Mark Driscoll Worship and Idolatry Preach It Teach It Good afternoon.

Good to be, good to be, good to be with you all. This one will be a little bit different. I dont expect to yell. It could happen. I know its that mid-afternoon post-lunch sort of lull. Im going to ask you just to pay attention and think with me. I hope this word will be more pastoral and priestly, and I hope it will be of service to you. Father God, I do ask that our time would be pleasing to You, that it would be profitable to us, that, Lord God, as we who are servants of Your servants come together we ask that You would serve us because we need You. And God, it is my request that I would be able to serve well by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that, God, for those who do know You that this would be helpful so that they can serve those who do know You and serve others that they would come to know You. And so God, I thank You for an opportunity to teach, and I ask that by Your grace I would do well. In Jesus good name, amen. Well start with worship. Were going to move in to idolatry. A lot of the themes that Ive heard in the messages I want to pull together and go a little deeper on. For those of you that may not be familiar with it, Harold Best has got a great book called Unceasing Worship. Its phenomenal. And he deals with worship I think in a Trinitarian and biblical way that is particularly helpful. In it he says that we are all unceasing worshipers. He begins with the Trinitarian community of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and that God is in and of His own essence unceasingly outpouring, that there is love and communication and respect and devotion between the Father, Son and Spirit. From eternity past to eternity future that God is, in every regard, a worshipping, loving, adoring, enjoying, if I could even use the word happy, God. The Bible then says that we were made in the image and likeness of God. This means that we reflect, we mirror, we image God on the earth. That is by definition worship. It is reflecting the character, the essence, the nature, in a limited form as we are finite and created, of God to the earth for His glory, others good and our joy. In sin we began imaging, reflecting, mirroring people, things other than God. Even though we are sinners, we are nonetheless all continually, unceasingly, outpouringly worshippers. Everyone, all the time, is continually worshipping, giving themselves away to, identifying themselves in light of, living for the glory to someone or something. Therefore, the opposite of true biblical worship is idolatry. The question is not are people worshippers, but rather who are they worshipping, how are they worshipping, why are they worshipping. The question is never are people worshipping. Now what happens as well -- GK Beale has got a great book called We Become What We Worship, and that book rightly says that you become like whatever it is you worship. In the Old Testament when Israel would worship idols God would describe them as being blind and deaf and dumb because they worshipped idols that were blind, deaf and dumb. You become like whatever you worship. One of the reasons we want to encourage our people to be worshippers of Jesus is you will become more like Jesus as you worship Jesus. You cant become like Jesus if youre worshipping someone or something other than Jesus. You and I are worshippers. We minister to worshippers. Even those who do not know Christ are still worshippers. They live for hobbies, experiences, sex, fame, glory, grade point average, relationship, parental approval,

security, things of that sort and kind. So there is worship. We are all worshipers. There is idolatry, which is the worship of someone or something other than God. David Powlison, a great, great, great biblical counselor, says this. Idolatry is by far the most frequently discussed problem in the scriptures. Now to define this, just remember with me Romans 1:25: For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator God who is forever praised. Amen. That is the biblical definition of idolatry. Worship is living to the glory of God the Creator. Idolatry is living for the glory of creation. This can be anything that is made. We were created to worship God and to enjoy and steward creation. By definition, idolatry is what happens when inversion occurs. Something created is essentially deified. It is glorified. It is put in the preeminent penultimate position. It becomes the source of our identity and our joy, the object of our affection. It is literally the object of our worship. And here is the tricky part. Most of the time we do not worship things that are bad; we worship things that are good. What happens is we take good things, we make them into god things, and in so doing they become bad things. In addition, most people are blind to their own idolatry. I dont think that they are victims. I believe that if they have the Holy Spirit they have essentially closed their eyes. They have chosen not to see their idolatry. Martin Luther goes so far as to say, and Tim Keller often likes to repeat this, that Martin Luther in his commentary on the Ten Commandments said that really all issues come down to the issue of worship, that in the first commandment we are told that there is one God and we are to worship that God alone. Martin Luther rightly says that if you obey the first two commandments you will not violate the rest. You wont commit adultery if theres one God and youre worshipping Him alone. You wont steal if theres one God and you worship Him alone. You wont be worshipping sex or money. You wont need to be lying because you wont be worshipping your reputation, and lying is usually to make us look better than we truly are. Martin Luthers keen insights still ring profoundly true. Now let me say a few things as well about idols. They present themselves as something they are not. He says it rightly in Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth, and I believe linguistically its the lie. John 8 Jesus says that Satan is a liar. Hes the father of lies. Idolatry is in varying ways the lie that someone or something other than the God of the Bible is really able to function as God. So here are some of the lies undergirding that big lie that idols will tell you. 1. Some idols lie by presenting themselves as a savior. Not an ultimate savior, but a functional savior, a false, functional savior. So for the woman who takes a good thing like wanting to be a mother -- good thing -- and it becomes for her a god thing, she deifies her desire, then a baby is for her a savior. It saves her from her motherless hell, delivers her into her heavenly kingdom of motherhood home. A child is not a bad thing. A child is a gift from the Lord but can also be an idol. Again, idols are often good things turned into god things, which are bad things. The single man who longs to have a wife has a good desire. He who finds a wife finds what is good. Thats what Proverbs says. But if he deifies marriage and he deifies husbandry and he deifies a bride, then singleness is his hell and marriage is his heaven, and his savior is a woman, and he worships her. Sometimes an idol lies by telling you that it can mediate between you and God. Mediate between you and God. Now Paul tells Timothy there is only one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. But what tends to happen is that when an idol lies it tries to convince

