Does it Matter?

The title of my sermon today is, Does it Matter? Does it matter? On March 1st, the President of the United States gave a State of the Union address, as he told the state of the United States.

Today I wanted to do something else because I think it's important as we head towards the Spring Holy Days why it's important that we know what we know, learn what we learn, read what we read, study what we study. Today I'd like to give a State of Christianity address in the United States of America.

I know we have some in the Caribbean that join us on the webcast and all of those who are joining us. Welcome! Because I don't have your statistics but I do have the United States. I want to give those. In the Caribbean, people seem to take their Christianity a little more serious.

They do read their Bibles more than Americans, but I thought it might be good that we know what the state of Christianity is here in America.

I can't say that it's looking promising. It's kind of looking like our economy seems to be going backwards instead of forward.

I took my information and statistics from the Pew Research 2021 study, which is the latest from Pew. I like Pew because they do not have an agenda. They just ask questions about mostly Christian topics, morality, and so forth in the United States.

If you've never gone to their website, you've never looked up any of their results, they do a very good job because they do not slant the question in any way. They don't have a political agenda either side. They do thousands upon thousands of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of recipients. They take that many replies instead of, I've got my 300, I like what it says, so let's stop there. They don't do that, so that's why I wanted to give this.

Hopefully we can understand why it's so important that we are who we are, and we're doing what we're doing not only here, but also when we leave this building. And we spend six days away from each other and into the world. Because I remember, right? Matthew 28 sent Jesus Christ sent His disciples into the world. And we're sent into this world to do a few things. So if you need to know, if you haven't gotten it already for me being here over a year, then go back to Matthew 28 and read the last few verses.

Did you know self-identified Christians make up 63% of the U.S. population? Yes. That's what the survey. 63% of the population of the United States of America identify themselves as Christians. Now that may sound like, okay, America's in pretty good shape then. We have a majority that believe in Christ. The only problem with that is that that statistic is down 45% from where it was 10 years ago.

10 years ago it would have been 45% higher, or it was, by the same research. A lot has changed in the last decade. How much will change in the next? The trend is not good. That's why I bring this out, because to me our job just became more important to these statistics. To those who need something more in their lives in America.

Currently, 29% of the U.S. population say they are non-religious. 29%! Close to a third by the time this is the survey, and next year it's probably be a third. They are non-Christian. 10 years ago it was 19%. Things have changed. So what are so many people in America saying today? They're saying more and more, we don't need God. We don't really believe in or need His protection.

That's a scary thought. That's a scary, scary thought. When it was 1864, the Secretary of the Treasury, his name was Salmon, like the fish, Maria always cooks. His name was Salmon Chase. He was Secretary of the Treasury, serving under Abraham Lincoln. And Mr. Chase had a habit for a long time, and his butler and the people who helped take care of him remember this fondly that he would take a long bath in a big tub every morning. And when he did, he would lay in there for quite a while reciting and reading Psalms.

And it became his habit, and it began to rub off on other people. So they began to even talk about him being, he's not a preacher, but he sure acts like one. It always brings this up. Interesting part, it was Salmon Chase who recommended to President Lincoln and to Congress that they meant coins, and on that coin, it needs to represent God.

And it was his suggestion in God we trust. Over 150 years ago, yes, our nation has had that on our coins all this time. It wasn't until after Second World War that President Eisenhower, former General Eisenhower, President Eisenhower thought it was important that those words be put on dollar bills and all the bills that were printed. That's been 65 years ago. Every one of us usually use a coin, money, every day or every few days and every week.

And it's there as a reminder to us, isn't it? Shouldn't it be? And yet, we look at where we're headed, and it's scary. 45% of U.S. adults say they pray daily. 45%. Now, you remember what the first statistic was? 63% consider themselves Christians, but you have almost 20% that say, don't have to pray. Which basically says, I got this, God, I don't need you. Because I don't know about you, but there's a lot of stuff I don't have control of. And there's a lot of stuff I want God in control of every day.

The sad part about it is that 14 years ago, that statistic was 58%. Look where we've come. Let's look where we've gone. You might say that better. It's telling us that people don't want God. Should that deter us? Or should we follow the crowd? Wait a minute. We have to follow trends, don't we? Is that what God called us to do? Jonathan, what's the newest thing on the Kardashians this week? He has no idea. Thank God. Yet there's... I look at my Google News every morning. I don't watch news, but I look at Google and every other day there's something on Google News about the Kardashians.

Which means they're trending. Kardashians? God. Kardashians? God. So where will we live in? And it should scare us. What's interesting, I didn't believe this. I heard a host, comedian, actor, writer, producer mentioned this on television. And I thought, well, that can't be true. Because he was British and he was saying how he has to act different when it comes to America. And he has to watch what he says because he offends more people in America. They ask him why. And he said, it's simple. Almost 10% of people in America are atheists or agnostics.

