Eric Russ | Why Settle for Less?

Sunday Evening, August 23, 2026

Given by Dr. Eric Russ | Pastor of Evangelism and Mobilization, Christ Covenant Church

Why Settle for Less?
Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 34

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Family, let's bow our heads and seek the Lord in prayer. 

Holy God, we are grateful. We don't take for granted being able to gather as your people tonight, open up your Word and to learn from you, and that's what we ask for. We ask that this would be a time where you are exalted, where your Word goes forth, where you are gracious in using your servant, and Lord, that you’d allow our ears to be eager to hear and that our hearts to be eager to learn. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring glory to Christ by making us more like you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Family, Lord's Day 34 is where we're at, and it's bringing us to a new section. If you're new here, welcome. If you're not, welcome back. This is a new section of what we call the Heidelberg Catechism, and that's what we've been going through during our time together in the evenings. Now, the catechism, just to give you a little update, has taken us through our misery, our sin, and need for salvation so far. And then it's taken us through our deliverance, what Christ has done to save us. And now we enter this third major section, and the question is no longer “How can I be saved?” but the question is, “Since Christ has saved me, how should now I live?” And appropriately, this section brings us to the Ten Commandments when we're asking ourselves how to live. And so, question 92 in the Heidelberg Catechism states, “What is God's law?” God's law is the Ten Commandments. And so, I want to let you guys know something, though, that appropriately before God gives Israel a command in the Scriptures, in the Old Testament, it's interesting what he does. He gives them, actually, a reminder. In Exodus 20:2, he says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." And that really matters when we look at this text, and we look at all the different questions that we have – we have a lot to go through tonight. When he says this, he's saying that the order matters, right? That God does not say to you and me – and this is exciting – he does not say, “Obey me, and perhaps I'll rescue you.” But he says, “I rescued you. Now this is how my redeemed people live.” So that's the mode of operation that the Lord gives us as his people. So, you have grace before obedience, right? You have the sense of redemption that God gives us before requirement. I always tell people that God actually catches fish before he cleans them, right? That was like a grenade joke. It takes a little bit, you know? 

Question 93 tells us that the commandments have two parts: how we live toward God and how we live toward our neighbor. And the first word is interesting that God gives us about loving him. So, how do we live toward God and our neighbor? First word he gives us is he says, "You should have no other gods before me." So, I'll be dealing with the first commandment, and then we will deal with the subsequent commandments throughout our weeks together. So before we look at what the first commandment requires in question 94, which sequentially would make sense, I actually want to begin with question 95. So, if you look at question 95 – because we need to understand what God is telling us to flee, and this topic is extremely important, because it's asking what is idolatry? Idolatry is what we're talking about tonight, and the Heidelberg answers this question by saying idolatry is “having or inventing something in which to put our trust instead of” – and notice this, don't miss it – “or in addition to the only true God who has revealed himself in his Word.” That is packed full of good stuff. That is an intense and wonderful definition, because what it actually does, family, is it takes this kind of understanding of idolatry from the ancient world, in my opinion, and what it does is put it right in our lives. In fact, Romans 1:25 says that sinful humanity – what does it do? – it exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. So, when you think, as we understand, what is idolatry? What is idolatry? Well, idolatry is an exchange, right? We take something created, and we ask it to give us only what the creator can give us. Now the thing is, a lot of times when you think of idols, we can miss the reality that most dangerous idols that we have are actually not evil things. They're actually good things that's carrying too much weight in our lives. Right? Children are a wonderful gift, but they're terrible gods. Like my marriage is a wonderful gift from God, but it's a terrible god. Career, money, success, ministry. These are all great gifts. But a gift becomes an idol when I or you begin asking it to define us, give us identity, give us security, give us significance, give us peace, give us hope. Ultimately, all those things belong to a great God to give. 

So, idolatry a lot of times is not loving a bad thing. It's very important for us to hear, but it is asking a good thing to do a God-sized job in our life. And the Heidelberg really gets underneath this. You say, "Well, okay, I get that, Eric. So, idolatry. What is idolatry?" I'll say it does something well as it shares this, because it helps me say, you know what, we need one word. When you think idolatry, you think trust. Trust. So, to understand that idols, you know, they just don't ask, what do you worship? That's a question. But when you're thinking about idolatry, don't just ask that. I want you to ask where does my heart run when life begins to fall apart? Ask yourselves what has to go right for me to believe that I'm okay? What am I terrified of losing, because without it, I'm just unsure if I can cope? Those kinds of questions, I would say, get to the heart of revealing these gods in our life. 

