Blest Be the Tie that...Blinds?!? (Part 4)

Our relationship with Christ should be at the center of every other relationship in our lives! And when Christ is in His rightful place in our hearts and our homes, all our relationships will be better because of it! Unfortunately, many of us know nothing of Jesus being the core of our lives and families. Some people include God in their families only because they think some religious training will be good for their kids…much like piano lessons or braces. Christ is not at the center of their lives; He’s just some peripheral addendum to their already busy lives!

We’ve moved from being families that pray together to being families that play together! If Sunday sporting events or weekend getaways take priority over being in church, maybe we need to take another look at our priorities! No matter how we try to explain it or justify it, it’s hard to get around Hebrews 10:25 that talks about “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.” Sadly, many of us have been “blinded by good intentions.” We say things like, “But we’re spending time together as a family,” as if time spent together as a family trumps our relationship with God.

Now, folk, listen. I’m not talking about having some legalistic attitude about church…but I am terribly concerned with what I see in today’s culture where Sundays are no longer a day of worship. Sundays have become one of the biggest recreation days on the calendar…and many of our church families will trade worship for amusement in a heartbeat…and feel completely justified about it because they’re doing it as a family.

But when we put family above God in our lives, we’re guilty of idolatry…even the subtle idolatry of family! Listen, don’t get me wrong—I love my family. I would give my life for my family. I treasure time with my family. But a Christ-centered, kingdom-focused family does not devalue God in their hearts and their home!

Let me shift gears for a moment as I seek to land this plane. Perhaps some of you who read this blog are facing hostility from your family because you’re a believer. And as much as that hurts your heart, Jesus’ words in Mark 3 teach you that you are part of a spiritual family that transcends time. That’s not to say that you should love your earthly family any less or that you should stop praying for their salvation. It means, though, that you are not alone. The Bible calls God our Father and Jesus our Brother and Savior. We have a true and eternal family through Christ! Don’t grow weak in your faith because of family pressures. God will honor your obedience!

I love the story that Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, has told from his own personal experience. When he was in college, he served as a summer missionary in East Malaysia. While there he attended a small church. At one of the church’s worship services, a teenage girl came forward to announce her decision to follow Christ and be baptized.

During the service, Denison noticed some worn-out luggage leaning against the wall of the church building. And so he asked the pastor about it. The pastor pointed to the girl who had just been baptized and told Denison, “Her father said that if she was baptized as a Christian she could never go home again. So she brought her luggage.”

FOLK, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT…REALIZING WHO HAS THE GREATER CLAIM ON OUR LIVES.

I’m reminded of the man who asked a mail-order company to send him a kit to build a birdhouse. Instead of sending him the plans for a birdhouse, they sent him plans for a sailboat. He had the parts for a birdhouse but the plans for a sailboat. He tried to put it together, but it just wouldn't work. So he sent the parts and plans back to the company with a letter explaining his frustration. They wrote a letter of apology and added this post script: “If you think it was difficult for you, you should have seen the man who got your plans trying to make a sailboat out of a birdhouse!”

A lot of people are trying to do family well, but they’re using the wrong instructions…they’re not using God’s plan…they don’t have God’s priority. And no amount of sincerity or effort is going to ease their frustration. People leave God—especially the supremacy of God—out of their lives and then are surprised at the results!

Adiuva nos Deus!

Blest Be the Tie that...Blinds?!? (Part 3)

I need to clarify that, in no way, was Jesus denying His responsibility to His earthly family. In Matthew 15:19, He criticized the religious leaders for not following the Old Testament command to honor their parents. At the cross, you’ll recall, He provided for His mother’s care after He was gone by entrusting her to His best friend, John. He would have agreed with the apostle Paul—and, in fact, does agree—when he wrote to Timothy, “If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).

