Reasonable Faith - 1 Peter 3:13-17 - Caught Up

All right, church, across all of our locations, I'm going to invite you to take your copy of Scripture out and turn with me to 1 Peter 3. That's where we're going to spend some time together this weekend. And as you guys are doing that, one of the things that I would love to just mention, I know that your service host and campus pastor at all of our locations already mentioned this, but guys, this coming weekend is our back-to-school weekend. And that weekend is really important in the life of our church because that weekend is really kind of a reset. I know we're talking a lot about, you know, kindergarten commissioning and jumping, you know, our students have stuff going on.

And it's really just, I mean, it's incredible across all of those things for our age-based ministries and our parents. I think that parents, you know, it's funny, whenever we talk about back-to-school weekend, it's a collective groan from the kids and cheer from the parents, right? It's like, man, summer's finally getting over and it's kind of, kids, let me give you a little bit of an insight here from a parent, OK? It really isn't about you, I mean, it's mostly not about you actually going back to school, OK? It's really more about us being able to get back into a rhythm of life. That's really what it's a little more about.

And that is true whether you're a parent with kids or a retiree or a young professional. But what I want to try to push upon our church to understand about next weekend is it's an opportunity for us to all kind of jump back into a really awesome rhythm and sort of kick off the fall, if you will, with a brand new sermon series and diving into the word and celebrating these parents that are raising kindergartners and, you know, our college students are starting to come back. Hey, we have a lot of them from UNCG that are back this weekend. Church, can we praise God that many of them are coming back? And if you are a freshman, we're going to do that again next week. But if you are a freshman, we're excited that you are here. And, guys, the next four years could change everything about your life and the relationships that you have there. But I want our church to view next weekend as a little bit of a launch for the fall.

Listen, here's the deal, OK? We are going to snap our fingers and be sitting down over Thanksgiving dinner. You know how life is. We are going to snap our fingers, blink our eyes, and we're going to be sitting down with the family in a different state, sitting there for Christmas. And you will have either grown spiritually or be exactly the same as you are right now.

One of those two things is going to happen. And we have an opportunity to lean in, set the rhythms, decide that we're going to gather, give and go and jump all the way back in for this fall. And if we get in the stream, God will grow us in our maturity. I want that. I don't want to be in the same place come Christmas and Thanksgiving than I am right now.

And I know you don't want that either. So let's think about next weekend and let's really make it a diving board, a jumping off, right, of what we're going to see God do in our church this fall. All right. Well, we're going to be in First Peter today and we're diving back into our sermon series.

But let me go ahead and tell you, I'm going to break the mold with this sermon series and I'm going to cheat. OK, because what I've been doing throughout this series, you know, this is we've been talking about how different stages bring different temptations. Right. We've been talking about how it's good to know the enemy schemes. And as a pastor, I've learned there are different things that attack us at different life stages. There's different bait for the hook in different life stages that the enemy wants to bring at us. Right. And we've looked at all these different life stages and all that.

Well, I'm going to cheat today because I'm going to I'm going to talk about something that covers all the stages. All right. As we end this series. But and here's where I do think it's a little bit interesting. We do not want to be. Remember, this comes from 2 Timothy 2.4. We don't want to be entangled or caught up in the world. We want to not be entangled in the world, but engage in the mission.

Right. Well, there is one problem that we're going to talk about today from First Peter, chapter three. But I believe and I know, listen, I know this is not always true and I'm kind of I'm generally I'm being general with this sermon series so we can hit different life stages. So it's not always exactly, you know, A equals B. But generally speaking, we all struggle with what I'm going to talk about, but we struggle with two different parts of it, depending on our age either.

And sometimes that's physical age or it could be our spiritual age. Here's the big idea. And let me explain.

All right. Christians are called to give reasons for their hope. Listen, with respect. This is what we're called to do. We are called to give reason for the hope that is in us. We live a life that is thought provoking enough for people on the outside that they ask questions, number one, and then we give them reasons. But we do so with respect.

Now, I can get in hot water here, so I know this is not true for everybody. But generally speaking, let me just tell you what I've seen in my life. And then I think maybe it'll hopefully it might be something that you've seen happening in your life. Generally speaking, I think that we struggle with the give reason part when we're younger and we struggle with the with respect part when we get older. And here's what I mean by that.

