God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life — Shane Idleman

Jesus Sends His Disciples Among Wolves

I kind of left off here a few weeks back and I want to pick up with Matthew 10, chapter 10, verse 16, and this is Jesus speaking. Matthew 10, verse 16. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You'll be brought before governors and kings for my name's sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles, but when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you. And then we stopped right there for about a month and did a series on the Holy Spirit. And then we're kind of picking up there from Matthew, verse 21.

Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and to father his child. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you'll be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

When they persecute you in the city, flee to another, for assuredly I say to you that you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. And what I want to talk to you about tonight is the title you have there in the bulletin.

I might have fooled some of you, but it's me up here. The message is God has a wonderful plan for your life. God has a wonderful plan for your life. And believe it or not, I believe that. But I like what Ray Comfort said.

The preacher promises a bed of roses for those who come to Christ, but those who are in Christ are evidently sitting on a painful bed of thorns. And what he means by that is sometimes we paint the message of the gospel a certain way.

And it gives people a false impression of what the gospel really is. And there's books out there, there's sermons out there that God has a wonderful plan for your life. But what do you do when life falls apart and this wonderful plan is not what we thought?

And friends of ours that we don't know real well, Morgan knows them better. They lost their daughter about a decade ago and then I just saw on Facebook they lost their son. And it's what do you do with that?

I mean, where's this wonderful plan? You know, the Christians across the seas, that title won't fly. You know, it's in one of the countries there that things I can't even really say up here with kids in the room that are happening to Christians and being burned and being, you know, and losing a child and cancer and all these things.

What happened to my wonderful life? You know, if God has a wonderful plan for my life, what happened? And sometimes we, do you ever catch yourself telling people that? No, God's got a wonderful plan for your life.

But then you think, it doesn't equate. You know, you would turn on Christian television, and we hear God's got a wonderful plan for your life and then families are falling apart. We're going through, you know, there's medical things that people, you can't even understand.

There's pain that I can't even understand. And then we get discouraged, we get upset, we get fearful, we get anxious. But God has a wonderful plan for my life. So I wanna talk about that briefly, kind of springboarding off of what Jesus is talking about.

And actually Ray Comfort wrote a book entitled God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life. And I borrowed this from it. And he gave some pretty interesting statistics. If you look, and what happens, if we look at life through the American lens, you know, sometimes we have different lenses here in Europe and the American church, and then you have the persecuted church.

And you look through the lens of the American church, and a very high percentage of those raised in Christian homes, kids, they leave the faith. I mean, there's estimates out there of like 80%. Eight out of 10 kids in this church will leave the faith.

I mean, that's shocking, that's alarming. I mean, try those statistics with anything else, and they will not call that a success rate. I mean, get a bunch of investors together and say, listen, there's a 10, 20 chance we'll make it.

But 80 chance we won't. And many show, you know, this is where my faith and where my heart's at, many show no evidence of faith. There's really no evidence of faith. Again, in the American lens, in the American church, there's not a lot of evidence for faith, solid faith.

And most of those in America making decisions for Christ will eventually fall away. Now, why are we seeing so many glaring inconsistencies? Why are these statistics that I'm reading, why are we seeing, you know, somebody says they're a Christian, but then you look at their Facebook page, like, what?

Or they say they're a Christian, but you would never know it. Why is there so many glaring inconsistencies, especially here in America? I think one of the reasons, false conversions, there's a lot of false conversions based on it's a wonderful life.

You know, this is, God's gonna get me out of debt. He's gonna be my go-to guy. He's going to fix everything. I'm gonna have this wonderful life. I'm gonna drive the car. I've always wanted, get the home I've always wanted.

And we go into it with this perception of, God has a wonderful plan for me. And let's just be honest. Many live the Christian life, or they'll say they're Christian, they'll mark Christian on a voter guide or on a survey, because it's not difficult, right?

Yeah, I'm a Christian. Life's not difficult. It's not challenging. And that's why most people do it. So many, many promise a problem-free faith or a faith with minimal problems. Yet we deal with a plethora of problems on a weekly basis.

