This is it! Can you believe it? Can you believe we have spent three weeks together studying idolatry and we are down to the very last day? I hope this study has been purposeful in your life. It surely has been in mine. I don’t want to waste any time, we have ground to take back from the enemy and idols to uproot so let’s get started!
Spring is just around the corner, hopefully, and with spring comes gardening. If you know me at all, you know my lament over having a black thumb! I want desperately to have a thriving, gorgeous, plentiful garden but alas, the soil is too rocky and I have no time to cultivate it the way it needs to be cultivated. However, there is one thing I know that I can grow, in fact, I can’t even kill it - mint. What started as one small plant has turned into an entire garden all on it’s own. It has taken over every other herb, plant and weed that grows behind our house. It has grown up under our deck and continues to spread.
Last summer I made the mistake of tilling the ground hoping it would cut the root and kill it once and for all. Big mistake! I came to find out later that this only serves to spread the mint because it is easily adaptable and can take root just about anywhere. On top of that, it is a “runner” meaning it doesn’t grow up it grows out, like a vine. Now, we can have grasshopper pie for days, months even!
No matter! I was determined to figure out how to rid our garden of mint once and for all. However, what I found out is that mint has to be uprooted. It cannot simply be cut off at the ground and left to die on its own. Yep, that doesn’t work, at all!
Idols are of the same temperament. They cannot simply be cut off they have to be uprooted and once uprooted, they have to be replaced! But how? How do we practically go about replacing idols. We’ve done the work of identifying our idols. We’ve looked at the lie in our right hand and God has graciously opened our eyes to see that it is a lie. Now, we sacrifice them.
First, we sacrifice them by sacrificing self. Let me explain. Do you remember learning that idolatry is really a means of exalting self above God? Well, if idolatry is about exaltation of self, and it is, then replacing idols requires dying to self. Idolatry is about self-preservation, self-protection, self-exaltation, self-image but being a disciple is about self-mortification or as David Platt puts it, “Slaying yourself.” In order to sacrifice self, whether a believer or an unbeliever, we must come face to face with the gospel, daily. Daily, we need to be reminded of our great sin, the greater Savior and the greatest gift of grace that is always free and always, by its very nature, undeserved! “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)
Jesus’ message has always been about dying to self. Until we die to self and find our life in Christ alone we will continue to erect idols over and over and over again. Just like mint, there will always be an idol, albeit hidden, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for us to bow down. Ladies, we cannot continue to rely on our own selves for anything! When we rely on our own righteousness (self-righteousness), our own works or our attempts to please the Lord with “good behavior” we are taking the power of the shed blood of Jesus and diluting it, we make it of no effect. We are turning blood into Kool-aid.
Instead of justification AND sanctification being by grace alone we begin to add in a little self.
We add in things like: daily study of the word, we add in church attendance or church participation, we add in generational faith or we attempt to please God with how good we’ve been. Then we put a little sugar on it to get it just the way we like it. We get rid of the bitterness and the parts that taste sour and we add in plenty of what makes us comfortable and in doing so the blood of Christ is unrecognizable.
But let’s face it, works is easier than faith. Works gives us a chart where we can measure out by gold stars how we are doing...more gold stars indicates how good we are. When works is taken out of the equation there is no way to determine how WE are doing - which is precisely the point. WE aren’t doing anything...this is grace...all Christ, all the time..Christ alone.
Our salvation is through grace alone so why would our sanctification be any different? It is all grace! When we grasp grace alone through Christ alone then we leave no reason to boast in self. We begin to die to self and die in our attempts to earn God’s favor. And almost without realizing it we begin replacing our idols with worship...worship of the One True God!
Second, we sacrifice idols by letting go of our self made delight and pursuing delight in the gospel, in Jesus and in grace. Psalm 37:4 states, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That sounds like a great verse doesn’t it? You mean I can have what I want? Well, if we have just learned that sacrificing idols is about dying to self then the focus of the verse is not us! The blessing in the second part of the verse hinges on the directive in the first part of the verse. We are commanded to delight in the Lord! And, let’s face it, sometimes delighting is hard.
