WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.299 Amen. We're reading together from the Bible, from the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 14, 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:14.280 ! verses 1 to 11 this morning, and we're going to read this text together. One of our elders, Hamish, 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:18.400 is going to come and read for us, and then Ryan Acres is going to come and preach. 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:27.600 Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and said before me, and the word of the Lord came to me, 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:34.380 Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:42.539 iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to 00:00:42.539 --> 00:00:51.120 them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:57.280 his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to the 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:05.400 prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:11.359 of the hearts of the house of Israel who are all estranged from me through their idols. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:20.379 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, repent and turn away from your idols, 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:27.900 and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel or of the 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:34.939 strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart 00:01:34.939 --> 00:01:40.780 and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to a prophet to 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:48.920 consult me through him, I, the Lord, will answer him myself. And I will set my face against that man. 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:56.200 I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:04.280 that I am the Lord. And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:10.460 prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people, 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:17.939 Israel. And they shall hear their punishment. The punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:25.920 inquirer shall be alike, that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:34.039 any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:42.899 the Lord God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. We've been looking in the book of Daniel 00:02:42.899 --> 00:02:50.259 over the last several weeks and been talking about how God's people are in exile during this time in 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:55.519 the land of Babylon. They are being judged for their sin and their rebellion and idolatry against the Lord. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:03.020 And so he sent the nation of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar to come and bring judgment on the Israelites. 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:10.000 Corey has talked about how there were three deportations and Daniel was in that first deportation 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:18.280 around 605 BC. So we've been focusing on that time period of the people of God living in exile and how 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:25.379 exile is being away from where God wants us to be and being in a place where we're not living in a place 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:31.460 we're meant to be. We're going to make a small detour for today to look at a passage in Ezekiel 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:38.719 because Ezekiel was also a prophet during that time. Ezekiel was a part of the second deportation 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:46.340 in 597 BC. So roughly about eight years after Daniel and his friends were deported. He was a prophet 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:53.400 to the Israelites, to the people of Judah in Babylon. And so all this is kind of taking place during the 00:03:53.400 --> 00:04:00.439 first part of the events of the book of Daniel. And Ezekiel is telling us the message that God was 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:09.759 giving to his people directly while they were in Babylon. So one of the things that has been just a 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:17.579 major focus during the time of Daniel, but also you see this throughout the prophets, is this idea of 00:04:17.579 --> 00:04:22.939 idolatry. And one of the things that Corey had mentioned a few weeks ago is that this time in 00:04:22.939 --> 00:04:31.879 history was a time and an age when idols seemed to rule. And so he explained to us that idolatry is 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:38.779 seeking for something to fulfill you in a way that only God can. We may say it like this, that 00:04:38.779 --> 00:04:45.819 idolatry is loving something more than you love God. It's really trusting in something to come 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:51.959 through for you in a way that only God can. And so we're going to be talking about idolatry this 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:59.159 morning and taking idols into our hearts based on what this passage is telling us. Now, I'm probably 00:04:59.159 --> 00:05:05.019 not going to say anything that you haven't already heard. Probably no new material this morning. But if 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:11.319 that's the case, I