The mistake that so many of God’s people make, is that they think that their relationships with other people can fill the deep void within, a void that’s been designed so that it can only be filled by God Himself. And so they spend their lives getting second best, when all along, God’s very best is staring them right in the face. 

GIRLS

Over the last week we’ve been chatting about laying hold of God’s very best for our lives because there are so many imposters out there that claim to be able to give us what we’re looking for, that they lead us astray. An imposter is never as good as the real thing.

I remember once I was travelling in South Africa and I wanted to bring home a special gift for my daughter. I was shopping in a mall in Pretoria and I wandered into a handbag store. I spotted a Louis Vuitton handbag and I thought she would really, really like that. Yeah it was pricey but I thought no she would really like it so I bought it for her.

I was right, she loved it but about eighteen months later the catch that keeps the bag closed came apart. Well not a problem, I thought, this is a Louis Vuitton handbag. So I looked it up on the internet and found the authorised Louis Vuitton repairer here at home and took the handbag into them.

The lady behind the counter took one look at it and she informed me that it was a fake, a knock off and as much as she’d like to help me she was unable to do so. Well I was pretty angry I have to tell you, not with her but with the person who sold the bag to me because I quizzed them over and over again to make sure it was the real thing. And that’s the thing with fakes, they look real, they pretend to be real but they simply can’t deliver what you’re looking for.

I remember when I was studying at Bible College, a good many years ago, one of our lecturers, Dr Barry Chant, gave a class on the things that lead ministers astray, that get them caught up in sin that ends up tearing their ministry apart. And he said something along these lines.

It comes down basically to three things; girls or in the case of women guys, gold and glory. Those are the top three things that lead men and women of God who are called to ministry, astray. That’s always stuck with me – girls, gold and glory. Pretty simple really and when you think about it, it applies not just to people in ministry, it applies to all of Gods people because those three things, girls or guys, gold and glory are pretty much the three main categories of idolatry today.

In this day and age most of us don’t think much about idols. In western countries we don’t see many physical idols and in eastern countries where there are so many religions that use idols routinely, you get to the point of being oblivious to them. I know when I first started travelling to India regularly the number of idols I saw hit me in the face but now I almost don’t notice them.

An idol is an imposter, it’s anything that we set up as an alternative to the one true God, the One who sent Jesus, His Son, to die for you and me. And we take these imposters and we worship them as though they’re real, they’re not of course but we treat them as though they are and we worship them and we sacrifice our lives to them.

So let’s start off by talking about this whole ‘girls and guy’s’ thing. It’s one of the most natural things on the planet, girl meets boy, they fall in love and they want to spend the rest of their lives together. And if you’ve been through that you’ll know how compelling and intoxicating romance is. It plays to our emotional desires and to our physical desires and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Until we start imagining that this is it, this is what I’ve always been looking for and we start expecting our mate to make us happy.

We start expecting this one relationship to give us all the contentment and joy and fulfilment that we’ve been looking for for all our lives. And then all of a sudden we’re heaping expectations on this girl or guy that they simply can never meet up to. The truth of it is my wife, as wonderful as she is, simply cannot fill the void in me that only God can fill. And if she looks at me to do that for her she too is going to be sadly disappointed.

Remember the first Commandment in the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20 verses 2 and 3:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me.

The moment we take something, even something as sublime and as wonderful as this pinnacle of human relationships, the exclusive relationship of one man and one woman in the lifelong relationship of marriage and we elevate that above God then we’re committing idolatry and that goes straight to the second Commandment, Exodus chapter 20 verses 4 and 5:

You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them and worship them for I am the Lord your God and I am a jealous God.

Of course some people take this one step further, they decide to focus on the physical side of this boy/ girl thing or into same sex relationships and end up turning sex into their idol as though somehow sexual gratification will give them what they’re looking for, that too becomes idolatry, Colossians chapter 3 verses 5 and 6:

Put to death therefore whatever in you is earthly. Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.

Listen up, it is good for a man and a woman to fall in love and to give themselves completely to one another for the rest of their lives, that’s certainly God’s plan but when we take this good thing and we elevate it and place it above God or when we pervert this good plan and sleep around hoping to find gratification, it’s just like that fake Louis Vuitton hand bag I was telling you about earlier. Eventually it will break and we’re left with nothing because there’s a hole inside you and a hole inside me that only God can fill, it’s just the way we’ve been made.

In the long run idols, imposters, as attractive as they may seem can never deliver what we’re looking for, as attractive as they may appear.

