Sunday MattersSample

Corporate worship is designed to remind you not to be captured by the things of this earth but to continue to seek the things that are above, and that there is grace upon grace for this struggle.

A Hindu priest came into the inner sanctum of the temple, bowed before an idol of wood, then proceeded to wash it, dress it, and put a bowl of rice and fruit in front of it. It was shocking to watch. As I observed this ritual, I said to myself, “Can’t he see, doesn’t he know that this idol is nothing? It isn’t alive; it cannot see or hear; it will not eat the food offered. It has no power to bless this dear man with anything. It is powerless, devoid of life.” The priest’s worship and service were tragically misplaced. What a heart-destroying religious delusion. How could he be this blind? This priest had done this day after day. Yet this wooden god had never once moved, never said, “Thank you,” never tenderly touched this man, and never once answered his prayers. This god was not a god at all. It was nothing more than a well-carved piece of wood, but deep in the priest’s heart, it was so much more.

What happened next was even more shocking. I thought that the service and observance were over, but they weren’t. I watched as the priest knelt first and then lay on his stomach, with arms outstretched before this wooden deity. It was a picture of complete surrender. When you are in this position, you have given up all of your defenses and are lying utterly vulnerable, in powerless adoration and surrender. As I watched, tears filled my eyes. The blindness and darkness of this moment overwhelmed me. The depth of the evil bondage of idolatry hit me as it never had before. I wanted to run over and yank this man off the floor, but I couldn’t. I wanted to run out of the temple, but I couldn’t. I wanted to separate myself from this idolatry, but I couldn’t.

I have thought back on that day many times. I have come to understand that my Lord, in his sovereign love for me, planned that day for me. He wanted me to physically see and feel the pain, blindness, darkness, and delusion of idolatry. He wanted me to see its heart- and life-capturing irrationality. He wanted me to understand that, in my sin, I too am quite capable of assigning power to people, physical things, experiences, and locations that they do not have. God had me in that room so that overt religious idolatry would expose the covert idols that so easily capture my heart, control my desires, and then shape my living.

That moment in that temple in North India robbed me of the pride I carried around because I thought I had never been tempted by overt religious idols. I would never bow before images made from wood, metal, or stone. I know better than that. But I left the temple thinking, “Do I? Could it be that I share the priest’s delusion? Could it be that there are places in my life where I ask created things to do what only the Creator can do? Could it be that I, too, look for life where it cannot be found? If I want to yank that priest off the floor, shouldn’t I want to search for and, by grace, destroy all the subtle, covert, nonreligious idols in my life that I bow in surrender to?”

One form of idolatry is infinitely more dangerous than the worship of formal, physical idols. This form of idolatry should offend and activate us more than the religious idols we might see and react to in our travels. Because of the tragedy that occurred in the garden of Eden, idolatry is not just a religious delusion; it is in fact a human condition. It is this human condition, of which we all are a part, that should trouble us more than formal religious idolatry ever does.

What is this form of idolatry I am talking about? It is idolatry of the heart (see Ezek. 14:4–5). It is every sinner’s capacity to ask creation to do what only the Creator can do. It is looking horizontally for a savior. It is hoping that my job, my marriage, my children, my possessions, my power and control, my experiences and successes, my food, my knowledge, my physical strength and health, my appearance, and so on, will give me satisfaction and freedom, healing, wholeness, and peace of heart. It is somehow, someway buying into the delusion that abundant life can be found outside of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is surrendering the rulership of my heart to something other than the God who made me and who alone has rightful claim to the surrender of everything I am and have.

Idolatry is not just allowing yourself to be ruled by what is bad. No, good things can also function as god-replacements. A desire for a good thing becomes a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing. For instance, it is good to desire wisdom and to want to be right, but you can’t live or work with a person whose heart is controlled by the need to always be right. It is good to want to have some control in your life, but to live for control will harm you and those around you. I’ve seen pastors become absentee husbands and fathers out of the pursuit of ministry success.

Heart idolatry is so much more dangerous than religious idolatry because, not only can you be an idolater while priding yourself that you’re not, but more importantly, whatever controls your heart will control your thoughts, desires, and choices and, therefore, the direction of your life. You can religiously “worship” God while your heart is controlled by other gods. So we need again and again to have our hearts confronted by, redirected by, and comforted by the presence and grace of the one true Messiah. We need to be reminded again and again to focus the eyes of our hearts on things above and not on the things of this earth. So we joyfully gather over and over again to remember and celebrate the glory and grace of the one who alone is able to give us life and, in so doing, can rescue us from all the false gods that battle for control of our hearts. We gather together to be confronted by and to confess our idolatry, so that we will know the freedom of worshiping God alone.

Reflections:

Try to think of at least one place in your life where you ask created things to do what only the Creator can do. How can those idols of the heart be exposed for what they really are and then be destroyed?

To learn more about the beauty and significance of Church, check out Sunday Matters: 52 Devotionals to Prepare Your Heart for Church

by Paul David Tripp