SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now we are going to enter into the sermon because as I said before, today's uh the way that we're doing service today is we're gonna have an extended time of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Sermon's only gonna be like 20 minutes, and then we're gonna sit together just as a family of faith and be led in an extended time of devotion, exaltation before God, bring your pains and your sufferings before him to sit in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: So before I get into the sermon, if you wouldn't mind bowing your heads and praying with me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you, God, for your graciousness on our family of faith.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you, just even just the examples this morning of the amazing people that um that serve our church and serve the world.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we invite you now into this time.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be convicted of what we need to be convicted of.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be comforted in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we trust you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Mikey, can you actually turn that light on so it doesn't feel like I'm singing a lullaby?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most important books for me in my 20s that really impacted me for years, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned him before, but I'm going to mention him here again.
SPEAKER_00: It's a book called Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's by a guy named Nabil Kureshi.
SPEAKER_00: Super impactful book for me in my 20s.
SPEAKER_00: I really recommend that you read it.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Nabeel grew up in an Islamic family, great parents, great family, deeply devoted to Islam in it culturally, and then God decided, started to draw him.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, he started to explore Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: He had some dear friends in grade school that were Christians, one in particular, that they started to enter into a conversation about the historical reliability of the different texts and what each the claims of each religion represented.
SPEAKER_00: And over time, Nabil began to be persuaded by the gospel, the good news that Jesus came to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And then God even gave him a dream confirming that this is the path that he should go on.
SPEAKER_00: And long story really short, the kind of final obstacle for him coming to faith was telling his family.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know the unique difficulty that Muslim background believers face when they come to faith, it truly is uniquely difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes there's complete ostracization, complete rejection by all social networks that you grew up with and love.
SPEAKER_00: And even there's certain hadiths, which is like laws surrounding the Quran, that command that apostates, people that leave the Muslim faith, be killed.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as you can imagine, it's really intense, it's really difficult to come to faith in a deeply Muslim environment.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happens with Nabeel.
SPEAKER_00: He he comes to faith, and then he has to tell his family.
SPEAKER_00: And I just actually want to read to you just this passage from his book where he describes talking to his dad for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I was a crumpled heap on the ground, trembling before God.
SPEAKER_00: Two weeks after accepting my Lord, I tried to plead with him while wailing and stammering through quivering lips.
SPEAKER_00: Why, God?
SPEAKER_00: But I could not formulate my words.
SPEAKER_00: The shaking was uncontrollable.
SPEAKER_00: The night before I had looked into Abba's eyes, that's his dad, as they welled with tears, those eyes that had so tenderly cared for me since the day he whispered the Adan into my ears, the eyes that softly closed in prayer every night as he invoked the protection of God, the eyes that would turn back lovingly as he went off to sea, serving his nation and his family.
SPEAKER_00: To be the cause of the only tears I had ever seen those eyes shed, I could not bear it.
SPEAKER_00: Why God?
SPEAKER_00: Though Abba did not say much, what he did say has haunted me ever since.
SPEAKER_00: The man who stood tallest in my life, my archetype of strength, my father, spoke these words through palpable pain.
SPEAKER_00: Nabil, this day I feel as if my backbone has been ripped out of inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: The words tore through me.
SPEAKER_00: It felt like patricide.
SPEAKER_00: I had not given up just my life to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I was killing my father.
SPEAKER_00: He has never stood as tall since that day.
SPEAKER_00: I extinguished his pride.
SPEAKER_00: Why God.
SPEAKER_00: This experience, this really difficult experience of broken family relationships, when a person comes to the gospel, there's numerous rooms that I could, numerous examples in this room that I could point to here who've experienced something similar, and clearly much more common with friends like Richard and Sahubine, like we talked about, are Bangladesh believers, as well as Nabil.
SPEAKER_00: And this is actually really relevant for our next passage in the Gospel of Luke today.
SPEAKER_00: Because what Jesus is going to show us in the Gospel of Luke today is that the Gospel brings conflict with man while calling us to concord with God.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel brings conflict oftentimes with man, but calls us to concord with God.
