Freedom in Chains

This morning's scripture reading comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 30.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

And you can follow along your bulletin as we read.

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits, and its breadth 6 cubits.

He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And the herald proclaimed aloud,

You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, backpipe, and every kind of music,

you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.

Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,

all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Therefore, at the time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews,

they declared to King Nebuchadnezzar,

O king, live forever.

You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,

shall fall down and worship the golden image.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a fiery, burning furnace.

There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O king, pay no attention to you.

They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in a furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought.

So they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them,

Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?

Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music,

to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.

But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.

And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace,

and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.

And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments,

and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.

Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated,

the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste.

He declared to his counselors,

Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?

They answered and said to the king,

True, O king.

He answered and said,

But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning, fiery furnace.

He declared,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together

and saw that fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.

The hair of their heads was not singed,

their cloaks were not harmed,

and no smell of fire had come upon them.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said,

Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

who has sent his angel and delivered his servants,

who trusted in him,

and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies,

rather than serve and worship any god except their own god.

Therefore I make a decree,

Any people, nation, or language

that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

shall be torn limb from limb,

and their houses laid in ruins,

for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

in the province of Babylon.

This is the reading of God's word.

Good morning.

If you don't know me, my name is Eric Scott.

I'm the youth guy here at Watermark.

I am really excited to get to speak with you guys today.

Just a little background on me.

I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

The tallest thing in my hometown was trees.

And one of the things that I loved to do as a kid

was climb these trees.

I would go out.

My uncle and aunt had a great climbing tree in their backyard.

It had nice low branches to the ground

so I could reach them even when I was a little kid.

It means I was only this tall instead of this tall.

And I would go out there and I would climb up these trees

and I would reach up for the next branch.

I would climb up.

And there was just something about being on top of a tree.

It felt like I was on top of the world.

I felt this sense of freedom being up there.

I was away from everything.

I could see really far.

It was awesome.

The problem was that as I was climbing these trees,

I would reach up and grab really high branches

and pull myself up and reach up again.

And I would get to the top.

I would enjoy the view for a while.

I would enjoy being up there.

And then it was time to go down.

And I realized that the stretches that I made on the way up

were not anywhere near as easy to make on the way down.

If you've ever climbed a tree, I'm sure you can relate to this.

And so there was this promise of freedom that lay at the top of the tree

that I climbed up there for and I reached for and I stretched for

and I got up there.

And then I realized that I was trapped.

And I would have to get down very, very, very creatively.

It would take a significantly longer time getting down.

And this freedom that I had been promised at the top of the tree

turned out to be a trap.

And it was only when I finally got back down to the ground

that I was actually free and able to live life

as it was meant to be lived.

And today I want to share with you about a story of some men

who had this promise of something greater, something bigger

that they were reaching for.

But as they reached for this promise of freedom, of power, of control,

it trapped them and it made them slaves.

And I want us to see that in this story of three men being thrown into the furnace,

the only truly free men in the entire story are the ones who are in chains.

So you just heard the story.

There was a king in the ancient country of Babylon named Nebuchadnezzar.

He built a huge statue and he said,

I want everyone to bow down to it when the music plays.

If you don't bow, you burn.

The music plays, everyone comes, they bow down, the music ends.

And then these Chaldeans go straight up to the king and they say,

Oh king, you made this rule.

You said anyone who doesn't bow burns.

Well, these three Jewish guys didn't bow.

Throw them in the furnace.

And the king, it says, he was in a furious rage.

I don't ever, ever, ever in my life want to be in front of a king who is in a furious rage.

Especially if I'm the one who made him be in that furious rage.

But he calls these three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

or Rakshak and Benny if you were raised on VeggieTales like me.

And he calls them in to his throne room and he says,

What is this?

I hear that you did not bow down to the statue like I commanded.

I'm going to give you one more chance.

The music's going to play and you had better bow or else I'm throwing you in this burning, fiery furnace.

Not just a furnace, but a burning, fiery furnace.

I guess it just sounds scarier that way.

He says, I'm throwing you in this burning, fiery furnace.

And what God is there that can save you from my hand?

Implying that there is no God that can save them from his hand.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don't even take any time to think about this offer.

They say, no need to play the music, king.

We've already made up our minds.

We're not going to bow.

Our God who we serve, he's able to deliver us from your hand.

But even if he doesn't, we're still not going to bow.

We are so confident in him.

