Turning

Let's stand for the reading of God's holy word found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, 2 short verses, verses 8 and 9. This is what Paul wrote carried along by the Holy Spirit. For not only has the word the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and a cave, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our simple prayer today would be that you would call each of us to turn to you. God give us wisdom from your word and Holy Spirit. Help us to see the depths of our own heart and soul and help us to see the glory, at least the glimpse of it, that you possess. And would you, O Lord, reveal again your mercies made new this day, your grace which is given for us that we might have life for all eternity. God change us by turning us toward you this day in Jesus name, amen. In about a couple hours, I guess there's a group of parents. I'll be there. I'm a parent who are going to be hearing about two trips this summer. Trips at the ministry has been taking for a number of years. One group of students are going to be going with youth leaders and some parents to Hong Kong. Another group will be going to another part of Asia, far East Asia, a trip that I'll be going on. I think this may be my eighth time. Parents are going to hear a bit of the trips and what we're seeking to accomplish, which really is advancing the gospel in these two places. One does it kind of through a Bible camp. The other does it through conversational English. It's an amazing trip. We saw so many students come to Christ last year. We can't wait for this year. We'll also go over some of the details of the trip. One of the details that always it's just fun to watch parents' faces is when we tell them that we'll be taking students to a Buddhist temple. How many of you have been to a Buddhist temple? A fair number of you. Your children, children in this church are going to see what you saw. A very dark place, very old. Lots of idols. Things made with the hands of man. Eyes, nose, hands, feet, ugly Buddhas and uglier Buddhas. Just there. They also see people who are sincere in their worship. Some have lived there a long time because their monks, they believe deeply in what they're about. This is what makes sense to them. Others are simply there like we are as tourist. Some look like they might worship Buddha because they're of a certain nationality. Others just simply it's something that's been handed down. They don't really believe in it so much but it's what's been handed down and for many parents they're concerned that that which has been handed down their children being exposed to it that they may come back saying I think Buddha might be away. Let me encourage you that's never happened. Probably won't happen again but that's not what you should be a most concerned about. You see if you see a high school student in China doing something like offering a prayer to Buddha and you talk to him afterwards he'll simply say this is what my family does. We're not that religious but this is what we do. It's not that they're not committed to it but it's been passed out. Our concern for our kids shouldn't be that they're suddenly going to have an enlightenment and think that this is the way they're actually going to see the foolishness of it. They're going to see that these statues don't speak. They can't hear. They can't see. They can't feel. They can't move. They're only moved as someone picks them up and puts them somewhere and yet they'll see foolish people really believing that there's power in that but that's what's been passed out. It's been it's what makes sense to people. What we should be more concerned about is the idols that our children already worship. The idols that you have passed out. The idols that I've passed out. They don't look like statues. Oh but they're real. They too can't speak and love back as Chad said beautifully in his introduction but they're very powerful. They capture our attention. We stare at them. We serve them and our children see us doing it and so they do the same thing and that's the idol or idols that are deeply present in the lives of us here in this church and what's more foolish isn't that the children see foolish people worshiping these idols. It's that these children who know better come back and worship the same idols even though they know better. Not the Buddhas but materialism, education, advancement, progress. You see the majority of students that we go to serve actually aren't faithful in any religion. That's not really the idols of their life. The idols of their lives are education, advancement, occupation, politics, just like us. That's what they're consumed with and we look so much like them. You see the things that we're going to talk about this morning, these idols that capture us that we're enthralled with, that we serve, they're usually not bad things. They're usually good things that we've pursued because they make sense to us and they're actually, they can actually be quite beautiful and it's not the the thing in itself that's evil. It's the temptation to believe that life is there that is evil. And in this passage that we're looking at, Paul and just a couple of verses describes something that happened to this people in Thessalonica that were worshipping pagan gods. Remember this church is made up of Jewish people who've just become Christians, of Greeks who are worshipping pagan gods and it says of some prominent women that's recorded in Acts. The testimony of the gospel going into their life through power and the word and the Holy Spirit is that they believe they had faith and so strong was their commitment to the person of Jesus Christ that this faith sounded forth way beyond the region. So much so that Paul saying, we don't even need to say anything. The testimony of your turning to God is being told because it really is miraculous. So this morning what I want to do is spend some time looking at the idols in our life. What is it we can learn from this one small verse particularly, even a short phrase in this verse that teaches us how to wage war on the idols that are in our life. And I want you to follow along by doing a little bit of drawing. I want you to open your bulletin to the blank page that says sermon notes. Some of you didn't even know that was in there. It's in here every week. You can use it. I know not everyone in here is a note taker. Some of you listen and you listen well and you can picture it in your head. So do that. That's fine. Others grab the pencil in front of you, borrow a pin from somebody. Take