The Persecuted Church & You

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. We're going to be in a number of different texts today, primarily in Hebrews chapter 13, which you have in your bulletin.

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The bulletin did throw me for a little bit of a curve because on the front it says it's yesterday. So I'm a little confused as to exactly what day it is.

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Please don't do that to me. I've been sick all week. And so I'm not sure what day it is. Are we

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Saturday Sabbath people now or I'm not, I'm confused. I would appreciate your prayers.

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As you can tell my voice is not 1 ,000 percent. In fact,

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I'd put it at about 75 percent. Some of you know that I leave Tuesday for the

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G3 conference in Atlanta. We're doing a pre -conference on Wednesday, and then I'm speaking probably going to be talking with a thousand people probably during that period of time.

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And then I leave directly from Atlanta to go spend a week teaching in Samara, Russia.

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I've been watching the weather report for Samara, Russia. The average temperature between daytime and nighttime, the day that I'm supposed to land in Samara, Russia, is zero.

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Ten for the high, ten for the low. They have another fellow who's taught there before me told me it hit 40 below while he was there at one point.

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And besides that it's Russia. So any prayers for my safe return or if you don't like me, you can pray the other direction.

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You know, God is sovereign. We'll leave that up to you. But I think my wife would like to have me back maybe, you know, six months or something like that away.

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Wouldn't be that bad. And then on the way back I will be doing some research in Munster, Germany.

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And if any of you have heard my Munster recitation, now I'm going to have cool pictures to go along with it.

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So at least I hope I make it through all of that trip. I don't get back until February.

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So your prayers would be appreciated. Now I confess that in many ways

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I feel extremely unworthy to even begin to address this subject.

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Anytime you look at any of the historical records that are available to us concerning the men and women who in the history of Christ dealing with his people over the past 2 ,000 years have suffered, have been imprisoned, have been beaten, have been had members cut from their bodies, scars cut upon their bodies, been separated from their loved ones, and of course have given the final testimony to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

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When you read their stories, when you hear their words, you cannot help as a modern -day

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Christian living in the United States in the back of your mind to have the question constantly gnawing at your consciousness,

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What would I do? What would I do? Knowing how often, and I will only speak for myself, but I doubt that I am speaking alone, knowing how often

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I am quick to question God's goodness and providence when difficulty and suffering comes into my own life, knowing how easy it is for me to look at what someone else has and question why

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God would bless them with that but not me, knowing how easy it is to fall in love with the things of the world when we are faced with the stories and realities of brothers and sisters who have lived the life, walked the walk, have done what

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John told us. If anyone loves this world, the love of the

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Father is not in him. And they have demonstrated that they understood the truth of those words.

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And they did not love their own lives even unto death. We cannot help but remember that in the book of Revelation, there are the souls, the martyrs, there in the very center of the worship of God.

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And they are given a very special place which tells us that from God's perspective in his sovereign providence, he has chosen to allow some of his servants to give the ultimate sacrifice in testimony to himself.

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And each one of us, we know theologically that if that situation were to arise, that God is faithful and by his spirit he can provide to you and I the grace that is necessary to meet any need that we have.

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But at the same time, we recognize how difficult it would be for us, not so much when that one incident arises and it's either deny

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Christ or die, but the history of the church tells us the most effective means of persecution against Christians is not that mechanism at all.

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When Islam rises, beginning in 632 AD, it expands across North Africa and all the way into Europe until it's stopped in 732.

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It's the century of Islamic expansion. And that area of North Africa was a

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Christian area. That's where Augustine was. That's where Cyprian was. There aren't very many

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Christians there today. Oh, a few. How did most of those churches end up leaving this world?

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It was not by the force of the sword saying convert or die.

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It was what we will do is we will make your life very difficult.

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You will have to live it out. You will have to demonstrate you don't love the things in this world. We will limit your economic possibilities.

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We will limit how much food you can have. We will limit what kind of jobs you can do. You will not be able to get education.

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You will not be able to provide for your children except on a subsistence level. And that was the very effective means of wiping out so much of what had been a ostensibly

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Christian culture in North Africa. It's the day -by -day faithfulness under persecution that when

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I read of people today who live that type of life, I am deeply touched.

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Because there you have a testimony of the power of the Spirit of God working within their lives.

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Because you and I both know we couldn't do it in and of ourselves. We couldn't do it in and of ourselves.

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We need to have the Spirit of God. You know

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Jesus's words in John chapter 15. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

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If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you.

