Let's start off with a question :)
Q: How can you tell what is a priority in someone's life?
Some of the answers some of you came up with during bible study:
1) spending time on something/someone
2) talking about it
3) investing your time and resources into it
4) having an emotional attachment to it
5) caring for this thing
6) describing yourself through this thing
7) fighting for it
Okay, now another question
Q: What is an idol? (really spend some time thinking about how you would define what an idol is.)
Here's what you guys came up with
1) something that we put lots of time into
2) anything that takes the place of God
3) any type of distraction that strays you away from your relationship with God
4) something that you think you value more than God
Some thoughts:
From the song Clear the Stage by Jimmy Needham, you can get some ideas about what an idol is:
Anything I put before my God is an idol.
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol.
Anything I can't stop thinking about is an idol.
Anything that I give all my love is an idol
Let's go back to the very beginning of Creation (Genesis 1). What is the most important distinction between us and God?
He is the Creator and we are creation. He is the author of life and sustainer of all things, and we, his creation, are wholly dependant on Him for sustenance and definition.
- Therefore in the simplest sense, an idol is a false god, something that WE make as our god (deify) - we wrongly look to this image for sustenance and definition.
It is also interesting to note that it is easy to oftentimes associate idols with a carved statue or a golden calf. We think of the Israelites and their false gods- inanimate object like Buddha or a statue of a Greek god. However, idols still exist in our lives today, just in subtler forms. Because, like we mentioned before, idols are anything that we put before God , want with all our heart, can't stop thinking about, and give all our love to.
These 4 things should describe our relationship and attitude towards God: putting God first, wanting God with all our heart, thinking about God, and giving all our love to Him. Where we go wrong is when we turn to other things for love, sustenance, and give these things our love, attention, and priority.
So, another question:
Q: Why do we turn to these false gods when we know that they were not meant to be our sustainer and true love?
Some thoughts:
- Because of social pressure (our world glorifies these things (idols); e.g. money, relationships)
- We may sometimes feel like God can't/won't meet our "needs" so we go looking elsewhere
- Because of our lack of faith and trust in God that He knows what is best for us
- We have a relationship (involving two parties) with God; We talk to Him and He has the ability to say "yes" or "no" to our requests. VERSUS and idol is an inanimate object that cannot say "no" to you; you do your part (e.g. make a sacrifice) and you feel like you have done your part/everything you need to do in order to get what you want- like a slot machine mentality; you may even feel better afterwards (i.e. immediate gratification) because you may feel like you have some sort of control over the situation
Let's turn to Matthew 6:19-24
Q: What are the 3 activities that are going on in this passage? What is the result of each of these activities?
1) Storing up treasures: storing up treasures on earth will result in destruction and loss; our hearts will be consumed and stolen- where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (v.21) - just like how sin destroys and consumes our hearts
2) Focusing on/looking to: what we expose ourselves to/focus on can consume us and affect our whole being; you become what you worship (e.g. if your eye is dark, your whole body will be dark also)- statues are mute, deaf, and blind -> people who worship idols become like them and therefore may not be able to understand the Word of God- Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not (Jeremiah 5:21)
3) Serving: can only follow and serve only one thing; our heart cannot both belong to God and something else
So hopefully you will begin to see and recognize that we all store up other treasures for ourselves, focus on, and love/serve other things. So how do we move from worshiping and replacing these false gods to worshiping the One and only true God?
1) Recognize the idol: For starters, you can think about what is taking priority over God in your life, what you think about all the time/consumes your thoughts. what you love. It is NOT to say that just because you love something/someone, that they are your idol. But it's good to just start thinking about what really matters to you, and then think about if it does have precedence over God, and if you are using this thing for sustenance and definition.
Recognizing idols may be challenging because sometimes we just don't want to go there.. we don't want to view ourselves as these needy, false idol worshiping creatures, so we just don't think about it.
Also, idols are not necessarily bad things! Idols can be inherently good, however we have simply mistaken what its purpose is.
It's also hard to identify our idols as we are immersed in it through our culture (see David Foster Wallace's commencement speech: 0 s-1:10 to illustrate this point)
2) Recognize the need that the idol is filling (and that it is in the wrong place): God has designed things (his creation) to fill certain needs, and this is all good. But where we go wrong is when we use these things that have been designed for a certain purpose and try to fill other needs with it.
e.g. relationships are good things that God has ordained (e.g. marriage) but our need for acceptance and love and worth cannot be entirely filled by simply another human being (significant other, friend)
3) Recognize how that need is meant to be filled (in God's design or by God himself): Back to the example above, we must realize that our need for acceptance/love/worth can only truly be satisfied by the Lord himself, not by another human being (although relationships are, again, not bad).
4) Move towards this: releasing the idol and putting it in its place/filling needs: This may be a long and challenging process, but it is important to remember that it is ultimately God who helps us through this; we cannot do this ourselves!
Sometimes the best place to start isn't seeking out the idols in our life, as this may be extremely difficult, but simply by seeking out more of the light of God (which pushes out the darkness of idolatry in our life)
1) We can start by replacing our thoughts with God (instead of our idols that we can't stop thinking about); goes back to the "focusing on/looking to" part of Matthew 6.
Read Philippians 4:8
- Take notice of what you think about; do the attributes in this verse describe the things that you spend most of your time thinking about?
- Think about things that are described by these attributes. Perhaps think about these things?
- Try to think about God more throughout the day (goes back to our first bible study about realizing God's presence in our life and responding)
2) We can replace our loves with God (our idols- the things that we love with all our heart); goes back to the "loving/serving" part of Matthew 6.
Read 1 John 3:16
3) We can replace our desires with God (things that we want with all our heart); goes back to the "treasures/what our heart desires/values" part of Matthew 6.
- This is related to both the first and second points as things that we desires are things that we also love and therefore consume our thoughts.
