Um I’ve only been fan Manchester once before in my life and it was through a soccer stadium and that was many many
years ago. Um but it’s a privilege and a joy to come and share with you this Friday night and during the Sabbath
hours and also on Sunday. And I just I just returned from a camp meeting in
Austria. And uh when I when I got on the plane in America, I was packing my bags
and I always carry my Bible with me on the plane cuz it’s the most precious possession I have. My Bible, my laptop
on my plane. And I’ve had that Bible for almost 20 years of preaching from it and making notes in it. And as I was packing
my stuff, I had some extra kind of things to take in my hand luggage. So I put my Bible in my suitcase. And a
little voice said to me, “Don’t put your Bible there.” And I squashed that voice.
And when I got to Germany one flight later, I open my suitcase and lo and behold, my Bible was gone. And so, um,
I’ve been borrowing Bibles for the last two weeks on my journeys. And every time I go to a different place, I have a
different Bible. I have to try and figure out where things are cuz I remember a thing where things are from where they on the page. You know, I know
that like um uh Romans 12:2 is right bottom right on the page in my Bible. Uh
so when I get home um I have two other version, two other copies of that. They’ve been rebound over the years and
I’m looking forward to being reattached to a a familiar Bible once again. But it’s a privilege to come and share with
you here this evening um for this religious liberty weekends. And uh you know when I go to places
I um I I normally carry with me like 12 or 15 sermons ready to go and then I
talk with people and I get I chap them over pop luck. Can I listen to the Sabbath school conversation? I’m asking
the Holy Spirit to like guide me like what do you want to preach about here? And uh so I think we’ll stay on track
most of the time brother Basel. Uh, but sometimes the Holy Spirit has has an act of I’m taking you off on a journey
somewhere, but it will all be related to religious liberty. So, I’m having greetings from my wife. I only have one
wife. She’s back in Michigan. And um, that’s very good. I only have one mother-in-law. Um, the penalty of having
more than one wife is more than one mother-in-law. Um, so it’s a built-in self-correcting mechanism. So, I r
greetings from my wife and uh, my son is with me. He’s traveling with me on this journey. He’s doing some recordings and
uh I pray that the Holy Spirit will bless us during our time together and we sap these weekends on a Thursday or a
Friday night and we go on a journey together. It’s my prayer that our faith will grow, that our witness will shine
brighter and that our walk with Jesus will put down deeper roots as results of these weekends. Uh so as we begin, I
invite you to bow your heads with me and we’re going to ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit once again. So shall we
pray? Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege uh we have to gather here in
the opening hours of your holy Sabbath day. Father, I thank you for the freedom we enjoy in this nation as yet to gather
and worship you according to our conscience. And Father, I thank you for those who’ve gone before us, those who
passed on the gospel from the time of Christ down to 2025, and we are
beneficiaries of that faithfulness over those 2,000 plus years. Now Lord, as we
gather here tonight and discuss some serious matters, I ask that the same spirit who inspired these writings of
scripture, oh father, send your spirit to be with us tonight. Lord, bring us conviction. Bring us daily conversion.
Bring us a new commitment to shine for you no matter the cost in earth’s darkest hours. Thank you, Father, for
hearing and for answering this prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
And so I just want to start out with a thought that um we’re living in earth’s last hours today. And Jesus is coming
soon. We just been singing about it on on the in the hymn there. And uh in all
of God’s providence, it is not Abraham, Isaac or Jacob or Esther or Sarah or
Mary Magden who are living in this time of earth history. It is us. And we weren’t just born in the time of
the end. We were born into this time of the end. And I would say it’s to go before that. We were born for this time
of the end. And when God was looking for a people who would shine the brightest for him in Earth’s darkest hour, it is
those faithful disciples of Jesus. Today in 2025, the darkness is gathering all
around us. The lies are accepted across our society. And right is wrong and
wrong is right. And those who say thus sayaith the Lord are accused of hate speech and hate crimes and are to be
marginalized and cancelled and deplatforthought. And yet God in his immen amazing providence saw fit that we
would be living in earth’s final hour. Now that’s a vote of confidence whether we feel confidence or not. That’s a vote
of confidence. when God wanted people to shine for him, when the persecution is at its worst, when the darkest, when the
darkness is at his darkest, and uh when the hatred of all men will be gathered against those who love Jesus Christ, God
in his mysterious providence has made sure that we are those living in this time. And so, that’s a vote of
confidence from our heavenly father. It’s getting bad out there, but we’re not going to curse the darkness. We’re
going to light a candle, and we’re going to let that candle shine. And as the children’s song says, I let that candle
shine till Jesus comes again. And so we are living in a time of darkness, of
deception, of deceit, of lies, of falsehoods. And it takes a brave person,
man, woman, boy, or girl, to stand up and say, “This is what is true, and we’re not quing on this.” Because if
there is no truth, there is no healing in any relationship. So, I’m going to start I’m going to talk tonight about um
you see my my email address on the screen there and there’s my my website.
So, um as as brother Basil said, I want to say thank you to brother Basil uh for shephering this process through. We’ve
had a bunch of emails going back and forth over the last well 14 months or so and it’s a privilege to come and share
these Sabbath fowls with you and this weekend. I want to thank you for your determination that this Manchester South
Church, St. A Church, will be a light on a hill that will not be hit. And so, thank you for your gracious invitation.
And thank you everybody for your warm welcome. So, um I’m going that’s my email address and there’s my website up
on the screen. Um I was the president of Aban’s Frontier Missions for about 40 years. Um I then left um bluntly
speaking in order to protect the missionaries and the attacks were coming in on AFM because of my preaching and
innocent missionaries would be hurt and would be casualties. So I decided to step aside to protect the missionaries
and uh I and I got led me into just a full-time preaching ministry. So um I
never thought I’d be a full-time preacher but God works in mysterious ways. And so um I grew up here in
England. My dad was passed through the North England Conference. We started out in um between Liverpool and Manchester
in Blackburn in that district. And then we were in Hull and Scunorp and Scarbor on the east coast. Then we were in Leeds
and Bradford in Midlands and West Yorkshire. And then we were down in Bournemouth, exit of Plymouth and
Watford. So we kind of moved all around the country and it was a privilege to grow up in in Britain in those days. Um,
I I learned about um Jamaican ginger cake and I learned about um uh that
there’s a there’s a red drink that the Jamaican members make. Sorrel sorrel.
That was it. And my favorite was the Jamaican patties which are very they’re kind of they’re like they’re like
English chips. They’re short, fat, and greasy. And when you put them in your throat, they slither down and grow in a
cord. And sour flakes was them playing dominoes with little brass knuckles on them. And when somebody had the winning
piece, they’d slap it down, all the other pieces would jump on the table and we had to trust that it was the winning piece because everything moved in that
moment. So I have many, many happy memories of growing up here in the UK um
in churches north and south and it’s a privilege to come and share with you from the pullpit here tonight. So um
there is uh there’s our journey tonight. I’m I’m going to talk about um six Ps
relating to suffering. I’m going to talk about the promise of suffering in scripture and then the purpose of
suffering then participation with Christ in his sufferings then the power the
spiritual power that comes from suffering and then the pitfalls the dangers that come through suffering and
then the spiritual purification that comes through suffering before we come to our conclusions tonight and so um
this is our journey tonight and um we’re going to start out with the promise of suffering I I just want to share with
you a few verses from the particularly the New Testament which talk about the promise of suffering and we think well
uh it must it must be a terrible thing to be a Christian if you are promised to go through suffering. Um but I’m going
to read uh the first one is a promise by Jesus. It’s in the gospels Mark 13 as you first see and all our texts will be
on the screen. Uh if the Holy Spirit drags me off into another um path this evening I’ll use my Bible and let you
know. Uh, but all the texts will be on the screen. If you want to write them down or read them in your own Bibles,
that’s fine. So, we start out with Mark 13:9-13. It says this, “As for yourselves,
beware, for they will hand you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before
governors and kings because of me as a testimony to them.” And the good news
must first be proclaimed to all nations when they bring you to trial and hand you over. Do not worry beforehand over
what you are to say. But say what is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents, and have them
put to death, and you will be hated by all because of my name, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. And
so, this is a fascinating passage from Jesus. And we see here um the bit in red
he says you’ll be hated by all because of my name. And we say well how is that possible? Well in the last 5 years we
saw how the world turned on a previously unknown minority almost overnight.
We saw how the world went from there was a group of people that nobody knew existed as something changed in the
world and you know what I’m talking about and suddenly that group was loathed and despised and de demeaned and
marginalized and mocked in the mainstream media and if you’re a member of that group you would face professional cancellation and financial
destruction and the world turned on a dime on that previously unknown group.
That unknown group included men and women and boys and girls from every nation, tribe, language, and people. It
wasn’t based on ethnicity. It wasn’t based on nationality. It wasn’t based on education. It wasn’t based on where you
lived. But there was a defining mark about that group. And they were not going to budge in their belief. And the
rest of the world just turned on them in the in just out of nowhere. and you woke up one morning and found yourself
demonized by your prime minister, by your parliament, by the mainstream media, by social media. Everything was
turned against you. Am I speaking the truth here? Yes. And this passage here says that at
the end of time, in a polarized world, the one thing that will unite the men and women and governments of this world,
it says, “You will be hated by all because of my name.” And so there’s in a porized world that
is torn apart in so many ways, there is one thing that will unite the world at the end of time. That is hatred of Jesus
Christ and by extension hatred of those who bear his name.
