Are You Worshipping Idols? | Deep Fake | Week 1
Opening
Start a conversation with your group about how your members react to the idea of idols. Is it normal church talk that doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with their lives? Is it a weird idea that they think belongs to previous eras of history?
Overview
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul addresses the tension between the new creation lifestyle of people who follow Jesus and the religious idols of his day. We can learn from that tension how we face the tension with idols in our own culture today. We need to be aware of the effect that those idols can have on us. Dark forces are often using those idols to pull our focus from God. We can miss that because we are too consumed with having the right information instead of doing what is right.
As followers of Jesus, we must understand the influence of idols in our lives and the lives around us. Then we need to seek freedom from those idols. We can do that with an idol audit. Ask God to reveal what you have placed above God and then surrender whatever He reveals.
Discussion Questions
- What makes you most uncomfortable in this conversation about idols?
- Did you automatically know an idol in your life?
Practice
1 Corinthians 8 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God. 4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Read this passage aloud. Take time together to make a list of cultural idols. Naming the context of our lives is important. Then talk about the idols that exist in the church, whether they are the same as the cultural ones or if they are different.
Read the passage aloud again and give some space afterward to listen to the Spirit’s voice. Do you need to take time to honor God as being above all else? Ask God if you are harboring idols that you have hidden from others or even yourself. Encourage people to share if they are willing.
Closing
Pray for each person in relation to something they shared in the group meeting.