V is for Victory

Text: 1 Sam 17 (Read 1 Samuel 17:43-47)

Focus: Faith

Function: Overcoming Faith

Form: Expository

Intro: I learned faith from my father.

• Today, is in honor of what men can teach.
  • Women also, but this where I learned it.

• Just a Children’s story.
• We might tend to dismiss it because it is just a Children's story.
• But sometimes the simplest things can be the most profound.
• The Great love Chapter is 1 Corinthians 13, but as it is ramping up to talk about love, it tells us that there are three important things, faith, hope and Love. (1 Corinthians 13:3)
• Hebrews 11:6 says: You can never please God without faith...
• Faith is important. It is a beginning.

There are three concepts about faith and walking with God that I believe will help anyone as they face change and uncertain futures.

1. Godliness (David was prepared to be a man of God)

1. Past Action
   1. Lion and Bear, vs. 34-36
   2. I imagine a young child facing a lion or a bear and I realize that this is the beginning of great faith.
   3. Lions and bears are huge obstacles.
   4. If he can to that, what about us?
2. Present relationship
   1. David, the child of worship
      1. God is enthroned in the praises of His people.
      2. When we praise Him, we bring His presence.
      3. We come here, not for me, or any other leader.
      4. Unity will happen when we make worshiping God our priority.
   2. Personal giftedness Saul’s armor Vs. 38-40
      1. I can't fight in these...
      2. APPLY: David eventually took over leadership from Saul
         1. Saul had his style, tools and power.
         2. But David had different gifts.
         3. It is important to place trust in the new leadership God brings you.
         4. Trust their leadership, even though it is different.
         5. And when that difference becomes what you are used to, continue to support him.
         6. Pastor's enjoy success at the pleasure of their parishioners and that's is not experienced in any better way than in their prayers.
         7. And don't try to be like the pastor or anyone else.
         8. Let you own gifts shine and be used by God.
1. Confidence in God
   1. Confident proclamation
      1. The Word of Faith 2 places:
         1. Vs. 36, 37
         2. Vs. 45-47
      2. The power of God (not the size of the enemy, but the size of the defender)
   2. It will be tested and resisted
      1. David had to make his confident proclamation both to God’s people and to the enemy.
      2. His brothers mockery, vs. 28,29
         1. Not just then, but even when anointed King, his father did not consider him.
         2. The Church is a place of encouragement
         3. needs to work within its gifts
      3. The king’s reluctance (miracle that Saul allowed it)
         1. Saul is not a man of faith
         2. He cannot imagine how God can use this boy
      4. Apply:
         1. Ask yourself this question in relationship to others” Do you encourage or discourage them?”
         2. Ask it in relationship to yourself: “Do you let the criticism of others stop you?”
         3. Do you let people with the gift of faith inspire you
   3. Example
      1. Remember small church?
      2. It was snowing, we debated not going, but dad said: “we bought snow tires so I can make it.”
      3. It was so small that we parked on the side of the road.
      4. Snowed in
         1. All the men were sure we were stuck
         2. I stuck my head out the window and proudly proclaimed we were not stuck cause we had snow tires.
      5. The proclamation is based on God's faithfulness.
         
2. Action
   1. Performance success is in the hand of God.
      1. But, when Moses was praying before the Red Sea and the Egyptian army was before them God told him it was time to stop praying and get busy! (Exodus 14:15)
   2. Do not look at the size of the enemy, look at God
      1. Goliath’s appearance, vs. 4-7
      2. Goliath’s curse (warrior from youth), vs. 42-44
      3. It could make us shrivel up in fear, but David’s confidence was not in his ability, it was in God
   3. Run to the battle, vs. 48,49
      1. to often the church shrinks back with an attitude of just hoping to survive until the end.
      2. But David, once he had that sling going RAN.
         1. A ridiculous sight to the Philistines
         2. His brothers were wondering what they were going to tell their father
         3. It was all or nothing.
   4. Do not be lazy in doing good
      1. David took five stones
         1. lack of faith or desire to be faithful?
      2. Faith is not a substitute for sloth
      3. Instead it is a chance, an adventure, a risk and growth

CONCL; Like the old preacher

1 get right with God

2 believe what God says

3 Act on your belief

At The Door

Text: Luke 16: 14-31

Focus: Salvation by law vs Salvation by faith

Function: To help people see how faith is expressed in works.

