Surviving Persecution I

[Music]uh good morning my name is uh PastorConrad Vine and I'd like to welcome youto this the first of a three-part serieson the topic ofpersecution persecution is a realityaround the world today it is a growingreality and it is important for us asfollowers of Jesus to understand what ishappening around us and to understandhow we can respond to those who areexperiencing persecution and also how wecan prepare when for when we experiencepersecution ourselves before we beginI'd like to invite you to Bow your headswith me and we invite the presence ofthe Holy Spirit to speak through me andto speak to each of our hearts so shallwepray heavenly father as we come beforeyou today we recognize that our world isin trouble we recognize that Satan isdoing his best to stir up the Winds ofstrife and we ask father that as weMinister today through this series onpersecution I pray that your Holy SpiritWill anoint me that you will speakthrough me and for me and the words thatI speak will be for those who arelistening and for those who are watchingI pray father that you will be glorifiedand that your church and your kingdomwill be strengthened through the theimpact of this preaching today fatherthank you for hearing this prayerbecause I pray in the name of Jesus ourlord savioramen discipleship andsuffering as we look at the structure ofour first uh sermon today there are anumber of components that we're going tobe going through together the first iswhy is there persecution in our worldtoday the second question we're going tobe addressing just briefly is what isthe current reality of persecution inour world today we're then going to lookat who is our enemy who is our trueenemy enemy that is as followers ofJesus Christ and then we're going tolook at the question of how can werespond to those who are beingpersecuted today as we go through thisthree-part series on persecution I'mgoing to be referring to the Free Churchand to the persecuted church now thepersecuted Church um includes all ofthose Christians around our world todaywho are currently experiencingpersecution and the Free Church includesthose who have yet to experiencepersecutionuh we often divide the world theChristian World up into groups such asOrthodox Catholic and Protestant buttoday we're going to be talking aboutthe persecuted church and the FreeChurch and it's important for us as welive here in the West for us to askquestions about persecution because formany Christians in the world today chistuh persecution is already a significantreality in fact to talk about the comingstorm is a curiously North AmericanCentric perspective because for manyChristians in the world today the stormhas alreadyarrived and so we're going to be lookingto State how do we respond to those whoare experiencing persecution before wecome on in Parts two and three of thisthree-part series to look at how we canrespond to persecution ourselves and howwe can better prepare for it when itcomes knocking on ourdoor so as I've already mentionedpersecution of the followers of JesusChrist is increasing around our worldtoday sometimes it is hidden sometimesit is open and it is becomingincreasingly open and the response ofthe International Community is muted atbest and Blye indifference at worstreports from organizations such as opendoors USA and voice of the martyrs andthe United States state departmentannual religious liberty report andempirical evidence from around the worldindicates that those who bear the nameof Jesus are suffering under increasinglevels of hostilityandpersecution so why is there religiouspersecution today it's a great questionwe say we're in the 21st century surelywe have moved beyond the reality ofreligious persecution but the truth isthere's a lot of religious persecutiontoday but why is there religiouspersecution in our world well the firstreason is simply this that and you'llsee this on the screen authoritariangovernments seek to control allreligious thought and expression for inNorth Korea is a classic examplereligious groups are viewed as enemiesof the state because Christians have ahigher loyalty than to the state itselfthe second reason why there is religiouspersecution today is because there isoften hostility towards non-traditionalor towards minority religious groupswithin countries we see this most oftenin countries um where there isofficially religion of freedom ofreligion but there is also Sharia lawand the governments in many countriestoday will say well we officially havefreedom of religion but in reality thereis incredible social hostility towardsminority groups such as Christians andthe government need not do anypersecution itself because there arenon-state actors for instance Al-Qaedawho will do the Dirty Work to ensurethat Christians are persecuted withinthose countries a third reason why thereis persecution today is because there isa refusal in many parts of the world torecognize basic human rights includingarticle 18 of the United NationsDeclaration of Human Rights and you'llsee this on the screen this is what thearticle says it reads everyone has theright to freedom