Idol #4: Image

Last day girls! Here we go! The last idol that we are prone to is the idol of image. Examples of this would be appearance, keeping up with the Joneses, health, youth, exercise, weight, material things, homes, cars, vacations, status, money.

Well, if you have lived in Western culture longer than five minutes you might have gotten caught up in at least one of these categories! We are laden down with images of what we should be everywhere we turn! Marketers have made a fortune recognizing the gap of satisfaction we are always trying to fill and they work to help us “stuff” something into it that will temporarily fix the problem.

No, it’s not eye cream, it’s dark circle corrector, no it’s not for bags it’s for thinning skin, no it’s not like a moisturizing cream, it’s like an exfoliant...etc; Who can keep up with it?

I recently watched an interview with Apple’s new CEO and he said their employee marketing slogan is: “Creating things you never knew you wanted but after getting them realizing you can’t live without them!” And that is the nature of marketing in our country on every front. Ladies, we have to be wise enough to identify the subtle deceit and realize that these temporary things will never satisfy the eternal longing within us. Eternal people need more than temporal things to satisfy..that is why the eternal God is the only thing that fits the eternal longing within us!

If you are chasing things whether it be image, health (for the baby-boomer - no price is too high for vitamins, premium food, healthcare etc;), youth (the surge in botox, juvederm parties etc;), money and things you will find satisfaction for a time. Let’s face it: there are some high watermarks in our lives when these things satisfy: the new car, the new house, the new dress, the goal on the scale, the goal at the gym, the promotion, the bonus, the vacation etc; But if you have lived any time at all you realize that the longing will creep up before the ink is dry on the promotion and the luggage is put away from vacation. This, in and of itself, should be enough to keep us from idolizing image...but it doesn’t!

Another way we idolize image is being obsessed with what others think of us. Putting up fronts, pretending to be something we aren’t or a lack of transparency are all ways that we guard our images. Social media has created a whole world around “cyber” images. People can morph and shape themselves into who they really want to be by carefully crafting posts, displaying only favorable pictures of themselves and overall “marketing” themselves in a “half-the-story” kind of way. This consistently perpetuates the idol of image among us.

Turn to 2 Samuel 6:13-16; 20-23

Michal was Saul’s daughter and David’s first wife. In this passage David is caught up in pure worship before the Lord. The ark has been absent from Jerusalem for some time and it is finally being brought back to its rightful place. God’s presence was back among His people and David was ecstatic, grateful and caught up in worship.

However, Michal, more concerned with image than anything else, including worship. She despised David in her heart and then she dressed him down with her words. Essentially she was saying, “You’re the king! Why are you acting like an undignified commoner, dancing around in the street wearing clothes like that?”

Michal was more concerned with image than she was worship. I know someone else who was more concerned with image than worship - Martha. We won’t turn there but Martha was more concerned with making sure she was seen as a good hostess rather than worshipping Jesus. Ladies, this is dangerous territory. When we become so concerned with image that we fail to worship we usurp the Lord’s blessing and invite His discipline!

How many times have we felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and failed to act on it at the end of a service because of image? How many times have we been motivated to give to missions or an effort in the church but failed to give because we wanted that money for our own comfort? How many times have we been moved to speak up or step up to a greater level of holiness in our lives but concern over what people thought has held us back? There are times when we want to raise our hands in worship but we don’t because of image. God help us when we become like the Pharisees and we are more concerned with the praise of men instead of the praise of God!

Thankfully, there is one woman in scripture who cared nothing about her image. Turn to Luke 7:36-39;

This woman is also known as the woman with the alabaster flask. Scripture is clear that in contrast to the Pharisees she was a “sinner”. The literal translation is “immoral woman” and it is likely she was a prostitute. It’s interesting that this would be her description considering that whether you are moral or immoral you are still a sinner. The difference was she was a sinner that knew it! And her need for a Savior, her need to worship the Savior superseded any worry over image.

You see, first, she was a woman. There would have been no women invited to this meal. Women were not among the invited guests. Second, she was a prostitute which made her presence even more scandalous. Thirdly, she would have “made a scene” with her weeping. She was crying so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipe the tears with her hair. I don’t picture her silently crying. I almost picture uncontrollable weeping where the tears just won’t stop. Lastly, you would have smelled her presence. Taking a costly vial of perfume, she poured out the expense on the feet of her Savior. Her worship could not be ignored!

In light of all of the idols we have studied today, here is one woman, who remains nameless that goes down in the scriptures for her worship. She had no care for relationship, she had no care for control, she had no care for emotion and she had no care for image. She only cared about worship..at any cost.

When we come encounter the Savior all idols fall at His feet. We become consumed with worship of the One True God, at all costs. True worship is costly. It costs our pride, our relationships, our control, our emotions and our image; it costs our very lives. We lay ourselves at the feet of Jesus and surrender ourselves over as a sweet smelling sacrifice. Ladies, what are you holding onto that is worth more to you than Jesus? Lay it down today!