We are so sure that he is the one true God that we're willing to give our lives for worshiping him.

And the king who started out this conversation in a furious rage, now it says it's filled with fury.

And his face was changed because he got even more angry.

Again, not a situation I want to be in ever in my life.

In front of a super angry king.

And so he commands that this furnace be heated up seven times as hot as it already was.

So hot that when the guards go to throw these men in, the guards get burned up by the fire.

They take the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They throw them into the fire.

And the king sits back to enjoy watching these men die.

Because he is angry enough that he is going to enjoy watching their death.

But as he begins to watch, he is startled.

Because they threw three men into the furnace.

And now he sees four.

And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

And the men who had been bound when they were thrown in there, they were in chains, now are free.

Just walking around like normal.

He says, what's going on?

He has the door to the furnace opened.

The three men come out.

They don't even smell like smoke.

Their clothes haven't been burned at all.

And the king realizes that there is a god who can save from this burning, fiery furnace.

That it is the god that these three men worshipped.

And he commands a new command.

That no one is able to say anything against the god that these men serve.

Because their god is the one who is able to save from this burning, fiery furnace.

So I want to zoom in today on one specific scene from this story.

The scene in front of the king where these men are on trial.

But before we get there, I want to talk a little bit about idols.

Because this story is all about idols.

I'm not talking about the statue that the king built and said you need to bow down to it.

Yes, that is an idol.

Yes, idols can be statues that we bow down to.

But biblically, an idol is so much more than just a statue.

Biblically, an idol is anything that controls our hearts more than God does.

Anything that is more important to us than God.

Anything that inspires our actions, inspires our thoughts more than God does.

Biblically, that is an idol.

And because an idol is not necessarily a statue, it means anything can be an idol.

Even good things in life.

And actually, the better something is, the more likely we are to turn it into an idol.

So here's what I mean.

Money.

Money.

You need money to be able to afford a place to live.

You need money to buy clothes.

You need money to get around town.

You need money to be able to eat.

And so we look at money, and there's a strong pull to say,

Hey, if I can get enough money, I'll just be set for life.

If I can get enough money, I will be safe.

I will be comfortable.

I'll be set.

And so we take a good thing of money, and we trust in it to keep us safe and secure and comfortable for the rest of our lives, and we turn it into an idol.

Or again, maybe a relationship.

We say, you know, I like having people around me who know me, who get me, who love me.

If I find a significant other that can complete me, then I'll be set.

I'll be comfortable for life.

I'll be accepted for life.

I'll have someone who's always there for me.

Or maybe we take something like being a good moral person.

Obviously, being a good moral person is a very good thing.

But because being a good moral person is such a good thing, there's a tendency that we can look at where we say,

If I can just be good enough, then God has to accept me.

If I can be good enough, then I can make God owe me.

And the Bible says that that is taking our good moral behavior and turning it into an idol.

It's placing that on the level where only God belongs.

And with idols, the thing is, it's not just that we go out there for these things, but as we go for them, they enslave us.

They spin out a new set of definitions of life that defines everything in terms of themselves.

So the person who's seeking money, who wants more money in their bank account, in their checkbook so they can spend it all,

all of a sudden, everything in life becomes about the bottom line.

Will this make me more money?

Will this cost me money?

That is the lens through which the person who idolizes money sees all of life.

Something that may be immoral or borderline illegal.

If it makes us more money, it's okay to do it as long as we don't get caught.

because life is seen in terms of how much money is in the bank.

Or the person who idolizes relationships,

finding their identity in this significant other.

You wake up in the morning and you feel that your life has meaning

because you're in this relationship.

You're a slave because you can't get out of it.

You're trapped by it.

Even if it becomes a bad relationship, maybe it becomes abusive.

And it's not safe for the person to stay in this relationship,

but they find their meaning and definition in life

in the fact that they are with this other person.

And so even though it's not safe for them to still be in this relationship,

they know that if they leave this relationship,

their whole sense of who they are as an individual will be lost.

They're a slave to their desire for this relationship,

and they're trapped.

Or being a good moral person.

Again, like we said, being a good moral person is a very good thing,

but when we put it as the ultimate thing in our lives,

we begin to see all of life by the letter of the law.

And Jesus very clearly taught that the purpose that God gave us the law for

is so that we would love God and love others.

And if we're constantly focused on keeping the letter of the law

so that we can come across as a good moral person,

we'll overlook loving others.

