9/23/2001

Let’s bow in prayer:

Father we are so grateful that we can stand in your presence, in the very presence of a God who created the universe. Father as the events of the last two weeks have shaken us and have raised questions, have caused doubts and fears, wondering what the future might hold, and everything that we know is being disrupted, the economy and all kinds of things are changing. Father we thank you that you are the rock, you are the one, the tower, the strength, the one that we can run to every single time. Father we thank you that we are unchangeable. You are not changed with the whims of men, you are not changed from day to day, you character is not changed because of the events of our lives. Our lives, in fact, need to change because of your character. So Father this morning I thank you that you are a great God, the great God of all comfort and all strength and all mercy. Father we praise you and thank you for it in Jesus Name. Amen

As you know many, many questions have been raised over the last two weeks in allot of
different areas. Two of them seem to be coming to the surface as much as anything. One of them has to do with just who it is that we are dealing with. Not personally but we kept hearing the term Muslim or Islam or Moslem or Mohammedian and people are wondering what in the world they are. Are all Muslim’s terrorists, do they all hate us, what kind of people are they, are they all Arabs, what kind of people are these? Is it a religion, is it an organization, is it a nationality? So I am going to answer just in brief a little bit of that and tell you a little bit about what there is. I am definitely not a scholar in it but over the years I have learned a few things, and learned a few things in the last few weeks besides. 

The second one is a very unrelated, somewhat related issue. How many of you heard Jerry Falwell’s comments this last week or about his comments? If you haven’t you have been sticking your head in the sand somewhere because he got in big trouble. I have the direct quote here I will read it for you. But the questions that has been raised is, is this event indicative of the wrath of God upon our nation because of the nations sins. I will give the full and complete answer. Yah, sure. And finally the ultimate question and the ultimate answer to all these things, of course is unclear, we want to cover that. 

Who in the world are the Muslims? Back about 570 AD a young man was born, in fact, he was very young, we was just borne that year in fact. His name was Mohammed, many people called the Muslims Mohammedans but Mohammedan is not the correct word because they do not worship Mohammed. He was actually there prophet and so they did not worship him but revered him as a great prophet. Mohammed came on the scene at the time when Christianity was quite young. Of course Christianity came in Christ in the first century, in the sixth century when Mohammed came along in the Middle East. He believed he was called particularly to correct the errors that had entered into what should have been the truth. He believed in Noah as a prophet, and Abraham, and many of the Old Testament prophets, in fact, all of the Old Testament prophets. All the ones even up through Christ believing that Christ himself was a great prophet. But believed also that the truth that God had intended for us to understand had been adulterated in the process of being written down and being disseminated throughout the world. That it was intermixed with error. So he believed that he was called upon by God to write the Qur’an, which is the corrected truth. Correcting all the errors which had entered into what we know as the truth of the scriptures down through the centuries. So he wrote the Qur’an believing it to be inspired by God.

In short the Muslims believe in a progressive revelation, which means that God continues to reveal himself up to Mohammed, not beyond that. Mohammed is the last of the great prophets. They believe that Mohammed and each prophet before him, there was a progression of importance. Each one became more imminent than the one before. So Noah being one of the earliest prophets, of course, and Abraham and the patriarchs and you get the other prophets all the way up through Christ, they believe the later the prophet that came the more correct the more complete the revelation from God. So Mohammed being the last one supersedes all those who came before. So if he says something different than what Jesus said that is Ok because he corrected the truth that Jesus gave and had been adulterated by people. And so therefore the earliest prophets were good and the next ones were better, the next ones were better, so in a sense if you want to use the term of evolution they evolved into the highest prophet which was Mohammed himself they believe who wrote the Qur’an which is the highest revelation therefore of truth as they understand it. They believe that they, the Jews, and Christians are all people of the book. Because they revere the Bible. Of course, they revere the Qur’an higher than the Bible because it came later. They revere Mohammed over Christ because he came later and corrected the truth that had been adulterated even after Christ’s death. They do not believe as Jesus Christ as the Savior, they believe in him as a great prophet, they do not believe that he died on the cross nor rose from the dead. They do not believe that he is the Savior of the world. We in a sense save ourselves through submission to the principles of the Qur’an. And so we in a sense provide our own salvation through submission to the Qur’an. But we are still called people of the Book. They teach and believe that we all worship the same God. We call him God, Jews often call him Jehovah, the Muslims call him Allah but they teach that he is the same God for all three religions. He is not. The Bible very clearly teaches God as the Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, that is in immutable, that he is unchangeable, that he is holy, that he is righteous, he is every thing, all those attributes but that he is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Somehow the Trinitarian God. The Muslims believe that he is God only, no Son no Holy Spirit. Jesus was a prophet not the Son of God. And so therefore there is a revering of Christ but not revering him as the Savior. The Savior actually in a sense is through our obedience to the Qur’an.

