Dear brothers and sisters,

I have to admit, for the longest time, I never paid much attention to the first Commandment. God tells his people not to worship other gods – and I always took this to be God’s way of telling his people to stay away from Baal, or Asherah, or Ra, or Isis, or any of the other pagan gods. Today, I doubt many of us struggle with the temptation to worshipping Buddha, Vishnu, or Mohammed. So in the back of my mind, I just assumed that the first Commandment wasn’t relevant for Christian people. The truth is, these words that God speaks to his people, are some of the most important ones that we can hear. Why? Because this commandment addresses the fundamental crisis of our hearts. God’s concern in this commandment is for unswerving loyalty to him alone!

John Calvin famously wrote that the human mind is an idol factory. What he means is that you and I, have been created by God for worship. We’re designed to Love, Worship, Serve and Obey something -- But, because we are tainted by sin, we invent forgeries. We invent things to serve. We make other things into the object of our love and devotion. The Heidelberg Catechism says that idolatry is “having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God.” That’s our fallen nature – we manufacture other things to worship!

I’ll say it another way. We all live for something. You are passionate about something. There is something that captures your mind, your imagination. There is something that you long for, something that motivates you. Every last person looks for meaning, purpose, or satisfaction from someone, or something. It might be a belief, it might be an object, it might be an ambition – but we all live for something. Our problem is that unless the Holy Spirit changes us, that “something” will never be God. Sin leads us to invent other gods to serve.

In ancient days, the other gods were very real. For 400 years, Israel was enslaved in Egypt, and the Egyptians served dozens of Gods. Ra was the God of the Sun. There was Hapi, the god of the Nile, Apis, the god of the god of livestock. Even Pharaoh himself was considered to be a god. Later on, in Canaan, all of Israel’s neighbors served a whole pantheon of gods. Baal, Asherah, Dagon, and dozens of other gods. To the people who worshipped them, these gods controlled all aspects of their lives.

The gods demanded fierce loyalty. The people were forever trying to offer enough sacrifices, to atone for possible mistakes, to keep the gods happy. They knew that if they made a mistake, if they forgot to bring an offering, of if they didn’t appease the gods, they would pay the consequences. They would suffer crop failure, they would suffer drought, or famine, or pestilence or disease. The gods in ancient days were vengeful, and nearly impossible to satisfy. They enslaved people.

Modern gods are no different. We don’t give them personal names, but our society has gods, just as ancient society did. And modern gods are equally demanding. Modern gods are the things that we live for, other than God. They are the things that we look to for security, for happiness, for comfort, and for peace. Believers and unbelievers are equally tempted by the false promises, and false security that the gods of our day offer us.

Just about anything can become a god for us, but there are three major categories of idols that our culture serves. They are: Wealth, Pleasure, and Status. Most of the time, there is considerable overlap between these idols, and most of the time, people serve more than one at a time.

Last year, a wealthy businessman named Mark Drier was arrested and convicted of fraud to the tune of 380 million dollars. After he was convicted, a reporter asked him, why he did it, and he answered, “I thought it would make me happy.” Two years before that, Elizabeth Taylor was hospitalized, in frail health, and her publicist released a statement, to reassure the public: “Miss Taylor is surrounded by her friends, her family, and many fabulous jewels.”

But money is not just a god for the rich and famous! Don’t we find ourselves echoing those same sentiments? We start to believe that life would be better if we had more money. We’re fascinated with the lifestyle of the rich; we want it for ourselves! We find that we aren’t content with the house we live in, the car we drive, the clothes we wear – so we work harder. We incur more and more debt, trying to raise our standard of living. We live beyond our means, hoping that all of this stuff will give us a sense of security and well-being, and happiness. Wealth becomes a god for us.