We'll overlook loving God for the sake of doing the right thing

or what appears to be the right thing.

And Jesus very, very, very clearly taught

that many people will be kept out of heaven

because of this attitude

that I need to constantly be a good moral person.

Because he says,

no matter how good you are,

you can never be good enough for God's standards.

So idols can be anything.

Anything can be an idol.

Good things are more likely to become idols

because the better something is,

the more likely we are to believe that it can save us,

that it can give us what we truly want in life.

And when we start following an idol,

it spins out a new definition of life for us

that defines all of life in terms of itself,

and makes us its slave.

Everyone with me so far?

Yeah?

All right.

So now, we're going to jump back into the story,

having that background on idols.

We're going to look at different characters in this scene

and see how they have been enslaved.

First up, we have the Chaldeans.

Now, if you remember,

the Chaldeans were the ones who ran in and said,

oh, king, oh, king, oh, king,

there's these men.

They didn't listen to you.

Kill them.

A little backstory here.

The Chaldeans are the locals.

In the country of Babylon,

their ethnic group is the one who rules the country.

And in the end of the previous chapter,

these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

had gotten promoted.

They had gotten bumped over these Chaldeans

in the hierarchy of the kingdom.

Also, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

are foreigners.

So these Chaldeans come into the king,

and it looks like they're just trying to report some people

who broke the king's command.

But in reality, what's going on

is these Chaldeans have an idol of power.

They want to be as powerful as possible.

They want to do whatever they can

to grab as much power as they can get their hands on.

And they see an opportunity right here

where these men have disobeyed the king,

these men who are more powerful than them,

and they're coming to the king

to get these guys out of the way

so they can get bumped up higher in the nation.

These men have idolized power in their lives

to the extent that they will do anything

to get their hands on more power,

even if it means killing the men

who are higher up than them

and who are more powerful than them in the nation.

They are slaves to this idol of power.

They will stop at nothing to be able to get it.

They appear to be coming to the king as free men,

but because of their desire for power,

the way that they see the world

is through a lens that means that they have to do this.

They have to do whatever they can

to get their hands on more and more and more power.

But these men aren't the only ones in the room

who are slaves to idols.

If we spin and look at the king,

King Nebuchadnezzar,

he hears the report

that these three Jewish guys are not obeying.

And how does he respond?

It says furious rage.

Not just a little upset,

furious rage.

The king wants control.

The king wants to be able to say something

and have the people in his kingdom

do what he says.

And that's not happening.

The king gave a command,

and these men blatantly disobeyed him.

These men who were in leadership positions

in his kingdom said,

no, king, we are not going to listen.

When the king heard about it,

he lost control

because so much of his identity

was tied up in him having control

over the other people in the kingdom.

And he jumps into this furious rage.

He starts making threats against these men

because he needs to grab hold

of this idol of control in his life.

And the way that he knows how to do that

is by threatening,

by getting angry.

He overreacts to what they have done

because he is a slave

to this idol of control.

Even though he is the most powerful man

in the most powerful position

in the entire kingdom,

he is a lowly slave

to the idols that rule his heart.

And in the great irony of this story,

the only men in this room

who are truly free

are the ones who are in chains.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

they knew that their identity

lay in their relationship with God.

Because of that,

when the king gave the command

to bow to the statue,

they didn't bow.

Because they knew that their identity

lay in their relationship with God,

when they were called in before the king

and threatened with death for disobedience,

they didn't even have to think about it.

They said,

okay, kill us.

Throw us in the fire.

We know that our God

is big enough to save us from this fire.

But even if he doesn't,

we still know

that our identity is found

in a relationship with him.

And that we want to preserve this relationship.

And that bowing down to your statue

would break this relationship.

So we're not going to bow,

even if it costs us our lives.

See, these men were so absolutely,

totally free.

There was no accusation

that these Chaldeans

could bring against them

that would shake their freedom.

There's no threat

that the king could make to them

that would make them second guess

what their relation was with God.

They were willing

to be brought before the king.

They were willing

to burn in the furnace

because they were absolutely free,

because they knew

that their identity

was found

in this relationship with God.

Now, I don't know about you guys,

but I think for me,

I want to live my life

with that type of freedom.

I'm guessing most of us do too.

If we were to look at ourselves

and say,

do you want to be a slave

or do you want to be free?

I don't think that's something

most of us really need to think about, right?

Like, oh,

it's such a tough decision.

No, we want to live our lives free.

