April 29, 2025 -- I John 5:21 -- Keep yourselves from idols

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Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
I John 5:21 ESV
 
When my family lived in South Carolina, my brother-in-law helped me to install
an inground sprinkler system in my front yard. I’d go out on the front porch and
turn a little knob, and all around the yard, black plastic sprinkler heads would pop
up. I never ran back into the house and said, “Kids, get out of bed! This is so cool!
I turned the knob, and all these black plastic heads just popped up out of nowhere!”
No—they had always been there. They were recessed in the ground, and it just
 took enough pressure, water pressure in this case, to run through the lines and
pop them up.
The same is true with your heart. Your idols are recessed in your heart; you’re just
not aware of it. Then pressure comes, pops them up, and they do their thing, and
you say, “Man, this is ugly. How did this happen? Where did this come from?
Whoa!”
But these idols were there the whole time. And so God in his mercy brings
pressure into our lives so that the idols can be exposed and we can repent and
really get free. So what are some of the pressures that God allows into our lives
to expose the idols of our hearts?
Brad Bigney, Gospel Treason: betraying the gospel with hidden idols, page 152
 
Dear family in God, perhaps today, after the election, a set of idols have been exposed. The pressure of the last few weeks of election talk has raised the formerly recessed idols in your heart. So, like those little sprinkler heads, now the idols just pop up. Some of you now have had exposed in your heart the idol of confidence in human institutions rather than the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Others of you may have now seen that the idol which grips you heart is their pride in thinking you know what is best for a riding, or a province or a country. Inevitably, the idol of pride and needing to be right will be rearing its ugly presence as some gloat over the results and others grieve.
 
Be confident in this, God is in charge. The reign of Jesus the King is undiminished. The Spirit gives you the eyes of faith to see this and live with confidence. In view of the radiant majesty of God, give to Him the glory and praise. Confess your idols. Confess your misguided idolatry. Serve your King, the magnificent Jesus seated in splendour at the right hand of the Father and live as a citizen of heaven.
 
Father in heaven, the political pressures of the last few weeks have exposed fractures and fissures among Your people. Hopes and aspirations grounded in politics, or in men and women, rather than solely in Jesus have been exposed. Lead us in the way everlasting so that we, as Your Kingdom citizens live with the unshakeable confidence that Jesus is our everlasting King. Grant us the eyes of faith, brightened by the Spirit, so that believers can discern how to continue to walk with Jesus demonstrating great integrity exercised with compassion. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/TxC16duiHvQ?si=lF0xBfLT8n0SOw8a O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer
 

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