The Presence of Idols

Father, your word talks about things which many of us never think about, and virtually nobody in our culture thinks about.

And so sometimes, Father, your word is just a bit of a stretch for us.

It talks about things that don't seem to be very, very relevant, yet your word says that this is very relevant to us.

So we ask, Father, that you create within us an openness and a curiosity to see how you and your word analyze our situation and how your word wants us to see ourselves and see our own situation.

We ask, Father, that you make us open to that, hungry for that, and that you grant us that teachable heart, Father,

that allows your word to speak deep into our heart and create deep change within us for our good, for the good of this city, and for your great glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

One of the things which was, many of you know, about two years ago and a bit, I had the great privilege of being able to go to Angola.

I think I was gone for 20 days.

I was invited by SIM, an important missionary agency.

I was invited to come and be the speaker at their conference for all of their missionaries in Angola.

They gathered them together for a six-day conference, a time of retreat and refreshment, and many other missionaries came to it as well.

And I got to do some other stuff and do some other speaking in and around Angola.

And one of the really interesting things about going to something like this is because I was going to be with missionaries,

it meant I went to parts of Angola that tourists don't go to, not that Angola is much of a tourist destination.

It could be, but that would require a great change in the culture and everything like that.

Like I, some of you know, I joked how, I think it was like every day when I woke up in Angola and I was there in July,

every day you'd wake up, the question would be whether you'd see one cloud in the blue sky or two clouds in a blue sky

with a high of 31 degrees with no humidity.

And at night it would go down to 18 degrees with no humidity.

And that sounds like the perfect summer holiday destination for many people.

But anyway, so I got to go to a part of Angola that, I mean, I don't know why any tourist would ever go there,

but missionaries were there because there were a lot of very, very needy people.

And most of the missionaries were connected with a medical work and other types of development work around water.

One of the wonderful things I had, got to do is I got to go with a nurse one day as she drove around.

We were already in a very remote part of Angola, but we got to drive around other really, really remote parts of Angola.

And it was very, very striking to me.

Other than the fact that some people had cell phones and there was some steel, the huts, the village, the farming techniques,

the village life and these back, back, back roads that you needed like a land cruiser to drive to.

It was like unchanged in many of its ways of living.

Like I could have gone back 200 years ago and it would have just been the same.

It was quite stunning.

And one of the things that the nurse and many of the other nurses and doctors told us is not only, of course,

were they trying to deal with the actual physical problems,

but they were also trying to get people to change their ways in terms of how they fed babies

and how they dealt with things like water.

And one of their problems was, in fact, trying to get people to change their understanding of water.

They'd sort of say, and you can sort of understand why they'd say this.

I mean, the Portuguese colonial power wasn't actually a very, very good colonial power in Angola.

Like it didn't add a lot to them.

It was a very oppressive type of colonial power.

And, you know, the nurses and doctors would say,

well, you can't just drink the water out of the river or out of that well or out of that stream.

You need to do this or that.

And they'd sort of go along.

They'd be polite with it.

But when they'd go back and in their hearts and minds, they'd say,

well, woman, we've been drinking this water.

You know, we've been on this part of land for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

And we've been drinking this water for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

And why, on one level, should I listen to some white person come and tell me that this water is making us sick?

I mean, the nurse would say, yeah, but the water has been making your family sick for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

And you'd have fewer diseases and all this.

So anyway, it was an ongoing battle to try to actually have the people realize that what was going on

and what part of their custom and tradition was, was actually something that was making them sick.

The Bible's going to talk about something today that Canadians generally never talk about,

but it's actually something that causes us lots of distress and it corrupts us.

But it's not something you'll ever hear talked about in the Globe and Mail or in CBC or at the University of Ottawa or Carleton

or the Université de Québec in Hull.

I don't know if I pronounced that correct. I probably didn't.

You don't hear about it.

And it's going to talk about the problem of idolatry.

The Lord was very kind to me this week.

I mean, he's always kind to me.

But on Friday, in one of the coffee shops, which I'm a regular person at,

I was there in the morning working on something and the guy asked me where I was off to.

