Sermon Questions

1. Therefore, my beloved, flee from ________. ¹⁵ I speak as to sensible people; ________ for yourselves what I say.
2. Every single human being is a ___________________. (Reference the sermon guide)
3. Name three of the potential idols that Pastor Winans discussed in his message from Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods:
4. 1
5. 2
6. 3
7. TRUE or FALSE: When you engage in worship practices that are not to God, you are engaging in relationship not with God, but with dark spiritual forces.
8. What kind of “cup” does the book Isaiah describe that we deserve in the verse (Isa 51:17) quoted by Pastor Winans?
9. What verse does Pastor Winans quote that Jesus speaks of this “cup”?
10. Because of Jesus death and resurrection, the Cup of _________ has become the Cup of __________.
11. What is the Greek word that Pastor Winans quoted for fellowship? 

Discussion Questions

1. Paul exhorts the Corinthians in these verses to flee from idolatry. Pastor Winans offered a definition of an idol from Tim Keller: “An idol is anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you, what only God can give”.
2. How could it be that these professing Christians in Corinth were engaged in the worship of pagan idols? Consider 1 Corinthians 8:4,10.
3. What does Paul tell us about the power that resides behind the idols? See 1 Corinthians 10:20
4. What further reason does the apostle offer as to why we must avoid engaging in idolatrous practices? See 1 Corinthians 10:21-22
5. Pastor Winans listed several idols that may exist for our culture and perhaps for us as Christians: Theological idols, relational idols, sexual idols, political / economic, magic/ritual.
6. Briefly discuss in your groups how these idols might manifest themselves in your life.
7. What idols are missing from this list that may be a challenge to you, your family, your church?
8. Why do we idolize? Read Ecclesiastes 3:11.
9. According to Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has set an internal longing for eternity in all of us: How does this longing get turned from God to the idols listed above? 
10. What is the right perspective that keep us from descending into idolatry?
11. What or who is meant to fill the that longing that is set is our hearts by our God?
12. How do we maintain that longing in the right direction?
13. Regarding the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper, the Westminster Confession of Faith says: Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein he was betrayed, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, called the Lord’s Supper, to be observed in his church, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death; the sealing all benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him; and, to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other, as members of his mystical body.
14. How does this part of Westminster’s Confession of Faith on The Lord’s Supper resemble 1 Cor 10:21?
15. Discuss how The Lord’s Supper is a “bond and pledge of their communion” with Christ and with each other?

Sermon Outline

When we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength he is God in our lives. He sits on the throne of our hearts, and he is the object of our love and our affection, our direction, our life, our meaning, our purpose. Everything is centered and orientated around him, that is what moves and shapes us in the world and to see the warning of the temptation to not have God be first in our lives, and the word for that is idol. 

The apostle Paul is going to help us understand why idolatry is so dangerous. What we will see is that every single human being is a worshipper. The question is who or what you are worshipping, and we will see that matters a lot. We are here to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, but all of our hearts can be drawn astray so that something else is sitting on the throne of our lives. As we explore that, we want to see three movements in our text. One, there is a clear command we want to see and what that command is. Then we want to see the reasons for the command, and Paul gives reasons by analogy of why this is so important. Then finally, we want to see the blessings that come as we live into the command that is given by the Lord to us this morning. 

The Command 

The apostle Paul gives a clear command to the Corinthians. The Holy Spirit gives a clear command to every single person, and that command is to flee from idolatry. 

1Corithians 10:14 – ¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 

Do not linger around idolatry. Remember how the angels came to Lot and said it was time to get out, but he lingered. That can be some of us when it comes to idolatry. But the scripture say that we are to flee and to run from it. What does this mean, and particularly how in our modern day do we understand idolatry? In the 1st century in Corinth, it is a bit easier because idolatry was often centered around Pagan temples, where worshippers would gather together in front of an altar, and on that altar would be a piece of wood or stone that people would pray to. In our modern day today, there are not too many places that we can go to that we would call temples with pieces of wood or stone. Does that mean that this is not applicable to us? The first commandment says you shall love the Lord your God and have no other gods before him. Is that applicable to us today? We have to think what this means for us today in this overall context of idolatry. One modern day author says... 

