How Do I Deal With Idols of the Heart? - Part 2
I’d like us to start this morning by turning to Ez. 14. The topic we have been considering for the past several months is idols of the heart. We have identified five basic idols: control, respect, appreciation, comfort, and success. Three weeks ago, we started drawing this study to a close by asking the question, “How do I deal with these idols?” We know what the idols are, what they look like, how they manifest themselves in everyday life, and we know how we can determine their presence. So now we need a battle plan to get rid of them. The last time we were together I gave you the first two and a half steps, so this morning we’ll finish up the third one which I believe is a key element.
Before we get into this, I want us to look at Ez. 14 again and take a minute to remind us why we are studying this particular issue. I don’t want us to forget the overall trajectory we are on. I believe we are at a critical juncture in the history of our nation. I have shared with you that I believe we have about 24 months left to pull ourselves away from the precipice, politically speaking; and the real solution is not as simple as just electing conservative, virtuous, constitutionally oriented officials. We are in a spiritual battle that has to be fought as well as won spiritually! Now where idols come into this picture is the principle that when God’s people are involved in idolatry, God has a single objective on His mind, and that is the eradication of the idol. Let’s read this passage in Ez. 14 again and see this truth.
Ezekiel says in verse one, “Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me. [In chapter 12 Ezekiel had acted out several charades that illustrated the coming destruction of Israel] 2 And the word of the LORD came to me saying, 3 "Son of man, these men [the elders] 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? [In this question, God is highlighting the absurd nature of trying to serve two masters] 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."'
So here we have the elders of Israel who wanted to know what was in store for their nation, so they inquired of God, but God didn’t want to talk to them about their nation, did He? He wanted to talk to them about their idols. As applied to us, we cry out to God to turn our nation around, and God says, “I don’t want to talk to you about your nation, I want to talk to you about your idols.” Here is a vital truth we have to understand. The fate of the United States of America is not as important in God’s eyes - as the condition of our hearts. We need to grasp this truth. We say, “God, we’re in trouble, and we need help, and the homosexual agenda is running our country, and the liberal media are blinding the eyes of the masses to the truth of what is going on. God, please have mercy on us and fix our nation!” And God says, “I don’t want to talk to you about the homosexuals, or the media, or the illegal immigrants, or anything else other than your idolatry.”
This is why we are talking about the idols of the heart. To use the language of Jesus, we need to get the planks out of our own eyes so that we can even see clearly enough to accurately identify the issues that are truly important. In addition to having clear vision, we need to deal with our idols so that we can have power with God. We want Him to hear us. We want Him to respond to us. We want Him to come to our aid. As followers of Christ, we can’t help this nation without His help – so we better start by focusing on personal holiness. That is why we need to spend some time on idols.
So as we consider how to deal with an idol, we have seen three things so far. First of all, we have to choose whom we will serve. God demands full allegiance from his followers. God demands a categorical break with our past when we put our trust in him for salvation. Secondly, we need to resolve to love God with all our heart. To the degree we are worshipping / loving idols, we are not worshipping / loving God. It is a proportionate thing. If we love God with 80% of our heart, 20% of our life will be given to idolatry. And finally, we saw that we are to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit. According to Acts 1:8, when a person comes to Christ for salvation, something mysterious happens to him in that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside him. Linked to that indwelling is power – “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” That is the promise of Jesus.
Now what does all that have to do with idols? We know from experience that we don’t have it within ourselves to simply work up the strength to deal with idols. Tearing down idols is not a matter of self discipline (though self-discipline does play a role as we are going to see in one of the next points). Conclusively dealing with idols takes Supernatural empowerment. So, how does one appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit? That is where we stopped last time we were together, so I want to take the rest of our time this morning to answer this question.
We know the Holy Spirit lives in us, we know that one of the reasons God has sent Him is to help us, and we know we struggle with idols. Have you ever wondered how all three of those propositions can be true at the same time? The reason they are all true is because the power of the Holy Spirit is not to be taken for granted, nor does it manifest itself automatically in our lives. Let me repeat that. The power of the Holy Spirit is not to be taken for granted, nor does it manifest itself automatically in our lives. Let me give you two truths about this matter of appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit.
1. Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is not a matter of “how much” of the Holy Spirit you have or don’t have. When you are “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13) you get all the Holy Spirit you will ever get. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force of which different people have differing amounts.
2. Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is not a matter of “unleashing” the Holy Spirit, or “harnessing” the Holy Spirit. Those are two images that are popular in explaining how the Holy Spirit works, and they are both erroneous. There is not some kind of activity we have to engage in to release the Holy Spirit (contra the Alpha program) so He can work, nor is He some force in our lives that we have to capture if we want to utilize, like we do with wind and wind turbines.
So as we think about appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit, don’t envision the wrong thing. Once we know what appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is not, let’s see if we can figure out what it is. To help us with this, let me give you two fundamental truths about the Holy Spirit as expressed by Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology.
1. The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in this world (Grudem, p. 634). The reason this is important is because we can’t see God because He is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24) and He is so holy that anyone who did see him would die (Ex. 33:20). In addition to this, we are 2000 years too late to see Jesus, God in flesh who did live on this planet. So remember that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in this world.
2. One of the unique works of the Holy Spirit is to complete and sustain what God the Father and God the Son started (Grudem, p. 635). The Holy Spirit was active and present at creation (Gen. 1:2), He was active and present at Pentecost (Acts 1:8), and He is active and present at our salvation (Rom. 8:23). When you consider the greatest events in the history of the universe, the Holy Spirit was right there carrying out God’s plan and bringing it to completion.
Here is how this applies to appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s desire for you as His child is to live a pure and holy life (cf. Mt. 5:48 – “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”). God doesn’t want idolatrous children. God doesn’t want lukewarm followers, and when you put your trust in His Son Jesus as your Savior, God had a plan for your life and began a work in you that is designed to change you from being a self-absorbed, self-important, self-reliant idolater into a God-absorbed, God-loving follower of Christ. We have already established the fact that that is impossible, but remember what one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is – to complete and sustain what God starts. This is why Paul says in Phil. 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The “day of Jesus Christ” is the point in history in which the work will be completed, but the agent assigned to us to get there successfully is the Holy Spirit. My point is that we each have a powerful, personal assistant committed to our success in this matter. The reality of this matter is that we aren’t in this battle alone.
Now, how else does the Holy Spirit help us in this matter of dealing with idols? We know He is personally with us, we know He is powerful, we know He is committed to our success – but is there anything else about Him that will help us in this matter of appropriating the power He has? Absolutely! Let’s go back to the point I made about the primary work of the Holy Spirit – He manifests the active presence of God in the world.
How many of you have figured out that it is relatively easy to be “good” in the presence of another person, and it’s pretty easy to be “bad” when you are all by yourself? You know how that works, right? When I’m driving through town with the family and there is a very immodestly dressed woman walking down the sidewalk, it isn’t hard at all for me to keep my eyes looking straight ahead. When the same thing happens and I’m all by myself in the car, it’s a different story – it is a battle to keep my eyes where they ought to be. When my child misbehaves at church, it isn’t hard for me to deal with it gently; but let him misbehave at home and then there is a battle in my heart because my natural inclination is to respond in anger, frustration, and severity. I’m not tempted to respond that way in the presence of other believers at church.
I have a friend who is a traveling salesman who told me a very interesting story that illustrates this principle. He and several other men would all go together on sales trips, and every time they would stop for a meal, one guy in particular always ordered a salad, or a sandwich without fries; and he always drank diet soda. My friend thought this somewhat strange because the guy weighed well over 300 lbs. One morning my friend got up early, left his hotel room and walked to the IHOP next door for breakfast, and there was his fellow salesman, eating by himself, with six plates of food on his table.
Isn’t it amazing what the presence of another person does to us? You probably see where I’m going with this, but I’m going to say it anyway – God is actively present with me, in the person of the Holy Spirit, when I am driving down the road all by myself and I see that provocatively dressed woman. God is actively present with me, in the person of the Holy Spirit, when I am at home and have to deal with my child again about the same issue, and all my fellow church friends aren’t there to observe me. God is actively present with me, in the person of the Holy Spirit, when I am all by myself and I want to gorge myself with food.
Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is living with a continual awareness that God is actively present with me in the person of the Holy Spirit! When we choose to worship idols in the presence of God, we are quenching the Spirit (1 Th. 5:19), grieving the Spirit (Eph. 4:30), striving with the Spirit (Gen. 6:3), rebelling against the Spirit (Ps. 106:33), dealing treacherously with the Spirit (Mal. 3:15-16), lying to and testing the Spirit (Acts 5:3), resisting the Spirit (Acts 7:51), and insulting the Spirit (Heb. 10:29). We don’t lose the presence of the Holy Spirit like Saul did in the OT, but our idolatry has effectively tied His hands and rendered Him powerless to be our “Helper.” Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is living in such a way that He is free to do what He was sent to do.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be locked into a marriage with a spouse who continually, and in your presence grieved you, and strove with you, and rebelled against you, and insulted you, and resisted you, and dealt treacherously with you? Can you imagine something like that? If that were your case, how likely would you be to fulfill your role to your spouse? Yet that is precisely what the Holy Spirit has to put up with far too often in our lives. He won’t leave us because it is a permanent indwelling, but He can be so grieved and insulted that we have effectively shut Him down in His capacity as our Helper. Appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is living in such a way that He is free to do what He was sent to do.
Several years ago we camping out West, and as we were coming into Colorado, we had to cross the Rockies to get to Denver where I have family. We were really loaded down as well as pulling a camper, so I knew that making our way up the mountains and over the Continental Divide was going to be tricky. We were travelling on I-70 which peaks at the Eisenhower Tunnel, the highest vehicular tunnel in the world at over 11,000 feet. At our final stop in Utah, I had changed the spark plugs in the van because I thought it had been running roughly; but as we made our way across the plains and toward the mountains, the van would run fine when we were level or going downhill but really coughed and sputtered when I would accelerate. Sure enough, about ¼ of the way up the mountain we were coughing and sputtering our way up the mountain at about 10 miles per hour. Eventually we ended up with a State Police escort because we were going so slow, and it put us several hours behind schedule. When we got to Denver a mechanic showed me a spark plug wire that had gone bad, and explained that the bad wire was causing the loss of power.
Our engine had all the power it needed to get the job done. It was actually a pretty strong engine, but the reason we struggled up that mountain was because of my failure to appropriate the power that was available in that engine. All I had to do was change the spark plug wires, and then the engine could have operated in the way it was designed to operate.
That is the way the power of the Holy Spirit operates in our lives. We already have all the power we need to deal with idols. It is there in the person of the Holy Spirit. What we have to do is live in such a way as to allow Him to do His work.
I want to close this morning by sharing with you a great passage from Ezekiel 36. Turn with me to verse 24. “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. 25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
Saturday, July 17, 2010
How Do I Deal With Idols of the Heart - Part One
How Do I Deal With Idols of the Heart?
For the last eight weeks or so we have been studying the five idols of the heart. Let’s see if we can remember them using the acronym CRACS – control, respect, appreciation, comfort, and success. We have defined them, illustrated them biblically, illustrated them in everyday life, and analyzed what principle of scripture they violate. I hope that you have become very familiar over the past two months with the two questions that identify the presence of idols in your life: if I am willing to sin to get something I want, what I want is an idol. If I respond sinfully when I don’t get something I want, then what I wanted is an idol. I hope that you are sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as He convicts and nudges you.
This morning I want to talk to you about how we deal with an idol. As we have been going through this study I hope that a scenario similar to this one has gone through your mind. “OK, I see the idol in my life, I see the principle it violates, I understand the magnitude of what is going on, I see the negative consequences the idol brings about – but what do I do now? How do I tear that idol down?” That is the question I want to answer this morning – how do I deal with an idol of the heart?
Transition: So what I want to share with you over the course of two messages is five principles for dealing with idols. The first one is found in Joshua 24:15. Turn there with me and let’s think about choosing whom we will serve.
1. Choose Whom You Will Serve – Josh. 24:15
"And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
God demands full allegiance from His followers. Not only do we see it here in Joshua 24, we also see it in the words of Jesus in Mt. 6:24. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Paul expresses this same truth in 2 Cor. 6:14 when he says, “for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” The answer is “none!” The call to follow Christ is a categorical call, and the first step in dealing with idols is to choose whom we will serve.
There is a very interesting passage that has bearing on this point in Rev. 3:14-16 where God rebukes the church in Laodicea by saying, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. 16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Do you see the categorical nature of God’s call? God can really use a “hot” person, and He can work with a “cold” person, because He knows where they are. Their positions are well defined. But He despises a person who tries to maintain a “middle of the road” position.
