The Religious Condition of a Post 9/11 America

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At 12.30 p.m.
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Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, President John F.
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Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
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Almost every American who was alive at that moment in history can give a vivid account of the activity he or she was doing when they heard the announcement over the radio that the President had been shot.
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Thirty-eight years later, on September 11, 2001, America would again have one of those moments, a moment wherein everyone would freeze beside a television or a radio in the moments of a national tragedy would forever be etched into their minds.
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One of the things that I remember most about the week of September 11 was that on the Wednesday following the attack, many had gathered in the church to pray, to seek God in a moment of national crisis.
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And I was not a pastor at the time.
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I was not even an associate pastor.
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I was a volunteer youth worker.
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And after the service on that Wednesday night, one of the elders at the time, a man by the name of Tom Watts, came to me and asked if I would be willing to preach Sunday morning.
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You see, our pastor had been out at that time for a few weeks and he had prerecorded messages for us to hear.
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So for a few weeks we had been watching videos of sermons and we did not have a flesh and blood pastor at that time.
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And the elders felt like it would be best to have someone preaching in regard to the events of the day and the situation rather than to simply show another video.
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So I set to preparing what was in my memory the first real sermon that I ever preached.
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I'd spoken before in church, I had given little sermonettes and children's messages, but I do not remember before the week of September 11th ever preaching an entire Sunday morning message.
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And as you can imagine, this was a very daunting task for a very green preacher.
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So I went about the task of preparing my message.
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I did not know what would be most appropriate to say to a group of people who were coming to the church, basically looking for both comfort and answers.
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So I decided on that Sunday to preach Romans 13.
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If you want to look at it with me, I just read I will read the text that I preached 10 years ago.
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Romans 13, verse one says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.
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And those who resist will incur judgment for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good.
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But if you do wrong, be afraid.
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For he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
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And that's the end of verse four.
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The focus of my sermon 10 years ago was on the government's role in carrying out the responsibilities of bringing judgment on the wrongdoers.
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I spoke about how the government is supposed to protect its citizens by punishing those who would do evil and that the sword that the government carries is not carried in vain.
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And my plea to the congregation then was that we would pray for our leaders as they began to plan a counterattack against those who had brought war to our shores.
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Now, I freely admit if I were to hear a recording of myself 10 years ago, I would probably agree that it lacked much of the finesse and maturity that it needed.
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And I would probably cringe if I heard it preached again.
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Yet, I do believe it was God's ordained purpose for me to preach that message, to provide a word of encouragement to a people whose hearts were broken over the tragedies of the day and did not know what to do.
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Now, why have I taken the time to recount this story? Well, because beloved, I stand before you today on the 10th anniversary of this horrific tragedy, and I am confident that for many of us, the pains and the grief of the tragedy are just as real today as they were when they first happened.
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In fact, new tragedies have arisen out of the ashes of September 11th as our country has now been at constant war ever since.
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Many thousands have given their lives or sustained serious personal injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places.
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And even more today, men and women are continuing to fight the battle.
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So this has led me to want to address a different subject than the one that I addressed 10 years ago.
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Ten years ago, I spoke about the government and the responsibilities to protect its citizens and to provide a sort of defense against enemies.
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But today I want to address something that I think brings great concern to my heart and should concern all believers.
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And that is the spiritual condition of our nation, which has changed dramatically in the last 10 years.
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As the title of the sermon is, The Religious Condition of a Post-9-11 America, I want us to see that the world which we now live, which has been reshaped by the concepts of terror and religious terrorism, may make living a consistent life for Christ in the United States more and more difficult in the coming future.
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But that we must remain steadfast in our commitment to Christ and not falter in our resolve.
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Stand with me as we read our opening text.
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It is going to be 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 11.
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Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
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Be sober minded, be watchful.
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Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
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To him be the dominion forever and ever.
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Amen.
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Father, as we thank you for your word this morning, I pray that you would be merciful to us as we seek to understand the condition of our nation, the condition of the church and what we ought to do as believers.
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Father, please forgive me of my shortcomings, my sins, my failures.
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Make my heart ready to preach this message and keep me from error, for your people need to be protected.
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And I pray that you put a hedge of protection around their heart and open it only to the truth.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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The events of September 11, 2001, did a lot of things to change the social, economic and political climate of America, but it has also had a profound influence on the way that religion is practiced and understood.
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And though Islam has been at the forefront of many of the conversations regarding religion, it is not the only religion which has been influenced by the situation.
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In fact, I can and will argue that the church in America is in much more of a precarious position than is Islam.
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Now, why would I say this? I say this because in a post 9-11 America, we have seen the following things rise up.
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And if you're taking notes, this is sort of the outline for the morning.
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This will give us sort of what we're going to be looking at.
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I've seen three things that have risen up as a result of the events which happened 10 years ago.
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Number one, arguments used against Islam are now being used against the church.
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So put that one as your first and we'll go back to it.
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Arguments used against Islam are now being used against the church.
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Number two, atheism, agnosticism.