Let me give you an example. I love my children. I know that I should delight in them and most of the time I do however, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when my children test my delight. Selah, mothers, selah. There are also times when others things in my life test my delight in my children. Stress, exhaustion, illness and trials are all times when I can find it hard to delight. In those times I have to make a conscious effort to delight in my children but I am to do it nonetheless.
The point is, as we pursue delight in the Lord and make that our focus we begin to have desires that line up with His. The more I love the Lord, the more I want what He wants and when He gets what He wants then amazingly, I do too! The tendency is to be selfish. The tendency is to hold our desires as ultimate and best for us. The tendency is to pursue God based on what He can do for me and not for who He is. Scripture teaches the exact opposite. Just as dying to self is contrary to our self-preservation. Delight in the Lord and wanting His desires are contrary to our self-interest. Thankfully, the gospel is about making me into someone I am NOT! Daily, I am being made into the person I am NOT and if you are a believer, you can testify...so are you! Yes, beloved, so are you!
In this study, you may have identified more idols in your life than you realized or you may have focused in on one particular idol. Regardless the Spirit is moving. You and I are here because the Lord has brought us to this place, at this time, for this message. He is speaking and when He speaks His mercy is on display. God is not obligated to open the eyes of our hearts or convict us one more day. Today, ladies, today is our day of repentance!
Won’t you respond now? Won’t you consciously visualize opening your fist and laying down the idols that have had sway in your life and grasp Jesus with both hands! The Lord has brought us out of slavery in order to give us freedom! Freedom in serving Him alone by grace alone. Let’s leave the idols in Egypt and sojourn to the Promised Land. Let’s live with clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord and never look back!
It’s time to throw the idol in the fire, wipe the ashes off your mouth and go in search of water. I know you must be thirsty, I am too. My soul is parched and languishing. There it is! It’s over there, by the well, Living Water is what He’s called. If you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. NEVER...THIRST...AGAIN!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Thirsty?
I don’t know about you but I enjoyed yesterday’s lesson so much! I love to extol the greatness and grace of our God! It brings me such joy to know that God has intervened for you and for me in the person of Jesus Christ, His work on the cross and the magnificent hope of His resurrection! We don’t have to go to God because He has come to us. What a God!
Today, we are going to focus our attention on the woman at the well. I want you to see a few things that are important here, especially for us as women. First, this woman was coming to the well in the middle of the day likely because she was a social outcast. Most women came to the well in groups early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. This would have been their time at the well. The fact that this woman was coming at Noon, in the heat of the day, coupled with what we find out later of her serial marriages could lead us to assume she was an outcast.
Second, she was a Samaritan. Samaritan’s were hated by the Jews and they were considered half-breeds. Heritage and being “pure-blooded” was important to maintaining purity in Jewish culture. The woman is so keenly aware of who she is that she states it, “I am a Samaritan woman...in case you haven’t noticed.”
Jesus never addresses her statement. He never focuses in on her “labels”, her gender, her nationality, he goes straight to the point. “My child, if you knew the depth of your thirst and who it is that says to you, “give me a drink”, you would have asked Him for water, living water.
We can see by the interaction that she is looking outside of herself for the answer. She doesn’t see a pitcher. She didn’t understand His words.
Again, Jesus bypasses her question. He says, Look, the water from this well is not the water I have to give. This water is temporal. It is outside of you. I have water that will be a well INSIDE of you, springing up to ETERNAL life. Again, the woman misses the point..”Sir, give me this water so that I can fill my temporal thirst and save me the trip here everyday...”
