Mindfulness, drum circles, tarot cards, sound healing, knocking on wood, is every spirituality a good one, and if not, how do you tell the wheat from the chaff? This sermon turns to the surprisingly blunt words Moses speaks to Israel on the edge of the promised land (Deuteronomy 18) and shows what the practices called detestable there have in common. But the warning cuts both ways: false spirituality can also grow inside the church, on the lips of those who say “thus says the Lord” far too easily. Listen if you are looking for a fixed point in a world crowded with spiritual offers.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Moses three times calls the practices of the Canaanite nations detestable to the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:9-14). What do divination, sorcery and consulting the dead have in common, and why does God reject them so strongly?
- According to Deuteronomy 18:15-22, how were the Israelites to recognize a false prophet, and what does it tell us about Jesus that Peter and Stephen applied the promise of a prophet like Moses to Him?
- The sermon describes false spirituality as an attempt to gain God's knowledge and power without God Himself. Where in today's trends, such as do-it-yourself spirituality, do you see the same lie from the Garden of Eden?
- Knocking on wood, crossing fingers or avoiding a black cat seem harmless. What "just in case" habits like these show up in your life, and what do they reveal about whom you really trust?
- The speaker warns against people who end every discussion and control others with "God told me." How can your church community test prophecy by Scripture and in good order without quenching the gifts of the Spirit?
- The speaker's friend had the courage to tell him in love, "You and I do not pray to the same God." Who could you gently and boldly point to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life this week?
