God is Better
What is it that makes you happy? What is it that makes your life worth living? Maybe its a relationship? Maybe your answer is money or a career? Is it God? Is He what you desire the most?
The last two sections have focused on the assurance and acceptance one has in Jesus. This section will discuss our propensity toward idolatry. It is one thing to have an intellectual understanding that you are accepted fully in Christ, but it is something completely different for that to become weightiest and most defining reality in your life.
An idol is whatever takes the place of God in our lives. An idol is whatever we feel like we could not live without; it is what we think is an absolute necessity for life and happiness. Idols are the things that we give the most “weight” to. They become so heavy that we can’t imagine our lives without them. An idol is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually a good thing that we’ve made into a god-thing that then becomes a bad thing to us.
In Exodus 20: 1– 5, God says that an idol is something that
(a) we “bow down to,” which means it commands our obedience. It is something that
(b) we “serve,” which means we pursue it because we feel like we couldn’t live without it. As such, it
controls our emotions. We are terrified at the prospect of not obtaining it. Finally, it is something we
(c) love more than God. God is jealous for our love, and if possessing something brings us more joy than God does, it has become an idol.
Tim Keller has said that an idol is behind our loftiest dreams, our scariest nightmares, and our most unyielding emotions. John Calvin said that the human heart is an “idol factory,” constantly latching god-like weight onto created things. Idolatry was behind the first sin, and it has been behind every sin since then.
So what is idolatry for you? I am going to ask you some questions and if you will answer honestly you probably see some reoccurring themes. These are most likely what you have substituted for God.
The Idolatry Detector Test
Astoundingly we often try to make God an accomplice in the pursuit of our idols. James, the half brother of Jesus, said that sometimes when we pray, we don’t get what we ask for because, “you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4: 3– 4).
We can “pray like adulterers.” That’s a pretty disturbing analogy, but what does it mean? An adulterer is someone who finds in another the intimacy they should be finding in their spouse. We are adulterers to God when we demand that He give us certain things so that we can find a happiness, contentment, and security in these things that really we should be finding in Him. “God, I just have to be married or I’ll be miserable! ” “God, we just have to have children.” “God, why haven’t You healed me? It’s not fair.” “God, I have to get into medical school.” Asking for any of the above things is not wrong, but when our joy depends on obtaining those things, we have become spiritual adulterers. We have given a weightiness that we should be giving to God to something else. And we’re asking God to help us in the process of obtaining those things.
Ultimately idols leave us empty because our hearts were created for God. Your heart was created in way that only the eternal love of God can satisfy it. After watching a number of marriages come together and break apart over the years, I can confidently say that insecure, lonely single people become insecure, lonely married people. Problems like loneliness and insecurity are not cured by another human being; they are only cured by God. Your soul was created first and foremost for God, not for romance. Your marriage partner, no matter how perfectly suited for you, can never play the role of God in your life. The idea from movies like Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise says to Renee Zelwegger, "You complete me." are fantasy and not reality. We weren't created to complete us we were created for God.
Money— another idol of choice— can’t satisfy us, either. Like marriage, money can be a great blessing from God. But money cannot provide lasting security or genuine fulfillment. Just look at the people who have money— do they look secure, happy, and fulfilled? Years ago I heard of a Fortune 500 CEO who said, “I spent all my life climbing the ladder of success, only to find out it was leaning against the wrong building.” Actor Jim Carrey grew up dirt poor. Hhe lived in a van with his family. I think he would know if having money was truly the answer. He is quoted as saying, "I hope everyone could get rich and have everything they ever wanted so they know that money isn't the answer."
Whatever idol you choose, the result will still be the same. Idols promise fulfillment but deliver disillusionment. And that’s just the beginning. Idolatry also produces anxiety and fear in our hearts. We live afraid, knowing that if our idol is taken from us, life will be miserable. The economy might crash again, wiping out what little is left in our retirement. We might never get married. Our business might fail. A loved one might get cancer. First John 4: 18 says that only “perfect love” casts out fear. Idols can’t love perfectly, but God can. God’s love is perfect in (a) its intensity toward us (God could not love us more than He already does); (b) its ability to satisfy us (we are created to be satisfied fully by the love of God); and (c) its control of all things in our lives (we know that the God who controls all the universe loves us and will never leave us and is controlling every molecule in the universe to work out His good and perfect plan for our lives). Resting in His perfect love drives out any fear and worry. No idol can ever give you that, because no other idol is that loving, that fulfilling, or that powerful.