Now, family, look at question 95. So, that's idolatry – as it were, any noun, like person, place or thing, that you put in the place of God or that you assist with God. Now look at question 95 as we continue. I think these words here are most penetrating to our culture. Look what he says here. He uses the words “instead of” or “in addition to.” You see that? I think those words really hit religious folk like us, right? Because you think of Israel, you know, you look at, you know, Kings 17 – 2 Kings 17:33 – they never abandoned God, right? They feared the Lord, it says in the Scriptures, but also served their own gods. See that? God and something else. That's more like us today, I would say, right? Jesus and financial security. Jesus and my reputation. Jesus and my children succeeding. Jesus and my health. Jesus and control. So, we don't replace God, necessarily. We supplement him. That's idolatry. 

Now go back to question 94. So, okay, that's idolatry, but what does the Lord require in the first commandment? And look what he says. He says that I, not wanting to endanger my own salvation, will avoid and shun all idolatry, sorcery, superstitious rights and prayer to saints or to other creatures. So, he tells us that we are to avoid these things. In 1 Corinthians 10 he says it another way: “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” Now these Heidelberg examples have something in common, family, right? Because you think of witchcraft, for example – I want to break these down to be faithful. Witchcraft seeks knowledge and power apart from God. Okay. Think of superstition. Superstition assigns power to objects and rituals and signs and formulas that God has not given them. Think of prayer to saints, right? You're directing religious dependence toward a creature rather than the creator. But beneath all three of these is this sense that, I would say, is one of the major shackles, one of the major strongholds, I think, of Christianity – Protestantism – today. It’s that God is not enough. I need something else. Having the Scriptures and walking by faith is not enough. There has to be something else. I have to get a hold of a special knowledge, a special word, a special experience, a special formula, a special person. But Scripture pushes back, pushes it all back to Christ. Look what it says in 1 Timothy 2:5, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men: the man, Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 4 says that through Christ we may draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. Now think about that: throne means sovereignty, grace is talking about just that welcome, and the confidence gives us access. So, through Jesus Christ, you and me – the Scriptures say you have access to the throne of almighty God, and the one seated upon that throne actually welcomes you. Now if that's the case, why search for another mediator when Christ himself has brought you to the Father? So, necromancy, which is what witchcraft and superstition is – he says these things don't even compare to a sovereign God. 

Now what's interesting, he gives those specifics here, but then he makes a really serious turn. This is where I want to spend most of our time. He makes a great turn. He says something – notice this – “Further, that I rightly come to know the only true God.” Family, there's the interpretive key right there. So, he's talking about the first commandment, no idols, flee from idolatry. He gives some specifics, obviously dated in the sense of necromancy, but then he says this: the only true God, who has revealed himself. He mentions this again in 95. So, in 94 he says know the only true God. In 95, he says the only true God who has revealed himself in his Word. Okay. Something going on here. He's trying to tell us something. There's something about knowing the only true God who's revealed in his Word. See? It seems that the tragedy of idolatry is not merely that we trust something else. It's actually who we are trusting in instead of God. Here's what I mean. God has not asked us to trust some unknown deity, hiding somewhere. See that? He has spoken to you and me. He has told us who he is. He has revealed himself. He's revealed his character. He's revealed his promises. He's revealed his purposes. And ultimately, Hebrews 1 says, he has spoken to us in his Son. So now, the question becomes deeper: who is this God that I'm exchanging something for? See, the deepest answer to idolatry, I want to propose – according to those two passages where he says that the only true God who has revealed himself in the Word, where he says that I rightly come to know the only true God – is that he's making it very clear to really push back idolatry, to fight against idolatry, is to have a greater vision of God himself. I want to say that many of our idols, they survive because somewhere along the way God becomes smaller in our thinking than he actually is. So perhaps I would say, even, the deepest question in the first commandment is not merely what are your idols? That'd be a normal question, but it actually is, looking at those segments, is do you know your God? 

So, as I ask do you know your God, I think it's appropriate for me to even spend some time asking who is God? It's an important question, y'all, because in our day and age, that term “God” can be extremely generic and could mean anything. And that's why I want to say it's important that we ask this question, because you think about it – God is so grand, he is so inexplicable, that during our time right now, I'll only be able to share a brief, inexhaustive aspect of some of his attributes. But I hope it even gives you a taste of who God is. So, when we say who is God, may I first say that the God of the Bible is eternal. This means that God has never had a moment when he was not God. And there would never be a moment that you enter when he is not already there as God. Psalm 90:2 says, "From everlasting to everlasting, you are God." See, family, you and me – we remember yesterday, we occupy today, we kind of can get nervous about tomorrow, but God is the creator of time. Our great Lord, Isaiah 46 says, "He declares the end from the beginning." Think about what that means, that whatever is waiting for you and me tomorrow cannot surprise God. You would never enter a day in which God is not already Lord. 

