Hot Topics – Sanctity of Life – 05.15.22

Connect: Has there ever been a time when you had to make a really hard decision and what was that like for you? What emotions did you feel? 

Engage:  Read Genesis 1:26- 31
We were made to reflect God – Where do we see reflections of God today in our culture? We were created by a Loving Father. It is a gift given from God – Do we truly live this out with those that are different than us? How do you treat each person as a gift from God, what do you think the Lord wants to you to with that knowledge? 
James 3:9-10 in The message says With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!^10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? 

What do you think these verses are saying to you? Zach said We need to treat one another with love/care/ dignity not because they deserve it but because God has created everyone uniquely.  How does this play out in your lives? Where do you think it can play out in the church’s life?  

C.S Lewis quote: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”  

What sticks out to you on this quote? How does this look in the church ? 

Betrand Russell quote: That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms;

How is this different than C.S. Lewis – How would you enter into a conversation who believes this gently and with kindness? 

To mar human dignity is to mar the image of God. Jesus was radically for life. 

Not just a woman’s issue –  but also a men’s issue in how they  see women. What do you think about that statement? How has that been perceived in our culture, and in the church? 

Apply:  In light of this message – Where do you need to repent?  What is God asking you to do considering this message?  Are you willing to enter a conversation even if you disagree with the person and if you are – what is your posture going to be?