This morning's scripture reading comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 30.
And you can follow along your bulletin as we read.
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits, and its breadth 6 cubits.
He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
And the herald proclaimed aloud,
You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, backpipe, and every kind of music,
you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.
Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,
all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Therefore, at the time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews,
they declared to King Nebuchadnezzar,
O king, live forever.
You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,
shall fall down and worship the golden image.
And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a fiery, burning furnace.
There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
These men, O king, pay no attention to you.
They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar, in a furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought.
So they brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them,
Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?
Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,
to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.
But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.
And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
If this be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.
And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.
Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments,
and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.
Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated,
the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste.
He declared to his counselors,
Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?
They answered and said to the king,
True, O king.
He answered and said,
But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.
And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning, fiery furnace.
He declared,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.
And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together
and saw that fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.
The hair of their heads was not singed,
their cloaks were not harmed,
and no smell of fire had come upon them.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said,
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
who has sent his angel and delivered his servants,
who trusted in him,
and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies,
rather than serve and worship any god except their own god.
Therefore I make a decree,
Any people, nation, or language
that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
shall be torn limb from limb,
and their houses laid in ruins,
for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in the province of Babylon.
This is the reading of God's word.
Good morning.
If you don't know me, my name is Eric Scott.
I'm the youth guy here at Watermark.
I am really excited to get to speak with you guys today.
Just a little background on me.
I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
The tallest thing in my hometown was trees.
And one of the things that I loved to do as a kid
was climb these trees.
I would go out.
My uncle and aunt had a great climbing tree in their backyard.
It had nice low branches to the ground
so I could reach them even when I was a little kid.
It means I was only this tall instead of this tall.
And I would go out there and I would climb up these trees
and I would reach up for the next branch.
I would climb up.
And there was just something about being on top of a tree.
It felt like I was on top of the world.
I felt this sense of freedom being up there.
I was away from everything.
I could see really far.
It was awesome.
The problem was that as I was climbing these trees,
I would reach up and grab really high branches
and pull myself up and reach up again.
And I would get to the top.
I would enjoy the view for a while.
I would enjoy being up there.
And then it was time to go down.
And I realized that the stretches that I made on the way up
were not anywhere near as easy to make on the way down.
If you've ever climbed a tree, I'm sure you can relate to this.
And so there was this promise of freedom that lay at the top of the tree
that I climbed up there for and I reached for and I stretched for
and I got up there.
And then I realized that I was trapped.
And I would have to get down very, very, very creatively.
It would take a significantly longer time getting down.
And this freedom that I had been promised at the top of the tree
turned out to be a trap.
And it was only when I finally got back down to the ground
that I was actually free and able to live life
as it was meant to be lived.
And today I want to share with you about a story of some men
who had this promise of something greater, something bigger
that they were reaching for.
But as they reached for this promise of freedom, of power, of control,
it trapped them and it made them slaves.
And I want us to see that in this story of three men being thrown into the furnace,
the only truly free men in the entire story are the ones who are in chains.
So you just heard the story.
There was a king in the ancient country of Babylon named Nebuchadnezzar.
He built a huge statue and he said,
I want everyone to bow down to it when the music plays.
If you don't bow, you burn.
The music plays, everyone comes, they bow down, the music ends.
And then these Chaldeans go straight up to the king and they say,
Oh king, you made this rule.
You said anyone who doesn't bow burns.
Well, these three Jewish guys didn't bow.
Throw them in the furnace.
And the king, it says, he was in a furious rage.
I don't ever, ever, ever in my life want to be in front of a king who is in a furious rage.
Especially if I'm the one who made him be in that furious rage.
But he calls these three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
or Rakshak and Benny if you were raised on VeggieTales like me.
And he calls them in to his throne room and he says,
What is this?
I hear that you did not bow down to the statue like I commanded.
I'm going to give you one more chance.
The music's going to play and you had better bow or else I'm throwing you in this burning, fiery furnace.
Not just a furnace, but a burning, fiery furnace.
I guess it just sounds scarier that way.
He says, I'm throwing you in this burning, fiery furnace.
And what God is there that can save you from my hand?
Implying that there is no God that can save them from his hand.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don't even take any time to think about this offer.
They say, no need to play the music, king.
We've already made up our minds.
We're not going to bow.
Our God who we serve, he's able to deliver us from your hand.
But even if he doesn't, we're still not going to bow.
We are so confident in him.
