This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. The reading is from John 15, 18 to 16, and four. It's the first cutage, Christ. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated my first. If you belong to the world, it will love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you. It's sovereign, it's not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I have not come and spoken to them, they will not be guilty of sin. But no, they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they will not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have sinned and yet they have hated both me and my father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law. They hated me without any reason. When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth, who goes out from the father, he will testify about me. And you also may testify for you have been with me from the beginning. All these I have told you that you will not fall away. For they will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the father or me. I have told you this. So that when the time comes, you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you. This is the word of the God. Thanks, Karen. We do want to dismiss our 3rd through 5th graders now. They can leave and go back to their classes. With you, if you didn't already turn there, go ahead and turn to that text. We will be referring to it. It's also printed in your Bolton as well. I do want to remind you, too, I was so glad the missions team put out these orange sheets here. I believe that everyone got a different country or as much as we could. I think there is 50 on the top list. I want to encourage you as individuals or with your families to take the sheet you have and use it this week. As we remember and we pray and intercede for the persecuted church. Maybe not even just this week. You can keep this around for the rest of the year here and remember some of these key countries there as well. So use this as a tool. We hope that will be a helpful guide for you as well. Well, as it was mentioned, yes, next week is officially the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church. But we did want to start this week and reflect on and spend a lot of time on it this week. I want to point out here, just here's a map that gives you some guidance and guidelines here. One, you can go to this compass direct.org website mentioned at the bottom. And this is totally dedicated to reporting stories from around the world about persecution. This will be a great tool if you want to keep track with recent things and things that are going on. This map just gives you an idea. Anything that's not in green is experiencing high volumes of persecution. Obviously red would be some of the places most extreme, darker colors, very extreme and so on. So it gives you an idea and a picture and just looking around where it's being experienced predominantly at least on that other side of the globe there. But gives you a good picture of that as well. I decided to go to that web page this past week to compass direct.org and I just picked last couple weeks. So here's some just some headlines from just, well, first one I picked up was October 26th. Tuesday, October 26th in India, police arrested a pastor, Pastor Methillion Paul, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion toward the Bible's up and damaged household items. Now he's in prison. Friday, October 29th, a Christian church in Israel is destroyed by arson. Sunday, October 31st, Islamic extremists assault on a Christian church in Baghdad, one of the bloodiest attacks in the country's dwindling Christian community. Monday, November 1st, the Reverend Dr. Solomon, Nasri Khan, a former fighter in Afghanistan before his conversion to Christianity in 2000, suffered a serious head injury. A hairline fracture in his arm and a broken bone in his left ankle in the assault by Tim Muslim extremists who beat him with bricks and hockey sticks just because he was a converted Christian. Just the last couple weeks, real things going on to real people, those are experiencing persecution. Well, persecution if we're honest, if you grown up in this country like most of us have here, looks extremely different here. We can't even put in comparison the things I'm reading here, some of the images you've seen on the screen, because there is no comparison. But it doesn't mean that there's not persecution in smaller forms and places and ways that are happening here, even in our own country. Maybe you can identify with stories more like this, hypothetically, but not very hypothetically. Have you ever made fun kids by other kids because you set at a lunch table with maybe a student who was sitting by themselves? Have you ever been ridiculed for believing in the Bible's account of creation, as opposed to a macroevolution viewpoint? Did you ever get invited to neighborhood block parties due to your religious convictions for your family? Did you ever curiously wonder why someone less qualified than you gets the promotion from a boss when that boss has openly challenged you for your faith views? Did you experience slander by people who assume you're a hypocrite just because you claim to be a Christian? Even in some real-life stories that we know specifically back in 2007, we saw a new life church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a gunman enters in, takes the life of one, injures four others before turning the gun on themselves. This is in recent years, or even who can forget Columbine High School? Rachel Scott, a young high school student who right before being shot was asked, do you still believe in God and have the boldness encouraged to say yes? The reality is very real. Matthew 5, 10-11, let me just read from Jesus preaching on the sermon on the Mount, almost stands in contrast to that. