When it comes to work Idolatry, the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. This message was given on July 31, 2016 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. The Idolatry
of Work
[ Exodus 20 & 1 John 5 ]
This Sunday:

2. Work Matters
How the Gospel Connects
Faith & Work
Summer Series at New City Church

3. 40 hours
The average adult will work
2000 hours
94,000 hours
per week
per year
over the course of life

4. If there was a way that I could not eat,
so I could work more, I would not eat. I
wish there was a way to get nutrients
without sitting down for a meal.
Elon Musk
Head of SpaceX & Telsa
Qtd. in BBC article
“

5. “Workaholism is a soul-destroying
addiction that changes people’s
personality and the values they live by.”
~ Dr Barbara Killenger

6. Human life comes with a built-in
purpose to live fully before God in
every area of life—including work.

7. “Idolatry is the most
discussed problem in
the Bible and one of
the most powerful
spiritual and intel-
lectual concepts in the
believer’s arsenal.”

8. “The relevance of
massive chunks of
Scripture hangs on
our understanding
of idolatry.”
~ David Powlison, Author & Counsellor
Christian Counseling &
Education Foundation

9. The Idolatry
of Work
[ Exodus 20 & 1 John 5 ]
This Sunday:

10. 1 And God spoke all these words saying,
Exodus 20:1-2
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of slavery.

11. 1 And God spoke all these words saying,
Exodus 20:1-2
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of slavery.
3 You shall have no other gods before
me….”

12. ~ The Apostle Paul
in Romans 1:25
“…they exchanged the
truth about God for a lie,
and worshiped and
served the creature rather
than the Creator.”

13. Worship
“Worth”-ship
=
Delighting to ascribe
to God all He’s worth.

14. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked,
be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my
people have committed two evils: they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and
hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken
cisterns that can hold no water.”
~ Jeremiah 2:12-13

15. An idol is anything we
substitute for God.

16. “Every one of us is,
even from his
mother’s womb,
a master craftsman
of idols.”
~ John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion

17. “The human heart
is a factory
of idols.”
~ John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion

18. “Idol Factory” by Douglas Williamson

20. Idolatry happens when we look
to work to give us our identity.

22. I came to NYC seven years ago at
the age of 17 to study classical
piano at the Julliard School of
Music. At once, I loved it all and
saturated myself with music. I thrust
myself into my studies, practicing,
learning, going to concerts and
thinking about the nature of art. For
this lonely, searching young girl,
music seemed to represent the best
of humanity and provide the most
meaning and integrity in a cold
empty world.

23. To identify with beauty and truth
in music then felt to me a much
more tangible and fulfilling
spiritual experience than
anything I had growing up in the
church. So I pursued it with all
that I had. It became my religion,
my mode of thinking, and my
value system…. With this sort of
dedication, I met with success
and accomplishment during my
time at school.

24. The praise I received caused
me to build my identity further
on music, and I soon made it
into an idol that ruled me. All the
while, the Lord Jesus, whom I
had accepted into my heart at
the age of six, waited patiently.
Deep down I knew that the faith
I had in him was calling me to
examine why I was worshiping
something else.

25. Idolatry happens when we look
to work to give us meaning.

26. You will not have a
meaningful life without
work, but you cannot
say that your work is
the meaning of your life.
~ Tim Keller
Every Good Endeavour

27. “I have an iron will, and all
of my will has always been
to conquer some horrible
feeling of inadequacy…. I
push past one spell of it
and discover myself as a
special human being, and
then I get to another stage
and think I'm mediocre
and uninteresting again
and again....

28. “I have an iron will, and all of my will has
always been to conquer some horrible feeling
of inadequacy…. I push past one spell of it and
discover myself as a special human being, and
then I get to another stage and think I'm
mediocre and uninteresting again and again....

29. “...My drive in life is from this horrible fear
of being mediocre. And that's always
pushing me, pushing me. Because even
though I've become somebody, I still have to
prove I'm somebody. My struggle has never
ended and it probably never will.”

30. “Their land is filled with idols; they bow
down to the work of their hands, to what
their fingers have made.”
“The idols…are your portion; indeed they
are your lot… When you cry out for help,
let your collection of idols save you!”
~ Isaiah 2:8; 57:6, 13

31. Idolatry happens when we look
to work to give us security.

32. “Those who desire to be rich
fall into temptation, into a
share, into many senseless and
harmful desires that plunge
people into ruin and
destruction. For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of
evils. It is through this craving
that some people have
wandered away from the faith
and pierced themselves with
many pangs.”
~ The Apostle Paul
in 1 Timothy 6:9ff

33. “God gives a man wealth, possessions,
and honor, so that he lacks nothing his
heart desires, but God does not enable
him to enjoy them….”
~ Ecclesiastes 6:2

34. ~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
“God cannot give
us a happiness and
peace apart from
Himself, because it
is not there. There
is no such thing.”

36. “I hope everybody
could get rich and
famous and will
have everything
they ever dreamed
of, so they will know
that it’s not the
answer.” Jim Carey

37. When it comes to work idolatry,
the heart of the problem
is a problem of the heart.

39. “The next person who
phones is a reporter. I tell
him that I’m happy about
the ranking, that it feels
good to be the best that I
can be. It’s a lie. This isn’t
at all what I feel. It’s what I
want to feel. It’s what I
expected to feel, what I tell
myself to feel. But in fact
I feel nothing….

40. “...I spend many hours
roaming the streets of
Palermo, drinking strong
black coffee, wondering
what the hell is wrong with
me. I did it — I’m the
number one tennis player on
earth, and yet I feel empty.
If being number one feels
empty, unsatisfying, what’s
the point?”

41. ~ The Apostle John in 1 John 5:20-21
“And we know that the Son of God has
come and has given us understanding, so
that we may know him who is true; and we
are in who who is true, in his Son Jesus
Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

42. The Perspective
That Makes All
The Difference
Next Sunday:

43. May you keep
yourselves from idols,
because Jesus has
given himself for you.