SPEAKER_00: Concord this old word that means peace.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Latin root of it is hearts together.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel can bring conflict with man, but brings a heart together with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what we're going to see.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to read it here, Luke chapter 12, verses 49 through 59.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it says.
SPEAKER_00: This is the end, by the way, of one of Jesus' extended teachings in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: It's the end of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled.
SPEAKER_00: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: No, I tell you.
SPEAKER_00: But rather division.
SPEAKER_00: From now on, in one house there will be five divided, three against two, two against three.
SPEAKER_00: They will be divided, father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: He also said to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, A shower is coming, and so it happens.
SPEAKER_00: And when you see the south wind blowing, you say there will be a scorching heat, and it happens.
SPEAKER_00: You hypocrites, you you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
SPEAKER_00: And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
SPEAKER_00: As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer puts you in prison.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.
SPEAKER_00: So, there's three elements that I'm just going to give to you guys briefly from this text.
SPEAKER_00: The first is the gospel's division.
SPEAKER_00: This gets the lion's share of the airtime.
SPEAKER_00: The second is the gospel's warning.
SPEAKER_00: That was like that weather section.
SPEAKER_00: And the third is the gospel's call to action, the settling with the accuser.
SPEAKER_00: These are the three pieces to this text.
SPEAKER_00: And in the first one, the gospel's division, we it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: The way he begins this is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: I've come to cast fire on the earth, he says.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been traveling along with us in the Gospel of Luke, fire almost always represents the judgment of God, the refining of God, things burning away and being exposed.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying he's come to bring this on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says something that's really unexpected.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 51, he says, You think I have come to bring peace?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Division.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're like me, you read that and you're like, yo, like, we've been reading Luke.
SPEAKER_00: I can think of 12 examples where he's brought peace.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you saying, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Why are all of a sudden you're saying that you've come to bring division and not peace?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a bunch of examples already in Luke of him bringing peace.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter one, Zechariah, the priest, talking about his son John, who's going to prepare the way for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah says this that his son is come to give light to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, the angels proclaiming that Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God in the highest, they say, and on earth, peace among those with whom he's pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And then Chapter 2, Simeon the prophet, says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: He says that as he holds baby Jesus and sees God's plan for reconciliation in his arms.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 7, as Jesus starts to heal people, the kingdom of God explodes onto the scene.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 7, after he heals a woman, he says, and he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Similarly, Chapter 8, daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 10, sending out of the 7d2, when they go out and share the kingdom, healing people, casting out demons, they say, Jesus says, Whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, central to the good news of the King of Kings coming to the world is that peace is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes between people, most importantly, between man and God.
SPEAKER_00: Peace is central to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5.1 will later say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so peace is such a central thing to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But here Jesus wants to talk about something different.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about your relationship with God, which clearly the gospel brings peace to.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about a different experience that sometimes his followers feel, see, and taste.
SPEAKER_00: The experience of division that comes when a person starts to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And so some of the examples of this are really clear.
SPEAKER_00: We just saw it with Nabil.
SPEAKER_00: We heard about it with Richard and Saha Bouddin.
SPEAKER_00: And really, what Jesus zooms in on is some of our closest relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Family.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people that we love most, oftentimes there is a division that comes from following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And clearly, if your family isn't following Jesus and you are, there's some clear division there, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe they want you.
SPEAKER_00: Because the thing is, when you turn your life over to Jesus and start following him and him alone, the things that other people want you to follow, whether it's health or prestige or some other God, they get frustrated when you stop being as devoted to those things as they want you to be.
SPEAKER_00: When your priorities change, there is a natural division, there's a natural separation, natural friction, a conflict that comes in when we start to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And look, for us as Christians, clearly sometimes that conflict is our fault.
SPEAKER_00: We present the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say stupidly, but recently my son rebuked me for saying stupid in a sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we deliver the gospel poorly, and we're we're cruel and we're mean and we're judgmental and we're selfish.
