Neighborly Apologetics

Teacher: Dr. Del Tackett

(0:04) Okay, so from this perspective, we’re kind of actually doing a little bit of apologetic here on neighborly apologetic (0:13) to make it a case for why we’re doing it this way, rather than kind of the traditional way that apologetics has morphed into our world today, our Christian world today. (0:29) And again, I’m not belittling that. I’m just saying that I think we need to have a perspective that is in line with the Lord’s call for us to be engaged with the people who live around us.

(0:43) So I think this is ground zero in the work of the Kingdom, and ground zero means that the common Christian family has been entrusted with this Kingdom work. (0:53) And of course, that’s what we read in the Scripture about the role of the pastor and the leaders in the church, their jobs to equip the saints for the work of the Kingdom. (1:06) And so I think that all is consistent with the context of the royal law.

(1:12) So the vision that we have offered to people, and we offer it here because it is the context in which we’re talking about neighborly apologetics, (1:22) is that we, Christian families, my wife, my kids, we together are going to engage ourselves in building real relationships, (1:34) significant relationships with those who are providentially in our Jerusalem through prayer, which is absolutely critical. (1:42) We’ll talk more about that. And action, grace, wisdom, and truth, we’re going to be attractively winsome as the Spirit of God bears fruit in our life.

(1:53) We’re going to help tear down walls, build up trust, and therefore do the work of the Kingdom again as it was done in those early days. (2:04) So I have three verses for you as a family to memorize, you as parents to memorize, have your children memorize them, talk about them as we begin to engage our neighbors, (2:19) because I think these are key verses for us that help us understand and help us realize what it means when God calls us to have defense for our faith. (2:33) The first one comes in 1 Peter, that in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness.

(2:53) And in this passage we’ll look at a few of these words and phrases as we draw them out in understanding what God is calling us to do. (3:04) The first is the word apologia, so that’s where we get the word apologetics. In 1 Peter 3 it is translated as making a defense, which is what that word means.

(3:18) And so the rest of the passage is telling us that we are to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, (3:30) and my position is that no one is going to ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you if they don’t know you. (3:39) If we haven’t built a relationship with someone, they are not going to do that. They just won’t.

(3:46) Shallow relationships won’t bring that about. Drive-by Christianity won’t bring that about. Relationships will.

(3:52) We have to be faithful in our walk when things don’t go well that we manifest that hope, that’s for sure. (4:01) Otherwise we don’t look like anybody else, but it’s in that deep relationship that people can see the witness of hope within you and to then begin to ask those questions. (4:15) We will see this in every verse, the notion that this is all to be done with gentleness and respect, (4:23) which is the great understanding of how we’re going to do neighborly apologetics, that it is always going to be done with grace.

(4:33) It’s always going to be done with respect. It will always be done with gentleness. (4:38) And all of this, as the Scripture says, then honors Christ the Lord as holy, and of course we want to do that.

(4:48) Remember verse 2, one of my favorite passages from Colossians chapter 4. (4:56) Induct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. (5:05) Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you might know how to respond to each person. (5:17) We’re going to spend some time on this verse, because it is so important for us in terms of how God is laying out for us how we conduct ourselves towards outsiders.

(5:32) The first word that’s important there for us is the notion of wisdom. (5:36) And this is so critical, and I will confess to you that for most of my Christian life, my conduct toward outsiders was not driven by wisdom. (5:50) It was driven by my agenda.

It was driven by my desire to beat them academically, logically, rationally, to win the argument, to show them they were wrong, whatever, all of those things that I’m quite ashamed of. (6:14) But for sure, my conduct was not done with wisdom, and especially was not done according to what we’re going to see in the rest of this verse. (6:24) It’s important for us to recognize and understand, because I think many of us do misunderstand the notion of wisdom, (6:32) but if you really do a study on wisdom, you will find that godly wisdom is not what I used to think it was.

(6:39) I used to think that wisdom was for me, right? I wanted wisdom, I asked God for wisdom, according to the Scripture, for you men to ask. (6:48) And I didn’t get it, and one of the reasons I didn’t get it was because of asking for it in a selfish way. (6:54) I wanted it for me, for all of the wrong reasons, to tough myself up or to whatever that was.

