Surviving Persecution II

[Music]h[Music]well hello and welcome to our second uhpart of a three-part series entitleddiscipleship and suffering my name isPastor Conrad Vine I serve as thepresident of Adventist Frontier missionsbased in Baran Springs Michigan and I'mgoing to be talking with you today uhabout the reality of persecution in ourworld today in the first of ourthree-part series we looked at thereality of persecution of religiousminorities in general and Christians inparticular in our world today we askedwhy there is persecution and we askedwho our Real Enemy is we saw that ourReal Enemy is not any human actor or anypolitical ideology but it is Satanhimself and we outlined how we canbetter respond to those who areexperiencing persecution today today Iwant to delve a little bit deeper intohow Satan attacks the body of Christthrough external attacks and throughinternal attacks and as you see on theslide there after we look at theexternal attacks and the internalattacks that Satan brings upon the bodyof Christ we're going to be looking athow the road to persecution begins thisis these are General Trends we see inour world today and we're going toconclude today by starting to build atheology or a Biblical framework forpersecution uh in the third part of ourthree-part series we're going to belooking at biblical responses to thereality of persecution when it comesknocking on our door and how we maybetterprepare for that eventuality but todaywe're going to be looking really at howSatan attacks the church and uhdeveloping a a a basic biblical Theologyof of the reality of persecution this isa serious topic and so invite you to Bowyour heads with me and we invite theHoly Spirit to bless our time togetheroh HeavenlyFather I want to thank you for thefreedoms we enjoy in the west I fatherthank you that we in the Free Church canlearn lessons from the persecutor churchI pray father that we indeed will haveOpen Hearts and humble minds and we willbe willing to listen and to hear and toengage and to grow not just in ourunderstanding but to grow in ourpractice of life and ministry as wecontemplate the reality of persecutionin our world today father I pray for ourlisteners that you will steal everyvoice not of your kingdom that uh as Ispeak that you will speak through me andthey will hear your spirit speaking totheir hearts bringing conviction andconversion and commitments to live foryou and to shine bright for youregardless of what is happening in ourworld today so father we give this nextuh uh these next moments into your handsuse me and mold me and speak through meas you see fit in the name of Jesus Ipray amen so we're going to askourselves um today why do we talk aboutpersecution and uh you'll see this textcoming upon the screen I'd like to readfrom my Bible here is 2 Corinthianschapter 1 and verses 3 and 4 and this iswhat the Apostle Paul says he saysblessed be the God and father of ourLord Jesus Christ this is 2 Corinthianschapter 1:3 so blessed be the God andfather of our Lord Jesus Christ thefather of mercies and the God of allconsolation who consoles us us in ourAffliction so that we may be able toconsole those who are in any Afflictionwith the consolation with which weourselves are consoled by God that'skind of a complex verse but what is Paulsaying here Paul is essentially sayingthat those who are in the persecutedchurch have lessons about God and God'smercy and God's consolation and God'sencouragement that the persecuted churchcan pass on to the Free Churchlet's let's turn that around you mightsay that we in the Free Church who haveyet to experience overt persecution itis our privilege it is a gift from Godthat we may learn about persecution andhow God gives Grace to his people tosurvive persecution from the persecutedchurch and so we're going to be talkingtoday about some of those lessons aboutuh how Satan attacks the persecutedChurch the external attacks and theinternal attacks before we start lookingat the road to persecution and thenstart building a Theology of persecutionitself so we're going to start out byasking how does Satan attack thepersecuted church and we see in the inthe New Testament there are basicallyfive ways by which Satan attacks uh thechurch from the outside these are notinternal attacks such as division withinthe church but there are five ways inwhich Satan attacks the church from theoutside and the first of those isthrough Civic rulers uh classic exampexamples in the Bible are Pontius Pilatethe man the Roman Governor the Civilgovernor of the Roman govern uh provinceof Judea who sentenced Jesus to death bycrucifixion we also see that Herod agrippa who was a Civic ruler one of theuh the rulers of the portions of themodern Holy Land uh who sentenced Jamesthe Apostle to death in Jerusalem inActs chapter 12 and verse two uh at abroader scale in the first century wesee that Nero the emperor Nero was aCivic ruler the ruler of the RomanEmpire who instigated the first majorpersecution of the church during theapostolic era modern day equivalents ofthe Civic rulers Who attack the body ofChrist would be uh chesu of communistRomania Mount Tong of communist Chinathe K Rouge of Cambodia Fidel Castro ofCuba the Ayatollah of Iran the politBureau of theUSSR and uh Kim Jong-un of North Koreauh so we see that today Satan attacksthe body of Christ externally throughthe attacks of Civic rulers who do notwant the church to exist and we touchedon this briefly in our first part ofthis three-part series um authoritariangovernments do not like Christians to bein their midst because Christians bear ahigher loyalty than to the state itselfthe second way that Satan attacks thechurch is through the actions ofreligious leaders you see it was theJewish Priestly class who were mostlyinvolved most directly involved in thetrial and the demanding of the death ofJesus Christ and Peter was