Beatitudes - Those Who Are Persecuted

Not long ago, a short animated film was produced titled The 21,

and it recounted the story of 21 Egyptian Christians who were

martyred by ISIS on a beach in 2015.

The execution was filmed and broadcast for the world to see.

What is less known, however, is the fuller story of these 21

men. According to the producer of the

film, which was Co produced by Christianity Today, reports from

some former ISIS members involved in the event indicate

that the men were held for days and subjected to torture in an

attempt to force them to recant their faith in Christ.

None of them did. Among them was one man from

Ghana who was originally not scheduled to be executed and

when given the opportunity to save his life by renouncing

Christ, he instead declared this their God is my God, and he

chose to die alongside the other men.

Eventually, the men were marched out onto a beach in Libya to be

executed. As they were being led to their

deaths, eyewitnesses report that they testified to these strange

and supernatural figures walking among them, and the same reports

also describe flashes of colour in the sky and the ground

shaking as the men walked toward the shore.

The ISIS members then lined the men up and they executed them

one by one, slowly, in hopes that by the others witnessing

the deaths of their friends, the hopes would be that they would

cause them, at least one of them, to renounce their faith as

captured on film. None of them did.

One of the ISIS members involved was a reportedly so shaken by

what he witnessed that he later left ISIS, converted to

Christianity, and went to hiding.

Reports further suggest that the more the men were tortured, the

stronger their faith became. In the film, the the men can be

seen as quietly praying as they are marched to their deaths and

even asking God to forgive their executors.

What kind of faith is this? I mean, this is something

different when you hear stories like this.

This is this is the type of faith that can survive even

death itself and torture. This is kind of faith so many of

us, you know, we try to even wrap our heads around because

truthfully, none of us most likely in this country are going

to face this kind of opposition and this kind of persecution.

We're blessed to live in a country where we don't have to

be killed and executed for our faith.

Many of us won't endure this type of persecution.

And yet in in some ways, we do still face some level of

resistance and persecution, just in a different way.

For us, it's typically less physical and and often times

it's more social or it's more mental or emotional.

We will not likely face beheading, but we will face

opposition. Maybe you won't get the job that

you initially hoped for because of your faith.

Maybe you feel the pressure from people who are are involved

heavily politically right. Maybe.

Maybe you're considered, if you're bold for your faith, as

as not being affirming enough enough from those on the left or

not being forceful enough on the right in the cultural wars.

Whatever it may be, you may get less opportunities at work.

People may call you discriminatory or bigoted.

Whatever it may be, our our persecution, our resistance is,

is much more social than it is physical.

And the question today that I'd like to address is how can we

live boldly and endure for our faith even in the midst of

opposition, even in the midst of persecution?

We're finishing out our Beatitudes series in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. We're going to be in two

sections of Scripture today. If you want to turn there in

your Bibles. First is Matthew 5.

We're going to introduce Jesus's words here in the Beatitudes,

and we're also going to be in Second Timothy chapter 1.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

These are Jesus's words on the Sermon on the Mount, and he is

speaking to the new realities of the Kingdom that he is ushering

in. And he does this with a series

of blessed statements, says blessed are those who pour in

spirit, those who mourn. And in verse 10, this is what he

says as he closes out the list of the Beatitudes.

Jesus says blessed are those who are persecuted because of

righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and

falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were

before you. So with these series of

statements, we've said in the past that these are not

statements of of things we must do in order to gain entry into

the Kingdom. These are not how we're saved,

nor are they necessarily virtues that were called to aspire

towards. In other words, Jesus isn't

looking at his followers and saying, hey, you go out and

actively be persecuted or find someone to go and persecute you,

but rather he's talking about these groups of people who will

find themselves at home in the Kingdom should they choose to

enter it. And among those groups, those

who will find that the Kingdom is theirs are those who are

persecuted for righteousness and who are insulted for Jesus,

theirs is the Kingdom. Now we have to understand where

this persecution was likely coming from for early

Christians. There's a couple different

spots, you know, for for us as believers, we may feel

persecution from those on the political extremes, or maybe we

feel persecution from those who are non religious.

Maybe it's the, you know, the angry atheist or whatever it may

be. But in their day, it was

actually not the atheists who are persecuting them per SE.

It was the religious leaders who were after the early Christians.

It's interesting. It was the Pharisees and the

teachers of law of the law who were coming against them.

