To the reader: What inspired this sermon was a quote I read in R.C. Ortlund’s book, When God Comes To Church, p. 194.
"Self is the great idol standing at the center of our conceptual world, to which all bow low. We even have a duty-to-self ethic, as if self-denial were harmful, immoral, and deviant. ’I owe it to myself to be happy, to grow as a person, to discover myself, to fulfill my potential, to caress my victimhood, to get in touch with my feelings, even if it hurts you. I’m drowning in my duties. If I don’t break free, I’ll die.’ For the Christian, what happened to the all-sufficiency of Christ?"
__________________________________
INTRO: Some of my favorite Bible passages are the ones that point out the futility of Idol worship.
I can’t even imagine taking a piece of wood, or stone, or metal, and talking to it, or acting like it has anything to do with the direction of my life…can you?
(USE ILLUS IF YOU HAVE A wood carving or statue…talk to it about your day)
-One of my favorites is in Isaiah 44….OPEN THERE.
There has been a surge lately among some of the leading Atheists to push down Christianity.
-They will insist that what the Bible teaches is SO illogical…it DEFIES reason.
- I don’t think you’ll find any better common sense thinking than what is in Isaiah 44.
-Isaiah has observed people who not only worship idols, but who make idols!
-Listen as he describes this process for us:
12-17
-Isaiah has such a good sense of irony!
-A guy picks out a tree, or even plants the tree himself. Over the years, it is watered, and it grows.
- He cuts down there tree. He uses half of it for firewood, then he takes the other half of it, he cuts it and whittles it until it resembles a person, then he bows down to it!
-Isaiah seems so frustrated, “How can any rational person worship something that they themselves built?”
-Isn’t it a good thing that none of us worships something like this? We don’t, do we?
Isn’t it easy to see why something like this would make God angry?
What about the Golden Calf in Exodus?
-Moses had gone up to Mt. Sinai to receive the very commandments of God. Word for Word, God would specifically say what he wanted people to do, and how he wanted them to live.
-Along with this, God approached in a huge dark cloud, and shot thunder bolts, so that the people would hear and tremble at his presence.
- God spends several days, explaining everything he wants to Moses.
-This represents one of the most significant events that every happened in human history. God then writes down all his desires, carving them directly into stone tablets…they couldn’t laminate paper yet, back then
-Moses takes the holy tablets…the very words of God, touched by God…and Joshua begins a walk down the mountain with him…and they start hearing something.
-Joshua says, “It sounds like war!” They turn round the corner, and everyone’s up dancing the Macarena around an enormous gold cow!!!
-At the very time when God was showing his closeness to them, they were too impatient to sit there and be reverent.
OPEN TO EXODUS 32
Ex 32:1-6
- We adults like to think that Children are the only ones who need supervision, but sometimes we aren’t much better!
- Moses saw this and got so mad that he slammed the tablets on the ground and broke them, then he ground that golden cow into dust, put it in the water, and made them drink it.
ILLUS: Quick Life Lesson From Exodus: Never dedicate your life to something that can be ground into powder. Don’t worship something that can be diced into tiny bits.
- Doesn’t it just seem absurd that someone would worship something they made out of earrings and bracelets? Aren’t you glad we don’t do anything like that any more?
My favorite story involving idolatry is in I Kings 18. (TURN THERE)
- Elijah has the big showdown with the prophets of Baal. If Baal could answer, this would have been his big chance.
- Elijah gets them all gathered and says, “You’ve got to stop being wishy-washy about which god you follow…we’re going to have a contest to establish once and for all who is the REAL God.”
- Elijah was all by himself. Baal had 450 prophets.
- The deal was that each of them had one bull. They were to prepare an altar, and whichever God responded by lighting the altar with fire from heaven, that was the real God.
I Kngs 18:26-29
- No one. No voice. No answer. No one paid attention.
-And of course, Elijah prepared the Bull, then had them dig a trench around it, and absolutely drench the whole thing with water.
- Elijah only had to call on God one time, and God sent down the fire to completely consume the sacrifice…it even burned up the water soaking it, and the dirt underneath it.
-To me, the most amazing part of the story is Jezebel in chapter 19. King Ahab is rethinking his faith. There has just been this undeniably powerful act of God. There were so many witnesses, it would be impossible to deny that it happened…and why would you want to?
-But Jezebel was going to worship Baal no matter what, so she sent death threats to Elijah and continued to be hard-headed.
I’ve spoken with you about three of the best known passages in the Bible dealing with idolatry.
- Sure, they’re good stories, but is this something that is still around us?
- I don’t mean in third world countries among the indigenous people…does Idolatry still happen in Rose Bud, Arkansas?
