Follow-up from Sunday's message

Quotes on idolatry:

• "Whatever we love most, and are most anxious to retain and please—whatever it be we depend most upon for happiness and help—whatever has most of our hearts—that is, in effect, is our God!" – John Angell James
• "What is an idol? Is not this the essence of the idea conveyed by the word, that an idol occupies that place in our esteem and affections, in our thoughts, words and ways, in our dependence and reliance, in our worship and devotedness, which is due to God only?" – J.C. Philpot
• "Idolatry is a worship, in which the honor due to the Triune God, and to God only, is given to some of His creatures, or to some invention of His creatures." – J.C. Ryle
• "Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry." – Tim Keller

David Clarkson (1622-1686), “Soul Idolatry Keeps Men Out of Heaven,” diagnostic list:

1. Esteem. That which we most highly value we make our God. For estimation is an act of soul worship.
2. Mindfulness. That which we are most mindful of we make our God. To be most remembered, to be most minded, is an act of worship which is proper to God, and which he requires as due to himself alone.
3. Intention. That which we most intend we make our god; for to be most intended is an act of worship due only to the true God; for he being the chief good must be the last end.
4. Resolution. What we are most resolved for we worship as God.
5. Love. That which we must love we worship as our God; for love is an act of soul-worship.
6. Trust. That which we most trust we make our god; for confidence and dependence is an act of worship which the Lord calls for as due only to himself.
7. Fear. That which we most fear we worship as our god; for fear is an act of worship.
8. Hope. That which we make our hope we worship as God; for hope is an act of worship.
9. Desire. That which we most desire we worship as our god; for that which is chiefly desired, is the chief good in his account who so desires it; and what he counts his chief good, that he makes his god.
10. Delight. That which we most delight and rejoice in, that we worship as God; for transcendent delight is an act of worship due only to God; and this affection, in its height and elevation, is called glorying.
11. Zeal. That for which we are more zealous we worship as god; for such a zeal is an act of worship due only to God ; therefore it is idolatrous to be more zealous for our own things than for the things of God; to be eager in our own cause, and careless in the cause of God; to be more vehement for our own credit, interests, advantages, than for the truths, ways, honour of God; to be fervent in spirit, in following our own business, promoting our designs, but lukewarm and indifferent in the service of God; to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled, but manifest no indignation when God is dishonoured, his name, worship, profaned; his truths, ways, people, reviled.
12. Gratitude. That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God; for gratitude is an act of worship.
13. When our care and industry is more for other things than for God. We cannot serve God and mammon, God and our lusts too, because this service of ourselves, of the world, takes up that care, that industry, those endeavours, which the Lord must have of necessity, if we will serve him as God; and when these are laid out upon the world and our lusts, we serve them as the Lord ought to be served, and so make them our gods.

Why Jesus is superior to idols -- a summary list from 1st John:

• He is the Word of Life.
• He is Life itself.
• He is the Son of God.
• He is Light.
• He is The righteous one.
• He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
• He is the Truth.
• He sends the Anointing that teaches.
• He is Righteous.
• God is the Loving Father.
• He is Pure.
• He laid down his life for you.
• He responds to prayer.
• He came in the flesh.
• He is greater in you than the one who is in the world.
• God is love.
• He is the savior of the world, sent by the Father.
• God is Invisible.
• God loved us first.
• The Spirit is truth.
• He is the one born of God who keeps us from the evil one
• He is true God and Eternal Life.

Why the “Beautiful Things” are Most Dangerous

I’m about halfway through Shane Clairborne & Chris Haw’s ironically titled Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. It’s a pretty fast read, thanks especially to the book’s relentless graphic design (check the web-site out, you'll see what I mean). The book isn’t without its share of controversy (just Google the title and read the blogs), but the following quote really struck me.

It’s the beautiful things that get us. Perhaps the greatest seduction is not the ANTI-GOD, but the ALMOST*GOD. Poisonous fruit can look pretty tasty. That’s what is so dangerous about ideas like FREEDOM, PEACE AND JUSTICE. They are all seductive qualities, close to the heart of God. After all, it’s the beautiful things we kill and die for. And it’s the beautiful we market, exploit, brand and counterfeit.

WE FIND OURSELVES POSSESSED BY OUR POSSESSIONS . . .

and enslaved by the pursuit of freedom. Nations fighting for peace end up perpetuating the very violence they seek to destroy. Serpents are slippery and slimy things.

MOST of the ugliness in the human narrative comes from a distorted quest to possess beauty. COVETING begins with appreciating blessing. MURDER begins with a hunger for justice. LUST begins with a recognition of beauty. GLUTTONY begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of GOD starts to consume us. IDOLATRY begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that the beautiful image bearer is worthy of WORSHIP (pg. 26).

Determining Our Idols - X-Ray Questions

Last week’s sermon focused on answering two questions:

(1) What is our fundamental problem as human beings?
(2) How does the gospel, rightly understood and embraced, address that fundamental problem?

Our fundamental problem as human beings is not that we desire evil things. Rather, our fundamental problem is that we over desire—we inordinately desire (i.e., “epithūmia”)—good things. The Bible’s predominate mode of describing this inordinate desire is idolatry, taking a good thing—often a legitimate, positive, God-approved thing—and turning it into an ultimate thing. Whatever we give our hearts to, whatever we turn into our lives (i.e., “My kids are my life. . . My job is my life. . . Sexual gratification is my life.”) becomes our functional god. This god, or more often, these gods, express themselves visibly in what we say and do, but behind our words and deed are our motivations. Determining our motivations is the first step towards dethroning the idols in our lives.

David Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and ‘Vanity Fair’”

The deep question of motivation is not “What is motivating me?” The final question is, “Who is the master of this pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior?” In the biblical view, we are religious, inevitably bound to one god or another. People do not have needs. We have masters, lords, gods, be they oneself, other people, valued objects, Satan. The metaphor of an idolatrous heart and society capture the fact that human motivation bears an automatic relationship to God: Who, other than the true God, is my god?

Powlison, in his book Seeing with New Eyes, offers thirty-five “x-ray questions” to “aid in discerning the patterns of a person’s motivation”:

The questions aim to help people identify the ungodly masters that occupy positions of authority in the hearts. These questions reveal “functional gods,” what or who actually controls their particular actions, thoughts, emotions, attitudes, memories, and anticipations.

I’ve attached a copy of those questions to this post in the hope that you will use them to examine yourself. Powlison’s introduction and commentary on the x-ray questions alone is worth the cost of the book.

X-Ray Questions (pdf)
Seeing with New Eyes