Gods at War - How to Stop Worshipping Idols

Do you ever wish after you've heard a great message from God, you could actually sit down with a speaker and ask some real personal questions about how that works out in your life? Well, today we're going to get to do that with Kyle Idleman, and we're going to tackle some of those big issues that came up in this series, Gods at War.

Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program, Motivating Christians to Live Like Christians. I'm Dave Drewy, and today we'll wrap up our new series, Gods at War, with something a little different. In this program, Chip and Kyle sit down for another one-on-one conversation, but this time they'll focus on how to really apply the lessons of this series to our everyday lives.

You know, really unpack what it means to destroy the idols in our hearts and solely worship the one true God. Well, with that, here's Chip with our guest teacher for this series, Kyle Idleman. One of the things that I've done for years is when I get done on a Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending on, you know, when I speak, it never worked for me.

I don't think it's bad, but it never worked for me to go to the back of the room and have people kind of file by, because I really, it was like handshake, handshake, handshake, and either, you know, great job or dirty look, you know, depending on. And so I tended to stay just up front and the people who really wanted to talk, they would always come up and I would have the best and deepest conversations and sometimes, you know, hang out of, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes. But I probably learned the most and realized where God was working in people's lives. And thanks to your generosity of your time, I thought, you know, people have listened to this series or gotten most of it. And I thought, what a great time to pause and say, okay, Kyle, thanks for being our teacher.

Would you now be a bit more our pastor? Can we talk about, yes, it's great to know that the core is idols. It's great to know other stuff is symptoms. And, you know, when you start talking about the God of pleasure and entertainment and sex and power and money, I mean, I see we're all just sort of ducking, you know, like, you know, yeah, yeah, that's me. And, and I don't want to get where we're just having some conversation where like, oh yeah, we all struggle with this so we give each other a pass. I think this is a really serious topic that has such potential for breakthrough.

And so anyway, first, thanks for coming back and being with us. And before I tell you maybe where this series spoke to me, could I be so bold to say, in your season of life right now, what are the idols that are, you know, sort of vetting for or trying to get in the competition to remove Jesus' place in your own heart and life? You know, I would echo what you said about needing each other to point some things out.

You'd listen to a series like this and you might be able to identify some of that for yourself. But the reality is that throughout scripture, I'm thinking of the Old Testament prophets, that God would often use a prophet to point out to his people, here are idols. Oftentimes those idols were such a part of the culture they were in that they didn't recognize them as such. They're just a part of their life. And so a prophet was needed to come in and say, this is an idol.

You don't see it that way, but that's what it is. And so I think we need that for each other. I have had that for myself in recent months. In fact, you did this for me over a call a month or two ago. I was talking to you a little bit about just the season where I was struggling finding the time that I needed to spend to prepare spiritually for a series on spiritual warfare. So you came and you preached at our church on spiritual warfare and you and I were talking before that series and I said, you know, I feel like I'm neglecting some things right now.

I've been so busy and you know, we've got this series coming up and I'm not prayed up the way I need to be prayed up and I've been so busy with a demanding schedule and trying to take care of things. And as I talked to you about it, Chip, I thought you were going to be pretty compassionate and empathetic with me. I thought you would say, oh, I know what that's like.

That can be so hard. I believe what you said was, oh, Kyle, that is so foolish. I think that was your quote to me.

And I thought as soon as you said it, he is so right. Like it is so foolish to think that I can replace the power of God with productivity. That if I just stay busy enough over here that it will make up for the lack of priority I am making in my relationship with God. And so that was really helpful to me. That was a significant moment for me.

And I recognize I needed to repent of the idolatry of achievement, production, where I put my hope and my confidence in what I'm able to point to at the end of the day, rather than in my connection to Jesus. And I recognize that this is the way I am wired. And I think, well, I think there are plenty of people this way, certainly plenty of men this way, where if I go home at the end of a long day and I need to have the grass mowed, or I could go for a walk with my wife, I'm always going to be drawn to mowing the grass. It's not because I like mowing the grass more.

I don't. It's because I mow the grass and then I can point to it and say, look what I did. I mowed the grass today. If I go for a walk with my wife, I don't really have something to show for it.