So, God is eternal according to the Scriptures. God is also transcendent. So, you have this eternal God that's transcendent. When I say transcendent, this is related to him being eternal, but not the same thing. See, eternality answers the question, how does God relate to time? Right? He's outside of time. Transcendence answers this broader question when you think of God: how does God relate to creation? Sometimes you can think about God – I don't know about you – but sometimes you can think about God as like, okay, yes, he's really powerful. Even when he's fighting Satan, it's like you got God and evil God. No, that's not true. When you think of transcendent, what God is saying is that he's not just bigger and better than everything in creation, but he literally stands apart from creation as the creator. He's infinitely above and beyond everything that he has made, and everything that the Lord has made is dependent upon him, while he depends on nothing. 

This eternal, transcendent God is also sovereign. There is no person, power, circumstance or moment in all creation over which he does not possess absolute authority. Psalm 116 says in verse 3, "Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases." Romans 11 says, "From him and through him and to him are all things." So see, God is not watching history, as it were, and kind of seeing things happen and then kind of scrambling to figure out what he needs to do. No, the Bible says his sovereignty – he rules. Nothing catches him unaware. Nothing exists independently from God. Nothing is outside his sovereign authority. Think about that. And you think about your life. 

So, you have this eternal, sovereign God who's providential, because I would say the Scriptures speak about his providence and it's technically considered a work. It's not an attribute, but it is important to mention here, and that's why I'm mentioning it. See, the Heidelberg says that everything comes to us not by chance, but by God's fatherly hand. You hear that? You see that in the Word there? I love those two words – “fatherly hand” – that the Heidelberg uses there, because hand means power, and fatherly means love. And what providence is, is that the sovereign God who's all-powerful actually is using his hand and is working his plan and preserving things and directing things and governing things, the details of this world, according to his wise and fatherly hand. Now if God were father without a hand, he might love you, but he will lack the power to accomplish anything for you. If he were a hand without being a Father, he might possess unlimited power, but he would have no reason to trust his heart. But our God, your God, has a fatherly hand. It's infinite power joined to perfect fatherly goodness. This God is eternal, and he's sovereign, and he's providential, and he's wise. Now, let me give one word real quick about providence if I can take a little commercial here. Sometimes providence can be difficult for you and me, right? Because providence, you don't see things happening, right? You see events, and you see circumstances. You see a door closed, and you see a door open, and from your limited angle, we call things coincidence, or we use what I would say is the dumbest term that we as Christians could ever use, and if you are using it, I'm praying that after tonight you will not use it again, and that's the word luck. There's no such thing. But our God, we use those words, but we can't see the event, but we don't understand that every event you have, there's a hand behind the event, right? Where I'm from we say, “Real G's move in silence.” 

See Scripture teaches us that providence often works quietly, that God's providence often moves, and you don't know what's going on. He does not have to announce every move for you and me. He's governing his world and creation, and you and I, we're kind of guessing, thinking about something. He's directing, and you and I, we're wandering. He can be profoundly active from our perspective, but it looks like nothing is happening at all sometimes. Jesus says it in Matthew 10 – I hope you always look at this verse and remember providence. Matthew 10, that not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father. His whole point is like, okay, something as simple as you sitting in your house and a bird hits the wall, hits your window, and falls out. It's like, "Oh, man. That was that was random." Yeah, it's random from the ground, but it's not random from the throne. So, that doesn't mean you'll always understand providence, and I'm harping on this because this is kind of, I’d say, the crux of what does it look like for you and I to live a life of faith, that the gospel is enough, that just because you don't see it doesn't mean God isn't working. So, there'll be times where the most faithful thing that you can say as a Christian is, “I don't know what God is doing.” But guess what? What I love about being a Christian is we get to add another sentence to that. We get to say, “I don't know what God is doing, but I know who God is.” That's what's happening in question 94 and 95 is he's pausing to say, "Hey, we need to make sure we know who God is, because that's going to help you with the elixir that you need to defeat idol worship.” Deuteronomy 29:29 says, family, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us." See, God has not revealed every reason behind his providence, but he has revealed his character. Let's continue. 