of thought conscienceand religion this right includes freedomto change his religion orbelief now in 1966 the United Nationsdeveloped the international Covenant ofpolitical and civil rights theiccpr in addition to the universaldeclar of Human Rights and article 18 ofthis Covenant focuses on four elementsof religious freedom the first of thoseelements is this and I quote everyoneshall have the right to freedom ofthought conscience and religion thisright shall include freedom to have orto adopt a religion or belief of his orher choice and freedom eitherindividually or in community with othersand in public or private to manifest hisreligion or belief in worship observancepractice ice and teaching now the secondum aspect of this article 18 reads asfollows no one shall be subject tocoercion which would impair his freedomto have or to adopt a religion or beliefof his choice the third component ofthis article 18 of this Covenant readsas follows the freedom to manifest one'sreligion or beliefs may be subject onlyto such limitations as are prescribed bylaw and are necessary to protect PublicSafety orhealth or morals or the fundamentalrights and freedoms ofothers and the fourth component of thisarticle 18 of this Covenant reads asfollows the state parties to the presentCovenant undertake to have respect forthe liberty of parents and whenapplicable legal Guardians to ensure thereligious and moral education of theirchildren in Conformity with their ownconvictions now these are um Highsounding words Noble sentimentswonderful aspirations on the part ofmany countries in our world today whosigned up to this International Covenantand the United Nations Declaration onhuman rights but tragically the realityis that these Noble ideals are nottranslated into meaningful freedom ofconscience in many parts of our worldtoday despite Humanity's best intentionsthe 21st century is already showingsignificant levels of persecution ofreligious minoritiesum in a persecution that parallels thepersecution since the time of Jesushimself which brings us to the secondcomponent of our first talk today andthat is the current reality ofpersecution of Christians and you see onthe screen there I've put up twowebsites for you one relates to opendoors USA and the other is from voice ofthe martyrs persecution.com voice of themartyrs was established by PastorRichard vrand he was a Protestant Pastorwrongfully and unjustly imprisoned bythe chesu communist regime in in Romaniahe was imprisoned for some years when hewas released he made his way to theUnited States sought political Asylumand he established the organizationvoice of the martyrs to raise theawareness in the west of the reality ofthe persecuted church I would stronglyrecommend that you take the time to lookat the voice of the martyrs websitewhich is persecution.com and also theEvangelical group open doors USA whochart the reality of persecution ofChristians in our world today so what isthe current reality of persecution ingeneral in the world in the 21st centuryand of Christians in particular wellsince the year 2000 a wave ofhumanitarian crisis have um released andhave been fueled by waves of Terrorintimidation and violence in a growingnumber ofcountries uh from the year 2014 15 on inIraq and Assyriano religious group was free of attacksfrom Isis uh they conquered and killedyazidis Christians and fellow Muslimssunnis and Shia when Isis conqueredmosul um in summer 2015 it immediatelymurdered the the dissenting Sunniclerics it kidnapped and executedChristian priests and nuns and itleveled ancient places of worship theyazidis and the Christians bore theworst blunt of what Isis could do theyendured summary executions Forceconversions systematic rape and sexualenslavement the Abduction of theirchildren the destruction of their housesof worship destruction of their homesand of their livelihoods and thispersecution was aimed specifically atdissenting religious minoritiesparticularly the Christians and theyazidis in Nigeria um on a weekly basisthere are attacks by boo Haram a groupallied with Isis um who attack bothMuslims and Christians particularly inthe northern half of Nigeria if youfollow this closely in the news you'llsee that almost on a weekly or bi-weeklybasis an entire community of Christiansis burnt to the ground their theirVillages are burnt down and theinhabitants are macheted or shot todeath this is happening on a regularbasis along with the kidnapping ofchildren and school girls thedestruction of houses of worship and uhuh basically a scorched Earth policyagainst against anyone who would dis bedisagree with the radical Sunni ideologyof groups like Boko Haram in the CentralAfrican Republic um a small countrynestled in the heart of Africa todaythere are more than a million internallydisplaced people again due to variousviolent factions and within that countrythere is also significant persecution ofChristians within Iraq uh there are over2 million internally displaced personsSyria has almost 7 million internallydisplaced people with within its borderand so freedom of conscience in generaland for those who bear the name ofChrist