The Gods

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Hello friends,

let me pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that your word

would speak tonight, that you would accomplish

your will with us, your church, that we would

hear your voice through your scriptures and through

the proclamation of your word today. We pray

this in Jesus' name, amen. If you don't know

me, my name is Tim. I'm one of the pastors at

Henley, and I'm gonna move this over to the other

side. I reckon I was seven when Mum and Dad,

they came home to me with the greatest news.

Dad was going to go back to uni next year, which

meant we were going to be poor for the next three

years. But to make up for it, for the rest of

that year, we would have Foxtel. I remember thinking,

this is the best day of my life. Cartoon Network,

Nickelodeon, Dexter's Laboratory, Teen Titans.

Dragon Ball Z. Come on. Come on. Kim Possible.

It was a glorious year of television, but it

deeply shaped a story about my family, which

lives with me to this day, that we didn't have

a lot. And the contrast was always highlighted

when we visited cousins on either side of the

family. And it created a mindset within me as

I got older that money was a security. And so

when I got a job at 16, I started saving diligently

as my parents had trained me. 10 % to God, 10

% to the savings, and 90 % for basketball shoes

and PlayStation. Praise God. And as my earnings

and expenses grew, I started to get a reputation

within my friends of being a real sting. I started

to see the number in my bank account as a source

of security. And then I met my lovely wife and

got married and spent all of my savings on a

wedding. And that was a good decision. But it

did something in me. The sense of and feeling

of security from the numbers that were in my

bank account began to grow in me and grow in

me. And so did my anxiety about it and so the

stingier and stingier I became. And my newly

married wife who was one of the least stingiest

people that I know. had had a gutful of this

and so she drew a line with me she sat me down

and she made me she made me give up a priceless

limited edition award -winning Shiraz that had

been given to us as an engagement present no

less to a friend of ours for no reason at all

just because it wasn't even his birthday and

I hated it but I could see what she was trying

to do And I kind of agreed with her. I needed

to release my grip on what was now our finances.

And I had to release my grip on it as a source

of security because I had a source of security

that would not abandon me in Jesus. And in giving

away this priceless limited edition bottle of

wine away, it broke something in me. Because

it took me all the way in the opposite direction

to what was my current default mode of operation

when it came to monies and possessions, which

was to conserve it and protect what I had and

what I'd been given, clinging into it as if I'd

never get a priceless, limited edition bottle

of wine again in my life, which I haven't, just

for the record. But instead of conserving it,

I released it. And so by doing so, it actually

released a heart for generosity in my life. And

I found Jesus to be correct when he says, it's

more blessed to give than it is to receive. And

now money, money's a good thing. We need to pay

the bills, to live, to buy ice cream, all of

the fundamental and important parts of life that

you can't live without. And what I'm trying to

illustrate with my own experience is what happens

when a good thing, like money, becomes an ultimate

thing. A thing that I feel I need to be content.

at peace, happy. A thing that I might say, if

only I had that, then I would be happy. Then

I would be secure. Then I would be at peace.

See, my relationship to money had gotten to a

point where I thought, if only I had enough zeros

in my account, then I can deal with anything.

Then I'll be okay. A good thing, money, had become

an ultimate thing in my life. And ultimate things,

they have a lot of resonance in Scripture because

this habit that we have of making good things

ultimate things is what the Bible calls idolatry.

The worship of idols. Idolatry was physical images

and statues of other gods that people would worship.

