Facing Persecution

This sermon was originally delivered on October 30, 2023 by Jonathan “JP” Pokluda. You can watch the full sermon here.

Harris Creek. How we doing? Let's go. Hey, if you're a guest with us, welcome home or to a home away from home. If you're visiting Waco this weekend, we're so glad that you would entrust us with your Sunday morning. If we haven't met, my name is JP or Jonathan Pokluda and I have the privilege of serving this incredible church.

And so I'm curious how many of you, your conversion was public. And what I mean by that is you responded to an altar call or raised your hand or stood up. You came forward. There was something where you made this kind of public profession and there was kind of a celebration around that. Anybody here that's a part of your story? I imagine that that's a part of a lot of our stories. It was a part of my story a few times.

I grew up in a small town south Texas. I grew up Catholic and my mom was Lutheran. I would kind of bounce back and forth between those two churches, but the only church in our town that really did anything to reach and disciple and equip the youth was First Baptist Cuero. So I would go to the youth group there called Teen Time, and that's where there was fun. They would do events after the football games. That's where the good snacks were. Teen Time. And so they were going to take a bus to Corpus Christi for a Christian conference called Dawson McAllister. So I'm in. We all load up on the bus, we go travel down south to Corpus Christi, we stop at Wendy's on the way. It's a great time. We go into this kind of conference center auditorium thing, thousands of kids my age.

This is great. Great music, great energy, lots of just fun things happening and really great worship. I'm emotionally stirred. My heart is moved, my crush is there, and so it's all good. And this guy says something, I don't remember what he said, but it was something that I remember like, “Hey, if you don't want to go to hell and you want to live forever in paradise with God, come forward.” And I'm looking around. I'm like, how come everybody's not rushing the stage? I'm in and I'm thinking, Hey, my crush, she's probably going to like me more if I do this. And everybody that went forward got a big hug and a high five and it was a celebration. I'm like, who didn't want that kind of affirmation? So I marched forward and sure enough, there were high fives, hugs on the bus ride home.

It's like . . . you're one of us now. And I was like, I'm in guys. I'm in. And it felt the same going down there, but now I'm in. So as you follow me along with that journey, then came the prodigal years, college, and just lots of rebellion running from God. Sometime after that there was a legit conversion where I would say I believed upon Jesus, his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of my sins. The Holy Spirit came into my life. And then it was time to be baptized. So I went to baptism and it was a party. There were bounce houses and hamburgers. And so I go down, raised to new life, and it's high fives and hugs. It's a celebration.

I grew up in a culture where everybody had a Bible and a lot of people had a cross around their neck and the James Avery ring. I'm not talking about a James Avery. I'm talking about the James Avery. Some of you are here. You've got the James Avery ring and we had the ichthus on our car right underneath the stick figure family. You're right. Underneath is the fish. And we follow Jesus. Look at us. We are Jesus followers. Some of you got the Hebrew tattoos. You're hoping that tattoo artist knows Hebrew, right? It says “Jesus, my faithful Lord” or something like that supposedly. We had the letter jackets with Philippians 4:13 to remind us at the we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, right? That's the culture we grew up in.

Here's my point: that is incredibly different than the culture that First Peter was written into. Okay? So as we read these texts, there's a temptation for us to think, “Oh yeah, man, I suffered once. Someone passed over me because my resume, they looked at the next one.” Different. Different than what First Peter is speaking to the suffering and the persecution.

In fact, I can remember going to a church event when I was younger. I don't remember where we were. I don't remember what church was there. I just remember this context that there were these brothers from Romania and they were speaking about their grandfather and the persecution that he endured under the communist regime and that you could not have a Bible there. It was illegal to own a Bible. These are the details that I remember. Everything is pretty foggy, but this is what I remember: he would have to hide the pages of his scriptures in hollowed out potatoes. And they found them. The soldiers found his pages of scriptures. So they take him and they chain him and they ask him to recant on the gospel to say that he doesn't believe in Jesus.