Let me let me try to explain it, OK? So when I was younger, when I was 15, 16 years old, living in high school, trying to be a believer, trying to hold on to my faith, I didn't want to go party. I didn't want to go out with the football.

You know, I was a ballplayer and all that. I didn't want to go out. Why? Man, it's all this drunkenness. It's all this sexual promiscuity.

It's all this craziness. And I'm feeling like, man, I don't I don't want to be a part of that because it's not honoring to God. It's not honor. And, you know, and so I'm trying to I'm trying to to live the Christian life. But you know how hard it is at 16 years old to have your teammates say, let's go do X. And, you know, that's not honoring to God.

Now, when I was 16 years old, the hard part of that equation was to actually give the reason for the hope. It was a little bit easier just to say, oh, sorry, guys, I'm out of town that weekend. My parents are, you know, they're or whatever. Right. It's a little bit easier. You don't you don't want to say it's hard to say, man, that doesn't honor God. Why? Because I don't I want to be accepted like everybody else.

Right. I don't want to be rejected. I don't want them to think I'm trying to be holier than thou or judging them.

And I and the big I remember this very distinctly. I know I'm going to sin. And when I do, the fact I didn't go to that party is going to make me seem like a hypocrite. If I if I don't do that, but then if I ever mess up again, which I will, then I'm going to seem like a hypocrite. So you got all these fears wrapped up in, man, I'm out of town that weekend rather than I got to hope that's in me. And that doesn't honor God.

Right. When you're younger, sometimes a little harder to give those reasons. Now, what's happened in my life when I'm a little bit older is a little more like this. I'm sitting with my daughter the other night watching Dance Moms.

That's a sentence I never thought I would say. OK, just going to be honest with you. All right.

But she had her tonsils out. So I'm going to do whatever she wants to do. So we're you know, we're doing that. And and I'm sitting there and the show is glorifying these three or I don't know, three or four dance moms. OK. And there they won. I don't know if they won something or whatever. Anyway, they're all going out.

Right. And they're all and they're all, you know, in their 40s probably. And they're all going out to the bar and they go out and it's just what you would think. It's craziness. It's lewd. It's it's you know, it's it's promiscuous.

They're drinking drunkenness. And this is a show. It's just a real show on TV. So it's not it's not anything crazy in that regard.

But just the lifestyle they're portraying is crazy. And you know what immediately comes out of my mouth? How dumb do you got to be to be that old and want to go do that? You see what comes out of my mouth?

What is so wrong with these people and their life that they think this is fun? I'm literally saying this out loud. Now, here's my point. My point is, when you're young, it's hard to give a reason when you get a little bit older.

Oh, it's easy to give the reason. It's harder to do it with respect. You know, many people in our church are in that life stage where you're like, man, you wouldn't budge from what you believe in terms of inerrancy of scripture. Jesus Christ is the only way.

This is his view of the family. I mean, all the things that we preach here at Mercy Hill. There is not anything that could move you from that because you believe it so deeply in your soul. And that's a good thing.

That's an awesome thing. We want to speak to that. But I think we can become in danger of ones who crusade. We become Facebook prophets who love means rather than people. And write and love and try to win. We want to win an argument.

Or do we want to win people? I am right there in danger of this. I feel like it's happening in my life. And so this passage really speaks a lot to me and I want to speak into your life as well. So let's read.

Here we go. First Peter, chapter three. Let's talk about giving reasons with respect. OK, now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled. Now, obviously, the context of this is there's a persecution going on. I'm going to talk about that. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that is in you.

That's the money verse. Yeah, do it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, and I think the idea of this persecution is one of social cost. It's slandering. It's being maligned.

OK, we can identify with that. Those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame for it is better to suffer for doing good. If that should be God's will then for doing evil.

Now, if you stay right there with me, he starts in verse 13 by saying this. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Now, here's what I don't want you to see, because we've got people that are checking things out. Man, you're not sure if you're a Christian. You're just you're here in every service at every campus.

I bet you. All right. And so here's what I don't want you to hear. He's saying, who is there to harm you? I don't want you to hear the caricature, the trope of the happy Christian in this passage.

OK, the Ned Flanders Christian, the high deadly hoe. Everything's fine because I have God on my side. That's not what I want you to hear. He's not saying, well, if God's on your side, neighbor, who could you know, who could harm you?

