I just posted last week’s sermon that I preached at Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church in Cullman.
You can download it at the link below or listen to it in the audio player below.
idolatry
There is No Logic in Idolatry
IdolatryFor idolatry is the attempt either to localize God, confining him within limits which we impose, whereas he is the Creator of the universe; or to domesticate God, making him dependent on us, taming and taping him, whereas he is the Sustainer of human life; or to alienate God, blaming him for his distance and his silence, whereas he is the Ruler of nations, and not far from any of us; or to dethrone God, demoting him to some image of our own contrivance or craft, whereas he is our Father from whom we derive our being. In brief, all idolatry tries to minimize the gulf between the Creator and his creatures, in order to bring him under our control. More than that, it actually reverses the respective positions of God and us, so that, instead of our humbly acknowledging that God has created and rules us, we presume to imagine that we can create and rule God. There is no logic in idolatry; it is a perverse, topsy-turvy expression of our human rebellion against God.
John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts: The Spirit, the Church & the World, The Bible Speaks Today, 287 (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994).
Skip & Barbara Ryan Story of Rescue on Vimeo
VideoOn the Derailing of Lance Armstrong
Culture
Armstrong tweeted this picture after being stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles.
Good article on Lance Armstrong:
Fraud torments a soul, even when the soul isn’t aware of the torment. Biblical examples abound. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) seemed to have no clue that their guilt was catching up to them before it did with abrupt finality. Zacchaeus (Luke 19) had to be pulled from a tree by Jesus to be confronted and come clean about his fraud. When Oprah asked Lance if it felt wrong, he said “No. That’s scary.” Scary indeed.
Worshiping the Gifts Instead of the Giver
BibleTim Challies on idolatry:
“For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the giver himself?” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.36) Calvin summarizes well what it means to commit idolatry. Idolatry may well be in full view in the days to come as so many of us make our New Year’s resolutions. Do we make these resolutions because we want to honor God? Or are we resolving to do things that make us feel better about the idols we worship? Losing weight may be a noble goal, but not if we want to lose weight for all the wrong reasons.
Even from his mother’s womb [quote]
Idolatry, QuotesFrom John Calvin’s Commentary Upon the Acts of the Apostles
Let us learn by this how ready the world is to fall to superstition. Yea, this wickedness is in a manner born with us, to be desirous to adorn creatures with that which we take from God. Wherefore, no marvel if new errors have come abroad in all ages, seeing every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols. But lest men excuse themselves therewithal, this history doth witness that this is the fountain of superstitions, because men are unthankful to God, and do give his glory to some other.
Or as a newer translation of Calvin’s words puts it
Let us also learn from this how ready the world is to become superstitious. We seem to be born with the desire to adorn created things with what belongs only to God. It is not surprising, then, that new errors have spread in every age, since every one of us is expert in inventing idols. But this story show that the source of superstitions is our ingratitude to God and giving his glory to someone else.
Idolatry Through the Ages
IdolatryA 6 Year Old’s Idol
A 34 Year Old’s Idol
Yea, this wickedness is in a manner born with us, to be desirous to adorn creatures with that which we take from God.
From John Calvin’s Commentary Upon the Acts of the Apostles
The Idol Factory – C.J. Mahaney [video]
Idolatry, VideoCreated to Worship [Quote]
QuotesIt is easy to see that you and I have been created to worship. We’re flat-out desperate for it. From sports fanaticism to celebrity tabloids to all the other strange sorts of voyeurisms now normative in our culture, we evidence that we were created to look at something beyond ourselves and marvel at it, desire it, like it with zeal, and love it with affection. Our thoughts, our desires, and our behaviors are always oriented around something, which means we are always worshiping (ascribing worth to) something. If it’s not God, we are engaging in idolatry. But either way, there is no way to turn the worship switch in our hearts off.
from Matt Chandler’s The Explicit Gospel
He Becomes Like Unto Them
Idolatry, QuotesIf one worships idols he becomes like unto them, as it is said, “Those who make them become like them” (Psalm 15.8); should then not one who worships God all the more become like unto Him”
Rabbi Levi ben Hama