We are so sure that he is the one true God that we're willing to give our lives for worshiping him.
And the king who started out this conversation in a furious rage, now it says it's filled with fury.
And his face was changed because he got even more angry.
Again, not a situation I want to be in ever in my life.
In front of a super angry king.
And so he commands that this furnace be heated up seven times as hot as it already was.
So hot that when the guards go to throw these men in, the guards get burned up by the fire.
They take the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They throw them into the fire.
And the king sits back to enjoy watching these men die.
Because he is angry enough that he is going to enjoy watching their death.
But as he begins to watch, he is startled.
Because they threw three men into the furnace.
And now he sees four.
And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.
And the men who had been bound when they were thrown in there, they were in chains, now are free.
Just walking around like normal.
He says, what's going on?
He has the door to the furnace opened.
The three men come out.
They don't even smell like smoke.
Their clothes haven't been burned at all.
And the king realizes that there is a god who can save from this burning, fiery furnace.
That it is the god that these three men worshipped.
And he commands a new command.
That no one is able to say anything against the god that these men serve.
Because their god is the one who is able to save from this burning, fiery furnace.
So I want to zoom in today on one specific scene from this story.
The scene in front of the king where these men are on trial.
But before we get there, I want to talk a little bit about idols.
Because this story is all about idols.
I'm not talking about the statue that the king built and said you need to bow down to it.
Yes, that is an idol.
Yes, idols can be statues that we bow down to.
But biblically, an idol is so much more than just a statue.
Biblically, an idol is anything that controls our hearts more than God does.
Anything that is more important to us than God.
Anything that inspires our actions, inspires our thoughts more than God does.
Biblically, that is an idol.
And because an idol is not necessarily a statue, it means anything can be an idol.
Even good things in life.
And actually, the better something is, the more likely we are to turn it into an idol.
So here's what I mean.
Money.
You need money to be able to afford a place to live.
You need money to buy clothes.
You need money to get around town.
You need money to be able to eat.
And so we look at money, and there's a strong pull to say,
Hey, if I can get enough money, I'll just be set for life.
If I can get enough money, I will be safe.
I will be comfortable.
I'll be set.
And so we take a good thing of money, and we trust in it to keep us safe and secure and comfortable for the rest of our lives, and we turn it into an idol.
Or again, maybe a relationship.
We say, you know, I like having people around me who know me, who get me, who love me.
If I find a significant other that can complete me, then I'll be set.
I'll be comfortable for life.
I'll be accepted for life.
I'll have someone who's always there for me.
Or maybe we take something like being a good moral person.
Obviously, being a good moral person is a very good thing.
But because being a good moral person is such a good thing, there's a tendency that we can look at where we say,
If I can just be good enough, then God has to accept me.
If I can be good enough, then I can make God owe me.
And the Bible says that that is taking our good moral behavior and turning it into an idol.
It's placing that on the level where only God belongs.
And with idols, the thing is, it's not just that we go out there for these things, but as we go for them, they enslave us.
They spin out a new set of definitions of life that defines everything in terms of themselves.
So the person who's seeking money, who wants more money in their bank account, in their checkbook so they can spend it all,
all of a sudden, everything in life becomes about the bottom line.
Will this make me more money?
Will this cost me money?
That is the lens through which the person who idolizes money sees all of life.
Something that may be immoral or borderline illegal.
If it makes us more money, it's okay to do it as long as we don't get caught.
because life is seen in terms of how much money is in the bank.
Or the person who idolizes relationships,
finding their identity in this significant other.
You wake up in the morning and you feel that your life has meaning
because you're in this relationship.
You're a slave because you can't get out of it.
You're trapped by it.
Even if it becomes a bad relationship, maybe it becomes abusive.
And it's not safe for the person to stay in this relationship,
but they find their meaning and definition in life
in the fact that they are with this other person.
And so even though it's not safe for them to still be in this relationship,
they know that if they leave this relationship,
their whole sense of who they are as an individual will be lost.
They're a slave to their desire for this relationship,
and they're trapped.
Or being a good moral person.
Again, like we said, being a good moral person is a very good thing,
but when we put it as the ultimate thing in our lives,
we begin to see all of life by the letter of the law.
And Jesus very clearly taught that the purpose that God gave us the law for
is so that we would love God and love others.
And if we're constantly focused on keeping the letter of the law
so that we can come across as a good moral person,
we'll overlook loving others.