I went for a walk with my wife, but the grass still needs to be mowed. And yet there's no question that connecting to my wife is more important than mowing the grass. And so that is an example of how the idolatry of, or the idol of production or achievement can be very deceiving. You know, it's not that mowing the grass or doing the work of a ministry is bad. It's that it's not what's best. And if I am missing out on a more important connection, you know, first and foremost with God, then I've missed the point altogether. So I think in this season, you know, I've needed to repent of getting that out of order in my life. Well thanks for sharing.

I don't remember saying that, so it must have been the Holy Spirit because it sounds so insensitive, but so like me at times. So I think it may be recorded. Yeah. Please don't send it to me. I'll trust that there was a gentleness that it came with, but For sure. I felt cared for. No, my. You know, I really want us to share like this because I'm not sure there's any series or anything I've read that's more convicting. I'll just put it that way.

And since you were honest, I'll tell you the where I got hit most clearly. What do you mean? It's not enough that God's number one. And in my mind, I'm thinking like my wife Teresa in no way wants to be number one.

And by that I mean like, well, honey, you're number one, but Susie's number two in Chicago and and Judy's number three in San Antonio and and Betty's number four. And God does not want to be number one. He wants to be all he wants to be on the throne and and really you you talk about that God is jealous or he's zealous for us.

Could you could you help us understand what's behind that? That is super good. You know, I really like your synonym that you use there of zealous. I don't think I use that in the book, but that's a really helpful synonym. You know, we tend to think of jealous as kind of a junior high emotion, you know, that is closely related to immaturity and insecurity. And so when we read in the scripture that God is a jealous God, we assume that that indicts him as somehow insecure. And yet it really is an indication of just how loving he is, how how much he is drawn to that kind of connection with us. And and I do think we understand that in the context of a romantic relationship, right? Like if if if you had that conversation with your wife and you said, hey, you're you're number one, but here's number two, number three, number four. And she's like, well, OK, that's fine as long as I'm number one. Like that would show that she doesn't love you as much as you thought she did. Right. Like you want her to be jealous.

Absolutely. You would want her to have that kind of desire and for that affection and intimacy and for your heart. And so, you know, we see that with we see that with God's love towards us, that his his jealousy reveals how deep his love is for us. And then the irony is that when we get this right, when when he is our one and only, it's how every other relationship in our life will best operate. In other words, when I say, hey, God's number one and there is no number two, then it might feel like I am not properly prioritizing, you know, my marriage or my relationship with my kids. But I'm the best husband. I'm the best father when God is in his right place. If you look at the Ten Commandments, which is where we read this language of God being a jealous God, the first two of the Ten Commandments are specifically about idolatry. You shall, you know, worship the Lord, your God, and you shall have no other gods before you.

They're both about idolatry. You think, well, why, you know, why are those the first two? And I think those are the first two, because if you have those two right, then all the others tend to line up. You know, the image that I use is the image of if you're buttoning a shirt and you get the top button right, then the others just kind of fall into place.

If you get the top one wrong, then, you know, you're going to have a hard time with every other one. And I think that's true for us when it comes to putting God in his right place as the one and only. If we get that right, all these other relationships line up.

If we get it wrong, then none of them fit the way that they should. And so, the beauty of this is that it's not just what God desires, it's what's best for us because it's how he has made us. And so, learning to say, okay, God, I want you to be my one and only. I want my life, my heart, my prayers, my money, my affection to reflect that. And then to discover that in doing it, you've become much more who your wife or your spouse longs for you to be or your children long for you to be. It properly aligns all these other things. But look, what I do, I think a lot of us do is that we'll spend all kinds of time working on like that marriage relationship.

Let's go back to that. And I have these challenges and struggles in my marriage. So, I'm going to read these books. I'm going to go to counseling and that's all good.

That's all fine. But you would be amazed at how much healthier your marriage would be if you stop doing some of that and you took that kind of energy and you put it into putting God in his right place. And it's surprising, like you feel like the way you get healthier over here is by going to this conference and listening to these podcasts and trying to better communications and yet nothing can substitute for having that right relationship with God. It's amazing how the other buttons just start to line up. You know, for that person who goes, I didn't hear much of this series and you keep talking about first place or right place and could someone like in like everyday language tell me, all right, he's my all, he's my first.

