BACK TO BASICS: PERSEVERANCE

good morning family and friends welcome to north lake baptist church it's so good to see you guests we want to thank you for coming and visiting with us worshiping with us this sunday it's our prayer that you are blessed this morning as we exalt our savior and lord jesus christ uh guests we have a gift for you it's right it's a little gift bag right there in front of the door please feel free to get one of those on your way out this morning we thank you for coming and joining us for worship this morning now in the book of acts philip the evangelist talked about witness to the ethiopian eunuch and they talked about the prophet isaiah and he got saved and then they found a body of water and he said look there's water what's to keep me from being baptized well church look there's water let's have baptism look up here so good to see you here today it's always wonderful can when we can begin our services in the waters of baptism for it means the lord is still calling people to himself and they are listening and trusting and obeying him today we'd be in our service our first candidate for baptism will be rita langston rita do you trust jesus christ as your savior and lord i do well upon that profession of faith in him and in obedience to command of our lord and savior jesus christ i baptize you my sister in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit and next we have amelia langston may you trust jesus christ as your savior and lord i do well upon that profession of faith in him in an obedience command of our lord and savior jesus christ i baptize you my sister the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit now we have abby langston abby do you trust jesus christ as your savior and lord thank you upon that profession of faith in him and obedience command of our lord and savior jesus christ i baptize you my sister in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit let's go to the lord and prayer father we have done as you have said in the great commission still there room for others we pray today as we've gathered in this place to lift up the name of your son jesus christ to sing praises to his name to offer up prayers also to share your word we pray that today the holy spirit would also draw another to faith in jesus christ and we would continue to baptize according to your command we pray for this family too lord we thank you for the faith and commitment but we realize that even jesus after he was baptized was immediately tempted so we pray lord that you protect them from the evil one in the name of jesus we pray amen well church please join me and let's open up our bulletins and look at our ministry week this afternoon our american heritage girls and trail life troupe will be meeting and i hear that we're going to have some hysterical no historical figures here this afternoon and they might be a little hysterical too but um so come on out trail life boys you you won't want to miss that uh also um this uh evening we will be having a business meeting at 6 30 our first regular uh monthly business meeting uh in a while in person so i want to encourage you to come and be a part of that meeting this evening at 6 30. men you will continue your bible study culture shock tomorrow evening at 6 30 and ladies on tuesday morning at 9 30 your bible study will continue as well now this wednesday now we had a wonderful moana graduation ceremony this past week but boys and girls we still have bible study that we're going to do and uh pastor corbin is going to be leading you through our summer kids series so be sure mom and dad to bring your children to church this wednesday we also have adult and youth bible study as well also our vacation bible school i want to direct your attention to our inserts is coming up it's fast approaching we do have uh all hands on deck an all-volunteer uh training day on sunday night next sunday night may 23rd at 6 30. but this insert right here can register your child for vbs you can register online or you can call the church office and we'll get you registered for vacation bible school our kickoff is going to be june 20th boys and girls we're going to have a lot of fun at our kickoff we're gonna have inflatables uh face painting uh some food and a dunk tank uh you might get to dunk me if if if you want uh it'll be a lot of fun i enjoy it and some pony rides too uh also uh fast approaching is our is memorial day and we have our uh memorial day garden our memorial garden and if you would like to have a brick placed in memory or in honor of a family or a loved one simply fill out the insert and you can put it in the offering plate on your way out and we'll be sure to uh get that taken care of for you well church family i think that is our announcements the psalmist reminds us that the lord should put a new song in our heart amen says this sing a new song to the lord let the whole earth sing to the lord sing to the lord bless his name proclaim his salvation from day today will you join me as i pray heavenly father we thank you for this day a day set aside that we can come and gather as a body of believers and sing about the new song of salvation that you give us lord we pray that as we worship you today that we will be refreshed and strengthened that as we go out into the world lord that we could speak of your wondrous works and the salvation that is found in your son jesus christ and it's in his holy and blessed name that we pray amen well thank you matt and welcome everyone good to see you this morning good morning north lake i'm glad to be here today derek is uh on tour with his daughter doing a horse show in texas so we're going to worship together and this is a beautiful day to worship god together and to sing praises to his name we've done sing great things god's doing in in this family's life that was baptized this morning we praise god for death for them and we we praise god that we can be a part of his kingdom word so let's stand and sing a great call to worship to god be the glory let's stand and sing together this morning to god be the glory great things he hath done so loved the world that he gave us for sin praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord let the people rejoice o come to the father through jesus the son and give him the glory the purchase of