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. For there is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of me. Blessed, and the original language that work can also be used and translated happy. Jesus says, happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. For there is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. You see, persecution, if you just think about it, and you hear it in contrast to how Jesus view of it, Jesus cannot have and preach this kind of view if he doesn't understand that there is something greater to be learned and understood in the reality of persecution here on earth. And the truth is, he obviously does. He knows that there is kingdoms in conflict, the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of the heaven, the kingdom of God, and those are in contrast. And as long as those continue to be infighting and arguing with one another, there is going to be consequences. We see that in areas of persecution in the church. Well as we look here this morning, I want to look at two angles of that from this text in particular that might help us better understand what has got purposes with persecution. What is it to teach us? How is God using it for his purposes and his glory? And we even read from this text here that Jesus says quite clearly, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. So it's not a question of if persecution is on horizon in your future, it's just a matter of when and how and what it looks like. So as we look at that here, if you're following along in your outline number one that I want to mention here this morning is that Godly persecution identifies you with Jesus Christ. Godly persecution identifies you with Jesus Christ, looking just the very first few verses we read in John 15. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you, no servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, but they do not know the one who sent me. Jesus makes it very clear here that Godly biblical persecution comes when people identify you with Jesus Christ. Because this is why I have entitled the sermon even here this morning to persecute Christ, is that it is never ultimately for the church about persecuting Christians in the church. Godly persecution is always about persecuting Christ, who is the head of the church. And if you are his body, if you are a genuine member, a genuine believer in followers of Jesus Christ, you are persecuted because Christ is the head, because he is the object of the persecution. Well how the world views you in response to you is a clear indicator of whether or not you identify more with the world or more of Jesus Christ, which is what this text says right off the bat. And there are at least three options here that I want you to consider and to ask yourself honestly which one fits you most, which one you fit in most. Option number one is this, the world loves you because you are like it. That is one legitimate option that this text points out. Jesus says, the world can love you because you are simply like it. Let me look at verse 18 and 19 again. If the world hates you, keep in mind it had me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. So one genuine option here is that the world may genuinely love you, the view points, the self-centered world view. Those that live in the world that are not followers of Christ may be attracted, may be drawn to you, may be encouraged by you because you identify more with them than you do with Christ. Unfortunately there are some very classic examples of when the church, this was very true historically for the church at different times. Most of us here have had at least grandparents, maybe great grandparents, that we know of that would remember World War II and the time of that very well. They might ask themselves, where was the church in Nazi Germany during World War II? Because there were churches, there were those who were followers of Christ. But yet strangely the church remained silent during a very difficult, a very challenging time there. The church, in many cases, there are many exceptions, but the majority of the Christians in the church at that time blended in right with the teachings and the viewpoint of the world as it was expressed. And Nazi Germany during that time. There was a silence among churches by and large. Another reality too, we can look at even more close to hum to us in the 60s and 70s and thinking about the civil rights movement and the march in things that were going on and things that were happening especially expressed here in the deep south areas. The church by and large as a whole remained silent and cannot be distinguished in many ways as having a different viewpoint. Then that of the world at the time. There were pockets, but nothing like it should have been. These are just two not so good examples at all of where the church has been more identified as being like the world at a time where they could have really stood up and been clearly and defiantly and Christ-likely different than the world in this situation. Well, there's two main ways that it's easy to become and be identified more in the world than be like Christ in one way is that you tell the world exactly what they want to hear with your life. Your life, if they could be put into words and oftentimes in the way you do speak, could just simply be one that comes on and that just simply approves and goes along with what the world is saying anyway, what's being taught, either by direct verbal approval or by silent indirect approval. The second timidly 4-3-3-4 says this, for the time will come when men will not put up the sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. If you are telling the world and responding to the world around you and saying exactly what they want to hear, then you will be loved by the world. Because that's what the world loves and what it wants to hear. Another way you can be doing that, too, is by buying into the value system of the world that's around you. I mean, think about this, just some examples here. How uniquely different? How does the church, how does followers of