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We know that in our day there are forms of Christianity that specifically seek friendship with the world.

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Specifically seek to end the enmity and the battle.

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We're not all that different than you. We want many of the same things. We don't want there to be any kind of conflict between us.

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The world knows that that Christianity is not true Christianity.

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Because the Jesus of Christianity said, I am the resurrection and the life.

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No one comes to the Father but by me. And the world rejects that exclusive claim on his part.

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The world in all of its religious expression demands that we be inclusive and accepting.

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And demands of God. It's very nice of you to provide the cross. Very nice of you to provide the empty tomb.

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But we have other ways we'd like to accomplish this. And the arrogance of mankind is astounding, is it not?

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To think that the very Son of God could enter into human flesh, give himself in that way.

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And yet we can then turn around and say, well, we appreciate that but we'd like to do it this way.

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We'd like to do it in a way that that more satisfies our own ego, our own will, our own power.

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Jesus said that we are not of this world. And we are never more unfaithful to him than when we try to look like we are.

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When we try to think like the world, act like the world, speak like the world. All so that we can somehow avoid the conflict that is necessarily a part of walking as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

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Oh, yes, there have been times when God has blessed western civilization and and you could live a fine christian life and and society as a whole would look at you as being a good person.

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Those are times of blessing. We don't live in those times any longer.

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If we call what is good, good, and the world calls it evil, the time is coming when we're going to suffer for that.

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We haven't come to the point of imprisonment or shedding blood yet. You might say, well,

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I've certainly seen you take a few knocks on the internet. People are attacking you every day.

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Well, that's true. But in comparison to what I know is going on in the world, in islamic countries, in places like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, where there are faithful christians who risk their lives each and every day, they risk their relationship, husbands and wives, they have little children, they risk all of it to be a bold and clear testimony for Jesus Christ.

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Anything that happens to me on the internet is irrelevant in comparison to what faithful men and women are facing this very hour around this world in almost every nation.

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Oh, yes, there are still some nations where we have relative peace and safety. But in so many places, that is not the case.

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I read through this particular edition of the

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Voice the Martyrs. I support a number of groups that help the persecuted church,

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Voice the Martyrs, Barnabas Fund. And this particular one was from November of last year.

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I read it on a flight recently and I was truly blessed.

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Obviously, the names of these individuals are not the same as they would be in real life.

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We don't want to expose them and many of the pictures are taken from behind and things like that because again, these people live very, very dangerous lives.

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I just wanted to read you just a short introduction to one of these stories. Each one of the stories in here will warm your heart and will challenge you.

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As Mi cooked a meal in her small outdoor kitchen one afternoon in 2008, she was approached by a man with a shocking confession.

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I'm very sorry, the man began. I tried to kill your husband two years ago.

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I shot and I missed. Since then, I have been watching your husband do things and helping people.

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He is a good man. The man who addressed me, M -E -E, in her southern

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Laotian village had been a sniper with the country's communist government and he had tried to kill her husband,

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Vang, because of his evangelistic work. For two years, Mi and Vang had worked at building relationships and sharing the gospel with members of the animist -influenced

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Buddhist community. After making his confession to me, the sniper showed her a

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Bible he had stolen from the village. He said he had felt deep shame after years of killing people but had found hope in the

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Christian Bible. Your God is good, he said smiling. I cannot give this book back.

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I want to keep it. I am very sorry. Mi, smiling back, could see the

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Holy Spirit at work in the man's heart. She prayed with him and told him that she forgave him.

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Now listen to this. When Mi told Vang about the sniper's attempt to kill him, he became excited.

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As a follower of Jesus, he believes why he dies is more important than when he dies.

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I always pray and say that if I die in serving God, it is better than to die in a hospital, he said.

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I want to die doing ministry. I want to do something, die, and make it profitable. And Mi agrees.

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It would be my honor to die for God, she said. If someone came up to you and confessed to having tried to kill your husband or your wife a few years ago, would the first words from our mouths be words of forgiveness?

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Words of redemption? It must be in these places. There's another story of a pastor in Vietnam in this particular issue.

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It tells of his beatings. It tells of them trying to get him to deny

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Jesus, and he would not do it. And so finally what they do is they shackle him in such a way that they can get to his thumb, and they put ink on his thumb, and put a thumbprint on a piece of paper, and then tell people in the village square that that is his signature, and he is denied

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Jesus. Unfortunately, the police couldn't speak the local dialect, which he could.

