This teaching is adapted from session 1 of Lester Sim’s Equip course in July 2026.
Session 1: Idols and Lordship
What to Expect from This Course
- A correction to the common but wrong narrowing of ‘worship’ as a ministry of music
- An understanding of the natural flow of worship from the inside out
- A working worldview to interpret our response to the Lordship of Christ in all aspects of life
Overview of Sessions
Session 1: Idols and Lordship (heart)
Session 2: Narrow Worship: The kiss of the hand (John 4:23)
Session 3: Broad Worship: Service (Romans 12:1)
Session 4: Worship & Witness.
The movement of the course is from the heart outward until worship overflows into evangelism.
Modern Misunderstanding of Worship
- Modern church culture often equates ‘worship’ with music.
- Worship has shifted from an all-of-life response to God into something many associate only with Sunday singing.
- Worship entails more, costs more, is never outsourced but is inescapable.
Key Scripture
John 4:4–18 (Jesus and the Samaritan woman)
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.
18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Redefining Worship
‘Worship is the act of ascribing ultimate value to something in a way that engages and energizes your whole being.’
-Timothy Keller
Everyone worships something. The only choice we get is what we worship, and it is not often the god(s) a person may claim to pledge their allegiance to.
‘The question is not whether you worship, but what you worship.’
-James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom
‘The human heart is an idol factory’
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods
We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.
An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.’
Surface Idols and Deeper Idols
E.g. of Surface idols: relationships, work, success, family, money.
4 Deeper idols (after Keller):
- Approval
- Power
- Comfort
- Control
Answer the following question:
“If God removed one thing from your life tomorrow, what would most tempt you to anger, despair or meaninglessness”
Follow up questions:
- Why?
- What would that say about you?
- What would you fear most?
Self-Reflection
Look at some of the surface idols on the throne of your hearts from what we have done thus far.
What is/are the deeper idol(s) underneath them all?
Do you see any trends/patterns?
The Deepest Idol
The deepest idol of all is ourselves.
Genesis 3 demonstrates humanity replacing God’s rule with self-rule. Augustine described sinful humanity as ‘Incurvatus in Se’ (‘curved inward on oneself’).
How Seriously God Takes Idolatry
Deuteronomy 13:6–11
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. 9 You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.
The passage above warns us that idolatry…
- Rarely arrives as open rebellion
- Comes as a quiet invitation from someone we trust
- Shifts our allegiance just enough so that obedience to God becomes negotiable
A God Who Confronts Us and Our Idols
- Mark 10 (Rich Young Ruler)
- Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac)
- Exodus 34:14
God lovingly confronts us and our idols because He alone deserves the throne and alone truly satisfies.
Living Water vs Broken Cisterns
John 4:13–15
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
“If we look to some created thing to give us the meaning, hope, and happiness that only God himself can give, it will eventually fail to deliver and break our hearts.”
“God in his goodness confronts us and our idols because without him on the throne, we run from thing to thing, idol to idol, thirsty, hungry for fulfillment and satisfaction, yet constantly starved and unfulfilled.”
Reinstating the True King
Learning from King David who understood that although he was Israel’s king, God alone was the true King.
Psalm 24:7–10
7 Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Reflection Questions
- What do you run to first when you are stressed, discouraged or tired?
- What, if removed from your life, would make life feel empty?
- What sits on the throne of your heart?
- Which deeper idol (approval, power, comfort or control) might lie beneath it?
The Worship Revolution 