Steadfastness in Full Effect.

We'll be in James 1 still starting in verse 2:00.

We, we started there last week, but I think especially with the

events this last week, going back through and just kind of

stepping through it. Count it all joy, brother, my

brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for, you know,

the testing of your face. Fate produces steadfastness, and

let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect

and complete, lacking nothing. If you lack wisdom.

Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without

reproach, and it will be given him.

But let him ask in faith with no dialing.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven

and tossed by the wind. For the person, that person must

not suppose that he received anything from the Lord.

He's a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.

And you can also put your look up Act 6.

We'll be in We'll be there later.

And so this is one of those one of those moments in the world to

what is counted all joy look like, right.

If you look at Charlie and I I don't want to as I go through

this there, there's an end to my study, but I I don't want you

guys to make it. I don't want to sound like I am

making light of of what what happened to Charlie.

What if you guys don't? If does everybody know?

What I'm talking about? Anybody not know what I'm

talking about? Charlie Kirk, the founder of

Turning Point, debated on college campuses and he was shot

and killed this week. His wife is going through this

right now, right? Charlie's, Charlie's with the

Lord, but his wife and his children are going to go through

this. And the thing and I was I was

sharing with Aunt Sherry last night was there there's going to

come a point where life gets quiet in her life, right?

Right now, it is it is out in in light and everybody sees it.

But it's going to get quiet and she's going to get alone.

And those are the times that she's going to need need our

prayers. So don't stop praying for her,

right? Don't start praying for those

that go through this now around the world, everyday tragedy

happens, right? This one happened on T on on

YouTube and it's filmed, but it happens everywhere, right?

The question is, how do we respond, right?

And are we steadfast, steadfast in our faith because we have

allowed the maker to make right? And that's the that's when it's

counted all joy when you fall into various trials, right?

Because he's making you steadfast through that, through

your faith and you've been tested and tried.

And, and I would tell you that that Charlie's wife didn't wake

up and suddenly have the ability to stand up and share the way

she did. That was, that was something God

built into her over over the time they've been together,

right? This is a, this has not been a,

this was a sudden end to his life, but not a sudden battle in

their lives, right? They've been, they've been out

sharing what the Lord's putting on his heart and on their heart

for their entire marriage. And, and what she's laying back

in right now. And what we lay back in in those

moments is knowing he has a plan, right?

Not knowing he has a plan today. Like I talked about last week,

the tools that we're being made into that, that he has a plan

for that, that all things that we trust him, that he's in

control of it. Steadfast, which is the, the

title of the, the study today is steadfastness in full effect.

And steadfast just means immovable or loyal.

It's firm or fixed in place. It's, it's determination, right?

And you don't, so you don't coast through life ignoring the

Lord and doing what you want to do.

And, and then when the trial comes, have steadfastness.

It doesn't work like that, right?

You, you, you get what? When, when the struggle comes,

you need to have that steadfastness which is built

over time. And it's, it's not built because

you work hard. It's built because you've

surrendered those things to him, you know, and there are, we have

shared in the past, Joe and Jenny Cotta are and, and one day

Joe will come and they probably around Christmas, he'll probably

come up and share with you guys about about his son.

But when they lost Jacob, that is So that isn't the day that

they applied their steadfastness, right?

That isn't the day that they went, oh, we need to, we need to

act like Christians, right? They were already there.

They were prepared. They didn't want to be prepared,

right? That wasn't.

But then at that moment they had an opportunity to use the trial,

the the awful to share and and people got saved.

Right, I, I wish you could have seen.

Jacobs Jacobs celebration of life and I've I had a had a kid

at a man I graduated high school would have graduated high school

with died at young and his funeral was at 16 years old.

Zach's funeral was to this day like it just sad.

It was it was it was sad. It was heartbreaking, right?

And I was not a believer and neither was he and his fit.

You know, there was crying and it was it was a hard thing to

bury a classmate. And then I go to Jacob's funeral

that lasted and I am not kidding, 3 hours of people up

front singing and talking about Jacob.

And there were, there was a joke about a yellow suit and there

were probably 1520 kids that it went out and bought these, I

mean, like Minion yellow suits. And it was a day of celebration

of Jacob's life because we absolutely knew where he was at.