in particular is under attack indozens of countries worldwide and uhChristians in particular areexperiencing the brunt of thispersecution now we live in in the west II live in America and we may think wellis this really true because we don't seethis persecution happening on a dailybasis but I'm here to assure you todaythat this persecution is happening allaround our world today and uh asChristians in the west we often getcaught up in what is called the reallythe meaningless froth of our Westernentertainment culture we love the NFL welove the NBA we love ice hockey orbasketball um we we look at programs ontelevision reality TV shows and so forthand so forth and we get caught up intoessentially the meaningless froth ofWestern pop culture but I believe God iscalling us today to recognize that weare living in significant and serioustimes times that major events are a footin our world today that our world trulyis spinning out of control and maybethrough this three part series God isinviting each and every one of us toturn our back on the meaningless andempty pop culture of the West and tostart focusing on the reality ofpersecution around our world today andwhy do I say that because sooner orlater that persecution is going to comeknocking on our doors in the westwhether it be in Britain or Germany orCanada or America or Australia and soforth the reality of persecution todayfor Christians is that every yearthousands of Christians are killed fortheir faith some of them are Protestantsome of them are Catholic some of themare ancient sects such as the nestoriansof Iraq but they all bear the name ofChrist and they being killed not becausethey are nestorians not because they'reCatholics not because they areProtestants they're being killed becausethey the name of JesusChrist what does uh persecution looklike today well the reality is of formany Christians say that persecution andyou'll see this on the slide it includesverbal harassment hostile feelings andattitudes from family members andneighbors Christians and NS with severereligious restrictions pay a heavy pricefor their faith even in 2021 theyexperience beatings physical tortureconfinement isolation systematic rape ssever punishment imprisonment physicaleconomic and sexual slaverydiscrimination in education andemployment and even death these are justa few examples of the differentmanifestations of Christ of persecutionthat our brothers and sisters areexperiencing today around the world nowaccording to open doors USA uh the 50worst countries for the persecution ofChristians at least in 2016 um are asfollows I'm going to go through thislist with you just to give an idea ofwhere this persecution is at its worstin our world today so the top 10countries for persecution in our worldtoday are in descending order NorthKorea Iraq Eritrea Afghanistan SyriaPakistan Somalia Sudan Iran and Libyanow the top uh 11 through 20 countriesare Yemen Nigeria the Maldives SaudiArabia usbekistan Kenya India EthiopiaTurkmenistan and Vietnamwe then move on to Qatar Egypt Myanmarthe Palestinian territories brunai theCentral African Republic Jordan jibutiLaos Malaysia then we come to TajikistanTunisia China aaban Bangladesh TanzaniaAlgeria Bhutan the comos and Mexicobefore we conclude with KuwaitKazakhstan Indonesia Mali turkeyColombia the United Arab EmiratesBahrain njer and Oman you'll notice fromthat list of countries that thosecountries are countries that fewwesterners will go to uh westerners theylike going to places like turkey uh forthe tourism there but they're very oftenum indifferent or blind to the realityof the persecution of Christians thathappens in many of these countriesyou'll also notice from this list thatwe don't see any countries in the Weston that list at least just yet butevents in the west uh indicate to me andI'm deeply convicted of this that sooneror later we're going to see thatpersecution in the west meaning thatcountries like the United States ofAmerica or Canada or Britain will be onthis list of top 50 countries for thepersecution of the Disciples of Jesuspersecution is not an abstract conceptit means young Christian girls beingraped at will in war zones preciselybecause they are Christian girls oryoung Christian girls being abductedabducted and forced into marriages withmen significantly older than them ofanother faith it means whole Villagesbeing burnt alive or butchered withmachetes in parts of Africa it meansbeing excluded from public employmentand public education because you bearthe name of Christ in other countries itmeans being beheaded along the beachesof Libya by ISIS it means in yourcountry you have no access to the gospelthere is no Christian TV no Christianradio no Christian internet no visiblechurches you cannot buy a Bible andindeed it may be illegal to share thegospel with anybody else it means in thewest increasingly a self censorship onthe part of many Christians who wish toavoid cancel culture who do not wish anonline mob or a physical mob to seek tocancel them professionally personallyand financially for stepping outside ofcurrent Dogma in areas relating to humansexuality