priorities, are all misaligned. They're all out
of whack and so then you see over here someone who's a
Christian, with someone who has Christ inside their life.
They've invited Christ in their life. They've surrendered to him
for salvation and Heaven one day but it's so easy for us as
Christians, for Christ followers, to push Christ off
the throne of our lives and start calling the shots again
and when that happens the results are the same as if we
weren't a Christian, our priorities spin out of control,
get all out of balance. But here's what God wants, God wants
me to be a God centered believer. Where God, Jesus
Christ, is on the throne and I push me off the throne and let
him be God in my life and when that happens he lines up my
priorities. He balances my life. He centers my life. He provides
for my needs. Centered only comes from letting God be at the
center of my life. And that's a daily battle for Christ
followers because we so often try to push God out. How do you
know if you pushed God out and you're on the throne? You start
to worry and you try to control things. Man's oldest problem is
trying to control. Don't ever forget that. I want you to look
at I Corinthians 6:9 it says, do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be
deceived, neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor *** perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom
of God and such were some of you, but you are washed. You are
sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the spirit of our God. I love this passage but
underline, nor idolaters. He is saying all sinners who have
broken the Ten Commandments aren't going to get to Heaven
because Heaven is a perfect place for perfect people.
Idolaters aren't going to get to Heaven. It's a perfect place for
perfect people. Well that's a problem for us because we've all
committed the sin of idolatry. We've all put me at the center
of our lives. That's a problem for us because nobody is
perfect. We've all sinned and that's why Jesus came to the
cross. You see we've all broken the Ten Commandments and we're
all broken because of it. But if you take your brokenness to the
cross you find blessedness. The greatest thing about the Ten
Commandments is that it turns us to the grace of God because
we've all broken them and we're going to see everyone of us has
broken every one of them because Jesus said even your motives
come into play, even your thoughts come into play on the
Ten Commandments. And so basically, see everyone of us
have broken the law and that's why we're broken. There are so
many broken hearts, broken lives, broken relationships,
broken emotions, broken minds today. We live in a broken
society, in a broken world because we've all broken God's
laws. That's why we've got to get back to God's laws but first
you've got to go to the cross.
KERRY: Hey, I know that the messages are really making
an impact in your life and in your heart. And we want to
get you this series, so that you can
put it into your life and remember it,
Keep practicing these principles, because Satan is
always trying to steal the amazing things that God has
given us and wants for our lives. But God has a purpose and
a plan. And when you donate any amount, I just want to say thank
you. Thank you for supporting the ministry here as we get the
message of Jesus Christ out all over the world in a creative and
credible way that makes an impact in lives. Thank you for
your support, thank you for what God is doing through you, thank
you for your prayers. Because we're touching the world with
the words of life from Jesus Christ and then the works of
life, following up with our missions. Going all over the
world, to feed people, to make an impact with medical
facilities, with clean water, all the missions of Woodlands
Church and I thank God for you because you're a part of it.
Announcer: A wise person builds the house of his or her life
upon a foundation of truth. And in his eye-opening new series
called Unshakable, Kerry Shook reveals ten powerful, eternal
truths you can embrace that will result in a life that cannot be
ravaged by the winds of adversity or shaken by the
cultural earthquakes rolling through the days in which we
live. For a short time, the single DVD message from this
series titled The Blessings of Balance is our special thank you
for any gift in support of the outreaches of Kerry Shook
Ministries. And for your gift of $45 or more, we'll send the
entire Unshakable series on CD. No gift is too small to make a
difference in the lives of others, but if you can invest
$125 or more in helping others experience Christ, Kerry and
Chris want you to have Unshakable series on both CD and
DVD, as well as a bag of Summit Coffee grown through our very
own innovative ministry outreach in Haiti that is changing lives
and lifting people out of poverty. You'll also receive a
pair of his-and-hers coffee mugs for enjoying this amazing,
single-source roast. To share and request your thank you
resources online right now point your web browser to Kerry Shook
dot org. You can enjoy an Unshakable life and help others
do the same. Call or click right now.
KERRY: I'm so glad you joined us today, and I really know that
was God's plan. God wanted you to be with us today, so He could
tell you, through us, how much He loves you. And I don't know
what your situation in life is. I don't know where you are in
your spiritual journey, but if you have never opened your heart
to receive Christ into your life, today is your day. All you
have to do is say, "Jesus, come into my life, forgive me of my
sins. I want you to be the Lord of my life from now on. As best
I know how, I give my life to You. Give me a fresh start. "
If you prayed that prayer Christ came into your life.
He'll never leave you and never forsake you. I'm so thankful.
Call us right now and let us know about that
we can give you some information on how to grow in
your faith. We want to be kind of life coaches to you to
help you along the way. Well, God bless you.
Announcer: Thank you for joining us today and being a part
of the Kerry Shook Ministries.