Hope When the World Hates

I heard the story a few years uh back and it's kind of stuck with me.

Um someone had brought this pine tree to uh England and they placed it in this greenhouse, uh, but it didn't seem to thrive there over time.

The tree kind of grew weak and spindly, and the gardener realizing he couldn't do much with it, he just kind of threw it out into them in Newarkill.

Surprisingly, surprisingly, though, the tree flourished in the environment and grew into a splendid tree.

It turned out that the tree needed a climate that was suited for its natural conditions.

It was meant to grow in cold conditions, enjoying cold winds and rough weather, but had been struggling in the artificial warmth of the greenhouse.

As we unpack this text this morning, this situation parallels true to Christianity.

It often doesn't thrive as well in comfort, comfortable settings as it does in times of great difficulty.

Christians become stronger when they find themselves in a challenging situation.

You see, grace generally reaches those who endure significant trials and through much tribulation inherit the kingdom of God.

You see, the disciples in previous from these uh previous verses and chapters, uh, the disciples are in angst, right?

Jesus is about to lead them.

We're told that he's going to be, they're going to deny him, that he's going to go away, that he's going to be crucified.

So there's this heaviness that's settling over this table with these men.

But then Jesus in John 15 talks about abiding in the vine and the the experience now and eternally that they're going to have, the fruit that they're going to bear.

So this has to be front of mind as we're working through this text this morning.

While there's many benefits and beauties of being a part of the vine, being a disciple of Christ comes with a cost.

Jesus today does not sugarcoat or shy away what it means to be his disciple and the things that we're going to experience.

There's a tension, right, that we experience as Christians in this world.

And Jesus seeks to unpack that for us as his disciples.

So let's jump into our text this morning.

John 15, 18 through 25.

We see how the world hates.

We understand, under trying to, Jesus tries to unpack, understanding the hate of the world.

And before I jump in, I do want to pause because we use this, we're going to use this word world a lot.

And it's used sometimes in different contexts, right?

I'm not saying the world in a general sense of the created world.

There are many beautiful things that God has designed in this world.

Marriage, friendship, food, drink, nature, family, children.

All of these things are good things and are for our enjoyment.

And these actually elevate our sense and enjoyment of God.

So I'm not talking about that sense.

But what I am talking about, John often characterizes it in his gospel and in his letters, when he talks about world, he's talking about the fallen humanity, the host that's hostile to God.

1 John 2 describes it this way for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

So this is an antagonistic view towards God.

So in our text, verses 18 and 19, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

So who does the world hate?

Who does the world hate?

We see in this text, and I don't mean to be bleak, but it hates Christ.

And therefore, if you stand with Christ, it hates you.

In our Western society, we might feel still a sense of comfort and security being a Christian, but we're starting to feel those tensions of becoming more and more post-Christian.

The hostility toward Christianity is growing exponentially.

Things 10 years ago are very different than they are now.

Laws are changing.

Whole cities and populations here are becoming more antagonistic.

What started as the culture saying, hey, just let us do what we want to do, you do your Christian thing over here, is now saying, hey, you have to conform to us who we are or face the consequences.

And some of our places around the world, it's even more extreme.

Open Door Survey, which uh surveys church persecution this last year said over 278,000 Christians were displaced and removed from their homes because of their belief.

Over 4,000 were actually detained and arrested, and over 5,500 people were actually martyred and killed for their faith.

And this survey is considered to be conservative in number.

So Jesus this morning, while he doesn't sugarcoat and not using this for a shock value, he's helping to train and prepare his disciples for his departure and what to expect.

He's doing this because he loves them.

He's doing this because he loves us.

Right?

Everything in 15 talked about how the vine is necessary to bear fruit.

When we abide, there is joy and there's friendship.

There is receiving both peace of God and the peace with God.

But the cost is real.

Jesus comes with and is God's word, we see in John 1, and he still experiences the hostility.

Now, we as his disciples, as we bear his word, should expect nothing less than the hostility that he experiences.

1 Peter 4, 12 and 13 says it this way, Beloved, do not be surprised, right?

Oftentimes we get the shock of like, why are people hating me for the things that I believe?

