Pastor Pat Edwards 6/25/2006
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

We live in a society that is built on "good deals." Advertising and sales people and even family and friends are constantly sharing good news with us about the latest and greatest opportunity, investment or deal. Of course it’s only available for a limited time - in fact you have to decide before you leave today because we have so many people who want in on this that we don’t have the time or resources to meet with you again. But surprisingly when we take the time to look closely or do some comparisons we find those "wholesale" prices are the same as everybody else or you can’t get service and parts or you can only get them through the company and they want your first-born child in payment. The good news, the good deal, doesn’t live up to all the hype and promises. But I think Christians often do just the opposite. We have this gift that is the best gift any human can receive and we diminish it, we devalue it, we make it look like it’s not worth much at all even though that’s the last thing we intend.

There’s a site on the internet that allows you to advertise and sell items for free. It’s called Craig’s List. I went there this week to advertise the tanning bed donated to the garage sale. As I was writing the ad I noticed they had a section called "The Best of Craig’s List." When you’re reading an ad you think is especially funny or clever or true you can vote to have it put on the "best of" list by clicking a button on the screen. So I clicked the button and a long list of titles came up on my screen. About the fifth one down caught my attention. The title was, "Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian." Can you guess what’s coming?

In a moment I’m going to read those ten signs because I think they help us understand what others think about biblical Christians and that can be helpful. Obviously what this individual has written doesn’t describe each and every Bible-believing Christian and there are things written that we would want to clarify or explain if we had the chance but that’s not really the point. The point is that somehow many of us have not communicated good news and the message we have communicated may have been done arrogantly or hostilely or judgmentally. If I hadn’t personally observed some of these behaviors by Christians I wouldn’t be sharing them with you. So for a minute I want you to try and get into the skin of a non-believer, maybe even one who has been put down by a Christian family member or coworker or even some Christian speaker featured on the nightly news. Here are the top ten signs you’re a Christian fundamentalist.

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

This person doesn’t like Christians that’s clear. He has a real axe to grind and the question that comes to my mind after reading this list is why is this person so angry? Who hurt this writer? Who, in the name of Jesus, belittled or condemned or ignored this person to the point that he or she attacks biblical Christians? Notice he isn’t attacking religion in general or the beliefs of other faith groups - only Bible-believing Christians. I know there are people who are angry or filled with hate for no apparent reason but that’s not usually the case. And I can’t do anything about them; I can only work on myself. So I wonder what this person’s experience has been.

The current sermon series is based on second thoughts or how my beliefs and behaviors have changed as I’ve matured as a Christian. One of those areas of change has been recent, in fact it’s still in process and it concerns what we call witnessing, evangelism, sharing the good news. In the past I was much more fact and logic based although I’m sure the writer I just read would say that’s a contradiction. Faith isn’t fact based because if there are facts to support your position you don’t need faith. Nevertheless I was and I think it made me a less-effective witness for Jesus.

My assumption was that if you presented people with enough facts you would win any debate or difference of opinion and your opponent, defeated by your facts and logic, would end up agreeing with you and joining your side. One of my first experiences witnessing should have convinced me otherwise but it didn’t. Chris and I were fairly close friends with a couple she went to high school with. Shortly after college our faith was ignited and we wanted all our friends to share that same faith. One weekend we visited this couple and got into a religious discussion. They had been raised conservative Lutherans like Chris but the husband shared he didn’t believe in hell any longer. Instead he believed that a loving God wouldn’t send people to a place of eternal suffering. In my zeal I began hammering him with newly-learned Bible verses. Rather than listening to him, trying to understand what he was struggling with, I just pounded away on him. He began to back down and eventually grew quiet and I knew I had won the debate. But he became so quiet that he didn’t talk to me for several years and our relationship as couples became strained and distant. I won the argument and lost the relationship. That happened other times over the years as I "shared" my faith. Being right was more important than being in relationship. And anyway, who wants to be in relationship with the enemy? I’m not saying we don’t stand up for truth but there are right ways and wrong ways to do that and viewing people as an enemy to be defeated is not a right way.

Then one day the words of Jesus jumped off the page, grabbed me by the nape of the neck and gave me a good shaking. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" Matt 5.43-47

Witnessing, sharing the good news, is not battering your enemy into submission. Loving the enemy means finding out who they are, the influences in their lives, the way they think, their sorrows and joys and their needs. It’s finding out who they are as individuals and not categorizing or stereotyping them. The Word of God is never described as a club or a battering ram but rather as a sword or a lamp. To love our enemies we light the lamp and use the sword with surgical precision to bring healing. We need to be relational before educational and that’s where I got it backwards for so many years and where I think too many Christians still do. Christians aren’t alone in this pattern of behavior; it’s prevalent everywhere because it is the basis of the modern world - the belief that facts are what matter most. But Christians have the wisdom of God, the words of Jesus, the resources that should bring balance and an understand-ing of the importance of relationships.

But we think if we can just somehow shoehorn the right information into people that will cause them to choose life with Jesus. So we talk and we talk and we talk hoping the truth will get through to them. That’s why the words of James are especially relevant to this issue. He’s not telling us how to witness but how to live. But for most of us our lives are our first and most effective witness. 19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. James 1

The advice that makes us good disciples also makes us good witnesses - be quick to listen and slow to speak. Don’t just hear and know God’s Word, do what it says. There will be rare opportunities to talk about Jesus with complete strangers but they generally are rare. More likely it’s going to be a classmate, a coworker, someone in your social network. Many times they may start the discussion by asking you a question about what you believe. The credibility they give your answer is going to directly correlate to what they know about your life. Do they see someone who "likes to argue about religion" or someone who respects them, listens to them and considers what they have to share? But more than that do they see someone who has a quality of life, an attitude, a hope that they would like to have?

As Christians we believe people are spiritually starving without Jesus. So take time to find out the particular hunger people around you have, especially when they are perceived as the enemy or perceive you as such. Learn how to love them in the way Jesus commands and they need. For the last thirty minutes my main point has been the good news is more than words. It’s easy to understand how we’ve come to emphasize that aspect since we live in a world that emphasizes the written word. But behind the written word is the illustrated word - you are the illustrated word and as the proverb says, "Actions speak louder than words."

(To hear my extemporaneous comments about "Prairie Home Companion" you’ll have to go to the webpage and listen to the end of the sermon since I’m not typing them here - bountifulgrace.org ;)