American Idols
10 Commandment Series
CCCAG May 28th, 2017
Scripture-Exodus 20:4-6
The Miracle on 54th Street
As you know Tammie and I came from Kenosha Wisconsin, and lived through an interesting time in our city in 1991. There was a revival group that had started among the local Catholic’s that got filled with the Holy Spirit and became very charismatic, and yet held on to the basic tenants of their Catholic faith. They got kicked out of their local church, and found another Catholic church with a more sympathetic priest that let them have their meetings in the sanctuary. During one of these meetings, a strange thing happened.
This event at Mt Carmel became national news when it was reported that an image of Jesus began to manifest itself above the statue of Joseph in their sanctuary.
People came from all over south-eastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, and even as far away as Florida and California came to see to see this phenomenon There were lines down the block with people carrying cameras, the old gigantic VHS camcorders (no battery life, huge lights), binoculars. The press was parked for a few weeks outside of the church as people came in and out, often running around the block to get back into line to see the apparition again.
Some people reported seeing Jesus with his arms open, other people saw Jesus with tears in his eyes, other saw his hands outstretched showing the holes in His hands. Others saw Mary (it is a Catholic Church after all), praying next to Jesus as this vision was seen by hundreds.
The local priest said this about what people saw- “People will see Jesus based on the need they have at the time. To those who need love or forgiveness they see outstretched arms, to those who need healing, they see the nail scarred hands, and to those who are suffering, they see the tears in His eyes”
One woman named Ann summed up her experience this way-
"When you leave here you feel so cleansed and elated," Ann said. "There's some reason for all of this. Maybe it's because there's so much turmoil in the world. Maybe he's trying to give a message."
The Milwaukee archdiocese simply stated they had no opinion, but behind the scenes had that revival group banned from all Catholic church’s in that diocese. They went on to form Living Light Church in Kenosha, and is one of the fastest growing churches in that area.
I bring up this story before we get into the text of today’s message so that we can see that there really isn’t any difference between Israel in 1200 BC when the 10 Commandments were given, and our society today when it comes to idolatry.
CS Lewis said that the modern world suffers from chronological snobbery. Chronological Snobbery is this idea is that the people of the bible were somehow inferior to the people who live in modern times- they were more superstitious, more believing in the supernatural, or less educated about the world than we are today. Some of that might be true, but human nature remains the same today as it was for these 6 million people gathered around Mt. Sinai.
But as we have seen through the (quote) Miracle on 54th Street, today we are just as prone to idolatry as they were 1200 years before Jesus was born.
As Solomon said in ECC 1:9-10
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
Our superstition and idolatry just takes different forms. We will talk about that in a minute. Let’s get to the scripture for today.
In Ex 20, we have the biggest family meeting in all of history, and Father God is giving the second of the 10 Commandments. The first commandment dealt with the object of our worship. The second commandment deals with the method of our worship.
Let’s read the text now.
Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Prayer
Big idea- Reasons for the 2nd Commandment
I. History- Going into the promised land, Israel will be surrounded by Idolatry
A. Pantheon of Egypt to the west
Egyptians worshiped multiple gods and had idols and image of those gods in their homes, on their buildings, woven into clothing, and even tattooed on their bodies.
In fact, if you read the 10 plagues God sent to Egypt, they are all attacking the pride of the primary or chief of the gods of Egypt.
Hapi was the god of the Nile and of water. God turned water to blood
Heket, god of fertility, water, and renewal was pictured with the head of a frog- God had all of the frogs come out of the water, plague the people, and then die.
Geb- god of the earth and soil. God turned the soil to dust, which then transformed into lice to plague the people
Khepri- god of creation, movement, rebirth- had the head of a fly.
God send flies so thick that people couldn’t breathe.
Hathor- goddess of love and protection- pictured with the head of a cow. God killed the livestock with disease.
Isis- god of health and peace.
God instructs Moses to cast ashes into the air, and the Egyptians are plagued with boils
Nut- goddess of the sky
God sends hail and fire from the sky
Seth- god of disorder and storms
God sends locusts
Ra- god of the sun
God sends 3 days of complete darkness
Pharoah- considered a god in his own right
God sends the angel of death to slay the first born
All of these judgements were meant to show both the Egyptians AND Israel the complete impotence of the idolatry practiced by the nation that enslaved them for centuries.