think we need to ask ourselves the question, why is it that the Lord keeps allowing 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:16.859 me to hear this message? Why is it that if I'm hearing this over and over, this is not new, why does 00:05:16.859 --> 00:05:21.659 the Lord want me to wrestle with this? So I think that's a challenge for us today. So let's dive into 00:05:21.659 --> 00:05:28.359 our passage. Hamish read verses one through three says this, then certain of the elders of Israel came 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:34.639 to me and sat before me and the word of the Lord came to me, son of man. These men have taken their 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:40.000 idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:47.120 indeed let myself be consulted by them? Basically what has happened is the elders of Israel have come 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:54.199 to Ezekiel to hear a word from the Lord. This is probably happening around the time of 592 BC. So 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:58.639 roughly 13 years after the things we've been talking about at the beginning of Daniel. 00:05:59.579 --> 00:06:08.000 But the elders are coming to consult Ezekiel, who is the prophet, despite their unfaithfulness to God, 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:16.319 despite the fact that they have been being judged because of their idolatry, they're still coming to 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:24.180 God as like a form of religion. There's some practice of orthodoxy, you might say, in what they're doing. 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:30.000 Yet, as we'll see, is their heart is not actually towards the Lord. So they're coming to the prophet 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.219 probably to get a word of encouragement, probably hoping to get some kind of good news that God's 00:06:35.219 --> 00:06:39.959 going to send a message that they're going to destroy Babylon any day now kind of thing. But 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:46.879 they're coming to the Lord hoping to hear a word. Now in verse 2 it says that the Lord actually spoke 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:53.879 to them. God could have been silent at this point. The people deserve to hear nothing from God. 00:06:53.879 --> 00:07:00.339 I know a lot of times as people we will instinctively use the silent treatment when we're upset with 00:07:00.339 --> 00:07:05.779 someone. And I think we can kind of project that on the Lord as well. Like I've done some things that 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:10.779 displease Him, so I know He's not listening to me. And the Lord is certainly not going to speak to me 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:16.680 today at church or not speak to me today in my time in the Word. We just expect that the Lord would 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:23.120 treat us as we treat other people. But the Lord actually in His kindness is going to speak to His 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:29.939 people. God had every right to say, I'm done with you. But instead we get a different message. So the 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:35.100 elders, they come and they consult. They want to consult from the Lord. And essentially what they're 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:41.120 doing is they're coming in there, what the passage talks about, their multitude of idols. They're still 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:47.160 worshiping other gods. They're still holding on to their idols. But they're also inquiring of the Lord. 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:53.720 In other words, they're treating the Lord as if He's just one God among many. And God is going to show 00:07:53.720 --> 00:08:02.019 them that that is absolutely not going to happen because He is not one God among many. He is the Lord. 00:08:02.420 --> 00:08:07.939 So they've been practicing idolatry continually, and they're just treating God just like He's some 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:13.959 other small g God. Look at verse 4. The Lord says, therefore speak to them and say to them, 00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:20.100 thus says the Lord God, any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:26.659 the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer 00:08:26.659 --> 00:08:33.820 him as he comes with his multitude of idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of those of the house of 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:41.220 Israel who are all estranged from me through their idols. So the Lord has a word for them. And what 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:48.620 He's telling them is, you have taken these idols into your heart and this stumbling block of iniquity 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:54.680 you have put before your face. In other words, He's telling them, you have set your heart's desires, 00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:01.260 you've set your values, the things that would cause you to make decisions, the things that you 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:08.259 really value. You have put that on false gods, and now you're coming to me. But what you don't realize 00:09:08.259 --> 00:09:13.159 that you've done is you've set before your face, you've put your focus on something that's causing 