What is this sermon about?
"The Unholy Trinity" is week 7 of Footprints Church's sermon series What You're Really After, identifying Comfort, Control, and Approval as the three core drivers that take over under pressure, and exposing how rationalization protects them, based on Romans 1:25, Matthew 6:24, and Jeremiah 17:9.
Idolatry rarely looks dramatic — it looks like an ordinary Tuesday, and it usually starts as an exchange rather than open rebellion (Romans 1:25). Pastor Ben Moore names three drivers that surface under pressure: Comfort ("I must avoid pain"), Control ("I must make sure nothing goes wrong"), and Approval ("I must not be rejected") — none sinful on their own, but dangerous the moment a preference becomes a demand (Matthew 6:24). The message connects this to the rationalizations people use to protect these drivers without realizing it, tying back to the series' earlier teaching on self-deception (Jeremiah 17:9), and closes with Luke 12's parable of the rich fool and Romans 12:2's call to renewed thinking rather than sheer effort as the starting point for change.
Part of the "Desire" movement in the 8-week series What You're Really After, exploring identity, honesty, and desire at Footprints Church, a Church of the Nazarene congregation in Ridgefield, WA.