blood to every believer from jesus receives praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his voice praise the lord praise the lord let the people reach us o come to the father through jesus praise the lord praise the lord let the earth hear his horse praise the lord praise the lord let the people rejoin o come to the water through jesus the son and give him the glory amen great things he has done it's great to have the lord jesus walking with us every day he keeps me singing let's sing that hymn together he keeps me singing together there's within my heart of melody is jesus jesus jesus sweetest name i know fills by every longing keeps me singing as jesus swept across the broken jesus jesus jesus though sometimes jesus peace be singing he shot me him i heard an old old stories our savior came from glory how he gave his life on calvary to save our reds like me i heard about his drawing of his precious oh victory in jesus i say lord forever and all my i heard about to walk again and cause the blind to see and then i cried dear jesus come and heal my broken spirit and somehow jesus came and brought to me that victories him i heard about a master he has built for me in glory and i heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea about the angels and some sweet they all sing up there the song of victory o victory in jesus and he punched me to victory you may be seated all righty thank you brother terry inquire and also for the congregation y'all sung that like a minute amen all right if you have your bulletins please look at the back page at our prayer list this is known became popular a few years ago known as the prayer of jabez jabez called on the god of israel saying oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory have you prayed that recently lord increase my responsibility increase my influence so that i can lead other people to faith in jesus christ that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil so god granted him what he requested first samuel 1 20. begin today with praises we do praise the lord for the langston family for steve and rita and amelia and abby joining our church last week and sam and sally siler the week before also i've been asked to report a praise from brother horace fortner who just got back from a mission trip to guatemala with johnny and friends i think they built 181 chairs for disabled people 70 walkers and had 24 professions of faith so to me it sounded like a great mission trip amen and we don't want brother horace to be the only one on mission next thing you see here is to pray for those in your circle of influence who may not yet know jesus christ as their savior that the lord would use you in order to bring those folks to faith in christ you see our church family listed there we got one we want to add and that's wayne johnson you normally hear him playing the trumpet but he's got a lung infection so we pray for a speedy recovery for him we pray for our parents are expecting children extended family and friends and our long list of long-term care pray for those folks on a daily basis we do want to pray for our missionaries serving around the world today today the international mission board has asked us to pray for believers in togo west africa they face political ethnic and religious persecution just for naming the name of christ and that's what we're going to be talking about today and the final beatitude blessed are the persecuted continue to pray for our nation i guess if you've been watching the news we know we're at war in the middle east again between israel and hamas is a 122nd psalm says pray for the peace of jerusalem as we go the lord in prayer father we thank you for this day that you blessed us with a beautiful day for brothers and sisters to gather in person and online to worship you the true and living god lord we do thank you for the baptism that we just experienced in our sanctuary today and we prayed there might be many more folks putting their faith and trust in jesus christ lord we do pray for those on our prayer list special touch of your grace for them and others that are being prayed for right now under the sound of my voice we also lord ask you to forgive us when we forget to pray for the persecuted church lord we get so carried away with the troubles that we have to deal with on a daily basis that we forget that some of the folks around the world deal with great persecution for doing what we take for granted and that is calling themselves christians and naming the name of christ lord we pray that today that you would minister them as we pray for them even now lord bless us today as we continue to worship you for we pray this in jesus name amen do so well amen thank you amy for leading us to worship the lord and meditate upon the lord as we go to his word hopefully by now if you looked at the bolt and you're already matthew chapter five we're reaching the end of the beatitudes our back to basics series we begin looking at matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 10. blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you so jesus says blessed are the persecuted blessed are those who persevere and keep the faith during persecution you know that sentence does not compute in our postmodern world as americans we just don't do suffering we've all decided that we should avoid suffering at all of all kinds and at all cost if there's a pain then there must be a pill or a surgical procedure to fix it i've even heard christians say when i get so old that procedures and pills don't work then just euthanize me i'd rather be dead than suffer still jesus said blessed are the persecuted and of course that doesn't preach in our modern churches either we're used to name it and claim it prosperity gospel if you can believe it then you can receive it jesus will make you healthy wealthy and successful you can have it all you can have all the world has to offer in heaven when you die if you're enduring pain persecution and suffering then there's something wrong with you you must be out of god's will that's what you call the prosperity gospel still jesus said blessed are the persecuted not only jesus said he put it at the top of these beatitudes at the top of his blessing at the top of his steps toward christian maturity and christ's likeness jesus is here