Form: Bible Study, Story-telling

INTRO: Does anyone think it is odd that I am preaching two passages that seem to have little to do with each other?

I appreciate the inspiration of the Brother Luke when he placed Jesus' these two passages together.

They belong together.

The end of verse 14 tells us why: “They ridiculed him...” NIV: “they sneered at Him”

And on the surface, it almost appears to be a non-sequitur, a “change the subject.” response. But it isn't.

They, who are described in this passage as “lovers of money” ridicule Jesus for His words.

His words, verse 13 are: “You cannot serve two masters... ...you cannot serve God and money.”

Apparently, they thought they could.

So, the parable about the rich man and Lazarus makes sense, it is judgment against those who are greedy, demonstrated by their refusal to help those whom God has placed at their doorstep. It is a condemnation, in one of the most severe senses in the entire Gospels. The rich man is suffering torment in hell for his refusal while the poor man is enjoying eternal comfort.

And Jesus states in this passage that the only difference between them was the fact that the rich man, while enjoying worldly success before he died, refused to care for the one who never had any real comfort. He refused to care for the man who was sitting AT HIS DOOR.

We cannot save the world entire, but we can minister to those that God has placed at our door.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus seems to be a fitting response to the Pharisees derision when Jesus condemned them for loving money.

So, what about Jesus little parenthesis about adultery in between those two passages?

Did somebody make a mistake at one time or another and accidentally insert it in the wrong place? That might be more likely if they were using a word processor and they accidentally cut and pasted it in the wrong spot because they couldn't see the cursor or something.

But no, This is the order of all the ancient manuscripts. So, what does divorce and remarriage have to do with the love of money?

Verse 15: “You try to justify yourselves in the sight of others but God knows your hearts...”

In both this explanation about divorce and adultery and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus is showing them how far short their self-justification, their self-righteousness, falls from God's perfect redemption.

They prided themselves in the fact that the Law justified them.

But, the implication is, that in their “free to divorce and remarry society,” apparently a transgression that most of them had committed, they could not be justified by the law.

So, first they are condemned by the letter of the law that they felt so proud of upholding. But what is worse is the story of the rich man and Lazarus and the way it sheds a light on their condemnation for missing the “Spirit of the Law.”

Remember, everything in scripture must be taken in context. And so, if anyone here is divorced and remarried and is feeling guilty or condemned, remember, Jesus isn't teaching about divorce and remarriage, Jesus' context is how impossible it is to justify ourselves by the letter of the law.

What needs to be focused on, for salvation, is the Spirit of the law. And that is where this story of the rich man and Lazarus comes into play.

And I want to focus on those two men, with this thought: “The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit behind the law gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)

READ Verses 27-31: ²⁷He said (the rich man to Abraham, in the torment of hell), ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ ³⁰He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

This is pretty scary stuff.

What is their condemnation? They knew the law, but they did not listen to it.

Look at Luke 22:37-40: ³⁷He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Or John 13:34: ³⁴A new commandment I give you: Love one another.

Or Romans 13:9-10: ⁹The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

The Pharisees were condemned because they did not follow both the letter of the law, demonstrated in divorce and adultery passage, neither did they follow the spirit of the law demonstrated in the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

And there is a warning here. We can know the Bible, but the proof of our Christianity is our actions, not our words.

Divorce is a terrible thing, just ask anyone who has gone through it. But it isn't a litmus test for who is in or out of the Kingdom of heaven.

The test is in the actions.

And in this case, it has to do with how the rich man ignored the man at the door, or how well we, love the poor.

What does it mean to love the poor? What does it mean in this day and age? If we are saved by our confession of Christ, just how important is this loving your neighbor as much as we love ourselves?

Will we, when we get to heaven have many accounts of not caring for the poor at our doorstep, end up like the rich man and say to God: “You were serious about that?”

So, let me take this home to today and tell you about a time I am pretty sure I saw an angel.

But let me give you a warning: Don't say amen to quickly.

I am setting this up, but not trying to set you up. I am not like the salesperson who says: You want American made knives don't you? You want knives that can cut both granite and tomatoes, don't you? You want knives that will never need sharpening, don't you?

And we all know that if we start saying yes, then the salesperson has more power to close the sale even though afterwards we might regret spending 600 dollars on a set of knives?

So wait to say “amen” because I am setting this up. Alright?

Now, the angel.

How familiar are you with Isaiah 58?

