Watch/Listen
Youth Led Service - Idolotry
Various Speakers
March 1, 2020
Audio Player
Idolotry
We have two very special things happening today.
The first will be immediately obvious to you, as our worship gathering will be facilitated by the young among us. If you joined our recent Tribe Retreat, you remember our speaker David Fraze noting how important it is for churches to engage in the practice of "handing the keys" to the next generation. We do that today in a real, practical way. They will lead our weekly gathering.
The second comes in the form of what our youth will be addressing this morning: Idolatry.
When people think of idolatry, images of actual carved stone may come to mind, and of people literally bowing down to, or praying for favor from, these etched images.
Idolotry goes way beyond that. In fact, it is likely that you practice idolatry yourself. Don't believe me?
If you are current on our 2020 Bible Project, then you read the Ten Commandments this past week. Did you notice the first two? The first is "You shall have no other gods before me"0” The second is "You shall not make for yourself an idol". These two commands are intimately connected, because if you disobey the 1st, you did it by disobeying the 2nd. You commit idolatry every time you revolve your life around something other than, or even in addition to, God. Can you say you never do that?
Let me urge you: Do NOT think lightly of today's gathering simply because we are "allowing" the youth to lead us. Our intergenerational God would not take kindly to that, in my opinion, so do not cheat yourself today with any kind of patronizing attitude by pretending that we are simply giving up a Sunday service to train our children. They are here, sent by God, to help you identify those lessor things in this world that you worship, and that to God, this is not okay.
Paul told Timothy something that we who are older often quote to the younger in 1 Timothy 4:12 – "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young." But today, let me alter it slightly for all of us who are older: Do not look down on those leading us today because they are young. You do so at your own peril, because today, they bring a piercing topic that is a sword, handed down from the two very first commands of God Himself.