In other words, the religious leaders.

As a matter of fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus calls the religious

leaders the descendants of those who killed the prophets.

That is not pretty language. Jesus is directly going after

them because of their persecution.

And it wasn't just from that angle.

It was like a double persecution.

On the one hand, they're getting persecuted from the religious

leaders. On the other hand, though, they

were getting being persecuted by the cruel Roman Empire at the

time. There's stories about Christians

who are being fed to the lions in the Colosseum.

Stories of Christians being ignited on fire in order to

illuminate gardens of Nero. This is historical information

that we receive, right? Awful, awful things we can't

even hardly imagine. Like, I can't even endure when I

don't get the parking spot I want, You know what I mean?

Like, we don't have context for this type of thing.

So it was a double persecution. Why?

Because Christians were easy targets.

All throughout history we see political powers targeting

various groups that are not powerful either They choose not

to fight back, can't fight back in order to offer them up as

scapegoats or whatever it whatever it may be.

And Nero did the same thing. Christians were used as as

scapegoats because they were easy targets.

They refused to worship the empire, they rejected multiple

gods, and they actively chose to not fight back.

So they were targeted. So the question is, how can we

endure in our faith and be bold in living for Jesus?

Well, I think we have a lot to learn from this man called the

Apostle Paul. So we're going to look at his

words today. The Apostle Paul was in a unique

position because he lived on both ends of the persecution.

Not only was he the religious leader who was going after the

Christians, but he then was imprisoned by Rome.

He endured the persecution from a different angle.

So he has a unique perspective on persecution.

And then we're going to look at Second Timothy in the context

here is that the apostle Paul has been imprisoned for his

faith, and he's writing some of his final words to his young

protege named Timothy. Timothy was likely a pastor in

Ephesus. So these are his final words.

He's likely writing from a cold, dark prison cell waiting to be

killed for his faith. Just listen to what Paul has to

say. First Timothy verse or chapter

one verse eight or second Timothy Paul writes.

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of

me his prisoner. Rather join with me in suffering

for the gospel. By the power of God, he has

saved us and called us to live a holy life.

So Paul is saying do not be ashamed about the testimony

about our Lord or of the gospel. Paul saying there is good news

that needs to be shared. You and I need to remember this,

that we need to remember that we can endure first and foremost by

remembering that the news of Jesus Christ is still really

good news. The testimony about Jesus is the

best news and we've somehow forgotten that I think, right?

Like our good news is this, that that the Kingdom of heaven has

come here on earth, that Jesus ushered in a new way of living,

a new way of commanding or a new way of life, a new culture.

And we can enter into that and receive its blessings.

We can now join into the Kingdom with Jesus participants and Co

rulers in all the work that God is doing here on earth.

So the good news pretty simply is, is what Paul said that he

has saved us and he has called us to a holy life.

This is the best news. Not only does does God rescue us

from our sin and from defeat, but he also calls us into

sanctification, which is just a word we use to say more and more

becoming like Jesus. And here's the thing, good

things are always worth sharing, are they not?

Good things are always worth sharing with others.

If you see something, you're scrolling on social media,

you're scrolling through reels or something and you see

something that like absolutely makes you laugh or you think

it's hilarious or, or you're just dying laughing.

What's the first thing you do? You, you tell someone about it,

right? You, you hit the share button

and you send it to to someone else.

That's how things go viral. They spread like wildfire

because people keep sharing them.

We love sharing good things, whether it's like planking or

like the ChatGPT caricatures that are going around these

days, right? Like things catch on when

they're fun and they're interesting.

Human beings instinctively share what's good and what's beautiful

and what's true. We need to remember that the

gospel is still good news today. It is good and second Timothy 1

again, Paul says do not be ashamed of that testimony about

our Lord and or me as prisoner. And he says this rather join

with me in suffering for the gospel.

He's he's he's inviting this young protege Timothy.

He's saying, I know you're enduring.

I know you're going through it right now, Timothy, Join with

me. You see, good things aren't just

worth sharing. Good things are also worth

suffering for. Whether it's something as silly

as like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, remember that people

willing to dump ice on their heads all for a good 'cause,

right? We're willing to suffer a little

bit for things that matter. Or something as serious as a

single mom working multiple jobs to support her kids and be there

for them, right? We are willing to endure

hardship for things that matter in this life.

