Pursuing Dust

Let's roll. Let's talk about 1 Corinthians. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and we've been moving through, marching through this. And if you have your Bibles, turn there. In the book, The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan recounts a story of his grandmother-in-law named Grandma Alice.

We all have a Grandma Alice, don't we? Or some type of grandma, or aunt, or whatever. And he called her, he called her this, or Grandma Alice, who had this huge boulder in her yard. It was this beautiful, pretty boulder. You couldn't move it, so she figured she'd just make it a centerpiece in her backyard.

So she goes out and decides, I'm going to polish this piece. You know how those grindy rocks work. You know, they're real grindy and choppy. Then you just take some sandpaper and you rub them and polish them down. So she goes out there and starts polishing, polishing the rock.

And all of a sudden, she sees this glitter start to come up. Just this glittery gold substance. And she did it a little bit more, and the dust kept coming. So she moistened her fingertip, held it in the air like you're supposed to do, to tell if it's gold. And sure enough, it was gold.

And he said her heart was racing. She sanded faster. She was leaning into it with everything. She caught that infamous gold fever that they had in the 1800s, where people squandered their homes and their families and set out for gold in the 1800s. She had that in her heart.

I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be rich. She stopped for a moment, though, to brush her eyebrow. And that's when she noticed something was wrong with her wedding ring. The top side was normal, but the underside, the part that was nestled against her finger, was as thin as a wire.

And that's when she realized that all the gold dust she had seen had come from the sandpapering of the rock that was rubbing against her ring and rubbing the gold off the ring. And in that moment, the greatest treasure she thought of, which was her family heirloom, reduced to dust in pursuit of a treasure that had never been there to begin with. Mark said he laughed at that when he first heard the story. But then later on, he was kind of sad. He said an aging woman, giddy as a schoolgirl, had a sense of windfall, dreaming of great riches, and the next moment crestfalling, stinging with shame over her coveting and naivety.

But it's also sad, he said, because much of my own life, I repeated again and again, Grandma Alice's mistake. I squandered treasures in pursuit of dust. In 1 Corinthians 10, to catch you up if you've missed the last few weeks, last week we talked about the issue of meat-blessed idols. Paul was dealing with this controversy of people, should we eat meat-blessed idols? There's one group that said, we should refrain from eating meat-blessed idols.

to idols because it invites spirits into our home. We're supporting idol worship, and many of those were Jews anyway that was supporting that position. And then others says, no, we're cleansed by the blood of Jesus. All that is the past. We no longer have to worry about it.

There's no power in idols so we can eat meat blessed idols. In chapter 8, Paul supported that notion that he was a protein meat eater. He was okay with us eating meat. That was blessed idols. Jesus' death indeed cleansed all the things that are covered.

All of it was covered by the blood. And so it's okay to eat meat if it's offered to idols. But then he goes on to say, if that hinders somebody, I will refuse to exercise my rights to eat this meat that I know is okay to eat if it causes my brother or my sister not to experience the gospel. So he was willing to give up all, if not most, if not all his rights for the gospel's sake. But after making that point, he wants to make sure that the people know it's not okay, though, to worship idols, and it's a big deal.

In fact, idolatry is a huge deal. It's the heart of sin. And he was careful to... Now, don't get me wrong. Idolatry is not good.

And it's one of the chief things that leads to all sin. From Adam and Eve to the children of Israel to Grandma Alice, it all leads to nowhere. It leads to emptiness. It leads to destruction. So in verse 1, if you're following along, it says, Now, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestries were all led by a cloud, all passed through the sea, all ate the same spiritual food.

He's talking about the Exodus account, of course, where they were delivered through the Red Sea and the mammon that was given to them by the Lord. He says, Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them since they were struck down in the wilderness. In fact, everybody was, except for Caleb and Joshua, who were allowed to go to the Promised Land. And in verse 6, he says this, and watch this. These things took place as an example for us, so that we will not desire evil things.

