God Destroys Idols

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to sit in submission to your word this morning.

Lord, knowing that submission is something that we do voluntarily. It's not something that is forced upon us in an authoritarian way. But true biblical submission, Lord, is the act of placing ourselves underneath the authority of something else. So, Lord, certainly we submit to your lordship over our lives, Lord, but we also submit to the power of the word that's carried by the Holy Spirit to transform us when we submit our lives to it. And so, we do submit our lives to your word this morning. We submit this time to you, Lord. Father, we pray for Pastor Luke. We pray, Lord, that he would speak clearly. Lord, that you would give him a discerning heart and mind. Lord, that either through him or in spite of him, your word may be proclaimed boldly and confidently. Lord, open our ears. Come and fill this place with your presence. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Luke. Like Pastor Cameron said, we're going to be in the Book of Exodus. That's kind of where we're going to be for the foreseeable future. So, if you want, go ahead and grab your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of the pew in front of you. And open up. We're going to start in Exodus chapter 5, because before we get to the plagues, right, we've gotten to the point in Exodus that gets the most dramatic air time. Let's say that, right? If there's a movie that gets made about Exodus, what gets most of the attention? Well, it's the dramatic plagues, right? Because it's the most kind of Hollywood magic, kind of like big thing that happens in the Book of Exodus. So, it gets a lot of air time, but I don't know that we always know what exactly is the purpose of the plagues. Like, why did God choose to use plagues? What was the point of them? Why is there 10 of them? Why are they like, what's the deal with all the blood and all the stuff, right? And, you know, that was the question that was kind of in my mind as I was looking at this text and looking at the

Plagues was like, what's going on? Why are the plagues happening at all? And there's a couple of different reasons. It's not just because God could or something like that. I think the plagues are a response to a question that was asked. So, in Exodus 5 verse 2, Pharaoh asks a question in response to Moses and Aaron's request that he let the people go so that they may go worship the Lord. Pharaoh says, who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice and let Israel go. I do not know the Lord and moreover, I will not let Israel go. So, Pharaoh responds with this question of who's that? Who's the Lord? The Bible study tip here, I've said this again, but it bears mention again. Anytime in your English Bible you're reading and it says the Lord in all caps like that, who is the Lord all caps? That is the way of indicating to us that is the Lord's name. I am a Yahweh. That is his personal name that was given to Moses at the burning bush. And so, Pharaoh's like, I don't know who Yahweh is. Why should I listen to him? Now, I don't know that

Necessarily that Pharaoh was unaware of God. It seems more that he was just like, who dat, right? Who day? Why do I gotta pay attention to him? Who is that person to me? And that's important. And so, this is the question that is kind of at the heart of what happens in the plagues because Pharaoh is challenging God. Pharaoh thought of himself as a God. He was the son of the gods. He was to be worshiped and he's just like, I'm not bowing the knee to the God of some slaves.

Now, the thing is about this question is it's not just an ancient question. It's a modern question. See, the thing is, is that we can ask that very same question. How often do we find ourselves in a place where we're like, who's God to tell me what I can do with my money?

Who's God to tell me what I do with my body and my sexuality? Who's God to tell me how I spend my time? Who's God to tell me what I should or should not spend my time watching on my phone? We can begin to ask all of those questions. Who is God to tell me who I should or should not be in relationship with? We begin to perhaps express this kind of, God, you don't get to tell me that. Pharaoh's question becomes our question anytime our will or desire challenges God's will. Anytime what we want, what we desire comes up in challenges and says, God, you can't tell me that. We're asking in a sense the same exact question that Pharaoh was asking. So that question's not just an ancient question. It's a modern question. It's the question I know that is certainly out there. It's in our society. It's all around. But if we're honest, it's in here. It's in our own hearts. It's in those moments where we drag our feet and we're reluctant to be obedient or to follow God's call when he leads us somewhere. This is a modern

Question as well. And so we're going to look as we look at the parables, we're going to look and see how exactly did God answer this question to Pharaoh. And what does that tell us? What does that indicate to us about our answer today to that question? How do we wrestle and answer that question in our own hearts? Now, Cameron gave me because he did the planning of this. So he gave me a big chunk of scripture. We're covering all, we're covering nine of the 10 plagues, which is a sizable portion of scripture. And we're in a part of the Bible that is narrative. It's a story. Most of the Bible is actually a story. A lot of it, some of it's poetic, but a lot of it is story. It's wrapped up in people and places and times and how things happen and it's dramatic. But when we oftentimes we're seen to be much more comfortable when we read the New Testament, when we read the letters of Paul, because when we read those passages, they kind of make a little bit more logical sense. Paul's like, this is what I'm saying.