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us that someone or something other than Jesus can mediate between us and God, reconcile us to God, get us closer to God and keep us closer to God. Sometimes we call this idol the pastor. There are some who will want to talk to the pastor before they talk to Jesus because he is their functional mediator. Hes the holy man of God. He is closer to God. If I could be friends with, get a meeting with, talk to the pastor, I will be closer to God because the pastor is closer to God than I. They dont understand the gospel. II Peter 1 says that those who are believers have the same standing of faith as the apostles. Thats what Peter says. Some of you really like being the idol. You really like it. People come to you. What they are asking is for your help or service, but what they really mean is, Get me closer to God as if you were Jesus Christ. Some of you will really like it when if youre out of the pulpit everyone is disappointed. Oh, church wasnt great. We really didnt worship. It didnt go that well. Because you werent there, even though the Holy Spirit was, the real mediator couldnt make it. And for some of you, what passes as worship wars is really idolatry wars. When people are accustomed to singing certain songs and you take them away, the reason they will react so violently is because they think that those songs are mediatorial, or that liturgical service order is mediatorial and that it gets them closer to God. You got rid of those songs? How dare you get rid of those songs. Now I cant worship God. Oh. Youve taken a good thing, made it a god thing; thats a bad thing. The church does not mediate. The pastor does not mediate. And you can even worship worship, which is idolatry. Idols will lie, present themselves as functional saviors. Idols will mediate and lie to you telling you that they can get you closer to God. 3. One of the reasons that an idol is so enticing is it gives you identity. By identity meaning it defines who you are. Its not a bad thing to be a husband. Its not a bad thing to be a father. But you can take a good thing, make it a god thing; thats a bad thing. There are those who have idolized leadership positions in the church because their identity is rooted in their office more than in Christ. Being called pastor is more important deep down in their soul than being called Christian. Identity. Identity. Its not a bad thing for a single mother to want a man who loves Jesus to marry her and help her raise those children. Thats a good thing. But if her identity is that I am single mother and I am devastated and I will have a functional savior named Husband and he will mediate between me and God and make me a better Christian and then he will give me an identity as a loved woman then theres a lot of idolatry going on with something that otherwise would be very good -- a man loving a single mother. Identity. You build your life on your identity. This is why some people seem to be worshippers of God until that which defines their identity is taken, removed or altered, and then they either hate God, they fall apart, they are devastated because theyre destroyed. Tim Keller says this in The Reason for God. He talks about for example the mother whose identity is in being a mother. Her children grow up and leave home and shes destroyed because her idols are gone and her identity is taken. Or her children do not walk with God. They hit a season of rebellion and unbelief and the mother says something akin to, And now everything Ive lived for is in vain. Oh. We thought you were living for Jesus. Identity. Its so subtle, and sometimes you dont know until your idol is taken and your identity is changed. Do you ever wonder why some people who are religious and in positions of spiritual power and ministry seem very pious until they are demoted, until they are taken

