Reversing Idolatrous Consequences, Part 2

Idols lure you into a lifestyle that is godless. Dr. Tony Evans says idols are more common than we think and can lead us to spiritual places we don't want to go. So you're no longer just dealing with the idol, you're dealing with the demonic attachment to the idol. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Most Christians think they'll never be tempted to worship idols, but idols aren't just statues. So today, Dr. Evans will help you discover some of the surprising things that may be separating you from the Lord.

Let's join him. We live in an idol-saturated society, although sophisticated. It is any person, place, thing, or thought, any noun, that you put beside God or in front of Him. You can always know what your God is by what comes first. Love the Lord your God first.

Anything else put first in competition with or in front of the God of the Bible, it has become, unbeknownst to most of us, an object of worship. But in 2nd Chronicles chapter 33, we're told about Manasseh. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. Verse 2, and he did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done in the first year of his reign. In the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the square on the east. And he said to them, listen to me, O Levites, consecrate yourselves now.

Consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. Hezekiah is Manasseh's father. He was raised by this kind of daddy. He was raised by a father who loved God, who served God, who wanted to obey God, and who brought the people around him to take God seriously. So Hezekiah's daddy was a great godly man, but his baby boy Manasseh went left, way left, according to the abomination of the nations that were surrounding him. So let's picture Manasseh. He's growing up, he's having devotions with his daddy, his daddy's taking him to temple, he's getting all this godly stuff put in him, and then along the way he looks out and sees all the folks around him.

It says all the nations, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the termites. I mean, he's seeing all the nations around him. And he sees these nations living it up. He sees these nations in all kind of stuff.

It becomes attractive to him. God calls them abominations, but He calls them what's happening now. God calls them evil, but it looked like fun to him. So he adopted their worldview in God's place. Verse 3 tells us, he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. That is, the idol worship centers. He also erected altars for the Baals, idols, and made asherim. He made more idols. And worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them.

Oh, but it gets worse. Verse 4, he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, my name shall be in Jerusalem forever. So, wait a minute, number one, he goes out and he adopts the idols of the culture.

That's number one. But then, according to verse 4, he brought the idols of the culture into the house of God. He brought them to church with him. So it's bad enough you adopted it in the culture. It's even worse when you brought it into the house of God. You and I live in a day of idolatry. We live in a day when God is daily insulted by the other gods we bring, whether it's the God of technology, whether it's the God of entertainment, whether it's the God of athletics. None of those things may be wrong in and of themselves, but the moment they compete with the God of the Bible, then you have adopted the worldview, sprinkle the little Jesus on it to make it feel better. He had brought it into the house of God.

It gets worse. He built altars to the host of heavens, verse 5 says, in the two courts of the house of God, and he made his sons pass through the fire. That's child sacrifice. We've got child sacrifice today. It's called abortion. That's child sacrifice. That's killing the unborn, who are persons.

You have to understand. The issue of abortion has got nothing to do with women's rights, and it's got nothing to do with this is my body. That's irrelevant, because we're not talking about your body.

We're talking about the body of another that you happen to be housing for a nine-month period of time. The Bible says in Psalm 139 that God stitches the baby in the womb, and that that baby has the image of God. So to abort is to attack God.

You see? It's a God attack. It's child sacrifice.

So while we have sophisticated it today, and somehow we think because it's legal, it's legitimate. One of the reasons our culture is falling apart is that instead of the church influencing the culture, the culture is now influencing the church, because now folk are bringing the mess of the culture into the church, asking the church to go along with it. And what's worse is that many churches are going along with it.

You know that the culture is in trouble when the pulpits and the pew acquiesce to the culture, when we bring the idols of the culture into the house of God while worshiping God. God does not want to be competed with. He has an exclusivity clause.

He has a no compete contract. And watch this. Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 6 says that when you choose an idol, with that idol comes detestable practices. In other words, idols lure you into a lifestyle that is godless.

They may not say that out front, but you hang around an idol long enough, and that idol will woo you in. And then verse 9, then Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. Verse 2 says he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations. But verse 9 says that he did more evil than the nations.

Okay, wait a minute. He started off doing what they did, but by the time you hit verse 9, he's doing more than they ever did. And he was raised in a Christian family, and he's doing more than the pagans, sinners, heathens did, because he did not understand the demonic attachment to idolatry. Idolatry is like garbage.

