[Dan Preston] Did you hear about the cowboy that was looking for a dog? All his friends told him he needed to get dachshund. They said, "You're going to want to get along, little doggie." There was the sheepdog. Pretty good sheepdog, he went without being told by the farmer gathered up all the sheep. Came back, told the shepherd, "There, I got all 40." Shepherd says, "I only have 38." He said, "Yeah, but I rounded them up." One more. Dog goes in the bar has a drink. Bartender seen a lot of things in his day, so he's playing it pretty cool. Finally, he goes over to the dog after a while and says, "You know, I got to say, you came in here, you ordered a drink. We don't see too many talking dogs around here." He said, "Well, at these prices I'm not surprised."

So we all know that there's no such thing as a talking dog, right? But humans, we talk. Don't we? Sometimes a little too much. Sometimes I look at my dog and I think, "No, you dumb dog why do you do that?" And I think the dog is probably looking back at me and saying, "You dumb human, you don't get it, do you?"

Sometimes we say things, we do things that aren't very bright. But you know, that's not actually what the word "dumb" means. It doesn't mean stupid, it doesn't mean unintelligent, does it? Actually, it means to be mute or unable to speak. It's from that definition, the actual definition of dumb that I want to start today. Let's start in 1 Peter 3:15. 1 Peter 3:15. 1 Peter 3:15, it's a memory scripture probably for most. It says, "Let's sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for a hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." And there's a lot we could focus on in this particular scripture, sanctifying the Lord God in your hearts. Making Him holy to us believing He is the God, the one and only. He is holy. Being ready to give an answer with meekness and fear.

But the specific thing I'd like for us to focus on today is being able to give an answer for our hope. Being able to give an answer for our hope. There are times when we are to remain dumb. We are to remain silent, Christ from being accused. There was an appropriate time for Him, he remained dumb. He didn't answer. First, we're told not to answer a fool according to his folly. But generally speaking, when someone asks us why it is we believe what we believe, we should be able to answer, we should be able to defend the faith. More often than not we find ourselves in a situation where we must be able to give an answer for what is the reason for the hope that is in us. And whoever been in that situation and found maybe we couldn't quite do it, maybe the question was a little more challenging than we've expected. We wound up staying mute, staying dumb, being silent when the person talking to us actually wanted an answer. And I've been there before.

Maybe we're asked why when a loved one dies, maybe we seem a little aloof and almost like we don't care because we're not overly grieved. Maybe we look at the world around us, we see all the social injustices, we see the wrong that's done, but we don't seem to be outraged, we don't seem to be upset. We're not picketing, we're not angry. We're not overwhelmed by the wrongs that we see in this world. Why doesn't that bother you as a Christian? Or at least that's the perception.

Just as much as we are expected to keep the Sabbath, to keep the holy days, to obey the laws of clean and unclean meats, given therein Leviticus 11, we are expected to be able to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. Are we lacking anything in our lives? Is there anything that causes us to remain dumb when we shouldn't? The question I would like to ask then, are we dumb? Are we dumb?

I don't mean stupid. I don't mean unintelligent. But I'd like to use the acronym D.U.M.B., D-U-M-B, to help us break down and look at some of the pitfalls that we can fall into that cause us to not be able to give a reason for our hope. The first one we have to beware of is this, maybe we're not asked to give a reason because as near as anybody can tell by looking at us, we don't look like we have much hope.

Is that a possibility? Maybe we have excellent Bible knowledge and understanding, maybe someone asks us, "Well, do you believe in the Trinity?" And we can rattle on about John 1, we can rattle on about the divinity of Christ. I might bring up the fact that Paul and all of his greetings and all of his letters says, "Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And he doesn't mention the Holy Spirit as this third person of the Trinity that so many accept.

Maybe we can go to the Old Testament look at Deuteronomy 6:4, sometime known as the Shema where it says God is one and we can explain. But the word for one there doesn't mean an individual, it's talking about one group being of a one mind like a bundle of sticks, or that we are of one mind. That's great, we should be able to give those answers. But then maybe no one bothers to ask us because we don't seem like we have much hope.

Here's an introspective question to ask ourselves as we approach the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. What's it like to be around me? What's it like to be around me? Do people like to be around us, or are we kind of a Debbie Downer? Are we kind of somebody that doesn't bring a lot of sunshine to the day? Do we help joy or do we seemingly chase it away? Do I bring people up with my attitude and outlook on life, or do I wind up making people feel more discouraged?