We'll overlook loving God for the sake of doing the right thing
or what appears to be the right thing.
And Jesus very, very, very clearly taught
that many people will be kept out of heaven
because of this attitude
that I need to constantly be a good moral person.
Because he says,
no matter how good you are,
you can never be good enough for God's standards.
So idols can be anything.
Anything can be an idol.
Good things are more likely to become idols
because the better something is,
the more likely we are to believe that it can save us,
that it can give us what we truly want in life.
And when we start following an idol,
it spins out a new definition of life for us
that defines all of life in terms of itself,
and makes us its slave.
Everyone with me so far?
Yeah?
All right.
So now, we're going to jump back into the story,
having that background on idols.
We're going to look at different characters in this scene
and see how they have been enslaved.
First up, we have the Chaldeans.
Now, if you remember,
the Chaldeans were the ones who ran in and said,
oh, king, oh, king, oh, king,
there's these men.
They didn't listen to you.
Kill them.
A little backstory here.
The Chaldeans are the locals.
In the country of Babylon,
their ethnic group is the one who rules the country.
And in the end of the previous chapter,
these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
had gotten promoted.
They had gotten bumped over these Chaldeans
in the hierarchy of the kingdom.
Also, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
are foreigners.
So these Chaldeans come into the king,
and it looks like they're just trying to report some people
who broke the king's command.
But in reality, what's going on
is these Chaldeans have an idol of power.
They want to be as powerful as possible.
They want to do whatever they can
to grab as much power as they can get their hands on.
And they see an opportunity right here
where these men have disobeyed the king,
these men who are more powerful than them,
and they're coming to the king
to get these guys out of the way
so they can get bumped up higher in the nation.
These men have idolized power in their lives
to the extent that they will do anything
to get their hands on more power,
even if it means killing the men
who are higher up than them
and who are more powerful than them in the nation.
They are slaves to this idol of power.
They will stop at nothing to be able to get it.
They appear to be coming to the king as free men,
but because of their desire for power,
the way that they see the world
is through a lens that means that they have to do this.
They have to do whatever they can
to get their hands on more and more and more power.
But these men aren't the only ones in the room
who are slaves to idols.
If we spin and look at the king,
King Nebuchadnezzar,
he hears the report
that these three Jewish guys are not obeying.
And how does he respond?
It says furious rage.
Not just a little upset,
furious rage.
The king wants control.
The king wants to be able to say something
and have the people in his kingdom
do what he says.
And that's not happening.
The king gave a command,
and these men blatantly disobeyed him.
These men who were in leadership positions
in his kingdom said,
no, king, we are not going to listen.
When the king heard about it,
he lost control
because so much of his identity
was tied up in him having control
over the other people in the kingdom.
And he jumps into this furious rage.
He starts making threats against these men
because he needs to grab hold
of this idol of control in his life.
And the way that he knows how to do that
is by threatening,
by getting angry.
He overreacts to what they have done
because he is a slave
to this idol of control.
Even though he is the most powerful man
in the most powerful position
in the entire kingdom,
he is a lowly slave
to the idols that rule his heart.
And in the great irony of this story,
the only men in this room
who are truly free
are the ones who are in chains.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
they knew that their identity
lay in their relationship with God.
Because of that,
when the king gave the command
to bow to the statue,
they didn't bow.
Because they knew that their identity
lay in their relationship with God,
when they were called in before the king
and threatened with death for disobedience,
they didn't even have to think about it.
They said,
okay, kill us.
Throw us in the fire.
We know that our God
is big enough to save us from this fire.
But even if he doesn't,
we still know
that our identity is found
in a relationship with him.
And that we want to preserve this relationship.
And that bowing down to your statue
would break this relationship.
So we're not going to bow,
even if it costs us our lives.
See, these men were so absolutely,
totally free.
There was no accusation
that these Chaldeans
could bring against them
that would shake their freedom.
There's no threat
that the king could make to them
that would make them second guess
what their relation was with God.
They were willing
to be brought before the king.
They were willing
to burn in the furnace
because they were absolutely free,
because they knew
that their identity
was found
in this relationship with God.
Now, I don't know about you guys,
but I think for me,
I want to live my life
with that type of freedom.
I'm guessing most of us do too.
If we were to look at ourselves
and say,
do you want to be a slave
or do you want to be free?
I don't think that's something
most of us really need to think about, right?
Like, oh,
it's such a tough decision.
