Reflecting the Culture of the Founder

Good afternoon, everyone. I greet you in French, but then people would think we're going to start speaking in tongues here. Mr. Crow already spoke in Hebrew. But I do want to greet all of our French brethren around the world. This is being translated into French, though I don't need to do that in French, for your sake. It'll be translated anyway. They wouldn't hear my voice. But I do want to greet all of our French members in Canada, in Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Congo, Angola, and of course in France. And in any other countries where we might have French-speaking members, it is the remnants of an empire. The French Good News magazine goes into nearly 50 countries. There's a little biblical precedence for that, I think we understand. And of course, to all of our members in the Bay Area, I can look down and see people here in the front row. I can't see you in the front, Mr. Aradia, but I know you're there, and I greet you. So I want to start out today by telling you about 27 years ago I met this really beautiful girl. And she would eventually become my wife. But there were, as most boy meets girl stories, there were bumps on the road along the way. There were two things I had to get over. The first one was that she's five and a half years older than I am. And she thinks it's really funny that I just don't say that she's six years older, but she's really only five and a half years older. But I had to get over that. But really, the hardest part was that she was French. Or you can might say I was American. And she had an accent, and she called me team. Like a baseball team, you know? And I said, well, my name's Tim. I kind of miss the fact she doesn't say team anymore, but she called me team for years, because that was just how that was pronounced. And she dressed a little differently, very nicely. She's here, so I have to be careful. But, you know, you have French customs and culture and so forth. And then when she spoke to her parents, she spoke a different language. Now, you know, guys, you may think your girl can't understand what she's saying. I mean, I literally could not understand what she was saying. It was a different language.

So what we realized pretty quickly in our relationship was that we came from two very different cultures. And if we were going to be able to make this work, we were going to have to shed the trappings of our individual cultures for a common culture. And indeed, we understand that in the Church. We both grew up in the Church, even though I was an American citizen.

And she was a French citizen. We wanted our citizenship, as Paul says in Philippians 1, verse 6, to be in heaven. And, you know, we're still trying to do that today. Because our cultures are so deeply ingrained in us, we don't even know they're there. You know, when you got up this morning, I bet most of you in the Strip didn't say, I'm an American citizen.

I mean, you don't even think about it, right? You just get up. You don't realize that you act American, right? I act American. She acted French. It's just part of who we are. And it's not really until we come face to face with our culture that we realize that we're actually a little bit different. It's not until we come face to face with a different culture that we begin to see this.

And I think it's a truism that culture, whether you're talking about national culture or spiritual culture, which is what I want to talk about today, church culture, you don't really see the difference until you come face to face with something different. Galatians 3, verse 28, you don't need to turn there, but you can write it down. In Galatians 3, verse 28, it says that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but are all one in Christ Jesus.

It's a powerful comment on cultures that we have to strip away our nationalities. We have to strip away our genders. We have to strip away our status to become one with Jesus Christ. It is a different way of thinking. It's a different way of acting. It's a different culture. Indeed, before our spiritual forefathers were called Christian, you know what they were called. They were called the Way.

This way of life was so utterly different that there were people of the Way. They were different in that way. If you're looking for a definition of culture, because what are we talking about with culture? Culture used to be, if you're a scientist, the culture is something else. Culture used to be this concept of art or literature. This person is a cultured person. But really, this concept of culture first came out in the 1870s by anthropologist Edward Tyler. Dr. Tyler wrote, and this is a quote, culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Please turn over to Matthew 16 and verse 18. We'll have you turn there. I think most of us can probably recite this, but Matthew 16 and verse 18 is a very important starting point for church culture. Matthew 16 and verse 18, Jesus says to Peter, and I also say to you that you are Peter, that small stone, and on this rock, this boulder, this massive stone, we understand, right? The church was not founded on this small stone of Peter.

