If we love anything before or above God, we are setting our affection on the gift rather than the giver. The Bible refers to this as inordinate affection and is a direct violation of the first, second and tenth commandment. Our discussion today is centered around a topic which every Christian has found themselves in danger of: idolatry. Our call to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength is constantly something which makes us susceptible to idolatry. Idolatry is defined any time we love something more than we love God. In fact, you can never break any of the other commandments without breaking the first one. In today’s world, we see idolatry everywhere, from the cars we drive, the homes we live in, social media, our reputations and more. Idolatry can refer to idolizing good things, too.

The human heart is an idol factory. We must be aware of our own hearts and identify the false idols all around us. Nothing dissipates the fear of the Lord like idolatry. The guys distinguish the three different types of idols: cultural, personal and religious. At the crux of the matter is the fabrication of Gods from things which are not. The two elements of idolatry are not worshiping God and worshiping God in the wrong way. There is only one Savior and only one God, and He sees the grand picture of everything. Therefore, we must surrender to him and trust His plan. It is in our nature to become what we worship and we have the choice to become more like our Creator or like our blind and mute idols. While it’s valuable to call out false idols, you are advised to be prepared for the backlash you will receive in turn. Cultivating a fear of the Lord will help keep us from falling into idolatry. Ways to identify our own idolatry is to get involved in a faith based community and ask yourself through prayer and meditation reflective questions on where your idols lie. Through the sovereignty and goodness of God alone can we understand our deepest desires.