Instinctive Idolatry
Exodus 20:3 (NLT) | You must not have any other god but me.
Genesis 3:5 (NABRE) | God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.
Christians (can) Idolize
Identity
- Ephesians 4:20-24 (MSG) | You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
Comfort
- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NLT) | All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
Certainty
- 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (GNT) | When I came to you, my friends, to preach God’s secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning. For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross. So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear, and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God’s Spirit. Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.
Reflection Questions:
- What do you think of idolatry? What does God say about idolatry?
- How does Satan use idolatry in spiritual warfare?
- What threat does identity have to the Jesus follower?
- How do Christians idolize comfort? What does the Bible tell us about comfort?
- Pastor Mark shared that certainty is also a threat for idolatry. Why? Of what are we to be certain?