“No Idle Idols”  1 John 5:21  11/15/09  (Colossians 3:5)

We’ve been studying 1 John for two and a half months.  It says that God is love and God is light.  When someone wants you to remember something important they will tell you at the very beginning or at the very end of their conversation.   The Ten Commandments begin with a command to not have other gods or  idols.  1 John ends with this very terse, short, and pointed verse, “Little children keep yourselves from idols.” 

            Imagination is a very terrible and powerful thing in our lives.  It is a good thing in that  it keeps life interesting and is a gift of God.  It can be a bad thing if not used properly (as all good gifts).  Psychologists tell us that when nurses watch an operation on TV, if they think the patient is in pain they will twitch, squirm, moan, and shrug.  But it they do not think the patient is in pain, they won’t respond at all.  If you ever go to a horror movie, you probably will hear screams because for a moment anyway, it all seems real.  We have to keep telling ourselves, “It’s only a movie.  It’s only a movie.”   I can remember talking to a teenager not long ago, and I said, “what are you going to do today.”  He said, “I’m going to play football.”  “Where?” I asked.”  He said, “I’m playing football on TV, and my team is just about to enter the Fiesta Bowl.”  He was talking about playing football on his xbox, and for him, it was Just as real as going to a game with real players.  Imagination can be healthy, or it can control us.  For those who are spending all their spare time watching TV, or playing games on Xbox, and playstation, it can be a bit unhealthy physically, mentally, and spiritually. Games are nice, but when games and entertainment possess you as they have possessed so many, then they have become idols.  When we create God using our imagination, this is idolatry. 

I. NO OUTWARD IDOLS- Outward idols are physical expressions of God.  Out of the nine major religions, six have idols involved in worship.  Why do they do this?  One theologian said, “The devil came to Adam and Eve and said ‘You shall be like gods” and we have been trying to make God like us ever since.”  There is a great desire to make the mysterious unmysterious –controllable and logical- to our liking.  But we cannot limit God.  He is Spirit.  His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. 
A) FALSE GODS- Many try to make a picture of God that won’t work.  If you asked most idolaters, do you really believe this thing is your god, they would say no, it is only a representation of God, but it has some kind of magic behind it.  Many baseball players who have a lucky rabbits foot- would not bow down to that rabbit’s foot, but they wouldn’t leave it behind when they played either.  That rabbits’ foot has become an idol for them.  One seminary professor at Union in Virginia said the less we know about the Bible, and the less we take the Bible seriously the more draw there is for us to create God with out imagination, and a God of our imagination is an image- and it becomes engraved in our minds.  He went on to say the less we know about scripture the prettier our robes, symbols  and pictures become.  This is a particular problem in our visual age.  A generation ago, there was no such thing as TV, a few years ago there was no such thing as HD TV- now people can have a big screen real as life image.  Perhaps I can use the story to some of you older folk here.  When Cecil B. Demill had the movie about Moses and the Exodus, it affects deeply how we think about that story.  When we close our eyes and think about Moses he looks a lot like Charlton Heston, and he speaks like him too.  When the waters stood up no either side we imagine that they were exactly that height, and exactly that way.  The danger of the video age, is it freezes our ability to think about God except in that way.  So God and his story become boxed in.  Luther used to say that it is  not the eye but the ear that is the organ of Christianity.  We need to listen.

B) TRUE GOD – Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God.  Jesus reveals God to us.  He shows us God’s love and care, and power over sickness and death.  Jesus said you cannot love God and money- because He knew you can’t have two different gods at the same time.  One will be the living Lord of your life, and demand the other be dead.
            To those who say it doesn’t matter what you believe about God, then you should remember what happened at Fort Hood.  I find it just astounding how some refused to believe that Malik Nadal Hasan’s religious faith motivated him to kill those soldiers.  It is a horrible thing to even think about.  But what you believe about God is important and it makes a difference.  And for those who think that not believing in God at all is better, let me remind you of some of the greatest atheists- Stalin in Mao who killed millions in the name of peace.  Mao and Stalin refused to let people believe in God and put government in God’s place.  That also is idolatry.   We are not talking about something abstract here, but something important.