GOLD

Gold is a symbol of wealth and it’s one of the main things that draws us away from God. Think about it God/ gold, only one letter of difference between those two words and how easy is it for us to substitute one for the other. Even more so because in this world we’re told wealth equals success.

Who among us haven’t dreamed of striking it rich, of being able to live in a big house, a mansion with all the comforts and pleasures that money can buy. A great view, lots of rooms, lavishly furnished, a few high and luxury cars in the multi car garage, flying around the world first class of course or even in your own jet with everyone kowtowing to you because you’re such an important person.

That’s a dream, a fantasy that many people churn over inside themselves over and over again. It’s so seductive that many people are intoxicated by it and they can’t let it go. So here’s what they do, here’s what I did for much of my early adult life, they sacrifice their lives to it. They throw themselves into the pursuit of earning as much money as they can.

I’ve seen some of the houses that people build for themselves, not far from where I live, live some of the wealthiest people in Australia, houses that sell for upwards of thirty million dollars, one recently just went for fifty million dollars. Hey that’s a ridiculous amount of money and these mansions are so big, so ridiculously huge they must be cavernous.

I was having a room in my apartment painted not so long ago. I’m a hopeless painter, best to get a professional in to do it and the painter, Stan, was telling me about a job that he and his brother completed recently in one of these mansions not far away. He said the place was just enormous, three levels plus a fourth for the basement and garage, it has an elevator because the occupants were an elderly couple, obviously very wealthy. Now the middle floor they never went into, it was essentially vacant.

These two people weren’t happy at all, in fact they were pretty miserable. Now stand back and think about that for a minute, that right there is idolatry. With so many people in this world who don’t have a roof over their heads, who don’t have enough to eat, who don’t have even clean drinking water, here you have these two mega rich people occupying a property that they don’t need, that’s way too big for them and that isn’t making them happy.

Psalm 135, verses 15 to 18:

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but they do not speak, they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear and there is no breath in their mouths. Those who make them and all who trust in them shall become like them.

Isn’t that the perfect picture of the futility of idolatry, of setting up the things of this world as our little gods? I think that passage applies so aptly to the picture of that wealthy couple in their golden prison, the emptiness, the loneliness, the futility of it all and yet so many people sacrifice their lives to this idol of gold, of wealth, of what other people will think.

How about you? How much do you dream of being wealthy? How much do you sacrifice your life to the futility of wealth?

You may have heard me tell this story before but I’m going to tell it again. For the first thirty-six years of my life wealth was what mattered to me. It was important to me that I drove a car that would impress other people. It was important to me that I lived in a house that people would look at and think, ‘Wow that’s grand, he must have a lot of money, he must be successful’.

And that constant need to have more and more and more drove me although the more I had the less satisfied I felt, the more I filled myself up the emptier I became, the more that other people looked at my obvious wealth and success the more desperate and empty and lonely I became.

This idolatry, sacrificing your life to gold, to wealth is such a terrible scourge. You’ll understand then how gobsmacked I was when finally I stumbled across this Bible verse, 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 9 and 10:

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Right there was a picture of the first thirty-six years of my life which culminated by the way in me becoming so desperate that I came within inches of taking my own life. Idolatry doesn’t work, these imposters lead us to ruin and destruction. That’s the marque of a idol in fact, it looks so good, it speaks so smoothly, it draws you in so seductively and then it plunges you into ruin and destruction. And gold, wealth, it’s the very worst of all.

We kid ourselves that we can pursue wealth and love God but it simply isn’t possible. This is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 verse 24:

No one can serve two masters for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. You just can’t and when we give up the pursuit of wealth, when we put money back in the place where it belongs there is such an incredible freedom in that. Money is a great servant but a terrible master. Let me say that again. Money is a great servant but a terrible master. I didn’t read that in a textbook. I discovered that the hard way and the best way, the only way in fact, to break this idolatry is to start becoming generous and giving lots of it away.

You don’t have to be rich to do that, rich or poor we can idolise wealth, rich or poor we can give sacrificially and allow God to set us free from that. Let me say it again, just in case you missed it, let me say it again, money is a great servant but a terrible master.

GLORY

Some people, to be honest, are recognition junkies, they live to receive a pat on the back, they live to have other people tell them how wonderful they are and whilst in small doses that’s not a bad thing, once it takes over your life it’s a terrible thing.

The Bible tells us that we all have different personality types, that might surprise you since ‘personality type’ is a contemporary term that you don’t actually find in the Bible but if you go to the Book of Romans chapter 12 verses 4 to 8 you’ll discover there what theologians refer to as motivation giftings. In other words natural giftings which are hard-wired into our DNA. There are actually seven listed have a listen.