Christ stand uniquely different than the world around them in the areas of finances and debt? The truth? Not very. How does the followers of Christ stand out uniquely different, whether they be teenagers or adults in the area of sexual morality in our culture? Dressingly different, right? No. Not according to statistics. How does the church stand out in areas of things like the divorce rate and things like that? I think basically different with the teachings from the scripture, but the reality is very little difference. There has been an identifying, there has been a love of the world that we can so easily fall in and be trapped into. Think about an issue, for example, an area of pro life and abortion discussion. The majority people in this country will say that abortion should not be used in the area of pregnancy control or birth control. But the majority will go right along and say it should not be illegal or it should not be taken away. With the majority of those same people claiming to be Christians or followers of Christ or identifying with Christianity as a faith, what is happening in that kind of context? It's an identifying with the world. It's an embracing of the world's system of thinking and is in stark contrast to what the scriptures teach and where the heart of Christ was. We have a great example of this in a microcosm in the month of December. Actually, it's already started. Christmas season started a couple of weeks ago. Well, it's actually started about a month ago. Have you already gotten the catalogs with little Christmas decorations coming in? I was in there late October in Lowe's and I'm like, they got Christmas trees already up. Let me get past Halloween first, can we? Or maybe even Thanksgiving? No, there is this allurement and attraction to the Christmas season. Think about it for a second. Christmas is the time where the most important thing that you focus on if you live in this country is your own happiness. You think about the gifts that you want to get. You think about being with people that you love but people that make you feel good. You think about having successfully pleasing others by getting them what they want on their Christmas list or engaging them. You think about giving to charity a lot but why to help you feel better about yourself? Christmas is such a microcosm of our general culture and society but it becomes so much about us in the process. At the center of it all, yourself. Now, contrast that to what Christmas really was when the king of the universe left the constant praise of angels, shed the garments of light, they put on garments of skin, to walk your humbly on earth, to come and make it all about others, to come and to be obedient and to death on the cross for us, to walk around and have all those that you created who should be bowing down and worshipping you, treating you just like an ordinary person. And then later on, worse, persecuting you and eventually hanging you on a cross cursed to die and even your friends and followers deserve you, denying you. That's what Christmas was all about for God and about Jesus. And can you see how the world has switched that and changed it completely around and where the church should stand out in a uniquely different, how grossly similar we are to our culture and society? We buy along into it, we go right along with it and the world loves you when you do that as a follower of Christ. Well, that's one option. The second option is the world hates you because you're like Jesus Christ, not like them. That's the second option. That's the right option. It's the option that Jesus says we should be looking at and pursuing. Jesus says in verse 19, if you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Jesus says you're a follower of Him. He's chosen you. He's called you out of the world and the world then therefore will hate you as you faithfully walk as a follower of Christ. When you live like Jesus, when you make choices like Jesus, when you make the glory of the Father in heaven, more important, when you reject a self-centered life to have a God-centered life. It has some really sharp interactions. One, when you do that, it exposes those around you who are not followers of Christ. It exposes really what their selfish worldview is. When you bring a godly worldview next to a selfish worldview, one of two things will happen. There will be a separation to get away or there will be attack. The separation could be rejection socially, emotionally, all kinds of ways. The attack is what often is what some of the things we're seeing and watching in the video. But you cannot be a follower of Christ without the world hating you. Jesus says plainly. Jesus says, look, if I'm your master and they hated me to the degree that they hate you for the same reasons and in the same kinds of way, you know you're identifying with me as your master. So they expect it. In fact, the text goes on and tells you very clearly in verse one of 16, all this I have told you so that you will not go astray. He's giving you warning ahead of time. He's helping you realize that this is part of the nature as it is until the second coming of Christ when it will change then. But this is something we should expect and know. The world either wants to either join you or has to reject you. It's the nature being a follower Christ and it will often reject you instead. Luke 20, 17 through 18 says this, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on the whom it falls will be crushed. What's this prophecy about from the Old Testament? It's about Jesus. He's the cornerstone. And what does it mean you will either be crushed by Jesus or you'll be broken by Jesus. You have one of two choices. You'll either be broken to humble yourselves and acknowledge him as king of kings and Lord of lords or you'll be crushed. And I'll last day in the final judgment. You'll be rejected by him because you rejected him. Those are your options. Those are your choices. There's also a