Message - Praying for Afghanistan

We started a series a few weeks ago called Wonderful.

We're exploring this section of a book in the New Testament called Romans.

We're in Romans chapter 8, the very end of Romans chapter 8, and this truly is one of the most wonderful paragraphs that has ever been written.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8 · chapter mention

You actually would be hard pressed to find a single paragraph written in the history of humanity that has had as much of an impact on the world as this.

And rather than me just describe it, I'll read it to you.

This is the wonderful thing that we're exploring.

Romans 8, 31 through 39 says, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who can never be against us?

Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?

Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen for his own?

No one.

For God himself has given us right standing with himself.

Who then will condemn us?

No one, for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he's sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death?

As the scriptures say, for your sake, we are killed every day.

We're being slaughtered like sheep.

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

And I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell, can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's wonderful.

That's wonderful.

It really is.

Yeah, you can clap for that.

It's wonderful.

This has been like a rally cry, like a battle cry for Jesus followers for centuries, for thousands of years, for a reason.

Now, as we've been exploring this, we've been we've been looking specifically at the questions that it asks.

You know, this is one of those sections that I've read countless times, and usually what you do when you read it is you kind of go through the questions really fast.

It has six questions that it asks.

And you go through that really quickly because they have sort of implied answers, but you want to get to that last part where you're like nothing in the the nothing in the sky above or the earth below, like nothing can separate us from God's love.

And that's really, really powerful stuff.

But as I studied this and was preparing for this series, I was just so drawn to those questions that it asks six incredibly wonderful questions that if you really, if you really take the time to think about, to answer, it gives you this incredibly powerful and complete understanding of who God really is, where do we stand with him and what that means for us.

And so we've been going through those six questions one at a time.

Two weeks ago when we got started, we looked at the question: if God is for us, who can be against us?

And we talked about the fact that another way to put that is that if God is for you, if God is on your side, if he's put his full weight and power behind you, then of what consequence are those things that stand against you?

Last week we looked at the second question.

If God did not spare even his own son, if God didn't hold back anything in order to purchase our freedom from the power of sin and the power of death, should we think that he's not going to give us everything else we need?

We can trust him.

And so the way that numbers typically work is you go to the next one, right?

Like we're all like one, two, and then you usually don't skip to five or whatever, you go right to three.

And so, question number three is who dares accuse us if God has acquitted us?

And that's what I sat down early this week to flesh out and to write out.

But as I was reading through this section, because that's what I do, you know, I'm sitting there, I'm reading it, I'm like, I don't just want to have it in my mind, I want to sit down and spend time with it.

Um, I couldn't get past.

I just couldn't get past verses 35 and 36.

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death, as the scriptures say, for your sake we are killed every day, we're being slaughtered like sheep.

Couldn't get past that one this week.

You know, it's it's interesting because for us in America, the phrase, you know, slaughtered, like we're getting slaughtered, that's that's something we always say metaphorically, right?

That's like something that a sports team will say at halftime, like, we're getting slaughtered out there.

We gotta turn this thing around, you know?

Or maybe it's something that would be said in the business world when it comes to your competition.

But for us, it's it's a metaphor.

It's important to remember, though, that for Paul, the author of this, this was no metaphor at all.

This was reality.

Paul and the earliest Christians were persecuted incredibly, incredibly, unbelievably persecuted.

It was literal for them.

They were being slaughtered, they were being killed.

In fact, Paul, prior to giving his life to Jesus in an amazing moment that was undeniable that he couldn't get away from, he was someone who was completely committed to the persecution of Christians.

That was his whole life's purpose.

To the point where when news got out that this guy who had been going by the name Saul had converted and started following Jesus, and he was Paul, everyone who was a Christian was like, Yeah, I'm not so sure about that.

This seems like a scheme of some kind.

And eventually Paul like proved it.

No, I I really do belong to Jesus now, and the thing that he stood against, he now stood for.

And then he experienced tremendous persecution.

