Today, my message is entitled “Reject Cultural Idols”. So, what is an idol? An idol is anything that is worshipped or served other than God. Therefore, an idol is something that has been created, whereas God is the Creator.
We tend to think of idols as some type of carved image worshipped in primitive societies. Yet, an idol can be anything that has been created by God or man. The sun, moon, stars or the earth can be idols that are worshipped. People, money, pleasure, power are things that can be idols.
Idols do not have to be intrinsically bad things, they can even be good things. Someone can make their job an idol or even their family. So what makes something an idol that is worshipped? An idol is anything in your life that is more important than God for you. Whatever is the most important thing in your life, that is what your worship.
Everyone worships something or someone. God commands us to worship Him alone. When we worship or give something a higher priority than Him, that becomes an idol for us.
Therefore, in the world today, there are two kinds of people. There are believers who worship Jesus and there are unbelievers who worship idols.
Romans 1:25 (NIV2011) They [unbelievers] exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Why would people choose to worship and serve idols rather than God? First of all, they believe the lie that worshipping idols is better than worshipping God. Or perhaps they believe that are indeed worshipping God when they are worshipping idols. You see, every religion, except biblical Christianity, worships idols that they believe are God. Secondly, the reason that people worship idols is that there is demonic power behind idols.
Psalm 106:35-38 (ESV) but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
These verses refer to the nation of Israel which turned from worshiping the Lord God alone and began to worship the idols of other religions. The worship of those idols led them to sacrifice their own children to these idols and the demons behind them. When innocent blood is shed in the worship of demons, the land is defiled.
The same thing is happening in America today. People worship the idols of money, career, pleasure and choose to serve those idols by sacrificing their unborn children through abortion. America has been polluted with the blood of the sacrificed unborn.
Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The world seeks to pressure us as believers to worship their idols of all kinds. We must resist that pressure, speak out against it and learn to follow God’s perfect will. Every sin that anyone ever commits is a result of worshipping an idol and believing it’s lie. Today, we’re going to learn more about rejecting cultural idols and worshipping God alone from the book of 1 Corinthians.