very directwith the Jewish audience at Pentecostabout their this their responsibilityfor jesus' crucifixion he said in Acts2:36 this Jesus whom you crucifiedspeaking to the religious Jews inJerusalem at Pentecost throughout hisministry the most bitter opponents toJesus were not from the common people itwas not from the uneducated masses itwas not from the Romans themselves butthe most bitter opponents of Jesus werethe Jewish religious leaders theSadducees and the Pharisees and theherodians the religious leaders based inJerusalem itself the first flogging ofdisciples took place under the Sanhedrinthe religious ruling Council of the Jewsin Acts 5:40 the first martyrdom inChristian history was carried out byenraged Jewish clerics again from theSanhedrin in Acts 754-59 with the stoning of Steven and theApostle Paul began his career as areligious cleric seeking to destroy theapostolic church he he says in histestimony he went from door to door fromhouse to house dragging out theChristians imprisoning them and when thetime came to decide he was casting hisvote to have them executed so Paul was areligious cleric before he was convertedengaged in the persecution of the earlychurch now we know in the New Testamentthat not all religious leaders wereindeed persecutors such as Nicodemus orJoseph of arthea or Simon the Phariseeand we know that many of the priestswere secret Believers for Jesus but keptquiet for fear of the ruling class andthey were baptized after Pentecost butthe faithful stand of those fewindividuals does not deny the greaterreality which was the implacable hatredof the Jewish Priestly class towardsJesus and his disciples modern dayequivalents would be preachers acrossthe world particularly in the 1040Mission window who preach hate towardsChristians from their pulpits every weekand stir up mobs to attack Christians toburn their homes and steal theirbusinesses for alleged crimes such asblasphemy and so forth the Third Waythat Satan attacked the early churchfrom the outside and through which heattacks the out the church today isthrough the actions of Business LeadersBusiness Leaders often opposeChristianity when Christianity comesinto conflict with the commercialinterests of the business people themost obvious example of business peoplepersecuting Christians in the Bible isthe story of the possessed slave girlwho Paul delivered in Acts 16 and thesilver Smiths of Ephesus in Acts chapter19 the book of Acts reveals that theowners of the slave girls were notconcerned about spiritual truth per sebut they were primarily concerned thatPaul had delivered the slave girl fromdemonic harassment and possession andthey had lost their source of income itsays in in Acts chapter 16 when theowners that is of the slave girl sawthat their hope of making money was goneThey seized Paul and Silas and draggedthem before the authorities the silverSmiths of Ephesus saw a dramaticreduction in their business people wereno longer buying their statues of Dianaof the Ephesians because of thepreaching of the Apostles and peoplewere turning to the true God away fromthese false gods of the pagans and sothey they created a mob and they werechanting great Des IR of the Ephesiansin the great Ampitheater of the city ofEphesus you can still go there to thisday it's an incredible place to visitand we see again that commercialinterests often collide with the gospeland Commercial interests T try tooverwhelm the gospel if those commercialinterests are threatened a fourth way orshall we say how do we see commercialinterests um imposed uh restrictions onChristians today well modern dayequivalence would be businesses withmore modern understandings of humansexuality uh who impose economicsanctions on states or cities orcounties particularly here in the UnitedStates who hold to a Biblicalunderstanding of human sexuality ormarriage or gender identity a fourth waythat Satan attacks the church from theoutside is through the mob on the streetwhen Satan cannot attack the churchthrough the Civic rulers or thereligious leaders or Business Leadersthere is always the mob on the streetand they can be stirred up through awhole variety of means whether it beethnic religious or or economicPrejudice and hatred or bigotry we findin the in the book of Acts that a mobcan be easily swayed by the fiercerhetoric of clerics and they're oftenwilling to maim injure or even kill inthe hope of gaining booty the Jewsformed a mob in thessalonica to counterthe influence of the Apostles and theirteaching we see that in Acts chapter 17and verse 5 modern day equivalents wouldbe the mobs who even today in the 21stcentury they do attack Christian partsof towns and Christian families incities across the 1040 Mission windowand we also see it in the west withonline mobs and on and the modern daycancel culture Who attack those who holdto biblical par parameters for marriageand gender and basic human morality andso the mob is alive and well today justbecause we live in 21st century Americaor Canada or the UK or wherever we'rewatching this series it does not meanthat we do not have mobs our mobs nowthey sit behind uh computer screens theytype out their hateful speech and uhbecause they're Anonymous they can theythey seek to Plum ever greater depths ofvitriol and anger and rage against thosewho would be a light in a in a dark anda Dying World and so we have mobs todayand Satan will attack Christians whospeak up on biblical issues um I speakabout this from personal experienceSatan will attack you online and it isvery discouraging um it is easy tobecome disheartened as you receive a a aa tidal wave of of hatred online becauseyou happen to say something thatdisagrees with today's Dogma we know ofcourse that today's Dogma is oftentomorrow's hate speech but that mattersnot if you speak up today for the gospelor for certain truths you will beattacked by an online