Lecture 1The Game Has Changed

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THE GAME HAS CHANGED Boys, the game has changed. Being a committed follower of Jesus Christ in the United States of America is different today than it was 20 years ago. And twenty years from now it will be more different still. If you are serious about being a faithful follower of Jesus, you had better get your head right, you had better get your heart right, you had better understand how the game has changed, and and man the heck up. Because a little boy, go to church on Sunday mornings, God is nice and we should be too kind of Christianity ain’t gonna cut it anymore. Our culture has changed. It is becoming, and over time will become even more, hostile towards those who stand up for the truths that Christians have always believed: Truths that are offensive to our culture. Truths like: There is a God and we will all be held accountable for what we do with our lives. This God has revealed himself uniquely in Jesus Christ. Truths like: Not all spiritual beliefs are equally valid and not all moral choices are acceptable in God’s sight.

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Truths like: There is right and there is wrong. And you and I, miniscule mites of dust in an infinite universe, do not determine what is right and what is wrong. Neither does our self-centered, self-justifying, hedonistic culture. God does. Whether you know it or not, fellas, this ain’t your father’s America. The game has changed. And it will not be won by men who are soft, timid or tame. Our title for this series is No Time to be Timid. I like that title – but I’m not crazy about it. It wasn’t my first choice. I sent my preferred title to the media team to prepare announcements for the bulletin and the website. They said, they didn’t feel comfortable with it. I flew it by our missions pastor John Hull. He burst out laughing and said, “You can’t use that.” “Why not?” I asked. “It expresses exactly what I want to get across. It’s getting more and more difficult to stand up for the Christian faith, and men are going to have to be strong in character, faith and mind to be faithful in the days to come.”

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“Why not?” John responded. “Because of the obvious sexual innuendo.” At that point, I was disappointed in myself. I felt like maybe I was losing it. Because, trust me, I’m usually the first one to spot a sexual innuendo when there is one, and even if it’s not there, I can usually find a way to come up with one. But I wrote the original title I wanted to use, and didn’t think anything sexual about it. Here it is: No time to go soft. Obviously, you have the same dirty minds that our media team and John Hull possess, rather than the pure heart that lives within me. So I have gone with No Time to be Timid. And I’m ok with that because it is biblical. 2 Timothy 1.7-9: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life.

God did not give us a spirit of timidity. And that’s a good thing because with the pressure our culture is going to put on you to compromise your faith, keep your beliefs to yourself, and go with the progressive flow or an ever evolving morality, you will not be faithful to Christ by being timid.

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But when I say, timid, I hope you hear “soft.” Spiritually and morally, this is no time to go soft. And men who are soft on what they believe, soft on what they stand for, soft on whether they live for the approval or our Christ or our culture eventually will give in and fail to be faithful. This morning we are beginning our 14th year of Quest. And I consider speaking to you men one of the great privileges of my life. If you’re new to Quest, we’re glad you’re here. Raise your hand if you’re new, please. Welcome/breakfast free. Folders. When we started Quest I was in my mid-forties. This August, I turned 60. That sounds old to me. And it may sound old to you. But, as we say in Texas, I tell you what. I may be 60 but: I’ve got fire in my belly, I’ve got passion in my heart, I’ve got steel in my spine, and I’m ready for the storm that is coming.

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I’m ready to tell you what lies ahead. I’m ready to tell you how we need to respond. And I am ready to make whatever time I have left the most productive I have ever spent standing for the truth of the Gospel, reaching out to the lost in the name of Jesus, and calling men like you to do the same. Here’s a scene from the movie Fury, set in April 1945, when Allied forces had fought their way deep into Nazi territory. The film is about an American tank crew. At this point in the movie, they have been sent to hold a strategically important crossroads against an oncoming Nazi battalion. Only, along the way, the three other tanks that were with them were destroyed by a German Tiger and they were hit and their radio was shattered. They survive the battle, gather themselves, and then their sergeant gives them the word. “We’re still open for business. Let’s head out for those crossroads. There’s a wave coming in. We’re the rock to break that wave.” When they’ve taken their place at the crossroads, all alone, and they know they are unlikely to survive, here’s the scene. Clip: Fury 1 1.37.39-1.38.11/1.38.46-1.39.37