That's not what he's getting at, because you and I know this. If I say, who can harm you? We know the real answer is there's a lot of people that can harm you.

We see this overseas all the time. We just prayed a couple of weeks ago right here in our staff prayer, because some of our team is reaching people who, as they're coming to Christ, are facing persecution. One of our teams in Africa, when they were home on their furlough, shared a story with me about a pastor who is facing persecution, tribal war and all this kind of stuff that's going on, house burned, cows killed, all of that. One study showed in 2021, one out of seven Christians face some form of persecution globally. Now, maybe you think about physical persecution. I think what's going on in this passage is actually more of the social cost. It's being cut off from friends. Maybe some of you have been passed over for a promotion.

We have, listen, we have had Muslim background believers baptized not with our teams overseas in this church, that we have had to walk with them about what it's going to look like and the social cost with their family. I think that is a little more of what's going on this passage. So let me ask you the question again. When he says, who is there to harm you?

Like the real answer is, seems like a lot of people, right? But you've got to zoom out 30,000 feet. And that's the whole point of this passage.

When you zoom out 30,000 feet, you realize, wait a minute, who is there to harm you? Because in the end, God is blessing those who stand firm in persecution. Christian, it's a win-win for you. The game is rigged. It's this idea that when we feel like we're losing for the kingdom's sake, one day God will restore all the years that the locusts have eaten.

That's kind of the idea. Look what he says in verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

It's not that we can't be harmed. It's that 30,000 feet in an eschatological view or an end times view. God is blessing those who stand. Look what it says in Matthew 5. The greatest sermon ever preached.

What did Jesus say? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad.

That's a hard thing to do. I'm going to rejoice and be glad when I am persecuted, when I am slandered, when I am lied about. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Specifically, what is going on here? Listen, this could be any type of evil. OK, I want you to understand. Generally speaking, we can understand if we are suffering evil, we need to cling to Romans 828 to Romans 831. God is working all things together for the good of those who love him. Romans 831. Who can be against us if God is for us?

Like we need to cling to that stuff. Think about other players in the Bible. I mean, you think about suffering because you did evil, Jonah. Suffering because you did right, Joseph. Suffering because, well, I don't know why, Job. I mean, suffering in general is still kind of applicable here, but this is specifically talking about the suffering that we have because we are maligned. We are slandered. We are poked fun at. We are asked cutting questions to try to get all the way to the bottom and try to trap us in a worldview or something like that.

What he's saying, I think, is this. Christian perseverance, your Christian perseverance is anchored in a future hope. It is not necessarily that God will save you from this situation that you are in right now. I don't know what it might be for you, but our fear can begin to shatter when it crashes against the rock of Christ as Lord. When he is in control, when there is nothing that is outside of his purview, when we know that he loves us and has a good plan for us, then our fears around persecution and being maligned and slandered, they can begin to fade.

That's what it says in verse 14. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. You know, I think for us it might be good just to pause and say, man, are any of us suffering? Do you feel like you're being accused? Do you feel like you can't find a way out of this financial situation? Are you facing divorce?

Are you facing a diagnosis? What the Bible is telling us here is we can replace that fear with an honor that goes to Christ the Lord. Honor him as the Holy One.

Honor him as the Sovereign One. Brothers and sisters, today this is more specifically talking about persecution. It's not just talking about general suffering. What it's talking about is a persecution that I think we can understand. See, there's a lot of debate here, okay?

Bible scholars debate this. But my view on it is, after reading about it a ton, I feel like what is in view is not a sustained persecution, but rather he is talking about being fortified against outbursts of persecution that come in intense moments culturally. Now, can any of us identify with that? It's maybe not a sustained from the government, maybe, but maybe it is outbursts when the fever pitch of culture gets really high on whatever particular issue that happens to be on the other side of Christianity. And I think that is where we find a lot of commonality with this, when we are slandered for what we believe. That's what verse 16 said, when we're slandered, when we are talked about in a way that is not true, when people believe things about us that are not true, simply because of our relationship with Christ and our commitment to the gospel.

And things like this. Preaching Jesus as the only way into a relationship with God, that's as narrow-minded as you could get. Have you heard that? You see? Holding a biblical view of sexuality, that's naive.