Underline that, evil things, because we're going to come back to that. Evil things as they did. Don't become idolaters as some of you were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party. Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did.

And in a single day, 23,000 people died. Let us not test Christ as some of them did, and they were destroyed by snakes. And don't let grumbling happen as some of them did, as they were killed by an angel of death. These things happened to them as examples. That's examples for us.

Examples for the church. And they are written for our instruction. So because our instruction. And And he goes on to verse 14, if you want to jump over there, so then my dear friends, what does he say, flee idolatry, flee from idolatry, just like he says flee from sexual immorality in an earlier chapter, he says this in the same way, flee from idolatry. Paul summarizes all of Israel's problems under one heading, idolatry, and flee from it.

Verse 18 says, Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? In other words, when you worship an idol, you open yourself up to the portal for an idol or a demon to come in, a spirit to come in and affect your life. Verse 19, What am I saying then? That food, sacrifice, idols is anything?

Or that an idol is anything? No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. So what he's saying here is these inanimate objects, yes you're right, there's nothing to them ending of themselves. They're not gods, but there's some sinister force behind those gods. There's an evil, there's a spirit that moves behind this type of worship.

And while eating food that had been previously offered to an idol is not a problem, any kind of worship of an idol opens yourself up to demonic activity. That's what he's saying here. So he takes it very, very serious. This idea of idolatry is a very, very serious thing. So I'm going to answer three questions today.

Three questions in the next piece of this message. These three questions are, what is idolatry? Number one. How does it corrupt our behavior? Number two.

And does idolatry bring us into contact with evil? So first of all, what is idolatry? What is idolatry? Well, go back to verse six and see the word desire there. Desire.

They desired evil things. The Greek word for desire is impithumia. Impithumia. Thumia means desire and ipi means super. So impithumia is a desire that becomes so large that it controls you.

It's a craving so deep. A soul desire. Something deep down in yourself that you're driven to obtain life because without it, you're not sure you would be able to live. Without it, you don't think you would be able to function. Without it, you don't know that you would even be able to do life.

It's everything to you. And biblically, an idol is anything, anything in that particular category, anything in that category that takes the place of God. That's why in verse 14 Paul summarizes all of Israel's sin as idolatry, not just a few of them, but all of them. Not just the creation of the golden statue, but their sexual immorality, their complaining, their disobedience. Bar� religdropping.

Loved to his soul. So if we went through it, then it can once be able to get rid of yourCuidah. So when it was JA realm. I'm focused. All of it was idolatry.

All of it opened the door for things to happen in their midst. Deep spiritual things. Demonic things. And idolatry is when something becomes so central and so essential to your life that you couldn't imagine being happy without it. I just can't be happy without this thing.

I just don't know if my life would go on if I can't have this, or this person, or this thing, or this job, or whatever it is. Something so important that if you lost it, you'd feel like you could hardly live. If you're there, you might be experiencing idolatry. Write this down. Idolatry is not so much about what you bow your knee to, it's what you lean your soul on.

Or here, here's another way of thinking about it. One of the Hebrew words for worship is kabod. Kabod. Many of you probably heard that term. But it literally means weight.

To worship something is to give weight to your heart. In your heart. You give your weight. Your heart leans. It waits on that thing.

It's weighted on that thing. The English word worship captures this very well because worship is combined with two words. Worth and ship. You worship whatever you assign the most worth to. We ultimately worship that.

An idol is not usually a bad thing initially. It's a good thing that you've turned into a God thing and that becomes a bad thing. Want to write that down? An idol is a good thing you've turned into a God thing that becomes a bad thing. You put weight on that thing and you've made it replace God.

You took the weight off of God and you've put it on that thing and you have a heavy weight there. In Adam and Eve it was the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had given them everything in the garden. Everything they could possibly want. Everything they could possibly need.

All they had to do was worship the one God to follow him, to serve him. Yet they saw that tree. They had to have it. I want it. I'm going to get it.