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:17.700 you to trip up. It's a stumbling block. It's something that is not even good for you, although 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:24.720 you've trusted it to be good for you. And what we learn here is as God is addressing them is that 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:31.960 idolatry is more than just an outward action, but it is a matter of the heart. You've taken idols 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:42.060 into your hearts, He said. Idolatry is when at a heart level, in a practical way, you are trusting 00:09:42.060 --> 00:09:48.460 in something else to fulfill you. When you're trusting something to come through for you or to rescue you, 00:09:48.460 --> 00:09:55.560 to give you a sense of meaning and purpose, maybe it's security and stability. But when you're looking 00:09:55.560 --> 00:10:03.160 to something other than God to do that for you, this is why we say that it's loving something more 00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:10.139 than you love God, because it is a matter of the heart. And we can do this with good things, not just 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:16.420 bad things. These are things that might be good gifts of the Lord, but when we love and desire the 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:24.599 gifts more than we desire the giver. So when he's talking here about you come with your multitude 00:10:24.599 --> 00:10:31.379 of idols and yet you're inquiring of me, it's a very similar theme of what we hear of no one can serve 00:10:31.379 --> 00:10:38.620 two masters. You're trying to live on that, might say in common vernacular, live on the fence with one 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:44.439 foot over here and one foot over there. You're having is what the Bible would say a divided heart. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:51.360 Now, a word picture that we often get for the Lord's relationship with us is one of marriage. It's a 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:57.960 common theme throughout the Bible. And so imagine there is a husband or a wife that has been unfaithful 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:06.040 to their spouse and yet they still try to come to their spouse for intimacy. When we see this portrayed in 00:11:06.040 --> 00:11:13.420 novels or movies, we instinctively know that this is not okay. It makes us angry and we long for that 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:19.059 person to be found out and for the right thing to happen, for justice to happen. And God says, 00:11:19.179 --> 00:11:26.259 this is how you're treating me. You're being unfaithful and I'm supposed to be like your husband. 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:34.299 I'm supposed to be your spouse. We understand that this is like the ultimate betrayal, the ultimate 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:40.219 humiliation, the ultimate thing that someone should be ashamed about. And that's the picture that the Lord 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:47.759 gives us of idolatry. We have treated him as one would be unfaithful to their spouse. 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:56.840 Yet look at verse five. God says, I'm going to do these things that I may laid hold of the hearts 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:03.960 of the house of Israel who are all estranged from me through their idols. The Lord is saying he's going 00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:11.180 to answer them. He's going to be direct with them in order that he may lay a hold of the hearts of the 00:12:11.180 --> 00:12:16.000 house of Israel. Think about this for a second, that this is the one, God is the one who has been 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:24.120 sinned against in ways that are just unfathomable throughout Israel's history. They're supposed to be 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:30.920 faithful to him. He's been very clear on what faithfulness looks like. Yet over and over, they sinned against 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:39.539 him. Yet he says, I'm going to do these things because I want to recapture your heart. This word 00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:45.860 here for estranged is language of a relationship that's been, that is being ruined. And now there's 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:53.459 distance. And God is saying, I'm doing this because I want the fellowship to be restored. I want your 00:12:53.459 --> 00:13:00.099 hearts. I want to recapture the hearts of the people. And that's how much God loves us. That even though 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:05.399 we would sin against him, rebel against him, commit treason against him, which is always punishable 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:12.540 by death, yet he still reaches out to us and says, I want you to turn to me. And that's what we have 00:13:12.540 --> 00:13:19.440 here in this passage. He doesn't need us, but yet he wants us to be in a relationship with us. 00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:26.460 And then verse six, he says, therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, repent and 00:13:26.460 --> 00:13:31.259 turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:39.000 Even after all that they have done, even they're, they're being judged right now for years and years 