When Loyalty Becomes Idolatry

Transcript

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[0:00] for our sermon and I'd like to ask you to look at Exodus chapter 20 and we'll be looking at just verses 1 through 11 today only 1 through 11 and so how's that focus Eric would you come up here I'm sorry I just it would just drive me nuts if the whole sermon I was out of focus and so you know these two little orange buttons and I don't it just seems to drift away thank you look okay I just can't tell from here maybe it's my eyesight oh that's smart okay great great So technical stuff, well, you know, it's just always technical stuff here. But we have this beautiful camera, and it seems to drift in its focus, and we don't know why, even when we turn off autofocus.

[1:05] So here we are in part two of a three-part series on the Ten Words. Remember, they're called the Ten Words by God, the Ten Commandments. And this part deals with our relationship with God. It's the first section of it. And it makes sense that this is first, because you want to get the vertical relationship correct before you work on the horizontal relationship. And so this vertical relationship between us and God, we want to understand that well, and that's going to make this other relationship between us and other people better. And I'm going to go straight into it, but I'm going to ask you to listen for what all these words or all these commandments have in common that I'm reading today, besides being about God and about the vertical relationship. Of course, that's what they have. But there's something else that they have in common, and I want you to listen for that as we read. So here we go, Exodus 20, chapter 20, verses 1 through 11.

[2:01] Then God spoke all these words. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven, above or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

[2:47] You shall not make wrongful use of the name, of the Lord, your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. You shall not do any work, you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.

[3:17] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word, and we ask that you add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. So the question was, what do we find in common about these commandments, right? We saw it last week, and I'm going to say it again. It's in verse 5. God is a jealous God, and I suggested that Michael sing that song, He Loves Us, and it starts with this phrase, He is jealous for me. Yes, He is jealous for me. God is a jealous God. He himself is holy, and He wants us, people, to be holy toward Him. And He is so jealous that He cannot bear for His people to have other gods. He doesn't want to share. He doesn't want to share in a relationship. He's not into an open relationship, right? He's not into that. He wants us and us only, and He wants us to only have Him and Him only. That's what God wants. But not only that, that we should not have other gods, but that we should not worship other gods. And there's a difference. We're going to get into the difference a little bit later. But there's a difference between having gods and worshiping other gods. And we mentioned last week, the worship of those other gods was full of a really perverse spectacle. And it was altogether unholy. The gods that were vying or competing with the true God, the Lord, at that time.

[4:43] And the worship of those gods was horrific. It was not good. So, like I said, we'll get into the distinction about having other gods and worshiping other gods in just a second. But God is so jealous that He does not want His people also to treat the relationship lightly. Right? He doesn't want us to think, oh, it's... One way to treat the relationship lightly would be to say, well, I give God one hour, one day of the week, and then the rest of the week is the other 167 hours are for me. And that would be... You wouldn't do that with your spouse. You wouldn't do that with your children. Right? You can't do that. In a real relationship, you can't just portion off one hour a week for it. That would be treating it lightly. And He also does not want people to use His name lightly as a throwaway line. It's not part of a swear or part of a curse. It's not even part of a legal agreement. He says, you're not supposed to use my name in any kind of oath. Right? Because you would ask yourself, what does the name of the Almighty God, who made the universe and brought the people out of the land of the universe, Egypt, what does that name have to do, say, with a contract between two people for the purchase of a donkey? Right? You wouldn't put God's name on that document.

[6:02] God's name is too big for that. It's too holy for that. It cheapens His name. And how we treat His name is important. And this is a challenge, you know, for us and our family. My children love to watch videos on YouTube.

[6:18] And every now and then, you have a YouTube, who's showing them how to play a video game or build something. And they like to say, oh, my God, or oh, my gosh. And and as parents is tough because we know that they hear that everywhere they go. And we try to say, listen, we don't want you to listen to that YouTuber. And there are some of them that don't. So we try to find the ones who don't say things like that.

[6:40] We get a little pushback as parents. That's that's a Nelson problem with the Nelsons. We'll deal with it. But it's pervasive. It's all around us that that people say, OMG, even in sort of lead speech or shortened speech on text. And and this is a reminder, right? This is lent. We're returning to God. We're evaluating ourselves, that there's this cheapness in the way that we can talk about things that if we were to follow through and think about what we're saying, that that a short sentence like that can't contain the majesty of the creator of this universe, it doesn't make sense even. And I think that's what God is getting. And I think that is that he's so great and so holy. He doesn't belong in these small and confined spaces of throwaway lines and casual relationships, he just doesn't fit there. He's altogether different. He's jealous for us. He wants us completely.

