Kyle Idleman
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –When it comes to God and god, there is a distinct difference. And that difference can be found in the way we live out our lives. For Kyle Idleman, it all comes down to what we let take residence in our hearts. In his new book Gods at War, Kyle takes on the topic of idolatry - something that he says we are all guilty of committing.
THE COMMANDMENT WE ALL BREAK
Not long ago in the Idleman household, Kyle's nine-year-old daughter proudly announced that she had just memorized the ten commandments. And as she rattled them off one by one, Kyle decided to take the opportunity and teach his daughter a lesson. Being a pastor, taking moments to teach his kids a life lesson isn't hard to do. He asked her, "Morgan, have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments?" She looked down reluctant to respond. Then he asked, "Have you ever lied?" She nodded her head not saying a word. "Have you ever not honored your mom and dad?" he continued. And she smiled, as they both knew the answer to that. And then he said, "Morgan, I know you've never murdered anyone, but have you ever hated someone in your heart?" With that, his daughter spoke up and said, "Dad, I know one commandment that I've never broken - I've never made for myself an idol in the form of anything." That he knew wasn't true.
As he shared, "...this is the one commandment that we have broken more than all the others." And according to Martin Luther, "'You can't break any of the other commandments without first breaking that one.'" As a pastor, Kyle is constantly talking with people who struggle with some sort of sin in their lives. Often times, they don't know why they struggle with a particular sin, and they never understand why they cannot get past it. But this is what Kyle discovered: "Behind every sin we struggle with, there is the more significant issue of idolatry." It's like this, he explained, "Sin is the fruit, but idolatry is the tree from which it grows." For instance, he shared, "A man in our church was indicted on embezzlement charges. He confessed - said it was wrong and called it a sin. But he questions why he struggled with that sin? It's because of idolatry. He had made money and possessions and status his gods. And until he understood it, he was going to continue to struggle with it." From there he went on to share about a young woman in his church. "She was getting ready to move in with her non-Christian boyfriend," he said. "When I spoke to her, she didn't understand why it was such a big deal." He told her that it was a big deal - that she had "God on one side and her boyfriend on the other." And she would have to choose whom she would listen to. At that moment, she realized that she was putting her boyfriend before God.
According to Kyle, "Idolatry is always the issue. This is why the Bible speaks about the subject in such great length. More than a thousand verses deal with it. More than the fifty commands in the first five books of the Bible mention it. And the first two commandments deal with it. And it is because God knows that behind every sin we struggle with, every discouragement we deal with, behind the lack of purpose and passion we live with, we have this issue of idolatry."
JEALOUS MUCH?
When God said, "You shall have no other Gods before me," He meant it. But, as Kyle pointed out, we tend to think of it as a hierarchy. We like to believe that all is well as long as God is in first place. That, however, is not what God intended. As far as He is concerned, "There are no places. God isn't interested in competing against others or being first among many...God will not be part of any hierarchy...He wasn't saying 'before me' as in 'ahead of me.' A better understanding of the Hebrew word translated 'before me' is 'in my presence.' God declines to sit atop an organizational flowchart. He is the organization. He is not interested in being president of the board. He is the board. And life doesn't work until everyone else sitting around the table in the boardroom of your heart is fired. He is God, and there are no other applicants for that position. There are no partial gods, no honorary gods, no interim gods, no assistants to the regional gods." But this does not mean that He has insecurity issues. As Kyle asserted, "God is saying this because it's the way of truth in this universe, which is His creation. Only one God owns and operates it. Only one God designed it, and only one God knows how it works."
"Someone once pointed out that the opposite of Christianity really isn't atheism...it is idolatry." Kyle is inclined to agree. If we allow it, someone or something will always keep us from following Jesus completely. That, Kyle remarked, doesn't mean that we don't desire to pursue Him, "It's that everything in our life is following something else, and that makes it really difficult." But when we are following anything other Jesus, we put Him second or third or fourth. "And that is idolatry, and it is so relevant in our world."
Generally speaking, we prefer to think of idolatry as a problem of the Bible days. But frankly, God has never had more competition than today. As he shared, "There are gods at war for the throne of our hearts. A lot is at stake because whatever wins the war will determine our destiny, our futures...it determines what we put our hope in. And so it is important for all of us to identify the gods at war in our lives and give our full hearts over to God...God doesn't want to share our allegiance. He wants our full devotion."
GODS AT WAR - MODERN DAY IDOLS
As Kyle put it, "Your heart is a battlefield." And the gods you allow into your life will find their way into your heart and wage war against God for control over you. Your daily pursuits that have nothing to do with God become idols. And while these pursuits may not be the "graven images" of old, they are in fact modern day idols. "Behind the sin you're struggling with, the discouragement you're dealing with, the lack of purpose you're living with is a false god that is winning the war for your heart... These gods clash for the throne of your heart, and much is at stake. Everything about you, everything you do, every relationship you have, everything you hope or dream or wish to become depends upon what god wins that war."
So you have to ask yourself: What keeps you from truly following Jesus? What is your heart pursuing? What do you sacrifice for? What makes you worry? What makes you mad? What applause do you long for? "We're all wired for worship," but we often end up valuing and honoring the gods we chase after. What's more, Kyle warns it is vital that we do not discount these modern day idols in our lives. "Don't give into the myth that gods are only statues that people of other cultures or long ago worshiped. Pleasure, romance, sex, achievement, money and power are just a few of the gods that vie for our allegiance in today's society. Until they are dethroned, and God takes his rightful place in our hearts, we will continue to struggle..." Only when God has taken his rightful place in our hearts will we see victory and freedom. For Kyle, God is the only god that can provide fulfillment in our lives. As it says in Scripture, John 4:14, "The water I give you...will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life...Drink from me, and you'll never thirst again."