I talk to my Catholic friends, and even they recognize that. It was founded on an enormous rock, and I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And in this single passage, we see a demarcation, a distinction between a church and what it would represent, its vision, its strategy, its culture, flowing from the founder, all founded on this rock, and a culture on the other side, behind the gates of hell, yea, even trapped, perhaps, behind the gates of hell, with its own vision and culture, and sets the strategy, being led by the God, small g, of this world.

Christ, certainly more powerful than any business or political leader, set an example of something he wanted to found and to be in his followers. He was going to found a church of first fruits that would represent a new age to come, a new age. You know, we used to talk about the Kingdom of God in embryo. People probably remember hearing that from a very important person who preached the Gospel. The Kingdom of God in embryo, a new age, a time when the former things have passed away, and there's no more tears, and there's no more pain, and there's no more suffering.

Right? That's the vision. And he would expect those who follow him to reflect almost something out of this world different. Something almost completely different. Something so meaningful that we would be willing to give our lives for it, because he gave his life for it. Today, I want to talk about reflecting the culture of our founder. And that's the title of this message, reflecting the culture of our founder. Tomorrow begins the 2014 General Conference of Elders. And the theme for this year's conference, for those of you who have been on the board here, and it's been referenced, is creating an environment for growth.

And what is an environment but a manifestation, a visible showing, of a culture? I went to the United Church of God website, and I looked on the congregation page. You might do that sometimes. It's really remarkable.

I counted 61 countries represented. 61. The United States is one of those 61. From Ireland to India, right? From Congo to Cameroon, from Canada, all over the world. 61 countries. And wherever we call home, I think we've got to ask ourselves, what kind of cultural trappings do we have to overcome? What kind of cultural or national culture do we have to shed?

But not just the natural culture, our own culture that comes, as I said before, from the God of this world. And we have to compare and contrast and evaluate, as we just did on the days of 11 bread and at the Passover, that culture against the culture that we read in Scripture, the culture of the founder of the Church of God, Jesus Christ. Just as my wife and I had to become one by putting away our own individual cultures, we have to become one with Jesus Christ, putting away our individual culture and taking on His.

And I think when this happens, growth, growth in all sorts of forms is going to begin. Incredible growth, as we'll speak. I've got three questions I want to ask in this regard that we need to consider. What is this culture of the founder that we speak of? Where is it and how is it described in Scripture? Two, what does the Church look like when people are adopting this culture and making it their own? And third, in practical application, what does adopting this culture mean to us individually? How are we going to walk away and think about adapting and adopting this culture?

First of all, how is the culture of the founder described in Scripture? Look over at Romans 12 and verse 2. Romans 12, we're actually going to look at the entire chapter. Romans 12 and in verse 2. We quote 12 too often and we should. It's really a core part of being a Christian. But I want to go to verse 3 and 4 and 5, and we'll see, because it builds. Romans 12 verse 2. And do not be conformed to this world, and I would interject its culture. Don't be conformed to your culture wherever you live.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And that's a whole sermon in and of itself, a whole series. But look in verse 3, because verse 3 then, what does Paul then give as the first thing he's going to describe about what it means to be transformed? For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, this is for everybody, and this is not something that he sort of came up with on his own.

It may not even be something he's doing. It's by the grace. It's by grace that it was given him to understand this. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one, a measure of faith. Paul was echoing Christ's words in Matthew 23, verse 13, when he said, But he who is greatest among you shall be his servant, And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, And he that humbles himself shall be exalted.

This is turning the world upside down. This is foolishness. How can a king be a servant? A king has servants? How can a king be exalted when he's humbled? This is craziness. And to the Romans, I mean, we're sometimes called in our Western civilization the modern Romans. If you go get a book on Western civilization, it starts with the Greeks that goes to the Romans, that goes to the Europeans, and it comes down to today. We're just an extension. The culture of Rome was not about humbling yourself. The culture of Rome was the culture that we live in today.

It's about he who has the gold makes the rules. I said that to one time. I said, you know the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. The guy looked at me like, yeah. Of course. He didn't even know what I was talking about. He didn't even know what the golden rule was. This is turning the world upside down. It's a recipe for disaster, if you think about this in worldly terms.

