Show w o- o c. c i d I Ji All Are Religious fJ M. M i Rev Elmer Haight Jr Pastor d dOur I Our Savior Lutheran Church Church j I t i i t I 1 I i 4 1 All human beings are naturally religious A study of human nature will show this to be a fact All of them may not have joined an organization or they may not have formulated their religious convictions convictions convictions con con- in a set of doctrines or codes odes or they may not all agree on the most basic of all understandings a description of God Himself Nevertheless all are religious It is as natural as life 1 itself It is not acquired it is inborn 1 A knowledge of a god is just as natural for us as is being religious Everywhere men have know of a god or have a feeling that a thing r or a person or a thought is dominant in their life That dominant influence becomes a god when man accepts it in that role A god ti is the one thing that effectively controls or inhibits the actions of a man When a man determines what his god is then he sets about to obey it satisfy it run from it worship it sacrifice to it t x n 0 r L. L k S ii hide it share It curse It This relationship of a man to his god 1 becomes his religion It may be thought of as his culture his Ns worship 1 F his way way- of life life his philosophy It makes little difference to him It itis is his religion Because this relationship of a man and his god is important to him he many times wants to share his feelings with others and md this becomes a secondary part of his religion First man jj and his god seco secondarily man takes god to other men To simplify things these religions can be divided into three groups is isOne One believes believes' that there is one living God and that man is in in tr trouble uble f g solved amicably through love To go on to the next then the first blem Another believes that there is a God and that a separation 1 has occurred but that this his can be overcome by the mans man's own efforts i Another doesn't see any ony real problem between man and God our fy problems are all between a man and his neighbor and this can be solved r 3 amicably through love To Ta go 90 on to the next step then the first g r j group believes that only God can solve their problem with Him and ii i-ii r j He has done this in Christ Jesus The other two groups logically conclude that no matter what the problem is we can overcome it by trying hard enough with or without Christ 1 The greater part o of our world is is either ignoring their god or else trying j very hard to satisfy him so that he will not be angry with them They j work hard at obeying laws and doing things they think will be op- op predated by by God and for which h he will give them credit and then he will leave them alone and not punish them or bother them 1 A smaller part of our our world believes in the religion that only God Gad can i j overcome the problem separating Him from us' us US' US USman man cannot be perfect o- o oas f as God demands so mans man's sacrifices and good works are an abomination to Him This religion also believes that this overcoming has been done when God loved God loved the world so much that He gave His only-begotten only Son Sonso so that whosoever believes believe in Him ji shall not perish but everlasting life Not what man thinks he S Scan j can do but cant can't but what God can cando do and has This is the Christian 5 religion not not of mans man's mans Works but of faith in God simple isn't it 8 From this simple faith then then comes the new who loves serves S obeys and worships God and loves and serves his neighbor with a true trueheart heart For how can can a man love God whom he has not seen if he cannot love his neighbor whom he has seen N |