mob if you'relucky and if you're unlucky you may beattacked by a physical mob seeking todestroy or cancel your own business thefifth way that we find in the Bible thatSatan attacks the church is from theoutside is through family pressure thisgoes all the way back to Cain and Abeland Abel's Murder By Cain overacceptable worship of the living CreatorGod in Jeremiah CH 12 and verse 6 we seethat Jeremiah was afraid of being killedeven by his own family and Jesusexplicitly taught him Matthew chap 1035-36 that accepting him as Lord andSavior may cause a division within yourfamily and it may cause you to lose yourown family many converts to Jesus Christtoday face very violent attacks fromwithin their immediate families fromtheir extended families or within theirwider clan in some communities mostly inthose communities with a dominantreligious group other than Christianityitself uh there is a a lady I know whowho who was uh attacked by her parentsuh she she was of a dominant faith inanother country she she came home andannounced to her parents that she wasnow a follower of Jesus and they were sohorrified at this they locked her in herroom at first they tried beating her butshe would not give up her faith theythen tried electrocuting her and shewould not give up her faith they triedslicing her body open with razor bladesuh Limbs and torso but she would notgive up her faith they finally hired ashaman to come and rape her and get herpregnant intending to kill her in anhonor killing because of the shame of umof becoming an adulteress that waspreferable to the shame of having yourdaughter become a follower of Jesusthese are real stories this is realityin the 21st century Satan will attackthe church if he cannot attack youthrough Civic rulers or religiousleaders or Business Leaders or mobs hewill attack you through a Godless or agod-rejecting spouse parent or child nowSatan also attacks the church in in inuh from the outside in a variety ofother ways you see these on the screenhe will isolate Christians often througharrest um um enforce dispersion orexpulsion from their country he willoften create conflict among Christiansstir up dissension and uh as we're goingto come to see in our third po part ofthis three-part series Christians do notrespond to persecution with the unifiedfront Satan will attack the church umvia local Faith leaders and Faith groupswho may stir up their local mobs even inthe 21st century Satan also attacks thechurch to what we call religiousnationalism in which um your nationalidentity and your religious identitybecome fused into one so let me give youa good example uh for instance Greece isdominated by the Greek Orthodox Churchto be Greek means that you're Orthodoxto be Orthodox means that you are Greekand if you are a Greek Orthodox and youwant to for instance become a Methodistor you want to follow Jesus as anAdventist awaiting his second comingyou're not only giving up your religiousidentity you're also giving up yournational identity because there is noplace within the Greek Orthodoxworldview for someone to be a GreekAdventist you are a Greek Orthodox andif you're no longer an orthodox thenyou've lost a large component of yournational identity so religiousnationalism is also another way by whichSatan attacks the church and hinders theprocess of conversion and spiritualgrowth in the west Satan attacks thechurch through through um secularhumanism through the radical left thatis marching through the West today whichproclaims tolerance but is in factprofoundly intolerant of of Christiansand absolutely hates the exclusiveclaims of Jesus Christ in the name ofTolerance we are seeing a newtotalitarianism arise in the west SatanAlso may attack the church through anti-conversion laws or through strictcontrols over approved worship andMinistry facilities for for instance insome countries today if you have achurch or if you even want to build achurch you cannot build a church unlessyou get agreement from The Neighbors onall four sides of that plot of land inpractice that means you'll never get achurch built on that plot of land inother parts of the world um you cannotyou must maintain the building to acertain standard or the government maytake it away from you and this is oftenused as an excuse to take buildings awayfrom us as churches um by a hostilegovernment or local local authorities onthe next screen you see also how Satanattacks the church from the outsidethrough anti-blasphemy laws which areoften enforced by the mobs on the streetrather than by the local Judiciary heattacks through economic discriminationthat if you are a Christian in inanother in a country with a dominantFaith you will not get a public sectorcontract you'll never get a governmentcontract to provide a public service umuh business of led by a leader ofanother Faith May refuse to do businesswith you you may not be able to rent aspace in a mall you may not be able toget um a local contract because you areknown to be a Christian this economicdiscrimination is happening in manycountries today even as we sit here inthe west uh Satan attacks the churchthrough martyrdoms through theabductions and forced marriages ofChristian girls and he also attacks thechurch through neutralizing theChristian witness whether it be throughthe closing of all Christianinstitutions the closing of churches theBanning of of the the the refusal toallow uh Christian internet Christianradio Christian TV Christian bookstoresany viable or visible or publicChristian witness in many countriestoday is entirely closed off so Satanhas many ways by which he can attack thechurch from the outside but Satan alsohas Ways by which he can attack thechurch from the inside and these areoften harder to detect at first but theyare just as in Insidious and theyactually tear the part tear the churchapart in a very pain ful way you seeit's easy to