And Paul writes. So do not be ashamed.

All of us face the very real challenge of shame when we're

met with resistance for our faith.

We need to be ready for that. Think about the the disciple

Peter. Peter was someone who had an

understanding of who Jesus was. When Jesus asked him, who do you

say that I am, Peter gave the correct theological answer.

You are the Messiah, you are the Christ.

And Jesus said blessed are you Peter.

But when it counted most, when the when the pressure was on,

when the fire came to him, Peter denied Jesus multiple times.

See, just like it, just like we're, we're called to share

good things that we love, We also need to take into account

and remember like it is easy to become ashamed of Jesus when it

gets hard to live for Jesus. Would you agree?

When it gets difficult, when the going gets toughed, our, our

temptation to be ashamed of what we believe increases.

I shared this story with our our launch team before we actually

started the church. But we took Sundays and we

didn't always meet for services. We'd go out and do service

projects. And one of those Sundays we

decided we were going to go out into the city of Ankeny and we

were going to knock on doors and just bless people by asking them

how we could pray for them and just be in there.

And so we were going around and we were knocking on doors, a few

of us. And we were surprised by how

many people didn't need prayer because life was going so good.

OK, I'm going to preach a sermon on that someday, but that's not

for today. But we came across that we rang

this one doorbell, the smart doorbell, and it took a while

for someone to answer. But when they finally answered

the door, it was this this young lady.

And you could tell she was not happy that we were there.

We said, hey, we're with Presence Church and we're just

going around hearing the needs of the community and we're just

offering to to pray with people. Is there anything at all that

that you would like prayer for today?

I'm with Susan. I'm with Jane.

And we're pushing around David. And she says, yeah, you can pray

that my baby, that you just woke up falls back asleep.

Ouch. Right.

Like, oof. Right.

And I got to tell you, in that moment, like, I imagine the

blood just, like, drained from my face.

I felt so bad, right? I was so, so embarrassed.

And so we apologize. We're like, so sorry.

We're just trying to pray and meet people and like, have a

good day. And we, you know, went on our

way to the next one. But I got to tell you, between

the people who didn't need prayer because life was so good

and that Lady that we had just ticked off, like I was feeling

so defeated. Like Susan and I both like, we

just have the sense of like, are we doing more harm than good out

here? You know what I'm talking about.

It was like, man, what are what are we doing?

And I got to be honest, like I wanted to give up in that

moment. I didn't want to knock on any

more doors. I felt ashamed because I was met

with some resistance. And she didn't stop there,

right? She she took the QR code we

handed her and she submitted a prayer request that basically

talked about how rude it was to come on door, you know, knock on

people's doors on Sunday morning and this, that and the other.

And so, you know, I emailed her back and said, well, why don't

you turn your doorbell off? I'm joking.

I'm joking. I didn't actually do that.

I didn't do that. That's a joke.

I wanted to do that, but I but I felt terrible.

And we were both so, so defeated.

And we're like, what are we doing out here?

Here's the point. Like when we're met with

resistance, it's so easy to feel shame.

It's so easy to be embarrassed. It's so easy to want to give up.

And yet Paul to the Romans in in chapter 116, Paul writes for I

am not ashamed of the gospel. Why?

He writes because it is the power of God that brings

salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and

then to the Gentile. Paul wasn't ashamed of the

gospel because he'd experienced the power of the gospel first

hand. You and I today do not need to

be ashamed of what we believe. Be ashamed of our faith #1

because we believe Christianity is actually true.

OK? We believe that that Christ

actually raised from the dead. So we don't believe Christianity

is true just because some some book told us, although that book

is reliable and trustworthy. But we believe in the actual

historic resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that His resurrection was foretold hundreds of years

by the prophets. We believe that Jesus did

miracles while he was on this earth, and then he predicted

that he would die and be raised back to dead.

We believe that he actually was crucified under Pontius Pilate

around 30 AD and on the third day, through the power of God, a

miracle, we admit it's a miracle.

He was raised back to life, actually living and appearing to

people who then documented everything that happened.

And we believe that the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus were

willing to go to their death, refusing to recant, refusing to

renounce their faith in Jesus, just like those Coptic men,

those Christians on the beach. We believe that Christianity is

true. We do not believe that

something, all of this can come from nothing.