It is one of my favorite passages of the entire Bible.

I was preaching on it, one Sunday.

It is a passage about loving the poor.

In the passage, the people of God are fasting and praying for a revival. “Lord, send back the old time religion.”

And the world just seems to be getting worse.

And they ask God why revival does not come. So the prophet Isaiah is asking God why revival doesn't seem to come.

God answers the prophet with the fact that although they have the religious part of fasting down well, they have not bothered to care about what God cares about.

Specifically, God tells them that they don't pay their workers enough, their business deals are not win-win, but win-lose and they don't care about the loser. But the biggest condemnation, in my opinion is the way that they point fingers of accusation against the poor, apparently with words like lazy, or stupid.

And that was the gist of my sermon.

And I wondered as I was preparing it just how far God wanted me to go with this principle to never point an accusing finger at the poor.

It is easy for me to ignore the poor with words like “entitlements, lazy, socialism and etc.”

IT IS EASY FOR ME. I am not accusing anyone else. This was God speaking to me.

So how did this bring me into contact with an angel?

I believe it was a fulfillment of Hebrews 13:2. A command that says: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers because by so doing, some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

That is probably a reference to Lot being from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because he was the only one who showed hospitality to angels disguised as men.

But the command is relevant to today.

This happened to me about 20 years ago.

I was at my church (tell the story). *

God convicted me of my judgment against the poor and showed me just how serious He was about not pointing the finger at that man.

Indeed, the poor we will always have with us.

And in one part, that means that we cannot solve all of the problems with the poor. It is too big a job.

But we can, and must, take care of the one at our door.

The rich man was condemned to hell fire for refusing to take care of the one who was at his door.

So the question of the day for us is this: Who is at our door?

*The story:

I pastored a Church right on exit 14 of Interstate 69. It was exit ramp, parsonage, Church.

And because of our location, we had lots and lots of requests for help from travelers passing by.

At the intersection there was a Pilot gas station with a small grocery and a Subway.

Whenever people stopped, I would buy them a tank of gas, some groceries and some Subway sandwiches.

Thankfully, once a month the “Christian Men's fellowship” among all the local churches sponsored a breakfast fund raiser to provide me with the funds.

I would typically charge the expense to my credit card and get reimbursed from the Treasurer.

But, I am not sure how Christian it was. The fellowship was great, but once I put a man up in a motel for the night. It was a cheap motel and I called the treasurer that night to inform him and set up my reimbursement. He confirmed the motel and the room number the man was staying in.

The treasurer did two things that shocked me. First, he yelled at me for getting a hotel, refused to reimburse me and he said: “the whole idea of this fund is for you to give them money to send them on the way so that they do not become our problem.” I winced.

And then he called the Sheriff and told him that there was a vagrant at the motel and would the sheriff kick him out.

Oh Lord, help us.

But as years went by at that Church, I started to get cynical, or maybe skeptical about most of the people I was helping.

God sent an angel to change my thinking.

And I noticed something. It seemed like everyone I was helping was on the way from Texas to Michigan for a funeral of either an aunt, mother, or grandmother.

It felt like somewhere on the South side of Indianapolis was a rest area with a sign that said: “The pastor at the Church on exit 14 is generous and will give you money if you tell him you are on a trip from Texas to Michigan for a funeral.”

When someone would knock on the door and start to say: “I am on my way...” I wanted to finish their sentence!

So, it is Sunday morning, early. I am at the Church rehearsing my sermon and I look outside.

The way this church was set up, from the pulpit, you could see the main entrance.

And right in front of the door was a man, early 30's in sweat pants. He stopped at the door, bent over, raised the sweat pant on his right leg to reveal a prosthetic leg. He didn't raise the other. But I could see him do this intentional thing to garner more sympathy from me.

I began to doubt him

He walks in with the “You the preacher? I am on my way from Texas...”

But this guy seemed real clever.

I never give cash. Heaven forbid someone get cash, buy a bottle of liquor and go home and beat their wife.

But this guy, it seems to me, had a clever way to get me to give him cash instead of buying him a tank of gas, Subway sandwiches and groceries.

Now the motor head guys and gals will get this right away, He says: “The transmission seal is bad on my truck and I need money to buy transmission fluid.”

