No Other Gods 2

So the question remains, who or what is your God?
You'll recall last week, we took a look at seven modern-day idols outlined for us in
the book by Dan Ellander and Trimper Longwind III breaking the idols of your heart.
It's a commentary really in the book of Ecclesiastes and the seven idols that they referenced
are not exhaustive.
There are many more that you and I can think of, but it makes a good beginning and I've
taken the liberty to ask the office to print them up for you on the back of the welcome
sheet just so that we can run through them very quickly once again to set the stage as
we continue with no other God's part too.
Here are the seven gods which they identify based on the teaching of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Chasing after power, I can control my world.
Chasing after relationship, relationships bring me fulfillment.
Chasing after work and money, money brings me freedom.
Chasing after pleasure, pleasure will satisfy me.
Chasing after wisdom, knowledge will put me on top.
Chasing after spirituality, my spiritual life will save me.
Chasing after immortality, I will have a long life if I take care of my body.
Here's the question for each of us this morning as we look at this list, how many of us here
would be honest enough to say we see ourselves reflected in at least one maybe more of these
idols.
I wonder can I ask a show of hands, how many of us can see ourselves in that list somewhere
along the line?
Keep your hands up for just a moment, good and high, and look around you because in all honesty
there probably isn't a one of us who doesn't have a God besides the true God who doesn't
confuse the bucket with a fountain, who doesn't look to some aspect of creation rather than
the true and the living God to meet the needs and the desires of our hearts.
You can imagine that if we who are in Christ struggle with idolatry, then how much more
the people around us who don't know God, who don't know Christ, who don't know the favor
of God's Holy Spirit, and that cuts to the very heart of who God is because it not only
dethrones his centrality which is serious enough business, but it also sets the stage
for our own disappointments because as we've seen in the past these idols are worthless.
Paul in Acts chapter 14 talks about these worthless things and I didn't catch it when we
were going through Acts chapter 14, but if you search for idols and for worthless in
the Old Testament, you find that joining of those two words at least 15 times repeatedly
the Old Testament says that idols are worthless doesn't mean they don't have spiritual power doesn't
mean they don't offer you the whole world like Satan did to Jesus but it means that at
the end of time they will take you, use you, throw you on the pile because it's all about
them and it's not about God.
And so here's what Psalm 97 says about the worship of idols it says all who worship images
are put to shame those who boast in idols worship him all you gods.
So we're back to the question what do we do about the idolatry that is so prevalent
not only in the world but probably also at our own lives.
So we've seen you try to identify what those idols are we've done that that leads into
stage number two which is to repent of and renounce all idols listen to these words from
Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 6 therefore say to the house of Israel this is what the sovereign
Lord says repent turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices notice
there are three action verbs in that verse there is repent there is turn from your idols
and there is renounce all your detestable practices let's take just a moment or two and
look at each of these words first of all the word repent means to change one's mind.
To change one's mind is to come to the realization that I used to look to these false idols thought
they had life but now I've come to realize that I have confused the bucket with a fountain
and they do not in fact give me life and so here are the idols of my life I used to
think if only I had power if only I had that special relationship if maybe I won the lottery
or if I gave myself to pleasure or if I experienced more knowledge or developed some level
of spiritual experiences or maybe knew how to look after my body better then I would be
able to offset the consequences of the fall and I will experience paradise regained repentance
means I now know that was a dead end road wasn't going to lead me anywhere repentance means
I now have come to understand that these are all sisters as Jeremiah says that people
of you in which hold no permanent water but that God alone is the fountain of life everything
short of that is vanity of vanities which is why this verse is such a dominant verse in
the book of Ecclesiastes meaningless meaningless says the teacher utterly meaningless everything
is meaningless very depressing book if you read it from a worldly point of view but it
ends with the emphasis that there's only one thing that matters and that is you put God
first so to repent is to change one's mind but it's not enough just to repent we also have
to turn from your idols says Ezekiel repentance has to lead to action as the proverb goes the road
to hell is paved with what good intentions there's lots of people that have half a mind
to change their life but it wears off really quickly and to turn away from your idols is
to disengage from them it is to turn your back on them to no longer allow them to have power
or authority in my life but it doesn't stop there because the first effect goes on to say
we must renounce all our detestable practices and that includes the idols themselves listen
to what Joshua said years earlier to the people of Israel they're in the promise they're
on the edge of the promised land they're well they're in the promised land Joshua is about
to die and he is calling them to covenant faithfulness and he says throw away the foreign
gods that are among you there you have it again that mixture yes we believe in Yahweh we
believe in the God who made covenant with us at Mount Sinai but just to be in the safe
side will keep our little gods along the side because when we're really sick or when we're
really out of money or we're facing an unhappy experience in life then these are more dependable
than the true and the living God because he's holy and scary and he makes all kinds of
demands get rid of them says Joshua and yield your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel notice
the two components there throw away the foreign gods throw away the desire for all of these
as an end in themselves get rid of them throw them out of your house and he says turn yield
your hearts to the Lord God of Israel the heart as I said is the seat of who we are it's
where we do our dreaming it's where our passions lie it's a combination of the will and the
intellect and our emotions and God says I want you to love me with all of your heart so
strength and mind you're whole being ought to be focused primarily on who I am because
it is in relationship with me that everything else that you need I will give to you.