He says, “I can't.” They take a knife and they heat it up until it's white hot. The blade is white hot, and they pull it out of the fire and they say, “You must recant denounce Jesus Christ.” And he said, “I won't.” And these brothers talked about their grandfather. What happened next is these soldiers took that white hot blade and wedged it underneath his fingernails and began to peel them back, telling him to denounce Jesus Christ. He wouldn't do it. The men talked about how their faith was strengthened in that moment because what they witnessed with their own eyes in their grandfather. I have never in my life seen a faith like that. In fact, never have I been afraid at any moment in my 42 years of existence to say that I'm a Christian. I have never been in a situation where I am legit afraid to tell you that I'm a Christian.

That's different. I'm going to speak on Christian persecution today. Here is the challenge that is before me as we're just moving verse by verse through this book of the Bible. First Peter, we're in chapter 4 starting in verse 12. The challenge before me is that I'm going to speak to something that the vast majority of us has never experienced, not one time. And I'm sure that there's somebody in the room today that lost their job because they were a Christian. Maybe that person is here. Maybe there's three of you. Maybe once upon a time you shared the gospel with somebody boldly and they swung on you and gave you a black eye. Maybe. But for most of us, probably not.

As I told the team that this week they were like, well, you've experienced persecution. I was like, when? They're like, “Oh man, people have come after you. We've seen them say terrible things about you and your family and your children and all the things.” I was like, “Oh, no. No, those were Christians. Those are Christians, man.” When we talk about suffering today, we are talking about suffering at the hands of people who are antichrist. They are bringing harm to you because you follow Jesus and they don't. They are opposing that way. When you hear the word suffering today, that's the kind of suffering that I am speaking to. What is hard for us to relate to that it is a kind of suffering that the vast majority of us will never experience, but we need to know the word.

As we read it, we have to think, okay, how can this apply to us? Here's what you need to know. Christianity does not grow well in seasons of comfort. It just doesn't. It grows fast and it grows big, but it does not grow strong. This week I read about a biosphere where these scientists had created the perfect environment to grow these plants in and that the trees in this environment had the perfect soil, in the perfect condition, the perfect sunlight and the perfect watering. These trees grew up fast, but then they fell over and they're trying to figure out why, because there was no wind. Their root system was not strengthened in the soil. And you wonder why you're hearing the word deconstruction all the time. Because we've grown up in an environment where it was totally fine to carry a Bible, walk into a room, sing songs, walk out, go get Mexican food afterwards and talk about whether or not we like the sermon or the worship.

When someone comes and opposes you, seeks to cancel you or speak ill of you, you wonder why you fall over like a tree with no roots. Because our Christianity grew in seasons of comfort. Now, you don't need to feel bad about that. I'm not here to shame you for that. We can't control when and where we grow up in the faith. That's not up to us. But we do need to make sure that we strengthen our faith and our belief in God through the spiritual disciplines because trouble might come. It most likely will be very different than the kind of trouble this church is facing, but it might come. In that moment, you're going to need to be strong. So Peter is going to share a word with you specifically five things that you are not to do in times of suffering.

So there's going to be a list of five things. Five do nots, and the word suffering is going to be repeated throughout this text. I want to remind you that I'm talking about persecution. When we talk about suffering, we're talking about persecution. Peter wrote this letter to the church in about 64AD. The church is scattered throughout Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. The church is made up of both Jewish converts and pagan converts alike. They've come together with Jesus in common and the persecution that they're about to face as Peter pens this letter is heating up, no pun intended. It is getting very difficult to say, “I follow Jesus.” It was a death sentence. And Peter writes this book, this letter. We'll start in verse 12. Dear friends, yours might say, beloved or loved ones. I love that he starts off, “Hey, I'm about to say some hard truths. So just know I love you. Just know I love you.”

I'll say this here when I talked about the iron, the knife, and the fingernails and whatnot. It's a little bit the nature of the message, and I have a lot of grace for someone who says, “Hey, I can't hear that kind of stuff,” or, “I brought my first grader in today.” So if you're thinking this is a trigger warning because we're kind of just getting started on the topic. If you're like, “Man, I don't know if I can stomach that,” I'm going to pray and that would be a great time to figure something else out if you need to. My kids will be in the room today. We've got no problem with that. That doesn't mean that you can't or think less. And so Lord, we do just ask that you would protect us. Bless us. Keep us in this time. Father, as we read these ancient texts, I pray, God, would you please stir in us the change that is necessary?

