Sermon: "American Idols"

2nd in the "Stone Tablets in a Wireless World" series.
Delivered June 14, 2009 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Sermon Text: Exodus 20:4-6

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I really like the title of this series. That is a very creative title: Stone Tablets in a Wireless World. We're in the second week of this series on the 10 Commandments. And today the title of the sermon is American Idols. We don't have a... Americans don't have a corner on the idol market, but we're right up there in terms of the world. So it's not a particularly American problem, but we do struggle.

A friend of mine, Blaine Smith, who has written a number of books for InterVarsity, sends a monthly newsletter by email and has some really good thoughts. He usually takes excerpts from his books and just shares encouraging stuff. And he reminded me of something that I want to use (as a I begin) about a high school literature book that many of us probably have been assigned called The Pearl by John Steinbeck.

The Pearl is about a married couple in kind of a little village. Kino is the husband, and Juana is the wife. And one day, Kino finds this mammoth pearl. And at that moment, Juana senses his excitement, but she pretends to look away. And early in the novel, she makes a statement that sets the stage for what follows: "It is not good to want the thing too much. It sometimes drives the luck away. You must want it just enough, and you must be very tactful with God or the gods."

Now Kino doesn't heed that warning and he doesn't heed that advice. His burning desire to transform this pearl into a fortune destroys their simple but peaceful life.

So if Steinbeck has a moral, it would probably be this: It's dangerous to desire something too much, and it is often self-defeating. And so it raises some questions. And Blaine had some questions... I added to them. But here's some questions that He threw out there: Does wanting something too much hinder our chance of getting it? Does God work against us when our desires grow too strong. Or put another way, does our desire work against us when we can't put a thing or a person in its proper place in relation to God?

I mean, would you agree with this statement... that being too needy may negate getting your need met? And you've been interacting with people that sometimes seem so needy. It's like they want so much, and then it's like you just sort of back off. And it's self-defeating.

Well, these types of questions and more are what we bring to the second message on the 10 commandments series. Last week, obviously commandment number 1 was "Our allegiance is to be God alone as the foundation for our living." And we will read the same text we read last week and focus on commandment number 2 in the second week.

But before we read Exodus 20:1-6, let us pray: Lord, thank you that your Spirit and your Word can combine to transform us, to change us, to make us who we were meant to be. And so we pray for open ears and open hearts and open minds so that we might experience another step as we respond with faith to you and your Word. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen.

Exodus 20: "And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.'"

Now notice in the second commandment that there are two facets to this commandment. One is that you will not make for yourself an idol. And two... nor will you bow down or worship an idol. As I came to this sermon, I got so excited because I thought up an acronym for 'idol.' I never do this. I mean, other pastors I listen to. They always are thinking up these great acronyms, and they're putting their sermons against them and everything. And I'm so excited that it's almost becoming an idol... that I'm so excited that I'm about to share this with you, okay?

And there it is. Images Diverting Our Love. That's what an idol is. Images... something that we perceive or create. Diverting... taking us away, our love away from God. The Hebrew word for idol literally means 'to carve' or 'to cut.' That makes sense, right? Since in ancient times (most of the time) they were... I mean, there's Scriptures where a guy will cook a dinner over a log... half the log he burns for the dinner, the other half of the log he yanks out, and he carves it into something and he sets it on his shelf.

English use of the word in the Bible: Idol, Idols, Idolatry, Idolatrous... used over 150 times. So this is a big problem in all of our lives. Over half of those 150 times speak of making or creating an image or representation of a created thing. Because here's what happens: If we don't observe the second commandment, we don't just stop with making or creating something else. We end up, in essence, bowing down to it, giving out attention to it, offering ourselves to it. So it's not just the making, it's the following it.

For Kino it was a pearl. But it can be anything for anyone. In fact, if we were sitting in a small group right now and I said, "What do you think is the most dangerous possibility for something being an idol for you?" What would you say? Some of us would come up with all kinds of answers: children, houses, home, you know, possessions, stuff, wanting to take it easy the rest of my life... whatever it is.

And some of us wouldn't have any answer. You know why? Because idolatry is self-deceiving. Sometimes we don't even know that something has grabbed our attention. We don't even realize how far we've been pulled from God. So commandment number 2 makes so much sense following commandment number 1 because the Israelites could say, "Okay, I trust God. I believe God. I accept God. I accept Yahweh as the top god." Having said that, it's very easy for the will to get diverted and pulled away to something else. It's very easy to become distracted by the desire for things, for admiration, for power, for whatever.