this white page and I want you to picture a clock and I want you to write four words. Each word is going to start with the letter i. So at 12 o'clock put a big capital i and then at three o'clock put a big capital i and then at six o'clock put a big capital i and then at nine o'clock put a big capital i. You'll see the circle that I'm talking about. I'm going to look at idols through this little paradigm that I think is very very hopeful. The first word I want you to write at the top at 12 o'clock is the word issues. Now I have chosen to use the word issues because it's going to define sin. Now sin is a profound reality in every one of our lives. Every one of the children baptized today we believe because the Bible says so are sinners. Not just the one that was making the most noise. No. All of those children this day last hour and everywhere they're baptized and sinners because we believe that scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means that every one of us we're sinned. Why? Why are we born into that? Why have we missed the mark? It goes all the way back to Genesis 3 which is the best description of what's wrong with our world and why I'm using the word issues. You see Adam and Eve were in a perfect relationship with God. When I say perfect I mean it. There was no flaw. They didn't have a marital spat. They didn't have conflict. They didn't have shame. They didn't have humiliation. They had no fear. They didn't even know what those words meant. It was perfect. Their relationship with each other but also their relationship with God and their relationship with the world. God gave them everything. All that I've given you is for you. Take an eat of it except for one tree. The tree called the knowledge of good and evil. The one command was not to take of that fruit and it was clear. Eve knew and Adam knew these were the rules. The guidelines that God gave. Not to limit life. He'd given them perfect life but to sense their obedience, to protect them. But the very first question of the Bible which I love to share was a question not from God. It was from Satan. In the serpent the devil moves up to Eve and he asks for this question. Did God really say? So he questions God's authority. Did God really say you shouldn't eat from this tree? Eve responds by repeating what God did say. Yes. He did say we could eat from these trees but not this one. He then says oh eat of it because if you eat of it you'll be like God and she saw that it was good. Remember that. It wasn't a nasty looking piece of fruit and she took and she ate and she gave some to her husband. Our representatives, Adam and Eve. When they took of this fruit in eight here's what happened immediately. The eyes of the man and the woman were open and as the eyes were open they tragically realized fear, shame, humiliation and their own nakedness. Before they ate this fruit they both walked around naked. Eve was not embarrassed about her body. She wasn't self-conscious about the way she looked. Adam wasn't self-conscious about his. There were no mirrors. There was no need to look in a reflection pool. They had no sense that something might be wrong but the very moment that they ate their eyes were open. They realized they were naked and this profound issue, the profound issue of sin entered into their life. So great was that they ran from each other and they hid and then individually they began to make coverings for themselves because they were afraid to see each other as they now were. Their relationship with God was also broken, severed, this profound issue of sin affected their relationship with God because it was God and then they sinned against. So God asked his first question of the Bible. It's the second question in the Bible and it's where are you? Adam responds, we were afraid. Now remember he didn't know what fear was. We were afraid and then he tells God why because we were naked so we hid. In other words we have fear, we're ashamed, we're embarrassed, we've done what we shouldn't have done and we hid and then God asked the third question of the Bible, God's second question. And I really wish I could have said, I mean this is amazing if you consider what Adam's face must look like when God said who told you you were naked. Have you eaten from the fruit of the tree that I commanded you not to? And what does Adam say? He hadn't said yes. He says the woman you put here with me that really does signify the brokenness. Adam should have been there protecting her from the serpent I believe. The relationship between Adam and Eve was fractured. The relationship between God and Adam and Eve was fractured. The relationship in the garden in the earth was fractured and that episode in history is not a story it's real. Adam and Eve our representatives, Adam the first man turned his back from God and he served the enemy. They sought to make coverings for themselves and idol covering their own nakedness and shame. Because of that sin you and I and the children that were just baptized are born as sinners into a sinful broken world. And because of that every one of us have so many different issues that we're facing. Our first great issue is that we're sinners ourselves. We choose all the time to turn our back on God and serve other things than what he is prescribed for us. Why? We're going to talk about that in a moment. We live in a world where we're in families that are also made up of sinners where people turn and make decisions all the time turning away from God. That sin done against God also impacts the people in the world so that some of the issues we face aren't directly a sin that we've committed but we've been born into a sinful family where sinful people have committed sins and they do come against us. We also live in a sinful broken world where there's disease and disaster. Those were not part of creation and these diseases capture our physical body eventually leading to death. We're all going to die. That's a cost of sin. And then there's disasters and those disasters come as a result of sin. And so we all have issues every one of us and I don't use that word lightly like oh you've issues. No, the profound reality is that we're deeply broken which leads to the three o'clock eye. I want you to put the word insecurities there. Some people like to say they're not insecure. Anybody tells me that immediately a sign goes off on my head. I'm talking to a deeply insecure person. If someone feels the need to tell me they're not secure I'm thinking man you are barely standing up. You are so insecure. Every one