And so these are the words of Jesus. And notice that the the the persecution will
because you bear the name of Christ. It’s not because you are British and it’s not because you you vote a certain
way and it’s not because your blood type is a certain blood type. The hatred comes your way because you bear the name
of Christ. Uh the next uh promise of suffering and is again from Jesus and he
says there in John 15 the end of that chapter verse 18 onwards he said if the world hates you be aware that it hated
me before it hated you. If you belong to the world, the world will love you as its own. Because you do not belong to
the world, but I have chose you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you,
servants are not greater than their master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word,
they’ll keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on accounts of my name, because that
they do not know him who sent me. I’ve said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of
the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by so doing they’re offering worship to God. Now, once again, as in
the previous passage of Mark uh 13, I put in red that the common fee. It says
they will do all these things to you on account of my name. So, it’s nothing personal.
When we face persecution at the end of time, it’s not because the world hates you as individual. is because the world
hates Christ. And if you choose to bear his name, therefore the world is going to hate you. And if you do not bear his
name, the world is not going to hate you. Number of years where I baptized some Iranians and um before I baptized
them, I said, “Look, if I baptize you and you go back into your country, you will face persecution.” And they said,
“We want to bear the name of Christ.” And we know what the consequences are, but we want to bear the name of Christ.
And so they were baptized knowing that when they go back to Iran and they confess their newfound faith in Jesus,
they can be tortured, imprisoned, and executed. It is a capital offense to turn to Christ in the Islamic Republic
of Iran. And so Jesus says here, they will do these things to you on account of my name. And he says that those who
kill you will think that by so doing, they’re offering worship to God. You say, how is that possible? Well, you
know when ISIS was on the rampage and when they were slitting Christians throats, they said
um alim Ramman in the name of Arab the most merciful, most gracious and they
cut the throats of the Christians. They thought they were offering service to God in that action. And so this has
happened just a few years ago. But according to Jesus, this is going to move until the whole world has this kind
of hatred of Christians. Then you come to Acts 14 and this is Luke writing
about Paul and Barnabas and they they come back to Antiochar to the first
missionary journey and he says after they that is Paul and Barnabas have proclaimed the good news of the city and
have made many disciples they returned to Lististra then onto Iconium and Antioch there they strengthened the
souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith saying it is through many persecutions that we
must enter the kingdom of God and so entry into the into the kingdom
of God um it comes with persecutions in this world because this world does not
recognize Jesus Christ as king. Um in in Luke 19 you have the parable of the uh
of this of the man who goes off to a foreign land to gain a kingdom for himself and uh the citizens of the
nation send a message after him and say we will not have this man to rule over us. And in that passage there, the man
who goes off to gain divine authority and a king authority to come back to rule represents Christ. And the people
that say we will not have this man to rule over us represents the Jewish leaders of the time. But it’s why the
context it represents the world. This world says we will not have this man to rule over us. And so the the apostle
Paul says here that we will enter the kingdom of God when we go through persecutions. Then Philippians 1 7-9.
You just want more or two more texts here. He says uh this is a a letter written from prison. This is the letter
where prison uh Paul is in prison. He knows he’s waiting for his execution. This is the the lecture where he says
that we must rejoice in all things. And it says there Philippians 1:27-29.
Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you or I’m absent and
hear about you, I all know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith
of the gospel and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction
but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing for he has graciously grant you
the privilege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him as well. And so once again you have the idea of
suffering for the name of Christ. And all in in when Jesus spoke in Mark 13
when Jesus spoke in John um we are be we are being persecuted for the name of Christ. And Paul says in in in uh Acts
14 that is through persecutions we enter the kingdom of God. And it’s Jesus who announced the coming of the kingdom of
God. And so if we live by the principles of God’s kingdom today, we can expect persecution today. If we live by the
principles of God’s kingdom which are opposed to the powerful the principles of power and oppression that are common
in our world today, we can expect persecution. And here the apostle Paul says that um God grants us the privilege
not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him as well. And we think I’m happy to believe in Jesus but why is
it a privilege I should suffer for him? You know that’s a hard question. Yes.
It’s good news to believe in Jesus Christ, but is it good news that you got to suffer for him? That’s a harder
question. As we go through tonight, we’re going to come some of the answer to that particular question. But God,
according to Paul here, has graciously granted us the privilege of suffering for Christ.
And um maybe one of the reasons why he allows us to do this is that if you look
at the last four or five years, many people were building their their kingdom. Their building was on earth. It
wasn’t the kingdom of God. And we have been wedded to and almost um uh almost
um uh addicted to the things of this world.
And God allows us to allowed us so through the last four years to wean us of our off our love of Is to wean us
away from the love of the wealth and the careers and the finances and the professional licenses and standing and
social applause that we are so addicted to in the west. God has allowed us to go through the last four years to remind us
that this world is not our home and the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the desire for wealth. None
of these things are going to last forever. These things are all part going to pass away. But those who love God, they’re going to remain forever. And so
God allows us to go through suffering sometimes to wean us off our love of this world so that our eyes are fixed on
a city whose architect and builder is God and nothing here on planet earth. And if if you walk in a cancer ward and
you know we work with people who don’t with cancer, you soon realize that their their eyes are fixed by faith on a
better world when all things are made new again and death and disease and sorrow are no more and every tear is
wiped away. So God allows us to go through suffering on for the name of Christ in order that we are detached
from our love for the world in order that we might grow in love for Christ and his kingdom. And um we don’t always
think about in those terms, but that’s what the apostle Paul is talking about here. And the final promise here is a 2
Timothy 3:12. Uh the Apostle Paul, now this is uh he wrote um just two more
chapters here in 2 Timothy 3. This was the last letter he wrote. Paul was about to be executed. In the next chapter, he
says, “Would you would you please send um uh please send him my parchments and
my cloak cuz it’s cold in the prison here.” And he says,”I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. I
have run the race. And there now awaits me a crown of righteousness.” He said, “I’m about to be poured out as a as a
drink offering or a sacrifice to God.” Paul knows as he writes this worlds that he’s about to be beheaded by the Romans.
And so he says he’s not complaining. He says, “All who indeed all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will
be persecuted. So what I am going through, says Paul, it may come knocking on your door. And don’t be exubbly
surprised by this. If you go through persecution, it’s not a sign that God has abandoned you. It may be a sign that
the world sees Christ in you. And because they hate Christ, the world is going to hate you. And so, if you go and
live a godly life, but as you stand for God and the principles of the kingdom of God, and you representative, you shine
for Jesus Christ, the world will turn its guns on you. So, don’t be surprised when your post
boots in this way. And uh we’re going to explore this in a bit more detail as we go through. So there is a promise of
suffering in the scripture. Would you read brief me on that tonight? Yeah, there’s a promise of suffering and
that suffering is not being a Manchester United supporter right now. There’s a much suffering if you’re a Manchester
United supporter. Um the the suffering is if you bear the name of Christ. So,
he’s not talking about suffering like you’re speeding and get a speeding ticket or a tornado comes by and knocks
your house over um or you support the wrong team or something like that. Um we’re talking about um suffering that is
caused by hatred of Christ coming from this world and that is that is then turned on the followers of Christ. And
so that kind of suffering is coming to those who bear the name of Christ. So that that is the promise of suffering.
So let’s talk about the purpose of suffering. And in scripture we find that there are two actors and each of them
has a different purpose for the suffering that comes upon us. And the first is actually Satan himself. Satan
brings suffering on the disciples of Jesus in order to shake our faith. And we read about this in 1 Thessalonians 3
1-4. And uh Paul is writing to a church in northern Greece um and um they are
they’re facing persecution. And he says this. He says, “Therefore, since we could bear it no longer, we decided to
be left alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy, our brother and coworker, um uh
for God, and proclaiming the gospel of Christ to strengthen, encourage you for the sake of your faith, so that no one
would be shaken by these persecutions.” So, this is a church that’s going through persecution, and Paul is
concerned that their faith is not going to be shaken or they’re not going to lose hold of their faith in the middle
of these persecutions. He goes on to say, “Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for. In
fact, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecution, and so it turned out as you
know.” For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I said, “Timoth, I sent Timothy to find out about your
faith. I was afraid that somehow the tempter had tempted you, and our labor had been in vain.” End quote. For 1
Timothy 3:1-4. And so Paul sends um Timothy um his young protetéé, young
young pastor. He sends him back through to the northern Greece to Thessalonica and he wants to know has this church
survived the persecutions that came their way and those persecutions
um he wanted to encourage them for the sake of their faith so that no one will be shaken by those persecutions. So we
see in this passage here that Satan brought persecution upon that church because he wants to shake their faith.
