Exposing Idolatry

Welcome to another episode of Becoming Whole. Today our host Josh Glaser opens up the issue of idolatry, which many of us mistakenly believe to be a relic of the past or a concern only in other cultures. But idolatry is alive and rampant in our modern world, communities, and even in our churches. Tune in for an honest discussion on how turning to God can lead us to true freedom and fulfillment.

Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole

👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding and Overcoming Idolatry
• 15:03 The Freedom in Obedience

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

I've been struck recently with a reality about me that I'm not happy. It's actually been sobering and a bit sad to realize how I have idols in my life, and I want to share just some of what I've been going through my thoughts about idols, because idolatry is very serious. I think a lot of us today think about idols and idolatry as something that maybe is a thing of yesteryear. It's a thing that happened in the time of the Old Testament, maybe in the New Testament, maybe it happened in third world countries, but not in our lives, not in 21st century Western, developed world. But idolatry is alive and well, as alive and well as it ever has been, and it is rampant in our culture, in our communities and in our churches and, I'm sad to say, in me. Before I go any further, though, I want to say the reason that talking about idolatry is important. The reason acknowledging our own idolatry is important is because that's where the hope is is important. The reason acknowledging our own idolatry is important is because that's where the hope is.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Paul in Romans 1 talks about this pattern that people throughout time have followed, where they, in his words, exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for and this is my paraphrase, they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for images in the form of the things that God has created. That exchange is idolatry, where we turn away from the God who has created all things. Worshiping him, giving him our lives, serving him, obeying him, believing him, depending on him, loving him. We turn away from him and give our devotion, our attention, our allegiance, our time, our love, our obedience, our faith to the things that have been created. That is idolatry and God, because our God, the real God, is a God of love who does not force us to love him in return, because that would not be love. Love has to be freely given. We have to freely give ourselves to God in order for our gift to be a real gift, and that's worthy of a whole podcast in and of itself. But in order to love God in return for his love, for his gift of life and for existence and all that we have, in order to love him, we must bring ourselves freely. We must give our devotion freely, our obedience freely, our affection freely, our worship freely. So when we choose to turn away from him to an idol, to something else, to bring us the life and love and security belonging whatever else is that we're seeking. He lets us go, and it's not because he's indifferent about us. He lets us go because he simply wants us to be free and he wants us to have. He knows that he is best for us, but he will let us go. And here I think of Jesus' parable of the prodigal son whom the father let go. But the reverse is not true. The reverse is not real.

Speaker 1: 3:25

When we are done with our idols, when we realize they don't satisfy, when we realize that they weren't what we thought they were, when we realize that they haven't actually loved us in return, when we realize that they have evil intent toward us, when we realize that they are not working for us and they're leaving us emptier than we thought at the beginning, when we realize that they are not working for us and they're leaving us emptier than we thought at the beginning, when we realize that they are stealing from us rather than giving anything to us that they promised, when we realize that they are not the bargain they told us they were in the beginning and we believe they were. When we find out that we want to leave them, when we decide we're done with our idols. They are not like God. They don't care about our freedom and they don't actually want our love, and so when we try to leave them, they often do not let us go. And this is at the heart of why so many men and women wrestling with unwanted sexual behaviors find themselves returning again and again and again to their behaviors, even though they are trying to follow God.

Speaker 1: 4:26

The idols they've worshiped have addicted them. And, just as an interesting side note here, god is not addictive, isn't that interesting? The God of the universe, who is the most beautiful, powerful, wonderful, infinite, omnipotent creature sorry, not a creature creator is not addictive, but our idols and the things our idols feed us are addictive. And so, through brain chemistry, through spiritual oppression, through demonization, through whatever means, when we try to leave them, they will hold us, and they will hold us firm, grieved and yet grateful that I have idols, that I idolize ministry, that I idolize certain versions of success, that I idolize my children, that I idolize an image of myself, that I idolize other people's opinions, that I idolize food, I idolize comfort, I idolize convenience. I'm sure the list goes on. I can't remember who it was. It might've been Luther, might've been someone else, I can't remember who referred to the human being as an idol, factory and man. I'm just finding that in my life these days. I have churned out idols over and over and over again and just to return to one of the ones I just named, that I idolize ministry and ministry success.