And this is a basic human habit across cultures

and times. John Calvin, one of the reformers,

famously wrote in his institutes that the human

heart is a perpetual idle factory. It's just

making idols constantly. Take the Canaanite god

Baal, a weather and fertility god. Now I wonder,

what's at the heart of worshipping a god of the

weather and of fertility? Well, it's in... It's

making the good things of children for your family

and rain for your crops, which were both measures

of wealth and power in those days. It makes those

good things ultimate things, things you feel

you must have, things you feel you can't go without,

things you feel you must have to have meaning

and value and security. And in the ancient cultures

we find in the Old Testament, good things made

ultimate things they look like ritual worship

of idols these are images or statues of the god

of x y or z fertility war weather whatever in

a world view where where they believe that a

god would be manifestly present in its image

in its statue in its idol you could pray to it

it would hear you it would speak but we're not

in that kind of culture today In today's culture

here in Australia, we mostly don't go around

sacrificing to altars of other gods, right? But

you better believe we make good things ultimate

things. See, idolatry is still rife in and outside

the church. It just looks different. It's subtler,

but it's just as damaging. How do we diagnose

this in our life? Well, the late Tim Keller says

this, What's an idol? It is anything more important

to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart

and imagination more than God. Anything you seek

to give to give you what only God can give you.

It's anything so essential, central and essential

to your life that should you lose it, your life

would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such

controlling position in your heart. that you

can spend most of your passion and energy, your

emotional and financial resources on it without

even a second thought. It can be family and children

or career or making money or achievement or critical

acclaim or saving face or social standing. It

can be romantic relationship, peer approval,

competence and skill, secure and comfortable

circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a

great political or social cause, your morality.

and virtue or even success in Christian ministry.

When your meaning in life is to fix someone else's

life we may call it codependency but it is really

idolatry and this is what he says, an idol is

whatever I look at and I say in your heart of

hearts, if I have that then I'll feel my life

has meaning, then I'll know I have value, then

I'll feel significant and secure. And there are

many ways to describe that kind of relationship

to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.

You see, idols in today's world, they're sneaky.

Because I wouldn't say that I worshipped money.

I don't go to the bank every Sunday afternoon

and sing songs about how good money is. But then

how many times do I check my bank app in a week?

How often do I think about investing or generating

wealth? How long did I spend researching the

value of offset accounts even this week? Way

too much. How anxious do I feel when the rainy

day fund is low? How would I feel if God said,

Tim, give it all away and trust me to care for

you? You know, I don't intentionally worship

money, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't have

some kind of a hold on my heart. And I think

for all of us here if we can have a moment of

total honesty we would say that there are things

in our lives that have a hold on our hearts that

are not Jesus. There are good things in our lives

that have become ultimate things. That we have

some idols in our heart that we need to deal

with and we need to deal with them for a lot

of reasons but I'll give you just two. Idols

always over promise and under deliver. They promise

meaning, value, security, and you may receive

them in part, but you'll never find in an idol

the meaning, value, and security that lasts.

It will always drive you to seek more, more,

more, promising soon, soon you'll have enough,

soon you'll be secure, but it never comes. It's

an infinite game, a treadmill that never reaches

its end. That's the first reason. The second

is this. God actually hates idolatry. God hates

idolatry. It's literally commandment number one

of 10. You shall not have no other gods before

me. But this is the story we have in the Bible.

Israel does have other gods before him over and

over and over again. They worship other gods.

And almost all of Israel's problems in the Old

Testament stem from this. Their hearts are turned

away from the Lord and to idols. They abandon

their covenant promises and they give their love

to other gods and it destroys them. And God hates

this. He hates this because he's like a parent

watching his children be destroyed by their own

choices. He's like a lover betrayed. He says

this in Hosea 14 verse 8, Oh Israel, stay away

Hosea 14:8

from idols. I am the one who answers your prayers

and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always

green. All your fruit comes from me. And friends,

I don't think it's any different in our lives.

Our idols, the good things we make, ultimately,

they turn our hearts away from the Lord. And

if we give ourselves to these things, they will

ultimately destroy us. And I think God wants

to say today, hey, encounter Henley, encounter

Enfield, encounter Adelaide, stay away from idols.

I am the one who answers your prayers and cares

for you. I am the tree that is always green and

all your fruit encounter church comes from the

Lord, from me. So how do we deal with our idols?

How do we deal with these good things that we've

made ultimate things? Well I think our reading

today gives us a great framework for idol breaking.