of us are insecure because of the issues of the fall. Every one of us I'm not talking about just in middle school that was painful. I'm talking about the fact that as an adult you're still kind of living through middle school. In every relationship you enter you're most slightly motivated by fear more than love. Deep insecurity isn't a sense of I'm just trying to fit in and have a nice bit of self esteem. I'm talking about the kind of insecurity that Adam and he felt. When suddenly they didn't understand their world where they didn't understand their relationship with each other and with God and they didn't know what else to do except grab some leaves and cover their nakedness and then as God came and they heard him whatever that sounded like walking through the garden. They're terrified and so many people today are terrified so deeply insecure. Why is that important? Well we're insecure about the way we look. We're insecure about our status in society. We're insecure about how our children are doing or grandchildren. We're insecure about so many things. What will happen to me when I die? The insecurities are great for all of us. All of us regardless of age. In insecurities always lead to the six o'clock eye and that's the word idols. You see people come to realize at an early age the issues in their life and whenever they're experiencing the pain of an issue they feel the insecurity and as they feel the insecurity they turn towards an idol or a list of idols that they believe will make them feel secure. The idols that you know are in your life and identifying the idols isn't that hard. I'll talk about that more in a minute. The idols in our life are not hard to identify but don't be deceived. They're usually really good things because they give the appearance that they will be our security. That's why my dear friend David Newman who we have lunch with almost every week constantly challenges me that the things that I'm seeking to put my security in he says it this way we're tempted to put our security in insecure things. There is only one secure thing it's not a thing it's a God the triune God father's son and holy ghost but we are tempted with so many good things to put our security there money is not an evil thing the love of money is a good reputation for the glory of God is not an evil thing unless your desire is to be praised for having a good reputation you see the greatest enemy of a hunger for God is not poison it's apple pie it's not the x-rated video it's the prime time dribble of triviality we drink in every night that's from John Piper in a book called hunger for God these good things keep us from the great because they give the appearance that they will keep me safe that's why men and women created idols that's why when we looked at Psalm 115 this morning there's this image of people carving idols it's interesting they could have carved anything but the psalmist says they carved something that had a mouth because we want our idol to speak something that had eyes idols can't see something that ears idols can't hear even the hands and feet and idols can't as I said earlier be moved unless someone moves it the the fist of the youngest child that was baptized today squeezing has infinitely more power than any idol that has ever been created because idols are not alive but we sense as we turn towards them that there is security there there's security in my appearance I still look younger and younger and younger that's why I colored my hair I did I used to color it until my wife's 10th high school reunion and I colored it for her reunion so people wouldn't think she married some really old dude that would have been fine if I was rich but I was a graduate student in seminary it looked so bad I looked like Dracula remember honey I never colored it again but why would I color it to begin with I don't know let me ask you women there's so much gray hair here why do you color your hair now I don't want you to think this is what this is about there's a little silliness there but deep down why what is it that motivates us to do different things because just like Adam and Eve we're still trying to cover the shame of the fall the brokenness of the fall the reality what it means to live in a world where your flaws can be exposed so we create idols everything other than God is an insecure thing it won't last but God will last forever and this is where God's grace exists go to the last eye got issues insecurities idols the last one is irritants irritants is just another nicer word for anger and it has an eye and that's why chose it you see our idols when they finally reveal themselves and it sometimes takes a long time they reveal that they're not going to work and so we feel the irritation it might be great irritation like I've been deceived I thought if I had this much money or this much power or this much status or if my children turned out this way if they went to this college or they achieved this academic goal or sports goal or career goal then I'd be happy but I'm still not satisfied because none of those things are ultimately going to be secure and so the grace of God is to let that be an irritation the irritation might produce anger it might produce sadness it might produce sorrow but the idol will run its course and it will not satisfy no matter how high you go because there's only one secure thing and it's Christ now there's a reason why each of these start with the eye and I want you to put a letter I right in the center a big one a big letter I capital this is called the eye formation and you are your greatest idol I am my greatest idol what happens is it's not that it's difficult for us to identify what the idols are in our life but what's difficult for us is to admit the depth of the idol and the control that it has on our life and so skip Ryan has been teaching a class called the spiritual life it's in its third pilot so to speak and it's going to be unveiled next fall for a larger audience and it's going to be incredible but one of the images he uses is that of an iceberg and iceberg you can see above the surface and there is where we see our idols and as Christians we name them like you would not be offended if if someone was praying here and they in their prayer confession said I struggle with pride nobody would go of course all sins pride and we'll wear another or if they said Lord forgive me for the lust of the flesh and that's still pretty safe for forgiving for greed or selfishness that's all above the above the water line identity identification and it