So that's what happens a lot. Come to Jesus, you'll have this, won't have a lot of problems. God has a wonderful plan for your life. And so people go in and expecting a certain thing. And when the expectations aren't met, well, this isn't what I signed up for.

This isn't what I was told. And I would think that unrealistic expectations can lead to depression, they can lead to anger, and it can lead to confusion with God. Talk to people that go into marriage with unrealistic expectations.

They had all these, you know, we thought this, and so people, so what happens, we paint, you know, we have youth rallies, and we say all these things. God loves you, and he does, thank God for that. He has a wonderful plan for your life.

You just need to give it over to him. But we don't help to fill in the blanks, because there's a cost. Jesus says, there's a cost of following me. And that's what he says here, you will be hated for my name's sake.

Brother will deliver a brother to death, and a father his child. And if people can go into faith, if they can go into it with realistic expectations, then they're prepared for the battle. Because I believe God has a wonderful plan for your life and eternity.

And God will use your life, he will use your life to glorify God. And I believe in the blessings of God. I pray for the blessings of God all the time. Lord, help my children, help me and my spouse in our marriage, keep the church together.

Lord, bless us, please, there's nothing wrong with that. But if I go into this thinking, God's gonna bless me, guess what? He's gonna, and he's not blessing me. Actually, this is hurting. What's going on here?

And then we fall away, we drift away. So if we can just, even when you present the gospel to kids or whoever, you say, listen, God might have a wonderful plan for your life, according to what some people think, but he might not.

I mean, life might be challenging, it might be difficult, but we look to the rock. We look to the foundation. We don't look to what's happening to me. And that's really that word happy. You know, it comes from hapistance.

It's what's happening to me. My happiness is measured by what's happening to me. Where joy is found in the rock, in my relationship with God. And you wanna see the difference? How many of you were here last Saturday?

And you saw the video of John Washington, paraplegic, in bed, couldn't get up. And he's got more joy than most people I know. Tell him God has a wonderful plan for your life. You see how this doesn't work sometimes?

But I wanna be careful because I don't wanna make God out to be this mean, you know, like nobody's gonna have fun and nobody's gonna be blessed. I think God says God will bless his children. He'll bring prosperity at times if he wants to do that.

And we've been good stewards of that. And when the blessings, Lord, give me shelter and give my children safety and protect us. The blessings of God, thank God for them. But I can't serve God based on that because my relationship with God will be like this.

Ups and downs and peaks and valleys and highs and lows. And I think that's what's happening to a lot of people. Maybe even a lot of you. That's why there's ups and downs. Man, I'm doing good. My job, my money, we're getting 4 ,000 back on our taxes.

We're taking a cruise. This and everything's good. And then everything starts falling apart. Now God's got it out for me. So now we're down and now we're depressed and now we can't be utilized and now we're missing church.

And now I don't study my Bible anymore. My prayer life went to, and then God starts to open some doors and then here we are again. And then we ride this rollercoaster that I don't think we're meant to ride.

Is there ups and downs? Of course. But our faith shouldn't be measured by what's happening to me. I mean, I can tell you right now, if my faith was measured by what's happening to me, it would be difficult.

It would be very challenging. Because we have God in this. But I know, God, you're taking me through certain things. I've created certain problems. And God, you're gonna be there to get me through these things.

Our relationship with God does not hinge on unanswered prayers. It doesn't hinge on trials. It doesn't hinge on difficulties and it doesn't hinge on persecution. It hinges on who he is. He is my foundation.

He is your foundation through the difficulties. And I think some of you needed to hear that tonight. There might be unanswered prayers. There are trials, there are difficulties. But our relationship with him doesn't hinge on those things.

Here's the key, really. Yes, God blesses and he loves to bless his children. But don't judge him based on blessings and comfort alone. Remember Paul's motto. What did Paul say? I've learned to be content in all things.

And I think if we can learn that, to be content in all things, when a lot of money is coming in and when we don't know how we're gonna pay the bills. When our kids are walking with the Lord and when they're not walking with the Lord.

It was hard today. We just, you know, we told our daughter, Aubrey, who's been excited to go to church. Don't anybody say anything. But today she was like, I don't wanna go. It's just boring and I just wanna stay home.