Isn’t there something particularly distasteful about things that are tepid? Just the word itself has negative associations – I don’t think we even use the word “tepid” in a positive way. Don’t you find it irritating when you don’t know where a person stands? When he refuses to take a side? I remember the anger I felt when I was trying to speak to a state senator about NY’s effort to redefine marriage. I couldn’t actually talk to him, so I ended up talking to his chief of staff, or office manager, and the official position, the official statement coming from this senator was, “Should this legislation come to vote, at this point I anticipate voting against it.” When you think about that statement, it says nothing. So when she told me that, I responded by saying, “that is a very craftily worded statement that says nothing definite.” She smiled at me and said, “We think so.”
God feels the same way about people who refuse to give Him their wholehearted allegiance. God wants followers who leave no questions in anybody’s minds about where they stand. That is the essence of Joshua’s challenge to the nation of Israel in Joshua 24:15 – “choose Whom you will serve.”
To build on this point, turn with me to 1 Cor. 6:9-11, where we are going to see that God demands a clean break with our past. When we come to Christ for salvation, God expects a wholehearted, decisive, comprehensive break with our past. “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you [in other words, they weren’t that way any more]; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”
So the first step in removing an idol from our life is to realize the categorical nature of being a follower of Christ.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture that fosters convenient Christianity and doesn’t demand a radical break from our past. We really do think we can have our cake and eat it too – which is an incubator for idol worship. So if you are struggling with an idol and want to tear it down, the first thing you have to do is determine where your allegiance lies. Are you a follower of Christ, or not? Are you going to declare yourself as such, or not? Are you going to be “hot” for Christ, or not? God does not want tepid followers who can’t make up their minds whether or not they are going to worship God or their idols.
So once we make that decision to follow God, the second principle in dealing with an idol is found in Mt. 22:37. Let’s turn there and see that we need to resolve to love God with all our heart.
2. Resolve to Love God With All Your Heart - Mt. 22:37
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.”
What does it look like to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind? Have you ever wondered that? In other words, I think we would all agree that we want to do this, we really do want to love God with everything within us, but how do we do it? Is there something I can measure to see if I am doing it? Well, it really is somewhat simple (which, by the way, is different from being easy) in that love is demonstrated best by obedience. Turn to John 14 with me, and let’s look at verses 23 and 24 where Jesus teaches this idea. “Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.” Do you see what Jesus is saying here? Our love for God is not some kind of arbitrary, subjective endeavor. It’s not like I get to love God my way, and you get to love God your way, and she gets to love God her way, and each way is equally legitimate. That isn’t what the Bible teaches. Love for God is measurable. It is objective. And it is seen by our level of obedience to Him, or as Jesus puts it in this passage, “keeping His words.”
What does this have to do with idols? Just this. The true nature of idolatry is that every act of idolatry is also an act of self love. To the degree we are worshipping idols, we are not worshipping God. Or I could say it this way, to the degree we are loving idols, we are not loving God. Idol worship is taking God off the throne of my life and putting myself up there.
One of the sobering questions we have to ask ourselves is this: “How much do I love God?” Do I love Him enough to say “no” to the call of the idol? Or do I love my idol more? That’s really what idol worship boils down to. Let’s see if we can apply this concept to our opening illustration 8 weeks ago. Do you remember when I gave the hypothetical situation of the daughter telling her dad that if he’d look for the remote with his eyes instead of his mouth he’d find it quicker? At that instant of sarcastic disrespect, something goes off in the man and he has to decide in a moment which direction he is going to go. Everything in his old nature is screaming for him to worship at the idol of respect and seek vindication and justification and to take his daughter down a notch or two.
On the other hand, he knows that this situation is not primarily about him and personal disrespect – the violation of God’s principles of honor and parental authority tremendously outweigh his personal hurt. This isn’t primarily about him. So in that moment, he has to decide the love thing. Does he love himself the most, or does he love God the most? If he loves himself more than he loves God he is going to light into his daughter and give it to her with both barrels. On the other hand, if he loves God more than himself, he’s going to firmly and persuasively convince her of the magnitude of her offense – primarily against God, and only secondarily against her father.