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The world has always depended on men who have said, No matter what the cost, here I am, send me. When a wave of darkness and deceit is coming, the world has always needed men who were willing to be the rock that would break that wave. And that’s where we are. A wave is coming upon this country; truth is, it’s been coming a long time. Before we’re through with this series, we’ll all understand it better. It’s a wave that calls darkness light and proclaims lies as truth. And the Lord is saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Who will be the rock to break that wave? The world has always depended upon faithful men to answer that call. And the world needs such men now. I said earlier, this ain’t your father’s America. The game has changed. How so? We no longer have home field advantage. that’s how. And that changes everything. In practically every sport teams playing at home win more games than they lose. In Major League Soccer, the home team wins nearly 70% of the time. It’s the same with men’s NCAA basketball.

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In college football, the home team wins over 60% of its games as do teams playing at home in the NBA. Why? There are many reasons. And to learn about these I spoke with guys who played sports in college and professionally. This is more than just what I learned through Little League. Though you can learn a lot observing from the bench game after game. The home team is familiar with its field in a way that the visiting team is not. The fans are with you and you can feed off their energy. Research has shown that the refs tend to rule in the home team’s favor. And there is a built-in psycho-physiological effect when players are defending their home turf. Catch this: the testosterone level of players on the home team increases at game time significantly more than for the visiting team. What is referred to by anthropologists and psychologists as the territorial imperative, and what translates in sports into players declaring to the other team, “not in our house,” is a mental and physical edge enjoyed by those who believe they are defending their home turf. It’s just the opposite for the visiting team. Play an away game and your normal life is upended. Your routine is disrupted. You spend time traveling that you normally use for preparation and rest.

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Your surroundings, are unfamiliar and at times uncomfortable, often purposefully made that way by the home team. The crowd is hostile and the noise can be deafening, making it difficult to focus – and at times impossible to hear the one who is calling the plays. For centuries, Christians in the Western world in general, and in the United States in particular, have enjoyed home field advantage. We were not only playing in a cultural arena we were familiar with, the Christian faith had been instrumental in creating it. The teachings and the values of Jesus were the architecture that formed the social turf we played on. The crowd was with us. Most believed in God and the majority believed in Jesus as the Son of God. Even nonchristians appreciated Christian values – the sacred worth of the individual, the importance of character and integrity, the rightness of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, a belief in redemption and second chances, the idea that our lives are a trust and to whom much is given much is expected. Even nonchristians tended to believe in these things and many would send their children to Christian schools or bring them to church for moral instruction.

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Sure there we skeptics and critics, but their voices were drowned out by the masses who were with us. For centuries western culture was “our house.” We enjoyed a perennial home field advantage and we received the benefit of the doubt from society. To vary the analogy a bit, let me quote from George Hunter’s book “Should We Change our Game Plan?” George Hunter: The church enjoyed a worldview “monopoly” for many centuries. People viewed reality through a Christian lens. Christianity was Western society’s official and privileged religion. Virtually everyone in Western society was a baptized and catechized Christian.

Over time, though, this has changed. And even if you haven’t verbalized it to yourself, you have felt it. Storess telling their employees not to say “Merry Christmas” even as they were counting on Christmas shopping to put them into the black for the year. The massive popularity of books written by scientists and philosophers dubbed The New Atheists. In particular (Slide) Richard Dawkins’: The God Delusion was on Amazon’s best-seller’s list for 51 weeks, (slide) and Christopher Hitchens’: “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” reached number 1 on the New York Times best-sellers list in its third week. Christian philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart writes that these are giddy days for those who oppose religion.

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David Bentley Hart: Conditions in the world of print have never before been so propitious for sanctimonious tirades against religion …. Never before have the presses or the press been so hospitable to journalists, biologists, minor philosophers, amateur moralists … and film actors to denounce the savagery of faith … and to commend the virtues of spiritual disenchantment to all who have the wisdom to take heed.

