Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
Tonight I watched the Disneyland 60th Anniversary television special. I remember that as a teenager I watched the Disneyland 25th Anniversary special. I had been to Walt Disney World several times in my life by then, but I could not imagine going to Disneyland. I really wanted to go. If I could only go to Disneyland!
Well beyond my teenage years, I have had the opportunity to go to Disneyland numerous times, even worked there during conferences and for three weeks just prior to the opening of Disney’s California Adventure.
But again, during the television special tonight, I wanted to go to Disneyland. It would be fair to say that I was coveting a trip to Disneyland.
Coveting leads to idolatry, and as I always say, “Idolatry leads to death.”
Now, I was not worshipping Disneyland, and I am confident to say that Disney theme parks are not my idol. But it is not always easy to tell the difference between coveting and idolatry.
Probably the most deadly idolatry in America today is to become so dominated by the desire for wealth and worldly possession that we cannot yield ourselves to love and obedience to God in Christ. The temptation for riches acts as a trap.
“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9).
Paul tells us that the covetous person who is an idolater cannot have any inheritance in the kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5). According to Paul, the supreme tragedy of our earthly lives would be to be so absorbed with the material goods of this life that we fail to lay hold of the eternal inheritance which God has prepared for us in Jesus.
As a body of believers, we need to deal faithfully and fearlessly with people who have wrong attitudes toward the getting and spending of money. As God’s people, we are to “flee these things.” We are to flee the love of money and material things and “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11).
May God give us all steadfast faith as we fight the on-going battle against the temptation to follow the shallow and superficial ways of the world.
In the love of Christ,
Pastor Hartwig