Holding a complementarian view that a man would lead his wife and lead his children. This is seen as oppression. See, this is where the outside world comes in, and in fever pitch moments, we are kind of caught on the carpet, and all of a sudden, we are the ones, can be, that are put sort of backpedaling, running, we can be persecuted in these ways. Maybe some of you are even feeling this. You're feeling the fear of this.

You say, well, who would you be? Man, I think about a bunch of kids about to start school for the first time. There's a bunch of kids that are moving from fifth to sixth grade or eighth to ninth.

I mean, these are big moments, right? Where they're walking into school, maybe they're fearful, maybe you're starting a new job, you don't know how it's going to go. Maybe you have children that are heading off to college, and you've heard such horror stories from kids that end up turning away from the faith and that kind of thing. I think what the Bible is telling us here, Christ is Lord, we will face trouble, we will be slandered, but it is possible for us to do that with no fear.

How? We have to replace the fear with honoring Christ the Lord as holy. That's the switch that has to happen. Then you say, okay, okay, I got that, but how do we do that? Well, we need a plan, okay? And I think the plan, I want to give you two parts of the plan here, all right? The first part of the plan is this.

We need what Thomas Chalmers called the explosive power of a new affection. Have you ever been afraid of something and somebody just said, stop being afraid? How did that work? You ever do that with your kids? I mean, your kids are scared of something, they're afraid of something, you're like, oh, just don't be afraid.

Oh, yeah, that really works, right? Man, you know what happens in our life? We need what they called the explosive power of a new affection.

Let me give you, let me try to put some, you know, give you a couple of pictures of this, all right? If we are struggling with materialism, the answer is not to say stop, the answer is to realize that in the gospel, we have been given greater gifts than we could ever have on this life, in this earth. Does that make sense? It's not just to slap the hand, no, no, no. It's to fall in love with something that is bigger and greater. When we are struggling with, you know, I heard this the other day, the number one reason why specifically young men are turned away from our sending agency to be able to go be missionaries because they have pornography issues. When we struggle with sexual sin of any kind, the issue, it's not stop, okay, I've got to stop, got to stop, you know, slap the hand, got to stop, no. The idea is we need to fall in love with something that is much more beautiful.

That's the explosive power of a new affection. We don't just say stop when it comes to fear. What we've got to do is see God as big. We've got to see him as the one who can drive away the fear. He is the Lord.

That's the explosive power. Of course, the second part of our plan that I would just say here, just being super practical for a minute, there's a lot of things we could talk about here. So about prayer, we can talk about interaction with the Holy Spirit, we talk about a lot of things.

But just thinking about, you know, one real quick thing we can do. Guys, we need to think about being in a group this fall. If we are struggling with the fear of man and what they can do to us, we need to be in a group.

You know, at Mercy Heal and Group, we do three things, okay, I call it the three B's. Groups help us build a relationship, we bridge the gap, and we beg God. We build relationships with each other. We bridge the gap between what we learn on the weekend and how our life is playing out. We're going to try to bridge that gap. Let's put it in practice. Sermon's the lecture, group is the lab. Okay, let's put it in practice. And then we want to beg God together. And here's the deal. You know what? Maybe you're struggling with fear today.

Maybe there's some...and you're just thinking to yourself, like, man, I'm in this situation, new school, I'm in this situation in terms of a new job, and I'm struggling with fear. Listen, I've given you the plan, all right? And listen, if you have failed in other plans, why not jump into this plan? I thought about this the other day. Listen, I love summertime, okay? All the kids go to camp, they go to their camp, and then this is the second summer in a row, our cow gets to go to their camp, okay?

It's called freezer camp, okay? And so that was last Friday. We had the opportunity, except for one problem.

I got a 1,200-pound cow that said, I ain't going. Okay? And, you know, well, what do you do? You know, so we're working with her and trying to get her on there. And our college pastor here, I don't think I should say his name. I'll give you his initials. His initials are Brandon Newton.

Okay, so Brandon Newton was there. And the cow is getting all worked up, and she ain't getting on that trailer. And I tell Brandon, I'm like, listen, man, we're going to get up behind her, and we're going to put a lot of pressure on her, all right? You've got to get big, okay?