The problem is

that so many of us,

I would even say all of us,

have idols

that we worship in our lives

either consciously

or subconsciously.

And if you don't believe

that you do,

I want to throw some questions

out there

for you to think about

to help us get our brains

moving in this direction.

First off,

what do I use

to comfort myself

when things go wrong?

when I feel like the world

around me

is just caving in?

What's my hope

that makes me feel like

things are going to be okay?

What preoccupies me?

What do I daydream about?

If I'm sitting there

and I don't have my iPhone

out to distract me,

what does my brain jump to?

And if I can't sit there

without my iPhone

out to distract me,

that may be a good indicator

where our idols are.

What just naturally

fills our minds

when there's nothing else there?

Early on,

when I meet new people,

what do I want

to make sure

they know about me?

What's that one thing

that I find my identity in

that I need to make sure

everyone knows

as soon as they meet me?

Is it that I have

this much money

in my bank account?

Is it that I make

these grades in school?

Is it that I have

this position

at this company?

Is it that I'm in

a relationship

with this person?

Is it that I've accomplished

X, Y, and Z?

What is it that I want

to make sure

people know about me

as soon as they meet me?

And finally,

what do I really want

and expect out of life?

What is that one thing

that I said,

if I had that,

I would be happy

even if I lost

everything else?

What is it

that I really want

and expect

out of life?

For me,

I've answered

these questions differently

at different points

in my life.

One of the things

that's been a constant

theme throughout my life

is success.

And this translates

differently

at different stages

in life.

So when I was a student,

I wanted to be successful,

so I always worked hard

to get the best grades.

And I believed

that if I could be successful,

then that would mean

that I was somebody.

If I could be successful,

that would mean

that I made it.

So I would work hard,

and every term,

I would get my report card

and I would look at it

straight A's.

Yes!

But that happiness,

it didn't last.

Because I knew

that tomorrow,

a new term starts.

And if I don't work

just as hard

this next term

as I did the last term,

maybe even a little harder,

the grades are going

to just drop.

And then my identity

is gone.

And so I worked,

and I worked,

and I worked,

and I got A

after A

after A+,

after A,

after A,

straight through high school.

I got to university

and went for my first

year and a half,

still straight A's.

Then,

my sophomore year,

I got my first B+.

and I was amazed

because the world

didn't end

when I got a B+.

I know,

it may sound silly,

but I'm in an Asian country,

so I think a lot of you

can probably relate to that,

right?

I was amazed.

I got a B+,

and the world

did not end.

I found so much

of my identity

in my grades.

And then I graduated,

and I moved on to working.

And all of a sudden,

my desire for success

in grades

that I had been searching for

became a desire

for success

in my job

because I realized

that all those years

of straight A's

meant nothing

because I hadn't done

anything with it.

So I had to go out now

and use what I had learned

and apply it

so I could be successful

in a job

because,

you know,

the years of straight A's

hadn't really brought me

the satisfaction

that I had longed for,

so it must be

that getting success

in my job

would be where

it would come from.

So I came out.

I started working

really,

really hard.

And here's the thing

I realized.

Yeah,

my job has its ups and downs,

but no successful moment

in my job

has ever satisfied me

for more than,

like,

two days.

You have a really awesome,

you know,

youth event,

kids come out,

kids get saved,

you're like,

yeah,

that's awesome,

and then you wake up

the next morning,

you're like,

I gotta keep going,

something else is next.

There's never a point

where I've made it.

And actually,

the points where it seems

closest to me making it

are the scariest moments

because I know

that next time

the bar will be set

even higher,

so I need to work

even harder.

It's a trap.

I chase this thing

that I want in success

that I think

will give me

this happiness,

this satisfaction,

and I realize

it's just a trap.

It's like being

on top of that tree.

I work so hard

to get up there,

and then I can't get down again.

I'm stuck.

Another thing

that I seek

my identity in

is just having

people like me.

And so I change

the way that I act

around people

so that they'll

approve of me.

I may not speak

my mind in front of them

because I'm afraid

of offending them.

The problem is

no matter how many people

I get to like me today,

I have to keep

that up tomorrow

so that they'll

keep liking me.

It's this vicious cycle

that never,

ever,

ever ends.

But for some reason

I keep convincing myself

that maybe someday

I will make it.

And it's not

going to happen.

That's the thing

that idols do.

They hold out

this carrot

in front of us,

and we keep

running for it.