That's what Jesus was saying when he talked about the parable of the sower. Be careful about that seed that grows up among the weeds. The desire for other things, the deceitfulness of riches, you know, the lust of the world. All that stuff can choke us off.

So it's the problem of humanity from the very beginning because in Genesis chapter 3, the tempter didn't come to Adam and Eve and say, "Don't worship God. Don't put God first." What the tempter did to Adam and Eve was... he said, "Listen. God is telling you this because he's not really like this, he's like this." So from chapter 3 of Genesis, you start to see what drives that idol-making thing. It's creating God in another form, in another shape mentally or literally, physically sometimes.

So soon, we start to redefine God on our own terms. Even though we can acknowledge God, we start to redefine. So then redefinition is a cousin to rejection. We're really not following the living and true God, we're following the god of our imagination. 1500 years after Moses, the apostle Paul nailed down the problem very clearly in Romans chapter 1, in verse 21 and following. And he spoke these words to people who were surrounded by idols.

And here's what he said. And notice how it begins:

"For although they knew God."

See, there was an acknowledgement that God was there, but...

"they neither glorified him as God nor gave him thanks, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools."

Why? Because they

"... exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images (there's that word again) made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another."

And here's 25. Again, that rotten exchange...

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator" (and Paul can't help himself) "who is ever praised. Amen."

God is a great psychologist (if I can use that term as loosely, put it in quotes) "Why" - because folks who study psychology are concerned that people deal with what is real. Losing touch with what is real is not a good thing. Idols can seem real, sort of like mannequins from a distance, but they're fake. And they're not only fake, but we fake ourselves out with them. Again, there are these images that divert our love from the Creator.

Now, speaking of psychology or spirituality that's behind all this, I want to ask the question, "What is behind this sinful tendency of idolatry? What again drives it?" And I brought a little visual aid because I went to get you to be thinking in a certain way. I could have brought a baseball, but I'm thinking about 3-layered reasoning of why idolatry happens.

And there's the outer layer of the golf ball which is just the shell. And then inside, there's kind of a secondary layer. And then there's a core. Same thing with a baseball. So just keep that in view, because as I was studying the word 'idolatry' and I was thinking, I was seeing how these layers just sort of started to build up. And I tried to get... drill down to the very core. What is it that causes people to become idolatrous?

So first, the outer layer was what the Israelites observed as they looked at all the godless cultures around them. They saw them making idols and objects of worship and bowing down to them or dancing around them or whatever. And that was motivating. The outer layer is motivated by a sense of controlling the deity. Idol making was about manipulating to secure a blessing. If I create this god or if I worship this god, that god will protect me. This god will bring me good luck.

So again, it's like we have this lucky charm in our pocket or something... that if I hold onto this hard enough, what I will need will happen. So now that's the outer layer. So if control is the outer layer, what's the middle layer? I think the middle layer is longing or desire of some sort. But it's a longing or desire that gets out of check. Because here's the thing: our desires are good. God has placed desires in our lives. Matter of fact, the Scripture says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll grant... " What? "... the desires of your heart." But it's unchecked desire that I think is that second layer.

So in ancient cultures, people were very concerned that they would have healthy children, that they would have good crops. I mean, out of sheer survival they had this desire that these things would happen. So they would come to Baal who was supposed to be in charge over all this stuff in their minds. And out of sheer survival mode, out of a sense of desperation sometimes or anxiety, they would go away from the true God and think that this god over here had more control. Let me put it this way, human desperation often motivates dumb action.

Bryan Brunelle is always telling me that I give tribute to Dave Ramsey in all my sermons. And I don't think I do, but I'm going to do it again. In our Financial Peace University class, we are 3 weeks into it and we have 10 more weeks to go. We are not going to meet this Thursday, but here's a special invitation to all of you. If you would just like to take a sneak preview of what Financial Peace University's all about, one of the best lessons is a week from Thursday called "Dumping Debt." It's one of the most motivational lessons I've ever heard about getting rid of debt. And debt can be an idol, right?

