Prayer: LORD, You are God. You deserve our utmost worship and praise. Set us free from the idolatry of our age. Turn our hearts back to You. Open our ears to Your Word. Give us hearts that will faithfully seek You and rely on You above everything else. We pray for Your Holy Spirit to be with us now. In Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.
"Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
This is the promise God gave you at the close of last week's message. We pondered the 10th command, which showed us that our God wants us to be content with the people he has placed in our lives, to value them, and do what we can to support and improve our relationships. Envious desires are sinful, and insult God, who has given us all things richly to enjoy. He supplies our needs, not our greeds. One of His most wonderful gifts, is a peaceful, and thankful heart.
Today we consider part of the first command not examined earlier. Some count this as a separate command, calling it number 2. It's more important to obey this command than worry about what number it is. In the first command, our God give Himself to us. He calls us to worship Him in awe, and to love and trust Him above everything else. He forbids us to worship any other gods! Why? Because any substitute for Him will, in the end, leave us empty, hopeless, enslaved and destroyed. He is able to satisfy the desires of our hearts. Our true needs and desires.
But this is the problem. We doubt it. We do not always believe He is able to provide for us. We are afraid He won't be able to protect us. We look around us, and we sometimes wonder. Where is He?
In testing times, we sometimes forsake Him, and embrace... something else.
Is this true? Embracing a substitute for God is idolatry.
These days (at least I haven't noticed this happening) we don't set up little statues to bow down to and pray to for help. But idolatry isn't first of all about statues. Idolatry has to do with where you get your comfort from.
Someone has said we are all born with a God-shaped hole within us. Only the Living God Himself can truly fill this space. But human beings the world over spend most of their time trying to fill it with alternatives.
Dare we list some? We talked about being greedy for things, in the last couple of weeks. Our Lord points out that the treasures worth having aren't prone to rust, moths or being stolen. Spiritual needs can never be satisfied by material things. Other idols include pleasure, power, and popularity. When we tell ourselves, 'if only I had that thing, or that person, or that kind of relationship, or that kind of influence, or that knowledge and insight,' we are in danger of making an idol of these things. Let me say again: idolatry isn't first of all about statues. Idolatry has to do with where you get your comfort from.
Where do you turn, in desperate times?
Whom do you praise, when times are good? Who do you give the credit to?
Sometimes we get close to making a god of ourselves, by thinking, 'I've got it all under control. I've managed things well, and look at my rewards.' We know the story of the man who planned to tear down his barns to build bigger barns. God called him a fool, and required his soul of him that very night.
Whatever games we play, regardless of what we indulge in, work at or try to achieve, sooner of later, we will come face to face with God Himself.
Maybe we have dismissed any talk about idols in the past as belonging to the ancient times when people bowed down to statues of wood or silver or gold. But today I invite you to let the Holy Spirit confront you with this question: Where do you get your comfort from?
The biscuit barrel? chocolate? sensual pleasures? A good income? hard work? sport?
God gives us many things to bless our lives. He is generous, and wants us to enjoy things and experiences. But we must never make idols of them.
Our Society worships idols. Substitutes for God abound. And the forces of advertising and marketing are used by the enemy of God, Satan, to feed our sinful natures. Romans 1:25 clearly describes what has happened in the world:"...they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen!"
Idolatry has to do with our hearts, but it also has a lot to do with our eyes. God's command says: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath..". When the LORD was giving His 10 commands to Moses on Mt Sinai, the Israelites had already given up waiting, and decided to set up a golden calf for themselves. They wanted to worship God. But they want to worship a god they could see. Forget walking by faith, and simply trusting in the promises of God. Again and again, God's people of old turned away from the teachings of their God. They didn't want words. They wanted something they could see.
How is it today?
We live in an age saturated with images. Television, billboards, and computers communicate with us visually. In itself this is not wrong. Sometimes it is easier to understand something when it's mapped out for us on paper, or when we can see a video on the subject. But many of the images and video presentations that bombard us are much more than illustrations to help us understand things. They are seducers. They are psychologically designed to manipulate us. To stir up desires, and to shape our thinking. No one likes to think they have been manipulated, but in many ways, this is what has happened to our society. Christians included.
Test yourselves:
Take an issue such as euthanasia (also called mercy killing), or abortion, prostitution or censorship, or something like the ordination of women. Ask yourselves: where do your ideas come from? From the Bible? Would you know what the Bible teaches in various areas? Isn't is far easier just to sit back and let the world educate us and our children, through up-to-date methods of communication?
We commonly think that "seeing is believing." But what if the images you see are false? Is it possible to produce false images these days? Certainly!
We can and should use technological gifts to help us proclaim the Gospel. "By all means let us save some", as St Paul said. But it is 'the word of the cross', not 'the image of the cross' that Paul tells is 'the power of God' and the wisdom of God. (How many people wear a cross simply as a piece of fashion, without a clue as to what it really means?!) Again let us consider Romans 10:17 "Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ."
The spiritual condition of human beings in St Paul's day was no different to today. In his day, and in ours, we are converted and strengthened in faith by the Holy Spirit, who works through God's Word, and in the sacraments. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, that he came to them without 'lofty words or wisdom.' He did not use eloquence. In today's terms, he would say, 'my presentation wasn't impressive.' He resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. But his words came with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. This means their faith did not rest in the wisdom or cleverness of human beings, but in the power of God.
Where is the power of God? It is in His Word. Where is the evidence? We are evidence, and anyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
Our God does not want us to be manipulated by masters of imagery. He wants to free us from slavery to a world of images. He wants to lead us below the surface-level to ponder the deep things of the Spirit. Eternal things. Our God calls us to 'walk by faith, not by sight.'
Peter gives us this wonderful encouragement:
"Without having seen him, you love him; though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith, you obtain the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:8,9
In our Easter celebrations, we heard Jesus say to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." John 20:29.
Do you believe? Have you seen Him? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
"Continue in my Word," Jesus told his disciples, as he tells us today: "If you continue in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
We live in an age which has made images central. So much of our culture feeds the idolatry of human hearts, and demand that we forsake the God we cannot see for the things we can. There is grief and misery in the human heart that refused to let God Himself fill the God-shaped void within. Idols cannot bring the abundant life we are meant to enjoy.
If you have allowed any kind of idolatry in your life, confess it to God right now. Recognise it for what it is - a pathetic substitute to the true and living God, whom we know through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let God's Holy Spirit lead you to His Word. Pray for a listening heart, and thank God that he has not abandoned you to the seduction of the world. In God's word you will find true inner healing and peace. Let the LORD your God be the one you turn to for comfort, help and strength at all times.
Today we close with Proverbs 3:5,6.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."
Amen.
First command (God) | Second command (God's Name) | Third command-a (Sabbath, part 1) | Third command-b (Sabbath, part 2) | Fourth command (authority) | Fifth command (Life) | Sixth command (sexuality) | Seventh command (property) | Ninth command (wanting things)| Tenth command (wanting people)| command against idolatry| 'What does God say of all these commands?'