The Idol of Image

Intro

Alright, well let’s give it up for our band. They haven’t played in around a month, so I bet they were nervous. So, tonight, we’re starting a brand new series called “IDOLS.” Some of you are probably confused as to what I mean by idols, I’ll explain. Or some of y’all probably instantly thought of something. What came to mind when I said the word “idols?” Many may think that idols are something people only dealt with in the Old Testament in ancient history, but what we’re going to talk about is that idols are still at work today, and we most likely have some in our lives.

There was a story of a man named Alanis who watched the Marvel movie, Spider-Man No Way Home 292 times. Now, In 2019, Alanis set a Guinness World Record by watching Avengers: Endgame a whopping 191 times. Then he does it again by watching Spider-Man: No Way Home 292 times between December 16 to March 15. This would mean that he spent 720 hours of his life watching the movie, roughly an entire calendar month of the year sitting in a theater. He was so obsessed during the movie that he didn’t look at his phone, nap, or even go to the bathroom. Guys, I think he may have had a problem. Now, I have seen Spider-Man: No Way Home in the movies but only once. This guy made an idol out of the movie.

Maybe for you, it’s a movie you love or a TV show, your phone, social media, school, sports, athletes, celebrities, or whatever it may be for you. What has taken over your heart? Our hearts are like an idol factory. Our hearts have a terrible tendency to elevate and prioritize things other than God, and anything we view as more important than Him is an idol. The idols they create can be extremely dangerous to our spiritual lives. What’s worse is that this can sometimes happen without us even noticing. It sounds weird but it’s true. We’re not going to read the passage but in Matthew 6, Jesus warns us not to store up treasures on earth, where they will be destroyed. And He wouldn’t have warned us about this if it wasn’t our tendency to do it. We tend to treasure the things that we can have or achieve here on earth, and in that same passage, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our hearts rally around these things because we believe they can give us significance, security, safety, and fulfillment if we attain them. So, what we can see here is that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, sports, school, and even family and turns them into ultimate things. It places the highest possible value on those things instead of God. It takes what this world says is most important and turns them into idols. Turns them into something we place before God.

MIM: An idol is anything we put before God.

To understand where we’re going in this series, let’s examine the book of Exodus to see what God says about the idols we create in our hearts. Turn with me Exodus 20:1-4. This is what it says…

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 20

Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 3 Do not have other gods besides me. 4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.

So, Moses is writing the book of Exodus. The word “exodus” means departure. In God’s timing, the people who were the Israelites were able to escape from Egypt and out of slavery as read in verse 2. They just left a terrible place they were in. So, now God is about to give them some guidelines to help them, which we know as the Ten Commandments. We’ve all heard of the Ten Commandments at least once. They’re important but some think they’re outdated and don’t matter anymore. But the Ten Commandments guide us and set an example for us on how to live. The Ten Commandments are the ten things God told the people of Israel to live by and the same is true for us. We just read together two of them. God laid it out clearly for us. The first one is…

1. No gods before the one true God (v. 3)

Explanation

In verse three, we see the first commandment. It says, “Do not have other gods besides me.” This command is against worshiping any god other than the one true God. Simple as that. All other gods are false gods. When we hear the word idol, we often think of statues and objects reminiscent of those worshiped by pagans in ancient cultures. In the days of ancient Israel, there was a great temptation to worship the gods of materialism like Baal who was the god of weather and financial success. And like Ashtoreth, the god of sex and romance. There were many pagan gods that the Israelites had to deal with and be tempted with. Plus, many other nations recognized many gods, not just one. This is crazy but back then many people had 3 different gods, a personal god, a family god, and a national god. So, they faced a temptation to worship other gods besides the one true God.

The same is true for us today, we are tempted to worship things of this world. We constantly deal with the temptation to set all kinds of things before God. Or at least competing with God and His place in our lives. Today, many of us have an idol for money, prestige, or success in the eyes of the world. Maybe fame or a lot of followers and likes on social media. Maybe you want to do so well in school that you've turned it into an idol. Maybe you want to be liked so much by others that it affects you. Maybe celebrities or athletes that you look up to rule you. Often, we can have these things, and we can place them before God without even realizing it. They can almost become like little gods in our lives.

Application

What is it for you? Where do you find satisfaction? In the world or Christ? What is something you’ve possibly turned into an idol?

Transition

God continues into the second commandment in verse 4 which says, “Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.” In other words, no idols of any kind.