Absolutely. And and that was not a not a

guess. And, and but that wasn't

something that they applied for that day, right?

That was something that was built in that, that Joe and

Jenny had done, that they had, they had went through the

battles that got him to that point.

And like I said, I'll let him tell one day.

He'll come and and share with you a he's he's an awesome

teacher but Hebrews Hebrews 12/2 kind of looks into this looking

to Jesus, the founder perfector and in the new King James.

It's the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that

was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and

he sitted. He's seated at the right.

He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and do we

in all things, even this right when when she got the phone call

or or saw the video, I don't know how she was informed or she

might have been there. Did she trust the maker?

Did she trust the author right? Do we trust the author when

things suck? They will tell you that my my

most annoying dad statement that my kids ever hear is if it's

funny later, it's funny now. And and that works for

everything up to death, right? I mean it.

It let broken bones, wrecked cars.

We all tell the story later. Laughing about it.

Whatever it is, even if it's the stupidest thing I've ever done

right or the most horrific moment.

But it's funny later because now I can tell a story about it.

And so if it's funny later, it's funny now.

But part of that is perspective. Do you know who our God is?

Do you know how big he is? Do you know how much he's in

charge? And the, we're going to talk

about martyrs today. And I don't know that

everybody's calling Charlie a martyr, and I don't know if he

would have called himself a martyr.

So I don't want to put that on that, but I do want to do some

comparisons. And Nate St. and Jim Elliott and

two other guys back in the, I think it was in the early 50s,

died on a beach in Ecuador. And they died on a beach trying

to reach a try, a tribe that hadn't been reached, that was

known to be known to be killers. And they thought they had, they

had an open door, they had had breakfast, they had, they had

had a meeting the day before and everything was good.

And somewhere there there was a miscommunication with the tribe.

And the tribe came and killed them all the next day on the

beach. And their story is, if you guys

ever want to read a the it's into the spear.

And it is four guys that absolutely knew what they were,

they were being asked to do and what they were willing to do for

it. And I've got some.

I don't know what no it no, this this this went dead.

So yeah, just a second, guys. All right, so so there's Jim

Elliott, Elizabeth Elliott. These are people that you get to

hear fake quote Elizabeth a lot, but Nate St. was the pilot and

it I read so they all have they all have biographies and Nate

Saints biography. If you if you want to read it's

like now and then's they're like 8th grade level reading books.

They are amazing to read about great Christians that have lived

over the years and Nate St. has one of those that just explains

how how much God had built into him.

It wasn't like wasn't that he graduated from high school and

said, hey, I'm willing to go to Ecuador.

And die on a beach. Right there was a process of

learning and, and how that happened in his life that that

God built him to be that man. And then his son, his son has

started a lot of nonprofits over the years.

He he does ministry in that country and his quote, his name,

Steve St. and he has a quote that says, I have come to

understand that life is too complex and much too short to

let an amateur direct the story. I would rather let the master

storyteller do the writing and do we do that?

Do we trust that? I don't know, do I do I trust

that do when I when I'm reading my Bible or when things come at

me, do I trust that the way he says I'm supposed to deal with

it is the right way to deal with it?

Or do I apply my logic and do I trust his story to eternity over

my plan for next week? And that was, I'm sure you guys

have all over the years with, with different things, but mine

was a money thing way back when. And it was one of those days

that I had a calculator and I could enter the numbers and I'm

like, it ain't going to work. And I know what he's saying, but

we're not going to do that because that won't work.

I've done the math. If I worked, if I worked 60

hours of overtime a week, we still lose the house in three

months. It's a horrible plan.

We can't do it. And Fast forward to we actually

by the rest decided to do it and had no idea how it was going to

work. And then it worked beyond my

ability to cover it because he knew.

He knew what the he knew the numbers didn't enter in the

calculator. I didn't, right.

I had numbers that I thought, yeah, but you don't know what

you don't. You have no idea what the

numbers are. And that's the part with the

storyteller versus he has a plan for eternity, and I have a plan

for as far as I can see. Right.

And if they was talking about that this morning with being in

the moment, right. Don't worry about tomorrow.