out of their office, until they are told, You can no longer be on the stage. They declare war because in altering their identity you are destroying their idolatry. 4. Idols lie by telling you that they will make you righteous. Righteous. They will make you righteous. Were not talking here about the gifted, imputed, reckoned righteousness of Christ that we find in the doctrine of justification. Were talking about the attempts at what Martin Luther calls a theology of glory. A theology of the cross is about what Jesus does for me. A theology of glory is about what I do for Jesus. Its about adding to my righteousness as if I could become any more righteous than the righteousness of Christ. But idols tell us if we worship them we will become more righteous. Thats why those who are idolaters also tend to be the most proud and smug, particularly those who are religious. Many religious systems exist to deify good things, turn them into god things, which is a bad thing, make a list of rules. You obey them; youre more righteous than everyone else. Then you get the right to look down on everyone else in smug pride, overlooking the fact that your idol is pride, the worst sin of all.

Now let me give you some examples of this. Idols tend to be good things that are turned into god things and they become bad things. Marriage. Children. Appearance. You ever wonder why as a woman ages, if she has this experience of becoming completely undone because her appearance changes. Its not that she despises age, its that she worships beauty. Wealth. Success. Career. Religious performance. Political party. A cause -- even a good cause. A loving relationship. A possession. How many Americans are defined by the vehicle they drive? A hobby. A pleasure. A status. Health.

How do you uncover your idols? Well, you look for things like this. You look for where your treasure is. Jesus says where your treasure is is ultimately indicative of where your heart is. What do you treasure the most? If your house was on fire and you were running out, what would you take with you? Thats indicative of your treasure. What is that person, thing, experience that you are most fearful of losing? Who or what do you love the most? What do you treasure? What is the source of your joy? What is preeminent and penultimate? What is in the position of glory? And I know many of you theologically would say Jesus. But where does your treasure lie? There are certain preachers and theological systems that even allow you to maintain a treasure other than Jesus, present Jesus as an idol-giver. Come to Jesus; Hell make you rich. Come to

Jesus; Hell make you healthy. Come to Jesus; Hell fix your marriage. Come to Jesus; Hell save your family. Come to Jesus; Hell save your job. Come to Jesus; Hes a great idol-giver. And when Jesus fails to give idols, because He is rightly a jealous God, we ask questions about where is God, does He exist, I thought He loved me. Where is God when it hurts? Why does God disappoint? Some even walk away from any practice of Christian faith. Others go looking for other religions and spiritualities trying to seek out a demon to give them their idol. And demons do and demons will. Demons dont care who or what you worship as long as its not the Trinitarian God of the Bible. You can also look for that which you make sacrifices for. The Bible often uses the word sacrifice for worship, and the same is true for idolatry. Your time, where does it go? Your money, where does it go? Statistically, Christians are not as generous as the gospel would indicate that they should be. Its because they treasure something other than the forward progress of the gospel, and they make sacrifices for things other than the forward progress of the gospel. What do you make emotional sacrifices for? I dealt with a couple a few years ago. They were married; said they were Christians. They got a few dogs that were purebred dogs, and they wanted to have them in competitions, and so what they sacrificed was attending church so that they could go to dog shows. So is it bad to have a dog? No. Is it bad to go to a dog show? No. But they worshipped and served a created thing rather than the Creator God. They treasured the dog above the church and they made sacrifices of fellowship and worship so that they could take their idol to his competition that the idol could prance around, that their identity could be in whatever ribbon they were granted by the performance of their idol. The same is true for sports. We tend to look back in history and say, These people are so primitive. They got together for these large events to worship their idols. Next time you go to a sporting event, assume its an idol gathering. Assume that the stadium you are in is nothing less than a temple which great sacrifices have been made to create, that those who come in are nothing short of gods, that when we wear their name on the back of our shirt or we cheer for them, their photos are larger than life. Its idolatry. So is it wrong to go to a sporting event? No. Its just wrong to worship someone or something other than God. The same is true for music. Kids dress like their bands, act like their bands, they make sacrifices of their money to buy the products, to go to the shows. What, is it bad to enjoy music? No. Again, idolatry is taking a good thing, making it into a god thing; thats a bad thing. You look for your treasures. You look for your sacrifices. Next time you go to the restaurant look around and ask, Is this a temple? Are we all worshippers? Is the buffet really nothing more than a god who is our stomach, like Paul says? See, people dont have sex problems and money problems and alcohol problems and drug problems. Thats why one of my great frustrations with recovery ministry is chasing all of the effects rather than the cause. Youre an idolater. Thats the problem. Now you may worship sex, food, money, prominence, power, prestige, but idolatry is the root issue. Now here is the problem with idolatry. 1. 2. It dishonors God. It completely dishonors God. It destroys the people we love the most because idols lie. Theyre saviors who cant save. Theyre mediators who cant mediate. If you want to destroy your wife, gentlemen, just deify her. Make her give you joy, value, meaning, purpose, encouragement, significance. Just put all of that divine responsibility on her and watch her crumble under your unmet

