Breaking Idols: Rebuilding the Altars of Worship

In this powerful episode of Relentless Pursuit, we dive deep into the hidden impact of idolatry on our spiritual lives and explore how misplaced priorities can hinder our relationship with God. Drawing from biblical stories like the defeat of Israel at AI (Joshua 7) and Elijah's bold confrontation with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18), we unpack the dangers of allowing idols—whether tangible or intangible—to take precedence over God's will.

Through a combination of scripture, real-life examples, and insightful reflections, we discuss practical steps to remove idols from our hearts and realign our lives with God's purpose. The episode focuses on the importance of repairing our spiritual altars, reestablishing a heart of true worship, and inviting God's peace and presence to transform our lives.

As we navigate the pitfalls of modern idolatry, we encourage you to reflect on what might be standing between you and a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. Whether it's an unhealthy attachment to materialism, success, or even our own desires, the message is clear: we must remove these distractions and restore our focus on worshiping the One true God.

Join us for this eye-opening and thought-provoking discussion aimed at breaking free from the bondage of idolatry and living in alignment with God's will for our lives.

Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with all our latest episodes and join us on this journey of spiritual growth and transformation.

Transcript

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Welcome back to Relentless Pursuit. I'm so excited for what God is doing. This is Relentless Pursuit, where we pursue after God as He pursues after us. And so I wanted to talk about this topic that's been on my heart of idolatry. Idolatry. It's something that I believe a lot of people struggle with. But at the same time, it's one of those issues that are underlining where it's not hitting to the surface. And that as we go through all these topics that we've been discussing this season, I, I believe that this is one of the more important ones. And It leads us this understanding of warfare Because there was a story in the Bible where it's the people of Israel, the Hebrew people, they, they conquered Jericho and they're ready to go forward and continue to achieve the promised land. Let's say it like that. They're going forward to achieve the promised land to fulfill the promise that God had in their life. But They attacked this place called AI. And what ended up happening is that they lost. And so in that moment you could feel like what the heck happened. God promised us this land. We were just in the wilderness for 40 years. We just went through this battle in Jericho where it wasn't even us that did it because we marched around seven times for seven days and The walls fell down. And so God obviously is with us. What happened here? And so if we examine it and take a closer look, it says, Joshua then was like, yo, what's up? And called the people up. And there's this one person that was hiding idols, gold under in, on, in his tent. And it's things like that, where we have hidden issues, hidden things that become idols to us. And so let's go into it. God God's purpose in naming idolatry it when God reveals idolatry in our life or in one's life, it's not to shame us. But it's to bring us to the healing and wholeness that we need to move forward. And so the thing is that misplaced priorities keep us distance distant from his presence. And so for an example the Philistine. Philistines when Philistines, when they took the arc of the covenant and they put it in the temple of day gun they, they went to bed. And I know I, I went through this story before but when they went to bed and the i the idol fell over and then again they placed it back up. The next day the idol fell over again. It agitated their idols. And shook their foundation. Their response was to move God's presence instead of dealing with the idolatry. See what happens is when you have God's presence in the same atmosphere as your idol begins to be agitated. It begins to shake. And so your idol will become uncomfortable in the place that it is because the light or the presence of God consumes anything that it's near. And so we can uncover our idols, but we have to displace them. We have to remove them. We have to get rid of them. And so the thing is that a lot of times our past happens to turn into an idol is that we get so stuck in our past that it becomes a place of residence and not a place of reference in our past. It shapes us. And so I'm not negating what happened in our past, but we can't dwell in it. We can't be so focused on what happened then that, that we missed the miracle now. We can't be so focused on what God did before, but now we're, he's doing a new thing. And so sometimes in that. In that not wanting to move from your past, it's because you are afraid and have fear of being fully known. And in that fear of being fully known, it can it can hinder and stop the love of God fully flowing through you. And some people, certain people, stop, let's say it this way, if you everything. God, you won't love me the same way. And so we become self present preserved in this. And we try to hide from God. And when it ends up happening is we build idols to self idols of idolatry, idols of fear. And it's because of our insecurities of ourselves. But let's continue to go forward. Idolatry in worship and structure. See, there's a lot of times too. And the reason why I want to get to these pressure points is because I believe that Christians have been so idolatrous lately. And that we have a lot have fell into this theology. Or version of theology that we have created idols of pastors, idols of men, idols of churches. And sometimes we idolize structures, schemes, and systems, forgetting they are powerless without God. See, we have these church habits, like singing, sitting, and preaching, and it becomes routine to us, but we don't invite God's presence to intervene with it. See, an example is that in 2 Chronicles 14, 2 7 in the NLT version, it says, King Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of God. He removed the foreign altars and pagan shrines. He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded the people of Judah to seek the Lord and the God of their ancestors and to obey his law and commandments. Asa also removed the pagan shrines as well as the incense altars from every one of Judah's town. So Asa's kingdom enjoyed a period of peace. See, real quick, let me add this. So when we remove our idols, we will have peace in ourself. When we remove the idols of our temple, we will of ourself, when we remove the idols of self, we will then have peace internally. Then that means