World Religions Week 1......9/14/22

SONGS: Good Grace / In Christ Alone

GAME:

Groups of 4

Come up with 5 Bible characters.

Mention 5 facts about them.

If the other team guesses correct, they get two points.

If they guess incorrect, you get one point.

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2 Timothy 2:24-25 “24 The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, 25 instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth.”

Lesson: Intro into Religions.

How do I relate to people that believe differently from me?

Split into groups with adult leaders

Religions:

Islam

Buddhism

Judaism

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

God exists and created everything

God wants people to be good, nice, and fair - just like is taught in other religions.

The goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.

God does not need to be involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

Good people go to heaven when they die.

Deism is the idea that God created everything. He set the universe in motion, but then he stepped back and not longer took an active role in creation.

Ask:

Choose one of these world religions.

Of the religions you listed:

What are the religions core beliefs?

Is there an afterlife?

Does this religion care about an afterlife?

What would the religion say is the goal of a human life?

How does one achieve heaven/entry into that afterlife?

Does the religion believe in one god or many gods?

What would this religion say gives life meaning?

How do they view the world and everyone (everything) in it?

What set’s Christianity apart from this religion?

DISCUSS QUESTIONS:

Acts 17:28 “28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’”

John 3:16-17 “16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

2 Timothy 2:24-25 “24 The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, 25 instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth.”

Main Debrief time:

Christianity is based on the Bible, God’s revelation to man.

Christianity is an accurate representation of God’s will as it conforms to the Bible.

Jesus is the Son of God

He is fully God and fully man.

Different from God in his humanity, but he is still God.

Humans are in need of redemption from God because of Sin.

Christians should relate to other religions on the basis of sacrificial love.

Here’s the truth tonight.

We need to know what we believe.

A core reason we need to know what we believe is so that when what I believe is confronted with something I don’t believe, do I recognize it?

I believe A… someone else believes B… do I recognize we have a difference of beliefs?

For example with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism… It seems good. And that’s the danger! It’s a worldview that is a lie. The point of life isn’t to be good. The point of life is to recognize God is the only one who is! If I’m not connected with Him through the saving work of Jesus Christ, I am Lost!

We need to know what we believe so that we are anchored.

Like a boat unmoved in the ocean by the crashing waves.

It is the strength of the hull and the anchor working together to protect the passengers from the danger all around.

Your worldview is like this.

However, if your worldview is not determined. If you don’t know what you believe, you are Jack from titanic, sitting on the board at the end of the titanic in the freezing arctic water.

You have no defense against the inevitable dangers around you.

But when we are anchored in the truth we can remember these words.

“Don’t let your heart be troubled, Hold your head up high.

Don’t fear no evil, Fix your eyes on this one truth.

God is madly in love with you.

Take courage hold on. Remember where our strength comes from.”

In Christ, we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17:28 “28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’”

We will lean more into these world religions over the coming weeks and we will learn how to discuss our faith with people of others faiths.

But today, do you know this truth?

I live, and move, and have my being simply because of Jesus.

In no one else.

In Christ alone.