Sermon Tone Analysis

Diagnostic Questions to Define Idols

Huge concern for idolatry in OT and Scriptures.

We skip over but still relevant today.

If you want to identify an idol in your life ask yourself what things if they were taken away from me would cause me to not want to live?

You take away this possession, this person, and I die.

Where are you finding your identity?

What do you worry about the most

What is your greatest fear

What makes you the most angry

That leads you to your idols

Calvin said our hearts are idol making factories.

Video games can be idols.

PACMAN AND FORTNIGHT

Fornight.

Talking to son about it…we had ATARI.

What’s an ATARI?

Horrible graphics.

Got bored.

Went outside and played.

Not the way graphics are now.

Highly engaging.

Play with their friends

Not the ones in the room with them—the ones in Japan.

Hear them talking over the speaker.

Who’s kid is that?

Negotiate to get off the computer.

Negotiations break down.

Long process to turn off the game.

This is an idol.

Not one you bow down to but pretty close.

It has physical properties.

Amazing how effective it is to just yank the cord.

And it is effective but it isn’t.

It doesn’t deal with the heart.

Makes him mad.

Hardens the heart.

Effective in changing behavior immediately and getting him to do what I want him to do.

And sometimes that is the merciful thing and necessary thing to do.

I want him to see that there are other things.

That this can become an idol.

I’ve dealt with the surface problem but not the deeper problem.

I’ve dealt with the branches but not with the root.

I’ve dealt with the idol, but not the idol behind the idol.

Jehosophat and a King Addressing Idols

Jehosophat was the king of Judah, we looked at his story the past two Sundays.

And one of the main ways the historians would judge a king was how they dealt with the idols of the people…we tend to stop reading when we see idols mentioned in Scripture but those passages are crucial…how a king addressed the idols of the people were the whole ball game for how a king was graded in the OT…whether he removed the idols, made up new idols…and idols are a big aspect of our lives today…

BEFORE AND AFTER SUMMARY STATEMENTS

ESV

He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured.

The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David.

He did not seek the Baals,

--at the start of his reign, he was such a great king that he was characterized as following the ways of David, that’s the highest compliment a king can receive, followed the ways of Ronald Reagan…didn’t consult Baal…outward blatant idolatry…northern and southern kingdoms…northern had no good kings, southern had just a few….wasn’t

like the obviously evil people in the northern kingdom of Israel.

The king reigning during that time in the north was ahab….worshiped

baals wife jezebel worshiped the wife…

But that was at the start of his reign…throughout his reign recorded in the next few chapters, he made some mistakes, but also had this amazing victory that we unpacked last week.

So how would he be judged….we

have these bookend statements about the king…

AFTER (ALL IN? BE LIKE HIM?)

So here is the verdict on Jehosophat…

ES

Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah.

He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem.

His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.

He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.

He was ALL IN.

Be like Jehosophat.

Pray like Jehosophat.

Have courage like Jehsophat.

Trust the Lord like Jehosophat.

Tear down the idols like Jehsophat.

The end.

Do that.

Everyone can go home.

Oh yean…In Jesus’ name amen.

Not quite…

You have to read further.

ESV

The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.

Oh snap.

Asa Issue

If you were astute you would already know from verse 32 that something was off when the historian said he followed in the ways of his father Asa.

Before he said he followed in ways of David.

Now he has been severely downgraded to having followed in ways of Asa who was good but really messed things up towards the end of his life.

(shows older people have worst struggles—don’t take it for granted)

So Jehosophat was good…did good…loved the Lord…is in Heaven for sure…but

Verse 33…the high places were not removed.

What are high places?

High Places Defined From Heart Perspective

Have a lot to do with the idol behind the idol.

The high places aren’t unplugging the game system and dealing with the immediate outward visible idol.

High places are the deep stuff, the foundational stuff, the soul idols, the issue behind the issue.

There are two different kinds of High Places…he removed one type of High Places but not the other.

High Places Technically Defined

High places were actual locations in the community….places of worship build into the fabric of the community.

They were usually on the top of hills, even on the top of mountains, they were usually visible in the community.

They weren’t always physically high, as Jeremiah spoke of a high place that was actually in a valley.

But they were usually in the high places.

They were make shift temples.

They weren’t usually built for any one God…they were built as places of sacrifice, worship….