They needed to see that lesson, because the land they were heading to hand it’s own idolatrous practices.
B. The gods of Canaan
1. Baal (seen in form of a bull) (golden calf)- crops, hedonistic sex, domination
2. Asherah- sex and child sacrifice
3. Dagon (fish god of Philistines)
C. Ancestor worship north
D. Pagan/nature worship south
E. Israel was going to become a nation right in the middle of all of this Idolatrous worship. Given their location in the world of their time, the major trading routes passed through their promised land, bringing all of their various religions with them.
That is the reason God gives the second commandment to Israel.
But what does it mean to us today?
So we don’t fall into the temptation of chronological snobbery, lets look at our own world.
We have a missionary friend that is a member of the Datoge tribe in Tanzania- Gilawenga Maunda. Gil got saved through the ministry of Dophi, a single woman who went to Tanzania to be a missionary and Gil was one of her first converts. They fell in love and got married and now he helps her reach the Datoge people.
Gil is a pretty cool guy, tall, infectious smile. You see the joy of the Lord shining through him in everything he does. He still has his facial tattoos that are common among the Datoge. In fact, in the Datoge tribe, if you are male, you cannot be considered a man until you kill a lion, an Elephant, or a Water Buffalo with a wooden spear you make by yourself.
Your man-card is intact if you have that on your resume’.
Our custom at our last church was to take a missionary couple out to lunch, but with our missions board getting so large, we decided to bring it in house and have a fellowship meal in the dining area with the Missions couple so everyone got to hear their hearts when the spoke. Someone asked Gil what he thought of America and what our chief problem was spiritually.
Gil gave a one word answer- Idolatry.
Keep in mind before he got saved, this is a man who lived in a primitive African tribe. The Datoge would have parts and bowels of chickens and other animals that were sacrificed to the pagan god of his tribe all over his house to ward off evil spirits.
When he said that America’s chief problem is Idolatry, I’m thinking- dude, you have the corner on the Idolatry man….we don’t’ have chicken gizzards guarding the front door.
And yet he said we are the idolatrous country.
Dolphi explained what he meant- The Datoge are dirt poor- literally. The live in the plains (very arid, almost desert), have little chance for agriculture as there isn’t a lot of water available. You see the pictures of starving Africans, they could easily be the Datoge tribe.
Yet, he comes to America, where the poorest among us would be considered insanely wealthy by Datoge standards, and yet we are the most miserable and unhappy people he has every met.
And as he sees it, it’s because of Idolatry- we worship everything except Jesus. The average American Christian only sees Jesus as a person to bless them, not a person to sacrifice for and follow.
He even said, “You claim to be a Christian nation, but your most popular TV show is American Idol”
Let’s look at some of the things in our American Culture that we idolize-
II. Modern cultural idols.
There are 5 things I’d like to point out this morning
A. Wealth
Americans are notorious throughout the world for worshipping wealth or the possessions wealth buys, even at the expense of others.
A quick case in point- How many people have a cell phone? I’m a tech nerd, so I love the best, fastest most versatile tech out there.
Most modern tech, if it is portable at all, is powered by a Lithium Ion Battery. Lithium comes from the mineral Cobalt.
This Colbalt comes from 3rd world mines. These mines have no OSHA watching over the safety of the workers, are usually dug by hand or hand made tools after being lowered into a hole using ropes, and generally children are the best workers because they fit into the tightest spaces.
Up to 1/3 of these workers will die in the mines, and the rest will have children with such horrible birth defects that I can’t show you pictures in church. Not only does it affect the direct workers, but people drinking from streams or groundwater sources in the area are also affected and get very ill from the mine in their area.
These people are paid maybe a dollar a day…so we can spend $800 on a new smartphone.
I admit I’m not a huge social justice champion, but there is something wrong with that.
Another things American put their faith in is
B. Military might
The United States has the most fearsome military that has ever existed. Our President right now can give an order, and anywhere on earth, 30 minutes later a major city will cease to exist in a nuclear fireball.