Jesus is the one essential thing we must have. He is life itself. Sometimes we know that Christ has taken all of our sin, but His approval just doesn’t carry that much weight in our lives. Other things matter more to us. The amount which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances. If you grasp what a treasure the presence and acceptance of God are, then even when life goes really wrong you will have a joy that sustains you, because you’ll recognize the value of what you have in Him. When life punches you in the face, you’ll say, “But I still have the love and acceptance of God, a treasure I don’t deserve.” And the joy you find in that treasure can make you rejoice even when you have a bloody nose. You have a joy that death or deprivation cannot touch. This is why Paul could say from the confines of a Roman prison: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4: 4, author emphasis).
Learning to be satisfied in Jesus will free you to enjoy everything else. Being fulfilled in Christ means that you no longer depend on other things for life and happiness. That means you can enjoy them, because you are no longer enslaved by them. The prospect of losing them doesn’t terrorize you. And you can say “no” to them when they are not God’s will. The great irony is that you can really only begin to enjoy money, romance, and sex when you don’t depend on them for life. C. S. Lewis said it like this: In life, there are first things (God) and second things (everything else). If you put first things first, you’ll also get the second things. If you put second things first, you’ll not only lose the first things but you’ll lose the second things too. When Jesus is your life, you can start to enjoy the rest of your life.
When you are satisfied with God’s presence and approval in your life, you will no longer obsess about what everyone else thinks about you. You can quit hiding your faults and start living with authenticity, letting people see the real you— the “you” with all the faults and warts— because you no longer depend on their admiration for personal fulfillment.
It is a revolutionary, liberating truth: in Christ, you have all you need for everlasting joy. His approval and presence are all that you need for life and happiness. He is the only One who should play the role of God in our lives. He has no equals, no partners, and doesn’t want to share the office of “God” with anyone.
The last two sections have focused on the assurance and acceptance one has in Jesus. This section will discuss our propensity toward idolatry. It is one thing to have an intellectual understanding that you are accepted fully in Christ, but it is something completely different for that to become weightiest and most defining reality in your life.
An idol is whatever takes the place of God in our lives. An idol is whatever we feel like we could not live without; it is what we think is an absolute necessity for life and happiness. Idols are the things that we give the most “weight” to. They become so heavy that we can’t imagine our lives without them. An idol is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s usually a good thing that we’ve made into a god-thing that then becomes a bad thing to us.
In Exodus 20: 1– 5, God says that an idol is something that
(a) we “bow down to,” which means it commands our obedience. It is something that
(b) we “serve,” which means we pursue it because we feel like we couldn’t live without it. As such, it
controls our emotions. We are terrified at the prospect of not obtaining it. Finally, it is something we
(c) love more than God. God is jealous for our love, and if possessing something brings us more joy than God does, it has become an idol.
Tim Keller has said that an idol is behind our loftiest dreams, our scariest nightmares, and our most unyielding emotions. John Calvin said that the human heart is an “idol factory,” constantly latching god-like weight onto created things. Idolatry was behind the first sin, and it has been behind every sin since then.
So what is idolatry for you? I am going to ask you some questions and if you will answer honestly you probably see some reoccurring themes. These are most likely what you have substituted for God.
The Idolatry Detector Test
- What one thing do you hope is in your future? What is it that without it life would hardly be worth living?
- What is the one thing you worry about loosing? What is so valuable to you that it's loss would be unsustainable?
- If you could get rid of one thing right now what would it be? Whatever you come up with you probably want it because life would be happier.
- What thing would you most sacrifice for? What is your most worthy pursuit?
- Who is in your life that you feel like you can forgive, and why? Forgiveness is often linked to something you feel has been taken form you. Thus bitterness sets in and bitterness is almost always tied to idolatry.
- When do you feel the most significant? Your identity is whatever makes you feel the most significant. What makes you feel the most significant is what you the most weight on.
- What triggers depression in you? Outside of physiological factors, depression is often triggered when something deemed essential for life and happiness is denied to us.
- Where do you turn for comfort when things are not going well? Where is it that you escpae when thing aren't going well? (Food, movies, porn, relationships).
Astoundingly we often try to make God an accomplice in the pursuit of our idols. James, the half brother of Jesus, said that sometimes when we pray, we don’t get what we ask for because, “you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4: 3– 4).