telling us that there must be some cross bearing before there can be some crown wearing matthew 16 24 then jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and come follow me well the question is why must there be persecution why must there be suffering why must there be a cross because the main reason is because back in the beginning our parents adam and eve were given a choice between eternal life based on loving and serving god and god alone or they could have the knowledge of good and evil which would ultimately lead to their death which one do you think they chose they had an inquiring mind they just wanted to know they decided that life of serving the lord alone would probably get to be pretty boring so they decided that exciting kind of life where both good and evil were present and they asked for it and they got it and guess what they asked for it and we got it their requests released sin and satan into the picture which fired the first shots of the cosmic battle spiritual battle between the lord and satan and so now we all know by experience the difference between good and evil does anybody in here haven't figured that one out yet we all have experience every human being since adam and eve have had to deal with these same choices good or evil am i going to obey the lord or the devil and you got to choose we love to think we can have it both ways but you can't because they're totally different there are different masters there are different methods there are different destinations look back to chapter 5 and verse 3 of matthew here and you'll see that the lord promises blessing to those who are poor in spirit who see their need for god but the devil promises blessing to the prideful the arrogant and the self-sufficient the lord promises blessing to those who mourn at the sinfulness of sin but the devil he promises blessing to those who laugh and enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin the lord promises blessing to those who are meek who humbly serve the lord but the devil on the other hand promises blessing to those who are aggressive to those who are dominant to those who oppress others in order for them to win the lord promises blessing to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness but the devil he promises those who promise with blessing to those who greedily desire the lust of the world the lord promises blessing to those who are merciful and who forgive others when they are wronged but the devil promises blessing to those who avenge and retaliate and get even when they've been wronged the lord promises blessing to those who are pure in heart who avoid evil but the devil promises it's a blessed life if you follow the sensual and you love the naughty things of this world the lord promises blessing to the peacemakers and gives them peace with god but the devil promises blessings to those who find peace through compromising with the idols and gods of this world so you see they're opposites and by the way that's why christians are persecuted if you choose to follow christ you can't just be out there hanging out with the world you're acting all holy and making them feel guilty so they either got to change you or get rid of you that's why we have persecution they persecute they hurt the injure they destroy as they did jesus on the cross they will attempt to revile you they will insult you mock make fun of you as the pharisees and the romans did to jesus they will also say all manner of evil against you falsely if you remember they called jesus a demon-possessed prophet an illegitimate child but when all this happens jesus says don't be sad instead be glad rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven what kind of rewards you talking about he's talking about the reward of receiving a crown of life james 1 12 commenting on this passage of scripture said blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to those who love him what other kind of rewards well you have the reward of hearing jesus say on judgment day matthew 25 21 well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful over a few things i'll make you ruler over many things now enter into the joy of the lord so let's slow down a minute here before we start counting all the stars in our crown and look back and see this persecution a minute verse 11 blessed are you when they revile you persecute you and say all manner of evil against you you say that word falsely falsely for my sick so not all of our suffering is for jesus sake you know sometimes evil things are said about us and they're true we're not supposed to do that whenever they say bad things about us it's supposed to be fault so you see this suffering thing can be complicated uh matter of fact this suffering in our lives is usually brought by three broad areas the first one is some suffering is the consequences of our own sinful choices you don't have to say amen psalm 107 17 fools because of their transgression because of their iniquity are afflicted in other words some people suffer because they made some bad choices proverbs 22 3 a wise man perceives the evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished there are no glory points for sickness caused by abusing our bodies with alcohol drugs tobacco eating junk food overeating good food overwork lack of exercise and no god doesn't get any glory out of us suffering when we've lived like that also there are no rewards or glory points from mental problems we endure because of our lack of love or failure to forgive or bitterness or jealousy or envy there's no glory points for poverty we live in when it's caused by our laziness or impulsiveness or poor money management or poor work ethic there is no reward for turmoil we live in when it's caused by our own critical spirit our negative attitude our gossip our slander there is no reward or glory point for bruises we gain because of rebellion against authority or disobeying our parents or failure to keep the law there are no glory points for family problems we have resulting from our own sexual immorality or hanging out with the wrong crowd your mother told you about that early on verse 11 you see a word falsely peter explains it to us first peter chapter 4 and verse 14 if you are reproached or put down for the name of christ blessed are you but let none of you suffer