Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
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• In order to be a informed witness with the
  gospel, tonight, we will explore
• Cultural Christianity
• Agnostics/Humanism/Atheists

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All three were once evangelical believers, but
now peddle their sexualityunfortunately, they
have become Christian icons all over the world!
This song is sung by Katie Perry, who has
professed Christ as a child and was once a
Christian singer and has tattooed Jesus on her
wrist, but now sings about a lesbian lifestyle.
I kissed a girl and I liked it song Sounds
innocent enough?
Britney Spears was raised in a Baptist home where
she professed Christ and at 18 vowed to keep her
virginity until she was married
Jessica Simpsons father was on staff at a SBC
church in TX, but is proud of her achievements
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Christianity is counter-culture however, it is
giving mixed signals to the lost all over the
world on TRUE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Luke 1619-31
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• The Pew Forum Research group says over 78 (down
  from 86 in 1990) of US Citizens are Christian
• 51 Protestant
• 24 Catholic
• 1.7 Mormon
• 0.7 Jehovahs Witness

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
However, in reality, less than 10 of the US
population are -Evangelical Christian!-
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The sad truth is that in the United States,
THREE out of FOUR people are UNCHURCHED
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We must be prayerful in sharing the gospelwe
MUST NOT depend on our own strength, but on the
power of the Holy Spirit I am not ashamed of
the gospel for it is the power of salvation
Rom 116 But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my
witnesses Acts 18
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• Essentials
• Weve all done wrong in Gods eyesRom323
• This wrong separates us from God forever Rom
  623
• Jesus came to take our punishmentRom 58
• Turn away from doing wrong as a way of lifeActs
  238
• Confess with your mouth Jesusyou will be saved.
  Rom 109

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QUESTION Can you be a child of God without
making Jesus Lord of your life? the answer is
an EMPHATIC -NO-
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if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 109
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The main thing to remember in sharing your
faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, you have
to actually SHARE the plan of salvation
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved. How, then, can they call on the one
they have not believed in? And how can they
believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
And how can they hear without someone preaching
to them? And how can they preach unless they are
sent?...faith comes from hearing the message and
the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Rom. 1013-15, 17
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If they reject the message, do not stop being
their friend or loving them But God
demonstrates his own love for us in this While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 58
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Cultural Christianity

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Cultural Christians self define themselves as
  such
• they go to church once in a while, (Easter,
  Christmas, funeral)
• based on their culture and environment
• but do not have a true, Biblical relationship
  with Jesus Christ.

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
In Christianity Today, Billy Graham once told a
statistic that over 88 of the people in church
are not saved Does that statistic sound
right? Based on what is going on in our churches,
it is truly possible!
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We do not know the hearts of man only God
does. However, the danger in our culture is that
many people have not truly had a heart
transplant Matt. 721-23
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Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will
enter the kingdom of heaven. Then I will tell
them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me,
you evil-doers. Matt. 721, 23
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Michael Youseff says a common remark by Cultural
Christians goes like this My religion is
between me and my God OR My religion is very
private and I am not going to force it on
anyone Sound Familiar?
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• When sharing with cultural Christians, we have to
  assume they do not take the Bible seriously or as
  absolute truth
• Examples you may hear
• The Bible is written by man, so why should I
  believe it?
• There are so many errors in it
• It is nonsense.

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Do not argue about their perception of the
Bible! When they begin to say things like this,
tell them you are a student of the Bible and want
to know which parts of the Bible are not correct?

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Many churches, unfortunately do not teach truth
from Gods Word or even have a Christian
worldview! We have a mainline church in
Asheville with the following identity statement
about the authority of the Bible In its pages
we find guidance, comfort and the stories of
God.
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Do not argue about their perception of the
Bible! You want to engage them in conversation
and show them the truths of the Bible as often as
possible do this prayerfully and with love!
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• Establish a relationship! Be inquisitive and ask
  questionsbut do it with loving and caring manner
  without a judging attitude!
• Do you consider yourself spiritual?
• Tell me about your spirituality
• (Dont forget to really listen!)
• Can I tell you about my spirituality?

