WEBVTT 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:31.440 We're actually going to have three scripture readings this morning, but I'm going to uh just ask you to hold that place and we'll read them uh as we go along this morning in our our uh our focus on the subject of the persecuted church. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:49.200 You know, when I became a new believer, one of the first books that I that I read as a as a young man was a book called Fox's Book of Martyrs. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:01:10.640 I don't know that that book gets around much today, but it was uh back 30 years ago, it was circulated widely among Christians, and it was a book that that tells the stories of brave men and women who were killed for their faith uh in the 14th through 18th centuries. 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:19.120 I remember being amazingly struck by the subject matter of this book. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:34.079 As a new believer, I didn't understand, I didn't have much understanding about uh what it would actually cost uh many people, what it has cost them uh over the centuries uh to be a believer in Christ. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.599 And that book helped raise my awareness. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:47.760 Um in recent decades, the with the advent of the internet, really many stories have come to light. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.120 You know, sometimes it takes a while after history for stories to really surface. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:59.680 I think of the Holocaust, and it you know, it took some time for the fullness of what really happened there. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.799 And even now there's still things that are that are coming forward. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:10.080 There's it just takes time for the the uh the tragic nature of things to come to the surface. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:19.759 And I think the internet is very much helping that today, so that around us there is a lot of voices that are being spoken. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:34.240 There are there are ministries that are dedicated to raising awareness of what it costs Christians uh around the world to give their loyalty to Jesus Christ. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:59.840 Well, finally, one last uh one last thing I wanted to mention is that when I was in seminary, one of the things that I learned there was that there have been more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.639 And so we say, what is what does that tell us? 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:15.439 And one of the things that tell us is there has been a dramatic increase uh in Christians being persecuted uh in the last hundred or so years. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:18.560 And it doesn't look like things are going to let up. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:30.560 What I'd like us to do today is to think of, I wanted to just focus on this theme centered around three questions, and we'll be looking at a text with each of these questions. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:36.800 I'd like to ask the questions of why are Christians being mistreated and oppressed around the world? 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:42.079 Secondly, why does God allow his people to be abused? 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:44.240 That's an important question. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:53.040 And finally, what do suffering Christians really need in their trials? 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.240 What is it that they really need? 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:05.199 And so I hope we'll just spend some time uh unfolding these questions and uh hearing from the word of the Lord uh on them. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:18.720 So now if you're still open to uh your Bibles to John chapter 15, let's be considered uh the first question of why are Christians being mistreated and oppressed around the world? 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:24.879 Then I'm I would like to read from John 15, beginning in verse 18 through 16, 4. 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:35.439 Jesus is speaking, he said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:40.639 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:48.720 But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:53.920 Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:58.240 If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:02.399 If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:10.079 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they don't know him who sent me. 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:14.800 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.839 But now they have no excuse for their sin. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:22.160 Whoever hates me hates my father also. 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:32.480 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my father. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:36.480 But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:38.879 They hated me without a cause. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:55.920 But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me, and you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:02.160 I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:04.959 They will put you out of the synagogues. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:11.040 Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering a service to God. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:16.319 They will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:28.079 But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.839 Here ends the readings of God's Word. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:48.000 One of the things that's very clear in Scripture is that to be one of God's people is to be in a place where you will be facing potential hostility. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:57.040 To be a Christian in this world, in the new covenant age, is to be a potential target for oppression. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:09.279 In fact, one of the surprising things in my introduction, I talked about how I discovered the idea of persecution as a brand new believer in the book Fox's Book of Martyrs. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:13.439 But that was really only because I didn't really know my Bible very well. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:27.120 And that very much of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament is centered and is spoken within this theme of the suffering of God's people in this world. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:42.240 Jesus, in particular, taught that if we wanted to be his disciples, we should be prepared to suffer much in this life. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:45.840 He didn't say it would always be the case. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.759 In fact, in the passage we read, one of the things he began with was, if the world hates you. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.639 But he did say that it would be normative. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:06.080 And he did say that we should expect that as the people of God. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:24.320 And he went on to say, in many different ways, that we should be prepared to count the cost ahead of time before we take on a profession of loyalty to him as our king. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:30.559 In fact, he said this lots of times in lots of familiar passages to us. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:36.159 He who loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me, right? 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:41.360 Or he who loves this world more than me is not worthy of me. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.320 Or what king, if he goes out to war, doesn't first sit down and count the cost. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:10:13.440 And so, in lots of different ways, the Lord made it plain that it would be normative in many periods and in many places of this world for his people to suffer derision and shame and oppression and systematic kinds of persecution against those who identify themselves with him. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:18.159 Why is that? 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:23.279 Well, Jesus puts his finger right on it, and we're not going to dwell long about this. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:27.919 I think in some ways it's it's it's obvious to us if we've been a Christian for very long. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:36.960 The reason, largely the reason the world hates God's people, is because they hate God. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:45.919 The reason the world is not in tune with God's people is because they're not in tune with the message of God's people. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:55.039 Now, sometimes I think we know that as the church, we do a really poor job representing God. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:09.039 I hope that's on our hearts, to not be people who are bringing trouble on ourselves and bringing a derision to the name of Christ by the poor ways that we might behave. 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:18.639 But at the same time, largely the world hates Christians because of the message that we have. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:21.679 And the message that we have is very simple. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:40.399 The message that we have is that the world is lost, and that the world is at odds with the creator and the sustainer and the judge of all the universe, and that there is a day set that is coming when he will bring justice and make all things right. 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:53.360 And yet the message goes on to say that there is a way to be made right that is wonderfully, wonderfully good news. 00:11:53.679 --> 00:12:07.279 Because this God has stepped into history in the person of Christ and become one of us and has a heart to rescue, to rescue humanity made in his image. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:10.879 But he does ask of us something. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.120 He asks of us that we contribute nothing to the process. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:39.200 He asks of us that we come to own our need, and that we come completely empty-handed, and that we come to trust and give our loyalty and not be ashamed of a Messiah who is a crucified Messiah, and who one that is one that the world mocks. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:51.600 So it's proclaiming the real nature of man and the real nature of God that gets us into trouble. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:00.639 And I think it's obvious to us that 20th century America is an anomaly. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:08.799 In history, 20th century America, 20 going into the 21st century, is an anomaly. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:48.159 And we've had many, many years of calm and peace, but already there are leaders, not not there, these are not uh uh wild, loose canon kind of leaders, but there are solid uh leaders, sober leaders of the Christian church uh in America who are giving voice to the idea that this time of peace may soon be coming to an end, that already it's on the horizon, that there will be a greater cost, a greater public cost for those who name the name of Christ. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.200 So this brings us to the second question. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:57.679 Uh, why does God allow his people to be abused, anyhow? 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:10.559 And we we think of how we uh we strive to treat our family and we strive to treat our children, and we we want to protect them from any kind of harm, right? 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:17.279 So so why is it that God allows his people to suffer this kind of abuse? 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:28.960 And here I'd like us to turn to our second scripture reading, and that would be found in Romans, so still in the New Testament, uh turn forward toward the back to the book of Romans. 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:39.360 And we're gonna be in chapter eight, verses thirty-one to thirty-nine. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:04.559 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:19.440 He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:23.360 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:43.279 It is God who justifies and acquits who is to condemn Jesus Christ is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:47.360 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 00:15:48.159 --> 00:16:00.480 Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:11.440 As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:19.519 No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:41.279 For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:50.000 Why does God allow his people to be abused? 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:52.720 This, of course, is a big question. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:17:01.440 It's a part of a bigger question of why is there evil in this world and why does a God allow suffering and evil in the world? 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.599 But this question narrows it down to the actual people of God. 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:08.720 And why does God not intervene for his people? 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:15.759 Well, Romans 8 gives us some light, some important light on that. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:18.720 But it doesn't relieve all of the mystery. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:36.240 And indeed, at the bottom end of all we would have to say is we'd have to say that Scripture always encourages us to remember that there is a lot of mystery that we have to just hold related to God in his providence. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:41.839 God does not deal with his world in ways that we always understand. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:53.920 In the very passage that Paul quotes here in the middle of Romans 8 in verse 36, this is a quote from Psalm 44. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:58.880 Later on, take some time to read Psalm 44. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:05.119 I really have grown to love that psalm this week as I've reflected a little bit on it. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:20.319 Because this is a song by the sons of Korah, and this psalm is putting into words some very deep, heartfelt cries that sound illegal to our ears. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:29.920 In fact, you might, when you read this, feel a little uncomfortable that the psalmist would be so bold to say the kinds of things that he says in this psalm. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:36.079 And what he's really getting at in this psalm, he's saying, Lord, where are you? 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:41.359 He said, We are being killed all day long. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:49.039 We're the world is regarding, our enemies are regarding us as sheep to be slaughtered for your name's sake. 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:56.799 He says, if we had been unfaithful to you and this was just a discipline on your part, we could understand that perhaps. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:59.200 But this is not the case. 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:03.039 We don't understand why this is happening to us. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.519 And it's relentless. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:12.000 And the psalmist ends this psalm with a cry wake up, O Lord. 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:17.440 Wake up and see what's happening to your people. 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:23.680 And have mercy and extend your mighty hand and bring relief. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:30.640 You know, God put that psalm there for a reason. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:36.559 That's a good place for God's people to be who are suffering. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:42.079 It's a good place for them to express the felt abandonment that they have. 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:46.240 But it's not the place for them to stay. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:20:00.799 And Romans 8 gives us another perspective from the Lord that can help us stay grounded in those times when there is great mystery involved in suffering. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:12.240 At the very heart of this passage that we looked at, we find that the one that Christians put their trust in is not a tyrant. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:18.000 The living God is not some kind of tyrant God or some kind of God out to lunch. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:21.519 He's not a God unfamiliar with suffering. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:27.839 In fact, he is a God who is intimately familiar with suffering. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.920 He's the suffering God because he became one of us. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:40.079 And he knows what it is to suffer in human flesh. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:56.319 He knows what it is to suffer in obedience to the Father and to carry out in this world the heart of the Father and the vision of the Father that he's doing in this broken world in bringing us to redemption. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:44.160 And even more than that, he knows what it's like to stand before the very judgment of God, having laid aside his own robes of righteousness, and having become sin, having taken on my sin and your sin, and having stood before the hot anger and contempt of the Father in our place, and in some mysterious way, absorbed and satisfied with the wrath of God that was ours. 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:52.160 And in this passage, the Lord is telling us I know your suffering. 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:54.960 It's always been that way. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:59.759 But if God is for you, and He is. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.279 Who can really be against you? 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:06.240 Who is really against you? 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:14.960 Your whole identity in life, the one thing that is the most important in life you already have. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:21.359 The creator and the sustainer of the universe loves you, my people. 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.400 And he's died for you. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:27.839 And he's made you one of his own. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:30.799 And he's taking you somewhere. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:32.400 There is a living hope. 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:34.799 The story isn't ended here and now. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.599 You really have a future. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:53.759 And so he can say a little bit earlier in this passage that I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in the new heaven and the new earth. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:23:04.160 And when the fullness of our redemption comes and we have new bodies, and sin and death is done away with, and it will last forever. 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:12.559 I haven't abandoned you, the Lord says. 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:51.519 Being separated from our children, our loved ones, there's no doubt of the tragedy in that. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:24:06.720 But nothing compares with what the Lord has prepared for his people, that we shall not be separated from him and from the love of Christ. 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:26.480 You know, it's interesting that sometimes God does give us a glimpse into the mystery of his suffering saints. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:32.079 I remember being blown away when I lived in Chicago. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:36.720 I heard on the radio that there was an interview on there. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:43.599 And this man was an Ecuadorian. 00:24:45.519 --> 00:25:10.880 And he was speaking in a foreign language, and as it turns out, he was one of the men, maybe one of the spearmen, who had participated in the killing of that very famous massacre of Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and some others in Ecuador in the 50s, the 1950s. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:13.920 And it was a great tragedy at that time. 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:29.759 And I'm sure if for those of you who were alive at that time and who were awake to what was happening, had asked the questions: why would God take such talented people, such missionaries who had gone to that place and to bring the gospel of Christ? 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.759 And he allowed them to be killed on the shore. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:38.559 Well, I think a lot of you know the rest of the story. 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:46.079 That Jim's wife Elliot and apparently others had gone back to the village after the death. 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:52.480 And that eventually this village was converted to Christ. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:26:02.160 And that one of these men, who had been one of the spearmen, became, he was converted and became an elder in the church that was in that place. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:05.440 And he actually took it on himself. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:17.359 He um knew that he had taken away the father of uh Nate Saints, I'm sorry, of I think it was Steve Saint. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:20.240 Um he had taken away his father Nate. 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:31.200 He had participated in that, and so he took it on himself to help raise this boy who was there, uh, who continued to stay in the village. 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:55.440 And to hear this interview of this Christian elder, who had at one time been a murderer, and to hear his heart of how the Lord used this bizarre event and this horrific tragedy, how he had used it for his own glory and for good is just amazing. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:01.119 But we don't always get to hear anything of the other side. 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:04.880 And so we have to stay room for mercy. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:11.200 God is for his people, he's actively interceding for them, he's not out to lunch. 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:21.119 And Christians who are suffering are not victims merely, they are more than conquerors in Christ. 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:27.680 Well, finally, what do suffering Christians really need in their trials? 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:34.720 And here I'd like us just to read one final short passage in the book of Hebrews, chapter 13. 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:38.640 Hebrews 13, one through three. 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:03.279 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:17.279 Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:27.599 In this book of Hebrews, the Hebrews has a lot to say about suffering and the cost of being a Christian. 00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:43.119 And in this opening section of the practical section of the book, there's a there's a call on these believers who were beginning to wane, who were beginning to grow weary of the cost that was uh that they were having to pay in their day. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:48.880 And the Lord is telling them to let brotherly love continue. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:29:05.599 You to love your brothers and sisters who are suffering and who are imprisoned, even if you're not, to pay attention to that, to know them, and uh and to seek to love them and to love them well as you have opportunity and to not forget them. 00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:12.079 And there's a reason given here because you have solidarity with them. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:15.359 You have solidarity with them. 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:19.440 They're your brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.279 It's interesting that this idea is developed a lot in the New Testament. 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:27.039 We don't have time this morning to look. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:32.079 You have it generally spoken in Romans that we're to weep with those who weep. 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:43.920 Jesus made a very striking use of this idea in um of lengthy parable of the sheep and the goats, that at the end of the age there's going to be a separation that's going to happen. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:58.960 And that separation is in the terms of that parable is played out based on how people treated his people who were suffering. 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:05.200 And if you look at the terms of the passage, these are people who are in prison and naked and poor. 00:30:05.359 --> 00:30:11.440 And um the primary reference there is to those who were that because of the word of God. 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:17.920 They weren't ashamed to align themselves with God's people and to love them. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:22.160 But we don't even know these people, right? 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:33.440 Here we are in America, and these people, we don't really know who they are. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:43.279 We we hear about them, we hear about Christians in North Korea, we hear about Christians in all kinds of places in the Middle East and in Asia. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:55.839 We hear about Christians right here, though, too, in our own country, uh, Christians who are internationals, who have come here and who have had to suffer all kinds of things. 00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:07.519 One of the things that's that that I think can help us think about this is to help us think about an idea of a landing zone. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.400 Being Veterans Day, I think this is a good illustration for us. 00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:20.319 A landing zone is a place where where uh aircraft, military aircraft land and drop off troops. 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:40.240 And if you think back to the Vietnam War, um landing zones were just crucial at that time because much of the war was taking places in places where there weren't roads, and troops had to be quickly shuttled into the front lines and to different places, and there were landing zones everywhere that were that were made. 00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:49.920 Troops that were brought in came from all different units Air Force, Marines, Navy, Army. 00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:52.240 They were all involved in this. 00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:56.960 These troops weren't all from the very same unit either, right? 00:31:57.119 --> 00:31:58.640 Um they came from different units. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:02.240 People didn't know troops from other units. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.200 But some of these, some of these landing zones were renowned for being hot. 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:12.799 So they were under fire. 00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:19.519 And there was this overall mission of the war that went on day after day. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:27.359 But each day, troops got their orders, and many of these troops, the orders they got, they had to go to hot landing zones. 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:28.880 That's what they got. 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:33.359 And they came into these zones, and if you can watch them on the internet, these things happening. 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:47.839 It's it's just amazing the uh the pressure and the emotion that was there as these troops are coming out of helicopters being fired upon and uh uh scrambling to get their positions. 00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:51.359 Other troops came into calm landing zones. 00:32:51.519 --> 00:33:01.200 They strolled out of the helicopter, they might have broke for uh for a meal and a lunch and so you know you know in a water break, and they didn't have that. 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:11.680 But at the end of the day, what was called for in the armed forces was a camaraderie. 00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:16.640 It was a camaraderie for all your brothers and sisters who served. 