But not so in God's church. Not so with the culture of the founder. Then Paul continues in verse 4, For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. We've talked about this. Now he's going to talk about spiritual gifts. We've talked about that. That's not my point here to go into spiritual gifts. But gifts would be given. And what's important here is that every member has confidence that they know that they have a part in this body. They don't have to worry about it.

They've got a place. They belong. They've got a purpose. There is a meaning. There is something great for them to do. And he continues having the gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us. Let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it.

And he talks about these gifts. Now look in verse 9. Verse 9. Now he's really going to get into some details. Let love be without hypocrisy. You know, what I live in is quid pro quo. You scratch your back, I'll scratch yours. I'll scratch... Did I say that right?

You know what I meant. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Keep going. Cling... Excuse me. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. It's breathless. Right? It's... Wow! Pause for a moment. In each one of these. Continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, blessed those who persecute you, blessed and do not curse. Wow! Blessed and do not curse. Really? When I look at myself, honestly, I don't know if I measure up to that.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not let your mind be on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Do not avenge yourself, but rather give place.

That is, put it aside to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repaste as the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is a long list. This is a lifetime of change.

This is an utterly foreign and completely different way of approaching the world than what we have come from. And it is a reflection of the founder. It is a reflection of a man who would give his life for people who hated him. It would seem that if we start living this, when the time comes to serve, we don't even know we are serving. Where I work, I am on a committee that works on various philanthropic activities.

We have a donor-advised fund. We talk about, how are we going to serve the community? We are talking about service days, where we all go and we will go help at a school. We will do different things. Sometimes we will go volunteer to mow a lawn or paint a house. There is sort of this demarcation that says, I am now going to serve. I am taking care of my own interests today, but tomorrow I am going to take care of the interests of others.

When we start living this way, there begins to be no demarcation. You don't even know when service begins, because you are just serving. You are serving one day and you are serving the next, and it is not like there is a sign that says, good work is done here. You are just serving. You don't even know what happens. When we read this, there is no distinction. I will go over it 1 Corinthians 6, because all of this is pretty heady stuff, pretty amazing stuff. But Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 now gets into a practical application, which, if we have to just step back and think about it, is pretty tough.

1 Corinthians 6, verse 1, Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Will you take your brother to court? Then he says, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? He talks about how upset he is that people would actually do this in Corinth.

This is a reflection of worldly culture. This is a reflection of the prince of the power of the air. Then in verse 7, if you skip down to verse 7, he takes it one verse farther. He says, Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you to go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Wow. That's different. Why do you not rather let yourself be defrauded? You know, when there's money at stake, when there's reputations at stake, when there's precedence at stake, to walk away from that, that's a different way of thinking.

To say, you know what? I'm going to let myself be defrauded. I'm going to let myself be wronged. I'm not going to take my brother to court. That's a whole different level. This is the culture of the founder. It's the culture of the body of Christ. The second question is, what does the church look like when people are adopting this culture? Turn over to Acts 2. We get a glimpse. Acts 2. Again, what does the church look like when it is adopting this culture?

Acts 2, verse 41. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. I have a New King James, and in the margin it says, teaching, the apostles' teaching. What was this teaching? It was a Sermon on the Mount. It was three and a half years being with Jesus Christ. It was what Paul learned as an apostle out of season.

It was things like the words of Christ when he said, Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you to take away your tunic, give him your cloak also. Whoever will be greatest among you will be your servant.

These were the teachings. And fellowship, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers, then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all, as anyone had need. There is a great spirit of generosity. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were saved.

This is not the church in Corinth that had divisions and contentions, that had a member having sexual relations with his stepmother, and who didn't care about the pain that it caused, all those around him. This is not the church of Ephesus that had lost its first love. This is not the church of Laodicea that was blind and poor and naked.

This is a community of believers that had a way of life that was so powerful that it swept an empire before it was hijacked, before those people that were faithful to it had to flee, because people like Diatrophys and 3 John wanted the pre-eminence. You begin to see that towards the latter part of the New Testament. You see that with Jude. You see that with John.

