Bow Down to Nothing But God (pt. 4 of Idol Week)
So this week we have looked at a few ministry idols.
BUSYNESS, COMPARISON, & SUCCESS being the idol you worship.
If you did not have one moment where you related to any of these idols then I invite you to please call me so that you can tell me what it’s like to walk on water! There could be many more idols that I have not mentioned and the ones that I have mentioned have lots of different forms and faces, but these are some of the ones that I have most recognized in the world of ministry because they are some of the ones that I have most recognized in myself. Many of us in ministry have invisible altars that define who and what we truly worship. The things that exist on our disguised platforms of preference are the forces that drive our intentions, decisions, and actions. We are called to a life of having no other god’s but the one true God, yet we continue to bow down to a wide variety of golden cows.
You don’t have to turn to far into the pages of scripture to see idol worship all over of the place. The very first sin of the Bible was a form of Idol worship. Adam and Eve were not content with who they were and with all that God had given to them. They selfishly wanted to be like God so they put themselves ahead of their maker and took the apple. The second they yanked that Granny Smith from the tree they made their desires more important than God and therefore they made themselves an idol. Any time we put someone or something ahead of God we worship an idol.
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “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; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God
- Exodus 20:1 – 5
God made it explicitly clear, He has an issue with Jealousy. Not the kind of immature jealousy where a guy won’t let his girl-friend talk to another guy. It’s the kind of healthy jealousy that the maker of the universe is entitled too in not wanting to share His alter with our self made idols. Even though God clarified his desire for the human race you can span from Genesis to Revelation and the universal tendency to place value on something or someone in a way that rivals the love and affection that only belongs to God is stained throughout the story of humanity. From Baal to Buddha people have been bowing down to man-made gods for centuries. So who are we to think that we aren’t capable of being idol worshipers ourselves? And if we are… what do we do?
“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.”
Colossians 3:1 – 2
Maybe today is a day to come clean with the idol(s) in your life. Maybe today is the day to start to pursue the things of Jesus – pick your eyes up, be released from the things that are absorbing you right in front of your face, confess your need for grace and bask in the freedom and truth and hope that you are free in Christ and you need to start living like it.
So if you want – leave a comment and let us know the idol that you are renouncing in your life and how you are going to live a life that only worships the one true God.
Bowing Down to Success (pt. 3 of Idol Week)
If you are even remotely familiar with “Strength Finders” than you are probably aware of what someone with the Achiever strength looks like. Acheivers live in a state of constant drive. Every day is a new opportunity for accomplishment. There’s no doubt that the Achiever has an important God-given strength and is vital to the movement of ministry. But I have found in my own life that when the desire for achievement is motivated by the personal “SUCCESS” or affirmation cleverly hidden beneath the task – the achiever begins to dabble in some good old fashioned Idol Worship.
Unfortunately it happens far too often in ministry. It can bring about great destruction, pain, and deep disapointment the longer it goes unrecognized and unconfessed. You may have experienced it personally.
- Has there ever been a moment when you have gotten to the end of your Sunday Service or Gathering and you were disappointed with the amount of people that showed up (or didn’t) and you found yourself exaggerating about or “rounding up” the amount of people that were really there (aka – “Pastor Math”).
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- Do you ever find that on the off chance you receive positive feedback from someone, your whole attitude about the ministry is good? But if (when) you get an e-mail from someone that is disappointed with a decision that you made then your general attitude about the ministry is bad.
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- Do the comments, suggestions, and opinions of others about your performance have a disproportionate bearing on your decision-making and your ability to actually listen to what God is saying to you about the ministry?
If so, than perhaps your own personal desire for SUCCESS has become an idol for you. I wonder how many of us who fall down at the feet of the Idol of Personal Success would have the guts to admit here? For those who can, you gotta remember this – You are not alone. Sadly here are far too many of us than we would ever imagine in this imaginary spiritual competition. And this is not what God created us for. But there is hope! It just means that something is gonna end up in the fire.
So, what can you do TODAY to recognize that this is you idol and throw that sucker into the fire as a sacrifice to God? That one defiant act can bring more glory and praise and delight to the one true God than you could ever possibly imagine.
Success is the Enemy of…(fill in the blank)
We’re not gonna lie, we hope to be incredibly successful as a church. We want the work that we do with God to have the highest SROI (Spiritual Return On Investment) possible.
That being said, we know that Success defined the wrong way and measured by the wrong standards can be one of the worst things for a Church, Organization, and Individual. Here’s a few examples of what we mean.
- Success can be the Enemy of DEPENDENCE
- It doesn’t take long for us to look at all that God has done and begin to say, “Look at all that WE have done.” Our Successful Systems subtly become what we put our faith in. And the more that people think we know what we’re doing, the more we think we do as well.
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- Success can be the Enemy of CLARITY
- The more you successfully accomplish, the more you begin to believe you can and should do…more. Before long you’ve added so much to your vision that you’re not even sure what it is you’re supposed to do other than spinning the impossible number of plates that occupy your thoughts and efforts
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- Success can be the Enemy of INNOVATION
- There is a living graveyard of Companies and Churches that made their mark 10, 20, 30 years ago doing something truly innovative for a time. For whatever reason, they made “that thing” – “their thing” and continued to do what once worked well until it no longer worked at all.
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- Success can be the Enemy of HUMILITY
- File this one under No Brainer. It is one of the most tragically inevitable outcomes of success. Too cliche to go into great detail. As soon as you believe you are as important as your success has led you to think you are, success has become your enemy.
Fill In The Blank :: Success can be the Enemey of… (and WHY?)
