The Idolatry of Self
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Acts 17:16-23.
Idolatry means blind or excessive devotion to something – or - extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or indeed someone. Now you probably don’t have a carved stone statue in your house, and you’ve never traveled to Africa or Asia and purchased a totem or some other representation of a false god. So why would a message about idolatry be of any importance to you?
Well, believe it or not, the most common warning about sin in our Bibles does not deal with lying, gossip, adultery, stealing, or murder. The most common sin in all of Scripture that we’re told to avoid, reject, and move away from is idolatry.And it’s not just Asherah poles in the Old Testament.In fact, in the New Testament, 1 John 5:21 says, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” Even today idolatry is still trying to work its way into our lives and distract us from worshipping and obeying God.
Idolatry is not just a pagan issue nor is it just an Old Testament or Jewish issue. It is a human issue.
Is it that a 12-inch tall piece of wood or bronze can do something bad to us? Or is it that we do something awful to ourselves when we place adoration and attention that should go to God in other things?When it comes to idolatry, the danger is not in an item… it is in us.In a fallen world, people constantly seek things they can worship, even though the Creator is before us in plain view.
We are all looking for something to worship and serve and will our failure as Christian’s to point people to Jesus for vacuum will always be filled. Idols come easy, but they go hard.
There is a consistent theme about idolatry throughout the Scriptures—and in our lives as well.In 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, the Bible describes our new life, our new birth in Christ in this way: “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Of course, in comparison to a dead and false idol, serving a living God seems like a no-brainer. So does becoming a worshiper of the one true God mean we no longer have to contend with the issue of idolatry? I wish it were that simple. And so to Idolatry in its most insidious guise!
PP: Self-Idolatry is therefore born when an individual directs excessive devotion or attention/love towards him/herself.Whether we admit it or not, we all have a tendency to idolize ourselves. Let me give you some examples:
-We usually get angry when someone insults or rebukes us. Why? Because we have that pride in us that demands respect from everyone.
-We take lots of selfies (1.2m in 2014) and post them on Facebook or Instagram. Why? Because we think we're cute and want our friends to confirm that with their comments or 'likes'.
-We embellish our attitudes in front of strangers or in public. Why? Because we want people to have a good opinion of us.
You see, all of these answers turn the focus towards us and us alone. We love ourselves too much that we cannot stand someone shouting at us, or we're always on the look for compliments, or we want people to speak highly of us. That's what idolatry of self is all about. And its idolatry of self, which is at the root of all sin and rebellion: once we take God off the throne and put ourself there instead anything goes!! Dare I say it but the current sexuality debate has at its root self-idolatry.
The Bible clearly tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1Pet5: 5). If we want to be useful for the kingdom, we need to kill self.
Paul, in his letter to the Philippian church, praised his spiritual son Timothy, a selfless man who gave himself wholeheartedly for the work of God. Philippians 2:20-22 "I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in preaching the Good News." Paul is making reference to Timothy's devotion to the Gospel because he has seen the opposite in other workers such as Demas that left him for the pleasures of this world. He said in 2 Timothy 4:10 "Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica."
So many times, the Lord Jesus reminds us that we need to die toourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him if we want to be His disciples. Unlike Demas, Timothy delighted in serving others rather than himself and understood that seeking the kingdom of God first would consequently result in God taking care of his own needs. It's not easy to surrender our will for God's purpose but like they say: "Practice makes perfect!"
The Message paraphrase of Galatians 5:19-21 says: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic‐show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all‐consuming‐yet‐never‐satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small‐minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s Kingdom.”
It’s Grace, the Father’s unconditional love that empowers our freedom from self‐idolatry.Love from other people is essential to our ability to learn to live and prosper in community. Typically, the more loveless our life experience has been, the stronger our self‐idolatry will become. There is I believe a direct correlation between the breakdown of family life and the rise of self-Idolatry.
We are made up of what God has put in us, what others have put in us, good and bad; what life has put in us, good and bad; what we have put in ourselves, good and bad. These all have an impact on who we are and the quality of our life experience.Those of course who believe they have a good life will probably not be motivated to work toward a better life.
I believe God created mankind with a need for Him built into our spiritual DNA. His absence leaves us with a sense that something is wrong, something is missing. We are constantly dissatisfied with our life; thus we are always looking, always searching for something that is missing and it is usually unidentified. Therefore, no matter what we try, what we change, how we succeed or prosper, the void is never filled because it is a God thing. Religion won’t satisfy it. Performance won’tsatisfy it. Other people won’t satisfy it. No substitute will bring peace to the need. Only God Himself can fill the void and bring complete satisfaction and fulfillment.