understand when we're beingattacked from the outside that okaywe're we're facing attack we can huddletogether but when Satan attacks thechurch from the inside the church oftenscatters like a flock of sheep isscattered when a wolf attacks the Sheepdon't all run in the same direction theyscatter in all Direction and then youneed the Good Shepherd to go and Leadthose sheep back together so there isone flock so how does Satan attack thechurch from the inside it's a greatquestion well um one way that Satanattacks the church from the inside isthrough Pride we all battle with prideit was perhaps the original sin in SE inheaven Satan's original sin was Pride hebecame exalted and proud in the beautyof his appearance and The Wonder of hiswisdom and the appeal to Pride in theGarden of Eden when Satan said to Eveyou shall be like God it was one of thefirst lies ever told Proverbs 6:17reveals that hay or proud eyes are anAbomination unto God and Jesus spoke ofPride when he said everyone who exaltshimself will be humbled and he whohumbles himself will be exalted and soone of the ways in which Satan attacksthe church from the inside is bynurturing a sense of Pride within thebeliever's hearts this may translateinto people saying well I should be theElder of this church or why am I not thethe lead Sabbath school teacher in ourcongregation and why am I not invited topreach more often from the pulpitdoesn't the preacher know that I have alot to say and what a great man or womanof God that I truly am I have a messagethis congregation needs to hear whenpeople don't get certain positions thatthey think they are owed because oftheir family heritage or their financialcontribution or their spiritual giftsthat sense of Pride often leads to asense of resentment and bitterness andit causes division within the body ofChrist the second way and you see thison the screen that Satan attacks achurch from the inside is through whatwe call true guilt now there's adifference between true guilt and falseguilt we come to false guilt in a momentbut true guilt is when Satan accuses usin our hearts of our real sins and ourreal mistakes one reason this strategyis so successful is we are sinners we dosin on a day-to-day basis and we knowthat his attacks are true when Satansays to you hey brother what about thisin your life or Hey sister what aboutthis in your life he says it in such away to discourage you and to make youthink that I'm such a terrible sinnerGod can forgive everybody else but Godcannot forgive me so he gives people asense of discouragement in our heartsthat go I'm beyond the reach of God'sgrace we know from the book of Timothy 1Timothy 1 uh first 1 Timothy chapter 3:1-7 that Christians at the end of timesmany Christians will be living Wickedlives with open and unresolved sinwithin their lives and so we know thisis an effective attack of Satan he justWhispers to you what your sins are andthey're often cherished sins they'rehidden sins they're private sins butSatan knows about them and he keepsattacking with those and the implicationis that Conrad I know about look at thissin in your life do you think God couldever forgive you God can forgiveeverybody else but look at you you sitin the pews every Sabbath you returnyour tithe you're a faithful churchmember but there is a cherish sin inyour life maybe you're watching pornevery night maybe you're cheating onyour tithe maybe you a maybe you haveadulterous thoughts in your mind towardsanother man or woman etc etc and you mayknow that this is true and Satan istrying to be help you make youdiscouraged and to give up your walkwith God the good news of the Gospel isthat God has provided a means for thefull forgiveness when we confess oursins that he who is faithful and justwill forgive us and cleanse us of allunrighteousness Hallelujah and Psalm 51if you've never read it before i'encourage you to read it today it's aPsalm that reveals the depth and thebeauty of true forgiveness it waswritten by David when he experiencedGod's forgiveness for committing the sinof murdering Uriah then committingadultery with his wife ba Shebaaccording to Revelation 1211 we counterand overcome the accusations of Satan inthree ways one is by the blood of theLamb second by the word of Our Testimonyand thirdly by our sacrificial love onefor another so there is an antidote toTrue guilt the an but then there is afalse guilt and false guilt um oftenhappens this comes when for instancewhen disciples face persecution whentheir leaders are discredited or drivenout of Ministry for a moral fall whentheir CH churches are closed when theirinstitutions go bankrupt when theirinstitutions are taken from them peopleask why why did these things happen tous and Satan is always ready to providefalse answers remember Satan is thefather of Lies when he puts thesethoughts in your mind he's essentiallylying to you he will say that thesethings came upon you because your faithwas weak because you had cherished sinsbecause there wasn't enough unity in thebody of Christ because your sinsdemanded God's punishment that you didnot pray enough etc etc when Believersare forced to meet in house churches orin Parks they wonder whether whatthey're doing is really worship whethertheir prayer sessions however brief arevalid in the eyes of God and whethertheir Bible study if it is only adiscussion of a memorized a single mememorized verse is valid in God's eyesSatan floods the minds of Believers withsuch questions then immediately providesnegative answers and this is a burden offalse guilt that drains our spiritualenergy and accomplishing nothing Satanwants us to focus on the past onforgiven sins by bringing up sins thathave been forgiven by saying are yousure God could have forgiven that andthis false guilt debilitates us for thefuture because we carry burdens of doubtin our minds and am I really forgivenwhen I confess that