Christina Cooke: As I brought this statement up to a few people back home, it was met with, I don't really think I'm aware of any idol, any idols.
Christina Cooke: And you may be thinking the same thing, but I assure you, if you are here and you are breathing, you have idols.
Christina Cooke: So before we dig into this very heavy topic, I am going to pray for us.
Christina Cooke: Father God, we just commit to this time to you, God.
Christina Cooke: This is um it's it's a simple topic, but a heavy one.
Christina Cooke: As you reveal sin in our heart, Lord, it is it is not always easy to hear, but it is um so necessary for our freedom in Christ and to be able to live out the purpose that you have for us.
Christina Cooke: So I pray that you would just be with my words, Lord, that you would just come my heart and that my words would come from you and they would fall on hearts that are just ready to receive, Lord, so that we might leave here today, just ready to worship you in the way that we were designed to.
Christina Cooke: So we just give this time to you, Lord, and we just ask for your spirit to go before us, Lord, in Jesus' name.
Christina Cooke: Amen.
Christina Cooke: So, in tackling this topic this afternoon, I want to make two thesis statements.
Christina Cooke: Number one, God has clearly stated our purpose here on earth when he gave the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: Number two, idolatry is a reversal of that purpose that is explained in the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: My hope for this session is that we would be equipped to tear down every stronghold or idol that sets itself up against our created purpose.
Christina Cooke: This lesson today comes out of my own heart and my own journey in understanding my purpose and recognizing the idols of my heart that hindered me from living it out.
Christina Cooke: As a pastor's wife and a biblical counselor, the need to deal with idols of the heart is ever before me and not just others' idols, but my own.
Christina Cooke: So we're gonna do some review because if you're anything like me, and we talked about this before, you are a slow learner.
Christina Cooke: I need to hear things over and over.
Christina Cooke: Repetition is good, and many of you have said you've never heard about this topic before, and it's a lot.
Christina Cooke: We covered a lot, so I think repetition will be good for us.
Christina Cooke: So if I were to ask you what the creation mandate is, I hope you're starting to go right to the imperative, the command.
Christina Cooke: And the mandate is to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, subdue it, and take dominion over it.
Christina Cooke: If I were to ask you what is the indicative or the truth or the motivator behind the command, I hope your mind would be going to, because we have been created in the image and likeness of God.
Christina Cooke: That is why we are to fulfill this mandate.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 1.26 tells us that God made man in his image to represent him.
Christina Cooke: This verse encapsulates our purpose to image God.
Christina Cooke: Scripture shows us in several places what our purpose is, but it's rooted in this truth that we are made in his image.
Christina Cooke: We are image bearers, and bearing God's image rightly is the only way to truly glorify him.
Christina Cooke: 2 Corinthians 5 9 tells us, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
Christina Cooke: 1 Corinthians 10 31 says, So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Christina Cooke: We glorify God by imaging him, by being like him.
Christina Cooke: This is the very purpose for which we were designed.
Christina Cooke: So we're going to go over the mandate again.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 1 26.
Christina Cooke: Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Christina Cooke: We talked about what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.
Christina Cooke: There is a reason that God is sharing his communicable attributes with man.
Christina Cooke: There is a purpose.
Christina Cooke: Our entire existence is banking on us, understanding this truth.
Christina Cooke: We learned that in the ancient Near East, a king would arise and he would want to conquer and control the known world at that time.
Christina Cooke: As the king conquered lands, he would leave behind the nine-foot statue.
Christina Cooke: We talked about that in every land he conquered.
Christina Cooke: So remember, when Moses wrote these terms, image and likeness, the readers understood that implication and what it meant.
Christina Cooke: They would be thinking that image and likeness represented the great king.
Christina Cooke: So when people looked at those statues, they were to represent the reign and rule of the great king.
Christina Cooke: Those statues would show them ultimately who owns that land.
Christina Cooke: The people were to represent the value system of the great king.
Christina Cooke: So statues were visible reminders of the great king, a reminder of who the people represented and whose value system they represented.
Christina Cooke: When God made Adam and Eve, he said, Let us make man in our image.
Christina Cooke: There is one great king, the God who is the owner of all this land he created.
Christina Cooke: And he said, Let us make man in our image and likeness.
Christina Cooke: So what was Adam and Eve's purpose?
Christina Cooke: Their purpose, just like those statues, and just like our purpose, is to represent God, the great king and his value system and his reign.
Christina Cooke: Only they were not stone statues, they were living, breathing, visible representations of the invisible God.
Christina Cooke: God owns the land and he made it, and he has co-rulers, us, to harness its potential and represent him in the midst of it.
Christina Cooke: We are the visible representation of the invisible God.
Christina Cooke: So when people look at us, they are supposed to see God and his value system.
Christina Cooke: I know this is a lot of repetition, but I hope it helps to make the right connections.
Christina Cooke: When I understood these implications, it radically changed the way that I think.
Christina Cooke: And I know many of you did not hear the term creation mandate, but I'm sure most of you have heard that we were made in the image of God.
Christina Cooke: I'm sure most of you understand that what it means to be made in the image of God is to be like him and to look like him.