And so whenever we find an idol of the heart a place where we look to the bucket rather
than the fountain to the gift rather than to the giver God says I want you to do three
things I want you to repent learn to think differently I want you to turn your back disengage
and he says I want you to get rid of it don't coddle it don't baby it don't pretend
you can leave it in a room off to the side just so when you need it you can go back to
now get rid of it because I want he says an undivided heart of loyalty I think we underestimate
how intensely jealous God is and Exodus 34 14 really brings it home do not worship
any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God and we read that earlier
too in the second of the 10 commandments when it talks about God being a jealous God and
we think of jealousy is a bad thing right I mean he's jealous of my friends she's jealous
of my work and and typically jealousy is viewed as a bad characteristic but it says God's
jealous so what does that mean it means God is so focused on his relationship with you
and me that he doesn't want to share that relationship with anybody else those of you
who were here last week we played that little wedding video remember that one where
the girl says one day a week or one one day a year I want to hang out with my old boyfriend
and do whatever I want to do remember that one I thought it was choice choice because as
I said would self-respecting husband wants to share his wife with any other man let alone
an old boyfriend that's what jealousy is jealousy isn't a negative emotion jealousy says
I so value our relationship that I don't want you to be unfaithful to that relationship
I don't want to have to compete with you for an other idol in your life that's what
God says and that's why throughout the Old Testament his anger burns to the people
of Israel when they commit spiritual adultery by running after the bails and trying to mix
bail worship in with the worship of the true God and likewise he's jealous over you
and me and he wants us to get rid of the idols of our hearts so that he can be God and
he alone I love that old him oh for a closer walk with God a calm and heavenly frame a light
to shine upon the road that leads me to the lamb where is the blessedness I knew when
the first I saw the Lord was that soul refreshing view of Jesus and his word and then this
verse many of you will remember it the dearest idol I have known whatever that I will
be help me to tear it from my throne and worship only thee so shall my walk be close with
God calm and serene my frame so pure our light shall mark the road that leads me to the
lamb so how do we practically go about repenting and turning away from and then renouncing the
idols and all the practices associated there with so I thought about that a little bit this
past week and the week before it occurs to me that there were at least three things that
you and I can and need to do in being obedient to this command of scripture and the first
is this every sin every sin and bad habit has to go every sin every bad habit has to
simply go listen to Hebrews 12 the first verse since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses picture and a letting competition just like in the Olympics all the people
understands we run the race as the Bible in full view of all heaven and all hell the saints
and the angels and everybody is watching you and me as we run the journey of life do you
realize that you're never you think you got privacy you ain't got it somebody's kind
of disconcerty somebody's watching you since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us we've just come through the
Olympics the pair of Olympics I don't know if they're finished now or not they followed
on the heels of the Olympic Games we've seen many of us the exploits of the athletes
said we have held our breath who's going to win the game or who's going to survive the
aerial flips I mean you gotta I never wonder how in the world they learn these things without
breaking their neck first that's an astonishing thing to me but we know that when we talk to
athletes the amount of training that goes into that competitive edge is astonishing it is
astonishing because when you're dealing with hundreds of seconds everything matters including
the fabric that your clothes are made of and the material that your skates are made of and how
they're sharpened and and all your equipment has to be in top condition and they do it says
the Apostle Paul for an earthly crown but we do it for an eternal crown listen to how he puts
it on Corinthians chapter 9 verses 24 and 25 do you not know that in a race all the runners run
but only one gets the prize run in such a way as to get the prize everyone who competes in the
games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a
crown that will last forever if athletes so apply themselves for that chance of momentary glory how
much more should we apply ourselves to run the race before the face of God don't know how many of
your years some months back when we played that series of videos with with Billy Graham but he
tells the story at one point of a survey that had been taken among I think 5,000 athletes asking
them the question if there was a pill that we could give you that would guarantee you gold but
you know for sure that it would kill you in five years time how many of you would take the pill and
the answer as I recall was that around 50% of the athletes questioned would go for the pill and