In all of his classes, Dave Ramsey says things like, "Has anyone ever done anything dumb with money?" Of course, everybody's hand goes up. And he says, "I've done dumb with 6 zeros attached." That's what he confesses. I've done, personally... I've done dumb with 5 zeros attached, really. I said, "6 zeros," last service, and everybody's like, "What? You've done dumb with 6 zeros? Who are you?" So I had to correct it at the end. I said, "No. No. No. It's just 5 zeros. It's just 5 zeros, okay?" Which is bad enough.

Dave Ramsey says, "I have a Ph.D. in D-U-M-B" in the past when it came to money." And he also has another word for it: 'stupid tax.' It's tax for being stupid. And where does it all come from? It comes from a desperation to try to get rich quick, to make a move, to try to invest. If something sounds too good to be true, it's going to be too good to be true. But we still do it. There's this desperation to fix something.

And so the idol of unfulfilled expectation starts to take shape. And here's out it works. I want something so much; I don't get it on my timetable. And so my unmet longing and my preoccupation with the object of my desire takes the place of seeking God or I turn to some other thing to make me feel better. And if you take this far enough, it is the stuff of obsession. Obsession is like... you just have blinders on. You can't see anything else.

So, if control is the outer layer, and the secondary layer is this unchecked desire, what's the core? Well, here's what I think. Psalm 115, verse 8 gives us a hint. And here it is. After the whole context of people who make idols, it ends with this:

"Those who make them (these idols) will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."

And I got to thinking, "What does that mean? What does that mean that those are in this whole idolatry making business will become like the thing that they make?"

And I thought of a few things. Maybe it means that we'll just kind of become worthless because those idols are pretty much worthless. That hunk of wood or stone can't do a blessed thing. Or maybe we'll just be rendered ineffective. Or maybe we'll be ruined because idols were often ruined. Or maybe we'll be disgraced because idols are disgraceful things. Or is it this?

At the very core of our being... that we want to be... even though we would never say it this way... that we want to be the object of worship. Not in a strict sense, but in a narcissistic, self-focused, self-conscious way could an idol ultimately be a projection of our own desire to be like God, to call the shots. I mean, isn't that what the whole temptation narrative is about? "God knows that in the day that you eat of this fruit, you're going to be like God."

Once there was a mail clerk named Norman who worked in the basement of a skyscraper office building. He hated his job. He hated everything. And he was about to take out his frustrations on a cricket that got too near his feet and about to stomp on it. And the cricket said, "If you won't kill me, I'll give you 3 wishes." So Norman says, "Eh, okay. Well, here's number 1: I want a better job in this company than this." Poof. He was on the tenth floor of a 25-story building. He was regional manager all of the sudden.

That was good for a week. Then he got tired of that. He said, "Where's that cricket. Cricket, come here." Second wish: "I want to be the president of this company." Poof. He's in the penthouse office building. He's up at the top. He's everything. Not too long after that, he hears somebody... a voice upstairs on top of the roof. He goes up on top of the roof. He sees somebody praying. He says, "Who are you talking to?" He says, "I'm praying to God. God is... he's in charge of everything." He goes, "Oh no. If you're going to be around here, you're going to be talking to me. Where's that cricket?" He says, "Cricket, I want to be like God." Poof... back in the mailroom.

Now, it's not that funny, but here's the thing. It illustrates what the human heart is all about. It illustrates that desire, that core... it's about me. It illustrates the fact that we lose focus on the God who really is, the God who cannot be manipulated, and want to manipulate things because of our heart which is desperately sick, who can know it? And so the second commandment... God is saying, "You don't get to be creator."

Think about it. An actual physical act of making an idol is becoming a pseudo-creator. And God says, "You don't get to be it. You can be creative. I want you to be really creative. I want you to use all the gifts I've given you. But you don't get to be creator." And so don't be putting things in the way of the real creator. Idols will surrender to our will and God wants us to surrender to his.

The second part of that commandment... you will not worship. The word 'worship' means 'to bend low and to offer homage, to offer sacrifice.' "You shall not do that with anything other than with me." One day, the tempter came to our Lord Jesus Christ, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, anything that anyone's heart could ever desire or crave, all at once. And the tempter said to our Lord Jesus Christ, "Look. All this I'll give to you if you'll do... " What? It is not insignificant that the tempter said, "If you will bow down and worship me." And what did our Lord say? He said, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' "

In Exodus chapter 20, in verse 5, it talks about idolatry being the sin of the fathers that gets punished generation after generation. This verse is not saying that God is punishing children for the sins of the fathers. It is saying that the sin of the fathers, which is idolatrous turning away from... and that's what the word sin means... it means twisting or screwing around, diverting, changing the image of the true and living God... that's the word sin is. It means turning. He says, "That sin, if that's continued, that will tend to be continued to other people... that people will pass that down from generation to generation. And that's the sin that he punishes, the sin of the turning away from him.