It's like, where did this, somebody wanted to go to church so much and now you don't. You know, it's like, well, you're going to have to do it. I don't wanna do that. Of course, she's coming. But you know, it's like, what happened to that?

Is it church day? I can't wait to go. We're gonna do this. So somebody now doesn't wanna go. It's like, I left there going, oh boy, this is a new one. I mean, can you imagine your kids not wanting to go to church?

A lot of people can relate, right? So I'm gonna have to go through that too. I pray not though. I pray God, fill them with, what's wrong with the John the Baptist prayer? He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.

You don't think I prayed that? You better believe I prayed that. So it's hard. You know, I drove to church a little down. Like, what happens when the kids start to walk away? But if we raise them up in the fear of the Lord, if we paint a realistic picture and I say, and I tell them, listen, you've gotta have your own relationship with God.

Don't follow my coattails. Just because me, you're gonna have to, and he might take them through hell to experience heaven. Granted, I don't want them to go through what I went through. But if it leads to a deeper, a deeper relationship with God, I'll take that over lukewarm living any day.

And so we can't measure our faith by what you're going through, can we? Because then we're gonna be upset at God. And when we're upset at God, guess what happens? We take it out on others. Have you ever noticed that?

When there's a thankful heart and we're in right relationship with God, everybody's blessed around us. But when we're upset at God, upset at the circumstances, upset at different things, upset, we're like, Lord, what's going on?

What's going on? We start to, we get upset. And we wonder what, you know, where's this coming from? I know I remember carpal tunnel syndromes in my wrist and recently it's hard to write any more than three or four sentences.

Like, how am I gonna start doing this? And then my eyesight now is not as good as it used to be and things are blurry. It's like, Lord, what's, you know, it's like you start getting, oh, what's going on?

And then you start to worry and get fearful and anxious and, you know, but God says, listen, you gotta rest in who I am, rest in me. I never said life was gonna be, I never said I'd have a wonderful plan for your life according to you because we want comfort and convenience.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I think sometimes you should kick your feet up on the couch and enjoy a good movie with your family, get some healthy popcorn, you know? Do it, take, you know, relax.

There's nothing wrong with these things. You knew I had to throw that in there, right? Okay, all right. Oh yeah, I should've put that in the announcements. There's a health seminar coming up too right around January 1st, New Year's Resolutions.

We wanna help people physically as well as spiritually. But here's how we often promote the gospel and sometimes I'll listen, even on radio. You know, we have to be careful because we want people to like the messages and on TV.

Presenting the Gospel Without False Promises

But here's, I've often thought of this. It's almost like if the Navy SEALs, remember I told you I have a family member in the Navy SEALs and it's like, wow, you guys. I mean, I couldn't make it, I don't think, a day.

Just tell me I don't get eight hours of sleep and you gotta stay up for two days and then they get you as close to death as possible. So they, I mean, it's incredible what happens. But what about if they promoted the Navy SEALs like this?

You'll be stationed in Hawaii, there'll be luau's every week, free snorkeling, cruises to the islands, and this is what. How many people would sign up for that? I'm there. But then when they get there, what happens?

I'm outta here, except for the very few people who actually knew what they were getting into. But see, if that's how we present the gospel, is all I say is all you have to do is say a little prayer and Jesus will be your best friend.

He's gonna, you're a king's kid now, he's gonna bless you beyond anything you've ever, you think you're doing good financially now, you haven't seen nothing yet. You just have to give your life to him and say, Jesus, I'm gonna follow you.

And really, you're not saying I'm gonna follow you, you're telling him to follow you so he can bless your plans and we don't present the correct gospel. So they go into this going, uh-oh, have you ever experienced satanic attack when you're doing something for God?

It's not pretty. It's a nightmare. And we go into these things unprepared, unarmed and untrained for battle. Nowhere throughout scripture where you'll see this bed of roses. You'll see warfare, the weapons of our warfare.

Paul talks about a soldier engaging in battle, spiritual battle. The heavenly hosts are against us, the principalities are against us, demonic forces are against us. You think it's gonna be easy raising kids in a Christian home?