No, we want to live our lives free.
The problem is
that so many of us,
I would even say all of us,
have idols
that we worship in our lives
either consciously
or subconsciously.
And if you don't believe
that you do,
I want to throw some questions
out there
for you to think about
to help us get our brains
moving in this direction.
First off,
what do I use
to comfort myself
when things go wrong?
when I feel like the world
around me
is just caving in?
What's my hope
that makes me feel like
things are going to be okay?
What preoccupies me?
What do I daydream about?
If I'm sitting there
and I don't have my iPhone
out to distract me,
what does my brain jump to?
And if I can't sit there
without my iPhone
out to distract me,
that may be a good indicator
where our idols are.
What just naturally
fills our minds
when there's nothing else there?
Early on,
when I meet new people,
what do I want
to make sure
they know about me?
What's that one thing
that I find my identity in
that I need to make sure
everyone knows
as soon as they meet me?
Is it that I have
this much money
in my bank account?
Is it that I make
these grades in school?
Is it that I have
this position
at this company?
Is it that I'm in
a relationship
with this person?
Is it that I've accomplished
X, Y, and Z?
What is it that I want
to make sure
people know about me
as soon as they meet me?
And finally,
what do I really want
and expect out of life?
What is that one thing
that I said,
if I had that,
I would be happy
even if I lost
everything else?
What is it
that I really want
and expect
out of life?
For me,
I've answered
these questions differently
at different points
in my life.
One of the things
that's been a constant
theme throughout my life
is success.
And this translates
differently
at different stages
in life.
So when I was a student,
I wanted to be successful,
so I always worked hard
to get the best grades.
And I believed
that if I could be successful,
then that would mean
that I was somebody.
If I could be successful,
that would mean
that I made it.
So I would work hard,
and every term,
I would get my report card
and I would look at it
straight A's.
Yes!
But that happiness,
it didn't last.
Because I knew
that tomorrow,
a new term starts.
And if I don't work
just as hard
this next term
as I did the last term,
maybe even a little harder,
the grades are going
to just drop.
And then my identity
is gone.
And so I worked,
and I worked,
and I got A
after A
after A+,
after A,
straight through high school.
I got to university
and went for my first
year and a half,
still straight A's.
Then,
my sophomore year,
I got my first B+.
and I was amazed
because the world
didn't end
when I got a B+.
I know,
it may sound silly,
but I'm in an Asian country,
so I think a lot of you
can probably relate to that,
right?
I was amazed.
I got a B+,
and the world
did not end.
I found so much
of my identity
in my grades.
And then I graduated,
and I moved on to working.
And all of a sudden,
my desire for success
in grades
that I had been searching for
became a desire
for success
in my job
because I realized
that all those years
of straight A's
meant nothing
because I hadn't done
anything with it.
So I had to go out now
and use what I had learned
and apply it
so I could be successful
in a job
because,
you know,
the years of straight A's
hadn't really brought me
the satisfaction
that I had longed for,
so it must be
that getting success
in my job
would be where
it would come from.
So I came out.
I started working
really,
really hard.
And here's the thing
I realized.
Yeah,
my job has its ups and downs,
but no successful moment
in my job
has ever satisfied me
for more than,
like,
two days.
You have a really awesome,
you know,
youth event,
kids come out,
kids get saved,
you're like,
yeah,
that's awesome,
and then you wake up
the next morning,
you're like,
I gotta keep going,
something else is next.
There's never a point
where I've made it.
And actually,
the points where it seems
closest to me making it
are the scariest moments
because I know
that next time
the bar will be set
even higher,
so I need to work
even harder.
It's a trap.
I chase this thing
that I want in success
that I think
will give me
this happiness,
this satisfaction,
and I realize
it's just a trap.
It's like being
on top of that tree.
I work so hard
to get up there,
and then I can't get down again.
I'm stuck.
Another thing
that I seek
my identity in
is just having
people like me.
And so I change
the way that I act
around people
so that they'll
approve of me.
I may not speak
my mind in front of them
because I'm afraid
of offending them.
The problem is
no matter how many people
I get to like me today,
I have to keep
that up tomorrow
so that they'll
keep liking me.
It's this vicious cycle
that never,
ever,
ever ends.
But for some reason
I keep convincing myself
that maybe someday
I will make it.
And it's not
going to happen.
That's the thing
that idols do.
They hold out
this carrot
in front of us,
and we keep
running for it.