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The Bible says, Dont have anything to do with
foolish and stupid arguments, because you know
they produce quarrels 2 Timothy 223 the god
of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers
so that they cannot see the light of the gospel
2 Corinthians 44
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Remember, we cannot debate them to Christ!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
In reality People do not care how much you
know, until they know how much you care!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Share your personal testimony. Make it NO
longer than 2 minutes!!
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The Climb a Billy Graham video, depicts two
climbers training for a huge expedition in
Chilehowever, one is a Christian, while the
otherwell.youll see. The purpose of this video
segment is to show how spiritual conversations
can golearn to be a good listener
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Agnosticism
• Humanism
• Atheism

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• In a poll conducted by the American Religious
  Identify Survey of over 54,000 people across the
  U.S.
• Those identifying themselves as No religion has
  doubled from 8.2 in 1990 to 15 in 2008
• Atheistic or Agnostic were approximately 12

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• Agnosticism a person who holds the view that
  any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and
  probably unknowable
• Humanism a philosophy that usually rejects
  supernaturalism and stresses an individual's
  dignity and worth and capacity for
  self-realization through reason
• Atheism a disbelief in the existence of deity
  the doctrine that there is no deity

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
These are not limited to people OUTSIDE the
memberships of churches
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• the four horsemen of the modern apocalypse of
  the 19th century
• Fredrich Nietzsche
• Karl Marx
• Charles Darwin
• Sigmund Freud

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Nietzsche actually celebrated the death of
God Marx said religion is the opiate of the
masses. Darwin made famous the theory of
evolution which excludes the work of the Creator
God Freud said, religion is merely an illusion
that would eventually pass away.
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• four horsemen of the New Atheist Apocalypse
• Richard Dawkins
• Daniel Dennett
• Sam Harris
• Christopher Hitchens

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Richard Dawkins, a well known author on the NY
Times best selling list says the central evil of
Jesus is restrictivism. i.e. religion poses a
social danger because of its exclusivity demands.
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Richard Dawkins and others like him has a
world-wide following their basic philosophy is
that it makes many people believe the mess
(evil) the world is in is due to this belief
system of religion.
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This philosophy is rampant in academia if you
are follower of Jesus Christ, expect to be
ridiculed by professors and students alike for
being closed mindedor a believer in fairy
tales, (Tiger Woods)
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• Atheistic, Humanists, and Agnostic Beliefs
• No soul can exist apart from the body
• No life after death
• No future resurrection
• No heaven or hell

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They do not have the Judeo-Christian worldview
commonality, so questions from EE or FAITH will
probably not even register with them In your
opinion FAITH If you are standing before God
EE
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• We, therefore can represent what they do not like
  about God and the church.
• We need to ask questions like
• What do you think the Bible says about Jesus?
• The most common answer
• He is to love people.

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• What do you think the church should be about?...
• we are to love people.
• Do you think those who have hurt you were doing
  what Jesus would have wanted?
• No

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We need to tell them that we are sorry for the
way some church-goers act. Please do not hate
God or the church because of people
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
One more final question most atheists/humanists,
etc. will probably ask it concerns the problem
of evil If God is a loving, good, all powerful
God, why did He create evil or let evil happen,
(such as the Holocaust)? TOUGH QUESTION!
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• Evil can be defined
• a departure from the way things ought to be
• ..although evil is real, it was not created by
  God, but it was made possible by God.
• The free-will defense is one way to answer this
  question

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God created everything and called it very GOOD
but man, who was created with POTENTIAL for evil,
messed up Gods planman CHOSE to disobey God
created man as free moral agentsthey have
ability to Choose good or Choose evil.
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• God is all knowingHe knew evil would resultbut
  good would ultimately come from it.
• It is not incompatible for both the God of the
  Bible and evil to exist

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• Goodness finds it source in Gods character, and
  the standard of goodness is Gods character
  itself
• For God to destroy evil would ultimately be evil
  itself since it would take away the greatest
  good-the ability to love God.

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The main answer solution to the problem of evil
is the person of Jesus... Moral evil finds its
remedy in the perfect obedience of the life of
Jesus and His death on behalf of those who
believe in Him for the payment of sin.
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Then Job replied to the Lord I know that you
can do all things no plan of yours can be
thwarted. You asked, Who is this that obscures
my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of
things I did not understand, things too wonderful
for me to know
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You said, Listen now, and I will speak I will
question you, and you shall answer me. My ears
had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and
ashes. (Job 421-6)
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Above all, again, rely on the power of the Holy
Spirit to guide you and to change the heart of
the person you are speaking Remember, God is in
the business of miraclestrust Him! Trust Him in
His timing and in His grace