Take away the nuclear side, and even our non-nuclear capabilities are awe inspiring. The MOAB bomb dropped on Afghanistan a month ago wiped out a few square miles of area (drop one at Kwik Trip, every building in town would be destroyed)- just flattened everything and collapsed an entire mountain’s tunnel structure that our enemies had been using to hide from us inside.
Americans trust in our military to keep us safe, and rightly so.
However, consider this- what did God allow the terrorists to attack Sept 11, 2001?
World Trade Center- our wealth
Pentagon- our military.
Do you think God was trying to send us a message? Do you think that God did the same thing to America in a smaller scale that HE did to the Egyptians in knocking down a few idols we put faith in before we look to God?
Just something to ponder
C. Self Esteem or Celebrity
How is self esteem bad? We can’t decide what bathroom to use anymore because we don’t want to damage someone else’s self-esteem. We can’t give out trophy’s for achievement anymore because we can’t identify winners or losers. We create safe spaces on college campus’ because we can’t offend people’s sensitivities.
In the rush to worship each others self-esteem, we are crippling a entire generation as to the realities of life, not to mention allowing them to believe lies that will damn them to hell.
And on the flip side of that, we worship Hollywood which has directly contributed to this mess we are in by promoting gross sin in TV shows, music, and movies.
D. Sports-
You ever seen a college football game? Go to Camp Randal this fall- Everyone paints themselves in the color of their team, screams, does waves because they believe it will change the outcome.
Take an Israelite out from around Mt. Sinai and have him or her watch what is going on and ask them what they think.
They would say they are worshipping something.
Ask them to stand and sing with emotion in church, and that’s too radical.
E. Politics- how many people lost friends this last election? We trust in our politicians to save us. We give to their campaigns, argue and lose friendships over the issues. We willingly turn our faces from the politician’s obvious faults because they are going to make our lives better.
Yet we ask people to give to a missionary, or share their faith, and we are silent.
Those are some of the idols in our culture, now lets ask ourselves what our personal idols might be:
III. Personal idols
You can find out what your personal idols are by asking yourself where your treasure, your time, or your talent is invested.
A few points for us to ponder
A. Treasure
What do you give your money to? IF everyone had their bank statement for the last year projected on the screen, would you be ashamed?
How have you spent God’s money? Because it’s all God’s money. The paper and ink that’s in your wallet purse or represented digitally in bank account was created by God.
It’s not yours, particularly if you are a Christian. It’s all HIS.
Where are you spending God’s treasure?
B. Time
Even more valuable than money, because you have no idea how much you get. You can always earn more money, but there is no way to earn or purchase more time. We only borrow our time from God, and He will someday call us to give an account for what He has lent to us.
The bible says it’s appointed for man once to die. Baring the Rapture, you have a set appointment when you will breathe your last. Most of us will never know when it will happen, but it will happen.
When God opens the books of remembrance and look at your life, will He see you spent His time that HE lent to you on things that glorified HIM, or did you use your time to simply make yourself happy?
How you spend your time is one of the primary ways you show God, yourself, and the world who you really worship.
C. Talent
God has given you giftings and talents that are meant to enrich HIS Kingdom, not yourself.
Some people are gifted musically
Some people are gifted financially
Some with the want to work hard and serve
Some are artistic
Some have huge capabilities for loving people
God gives everyone a talent or gift to use to enrich HIS Kingdom
When we use our God given giftings to make ourselves rich and famous instead using them to help others see Jesus, it’s one of the most tragic forms of idolatry there is.
Because one day we will stand before HIM to give an account on how we used our time, our treasure, and our talent.
The great revivalist Leonard Ravenhill quoted this poem from Alexander McClean.
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there
And I would not yield my will,
Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes;
Grief though He loves me still'
Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While my memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I can’t retrace.
Idolatry is a hard topic because none of us want to admit it’s probably the commandment that we struggle with the most.
I knew preparing for the series on the 10 commandments, that this was going to be a hard message, because it really judges our thoughts, our attitudes, and our closely held secret sins we don’t want to admit to ourselves exist within our spirits.
The time is too short for feel good Christianity. I feel this as much in my own life. I feel the attacks of the enemy increasing both in our culture and in my life.
“The devil comes with great wrath, because he knows his time is short”
It’s time to get the idols out of our lives, and stop breaking God’s second commandment.
Amen
Salvation call
Conclusion