Submission to the Qur’an and its principles is primary. Repentance, when we break the principles of the Qur’an, for a Moslem are the way of Salvation. In the Qur’an there are many rules and regulations, things that we should do and things that we shouldn’t do and so keeping the rules and regulations of the Qur’an are primary. God is a very judgmental God but he is also a very forgiving God and so when a Muslim repents he believes no matter what sin he committed, God is ready to forgive at the moment of his repentance so therefore he is free to enter heaven. Heaven for a Muslim is not the same heaven as we understand. Heaven for a Muslim is actually a multiplication to the infinite degree of all human pleasure. The description that I read in one portion of the Qur’an talked about a man who goes to heaven will receive, will have at least 300 varieties of food before him at all times. Variety of food and drink and 72 virgins at his beck and call. And so heaven is just an extension of our wildest dreams, in the sense of human beings. It didn’t describe what women like, I am not sure it if is a huge mall or exactly what it would be but it wouldn’t be the exact same as a man. Women are treated, its very interesting as I read from the Moslem, by the way whether it’s Muslim, Moslem or Islam, it is all the same. As I read from there web pages it says how highly revered women are and how much freedom they have and how free they are to do everything in life. If you read from the other side of it, it says women are repressed in the Moslem world. And of course we have read about in Afghanistan, women who have shown there faces in public, which they are not to do, have been lined up and shot as a punishment. So they are very severe in there punishment but that is not what the Qur’an really teaches. So there are extremists in every religion of course. Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all Muslims support terrorism by any means. Islam as a whole is a religion of peace. Let me read it for you:

“Because of that We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind. And indeed, there came to them Our Messengers with clear proofs, evidences, and signs, even then after that many of them continued to exceed the limits and exceeding beyond the limits set by Allah by committing the major sins of the land!”

This is a direct quote from the Qur’an, says we ordain peace. There is not to be killing except of certain ordained sins. The extremists of the Moslem faith are very similar to the extremists of any faith. We have within the Christian community many extremists of each side. People who are extremists in there views and there actions, even so far as to kill people who are abortionists and then say they did it because God told them to. There are people who go the other way in extremists. In the Muslim world there are many many different sects just like in the Christian faith. We have many different denominations plus we have orthodox and non orthodox. We have all different fazes and different styles out and the same thing is true within Muslims. There are millions, about 300 million Muslims maybe more in the world. It is a huge number of people and each one has its own facets that they tend to emphasis.