We can “pray like adulterers.” That’s a pretty disturbing analogy, but what does it mean? An adulterer is someone who finds in another the intimacy they should be finding in their spouse. We are adulterers to God when we demand that He give us certain things so that we can find a happiness, contentment, and security in these things that really we should be finding in Him. “God, I just have to be married or I’ll be miserable! ” “God, we just have to have children.” “God, why haven’t You healed me? It’s not fair.” “God, I have to get into medical school.” Asking for any of the above things is not wrong, but when our joy depends on obtaining those things, we have become spiritual adulterers. We have given a weightiness that we should be giving to God to something else. And we’re asking God to help us in the process of obtaining those things.
Ultimately idols leave us empty because our hearts were created for God. Your heart was created in way that only the eternal love of God can satisfy it. After watching a number of marriages come together and break apart over the years, I can confidently say that insecure, lonely single people become insecure, lonely married people. Problems like loneliness and insecurity are not cured by another human being; they are only cured by God. Your soul was created first and foremost for God, not for romance. Your marriage partner, no matter how perfectly suited for you, can never play the role of God in your life. The idea from movies like Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise says to Renee Zelwegger, "You complete me." are fantasy and not reality. We weren't created to complete us we were created for God.
Money— another idol of choice— can’t satisfy us, either. Like marriage, money can be a great blessing from God. But money cannot provide lasting security or genuine fulfillment. Just look at the people who have money— do they look secure, happy, and fulfilled? Years ago I heard of a Fortune 500 CEO who said, “I spent all my life climbing the ladder of success, only to find out it was leaning against the wrong building.” Actor Jim Carrey grew up dirt poor. Hhe lived in a van with his family. I think he would know if having money was truly the answer. He is quoted as saying, "I hope everyone could get rich and have everything they ever wanted so they know that money isn't the answer."
Whatever idol you choose, the result will still be the same. Idols promise fulfillment but deliver disillusionment. And that’s just the beginning. Idolatry also produces anxiety and fear in our hearts. We live afraid, knowing that if our idol is taken from us, life will be miserable. The economy might crash again, wiping out what little is left in our retirement. We might never get married. Our business might fail. A loved one might get cancer. First John 4: 18 says that only “perfect love” casts out fear. Idols can’t love perfectly, but God can. God’s love is perfect in (a) its intensity toward us (God could not love us more than He already does); (b) its ability to satisfy us (we are created to be satisfied fully by the love of God); and (c) its control of all things in our lives (we know that the God who controls all the universe loves us and will never leave us and is controlling every molecule in the universe to work out His good and perfect plan for our lives). Resting in His perfect love drives out any fear and worry. No idol can ever give you that, because no other idol is that loving, that fulfilling, or that powerful.
Jesus is the one essential thing we must have. He is life itself. Sometimes we know that Christ has taken all of our sin, but His approval just doesn’t carry that much weight in our lives. Other things matter more to us. The amount which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances. If you grasp what a treasure the presence and acceptance of God are, then even when life goes really wrong you will have a joy that sustains you, because you’ll recognize the value of what you have in Him. When life punches you in the face, you’ll say, “But I still have the love and acceptance of God, a treasure I don’t deserve.” And the joy you find in that treasure can make you rejoice even when you have a bloody nose. You have a joy that death or deprivation cannot touch. This is why Paul could say from the confines of a Roman prison: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4: 4, author emphasis).
Learning to be satisfied in Jesus will free you to enjoy everything else. Being fulfilled in Christ means that you no longer depend on other things for life and happiness. That means you can enjoy them, because you are no longer enslaved by them. The prospect of losing them doesn’t terrorize you. And you can say “no” to them when they are not God’s will. The great irony is that you can really only begin to enjoy money, romance, and sex when you don’t depend on them for life. C. S. Lewis said it like this: In life, there are first things (God) and second things (everything else). If you put first things first, you’ll also get the second things. If you put second things first, you’ll not only lose the first things but you’ll lose the second things too. When Jesus is your life, you can start to enjoy the rest of your life.
When you are satisfied with God’s presence and approval in your life, you will no longer obsess about what everyone else thinks about you. You can quit hiding your faults and start living with authenticity, letting people see the real you— the “you” with all the faults and warts— because you no longer depend on their admiration for personal fulfillment.
It is a revolutionary, liberating truth: in Christ, you have all you need for everlasting joy. His approval and presence are all that you need for life and happiness. He is the only One who should play the role of God in our lives. He has no equals, no partners, and doesn’t want to share the office of “God” with anyone.