Flee From Idolatry

Flee From Idolatry

1 Cor. 10:14-22

Prayer

Introduction

We often look down on the tribesman and the worshippers of Idols with disdain. We think that we are above having Gods made with our on hands but I want you to think about something the only difference between the idolatry of a tribesman ascribing power to a fetish and the idolatry of a professor attributing the wonder of the natural world to evolutionary forces is one of degrees. The professor has one and the tribesman does not. Now which is smarter than the other, which one looks more foolish. Our knowledge can become an Idol, people can become idols, anything that takes first place I our lives has just become the idol, the false God that we serve.

Strange for us to think of idolatry as being something in the modern world but consider this:

• There are actually people who worship crawling creatures: In a museum in Egypt there is a monument to the scarob beetle.

• The philistines actually worshiped flies. Hindus today won’t swat a fly lest it be an ancestor of their paying for wrongs.

• Today you find that there are 330 million gods of the Hindus, 8 gods for every person.

• In Thailand there are 20,000 Buddhist temples. In one there is a 2-inch tooth supposedly saved from Buddha’s funeral.

• In China a Buddhist statue actual fell on a man and the family sued the budhas in the temple and it was found guilty and it and 14 other statues were actually beheaded. IDOLATRY is rampant in our world.

• The Roman Catholic Church has relics: Mary’s hair, Mary’s wedding ring, Mary’s holy girdle, the last supper basin, the burial cloth of Jesus, the lance which stuck in His side, actually footprints of Jesus, and John the Baptist: 3 shoulder blades, 4 legs, 5 arms, and 50 index fingers that supposed pointed and said ‘Thou are the lamb of God’.

• Someone has said that the god of the last half of the 20th century is MATERIALISM. I can’t think of another generation that has spent more of their resources and time to accumulate more stuff than we do today. It is the reason many people go to school or choose the kind of work they do. To get bigger and better and nicer.

God tells us in 1 Cor. 10:14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. We are to run away from anything that may be a distraction for us that would cause us to no longer place God in the number on position in our lives. That means that if your favorite TV. show causes you to misplace God in your life turn the TV. off, and if a favorite hobby causes you to misplace God in your life quite it. If a job becomes the end all and be all of your life then leave it. This may seem drastic but God did not say keep doing it He says to flee from it. Don’t let Satan get that finger hold on your life. The most important thing that you do while you are here on earth is to serve and worship God. It is not about raising a Godly family because if God is first in your life that will occur naturally from the outpouring of God’s love through you. It is not about becoming successful because that will occur because of God’s blessing you. When God is first everything else just falls into place. That is why He says to flee Idolatry and don’t let Satan any part of your life. Because if Satan gets a fingertip grip He will soon have a hand holt and then have it all. So lets examine Idolatry so that we may avoid it.

I. What is Idolatry?

a. Idolatry is anything that we put before God in our lives.

i. It can be popular idols such as

1. Musicians

2. Heroes

3. Video games

4. Work

5. Hobbies

6. Ourselves

7. Status

8. Pleasure and entertainment

9. Our families

10. Our friends

b. Anything that comes before God has just become our idol.

i. People say I believe in God but then they do everything else besides serve Him.

1. I am to busy tonight we want go to Bible study

2. Man the day is perfect for golfing, hunting, fishing or so forth I think will go instead of going to church.

3. The kids are hollering, they have homework to do so we don’t have time for church.

4. Oh that TV. show is on that we wanted to watch, or the neighbors came over or some other convenient excuse to keep us from coming to church.

c. Idolatry is Satan’s attempt to undermine God’s plan of salvation.