We had a guest speaker at Woodgreen this morning (28th June): Julian Hardyman, who is Senior Pastor at Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge. He spoke on the subject of 'idols' under the title: 'Capturing the Heart'.
We tend to think of idols as wooden or stone statues worshipped by unenlightened people of a bygone age. However, as Julian showed us so clearly, we each struggle with idolatry, because an idol is anything that has replaced God as primary in our hearts. An idol is something we trust, serve and love more than God. And while we might not recognise it an idol, we all have them. Julian helpfully reminded us that we all have surface idols which are shaped by deeper idols of the heart. It is only as we identify and deal with these deeper idols that we can know true joy.
Wonderfully, Jesus fulfils all the longings of our hearts for comfort, security, power, approval and control, which so often shape the surface idols we adopt.
One of the most helpful things Julian pointed us to in his talk, were three diagnostic tools - three sets of questions - we can ask ourselves to help identify our deeper idols. Why not carve out some time to work through these tests for yourself, slowly and honestly before the Lord?
We each need our hearts to recalibrated to worship God and love Jesus. Julian gave us a great introduction and some very practical tools this morning to help us do just that.
You can download the slides from Julian's talk HERE as a pdf
You can listen to Julian's talk HERE
You can buy Julian's book on idols HERE