SPEAKER_00: In that regard, the division that comes is our fault, and what the Bible calls us to is repentance and humility.
SPEAKER_00: But clearly, a lot of times, as we saw with Nabil, as we saw with Sahabuddin, there's a conflict that comes in that is not a result of our fault per se, but just the natural way in the gospel, the way the gospel separates people.
SPEAKER_00: When you start to follow Jesus and Him alone, you forsake all else.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you don't love God and love people.
SPEAKER_00: Generally, you do, but now Jesus is the Lord of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a lot of obvious conflict that comes in when a family doesn't believe and you start to, but it's not just with a family that doesn't believe.
SPEAKER_00: I I think the gospel even comes, causes conflict in within families that all believe.
SPEAKER_00: For example, the way that God, the way that Jesus calls people to certain types of work.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when we came down here to Denver, you've heard some of the emphasis here today.
SPEAKER_00: A big part of our vision is the city.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of great churches in the suburbs, and God spoke very clearly to us as a church at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to make disciples in the city.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to serve and love the poor and work for justice as you spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, is you want to live near the church generally in proximity.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to commute to community.
SPEAKER_00: And so as many of us started to move into the city, a lot of people got mad.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, why are you going there?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that it's more dangerous?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that crime this and crime that?
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, they were right.
SPEAKER_00: I think three cars got broken into within the first year, a fourth of the church, a third of the church got into car accidents for various reasons.
SPEAKER_00: There was all kinds of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: But also, too, I would hope that it's apparent that when the Lord Jesus calls you to a place, a big part of the reason he does that is because of the need.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, where would we be today if if the the brothers and sisters of faith's history's past from the centuries across the world, if they said, well, personal safety matters more than following Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are any of us even here if they say that?
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, things look very different if that becomes the God above Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel can cause conflict in all kinds of ways, even within families of faith where one person develops a sense of calling and the Lord drawing them to something that maybe puts some old family idols to death and challenges old beliefs and things that need to be reformed.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel can cause division within families of all kinds.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus is pointing to here.
SPEAKER_00: Or even a simpler example.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible commands Christians to speak the truth in love.
SPEAKER_00: And so when something's going on between you and another believer, or you and someone who isn't, the Bible draws us to move towards them in healthy conversation, in healthy conflict, to bring what was hidden to the light, to heal, to restore.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of times that steps into difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: It steps into conflict and division that wasn't there before until you entered into it for the sake of love and healing.
SPEAKER_00: This is how the gospel can create division in obvious ways.
SPEAKER_00: So listen, what Jesus is saying is when it comes, don't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: Pursue peace.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not necessarily promised to you with each and every person.
SPEAKER_00: And clearly, striving for peace is still a thing that the Bible commands.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul will later say, um, do your best to be at peace with all men.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're not trying to just create conflict for conflict's sake, but when you stand for justice and when you stand for the Lord of the universe who's called you to do something specific, and people come against that, if we fold, then we're not standing for them, are we?
SPEAKER_00: And think about all the injustices in the world that God has called Christians to stand against for centuries and centuries.
SPEAKER_00: It causes conflict when people speak truth to power.
SPEAKER_00: This is what justice means.
SPEAKER_00: You think it comes easy?
SPEAKER_00: No, it comes from the blood of the martyrs.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from perseverance in suffering over many, many years.
SPEAKER_00: And the examples that we saw earlier with Matt and with Nabil are just such great examples of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to remember that Jesus himself experienced what he says here might happen.
SPEAKER_00: His family questioned him.
SPEAKER_00: They called him insane at one point.
SPEAKER_00: They they seemed really to not follow him for a long time, even if later, some of them, I mean two of them, write books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Later, but not initially.
SPEAKER_00: When we're talking about Jesus, we're talking about someone who understands.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about someone who who who experienced what he's saying you might.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about someone who can empathize.
SPEAKER_00: Not someone who turned away from pain and suffering, but came taking on human nature to represent us, to be with us, to restore us to a true relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to division, we're not looking for peacekeeping, not engaging in any conflict at all, whatsoever, for the sake of harmony.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about peacemaking.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes stepping in to a productive conflict for the sake of love.