It's like that the do not be surprised at the fiery trials when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

So we see who the world hates.

And in verse 19 and 20 through 21, we also see why does the world hate you?

Why does the world hate you?

As an educator, um I I get uh a very diverse set of students, and some of them come from really uh challenging backgrounds.

Uh they're financially they're struggling.

School is just really hard for them.

Uh their parents may not be involved.

Um, and I just get this uh I get a very mixed population.

And when I when I taught at Cincinnati Public School, I had this one student this one time.

Um we were doing this assignment or some something, and uh I came over to her, she had her phone out on her desk and was texting and doing whatever she wanted.

It's you know pretty common middle school or high school kid.

And I was like, hey, could you uh just put that away and get to work?

And she looks at me, picks up her head, says, No, I'm not.

Like, all right.

So it kind of bit my tongue.

I was like, all right, I'm gonna have you put your phone away.

And she said, No, I'm not.

Like, okay, here we go.

So I could do a couple things, I could snatch it, and that could cause some um issues.

Um, but we also had a security team at the time, so I just uh picked up the phone, I gave them a ring, like, hey, I've got this girl, she's at this point, she's kind of being insubordinate.

Can you come and help out?

And when the security comes, this girl just flips her lid.

I mean, she is throwing textbooks at me, she's cussing, she's spitting at me, and the security guard, I'm actually in between her, and this the security guard's actually like cocked back like he's gonna like do something to her.

I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, please don't.

Um so we've got this situation has blown up.

And uh what what I recognized in this, there's two things going on, right?

There's an individual responsibility that this girl has, right?

I'm not minimizing her behavior, that's not appropriate.

But on another level, those insults as a teacher, I uh they're not personal to me, right?

She uh she is associating me with this system that I'm a part of.

Outside of this, like in basketball games, football games, super polite, enjoyable to be around.

But in this moment, I am associated with the thing that is uh uh her enemy, right?

And in verse 21, but all of these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

All of this, all of the hate that we experience as Christians, is because of Christ's names, because they do not know the Father.

It has less to do about who we are, but more about who we represent, right?

There's a uh there's an objectiveness to that, so we don't have to feel that sense of hate towards us particularly.

You see, we represent the thing that the world hates.

The hate of the Christian is rooted in the hate of Christ because they do not know the Father.

Right?

You see, in verse 19, the world has no problem loving you as its own.

It has no problem loving you as its own.

You can be anything in this culture except a Christian and be accepted.

You can do anything, no matter how vulgar it may be, and be a part of the world.

If you were of it, if you participated in it, if you celebrated it, championed it, shifted with it, it would love you.

Think of that moment, maybe when you first came to faith and you realized that this world was kind of drastically different.

That wasn't our home.

As a high schooler, God kind of broke me to receive him, and I remember uh distinctly being baptized and having our friends and our uh family and uh people who were uh instrumental in my walk.

And like most high schoolers, um uh news travels fast, right?

I had a s was in a small school at about 150 people who uh were in my class, and when I got baptized, the the news traveled fast, and the crowd that I hung around wasn't necessarily the most moral folks.

And I remembered quickly that my nickname uh had bec changed from Big Head, excuse me, Big Head, uh and my butt my head was proportionally larger to my body.

I don't I don't that was just what they went with uh uh to baptism boy, right?

So that was their insult to me, right?

Whenever something happened, they're like, hey, why don't you go get baptized?

I'm like, okay, you know, so I can laugh, I can laugh now, but at the time of my life trying to make sense of the world, uh, this was a defining moment as a high schooler.

I was choosing Christ and his people and cutting off the ungodliness that I used to partake in.

It was a strange but formative moment in my life, uh, and realizing that coming to Christ comes with a cost.

The comforts and loves of this world I once experienced no longer existed, but the beauty is I traded in for a better hope.

Love the world, it will love you back.

Reject it, and it will try to swallow you up.

It'll try.

For those who embrace the world, there should not be much conflict, right?

It's the easy way, it's the wide road, but it leads to destruction.

But verse 19, I love what Jesus says here.