I mentioned – let me just say it again – you have this eternal God who's all sovereign, who's all providential, and is transcendent, standing outside looking at time. You ever done this? I was at the Sears Towers in Chicago many, many years ago. You just think about the goodness of God to make you want to just go crazy. I'm sitting at the top of the Sears Tower. Think about it. We have to expand our view of God. I was looking out, and I'm looking at literally thousands upon tens of thousands of cars. And you know what I thought when I looked at that? I thought, "Oh my goodness, God knows everybody's thought and what everybody's doing and controlling what everybody's doing and knows everything that they're thinking right then and knows everyone's name.” And guess what? That's one city. And you know what's interesting? We think about knowledge in a very finite way of like, oh, I got smarter. Think about it. God doesn't get more information, doesn't lose information. Imagine being God, and you always know everything all the time. Boom. He doesn't go, and it's not some weird spiritual Back to the Future and he goes to help Marty McFly and no, he's always who he is, and he knows everything all the time. 

That God, that eternal, sovereign, providential God is wise. He not only knows everything that can be known, but always knows the perfect thing to do with everything he knows. So, Romans 11 says, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God." God has never made a decision with incomplete information. He's not like, oh man, if only I knew he didn't have his cell phone, I would have–. We say stuff like that. God never does, family. So, knowing that, there's a profound difference between saying in your life, “I do not understand what God is doing here” and saying “God does not know what he is doing.” Very different. One is humility. The other one is unbelief. 

This eternal God, who is sovereign and providential and is transcendent and wise, he is also good. Goodness, family, is not merely something he sometimes does. Goodness is eternally and unchangeably who he is. Think about that. Psalm 119 says in verse 68, "You are good and do good." See that? Notice the order now. God does good because he is good. So, it's not like good's here, and he's trying to “I'm good today.” No, he calls the shots. Now you say, "Okay, Eric, oh that's good theology. That's who God is. Praise God." But perhaps somebody says in here, I understand that, but how do I know God is good when it doesn't feel like he's good? And I love Christianity's answer. I love what the Scriptures do. The ultimate answer is not some lecture simply about his attributes. You know what he does to let us know he's good? The cross. He gives us a historical moment. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God does not ultimately – don't miss this – does not ultimately prove his love for you by making every circumstance understandable or palatable. The way he proves his love when you don't know – you say oh, does God really love me? – he says remember what I did on the cross. He proves his love for you at Calvary. God loves me, that the sovereign, eternal, providential, wise, good, loving God has freely set his saving affection upon his people, and if you ever question that love, family, he has given you a place in history where you can see it. That's the beauty of the cross. But now I will say that means we need to learn to let the cross interpret providence in our life, rather than letting providence interpret the cross. 

Now, so we have this eternal, sovereign, providential, wise, transcendent, good, loving God, and that isn't even – I mean, that's just a portion of who he is. And now we come to question 94. Look at it again. Listen to it again, now. He says, "Rightly come to know the only true God." Look what he says. Who is that? That sovereign, eternal, providential, transcendent, good, wise, loving God – he says, "Trust in him alone." See that? Submit to him with all humility and patience. Expect all good from him only, and love, fear, and honor him with all my heart. You see that? Do you hear the movement there, family? You see the movement? Know him, trust him, submit to him, wait for him, expect from him, love him, fear him, honor him. Why does he say that? Because he knows he’s talking about a person that we can know, because he's revealed himself to us. And he's saying that's the elixir, not necessarily – yes, we flee idols; oh, bad – but he said, you know what I want you to do? Who am I? Once you and me see God rightly, idols begin shrinking back to their proper size is what this text is saying, family. Money does not just become worthless – it's worth something – it just simply stops looking sovereign in our life. Your children's futures don't become unimportant. They simply stop becoming ultimate. Your career still matters. It just stops getting to tell you who you are. People's approval will encourage you still – that's a good thing – but stop letting it function as justification in your life. Knowing God does not make creation worthless. It allows us to finally enjoy creation for what it was intended to be and stop putting demands on creation that only the creator can handle. The Heidelberg says we submit to God with all humility and patience. You see that? Humility says God is God, and I'm not. Patience says God's timing belongs to God, and I can wait. See fam, pride wants God's throne and impatience wants God's calendar, right? And faith gives them both to God. That's what he's asking of us when you look at that text there. 