sin before God didGod really forget that sin is that sinblotted out never to be raised anymorein the courts of Heaven in contrastChrist wants us to focus on the presentto claim and receive full forgivenessfor our sins and to live with anabundance of joy that comes from knowingthat you are a forgiven saint of GodSatan also attacks the church from theinside through fear now I would say as ageneral rule as a pastor I say that ifmen are particularly prone to pride andarrogance which is a sin then many womenexperience fear fear of loss fear oflosing your children fear of yourmarriage falling apart economicuncertainty fear of what's going to comeupon you after a bad Health diagnosisthere is a fear to speak up in times ofpersecution for fear of the persecutionthat may come upon us personally thereis the fear of the unknown or how wewill respond in times of of Crisis sohow do we combat fear and fear is adebilitating thing as I as I share thisseries today we're in the midst of thecovid crisis and uh maybe the dominantemotion in our world today is fearpeople are crippled by fear and thechallenge with fear is that fear goesbeyond reason you know fear does notoperate primarily in the frontal lobe ofyour brain but it maybe you might say itoperates in the lyic part of your brainand so you can't reason with somebodywho's afraidfear goes beyond rationality and logicand reason uh maybe the best antidote tofear is to choose to praise God whenPaul and Silas were in prison in Actschapter 16 in Philippi instead of beingafraid of what tomorrow might bringmaybe execution or more scourgings orbeatings they chose to praise God it's awonderful biblical example for us tofollow when we choose to praise God inthe midst of our fear God lifts us outof our situation and he brings us intothe heaven L courts of praise and ourhearts are filled with the assurancethat God is still on his throne that heknows when a sparrow falls to the groundthat he knows the hair on on our headsand we read again the words of Jesus inThe Sermon on the Mount that we are notto worry about what we should eat ordrink or wear we are not to worry aboutsome of these downto Earth realities oflife for our heavenly father knoweththat we have need of these things but weare counseled by Jesus to seek you firstthe kingdom of God and all these otherthings that is the basic necessities andneeds of life will be provided by ourheavenly father who clothes the field inbeautiful flowers and gives um food forthe birds of the air and why do youtherefore think he would not care aboutyou and so maybe the best antidote tofear is to lift our voices in deliberatepraise if you are feeling afraid rightnow if Co is striking fear into yourlife your business is on the verge ofbankruptcy and you're afraid you've gotan elderly relative battling Co I wantto challenge you um sing a hymn ofpraise to God um sing A Hymn that exaltsthe the the the glory of who Jesus allhail the power of jesus' name um Christthe Lord is risen today uh I serve arisen savior these are beautiful hymnsuh from the Adventist himn that exaltJesus and as we sing those hymns Godgives us peace within our hearts we canalso another antidotes to fear are torecognize that God is in control and hewill only allow us to experience thatwhich is best for us we recognize thatwe are only pilpilgrims and strangers in this worldtoday our real home is in heaven andsome of us may be called to sleep inJesus before the second coming comessooner than we expect but sometimes Godin his Mercy allows his Saints to restand sleep so they do not have to gothrough the finalpersecution sometimes we need torecognize that God will bring good fromEvil that evil may appear to Triumph butone day good will triumph over evil andwe re recognize that the enemy may beable to harm our bodies but the enemycannot harm our Eternal Destiny in Luke12 uh: 4 and 5 Jesus speaks about thisand again in Matthew 10: 28 he sayso notbe afraid of Those Who Kill the body butwho cannot kill the soul rather beafraid of the one who can destroy bothsoul and Body in Hell uh the attitudethat Jesus is is teaching us here isthat yes the world may seek to hurt youphysically but as long as your name isin the Lamb's Book of Life you havenothing nothing to be afraid of foreternity Psalm 116 I believe verse 25says that precious in the eyes of theLord is the death of his Saints and whywould it be precious well the wordprecious means meaningful or special orof tremendous significance and when oneof the saints of God passes away thatperson's name is in the Book of Life andSatan can no longer tempt them they canno longer sin they are beyond the reachof evil they are locked away foreternity and that person is safe foreternity and so precious in the eyes ofGod is the death of his Saints like thisone is in the bag Satan can no longertempt this person and take them out ofmy P out of my kingdom and so as wepraise God we recognize that uh God setsa limit Beyond which evil cannot go andthis helps us to overcome fear and maybethe the fifth way is the most terribleway that Satan attacks the church andthis is throughmaterialism now Satan subtly promotesthe attitudethat says money and property andpossessions and physical Comforts andworldly Fame and honor and likes and howmany friends you have on Facebook onsocial media these are the mostimportant things in life and we heartoday talk people talking about thehealth and the wealth gospel theprosperity that we have in the west isfreely given to us by God it is indeed ablessing from God until it takes theplace of God materialism is thus theattitude that says that money andproperty and possessions and physicalComforts and fame and honor are the mostimportant things in God this is not tosay there is no God but someone who is amaterialist says I have no need of Godso they may not be an atheist they maybe a nominal Christian who