In fact, more than that, he wanted to shake them out of their faith. And it’s easy to lose your faith when
you’re facing persecution. Let’s be honest about it. People start questioning, “Do I really believe what I
say I believe when I’m facing personal loss? Where I’ve lost my my home, my
job, my career, my finances, my social security.” In the previous passage in John 13, uh Jesus says they will put you
out of the synagogue. And we say, well, that doesn’t mean anything to us today. Well, in those days, the synagogue was
where the poor fund was administered. That was where social security and unemployment benefits were paid out. If
you were thrown out of the synagogue, it meant that if you were a widow and and you were a retiree, um the synagogue was
not going to pay you money from the third tithe which was given out in in the in the poor fund. So when Jesus says
they’re going to cast you out of the synagogue, it’s like today Jesus says um and if you follow me, you’re going to
lose all your social security, your national insurance, your retirement, and other unemployment benefits. Everything
will be gone, right? You’re going to become an economic outcast if you follow me. And that’s the significance of what
Jesus was talking about. In this passage here, we see that Satan brings persecutions on the church in order to
shake the church’s faith. He wants us to lose our grip on Jesus Christ. And we see this all the way through salvation
history. If you go all the way back to Cain and Abel, Abel lost his life to Cain. Uh Cain was unhappy with God and
he decided to kill Abel because Abel was faithful to God just outside the Garden of Eden. We think of Joseph being sold
into slavery by his brothers. And yet Joseph makes a decision on the way down to Egypt that no matter what happens to
him, he’s going to be true to God. He’s not going to give up on his faith and he goes down to Potter’s household and the
rest his sister. We’ll discuss that a bit more tomorrow. We think of Daniel being put into the lionist den. Now, you
know, there are three stories every school um kid in kindergarten knows. David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale,
and Daniel in the lion’s den. Those are the three stories that every kid has memorized before they eat kindergarten
in our churches. And yet, we we’re so blas about these stories. But have you ever thought about what it’s like to be
put into a den of lions, of hungry lions? Well, we know later in that story there in Daniel 6 that when the king
threw his advisers in and their families, they were ripped to pieces before they hit the route. I mean, those
were hungry, hungry lions. And so, when Daniel was being put into the lion’s
den, um, that was a terrifying experience. When he was praying three times a day in public, he knew what he
was doing. He knew that he was going to get thrown into the lion’s den for this public act
of worship of God. You think of Hmon and Morayi and Esther. You think in the book
of Revelation chapter 2, Antipass, God’s faithful witness or martyr um in Smyrna.
And u and in that story there, Antipass was a faithful witness unto death, says
the text. And the word witness is the word martus and that that’s where we get
the word martyr from. So we think that you’re a martyr if you die for your faith. Well, that’s not strictly true.
In the New Testament, Jesus says, “And you’ll be my witnesses.” Word is marts
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaritas, ends of the earth. So Jesus says, you are going to testify to your faith about me in a
legal system where you can die for that testimony all around the known world.
And so a witness, a martyr is not somebody who dies for their faith. Yes, they may die for their faith, but a
martyr or witness is one who lives for their faith and lives their faith in public knowing that there are public
consequences up to and including death if necessary. And so, um, we find this
persecution brought on the church to shake the church. We think of the Roman persecution campaign to exterminate the
early church and how they would crucify those Christians on the roads north and south of Rome and they crucify them by
the hundreds up and down the side of the road and then to provide street lighting at night they would bathe the bodies in
oil and set them on fire. So you have these burning Christians alive on those crosses and dying in agony and that’s
how Nero would kill off the Christians there. We think of the papal persecution during the dark ages where up to 50
million people were murdered for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ. We think of the fact that we have in our
hands today the Bible in the English language and uh some of us are aware some of us are not that the gentleman
who who translated the Bible to English Tindale for his pains was condemned by
the king of England. He was caught. He was strangled at the stake and then burned. and the guy who translated it
before and Wikliffe in the 1300s, well, the church couldn’t get him. They were so upset with him. But 40 years later,
they held a court hearing, declared him innocent, dug up his body, burned the bones, and then put them into the river
7 uh or the some river in center of England and went out into the channel and the North Sea. And so there has been
a hatred of those who turn the Bible into the common language. And just last week in Austria or this
week in Austria, somebody gave me a copy of Luther’s first translation of the New
Testament. And just as the King James version has shaped the way we speak and think today,
Luper New Testament shaped the way the Germans have speaken for the last 500
years. And so then you think of um the murder of Christians during Nazi Germany
and during the Soviet Union. You think of the execution of Dietrich Bonhaofer just two weeks before the end of World
War II uh in an Nazi concentration camp. You think of the rape and imprisonment
today of Christians in North Korea and the persecution and murder of converts of Christianity all across the Muslim
world for the past 1400 years. You think on today in Nigeria, we don’t see this
in the news very often. The the BBC doesn’t talk about these things, but every weekend in parts of Nigeria,
Christian villages are burnt to the ground and the inhabitants are hacked and slaughtered um by people from the
north. And the media doesn’t cover these things because nobody cares when Christians are slaughtered. If it were
any other faith group being slaughtered, the whole world would know about it. But the slaughter of Christians goes unnoticed and unremarked upon by the
press today. Nobody cares about the slaughter of Christians. And so on one side, in terms of the purpose of
suffering, Satan brings suffering because he wants to make us give up our faith. He wants to shake our faith and
shake it loose like you pull out a tooth from your mouth. And he’s going to shake you and shake you and shake you till
eventually you give up your hold on Jesus Christ. That’s one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is
found in this passage here, Hebrews 12 3-4 and then 7 and 11. And uh this is
Paul writing to the Hebrew Christians and he says consider him that is Christ
who endured such hostility against himself from sinners so that you may not grow weary or lose heart in your
struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Endure trials for the sake of
discipline. Now, discipline always seemed pleasant, painful rather unpleasant at the time, but later it
yields the peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Well,
um, my father smacked me with a leather belt total about six times when I was growing up.
And each time I knew I deserved it. He had a leather straw. He used to um um
sharpen his cockpit razor on it. It’s like a leather belt and it’s got like a a metal bushful at one end and a string
at the other. And he say, “Boys, climb the wooden hill to the bedroom. You bend over in your school’s trousers and you
get six of the best. And you wouldn’t sit down for a week after that.” And my father would say to me now, boys, he
says, “This hurts me more than hurts you.” I thought, “Oh, I don’t believe that. I’m going to be screaming with
pain in the next two or three minutes.” Um, but even at the time I knew I
deserved it and I knew that I would never do what I’d done again. Even before being what, you know, whipped on
the bottom, I knew I was never going to do that thing again. And I realized I bend over, my dad would do it, and then
he’d sit down. He’d have a little prayer with us. And, um, then we sat downstairs. But, you know, when we knew
we were going to get us dropping, um, my dad was a pastor. When we got came home from a school, my twin brother and I all
of a sudden be acutely exhausted. We go straight to bed as soon as we got home because we and dad wouldn’t wake us up
in our beds. We’d be fast asleep. And so there these cat and mouse game until finally you find us. Okay, boys, you’re
awake. Up you go. And I realized at the time that my father did this not because he hated me but because he loved me and
he wanted to make sure but I never did those things again which I not speak of those things in the pullpit cuz we’re
online here and it go it will be used against me the rest of my life. But the point was sometimes God allows us to go
through suffering um because he wants to produce what it says the peaceful fruits
of righteousness. God allows us to go through suffering because he wants to burn off from our characters the froth
of this world and the impurities of our characters because he’s preparing us for heaven above. And there is to be no love
of the world in us when Christ comes again. Our love is be only for God for his kingdom and for his coming son Jesus
Christ. And so Satan brings persecution and suffering upon us because he wants to destroy our faith. But God has a
different design. God um allows this persecution from Satan, but he limits
it. He wants it to produce a harvest of righteousness in the lives and characters of his saints. So God turns
Satan’s evil purpose in suffering into the avenue for character building among his saints. Does this make sense?
So when you go through suffering for the cause of Christ, Satan has his eye on you, but so is your
heavenly father. And he’s limiting what may happen to you. And he is making sure that whatever
happens to you by your choice, by your choice, how you respond to that suffering either cause you to lose your
faith, which is what Satan wants, or it will lead to a purer faith. And he’s
going to yield a harvest, a fruit of righteousness in your character like never seen before. Uh if you read the
stories of the persecuted church, I would encourage you um to be reading stories of the persecuted church,
whether it be Choescu’s Romania or whether it be communist China. there’s good examples or cub um Cuba with Fidel
Castro and so forth. Um what you when you read the testimony to the prisoners, you find these incredible stories. There
was one prisoner in in Romania and he was in a prison in the 60s that was notorious for the cruelty of the torture
of the Christians. And he recounts that while he was being tortured by the by the officers, one of the officers gave
his life to Christ. And why did that officer give his life to Christ? cuz the officer realized what
I’m doing to you is truly evil. I see how you respond to this torture. What
I’m doing to you, I’m the bad guy here, not you. And if there is evil in this world and I represent evil, then this
Christian must represent that which is good. And so the horror of the torture was so
horrific on the torturer that he gave his life to Christ because he realized if there is evil, there must also be
good. And so God allows us to go through persecution. Yes, Satan visits
persecution upon us to shake our faith. But God allows that persecutions be avenue for character building among his
saints. And it’s not that God has abandoned you. It is that God is shaping you. And Shadrach, Meach, and Abednego
were never closer to Christ than when they were in the fiery fence. That was their closest moment to Jesus Christ.