[7:38] In other sermons, we have seen as a great maybe we'll do this again. We have seen how names names are huge identity markers in the Bible. They always mean something. And God's name is. They when you see Lord in a capital L and then sort of capital R.D. But the R.D. is sometimes in smaller caps. Whenever you see that, you can be certain that in the Hebrew text underneath it, there's the word yacht they or as some people would pronounce it, I don't know because they don't want to say it's too holy for them to even say it. But God's name is your face. It's I am who I am or I will be who I will be. It means he is eternal. He exists before all things and he will exist after all things. His name is so holy and it means something. So there's a story about the scribes who would trance. They would transcribe the Bible sort of like an ancient copy machine. Right. You have one good manuscript, say, of Isaiah. And the scribes say, well, that manuscript is we want to make copies of it and send one to another city or to another synagogue. This is maybe before synagogues. But we want to we want to you know, this one's getting old because it's on parchment, which degrades with time. And so we want to make a new one so that and so the idea is you would make a copy

[8:59] as perfectly as possible so that no errors come. And one person would be talking and the other person would be writing. Well, there were rules about how the scribe was to write the name of the or Adonai. And and they knew when it was coming in the manuscript. And so they were not to use a newly carved quill. So they would use like the feather of a duck or a goose or something like that. They would not use a new one because a new one isn't broken in yet. And it doesn't write well. It kind of flatters.

[9:34] Even if the king were to tap them on the shoulder right while they're writing the name of the offay, they have to continue writing the name completely before they turn around and answer the king because the name is so holy. They don't want to. They don't want to scribble off the edge and mess up their writing. So you imagine this sort of this connection, not just to how holy the name is, but when they write it, that there's this holiness around how they write it. So they write it perfectly without making mistakes, both both writing mistakes and ink mistakes, right? That's how they thought of it. And we don't do that. You know, we have autocorrect and you can misspell God's name and Microsoft Word will probably help you with it.

[10:18] But it just shows this sort of this reverence that they had for God's name. So another way of putting all of this and we're talking about these sort of these three sort of the beginning commandments of not having other gods, not having idols, not worshiping idols and not taking the Lord's name in vain. Right. And there's a list of sort of consequences that go along with breaking all these commandments. Thousands of generations. Right. But. But. Another way of putting all this is that God wants our undivided loyalty and he wants it before any other loyalty, he really wants to be first in our lives. And this has huge implications for us now. The law is still binding on us in some ways. We'll see. The law is still important for us. And the law still reminds us that God has to be first. And in our culture, in the present time, I think we have a real idolatry problem. We always do. Humans always have idolatry problems. That's probably our default. That's probably our default situation. But right now and I want to speak sort of plainly about something that has been in the news lately is called Christian nationalism. And if you don't know what it is, it's maybe a longer story. You could look it up. But this idea that.

[11:32] That somehow. In this case, America, but it could be another country in this case, America has this special place in God's plan for the world and that America has to be brought to God by taking control of political processes and elections and even power and military power and things like that. And so and Christian nationalism isn't exclusive to the United States. There's there's Christian nationalism in Russia right now. It's very interesting. The Russian Orthodox Church is sort of colluding and collaborating with the leaders of Russia, which is frightening, you know.

[12:15] And there's there's this. The title or this God of a nation and some people will worship their nation in place of God. And if you're a Christian nationalist, you might say, well, God's always first. But the nation is, you know, America or whatever other country is just right there next to it. And and here's the news is to it's that little that right next to it is too close. God doesn't God needs a lot of space around him. And the nation, which I don't think you can even worship it, but some people do. And it has to be far, far, far away, far down the road. It doesn't belong right up there.

[12:53] It's idolatry. Your nation won't save you. Your nation won't forgive you. Your nation won't give you meaning or hope. Nations are made up of human beings who are fallen and broken and they're going to make mistakes. We have to have the right expectations about things. You can love your country and I do. But if God told me that I had to leave this country and go to another country and become a citizen of it so that I could serve him better, I would do it even though I love this country and I would be sad to renounce my citizenship. But I would because my citizenship is in a different kingdom first and foremost. And it has to be that way. I don't understand anybody who could read the Bible any differently than that. It's puzzling to me. And I wonder how many people who hold, say, for example, Christian nationalism would love to have the Ten Commandments posted in public schools and in public places, but they're breaking. The very commandment they want to publish.