doesn't really cost you that much but what I want you to understand what skip is teaching is that underneath the water line what you can't see is the massive base in foundation of that what looks to be a small iceberg underneath it's multiple times the size of what you see and underneath the surface is where the idols really lurk where they control us and so when somebody says I have pride it would be far more painful for them to say you know I want to be worshipped I want people to worship me and I want them to think I'm the best parent the best the business woman business man I want them to think I'm the best Christian I want them to think I'm the best that you've been dealing with sin in my life oh my friends when you begin to look underneath the surface you realize this is far more destructive than I ever thought and it is and that's where the Lord wants us to go because it's easy to look above the surface and think I'm just kind of like everyone else and then those idols get passed down but I'm telling you they don't work and it's all about you and it's all about me in our prayer of confession which I love today don't turn there dis listen we confess this we've made idols of our occupations our recreations and our homes and the list could go on and on couldn't it and I don't think you're going to have trouble identifying the idols of your life you really should look out together with someone your spouse ask your children they'll tell you ask a small group what do you think of the idols what's underneath it's been some time with that but there's one that wasn't mentioned here that I wish was and it's the idol of religion here's what I mean the I formation how we deal with issues are insecurity the idols we create in the irritation that comes if we choose religion to battle that then we just keep going in a circle around and around and around religion will save you in fact in trying to deal with your idols if you seek religion religion will become your idol you will become your idol even as you seek to be a master over whatever your idol is you'll fail I promise you'll be greatly irritated and then maybe you'll come to the end of yourself and you'll see grace and this is what this little verse teaches us and I don't know if you saw it so just for a second I want to unpack this when Paul's describing the people of the Church of Thessalonica he says that they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God that phrase and the sequence of that phrasing is very important here's why if this is the area where the idols are and these people Jews and Greeks were worshiping idols Paul didn't say they turned to wage war on their idols he didn't say they tried to deal with all the things in their life that were idols and were wrong he says they turned they didn't even say away from idols he says they turned to God that's not religion turning to God is the secret of the spiritual life of a Christian bless you because what happens is the enemy the moment the idols are identified by us above the waterline and below the enemy says okay now work on your idols and so you start looking at your idols and you begin to work on them which I understand that I do it too but I'm telling you that will turn to religion and it won't succeed what we see from Paul is turned to God and when you turn to God who is the one secure thing you can't exhaust his glory you can't exhaust his majesty you can't exhaust his beauty you can't exhaust his love and his God grows in your mind as the gospel of Jesus Christ expands as you meditate on the wonder of who he is and all that he's done for you and all that he's going to do for you and all that you're going to have in him and indeed that he is the only secure thing that you can cling to and when you don't cling to him he doesn't stop clinging to you that beauty expands in your heart and mind and as it does you know it's going to happen these idols are getting weaker and less attractive and less desirous and you really weren't just focusing on them your primary focus was on God and I think it's brilliant what Paul said they turned you turned to God from idols so turning away is implied but I think in most places where religion is preached the goal when you leave the service is to focus on your idols and to seek to get rid of them I'm telling you that will become your idol and at some point you're going to be deeply irritated that I that's in the center of your circle I want you to do something if you drew this if not do it in your mind I want you to take the vertical line that connects to the top of the eye I don't want you to extend it now above just a little bit that top vertical line now tell me what you see what is it Mike you see a cross that's the only way to destroy the eye formation that's why Jesus came a God with eyes and ears and a mouth and hands that clung to his mother and feet that walked a road that took him to Golgotha and hands that were nailed and across and feet that were nailed and across and a heart that actually beat that if the technology was present for an alter sound to have been done in Mary's womb that heart would have been flickering but there was a moment on that hill that that heart stopped beating and all who were there could see it because Jesus died and he died because of Adam and Eve's issue of turning he died because you and I continue every day to turn away from him and Jesus walked on this earth and was tempted by the same Timter who tempted Adam and Eve and he didn't listen he never turned in his human flesh he was perfectly obedient and never turned from his father and he is called in Romans the second Adam because he is our righteousness and when we turn to look at him when we gaze at the glory of Christ these idols miraculously began to dissipate that's why we sing with joy this him just listen it's the secret turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face then the things of earth the idols of earth all of them will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace you can't exhaust his glory you can't exhaust his grace turn to Jesus have you turned to him ever turn today has it been a while turn again he's the only security father and heaven we thank you for your Holy Spirit and the Holy Word we ask O Lord that you would help us to see even as we sing this closing hymn we pray that you would indeed cause these idols of our lives to be trampled as we gaze upon the glory of the risen Lord fill us Holy Spirit now we ask in the strong name of Jesus and all of God's people said amen let's stand