Many of us would be satisfied with temporal water, plain water, well-water. There have been so many times in my life where the Lord is teaching me, offering me fullness in Himself and I am focused on well-water. I WANT the well water. I don’t want the fullness of Christ. I am thirsty and content to have a temporary fix for my thirst. Eventually, it always leads me back to the well, thirsty again. Why is it we will look for the answer everywhere else except for Jesus first? Why is it that we are willing to try anything temporal before we look to the eternal?
In a word, rebellion. Our hearts are not naturally tuned to desire the things of God. Even as believers we still fight the sin nature that plagues our flesh. I have a tendency to give this woman a hard time but I am just like her! I want to look for every excuse in the world other than just doing what it is that I know I’m supposed to do. The answer is obvious but that’s not the answer I want. I don’t want Living Water, I want well-water because well-water will make me happy and satisfied for a time; because well-water will make my life easier for a time; because well-water is convenient.
Thankfully, as a believer, God gives us a new spirit and a new Spirit! We don’t have to be enslaved to the flesh and sin no longer has dominion over us! The process of growing in the Lord, also known as sanctification, gives us new tastes. Over time, the well-water doesn’t taste as good, it doesn’t satisfy as long and it becomes a burden to keep coming back to the well. Our palette becomes parched and we begin to see that Living Water is the only thing that completely satisfies!
Praise God for His patient pursuit of us! Let’s turn back to the woman. This time Jesus goes straight to the heart of this woman. He knows this will be the thing that grabs her attention. He is not only going to reveal His omniscience but He is about to confront her idol. Read v. 16-18.
Now, what does the woman do? She totally changes the subject! She is confronted with her sin and it hurts. She thinks talking “religion” with Him will get Him deterred but it doesn’t. Again, she begins to talk about things on the outside and Jesus abruptly and pointedly states, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” In other words, true worshipers will worship within themselves not by outward conformity to religious rituals. It’s not about a place..it is about your heart..what is on the inside!
And then I love how this ends: She is starting to get it and Jesus plainly states it for her, “I Who speak to you Am He! This brings tears to my eyes! A woman, of ill-repute, a social outcast is the one reason that Jesus had to go through Samaria (v.4) and the one to whom He plainly reveals Himself. In all of scripture it seems that Jesus is talking in parables and riddles and in phraseology that is at times over our heads but to this woman He comes out with it plain and clear, “I Who speak to you Am He.”
Ladies, the One Who speaks to us is He! The Living Water. This is the same fountain of living water that Jeremiah spoke of in Jeremiah 2! We must come to the fountain of living waters and find rest for our weary souls and complete satisfaction for our soul thirst!
What is this that satisfies? Living water. Water that comes from within, not from without. The Holy Spirit is a wellspring of life that bubbles up with effervescent, soul-satisfying water that quenches all of the hollow, thirsty longing of a dry, deadness resulting from sin. Tim Keller says, “you don’t need water splashed on your face; you need water that comes from even deeper down inside you than the thirst itself. “ Indeed! And Jesus supplies that...for those who will worship Him in spirit (from within) and truth (by the revealed word of God).
Replacing idols is about redirecting our worship. True worship fills us to the point that there is no room for worship of anything else. When we worship the one true God, His fullness is so complete that we don’t have room for anything else. Living water keeps us so full and satisfied that we never have a thirst for anything else.
When we worship in spirit, we worship from within, from our hearts. When we worship in truth, we worship through the truth of the revealed word of God. We must expose ourselves consistently to the worship of Him through the Word! God has provided us with living water and invited us to drink freely from what satisfies completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Drink up!
Today, we are going to focus our attention on the woman at the well. I want you to see a few things that are important here, especially for us as women. First, this woman was coming to the well in the middle of the day likely because she was a social outcast. Most women came to the well in groups early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. This would have been their time at the well. The fact that this woman was coming at Noon, in the heat of the day, coupled with what we find out later of her serial marriages could lead us to assume she was an outcast.
Second, she was a Samaritan. Samaritan’s were hated by the Jews and they were considered half-breeds. Heritage and being “pure-blooded” was important to maintaining purity in Jewish culture. The woman is so keenly aware of who she is that she states it, “I am a Samaritan woman...in case you haven’t noticed.”
