March 5
Sin as Idolatry by Pastor Jeff Cloeter

Sin is a loaded word.  For those outside the faith, it’s a funny and dated religious term.  For Christians, we repeat it so often that it loses its bite.  Scripture reveals that sin is worse than we know.  Jesus is so serious about it that he says, “If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.”  What is it about sin that’s so fatal it would require Jesus to go to the cross?  

This Lent we do a soul examination, studying all the ways God describes the complex of sin. Today we explore sin in the form of idolatry.  The problem is worse than we know, which makes our Savior greater than we can imagine.  

“Idolatry is when good things become the best.”

“That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.” –  Martin Luther, Large Catechism

Exodus 32:1-14; Matthew 26:14-16, 47-50