believes inthe existence of God but they've reachedthe points in their life where they sayI have no need of God I have enoughmoney in the bank I have a large enoughhouse my pantry is well enough stockedwhy do I actually need God there wasonce a Church leader from Romania wholamented on this particular topic andthis is what he said he said in myexperience 95% of the Believers who facethe test of external persecution willpass it at which point we all sayhallelujah that's very encouraging buthe goes on to say this and I quote while95% of the Believers who face the testofprosperity will failit now that's a soberingthought as a pastor I can tell you thatI go from home to home in people's uh Lihomes in across the West whether it waspastoring or England or America I'm surein other parts of the world and manymany followers of Jesus their homes arepacked with possessions their garagesare stacked to the ceiling withpossessions in fact there's so many somuch stuff in their garages that uh theyno longer have space for their cars andevery fall or winter um they they spendmany many Sundays winterizing theirhouse and their jet skis and their boatsand all their other um toys so they canbe ready for the winter and justmaintaining the sheer amount of stufftakes up a large amount of their timeand so F like fire money can be a greatservant but it can be a destructiveMaster materialism is a seductive powerand it can cause people to do almostanything you see the hearts of thewealthy are often harded to the cries ofneeds of the poor Mammon indeed is apower that seeks to dominate us it isinsatiable in its demand for control ofour Allegiance and loyalty and yet byGod's grace it can be overcome and ifyou want to know how to overcome thechallenge of materialism the poison ofmaterialism ask yourself some simplequestions am I returning a faithfultithe to the Lordtoday if not I would I would encourageyou return a faithful tithe to God todayhow can God bless you in financially ifyou're stealing from him so return afaithful tithe and recognize thateverything you have comes from God andbeyond that faithful tithe give a loveoffering out of every paycheck all theincome that you receive give a lovecheck um to those in need it may be tothe Dorcas Fund in your local church itmay be to the local food pantry and foodshelf in town it may be to a batteredwoman's shelter in your neighboringCommunity but give to those in need andgive to those in need before you spendmoney on Netflix or Starbucks or yournext foreign vacation give to those needand in giving to those around you youwill find that you will not only receivemore pleasure in giving than inreceiving those things that you wouldotherwise have purchased for yourselfbut you will be able to say to money Imaster you and you are not my master youare a useful tool in my hands but youare not going to gain Mastery over me sothese are the internal Ways by whichSatan attacks the church we've looked atthe external Ways by which Satan attacksthe church he attacks the church throughum Civic rulers and business businessleaders and religious leaders and mobsand family attacks he also attacks thechurch internally through pride and trueguilt and false guilt and fear andmaterialism let's look for a moment nowat the process of persecution and I'mtalking in generalities here um I'm notspeaking about any particular country orCommunity but Dr Johan candlin he wasthe head of the religious LibertiesCommission of the world EvangelicalAlliance and he did a major study on howpersecution begins uh in countriesaround around the world today and heidentified um three stages in theprocess by which countries move frombeing religiously inclusive and tolerantto being very pers uh having apersecuting attitude towards Christiansand the first of those as you see on thescreen is disinformation we live todayin a world of fake news where when a LieIs Spoken it goes all the way around theworld and uh you may not have a chanceto rebut that lie and even if you dorebut the LIE there's almost no point indoing it because the LIE has beenaccepted by millions of people worldwidedisinformation may be passive and thenactive against Christians often in yourlocal media and uh your National mediaOutlets Christians are often robbed oftheir good reputation and their abilityand their right to answer accusationsmade against them and now thisdeliberate campaign of disinformationleads to the next stage which isdiscrimination discrimination May atfirst be passive and then it becomesmore AC acve the Hostile public opinionthat results from disinformation leadsnaturally to discrimination Christiansare now relegated to a second classcitizenship status with inferior legalsocial economic and political statuscompared to the majority groups withinyour Society the third stage that DrJohan candlin identifies is activepersecution itself this may first bepassive and then it becomes active andexplicit and open once once the firsttwo steps of disinformation anddiscrimination have taken placepersecution can now take place ofChristians without the normal protectivemeasures within Society stepping in toprotect those Christians persecution canarise from multiple actors either withor without the explicit consent of therulers of that nation and in many partsof the world the accusations of thepersecutors turn the victims theChristians into alleged into allegedvillains themselves if disinformation isdisseminated long enough no one willhelp the Christians when discriminationhappens and when discrimination istaking place very few in any societywill stand up when persecution breaksout across that particular Nation sowhat does Jesus teach us aboutpersecution you know we talk about aTheology of persecution and it'simportant to recognize that uh we arenot left um alone to figure out how dowe respond to the reality of persecutionno um Jesus said an awful