An idol is anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. – Tim Keller Counterfeit Gods 

This is a way of beginning to understand how idolatry works in our lives but how can we think about it today? What would be something that absorbs your thinking? Something that has been tugging on your hearts that is moving you in directions because from this thing that only God can give should be found in our identity in Christ. But we can begin to have our hearts go astray, where we begin to have our identity found in other things, other places where meaning and purpose in life are outside of the context of the Lord, and his Kingdom. Tim Keller has many examples of these. Some of these are religious in nature. Some of these are more secular in nature. 

·        Theological idols - Even within the church something like theology can become an idol. It means that you can elevate certain doctrinal or theological understandings that they actually become more important than Jesus himself. Where what it means to be saved is to follow after a particular theological doctrine or system. Cornerstone is a Presbyterian Church and has certain doctrinal distinctions to it. One of those is we have a belief that baptism is an outward sign of belonging to God's people in covenant. It is to be administered by believing parents and to their children, and the evidence of that is when the covenant was given to Abraham in the Book of Genesis, he said this covenant and these promises are for you and for your children. The apostle Peter preaching at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit is descending, he talks about the promises that are fulfilled in Christ. He quotes from the covenant and says these promises are for you and for your children, we have a practice of baptizing infants because that is what scripture teaches. How does that become an idol? We could be saying the only way people are truly saved are people that agree with us on that issue. If you disagree with us on that issue, we are praying that someday the Lord would awaken your heart so you would accept the truth of infant baptism and be saved. We don't believe that and we don't live that, which is why you can come on a Sunday morning and you would see a baptism or a dedication because we hold a higher value than believing in the doctrine of infant baptism and that higher value is Jesus Christ and belonging to his Kingdom. 

·        Sexual idols - This has always been true in our culture and the cultures around the world. But through technology and access to it, this has become rampant. People are finding their life, their meaning, their purpose, their fulfillment, and sexual experiences virtually online. This is destroying relationships, destroying marriages, destroying children. If you are a young person and not married yet, do not play with this. This is fire and you do not want to play with this. Adults who believe that life is to be found by remaining sexually alluring. As people age, they have to appear in a certain way, and they will do everything they can because this is where they find life and meaning and purpose by looking at and appearing in a certain way. 

·        Magic and Ritual idols - Much of our culture is becoming spiritual. Where there is an increase in our culture, people are visiting someone that reads tarot cards. How do I know what to do in life? I am going to visit someone that is going to read some cards for me, and that is going to give me direction in life. I am going to read my horoscope and that is going to tell me who I should date or what I should do tomorrow, or what the future holds for me. They are looking for these things to find meaning and purpose, political and economic ideas. 

·        Political/Economic idols - We just came to a season where a lot of this came out. Where people were finding hope and meaning and identity and political leaders, in political platforms. You can find it in economic ways where people either demonize or idolize the market, where the market will save us, or the market will destroy us. These are idols, we do not trust in the market, we trust in Jesus. 

·        Relational idols - Co-dependencies where everything is about a relationship with another person. This can be through children, where everything is about the child and life is found there, then something goes wrong, and everything is destroyed. If everything goes well everything is great because salvation is found in them or in a marriage or in another kind of relationship. Illicit kinds of relationship are relational idols that become more important than even Jesus. 

The point is we should see that this is something we can all be susceptible to, where Jesus is not sitting and enthroned in our hearts, we can begin to be drawn to other places. Paul says flee from that, flee from anything in your life that gives you meaning, purpose, value, and identity, other than God. 

The Reason 

Paul then says there is a reason I am telling you this. I am not just going to tell you and walk away, which he could have done, he says I want to tell you why and I am going to reason with you. 

1Corithians 10:15 - ¹⁵I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 

I want to have you judge what I am saying, and his argument is an argument from analogy. The analogy that he is going to draw on and why you should not be an idolater is because of what happens in worship. 

·        He starts by talking about what happens when we worship God together, in the context of communion. 

1Corithians 10:16 - ¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 

When you gather to worship it is participation. When you drink the cup and when you break the bread, that is a participation in Christ. What is important here is the word participation. It is a word that can mean fellowship. It is a relationship word. It is a word that talks about cementing and forming strong bonds. It is the word koinonia. It is a word that talks about fellowship and relationships. Paul is saying that when we gather together as believers, we are engaging in koinonia, engaging in relationship forming practices with God. When two or three are gathered, God is with them. God is here when we worship and when we gather together, we are cementing and forming and participating in relationship with God. It says here that when we do that, we also are not only simply having koinonia with God, but we are also having fellowship with one another. 

