World Religions - Christianity - Pastor Brad DeLong

Think that our topic considering our weekend is fitting and we're going to be discussing world religions and we started this series a couple weeks ago and we're going to discuss the largest group of human beings on the planet, the group that they call the Christians. Are you thankful to be a Christian? Anybody? All right. And I know that that term has been much maligned and diluted, but it basically just means someone who follows Christ. And so if you're following Christ and you're obeying his commands, you are a Christian and we're trying to be like him.

The odds are with 700 plus people here last weekend, we likely interacted with many of the faiths that we're going to discuss tonight. And I'll say on any given Sunday, we have persons who who claim to at least be formally Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, atheist, non-denom, or neo-Pentecostal. We have persons who come who may even be Pentecostal, but have a they've had a a Pentecostal experience, but maybe believe the the Bible differently than we do. And I would say this, the reason that this is so important is even minor disagreements about the Bible even just small errors over eternal truths make a profound difference.

So, we're already living with and we're living around and probably working with people from different faiths and we need a deeper understanding of what we believe, of what they believe, and how we can show them the way more perfectly, which means we need to know the way more perfectly. We're going to turn to Acts chapter 18 to start this off. We'll start with verse 25. This is the story of a man named Apollos. Says that this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he only knew the baptism of John. So, he was on the way, but he only knew part of the way. It says so he began to speak boldly in the synagogue and when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside, they explained to him the way of God more accurately. I want you to notice Apollos was sincere and genuine. He had a love for God, he had love for God's word, but his understanding was limited to the baptism and to the ministry of John the Baptist.

So, when these apostolic believers found him, they showed him the way more perfectly and he accepted that way and he acted upon it. I am hoping and believing tonight that most of the people we encounter will be just like this man Apollos. And I've already seen many who are. I believe I've interacted even today with some who are. They love God, they love his word, but need an accurate and complete way of understanding it, which is why we're being equipped tonight to do that and to help them and to learn that way ourselves.

And we're going to do that by discussing these world religions and Christianity as a whole. You've got a handout. If you don't have a handout, raise your hand, we'll try to get you one. I think that there's some throughout the room or in the back of the room. I'm just telling you right now that's a very cursory 10,000-ft view, okay? There's a lot more to some of these things, but we've got 45 minutes, so buckle up. Let's do it, okay? In my experience, this Acts 18 approach that Aquila and Priscilla employed has seemed to work the best, especially in our city and in our region.

Some may know the truth and they may reject it flatly, but I think most seem to be like this man Apollos in Acts. They're looking for more and they want a more accurate truth. How many of you have interacted with someone like Apollos? They love God, they love the word of God, and they're they're grappling with it and they want more. Anybody? Uh okay. All right. So, I think that this lesson's for you and if you haven't, this lesson's for you because you will find someone like that.

So, first we're going to give the breakdown, 10,000 foot view, the the many traditions of Christianity, and then we'll talk about the approach to each one of them, how we can interact with them, and then we're going to practice. Some of you read ahead in your handout, you're nervous. That's okay. It'd be better to practice here than than get out there and then you, you know, clam up and you don't know what to do or say. So, we're going to practice. You can thank Dr. Norris for that kind of training.

He's a great man. In general, I said this is a this is an oversimplification for 2.4 billion people. You cannot line all that out on a Wednesday night or in a two-page handout. But, I want you to see what Christianity looks like. Brother you can put up that first slide. If you squint really, really, really hard, okay, you can see there's three major branches of Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, which is not the easiest word to say, and Eastern process of salvation. Okay. That is now you're all experts in religion as a whole.

So, what you will see if you really squint on that screen is AI helping me to summarize the main branches. It's hard to do, but again, we're taking a stab at it. These these modern-day Christian branches. I'll give the caveat. I did use some of these AI and some of these online resources to help me condense this subject. Of course, I came up with my own content, don't worry. I did need that the simplest bullet points I could use in in the researches from Pew Research, World Christian Database, some of the their own websites and their own statements of faith and try to go as deep as we could with the time we have.

What you'll see, three main categories. The the Catholics make up about 50% of the global number of Christians, 1.3 billion. And a cursory look at their beliefs is is on that slide. They usually have three sources of authority. They call it kind of a three-legged stool, Pope, which may include the bishops, scripture, and traditions of church history. This is one of the main reasons for the divisions between churches or the branches that you'll see. Why are there three different ones? Part of the main reason, some Some it's how they're structured, some of it's some other peripheral things, but where they derive their authority.