See Israel's in the promised land the time between

Moses and the Kings King Saul and David and on

and they have a covenant between God and themselves

and They keep breaking it and at the beginning

of Judges 6 God is so sick of all the evil that

they're doing that he allows the Emidianites

to oppress them for seven years and So they cry

out to God for help And he sends a prophet And

usually they name the prophet, but this is just

an unknown prophet who says this to the people.

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says,

I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued

you from the Egyptians and all who oppressed

you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their

land. I told you, I am the Lord your God. You

must not worship the God of the Amorites in the

land you now live, but you have not listened

to me. Like, hey guys, you couldn't even keep

point one of our agreement. But then because

God is abundant in love and forgiveness, He provides

the help anyway. He calls a man called Gideon,

the least of the least of Israel, to go and save

Israel out of Midian's hands. And it takes a

while for Gideon to accept this. If you read

the beginning of chapter six, he's clearly very

anxious and uncertain. But finally after a weird

thing with some burnt lunch he accepts it And

what's job number one of saving Israel from the

Midianites? It's tearing down the altar to another

God in his own backyard This is what verse 6

says then That night the Lord said to Gideon,

take the second bull from your father's herd,

the one that is seven years old, pull down your

father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah

pole standing beside it. Then build an altar

to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary,

laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull

as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel

the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down. This

is the command of the Lord. take your dad's best

bull, pull down his altar, cut down the Asherah

pole or tree and with those three things in its

place build an altar to the Lord, sacrifice your

family's best bull with wood from the Asherah

pole as fuel. Now this is an enormous and dangerous

task and consistent with what we know of Gideon

up to this point he is afraid and so he takes

10 servants and he does it at night. And we don't

know much about what this altar would have looked

like, but clearly it was big and made of big

stones because it needed a bull and 10 men to

pull it down. And clearly there was quite a contrast

when they discovered a new altar built there

the next morning. And it causes a stir in Gideon's

hometown. They call for his death. But then Gideon's

dad says something interesting about his own

shrine. He says, when they're calling for the

death of Gideon for pulling it down. Why are

you defending Baal? Will you argue his case?

Whoever pleads his case will be put to death

by mourning. If Baal is truly a god, let him

defend himself and destroy the one who broke

down his altar. His dad has discovered the mystique

of Baal. The illusion of the idol has been broken

in Gideon's father's heart. You can see it for

what it is. So the Lord instructs Gideon to break

his father's idols down in this way, but I think

we find in this text principles for breaking

down the idols in our lives too. And we have

to start with our own lives. Sometimes we can

look at these things and we can go, well, I know

the idols of everyone else and I know the idols

that are in the church, but we have to start

with our own idols in our own backyard. And we

have to start by identifying what those idols

are. Unlikely the Baal and Asherah were the only

idols in Israel at that time, but they were the

idols that were in Gideon's backyard. And that's

where the Lord tells him to begin. And that's

where we need to begin. What are the idols in

your backyard? What are the idols that to you,

because of your experiences or your desires,

cling to? What are those idols you cling to?

What are those idols that have been passed down

to you from your family? What are the things

that as Keller says, you look at and you say

in your heart of hearts, if I have that, then

I'll feel like my life has meaning. Then I'll

know I have value. Then I'll feel significant

and secure. What are the things that are more

important to you than God? What are the things

that absorb your heart and your imagination more

than God does? What are the things that you seek

to find what only God can give you? Now if something

comes to your mind right now and you've got a

piece of paper or a pen, jot it down and if more

than one come to mind, that is fine, jot them

down too, but start with one. The second thing

that we can do to break down our idols is this,

is to dismantle it. Just as Gideon pulls down

the idol to Baal, dismantling the idols in our

life is what we need to do. And this could look

like many things, but in essence, it's an intentional

decision to rid your life of the dependence on

an idol. You pull down the structures in your

life that are built around this idol, and this

is probably going to be very hard, and it will

probably take a lot of work, but so is pulling

down the altar to Baal. If it's money, this could

look like an intentional decision to rid yourself

of dependence could mean you give some away.

