Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

I want to uh uh uh introduce our guest today.

We are honored to have Nagme Abedini here.

You've been hearing her name in our services.

Her husband Saeed is uh currently wrongfully imprisoned uh uh in in Iran and it's been just a little over a year.

This past Thursday marked the one-year anniversary, and so I want you to open up your not just your head, but your heart, because you'll be tempted when you hear her story to feel sorry for her uh about all she's been through.

Don't feel sorry for her today.

Uh learn from her.

Uh we've been talking about our mission statement as a church is that helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

We talked about helping people to know.

Last week we talked about helping people to enjoy God.

And this morning you're gonna hear from a woman who's gonna talk about glorifying God in the midst of suffering.

How do you how do you suffer for the glory of God?

Well, God has sent us someone that has a message and a timely message for us to hear.

She was uh had a Skype interview this morning with CNN.

She's with us this morning.

Next week, I think she may tell you about this, but she's headed to North Carolina to meet with the Graham.

Some of you have heard of him, struggling preacher Billy Graham.

I throw him gigs every once in a while.

Uh just when I things I can't get to.

You know, here, Billy, you take this one.

Uh and so here's my point in telling you that.

God is using a very ordinary little girl that grew up in Boise, Idaho.

Not not a famous person, just an ordinary woman that said, you know what?

I trusted in a lot of things, and I I I feared a lot of things.

I don't fear things I used to fear.

I don't trust in things I used to trust in.

You say, What did you trust in?

You you you'll hear it loud and clear, okay?

Join me if you would and welcome to Grand Park by Nagame Abedini.

Um, this is the first time I've been in Texas, and I love it.

Um some of my some some people have complained about the humidity, but I love it.

Ida Boise is so dry.

And um I'm from Boise, Idaho, and I grew up, that's where I grew up.

And uh I never anticipated that the Lord um soon after September 11, I moved to Iran as a missionary, and I just I felt the Lord heavy call on my life to share the gospel with the radicals.

And I was a young girl in my twenties, and I didn't know, I just I knew the Lord had me there, and I I uh you know, I remember at that time I said, what can a I mean there's there's um talks of war and nations trying to solve that problem and uh especially after what happened with September 11, trying to figure out who did it and what's going on.

There was talks of wars at that time.

And I, you know, I asked, God, what can a young girl in her 20s do in the Middle East in this chaos?

And I remember my parents were crying, don't leave, you know, um, and I just knew I had to go.

And I would have never anticipated all that has un unfolded in the last um, you know, 11, 12 years.

And um I met Saeed and we got married, and within a few years we led thousands of Muslims to Christ and came to the US and Saeed became a citizen.

And uh, you know, long story short, um we in order to be able to go back, we just we Saeed made an agreement with the Iranian government to discontinue with the house church movement.

And we just we start working on an orphanage and we just you know um prayed and said, Lord, just use this.

You know we want to reach the multitudes, we want to reach the mos millions of Muslims for Christ for Christ, but um if this is your if the avenue right now, the only open door we have is the orphanage, then you know we take it and we just pray.

And so it's it was hard.

What happened last year in September was a shock to me because it happened Said's arrest happened at a time I didn't expect it.

You know, uh we had lived in Iran for about four years together, uh four years before coming, and uh I'd been arrested because of my faith in Iran, and that's when we were starting the house churches was between 2000 and 2005.

Uh I met Saeed in 2002.

He'd already was uh pastoring an underground church, but um around 2004 I had you know I was arrested, I had guns pointed to my head and told that if I uh say I'm a I'm a Muslim, I would be free, and if I said I was a Christian, I would uh die.

I would be put in prison, tortured, raped, and and and interrogated so that you could die.

And um, you know, and so I'd I'd and and you know I I'm I can't go too much into the story, but at that time the Lord gave me the faith because I think there's just it's it's it can't be humanly possible to look at um at a at uh at your life being taken from you and and say I'm a I'm a Christian.

It's not it doesn't come from our human side, it it comes from a faith that God gives, and I was able to stand up for my faith and God delivered us.

And it's a long story short, but the interrogator who was uh threatening us ended up crying and asking for a Bible.