There are the segments of course that are the violent ones. They take some words that Mohammed himself and some practices of Mohammed and take them to the wrong extreme. Part of the Qur’an teaching is that all men must submit to the Qur’an. All men must submit to the Qur’an, to the teaching of the Qur’an. No matter what faith you are you eventually must submit to the teaching of the Qur’an and Mohammed himself even taught if that needs to come by violence that is actually Ok. Because it is so important that everyone submit to the commands of the Qur’an. Many of the extremists and terrorists if they use any kind of religion at all claim that sort of thing and say it is important that we force the world to submit to the teachings of the Qur’an. Many of them just use it in name only and that it is. Just like the wars that are going on in Ireland against Protestants and Catholics. If they are true Protestants and Catholics they wouldn’t be at war with each other but they take teachings and hold on to one. Apartheid, back in the days of Apartheid in South Africa, believe it or not the separation from whites from blacks was by the whites way back when they first started it, they believed a Biblical teaching that black people were under the curse of Hem and therefore were inferior as a race and therefore we should treat them as inferior. It was actually believed to be a Biblical teaching. Many people in the southern United States believe that slavery itself was supported by scripture and taught by scripture that we should, in fact, carry on with slavery. On both sides of the Mason Dixon line people use the scripture to teach what they thought, to teach there side. So we found many times in Christian history that Christians have used the Bible, or non Christians use the Bible to support what they believe is right but is totally against God’s will. 

The Crusades back in the middle centuries starting about 1095 to about 1250. The Crusades in one of the reasons that the many Muslims of the world really do not care for Christians. Because the Muslim faith had grown to a great degree from about 600 or so up about the eleventh century and many of them had lived in the Holy Land and so when people made there pilgrimages to see Jerusalem and many of the holy places of our faith
it was being inhabited by Muslims instead of Christians. So the European Christians decided we needed to rescue the land from the pagans, from the Muslims. So the crusades began and there were great preachers who preached that we need to do this and they preached around the land of England and France. Remember of story of Robin Hood and at the end of the story here comes King Richard the Lionhearted from the crusades. That is where he had been. He had been off trying to save Jerusalem from the pagans from the infidels, from the Moslems. They committed great atrocities at that time on both sides and so many of them have a very long history. If we think we have a long history from the Civil War, a long memory. They have a much longer memory. Believing that Christians themselves have done a great atrocities in the name of Christ. Which we have, many have. 

Another thing that we find very interesting is, we tend to put people in one little box even though they don’t fit there. We tend to think all Moslems are the same. Most Moslems are just about like you and I except they have a very different faith but they live very similar lives to ours. Many of them are not orthodox many of them are not extremists they are pretty normal people just like we are. In fact, in Detroit area is one of the largest settlements of Arabic Moslems in the whole world and many of them are just as American as you or I. So we do not need to fear a person because they say they are Moslem because it is the extreme weirdoes that we need to fear just like in the Christian world there are the weirdoes that we need to watch out for. Its not the normal person.

They have also, however, lumped us in other parts of the world into a little bundle that we really don’t fit into either. Many of them believe since because the United States is a Christian nation anything that we produce is therefore indicative of what we believe. So many people in the Moslem world believe that Madonna is one of our spokes people. Because she is well known throughout the world as an American artist and we are a Christian nation she is a Christian artist, therefore, so we support everything she does. And does she do things on the stage and other places that a moral? No and so they see much of what we present as immoral. They see the movies we present, they see the movies that we produce, they see the things that we do and say Oh so that is what Christians are like. We do the same thing, when we see terrorists over here and say they are Moslems and say Oh that is what all Moslems are like. Well, neither one is true, most of each are fairly normal people. So that is one of the reasons that look at us with kind of a scants as we do them.

Let’s talk about Jerry Falwell for a second. President of Liberty College but he is also the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Linsberg, Virginia. A very well respected man, I appreciate him greatly, he is a man who has views in many areas the same as I do but what he said the other day was I think applauded by many people but they didn’t tell there neighbors they applauded it. Because they think maybe he was right but aren’t real sure but probably wouldn’t have said it out loud. Let me read what he said just in case you missed it. He said:

“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’”

Well, does God like killing the innocent, does like the sin that he has been pointing out here? No, of course God doesn’t. God is opposed to all of those things that Jerry Falwell says God is opposed to. He certainly definitely no question about it is. But are these directly related to this particular incident? That is a good question, I don’t know that they are. In fact turn to the Book of Luke if you would because this is a question that, believe it or not, Jesus addressed. It was on some peoples minds and so he addressed it. I want you to find Luke 13, put your finger there and go to Romans Chapter 1. Romans 1, verse 18.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power an divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and fourfooted animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

