Idols
Notes
Transcript
Questions
Questions
What is the most important thing in your life?
How would you feel if it were taken away from you, and what would you do to keep it?
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This is an extreme example of what it looks like to devote ourselves to things that don’t deserve our devotion.
This is an extreme example of what it looks like to devote ourselves to things that don’t deserve our devotion.
Idols are the things that take the place of God in our lives.
Sometimes we turn gifts from God (talents, possessions, a relationship) into idols by letting them take his place.
We are going to talk about where idols come from, how we can recognize them, and how we can get rid of the idols in our lives.
When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”
Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.
Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement: “There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.” Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.
3 things about Idols
They give false promises and temporary satisfaction
They give false promises and temporary satisfaction
Moses has been up on Mount Sinai for a while (total 40 days and 40 nights)
God has given Moses the 10 commandments and the law.
He has told him how to construct the tabernacle where God would be with the people.
He has given Moses the sacrificial system they will use to atone for their sins and fix their relationship with Himself.
And He has described how the priestly clothing and such should be made.
Chapter 32 is a “meanwhile, down at the bottom of the mountain...” sort of aside.
The people had been waiting on Moses, but they were getting impatient.
So while Moses is on the mountain receiving from the Lord the very commandment “Do not make for yourselves idols.” The people are demand Aaron do just that.
The people had become accustomed to idols being a regular part of their lives back in Egypt because they were a normal part of the culture there.
They began to doubt whether this Moses guy and the God he was telling them about was actually going to give them what they really wanted.
They wanted something tangible, something they could touch and see, and they wanted it now.
Idols is make promises to us that seem really satisfying.
The Israelites believed that the golden calf would protect them from their enemies and bring them prosperity.
But the idols we worship only satisfy us for short time.
We turn good gifts into bad gods.
We turn good gifts into bad gods.
We don’t have golden calves or stone statues in our culture that we make into idols.
But our idols do come from our culture.
Sex, relationships, acceptance, success in school or sports, our possessions, family, and many other things.
None of those things are bad really, but they become gods that we give ourselves over to.
We take good gifts from God into really bad gods.
This is exactly what the Israelites did. Listen to what Aaron tells them to do:
Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
Now where did those gold ear rings and such come from? Look back at chapter 3 when God is speaking to Moses in the burning bush and telling him how he will lead them out of Egypt.
And I will give these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Then in chapter 12 when they are actually leaving Egypt...
The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing. And the Lord gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
So the Israelites used the gold God had provided for them through His power and provision to make a false god for themselves to worship INSTEAD of HIM.
That is what we do as well.
We take the good gifts God gives us and we devote ourselves to them in place of God.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
Relationships and sexuality is a God designed gift that we as a culture have taken and made into something that we worship and sacrifice our bodies to.
Your athletic abilities are God-given, but we are so prone in our culture to give ourselves over to a dream of being great in a sport at the expense of us giving ourselves to God and finding our value in Him.
Friendship and acceptance are God-given desires, but we are prone to make acceptance by people THE thing that will make us happy, rather than finding out worth and acceptance in God who lavishly loves us.
All idols come from things that God created. Idolatry is taking creation and putting it in the place of the Creator.
We have to actively fight against it.
We have to actively fight against it.
“‘Keep yourselves from idols.’ The warning isn't given to them because it wasn't a real danger or because there was an off chance someone might fall into idolatry. It was given because this is our root problem on any given day. It is what we, especially as followers of Jesus, must fight against.” –Joe Thorn, Note to Self
If you look at someone’s Instagram account you can probably find some things they have dedicated themselves to pretty quickly can’t you?
If someone looked through the pictures, tweets, or status updates you post regularly, do you think they could identify possible idols in your life?
Do you know what your idols are?
Ask yourself what might be getting more time and attention than you give to your faith?
In what might you have wrongly placed faith and hope in things other than God?
Do any of these things have control of your heart in a way God does not?
Once you know what your idols are, the first step to getting rid of them is to confess them to God. Let God know that you want to worship him, not something he created.
When Moses comes down the mountain he confronts the people, destroys the golden calf, and then tells them they must turn back to God.
Our response ought to be bold and decisive like Moses’s.
We may need to take a step back from a sport, a relationship, or a possession that was given by God because of the risk of it taking his place.
We also need one another.
It is often really hard to see our own idolatry.
So having a friend who love Jesus and loves you is super important for finding and fighting against our idols.
Who can you ask to be that for you?