EXTRA! Ideas for Adults – Treasuring Who God Treasures – Special Focus Session

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Date: January 19, 2025

Treasuring Who God Treasures

The Point: Life is a gift from God we are to protect and preserve.

Get Into the Study

Share the following after discussing the opening question.

The Supreme Court’s decision two and a half years ago to overturn Roe v. Wade apparently has not caused Americans to treasure unborn life more. Tragically, abortions in America have increased since Roe was overturned. Monthly reported abortion totals hovered around 85,000 leading up to the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. By early 2024, the monthly total had risen to approximately 100,000.

The overturning of Roe has shifted the methods used to obtain abortions. As some states enacted abortion bans, abortion pill use ticked up. Before the Dobbs ruling, approximately half of US abortions utilized an abortion pill. Now it’s about two-thirds. Many of the prescriptions for abortion drugs are obtained via telemedicine—about 1 in 10 by the summer of 2024. Travel to obtain abortion also has increased. Funds generated by pro-choice groups help pay travel expenses for some abortion seekers, and abortion-friendly states bordering states with bans have seen heavy abortion traffic. For example, twice as many Texas residents obtained abortions in 2023 in New Mexico as New Mexico residents did. Equal numbers of Texans and Kansans received abortions in Kansas.

These stark realities show that changing laws is only part of the battle for life. God’s people also must help their neighbors understand that God treasures life and crafted it by hand.

https://apnews.com/article/abortion-roe-dobbs-states-data-5632f60aa1d797bcdec9fbc77a385413

Get Into the Study [Option from the Advanced Bible Study Teacher Guide, p. 44]

As you discuss the different ways Moses has been depicted in culture, share this list of movies about Moses. NOTE: This list is not an endorsement of these movies. Some of the movies take great liberty with the biblical text and some distort and profane biblical truth. We provide this list as a point of discussion and to highlight how the story from Exodus has captured the attention of people through the years.

Get Into the Study (Option from Adult Leader Guide)

In advance, play a video clip of someone taking trash and turning it into a treasure. Then ask Question #1.

Study the Bible

As you discuss question 3 (point 2 on p. 87 of the DDG), share the following.

The Lily House in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic, takes seriously God’s charge to protect human life. With poverty rampant and prostitution legal, human trafficking is abundant in the Dominican Republic. The Lily House rescues women and girls from trafficking, then gives them housing, counseling, job training, and the gospel.

Human trafficking attacks even young teens in the Dominican Republic. Though underage prostitution is illegal, desperate families may see their teenage daughters as their only hope of survival. That launches their life as trafficking victims. Missionary Erica Jude sought to counter the problem by founding the Lily House in 2009. She brought women off the streets and ministered to them while providing daycare for their children. In 2021, the ministry shifted. That’s when orphanages and government facilities began contacting the Lily House about taking in girls who would be released into the world at age 16. The ministry obliged gladly. The girls prepare for productive, godly lives by learning businesses like jewelry-making, baking, and cosmetology.

The Lily House is part of the missions organization SCORE International. This ministry to trafficked Dominicans is one of many ways Christians are protecting human life from the womb to the tomb, acknowledging that no one deserves to be treated as a commodity.

https://thealabamabaptist.org/ministry-offers-refuge-job-training-for-vulnerable-women/

The week’s writer for Extra is David Roach. David is pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland, Alabama. He and his wife Erin have three children.

Additional Questions

Icebreaker

What messages about babies and children are being communicated in our culture?
When have you felt the need to step in and protect someone who needed help?
When have you seen a natural wonder that took your breath away?
How do we protect the things that are important to us?
What’s a food you enjoy that many others don’t?
What’s one ingredient that ruins any dish for you?

Exodus 1:16-17

Where do you see the spirit of Pharaoh on display in our culture?
How does fearing God change the way we regard life?
What makes human life so valuable?
Where do you see lives threatened or treated as less than valuable today?
Why is the topic of the sanctity of life so divisive in our culture?
What does it look like to have a healthy fear of God?
What would the implications be for us if we feared God more than our rulers?

Exodus 1:22–2:3

What opportunities exist in our community for us to take action on behalf of vulnerable people?
What systems have been put in place today that devalue or diminish the importance of human life?
When is it okay to disobey the law?
When have you had to leave something precious to you in God’s hands?
What does it mean to value life?
What actions can we as individuals/a group/a church take to protect others?
How have you seen God use others to protect human life today?

Exodus 2:4-10

How can believers participate in providing for others, especially mothers of at-risk babies, the handicapped, and the elderly?
Who has been an example to you in the ways they treasure human life?
What are some specific steps we can take to treasure human life in our community?
How did Moses’s sister and mother demonstrate their faith in God through their actions?
In what ways can the church protect all life?