Yet in Europe, it's 35 to 40%. As one commentator said, one thing I was reading. America is just not as sophisticated. Because they're such a young country. We've been here a thousand years. They've been there hundreds of years. They'll understand and get rid of their religion the more they're around. Natural comments. And I look at some of this and I'm saying, hmm. Are we going that way? Atheists in America in 2021, according to Pew Research, 4%. A little over 4%.

Agnostics, 5%. But look where we were. Look what's happened over the 10 years. It's double. Almost double. Pretty much doubled. In 2031, the reason I want to bring this up, in 2031, we will have been 2,000 years since Jesus Christ was hung on that piece of wood. In 2031, will we double? Trend says we will. We're going to double the amount of people who don't believe in God. Scary thought. Do you realize that 20% of U.S. adults, 20% adults, not children, 20% of adults describe their religion. These are religious people? Okay. Remember that 63%? 20% of those people describe their religion as nothing in particular.

How about yours? I hope you're not sitting here because you didn't have anything else particular to do. There wasn't a good John Wayne movie on this afternoon for us older people who appreciate John Wayne. I think that we have things to think about as we live in this world, and we're to be the light in our communities, in our families, in our streets, in our own houses. And I found that most non-Christians are intimidated and thus hate the Bible, the book.

We should understand that. The carnal mind is what? M-N-T. Against God. New Living Translation. I like the New Living Translation. Doesn't it put it very clear, for the sinful nature is always hostile towards God. Never did obey God's law, and it never will. That helps us to hopefully understand more. Because 2 Timothy 3, 16 said, what? We study this because of reproof or correction that we may be fully equipped. That's my job, is hopefully to help you as I help me, help myself, know what we're trying to do in the future.

Because hopefully I will have some exciting news for you in a few weeks, that I think hopefully you'll be excited about. We're working towards this. That's why hopefully everybody can see and understand. But I found it interesting enough 2 weeks ago, that I went online and spent about 4 hours looking at websites, looking at questions and comments from people who are hostile towards God. Real questions and answers. So I just didn't take a few. I looked at hundreds. Pulled out the main reason, and I'll say this here, the 5 most often used reasons for hating God and His Word.

I leave this to begin in America. I'm not saying it's from Canada, Gordon. I'm not saying it's Jamaica. I'm saying it's from America. I pulled these. I'm not saying I agree. I'm just saying I want to give you what they said.

I broke some of these down to shorter statements because a lot of them went on and on and on. So one of the 5 most used reasons for hating God and His Word is, because God murdered the Egyptian firstborn, and it's celebrated every single year by certain religions in America. God murdered the firstborn in every house. He condoned murder of women, children, and even livestock. Whosel genocide in many stories, but they referenced Joshua and the city of Jericho.

God condoned slaves, rape, and forced marriages. God condemns same-sex marriage and even same-sex relationships. Romans 1. God is a sexist, and He's very cruel to women. I could go on, I could give you, finish the rest of the day this way, but I'm just giving you six. This Bible of God calls a man righteous who impregnated his two daughters.

It is a disgusting book, one said. Should be taken out and burnt. This should not be allowed to be in any household. These are real statements. Hopefully it's not how you feel about the Bible. Thankfully we had 63% that hopefully they do not feel that way. But it's been a struggle for this country to hold on to Christianity. It was a struggle in England.

It's a struggle where most people in England will tell you they've lost the battle between the Muslim religion and the deterioration of the Christian religion. It's so bad that our 20% in France 40% have no religion at all. Europe has changed and the United States is following in those footsteps and it's scary. It truly is. I read a statement the other day about the Bible, reading the Bible, and for those who profess to be Christians and read.

It said, the Bible is like your boss. Remember who your boss is and don't forget your daily briefing. When I had my company, we would have a daily briefing every morning. I was there at 6.30. The guys all got there at 7.

7 to 7.15 was the daily briefing. Monday morning was a 30-minute briefing of what we were going to do during the week. But every day we would have a briefing. This is what we want to accomplish. This is where we want to go. Any problems? Most companies have that. Any of you have worked, you would have meetings. Hopefully daily briefings. You probably still have them at the hospital.

Yes. And so it's nothing strange. Well, what about a daily briefing? Even if it's a short one, isn't it better than none? I hope so. There was a man by the name of Simon Greenleaf. Has anybody ever heard of Simon Greenleaf? That's this gentleman here. He lived in 1783. He died in 1853. Simon Greenleaf was a very important man in the establishment of this country.

He was a chief founder of the Harvard Law School, one of the most educated and important people at his time and his day. He, being very educated, he called Christianity a silly myth. Mocked his students who came to Harvard Law School for wanting to believe this myth of Christianity. And so he was, ten years into his tenure there, his students, because he was a very harsh teacher, hard, he wanted him to be great lawyers, since he said Harvard would be the standard of which other law schools would want to be.