And I said, well, actually, I'm going to Parliament Hill to speak on Parliament Hill.

I spoke on Parliament Hill on Friday.

And I went back to the coffee shop later on in the afternoon to get some more work done.

And he asked me two things.

He asked me how it went and he asked me what I talked about.

And I paused for a moment and I said, well, actually, I talked about idolatry.

I talked about idols.

And he said, he's a really, really, really, really, he's a friend.

He's a really, really, really fine young man.

And you'd love to have him as your employee.

You'd love to have him as your neighbor.

He's a really good guy.

And he looked at me blankly when I said that I was speaking about idols.

And he said, do you mean like people you look up to?

And I said, no, no, no, that's not people you look up to.

That's sort of talking more like about heroes or something like that or role models.

No, I talk about idols or something that you serve, that you get your meaning and identity from.

But they're not really something that will really give you a true identity or worth serving.

And he still looked blankly at me.

And I'm trying to think.

Somebody, you know, in heaven I'll find out that one of you was praying for me at that exact moment.

And I said, well, money.

You know, we can see how many people in our culture, they make a type of idol out of money.

They get their meaning from pursuing money.

They get their, they serve money.

They sort of put everything that they have into trying to accumulate money, keep money.

And he said, oh, okay.

And then he sort of paused for a second and said, I don't have any idols.

And I said, well, I think every single human being has idols that they struggle with.

And he said, hmm, this was Friday.

I haven't, I haven't been back to that coffee shop.

He said, well, I'll think about it, whether I have an idol.

So you can pray that about this young man, that he will, in fact, raise the conversation.

Or maybe I will with him on Monday or Tuesday when I see him next.

But you can see here a very, very common Canadian thing.

And actually a very, very common Christian thing.

That idols are something that, you know, when you go to Angola.

And Angola, one of the problems with rural Angola is that they still have a great belief in witch doctors.

And there's, in a sense, a very, very obvious type of idolatry and worship of gods and forces that go on there.

But we don't really think that that's something that goes on in Canada.

It's something primitive.

But the Bible is going to suggest that, in fact, it's a human problem.

It's something we have to think about very, very deeply.

So if you could turn with me in your Bibles to Judges 2, verse 6.

Judges 2:6

Let's look at it.

Judges 2, verse 6 and following.

Judges 2:6

And just as you're turning to this, a bit of a geek moment for those of you who are geeks about things to do with the Bible.

The way the book of Judges is written is that there's two introductions.

There's also two conclusions.

And the first introduction is what we looked at last week, chapter 1, verse 1 to chapter 2, verse 5.

And in some ways, that emphasizes a type of historical thing which happens after Joshua had died and brought them into the promised land.

But they haven't taken the whole promised land.

The book of Judges covers the time from entering the promised land to the time of the first kings.

And about 250 years or so, depending on how you date things in the book.

And so last week, we looked at the first introduction, which sort of just says nine tribes and what they did or didn't do to take the promised land.

Most scholars, all scholars, say that what we're looking at today, chapter 2, verse 6 to chapter 3, verse 6, is the second introduction.

And it's, in a sense, the more theological introduction, where you get, in a sense, God's perspective on what happens when you give yourselves, when you're in the presence of idols and you don't deal with them properly.

And for those of you who like, like, just straight, like, theology and straight ideas like that, then this is the part of the book you'd like.

And then the rest of the book, really, it tells the same thing as chapter 2, verse 6 to 3, verse 6, but it tells it in the form of stories.

A series of stories about 12 judges and what happens.

So the stories later on will, in a sense, you enter into truths in a different way when you read a story.

And that's what's going to happen in the rest of the book.

So this is the second introduction, and here's how it goes.

It begins with sort of a flashback to the past.

Verse 6, when Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.

And we saw what happened with that last week.

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua,

who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.

And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years old.

And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-Heres,

in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gesh.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

And so what this is talking about here is how the Lord has saved them out of bondage into slavery.

He took them out of Egypt, and it was the Lord who did that.

And then the Lord kept them, even though the people of Israel had been unfaithful,

he kept them and provided for them for 40 years.