Would you bring about in us just a real conviction, a truth that we can't deny, a work of your spirit that we look back on and say, man, that was a pivot, that was a change, that was a shift. I pray that we would hold onto the right information, dismiss the wrong information. If I say something, if I misspeak, if I inaccurately represent you, Lord, that that was not what they would leave with, but anything that's consistent with your spirit that they would leave with it in Jesus' name, amen.

As I was praying, I was just thinking about the irony—and this really kind of hits home my point—the irony that today in 2023, there'll be people in this room that are here because it's good for business. Okay? This is a great time of networking. That's different, okay? That's different than the church that he's writing to.

Okay, let me go dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Peter writes in a circular way. He addresses ideas and he brings them back up. We've talked about this, that there are fiery trials that God uses to test you. They serve a purpose in your life. And this fiery ordeal, it's the Greek word pierosis. It sounds like the English word purify because that's what it means, that there's a challenge, something that happens to us here, that we're purified in, that we're strengthened in. He says, I don't want you to be surprised by that. It's the same word that Jesus uses in Revelation chapter three, verse 18. He says, gold, I have refined by fire. There's a refining that happens through the fiery challenges here. And he says, don't be surprised. That's my first point. Do not be surprised in suffering. Five, do not as it relates to suffering. And the first one, do not be surprised in suffering. Why would he say this?

Well, because it's helpful. As you leave here today and you experience persecution, you shouldn't be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I must be doing something wrong. This isn't how the faith is supposed to play out. Peter's like, no, no, no. Don't be surprised when that happens. Really helpful to them. In fact, most experts agree that Peter sent this letter out just before Nero kind of lost his mind when it comes to Christians, and by historical accounts would take Christians and as we've said many times now, would light them on fire and he would use them as lanterns along the road. This wasn't a one-time event. In fact, there's historical accounts of Christians just spread out along the road, Christians that he used to light his garden. That's crazy. Now, you can imagine if you read Peter's letter, do not be surprised by a fiery ordeal that comes your way.

All of a sudden you're walking along the path and you see your friend there, you're like, whoa. He warned me about this. It's kind of crazy to think about the timing of when this was written. In chapter one we talked about this phrase about how a silversmith would take some silver, put it in the furnace, bring it out, wipe away the impurities, draws the scum, put it back in the fire, heat it up, bring it out, wipe away the impurities. And he would go through that process until he was able to see his own reflection in the silver. God has each of us in this same process, that as we go through challenges and struggles, and we do that with faith, believing upon him and trusting him that he's conforming us to his image and character. Peter just says, Hey, don't be surprised by that.

I don't want you to be surprised by that verse 13, but instead of being surprised, but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. He says, you are blessed in suffering. And in fact, my second point is do not be discouraged in suffering. Do not let the suffering or the persecution that you come face to face with remove courage from your life, but be strengthened in it. Be encouraged in it. Even he has the audacity, the craziness, to say you are to rejoice in it. And I bet very few of us ever have.

I mean, it's just not our first inclination when we face trials to be like, “ha, ha, ha, this is good. He told me about this. This is the good stuff right here. This is what I've been waiting on.” But it is really clearly what the scripture calls us to. He says, in as much you're to experience joy in as much as you suffer. Why? Well, I can think of two reasons, plain and simple. One, because Jesus suffered and you want to be like Jesus. To be like Jesus, you would suffer like Jesus. And two, because the suffering that you experience under the sun reminds you that you are not home. One day you're going to be in a place for ever and ever and ever where no one ridicules you because of your faith, because they all have the same faith. Every knee has bowed, every tongue has confessed. You are surrounded by people who share the same belief that you do in God and his son, Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

So when you wince at pain and when you experienced grief because of death or loss, they serve as reminders to you that you're not home. In fact, they serve as evidences to you that you were made for another world. Why do we cry at death? Because you were intended to live forever. Why do we wince at pain? Because you were not made for it. One day you will be somewhere where there is no death and there is no pain. And can I tell you something friends That's a real homecoming. You want to talk about homecoming? There's a homecoming in front of you that you're going to be reunited with your savior in his presence forevermore, and he's going to wipe away every tear. And he says there's none of that here. The only kind of crying that exists here is the tears from belly laughter.

You just doubled over like no more, too much joy. It's just a commercial of that place. His glory is to come and suffering reminds you of that. He says, when you're insulted, consider yourself blessed. Consider yourself blessed. Matthew five. The beatitude says, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It feels like a weird mind game to me.

