Attack On Idols- Excess

Attack on idols – Week 5: Excess

We live in a culture of “too much”—too much wine, wealth, pleasure, and distraction. But like King Belshazzar in Daniel 5, excess only leaves us empty. God calls us to weigh what matters and trade the idol of excess for the essential: Jesus. In Him, we find the only life that truly satisfies. Week 5 of our series Attack On Idols we dive into this concept and learn how to combat the idol of excess.

• Sermon Transcript

  Hey, I want to welcome everybody here tonight. Really glad that you guys are with us and Conway, but we also have our Jay Rubin crowd and our online crowd joining us. So, really glad that you guys are with us as well. And man, I’m excited about today and jumping back into this series that we’re calling Attack on Idols. All right. Plays a little bit off of the book of or a lot off the book of Daniel and a little bit off of the anime show Attack on Titan. And so as we dive into week five, I want to ask this, excuse me.

  Have you ever had too much of a good thing? Yeah. Like some of you like, “No, it’s a good thing.” Some of you like, “Yeah, cuz you probably know where I’m going right away.” Like there’s times in our life where we just have too much of a good thing. Let me illustrate. Have you ever felt absolutely sick after eating a meal or especially a Thanksgiving meal, right? Like it was so good. You’re like, “Oh, I got to go back for more.” And on that second helping or third helping, you’re just like, “What did I do? It was a good thing that you had too much of.

  Or how about this one? Especially for those of you who are like maybe parents or grandparents, have you ever bought too many Christmas presents that afterwards you’re like I am ridiculous? You know what I’m saying, Chrisinley? Um that it’s Thursday. Okay. Um but but it’s just reality, right? Like sometimes you buy so much Christmas, it’s a good thing, but then when you get everything out and you’re like, “Wow, what have I done?” And then you look at your bank account and it’s too much. Or or how about this? You went to the beach or out on the river and it was a good time. It was all day and about halfway through the day or maybe towards the end of the day, you realize I didn’t put any sunscreen on. Like the sun is a good thing yet too much of it is a bad thing.

  Or maybe this one that that you decided to stay up late and you thought just one more round of that game online. You’re just like I just want to I just want to play one more round. Just one more game. Or maybe it was this for you girls. That’s just one more episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty. You see what I’m getting at? Like you’re like, “It’s a good thing, but when does it become a bad thing?” When I move into the area of excess, that excess can become an idol in our life that we just want more and more and more of of a good thing that actually in its wrong place or in its wrong way becomes a very bad thing.

  And guys, here in America, we’re really good at taking a good thing and turning it into a bad thing. We’re really good at taking something that could be enjoyed in the right way and taking it to a place of excess. Really, all you got to do is look at your closet. Cuz for some of us, you look at your closet and you’re like, why do I still have this? Like, I haven’t worn that in 3 years. I haven’t worn that in forever. But man, I’m just… and so you just you just shove the shirts together hoping you can make room for one more.

  For those of you call Rock Home, that was kind of funny internally. But you’re constantly trying to make room. Or just think about the storage unit business. I’m not going to have you raise your hand if you pay for a storage unit right now, okay? But statistically there’s those of us in this room who do that. Do you know that the storage unit business is a $35 billion business in America alone? $35 billion spent on storing our junk. But I don’t want to get rid of it. It’s because it’s excess. That in America, no joke, in America, half of all storage units are found in America. When you look at storage units around the world, half of them are in America. The 35 billion, that is half of the market share of the world is in America. So half of all storage units, half of all market share profit is in America. Yet America is only 4% of the population of the world.

  When you think about it that way, it starts to go, “Wow, we are really good at excess. We are really good at a lot.” And you can look at Attack on Titan for those of you who have seen the show, you see it there. The whole premise of the show is because of excess. Now, you go back to King Fritz and King Fritz’s whole idea was I want more and more and more. And he found a way to get more. So then he kind of figured out a way to capture that more and get more and more and more. And then next thing you know, he has a bunch of Titans. And if you know anything about a Titan, all they want to do is eat people just because, right? They want excess of it. They want more and more and more and they’re never satisfied.