You've got to wave your arms, all right? Don't let her, you know, don't let her punk you, okay? Let's just go, you know, get her. And so we're trying to put some pressure on her and trying to get her to get in, and Brandon's like, hey, hey, hey. And then she turns around and looks at him and lowers her head, and he goes, hey, you can go that way, okay? Just go right back into the pasture, just like that. I mean, I'm going to tell you, I get back in the house, I told Anna, I walked in, I was like, man, I just took a massive L, okay?

I've been out here for three hours trying to get this cow. I got the date and everything. I get another date. They're really gracious.

They're like, hey, you can come on Tuesday. And so what did I do? I called the most interesting man at Mercy Hill, who you guys know at Clifton, is a guy named Jack Kimes, okay? Some of you all know Jack, all right? Jack's the most interesting man in the world. He is a farmer. He has a full sleeve of tattoos.

He has a sick mustache and an awesome mullet, okay? And I called him the other night, and he said, hey, man, I said, what's up? He said, nothing. What are you doing? I said, nothing. What are you doing? He said, I'm playing croquet. Really?

Okay. So if you weren't the most interesting man you are, but anyway, he knows more about the farm. So he comes over to help me on Tuesday, and lo and behold, 35 minutes later, small tweaks in the plan, okay? And the cow hops on the trailer with no real, you know, it didn't get all, you know, it wasn't real. It was just kind of simple, kind of easy. And I thought about that this weekend because I thought, man, some of us here, when I started talking about fear and giving the reason for hope and change, some of you, listen, you're going to say, I have tried before.

Tried a thousand times before. Man, here's what you're going to say. You're going to take that next giant leap that I've taken so many times in my life. You're going to say, man, I'm just wired this way. I'm wired to worry. I'm wired to be in fear.

I'm just wired this way. And I want to implore you to make a new plan and take another shot at it, okay? Let somebody who knows, and if I'm speaking with authority from the scripture here, let somebody who knows kind of say, let me help you adjust the plan and try again.

And the plan adjustment is this. You probably tried in religion to slap your hand a bunch of times to stop fearing what's going on. And what we need is the explosive power of a new affection. We need to fall in love with what the scripture called Christ the Lord who is holy.

And we see him. It begins to drive out that fear. And we're held accountable in groups. And we may be in a different situation five months, six months, a year from now when it comes to the fear that we have in terms of others.

All right? And all that. And we're going to need it, guys, because it's a scary thing. Look at what it says in verse 15. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense. We're going to need that courage. We're going to need to replace fear with honoring Christ the Lord.

Why? Because we're going to be called to make a defense. And this is what it looks like. When we're not living in fear, we're ready to make a defense to anyone who asks for the reason, for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and do it with respect. Practically, what I think it's saying here is this. Are we living a life that is able to and willing to give reason for the hope? Now, I'm going to tell you something I heard from another pastor a long time ago.

I remember exactly where I was on a parking lot listening to the radio. And I heard him say this, okay? And he said, he said, you want to be an evangelist? You start asking people really good questions until they start asking you a question. You ask questions until they ask you a question.

Now, here's what I want you to see. Are we living life in community? Are we question askers? Are we living life that provokes people asking questions of our life?

You could say it like this. Are our lives thought-provoking enough that we're getting questions asked of us from the world? That's what happens when you give up vacation time to go on a mission trip. That's what happens when you're radically generous with your money.

That's what happens when we adopt kids with special needs. People, they lean in, and suddenly you're not the one asking them questions. They're asking you questions now.

They're wanting to know what kind of life it is that you are trying to live. I mean, I think about the early Christian, the early church. Guys, the early church was slandered because they were stingy with their wives and generous with their money in a culture that was the exact opposite. They lived that kind of life.

And what happened? People leaned in, and they began to ask questions of them. Now, I think specifically what is in view here is this context of the outbursts of persecution that are coming, the slander, against Christians.

And I think this is what it's trying to get us to see. When we are maligned, when the culture is speaking against the faith and against us by extension, when we're being called this or that. I mean, you're a bigot because you believe this. You're oppressive because you believe this, whatever, okay?

And we're being pushed in that way. What is the response? Is the response, we take our ball and we go home and we go make a convent somewhere, okay? Or is the response, man, you're punching at me, I'm going to punch at you. I'm going to lash out. I'm going to come forth in anger. Is there a type of response that actually gives reason for the hope with gentleness and respect so that people begin to lean in? And that's what I want us to see. Guys, there's two sides of this, all right, I think.

