Basic of Christianity

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY IS TO GO THROUGH EACH ASPECT AND GET PULSE FOR WHAT YOUR CAMPERS KNOW/BELIEVE

Teen Camp Bible Study #1

Objective: To introduce the Bible, clarify the Gospel, help kids think about their need for a Savior and how the message of Jesus Christ fits into their lives

Question: What do people find purpose in or what do people live for?

Are these things lasting (eternally significant)? Are these things ultimately satisfying?
(Leaders speak from your own experience here…personal testimony speaks powerfully as evidence of truth)

Our world is broken and hurting and has been since man first began disobeying God

Question: Where do you see brokenness and hurt? Where have you experienced it or
seen friends experience it?

Even those who appear to have it all…the fame, fortune and STUFF are hurting or unsatisfied. We are in need of something, searching for something….yearning for a purpose to live. What is this purpose, where can we find it and can we ever be satisfied here on earth? Can our hurt and brokenness ever be dealt with?

The Bible says that we were created to be in a Relationship with the God who made the Universe and made us.

Until we come back into relationship with him, we will still be searching for something, and feel that something is missing in our lives.

Question: What is the Bible?
- God’s Word- divinely inspired, written by humans but inspired by God, word of God

Question: What does a book written 2000+ years ago have to do with us today?

The true story of God interacting with his creation, his people. The true story and history of how God has worked amongst humanity to bring us back into relationship with him.

- tells us ABOUT US, who we are, who God made us to be
- about THE WORLD, where we fit into it, our purpose
- ABOUT GOD who made us- it is his word, his truth
- About HOW TO LIVE the way God created us to live

Depending on how much your cabin knows, do a quick overview of how to find a verse, the way the Bible is laid out

The Bible is God’s message to us. His GOOD NEWS…the story of Humanities Salvation.

It all starts with Creation
- God is the Creator-
o Gen 1:1
o Acts 17:24- 28- “ ….God gives men life and breath….in him we live and move and have our being.”
o Genesis 1:31- “God saw all that he had made and it was very good
- God made Humanity in his Image- Gen 1:27
- he has a special place for humans in creation- created them with his hands rather than spoke us into existence like the rest of creation- Gen 2:7
o This means we can relate to him (we can love, have emotions etc.)

God created us to be in a relationship with him and each other

Look at Psalm 139 and use it to explain God’s character and his love for us.

How else can we know who God is
- Look at creation- Romans 1:19-20, Psalm 19:1-6, vastness, power, purpose and order, beauty

Question: So what happened, if this perfect relationship with God is what we were
created for, if he created everything good, what’s wrong with the world now? What’s wrong with us?

Talk about Adam and Eve, read the story if they don’t know it.
God created us with choice, so that we would choose to Love him, Adam and Eve chose not to. We are born into sin. It is something that is in our nature from birth. Sin is passed on.

Sin is anything that Goes against God: Romans 3:23
Anything we don’t do that goes against God: James 4:17

It is us thinking we do not need God in our lives.

This puts a barrier between us and God. It ruins the relationship we were created to be in. God is perfect and we cannot be in a relationship with him, when we are living in sin.
- Romans 3:10-18- There is no one who is NOT sinful

Because of SIN there is a lot of hurt in this world, there is a lot of pain…this is a result of sin…This is where brokenness comes from hurt and pain, our wrong choices and the wrong choices of others. Sin is bigger that what you do wrong, the consequences are unbearable. –
Romans 6:23 it is DEATH, eternal separation

Question: So if we are sinful, and born into it, and can’t be in the relationship with God we were created to be in because of sin, is there any hope?

Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death….we all deserve death

BUT God So loved us and SO desires us to be back in relationship with him that he sent his SON Jesus to pay the price for OUR sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21- Sin for us
Mark 10:45- to give his life as a ransom
John 3:16- through him we have eternal life

Question: Jesus who was he?
- God’s son, sent to earth
- Fully God, fully human
- Perfect- could take on all our sins and pay the death penalty for us

How has Christ’s death fixed this broken relationship between us and God?
- Colossians 1:13- rescued from sin and darkness
- 1 Peter 3:18- reconciled (made right) with God
- Ephesians 2:4- made alive with Christ
- John 1:29- taken away our sins
- Philippians 3:9- made righteous in God’s eyes

What Christ has done NEEDS A RESPONSE…..he offers us this gift of a right relationship with God again, and eternal life with him in heaven but we need to choose it and accept it
Romans 10:9- If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is LORD, and believe in your hearts…..
- Believing that Jesus Christ really is the son of God and that he died in our place
- admit that we are sinners and have sinned
- ask him to forgive us

Question: What is a Christian/ Christ follower?

Bible References to Know:
If we confess our sins, we will be forgiven – 1 John 1:9
Saved through grace – Ephesians 2:8
Righteousness through faith – Romans 3:22
If we love Jesus, we will do what he says – John 14:15
Real faith results in actions – James 2: 26
Because God loved us, we love others – 1 John 4:10-11

-Someone who believes Jesus died for us on the cross, acknowledges that they are sinful and has asked for forgiveness, and decided to become more like him by letting him enter into their lives and change their hearts to be more Christ-like. This starts with repentance.

Question: Does anyone have any idea of what it means to repent?

God loves us…and wants us to love him in return. The start of our relationship with him begins with becoming a Christian, but it doesn’t end there. Relationship is TWO WAY
We need to love him in return.

John 14:15- if we love him we will do what he says

We need to love people like he loves people- Eph 5:1- “Be imitators of Christ then, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a freagrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

We are saved through GRACE- it is nothing we do, but our actions prove what we really love and what we really believe

We cannot escape all the earthly consequences of sin because there will be people around us living in sin and their consequences affect everyone.
BUT…..we can have a purpose, we can have a relationship with a God who loves us unconditionally. We can have eternal life with him in heaven, and a relationship with him here on earth now. When we accept him, he enters our lives, he can transform us into the people he created us to be, he gives us something lasting to live for.