Sermon Cloud

Defining Idolatry. Romans 1:18-25.  One of most discussed problems in bible; 3 of ten commandments. Critical.
The definition of Idolatry. God created humanity to live in relationship to him – knowing Him, honoring him, delighting in him, serving him, finding identity and meaning and personal significance in belonging to him and working with him to accomplish his purposes in creation.  But, sin entered the picture and tragically altered the way man relates to God. Romans 1, Paul details the effects of sin in the way we respond to God. The human inclination and propensity of our hearts is that we do not naturally turn God-ward – we do not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Did not honor him. We do not turn God-ward in love, honor, delight, obedience, and grateful service. Instead we seek to be independent of God – not wanting to face the face of God. We do not naturally acknowledge him as the great, true, and only God who is of infinite worth. We don’t supremely prize him, or value him as first and ultimate. Did not give thanks to him. We do not acknowledge our total dependence upon him for life and joy – the source of all good, as foundational for our happiness and joy; we refuse to acknowledge him as the object of our trust and hope and the giver of every good thing. /// This is the human condition – we do not naturally give God center stage; we do not glorify him as ultimate, first, paramount; he does not fill our minds and hearts and is not the object of our supreme love and loyalty. However, because we are created as covenantal beings intended to live in relation to God, we do not simply abandon the reality of God, rather we exchange God for a substitute. Because we are made for God and intended to derive our identity, security, purpose and happiness in relationship to Him, when we exclude him from our lives there is a huge vacuum. So we do not simply eliminate God – we exchange God for a God-substitute that we look to for our identity, security, meaning, purpose and happiness. So Paul says, we exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creation rather than the creator. We elevate something in creation above God. GK Chesterton, “When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.”
    These substitutes are counterfeit gods.   So we can define an idol as “something within creation that is inflated to function as God.” It is inflated to function as God in this sense: It becomes more fundamental than God for your identity, personal meaning, security, purpose, and joy. So, “an idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero – anything that can substitute for God” Richard Keyes. This means that an idol is not something that is in its essence a bad thing; it can be a good thing that is inflated to function as God in your life – a good thing that you love and trust too much and count it as fundamental to your identity and security and meaning and purpose and joy. Idolatry is the essence of sin. Every sin ultimately has idolatry at its root; every sin is a breaking of the first commandment. Example: Lying, Overspending, Gossip…
The Fruit of Idolatry. Slavery – worshiped and served the creature…When we elevate something as more fundamental than God and try to achieve identity, meaning, security, purpose, and joy apart from God by exchanging him for god-substitute, a functional god it inevitably leads to slavery. This is the irony of idolatry – in turning from God and seeking to be free from God we become a slave to a god-substitute. We turn from God to an idol that we think we can control, but the idol overpowers us and begins to control us. Idols control us by giving promises and warnings that enslave us, drive us, and cause us to live in anxiety. Example: If I take a good desire to find a significant relationship that might mean marriage – a good desire, but I elevate it to the place of a God substitute and make it more fundamental than God for my happiness I live in bondage to it. As an idol it drives me with promises – if you could only find that special person you would really be happy; and warnings – if you don’t find a relationship you can’t be happy and fulfilled. These warnings and promises created inordinate desire in your heart for a relationship and you become a slave to it. Money: you won’t be secure or satisfied without me…Weight: this is more fundamental than God to how you define yourself -  you have to have a certain figure for a sense of security, confidence, joy. Shame. It could be that the idols of beauty, success, or social standing have become fundamental for your identity, significance, security, purpose and joy; or maybe it is the idol of being right, feeling loved, having children, or getting married. If we inflate these things to function as god, when we fail to achieve these things we feel that we failed at the level or our existence. We feel like we want to die. We can actually lose our will to live. Many times, our emotional responses are out of balance with the stimuli because we had made an idol out something. We are crushed when we don’t get the grade we wanted; devastated when we don’t get the promotion; excessively sorrowful when we don’t get invited in and the reality is that we probably had made an idol out of these things and our failure to lay hold of them caused us inordinate amount of emotional pain and shame. God’s judgment (v.18). When we turn away from God to idols, we turn toward judgment. Hos 8:4 idols for their destruction. False hope of idols – they cannot give us what we ultimately need – a right standing with the creator and judge of the cosmos. We look to them to define us and they end up destroying us.
The way to be free from idols. We will explore this the entire series but the difference between freedom and bondage, idolatry and worship of the true God is found in 2 words: Achieve or Receive. Will you try to achieve identity, meaning, security, joy apart from God by pursuing functional gods that you hold to be more fundamental than God for how you define yourself? This is called “self-salvation.” I will achieve these things by…Illustration: Nanny Diaries. This leads to bondage and shame. OR Will you receive identity, meaning, security, joy by trusting Christ for these things. He died to bring us forgiveness for the way we have turned from God to idols – he bore the wrath of God that our idolatry aroused. In him we can have acceptance with the Father. He is the only one free of idolatry – loving the Father and gladly fulfilling his will in dying in our place.  In him we can have his righteousness, be loved by God, known by God. We can become partners with God carrying out his plan for creation. Receiving an identity we could never gain and that we cannot lose.