I think the real answer to that question might disturb us. There are no golden calves. There are no slice’em dice’em rituals going on. We aren’t praying to pieces of wood.
But Idolatry isn’t just about treating a piece of wood or stone like it’s a God.
Idolatry is about putting anything in the place in your life where God should be.
Augustine said, “Idolatry is using anything that ought to be worshiped, or worshiping anything that ought to be used.” (THINK ABOUT THAT)
-In the New Testament, we find some strong statements against idolatry…but in ways that might surprise you.
-Sure, there’s the passage about eating food sacrificed to idols in I Corinthians, and one in Romans…there are a couple of places in Acts where idols are mentioned…
-But when Christians are warned against IDOLATRY, it sometimes has nothing to do with bowing down to a statue!
Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (read again)
-If sexual immorality, lust, evil desires, and greed are idolatry….WHO ARE WE WORSHIPING? What are we worshipping?
Passage you should all highlight in your Bible is I John 2:16, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the father, but is from the world”.
-Do you remember that ending to I John that seems kind of weird? “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”.
- I believe those two verses are talking about exactly the same thing.
I’ve read one scholar Who thinks that what John put in I John 2:16 is the Trinity of Idolatry.
- The Christian Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- But here we have a warning against 1. the desires of the flesh 2. the lust of the eyes 3. the pride of life (possessions)
You can phrase that in creative ways. Idolatry is worshipping “Sex, Shekels, & Stomach”. Or “Pleasure, Possessions, and Position”
Again, I ask, “if the desires of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life is idolatry…who is it that we are worshipping?”
- If a person is absolutely consumed with their desire to have a corvette…are they worshipping the corvette, or are they worshipping the person they want to buy it for?
- If you are willing to neglect all other significant aspects of your life in order to watch your favorite sports team, do you watch the games for the good of the team, or is because YOU like watching them?
- When a man lusts after a woman he isn’t married to…is he worshipping her? Does he lust for her sake? Who is he trying to please?
I believe that Satan has gotten smarter. He may not be able to fool us into worshipping a rock, or a statue, or even the stars….but we’re eager to worship ourselves and our own desires ANY DAY.
And if you really think about it…we worship ourselves in many of the exact same ways that the Israelites worshipped a golden calf. Let’s compare some things:
1. They gave all of their gold and precious possessions to their idol.
- If you were making an idol to worship…you didn’t make it out of mud and straw…you made it from Gold and Silver, and the best that you had.
- Where is your treasure? Where are your precious things? Have you used them for God’s service? Jesus said our heart will be where our treasure is.
- Do you have any in heaven, or is it all tied up in name-brand clothing, vehicles, houses, and credit cards?
2. They went to great effort to fashion that calf into the image they wanted.
- They wanted to go to great time and effort to ensure their God looked good. I think it’s a good thing to take care of your body…it is the temple of God…but are we not overly obsessed with how we look? People spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgeries, enhancements, reductions, etc. If you spend hours a day making sure that you look good, but you don’t have 5 minutes to give to God in prayer, in Scripture reading, or in loving others, WHO ARE YOU WORSHIPPING?
3. They sang songs, feasted, and danced in honor of the golden calf. They were entertaining their god.
- Research shows that the average American family has their TV on for 7 hours and 40 minutes per day.
-I’ve had many people try and tell me that TV is our idol. Do you watch the TV because you care for it and respect it….or do you watch TV for your own sake? On TV we have people there to entertain us as often as we want to be entertained. We sit there on our Lazy-Boy Thrones, and let ourselves be entertained to death.
Is it hard not to be this way? Of course it’s hard!
-Remember, Elijah was the only prophet of God. There were 450 prophets of Baal.
- I don’t know the ratio, but for every person trying to really be dedicated to God, trying to be a good father/mother, trying to let Christ’s light shine…there well may be 450 other people who are just looking out for #1, trying to get more money, more fun, and more of whatever else they feel like.
Is it wrong to have fun? NO! Is it wrong to be entertained? NO! Is it wrong to do some things for your own good or have hobbies? NO!
- But each of us needs to think deeply about who it is that we’re serving in the way that we live. If I knew Christ would be reviewing my records with me tomorrow morning…would I spend as much time entertaining myself? Would I work as many long hours so that I can afford more STUFF? Would I put my family aside as much so that I could do what I felt like?
To really let Christ be the King of our lives is such a challenge, because we have so many voices around us telling us not to!
- I want to challenge you to really think about what you do with your time and with your possessions. Do your actions reflect the priorities you want to have in your life?
- This is a really tough challenge for most of us. Maybe you need encouragement. (Invitation)
