Two Steps To Trouble Series

TWO STEPS TO TROUBLE:

1. AN IDOL IS A SUBSTITUTE FOR GOD THAT WE PUT ON OUR HEART'S THRONE.

- Ezekiel 14:3, 4, 7.

- The triple repeat is interesting and significant.

- An idol is the start of the problem. It’s a substitute God.

- Let’s look at three examples. We’ll start with this step and then come back to them in the second step in order to see how this works.

a. Job.

- You put your career on your heart’s throne. Nothing means more to you than climbing the ladder.

b. Children.

- You put your kids first. They are your highest priority.

- It might be worth pausing here to address those who think I’m speaking out of turn. “Our kids should be our highest priority!” Well, no, they shouldn’t. I love my kids and they mean so much to me but God is supposed to be the greatest love of our lives. As we’re going to find out as we further explore this issue, anytime you put something else on the throne of your heart, bad things are going to happen, even if it’s something as lovely sounding as our kids.

c. A relationship.

- You meet a romantic partner who is amazing. Your relationship with them becomes the greatest part of your life.

- You put that relationship on the throne of your heart. More than anything else you want that relationship to work.

- Again, like with the children point a moment ago, this sounds somewhat benign to many of you, but once again there are negative consequences to actually living this out.

- So here we have these idols. There are, of course, countless others that can take that seat on the throne of our heart. Any of them who aren’t God are idols.

2. DOING THAT INEVITABLY CREATES STUMBLING BLOCKS TO ANY ATTEMPTS TO FOLLOW THE REAL GOD.

- Ezekiel 14:3, 4, 7.

- Now we come to the second part of equation that Ezekiel gives us those three times: “wicked stumbling blocks.” This is an interesting phrase and worth us thinking for a moment about what he’s getting at. This isn’t just a random word choice – he’s pointing us toward what happens when we put idols on the throne of our heart.

- The picture is something like this:

a. We make a choice inside us (consciously or unconsciously) to put something on the throne of our heart. That becomes an idol. Note that all three verses speak of this happening in our heart.

b. Once that has happened, there is a real world consequence to that action.

- That consequence looks like this. I make some effort (big or minor) to move in the direction of God (the real one, not the idol) but it doesn’t go well. I keep stumbling and tripping and falling. Why? Because it turns out there are stumbling blocks littering my path.

- What are they? They are hurdles that my idol has put in the way of pursuing the real God. I have given my heart to an idol and that commitment I’ve made it going to impede the progress I might otherwise of made toward God.

- These are “wicked.” They are sinful things that block my (admittedly limited) moves toward the real God.

- Note also that the passage says they are “before their faces.” This speaks to real-life situations. That’s exactly the way it happens.

- This will become clearer when we look at a few examples. Let’s go back to three we just shared under point 1: job, children, relationship. What are practical examples of step two happening because of step one?

a. Job.

- The person has made their job the idol of their life. They make an initial step toward the real God in wanting to go to church but that effort quickly hits a “wicked stumbling block” of the hours they need to put in on Sunday to stay ahead of everyone else.

- There is at some level a desire to go to church but as they walk in that direction they quickly find themselves on the floor. The stumbling block that their idol placed there gets in the way.

- A second example of this might be that this person wants to be a “good person.” He wants to do what’s right. But then he sees the quarterly returns are going to come in significantly lower than he needs them to. If he bends the rules just a bit and massages the numbers he won’t have the danger that his boss might be made at him and demote him. His aspirations couldn’t take a demotion. He has to get that promotion he wants to badly. So when he tries to walk in the direction of doing the moral thing, his idol has put a “wicked stumbling block” in the way and he finds himself on the floor.