The first sales job I had was over the phone sales, 250 phone calls a day. I was the guy that interrupted your dinner. I'm sorry, will you please forgive me? And that's tough, man. We are not too nice to those people, like, “Hey, remove me from your list. What are you thinking? Forget my number” sometimes with expletives and name calling and such. It is really easy to lose heart in that. And they would say, “Hey, with every no, you're closer to a yes.” We play these mind games. When someone tells you no, that means that yes is right around the corner. And so it's like somebody cusses you out and you're like, oh, yes, I'm right there. That feels kind of like what he's saying. Hey, blessed are you when others persecute you or insult you or say all kinds of evil things about you because of me. Allow that to serve as a reminder that you are blessed. They did the same for him.

We talked about—you guys remember this—and today's going to serve a little bit as a review. Remember, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego wouldn't bow down to the golden statue. Nebuchadnezzar throws him in the fire, heats it up nine times hotter and says, wait, I put three men in there. Why are there four? The fourth one looks like the son of God that in their suffering they experienced intimacy with Christ in a real way. Stephen is being stoned to death. They're throwing rocks at him until his life is going to leave. He looks up and the sky opens up and right there in his presence is Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. He's in Christ's presence. Through suffering, we experience an intimacy with Christ that isn't available to us by any other means. Paul says, I want to know him and I want to fellowship so closely with him that I would experience the same kind of suffering that he did. And he's telling us something there, like, “Hey, there's an intimacy that comes with God when you suffer for him.” He says, verse 15, if you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. Which one of these do not belong? It's like, wait, hold on. If you suffer, you shouldn't do so because you killed somebody or you stole something or you committed crimes or you're a Karen.

Listen, if your name is Karen, I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I'm sorry they did that with your name. It's weird though. He throws in this meddler here. We talked about this word. This is a hapax legomenon. It's the only time this Greek word shows up in the entire scripture and it means someone who—I'll give you a direct translation—another person's overseer. And what he's hinting towards is this idea that we would meddle in the affairs of unbelievers. This is a First Corinthians five issue. At the end of First Corinthians chapter five, Paul talks about this. He says, are we to judge those outside the church? What he's saying is, someone who doesn't have the Holy Spirit should act exactly as though they do not have the Holy Spirit and do not under any circumstance train someone without the Holy Spirit to act as though they have the Holy Spirit.

I might argue that is what the church has been doing for the past several decades is we've taken people and we've tried to teach them how to pretend to be Christians. That's not what we do. The Holy Spirit comes in their life, convicts you a sin and shows you how to live as a Christian. Now for believers brothers and sisters who claim Christ to them, he says, are we to judge those outside the church? But we are to judge those inside the church. This is a common misunderstanding. If someone claims to be a believer, we come alongside 'em and say, I thought you follow Jesus. And they're like, I do. And they say, well, that's so confusing. I saw you getting high the other day. I don't think you do follow Jesus. And in fact, you're not following Jesus. “No, I follow Jesus.” Well, that's interesting cause the locker room conversation is how you slept around and did this and that you're not following Jesus. “I thought you followed Jesus?” “I do.” Well, that's interesting because of the way that you're stewarding God's resources, it says you're not following Jesus the way that you talk, the way that you were mean to that person. That's not what Jesus followers do. And to those people who claim the faith, we are to hold it. We are to meddle in if you will. He's saying, “if you suffer, don't be guilty.” That's my third point. Do not be guilty in suffering. Do not be guilty in suffering. He's saying, if you suffer, don't suffer for any wrongdoing. This is interesting, right? This is really a good summary. I mean, if you receive a punishment, make sure you didn't deserve it.

If you ever are faced with a situation where you're like, this isn't fair, this is where you should be like, oh yeah, God in his kindness told me that this would happen. That if I am to receive some sort of punishment or condemnation, I should only do so as an innocent person. In fact, the only kind of punishment that a Christian should ever experience is the unfair kind. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo. What did they do wrong? I didn't worship a false idol. It's not wrong. Okay, Daniel, what did he do wrong? He prayed. It's not wrong, right? Stephen? What did he do wrong? He preached the gospel. It's not wrong. Paul. What did he do wrong? He got his head cut off. What did he do wrong? He shared the gospel. That's not wrong. If you ever receive a punishment, do so as an innocent person. Make sure it's not something that you deserve. Don't be like, “Hey, I got fired. I was a Christian.” And they're like, “no, you got fired because you were lazy. You never showed up on time. You didn't turn in your work.” You're like, no, but it was a Christian. It was really a hostile environment to Christians. No, a hostile environment to lazy people. That's different. And that's his point here. Make sure that you're innocent in any consequence or punishment that would come your way.

