Tim Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods”: Chapter 6 – The Hidden Idols in Our Lives

I. Introduction

1. We’ve been dealing with personal idols – i.e., idols of the heart - It’s easy to spot these because they are the passions of our heart


2. Now Keller explores the “hidden” idols in our lives – the idols of our culture & society


3. Keller starts out hitting at a recurring idol - money

• Our particular culture here in America is built upon capitalism & profit


• In and of themselves, those things are not bad


• However, Keller points out that our society’s preoccupation with profit has led to abuses


• Ex: Paying employees what they are worth & providing them a good working environment leads to higher profits


• Keller points out that it’s simply the right thing to do


• Honesty & commitment are goods in themselves & are equally important as profit

II. How did we get here?

a) I want to introduce a concept quickly that is a good overlay concept to all of the cultural idols we’re discussing

• Francis Schaeffer in his book, “The God Who Is There” came up with the concept he called “The Line of Despair”

Europe (pre-1890) / U.S. (pre-1935) ___________________________________________ The Line of Despair

• Above the line, man dealt in absolutes (God); below the line, truth has been blurred (enter Fredrick Nietzche who said, "God is dead.")


• We don’t have time to dive too deep into this, but the long-and-short of it goes like this:


• Pre-1935 – “she is a good girl;” we both would think the same thing: she goes to church, she studies hard, she volunteers at a soup kitchen


• Post-1935 – “she is a good girl;” You might still use the same concepts to describe this “good girl,” however, to me the term “good” means she hasn’t killed anyone, she’s only been in jail once


• Because of relativism, we now have a different definition of “good”


• What Schaeffer points out next is that the Line of Despair has infiltrated not only our broad culture, but the church

Philosophy

Art

Music

General Culture

Theology

• What Schaeffer is saying is that it was a subtle, gradual process for our society and ultimately our theology to remove God and replace Him with relativism

b) Keller approaches it from the “Hope” of a nation

• He quotes Andrew Delbanco in “The Real American Dream”


• The “Hope” of a culture is what it tells its members what life is all about


• In sequence, he states American’s “Hope” went from God, to Nation, to Self


• The U.S. was a Christian story that was abandoned during the Enlightenment of the 18th century for the deified nation; that “hope” was replaced by the age of “Self”


• Keller: “Any dominant culture “Hope” that is not God Himself, is a counterfeit God. And also, “When we are completely immersed in a society of people who consider a particular idolatrous attachment normal, it becomes almost impossible to discern it for what it is.”

III. Idols in Our Religion (the effects of the Line of Despair in Religion)

a) Three types of Idolatry in Religion

1. Doctrinal Accuracy – relying on the rightness of one’s doctrine for standing with God rather than on God’s grace; Proverbs – “scoffer,” contempt & disdain for opponents rather than graciousness; sign that we don’t see ourselves as sinners saved by grace


2. Ministry Success – mistaking spiritual gifts (talent, ability, etc.) for fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, patience); mistaken feeling that our standing with God depends on how many lives we are changing; Keller points out that ministers can suffer from this religious idol


3. Moral Rectitude – seeking to control God & others through our moral performance; we feel God & others owe us respect; it’s a form of moral striving for our own salvation

IV. Man (people) on the Run

a) Keller uses the story of Jonah to illustrate how the idols that drive us are complex, many-layered, & largely hidden from us

• Cultural/Religious idols can super-charge personal idols


• Jonah: prophet; nationalistic zeal; urged King Jeroboam to pursue expansionist military policy


• God commands Jonah to go to Ninevah – the most powerful city in the world – to proclaim God’s word & bring Ninevah to repentance


• As He does with us, God was putting all of Jonah’s idols to the challenge

a) Warning Ninevah would benefit them and be disastrous for Israel

b) Assyria was a violent & cruel empire – Jonah is biased

c) What does Jonah do in response to God’s command?

• He flees – goes in opposite direction (West) on a boat


• Hilarious to me – Does Jonah actually think he can escape God by getting on a boat?!


• We do this don’t we – we skip church; we avoid Scripture; we go to the things that fill our minds with anything but God

V. What are Jonah’s Idols?

a) Personal – ministry success

b) Cultural – nationalism for Israel over God

c) Religious – moral rectitude; he felt superior to the wicked, pagan Ninevites

• Peter is convicted of these same issues


• Galations 2 – Peter refused to eat with Gentile Christians


• Paul convicts Peter that he’s not acting in line with the Gospel (Galations 2:14)

VI. How Ought We to Defeat Our Hidden Idols?

• Jonah is an example of how we can let our religiousity turn into a idol that becomes super-charged and multi-layered

1. Humility – Jonah had to sit in the belly of a whale


2. 2. Watering – In order to reseed a yard, you must water the yard continually after laying the seeds not to simply cause the grass to grow, but to break down the hard outer shell of the seedling; this is similar to our spiritual growth; we need the constant watering of Scripture, Worship, Service, & Fellowship to break through our idols and maintain our focus on Christ


3. 3. Love – Keller rightly points out at the end of this chapter “Shouldn’t we just love like God?”