marriage or gender identity italso means the um uh uh serviceproviders increasingly in the west whoare pushing um certain agendas relatingto human sexuality that they will imposeinformal economic sanctions on any whoquestion uh the everchanging dogmasrelating to human sexuality and so weare seeing that in the west Christiansare increasingly closing their mouthsand people who hold to biblicalunderstandings of sexuality or marriageor gender identity are self- censoringto avoid becoming victims of cancelculture and being d destroyed by anonline or indeed a physical mob at timesthus when we talk about persecutiontoday we are talking about real peoplelike myself and like yourself as youwatching this three-part series peoplewith families whom they love dearly withdaughters whom they cherish who havechosen to follow Jesus Christ and whoare paying for that decision today asyou hear this series in personally andprofound terrible ways and it is only amatter of time before we as Christiansin the west we experience the overtpersecution that Christians in otherparts of the world are facing are weready for it it's coming brothers andsisters are we ready for it God isgiving us a breathing time a moment intime where we can prepare and GD up ourloins mentally spiritually physically uhso that we can be ready for when thepersecution comes to our own Shores nowwe may ask ourselves today in our nextsection here well who is our enemy um isour enemy members of a certain religiousfaith is our enemy um agents of certaingovernments is our enemy uh therepresentatives of powerful businesscorporations well I would say to youthat ultimately none of these groupsrepresent our true enemy our true enemyaccording to the scriptures and asAdventists we are blessed withIncredible insight into this through theunderstanding of the great controversybetween Christ and Satan our true enemyis a real literal personal Fallen Angelfallen from the glories of Heaven whohas engaged in Relentless war againstJesus Christ and subsequently againstall of his enemies all of his disciplesor his children you know I lead amissionary organization AdventistFrontier missions you can find out moreabout us at AFM online.org and um I'vecome to the realization that how doesSatan attack a missionary well the mosteffective way to Satan for Satan toattack a missionary is for him to attackthe children of the missionary if uh ifI get attacked by a mob I can acceptthat what happens if my child isattacked is physically or sexuallyassaulted that brings maybe the greatestpain into a parent's heart we realizewhen we look in the scriptures that Godthe father he saw God the son buried inthe mission field God knows what it'slike to experience the pain of seeingthe one closest to you suffer andsometimes indeed die and so our greatestenemy is not a person it is not agovernment it is not an institution itis not an ideology but it is Satanhimself and the word of God is clearabout who Satan truly is he's describedin the Bible as the ruler of the kingdomof the air in Ephesians 2 and verse twohe's described by Jesus in John 14:30 asthe prince of this world uh Paul goes onto call him in 2 Corinthians 4:4 the Godof this world uh Matthew 12:24 Jesusrefers to Satan as the prince of demonsand uh Paul calls him in 1 Thessalonians2:18 the Hinderer John in Revelation 129-11 is revealed to him by Jesus in TheBook of Revelation that Satan is theaccuser and Jesus calls Satan the a liarand the father of lies in John8:44 he is an angel of Light he appearssometimes as an angel of light as theApostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:114-15 Paul calls him the tempin 1 Thessalonians 3:5 and Peter refersto him as a roaring lion seeking whom hemay devour in First Peter 5 8-9 andJesus calls Satan a murderer in John 8and verse 44 but despite these fearsometitles the good news or part of the goodnews of Jesus Christ is that Satan is adefeated enemy and he goes around withgreat anger for he himself knoweth thathis time is short yes Satan is a astudent of Prophecy and he knows thathis ultimate end will be in that Lake ofFire and he will be destroyed foreverand I say amen and amen to the day whenSatan is cast into that Lake of FireJesus says he saw Satan fall aslightning from Heaven to Earth when thedisciples ministered in the strength ofthe holy spirit in Luke 10:17-20 and Jesus has promised us the samevictory over Satan today as hisdisciples gained back then John 16:33we read we read in 1 John chapter 3 and:8 that the Son of God was revealed forthis purpose to destroy the works of thedevil and the Apostle Paul promised thisVictory in Jesus and wrote about it tothe church in Rome in Romans8:28 and the Apostle John promisedSatan's final defeat and death inRevelation chap 20 and verse 10 inparticular so yes Satan is powerfulSatan is cruel Satan is evil evil and hehas no redeeming trait of any kindwhatsoever but we are not to be afraidwhy because Jesus Christ has never losta battle with Satan whenever they met inConflict when there was war in heaven sSatan lost and he was cast out whenSatan tried to kill Jesus At Birth umSatan Jesus