I'm not saying that we have to be happy all the time and have a Pollyanna sort of view that everything is hunky-dory all the time. But what are we like in general? Do we get easily upset? Do we become easily agitated? Do we live with an attitude of all's well that ends? Because whatever it is we're doing we just can't wait to get it over with. There's an old story made famous years ago by Jerry Clower about going coon hunting. They went out in the woods, as they were want to do to have some fun, they would have their dogs chase a coon and eventually that coon would go up a tree. The dogs are barking up to where we get tired and fall out or the guys hunting it would shoot the coon out.

Well, one night this particular coon seemed pretty stubborn and the dogs got worn out and were still out there. So the old boy, his name is Marcel says, "Okay, I'll get him out of there." So he takes a stick, long pointy stick, climbs on top of the tree starts poking at this thing only to find out it wasn't a raccoon. It was a bobcat. Well, he soon finds himself on the short end of the stick, all right? Quite literally. This bobcat is tearing at him and he calls down on his buddy and he says, "John, you need to shoot this thing." John says, "Can't do it, Marcel." Marcel says, "Why not?" He says, "If I shoot out there at that raccoon," he said, "I might miss and hit you." Marcel says, "Just shoot up in here amongst us because one of us has to have some relief." All right. Marcel didn't care how it ended. He just wanted it to be over with. And if I'd spend a few minutes up there on top of a tree with a raccoon I might feel the same way… or a bobcat might feel the same way.

But does talking to us make people walk away and think, "Oh, that guy, that gal, they are hating life. They're pretty miserable." If that's what it's like to be around us, why would anyone look to us to ask about a reason for hope? Is that our demeanor or are we a little more relaxed? Are we a little more approachable? How do we react when things happen in our lives? How do we go about our daily conversations? Do we go forward with someone who feels like they have meaning, they have purpose. They're glad to see you. They're glad to be there, or you're glad to see them. Do we wind up making people feel tense or on edge.

The first letter in the acronym D.U.M.B. stands for discouraged. Maybe we've become unable to give a reason for the hope that lies within us because we are so discouraged no one believes we have hope. No one believes we have hope because we've become so discouraged. There's a lot of reasons that can be. We'll talk a little bit about that later on. But we have to consider, we have to think about the end game.

What is the end game? I myself am a Star Wars fan. I've enjoyed pretty much all the movies that have come out, Empire is still my favorite, but one of the things that appeals to Gen Xers who's like myself and I think most people who see those movies is that it's a story of redemption. It's a story of redemption and reconciliation. You and I are part of the greatest redemption story ever told. The greatest redemption story ever told. Are we excited about that? Is that what drives us? Is that what motivates us? Is that why we get up out of bed in the morning, or is it time to go make a few bucks so I can pay the bills? What motivates us?

If someone asks us for the answer for our hope, it shouldn't be cold, it shouldn't be clinical. It should be excited. People should see in the way we live. People should see in the way we answer when we tell them, "Yeah, I'm going to the Feast of Tabernacles, I can't wait." They should see hope in us, better yet when they don't ask me a question when they see me driving down the road, when they see me in line at the grocery store, when they see us going through a trial, something that they know hurts us. And we think we're doing a pretty good job of hiding it. Because let's face it, we've all done that. We can all put on a happy face for a little while, but it doesn't last that long. We can't hide it forever. Those of us who we’re closest with, they see, they know when we're hurt. Is that how we live our life?

In general, we all have trials, ups, and downs, we understand that. There's a time for tears, there's a time for joy though, and overall, what are we like to be around? Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 starting in verse 13. Many of the texts we'll go to today are very familiar memory scriptures. But I hope we can look at them and understand how they impact who we are and how we give a reason for our hope. 1 Thessalonians 4, starting in verse 13. Paul's speaking here to the Thessalonians he says, "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep,” talking about those who have physically died at that time, "lest you sorrow as others who have no hope."

This applies on a much broader level. It applies on our outlook on life. Do we worry about the cost of gasoline? Do we worry about what the president is going to do next? Who will be the king in the south? The beast, the false prophet. Are those things we allow to bring us down and take away from our joy, from our hope? Verse 14 says, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first." This is where we're giving much insight on to the resurrection and the return of Christ, the first resurrection.