When we look at the big picture, Elizabeth Elliott, which is one

of the guys on the beach, his wife, and she talks about faith

like this. And faith is not an instinct.

It is certainly not a feeling. Feelings don't help when you're

in the lion's den or hanging on a wooden cross.

Faith is not infirm inferred from the happy way things work.

It's an act of will, a choice based on an on the unbreakable

word of God who cannot lie and who shows us what love and

obedience and sacrifice means in the person of Jesus Christ

right. So and and her story guys, is

ever just want to live your life in conviction Read one of her

books because when, when Elizabeth said when Elizabeth

Elliott says embrace the suck, she she has reference right?

That is, you know, her, her husband died when her when her

daughter was just born. Her next husband died of cancer.

I mean she's she's got and and never lost her joy, right?

She has she has a a story that is inspirational, but it wasn't

because. She was out trying to make that

story. Right, she really just went

where God want She has a thing about just do the next thing

right And that is that's how Elizabeth Elliott walked walked

with Christ and that's what I would tell you Jessica or not

Jessica Charlie's wife is doing. I just forgot her name.

What is it, Erica? That is what she's doing the

next thing, right? And we can count it all joy when

we have faith that's beyond our understanding.

And when when we have that base, we are able to be used to

perform steadfastly the job God intended us for, right?

And that is, you know, the guys on the beach, they had a gun.

And the story is that they didn't, I mean that nobody was

there with them, but they didn't use the gun because the, the

natives, the, the reason those four guys were on the beach was

that those guys got to hear about Christ and have a chance

for eternal life and shooting them.

The four guys that they got to go to be in glory, but if they

were to shoot any of the their attackers, their attackers

weren't going to glory. Now, I'm not saying that I'm

not, I'm not adding a theological statement there, but

that's the facts, right? They had a gun that they didn't

use and had the ability to use it.

And Jim Elliott said one of his quotes is he is no fool who

gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose,

Right. And and that's that, do we trust

the Lord? And there's nothing that's

that's this week as I was. As I was.

Pondering this and me and the Lord were talking like, Lord, is

there anything I'm holding between me and you?

Is there something, Is there anything I'm not willing to give

up if you asked? You know, I mean, guys, come in

here. One of the things I had to give

up was Africa, right? That's that's one of those

right. That's a that's a ministry.

God gave me a a heart. God gave me.

Now I still get to go, but it's not my focus.

And it was something that I mean, that was a like, I think

Mark shared that, you know, that was one of his concerns was I

was going to come and be a African missionary with the

church and God in no one certain term said that can't be.

You know, that was part of our my my walk with him through it

was Lord, you've given me, you've given me a a burden.

And he says, and, and he was, and I carry that burden egg.

That's for me to carry. You got to give it you, you, you

take the burden I give you and and you know, it's, it's that's

who I've been for. I mean, that's who I've, I've

been for the last almost 20 years is the guy that goes to

Africa, the, the guy that, you know, if you want to know about

mission work in Africa, I'm the guy to talk to.

You know, for years they called me a missionary and they used to

laugh at him and go, no, I, I go to Africa every, I go to Africa

every every year. But that doesn't make me a

missionary when I lived there. We can talk about that.

But and so, but being willing, no matter what, God's asking you

to lay it down, right is, is to be flexible with that.

And, and he does change what he's doing with you, right?

So being willing to never hold something and think this is

mine, letting him tell the story.

So when we look at James and John and this is another one of,

of the guys that This Is Us. I, I always look at James and

John and think I would do this James and John.

So this is Matt Mark 1035 and 37, James and John's the son of

deputy came to him and said, teacher, we, we want you to do

whatever we ask, ask of you. It's a new mic up here.

And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, grant us to sit one on your right hand

and the other on your left in glory, in your glory.

And what they thought they wanted was power and comfort in

this world. You know anybody like that?

And in the end, they do get to sit on Thrones, right?

Jesus promised in Matthew 19 verse 28.

Matthew 19:28

It says truly, I say to you in the new world, when the Son of

Man will sit on his glory, on glorious on his glorious throne,

you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones judging

the 12 tribes. And and this is picking on James

and John. But all of the apostles were

looking at Jesus and the power that they witnessed him used.