  Man, why are we like that? I think because we like the pleasure. We like the dopamine rush. We like the stress release. We see the value in volume. We’re just thinking more and more and more and it becomes an idol in our life. So today, the goal is that we would strip this idea, that we would get this idol of excess out of our lives by recognizing Jesus is enough.

  Get rid of the idol of excess by realizing Jesus is enough. And we’re going to look at three specific things that we live in excess—things that we idolize the excess of. We’re going to look at wine. We’re going to look at women. We’re going to look at wealth. Now, I’m picking those three because they come straight from the text. But let’s make sure we understand this. The list is much longer than that. But in the text, Daniel chapter 5.

  And I want to show it to you. And I did this last week and I want to remind you of this—that I really want to encourage you, if you have a paper Bible, turn to Daniel 5. That’s where we’ll be all night. If you have a phone, if you have an iPad, anything like that. If you open up the Rock app, and again, you won’t really be able to see it on my screen, but that’s the Rock app right there. When that happens, this opens up, which you can see if you look at the screen. If you just click Attack on Idols or this button down here that says sermons, it takes you the same place. If I go Attack on Idols, it pulls up all of these resources for this week that you can see. We’re talking about the idol of excess.

  On here you’ll see it’s got small group curriculum. It’s got a blog. It’s got an area where you can take notes. And the beautiful thing about the notes is it saves it for you. You can email it to yourself or you can go back to it a year later and see what the message was about. Or it has the reading plan. The reading plan, just as a reminder, is we put out a reading plan. Now it starts on Sunday. So those of you Thursday night people, you kind of got to understand on Sunday is when the new reading plan hits. But what it does is it walks along through messages and through the concepts that we talk about tonight.

  I’m just curious. Has anybody here been on the Rock reading plan this week? Anybody in this room? Okay. Awesome. So proud of you. Thankful for you doing that. But I want to encourage more because the daily reading of God’s word, that’s where real strength is found. That’s where real anyway. So that’s on there, but then also you can go straight to the Bible. So it says read Daniel 5. So I click it and this is where we’re at. And this is what I will read from tonight. Daniel chapter 5.

  And we’re going to read several verses. The first ones I’m going to read is just the first four verses. Daniel 5:1. It says this. Many years later, King Belshazar gave a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and he drank wine with them. Let me just put a pause right there. Okay, this is King Belshazar. If you’ve been with us for the last four weeks, we’ve been talking about King Nebuchadnezzar a lot. King Nebuchadnezzar was his predecessor. Now, there’s a little bit of debate between some of the Bible scholars. Was Nebuchadnezzar his dad or was Nebuchadnezzar his granddad? Could be either one, but you understand Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon who brought all the Jews in as slaves, captured the Jews from Jerusalem, brought them to Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar had died after many years of reigning. Now, King Belshazar is on the throne. Still the Babylonian Empire.

  Now, let me continue on. Verse two. While Belshazar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, his concubines. And so they brought these gold cups taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. And the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. While they drank from them, they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Let’s stop there for a little while.

  Right here in this section of scripture, we see excess. We see how excess is lived out. It starts with the king says, “Man, I want to throw a party.” And he brings a thousand of his friends together, a thousand nobles, a thousand people’s like, “Man, I want the excess of the party. I want the biggest. I want the best party ever.” And then inside of it, you see three areas of excess.

  The first one is wine. That it says that they were drinking of the wine. That it says later on that they were filling the cups with wine. That we can tell by what was happening. We could tell by what was happening that they didn’t just drink wine. They drank wine in excess.

  Now, let’s just take a second here and explain this for a second. Wine in itself is not a sin. Alcohol by itself is not a sin. That I mean, think about it. Jesus was the one who turned water into wine. He showed up, they were out of water—or excuse me, out of wine. So, he did a miracle as his first public miracle. And the Grandmaster said, “This is the best wine I’ve ever had in my life.” Wine isn’t the sin. It’s the use of wine and how they used it that was the sin.

