OverFlow: Week 5

Held money back from the church and as a result,

because of their deception, God struck them down and killed them.

That's a tough tough text to explain.

Now, in other news, we are expecting record giving in October.

Just read the text again. I couldn't resist. I'm sorry.

Now this week is maybe even a more difficult text.

So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.

We're gonna have to really key in today. It's not

one where we go for a while and then you

can have some humorous remarks and then you can have

some illustrations. This is one where we have to be

disciplined enough. And the way I would put this message,

because it's a message on persecution that we see happening

in the church, is you know, it is my role

as a shepherd to feed the flock. And it feels

like what's on the menu this week is an uncle sandwich. Okay,

So it's a tough text. But what I'm gonna ask

you to do is really key in today because I

think there's some important things that we need to hear.

All right, can you pray with me as we prepare

our hearts to hear today God, we give you pray

today and we thank you for your grace, your mercy,

your kindness. Now, Father, fill us with your spirit, but

also help us to hear from.

You today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, what I'm about ready to read to you at

the very beginning today will make you uncomfortable, okay, And

I think being uncomfortable is a price that we're all

willing to pay, considering that what I'm not ready to

tell you is not happening to us, but it is

happening to our Christian brothers and sisters. So this is

the cost we pay today is hearing what's going on now.

There's a group called the Genocide Watch and here's what

they just recently reported. They reported that since two thousand,

sixty two thousand of our Nigerian brothers and sisters in

Christ have been murdered by Islamic jiheadas okay, jihadis, and

they're calling this the silent slaughter.

Okay.

And let me just give you a few things that

just happened in the last couple of years. And Juno

twenty twenty two, fifty parishioners from one church were massacred. Also,

later on in twenty twenty two, four priests and twenty

three seminarians were kidnapped and held in captivity. In two

thousand twenty three, they reported the eighteen thousand Christian churches

and two hundred Christian schools were intentionally.

Set on fire.

Leah Sharibu was one of the one hundred and ten

schoolgirls who was kidnapped with her classmates. Today she is

still in captivity because she refuses to deny Jesus Christ

as her savior. Just this past Christmas, okay, just this

past Christmas, one hundred and forty Nigerian Christians were massacred

in attacks near Joss. Now some other jihadis who came

out into the farming communities just a few months later

and went into twenty six villages and massacred two hundred people.

A lot of those people fled into the bush and

we still have not heard from them since. Now due

to the way that Nigeria is ignoring this, Genocide Watch

has rated them on the level of genocide. Now they

are at level nine, which is extermination. Christians are being exterminated,

and they are also at level ten, which is a

level of denial. All right, We've seen this in history, right,

denial and extermination. That's what's happened to our brothers and

sisters in Nigeria. Open Doors, it's just past week in

my newsfeed. Open Doors reported said the latest deadly incident

in a region marked by violence against God's people in

Burkina Fasso, more than two hundred people were killed last month. Okay,

they opened fire on a group of Christians, killed two

hundred of them and it was considered one of the

deadliest attacks in our history. And also in February of

this year, another one hundred and seventy of them were

attacked and killed, and then the same month, militants killed

fifteen more Christians. Pastor Sore from that area said his

village has been attacked at least three times. And he

says what happens is they walk into the Christian churches

during a church service, they get up front and they

say Christianity's time is over, convert to.

The Muslim faith.

And then they tell them we're gonna come back and

if we find any of.

You worshiping, we will kill you.

This is what's going on right now just over here

in and Africa is crazy. And let me tell you,

let's just travel over to Pakistan. There's a lady named

Asia Bibbe, and Asia Bibbi was just working on a farm,

but she was the only Christian there. She wants to

go get water. She drunk out of the water. The

Muslim ladies didn't like it. They all got into a

big argument and they said, all right, here's what you're

trying to do. You're really trying to kill us all

by poisoning us. And then they made up some charges

saying that she says something about about Mohammed.

She went on trial, she.

Was sentenced to execution by hanging, and for the last

ten years she's been in prison because she refuses to

deny her faith in Jesus Christ.

Now let's bring it on home.

You guys know that we have about two hundred people

who consider themselves you know, you know, people of Church

of the Crossing.

This the Arabic language.

So I call Pastor Isaac this week beause I know

that Egypt could be hostile to Christians.

And I said, tell me a little bit about that.

And he said, you know, years ago, I had a

really good friend, just a few years back, who came

to Christ and he was a wonderful man of God.