I'm craving it. I'm impethumia. I want this tree. And they were willing to compromise their relationship with God for it. The children of Israel, they desired, they had this impethumia desire for safety.

And they didn't like to be exposed in the wilderness with nothing but the promise of God to protect them. And nothing to eat but the manna that God provided each morning. So they turned their backs on God and they pursued other things. That's impethumia, an idol worship. So the question is, what is yours?

What is your impethumia? What is it? What carries the most weight in your heart? What do you assign the most? What is it that constitutes happiness to you?

What is it that's needed that makes you happy? Or full. And don't think you can avoid the question if you say, oh, I'm not religious. Some of you out there listening right now, you're like, I'm not religious, so it doesn't apply to me. No, you can't get away from worship.

You can no more dodge worship than you can through being hungry. When you're hungry, everybody worships something, as Bob Dylan says. You're gonna, you're gonna serve somebody. You're gonna serve something, you're gonna serve something, it doesn't matter if you're religious or not. You may not serve the one true God, but you serve in something, whether it's yourself or some other source.

Even secular anthropologists realize this. Look at what one commentator says. There has to be something that captures our imagination or allegiance, which is the resting place of our deepest hope, and to which we look to calm our deepest fears. Whatever that thing is, we worship it, we pursue it. It's that one thing we cannot live without defining and validating everything we do.

And that comes from a secular source. So what is that to you? What are you running to? Maybe it's marriage. I just can't be happy.

That perfect person. And once I find that perfect person, all the other pieces of life will just fall in place. If I just find that one missing piece of my life, and that's society's biggest idol. Let's just be honest. That's what society says.

We see it in Hallmark movies, you know, where the girl leaves her big New York job, moves to small town, meets her old boyfriend, falls in love, gets married, settles for a little small business on a corner in a ranch or something like that, and they live happily ever after. One comedian says this, over Christmas, I watched a Hallmark movie backwards. A woman in an ugly sweater dumped her loser small town boyfriend to pursue a law degree in New York City where she lived happily ever after in pencil skirts and amazing shoes. Isn't it true? Romance is an idol for many people.

For others, it might be the dependence on others. The dependence on others. I know some singles are independents from others. Let's just say that. Maybe it's independence from others.

I just don't want to be locked down. Maybe you're a person I can't get into a relationship because I like my life. I like to do whatever I want, when I want, how I want. I like being selfish. I like doing what I want to do.

And if I get locked down in a relationship, I just, I can't go there. Maybe, maybe singleness is your idol. Or some of it is money. If I have enough money in the bank, things will be fine. It will be incredible.

Life will be perfect. I will never have to worry about anything in the book, Psychology of Money. Morgan Housel says that he was working off the premise that happiness is having enough money in the bank that you do not want, do what you want to do, and when you want, whenever you want. And obviously, money is a good thing. When you have money, it does help to be more generous, to be more flexible, to do things that most people can't do.

But is that the most weighty thing on your heart? Is that the one thing you need to be happy? The one thing that you require to feel secure? And the one thing that you feel you have to be financially secure in order to just make it in life? Maybe you're driven by a sense of accomplishment, like feeling like if you could ever get the respect that comes from being the best in what you do, in the office that you work in, or the business that you, or your competition in sports, or whatever it is.

If I can only be the best, then I will be fulfilled. That's my drive. That's everything. I want to be top. I want to be top.

Several years ago, an interview of Madonna and Vote magazine said this. This is Madonna speaking. And she said, my drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre, as always pushing me. I'll do something, accomplish something that makes me feel special, and that lasts for a while. But then the feeling goes away, and I feel uninterested unless I do something else.

Even though I have become somebody, I still feel like I have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended, and I guess it never will. And if you know Madonna, she's tried a lot of things. She's an interesting person. Deep down, the reasons are there.

Some of us are driven by the opinions of others, we say. You know, some of you are still trying to earn the approval of your father. Some of you are trying to earn the approval of somebody else or a group of people. And you are trying to win the approval of people that you don't even like, and they don't even like you. So why are you doing it anyway?

