21st Century Idols

Pr Mike Constantine

21-04-2018

1 John 5:21 New King James Version (NKJV)

²¹ Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Little children means those precious to God and precious to us.

To have the heart of a father is to have a heart of a shepherd. To have a heart of a shepherd is to have a heart of a father.

Every leader is supposed to have a heart of God for the people of God and for the people that we are looking after. If we don't have a heart of God for the people of God, we might do damage to them.

A shepherd is a person who has a heart of God. Spiritual fathers have a heart of God for the people of God. Children are dear to them because they are dear to God.

Jude 24-25 New King James Version (NKJV)

Glory to God

²⁴ Now to Him who is able to keep you^[a] from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
²⁵ To God our Savior,^[b]
Who alone is wise,^[c]
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,^[d]
Both now and forever.
Amen.

We have a God who cares about us that He wants to hold on to us. God guards us. We are to also guard ourselves. We cannot live carelessly. We cannot forget that the spirit of the age is ready at any time to infect our lives and take us away from the simplicity and purity of our lives.

We have to live watchfully; we have to live carefully; we have to live graciously; we have to live powerfully.

And all of that is possible because of what God has done for us in Christ, and because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

That's what it means to keep yourself. Don't become relaxed in this security that God gives you that you stop taking your responsibility for your life.

Keep yourselves from idols. John is really saying, "Be careful of what you hear, and what people tell you." Keep yourself from anything that would be a substitute for the true Christ that you heard about, and the One that you follow.

Many of you in this country would actually know about idols. In every age, there are things that claim that they are so important that we must give them our time and energy, even though it means taking us away from God.

An idol, in our day and time, means anything that we value more than the true and real God, or instead of God (i.e. denying God). And there are many.

The problem is that every age has its idols. And every age has the same ones but presented in different wrappings, in a more sophisticated manner so that we would be more likely to say that the old ideas about Christ and purity and devotion are outdated.

By the grace of God, we are trying to follow Him.

But the devil is trying to make us feel that somehow we are stupid for believing what we do.

In fact, the greatest enlightenment that any person can have is to have their lives lit up by the presence of Jesus. He is the One who leads us to the truth by His Spirit.

But in reality, we are diverted so that we give less of our lives for God's higher purposes. Idols take a lot of our attention and time. Idols demand sacrifices.

Idols destroy us by degrees. When you find that idols have taken an inappropriate amount of our time, ask yourself, "Am I getting any better because of it?"

Idols disfigure us the more we allow the idols to have a place in our lives. Idols take the image of Christ out of our lives and replace it with something else.

For someone who has stepped out of the boundaries of worshipping God and goes after false things and tries to feed their soul with these false things, they will eventually feel very disappointed that they went that way. And they will be very, very wounded in their hearts.

Along with that sense of woundedness and disappointment, they also feel shame. And the voice of shame says to them, "Don't tell anybody about this. And don't tell God. Because if you tell them, they are going to judge you."

This is so false.

The first thing that you should do when you find yourself away from God is to go to God. Go back to the One who is all-powerful. Go back to the Father of all mercies. Go back to the throne of grace to find grace in your time of need. Go back to the open heaven that Jesus has provided for us through His blood. Get in touch with the voice of the Spirit of God who is leading you into all truth. Say "No!" to the rest of it and listen to what God is saying to you because He is the restorer of your soul; He is the renewer of your life; and He is the repairer of the broken places.

We are deceived because we call the darkness light. We deceive ourselves, and we deceive everybody around us.

Why would the God who loves you want you to love anything that would harm you and harm others?

Some people think that the message of the gospel is a hard message. It is not a hard message compared to what happens to you when you follow something else.

Isn't it loving for God to want you to give all of your devotion to Him so that you can live safely and securely? What's not loving about that?

Live a life filled with the grace of God and at the same time, live it to glorify God and bless others.

There are three 21st Century idols:

1) Self.

We are living in the "Me" generation.

The idea here is: "What I want. The force in me that resists God's will and wants its own way." That's what self is.