But he was spreading the gospel.

And he said, all of a sudden, one day he

disappeared and he's never been seen since. And he says,

one of my dear friends, a great man of God,

was killed just simply by trying to share the gospel.

It says friend.

Pastor Isaac also talked about how when you went to

the police station and you needed help, or into government

offices you needed help. On your license, your ID actually

states whether or not you're a Christian.

So when you go to show them something, guess what

they do. Your file goes on the bottom. You don't

get help.

Just think about our little project we did out here

out front with the kids area.

Isaac said that would take years, years to.

Get to permission to do that, mostly because they would

want to make sure that the church didn't get any

help from the government. Okay, And he said, with his

own eyes he has witnessed multiple churches being burned down

that were set on fire intentionally.

Again, this is not old news. This is stuff that's happenings.

As a matter of fact, Open Doors, the research company, said.

This this is their latest status check this out.

More than three hundred and sixty five million Christians right

now are experiencing high levels of persecution and discrimination for

their faith. One and seven Christians are persecuted worldwide, one

in five are persecuted in Africa, two and five are

persecuted in Asia.

Last year, nine hundred and ninety eight.

Of our Christian brothers and sisters were murdered. Okay, fourteen,

seven hundred and sixty six churches and Christian properties were attacked.

One hundred and twenty five Christians were detained.

See Christian persecution.

And when we think about that, we always think historic.

Historically we think about Christian persecution.

I'm telling you about stuff that's going on right now

in our world. Now, some of you might be thinking, well, James,

it sounds like you're promoting Islamophobia. No, it's not islamophobias Islama. Fact,

this is what's happening. I'm just reporting to you. There

are a lot of countries. Last I look, this week,

there was fifteen countries where being a Christian was illegal

and they can kill you for being a Christian. Ah.

But we live in America.

Yes, But I want to remind you of a scripture

at the very beginning today, those who are given much,

much is expected. We've been given much and much as expected.

So today we're gonna listen to a passage on persecution

in an air conditioned room in nice comfee chairs with

some really good coffee, and we're a multi media presentation

for you, and we get to sit here and just

take it in in freedom today, I want you to

think about that as we go through the text.

Here's what we're going to do today.

Okay, as we go through this text today, what I'm

going to do is I am going to start out

by asking you a very serious question. Okay, and trust me,

I've been asking myself to this question all week long.

And here's a question for all of us today. What

would I do if it got tough? What would I

do if it got tough?

Now?

Would I be willing to teach on the text today?

Where the apostles preach, they get thrown into jail, then

they're threatened, and then they're.

Beat and then they go back out immediately and preach.

What if someone threatened my family?

Would I stop? Would you stop? What if someone burned

my home down? Would I stop? Would you stop? These

are good questions to ask ourselves. What would I do

if it got tough?

Now?

This passage is a little bit lengthy. So here's what

I'm want to ask you to do.

I want you to.

Walk with me through this passage, and here's what I

want you to imagine. Okay, those of us who've been

to plays, we know that a full length play typically

has seven acts in it, Okay, seven to ten acts,

and so we have broken this up this passage into

seven acts. Okay, And at each act or each part

of the play, I'm gonna stop give some comments, and

then we'll continue to move through until we see all

seven scenes. At the end of the seven scenes, we'll

just take a few moments to apply this text to us.

So you guys ready, all right, let's jump in. Here

we go.

The first thing I need you guys to know, I

just need you guys know, is we look at acts

chapter five started on verse seventeen.

I need to give you.

Some context before we jump into this text. The nation

of Israel is living in a thing called dual authority.

ROME is over the whole world. But here's what Rome does.

Rome conquers territories. What they do is they make powerful

alliances with the power brokers of that country. And what

they do is they make these alliances with the power brokers,

and the power brokers' jobs is to keep peace in

that area because they're the ones who actually have the influence,

and so they're the ones who keep the region from

rising up and rebelling. So, as we come into our textady,

I understand Rome is in charge of the world, but

the power brokers of Israel is the High Priest in

his leadership party. Even the kings, who can do whatever

they want, they still had the work through the High Priest.

So it's a dual leadership. You need to understand that

as we jump in.

So let's go ahead, jump into the text today and

let's enter into scene one. Scene one begins by saying,

then the High Priest and all of his associates who

are members of the party of the Sadducees, are filled

with jealousy.