And they believed that they would have Thrones and they were

planning for their next week, right?

Or their or the next month. And they could see that they

were on the winning team. They were with the guy that was

going to that was going to come in and kick Rome out.

Well, his story to use them did change the world, right?

And he built the but, but in the process, he built them into the

tools that he needed for the task in his story.

They all did get Thrones. They there, there was just more

of a cost than they thought there was going to be when they

asked that question. So if you look down through the

group of them, Peter was crucified upside down.

James the greater was beheaded. James the less stoned and beaten

to death. Jude beaten to death with clubs

and hacked with an axe. Philip crucified by soldiers.

Thomas blows of a spear, Simon stabbed with a sword Bartholomew

was crucified. Andrew nailed to the to an XX

shaped cross. Matthew was crucified and John

did die, but he was he was first.

There's, there's a tradition that said he was boiled an oil

and didn't die and that's why he ended up on a on the island of

Patmos in exile, but he ended up dying of natural causes.

They don't have. There's, there's a rumor out

there that he never died, but that is kind of funny when that

rumor comes up because he in in John points out that that isn't

what that means because Peter asked, well, what about him?

And Jesus said, what if it what if he stays until I come?

And John says, some people say that's because I never died, but

that's not true. I'm going to die.

So just kind of a a funny to side.

But when I heard about Charlie getting shot this week, I

instantly, like I said, started thinking about where I was in

this as far as am I ready for that?

You know, I mean, I don't, I don't have people shooting at

me, but there's a guy in in the tri-cities, Rick Thursby died

suddenly. He was walking across the

parking lot and talking to guys about Jesus.

If you, if you knew him, that's his life in general.

He was a salesman, but he was he was always sharing and massive

heart attack died in the parking lot and Rick left a hole right.

There was a where Rick filled filled the filled the church

with people from all over the community for his for his

service. But he left a hole.

He left a hole at work. He left a hole in his church.

He left a hole in ministry. He left a hole in his house.

He left a hole. And what that means is there was

there was a reason for him, right?

And God had been using him in all these people's lives.

And and when he passed, suddenly he left a hole.

But he was ready, right? And and I would tell you when

you, when you watch Charlie and you watch his, his life, he was

ready, not he wasn't. I want to go, you know, I'm sure

just like any daddy wants to, he wants to watch his kids grow up.

And but he was ready. And when you listen to the way

he could share that I was, he's 30 years old now.

He has kids or was 30 years old has kids.

And if you watch him six years ago, seven years ago, he his,

his, he was more abrasive on the political side.

And the longer, the more, the more time he got, the more

maturity he got, the more he just kept pointing him to

Christ, right? And, and you can, I mean, he's

got an ability or had an ability to just explain it in a non

argumentative way that shut down their arguments.

Not and and not because arguing with people never works.

I always tell people it's really simple.

You just have to go back to being a kid.

And have you ever been arguing with your parents and halfway

through the argument figured out you were dead wrong at that

moment? Did you say I'm sorry, I'm wrong

or did you dig your heels in and go, I'm winning this argument?

That's what that's what happens to an argument, right?

Arguments don't work. Now conversations, sharing,

sharing truth being will list the other person, right?

That works because it makes the other person think.

I always think about Jesus and the Pharisees in in the temple.

They came to him and said, by what power do you do these

things? And he goes, I will answer that

question if you answer mine. Who sent John?

Was he, was he from God or from man?

And they got over by themselves and they're like, well, if we

say it was from God, then they'll ask why we're not

following him. And if we would say it was from

man, they're going to stone us. So they came back and said,

we're not answering. Well, all those Pharisees had to

go home alone and decide why they couldn't answer that

question. Why, if they were, if they were

the, you know, that Jesus asked him a question they couldn't

answer and they had to sit not in the they don't get it.

They don't go home in a mob. They go home alone.

And when you're talking to somebody, when you're sharing

with somebody, what you want to share with them is what Jesus

said, right? Because you want them going home

arguing with Christ. That's you don't want them

arguing with me, right? You don't want them arguing with

you because they can win that argument.