Public attacks against Christians and their desire to raise their children in their faith are becoming more public and more acceptable. Slides In fact, Richard Dawkins referred to raising a child as a Christian as a form of child abuse. The constant mantra of the new atheists is that religion is the principal reason for violence in the world and the chief cause of division, ignorance and oppression and should, therefore, be abandoned for the sake of peace and tolerance. The fact that their charges are either uninformed or disingenuous, contrary to historical reality, does not mean that their diatribes are not effective in coloring how many now view religion in general and the Christian faith in particular. I hate using this example because I try not to be political in Quest or in church. And I believe that there are good Christian folks who are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. I simply want to show you how our culture has changed. You felt it when our president spoke of people in small mid-western towns going through difficult economic times and said: The President: They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them ….

as if holding onto the Christian faith is what angry, bitter people do similar to the way they

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clutch a weapon to feel strong and safe or turn to racial prejudice to make themselves feel mistreated and superior at the same time. It wasn’t long ago that no national politician would have felt comfortable publicly demeaning hard-working folks who hold onto their faith to help them get by in difficult times. If you’re a pastor you have felt it, after the recent Supreme Court decision on marriage, as the debate has begun whether churches, will keep their tax exempt status if they don’t marry gay couples or whether donations given to such churches will be tax deductible in the future. And if you work for a corporation of any size, you have felt it as you have had to become more and more careful about not referring to your faith or asking others about theirs. According to the Pew Research Center: The number of Americans who identify as Christian is decreasing. That number has decreased by over 10% since 2007. The fastest growing spiritual affiliations or non-affiliations within the US are “nothing in particular,” agnostic atheist, and Muslim. In his book “The Heart of Christianity,” the late professor of religion at Oregon State University Marcus Borg wrote about his students Marcus Borg: When I ask them to write a short essay on their impression of Christianity, they consistently use five adjectives: Christians are literalistic, antiintellectual, self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted.

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The book UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity surveyed young people between the ages 16-29. Here are the percentages of those in the survey outside of the church who think the following words describe present day Christianity. Anti-homosexual 91% Judgmental 87% Hypocritical 85% Old-fashioned 78% Too political 75% Out of touch with reality 72% Boring 68% The stereotypes that are used to portray Christians in the media – film, television, talk shows, etc – are right in line with these findings. Either we don’t exist – think of how many day time soaps, how many sitcoms or evening dramas have Christian characters? Other than Ned Flanders on the Simpsons you’d be hard pressed to name one. Ned is actually portrayed as a decent guy and a good neighbor. But naive and out of touch with the real world. Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFTR2JJcKUg Watching television you would think that there are practically no Christians in the United States and you’d have no idea that 100 million Americans attend worship in any given week.

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Either we don’t exist and our views don’t need to be considered or when we are portrayed in popular culture we are the ones who want to enforce out-dated, freedom-squashing, pleasure-denying rules that we are hypocritically breaking ourselves. A few years back I read a quote that said in effect, If all you knew about American culture is what you saw on television, you’d come to the conclusion that there are more gays in the U.S. than Christians and that they are much nicer people. I don’t tell you that as a comment on gay persons, but on how the media has shaped our perception of reality. If you want to hear my thoughts on how we should relate to gay persons, go to the archives on our website, the series “You Asked for It.” And you’ll find there that I said Christians should love gays unreservedly, that we should protect them from the emotional and physical violence that is often done to them by society and by the church, and if you are a parent, your first and foremost job is to accept and love your child and to create a place in your home where he or she knows that they will always be safe. Fail at those things and we fail as Christians and as parents. I’m talking about our culture’s agenda to misrepresent Christians as either nonexistent or as mean-spirited. And it’s working. According to Gallup the American public estimates that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian while only 3.8% of adults in the US self-identify as GLBTQ. When it comes to those who control the thinking of secular culture, Christians are marginalized or demonized.

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What we don’t see portrayed are thoughtful men and women, who run companies and hold responsible positions, who are good neighbors who coach their children’s little league teams, who mentor under privileged boys like some of you have done through Destination Manhood, who take food to the homeless living under the overpasses on I-45, who create ministries like Driving Family Futures which you guys began so single moms could get and keep a job, or who travel to Juarez and Honduras and Guatemala to build homes for those who live in shacks or provide medical and dental care for those who have never had it. When secular people find out that you are a Christian, their first thought is not that you care about people and must be a person of integrity. Their first response is that you must be judgmental, ill-informed and self-righteous. I don’t want to make this out to be worse than it is. We are not being imprisoned, beheaded, or set on fire because we are Christians. Christians around the world are and we should not pretend that we are facing anything like they are. But the game has changed. We don’t have home field advantage anymore. The wind is not at our back, those who are calling the game will not be fair to us, and we cannot depend upon the folks in the stands to be on our side. And it’s happening not just in the culture; it’s also happening in the church. Just a few years ago, a United Methodist pastor and at the time president of one of our United Methodist seminaries,