expectations. You want to destroy your children, make them into little gods and goddesses who exist to bless you. As soon as they disappoint, as soon as they sin or stray or fail see if it is not at least in part your idolatrous worship of your children. See, it dishonors God, idolatry does, and it destroys people we love. It destroys people we love. They crumble under the weight of being God to us. Hear me on this as well. Those who idolize must also demonize. Hear me on this. If you idolize your race you must demonize the others. If you idolize your denomination you must demonize the others. This is what happens. If you idolized Cessationistic theology you have to demonize Charismatic theology. You have to demonize it. If you idolize Reformed theology you have to demonize Arminian theology. If you idolize Complementarian theology you have to demonize Egalitarian theology. This is not just disagreeing over things. This is in every way worshipping a created thing that could even be a good thing. Im Characteristic, Reformed and Complementarian. I think those are good things. But if they become god things thats a bad thing, and if I idolize them then I have to demonize everyone who disagrees with me. I have to paint them in the worst possible light. I have to quote them out of context. I have to make every effort to destroy them because they might threaten my idol. Sometimes church fights are not just theological disagreements. They are conflicts between idols under the guise of theological disagreement. Martin Luther says this: Whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses great skill, prudence, power, favor, friendship and honor also has a god, but not this true and only God. Listen to his words. To have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts. Thus it is with all idolatry, for it consists not merely in erecting an image and worshipping it, but rather in the heart which stands gaping at something else and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints or devils and neither cares for God nor looks to Him for so much good as to believe that He is willing to help, neither believes that whatever good it experiences comes from God. Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that moreover renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God. If on the contrary it cleaves to anything else of which it expects more good and help than of God and does not take refuge in Him but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol. Another god. Commenting on the Ten Commandments, Luther says idolatry starts in the heart before it is enjoyed by the hands or witnessed by the eyes. Idolatry ultimately is a heart issue. On 900 occasions when the Bible speaks of the heart it speaks of the sum center total and essence of who we are. Regeneration is what God does at the heart level. Now as I say this I want you to be thinking about, through this lens of worship and idolatry, your whole ministry is to get idolaters by the grace of God to become worshippers, not to change behavior. Behavior is the result of regeneration. The biblical counseling guys rightly say that sin is the result of a worship disorder, that you worship your way into sin and you have to worship your way out. You need to displace sinful affections with deeper, greater affections, treasuring Christ, being satisfied in Christ, enjoying Christ, and receiving both pain and pleasure from Christ as good gifts. Think of the people in your ministry. Some of you are pastors. Others of you are leaders at varying levels in your ministries and churches. If idolatry is the cause and the sin is the effect, then where are the idols that you are contending with? As I prayed about this message I felt led to Ezekiel 14. Ezekiel 14 is an amazing section of scripture. Im studying it. Im writing a doctrine book right now. Its due in a few weeks. I hit