The question is not whether we should love our families. Of course, we’re to love our families! The confusion comes in how we should love our families. Jesus made a statement on another occasion that’s relevant to this discussion…put your seatbelts on, though. Luke 14:26—“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” Matthew put it a bit milder in His gospel and captures the idea more, I believe. Matthew 10:37—“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

When Jesus used the word “hate,” he wasn’t saying what you and I think of when we hear the word “hate.” Hatred, in our understanding, is an “active hostility.” It wishes ill to fall upon the other person. That is not what Jesus was saying! The word Jesus used means something like “to love less.” So, He was saying, “If anyone comes to Me and doesn’t love his family and himself less than Me can’t be my disciple”…or, as Matthew put it—“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

HE WAS TALKING ABOUT PRIORITIES. You see, we have to discern the difference between important and all-important. Our families are important, but they’re not all-important.

You’ll remember when Jesus was asked on another occasion what the most important commandment was. What did He say? “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). The first and foremost commandment is to love God. Loving others comes after that.

Don’t misunderstand our Lord! These relationships should not be in competition with one another. They should complement one another! C.S. Lewis said it so well in a letter that he wrote many years ago: “When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving toward the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”

I ought to be a better husband and father and brother because of my relationship with Christ. Jesus should sweeten every connection and concentric circle in my life!

Blest Be the Tie that...Blinds?!? (Part 2)

Mark 3:31-35 has to be one of the strangest stories from Jesus’ life found in the pages of Scripture. But these verses need to be taken in context with verses 20-21 if they’re to be understood properly:

20-And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.
21-When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

Do you remember the story of Jesus’ parents accidentally leaving Him in Jerusalem when He was only 12 years old? You can read it in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel. They thought he was with other members of the family caravan, but about a day’s journey outside of Jerusalem they discovered He wasn’t. So they turned around, went a day’s journey back to Jerusalem, and then spent a day looking throughout the city for Jesus.

Luke tells us, “…they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.’ And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?’” (2:46-49).

Don’t miss the contrast between “Your father” and “My Father.” Even at 12 years old, Jesus understood that His greatest loyalty lay with His Heavenly Father! Even at 12 years old, Jesus was aware that He had special work to do—“I had to be in My Father’s house.” Even at 12 years old Jesus grasped that He was on mission!

Keep all this in mind as we return to Mark’s gospel. At some point when He was about 30 years old, Jesus laid His carpenter’s hammer down and told His mother, “It’s time.” And He began His earthly ministry. He went about preaching the gospel, and crowds began to follow Him. Out of the masses, He chose 12 men to be His disciples “so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons” (Mark 3:14-15). This brings us to verses 20-21 in Mark 3.

When Jesus’ family heard what He was doing and how the crowds were following Him everywhere He went, they said, “He’s lost His mind! He’s ruining our good name and we’ve got to stop Him!” When they got to where He was, they couldn’t get through the crowd…so they sent word to Jesus that they were there. They were there, of course, to take Him home.

So Jesus was faced with the same decision every one of us is faced with—who has the greater claim on my life? My earthly family or my Heavenly Father? Jesus’ answer was shocking, to say the least. When they said, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You,” Jesus asked, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Then he said, “…whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

These words seem awfully harsh to us now, and I suppose they didn’t sit well with his family then. But Jesus knew why they had come, and He wasn’t going to be dragged away from His Kingdom work because His family thought He was crazy. They were seeking to block Him from His mission, and Jesus wasn’t going to let that happen. They meant well, no doubt, but they were “blinded by [their] good intentions.”

So Jesus asked that odd question, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” and made those strange statements: “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” What Jesus was calling attention to was the fact that our relationship with Him precedes every other relationship in our lives!

We sometimes say that “blood is thicker than water.” Well, Jesus was saying that “spirit is thicker than blood”!

Blest Be the Tie that...Blinds?!? (Part 1)

7-out-of-10 adults in America choose their earthly family over their heavenly Father when asked to choose the most important relationship in their lives. That’s what a 2007 Barna study discovered when more than a thousand adults over the age of 18 were surveyed.

* 1/3 said their entire nuclear family is more important than God.
* 22% named their spouse as the most important relationship in their lives.
* 17% said their children were of chief importance.
* 3% identified their parents as the most important relationship in their lives.