Now, using that as a standard, are the victims in New York City and Washington DC and other places, are they innocent of evil? I am sure on every plane you will find gossips, haters of God, insolent, boastful, inventors of evil. In fact it is very interesting in New York City in the last week they discovered that many of the people who have been posing as rescuers are going down and looting the stores and things that are down underneath. They also have been telling us that people have been stealing the identify of those who have been reported missing, taking credit card numbers, social security cards, and stealing from there accounts while they are still buried in the rubble. So are people wonderful innocent people? No. The wrath of God is going to come upon those sorts of things. Was this particular event God’s wrath upon them personally? Well, turn back to Luke Chapter 13. 

“Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate?” Insert the word New Yorkers. Do you think that New Yorkers were greater sinners than anybody else because they suffered this fate? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” And he began telling this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine but if not, cut it down.’”

God makes it very clear that his wrath, his personal anger, his disposal against sin is constant. Now these acts, these terrorist acts, these great events that happen to us whether they be accidental or somebody’s design, are these particularly revealing the wrath of God against sin? Not necessarily. But he says unless we repent we may suffer the same kind of fate especially eternal fate not just a temporal fate because we are all going to die from this earth whether it be by accident or somebody’s plan. And so whether Jerry Falwell is correct or not. I don’t know if this ushering in the age of God’s wrath upon our nation. Our nation deserves wrath. We have seen things that are totally opposite of God’s will, God’s character, and our nation deserves that. In fact, the Bible says, all of us because of our sin whether it be gossip, or slander or bad attitudes or grumbling and complaining, like the Bible says we shouldn’t do all those are sins and its says they alienate us from God, they make us enemies of God, they make it so that we are unworthy of life. In fact, it says God shows his love toward us while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We are not make right because we are so good, we are made right before God because of our faith and his death on the cross. And so whether or not this ushers in the age of God’s wrath upon our nation, that is yet to be seen because there are many prophecies in the book of Matthew and Isaiah and especially in the Book of Revelations that tell us that there is coming a great time of wrath. If this is ushering in the age of wrath then we have seen the first great step of it. But this may or may not be. It may just be one that is in a sense happenstance.

But why would God use such cruel people to harm innocent people? At least innocent in the sense that we have not declared war upon them? If you look in the Books of the Old Testament, the prophets of the Old Testament you find something very interesting. God used the Assyrians, the Assyrians are those people who lived, there capitol city was Nineveh. You remember Nineveh because Jonah, the prophet, was sent there and he said no, I am not going to go there I am going to go the other way. He got on a boat and they started to go the other way and the storms came, they tossed him off, the fish swallowed him up and you know the story. Well, he didn’t want to go to Nineveh because that was where the Assyrian capitol city was and the Assyrians were so cruel and so despicable they were so hated by Jews that Jonah did not want them to repent and be saved by God. So therefore he want the other way because the Assyrians were nasty, rotten, they were the same day equivalents of the people that we see the terrorists today, the ones who are doing this same kind of thing, that is what they would do. And the question was raised by the prophets, God how can you let such evil people do such rotten things to your people? Your chosen people, how can you let them do that to us? They are rotten, we are just bad. We acknowledge that we are bad but they are rotten. How can you let them do that? How can you do that? Well, God doesn’t give them a great answer but he says, Assyria is my rod of punishment upon Israel. If you had repented, they would have stayed in there home land. If you had done what was right they wouldn’t have come anyway. So I am not sure this terrorist act is God’s judgment upon our nation. However, it does not mean that we do not deserve judgment. So I don’t know if this is ushering in an age of the great events of revelation. I am sure prophets will tell you that they are. I have not listened to Jack VanEppy or some of the prophets of the day but I am sure that they are saying, hey look out the next few years probably going to be the end of time, ushering in the return of Christ and all these things. May very well be true but I don’t know that to be true.