the issue of worship and idolatry and my biblical study took to Ezekiel 14. Ezekiel is both a prophet and a priest. The people are in exile. The nation is in great sin. The book opens with a vision of the glory of God, that God is to be glorified. God is to be preeminent. God is to be penultimate. God is to be treasured. God is to be the object of our affection. God is to be the source of our identity. God is the One we are to image, to reflect, to mirror. No created thing, just the Creator God. And what happens is that Gods people are in exile. They are suffering because of their sin. They profess but do not practice faith, as many people in your churches do statistically as well, particularly as we are in the south. There are many who would profess faith but do not practice faith, do not possess faith. And the elders, the spiritual leaders are frustrated by the sins of their people. Theyre frustrated by their unbelief and their lack of devotion and commitment and worship to God. It is in every way akin to what brings many of you here for. Churches dead, churches are dying. Christians are half-hearted. Those who profess faith do not act as if they possess it. They certainly do not practice it. There is so much idolatry. Where is hope? Where do we start? And the elders came together for a conference like this and they sat down as you are, and they came before Ezekiel asking God to tell them what to do to fix their people. I dont claim to be Ezekiel, but I would like Ezekiel through the scriptures to minister to us as he did to them. Heres what Ezekiel 14:1-6 says: Then certain of the elders -- spiritual leaders -- of Israel came to me and sat before me. Heres their conference. And the Word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts. Its the first time in the Bible that heart idolatry is addressed, and it is reserved for spiritual leaders. Read it again. Son of man, these men It always starts with you men. Son of man, these men The men back at our churches? The men that are cheating on their wives? The men that are looking at porn? The men that are sleeping with their girlfriends? No. They are pastors. They are deacons. They are worship team leaders. They are small group leaders. They are youth ministry leaders. They are parachurch leaders. These men. Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let Myself be consulted by them? God says to Ezekiel, these men come here complaining about the idolatry in the hands of their people before the faces of their people, and they forget that I see the idols in their heart, and they ask Me to judge their people for idols that they see. Why should I not judge them for the idols that I see? Therefore, speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Anyone of the house of Israel who takes -- there it is again -- his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the House of Israel who are all estranged from me through their idols. Therefore, say to the House of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, Repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations. I really do love you. Im not Ezekiel. Im one of those men. But let me ask you this question. Is it possible that the problems in your church and ministry are the result of your heart idolatry? Is it possible that as you lead the church and others follow your example, if you are an idolater,

mirroring, reflecting, sacrificing for, treasuring above all someone or something other than the God of the Bible, then the church is following in your example, and they may have different idols than you, but theyre idolaters because they follow you. What can happen when we come together at moments like this is that leaders like me can tell you all the people in your church that are the problem allow you to have a sense of indignation, self-righteousness, perhaps even bitterness rather than repentance. Maybe you are the worst problem in your ministry. There are common idolatries. Let me give you a few of them. 1. There is money idolatry. Jesus calls that idol what? Mammon. He says you cannot serve both God and money. Some of you say, Yes! I hate that prosperity theology. And your idol is poverty theology. Prosperity theology teaches that if you have a lot of money youre holy. Poverty theology says if you dont have a lot of money youre holy. Both are idols of money. Your righteousness, your holiness is gifted to you from Christ. There are men in the Bible who are rich and righteous, men and women in the Bible who are poor and righteous, men and women in the Bible who are rich and unrighteous, men and women in the Bible who are poor and unrighteous. Prosperity and poverty theology alike only deal with one of the four categories of money in the Bible. You are just as much an idolater if you hold poverty theology as if you hold prosperity theology because you think that having or not having money makes you holier. Its idolatry. A common idol is family idolatry. Every time I drive by a church that says Were great for families I think they are now less than 50 percent of the total population of the United States of America. They are advertising their idol to the majority and dont even know it. Am I against family? Im married with five kids. We have hundreds of weddings and hundreds of babies born every year in our church. I rejoice in that. I believe that marriage is a gift from God. I believe that children are a blessing from God. But again, idolatry is when you take a good thing, make it a god thing; thats a bad thing. Evangelicals are blind to this idol. Blind to this idol. I was studying in the book of Exodus. You may remember the succession of plagues that were brought upon the nation of Egypt for their idolatrous worship of false gods, and the commentators will tell you that each idol was judged and crushed by a certain plague. And then it gets to the killing of the firstborn, and all the commentators that I read, and I read a stack as tall as me, all said, We dont know what idol this was. Only an American commentator would miss the fact that God saved the final judgment, the killing of the firstborn, for the greatest idol of all: the idol of family. See, the idol of family is seeking a loving, secure relationship that will never end, give you meaning, purpose, significance and joy. Thats supposed to be from Jesus. Also part of the idolatry as family, its identity and name. Were making our name great. And its a goal at eternality. If I have children who have children who have children who have children then in some regard I live forever. Should you not get married? Should you not have children? Not saying that at all. But you shouldnt idolize family. You shouldnt idolize family. You should worship God as a family. And if youre using your family for identity and eternality and affection you cant love them. You cant love when youre using in an idolatrous way. Ive heard some people say, We picked this church because its perfect for our family. No thought that your family exists for the glory of God and the reaching of the nations of the earth. Certain churches exist to reinforce the idol of family. Were safe for your family. Were good for your