And it's just tied

to our head

on a string out there

so that we can't

ever reach it.

And the longer

that we spend

chasing them,

the more we begin

to see life

in terms of the way

that they define life,

and the more

we become slaves

to these idols

that we chase.

So,

functionally,

I'm going to

throw this out there.

If you disagree with me,

you can come

tell me why

after the service.

But I'm going to say

functionally,

all of us

seek something

other than God

as ultimate

at least a decent

amount of time

in our lives.

It could be things

like acceptance,

power,

control,

comfort,

money,

happiness,

success,

whatever it is,

it's usually

a good thing.

But our problem

is that we take

this good thing

and we make it

ultimate.

We climb that tree,

we reach for the

higher branches,

we get up as high

as we can,

we're stuck,

we can't get down.

Aristotle

said,

we fear

whatever we feel

has great power

of destroying us

or of harming us

in ways that tend

to cause us

great pain.

We fear

whatever we feel

has great power

of destroying us

or of harming us

in ways that lead

to great pain.

When we give

these idols

this power

in our lives,

it leads to fear

because the more

power it has

in our lives,

the more power

it has to destroy us,

the more power

it has to cause us

this great pain,

the more hope

that we place

in something

that can fail us,

the more we're

going to be hurt

when that idol

fails.

And so I want

to go through

five steps

to finding freedom

from our idols.

The first one

is simply

to recognize

that we all

worship

all the time.

I have a quote

from a man named

David Foster Wallace.

He was an American

novelist,

not a Christian

by any stretch

of the imagination.

And it's a long quote,

but it's really good,

so I'm going to read it,

and I hope

that you can follow along.

He says,

in the day-to-day

trenches

of adult life,

there is actually

no such thing

as atheism.

There's no such thing

as not worshiping.

Everybody worships.

The only choice

we get

is what to worship.

And the compelling

reason for maybe

choosing some sort

of God

or spiritual-type

thing to worship

is that pretty much

anything else you worship

will eat you alive.

If you worship

money and things,

if they're where

you tap real meaning

in life,

then you will never

have enough,

never feel

you have enough.

It's the truth.

Worship your body

and beauty

and sexual allure,

and you will always

feel ugly.

And when the time

and age start showing,

you will die

a million deaths

before they finally

grieve you.

On one level,

we all know

this stuff already.

The whole trick

is keeping the truth

up front

in our daily consciousness.

Worship power.

You'll end up

feeling weak

and afraid,

and you will need

ever more power

over others

to numb you

to your own fear.

Worship your intellect.

Being seen as smart,

you'll end up

feeling stupid,

a fraud,

always on the verge

of being found out.

But the insidious thing

about these forms

of worship

is that they're

unconscious.

They're default settings.

They're the kind

of worship

you just gradually

slip into

day after day,

getting more

and more selective

about what you see

and how you measure value

without ever being

fully aware

that's what you're doing.

See,

that's one of the

greatest dangers

about idols

in our lives,

is that we worship them

and follow them

unconsciously.

I think for most of us

it's not that we stop

and we make this

conscious decision

that I'm going to find

my identity

in wealth.

I'm going to find

my identity

in a relationship.

Maybe for some of us

we do this consciously.

But for so many of us,

it's just the air

we breathe.

We live in a city

that throws

so many definitions

of where to find worth

in our faces.

businesses.

We're surrounded

by malls

that are filled

with all of the top

brands

that send us

this message,

if you don't

own these brands

you are not

worth anything

as a person.

And we subconsciously

breathe in

these messages

without even realizing

that's what we're doing.

You know,

we have politicians

running for chief executive

who get up in front

of groups of high schoolers

and say,

there is no reason

that when you grow up

you can't be the next

Li Ka-Sheng.

There's an actual quote

from Henry Ting

when he was running

for chief executive.

The city

breathes this life

into us.

This message

that you need

this money

to be worth something

as an individual.

You need this power

to be worth something

as an individual.

You need this comfort

to be worth something

as an individual.

and we unconsciously

breathe it in.

It becomes our default setting.

And so the first step

to freedom from our idols

is just recognizing

that we worship

all the time

whether we're aware

of it or not.

The second step

is to identify

the idols that we worship.

Not just recognizing

in general

that we do worship

but see what is it

that we do worship.

becoming conscious

of what it is

that we're actually

worshiping.

Because if we're not aware

what it is

that we're worshiping

we're going to have

a hard time

switching to something else.

