God says in the first of the ten commandments these words, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me." And a few verses later in the second commandment, God continues the theme, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name." These commandments prohibit idolatry. Not exactly an everyday word in our lexicon.

But idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing. Idolatry is giving Godlike status to something or someone that isn't God, whether it be a person, an ideology, an institution, or whatever. An idol is anything or anyone we ultimately look to, lean on, or trust more than God for security, provision, hope, our identity, or peace.

We're in week three of our "Let The King Descend" series where we're considering politics and the way of Jesus, and when this series first began to percolate, I knew if we were going to deal with politics authentically, then we had to talk about idolatry. Because in our time, and maybe in every time, politics is a rival God that is not content in the second chair. It wants to slither its way into the first chair. So politics can become an idol, and I believe politics has become an idol in the souls of many well-meaning Christians...From my chair, I believe many Christians—to the right politically and to the left politically—have put their hope in political power.

A few years ago, somebody said to me, "Are you trying to turn us into a left-leaning church?" And I said, "No, I'm trying to pry the idol of politics out of our hands." So today, I hope to once again double down on Jesus Christ as King, and His Kingdom as ultimate reality. And in doing so, put politics in its place.