Jesus never addresses her statement. He never focuses in on her “labels”, her gender, her nationality, he goes straight to the point. “My child, if you knew the depth of your thirst and who it is that says to you, “give me a drink”, you would have asked Him for water, living water.
We can see by the interaction that she is looking outside of herself for the answer. She doesn’t see a pitcher. She didn’t understand His words.
Again, Jesus bypasses her question. He says, Look, the water from this well is not the water I have to give. This water is temporal. It is outside of you. I have water that will be a well INSIDE of you, springing up to ETERNAL life. Again, the woman misses the point..”Sir, give me this water so that I can fill my temporal thirst and save me the trip here everyday...”
Many of us would be satisfied with temporal water, plain water, well-water. There have been so many times in my life where the Lord is teaching me, offering me fullness in Himself and I am focused on well-water. I WANT the well water. I don’t want the fullness of Christ. I am thirsty and content to have a temporary fix for my thirst. Eventually, it always leads me back to the well, thirsty again. Why is it we will look for the answer everywhere else except for Jesus first? Why is it that we are willing to try anything temporal before we look to the eternal?
In a word, rebellion. Our hearts are not naturally tuned to desire the things of God. Even as believers we still fight the sin nature that plagues our flesh. I have a tendency to give this woman a hard time but I am just like her! I want to look for every excuse in the world other than just doing what it is that I know I’m supposed to do. The answer is obvious but that’s not the answer I want. I don’t want Living Water, I want well-water because well-water will make me happy and satisfied for a time; because well-water will make my life easier for a time; because well-water is convenient.
Thankfully, as a believer, God gives us a new spirit and a new Spirit! We don’t have to be enslaved to the flesh and sin no longer has dominion over us! The process of growing in the Lord, also known as sanctification, gives us new tastes. Over time, the well-water doesn’t taste as good, it doesn’t satisfy as long and it becomes a burden to keep coming back to the well. Our palette becomes parched and we begin to see that Living Water is the only thing that completely satisfies!
Praise God for His patient pursuit of us! Let’s turn back to the woman. This time Jesus goes straight to the heart of this woman. He knows this will be the thing that grabs her attention. He is not only going to reveal His omniscience but He is about to confront her idol. Read v. 16-18.
Now, what does the woman do? She totally changes the subject! She is confronted with her sin and it hurts. She thinks talking “religion” with Him will get Him deterred but it doesn’t. Again, she begins to talk about things on the outside and Jesus abruptly and pointedly states, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” In other words, true worshipers will worship within themselves not by outward conformity to religious rituals. It’s not about a place..it is about your heart..what is on the inside!
And then I love how this ends: She is starting to get it and Jesus plainly states it for her, “I Who speak to you Am He! This brings tears to my eyes! A woman, of ill-repute, a social outcast is the one reason that Jesus had to go through Samaria (v.4) and the one to whom He plainly reveals Himself. In all of scripture it seems that Jesus is talking in parables and riddles and in phraseology that is at times over our heads but to this woman He comes out with it plain and clear, “I Who speak to you Am He.”
Ladies, the One Who speaks to us is He! The Living Water. This is the same fountain of living water that Jeremiah spoke of in Jeremiah 2! We must come to the fountain of living waters and find rest for our weary souls and complete satisfaction for our soul thirst!
What is this that satisfies? Living water. Water that comes from within, not from without. The Holy Spirit is a wellspring of life that bubbles up with effervescent, soul-satisfying water that quenches all of the hollow, thirsty longing of a dry, deadness resulting from sin. Tim Keller says, “you don’t need water splashed on your face; you need water that comes from even deeper down inside you than the thirst itself. “ Indeed! And Jesus supplies that...for those who will worship Him in spirit (from within) and truth (by the revealed word of God).
