Failing Gods

This text can become very personal very quickly in discussion and that is a good thing. Take time to prepare before your Community Group meets by praying that the Holy Spirit would reveal your idols to you and prepare you for your time with your Community Group, giving you vulnerability to be known in ways that we often like to hide, compassion to speak truth in love as appropriate, and discernment to see where your brothers & sisters are worshipping idols and believing lies. Be prepared to both repent and rejoice with your Community Group this week.

Discussion Questions

1) Isaiah 44 and 45 speak directly to our idols. What idols do you see most prominently in your life? We talk about sin often at Veritas. Think about those sins that the Spirit often brings to mind.

2) Pastor Nick said that our idols often come in pairs; each idol has another underlying idol. Our idols are symptoms of other idols, sins, and lies in our hearts. For example, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that not only are we to flee sexual immorality, but that we are to remember that we were bought with a price. The idol of sexual immorality can betray that we don’t believe that Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could live for God’s glory and our own good. For those idols on your mind, what lies might you be believing or idols might you be worshipping under it?

3) Another way to think about our idolatry that Pastor Nick mentioned was that we run to idols because we see a gap in our lives and in our faith. We invest financially, emotionally, and physically in our idols, but have they proven strong enough to fill the gaps in your life? In what ways?

4) The only way to keep from running from one idol to the next is to replace that idol with Jesus. How does looking to God and putting Him on His rightful throne in your life fill those gaps better than the idols we otherwise run to? How have you seen God provide in those ways in the past?

5) The way we often talk about idols is very internal to ourselves and to our church, but Isaiah speaks both to Israel’s idols and the idols of the surrounding nations. How does this text and this sermon on idolatry change and nuance the way that we preach the Gospel to our co-workers, neighbors, friends, and families?