So, you see the authority there in that Roman Catholic category, they have three sources for that. Again, one of the main reasons why they stand alone. Despite the fact there's about a you know, 1.5 billion of them and they've got a lot of varying beliefs. There's even Catholic Pentecostals out there, if you can believe it. The core of them rests on that three-legged stool. They also rely on scripture and they rely on church history, tradition as equal sources of authority. The Pope and the bishops are the primary sources for interpreting scripture in their faith.

On salvation, they achieve that through a combination of faith in God, good works in the sacraments. What are the sacraments? Well, there's seven sacraments that they recognize. Baptism, confirmation, Eucharist or communion, confession, anointing of the sick, holy orders, marriage. Again, you will not be quizzed on this later, but this is giving you the breakdown. Communion is central. They believe in what's called, here's a $10 word, transubstantiation. Meaning that they believe the bread and wine literally change substance substance to become the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ.

And their worship style, very structured and liturgical, of course, called mass, centered around the Eucharist. Again, a lot of, you know, 1.3 billion of them, there's a lot of varying branches of Catholicism, but this is kind of the the core tenants. In a 10,000-ft view, but you can imagine why it's important for us to know just the basic tenants. Especially since our city is named after one of them. And this is a hub. St. Louis is very important. The archdiocese is here, very important to the Catholic Church.

We even have some wonderful former Catholics in the room tonight and I say they make some of the best Pentecostals. No offense to any any others, but yes, I do. I get an amen from somewhere over there. All right. Knowing where we we differ, primarily with our authority resting here in scripture, is important. And also knowing where we may even align. The primary point from most of these is where their beliefs, like I said, are rooted and where their authority is derived. And that's where you see a significant break in the Protestants.

Okay? They split with Catholicism, very historically important split. Technically, some have put apostolics, oneness apostolics, in the Protestant camp historically. I believe it's mostly because we're neither Catholic nor Eastern Orthodox. I don't know why I can't say Eastern. But we do share some similarities with all branches, especially Catholic and Protestant. We're hard to pinpoint on the chart on any chart, and we'll get to why in a few moments. You can go to the next slide, with Eric. All right, yeah, you can't read any of that.

Okay. That's all right. You can see the three main branches. Roman Catholics, Protestants green, Eastern Orthodoxy in yellow color. And then you see some of the breakdown. You have mainline Protestants, and you have evangelicals. There's a lot of bleed with these. All right. Stay with me. Okay. About 8 to 900 million people fall in this category. Thousands of churches, and your mainlines, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, evangelicals. Statistically in the US, evangelicals, of which we are historically a part, make up the majority of our Protestants here. Where they get their authority?

Sola scriptura, that's the line. The final authority in all matters of faith. Protestants reject the the of the Pope, believe that every believer has access to to God themself. Salvation uh achieved through faith alone, sola fide, in Jesus Christ as a free gift of God's grace. Good works, they say, do not save a person, they're simply evidence of a person's faith. Now, that language there if I pause, can make us a little nervous. Many would say this is where we would split with the Protestants, but I want to be clear here.

We do believe, according to Ephesians 2 and 8, we are saved through faith, that salvation is a gift of God, we do not earn it, but also we believe that faith and obedience are inseparable, and obeying the word is not the same as trying to earn your salvation. We are saved through faith, and a natural byproduct of faith is obedience to that faith and to what we believe. James would say it like this, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead, also." He said you can't separate the two.

And on the day of Pentecost, when the people there said, uh "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" They believed, they had faith, but they also recognized, "My faith ought to compel me to respond and to be a doer of the word and not just a hearer only." They acted upon their belief. They did not earn salvation, they obeyed the words that they believed in the plan of salvation. All right, is that clear as mud, everybody? Good. Okay, here we go. Sacraments. Most Protestants recognize two sacraments, often called ordinances.

Baptism, communion. I was in a chapel service today at Abiding Savior Lutheran where they celebrated baptisms. Big deal uh in the Protestants. Baptism, communion, because these are, according to their tradition, the only two explicitly commanded by Jesus in the Gospels. All right. Communion uh mostly viewed as a symbolic memorial of Jesus' sacrifice. And their worship style very diverse. There's the formal, traditional, high church, all the way to casual modern settings, our gatherings focused on on music and a sermon and on preaching, which is kind of where we land, okay?