And now they've come to the edge of the promised land.

And Joshua is the one who God uses to bring them into the promised land.

And once again, God saves and delivers them.

It's God who brings them into the promised land.

And Joshua, in a sense, is the leader that he has called to do that.

But then you'll notice here what it says at verse 10.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, their forefathers,

and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

And the word there, know, is the same word that's used when I want to talk about matters of sex.

What I'll talk about is knowing another person.

And that's a biblical way of talking about it.

It's a bit of a more polite way in church to talk about a certain type of thing.

And it's the same word which is used there.

And so it's not talking about as if you went back in a time machine

and asked the people of Israel just after all this generation had passed,

do you know who the Lord is?

They'd say, oh yeah, I know who the Lord is.

The Lord is the one who, you know, did this and that.

And they might even be able to give you a bit of a theology about him.

But they don't know him.

They don't have that intimate relationship with him of trust.

That's sort of what a good marriage should be

where there is a knowing of the husband for the wife and the wife of the husband

that both involves something physical but is far more than physical.

It's something which should involve the imagination and the emotions

and how you spend your time and there's a sense of intimacy.

And so this new generation doesn't have that with the Lord.

And they don't even know those works of the Lord.

And once again, it's not so much that they don't have a sense

of being able to recount some of them.

But if you think about it, if you understand this fundamental image

of almost a marital type of sexual imagery,

a knowing imagery, it's the same thing of

I can tell you certain things about Louise

and I can think about different things that Louise has done

and there'd be many things like that that would make me smile,

that would give me pleasure, so to speak, just thinking about it.

Like the way she stands or the way she walks.

Like I can recognize her walking from a great distance.

And like I like it.

Like I know things about her.

It's not just that I know things about her,

that I know them connected to intimacy

and connected with affection and connected with delight.

And that's what has been lost.

There's no personal knowledge.

And when they think about different things that he's done,

they might just say, oh yeah, yeah,

it'd be the same thing as one of you being able to tell me

who the shortstop was for the New York Yankees in 1935.

It's just a fact that you could roll off.

I don't know if there'd be anybody here who could do it,

but there might be.

And it's just, there's not that intimacy.

And that's been lost.

So if you know the last week thing,

is the people of Israel didn't fulfill what Joshua had said.

And they also, there's been a lostness there.

There's been a loss of that relationship with the Lord.

And so what happens?

Well, that's what happens if you look at verses 10 to 13.

We'll look at, well, actually,

we'll look at verse 10 again.

And then notice verse 11.

In my version, there's like a different little chapter heading.

But it's really important to notice the move

between verse 10 and verse 11, 12, and 13.

Look at verse 10 again.

And all that generation also were gathered to their forefathers.

It's a way of referring to death.

And there arose another generation after them

who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

And verse 11,

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,

and served the Baals.

And they abandoned the Lord, verse 12,

the God of their forefathers,

who had brought them, not the forefathers,

but God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

They went, this is Israel,

after other gods from among the gods of the peoples

who were around them.

And they bowed down to them.

I'll talk about that in a moment.

And they provoked the Lord to anger.

However, they abandoned the Lord

and served the Baals and the Ashteroth.

And Ashteroth is a plural word for those different goddesses.

So they served these male gods,

the Canaanite pantheon of gods and goddesses.

And you'll notice here, it's very, very subtle,

but it's very, very important between verse 10 and 11,

is that when they stop knowing the Lord,

it isn't as if they go to something neutral.

But when they stop worshipping the Lord,

they immediately start, in a sense,

worshipping something else.

I'm going to unpack this more in a few minutes.

But you see, one of the things which the Bible

wants to communicate to us as human beings

is that, in a sense, human beings are hardwired to worship.

Every human being is a creature made in the image of God

who's hardwired to bow down.

And the word which is translated as bowed down,

what it's really talking about is,

this is very old-fashioned language.

Those of you who like fantasy novels,

which often recreate lots of things from medieval times

and ancient times in a fantasy or science fiction context,

what they really do, that the language is of paying homage.

That's what it says.