This is why I'm saying it. It kind of articulates this kind of classical argument. But when we read the narrative, when we read the stories of the Old Testament and the Bible, sometimes we can kind of go through the story and kind of chunk it up and break it down. And we lose the artistry of the story. Sometimes we treat those narrative passages just like we would treat Paul's letters and we kind of miss the drama. We kind of miss what's happening. How would this have looked? What would this have felt like? What was the real impact of it? When we kind of read the Bible, I know that this happens because I'm a pastor and this happens to me every once in a while. I'll be reading and my tension begins to wander. And next thing I know, I've read a chapter and I'm like, I don't know what that chapter was about. Don't lie to me. I know it happens. Right. And I don't want today, I don't want to just gloss over the story of the plagues. I don't want you to just like, oh, what was the order of the plagues? That's not the point. It's not the

Order. It's what was God doing? What was the drama of it? So today, rather than just kind of read it for you and stop and start and break the story up, I want to tell the story to you. I want to tell it to you in a way that invites us to participate in the story a little bit. Many of you are probably familiar with the well-known TV show at this point, very well-known TV show, The Chosen, right? Where they've taken and they've dramatized and they've tried to tell the story of the Gospels in a way that kind of in sequential way. And they for sure, they make some stretches and things like that. And this is a little bit of what we want to do today. I don't want to stretch us too much, but I want to ask us what would this story have actually looked like? So if you're new here or you've not been here before, this isn't my typical sermon. This isn't a sermon we preach on like a regular basis. This is something we do maybe once a year or so when a passage comes along that

Sort of bears a good opportunity for this. But today we're going to, I'm going to tell the story to you as if perhaps we were there. I would encourage you to turn to Exodus chapter 7 because that's where the story picks up. Exodus chapter 7 verse 14 would encourage you to follow along. We'll have the Bible verses up on the screen, but also in your Bible. So this isn't something so that you can kind of see where the story is coming from, where it is going, and what it is doing. So without any further explanation, we're going to enter into the story and think perhaps what exactly what is it like to be in Egypt when God brought those nine plagues.

Hello. Hi, I should introduce myself. I'm a servant in Pharaoh's palace. I work closely with Pharaoh and it seems like you, all of you, are travelers here to our fair country, to Egypt. And normally I would say welcome to Egypt. Welcome to the land of the gods. Welcome to the land of Pharaoh. But I can't say that today. Actually, I would normally welcome you in as merchants and travelers to come and trade and do business with the greatest empire in the world. But honestly, if I was you, I would turn around and leave to see if Egypt is not, we've not been doing very well. It's been a it's been a rough, rough couple weeks for sure. And what's that? Oh, why is it so dark out? Well, it's no, your time is correct. It is indeed noon. But we've we've kind of not had any sunlight for the last couple of days. So we're just getting a little bit of sunlight today. Finally, maybe things will be looking up. See, it kind of all started with this God and some of our slaves. We have these Israelite slaves, they're they're a large workforce for us and they build many of the things in the and the pyramids and the things that are important to us. But they

Decided to become a little rebellious, a little stuck up, a little lazy. They came forward and they said, let us go, let us leave, let us go and worship our God, this God named Yahweh, this God of slaves. What kind of God, what kind of God can he be if you're slaves? He's allowed you to be slaves. I wouldn't follow a God like that.

But Pharaoh, I think he made the right choice. Well, he was he was he said, well, who is that? I'm the God. I will not listen to this God. I'm not going to let those people go. That would be foolish. And that was that at least that's what we all thought was going to be the end of the story. See, there was a few weeks ago now Pharaoh came out one morning and he was looking around and surveying the Nile when this rabble rebel leader Moses and his brother Aaron. It's kind of a weird relationship. Moses seems to be the leader, but he seems to say everything to Aaron. And Aaron says it for some reason. And they come and they meet Pharaoh on the bank that morning. I was there with Pharaoh and his other servants and Aaron pronounces to Pharaoh. He says, behold, let the people of God go so that they may serve me. Pharaoh's unmoved, unaffected. It's the same thing that they said the last time. And Aaron says, behold, we're going to turn the Nile to blood,

To blood. How are you going to turn the mightiest river in all of the world to blood?