Speaker 1: 6:10

I love being in ministry. I'm honored to be in Christian ministry. I mean, all of us are, we're all in Christian ministry. If you're a Christian, you are in Christian ministry. Hard stop. Whatever you do, do it unto the Lord. You are in Christian ministry. Hard stop. Whatever you do, do it unto the Lord. And yet to be in vocational ministry is quite an honor. And yet to find myself in a space where I recognize that I idolize this, that I use this for my own to draw people to myself, to try to somehow give myself a sense of validation and worth and belonging man, that's ugly, that's idolatry. So what are we to do about idolatry?

Speaker 1: 6:46

And for many of you listening, the one you may resonate with most is idolatry of sex, idolatry of the male or female body, idolatry of sexual pleasure, idolatry of being in control of your own sexual pleasure, um, idolatry of your own ego and all that, all the ways that that feeds into your sexual acting out. For some of you listening, you have an idol of your own image, and what people think of you, and the way that that is playing out in your life in regards to sexual sin, is that you're not telling anybody about sexual sin. You're withholding from people around you people in your church, maybe people in your congregation that you preach to, maybe you're withholding from your husband or your wife that this is an area of struggle for you because you are so committed to, so devoted to the idol of their opinion of you, or you're so devoted to your ego that you believe they cannot live without you, and so, if they find out that you have these faults, they're going to leave. And then they will. They will be um, devastated somehow, as though you are are their sustance, as though you are their source of life.

Speaker 1: 7:57

So what are we to do about idols? What are we to do when we find these? Well, step number one, I believe, is we come to the Lord and we say Lord, expose my idols, expose my idolatry, and we do this as best we can with a heart of humility. And we do this as best we can with a heart of humility, not a heart of scrupulosity, not a heart that demands perfection and that we get this absolutely right, but a heart that says I don't want idols in my life, I want to rid myself of idols. And as we become aware of idols in our lives, that which we are turning to, devoted to loving, committed to seeking life from apart from God, we acknowledge it, we confess it to God and we confess it plain. We just tell him Lord, I have been worshiping ministry success. Lord, I've been worshiping pornography. I've been bowing down at the idol of sexual sin. I've been bowing down at the idol of of sexual sin. I've been bowing down at the idol of male bodies, female bodies, sexual pleasure, uh, my own control of sexual, my own sexual pleasure, you name it. We acknowledge that humbly to the Lord and we ask for his forgiveness.

Speaker 1: 9:14

I think it's also important here to acknowledge our idolatry to other believers. If you're of the denomination the Christian tradition that has a priest or pastor that expects or is present, available for confession, by all means go to your priest or pastor for confession. If you don't go to a brother or sister, someone you can confide in and confess plainly the idolatry in your life. And in addition, now you have to reckon with the ways the idols are holding you, the ways that they are not letting go. Now there will be times, by God's grace, there will be times where a confession, an acknowledgement and confession of your idol, will be enough to release you from that idol. But there will be many other times where you have become addicted to it, where you have become habituated to it, where your life is so entwined with this idol that it is not letting you go, where there's demonization that's connected to it.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Now, for you where there's been some kind of brain chemistry change, for you where there's been some, just a habit that's formed in your life you maybe even have formed your life so around this idol. That to give it up means there are other natural consequences involved financially, relationally, whatever. And so now there comes the process of untangling yourself from these false idols, and for that I want to prescribe two things. The first thing I want to prescribe is that you get help. So this is again why regeneration exists there. We have coaches here, we have groups here that can help you to untwist your life from your unwanted sexual behavior and from the sexual idols in your life, and it can even help you walk out some of what may be the fallout of letting those things go. At minimum, find some others, one other hopefully, two or three or four others who can walk with you as you give up this idol and who can hold you accountable, who can help you with the practicals, who can pray for you, who can stand with you. You're going to need help in this process. We gave ourselves individually. We've given ourselves collectively. We are going to need others' help on the way out as we leave these idols behind. Of course, you're going to need the Lord's help too.