If your idol is sex, an intentional decision

to rid your life of dependence could be to delete

some apps or get some blockers. If it's influence

that is an idol in your heart, an intentional

decision to rid your life of dependence could

also be to delete some apps. See, this is the

thing. This is where we usually stop. I so often

speak with people. and it's a privilege who've

identified a barrier in their life with God.

They've identified a thing that has become more

important to them than God and they've identified

something that's not in line with the call of

God in their life. An area that is not of obedience

to God but of disobedience and they come up with

a plan. Here's how I'm going to address this.

I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that

and I'll dismantle this part of my life that

is perpetuating this idol because we can identify

can't we that those things are unhelpful they're

getting in the way of our relationship with Jesus

and that we need to get them out of our life

but this is usually where we stop and dismantling

idols sometimes isn't enough because an idol's

hold on us is too strong so we find ourselves

in cycles of dismantling idols on a Sunday and

rebuilding them again on a Monday And that's

why we need to do what Gideon does in Judges

6, which is use our idols as fuel for worship.

So Gideon cuts down the Asherah pole, and he

uses it as fuel to sacrifice his dad's best ball

to the Lord. An Asherah pole is usually a tree

carved into the image of Asherah, we're fertility

goddess at that region. And here. Gideon uses

the elements of his family's idols, worshipped

wood and worshipped stone, as fuel and place

to worship the Lord. And this is a costly thing.

This is a considerable financial sacrifice that

he's making. And here I think we see the heart

of breaking the idols in our life. Sometimes

it's simply not enough to tear them down. Sometimes

we need to find We need to take the heart of

what is behind our hearts obsession with these

things. The elements that are at play and use

them intentionally and sacrificially as fuel

for worship of God. So Gideon goes all the way

in the other direction from bar worship. His

worship of the Lord consumes his family idols

and they are burnt up forever. Now, how can we

go all the way in the other direction from our

idols and intentionally and sacrificially use

them to worship the Lord? We let them be consumed

by our worship of God. Now, this is a bit conceptual,

so here's some really practical examples. If

your idol is sex, how can you intentionally and

sacrificially worship God with your body? You

might decide to join the Encounter Run Club.

It's an idea. You might choose to eat differently.

But maybe if you're really, really into running

or really into fitness, it might mean dialing

it back a little bit and spending more time prayer

walking, being intentionally about the way you

worship God with your body. Amy, one of our Henley

crew, takes prayer baths. Learn from her. If

money is your idol, How can you intentionally

and sacrificially worship God with your money?

Tithing is a good example. You can give that

money away to those who are in need through Stivos

even. You could practice No Buy November where

you just don't buy anything in November. If your

idol is power or influence, how can you intentionally

and sacrificially worship God with your influence

and your position? It might start with publishing

your beliefs online, posting about your faith,

starting a Bible study in your workplace, putting

yourself out there, putting your influence and

position at risk for the sake of the gospel.

If your idol is marriage, how can you intentionally

and sacrificially worship God through your relationships?

And there's many, but I'll give you one. Meet

the loneliness of others in the name of Jesus.

Now these things take what could be at the heart

of our idols and it runs in the opposite direction

towards the Lord. Building worship of the Lord

on the remains of our idols. And the fourth thing

we can learn from Gideon is this, let those gods

fight for themselves. See Gideon's dad declares

to his community, let Baal fight for Baal. And

that's what we need to do. So often as Christians,

I think we obsess over the things we shouldn't

be doing instead of obsessing over the one who

is worthy of all honor and glory and praise and

giving up our lives to follow. So friends, give

up the fight. Stop fighting against your idols

and stop fighting for your idols. Stop giving

them the time and light of day. Let them fight

for themselves. Spend that time seeking first

the kingdom of God. As David Benner says, grasping

destroys, surrender, restores and transforms.