And so when when we go through persecution, God is revealing to us and to the world the depth and sincerity of
our faith. We can all profess faith in Christ when times are easy. That’s easy enough. But it’s sometimes necessary to
prove the reality of our faith, not just to the world, but to ourselves. And when we go through persecution, we realize
how much or how little it’s going to take to turn us aside from following Christ.
Does that make sense to everybody? Yeah. So God allows us to go through persecution today. It’s like stress
inoculation. He allows you to go through a certain level of persecution because you as a result of that, you’re going to
have a stronger faith. He may allow you to go through a little more persecution because you’re going to have a stronger
faith. And if we’re going to be those people who are going to live through the darkest moments of earth when the whole
world is united in the hatred on the followers of Christ, God needs to build our faith little by little every single
day. So in that final crisis, we’re ready for the test. And our characters are revealed in that c final crisis.
They are not made in that final crisis. And so if we go through suffering today for the sake of Christ because we bear
of the name of Christ, um don’t don’t count it a curse, count it as a blessing
from God that God is shaping you for a greater calling for greater opportunity to shine for him later in life. So there
there is the purpose of sufferings. Then we come to um participation in the suffering of Christ. And so when we
suffer, we don’t just suffer because the world hates us. We’re suffering because we’re
participating in the in the suffering of Christ himself. And the text we use for
this is 1 Peter 4:12-13. And this is what Peter says. He’s
writing to um the church in the diaspora. Um that’s outside modern day
Israel and Palestine. And he says, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to
try you, as though some strange thing has happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ’s
sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, uh you may be glad also with
exceeding joy.” And that word for fiery trial perosis um it it refers to the
Roman holocaust of the Christians over the next 200 years when they tried to um eliminate the Christian faith from the
from the from the um Roman world. And such suffering is not to be considered
strange by not to think it is surprise that we’re suffering following Jesus. Once you go through the waters of
baptism, when you come up to newness of life, um you ex you you kind of you need to be taught that you will face
persecution. And when you’re a missionary and you’re working with somebody in the Hindu world or the animist world or the Buddhist world or
the Muslim world, um if you do not tell them that if you follow Jesus Christ, you will be persecuted, you’re not doing
your duty. You have to tell people that if you’re going to follow Jesus Christ, you’re going to face persecution.
You have to count the cost as Jesus said uh there in the gospels. You have to count the cost. Are you willing to pay
the cost to follow Jesus? And it’s not just that you pick up your cross daily and follow him. Jesus is talking there
more about denial of our innermost desires for power and prestige and position and power over other people
because we all have those innermost desires if we’re honest with ourselves. Um but there is also counting the cost
that is am I willing to lose my family for Christ? Am I willing to lose my marriage for Christ? Am I willing to
lose my children for Christ? When a Muslim woman in Moritania, Morocco decides to follow Christ is not is not
an easy matter because a husband can just divorce her on the spot. She’ll be forced out onto the street and she will
never see her children again. This is a serious choice that she is making when she is choosing to follow Christ. And
so, um, Peter says, “Do not think it’s strange concerning the fiery trial
that’s going to come upon you.” He says, “But rejoice.” You think, “Rejoice?
Why would we rejoice when suffering comes our way?” Well, he goes on to
explain. Says, “In as much as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering,
we’re not going to be called on to suffer more than Christ did for us.”
John 1:11 says this, “He came unto his own and his own received him not. He was
rejected by his family. John uh 15:24 Jesus says, “But now they
have both seen and hated both me and my father.” So Jesus was rejected by his
own. In fact, they wanted to stone him in Nazareth. He was hated by the column people and by the religious leaders.
John 3:16 tells us that Jesus left the glories of heaven and came down to this sinful sin world, a world of suffering.
Um he he had did not have money to pay the temple taxes in Matthew 17. He had no place of his own to lay his head. He
lived a life of relative poverty. He was beaten, scourged, whipped, abandoned, denied, betrayed, humiliated, acquainted
with grief, and bereft of all human support. And that word partakers of Christ’s
sufferings. The word in Greek there is coonia. Now we think of coonia as a positive
thing. You have Christian Coonir fellowships. And the word means fellowship with. That means you’re
united with you you stick together in those moments. And we think that you have coonia over a pot luck. And that is
true in a certain to a certain extent. You may go through a terrible life-changing experience with somebody
and you have coonia. There there’s a bond between you the two of you for the rest of your lives because you’ve gone through a traumatic experience together.
And Peter says that you’re going to have with Christ in his suffering.
That is what Christ went through. We’re going to go through. And he says, “Don’t think this is
strange. If Christ went through that and we are in Christ, we’re going to go through the same thing.” But he says,
“We have to rejoice.” And thankfully, the sentence does not end with partakers of Christ’s suffering. He goes on to the
word that. And the word that that’s the that’s the um that’s the uh the the promise at the end of the journey of
suffering. He says that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also
with exceeding joy. That is if we participate with Christ in his sufferings, we will participate with him
when he is glorified. And this world is very short. You know
the psalmist says, if I remember right, teach us the brevity of our days that we may gain wisdom. And when we realize how
short life really is, we start to think about the significant and important things of life. When you’re 16 to 20,
you think the life will go on forever. Is that not right? You have a sense of immortality, invincibility. You know,
when you’re about 18, 20, you think, “Who shall I marry? If the whole world is your oyster and when you’re about 25,
you think, who will marry me?” When you’re about 35, you ask, “Will anyone marry me?” No, you go through that
process of increasing desperation until two equally desperate people find each other. Um, but uh when you’re in your
20s, early 20s, you have a sense of immortality. And then when you hit 40 and you wake up one morning and realize
I’ve been married for 15 years and they’ve got teenagers and then you hit 50 and your kids have left home as they
have in my situation think man life is really short and from about the age of 25 for most of
us life is a strong downward physical journey.
Let’s not kid ourselves on this. From about the age of 16 in some cases it’s just a slow decline down to the grave.
And many of us retire not into golden years, but we retire into yellow years.
And so the older we get, the more important the second half of this
sentence becomes. Is that when Christ is revealed in his glory, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Because if we
have coordin with Christ in his suffering, we have coordin with Christ in his glorification. And that’s the
important thing in life. But there is more to this world than just this world. there is eternity beyond and the older
we get the more precious those promises of eternity become for each and every one of us. And so in terms of the the
participation in the suffering uh Paul goes on to say this. He says, “It is that very spirit bearing witness with
our spirit that we are children with God and if children then hes of God and
joint hes with Christ if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”
And this passage here um Paul has three compound words and I put them in red.
There’s joint hes with and glorified with. Those are three
compound words and he puts these words together in the Greek language. They don’t normally go together and uh so um
these three compound words are quite significant and so Christians are joint hes with Christ. We say praise Lord for
yes Christ receives the son of man receives an eternal dominion but all
nations tribe language and people shall serve him forever more. Daniel 7:13 and 14. And in Daniel chapter 7 verse 25 in
the heavenly judgment judgment is given before the saints of God and is that the saints of God will also receive that
eternal dominion with Jesus Christ. So when we get to heaven uh when there is a new heavens and a new earth the saviors
of God are going to share in the rulership of the universe. That’s wonderful news. We’re going to be
mid-level administrators for the rest of eternity. And apologies to anybody who’s not an
administrator, but maybe not too happy about thing being the thought of you’re going to rule over some galaxy
somewhere. But why would that be necessary? Why was that going to happen? Because the unfallen worlds may know
about sin. Our lives live before angels and men. The unfallen worlds know about sin, but only the saints of God have
tasted at the innermost level the bitterness of sin and know the reality and the joy of God’s grace and his
forgiveness. Therefore, the saints of God have an experience of God’s character that the unfallen worlds do
not have. And because we can vouch from personal experience, as John Newton, the
slaver wrote many years after his conversion, he said, um, I’m not the man that I want to be, but by God’s grace,
neither am I the man that I used to be. He could look back and see where he was. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me, a slave from the North Atlantic. That that’s what I was. because I was a wretch. But this is now
this is what this is where God has led me. I’m not quite yet where I want to be, but by God’s grace, no, I remind I
used to be. And so John Newton could look back and see how God had changed his life. And so we are joint hes with
Christ. That is, we share in the promise of sharing in the dominion of the entire universe and beyond when Christ comes
again. That’s an amazing promise. We’re not going to be sitting around storming harps on clouds. Apologies to all heart
lovers here, but that’s not what we’re going to be doing forever ever more. So there’s a promise that we are joint
hes with Christ, but there is a condition and that the the compound words is
suffering with that’s the translation there. This version says suffer with him. So if we are willing to suffer with
Christ today for bearing his name, we will bear his name. We will suffer for the name of Christ. If we are willing to
face persecution for the name of Christ, um then we will be glorified with him when he comes again. So if I if I face
degradation today, I have the promise for the ling of Christ. I have the promise of glorification with Christ one
day and after that the promise of becoming a joint heir with Christ. And so this is a beautiful promise here. If
we suffer with Christ, God all treats us as hes together with his own son. Merely
suffering doesn’t meet the condition implied here. It must be suffering with Christ and for Christ. And the
inheritance is the kingdom of glory in 1 Peter 4. And it is also eternal like in
Romans 2 and:e 7. And so there is the promise that that is the participation in the sufferings of Christ. So if you
face persecution today because you bear the name of Christ, you have the promise
that when Christ comes again, you will be glorified with him. When Christ reigns for eternity, you will receive
path by the eternal dominion with Jesus Christ. That’s an amazing promise. And so the troubles of this world are
merely a blink compared with eternity, a blink of the eye. They’re not worth comparing to the glories that await
those who are faithful to God. And so that is what it means to participate in the suffering of Christ. Yes, we are. We
have coiner with Christ in his suffering. But God doesn’t just say, I want you to suffer for the name of Christ. He says, “If you are my faithful
witnesses on planet Earth, and you will shine for me in the midst of Earth’s darkest hour, you have the promise that
one day you’ll be glorified with Christ and you will share in his in his eternal inheritance.” That’s an amazing amazing
amazing promise. And so then we come to the power in suffering. We think, well, is there power in suffering? And um some
people some people like to impose suffering on other people. Is that not right? Some people get a kick as of
causing suffering to other people. I think of government scientists as one group in particular who seems to get
find pleasure in causing needless suffering to entire populations. And um that happened in the last four
years. But there is power in suffering. And we’re going to start out this P of suffering with this verse here. 1 Peter
4 and verse 14. And Paul uh Peter says here, he says, “If you are reviled for
the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirits of glory which is the spirit of God is resting upon you.”