And lastly, if you go back to the top and you dive into Eastern Orthodox, they're about 220 to 260 million people, mostly concentrated in Europe, Russia, Middle East. We don't often run into a lot of anyone uh run into a lot of Eastern Orthodox people. I just out of curiosity. Eastern Orthodox. Anybody? All right. I didn't think so, okay? They're They're not as common around here. Uh they get their authority from a council of equal bishops. And uh they view salvation as a lifelong process called theosis, uh deification.

Believers strive to go closer to God, become more like him. Worship style's highly traditional, probably hasn't changed for thousands of years, uh chanted liturgies that that have stayed the same, okay? So, if you think my sermons are repetitive, No, I'm just messing. Uh And we don't again tend to interact as much with those of the Eastern Orthodoxy, but it's good to have a baseline to know, okay, if you do interact with them, uh they're very very traditional. And uh observe those traditions again over thousands of years, and that's part of their uh their anchor, if you will.

Within the Protestant branch, things get even more interesting. Obviously, they all stem from the Protestant Reformation. They share their their bibliocentric, their Bible-based belief, uh sola scriptura authority, at least at face value. Most, if not all those Protestant branches, stress the need for scripture. It has to be primary. But their view of scripture, their interpretation of it varies quite a bit. This is why hermeneutics matter so much, and and how we read and interpret scripture matters so much. Anyone Can anyone recall for me the primary hermeneutic that we use around here?

I'm I'm I'm testing you from uh a couple months ago. Anybody Uh it's two words, hyphenated words if you will. Grammatical historical, yes. We look at the history, we look at the grammar. Those are not the only two lenses, but those are two very primary conservative lenses to view scripture. We want to know what is the Bible actually saying and what was going around uh when the author wrote it, okay? Uh so, these hermeneutics matter. I pulled a a mission statement from a local Protestant church and uh saw in there, it wasn't shocked to see it stressed the need to faithfully teach and preach the Bible and its truths.

Yes, all right. But then if you scroll down and look at some of their teachings, you actually see quite a bit of bleed from the Catholic Church in their teachings. This is not to tear them down, this is not to put them down, but it shows that there can often be a gap between the sola scriptura stance and then their adherence to it and you'll see it even in some of their uh own characterizations of themselves. I want to give you a summary of these main branches of Protestant couple different sources and and we will go as quickly as we can.

You have some of these on your paper, okay? Mainline Protestants in general first to a group of historic established denominations in the US that have held a central role in American religious life. They uh some call them the the seven sisters of American Protestantism. Those denominations share a moderate to liberal theological stance. They utilize historic uh a modern historical critical interpretations of the Bible and of course we lean more on historical grammatical. Some heavily emphasize social justice, ecumenical unity which we'll discuss. So, starting uh some of these are the larger ones, United Methodists.

Some would say they're a distant cousin of ours from the 18th century. Grounded in the teachings of John Wes- uh Wesley and emphasize free will, emphasize God's grace available to all people. They emphasize holiness, personal and social holiness. That's where we were aligned uh back in the 18th century, kind of some of the movements we came out of. And the Wesleyan quadrilateral, again, $10 word, scripture, tradition, reason, experience. For worship uh in the they connected and governed by uh connected conferences and bishops. And some of their differences, they put a unique uh structural focus on being connected and all their churches are bound together missionally and even financially.

Generally more flexible on doctrine, though. Like a lot of the other seven sisters, they believe in the Trinity, the two sacraments of communion and baptism, and John Wesley. He's their guy. Teachings of grace. They have had major splits in the organization. One recent article said this, uh that they've had seen about 7,300 churches that have left uh over uh some of the you could call them peripheral issues, but they're obviously not. Evangelical Lutheran Church or the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, actually based right down here off of 44.

Uh right near 44 in Lindbergh. Missouri Synod, which I think is one of the the largest, if not the largest, Lutheran organization. And I think there's one more, uh three main ones here in in the United States. For Lutherans in general, theology and beliefs rooted directly in the Reformation led by Martin Luther, hence the name. Uh their core focus is justification by grace through faith alone. They view the Bible as the uh authoritative source of faith, as the inherent word of God. I can attest to that.