Now, transmission fluid is expensive. It is so expensive that it generally comes in pints containers that cost several dollars each. And I am thinking he is going to want $30-$40 in cash, which is what I would have spent on him at the Pilot anyway. However, when a person doesn't want gas and food, only cash, you get suspicious.

And he seemed to have a good excuse.

But I am thinking in the back of my head: “I got you, you liar.”

Because, on my next day off, I was planning on changing the filter and transmission on my full size Chevy van. I have 2 gallons of transmission fluid ready for him and I do not have to give him any cash.

I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when a pint or two of fluid will fill him up and his lie was exposed.

But guess what? His truck took the entire 2 gallons of fluid. He was not lying.

And I was getting ready to preach about giving to the poor, but being very careful that we did not enable them. I had all the cliche's about poverty down.

And instead, God showed me the scripture: “Do not neglect to show...”

Because I was preaching about not judging the poor that morning and this happened, God changed my mind.

Finished and Done

Text: John 17:1-11

Focus: Jesus' works

Function: To help people see how God sealed us for salvation.

Form: GOK

Intro: I was president of the local toastmasters club for a while and one thing I learned with them is that good speaking requires the speaker to develop a rapport with the audience.

And you all make it easy. I get good visual feedback and participation from you. You make my job easy, so thank you.

But one thing I notice, and this isn't a bad thing, it probably has more to do with me than with you is that when I try to switch into teaching mode, people's eyes just sort of glaze over.

Now, almost every lesson that Jesus taught, He taught through a story. Stories capture the imagination and give the audience the opportunity to think and more importantly, discover truth through the thought process.

I like them because I don't have to tell you: “you must believe a, b and c in order to be a Christian.” You get to figure out it out for yourselves. Jesus complimented His audiences by using stories instead of lectures.

However, some lessons require the lecture. Sometimes, the preacher must step back from the story and explain the theology behind the story. Sometimes we switch to classroom mode and have to listen to a lecture.

Unfortunately, that is what I need to do this morning in order to get the message across.

But don't worry. It is really short. As a matter of fact, it is so short, that I can spend the first page and a half telling you how short it is going to be.

I remember one Sunday, the text had three doctrinal points that needed to be said and needed to be said together.

So, I thought it would be clever to teach one point and then sing a hymn to spoke to that point, move to the second point, sing a second hymn, and then do the third point and end the service with a hymn that reiterated the third point. I thought I was clever.

And one deacon, he was mad. Now the service ended at the same time, but with his finger in my face, he said: “you don't have to preach the next two weeks because you stuck us with three sermons this week!”

I was shocked.

So, what is so important that it needs to be mentioned quickly and with emphasis.

Finished and done.

Or, Finished and Finished.

I love all that goes into Jesus' statement on the Cross: “It is finished.” John 19:30

The ransom is paid. The price for our salvation is complete. Jesus' work on behalf of humanity is done.

What does this finished mean?

It means that every time Satan reminds me of my failures, the forgiveness and penalty for them is already done.

It is finished.

There is nothing we can do to make it more complete.

Although the more we are forgiven, the more we love Jesus. But loving Jesus more does not mean we are more forgiven. (Luke 7:47) It is finished.

But there is another finished statement in this passage.

Vs 4: I have brought you glory on this earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

Jesus said He was finished before He said it on the cross.

He finished twice. Both have two completely different meanings.

His reference here in John 17:4 is the reference to finishing His teaching mission on behalf of God.

Vs 8: I have given them Your words and they have accepted them.

But He wasn't done.

The God part of God/Man was finished.

But the man part of God/Man still had the cross to go through.

He taught us well. And now He is going to save us.

So, Finished and finished.

But I like finished and done.

Because this passage tells both stories.

Chapter 17 is referred to as “The High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus.

This prayer is the prayer for us that promises the Holy Spirit will come, how the Holy Spirit will guide us. This prayer is a blessing for all believers everywhere.

It is a blessing that God will always, always be there to lead and guide us.

He finished the work and it is done. And now, we are sealed by God by Jesus work for us.

So, we are completely forgiven by the cross. And because of that, we have been sealed to God against the day of judgment. (1 Timothy 1:12)

So, as we move into the bread and cup portion of this ceremony, let us remember that this is the promise to seal us completely by God's hand for eternity.

It is finished and done. Praise God!

Be Gentle!

Text: 1 Peter 3:13-22

Focus: Sharing our Faith

Function: To help people approach evangelism in a post-Christian culture.