whatever chaos happens externally, whatever warfare happens externally, we have peace through it because we've removed the idols and placed priority on God's spirit. So let's continue reading. During these peaceful years, he was able to build the fortifying towns throughout Judah. No one tried to war against him at this time. For the Lord was giving him rest from his enemies. Azen told the people of Judah let us build towns, fortify them with walls, towers, gates, and bars. The land is ours because we sought the Lord. Our God and he's given us peace on every side. So they went ahead with these projects and brought them to completion. So we see what Aza did. He said, guys, we need to remove the idols. We need to tear down the idols. And he did right in removing the idols. He did right in commanding the people of Judah to seek God. And he did right by building fortified cities, meaning that they, he built cities that were fortified by God. And so whatever tried to infiltrate after the fact, whatever tried to bring compromise after had to be invited. And so we remove what was, because what is now fortified. But the only way, Get into the fortified cities, or let's say it this way. The only way that a Christian who has given their life to the Lord to comfort to build up idols again is they compromise on the holiness, compromise on righteousness, compromise on the values that God has. And when we compromise that we are inviting idolatry. We are inviting the compromise of our belief system. We are inviting the things that were. Outside of the fortified cities into the fortified cities. And so Aza did right in the eyes of God. But then we have to seek God after we remove the idols and we invite after we remove the idols, we invite peace and we live in prosperity and see, but an example of this, doing this the wrong way is if he never removed these idols and just built the fortified cities is It's like a tower of Babel because it's built by human unity and self exaltation, but it's disconnected from God. See, what they were doing was awesome. They were building something that was awesome. Was this tower that was supposed to reach the heavens and even God said that they can do anything that they put their mind to because they are unified. And so God seen this, but it was disconnected from God. And so what ended up happening is God began To change their languages so they became confused and see idolatry seeks to build without god's provision See we're going to keep going because this is the result of idolatry in the bible and we have elijah Versus the prophets of bill and so elijah challenged the idolatry by proving god's power When he was on this, when he was on the the mount carmel he let's i'm gonna Let's, Rewind in first Kings 18 18 in the NLT version It says I have made no trouble for Israel Elijah replied you and your family the troublemakers for you have refused to obey the commands Of the Lord and have worshipped the images of Baal. So we see here that Elijah was Challenging King Ahab who was married to Jezebel. We see that he Elijah was getting ready to, the Bible says, shut up the mouths of heaven because he was going to, there was going to be a drought in the land and only through Elijah's voice would there be rain. And so we see that there was this holy confrontation on the Mount Carmel of people that were Believing in idol, in, in I and practicing in idolatry. And so we had the prophets of Baal that tried these rich rituals and self harm, and they built this altar to their gods. And, but he, the gods didn't respond because Elijah repaired the altar. showing that rebuilding worship of the true God is key to restoration. See, we have this altar that is built for idols and then we have another altar that is built for con and the difference for each of these is that one was built to worship God. And the other one was built to worship idols. And so one answered by fire, the other one was silent. Like I said in the beginning, we have the When God's presence enters the room, it begins to shake and agitate what is there. And sometimes or not sometimes, our idols seem powerless when in comparison to God. When God enters in, the idols begin to seem powerless. In fact, I would even say it sucks the power from the room because God is there. And Yeah, let's keep going. The dangers of idolatry of self, the first one idolatry of self. We have, we're in. We live in a dangerous society is where we say you have to grind. You have to focus on you. You have to speak your truth. And we focus so much on your own self and then we focus so much on, on you. You me I, and that it becomes a priority in our life before everything else. See, but the thing is that pride blocks the prayers because God resists the proud. And we see idolatry can disconnect us from God creating these false altars and empty worship. And so this, we are edifying ourself. We are, let me say it this way. We are building up ourself. We are exalting ourself. And in a way, worshiping ourself because we believe we have to prioritize who we are. I bel And see, there are times when in doing so, in Creating yourself as an idol where we then enter into a realm of rebellion and disobedience Because God will call us even where we are. God will call us out of where we are and And the temptation of that is that we won't follow God's word. But the, when we don't follow God's word, that's an act of disobedience, which is rebellion. And see, rebellion invites curses and partners with idolatry by exalting yourself over God because you're saying you matter more than what God has for you. You, your opinion matters more than God's voice does. Your comfortabilities, your comfort, your routine, your disciplines matter more than God calling you out. Abraham, you might've wanted to stay, but because you outweighed or your God's voice outweighed your own opinion, you have to leave your father's house and go into a land in which I'm promising you. Amen. The altar of the Lord. And see, this is where we get into this place of, okay, so we have idols. We have idols. And whether it's an idol of self, whether it's an idol of something materialistic, whether it's an idol that, that is video games, whatever it could be, whatever you prioritize over God. And we have these idols, but then we get to the point of like, how did idols, how did North American Christianity become or enter into this idol worship? We have Here's the thing, is that there is a lack of the altars of God. See, the problem is that there are broken altars all over America. The problem that is there, there are out of order, there are altars that lack the power, that lack the presence. There are altars that when we look at First Kings, when we look at the story of Elijah, when he put the altar in order and he poured the sacrifice of water over it. Quote unquote baptisms when