“…you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)
What is at the root of our anger, anxiety, fear, and impatience? Why do we turn to people, places, and things as a refuge? What causes relationship problems? Why do we often fail to glorify God in temptation and trials?
The Bible teaches that God made us for his glory (Isaiah 43:7). We were created to worship God and God alone (Exodus 20:3). The answer to the most well-known catechism question is indeed correct. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Yet, we all have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things, rather than the Creator, who is to be forever praised (Romans 1:25). Since we have worshipped created things, we have committed the sin of idolatry. At the root of every sin is some form of idolatry. When we sin, we are worshipping an idol rather than God. Moreover, God commands us to turn from idols and to turn to worshipping him.
The Bible commands us to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Yet, often our focus is only on outward behavior. Jesus taught that everything flows from the heart and that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart (Mark 7:20-23; Matthew 22:37-40). Since the heart is the central focus of biblical worship, we cannot be content with focusing only on outward behavior. If we are seeking to worship God and to glorify him, we must also be concerned with the heart.
When we sin, we need to ask ourselves, what am I wanting? What am I really trying to get when I sin in my thoughts, words, and actions? These kinds of questions function like a shovel that digs deep down to the root of our sin, which is heart idolatry. If we want to kill the outward fruit of our sin, we must dig up the root of our sin. If we want to worship God as he commands and thus bear good fruit, we must dig up heart idols, cut off outward sinful thoughts, words, and actions, and plant the gospel.
In early 2017, I taught a class on how to turn from various heart idols and the outward sinful thoughts, words, and actions that flow from them. In this class, we did not stop with putting off heart idols and outward sin. We also covered how to replace our idolatry with true worship of God.
Many different sin struggles and trials led people to this class. People came for help with alcohol, anger, anxiety, depression, fear, gluttony, lust, impatience with their children, priorities out of place, pornography, relationship problems, sexual immorality, and various other sin struggles and trials.
In light of the class evaluations and ongoing feedback, it would appear that true biblical change has taken place in the lives of many who came. They learned on a deeper level how to apply hope, motivation, repentance, and the gospel, so they can turn from heart idols and outward sin to true worship of God.
True biblical change from the heart will never take place unless heart idols are dug up, outward sin is cut off, and the gospel is planted. Anything less than this leads to superficial change and nothing more than moving from one form of idolatry to another.
If you desire to grow in your worship of God and to enjoy him in a greater capacity, this class is for you. Regardless of what your sin struggles or trials are, if you apply the principles in this class, you will by God’s grace become more like Jesus, which is your greatest good.
Starting August 22nd through September 19th I will be teaching Idolatry to Worship. The class will take place Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 p.m. in Rooms 102-103. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Pastor Tony
