IDOLATRY: Identifying Idols

Last week we defined IDOLATRY. It is worshipping something that is NOT GOD as GOD. In the Old Testament, idolatry was very OPEN. People crafted statues, bowed to them, and offered sacrifices to them.
 
If that were the only version of idolatry, then today’s sermon on identifying idols would be pretty simple.
 
Step One. Go to your house.
Step Two. Identify any statues that you regularly pray to.
Step Three. Use a Sharpie and write on that statues – THIS IS AN IDOL.
Step Four. Throw those statues in the garbage.
 
But there’s a second definition of idolatry that we looked at last week. It happens when people unknowingly place something or someone in God’s place. We call this HIDDEN idolatry.
 
So…
How does one identify hidden idols?
 
Today we will learn from God’s Word how to identify idols in our hearts. Before we do that, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth. Your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. A “Gotcha” Question
 
The Scripture we’re searching today comes from Matthew 22:32-40. It takes place on the Tuesday before Jesus died. Tensions were between Jesus and the religious leaders of the city. So, that day was filled with theological showdowns. With a large crowd of people watching, the various religious groups asked Jesus questions in order to make him look like a fool.
 
It was GOTCHA journalism. Their questions were designed to make Jesus look like a fool or heretic in front of the public. If Jesus answered the wrong way, they were able to tell everyone that Jesus was a fool or a heretic.
 
If this would have happened in in 2020, social media would have jumped down Jesus’ throat.
There would have been ads on Facebook that said, “Expert in the Law EXPOSES Jesus” CLICK HERE.
Instagram memes making fun of what Jesus said.
Hashtags on Twitter: #JesusGetsOwned
 
Look at the question that one expert in the law comes up with:
 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” (v.36)
 
Now, understand…
All of God’s commands are important.
All of God’s commands are good.
 
But…
If they can get Jesus to pick one over the other…
 
If Jesus says, “Honor your Father and Mother” is most important, then can respond by saying, “So it’s not that big of a deal to kill someone?”
If Jesus says, “You shall not commit adultery” is most important, they can spread the word, “Jesus says stealing isn’t really that bad.”
If Jesus says, “You shall remember the Sabbath Day” is most important, they can tell others that “Jesus support coveting!”
 
If they could get Jesus to seemingly contradict what Scripture says,
He’d be an easy target for a smear campaign.
 
But…
It’s not wise to try and pull one over on Jesus.
 
Look at Jesus’ response:
Jesus said to him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.” (v.38-40)
 
Notice that Jesus answers the questions about the singular greatest commandment by giving two.
 
The first command he lists is a version of the first commandment that God had written down on the two tables of stone given to Moses. (We talked about that story last week). That command is, “You shall have no other gods.” Jesus’ version is similar. “Love God more than anything.”
 
But then Jesus continues and mentions a second command in conjunction with the first: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
This command isn’t labelled as second in importance or value.
Just as the second command he’s going to list.
 
Jesus means that there is a link between the two:
One can’t love a neighbor as himself without loving God above all things.
One can’t love God above all things without loving their neighbor as themselves
 
In other words, all God’s commands are great, because all God’s commands are about love for God.
 
TRUTH:
Love for GOD is the HEART of all commands.
 
Just like a heart needs to be pumping in order to send blood into all the area of the body so that your fingers pinch, your knees bend, and your tongue blows raspberries, so love for God pumps love throughout spiritual veins that we follow his commands.
 
Think about it:
Love for God leads to keeping the 3rd commandment in worship of God.
Love for God leads to keeping the 4th commandment and honoring the parents God gave you.
Love for God leads to keeping the 5th commandment and not harboring hatred for people God loves.
Love for God leads to keeping the 6th commandment and not viewing a soul that God created as being there for your pleasure.
Love for God leads to keeping the 7th commandments and not stealing what God has provided for his people.
Love for God leads to keeping the 8th commandment and not gossiping about people that God says he cares deeply about.
Love for God leads to keeping the 9th & 10th commandments and totally trusting that God has given you exactly what you need.
 
II. Identifying Idols
 
Jesus wins the battle of wits with the Pharisees. But that’s not all Jesus does. In his words, Jesus provides a blueprint for identifying idols in our lives. How? Look at Jesus’ words again.
 