third option. The world could hate you because you are not like it or Jesus Christ. The world could hate you because you're like neither one. Let me describe what these people are like. These people are religious people. These are people who are concerned with being moral and keeping laws to show their righteousness. These are devout Muslims. These are devout Mormons. These are devout Hindus. These are devout Buddhists. These are devout Jehovah witnesses. These are devout practicing Jews who deny that Jesus is the Christ. These are devout Catholics. And these are devout Protestant Christians who in their practice of religion continue to put themselves at the center of their existence rather than being centered around God in Jesus Christ. When you make religion and your moral code and your ethical appearance become what's most important, you reject the very heart of who Jesus is because see Jesus comes and to receive Jesus means that you can't keep the moral law that you don't even get close. I remember the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus in Matthew 19. He comes thinking this is going to be a good day because I have been living a holy or righteous life and I've got proof. And here is the supposed Messiah and I'm going to go and I'm going to get my stamp of approval that yes you have eternal life and you are pleasing to God. And what does he do? He comes and he says look I've kept all the law. I've kept all the commandments ever since I was born. He tells that to Jesus and Jesus is like wow, good deal man. And he says well you just have one thing left to do. So all that you have give it to the poor and come and follow me that good day turned into bad day. Why? Because this guy was rich. Why? Because he thought he had kept all the commandments and Jesus says you haven't gotten past commandment number one to have no other gods before me because money is your God. And if the heart of your righteousness, the heart of your religiosity, it has been all about self righteousness. And the story says he went away disturbed or depressed. This is this category. This is why Jesus comes in and he attacks with his most stark words are given to who the Pharisees like in Matthew 23. When Jesus says what do you teachers of the law and Pharisees? You hypocrites. You're like whitewash tombs which look beautiful on the outside on the inside or full of dead men's bones and everything on clean. In the same way on the outside you appear to be people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Let me clarify. You could miss this but number one and three at the heart level are the same. If the world loves you because you are like it or the world hates you because you are not like it or not like Jesus and God's eyes you're one and the same. You are a self-centered self-righteous person. One has chosen the way of the world and compliance and self-discovery and doing the way they think it should be done and the other has chosen the form of religion to follow through rules and guidance to make yourself feel better about who you are. One and the same. You can merge one and three together. You see the world could love you for the right reasons. I mean the world could love you for wrong reasons and the world could hate you for wrong reasons. But the world will definitely hate you number two if you're striving more more to be like Jesus Christ and how he tells us that. Well number two to look at here is Godly persecution is also in lastly rejection of Jesus Christ. If Godly persecution by way this is why I say godly persecution because you can be persecuted for ungodly reasons for being genuinely hypocritical and genuinely self-righteous and religious but if you're persecuted in a godly way like Christ what they're ultimately doing is rejecting not you but Christ and that's the point. Look at verse 21 in our text verse 21 says this they will treat you this way because of my name where they do not know the one who sent me. Why are you persecuted if it's for a godly reason or righteous reason for one reason because you are like Jesus you're like him. Well I want to look for a second at some of the key ways that Jesus was persecuted and why he was persecuted. I want you to ask yourself when I experience the course in this country it's very minor forms but when I do experience minor forms of persecution is it for one of these reasons or is it for something different. Is it for number one for speaking the truth and love. Jesus was persecuted often for speaking the truth and love. Now there's two concepts there speaking the truth and doing it in love. Christians we usually do one of the other. Historically the church is either doing good does good at one of the other. Either speaking the truth without love or speaking and showing love but never bringing the truth at the same time. You can pick which trap the church usually falls into but how often does it do both not enough. You see the church can come out and speak against clear biblical sins and they are clear don't be mistaken. For example against sexual morality against homosexuality. These are not blurry things in scripture by how often is that message of truth communicated with the love and acceptance for people who are hurting and who need the love of Jesus Christ. How much energy is given towards condemning the sin compared to the amount of energy that's embracing those who are struggling in that area and reaching out to them with the love of Christ. Not condoning their behavior but caring for them realizing the wounds they carry that are deep. You see it's always it's much easier to come and speak against abortion than it is to really find out and find a hurting mother who's struggling with a very hard decision. And come alongside and say look let's walk this road together. There's where truth and love come together and the message is together and that's how Jesus was. And the world hated that. Jesus was persecuted accordingly. Mark 11 verse 17 through 