Spring Cleaning: Renewing the Soul and Removing Idols
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"You are not just a body with a soul. You are a soul with a body. That might take a moment to sink in, but it's very important. It's very profound. You are a soul with a body. We saw last week in Genesis chapter 2 that when God created humanity, when he created people, he first made our bodies, our physical bodies. And then it says after our bodies were made, we became living beings when he breathed the breath of life." [00:35:45]
"Our idols might not be gold statues or wooden figures that we bow down to, but we can still have idols in our lives. It's been said that an idol is anything that replaces God at the center of our daily lives. You see, whatever has the power to control your thoughts or change your emotions or affect your desires, whatever has the power to do that can be an idol, even if it's not a physical object." [00:38:44]
"Relationships can be idols too. Other people can be idols. Many times I've heard someone say that their romantic partner or their spouse is everything to them, that their partner completes them, that they say, I couldn't live without them, which means their partner is an idol because those things can only be rightfully said about God." [00:39:58]
"Anything that takes top priority in our lives other than God can be an idol. And here's what God has to say about this. In Exodus chapter 20, when God was giving us the Ten Commandments, He said this, Exodus 20 verse 3, God says you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." [00:41:52]
"Let me give you an example that is kind of shocking, but it might help you understand. A friend of mine told me this true story from a few years back about his friend who went to India, and he met this woman in a very small, poor village in India. This was, you know, just a few years back, and she was raising some chickens. She was raising chickens just to sacrifice them on an altar that she built for her God." [00:44:23]
"Now, here's where you may want to really push back on the message. Here's where you may want to be like, you know what? I'm out of here. At least I would feel that way if I were you, because it's really easy to justify and rationalize and explain why something that consumes so much of my life and my attention and my resources, why it's not an idol." [00:49:16]
"These are just between you and God. All right. So we're going to put them up on the screen. We've got four questions and you may want to write these down. You may want to take a picture of them. I think they'll be really helpful for you. The first question is, where do I spend most of my time? And then where do I spend most of my money? And what do I talk about the most? And then what is most often on my mind?" [00:49:52]
"God doesn't tell us to tolerate our idols. God doesn't say, manage your idols. Just make sure they don't get out of hand. No. God says, tear them down. Bring them down. If there's anything that takes up more of your heart and your mind and your daily focus and your attention and your emotions than God, if anything has more control in your day-to-day life than the one true God, take it down." [00:55:11]
"That's what God told a man named Gideon to do. In the Old Testament part of the Bible, people around him were worshiping all of these different false gods. They were bowing down to all of these idols. Even people in his own family were doing it. And so God said this to Gideon in Judges 6, verse 25. He said, Gideon, tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it." [00:55:33]
"Listen, my greatest fear with this message is that you would walk out and think, hey, you can call it an idol all you want. And if I'm honest, I know it's an idol of mine, but I don't really care. I like it. I'm comfortable with it. It's all I really know. So I'm going to stick with it. I love it. Whether it's work, school, your family, sports, hobbies, money, social media, politics, sexuality, whatever else, you're going to keep making it more important." [00:57:25]
"You're going to have to pray and think deeply and study scripture and talk with trusted others and then decide what it is you need to do. I've talked with many people over the years who have done some radical things to tear down idols of their souls. I know of multiple people who realized social media was an idol. They were so obsessed with their online presence, and it was such a temptation to them that they deleted their social media accounts." [00:58:56]
"Well, now your soul has been cleansed and purified. There's a lot of space there now. There's a lot of room. So the third thing that we do, number three, is we replace them with God. We replace them with the one true God. Fill your soul with the one true God and the things of God. In the Bible, in the Psalms, they greatly express this desire to have our souls filled with God." [01:00:00]
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"Our idols might not be gold statues or wooden figures that we bow down to, but we can still have idols in our lives. It's been said that an idol is anything that replaces God at the center of our daily lives. You see, whatever has the power to control your thoughts or change your emotions or affect your desires, whatever has the power to do that can be an idol, even if it's not a physical object." [00:38:44]
"Relationships can be idols too. Other people can be idols. Many times I've heard someone say that their romantic partner or their spouse is everything to them, that their partner completes them, that they say, I couldn't live without them, which means their partner is an idol because those things can only be rightfully said about God." [00:39:58]
"Anything that takes top priority in our lives other than God can be an idol. And here's what God has to say about this. In Exodus chapter 20, when God was giving us the Ten Commandments, He said this, Exodus 20 verse 3, God says you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." [00:41:52]
"Let me give you an example that is kind of shocking, but it might help you understand. A friend of mine told me this true story from a few years back about his friend who went to India, and he met this woman in a very small, poor village in India. This was, you know, just a few years back, and she was raising some chickens. She was raising chickens just to sacrifice them on an altar that she built for her God." [00:44:23]
"Now, here's where you may want to really push back on the message. Here's where you may want to be like, you know what? I'm out of here. At least I would feel that way if I were you, because it's really easy to justify and rationalize and explain why something that consumes so much of my life and my attention and my resources, why it's not an idol." [00:49:16]
"These are just between you and God. All right. So we're going to put them up on the screen. We've got four questions and you may want to write these down. You may want to take a picture of them. I think they'll be really helpful for you. The first question is, where do I spend most of my time? And then where do I spend most of my money? And what do I talk about the most? And then what is most often on my mind?" [00:49:52]
"God doesn't tell us to tolerate our idols. God doesn't say, manage your idols. Just make sure they don't get out of hand. No. God says, tear them down. Bring them down. If there's anything that takes up more of your heart and your mind and your daily focus and your attention and your emotions than God, if anything has more control in your day-to-day life than the one true God, take it down." [00:55:11]
"That's what God told a man named Gideon to do. In the Old Testament part of the Bible, people around him were worshiping all of these different false gods. They were bowing down to all of these idols. Even people in his own family were doing it. And so God said this to Gideon in Judges 6, verse 25. He said, Gideon, tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it." [00:55:33]
"Listen, my greatest fear with this message is that you would walk out and think, hey, you can call it an idol all you want. And if I'm honest, I know it's an idol of mine, but I don't really care. I like it. I'm comfortable with it. It's all I really know. So I'm going to stick with it. I love it. Whether it's work, school, your family, sports, hobbies, money, social media, politics, sexuality, whatever else, you're going to keep making it more important." [00:57:25]
"You're going to have to pray and think deeply and study scripture and talk with trusted others and then decide what it is you need to do. I've talked with many people over the years who have done some radical things to tear down idols of their souls. I know of multiple people who realized social media was an idol. They were so obsessed with their online presence, and it was such a temptation to them that they deleted their social media accounts." [00:58:56]
"Well, now your soul has been cleansed and purified. There's a lot of space there now. There's a lot of room. So the third thing that we do, number three, is we replace them with God. We replace them with the one true God. Fill your soul with the one true God and the things of God. In the Bible, in the Psalms, they greatly express this desire to have our souls filled with God." [01:00:00]
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