[13:50] Thou shalt not have other gods before me, thou shalt not worship them either. You know, and I'm going to spread it around here. So if you're a Christian nationalist, I'm sorry, but this is the word speaking to you. But it's not just Christian nationalists, because Christians in general in this country and maybe in other countries, too, they have wrapped themselves into so many political philosophies from one end of the spectrum. To the other. So nobody nobody's getting off scot-free today in case you care about fairness. Everybody has a problem with it. Almost everybody have a problem with this. We have made politics our idol. Our mood goes up and down based on if our candidate or our cause wins. It's about winning. It's about controlling. It's about coming out on top. That's the American way we like to win.

[14:40] We should care about these things. You should vote. You know, you should care about politics. You should vote. You should be engaged in civic life, all those things. But here are some signs that you have gone too far. Now, listen to this list. Maybe you've taken your politics too far. If you lose sleep. Over an election outcome or a news story you don't like. It's important, but maybe not that important. When you avoid family members or friends because they have different views from you.

[15:09] When you start to view people who hold different views as no longer people anymore, no longer as the. Beloved children of God, it's those those people. They're almost not people. They're so, you know, and of course, this is I'm speaking to you now. Of course, those people are wrong, right? Whoever they are. And yes, you are. You are much, much smarter than them. You are so much smarter than them. You know more than them. But if they are no longer humans to you, then you have literally you have drunk the Kool-Aid of this world. That's not how God or God. Organized our world for us to live in together. The idol is the political outcome. We want the worship of that idol is the dehumanization of others. And that's that distinction I talked about. I'm going to say it again. The idol in this case is the political outcome we want. We want this candidate. We want this cause. We want the Supreme Court justice, whatever we want.

[16:09] But the worship of that idol. Is the dehumanization. Of the others who want the opposite thing. And every idol and false God has its own perverse worship. So if you see yourself in any of this and believe me, I do myself. I've gone up and down in my level of political engagement. And I say this soberly. I say, beware, beware. You have put something else on the throne. And politics is not the only thing. OK, politics isn't the only thing. There are endless lists of our appetites. For wealth or control or power, lust, amusement, entertainment, you name it. There's a long list. We don't have time to list all the idols that can take a spot on the throne. But they they all draw us away from our first love. And we do well to take an inventory of ourselves. And say, what is on the throne? What do I think the most about? What do I talk the most about? What do I spend my time looking at?

[17:14] What do I spend my time listening to? What do I spend my time on? What do I spend my energy on? What do I spend my treasure on? If it's a lot, a lot, a lot of that stuff for this one thing and this one thing.

[17:32] Isn't God, then we have an idolatry problem and God calls us away from it. God cares about this, and it's not just because he's jealous, because he can't stand a rival. It's because he knows those things hurt us.

[17:47] All the idolatries, while they make God jealous, ultimately they end up hurting us because they put us into a life that's not in balance, that's devoid of a reality about who the God of the universe really is, and when you're living in a sort of a false reality, all sorts of all sorts of unfortunate things happen to you, I could go on and on about that. So here's just an example.

[18:12] For example, if we dehumanize other people because we disagree with them politically. That dehumanization of other people actually dehumanizes us. Think about that. If you dehumanize another person, you've dehumanized yourself. And the history of the 20th century alone proves that I'm hoping the 21st century will look better than the 20th century in those terms. God says he will punish this idolatrous worship. And he will and he will do it. But he will do it. But the reality is we do a lot of that work for him. We punish ourselves with our own idolatry pretty well without even his help.

[18:58] So are you depressed? I am, but also joyful, hopeful, and I'll tell you why in a second. This is heavy stuff. This is Lent. This is the law. The law calls us into a place where we look at ourselves. And we find ourselves wanting.

[19:15] And it drives us, hopefully, to our knees at the foot of the cross in search for God's grace. And so I want us to be remembering that today. That if you have been idolatrous, and I have, there's forgiveness. There's repentance. There's turning. There's new hope. The cross is just around the corner here and the resurrection, too. So there's new hope and there's new life. But we need to. We need to spend some time in the reality of our own brokenness. But what's the answer to our idolatry? Right. I want to leave on that note. And for one, as always, the Holy Spirit, we always talk about this, the Holy Spirit, which is God's gift to us when we believe, will guide us. The Spirit will guide us if we listen, if we're receptive to the leading of the Spirit. So I want you to remember Galatians chapter five. And the fruit of the Spirit. And I'm going to back up actually a little bit before that to verse 18, because it kind of puts us all in context. I'm going to read to you from Galatians 5, 18 through 23. Parts of this you you definitely want to memorize. I keep talking about memorizing. You want to memorize this. But this is how Galatians 5, 18 reads. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

[20:35] That's a whole sermon by itself. We'll put it somewhere else. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law because you're going to be able to keep the law. The Spirit will keep you. He's going to keep the law for you. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. And here are some of all the idolatries that we have. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery. Those all belong together.