I mean, Paul, shortly after writing this, was killed in Rome because of his faith.

All of Jesus' disciples were were killed because of their faith.

All but John the Baptist, that was his cousin, but John the disciple of Jesus was the only one who lived into old age and died of natural causes, but he was persecuted plenty.

Persecution and suffering was was part of life for the early Christians.

And this continued on for centuries.

In fact, if you study the history of our church, the history of our faith, you know, the first several centuries are known as the time of the martyrs.

Being a Jesus follower was something that no one did out of convenience.

It didn't open any doors for you in society, it shut most, and it was uh it was certain, certain suffering to give your life to Jesus.

And yet thousands upon thousands did, and they paid a price for that, but a price they were willing to pay, and here we are today enjoying the freedom that we have to worship Jesus and to cheer and and clap when we see people going all in with him.

It's an incredible privilege.

You know, to us, safety is really what we experience in our faith, right?

I mean, we we deal with persecution to a certain degree in America.

People might make fun of us or mock us or misrepresent us, misunderstand us.

But but we live in in relative safety.

And the reason I can't escape this, obviously, is because of what's been going on this week in the world.

And I'm sure almost all of us are fairly familiar with what's been going on in Afghanistan.

It's been impossible not to pay attention to for the most part.

And I want you to understand, if you're here for the first time, this is not a church where every time there's a current event going on or every time something's happening in the world, we stop to talk about it.

But guys, sometimes there's a spotlight that is shown on suffering, and we we cannot look away from it.

It would actually be irresponsible for us to do so.

And so as I sat down this week and and was even debating, right, am I gonna talk about this or not?

I don't know.

I like once I read those words, I said, you know, no, this is what is happening in the world.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about that today, and really specifically, what can we as Jesus followers do when we see suffering?

Because suffering has clearly been part of our faith.

It's something that many Jesus followers have experienced before and experienced to this day.

Like I said at the beginning of our morning, I think today is a day for us to do something.

It's an important day.

It's not just a day to learn and grow, that's gonna happen, but it's a day for us to take some action.

And so let me let me just say this on the front end.

This is not a political conversation.

I am not a politician.

I've also never led a military before.

So whatever opinions I might have, politically or military-wise, are of no consequence whatsoever.

No one would care.

I think it's easy for all of us to imagine that if we were in charge, we would just do it all better.

Uh but people have been saying that about God forever.

Like, oh, if I were God, I would, this would clearly never happen.

You know, that's a different conversation entirely.

So that we're not talking about what's going on in Afghanistan from a political perspective.

We're not really talking about it from the perspective of an American, so much as we're talking about it from the perspective of a Jesus follower, of a Christian, of someone who belongs to Jesus Christ.

Because what what you may or may not know is that uh Afghanistan is one of the countries in the world that has had the fastest growing church.

In fact, it's interesting, the uh I think second behind Iran, the church has been growing faster in Afghanistan in the last several years than anywhere else in the world.

And it just so happens that Iran and Afghanistan are places where Christians are incredibly persecuted.

It's kind of a weird dynamic.

And that the places in the world where our faith is persecuted the most heavily are the places where it grows the fastest.

And the places in the world where it's the easiest to be a Jesus follower are the places where it gets stagnant.

Prior to what happened this last week, which is the Taliban, this brutal, brutal regime completely taking over Afghanistan, prior to that, Afghanistan ranked as the second most dangerous country to live in if you were a Christian.

Prior to what happened this past week.

And so right now, what we have to understand is as Jesus' followers, and I know that some of us who are here today and watching from home, maybe you haven't made that decision that that's where you stand, but for those of us who are, we have brothers and sisters right now who are who are suffering in an incredibly dire situation.

The reason we cheer for the baptisms that we have, we get so excited for those, is because those are our brothers, those are our sisters when they get baptized.

That's family.

The reason that we celebrate when we have, like Chloe, this beautiful girl that was on stage this morning, this little one-year-old, is because that's our that's our sister.

That's our little sister.

And we love and support everyone that's part of our family.

