{"id":1366,"date":"2015-09-14T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T14:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2015-09-14T11:36:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:36:26","slug":"chasing-idols-to-our-own-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/chasing-idols-to-our-own-destruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Idols to Our Own Destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 1280px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1366-1\" width=\"1280\" height=\"544\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Elsas-Choice.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Elsas-Choice.mp4\">http:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Elsas-Choice.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>We have spent the last two weeks at RBC looking at the cycles of sin and rescue in Judges, which are replayed time and time again. The failure of the judges to permanently save the people pushes our hearts towards the One Judge who is able (Hebrews 7:25; Phil 1:6). You can listen to the sermons <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sermonaudio.com\/sermoninfo.asp?SID=961512221110\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sermonaudio.com\/sermoninfo.asp?SID=913151216304\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both sermons deal with the topic of idolatry. Below is Tim Keller\u2019s definition of idolatry from his book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Counterfeit-Gods-Empty-Promises-Matters\/dp\/1594485496\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1442241444&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=counterfeit+gods\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Counterfeit Gods<\/em>.<\/a> I cannot think of a better picture of this than a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade called, \u201cElsa\u2019s Choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c[An idol] is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.\u00a0 An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought.\u00a0 It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving \u2018face\u2019 and social standing.\u00a0 It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen your meaning in life is to fix someone else\u2019s life, we may call it \u2018codependency\u2019 but it is really idolatry.\u00a0 An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, \u2018If I have that, then I\u2019ll feel my life has meaning, then I\u2019ll know I have value, then I\u2019ll feel significant and secure.\u2019\u00a0 There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is\u00a0<em>worship<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Tim Keller, <em>Counterfeit Gods, Introduction<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have spent the last two weeks at RBC looking at the cycles of sin and rescue in Judges, which are replayed time and time again. The failure of the judges to permanently save the people pushes our hearts towards the One Judge who is able (Hebrews 7:25; Phil 1:6). You can listen to the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/chasing-idols-to-our-own-destruction\/\"> Read More&raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,40,75,69,70,74,71,68,73,72,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-1366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-christian","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-elsa-schneider","10":"tag-idolatry","11":"tag-idols","12":"tag-indiana-jones","13":"tag-judges","14":"tag-keller","15":"tag-repentance","16":"tag-sin","17":"tag-tim","18":"entry","19":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ridgefieldbaptist.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}