At the beginning of New Attitude 07, Josh Harris reminded us to think of ourselves first as we listened to each message of the conference. What he meant was this: when listening to a convicting sermon, we often tend to dwell on thoughts like “so and so really needs to hear this” while forgetting that we ourselves really need to hear what is being preached (how guilty I am of this!). This is not an easy principle to follow. Indeed, examining our own hearts in light of the truth of Scripture can be painful: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). But truth wounds in order to heal.
For the fourth general session of Na 07, C.J. Mahaney preached on discerning the idols in our heart. Entitled “The Idol Factory” (an allusion to a John Calvin quote), C.J.’s sermon was undoubtedly one of the most significant messages I will ever hear. By God’s grace I hope to continually apply the weighty truths that C.J. communicated so effectively that night. Here’s a recap of his main points:
- Idolatry is the most frequently discussed and most seriously condemned sin in Scripture
- In our culture, idolatry seems antiquated and irrelevant. Idolatry today exists in more subtle and sophisticated ways.
- Defining idolatry
- In
- Idolatry is a sinful craving for one of God’s gifts more than God Himself
- C.J. cited the following from John Calvin: “The evil in our desires usually does not lie in what we want but that we want it too much.”
- This powerful, spiritual concept of idolatry is the most overlooked in the Church today
- For Christians, the propensity to idolatry remains in us after conversion because of remaining (or indwelling) sin (James 1:14)
- How we as Christians detect and destroy the idols of our hearts
- Through Holy Scripture and the illumination of the Holy Spirit
- Through the Church (the preaching of the Word and people in the church)
- Through our circumstances (tests of adversity and tests of prosperity)
- Fruit of identifying and fighting idolatry in our hearts
- Growth in godliness
- Growth in gratefulness to God—idolatry reminds us of our sin and of the greatness of the Gospel . . . we have been forgiven much! (Luke 7:47)
- We need discernment to detect and destroy the idols of our hearts.
C.J. noted that the test of adversity especially reveals our hearts. He posed the following question that I must ask myself in such seasons of life: What is my response if I don’t obtain what I want? Wow. Few questions are more effective in exposing the God-belittling idols that lurk in my own heart. As C.J. explained, the tests of adversity are meant to shift the ground of our joy from the creation to the Creator.
I’m grateful for C.J.’s pastoral care in reminding us that idols never deliver and always disappoint. Remaining sin, he said, is a fully functioning idol factory that is open for business 24-7. What a wake-up call to my slumbering soul! The Holy Spirit used this profound message to illumine areas of my heart where I have bowed down to idols in recent months (how subtle and deceiving this sin really is). No wonder it is at these times that I’ve felt spiritually sucked dry! When I yield to the sin of idolatry, I become blinded to the compelling beauty of Christ. I forget that He alone is the fountain of Living Waters that satisfies my parched and thirsty soul. What hope we have in knowing that God does not ultimately leave His children to wallow in the broken cisterns the world offers us. And how much more precious the Gospel becomes when we see our ugly idolatries with new eyes and then look upon the crucified Christ, who in His suffering bore the judgment we deserved for those sins. Clinging to this glorious truth is our only hope for detecting and destroying the idols that seek to blind us to the all-satisfying Treasure—Jesus Christ.