as a murderer as a thief as an evildoer or as a bitty busybody in other people's business let none of you suffer as a sinner because god gets no glory out of that i was thinking of an example it goes back to the 1980s there was an outfit called operation rescue they were trying to stop abortion and saving children which is a good thing you know jesus is pro-life but you know there's no reward for yelling at people shooting doctors bombing clinics fighting with police so you've got to be able to do god's work god's way amen if you end up doing things your own sinful way then god gets no glory out of that and you get no reward out of that second category of suffering is a category that calls suffering that is common to man you know many times i've seen people who had to do to endure some kind of illness or pain or poverty or a sorry spouse or wayward children and i hear them say well i guess it's just my cross to bear i'm suffering for jesus sake well the bible says no first corinthians 10 13 no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man what it's saying here is all people suffer hard times christians non-christians alive we face problems because we live in a sin-cursed world all of us if you live to live out your average 70-year lifespan under the sun we'll face sin sorrow and death and all that stuff is not suffering for jesus sakes that's just plain old suffering this common demand the third category is what we want to talk about today by the way that was just my introduction anyway the third category we won't talk about today is some suffering is directly due to our commitment to follow jesus that's what we're going to talk about today this is persecution brought upon you simply because you are beginning to look like jesus and live like jesus and act like jesus and the devil can't stand it this is suffering that is a good thing but we need to be careful not be confused on this because persecution is not the goal of christianity we're not called to have some kind of martyr complex i've seen christians do godly things in such a hateful way that it provoked their persecution and those things don't work first corinthians chapter 13 and verse 3 paul says though i bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though i give my body to be burned but if i have not love it it profiteth me nothing so persecution is not the goal of christianity the goal of christianity is christ's likeness and persecution is a byproduct of christ's likeness so they're related but again you've got to get down to the details on that it means that you're enough like jesus to draw satan's hatred and when that happens what's verse 12 say rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven why should you rejoice because it means you've made it into the heavens hall of fame category the hall of fame of faith that we read about in hebrews chapter 11 verse 12 for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you a little bit later on and jesus is going to tell us that we're in good company if they begin to persecute us in matthew 23 35 jesus referred to the blood of righteous abel all the way to the blood of zechariah the whole prophetic period of the old testament he talks about the persecution because they chose to live godly lives the bible gives us examples of people who were faithful to the lord and had to endure persecution it starts off jesus spoke of abel as being the first if you remember abel offered a blood sacrifice that pleased god however cain his brother offered watermelons and god was well i don't know some kind of some kind of vegetable thing and anyhow god was not pleased with his sacrifice but rather than saying well god what would it take for me to please you he decides to get mad and jealous at abel and rose up and killed him then you got noah poor old noah he endured ridicule and rejection from the flood generation can you imagine poor old noah named rain jet and he's telling people that the world's going to flood and he's out here building a boat in his backyard the size of a battleship nowhere near any water and he said one of these days it's going to rain you need to get your heart right with god you need to quit sinning and get on board the boat and can you imagine what they were saying in their houses at night you all seen that idiot at the end of the street there's noah he's building this boat see there that's persecution joseph you'll remember he shared a dream that he had from god and then he was abused and kidnapped by his own brothers and left for dead had moses who stood up for the people of god and ended up losing his position he could have had a fine position as the pharaoh of egypt you've got joshua who stood up against the whole crowd in israel and told them we can conquer the promised land just like god said we could and of course the promised land search committee called him a liar and persecuted him you have amos the prophet he went out preaching repentance and everybody got all stirred up he thought they were excited to hear the way he preached but instead they got together and called him get out of town isaiah preached against the sins of people and was sawed in two yes with a saul zacharias the one that jesus mentions the last prophet preached against the idolatry of the king during his time and he was murdered the eleven apostles all suffered all were martyred except of course for john and it wasn't that they didn't try they bowled the apostle john in oil but the lord did a miracle and refused to let him die but they all suffered persecution for the name of christ fox's book of martyrs documents christian persecution from the first century a.d with the beginning of the church all the way up to the 16th century when he lived and he documents how christians were disowned by their family how they had their homes and their goods confiscated how they were exiled imprisoned tortured fed the lions drowned burned beheaded faithful christians persevering in persecution so they could pass the faith along to you and i want the reason you have a bible in your hand today and you're assembled here at church is because people back there endured persecution so sometimes we could take our christianity for granted you know we read about these things in our modern culture i think we our first thoughts is how awful how awful