It invites roaches. Idolatry invites demons. So you're no longer just dealing with the idol, you're dealing with the demonic attachment to the idol. Verse 10, the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. The Lord spoke, because remember, He's in church.

He's going to the temple. Here's what happens when God can't get our attention. The Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. And so what God did was He created a situation out of Manasseh's control.

He ain't see it coming. He created a situation, and that situation came on Manasseh and hooked him up, it says. They put him on hooks.

They put him in chains. When God has to get your attention, He creates chaos in your world. Verse 12, when he was in distress, in other words, it became clear to him, this is unfixable. There's no way out of this. I can't fix this. I can't solve this. I can't change this.

My world is gone out of control. He humbled himself. Now, you can humble yourself voluntarily, or you can humble yourself mandatorily. Dr. Evans will give us a look at what's in store for those who choose that volunteer option. That's coming up after these thoughts on 40 Years of Faithfulness. As we come into the celebration of our 40th year since the beginning of the Urban Alternative, words cannot express my gratitude to God for His faithfulness to the development of this ministry. Little did I know when we began with cassette tapes and we were bagging them up because people were requesting the sermons, that He would take humble beginnings and turn it into an international ministry. Now, on over 1,400 stations daily in 130 countries around the world, reaching hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with the truth of God, I am humbled by His faithfulness to me and to us and to the Urban Alternative. And I'm certainly grateful for all the friends He's given us who have been faithful, too.

I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us. The Urban Alternative is celebrating 40 years of God's faithfulness, and we look forward to seeing where He leads us in the future. Right now, I wanted to let you know that today's message is part of Tony's powerful series, U-turn, Reversing Spiritual Consequences. This series has proven to be a valuable resource for many to help turn around the negative results of bad choices. And Dr. Evans has written a book that further illuminates the subject.

It's called U-turns, Reversing the Consequences in Your Life, and it's the perfect complement to what we've been learning about today. The book and 12-message series focus on parts of your life where you may have taken wrong turns, areas like fear and anxiety, financial challenges, addiction issues, sins that pass down through generations, and more. Regardless of where you've been and where you're currently heading, these powerful lessons can get you moving in God's direction. Through Monday, we're offering them together as our gift to you when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on the air. Give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, or visit TonyEvans.org today to make your contribution and request. And if you want to dig even deeper or help lead others in these life-changing truths, check out Tony's U-turn Bible Study Kit and DVD lessons.

Again, you can get all the details when you call us at 1-800-800-3222, or visit TonyEvans.org. I'll repeat our contact information for you after part two of today's lesson and this. Far too many of us want to throw in the towel before we've thrown up the prayers. Dr. Tony Evans says Christians have a habit of underusing or overlooking our most valuable spiritual resource. Grace is available, but only at the throne, and you can only approach the throne through prayer. You can deepen your connection with the Lord through our in-depth course on Kingdom Prayer at the Tony Evans Training Center. You'll discover how God has wired the world to work by prayer and experience for yourself how it connects heaven with earth and time with eternity. You'll not only gain a new understanding and appreciation for prayer, you'll actually pray in transforming ways you've never experienced before. The course is intense, but you can work through it at your own pace and get all the help you need through our online forum. And, of course, there's custom content from Tony not available anywhere else. Connect with the Tony Evans Training Center at tonyevans.org. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone or other device.

Start today, tonyevans.org. To be humble means to go low spiritually. In football, the biggest guys have to get the lowest, because the biggest guys are on the line. That's where the beef is. The beef is on the line.

You don't see linemen standing up. The bigger you are, the lower you better bend. The higher you go, the lower you ought to be. For God humbles the proud, and he gives grace to the humble. He said he humbled himself, but he humbled himself because he was in distress. God will make you desperate so that you discover he's the only one. Numbers of times in Scripture, God would tell folks, oh, go call your God to get you out of this. Go call your God. I'm just gonna stand over here on the side and let you and your God work it out, work it out, work it out. Why don't you and your God take care of this? Well, it says, in his distress he entreated the Lord, watch this, his God.

Whoa, wait a minute. You wouldn't have thought Manasseh was saved. Everything about him looked like a pagan sinner. But the text says the Lord was his God. Some of us got saved at childhood, went left at college, and ain't turned right yet. It wasn't that we didn't get saved, it just we got so worldly for so long, and having been in stress deep enough, long enough, he humbled himself, oh watch this now, greatly.

