Mar 1 2020 What Idolatry Looks Like Today

1 Thess. 1:9 9 For people everywhere report how you welcomed us and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.

Last week – we began a brief focus on idolatry – and today I will go a bit deeper – giving a bit of a history lesson – to give an understanding of what idolatry was in their day and what it looked like for them.

Every community had its idols – every business had its statue, a god, that represented that business. Ian went on a mission trip to the Hidden City – and they went into a community that was filled with idols. He was astonished and appalled by the whole thing. We don’t really have that, do we? But because of that, we might think that we don’t have an issue with idolatry – and we would be incorrect! We DO have an issue with idolatry.

In the ancient world, there were many gods – sun gods, moon, fertility, water, prosperity, mountains – Examples – Ra, the sun god of Egypt – responsible for the sun coming up.

Baal – the storm god – the god of lightning and thunder. They controlled the things that were essential to life. If something was essential to life, they had a god that controlled that thing – and they had to appease that god so that essential thing would work properly. They would take crops to feed the god – and sometimes would sacrifice animals, because maybe their god wasn’t vegetarian!

We are much more sophisticated today. We don’t have gods of prosperity, but we worship wealth, power, sex, nature – and those things become idols in our lives. In ancient times, if the weather god wasn’t doing his job, they had to offer more and more sacrifices – and the more serious the drought, the more serious the sacrifice. Some cultures would offer people – would offer their children. In a spiritual soul way, we have to keep appeasing our gods as they capture our lives. If you are a shopaholic, it doesn’t last… keep going on Amazon, keep going on Amazon. We could look at addiction as a form of idolatry – we have to keep appeasing whatever it is that we are worshiping.

What I’d like to do – last week we looked at the religion of politics – and while we won’t look at that today – some are prevalent.

The god of performance, success, and achievement. Seculosity – performance Almighty. That is huge today.

Some indications: Perfectionism super-busyness, overcommitment, and overinvolvement. Scorekeeping – at home, work, church, neighborhood, everywhere you go… Workaholism.

There is a church/Christian way of doing this. When church does something – it doesn’t look like it, but it is worse – how church looks at perfection – the righteousness of superiority. The Jewish religious leaders – Jesus had constant conflict with them – it is the need to always be right – how to raise children, our style – and it is rampant in our world.

Seculosity: Any scheme where salvation is reserved for those with the most impeccable track records is a religious scheme. (Amounts to idolatry)

We who need to perform spiritually, worship a god who always demands more of us – time, energy, money, whatever.

It is not – you’re not in a good place if your view of God is one who demands more of you. A worse place to be – a view of God where He demands more of OTHERS! Those who are performing spiritually focus on outward spirituality, not inward reality. Our inner-being. That is where reality is. It becomes a rule-based religion – and it is not a love-relationship. But God created us for a love relationship focused on Him.

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After he fasted forty days and forty nights (Lent?!) he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." 4 But he answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Henri Nouwen – Goes through the temptations – a reflection on Christian leadership – he calls this temptation the temptation of relevance. He is saying – and he is creative in his interpretation. Jesus refuses to perform for the devil. Jesus could have easily turned the stone to bread. He had every ability to do that. But He understood that the temptation was to not trust in God, but His own ability and performance. We do that. We cease trusting in God because we can make things happen ourselves. We live in a world that highly honors those who can turn stones into bread – the innovator – the pioneer – when the person turned plants into a WHOPPER! That person got all the news in the world!

The problem with all that? Our value as a person becomes equal to what we do and how we do it. There is no distinction between who we are and what we do.

The performance-oriented people judge by the ability to make things happen.

Peter was that way – Jesus comes walking on the water – “If it is really you – command me to come out on the water – and Peter performs – and what happens – He sees the waves and just about drowns.

“They may all deny You – but not me!” Peter was keeping score.

For performers, there always comes a time when their performance fails them miserably.

Here is how Jesus addresses Peter to help him through this.

John 21:15 15 Then when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these do?" (Simon Peter, you’ve been keeping score – how is that going for you?!) He replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus told him, "Feed my lambs." 16 Jesus said a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus told him, "Shepherd my sheep." 17 Jesus said a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that Jesus asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" and said, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." Jesus replied, "Feed my sheep.

Three denials – three chances to confess love…

He makes three simple statements – do you love me? That is all. Even though you just blew it – your performance is utterly flawed – do you love Me? Do you base your life on a love relationship with Me – or on how you perform.

Rick and I were talking about how awful some of the people in the Old Testament acted – David – a Man after God’s own Heart. Abraham – a friend of God. Read about the things HE did!

The essence of true spiritual growth is to have this love relationship with God as flawed as we might be. That is spiritual growth! That is what we see with these.

Lord, thank You. We just ask that You would help us to understand and experience that love in our own lives. To know Your forgiveness – that our sins are remembered no more. Thank You. In Your name we pray.