was Spirited Away by hisparents through the intervention of Godthe Father um sending an angel to speakto Joseph when there was a showdown inthe wilderness between Jesus and SatanSatan was driven away from him and Jesusthroughout the rest of his ministrycould go around plundering the captivesof Satan that is setting them free fromdemonic harassment why because as heexplained to the disciples you cannotenter a strong man's house and youcannot plunder his Goods unless firstyou have bound up or tied up the strongman and in The Showdown in thewilderness Jesus bound up Satan so hecan now go around in his ministry andeven today setting free the captives ofSatan and so as the apost Paul saysthanks be to God he has given us Victorythrough our Lord Jesus Christ so if wemay then ask ourselves uh the nextquestion how do we respond to those thenwho are experiencingpersecution well this is a an importantPoint often in the West in particular wesit inchurches and uh we're familiar with thepeople in front of us and behind us wemaybe know the person who sits on thisside and on that side but in many of ourchurches um we have people coming fromall around the world and uh often timeswe don't spend the time to get to knowthem and many of them have incrediblestories to tell they have stories ofsurviving persecution they have storiesof being imprisoned or separated fromtheir families for many years at a timethey have stories of what their familieshave endured for the name of Christ andso the first counsel i' give you todayin how we respond to those who areexperiencing persecution is to don't isto do not ignore those who are sufferingfor the sake of Jesus Christ we are toeducate ourselves and understand moreand learn more about the reality ofreligious persecution and we are toreach out wherever possible to those whoare suffering in the Name of Christ theApostle Paul put it this way in Hebrews13 and verse 3 and you'll see this slideon your screen remember those who are inprison as though you were in prison withthem those who are being tortured asthough you yourselves were beingtortured so the first counsel I'd giveyou is this um learn about the realityof persecution maybe the best way tolearn about the reality of persecutionis to sit down and give someone the timeand space to tell their story of whathappened to them we're so busy in thewest uh we go to church and then we haveto rush off for the potluck then we haveanother meeting to get to then we haveyou have to get back for Vespers thenthere's a social events in the eveningand so forth and so on and yet maybe thethe best thing you can do for a brotheror sister in Christ is simply to sitdown in a quiet room and say tell meyour story I'd like to hear what youhave gone through and when you givesomeone the time and the space they willyou will hear incredible stories offaithfulness in the midst of incrediblepersecution and as somebody shares theirstory your respect for that brother orsister in Christ will grow exponentiallyand your love for them will deepen andthe bonds of Brotherly and sisterly lovewill be strengthened as you realize thatthis person has gone through sufferingthat you cannot begin to imagine wouldever happen to yourself slow down listento those who are in your congregationtell their story many of them arerefugees and you may think oh this is arefugee from a certain country in ourchurch and we're glad they've made it toAmerica but many of them have gotincredible stories to tell listen to thestories and listen to the pain empathizeand sympathize to the extent possiblebut let them tell their story and you'llbe humbled and honored in the presenceof such Heroes of Faith the next way werespond to those who have experiencingpersecution is to slow down to switchoff be silent in the face of the realityof evil and affirm the victim's right togrief right to grief and to weep withthose who weep in the Book of Job wefind a classic example of this we wetend to think that job you know a lot ofterrible things happened to him he losthis children lost his business lost hispossessions he had a terriblerelationship with his wife it seems umbut uh we talk about job's threecomforters and job had three friends whocame to visit him and from Job chapter 2through to about Job chapter 38 there'sa dialogue back and forth between joband his three friends and they don'tseem to offer him much com Fort butmaybe the most effective thing thatjob's friends did for him was when theycame and when they first come to job umin Job chapter 2 and: 12-13 this is whatthe story says it says when they saw himfrom a distance they did not recognizehim and they raised their voices andwept aloud they tore their robes andthrew dust in the air upon their headsthey sat with them on the ground sevendays and seven nights and no one spoketo him for they saw that his sufferingwas very greatsometimes the most helpful thing you cando as aChristian is to sit insilence sometimes we're confronted bythe reality of evil and pain andsuffering and persecution and that thereality of evil is so profound thattheir words will not suffice to expressour abhorrence of what we