Uh they they rely heavily on the Bible. All right, let's do it. Worship, some very liturgical. If you go down to Peace Lutheran down the road, very liturgical, high church. If you go over to Abiding Savior, more contemporary. So, there's a there's a a wide gap in their style. Uh some uh you know, rely on a bishop uh or the system of the synod. Others have a local pastor like we do. Uh unlike other mainline Protestants, Lutherans believe in the the real presence of Christ in communion, that the bread and wine contain the true body and blood of Christ alongside the physical elements.

That separates them from the symbolic views of their other sisters. And also, unlike most Protestant traditions, uh they confess the sacraments as a means through which God acts to forgive us. It's not just symbolic. Okay, I'm going to let you breathe for just a moment. I'm going through a lot of material and hopefully uh you're picking up some of it. I want you just to note where where these main uh divisions, if you will, or lines between these happen. Protestant Again, the Reformation was the focus was on the word of God in reformation of the Catholic Church.

That's why you see quite a few of those mainline ones, they took the elements that they liked from the Catholic Church and they reformed a lot of other things. But they still would say sola scriptura. It's got to be the Bible, okay? Uh and then uh we already established the Catholic Church. You'll see that thread, but you also see some, again, like the Episcopal Church, they they were part of the Anglican uh Church of of England and they describe themselves as kind of the middle ground.

The middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism. So, they're underneath that umbrella, but that makes it cleaner. It doesn't even look clean, but it makes it cleaner than it actually is. And you continue going on the line. Uh Baptist, we interact with quite a few Baptist. They put a huge emphasis on baptism. You may not have known that. By immersion. Praise God. You can find some common ground. Then you keep going. United Church of Christ, uh very progressive, very focused on social justice. I'm giving you some bullet points uh just so you don't drown.

Very focused on on uh political agendas and pushing things forward and then uh the Christian church, they uh have this saying uh Christ, no creeds. So, we're not going to have They're very loose with doctrine and in what they believe and uh they want to focus on Christ. Okay. Then you got the evangelicals. Evangelicals bleed into all of that. Quite a few evangelicals. Here's the four qualifications to be an evangelical, okay? Any church that fulfills what they call the Bebbington Quadrilateral, historian David Bebbington. Uh the belief that lives need to be transformed through a born-again experience, a lifelong process of following Jesus, all right?

Uh a high regard for an obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority, okay? Activism, the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts. Uh and then a cross-centered message, a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the cross making possible the redemption of humanity. Some say we are historically evangelical because the Assemblies of God are evangelical and we came out of in 1916. Uh we were a part of the Assemblies of God for the most part. And all of those things sound at face value great.

It would fit us fairly well, but then you you read the concluding statement from the official position of the evangelicals. Says many evangelicals rarely use the term evangelical to describe them uh themselves focusing simply on the core conviction of the triune God, the Bible, faith, Jesus, salvation, evangelism, and discipleship. Obviously, the belief in the triune God would stand out to us. But also, their interpretation of Bible, faith, Jesus, salvation, evangelism, and discipleship. Especially when it comes to salvation and the Godhead as a oneness Apostolic, we are not strictly evangelical, though you can obviously draw a line between us and them historically.

Truth is we share a lot of similarities across the board, particularly when it comes to the authority of the Bible, which is our greatest resource and similarities of our beliefs about salvation, surprisingly, with the Catholics uh that it's a combination of faith and obedience or what some would call works, okay? I mentioned earlier, uh we've been called cousins of the Methodists and their holiness movement in the 1800s. We have similar governing structures and organization to several others. We share some same worship elements, styles with evangelicals or non-denominational churches, but we also have key distinctives that are biblically rooted and grounded like our beliefs on salvation, Godhead, holiness values, Apostolic practices.

So, some you'll see will take some from the Catholic Church and then the Bible and others uh a lot from the Catholic Church and Bible. We may have some uh share some bits and pieces of our Apostolic foundation but our aim and goal as an Apostolic Pentecostal Church is to be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. That's our core text for our value of truth out of Ephesians 2. So, we are Apostolic in our beliefs and our practice.

That is a key distinctive that we hold while also sharing with those who recognize parts and pieces of the biblical text. So, you might be looking at that thinking, "Where are we?" I uh talked to Brother Peter Wright today and I had heard this before. He reminded me that Dr. Norris if he drew this chart may go up to it if it was a whiteboard and just draw a big oblong circle and say you really can't put us in one of the boxes on the screen.