face certain death for that momentary glory and I look at that and sometimes I'm ashamed of
myself do I have that kind of dedication to run the race to win the crown to please my father and my
God who was in heaven put away every scene every weight that clings so close like not just the bad
things but the things that entangle the things that take the focus off the Lord and that make me a
liability in the race that I'm running secondly and gets worse just for the record so bear with me here
it means putting on the altar every legitimate gift that God has given us see it's not hard to see
that sin has to go bad habits have to go because yeah well obviously they interfere in our relationship
with God but sometimes the biggest idols in our lives are not the bad things we do or we want to
do they're the good things that God has given us that we want to do and if you were here last week
you will recall Roberta sharing the idol that music had become in her life because you see when
you're good at something that very quickly begins to shape your identity you get your praise and
you get your strokes from being successful and being accomplished in a certain thing and before
you know it that becomes the focal point of your life and the very gift that God has given you
gets in the way of knowing God and the classic example in the Old Testament is who Abraham
you'll recall that he received Isaac as the son of promise it took a long time for that
child to be born and when that child was born he embraced him with all his heart but what was the
danger the danger was that the gift would become more important than the giver and you'll recall
that whole episode where God says Abraham take your son your only son and place him on the altar
and I will never know what went through Abraham's mind when he considered that challenge of God
except Scripture says in the New Testament he knew the promises of God that even if he had to
slay his son God would have to raise him from the dead because the promise was focused on Isaac
but I tell you that's a walk of faith is it not and he had no idea when he laid his son on the
altar and lifted that knife to accomplish that awful deed that the angel of God would step in
and stop him and point to the ram into thicket as an example of the substitutionary
atonement that one day the Lamb of God would accomplish on the cross but what an incredible
test of faith that Abraham withstood because he knew the giver was more important than the gift
and so God through his angel says to him these words Genesis 22 verse 12 now I know
that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son your only son
see it's not only our sins that we have to surrender it's also the good gifts that God
gives us and that includes and here's a third thing to lay on the altar every relationship
that he has given us needs to be surrendered as we've seen before one of the most wonderful
gifts that God gives us and one of the most common vehicles of God's blessing
is the significant people that he raises up in our lives children have parents
husbands and wives of spouses we have friends we have co-workers we're part of community
both within a place like this and out there in the world so to speak
and how much of our life do we draw from the people that God brings into our lives and remember I
said that is a perfectly legitimate reality we ought never to try to be more spiritual than God
the issue is not our relationships the issue is do our relationships become more important than our
relationship with God and so whatever there is the danger of that then the relationships have to
be put on the altar because only God can be God in our lives listen again to how Jesus puts it
look chapter 14 verse 26 tough words people tough words if anyone comes to me and does not hate
his father and mother his wife and children his brothers and sisters yes even his own life
he cannot be he cannot be my disciple and as I trust you know
Jesus isn't really saying that the only way that we can be a Christian is to actually hate
all the significant people in our lives it's hyperbole it's a strong statement to say
that our lives ought not to be governed by the most significant relationships in our lives
they ought to be governed by God and by God alone and so if my spouse wants me to do something that
God doesn't want me to do then I must obey God rather than men if my friends want me to participate
in an activity that is not sanctioned by God himself then I need to say to my friends listen
you guys I respect you I love you I want to be part of your lines but I cannot participate with you
in this activity because I will not deny the true and the living God means if you're boss
wants you to do something that is not in keeping with God's will for your life you place God
above the risk of being fired or losing his favor let me ask you again do you still want to be a
Christian it's not a cakewalk because the claims of Jesus are exclusive and he wants us to be
serious about putting to death not only all those relationships but even the desires and the
passions of our own lives that get in the way of God's priority because you'll notice that not
only do we have to hate father and mother and brothers and sisters and so on but even our own
lives without that he says we cannot be his disciple and what that means is that whenever we crave
something our body craves something that is not in keeping with the will of God that is illegitimate
from God's point of view then I must say no even at the cost of my own comfort and security