18. Listen to this. And as he taught them he said it is written. My house would be called a house of prayer for all the nations but you've made into a den of robbers. The chief priests and teachers of law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him. For they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. What's that context? That's the story when Jesus comes in and starts tipping over tables in the temple. He starts driving out the merchants who were more concerned about making a profit in assisting worship than they were about genuinely serving the people as they come to worship God. That's as he was driving them out of the place where the Gentiles were together and come and pray in the worship God. They set up their merchandise there rather than outside the temple. And he said this is to be a house of prayer. Jesus comes in truth and he comes in love to do hard difficult things. And what happened? They began to plot how they would kill him because you see when you put love and truth together your message becomes like Christ. And the world would need to be drawn to that or the world will want to get away because it will condemn them and their own self-righteousness. Well, there's a second reason for sure. Jesus was persecuted for being impartial for being impartial. Luke 20 verses 19 through 22 says this. The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people keeping a close watch on him. They sent spies who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him. Teacher, we know that you speak what is true and what is right. And you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Then they asked that question. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar? Did you pick up on it, though? One of the reasons they were plotting against him to have him arrested. Because they knew he was impartial. They were religious leaders who were expecting a Messiah to come in and pat them on the back or give them kudos or come alongside it and exalt them to the place here. They are the ones that get in the line of fire of Jesus. They are the ones that are modeling the self-righteousness that Jesus has come to be a stumbling stone and to break people over and to crush people over. They did not like it. There was an impartiality that Jesus showed that scared people because Jesus saw through their pretense. Jesus didn't care how much money you had. Jesus didn't care how popular you were. Jesus went straight and looked at your heart. And he thought about and knew what you thought and knew what was important to you. Matthew 5.20 says this. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven as what Jesus says. And by the way, they kept the law very, very well. They were diligent. They studied it. They made it their passion day in and day out to be obedient to the law of God. But in the midst of it, they missed the heart of God. And when God sent his own son here to earth, they rejected him. Because the law became a form of their own way to be self-righteous, whether they were trusting the righteous of Christ. So Jesus comes. You might think he spoke harshly to them, but he spoke in truth and love in his impartiality. And he gave them all kinds of warnings to say, look, you got to change. Or you're not going to make it to heaven one day. Well, there's a third reason Jesus persecuted for associating with the outcast. Jesus got a lot of heat for doing this, for associating with people who were prostitutes, for associating with people who were lame, people who were tax collectors, people who were lepers, people who were foreigners, people who were demon possessed. And Jesus loved those kinds of people. And the world around them detested it, and hated it. And wanted nothing to do with it. They wanted their own choices to treat those people as outcasts to be a firm. But instead, Jesus' choices, Jesus' actions convicted them of their choices. Luke 151-2 says this, now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomed sinners and eats with them. No wonder the Pharisees were out to persecute, to out, to arrest Jesus, to ultimately kill Jesus. Of course, Jesus knew it was those who were sick, they needed a physician, a physician. And it was the humble, it was the broken, it was the outcast who were willing to admit they needed help. It was the religious people that didn't think that they did. So fourth reason, Godly persecution is rejection for rightly using the law, for rightly using the law. Let me explain this one here for a second. Jesus saw the law for people, not people for the law. Let me say that again, Jesus saw the law was for people, not people for the law. Why do I say that? Listen to Mark 227. When he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. Then in Luke 6-9, then Jesus said to them, I ask you, which is lawful in the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it? Jesus comes and he points out that the intent and the purpose of the law was never to make you think you could keep it, and that you could be righteous in and of yourself. Not the Pharisees, the tax collectors, the Pharisees and the chief priests and the leaders, the religious leaders thought. Jesus said, no, the law was coming, it came to show you your inadequacies, to show you that you couldn't keep it faithfully, to show you that you needed someone that could keep it perfectly. What was Jesus? You see, Jesus comes and he tells them what the purpose of the law ultimately was, never to give them the confidence that they could do it in and of themselves, but to promise them they couldn't, but there was one who would keep it perfectly for them. I tell you, if you set your life on thinking that you can please God in and of yourself by being obedient and faithful and being good enough, which is what the Pharisees set their life on, and then somebody comes into your world and says, no, that's not how it is, because you can't be good enough. Or you hear the truth from Scripture comes and tells you