It's a key word here today, jealousy.

And then he arrested the apostles and put them in

the public jail case.

So our first actor enters the scene.

Today, the High Priest, and you gotta understand his leadership

party is the Sadducees.

Okay, now here's what you need to know about the Saducees.

One they're wealthy, they're educated, but they don't believe in

a supernatural They don't believe in miracles. So when they

hear this stuff about Jesus Christ being killed and resurrected,

it sounds like insanity to them. It's like a Marvel movie.

To them, it's just entertainment. It's nonsense. But what we

see here in the Texas, what is their motivation? Why

do they want to stop the apostles? Because they're jealous,

And it's important to know that when power brokers feel threatened,

they become jealous. All right, that's the end of the

first scene. Now let's enter into the second scene together.

But during the night, and angel the Lord opened the

doors of the jail and brought them out, and the

angel said, go saying in the temple courts, he said,

and tell the people all about this new life. And

then at daybreak they entered the temple courts as they

had been told and began to preach or teach the people.

So the high priest right now, he thinks he has

everything under.

Control, okay, and he's thinking, all right, they're in jail.

People are gonna forget about this, and then we could

just move on and all this will go away.

What he does not know is that during the middle

of the night and angel showed up in prison. And

the angel looked at the boys and says, boys, get

back to work.

Said she do what he did? He said, we got

something to do. Let's go all right. That's the end

of scene two. Let's look at scene three.

Scene three.

He says, when the High Priest and his associates arrived,

they called together the Saint Heedron, the full assembly of

the elders of Israel, and sent to the jail for

the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers

did not find them there. So they went back and reported,

and he says, we found the jail securely locked with

they are standing at the doors, but when we opened them,

we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the

Captain of the temple guard and the Chief Priest read.

A lass, naturally wondering what this might lead to.

And then someone came into the meeting and said, look,

the men that you put in jail are standing in

a temple courts teaching the people. At that the captain

with his officers brought the apostles in and they did

not use Pay attention to this. They did not use force.

Why because they feared that the people.

Would stone them.

Now, at first, we can look at this and it's

kind of like a humorous scene.

He brings everybody in, brings the whole council in. He's like,

what are we gonna do with these preachers?

And here's the thing. He's like, we got to stop them.

We can't let this spread any further. But he's doing

all this while he thinks the boys are in prison.

And then someone says they're not in prison.

And remember, this is impossible because you got a huge

group that room who don't believe in a supernatural Okay,

So they're like, there's no way, there's no way they escape.

What's going on? And then someone comes.

To this says, hey, I know you guys are talking

about these guys in jail, but.

Just so you know, they're out in the court's preaching

right now. Okay.

So they're like, all right, go get them now. Notice this,

They did not take.

Them by force in public.

Why because people's hearts were turning towards them and they

feared to rise up. Until this is where we go

back to the dual authority. Their job as a local

power brokers was to stop uprisings and to keep peace,

and so therefore they had to just gently ask the

boys to come into the trial. So all right, there

it is. What are they doing here? They're protecting their power. Okay,

here we go into scene three. It's over. Let's move

to scene four. Here we go, now a scene four.

We're gonna see the interrogation. You have the whole Sanhedron here,

so that would be like in America bringing the House

of Representatives and.

The Senate together. Okay, this is a big deal.

So you have the priests, the rabbis, the scribes and pharisees, it'sadducees, okay,

and all the important people. They're all together. It's the

whole council.

All right. Here we go Scene four.

The apostles were brought in and made to appear before

the Sanhedron to be question by the high Priest. He says,

we gave you strict orders not to teach this name,

he said, but you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching

and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.

Don't forget that line.

Okay, And Peter and the other postles replied, listen, we

must obey God rather than human beings. The God of

our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed

by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to

his own right hand as prince and savior, that he

might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. And

then he says, listen, we are witnesses of these things,

and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given

to those who obey him.

Now when they.

Heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them

to death.

All right, here we go. What's going on here?

First of all, the high priest, he's the chief interrogator,

and he makes his case.

He has three accusations, very simple. Number one.

First accusation, we told you to shut up about Jesus.

Accusation number one.

Accuation number two, your preaching has filled this city, this

whole message.

Now, let's read between alliance.

In other words, everybody's paying attention to you, and you're

getting all this religious authority.

No one's paying attention to us. We are being ignored.

Okay, So there's some jealousy here, all right. Accusation number three,

and this is where.