2. No idols of any kind (v. 4)

Explanation

The second commandment follows the first. The second commandment prohibited not only idolatry regarding false gods but also forbids making an image of any created thing. The nature of idolatry is sometimes misunderstood now. Idolatry was not always merely the practice of worshiping using statues or pictures as focal points for worship; it was rather an entire, elaborate religious system and lifestyle. The attractions of idolatry were very powerful and tended to draw even the Israelites away from true worship and obedience to the true and one God. Making an idol of anything is like creating a false representation of God. Any attempt will misrepresent him. There is no image we can create that can accurately portray God. He's so different and holy. To make an idol to represent God is to worship a false god. But see, we have this today. It’s not just an outdated thing or an old way of thinking. Although most of us rarely see huge golden statues and temples still exist in the world today. Millions of people flock to these temples, bringing gifts or fruit to offer to their gods.

One religion called Hinduism is especially known for its worship of idols. Hinduism is one of the oldest known organized religions and the third most popular religion in the world. It has as many as 330 million gods and these gods come in all shapes and sizes. Some are pictured as half men and half women or as animals. One of the most popular Hindu gods is named Ganesh. He is said to be the god of wisdom, knowledge, and fire. The statues of Ganesh show the body of a human boy with the head of an elephant. How Ganesh got the head of an elephant is an interesting story. A god named Shiva wanted to enter a room where Ganesh’s mother, Parvati, was staying. Ganesh refused to let Shiva in the room. Shiva became very angry and cut off Ganesh’s head. When his mother saw what had happened, she begged Shiva to help her poor son, so Shiva took the head of an elephant and placed it on the boy’s body. Many people believe this story to be true, and they believe that Ganesh is a real god. Ganesh is not real, and neither are millions of other gods and idols that people worship. We should not be tricked into thinking that a statue of gold or silver has some magical powers just because it is in the form of a pretend god.

Application

Guys again, let’s think about it. What have we turned into idols? What are we bowing down to worship in place of God? Maybe we don’t realize, and this is a wake-up call. Maybe we know, and this is a reminder.

Explanation of the two points

So, God lays it out clearly in the first two commandments: we should have no gods before Him, and we should not make ourselves any idol of any kind. So, why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about two of the Ten Commandments?

Check out these stats: 94% of young people engage with social media daily. 4 out of 5 of Generation Z’s favorite ways to spend time include screen-based activity. 92% of children in the U.S. have a “digital footprint,” meaning 92% of people your age have entered some information about themselves somewhere on the internet at some point in time. In a study done in the 1950s, teens were asked if they were a “very important person.” Less than ten percent said they were. Now, more than 80 percent of teens said they were.

The Idol of Image

Guys, it’s all about image. Your image can quickly become the most valuable thing in your world when your whole life revolves around social media, how others see you, and what you want them to think of you. Our world tries to tell you that to have influence, gain friends, or be successful, other people need to think highly of your image. And if you buy into that, so much of your time and energy can be spent creating this image of yourself for others to see and judge. But when you place your treasure and value in your image, your heart brings it into the factory and turns it into an idol. Before long, you’ll end up worshipping your image, spending all your time thinking about your image, and valuing your image above everything else.

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves. We want a good image. We want people to like us, I do as a leader. So, of course, we do! But the fact that we spend most of our time on screens and not engaging with God means that our natural gravitation will not be toward God but away from Him. We will gravitate toward ourselves and the image we can create. But our relentless pursuit of an image will never leave us feeling whole or fulfilled. There are always more likes, more followers, and more edits we can make to our image to make ourselves look better or feel better. Your image will undoubtedly fail you at some point. Sooner or later, someone will disapprove of your image and all the hard work you put into it. When you’re trying to create or maintain an image, you’re trying to find acceptance from another source that isn’t Jesus.

Application

- Control your screen time.

You may not like me with this part. But how often do we spend time on our phones? And is it messing us up? Is it messing us up on how we view ourselves as children of God? I’m just as guilty as you guys and I checked my screen time from last week and listened to this, in one day I spent 6 hours and 11 minutes on my phone. I scroll through reels late at night just like you guys and get caught up. It’s not all bad but we must ask ourselves is it affecting how we view ourselves as Christ's followers?

- Does your image in the eyes of others matter more than in the eyes of God?

If you answer yes, ask yourself why. Why does how people view you matter more than how God does? We want to be liked, we want to have friends, and perhaps we want to be popular, but is that affecting our image?

- We’re accepted by God.

Think about what God says about us, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says we have become the righteousness of God. In Colossians 1:22, it says we’re holy and blameless. In Hebrews 10:10, we’re sanctified because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Closing

At times, we will feel the pressure of the world and others to create an image of ourselves but guys, we don’t have to chase after an image because we have a perfect one in Christ. We have the best one available in Him. It is a gift and nothing we have to earn or do to receive it. All we have to do is just live in it.

Maybe some of you have felt like a slave to your friends, screens, or the world for a while now. But you have an opportunity right now to leave that behind, follow Jesus, and know for a fact that you are accepted by Him. You can leave behind being a slave to the idol of image and know that how God sees you and what He says about you will never change. Pray with me.

Pray