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Idolatry (Part 6)
8-8-10
● All of us have these tendencies, these propensities to seek fulfillment
apart from/in something other than God. Those tendencies displace God’s love
as the source of our deepest desires.
The idea is not to be “free of
desires” (Buddhism’s “Nirvana”:
frees us from suffering), but to have our desires transformed and
redirected.
1 John 5:21 “Dear children, keep away
from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” NLT
In actuality, it is indicative of life’s most basic question:
“Has something other than God
captured your heart and merited your trust and service? Who or what rules
you?”
● While the Scriptures do recognize the presence and power of spiritual
forces behind the gods and idols (something more going on that what we can
see), the OT much more frequently describes the idols as the
“work of human hands”.
Habakkuk 2:18-19
"What have you gained by worshiping all your man-made idols? How foolish to
trust in something made by your own hands! What fools you are to believe
such lies! How terrible it will be for you who beg lifeless wooden idols to
save you. You ask speechless stone images to tell you what to do. Can an
idol speak for God? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are
lifeless inside.”
The advantage of idols is that they are always readily available and less
personally demanding than God.
They are there for the express purpose of satisfying me.
It’s filling myself with whatever possesses the strongest appeal and offers
the most immediate pleasure. Might I suggest that this is indicative of
unfulfilled desires (attachments which haven’t satisfied us). And, if you
feel content apart from God, might I also suggest that you not dismiss the
possibility of deception (that you are being deceived). If our attachments are essentially the “work of our own hands”, what kind of gods are we making? What inspires them?
►First,
our gods all have this in common: they all come from things which have a
specific appeal and make certain promises (the “if… then” proposition].
It suggests that the things which get our attention and seize our
imaginations will soon capture our hearts. They are the
things to which we look for “life”.
►Our
gods come from the things that we fear.
Why is it that although we live in a
society that is decidedly more affluent and with a longer life-expectancy
than ever that we are consumed with fear and anxiety?
We place our trust in the financial market in order to ensure future
stability. We funnel millions of dollars into modern weaponry and star-wars
defense systems in order to keep us safe, but we can’t protect ourselves
against a guy with explosives in his underwear!
We fear being alone… lonely, so our desire for companionship consumes
us and often causes us to pursue unhealthy forms of relationships because
we’re afraid that someone else will not come along.
►Our
gods come from the things we view as “needs”.
Most of them, “legitimate needs”, which are to be addressed within
our loving and trusting response to God; not
“running after these things”
(Matthew 6:32). The phrase “eagerly
seek” means to
‘crave; demand; a noisy, panicked
shouting’ as opposed to a quiet trust.
● Jesus’ stories (Matthew 6) about God taking care of the birds and the
field flowers were not merely diversionary- tactics to get your mind off of
your financial dilemma. It was meant to create an atmosphere of trust in a
conflicting environment of uncertainty and suspicion about the ‘gods’ and
their posture toward humanity.
● Jesus says it’s futile to trust in things that can rust away, decay or be
stolen, because every material thing is subject to one or all of those
possibilities. Hoarding and worry and excess should not characterize God’s people because they don’t represent the priorities of the Kingdom. Once again, it’s the (2)-ways analogy: “earthly treasure” vs. “heavenly treasure”. It’s not about the stuff, it’s about what you treasure.
►Our
gods come from things we “treasure”.
“Where your treasure is, there
you heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21 (Remember, life organizes itself
around our hearts).
● Treasures are things that we attempt to preserve because they are valuable
to us, although they may possess little or no “real” value, in and of
themselves.
What’s the old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s _______?”
● And, it’s not just material goods that we treasure. We treasure our
reputation, our
appearance, our
status, our
relationships.
● Remember the “barn builder” in
Luke 12: Jesus’ short answer to his economic-strategy…
“you fool”. Not because he
had money or that he was planning for the future, but that
none of those plans concerned God
and he failed to consider what his
approach to life was doing to his soul (“What
do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”
Matt.16:26)
►Our
gods come from the make us feel secure.
We put our valuables in a tiny metal box we call a
“safe”. A piece of ragged-cloth
that our children carry around that we call a
“security blanket” (it’s about
the power that we give them).
The paradox is that the things that make us feel secure have a tendency to
enslave us and the things that really free us feel too risky.
For instance, we use the term
“financial security” (which is really ambiguous), but our pre-occupation
with security leads to worry and anxiety… and less freedom. Now, not only do
we worry about obtaining it, but about protecting/keeping it.
►Might
I also suggest that our gods are the images of God that we develop.
This is, perhaps, one of the most detrimental forms of idolatry because,
most often, what disappoints us is
not God, but our image of God.
● It’s why what we think about God matters. That image must be shaped
through revelation and as accurate as understanding as possible.
● If we are honest, we utilize this image of God in much the same way as the
ancient pagan idol-worshippers. We reduce him to something created;
something that we can customize and control in order to secure the life that
want. And when that image fails or disappoints us, our tendency is to
abandon it like any other idol that has left us feeling unfulfilled and
create a new one.
It’s important to remember: Jesus would never allow us to develop a faith
that was merely behavioral but ignored our heart.
Idolatry is primarily an issue of the heart (Ezekiel 14:1-8
“… and have embraced things that will
make them fall into sin.”) which will eventually manifest itself in the
way that we actually live our lives.
So, you’re not sinning because of your immoral sexual behavior, you’re
sinning because you are attempting to find fulfillment in romantic
relationship and not God. You’re not sinning because you are exploiting
people for your own financial advantage, you’re sinning because you are
looking to success and prosperity for meaning and life.
In most cases, it will be necessary for your idols to disappoint and fail
you before you realize that they will not and cannot
ultimately satisfy you.
It’s what happens when we run out of
energy and
ideas (exhausted and having
exhausted every resource).
● Something must frustrate you and leave you feeling powerless before you
realize how much control it has over you. Very few of us learn about the
power of our idols just by being reminded of them on a Sunday a.m.
When will I know that I am ready to displace all of these other attachments
so that I might love God and you more fully?
When I am ready to make the declaration found in Isaiah 44:20…
“What I have in my hand is a lie.”
This is how you will know that you are ready to initiate the process.
You will never “hit bottom” as long as your re-course is another
self-imposed, self-motivated strategy.
Unbroken people always pursue a strategy that they are able to
manage/control.
It’s precisely at those times when we feel the least powerful and the most
out-of-control, that freedom is most available.
Ironically, we might actually be the most free when our attachments
have left us so defeated and confused that we are powerless. That’s when we
become most available to grace. |