And um, you know, so those times, those intense, those times I expected like this kind of an arrest.

And every time we were questioned or interrogated, we would be let go.

Somehow the Lord would just let us, you know, let us free.

And so I didn't expect that a time where my husband was going back and forth.

The kids and I had gone back to Iran in 2011, when he was uh working with the Iranian government, when um it's a government-approved uh orphanage, the government he Saeed had kept his end of the bargain, he was we weren't doing anything with the house churches.

For him to be arrested.

I it was very unexpected.

And I, you know, I met some people here that they had unexpected loss, like an accident or something.

You know, I know it's hard to lose someone to cancer or things, but it's it's there's losses we have that's a slow process, and then there's an immediate loss that we're just like, what just happened?

And how did this, you know, how did and that that was me.

I was just living my life.

I was, you know, the wife, I was behind the scenes, I was my husband's helper.

And he I said goodbye in June and he left to go to Iran.

And he was supposed to come back in July, and we said our goodbye, and he left, and um they didn't let him leave the country in July.

He was put under house arrest, he was with his parents.

Um and in September 20 on September 26th, 2012, I got the worst call of my life.

I uh it was midnight, and I got a call from Saeed's mom, who's who Said was staying with Saeed's parents, and she was hysterical.

She kept saying, They took my son, they took my son, I don't know where they took him.

And she went on to explain that five Revolutionary Guards, big bearded men, that in in Iran, uh in in the world, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are considered by many nations a terrorist group.

So these radicals had taken him and no one knew where they'd taken him, and his his mom was hysterical, and she's uh she told me as they took him, and she said, Am I ever gonna see my son again?

And and um I didn't expect that.

I expected him to leave in June, come back in July, and just continue in our life.

And then in a moment, my life was taken from me.

And in a moment, all my certainties, all the false um securities I'd built was taken from me.

I didn't know how are we gonna survive?

Um, how are we gonna make ends meet?

How are we gonna how is how is life gonna look like without my husband?

How is life gonna look like with for my kids without their father?

I just I just my whole life had changed.

And I experienced this deep horrible anxiety and depression, just something that was so dark that um that I just knew no one could help me.

My mom would come crying to my room and say, I don't know what to do, I'm worried about you.

And um, and no, I knew no human being, no matter how how much I held my kids or how much I, you know, try to process it with my mom or my closest friends, the feeling would not go away.

It was so intense.

And I um I remember it was like the woman reaching out after 12 years of leading to Jesus and being healed.

I reached out and he healed me.

And you know, the peace that's over me.

I've I I I I've been able to witness to so many people who don't know Christ.

And um my fellow you know, Iranian friends who are Muslims and and um atheists even, I say, look at the peace that's over me in the worst trial of my life.

I deal with kids, my kids crying day and night asking for their dad.

Um my whole life is torn apart.

Said in a horrific prison being tortured because he's a Christian.

I'm traveling, you know.

Uh I'm I'm on a lonely road in a way, in human terms, and my kids, they don't have a mom or dad.

They last year, their graduation, my son was gr graduating from preschool to kindergarten, my daughter was graduating from kindergarten to first grade.

We weren't there.

Said was in prison, and I was in Geneva uh speaking before the UN.

And so they've experienced many, or Father's Day.

It used to be such a big event at our house, and um, Said was in prison and I was speaking in Florida.

And so uh it's been it's been a difficult journey, but I tell people, look, I'm a living testimony of someone going through the most horrific trial and having this amazing peace and joy that I'm surprised by myself.

I look at myself and I say, how am I how is this even possible?

Because I see my kid as a parent, you seeing your kid being crushed under this weight is horrifying.

But I the Lord has given me such uh peace and grace to do it.

And um, you know, I want to share something with you that the Lord, um a verse that uh that the Lord has really revealed to me during this time.

Um and I want to show you, uh explain to you what has happened over the year that has just been such an amazing uh uh example of God's grace in my life.

Um Paul is going through a hard time.

There's a thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12, and I'm gonna read verses 9 through 9 and 10.

So Paul is going through something.

There's a thorn, there's something that's bothering him.

So we might, you know, for me is my husband's imprisonment.