Uh we find commonalities in with quite a few because of the biblical text. This is why our text with Apollos rings so true. Apollos had a concept of the kingdom of God and the word of God, but he needed to be shown the way more perfectly. Okay? That implies that he was on the way, but he needed more instruction to the word in Acts 18. The reason that we share a lot of commonalities and the reason they shared commonalities with Apollos is because he was in the book.

So, if they're in the book, we're going to have common ground. We're going to share common ground with them. We're going to We're going to relate on some point with them. This is what it says about Apollos. And when he had desired to cross into Achaia, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who believed through grace. For he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing them from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Apollos landed in the scriptures.

And that was the common denominator and the common ground. He loved the Lord. He loved the word of God. Assuming that most of the persons we come into contact with from other belief systems do the same, our approach is the same. Uh now, you're going to have the competitive types. I've had my share of those. Brother Keenans here tonight. He and I, when we were I think I was 19, he was 18, we left one day after a Sunday morning service, we went to J.C. Penney to get $5 ties.

We walked in, there was some men dressed very nicely. They stopped us. They said, "Where are you young men coming from?" We said, "We're coming from church." And they "What church?" And And they started to quiz us. And then they they opened up just a a torrent of uh uh uh I don't know, you could call them debates or more like attacks. Against you are indoctrinated. We're in J.C. Penney looking at ties. And every time one of them would make a point, the other one And I kid you not, Keenan could He was right here going, "Woo!" right here.

I couldn't get a word in. I remember when we came back and I was like, "What? What just happened?" It made me determined. I knew what I believed. They wouldn't let me profess it in any way, shape, or form. And I wanted to know it. Most of the conversations you're going to have are not that, right? Most of the people you're going to find are like an Apollos who loves God and loves the word of God and hungry for more. I can count of a handful that I've had like those men in JCPenney.

One actually happened here recently. Most though of the dozens of conversations I've had from persons any of these branches have been civil and kind. And if they do turn south, I usually just stop them because once you start to argue, you've likely already lost. You can debate, but if you're arguing and you're in a shouting match, you lost, all right? Instead, especially here in the Midwest, people are often kind. They're often very churched. In the city of St. Louis surrounding areas, most people are very respectful.

They have a desire to know what we believe and who we are. I go to Apostolic Pentecostal Church. What is that? What do you all believe? They want to know. Especially when they see some of the distinctives in us that I mentioned earlier. This is where the Bible is our greatest resource and will always be. If you look at some of the answers on your handout how to interact with each of these, most of them just go back to the Bible. Okay? When I teach Bible studies, when I have conversations with people of other faiths, I employ the same method Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollos, the one used uh Paul used with the Bereans.

In Acts 17, it says this about the Bereans that they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica. I think that we got a lot of fair-minded people around here. They received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. That's the kind of person you want to interact with. They're going to go to the Bible. And they're going to study it. Therefore, many of them believed. And also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

I have found most people in our city are the same way. They have such a desire for truth and the word of truth like those Bereans and they're generally accepting of the word. In fact, I talked to a doctor recently who told me that she had just gotten back into church and she said, "I searched over 40 different churches before I picked one." You want to know what her main criteria was before she picked the church? Do they teach the Bible? And it struck me that she sifted through 40 churches before she found one that she felt now I that's not to say maybe I don't know what her search criteria was.

Maybe it was a sermon. I don't want to be unfair. But 40 churches before she landed in in one that she felt like was teaching the word of God. There is a hunger for pure biblical truth in our world and and we have it. We have it at our fingertips. I told the story sometime ago the electrician who came to work at APC. We were sitting right back over there and he was from one of those seven sisters faith and and he was troubled. He stopped me.

He said, "Can I ask you something?" I said, "Sure." He said, "What do you teach?" He said, "Because the church that I go to right now is introducing a lot of strange things that I've never heard before." What do you teach? What do you believe? And someone thankfully had their Bible near that back row and I picked it up and I said, "This. Right here." And you could see him just kind of exhale and accept it. And I don't know what ended up happening to him.

I hope that he found the truth. I told him, "We preach the Bible." And if you know the Bible, you are more equipped to reach people than I think persons from any other faith assuming that you know and read and study the Bible like we're called to do in 2 Timothy. How do we interact with persons of this faith? I I can think of no better thing to point you to than know this. Know it. And this book in in chapter 2 Timothy Timothy's dealing with persons who have a form of godliness but are denying its power.