lot aboutpersecution in in The Sermon on theMount um the last two Beatitudes speakabout those who are persecuted forrighteousness sake and for my sake anduh you see that in in in Matthew'sgospel um Jesus is not mentionedanywhere in the Beatitudes you knowblessed are the the peacemakers for theyshall be called children of God blessedare the pure in heart for they shall seeGod etc etc Jesus is not mentionedanywhere in the Beatitudes until thelast Beatitudes which talk aboutpersecuted and Jesus speaks aboutblessed are you who are persecuted andreviled on my account or because of myname and so persecution in the contextof the beattitudes is because of thename of Jesus Christ that is we arepersecuted because we bear the name ofJesus and we bear the name of Jesus aswe live out his teachings in our livestoday you see Jesus wasn't just executedby the Romans and the Jews of his timebecause um of what he T he was executedbecause he lived out his teachings andthe early church was not just persecutedbecause of their convictions what theirideas were they were persecuted becausethey put into practice the teachings ofJesus they lived for justice in Matthew510 they proclaimed Jesus as Lord andSavior Matthew 5:11 and they lived asJesus did in Matthew 5 and verse 12 therecord of the early Church in Actschapter 2 in vers Acts 2 through verse10 to Acts 2 through chapter 10 recordsa community in which all social andeconomic barriers were beingsystematically removed and men women andchildren were able to live in essentialharmony with one another freed from theracial and the economic and the otherbigotries and hatreds of their era andas a result they faced social ostracismexclusion from the synagogueimprisonment flogging stoning executioncrucifixion enslavement the breakup oftheir families and their loss of theirland and their followers and yet to hispersecuted followers Jesus promised thathe will indeed be with them he says inMatthew Chapter 5 10- 11 he says blessedare you who are persecuted forrighteousness sake you see this on thescreen for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven blessed are you when peoplerevile you and persecute you and utterall kinds of evil against you falsely onmy account and so persecution comes toChristians not because of the color ofyour skin or because of how wealthy youare it's the and the final analysispersecution comes to Christians becauseyou represent Jesus Christ in a fallenworld within your own Community withinyour street within your subdistrict orneighborhood or within your town and soJesus says to his persecuted followershe says when they hand you over do notworry about what you are to speak orwhat you are to say for what you are tosay will be given to you at that timeAccording To Jesus in Matthew chapter 10verse 21 that persecution may come fromyour family it come from your biologicalfamily it may come from the family offaith in Matthew 10:17 or it may comefrom non-believers themselves in Matthew10 and verse 18 so you're under attackfrom multiple di multiple angles and theworld's reaction to Jesus and to histeachings and to his faithful commitmentto live out his teachings will be thesame response that we can expect as welive out the teachings of Jesus todayJesus says it is the wise man who buildshis life upon the rock at the conclusioniuson of the sermon of the mount andthat rock in the context of the sermonof the mount are the teachings of Jesusnumber one and two on the person ofJesus himself so Jesus says that thewise man builds his house upon the rockthat is the teachings of Jesus and thestorms will come the storms will comebecause you bear the name of Jesus butif you are living out the teachings ofJesus then the household of faith willnot collapse but be of th sure of thisthe storms of life will come your waybecause you bear the name of of Jesuswhether you stand or fall depends onwhether you are practicing the teachingsof Jesus today in the decisions you makeon a day-to-day basis developing acharacter that is ready for that time ofCrisis Jesus goes on to say in Matthew10:32-33 everyone therefore whoacknowledges me before others I willalso acknowledge before my Father inheaven but whoever denies me beforeothers I also will deny before my Fatherin Heaven you see how we live today inthe face of persecution has a big impacton our Eternal salvation if the worldhates you Jesus goes on to say be awarethat it hated me before it hated you ifyou belong to the world the world wouldlove you as its own because you do notbelong to the world but I have chosenyou out of the world therefore the worldhates you in the world you facepersecution but take courage I haveconquered the world the light shines inthe darkness and the Darkness did notovercome it you see in the if if youwere to imagine this Sanctuary heretoday if I were to light a candle in thesanctuary in the light of midday andpeople would see that there is a candlebut people would not take any noticereally of it because there's so muchlight but if I leave that candle here uhthrough the afternoon and the eveningand then at midnight when all the lightsare off that same candle giving forththe same amount of light everybody inthis room their eyes will be drawn tothat light you see the candle isn'tbrighter but because of the darknessaround the darkness of persecution thatsame candle inevitably um burns brighterand brighter and brighter everybody'seyes are drawn to that one candleeverybody is fixated with that onecandle and people gravitate towards thatone candle and so in The Sermon on theMount Jesus talks about um the those whoare persecuted for my sake and uh andhe's teaching Us in The Sermon on theMount that character is not formed intimes of crisis it is revealed for whatit already is every decision we maketoday shapes our character for tomorrowwe prepare for persecution tomorrowbecause we bear