How to defend against idolatry

This past winter, I had the privilege to visit my family in India. Because my parents are still Hindus, a significant part of our agenda was made up of going to prominent temples. These are the sort of temples that Hindus from across India and across the planet come to visit and they house within them idols of great significance.

As a Christian, I wanted to observe first hand what Israel was warned of time and time again by God for breaking the first commandment. On my fact finding mission, I observed that people really do fall down at the hands and feet of stone and wood. Billions of people in 2025, seek hope and salvation in mere rocks. Paganism is alive and human nature has not changed. Just as the Hebrews had cast for themselves a golden calf to worship, so do Hindus today build temples to worship their idols.

I was not shocked. I was just in awe. The zeal these people had amazed me. They pledged their life to statues, giving them offerings of flowers, food, money, and asking their priests to conduct rituals to secure their blessings. And I really do mean what I say when I use the word secure. Christians ask God, and they hope, with a full understanding that God may choose not to bless them in the way that they ask, for God knows better what I need. But pagans sacrifice and they know, for their relationship with their gods is as transactional as a rental agreement. You no longer have to trust in anything when you can transact.

I wanted to share this with you for two reasons:

1. You and I are in a bubble. America has for the most part been free of outright pagan worship. I want you to know this still happens and that it is more important than ever to go preach the Gospel to every nation.
2. You and I are doing exactly what these folks are, but worse.

It’s worse because our altars are hidden and you can’t turn away from what you can’t see.

My goal with today’s lesson is to help you better understand idolatry and how to defend against it in your own life.

Before we can turn away from Idolatry, we need a proper understanding of it.

In the Old Testament, Idolatry referred to man-made representations of deities that were worshipped. Like the statues found in Hindu temples.

To go one step further, Idolatry is the worship of anything created, therefore, this practice extends to emotions like love, ambition, and anger as those were also created.

In Colossians 3:4, Paul calls all that is earthly in us idolatry.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

But what exactly does it mean to worship?

The most important part of understanding Worship is that it is a verb, therefore it is not a state of being. You choose to worship and thus act upon that choice. Worship is different from our everyday actions. We cannot declare that things outside of worship are worship, though we may consider those actions to be in accordance with God's will.

Worship is also not just expressing reverence or admiration for an object. Even in the Bible, reverence is given to more than just God.

In Leviticus 19:3, God commands:

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father

In Leviticus 19:30, God commands:

You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary

And in the Psalms, God approves of David revering His Commands:

I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.

Worship goes beyond admiration, respect, and reverence.

The definition I would express to you is that Worship is expressing reverence and adoration for the object of worship in an exclusive way by action.

The key term here is exclusive.

God does not forbid us to admire outside of Him. He does not forbid us to revere outside of Him, if anything he expects it. But, God does demand us to treat Him in a way unlike anything else. And Worship is one of those ways.

There are a lot of scriptures to echo these worship methods, I encourage you to dig in. To Worship means:

1. To Sacrifice for
2. To Serve
3. To fall down in front of
4. To bow one’s head towards (to acknowledge the Object of Worships higher place than the worshipper)

Idolatry then is wrong because through it, you are giving to creation what is meant only for the Creator.

As such, you are not respecting and honoring the position of God.

Without properly positioning God, we are not able to properly position ourselves in relationship to Him.

Imagine you fork over 100,000 to buy a brand new corvette. Before you leave the dealership, the technician tells you that you have to put 93 fuel in it or else you could damage the engine. You hear him, but let’s be real, the only thing that’s going through your mind is getting in the car and speeding home! When you finally do, you run out of fuel and pull towards a gas station and instead of using the aforementioned 93 fuel, you use 87 to save some money. How bad could it be you think? Little did you know that the engine would wear down so fast that within just a few days you’re forking over even more money to fix it.

Likewise, our souls are like those engines, if we cheapen out and choose to fill ourselves up with idols instead of God, it will only be a matter of time before our souls give out. (fix this up)

God is not commanding His worship out of petty jealously or pride. Rather, He commands it because it is the best thing for us, and He knows, as our technicians, what will lead to the best outcomes for us.

Any misalignment in positioning ourselves with God will result in our own demise. The longer that we live in misalignment and the more out of place this misalignment becomes, the farther away we will be from God and the closer to sin.

The worship of idols is then us placing something above God. Idolatry is therefore not limited to physical idols but can include all forms on unbelief stemming from all sorts of reasons.

Even without idols, we can be idolaters.

When you skimp out on reading your Bible to hangout with friends, you’re being an idolater.

When you forgot to pray day in and day out to doom-scroll, you’re being an idolater.

When you’re putting in 80 hours at work and can’t make it to Church, you’re being an idolater.

When you can’t think of anything but school, you’re being an idolater.

When you can’t be at peace with yourself because you haven’t achieved that one dream you’ve held onto for so long, you’re being an idolater.

Anything can be an idol.

I want to give you some practical steps to get rid of the idols in your life.

First and foremost, pray. It often feels like a Cliche but prayer works. I prayed to God for over a year and a half to take away my biggest idol: ambition. He’s finally changed my heart in that way. Prayer works.

Second, what are the things you’d have a hard time giving up. Write it down. Add everything. I know for me food is HARD to give up. I love cigars, that would be on my list. Write everything and pray that God would will for you to be able to give up those tendencies in the times He asks you.

Third, write down all the things that get in the way of you spending more time with God. This list should include the things you spend most of your time on, whether it’s school or work.

Pick one thing, circle it, to commit to reducing your time on. Then write down one thing you could do to open up more time. It’s hard to go after everything, and I don’t believe that God wants you to give up all your responsibilities. He honors our labors, but it doesn’t mean that what we labor for should get more of our heart than Him.

If your up to it, pick one thing and star one thing to quit cold turkey. If you can’t give it up forever, fast for it for a month.

As your life continues, your time will inevitably find itself itching for different things. Even with a full-time job you’ll find yourself with a lot more time on your hands than you thought. But, if you’re not careful, you’ll find ways to fill up that free time with something other than God.

So, track your time. Review each week or month and identify what you’re doing. And go through the same activity of spotting idols and committing to ridding yourself of them.

And I’ll say again: pray for help. Our God delights in blessing us. Ask Him, and lean on Him, to do the things that you or I cannot do by our own Will. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you towards Himself.

Lastly, my friends, spend an uncomfortable amount of time following God. Pray longer, read longer, go to all the Church events, give more money than you can spare, commit time to help the poor, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.