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family. Your kids wont meet any bad kids here. Really? The worst kids of all are those kids who are idols. Selfish, self-righteous. 3. Another common idol: sexuality. Sexual sin. This is where Romans 1 goes. I thank my friend Peter Jones. Good thinker. Hes really helped me think through this. They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator God who is forever praised. Amen. Therefore, God gave them over to shameful lusts to the degrading of their bodies. Men did indecent, deplorable things with other men and women did the same. Its the only express rejection of lesbianism in the Bible. It is the clearest refutation of homosexuality in the Bible. Some would ask, What does idolatry have to do with sexuality? Everything. Idolatry is the worship of created thing. The penultimate thing that God created was the human body. As you read Genesis 1 God says that everything is good. He makes the man and the woman. He says that it is very good. Very good. Seeing the naked body of another person can be -- particularly outside of marriage -- an act of worship. Youre beholding the uncovered glory. Sexual pleasure can be a worship act. Thats why Romans 1 says that the natural progression of idolatry, when God hands you over, and this is the passive wrath of God. The active wrath of God is on Sodom and Gomorrah when God just destroys in an instant and the passive wrath of God is when God gives you over to shameful lusts. He lets go of the proverbial leash and you get to pursue the idolatrous desires of your heart. The guy recently says, I dont think Gods angry that Im sleeping with my girlfriend. He hasnt done anything. And I said, Thats the evidence of the wrath of God. Youre getting to disobey continually. Most people dont see sex as a worship act, but you know what, sex is the number one religion in the world. We spend more money on porn than we do foreign aid in the United States of America. Just as Christianity has Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox there are gay, straight and bi. There are three major denominational streams. It is peoples identity. Im gay. Im straight. Im bi. There are evangelists for their cause recruiting others to participate in their pagan worship acts of nudity and sexuality. Thats why when two people are dating and they go to bed together, that bed becomes an alter on which theyre offering their bodies as living sacrifices. People say, Well, were just having sex. Whats the big deal? Your bed is an alter. That room is a temple. And you are an idolater worshipping created things rather than the Creator God. And you are under the passive wrath of God who has permitted you to store up wrath for yourself for the day of judgment. See, when you chase behavior you really dont serve your people well. You need to stop looking at porn. Porn is a worship issue. Porn is an idolatry issue. Porn is a decision between Creator and creation. Before the idol, Ezekiel says, is set before the eyes, its in the heart. Thats why Jesus says if you lust in your heart youve committed adultery. Youre already an idolater. 4. There is also substance idolatry. Very common. Drugs, alcohol, food. Paul says that for some their god is their stomach. Their stomach. Its amazing that Christians will despise alcohol and embrace gluttony. I wont name the denomination. It is very curious to me

where Paul says not to be mastered by anything, and some will say, So dont drink alcohol, as theyre gluttons. You shouldnt be a drunkard or a glutton. Be very careful that even your denominational, traditional idols are tested by scripture. You shouldnt get drunk and you shouldnt be a glutton. See, people who eat too much, they dont have a food problem; they have a god problem. I noticed it the other day. I was watching the food network with my daughter. Shes 11 and she loves to cook. Shes into health and nutrition and really creative. And they said, Coming up next, a whole show on comfort food. I could have sworn Jesus said something like that, that He would send us the Comforter. The Holy Spirit. This is idolatry. When youre hurting you dont go to the Holy Spirit for comfort; you go to the fridge and you take out whatever it is that will comfort you and that becomes your idol and this becomes your worship act. So is it wrong to eat food? No. Is it wrong to eat chocolate cake? No. Is it wrong to worship your stomach, be a glutton and idolater? Yes. And then what some women do, they put their finger down their throat and throw up because they worship the god of food and appearance, and those two gods are in conflict. So they worship one god and then they go to worship the other god to overcome the first god, and theyre doing multiple functional idolatry at the same time. All the while the idols are lying, saying, Here is freedom. When youre stressed, if you smoke, masturbate, surf the internet, watch TV, go to the fridge, drink alcohol, you are going for a functional savior. Make me happy. Comfort me. Give me joy. Change my attitude, my disposition, my current state. Its a worship act. Its a worship act. And now weve got it so that people drive through in their car. They cant even get out of their car to go get their idol. We have to hand it to them. See, its so easy to worship an idol. So easy. Again, some say, What, is he legalist? Is he saying dont eat? No. Good things, like food, become god thing; thats a bad thing. Thats a bad thing. 5. Morality idolatry. These are people who worship their performance. They think that God loves them because theyve obeyed Him. They confuse their justification and their sanctification. And this is even non-Christians. In my city its justification by recycling. Thats the gospel. It is. I recycle. I dont breed. I spay and neuter my pets. I dont have any children. Im not overpopulating the earth. I bike to earth. Im righteous. Thats Seattle. Theres a secular form of morality. Theres a Christian form of morality. Both can be idolatry. Trusting in my morality rather than the perfect life of Christ imputed to me, reckoned to me as gift-righteousness. People idolatry. I think people are often the most common idols. Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. Proverbs 29:25 says that the fear of man is a snare. Its a trap. If you fear God, that means youre a worshipper of God, you cherish, treasure, honor, revere God above all. You enjoy and steward creation, but your devotion is ultimately reserved for Creator. Thats the beginning of wisdom. Thats where life starts to get straightened out. Proverbs 29:25: The fear of man is a snare. Whose approval do you have to have? Who do you live in fear of? Whose disapproval would be devastating even if Jesus approved of what youre saying or doing? So many people are paralyzed by the fear of man. Parents, coaches, pastors often rule through fear of man. It causes Christians to be cowardly and timid when they should be bold and courageous. Ed Welch in his book When People are Big and God is Small says this, Fear in the biblical sense includes being afraid of someone, but it extends to holding