But because you are not of this world, he's declaring to his disciples, you who sit there this morning, who put their trust in Christ, are not in this world.

He is reminding them of their identity, their identity of how he has changed and shaped them.

Paul, in his writing to the church in 2 Corinthians 5, calls us actually ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us, bringing the message of reconciliation.

You see, ambassadors was a term used to describe envoys sent to other nations on special occasions.

They protested against wrongs, and they spoke on behalf of their home country.

Right?

We are sojourners here.

And here in verse 20, we have assurance that there will be many one to Christ.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours.

People are going to respond positively to our message of the gospel, our witness, the preaching, the way that we love one another.

But at the same time, we'll be hated by the same world, by those who find its fragrance appalling.

Because they are so we are associated with the one who is supremely hated.

All of this hate is not because of us or how special we are.

The world doesn't really care about us, it hates Jesus.

Their enemy is Jesus, and their hate of the Father radiates through that.

Whoever hates me, whoever hates me hates my Father also.

They're only communicating something that has already existed, something in their hearts, something outside of Christ all of us have in our hearts.

They love themselves and have hate of God the Father.

It's not like there's no sin in them, but the sin is more fully revealed, and Christ now gives them no excuse.

On August 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous bombs blew up in front of four American uh embassies in four African countries.

224 people died in the blast, 12 Americans were killed, and 4,500 people were wounded.

I don't want to stretch this analogy too far, but when we think about ambassadors at embassies on foreign soil, the embassy's country goes to war with that foreign country, those ambassadors become at risk.

So much risk that they might even experience a coup or a riot that might seek to overthrow them from their place.

These ambassadors are seen as enemies of that foreign country.

We as ambassadors of Christ can see in this text who the enemy of this world is, why it hates them, and now let's see how the world hate.

Verses 20.

It says, Remember the word I said to you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

We as Christians are to expect persecution.

Peter, we saw that earlier.

1 John 3, 13, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you, right?

There's this emphasis on Jesus laying us out.

Remember these words.

Do not be surprised.

When we think about persecution, there's varying levels of it, right?

George Whitfield, an 1800s preacher, organizes these into three categories that I thought was helpful.

The first one we see is the persecution of the heart.

The persecution of the hearts.

The Pharisees hated and persecuted Jesus long before they laid hold on him.

Jesus mentions being inwardly hated by men as one kind of persecution as the disciples were to undergo.

Their heart hostility is the root of all kinds of persecution, and in some degree or another, all unbelieving men is to be found in their souls.

Some may hide it before men, but God sees the hate of their heart, and there will be ul ultimately there will be judgment for that.

Then we see the persecution of the tongue.

Persecution of the tongue.

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me, right?

Is that the saying?

If the heart is the root issue of all unbelieving men, the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart.

However, they may see it, in God's eyes, evil speaking is a high degree of persecution.

In Genesis 21, 9, Ishmael is laughing, is mocking, persecuting Isaac.

Right?

Isaac was to be the chosen line that we would see the kingdom advance through.

Ishmael was mocking God's chosen offspring.

This frustrates Rachel so much that God allows for them to be cast out.

Today, God's people continue to face the mockery like Isaac did.

How many of us have been mocked for our faith?

That text, though, by the expulsion of Ishmael, helps to assure us that one day the elect, God's chosen people, will no longer have to endure scorn, ridicule, or any other threat.

So to speak evil and slander of the disciples of Christ merely because they're his disciples is highly provoking in the sight of God.

And those who are found guilty of it and without repentance will find one day that they will be held accountable for that.

Matthew 5, 11 through 12.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So we see the persecution of the heart, the persecution of the tongue, and lastly, we see the persecution of actions.

They shall put you out in the synagogues, threatening and prohibiting you from making an open profession of your faith, right?

Forbidding pastors of preaching the word of God.

Sounds familiar, right?

As the high priests threaten the apostles and forbid them to speak any more in the name of Jesus.

We will be called before governors, will be fined, imprisoned, punished, confiscated of our goods, receive cruel beatings, and lastly, even death itself.