70% of American adults have elevated their families above even God in their priorities! In their emphasis upon family, they have devalued God in the process.

I fully expect to be misunderstood in this week’s blog, but I’m going to try to speak as clearly as I can. I’m in the midst of a series of blogs on “American Idolatry” in which I’m addressing subtle ways that we have allowed idolatry to creep in and camp out in our lives…sometimes unnoticed and unaddressed!

Remember, anything that takes our love and loyalty away from the Lord becomes an idol in our lives…and idols are not always evil things. Sometimes the object of our idolatry is, in and of itself, a very good thing. It reminds me of Augustine’s definition of idolatry that we considered in a previous entry: “Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped.” Anything and everything holds the potential to become an idol in our lives…even something as commendable and beautiful as family.

We’ve all heard the classic hymn, “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.” The story behind that song is beautiful, by the way. I hope you’ll check it our when you get a chance. But consider this twist: “Blest Be the Tie that...Blinds?” It’s a valid question…it’s a necessary question.

Can families really expect the pleasure of God upon their homes if His authority and supremacy are downplayed…or even dismissed? And while I have no doubt that every parent reading this blog means well, there is such a thing as being “blinded by good intentions.” And those who put family above God in their lives and in their homes are often blinded to their sin of idolatry. So, knowing full-well my risk of being misunderstood, I rise to denounce the idol of family!

Mark 3:31-35
31-Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.
32-A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”
33-Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
34-Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
35-“For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

“Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I” (Part 4)

I’ve been writing this week about “Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I.” At the heart of this week’s blogs (and every blog entry on “American Idolatry”) is the challenge from God to “repent and turn away from your idols...” I pray that will be our response as our Lord brings to light any and all idolatrous affections!

Yesterday I addressed the need for daily denial if we’re to forsake the idol of self. Second, forsaking the idol of self requires Daily Death—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily…” Some try to define this as bearing some personal burden—an angry spouse or a bad case of arthritis or some continuing crisis. But that’s not what Jesus was talking about. The cross meant something very different to the people of Jesus’ day than it does to people today. Crosses today are pieces of jewelry. Crosses then were places of judgment. Crosses today are used for decoration. Crosses then were used for death. We’ve so sanitized and ritualized the cross in these 20 centuries since Jesus, it’s no wonder that we have trouble understanding what He was saying!

Jesus was describing the surrender of our will to God’s will. Do you remember Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was crucified? “…Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done…” (Luke 22:42). Obviously, for Jesus, the cross was a one-time event, yet he calls us to take up our crosses daily. Once again, he’s describing the surrender of our will to God’s will, and that’s a daily experience. It’s allowing our will to die in Christ’s death so that, like a seed buried in the soil, God’s will can spring forth life in us and through us! Daily Denial & Daily Death.

Finally, forsaking the idol of self requires Daily Discipleship—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The core of the Christian life is following Jesus. Not just a profession of faith…not just a label…certainly more than a fish symbol on our car! The Christian life is about following Jesus.

But if we come to the issue of faith intending to go our own way…and to do our own thing, we’ll only follow Jesus if it’s convenient or comfortable. But the moment it costs us something, we’re out the door! But what we don’t realize is that we’re making the biggest mistake of our lives! “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”

Ask yourself, honestly and biblically, “Am I following Jesus by living my life the way that I am? Is my life a mirror reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ?” If not, why not? Could it be that we’re bowing at the wrong altar in our lives? Could it be that we’re guilty of “Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I”? Could it be that we’ve allowed self to substitute for God upon that throne in our hearts?

All that can change today…right now, right where you are. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

“Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I” (Part 3)

I’m writing on “American Idolatry,” in general, and the idol of self, in particular. I want you to see three things that Jesus said to “anyone who wishes to come after [Him].” And, by the way, no one wishing to come after Christ can continue to worship at the altar of the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I!

First, forsaking the idol of self requires Daily Denial—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself.” We need to understand, though, that self-denial is more than denying yourself cake on Sundays…it is literally denying self! That word “deny” means to renounce or disown. So literally Christ is calling us to renounce the idol of self …to disown the idol of self!