Christina Cooke: So we probably knew that before we came, but I think it's a truth that we just pass over and don't really think about what that looks like in everyday life.
Christina Cooke: So when people look at you, are you reflecting who you worship?
Christina Cooke: Am I reflecting who I worship?
Christina Cooke: Am I representing King Jesus and living out and showing others his values?
Christina Cooke: When we function the way that God designed us to function, as image bearers, he created us to be, what would you think would be the result of that?
Christina Cooke: If we truly represented God and his value system to the world, what would the outcome be?
Christina Cooke: Well, we would be fruitful and we would multiply and we would subdue the earth and we would take dominion in righteousness and holiness, obeying the statutes that God gave us, and then the whole world would see the greatness of our great king and the righteous and holy value system he has, and others will worship him too, until, let's say it together, the whole earth is filled with his glory, right?
Christina Cooke: That's the goal.
Christina Cooke: That is our purpose.
Christina Cooke: As we know, Adam and the entire human race after him failed at their image-bearing task.
Christina Cooke: But we know that God sent the one man, Jesus, who was able to accomplish this task perfectly.
Christina Cooke: Jesus was the perfect image-bearer, the perfect visible representation of the invisible God.
Christina Cooke: Because of what God has done, all who have placed their faith and trust in Christ are now able to once again carry out his purpose for us with the power he supplies.
Christina Cooke: We are to be like him, to image him wherever we go, to be fruitful, to multiply.
Christina Cooke: We are to subdue the earth, subdue the spaces we live in, and take dominion over them.
Christina Cooke: We talked about what this would look like if we live by God's righteous standards and bring order to the spaces we live in.
Christina Cooke: Why?
Christina Cooke: For what purpose?
Christina Cooke: So others will know him until the whole earth is filled with his glory.
Christina Cooke: I want you to get that.
Christina Cooke: If you go home and just think this is the so that the whole earth would be filled with his glory.
Christina Cooke: To restore every human being back to his or her original design and purpose.
Christina Cooke: That is why we are here.
Christina Cooke: My hope this afternoon is to help us transition from the knowledge to the application a bit more.
Christina Cooke: Being reminded of our purpose can bring clarity to so many situations that we deal with every day.
Christina Cooke: Now you may be here thinking, yes, I get it.
Christina Cooke: I know I'm designed to be an image bearer of God, to please him in all things, and to give him glory.
Christina Cooke: I know this truth, and I try every day to live it out.
Christina Cooke: Isn't that what Christians are supposed to do?
Christina Cooke: We make meals for people, we are kind, we serve, we share the gospel, we give good advice, we hold back harsh words.
Christina Cooke: But do you sometimes feel that you're just going through the motions?
Christina Cooke: Do you find that oftentimes your good service does not come with an overwhelming attitude of overflowing joy that springs from your heart?
Christina Cooke: Do you sometimes feel that your righteous acts do not come as a result of your gratitude for what Christ has done for you?
Christina Cooke: Do you feel that your righteous deeds lack an awareness of God's grace toward you?
Christina Cooke: Or do you often feel like, well, I know it's the right thing to do?
Christina Cooke: My desire for myself and for all of us is to grasp the truths we learn to the point where it changes us from the inside out.
Christina Cooke: If our knowledge is not applied, it just puffs us up, or it will frustrate us and it will not be useful or effective.
Christina Cooke: If our heart does not obey out of faith in the person of Christ, we are not truly pleasing God.
Christina Cooke: And I don't know about you, but I want to please God by living out his purpose in every aspect of my life.
Christina Cooke: And yet I know I don't.
Christina Cooke: And I'm guessing you don't either.
Christina Cooke: And the good news is no matter where we are on our journeys, the principles that we will work through today will apply wherever we are in whatever situation we are in.
Christina Cooke: I heard one of our elders say, it is not so much about where you are, but where you are going.
Christina Cooke: And I found that statement to be extremely encouraging.
Christina Cooke: So I've covered my first thesis point that our purpose here on earth is rooted in the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: And now I want to move on to the second thesis point, which is idolatry is a reversal of that purpose explained in the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: So now we're gonna dig a little bit more into the heart, and we're gonna explain what it means to deal with these idols of our heart.
Christina Cooke: Hold on, I lost my spot.
Christina Cooke: I'm so sorry.
Christina Cooke: Okay, how many of you would agree with this statement by a show of hands?
Christina Cooke: Everything we do comes from the heart?
Christina Cooke: Okay, most of you.
Christina Cooke: Everything that we think comes from the heart.
Christina Cooke: Yes?
Christina Cooke: Okay.
Christina Cooke: How about everything we feel, not physically, but emotionally?
Christina Cooke: Do you think everything we feel comes from the heart?
Christina Cooke: Okay.
Christina Cooke: Maybe some of you just don't want to raise your hand, but we've got a few people.
Christina Cooke: Maybe you're just confused and you think I'm asking trick questions.
Christina Cooke: I'm trying to stump you.
Christina Cooke: I'm not really trying to stump you.
Christina Cooke: We're gonna go to scripture to answer that for us in case you're worried that I don't know what I'm talking about.
Christina Cooke: Proverbs 423 says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Christina Cooke: Luke 6.45 says, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.