It would actually be more literal to say

they paid homage to the Baals and the Ashtaroth,

to the gods and goddesses of Canaan.

And to pay homage means to become a vassal

under a Lord and swear fealty to the Lord.

So they no longer, in a sense,

understand themselves as being the Lord's people,

that he is their great deliverer,

who delivered them out of Egypt,

provided for them in the wilderness,

brought them into the promised land,

and has carried them and cared for them.

And that when he refers to them,

he uses languages of almost like marital intimacy,

that that's what he desires for his people.

And as they lose that,

they don't become neutral,

but now they enter into a new relationship instantly,

and this instance is now one of homage.

They acknowledge themselves or see themselves

as the vassals of these gods and goddesses,

and they pledge fealty to them.

They will serve them.

They understand that these gods and goddesses

are higher than them,

and are worthy of their service,

and of their loyalty.

Now, the problem is,

and most of the rest of the Old Testament,

there's many, many scathing, scathing,

scathing things about idolatry.

The shocking thing in an entire ancient,

a whole planet that saw idolatry as natural,

God begins to teach the Israelites

to have no image and no likeness,

that there's not gods,

excuse me,

that there's not gods and goddesses,

that there's only the Lord.

And Isaiah and Ezekiel and all,

they make fun.

They say, you know,

you go into the woods,

and you kill some game,

and then you want to cook your game.

So you see a nice piece of,

you see something there,

a tree,

and you cut the tree down,

and you take half of the tree,

and you turn it into fire,

and you roast your game,

and you eat your game.

And the other half of the tree,

you carve it into an idol.

And that same tree,

part of it you burned in the fire,

to roast your meat.

And then after you've roast your meat,

you bow down to the other half of the tree,

which has become your idol,

and worship it,

and give that other half of the tree thanks

for the fact that you've received this food.

And the prophets keep saying,

how foolish is this?

How can you not see that this is completely,

utterly ridiculous?

ridiculous.

You see,

the fact of the matter is,

is that every human being is made in the image of God.

No other created thing,

no other created thing,

no other creature will most help you to know what God is like,

rather than actually seeing another human being.

And yet human beings,

who are made in the image of God,

they pledge their allegiance and loyalty

to something vastly less than them,

a piece of wood,

to money,

to the job,

to having power,

to having sex with a particular person,

with having a war where you're able to kill other people.

And all these things are less,

or evil,

or demonic.

And we bow to them,

and say,

you are greater than me.

I will serve you.

I will be loyal to you.

I will do whatever I have to do.

Because you are my Lord.

Now,

this other type of theological critique,

this prophetic denunciation of how foolish it is,

how foolish it is.

You killed the game.

You cut down the tree.

You took half of the tree to make a fire,

to cook the meat.

And the other half of the tree,

you turned it into an idol,

and then you bowed down to that wood,

thanking you for this.

Like,

how can you not see that that's nuts?

That type of theological critique will come later on in the Bible.

But,

what Judges does is set the stage for it,

by talking about how,

well,

let's look at how it talks about it.

Verse 14 and 15.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel,

and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them.

And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies,

so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

Whenever they marched out,

the hand of the Lord was against them for harm,

as the Lord had warned,

and his Lord had sworn to them.

And they were in terrible distress.

Now,

there's several things here

that we see from the rest of the text.

First of all,

we can see that God is angry,

but he's justly angry.

Just as I would be angry,

just as Louise would be angry.

Why make it me?

I'll be the bad guy.

Louise is far better than me.

If Louise came in and found me flirting with women,

none of you would say,

she's wrong to be mad at me.

You'd all say,

you go, girl.

You go, girl.

You give it to him.

Let me help.

That's what you'd say, right?

And so,

because there's this desire for the Lord

to have this relationship with human beings like us,

and when he sees human beings like us

serving money,

or serving the state,

or serving the race,

or serving nation,

or serving our own ambition,

serving our ego,

serve,

and it,

it,

there's a proper anger which is there.

And the language,

it's very,

very important language here,

because it's,

it's how you have to understand

a whole lot of the Lord's judgment

in the entire Bible

from the Old Testament

to the New Testament.

Look at this here again in verse 14.