• We live, work, have fellowship with image-bearers each and every day; we need to love as God loves and our idols will have little ground in which to root themselves!


• Burk Parsons said it best with regard to our religious idols: “Is your goal celebrity (sitting at Jesus’ right hand) or sevanthood (washing the feet of a bunch of nobodies)?

"Counterfeit Gods" - Chapter 4: The Seduction of Success

I. Introduction

a) Success: does anyone know how many times the word appears in Scripture???

• Twice (depending upon your version) – II Chronicles 7:11 / Joshua 1:8


• “Sakal” (Heb) – means skillful, wise, prosperous


• Key: success is not always about money, fame, or power per se

b) Prosper: appears in Scripture 21 times

• Psalms 118:25 / Daniel 3:30 / 3 John 1:2


• “Tsaleach” (Heb) – means to be good, to breakout


• “Euodoo” (Gk) – means to have a good journey, succeed in business, succeed in reaching

c) Keller starts with a quote from Madonna

• “feeling of inadequacy”


• “My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.”


• One of her better known songs “Vogue” describes current popularity of fashion and fame; how quickly those things fade???

II. When does personal success & achievement become an idol?

a) Answer: When our view of ourselves becomes distorted

• Achievements = basis of our self-worth


• Achievements = keep us safe


• Achievements = lead us to a belief in our supremacy / autonomy

b) Luther: “I have three evil dogs: ungratefulness, arrogance, and envy. When all three bite, one is badly mauled.”

• Envy – when we covet the success of others


• Key: what are we saying when we question our perceived lack of success or the coveted success of others?


• We are saying that God doesn’t know what He’s doing!


• The fallen, arrogant creature is trying to tell the Omnipotent Creator what is best?!


• Can you imagine anything so ridiculous?

III. What are the possible signs in an individual’s life which point to the fact that success is an idol?

a) Lack of confidence unless we’re at the top

• Chris Evert – “I needed the wins, the applause, in order to have an identity.”

b) Think our success can solve our problems

• Naaman (II Kings 5:1) – he is commander of the army, highly regarded among men, but he had leprosy


• Though he had success & wealth, under it all his life was falling apart


• His wife’s slave – she was an Israeli girl taken captive by Naaman’s men; she directs him to see Elisha the prophet (we’ll get back to this slave girl when we talk about solutions to our success idols)


• Naaman takes money, clothing, letter from his king – he thinks he can use his success to get healing


• Question: How do we follow Naaman’s folly?


• Name dropping?


• Putting our faith in our success instead of God


• Naaman was seeking a tame, private God who can be put into debt


• It is God who puts us in debt with His grace


• Keller: "Only if we understand Grace will we see our successes are ultimately gifts from God."


• Ironic: We want to use gifts given from God to hold God in debt – typical sinful man

IV. How can we break our heart’s fixation on doing “some great things” in order to heal ourselves?

• We must look at the Slave Girl – captured by the raiding Syrians; at the bottom of the Syrian social structure; who is responsible? Field Marshall Naaman!

a) Idolizing the top of the ladder can lead to cynicism & bitterness

• That’s not what this slave girl felt


• “If only my master would see the prophet.”


• She saw her role as glorifying God • Matt 5:44-45 – “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate , and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”


• She did not seek revenge; she trusted God to be the judge of all


• Francis Schaeffer: “The vocation of an honest merchant or housewife has as much dignity as the vocation of a king.”

b) The Idol of Success cannot be expelled – it must be replaced

• Keller: "Only when we see what Jesus, our great Suffering Servant, has done for us will we finally understand why God’s salvation does not require us to do “some great thing.”


• Matt 6:19-21 – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.


• This is what Naaman struggled with – he took money, clothing, references from his king; that’s where his heart was – thinking his success and temporary treasures would save him.


• When we focus on Christ and his reign and use any success for His glory, then our success will be in the proper context and we will less likely to make any success or any sought after success an idol

V. Conclusion

• Naaman humbled himself in the end and did as Elisha instructed, and as a result, Naaman’s leprosy is healed!


• But Naaman still doesn’t get it – the free gift of Grace


• II Kings 5:14 – “But he (Elisha) said, ‘As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.’ And he (Naaman) urged him to take it, but he (Elisha) refused.”


• Elisha gets it on two fronts: 1. He wanted Naaman to know & realize grace is free! 2. Elisha himself is focused on the right thing – it’s not his success (Naaman’s healing) but God’s success


• Keller: “Jesus’ salvation is received not through strength but through the admission of weakness and need.”


• Lack of personal success can be a blessing through which God brings mercy to the lost (look at the Slave Girl)


• Keller: “God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”