Christina Cooke: For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
Christina Cooke: So I think the answer to all of those questions is yes.
Christina Cooke: Everything comes, everything we do, everything we think, everything, all of our emotion, all of it comes from our heart.
Christina Cooke: So I want us to slow down and really think about how we have lived the Christian life.
Christina Cooke: So often we focus on the imperatives, the things that we are to do, how we are supposed to obey.
Christina Cooke: And we often get frustrated because we think obedience is hard.
Christina Cooke: We may find ourselves doing the right thing, but not always with the right attitude.
Christina Cooke: Or we do the right thing and wonder why we didn't have a good outcome.
Christina Cooke: Has that ever been you?
Christina Cooke: Do you ever find yourself doing the right thing while grumbling in your heart?
Christina Cooke: As I go through some examples, I want us to reflect on our actions, our thinking, and our emotions in light of our purpose as image-bearers of God representing Him.
Christina Cooke: So think of yourself as a visible representation of the invisible God.
Christina Cooke: I want you to think of how Jesus may act or think or emote differently in the same situation.
Christina Cooke: And I want to preface this by saying at one point or another, I have been guilty of every single one of these.
Christina Cooke: So I'm not, I didn't pick examples that I thought you may be struggling with.
Christina Cooke: I picked examples that I struggle with or have or still am currently struggling with.
Christina Cooke: So here are some examples.
Christina Cooke: So again, I want you to think about how you would act or think or remote versus how an image bearer of God would in the way Jesus would.
Christina Cooke: So you are washing dishes while grumbling because someone left the dishes for you to wash.
Christina Cooke: You I feel the identity there.
Christina Cooke: We are women and we feel that, right?
Christina Cooke: You sign up to serve in an area of ministry and you feel frustrated because someone else isn't doing their part.
Christina Cooke: Or you're frustrated because someone is in a position of ministry that you want to be in.
Christina Cooke: Your friend tells you she is going on vacation with a mutual friend and you are not invited.
Christina Cooke: You tell your friend you're happy for her, but in your heart, you are jealous and upset that you weren't included.
Christina Cooke: You serve because you love Jesus, only to feel hurt when no one notices what you do, or someone else gets credit for something you did.
Christina Cooke: You serve your family and you are frustrated because none of them are grateful.
Christina Cooke: You are having a conversation with someone, and before you know it, you find yourself or the other person being defensive and you feel annoyed.
Christina Cooke: You pick up dirty laundry off the floor and you are upset because it isn't yours.
Christina Cooke: You felt that one too.
Christina Cooke: I felt that.
Christina Cooke: I was like, I've these this is real deal, right?
Christina Cooke: Someone sins against you, you respond the right way, but you are hurt and aggravated with them.
Christina Cooke: Your boss gives you an instruction.
Christina Cooke: You do it, but inside you are grumbling either because you don't want to do it or because you think it is unfair.
Christina Cooke: You complain over other sin or gossip to others about it, but you are unwilling to love your sister or brother in Christ and go directly to them.
Christina Cooke: So I've tried to spend a lot of time speaking on the indicatives, the truth, or the why, the motivator behind the command.
Christina Cooke: I do this because if we don't understand our purpose, if we don't understand why God created us, if we don't understand what Christ has done, we will never be able to obey this command without frustration.
Christina Cooke: If we are not aware of our utterly sinful state before a holy God, if we are not completely enveloped in the love and grace of Christ, if we are not in awe of his forgiveness for us and how he rescued us from sin, we will never love God and love others in the way he designed us to.
Christina Cooke: We may be theologically accurate in our churches, we may say the right things and do the right things, but are they are we truly caught up in the goodness and grace of God that our actions, thoughts, and feelings intuitively come from a heart of thanksgiving that is expressed in righteousness that brings glory to God?
Christina Cooke: Why is that not our response?
Christina Cooke: I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond.
Christina Cooke: The answer is what?
Christina Cooke: Yes, sin, idolatry, right?
Christina Cooke: Sin, and it comes from our hearts.
Christina Cooke: Brent Oakwin, who was a pastor and biblical counselor, asked this question.
Christina Cooke: Why do we do what we do?
Christina Cooke: Or you can say, why do we think what we think, or why do we feel what we feel?
Christina Cooke: James chapter 4, verses 1 and 2 gives us a little clue.
Christina Cooke: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
Christina Cooke: Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?
Christina Cooke: You desire and do not have, so you murder.
Christina Cooke: You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
Christina Cooke: You do not have because you do not ask.
Christina Cooke: Brent Oaken says, We do what we do because we want what we want.
Christina Cooke: It's that simple.
Christina Cooke: And why do we want what we want?
Christina Cooke: Our behavior comes from the passions and desires of our heart.
Christina Cooke: We want what we want because we are deceived into thinking that God is withholding good from us.
Christina Cooke: We're gonna talk about how some of those things are not actually sinful things, but they oftentimes lead to sinful behaviors or responses.
Christina Cooke: So if our desire determines our behavior and our behavior is sinful, then what needs to change?
Christina Cooke: Our desire.
Christina Cooke: It is the desire of the heart that needs to change, not just our actions.
Christina Cooke: Sounds simple, right?