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:45.560 of idolatry. They're still practicing idolatry, even though they're being judged for it. And he's still 00:13:45.560 --> 00:13:52.160 saying, but I still am allowing you to repent, repent, turn your faces from your abominations, 00:13:52.159 --> 00:14:00.000 turn to me. Isn't it too late for repentance at that point? But over and over we have in, 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:09.740 in scripture where God says, I'm compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:16.600 love. Another metaphor we see throughout scripture is the idea of parent and child, that God is, 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:23.659 is a loving father. And this is the way a loving parent would discipline their children. It's not 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:31.740 to punish us and to, to make them pay for it. It's to restore, to help them to learn, to grow so that 00:14:31.740 --> 00:14:38.019 they can become what they were intended to be. A good parent is not just punishing, but discipline in 00:14:38.019 --> 00:14:44.519 order for the good of the child. And this is what God is doing for his people. Then we get to verses 10 and 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:50.399 11. It says, and they shall bear their punishment, the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:57.759 the inquirer shall be alike that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:04.679 anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:13.399 the Lord. He's doing all of this so that they would no longer go astray, so that they would no longer 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:20.019 defile themselves with their transgressions, but that they may be his people and God be their God. 00:15:20.319 --> 00:15:26.600 This punishment is supposed to lead to a cleansing, to keep people from straying more and defiling 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:32.279 themselves, but it's to bring them back. These idols that they're putting before their faces are tripping 00:15:32.279 --> 00:15:38.419 them up. They're stumbling blocks. They don't even realize how much they're harming themselves by turning 00:15:38.419 --> 00:15:45.539 from the Lord. And he's lovingly trying to turn them back. And we see here covenant language, where he 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:53.719 says that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord. In all of this, God has not 00:15:53.719 --> 00:16:01.019 forgotten his covenant with his people. God's commitment to his covenant has caused him to act in 00:16:01.019 --> 00:16:06.500 such a way that would bring him glory so that you will know that I'm the Lord and will be from their 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:10.639 good so that they can turn from their stumbling blocks, the things they've placed before them. 00:16:11.019 --> 00:16:16.259 His commitment is the reason why he's doing all this. His commitment to his glory, his commitment 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:23.320 to his people. God loves them so much that he would go to the greatest lengths to save his people. 00:16:24.139 --> 00:16:30.019 And this is what we see throughout all of the history of redemption, ultimately seeing the highest 00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:37.100 beauty of this in Jesus Christ, where God has gone to the ultimate lengths to send Jesus to who had 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:44.480 wholehearted devotion. There was no divided heart with Jesus, wholehearted devotion, completely fulfilling 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:51.860 all righteousness, because we could not do that. And then he was the sacrifice for our sins because he 00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:57.480 lived the life that we should have lived and died the death that we deserve to die so that we could have 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:05.120 that relationship with God. God loves us so much that he refuses to let his people go down this path of 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:11.660 idolatry and destruction. So he's trying to wake them up and he's trying to wake us up. He wants us to avoid 00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:21.019 the self-destruction as well as we turn after other things. Now, we're just as prone today to idolatry 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:29.799 as in the days of Daniel and the days of Ezekiel. The world around us and the culture around us wants 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:37.639 us to worship their gods, just like in those days. The world is constantly wooing us with its messages. 00:17:38.639 --> 00:17:43.539 Walmart, most of you probably heard of Walmart. I think it's still the leading retail company 00:17:43.539 --> 00:17:51.200 in the world. Their slogan is, save money, live better. What are they saying? 00:17:52.299 --> 00:17:58.440 If you are able to save money, you will live better. And we're the ones to help you do that. 00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:06.200 We're the savior here. Live better by saving money. As if money is the answer to all of our problems. 