“God and gods?” FBC Morning Light (12/18/2023)

Well, a good Monday morning to you. Here we are a week away from Christmas celebration, and I hope your Christmas preparations are going well, but let's ask ourselves a question regarding this. What are some of the gods that are worshipped in our culture today?

Idolatry in a Consumerist Christmas Season

As you think about that, our scripture reading this morning is in the book of Zephaniah, as well as Revelation chapter 13, reading the whole book of Zephaniah, three chapters long. But it is what I find in Zephaniah 1 that prompts me to ask the question, what are some of the gods that are worshipped in our culture today?

One of them, I think, is the god of entertainment. Entertainment. The need for being entertained is an all-controlling need, I think, in our culture. You see that everywhere. You see it in the need for having a bunch of different movie apps or entertainment apps for our phone, for our TVs, and we've got to have all kinds of channels in our cable or satellite TV dish, whatever.

But entertainment is a big thing, and coupled with that would be the whole music industry. I've observed through the years that I can get away with criticizing about anything, but if I step on somebody's toes about the kind of music or perhaps an artist in the music industry that they're particularly fond of, then that's a good way to rankle them, to get their ire raised.

The whole entertainment thing. Another one of the gods of our culture is the god of consumerism, and that's one I want to think on this morning a little bit because we're a week away from Christmas, and we ought to be celebrating the birth of our Savior.

We ought to be really endeavoring to spend more time in worship and adoration of our God and of his Christ, but the whole Christmas season has been so co-opted by the culture and is driven by consumerism that it's very easy to forget about any extra worship.

We need to have all kinds of time for other things in the holiday season, but not worship. In fact, too many times that gets marginalized because we have so much to do to get ready for Christmas. I think that's a problem.

Zephaniah’s Warning Against Syncretism

The reason I ask that is because of what I read in Zephaniah chapter 1. The Lord says in verse 4, I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The Lord is going to punish his people in Judah and the city of Jerusalem.

Why? He explains. He says, I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests. The Lord is addressing here a problem of what we call syncretism.

The next verse illustrates even more clearly, I think, what syncretism is all about. He said, those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops, those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom.

You see what the Lord is talking about here. Here are his people. Those who are supposed to be worshiping him exclusively, according to the first two commandments in the Decalogue. You are to have no other gods before him, you're not to make any graven images.

Yet, what have the people of Jerusalem and Judah done? They have added other gods to the worship of Yahweh. They're still trying to worship him. You see that in the middle of verse 5, those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, by Yahweh, but they've also made altars to Baal and set up idols of Baal, and worshipping, swearing by Milcom, another one of the ancient gods.

This is classic syncretism. It's, on the one hand, claiming to be the people of God, but yet adding into our worship the worship of other gods. In our day, Baal worship doesn't exist in our country. Milcom, it's a foreign language to us.

But there are gods that, if we're not careful and alert, we can end up setting up in our hearts as idols, as I mentioned just a couple. The god of entertainment, the god of consumerism, another one would be the god of sports.

It's amazing how readily Christian people can forego the Lord's house on the Lord's day because of their favorite team playing a football game. What does that communicate? I'm not talking about a one-off thing.

I wouldn't approve of it, I wouldn't think that that's a right priority, but a consistent thing where I forsake the Lord's house, I give up faithfulness in worship of God so that I can see my team play, I can watch my game on TV.

Or I get ticked off at the pastor because he's criticized the style of music that I like the best. Or I get miffed because there's this emphasis that downplays the need of giving gifts and buying stuff and all that kind of thing on Christmas.

Let's be honest with ourselves. We live in a culture that has established gods, other gods, and Christians can be vulnerable to accepting the worship of those gods in our lives. What this passage is telling us is we got to avoid that.

We end of it all, verse 6 says, those who have turned their back, those who have engaged in syncretism, though they claim to be worshiping Yahweh while worshiping Baal and Milcom as well, the Lord says, in essence, you have turned your back from following the Lord and you have not sought the Lord nor inquired of him.

I think what the Lord is saying here is, as long as you have these other gods in your life that you're worshiping, you may give lip service to worshiping me and inquiring of me and praying to me, but in reality, I'm not hearing any of it because these other gods are really occupying your heart.

Let's be alert to this. Let's be careful that we don't succumb to the siren calls of the gods of our culture in our day. Father, deliver us, we pray, from such things, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, listen, I hope your week gets off to a good start.

You have a great Monday. May the Lord bless you.