American Idol(atry)

Passage- 1 John 5:19-21

Attention- Bible college and fishing

Grew up in Waupaca

Small town America

In a neighborhood where neighbors knew one another and developed friendships

Went to high school there

After graduation I started working full time until I had a more clear path for the future

Got married

Bought a house

We lived in a small subdivision just outside of town in a forest of towering pine trees

2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage surrounded by the towering pines

Every time you went outside it smelled like you mopped with Pine-Sol

It was quiet and secluded…kind of felt like a home on a campsite (without all the issues)

All kinds of birds, rabbits, squirrels, and an occasional deer eating the tulips

Minutes from snowmobile trails in the winter

Just down the road was the Chain-O-Lakes

22 interconnected lakes

Beautiful vacation homes

Eagles and birds and wildlife

It’s God’s country

Some of the best bass and walleye fishing in the area

Along with northern and musky

Crappie and pan fish

You name a popular inland fish and you could catch it there

Started Bible college correspondence

Had like 8 weeks to finish all the work for the semester with no due dates besides the end date.

It was wither English or biology that broke the camels back

It was either biology on video tape or fishing on a beautiful 75 degree day

It was either English on video tape on a sunny 60 degree morning

It was a no brainer!!!!

FISHING!!!

My idolatry of fishing

Its is a beautiful area but I set that beauty and my desires above God’s call on my life.

Part of the answer was to sell my boat

Another part was to sell our home and move to go to Bible college on campus

Introduction-

What is an idol

One pastor defines an idol as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Main truth-

What John is going to share with us this morning is that there is no room for idols in the life of the believer

The Lord needs to be our #1 love

If anyone or anything takes His place it is an idol and we are on the narrow path to making foolish choices in our lives.

Transition #1-

What is being taught? (Explain the passage and draw out the 1st century truth)

Verse 19- the contrast between the reality of God and the falsehood of the world, Satan, and sin

Verse 20- this is a summary statement about true knowledge comes from God.

But the knowledge that John is referring to is more than a mental understanding that an event happened or that a person existed.

The understanding that John is referring to is that God is truth…as opposed to just that God existing is true.

The fact that Charles Spurgeon was a man and lived on this earth is true but we do not glean our truth directly from him

That is the difference…with God it is true that he exists but we also receive all of our truth form Him.

This is what John means at the end of verse 20 when he says “This is the true God and eternal life”

God not only is true but He is truth

How does the first part of the verse play into this?

Jesus is the revelation of God

We know that Jesus came…that is a fact

But with His coming He brought to us understanding about God.

Jesus came so that we would know the truth of God

And that we could be a part of His spiritual family

And have eternal life

The we get to the title John used frequently in the first part of the letter

Little children

Remember that with these two words John is calling their attention to an important truth

And here in verse 21 it is the most important truth (because its the end of the letter)

KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS…amen

This is very contrary to Paul

He has nice encouragements and thanksgivings for certain people.

Not John…We get this long discourse on the person and work of Jesus and the danger of false teachers, loving god and others more than the world or self.

Why end with keep yourself from idols?

Notice the three themes

-Jesus, who is the Way the Truth and the Light

-False teachers

-Be careful what you love…in other words what you worship

Are you going to worship Jesus or false teachers

Are you going to worship Jesus or things

Are you going to worship Jesus and others or yourself

Transition #2-

How do we understand this in our context? (Bridge 1st century truth to today)

But we don’t worship carved statues or piles of rocks

You may not but the world around us does

That’s why you get more jail time for killing an animal than for aborting babies

That’s why we have spent millions and billions of dollars on global warming

That’s whats happening with statues and other works of art in some denominations.

Almost like when Gideon made the gold ephod out of the spoils of Midian and it became an idol

Something God used for good they turned into an idol.

Notice the three themes

-Jesus, who is the Way the Truth and the Light

-False teachers

-Be careful what you love…in other words what you worship

Are you going to worship Jesus or false teachers

Are you going to worship Jesus or things

Are you going to worship Jesus and others or yourself

John’s closing challenge to them is to choose Jesus and only Jesus.