Christina Cooke: We can go home now, we got it.
Christina Cooke: If only it was that easy, right?
Christina Cooke: In order for this to happen, our desire has to be supplanted and overcome by another desire that is greater.
Christina Cooke: So let's just think of some examples in everyday life.
Christina Cooke: Have you ever seen a parent bribe a child into obeying by offering them something they really want?
Christina Cooke: I remember many years ago sitting around our table playing a game as a family.
Christina Cooke: In a household of boys, there was a lot of sarcasm.
Christina Cooke: You know, the kind of sarcasm that tears each other down.
Christina Cooke: In every attempt I had to get one particular child to speak kindly, he just did not know how to offer words of encouragement.
Christina Cooke: If sarcasm was a spiritual gift, this child had it.
Christina Cooke: This actually became a source of contention because this child did not see the sin in it.
Christina Cooke: And we were well into the teen years.
Christina Cooke: If you don't see something as sin, you will never convince someone to change their behavior.
Christina Cooke: I so desperately wanted this child to stop that I offered him $50 if he could go 30 minutes straight without a sarcastic word, but only using words that were uplifting and encouraging.
Christina Cooke: It was actually quite comical how he turned this scene around.
Christina Cooke: For a solid 15 minutes, we were all in hysterics as this child spewed out encouraging words.
Christina Cooke: It was so out of character for him that he's a bit of a ham, so he had us cracking up.
Christina Cooke: What was interesting though was how many times he was about to say something sarcastic.
Christina Cooke: And then, as it was very evident to us, he caught himself and then continued with his humorous encouragement.
Christina Cooke: He really wanted that 50 bucks.
Christina Cooke: For a short time, that desire for money was greater than his desire for sarcasm.
Christina Cooke: However, after 15 minutes, his true heart came out: sarcasm.
Christina Cooke: What is interesting about it is that once I challenged him on it, he didn't agree that it was sarcasm.
Christina Cooke: See, I couldn't convince him that it was sin.
Christina Cooke: Ultimately, it was not the desire of his heart to be an encourager.
Christina Cooke: That was the bottom line.
Christina Cooke: At that point in his life, this child was a complainer.
Christina Cooke: His heart would eventually come out.
Christina Cooke: When we have a ruling desire in our heart, it will always find its way out.
Christina Cooke: So if we want good behavior, we need new desires, and we can't force ourselves to just put off old behaviors and put on new ones, thinking that will offer us lasting change.
Christina Cooke: The heart needs to change.
Christina Cooke: The desire needs to change.
Christina Cooke: And when it does, we will act out of those new desires.
Christina Cooke: Do you sometimes find yourself saying, I did the right thing, but it didn't work?
Christina Cooke: Like I ate right and I exercised, and now I have a life-threatening disease.
Christina Cooke: Or I spoke kindly to my husband and I served him, and I was a good wife, but none of that worked.
Christina Cooke: He still won't change.
Christina Cooke: Or I raised my kids right, and now they have walked away from God.
Christina Cooke: All of these examples show frustration in our hearts after what we would have considered obedience to God.
Christina Cooke: But isn't obedience supposed to bring us peace and joy?
Christina Cooke: In those scenarios, I thought I obeyed God, but I don't feel peace and joy.
Christina Cooke: I feel frustration.
Christina Cooke: Can you relate?
Christina Cooke: Doesn't God's word tell me if I obey, I will have joy.
Christina Cooke: Let's look at John 15, 10.
Christina Cooke: It says, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
Christina Cooke: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Christina Cooke: So what do you hear in those verses that implies an inward joy or peace that comes from obedience?
Christina Cooke: Our joy is complete when we abide in Christ and obey his commands.
Christina Cooke: Psalm 119, one through three says, Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Christina Cooke: Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways.
Christina Cooke: Another word for blessed is happy.
Christina Cooke: So you can say, happy are those whose way is blameless.
Christina Cooke: So what do you hear in those verses that imply an inward joy or peace that comes from obedience?
Christina Cooke: We see those blessed, right?
Christina Cooke: Happy.
Christina Cooke: Happy are those whose way is blameless, happy are those who keep his testimonies.
Christina Cooke: Jesus tells us in Matthew 11, 28 through 30, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Christina Cooke: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Christina Cooke: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Christina Cooke: So what do you hear in those verses that imply an inward joy or peace that comes from obedience?
Christina Cooke: We see things like rest for your soul, my yoke is easy, my burden is light.
Christina Cooke: So this is what obedience should bring about in us, right?
Christina Cooke: It should be joy in that.
Christina Cooke: So what do we hear in these verses?
Christina Cooke: We hear his commands are not a burden, but don't you often feel that obeying God is a burden?
Christina Cooke: I know I do, and we're gonna talk about why.
Christina Cooke: So we can see from scripture that obedience leads to happiness, rest, and joy.
Christina Cooke: Do you feel happiness, rest, and joy in some of the scenarios I read earlier?
Christina Cooke: Do you feel joy when you're picking up someone's dirty laundry or when someone treats you poorly?
Christina Cooke: What is the disconnect in our hearts?
Christina Cooke: Because Jesus tells us that obedience gives us joy, and I'm not feeling that sometimes.
