Source and Surface Idols

Intro

I love this time of year. There’s a lot of energy about possibilities and thoughts of what’s to come. Which is a refreshing change from 2020. Maybe you’re like me though and this is kind of a bittersweet time, too.

The good is what is all the motivation and determination that comes after self reflection and deciding what areas you want to progress in life.

The bitter part is when I’m reminded it’s the same thing I’ve been trying to progress in for the last 5 years. I can’t be the only one that’s the case with. We’re in church, you can be honest.

For example the worst thing you can do is go out Christmas shopping the week of Christmas. And I remind myself every year that I’m never going to do it again. In the spirit of New Year we’re starting a new series called, “The Old You”.

For me, the most challenging part of sermon prep is the first 5 minutes. The challenge is because in the first couple of minutes you really need to create a connection between this one topic and all the different people who are listening. It’s challenging because, well, we’re all different. We’ve all got different things going on in life and we all have different things we care about and different things we can find common ground on. But I think this week, without any set up at all, I’ll read this verse and regardless if you’re a Christian or not and regardless what your opinion is about God, this one verse puts every single one of us on the same page.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this principle: o When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. 22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. 23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, s waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?

Happy New Year! Welcome to church!

Let me translate that because Paul can be a little tough to understand sometimes.

…UGH.

Haven’t we all been there before? Maybe you’re here and thinking, “not me bro”…Ok, let’s talk again in two weeks. I won’t even have to say anything and you’ll open up the conversation with....For I do not understand myself...

We’ve all been there because this isn’t a Christian thing. This is a human thing. We see who we want to be but it seems like there’s something in us that’s constantly pulling us in a different direction.

Throughout this series, this is what we’re going to talk about. How we can actually move in the direction that we want to move it.

Today, we’re really setting the groundwork for the next few weeks and what we have to understand is this..

What we have to put our finger on and what we’re going to try and do throughout this series is answer this question,

What is moving me away from the path I chose to travel?

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 10

17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good but One—God. 19 You know the commandments:

Do not murder;

do not commit adultery;

do not steal;

do not bear false witness;

do not defraud;

honor your father and mother.” b

20 He said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.”

21 Then, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” 22 But he was stunned at this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

One thing every person can agree on right now in the world of politics is that politicians stink. You really can’t trust what they say. Because their goal is to stay in charge. So they’ll tell you what you want to hear in order for you and me to put our hope for tomorrow in them.

Our heart does the same thing to us. Jeremiah 17:9

When Jesus corrected this guy saying, “only God is good” he was not denying His own deity. In this moment Jesus was shifting his belief to God being the ultimate good that should direct him.

What we can learn from Jesus in this interaction is our life is constantly being shaped by where we place our hope.

Jesus was midway through his ministry at this point. He had gained a lot of popularity because He taught differently. He spoke more about the heart. He hung out with people the religious leaders of the day never hung out with. He had performed miracles and everyone wanted to hear Him teach for one reason or another, but Jesus up to this point has not revealed that He is God.

And look at the question he asked! Jesus was telling him, your ultimate source of good is God. Jesus is saying the journey and direction your life take is a direct reflection of where you place your hope.

The order in which we love things is what shapes the course of our life. It’s what determines the choices and sacrifices we make. Usually when we set a goal it’s placing things in an order of importance in order to reach a desired outcome.

You know this, we’re seeing examples of this all over the world right now. People are choosing what they are going to sacrifice in order to accomplish their resolution.

Resolutions

Chest pain. Made some changes and started eating fish. I really enjoyed it because it tasted good and it was healthy. Dr gave me a good report and now steak is back up there because fish can’t beat steak.

The problem is we face is we begin to see our lives moving in a direction we never intended when these things get out of order.

Our hearts are constantly searching for the things that will satisfy and we end up with this tug-of-war between where our mind decided we need to be and where our heart is leading us. It’s not that all the things our heart pursues are bad. Often times they’re good things. But good things become bad when they become ultimate things. The ultimate things in our life have the most impact and influence.

For a Christian, any time something has greater influence in our life that God, it’s called idolatry.

When we hear the term idolatry, it kind of misses with us in the western part of the world because it stirs up this image following a guide named Rafiki through the forest to a gold statue and participating group chants. But really the idols we have are far more dangerous because they are so deeply disguised. They are just as, if not more, controlling but not as easily spotted.

Idolatry at its most basic definition is when we elevate someone/something to a higher value & authority in our life than God.

St. Augustine says the challenge of living the holy lives we desire is a matter of disordered love.

This is what makes spotting these idols in our life so challenging. Because it’s not that they’re bad things. They’re often times good things. These good things in our life become bad when we make them ultimate things. When they get too high on our list. When we love them in the order they were never meant to be loved in and they always cause us to make sacrifices in order to have them.