It's impossible to go through all the various types of persecution.

It's a many-headed monster.

And what's worse, it generally appears under the cloak of religion and inclusion, right?

We see in John 16 that it's going to be, they're doing it for their God, right?

But cruel and as horrid as it is, we that live godly lives in Christ must expect to suffer and encounter all forms of persecution.

Do not be surprised.

Remember that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

When you step here at Sacred Mission Church and become a part of this family, you're communicating that what you want to do is grow and to be a disciple of Christ.

And you want others to know and experience the joy of his salvation.

You're also enlisting in the glorious work that God has called us to do here among his people and in this city.

But you're also putting on a target on your back for the enemy.

When we stand for Christ and what he stands for, know that the world will not relent.

You will not have to chase after persecution, but it will come.

John Calvin, a 1600s theologian, says this.

That's those of us in this church this morning, ought to prepare themselves for what?

An easy life?

No.

Hard, laborious, unquiet life, full of numerous and various calamities.

It is the will of the Heavenly Father to exercise them on his in this manner, so that they may have certain proof of those who belong to Him.

Having begun with Christ, his first begotten Son, he pursues his method towards all his children.

Jesus, out of love, warns us who the world hates, why it hates, and how it will hate.

He's trying to help his disciples distinguish those who are followers and those who are not.

And what distinguishes them, right?

We saw previously in John 15, those who are abiding and bearing fruit versus those who love the world.

And I think a lot of our problems this morning is that we do love the world, right?

That's our allurement.

It draws us back.

So when I say the world, I think some of us here this morning, we may crave it.

We actually love the darkness.

We have to lust after the world's passions to satisfy its desires.

And we feel like it loves us back.

It's easy, but we ultimately become slaves and it masters us.

Some of us, though, we allow our love of the world to persuade us of our true love.

And when persecution comes, we actually fall back into worldly loves.

Listen to what Jesus tells his disciples in the parable of the kingdom of God.

He's talking about this idea of throwing out seeds and we're seeing plants grow.

He goes, as for what was sown on the rocky ground, so this is the word of God, this is the one who hears the word, right?

They and receive it immediately, or immediately receive it with joy, right?

They hear the gospel, they receive it with joy.

There's an excitement, there's a zeal.

Yet over time passes.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

And when what happens, tribulation and persecution arises on the account of the word, immediately he falls away.

There was no root.

The root did not take, it did not hold under the persecution.

And where do they go?

They go back to the world.

What was easy towards other lovers, the promises of Christ had become bland.

To keep up with the embassy analogy earlier, right?

We are representatives, ambassadors in a foreign soil, and we, our church, our home base is the embassy here.

But I think what happens is we come in, we become excited for what God's going to do.

But as time passes, we have slowly allowed the culture to shape us.

First, you know, when we get into this new land, this foreign soil as ambassadors, you know, we're starting to explore around.

Maybe you go out, oh, I want to go try this food.

I heard they got some good food and spices here that are different.

Then maybe you start to put on the garb there, the different clothing.

Then you learn the language.

Maybe even find yourself a bride or a groom.

And now you can't even start to tell the difference between the world and the embassy that you are representing.

You don't do it intentionally initially, but it to you allow curiosity to draw you deeper to the surrounding culture.

You may even say you're doing it to engage with the world.

But before you know it, you become a local.

You're undistinguishable from it.

And when war breaks out, you sit on the sidelines, empathizing with the enemy, making sacrifices of the convictions that you once held.

And this isn't something fast, but a slow and gradual process.

C.S.

Lewis on Sin talks about it like this it does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light.

And out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than cards, if cards can do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is a gradual one, the gentle slope, soft, underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, the pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

All of this this morning would be the seeds in Matthew 13.

We would have been had no root, we would have been choked out, and we would have been scorched up if it were not for Christ.

And the promise we see in this text this morning is that Jesus was hated so that you might be secured.

Jesus was hated so that you might be secured.

You see, God had every right to leave us in our destruction of the world.

We would have been loved by the world.

It would have been easy, but because he knew the world was passing away along with its desires, he chose sinners like you and me out of this world.