But notice here in verse 17, something key and critical. It says, "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." That's our trump card right there. That's the card that says, "You know what? No matter what happens, no matter what I go through, no matter what physical loss I might suffer in this world, I've got that coming." We have that promise being together forever with the Lord. Whatever trials we face today, will they still be there when we are spirit being? Will they still be there when God's government set up on this earth and Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning? Now, we'll still have challenges, we'll still have work to do. There's no doubt, but I think we can take great comfort in thinking, you know what? A hundred years from now, this is not going to make any difference.

It's common where I used to work when we were trying to make a purchasing decision, we would look at something and consider the cost of a nut, or bolt, or screw, and it was going up a half a penny. And somebody had to go tell the boss this bad news, right? What's going to be the fallout from this? And at the end of the day, sometimes, I just had to kick back a purchasing manager, our manufacturer manager and I would say, "You know what? A hundred years from now this is not going to make any difference. It's not going to make any difference how much money we made today."

We will be forever with the Lord. That's the end of the worry of those physical things that we have to think about and bother us so much now. We can gain some more insight here when we go back to the beginning of 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:1, I can get a little more context then, Paul says this. He says, "Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus."

The Greek word here for walk is peripateó, peripateó. And it's not just literally walking, as in walking from one place to another, but it's talking about our walk as a Christian. How do we live? What do we do? What is our mindset like? Do people enjoy being around us? Do we reflect the nature, the joy, the hope that is in Christ Jesus, or are we that Debbie Downer? It says here that we should be walking.

The other interesting thing about that word walking it means “to be occupied with. We should be occupied with, occupied with. Superabounding,” it says “abound more and more. Not just a little overflowing, but we should be superabounding with hope.” Not worry hope. As we go through our lives daily, what do we like to be around? Let's make sure that we are not so discouraged ourselves that we become discouraging to others. So much to the point that no one asked us for the reason for our hope.

The next pitfall we need to think about is perhaps we have hope, but we can't give an answer. If someone asks us that question and we have a little bit of trouble answering it. Or to say we tell people that we're thankful, that we're called out of this world. We are thankful to be living the life that we do. We are thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We're thankful for God's laws and we understand how keeping His commands lead us to happiness.

But maybe we get a question that we don't quite expect one day that sounds a little bit of something like this. Maybe we're having a discussion that says, "You know what? I have hope, I put my trust in the Lord, I know if I lose my job because of the Sabbath day, God will provide. Maybe the question comes back and says, "Well, I understand what you're saying, and I agree that setting aside a day to worship God on is good." They agree with us in principle. But they throw in, "The problem with you is you're a legalist. I understand the spirit of the law and you're trying to earn salvation by keeping it."

How do we answer? Maybe they throw out Colossians 2:16, Galatians 3:19, and they say, "Can't you see? The law was done away. You don't have to worry about any of that." And we find ourselves a little bit taken back. We find ourselves maybe with an open mouth saying, "That's a good question." And there's a time certainly if we don't know we can say, “You know what? That is a good question and I'm going to have to get back to you on that.” We have to be able to do that at times. But we should be prepared to answer. Luke 6:45, consider Luke 6:45 for a moment as we think about being prepared for an answer.

Luke 6:45, notice what Jesus says here, He says, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Christ was pointing out that people generally get around to telling you what's really on their mind and what's really in their heart after a while. And it's out of the abundance of our heart that the mouth speaks, but I think we can look at this from the other way as well. Think maybe the opposite of that is true. What if we don't speak it because it's not abundantly in our heart? What if we can't give that good answer because God's truth isn't really in us at our core? What if we haven't taken the time to internalize it, and make sure that is what is in us abundantly. It's a serious thing to consider, a very serious thing to consider.

Turn to 1 John 2. Read what John says here 1 John 2 starting in verse 3. 1 John 2:3 says, "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him." We often go to this scripture to point out the fact that we are to keep God's commands, commandment keeping is still a requirement. 1 John 5:2 tells us that's how we show the love of God. This is a powerful statement that we don't want to be guilty of disobeying. We certainly want to obey the commands.

There is something about verse 4. Verse four, we see the admonition to keep the command. The Greek word here for command is entolé which means “a command or a precept.” Certainly, the Ten Commandments would fall into that. So we often use this scripture to point out we need keep those commands and that is a correct, and good, and accurate use of the scripture. But verse 5 notice this, it tells us to “keep the word truly the love of God is perfected in him.” Keep the word. Is that the same thing as keeping the command? It is in fact, a different word, the Greek word here is téreó, kind of like stereo, but without the S. And it means…or excuse me the word for Word here is Logos… getting ahead of myself. It's the actual word used for Word, of course, you know that Jesus Christ was referred to as the Logos, capital L in John 1.

