AfterThoughts: September 15, 2024

September 15, 2024
Athens
Acts 17

This week, Pastor David taught a message from Acts that reflects on Paul's continuing journey to spread the Gospel. Two important questions we unpacked were:

Do we even notice the idols of our land?
Have the idols and worldviews of our day taken up residence in our own heart?

GOING DEEPER:

Paul walked around Athens and saw idol worship at the very center of the culture. He was overwhelmed, deeply distressed, and heartbroken for the vast lostness of the people. What about us today? Do we ever notice the idols of our own country? Are our hearts broken for our lost family members, friends, and neighbors?
Pastor David shared that idolatry knows no extinction. The objects of our heart’s affections change from century to century, but the temptation remains the same. How can this truth about idols propel you, like Paul, to share Jesus, the only One who can fill the God-shaped void?
Our idols always overpromise and underdeliver. Have the idols and worldviews of our day taken up residence in your heart? Who has your heart’s affections? What are you most passionate about? What can you not live without? How can you change your schedule this week to make more time for meditation and confession and to pray for God to reveal the idols that have captured your heart?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

An idol is simply “anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.” Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24–26

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