And so Peter says, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ.” Now that word reviled, it means to face reproach, to
be reviled, to have somebody he insults upon you. And as a preude to
destruction, you often have demonization. Before it is socially
acceptable to destroy a group in society in in any time of human history,
governments must first demonize that group in society and make society believe that we don’t need that group.
That group is causing all of our problems. A classic example is what happened in 1930s and 40s in Germany.
Okay. And before Hitler could set up the the final solution in 1942, he had to so
demonize the Jewish population that people thought it was necessary to wipe out the Jewish population. And there are
certain measures governments take in order to facilitate that demonization. So for instance in in in Turkey um when
the government wanted to demonize the Kurdish minority in the Far East for many years they banned the use of
language in public. And why could they do that? Because when your culture is tied together with your
language and your rituals and your births and your weddings and your deaths and your religious rituals and the
important moments in life are expressed in your language and when the government takes away from you the right to use
your language, you don’t have those words anymore in your society and your society starts sort like a Swiss cheese
by lots of holes running all the way through it. And the longer they ban that society, the the language, the larger
the holes get to eventually only the grandparents know the language and the grandkids don’t know the language at all. And when the language is gone, that
culture is gone. And so linguisticide often precedes genocide. You find out examples of that
in human history. But in when it comes to the spiritual world, reproach or
slander is often a prelude to more cruel attacks. And so it says if you are being
demonized in society because you bear the name of Christ. If you’re being attacked in the mainstream media because
you bear the name of Christ. If you’re being cancelled on Facebook or YouTube because of your preaching because you
bear the name of Christ. If the government says that because you preach on homosexuality you’re guilty of a hate
crime um guilty of hate crimes then you’re going to face denunciation and demonization in your society.
He says that you are blessed. Now what is Macario this biatitudes because the Holy Spirit is resting upon you in that
moment. And so when the government or when the mainstream media or when society turns his guns on you, we can
rejoice because that is when the Holy Spirit is resting upon us in that moment. We are clothed with the Holy
Spirit. The spirit of glory is the Holy Spirit. In persecution and suffering, we
have assurance from God of the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us. This is
the way we will be in it to serve as the teacher of the truth to as teacher of righteousness and uh to serve as the
comforter in moments of pain. This is the spirit of God. It is a constant presence of the power of God and the
presence of God but enables us to face the problems that this world throws at us. A life filled with material goods
and financial pleasures and never compensate for the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.
The important things in life today are not getting a new BMW or a bigger house.
People are miserable with all their financial wealth. I was walking downtown Munich last week.
I’m getting a train from one city to another and it’s one of the wealthiest cities in Germany. As I as I walked in
the central train station there um I saw people every sort of every net tribal
lantern people people who were poor people who are obviously incredibly wealthy and when I looked in most of those eyes what I saw was the Russian
writer goal writes dead souls there was nothing looking back at me there was
just nothing there was no joy there was no peace there was no happiness there
was just this deadness looking at looking back at me in those eyes so lives that are only lived in the
material and don’t have the spiritual dimension to to life. Those are incomplete lives. Just as it in the
story of creation, God makes the material world in days 1 through six.
But uh and modern man lives in that material world where God crowned creation with something called the
Sabbath on the Sabbath day. And the Sabbath is a spiritual dimension to life. And it’s a time it’s a cathedral
time for all people where we can have communion with our creator. And modern man lives in days 1 through six. And we
wonder why there are so many deaths of despair and suicides and um addicted behaviors in our society. It’s because
if you only live a life in the material without the spiritual dimension, you’re not living in the the full creation that
God intended you to be. And people would even if they’re very wealthy, they would
give up anything they would have in order to find love in their life or peace or joy.
And so this glory of God rests upon his followers when they are facing
demonization from their society. A good example of this is Peter as Steven
before the Sanhedrin as he gave his testimony just before he’s um stoned.
And it says Acts 6:15. And all who sat in the council looked intently at him,
and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
And they saw the presence of God shining in Steven just before he was about to be
executed. And so the Holy Spirit comes close as the comforter to the persecuted
disciple. The Holy Spirit gives word to speak when we do not know what to say. The Holy Spirit gives sustenance when
all earthly means of support are cut off. The Holy Spirit will gives courage when human strength fails. The Holy
Spirit intercedes for us in words, when words fail us in prayer. And the Holy Spirit makes up for all that is lacking
in our faith. And so the power that comes in suffering
is the is the personal and immediate presence of the Holy Spirit in the persecuted believer’s life. And the Holy
Spirit is manifest in your life in a way that maybe you’ve never seen before.
So 1st Peter 4:14 says this, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are
blessed because the spirit of glory, which is the spirit of God, is resting upon you.”
And this is a a powerful promise that is when you are persecuted that that is
when the Holy Spirit rests upon you in a way that you’ve never seen before. You have a promise of the Holy Spirit when
you are facing persecution. I want to encourage each one of us tonight. Don’t be worried about the promise of
persecution one day because God has also promised the presence of his Holy Spirit in a way that you’d never seen before in
your life and in your character and in your heart. And he will speak for you and he will pray for you and he will
guide you and he will bring to remembrance the things that you read in the gospels but you’ve forgotten them.
But he’ll bring them to remembrance when you’re asked to answer for your faith. And he will give you sustenance and courage when all human strength and
courage fades away. And so the promise of the Holy Spirit is a beautiful promise in scripture for persecuted
Christians. Now that word blessed as I said before is macarios. And that word blessed is what we find in the
biatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they
shall be filled and so on and so forth in matthew 5. Now in the gospels there are two versions of the biatitudes just
like there are two versions of the ten commandments. Deuteronomy 5, Exodus 20. In the gospels you have two versions of
the biatitudes and the first version is it is in Luke’s gospel and Luke starts out with four positive biatitudes or
negative and then four positive biatitudes and the one about persecution is the fourth biatitudes so it’s in the
middle of those biatitudes has four negative four positive right in the middle if you’re persecuted for my
name’s sake and the point about Luke’s gospel is that the only part place that Jesus appears in the biatitudes in
Luke’s gospel is when it comes comes to persecution but Jesus is in the very center of the Christian life there. So
the message about the structure of the biatitudes in Luke’s gospel is that Jesus is to be the center of the like
for Christians today. Our lives have to revolve around Jesus and his teachings.
And my question tonight is do our lives revolve around Jesus and his teachings? I want to encourage you tonight,
whatever else you do on a daily basis, but read one of the teachings of Jesus and prayerfully carry it with you
through the day and ask that ask him to give you the wisdom of how to put that into practice. Because people may never
read the Bible here in Manchester today, but they will know what Jesus taught by how his disciples live their lives.
And a disciple is known not because just because they go to church on Sabbath, but because not just they are a seventh
day Adventist, they’re a seventh day Adventist. that is they they follow the teachings of Jesus Sunday through Sabbath and if we never read the
teachings of Jesus how are people going to know what Jesus taught as I want to encourage you tonight but in the
biatitudes in in Luke’s gospel Jesus is the heart of biatitudes and everything else in the Christian’s life revolves
around that the life and teachings of Christ when we had it when when I had my son he’s sitting up there on balcony now
I thought that getting a boy was like getting a second car like um we have we have one car garage.