I thought we were to instruct you the response of William F. Buckley, you know William F. Buckley, I am sure. Maybe not personally but he wrote a very interesting response, I thing one that might be instructive for you.

Now that the Rev. Jerry Falwell has apologized for his ignorant misapplication of Christian thought, we can reflect on one or two questions lying about in the rubble.

What Jerry Falwell said on the “700 Club” program was that the sins of the nation incurred the wrath of God. Pat Robertson agreed. After a day or two of pretty general clamor, including a disavowal by President Bush, the language was slightly changed. What happened, Falwell elucidated, was not a direct aggression engineered by God, but the forfeit of God’s special protection.

That refinement didn’t do it. So finally Mr. Falwell said that his remarks were “insensitive, uncalled-for at the time and unnecessary.” He apologized for making them. Among the protesters was the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, whose editorial said that “people who hold positions of religious leadership have a responsibility to think before they speak and to consider the implications of what they are about to say.” Nah, we don’t do that. In James it says, to watch out for teachers because we are all prone to slip of the tongue and Jerry Falwell proved that again and I’ve done that many times. “Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson failed that test in a most revolting way. The have forfeited any claim to Christian leadership.”

By the way I listened to a public radio program yesterday, a commentary on this, and was railing against Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and he said one the heroes on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania was a young gay athlete who was looking forward to participating in the Gay Olympics. And he said wouldn’t you rather have a gay who would rather give his life up for you than a pontificating religious leader who hates you. It’s kind of called begging the question here. I think most religious leaders would have given there life up just as quickly. But his view was of course that the man who was doing what God says you are not suppose to do is actually better than the man who is trying at least to speak for God.

Certainly they have reminded the community in general, and the Christian community especially, that even ordained ministers of the faith are able terribly to misteach Christian thought.

What Falwell did was to accumulate his complaints against the engines of a secularized American and invoke God as an avenger. His complaints against abortion, gay rights and the end of prayer at school boiled down to God vs. the ACLU, the attack on the World Trade Center being a divine shot across the bow of the Supreme Court.

Transcriptions of God’s manners in such fashion lend themselves to massive, if facile, retribution. “Falwell and Robertson,” the economic analyst Andy Tobias wrote on his Web site, “have convinced themselves that when a hurricane hit Virginia Beach (Robertson’s neck of the woods), there’s no meaning to it, and that when a hurricane fails to hit Orlando as predicted in retribution for Disney’s equal rights policies for gays, there’s no meaning to it, and that when AIDS devastates the (straight) population of Africa, or 6 million innocent Jews and 3 million innocent Cambodians are exterminated, God merely works in mysterious ways.


So, what he is saying these don’t mean anything but this one does. How do you weigh the two? How do you know which one is which?

“But when religious fanatics crash planes into the World Trade Center because they believe it will take them to a special place in heaven, this is not caused by a fanatic religious certitude greater in degree but not entirely dissimilar from there own. Rather they conclude that it is caused, at least in part, because people like me”--Tobias is gay and the treasurer of the Democratic Nation Committee -- “have made God mad.”

What he just said was in this case, if was a religious thing that God sent against gays, like me the writer. 

The Old Testament’s most inscrutable books is Jonah’s, recounting the passage of God’s emissary to Nineveh to advise of the impending apocalypse brought on by affronts to the Word. Jonah survives the whale that swallowed him, reaches Nineveh, and is dismayed to learn that God has forgiven the wicked of that place. But then, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” Jonah acknowledges the mercy of God, but roils at the humiliation done to him, preaching a false message. He informs God that he wishes to give up his own life. “for it is better for me to die than to live.” Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

Christian teaching is not irrelevant simply because we dismiss as preposterous the notion that on September 11 God was the hijackers’ co-pilot. God does not shield his creatures from the malevolent exercise of free will. From Luke 13: “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? ... Or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell upon them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?