Whether you're even than God's approval. You care about their approval more than God's approval. Or it's having a strong family and good friends. Now, I agree that having a strong family and putting into your family is a lot better than making an idol to money. Money's not going to get you there.

It definitely is better than money. But those things can become idols too. Your family can become idols. Your friends become idols. Have you ever seen those parents who wrap up their entire identity into their kids and what they're doing?

And their self-worth is tied to how well their kids perform. How well their kids do in life. And they give them a lot of pressure. They put them under pressure, whether it's in sports or whether it's in education or whatever it is. And they feel personally betrayed when their kids do.

Please Robert Brownstone live in English. Don't perform to the level that they want them to, and they give their kids a hard time and say destructive things, and it really causes a lot of issues in the family. That's what happens when we make our families idols. But my identity as a Christian is not to be a successful pastor, or a model husband, or a good dad, or a sports star, whatever that looks like in your camp. It's supposed to be a servant of God.

That's what putting God first is. Tim Keller says an idol is whatever you envision, enabling you to live a life of power and joy without God. So what is that to you? What's the central thing in your life that you're depending on from your joy and depending on from your hope? That you attach your worth to.

Number two, how does idolatry corrupt our behavior? How does it corrupt our behavior is the second question. Paul ties idolatry to all kinds of corrupt behaviors. In verse 6 he says, Because of your idolatry the children of Israel gave themselves to sexual immorality. They started complaining and grumbling against God, and what happened?

They dipped into devastating consequences. So let's consider, how is idolatry corrupting your behavior? How does it corrupt your behavior if you have an idol in your life? Whatever you feel like you have to have that completes your life, you'll be willing to do whatever you can to get that thing. And if it's your behavior, you'll do it.

You'll act it. You'll follow through with it. Martin Luther said this, that God bookended the Ten Commandments with the first commandment is to put no other gods before the mighty God, obviously. But the last one is to not covet. He said if we could follow those two, then the rest would be a piece of cake.

Why? Because it's idolatry. Idolatry is the center of it all. To everything. Every sin.

So think about it. Think about it for a minute. You know? If you think about it. If you idealize sex and romance, that'll break up your marriage one day because you'll commit adultery.

Because you won't be happy all the time in your marriage, and then you'll end up doing something because you're trying to pursue that thing. That's an idol in your life, the thing that you think that you need to have. Or you idealize money that you'll steal. You're not a dishonest person, but you'll cut corners. You'll be shady.

You'll fudge things. Anything you can to get that little bit of extra money into your bank. It's not just that... It's not that you're a dishonest person or anything. It's just...

It's because you idolize money and you break God's commandment to be generous and tithe. It's not that you're stingy. You're not a stingy person necessarily, it's just that you can't give away money because you depend on its happiness and you depend on its security so much. Security and happiness, the things that money will never give you. It's because you idolize the opinion of others that you lie about yourself, and one day it's going to come around and you're going to see that, and you bend in the truth all the time, and it's devastating to have to live a lie when you're just not content and happy in being who God made you.

David Foster Wallace said this, and he was a post-modern novelist by the way, so this is not coming from an evangelical Christian. He said this, in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is so much, or no such thing rather, as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. If you worship money and material possessions, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough.

Watch this. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally bury you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

See, idolatry turns you into a friend, striving, sending away the best parts, searching for something. You end up in the end with a, there's something that's all because of idolatry. But you peel back the layers of those things, the things that we, the behaviors that we have, the sin that we have in our lives, and you will always find that the root of that is idolatry. That idolatry is deep down in some area in your life is causing you to behave, causing you to think the way you are, causing you to treat others the way that you treat them. It ultimately comes down to something deep in your heart that you're putting before God.

It's like a fire. When you have a fire in your home and smoke comes up, you don't blow the smoke out the window and say, it's all right. That's what we often do. Oh, we've got this sin in our lives. I'll just get rid of that sin without really dealing with the fire.