So, we have the car in there. We’ll park the second car outside. And I thought that getting a kid was like getting a
second car. You know, you pay a bit more taxes. You just pay a bit more repairs and pay more for gasoline and petrol
buds. It’s not a big deal getting a child. What I discovered when you get a child is that your whole house gets
knocked down metaphorically and the whole house of your life gets rebuilt around that little mics. So, you know
what I’m talking about? Yes. And and everything revolves around that mics. And as a dad, I realized that my job was
to be a beast of burden for me 5 years. Leaving the house to go to church was
like preparing for a 40-day wilderness expedition. And we’re packing so much stuff into the car. You’ve got your
trolley, you got your um your walker, and you’re carrying like three sets of spare clothes, and one of which you use
on the way to church. And you got a set of spare clothes for yourself cuz sometimes you change in your boy, and
stuff comes all over you. When you’re a preacher, you have to change in the middle of church and so forth. And so preparing when you have a baby, your
whole life revolves around that baby. As I discovered, it’s remarkable thing
that when the baby is crying 2 ft away from you at night and you’re in the bed, uh uh the man will hear this screaming
baby, but it doesn’t penetrate through to his brain. There’s a there’s a go no-go switch in the brain that says,
“Batty’s crying. Yes, mom will take care of it. Go back to sleep.” And so the baby can be screaming this far from
there’s a mother sitting in the background and she’s smiling. Is that true, sister? Yeah, she’s nodding. Yes. Yeah. The man is hiding in a big under a
little chat. And I wake up in the morning. I say to my wife, “Man, the children slept really well last night.”
And she says, “Oh, no, they didn’t.” And I realized she got up three or four times a night. Well, what can I do about
it? I mean, honestly, you know, God never intended for me to nurse a child in the middle of the night. Um, and
maybe I could do a bottle feed. But, um, anyway, um, what am I talking about this
for? Oh, yes. Um when when you are a Christian when you are a Christian
when you are a Christian your life revi revolves around the four gospels of Jesus Christ.
Do we know those gospels? Do we read those gospels?
Do we know those parables of Jesus about money and women faith and persecution?
Do we know the teachings of Jesus? Because one day we will be persecuted for being faithful to the teachings of
Jesus. And so I would encourage you today to whatever else you do in your daily devotions, read a passage out of the
gospels and and ask God for the grace for that into practice on a daily basis. And bit
by bit, your life will start to look like the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And you also have and you also have um the gospel the bastudes in Matthew’s gospel. And in
Matthew’s gospel um the batitude without suffering is the is the ninth biatitude
is the last biatitude. So in in Luke’s gospel Jesus is at the
heart of the Christian life. Everything revolves around Jesus. And in Matthew’s gospel Jesus only appears in the very
final beatitude. That is Jesus is the climax of the Christian life. Meeting Jesus is the go of life. The reason we
follow Jesus is that one day we can see him face to face. And it’s like a long-distance relationship right now. If
you have no joy in that long-distance relationship and you’re not looking forward to the day when you can see him
face to face, why would you suffer for him today? And why would you shine for him today? But if your eyes are fixed on
meeting Jesus one day in Matthew’s gospel, he is the climax of the biatitudes. Um then then you’re going to
live the teachings of Jesus.
And so um anyway, got a bit to go, brother. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want to
listen to my sermons, have you? Then I I’ll give you a nod when it’s bow.
Yes. Yes. So, u Thank you, brother. Anyway, I appreciate that. Yes.
So, uh but if anybody’d like to come forward right now, now is the time.
And so um uh but in this passage here Peter says if you are if you are reviled
for the name of Christ you are blessed. When we are brought to trial Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would
speak for us. Such persecution in Matthew 10 will come from within our own families and in Matthew 10:17 is going
to come from within the family of faith. We’ll see that in a few more minutes. It will also come in Matthew 10:18 from the
world outside and and from non-believers. But to his persecuted followers, Jesus who has all authority
in heaven and earth, he says, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And notice this that the the beast of Revelation 13 1-12
um is given authority by Satan over every nation, tribe, language, and people. And in opposition to that, Jesus
says, “I have authority over every nation, tribe, language, or people.” And so the the satan through through the
papacy the first week to revelation 13 believes that he has authority over every nation on earth. And Jesus says
that is not true. I am with you always and I have all authority. Nobody else has the authority that I have. And so
the therein lies the power the source of our power in suffering. It is the presence of Jesus Christ. Then we come
to the fifth of our six points brothers. And uh here we go. This is pitfalls in
suffering and uh let let me I’ve uh I
forgot about those texts, right? The pitfalls of suffering. There are some pitfalls in suffering. Let me put it
this way. Uh if you were given a speeding ticket for driving home too fast tonight, that you are not suffering
for the name of Christ. You’re suffering because you had too fast. If you smoke for 45 years and develop lung cancer
emphymia, as a man seweth, so shall he reap. Or as Galatians uh says right there in
Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man seweth, that shall he
also reap.” So we delude ourselves and we continue in meaningless suffering
when we avoid taking personal responsibility for our unwise choices and our personal sins and blame our
suffering on persecution. Is that a fair point? Okay. Um you’re not you’re not um
you’re not dying of a heart attack when you’re 500 lb in weight because you bear
the name of Christ. That’s 240 kg or so. What do you measure weight here in
England? Stomoose. All right. So 500 lb is an enormous enormous person, right?
Okay. You’re not dying by heart staff because you be the name of Christ. It’s because you’ve eaten too many McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Delicious though that may
be is going to kill you. When we complain in the midst of our
suffering, that causes us to lose our faith.
So one of the pitfalls of suffering is deluding oursel as to the real cause of that suffering. So we can’t address the
real cause and wrecked by the problem. The second problem we face in suffering is that we delude ourselves. You find
this in Exodus 15. The Israelites have just crossed the Red Sea. They’ve sung the song of Moses. And then it says then
Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea. They went into the wilderness of Shure. They they went three days the
wilderness and found no water. When they came to Mara, they could not drink of the water of Mara because it was bitter.
That was why it’s called Mara. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” He cried out to
the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
I just like this water here. And so when the Israelites were were walking in the wilderness for 3 days without water,
they started to complain. Now, humanly speaking, it’s natural to complain if you’ve had no water for 3 days. Yes,
because you know you’re facing death. You really can’t survive much beyond 3 days without water and you’re going to
perish. And the people complained against Moses and Moses in turn cries out to the Lord and God gives them a
solution. But the people’s um response to suffering was not to ask God to help
them. They were complaining against God. And when we go through suffering, often
times we want to complain about it. We want to tell the whole world about it. It’s on Facebook and Instagram and
Snapchat. It’s on social media. The church grapevine is at work with how much suffering that you’re going
through. Everybody knows that you are suffering. And rather than turning to God and saying, “Lord, would you take care of this or give me the grace to get
through it or carry me through this?” The people were complaining against Moses. And then in the next chapter that
this murmur murmuring and suffering continues, it says the whole congregation of Israelites complained
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt when we sat down by the flesh pots and ate our fill of bread where you brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” And so they were complaining and they were come they
wanted to go back to slavery in the land of Egypt rather than live as free people with God providing food for them every
day and after this God gives them mana which means what is it? You know this is a bit like know when I was a single when
I was growing up I looked in the land of Egypt that was my home that was my family of origin and it was land of
plenty but it was land of many rules. Then I left the land of plenty and land of land many rules. I wandered through
the wilderness for 15 years or so before I entered the promised land that is known as marish. Okay. And some of you
are smiling here. And there was plenty of good food there. And there was plenty of good food there. And in the wilderness there was nothing to eat
except fish and chips and cheese and tomato sandwiches. and I was wasting away fast and had to marry or die hunger
or my nutrition or misnutrition or something like that. But the point about
this story here is that they were complaining and they were complaining and they were complaining and eventually
of this generation that complained and did nothing but complain. Whenever they had problems, they complained against
God. They didn’t turn to God in prayer asking for a solution. Of this entire generation, only two men, Caleb and
Joshua, actually entered the promised land. and the rest of them were not allowed to enter the promised land
because they doubted God and they had didn’t have the faith that God could do for them what he promised to do for
them. So when we face persecution, when we say face suffering for the name of
Christ, one of the pitfalls we are to avoid is to start blaming God for this persecution. He’s not bringing it upon
you deliberately. Satan may bring it upon you, but God is using it to build your character. God may be allowing you
to go through it because he wants to purify your faith. God maybe get a lamb you go because he wants to give you an
experience with the Holy Spirit like you’ve never had before. But the one thing we are not through persecution is
to start bitterly complaining about God. And so Jesus says in Matthew 10, this is
in response to persecution. He says, “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others that is in a legal context
in the Roman system where you could be executed for for saying that Yazos curios Jesus is Lord rather than
Kaisopou Caesar is Lord.” Jesus says, “I also will acknowledge before my father
in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my
father in heaven.” I want us to think about this verse for a minute. It’s a serious verse that when we are faith
when we are asked to account for our faith when your boss in social services asked you to account for your faith when
you’re asked to explain why you are asking to have the Sabbath hours off
if we acknowledge Jesus Christ before others Jesus promises that he will
acknowledge us before our heavenly father in the preappen judgment
but if in those moments of trial when push comes to shove We say, “Yes, I’m a
follower of Jesus Christ, but he’s not going to worry if I just start doing this or doing that.” And yes, I’ll go in
with your demands and God and Jesus will not acknowledge us before his heavenly father in heaven
above. So what happens down on earth is mirrored up in heaven.
