DON’T
LET YOUR WORSHIP BE “IDOL”
This
morning we are beginning our summer series on the subject of idolatry. That may
seem like an outdated theme for a 21st century audience since
idolatry is a very OT-sounding problem. What does idolatry have to do with such
enlightened people of the digital/computer age?
More than we can imagine…
Nearly 200 years ago, a young man by
the name of Alexis de Tocqueville came to America on a fact-finding mission. He
wanted to observe American democracy and culture and share his findings in a
book.
What de Tocqueville found was a “strange melancholy
that haunts the inhabitants…in the midst of abundance.” The American dream, shared
in large part by Canadians, is the belief that prosperity would satisfy their
longing for happiness. Their Declaration of Independence contains those famous
goals, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But such a quest was an
illusion since, as de Tocqueville wrote, “The incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy [the
human] heart.”[i]
I would hesitate to say that
prosperity is the root cause of depression in our society. However, there is an
odd sadness that many people feel when they have times of great wealth and
pursue the “toys” of our culture, and a marked depression when all the money
and toys vanish. As de Tocqueville says, it comes from taking some “incomplete
joy of this world” and building your entire life on it. Timothy Keller says,
“That is the definition of idolatry.”[ii]
Obviously, idolatry has no place in the Christian’s
life. Christ died to set us free from the slavery of idolatry with all its
passions and desires. Why then do we continue to worship our idols?
We want to look at three passages of
Scripture today that speak to the relevant and very contemporary issue of
idolatry in our world.
1. Why idolatry doesn’t make sense
a) “I AM” has
spoken
– When God called out the children of Israel to be his people, he gave them ten
words to begin the journey to know the mind of God. We call them the Ten
Commandments. It is the way in which God begins these words that relate to our
discussion on idolatry.
Moses records three significant
phrases that should catch out attention: i. First, Moses writes, “And God spoke all these words…” (20:1). The fact that God
spoke these words is a unique thing in itself. Usually a prophet would
proclaim, “Thus says the Lord” or “This is what the Lord said…” But here God
himself speaks. That is the first reason to listen.
ii. Second, when God
speaks he says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
Egypt…” (20:2). We know that when all the letters are capitalized that our
Bible is using the sacred name Yahweh, the most holy name for God. Here is
another reason to listen: Yahweh is speaking.
The significance of this is found in
Leviticus 19. Here we find a jumbled collection of laws that seem to have no
connection to one another. There are religious laws, domestic, social and
relational laws all bunched together. What does connect all these laws is the
repeated declaration, “I am the LORD.” Sixteen times we read this declaration.
It seems to yell out like a demand, “Do what I tell you because I am the LORD.”
But this is not what God is saying. It is rather an affirmation and the Lord
saying, “I want you to live this way because I am who I am.”
So Leviticus 19 begins with a challenge: “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” You must be what
you must be because I am what I am. This law reflects the character of God. It
is the likeness of God expressed in laws, and obedience to the law of the LORD
reflects the image of God in us, which is our real nature. In other words, we
live the truly human life when we obey the Lord’s laws.[iii]
iii. Third, this is the
God who delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.
He liberated them from the house of slavery and made them a free people; free
to serve the living and true God. These laws were not given to enslave them
again but to establish their freedom.
We see this in how the commandments
are given. God says “Do not…” which seems negative. In truth, these negatives
are liberating. For instance, if I said to the farmers here, “Do not plant
corn,” what does that mean? It means you can plant any of a variety of crops,
just don’t plant corn. If I said, “You shall only plant corn,” your hands would
be tied. God’s negatives are really quite freeing.
b) What is an idol? So then, God
makes his first negative command, “You shall have no other gods
before me,” (20:3). The second is very close to the first, “You
shall not make for yourself an image...You shall not bow down to them or
worship them…” (20:4, 5). An image could be a fish, a bird, an animal or
even a person. Some of
the idols I saw in Turkey made certain body parts prominent revealing what they
felt was worth worshiping the ancient world.
We may think that idols are
typically bad things, or inanimate objects of wood or stone. Actually, the
greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that this good thing can
satisfy our hopes and needs.
What is an idol? It is anything that
is more important to you than God. It is anything that captures your attention,
your imagination, or energy more than God. It is anything you seek to give you
what only God can give. You know you have an idol when, should you lose it,
your life feels empty without it.
How does God feel when we worship
idols? Jealous! He says in v.
5, “I…am a jealous God.”
Throughout the OT God speaks of his people as his bride. In the NT, the church
is the bride of Christ. When God’s people stray in their affections and go to
idols, God sees this as spiritual adultery, and, in our case, it is like
putting the chains back on our own wrists. After God has set us free, why go
back to slavery?
2. The Human Heart is an idol factory
a) What idols? You may not be
convinced yet that we actually have idols in the 21st century. We
have a hard time getting away from the image of a carved statue or one of Simon
Cowell’s popstars or One Direction. Some primitive cultures still have idols
but internal idol worship is universal. John Calvin once said the human heart
is an idol factory.