Jesus, by the way, suffered innocently, never committed any wrong. And we're here and we're like, I want to be like Jesus. Well, how much like Jesus do you want to be? You know what I mean? “I want to be just like Jesus.” Make sure. You're signing up for some real unjust outcomes. Make sure you know that that's what you're signing up for. And so don't be guilty of wrongdoing, but verse 16: however, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. He's saying, if you suffer as a Christian, don't deny that you're a Christian. And in fact, understand that it is a wonderful thing to be identified as a follower of Jesus Christ. Peter is saying this from some experience. he same Peter who suffered for Christ was crucified, upside down, was murdTered because he followed. Jesus can recall when he writes this letter that there was a time that he was ashamed of him. Do you know him? No, I don't. Yes you do. No, I don't. Yes you do. No, I don't.

He’s saying, don't let that be you. Number four, do not be ashamed in suffering. Do not be ashamed in suffering. Do not turn your back on Jesus, right? Don't come here Sunday mornings, open the Bible, sing songs and go through those doors and be afraid to be like, yeah, I'll follow. Yeah, that's my king. Yes, that's my king. I'm going to go wherever he goes. I'm not going to do that. I follow. That's my king. That's the one I follow. No, I'm not going to talk like that. That's my king. And you put your chin up and your chest out and you say, that's my king. I'm going to go anywhere He asks me to go. I'm going to do anything he asks me to do. I'm going to say anything he asks me to say, because that's my king. I'll tell you then you and you and all of you about him, because I'm not ashamed that that's my king. You could think I'm uncool. I'm not going to vape that smoke, that snort, that drink. I'm not going to say that that's my king. Are we clear? We good? No. Yeah, no. I just want to make sure you know. Oh, I follow Jesus. I'm not, no. That icthus tattoo. Philippians 4:13. You didn't know, man. I thought it was clear. I follow that king. That's my king.

It was a story told when Russia was at war and there was a search, a purging of the underground church. These Russian soldiers burst into this house. They invaded this house that was known as a place of worship, underground worship of Jesus. And they invade the house and they say all the Christians against the wall, and everybody gets against the wall and they say, okay, if you're an informer, you can leave. And people left. They were like, oh, you're not checking IDs. All we got to do is say we're with the other team and we can go. If you're an informer, you're free to go. And they're like, okay. People left. Then after those people, after everyone had left, those Russian soldiers said, “Hey, here's the deal. We're Christians too, but we couldn't risk getting caught. And so we knew the only true Christians that would be here, those worthy or willing to suffer for Christ. And so now that you're here and they're gone, the false converts are gone, the easy way out, people are gone. Can we study the word of God together and let that serve as a reminder?”

God's doing something. He's looking for people. Eyes of the Lord go to and fro searching for hearts that are fully His. The scripture says—verse 17—for his time for judgment to begin with God's household. It's going to start with us guys. And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

It's an adaptation of Proverbs 11, verse 31. Peter takes that proverb and he changes some words. He's saying something clearly. Here's what he's saying. B,eing a Christian, a Jesus follower is not a free pass in the world. You're still going to face some really difficult things. So you need to know it's difficult to be a Christian, but it's a lot more difficult to not be a Christian. He says, listen guys, you can face your fiery ordeal here on Earth for 70 years, or you can face your fiery ordeal in eternity for 70 million years and just be at the starting line. You're still at the starting line. He goes, you got to understand. Make sure you maintain perspective. We win. This goes really, really well for us, even in the midst of hardship. So then verse 19, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good.