Putting them in the school, public school? Says it's gonna be easy, a bed of roses? We go, what happened? This guy promised me that God would fix all my problems. Sometimes it creates problems. But now I'm holding, as the good shepherd is holding me, as he's taking me through them, that's the difference.

Because, oh, this is what I read about. No wonder all hell's breaking loose in my house right before we planted this church. Wow, unbelievable. Of what's, but you learn to rely on God. Okay, Lord, you're taking me through this.

Yeah, you get the call, hey, you're, you know, we just found cancer. Oh, there must not be a God. No, I'll go with it through you. I'll go with it, go with you, go with you through this. Or the slips that are coming out now, to A .V. Hospital, Northrop, and all these things, and you're no longer employed.

Here's a nice wristwatch. 30 years of, what, God, what happened? God, you're not, no, I'm there. I will be with, I'll take you through this. Rely on me, I created the universe. You don't think I can sustain you?

Or we get bad reports, you know, from something medically is going on with our kids or our spouse, and we're like, Lord, you didn't promise, oh, no, I'll be with you. You see the difference there? We want to avoid all these things, me too, I want to avoid sickness.

I want to, you know, not have to worry about certain things. But there's no trust there, and there's no faith in God when we have to, you know, if everything was a bed of roses. If life was simple, how would you know God in all these different areas if he didn't hold you through, if he didn't bring you through?

And then it goes on to say in verse 32, I'm gonna skip ahead to verse 32, and you'll notice something interesting, that truth divides even families. The truth of God's word divides even families. I know that's not popular, but Jesus said the truth will divide because allegiance to God is stronger than allegiance to family.

And this is interesting, before I read verse 32, I didn't put this down, I just thought of this. But we have to, a lot of times, we're struggling for unity, right? We want unity in our homes, we want unity in the church.

But remember, unity is never unity for the sake of unity. Can't we all just get along? No, not all the time. Not all the time. Where there's unity with the Father, unity with the Son, unity with truth, unity with faith, and from that, I'm united with other people.

But sometimes when we stand for God, we're gonna be divided with other people. And a lot of times, sometimes, I'm thinking, where can I have this harmony in my home? And we should want that, but, or family members.

Like I've explained before, I have family members who are not Christians, and it's hard to find unity. But the truth sometimes will lead to disunity. The key is not to try to foster that. And you've heard me talk about this before.

It's okay if the truth offends, but your attitude shouldn't. See the difference there? The truth will offend, but your attitude shouldn't. Arrogance, pride, condescending, those things shouldn't offend people.

We should be loving and gracious and merciful and forgiving, but the truth will offend. That you can't prevent, nor should you. And then Jesus goes in verse 32, therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.

Short side note, that's one of the points of baptism, and that's why I put that article in the bulletin, does baptism save, does getting baptized, does that save me? Obviously, the answer is no, for those hearing this later.

But whoever confesses me before men, that's what baptism, a form of baptism was a form of confessing before others. Especially in Jesus's day, if you went and got baptized in the name of Jesus, you know, now we do it, and we're like, oh yeah, family showed up, great.

Well, there, family wouldn't show up, family would disown you. And they're making a public profession of their faith. And then Jesus says, and I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. And I've noticed that's really one way to find, to really know if somebody's serious about their faith, or if they're a false convert, or if they're not really serious about their faith, because are they embarrassed of God?

Think about that. A lot of people, especially young adults, no man, I don't know God too much. That's my parents' thing. And then they come here and they're crying like babies. But then they get out and, no, no, no, no, no.

Whoever confesses, I mean, that's genuine faith, you will confess him before others. Somehow, some way, people will know that you are a Christ follower. That's a Christian, that's a whole point of that word, Christian, Christ follower.

They're first called Christians in Antioch because they follow Christ. So we have to resemble our master, we resemble our teacher. If there's no resemblance there, if we don't want it, and I remember when I was in my early 20s, I didn't want people to know I was a Christian.