For as in one body we have many members and not all members have the same function so we, who are many, are one body in Christ and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness.

Actually if you look at any of the contemporary personality typing systems they all pretty much revolve around those seven motivational giftings. A few years ago I co-authored a book about the motivational giftings or the personality types found in Romans chapter 12 called My Personality GPS. It was about locating or discovering your God-given gifting.

In the course of writing that book I interviewed one person from each of the personality types on this program and asked them all basically the same questions and I was completely gobsmacked at how different each one of their responses were. One of the things that I discovered is a few of those personality types really like recognition.

If you’ve ever worked at a place where there’s been a sales team you’ll know that the best sales people are highly motivated by targets and bonuses and awards and rewards, that’s what makes them such good sales people. So the point is that we’re all different but we’re all, to some degree, more or less, motivated by recognition. As I said in moderate amount that’s not a bad thing but in a world that rewards success it’s all too easy for us to become recognition junkies.

Imagine Jesus as He wandered around with kind of rock star status, pulling the sorts of crowds that no one had hitherto dreamed of. Often when He came to a region He pulled crowds of several thousand which given the small populations back then meant that towns and cities basically closed down when He came to town.

There would have been nothing easier than to let that adulation go to your head, would there? But have a listen to how Jesus reacted to all that, John chapter 5 verse 41.

I do not accept glory from men.

And again, John chapter 8 verse 54.

If I glorify myself my glory is nothing, it is my Father who glorifies me, He of whom you say, ‘He is our God’.

And when He preached Gods truth without fear or favour, we’re told in John chapter 6 verses 66:

That because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

Did He go chasing after them? No, because He wasn’t interested so much in the opinions of people because He knew that public opinion was a fickle and irrational thing. In fact in John chapter 2 verse 24:

Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone for he himself knew what was in everyone.

When Jesus said that the time is coming for Him to be glorified what He meant was that He was soon to be crucified. If we are always pandering to the opinions of other people then we’re going to be slaves to their irrationality, their variability, their unreliability and their sin.

Now that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have a few trusted advisors whose opinions and sound judgement we pay attention to but if we’re continually seeking glory for ourselves then we become people pleasers and from experience again I can tell you, that’s a terrible way to live because you’re always marching to someone else’s drum beat and all too often you find yourself with different people pulling you in different directions, you literally end up being torn apart.

In my life I’ve observed a number of people who are addicted to recognition, the old fashioned term is vainglory and it’s a tragic sight. I used to be there too always worried about what other people thought, what other people were saying, what other people might be whispering behind my back. This is a form of idolatry because we end up putting our reputation above God’s glory and God, as things turn out, doesn’t share His glory with anyone, Isaiah chapter 42 verse 8.

I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other nor my praise to idols. See the former things have come to pass and the new things I now declare before they spring forth I tell you of them.

So here’s a tip, if you’re someone who is constantly being hurt by the opinions of other people then that’s a really strong indication that you have made an idol of your reputation. You know the pain that it causes you, you know that you don’t want to keep living like this. It’s time to give up your recognition and your reputation to God. It’s time to stop living your life for other people and start living your life for God.

Our reputations are an incredibly addictive and powerful idol and like every other idol in this world reputation will end up destroying you. Keeping up appearances is exhausting and constantly straining for glory means that we’re working against God because God doesn’t share His glory with anyone.

As I look back on my journey of rehabilitation, from someone who was so fixated on what other people’s thought and said about me to someone who, these days, doesn’t really care, what I see is how God led me through this in His power. Addictions are something we need help with and God is ready and willing and able to help you if you’re making an idol out of your reputation.

The more I read my Bible the more I wanted to live my life for Jesus and the less I cared about what other people thought about me. Yes I have some close trusted advisors who keep my feet on the ground and who tell me the truth about myself. They are so important but when it comes to the opinions of people out there, don’t take this the wrong way but I simply don’t care.

I’ve decided that I’m going to live my life for an audience of one, Jesus, that’s it and when you do that people are going to criticise you and shun you and pull your reputation down, I’ve simply decided to stop caring. This is how the Apostle Paul puts it in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10:

Am I seeking human approval or God’s approval or am I trying to please people? See if I was still pleasing people I would not be a servant of Christ.

That pretty much sums it up for me. If I was still pleasing people, the people who told me I shouldn’t leave my consulting career to go and preach the Gospel, the people who told me I should focus on myself and my financial future and my retirement, the people who criticised me, if I was still pleasing those people I would not be a servant of Jesus Christ.

So let me ask you, who are you pleasing? Who are you serving? Who are you living your life for? Are you really living out God’s very best for your life, I mean really?