Digging for Nothing

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

It would be a huge understatement to say that things in our world have changed a lot in the last year. One year ago today the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency because the number of cases of COVID had jumped to nearly 10,000 cases worldwide with a death toll that exceeded 200.

This week, the number of cases worldwide surpassed 100 million, with well over 2 million deaths. Here in the United States over 80,000 people died from the virus just this month.

So it’s not really surprising that many of us are longing for things to get back to “normal”. But in our current sermon series, Never Going Back, we’ve been asking the question, “What if God doesn’t want us to go back to way things were a year ago?”. What if God is using this virus as a wake-up call to cause us to evaluate our lives and get rid of some of the attitudes and practices that have kept us stuck in the past and keep us from moving forward?

Tension

Today we’re going to be talking about idols. And my guess is that as soon as I said that many of you were immediately tempted to tune out because you don’t think that you have any idols in your life. And I really doubt that any of you have any little statues in your house that you pray to or pictures on your wall that you worship.

But what if I were to use the definition of an idol that Henry Blackaby developed in his book Experiencing God:

“an idol is anything you turn to for help when God told you to turn to Him for help.”

I’m not going to embarrass anyone and ask for a show of hands, but using that definition of an idol, how many of you would have to honestly say that you have idols in your life?

So it’s not really surprising that the Bible gives so much attention to the sin of idolatry. And, as Pastor Erwin Lutzer points out, maybe God is using the pandemic to force us to deal with some of those idols:

Have you ever thought that our disappointments are God’s way of reminding us there are idols in our lives that must be dealt with?

Truth

In order to consider that question, we’re going to read from Jeremiah chapter 2 this morning. Jeremiah is a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. It is now over 100 years since the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and so some of the Israelites who were part of those 10 northern tribes have now made their way south to Judah, which is why Jeremiah directs his prophecy to “the house of Israel”. At the time God gives Jeremiah these words to proclaim to the people of Judah, Jeremiah is still very young, probably in his early 20’s.

Jeremiah 2:1–3 ESV

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.”

God begins here with some words of encouragement. He reminds the people that they had once loved Him and been devoted to Him and followed Him. He also reminded them that because of His love for them, God had protected them and disaster came on all who attempted to harm them. He is seeking to win Israel back by reminding her of her earlier faith. But that tone changes dramatically in verse 4:

Jeremiah 2:4–8 ESV

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

We see here that the Israelites had forgotten everything that God had done for them and began to trust in their own abilities. And when God brought them into the Promised Land, they exploited the precious gifts that God had given them. And their leaders, who should have been the ones to remind them of all that God had done, actually went after false gods instead.

God continues with his rebuke of the Israelites:

Jeremiah 2:9–12 ESV

“Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children’s children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,

This is heartbreaking! The surrounding nations were more faithful to their pagan gods, which really weren’t gods at all, than the people of Israel had been to the one true God, who had consistently been faithful to them. Unfortunately, that is still often the case today. The fact is that everyone has a god or gods - something or someone they are looking to for their salvation. And sadly, those who cling to false gods often remain more faithful to those gods than those of us who are disciples of Jesus remain faithful to Him. That is because, as we will see, we are too busy digging for nothing and serving idols.

We clearly see that in verse 13, where God summarizes the root causes that His people have forsaken Him:

Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

God uses a powerful metaphor here to illustrate the root causes of Israel’s rebellion. In the ancient world, having an artesian aquifer that would bring sweet water with little or no work was quite a luxury. That is a picture of what God had done for His people. He had continually provided for their needs with little effort required on their part.

On the other hand, a cistern was more of a reservoir for personal use and storage. The people would dig a hole and line it with rocks and clay to store the rain water so they could use it later. But whatever water they collected was stale and brackish and inevitably those cisterns cracked and all the hard work required to dig the cistern was for naught.

That is the picture of what happens when we try to live life in our own strength and power. Or, in keeping with our definition of idols from Henry Blackaby that we looked at earlier, this is what happens when we turn to idols - anything or anyone other than God - for our help.

So here’s the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:

If I look to anything other than Jesus to save me, it will only enslave me.

That is the warning that God is giving to the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah. Unfortunately, we know from both Biblical accounts and historical records, that the people fail to heed this warning. So, less than 20 years later, God has to take more drastic measures to intervene and get the people’s attention. Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar, begins its conquest of Judah, one in which many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are taken into exile in Babylon.