(7:02) But godly wisdom is not primarily for yourselves. Godly wisdom is primarily for the shalom of another, for the true good of another. (7:14) This is why God was pleased with Solomon.

When Solomon asked for wisdom, he didn’t ask for himself. (7:22) God made that clear. He said, you didn’t ask for things for yourself, but he asked for wisdom.

(7:27) And the Scripture tells us he asked for wisdom for the shalom of his people. (7:33) So we begin talking here about how we’re going to go forward in neighborly apologetics, and the word wisdom is critical for us. (7:44) We’ll talk some more about that and what that looks like in just a minute, (7:49) but in the rest of the passage, look at this, let your speech always be with grace.

(7:54) This is a reinforcement of what we talked about in the Peter passage. (8:00) Our attitude here in neighborly apologetics is not one of arrogance. (8:08) It’s not going to be one where we look down upon people.

It’s not going to be one where we’re in combat with people. (8:17) It’s going to be one where we are engaging in the relationship, and our speech is always with grace. (8:28) Always with grace, 100% of the time.

Not just when somebody’s a nice neighbor, not just when somebody’s a person that you like. (8:38) But our speech is always with grace. Always with grace.

(8:42) As though seasoned with salt. This is so interesting. (8:46) This is just an incredible way that the Spirit of God has moved Paul to write these words, (8:53) that our speech, always with grace, is seasoned with salt.

(8:59) And that seasoning then provides for us the means by which we will then know how to respond to each person. (9:09) This is why we need wisdom, and we need discernment. (9:15) So, confession again, the way I approach people for many, many years in my life, (9:24) and I was going to count up the number of apologetic books I have.

(9:30) I brought one here. This is a huge one. The Person Apologetics.

(9:34) I’ve been to this so many times. I even have a Bible. I have a Bible called the Apologetics Study Bible.

(9:43) But I will tell you that my study of those was, I guess I can say, with a misdirected motive. (9:55) My study of apologetics was primarily driven by my desire to know, (10:03) and in that knowledge, possibly to feel more important, smarter than all of those kinds of things. (10:14) But for sure, the motive was to win arguments.

(10:19) And that motive, I’m going to confess to you, is not one that is reflected here in Colossians 4. (10:27) Because when I approach people, I approach people not from the wisdom and discernment to listen (10:37) as to how each person is speaking and where they are, (10:42) so that my response to them would be tailored according to who they are. (10:47) I followed my own agenda. (10:52) And so Colossians here is telling us that we need wisdom and discernment, (10:59) praying that the Spirit of God will give us discernment as we begin to engage with people, (11:06) seasoning our speech with grace.

(11:08) That might stimulate a response from someone, (11:13) and that response from someone is what we then want to hear and understand, (11:19) and with the guidance from the Spirit of God, to know then how we respond to each person, (11:25) rather than my one, two, three agenda. (11:34) So let’s talk about this discernment. (11:36) We will deal with this more as we go forward in these webinars, (11:41) but we’ll introduce it here because it’s really important for us.

(11:47) Why? (11:47) Because the Scripture is calling us to have wisdom, to know how to respond to each person. (11:52) That’s discernment we need, wise discernment. (11:57) And the first thing we need to do is understand, of course, (12:00) that humanity is really broken up into two categories when it comes to all of the spiritual realm, (12:09) and that is the believer and the non-believer, (12:12) and we need to discern that when we’re talking with someone, (12:17) if our neighbor is a believer or our neighbor is not a believer.

(12:22) Now, we will confess that line. (12:25) It’s a nice little white, bright white line there, but it’s not a bright white line. (12:31) Sometimes it’s not easy to discern.

(12:35) In fact, the Scripture tells us that there will be people that are weeds and tears within the body of Christ. (12:47) There will be those who have done amazing things. (12:51) You remember the very, very hard verses where people came to Jesus and said, (12:58) Did we not cast a demon to your name? (13:01) And all of those kind of things.

(13:02) And then the most terrible words in all of the universe, (13:06) Depart from me, I never knew you. (13:08) Those are hard words, and so that line is very difficult. (13:11) It’s hard to discern, but it is important for us to know, (13:17) Are we dealing with a believer or are we dealing with a non-believer? (13:21) And that’s how that will drive how we then respond and deal with people.