I wanted him released the next day.

I was like, Lord, take this.

And I had thorn, I'm like hurting, and it's on my side and it's painful.

And, you know, and um uh and Paul had something, you know, it could be trial, it could be financial issues.

Uh and and I know as I've spoken and I've traveled, I know all of us deal with some kind of a thorn.

It could be a loved one that's sick, maybe it's a physical illness, maybe it's a mental illness, it could be a loss, it could be uh uh things, uh relationship issues, family issues, whatever it is.

There's something we're like, Lord, take this.

It's hurting me, it's really bothering me, please take it.

And Paul is crying out to God, take this pain from me.

And you know what God says to him in um 12.9, uh 2 Corinthians 12.9, he says, My grace is sufficient for you.

He says, No, my grace is sufficient.

My strength is made perfect in weakness.

And Paul goes on to say, therefore, most gladly, he uses the word gladly, I will rather boast, so glad and boast, in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And then he goes on to say, uh, I mean, these are words you don't see with gladly and boast, with infirmities, with trials.

And and then he goes on to say, Therefore I take pleasure.

I mean, think of a word pleasure, maybe being in Hawaii, being in a nice weather, drinking some nice.

He's saying pleasure with, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproach, like people are are are ridiculing you and putting you down.

Is that nice?

Do you take pleasure when people do that at your workplace or in ministry or at school?

Is that nice?

Is this something pleasurable?

But Paul says, I take pleasure in it.

In need, when you're in need, financial need, emotional need, whatever need, is that a time of pleasure for you?

Um in distress, in persecution?

I think Paul has discovered something that the uh that the that God wants us as the body of Christ to discover.

It's not possible to find pleasure in distress, in infirmities, in um sickness, in persecution, whatever it is.

It's not possible without Christ.

The world goes under the same um trials, but because they don't have that living relationship with God, they crumble.

They're destroyed by it, they're they're torn to pieces.

But as Christians, it could be a beautiful thing.

As Christians, when trials and distress come, we can take pleasure in it.

How?

How is that possible?

When you're being ridiculed, when you're in distress, when you're in need, and all that happened all at once in my life.

I was in distress, I was in need, I was being, you know, um uh especially after going on media, there's the good and the bad reproach and critic criticisms.

And so, you know, how do you take pleasure in that?

I've learned anything that comes my way cannot take my joy and peace from me.

I take pleasure in things that come my way.

And Paul, the the way you take pleasure in it is you allow it to break you.

Oh Lord, I'm broken that this is happening in my life, or I'm in financial need, or I'm this relationship, or this sickness.

And you you draw close to the living God, which is only found in Jesus Christ.

And that living God is full of peace and joy that the world can't take away from you.

No matter what trials come your way.

You know, my worst fear was losing my kids.

I always was afraid.

In my life, I was always afraid of losing my parents as a little kid, and then growing up, I was afraid of losing my spouse, losing my kids, and still losing my parents.

And then when this happened, I was I was freed from that fear.

I realized I could lose my husband, I could, it's very painful.

I'm a human being, but I'll be okay.

Because I discovered a strength that I had not discovered before.

I knew if I would lose my husband, if I would lose my kids, if I had to deal with some disease every day, some pain, I would be okay.

I would be filled with all joy and peace because um it's it doesn't come from me, it comes from connection to that source.

And so Paul says, I take um pleasure because for when I am weak, then I am strong.

How does the strength come when we connect to the source?

And there's we we we thrive as Christians.

We're the only people that can thrive under persecution and rejoice.

I mean, look at look at the early Christians.

They would jump up and down.

I mean, it says they were they were persecuted and they were worshiping God and they're like dancing and they're praising God.

They're not sad, they're not, you know, because we have a living relationship.

We don't have a religion.

We have a relationship with Almighty God.

So the more persecution, the more distress, the more need, the more stress, uncertainty of our future, what will I be when I grow up, or how will this marriage work out, or what how is my job gonna work out?

Was my life gonna look like financially?

All of that.

Whatever it is, we can take it to God and draw close to God and receive his goodness and his joy and peace.

And it doesn't end there.

