Idolatry: Turning Good Things Into God Things 

 Idolatry is the giving of worship, love, adoration, or trust that belongs to God to anything or anyone other than God. 

To put it simply, idolatry is taking a good thing and making it a god thing. 

The first two of the 10 Commandments address the issue of idolatry. 

In Exodus 20:3-5a, God says to the Israelites:

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;" 

Some idols are pretty obvious. 

People make things that are meant to represent a god. 

The Israelites made a golden calf.  

Hindus have images of gods they worship. 

Now, you might be like, "Well, I don't have any statues or images that I worship." 

And that's good. 

But that's not all that idolatry is. 

It's more! 

Today, idolatry can be a lot more subtle. 

One way we can tell if we have an idol is by thinking about how we spend our time, money, and energy. 

How we spend these things reveals our priorities. 

There are many good things in this world that we should spend our time, money, and energy on…so long as they remain just that, good things, and not god things. 

Some of the good things that we might turn into god things include family, holidays, and relationships. 

How do we know when we've turned them into a god thing? 

In some ways, it's really easy… 

But then it can also be really hard. 

The short answer is you can tell they've become a god thing, when you choose them over God things. 

It's generally pretty easy to know when we've turned a good thing into a god thing. 

However, it's also hard because we often don't like acknowledging that this is the case. 

No one likes admitting that they would rather choose something or someone else over God. 

We all know, deep down, that we should be choosing God first. 

And I'm not talking about just a one-off occasion when maybe you went to watch a sporting event or musical, or went camping, or took a cruise…instead of going to church… 

Doing these things is not, in and of themselves, idolatry… 

They're good things! 

However, they can become god things, or idols, when that one-off becomes a regular occurrence, and you value them more than you value God and the things he has called us to (including corporate worship and gathering with his people). 

That's the harsh reality of idolatry. 

It takes a good thing and turns it into a god thing. 

A lot of the time, it's easier just to choose anything or anyone else over God. 

It's often easier to worship someone or something you can see or experience more tangibly. 

I think that's a big part of why we find it so appealing to worship a person or thing. 

One of my Bible college lecturers used to say that idolatry is at the heart of all sin. 

He basically redefined sin as the worship of something other than God. 

More often than not, we elevate ourselves into the position God should have. 

We make ourselves the rulers of our lives. 

We also place other people and things in God's place… 

People and things that give us meaning and purpose… 

People and things that give us hope. 

But that's the way of the world. 

The only place we are to find our true meaning, purpose, and hope is in God… 

Not in good things that have become god things. 

That's idolatry.