The first one maybe is something like this. Well, let me give you the, this is really just a retelling of what I said in the intro, but then I want to break down both sides of it, all right? Christians give reasons or are called to give reasons for their hope, but we're called to do it with respect. Now, the first, I did this in the intro, the first part of this is giving reason for the hope that is in you.

Now, can I just say one thing about this, all right? When I start talking about giving reasons for the hope that are in you, if many of you have been around churches for a long time and I have, what comes to your mind is a term called apologetics. What that means is a defense of the faith, reasons that we give, you know, arguments and this kind of stuff.

But here's what I want you guys to see. This passage is not so much about reasons that somebody else should believe. What it said is give the reason for the hope that is in you. This is less about the arguments that are out there.

This is more about the question, why do you believe? And I don't want you to hear me saying something about apologetics or that. Listen, I understand, okay, I have a degree specifically in Christian apologetics. I understand the value of arguments and all that, but I'm going to tell you something that's been a pastor for a lot of years now, okay? Ninety percent or, I don't know, ninety-five percent, you know, eighty-seven percent of statistics are made up on the spot, okay?

I would say it's got to be in the 90th percentile of people. They don't come to Christ through the intellect. They come through the heart. It's probably how you came to Christ. I know it's how I came to Christ, okay, if you're a believer. And what I mean by that, what I'm trying to get at is this idea. The reasons that are in you, oh, I can't remember the arguments for the problem of evil, and I'm not sure exactly what these terms are, the cosmological argument and the teleological argument, I'm not real sure.

Man, study that stuff if you're into that, great, okay? Most people want to hear, and they're going to be more impacted by, where were you before Christ? How did you interact with Christ?

And what is your life like right now? See, most of us, if I said, give the hope for why somebody else should believe, well, the Bible's in there, and we got all the, okay, got it. But if I said, no, no, give them the hope that is in you, it's probably like, man, I'm not dead in my sin anymore.

I was an addict, and now I'm not. God healed something in my life, my marriage, my finances, the way to think about wisdom. He healed something in my life.

That's more of what I think this is about. Guys, if you ask me, what is one of the reasons for the hope that is in you, there's a lot of things that come to my mind. But one of them that would come to my mind is this, and I mean this, without the gospel's constant influence and the Holy Spirit's conviction in my life, I would be mean.

I know it. I struggle with it now. I struggle with being harsh, quick, sharp.

And if I was not a believer, if the Spirit was not in me, warring against that, if I didn't have the accountability of group, bridging Bible to life, and all of that kind of stuff, and friends in my life, all I would be harsh and mean. That's one of the reasons in my life. Man, the relationship that I have with my wife, the relationship that I have with my kids, the relationships that I'll be able to build in friendship, that's one of a thousand reasons that is about the hope that is in me. Now, what about you? You think about it.

It's not about the arguments that are out there. I think about Paul. Guys, when Paul was pressed, think about that in the book of Acts. When Paul was pressed, what came out was not the cosmological argument or the problem of evil.

What came out was, this is my story, this is my song. This is where I was when I met Christ and what He's done in my life. But it's not only that. It is about that, but not only that. The reasons that are in you. But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord is holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Listen, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The second part of this is, we give our reasons with gentleness and respect. In an inviting and endearing way. You could say it like this, man, I think this is less about the arguments that an evangelist makes, and more about the heart posture of the evangelist. How do they view someone that they're trying to interact with? Okay, man, the world is pressing on me, and now I'm being called to give an answer.

What's coming out? Is it lashing? Is it sharp? Or is it winsome?

Is it something that invites and endears? Christian, you could say it like this, your posture is as important as your point. What you are trying to get across, there are many believers who have been right on point and wrong in posture. I've been there in my life.

I know you've been there. I was right, man, got the word, got the verses lined up. I didn't love the person that was in front of me well enough to say things in a way that they could understand.

That's what I want to call our church away from. Listen, many of us, and I've done this in my life as well. Many of us say, well, hey, man, I get what you're saying, you know, seasoned speech and all that kind of stuff, but the reality is I'm just a straight shooter. I've used that line before. You know, I'm not going to say anything about you. I'll say something about me. No, I'm going to say it about you. Okay, I'm going to say it about all of us. Here's the deal. When we say, man, well, hey, hey, dude, I'm just a straight shooter.