A Christian writer from another generation, A. T. Pierson, said, “Getting rid of the ‘self-life’ is like peeling an onion: layer upon layer—and a tearful process!” What are those layers? One layer would be self-exaltation…or self-promotion…I’m talking about pride. The sin of pride is a preoccupation with self! And I think it’s very fitting that the middle letter of the word “pride” is the letter “i” because pride is all about “me, myself, and I.” We must be willing to peel back the layer of self-exaltation if we’re to forsake the idol of self!

Another layer that we have to be willing to peel back is that of self-indulgence. That’s when we say, “I’m going to do what I want to do because it makes me happy.” Listen, we justify our wrong-doing sometimes by saying, “But it makes me happy.” Forget what God says about it, “It makes me happy.”

May I tell you today that God’s primary objective for your life is not your happiness?!? His goal for you is His holiness… and His holiness will lead to your happiness, but so-called happiness doesn’t necessarily lead to holiness. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

“Blessed” = “Happy”
“Pure in heart” = “Holy”
“Happy are the holy!”

We must peel back the layer of self-indulgence if we’re to forsake the idol of self!

We could go on and on about the different layers of this proverbial onion, but let me mention one more—self-righteousness. If you read the New Testament objectively, you’ll see that the Pharisees during our Lord’s time on earth were greater sinners (if I can use that idea) because of their self-righteousness…they believed their exterior moral behavior commended them to God, but Jesus came along and exposed them as “white-washed tombs”…cleaned up on the outside but, on the inside, filled with dead men’s bones! The reason those who lived in open sin were attracted to Jesus was that they knew they were sinners. They knew their need for mercy, grace, and forgiveness. The Pharisees, however, didn’t realize how much they truly needed Christ. Their self-righteousness blinded them to their own sinfulness. Isaiah said in 64:6 that “…all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.”

Listen, beware of a faith that is only on the outside. It’s like counterfeit cash; it might look nice but it’s not worth anything. Jesus warned in Matthew 7—“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’” (21-23).

Forsaking the idol of self includes disowning our own self-righteousness. Listen—it isn’t until we denounce ourselves as sinners deserving God’s judgment that we will throw ourselves upon God’s altar of mercy and entrust ourselves completely to Jesus Christ for salvation!

“Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I” (Part 2)

Regarding the worship of self, look to God’s Word in Luke 9:23-24, “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.’”

Ever wonder where the words “narcissism” and “narcissistic” come from? They come from Greek mythology and are based on the name of a young man named “Narcissus.” There are several variations of the story, but the gist of it is that when Narcissus first saw his reflection in the water, he fell in love with himself. And the more he gazed into his own reflection, the more in love he fell…with himself. In the end, unable to tear himself away from his own reflection, he died from lack of food and water. Some versions of the story say he drowned…others say he took his own life. Regardless of the details, his infatuation with himself ended up destroying him.

Now, we all know that the story of Narcissus is just a myth, but “narcissism” is very real. In fact, about a year-and-a-half ago, a research study spanning from 1982 to 2006 revealed that today’s college students have never been more self-centered! 16,475 college students completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). And what the researchers discovered, they believe, is directly traceable to the self-esteem movement that emerged in the 1980s. We’ve spent the last 25 years teaching kids to sing, “I am special. I am special. Look at me. Look at me.” (to the tune of Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous?) that we’ve created a culture that fuels and encourages the self-centeredness that already exists within each of us. (source: Associated Press, David Crary, "Study: College Students More Narcissistic," http://hosted.ap.org/ [2-27-07])

The Times of London ran a story early this summer that would be funny if it weren’t so disturbing. The first paragraph read: "The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White." The school cowered to the parents who forced teachers and administrators to admit the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role. They all wanted their children to have the title role…so everyone was Snow White! No dwarfs…no other characters…just 25 Snow Whites running around. I’d like to have seen that just to see how they pulled it off…I doubt they did.

But Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Talk about cutting cross-grain! Jesus’ words fly in the face of those who wish to worship at the Altar of that Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I! Of course, most people would never admit to such as that…but I did read of one woman named “Sheila” who’s made up her own religion and named it “Sheilaism.” I’m not kidding. She’s had a group on Yahoo Canada since 2002. And it has a total membership of 3…evidently Sheila’s unholy trinity of me, myself, and I are the only ones interested in being “Sheilaists”!

But I was saying that most people—especially Christians—would never admit to worshipping themselves, but behavior says otherwise! Jesus wasn’t speaking in abstract terms when He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” He knew that in our base nature that we are selfish creatures. And as long as we live as though life were all about us, we’ll never seek God’s grace and forgiveness! That’s why I’m saying that worshipping self is perhaps the most dangerous idolization of all! If anything will keep you from eternal life through Christ, it’s the refusal to forsake the idol of self!

“Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I” (Part 1)

One of my spiritual heroes from the past is Jerome Savonarola. He was a great preacher in Italy in the 15th century…actually a Catholic priest who was excommunicated and hanged for preaching the gospel in language that everyone could understand and for offending the Pope. His life story is fascinating, but I want to tell you about a particular experience he had.

One day he saw an elderly woman bowing before a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus. On the following day, he noticed the same woman again on her knees before the statue. So with great interest, Savonarola observed that day after day, she came and worshipped before the statue. He whispered to one of his fellow priests, “Look at how she reverences the Virgin Mother.”

But the priest said, “Don’t be deceived by what you see. Many years ago an artist was commissioned to create [that] statue....As he sought a young woman to pose as the model for his sculpture, he found one who seemed to be the perfect subject. She was young and lovely, and had a mystical quality in her face. The image of that young woman inspired his statue of Mary. The woman who now worships the statue is the same one who served as its model years ago. Shortly after the statue was put in place, she began to visit it and continued to worship there religiously ever since.”

That woman wasn’t giving homage to Mary…she was worshipping herself! While that true story might seem a bit extreme, worshipping self is not that uncommon. In fact many are guilty of “Worshipping at the Altar of an Unholy Trinity—Me, Myself, and I.”

Worshipping ourselves—we could call that selfishness—is one of the most serious sins that a person commits. It’s perhaps the most dangerous idolization of all! Because when we place ourselves at the center of the universe…when life is all about us…we become self-serving…and self-sufficient…and self-satisfied! Self is upon the throne of our lives…and may I remind you that there is a throne in each of our hearts? God put it there, because He designed us to be worshippers. But nothing and nobody belongs on that throne except Him! Yet when we give self access to that throne, that’s idolatry…pure and simple.

American Idolatry...

God knows that all sin begins with the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is the stem cells, if you will, of sin. Stem cells, as you know, have the incredible potential to develop into several different types of cells—muscle cells, red blood cells, nerve cells, for instance. They’re the building blocks of life.

The sin of idolatry holds the incredible potential to develop into any number of other sins! It’s the sin-behind-the-sin. If a person gives over to some sexual sin, it’s because lust has become more important in his life than God! Lust has become an idol! When people’s lives are consumed with materialism, it’s because money has become more important in their lives than God! Money has become an idol! When a person has to violate everything holy to vote for her party’s candidate, politics have become more important in her life than God. The political machine has become an idol!

God, in His mercy, has told us, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” God essentially said in Ezekiel 14:3, “Why should I even bother with their prayers?” “Should I be consulted by them at all?” If your prayer life is hollow and lifeless and ineffective…maybe you ought to ask yourself if something’s become more important in your life than God.

But there’s an equal if not greater issue that God raises in Ezekiel 14:8, “I will set My face against that man”…what man? The one who allows an imposter to sit upon God’s throne in his heart. The one whose heart is captured by idolatrous affections.

So what does this verse mean? It means that idolatry—outward or inward—sets a person in contradiction to God. And do you really want to oppose God? Because that’s one fight that you’re not going to win.

It still never ceases to amaze me how people will live their lives resisting and rejecting God’s authority over their lives…but when they need something, they’re surprised when their barrel of blessings is empty! But how can we really expect the blessing of God on our lives if we’ve rented out His throne in our hearts to some two-bit deity wannabe?!?