I want to share with you after the Lord gave me that joy and peace that's supernatural.

Um, in September they took him and the Lord said, You're gonna go to media with this.

You're gonna go, you're gonna talk about this.

And I said, No, I'm gonna pray and fast and you're gonna deliver him.

I'm not gonna go to media.

I don't like speaking in front of people.

I don't like it.

I knew it would require travel.

And Said would beg me before he left, he would be like, One trip, just come with me.

And I would be like, No, this the I hated planes, and then I the idea of being separated from the kids for one day would just stress me out too much.

And and so I was like, Lord, just you're gonna deliver him, deliver him now, and I don't want to travel, I don't want to do anything, just deliver him.

And the Lord was saying, No, you're gonna go to media.

And um, for three months I was fighting him, and finally, what the Lord put on my heart that allowed me to go to media was I'm not telling you to go to media and governments because they're gonna deliver your husband, because they're not, I will deliver him.

I'm telling you to go to media and governments because I want to use Saeed as a platform for my gospel.

And you know, over the last year I've seen it has which has allowed me to endure this hard times is, you know, first of all, I think over a certain uh I think, I don't know, over the last years I've realized how fast life is.

When I was small, it's younger, it seemed like it was going so slow until I was like 16, 17, 18.

I always wanted to be like the next age, like 20, 21.

And then it went over a certain age, and I was like, it went really fast.

And and I realized life is a blink of an eye.

You know, we we get older in our body, but really we it seems like it was yesterday when we were playing as young kids, and life is goes so fast, it's a blink of an eye.

The Bible says it's it's like a vapor.

And if God is using my blink of an eye life for his eternal glory, for his eternal purpose, then it's worth it.

And that has made it worth that has kept me going, knowing that just he's allowed me to see things.

He's you know, knowing that Saeed has led more than 30 people to Christ in prison.

And and to know he's there for a purpose, even though it's he's beaten, he's tortured, and he's told to deny his faith, and he would be freed if he would return to Islam.

And then, you know, uh Said always thought, you know, um, I want to compare it to Paul because Paul always thought he would go before the Romans and preach the gospel.

He never thought it would happen as a he would do it as a prisoner.

And Saeed always prayed to witness to millions of Muslims, especially in Iran, and not not thinking God's way was for him to be in prison and for God to use that to do it.

You know, this year I got to go before Iranian media, uh, secular news media, and share about Saeed and share about my faith.

And it was it has been one of my highlights.

I've been on Iranian media many times, but I want to share one example.

These are secular, like Voice of America Persia, um, invited me to speak about Said's situation, and I didn't realize it's it's a live program because I have a friend who's a journalist, and a lot of programs are taped, and then they cut them out.

And and uh my friend who was a journalist said, just say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

So when they cut you, there's some Jesus in in your interviews.

And so, you know, I was invited by Voice of America, and I was ready to like, you know, ready to say Jesus and just you know talk about my face so much that it they couldn't cut it out.

But I when I got there, they invited me to Washington, D.C.

I realized it was live.

I was like, ooh, I don't know if the host knows what they just did.

And it was live, it was prime time, it was like Thursday night, Thursday morning our time, which is Thursday night their time, and Friday is the their day, Muslim day of holiday.

So Thursday night, everyone's on TV, they're watching news.

Uh, it was near the Iranian election, and everyone was watching to see what's happening.

Over 50 million viewers.

And here I am.

The host is asking me about Saeed and his imprisonment.

And the lawyers, there's a Muslim lawyer, very well known, he's from Iran.

He's on the show talking about how we should be careful as Iranians to keep our culture, to keep our religion of Islam, that the people from the West are trying to come and steal our religion from us and bring Christianity.

And you know what?

I got to, it was it came my turn to speak.

And here's the channel, you know, the people running the Persian part of the channel are not Christians.

A lot of them are Muslims, and the lawyer is Muslim, the host is Muslim.

And I got to say, actually, you know, if we want to go back to our culture, let's go back to 600 years before Islam.

There was Christianity.

And as Persian, the people of Iran, we were the first to worship Jesus at his birth.

As the uh people of Iran, uh, Persians, the uh at the day of Pentecost, there's the Medes, Apartheid, and Elamites are the first people group mentioned at the day of Pentecost.

