When GOOD things become GOD things

LeAnn Rimes “How do I Live”

How do I get through one night without you If I had to live without you What kinda life would that be Oh I need you in my arms, need you to hold You are my world, my heart, my soul

If you ever leave Baby you would take away Everything good in my life And tell me now

How do I live without you? I want to know How do I breathe without you? If you ever go How do I ever, ever survive How do I, how do I, oh how do I live

Without you There would be no sun in my sky There would be no love in my life There'd be no world left for me

Many of you have sang that LeAnn Rimes song at the top of your lungs and never realized it was truly and ode to idolatry.

We could replace the “baby” with lots of things and point to the idols of our own life.

Paul gets to the heart of idolatry in

Romans 1:21–30 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Romans 1:18–30 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Rm 1:

Understand the Idolatry of our Hearts

1) The ROOT of idolatry is UNBELIEF ()

Romans 1:21 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Idolatry is rooted in our attitude toward God.

He is lacking, doesn’t fulfill me, isn’t comfortable, doesn’t provide me with the security/pleasure/affection I desire.

Because God is not sufficient for us we look elsewhere for other things.

The things created by God begin to look more appealing to us than God Himself, so we begin to give ourselves to those things in worship.

Tim Chester’s 4 G’s - When we don’t believe:

God is GOOD

When we don’t believe God is GOOD we will look for things that bring us pleasure, that fulfill our appetites, and make us happy.

God is GREAT

When we don’t believe God is GREAT we will look for something that makes us feel secure and safe.

God is GLORIOUS

When we don’t believe God is GLORIOUS then we will look to others to accept us, make us feel wanted, and affirm us.

God is GRACIOUS

When we don’t believe God is GRACIOUS then we will look for ways we can prove ourselves, justify ourselves, and/or save ourselves.

2) Idolatry is WORSHIP ()

Romans 1:25 ESV

because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Humans, ALL HUMAN, worship.

Worship is WORTH SHIP - displaying the worth of something.

When we WORSHIP God we show His worth through singing, through our posture, through our life style.

I worked in a thrift store for 2 years where people would donate their junk for us to sell. You begin to learn the value some items possess for certain people. A piece of glassware with a certain logo could be worth $100 to certain people, where I wouldn’t pay $5 for it.

We express the worth we see in something by how much we are willing to give for that something.

CASE STUDY 2: No Big Deal She’s a young woman who grew up in our church. Her family wants me to meet and talk with her. They’re concerned because she’s about to move in with her boyfriend, who isn’t a Christian. This ought to be a fun one.

I call her twice and leave messages, but she doesn’t return my call. The third time she picks up. She knows why I’m calling and tries to laugh it off.

“I can’t believe my parents are making such a big deal out of this,” she says with a nervous laugh. I can picture her rolling her eyes. In her mind this whole thing is a mild cough and nothing to worry about.

“Well, I appreciate your talking to me for a few minutes. But I have to ask, do you think it’s possible that you’ve got this backward?”

“What do you mean?”

“That instead of making a big deal out of nothing, it could be that you’re making nothing out of a big deal?”

More nervous laughter. “It’s not a big deal,” she says again.

“Do you mind my telling you why I think it is?”

She sighs deeply and proceeds to give me her prediction of all the reasons she thinks I’ll produce.

I interrupt her with a question. “Have you thought about how much moving in together is going to cost you?”

“You mean the cost of the apartment?”

“No, I’m not necessarily talking about money. I mean the way your family feels about it, and the pressure you’re getting from them. That’s a kind of price, right?”

“Yeah, I guess it is, but that’s their problem.”

“And what is this going to cost your future marriage?”

“I don’t even know if we’re going to get married,” she responds.

“I’m not necessarily talking about your getting married to him, because statistically speaking, you most likely won’t.”

She understands what I’m getting at, but I push it a bit farther. “How much is this going to cost your future husband? What price will he have to pay for this decision?” She has to stop and consider that one.

I continue to count the ways that this decision is a big deal, because it’s costing her more than she knows.

“So here’s what I suggest. If you’re willing to pay a price, then this must be pretty important to you. It must be a fairly big deal if you’re willing to go through all of this.”

I take her silence for reflection, and I finally get to my point. “When I see the sacrifices you are willing to make, and the fact that you are willing to ignore what God has to say about all this, it seems to me that you’ve turned this relationship into a god.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“A god is what we sacrifice for and what we pursue. From where I sit, you have the Lord God on one side saying one thing, and your boyfriend on the other side saying something else. And you’re choosing your boyfriend over God. The Bible calls that idolatry, and it’s actually a pretty big deal.”

No nervous laughter this time. She confesses, “I’ve never thought about it like that.”

Idolatry is when we “exchange the glory of God for images” and “exchange the truth of about God for a lie”

It is when we “worship and serve the creature rather than the creator”

Identifying Idols

1) What are you most afraid of?

2) What do you long for most passionately?

3) Where do you run for comfort?

4) What do you complain about most?

2) How we spend our money.

5) What angers you the most?

6) What makes you happiest?

7) How do you explain yourself to others?

8) What has caused you to be angry at God?

9) What do I want to have more than anything else?

3)

10) What do you make the biggest sacrifices for?

11) Whose approval are you seeking?

12) What do you treasure the most?

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

This is a call to worship and the expression of our worship is to give ourselves as “living sacrifices” to God.

True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things.

And that is what worship was designed to do: put the supreme worth of God on display. In fact, the English word “worship” comes from worth ship. That is, worship is showing, displaying the worth of God.

And that is what worship was designed to do: put the supreme worth of God on display. In fact, the English word “worship” comes from worth ship. That is, worship is showing, displaying the worth of God.

It is putting the supreme worth of God on display.

Worship is showing, displaying the worth of God.

3) Idolatry leads to SLAVERY.

Three times Paul says the phrase “God gave them up...”

vs 24 “in the lusts of their hearts”

What their hearts lusted after

Lust= great desire, longing, craving”

Gave them up to what their hearts wanted most

These could have been good things, but they became GOD things.

vs 26 “to dishonorable passions”

fleshly pursuits=what makes them feel good

A description follows- but don’t get caught up in the nature of the sin.

They were given over to the thing that they wanted most, some of which may have been good but had become GOD.

Sex, food, fun, money, success, power, possessions.

vs 28 “to a debased mind”

debased= corrupt

They were given over to a corrupt mind= a mind that is ruled by something unacceptable and evil

Idolatry leads us to become slaves to whatever sits on the thrones of our hearts

Romans 6:16 ESV

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

The word “EITHER” is important here, because most of us would say we are not “slaves” to anything or anyone.

But whatever rules our decisions, whatever keeps us up at night in worry, whatever we think “If I lose that then life would no longer be worth living” has become our slave master

We will do what it takes to please our master, to the point of forfeiting our lives.

Paul shares the results of a life of slavery to idols.

We are serving gods that will fail us, leave us, disappoint us, and destroy us.

This series is a call for us to turn from our idols and to worship the ONE TRUE and HOLY God.

We will examine the common idols we worship: Money, sex, family, comfort.

My prayer is that you will spend time examining your heart and asking God to expose the idols that rule your life.

LORD’s SUPPER