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:15.100 And we believe that. We dream about the days of maybe winning a lottery or having someone leave 00:18:15.100 --> 00:18:21.000 us some money in an inheritance. We dream of what we would do if we had this money or got this raise or 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:28.360 was able to do this thing. Now, we might say, hey, look, idols, what are you talking about? We're not 00:18:28.360 --> 00:18:35.519 bowing down to wood and stone and metal and things like that. But you could say that we often bow down to 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:42.980 paper, especially when it has an image of the king or the former queen on it. Money can grab our hearts 00:18:42.980 --> 00:18:49.799 and greed can grab our hearts in ways that we don't even realize it's happening. We struggle with idolatry 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:58.599 thinking that money or stuff will make us happen. But even the people of Israel, if you look at the heart of 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:04.200 it and say, why in the world? How in the world? Like they had prophets that would come to them and give them 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:12.259 a word of the Lord. How could they turn from God in this way? And if you think about it, in an agrarian 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:19.360 society, when everything depends on the crops, things aren't going exactly how you think they should, 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:26.220 what starts to happen? You start to worry. Maybe God isn't going to come through for us by sending us 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:34.700 rain this time. Maybe we turn to the Baals, the storm god of the Canaanites. Yeah, maybe, just maybe, 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:40.160 we'll try it out. See if he'll come through for us. Or the Ashtoreth, the fertility goddess. Maybe, 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:45.700 maybe we'll have a little bit more fertile land or be more fertile as a people if we turn to these gods. 00:19:46.460 --> 00:19:52.900 They were tempted to do these things because of anxiety, because of worry, thinking that 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:58.620 maybe God's not going to come through for us and we got to take matters into our own hands. Maybe they 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:04.200 weren't trusting in God's protection as they hear threats of enemy armies. So what do they do? 00:20:04.320 --> 00:20:10.440 They turn to the Egyptians. Come save us from the Assyrians. They turn to Assyria. Come save us from 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:17.360 the Babylonians. They turn to other people, other nations, because they trusted in other things besides 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:26.219 God. And idols, we mentioned, are not, often not bad things, just good things that we desire too much. 00:20:26.659 --> 00:20:32.199 It's anything that we look to for security and stabilization and satisfaction and hope. 00:20:32.859 --> 00:20:39.079 In speaking on Ezekiel 14, David Palinson, who's an American theologian, says that the New Testament 00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:47.119 parallel to idolatry is lust or over-desiring something, desiring something too much. And we see 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:52.899 that in our hearts all the time where we desire things more than we should. Even the most precious 00:20:52.899 --> 00:21:01.419 gifts of our spouse or our children. We desire things too much where we look to those things to bring us 00:21:01.419 --> 00:21:10.479 satisfaction instead of the Lord. We can desire money. We can desire success, education, relationships, 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:20.900 leisure, travel, toys. Maybe we desire a certain appearance. Maybe it's others' approval. Maybe it's 00:21:20.900 --> 00:21:27.279 something that's just the clout it gets us when we're punctual or we're seen as a good leader. 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:34.660 Maybe it's diet and exercise. Things that we look to that I said, if I just looked like this or felt 00:21:34.660 --> 00:21:42.300 like this or was able to do this, then I would be happy. So some of those questions we need to be 00:21:42.300 --> 00:21:50.440 asking ourselves are, like what makes you feel like you're living rightly? Sometimes Kelly and I will 00:21:50.440 --> 00:21:54.220 talk about, we got this from a study that we did one time on idolatry, where we talk about health 00:21:54.220 --> 00:22:00.600 righteousness. Where that's someone that thinks because I eat right and go to the gym and all these 00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:06.480 things. I'm in a good spot. And by the way, you should do this too. If you should try it, try this 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:12.500 diet. Try this thing that I do. You could even look like me or be like me if you did this. 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:20.719 We would call that health righteousness. What is it that would make you feel like you are right? 00:22:21.259 --> 00:22:26.799 So for instance, an image righteousness. This person should never dress like that. 