Christina Cooke: I want to propose that what we may think are acts of obedience may not be obedience completely due to the idols in our hearts.
Christina Cooke: And that is the disconnect.
Christina Cooke: I hope we will all leave here this weekend understanding this theology of idolatry.
Christina Cooke: John Calvin says, Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.
Christina Cooke: He continues to say, Man's mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine God according to his own capacity, as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance.
Christina Cooke: It conceives an unreality and an empty appearance of God.
Christina Cooke: Nothing is more dangerous than religious confidence in a fake God of our own imaging.
Christina Cooke: As we can see, and John Calvin's statement sums up our second thesis point, which is idolatry is a reversal of the created order explained in the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: So if our purpose is to image God, then what is idolatry?
Christina Cooke: In idolatry, man makes gods into our own image rather than us being made in his.
Christina Cooke: The gods we make exist to serve or represent us.
Christina Cooke: We were designed to serve and represent God.
Christina Cooke: In idolatry, man lives to represent himself, not God.
Christina Cooke: If we are designed to delight in God, idolatry reverses that delight and causes us to worship futility rather than an incomparable holy God who is our greatest delight.
Christina Cooke: Idolatry hinders our ability to live out our purpose.
Christina Cooke: When we are serving our idols, we are not representing, pleasing, or glorifying God.
Christina Cooke: In fact, we are doing the exact opposite.
Christina Cooke: We're wreaking havoc rather than creating order.
Christina Cooke: You may say, wow, this sounds so serious, but I don't worship idols.
Christina Cooke: And what does it even mean to have idols at the heart?
Christina Cooke: When you think of idols, you might think of the Old Testament and how the Israelites worshiped idols and think, I don't worship idols.
Christina Cooke: We may be familiar with scriptures such as Psalm 115, one through seven.
Christina Cooke: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
Christina Cooke: Why should the nation say, Where is their God?
Christina Cooke: Our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases.
Christina Cooke: Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
Christina Cooke: They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see, they have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell, they have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Christina Cooke: What is this scripture saying?
Christina Cooke: What are these idols referring to?
Christina Cooke: The direct context would be statues made by human hands that their gods inhabit.
Christina Cooke: They believe that the spirit of their gods lived in these statues and that they created with their own hands.
Christina Cooke: But what does it mean that they have mouths that do not speak and ears that do not hear?
Christina Cooke: Their gods were works of their hands, they were just wooden statues.
Christina Cooke: But Israel's God was alive, he sees, he hears, he moves, he speaks, he is alive.
Christina Cooke: Psalm 115, 8 says, Those who make them, meaning the idols, become like them.
Christina Cooke: So do all who trust in them.
Christina Cooke: So what is this verse saying?
Christina Cooke: What happens to those who make or trust idols?
Christina Cooke: It says they become like them.
Christina Cooke: In what way?
Christina Cooke: They become blind and deaf.
Christina Cooke: Ezekiel 14, 3 says, Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of iniquity before their faces.
Christina Cooke: Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?
Christina Cooke: So what do you think it means to set a stumbling block of iniquity before their eyes?
Christina Cooke: Besides physical outward idols, there are invisible inward idols of the heart.
Christina Cooke: Though we may not worship a foreign god or bow down to an idol statue, there are many things that still serve as idols in our heart, and we need to recognize them.
Christina Cooke: Tim Keller says, An idol is anything more important to you than God?
Christina Cooke: Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.
Christina Cooke: So, what is the solution to this problem of idols in the heart?
Christina Cooke: How do we even identify them?
Christina Cooke: And once we identify them, what do we do with them?
Christina Cooke: I'd like to propose a few things and spend the rest of our time being super practical about identifying and dealing with our idols.
Christina Cooke: But first, we have to believe there is a better way.
Christina Cooke: We will not give up our idols until we are offered something better, something better that is sustaining, not temporary, like 50 bucks.
Christina Cooke: John Piper said the root power of sin is severed by the power of a superior pleasure, a more compelling joy.
Christina Cooke: This goes back to desire that we read about in James 4.
Christina Cooke: Our desires are Are wrong.
Christina Cooke: We need right desires.
Christina Cooke: Remember the example I gave of my son with sarcasm.
Christina Cooke: True change from sarcasm to encouragement couldn't really happen until his heart had a new affection.
Christina Cooke: The only thing that could motivate him is if his desire to encourage was greater than his desire to be sarcastic.
Christina Cooke: Even if the transition is not easy, and it's not easy.
Christina Cooke: The want to want to must be present, and the want to want to will not be present if we don't see the problem.
Christina Cooke: And if you don't know what I mean by the want to want to, it is a recognition state.
Christina Cooke: It's understanding I really, I really want that cookie and I want to eat it, but I want to want to not eat the cookie, if that may be.
Christina Cooke: It's a recognition of I shouldn't want that.
Christina Cooke: That's a first step.
Christina Cooke: But if you don't even know that it's wrong, you're not even in the recognition state.
Christina Cooke: That's where my son was.
Christina Cooke: He didn't even see sarcasm was wrong.
Christina Cooke: But once you see sarcasm is wrong, you can say, you know what?
