Exodus 20:3

?You shall have no other gods before me.?

Jonah 2:8-9

?Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!?

Matthew 6:19-24

?Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ?The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ?No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.?

Today, after a week of vacation, which was much needed, I realize the importance of coming back down to earth. We were in Western Carolina enjoying the mountains, the water, the fresh air, God?s creation, and family. As we started driving from the Asheville airport, I could feel the cares of the world disappearing from my shoulders and weight of everything feel much more weightless. In addition, I enjoyed unplugging from most everything electronically and it was good. And there was something that I realized about the electronics, apps online, smart phones, Facebook, email, news articles online, etc?these sometimes are my idols and the things that I place unknowingly place before God. And I realized that this is something that is so easy to do?to place other things in front of God. So this question from the congregation ?What are the various ?gods? in our lives that are or we may unknowingly place before God?? was very timely for my life and I hope it is for your life. I invite you to join me in prayer as we explore the ?gods? in our lives and what the bible says about idols. Let us pray.

Let?s start with the basics. We will define what an idol is. According to Webster dictionary, the simple definition of an idol is ?a greatly loved or admired person? and/or ?a picture or object that is worshipped as a god.? If we look at it from the biblical understanding, we have the scriptural reference from Exodus 20:3 where it says: ?You shall have no other gods before me.? Which leads to defining what idolatry means: ?the worship of a physical object as a god?and/or immoderate attachment or devotion to something.? With those definitions, what are some of the idols that we have? What are some of ways we display idolatry? I will start?I want a new car. My car works fine, but it is time for a new car. But when I am driving down the street and I see the new Honda Pilot, I almost start to drool. It passes the level of coveting that when someone drives by in the beautiful SUV, I almost begin praying to the Honda gods that they will put a bow on it and deliver it to my house as a gift because they have decided to love me so much! Then there are times that I put the electronic pieces before God?where I check my email before I read my devotion or open the day in prayer?What are some of the idols that you have that you would be willing to name?
I thought this video showed the worship of idols in a way that makes sense to us today. I invite you to watch this video.
Playing off the sports analogy for idol worship, makes the ways people put other things, people, issues, concerns before God a little more realistic and we can probably see how we have all done that in some way. So if we go back to the question proposed for the day ?What are the various ?gods? in our lives that are or we may unknowingly place before God?? I feel we have named those and talked through some of them. So my next question is ?what are we going to do about it?? And so it caused me to think about our hearts and where our desires are for our lives, but more importantly, what is God?s desire for our lives? Does God want us putting all these different idols first, or does God want us to put God first? We know the answer to this question. Yet, we all still struggle with that answer and how to do it. This passage came to mind from Matthew 6:
?Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; for instance, if our idols are stuff- like cars, collections, houses, clothes, food, money, etc., they will collect dust and rust, other people can steal these things, take your treasures away-but regardless all these things, all this stuff, will be useless in heaven. We might feel there is a great value to that while on earth, but these earthly treasures are just stuff, and can just become distractions from God. Ways we know they are distractions is by looking at how much money we spend on them and ways we explain this stuff to other people.
but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal; So put yourself towards things that point you and others towards God, towards heaven. When you do this-point your heart towards God?that is when you pray, are kind, generous, giving, loving, selfless, you live a life worthy of being followed?your heart will be known to God and to others. In doing this you are making God known to others.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Many of us have heard that phrase before. So how do people really find out what your treasure is? By watching you and where you put your time and energy and money. I think once people truly know you are a Christian and follower of Jesus, they hope you will be different than the other Christians they know. You will be observed and then you will be judged. And others will say, they can?t really be Christian if they do?You might think you are displaying what your treasure is? your relationship and walk with God and showing others how to live it out?but many times that is not what is seen. So knowing what you treasure and how it is a reflection of your heart can only be seen when it is authentic and incorporated into everything you are doing. So are you living out your treasures with how you love and care for yourself and others, and showing others the grace and truth of Jesus Christ? What a wonderful way to live! I think it is such a great way to strive to live! Figuring out how to do it consistently takes a lot of devotion.
?The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! What I hear in this section is that living in the light of Christ and following in the footsteps of Jesus is healthy and life-giving. While following in the dark, which to me in our context for today, would be serving anything or anyone who is not God- it can be the various idols and the stuff we worship-is living in the darkness and in doing so, your life is unhealthy and your darkness is very great.
?No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. And lastly, this section is pretty plain to me. You cannot put your idols ahead of God, if you do, then you are attempting to serve two different types of gods. One will always receive preferential treatment and one will always be placed on the backburner.
You cannot serve God and wealth. But sometimes we want them to be the same. I don?t think the gospel writing is saying that wealth is a bad thing. Serving wealth, making it your priority, ?worshipping? your wealth or the wealth of others, etc. is the bad thing. If you put God first, then everything else in life comes from that. I remember when I started tithing, truly tithing 10%, and being amazed that everything financially was always being taken care of?even when there wasn?t enough in the numbers for it to be right. Before I tithed, I constantly worried about where money was going to come from to cover all my expenses. Now, because I tithe, I have seen God provide in ways that I never thought were imaginable. I never worry about the budget or the numbers or expenses now. When I truly decided to put my heart and my treasure towards the word and will of God, I saw how I was and wasn?t serving God.
So what are the idols in our lives? What are the various gods in our lives that we place before God? Over the course of the next week, I pray you will think about where you are putting your heart and what it says about your life. Look at the various idols we have mentioned that are in your life that we have named and think about how you spend your time, your energy, your money and reflect on what that says about your life and your heart towards God.