  Or here’s another way for me to say this. Wine isn’t necessarily a sin, but the way we use it often leads to sin. That’s right. And we got to make sure we catch that. You’re underage, you use it—that’s sin, right? You’re of age and you use it in the wrong way. And there’s a lot of ways to use it in the wrong way. Then that’s sin. By itself, it wasn’t. But what Belshazar was doing is he was taking the wine to a place of excess of drunkenness.

  He was also putting it inside of the goblets and the treasury from the temple. There were some gold and silver cups that were in the temple that were to be used for holy reasons. And they took these cups and they used them in an unholy manner. Again, he took the good things of God and spun it in excess which leads to sin. When we drink to the point of drunkenness, that’s a sin. When we drink to a point of causing others to stumble, that’s a sin. And what we do in those situations is we allow Satan to attack.

  First Peter chapter 5, verse 8 reads like this. I want you to see it here just real quick. It says, “Be sober minded. Be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour.” Like, think about this. Satan wants to devour us. Satan wants to attack us. Satan’s stance is typically one of two. Either that he’s in stealth mode trying to sneak up on you or he’s already got you and he’s in roaring mode where he feels like he has won. We’ve got to make sure Satan has no room in our life. And one of the easiest ways to protect that is stay sober minded, which means be sober. Literally, that’s what it means. Now, the verse can go a lot of other directions as well. Be sober in the way we think. Do not live in an excess of wine.

  I can go further with this though. There was wine, but there was also women. If you notice in the verse here, it talks about it says that his wives and concubines. Both of those are plural. Okay? So, think about this for a second. When Belshazar threw this party, he brought a thousand people together and he brought all of his wives and all of his concubines. If you see it in the plural, that is an excess. That is not how God intended marriage and sex to work.

  Now listen, we live in a land where the marrying of multiple people, that’s not legal. Yet we practice multiple partners. We practice adultery. We practice divorce. We send pics to one another. We look at porn. We have multiple excess of sex all around us. We live in a culture where it’s acceptable to experiment. It’s acceptable to just look for the excess of sexuality. And that’s what you see happening with Belshazar. But that’s not the way of God. God made it real simple. He designed sex, marriage to be between a man and a woman in the confines of marriage for all of their life. Because he says, “I want to give you something that is good and I want it to be holy.”

  When we take the good things of God out of the way of God and we turn an excess way that that is not of God, then it’s unholy. Sex inside of marriage—have it in excess. I thought I might get one or two laughs there—in ways opposite of the way God designed it. And we got to avoid it because it’s not holy. Look at how it reads in First Thessalonians. It says this: “God wants you to be made holy. He wants you to stay away from sexual sins. He wants all of you to learn to control your own bodies. You must live in a way that is holy. You must live with honor. Don’t desire to commit sexual sins like people who don’t know God.”

  What Paul is saying here is that God designed sex, it’s okay. But when we take it out of God’s design and we live it in excess, man, we’re not being holy. But when we do things the way God has designed it, it’s a holy thing. We live in excess when it comes to wine, when it comes to women, when it comes to wealth. Again, looking at it here, we see the wealth of Nebuchadnezzar. He’s in his palace. He has a thousand people coming for a thousand nobles to come. That would mean you’d have to have wealth to be able to provide for them all. And then it says here, while they drank from them, meaning the silver cups from Jerusalem, they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

  We see Belshazar in this excess of wealth of going, look at all that I have. And I think in our world, this is another idol of excess, not just wine, not just women, but also wealth—that we’re just constantly in this idea of, man, how can I get more stuff? How can I get more money? How can I get more things? And we’re looking to just increase. And what it ends up happening is that wealth becomes the greatest rival that Jesus really has.