But guys, we have to remember, Jesus followers, we got a big family.

We have family members all over the world.

People who don't speak the same language we speak, people who do not look the way that we look or think the way that we think or experience life the way we experience it.

We're a big family.

And the church, the movement of Jesus is thousands strong in Afghanistan.

Even though, unlike where we live, there's no buildings with church names on walls and times that they meet together.

The church is completely underground because it is so dangerous to be a Christian.

And again, that was before everything that happened this last week.

And you don't have to do a lot of digging to find out what life is becoming like on a daily basis for the people there and even more so for those who have proclaimed faith in Jesus there.

I want to show you guys a video real quick.

This is uh a video that was uh recorded by a Jesus follower in Afghanistan.

This person's face is blurred and their voice is distorted because uh their identity, uh if if anyone there saw it and identified them, their life would be forfeit very, very quickly.

But I again I I don't share this to make this morning heavy.

I share this because what's happening right now is heavy.

And it would be it would be unjust for us to to just pretend like it's not.

And so as you watch this, just remember this is this is your brother.

You don't know his name, and you've never met him, but you'll spend forever and eternity with him.

This is your brother, and so so pay attention to to his words, and then we'll come back together.

I know that's hard to watch.

It's probably a lot harder to live than it is to watch.

And so we'll we'll post that video on our social media because like the the man said, please send this, forward this.

And I encourage you if you're a social media person to post it.

Because it's vital for us as Jesus followers that we don't we don't turn away from things that are hard to look at.

You know, I I watched that, and uh and I wonder, man, how do how do people going through things like that, how do they, how do they do it?

How do they survive that?

And and the reason they survive it is what we just read.

Does it mean that we are no longer loved?

That God no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death, as the scriptures say, for your sake we're killed every day, we're being slaughtered like sheep.

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love, no power in the sky above or in the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

See, usually these words, like I said earlier, are a rally cry, they're a battle cry, but for people who are dealing with suffering like that, these words are more than that.

They're a lifeline.

They cling to these words like you would cling to a life preserver if you were in the ocean, in a shipwreck.

And the reality is it's truth worth clinging to.

Because suffering for being a follower of Jesus is something that we have a deep and rich history of in our faith.

And it still happens to this day all over the world, and it's happening right now in a really intense way in Afghanistan.

And so what what do we do about this as Jesus followers?

What do we do as those who are so blessed to live in a place where that's that's at least not on the horizon as far as we can see?

You never know.

A few things.

A few things.

And one is is we support in whatever way that we can.

And so I want you guys to know if you've been at his hands for long, you know this.

But every single week, we take 10% of whatever you give, and we give that to local ministries and organizations that are meeting needs.

And we do this from time to time.

And we've had uh things that happen in the world or in our nation, there's like an extra need, we'll say, let's do more.

And so for the rest of this month, that's this Sunday and next Sunday, we're gonna start there.

We're gonna take an additional 10% of everything given and give that uh to some organizations doing work in Afghanistan.

Now, uh, these organizations, yeah, that's you that's good.

Um and so I I heavily encourage you if you haven't if you haven't given recently, or if that's something maybe you've never even done, it's not a step you've taken yet as being part of the church.

That's how we do everything we do, and so you know, please give, and you can give online, the mobile app, the all that stuff.

Um as far as the actual organization we're giving to, still researching that.

There are a few.

There's not many as you can imagine, but there are a few organizations that do some really interesting things, and and I've spent a lot of time this week looking into that, and we'll make some decisions on that this week and then share that with you.

But but we're gonna do that.

But it's not it's not enough just to say, okay, hey, we'll we'll send some help.

That we need to do that.

But what we really need to do this morning is we we need to pray.

Like we we they need us to pray.

And so, like I said, it's it's not so much a message this morning as it's an opportunity to come together as a church and to do something.

That's what we're gonna do, and worship team, you guys can make your way out.

We're gonna set some time aside right now.

Um, we'll finish up with Lord's Supper.