Christina Cooke: I want to be sarcastic, that's why I do it, but I don't want to be sarcastic.
Christina Cooke: So that's the recognition state.
Christina Cooke: Now we have something to work with.
Christina Cooke: So here's another silly example of a change to desire that led to action.
Christina Cooke: Not so much a spiritual one, but hopefully we'll get the point.
Christina Cooke: When my son Jonathan lived at home, he did not have a clean room.
Christina Cooke: He did not care to have a clean room, and he saw it quite silly that I would even desire for him to have a clean room.
Christina Cooke: Now I go into his home and I can see he is very intentional about keeping a clean home.
Christina Cooke: He's a good leader, he takes responsibilities in ways that I never saw him do at home.
Christina Cooke: Why?
Christina Cooke: A new affection.
Christina Cooke: He now has a wife that he loves and desires to please.
Christina Cooke: His desire to please his wife is greater than his love for TV, video games, or any other thing that kept him from cleaning his room when he lived at home, even his mother.
Christina Cooke: Have you heard the saying, an expulsive power of a new affection?
Christina Cooke: Anyone heard that?
Christina Cooke: The desire of our heart is a great motivator, for good or for bad.
Christina Cooke: What is it that we want so badly that we will do anything to get it?
Christina Cooke: The answer to that question reveals what is in our heart.
Christina Cooke: We'll get back to that in a little bit.
Christina Cooke: Again, why do we do what we do?
Christina Cooke: Because we want what we want.
Christina Cooke: And what do we want?
Christina Cooke: We want happiness, pleasure, peace.
Christina Cooke: But we pursue these things with the wrong motive.
Christina Cooke: We'll get a little more into that.
Christina Cooke: The desiring and delighting of man has been woven into us by our Creator.
Christina Cooke: When God made man, he placed him in the garden of Eden.
Christina Cooke: Did you know that Eden means delight?
Christina Cooke: God made mankind to be with him in a life-giving relationship where there is fullness of joy, delight.
Christina Cooke: God actually wants to fulfill our desires and give us delight.
Christina Cooke: But there's only one way we can get it.
Christina Cooke: We are keeping ourselves from that delight because we cling to lesser delights.
Christina Cooke: Psalm 1611 says, You make known to me the path of life.
Christina Cooke: In your presence there is fullness of joy.
Christina Cooke: At your right hand are pleasures evermore.
Christina Cooke: Our idolatry keeps us from this reality.
Christina Cooke: When mankind chooses a path that is separate from a life-giving and joy-filled relationship with God, he will seek to fill his existence with temporary pleasures that cannot finally and fully satisfy.
Christina Cooke: Does fullness of joy sound like what we really want?
Christina Cooke: I know I do.
Christina Cooke: But what is it that can captivate our heart and get rid of its love for all the deceitful and slaving desires that rule it?
Christina Cooke: We need the expulsive power of a new affection.
Christina Cooke: We need a superior pleasure, a more compelling joy, and that can only be found in Christ and in his righteous statutes.
Christina Cooke: Jesus Christ is the only individual who only and ever delighted fully in God his Father.
Christina Cooke: All he knew from eternity past was the fullness of joy by his father's side.
Christina Cooke: Yet Jesus Christ on the cross was willing to forgo his greatest delight when his father's presence was taken away from him.
Christina Cooke: He did this out of obedience to his father's will and out of his love for you and me.
Christina Cooke: He forfeited the presence of his father on the cross so that we might have the eternal opportunity to be in the Father's presence in fullness of joy.
Christina Cooke: So when we think about Jesus on the cross, do we think that this act of obedience of Jesus dying on a criminal's cross bearing the wrath of God was joy to him?
Christina Cooke: Hebrews 12, 1 through 2 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Christina Cooke: Jesus died so we may have life, that we would have abundant life, that our joy may be full, and that gave him joy.
Christina Cooke: He took joy in his death on the cross, knowing he would accomplish that for us.
Christina Cooke: How much do you think it grieves him to see his children not live in the purpose and reality of the fullness of joy that he died to give us?
Christina Cooke: It should be a comfort to us and a joy, not a burden or begrudgery when we are called to obey the commands of God.
Christina Cooke: It is only a burden because we have resisted his will in order to worship the idols of our hearts, thinking that they will give us pleasures every evermore.
Christina Cooke: So how do we recog rectify this problem?
Christina Cooke: I'd like to present two remedies for this.
Christina Cooke: Number one is beholding Christ's love, meditating on Christ's love, rehearsing the gospel to ourselves over and over, and then our desires will change, and ultimately so will our behavior.
Christina Cooke: The only way we will overcome this battle of sin is by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ.
Christina Cooke: We overcome sin by seeing something more attractive than the world, Christ.
Christina Cooke: Beholding Christ and his love for us is the expulsive power to change the desires of our heart.
Christina Cooke: He is the new affection.
Christina Cooke: The blessings we have in Christ are incomparable to anything this world has to offer.
Christina Cooke: The blessings we have in Christ are incomparable to any feeling of control we may have in any of the examples we talked about.
Christina Cooke: Beholding Christ and living in his righteous statutes is the only means by which we are promised fullness of joy.
Christina Cooke: The second remedy is this.
