The following is a sermon I preached in our church on November 14, 2021 on Mark 13:14-23 - Jesus telling his disciples about the coming destruction of their temple. I've chosen to use the term "institution" because it helps those of us unfamiliar with temples to see that organizations, nations, and even empires fit this category too. Israel had turned their temple (an institution set up by God himself) into an idol. In fact, all idolatry in the Bible is simply the inappropriate association of something created by humans with the one true God. And if Israel could do that with their temple, then there's no telling what other "institutions" people throughout history have inappropriately associated with the one true God. In America, some have even tried to associate the nation itself with the one true God. And it is that idolatrous association that I try to disentangle in this sermon.