sermon slide deck: "the idolatry of work" (exodus 20:1-2; 1 john 5:20-21)
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The Idolatry of Work
[ Exodus 20 & 1 John 5 ]
This Sunday:
![Page 2: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Work MattersHow the Gospel Connects
Faith & WorkSummer Series at New City Church
![Page 3: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
40 hoursThe average adult will work
2000 hours
94,000 hours
per week
per year
over the course of life
![Page 4: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
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
“
![Page 5: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
“Workaholism is a soul-destroying addiction that changes people’s
personality and the values they live by.”
~ Dr Barbara Killenger
![Page 6: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Human life comes with a built-in purpose to live fully before God in every area of life—including work.
![Page 7: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
“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.”
![Page 8: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
“The relevance of massive chunks of Scripture hangs on our understanding
of idolatry.” ~ David Powlison, Author & Counsellor
Christian Counseling & Education Foundation
![Page 9: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
The Idolatry of Work
[ Exodus 20 & 1 John 5 ]
This Sunday:
![Page 10: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
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.
![Page 11: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
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 beforeme….”
![Page 12: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
~ 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.”
![Page 13: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Worship
“Worth”-ship
=Delighting to ascribe to God all He’s worth.
![Page 14: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
“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
![Page 15: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
An idol is anything we substitute for God.
![Page 16: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
“Every one of us is, even from his
mother’s womb, a master craftsman
of idols.”
~ John CalvinInstitutes of the Christian Religion
![Page 17: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
“The human heart is a factory of idols.”
~ John CalvinInstitutes of the Christian Religion
![Page 18: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
“Idol Factory” by Douglas Williamson
![Page 19: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Idolatry happens when we look to work to give us our identity.
![Page 21: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
![Page 22: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
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.
![Page 23: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
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.
![Page 24: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
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.
![Page 25: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Idolatry happens when we look to work to give us meaning.
![Page 26: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
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
![Page 27: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
“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....
![Page 28: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
“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....
![Page 29: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
“...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.”
![Page 30: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
“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
![Page 31: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Idolatry happens when we look to work to give us security.
![Page 32: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
“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
![Page 33: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
“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
![Page 34: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
~ 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.”
![Page 35: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
![Page 36: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
“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
![Page 37: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
When it comes to work idolatry, the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart.
![Page 38: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
![Page 39: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
“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….
![Page 40: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
“...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?”
![Page 41: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
~ 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.”
![Page 42: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
The Perspective That Makes All The Difference
Next Sunday:
![Page 43: Sermon Slide Deck: "The Idolatry of Work" (Exodus 20:1-2; 1 John 5:20-21)](https://reader031.vdocuments.us/reader031/viewer/2022030315/587fdb4e1a28ab58248b6639/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
May you keep yourselves from idols,
because Jesus has given himself for you.