What’s Under Your Tent? Preparing for New Things – Lesson 4 b (Idolatry: Formation, Avoidance, and Removal)

Isaiah 43:16, 18-19 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters. ‘Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’” 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 (NIV) 

“You shall have no other gods before or besides Me. You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth...” Exodus 20:3-5 (AMPC) 

“So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Do not be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.” Colossians 3:5 (NLT) 

Today I want to look at the formation of idolatry in a person’s life and the ways we can avoid or remove idolatry from our lives. Sadly, as Christians, we are not immune to idolatry and need to constantly be on guard.  

Step 1: Where does idolatry begin?  

Idolatry is a form of slavery. It never starts with an idol, it begins in our heart as desire, love, and hope. These can all begin as good things, however, when we begin to long for the objects of our desires, love, and hope more than we long for God that is when idolatry begins. 

In Acts 7, Stephen is addressing the council before he is sentenced to death.  In his address, he recounts the history of the Jewish people beginning with God calling Abraham to leave his home and follow God’s leading. He goes on through the historical recap and eventually comes to the heart/beginnings of idolatry.  

Acts 7:37-39 (NIV), “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people. He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us. “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and, in their hearts, turned back to Egypt.” (Emphasis mine). 

Idolatry begins in our hearts. The Israelites began to long for the things they left behind in Egypt.  However, they forgot why they had cried out to God to rescue them to begin with. And in so doing, they returned to slavery (idolatry) in their hearts.   

Step 2: Idol Formation: Transfer of Trust and Misplaced Worship. 

Acts 7:40-41 (NIV), They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 

Isaiah 42:17 (NIV) says, But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame. 

Habakkuk 2:18 (NIV) goes further when it says, “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.  

Isaiah 44:15-17 (NIV), It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!”  

If we do not stop the idolatry when it begins in our heart (mind) as a thought, desire, love, and hope, then the natural progression is to transfer our trust from God and onto that thing or person. This is followed by misplaced worship. Worship is not only singing songs. It involves posturing our heart to give “extravagant respect, honor, or devotion”1 to someone or something. We think about our idol, we convince ourselves that it will fulfill our needs, longings, and desires, then we will begin to worship it, giving it our time, attention, devotion... 

I found this quote that I want to end this section with: "You don't have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you love more than God is your idol." - Dwight L. Moody 

How then do we avoid or remove idolatry from our lives? 

First, we must recognize and appropriate God’s unconditional love as our own. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV) 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV) 

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 (NLT) 

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39-39 (NLT) 

Here we see that God loved us so much that even while we were living in our sin, Christ died for us. We also see that nothing can separate us from God’s love. His love is unconditional. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. All His love (Who He is) is all ours!!  

Second, we must find our delight in the Lord. 

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Romans 8:31-32 (NLT) 

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 (NKJV) 

Merriam Webster defines delight as: 1. a high degree of gratification or pleasure; JOY: extreme satisfaction; 2. something that gives great pleasure. 

Therefore, to delight ourselves in the Lord is to take great delight and pleasure in Him. To find our joy and satisfaction wrapped up in our relationship and intimacy with Him. This involves turning to God rather than anyone or anything else when we have a need, desire, longing, etc.  

To illustrate: I love my husband, however, he cannot meet my emotional or spiritual needs. He knows how to pray and is always willing to pray for/with me when a need arises, but He knows who my source is. If I expect Scott to meet my needs, I am taking my focus off Christ and making Scott my idol. I am also putting a yoke or burden upon him that he cannot live up to or bear. This is one major cause of divorce, even among believers.  I am not saying I have never done this. I began my married life thinking marriage would fulfill the deep longing in my heart, only to discover that it DID NOT and Scott COULD NOT! Not because he is weak or unwilling, but he was not created to meet them!  In the words of an old song, “Only Jesus can satisfy our soul!”  

Third, we must remove ourselves from the throne of our hearts. We must realize that even though we think we know, we really do not know what is best for us. We cannot see the big picture that God is working out in our lives.  

In Jeremiah 1:5 God tells the prophet, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  

Ephesians 2:10 tells us, For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]. 

God knew us and planned our path before we were even born. This is not to say that we are forced to follow that plan or path. God gave each person free will to choose for themselves what they want to do.  However, when we are born again and are made new in Christ, it is prudent for us to seek God’s plans and desires for our lives. His plans are always for our good and His glory.  

We might not, and often will not understand what/how He is working, however, we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (KJV) 

God saw the end (eternity) from the beginning.  In Isaiah he told the prophet, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV) 

Fourth, we must identify the idol leading to specific behaviors and renounce it, asking for forgiveness and grace to cast it down. 

This is not a onetime prayer, but a daily renewing of our minds through the Word and taking our passions, desires, longings, etc. to the Lord and appropriating His work on Calvary to our hearts and minds.  

Following are a couple of behaviors and one possible idol behind each one. Note: there can be many possible idols behind any given negative behavior.  

Behavior 1: Addiction to pornography. A person may turn to pornography because they are struggling with lust.  

Merriam Webster defines lust as: 1. usually intense or unbridled sexual desire; 2. an intense longing; 3. PLEASURE, DELIGHT. 

Rather than turning to God for healing and deliverance they make pornography their idol. Seeking pleasure and delighting in the created rather than the Creator. 

Behavior 2: Gluttony/overeating. A person may turn to overeating as a form of self-comfort.  

As I explained in my last blog, this has been an area of idolatry for me since I was four years old. Whenever I have had a problem, felt down, and discouraged, felt self-doubt, or just did not feel happy (which is situational, unlike joy which is given to us by God and our circumstances cannot take away) I would eat. However, like all idols, my gluttony demanded more and more to “satisfy” it. With each mouthful of food came new shame, condemnation, fear, anxiety, worry, doubt....  

2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 (AMP), Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

Idols always demand more than we really want to give, however, once we are drawn in and enticed to bow to them, we lose our ability to withhold what they demand. We become slaves to the thing we turned to in place of God. 

It is not God’s plan for us to be caught in idolatry! I encourage us today and over the next week(s) to examine our hearts and ask God to reveal any areas where we have entertained idolatry. There is no condemnation here! For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) God’s grace is sufficient for us, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) 

Remember, idolatry begins in our minds (hearts) and then moves to our transferring our trust and misplacing our worship onto that thing or person we have raised above God in our lives. Also, to prevent and/or remove idols from our lives we must: 1. Recognize and appropriate God’s unconditional love as our own. 2. We must find our delight in the Lord. 3. We must remove ourselves from the throne of our hearts. 4. We must identify the idol leading to specific behaviors and renounce it, asking for forgiveness and grace to cast it down.  

You are not on your own. We are all in this together. Share your situation with a trusted, godly friend or mentor and/or seek godly counsel from your pastor. Others have been where you are and there is help and hope in Christ. You are in my prayers!!!!!!! 

Works Cited:

1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship

A special thanks goes out to CRU.org for their article on idolatry that has impacted my life and thus this teaching!!!