and again look at how Jesus puts it in the sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 29 and 30 this is in the
context of lusting after your neighbor if you're right I cause you to see a gouge it out and throw
it away it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown
into hell and then as if we didn't get it the first time around he repeats it if your right hand
causes you to sit and cut it off throw it away it is better for you to lose one part of your body
than your whole body to go into hell that's Jesus meek and mild just for the record
the Jesus that everybody says loves everything and everybody well I don't know where you find
that one but I don't find him in the gospels because he is totally sold out to God the Father
and he wants us to be sold out see to repent and to turn your back and to renounce
means in practical terms we take up our cross and we follow Jesus in all of the ways that we've
just been talking about and I can imagine what you're thinking because I think of myself
who in the world who in the world is sufficient for this I mean isn't that the question
isn't that the question the disciples asked when in the context of the rich young ruler
who turned his back on Jesus because he couldn't surrender his riches
they asked the question and Jesus made the observation you really call it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of an eagle then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of that's about as
tough as it gets I think you know whatever the eye of the needle was and there's different
theories about all of that it was sufficiently difficult for the for the disciples to figure
this just can't be done who remembers Jesus' response the disciples here's the question
the disciples asked they were greatly astonished not just a little bit astonished who then can
be saved and then here's Jesus' response with man this is impossible but with God all things
are possible God can get a camel through the eye of the needle he can get a rich man
into his kingdom and he can get you in need to a place where we can say no to our sins or be
setting bad habits we can say no to the worship of the gifts that God gives us and we can say no
we can say no to our relationships even as we say yes to God and to God alone you say how in the
world is that possible well it's possible of course because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ because Jesus came into the world to bear our sin died on the cross we died with him and we
got raised with him into new resurrection life he now lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit
if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has gone the new has come I wonder sometimes
if we really understand the incredible transaction that took place when Christ absorbed all our
crud into himself and he made all his benefits available to us and if this morning you are in
Christ if this morning you are in Christ as I trust you are then you are already over here
you have already made a commitment you said yes to Jesus you have said yes to God you have said
no to all the other things that we have talked about may not be part of your experience or my
experience at the moment but positionally you're over there God accepts you in Christ as righteous
and holy has given you his Holy Spirit and through his Holy Spirit as you walk out this journey he
will come along and he will help you to identify the idols of your life he will know how to put his
finger on that scene that keeps you blinded from seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ
he will put his finger on that aspect of creation on that relationship that has become
more important than God himself he will grant you a glimpse of his glory so that in the light of
his glory everything else fades away and then as you battle to bend the knee before his authority
his spirit in you will win you over the glad and joyful obedience before God I love
Philippians chapter 2 the verses 12 and 13 very applicable in this context therefore my beloved
or my dear friends work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for God is it working you
both to will and to work for his good pleasure notice a couple of things there work out
your own salvation sounds the opposite of everything that we've ever learned isn't it
but it's not because positionally you are in Christ you're living over here you have said that's
where I belong that's where I want to live and now God held me to get rid of everything that
interferes with that it's the difference between justification and sanctification in Christ we
are justified sanctification is the outworking of that as I learned to put off the old and to put
on the new and what happens now is that I discover that it's God who is at working me
and what does he do first he helps me to will have you ever noticed how the biggest part of our battle
is the fact that we don't want what he wants my the only one that ever feels that way
I don't want to give up certain sins or habits I don't want to lay down certain things
that I have received in life that I happen to like very much thank you and I don't want
to have to surrender relationships it's not even not having an ability to do it I don't even want
to begin with it but it's God who is at work in me both to will and to work so what do you do
when the Holy Spirit comes along and he begins to nod to knock on the door of your heart and he
begins to say what about your finances or what about your relationships or what about that scene
