No One Like Our God [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The dude is reading his Bible hoping he finds a $20 bill. And God's saying, I want you to read your Bible so you can discover who you are as a co-heir with Christ who is inheriting the earth. There's no one like our God.

Can't be managed. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of Good News that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Brint, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Remade, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.

Don't miss it. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. We're going to give you more on all this later in the program. But right now, let's dig in and get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Interpreter GK Beale said, what you revere, you resemble, either for ruin or restoration. The scriptures back this up, Jeremiah 2, verse 5. Thus says the Lord, what wrong did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me and went after worthlessness, speaking of the worthless idols, and became worthless. Is that God saying that people could be worthless? No, what it's saying is that idols are dead. And when you go after idols and that becomes, then they bring only deadness. It is to say that they have no value but are empty, and that the way to end up being empty yourself is in the worship of the idol.

Psalm 115 says similarly, at verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell.

They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat. But those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. What he's saying is that the idols have no life, and the more you worship them, the less life you have. And so it breaks God's heart. Becky Peppard, in her old, wonderful book, Out of the Salt Shaker, said it succinctly, whatever controls us is our Lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please.

We do not control ourselves, we are controlled by the Lord of our lives. That's what brings us then to this strange verse 14. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. If you think about it, it seems like it couldn't make sense that on the one hand, the whole passage is about how powerless an idol actually is, and yet to turn around and say, but here's a power, it puts you to shame. How could that be? How could a thing that has no life, has no power, actually have this one power, and that is to shame you and mock you?

Here's how it happens. Let's say that, here's something that people crave today, popularity and approval, just to crave it. How many people like me?

How many people are approving of me? And if you say in your heart, if I just get enough popularity, if I just have enough people approving of me, if everybody approves of me, then I'll be okay. If you say that in your heart, it becomes an idol.

It wasn't an idol, it wasn't even a thing. It was just something you made. Just as surely as the lumberjack made some wooden statue, this is something that you just make in your heart by saying, I gotta have it. Who told you you gotta have it?

I don't know, I just decided I had to have it. Learn not the way of the nation that tells you you gotta have it. You don't have to have it, but just you say, I gotta have it, I gotta have popularity, I gotta have approval. Then what happens?

It becomes like an idol, figuratively gets put on the shelf of your heart, and there it is, and your thoughts are consumed by it. What do I gotta do to have the approval? What if so and so rejects me? And so what we do is now we have made an idol that in our own mind is manageable, because I can do things to get more people to approve of me. I'll do what you want me to do. I'll say what you want me to say. I'll change the truth. I'll get a new narrative. I'll change the way I look. I'll change the things I say. I'll be a chameleon.

I'll do whatever you wanna do. We feel like we could manage this God of approval and popularity. But here's what actually happens, is that after slavishly trying to get everyone's approval, then one day somebody rejects you. Someone says something mean online. Someone that you wanted to be your friend doesn't wanna be your friend. Whatever it might be criticizes something about you, and all of a sudden this idol that's been sitting on the shelf of your heart now looks down upon you and says, look at you, you don't have it. You don't measure up.

Despite all your efforts, you still have been rejected. Look how worthless your life is. And it can lead either, therefore, to despair. I didn't get the thing that I need, and therefore my life is over. Or it can lead to a greater obsession to slavishly serve the idol.

All I gotta do is just get more approval to all work even harder for it. Which is a life of anxiety and futility that leads to all manner of destruction, doesn't it? Beloved, the way to deal with an idol of approval and popularity is to not get more of it, but to not need it. There's your moment of liberation is when your soul says, well, some people might like me, some people might not like me.

But I do know this, I have been radically, fully, forever accepted in Jesus Christ by his finished work, and I'm loved by my father, and I have a family, a spiritual family that I'll live with forever, and I will inherit along with Christ all the good gifts of God. That's the answer. The answer's not to serve the idol, the answer is to kill the idol.

Kill it, destroy it, smash it to the ground, and then you're free. Can't mock you if it's not on the shelf. So that's why Jeremiah's prophetic word is mocking the idol, instead of letting the idol mock him. So how do you get rid of them?

Well, Tim Keller has a great book, if you're more interested in this, Counterfeit God, excellent resource on this whole notion of idolatry. He suggests several litmus tests. Where do your thoughts effortlessly go when there's nothing demanding your attention? Where do the thoughts always gravitate towards?

That could reveal some idols. How do you spend your money? Shows your priorities, shows what you're thinking about. And he says this, and this is really important, most things, desires, things you want to accomplish, things you want, things that you'd like to have, you know, good things. But most of them, if you don't get it, you're disappointed, and you go, oh, rats, I really wanted that to work out, and it didn't, I really wanted that, and I didn't get it. And you're disappointed, and you say, but it's not the end of the world, life goes on, and you move on, most things. But some things, it's just too hard to move beyond, and you start brooding over it.