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someone in awe. It is weird when people want to get their picture taken with you. It is weird when they want you to sign their Bible. Its not one of the books I wrote. My name is in there, but thats a different guy. Its weird when 20-year-old guys try to sound like John Piper. Its even weirder when they try to dress like him. Its weird. It extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people. Worshipping other people. Putting your trust in people or needing people. See, Welch makes this great argument. If you really need someone for identity, security, mediatorship, functional saviorship, you cant really love them. God really loves us, but He doesnt really need us, so His love is pure. The fear of man can be summarized in this way: we replace God with people. Instead of a biblically-guided fear of the Lord we fear others. When we are in our teens it is called peer pressure. When we are older it is called people-pleasing. Recently it has been called codependency. If you need to be a ministry leader and your people need you its codependency. Another way to say it is co-idolatry. Your people need Christ; you need Christ. You need to lead them toward Christ. They need you to lead them toward Christ, but they dont need you to be Christ. And you dont need them to approve of you and worship you like Christ. Are you ready? Eleven questions. 1. Attendance idolatry. You ministers, how many of you are ministry leaders? How many of you want to be ministry leaders. That might be your idolatry, just so you know. Attendance idolatry. Does your joy change when your attendance does? Attendance is up; I am happy. Attendance is down; I am sad. Giving is up; I am happy. Giving is down; I am sad. Thats idolatry. Its idolatry. A snowstorm hit our city. A bunch of churches cancelled. I asked pastors why. They said not many people would show up. Hm. I could have sworn we did this for Jesus. I could have sworn. I think Hell make it. Cancel because the attendance isnt enough for the pastor to have the audience that he deserves. The pastor usually had a thousand and he only had seven. He deserves more glory than that. Were cancelling. Gift idolatry. Do you feel that God needs you and uses you because you are so skilled? Deep down in your heart do you feel like, Yeah. Lord, that was really smart that you picked me. That shows your omniscience. And you use me because Im a good tool in Your hand. Truth idolatry. Do you consider yourself more righteous than more simple Christians? See, for some of you its truth idolatry. Keller hit this at the Gospel Coalition. Its brilliant. Those of you guys who read a lot of books, get a lot of education, know a few words, you can think that youre more righteous than the simple Christian because you believe that the idol of knowledge, which puffs up if not accompanied by love which builds up, makes you somehow superior and varsity. Its one of the great problems in the history of Reformed theology. Right? We read books and we overlook humility. Im guilty of it. If you dont believe me Google my name. Youll see examples. See, some of you think that your systematic theology makes you holier or closer to God. The grace of God is what reconciles you to God. The grace of God is what reconciles you to God. Am I against sound doctrine? No. I believe in it. The soundest doctrine of all leads to Christ being made much of and increased humility in those who worship Him. Any theology that leads to arrogance and pride is in and of