Our destiny as human beings is to know God on a personal and intimate basis; living with and for Him and not for ourselves.
Have you noticed that self can be a powerful adversary to our relationship with God? Our beliefs, our priorities, or desires and goals, our fears and even our pain can be a huge detriment to having a truly intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Sadly, many of us cheat ourselves out of the wonderful blessings that are available to us as children of God and assign ourselves to a life of religion, frustration, disappointment, burnout and lack of fulfillment because of our self idolatry. The need to control is idolatry of self. An entitlement mentality is idolatry of self.
The idolatry of self can cause us to attempt us to use God and other people to get our needs met. It never works. It never satisfies completely. We will continue to be frustrated, disappointed and offended with God and other people because our hunger for love is not being satisfied. Thus the idolatry of self drives us on and to our own detriment we try the same things over and over again expecting a different result and none is found. It is insanity.
Sadly, many of us blame God for our problems in life. Then we wonder why we cannot get closer to Him or why He won’t respond to us. I have had an alcoholic tell me it was God’s fault that he was an alcoholic because God made alcohol. I have had a single mother with several children, all out of wedlock; all with different fathers blame God for her terrible struggles in trying to raise all her kids. She maintains it is God’s fault she has all these kids because He made her fertile! I realize that these are extreme examples, but stop and think for a minute, are there any limits to what we can blame God for? Are you blaming God for anything? Are you offended with Him for anything? If so, you are separating yourself from Him! Are you right and God is wrong? If this applies to you, then you have bound yourself to know God and His love for you conceptually from a distance, instead of personally, intimately and experientially. Knowing God loves me because the Bible tells me so is a poor substitute for the real thing! He never intended it to be that way! Conceptual belief is a necessary starting place, but that is all it is – a starting place.
Self‐idolatry melts when dipped in the pool of Father’s wonderful, powerful, unconditional love for us and all the debilitating side effects of self‐idolatry seem to dissolve and disappear as our love hunger is satisfied. Truly the Kingdom of God is at hand to break the power of self‐idolatry and escort each of us into the supernatural life experience of Father’s love.
If you can see the possibility that self‐idolatry is at work in your life, then ask yourself this question – how’s it working’ for me? If you can honestly admit that it is not working very well, then ask yourself this second question – am I dumb enough to continue doing what I have been doing and expect a different result or am I smart enough to see that I must change; I must repent for my sin of idolatry and ask God’s forgiveness and put Him on the throne of my life!
Was Cain walking in self‐idolatry when he got offended with God for rejecting his offering? Was self‐idolatry operating when he killed his brother, Abel?
Husbands who dominate and control their wives and children are demonstrating self‐idolatry. Even Christian husbands use the legitimate scriptural teaching on headship to justify an overbearing and bossy worldly dominance as head of their home, which you would struggle to describe as Christ-like. This is self‐idolatry. This attitude is not rooted in love for others, but love of self. It brings defilement, resentment and division to the family unit. Worse than that, it can separate individuals from God.
The idolatry of self is anti‐relationship and is self destructive.
It is just that simple and it’s just that difficult. Heaven on earth is found when we truly live for Him and not ourselves.Self‐idolatry is self-deception.
The Kingdom of God is at hand to meet our hunger for loveand break the power of our idolatry. Choose this day whom you will serve – God or self. The right choice will bring you abundant life. The wrong choice will bring you continuing disappointment.
The idolatry of self was Satan’s sin, wasn’t it? It hasn’t worked out too well for him. It doesn’t have to be that way for us. By the blood of Jesus we have the opportunity for forgiveness, freedom from our sin and new life in our Heavenly Father.
The idolatry of self makes forgiveness of others more difficult.
The idolatry of self makes surrendering our life to God more difficult.
The idolatry of self makes the trap of religion easier to fall into.
The idolatry of self makes serving others more difficult. We usually serve others with a hook on it; that being what we want in return for our service.
The term idolatry of self is just another way of saying a person is self‐centered not God centered.
Idols don’t leave on their own. In the power of the gospel, we have to tear them down-- to destroy them. We need to remove them from our lives and depart from them. Everything that is not of God raises itself up against God, even in the life of a Christian. So we constantly have idol pop-ups in our lives. We have to cast them down, but they will be there as long as we live here on earth.
Acts 17 tells the story of Paul in Athens, and how his spirit was “troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). It is a fascinating passage that we often miss. Are our spirits troubled within us because of the idols of our culture?
Seeing people trapped in idolatry should inspire compassion for their souls, as they are trapped in foolishness. But it also should spark detest for anything that would set itself up against the one true God.
Brothers and Sisters: as our love for God increases, our tolerance for idolatry will decrease.
Pastor David
August 16th 2015