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Counterfeit Gods

Counterfeit Gods. When empty promises let us down. Counterfeit Gods and empty promises. When love is not all you need The seduction of success Money changes everything The power and the glory Winning through weakness. What is a counterfeit God?. Old Testament: golden calves

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Counterfeit Gods

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  1. Counterfeit Gods When empty promises let us down

  2. Counterfeit Gods and empty promises When love is not all you need The seduction of success Money changes everything The power and the glory Winning through weakness

  3. What is a counterfeit God? Old Testament: golden calves New Testament: culture of Greco-Roman world Anything that takes theplace of God in our lives. We might say we don’t have idols...

  4. You shall have no other gods beforeme. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything… You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Ex 20:3 - 5

  5. Obvious ones: Openly destructive & addictive. More subtle: the good things webuild our happiness on. Things we turn to for comfort and security. Intellectual, physical, cultural, psychological & always spiritual.

  6. Idols of the heart are often revealed when life gets tough. What are the things we cling to? Idols are the things we love, trust and obey outside of God. Love: God is our true love. John 3:16 Other gods are thethings that give us falsevalue and significance.

  7. Trust & Hope: God is our true saviour. Put our hope in the living God, the Saviour of all men…1 Tim 4:9 We make sacrifice to other gods to appease them. For security or confidence. Obey: God is our only Lord & Master. What we love and trustwe also serve. What controls us?

  8. Our deepest desires can become idols. Take delight in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 Give them over to their hearts desires. Rom 1:24 God may ask us to give up something precious to reveal our counterfeit Gods.

  9. So today… Is love all we need? Human condition is a search for true love. Jacob and Leah (and Rachel) A study in how we can turn romantic love and marriage into counterfeit Gods.

  10. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month Laban said to him, ‘Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.’ 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder one was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 

  11. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 17 Leah had weakeyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, ‘I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.’ 19 Laban said, ‘It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.’ 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days

  12. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 to him because of his lovefor her. 21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.’ 22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 

  13. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant. 25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?’ 26 Laban replied, ‘It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder one. 

  14. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.’ 28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for

  15. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.’

  16. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon. 34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ So he was named Levi.

  17. Genesis 29: 15 - 35 35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ So she named him Judah.Then she stopped having children.

  18. Jacob asks for Rachel… v20seven years seemed like only a few days v21 Give me my wife… I want to lie with her Loss of family love, family home, inheritance. No sense of God’s love. Maybe Rachel will fix it?

  19. Inner emptiness made him vulnerable. Laban saw this and took advantage. How was Jacob so gullible in this exchange? Love can act like a drug to help us escape the reality of our lives. He hoped Rachel would be his saviour.

  20. In our culture sexual love is over elevated. You’re nobody until somebody loves you… Sold a fantasy that our soul mate will heal everything in us that is wrong. A counterfeit for the divine ideal. All spiritual & emotional needs focussed on them.

  21. We are designed that our love object is God. No one else is qualified for that role. And then… We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

  22. Society’s extreme remedy… Free and opportunistic sex – without emotion. Physically and emotionally unsatisfying. Multiple sexual partners leave deep scars on our hearts bringing pain many years later.

  23. Society’s retreat… Relationship aversion. Fear of commitment drives us to independence. Independence is a fierce counterfeit God fuelled by self-pity.

  24. Leah’s pain. Longed to be adored, to have significance, to be loved. She had babies… v32 Surely my husband will love me now. v34 Now at last my husband will become attached to me. Equally disastrous.

  25. Men use love to get sex; Women use sex to get love. Both are flawed. Both are counterfeit godsthat will dissatisfy. Burden on our relationships is too much. Our idolised loved ones aren’t perfect. We are looking to them for redemption: tell me my life has purpose and meaning. Only Jesus can do that.

  26. Leah’s breakthrough… v35 This time I will praise the Lord. No mention of Jacob or children. Jacob & Laban stole her life. With God she got it back. She was unloved but Godloved her. Jesus is the real bridegroom. Husband of the husbandless. Father of the fatherless.

  27. God did something through her. Jesus – the son of Leah. No beauty Is 53:2 Not received John 1:11 Abandoned at the cross Why? To be our true saviour. His love detaches our heartsfrom other would-be saviours.

  28. Jesus came to the worldto show God’s perfect love. God did not send his Soninto the world to condemnthe world, but to save theworld through him. John 3:17 Love for the unloved &overlooked. The only person who satisfiesour heart’s desire is Jesus.

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