But sure enough, he struck out, he took that staff of his and he hit the water with it. And it created a splash and some ripples. And with those ripples, I began to notice that the water of the Nile, it first had kind of a pinkish tint to it. And then it started to get kind of a darker, more scarlet red until it finally turned the color of dark brown mud. And even there was the cupbearer, the cupbearer of Pharaoh. He was bringing and carrying around a picture of water to

Make sure that Pharaoh had any water that he wanted or needed. And all of a sudden the cupbearer exclaimed and he freaked out and he dropped the picture of what used to be water, but it now turned to blood. And as we're standing there, we can begin to see the fish in the Nile beginning to try and jump up to try and get out of what used to be water. It seems that they're not breathing. And pretty soon the fish are not moving anymore, but are just floating on the top of the Nile. And with that, Moses and Aaron walked away. Pharaoh, not sure exactly what to do, turned and he called for the court magicians, the priests of our gods, the ones who knows those secret arts, those secret practices that worship and commune with all of our mighty gods. And he said, look at what's done. Is this God, this Yahweh, is he more powerful than our gods?

And Pharaoh's magicians, they were easily able, they found some clean water and they were able to turn it into blood just as easily as that. No competition. This God of the slaves had done nothing that we cannot do. He's surely not more powerful. At least that's what we thought. About a week went by and the Nile stayed contaminated as blood and people began to drill and make more wells outside of the normal because they were no longer drinking from the Nile. We were finding a way to get by. And Moses and Aaron, they came again. And this time they said, let the people go. Behold, I will fill this country with frogs.

Frogs? What kind of threat is that? Frogs. You're going to have frogs ribbit at us. Be everywhere. What exactly kind of threat is that going to be? But Moses and Aaron were insistent that they would be everywhere. And so we dismissed them. We said, no, no, no, we're not going to let your people go because we're not afraid of a few frogs. Later that night, we were serving Pharaoh dinner. And as we were in the palace, we began to hear this kind of low sound, this kind of growing drone as it and we went and we looked out the windows and we began to look down and we saw that there were all these tiny dots jumping and leaping and bouncing. Is it perhaps the frogs? And as we brought in the food for Pharaoh and we lifted up the trays, behold, there was frogs everywhere jumping and leaping. And that sudden noise that had been a quiet drone at first had become deafening as there were frogs that covered everywhere. We couldn't get them off of ourselves. You could not get rid of them. And this didn't just last the night. It continued on into the next

Day and the next and Pharaoh finally tired of trying to rid the place of frogs calls Moses and Aaron and he brings them in and he says, all right, I will let your people go to go make sacrifice, but you've got to plead before your God and make these frogs go away. I cannot deal with them another moment longer. And Moses says, well, when should I pray for you? Pharaoh says, pray for me tomorrow. Okay. I was a little surprised by that. I was like, whoa, Pharaoh is going to let the people go thought these slaves were pretty important to us.

But sure enough, the next day we all woke up and we noticed there was silent. There was no more ribbiting and we're croaking. All the frogs had just died where they were. And so we began to just sweep them up as it were, pile them together and get rid of them and move them all into one place. There were so many. It was like you just couldn't go anywhere without running into them. So we piled them up into big piles because we didn't know what else to do with them. And then I saw Pharaoh that morning and I was curious to see if he would keep his promise to let the people go. But he, he wasn't. Yeah, he didn't. He seemed pretty happy with himself. I realized Pharaoh's just playing this Moses and Aaron. Of course, he was never going to let these people go. He just wanted to get the frogs gone. He's a, he's a sly, sly king.

And so time went by. There was no declaration, no releasing of the Jews. But then one time we were all just kind of there and we were looking and all of a sudden

Our microbes were starting to get a little itchy. This began to felt like there was something just crawling on us. And without warning, without a word from Moses or Aaron spoken to us, all of a sudden we were covered in gnats. They were biting us and crawling all over us. Pharaoh turned and he called the magicians to himself and he says, what's going on here? What is this? Can we do this? Has this God of Israel done something we can't do?

And the magicians, though they had been able to turn water into blood, though they had been able to also duplicate and create their own frogs. They could not create gnats. They cannot get this many gnats. And they said almost with fear as they said to Pharaoh, they said, this is the finger of God. This is God's judgment on us for not letting the people of Israel go. Pharaoh was pretty mad at that and he dismissed them.

One morning again, Pharaoh came out to survey the Nile. It was beginning to clear up a little bit. And there was Moses and Aaron again. Same thing as always, let the people go so that they may serve him. Don't they get it? The people are to serve Pharaoh. But they say if you don't let the people go, this time the land will be covered in flies. Flies will cover the people, the houses. It will be in the houses. It will be everywhere and you won't be able to get rid of them.

At this point, I was beginning to get a little anxious myself, if I'm honest, like I'm still dealing with the gnats. And it seems like every threat that they've said has come through.