are hearingthere are times when we can just sit insilence and recognize that evil goesbeyond words evil goes beyond feelingsevil goes beyond whatever you may hearin music or see in the movies evil isevil it goes beyond the our capacity forhuman expression and the face of evilsometimes the only thing you can do isto sit in silence and to sit insolidarity as you hear the story of whatsomeone's gone through about 2015 I wasin NorthernIraq I was in herbal and Isis were inmosul that maybe 50 60 miles differenceis not far it's an hour's drive down thehighway across the deserts of NorthernIraq and uh there were tens of thousandsof Christians were arriving from mosulwhen Isis conquered mosul they said tothe Christians you have 48 hours you canleave you can convert or you can die andthe Christians Almost 100% they leftmosul and they fled tobal the capital ofthe Iraqi region of Kurdistan and thesetens of thousands of Christians werecoming down the road from from mosul thetemperature was about 50 celius um whichis well over 110 Fahrenheit the roadsthe TAC it was so hot that the TAC wassoft under your feet that you couldpress your feet into the tarmac it wasso hot and these people were arrivingthey were sleeping in churches uh in achurch like this you may have twofamilies on every Pew stretched out uhthey were sleeping in schools in in umunfinished Construction ction sites theywere sleeping in in the Parks under thetrees anywhere to get Shelter From theSun and it was a desperate desperatesituation and I I was it was myprivilege to be there with AFM AdventistFrontier missions and I was in one ofthose Refugee encampments it was a largeFactory and I was there with somecolleagues who were giving out umformula milk formula for the lactatingmothers to feed their children and wewere providing food supplies waterdispensers clothing mattresses and soforth and I came across a lady who wassitting on a mattress on the floor andshe had a far off look in her eyes andher face was kind of frozen so I kind ofsquatted down next to her I had somebeans and rice I shared that with herand I asked through my translator I saidyou know um is there any way we can helpyou and she kind of shook her head andso uh we sat in silence we could seethat something terrible was happeningand eventually she looked to us and shestarted to tell her story she had beendriven out of mosul just a a few weeksbefore and on the way out of mosul herhusband had been captured by ISIS andhe' been executed she had two younggirls they were 10 or 12 years old andas she was leaving mosul the IsisFighters had taken the two young girlsand they' had been put to work workingin a brothel for the Isis Fighters theseyounggirls and as she told herstory it was hard to know what to saywhat do yousay evil is evil he goes beyond humanexpression the pain was etched into herface she was beyond tears she was numbshe was in shock she was grateful to bealive but Isis was giving the younggirls cell phones and telling them tocall their parents and tell them whatwas happening to them as a form ofpsychological torture for the parents aswell some of those girls were callingtheir parents and saying please have theAmericans bomb us this is where we areput us out of our misery because theterrior the experience was so horrificfor those younggirls we sat in Silence with that lady Ido not know for how long it felt likehours it was probably 5 or 10 minutes inthe reality of evil like this words willnotsuffice we just sat in humansolidarity each of us lost in our ownthoughts praying that one day God willwrite every wrong and God will wipe awayevery tear from every human face thatexperienced such horrific evil it was aprofound moments I noticed next to herthere was a statue of Mary it was aboutthis High very little statuette of Maryand so I asked her and um she was uh amarinite uh which is kind of a branch ofthe Roman Catholic Church they're basedin the Middle East mostly in Lebanon andparts of Syria and uh she said I askedher about the little statue of Mary andshe said well she saidthey can take my job they can take myhome they can take my husband they'vetaken my daughters they've takeneverything but the one thing they cannottake is myfaith now as a Protestant I wouldn'tnecessarily agree with having statues ofMary clearly but that was not the timeand place for discussion about thesecond commandment ormariolatry no this woman the only thingshe had left was her faith in the LordJesus Christ and she had lost everythingnot because of that statue of Mary shelost everything in her life because shebore the name of Jesus Christ and so thesecond lesson we learn in the reality ofpersecution is slow down be silent givetime and space for those who aresuffering to share their experience it'spart of the healing process as we talkabout these things as we listen to thestories that is how the healing processbegins within the hearts of those whosuffered loss for the name of Christthirdly God calls us to be a voice forthe voiceless God calls us to speak upfor those who are experiencingpersecution for their faith and asChristians we do not speak up for