[20:53] Idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. That all describes the United States political system as far as I can tell, but other aspects of our lives as well.

[21:10] Fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. And another warning, I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

[21:31] I don't know if Paul could have put it any more plainly than that. Verse 22, and this is important, it says, but and remember, sometimes, but can have the effect of negating everything that came before it and giving us the true message and but but can work negatively to you say, I really like you, but I want to break up with you. All they're going to hear is I'm going to break up with you. But so I want you to hear. Yes, hear all this list. But Paul says, but the fruit of the spirit.

[22:02] This is what happens when you're led by the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. When you live by the spirit, you cannot even break the law. You cannot be idolatrous. The spirit doesn't permit it.

[22:35] When we live by the spirit, when God is on the throne, we approach all of life differently. We take more peace and more patience. And we do it not for what we can get for ourselves or what we can control, but we do it for what God wants us to do actively in the world to bring about his purpose and his plan for the flourishing of all people.

[23:01] God has a plan, not just that he would give you the spirit so that you don't sin. He gives you the spirit so that you can work in his world for the flourishing of all the people that he loves so that you could spread the gospel, so that you could spread the good news, so that you could spread justice and righteousness and hope.

[23:24] So we're almost done. The answer to all this trouble with idolatry, it is the spirit. It is the spirit. And you have the spirit and you need to draw on the spirit to help you with this. As I said, I'm almost done. We tacked on one command. And there's that one in the middle. And it's kind of hard to know where it goes, but it does go here. And it's about keeping the Sabbath. Victoria spoke about it a little bit. It really does belong here. It has it deserves another. That's another one that deserves a sermon of its own, but not today. And here's what we say as Christians is that we need to keep Sabbath.

[23:58] It doesn't have to look like, say, an Orthodox Jewish person keeps the Sabbath. They they stop working at sundown on Friday and they don't do anything until Sunday on down on Saturday, it doesn't have to be quite like that.

[24:10] You don't have to literally keep the Sabbath. I sometimes Sabbath on a Wednesday and I only do it for eight hours. I don't do it for twenty four hours. I need to get better at it. That's my job. I don't do it once a week. I do it once a month, but even once a month is enough. And I go away to I used to go away to Big Basin Redwood State Park. Now that's burnt down. So I'm in search of a new place and I'll find one.

[24:34] But I'll tell you this about my Sabbath. I also call them solitude days. The spirit. The spirit never fails to show up. The spirit shows up every time if I set aside space. And I take away all the distractions. And I make myself available. The spirit begins to speak without fail.

[24:55] The spirit never fails to show up, never. But I need to do it. I need to put it on my calendar. I need to set aside the time, you know, 90 percent of everything that you need to do. You're more likely to do it if you put it on your calendar, put it on your calendar, put it on your calendar. Put the next Sabbath on your calendar, whatever it looks like for you. OK, set aside distractions.

[25:15] Go away and be alone. I go to a place where my phone doesn't even work, but it's easy to turn your phone off. It's not the end of the world if you're unreachable for a few hours. It's not the end of the world. And and I need for me, I just need to be I need to stop doing and I need to be all about being in the presence of God and depending on your situation, it will look different. You may not need to go anywhere. You. You might not be in your house. You might go into your closet. You might go into your backyard, but you need to not work. No chores, no planning for the rest of the week. Turn off your devices. Find a place where God speaks to you through the spirit and make that a regular thing, whether it's once a week or once a month.

[25:59] Longer than that, I'm not sure. Make time. Why? Because that is still the vertical relationship. God speaks to you. He speaks to you in Sabbath. He he restores you so that the next step and this is next week, the next step. You are then freed up for these horizontal relationships with other people in the world. And you want to get that vertical piece right before you do the horizontal thing. And the Sabbath is almost like the middle. It's this point of intersection. The Sabbath is that place.

[26:33] Where you take care of yourself, you listen to the spirit and then you have your marching orders to go out into the world. So the vertical relationship is our first task. You need to do it first. If you if you want to have any hope that your horizontal relationships will work. And we'll talk about that next week. But I want to leave you with this. God is a jealous God. He's a jealous God, but that's a good thing for God. He loves us how he loves us and how he wants us for his own.