ii. Identifying our idols part 1

iii. Identifying our idols part 2 i. The challenge to understand the idols of our hearts

24th June 2008
In the last blog entry, I introduced an excerpt from Mark Driscoll's recent talk on worship. In it, he defined worship from Romans 11 & 12 as the central value, or glory, in our lives for which we willingly make sacrifices. Such a definition of worship helps us to see that we don't have to be religious to worship. Each of us is a worshipper - the only question is who or what do we worship?

In chapter 4 of his gospel, John records a conversation on worship between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. In it, Jesus defines true worship primarily based on the object of worship - 'True worshippers worship the Father' - before he talks about the means of true worship - 'in spirit and truth'. Our call as Christian worshippers is to make God the central, defining object of worship in our lives.

At the same time, John is obviously very aware of how much we as Christians will continue to struggle with this. The very last instruction he gave in his first letter was this: 'Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.' As John Calvin said, our hearts are idol facotries and we must be wise and ruthless in identifying and dealing with those things that would rob God of the due honour he deserves in our lives.

In this short extract from his sermon, Driscoll, with his usual vivid and humourous style, nails us with some probing questions which can help us to identify the idols that are defining us. This will not be easy to listen to; it'll expose just how deeply rooted our problem is. But thank God for the inexhaustable riches of the provision of his grace for us to help us grow more like Christ.

As I mentioned in the previous post, there are notes available from Driscoll's blog. My next post will be the second part of this video extract. Call back soon or sign up for e-news to be notified of when it's available.

Alistair Hamill