If you asked me, I would tell you, but I didn't want, it's the last thing I wanted. Kind of that closet Christianity, and you really have to look at your heart, what's going on there. Verse 33, but whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Christ’s Message Brings Division and Demands Allegiance

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth, isn't this interesting? This is Jesus. I wish people would just read the Bible. Peace, coming, wonderful counselor, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. People say, well, that's, Jesus is not, he's saying one thing and doing another. No, Jesus was born to die. He came to save sinners from God's judgment.

He came to be that propitiation to absorb the wrath of God. He came to take our place. That's why he came, born to die. And then in that, who he is does not bring peace. That brings a sword because it divides.

Now you upset the whole satanic realm. Now you've got light and darkness at odds. So Jesus said, by my coming, by the way, that's not gonna bring peace to this world. It's not gonna bring peace. In the end it will, but right now it's not bringing peace.

I did not come to bring peace. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. Wow, God help us. Do you know, if you've been following anything what's going on in Iran, Iraq and ISIS and those different things, do you know who's often the one turning in the Christian?

Family members. Family members. Or dads beating their daughters half to death because they converted to Christianity. It brings a sword to peace. It's not peace right now. But that relationship with Christ will bring a sword to our own families.

And that's hard to absorb, is it not? Children screaming, saying, I hate your God. I never loved him, as they storm out their parents' house. In America, we deal with this a lot. The more the light shines in the house, the darkness wants to flee.

Think about that. The more the light of the gospel will come into your house, when you start to being selective, saying we're not allowing that garbage in on direct TV. We're not allowing that garbage in on whatever, and there's all kinds of pornography and satanic things.

We're not allowing that in our homes anymore. We're gonna worship God. We're gonna pick movies and programs that glorify him. No, not perfect. I make mistakes a lot, too. I rent things from Redbox and go, why did somebody tell me to rent that?

Man. So anyway, once you stand for that, though, family members who are not in alignment aren't gonna like that. Happens a lot of times with the Super Bowl. Right when the commercials come on, that's time for me to go to the bathroom and run out to my truck, get some things.

I mean, it's like all this stuff, and family members are like, what's wrong? I'm like, look at that. Carl's Jr. commercial on girls in lingerie. How far have we drifted in 25 years? Remember, I've often said, love it, leave it to Beaver, and I love Lucy, and look, I mean, just in my lifetime.

It's amazing how, but when you begin to stand for that truth, that's when you're called fanatical. That's when you're called weird. That's when you're called extreme. That's when you say, no, I just want purity of heart.

I just want holiness of mind. I just want to follow Christ and be like my teacher. That's why. It brings division, and if you don't have it, thank God for it. You should be on your faces thanking God that your family's united and their family's here with you, because there's an opposite to that, and it's very difficult when families are at odds in this area.

You know, right, it brings a sword. It brings a sword. You've got close family members that raised a Mormon. I see them often, and I gotta sit there, and they already know how I believe in bringing, but just, I mean, just talking about anything.

You know, if it gets on that line of Christianity and the gospel, and wow, why do you always talk about that? Don't talk about religion and politics. Those are the two hot buttons, right? It brings division.

The truth brings division. And you guys don't see it a lot. I've shared this before, but people leave here, and they're like, oh, man, we love the service, thank you, but the emails sometimes don't love the service.

I was driving on the 14 freeway, and you came on. Who in the world do you think you are, you arrogant, bigoted man? Truth, upset, they just don't like the truth. It upsets. It upsets. Verse 37, he who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And we've talked about that before. Jesus is just saying, obviously, love your father and your mother. He's rebuked people for not loving them and giving to them and helping them. But if you prefer your family over God, have you ever seen family worship over God?

They're living vicariously through their children. It's all about their children. It's all about, and we put that above God. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

He who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. And you might say, what is he talking about? He who finds his life will lose it? Well, in a nutshell, this is the question he's asking.

Who or what are you living for? Who or what are you living for? You know, it's real easy. Look at your calendar, look at your checkbook. If you tell me where your money goes and where your time goes, I'll tell you who you're following.

This isn't a hit to get the offering box on the way out. I don't do that. But I can tell you, if you look at, if you wanna see what you really value, what you really worship, and you might say, well, I got my car payment for my wife.