I want you to know I haven't forgotten about Lord's Supper.

Last week we did Lord's Supper at the end of the service instead of in the middle, and I had people like shaking their Lord's Supper cups at me, like, I didn't forget.

Y'all know who you were shaking your cups.

I got it right here, I promise.

We'll we'll wrap up with that.

Um prayer is really, really powerful.

James 5, 16 says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Ephesians 6.18 tells us to pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 says, Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

1 Peter 5:8

He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith.

Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

These scriptures tell us a few things.

Number one, prayer is powerful, prayer works.

Number two, that we're to be mindful, constantly mindful and in prayer for all of our brothers and sisters all over the world.

And I'll be honest, that's something that I think I forget to do far too often.

And that's something that I think we can forget to do as a church because we're not people typically experiencing true suffering, not like that.

And so when it's not part of your life, it's really easy to forget about it and to forget to pray about it.

But we can't be like that.

This week, for any, if anything, it's been a wake-up call for me that I I need to pray differently.

That there's a there's a prayer for for my brothers and sisters across the globe.

Those who are in really difficult situations.

That needs to be a regular part of my time in prayer, and it needs to be a part of our time in prayer.

Because, guys, prayer, prayer is powerful.

Like money can get things done, and we'll we'll send money.

Prayer is way more powerful than money.

In fact, there's a story in Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 16.

Acts 12:1–16

It says, It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

And when he saw that this was met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

You know, Peter and James were the two foremost leaders in the church in the early days.

Now James is dead.

So Peter, the other leader, he gets captured.

This happened during the festival of unleavened bread, and after arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each.

Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover, and so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

And the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him up.

Quick, get up, he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.

And the angel said to him, Put on your clothes and your sandals, and Peter did so.

Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.

The angel told him, Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening.

He thought he was seeing a vision.

They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and it opened for them by itself, and they went through it.

When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him, and Peter came to himself and said, Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping they would accomplish.

And when this had dawned on them, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.

When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed, she ran back without opening it, and exclaimed, Peter's at the door.

You're out of your mind, they told her.

And when she kept insisting that it was so, they said it must be his angel.

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Now, there are those who will read stories like this and doubt.

And I understand that.

But I will tell you this.

The movement of Jesus from its outset has been fought against by some of the most powerful people in the world, by entire governments, militaries, kings.

Doesn't matter if it's King Herod, doesn't matter if it's the Taliban, doesn't matter if it's some organization whose name does not yet exist.

For thousands of years, powerful people have done everything they can to stop the movement of Jesus.

And it's never worked.

It never will.

Because Jesus is real, he's alive, and he's powerful.

Now, look, it it doesn't make any sense why 2,000 years after what Jesus did, we would still be here, and all over the world there would be billions of Christians because again, the church was made up of unimportant people, no one with real power.

They shouldn't have survived the challenges, but they did.

And I believe in my heart that the church in Afghanistan will survive, but they need our prayers.

I don't think it's a coincidence that what happened to Peter in that cell happened simultaneously with prayer.

It was not an isolated event.

That while that angel was rescuing Peter, there's a whole house full of people praying.

We've got to be people who pray.

And look, in this room and online, our comfort levels with prayer are at different places, right?

Some of us are right now like Justin, shut up so we can pray.

Okay?

You're ready to go.

And I hear you loud and clear, I promise.

But others of us are going, I don't I don't know.

Look, prayer is a gift from God.

It is something all of us are meant to engage with.

It is powerful.

Your prayers are powerful.

You may say you may think to yourself that you're not good at prayer.

What do your prayers matter?

Your prayers are powerful.

Why?

Because the the prayers of righteous people are powerful and effective.

Jesus has made you righteous.

That makes your prayers powerful.

So it's time to pray.

What I would like to do is we're just gonna bring the lights down a little bit and we're gonna pray together.

And I'm just gonna trust the Holy Spirit to lead us in prayer.