And finally, question 94 says this, “I forsake all creatures rather than do the least thing against his will.” Alright, that sounds radical because the first commandment is a supremacy claim, fam. But can I just say something? Christianity is not ultimately the story of a bunch of miserable people reluctantly surrendering everything they enjoy because God demands it. Don't miss that. Christianity is the story of people who have discovered something, someone better. Turn to Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. Jesus says here that the kingdom is like treasure hidden in the field. A man finds it, and Jesus says, “In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.” Do you do you hear that? Family, I think it's fair to say, I think sometimes we can think radical, serious, authentic Christianity is daily getting up and having all the stuff that you really like, that you know you shouldn't like, and you're kind of like, “I really love God, and because he's big, and he's all those things that Eric said I'm gonna hand my stuff to God. I know he loves me. Here, God, and here,” and then God's on the other side kind of prying the stuff out of your hand. You know, “Take it, Lord. Okay. Okay.” You just walk off. I know you love me. And it's like this sense of like, oh, every day it's this sense of like, I got these idols. Let me give these things that I really love and give them to God because he's God. That's not the Bible's picture. I want to propose when we think like that, we have a short God. You see what that Scripture says there? You see what he says? He says a man finds it, and Jesus says, "In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has." In his joy. Don't miss those three words. 

It reminds me, when I share my faith, I'll talk to an individual. I’ll, you know, be sitting with a brother at the cafeteria or something, and I'll say, you know what, man? Christianity is kind of like, you know, you're sitting around – if you don't know anything about the Lord, you're sitting around eating hot dogs. Alright? You're just sitting there. That's all you know. You just – mmm, that’s a good hot dog. You eating your hot dogs, and then someone comes over and goes, hey, brother. What's up? How you doing, man? I see you eating hot dogs. Yeah. Yeah, man. I love these hot dogs. They're good, man. Okay. What? Do you know that we have steak right over here? And they’re like steak? What's steak? Oh, you know what steak is? You know, it's hard to explain. It's really juicy. Way bigger than a hot dog. It fills you up. It tastes really good. Way better than hot dog, guaranteed. Really? How about this? How about you just try a little bit? Alright. Well, let me get you some water first. Let me rinse your palate off. Get you right so you make sure you don't confuse the two, alright? So, you drink the water. Okay. Here, man. Take a little bite. See? Hey, E. Can I get another piece? Yeah, sure, man. Here. Oh my goodness. Now, if that's the picture, which I propose that's the biblical picture of what we're seeing here with the treasure and what God is saying about himself because he's that good. If that's the picture, then will you then see this guy who's actually had three or four bites of steak going, "Now I'm saying, now throw those hot dogs away. Okay, I'm going throw the hot dogs away. Give me the steak." No. What will you do if you had hot dogs all your life and finally someone provides you a steak? 

Guys, that's exactly what's happening in our life is that ultimately this is how idols die. I want to propose to you that yes, we flee them, family. Yes, we repent of them, but idols are finally displaced when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. When Paul says in Philippians 3, "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Why? Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Paul did not simply say, "I learned to hate everything else, family. He found someone better. And once Christ became the treasure, everything else could be finally returned to its proper place. So hear the first commandment again: you shall have no other gods before me. At first, that can sound restrictive, but once you know the God who speaks it, that he's eternal, that he's sovereign, that he's providential, that he's wise, that he's good, that he's loving – all of a sudden you go, "Oh my goodness, this is actually liberating.” And then you say, "I need to stop asking money to guarantee my tomorrow. I need to stop asking creation to save me. I need to stop asking people to justify me. I need to stop asking children to give my life meaning. I need to stop asking my career to tell me who I am. I need to stop asking control to give me peace." They can never do it. Only God can do those things. They are created things. Know him, the Scripture is telling us. Trust him, the Scriptures are telling us. Submit to him, the Scriptures are telling us. Wait for him. When we receive every good thing from his fatherly, loving hand and then the idol whispers to you and me and says, "Hey, hey, guess what? You need me in order to be okay," we can whisper back or, as it were, we can shout back to the idol and say, "No, no, no, no, no. You are creation. I know the creator. I have God. And because of Jesus Christ, God has me.” 

Holy God, would you by your grace give us grace to see you for who you are, to understand who you are, Lord, to repent for making you so small and settling for plastic pearls, for worthless things. Thank you for the Heidelberg Catechism, to be clear, to say that we need a bigger understanding, a holier, a bigger view of God – not just saying stop idols, but look at God. Would you give us that grace, Lord? Would you bless our body? Not that we'll be a bigger church, but Lord, that we would get a glimpse of who you are, we would proclaim you to our community, we would walk with you and love you and enjoy you, and Lord, in doing so, we will continue to say no to those things that are created. In Jesus’ name. Amen.