How Can I Know I'm Worshipping The Right God? Series

CENTRAL VBS LETS TALK ABOUT SALVATION part 3

How Do I know I’m Worshipping the Right God?

John 7:17-7:17

QUESTION PEOPLE ASK

Some of you can remember the old game show, where some old stars tired to figure out between 3 contestants, who the real writer, or teacher, or whatever, really was. At least at the end of the show you knew who the real one was. In deciding about God, I am afraid that it is very important that we don’t wait until the end to figure out which one is real. The stakes are much too high.

Of all the religions, how do we know Christianity is right?

Now, first I would like to show why logically, it makes sense to be a Christian,

above all other religions, and second I would like to show some evidences for Christianity.

I. WHAT RELIGIONS SAY ABOUT THEMSELVES

1. Hinduism - Started about 2000 BC. In Hinduism there are many gods. They believe the world is an illusion & the goal of humanity is to keep from being reincarnated so your soul can be absorbed into the ultimate principle. In others words, if you get it right, when you die you become part of “The Force.” Good Karma - absorbed Bad Karma - come back & do it again.

2. Buddhism - Started by Siddhartha Gautama who was born in 563 BC. He was a Hindu, but he was dissatisfied with the answers Hinduism gave to life’s problems. One day as he sat under a fig tree he suddenly found the answers to life’s problems through enlightenment. Later, he was called Buddha (Enlightened One). Goal in life is to become enlightened.

Some - no life after death

Others - Reincarnated until you get it right.

3. Islam - Began w/work of Muhammad who lived from 570-632. It began in what is currently Saudi Arabia.

Holy book - Qur’an. Salvation through good life, giving money to the poor, 5 time a day prayer, pilgrimage to Mecca.

Believe in some sort of heaven. Problem, the Qur’an, their own holy book teaches that Allah is a distant God, who doesn’t pay much attention to people, and who tries to trick people out of being saved.

4. Jehovah’s False Witnesses - 144,000 people go to heaven. The rest of the saved folk live on paradise earth. The bad, burn up & it’s over with.

a. Cross – We believe Jesus was crucified on a cross. – Torture stake.

> John 20:25 So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”

> 1 Corinthians 1:18 For to those who are perishing the message of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power.

b. Jesus is God – John 20:28 Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

1) He is to be Worshipped –

> John 9:38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped Him.

> Hebrews 1:6 When He again brings His firstborn into the world, He says, And all God’s angels must worship Him.

2) He is the Creator – JW’s believe that Jesus is a created being. Christians believe that Jesus is the Creator of all things.

> Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

- John 1:1-3;

5. Mormons - 3 choices - Hell, rebuilt earth, heaven - where good Mormon men become gods over their own planets. Their wives have to play their cards right so their husbands, after they are resurrected, will call their celestial names so they will rise as well. If they do, then they go have a bunch of children & populate their own planet.

You get another chance after this life.

6. Christianity -

> Hebrews 9:27 it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.

- Mark 9:43-44

II. HOW DO I KNOW OUR GOD IS REAL?

1. Creation –

Romans 1:18-25. Creation testifies to the existence of God.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created.” There was no preamble, no introduction of God. The Bible simply begins, “In the beginning, God created.” My friends, if we could only get that one fact straight, the rest would come easy. God has created all things.

A. God created the universe – Think for a moment of that first encounter between Satan and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Look for a moment at Genesis 3:1. - Read Genesis 3:1

Here were Adam and Eve in the garden. They had no problems, they had no worries, no disease, no suffering, they had no pain and no death; then came the Devil. In verse 1 he asks, “Has God said . . .?” Then he moves to step 2 of his plan. In verse 4 he says, “Ye shall not surely die.” Then he concludes in verse 4 by saying, “You shall be as gods.” My friends, all of this stuff about the Big Bang, and evolution is nothing more than the same old lie the Devil has been telling from the beginning, “Ye shall be as gods.” The Devil wants to do all he can to convince us that we are nothing more than the result of a cosmic burp that took place some 41/2 to 5 Billion years ago, and he has done all he could to reinforce the idea that there is no Creator, no One that we are responsible to by instilling that lie in the minds of our children.