Christina Cooke: We see it when we look into the mirror of God's word.
Christina Cooke: The Bible is very clear that when we erect false gods in our hearts, not only will they never satisfy, but we will become like them.
Christina Cooke: When we serve our idols, we have the stumbling block of iniquity before our eyes.
Christina Cooke: We become deaf and blind to the truth because we want what we want so badly, and we are deceived into thinking God is withholding good from us.
Christina Cooke: And because of God's great love for us, he will help us to see what it is we are worshiping and give us every tool through Christ to lay them down.
Christina Cooke: I'll end with some very practical applications.
Christina Cooke: I want us to learn how we can use God's word as a mirror to help us discern our idols.
Christina Cooke: We'll take the remainder of our time working through a diagram that will help you to identify your idols.
Christina Cooke: I hope this helps you to see how the desires of our hearts will rule us.
Christina Cooke: I'll start with a simple way to identify an idol of the heart.
Christina Cooke: There is a question that you can ask yourself anytime a negative action, thought, feeling, or attitude arises in your heart.
Christina Cooke: Ladies, this was life-changing for me.
Christina Cooke: When you feel those things arise, ask yourself this question.
Christina Cooke: What do I want so badly that I am willing to sin in order to get it?
Christina Cooke: Or what do I want so badly that I'm willing to sin if I don't get it?
Christina Cooke: And the answer to that question will reveal an idol of your heart.
Christina Cooke: And these don't have to be sinful desires directly.
Christina Cooke: Paul Tripp says, a good thing can become a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing.
Christina Cooke: I mentioned earlier that what we may think are think are acts of obedience may not be obedience at all due to idols of our heart.
Christina Cooke: So we're going to look at a diagram in a minute to help us work through this.
Christina Cooke: I'm going to share some very personal examples of how God has revealed my own idols, and hopefully it will help you work through yours.
Christina Cooke: I had a lot of desires in my life.
Christina Cooke: As a believer and a lover of Jesus, I believed that my desires were good.
Christina Cooke: They were right, they were biblical.
Christina Cooke: So here's some of mine through the years.
Christina Cooke: So I had a desire or a goal to have a godly husband, a father who spiritually led our home.
Christina Cooke: And out the outcome of that desire that I wanted was to feel loved and cherished.
Christina Cooke: That was my hope.
Christina Cooke: Another desire and goal that I had was to have obedient children who loved Jesus.
Christina Cooke: Another very good biblical desire.
Christina Cooke: And the desired outcome, and if I had obedient children who love Jesus, I would feel successful as a parent, and others would think I was doing a good job.
Christina Cooke: Another desire or goal I had was a clean house.
Christina Cooke: And the desired outcome would be that I would have order and contentment in my life.
Christina Cooke: I had a desire or a goal to be financially secure.
Christina Cooke: And my desired outcome is that I would have comfort and peace.
Christina Cooke: So these are all good, you agree?
Christina Cooke: These are all good biblical desires, right?
Christina Cooke: I had imagined that if I had these things, that it would bring me peace and joy and contentment and financial freedom and comfort and peace, all the things.
Christina Cooke: Where I went wrong was I made my desires my goal.
Christina Cooke: If we think back to the mandate given when God created man, what is my purpose?
Christina Cooke: What is my goal?
Christina Cooke: What should be my goal?
Christina Cooke: I was designed to be an image bearer, to reflect Christ and subdue the spaces I am in using his righteous standards.
Christina Cooke: That includes being a wife, a mom, a homemaker, whatever it is you do.
Christina Cooke: If my goal is to have those things, I will stop at nothing until I receive it.
Christina Cooke: So it's good to have goals, right?
Christina Cooke: And you should not stop until you have it.
Christina Cooke: But when your goals are wrong, that can be very dangerous.
Christina Cooke: So when I don't get it, I get angry, frustrated, bitter, anxious, depressed.
Christina Cooke: As I react to not receiving my godly desires, I'm no longer imaging God, but making an idol out of my desires.
Christina Cooke: And that is such an important thing that I have learned is I made an idol out of my good desires.
Christina Cooke: That's that a good thing becomes a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing.
Christina Cooke: What do I want so badly that I am willing to sin in order to get it?
Christina Cooke: Do I want godly children so badly that I get angry and try to force them to meet my standards?
Christina Cooke: Do I want a godly husband so badly that I feel hurt when he doesn't value me the way I feel I deserve?
Christina Cooke: In these examples, my happiness and joy is dependent on my idols serving me.
Christina Cooke: Do you see the reversal of the mandate?
Christina Cooke: How idolatry reverses our focus to worship self rather than God.
Christina Cooke: But if I'm functioning in the way that God has designed me to function using his righteous statutes, then imaging God and pleasing him will be my ultimate goal.
Christina Cooke: I can accomplish that every time, even if I have an unloving husband and disobedient children.
Christina Cooke: So what does it practically look like if my goal was to image God and be pleasing to him?
Christina Cooke: So let's look at an example in marriage.
Christina Cooke: Let's say a wife is upset because her husband comes home from work every day and sits in front of the TV while she is getting dinner on the table and trying to corral the children.
Christina Cooke: She tries to kindly explain to him that he is being neglectful and doesn't care about her or their children.