Do you see how love works, do you see the role love plays in idol worship? As humans, we have a limited capacity for love. To the degree we love ourselves, we won’t obey God. To the degree we love God, we won’t obey our impulses to idolatry. If we love God with 80% of our heart and soul and mind, while that sounds admirable, we are going to be worshipping idols with 20% of our heart, soul and mind. If we love God with 40% of our heart, we are going to be worshipping idols with 60% of our heart. This is why we must resolve to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Transition: So as we answer the question, “How do I deal with an idol of the heart,” we have seen two principles. First, we have to choose whom we are going to serve, and second, we have to resolve to love God with all our heart. The third truth I want to share with you is found in Acts 1:1-8, and it is that we have to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. Appropriate the Power of the Holy Spirit – Acts 1:1-8
In Acts 1, starting in verse one, we read, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, [this would be the Gospel of Luke] about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Note the connection in verse 8 between the coming of the Holy Spirit and the word “power.” The promise of Jesus in this verse is that when a person comes to Christ for salvation, something mysterious happens to him in that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside him. Don’t ask me how it works – I don’t understand the biology involved. What I do understand is the reality.
The reality of this promise is that as a follower of Christ, you have a strength, or a capacity for accomplishment, that you didn’t have before you were a Christian. I want you to take a moment to let that sink in because this is a truth we Evangelicals often minimize because of the excesses of the Charismatics. The Holy Spirit coming upon you at the moment of your salvation gave you a supernatural strength, not necessarily physical, a supernatural capacity to do things you would be incapable of doing without the Holy Spirit living in you. That is the meaning of the word “power” in Acts 1:8. It is really interesting to me that the Greek word used here is δύναμις, spelled in English as “dynamis.” Our English word “dynamite” comes from this word.
If you want to see some great illustrations of how this concept works, read the book of Judges in the Old Testament (though it isn’t limited to this book), paying special attention to the phrase “and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily . . .” And then see what that man or woman was able to accomplish while under the influence, under the power, filled with a capacity for accomplishment, by the Holy Spirit. You will read of Gideon and his defeat of the Midianites, Jeptha and his defeat of the Ammonites, and multiple stories of Samson including Samson and the lion attack and Samson and the Philistines. What we see in the Old Testament concerning the presence of the Holy Spirit is that He came and went, as it were. And when one of God’s people in the Old Testament needed supernatural help, the Holy Spirit was sent to fill him and energize him and give him the capacity to do what needed to be done.
That is significantly different from the work of the Holy Spirit today. After Jesus was crucified but before He went back to heaven, He made this promise in Acts 1:8 to that little band of terrified followers. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and took up permanent residence in the lives of the Believers, and that is how He has operated ever since – He permanently dwells in the lives of those who have come to Christ for salvation. In practical terms, what that means for you and me today is the Holy Spirit doesn’t come and go in our lives like He did in the OT, He is here all the time to give us, among other things, the power and help we need.
Turn with me now to John 14. I want us to look at verses 15 – 17 where we see Jesus explain this concept in a little more detail. In verse fifteen Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments [that sounds familiar, right? It was our last point – resolving to love God with all our heart]. 16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper [the reason that word is capitalized is because it is a reference to deity], that He [the Helper, who is obviously the Holy Spirit since Jesus is the speaker and He has referred to God sending “another Helper”] may be with you forever [unlike in the Old Testament times]. Now, what is the connection between “keeping the commandments” of verse 15, and the promise to send a “helper”? It isn’t very easy to keep the commandments, is it? So, in order to help us out, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit]; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” The Holy Spirit, Who is my helper, lives in me. That is Jesus’ point. We are not trying to live up to God’s expectations on our own.
Now what does all that have to do with idols? Simply this. Those of you who have struggled with idols like I have know from experience that we don’t have it within ourselves to simply work up the strength to deal with idols. Tearing down idols is not a matter of self discipline. Now, self-discipline does play a role as we are going to see in one of the next points, but conclusively dealing with idols takes Supernatural empowerment. If you think you can just exercise some self-control and focus and overcome the idol, you are either out of touch with reality or extremely naïve about the power and nature of idol worship.
So once we understand that we can’t do this on our own, that we need help, and that God has graciously given us a “helper,” we are well on the way to dealing with idols. But there was a very important word in the title of this point – the word “appropriate.” Not only do we have to choose whom we are going to serve, and resolve to love God with all our heart, we also have to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit. What does “appropriating” the power of the Holy Spirit look like? That is where we are going to start next time we get together.
