Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Prone to Idolatry? | New Testament | Acts 14

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Idolatry might not always look like worshipping statues and gods, so how does it show up in your life? Have God's good gifts turned into idols in your life? In today's episode, Jensen shares Paul's warning against idolatry in Acts 14. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 14

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. For a few summers in college, I was able to live and work at a church in Japan. And during my time there, I had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling and exploring the areas around us. One specific day has stuck with me and continues to affect me even after eight years. We were visiting the city of Tokyo and traveling around to the different temples in the area. And these temples are beautiful and old and incredible works of art, but they're also places of worship. One in particular was a long hall filled with life-sized statues of gods.

There were hundreds of them, standing on risers for rows that went on and on. It was overwhelming. And I didn't want to stay long. In that hallway, I was struck with what I was seeing. All of these statues, images of gods being worshipped, images of idols, images that I knew, Satan, was using to keep human beings from recognizing and praising the one true God. That moment has helped me visualize and feel the reality behind idolatry and scripture. See, oftentimes from my Western 21st century vantage point, idolatry and sacrifices to foreign gods seems kind of outdated, so foreign, so different from what I experience on a daily basis, that I'm blinded to the warnings about idolatry found in scripture. I don't bow down to idols, light incense in their

honor or pray to statues in my home. And because of that, I don't always see myself in the hot seat when scripture calls out idolatry. Acts 14 contains one of those passages where I tend to take myself out of the hot seat and instead read from a callous and prideful vantage point. Let's read it now and I'll explain more of what I mean after. Verse 8. In Leistra, There sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out,

Stand up on your feet. At that the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lyconian language. The gods have come down to us in a human form. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside of the city, brought bowls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human like you.

We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and he fills your hearts with joy. Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. You see, when I read these verses, it's easy to almost scoff at those in the crowd who believe Paul and Barnabas to be Zeus and Hermes. So silly of them, to mistake men of being gods. To see the power of God at work and mistake it to be the work of an idol, to miss the incredible

miracles and powers and gifts of God, and instead try to worship and sacrifice a mere human. But it is this prideful and callous response that keeps me from checking my own heart, examining my own life and hearing the words of Paul as a warning for my own life as well. You see, Paul, rather than scoffing at these men and women, sees the powers of evil that are deceiving them, sees the ways that they are blind to truth and graciously begins to teach them of the truth of who the one true God is. See these Gentiles, seeing the healing of this man, seeing the miraculous gift of healing he receives, turn to worship the men who performed this act, rather than the God who empowered them to do it. And Paul attempts to redirect them.

He tells them that they are only messengers of the one who has created everything, that the things they worship are worthless compared to the life and power of the living God. He shares with them that God has made a way for them to be free from their idolatry, to see God as provider, to worship him as the one true God. And yet they still attempt to worship and sacrifice to these men. Now, all of these truths about God can sometimes seem elementary to someone who is been a Christian for a long time, which can again make me wonder why these people don't get it, why they won't understand and turn from their idolatry. But as I was standing back in Japan,

standing in a literal hall of idols, as I felt the power of the work of the deceiver, as I was struck with the emptiness of his promises and the evil of his trickery and pulling image bears away from worshiping their creator, I was also reminded that that same intensity and trickery that the powers of evil used to get men and women to worship in a hall of physical idols was not standing idly by in my own world or life either. See, I may not leave my home to go and worship in a hall of hundreds of physical statues, but my life is full of its own hall of idols that have been used to deceive and misdirect my own worship away from God. I think of the way that the crowd saw the good gift of healing from God and misdirected their sacrifices in worship. How often in my own life do I end up

worshipping the very gifts that God has given me, turning the good things he's provided for me into stumbling box of idolatry? John Piper says this on the topic. The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked the doles our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife. The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies, but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.

for when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable. While I pridefully scoff at the idolatry of those in Scripture, my own heart is held captive by the worship of things that should be good gifts. Yet instead of thanking God for my family, my home, my health, instead of laying those gifts at his feet, I take control of them, putting my hope in their security and comfort. I cling tightly to the gifts he has given me, and instead of being pointed back to the one who created everything, the one who sustains everything, the one who provides everything, who is in control of everything, every day I worship the gifts, make sacrifices for the gifts, and lose sight of the one who provides them. This sneaky idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable. It is dangerous, and I need to heed the words of Paul in Acts 14, just as much as the crowds tempted to worship man instead of God.

And so today, instead of shaking our heads of the idolatry of those in the Bible, let's all take time to examine our hearts, to see if there is any places in our hearts where we are tempted to worship and make sacrifices to the good gifts God has given, rather than allowing those gifts to guide our hearts back to the provider and sustainer of all things. Maybe you put too much of your identity in your kids or your work or relationship with a significant other. Maybe you idolize or take pride in your intellect, your athletic ability, your humor. It's easy to take things that God is placed in your life, different gifts he has blessed you with, and make them the ultimate thing, the thing you make sacrifices for, and ultimately worship.

But that tendency is a trick of the devil. And it holds power over our hearts and pulls us away. from worshipping the one true creator. Whatever your examination unveils, take time to pray, to ask God to free your heart from its idolatry, to open your eyes to the truth of who provides and sustains all things in your life.

See, when our hearts want to wander into idolatry, remind yourself of the truth. You follow a God who created all things, who existed before time, and who has the power to raise all things to life again, He has overcome the darkness and evil of this world, and our only hope is in him and his power. He gives good gifts to his people, and he calls us to worship and obey him. He alone is Creator.

He alone is provider, and he alone is to be worshipped. Examine your heart. Repent of the hidden idolatry you may be living into, and fill the places of your heart that are tempted with the truth of who your God is. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus.

Thanks for listening.