thosewho are being persecuted to for In TheName of Christ alone for instance inChina today uh millions of Wagers in thelast three years have been placed inwhat only may be described asconcentration camps by the ChineseCommunist Party there are there's awhole variety of reasons for this butthe weers are experiencing a terriblepersecution in China there are a Muslimgroup in Northwest China and the worldhas basically abandoned the wiers andeverybody knows what is happening to thewiers but nobody wants to speak up aboutit because they're afraid of offendingChina and causing economic harm toeconomic relationships and so God callsus as the Disciples of Jesus to speak upfor any groups and all groups who areexperiencing persecution for their faithbecause freedom of religion is our firstresponsibility before God and why do Isay that well just imagine this um whenGod created Adam then the first and thegreatest of The Commandments appliesThou shalt love the Lord your God withall your heart with all your soul andwith all your mind and it is only afterthe creation of Eve that the secondcommandment applies and you shall loveyour neighbor asyourself but before the creation of EveAdam could not love his neighbor ashimself because he was the only humanbeing and so our first responsibility asall of humanity is towards the CreatorGod and therefore as the followers ofJesus today we speak up for those whoare experiencing persecution regardlessof what faith they adhere to becausethis is perhaps the most fundamentalhuman right of all our right to connectwith the Creator God and then fourthlyuh how do we respond to thoseexperiencing persecution we offerpractical support to brothers andsisters who are going throughpersecution the Apostle Paul said itthis way if one member suffers allsuffer together with it if one member ishonored all Rejoice together with it andso I would encourage you today to checkout Ministries like voice of the martyrsyou can actually provide funding umthrough voice of the martyrs for thefamilies of prisoners of consciencearound the world today you can receivefrom voice of the martyrs um envelopeswith with with with postcards and youcan write out a message of hope afavorite Bible text a promise a Psalmand you can express that you praying forthis individual and you don't know whothat card is going to but those cardsare mailed all around the world or getsometimes delivered by hand to umprisoners of conscience and to thefamilies of prisoners of conscience sothey know that there are Christiansaround the world who are praying forthem in the midst of their distress sowe don't just we don't just know aboutthe persecuted church but we canpractically support brothers and sisterswho are going through persecution andmaybe in your home congregation eventoday there is a new family has justarrived and you can tell they're from adifferent part of the world and theirEnglish is really bad and you don'treally pay much attention to them I wantto encourage you today invite them toyour home um and get to know them listento their story you may indeed find thatthey are survivors of the most terriblepersecution and maybe they've come toAmerica as refugees and they've beengiven 90 days rent and and and foodmoney and after that they're on theirown and they're in desperate need of ajob they need someone to help themnavigate Social Security they needsomeone to help them find Englishlanguage classes they need someone tohelp them enroll their children in localschool and you can be um like a Barnabasfigure you can walk with that family whoare survivors of persecution through theonboarding process to living a life um asustainable life within your own countryand so there's something that all of uscan do to help those who areexperiencingpersecution precisely because freedom ofconscience um is our first and ourspiritual Birthright that thou shaltlove the Lord your God with all yourheart and soul and mind it is preciselybecause this is the spiritual Birthrightof all Humanity that we are invited byheavenly father to speak up for thosewho experienced persecution today or whoare the survivors of persecution tosupport them and to minister to thembecause we in the Free Church havelessons to learn from the persecutedchurch we'll come on to that uh later onin this three-part Series so what do wesay in conclusion of our first uh talktoday the first is this that just beforethe second coming of Jesus we find inthe Book of Revelation in The Sixth SealJesus reveals um in the fifth seal ofRevelation sorry that his church will bea persecuted Church it will be amartyred church and it will be amilitant church we do not see in theBible that just before Jesus comes hischurch will be a church glorious and achurch triumphant but rather his churchwill be a militant Church it will be apersecuted Church it will be a martyredchurch and so the we see there inRevelation CH 6 9-1 we read when heopened the fifth seal I saw unto thealtar The Souls of those who had beenslaughtered for the word of God and forthe tesy they had given they cried outwith a loud voice Sovereign Lord holyand true how long will it be