Holidolatry

As many people are currently on holiday/recently returned from holiday/wishing they were on holiday/planning their next holiday, it got me thinking about how easy it is for holidays to become an idol that we worship instead of Jesus.

• We think a holiday is going to solve all our problems. If your family are at each other's throats, a bit of time together away from the normal routines may well help. But, by itself, a holiday wont address the root issues of that conflict. You are not in conflict with your wife and children just because you need a break, the conflict exists because our selfish hearts sin against each other. The holiday could provide time to think, talk and pray through the issues, but by itself, it is not the solution.
• Because we can think the holiday is the answer to our problems, we make sacrifices for it - saving up money throughout the rest of the year for it, having to cut back on other things to make sure it happens.We prepare for it - studying the destinations or attractions, reading the reviews, buying new clothes. We evangelise about it - talking about it before and after it happens. Pray that God would captivate our hearts so that we talk about him as much as we do about our holiday. If you are willing to make sacrifices of time, and money for a holiday, why not look at those same things to invest in your relationship with God.
• We can start to worship the holiday. The thought of it gets you through the long days at work. We think that we are better, happier people on holiday, you are really you when you're on holiday. In reality you're a better, happier person with Jesus. You're really you with Jesus. You need Jesus.

Holidays are good. Take one. But holidays are not God. Worship Jesus instead of committing holidolatry

Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

 For that we need Jesus

anxious idolatry

Jereboam was a servant of Solomon, and God decided to make him king over the (divided) nation of Israel (1 Kings 11:26-40). Jereboam went from nothing to ruling a kingdom and it was a gift from God, he had done nothing for it. You would think that, of all people, Jereboam would realise that everything has been given to him by God, and that knowledge would lead to a life marked by trusting and following Him out of heart-felt gratitude. Unfortunately, once he had the kingdom, he starts to worry about losing it and comes up with his own plan to make sure he will keep it (1 Kings 12:25-33). Before long this has ended up in nationwide idolatry - encouraging the people to worship 2 golden calves and setting up his own religious feasts and rituals.

It's easy to look at Jereboam and recognise his stupidity, but we do exactly the same thing! Everything we have is a gift from God. Your spouse, your house and your salvation are all gracious gifts from him. When we forget that, we start to worry about losing those things and hatching our own plans to control and keep them. Before long, we are worshiping and sacrificing at the golden calves of approval, finances or our own moral performance. Don't be stupid! God gave you the gift in the first place, worship the giver, not the gift.

enemies of the cross

Philippians 3:18-19

For many, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

What makes someone an enemy of the cross of Christ? This is not just confined to people who do not go to church.

• We might be attending church services but still be motivated by selfish desires for power or respect, with our minds set on earthly things. 
• We could be praying regularly but trying to use God to satisfy the "god" of our belly, wanting Him to meet our desires for a career, or a wife, or obedient kids.
• We might have built up knowledge about the Bible, but be proud and self-righteousness, thinking that God is pleased with our moral efforts, when actually we are glorying in our shame

This is walking as an enemy of the cross of Christ. At the cross we can find life instead of destruction. At the cross we see that, while we were worshipping the god of our belly, the God of the universe loved us so much that he died in our place. At the cross we see the depths of our shame and the heights of His glory. When we look at the cross, we see someone far greater than those "earthly things" that occupied our minds.

idol factory

"You have a factory in your heart.

Early this morning, just like every morning, operations began at the factory. Idol production started. The conveyor belt started moving. You and I started piecing products together on the assembly line that we worship, that we put in the place of God."

Justin Buzzard, read the rest here: Start a revolt at the Idol Factory

video - what is your god

What. is. your. gOD. from Jamice Ivie on Vimeo.

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video - how to build a god

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birth of an idol

"Idolatry in your heart and in my heart starts with a desire. And the desire isn't inherently wicked or wrong. We have a desire to have a nice house. We have a desire to drive a nice car. Wehave a desire to have a relatively in shape body. We have a desire for our kids to excel in athletics. We have a desire that we have money in the bank. We have a desire that we're safe. And there is nothing wrong with any of those things, nothing. It is not wrong to want a nice house. It is not wrong or sinful. It is not wrong or sinful to want your kids to be safe. It is not wrong or sinful to want a little cash. It's not wrong or sinful to want things relatively easy. It's not wrong or sinful to want to be in shape or want to look good. It's just not. It starts with a desire.