But again, who is this God? I've never heard of that he can do this.

But there was something different this time. There was something that Moses and Aaron said that took me by surprise that was a little bit different. They said flies will be everywhere except in Goshen, except for where the Israelite people lived. They weren't going to have flies in their house and on their food and on themselves. They were going to be spared this. God's people were not going to endure the same thing as the rest of us. Pharaoh simply was silent as Moses walked away, not really having much to say. He had already said everything that there was to say.

And sure enough, the buzzing flying in and out of my ear and in our hair and everywhere on us and biting us and nipping us were flies. We could not get them away. You were constantly smacking your body, trying to kill them and get rid of them, trying to get some fan to fan the flies away, but you could not get rid of them. Pharaoh, he brings Moses and Aaron into his court and he says, how about I let you go to go worship your God this Yahweh, but not very far.

You can't go very far. Maybe you do it in the land. Moses and Aaron would not have it. They said, no, we can't worship our God inside of Egypt. We must go. And he says, okay, well, you can go, but you can't go very far. You must not go far away. Repent, pray for us, Moses, have these flies go away.

They do. Moses leaves. He lets the people go. The flies leave. We are alleviated of that. And Pharaoh, once again, now that there's no inconvenience, there's no more plague that's besetting us, it's no longer difficult. He just goes back to business as normal, says, that's over. It's no longer uncomfortable for us, him, or the people were no longer complaining to Pharaoh. And so he moves on. But that was not, was not the end of it.

Moses and Aaron, once again, coming, saying the same thing. The Lord, the God of Israel, has said to let my people go. Let them go that they may serve me. And Pharaoh says no. And this time, Moses and Aaron say that there is going to be a plague that will strike all of the livestock, our horses, our donkeys, our cattle. All of the herds and flocks are going to be struck with a disease that's going to kill them off. They're going to die. And he says that this is going to happen tomorrow. I don't know about that. Diseases usually take a while to spread. You never know when they're going to come. He's declaring that we're going to lose some. Well, fine. We've got many herds and many cattles. If we lose a few slowly to a plague, that's fine. But surely it's not going to all happen tomorrow. Can't happen that fast.

But sure enough, the next day came and we began to get reports of animals dying in the fields, just falling over sick and dying. And we lost many, many herds, almost all of them.

But again, not Israel's. Israel was again spared. Somehow their cattle, their donkeys, their horses, they didn't die. They were spared of this. Moses and Aaron came into the court not too far later. And this time they didn't hardly say anything to us, but they were holding black soot in their hands. And they came in and they tossed it up into the air and out of the windows. And before we knew it, I was beginning to itch on one of my arms. And then I was itching on my other arm and I looked down and there was beginning to grow some boils on my skin, beginning to hurt and ooze. Maybe you can see in the lights, I still have scars left from those.

And it was everywhere. Everyone was afflicted with these boils. Now, Pharaoh has grown increasingly quiet over the course of these plagues. I was beginning to think perhaps he's been affected by them. He is discouraged. Moses and Aaron come once again to announce yet another plague. This time they say though, they say that our Lord, the Lord says to Pharaoh that he could have struck him down at any point. He could have cut us off from the land. He could have wiped out all of Egypt if he could have, if he would have, if he wanted to. But that he had not done so because he wanted to make his purpose known. He wanted everyone to know, the whole world to know that the Lord, Yahweh, was the Lord, was the one true God, the God above all other gods.

Because our magicians had grown quiet. They had fled. Our gods were not saving us from these plagues.

And so now because Pharaoh had not relented and not let the people of Israel go, God was going to unreleash all of his plagues, was not going to hold back anymore. He said that coming now was going to be hail and lightning. That hail, large hail would fall from the sky and that lightning would strike and burst into fire and burn our land, our crops, and our houses. Pharaoh, silent, doesn't say anything to it. And Moses goes out and Aaron goes out and even some of us servants, we go out and we tell everyone, we say this is what's coming. If you fear the Lord, you should put your oxen away. You should stay inside tomorrow. Some people, having heard now what's happened all of these times, listen, but there are many more who don't listen. They are out in the field with their cattle. They are out in the field trying to work and do all the things like they would normally do. And when the hail came, they were struck by the hail. The cattle, the little cattle we had left were struck down by these massive hail and lightning strikes, striking all over the land, creating fires that we couldn't put out.

Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron into his throne room again and he's repenting. He's saying, I have sinned. Perhaps I'll pray for us. I'll let you go. And Moses, Moses has been in this situation enough that I could tell that he knew what was going on. He said, Pharaoh, I don't buy it. The Lord knows your heart. You've not truly repented. You're not going to let the people go.

But Moses, either way, regardless, seems to have done an act of mercy, prayed that the plague would stop. And it did.

But the next day, Moses and Aaron were there again and they said this time there will be locusts that come. Locusts that will come and destroy all of your crops and all of your plants. Many of our crops had already been destroyed by the hail. Much of our cattle and our food source was destroyed in the disease. We all turned to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was about to let Moses and Aaron walk out the door and we turned to Pharaoh and we say, Pharaoh, please do something. We cannot. We cannot endure a plague of locusts. We will be undone. We are ruined. So Pharaoh calls Moses in and stops him from leaving and says, look, I will let your people go. But which of those people do you want to have go to go worship your Lord? Surely not all of them. Maybe you just take the children or maybe you just take the old ones. And Moses was insistent. No, no, everyone is going with us. So Pharaoh offered him a deal. He said, do you know what? I tell you what we will keep your kids and we will keep your wives. But all the men can go. Because if I let you all go, you won't come

Back. I'll just let the men go. I could see what Pharaoh is thinking. If all the men went, surely they would always come back if their kids and their families were still here. That would ensure he wouldn't lose his slaves. Moses refused the deal and simply walked out. It wasn't long before you could see in the horizon, the sky as a large multiple clouds of locusts swarming together, landed on the land and consumed all that was left. All of our trees, all of our plants, our crops, were utterly decimated.

Pharaoh calls Moses in as he sees the destruction that's been brought in. Pharaoh makes no promise this time. He says, just I repent, pray for the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. Pray for me. But he makes no promise, makes no pretending. Moses says that he will and he walks away and sure enough the locusts leave. But the next day, the sun didn't come up.

He woke up. We thought, no, maybe we woke up a little early. But no, it was dark. It stayed dark that day and the next day and the next day. It was so dark that many of us just stayed in our rooms. We couldn't go out and do our business. We couldn't go anywhere because it was so dark. It was pitch black. I have heard rumor though that the Israelites had light and Goshen. Anywhere the Israelites went, they had plenty of light. They could do all the things that they wanted to do. All the rest of us sat in darkness. Seems though that maybe Pharaoh has finally struck a deal with Moses because the light seems to be coming back. Maybe this was the end of it all. I sure hope so. I sure hope it's the end of these plagues. Nine awful plagues.

I, you know, the question that has kind of been sitting with me through this whole experience has been, who were my gods? They didn't protect us from this. They couldn't stop it. They couldn't repeat it. I'm kind of stuck with this question of who are all these gods I've been worshiping and spending my time and even who is Pharaoh, who I serve. You know, don't tell Pharaoh this, but I think if the people of Israel leave, if I get a chance, I'm going to go with them.

Yeah, you laugh, but I'm serious. I'm going to go with them because it's like Moses has been saying after all I have seen, I know who the one true God is. I know who is the Lord of all.

We've gone through so much at the hand of a God of slaves. This God, he has destroyed all of our gods.

When God destroys our gods, he's calling us to himself. Like that story is trying to illustrate over and over again. God will destroy our idols. He will call us to himself. He will not let us sit and worship false gods. The whole point of the plagues is not for some sort of fancy firework display. It's not so that we could have movies about it. It's to demonstrate that God is the God above all other gods, that God is supreme, that Pharaoh and all of their people, as they trusted in those false gods, they were disappointed in them. Now, there's kind of a popular theory, maybe you've heard it, that each of the 10 plagues corresponds to a false God of Egypt. That's got some truth to it, but if you were to kind of study and look at each of the 10 plagues, you'll kind of find that some of them make really strong connections. Some of them are a little bit more tenuous, not quite as strong. And so I don't think that the Bible is necessarily calling out a God of Egypt in each and every single plague. I don't think that's what's happening. It's rather

That it's calling out all of the gods, all of the false gods, and it's doing so by undoing creation.

If you think about the plagues as we walk through them, and you think about them and compare them to the seven days of creation and what God did there, you'll find that they almost mirror each other in a way. Because what does God do? He creates the waters and then he fills them. Well, what did he do? Well, he turned the waters in the blood, and he emptied them of the fish and the frogs. What did he do with the sky? He emptied the sky of all the flying things, of the flies and everything. And then he had created the land, but then he filled the land with the plagues. He killed everything in the land, all of the animals and the livestock. And then he destroyed all of the plants, all of the crops were destroyed. The land had been emptied and made barren. And then what happened with the sky and the light that he had created? Well, it goes into darkness. God undoes creation as he sends Egypt into chaos. He's saying, "I am the God that created all of this, and I will be the God who uncreates all of it, who undoes it. Your gods do not hold the power over creation like I do."