If you've ever done that, you know, you walk away from an

argument that you were losing, but you walk away and you think

of all the ways you could have won if I did just said this or I

just said that. If you leave them with what the

Bible says it it takes all the wiggle room out.

That's just what it says. You know, if somebody tells you

they're not a Sinner, but they believe the Bible, you can take

them to Romans 323 and says all, all of sin and fall short of the

glory of God, right. And I didn't say that God did

right. And it's that kind of that kind

of conversation, but being willing and stepping into that

and then remembering something I'm sure Charlie knew we're not

wrestling against flesh and blood, right?

Ephesians 612 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and

blood, blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

And then I want to. I want to flavor that with And

no, there is not a. Demon under every rock.

Right, That is not, that is not what what's being said there,

but what is being said there is that the enemy wants to drag as

many souls to hell with him as he can take because the only way

he can hurt God is by hurting us.

That's it. He, he doesn't have any more he,

he is not at God's level. If anybody doesn't know that he

is, he is a created being and has zero power to affect God

except where he gets to hurt God's people.

Right. And if you ever want to read a a

book about how manipulative and how easily manipulated we are,

read Screw Tape Letters by CS Lewis.

It's it's a great picture of how quickly we can overcompensate to

the left or to the right. But to remember that people you

meet on the street are not our enemies, right?

They no matter their actions. Now, sin is sin and call it what

it is, right? But but remember that without

Jesus, we're all lost, dying blind, right?

We we have to remember our position without him, right?

Romans 58 says but show but God showed his love for us that

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And this is something that so I've been saved for 24 years now

and I, I truly remember the first 30 years of my life.

I can tell you I need you, I need Jesus.

I can remember the last 24 years of life, my life, and I can tell

you I need Jesus every day, all day long.

And there's never a point where I think that I have arrived and

I don't need as much Jesus today as I needed the day I got saved.

He died for me, not because I was worthy, not because I was

good. He died for me because I needed

a savior. And everybody that isn't a

believer today needs a savior, needs him.

And what he did on the cross and he did it.

He did it for me while I was still his enemy.

And he's done it for them while they are still his enemy, right?

Because when we are when we're battling for souls, Satan wants

as many to be lost as can be, right.

So Job 17 is, is one of these scenes.

Lord said to Satan, from where have you come?

And Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro on

the earth and walking up and down and seeing who I can

devour, right? That's his goal now it's Job's

response to that is is because of the work he put in, right?

Because as Joel went, as Job went through trials, Job was

able to stand when the time came.

So God cannot touch us, right? That was wrong because Satan

cannot touch God. He can hurt those God loves, but

if we pray if we're prayed up and trust in the Lord, all the

enemy can do is add to our faith.

That's all he can do to us right because as you rest in in

Jesus's strength, you get to see his power right Job 121 is this

is Job says naked I come come from my mother's room and naked

I shall return the Lord gave the Lord is taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord and that is just understanding

and Job understood who God was in his life right?

Because not because Job once again, not because Job didn't

know who God was and didn't didn't trust in him for his

entire he trusted him and went through the process and when and

when the suck happened, God had prepared him for it.

Last week I talked about James being the first of the apostles

to die. And so here in Acts 12, James,

the brother of John was killed with the sword, but the first

martyr was a man named Stephen. And I, I think the, the

correlations between Stephen and Charlie in just their, the way

they, they went out. And I've been thinking about how

they went out together and they, they would have been brothers.

I, I imagine Charlie at this point would be telling me that I

need to shut up and not compare him with Steven.

But there, there's a lot of similarities.

Steven was a was full of faith in the Holy Spirit And and if

you watch Charlie's life, he the way he shared his faith, there

was a Holy Spirit clarity, a gift that he was given by God to

do that. There was a Rolodex.

And if you watch him rapid fire scriptures and be able to and

that isn't just because he is smart, right?

It's when you have the the book memorized to the point that you

can do that. You still have to be able to.

Organize it and there's a. It it's a gift that the Holy

Spirit gives some people to be able to do that.

And he had that, but he had it in such a way that it didn't

come off. Condescending, right?