So the anger of the Lord

was kindled against Israel.

And notice here,

he gave them over to plunderers

who plundered them,

and he sold them into the hand

of their surrounding enemies

so that they could no longer

withstand their enemies.

Here's the thing.

You see,

what happens is that God,

by his common grace,

restrains us from the full effect of evil.

Day after day,

I want to serve an idol.

Day after day,

I want to serve my ego.

Day after day,

I want to be my own boss,

my own law.

Day after day,

I want to think I'm the center of the universe.

I want to think I'm the center of the church.

This is the most important person in the world.

I want to think this over and over and over again.

And God in his kindness,

and so do you,

and God in his kindness and his mercy,

he restrains us experiencing the full consequence

of such ideas and such desires.

He restrains us.

But at some point in time,

God's judgment is to remove his common grace

and let me have what I want.

He gives me over.

The language of sold into

is a technical language in the ancient world

for committing.

He, in a sense,

commits into our hands

what it is we want to do.

But this type of committing

is also connected to slavery.

And what we end up doing

is, if you think back to that analogy,

what is it like

if your entire imaginative world

and everything is

is that you bow down to something

which is either less than you

or evil or demonic,

it will plunder you.

it will cause you vast distress.

So,

let's just sort of capture

some of these things

and some of the points.

Here's the first thing

which we have to understand

behind all of this text.

If you understand

that even in the Old Testament,

how it's the Lord

who delivers them out of slavery,

how it's the Lord

who keeps them safe,

how it's the Lord

that fed them in the wilderness.

It's the Lord

who brings them

into the promised land.

It's the Lord

who desires

that they be idol-free.

The Lord longs for you

to be fully human,

fully free,

fully whole,

fully his,

fully idol-free.

That's what the Lord longs

for each and every one of us

who is here

and every person

in the city of Ottawa

and every person in Angola

and every person

in any people group,

his desire for every human being

is to be fully human,

fully free,

fully whole,

fully his,

and fully idol-free.

But here's the problem.

As a creature made

in the image of God,

you are hardwired

to give homage

and fealty.

As a creature made

in the image of God,

you are hardwired

to give homage

and fealty.

And that's because

we've been made for God.

We've been made

to be fully human.

We've been made

to be whole.

We've been made

to be free.

We've been made

to be at home

in our bodies

and at home

in the planet.

I mean,

part of being

at home in the planet

is

I mean,

even the worst polluter

wants somewhere else

to be polluted.

They don't want to live

where the pollution is,

right?

So if you understand

that to be fully at home

in the planet

is that you have

to be opposed

to things that

degrade the planet.

Nobody wants to live.

Nobody wants to go swimming

in a polluted river.

They go somewhere else

where it's not polluted.

Right?

But the Lord wants us

to be fully idol-free.

No idols at all.

He made us

to walk with Him

to be fully transparent,

to be at peace

with the garden,

at peace with one another,

at peace with Him,

to be able

to have conversation

and not

to

bow down

to anything

that Him,

but He made us

to know Him

and to acknowledge

that He is our God,

He is our creator,

He is our sustainer.

We were made for Him.

He's made in His image.

He hardwired that into us.

And when we turned away

from God

and rejected God

and desired to be

our own God,

the terrible irony is

is that seeking to be wise,

seeking to be a God,

we became fools.

And that part of us

which is hardwired

to bow down,

we now bow down

to the evil within us.

We bow down

to the pride within us.

We bow down

to the narcissism within us.

And we start to bow down

to other things.

You know,

you look at the terrible history

of the 20th century,

you bow down

to the social class,

you bow down

to ethnic purity

or racial purity,

you bow down

to capitalism

or ideology

or communism,

and you bow down

to sex,

you bow down

to violence,

you bow down

to war,

you bow down

to consumerism,

you bow down

to things

which are evil

or demonic

or which are just

vastly less than you

and they corrupt you

and they plunder you.

And the main problem

with most idolatry,

it is something

that we see

as a problem

for other people

and not for ourselves.

It's other people

who serve money,

not us.