Why can't I get it, why didn't I get it? And it's just like, it consumes you, that's pointing to an idol. And he also says, and I think this is appropriate, look at your uncontrollable emotions. Emotions are from God, emotions are gifts from God, and we're made to be emotional creatures. So it doesn't mean like you get a disappointment and you cry over it, that that, oh, that means, no, it means, but what are the emotions that seem to take over you? Because you keep getting angry about that, or you just keep getting sad over that, or you keep, you can pay attention to that, too. All this is an effort, what I'm saying is, if you wanna get rid of idols, the first thing to do is identify them. And most people never do that first step.

It's really worth doing. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, A Favored Foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. And the second thing that I think needs to happen is you get bothered by it. Just get bothered by it.

Paul, when he was in Athens, he had this beautiful encounter with them when he began speaking to them, ultimately about the unknown God. But Acts 17, 16, it just says, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. I just think this is one of the first things the Holy Spirit does, is you just start being bothered by all the idols of culture and the idols of your own heart. Just be bothered by it. So identify them, be bothered by it. And then, I think you have to think about how much the idol hurts you.

I think we have to think about that. Not belabor over it, not brood over it, but it's like you got to see it for what it is and how destructive it is. I was thinking, this morning it came to me, I was preaching, I was thinking back to a friend that I began discipling many years ago, and his life, he was a wonderful guy, his life was messed up. And he was trying to get out of a cocaine addiction. And he accepted Christ. And I was discipling him some in this, and we got him in some 12-step groups and stuff. And cocaine addiction's very, very hard to get out of.

It's so addictive. And I was, one week we were meeting, and I was kind of checking with him, I said, how's it going? And he said, we had had a hard week.

He said he'd gone to some guy's house, and he said he got there and people were using. And I said, well, what happened? He said, well, I was really tempted.

And I said, well, how did you get out of it? And he said, well, for the first time in my life, I let that mental videotape play all the way through. He said, up until now, I only let it play halfway. The way it would play for me before is I'd think about the feelings of euphoria and ecstasy, and how all my anxiety would be vanquished for a little while, and I'd think about all of the fun of that, and the mental tape would stop right there. He said, but what I've learned to do now is I let the tape play all the way to the end. Now I think about how that drug has made me go bankrupt, and lose my family, and lose my wife, and all that it is trying to take away from me. And I let my mind go all the way to the end of the message, because that's the actual. See, the idol wants you only to think about the first part, not the end.

And I think it's important to think about the destructive power of idols in our lives, so that you get to the point you just hate them. You don't still want it. Just hate them. Just hate, I don't want it.

Don't want anything to do with it. Don't want anything other than my affections for God to fill in that blank. And then, after you've done those things, and you've identified it, and you want to get rid of it, here's what you do. Beloved, you think much of the love of God, and you let your Father love you in the midst of your greatest disappointments. There is nothing that will rid you of an idol more powerfully or purely than to fail at something that you had idolized, to lose something that you'd idolized, and find out that God loves you anyway.

That's the answer. Let somebody reject you, and the idol of approval mock you, and then find God with his arms around you, and you'll be healed. I was thinking, I was thinking, for some reason, of a moment, just a little parenting moment that, and I'm sorry, everything's emotional to me. My mom's memorial service is this afternoon, and I'm standing on the edge of emotion all the time, but I was thinking about this parenting moment, that, oh, I guess Bennett was maybe 10, and he had become very interested in golf, and he was becoming a very good little golfer. He would go on to play lots of regional tournaments, and be quite an accomplished junior golfer.

Didn't go play in college, so I didn't want to pursue that, but it was a thought there for a while, and we had so much fun, Father, Son time, playing golf. I think sports can be a fantastic thing for kids, teaches you so much. I loved sports as a kid, but I think sometimes I idolize my tennis. By that meaning, like if I could just win this tournament, I'll just, that'll be the answer to my life.

I'll feel great, you know? And, you know, I mean, it can become an idol. And of course, I never wanted golf to be an idol.

I just wanted him to enjoy it. So he's about 10, maybe 11, I can't even, and he's gonna play in one of his first tournaments. It's the city tournament. He would go on to play in much bigger tournaments than our local city tournament, but this one gets a lot of attention. Your name gets in the paper and stuff like that, and he'd gotten good enough. He had a chance to win the thing. He really did. And he was excited about it, and so it was three rounds of golf, and on the second day, playing at the Winston Lakes Golf Course, I mean, this golf course here, he just played awful.