This is the words in the doctrine, but more significant is the word keep and that is the word téreó, T-E-R-E-O and now if there's any of A.B.C. students, there's not going to be a test on this. Generally, I tell them if I wrote it on the white whiteboard you're responsible for it, so don't worry there's no test on Greek. But the word here is téreó and it means to watch, it means “to keep an eye on.” Keep an eye on the Word, keep an eye on the word. Verse 5 commands us to keep the Word, not just the commandments. And we must keep an eye on the Word not just in a figurative sense, but in the literal sense.

We must keep our eye on the written Word, on the Bible. We must stay sharp in our Bible study. We must stay sharp on our daily reading, whatever form that might take. Whether that's a daily reading, a chronological Bible, whether that's going through a Bible study correspondence courses to the Bible lessons, through booklets, many different ways. We must stay sharp. We must keep our eyes on the Word of God daily.

The U then in the an acronym D.U.M.B. stands for understanding, understanding. Do we lack understanding? We put ourselves at risk of not being able to give a reason for the hope that is within us when we lack understanding. When we are unable to defend why it is we believe what we believe. Now, the good news is that this is perhaps the easiest pitfall to avoid. Acts 17, again, another familiar text. Like I said, we're not going to go over anything new and unfamiliar today, but Acts 17, we're given an example of those who study the Bible starting in verse 10.

Acts 17 starting in verse 10. Acts 17:10, it says, "And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded" some translations say noble, "than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." We're told to be like the Bereans in our study habits, searching the Scriptures daily. You might notice in your Bible “Scriptures” has the capital S here. This is talking about the Bible. We are to search it daily. The word here for Scriptures is Graphé, kind of like graphing paper G-R-A-P-H-E, and it's talking about the actual written documents. For them that was the scrolls, for us it's our Bible. They studied the document itself to understand the words to understand the doctrines.

They kept the commands, but they also kept the Word. We can avoid being in a position where we're silent, because we lack understanding when we keep the Word, when we keep it close to us. Our heart and our daily activities, how we study. When we hear an accusation that says something like, "Oh, don't you know, Paul did away with the law?" We might come back and say, "Well, that's interesting. You know that the Sabbath was given in Genesis 2, the law of clean unclean must have been understood by Noah, Genesis 7. And all that happened well before there was a nation of Israel and even an Old Covenant." Those are the kind of things we should be able to know, we should be able to answer. We should have that type of understanding. We can do this when we have that 2 Timothy 3:16 attitude. 2 Timothy 3:16. 2 Timothy 3:16, and again, very familiar scripture for us.

2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and as profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." By making sure that we set aside time, not just to study the highlights of the commands, but study the entire Word. We can avoid that second pitfall of lacking understanding. So if we suffer from the D in this acronym of discouragement, people might not want to ask us anything. If we suffer from the U, a lack of understanding people might ask us the reason for our hope only to find that we can't defend it very well.

But what if we go about our lives with hope and we do have answers and maybe people have asked us questions and we've been able to answer them? But in their mind, those two things, our attitude, and our answers don't quite match up. Maybe there's a disconnect there. What if no one bothers to ask us the reason for our hope? And perhaps maybe they've bothered to ask once or twice, but there was this disconnect with what we said and what we did and now they think we're hypocrites.

How many times have you heard that accusation about Christianity as a whole? Yeah, you say you want to treat people better. You as a Christian say you want to live a changed life, but I see what you do. I see how you act. We've all had to face those accusations, and that's a harsh one. But it's one we need to ask ourselves. It's something we need to consider. Is this a reason no one asks us about our hope? Another way that we oftentimes will ask this question to ourselves is “If I'm a Christian. If I have God's Holy Spirit, why do I still sin? Why do I still struggle? Why is it hard for me?” To this Paul said, "Do that which I know is not right and don't do that which I know is right. Why do I do that?”

And as so many things in our lives, we have to examine why. Why? What's the reason? I think we can begin to do that if we look at one of the basic formulas for the cause of sin in our life. We're given an outline in James, very short, succinct outline. In James 1, we get some insight here. James 1 starting in verse 13, says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone." So we heard in the sermonette. God is good. God is righteous. It's not a matter of “Well, could He have been?” No, He could not have been evil. God is good we are not tempted of God. So “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” If we have God's Spirit, how can this happen? If we claim to be Christian and yet still sin, are we hypocrites?