It's hard for us

to think that

that other person

might look at us,

look at me,

as an example

of somebody

who serves money.

I think,

I don't serve money,

they serve money.

And they're thinking,

I don't serve money,

they serve money.

It's always

somebody else's problem.

If you could up

the third point,

Andrew,

idols seem full

of promise

but really only

plunder you.

Idols seem full

of promise

but really only

plunder you.

I want to just

give you two quotes,

I'm mindful of the time.

Many of you

are famous,

familiar with

David Foster Wallace

and a very important

intellectual and writer,

committed suicide,

but about a year or two

before he committed suicide,

he gave a commencement

address at Oberlin College.

It's a very famous,

you can go Google it,

it's still available,

it's very,

very famous.

And one of the things

he talked about

is he uses this example.

He said there's this

old fish swimming

in the water one day

in the ocean

and swimming in the water

and old fish

comes across

these two young fish

that are swimming

the other way

and the old fish

says to the young fish,

how's the water?

And the two young fish

say, great.

And they swim on

and a couple of minutes later

one young fish

says to the other young fish,

what's water?

Because it's just so part

of their environment

they don't even think

about the fact

that they have an environment.

And David Foster Wallace

went on from that

to say the fact

the matter is

is that human beings

live as idol worshippers.

This is a secular agnostic

and that idols beat you up

and plunder you

and destroy you.

Remember,

those of you

who were here last week

who remember

I shared how I came across

one of these

Ricky Gervais type writers.

He's a novelist

by the name of Mike Marshall.

He also does screenplays

and stuff

and I was reading a novel

because I don't look up quotes.

I do this weird thing.

I read books.

I don't look up quotes.

I read books.

And sometimes

you come across good quotes.

And in this book

one of the characters

in the novel

it's all about this person.

He's always doing

the right thing.

He has the right

political views.

He's concerned

about the environment.

He has the right

type of possessions.

The right type of career.

And he uses social media

and he does all

the right things

and his life starts

to unravel

and this is part of it.

I'm going to say a word

which you don't normally

say in church

and you have to give me a pass.

I'm just reading it.

Okay?

Here's the quote.

From Mike Marshall.

He's in a burger place.

The place reeked

of fries and ketchup.

He's brought into

a burger place

sort of against his will

as his life is unraveling.

So sort of again.

The place reeked

of fries and ketchup

and sounded like

an experimental station

called Radio Human.

People chewing,

bawling out kids,

talking on phones,

belching,

breathing,

existing.

I don't come

to burger joints

very often

for the very same reason

that I do head

to the gym

and read positivity blogs.

Because we're supposed to.

Supposed to eat right,

think right,

act right by the planet.

That endless series

of secular rituals

intended to keep others

thinking well of us

or keep us thinking

well of ourselves.

People rag on

about God,

how lucky we are

to be getting rid of him,

short of him.

But he at least

would throw

the occasional bone,

handing down

a good harvest

or a ticket to heaven

once in a while.

The internal taskmaster

we're working for now

doesn't believe

in fripperies

like motivation.

He,

she

just wants you

as his bitch.

Steph and I

have a ritual though.

Once in a blue moon

we'll go out

to an ultra burger,

a kingdom of fries,

though usually

it's a McDonald's

and slum it,

showing the world

that we are bigger

than how the world

all talks.

That we can make

our own choices.

And I suddenly realized

we hadn't done this

in months and months

and months.

I had been getting

deep into the program.

We both had.

Time had been

patiently breaking

Steph and me,

turning us into

everyone else.

Like what he's describing

as idolatry.

The serving of these

things that at the

end of the day

don't care about us,

don't love us,

don't die for us,

don't save us.

Very conscious

of the time.

But let's,

let's look at

how God responds

to all of this.

If you could go

back to verse 16.

We're going to read

verse 16.

How does God

respond to this?

People giving

themselves to idols.

In fact,

actually this is really,

just before we go to this,

you know,

I was thinking about this

a lot yesterday.

So my friend

at the coffee place

who said he had

no idols.

And then I said

everybody has idols.

And he said

he was going to think

about whether he had

an idol.

And I was thinking

about this.

