If you need something, where do you go first? Google, right?

Google can almost always find you something to read, or something to watch, or something to download, or something to buy. But sometimes Google can’t give you what you need. So then where do you go? To a professional. You go to a doctor (since Google and WebMD couldn’t figure out what that rash is all about). Or maybe you go to a lawyer. Or a contractor. Or a counselor.

And if the professional can’t help, then where do you go? Maybe you try a substance. Alcohol. Sleeping pills. Pakalolo. And if the substance doesn’t help, then maybe … maybe you try prayer, the Bible, or church. But when those don’t give you what you’re looking for, then you’re on to the next thing.

We just flop around from one place to the next, looking for anything to help. We’re worshiping idols. Looking to things in this world to supply what the creator of this world promised.

We’re exactly like the ancient Athenians. After Paul walked around Athens, he said: “As I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god’” (Acts 17:23).

In that culture, if you had insomnia, you would offer a sacrifice to Hypnos, the god of sleep. If you were going on a trip, you would go to Hermes, the god of the roadways. If you wanted to get pregnant, you had Eros, the god of fertility. And if you weren’t sure who to offer a sacrifice to, then you could go to the altar of the unknown God, saying, “Hey, I’ll try anything.”

But the problem is that our idols don’t work. That’s why it says in Acts that the people in Athens were always looking for something new. That’s why they felt the urge to build one more altar (to the unknown god) even though they already had 30,000 idols in a city of only 10,000 people. Because we’re never quite satisfied by our idols.

Many people in our culture worship sex. They think intimacy will fill the void they have in their lives. And when it doesn’t, they think, “Well, I need to have more sex!” And that doesn’t work, so they think “Maybe I need have better sex!” And that’s why the magazines at the supermarket checkout stands have 12 Steps to Sizzling Sex. Because we believe if we can just improve our technique, then we’ll be satisfied.

The things we worship in this world just don’t work for us. You buy a new car, and it makes you feel good about yourself … for a while. You move into a new house and it makes you feel good … for a while. But it’s like a drug. It only lasts for a little while. So we move on to the next drug.

We keep floundering around, worshiping the unknown, so Paul wants to give us something better:

What you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. (Acts 17:23-27)

We keep worshiping idols because we’re separated from God. That’s why we’re all seeking God and feeling our way toward him. Because we’ve wandered away from him.

Most people in our culture understand that, but they don’t know what the solution is.

Some people believe God is inside us, so we just need to find ourselves. You just do you, and I’ma be me. I need to find what makes me happy, and then I’ll find God. Other people believe God is in certain rules of life. If I can just follow the right health and nutrition rules, or the right dating rules, or the right career rules, or the right religious rules, then I’ll find God.

But Paul’s saying there’s something way beyond ourselves, and way beyond our rules. He says there’s a God who made the world and made us, so we don’t find him by looking inside ourselves. If he created us, that means he’s outside us. And Paul says he doesn’t need us, so we don’t find him by serving him, or sacrificing to him, or following certain rules to get to him.

The only way to find God — and to find all the things we’re looking for — is through his son. As Paul said in Romans, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32). God gave us his one and only son, who died on the cross to take away our sin, and rose from the dead to give us new life. If he started out by giving you what was most valuable to him, how could you doubt that he would give you anything else you need in life?