I know how tempted we are to try to justify or explain away letting something move God out of His rightful place in our lives…but listen to me today—there’s only one response that God will accept. Look at Ezekiel 14:6, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.” We can not accommodate idolatry in our lives and expect God to look the other way! It’s repentance…it’s turning away from the idolatry—even idolatry of the heart—that God’s looking for!

I love the words William Cowper (pr. “Cooper”) wrote in his poem, Walking with God:

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.

Someone wisely said, “It’s never too soon to repent…but one day it will be too late.” So let’s forsake today any no-god idols in our lives…anything that monopolizes our attention away from God.

And as you stand at the threshold of decision today, beware of that li’l Gremlin named “Not Me.” Be very careful about assuming that these words have nothing to do with you, because that might just be a clue that pride has rented out God’s throne in your heart. “Repent and turn away from your idols...”

More on American Idolatry

What is Idolatry? Idolatry is anything that monopolizes our attention away from God. It doesn’t have to be a stone statue or a wooden figure. It’s anything that moves God out of His rightful place in our lives. Henry Blackaby said, “An idol is anything you turn to for help when God told you to turn to Him for help.” Augustine said, “Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped.”

And the Bible has a lot to say against idolatry! Leviticus 19:4 warns us not to turn to idols or make idols, because God declares, “I am the LORD your God.” 1 Kings 21:26 is a strong word against following idols. Leviticus 26:1 warns us not to bow down to idols. In Isaiah 45:20, the LORD condemns those “who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save.” Hosea 13:2 warns against sacrificing to idols. There are so many other OT verses that we could reference, but the bottom line of the issue is found in the second of the Ten Commandments—“You shall not make for yourself an idol…” (Exodus 20:4).

“Pastor, doesn’t all this just show that idolatry was an Old Testament issue?” Not at all! We find the same kinds of prohibition in the New Testament, as well.

The Apostles commanded Gentile Christians to abstain from the pollution of idols in Acts 15:20, 29. The Apostle Paul warned Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:11 “not to associate with…an idolater…not even to eat with such a one.” Idolatry is listed among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20. And in the final words of 1 John…in 1 John 5:21, John says, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

The prohibition against idolatry is not an OT or a NT issue; it’s a biblical issue! Scripture clearly forbids the people of God to be involved in idolatry!

And, as we’ve read in Ezekiel 14, idolatry doesn’t require a stone statue or a wooden figure. You see, there is a throne in each of our hearts. God put it there, because He designed us to be worshippers. That throne belongs to Him. Idolatry happens when we substitute something else—anything else—for God in our lives…when we allow an imposter to sit upon God’s throne in our lives.

Louie Giglio wrote along these lines when he wrote:
“I think that all music—not just Christian music but all music—is worship music, because every song is amplifying the value of something. There's a trail of our time, our affections, our allegiance, our devotion, our money. That trail leads to a throne, and whatever's on that throne is what we worship. We're all doing a great job of it because God has created us to be worshipers. The problem is that a lot of us have really bad gods.”

Back to Ezekiel 14…these Jewish leaders were caught in two powerful cross-currents. On one side, they wanted to hear a word from God; but on the other side, their hearts were captured by some idolatrous affection. And God said, “I don’t think so.”

On the heels of Exodus 20:4—“You shall not make for yourself an idol,” God says in the very next verse, “You shall not worship [idols] or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” God doesn’t share His throne with anybody or anything. He sits in a peer group of one!

And at the heart of the offense described in Ezekiel 14 is the artificial attempt to seek God while their hearts were inclined toward idols. These leaders were playing a good game on the outside, making everyone believe they were genuine in their faith…but God could see through their hypocrisy!

And, by the way, it’s not just that God is a jealous God… that’s not the only reason God takes such a dramatic stance on the issue of idolatry. Notice in Ezekiel 14:3—“These men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity.” In other words, “They’ve set up idols in their hearts…and have embraced the very things that will make them fall into sin.” It’s actually the mercy of God toward us that says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”

American Idolatry

I don’t know if you caught it in the news, but Thelma Keane died a few months ago in Phoenix at the age of 82. I was saddened by that news when I first heard it, even though I didn’t know her. In fact, I don’t know anyone in the family…but I feel like I do.