That is what's going on. God is calling us and saying that we should look to him that he is the God above all other gods. They were answers to the question of who is this Lord that I should obey him? Now, so if we think of that as kind of our frame, that God is this powerful God, he's destroyed all the other gods. He's calling and he's saying that he's destroying them. He's the one true God. He's destroying all these idols. You're probably sitting here and perhaps thinking and saying, "Well, Pastor Luke, we don't really have an idolatry problem, do we?" Right? I don't have a little tiki man in my house. I don't have a little statue or anything that I make sacrifices to. I don't believe in a sun god, right?

So that idolatry is not a modern problem, right? Some of you know where I'm going.

Because it is indeed actually a massive problem. It's just not, it doesn't look here in our culture like it used to. We don't maybe make sacrifices to little idols anymore, but we still make sacrifices to things that are not God. I was reading out of a book by Tim Keller this week called Counterfeit Gods. If you are interested in a book that talks more about idolatry at large in our society and our own lives, I would recommend that book Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller. Keller brought out this quote by this man who came to America in the 1930s, not 1930s, 1830s. His name was Alexis de Tocqueville. I'm going to pretend I said that right.

Just say it confidently. That's what Cameron says. So Alexis, he comes to America in the 1830s to kind of observe America because America was still new. It was an experiment. He's doing all these new things and he comes and he looks around and he's trying to see how religion is developing and how culture is developing and all of these things. And he comes to this conclusion. He says there is this strange melancholy in America. There's this strange sadness that the people seem to have. Even though they have all the things that they want, they have this abundance, they have a great quality of life, they seem kind of sad. And he said it's perhaps his proposal was is that they're so sad because they are chasing the incomplete joys of this world that will never satisfy the human heart. He's saying the people of America are sad because they're chasing incomplete joys. Things of this world that will not satisfy their heart and it's leaving them empty and sad. That was in the 1830s. I think it's still true today.

I think the disposition of our hearts has not changed. Paul, Apostle Paul gives a definition of idolatry. Pastor Cameron's mentioned this a couple times in his sermons here recently. Romans chapter 1 verse 25 says this. Paul says because they exchange the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. What's Paul saying there? He's saying they have begun to serve and worship creation, created things in essentially incomplete joys rather than worshiping the creator, the one who created it all. They've swapped, they've made this exchange. Tim Keller in his book, he provides this definition. He says an idol is something we cannot live without. We must have it and therefore it drives us to break rules we once honored, to harm others and even ourselves in order to get it. Idols are spiritual addictions that lead to terrible evil. Idols are things that we need with all caps. They're things that we need so bad that I'm willing to compromise my values. I'm willing to sin. I'm willing to harm others. I'm willing to put myself into positions I swore I would never be in order to get that thing because we need it so bad.

This is the definition I would give of idols today for our sermon here is to say that when we elevate anything or anyone so it begins to eclipse God, we have made an idol.

When we begin to take anything and we begin to lift it up so that we can't see God anymore, we've made an idol. When I think about that word eclipse, I think about the eclipse that happened not too long ago. Guys everybody got out and stared at the sun that day and the sun is huge, astronomically, literally astronomically huge. It's beyond my own mind to conceptualize how big it is. The moon in comparison is actually pretty small. Now you and I we don't think that because like we're talking on such a scale that trying to understand how big and small the moon and the sun is like they kind of look like the same and it's it's really kind of funny that the moon can block out the sun because the moon is really small compared to the sun. But as I was thinking about that maybe an easier way for us to think about that is what are some what's something small in our world that we get so fixated on that perhaps we don't see the rest of the world around us.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean there's things that we kind of scroll on and we get so fixated on what's going on here. Oh what's happening in Instagram today? That we get here and we can't see everything else that's happening around us.

We can get fixated on things that are so much smaller and so much not as it consequential that we lose the whole picture. And that's what idolatry is. It's when we look at something that's actually not as big and as important as God and we lift it and put it in our vision so much that we can't see him or the rest of the world. And then we do all of our actions flow out of chasing after that idol after trying to get something and trying to fill that void that's in our hearts trying to get this incomplete joy satisfy us. So yes idols are still a modern day problem. But the question then is how do we know? How do we know that something is an idol? What are the idols of my own heart? You might be okay Luke you say that there's idols. How do we figure them out? How do we know that I've made an idol out of something? Because here's the thing this is the thing that's really tricky about idols is that idols are rarely just bad things.