Again, it comes down to why? What's our attitude? Are we okay with some sin in our life? Because we think “It's not quite that bad.” Do we write ourselves a free pass that says, you know, "I understand that sin is wrong, I understand God outlines and defines it through His laws. But, you know, God can't possibly expect me to actually do that.” Then we begin to sound like the person who accuses us of being a legalist, don't we? If that's our attitude then we have a problem because we are hypocrites. Christ outlined this in Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Matthew 23 starting in verse 27. Matthew 23:27, He says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Christ is blasting the religious leaders of His day for that very attitude, the attitude of accepting sin in ourselves is unacceptable to God.

If that is our attitude, it must change. But I would dare say, that's not the attitude of most. I would dare say that most of us understand and know. And we sympathize with Paul in Romans 7, when he talked about that struggle and we know that it's real. I suspect that's not our attitude that we're accepting of sin. Although someone accuse us of that. Sometimes things have just become what they are. We have slipped, we've fallen. It's a state that we find ourselves in. The last two letters then in the acronym D.U.M.B. are this, M-B. Sometimes we find ourselves morally beaten or morally beatdown. I don't know if beatdown is one word or two. But sometimes we find ourselves morally beaten. We know we have to be the same on the inside that we are on the outside. We just struggle to do so. How does that happen? Well, quite simply, we're human. We're human.

We live in a world surrounded by other humans and human nature. We live in a world that has morally beaten us down and tries to morally beat us down every day. We live in a world that calls good evil, evil good. We've gotten so bombarded with societal norms, accepting things that people tell us we must accept. We become beatdown. We have tough times standing up against the things that God says is wrong. So what do we do? What are we to do? Fight back. Fight back against the world, against the society, against Satan the devil that tries to take our minds. Don't let our minds… we can't let our minds become corrupted with this way of thinking. With accepting that, "Well, I guess it's just the way it is. It's the world we live in." We have a long road ahead of us. It's a long tough race. Every year as we approach the Passover, we take a look and we examine where are we in this race? Have we made any progress? Have we gone backwards? Where am I as we think about getting sin out of our lives?

Paul mentions this in numerous places, but let's turn to 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6 and we'll start in verse 6, it says, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and in a certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich…” those of us who get beaten down by the things our society tells us we want, “…those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." This isn't a message condemning being wealthy. There's nothing wrong with working hard, having a good-paying job, trying to provide the best for your family. This specific warning that Paul gives here talks about greed.

But I think we understand that it has a much, much broader application. It talks about money being a root of evil, not the only root of evil. This can apply to anything that pulls us away from what God says is right, and pulls us toward what man says is right. And it doesn't have to be money, it could be anything. Verse 11, "But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness." I don't see the fuzzy-wuzzy fruit of goodness mentioned here, but we understand Paul's referring to fruit of the Spirit. Pursue good things.

Verse 12, "Fight the good fight of faith," fight back, "lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." Don't let our mind be overcome with things that morally beat us down, instead fight back. It's our time to lay the beatdown on things that pull us away from our God, our Creator. Don't put up with it. Ask God to put it out of your mind, ask Him for help to get it out of your life, our lives. Psalms 25. Psalms 25:4. Psalms 25:4. Says, "Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day." Ask God for help. At the end of the day, it's nothing that's morally beating us down that's pulling us away from God, that is going to lead us to salvation. It's His paths, it's His truth, it's His ways.

Don't let anyone or anything beat you down, beat us down and take our crown. One final scripture, Revelation 3. Revelation 3:11. Revelation 3:11, says, "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown." Don't let anyone beat us down and take it away, rob us of our inheritance. Verse 12, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God…” harkens back to 1 Thessalonians 4, being forever with the Lord, being a pillar in the temple. Don't let ourselves be morally overcome by this world. "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” We will be apart of the family, of God's family. We will be forever with the Lord. Don't let anyone take that away from you.

Is there anything in our life that causes us to be silent, to be dumb about the hope that lies within us? Could it be discouragement? Could it be a lack of understanding? Could it be moral compromise? Fight back against those things. Contend for the faith earnestly once delivered. Fight back against ways that keep us from showing our hope by filling our minds with God's Word through study, through prayer, through meditation, so that we can give an answer. And by being genuine, and what it is we say and what it is we do, be diligent that our hearts are full of hope, understanding, and sincerity, and don't be dumb.