(13:25) And when we deal with a non-believer, we also need to discern whether or not this is a believer or non-believer (13:33) who is open to God or they are closed to God. (13:39) I think reality is still, even in our culture, as much as it is slipping away from us, (13:45) that there are really very, very few people who are totally closed to God. (13:51) I was struck last night.

(13:53) I chose to watch a football game last night, a very, very critical football game in the NFL and so forth. (14:01) I spent time doing that. (14:04) And if you have heard the news or you haven’t, there was a very serious injury.

(14:10) In fact, it was so serious that they canceled the game as a result of an injury (14:18) in which the ambulance came onto the field and the first responders were doing some very drastic CPR measures on this player. (14:31) Late last night, he was taken to the hospital and was in critical condition. (14:35) My understanding today is that it may have improved that he most likely went into cardiac arrest as a result of a blow to the chest.

(14:45) But what was interesting about this was that the players were all down on their knees praying. (14:56) And the announcers were talking about praying for him. (15:00) And just as we have heard the phrase that when the foxhole is under a deep barrage, there are no atheists in the foxhole, (15:11) that when people were confronted with a life and death situation, in this case with a very close friend, that they turned to prayer.

(15:25) These are the kinds of things that we will talk about later on as these webinars proceed. (15:35) To talk about how we can use the events that are going on in the world around us to make that defense. (15:46) And so a non-believer who is close to God, very difficult, we’ll talk about that in a minute, (15:52) but a non-believer who is open to God might be willing to talk about what happened last night.

(16:02) Maybe to engage them in the question, who were they praying to? (16:08) And if he survives, if he doesn’t die and he survives and he turns out okay, (16:15) are they going to think that those prayers did something? (16:19) And if they don’t think they do anything, then why were they praying? (16:22) In other words, you can see the argument as we proceed forward here, (16:30) we’re talking to a non-believer in the light of the mass of people praying now for someone, (16:39) and the interesting thing is that there was no one in the announcer’s booth, (16:44) there was no one in the stands, there was no one on the field that expressed their outrage (16:52) that people were praying, that no one in the announcer booth, (16:58) when they were talking about calling people to pray for this young man, (17:04) which I was so thankful that they were saying that, but no one would dare at that moment say, (17:09) wait a second, that offends me that you’re praying or that you’re calling people to pray. (17:15) Anyway, these are the everyday things that occur in the world around us (17:22) that as we ask God to help us with these things, these are part of seasoning our speech with salt. (17:33) Okay, so the non-believer, we have to recognize, are they open to God or are they closed? (17:39) Are they hostile to God, or do they have a sense that maybe there is someone out there, so to speak? (17:46) The believer, we also need to discern two things.

(17:49) If one of your neighbors professes to be a believer, are they a believer that has a solid biblical world in, (17:59) or are they a believer, which is, you know, 90, I mean the surveys would say 93% of the time, (18:09) I think it’s a whole lot worse than that, but I would say 99% of the time, (18:14) a believer does not have a biblical worldview, or it’s a very shallow worldview. (18:23) So do they have a solid biblical worldview, or do they not have a solid biblical worldview? (18:29) You have a biblical worldview, then. (18:31) For example, you may want to invite them to go through the engagement project with you (18:36) so that they can begin to understand the royal law, what God has called us to do, (18:43) and why you and your family are now willing to engage the people that are in your Jerusalem (18:50) and to call them alongside of you to pray with you as you may be together, engage your neighborhood.

(19:01) If they do not have a biblical worldview, then I would think and suggest that you do everything you can (19:07) to help them build a biblical worldview. (19:12) One of the ways to do that is to take them to the Truth Project, (19:15) invite them to go through the Truth Project with you, and then after that, with the engagement project. (19:21) Now the important thing in all of this is that our engaging with the world around us, (19:27) whether we’re believers or non-believers, is that all of this is going to be done through a deep, significant relationship.

(19:36) And to some extent, I guess we could say that that is what is going to characterize neighborly apologetics (19:45) as opposed to the way I used to do it. (19:50) This can be done within the context of a deep, significant relationship. (19:57) And I don’t want to be overly critical here, but quite frankly, modern Christianity doesn’t do relationships.