It would be really easy you know if you're like if you're a Satanist like that's pretty clear right like that's not good stop worshiping Satan. But if you're worshiping maybe say an idealized life maybe you're worshiping money maybe you're worshiping your family maybe you're worshiping sex. None of those things are bad but when we fixate on them when we make them bigger than God we've taken a good thing and by putting it in a wrong spot we've made it very bad.

So I want to offer for us four questions four questions that are from again Tim Keller's book Counterfeit Gods and I thought these were really helpful diagnostics really good questions for us to ask ourselves that begin to reveal what might be an idol or what might be a temptation to become an idol. The first question is what are your go-to effortless effortless daydreams that leave you longing. When you're bored when you've got free time up here in your head I know that's not often but when you do and you're just like where you want to escape from the day and you just start daydreaming what is the thing that you always daydream about what is the thing that you wish you had and when you're finished daydreaming about it and you've you've you've thought it all through and you're just like oh that would be perfect and then you come back to reality and you realize

I don't have that and it leaves this emptiness inside of you is that rising to the level of an idol is it something that you're you're fixating your heart and your mind on saying if only I had this thing then I would be happy that's the question I often ask and ask myself and tell other people how do you finish this question if only blank that I would be happy whatever you fill in that blank with is likely an idol or in danger becoming one here's an uncomfortable question where do we spend our money or more so where do we overspend our money where are we oh I'm willing to spend so much money that I put myself in a difficult position in order to achieve or have this thing sits in line with that definition that Tim Keller put forward of something where we're willing to cross boundaries in order to get or obtain a thing

Third question is and this is a good one for us we've been in church for a while is what unanswered prayer would spark anger and outrage from you and I don't just mean an unanswered prayer that you'd be upset about I understand that right we've been praying about something we were longing we would be upset if we don't get what we've been praying and seeking the Lord for that's reasonable I think that's human but what I'm talking about is what would you be so upset and angry about that you would it would become a block between your relationship with God that if God didn't answer this prayer this way how I wanted it and when I wanted it I don't know that I'd go to church anymore do we have something we are praying for so fervently and it's sitting so heavenly on our heart that if God were for some reason delay or not give us that thing that we would stop following him because what you then have is not God you're worshiping a vending machine that you think is going to give you your God

If God is just God give me the thing and if he doesn't and you walk away from him you didn't actually follow him you were just trying to play the religious game to see if he would give you your actual God of your heart the last question here is what is at the root of my uncontrollable emotions that are causing me to not act like Jesus when I just explode in anger when I am stuck in sadness that will not go away I'm not saying emotions aren't important we got to listen to our emotions you can talk to me about that all day long you know that but what I'm talking about is when our emotions cause us to sin when we get in a place where we are so wrapped up we simply cannot be obedient and we begin to sin and behave in a way that is not Christ like what is that what's at the root of that do I need control do I need things to be perfect do I need things to be my way do I need this specific relationship things to work out exactly how I want them to be we can come up with tons and tons of examples of idols I could spend the

Whole rest of the day I promise I'm not going to going through and coming up with idols and so I just thought of a few that maybe we struggle with that no we probably definitely do struggle with many of us in this church are kids that have kids we have a family families are important it's a good thing but when our kids or maybe yet the success of our kids the achievements of our kids become so big that we're we're putting all of this weight and you have to succeed you have to be a great athlete you have to be a great mathematician whatever it is that you know we begin to put a weight on kids that they were never meant to bear we're putting our happiness on them and that's not fair to them and it's not it's not a true god for us to follow we certainly can also chase and serve identities we love to conceptualize ourselves you want to know an identity an idol identity that I have to struggle and check my heart with I like to be the guy that knows everything I do if I have a moment to oh I know that

Oh boy my pride comes up I do because I like to have that identity I like to be the one that knows things and when that gets challenged or I don't get to say the thing that I think was so cool or insightful or weird or cool in conversation what happens I get upset

Because my identity my idol was challenged maybe we have an identity where oh everyone likes me

And when someone doesn't what happens we panic we freak out we start doing things trying to get them to like us because we have an identity of everyone likes me

Oh I have an identity of I'm the one that fixes everything for everyone I have an identity of I'm the one who does a really good job at my job I'm perfect at it

And when those identities get challenged by other people by circumstances what happens in us what happens in our heart

A big idol of our world and not just outside the church but even all of us struggle with and I know is a common problem is sex many people make an idol of sex and sexuality whether that's as sexual identity or whether that's just being able to have sex saying that it's something we deserve something that's going to make us happy that's going to make us comfortable

