March 2023 Newsletter

From the Desk of Brady Hanssen, Pastor to Families

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . . They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. . . .” – Romans 1:21, 25

New City Catechism Q17: What is idolatry? 

A: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security. 

According to the Bible, there is no such thing as an atheist. The Holy Spirit tells us through the apostle Paul that sinful humanity knows that God exists, though “they did not honor him” or “give thanks to him” but instead “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Human beings are worshippers and cannot help but worship something. The question we must regularly ask ourselves is, “who or what am I worshiping?” 

I find the New City Catechism (NCC) helpful in trying to answer this question. Broadway Kids has been using the NCC for our curriculum and through a series of questions and answers it helps us summarize and systematize our faith. Based on Romans 1 the catechism defines idolatry as trusting in created things rather than the Creator. If we are not worshiping the one true God, the Creator of everyone and everything, then we are by default worshiping something that He created for there is no other god to worship besides Him. But what does it practically look like to trust God and not His creation? The catechism answer to this question is helpful by providing us four areas of our life to examine: 

1) Where are you placing your hope? What are you most looking forward to in your life with eager anticipation? Is it the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, or is it for the next game day, the next family trip, or the next time your grandkids come to stay with you? While these things are not bad in and of themselves, idols are almost never evil things. They are good gifts from God that we love more than God. We tend to replace the Giver with the gift. As Christians, are deepest hope should be fundamentally in the Lord. 1 Peter 1 describes this as “our living hope,” that is our salvation that will one day enable us to see God face to face and enjoy Him unhindered forever. Nothing else compares to this. None but God alone, can truly be our hope. 

2) Where do you find your happiness? Where do you find the most joy? It is not wrong to enjoy God’s good gifts, unless we replace Him with His gifts. It is interesting to note that in Romans 1 Paul mentions that idolators did not “give thanks to [God].” Gratitude recenters us by reminding us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Christian happiness should pass through enjoying the gift itself to enjoying the God who gave it. If our joy stops with the gift itself, we have revealed an idol in our life. In our Chronological Bible reading I was personally challenged by Job who lost everything and yet was able to say, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Job was able to say this because he held the things of this life loosely, with open hands, and found his deepest joy in God and not His gifts. God’s gifts are meant to point us to Him, not replace Him. God is the happiest being in the universe; to know Him is to know joy and life abundantly. 

3) Where do you find your significance? Where is your identity most fundamentally found? Is it in your job, your relationship status, your reputation, or your success in business? Our culture is in a human identity crisis because a secular worldview no longer knows what it means to be human. We cannot know who we are if we do not know who God, our Creator is. Unfortunately, we Christians often find more of our identity in temporary, fleeting things like jobs, rather than our status as redeemed men or women created in the image of God to glorify Him forever. Our jobs change, our earthly relationships will not last, our businesses will be given to another when we die. But our status as an adopted child of the King is eternal, unchanging. In Christ, the words that God the Father spoke to Jesus at His baptism become true of us, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Beloved, if the Almighty God of the universe thinks that about us, our earthly jobs, human relationships, and any other worldly thing we may be tempted to find our identity in are put in their rightful place and are no longer idols. God is the most significant, infinite Being, therefore true significance can only be found in Him.

4) Where do you find security? Is security found in having a lot of money in your bank account? Is it found in carrying a gun? Is it found in being friends with the right people? Of course, it is not wrong to save money or to defend yourself or the defenseless, but is our sense of security fundamentally found in God or something or someone else? We don’t like to admit it, but we are weak and needy creatures and therefore we must look for security in something outside of ourselves. Psalm 91:1-2 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” Can you say with the psalmist that God is your refuge and fortress? Do you run to Him in times of trouble, or do you turn elsewhere first? True security can only be found in God who is immortal, unchanging, omnipotent, and omnipresent. 

Beloved, may we keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). May we regularly ask ourselves questions like these and ponder in our hearts where we are finding our hope, happiness, significance, and security. We can say that we trust God, but are we trusting Him in real life? Or as Paul David Tripp puts it, are we acting like functional atheists? 

As we remove the idols in our own lives, may we humbly help one another by confronting idolatry that we see in one another’s lives. If we truly love someone we will not stand idly by while they pursue that which cannot quench their thirst, that which cannot give them ultimate hope, happiness, significance, or security. 

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen.” – Jude 24-25. 

For His glory and the good of the church,  

Brady Hanssen 

Pastor to Families