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He was very quick to tell everyone that he had not denied Jesus. They had just simply stolen his thumbprint that Jesus is true and remain faithful.

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And as soon as the police could see that the Christians were clapping, they realized they had not done a very good job in their attempt.

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And so they beat him again. This is the kind of regular experience.

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There is a young woman. Her story is told that she goes into this one village, and the only people out in that village are people either who were born there or who specifically served the

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Communist government in the fight against the United States with particular distinction is a place of honoring ancestors.

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Because of her family situation, she can go in there. She has been threatened. She has been beaten.

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And over the course of over a decade, she has led hundreds to faith in Jesus Christ.

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We think of these things. We are thankful for the testimony of these people, but we understand that God is sovereign over all these events.

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We cannot help but step back and ask ourselves the question, why is it that God has chosen to build his church in the way that he has chosen to do it?

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Why are we exhorted in Hebrews chapter 13 to be a people who always have in the back of our minds a recognition in the midst of our blessing we are a part of a body that suffers.

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Hebrews chapter 13 has a number of different little sections. It's sort of the miscellaneous exhortations that have been attached to the primary theological argument of the epistle.

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It's sort of hard to walk through Hebrews 13 because you're moving from topic to topic. And Hebrews 13 3 is just sort of a exhortation.

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But notice what it says, remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill -treated since you yourselves are also in the body.

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Remember those who are bound as though bound with them.

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Now it could be simply prison as if you were in prison with them. It's the the the specific

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Greek term refers to being bound with chains. And so it took on a wider meaning of someone like like Paul.

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Paul uses it of himself. He has been bound with chains. He is a prisoner for the sake of Christ.

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And that term is tsoundetimenoi, bound together with them. Think about that.

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Bound together with them. You and I are free. We have more freedom than most human beings have ever experienced because of the great nation in which we live and the heritage that is ours.

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And yet even in the midst of our celebration and our rejoicing in the gifts of God as believers we are always to have in our thinking the recognition that we are a part of a body and that in God's providence part of that body suffers each and every day.

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We just had the opportunity of having our grandchildren in for the holidays.

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And that was a wonderful thing. It was great to hear the pitter -patter of little feet and the squeals of joy and opening packages and there is no greater gift,

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I think, that a grandparent can receive than those special hugs from three -year -olds all the way up to nine -year -olds.

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And yet in the midst of all that and the rejoicing you cannot help but think what is it like to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in a

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Muslim land today and you are separated from your grandchildren or your children from your husband or from your wife and the only reason you are separated is because you refuse to say a certain short number of Arabic words

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Don't worry, I didn't just become a Muslim That is called the

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Shahada the profession of faith, but there has to be seven things that accompany it including believing what you're saying, which

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I do not. But imagine what it's like to be a parent in prison knowing that your little ones the ones you love so much are being cared for by relatives

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And the only thing that is keeping that prison door locked is your refusal to say those words

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How easy it would be to give in, would it not? But you see those those

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Christians know that to say those words, which is there is only one God worthy of worship,

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Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet is to deny that Jesus Christ is truly the son of God who came to give himself on Calvary's tree because the

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Quran denies that and they all know it And so they know what they're being asked to do and there they stay

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Day in, weekend, month, year Faithful to Jesus Christ The least we can do is to pray for them

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They pray for us, we need to pray for them So It should be a simple aspect of our recognition because we see that we are a part of a body that last phrase when it says

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And those who are ill -treated since you yourselves are also are in the body. It could be understood in one of two ways

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It could be understood in the specific sense That there are people who can be bound

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And there are people who can be ill -treated in this world because they are in the body to live a fleshy existence

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And since you yourself live a fleshy existence you likewise could experience the same things

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So be aware of God's blessing upon you if you have not experienced those things, but be ready for experiencing it if you do

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That's a possibility It's also possible that the term body there

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Could be the body as in the body of Christ And so remember the prisoners remember those who are ill -treated since you yourselves are part of the same body

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That they are a part of That is a beautiful exhortation when you think about it

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It is a beautiful thing to remember That we are a part Of the body of Christ and that Christ is building his church all across this world

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It's not just here in this room right now There have been many faithful brothers and sisters in our own valley that have already met this day

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And sung praises to Christ and proclaimed his truth And across this state and across this nation

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We may not be The best known we may not have the most money.