We were there.

And Jesus, you know, and I got to say this, get it off my chest, you know.

I was wanting to say it because the lie in the Middle East said Jesus was not born in the US.

It's not the religion of the West.

Jesus was born in the Middle East.

Jesus is not a religion of the West.

It's a lie that many people in the Middle East have believed.

You know, and Jesus is, and I got to share this with over 50 million Muslims.

And you know, I if I would have sat down, if Said and I would have sat down, fundraised millions of dollars and uh even more, whatever, and we would have thought, how could we reach these people?

We couldn't have done it.

Here I was for free, asked by the secular media to speak about Saeed, and I there I was sharing Christ to over 50 million Iranians.

For free.

I didn't have to spend a cent, I didn't have to think about.

I didn't have to plan a strategy of how do I do this, how is this gonna look like, and what's the best way to get into Iran?

It just happened.

And this, you know, the other another thing was the UN.

I don't know if some of you saw this, but you know, in June I got to go before the UN.

And there's over 196 countries present.

They don't let just anyone speak.

You have to go through the organization that uh had me go speak was ECLJ.

And they every uh member on the board has to approve you, has to approve the ECLJ, and then they have to approve me to go speak.

So just going before the UN, over 196 nations to speak was a big deal.

I got to meet with different ambassadors and government officials and share the gospel personally to them.

But here I was in front of over a hundred countries.

Uh and I shared Christ.

For a second, it felt foolish.

There was ambassadors and government officials, and they're all sitting in this, you know, circle, circle, circle, you know, the UN, you know.

And for a second I was gonna say, and I just, and people kept kept telling me, you don't do that.

You don't go, UN is not Christian friendly.

And you don't go to the UN talking about Christ.

And I knew, I knew the Lord had me there for Saeed.

The UN thought, oh, she's gonna come and talk about the injustice that's being done by the Iranian government, human rights violation, and so on.

But I knew I was there to give the UN, those countries, something I had and they didn't have.

That was Christ, that was life.

And they were talking about peace, world peace.

And I got to say, and as they heard in their own language, it just was surreal, as they had earphones listening in their own language, I got to say, Jesus is the way to reconciliation with God.

And this is the God of peace you're looking for.

This is the peace you're trying to figure out for weeks and months and spend billions and billions of dollars on.

It's found in Christ.

And I got to say that in front of the UN.

If I would have planned this, if I had a ministry that tried to find a strategy to do that, if I would have fundraised for it, I couldn't have done it.

I couldn't have the ears of 196 nations listening in their own language.

Do you realize what how it would how impossible it would have been for me to do that?

And for the Lord to just do it for free.

I did it for free.

I was asked to go, I was my way was paid for, and I was asked by non-Christian liberal UN people to talk about Saeed.

And here I am talking about Christ.

And here's all these nations with their earpiece silence.

As soon as I start talking, there was silence, and they look at me and they're listening in in their language about Christ.

And, you know, I could have never planned it, but the Lord used this suffering to break me, to allow Jesus to shine, and to use it for his glory.

And this is what Paul talks about.

This is what Paul has discovered here.

He takes pleasure because every attack, every distress, every need, Paul enjoys it.

He's like, oh great, it's gonna break me.

It's gonna take me out of this lukewarm, cold state that I'm in.

As Christians, we get in that state.

Every distress is great.

I love it because it takes me out of my discomfort zone, this bubble, and I can cry out to God and I can connect with God, I can connect to the vine, and the fruit comes.

You don't have to try to figure out the best strategy to reach the world for Christ.

It comes when we connect with them, the fruit comes.

It's not that hard.

The hard part is allowing yourself to break, discovering your weakness and connecting to the vine.

The fruit comes.

Early church, people were added to the church daily.

Because it says they saw unity, they saw uh joy in the church that they hadn't seen anywhere else.

And and I've seen that in this trial.

When the Lord told me to go to media that he would use this for his glory, I couldn't figure out this horrific thing just happened.

How could God use this for his glory?

I just lost someone in accident, or I just lost someone to this heart attack or illness or whatever.