  Let me try to explain this for a second. Oftentimes people think like the greatest rival that Jesus has is Satan. And I don’t think that. I don’t think Satan is a rival of Jesus. I don’t think that they’re like in a war and they’re like, “Ah, who’s going to win this?” Right? It’d be like saying the Dallas Cowboys have a rival because you can say, “Well, they…” but they get beat up on all the time, right? Or the New York Jets. Or I can go a lot of different directions—oh, sorry. I just met you tonight and I’m picking on your team. I did not mean that. Okay. But I did, right? Like like the Jets, the Cowboys, they don’t really have rivals because everybody beats up on them. That would be like Satan being a rival of Jesus. Last time I checked, Jesus won, right? Jesus won. He has beat up Satan and Satan might try to be attacking Jesus, but that’s kind of like a little flea going, “Come on, get away.”

  I think money is the rival and I think that’s the reason Jesus talked about it so much. And when I say money, I mean money, stuff, possessions, things of that nature. It actually says in scripture, if you look at scripture, Jesus talked about money, possessions, wealth more than anything else that he ever talked about—more than heaven, more than hell, more than how to be saved. He talked about money and stuff and wealth. Some people would say over 2,000 scriptures in the Gospels deal in some form or fashion. Now, I pulled up about 500. I’ll throw some of them on the screen. You’ll be able to see them. These are all the verses that talk about wealth and possessions and money. And obviously I can’t even begin to get into all that.

  But I can tell you Matthew 6:19-21. I can tell you in Matthew 6, I think it might be verse 24, it says you cannot serve God and money. In 19-21 it says do not store up possessions on earth where moth and rust destroy. Store up possessions in heaven where things can’t destroy it. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. When we’re all about the excess of what can I get on this place, on this earth, man, it’s going to lead to destruction. It’s going to lead to being destroyed and our destruction because we can’t serve both. Is money wrong? No, money is not wrong. Wealth, possessions, it’s not wrong. It’s a good thing that God can give you, but when we take it to excess, it becomes a bad thing. It becomes an idol.

  Just like sex, just like marriage, just like relationships. Not wrong at all. When taken out of the good way that God has designed it, it becomes an idol. Just like wine, not not a bad thing in itself. Taken out of the context of how it was designed in God’s ideas, it becomes an idol. And so can so many other things in our life. So many other things. So let’s eliminate the excess. Let’s get past

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  Attack on Idols: Excess

  Daniel 5 | October 9/12

  Living in the Land of Too Much

  Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get caught in the cycle of “too much”? Eat too much. Scroll too much. Work too much. Spend too much. Sleep too much. We live in a culture where excess isn’t just tolerated—it’s expected, even celebrated.

  Think about it: history is full of stories of “too much.” The Titanic was built with too much pride. Jordan Belfort—the “Wolf of Wall Street”—chased too much greed. The housing market crash of 2008 was caused by too much speculation. Even our personal lives show signs of excess—storage units overflowing, closets packed, credit card debt piling up.

  But why do we keep going back to excess? Because it feels good—at least for a moment. Excess provides a dopamine hit, a release of stress, or even a temporary sense of identity. But here’s the truth: our bodies may be wired for reward and pleasure, but our souls are wired for God. And no amount of “too much” can fill the space only He was meant to occupy

  The Idol of Excess in Daniel 5

  Daniel 5 tells the story of King Belshazzar, who threw a feast filled with excess. It wasn’t just a party—it was a celebration of indulgence. The king’s excess showed up in three dangerous ways:

  1. Excess of Wine

  The people drank until they were drunk, and in his intoxication, Belshazzar made a disastrous decision—he mocked God by using the sacred vessels from the temple. Scripture warns us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Drunkenness clouds judgment, and throughout history, countless lives have been ruined by decisions made under the influence of “too much.”

  2. Excess of Women

  Belshazzar gathered all his wives and concubines—because one wasn’t enough. Our culture may not legally allow multiple marriages, but we practice the same spirit of excess: adultery, pornography, casual hookups, and the constant message that sexual purity is outdated. Yet God calls His people to holiness and singular devotion in their sexual relationships (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5; Hebrews 13:4; Matthew 5:27–28).

  3. Excess of Wealth

  The Babylonians worshiped their gods of gold, silver, iron, and wood. Today, money and possessions often hold the same place of worship in our lives. Jesus knew wealth would be His greatest rival in the human heart—He spoke about money more than He did about heaven or hell. Nearly 15% of His recorded teachings and more than 2,000 verses in the Gospels deal with money and possessions. If we’re not careful, money stops being a tool and becomes a master.