(20:04) And most of our programs don’t really do relationships, deep relationships. (20:11) But we need to do what the Lord modeled for us. (20:17) He built, the very first thing He did was form His small group.

(20:22) He built relationships with them and even drove those relationships deeper with three of those men. (20:31) And it was over that period of time, as He built those deep relationships with those men, (20:37) that He slowly began to reveal deeper, deeper things with them. (20:41) And so the only way I believe that we’re going to gain an audience and gain an entrance, (20:50) the only way we’re going to be able to earn the right to be able to speak into people’s lives, (20:58) especially in today, if you followed the articles on our website, (21:05) you can know that I am of the opinion that it is possible that God has given our culture over to a different mind.

(21:13) And that series of three successes, God giving the people over, first of all, to sexual immorality, male-female sin, (21:25) then into passions, depraved passions. (21:31) These are sinful desires outside of male-female. (21:34) And then finally, if people continue that way, going to repent and turn them over to a depraved mind.

(21:40) A depraved mind is the mind, and the reason why it’s important for us, talking about apologetics, (21:45) is that the depraved mind is one that no longer has the ability to reason and respond to God (21:54) when God says, come, let us reason together. (21:58) Because Christianity is fundamentally a logical understanding of who God is, (22:07) a logical understanding of who we are, a logical understanding of the world around us. (22:14) Everything that God lays before us is most often couched in some sort of a logical proposition.

(22:21) We see that from, I remember when God asked the children of Israel to cross into the Promised Land (22:28) and gather before the two mountains, Mount Gareth and Mount Ebal, and there they were given a logical proposition. (22:37) If you follow God, if you follow His design, if you follow His word, then there will be blessings. (22:43) If you do not follow, then there will be these curses.

(22:47) And so, when we come to this notion of apologetics, the defense of our faith, (22:57) which is done from a rational, logical position, why? Because that’s how God made us. (23:01) He made us rational beings with common sense, the ability to discern logical things and make logical decisions, (23:14) that if we find ourselves now in a culture that God has given over to a depraved mind, (23:22) then leading with our academic apologetics, the way I did for many, many years, (23:27) is going to run into a brick wall, or it will run into hostility, and it may even stir up hostility. (23:36) And so, I think we’re being called back again to the way I think the Lord intended for it to be done from the very beginning, (23:44) and that is that we are going to build significant relationships with a smaller number of people, (23:52) and it’s in those relationships that we are going to begin to engage them with a neighborly apologetic (24:00) in response to their questions, in response to where they are, in response to our speech with grace and seasoning with salt.

(24:14) Okay, the whole notion of building relationships, I’ll be honest with you, is quite foreign to modern Christianity, (24:25) and we don’t do that. (24:28) But I want to just briefly summarize. (24:32) We went over this in the agent project of Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, who was a professor at Syracuse University.

(24:42) She was on the total other side of the continuum from a biblical worldview. (24:49) She was writing LGBTQ policy. (24:52) She was living with her partner.

(24:54) She was a very militant pro-abortionist. (24:58) She hated the notion of fathers and so forth. (25:02) Well, she’s now a pastor’s wife homeschooling her children, and she’s a rehabilitator.

(25:08) I’ve spent a lot of time with her and her husband, and when we asked her, when we filmed her for the agent project (25:18) and asked her that question, you know, how in the world did you get from there to here, her response was, (25:26) 500 meals with an employment. (25:29) So Ken, as you can picture there, Ken and Floyd, and unfortunately Floyd had passed on before we had a chance to interview Ken. (25:38) They simply began the process of building a relationship with Rosaria.

(25:43) They had a new agenda. (25:45) They weren’t after, you know, a nocturnal belt. (25:50) They were simply committed to love her, and it was in the building of that relationship, (25:58) as that trusted relationship began to form, that Rosaria then began to ask questions.

(26:05) This is the same pattern that we find in the research book, I Once Was Lost. (26:14) Where we found that every student that had come to Christ came through this same pattern. (26:19) First of all, a deep, trusting relationship that was followed up by them beginning to ask questions and so forth.