(1) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR HEART
 
The heart has always been used as a symbol for love. Although the actual human heart doesn’t exactly like the Valentine’s Day shape (there aren’t four ventricles), it is what keeps your blood pumping. As a result, the ancient world began to use the heart as a symbol to describe what “got your blood pumping.”
 
Therefore, we want to LOVE the Lord our God with all our heart!
 
But…
 
Imagine for a moment that you were happily married.
Your heart was completely and absolutely in love with your spouse.
In fact, you were celebrating your anniversary down at Sullivan’s steakhouse.
 
And…
 
You decide to reveal to your spouse that for your anniversary, you signed both of you up for a dating app.
 
Good idea?
 
Of course not, you’d be putting your marriage in jeopardy by allowing others who aren’t your spouse to attempt to vie for your heart with text message, with photos, with flirty, heart shaped emojis!
 
It’s the same with idols.
Your idols are the things that are vying for God’s place in your heart.
 
Could be your career.
Your bank account.
Your reputation.
Your boyfriend.
Your spouse.
Your kids.
Your health.
Your physique.
Your vanity.
Your emotions.
Your traditions.
Your innovations.
Your desires.
Your hopes.
 
Careful. The things you love will try to crowd God out of your heart.
 
(2) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR SOUL
 
The soul is a word used to describe the miraculous life within each of us. Our soul is who we are. In the Bible, the soul is often in need of rest.
 
Psalm 62 says, “My soul rests in God.”
Psalm 116 says, “Return to rest my soul, for God has been good to you.”
In Matthew 11, Jesus says, “In Me…You will find rest for your souls.”
 
If you’re resting, you’re doing so because you have faith everything will be ok while you’re sleeping.
If you’re awake, you’re not confident. You’re staying up late at the campfire watching for bobcats to attack.
 
GOD is the one we are to trust in.
So, idols are the things that vie for the TRUST of your soul.
 
I remember a Starting Point class that I did once. We were on lesson two – the lesson that really focuses in on sin and God’s grace. It’s the Gospel – the truth that we are sinner in need of a savior and we have a Savior in Jesus, trust him.
 
And this one guy said --
 
Nah. There’s gotta be more. I just don’t trust that Jesus did it all.
I’m a pretty good person.
I give a couple thousand dollars each year to charity.
I volunteered at the homeless shelter recently.
 
I think I TRUST that way more than some guy who died 2000 years ago.
 
Did you see what happened?
“Good things that he did” had become an idol.
It was crowded God out of his soul.
 
Careful. Things you trust will try to do the same.
 
(3) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR MIND
 
The mind is a rational place. It is the place that looks as a situation and determines how scary it is. For instance, your mind is the thing that says, “Wow. There is an angry gorilla on the loose. I think I’ll stay in my locked house out of respect for the mad gorilla.”
 
Your mind houses FEAR.
 
Honestly, there is no being that should induce more FEAR than GOD!
 
God is all powerful.
God controls lighting
God controls thunder.
God controls tornados, volcanoes and hurricanes.
God is not to be crossed!
 
Yet…
 
Your idols will try to convince you that they are scarier than God.
 
“I know God says this and it’d be scary to face him, but…it’s probably scarier to face the ridicule of society.”
“I know God hates sin and he threatens to exclude sinners from heaven, but…if you don’t do this sin you might be excluded from your friend group.”
“I know God says it’d be better for those who don’t teach their kids about God to be thrown into a lake with a millstone around their neck, but if you don’t take your kids to that birthday party, the other parents will *GASP* think you’re a bad parent.”
 
Careful. Things you fear will try to crowd God out of your mind.
 
Here’s the concluding truth to all of this:
Idolatry occurs when we FEAR, LOVE, or TRUST anything more than GOD.
 
So…
Have you been practicing hidden idolatry?
 
If you go back to the connection between the two commandments though, there’s a foolproof test to determine this.
 
Because
Because if love for God leads to an ability to keep the commandments.
Then an inability to keep the commandments is indicative of loving something other than God.
 
It means there another something else in my heart.
Pumping out its own agenda.
 
It means:
Idolatry.
 