He. Can he can truly share with

people and I, I believe Stephen in in Acts 6 is when he gets

chosen and they say and and they chose Stephen, a man full of

faith and the Holy Spirit. So Stephen was loved by all

those he knew. If you read that if you read

chapter 6 you'll see it and and Charlie was loved by as by many.

He reflected Christ and if you listen to all of the and I don't

listen to all of it I I avoid a lot of it.

But if you listen to everybody talking right now, the there is

a bunch of people that love him and have no and not because

they're believers. I mean, we'll pick on Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan is not a believer, right?

He wouldn't claim he is. And he loves Charlie because of

his just straightforward honesty, right, of sharing his

faith and doesn't, I mean, he doesn't know what that power is

that Charlie had, but he does know that it was respectable.

I have a a guy in the tri-cities Bruno.

I'm sure you've heard about him because I I only have so many

guys that impressed me. Bruno.

I have AI want to make him a shirt that says we don't

disappoint Bruno. He's our he's the safety guy and

Bruno loves people and Bruno loves the Lord and and his

ability to combine those two in in his role as the safety guy is

phenomenal. Because when you insight support

and it used to be our specific safety guy, insight support.

Like I have 20 people when we're online and you can make a

relationship with 20 people pretty easy.

But when we go into outage that grows to 400 people and Bruno

could get buy in from all of them. 16 years we went without

an OSHA recordable, which is on a phenomenal thing when you're

bringing in that many people every two years and doing that

kind of work. But everybody asked would ask

him what what his secret was. And this is Bruno in corporate

offices and everywhere. They would be like, how have you

done it, Jesus? Like, let me be clear, Jesus.

And they were like, yeah, but no, it's Jesus.

And he would get he would get frustrated with with us because

we would give him credit. And I said, Bruno, we're not

giving. I mean, you know, me and him

have a have a relationship with these guys are not giving.

They're giving you credit because you reflect Christ to

them. They don't know that.

I mean, you tell them all the time, but they don't they're

they're blind to their why does it work?

But the reason it works is because you truly care about

them. You truly do not want one of

them to get hurt. And not because there's

paperwork and not because it costs money and not because

there's a there, there is a there's, there's a streak, but

because when you cut your finger and go to Bruno, he hurts for

you. I mean, it's and I I not in AI

could not pull it off like I was joking.

Tell Faye I shouldn't be a pastor.

I don't love people enough. Bruno really cares and and he

can share that with people and that's something that's a gift

that he has in reflecting Christ.

And I believe Charlie had that gift when you watched him talk

to people that would come up and be very combative and he would

have a way of sharing with him and sharing truth and being

direct. And there were some that were

just purely there to have the fight, though that he, they

couldn't have, but some of them got to nodding along because of

how he was sharing. And and that's just loving

people in truth, right? You don't win.

We, we cannot win the battle that we're, we're in with hate,

right? If, if Christians are saved, if

you picture us being in lifeboats, those that are not

saved are in the water. And very often what we do is

scold them for being wet, right? And we're not wet.

We're dry. We're up in the we're up in the

boat. Why are you so wet?

Get off my boat. You're getting it wet, right?

I mean, that's that's the thing. But then if you, if you take

that a step further, when I go in after them, anybody, ever,

anybody ever done lifeguard class?

If you if you try to rescue a drowning victim, what is the

drowning victim going to try to do, right?

Is that because they don't need to be saved?

No, right. That's their reaction.

And so we as believers need to need to know our position,

right, That we are supposed to be out there saving those people

that are drowned, not, not adding water to them, not, not,

not scolding them for being wet, but actually getting wet

ourselves in it, not, not sinning, right?

Everybody goes, well, Jesus, Jesus always hung out with

sinners and he did. And then they quit sinning,

right? He didn't go and he didn't go,

he didn't go drink and cuss with him.

He went and retrieved him and said, you know, be saved and sin

no more, right? That's so.

But we need to be out in our community sharing with people.

I mean, that's Charlie going into going on to college

campuses, that's going into the community, right and being

willing to have those conversations.

But if we try to do it without God's grace, it's like a toddler

trying to fight a 30 year old. That's the part with the enemy

that we have to understand that the only way we win a battle is

if the, if the Holy Spirit does it right.