John Updike once wrote, “Sex is like money; only too much is enough.” He’s right! God has given human beings the remarkable gift of sex, as a way to meet our need for intimacy, and closeness. He provides sex for us as a way to enjoy a close and loving relationship with another person. Our society has made sex into the be-all, end-all of human happiness. The way that young men and women dress. The jokes and innuendos saturating TV shows and movies. The racy lyrics of every kind of music from pop to rap.

What does this say about us? We’re obsessed with sex! We think that sex will make us complete. We fool ourselves into thinking that sex will bring us intimacy, and so we make a god out of it. We tell ourselves that if “I could just have a relationship with that guy, or if I could get that girl to like me, THEN I’ll be happy!” And we become slaves to our desires. One night stands. Addictions to pornography. Adultery. We think that sex will fill our need to be loved. And by the way, this is not just a temptation for unmarried people – these problems can be found within marriages as well. A husband decides that his marriage has lost the spark looks for someone younger to make him feel young again. A wife whose emotional needs aren’t being met at home has an affair, hoping to find an emotional connection elsewhere.

And finally, our culture serves the god of power or status. We want to be significant and important. We want people to admire us, we want to be powerful and influential, and we often use our jobs, our accomplishments, our achievements to give our lives meaning and purpose. Ray Kroc is the entrepreneur who first franchised McDonalds restaurants, and he once said, “I believe in God, my family, and McDonalds. When I go to work, I reverse the order.” That’s a classic tendency in our culture, isn’t it? We want to be successful, we want to be admired, we want to achieve great things, and we’ll stop at nothing to make it happen.

We’ll do whatever it takes to fit in with the crowd at school. We’ll starve ourselves thin, to fit society’s ideal. We’ll be cutthroat at the office, just as long as it means we’ll rise to the top. We’ll find ways to brag early and often about our life’s accomplishments. Our desire to “BE” a somebody becomes a god to us when we will stop at nothing to inflate our ego, to win applause, and to rise to the top.

These are three major categories, but just about anything can become an idol. A theological doctrine. Your Family. A Hobby. A political viewpoint. Whenever we love something so much that it takes over our life, it has become for us an idol. What’s odd about all of this is that all of these things are good things. Work. Sex. Success in the workplace. A Hobby. All of these things are even God-given, God-ordained things; so what’s the problem?

Idolatry is almost never about loving something bad. In almost every case, Idolatry is loving a good thing too much! Idolatry is making good things into ultimate things. St. Augustine talks about “disordered loves” – he says that most of the time, sin is not about hatred, but about loving something TOO MUCH! In fact, the better something is, the more likely it is that we will believe that it can supply what is missing in our life! The better something is, the more we believe it can satisfy our deepest needs!

The problem is that these things are forgeries. They are, what Tim Keller calls, “Counterfeit gods.” As good as these things are, they always leave us wanting more! Alexis De Tocqueville was a philosopher whose thoughts shaped much of American Democracy, and he said this about American society: “A strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants in the midst of abundance … the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the [human] heart.” He wrote that back in 1830! How many people today aren’t haunted by that strange melancholy!

The economic crisis of the last two years has mired countless people in despair – even leading some to commit suicide. People who have counted on sex to bring happiness find themselves instead deeply ashamed and broken, and unable to trust. The person who makes their family into an idol by pressuring their children to succeed at all costs, become relentless, and finds that their children can never do enough right in their eyes. Serving any of the forged gods of this world will always leaves us empty.

Where can we be satisfied? We have to go back to Israel, in Egypt. When Israel was in Egypt, they were surrounded by the pantheon of Egyptian gods. The god of the sun. The god of the Nile. The god of livestock – even Pharaoh himself was a god. Leading up to the miracle of the Exodus, do you remember what happened? God sent the 10 plagues against the Egyptians. These weren’t just inconveniences that came down on Egypt; this was a showdown between the one true God, and the worthless gods of the world! One by one, Israel’s God unmasked the Egyptian gods as forgeries. The Nile turned to blood. The livestock died. The sun went dark.

