THe Golden calf: The heart that is hindered

Most of us know the Old Testament sotry of worship. The Golden calf when Moses went up to get the ten commandemnts. Israel and its people melted all the Gold and other medals they had and forged a calf out of gold and worshipped it. Even the total heart behind it might have not been totally wrong. After all you cannot wroship something you cannot see right? They just wanted something visible. But it is not that simple. "Sin is fundamentally idolatrous. I do wrong things because my heart desires something more than the Lord." Paul david tripp from his book Instruments in the hands of the Redeemer. We will always worship something. The Lord or everything else. Anything that draws our focus or any desires that come before our desire of Christ is an idol. Why is idolatry such an important issue? "Worship is more fundamental to our essential nature than the pain, pressures or pleasure of our experiences. what we worship determines our responses to all our experiences." (Tripp 67) We were created to worship. We were created to glorify God. Anything that gets in the way of our ultimate purpose on this earth and in our lives is devastating. Even as I write this it is convicting me. I do not believe we have a big enough sense of urgency about idolatry in our own lives. How many of us can truly say that Christ is at the core of our desires. Some of us may say he is but does our actions, time and finances back that up. Where do we invest? Where do I spend the most time? What do I write the most or biggest checks to every week? Some of us would naturally say work we spend hte most time at work . I am sure you are asking so your saying work is an idle? What I am asking why do you work? To fulfill your simplest needs? Or is it for everything else that comes with it? The glitz the glamour. when was the last time we offered our work day up to God? THe last time we went to work thankful for the opportunity that it porvides my daily needs and from that and after that I get to give and bless others. Where we invest our heart will follow. We cannot serve two masters. It is impossible so if were not in total service of our Lord we are living for and serving for other things. AMERICA this is us. We do not get it we cannot get it. If we did tehre would not be so many hurting and so many needs even on our blocks right now. The churches would not be empty. Why because our lives our checkbooks, our time would reflect what we say our desire for the Lord is. I am not sure we value this thought near enough. If we put our time, money and heart where our mouths are things would change. Revival would happen. The Church would be the hope. We would feed the needy, resuce hearts from so much pain and terror.. Free those in bondage, rescue so man y from fear. WE WOULD BE THE PROVIDER. We were created for one purpose and one purpose alone. How much of your life do you invest there?