I call it like I see it. It might be that you're just kind of lazy. It might be that you don't care enough in order to say something in a way that somebody can hear it. I mean, ain't nobody talking about shying away from the truth. Ain't nobody talking about not saying the truth.

Ain't nobody saying that. I've had people that have come to me and they're like, man, you know, I wish you would just say it like this and say it like it is and just kind of and I'm kind of like, you know what, man, I don't want to say this, but I'm sort of like, yeah, you kind of do that, right? You do it on Facebook. You do it on social media. How many people have you ever won over to your way of thinking?

I bet about that many. Right? Because when we just want to pop off and shoot the cannon, all we're looking for is praise from people who already agree. Rather than actually doing what the scripture is talking about here and giving a reason in a way that somebody, gentleness and respect, bringing it to them in a way that they can understand.

And that's kind of what I want to call our church to guys. There is no setting for unseasoned speech. Not one setting, not in the home, not with people that are way younger than you kids, not with somebody who is not a believer, not with somebody in the community that is slandering and maligning.

There's no setting for it. Colossians 4, 6 tells us that, let your speech always be gracious, always means always, seasoned with salt so that you know how you ought to answer each person. There is a difference in hammering somebody to make yourself feel better and saying something to them in a way that they can understand. There's a difference in saying, man, you're nothing but a drunk who's wasting your whole life.

And saying I love you and God has a plan for you and it's better than this. Those are two different things, right? Think about persecution more though because that's what's actually in view. It's the difference in saying what kind of idiot, we're pressed, right?

And so we want to lash back out. It's the difference in saying what kind of idiot doesn't understand that there's a God. I mean, just look at the night sky and the stars and something like a tree and its design. Who in their right mind could ever possibly, is that really gentleness and respect, right? Or is it more like, man, for me there is beauty and design and creation that is undeniable.

I know some people don't, but man, for me it's there. Those are two different things. And they have two different reactions. Rosaria Butterfield wrote a book called Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. I mean, fascinating book, okay? Man, she was a professor, a distinguished professor. She came out of a lesbian lifestyle. She was atheistic, kind of very politically involved and just all this kind of stuff, right? And she wrote an article that got a lot of attention, that got a lot of backlash.

And so here's what she did. All the stuff that was coming to her mail, she would read it about one second and she would put it, she had two piles. One was for hate mail, you know, just turn or burn, you're going to hell, all this, okay? And then the other side was for fan mail. Hate mail, fan mail.

Hate mail, fan mail. And she got a letter from a pastor, a small church. It was actually in her town. And she read the letter all the way through and didn't know which side to put it in. So she actually threw it away and later that night she went back to the garbage can and picked it back up because it bothered her. That she had never read something that was like, man, it's true but it's not hateful, right? He's asking real questions but there's not a posture of I'm trying to win.

I'm trying to win the argument more than I'm trying to win you, right? And man, it's a crazy story. That pastor and his family brought her in. Man, they just formed a relationship with her. She ended up becoming a believer and is living an incredibly impactful life now. I mean, just an incredible story. Are we living that type of life where people are like, hate mail, fan mail, I'm not real sure.

It's true but they seasoned what they were going to say. You know, gentleness and respect. Guys, here's the application for this weekend. I'm out of time. Give reasons for the hope that is in you in the right way.

Let's give our reasons but let's do it in the right way. Man, is this not what Christ has done for us? Think about how he was treated. Man, Jesus Christ, think about how, you know, there's a story, I'm out of time, but there's a story of, you know, the woman that is caught in adultery. Jesus Christ is the one that could actually stone her. But he doesn't.

Why? Because even though he was right, man, he was willing to give himself over so that she could come in. It's not about winning the argument, it's about winning the person. That's what Christ has done in our life.

That's what he's done in your life. You and I, for all of our unseasoned speech, for the ways that we have categorized people. I mean, half the time, even the Christian community, we don't talk about people as if they're human. We talk about them as if they're a category. Well, they're a this. Well, they're a that.

That should be how the world speaks because they're lost, not how we speak. Precious humans in the sight of God, in his image, right? We've done it.

We've all done it. And for that sin, man, we could be cast away. But Jesus Christ comes, listen, he takes the punishment for us.