This is when you see the husband or wife sacrifice their family for financial comfort. Neither one of those are bad things. Both are good things to be enjoyed. But we can all agree that you family is meant to be loved more than financial prosperity. But when the good thing of financial peace, saving and spending wisely become an ultimate thing, it will cause us to make sacrifices for.

This is why Martin Luther said you can only break any of God’s commandments after you’ve already broken the first two.

Have no other gods besides me

Do not make an idol for yourself

We begin to move outside of God’s plan and direction for us when we elevate something else above God and trust it to be the ultimate good that is going to fill us

For the rich young ruler, it was money.

We look at this and think what Jesus said was ridiculous, but it was really incredibly gracious.

Money had become the ultimate thing in his life, for one reason or the other. It doesn’t really tell us why, but what we can see is he cannot envision his life without his money. So much so that he “walked away grieving”.

Jesus was pointing to the very thing that had him enslaved.

There was something he wanted but the ultimate thing in his life wouldn’t let him go there.

Again, is money bad? No. It just makes a terrible God. And our hearts believe the empty lies and promises that this little politician in our hearts tell us. So it becomes ultimate.

Matthew 5:6 HCSB

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, for they will be filled.

You’ve experienced this before. Maybe it’s not materialistic things for you. Maybe it’s...

image - only being seen a certain way

relationship - only get him/her to like me

career - only get to this level

Are these bad things? No. But they just can’t provide what they promise. Fulfillment.

These things promise fulfillment. They promise joy but once they are achieved, you’re left what? Wanting. Needing more.

“I think everyone should get rich and famous and get everything they ever dreamed of so they can realize it’s not the answer.” - Jim Carrey

You hear that and say, of course he can say that because he’s rich. But what better person to say it. This thing that I thought was the answer, guess what, I got it and it’s not the answer.

Because the problem isn’t what we do or do not have, the problem is we’ve made the good things ultimate things and they don’t provide the way they promise.

We will never enjoy the gifts of God at their fullest pleasure until we view them as gifts from God to be an added pleasure in life instead of a necessity for life.

When we talk about idols we have to talk about them in two different ways. This is not original to me.

Source Idols and Surface Idols

I used to get migraines all the time. I thought they were a just something I had to deal with. I couldn’t do anything about them except try and dull the pain with medicine. The things I could do, the things I could enjoy were all dependent on whether or not I get a migraine. I really couldn’t even make solid plans because of the awareness a migraine would pop up.

Until I went to a doctor that looked at my sinuses. I still get migraines from time to time, but since I corrected what was causing them, they don’t rule my life.

Surface Idols

Surface Idols are usually what we see. They are the things we try and address. Here’s a couple of examples.

Image - My life only has meaning/I only have worth by the way I look

Helping - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if people need me

Dependance - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if there is someone to keep me safe

Work - My life only has meaning/I only have worth by my ability to get things done

Independence - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am free from obligations and responsibilities

Materialism - My life only has meaning/I only have worth by a certain level of wealth, financial freedom, and nice possessions

Religion - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am keeping my religions moral codes

Family - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if my parents and/or my children are happy with me

Relationship - My life only has meaning/I only have worth if a certain person is in love with me

The challenge is we would never say that. “My life only has meaning and I only have worth”. But we live our life in a way that reflects that.

These types of things are the migraines in our life. They are a problem, but there’s something deeper and less obvious that is the cause of the problem. These are Source Idols.

There are only 4 source idols and this is what we’re going to talk about for the rest of this series. You may find yourself in one of them or you may find yourself in all of them but my goal is to help us to understand who’s driving the car. What’s going on under the surface that’s moving us and guiding us.

Power - Approval - Comfort - Control

Under the surface it’s our ultimate need for one or more of these 4 things that are calling the shots in our life.

Last November I went on a spiritual renewal trip. Not that there was anything scandalous going on but I just didn’t feel like I was where I needed to be or wanted to be with God. The phrase that came to mind over and over was I needed to get to a place where I increased my dependency on God. I thought about Jesus before He began His ministry. He went to the desert and fasted for 40 days. I didn’t do that. But I went on a backpacking trip and put myself in a place where I had to depend on God. It’s something I’ve never done before and really something I knew nothing about. In this trip, through God’s grace, He opened my eyes to a hidden source idol in my life of control. And as I’ve been studying this, He’s made it clear that’s not the only one.

But here’s what I realized. The answer for conquering these idols in my life was deepening my dependency on God in these areas. These things are not bad things. It’s not bad to want to win or be liked by others, but if they are calling the shots we will begin to move and live our lives in a way that shows we depend on them and not the God who provides them.

So I’m not going to beat you over the head. I want you to be able to name what’s causing the migraines in your life, an I want to speak truthfully about the empty promises of these idols and show you how God is truly the only one who can fill this need we have.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! w So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

It’s only through Jesus that we can see victory over what we are powerless to control. Will we still get migraines? Absolutely, but they don’t have to enslave us.