So one of the pitfalls in suffering is complaining against God. Another is denying our walk with God when push
comes to shove. Because in denying our walk with God, we’re effectively losing eternal life.
Now, you say, “Well, that’s a hard thing to say.” Well, in John 14, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be
troubled. You believe also in God, believe also in me.” And uh he goes on
to say, “If you’re not so, I would have told you. I go now to prepare a place for you in heaven above. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.” Now, who is Jesus speaking that to? Well, if you
look in your Bibles and you have your Bibles with me, invite you to go there. Go to John 14
and just remember that when John wrote this, there were no chapter and verse divisions.
So, who is Jesus speaking? John 14:1-3.
He speak it to Peter. And John 13:37 and 38 says, “Peter saith unto him,
Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wil lay down thy
life for my sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the c the cot shall not crow till thou hast denied me three times,
but let not your heart be troubled. And so we always start with John 14 1-3. And
we cut off the previous dialogue and Jesus is speaking to a disciple. He just said, “This very night you’re going to
deny me three times. when quish comes to shove you in his n Peter
he says but let not your hearts be troubles I’m still going to prepare a place you in heaven above and so Jesus
gives us this promise in John 14 as a reminder that sometimes we fail
disciples do fail disciples sometimes say things and do things they profoundly
regret John beat our light denied Jesus three times the text says he went out and he
wept fit he realized what done. And at the end of John’s gospel, Jesus finds
his feet on the Sea of Galilee and he says, “Peter, do you love me?” Three times says, “Feed my sheep. Feed my
lungs. Feed my sheep.” And so Jesus restores this fallen disciple.
So there is grace and mercy for those who who deny Christ. But in this passage here, Jesus just said, “This is how it’s
going to be. If you deny me on planet earth when everything is on the line, I’ll deny you in heaven above.” And when
Pushk used to come comes to shelf in Peter’s life, he was willing to be crucified upside down robed by his faith
in Christ. He learned his lesson. And hopefully we will learn the lesson from Peter’s life as well that Jesus is
merciful, but at the end of the day, if we deny him when everything’s on the line, he’s not going to affirm us before
our heavenly father. And so that’s one of the pitfalls and suffering. The other pitfall in suffering is found in this
passage here Matthew 24:10-14 and uh this is a very famous passage and
um I’m just going to read it through says then they will this is uh um just in the um Jesus speaking to the
disciples they’ve asked him about when the temple will be knocked down and then the coming of the end of the age and
Jesus says in response they will hand you over to be tortured I will put you to death you’ll be hasted by all nations
because of my came and many will fall away. They will betray one another that hates one another. And many false
prophets will arise, lead many astray. And because in the increase of lordless, the love of many will grow. For the one
who endures the end will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a
testimony to all the nations and then the end shall come. So if you just to break that down, the first verse, verse
10, Jesus is talking about what’s going to happen at the very end of time. And just what it says this this this this
what the saying ends the end will come. That’s the coming of Christ. So just before Jesus comes again the first verse
says they’ll hand you which to be tortured and put you to death and you’ll be hated by all nations because of my
name. And so Jesus is talking here about just before Jesus comes again the whole
world will be united in hatred of those who bear the name of Christ. So the COVID pandemic was like was maybe
a dry run for what was going to happen. But we ain’t seeing nothing yet. The whole world will be united in hatred of
those who bear the name of Christ. And not only will the world hate us and have its mandates as in Revelation 13
economic nandates for instance, but that the world will think it acceptable to imprison the followers of Christ and to
torture the followers of Christ and to execute the followers of Christ just before Jesus comes again. This doesn’t
sound like good news, does it? No. So, so this passage is just before Jesus
comes again, the world will be torturing, imprisoning, and executing the followers of Jesus. And whether you
are Russian, Chinese, Iranian, or American who hate each other, it seems these days, the world will be united in
hatred of the followers of Christ. If there’s one thing the world and the United Nations and the powers of this
world will have in common, is that they hate you, the followers of Jesus Christ. So that’s on the outside. But then it
gets worse because in the next two verses Jesus talks about conditions inside the church. And this is just
before the end will come. Just what Jesus comes again. He says in red, many will fall away. The word there is
apostasy. Apostari means you stepped away from that means you stood on the truth. Now you’re stepping away from the
truth. And so he says that within the body of Christ there will be max apostasy. That there’s going to be
heresy within our midst. There’s going to be strange ideas floating around in our mix. There’s if there’s going to be
mass apostasy in the church, it means there’s going to be polarization within the church. I believe this and I believe
that we should dysfellowship you. No, we should dysfellowship you. There’s going to be um a falling away from truth
within the body of Christ. Just what Jesus comes. Then he says, “And they’ll betray one another and hate one
another.” Betrayal means to the to the authorities.
So, you’re going to be sitting down in church and your brother or sister who doesn’t like something you stand for
thinks there’s a helpline they can call and snitch on you to the government. We saw such help llines in the COVID
pandemic in many countries. You could inform on your neighbor if they weren’t following the rules. New York set up
such a system. It didn’t last very long cuz it was swamped with fake calls thankfully. But um there they there’ll
be there’ll be pe your brother or sister will betray you and you’re going to be hated by the world. You’re going to be
hated by people in the body of Christ. I mean this is like pretty grim. It says
many false prophets will arise lead many astray. There’s going to be schismatic movements appearing in the body of
Christ. There’s going to be apostasy, ideological and theological polarization. Members will hate one
another. They’re going to say, “Well, this is what you say. I disagree with that. I’m going to call the police on you and have you arrested. And there’s
going to be false prophets arising and they’re going to lead movements out of the church into schismatic movements.”
It says, “And because of the increase of lawlessness.” That word lawlessness is anomia. Nomos means law. A means
without. Like aos is atheist means without God. And anomia means that in
the church of God there will be a rejection of the law of God. which means a rejection of the Sabbath
in particular, maybe even among Adventists that we’re going to compromise when say,
“Well, we’re all going to rest on the Sunday because I’m going to save the environment this way.” That’s probably how it’s going to come about. We need to
rest on the Sabbath because we need to have an Earth Day to allow the church the world 24 hours to recuperate from
relentless cycles of consumerism. And so there will be apostasy in the church, polarization within the church, betrayal
within the church, hatred within the church, schismatic movements within the church. There will be a rejection of law
of God within the church. And the love of many will grow cold. That means that within the church, many are going to
lose their love for Christ. They’re going to disappear out of the church. That’s the picture of the church just
before Jesus comes again. Then Jesus says, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved. So if
you’re going to make it through this, we’ll talk about this a bit tomorrow. The word hoop is to endure. The noun is
endurance. You got to kind keep your eyes laser focused on what our task is going to be. And this good news for the
kingdom. This is the task in the midst of this hatred, this betrayal, this execution, this torture, this apostasy,
this um betrayal, this schizmatic movements, these false prophets, this hatred within the church, the
polarization in the church, the rejection of law of God within the church, mass fading away of many members
and beloved members are just going to disappear. They don’t want to know anything about this anymore. Jesus says, “And in this moment, those who are
enduring to sin, not just sitting on their on their rear ends and bemmoning what’s happened to the world, this good
news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to them.” So God’s faithful disciples at the end of time going to
have like your blinkers on. I know there’s persecution. I know there’s torture. I know there’s imprisonment from outside. I know there’s polar I
know there’s polarization. I know there are false prophets. I know there’s schismatic movements. I know you guys hate me for what I preach. I know you’re
going to be training for what I say. I know that you abandoned the law of God and I know that many are walking away from Jesus Christ. But in the midst of
all this crisis and it seems that the church is about to fall. I would keep my eyes focused on shining for Jesus in my
parts of the world. And Jesus said, “You’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the end of the
world.” What he means by that and I was in a church called village for the last
14 years was your church needs to have a vision for South Manchester.
Your church needs to have a vis needs to have a vision for the north of England. Your church needs to have a vision for
the European Union. And your church needs to have a vision to the ends of the earth. And we we don’t just if every
church just thinks locally, then we don’t get to interact with other Christians. that if we have a local
vision and a regional vision and a national vision and a global vision and some people can take part in the global
vision part of things, some people can take part of things at a national level from your church. Other people are really good at the local stuff and
others are really good at the regional stuff. That if we have all these levels of mission going from our churches,
there’s space for everybody in our congregations to finish to take part in finishing the work. And so in the midst
of all this and all this pain and suffering and dissension and polarization and torture imprisonment
and betrayal and the hatred and lawlessness and abandonment of the law of God and abandonment of the body of Christ, God is going to have a people
who are going to keep their heads down, keep their eyes focused. We’re going to share the good news of Jesus to the end of the world because when we’ve done
that job, Jesus is going to come again. So the gospel is going to be proclaimed
not in good times but in tough times. And God is asking us to just be aware of
this, be ready for this, not to be discouraged by this, and say, “No matter what this world may do, I’m not going to
give up my faith. Jesus is coming again, and that’s all I’m going to work for. I’m not going to talk about all this other nonsense. I’m going to focus on
sharing the good news of a place takingaking, sin barren, and soon coming savior.