I got my house payment, we got food. We got, oh yeah, yeah, that's providing. You're doing provision. But if you really look at where our time and energy is focused and our money, it'll tell us. It speaks volumes as to what we worship.

Look at where it's all going. That's what we worship. Are we seeking to say to, he who finds his life will lose it. Finding your life, if you wanna know what that means, just follow Hollywood. That they're trying to find their life, right?

Making millions, jockeying for position, wanting the next part, wanting the next role. It's all about me and promoting myself and elevating myself. It's all about this life now and whatever I can get from this life now and taking everybody to the bank and trying to get everything.

It's about my life. And Jesus said, as soon as you lose that, as soon as you lose that and you say, listen, Lord, it's all about you. I'm not gonna be doing these things anymore and trying to build a name and trying to, it's all about you.

Now, do you have to still pay the bills and work? Of course, those are all, but it's about you. It's really where the heart's at. Where's your heart at? Where's my heart at? I mean, think about it. If my heart was, man, how many people can we get in here, build a big church, look at, put me on TV.

I mean, if that's why I'm coming here, this is gonna fall apart. God says, oh, okay, you wanna be glorified. Let me just allow you to do that and you'll watch what happens. When we come in here and say, and people, even last week, people say, you gotta get these messages on TV.

I'm like, no, no. If God does it, he'll do it. I'm not even going that direction. That's all, it's he has to open the doors. He has to close the doors. He has to keep my heart tender. He has to keep my heart humble.

He has to keep my heart broken. It's all about you. I have to die to self every week. Lord, this is your, what do you wanna do? This is your church. This is what do you, you know, what do you wanna do, God?

And that's what this whole issue is about, finding your life. Are you focused on the things of the world or are you focused on the things of God? That's what this is all about. And then he said, there are times to stand and there are times to flee.

I think I haven't gotten to that part of scripture yet when he talks about fleeing. I did earlier, I think. But there are times to stand for the truth. There are times to flee and avoid adversity. We don't look for adversity.

We don't go around trying to pick a fight with the truth, do we? Because that's not of God. If we're out there picking a fight, that's not of God. There's gonna be enough adversity coming on its own. And Jesus is saying, endurance is a mark of genuine faith.

When there's endurance to keep running the race, that reflects genuine faith. And then I'm gonna go now to 24. So we're going back to verse 24. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master.

It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. See, this is the humility aspect I talked about. A disciple is not above his teacher and a servant is not above his master.

Everybody wants to be above everybody. Everybody wants to outdo. We wanna be above, above. He says, no, it's enough. It's gonna be hard enough. Life's gonna be hard enough. Just be like your teacher. Be like Christ.

And there's humility there. There's humility in just saying, okay, Lord, I wanna be like you. And if they've called the master of the house, Beelzebub, which is not a good name. You haven't heard any kids name that, right?

Lord of Flies, I think is what it means. It's about the devil. How much more will they call those of his household? So Jesus is being called all these things. He's being persecuted. People are saying, we hate you.

We hate what you stand for. And Jesus is saying, if I'm being called these things, what do you think they're gonna call you? So don't be surprised. Everybody's so surprised. All this persecution's coming against Christmas.

You can't say Christmas in these stores. You have to say happy holidays. You can't, all this person, what's going on? They hate your master. They hate your teacher. They hate your Lord and Savior. If they hate him, you can better well assure yourself that they're gonna hate you if you're living for him.

If you're not and nobody hates you, you might wanna wonder why. We don't go looking for this. It comes naturally. And then he said in verse 26, therefore do not fear them. Jesus said, listen, don't fear these people.

Isn't that one of the hardest things? We're, America's afraid of persecution. I mean, I was looking a while back on how many gun safes were sold in the last 10 years and stocking up on ammunition. Everybody, you know, just hunkering down for something.

We're so afraid of this persecution. Therefore do not fear them, for there's nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. If they hate Christ, they will hate us. And that's what he's saying here.

Listen, there's a day of judgment coming someday, a day of reckoning. Everything that's hidden will be revealed. There's a time where God's going to put everything in order. Don't fear them. Don't fear them.