It gets really interesting.

We really know what's going on here. You're stirring the

city up because you're seeking revenge for the killing of

your leader, and you're hoping that you're gonna stir the

whole city up that they overthrow us and we lose

our power seat. So they really thought that the disciples,

we're just trying to stir the city up and cause

problems for the leadership. Now this accusation is based in history. Okay,

we've actually seen this happen in BC forty four BC

Julius Caesar, he's rising to prominence and he's not ready

to become a dictator. But the Roman Republic is like,

oh no, we cannot let him become a dictator. We

gotta protect the republics.

What does he do?

You have some guys from the Senate and his good

old friend Brutus, and what do they do on the

eyes of march on the Senate floor.

They all brutally stab him to death. And then they think, good, we.

Don't have to worry about an emperor. Now we don't

have to worry about a dictator. We have preserved the republic.

But they forgot about two guys. One guy who is

his inheritance son Octavian, who later became Augustus, and another

guy named mark Antony. And these guys were not happy

about it, and so they declared revenge.

And what did they do.

They went around and chased down every person who was

a part of that plot, and they either killed them.

Or they made them commit suicide.

And this led to a civil war called the Liberator's

Civil War, a lot of battles, and the two man

guys in a senate, Brutus and Cassius, they actually died

in a battle on one of these battles, and.

So we had a lot of wars. And at the

and of the day, I guess what happened.

Octavian later called Augustus, was declared emperor. So the very

thing that they thought they would stop by killing Caesar

was the actual thing that actually happened.

And now Rome has.

Emperor, a dictator, and that is the beginning of the

Roman Empire, in the end of the republic. And so

these guys have seen this in history, and we go,

we know how this works.

You know, followers of people they raise.

Up and as revenge they try to kick out those

who killed their leader. And so that's what they're accusing

the apostles of Well, then Peter comes right back, and

this is cool because Peter's full of the Holy Spirit

and he's calm, and he says, number one, we're not

going to obey you.

Not awesome, And for everybody's like, we're not going to

obey you. We're only going to obey God. Get it.

And that's a foundation for everything else here.

And then he says, secondly, you killed Jesus, God raised

him from the dead.

Boom, silence in that room. And then he slips in

the gospel message. He actually talks about repentance and forgiveness.

And so here he is we see again the prayer

of the cross being answered.

Father, forgive that they don't know what they're doing. Here

the gospel again is presented to the enemies the number four.

He says, here's what you need to know. We saw this,

we saw Jesus die, we saw him resurrect. We're just witnesses.

We're just telling people what happened. So then it goes

all right, let's get together what we're gonna do. And

some genius came up with.

This idea, let's just kill them, okay.

End of that scene.

Now we enter into scene number five, and this is

where we see a guy named Gama Liel. Now, if

you were here Thursday night, you would have noticed that

I butchered that name like nobody's business.

And it was sad.

But I just moved on like I knew it because

I thought they didn't. All right, So anyways, but I

practiced it all weekend.

All right, here we go.

But a pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law

who was honored by the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin,

and he ordered that the men be put outside for

a little while.

Then he addresses Sanhedra. So listen to this. Okay, this

is his argument.

Minute Israel, consider carefully what you attend to do with

these men. Remember some time ago, the disappeared claiming to

be somebody. About four hundred men rally to him. He

was killed, his followers were dispersed, and it came to nothing.

That's example number one. Sample number two. After him, Judas,

a Galilean appeared in the days of the census, and

he led a band of people to revolt. He too

was killed and the followers scattered. Therefore, in this present case.

I advise you leave these men alone. Let them go.

For if their purpose or activity, okay, is of human origin,

it will fail. But if it is from God, you

will not be able to stop these men. You will

only find yourself fighting against God. Now, Gamaliel, first of all,

here's let you understand he's a phariseee. Okay, so he

actually believes in a supernatural right. He's an educated man,

and he makes his case.

All right.

So first of all, here's how he makes his case.

He reviews history with them. Then he gives them some

solid advice. He goes, don't make these men martyrs. There'll

be a big mistake. Don't make these men martyrs. And

now some have said, over the years they've studied this

texta that he was a Christian.

I don't think he was a Christian. We see nowhere

else that he followed Christ. He was a political pragmatist. Okay,

he just want a peace. He was wanted them to

not become martyrs.

So he knew that people rallied around martyrs, and a

lot of times high profile murders create martyrs.