How could God use this for his glory?

I couldn't figure it out when it happened.

The Lord put it in my heart, he will use it for his glory.

I couldn't figure out how would he use this for his glory.

I've seen this year, you know, of how.

Um last week I was in New York, someone told me I I forgot to share it in the last service.

Someone said, make sure you talk about this in the last this service.

Um, I don't know if you guys might have seen it in the in the news, but I was in New York, and guess who else was there?

The Iranian president.

And believe it or not, I was questioned by the FBI and the Secret Service and every do that if I planned to be in the same hotel as the president.

I was like, no.

And I was thinking about, I was like, how did I, I was really thinking about how did I end up in the same hotel?

And then I realized what had happened was last minute I decided to go to the UN.

I was like, okay, I'm doing this because I had just come from a travel.

I was like, can I do New York and then be in voice for one day and then go to San Antonio and then Houston?

I was just like, it's gonna kill me.

Like physically, it's gonna kill me.

But I was like, I'm gonna do New York to last minute.

We were just at the hotel, and uh the travel agents for ACLJ were doing it, and they were trying to find a hotel that was, they didn't know where the Iranian president was, but they were trying to find a hotel that was near the UN and all that, and and that was the same hotel as the president.

What had happened in God's uh just amazing ways was that that hotel had been boycotted by many people because the Iranian they had allowed the Iranian president to stay there.

And so it had open rooms last minute.

You know?

And I just and and here's all these people saying, how did you, the wife of an American pastor who's in prison in Iran, get a hotel room like right next to the like Iranian officials?

Like this, you were like stalking them, and I I and I it it's I said it's God, I mean they don't understand it, but um I was in the same hotel.

I approached them, I handed Saeed's letter, and I was able to, you know, and in letter there's a part where Said talks about Jesus Christ being his savior, and you know, I got to be able to talk to Iranian officials and um get confirmation that we get that to the president.

And then we prayed for Saeed's one-year anniversary on September 26th.

Over 85 cities and 16 countries came together, including Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, came together and and prayed.

And the next day, the Iran, the US president who have been criticizing for not talking about Saeed, and I've been like, we prayed, and Obama calls the Iranian government about Saeed.

And this is a big deal.

Iran and U.S.

have not spoken, have not have had no contact since 1979, since the hostage crisis.

No contact, no phone calls, no face-to-face meetings, nothing.

We pray in September 26th, and I've been crying out for a whole year, going on media, Fox, CNN, saying, Come on, President Obama, say something, say something, silence.

The day we pray, the next day, there's the first contact between the two countries.

And I don't know how God's gonna work all this out.

I just am surprised, first by the encounter in the UN, the hotel.

And then we pray on September 26th, September 27th, for the first time since 1979, there's a contact, 1979, there's a contact between Iran and U.S.

government.

And for the first time, our president mentioned Said.

We prayed, you know, and you know, I came out of that thinking, wow, what can we do as Christians when we get together and pray?

If we would do that praying for a revival in our nation, praying for issues such as abortion and things that are really hurt, you know, really dear to us.

I mean, look at that.

We prayed in the spiritual, and there was something physical that happened the next day.

That hadn't happened in 30-some years.

Almost 35 years.

It hadn't happened.

And we prayed.

85 cities got together and prayed on the same time.

And, you know, I just want to end with what the mystery that Paul talks about, that you know, whatever trial um I heard from Marcy that this is the most diverse cities in the nation.

And so God has brought you the nations.

And I I believe I'm here for a purpose.

And the purpose is the Lord has a message for the church.

And the message is to allow the trials, because we've been lied to by our culture, that trials is something bad.

That we should try everything possible to insulate uh insulate ourselves from trials.

Just escape from it.

If it's a relationship, walk away from it, end it.

Uh, if it's a you know, whatever it is, just do whatever, take medication, do whatever it is to isolate.

Just don't don't deal with pain, don't deal with the thorn.

Just do whatever it takes to take the thorn out.

And God says, No, that's our culture has been teaching us the wrong thing.

Paul is taking pleasure.

God is like, no, I'm not going to take the thorn.

God tells him, I'm not going to take the thorn.