he called on the fire There was an altar there when there was an interaction between heaven and earth. There was an altar when there was a God was displaying his power, his splendor, his wonder. There was an altar. And because there is a lack of altars in America, we have fell into idolatry, and built up these idols that men has forgotten. created idols that have been made by man's hand. And we've built these because of the lack of the altars of the Lord. And so anything that is disconnecting anything, I'm sorry, disconnecting anything from Jesus creates idols. So when we disconnect ourselves from God, we are creating our idols of self when we are Disconnecting our churches from God. We are creating idols of churches when we are disconnecting our pastors from God We are then creating idols of our pastors, and we have to understand even the Christian things can become idols to us because we have disconnected them from God. Everything, our source, is of God, and that there, there is an altar that needs to be put back in order for God's spirit and God's presence to consume whatever is there. And so we have to rebuild the altars, and here's an example. Is that is Elijah repaired the altar before calling God? God's desire is to consume our lives to the point where there is nothing that remains but Him. Now, this goes into, okay, Nate, you're talking about repairing altars. You're saying that idol, idolatry stems from a lack of of altars. Okay so now if we repair an altar or we prepare the altar for the Lord. What now? Where is that altar? How, what does that look like? See, the thing is, the Bible says in Proverbs 4. 23, it says, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the courses of life. Or the Bible says, Out of the abundance of heart, the mouth speaks. There it says that the treasures are in your heart. And so the hebrew word for heart is leb which translates to the inner man mind will emotions and so true worship and then let's go into this true worship is worshiping in spirit and truth is not limited to song melodies but the way of life therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in romans 12 1 brothers and sisters by the mercies of god present your bodies dedicating all yourself set apart as A living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God. Okay, so now what? What does that mean? Why? Why did you get into that? Because there's a second portion of the scripture that says, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship. Now where does worship happen? Worship happens as presenting your body as a living sacrifice. Where does sacrifice happen on the altar? So what you're saying, Nate is that in order to prepare an altar, you have to prepare your heart for worship? That's exactly what I'm saying. Your heart must be prepared because your altar is you. You are the temple of God. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And in order to prepare your altar, your alignment with God has to be restored. That is you preparing the altar in order for when you restore your alignment with him, God's power will begin to flow and the idolatry that has been so rampant in today's society will become almost nothing. When we repair the altars in America, when we repair the temple, even when we repair the places of worship. The sensitivity to God's spirit will begin to be more direct and the power of God will begin to work through us. See, true worship exalts and magnifies God for who He is. True worship is a response. To who he is Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God present your body Dedicating all yourself set apart as living sacrifice holy and well pleasing to God which is rational logical intelligent Act of worship so presenting your body is an act of worship and let me rephrase that presenting your body as Holy unto God is an act of worship See you are prepared. You have prepared your body because it is holy. And that the word you have prepared yourself consecrated yourself. You have fasted. You have prayed. You have read your words. You have prepared your body to present it to God saying, Lord, here I am. You can use me. Aligning yourself to God and that is the form of worship. Worshipping God is in spirit and in truth. It is in your innermost being in which the abundance of life flows from. And see, my final reflections is that there are a lot of people that externally deflect without internally reflecting. We often deflect outwardly, meaning we say no, that can't be me. No. You're the problem. You're the issue. You, but neglect the internal reflection saying, okay, this has happened before. Why am I in the same situation that I've been in? Maybe I have idols that I haven't gotten rid of. Maybe I have my alters out of order. Maybe I have to have the realignment and restructure my placement and my posture with God. See, God calls us to live in spirit and in truth, magnifying him and with every part of our being. And see, in this way we look at the Bible, and because the Bible is life, the Bible is the only book that reads us as we read it. And see the Bible when we are in bondage becomes blank. Because it doesn't speak to us in our bondage. It speaks to us from our freedom. And when we yield ourselves to God, the Bible becomes revelation in life. When we have idols, the Bible becomes powerless. It just words on a paper, but when we build up and repair the altar of God, it becomes revelation to us. Meaning it hits us in the innermost being. It hits us in our heart and our heart becomes open and softened to whatever God has for us. And we will be willing to be obedient to his voice and what he says. Opening the eyes of our heart, Lord. Open the eyes that we may see where we are lacking alters Amen, thank you guys for joining this week's episode We just slammed on the brakes But I'm so grateful For this opportunity to come before you guys I know that you guys could be listening to thousands of other podcasts But you have joined me today, and I'm grateful for everybody that has joined me Remember repair the altar of your heart. God wants an interaction with you. This is relentless pursuit because he pursues us, but there has to be our response in pursuing him. And so I thank you guys don't forget to follow share and subscribe to all our social media platforms God is so good. And last week I was feeling sick. So I didn't get to record but feeling sick I mean I was in bed like I could not move it was it was sad actually, but I'm back I'm grateful and we will This starting neck this Thursday be recording or live streaming prayers. We will pray from four 30 to actually whatever time I'm tired of centrally. But I believe God is gonna break some things off of us, break some things off of me. And so join me Thursday mornings at four 30. With that being said, thank you guys. I'll see you guys next week.