Signposts | September 25 | Made to Worship
5 Minute Bible Study
Signposts | September 25 | Made to Worship
Psalm 135 verses 14 through 17 for the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. The idols of the nation are silver and gold made by the hands of men. They have mouths but cannot speak eyes but they cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear nor is their breath in their mouths. Eric, do you remember that television program called American Idol? Yeah, I still watch it. I didn't know if it was still a thing. I didn't know if it was still a thing but I have to be honest, when that show came out, this shows how kind of religiously I was brought up but when that show came out, I was all surprised. I was like, wait a minute. The Bible is quite clear about idols. We should not have idols. What's going on here? And yet there's the show that everybody's watching including all my Christian friends, American Idol? Like, why are we bowing down and worshiping these people that were trying to turn them into idols? Because that's what we do. Doesn't nobody know that we shouldn't be doing that anyway. I was conflicted about that but I also did watch it a little bit when it first came out. But I just want to kind of think about this a little bit the way that the Psalmist describes idols. They have mouths but cannot speak eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear. There's a fantastic book about idolatry by Tim Keller. I quote him off and he's just so precise on these things. But he wrote a book called counterfeit gods, counterfeit gods. And one of the points he makes in there is that idols are usually good things that we turn into ultimate things. The good things that we turn into ultimate things. So just to kind of go back to that television program, American Idol, God gave human beings an ability to sing and to perform and to make music. It's a good thing, right? It's really good. And to say this singer is my idol that I'm going to worship or whatever, that's turning it into an ultimate thing. And you watch some of the contestants on that show and they're turning their fame into an ultimate thing. But to apply that to my own life, to apply to our lives, I think Keller has a really good insight here. What are those things that are good that God created to be good? But in their place, I mean, at the foot of the cross or the altar or the throne, however you want to describe where Jesus is, the real God, he's not an idol, he's the God, he's God. And all these other good things are sort of beneath that. What are those things in our lives that we maybe are pursuing with too much passion, turning them into ultimate things? Usually you can tell when you've turned a good thing into an ultimate thing when if it's taken away, if you're completely and utterly devastated, if you're devastated by that omission in your life, and you've probably turned that good thing into an ultimate thing. I reverted to talking about Pastor Rick Warren and one of his very successful books, and I just say, Rick Warren tells us that man is made to worship. History tells us that man can worship almost anything or fall in nature, obviously, is the causation there. And the Bible reveals that man often mistakenly turns to idols and other false gods to correctly satisfy the deep human desire, this deep human desire. But scripture also points us to the authentic one, Jesus, who is the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. I think Warren is absolutely right that I think this goes back to God creating the man and the woman. We were made by God and we were made to worship. The problem is the sinful nature kicks in at some point and says, whispers actually, it doesn't say it's subtle. So like the snake in the garden, it whispers, really? That's what you want to worship? And then they point to something that is popular or something that we can do like cars and women and all these other things, and we make idols out of them. And it's as natural as falling off a log. I mean, it's just like we all do it, and we just have to be aware that we're idolizing, we're shipping, we're using this wonderful thing God gave us, and we're worshiping the wrong thing. And I mean, I'm just affirming what you said, I mean, it's whether it's Tim Keller or Rick Warren or you. I think that people have to be worn away from falling in love, but worshiping with all their heart, soul, strength in mind, something that is not God. Amen, yeah.