Suffering for Christ

It's not popular to talk about... Suffering for Christ is going to happen! We, as Christians, need to keep our eyes on Christ ALL the time. He's our only protection!

email: RuggedTruthGodsWord@gmail.com

God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord and folks that don't know the Lord. Welcome. Welcome to everybody. That's what Christianity is all about. We're here to welcome people to Christ. People that know the Lord. It's our jobs, our responsibilities to introduce them to the Lord and let Him save them. We can't save them. All the straightening up, all the quitting drinking, quitting doing whatever is not going to save you. Only Christ can save you. He's the one that is going to clean you completely. He cleans all of us completely and makes us acceptable to a holy God. He is holy, and his father is holy. I hope you all are having a good springtime and uh it's beautiful. It's been a little warm, then it cools off just the way spring's supposed to be. And instead of jumping straight to summer, which is some rough stuff for an older fella, I like to talk about something that might be a little taboo for some folks. It's about suffering. Um, Christ told us that we will suffer for his name because of him. There will be divisions in families. Christ mentions in Matthew 16, 24 that we are to deny ourselves and to take up our own personal cross and follow him, follow in the ways that Christ taught us and how we're supposed to live in this world. In Matthew 24, verses 9 and a few more verses after that, Christ warns us that we will be handed over and we will go through tribulation, and some of us will be killed. But this life is so temporary. I mean, it is like a breath of air, and it goes by so quickly, and everyone's going to die. And let's make it count, brothers and sisters, because if we back away, we won't be saved. Because a little further in Matthew 24, verse 13, Christ says, We stand firm to the end to be saved. We have to stand with Christ. And in Mark chapter 10, verse 45, the Lord tells us that the Son of Man came into the world to serve, not to be served. And he gives up his life as a ransom for many. He knew he had to die. And he is trying to help us, he's setting an example for us that there is going to be trouble for all that follow him. And few are going to find the path, few are going to find eternity with him. In John 16, 33, he warns us. He says, In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. In Matthew 10, verses 16 to 22, the Lord is sending his people out, his apostles out into the world, he says, as sheep among wolves, and he he warns them that families are going to betray you, they're going to go against you. You're going to be arrested, and you're going to get beaten. And again, in John 15 and 18 to 21, Christ tells us, he says, if they persecuted me, they are going to persecute you also. Explaining that the world is going to hate believers because it hates darkness, or it loves darkness and it hates light. It hates the truth. It hates purity. It can't have it. Because Satan wants to pollute the world and pollute everybody. And there's so many things for people to get caught up in. And Christians could get caught up in this mess too. And we have to be careful. Like the old saying goes, there go I, but for the grace of God. And it is so true. I, as a young Christian, and and you know, I still sin daily, everybody does. We have to be repentant and just ask the Lord for forgiveness. You know what? We're forgiven. It's that easy. And we take up our cross and we follow Christ's purity and in everything we do. We're to be doing our best to introduce people to Christ just in our actions, in our words, the way we deal with people. And a lot of the world isn't going to understand it. A lot of the world isn't going to like it because change is hard. And a lot of folks think that giving up what they're doing is for the bad. It's not for the bad. It's for the good. It's for the eternal good, eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal love and kindness, eternal life with Christ and other believers in paradise. And we'll not be right directly in heaven if we look at Revelations in the last part of it. God's going to create a new world. And like me, I enjoy woodworking. And I believe the Lord's going to let us have things like that to do. And it's not going to be boring, believe me. And if you are living right for Christ, you are going to have troubles. You're going to have so many different things. But you hang on to Christ. He will give you strength. And you have other believers to hang on to. We help each other. We encourage one another. This life is hard. And it is very doable and very enjoyable if we have Christ. And I don't know how people do it without Christ. And Matthew 24 is becoming true, quicker and faster, and just it's so true. Like in Matthew 24 and verse 12, it talks about lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold. But again, the next verse he says, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. But again, in verse 14, it talks about that the gospel of the kingdom, of Christ's kingdom, it'll be preached in all the world. And we preach just by talking to people about Christ. We don't have to be hollering and yelling, and a lot of people will just be turned off by that. We just talk to them about what He's done for us and what He can do for them. Because the world is full of loneliness and hate and sorrow, and Christ has an answer for all of it. His love can patch up all the wounds. He can heal all the wounds of the world. He came into the world to save the world. In John 3.16, that's what he says. To help a helpless world. We couldn't do anything for ourselves. We here in America have been really protected and we've become soft even. We're like plastic Christians, and we have to be careful of that because unless you truly know the Lord and follow the Lord, you won't be saved. Speaking a few words and getting baptized will not save you in itself. These are commands, we're to do these things, but we follow Christ daily and we encourage one another. And again, in in Matthew 24, the Lord is talking about the end. And when things are starting to wrap up in this world, and it's getting really ugly out there, and people are getting real nasty. And they'll get to where they won't even put up with a single holy word. They're going to start killing people and hurting people, beating people, and throwing people, throwing people in jail, throwing Christians in jail. People say we won't be here for the great tribulation. Well, a tribulation is in the world, great and all, already. Look at people around the world that are being murdered just for the fact that they they are Christians and they call out the name of Christ. They tell people that they're there's they need to come to Christ. Well, they're being murdered for it. And there's some good movies, and they're they're pretty scriptural cult uh uh left behind, and there are a few others about the tribulation, a great tribulation to come. Well, I believe that uh part of it is gonna be Christians are gonna be here for part of it, and it's gonna be testing the faith of Christians. Like the faith of Christians is tested all over the world now, it's gonna be uh pretty tough then. And it's our job, our duty to Christ to stand firm and follow him until the end, right? To the end, and then life actually begins. We'll have one everyone has a final uh last breath that they take, whether young or old, and then it's eternity. Eternity actually starts, you know, uh, and we pray to God, we pray to Christ that He would deliver us, He would help us, strengthen us, give us the words. For when we get pulled in front of people and people ask us questions, like Charlie Kirk. The Lord gave him good words, and they hated him because of it. And what did they do? They murdered him. A confused young man, very confused, wanting to do transgender stuff and already tied up in homosexuality, which will get you drugged to hell. We encourage one another. We love one another, we strengthen one another, we pray for one another. And we're fulfilling Christ's words that we love one another as He loved us. We help each other and we ask Him for help. He'll give us the strength we need to carry on. As America slides to its own doom, to its own trouble, uh, it's it is on a slide and it's not going to stop. We can try to put a put the brakes on for a little while. And the holy people of the Lord need to stand up and help others find Him, set up introductions, because America is in trouble. And look at the drag queens given uh classes in primary schools and whatever else kind of perversion there is, just trying to twist people's minds, twist young people's minds and old, but the young are really susceptible to being pulled in whatever in different directions. We've got to help them be led in the proper way of Christ. Well, brothers and sisters, I'm gonna get off of here. I I just felt I needed to say that that suffering is a part of the Christian life, but eternity, eternal life is our main prize. And let's help other people find that main prize in Christ. Well, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ, and I pray the good Lord save your souls and his face shine down upon you.