Even if you don’t agree with John Calvin on his view of “election,” you must admit that he is one of the greatest theologians to ever live and not to mention the role he played in the protestant reformation. Calvin has a quote that has become a theme for a sermon series that we are currently in at Revive; it goes like this “The Human heart is an idol factory.”

Wow! How true is that for us as human beings? Think about how often you and I serve other things before we serve God! Now, this doesn’t mean that we are totally depraved but this does mean that we have a tendency to follow after anything else except God! Think about the nation of Israel, they were constantly worshipping other gods such as Baal. Now today we might not worship other religious deities like Baal but we do have idols. Here are just a few examples we serve ourselves, we serve money, we serve possessions, we seek the approval of others above God and we even serve our belly (food).

God hates the fact that we do this, He is supposed to be the King of our lives. He is supposed to be the only thing we allow to have control of our lives. In the book of Jeremiah God uses different terminology to make His point, when He tells Jeremiah to tell the people of Judah in Jeremiah 3:1“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD.” Look at the terminology God uses to describe the idolatry of the people, I know it is strong language for us but that is how God feels when we allow other things to become idols in our lives.

We all know that adultery in a marriage relationship is wrong, not one person can or should be able to justify that action. It is the same with God, we are constantly committing adultery on God with the other things we allow to consume our lives, and often times all we do is try to justify it. We need to stop justifying why we are doing things and be honest. I believe all idols are a result of one of these four things: Power, Control, Comfort or Approval. Some things we allow to become idols because they provide comfort or pleasure. Other things we allow to become idols because others approve them.

Take a deep look at your life and remember what Romans 1:24-25 says “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” God will not force you to serve him, He will not force you to love him above all else but He will allow you to exchange the true God in for an idol. Whom are you going to serve? If you are interested in reading more about this topic I recommend the book God’s at War By: Kyle Idleman.