will you stop doing it and you discover now I don't want to I love you and all that but honestly
I don't want it well you can pray God make me willing what I like about that is you can go as
back as far as you want to go back because you may not even want to be willing but maybe you
want to be willing to be made willing and if that's not good enough how about willing to be willing
to be willing to be willing to be willing you back as far as you want just know that God will take
you at phase value and he will stir in your heart the gift of faith see all it takes is a glimpse
of God's glory just for the record in scripture when the people in the Old Testament like Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and all those dudes when they make offerings to God they lay it on the altar
it's always after God has revealed himself and when God reveals himself surrender
is a sinch once you know the value of the pearl of great price selling everything that you have
to own the pearl is peanuts the point is getting to the point where you see because of course
God's out there and the things that were attached to a very physical and they're here so God
works to wheel and then when he wears us down to the point where we can surrender our wheel to him
then we discover that he begins to strengthen us he helps us to start making those very practical
decisions I got to change my mind about who I am and about what I do and I got a surrender
this one thing that that clings to me so closely that the sin and whatever it is that
entangles me on the race of life I got to put it on the altar then eventually we discover
ourselves coming to a place where God is so him to see him where all we can do
is lay it on the altar and trust that he will take care of us in the places where we now no longer
have control and many of you have heard me tell the story of how this worked out in my
relationship with Michelle many years ago as many of you know we met on a summer assignment
the first year after my first year of seminary training and she was the first woman
I had ever fallen in love with and we fell hard and after that summer she came to the school
where I was going and we began developing a relationship and as we were developing a relationship
I sensed the Holy Spirit coming along saying I want you to lay this relationship on the altar
don't know if you've ever been there but I can tell you it was how I'd love to be able to say
that I threw up my hands and glory hallelujah Lord I'll obey you immediately like Abraham of
old and I'll do everything that you want no it was considerably more difficult it took a few
problems not in the relationship but it took it took the discipline of God in my life to
bring me to the point or eventually I had a layer on the altar and say I don't believe the Lord
wants us to get together and we broke up and as far as I was concerned that was permanent because
a test is never a test if you know you're going to get her back and as far as I was concerned
this was it she always has told me that she knew better but that was because the test was mine
and not hers but you know here's what I remember tough as it was and it was tough tough as it was
the joy of knowing that God was bigger than I that he could wrestle me to the ground
and bring me over to embracing his will at great pain and great cost boosted my confidence in God
and my love for God because I knew that I could trust him with my life and I don't know where
you're at this morning I don't know if there are idols that you're holding on to I suspect for all
of us there are and I don't know what the Lord is doing in terms of addressing those idols but I
can tell you this that he is a jealous God doesn't want to share us with anything that is not
of him and if you want to pursue a life with God and all the reality of the blessing of God in
his kingdom then sooner or later that idol has to be put on the altar it has to be surrendered
whether that's a sin we're prepared to give up a bad habit we're ready to surrender if that is
a gift that we find our security in if that is a relationship that is
overtaken God in the loyalty of our hearts God will find it God will find it and you will face a choice
and when that choice confronts you that is the time to say Lord I need your grace I can't even
begin to consider this but you're the one who is at work with me make me willing
make me able to obey then I want to leave you with this incredible promise of scripture
because you see God's desire is never to take
it's not that he can't do without you or me God's desire is so that he can bless us
with the fullness of his blessings without having to worry about idolatry in our hearts so let me
end with these two verses from Mark's gospel this is Jesus speaking to his disciples no one
who was left home where brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields
for me and the gospel what we've been talking about right we'll fail to receive now listen to
this a hundred times as much in this present age homes brothers sisters mothers children
in fields and with them just to keep it in perspective persecutions and in the age to come
eternal life you will never out give God God will never owe you anything he just wants your heart
so he can open the windows of heaven and give you everything and more that you need in this life
and in the life to come and I don't know about you tough as these choices are that's pretty good
mathematics and I think as individuals and as a community that's what we want to buy into amen