i hope i never have to do that i hope that kind of persecution never happens to me but i want you to notice the attitude of new testament christians in acts chapter 5 and verse 40 it says and when they had called the apostles and beaten them they commanded they should not speak anymore in the name of jesus christ and then they let them go well i want you to notice the early christian church did not think like american christians do because it'd been us we just said well i'm going to get a lawyer and i'm going to sue them in federal court i'm going to write a letter of protest to my senator i'm going to go down to city hall and have a civil rights demonstration but that's not what they did listen to what they did acts chapter 5 verse 41. so they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching in the name of jesus christ folks that's faith amen amen study the persecution of new testament and you'll notice some major differences between their attitude and ours folks who endured persecution rejoiced instead of whining complaining and getting all depl all depressed that makes us ask a question do we look at persecution or criticism or ridicule as a badge of honor they counted themselves worthy to they they were excited that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name i think for most of us though we've relegated persecution to some time way in the past way back there i think we need some updates i think you need to read go online to the website for voice of the martyrs or persecution.com and see what's going on for christians around the world today uh back in the 1990s a lady named nina shea published a book called in the lion's den she says quote the biggest untold story of our time is that more christians have died in the 20th century simply because they were christians than in the first 19 centuries after the birth of christ do you hear that we go back we read those stories of martyrdom in the past and it doesn't occur to them that more folks died in the 19th in the 20th century 1900s than any time prior to that she writes they have been persecuted and martyred before an unknowing indifferent world and a largely silent christian community currently the largest prosecutors of christians are muslims and communists muslims in places like sudan saudi arabia iraq iran pakistan egypt indonesia in communists we're talking about north korea vietnam cuba china and strangely is all this is going on the united states of america is moving closer toward communism every day why would we do that just last friday i was sitting there thinking as i prepared this message what would be a good recent thing to share with the church and you know friday after i done finished sermon prep matt walked in this morning said you having to redo this one are you in so i wasn't i wasn't there typing yeah friday friday i received an email from the ethics and religious liberty conv commission of the southern baptist convention they report the chinese communist party's persecution of christians has involved demolishing churches arresting pastors and giving them up to 10 years in prison one pastor reported that he was imprisoned in a windowless room without any ventilation and was subject to daily verbal and physical abuse other christian chinese christian church members are being detained at secretly brainwashing or re-education camps what's a re-education camp that's where they take you make you work and then they make you sit and attend classes till you understand that the communist party is the only thing that matters and christianity does not that's what they're dealing with and also scanned on down the page and i noticed there's a reports of forced organ harvesting does anybody have any idea what that is that's where you donate a kidney and you don't sign any papers saying it's okay because they take you to surgery and i don't know if it's a kidney you might wake back up cause you know you got two but if you got a heart how many of those you got meanwhile the united states government is normalizing relations with nations like china giving them the most favored nation trading status in spite of the protest from a few little christian groups like the southern baptist convention it seems most christians in america either don't know or refuse to believe it's really happening or don't care one of the reasons we don't know is because of our american media spin muslim persecution of christians is ignored because it doesn't fit in with the current critical race theory narrative that you see in almost every program now and when it comes to chinese communism persecution of christians it's ignored because we just elected a pro-socialist government for our country which brings me to my next point which is religious persecution in america as americans if you're for sure my age and older maybe even younger than me and older we've lived our lives in an insulated blanket of religious freedom and the way we're able to do that is because our forefathers endured persecution in order to give us religious freedom the freedom to have a religion or to have no religion the freedom to go to church of our choice or the freedom to stay at home or go the lake or whatever you want to do churches have been given tax i get questions about this all the time about tax exempt status churches were given tax exemptions so that they could have some financial freedom to grow without having to pay whatever percentage of the offering that comes in here and the reason that was true is because earlier lawmakers believed that christianity had a positive influence on the united states of america so that's why there was a tax exemption put in pastors were given freedom to be the prophetic voice and the conscience of society in the early days but little by little national respect for christianity is eroding started back in the early 20th century evolution appeared on american college campuses religion departments began being reviled for believing the bible in this new age of science and so little belittled the theology professors were so proud of their degrees that they became ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ and so they adopted a liberal version of christianity that denied the inerrancy of scripture the inspiration of scripture the virgin birth of christ the miracles of christ the cross and the resurrection of jesus christ because again if you only believe in naturalistic things there can't be any miracles so we just say that this book all it contains is a nice little story about love but anything about the supernatural we have to jump over that's what liberalism is and since evolution explained away our need for god america began removing god and the word of god and prayer to god from public life from our schools from our courts and from our government pastors are warned at election time what we can and we can't preach about y'all know i really take that seriously here churches and denominations tax-exempt status is threatened if you don't follow the political narrative that happens to be in vogue today christians are regular targets of ridiculing criticism in our news tv entertainment and movies and i believe the time is soon coming when it's going to cost you something to be a christian in the united states of america being persecuted for claiming the name of christ i think is going to cost you you're going to have to pay the price and some persecution this recent coveted pandemic has demonstrated this trend we have been blessed as members of north lake we've been blessed to be in a state where our governor used a little bit more common sense approach to handling this virus we had some restrictions in the early days the first couple of months and then as we learned more about this virus he began to loosen the restrictions and allow us to get back to something a little bit closer to normal other states have not been so fortunate other states have secular and atheist governors they seek to enjoy locking down churches some states didn't allow church services either indoors or outdoors some states allowed restricted meetings where only 10 to 15 percent of the capacity of the buildings could be there some churches were forcibly closed by police some churches were fined for staying open or if they tried to reopen they were fine still going on in the country today even a year later some states still require churches to remain closed some churches have challenged these restrictions and won they did not win it based on religious freedom the way they won their cases is based on hypocrisy because some of these governors who were closing churches were allowing big box stores bars and strip clubs and black lives matter demonstrations to carry on without any of the restrictions that they were imposing on the churches and in many cases the courts ruled in favor of the churches but still we're brokenhearted to learn i don't know how many of you know we have a lot of folks from canada that are watching us online and those folks up there are still under lockdown and not sure when if ever they're going to be able to reopen you know in our own country in times past the government would have asked churches to cooperate with cdc guidelines but now government doesn't think twice about sending down mandates telling us what we're going to do and demanding what we're going to do times in america they are changing again i believe that time is soon when it will cost you something to be a christian in america the question is when that day comes are we enough like jesus to even be persecuted if we're accused of being a christian is there enough evidence that they could sweep together to make a case against us even now we may not be enduring harsh forms of persecution but if you're truly born again there should be some satanic opposition there should be some demonic pushback against your life if you're a christian because america has changed so much already that there ought to be a force working against you paul writes in second timothy 3 12. yes and all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution have you been persecuted lately are we living enough enough like jesus to suffer some persecution some opposition has anybody made fun of your commitment to christ lately anybody you know ridicules you because what you believe in a position that you take how about people at the break room at work they stop talking when you walk up because they know you're a christian or do they just carry on telling their dirty jokes or making fun of christians or gospeling about the church because you kind of blend in with them have you faced the opposition lately when's the last time you were called a christian fanatic when's the last time you were called a narrow-minded bible thumper when's the last time you called one of those right-wing religious fundamentalists i enjoy all those titles luke chapter name called me that when i was in seminary but that's another story that's uh we finally had a revival at that seminary praise god but in the early days it was all liberal professors and i was regularly called a fundamentalist but anyway luke chapter 6 verse 26 jesus said woe to you when all men speak well of you if everybody's saying he's just a good old boy she's just a good old girl there's something wrong with your christianity all likelihood either all your friends are christians which means you need to get out more or else people are not noticing that you've been changed by the life of jesus christ a little bit further is north lake a persecuted church are we known as a good respectable quiet church you know satan loves quiet christians he loves quiet churches you know why satan don't persecute those because they're working for him no problem there there should be some complaints there should be some criticism there should be some pushback from the world if you're starting to get some flack it probably means that you are finally earning the title christian verse 10 blessed are those who persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven are you prepared for the persecution that is sure to come as our nation is trending toward atheism and socialism of course the main way to be prepared is to work on your relationship with jesus christ you've never trusted jesus christ your savior you can start today by repenting of your sin your selfishness ask jesus christ to come in your heart come into your life and be your savior and be your lord if you've never done that won't you do it before this service is over today behold now is accepted time today is the day of salvation says the lord once you have made that commitment you are saved and sure and ask