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

On the first Sunday of this month I mentioned how Tony Compolo preached against legalism by exposing how the Christian prohibition of going to movies didn't serve the purpose of sharing our faith to outsiders.

I remember how this was played out in a odd way in my ministry. In the late 1990's TBN produced a move called “China Cry.” It was the story of a woman in China whose job was to indoctrinate young minds to communist ideology.

While doing a background check on her, the thought police discovered that she attended a Christian mission school when she was a child.

While at school, she placed her trust in Jesus. And then forgot about it.

However, the officials wanted her to recant her profession. In the process of her making up her mind about it, she realized that she was indeed a Christian and she refused to deny Jesus.

The colonel in charge of the Secret Police had her arrested and eventually she faced a firing squad.

True story, BTW.

The colonel said “what God can deliver you out of my hands?”

At the moment that the men fired their rifles to kill her, an electrical discharge happened which disoriented all the executioners and every single bullet missed her.

A great story.

So, a Sunday School class decided to go en masse to the movie. However, one of my parishioners would not go because she was afraid that if someone saw her enter the theater Saturday night, and then show up for Church on Sunday, her “Christian witness” would be blown.

We heard that a lot growing up. God's only plan for sharing the good news of His love is through the Church, us. Wherever we go, we are the visible representation of Jesus to the world. And I was constantly challenged with remembering what I displayed to the world as a Christian.

So, Christians, don't “Blow your witness!”

And there was/is several ways that was described. All of which were great sermon fodder: dress, alcohol, tobacco, language, movies, acquaintances, hair cuts, music and etc.

What this parishioner probably failed to realize is that a non-Christian, and most Christians would have never thought anything was wrong with that behavior.

She lived as a Christian and that is good. But she was so caught up in Christian sub-culture that her concept of non-Christian life was disconnected from modern culture.

I am not saying that is bad, but it is important to live in the world that Jesus has called us to be His agents to redeem.

If she were to judge non-Christians for going to a movie, how can she open a door to them to share the hope she has inside of her?

So, I remember a similar incident happening to me when I was a child. I was sure that my family had completely blown our witness.

I grew up on the South Side of FW and attended school with all the traditional, or orthodox, Jewish children whose families lived within a Sabbath Day's walk of the Synagogue off of Old Mill road near Foster Park.

Converting them to Christ was part of our mission statement.

And I was friend with Rabbi Gebhardt's daughter.

And to explain this story, one must remind people younger than me that beer used to come in these little squat brown bottles that didn't look anything like soda bottles.

And as an advertising gimmick, a root beer company decided to package their root beer in bottles that looked like beer bottles.

I was 13 and I was in the checkout line with my father at the Kroger store in Southgate shopping center.

And my dad, a preacher and on staff at FWBC bought a six-pack of that root beer.

In the line next to us was Rabbi Gebhardt and his daughter.

I remember the panic I felt because I was sure that she would see the root beer, think it was beer, and then think that we were not Christians at all, I would lose my chance to witness Christ to her, she would die and go to hell and it would be all my (or my dad's) fault.

I worried about how I would face God at that moment.

I had no idea what the Jewish religion was all about until later that same school year when I was invited to her bat-mitzvah and they served wine like it was kool-aid.

The point of both of these illustrations is that we do not really know what ideals, ideologies, practices and traditions make up the spiritual and social values of our neighbors.

And, as we increasingly become a less Christian culture, we cannot assume that people know what we think proper Christian behavior actually is.

We cannot assume that people know about all the ways we have sought to define our faith.

People on the outside will judge our sincerity by what they perceive the teachings of Jesus to be.

Let me repeat that. People will judge the sincerity of our faith, our religion, by how they understand the teachings of Jesus.

I think this can be a very good thing because it is causing us to re-focus on Jesus' love for humanity instead of our own religious practices which might have devolved into Christian legalism.

So know, when I remind myself that I am Christ's representative to a hurting world, or to use the old term, when I concern myself with my witness, instead of legalistic principles, I concern myself with how well I show Jesus' love.

Do I respect people who are different from me? Am I kind to the clerk at the grocery store? How do come across when negotiating the price of my car, or contractor services to my house?

So let me repeat verse 15, as we are looking at the Gentle Shepherd: “...Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect...”

This passage is about our Christian testimony, our Christian witness.

And it springs first from doing good.

You know how dads always have the same joke that they repeat over and over and the kids get a little tired of it?