before youjudge and avenge our blood on theinhabitants of the earth they were eachgiven a white robe and told to rest alittle longer until the number would becomplete both of their fellow servantsand of their brothers and sisters whowere soon to be killed as theythemselves had been killed thus whilethere will be persecution of the Saintswe see that in the Book of Revelation inthe fifth seal just before the coming ofJesus there will be persecution of theSaints the good news is God hasestablished a limit Beyond which evilcannot and will will not pass so inpractice I want to challenge you todaythere are many things you can do as partof the Free Church to minister to thosewho are part of the persecuted churchand to prepare for when persecutioncomes to your door and to your communityand to your country and you'll see onthe screen here in conclusion just a fewsimple ways that you can be moreinvolved in ministering to those caughtup in the reality of persecution forinstance become engaged in your localunions religious liberty min Ministry umand you can connect with your localAdventist Union and ask about theirreligious liberty department and how youcan become involved educate yourself andbecome aware of the religious libertyTrends and events going on around ourworld today pray for those who arepersecuted for prisoners of conscienceand for their families join the NorthAmerican religious liberty Associationreligious liberty. info uh there's anannual conference an excellentconference every year held over in in inMaryland in in in the Washington DC areaand you get the Liberty magazine and yougo to the conference there are updatesit's a great way to educate yourselfabout the reality of persecution in ourworld today sign up for the voice of themartyrs and open doors USA newslettersthis is a great antidote to the thefroth that many Western Christiansconsume as they focus on NFL or NBA orsports or Media or Hollywood or musicand so forth uh ask God to change yourspiritual taste buds and sign up forthese newsletters and and becomeeducators of what is happening in ourworld today um provide Financialemotional practical support for thefamilies of prisoners of conscience theymay be in your congregation or that maybe through an organization such as voiceof the martyrs become active if you'rein the North American Division NorthAmerican Division has a refugee andimmigrant Ministry you can read moreRefugee ministries.com again Refugeeministries.com go to that website findout how you can become actively involvedin ministering to refugees in yourcommunity and when you meet thoserefugees you will discover that many ofthem even in 2021 and 2020 many of themare the survivors of the most terriblepersecution read the reports of the USCommission on International religiousfreedom and you see the website on thescreen there us sf.govyou can download it for free educateyourself on the reality of persecutionin our world today pray pray and praypray for the persecuted church that theywill have the strength to endurewhatever God is allowing them to gothrough today and pray that yourresponse to persecution will be asgod-honoring as the Saints of old whosurvived whatever Satan could throw atthem and remember the good news when wetalk about persecution is thiswhile there will be persecution of theSaints God has established a limitBeyond which evil and persecution cannotpass so I want to challenge you today asyou've heard this talk as I as you hearwhat I've just been sharing with youplease don't just file it away and sayoh that was an interesting talk that wasuh kind of cool I didn't know thosethings were happening I want tochallenge you today to make U Ministryto the persecuted Church a part of yourlife don't just hear what I'm sayingtoday and pass by on the other side ofthe road I implore you become involvedin religious liberty Ministry becomeinvolved in ministering to those who areexperiencing persecution or who havesurvived persecution and in so doing Godwill be preparing you for that terribleday when persecution comes knocking atyour door may God give each one of usthe grace and the strength to ministerfor Jesus with Jesus and to lift JesusHigh in whatever aspect of ministry heinvites us into let's bow our heads andclose with a word of prayer dearheavenly father I want to thank you thatevil has a boundary Beyond which itcannot pass I want to thank you that forthose whose names are in the Lamb's Bookof Life there is the Assurance ofeternal life no matter what may happento them in this world today I prayfather that uh those who are watchingthis program that we will all of themwill realize the blessing they have ofthe freedoms they enjoy today that theywill make use of the freedoms that youhave blessed them with not to live livesof consumption or Indulgence orentertainment but with those freedomsthey will shine more brightly for youthey will offer assistance moremeaningfully for those who areexperiencing or have survivedpersecution that with the freedoms wegive our faith will grow deeper and ourwitness will shine brighter for you thisis my prayer in jesus' holy name am amen[Music]na