Replacing idols is about redirecting our worship. True worship fills us to the point that there is no room for worship of anything else. When we worship the one true God, His fullness is so complete that we don’t have room for anything else. Living water keeps us so full and satisfied that we never have a thirst for anything else.
When we worship in spirit, we worship from within, from our hearts. When we worship in truth, we worship through the truth of the revealed word of God. We must expose ourselves consistently to the worship of Him through the Word! God has provided us with living water and invited us to drink freely from what satisfies completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Drink up!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
God Intervenes
Yesterday, we got a vivid and accurate picture of what we look like when we attempt to make temporal things fill the eternal “soul hole” that is within us. You might have heard it referred to as a “God-shaped” hole and although I don’t think that we are running around with little holes in our bodies shaped like God, the analogy is sufficient. We were made to be eternal. Believers and unbelievers alike will live forever. The difference comes down to where we will spend eternity and who secures that for us.
For the unbeliever, eternity is secured all by ourselves. We don’t need an Advocate, a Savior, a Redeemer or a Substitute. Hell is already ours and to earn it all we have to do is draw breath. This is the pinnacle of self-reliance. When we fully rely on ourselves to secure our eternity we are fully able to do so. But it is an eternity based on our own merit and not the holy perfection that is required to enter God’s heaven. Our own merit is always flawed, always lacking, always missing the mark because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Hell is about me feeling sufficient in my own ability to secure eternity and doing it my way.
On the other hand, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” So, clearly Jesus Christ is the only One who can secure heavenly eternity for us. Heaven belongs to God and He has graciously provided a way for us to abide with Him there but it is the way of His choosing. Amazingly, the way is free. It isn’t without sacrifice, but it is free. Furthermore, God is so good not to conceal the way to get there. He isn’t unclear or mysterious about how to gain heaven. Lastly, what grace that we would even be given an option! Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that WE would have the ability to be called children of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf! All that is required of us to believe! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in Him should not perish but have eternal LIFE” (John 3:16). Praise God!
Today, we will encounter a woman who has clearly been doing things her way. She is flawed, lacking, missing the mark and completely self-reliant. Her life is filled with the idols of relationship, emotion, control and image. On one seemingly random day, God intervenes...
Read John 4:7-26
When Jesus meets the woman at the well she has done a poor, although consistent job of trying to find satisfaction from outside of herself. She has tried relationship after relationship. She has most likely at some point elevated control and emotions to a level of idolatry in her life and now she is thirsty and she just wants a drink of water.
I can only imagine that this woman looks haggard. The years of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations show on her face. The area around the well is quiet as she approaches and seeing a man sitting there she probably kept her distance. Suddenly the man speaks to her and God intervenes.
Tomorrow we will take a closer look at this scene as it unravels but for now I want to draw your attention to Jesus. Jesus’ presence in this woman’s life is not random. Jesus left Judea headed to Galilee but one statement, often overlooked, in v.4 shows His deliberate pursuit of this one woman. Verse four states, “He HAD TO pass through Samaria.” In Jewish culture, the Samaritans were so hated by the Jews that Jews took the long way around in order to avoid passing through Samaria. But Jesus, had to go. He had to go because before the foundation of the world He had an appointment with this woman at the well. What seemed random to her, was divinely appointed by God. This day, God would intervene in this woman’s eternal destiny.
The same is true of the cross. What seemed a random death to the onlookers that day at Golgotha was divinely appointed by God. A plan that was set in motion when the first day of creation began and a plan that continues on until the final return of Christ. That plan converged on Calvary’s Hill. Calvary is the crux, the apex of history. It was not some random event sprinkled in history. Ladies, that plan is what history is all about. God intervenes.
What circumstance in your life, seemingly random, is God using to intervene? Where is God intervening in order to draw you to the Way, the Truth and the Life? What idols are being revealed that keep you sitting by the fire? To the unbeliever, confess your sin today and BELIEVE in God’s intervention into your eternity through Jesus!