And step three

is not just

to identify

the idols

but identify

the idols

behind the idols.

Here's what I mean.

It's really easy

to look at someone

and say

oh, this person

idolizes money.

They live their life

for money.

But a lot of times

people who are seeking money

are actually seeking money

because of what

it can lead them to

not just for the sake

of having money.

Money promises us security

because I'll never

have to worry

about whether I can

put food on my

family's plates again.

Money promises comfort

because when I have

more money

I can buy a bigger flat

and put more

awesome stuff in it

and I can be more comfortable.

And if we identify

this idol of money

but don't identify

the deeper idols

below it

that are inspiring

us to seek it

we can deal

with the idol

on the surface level

but the thing

that's really

motivating our heart

never goes away

and so it'll just

manifest itself

in another way.

Someone who's

using money

as a way

of seeking security

and control

of their circumstances

who recognizes

that desire

for money

and gives it up

but still has

this desire

for security

and control

will manifest

that in a different way

maybe they'll become

domineering

in their relationships

because they feel

like if they can be

the dominant one

in their relationships

they can have

security and control

by controlling

everyone else

in their lives.

If we just identify

the stuff on the surface

it's not going to lead

to a lasting deep change.

We have to identify

the idol

behind the idol

in our lives.

Fourth,

dismantle our idols.

Like David Foster Wallace said

we all know

to a certain extent

that the idols

that we worship

and serve

are not going

to satisfy us.

On some level

we know this

but we don't live

our lives

with this

in the front

of our consciousness.

We forget about it

because we'd rather

not have to think

about it

but we need

to become aware

of the fact

that these things

will not satisfy us.

So think through

why it is

that we believe

these idols

can satisfy us.

Remember that

none of them

are giving us

the satisfaction

that they promise

and none of them

ever can or will

give us

the satisfaction

that they promise.

In this step

it's not just something

that we're going to

do once

and then be done

with it.

No,

it's worshipping

these idols

becomes the default

setting in our hearts

and we unconsciously

if we are not

putting this

at the forefront

of our attention

we go back

into default mode.

The idols

that we've been

serving for years

it's not just like

you sit down one time

write out why

they're no good

and then you move

on from them.

No,

you've been dealing

with these things

for years.

I've been dealing

with stuff for years.

it takes time

constantly reminding

success is not

going to satisfy

you, Eric.

Having people

like you

is not going

to satisfy you, Eric.

I need to repeat

these things to myself

over and over

and over again

and we need to repeat

these truths

to ourselves

over and over again

so we can remember

don't slip

into default mode.

the final step

is to replace

our worship of idols

with worship

of the true God.

See,

like David Foster Wallace

said,

everyone worships

all the time.

If we recognize

a faulty source

of worship

in our hearts

and we take that out

it creates

what we'll call

a worship vacuum

in our hearts.

We need something

to worship

and so if we take out

the big thing

that we're worshiping

but aren't conscious

about putting something

else in its place

something else

will just come in.

It's our default mode.

So the trick

to replacing

an idol in your heart

or removing it

is actually

by replacing it.

When we look at God

the God of the Bible

the God who loved us

enough

to send his son

to earth

to die for us

the one

who created us

who loves us

despite our rebellion

against him

who forgives us

when we turn away

from him

when we see

how awesome

he is

when we see

how strong

he is

when we see

how beautiful

he is

that's the only way

that we're ever

going to replace

the idols

in our hearts

is by looking

at him

and by reminding

ourselves

that all the things

that these idols

promise

they can't give us

but he can.

all these things

that we've been

striving for

and reaching for

we're never

going to reach them

but he

has already

reached out to us

and welcomed

and accepted us.

There's a pastor

in New York

named Tim Keller

and he says

worship

is the final way

to replace

the idols

in our hearts.

Let's pray.

Father we thank you

that you are good.

We thank you

for these men

Shadrach, Meshach

and Abednego

and for the way

that they stood up

to the king

for the way

that you rescued them

when they stood up

for the freedom

that you gave them

even before you

rescued them

to trust in you

above all the idols

that their culture

was telling them

they needed to bow to.

We pray for ourselves

right now

as we go out of here

and into our weeks

that we would be aware

of the idols

that we're worshiping

that we would

consciously seek

to replace them

with worship of you

the true God.

We pray that we would

see you

as more beautiful

than we see you

as right now

that we would love you

more than we love you

right now

in Jesus name

Amen.

Amen.