Idolatry and Customized Faith: Lessons from Judges

1. "The story of Judges is kind of this record of Israel's light going dim. And it is just kind of a downward spiral across many generations of this progressive spiritual and moral decline. And it still has application for us. And it's a warning to us and I think sometimes when I look around, I just wonder, are we repeating some of their mistakes?" [29:17] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Some of you, that's the story of your life. It's just like all these ups and downs. And it's like, if you look back at it, you'll say, well, oh, I know what happened there that led to this, but thank God, right? Somebody came along. Something came along. Somebody bailed me out. Whether you recognize that as God or not. And then you got back, but you still had to deal with the repercussions. And you thought, I learned my lesson only to repeat it." [30:45] (22 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The primary sin of Israel is the same as ours and our culture today. It's idolatry. Idolatry. In fact, anytime you see that verse where it says, again, Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The first time it shows up, it says, Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and worshiped the Baals. Now Baals, B-A-A-L. That was kind of a generic term. Yeah, because it can refer to a God, but it was also a generic term that the Jewish people used to refer to all of the false gods and kind of all of the superstitions around them." [46:58] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "God restricts our worship because he knows we will conform to what we worship. If you worship success and power, it will shape you. If you worship sports, it will shape you. If you worship sex, it will shape you. And you're thinking, worship? I don't worship. Okay, let's use this word. If you value those things above all other things, it will shape you." [47:54] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Idolatry is the valuing of anything or anyone other than God as if it were God. It's valuing of anything or anyone as if it were God. In other words, as if it is somehow in control, as if it is somehow the standard of right, as if it is somehow the standard for us to guide our lives around. When anything or anyone becomes the North Star that we kind of govern our lives around, right, fight and defend and everything else, it becomes idolatry if it's not God." [49:45] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Customized Christianity is an effort to control God rather than conform to him. And there's many forms of this and in this politically charged age when we're facing election there's a lot of people in the name of Jesus on both sides supporting all different kinds of people all using the name of God and I'm like really really customized Christianity is trying to control God and leverage his name and his authority to get people to vote and I'm just saying we need we need to step back and check and go whoa whoa whoa whoa this is just like the old testament." [01:09:42] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Customized Christianity hurts people and I'm not just talking about the the city dwellers there who were peaceful and unsuspecting I'm also talking about the Danites because you see the Danites were desperate to find a place that they could settle and be at peace that's what they wanted and so they went to Micah and his homemade religion and his priest and says tell them if his god is there and he gave him this open-ended thing that they could interpret and say yes but you know what god really wanted them to do go back to the land I gave you and do the hard work and resist those people and I'm not talking about those people that's what was instructed over and over and over and he said and when you do that I'll be with you I helped you conquer cities you couldn't conquer I cut you out of enslavement with egypt that you couldn't get out of go back and trust me to do the hard thing but they heard what they wanted to hear and it was because of Micah and so they were vulnerable and Micah's his ideology his idolatry and his priest took those vulnerable people and got them wiped off the planet and of course what they did right with their twisted version wiped off innocent people and can I tell you there's a lot stuff that's being said in our nation in our country in the name of god in the name of jesus that is nothing but brutality it's not godly." [01:18:05] (85 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "If worshiping exclusively at home or alone even with the spouse of your kids right if you do that exclusively then over time eventually or maybe even intentionally you will start to construct your own religion around your preferences and ideologies and there will be no one there to check it will be no one there to say uh and so I know of some people I know of you know sometimes guys it'll be like well we worship at home and I've got my family and it's usually an arrogant egotistical guy who knows more than everybody else and he's right and everybody else is wrong now I get it there's some times we can't get here we can't get together but when you say don't forsake you in the writer in the new testament they say don't forsake the assembling together of yourselves as some are in the habit of doing but come together often when Jesus says we're two or three in the midst you say why is that why was there a place instead of us just doing it on our own at home can't we just do it on our home and the reason is in a modern intellectual age our ideas and ideologies become our idols and someone needs to be together in relationship with Jesus saying that's not what he said that's not what he meant I read it and I heard it too we need each other if you're going to be transformed into the image of God it's going to require communal relational interaction around our quest to following God otherwise you will end up with what James the brother of Jesus said a form of godliness with no power no power to change you and conform you to be like Jesus instead it will conform Jesus to be like you." [01:08:15] (111 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "We have ideas about God, not as he is, but as we want him to be. And so we customize him. And when we do, we distort him. And eventually what happens is we deify a version of our ideal selves. So all of us in here have some version of God and that version of God, we have to say, where does it come from? What's informed that? And a lot of times, if we're honest, we would say, well, this is what God's like and I know that's what God's like because if I were God, that's what I would be like. And I know what God would think and what God would do because if I were God, this is what I would think and what I would do. And eventually what happens is we deify this idealized version of ourselves that we created or we kind of create, some being that we can lean upon and look to and even pray to who will help us get to our own self-determined, self-defined ideal life. It's actually a rejection of God and an exaltation of yourself." [52:51] (72 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "An ideology, any ideology that redefines God rather than submit to him is idolatry. It's idolatry. So, a little phrase, I don't know if it's original or not, I think it's original, but here's what I call it. Customized Christianity. Just customized Christianity, right? You get the generic version like a car and then you trick it out with all the stuff you want on it. Take all the stuff off you don't. You get the house the way, hey, there it is, there's the standard house, but now I get to add my touch to everything. And so we pick up Christianity and then we wanna add our touch to everything. We're not getting rid of God. We're not rejecting Jesus. We're just redefining him and reinterpreting his words, his scriptures, to fit or feed our preferences." [55:06] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)