Thelma Keane was the inspiration for the Mommy character in her husband’s comic strip, The Family Circus. I’ve been reading Bil Keane’s The Family Circus for as long as I can remember. There’s one character that Bil Keane introduced in the mid-‘70s that’s as true-to-life as any member of this cartoon family.

Do you remember the Gremlin named “Not Me”? He’s invisible and just stands by, watching while the children try to shift blame for some misdeed by saying, “Not Me.” We’ve all been there, whether we’re the ones saying it or hearing it…“Not Me.”

I preached a series of sermons this summer that I called “American Idolatry,” and I’ve decided to use some of that material for my blog. My guess is that most people who hear that title will immediately think to themselves, “Not Me. I’m not guilty of idolatry. I’ve never bowed down before some stone stature or worshipped at a pagan altar. Not Me.”

But don’t be so quick to let Bil Keane’s li’l Gremlin speak for you…As we journey together, we might just discover idols closer than we realized.

Let me tell you how I came to preach a series of sermons (and, subsequently, write in my blog) on “American Idolatry.” I think we can all agree that American Idol has become a household name in today’s culture. This year’s final week of American Idol garnered audiences of 27 million viewers on Tuesday and 32 million viewers on Wednesday, making it the most watched television program in America that week. As television goes, it’s huge!

Last fall I was in the orthodontist’s office with Becca reading a magazine article on the (then) upcoming 2008 season of American Idol…and I got to thinking about America’s fascination with this show—for some people it’s an addiction. Now so you don’t think I’m going on some tirade about American Idol, I watch it sometimes…but I’ve got to tell you…I only like the first few weeks. Once they go to Hollywood, I couldn’t care less who wins.

But that article set into motion an evolution of thoughts across the next 6-8 months that culminated in the sermon series—“American Idolatry.” Most Americans would never dream of bowing down in worship before some stone statue, but idolatry is very much alive in America. In fact, idolatry can be found in most American homes and families. Listen to God’s Word and pray that God will speak clearly to your heart…

Ezekiel 14:1-11
1-Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me.
2-And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
3-"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all?
4-"Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols,
5-in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols."'
6-"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.
7-"For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person.
8-"I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among My people. So you will know that I am the LORD.
9-"But if the prophet is prevailed upon to speak a word, it is I, the LORD, who have prevailed upon that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.
10-"They will bear the punishment of their iniquity; as the iniquity of the inquirer is, so the iniquity of the prophet will be,
11-in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions Thus they will be My people, and I shall be their God,"' declares the Lord GOD."
Ezekeiel is a prophecy from the Babylonian Exile. In other words, Ezekiel the prophet preached during the time many of the Jews had been taken to Babylon from their homeland in Jerusalem. More specifically, Ezekiel prophesied to the Jews during the first part of their seventy years of captivity.

What’s being discussed in this Ezekiel passage is God’s great displeasure with “some elders of Israel” who were coming to Ezekiel to hear a word from God. These elders would have been some of the most morally upstanding, trustworthy men among the Jewish people in captivity. They were leaders, and their lives were exemplary to all who knew them…all except God, who “sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

These were men you would never see bowed down before some pagan deity…some icon of idolatry…much like most of us. It’s easy for us to be like The Family Circus kids and say, “Not Me,” because we’d never worship in an idol’s temple. Yet God said that these Jewish leaders had “set up idols in their hearts.” They would never have had idols in their homes, but they had them in their hearts. And God made no distinction between the two.

Where, Oh Where, Have I Been...?

I must apologize that I've been a bit distracted (BUSY would be a better word) over the last few months. My last post was on PI, and to be honest with you, I can't get that out of my head. I even dreamed all night long last night about 3.1415926535...

I'm not kidding.

I do hope to be more faithful to my blog in the days ahead. Please forgive me...