It is not about finding the fulfillment that you want for yourself or the best self that you can me.

It is about that self that steals the glory of God and makes you think that what is important for you is the highest goal in life.

Little by little and day by day becoming more selfish, more self-centred until you become this tiny little wall of selfishness. And that's all you live for.

"Getting what you want is more important than serving others. Once upon a time, we cared for one another. The experts tell us that 30 years from now we will be further isolated. We do not see that we cannot a difference in the future. Rabid self-indulgence will be the norm. No longer can it be said that you and I love God and each other. It will be evident that our generation will be apathetic and lethargic. It is ridiculous to presume that there is hope.

"And all these will come true, unless we choose to reverse our perspective."

"There is hope. It is ridiculous to presume that our generation is apathetic and lethargic. It will be evident that you and I love God and each other. No longer can it be said that rabid self-indulgence will be the norm. In the future we can make a difference. We do not see that 30 years from now that we will be further isolated. The experts tell us that this is a stagnant and detached group. But this will not be true of our generation. We cared for one another once upon a time. Serving others is more important than getting what we want."

"We have the right perspective because the world will know that they are not the most important thing in our lives. Looking out for yourself to make you happy is a lie."

"Happiness comes from loving others. It's all about people."

"I refuse to accept that I am a part of the "Me" generation."

"The "We" generation can love God and love each other."

"What's your perspective?"

One perspective leads to our own selfishness.

The other perspective when we change our minds and our hearts leads us to glorifying God and reaching out to touch other people's lives.

Every one of us has to make that choice every day whether we are going to live for ourselves or live for the One who died for us.

That's how we escape from the power of the idol itself. We do it one choice at a time, one day at a time, one life at a time, one moment at a time. We don't live for ourselves but for Him who redeemed us.

By doing that, we become people who bless our world.

Could you be blessing more people than you already are? Is it possible? Have you reached the maximum capacity that you have to bless others? Would there be a bit more opportunity for you to be actively involved in making other lives better? For the glory of God. Is it possible?

Don't let your old self to hold you back from anything that God wants you to do.

Say "No!" to self and "Yes!" to God.

We have to do this together. We can't afford to live for ourselves in a generation that is dying because of selfishness.

2) Success.
In the King James Version of the bible, success only exists one time and that's in Joshua 1:8.

Joshua 1:8 King James Version (KJV)

⁸ This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Success is something that we all want. I'd like to have a successful ministry and a successful marriage. For those who are in business, it is your right to be successful. For those who are church leaders, it's right for you to want your church to succeed.

Success means a desire for prosperity that causes us to disregard the spiritual warnings. That's when it becomes an idol--when you pursue success no matter what you have to do to get it or when you pursue success even when you have to compromise your convictions. Or when you pursue success even when you have to forget about the important relationships in your life. Or when you pursue success even when you have to tell lies about your products. Or when you pursue success and it will be measured by position or the amount of money that you have.

God is very happy to make you as successful as you can possibly be, as long as you honour Him and as long as you whatever that you do for the glory of God. That's the basic principle of the New Testament. Eat, drink, and whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. When you do that, your success is safe.

Don't you love it when somebody says, "God, I'm going to trust You and do good. And I'm going to let You give me the success that You want me to have."

Instead of cheating, lying or hurting anyone else, you are blessed with success.

3) Sex.

Who invented sex? The devil? Nobody? Or God?

God made us male and female. God gave us the ability to give and receive sexual pleasure in a relationship that He blesses.

The problem comes when sex becomes a god that we worship to the point that we forsake all of the relationship for the sake of sex. Sex becomes a false god that promises a lot but destroys lives in the process.

God ordained sex and He meant it to be a celebration of an intimate relationship between one man and one woman. It belongs to a marriage relationship. It doesn't belong any place else.

We make covenant promises to each other in a marriage. It is a promise of love for a lifetime.

All marriages are essentially friendships protected by a covenant. Lose the friendship in our marriage and we lose the common ground. Then we begin to look someplace else. Marriage becomes empty and dead.