I mean, there's no candy-coating it. It was just the worst I'd seen him play. If there was woods, he was in it. If there was a creek, he was in it.

And golf is just weird. Once it starts going bad, it's just real hard to recover, and he just had terrible rounds. He just blew it. He blew, you know, the whole thing was, and he knew it, he walked off the golf course, and he was like, not only do I have no chance to win this golf tournament, but he also realized they divide you into two different flights after this, you know, and are three different flights, and he wasn't even gonna be in the championship flight. He was gonna be in the secondary flight. It just, and he was teary, and it came off. I was disappointed. I was hurting for him, because I knew he could do much better than that, and we got in the car, and I thought, what are we gonna do?

And I thought, well, we'll just go home, but I thought, you know, something about that just doesn't feel right. He's gonna go home, and there's gonna be his mother, and there are two things about that. Best mother in the world, but there are two things.

This is about a mother who's the best mother, but the first thing is, you see your mother, and you're sad, you're just gonna cry, and I just thought, you know, I don't think he wants to just cry his eyes out over this. No, crying is good. I'm gonna cry some today. Been crying already today. It can be really good, right?

Do you know there are actual toxins in your tears that you get out of your body? Anyway, that's another point, but, but I just thought, this is golf around. We don't need to go and cry all day in mommy's arms, and I said, the other thing is, I know what she's gonna say. She's gonna say, it doesn't matter. It's just a game. It's just about having fun. Well, uh, it mattered to the 10-year-old boy.

It's a big deal. I said, we can't just go home and just cry. We need to, and just have mommy right now. I said, there's another thought that's like, well, we'll talk about our strategies for getting better. You know, you wanna get a lesson this week? You wanna work on this? We'll get to the driving range right away.

We'll start working on it, and we'll do some of that. But I thought that's the wrong message too, because what does that say? That just says, yeah, winning the tournament's all important, and we need to devote ourselves even more to it.

That's not right either. So it wasn't just melt, and it wasn't just try harder. What are we gonna do? So I was just driving home.

He's a little teary. We're a little quiet. And I just said, you know what? Bennett, let's pull over here into the park.

The soccer field's down from our house. He thought, why are we doing this? And we just said, let's just go out here for a bit. And we walked through the field and sat down on the bleachers.

And here's what I did. I just sat with my son. Just sat with him.

Just put my arm around him, quiet for a long time. And I said, that was a rough round. He said, that was a rough round. I said, I'm hurting. I know that was disappointing.

You're good enough. So you win the whole thing, and it didn't show today. I'm hurting with you. And he said, yeah. He cried a little bit. We sat. And finally, I just said, I feel as disappointed in that round of golf as you do, but you need to know this.

I am not disappointed in you. And I just sat there long enough until I was convinced that he knew that his father loved him in the middle of his failure. In some ways, I was sovereign. I could see into the future far better than he could, right? I knew that a golf round was meaningless in the scope of his life.

I knew that he was good golfer and he's probably gonna win a lot of tournaments, which he did. But he couldn't see all that right then. He just needed a father who's with him. We have a good, good father. And we have desires and dreams and good things in this world that we should pursue. But here's how they don't become idols, is when we have our father's arm around us and we know his heart with us so that we have this deep assurance that if I don't get what I want and it doesn't go the way I would like for it to go, I still have the most important thing of all, the presence of God, which is, beloved, what you're gonna have for all eternity, because all the idols who didn't make the heavens and the earth are gonna perish. And God and his love endures forever. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright and today's good news message, No One Like Our God. It's from the series that we're in, it's called Remade. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio.

Sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture.

The way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, A Favored Foreigner. You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here with Pastor Alan and a parting good news thought for the day. You know, we may have tried other things, but we'll certainly find out and discover that Jesus is eternal.

He is forever. I want listeners to think about, every one of you, think about how much the idol not only can occupy your mind, but can end up hurting you. You know, people say, well, how do I get rid of these idols?

And it starts with that, Daniel. It starts with think how it hurts God and then think how it hurts you and let that be real to you. And then think much of the love of God. Let the aim of your life and the enjoyment of your heart shift towards affection towards God. That's what the gospel does. That's what it does in me.

It's like the more I hear of His grace, the more I think of His love, the more that I worship Him, the more that I am falling in love with God. So I think this is the way idols end. First, recognize how much they hurt you and start hating the idol.

Know that you have the authority to tear it down. The idol doesn't have any authority except what you've given it. And then let your affections turn towards God and ask for His help. And you can bring every idol down.

And when you do, the freedom that comes is delicious. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.