So, it’s going to be tough at the end. One who endures the end is going to be
saved.” That’s the beautiful promise. When we when we live through all this nonsense, you can survive this. And I’ll
tell you my own experience of cancel culture is that cancel culture is not the end of the world. It’s not the end
of the world. When you get cancelled, you praise the Lord. You praise the Lord
because people didn’t like what you said. Okay? When you get cancelled as an affirmation that God is with you. When
you get cancelled, you experience God’s presence like never before. When you get cancelled, the whole world knows about
you. when previously nobody knew about you. Okay? And so being cancelled is not the end of the world. I often think to
myself, what’s going to cause the whole world to know about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Then I realize it’s cancel
culture because when the world turned in the last four years when the weren’t told on a certain group of people, the
whole world got to hear what their position was. You didn’t have to be an evangelist for it. The whole world knew
what your position was by virtue of the whole world turning on you. And everybody thinks there’s this group and
there’s that group. Where do I stand? So when persecution comes on the body of Christ at the end of time, that very
persecution means that the whole world is forced to make a decision for or against Christ for or against Christ.
It’s not the end of the world. It’s hastening the end of the world. So let’s not run from that persecution. It’s not
the end of the world. Then we come to purification and suffering. We’re getting there, brother. Okay? We’re getting there. I will nod to you when
it’s time for you to come forward. All right? But I appreciate I appreciate you waiting there. Yes. And so we this is
the last of our peas here. Time is moving on. And so first Peter says this.
1 Peter 1 3-7 said, “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he has given us a new
birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiles, unfading, kept in heaven a few are being protected by the power of God through faith. for a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice if even if now for a little while you’ve had to
suffer various trials so that the genuiness of your faith being more precious than gold though perishable is
tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor found when Jesus Christ is revealed. Now we can
spend like a whole week on packing this but I just say a few things about this one. God has an inheritance for the
saints that is kept them in heaven. And nothing on earth can touch that inheritance for the saints. That’s an
amazing thought. It is in heaven. It is imperishable. It is undefiled by this world. And it’s unfading. You may drive
a new car today, but in 6 months that is no longer a new car. It’s got a few dings on it. It smells on the inside of
it. You’ve had a dog in there has vomited. It stinks. Okay. That you that that new car doesn’t have new car smell
for very long, does it? Okay. Once you once you’ve dinged your car once, you lose your emotional connection with that
car almost immediately. And so God has inheritance for the saints, but is kept in heaven above. But and we are being
protected by the power of God through faith. And so God God um purifies us
through our struggles and he gives us victory over sin. And God can do little for the one who refuses to believe or
have faith in him, but all things are possible for the one who believes. There will be trials to purify and prove our
faith. Trials alone cannot purify our faith. But the lead us to understand that our own strength we can do nothing.
Trials make us sensive to the reality of the bitter harvest and reality of sin in our lives. Trials make us realize our
need for God and thus they open us to the power and the refining grace of God in our hearts.
These trials have a purifying impact on us. Job put it this way. He said, “But
he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.”
Like gold. Nobody in this world would refuse a gold bullion coin. A dynamo.
If somebody were to shake your hand tomorrow and you open your hands and it’s a gold bullion coin, a one outs, no
sovereign, you’d put in your pocket real quickly and you and your hand would not would not leave that pocket till you go
home. Okay. That cold will be precious. Everybody wants gold. It seems safe.
But when God allows us to go through suffering, he tests us and he comes out
till we’re like gold. When they purify silver,
they they they they um they put the ingot there and they they they heat up and they heat up and they heat up. They
heat it up. And you know where you can tell when a silver ingot is 100% pure?
It’s when you can see a reflection in it. And God allows us to go through trials in order that he can see his own
reflection in our character. And so he allows us to go through this purification process not because he
wants us to suffer but because he wants to see his own character in us. And when we go through trials we learn to place
complete trust in our heavenly father. Jesus molded for us on Calvary. Says then Jesus crying out with a loud voice
said father into your hands I commend my spirit. And having said this, he
breathed his last. So when we go through trials, we learn to be completely
dependent upon God for our eternal salvation. And Jesus waddle on Calvary as he was about to die. He says, “In
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Steven did the same thing. So while they were stoning Steven, he
prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” So as he was about to die in
persecution, Steven just placed his complete trust in Jesus Christ. And then we also find the other example in 1
Peter 4:1 19, therefore let those suffering in accordance with God’s will
entrust themselves to a faithful creator while continuing to do good.
And why does he say to a faithful creator? Because if God created you in your mother’s womb, he can recreate you
when Jesus comes again. Whatever they do to this body, whatever is perishable will become
imperishable. Whatever is mortal will become immortal. whatever is um broken
will be made new again. And so when we go through suffering, we experience a
purification of our faith that we can reflect our heavenly father’s character. But God allows us to go through
suffering so that we become completely uh dependent or we trusting our heavenly
father, eternal salvation. We realize that we cannot save ourselves. So we throw ourselves fully at the feet of
Christ. Say, “Father, have mercy upon me for I am a sinner.” So those then are
the P’s of persecution. I’m coming to the conclusion now bel right and there
are six Ps is the promise of persecution the purpose of so persecution
participation with Christ in sufferings the power that comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in suffering the
pitfalls of suffering and the purification of suffering. I want to conclude with this quote here from our
high calling uh from the writings of Sister White. And this this verse here answers a question that many people have
about how are they going to stand in that final time of trouble. How are they going to stand when they face persecution? And she says this, “We will
not be able to meet the trials of this time without God. We are not to have the courage and fortune of martyrs of old
until brought into the position they were in. We are to receive daily supplies of grace for each daily
emergency. Thus we thus we grow in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if persecution comes upon us, if we must be enclosed in prison walls for the faith
of Jesus and the keeping of God’s holy law, as thy days, so shall thy strength
be. Should there be a return of persecution, there will be a grace given to arouse every energy of the soul to
show a true heroism. So we grow in grace.
We are not to worry beforehand by what we are to say when we call to answer for our faith. Jesus teaches us that. It is
because words will be given you at that moment by the Holy Spirit. We are to be thankful to God in whatever
is happening today. In the small challenges, the small questions, the small push backs in our faith today when
we stand tall for Jesus, we are preparing ourselves for that final persecution that will come upon the
followers of Christ. And some people worry about how am I going to stand in that time of trouble? How am I going to
stand polarization and persecution in prison and torture and death county and so forth? And this passage here, we know
that God gives grace sufficient for our needs. So rather than worrying about what’s
going to come, I’m just going to keep my eyes fixed upon Jesus. I’m going to keep my eyes fixed upon him
and trust his promises. That’s as my days shall be, so th
will give thee strength for today. He doesn’t ask me to worry about tomorrow, which says, “Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.” We walk by faith today. We walk
faithfully today. We walk clean to the promises of Christ today, trusting that
when we are brought into that moment of crisis, that moment of truth, that moment when the eyes of the world are
placed upon us, if I’ve walked with Jesus up to that moment, he’s going to be standing beside me in that moment,
and he will carry me through. So I’m not afraid about that final persecution. I want to see Jesus coming
in the clouds of glory. Don’t you? It’s the greatest light and showed so in human history. No. The clouds will be
torn apart and mountains will be moved and the islands will disappear and the sky will be rolled back like a scroll
and the dead in Christ shall rise first and the wicked Lord will perish by the glory of his coming. and we who alive
will be called up to meet the dead in Christ and we’re to meet them in the air who have been resurrected and thus we shall be with our Lord forever. It’s a
beautiful promise there in the scriptures and I want to be there for that glorious day. But to be there on
that glorious day, I got to buckle up my belt and realize that there’s a roller coaster ride between now and then. And I
want to be there on that day. So I don’t mind going through that ride. When my when my daughter was a young girl, she
loved roller coasters. I hate roller coasters. But because I was a loving father, she said, “Daddy, come on the roller coaster with me.” And even though
I hate roller coasters, I grip my teeth and I make sure I eat nothing for breakfast on the day we go to a place
that I sit down in the roller coaster. I hold on. I cling up like this. I grip my cheetah. I want to bite my sunburn round
and round. I grip my cheater like this. Just praying, Lord, when does this thing end? I’m counting down the seconds of my
mind till when does this roller coaster end? When it’s finished. Oh, the joy on my face when it’s all over. I’m looking
forward to the endings. I know what the promise is at the end. There’s going to be shudder. We’re going to come to a halt. My daughter’s gonna say again,
daddy. Oh, no. H but we’ve I’ve survived this roller coaster. And when you know
that there is an end coming, the end is good news. You can grit your teeth. You can cling to your faith in Christ and
you can hang on to the bitter end. And the end is worth waiting for. So Jesus,
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. So Jesus is coming
again. Be faithful, brothers and sisters. There will be persecution, but if God be for you, who can be against
you? And so I leave with these words. May God bless you. May God strengthen you. May God give you words from on
high. May God help us all to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. So when he comes again, he says to each one of us, “Well
done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy that’s prepared for you.” May God bless us as we shine for Jesus
in earth’s darkest hour. Amen.