And I'll prompt a little bit and just trust that the Holy Spirit will lead that and bring things to my mind so that I can have us pray, and we're just gonna pray and have some dedicated time of prayer.

And so here's what I'd like to ask: that you have faith.

And if you don't have faith, or at least much of it, you might think, then say what this one man said to Jesus once, I believe, but help my unbelief.

I have faith, but I could use a little bit more, and that's okay.

But have faith that your prayers matter.

Have faith that right now, while we're praying in this room, and while thousands of Christians all over the world are praying, have faith that right now these prayers are being heard by God, and these prayers are being answered.

Even though we're talking thousands of miles between us and our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.

But they need our prayers, and it's time to pray.

So I'm just gonna kneel and look, if you want to pray where you're at, pray where you're at.

If you want to spread out to the sides of the room, if you want to find a place to pray, that's fine.

Okay, this is however you feel comfortable, but it's time for us to pray.

It's time for us to do some work.

Sound good?

All right.

So let's do this.

Let's pray.

We come before you right now thankful.

Thankful for the freedom that we have and the privilege that we get to live with.

But Lord, we are aware and cannot ignore the fact that our brothers and sisters in this family in Afghanistan right now, as well as other places in the world, but specifically with what's going on there right now, are desperate and they are suffering.

Lord, we're asking for a miracle.

Lord, you are the God of miracles.

That you would rescue those people from their plight.

Lord, I know that you have not abandoned them.

You have not left.

You never leave.

You never forsake.

You never run.

Lord, rescue your people.

Do miracles.

Work in the hearts of others.

Rescue your people, Lord.

We pray for rescue.

Lord, we pray for courage.

Father, we pray for courage.

Fill the hearts of the believers in Afghanistan with tremendous courage.

Lord, replace their fear with steadfast courage.

Remind them of your words.

That when we suffer and we're threatened with even death itself, it does not mean that you do not love us.

It does not mean that you have abandoned us.

In fact, Lord, it means that we are simply walking a similar path as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because he suffered.

Fill their hearts with courage, Lord.

Fill their hearts with courage.

Father, we pray for the leaders in our world who have authority.

The men and women who have power in this world, who have the authority to do something.

God, I pray that you would raise up people of power, who would have the courage to do what's right, who would have the courage to rescue the oppressed.

That Lord, you would provide them with wisdom and strength.

That they would not be able to simply watch what's happening and do nothing.

Raise someone up, Lord.

Lord Jesus, we pray for justice.

There's a tremendous injustice that is being done to our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, God.

And the circumstances around that injustice are so complicated and they can be looked at through so many different angles, God, but there's certainty that it's unjust.

It is not right.

What is happening is not right.

So, Lord, we pray for justice.

Because you are a God who stands for the oppressed, and you are a God who opposes evil.

You oppose evil in this world.

You do not turn a blind eye, you do not look the other way.

And you have made promises, Father God, that you will right every wrong.

You say that vengeance is yours.

And so, Lord, we we call on you in your justice to oppose those who do evil in this world.

Frustrate their plans.

Lord, sabotage their ambitions.

Bring them to their knees in repentance.

Father God.

Lord, we pray for the children in Afghanistan.

It feels right now like their future has already been taken from them.

But Lord, we know with you there is always future and hope.

That you give your people a future and a hope.

So, Lord, we pray right now in your name.

We pray right now in your name.

In the powerful name of Jesus, the name that is above all names, that the children of Afghanistan, that our youngest brothers and sisters in Christ, in that part of the world, have a future to hope for.

God, we're tremendously challenged by their courage and inspired by it.

Lord, give us the courage to do whatever we can, to never believe for a moment that we we're powerless because you have made us powerful.

Hear our prayers, hear our cries.

Would you mind coming up and praying?

And just out of curiosity, is Betty Hayden here today?

Betty, are you here?

Would you mind coming up and praying?

I really felt strongly to ask the two of you to pray.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.

So we put on the armor of God that we might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, we will stand.

We thank you, Lord God, for your Holy Spirit.