Jesus was sent on a mission and voluntarily took our sin upon himself, but it wasn't forced upon him.

No man takes my life from me, but I lay it down myself.

He takes on your past, he takes on your present, and he takes on your future sins, and while bearing it, claims the enemy has no claim on me.

It was according to the his eternal arrangement made with the Father beforehand.

And in that victory on the cross, and in his resurrection, Christ swallows death up in its sting.

It was Christ who removes the penalty of our sin and the power of the law that enables us to be free from the bondage of this world.

He secures you by purchasing you.

So when the world responds now in persecution and hate because of who we are, and those who wear his signet ring can boldly declare as Paul does in Romans 8.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Are we then to cower?

To be afraid, to sit and sulk?

No.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, and all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

God has secured a place for us.

The abiding love in John 15 is what sustains us in that trial.

At the end of this discourse in John 16, Jesus says, I have said these things to you that in me, right, the abiding, coming back to the abiding, you may have peace.

Where do we get that?

From the helper, the spirit.

In the world you will have tribulation.

It's coming.

Do not be surprised.

But our hope, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

And when and I can say, when persecution comes, and it will, even though it may feel unjust, because it is, I know my God is for me, because on the final day, God will say, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

All wrongs will be made right on the day of judgment.

Christ has secured hope in a hate-filled world.

Christ has secured hope in a hate-filled world.

So we see the end.

We see that God is sovereign over all of this, and that this is good for his people.

But what about now?

What about when I'm experiencing this hate now?

I think he gives us three big points at the end of this text.

The first is the Spirit of God.

Verse 15, or chapter 15, 26.

But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

You see, the Spirit of God, for those of us who put our trust in Christ, is living and active in each and every one of us.

It's the power of the Spirit that enables us to walk confidently, not conforming to the passions of the world, killing sin, making known the gloriousness of our King.

He is our helper, our legal counselor who walks alongside of us.

He makes known Christ through you.

When I was 18 years old, I took this comparative religions class at my high school.

It's really fascinating.

They brought in all of these world religions.

One of my assignments, though, was to go in the community to observe some local religious institution that was not my own practice.

There was a local Methodist church that was having a guest speaker who had connections with the Dalai Lama.

I was like, eh, that's kind of different.

So I'll go check that out.

So me and a friend went there.

And I remember sitting there and over a hundred people in this kind of dingy basement.

And I was listening to this man talk about inner peace, uh, his inner being and love, but no Christ.

During the, and you know, obviously I'm sitting in a Methodist church, this kind of felt uh different.

And there was an open mic session, and uh I got the mic and I asked this question.

I said, Do you believe in absolute truth?

You know, sitting in this church.

Um and I was not surprised to hear his response that he believes that there were many ways to God, right?

Thinking of it like an elephant.

You can touch this part, and it's but it's all an elephant at the end of the day, or Buddha, or whatever it may be.

Um there was many ways to God.

But what I was most shocked about when I looked around the room, I saw all of these people just sitting there nodding and agreeing and smiling as he was sharing.

And I felt this conviction at this time as a new believer to address this crowd, this man who was leading a people astray, who does not believe in absolute truth.

Though the word of God itself declares that there is only one way, one truth, and one life, and then it's Christ.

And you can imagine my mic time ended shortly after that.

The team came over and took the mic and said, Thank you.

My classmate that I was with was embarrassed.

But I felt this conviction in this moment that this to bear witness about Christ.

And I don't say that to boast about my boldness, because if those who know me, that's not my natural propensity.

But the point in that moment, if I were left alone, I would cower in the face of adversity.

But the spirit goes before me, filling me, leading me, convicting me.

And oftentimes we're neglecting listening to that.

Are you listening to the Spirit of God?

Sometimes we have so much noise going on in the background that we don't even hear it.

Or other times we allow fear to suppress that in those moments.

It has come to bear witness of the Christ.

You have the Spirit of God, and you will bear witness about the Christ.

Second point, where are we going to hear the Spirit most loudly?

Where is it gonna speak to us?

I believe it's gonna be in the Word of God.