I’d like to close our time together this morning by having everyone close their eyes and bow their heads. I want us to spend some time in personal reflection and examination. We have looked at three principles for dealing with idols this morning, and I want us to focus on the first two, those of choosing whom we will serve, and resolving to love God with all our hearts. Think about choosing and resolving – those are action words. They require you to engage your will. Mental assent isn’t enough.
My goal for you this morning is not to have you agree with everything I have said, it goes way beyond that. My goal is for you to do something. Will you choose this morning to serve God alone? I’m not talking about salvation here, I’m talking about serving. Salvation covers your eternity, service covers your day in and day out living. Will you choose this morning to serve God alone?
In addition to that, will you resolve this morning to love God with all your heart? He doesn’t want most of our love, He wants it all. And in light of what He has done to secure our eternity, isn’t giving Him all our love about the least we can do for Him?
If you would choose to serve God alone and love Him with all your heart, would you quietly stand to your feet right now as a testimony to yourself and God that on Sunday morning, June 27, 2010 you took two decisive steps in dealing with idols of the heart. This isn’t a testimony to me, or to the people sitting around you – this is a testimony to yourself and God that you are not only willing but serious about this matter of idols. Would you stand to your feet now while I pray for us.
For the last eight weeks or so we have been studying the five idols of the heart. Let’s see if we can remember them using the acronym CRACS – control, respect, appreciation, comfort, and success. We have defined them, illustrated them biblically, illustrated them in everyday life, and analyzed what principle of scripture they violate. I hope that you have become very familiar over the past two months with the two questions that identify the presence of idols in your life: if I am willing to sin to get something I want, what I want is an idol. If I respond sinfully when I don’t get something I want, then what I wanted is an idol. I hope that you are sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as He convicts and nudges you.
This morning I want to talk to you about how we deal with an idol. As we have been going through this study I hope that a scenario similar to this one has gone through your mind. “OK, I see the idol in my life, I see the principle it violates, I understand the magnitude of what is going on, I see the negative consequences the idol brings about – but what do I do now? How do I tear that idol down?” That is the question I want to answer this morning – how do I deal with an idol of the heart?
Transition: So what I want to share with you over the course of two messages is five principles for dealing with idols. The first one is found in Joshua 24:15. Turn there with me and let’s think about choosing whom we will serve.
1. Choose Whom You Will Serve – Josh. 24:15
"And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
God demands full allegiance from His followers. Not only do we see it here in Joshua 24, we also see it in the words of Jesus in Mt. 6:24. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Paul expresses this same truth in 2 Cor. 6:14 when he says, “for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” The answer is “none!” The call to follow Christ is a categorical call, and the first step in dealing with idols is to choose whom we will serve.
There is a very interesting passage that has bearing on this point in Rev. 3:14-16 where God rebukes the church in Laodicea by saying, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. 16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Do you see the categorical nature of God’s call? God can really use a “hot” person, and He can work with a “cold” person, because He knows where they are. Their positions are well defined. But He despises a person who tries to maintain a “middle of the road” position.
Isn’t there something particularly distasteful about things that are tepid? Just the word itself has negative associations – I don’t think we even use the word “tepid” in a positive way. Don’t you find it irritating when you don’t know where a person stands? When he refuses to take a side? I remember the anger I felt when I was trying to speak to a state senator about NY’s effort to redefine marriage. I couldn’t actually talk to him, so I ended up talking to his chief of staff, or office manager, and the official position, the official statement coming from this senator was, “Should this legislation come to vote, at this point I anticipate voting against it.” When you think about that statement, it says nothing. So when she told me that, I responded by saying, “that is a very craftily worded statement that says nothing definite.” She smiled at me and said, “We think so.”
God feels the same way about people who refuse to give Him their wholehearted allegiance. God wants followers who leave no questions in anybody’s minds about where they stand. That is the essence of Joshua’s challenge to the nation of Israel in Joshua 24:15 – “choose Whom you will serve.”
To build on this point, turn with me to 1 Cor. 6:9-11, where we are going to see that God demands a clean break with our past. When we come to Christ for salvation, God expects a wholehearted, decisive, comprehensive break with our past. “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you [in other words, they weren’t that way any more]; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”
So the first step in removing an idol from our life is to realize the categorical nature of being a follower of Christ.