If, if a toddler runs in here and wants to wants to fight me,

he loses. But if his dad walks in, right,

the toddler, the toddler wins that fight because dad's got it,

right? And that's, that's us to

remember that we are not, we're not, you know, we don't defy

Satan. Jesus takes him off out of the

way, right? We need to be in Christ having

that battle. We need to be prayed up, right?

And this is, this is Steven, right?

Steven, picture Steven at an open mic.

This is Steven at an open mic. Acts 68 and if you don't know

what the open mic thing is, that's that is Charlie Kirk went

to college campuses and put an open mic up and let him ask him

questions and they talked right. So verse 8 it says and Steven

full of grace and power was going was was doing great

wonders and signs among the people and some of those

belonging to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called,

and the sirens and of the Alexandrians and of those from

Sicily, Sicily and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen.

But they could not withstand the wisdom, this and the spirit with

which he was speaking. Then they secretly incited men

who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against

Moses. And they stirred up the people

and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and

seized him and brought him before them and the council.

And it goes on. Has Charlie ever been misquoted?

Have you ever been, you know, ran through the mud?

Has the culture tried all the same tools as the freedmen did

to Stephen? Right.

What we know is the enemy is using things that work, and are

we ready for those things? And how we get ready And how

Stephen was ready is he was prayed up and prepared.

We don't, we don't argue with the freed men.

We, we, we share truth with them.

Are we ready in our steadfastness?

Is is it in full effect? Right?

Are we have we have we embraced the trials to build us into what

he want us, wants us to be? Charlie or Steven?

Neither one of them are out looking for a fight.

They share truth and love by grace that God had given them.

They could and they could not withstand their wisdom.

So that wisdom wasn't because Stephen was ultra smart or

Charlie was ultra smart. And if you, I encourage you, if

you have not read all of all of the the story of Stephen, I

encourage you to get into Chapter 7 because Stephen, a

young man went in front of the council and explain to them who

Jesus was from Genesis to Malachi, right?

And explain to them that they should believe in Jesus because

he's all over here. Let me give you your history

lesson. This was a young man teaching

the smartest religious people in the country.

Sound like anybody you know, right?

And but we're going to close with this and I think this is

more important and I think it's really what turning point is

about what our church should be about is, is truly sharing the

Lord's heart with people and his ability to save those that are

lost. That's the thing.

Do we believe that he can save those that are lost?

So the people we could blame for Charlie, right?

The the ones that post stupid things and and worse, the

possibly encouraging the murderer.

Our flesh wants wants like judgement on that guy.

We want we want vengeance. We want, we want those

responsible to be judged. And I, I want you guys to read

Acts 7. It says then they this is, this

is Stephen dying. And then they cast him out of

the city and stoned him. And the witness laid down, the

witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young

man named Saul. Anybody know who that is in

Acts? Saul goes on in Acts 8.

And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the

Church of Jerusalem. And there were all they were all

scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the

except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and

made great lamentations. But Saul ravaged the church and

the entire house after and and entered house after house.

He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Now in today's world, if I see a Saul, am I praying for him?

Do I trust that God has a plan? Now doesn't mean we don't get to

stand up for we don't get to stand in right places and defend

against appal or a Saul. But am I concerned about his

eternity? Saul was full of zeal and

passion and Jesus allowed it in his story.

How and why I'm not I, I don't go into that, but I do know

because of Paul's beginning. Paul was a crazily intelligent

man who had all the reasons in the world to be prideful and

because of his beginning as he talks about himself.

First Corinthians 15/9, it says he is his his words unworthy to

be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.

Ephesians 3/8 I am the very least of the Saints.

First Timothy 112 through 15 in different spots.

It says I'm a blasphemer, A persecutor and an insolent

opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly

and unbelief. Do we do we trust that they

don't know what they don't know? And then his last line is that

Christ came into the world to save sinners of who I am the

foremost. I am the I am the the biggest

Sinner. Do we today, when you look at

your life can, can you apply some of that to you?

Do you recognize what God was willing to do to save you the

sins he paid for for you? And then when you look at the

world and can we can we trust that he has a use for everybody?

The the most colorful rainbow person out there, the most

ridiculous, right. There's a story of a guy that

goes to Calvary tri-cities. I don't know who it is.