My grace is sufficient for you.

Because when we have the thorn, when we have the distress, when we have the need, that's when we're broken.

And the world is broken too, but there's a difference between us and the world.

The world's broken and is devastated in the trials and the loss.

We're broken, we can stand up in peace and joy.

And we we are okay.

We can take pleasure in it because it breaks us, it takes us to a more intimate, God is close to the broken heart, intimate relationship with the living God, and it doesn't end there.

The reason for the brokenness is so that He, it's like a vessel that you break, and there's a light inside of it, and it shines.

The light is able to shine through the brokenness.

So He wants, He wants the church, God is wants the church to be awake, to use those trials.

Sometimes we we we have moments of lukewarmness, or we're we can see there's no intensity in our prayer, there's no intensity, we don't, we're not really hungry to read God's word.

Well, God has given a blessing.

There's trials in your life that He doesn't want you to run away from.

He wants you to embrace it, He wants you to enjoy it, He wants you to take it and use it to go to God's presence, and He wants to fill you with joy and peace that the world doesn't understand, and the world's gonna be drawn to it, and the world's gonna say, What is this?

I want it, and they're gonna see the reality of Jesus in each of our life, and he's gonna use it for his glory.

It's for such a time as this, 1,400 years, Middle East has not been touched by the gospel.

There's a change.

I saw it, I've seen it.

Over the last decade, more people have come to know Christ in Iran than in the 1400 years before.

Just over the last few years.

If you combine 1,400 years of people that have converted to Christianity, you add all those numbers, the last few years has like surpassed that many, many times.

Um and so there is something happening in the Middle East.

There's a move of God, and God is involving by allowing an American pastor, this is what I believe, to be in that prison.

He's allowing the church here to watch, and he's he wants to involve you in that process.

How do you get involved?

He wants to first draw you into his presence.

He wants you to sit at his feet before you move.

And he has many things to share when you sit at his feet and you connect to the vine.

And he has a purpose for each of you, but he's using the broken times of your life, and you say, Why?

Why did this happen?

Why do I why can't this person just be healed?

Or why can't this just go away?

Because he wants you, he's jealous for you.

He's allowing it to draw you close to him, he's allowing it then to shine through you, and he's jealous for you, he loves you, but he also loves the lost.

He's allowing you to be broken so he can shine through, so his lost children can be re can be reunited with him.

So I ask you to pray for um for that, finding your purpose.

Um in the trial, there's a purpose.

God doesn't do acts, there's no accidents.

There's no accident.

You know, I I asked my first question of God was why now?

We we should have years before Saeed should have and I should have been arrested and all we should he should have been in prison.

And God just put on my heart for such a time as this.

This is the time he chose for, you know, the time I didn't expect it.

And um, so I want I want you to pray.

I know you maybe you have questions of why now or why this, but um, pray for what's God's purpose in that.

He wants to use you for this nation um and for for for the world, and he can use you here.

And then um praying for Saeed, um I would like to ask Pastor Neil to pray for Saeed too.

And um He's in one of the worst prisons in the world, and I you know he's been tortured and abused for his Christian faith, and he's it's been a very emotional journey for him.

He's missed two birthdays of our daughter.

She turned six and seven.

She he missed her sixth birthday, and seventh birthday was just happened a few weeks ago and or last week and um yeah, a few weeks ago, mid-September.

And it's heart he's heartbroken.

He was he had a very close relationship with her, um, daddy's girl, and he's just realizing he's missing out on the kids growing up.

And every parent, you know, your joy is to see your kids grow up, and he's missing out on the simple joys of life of seeing his kids um go through the milestones and and uh you know grow up without him.

And it's har it's heart he's heart it it's more torture for him than the physical torture and being separated from his kids and family.

And so I would ask to uh pray for him and keep him in your prayer today.

Thank you.

God's stand to your feet if you would.

Let me speak a blessing of you.

We'll be dismissed.

Hold your hands out if you would.

The biggest obstacle between you and God has been taken care of.

Your sin has been atoned for on the cross.

The death of Jesus was a faith for your sin.

So now the life that God offers is available to you because of the cross.

Depart now and live the life that is truly life in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.