I can’t help but wonder if God isn’t using this current pandemic to do much the same thing in our time. Like the people of Judah, we want God to solve our problems and rescue us. We want things to go back to the way things were before. But we live in a culture that has been busy digging cisterns, only to discover that they are really digging for nothing. And unfortunately, even as disciples of Jesus, we can get caught up in that, too. So what if God is using this pandemic to cause all of us to slow down and to examine our lives and to make sure that we’re not digging for nothing, too? And if He is, why would we ever want to back to that kind of futile digging again?

Before we go any further, I want to remind you of Henry Blackaby’s definition of an idol that we looked at earlier:

“an idol is anything you turn to for help when God told you to turn to Him for help.”

I want you to think about that definition for a moment and then I want you to make a list of some of the world systems that people turn to that could become idols. I’ve given you some space to do that on your sermon outline. If you’re joining us online, feel free to type in whatever comes to mind there in the chat or comments.

World systems that can become idols:

This is by no means a complete list, but here are some that I came up with this week. I’m pretty confident that many of you have some or all of these on your list, too:

My devices

Politicians

Celebrities and athletes

Material possessions

Popular opinion

Success and accomplishment

Sexual pleasure

Friends and family

Science

COVID vaccination

Some of these are actually good things. However, if we are counting on any of them to save us, we are going to find that they will only enslave us because when we rely on them we are only digging for nothing.

Application

So let’s use our remaining time to talk about...

HOW TO MAKE SURE I’M NOT DIGGING FOR NOTHING

Identify my idols

Before I can deal with the idols in my life, I need to first know what they are. We’ve already developed a list of some of the world systems that can easily become idols, but that list is by no means complete. So I want to suggest some questions to ask that might help you identify the idols in your life. I’ve adapted these questions from a list developed by Pastor Kyle Idleman:

Questions to ask:

What do I complain about the most?

And if you think you don’t complain a lot, ask your spouse or someone else that knows you well what you complain about. Or go back through your social media posts.

Where do I invest my time and my money?

Our calendar and our checkbook are usually pretty good tools to help us see what really matters to us the most.

What do I worry about?

Obviously, it is not unhealthy to be concerned about our family, or our health, or our finances. So how do I know when my concern has turned to worry? That question is probably worthy of an entire message, but for our purposes today, the main difference is that concern is others-centered and worry is self-centered.

Where do I go when I’m hurting?

Do I try to drown my hurt with alcohol or drugs? Do I retreat to the computer screen? Do I veg out and watch TV? Do I pour our my hurts on social media? Do I just withdraw?

Whose applause do I long for?

My spouse’s? My parents’? My teacher’s? My coach’s? My boss’? My pastor’s?

Where do I find my greatest joy?

What person or activity or possession gives me the greatest joy in my life?

Perhaps the answer to a single question won’t necessarily reveal an idol, but if I give the same answer to more than one of those questions, then there is a good chance I have one or more idols in my life and I need to quit digging for nothing. But identifying my idols is only the first step.

Determine what needs or desires I’m trying to meet with that idol.

God created each of us with longings that are what make us human. We all long for things like love, intimacy, joy, peace and acceptance. We want to have purpose in our lives and for our lives to have meaning. Or to use the terms of the metaphor God uses here, we are all thirsty. And it’s not a sin to be thirsty. It only becomes a sin when we desire to satisfy our thirst with something or someone other than the living water that God provides for us.

Idols, as we have seen this morning, are simply anything that we substitute for God in order to meet those God-given desires and needs. So once we’ve identified something is an idol the next step we need to take is to determine what underlying need or desire I’m trying to satisfy with that idol. Perhaps a few examples will help us understand how we can do that.

I’ll start with all of you kids that are in school. I think we would all agree that getting good grades is a good thing. But what if you become so obsessed with getting good grades that it became an idol. That could happen if your studying kept you from doing other important things in life like reading the Bible or praying or obeying your parents or even playing with your friends. So what need or desire might that idol be meeting? Maybe a desire for recognition or acceptance. Maybe a desire to be noticed by others. Maybe even just a desire for you to feel good about yourself.

What if your idol is your job and as a result you’re a workaholic? There could be a number of underlying needs and desires that cause your work to become an idol. Maybe it’s a need to be recognized by others. Maybe what drives you is the desire to meet the needs of your family. Maybe you’re driven by a desire for material things that you can buy with your paycheck.

