Many of you have taken me up on my invitation to ask you to send me your desires in terms of the

subjects of the words of Jesus that are difficult. And many of you have taken me up on this,

and I'm thankful for that, and I really thank you.

And by far, the vast majority of you who have sent those notes have asked specifically about

what did Jesus mean when he said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

And I looked at that, and I said, this is what you call stomped the preacher. But I will attempt to do that today. So I want you to turn with me to Matthew

chapter 10, beginning at verse 34, 35, and 36. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring

peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, as if they need any help. A man's enemy will be

the members of his household. Lord Jesus, open our eyes because only you can do that so that we

would see these wonderful truths from your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Not so long ago, two things

happened that kind of crystallized some of my thinking here. A young man was telling me about

a ministry with which he became associated, and one of the first thing they said to him when he joined the ministry said,

do not say that you're a Christian.

Reason.

The word Christianity is misunderstood by a lot of people.

Sometimes Christianity has a negative connotation to a whole lot of people.

So they said to him, you can say that I'm a

follower of Jesus Christ if you're asked. And even so, when you offer Jesus, just offer him as a

friend, period. Within a matter of weeks, a friend of mine was telling me about a memo that was

issued by a pastor in a very

large evangelical church. And it says to the staff, here are the don'ts, the words that you

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