See God may give you the good thing that you

want at the heart of your idolatry But your hands

might not be open to receive it if it's clutching

at these idols See Gideon's backyard bash shows

us how to break the idols in our lives You identify

them you dismantle them you consume them with

worship and you let them fight it out for themselves

But ultimately if you know the story of Gideon,

it's tragic And it's tragic in that it is the

human story. Gideon, the idol breaker, once he's

done God's work of saving Israel from the Midianites,

he takes the gold that's been plundered and he

fashions an ephod, which is not a word we use

normally, but it's like a priestly garment. And

he fashions it out of gold. And ironically, an

ephod is something that's supposed to be used

in the worship of the Lord. Instead he puts it

up in his hometown and the people began to begin

to worship this piece of gold clothing rather

than God. You see Gideon goes from idol breaker

to idol maker and this is the tragic human story

and that's because idolatry at its essence it

is a war of loves. Who or what do you love really?

Which of all the gods gets your time, your money,

and your affection? Is it the God made with human

hands or made with the desires of our hearts?

Or is it the true God who is revealed to us in

Jesus Christ? See, idolatry is a war of loves.

Who has your love? Friends, it's easy to choose

to give God your love over everything. when you

realize how much you are loved by Him. It's easy

when you make, it's easy to make those intentional

and sacrificial decisions to break the idols

in your life when you understand not just in

your head but in your heart that God has made

intentional and sacrificial decisions to bring

you home to Him. Gideon tore down the rocks of

Baal's altar and an Asherah pole to make a sacrifice

to the Lord. But God sent his son Jesus to be

hung on a pole on the rock of Golgotha to be

the ultimate sacrifice that washes our wayward

idolatrous hearts as white as snow and reconcile

us back to God again Jesus who was one with the

father who never, whose heart never gave itself

to idols. He never said about anything, if I

have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning.

Then I'll know I have value. Then I'll feel significant,

secure. He never said that. He said instead,

I will do what the Father requires of me so that

the world will know that I love the Father. Jesus

is the intentional and sacrificial decision of

God to bring you home to Him. This is how much

God loves you. that he would send his son to

die in your place. So that our wayward hearts

could be turned back to him. So that you and

I no longer have to live this life with hearts

riddled by idols. You see friends, idol breaking

requires sacrificial and intentional decisions.

But it's not about striving for moral perfection.

Striving to be seen as worthy or good enough

or valuable or even striving to be idol free.

It's about letting God fill your heart with His

love for you through the Holy Spirit. And over

a lifetime, training your heart to love God over

everything. It's about time after time in the

disappointment, in the unknown, through the trials

and through the pain. It's about running to the

God who loves you and breaking down every aisle

you come across on the journey. Jesus shows us

what a heart that is truly turned towards God

looks like. What a heart in total alignment,

total unity with God the Father, what it looks

like. And it looks like a life abandoned in love

to God and to God alone. Because a heart that

loves the Father, like Jesus loves the Father,

that heart will be an idol breaker. in their

lives and in the lives of others. Idols always

over promise and they always under deliver. Because

when you make a good thing an ultimate thing,

when you put your hope and trust in it to bring

you meaning, value, security, it cannot but let

you down, friends. Because it is not God. Only

God can bring you the sense of value, meaning

and security, the love. that you are searching

for and I am searching for in all these other

gods. God does not over promise and under deliver.

God over delivers on his promises. Is this God

not worthy of our affection friends? Is this

God not worthy of our worship and our praise?

Is this God not worthy of our sacrificial love

of him? as he has sacrificially loved us. For

you today, there's so many ways that you may

feel like you need to respond. There might be

idols you need to do something about. There might

be things you need to pray about. Please come

down the front. I'm sure the elders will come

and be there and we'd love to pray for you or

nudge the person next to you and ask them, find

someone you trust. There's so much you could

do, but I have one simple challenge that I want

to put to you tonight. Don't leave until you

get your heart right with God. Don't. Don't leave

until you've filled your heart with the love

of God through the Holy Spirit. Don't leave.

Get it right with God tonight. There's no better

time than today. Thanks so much for tuning into

this week's message. If you felt challenged or

need prayer, we'd love to hear from you on Instagram

at EncounterHenry. Or if you're interested in

how you can support this ministry, please go

to our website encounteradelaide .com .au. Thanks

again for listening. God bless you.