1Corithians 10:17 - ¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 

This is the analogy of the body, which Paul would then really open up in 1Corinthians 12 later, that we are many members, but we are also one together that we become one, specifically in worship. 

·        Sarah Hunt shared an article about singing, that when singing you sing together and have guided breathing together, it has an interesting result. 

Singing is a form of guided breathing...The singers are synchronizing externally with the melody and the rhythm, and it has an internal counterpart...The heart rates fall into collectively shared rhythm, guided by the song's tempo. – Bjorn Vickhoff When Many Hearts Beat As One 

When we sing together, we are synchronizing our breathing. We are synchronizing our very hearts. Our hearts begin to beat as one as we together lift up our voices and worship the Lord. Worship is a fellowship with the Lord and a fellowship with one another. 

·        Paul is going to transition here and talk about the worship of Israel, but he is going to transition to talk about Pagan worship and by analogy, is going to say look what am I saying. 

1Corithians 10:19-20 – ¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 

He is drawing back on what he said in 1Corinthians 8. Here is what we know. Idols are nothing, and there is only one God and Paul is saying, am I reneging on that, am I changing my mind on that? No, that piece of stone is just a piece of stone. That piece of wood is just a piece of wood. Paul says here is what I am saying. 

1Corithians 10:19-20 – ¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 

When you engage in worship practices that are not to God, you are having koinonia. You are engaging in relationship not with God, but with dark spiritual forces. There is something spiritual and dark about what you are engaging in. Engaging in worship practices not centered around God should be a pretty sobering thought. 

We all worship something, the question is what are you worshipping? It is similar to how the apostle Paul describes our salvation as being delivered from bondage. From our enslavement part of that enslavement is the dark spiritual forces. In the Book of Galatians Paul's asks do you want to go back under the spiritual forces that enslaved you? Where is the idol and where is it showing in your life? The scriptures teach us to flee, do not participate because when you do you are having fellowship with those dark spiritual things. We want to be reminded of the reason it is not simply because of that, because when we engage in worship of the Lord, we have fellowship with him, and we experience tremendous blessing. 

The Blessing 

The true God gives a real identity that is lasting and eternal, gives meaning and purpose, gives life and life eternal to every person who comes to him in faith. We receive from him a cup that is a cup of eternal life, and we want to focus on one phrase. When we come to the table, we come to receive what the apostle Paul calls the Cup of Blessing. 

1Corithians 10:16 - ¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? 

When we think about this image of a cup and a cup specifically of blessing, this language is used in the Hebrew scriptures of something that is drunk from a cup, but it is not always the cup of blessing. 

·        In the Book of Jeremiah, God says to Jeremiah... 

Jeremiah 25 :15-16 – ¹⁵“Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” 

The cup of the Wrath of God. 

·        We see the same thing in Isaiah speaking to Jerusalem in regard to the destruction of the city. 

Isaiah 51:17 – ¹⁷Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. 

·        The gospel is only good news because of what Jesus did for you and for me. What is due to us, because we have spurned God's name and spit in God's face, is the cup of the Wrath of God. This is the cup that Jesus references in the garden. When Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, he brings Peter, James, and John to pray, and they fall asleep. Jesus is praying intently and here is what Jesus asks of God. 

Matthew 26:39 - ³⁹ “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 

Jesus is referencing the cup that was described in the prophets, which was the cup of the Wrath of God. The cup that was to be drunk by the nations, those that were due the wrath, and judgment of the Lord. Jesus had that cup put before him and when he saw it, he prayed diligently that he would not have to drink it. 

At Advent we talk about love and the coming of God. Not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave his only son to stand in our place as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus on the cross took the cup of the Wrath of God for you and me. That was what was due to you and to me from our rebellion, from our idolatry, that I laid down and worshipped idols and found life outside of the Lord in more ways than I would want to give testimony to. Yet God knew me and God loved me and God on the cross came to be in my place and to take the cup of the Wrath of God that was due to me. He was nailed to a cross and he drank the cup in your place and in my place and died. Then three days later he rose again and ascended into heaven, at a seat at the right hand of God. He sent the Holy Spirit, who then gives us the gift of faith that we look upon Christ, see the glory of God in the face of Christ, cling to him in faith and now that Cup of Wrath has become the Cup of Blessing. When we come to the table of the Lord let us heed the warning, flee idolatry. Do not have participation in anything other than the participation and fellowship with God. As you do so, gather to receive a cup, the Cup of Blessing. 

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