that, or a friend or a person who loves you comes and tells you, no, only Jesus is perfect enough. You have one or two options, either to bow your knee to this person Jesus and trust him, or to get him out of the picture because he condemns you. And he promises that your way is just the opposite. That brought on persecution to Jesus and that would bring on persecution as we teach the true message of the gospel that it's about Christ's righteousness. A fifth and final way, Jesus was persecuted for forgiving the broken and the repentant for forgiving the broken and the repentant. Luke 7.48-50, then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven. The other guests begin to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you, going peace. Jesus got in trouble, not so much for healing people, sometimes for healing people in the Sabbath, but when Jesus would heal people and then he would give them the greater healing, the greatest healing, and say, your sins are forgiven, which he would do. That's when it caused a ruckus, that's when people say, wait a minute. You're making yourself out to be a light God to say you can forgive sins. And to say that that's really the deepest healing that people need. That's exactly what Jesus was saying, saying, I am God, and I have come to forgiven, and to grant forgiveness to those who are repented. Jesus took heat for that because it was a constant reminder that we're all in need of forgiveness and brokenness. So let me just ask you something. As you look at this, the times that you have experienced persecution, and again, everybody in this room, probably a pretty small scale, has it been people really rejecting Jesus Christ in your life, or has it been for people rejecting something other than Jesus Christ? And if it's something other than Jesus Christ, you need to stop and thank God that they are rejecting that, because anything that's not a Jesus Christ is worthy of rejection. And you know what? It's God's grace too, convicting you, that that is not what it's supposed to be like, and that is not who Jesus Christ wasn't about. But if people are persecuting you because you were like Jesus Christ, like we saw in the video, like we hear about people across around the world who are experiencing persecution, they're not following Jesus because it's easy because it's socially acceptable. They're following Jesus because it's the truth, and it's what they're basing their very soul on, and they're in the face of that. But this reminds us, and has to ask us, has to have us ask some hard questions. You know, I started off this morning saying, reading that text from Matthew 5, the sermon of the mount, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, that Jesus said, you know, you can go on and you can read to in Hebrews that says, Jesus for the joy set before him endured the cross. Jesus endured the cross for the joy of honoring his father, for the joy of knowing he was reconciling people to himself. This from Acts chapter 5, you know, he talked about how Jesus was deserted by his disciples, his apostles. Well, listen, what happens in Acts 5, after the Holy Spirit's poured out, after the resurrection of Christ. His speech persuaded them, and they called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And by the way, flog, remember, Jesus was flogged. You get the picture? These guys were severely beaten, the apostles. Next verse, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus for the joy set before him endured the cross and the apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the resurrected Christ, now began to rejoice when they were persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ. One last text to close on this morning. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. The power of Christ and the pouring out of his Holy Spirit radically changed some twelve ordinary men and they began to experience the joy of Christ to be able to stand and glorify God in the midst of opposition and the midst of a sinful world. They began to rejoice in the fact that see God using them to help bring the message of reconciliation, not just to the outsider but to their neighbors, to their loved ones, to those around them. As this text goes on, we are encouraged so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Let me just ask you as we leave here this morning as we pray, is your life being identified with Jesus Christ? And to the degree that it is, you will experience similar persecutions that Jesus did. And as we close in prayer this morning, let us pray for those around this world that are experiencing that. But let us pray that we would stand for Christ, that we would stand as him, as his body, that we would represent him in any persecution that comes that we might stand firm. So, you join me in this prayer. I've got to ask that you would come and that you would remind us of that truth here this morning. I've got to pray that you would come and remind us of a high call that we have to stand in the righteous of Christ. The stand is your body. And Father, we do not pray and desire persecution, but Father, we know that you've said since you are the master and experienced said that we is your servants. We as your body will experience it. So, Father, we pray that you would prepare us for that. It might happen in small ways like in this country or big ways, as long as the place is around the world. But, God would you prepare our hearts to receive that, even in joy, even as the apostles did. But, God would you help us not to be grow faint or lose heart, but to trust and to be bold and to line ourselves, God, with your truth, with the truth, because Jesus is the way and the truth in life. So, Father, I come and I ask that you would come out, pour out your spirit, to bring conviction of sin. God to bring promise and the hope of the righteous of Christ. God to bring us hope as we come to your table now. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.