Sermon Cloud

Devotion at the Crossroads: Idols or The Lord
    Jeremiah 10:1-16
    September 13, 2009 – FCOCLH

    The history of Israel is amazing.  It was always a struggle for them to maintain their faithfulness and religious purity from the very beginning of their existence.  The defining moment in the beginning of their existence – The Exodus was designed by God to get them to stop cold turkey their addiction to other Gods.  Those plagues – the water turned to blood, the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the death of the livestock, the boils outbreak, hail, locusts and darkness – were all to remind the Israelites that there is only one true God.  They showed the Israelites that God was truly powerful over all the forces of nature and even over disease and light and darkness.  Finally, they showed that God has complete control over even death.  The point God was making to the Israelites was that he and only He deserves devotion and worship.

This may be the key verse of the whole book of Jeremiah: 2:2-13 READ

The history of most Christians is a remarkable one.  At some point in each Christian’s life there was a realization.  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. --Revelation 2:4-5

Modern idolatry
•    materialism – everything of worth is material.  (This causes the whole focus of our life to be on things and not on people.)  Extreme philosophical level: Matter is the ultimate reality.  There is no sovereign spiritual reality.  This is the idolatry of the sophisticated intellectual today.  It is really no different than the naive idolatry of Jeremiah’s day.  Worship of the creation instead of the creator.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. --Romans 1:25
•    pleaser of men – people around you are the ultimate judge of your worth.  Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. --Galatians 1:10
•    Idolatry defined: Our attempts to create ultimate self-worth, contentment and peace in physical things.  Things that you can control.
When I speak of idolatry this morning, always have these things in mind.

1.    Idols are dependent; God is sovereign – They fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
    a.    The idols the people of Judah worshiped had to be crafted by men.  Their very existence depended upon men.
    b.    Modern idolatry needs constant attention.
2.    Idols are designed; God is inconceivable
    a.    The people of Judah had to design their idols.  Someone has to design an idol.
    b.    We put into our idols the things that we think are the greatest.  Our focus is there instead of upon God who can actually make a difference for us.
    c.    Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" --Romans 11:33-35
3.    Idols are draining; God is invigorating (Elijah on Mt. Carmel) – Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. --Isaiah 40:30-31
    a.    Idols are powerless: Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this. Jeremiah 14:22
    b.    Idols are unable to answer our prayers – Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."  --Jeremiah 10:5 This image reminds me of a scarecrow that becomes a perch for the very crows they are supposed to scare away.  They are powerless.
4.    Idols call us to independence; God calls us to surrender
    a.    We craft our idols to be what we want them to be; they are self-portraits of who we are and who we think we should be.  
        i.    They display our anxieties and fears.
        ii.    They become limiting factors.  
        iii.    They show us where to focus our energies.
        iv.    We will never aspire to a greatness more than we can imagine if our focus is on what we can create.  If our focus is on God, He will define our greatness and call us to that.  If we submit to him, he will bring us to it.
    b.    God calls us to simple trust in him, believing that he will deal with the things that cause us anxiety.
    c.    For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. --Matthew 23:12