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Dr. Jerry Campbell stated that if students felt a need to evangelize persons of other religions, they possess “an incorrect perception of what it means to follow Jesus.” I wish I could tell you he is an anomaly. But his views are shared by many United Methodist and mainline pastors. Jesus is not the way and the truth and the life, as he is quoted as saying in the Gospel of John, but one of many ways to understand and become right with God. The pastor of our largest UM Church believes that we should and is encouraging others next May at what we call General Conference to change our present position so that we will begin ordaining noncelibate homosexuals and marrying gay couples. This is a change that the Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans have already adopted. UM bishops whom I respect have told me that most UM bishops in the US share that pastor’s beliefs and hope that we will change our position soon. What progressive pastors tell the rest of us is that if we don’t go with the culture, we will become irrelevant. Put your finger to the wind, find out which way it’s blowing, and if the claim that Jesus Christ is the unique, only-begotten Son of God and Savior of the world is bothersome to others or if the clear teaching of the Bible regarding sexuality is contrary to the culture, then let’s change the offense of the Gospel and go with what will sell. Next week, I’ll tell you how we got here, how everything changed, why we are losing the culture,

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and how it’s likely to impact those who are committed to following Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The times, they are a changing. And it’s a hard rain that’s gonna fall on people who hold to the traditional Christian faith. But if you’re waiting for me to tell you that this is terrible, that it’s awful how our culture is changing you’re going to be disappointed. We are losing home-field advantage. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The church is not collapsing; it is being clarified. Cultural Christians are falling away because it is starting to become costly to be identified as a Christian. Mainline churches are declining. Liberal churches are declining. The Roman Catholic Church is declining. The only group of Christians who have not seen a significant decrease in recent years are those who are defined as evangelicals. That term simply means Christians who believe that the Bible is God’s inspired and authoritative word, that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life, and salvation is found in no one else and nothing other than his sinless life, his atoning death and his physical resurrection. In case you have any questions, that’s exactly what I believe, that’s what every pastor on our staff believes, and that’s what the founder of Methodism John Wesley believed.

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The growing cultural disdain for orthodox, evangelical Christianity will mean that those persons who are cultural Christians, those whose faith is soft and whose moral courage is lacking, will fall away. But some of us – if we refuse to get angry, hard or mean; if we refuse to give up or give in; if we refuse to be intimidated by the culture and instead walk in the footsteps of our Lord who was a person of grace and truth – some of us will rise to the occasion, grow stronger in our faith, and do great work for the kingdom. Here’s another scene from Fury. When they get to the crossroads they are supposed to hold, their tank is disabled by a mine, and they learn that the Nazi force that is coming against them is much larger and better armed than they expected. If they stay and fight, they will not survive. The crew wants to do what makes sense. Get their gear and get out. But their sergeant has a different plan. Clip: Fury 2 1.32.57-1.35.29 What’s the plan? To be faithful. Not to run; not to hide. But to stand in the crossroads and fight. Not the way the world fights,

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but to fight nevertheless. This is my home. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is my home. It’s the only home I know. And I will not leave it. I can’t. If you need to head for the trees, it’s all right. Not everybody understands why this battle must be fought. But I do. Not everybody has the heart for this battle. But I do. If you don’t, it’s all right. But stand with me or not, you’ll find me right here at the crossroads. Yes, we’re playing away games now. But that’s when you can have your best games. When you know that it’s you against the world. When you know you’re not going to get the calls. When you know that you’ve got to pull together or you’re lost. When you look at the others on your team, and what you see are brothers who are depending on you and what they see is a man who will not let them down. When you know that you’ve got to block out the noise of the stands and focus on everything you’ve been taught and the game plan you’ve been given. When you know that the contest will be won only if you want it more than the other team and you’re willing to suffer and pay a price –

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That’s when you find out who you are. That’s when you have your greatest game. That’s when champions are made. And that’s where we are. The game has changed. We don’t have home-field advantage and the crowd is going to become more and more hostile and the refs are going to be less and less fair. But, so help me God, this will be my finest hour. And it can be yours as well. God is counting on us. A lost world needs us. And I tell you what. In the words of Tom Petty: I won't back down …No, I won’t back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won't back down Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down … Well I know what's right, I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin' me around But I stand my ground and I won't back down

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