You a lot of you were alive.

You remember our nation in the late sixties. It was

insane and the racial injustice and the fight for equality,

which is at a level that we've never seen in

our country. And there is this leader, Martin Luther King Junior,

and he brought along this, you know, peaceful resistance to

this violence, and millions of people gather to him, and

they truly.

Listened to him. But somebody had this idea said, you

know what, what if we kill him? What if we

kill him?

So they shot him one day on a balcony in

Methhis But they thought after they killed him that the

movement would die down, that it would be over. Instead,

the whole country went all of a sudden turner said

this is insane, this is crazy, and our country rallied together.

Just a few days later, in the Senate, they passed

the Civil Rights Act, or some call it the Fair

Housing Act, mostly an honor doctor Luther King. And let

me tell you something about doctor Luther King junior. His

ideas still live today about peace and love inequality. Let

me tell you something, just because you kill someone doesn't

mean that you kill their ideas.

Okay.

And they thought, okay, if we kill these men, will

kill their ideas. But but Gamileel said, and listen, you

don't understand if we make martyrs, some bad things could happen.

So again, I don't think that he's a good person.

I think he's a good politician.

Now, God didn't use this at least temporiarriy Okay, all right,

that's the end of scene five, and now we got

two scenes left.

Do you guys still can we do this?

Do you guys need intermission? Because I love intermission? All right,

all right, here we go scene number six. It says

his speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and

they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to

speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

Now here's what you got, ever saying the beatings in

the hand of the Jewish authority during this time it

would have been thirty nine lashes, not forty.

That was against the law.

Now we don't think that they got beat the same

way Jesus did. Jesus got beat with a cat of

nine tails, which almost always led to death. These were

more like lashes with a whip or maybe a came

a Still, it was a beating, and their.

Thought was if we beat you, you'll shut up. All right.

End of scene six. Now we enter into the last scene.

Here we go.

The Apo so left this anhedron rejoicing because they had

been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day

after day in a temple course and from house to house,

they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news.

That Jesus was the Messiah. Now I want you pay

attention to a couple of things here.

Notice their posture, the rejoicing, and they got right back

to it.

So what was going to stop them?

Beating them, No, putting them on trial, jail, threatening him, intimidation?

What was going to stop the apostles? Nothing was going

to stop the apostles.

Why because they had seen the risen Christ and they

knew the truth. So now let's take this grand story.

That happen and bring.

It all the way back home to us.

Today with another question. All right, you ready for this question?

What would it take to stop us from doing what

God calls us to do as a church? If we

got a little up position and persecution in our area

for the good works that we're trying to do with

that stop us? Or are we people of grit? What

type of people are me? And here's what I'm praying

that this has been my prayer since I became your pastor,

that the people at the Church of the Crossing will

rise up and declare Jesus first, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

That when we're hanging out with our friends.

We can't help to say, let me tell you what

Jesus is doing my life. When we hear about an

opportunity to help someone, we do it in the name

of Jesus, and eventually we share the gospel enough enough

that we just start seeing people come Christ. I remember

our challenge I gave all of us this year, the

Christ Challenge. One hundred people saved. The first month and

half we had sixteen. Let me tell you something, God

is at work Thursday. I'm here, I'm trying to practice

my message for Thursday night. I get a call, can

you meet with somebody? I get called out into that

lobbying a young lady who's been at our church for

months but finally said, I got a few more questions,

and thankfully because a large group of ladies that she

works with here at the church at the ECC have

loved on her and encourasire. This young lady, at twenty

five years old, said, I'm ready to completely surrender my

life to Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen.

That doesn't happen normally at Thursday at noon, just so

you know. And the cool thing was, I had asked

the staff to start having Bibles as a gift for

those who are coming to Christ, so that after somebody

came to Christ on the weekend, we could give them

a Bible.

Well, right, I got to pray for her to except Christ.

I go over to the office and guess what just

got in those bibles? And they had just wrapped two

or three of them, and I said.

Can I have one?

Literally, like one of the coolest moments in my life.

And I said, you got the first edition, you know.

And it was cool.

But here's what happens.

If we rise up and we in an unashamed way

we share the gospel, people will just start getting saved

left and right.

Okay. Now, when that happens, church Satan won't say, well,

good for the Church of the Crossing. This is good, Yeah,

this is great.