SPEAKER_00: This is a big part of what love does sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Peacemaking versus peacekeeping.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe for you today, it's similar to this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a family member.
SPEAKER_00: Where you feel a deep sense of pain and grief and conflict because of what you know the gospel has called you to.
SPEAKER_00: Because of disagreement on various fronts, whether it's ethical or who's the authority, who's the Lord, what's true and what's not.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to hear from Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: Encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear from Jesus today that He's experienced the same thing, and that you have brothers and sisters all across the world experiencing the same, and many of it, but many of them much worse.
SPEAKER_00: And that the gospel of grace is worth that.
SPEAKER_00: It truly is worth that.
SPEAKER_00: And that the Lord sees you in your difficulty, in any conflict that has come to you from the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And who's to say that maybe it won't be that very conflict that you allow and healthily, lovingly step into?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not that very conflict that God uses to transform our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel's division.
SPEAKER_00: The shorter section in verses 54 through 56 is the gospel's warning.
SPEAKER_00: So he you notice the the audience changes.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to his disciples, but then he says he kind of turns to the crowds more broadly.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You guys know how to interpret the weather.
SPEAKER_00: You see clouds in the west, which is to say, over the Mediterranean, all that precipitation happening over the Mediterranean Sea, coming onto Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You see clouds in the west over the Mediterranean, you're like, rain's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you're right.
SPEAKER_00: You feel a breeze from the south, which is to say, coming up from all that hot desert air, the Negev and all the other deserts south and southwest of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You feel a breeze coming in from the south, and you say, a scorching wind is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you're right.
SPEAKER_00: You know how to interpret the weather, yet you don't know how to interpret the present time.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' challenge to many who have been watching him do miraculous signs and wonders, who have heard his teaching, his interpretation of the Old Testament, how all these prophets pointed to what is happening right now.
SPEAKER_00: Is not the present time, Jesus is saying, to his hearers, is not the present time more consequential than a hot south breeze?
SPEAKER_00: How could we miss the significance of this moment?
SPEAKER_00: The consequences are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' warning.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' challenge to them who have seen many things and yet have not responded to the signs.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 56, this present time.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about his coming.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the coming of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think the challenge to us with this passage is to take inventory of what you've personally seen and witnessed.
SPEAKER_00: To take inventory of the way that the kingdom of God has broken in and you've witnessed it and observed it in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And really, first, I think the application is for those of you here who don't yet believe, who are those still considering, who are not sure what to believe about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even just take me.
SPEAKER_00: Like in our church here at Skyline, last January, a handful of months ago, the Lord healed me overnight of chronic illness because some believers prayed, called on his name, and in God's sovereign timing, that was the time when he decided to touch my body.
SPEAKER_00: Just respond to that.
SPEAKER_00: Just face this down.
SPEAKER_00: Eight, six, six, seven grand on doctors, couldn't do anything worse over two years until one night where the power of God explodes onto just me, let alone all the other people in here who can testify to their own story.
SPEAKER_00: The present time is filled with the power of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is encouraging you to do is to see it, not ignore it, and consider it.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's very consequential.
SPEAKER_00: And besides, we're talking about the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about like a warning.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, all of us will stand judgment before God, and we've already seen him make some warnings about that, about hell and sin, and how a good and just God doesn't ignore that.
SPEAKER_00: But fundamentally, we're talking about the gospel, which is the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: The God who wrote your purpose, the reason for your being, who knows the hairs on your head, you're of much greater value than the ravens and the animals.
SPEAKER_00: We saw him say this the last couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to speak to you, to guide you, to walk with you through your suffering, and ultimately give you an inheritance and a restored heavens and earth, a body with a spirit in it, just like now, with no pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's what he wants for you.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you not want to respond to that?
SPEAKER_00: A free gift that comes through faith?
SPEAKER_00: This is the encouragement of the Lord in verses 54 through 56, the gospel's warning.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the third point, 57 through 59, flows directly from this: the gospel's call to action.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of that random segment.
