IDOLS

We all know vaguely what the 10 Commandments say… and if you’re like me… you could probably remember 5 and think that the other 5 mustn't be that important … no that was a joke.

They are all important but knowing what they are and understanding what they mean is hard. Let’s look at the one we are focusing on today:

Exodus 19 show us that they have come to Mt Sinai and the Lord has instructed Moses to not let anyone near the mountain but for him to go up it.

Moses has gone up Mt Sinai to retrieve the Law from God… he is up there for the next 13 chapters of Exodus. Let’s take a look at very first instruction Moses receives once he is up the mountain – the first of the 10 Commandments:

And God spoke all these words:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.

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.

And it goes on to tell of the other 9 Commandments and then to reveal many other laws – about Hebrew Servants, Personal Injuries, Protection of Property, Social Responsibility and so on…

It doesn’t say how long Moses is up there but it seems that it was quite a long time. 13 Chapters later we get to see what is going on down the mountain…

EX 32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods^[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

² Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.                                                                                                                Then they said, “These are your gods,^[b]Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

 

When I think about ancient or Biblical Idols …these images come to mind...

SLIDE OF BIBLICAL IDOLS

If I think about what I know about modern day idols maybe images like this would come to mind…

SLIDE OF MODERN DAY IDOLS

And when I think about what modern day offerings look like maybe this is what comes to mind…

SLIDE OF OFFERINGS

We know of other cultures who worship different images carved out of wood and stone. Some of us who have been overseas would have seen the offerings they make and leave. They spend so much time and effort on these beautiful offerings that end up getting walked on and wrecked.

If anything, seeing these overseas has made me a little self-righteous, thinking I’m glad I don’t have idols like these people do. I’m glad I don’t worship stone images and scary looking monsters like these people do.

 

Psalm 135:15-17 SLIDE English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
    the work of human hands.
¹⁶ They have mouths, but do not speak;
    they have eyes, but do not see;
¹⁷ they have ears, but do not hear,
    nor is there any breath in their mouths.

But what if we took Exodus 32 and paraphrased it into modern day language to the first words that come to mind… watch what came out when I did this:

 “When the people saw that Jesus was so long in coming down from heaven, they gathered together and said, ‘Let’s make it easier for us to cope down here on this planet while we wait. We have a very hard time down here living with all this evil around us – while Jesus is having a nice easy time in Heaven. We need something to help us get through while we endure this hardship down here. And really who knows what’s happened to this fellow Jesus… none of us has seen him for years… actually… none of us has ever seen him!’”

“So the people found things that make them feel good like, money, drugs, sex, food , appearance and many other things and built a shrine in their hearts to these things and they said, ‘These are my gods who we find peace, joy, love and security in… ONLY UNTIL this fellow Jesus returns.”

SLIDE WHAT IS IDOLATRY

God has put his finger on this subject that has caused me to think seriously about what how idolatry is relevant to me and my culture. So I started looking and thinking… and this is why we are doing this together.

I have put together a 15 minute teaching clip that explains it perfectly… so get comfortable and watch this… when we come back we are going to do an Idolatry Exam.

IDOLATRY IS DISTORTED WORSHIP SLIDE

Do You Have an Idol? SLIDE

Quiz

1.       What do you feel like you have to have to be happy?

2.      What do you think about in the middle of the night or when you first wake up in the morning?

3.      What do you spend a lot of time on each day?

4.      What do you worry about?

5.      What would you have a hard time giving up for a month?

6.      What makes you stressed out and/or depressed?

7.      What do you do when you’re stressed out and/or depressed?

8.     What do you do to avoid doing the things you don’t want to do?

9.      In what areas of your life, do you experience your greatest struggles?

10.  Where do your feelings of self-worth come from?

11.   What do you escape to when you’re having a hard time in life?

12.  What do people tell you that you spend too much time on?

13.  What do you hide from others?

14.  What do you talk about too much?

15.   What could you not live without?

Maybe you are wondering:

Why am I making you do this? Why am I making you feel bad and guilty?

Listen it is definitely not about making you feel bad or guilty … but it is about getting you to put God in the proper position in your life. It is about go over some very basics of Christianity in terms of taking you through a step by step procedure on how “renewing your mind” looks.

The first thing that happens in the process of renewing your mind – is identifying something that needs renewing. And taking a look at what is taking your treasured attention and identifying it as something other than God – is the first step in this process.

Yes we hear that when we come to God we are new creations… you may have that revelation and actually believe it but there is a process that happens after that…

Yes we hear that as a true act of worship we offer our bodies as the sacrifice and not to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… but how does that actually look on the face of it?

What does that process actually look like?

That is why we are doing this… because the first thing in both those processes is identifying a wrong thought pattern or idea we hold onto and live by…

Next week we will continue in the process in pushing down these idols by identifying wrong thought patterns…

SLIDE Let’s pray:

Father on this Father’s Day we honour you and tell you we love you. We thank you for all that you do and are in our lives. We know we don’t see everything you do for us just like our earthly children, but we know you are there all the time for us. We appreciate you and want to show you how much we love you by being obedient to your Word.

Help us Father to see the idols we have placed in our hearts above you. We want to change the way we think so that it is glorifying You and not the created things.

In Jesus name, Amen.