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Sunday Sermon: People of Faith or People of Belief? · The Reading Instruction Show

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  Greetings. Welcome to the Church of Biblical
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  Sanity. I'm Andy Johnson. January 27th, 2026.
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  Now, I have nothing to say today that should
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  be offensive to any of those in the Christian
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  community. I'm not using hate language, and I
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  am not demeaning individual people. I honor your
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  spiritual path. whatever that may be. I honor
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  your beliefs. And you may disagree with what
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  I say. You may think I'm totally wrong in my
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  interpretation of Scripture, but that's okay.
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  I'm doing my best not to be offensive, but to
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  be biblical. So I will put the Bible verses from
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  which today's talk is from in the a YouTube thing
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  below so you'll be able to see that. So part
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  one is quick to listen. Now if you disagree with
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  what I have to say, let's talk about it. Let's
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  talk. And listening is an important part of talking.
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  St. James tells us about this and James First
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  verse, or first chapter 19, he says, my dear
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  brothers, take note of this. Everyone should
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  be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to
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  become angry. For a man's anger does not bring
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  about the righteous life that God desires. And
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  think about how many times anger gets in the
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  way. Anger is not good. So we are to be quick
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  to listen. Slow to speak. When we disagree, we
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  must be quick to listen. Be quick to listen.
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  Not listen to find a quiet space to jump in with
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  your talk. Quick to listen means one seeks to
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  understand. Quick to listen does not mean quick
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  to correct people or quick to convince people,
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  or quick to talk over people, or quick to silence
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  people. Neither does quick to listen mean that
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  you need to agree. You don't need to agree with
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  me. That would be a horrible thing. Quick to
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  listen does not mean you must convince others
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  of the rightness of your ideas and the wrongness
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  of theirs. You can embrace what is precious to
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  you, knowing that others are also embracing what
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  is precious to them, and our embracings are different,
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  and that's okay. Listening and talking with those
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  who disagree is how we evolve our thinking and
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  grow in our faith. And I'll be defining faith
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  in a minute too. But hearing the ideas of others
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  invites us to revisit our ideas, our thinking,
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  our beliefs, then either reify or strengthen
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  and revise our thinking. When we close ourselves
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  off from those who think differently, when we
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  surround ourselves in like -think and happy talk,
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  We cease to grow in this bubble. We become stuck
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  in time. This leads to cognitive inbreeding,
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  deleterious mutations. To grow is to change.
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  To stay the same is to wither and die. We must
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  be quick to listen. Part two, Pharisees. Now,
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  I bring this up because some have been extremely
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  slow to listen. In fact, they're not listening
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  at all. Now, last week I posted some Bible verses
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  to illustrate what I see as the hypocrisy of
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  some in the Christian community, primarily those
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  on the religious right. And I had some rather
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  harsh words, yes I did, but we have a license
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  to be harsh and a responsibility to use harsh
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  words when the situations warrant. Jimmy Swigert
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  certainly didn't hesitate to use harsh words.
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  So here are my harsh words, my biblically based
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  harsh words. With some in the Christian community,
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  there is a glaring juxtaposition between the
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  biblical text upon which their belief system
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  is based and their actions upon which their values
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  are based. Not all of Christendom, mind you.
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  Some. And It seems to glare most brightly from
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  the ones who constantly tell us how Christian
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  they are. So, one day I was reading the Bible,
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  and I happened upon Matthew 23 verses 27, and
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  it says, and this is from Jesus, quote, Woe to
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  you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
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  You are like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful
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  on the outside, but on the inside are full of
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  bones of the dead and everything unclean." Unquote.
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  There I go reading the Bible again. And some
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  are apparently offended that I would do such
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  a thing. How dare I read the Bible? Some of my
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  conservative, Jesus -loving Christian friends
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  have become modern -day Pharisees. They let us
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  know at every opportunity just how much they
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  love Jesus, but they're silent, sympathetic,
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  and compliant to a government that lies, abuses,
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  intimidates, bullies, steals, hoards, imprisons,
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  and now kills people. And I'm talking about the
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  Ice Gestapo. Now when I read biblical scriptures,
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  this seems to be the sort of stuff that's looked
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  down upon. When I read biblical scriptures, it
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  seems instead to promote responsibility, kindness,
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  compassion, and care. These seem to be rather
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  dominant themes. When I read the Bible, maybe
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  I'm getting it wrong. Now some of my conservative,
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  Jesus -loving Christian friends are somehow able
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  to justify what Donald Trump and his mass Gestapo
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  agents are doing. They support a president who
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  lies, abuses women, breaks the law, covers up
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  the Epstein files, ignores the Constitution,
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  and uses the power of the office he has been
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  given to take Greenland because, quote, we need
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  it, unquote. And in doing so, my conservative,
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  Jesus -loving Christian friends are doing the
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  same by proxy. How is it possible not to see
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  you as whitewashed tombs dead bones. Everything
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  is unclean. There's no love and compassion inside
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  you. Part three, lies and the people of the lies.
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  Last week, some of my conservative, Jesus -loving
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  Christian friends took umbrage with my Bible
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  -based conclusions. They were offended. So what
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  did they do with their offenses? They contacted
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  the Facebook gods and said I was posting offensive
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  things. How dare I use biblical scripture to
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  make a point? Apparently their belief system
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  is so fragile that it offends by my selection
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  of biblical verses. Imagine that. So you silenced
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  me for a week by claiming my post to be offensive.
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  I cannot respond to those who respond to my posts.
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  I can still post. And I call you frauds and hypocrites,
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  people of the lie. There was nothing offensive
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  here. And as long as you don't use hate language
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  or engaged in unwarranted personal attacks, I
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  will not block or delete any of your posts. Tell
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  me what I should think in differently. I will
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  be quick to listen. Please tell me what I got
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  wrong. Make a case for your point. This is how
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  one is quick to listen. So part four, not people
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  of belief. Are you people of faith? The scriptures
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  have much to say about faith. Hebrews 11 .1,
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  quote, now faith is confidence in what we hope
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  for and assurance about what we do not see, unquote.
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  Faith is different from belief. We often get
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  those two mixed up. Belief is being certain that
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  a thing is so. You are certain that a bridge
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  will hold you up. You believe it will hold you
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  up. That's Belief. Faith is stepping out on the
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  bridge. Faith is stepping out on your biblical
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  principles. Faith is living your values. Not
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  just believing your values, but living them.
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  And some of my conservative, Jesus -loving Christian
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  friends are people of belief, not people of faith.
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  Am I judging you? No. I'm simply applying scriptures
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  to you. Now, if you're basically a bad person,
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  a selfish person, an evil person, or a narcissistic
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  person, and you support Trump and his ICE policies,
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  I have nothing against you. You're living your
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  values. That's what you do. But if you're claim
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  to be a quote Bible -believing Christian, I would
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  say to you a little less belief and a little
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  more faith.