Those who suffer according to God's will, he says, which is my fifth point, do not suffer outside of God's will. Which brings me to two very important observations of this idea. Do not suffer outside of God's will. is one is you got to know, it can be God's will that you suffer. And that's like, whoa. For somebody that's like, whoa, hold on, hold up. Now, if you've been traveling with us through first Peter, hopefully that's not new information, but for some of you it might be like, man, why would God ever allow us to suffer? I mean, it does something to you. It produces something in you, right? He disciplines those he loves. He's sanctifying you. He's changing you. And so as you suffer, you lean into him. But you got to also understand he controls eternity. That's the great equalizer of all things.

He can make eternity in such a way for you that you would say to him in eternity, I would have suffered a million times more down there if I knew this is what I got. Does that make sense? You bump into Job. If you're familiar with the story, he suffered a great deal and you're like, Job man, how did you endure that? And he's like, endure what? And you're like the suffering. And he's like, I don't remember suffering. He goes, oh, I read your book and you lost everything. He said, oh man, I forgot about that. Wow, lemme see that. Oh yeah, you're right. I did lose it. I forgot because I've been up here for a couple thousand years. Check out my house. And you're like, whoa. It's a big house. Eternity. God can fix anything that you endure here. I want you to know that if you're in a place where God does not have permission to allow you to suffer, he's not your God.

You are. You're your God. You're your own God. If you're telling God how to do his job and the second that suffering comes your way, you're like, he's not your God. He never was. You always were. He's God for all things. Work together for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28. He can fix it. It would just be foolish. It would be illogical, not smart for in the midst of suffering you to turn your back on the only one who can make it right. You don't win. You don't win in that. That doesn't even make sense. Yet so many people do, and I'm just encouraging you to not do that.

So one observation is it can be God's will that you suffer. But the other observation is the only suffering outside of God's will is caused by sin. So don't sin. Live a righteous life. Leave here and do not invite suffering in your life. I do a Friday q+a and I get this question. It's like, Hey, I dated this boy that was no good for me and I knew he was a bad guy and now he's left me. How could God do this to me? And I'm like, you don't understand. God has been jumping up and down waving his arm saying, please don't. No, no, no, no. And then we blame him for the outcome. It's easy to laugh at somebody else's example, but each of us do that in our own way.

Live a righteous life. Listen, young people, if you're here, if you're in high school, if you can hear me, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, it's an amazing, listen, listen, I was in high school too. I know that's crazy. But I was. It's an amazing time right now to be odd for God, okay? I know that you're utterly convinced that these are going to be your best friends forever and ever and ever. But start asking some older people. When's the last time you hung out with your high school buds? Start gaining perspective on that because I know that these things feel like the most important thing in the world. To be uncool is crazy. And I would just say, man, embrace it. You don't have to be cool right now. In fact, at some point in the journey, the people who thought you were uncool are going to realize you were the coolest person there were because you weren't so insecure that you needed to vape anything that was put in your face or to write or to say or to do or walk with or to sleep with, or to look at all the things that they said that you needed to look at in order to be accepted.

If you just go right now, you say, you know what? It is utterly okay if I'm not accepted by any of you because that's my king. If you make that decision right now, you will save yourself so many scars. College friends, you are living within a four year window where the vast majority of people make mistakes that they regret for the rest of their lives. But I have had a front row seat. I have been able to observe people that used those four years as the greatest opportunity for growth and discipleship. We will come alongside you and pour into you if you would just choose Jesus more than the world. It can be a really rich, sweet time that you get to the end of it. And your story for the rest of your life is not one of regrets like mine, but one of rich discipleship like some friends of mine that say, man, that was a really sweet time. I learned to be an amazing dad, an amazing mom, an amazing husband, an amazing father, an amazing community member. I learned to resist sin in that time, and that's available to you young adults and parents. Please, please don't come in this room and say we love Jesus and we follow Jesus and we sing to Jesus. I read his book and sit under the teachings of the word and then walk out through those doors and do whatever you want and say whatever you want and spend however you want and drink whatever you want and go wherever you want, right? Don't be like, Hey, I use this mouth to worship Jesus. And then you leave here and you curse at the rest. You're a hypocrite. What you need to do when that happens is you need to say, you know what? When I acted in that way, it was inconsistent with who I said that I worship and I'm really sorry. Will you please forgive me? In doing that, you set the example and that process is available to everyone. You can say, that is not who I desire to be, and you own it fully. And you know what? I'm going to leave here and I may miss it. When I do, I'm going to stand right here and say, guys, will you please forgive me? Here's what I did. And that's not who I want to be. If I cuss at the ref, do you know who's going to know? All of you. Because I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you.