  The Writing on the Wall

  Belshazzar thought his excess made him untouchable—but then God showed up. In the middle of the party, a hand appeared and wrote on the wall: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin” (Daniel 5:26–28).

  Daniel interpreted the message:

  • You have been numbered. Belshazzar’s days were limited, and so are ours. Every one of us has a beginning and an end. The question is: will we use our days chasing excess or living for God’s glory (Matthew 6:19–21)?

  • You have been weighed. Belshazzar’s life didn’t measure up. All the excess in the world cannot tip the scales in our favor. Only surrender to Christ can. Not a cheap grace that lets us say “yes” to Jesus while still clinging to excess, but a costly grace that calls us to lay down what distracts us and be engrossed in Him.

  • You have been judged. That very night, Belshazzar lost his life and his kingdom. Judgment is not just an Old Testament theme—it’s reality for all of us. The question is whether we’ll build a life consumed by excess or a life rooted in Jesus, who promises eternal hope.

  Choosing the Essential

  The antidote to excess isn’t moderation—it’s devotion. It’s not about simply cutting back, but about filling up with what matters most: Jesus Himself. When Daniel was offered wealth for interpreting the king’s dream, he refused the extras. He knew that no earthly “reward” compared to being engrossed in God’s call.

  Jesus put it plainly: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). But the abundant life He promises isn’t found in more wine, more wealth, or more pleasure. It’s found in Him alone.

  Final Word

  Excess is easy. It’s everywhere. But as followers of Christ, we’re called to something different. To weigh what matters. To cut through the noise. To attack the idol of excess by being engrossed in the essential: Jesus.

  Because when He fills your life, you won’t just have enough—you’ll have everything you need.

• Weekly Study Guide

  Small Group Curriculum: Attack on Idols

  Small Group Curriculum – Week 5 PDF

  Small Group Curriculum – Week 5

  Series: Attack on Idols
  Week 5 Title: Excess
  Main Scripture: Daniel 5:25–28 (NLT)
  Big Idea: Attack the idol of excess by engrossing yourself in the essential — Jesus.

  1. Connect (Icebreaker)

  • Option A (Fun): What’s the funniest or most embarrassing time you “overdid it” (food, shopping, social media, etc.)?

  • Option B (Thought-provoking): Why do you think our culture celebrates “more” even when it often makes us miserable?

  • Transition: Excess promises life but leaves us empty. Let’s see how God calls us back to what really matters.

  2. Discover (Scripture & Discussion)

  Read Daniel 5:25–28 (NLT):
  "This is the message that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is what these words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end. Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.’”

  Discussion Questions

  1. What does “numbered, weighed, and divided” reveal about Belshazzar’s life of excess?

  2. Where do you see excess most celebrated in today’s culture?

  3. Why do you think excess often leads to emptiness instead of fulfillment?

  4. What does it practically look like to focus on the essentials instead of the extras?

  Dig Deeper Scripture: Matthew 6:19–21 (NLT) — “Don’t store up treasures here on earth… Store your treasures in heaven… Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

  • How does this verse challenge how we spend time, money, and energy?

  • What would change if your heart’s treasure was fully in Christ?

  3. Respond (Application & Prayer)

  Personal Application

  • Where in your life are you most tempted to live in excess (money, time, relationships, habits)?

  • What one step could you take this week to eliminate excess and focus on the essential?

  Group Prayer Prompt

  • Pray for freedom from excess in every area of life.

  • Ask God to reorient hearts toward what truly matters: His presence and His purposes.

  Challenge for the Week

  • Memory Verse: John 10:10 (NLT).

  • Next Step: Choose one area of excess in your life and replace it with one Christ-centered practice this week (example: replace scrolling with prayer, overspending with generosity, overeating with fasting, etc.).

  ⏱️ Designed for 45–60 minutes:

  • Connect (10–15 min)

  • Discover (25–30 min)

  • Respond (10–15 min)

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