That way we can come in, okay, well, what about us? Are we willing to take the punishment on behalf of somebody else? You say, what do you mean by that? What I mean is Jesus was slandered and maligned as you could be.

But he took it in order to pay the price for our sin. All right, so what about us? When we are slandered, when we are maligned, can we be the type of people that say, I can take that and not respond to you in a way that you're never going to be able to understand. But I will respond to you. I'm going to respond.

It's not about not being truthful. I'm going to respond, but in gentleness and in respect. Okay, so listen, if you are younger in the faith, younger in age, I know I'm generalizing here. But you know what? Maybe it's a struggle for you to speak and to give reasons. And what I want to call you to see is that you were saved by the blood of Christ.

And man, you needed it, and somebody told you about it. There's no reason for us to be ones who are not willing to share with others. And I just want to call you, are you willing to get, you're heading into a new school, you're heading into a new job, and you're going on a college campus. Can we pray today that Jesus, pray like this. God, as Christ has been to me, help me be to others.

As he took punishment, as he took slandering and maligning in order to help me in my salvation journey, purchase my... I just want to model that a little bit for others. The second group of people I want to say is this, and maybe it's not that you're young, or maybe you're, I don't know, but it's like this. Hey, are you responding with gentleness and respect? This is where I've got to lean in on my own life, because here's what I know happens for me.

In my age now, with the political climate that we're in now, it's not like, hey, are you scared of giving the reason? Are you scared of talking about the hope? It's more like, I want to beat my chest and talk about that I'm a Christian. It gets all wedded with this stuff. Man, you're an American, you're Southern, you have this rebellious attitude, and the world's against us, and I'm a Christian.

What do you think about it? You understand? And if that's where we are, and that's what we're filling our mind with, that's what we're listening to, we're hearing people like that all the time, it's going to be hard to respond. And gentleness, it's going to be hard to respond with respect.

So I want to be the type of person, man, that the Lord is breaking down and molding, to say gentleness and respect, consider others that are around you. It's not about not being truthful, but let's give reasons in this way. You know, a lot of our, I want to say this, a lot of our parents, we have a lot of parents of young kids, I'm going to tell you something. And I get asked this question a lot, man, public school, private school, home school, I've got, my kids have done, they've never done private.

They've done public, home, I mean, we've done it all, right? You got to be careful, people get real hot and bothered about this stuff, okay? I'm just going to be honest with you. Pastor Don Miller was a stalwart in our community, pastor to Westover for years and years. He only had one bit of advice for me ever in my life, and he said, man, do not try to tell people exactly what they should do with their kids with school.

I was like, of all the things, really? Okay, you've been pastor for 30 years, but I think he was right, okay? So I'm not, but here's what I am going to say. Most of the people that are worried about putting their kid in public school, you're worried that your child is going to learn a bunch of philosophy that goes against your family's culture, which I understand, but I'm going to tell you something. If you're not careful, even a seven, eight, nine-year-old kid will take your family's culture and blend that with being a rebel in their school and understand that this is not my family's culture. And you know what happens when somebody begins to do that? They stand for Christ, but they also can become really mean. They can also become the type of person who points out a kid that might struggle with something.

They might be the type of kid that laughs at somebody. And we, Christian, we've got to balance that. Man, it's our family's culture, but is our family's culture a gentleness and a respect toward those who don't believe in the ways that we believe? And so, man, I just want to call us to that, guys. And so let's commit to that. Let's think about, as we pray together today, as we go into our time of singing, let's think about, man, do I need the Lord to convict me in giving reasons or do I need the Spirit to convict me in giving them the right way? You know, the Proverbs are so key here. Am I listening before I answer? Proverbs 18, 13. Am I guarding the heart in terms of what I'm hearing all day long so that I don't just repeat it? Proverbs 4, 23.

Am I treating people as if they're in the image of God? You guys see this all over Genesis 1. When we do that, last thing I'll say for the whole series, that will help us engage in the mission rather than become entangled with the world.

All right? Let's pray. Father, we come before you and, Lord, we're grateful to you today, God, that you have given us such a third way so many times.

God, we want to be a confusing people to the world. Lord, I pray that we would be a people who encourage, stand for truth, and do not back down for anything. But, God, I pray that we would not be characterized by being mean, harsh, and sharp. Lord, I pray that people would see in us a heart that is for them, for us, and respect. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.