My dad would say: “I am a preacher, so I am paid to be good. And you are not a preacher, so that means you are good for nothing.”

But there is a difference between being good and doing good.

Good people do good things.

But doing good is a big part of our witness.

Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us that we are saved by grace through faith and not by our works. But then verse 10 tells us that we were saved to do good works.

And I keep pointing out, Christians, we are not saved as a fire escape from hell so that we can live for ourselves here in this life and go to heaven anyway. But we are saved to do good things for God toward others.

We are saved to take part in God's great adventure of restoring the world to wholeness and healing through the good news.

I like this perspective on evangelism. It reminds me of St. Francis of Assisi. He said, “preach the gospel always, sometimes use words.”

Our lives preach the good news that God is still in the world. Our lives demonstrate God still loves people.

The whole passage tells us how to preach with our lives.

Verse 15 tells us how to share with our mouths.

Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you.

It springs from faith. It springs from our faith. And it springs from the way our faith brings us hope.

I bought a Christmas tree from the Optimist club one year. It was a great tree and a good value.

And the volunteer selling it to me said to me: “next year is going to be a bad year, I am going to die next year.”

I switched into preacher mode right away and gave him some time to talk about his problem, but before I got there, I was tempted to chuckle at the irony that the optimist was so gloomy. As it turned out, he wasn't gloomy, he was realistic about his health and had a very positive attitude about dying.

Always be ready to give an account of the hope...

Do we have hope? Do we show hope?

But most importantly in this passage, how do we communicate it with words?

This is an important aspect as we are sharing hope with a post-christian world.

Always be ready to share... ...with gentleness and respect.

The operating principle is “...with gentleness and respect.”

I wonder if that is where our message breaks down?

I am convinced that the reason the message is so readily embraced on our Kairos weekend is because of the respect shown to the inmates at the prison.

We always refer to them as resident. We do not allow the use of their prison slang name, and we rise above the correctional officers use of a number instead of a name when referring to the residents.

England is much more a post-christian nation. And an evangelist that I was talking with who was from there explained to me the subtle shift in the “gentleness and respect” concept.

He said, “In Seminary I was taught to teach the doctrines that we believe and there was always an implication afterward to question the person this way: `why don't you believe what I am teaching?`

“Don't hear me wrong. It wasn't supposed to be a teaching tactic that placed the person on the defensive with the implication `what is wrong with you that you don't understand what is so clear to me?'

“The gist of the question was designed to ask the person what I could to to help them see the light the way that I saw it.”

But my friend, Johnnie March, said “Now I ask the question this way: `this is what I believe, what do you believe?'”

And he was telling me that it is a subtle difference between what happens when Christianity is no longer the dominant religion in a culture.

We haven't gone as far as most European nations, yet. But the concepts of gently sharing our hope in a pluralistic culture apply to us.

My friend who didn't want to go to a movie assumed that everyone in our culture knew of a religious prohibition of which only a subset of Christianity knew.

Tell the story of Cat.

Cat, short for Cathy, a waitress at the diner I attended was scared of me.

She was young, but her face showed the lines of a hard life.

I was sharing with another waitress about my reaction to the movie “The Passion of the Christ.”

I was so moved that I was in tears.

And Cat overheard us. And started inching closer to the conversation.

First, while passing by the counter, she said: “my uncle was a preacher” and then she just sort of ran off.

Then, she got a little closer with the statement: “my grandfather was a preacher as well.”

But again she ran off. She reminded me of a puppy slowly coming closer and closer to see if I was safe.

I got the chance to ask her about her grandfather, she told me a little and when she discovered that I was not going to attack her, or preach at her she told me the rest of her story.

She was heavily involved in church until at 16 she got pregnant. She was kicked out of her church because they didn't want that kind of girl with their youth.

At this point, Cat was starting to weep.

I looked her squarely in the eyes and said to her: “on behalf of that church, on behalf of preachers everywhere, I apologize for the wrong done to you.”

She broke into tears and that moment started the slow salvation of Cat.

With gentleness and respect is the operating word. We have to be humble and admit our mistakes.

I love the way the Lutheran Church has recently apologized for the anti-Semitic language that Martin Luther.

If we are going to share the hope inside of us, then instead of being upset about the changing of our culture, the loss of genuine Christian values, we need to remember that this is our Father's world and regardless, the good news is entrusted to us.