Shouting at the parents that GOD gave you because YOU don’t like what they did? Idolatry.
Holding a grudge against the church people that GOD loves because YOU don’t want to give them the satisfaction of forgiveness? Idolatry.
Staring down that blouse of the coworker that GOD created because YOU like the way it excites YOU? Idolatry.
Stealing that dollar bill from the billfold of your friend that GOD gave you, because YOU want it? Idolatry.
Badmouthing a friend via text message, a friend that God loves and died for and calls his beloved child, because her success makes YOU feel bad? Idolatry.
 
If you didn’t catch the point, idolatry happens whenever we sin.
 
And God hates idolatry.
 
III. The Only Non-Idolater
 
Thankfully there is good news.
Thankfully there is one who lived his whole life as a non-idolater.
In fact, he’s the only person in the history of humanity who never, ever committed idolatry.
 
Jesus.
 
(1) Jesus FEARED, LOVED, and TRUSTED God above All.
 
Jesus was in heaven.
Jesus never had to deal with anything difficult.
He could have chosen to sit up there in a divine heavenly hammock eating a heavenly four course meals!
 
But he didn’t.
 
He loved God more than his divine existence, so he came into this sin filled earth.
He feared God more than he feared what might happen to him, so he became a mortal being.
He trusted God more than he trusted the devil’s plan to “bow down and worship him”, so he followed God’s plan.
 
He loved God more than his own body, so he allowed humans to arrest him.
He feared God more than his captors, so he allowed them to lead him to the courtroom.
He trusted God more than his disciples’ plan to destroy all those awful Pharisees, and he allowed himself to die.
 
But God’s love wasn’t the only reason that Jesus did this.
 
(2) Jesus loved YOU as himself.
 
In fact, we might even say, “more than himself.”
Because…
 
When things got bad.
When he saw the back of the last prisoner to be whipped…
When he saw the sharp point of the nails…
When he saw the blood-stained wood of the cross…
When he saw the gravestones of those who had been crucified…
 
Jesus said, “OK.”
 
Because he loved you.
He loved you more than his breath.
He loved you more than his life.
He loved you as himself.
 
As his brother.
As his sister.
As his dear friend.
 
And the result?
 
Because of Jesus death, you are forgiven of all your idolatry.
 
For all the times you feared other things more than God, you are forgiven.
For all the times you trusted other things more than God, you are forgiven.
For all the times you loved other things more than God, you are forgiven.
 
There’s a reason you want GOD to fill your hearts,
Because GOD filled his heart with YOU.
 
IV. What Now?
(1) Identify Your Idols
 
Take advantage of the fact that God has forgiven you.
He has made you a part of his kingdom.
He has equipped you with guidance on identifying your idols.
 
I want you to take a moment and think about it.
What are the things you fear, love and trust more than GOD?
 
You can NOT do that. But if that’s your choice, understand it’ll be as if you had the choice between God on high and the Mr. Potato head idol from last week and for some reason you said to God – I think I need both.
 
You don’t.
 
You need only God.
 
So…
Work on identifying your idols.
Write them down.
And then?
 
(2) Throw them Out
 
Sometimes, the idol is inherently sinful, and you absolutely should throw it out.
 
Got a bottle of booze that you love more than God? Toss it.
Got a prescription drug that you trust more than God? Stop abusing it.
Got a group of friends that you fear more than God? Stop hanging around them.
 
Granted.
Sometimes, the idol isn’t something you can simply throw out.
In that case, spend some time each day identifying these things for what they are:
 
Idols.
 
This is my spouse. I love her, but she’s not God.
This is my job. I appreciate it, but it’s not my job.
This is a dollar bill. It’s helpful, but it’s not my God.
 
While you might not be able to throw them out in an actual garbage can,
God calls us to throw them out of his place in your heart.
 
(3) Fill Your Heart with God.
 
Because here’s the truth about your heart.
When it’s filled with God, there isn’t room for any idols to get in.
 
It’s like a glass of water.
If you fill it with God, there’s no room for anything else.
 
And how do you fill your heart with God?
 
By spending time with him.
 
A personal bible study.
A group bible study.
A worship service.
A midweek service.
A morning devotion.
A bible reading.
A lunchtime devotion.
A devotion with your spouse.
Baptism.
Lord’s supper.
Just having a conversation with your family about your savior.
 
The result?
 
God’s Word fills us with the message of Jesus.
We see how much he loves us.
And God convinces us…
 
We don’t need any phony idols.
We have the real GOD.
Amen.