Henderson Hills Baptist Church

Together, we are laboring to recognize, diagnose, and tear down idols in our lives this week. If you did not read Romans 1:18-25 yesterday, please pause and do so now. We will continue on with the same train of thought. We can diagnose idolatry by its symptoms. What are you truly living for? Consider your thought life today. Does it match up with what we are told our thought life should be in Scripture? What do you daydream about? What do you long to do or to have? Where do you spend your time and money? Where do you share your abilities and gifts? What drives you? Why do you get up in the morning? Who do you seek to please? What do you think about the most? Where have you invested your life? What has been your primary motivation? This is what you have worshipped. These things have become your idols.

Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God. It is instead a setting of our hearts on something other than God. It is sin. We cannot cure ourselves of idols just by turning our backs on them. We cannot use just willpower and it will all be better. Turning from idols involves so much more. We must learn to recognize, diagnose, and tear down all our idols. We need to ask God today to create in us a new heart, a pure heart, and a heart that is longing for Him and Him alone. How about you? Are you ready for a heart transplant? It is painful, but oh so needed.

Ezekiel 36:24-32(ESV)
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.  And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.  I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.  Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.  It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.

What an incredible passage before us today. God was calling the people of God back to Himself through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s message throughout this long book is relentless. His words appear harsh. Yet, the truth remains, God’s people were worshipping idols. He warned of God’s judgment yet also included His restoration. Ezekiel was writing to the Israelites after they had been deported to Babylon. They had been warned to return to God and worship Him alone, however, they did not heed that warning. God had allowed their enemy to overtake them. They exchanged the glory of the Creator for the desire of their own hearts. Israel was in a time of crisis. Ezekiel himself had probably been deported to Babylon. God gave him this message to declare to the people where they had gone wrong. Ezekiel was deeply trouble by the sin of his peers against the holiness of God. God is promising in this passage to cleanse the nation of Israel from her sins. Then, if that is not enough, He would give her a new heart. You see it is not enough to recognize our idols and do nothing about them. We too must in fact, tear down those idols and replace the desire for other things with a one true desire for God. We should not tear down the idol just for the sake of tearing down the idol. We want instead to be righteous and holy, set apart to God not just from sin. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit living in us today as believers. He promises to guide, comfort, teach, convict, and speak to us. Are you listening?

Reflect today on God’s goodness, His character, His love, His ways. Recall what He has done for you in the past. Confess the sin of idolatry to Him today and ask Him to replace that driving force with His desires, His goals, His ways. He will extend to you that same graciousness He extended to the nation of Israel. You are His chosen one. You will be His people and He will be your God. We will then magnify and glorify the Lord with our very lives.

Humbly,

Dennis