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We may not be the well -born But Christ is still building his church

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And so we are in the body And so we remember those who suffer even if we don't know who they are someday

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We will know them better than we know anyone in this room Their names may not be known in publications

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But they will be known in eternity and they will be deeply rewarded

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Though that is not why they do what they do They lay those rewards at jesus's feet

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They do what they do because of love for him and that love can only be borne by the holy spirit of god within their hearts

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So we remember them And we join with them And in a special sense

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We recognize that we can enter into their own suffering As they would want us to and so very often when

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I have led pastoral prayers as we did this morning It is a rarity that I do not include

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A section thanking god For the suffering church the persecuted church

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And praying that he will draw near In a way that only he can to his saints who suffer

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Knowing that if we are called upon to do the same thing we would long to have someone praying for us

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That god by his spirit would draw near to us And would comfort our hearts

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And would by the spirit testify to us of his presence with us

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I would encourage that for all of you in your prayers to always pray

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For the persecuted church you may not know the names you may not know the situations But in god's providence he has chosen that in every generation there have been those

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Who have experienced this kind of suffering the barely missed sniper's bullet

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Sometimes the bullet finds its mark Sometimes it ends in death sometimes in great injury

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The one who would fall And lose his life at that point is he somehow less

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Than vang who god spared? No It is simply that was god's time

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God's way to bring home one of his special servants I don't know how

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I would understand The persecuted church if I did not understand The kingship of god over all events in time

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It wouldn't make any sense to me But when you understand

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That god is working all things For the good of those who are called

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When you believe that Even when you can't see how it all works out

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When you believe it it changes everything It changes everything

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I was asked to provide a quote I provide a small book Sorry about that.

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It looks shorter on my computer I have large screens.

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So I guess that's But you'll see it on the inside of your bulletin

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If you want to remember If you want to look back And thank god for his grace

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In the lives of those who've come before us Let us think about theseus cecilius cyprianus

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Or if it's easier to remember cyprian Cyprian isn't nearly as well known amongst us as I think he should be cyprian was the bishop the city of carthage

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In north africa for a brief period of time. It just happened in god's providence To be the very same period of time when the worst persecution under the roman empire broke out

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If you know church history, you know that from the days of nero onward there was persecution against christians, but it came in waves

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And sometimes there would be persecution in gaul, but nothing going on in egypt or vice versa

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But starting in the middle of the third century around the year 250 The dcian persecution begins and This persecution is empire wide

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And it will last until the peace of the church in 313 so approximately 60 years

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This was rome's death throes This was rome's final gasp

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And the roman emperors thought look these christians are the reason why our power is diminishing why our crops

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Are not as great as they once were why the enemies at our borders are having victories It's all the christians fault

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Just as today in laos those buddhists Will blame the christians for angering the ancestral spirits and beat them as a result

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Nothing has changed And so the great persecution began at that point in time

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If you look at the dates you will notice that cyprian Was converted to christianity around 245

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And he died in 258 he had 13 Years Only 13 years

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The impact that he had positively upon the church Was tremendous

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Where do you get the kind of maturity? That cyprian demonstrated in 13 years, he was a very wealthy man

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And he used his wealth to help the church and to feed the poor He was one of those who

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Who? Had purple garments and he gave them all away to have purple back in that day

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That was you were at the upper crust You were you were in vogue magazine when you could afford to have that kind of clothing and he testifies that he did

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He was a intelligent man a well -trained man a okay. He was a lawyer

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You can be forgiven for almost anything right But In those days a lawyer did not have quite the same meaning that it has today

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He taught he taught rhetoric he could speak And you might say, you know making him a bishop

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Very shortly after his conversion probably wasn't the smartest thing those folks ever did well In other situations there might have been better ways to show wisdom

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But in god's providence, he was the man for that time When the persecution first began he followed the biblical example the biblical command

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To hide and he continued to run the church by epistle He came to regret that decision later on This was a time period in the early church where there were many who sought martyrdom

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And The church struggled mightily as to how to handle apostates people who had given in who had compromised on any level

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Most of the greatest schisms in the early church had to do with how the church dealt with persecution

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We would do well to study these things should we be facing similar situations in the not too distant future ourselves

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The quotation that I provided to you Was from a letter that he wrote to christians

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Shortly before his own death He was imprisoned in the summer of 258

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And so he as a prisoner writes the following words to fellow christians who were suffering persecution

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They were being forced to labor underground in the roman mines The roman mines folks our minds today are dangerous places

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The mines back then were a whole lot more dangerous I assure you And so here they were

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I want you to listen to a man who in only a matter of a few weeks

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Would place his head upon a block of wood And a roman soldier would bring his sword down and sever his head from his body ending his life