You don't have to do that. You don't have to come on the stage. But in the context of your family, it would be good for you to own your misses. Cussing at the ref is just a metaphor for insert your sin, insert your shortfall, and live a righteous life.

We all went out for pizza this week, our family. And I saw the spirit of God stirring in one of my kids to share the gospel with the server. And I watched. he was like, Hey, is no one going to share the gospel? She's the shy one. And I don't know if you can imagine how difficult it would be to be shy and be my child, but there we are. I watched her push through those fears and insecurities and discomfort and say, Hey, can I ask you something? Do you have a faith? And have a conversation and say, I would love to invite you to this place where you can experience God and his work and the lives of people were there every Sunday. I was so encouraged. W.hat I knew she did in that moment is removed all of our excuses. Because for some of you, that's the only kind of persecution you're going to experience. Just getting over the discomfort to talk Jesus to someone who might think you're a big old weirdo for doing it. And I mean, it's not fingernails. It's just like, ah, you're weird. Nah, don't like Jesus. And you get in the car and you lick your wounds and you move on and you do it again.

What's our application? One, that. two, pray. Because while we don't face persecution here, we sit in the city of comfort people, brothers and sisters, all throughout the world do. According to the advocacy group, open doors in 2022, 360 million Christians experienced high levels of persecution and discrimination. This was 20 million more than in 2021. And so in 2022, 5,898 Christians were killed for their faith up from 4,761 and 2021, more than 6,000 Christians were detained or imprisoned. Over 4,000 Christians were kidnapTed. On average every day, 13 Christians are killed for their faith. 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked, 12 Christians or are unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned. This is every single day, five Christians are abducted for faith related reasons. In 2020 3, 76 countries faced high to extreme levels of persecution, nearly double the 40 countries in 1993, Christians are the most persecuted demographic worldwide, and we can't see them. But if their bodies were piled up in our cul-de-sac, we would want to change some things. We would probably pray some more. And so while we don't face persecution, and make no mistake about it, somebody giving you the bird on the highway is not what he's talking about. It's different. It's different.

Our brothers and sisters throughout the world, they're hiding. They're hiding ibles. They're not able to meet like this, and we should pray for them. And so in summary, there are lots of do nots, lots of don'ts when it comes to suffering as a Christian. Many of us never will. But I remember April, 1999 when one Eric Harris invaded a school in Columbine in Colorado, went in and found one Rachel Scott, and put a nine millimeter to her head and said, do you still believe in God? And she looked up him and said, you know, I do. And he said, well, then go meet him. And he squeezed the trigger.

I remember in 2015 when Isis marched 21 Coptic Christians out onto the beach and they put a sharp blade to their neck and they beheaded each of them because of their faith. And while I've never ever in my entire existence been afraid to say I'm a Christian, not because I'm bold, I just haven't even had the opportunity. I've never been in a situation where it was dangerous for me to follow Jesus ever. At the center of everything, I believe is one of the most heinous persecutions I've ever seen. nd in fact, just as a reminder to all of us, would you watch this?

You were probably like how long is he going to let that play? I'm sure there were guards there thinking the same thing. It's just the beginning. It's just the beginning. Look around us, we dress this up, don't we make Christianity look beautiful and clean and easy and comfortable? And I think it's so easy to forget that at the center of everything that we believe and trust our God died, you need a new reason to say no to someone inviting you to do something stupid or to sin or to turn your back on him. Remember what he paid. I don't show it to guilt you or to shame you. I show it because it happened. And it was probably worse than that.

It was probably worse than that. Right now, just as we sing, ask yourself, did it happen? Did it happen? And if he suffered and died, why did he do it? Because he loved you. Because he loves you motivated purely by his love for you. He endured that. He endured the cross. So let's just remember. Father, would you help us remember, as we worship you now, would you fill our hearts with truth and remind us of who you are and what you've done? And when we face people who hate us because of you, help us to not be surprised, but help us to rejoice and not be discouraged, and help us to not be ashamed, Lord, and help us to not be guilty, but help us to walk right in the center of your will, strengthened by your spirit called to do everything that you've asked us to do because you are our king. We'll follow you. We will follow you and pray we would in Jesus name, amen.