And he brought forward, at that time, he made his perception of religion known to his students. Of which he had some students in one class, came and said, Professor Greenleaf, we ask, since you teach us that everything, law, is based on history, and that, just like now, everything goes back to certain rulings that were made in the 1700s, 1800s, even the 1600s, and you give a case of why you would follow through with your case because of this case law. And so they said, we would like for you, for this class, we would like for you, with us, to go and study the history, and base strictly, solely on the evidence. Do a study of whether this individual Jesus Christ actually lived. And he did. He accepted it to make a fool out of his students. He became a believer in Jesus Christ, using just history and evidence, because he found there was just as much evidence for a Messiah or Jesus Christ living at the time than there was of Caesar. There was a history there. But what did it take? The Word of God. He used it. What should we use when we're trying to help people? The Word of God. Not that we have a booklet, which is great. No, this is what we should live by.

The year was 1881. There was an Englishman born. His name was Albert Ross. He became a lawyer and a journalist, and a well-thought-of one, well-thought-of. Wrote many things, but he was a major skeptic. He criticized the Bible as often as he could, and was a firm believer in Darwin and evolution. He wanted to totally disprove the Jesus myth. So he wrote a book to dispute the foundation of Christianity. And when you think about it, the foundation of Christianity wasn't just that Jesus existed, it was that he rose and he was resurrected. That is the foundation of three days and three nights, whether he was a Messiah or not. It ties all back to the Bible. Very simple. So he, with his great intellect and his resources, just thought he would then write a book, disproving the existence of the resurrection. Instead, he wrote a book on Jesus Christ and his resurrection. After doing so much research, he wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone? A little embarrassed by it, he actually changed his name and used another name to write the book because of what he had done all those years. Isn't that amazing? And if you happen to read a copy or can find it on the Internet, and it was written many years ago, Who Moved the Stone? You'll find he lays out the perfect case for there being a man such as that. So is this a book of junk or genius? To part of America, it's a book of junk. Is there enough weight over here that it will be considered a book of genius somewhere down the road because it's losing its sheen, losing its shine now?

Now, doing this just to just to make my case, but I think it's so important that we have a deeper understanding of God's word, that we're able to help more people, not just for us. This Christianity thing isn't just to have salvation. That's a nice plus. But it's to be able to help people in every way, shape, or form. I find my job takes me to areas I didn't anticipate. No one taught me in theology classes that I would be running into just as many people outside of the faith as it does inside the faith. And I'm sure you do, too. So why is it important? Well, I bring this up because the book, this one book, is made up of 66 books by 40 different authors. Do we know those authors? Most people I would readily say in this room have read the Bible all the way through, maybe multiple times, or you know the Bible, or whatever.

So I asked the questions this morning, this afternoon. Seems like a long morning. This afternoon. Who wrote the most books in this Bible? Of those 40 authors, who wrote the most books? Let's just say, who wrote the most words? Anybody have a guess? Luke? Good. He's not number one, but he's up there. Who? Paul. He's up there, but someone else. Moses! Moses, Moses, Moses. By far, over 125,000 words he wrote, which is 20% of the Bible. Plus, he wrote five books, plus he wrote one psalm, Psalm 90.

What's something most people won't know about Moses?

He wasn't a Jew? Okay.

Moses, yeah, people could see that. And they probably didn't look like Charleston Hessen. Yes. Ah, I believe he was, he stuttered.

He wasn't this Charleston Hessen, stand still and see the foundation of the world. No? See the salvation of the Lord. That's what he said. Yes. As the sea was parting. That's what people know. But we will be confronted by... Wasn't he a murderer? Yes. Yes.

He murdered an innocent man, didn't he?

Did he deserve to die? For beating somebody? If did, my dad deserved to die. He beat me quite a few times. Your mother? Yes. I've heard of those beatings before. Those are legendary. Oh, yes. What's the problem with murder? What's the problem with murder? Yes. Can we explain? How about that he had two wives? That we know of?

He could have four!

So what do they say? He's a polygamist. How can you explain this? Is it important that we do? I think so.

So people can distort anything and everything. And here you have 125,000 words. He wrote, what? 20% of the Bible?

And he didn't enter the land of Jesus. No, because?

He had a temper!

And yet the Bible said he was the most bold man, meekest man.

Can we explain that? Good. That's what we should be able to do.

Not for ourselves, but for other people who are being so turned off by the haters of Christianity, the animosity that's there.

So, Moses, number one writer of words, and about 125,000. Who's next? Who has him? Who will be second? He says Paul. Anybody else? I got John, I got David.

Anybody else? David. Anybody else? No. No? It might surprise you. It surprised me. I would not have gotten this myself. No?

Ezra. Anybody think of Ezra? How many words? 43,000 words.

