The Idol of Relationships

Series: Desires of the Heart

Speaker: Jason Williams

In the sermon this past Sunday, we looked at another example of how a good thing can become an idol when we allow it to become the ultimate desire of our hearts. In Genesis 22, we saw how God tested Abraham to refine his desires and expose the ultimate object of his love when He called Abraham to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved deeply. God was not calling Abraham to end his love for his son but, instead, calling Abraham to love and trust Him more than anything else on earth. In this example, we see how our love for others, when it exceeds our love for God, can become an idol. Idolizing the people we love is destructive because it imposes a set of expectations on the other person that only God, Himself, can fulfill. When we do this, we crush those we love under the weight of our expectations that they will make us happy and satisfy our needs and, at the same time, we remain empty and unfulfilled. As with Abraham, God isn’t calling us to stop loving others; He is calling us to love Him first and foremost. When we make God the object of our greatest affections, we are released to love others sacrificially, with no strings attached. This is the most powerful way to love.