Surprised by Grace, Part 5 | "Grace Robbing Idols" | Tullian Tchividjian

This is part 5 of a sermon series on Jonah entitled “Surprised by Grace.”

In this sermon—“Grace Robbing Idols”—we see how we typically don’t know what we are depending on to make life worth living until we lose it. For example, we don’t know how much we’re depending on the well being of our kids to make us happy until they go off the deep end; we don’t know how much we’re depending on money to make us feel secure until we can’t pay bills; we don’t know how much we’re depending on our spouse to make us feel stable until she wants a divorce; we don’t know how much we’re depending on the approval of others to make us feel valuable until we are rejected.

We all crave meaning and security. We all long to be loved and accepted. God gave us a desire for these things. They’re not bad. But it’s when we depend on anything less than God to supply us with the living water we need that we end up dying of thirst.
So when Jonah prays from the belly of the fish in 2:8, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs”, he’s saying that idols are grace robbers.

There is, however, a fountain from which living water flows freely. And it’s this fountain alone which has the power to satisfy our deepest longings.