And he says, "I'm a jealous God." God commands the truth, that the truth be guarded jealously. God is not jealous of a hunk of wood or of stone, but like us, if we're slandered, we jealously want to guard the truth about our name and our character.

Here are just a few ways, quickly, that we obscure God's being and break the second commandment. I just want to stir up your mind a little bit with these things, get you to be thinking about it.

1. When we only emphasize one aspect of one facet of God's character... when we only say, let's say for instance, God is all love, all love. There's no truth, no justice. It's just love. And so he lets... God lets us do whatever we want. God is just love. That can be an idolatrous sort of thing.

2. When we're unwilling to learn more about God... when we have an unteachable spirit, and we don't want to learn more about God because we don't want our image of God to get knocked off the shelf of our mind.

3. When we reduce God to our ideological camp, and we say, "Jesus is a conservative." "No, Jesus is a liberal." "No, Jesus is a pacifist." "No, Jesus is a revolutionary." And we make up these things. And we stick to that, and we want Jesus to fit our ideology.

4. When we make forms more important than what they are for, like someone being more concerned with a church building than people in need. A church building is to serve people. It's like what people did with the Sabbath day. They made the Sabbath into an idol.

5. We allow anything to put God in second place... even religious stuff.

You know, there's a passage in the Old Testament where the people sinned against God and God sent the serpents. And then Moses created the bronze serpent. He lifted it up on a pole. Everybody who looked at the serpent was healed. A generation later, in Gideon's day, I think it was, people are bowing down and worshipping this bronze pole. They called it "Nehushtan." See how religious stuff can just start... take the place of the real true and living God? So anything can do that.

Calvin said, "Look. When it comes to worshiping God, we are not to give any attention whatever to our imagination, but rather what God's Word has revealed." So here's what I ask you today as we close: "What grips you today? I mean, what grips you today? What do you think about most? To what do you give your treasure, your time, and your talent most?" Whatever that is, that's probably your god.

So the question becomes, "If we find ourselves in the dangerous territory that Kino found himself in the book, The Pearl, what's the remedy?" What is the remedy? How do we get beyond this? I think the answer is "Take no prisoners, no compromise, no holds barred." In one of the slides we had up here when we were singing, it said, "I lay my idols down before you." I don't think that goes far enough because if we lay our idols down before God, what can we do? We always pick them up again.

I think we need to jackhammer our idols. We need to destroy and annihilate the thing that is causing our diversion away from God. Jesus made this very clear when he was talking to a rich young ruler. The rich young ruler thought he had God in his back pocket just like a rabbit's foot. "Oh yeah, I acknowledge God. I do all these things... yep, yep, yep, yep." And Jesus said, "Then go sell everything and come and follow me." He couldn't do it.

What was Jesus doing? He was using the annihilation method to challenge idolatry. You have to get rid of it. You have to put it behind you. And that's why he said, "Nobody can serve two masters." You cannot serve God or the pursuit of wealth. You cannot. It's impossible. You'll love the one and hate the other, or you'll hate the one and love the other.

Brothers and sisters, this can happen to any one of us at any time. If you take some time as a follow-up study to read 1 John, you'll see a beautiful five chapters of encouragement and love and affirmation to Christian believers. He calls them littler children, fathers... he says, "You're destined for love. You guys are the children of God. You're forgiven people." After all five of those chapters, do you know what the very last verse is? After all that encouragement to all these Christians... 1 John 5:21: "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Guard yourselves. Watch out for any image diverting love from Jesus.

We started with a pearl analogy; we'll end with a pearl analogy. He said in his parable... he was referring to himself... that he is the pearl of great price. Get rid of everything else in order to obtain him.

Let's pray: Lord, thank you for your love and for your grace, for your mercy, for how you continue to suffer long with us when we do not put you in your proper place. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would seal this word to our hearts and help us in our day-to-day living to just keep our eyes fixed on you and trust you for every need that we have. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

© 2009, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org