To the believer, the cross is where God first intervened into your eternity and it is where you are continually reminded that God still intervenes for you today. Our hope lies in the cross alone. Jesus HAD TO go to the cross for you and for me. It is the place that we HAVE TO go to to revive our hearts, rekindle our passion and refocus our worship. Won’t you go there today?
For the unbeliever, eternity is secured all by ourselves. We don’t need an Advocate, a Savior, a Redeemer or a Substitute. Hell is already ours and to earn it all we have to do is draw breath. This is the pinnacle of self-reliance. When we fully rely on ourselves to secure our eternity we are fully able to do so. But it is an eternity based on our own merit and not the holy perfection that is required to enter God’s heaven. Our own merit is always flawed, always lacking, always missing the mark because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Hell is about me feeling sufficient in my own ability to secure eternity and doing it my way.
On the other hand, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” So, clearly Jesus Christ is the only One who can secure heavenly eternity for us. Heaven belongs to God and He has graciously provided a way for us to abide with Him there but it is the way of His choosing. Amazingly, the way is free. It isn’t without sacrifice, but it is free. Furthermore, God is so good not to conceal the way to get there. He isn’t unclear or mysterious about how to gain heaven. Lastly, what grace that we would even be given an option! Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that WE would have the ability to be called children of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf! All that is required of us to believe! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in Him should not perish but have eternal LIFE” (John 3:16). Praise God!
Today, we will encounter a woman who has clearly been doing things her way. She is flawed, lacking, missing the mark and completely self-reliant. Her life is filled with the idols of relationship, emotion, control and image. On one seemingly random day, God intervenes...
Read John 4:7-26
When Jesus meets the woman at the well she has done a poor, although consistent job of trying to find satisfaction from outside of herself. She has tried relationship after relationship. She has most likely at some point elevated control and emotions to a level of idolatry in her life and now she is thirsty and she just wants a drink of water.
I can only imagine that this woman looks haggard. The years of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations show on her face. The area around the well is quiet as she approaches and seeing a man sitting there she probably kept her distance. Suddenly the man speaks to her and God intervenes.
Tomorrow we will take a closer look at this scene as it unravels but for now I want to draw your attention to Jesus. Jesus’ presence in this woman’s life is not random. Jesus left Judea headed to Galilee but one statement, often overlooked, in v.4 shows His deliberate pursuit of this one woman. Verse four states, “He HAD TO pass through Samaria.” In Jewish culture, the Samaritans were so hated by the Jews that Jews took the long way around in order to avoid passing through Samaria. But Jesus, had to go. He had to go because before the foundation of the world He had an appointment with this woman at the well. What seemed random to her, was divinely appointed by God. This day, God would intervene in this woman’s eternal destiny.
The same is true of the cross. What seemed a random death to the onlookers that day at Golgotha was divinely appointed by God. A plan that was set in motion when the first day of creation began and a plan that continues on until the final return of Christ. That plan converged on Calvary’s Hill. Calvary is the crux, the apex of history. It was not some random event sprinkled in history. Ladies, that plan is what history is all about. God intervenes.
What circumstance in your life, seemingly random, is God using to intervene? Where is God intervening in order to draw you to the Way, the Truth and the Life? What idols are being revealed that keep you sitting by the fire? To the unbeliever, confess your sin today and BELIEVE in God’s intervention into your eternity through Jesus!
To the believer, the cross is where God first intervened into your eternity and it is where you are continually reminded that God still intervenes for you today. Our hope lies in the cross alone. Jesus HAD TO go to the cross for you and for me. It is the place that we HAVE TO go to to revive our hearts, rekindle our passion and refocus our worship. Won’t you go there today?