And you say when we don't know how to pray, that your spirit will lead us and guide us, that you will show us how to pray, that you will show us the way, Lord God.

So we call on your Holy Spirit right now to rise up in us, to rise up in righteous indignation and show us how to pray, Lord.

We follow you, Jesus.

We will not be afraid.

We just rebuke that spirit of fear, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

And so we step into the power of God.

We enter into and lift these people up in the in Afghanistan, and we set them in a place of peace and rest.

And it's a place that of peace that is not a place of peace because of circumstances, but it's outside of circumstances.

Your peace is our hiding place.

Your peace is our resting place.

So we set these people in a place of rest in you.

You are their hiding place.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

And I will say of the Lord, you are my resting place.

You are my hiding place.

We thank you, Lord, for what you are doing.

And we walk by faith and not by sight.

And we are not gonna look at the circumstances, but we are gonna keep our eyes on you, the author and the finisher of our faith.

And we thank you, Lord, that he who's begun a good work in Afghanistan.

You are faithful to complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might.

We're humbled by the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

Yet you said, Your son, and on the last night of his earthly life, he said, In this world you will suffer.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

So, Lord, we pray that you would grant a peace that passes all understanding to our brothers and sisters.

That whether the doors of their homes receive the horrific knocks or are broken down, that they will still be confident in your redeeming love.

Lord, we have never understood why it is in suffering and pain that your church grows.

But we put our confidence in your goodness and in your favor towards our brothers and sisters there, that you would give your church their growth, that the blood of the martyrs would be the seeds of the church.

Oh Lord, have your way.

And Lord, do not let our hearts grow cold.

For this world is in such need for the American church to arise and say, Lord, we put our trust in you.

Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters.

We pray for their children.

We pray for their grandchildren.

Protect them, O Lord.

Lord, I'm reminded of the times just a few decades ago when many could smuggle Bibles across the iron curtain, and guards would not even see what was going on.

I pray you would blind the eyes of those who seek to destroy your church, that they would not see the movement of your spirit, that they would not see the angels there protecting, that they would not see the faith and strength of our brothers and sisters.

That indeed the darkness would be blinded by your light.

Lord, have your way.

Have your way and be glorified.

In the holy name of Jesus, we pray, and through the anointing of your Holy Spirit, we ask for your glory.

Thank you both.

Well, guys, obviously we can't stop praying when we walk out these doors today.

And uh from the onset of our faith, there have there's been so much attack.

I said it a few minutes ago, the most powerful people in the world have opposed the mission of Jesus with laser focus.

You know, in the early church, in the year 64 A.D.

actually, the emperor of Rome, Nero, initiated a horrific persecution of Christians in the Roman world.

And if you do a little bit of research and read those stories, they're as horrific as you can be.

And I'm sure at that moment in time, anyone with a logical sound mind would say, who's likely to win this battle, Nero the Emperor, or the people like Paul.

And clearly Nero and Rome should have won.

They should have been successful in stamping out this movement of Jesus, which is a movement of love and grace and peace.

But I heard someone comment not that long ago that while at the time it seemed like Nero had won, we live in a world today where people name their children Paul and the only name for Nero would be maybe someone's dog.

You know.

And honestly, you could have looked a man like Nero in the eyes and said, hey, I just want you to know that thousands of years from now, a few dogs are going to be named after you.

But but what you're doing right now will fail.

And I think it's important for us to know that as obviously our emotions are stirred, and there's sadness, and there's grief, and there's mourning, which there should be, and our prayers should be prayers of heartbreak, yes.

But there should be confidence, is that we we could look those who to this day oppose the movement of Jesus in the eyes and say, I just want you to know that what you're doing will fail.

It will fail.

Because the love of God is unstoppable, and the grace of Jesus is unstoppable, and the power of God is immovable, it is certain, and nothing will ever be able to overcome it.

Nothing will ever be able to overcome the love and the power of Jesus Christ.

He's our Savior, he's our Lord, and he wins.

He wins, He wins.