Then there is fire, and that's sexual love. In this relationship, the husband and the wife do not want sex for the sake of sex. They want sex as an expression of their commitment and their love for one another. It is not just about having the act or feeding the appetite. But so much of our world makes sex an end in itself and it becomes an idol that people serve and sacrifice to.

In the 1960s, the sexual revolution kicked in. It was supposed to be the new and liberated ideas about free sex--anybody with anyone, at anytime, for any reason. Free sex became desirable and acceptable. It would be weird if somebody said they'd never had sex. Sex was a thing of its own. Aiding that was the birth control pills. That meant that a woman could take a pill at a regular time and would not have to worry about the consequences of having sex. But those things never worked the way they were supposed to and so, there were a lot of unexpected pregnancies between people who were not really in a relationship. On January 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court legalised abortion.

Abortion became a topic between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the final presidential debate. Clinton supported abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Basically, it was perfectly okay to kill an unborn baby up to and including the ninth month. And Trump said that that's nasty. It's not perfectly okay to rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.

How far have we come when we made sex a god that now we have to sacrifice unborn children to that god. The United States have had 60 million abortions since January 22, 1973. That's twice the population of Malaysia. That's the whole population of Thailand. Sex has become its own god.

That's not what God meant for it to be. He meant for it to be a part of a committed relationship between one man and one woman for life. This is what the bible teaches us. And this is the final authority for our lives.

Self, success and sex are equally bad idols to serve. And John said, "My dear little ones, keep yourselves from idols."

How do you do that?

How do you keep yourselves from idols?

1) Love God.
Love Him with your whole heart. Love Him as though He is the most important thing in your life. Love Him too much to do the things that displeases Him. Love Him so much that if you do the things that displeases Him, you tell Him that you did and you're sorry that you did. Love Him enough to know that the love that keeps you also empowers you. Love God.

2) Love others.

That is woven in all the chapters of 1 John.

Because if you love, you would not want to use others or abuse others. You would want to help and protect others.

If you love God, you are certainly not going to do anything to hurt others.

And when you do hurt others, you're not going to say they deserve it.

You are going to love God and to renew your heart so that you do not keep acting that way. Because He has put His love in you.

That's how you keep away from idols.

Very simply, love God and love others.

The idols don't have a chance when you have exalted God in your life. And because of that, you are giving honour to your brothers and sisters and everybody else.

But what happens when you've already gotten into the power of one?

1) Recognise it.
Don't lie to yourself. Acknowledge that you have been serving the idol of "Me" or you have been serving the idol of success or you have been serving the idol of sex. Admit it. Recognise it.

2) Renounce it.

Whatever power that this thing has over your life, renounce it through the power of Jesus.

3) Restore the ground that was lost and the damage that was done to your soul.
Do that through fellowship with believers, through time in the Word of God, through worship and through understanding the love of God and the deeper measure than you will have in your life. That will bring restoration to your soul that was messed up because you were worshipping the wrong things for whatever the period of time you were doing it.

4) Rejoice.

Always remember to rejoice. It's not like rejoicing when you feel like you've finally gotten to the end of your battle and you're totally 100% free. Rejoice in the process. Rejoice in the God who loves you enough to want you to leave behind the things that are destroying you. Why would the God who loves you would want you to love anything that harms you? He doesn't want you to. It is because of His love that sometimes He sounds a little bit stern in His pronouncements.

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen."

As You Go

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

As you go, may you know the love of Christ

How deep and long, how high and wide

As you leave, may you seek to win the prize

And find His death to be your life

Chorus:

May you go in the love of your Father God

May you go in the grace of Christ

May you go in the power of the Spirit now

Bringing glory with your life

Verse 2:

As you go, may you know the pow'r of grace

His very strength for what's to come

As you leave, may you feel His mighty hand

Guiding your steps in the race you run

Verse 3:

As you go, may you show His heart to bless

The ones with less, the blind and lost

As you leave, may you be the light of Christ

And show our hope is in the cross

Words and Music by Mark Altrogge

© 2011 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy;

To the only God our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord;

Be glory and majesty and dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Amen.