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Filling the "Soul Hole"
“As long as you think there is a pretty good chance that you will achieve some of your dreams, as long as you think you have a shot at success, you experience your inner emptiness as ‘drive’ and your anxiety as ‘hope.’ And so you can remain almost completely oblivious to how deep your thirst actually is. Most of us keep telling ourselves that the reason we remain unfulfilled is because we simply haven’t been able to achieve our goals. And so we can live almost our entire lives without admitting to ourselves the depth of our spiritual thirst.” ~ Tim Keller
I hope that each of you had a wonderful week leading up to Easter. What a glorious time in our lives as believers to celebrate the hope we have in Christ! Now it’s time to get down to business and close the book on our study of idolatry. Just to recap: We spent the first week doing a great deal of background work on idolatry. We learned about the importance of confessing and forsaking our sin. We also studied God’s love through His rightful rule in our lives. Then, in week two, we looked at four different idols that we are prone to as women. The idols of relationship, emotion, control and image are always lurking around the corner. Thankfully, this week, we are going to learn what it means to uproot and replace our idols with the fullness that God has provided us in Christ!
Ladies, it has been a long journey over the last two weeks. It has been a painful journey as we have allowed our hearts to be searched by the Holy Spirit and no doubt, many idols have been revealed. I don’t know about you but as I uncover idols in my own life I am ashamed, embarrassed and overwhelmed by my blindness. I want us to get a good look at the picture scripture paints of us when idols take hold of our lives.
Turn to Is. 44:9-20
This passage continues to run over and over in my mind when I think about how deceived we become in our own lusts and sin. Why do we feast on ashes? Because a deceived heart turns us aside! Isn’t this the very first thing we studied at the beginning of week two as we began to identify idols? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Idolatry has a way of skewing our feelings, our actions and our thoughts. When it’s something so important to us we become irrational, it becomes magnified and more important than it should be. In “Lord of the Rings” connotation, it becomes our “Precious”. We can’t see the truth - we can’t back up to focus. We can’t see that the thing in our right hand is a lie!
When I look back at my biggest trials I can see that the Lord was merciful in opening my hand. But, the prying open of my hand hurt!! It hurt to realize that I had been feeding on ashes and happy about it! I can just see us sitting around the fire with black soot around our mouths from the ashes we have been eating, tightly gripping our idols, unable to see that the things we are holding onto are lies!
Lies that a relationship will make us whole. Lies that we can control everything in our lives and those around us. Lies that our emotions are paramount. Lies that image is everything.
This is no way for the children of God to live yet, we cannot deliver ourselves. Our will power will only suffice for a time and the enemy never tries anything new. Eventually, we will find ourselves right back in front of the fire...worshipping.
Simply put, idolatry is misguided worship. Misguided worship takes temporal things and elevates them to the eternal position. In the passage we just read in Isaiah 44 we see the absurdity of making an idol out of a tree, using that same tree for firewood that cooks food and makes heat then bowing down to the same tree. This is the example of how foolish it is for us to make temporal things our god.
God told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
This is us! We have forsaken Jesus, the fountain of living waters and we have hewn broken cisterns for ourselves that can hold no water. The first, forsaking the Lord, has enabled us to do the second, carving our own broken cisterns. We must come back to the fountain of living waters and replace our idols with worship that occurs in spirit and in truth.
Just as drinking a cup of water will only satisfy our thirst temporarily, our soul remains thirsty until it is quenched by an eternal, living water. There is nothing temporal that can quench an eternal thirst.
Jesus preached this very thing in the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.” These are not fleshly appetites and they are not satisfied with fleshly things. The thing that the eternal part of us longs for can only be filled by something eternal. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of spirit is spirit and that which is born of flesh is flesh (John 3:6). In other words, this isn’t another law for you to follow. This isn’t another thing for you to try and cram into the “soul” hole. This satisfies, completely because it is soul satisfaction.
As in Tim Keller’s quote at the start of this lesson, we often believe that satisfaction and happiness in life is dependent upon something outside of us. If I were to ask you, “What would make you happy?” Most likely you would look outside of yourself for the answer to that question. You would look to relationships, control, emotions and image. Ultimately, you would look to your circumstances right? But what if you could have satisfaction that is not based on something outside of you? Something not based on your circumstances?