Speaker 1: 11:21

And that leads me to the second recommendation, which is the spiritual practices or the spiritual disciplines. There is something powerful about age-old spiritual disciplines to help us to both expose our idols or have them revealed to us and to loosen their grip on us. Spiritual practices are not a way to earn God's help to find freedom from idols. They're not a payment that we make to anyone for the idol to let us go. They are simply posturing ourselves in a position of openness before the Lord that his spirit can move more freely in us, and so the fabric of our lives can be less and less conducive for the presence and the hold of idols on us. So, specifically especially I would recommend and there may be other spiritual practices that are just as effective or more so especially I would recommend and there may be other spiritual practices that are just as effective or more so, but specifically I would encourage you to move towards some of the spiritual practices of silence and solitude I've been practicing for many months now, just the practice of being still before God for about 10 minutes most mornings.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Still before God for about 10 minutes most mornings. Not seeking to actively pray I may meditate on one passage or pray one passage of scripture to the Lord but simply to be in the Lord's presence, to let myself be, and I try to posture even my body in a posture of openness. I try not to cross my arms or cross my legs or cross my hands, but just to position myself with a level of openness and I, even in that, will picture myself facing the Lord and just being still with him. And it is amazing what stirs in those times. Emotionally it can be difficult, physically it can be difficult, mentally I can find myself flooded with all sorts of distracting thoughts. But it is a way to quiet my body, quiet my mind, quiet my heart before the Lord and it does something. I can't exactly explain what, but my faith, my trust in that process is that as I open myself to God, that just being in his presence and him and opening myself to him, that he may come closer to me and he is definitely willing to come close or that I can experience his closeness, that does something to change the topography of my inner landscape and make it less conducive, less hospitable to idols.

Speaker 1: 13:42

The second spiritual practice I'd recommend is fasting, and I'm going to do a whole podcast on this at another time. But there is something powerful about fasting, and I mean specifically fasting from food, abstaining from food for part or a whole day, or multiple days. There are various forms of this. You can fast from sunup to sundown. You can fast from 6 am to 6 pm and then have a small dinner. You can fast from everything, for 24 hours, for 36 hours, for 48 hours but fasting abstaining from food, it simply does something and, in another way, opens us, and one of the prayers that I pray as I'm fasting is simply God, I want you more than food.

Speaker 1: 14:23

John Mark Comer and others have pointed out that fasting does a couple of things for us. One it does somehow open us to God's spirit in some ways, and I can't describe that or how that happens. But there you have it. It also is a practicing with our bodies of discipline. It is learning to discipline our bodies and say no to our to our physical desires In this case our physical desires for food. But that certainly translates to strengthening our will to be obedient to God, saying yes to him and no to other temptations like our idolatries. All right, let me land this plane with this.

Speaker 1: 15:03

One of the false images that I think a lot of us have about God is that somehow he is either aloof or he is very rigid with us and demanding our worship and demanding our obedience. I think the reality that we are so free to worship idols, that we are so free to give ourselves, is a is also a clear indication that God's heart for us is good. Why does God want us to obey him? Why does God want us to love him? Why does God want us to serve him? Why does God want us to be with him? Why does God want us to pursue him, to practice spiritual practices, to engage in Christian fellowship, to do what he says?

Speaker 1: 15:55

Why all these things? Is it because he needs servants, people to do stuff for him because he's too lazy? No, is it because he's a megalomaniac and just wants everything to revolve around him out of some kind of prideful covering that's covering up some kind of deep insecurity? And the maker of all things? No, why does God want our obedience, our allegiance? Because he loves us. All other allegiances end up holding us, binding us, enslaving us, imprisoning us, destroying and killing us. Allegiance to him does none of those things. Allegiance to him is freedom and life and love. It is a fellowship in the goodness, the lavish generosity, the holiness, the wonder, the love, the joy of God. Why does God demand our obedience? Because there, and only there, are we free.