Persons who were teaching false doctrine about the resurrection. They had a version of the truth and that they were twisting it for their own purposes. This is what he's up against during this time. It's in this context Paul says, "Remind them of these things, charging them before God not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers." Second Timothy 2:14. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And you shun profane and idle babblings that will increase to more ungodliness." How do you counteract all the other stuff going around there? You need to study to show yourself approved to God. Uh you have to pardon the cardinal reference. They say one of the reasons that Cardinals fans are the best in baseball is because they're so knowledgeable about the game. That we know the game inside and out. I think Apostolic should be the most knowledgeable about this book. If we're to be built on this thing, everything we believe and practice, we've got to know it.

And if we're going to be effective reaching persons from other faiths, showing them the way more accurately, we have to know the way more accurately. It's part of Paul's charge to Timothy. There's a lot going on in Ephesus, and he says, "You must continue in the things that you've learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you've learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. They're able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction righteousness, that the man of God or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." How do I reach them? You'll be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible. Still the answer today. With it we'll be thoroughly equipped. Paul used the Scriptures with Bereans, Priscilla and Aquila with Apollos, Timothy dug into it at Ephesus. And with recent studies showing a steep decline in biblical literacy, I believe we have an open door, an opportunity to fill in the gap.

I heard brother Mark Blackburn say to a group of students, he said, "You probably know 95% more about the Bible than most people you'll encounter." And I remember thinking, "Man, that's that's a lot." And then you read the most recent stat that most self-professing Christians are quite a a large number of them cannot tell you what the four Gospels are. They don't know them. That's disheartening, yes, but also it's a wide open door. I've heard people say, "Well, I don't know enough about the Bible to teach a Bible study." Well, I got two answers for you.

The first one is, you got to know it. That's an easy solution, all right? Learn it. Study it. There's no excuse to not know it. The second is, you likely already know more, unfortunately, than people around you. And if you don't, and if they know their Bible, great. Wonderful. We want them to know the Bible. I tell them, "Go fact-check me." And if I'm wrong, tell me. We want them to know scripture. This is where we can help other faith, steer them in the right direction.

So, I'm talking uh to someone, I do this regularly, who may be Lutheran. I know we agree on the inerrancy of scripture, on the Bible. I can jump into the word and I can start to talk to them about the way. Same is true with the other Protestant branches, those in the that evangelical umbrella. Our conversation will naturally flow to the Bible, and I'll introduce what's called, uh oftentimes along with the Bible, experiential evidence. Uh Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 2. I won't uh take the time necessarily to read it, but he talks about, "I didn't come to you with persuasive speech, but I came with Christ and him crucified, and signs followed that." He preached the truth of the word of God, and an experiential evidence followed it.

That was the biblical formula. We see the same in Romans 15. In reaching and converting others, he employed the gospel of Jesus Christ and signs followed it. Last year, we had a guest, friend of mine that came to APC. Sat right back over there. The power of the Holy Ghost moved so uh wonderfully in that service. He told me later, he said, "It was like I got all of Pentecost in one service." He said, "In fact, he was he was raised Pentecostal." He said, "It was like I got 40 years of Pentecostal experience in that service." And then he asked me a very strange question.

He's much older than I am. He said, "Why do you feel like your church experiences far more miracles than mine?" I thought, "I didn't know that we did." Struck me, the question, because I know the size church he attends. I know what they believe and teach. I told him I I said, "I don't have a definitive answer for that, but the more I thought about it, I know that I mean, it's somewhat a disputed text in Mark 16, but the principle I believe stands. These signs follow those who believe." And I know that when Paul preached the truth of the word of God, signs followed.

Now, we do not have a corner on the miraculous market, nor do we want it. We don't have a monopoly on this. We never wanted that. But I think it's a natural thing that happens. And when we preach and teach the truth of the word of God in its fullness, we don't neglect the the the whole counsel of scripture, signs and the power of God follows. That's what Paul's getting at in 1 Corinthians. We're centered on the word. We have experiential evidence of what we believe, and I lean on both of those that I might by all means save some.

In short, I believe the Bible and share the Bible and share victory reports and good news that we've seen about I share like that phone call I got on Tuesday morning, yesterday morning, that miraculous turnaround. I talk about uh the provisions and healings, the good things that God is doing. None of those miracles are the definitive answer in of themselves, but they point back to the word and give another reason for the hope that's within us. You look at your handout. One of those uh near the bottom.