But when you pull out and you find that fire, that's what we've got to put out. That's where we need to go to the root of our issues. Paul Tripp says it like this, if you're worshiping your way into sin, you'll have to worship your way out. Because we've worshiped our way into it. We shouldn't be brushing away the smoke in our lives.

We should be attacking. Pull back those layers and look deep. And number three, does idolatry bring us into contact with demons? Third question. That's an interesting question, isn't it?

Does it really? Does it really bring us into contact with demons? Verse 18 says, Do not those who eat the sacrifice participate in the altar? What they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. Meaning that when you make a sacrifice to an idol, you're communing with it.

And some of you are like, well, you know, that's a little extreme, Pastor. I mean, you're saying I'm craving for marriage too much or driven for success too much or being too interested in how my kids perform and all those things. I admit there probably aren't good things, but they're not like God worship are. They can't be God worship. But Paul says, no, it's God worship.

It's idol worship. It definitely is. And he has power over everything. Satan has power over everything in this world. He's been given control of this world.

It says even in scripture that he's the God of the air. Meaning everything. Get that symbolism there. Put that out there. That everything around us, everything we breathe in, anything can be a God.

Idolizing your family, your marriage, your money, the opinions of others, yourself. It all can bring in this demonic control into your life. You're opening up portals of control that Satan takes in. And that's what Paul's saying. But wasn't Paul talking about specifically pagan temple rituals?

Yes. But get this. They were sacrificing the pagan temples. But you sacrifice things every day to realize your integrity you offer. When you stay up late and overwork at the expense of your family, you're offering it to idols.

When you tell a lie, you brag or you boast because you want people to think you're better than you are. You cut corners to get the devil to work. In fact, a good example is Jesus in Matthew 6 when he's talking about money. He uses the word mammon, mammon. And purposefully, the gospel writers didn't change mammon, that original, because they wanted the people to know that a physical object, that there is a spirit.

There is a being, mammon, a demon, a devil, a spirit in this world, a name. Giving the person a being, the thing, a being behind what money is. And he says you cannot worship mammon and you worship God. God. It's intentional.

God signing with us. God signing with us. Jesus saw it that way. Jesus saw it that way. And the central principle, what many Jewish scholars would say is the central principle of the whole Bible, is a rejection of idolatry.

I disagree. I think it's the coming of Jesus. I think it's Jesus making all things right and whole. Redemption, that's the main reason in the Bible. But its primary battle is for the soul.

It is about worship. Really, what is ultimately, is it about Jesus? What are you going to worship? Are you going to give yourself to the worship of the living God or dead idols? This is what really comes out in all over Scripture.

And Paul says in Romans 1 that this is the battleground for the human soul. This is everything. Worship God or are you going to worship an idol? You're going to worship something. So let me close with this.

How do we escape idolatry? Paul says in verse 13, no temptation has come upon you except what is common to you. And I underline this, but God is faithful. God is faithful. He will not allow you to escape idolatry.

He will allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with that, with the temptation, He will also walk out. So that you, the key word there is God. The way you overcome. To know that He is good.

He is present. His unconditional and unrelentless love is available to you. He's ready to help you. He's ready to pull you through. He's ready to give you.

Because we make Him God. If you worship your way into sin. If you worship your way into sin. I love how the Hebrew writers explain it as we close. Hebrews 13.

5 says, keep your life free from covetousness. Remember what to covet something is, right? It's idolatry. It's something that we want so more than anything else in life. Epithumia.

It controls our behaviors. It controls everything. But He says this, be content with what you have. For He has said, I will never leave you. And I will never forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do with presence and the power of God in your life? When God is working, when you have freedom from fear, those cravings that lead to idolatry, you find confidence in the presence and love of God. Because God is your all in all.

And nothing is He. All things that you want and all things that lead you to idolatry in this life begin to fade into the background. And you see God for all He is. And you realize. You realize.