the lord to help you grow in these blessings that we just studied say lord help me to grow in humility blessed are the poor in spirit who see our sinfulness and realize our need for god say lord help me grow in brokenness blessed are those who mourn who mourn over things that break the heart of god lord help me to grow in meekness blessed are the meek those who are submissive and obedient to the will of god lord help me to grow in spiritual desire help me to wake up in the morning with a hunger and a thirst for the things of god lord help me to grow in mercy and grace and love blessed are the mercifuls who forgive others as we know jesus christ has forgiven us lord help me to grow in purity blessed are the pure in heart who have a wholehearted commitment to following jesus without secret or selfish agendas blessed are those who are peaceful the peacemakers who are at peace with god who have the peace of god and who share this peace with others they come in contact with and as you grow in this relationship with christ you don't have to worry so much about this persecution thing just persevere in the faith listen to what jesus said in luke 12 11 jesus said now when they bring you to the authorities do not worry how or what you should answer or what you should say for why the holy spirit's with you and he will teach you what you need to say in that moment in that moment of crisis in that moment of persecution when that time comes folks there's a spiritual battle going on and the question is is who's on the lord's side and you have to decide is it going to be the world or is it going to be jesus you can't have it both ways because they're going in opposite directions way of the world is headed for hell the way of christ is headed for heaven his old song says the way of the cross leads home so you got to choose and your choice must be public jesus was pretty emphatic about that he said he didn't need any secret service christians listen to what he says matthew 8 38 for whoever is ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of the father and with his holy angels on judgment day i think you're going to want him to say yeah he's one of mine she's one of mine you want him to confess your name on that day well he wants you to confess his name on this day in the midst of this wicked and adulterous generation so what are you going to do are you going to stand up stand up for jesus are you going to blend in blend in with the world today will you say i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back let's go to the lord in prayer father i thank you for your word thank you lord for these beatitudes for these blessings that you have prepared for those who love you lord help us to be faithful in this generation in this time in which we live lord help us to show some of the fortitude of the founding fathers who stood up for you and started this country off based on the word of god and lord it's slipping and we can see it on a daily basis but help us to be bold for you stand for you even during this time of trial lord we pray this morning if someone here never trusted christ as their savior and lord that today is a day they take that first step in building the relationship with you and lord for those of us who already know you savior and lord help us to be committed help us not to blend in but to be willing to stand up and stand strong for you we'll pray this in jesus name amen now is our time of invitation our altar's open if you need to come and pray you can pray about whatever's on your heart know we've got praying people out here in these pews they'll be asking god to bless you without knowing what your business is maybe today you've never trusted christ your savior made a public profession of faith been baptized like we saw earlier today won't you come down here i'll be standing down front i'd love to talk with you about that maybe you've been saved and baptized and you've moved to this community and you feel like the lord wants you to join this church come here and find your place of service once you do that i'll i'll be standing down front to greet you as well maybe just need to recommit your life to christ because when we ask that question does anybody at work know you're a christian truly the answer to that is you're not sure you don't know they ought to know so i want you to commit your way to the lord during this holy time as we stand together and sing our hymn of invitation won't you come i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back the world behind me the cross before me the world behind me the cross before me the world behind me the cross before me no turning back no turning back i still no turning back no turning back i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus no turning back thank you for being here today for your attention your attendance your prayers and uh i do hope you everyone in the building today has decided to follow jesus and if you still got a question mark about that i'm going to be here for a while so i'd love to talk to you even after the service is over don't forget to come back this evening this will be our first in-person church business meeting in over a year so we're going to try to get that started again on third sunday night so come and brother matt will bless us with a devotion and then we'll try to catch up everybody on all the business y'all missed out on for the past year so so y'all come back tonight at 6 30 and be a part of that and ask brother tim if he will dismiss us in prayer let's pray father we come humbly before you today thanking you for the privilege of coming and meeting again in your house and fellowshipping with other christians but father we're challenged today that our job is not finished our job is not done until we interact with the world out there and spread the gospel of jesus around to others father we thank you and we praise you for your son jesus who made it all possible that we might be reconciled with you in heaven and i pray that each and every one of us will strive to see our friends our family our co-workers enjoy the same privilege we ask it on jesus name amen you

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

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Length: 64min 1sec (3841 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021