Tony Evans - Are There Idols Hiding in Your Life?
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Summary
The preacher emphasizes that God must be the sole source in our lives, with no competing idols allowed—any person, thing, or idea we rely on for our needs becomes an idol that displaces Him. Drawing from 1 Samuel 7:3, he stresses the need to return fully to God by removing foreign gods and idols, just as Israel had to abandon theirs to truly receive Him. The key takeaway: God is waiting for us to return to Him alone as our source, rejecting the false comfort and control of idols that offer no real power.
One Source, Not Many
You only have one source. Now you have a multiplicity of resources and mechanisms that God can use to address needs, but there must be, and can only be, one source. The moment a resource is elevated to become a competing source, you have multiple gods.
Samuel speaks in verse 3. When Samuel speaks, he said, «If you return to the Lord, the Lord has returned to them, ” because the ark is in the house. But there needed to be another kind of return; it was not just God returning to them, but them returning to God. A lot of people are waiting on God when, actually, God is waiting on them.
To return to the Lord meant that you had to get rid of something. He said, „Remove the foreign gods and the Asherah from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone.“ That’s a no-compete clause: get rid of your idols.
What they had done was they had brought the ark in without getting rid of their competing deities. They had brought the ark in, but they didn’t want to get rid of their other gods. Now, if the other gods were that good, you wouldn’t have needed to go find the ark. But the other gods, the idols, gave them a level of comfort and security; they provided a fallback plan.
What Is an Idol?
Now we’ve defined it numerous times, but let me define it again: the biblical definition of an idol is any noun, person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source to meet your needs.
I’ll say that again: an idol is any noun, person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source to meet your needs. Idols were not just things; they were designed to do something. People that worship idols didn’t just do it to worship; they wanted the idols to do something for them.
Baal and his girlfriend Asherah were the fertility gods. They were the gods that were going to make the land productive; they were the gods that were going to make the rain come; they were the gods that would produce the offspring, so that the cattle would replicate, providing plenty of food and money from the sale. In other words, with Baal and Asherah, our economic situation was going to be better. They were looking to the gods to do something; it was a source.
So when we talk about idolatry, don’t just think of third-world countries where they’re worshiping stones, rocks, bushes, and trees. It is any noun, person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source to meet your needs.
Modern Idols in Our Lives
One of the things we’ve tried to express here to our family is that you only have one source. Now you have a multiplicity of resources and mechanisms that God can use to address needs, but there must be, and can only be, one source. The moment a resource is elevated to become a competing source, you have multiple gods.
If your identity is God and equally your race, your race has become your idol. If it’s God and equally your job, your job has become a competing idol, or your bank account, or your politics. It could be anything that has become the source of your hope.
Because right now in here today, we have Democrat idols and Republican idols because you think who’s in the White House is going to fix the nation, and all God is saying is, „It’s a bunch of idols.“ You see, we have American idols; we get designer idols, sophisticated idols. But it’s any noun, person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source.
What you do is you create a man-made representation of Almighty God. The Bible declares, for example, in Romans chapter 1, these daunting words that you need to review and become acquainted with. He says in verse 18, „The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them. Since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.“
Now look at verse 21: „Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man,“ creating false images because their foolish hearts were darkened. Even with their BAs, and their MAs, and their PhDs, their foolish hearts were darkened.
So he says, „If you want God, even though you’ve got the symbol here, there must be a return. He has returned to you; now the question is, have we returned to Him?“
Why We Like Idols
Idolatry is worshiping the wrong god or worshiping the right God in the wrong way. Let me tell you why we like idols: idols make us a little bit more comfortable. Idols make us a little calmer because there’s no accountability.
I don’t have to answer to an image; I don’t have to really be bossed around by an idol because I have an element of control—because I made the idol. I decided that you’re going to be an idol, and if I made you my idol, then I have say-so about how I’m going to allow you to idolize me.
I’m going to decide that part of that part of God I don’t want; that part of God I don’t like. I like this part of God; I don’t like that part of God. But I’m going to keep you around so that the part I like is available to me.
We have a convenient God. That’s why he says this: it’s idols created by man, because then you can control it.
But when Moses asked God, „Who should I say sent me? Okay, I’m going to Pharaoh. You want me to go to Pharaoh; they’re going to think I’m crazy. They’re going to say, 'Who died and made you boss? Who sent you? '“ He said, „God told him, you tell them, 'I am that I am' sent you.“ Don’t tell them, „I am what you want me to be.“ You tell them that „I am that I am, ” self-existent, self-sufficient, self-contained—I know I am the independent deity, and I call the shots up in here, up in here.
God Wants All of You
We live in a day when people want God for invocations and benedictions, as long as He has no say-so in the stuff in between. Many of you may have heard about the situation when a senator from Florida came to church. I met him a couple of months ago; he and his wife came and walked into the Senate chamber, contesting the transgender bill or the gay marriage bill, one of them.
He was standing in the chamber when somebody sent it to me, and he said, „I would like to read to the Chamber from the Tony Evans Bible commentary.“ For real! He said, „I want to read, ” and he started reading my words from my Bible commentary about what God says about male and female. You know, he started reading that, but he was halted by the head of the meeting. I won’t say who he was, but he was halted by the head of the meeting who said, „God has no place in this chamber.“
We live in a world where men and women want God for the invocation and God for the benediction, but don’t mess with anything in between. „I will give you a couple of hours on Sunday, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Yeah, okay, I’ll give you Sunday, and I’ll say grace. Okay, leave me alone! I don’t want you telling me what to do, how to live my life, how to run my family, how to be a man, how to be a woman, how to be a parent, how to be a child, how to be a worker, how to handle my finances. I want you for all that. I’ve got too much education. Have you seen the car I drive? Have you seen the crib I live in? I’m good until you’re not. I’m good! I’m telling you enough.“
He says, „You must return to the Lord your God, and you must remove the idols. You must kick them to the curb. You’ve got me in the place, but I don’t have you in the place. You must return to me. I must be your source for life, for meaning, for purpose.“