“I tell you no,” said Jesus, “but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

As it is true that the acts of terrorists befall everyone, it is no less true that there are reasons for everyone to repent, in this context most notably Osama bin Laden, but also Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and yea, even members of the Supreme Court.

Now, I don’t know that this is ushering in an age of God’s wrath, whether God sent the terrorists I don’t think he did but our nation still has its own sins and we personally have our own sin. So when we talk about the answers to these questions that we raise, are we like the Moslems? We are all sinners. Is there faith a proper faith? I believe no, they reject Jesus Christ as Savior. They say that we worship all the same God. We do not. They disclaim the God of the scriptures, they reject Jesus Christ as God in the flesh who died on the cross for us. I believe they are misguided in their faith. There claims to heaven are false because they have misrepresented the scriptures. They believe a lie that I believe Satan has taught them. Are they people that we should hate? Definitely not. Are they people who should repent? Definitely so. Are we people who should repent? Definitely so. So the ultimate question is not how did all these things happen, why did they happen because we may not get the answers. The question is, have we personally repented so in case that tower falls upon us? Are we saved because of the blood of Jesus Christ? Because that could happen at any moment. We have had funerals here and I have had funerals this last year of people whose sickness apparently was nothing to worry about and two weeks late they passed away. We have seen people who were killed in accidents, we have seen the terrorists bombings and acts around the world. We have seen strange things happen. The ultimate questions still is, what have you done with Jesus Christ? That is what Jesus said. Says were these people who were killed any worse than anybody else in the world? No, but unless you repent you perish. Jesus told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That means that God provided a way through Jesus Christ that we, no matter what events of the world take place, no matter what events take place in our life, we can have the assurance of God’s word, of God’s promise, and as Carol sang awhile ago people need the Lord. People need the Lord. We may not get the answers this side of heaven but we need the Lord. Unless we too repent we may suffer the same eternal consequence as everyone else who has rejected him.

Let’s bow our heads:

I don’t know where you stand with the Lord this morning, and I am not going to ask you to do anything about it this morning. I am going to ask you to do this. Recognize that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He is the one who came, he died on the cross, he paid the price for our sins. This may be a new understanding for you this day. This may be the first time you have heard this, might be the second time or third time or fourth time. But maybe today is the day you need do something about it. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. Maybe you have some questions you need to have answers for. Well I would love to sit down with you. We have people who would love to sit down with you and share from God’s word what the Bible says about our sin and God provision for our sin. It is not just a repent saying God I am sorry, saying God I need Jesus Christ in my life. I need to change my life, I need you to change my life. I need you to come into my life and make me like you, righteous in Christ. So Father I pray that you would help to come to that conclusion this day. For those to whom this is new I pray that you would give them understanding. Father draw them to you, draw them to a place where they can get answers. Maybe they have a friend, a co-worker, maybe a relative, maybe someone here from the church, that they can sit down with and say you know I have a couple of questions. I heard this stuff but I want to know some more, help me understand. Father give understanding. Draw people to you so they might come to know you personally as you request of them. Father we do not want to perish as do those who have no hope. We want to have wonderful hope in Jesus Christ because we can. Because you demonstrated your love towards us and even as we were still sinners Christ died for us. We thank you for that Father. We thank you Father also we won’t have all the answers. Father I thank you for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, spokesmen who go out on limbs and say these things and at least raise these questions. Father we know that the innocents will always say that we didn’t do anything wrong. But Father we also know that the guilty always say that. They say that prisons are full of innocent people who did no crime and yet they believe they are punished for it. And so Father we know as innocent as we might claim to be, we are still guilty before you because we do gossip, because we do sin, because we do support evil even. And so Father I pray that you would help us personally to repent and bring others to repentance. Father bring others to you. Father as it says in 1 Peter 3:15, we are to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts so we can always be ready to give an answer to anyone who might ask about the hope that lies within us. Father you have given us opportunities, help us to give the word of truth carefully and gently to those who need to know and that they might accept the truth of Jesus Christ. We ask it in his name.
Amen.

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