Christina Cooke: He ignores her.
Christina Cooke: She then gets angry and starts yelling.
Christina Cooke: Now he is mad and it starts an all-out war.
Christina Cooke: He sleeps on the couch and leaves for work the next morning only to repeat the same scenario the next evening.
Christina Cooke: Now, putting aside the husband's sin for now, since we're all women in this room, how can we identify her idol?
Christina Cooke: What is she wanting so badly that she is willing to sin in order to get it?
Christina Cooke: She wants a husband who cares for her, loves her, and is attentive to her and their children.
Christina Cooke: These are all good things.
Christina Cooke: They are biblical desires.
Christina Cooke: But these good desires are becoming ruling desires.
Christina Cooke: Her desire to please and image God is being snuffed out because her idol is before her.
Christina Cooke: The stumbling block of iniquity is before her eyes.
Christina Cooke: All she can see is what her husband is not doing.
Christina Cooke: She cannot see her own sin.
Christina Cooke: And I want to state the obvious here.
Christina Cooke: The husband is sinning against his wife, and he is not treating her the way God designed him to.
Christina Cooke: So we realize that there are issues there too.
Christina Cooke: So I'm not justifying it, but we're just looking at how we are to respond in light of God's word.
Christina Cooke: I'm sure we all feel for her, and maybe you've been there, and this is not okay.
Christina Cooke: But God does give us a way to handle these situations in his word.
Christina Cooke: Did she respond using the righteous statutes he gave her?
Christina Cooke: This would be part of her subduing the spaces that God has placed her in.
Christina Cooke: We don't demand order in our world by using our standards.
Christina Cooke: We create order by using God's standards.
Christina Cooke: So what does God's word say that may help this woman know how to image and please God?
Christina Cooke: What are the standards that He lays out for her?
Christina Cooke: We see in Proverbs 21.
Christina Cooke: Proverbs 15:1 says, A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Christina Cooke: Ephesians 4.29 says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Christina Cooke: This woman has a legitimate complaint.
Christina Cooke: She would absolutely be justified in saying that her husband is being selfish, not leading her family, or being attentive to her needs.
Christina Cooke: But her faith is not in God.
Christina Cooke: Her faith is in her own methods of controlling the situation.
Christina Cooke: Does God rule your day?
Christina Cooke: Does he rule your daily steps?
Christina Cooke: Are you mindful regularly of being an image bearer in the spaces you live, even in the mundane things?
Christina Cooke: I mentioned this before.
Christina Cooke: Paul Tripp says, if God doesn't rule your mundane, he doesn't rule you because that is where you live.
Christina Cooke: I pray that we are starting to really grasp the great purpose that God designed for us.
Christina Cooke: God created us so we can live for him.
Christina Cooke: Man failed at this mandate, but Christ died to redeem us so we can live for him in the way he designed us to.
Christina Cooke: Idolatry reverses that purpose and turns our attention onto pleasing ourselves rather than God.
Christina Cooke: I pray that our time together this weekend has been fruitful for you.
Christina Cooke: I pray that over the days and weeks and months to come, the Lord will grow you in your walk with him as you seek to live out the great purpose he has designed you for to image him.
Christina Cooke: If we delight ourselves in him, he will give us the desires of our heart.
Christina Cooke: He is worthy.
Christina Cooke: Yes, he is.
Christina Cooke: Amen.
Christina Cooke: So let's stand together and we are going to read Psalm 37, 3 through 11 together.
Christina Cooke: I'm gonna ask for you to project and read it loud like you mean it.
Christina Cooke: Let's say it together.
Christina Cooke: Trust in the Lord and do good.
Christina Cooke: Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Christina Cooke: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Christina Cooke: Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act.
Christina Cooke: He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.
Christina Cooke: Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Christina Cooke: Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil designs.
Christina Cooke: Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
Christina Cooke: Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil, for the evil doers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
Christina Cooke: In just a little while the wicked will be no more, though you look carefully at this place, he will not be there.
Christina Cooke: But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
Christina Cooke: Let's pray.
Christina Cooke: Father God, we thank you so much for this time together.
Christina Cooke: God, you are a good God and you are worthy.
Christina Cooke: There is no one worthy other than you.
Christina Cooke: God, you should be the one desire that we seek, Lord.
Christina Cooke: You have promised us fullness of joy, and we know that you withhold no good thing from us.
Christina Cooke: So, God, I pray that as these ladies lead here today, that they would just allow these truths to just marinate in their heart, Lord, that you would grow them, that you would teach them as I know you are teaching me.
Christina Cooke: I I have, I know I've come so far, and I still have so far to go.
Christina Cooke: And there's so many idols of the heart that you are working out in me.
Christina Cooke: And so I just thank you, Lord, for teaching me and just having this opportunity to share these things with these ladies this weekend.
Christina Cooke: God, I pray that you would bless them.
Christina Cooke: They are such a beautiful group of women, and you are doing such a work in each one of them and their lives.
Christina Cooke: God bless them.
Christina Cooke: We are so thankful for your grace and your mercy and your love.
Christina Cooke: And we just give you all the honor and all the glory in Jesus' name.
Christina Cooke: Amen.