We don't believe that life can come from non life, that order

can come from chaos, or that the immaterial consciousness can

come strictly from physical matter.

In other words, we believe there's a creator God we believe

is sent us on Jesus so that we can know him and we can enter

into relationship with him. Scripture says that God is love

and God is invisible, but so is love.

Yet none of us would deny the power of love.

So first reason we don't need to be ashamed of the gospel is

because we believe Christianity is true.

The second reason we don't need to be ashamed of the gospel

because Christianity is beautiful.

We believe that each of us in our sin and our mistakes, we

deserve punishment, we deserve wrath and we deserve death.

But but God had a rescue plan in mind.

He was willing to send his only Son to come and live a perfect

life and die on a cross for you and for me.

We believe Christianity is beautiful because God loved us

so much that He was willing to take the punishment and the

curse of death upon himself. And the story of Scripture, all

of Scripture, points to this reality.

If you put your trust in what Jesus did on the cross, if you

put your faith in Him, and you step into his forgiveness, you

can leave eternally with him. You can be reconnected back to

your Creator, not just here on earth, but for eternity.

That's good news. We don't need to be ashamed of

that because Christianity is beautiful.

God loved us so much that he came for us, his children.

Second Timothy 1 Paul writes that is why I'm suffering as I

am. Yet this is no cause for shame

because I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that

he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

Paul is not ashamed because he knows Jesus.

He had relationship with him. He had seen him, he had spoken

with him. Christ had given him his

Commission and his calling and his second chance at life.

So Paul is like, how can I be ashamed of the one that I

actually know and the one that I actually love?

We can't be ashamed of those we truly love, right?

There was, there was this man I was, I was preparing my sermon.

This weekend he was in the library and it was very quiet in

the Kirkendale library. And all of a sudden his phone

goes off like full ring. You know, it happens.

We kind of looked around and and then he decided that he was

going to answer the phone call in the quiet library, Okay.

And not just answer it, but he put it on speakerphone.

Okay, Yeah. And so, you know, there's like,

six of us, you know, near him. And we're kind of like looking

at each other, kind of smiling, and he's off in his own world.

And we hear the entire conversation, right?

We hear about what he's going to eat for dinner tonight and

tomorrow. We hear about the brakes that

need fixed on the cars. Then he starts talking about the

prescription medication that he needs to get picked up, right?

Like all of it. All right.

And we're just kind of all like, what is going on here?

This is the library, OK. And at first, I'm sort of like,

man, what? Like, isn't he embarrassed?

Like, isn't he kind of, like, ashamed to be like, interrupting

everyone and talking? And I'm like, what?

What is compelling him to to have this conversation?

And then I realized what the reason was at the very end of

the the phone call, the person he was talking with said, all

right, Dad, I love you. I'll talk to you soon.

And in that moment, I got it right.

Like this man isn't ashamed because he's speaking to his

daughter that he loves. He's not going to miss a single

opportunity. He's going to hear every word on

speakerphone, even if it upsets the people around him, because

he's talking with someone that he loves.

He's not ashamed of her. He's not going to be ashamed of

that moment. He only cares about the one he

loves. You see, if we truly love Jesus,

we're not going to be ashamed of him, not going to be ashamed to

talk about him in front of others.

We're not going to be ashamed to proclaim him to the world.

And Paul, we find the reason that the reason he has no shame

is because it says quote, I know whom I have believed.

He knows Jesus and he was convinced.

So the reminder for all of us guys is that you and I also, we

need to have a actual growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

That means we need to take time to abide with him, to escape

with him in the secret place in prayer.

We need to actually know Him. Here's the point.

If God is just theoretical for you, if God is just head

knowledge alone for you, you're always going to be living an

insecurity about Him. You're always going to be having

doubts, feeling hypocritical when trying to live for Him

because it's not relational for you.

It's just like a head exercise. Does that make sense?

And so the invitation here is for us to truly know Jesus, like

Paul, some application for us when it comes to living and

enduring for our faith, even in the midst of resistance and

persecution #1 as a church, you and I have to do everything we

can to reject any spirit of timidity.

Second Timothy 1 again, Paul writes for the Spirit God gave

us does not make us timid. So I think every one of us needs

to be honest with ourselves. Where?

What are the areas of our faith that we're tempted to be

embarrassed by, that we're tempted to be ashamed of?

We need to be honestly examine those things.