(26:27) So Rosaria, as a result of this relationship and trusted relationship, she made this incredible statement that’s important for us. (26:35) We talk about never-ending apologetics. (26:38) That Ken was wise to know that he could only share truth as deep as that relationship could stand.

(26:45) And that was true wisdom. (26:47) That was true wisdom discernment by Ken and Floyd Smith. (26:51) And I’m happy to note down that because I asked Rosaria this question directly.

(26:56) You know, if Ken and Floyd had approached her the way I had approached people, (27:04) she said, well, I wouldn’t be here. (27:08) I would still be back there. (27:10) And I think this is a picture of where we are in our culture today, (27:15) and why I think we need to be succeeding now to begin to look at how we engage people with neighborly apologetics.

(27:26) Remember verse 3 from 2 Timothy 2? (27:29) Again, you see right from the get-go, this word, (27:34) the Lord’s service must gently instruct his opponents in the hope that God will grant them repentance, (27:44) leading them to a knowledge of the truth, (27:45) that they will conquer their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, (27:49) who has taken them captive to do his will. (27:51) We first must address people, engage people with grace and gentleness and respect. (28:00) All of these verses lay that same attachment to each of these passages regarding how we engage people (28:13) in the cloak of gentleness and respect and grace.

(28:19) In the hope that God will grant them repentance. (28:22) Now, this is a very, very important thing for us to understand, (28:27) and what the Word of God is telling us. (28:30) As we engage people, even if they are opponents of ours, (28:34) even if they’re on the other end of the spectrum of biblical worldview, (28:39) we do it gently, but we have this deeper understanding that it is God (28:47) who is going to grant them repentance.

(28:52) You are not going to move them to repent. (28:55) You’re not going to grant them repentance. (28:57) You’re not going to force them into it.

(28:59) You’re not going to logically argue them into it. (29:01) It is God who’s going to grant them repentance. (29:07) And that is why, and we will speak of this every month when we go through these various categories, (29:16) that we must pray.

(29:20) I believe apologetics is going to be built, number one, on the belief that we are not going to be able to argue, (29:32) logically convince. (29:34) We’re not going to be able to do anything in our own strength without God first opening eyes, (29:41) opening hearts, opening minds, (29:43) in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of truth, (29:49) and they will come to their senses. (29:52) What an incredible thing that the Word of God is given to us, especially for our day and our time, (29:58) that they will come to their senses.

(30:01) And if God has indeed given our culture over to a depraved mind, (30:07) then there is nothing that is more important than for God to grant them repentance (30:15) than they come to their senses. (30:18) This is the same kind of thing that we saw in Nebuchadnezzar. (30:22) When Nebuchadnezzar was struck by God, and he was out eating grass like a cow, (30:28) and he remained out there until he came to his senses.

(30:33) The same with the Gadarean that was cutting himself, being possessed. (30:39) After Jesus had healed him, he was found in his right mind, the Scripture says. (30:46) So we want to pray for people because we know that God is the one who has to be at work here.

(30:56) He has to precede us in our apologetic efforts. (31:01) If he does not, then our efforts will be thwarted. (31:07) So we’re going to pray that God is going to open their eyes, open their minds, (31:11) bring them back to their senses.

(31:14) He will grant them repentance. (31:16) That means that they’ll begin to see themselves rightly before God (31:21) and escape from the trap of the devil. (31:23) We will recognize what is happening here.

(31:26) If there’s a conflict, if you express some hostility towards your view, (31:34) and I hope that doesn’t happen because in a deep relationship, you know this as well as I do, (31:40) if you have a deep relationship with someone, you can tell them that they’re breaststinks, (31:45) and they won’t get angry at you. (31:46) They will thank you for that. (31:50) But realize that we’re dealing here with a spiritual war that is going on, (31:56) the trap of the devil.

(31:58) That’s what the Word of God tells us here, that they have been taken captive (32:04) by the forces of evil, by the devil himself and his minions, (32:10) the world of flesh and the enemy, have taken them captive. (32:13) And that’s the battle that we’re engaged in. (32:16) So neighborly apologetics is going to keep that context in our mind.