And it's just tied
to our head
on a string out there
so that we can't
ever reach it.
And the longer
that we spend
chasing them,
the more we begin
to see life
in terms of the way
that they define life,
and the more
we become slaves
to these idols
that we chase.
So,
functionally,
I'm going to
throw this out there.
If you disagree with me,
you can come
tell me why
after the service.
But I'm going to say
functionally,
all of us
seek something
other than God
as ultimate
at least a decent
amount of time
in our lives.
It could be things
like acceptance,
power,
control,
comfort,
money,
happiness,
success,
whatever it is,
it's usually
a good thing.
But our problem
is that we take
this good thing
and we make it
ultimate.
We climb that tree,
we reach for the
higher branches,
we get up as high
as we can,
we're stuck,
we can't get down.
Aristotle
said,
we fear
whatever we feel
has great power
of destroying us
or of harming us
in ways that tend
to cause us
great pain.
We fear
whatever we feel
has great power
of destroying us
or of harming us
in ways that lead
to great pain.
When we give
these idols
this power
in our lives,
it leads to fear
because the more
power it has
in our lives,
the more power
it has to destroy us,
the more power
it has to cause us
this great pain,
the more hope
that we place
in something
that can fail us,
the more we're
going to be hurt
when that idol
fails.
And so I want
to go through
five steps
to finding freedom
from our idols.
The first one
is simply
to recognize
that we all
worship
all the time.
I have a quote
from a man named
David Foster Wallace.
He was an American
novelist,
not a Christian
by any stretch
of the imagination.
And it's a long quote,
but it's really good,
so I'm going to read it,
and I hope
that you can follow along.
He says,
in the day-to-day
trenches
of adult life,
there is actually
no such thing
as atheism.
There's no such thing
as not worshiping.
Everybody worships.
The only choice
we get
is what to worship.
And the compelling
reason for maybe
choosing some sort
of God
or spiritual-type
thing to worship
is that pretty much
anything else you worship
will eat you alive.
If you worship
money and things,
if they're where
you tap real meaning
in life,
then you will never
have enough,
never feel
you have enough.
It's the truth.
Worship your body
and beauty
and sexual allure,
and you will always
feel ugly.
And when the time
and age start showing,
you will die
a million deaths
before they finally
grieve you.
On one level,
we all know
this stuff already.
The whole trick
is keeping the truth
up front
in our daily consciousness.
Worship power.
You'll end up
feeling weak
and afraid,
and you will need
ever more power
over others
to numb you
to your own fear.
Worship your intellect.
Being seen as smart,
you'll end up
feeling stupid,
a fraud,
always on the verge
of being found out.
But the insidious thing
about these forms
of worship
is that they're
unconscious.
They're default settings.
They're the kind
of worship
you just gradually
slip into
day after day,
getting more
and more selective
about what you see
and how you measure value
without ever being
fully aware
that's what you're doing.
See,
that's one of the
greatest dangers
about idols
in our lives,
is that we worship them
and follow them
unconsciously.
I think for most of us
it's not that we stop
and we make this
conscious decision
that I'm going to find
my identity
in wealth.
I'm going to find
my identity
in a relationship.
Maybe for some of us
we do this consciously.
But for so many of us,
it's just the air
we breathe.
We live in a city
that throws
so many definitions
of where to find worth
in our faces.
businesses.
We're surrounded
by malls
that are filled
with all of the top
brands
that send us
this message,
if you don't
own these brands
you are not
worth anything
as a person.
And we subconsciously
breathe in
these messages
without even realizing
that's what we're doing.
You know,
we have politicians
running for chief executive
who get up in front
of groups of high schoolers
and say,
there is no reason
that when you grow up
you can't be the next
Li Ka-Sheng.
There's an actual quote
from Henry Ting
when he was running
for chief executive.
The city
breathes this life
into us.
This message
that you need
this money
to be worth something
as an individual.
You need this power
to be worth something
as an individual.
You need this comfort
to be worth something
as an individual.
and we unconsciously
breathe it in.
It becomes our default setting.
And so the first step
to freedom from our idols
is just recognizing
that we worship
all the time
whether we're aware
of it or not.
The second step
is to identify
the idols that we worship.
Not just recognizing
in general
that we do worship
but see what is it
that we do worship.
becoming conscious
of what it is
that we're actually
worshiping.
Because if we're not aware
what it is
that we're worshiping
we're going to have
a hard time
switching to something else.