No doubt that for some people politics has become an idol. And that could be driven by a number of needs and desires. Maybe it’s driven for a desire for safety. Maybe it’s driven by a desire for the government to provide for your physical needs. Maybe it’s driven by a desire to be on the winning team.

No doubt during this pandemic, a lot of people have made an idol out of science. To a large degree that is borne out of a desire to live as long as possible here on this earth and a fear of death.

Those are only a few examples, but I hope that will help you to think about how your idols, whatever they may be, are the product of some underlying needs and desires, many of which are actually God-given and legitimate. But they have become idols because you have attempted to satisfy them on your own in a way that is contrary to the way God wants to satisfy them.

Determine how God wants to meet those needs and desires

For the most part, our idols result from needs and desires that are not evil or wrong in and of themselves, but rather from trying to meet them in the wrong way. So once I’ve identified the needs and desires I’ve tried to satisfy with my idols what I need to do is to determine how God wants to meet those same needs. Then I merely replace my idols with those God-honoring ways to meet those same needs and desires. I’ll use the same examples I just used to illustrate:

Let’s suppose that your obsession with good grades is driven by a desire to get praised by other people. What you need to do is to replace that desire with a desire to be praised by God. If you do that, you will quickly realize that God isn’t going to be pleased if you get good grades, but in order to do that you have to ignore other things that are important to God - things like reading the Bible, praying, obeying your parents, being humble and loving your friends.

If your job is your idol because you are driven by your desire to provide for your family, then the way you combat that is to work in a way that is pleasing to God. And that includes taking one day off out of every seven. That is a Biblical principle that we all probably violate occasionally. But let me just say that if you’re violating that principle regularly, your job has become an idol. And you either need to find a job that doesn’t require you to do that or you need to do everything you can to incorporate Sabbath rest into your current job.

If politics has become your idol, perhaps it is a result of your desire to feel safe and you are depending on some politician or political party to do that for you. So the antidote to that is to put your trust in God instead of those politicians and to trust that God is sovereign and will fulfill His promises that all things will work together for your good.

If science has become your idol because of your desire to live a long life here on earth, then maybe you need to switch your focus from this temporary life to eternal life. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take prudent precautions during this pandemic or that you shouldn’t get the vaccine when it’s available. I’m just saying that none of those things can guarantee that you’ll live even one day longer here on earth. But since every one of us will spend eternity after this life on earth either in a paradise in the presence of God or in a place of tremendous torment apart from Him, our main focus needs to be on what happens when our life here on earth is finished. That brings us around full circle to our main idea today...

If we look to anything other than Jesus to save us, it will only enslave us.

As I mentioned earlier, even though they might not recognize it, everyone has a god or gods, something or something that they are trusting in to be their savior. That is true for you and for me, too. And if you’re counting on anyone or anything other than Jesus to serve that role in your life, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

Roughly 600 years after Jeremiah’s prophecy, Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well in Sychar. And there he used the very same metaphor to let her know that He had come to earth to provide us with living water:

John 4:13–14 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Action

This morning we all have a chance to respond to the offer that Jesus made that day, an invitation that was made not just to that Samaritan woman, but to us as well.

First let me speak to those of you who have never trusted in Jesus alone for your salvation. You may not see it, but if you haven’t done that then someone or something else is your savior. And if it hasn’t already, that idol, whatever it is, is going to enslave you. So I want to invite you today to experience the kind of freedom that can only be found in Jesus. If God has been leading you to consider that decision, we would love to talk to you more about all that entails and help you make an informed decision. After the message I’ll let you know how you can contact us so we can help you walk through that process.

Finally, let me speak to the rest of us who have made that decision. It is so easy for us to develop idols in our life without ever realizing it. I say that from both my own personal experience and from observing others. And while those idols can never rob us of our salvation or our relationship with Jesus, they can certainly rob us of the joy that comes with that relationship. So periodically we need to evaluate our lives and identify those idols and deal with them using the principles we have developed today. So I want to encourage to to spend some time alone with God this week applying these principles.

Inspiration

I am convinced that from time to time all of us get caught up in digging for nothing. But the good news is that we don’t have to stay there. So let’s all use this season to make sure that we quit settling for the stale brackish water that comes from our own broken cisterns and instead let God refresh us with the living water that He offers.