(32:24) So when we look at academic apologetics versus neighborly apologetics, (32:29) we first of all have to acknowledge we need the wonderful work that has been done (32:37) in what we’ll call the academic apologetic area. (32:41) We will draw on this. (32:42) We need that in order to do neighborly apologetics, (32:48) because it is eventually in these relationships that we’re going to build, (32:52) when people begin to ask questions of the resurrected, (32:55) that we will then begin to answer those questions in a logical format.

(33:04) And so if we look across the street from Mrs. Smith, (33:07) and Mrs. Smith is bitter and angry at God because her husband died (33:10) of horrible death, we will recognize that as the problem of evil. (33:15) That’s what academic apologetics has given to us. (33:18) It’s helped us understand these things, helped us understand what the issues are, (33:22) helped us understand the logic associated with the biblical worldview, (33:26) as opposed to someone who’s caught up in that wrong thinking.

(33:32) But that academic apologetics, we can’t lead without. (33:39) Many hundred years ago we could have, but in the world, in the times, (33:44) that’s what we need. (33:45) We need to understand the times.

(33:46) We need to have wisdom in how we’re going to deal with people. (33:50) We can’t lead with that anymore. (33:53) We have to lead with a significant relationship, (33:57) and it’s in that relationship that we are going to pray that God will open their minds, (34:02) allow them to come to their senses, begin to ask the questions, (34:06) and give us a sermon of how to respond to those.

(34:12) So here are the categories that we’re going to be going through over the next year, (34:19) and possibly two years. (34:23) We will take these one at a time, and most likely it’s possible we may spend two sessions (34:32) on some of these. (34:33) The very first one, evil people and suffering, is probably one of the most prominent ones (34:40) that you will run into.

(34:42) A number of years ago, how many years it’s been, I sent out a survey to probably 10,000 (34:51) or 15,000 people, Christians, my husband, who were following my blog before it got hacked (34:59) into Never Never Land, and asked them to list the top three things that they have seen people (35:10) stumble over in terms of Christianity, or argue, a point they’ve argued against Christianity, (35:17) or even something that they, within themselves, have wrestled with. (35:24) So I asked them to give me the top three. (35:27) I think it’s top three or top five, I don’t remember.

(35:30) And then it was wonderful, and a lot of people responded. (35:37) And the not-so-wonderful part was that I had a whole lot of stuff to deal with. (35:42) What I did is I took all of those, and I began to sort them and categorize them, (35:48) and they fell into these 12 categories that we’re going to use.

(35:55) And so the first one is evil and suffering. (35:57) It’s a big one. (35:59) A lot of people think it’s a tough one.

(36:01) My personal opinion is it’s emotionally tough, but it is logically easy. (36:08) We’ll look at that. (36:10) Then the next one is the whole issue of absolute truth and relativism.

(36:16) We’ll deal with that. (36:18) We’ll also then deal with one that is very, very difficult in a lot of people’s minds, (36:24) and that is the fact that Christianity believes there’s only one way, and that’s through Christ. (36:34) And the question of religious pluralism.

(36:37) We’ll deal with that. (36:38) The fourth one is the whole issue of faith and reason, leaps in the dark, and all those kinds of things. (36:46) The fifth one is a little dicey.

(36:47) It talks about the free will of man and the sovereignty of God. (36:52) Some people stumble over that. (36:55) We’ll deal with that one.

(36:57) The existence of God and God’s nature. (37:00) Some people have difficulties with certain aspects of God’s nature. (37:05) They have difficulty with believing that God even exists.

(37:10) Although, going back to what we said before, I don’t think there are many people, percentage-wise, (37:16) in our culture who really, you know, when deep trials come, like we saw last night, (37:24) that don’t have a natural sense that God is there, (37:30) that they would fall on their knees and cry out to him. (37:34) But there are some people who stumble over the notion that God exists or an argument for his existence. (37:42) Number seven is, is man good? (37:46) Is Maslow right? (37:48) Are a lot of these philosophers right? (37:50) Is it the standard notion that we see in entertainment today and so forth, that man is basically good? (37:57) Is that true? (37:58) The whole issues associated with God judging and the notion of hell.

(38:03) So all those fall into that category. (38:06) A very difficult one also is, and it’s sad, because the reality is that Christians have been hypocritical. (38:18) And there have been times in the past where Christian actions have not been good.