You see this attitude creeping into the church, this attitude of who's going to be in charge. They were so totally devoted to God that their life together was charged with the Spirit's power. In that band of Christ followers, believers loved each other with a radical. That's what we're talking about. We're radicals! You ever thought of yourself as a radical? This is a radical kind of love. They took off their masks and they shared their lives with one another.

They confessed their sins one to another. They laughed and they cried and they prayed and they sang and they served together in authentic Christian fellowship.

You know, when we come to church, sometimes we might say, I'm just not up to it. Are you kidding? That's when you need to go to church. When we come to church, it's not about putting on that makeup. I feel so bad today, I better put on a decent suit. No, when people say, how are you doing? You say, I feel terrible. I could hardly get myself into church today. Let's talk about it. What's going on? A terrible week. Some man came up to me and said, you know the word fine? How are you doing? Fine? That's a four-letter word, fine. We better not... Oh, how are you doing? Fine. Yes, you're terrible. You don't want to share it. You don't want to talk about it. Those who were more generous or more wealthy, they freed sharely with those who had less. Spokeship, economic boundaries were shattered. Racial boundaries were shattered. Cultural boundaries were shattered. Acts 2 tells us that this community of believers, this church offered unbelievers a vision of a life that was so beautiful, it took their breath away. They had to be part of it. They wanted to be part of it. It was so bold, so creative, so dynamic, that they couldn't resist it. That's why people were added to it. That's why people flocked to it. The same chapter tells us that they were fused together in one cause by the hope of the greatest message anyone could tell them about, the kingdom of God. No more pain, no more tears, no more suffering, changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.

Male and female, bond and free, masters and slaves all found themselves in a long line of surprised beneficiaries of the promise of the great salvation that would eventually come to the entire world. It was at this point that God, through His church, to further His great purpose, could begin to do a work. Their leaders were bold to proclaim that message. The members were joined and dedicated beyond anything that we can imagine.

But we can. We can imagine. We can see it. And we can experience it as we follow these things. Spiritual gifts were given. Their leaders were filled with faith and power in the Holy Spirit. This is the culture of the founder. This is an environment for growth.

Point 3, the last point, in practical application, what does adopting this culture mean for you? What does it mean for us?

Fundamentally, this is about moving from one culture to another and making the changes necessary in our lives to accomplish that. I want to share a defining moment in my life where this lesson came home powerfully to me. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles in 2001 in British Columbia. It was the second or third day of the feast, and the song later got up on the stage to begin services, just like Mr. Crow had done.

I talked to Mr. Luecker because I wanted to share something with you today. Mr. Luecker was there, and he had talked to Mr. Luecker in advance about what he wanted to share. He said it was okay to share this. I'm kind of getting my daughter was five years old or something. There's a lot of noise in the auditorium and so forth. My wife and I are celebrating, and I can't remember now. I actually talked to him later about it.

But 40th or 50 years of marriage. Everybody in the auditorium clapped. We thought, you know, the man is done. Then he said, But for the first 25 years of my marriage, I nearly destroyed my marriage because I am an alcoholic. I'm telling you what. The noise stopped.

And 800 people in that hall were breathless. This man had just confessed a very intimate detail of his life to an entire group. He had everything to lose. Nothing to gain personally. But he wanted to share that because he went on to say, And if you have a problem with alcohol, you need to get help. And there are professionals here to help you. Because that year we did have professionals counselors. And if there's somebody in your family, or if you have a friend that has a problem, you need to come. You need to educate yourself. He was willing to take a risk and confess that for the benefit and to help others. He didn't do it unwisely. He got counsel before he, you know, Don't go doing that when you go home, right? Get them to pray your congregations. Get some advice before you do this, right? But he was willing to confess so that other people could be helped. Go back to 1 Corinthians 6, because I stopped in the middle of that thought. Maybe some of you read ahead and thought I was going to go there. But let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6. And let's pick up where we left off in verse 9.