I hope that each of you had a wonderful week leading up to Easter. What a glorious time in our lives as believers to celebrate the hope we have in Christ! Now it’s time to get down to business and close the book on our study of idolatry. Just to recap: We spent the first week doing a great deal of background work on idolatry. We learned about the importance of confessing and forsaking our sin. We also studied God’s love through His rightful rule in our lives. Then, in week two, we looked at four different idols that we are prone to as women. The idols of relationship, emotion, control and image are always lurking around the corner. Thankfully, this week, we are going to learn what it means to uproot and replace our idols with the fullness that God has provided us in Christ!
Ladies, it has been a long journey over the last two weeks. It has been a painful journey as we have allowed our hearts to be searched by the Holy Spirit and no doubt, many idols have been revealed. I don’t know about you but as I uncover idols in my own life I am ashamed, embarrassed and overwhelmed by my blindness. I want us to get a good look at the picture scripture paints of us when idols take hold of our lives.
Turn to Is. 44:9-20
This passage continues to run over and over in my mind when I think about how deceived we become in our own lusts and sin. Why do we feast on ashes? Because a deceived heart turns us aside! Isn’t this the very first thing we studied at the beginning of week two as we began to identify idols? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Idolatry has a way of skewing our feelings, our actions and our thoughts. When it’s something so important to us we become irrational, it becomes magnified and more important than it should be. In “Lord of the Rings” connotation, it becomes our “Precious”. We can’t see the truth - we can’t back up to focus. We can’t see that the thing in our right hand is a lie!
When I look back at my biggest trials I can see that the Lord was merciful in opening my hand. But, the prying open of my hand hurt!! It hurt to realize that I had been feeding on ashes and happy about it! I can just see us sitting around the fire with black soot around our mouths from the ashes we have been eating, tightly gripping our idols, unable to see that the things we are holding onto are lies!
Lies that a relationship will make us whole. Lies that we can control everything in our lives and those around us. Lies that our emotions are paramount. Lies that image is everything.
This is no way for the children of God to live yet, we cannot deliver ourselves. Our will power will only suffice for a time and the enemy never tries anything new. Eventually, we will find ourselves right back in front of the fire...worshipping.
Simply put, idolatry is misguided worship. Misguided worship takes temporal things and elevates them to the eternal position. In the passage we just read in Isaiah 44 we see the absurdity of making an idol out of a tree, using that same tree for firewood that cooks food and makes heat then bowing down to the same tree. This is the example of how foolish it is for us to make temporal things our god.
God told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
This is us! We have forsaken Jesus, the fountain of living waters and we have hewn broken cisterns for ourselves that can hold no water. The first, forsaking the Lord, has enabled us to do the second, carving our own broken cisterns. We must come back to the fountain of living waters and replace our idols with worship that occurs in spirit and in truth.
Just as drinking a cup of water will only satisfy our thirst temporarily, our soul remains thirsty until it is quenched by an eternal, living water. There is nothing temporal that can quench an eternal thirst.
Jesus preached this very thing in the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.” These are not fleshly appetites and they are not satisfied with fleshly things. The thing that the eternal part of us longs for can only be filled by something eternal. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of spirit is spirit and that which is born of flesh is flesh (John 3:6). In other words, this isn’t another law for you to follow. This isn’t another thing for you to try and cram into the “soul” hole. This satisfies, completely because it is soul satisfaction.
As in Tim Keller’s quote at the start of this lesson, we often believe that satisfaction and happiness in life is dependent upon something outside of us. If I were to ask you, “What would make you happy?” Most likely you would look outside of yourself for the answer to that question. You would look to relationships, control, emotions and image. Ultimately, you would look to your circumstances right? But what if you could have satisfaction that is not based on something outside of you? Something not based on your circumstances?
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