Think of it as this thing in the palm of our hands. It starts as a simple desire. And then over time, the hand begins to close and we say, “This is no longer negotiable.” And then all of a sudden, the nice house, the nice car, safety, our kid's athletic career, money in the pocket, in the bank, non-negotiable. And now, you have the birthing of an idol. And what ends up happening is we say, “God, do whatever You want...God be who You are, but don't touch this. Don't touch this. Don't touch work, because in work, I find achievement and I find self value. So, I'll do whatever You say, but I'm not quitting this job....Don't risk my kids. Do whatever You want, but I want my kids to be safe....Do whatever You want, but I want my neighborhood to be safe....Do whatever You want, but I want...” And what ends up happening is that hand closes and we say, “This is not longer negotiable.” And an idol has been born."

Matt Chandler - heart matters pt2

listen to the full sermon here, or read it here

temptation

"... if the root issue of sin is pride or idolatry, here are the two great temptations that are sure to come your way.

The first temptation is to take something other than God and make it ultimate. Now I don’t know what that thing is. For some it’s cocaine or black tar heroin ...[but] most of us are much more apt to make family ultimate than cocaine. So the first temptation that’s coming for all of us is to take something other than God and make it our ultimate and to pursue it and chase it and own it. This is idolatry. You make your family an idol, you can make your children an idol, you can make making money an idol. You can make anything an idol.

The second temptation that’s sure to come is around the idea of pride, and it works itself out in two ways. We don’t like the God of the Bible, so we make our own. Usually that’s us, we make ourselves god. We don’t talk like that. We don’t introduce ourselves as Yahweh... But there are those who operate like they are god... so they'll say things like " I just can’t believe that God would command that, that God would want that, that God would ask that of me.” ... Do you see what just happened there? They just went, “That God is inadequate for what I want. I’m going this way.” And so the second temptation that is sure to come is to create another god other than the one in the Bible.

These are the two great temptations. They’re coming for all of us."

Matt Chandler, Temptations from within Read the full thing here, download it here

everybody worships something

Everybody worships something or someone. We don't have a choice to be worshippers or not, we are built to worship and so we do. We all worship, the question is: what are you worshipping? Romans 1:21-24

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

We either worship God or something else. We either worship the Creator or something that he created! Idolatry is not (only) bowing down in front of a bronze statue, it is putting any created thing in the place of glory that belongs to the creator God. What do you spend your time, money and effort on? What do you think about, worry about, or daydream about most often? What person or thing are you willing to make sacrifices for? The answers will reveal your idols.

We all worship. We can't help it. Check your heart for idols and worship God instead!

idols

"Every culture, gender, class, city, field of work, etc., has its own idols. Idolatry is anything I look at and say, "If I have that, my life has value." Anything that is so central to your life that you feel you can't live without it is an idol. Idolatry is making a good thing an ultimate thing. Because Paul saw idols everywhere, he was a really effective preacher. Like Paul, we need to discern, expose, and destroy idols in order to preach the gospel."

Tim Keller @ The gospel coalition 2009 conference. (read the notes here, or watch/listen to the full thing here)

all of life is repentance

"In "religion" the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means that "religious" repentance is: (a) selfish (b) self righteous and (c) bitter... But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God's heart."

Tim Keller, All of life is repentance (read the full article here)

american idolatry

thinking biblically about facebook

"Like most other new things, Christians tend to either embrace Facebook uncritically, or retreat from it and condemn its use. Embracing technology uncritically—the “bear hug,” as I call it—means using a technology without thinking through its impact on yourself and others. The “cold shoulder”—ignoring/retreating from/condemning a technology—is often driven by misguided fears and shallow biblical interpretation. While the problems with embracing uncritically are more easily discerned, giving a technology like Facebook the cold shoulder also has its problems.

After an initial 30-day experiment with Facebook, I’m now several months into being a regular, almost daily, user. Along the way, I’ve detected many ways in which Facebook can hinder our pursuit of the great commandments, and many ways participation in it can be leveraged as a means of blessing..."

Justin Buzzard, Redeeming social life online (read the full thing here)

idolatry on sunday mornings

"...idolatry can be active in my heart even as I’m outwardly worshipping God. That’s a sobering thought. Whenever I think I can’t worship God unless “X” is present, I’m making a profound statement. If “X” is anything other than Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, I’ve moved into idolatrous territory. Idolatry is always evil, but the idols we pursue aren’t necessarily evil things. They are evil for us because we value them over God."

Bob Kauflin, Idolatry on sunday mornings (read the full thing here: part 1, part 2)

worship starts with seeing God

At the last just worship event, the theme was: encountering God - worship starts with seeing God. To explore this theme, we looked at 3 passages from the Bible...





Shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) - v20 says that they went away glorifying and praising God. It was a natural response to seeing Jesus. Before their encounter with the angels they weren't particularly seeking God (they were at work) and after seeing Him they go back to work, but their work is now transformed into worship because they have met Jesus. Are there areas of your life where you are not worshipping God? Work, school, home, with firends, with family? Where do you need to ask Him to come in and reveal Himself to you?

Anna (Luke 2:36-38) - After seeing Jesus, she gave thanks to God and spoke of Him. She was already worshiping God day and night in the temple, but there was still more to come for her. You never reach the end of God, there's always more of Him to see. It's easy for apathy to set in and we think we're happy where we are, but we need to be constantly asking God to show us more of who He is and what He's done.

Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12) v11 says that they fell down and worshipped Him. These wise men were probably not worshipers of God before this encounter, they were more likely to be worshipping other Gods. So they were worshiping something else and now they are worshiping Jesus. What changed? They encountered Jesus.

We can't manufacture worship - it's a natural response to seeing God. Do you turn up at church and find it hard to get into it? Do you wonder why you sometimes find it hard to get motivated to pray in the week? It's not that you just need to try harder, it's that you need to see more of God. We only get glimpses of God now and we need continual, regular daily glimpses of God to continue worshiping Him.We need to be asking Him to give us a glimpse of where He is at work, a glimpse of where He is in my family etc.

The almighty creator God doesn't look at the mess we're n and tell us to sort ourelves out, but he came to earth as a man, live a perfect life, died in our place for our sins, was resurrected to conquer death. That's why the angels burst through and couldn't contain their worship, that's why the woman who had been worshipping God for years started singing a new song of praise, that's why the wise men started worshiping Jesus instead of idols, that's why the shpeherds went back to their workplace rejoicing. That's the God we need to see more of.

temptation

"... if the root issue of sin is pride or idolatry, here are the two great temptations that are sure to come your way.

The first temptation is to take something other than God and make it ultimate. Now I don’t know what that thing is. For some it’s cocaine or black tar heroin ...[but] most of us are much more apt to make family ultimate than cocaine. So the first temptation that’s coming for all of us is to take something other than God and make it our ultimate and to pursue it and chase it and own it. This is idolatry. You make your family an idol, you can make your children an idol, you can make making money an idol. You can make anything an idol.

The second temptation that’s sure to come is around the idea of pride, and it works itself out in two ways. We don’t like the God of the Bible, so we make our own. Usually that’s us, we make ourselves god. We don’t talk like that. We don’t introduce ourselves as Yahweh... But there are those who operate like they are god... so they'll say things like " I just can’t believe that God would command that, that God would want that, that God would ask that of me.” ... Do you see what just happened there? They just went, “That God is inadequate for what I want. I’m going this way.” And so the second temptation that is sure to come is to create another god otherthan the one in the Bible. Maybe that’s us, maybe that’s a different version of this God...

These are the two great temptations. They’re coming for all of us."

Matt Chandler, Temptations from within Read the full thing here, download it here, or listen below:

idolatry on sunday mornings

"What is our greatest hindrance in worshipping God? We could come up with a number of potential answers.

“Our worship leader isn’t very experienced.”
“The services are too planned/spontaneous.”
“The songs are too complex/simple.”
“The band/orchestra/organist/guitarist sounds bad.”
“There are too many new/old songs.”
“Our church is too big/small.”

Ignoring for a moment that all these statements refer to a meeting context, they reveal a profound misconception about the hindrances to true worship. Contrary to what we might think, our greatest problem doesn’t lie outside us, but within our own hearts. It’s the problem of idolatry."

Bob Kauflin, Idolatry on Sunday Mornings part 1 - read the full thing here

what is worship?

worship by Mark Driscoll

you are a worship leader

"You are a worship leader. Follower of Christ, I'm talking to you. You stand in church on Sundays during the singing and you're probably from either of two schools--you sing your heart out to God or you have your hands in your pockets, maybe mouthing along with a few lyrics. The thing you probably don't realize is it influences others. People wonder why you sing and even why you may not be singing. As new people encounter any particular worship culture, they learn how to do it. But when people encounter authentic worship, it changes from something they do (singing) to someone they are (a true worshiper). They learn to know and experience God through song, scripture, prayer and meditation and they become worship leaders too. On and on it goes."

Josh Dix, The Journey, St Louis. read the full article here