And step three
is not just
to identify
the idols
but identify
the idols
behind the idols.
Here's what I mean.
It's really easy
to look at someone
and say
oh, this person
idolizes money.
They live their life
for money.
But a lot of times
people who are seeking money
are actually seeking money
because of what
it can lead them to
not just for the sake
of having money.
Money promises us security
because I'll never
have to worry
about whether I can
put food on my
family's plates again.
Money promises comfort
because when I have
more money
I can buy a bigger flat
and put more
awesome stuff in it
and I can be more comfortable.
And if we identify
this idol of money
but don't identify
the deeper idols
below it
that are inspiring
us to seek it
we can deal
with the idol
on the surface level
but the thing
that's really
motivating our heart
never goes away
and so it'll just
manifest itself
in another way.
Someone who's
using money
as a way
of seeking security
and control
of their circumstances
who recognizes
that desire
for money
and gives it up
but still has
this desire
for security
and control
will manifest
that in a different way
maybe they'll become
domineering
in their relationships
because they feel
like if they can be
the dominant one
in their relationships
they can have
security and control
by controlling
everyone else
in their lives.
If we just identify
the stuff on the surface
it's not going to lead
to a lasting deep change.
We have to identify
the idol
behind the idol
in our lives.
Fourth,
dismantle our idols.
Like David Foster Wallace said
we all know
to a certain extent
that the idols
that we worship
and serve
are not going
to satisfy us.
On some level
we know this
but we don't live
our lives
with this
in the front
of our consciousness.
We forget about it
because we'd rather
not have to think
about it
but we need
to become aware
of the fact
that these things
will not satisfy us.
So think through
why it is
that we believe
these idols
can satisfy us.
Remember that
none of them
are giving us
the satisfaction
that they promise
and none of them
ever can or will
give us
the satisfaction
that they promise.
In this step
it's not just something
that we're going to
do once
and then be done
with it.
No,
it's worshipping
these idols
becomes the default
setting in our hearts
and we unconsciously
if we are not
putting this
at the forefront
of our attention
we go back
into default mode.
The idols
that we've been
serving for years
it's not just like
you sit down one time
write out why
they're no good
and then you move
on from them.
No,
you've been dealing
with these things
for years.
I've been dealing
with stuff for years.
it takes time
constantly reminding
success is not
going to satisfy
you, Eric.
Having people
like you
is not going
to satisfy you, Eric.
I need to repeat
these things to myself
over and over
and over again
and we need to repeat
these truths
to ourselves
over and over again
so we can remember
don't slip
into default mode.
the final step
is to replace
our worship of idols
with worship
of the true God.
See,
like David Foster Wallace
said,
everyone worships
all the time.
If we recognize
a faulty source
of worship
in our hearts
and we take that out
it creates
what we'll call
a worship vacuum
in our hearts.
We need something
to worship
and so if we take out
the big thing
that we're worshiping
but aren't conscious
about putting something
else in its place
something else
will just come in.
It's our default mode.
So the trick
to replacing
an idol in your heart
or removing it
is actually
by replacing it.
When we look at God
the God of the Bible
the God who loved us
enough
to send his son
to earth
to die for us
the one
who created us
who loves us
despite our rebellion
against him
who forgives us
when we turn away
from him
when we see
how awesome
he is
when we see
how strong
he is
when we see
how beautiful
he is
that's the only way
that we're ever
going to replace
the idols
in our hearts
is by looking
at him
and by reminding
ourselves
that all the things
that these idols
promise
they can't give us
but he can.
all these things
that we've been
striving for
and reaching for
we're never
going to reach them
but he
has already
reached out to us
and welcomed
and accepted us.
There's a pastor
in New York
named Tim Keller
and he says
worship
is the final way
to replace
the idols
in our hearts.
Let's pray.
Father we thank you
that you are good.
We thank you
for these men
Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego
and for the way
that they stood up
to the king
for the way
that you rescued them
when they stood up
for the freedom
that you gave them
even before you
rescued them
to trust in you
above all the idols
that their culture
was telling them
they needed to bow to.
We pray for ourselves
right now
as we go out of here
and into our weeks
that we would be aware
of the idols
that we're worshiping
that we would
consciously seek
to replace them
with worship of you
the true God.
We pray that we would
see you
as more beautiful
than we see you
as right now
that we would love you
more than we love you
right now
in Jesus name
Amen.