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itself idolatrous. Again, if you idolize something you have to demonize everything else. Be careful what you say. Be careful what you Twitter. Be careful what you Facebook. Be careful what you blog. And some of you will say, You are chief of sinners, Pastor Mark. And I would say, Yes. We all need to make sure that we dont worship the idol of truth. Jesus says, I am the Truth. Hes the One we worship. I know people who worship theology and Jesus is an afterthought. And they are idolaters. 4. Fruit idolatry. Do you point to your success as evidence of Gods approval of you? I know that God loves me and approves of me. Look at all the things that He has allowed me to do. Thats fruit idolatry. Some of you suffer from tradition idolatry. Heres the question. What traditions are you upholding that are thwarting the forward progress of the gospel? Because you are more committed to your traditions than Christ. So you know, I know that this tradition from my denomination or my heritage or my family, it is not best for the forward progress of the gospel, but I prefer what Jesus calls the vain traditions of men because that idol is so important to me that I will even sacrifice the forward progress of the gospel in my ministry to do it the way that it was handed to me. There is method idolatry. Do you worship your method as your mediator? Some of you worship your methods. Youre so convinced by house church, multi-site church, church-planting church, and you know what, methods can be used of God, but they can be idolized by people. GK Beale in We Become What we Worship he says that theres a lot of discussion in the Old Testament about idolatry. Not so much in the New Testament. And the question particularly in the gospels is, What is the idolatry there? Now you do get echoes of idolatry later. The last word of 1 John is Keep yourselves from idols. So if you keep yourself from idols you obey the rest of the book. But what about the gospels? He asks this insightful question. What about the gospels? Whats the idol in the gospels? And you know what he says? Its the temple. They felt that the temple made them closer to God, and when Christ came they crucified Him because He said He would destroy the temple. They worshipped the temple rather than Christ. And so God had the temple destroyed. For some, the church is their idol. Their ministry and its methods are their idols. Office idolatry. Are you motivated primarily by Gods glory or your title? Some of you young guys, you want to be called Pastor. It matters far too much to you. Some of you want to be called Deacon. It matters too much to you. Some of you want to be called Leader. It matters too much to you. Its not about our office. Its about our Christ. Success idolatry. Is winning what motivates you at the deepest level? Do you want to win? However you define win. Growth, numbers, nickels, whatever it is. Winning. Is your idol winning? I have to do better. I have to out-perform myself. Ministry idolatry. Do you use the pressure of ministry to make you walk with God? Do you walk with God because you love Him or do you walk with Him because if you dont youll be in trouble as a minister and your ministry wont go well and you may lose

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your job and shame your family and end up in the newspaper, and your idol is your office and your identity that is in something other than Christ? 10. There is innovative idolatry. Does it matter to you that your ministry be considered unique? Why do you want your ministry to be unique? Why do you, as soon as you introduce yourself, say, Yeah. We do it different than they do. They do it like this; we do it like Why does that matter? Because your idolatry is uniqueness and creativity and innovation, and for some contextualization, which isnt a bad thing, but when it becomes a god thing its a bad thing. Why do you want to be unique? Wouldnt it be better to be faithful and fruitful? Leader idolatry. Who other than Christ are you imaging? Which pastor do you want to be like? Which church do you want your church to be like? What ministry do you want your ministry to be like? Who do you want to preach like? Who do you want to lead like? Who do you want to teach like? Who do you want to serve like? Really? Were you created to image, to mirror, to reflect them? You say, But theyre a servant of God. Right. But youre not. Youre a servant of them. Some of you come from denominations, traditions, networks; the leader becomes the idol. Thats why anyone who even criticizes or raises any questions about it is demonized. Because if you idolize you must demonize. Be very careful.

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So what do we do? What does the text say, dear friends? Repent. I will close with this. Repentance is not what we preach. It is first what we practice. The worst are those who preach repentance without practicing it. I talked to JR Packer about a year ago. He had been kicked out of Anglicanism. They fired JR Packer. They fired JR Packer. Im like wow. It was over gay marriage and relationships. I asked JR Packer, So what were you thinking? He said, I was sad that my denomination was run by heretics. I said, Okay. Homosexual relationships. How is that heresy? Because there has not been in the history of the church a council that got together to issue a statement on this issue. He said, The first requirement of the gospel is repentance. Anyone who doesnt repent is a heretic. Brilliant. Some of you guys are heretics.