Sermon Based Small Group Lessons
Our American Idols: Religion
Dr. Les Hughes
November 16, 2008
Focus Passage
30"After
forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in
the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When he saw this, he was amazed at the
sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32'I am the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33"Then
the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing
is holy ground. 34I have
indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning
and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
Outline of Sermon (The Life
Changing Lessons)
This is for the leader’s use. You don’t have to read through
these for the group.
Choose one
of these questions:
How would you define “religion”?
What
does religion mean to you?
1. We are engaging in idolatry when we replace
God with anything else. From past
sermons in this series, what are some of the things we can replace God with?
2. Religion can be controlled. In a true spiritual relationship with
God, we are not in control. What
ways have you experienced this?
3. Which of these signs challenge you most:
Signs
that You’ve Replaced God with a Form of Religion:
a. No
sense of God’s daily presence.
b. Strong
resistance any change in my religious ritual.
c. Daily
life not affected by religious practices.
d.
Can’t encounter God after change in rituals.
e.
Focus more on following rules than being in His presence.
4. God sometimes uses tangible means to
help us worship Him. (God appearing to Moses.) We need to make sure we don’t
worship the bush, but God.
Are
there some things that we worship instead of God? (a building, a
style of worship, a person)
5. We also need to worship God without
being dependent on the tangible means.
Have there been times in your life when you’ve had to continue
your spiritual life when some of your tangible means have gone through massive
change?
Jesus
said that one day we would worship “in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21, 23-24)
6. Here are some truths. Which one do you think we most need to understand.
a. Forms of
religion change, but God never does.
b. Religious
idolatry spotlights human effort.
c. Idolatry is
worship directed to any god other than the God of the Bible.
How
does human effort get in the mix of religion so often?
7. God is not limited by our ability to understand
Him.
Ask
one or two of these questions:
a. Are we
comfortable when we don’t understand God?
b. Should we
expect to understand everything about God?
c. Does it hurt
our faith to not understand?
d. Do we feel
like we have to understand in order to defend our faith?
8. Les shared an illustration with a statement: “What if everyone was blind, but
the sun still shined. Just because
we don’t see it, does that mean that it isn’t there.”
Just
because we don’t see God doesn’t mean that He is not there or at
work.
How
can this illustration help us?
9. A genuine relationship with God leads to
godly actions. Do you believe this
is true? Why or why not? Are there examples you can share of this
from your life?
10. Some practical steps to application are:
a. Treat every
place as holy ground
b. Realize that
true religion causes us to look to others not ourselves (James 1:27)
c. Realize that
when we put feet to our faith, lives are changed.
What would you
like to change in your life as a result of today’s lesson?
Other verses
read:
35"This
is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler
and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through
the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out of Egypt and did wonders
and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the
desert.
37"This
is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me
from your own people.' 38He was
in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai,
and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39"But
our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts
turned back to Egypt. 40They
told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who
led us out of Egypt—we don't know what has happened to him!'
41That
was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices
to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42But God turned away and gave them over to
the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the
book of the prophets:
" 'Did you bring me sacrifices
and offerings
forty years in the desert, O house of
Israel?
43You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile'[j] beyond Babylon.