Because the worse off you are, the lower you need to get. Before the Lord, the God of his fathers, when he prayed to him, he, God, watch this, was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication. Oh no, you didn't.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. When he got low, desperate, found out the palm readers couldn't help him, the spirituals couldn't help him, the astrologers couldn't help him, the educators couldn't help him, his contacts couldn't help him, his money couldn't help him, because he was king, his power couldn't help him. When it became clear that there was only one God in this equation, his God, he cried out to God greatly, God I'm desperate, I have no answer to this one.

And it says, when God heard him, he was moved. Let me tell you something about the emotions of deity. God has feelings. See, all these other gods you hear about, they have no feelings. They have no feelings. You could never say about any other God you know that that God is love.

You couldn't, you could never say that, because they don't have feelings. Not true of the God of the Bible. He's emotional. He could be angry, because it says he provoked the Lord.

Or he can have a soft heart. It says God was moved. He felt it. That's why, you see, number of times in the Bible, and God repented, changed his mind, because he felt something. See, you want to get God to feel something.

Feel your seriousness, feel your sincere, feel you're not playing a game, not trying to play it. Because see, God knows when we're playing him. God knows when we wave our hand in the air like we just don't care, giving the impression we all spiritual and we love the Lord. He can read all that. He says on a lot of Sunday mornings and a lot of church, y'all playing me.

You're playing me. But no, when that humility is there, and you drop down spiritually, he says he was moved. God is moved when he sees true repentance, when he sees that you're not playing him, you're not gaming the system, when he sees that this is for real, because he would rather show grace and mercy. But he cannot ignore sin. The Bible says in Psalm 103 verse 10, he has not dealt with us according to our iniquities. He says in Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2, the Lord's hand is not short that he cannot save, but our sins have kept him far from us.

He stays far not because he wants to be far, he stays far because he knows he's unwelcome to a life with many gods. And what happened? God's heart got moved, and then the unthinkable happened. Verse 13 says he brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. What?

What? He brought him all the way back and put him in the position he kicked him out of. That's called mercy and grace combined. You mean he didn't kick him to the curb? He didn't tell him, well I'm gonna forgive you, but I'm never gonna use you again? God's heart is so big he brought him back in the same position. He was so moved by his repentance.

That's good news. That's good news that when I get right and I go low, God can meet me in that dark place. And still, based on his sovereign decision, do something with it.

You know, one thing must be certain, and you should never compromise this. In the house of God, you only want to hear God's perspective. In the house of God, you're not supposed to hear what the politicians are saying, what the education folks are saying, what the scientists are saying, unless it is consistent with the Word of God. If it is inconsistent with the Word of God, it is wrong no matter how many degrees are behind their name, because God is smarter than all of them. God asked in Isaiah 40, look at those stars.

Who made those? Are you impressed with the professor? Tell him do that. Then you get impressed. And not only are there billions of stars, guess what?

I know them all by name. I can call out each one of the billions of stars, and you're gonna tell me—you know, your kids come home, you tell them something, and they tell you, well, my friends say, what? When they start feeding you, clothing you, housing you, then we can talk about your friends. Until they're doing all that, you keep your friends out there, because it's my house. Guess what God says about the world? It's my world. So don't be telling me what your other gods are talking about.

They don't impress me. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final bit of good news to wrap up today's lesson. First though, be sure to take advantage of the special resource package I mentioned earlier, Tony's brand-new U-turns book and 12-message teaching series on CD and digital download. They're yours as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry. This special offer runs out on Monday, so visit TonyEvans.org right away, or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222, and let one of our team members help you. And don't forget Dr. Evans has a companion U-turns Bible study kit, complete with custom video sessions on two DVD discs.

You can find out more at TonyEvans.org or from one of our helpful resource team members at 1-800-800-3222. Some Christians who believe everything the Bible says about God don't necessarily believe what the Bible says about Satan or the demons that serve him. On Monday, Dr. Evans will clear up the issue as he talks about how to reverse the consequences of demonic influence. Right now though, he's back with these final comments for today. Now the good news, the good news here, the good news here is that no matter how low you are, if you want to be reached, God can reach you.

That's the good news. But you must make yourself reachable through humble repentance. Perhaps you have devolved into the bottom of life. God knows where the bottom is. Manasseh was at the bottom, but he needed to be there to hear from heaven. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.