 

II. NO INWARD IDOLS- Outward idol worship is a concrete expression of our inward worship and misunderstanding of God, and wanting to limit or control Him. 

A. YOUR GOD IS TOO SMALL- J. B. Philips wrote a classic work, “Your God is Too Small”.  In it he spoke of  trying to picture God as a type of human beings. Here are just a few of our images:

1. Policeman- God is telling us when we break the law.  God is just their guilty conscience- but God is far more. Jesus said he came to give us the abundant life. 

2. Grandfather- “God is a very old gentleman living in heaven.”  Sometimes we call him “the old man upstairs.”  Usually lack of energy, but very wise- saying, “Boys will be boys” and “girls will be girls.”  Not really involved in our discipline or molding us.  Jesus warned us about not caring for our neighbor, and becoming consumed with ourselves instead of being a generous people. He warned us by saying the two greatest commandments are broken by not caring- about God or neighbor.

3. Managing Director- God is like the CEO of a big company- doesn’t really know you, but you’re on the list.   We don’t imagine that God is interested in us.  But Jesus came to earth to show God loves us. God cares, and wants us to care in response.

B. YOUR GOD IS TOO DEAD- God is something we trust and invest ourselves in.  Some people invest themselves in non-living, dead things.  Their God is dead.
1. Money- “IN God we trust” is what our money says, but many of us act like “In money we trust.”

2. Security- Jesus told the parable of the man who kept building barns to store up his things in- so that one day he would really be able to live.  But he died while his third barn was being built.  Hoarding in order to become more secure hardens your soul.   Col. 3:5 says that greed is idolatry.  Security and greed go hand in hand.

3. House, boat, car- the list goes on.  Some say they won’t worship anything, but we always end up serving someone or something.
Bob Dylan wrote a song that said, “You’ve got to serve somebody.”  We do.  We can serve an idol, and I guarantee you that you may think you idol is controllable, but it is harder to serve than Christ- whose yoke is easy and burden is light.  Who do you choose to serve?

III. WHY WE NEED TO KEEP OURSELVES FROM IDOLS.

1. Idols become our addiction.  They gain power over us, just as drugs have power over us.   I have known many drug addicts over my years, and they think they have control, but the drugs take control if they do not resist- and sometimes even when they resist.  Families are forsaken, jobs are given up, give up even food and drink, and health, and break the law for it.   Only the Lord, the invisible God, is the One who should have power over us. 

2.  God is jealous- He is jealous for our sakes.  Jealous can be an evil word, but it is only evil when there is no basis.  It is okay for a husband to take a stand when someone asks if they can go out with his wife.  God is jealous that we not spend our lives on what is useless, or create our own hell by giving ourselves to false gods. 
3. His love- This commandment is for our own good.  It keeps us from wasting our time in worship, or our lives in false worship.  I can still remember going to Taiwan and seeing all the red idols lit up in the homes at night.  I can remember the people buying “funny money” that they burned in sacrifice for their dead ancestors so they wouldn’t haunt them.  God wants us to not live in fear, but in love- and perfect love for Him casts out fear.

            In Korea, the Christian churches grew with great devotion, and a dedicated prayer life.  They are still the fastest growin Presbyterian churches in the world- it is in part because of their prayer emphasis. The Japanese government there in the late 30’s told them to put Shinto shrines in their churches- as part of their emperor worship.  The shrines were small and would fit nicely- they even could be hidden. What would you do? But the Christians in Korea refused and were persecuted.  But the church grew despite this.  When churches say, “It makes a difference what you believe” people will come.  When churches say, “It doesn’t really matter- leaving room for idolatry” then people rightfully ask, “why bother.”  The scriptures over and over again ask us to ask ourselves- who is our God?  Are we putting an idol of some kind in His place?  The way we give, our stewardship, reflects who we worship and to whom we give ourselves. One minister said you can tell who someone worships by looking at their checkbook.  Some worship clothes, some worship games, God is looking for those who really worship Him, and keep themselves from idle idols.