He was not going to be in the kingdom of God. It's right here in black and white. Nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. And that was the moment when I realized, Wow! Yeah, I know the world's got problems. But you know, when the church were supposed to be different, right? No! We came from that same place. We came from that same culture.

We have that same human nature. And we have to overcome it. But such were some of you. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. All those things have been washed away. It's a level playing field. It's a new beginning. It's a new creation. And so we get to start fresh. All these things have to be addressed.

What is the issue we are confronting head on in our lives? Are we confronting it head on? Because that's probably coming from that culture. It's coming from that background. It's coming from wherever we came from. There are so many people in God's church who are working hard and confronting their issues. And you know it is such a joy. And I know what I'm talking about. When you're in services and you talk to someone and they say, you know, I was reading something this last week. And it just hit me.

I read the Scripture over and over again. And I saw something there I didn't see before. And it's so encouraging to hear. And you talk to people and you share. There's something, there's some breakthrough that happened. That is so uplifting. That is what Acts 2 was about. People coming together, confessing their sins appropriately, one to another, confronting those issues in their lives.

A couple of years ago at the feast in France, we would have a Bible study on a Friday night. And I thought, well, you know, instead of having another church service like Bible study, let's have a Bible study, like an in-home Bible study. So people will sign up and they'll get into small groups and they'll be in their accommodations and they'll do the Bible study.

And we had some more topic and each of the elders there took the topic and we had it. I thought, you know, it might go 45 minutes, maybe an hour, because we had to start the Bible study at 9 o'clock after dinner. People are tired. It's a Friday night. We have church the next day. Some of those Bible studies went until midnight because people just wanted to talk.

They wanted to talk about what the Scriptures meant to them. They wanted an opportunity to just express what they were feeling, what they were experiencing. And then when people got a chance to hear that, it encouraged them. But, you know, we have to understand the Scriptures. We have to study the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, it says that you should diligently teach these things to your children as you rise up and as you lie down.

And, you know, Friday night Bible studies with our family have been wonderful times. And, you know, I am so tired on a Friday night after a long week of work. I would rather just do nothing. But when we take the time to do Bible study as a family and we have these open-heart conversations, things come out. Things come out with my kids. Things they tell me. And, you know, things I tell them about me and who I am and what I was overcoming and what I went through as a child. These are bonding moments. And if we don't have children, we can have these Bible studies with other members in the congregation.

We can invite people over. We can experience that hospitality that we saw. Let's turn to Philippians 1, verse 27. Philippians 1. Many of you probably are expecting me to go here. Wondering when I would get here. Philippians 1, in verse 27. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of your affairs and understand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Down in chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any comfort of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord and of one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This was the theme of last year's feast. This is how important this is. I believe our history has shown we still have much to learn about submitting to one another.

I know I do. About humility, about putting the other person's interests above our own. Over the years, it seems we've had a lot of strategies to address a lot of things in the church. We've had strategies. I remember I was a young person. You remember Youth Opportunities United? Remember that? Wow, you. I remember hearing about people stand up here and talk about how we're going to retain our young people or things like that.

I was like a young person, like, okay, I'm going to be retained. Anyway, we have these strategies, right? About how we're going to do this or that, other things. I had the opportunity to go to the Peter F. Drucker School of Business. I had a chance to take a class with Peter Drucker.

Peter Drucker, who was one of the greatest management gurus and strategists of the 20th century, said, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. I'm afraid some of our prior church cultures ate all those strategies for breakfast. It just didn't matter what they were doing. Because if young people come and hear things like I'm saying right now, and then they see something else at home, this isn't going to matter.

One thing I learned with my kids, the hypocrisy meter, man, it is dialed way over. There is dispense of hypocrisy. We've kind of been like, oh, you know, that's how people are. Kids, they don't tolerate it. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. That's the point of going to church to hear all those academic points about love and joy and peace, etc., if people are observing something different. Like in a marriage, like my wife and I, husband and wife have to learn to submit from different perspectives and grow to become one, or argue, sadly, the choice is theirs.