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He knew this was coming He knew this was coming I want you to hear

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How he speaks to his fellow christians who are likewise suffering

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For a christian body is not very greatly terrified at clubs Seeing all its hope

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Is in the wood The servant of christ acknowledges the sacrament of his salvation redeemed by wood to life eternal

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He is advanced by wood To the crown But what wonder if as golden and silver vessels

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You have been committed to the mind that is the home of gold and silver Except that now the nature of the minds is changed

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And the places which previously had been accustomed to yield gold and silver Have begun to receive them

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Moreover they have put fetters on your feet and have bound your blessed limbs

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And the temples of god with disgraceful chains as if the spirit also could be bound with the body

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Or your gold could be stained by the contact of iron To men who are dedicated to god

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And attesting their faith with religious courage Such things are ornaments not chains

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Nor do they bind the feet of the christians for infamy but glorify them for a crown

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O feet blessedly bound Which are loose not by the smith but by the lord

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O feet blessedly bound which are guided to paradise in the way of salvation

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O feet bound for the present time in the world that they may be always free with the lord

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O feet lingering for a while among the fetters and crossbars But to run quickly to christ on a glorious road

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Let cruelty either envious or malignant Hold you here in its bonds and chains as long as it will

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From this earth And from these sufferings You shall speedily come to the kingdom of heaven

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Brothers and sisters those Are only empty words if they are not joined as they were in ciprian's experience

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With first and foremost a love of christ and his truth

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Combined with an understanding of what jesus meant when he said If you would be my disciples

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You must deny yourselves Take up the cross And follow me

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I've said it before And if god gives me the strength,

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I will say it again in your hearing This world has no power over any follower of jesus christ other than the power we

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Give to the world By our love of the things of this world

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Did you hear me This world has no power over you

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Other than the power you give to the world by loving the things of this world

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If we don't love the things this world This world has nothing on us what can it do to us?

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What can it do to us? What can it take away from us Even our closest most wonderful relationships

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If they are forged in christ are going to last in eternity They can be but for a second interrupted in this life

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But they cannot be severed by the power of man There is no possession.

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You have no position you've attained No gift that has been given to you by god

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That has any meaning in eternity That should in any way distract you from service to christ

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But if you are like I You are sitting there thinking of many things

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That if we are honest Have come to take a place in our hearts

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They should never have it And as a result we know That if the authorities come

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They may well have something that they can use to grab hold of us So, what do we do we obey hebrews 13 3

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On a regular basis we pray We pray for those who are bound as if we are bound together with them

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But then on a very practical level We talk much about growing in holiness we talk much about sanctification we talk much about discipleship if you want a really truly practical reason to seek to grow in holiness

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Here's a good one And that is the person who is focused upon god's truth

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Living according to his word Putting to death the deeds of the flesh and the love of the things of this world will be the person

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Who will be able to stand? firmly Before any of the attacks of the world against us

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Without any fear whatsoever That we will in any way bring dishonor upon the name of our lord

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That's a very practical reason To think very carefully to reflect very carefully

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Upon our lives When you're just sitting and thinking

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When your mind just begins to as we say wander What does it turn to?

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What are the things you think of Those are the things that your heart is set upon what we want our minds to turn to and it's

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I'm, not saying that we were to become so heavenly minded We're no earthly good that we we can't remember to stop to get the stuff we need for the kids on the way home

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After work or any of those things we have to live in this world God's called us to be faithful in those things, but i'm talking about what captures the passion of your heart

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If we love the things of the world the love of the father is not in us The only power the world has over us we give to it

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Let us pray sincerely brothers and sisters That we will not live in such a way

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As to give the enemy a foothold May we remember those who are persecuted and if we are called to stand in their place

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May we be a faithful people who have prepared our hearts and our minds So we may give the proper testimony to our lord and savior jesus christ let us pray together our gracious heavenly father we

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Once again do remember the fellow members of our body

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Who this day languish in prison Who this day experience beatings

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Deprivation persecution And we pray lord that you would draw near to them

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That their testimony would be used by you to draw even more of your people into your kingdom

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And lord we do pray for ourselves We do not face the kind of beatings and persecutions as yet in this country

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That so many of our brothers and sisters do but we know That we have much to prepare our hearts for So we might be faithful witnesses at that time

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Rid us of our love of the things of this world Fill our hearts with thanksgiving and contentedness

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Even when you give to us great blessings may we see them as Simply gifts from your hand that you have the right to take away at any time grow us