Are we tempted to be embarrassed by some of the exclusive claims

of Christianity that Jesus is the one and only Lord, the only

one and only way to get to heaven?

Are you embarrassed by that? Is it your doubts that you're

embarrassed by? Is it the fact that you know,

science claims rationality and and logic for all things, but

but our faith involves some miraculous things like a

resurrection and we're not exactly sure how to reconcile

those things. So is that a cause for shame and

embarrassment for you? Maybe it's the Bible itself and

some of the really difficult passages, especially in the Old

Testament, right? Or maybe it's our our stance on

sexual politics and gender or whatever it may be.

The point is, be honest about it.

Where are you tempted to be embarrassed or be ashamed of

your faith or Jesus? Galatians one, Paul says.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of

God? Or am I trying to please people?

I think every one of us needs to grapple with that question in

our lives. Like who are we really trying to

impress? Who are we really trying to win

the approval of? Is it Is it the person in HR?

Is it our friend group? Is it social media?

Who is it? Are we trying to win the

approval of man or of God? My wife Susan tells a story when

she used to used to work in HR about how there was this Muslim

man who who came to her and came to the staff and asked if he

could stop work for a moment during the day in order for him

to pray, which is typical practice for Muslims.

And what he was asking was he was asking to come off of the

factory line in order to pray to his, his God.

And I just got to say, like, I, I, I don't believe that, you

know, the God of Muhammad is the father of Jesus.

I don't believe we're worshipping the same God.

And yet I got to say, like, I almost want to commend him for

his willingness to step out and faith in that way.

You know what I mean? Like that's a bold step to say,

Hey, can I, can I leave all of my Co workers while they're

working so I can go and pray during my shift?

And here's the radical part. They actually tried to

accommodate them. They weren't able to, of course,

but that's kind of interesting, right?

And I just, I bring that up to say, like, in what ways are you

willing to step out and risk for your faith?

In what ways are you maybe called to step out and and take

chances for God? So many of us are worried about

offending people and we have doubts lingering in our minds

and we worry about looking stupid.

And so we just kind of adopt this like you do you posture,

I'll do me over here. I'll have my private faith and

and you do you whatever you believe.

And what Paul is doing here is he's writing to us through

history and he's saying join with me and suffering for the

gospel. He's saying, come on in, the

water's fine. Jesus is encouraging his

disciples and encourages us through history in Matthew 5.

Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were

before you, Jesus is saying there, there will be great

reward when you step out in faith and you meet resistance

because you're doing it for me. I can't even imagine the reward

that those 21 men have in heaven.

Can you imagine the applause that they received in heaven

from the angels the moment they left earth and into eternity?

There is reward waiting for each of us who step out boldly for

our faith. So we need to reject any spirit

of timidity or fear. That's not it's not who God's

made us to be. And #2 we need to truly know and

love Jesus. There's a deep human impulse to

share things that are good and beautiful and true.

Paul had tasted experience and he knew Jesus in the good news

about him, so he was willing to go and endure suffering for him.

Each of us share what we love, whether it's technology for me

or a a deep spiritual insight that I learned or whatever it is

for you. We are meant to talk about God

and share him with others. Frank Laubach puts it this way.

I must talk about God or I cannot keep him in my mind.

I must give him away in order to have him.

So if we really want to know God, we really want him to dwell

within us and know him, we have to give him away freely.

Paul puts it this way. For Christ's love compels us.

Christ's love, if we truly know that love, it drives us outward

into a Dark World to be the light, to be salt, and to show

who He really is to the world around us.

We need to discover His goodness and His love more and more

because we cannot be ashamed of those that we truly love.

Look, my kids make some mistakes.

They make kid size mistakes right now.

But one day they'll be teenagers.

And when they're teenagers, they'll likely make teenage size

mistakes and eventually they'll become adults.

And it's very, very likely that they will make adult sized

mistakes as well. But even when they make

mistakes, I can never be ashamed of them because I love them.

Even when they mess up or they do something embarrassing, as a

parent, I'm never going to have shame about them.

I'm never going to reject them or refuse to claim them.

Why? Because I love them.

Because they're mine. We, in the same way, need to get

to know Jesus if we truly don't want to be ashamed of him.

Spending daily time with him, Going on walks with him in

prayer. Reading just one chapter a day

in the Gospels, Getting to know his word.

