We are needy people. We want to be seen, loved, valued and fulfilled — and because those needs are real, we have a habit of looking for something or someone to satisfy them.

In this sermon from Durango Vineyard Church, Pastor Tommy Perry continues through Acts 17 as Paul arrives in Athens and finds a city filled with idols. The Athenians are intelligent, curious and relentlessly searching for truth, yet Paul sees people trying to manufacture sources of life for themselves. Tommy argues that our modern idols may look different, but the underlying problem hasn't changed: idolatry begins whenever we ask anyone or anything other than God to become our source of life.

The next hobby, money, career, achievement, relationships, religion and even our carefully constructed image can all become idols. Each may give us something good for a while, but none can satisfy us fully or forever. And Scripture offers an even more sobering warning: we become what we worship. What we depend upon for life eventually begins shaping the people we become.

Paul offers the Athenians something radically different: the God who doesn't need anything from us because He is the source of everything we need. In Him we live, move and breathe. Rather than endlessly creating new things to satisfy ourselves, we're invited to surrender to the God who can make us new.

Tommy distills that invitation into a simple challenge: Stop making, and be made. Christianity isn't ultimately about rearranging our priorities so God occupies the top position or working harder to improve ourselves. It's about allowing Jesus to transform who we are. Stop manufacturing idols to give you life. Come to the One who offers life fully and forever — and let Him make you new.