SPEAKER_00: It seems kind of random, where he's like, settle with your accuser.
SPEAKER_00: Go with them before the judge so that you would not be thrown into prison.
SPEAKER_00: And if you kind of look at this, you're like, okay, like if someone's got something against me, the text kind of presumes you're guilty.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, maybe in an example like that, I've done something and I need to own up to it.
SPEAKER_00: Is this applying to me and other people?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's probably not wrong for you to apply it that way.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Matthew, you get the same saying, and I think it very clearly applies to your relationship with other people.
SPEAKER_00: But here, in Luke, I actually don't think that that's the main emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: I think the emphasis here in the Gospel of Luke is settling with God, not with others.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's an illustration to point to that.
SPEAKER_00: And why?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's why.
SPEAKER_00: All of chapter 12 is about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same speech.
SPEAKER_00: And he's been hitting that over and over and over again, your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: If you saw the beginning of chapter 12, he says, Don't fear man, but fear God, who can cast someone into hell.
SPEAKER_00: Rich fool that you saw, who builds, accumulates all this wealth for himself and himself alone, and then God says, Fool, tonight your soul is required of you.
SPEAKER_00: What are those riches going to do for you then?
SPEAKER_00: You hoarded it instead of using it to bless the world.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation with God.
SPEAKER_00: All of chapter 12 is about this.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not recognize the present time?
SPEAKER_00: All of this chapter, all of this speech, so much of it is about reconciling yourself to God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think here he's using a court illustration to encourage people to get right with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because, as he said, we don't have infinite time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Nabil went through this, and uh nine years ago, he developed stomach cancer.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember just watching these videos online, weeping as he's calling out to Christians across the world to pray for his healing.
SPEAKER_00: And then he died at 34.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came at a time he did not expect.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Nabil had responded to the gospel, and I can guarantee you that when that man's eyes closed, he came before the Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: And the Father said to him, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: Enter into your father's rest.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is what the gospel is.
SPEAKER_00: It's rest from the brokenness of sin, it's rest from all the endless thought patterns that you have that you can't escape, it's rest from injustice, it's rest from separation with God.
SPEAKER_00: And Nabil found it.
SPEAKER_00: Even though the Lord took him home at a time none of us expected.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in light of this text here today, if you're feeling the conflict that has come from the gospel in your life, family members that are Christian, family members that aren't, I want you to be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sees you, he knows your thoughts, he knows your pain, and walked through it himself when he was here.
SPEAKER_00: And one day it will end.
SPEAKER_00: But let's ask now in faith that God will use it to actually redeem what's happening now with family members here that talk to you each and every week and friends.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask the power of God to affect that now.
SPEAKER_00: Be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus walks with you.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who are still considering faith, I want you to hear Jesus' appeal to you.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to what's happening around you.
SPEAKER_00: Is not the power of God exploding across the world as we know it?
SPEAKER_00: All across the world, every tribe, nation, and tongue, the Bible gets translated into more and more languages.
SPEAKER_00: 25-ish percent of Christians in North America, 25-ish percent, South, or sorry, 20%, one-fifth, one-fifth, Europe as well, Asia and Africa as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's spreading evenly across the world in the past couple centuries.
SPEAKER_00: Because the gospel is cross-cultural and it appeals to the center of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for this just sobering word from you today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we consider just each of the members of this body of faith who are experiencing a lot of hardship for your name.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we ask that you would fill them with zeal, fill them with compassion, fill them with gentleness, fill them with kindness, perseverance to continue to love those who don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may your love spread through them to those with whom they experience the conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we thank you just for our persevering brothers and sisters across the world.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we see them, we recognize them, we thank you for your work in them, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It humbles us.
SPEAKER_00: Their devotion to you in the midst of such hardship humbles us.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for them.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would strengthen them.
SPEAKER_00: Give them what they don't have on their own.
SPEAKER_00: Preserve them, protect them, make your love known to them, encourage them each and every day as they wake up.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name, amen.