Different perspectives are all submitting to one another as a powerful culture of growth and a powerful culture for growth. It is an environment of growth. It is a reflection of the founder. I'd like to conclude by sharing a story of a dear member in the body of Christ, now deceased, Arthur Patterson. He was a member of the Oakland congregation. When I met him, he was a retired, successful businessman, husband and father, distinguished in his dress, confident in his manner. He ran the sound system for many years, probably one of the best sound people any congregation would want to have.

He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. And that was even for someone who was a casual acquaintance, which I was, for the first ten years, because I was down in San Jose, and he was in Oakland, and we would get together, and I would just feed him across the way. Until once, when he sat down next to me, he began to open up. You see, I had taken a two-week trip with Mr. Melvin Rhodes in 2005 to visit many of our congregations in Ghana. And it was during this visit that I toured the great slave fortress of Almina. For nearly 200 years, this fortress in Almina, this castle, was the staging point for the slave trade.

Men would scour the region all around, kidnapping villages. They would literally go into the field and kidnap the father and take him away and leave his children behind. Or they would go into the village and take the children and leave them while the father and mother were in the field. And they would bring them to this castle, and I toured the dungeons. They would talk about the excrement, which would be deep on their feet and the stench and the smell.

And after they were held in this castle, they would pass through this door onto a plank, onto the ship, and they would be shipped away to Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Gulf Coast of the United States. And they would go through this door, and it was called the Door of No Return. And it was listed, you had this plaque above the door, called the Door of No Return. This was the door that once you passed through this door onto the ship, you would never see your family, your homeland, your village again.

And shortly after I took this trip, I gave a short presentation in Oakland on it, and I talked about this Door of No Return. And it was after that that Mr. Patterson came to talk to me, and he was very moved by the discussion, and he began to tell me about his life. He began to tell me about growing up, dealing with racism. He told me that he had witnessed a lynching, and what that meant, the horror of seeing a man hung, and the life drained out of him as he twitched. He told me about being denied service at restaurants. He told me that one of the greatest things he had to overcome, and I remember he looked at me in the eye, and those in Oakland know how Mr.

Patterson would look you in the eye. And he said it in the present tense, was his hatred of white people. His hatred of white men, for what had happened, for the trauma that he had experienced in his childhood. And suddenly I realized that this distinguished gentleman, this man who just in every way, shape, and form, seemed to reflect this wonderful culture that I described, battled with something deep inside of him that he didn't ask for. This deep cultural river of anger and resentment. And over the next five years, I began to see a man who labored to overcome.

You see, he had been laboring all along. I just didn't know it. He had been laboring to overcome this. He was a man who was faithful to God's law, generous in spirit, a true servant who put the interests of others ahead of his own. The prior minister told me that he had counseled him to sell all of his guns. Now, there's nothing wrong with having guns. The problem is, he would have used them.

He could have killed a man. And, you know, Mr. Patterson sold his guns because he didn't want that temptation. He seemed to be at peace, having put away the violence that had been placed in his heart by that culture that he grew up in. The past was the past, and he looked forward now to the return of Jesus Christ. Yes, sometimes he could get a little cranky. And again, if you know Mr. Patterson, he could get a little cranky. He wasn't perfect. And if you messed with his sound system, he could get a little cranky.

He wasn't a perfect man. But he had come a long way. A lot longer, I think, than any journey I'm going to take. And when my wife and I visited him in the hospital shortly before he died, the three of us held hands together.

Kind of the red of my sort of Native American background, the olive tones of my wife and her French Mediterranean heritage, and that wrinkled black hand of Mr. Patterson. And we were in perfect oneness and unity. I believe I witnessed a man who had finished his work. He had finished his race. I saw in him a reflection of what I read in Scripture, a reflection of Jesus Christ. I hope we too might reflect the culture of the founder and living head of God's Church, Jesus Christ.