No, Satan will be like, all right, any crack, any

any detail that was left unnoticed, I'm going to attack

in the church.

I'm gonna persecute the people.

So I'm gonna assume that as we continue to grow

in Christ, we're gonna continue to grow in our boldness.

So I want to go ahead and prepare you by

giving you five principles of persecution.

Okay, here we go, ready.

Principal number one of persecution, suffering is a byproduct of

fully following Christ, and we should anticipate it. So if

if you're intimidated and you're discouraged, and that's the extent

that you're willing to suffer, you're probably not going to

experience persecution. But think about the apostles, all twelve of

them and went to jail. Here's what they didn't do.

They didn't go back to their nice homes. Most of

them just slept wherever somebody would let them sleep. They

also didn't say, you know what, we should maybe let

things die down a little bit, or maybe we should

go to another city, or maybe we need another strategy.

Instead of what do they do, they said, let's just

get back out there. Here's what I want you to

remember today. Remember that faith that costs little accomplishes little.

All right, if you're looking for your next tattoo there,

it is faith that costs little accomplishes little, and here's

a question I have to ask myself, what am I

willing to suffer? All right? Point number two, the presence

of suffering does not mean to absence a joy. Okay, now,

I just remember that when they came out, they went

back to preaching. They've been told to shut up, and

then they were beat But incredibly we see that they rejoiced.

They were not discouraged.

Saul recently a pastor telling a story about how one

of his elders just got back from India and the

elder walked by his pastor and said, hey, i'm I

want you to see this photo.

He handed the pastor the photo.

It's a photo of a young family and a beautiful

family and they're holding a little baby. And he said,

I want to tell you about this family.

He said, he's a.

Preacher of the Gospel, and the Hindu priest came to

him and said, if you preach any more in this village,

we're going to kill you. That same day, he went

back out, he went through the streets preaching. They grabbed

a hold of him and let me tell you what

they did to this young family. I'm not talking about

a story from years ago. I'm talking about this just

happened in the last couple of years. They made the

husband and wife take all their clothes off, hold their baby,

and then they walked them through the town as everybody

spit on them, laughed at them.

And made fun of them.

And he said, you know what, the incredible thing about

this photo is. You see this smile, You see this joy,

you see this peace. This photo was taken after that.

You see, opposition does not equal losing your joy. No.

No, as you suffer for Christ, he does a miracle.

He brings more joy to your soul. Number three, Following

Jesus may lead to civil disobedience. Now, some of you

secret militia people, you've been waiting on this point for

for years.

Okay, so just calm.

Down a little bit, all right, all right, don't go

get the ar right now, all right, let's just calm down.

Well, we wanna have a balanced approach of this, Okay.

Now, Following Jesus may lead to civil you know, disobedience.

Now, here's what I'm talking about. Okay. Remember they said

we obey God, not man.

Also, remember that Jesus said, give up to Caesar what

belongs to Caesar, given to God, what belongs to God.

Now, what does that mean for us? Interpretation wise?

It means that we follow the law of the land

until it tells us to disobey God. If the law

tells us to disobey God, then we could be disobedient

to the law.

Does that make sense all right? Now?

So wonder James, do you ever think that the church

will be shut down? I've been asked that a lot.

Do you think the government's gonna shut us down?

Let me tell you what I'm more worried about.

I'm more worried about the church in America that is

collapsing without any real opposition right now. I'm more worried

about those who stop sharing their faith and the gospel

that is not going out. I'm more worried about the

church collapsing in on and shutting down itself.

Than i am the government. Do you understand. So that's

part of our mission around here.

We're fighting hard, we're throwing we're throwing haymakers around here

because we're fighting for the Kingdom of God. Now, let

me continue to go on here and say this, why

is this happening?

Well, I believe that the church is scared the people, the.

Church and preachers are scared to preach truth, and we

redefine sin in our generation. Okay, things that are called

very evil in scripture, now we say it's okay, it's

good and to stand for truth. People say it's hate

or intolerance, So let me tell you it's not.

It's it's truth and being christ Like.

And here's what we need to stop feeling as a

church people.

And the passage.

We need to stop apologizing for the things that knelled

our savior to the cross. Sin is what nailed my

savior to the cross. Why am I apologizing for the

things that naeled my savior to the cross?

I'm not going to do it. No.

And when we have no sin and we have no evil,

guess what.

We don't need. We don't need a savior.

But because we have sin and because we have evil, we.

Need a savior.