What does that practically look like? I mean, the Christian term is that he's the Lord of your life, but how does that look in everyday life, Kyle? Well, for me, what helps me identify whether or not this is true is asking myself a series of questions and really these questions can help identify what may be replacing God in this way. So, for example, if I've had an especially difficult day, that is a really good opportunity for me to get a better perspective on who or what is most important in my life. In other words, where I'm going to go for comfort, where I'm going to go to be strengthened is going to reveal who or what is on the throne of my heart. So, for example, if I've had an especially difficult day and yeah, I go home and I lay on the couch, which I can do and spend two hours watching Netflix as a way to feel better, that tells me something. If I go home and what makes me feel better gives me comfort is comfort food and I get some of the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and eat half a gallon with a spoon out of the garden, that tells me something that I'm looking to food to bring some comfort to my soul. If I go home and I put that on my wife and my expectation is, hey, your job is to make me feel better. I've had a really difficult day. Why don't you make me happy? I thought you were supposed to make me happy. That's going to not be any good for my marriage.

It's going to put all kinds of pressure on her. And so, a question like that begins to reveal where my heart is and it points me to where it should be. So, what if instead on my way home from work after a long day, I listen to worship music and I sing along with those worship songs and I put God in his right place and I begin to worship him and I am reminded where my help comes from and I find comfort from him, then I discover a deeper comfort and yet I have to work at that.

That doesn't come naturally. But I think those are the moments where you choose. You have this path of, okay, am I going to find that over here or am I going to look to him for those things? And throughout the day, there are a number of those revealing moments where we can see a little bit more clearly whether or not he is our primary pursuit. And you over and over, I love you, kept coming back to, you refused in the teaching and in the book to let us move into external behaviors.

It wasn't just, okay, stop doing this, start doing that, stop going to the refrigerator, just only one glass of wine or never do that, you know, because all those things were sort of behavior modification. You know, the passage Proverbs 4 23 that you quote there says, watch over your heart with all diligence for from it, your heart, flow the issues of life. And this really is about the tenderness of a relationship of our, you know, that the great command to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And I think sometimes we think, well, I think I'm doing that, but it's really a battle.

And what you described is indicators that tell me, maybe I'm not, you know, maybe I'm really not. And I think if I was, you know, as a pastor for over 35 years, looking at how people have responded in the last 18 to 24 months to not being able to go places, to their opinions about vaccines and masks, to what's opened or what's closed or what people ought to do, the level of anger and conflict and criticism. Yeah, I think what you're seeing is people panicking over their gods being destroyed. I think, you know, when you put your hope in politics, economy, medicine, science, and suddenly that doesn't hold up, there's a sense of panic to that because this is what you were leaning on.

This is where you were putting your weight so that you could keep moving forward. This is what you put your hope in. And I, you know, you see people acting somewhat irrationally over, you know, their different opinions on this, but I believe it's because of this, that, you know, their idols are being exposed and it's scary.

I mean, and fear, you know, fear causes us to respond that way. You know, I would say that, you know, for me, I've felt that this understanding is what finally really helped me break free, not from just like pride and selfishness, but from lust. I would say that, you know, as a young man, I worked really hard at what I would call the best practices of fighting against lust, right? Like, I've read different books and had good accountability partners and I had filters on my phone. I, you know, I had gone through the different studies and, you know, I had, I had put in, I had put in the time to try to address this struggle with habit change and it would work for a while, but not for long.

Like it just never, and I never, it never seemed to offer real freedom. And then I began to understand lust as idolatry that, you know, I am choosing, I am choosing this over, over finding satisfaction, finding, you know, what I really long for in my relationship with God. And that, that, that when I give into that, what am I really doing except essentially, you know, entering into a modern day pagan temple and trying to, you know, find satisfaction through a false God. And so yeah, I, for such a long time, what was presented to me within the church and within Christianity was, hey, you know, resist, resist lust and this is how you do it.

And it, and it tended to be, you know, habits, addressing habits. And look, it's not to say that there, there's not a place for healthy habits around that. Of course there, of course there are.