00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:19.759 Whether you were in the hot zones or not. 00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:35.920 And when when your brothers were taking fire and your sisters were taking fire, and they were suffering, and helicopters were crashing, and people were losing lives, it didn't matter what unit they were, it didn't matter what branch of the armed services they were. 00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:37.359 You felt it. 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:39.759 You felt solidarity with them. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:42.240 Their loss was your loss. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:44.559 And you did what you could. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:52.960 And I think that same situation is what it's like to be in the Christian church. 00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:57.279 There's a lot of hot landing zones out there. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:33:58.799 There really are. 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:03.759 We don't have one right now, and I don't think God wants us to feel guilty about that. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:07.920 I'm not trying to bring guilt or rise in your heart about that. 00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:11.280 The Lord gives us our orders, but I think our day is coming. 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:15.840 I think the landing zones will start getting hotter here in America. 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:19.360 But for right now, what can we do? 00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:21.440 What can we do from our heart? 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:23.519 Not just go out there and do action. 00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:32.400 What can we really do from our heart to help and to have solidarity with these brothers and sisters who are suffering? 00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:46.960 Well, I think one of the first things we can do is we can just open up to the Lord and seek to be real with him about where we really are and about maybe the indifference and the coldness that we might have. 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:57.920 And to just open up and ask him to take us, to just take us to a new place and to lead us and to show us. 00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:12.000 For the Holy Spirit to lead us, he'll do that, he'll lead you individually, he will give you marching orders as to what he would like you to do with your gifts and your station and your opportunities. 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:16.159 And we can begin right where we are. 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:22.239 And we certainly can pray. 00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:28.719 There is great power in prayer, even prayer for unknown people. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:31.920 There is great power in prayer. 00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:50.719 The New Testament everywhere testifies to this that as you help us by your prayer, that God in a mysterious way uses the prayers of people who are not necessarily in the battle to sustain his troops who are in the battle. 00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:57.199 And so there's a lot of things we can pray for. 00:35:57.280 --> 00:36:01.679 I wish we had more time to develop this, but uh, let me just say this in closing. 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:10.239 The only thing prayer for relief is not the only concern. 00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:14.559 It might not even be the primary concern. 00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:24.079 When we read the scriptures, everywhere we're told about the kinds of things that Christians will face under persecution. 00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:34.960 And so what they what these Christians need, they certainly need relief, and we are encouraged to pray for peace and for tranquility, that we may live quiet lives in all godliness. 00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:36.880 Yes, by all means pray for that. 00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:39.039 But that's not probably the central thing. 00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:48.639 What about that these believers could have the strength to just to deal with the problems of their life that you and I have on top of everything else? 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:53.280 I mean, they have bad marriages, they have rebellious kids, uh, right? 00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:59.840 They have money problems and conflict problems and job problems, or maybe no jobs at all. 00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:05.760 They need prayer to be strong and to be faithful. 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:18.239 They need prayer not to give up hope on God and to not let the word of Psalm 44 be the last word on their heart, but to let Romans 8 be the last word on their heart. 00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:20.400 They need prayer for encouragement. 00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:29.599 They need prayer for boldness that as they're in prisons and suffering, that they might be light to those around them, to the inmates around them. 00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:34.639 They need prayer for material things, for those who have lost parents. 00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:50.079 They need prayer for courage that they won't shy away from being Christians and gathering and taking their children and feeling guilty that somehow they're leading their children into a place where they will come to hate God someday because they've put them in harm's way. 00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:53.920 They need prayer for those very practical kinds of things. 00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:00.320 So there's a world of ways to pray for the persecuted church that are very practical. 00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:11.360 But at the end of the day, the Lord really is calling us to have solidarity with them and to love them, to let brotherly love continue. 00:38:12.400 --> 00:38:15.440 Let us close our time together here in prayer. 00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:24.320 Our Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. 00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:34.000 We thank you for the encouragement of scriptures that assures us that as your people we're not alone. 00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:46.800 And it gives us at the same time a great opportunity to carry out your vision and your mission in this world in very practical ways. 00:38:46.960 --> 00:39:11.119 Lord, we ask that as a church that you would take fresh initiatives with us, that you would extend your hand, and that you would move the hearts of your people, the hearts of your people, Lord, from the depths of who we are, not just externally, but that you would move us to do practical things to support your people. 00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:12.559 And today we lift them up. 00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:24.559 We lift up all who are imprisoned, those who are hungry, those who are destitute, those who are fearful. 00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:28.400 Lord, would you strengthen your people today? 00:39:29.679 --> 00:39:36.320 Would you in very practical ways strengthen your people for the sake of your steadfast love? 00:39:36.559 --> 00:39:38.159 And we ask it in Christ's name. 00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:39.440 Amen.