Let's take one thing for for instance, Moraley is a

great example of what's being exploited today.

God created man and a woman, but he also created sex.

Only to be had inside a marriage between a man

and a woman. People call that hate talk today, That's

not hate talk.

It's called God's plan. Okay.

And when we excuse it today and say that's not

really true for today.

Here's what we're doing.

We're denying the authority of God, and we're denying the

third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who inspired

the scripture. We deny the Trinity whenever we deny the truth.

And so again when we say that seuth and evil,

that means we don't even need a savior. So why

why do we cower? Well, here's why we cower. Let's

just be honest. We don't want someone not to like us.

Do you hear that? I mean, I'm just being I'm

telling you the truth. There's been times where people ask

me a question.

And I want this person to like me, and I'm like, oh,

they're gonna hate me when I tell them the truth.

And I hate it because I like to be liked.

I think you're insane if you don't like to be liked.

I like to be liked, but I don't want to

be like so much. And I'm willing to forego the

truth of God.

And so you have to ask a question, you know,

do you believe the Bible is the truth, that Jesus

is real?

Okay?

And stop being afraid that the Gospel will offend the

gospel will offend. It is offensive, and just because someone

calls it.

Hate, it's not hate. It's love. And our message of truth.

Is kind of it's kind of grabbing that kid out

in front of the busts that's coming through the lane.

It's a little rough at first, but we're just trying

to save their life. Okay, Now, we don't need to

be mean signs yelling. I think that's that's despicable. No,

and not everybody's going to understand. What do we do

when they don't understand. We love on them, we encourage them,

and we walk with them.

Okay, we're kind, but we're truthful, all right.

Number four, Your endorsement from God is from God, so

don't worry about what others think.

Yeah, that's all I got, all right.

Number five, Your faithfulness grows when you obey God and

love people.

And think about the disciples. They are very direct.

They never went to seminary, they ever went to saduce school.

They simply stood up for their faith. They obeyed God,

and then the gospel spread throughout the whole world. Listen, people,

if we want the Gospel to spread in our region,

we will be faithful and we will obey God, and

we will not be ashamed the message of Jesus Christ.

If we do those things, the gospel will spread again

in our area. Okay, So here's a challenge today before

I close, Junior high and high school students, Well, you

staying up for Jesus at school?

Are college A students?

Are you willing to be made fun of in college

because you believe the Bible is.

The word of God.

Ladies, when you're hanging out for your other lady friends,

are you willing to say, here's what Jesus is doing

in my life. Men, when we're out and about having fun,

can you also share what Jesus is doing in your life?

And then we keep at it. We sacrifice, we invest,

and we share. Now, you might notice in a sermon

that I did not have a personal illustration. And I

thought about it, and I thought, well, one, I think

it'll be despicable.

I'm not worthy of what these men went through. But

I'm also I don't feel guilty.

I'm very very thankful that I live in the United

States of America. And then I'm free to share the gospel. Why,

because he who's given much much is expected. And so

today here's how we're going to close. First of all,

we're gonna do something, you know, a little bit different.

Can we just take a few moments and pray for

to persecuted. Can we pray for our brothers and sisters

who can't do what we're doing right now. Let's do

that and then we'll shift into communion. Okay, Father God,

we come to you right now and we want to

lift up our brothers and sisters in Nigeria and Africa

and Pakistan and all the other countries throughout the world

that are experiencing persecution. So why don't you just now

take this next moment and will you pray for your

brothers and sisters who are suffering throughout the world.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Please protect your people. And now let's transition into a

time of communion. So go ahead and please grab out

your communion elements.

And I just want to remind.

You that you're about ready to partake in a moment

because someone else was persecuted, because someone else was.

Killed on your behalf.

This bread we're going to take is bread that represents

a body that was beating, beaten to a pulp. Matter

of fact, the scripture says that he didn't even look

like a man. And this Jews represents his blood, the

blood of the Covenant, for the forgiveness of many. And

so when we take communion, we remember the one who

was persecuted and martyred for us. So first of all,

let's go ahead and take the cracker part, and let

us remember the sacrifice of his body, and before we

the Jewe which represents the New Covenant and the blood

of Christ. He said it shedded for the forgiveness of many.

So here's what I want you to do.

Check your heart and is there any sin that you

need to confess this morning and ask for forgiveness and

receive that forgiveness. So let's go ahead and pray.

And now let us take together