Unfortunately, we live in a culture that fosters convenient Christianity and doesn’t demand a radical break from our past. We really do think we can have our cake and eat it too – which is an incubator for idol worship. So if you are struggling with an idol and want to tear it down, the first thing you have to do is determine where your allegiance lies. Are you a follower of Christ, or not? Are you going to declare yourself as such, or not? Are you going to be “hot” for Christ, or not? God does not want tepid followers who can’t make up their minds whether or not they are going to worship God or their idols.
So once we make that decision to follow God, the second principle in dealing with an idol is found in Mt. 22:37. Let’s turn there and see that we need to resolve to love God with all our heart.
2. Resolve to Love God With All Your Heart - Mt. 22:37
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.”
What does it look like to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind? Have you ever wondered that? In other words, I think we would all agree that we want to do this, we really do want to love God with everything within us, but how do we do it? Is there something I can measure to see if I am doing it? Well, it really is somewhat simple (which, by the way, is different from being easy) in that love is demonstrated best by obedience. Turn to John 14 with me, and let’s look at verses 23 and 24 where Jesus teaches this idea. “Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.” Do you see what Jesus is saying here? Our love for God is not some kind of arbitrary, subjective endeavor. It’s not like I get to love God my way, and you get to love God your way, and she gets to love God her way, and each way is equally legitimate. That isn’t what the Bible teaches. Love for God is measurable. It is objective. And it is seen by our level of obedience to Him, or as Jesus puts it in this passage, “keeping His words.”
What does this have to do with idols? Just this. The true nature of idolatry is that every act of idolatry is also an act of self love. To the degree we are worshipping idols, we are not worshipping God. Or I could say it this way, to the degree we are loving idols, we are not loving God. Idol worship is taking God off the throne of my life and putting myself up there.
One of the sobering questions we have to ask ourselves is this: “How much do I love God?” Do I love Him enough to say “no” to the call of the idol? Or do I love my idol more? That’s really what idol worship boils down to. Let’s see if we can apply this concept to our opening illustration 8 weeks ago. Do you remember when I gave the hypothetical situation of the daughter telling her dad that if he’d look for the remote with his eyes instead of his mouth he’d find it quicker? At that instant of sarcastic disrespect, something goes off in the man and he has to decide in a moment which direction he is going to go. Everything in his old nature is screaming for him to worship at the idol of respect and seek vindication and justification and to take his daughter down a notch or two.
On the other hand, he knows that this situation is not primarily about him and personal disrespect – the violation of God’s principles of honor and parental authority tremendously outweigh his personal hurt. This isn’t primarily about him. So in that moment, he has to decide the love thing. Does he love himself the most, or does he love God the most? If he loves himself more than he loves God he is going to light into his daughter and give it to her with both barrels. On the other hand, if he loves God more than himself, he’s going to firmly and persuasively convince her of the magnitude of her offense – primarily against God, and only secondarily against her father.
Do you see how love works, do you see the role love plays in idol worship? As humans, we have a limited capacity for love. To the degree we love ourselves, we won’t obey God. To the degree we love God, we won’t obey our impulses to idolatry. If we love God with 80% of our heart and soul and mind, while that sounds admirable, we are going to be worshipping idols with 20% of our heart, soul and mind. If we love God with 40% of our heart, we are going to be worshipping idols with 60% of our heart. This is why we must resolve to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Transition: So as we answer the question, “How do I deal with an idol of the heart,” we have seen two principles. First, we have to choose whom we are going to serve, and second, we have to resolve to love God with all our heart. The third truth I want to share with you is found in Acts 1:1-8, and it is that we have to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. Appropriate the Power of the Holy Spirit – Acts 1:1-8
In Acts 1, starting in verse one, we read, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, [this would be the Gospel of Luke] about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Note the connection in verse 8 between the coming of the Holy Spirit and the word “power.” The promise of Jesus in this verse is that when a person comes to Christ for salvation, something mysterious happens to him in that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside him. Don’t ask me how it works – I don’t understand the biology involved. What I do understand is the reality.
