Ephesians 5:3-8 Matthew 10:17-23

America had the reputation of being a very good country. People all over the world looked to us because of our virtue. But in recent years we get reports in the news media that our reputation has been sullied and people equate us with that nation that promotes pornography and has entertainment that is sordid. There is an ugliness that is now connected with us.

I want to invite you all to go with me on a journey in the month of August in doing what we can in our own world to bring back the goodness of our country. You are good people. Many of you remember when the reputation of the country was good and virtue was upheld - virtue being good habits, good morality, good value systems. It seems to me that the difficulty has actually become a violation of the first commandment. Somewhere along the way, we have been worshiping false gods. The first commandment is& “I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.” Somewhere along the way the country has put many things before God. In fact, idolatry might be defined as “a sin of the heart” where we place other things higher than we place our loyalty and worship of the one true God.

Things that come to my mind as I read the newspaper, watch news programs on television and listen to you talk, our idols are things promoted by the entertainment industry and the economy (money). Even the worship of the self has become common with all the self-help books, seminars and recordings available which in a sense implies that we can handle life on our own and we don't need God to do it. Let's look this morning more specifically at one of these  the entertainment industry  we will discover that there has actually grown up in our country a cult of celebrity. Have you noticed that? Celebrities are held up to abnormal degrees of admiration, abnormal degrees of adulation, almost even worship. It reminds me of the old Roman times. Historically, this is interesting. If a Roman general would come back from a major victory, his legions would march into a town before him and he would follow at the rear in a gorgeously decked out chariot. He would have a slave of his own choosing standing behind him. The job of the slave was to keep telling him, as he went through the cities and all the citizens gave him applause and adulation, “Remember, you are just human.” “Remember, you are just human.” This was done so that his ego wouldn't get so big and this would also get him out of fostering a cult of celebrity for himself. Our entertainers could use a dose of that!

In one of the churches that I served, Redeemer Church, I had a young woman there, a very nice person and very lovely. I loved her husband. He was the neatest guy. But she was absolutely wild about Elvis Presley. No matter where Elvis was playing in the country, she would go there (at great cost) to see his opening act. She collected his scarves. It seems that in Elvis's act, he would whip out a scarf and wipe his forehead of sweat and then throw it into the audience. She always managed to get into the first or second row and could leap higher than most basketball stars and would grab these handkerchiefs. So she made it a big collection. I don't know how her husband put up with it. I really don't. She clearly loved Elvis more than him. I wasn't so sure she didn't love Elvis more than God. She certainly wouldn't pay God as much attention as she paid Elvis.

As we've witnessed all the excitement about Michael Jackson the past month, it seems to me there is a cult of Jackson as well. I think Elvis & Michael needed somebody behind them whispering in their ear, “You are only human. You are just human.” But society and the media have made them out to be bigger than life. What is behind this cult of celebrity? As I see it, there is a weakness in people who need to raise these entertainers up to such a level of adulation and admiration. Their own weakness is in self-esteem so they attempt to identify with the celebrity and in a sense, borrow their fame and take it to themselves. We'll see this with the costumes or clothing that they wear, imitating the star, the shirts with the names of celebrities on them or something of that nature. It is because their own self-esteem is lacking that they have to borrow significance from the celebrity. At its worst level, we have stalkers of celebrities. These people try to possess the celebrity. It is a sickness and we recognize it that way. No person deserves that kind of adulation. No person deserves worship. Only God deserves worship.

Neuroscientists recently discovered that within the brain of each person, there is a God-vacuum. There is a place in the hippocampus of our brain that makes us desire connection with God. It is a place that seeks something or someone greater than human life. Something or someone spiritual. All people and all nations and all countries have always sought God in some form. But I am afraid in our country, we fill this emptiness with drugs and alcohol and the cult of celebrity. We fill it with exercise and self-help books and other things rather than filling the God-shaped hole in our soul and mind with God. I want to encourage you this Sunday and throughout the month of August to join me as we try to help other people come back to that which is most essential in religious life, most essential in life PERIOD! That is putting the one true God above everything else. It is easy to succumb to the influence of the media. It is easy to succumb to seeing others as greater than us. But you are filled with the Holy Spirit. This God-shaped emptiness or hole in your psyche can be filled with Jesus Christ and His life, His grace, His Holy Spirit. So you don't need to chase after something else. You need the one true God and can help others find Him.