Joining a discipleship band with two or three others in order to

hold each other accountable, to learn how to actually obey and

follow Jesus's teachings. Maybe it's setting alarm, an

alarm early to pray with him in the morning or setting alarm at

noon to remind yourself to pray. Whatever it is, don't be ashamed

of him. Live for him.

Truly learn to love him. I'm going to invite Josiah to,

to come back up and play underneath us when it came to

that prayer walk. And it came to that Lady who was

very upset with us. God, God bless her.

I, I still pray for her, by the way, that poor mom, we've been

there. But when I think about that Lady

and I think about that perceived persecution that I felt, I was

so tempted to give up and I was so disheartened.

And in that moment, I almost called the whole thing off and

texted people and been like, this is a terrible idea, right?

But instead we pressed on. And I remember we knocked on a

few more doors. And I remember we encountered

this one lady who we knocked on the door.

She came out and we said, Hey, we're with presence church.

We're just trying to pray for the needs of the community.

Is there anything that we can pray for you about?

And she said, actually, yes, there is.

She said, my, my stepson, whom I love was, was just deployed to

the Middle East. And we're we're very scared and

we said, Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for being

willing to share. You know, we have a prayer team.

And if, if you'd like, like, we can have our team pray for that.

We will pray for that. But if you'd like, we could, we

could also pray for you right now.

Either way is fine. And she said, yeah, I think I'd

like for you to pray right now. And so Susan and I and the kids

on a stranger's doorstep, we we prayed for this lady who was

going through a really hard time.

And we were able to just share Jesus with her in that moment.

And it wasn't just that Lady. But then I started getting text

messages from all the other people who were out and about in

the community on the prayer walk.

And I got to hear some of the testimonies that were coming

out, testimonies about how people were praying over those

who just found out they had cancer, those whose loved ones

were hurting, those who were down and out and didn't know how

they were going to make it to the next day or the next meal.

And, and more and more and more these text messages begin to

flood in. And my soul was so encouraged.

And I thought to myself, why was I ever ashamed to be out here

for Jesus? You see, if we're truly living

for Christ and we're truly trying to live for Him in

boldness and in truth, the reality is we might make some

mistakes. There might be some babies that

get woken up. There might even be some

resistance and there will be persecution.

If we're truly living for Him, we need to remember that

obedience won't always feel successful, and we may not

always see the fruit. But we need to remember Jesus's

words when he says blessed are those who are persecuted because

of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

We need to remember that it's never a bad idea to be bold for

Jesus, that our reward is the Kingdom, and that Jesus is

always worth sharing, always worth sharing.

Church. The Kingdom advances on earth

not by forcing what we believe unto others, but rather sharing

what we love even when we face resistance.

So the question for each of us is, what are you afraid of?

What are you really afraid of? As a younger man, when it came

to living for my faith, I was afraid of missing out on fun.

As a younger man, I was afraid of people not liking me, I was

afraid of life being too hard when living for Jesus, and I was

afraid of danger and persecution.

But as I get older, as I get older, my fears shift and I find

myself now being more concerned of not making a difference in

this life. I'm more concerned now of what

legacy that I'm leaving for my kids.

Up to know. Jesus.

As an adult as. I get older, I'm more concerned

about compromising for my faith. And my fears.

Have shifted my fear now. Is that I wouldn't live.

Fully into all that God has for me and the calling He's placed

on my life. So my encouragement to you.

Is this? If you're going to be afraid, if

you're going to be concerned, start being concerned about the

right things and not the silly things.

Leave it. All on the field for.

Jesus, just like those 21 men did.

It should have been 20, but there was 21 because there's

that man from Ghana said there. God is my God.

Remember that monuments were built in.

Their honor? They were declared as martyrs,

and their stories continue to inspire millions of people

across the globe. Leave it all in the field for

Jesus, because even in the face. Of persecutions and setbacks and

resistance, even when we are getting called names.

When we're. Being insulted.

When opportunities are being taken away from us, Jesus calls

us happy. He calls us blessed and even if.

People, take your life. On this earth, even if your life

on earth comes to an end, Jesus says congratulations because

yours is the Kingdom and his Kingdom will never end So as a.

Church, may we just. Step out in boldness for Him,

even in the face of persecution. May we fall in love with Jesus

and then share what He love, what we love, but may we do.

It with the power. Of the Spirit which does not

make us timid or fearful.