Jesus vs. Idols
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
- Psalm 115:4-8
We Become What We Worship
Even this very moment, you and I are either becoming more like God, or we’re becoming more like the idols we worship.
Psalm 115 says as much when it makes explicit what the biblical narrative suggests: “what people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration” (Greg Beale, We Become What We Worship). In other words, as we worship, we inevitably become increasingly conformed to the image of the object of our worship.
What’s Happening at North Sub
In the early months of 2021, we’ve been exploring what it looks like to live faithfully in the particular location and time in which God has placed us. As such, our all-church endeavor for Winter-Spring 2021 has been the My Suburb Project. That project has had us asking two questions: (1) How is our world shaping us? (2) How can we faithfully engage our world?
To aid us in this exploration, we studied the journeys of Abraham, a man who (like us) had to navigate challenges as he sojourned in a world not his home. During Lent, we were invited into intimate sharing on the part of our sisters and brothers regarding idols in their lives – forty videos sharing ways in which they’ve become aware they’ve adopted the gods of this world.
Now we embark on a sermon series that will further that exploration. The series (entitled Jesus vs. Idols) will get us into the gospels as we look as Jesus’s confrontation of idols cherished by those he interacted with.
The exploration of our own idols is crucial as we attempt to live faithfully on the North Shore in 2021, in part because effectiveness in reaching our communities will be limited by the extent to which we’ve unwittingly adopted their gods as our own. When we become aware of misplaced worship in our own hearts (which exists for all of us!), our need is to repent.
Christians and Idols
Some are uncomfortable with talk of idols. Isn’t idolatry a major sin? Doesn’t being a Christian mean that we’ve done away with idols?
This thinking may suffer from an overly narrow understanding of what an idol is. To clarify what the Bible teaches about idols, here are two definitions of idols that we will use throughout this series:
“An idol is something in creation that claims the place in my heart that only God should have.” (Paul Tripp).
“An idol is anything in your life that it’s so central to your life that you can’t have a meaningful life if you lose it. Idolatry is anything you look at, and in your heart of hearts you say to it, ‘If I have that, then my life has value, then my life has meaning. And if I would lose that, I don’t know how I would live.’” (Tim Keller)
As John Calvin noted in the 16th century: “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” As such, the popular observation is probably not an overstatement: we never break any of the ten commandments without breaking the first two (i.e. to have no other gods before the Lord, not to worship idols).
In other words, we never merely engage in sinful activity. Rather, our sinful activity always proceeds out of disordered worship – putting our trust in the wrong place, putting something besides God on God’s throne.
How Do I Know if I Have an Idol?
Of course, since our idols are usually good things in and of themselves, we are skilled at rationalizing our disordered worship in such a way that we convince ourselves that idolatry is not taking place. So how do we distinguish between (a) when we are exercising a godly appreciation for one of God’s good gifts and (b) when we are engaging in disordered worship? Paul Tripp provides a helpful diagnosis that we will return to repeatedly in this series:
Am I willing to sin to get this?
Am I willing to sin if I think I’m going to lose this?
Do I turn to this as a refuge and comfort instead of going to God?
If the answer to any of those is “yes,” we have identified an idol.
Idols to Be Addressed in This Series
Pastor Sean will set the stage for our series on 4/11 with a call to be more concerned with the planks in our own eyes than we are with the specks in each others’ eyes. With that attitude of humble openness to the Spirit’s conviction, we will then embark on an exploration of seven idols.
While there are many idols we could address in this series, we attempted to choose seven that meet the following criteria: (a) Jesus addressed this idol, and (b) this idol is a danger for Christians on the North Shore today. As such, here is our plan:
4/18 - Wealth - Mt 19:16-26
4/25 - Position - Mt 20:20-28
5/2 - Happiness - Mt 5:1-12
5/9 - Family - Mt 12:46-50
5/16 - Ministry - Lk 10:1-20
5/23 - Nationality - Lk 4:16-30
5/30 - Security - Lk 12:13-34
You may recognize that several of these idols were popular choices for our Lenten devotionals. Our prayer is that our grip on these seven idols will be loosened as a result of this series.
Getting the Most Out of this Series
Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of this sermon series:
Read and digest the sermon text in advance of the sermon
Join a Life Group that is discussing these texts and the associated idols each week
Fill out the survey on your suburb – especially the portions asking about the idols in your community
Read and/or listen to some of the resources listed below
Bring a heart of humble openness to the Spirit’s conviction
May the Lord bring fruit from the work done in our hearts during this series!
Resources Consulted in Preparing This Series
"My Worth is Not in What I Own" – song by Keith and Kristyn Getty
“Jesus Calls Us O’er the Tumult” – hymn rearranged by Robbie Kellogg
G.K. Beale, We Become What We Worship
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
Tim Keller, "The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry"
Paul Tripp, many resources on idolatry including Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands
TGC Resources on Idolatry - see here
Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods that Fail
Edward P. Meadors, Idolatry and the Hardening of the Heart
Brian Rosner, Greed as Idolatry
Kyle Idleman, Gods at War