Justin Buzzard » God Worship Heart Gospel Sin Culture

Everyone has to live for something and if that something isn’t the one true God, it will be a false God—an idol.

An idol is anything that is more important to you than God. Therefore, you can turn even very good things into idols. You can turn good things like family, success, acceptance, money, your plans, etc. into a god-thing, into something you worship and place at the center of your life.

False gods don’t love you.

This is what sin is. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything (even a good thing) more than you do on God.

Do you know the idols you’re prone to worship? At our church we talk about four root idols that we tend to attach our lives to.

1. Control. You know you have a control idol if your greatest nightmare is uncertainty.
2. Approval. You know you have an approval idol if your greatest nightmare is rejection.
3. Comfort. You know you have a comfort idol if your greatest nightmare is stress or demands.
4. Power. You know you have a power idol if your greatest nightmare is humiliation.

Here’s what you need to know about your idol: That idol that you love? It doesn’t love you back. False gods don’t love you. Idols don’t keep their promises. Anything you worship and build your life on other than God will suck the life out of you and destroy you.

Wading in the Shallow End

A relationship with Jesus starts when you identify and turn from your idols. Notice what Jesus was always doing with people during his ministry: he was constantly identifying and challenging people’s idols, calling them to turn from their false objects of worship in order to follow and worship him.

I’m convinced that the reason there is so much shallow Christianity in our culture is because many people never displace the idolatry in their lives with Jesus, but instead simply bring in Jesus as an “add on” to their life, keeping their idolatry firmly in the center.

We All Worship Something

Americans think freedom is found in casting off all restraint and being masters of our own lives. What we are blind to is the reality that everybody has a master. We all worship something and whatever we worship is our master. Idols make bad masters. They enslave. Until you identify the idols in your life, you will feel enslaved, tired, and unhappy, and you won’t know why. You will feel this way until you discover the only master who can set you free: Jesus.

Only Jesus can give you freedom.

Jesus is the one master who will love you even when you fail him. Your idols don’t do that. Jesus is the one master who loved you when you were at your worst and who reigns over your life with perfect wisdom, power, and goodness. He’s the one master you can trust. Only he can give you freedom.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21

For a short treatment on idolatry, check out chapter 12 of Darrin Patrick’s book, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission.

This article originally posted on Justin Buzzard’s blog. Justin’s latest book, Date Your Wife, will be released by Crossway on June 30.

« Newer Older »