But, but freedom, I mean, real freedom comes when we understand the deeper reality of what's happening. That, that I need to find this and I can't expect to find that for my wife. I can't expect to, you know, find that before I was married, you know, I can't explain it, expect to find that in other relationships. Like, like that's not where that's going to be found.

It's going to be found in my relationship with, with God. And, and that broke free some things that no amount of hard work and on habit change seemed to do. And so I say that to encourage your listeners that, you know, when you hear something like idolatry, it just, it might feel like a disconnect. Like, okay, no, I understand, but tell me the four things I need to do, you know, to be free from this.

And I'd say, no, no, no, look, really this, this really is it. This really is more at the root of this and it's harder to work and it takes time. But when, when you, when you really get this aligned rightly, you'll find a much deeper freedom. There's a passage in first John where it talks about his, his commandments aren't grievous unto us. And, and I remember, I bet the first 10 years I was a Christian, I'd say, they may not be grievous to you.

They're really grievous to me. You know, I was in college and there was four girls to every guy and I was, I did not grow up as a Christian and I was struggling. And the aha moment, not to, you know, quote a book, but aha was, I was reading through Proverbs and, you know, it gives you all this wise counsel about sexual purity and why. And the lights came on in my mind. God was on one side of the fence and I was on the other side of the fence and he was keeping good stuff from me. And man, I just, man, come on. You know, and everyone else was getting a lot of good stuff and I, and I wasn't. And I remember, you know, it was like, no, no, no, no, he's on the same side of the fence with me.

His arm is around my shoulder and he's pointing out things on the other side of the fence that, you know, short term, I want to protect you from, let me, let me walk with you and show you where that path ends. Idols will never deliver what they promise. And thanks so much for helping us get underneath what's really going on in a lot of the everyday struggles that we have. And this is a hard one to ask, but I do want to just end with, what do you say to that person listening who just says, I'm so struggling and my idol is a secret and if I ever come clean, it feels so overwhelming and so devastating. I just don't know how I could ever come clean with this one.

Yeah. Well, I, I know this will be hard to hear for the person saying it, but there is no easy or comfortable way to deal with an idol like that. The truth is you have to shine light into a dark place.

It will lose so much power over you. The minute you drag that idol kicking and screaming into the light, you don't have to announce it publicly. You don't have to post it on social media, but you need to say something to somebody. You know, the Bible talks about this, that, you know, when we confess these things that we find healing and that means that you need to sit down with a trusted brother in Christ or sister in Christ and you need to share that struggle.

And, and I know there's part of you that thinks that there is another way to do it and you can figure it out on your own, but how long have you been saying that? It really does require, require repentance. Now look, God's grace is, is beautiful. Like the enemy is the one telling you that you can't do that and putting shame on you.

That's a lie. God's grace will meet you there and, and freedom can be found, but it requires, it requires light. And so my, my challenge to you would be to, you know, to find the 20 seconds of courage you need to destroy that idol.

But, but there's no easy way around it. I mean, I've been there. I know what that's like. It's hard to do, but, but you will not regret, you will not regret doing it. Well, Kyle, thanks for being with us. And if you didn't catch these programs, let me encourage you to go to the website or the app and listen to them or even better yet, I've got a copy of the book in front of me. It's God's at War, Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart.

Boy, you talk about reading through a book with your mate or with a bunch of guys or a few gals. Be really life changing and thanks so much. And Father, I just pray for each person listening to our voice that they would come to believe that you are so good and so kind and so powerful and so holy that the wisest and best thing, not tomorrow, but today, Lord, at this moment they could do was to destroy the idols in their life and to give you that place that only you deserve. You're the creator, the maker of all that there is. Thank you for loving us so much and we exalt you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we hope you've been challenged and encouraged by what Kyle and Chip talked about in this program. If you want to go back and listen to any part of this new series, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to catch up. Now before we go, let me encourage you once again to get Kyle's book, God's at War, Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart. This book will take you deeper into the subtle dangers of idolatry and push you to consider what needs to change in your life. So to order your copy of God's at War, visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners have special offers. Well, thanks for joining us for this program. Until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.