Don’t add anything to it

Not anything good even

I use this example maybe more than I should but take our dress on Sunday morning....

I believe that on Sunday morning we ought to dress for the audience we are worshipping

I come to worship Jesus

I desire to bring Him my best

Transition #3-

How do we live this out in our context? (Application of the biblical truth to us personally)

How should this change my thinking. (Mental understanding and/or reasoning?)

We would say to John....”But I don’t have little statues around my house that I bow down to!”

In this specific context John may be referring to a statue.

That honestly is not the issue

The issue is where your faith is

What did these idols represent to Johns readers?

For them it was what the idol represented

For many in the OT they worshipped Baal

What did Baal represent

Either fertility or weather (i.e. rain)

That’s great but how does that affect me pastor?

Think a little deeper with me

These individuals lived an agrarian lifestyle which meant they were highly dependent on what?

Weather (especially the rain)

Ok Pastor, but we may be surrounded by farmland but I’m not a farmer whats this have to do with me?

We need to look a bit deeper

What does rain for the crops represent

Food for the animals

Food for them

Produce to sell or trade

This all represented financial security

The fertility aspect as well...

It meant their flocks and herds would grow

It meant their families would grown and they wouldn’t need to hire as many workers

Sons would mean they would have someone to provide for them in their old age

Daughters meant there would be someone to care for them in their old age

It was all about security and what could get you that deity

Cool, so what?

I understand that we are not in an agrarian society but what make us feel secure?

Maybe it’s money in general

Or our retirement

Our savings

Gold

Having the right president

How should this change my heart? (What do I love?)

You see, it doesn’t have to be a little statue to steal away the affection of your heart.

It just needs to be anything or any idea that brings you security at the expense of trusting God

I brought up money because as the saying goes “Money makes the world go round”

Which is far from true but it makes society and culture function

Last week was Mother’s Day and I know that for a decade my wife and I sat through Mother’s Day and Father”s Day services while longing for children.

For me the journey of infertility tested my faith

Who was I going to trust?

The doctors

Or God

For each person this answer is different but for me I was starting to place my faith in the medicine at least on par with my faith in God.

I’m not here to discuss the ethics of individual responses to infertility but for me personally I needed to step back from the science and medicine

I needed to step back and remember who was in control

Any one of the procedures could have become an idol

Were the procedures wrong? Depends how much faith I was putting in them

If it was more faith than I had in God then they were idols

Idols represent where your faith and your affections are

How should this change my whole being? (Behavioral change)

That faith and those affections cause us to do things we wouldn’t normally do

Lets think again of the OT

The God Molech was one of the most gruesome sacrifices in the OT…having their children “pass through the fire”

Cast representation of Molech

Spot for fire

Heat it up

Hands had a place for the child to lay

They get the hands as hot as possible

Then sacrifice their child by laying them in the white hot hands of Molech

How do they go from worshipping Jahweh who calls them to take in the widows and the fatherless to sacrificing their children?

First it was looking away from God

Then to any other God

Then to Baal

Then to Molech

First I just want to save a little for a rainy day

Then I need retirement

Then I need a little for the rainy day for the house

A little for a rainy day with the cars

With the kids

Then the money I have set aside isn’t enough

I need to insure it with bonds or gold or other valuables

Nothing is wrong with any of these things so long as they are not your security in place of God

Conclusion

Review-

John is calling us to a life of complete faith in Jesus

Not ignorance to the needs of this life

Not ignoring being a good steward

John is calling us to a life where Jesus is the priority

A life where we hold things loosely and Jesus and others with a death-like grip

Corrie ten Boom said “I have learned how to hold onto things loosely so God will not need to pry them out of my hands”

What are you holding onto that God is trying to pry out of your hands?

What do you have a death-grip on that isn’t Jesus or others?

This morning would be a good time to open your heart to the Spirit and allow Him to challenge and change you...

Ask yourself these four questions

-Are You Willing To Compromise Your Beliefs For It?

-Will You Get Angry If You Can’t Do It/Don’t Get It?

-Do You Value It Over People?

-Does It Push You Closer To God or Pull You Farther Away?

Closing song-

390- I Surrender All