Our second passage comes from Ezekiel 14. Here the
prophet is confronted by the elders of Israel seeking a message from God. But
God sees through these elders and tells Ezekiel, “Son of
man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling
blocks before their faces,” (14:3).
Now keep in mind that these are
pious, devout, seemingly God-fearing men. And when they hear this they might
have responded, “Idols? What idols? I don’t see any idols.” These are religious
men who did not bow the knee to Baal or Molech.
However, the Bible tells us that
bowing the knee to an idol is not the only form of idolatry. It can be done
internally, in our hearts, in our souls. The prophet Habakkuk spoke of the Babylonians
whose strength was their god. Jeremiah called it idolatry for Israel to trust
other nations to protect them. When kings went their own way, their arrogant
disobedience was called idolatry.
So in the Bible idolatry is looking
to your own wisdom and competence, or to some created thing, to provide the
power, approval, comfort or security that only God can give.
b) Today’s idols – In this
series we will see that today’s idols can be the age-old money issue or the
unexpected “family” idol. We might be surprised to find idols in unusual places
in our lives.
C. S. Lewis once wrote, “There are three images
in my mind which I must continually forsake and replace by better ones: the
false image of God, the false image of my neighbors, and the false image of
myself.” What he meant by that quote was that we form an image of God, or of
another person, or ourselves after reading a book, hearing a lecture or sermon,
or having a conversation with a friend, and we may temporarily get clearer
thoughts. We may understand God better. But if we hold onto this new picture
too tightly, it becomes an idol that must be broken in order to allow a better
image to take its place. He also said, “My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered
time after time. He shatters it himself.”
Timothy Keller came home one
Wednesday evening after a church meeting whistling with joy over the unity of
the elders and the success he had dealing with complex problems. When he
entered the house his wife said, “Wow, Tim, you must have had a great day.” He
suddenly recognized that his moods had less to do with the nature and character
and promises of God, than whether he got what he wanted at work.
We can make an idol out of our
impression of God, out of our view of church, and even as Keller shows us – out
of our own attitudes. Anything that sets our souls afire that is not God leads
us to a form of internal idolatry.
3. Taking down our Idols
a) “Set your
mind on things above”
– So we all have some form of idol. What do we do with our idols?
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians,
the apostle addressed the church there with their focus on earthly matters,
chasing after material things, and allowing human rules to master them. Having
written about the supremacy of Christ over all things through his work on the
cross and his most excellent nature being the Son of God, he suddenly gets
practical.
Paul writes, “If
then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things above,
not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also
will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry,” (Col 3:1-5, NASB).
These verses reflect our primary
passage in Exodus. In the OT passage we see how God delivered the children of
Israel from slavery and explained how doing anything less than what he told
them would lead to enslavement again. Better to listen to God and obey than to
get wrapped up in earthly things like other nations. Here in Colossians, Jesus
is the deliverer, dying on the cross for us and setting us free from the
slavery of sin. Paul, in essence, says that it makes no sense to do those
things that make you a slave to this world.
The answer to the gods of sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, is to set your heart and
mind on things much higher in value than these. Set your hearts on God things.
How do we do that?
b) Search and destroy
your idols –
To answer that we can go back to the OT where God instructed the people what to
do before entering the Promised Land where pagans worshiped some very
attractive idols and ideologies.
(Read Deut. 12:2-4).
Notice the words Moses uses:
destroy, break down, smash, burn and cut down. These are not passive words; these
are words of destruction and annihilation. In other words, we can’t just let
those things that formerly ruled us to lie around our houses. If we have an
inclination to sin and be mastered by something, you cannot claim victory over
it and then allow it to sneak back into your life. Because that is what it will
do; it will find a way to entice you.
Is the pursuit of money your idol? You have to start
giving it away to show that it is not your master. Jesus said, where your
treasure is, there is your heart also.
Not sure how to identify your idols?
Look at your most uncontrollable emotions. If you get angry about certain
things or circumstances in your life you have to ask yourself, “Is there
something here too important to me, something I must have at all costs?” Check
your fears. Are you so afraid that something in your life is being threatened
that you think you cannot live without it? Check your mood. Do you feel that
you must succeed in business or school to be fulfilled and feel significant?
You may not be able to physically
destroy your idols as Deuteronomy commands, but you can deal with errant
thoughts. You have the power to change your thinking by setting your heart on
things above, where Christ is seated. Think on those things that are Christlike.
God
asks us all a question this morning. It is a fundamental question pertaining to
the subject of idolatry. Here is the question (based on Exodus 20):
Has something or someone besides Jesus Christ taken
the place of power and authority in your life?
A flurry of questions follow: Is
there something you are more loyal to than Jesus? Is there something you count
on more than Jesus? What do you look to in order to give meaning and purpose
and value to your life? What would make you happy? What would make you
acceptable to others? What is success?
These questions help us to see whether we serve God
or idols, whether we look to Christ for our salvation or to false ideologies.
We have died with Christ and are
hidden in him. We have been raised to life with Christ. Jesus is our goal as
Christians, our all-consuming goal. We put to death, therefore, anything that
distracts us from our goal. For the glory of Christ whom we shall soon see with
our eyes.
AMEN
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