What books did Ezra write? Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ezra, Nehemiah. Yeah, does there are 43,000 words in Ezra and Nehemiah? No. There's Chronicles. Oh, very good. Chronicles. They know he wrote at least one of the Chronicles and possibly two.

What? How interesting is this man, Ezra, who, second most prolific writer of the Bible. Do we know his words? Do we know that while he lived, he lived about 500 years before Christ? Do you know during his lifetime, that same time in the world that he was espousing God's way, he was teaching this way that the world should live. Buddha lived in India. Confucius lived in China. And Socrates lived in Greece. Three greatest philosophers all lived at the same time, but we all know their names way before Ezra. Is it something that maybe we need to study? Ezra, Nehemiah, and his writings a little more so that we can give him his place, that obviously God inspired him to be the second most prolific writer in the Bible? I think so. I missed it. I had to go back and look at some things this week, and wow! It's like...

But you know, what's interesting is... and it taught me about the world.

It taught me about this country where we're headed.

Because when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, you read about this in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 52, it's towards the end, 52, 23, something like that, 23, 28. It tells the exact number of Jews that were taken out of there, and the total number is, was, 4600. That's how many Jews were taken to Babylon, and kept there for 70 years. Some time there were 2 or 3 removals, but basically 70 years. So 70 years later, after they had taken the first out, and when they came back, Ezra was setting up...

Simple. Civilization. A nation to follow God, because the Messiah had to come 500 years later out of that. He took that as important. But out of those 4600 people, 70 years later, do the math. Every 20 years and 4 people, 4 kids, every 20 years, and so forth, I guess.

It is estimated that when it was time to go back to Jerusalem, at the end of 70 years, there were 130,000 Jews. Out of the 4600, 130,000.

That's pretty... But the math works. He set up what they had all. Remember the song? By the waters of Babylon. There we remembered. There we what? Yes, because we remembered what Zion. We remembered. Do you know when it was opened up, 130,000 people existed, and Ezra gave us the numbers. 49,897 people went.

80,000 people stayed in Babylon.

Isn't that a shocking? Isn't that shocking? How many people now like staying in Babylon instead of coming out of the world?

Just saying. You were talking about last night. Yes. She just ran into a spider monkey this last week, so she didn't bring one back for a prop this week. The number three most prolific writer. Somebody said it earlier.

We got one, we got two, how about three? David. Nope. Paul. Nope. Paul, that John? Nope. I'd say it. Nope. You would think as long as it is. Samuel, Luke, Paul. Put it up for us. Luke. Luke. He wrote what? The book of Luke and the book of Acts. All those words. Isn't that amazing that he is the only Gentile writer in the New Testament? He never met Christ. I have to look at my watch. I'm about to go over time. I don't need to do that.

Luke was what? As a professional? A physician.

It's amazing how his writing brings that out. Can we go there real fast because I don't think I even gave you this. Let's go to Mark. You will. Go with me in Scripture to Mark. Mark 5 and verse 26. Mark is believed to be Peter's writing. Peter had Mark write for him. This is Peter's account. Look at how interesting this is. Mark 5 and verse 26. We'll just read one verse. Mark 5 and verse 26. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years in verse 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

Doesn't really make physicians look real good, does it? Let's go over to Luke the same story. Luke chapter 8 and verse 43. This is a doctor. Now a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and God could not be healed by any came from beyond and touched the border of his garment and immediately blood flowed. Okay, same story except a little more kind in his phrasing about physicians. Can you imagine him, what he did, and tried to help people? The fourth most prolific writer is, was, I'm running short, Jeremiah 35,000. Jeremiah wrote what? Jeremiah. What else? Lamentations. What incredible thing. He was the son of a priest. The priest was named Healkiah. And he was a contemporary and worked for five different kings in his time. And he was a contemporary of Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel lived at the same time. And finally, the last number five. I won't keep you two. Was who? Paul. How many books did Paul write? Try 13. 13. It's been argued 12 or 13. What do you want to cook? Hebrews or not? Around 13 books. Five percent of the entire Bible is written by this man. That's pretty impressive. Reading his letters. Reading his books. So these five men that I've just given you here wrote almost 45 percent of the Bible. Know these five men. Know their writings. And you know almost half of the Bible. And you know what's interesting? You're going to know some of the books. Say that. Five. These five writers. If you read all their books, all their words, you will have read almost 45 percent of the entire Bible. So you know what it takes sometimes? Just to bite off a little at a time. You can eat a whole lot that way. We don't know. We don't know. If you know, I'd like to know. But I don't know, Vic. Maybe Job. Maybe somebody else. We don't know some of them, but we know there were somewhere around 40 writers. So we know their works. We know their writings. We will know almost half of the Bible. So I go back to the question. Does it matter? We look at the state of Christianity today. Does it matter? God thinks so. And He's called you and He's called me to make a difference.