Let's say he finds out

that he has an idol.

Like what,

what can he do?

Because you see,

if we're hardwired

to have idols,

then all we can do

is switch idols.

Right?

And this may be,

in many cases,

this is probably progress.

Right?

If you've gone from,

you know,

from making pornography

into something you serve

and instead you're able

to defeat that,

but you end up doing that

by making your husband

or your wife

into your idol.

Or,

you know,

you've been maybe

serving money

and that's wrecking

your life up.

You're serving career

and it wrecks your life up.

So you make your family

into your idol.

And it's,

in a sense,

a better idol.

Less harmful.

Better.

Still an idol.

Like there's a problem.

In a sense,

that's the problem of Canaan.

All they could do

is they could maybe say,

you know what,

I think I'm going to

stop worshipping Moloch

because I want to stop

having my kids

burned to death.

So maybe we'll switch

to this idol

because it's not as bad.

But in a world

where all you have

is idols,

all you can do

is switch to one

which is less bad.

You see,

unless God replaces

the idols,

listen to what happens.

Verse 16.

Then the Lord

raised up judges.

Remember,

they were in terrible distress

to serving the idols.

The Lord raised up judges,

deliverers,

who saved them

out of the hand

of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not

listen to their judges

for they prostituted

themselves after other gods

and bowed down to them.

That's paid homage to them.

They soon turned aside

from the way

in which their fathers

had walked

to obey the commandments

of the Lord

and they did not do so.

Whenever the Lord

raised up judges for them,

the Lord was with the judge

and he saved them

from the hand of their enemies

all the days of the judge.

For the Lord

was moved to pity

by their groaning

because of those

who afflicted them

and oppressed them.

Just pause there

before we read any further.

You want to notice

this is very,

very important.

It is,

it's that,

it isn't that

the Lord said,

look at these people

they've become so religious

and so hard working.

I think I'll show mercy.

Or,

whoa,

look at those people.

They've become

very penitent.

They really repent well.

I think I'll show mercy.

They're not seeking the Lord.

They're not showing repentance.

They're pursuing idols.

And it's plundering them.

And it's oppressing them.

And the Lord's heart breaks

with mercy and compassion

for them.

You see,

His mercy and compassion

precedes our religion

and our spirituality

and our achievements

and our holiness

and our religion

and our accomplishments.

His mercy and compassion

comes out of our distress,

not out of our

secular

or idolatrous

or religious

accomplishments.

Verse 19,

it continues,

but whenever the judge died,

they turned back

and were more corrupt

than their fathers,

going after other gods,

serving them

and bowing down to them.

They did not drop

any of their practices

or their stubborn ways.

So the anger of the Lord

was kindled against Israel

and He said,

because this people

have transgressed

My covenant

that I commanded

their fathers

and have not obeyed

My voice.

I will no longer

drive out before them

any of the nations

that Joshua left

when he died

in order to test Israel

by them,

whether they will take care

to walk in the way

of the Lord

as their fathers did

or not.

So the Lord left

those nations

not driving them out quickly

and He did not give them

into the hand

of Joshua and His people.

I don't have to unpack

all of that.

I just want to,

I noticed the time

we have to just close.

If you could put up

the final point, Andrew.

In light of your idol problem,

you need the true

and greater Joshua.

In light of your idol problem,

my idol problem,

I need the true

and greater Joshua.

Some of you

might not know this,

but Jesus,

the name Jesus

and the name Joshua

are the same name.

My oldest son, Tosh,

he married Amy

and by coincidence,

Amy's father

had the same name as me

except he's an immigrant

from Germany

so his name was Jorg

and I'm George

but it's the same name,

just one's German

and one's an English pronunciation.

It's the same pronunciation,

Jesus and Joshua.

It's the same name

and it means God saves.

I mean,

you're true and greater Joshua.