God proved the worldly gods to be impotent, and then in his ultimate display of power, he destroyed Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. Soon after, at Mt. Sinai, God reveals himself to Israel as a Lord and Master, as the great king who delivered his people from slavery. As their gracious Savior, God makes a covenant with his people. “I Am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery.” Since I have rescued you, since I have treated you graciously, you are to offer me your complete loyalty! That’s what the 10 Commandments are all about! They are God’s will for his redeemed people! The 10 Commandments showed Israel how they could live in thankfulness to the almighty God who had set them free from their enemies!

Centuries later, God revealed himself again, at Calvary. Colossians 3 says that at the cross, God made a fool of all the powers and principalities of this world! Just as he did in Egypt, God shows his superiority over the rulers and the powers of this world. Jesus has defeated all of the worthless idols of the world, and he has set his people free from slavery to the empty promises of this world and instead calls us to love him, serve him and obey him with all we have. So, the 10 Commandments for us are not a way for us to achieve our own salvation, but they are God’s will for his redeemed people, to show our thankfulness to him!

This is a lifelong process. We will always be learning how to free ourselves from serving idols and to devoting ourselves to God. This is a three-step process. First, we have to recognize the hidden idols of our hearts. We all have them. Archbishop William Temple said that our “religion is what we do with our solitude.” What do you daydream about? Maybe you invent scenarios of what it would be like to be rich. Maybe you are consumed by your image. You’ll do anything to fit in with the crowd.

Or what would devastate us, if we lost it? If she broke up with you, it would be normal to be sad, and disappointed. But if you are devastated, if you see no hope for the future, that relationship may have become an idol. If your political or social or theological or philosophical beliefs are ignored, you might become frustrated, and you might voice your discontent – but if you are so disillusioned that you become bitter and resentful, your worldview may have become an idol.

Second, why are you serving this god? What need are you hoping that this idol can fill in your life? You might be using sex as an idol, to make you feel loved. You might be serving money, hoping to find security for yourself. Your job might be an idol that you use to gain recognition and admiration for yourself. What is the need you are hoping your manufactured god can fill?

Finally, once you know what you are tempted to serve alongside of the one true God, and once you know why you serve it, you can come back to the cross. At the cross, we see the greatness of our God who meets every one of our needs. Our need for love is met when we see a God who loved us enough to die in our place, broken sinners that we are. Our need for significance is found at the cross, where we see “the manner of love which the father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” Our need for security is found when we acknowledge that in Christ, God has given us his own son – “how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” At the cross, God satisfies the deepest needs of our hearts.

That means that we are no longer slaves to sin and the idols of this world, but, as Paul says, we are slaves of righteousness. We have been set free to love, serve, worship and obey the one true God with all our hearts! We are free to find our joy and our delight in loving God, and doing his will. It doesn’t mean that we turn backs on everything else; it means that we put them in their proper place. Work is no longer our vehicle for significance; it is a vehicle for honoring God with our talents. Sex is no longer a way for us to get love and acceptance; it is a way we enjoy the intimacy that God created us for. And on it goes; our delight flows from loving God above all, and doing his will.

Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables illustrates this well. Jean Valjean is a hardened ex-con, who finds a place to stay, at the home of a country priest. But in the middle of the night, Jean Valjean awakens, and caves in to the temptation to steal the silverware he saw in the dining room earlier that night. He flees, but is soon caught, and the police drag him back to the home of the priest, and prepare to haul him off to prison for good. But instead of labeling Jean Valjean as a criminal, the country priest tells the police that the silver was a gift, and so Jean Valjean is released from captivity. The priest turns to Jean Valjean, and says, “Never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man… you no longer belong to evil but to good. I withdraw your soul from the dark of sin, and give it to God.”

That’s what God has done with us! He has redeemed us from the empty and worthless gods of this world; he has set us free from the power of sin and death, in order that we might love and serve God, with all we have. Let us “trust him alone, look to him for every good thing, love him, fear him, and honor him with all our hearts.”

AMEN.