Verse 16:1, we see Jesus says, I have said these things to you.

I have said these things to you.

Remember my words.

How many of you guys like a good plan, right?

My wife, she loves a good plan.

She writes everything out.

She's got her pen pads and all of those things, and we we follow those plans and things work well.

There's no ambiguity.

You know, we try to uh sometimes to lay out that plan.

And I think Jesus here is laying that out for his disciples.

He's not letting them, when they leave, just, all right, thanks for this time, let's go.

No, but he he lays it out so that they're not surprised what to experience.

There should be no surprise, right?

Even in the text here, they hated me without a calls.

This was written so that the law would be fulfilled.

This was even written in the Old Testament.

Jesus was not surprised about this.

When persecution comes, we should not buckle or fall away.

We know that this is a part of his plan.

It's because he loves us that he lets us know that we might reflect and remember.

We need to be a people who know the word of God.

Why?

I talked earlier in Matthew 13 about the parable of the sower.

There's three or four plants.

Three of them get either choked out, scorched up, or have no root.

But Jesus gives the difference between the last one.

Matthew 13, 23 reads this way: As for what was sown on the good soil, so this is when the word was received, this is the one who what?

Hears the word and understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields it, and once is a hundredfold, another sixty, and another thirty.

It's in his word that we will find life.

Sitting under its preaching, reading in our own and applying in our lives, this is what it brings life and will help us to remain steadfast when facing trials and persecution.

So we see the Spirit of God, and we hear that Spirit through His Word, and lastly, uh the people of God.

In 16, 1 through 4, I have said all these things to who?

You, to keep you from falling away.

They will put you out of the synagogues.

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me.

But I have said these things to who?

You.

That when your out the hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you.

This word you is plural.

He's speaking to his disciples now, but to his disciples back then.

And why was that?

So that they would not fall away.

And we see in Hebrews 3, there's another form of helping us to remain steadfast from falling away.

Hebrews 3, 13 or 3, 12 through 13 gives us ammunition in our fight from wandering away in our unbelief.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to what?

Fall away from the living God.

But what's his remedy to that?

But exhort.

But exhort.

I love this word to call, to plea, to ask earnestly, to beg, to invite one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Church, are we doing that?

This is why we live in community.

This is why we gather on Sundays.

This is why we come together to apply the word to each other's lives in mission groups throughout the week.

A friend recently shared this book called With Me Habits of Grace.

And it discusses the value of Christian fellowship.

And I thought this excerpt was helpful.

The first Christian shared was not common, was not anchored in common love for pizza, pop, and nice clean evening of fun among fellow churchified.

And its essence was in the common Christ and their common life or death mission together and his summons to take the faith worldwide in the face of impending persecution.

Rightly did Tolkien call his nine the fellowship of the ring.

This is no chummy hobnob with abs and drinks and games on the tube.

It's an all-in-law, life or death collective venture in the face of great evil and overwhelming opposition.

True fellowship is less like friends gathered to watch the Super Bowl and more like players in the field with blood, sweat, and tears huddled in the backfield only in preparation for the next down.

True fellowship in this age is more like invading troops side by side on the beach at Normandy than it is the gleeful revelers on the streets of Victory in Europe Day.

The people of God collectively are a means of grace in which we can stand up to the trials of this world, not as a fun club, but as an ambassador's bringing the message of reconciliation.

I shared in the beginning about this pine tree, the tree that when it was put in this artificial warmth and comfortable environment, it withered.

But when it was put under pressure in its natural, natural conditions, it thrived.

When the world rages against you, our foundation can be firm and the one who holds us secure.

Abide in Christ.

When the world comes with its fiery darts, and it will, I can't promise that your circumstances will be comfortable.

He has said these things to you to keep you from falling away.

Sacred mission, my charge this morning is that we may not be a people who try to long for the comforts of this world in this natural artificial warmth, but that we would abide in Christ and in those hostile conditions of the world, we would remain steadfast and connected to the vine, feasting on the word, fed by the Spirit, walking with this people, that we would grow into mature oak trees, bearing a hundredfold fruit, that God may be glorified.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.