You realize. Truly, it is the one thing, one thing, that you need, so we can have some music just for, as we close this out, I'm reminded of what David said, in fact many scholars say he wrote this psalm, I don't have needs, but he says, the Lord is my shepherd, I don't have any, in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of darkness, he says, you know, I shall not want, I shall not have any needs, and he goes on to say, and he makes me lie down, and pastors, he fills me up, he makes me full, he leads me beside still waters, and even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, for thou, when I feel the assurance of his presence, I can be, when I know that he is there, and he, thou art with me, his goodness and mercy will follow me, I'll be read of it, you can't leave his presence, you can't leave his goodness, if you follow the Lord, if you make him sole, Lord, and chief of your life, he can't get rid of the goodness, you can't run from it, do you believe this, some of you say, well, I want to believe it, but I just don't feel it, I just don't, it doesn't seem like goodness and mercy to me, because of the things I'm going to, my question is, if the Lord is shepherd, why am I on the run from my enemies, why do I need to be on the run from my enemies, in the midst of my enemies, in the midst of the things that are going on, in his presence, he has made a supper table, before my enemies, as Tom 23 says, he prepares a table, he relaxes me, he calms me, he gives me food, he gives me water, he gives me strength, he gives me everything I need, and you'll find that your cravings and your fears in this world go away, and if you're dealing with anxiety, and you're dealing with depression, and you're dealing with all those dark places in your life, that our God's presence takes care of all of that, because he's on the other side of the table, trying to give you some good things, and surely his goodness and mercy will follow you, it is there available for you, run away from the darkness, and run to his loving arms, make your home with him, when I look at the cross, I see Jesus in his goodness, when I see God, the Father in heaven, looking down and turning his... I see the goodness of God, seeing that there's troubled people that need to know Him, and His Son is the only answer. That's called pure goodness and sacrifice. That's where freedom is found.

Dallas Willard says this, the freedom from the frantic desire to have is grounded in God's promise. He will never, ever, you gotta just pull back those layers, look deep down inside yourself. I'm not God, I'm just a pastor. As I said, I bring out the dish, God gives me what to make, and I pull it out, put it on a plate, and hand it to you. But I can't tell you those dark places in your life.

Where does that sin trace that to? While God is in your life, get rid of the gods, flee from it. Get rid of the gods in your life, put God first, surrender to serve Him. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to serve Him?

So the question is, what competes for first place in your life? That's ultimately the question today I want to get to. What competes for first place? What competes with God for first place? Maybe you're out there online right now, and you hear this message, and you're like, yeah, I got a lot of first places in my life for God.

And it's got me over. Maybe you're that person that's made money. You're God. And now you know what it's done to your children. You know what it's done to your family.

Maybe you're the one that makes bodily pleasures your God, and you're in addiction so deep you don't know how to get out of it. And there's a Spirit. There's a Spirit working. It's time to let them know. It's time to invite the presence of God into your life.

And whether you're saved, whether you're not saved, whether you need to re-educate your life, I'm going to ask everybody to lean in right now. If you're looking through this camera right now at me, let me just look at me. Did you know that God died for you? God gave His Son for you? That He shed His blood for you?

Why? So that you can be free from idolatry. That you can experience His presence in a way that people never experienced it before Jesus came. That you have available to you the presence and power of God that as a shepherd you can say to anybody and everybody, I shall not want. No matter what you're going through, would you give your life to Jesus?

Would you re-dedicate your life to Jesus? Would you resubmit your life to Jesus today? Would you all pray with me, Father? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, for the blood. Thank you, Jesus, for your life. Thank you, Jesus, that you are famous. That you are God. You are my idol, Lord.

I repent of anything that's in my heart and in my life that's kept me from all that you have, Lord. I went to my life and made me and created me, Lord. Deliver me, Lord. I'm in bondage. Deliver me, Lord.

Deliver me from it. Help me, Lord. Walk with me. I believe that you will never leave her for sickness and forgive you.