Think it's the United Church of Christ. Very political witnessing key. Avoid political debates. There's quite a few in that branch or in some of these branches that don't even believe in the in uh the inerrancy of scripture. They don't say that the Bible's infallible. So, you may go to the scripture and I believe it has inherent power whether they believe it or not. You may go to the scripture and they may reject it. But, you know what they can't object to? It's when you just experience a miracle and the doctors are saying, "Hey, we don't understand this." And we've got reports on the screens and we've got There's really no arguing with that.

And it can help them and it's it's not to diminish their faith. It's not to put them down. It's to elevate their faith. It's to It's to stir them to to look for more. We're going to practice that in a moment. Are we? Oh, no. We got 2 minutes. Okay. We're going to practice that right now. All right. I want you to stand with me. Okay. You've got a couple minutes. All right. Bottom of your handout. This side of the room. You are one of these Apostolics.

Congratulations. Praise God. This side of the room. Take your pick from the handout. You're one of those. Okay. This side, you need to follow the prompts on the bottom of your handout. You can read that right there. And you'll go over to one of these persons here and they're going to tell you what faith they are. Okay, so pick a faith. Pick the tenant there and have a a 2-minute conversation three You don't even have to try to convince them. You can just talk about the scriptures or the stories or testimonies that you would employ and talk about.

I'm going to have this group walk over here if you're comfortable cuz we're supposed to go and reach others. Would you just begin to move it? Find one person or or maybe you just get in a group and you talk about the belief system, okay? We're going to do this here before we ever get out there. Oh, yeah. We got some people. So, if you see someone over here who may be Baptist, talk to them about baptism. Someone over here who is Catholic, talk about faith and works.

Talk about the sacraments. Engage him in conversation. Whoever Sister Hamrick's coming to find, she's going to convert you tonight. If you're one of the the others, the faith, push back a little bit. Maybe present some arguments that you've been presented already. If you don't know what to talk about, this is a great opportunity to practice. Steven's going to baptize Brian by the end of the night. It's already working. I see how much fun you all are having witnessing. I think it's amazing. Give it a couple more minutes.

And we'll wrap it up. Well, everybody, hopefully you gained a little bit through this discussion and I'll I'll let you continue in just a moment. I want to share with you one last brief story and then we'll pray and and I'll give you a couple announcements, all right? So, couple months ago, uh a a a friend of mine asked me to go to coffee. We went to coffee and he is he's at seminary and Catholic seminary. And we're sitting there and he just opens up with me.

He said, "You know, a friend of mine who who used to be Pentecostal told me this. He said that you wouldn't talk to me and that we couldn't have dialogue and and that you wouldn't be wouldn't be open to this." And I I told him that, you know, this is there's a big push for ecumenism and everything just blend together and we're all just one big faith and I said, "Absolutely I will talk to you. I want to have a discussion." I said, "Now, I'm going to tell you we will not agree on everything.

We're going to disagree and that's okay. We're going to talk this out. We're going to we might debate some things, but we can have the conversation." It took him aback. I think that we're living in a world and culture that if you don't agree on every point, it's like, "Oh, well." But but also you'll find in a conversation with somebody it's okay to disagree with them. It's also okay to say, "You know, I don't have the answer to that, but I'll find out and I'll get back to you." Sometimes we're so afraid to have the conversation because what if they do reject it?

What if they disagree? Well, I'm going to be up front with you. Most people you talk to probably going to disagree with you on some point or another. Most There might be someone in the room that believes the same thing you do that disagree with you. Do not let that stop you from engaging in the conversation, talking to somebody, and and showing them the way, and inviting them along with you to walk with Jesus. We're going to pray cuz God's going to lead us, and then you may encounter somebody uh that you know, the person you're talking with, they picked that group, and and God could set that up for you, and I believe the Lord's going to help us as we uh as we try to reach others around us.

Can you help me pray right now? Lord, I thank you for the word of God. What a sure foundation and anchor we have, and I thank you, Lord, uh that that that word instructs us to go and to make disciples, and and I thank you, Lord, for the example that we see in Acts 18 and and of Apollos. We pray for your help, Lord. You would give us the words and the wisdom. Help us to know this way as accurately and closely as we can to follow it, to be disciples of Jesus, and give us the words and the wisdom to be able to share the truth of your word, the whole counsel of God, with every person we come into contact with.

We need your help, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.