(38:25) And so this one deals with all of that. (38:30) Number nine are the claims of Jesus and the resurrection itself, (38:35) which are extremely important for us to understand. (38:39) And most likely that will probably take us at least two or three to get through on that.

(38:44) The notion of miracles. (38:46) Do miracles exist? (38:47) Can they exist? (38:48) Is it possible for them to exist? (38:50) It goes along with number 11, the issue of science and evolution. (38:56) That is contrary to a biblical worldview, I believe, in terms of God being the creator.

(39:05) As we read in Romans, that God’s hand in that creation is so evident to us. (39:12) Rather than just saying, well, it all evolved by natural processes, (39:18) Romans 1 tells us that God’s invisible attributes are clear based upon what we see, (39:26) the creative world around us. (39:28) So we’ll deal with that one.

(39:30) Number 12 is the whole veracity of Scripture. (39:35) And a whole list of contradictions that if people really get caught up in this (39:41) in an attempt to try and show you that Christianity is wrong, (39:45) you’d be amazed at how many supposed contradictions that they can come up with (39:52) in hoping to trip you up into trumping Christianity. (39:58) So that one deals with the veracity of Scripture and all of those supposed contradictions.

(40:04) And then, you know, there are 12. (40:05) Originally there were 12, but the A13, that’s because of what’s going on around us. (40:13) And it’s appropriate to do this.

(40:15) So the other one is just the burning issues of our day. (40:20) And it’s possible that we really ought to start with that. (40:23) I don’t know.

(40:24) Because those are the ones that people are going to be dealing with probably more than anything else. (40:30) These are the issues of human sexuality, issues of abortion, and so forth. (40:37) And that falls into that extra category.

(40:43) It’s a little bit of a potpourri, but it’s the reality of what our culture is squeezing people into. (40:52) And we need to have an answer for that. (40:55) We need to have an answer for ourselves.

(40:57) And we also need to help people as we begin to build a relationship with them that we can answer their questions. (41:06) And I will tell you this without any hesitation, (41:11) that if you’re going to be dealing with the human sexuality issues in people’s lives, (41:16) if you think you can do that in the public square, then I don’t think you’re carrying a lot of wisdom. (41:24) The only way we’re going to deal with people in the human sexuality issue is through a deep relationship with them.

(41:33) Okay. (41:34) And one thing I want to say, we’re just about to finish up here, is that, and I didn’t talk to Mark about this, (41:41) so Mark, I apologize to this, but if you want to take a look at these, (41:49) and we’re going to send you a PDF of these slides so that you’ll have them. (41:55) So you’ll have this slide with these categories.

(41:59) If you want to just send us a note through the website, DelTecca.com, or through maybe the chat. (42:09) Mark, tell me if I’m wrong here, but if you just put a couple numbers up there that you think we ought to really start with. (42:17) For example, you may say, let’s start with 13, or no, let’s start with number one.

(42:23) Number one is huge, which it is, or number 11, whatever that is. (42:30) It would be nice to kind of get some feedback from you all to know where you think it would be best for us to start. (42:39) We’re going to go through all of these.

(42:41) Eventually, if the Lord allows, if the Lord provides, we’ll attempt to get through all of these eventually, (42:47) but there may be some that you feel that we ought to start with. (42:53) So the context here of neighborly apologetics is that it’s in the context of the royal law. (43:01) And Christian families, and that includes singles who are maybe, if they’re in a dorm, they have neighbors.

(43:09) If you’re a single, you live in an apartment, you have neighbors. (43:14) So Christian families committed to the shalom of their neighbors. (43:18) Why? Because that’s what our Lord has asked us to do.

(43:21) That is the royal law. (43:24) And what we want to see, what we saw in the first hundred years of Christianity, (43:30) is that the people of God carrying out the royal law, turning the world upside down, one neighbor at a time. (43:37) Okay, so Mark, I’m going to turn this back over to you.

(43:42) It looks like we’re probably out of time, but I’ll turn this back over to you. (43:48) I want to thank everybody again for the time that you have spent. (43:54) I’m thankful that we have this kind of technology that allows us to do that.