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:33.259 Aren't they paying attention to how they should dress or what they should wear or how they should 00:22:33.259 --> 00:22:37.919 carry themselves? We can find the silliest things to compare ourselves with other people 00:22:37.919 --> 00:22:44.759 and feel like we are living righteously. Those kind of things are the things that we're looking to us 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:52.119 to make us feel like we're someone. To make us feel like we have meaning and purpose. And that is the 00:22:52.119 --> 00:23:00.079 heart of idolatry. What would ruin your life if you lost it? What gives you anxiety? What keeps you up 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:05.359 at night? What do you feel anxiety for because you're either afraid you're going to lose it or you're 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:16.239 trying to keep it? What is just too important to you? I mean, just even personally, preaching today, 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:22.120 one of the temptations that a preacher always feels is, hey, what do they think about the sermon? 00:23:23.319 --> 00:23:30.339 Did I do a good job today? Did I teach that passage rightly? And all of a sudden, instead of thinking 00:23:30.339 --> 00:23:35.779 about God's glory and giving you a picture of the one who created you and gave you life and is calling 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:41.339 you into the most fulfilling, the only fulfilling relationship that there is, instead of hoping that 00:23:41.339 --> 00:23:46.139 you are drawing near to God through the preaching of His Word, I'm thinking about my performance. 00:23:47.899 --> 00:23:56.119 Our hearts just do that, guys. Our hearts run to those things, and we constantly have to keep a check 00:23:56.119 --> 00:24:02.879 on our hearts. We constantly have to be going to the Lord. And I mentioned that idolatry can be loving 00:24:02.879 --> 00:24:09.419 the gift more than the giver. Tonight, one of our best friends, they're coming into town. 00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:17.140 Susie, she was the maid of honor in our wedding. And I was surprising Kelly to go look for an 00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:22.680 engagement ring when we were back in uni. And so Susie, she was like scheming with me how to do this. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.180 And she was going to go to the jewelry store because she'd been doing the reconnaissance to figure out 00:24:26.180 --> 00:24:30.600 what kind of ring Kelly wanted because we're trying to keep it a surprise. And so we go to the jewelry 00:24:30.600 --> 00:24:37.200 store and very overwhelming, obviously. Well, I wind up buying this ring. And it's like this big moment. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:42.279 I mean, you're like, I know she's going to say yes, but you know, this is like a big deal, right? 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:48.059 And so what if after all that that we did to find the ring and the way we schemed, it was a lot of fun 00:24:48.059 --> 00:24:55.240 and all these things, she's going to be surprised. I give her the ring and she takes it and she says, 00:24:55.380 --> 00:25:01.779 this is beautiful. Look at this ring. And I'm over here and I'm like, is that a yes? And you're like, 00:25:01.779 --> 00:25:08.579 yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. But look at the ring. Look at this, my precious. Like look at the ring. 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:18.240 But that's what we do with God, where we love the gift more than the giver. We fall in love with the 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:25.000 gifts and long for more gifts instead of falling in love with the one who gives us all things. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:33.059 Think about how we see idolatry in Daniel. With Nebuchadnezzar, it's all about him. It's all 00:25:33.059 --> 00:25:39.319 power plays where he's saying, worship me, be devoted to me, acknowledge me as the savior, 00:25:39.859 --> 00:25:45.140 acknowledge that I'm the one you can trust. I'm the one that can deliver you as the one who will lead 00:25:45.140 --> 00:25:53.039 you into prosperity. And we look to other things to fulfill that role that only God can fill. So how do 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:59.039 we deal with idols in the heart? Well, the first thing I would say is we've got to learn to deal 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:07.240 with idols of the heart at the root. At the root. Sin is very subtle. And often we just focus on that 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:15.319 outward sin instead of going down deeper and say, why was it that I was desiring that thing? Sin goes so 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:22.000 deep that we don't even know why we just told a lie or why I'm all of a sudden not being compassionate 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:28.819 or why I'm being greedy. We've got to get to the root of it. So when my boys were like eight or nine, 00:26:29.740 --> 00:26:35.339 we were out in the garden pulling weeds and you could see the personality of each boy kind of 00:26:35.339 --> 00:26:40.640 coming out. My middle son Hudson would just go and he'd just tear the top off of what you saw, 00:26:40.900 --> 00:26:46.700 you know? Oh, it's all good. Look, it's clean, dad. Whereas my older son would love to get his 00:26:46.700 --> 00:26:51.000 hands dirty. So he'd get in and he'd pull everything out by his roots and show how strong he was by pulling 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:57.579 a root out and all these different things. But the first thing I realized during that time is we only 00:26:57.579 --> 00:27:02.900 really decided to pull the weeds when it got so bad that it was starting to be embarrassing. 