the name of Christ byseeking to fully live out the teachingsof Jesus today as we put them intoPractice Day by Day hour by hourdecision by decision God is molding andshaping our character so that when thestorms of life come we will be Cel amongthe wise because we have indeed basedOur Lives upon the teachings of Jesusand we can with withstand whatever stormthis world throws at us so what do wesay in con conclusion to this second ofour three-part series on discipleshipand suffering well firstly there's aquestion for each one of us in whatareas of our lives are we consciouslybuilding on the words ofJesus are you consciously building yourlife from the teachings of Jesus arethere parts of your life that you knoware not in harmony with the teachingings of Jesus and if so I want tochallenge you today to maybe repent ofthose decisions you're making and tobring that aspect of your life intoharmony with the life and the teachingsof Jesus because if that part of yourlife is not in harmony with theteachings of Jesus that when thepersecution comes that is an open doorfor Satan to take you down from theinside it's a it's a an area where atrojan horse might get in and yourhousehold of faith might collapse so Iwant to challenge you today to startbasing your life every decision you makeon the teachings of our Lord and SaviorJesus Christsecondly how do we respond to thereality of persecution today ofChristians around the world we mentionedthis in our first part of thisthree-part series if you haven't seen itI'd encourage you to go back and justlook at what I've been saying thereabout how we can respond to those whoare facing persecution and those who arefacing persecution they're not just onthe other side of the world it may bethat new Refugee or immigrant familywho's sitting in your pews next Sabbathwho don't speak English very well buthave a story to tell of survivingpersecution how do we respond to themhow we respond to them is an indicatorof our response to our Heavenly Fatherhow can you look at a brother in needand not care about them then claim thatthe love of God is within your heartsandthirdly um how may we prepare forpersecution if God allows us to gothrough the fiery furnace for his sakeit's a sobering thought and we're goingto spend some more time dealing withthat question in the final uh third partof this three-part series how can weprepare for persecution when it comesknocking in on our doors but in TheSermon on the Mount Jesus says you arethe light of the world and if you haveyour Bibles with you invite you just toopen and I just want you to noticesomething about this because uh on myBible here I have the Beatitudes righthere then there's a paragraph break andhere's a paragraph break after the thefinal beatitude it talks aboutpersecution then there's a littleheading that says Salt and Light thenverse 13 says you are the salt of theearth and verse 14 says you are thelight of the world and because of theparagraph break we naturally break upour reading of The Sermon on the Mountbut if you take out the paragraphreading what Jesus says is this blessedare you when people revile you andpersecute you and utter all kinds ofevil against you falsely on my accountrejoice and be glad for your reward isgreat in heaven for in the same way theypersecuted the prophets who are beforeyou you are the Sal of the earth and youare the light of the world the point I'mmaking is this when you take out thatparagraph break from The Sermon on theMount you realize that Jesus is sayingthat it is in the midst ofpersecution that you are the salt of theearth you are a preserving influence ina dying Society it is in the midst ofpersecution when the the darkness of ofof evil is Gathering that you are thelight of the earth and your candle willshine brighter no matter what if you donot change anything about your life yourcandle will burn brighter because thedarkness of persecution is gatheringaround you so my challenge for you todayis this when Jesus says you are thelight of theworld is that a description of who youaretoday or is that jesus' hope for who youmay be by his gracetomorrow it's my prayer that each one ofus will indeed be the light of the worldtoday through the God-fearing and TheGodly decisions we are taking today on adaily basis so that when persecutioncomes we will remain as the light of theworld showing people and pointing themto Jesus the coming and coming saviorwho will wipe away every tear and whoupon whose arrival evil will be doneaway with and uh we will be with God andhe will dwell with us are you the lightof the world today or is that adescription of Who You may becometomorrow bow your heads for me and we'llclose with prayer our heavenly father wethank you for these teachings of Jesusand I ask you today that you will indeedput in our hearts a desire and a lovefor your word that we will indeed baseOur Lives upon the teachings of Jesusthat we will not base Our Lives uponwhat we see in the mainstream Media orwe hear from politicians that we willnot follow the uh the influences onsocial media Media or follow the socialtrends around us but father may we berooted in the word of God I pray thatour every decision we be made we makewill be based upon the teachings ofJesus that our characters will be shapedtoday so when that moment of Crisiscomes to us when the evil day comes asthe Apostle Paul says or when Jesus sayswhen the storms of life come I pray thatfather our household of faith will standtall and strong and we can make itthrough that storm not because we aresomehow great ourselves but because weare basing our lives on the teachings ofJesus so father may we grow deeper inour walk with you may our faith bebecome stronger May our witness burnbrighter and may the love of Jesus Shinethrough our hearts and our eyes and beheard in our speech wherever we go todaythis is my prayer in jesus' name amen[Music]