Luke 19:40

²⁷And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. Judges 8:27

After God had accomplished much for Israel through Gideon, he set up an ephod as an outward sign of all that God had done. The people "whored after it" similarly to what happened with the galden calf in the wilderness. The difference here is that Gideon was well intentioned. He built the ephod so that people would remember what God had done for them. The problem is that God didn't tell him too

Here's the relevance. Do we in our worship services become guilty of the same thing? Do we build elaborate sets and creative worship illustrations without God's input? We need to make sure that watever we do, we invite God to the planning. Otherwise the experience of the worship service might become the object of worship.

I'm a media ministry guy. I like the cool stuff that can be accomplished in a worship service. But I also know that if we don't prayerfully consider what we should be doing, we might be providing our congregations with their newest idol.