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:09.660 People were starting to notice kind of thing. But that's what we kind of do with sin, isn't it? 00:27:10.380 --> 00:27:13.980 Take care of the outward things so that people aren't going to notice, 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:20.480 so that something might not embarrass me. And then just like my middle son, we often just 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:27.039 chop it off at the top and don't really dig down and get to the root of it. And guess what happens? 00:27:27.099 --> 00:27:32.720 It springs right back up. Huh. I'm shocked that this is, I'm struggling with this again today. 00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:38.799 When we're not doing the hard work. Because it is hard work and it's messy. 00:27:39.660 --> 00:27:44.519 To deal with what's visible or what other people might see, what might embarrass us, 00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:52.480 that's a lot more urgent, you know? But are we taking care of the problem by going to the Lord 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:59.779 and really digging down to find what is the sin underneath the sin? Why is it that having successful 00:27:59.779 --> 00:28:07.779 or well-behaved children is so important to me? Why is it when we get so defensive when someone critiques us? 00:28:07.779 --> 00:28:12.440 Why is it that I get so upset when someone breaks the cue? 00:28:14.619 --> 00:28:20.000 What is going into our hearts? What is it that has a hold on our hearts? So one, 00:28:20.279 --> 00:28:25.740 we must learn to deal with the idols of our hearts at a root level. And number two, 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:33.859 as I would just say, idols cannot be removed, only replaced. I heard an illustration one time that 00:28:33.859 --> 00:28:38.639 stuck with me. I think it was the pastor, John Piper, that I first heard say this. But he asked 00:28:38.639 --> 00:28:44.019 the question, how do you get air out of a glass? He said, if you ask a kid, how do you get air out of 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:48.000 a glass? It's like, you might cover it up and stick a straw in and try to suck it out. Or maybe you get 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:53.439 a vacuum and a hoover and, you know, try to suck the air out. But he said, how do you get air out of a 00:28:53.439 --> 00:29:00.899 glass? You fill it with water. And that's the way it is in dealing with sin. You can't just pull things 00:29:00.900 --> 00:29:07.960 out. Because our hearts, as John Calvin said, are idol factories. They have to be replaced. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:18.100 Be replaced by the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he can fulfill us. We must learn to fight idolatry through 00:29:18.100 --> 00:29:28.040 repentance and worship. Worship by being reminded of who God is, what he has done for us, and how only 00:29:28.039 --> 00:29:37.359 by coming to him through Jesus Christ will we find fulfillment in life. Blaise Pascal, I was actually 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:42.319 kind of challenged. There's a quote I've been using from Blaise Pascal for years that says, there's a 00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:47.799 God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that can not be filled by any created thing, but can only 00:29:47.799 --> 00:29:52.379 be filled by God through Jesus Christ. That actually wasn't what he said, but this is what he said. 00:29:52.380 --> 00:30:02.760 This infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object. In other words, by God 00:30:02.760 --> 00:30:13.160 himself. Only by repenting and worshiping God through Jesus Christ can we find the security, 00:30:13.840 --> 00:30:20.480 the satisfaction, the love, the hope, the fulfillment that he wants us to have. 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:22.660 Let's pray. 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:36.579 God, we do thank you that you are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast 00:30:36.579 --> 00:30:40.799 love. You are so patient with us when it comes to the way we look to other things. 00:30:42.380 --> 00:30:49.920 We become convinced in our minds that stuff, having possessions or money or relationships or success at 00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:55.519 work or whatever it might be. Convinced that those are the things that are going to fill our hearts 00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:02.539 longing. But that longing can only be filled by you. Help us to repent of our idols. Help us to do 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:09.759 that hard, messy work of getting down to the root. What is it that's grasping our heart? Why would I 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:16.220 behave this way or think this thing or feel this anxiety? Help us to get to the root of the matter and to 00:31:16.220 --> 00:31:24.200 repent, to turn to you and find forgiveness, cleansing, and that closeness of relationship where 00:31:24.200 --> 00:31:30.559 the psalmist says the nearness of God is our good. And help us to understand and believe that with all 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:37.259 of our hearts. That drawing near to you is the only thing that will satisfy us. Help us to do that. And 00:31:37.259 --> 00:31:45.420 as we finish our time of worship singing and taking the Lord's Supper, Lord, help us to fix our eyes on 00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:54.720 the one who made us, gave us life, and who alone can fulfill us. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.