What about lifestyle I think more than money money is an easy one that we always run to is money can become an idol true absolutely you know what I think is more than that or even behind that sometimes is lifestyle it's I want to have a life that looks a certain way feels a certain way and if I can't have it I'm never going to be happy I'm going to be disproportionately sad

We have to have conversations like I said nothing I've mentioned is bad they're all good gifts

In their right place not saying that you can't have a boat or have the lifestyle not saying that sex is bad I'm not saying that family is bad I'm not saying have an identity is bad but when it begins to eclipse God when it becomes higher on our heart than him when we begin to behave in ways that are not Christ like in order to serve these idols and try and get incomplete joys from them we've made an idol

So God is calling us out of that he's saying look they are not true gods so how do we replace idols how do we get rid of them the first way that we can get rid of idols is well God will do it for you sometimes he does sometimes he allows circumstances in our lives that remove idols from us this happens where we're just like oh wow like my life kind of came undone there a little bit and maybe I've made an idol out of this thing maybe I need to surrender this to God you don't want to be in a place where that's the only way you get idols removed from your heart

The other way is for us to actually surrender both the idol and the heart longing I was thinking about this and I think this is something that's really important I think it's something I've maybe even missed in my own thinking is that it's not just turning over the idol to God saying Lord this is an idol it's turning over that deep longing of emptiness and desire that's in our heart it's saying God will you meet me in the middle of this pain I perhaps I really want this thing I feel like I need this thing maybe I feel like I deserve this thing I'm gonna give it to you God I'm gonna surrender I'm gonna let go I'm not gonna hold tightly to this anymore

But Lord if I'm gonna do that I'm gonna ask you to meet me here I'm gonna trust what the Bible says when it says come taste and see that the Lord is good I'm gonna believe what Jesus said and believe that he is living water that he is the bread of life that if I come and drink from him and get bread and food from him I will never hunger or thirst again I'm gonna trust that Jesus will satisfy me so questions to perhaps rest and wrestle with yourself and ask yourself as you surrender an idol to God is to say how does God meet me in the middle of my longing who does God say I am what is my identity how has God provided for me what are the things that I do have even though I maybe lack some that I want

And then where is the Lord calling me where is he calling me into obedience what is he calling me out of calling me out of an Egypt where I serve an idol and what is the promised land he's calling me into what is the kingdom he's asking me to serve because it's not my kingdom it's not the kingdom of the world it's his kingdom God is inviting you to lay down the idols and I don't know what that looks like for you that might look like a decisive decision to stop pursuing a thing to simply give up a thing it might mean anytime you sense your heart beginning too long disproportionately for a thing you stop and you say Lord help me trust you more than I trust that Lord help me find joy in you and not in that Lord help me to seek you more and more each day these are the ways that we just simply daily turn our heart over to the Lord and surrender our idols I'm gonna go ahead and invite the worship team to come back up

One of the things that I was thinking about as we were as I was studying this passage was the way in which idols are kind of like the weeds in the parable of the soils I'm not going to preach a whole other sermon here but the parable of the soils is there's the different soils and seed gets sown into them and fruits and the plants begin to flourish and come out some of the soil the seeds don't take root at all but there's this one soil that does take root it begins to grow but then so do some weeds and thorns and those weeds and thorns they take out and they choke out that growing fruit that growing plant I think that's what idols are in the Christian life is that they are something that will come into our life to try and choke out what God wants to do God's building you and calling you to be more like his son he's calling you into a greater life of more kingdom effectiveness but if we let ourselves get sidetracked with idols it'll get choked out let's pray heavenly father this morning

I asked that not only would you bring conviction to us of where idols sit in our hearts but lord I asked that you would speak to the longings in our hearts

That thirst that god-shaped hole that's in our hearts that restlessness that is in us would find rest in you lord that we would know that we've been chasing incomplete joys joys that will not satisfy lord I pray that you would help us to know what it means that you are the bread of life that you are living water that if we come to you we will neither hunger nor thirst again lord help us to know what it means to give up and surrender our life so that we might not lose it but find it lord you are our god you are the creator and sustainer of the universe you are mighty and you reign above all things lord today we repent from any idol that we've placed in front of you anything we have sought and thought that we needed so bad that we have dishonored you

Lord help us to be a community that seeks your face doesn't seek blessings from you doesn't seek the way you make us feel doesn't seek the things you give us but we seek you alone we seek your presence we seek you with us

Lord might we chase you above all things in jesus name we pray amen