He he came in for counseling and when he was in his 20s of one of

the, one of the pastors shared this when he was in his 20s, he,

he had an operation because he thought he was a girl.

You can't fix that. You don't there.

There's not a backup button, but God got he, he got forgiveness

and he got forgiveness and he gets to live his life in Christ

today There he still has all of that garbage, right?

But that, I mean, he was as extreme as you get and but he

was lost and blind and dying and God saved him, right?

Do we trust God to be able to do that?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm second, second Timothy 310.

In the end, it all burns, right? If they don't know Christ, there

is judgment coming and it's awful, but the day of the Lord

will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a

roar in the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolve in the

earth, and the works that are done in it will be exposed.

So nobody gets away with it, right?

Hitler didn't get away with it, right?

It's it's eternity. He calls us to love our enemies

in Matthew and those those are our enemies and those who

persecute us and and this is a time in our life in our in our

country. I was sharing with with Luke and

Jessica before the service that that is Americans, we we have a

burden because we live in a free country in China.

When persecution happens, they know how to respond because

they're not free. They're not free, they're not

armed. They don't have liberty and, and

we very often want to stand on that.

And what we need to stand on is Lord, how do we reach them?

Because in the end, guys, it all burns.

And if we, if, if the whole time we're just scolding them for

being wet, We've, we've missed the point of our purpose, right?

The day I got saved, if my purpose was not to witness for

Him and share with others about Him and what He's done in my

life, the day I got saved, I'd have been out of here, right?

Because I can worship the Lord way better in heaven than I can

down here. I will know more about the Lord

and His Word. I will know way more up in

heaven than I will down here. I'll be able to speak to the

Lord way more clearly in heaven than I will here, but tell

others about Him. I won't be able to tell anybody

about the Lord in heaven because they'll already know right?

And we don't want to be that group right.

We want to be out there sharing and accepting the trials that

we've got. And Elizabeth Elliott, my my

last little tidbit on on what this kind what I'm talking about

as far as not doing it in our strength.

They don't go out of here thinking that I'm saying, you

know, go do be in prayer and ask the Lord what does he want you

to do? Because that's what we can do in

his, in his power. Elizabeth Elliott with her

three-year old, went to that village in the jungle that

killed her, her, her husband and her daughter's father and live

with those people. And she didn't, it wasn't she

didn't go and live with those people after another group had

went in and witnessed to them. No, she went in and ministered

to the men who killed her husband.

Like I said, if you want conviction, she's got it.

But she didn't do that because she was a good Christian person,

right? That wasn't Elizabeth Elliott

didn't wake up and go, you know what I should do?

And it would look really good on my resume.

I should go and visit these people.

God told her to go, and she obeyed.

And was it easy? No.

But it's a supernatural thing, right?

It's not something we do in our own strength.

It's not because we're picking. I I'm supposed to go to church

on Sunday. You know, God, God doesn't have

a star book up there. He wants to use us in in

magnificent ways. And that takes embracing those

trials. That's when I say when we count

it all joy and we fall into various trials.

It's because he's building us into what he needs for those

moments. So we're prepared for the

battles ahead. I was close with Corey Tenboom,

which is another one of those people.

Jesus did not promise to change the circumstances around us.

He promised great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to

believe that God actually controls it all.

And how we get to have steadfastness in full effect is

testing and trials. Give us faith when we when we

rely on Him and faith builds our steadfastness, our firmness, and

gives us the ability for complete surrender to his plan

into eternity. So we should count it all joy

when we fall into various trials because it's what's going to

prepare us for what he has for us to do.

And Lord, I just thank you for everybody here and I thank you

for this time. And Lord, a thank you for the,

the ministry of Charlie Kirk and what you're going to do with

that. Lord, in advance, I'll thank you

for that. 18,000 new charters is is an amazing number that that

there would be people that would do it in you Lord, that you

would speak through them or that it would light a fire in our

country that that couldn't be put out.

Or that it would change our young people that they would

take the take this country and turn it into the light that it

could be in this world. That we would affect the world

in a positive way with your light Lord.

But that only happens through you.

Fill us with your Spirit in Jesus name, Amen.