The reality of this promise is that as a follower of Christ, you have a strength, or a capacity for accomplishment, that you didn’t have before you were a Christian. I want you to take a moment to let that sink in because this is a truth we Evangelicals often minimize because of the excesses of the Charismatics. The Holy Spirit coming upon you at the moment of your salvation gave you a supernatural strength, not necessarily physical, a supernatural capacity to do things you would be incapable of doing without the Holy Spirit living in you. That is the meaning of the word “power” in Acts 1:8. It is really interesting to me that the Greek word used here is δύναμις, spelled in English as “dynamis.” Our English word “dynamite” comes from this word.
If you want to see some great illustrations of how this concept works, read the book of Judges in the Old Testament (though it isn’t limited to this book), paying special attention to the phrase “and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily . . .” And then see what that man or woman was able to accomplish while under the influence, under the power, filled with a capacity for accomplishment, by the Holy Spirit. You will read of Gideon and his defeat of the Midianites, Jeptha and his defeat of the Ammonites, and multiple stories of Samson including Samson and the lion attack and Samson and the Philistines. What we see in the Old Testament concerning the presence of the Holy Spirit is that He came and went, as it were. And when one of God’s people in the Old Testament needed supernatural help, the Holy Spirit was sent to fill him and energize him and give him the capacity to do what needed to be done.
That is significantly different from the work of the Holy Spirit today. After Jesus was crucified but before He went back to heaven, He made this promise in Acts 1:8 to that little band of terrified followers. And on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down and took up permanent residence in the lives of the Believers, and that is how He has operated ever since – He permanently dwells in the lives of those who have come to Christ for salvation. In practical terms, what that means for you and me today is the Holy Spirit doesn’t come and go in our lives like He did in the OT, He is here all the time to give us, among other things, the power and help we need.
Turn with me now to John 14. I want us to look at verses 15 – 17 where we see Jesus explain this concept in a little more detail. In verse fifteen Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments [that sounds familiar, right? It was our last point – resolving to love God with all our heart]. 16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper [the reason that word is capitalized is because it is a reference to deity], that He [the Helper, who is obviously the Holy Spirit since Jesus is the speaker and He has referred to God sending “another Helper”] may be with you forever [unlike in the Old Testament times]. Now, what is the connection between “keeping the commandments” of verse 15, and the promise to send a “helper”? It isn’t very easy to keep the commandments, is it? So, in order to help us out, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit]; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.” The Holy Spirit, Who is my helper, lives in me. That is Jesus’ point. We are not trying to live up to God’s expectations on our own.
Now what does all that have to do with idols? Simply this. Those of you who have struggled with idols like I have know from experience that we don’t have it within ourselves to simply work up the strength to deal with idols. Tearing down idols is not a matter of self discipline. Now, self-discipline does play a role as we are going to see in one of the next points, but conclusively dealing with idols takes Supernatural empowerment. If you think you can just exercise some self-control and focus and overcome the idol, you are either out of touch with reality or extremely naïve about the power and nature of idol worship.
So once we understand that we can’t do this on our own, that we need help, and that God has graciously given us a “helper,” we are well on the way to dealing with idols. But there was a very important word in the title of this point – the word “appropriate.” Not only do we have to choose whom we are going to serve, and resolve to love God with all our heart, we also have to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit. What does “appropriating” the power of the Holy Spirit look like? That is where we are going to start next time we get together.
I’d like to close our time together this morning by having everyone close their eyes and bow their heads. I want us to spend some time in personal reflection and examination. We have looked at three principles for dealing with idols this morning, and I want us to focus on the first two, those of choosing whom we will serve, and resolving to love God with all our hearts. Think about choosing and resolving – those are action words. They require you to engage your will. Mental assent isn’t enough.
My goal for you this morning is not to have you agree with everything I have said, it goes way beyond that. My goal is for you to do something. Will you choose this morning to serve God alone? I’m not talking about salvation here, I’m talking about serving. Salvation covers your eternity, service covers your day in and day out living. Will you choose this morning to serve God alone?
In addition to that, will you resolve this morning to love God with all your heart? He doesn’t want most of our love, He wants it all. And in light of what He has done to secure our eternity, isn’t giving Him all our love about the least we can do for Him?
If you would choose to serve God alone and love Him with all your heart, would you quietly stand to your feet right now as a testimony to yourself and God that on Sunday morning, June 27, 2010 you took two decisive steps in dealing with idols of the heart. This isn’t a testimony to me, or to the people sitting around you – this is a testimony to yourself and God that you are not only willing but serious about this matter of idols. Would you stand to your feet now while I pray for us.
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