(44:00) I’m remorseful that I can’t see you. (44:03) I try wherever I—when I’m teaching, I want to have eye contact with everybody (44:09) because I want to discern as best as I can what people are feeling and sensing and so forth. (44:18) I can’t do that.

(44:19) But I want to thank you for being a part of this tonight. (44:23) And you can pray with us that God is going to allow us to continue to get through all of this. (44:31) And with His grace, we’ll do so.

(44:33) Mark? (44:34) All right. (44:35) Thank you, Dr. Tackett. (44:36) I’ll ask you to— (44:37) You’re beautiful.

(44:39) Am I? (44:41) Can you hear me now? (44:44) Can you hear me? (44:46) Yes. (44:47) How about now? (44:48) Yep. (44:48) All right.

(44:50) I’ll ask you to close in prayer in just a minute. (44:53) Let me just go over a couple of things that came up in the chat as we were coming to the end here. (44:58) Number one, thank you, all of you, for weighing in already.

(45:02) We’ve got a bunch of votes, Dr. Tackett, on which topics are of the greatest interest. (45:07) And so far, burning issues and, number one, evil and suffering are—and they’re seeing those ties together, (45:13) which I thought was pretty insightful. (45:16) So those are leading the charge right now.

(45:19) But I’ll send out a survey with a link, and you can just click a couple of buttons so that the rest of you, (45:25) if you don’t have time to drop your vote in, we can go that way as well. (45:32) Secondly, we will be, just as a reminder, sending out the recording link. (45:37) We missed the first five minutes because I was not on top of my game.

(45:42) But that’s all Engagement Project content anyway, (45:45) so I just strongly encourage you to consider the Engagement Project at some point in 2023. (45:53) So you will get a link to the recording and the PDF of Dr. Tackett’s slides. (45:59) And then finally, I would just encourage you to take a look at DellTackett.com. (46:04) A lot of the things that you’re hearing tonight, Dr. Tackett’s written literally hundreds of articles, (46:11) and so we really encourage you to extend your learning from tonight and to go online and keep learning.

(46:21) Look into the Engagement Project if it’s something you’re not familiar with yet. (46:26) That really is the action point to a lot of what Dr. Tackett is discussing. (46:34) And then finally, we’re going to be in a lot of communities in 2023.

(46:39) I’d love for you to go to DellTackett.com forward slash events. (46:43) And we’re not going to the largest cities. (46:46) We go to where the invitations come from.

(46:48) And so we were in Broken Bow, Nebraska to end the calendar year last year, or just a couple months ago. (46:58) And we’re going to be in North Pole, Alaska in March near Fairbanks. (47:04) So really, we’re going to where folks have invited us, (47:08) and we really believe that that’s most importantly the opening, God opening the door.

(47:14) And so take a look at where we’re going to be, (47:16) and we’d love to have you join us at one of those conferences. (47:19) We also have the online training if you can’t make it to one of those. (47:22) But thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Tackett.

(47:25) Would you close your time in prayer tonight? (47:27) I sure will. (47:28) So, yeah, we’re going to be in Dickinson, North Dakota. (47:33) Then we’re going to be in Scottsdale.

(47:35) We’re going to be in San Marcos. (47:37) Join us in North Pole, Alaska. (47:40) It’s really great because, you know, we would like to have a large, large group, (47:46) but I’m thankful that we really haven’t been that many huge groups.

(47:50) We have the opportunity to interact with you. (47:53) I would look forward to seeing you there. (47:56) Father, thank you again for the great opportunity that you have given to us.

(48:02) We can speak. (48:03) We can hear. (48:04) Our eyes can read your Word.

(48:07) We can discern and understand with the logical mind that you’ve given to us, (48:12) both right and wrong, and who you are as best we’ve been given the privilege (48:19) to be able to discern that and who we are. (48:22) Lord, we thank you for all of these things, (48:25) and we pray that you would open doors for us, open hearts and minds of the people (48:30) that live around us as we begin to engage them with that steadfast, (48:38) sacrificial zeal that you’ve showed to us that we will show to others. (48:44) All for your glory, Father.

(48:46) None for our glory. (48:48) All for your glory. (48:49) In Jesus' name, amen.

(48:51) Amen.