You see,

because people go

to sacrifice

to idols

and to evil things

because they feel

senses of guilt

and senses of shame

that they have a sense

need to be atoned for

but we need

a true and greater Joshua

who can deal

with those sense

of our need for atonement

and our need

to deal with shame

by dealing with everything

that we ever have

to atone for

and we can't atone for

and he deals with it

in his sacrifice

and we feel incomplete

and need to have

some type of other things

to buffer us up,

some other type

of accomplishment

excuse me,

because we feel incomplete

and we need

a true and greater Joshua

whose death upon the cross

would not only deal

with those things

that need to be atoned for

but would in fact

clothe us

with all of the righteousness

that we ever possibly need

to stand before God

and we need

a true and greater Joshua

who is not just

the one that God uses

to deliver

but then he dies

and we are left helpless

but we need a true

and greater Joshua

who after he has

not only dealt with atonement

and giving us righteousness

will actually come

to live within us

to take that seat

in the heart

of every human being

that was designed

for the Lord

and not for an idol.

and because we cannot

not be hardwired

for idols

we need the true Lord

in our heart

to give us that sense

of security

and that presence

and that power

whereby we can examine

the idols of our lives

and realize

why should I pursue

that idol

or serve that idol

when there is

the true Lord

and the true God

whose way I should follow

and whose way I should serve

whose way is only that

which will make me whole

and make me free

and make me idol free

and not oppress me

and not corrupt me

and not in fact

be my enemy

but my friend

who desires

to be in a relationship

of love with me

and his people

for all eternity.

So just in closing

if you feel anxiety

or distress

in your life

one of the things to do

is ask the Lord

what idol

is causing me

that anxiety

and distress

what am I serving

that is not you

and my lack of service

is causing me

this anxiety

and this distress

if you feel compulsions

to have to do

certain things

ask the Lord

what idol am I serving

that creates this sense

of compulsion with me

to look at your life

whether it's money

or time

and ask yourself

would I do

what the Lord says

in all of these areas

of my life

or would I not want to do it

and if you don't want to do it

there's an idol.

You see

one of the reasons

why we give an offering

and why we give a tithe

is because

the most

one of the deepest

most persistent idols

is money

and one of the ways

of being free

of the idol of money

is to give money away.

Money says

I will protect you

I will bless you

I will make you safe

I will make you secure

I will blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah

blah

can't take it with us.

Second after Bill Gates dies

and the poorest person

in the world

if they die

at the same moment

the second after they die

they both have the same

bank account

after death

which is zero

and part of the way

we put the idol to death

is by giving money away.

Part of the way

that we put to death

the idol

around sexuality

is by being faithful

in heterosexual marriage

or being abstinent

in singleness.

Part of the way

we deal

with the idol

of pride

is by learning

to be humble

humble not by thinking

less of ourselves

but much of Christ.

part of the way

that we deal

with the idol

of violence

is by being gentle.

The idol

of pride

by showing compassion.

Please stand.

Let's bow our heads

in prayer.

Father

many of us

are just like

my friend

from the coffee shop

we either

don't think

we have any idols

well

we just don't think

we have idols

and we don't even

think in those categories

because Father

we have to be honest

like nobody

thinks in those categories

like nobody

nobody on Instagram

or Facebook

or hardly anybody

thinks in these categories

so we don't think

in these categories

Father

we just don't.

We ask Father

that your word

would become

deeply real to us

and we ask Father

that you help us

to see

Father

don't help us

to see the idols

in other people's lives

ask us Father

we ask that you

help us to see

the idols

the functional idols

in our own life

and we give you

thanks and praise

that through faith

in Jesus

you are so patient

with us

and so kind

with us

that we keep

wanting to put

some idol

Father

on the throne

of our heart

to sit there

with Jesus

and Jesus

never leaves

the throne

of our heart

and he nudges

us

and pushes

us to

throw that idol

away

so that it

has no place

in our lives

Father

we ask

that your

Holy Spirit

your word

would make

the idols

that we are

tempted to

real to us

that we might

flee them

that we might

make much

of Jesus

we might

make much

of you

that we

might make

much of your

kindness

and your

grace to us

that that

would form

us and be

how we

understand

who we are

and how we

see our

life in this

world and

our future

and all

these things

we ask in

the name of

Jesus

your son

and our

savior

amen

our

gravel

Sports

after

Job

pas