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And those who would identify themselves as non-religious are becoming more mainstream.
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And third and finally, more and more Americans are embracing Islam.
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That's the three things that have arisen out of the events of September 11th that I think are easily identifiable.
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So let's look at the first one.
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Arguments against Islam are now being used against the church.
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What could I possibly mean when I say that? Well, let me take you on a little journey in your mind and just remember back to the earliest parts of the events after 9-11.
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Following 9-11, the first question in many people's minds was this, what kind of a religion would advocate violence? Everybody asked that question.
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And the resultant backlash from many Christians was immediate condemnation.
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Christian leaders went on television, took to pulpits and began saying that Allah, the God of Islam, is a monster and that the God of Christianity is only loving and only gracious.
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And when compared, obviously there was no doubt who should be served.
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However, these arguments were immediately and rightfully challenged by the other side.
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Because the God of Christianity is the God of the Bible, and the Bible does demonstrate to us that there have been times in history where God commanded his people to fight against those who oppose them.
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God commanded wars and even complete annihilation of civilizations in the Bible.
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Numbers 31, God commands the destruction of the Midianites, including women and children and livestock.
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Deuteronomy 7, God commands the taking of the land of Canaan and says to the people of Israel, show them no mercy.
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First Samuel 15, God commands the destruction of the Amalekites.
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And when it is not accomplished, the prophet Samuel takes a sword and hacks Agag to pieces.
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And let us not forget the massive amount of death which came directly from the hand of God himself, the city of Sodom and Gomorrah completely destroyed by the hand of God.
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On the night of the Passover, every firstborn of every household died as a result of the hand of God.
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And in the time of the flood, every family on the earth other than the family of Noah was destroyed by the waters of the flood.
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The Bible contains story after story of God dealing harshful with sinful men, and he is righteous in his dealings because sinful man is deserving of nothing but judgment from God.
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Now, having said that, we have to ask the question, then.
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Do we believe that that same God is the God who we serve? Well, if we believe the Bible, we have to believe that that's the God that we serve.
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And some people say, well, that is the only the God of the Old Testament.
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I mean, slow, slow down.
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Before you get all that's the God of the Old Testament, that business don't fly.
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Number one, it would indicate it would imply that God was wrong in the Old Testament or it would imply that God changed in the New Testament, neither of which is historic Orthodox Christianity.
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Both are wrong.
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As such, by arguing against Islam because Allah commands violence actually becomes an attack which can easily be mirrored back at us.
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Well, what about your Bible? What about what your Bible says your God has commanded to do in the past? Now we can discuss the fact that God's motivation for all these things was righteous and that he was fully vindicated in what he himself commanded.
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And that's true.
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But this is the point entirely.
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The point is that many Christians rose up to condemn the people of Islam by using arguments which could easily be used against us.
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And the same arguments that we used against them were used against us.
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And guess what that does to your argument? Makes it uncredible and it makes you lumped in the same lump with them.
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What we must realize, beloved, and I want you to hear this clearly, what we must realize in the battle with Islam is that the fundamental problem with Muslims is not that they will fight for their faith.
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The problem is they are fighting for the wrong God.
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That's the problem.
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This is something that is rarely said from the pulpit, but needs to be said.
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If we simply condemn the violence, the same condemnations can be used against our scriptures.
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What we must condemn is the very God of Islam in himself.
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John MacArthur was on Larry King, dangerous place to go, but John goes there quite a bit.
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And John MacArthur was on Larry King.
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And this is what he said in March 2003.
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Larry King interviewed John MacArthur.
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In the interview, MacArthur made a very important point in discussing the issue of Islam.
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MacArthur hit the nail on the head.
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He did not discuss the violence of the Koran or the attacks of 9-11, though I'm sure he would repudiate them.
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Instead, he gave a clear testimony to the real problem.
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And this is what MacArthur said.
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He said the thought, the theology of Islam is false.
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It's God is wrong and the view of Christ is in error.
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Beloved, that's the problem with Islam.
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They have the wrong theology of the wrong God.
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They have the wrong Christ and everything else that's a problem with Islam flows out of that.
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If if all we do is condemn the periphery and don't condemn the root, then we ourselves can be condemned right along with them because we've missed the problem itself.
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So I want to understand that and you understand how after 9-11, the church got a black eye.
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Because all we could do is condemn the actions, but we couldn't condemn the theology itself.
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If we choose to use arguments against their faith, which could just as easily be used against our Bible, we are doomed to failure.
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And that's what many people did.
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So as we said, the first thing that I have seen as a result of the situation following 9-11 is that the church is receiving the same condemnations, the church is receiving the same arguments as were initially used against Islam.
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Number two, atheism and agnosticism, and I put in brackets non-religious, are becoming more mainstream.
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Since 9-11, the atheist movement in America has found its most surest foothold.
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And they are now growing by leaps and bounds.
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You say they found their surest foothold, what foothold did they find? Atheists can now say, look at Islam and its violence, it's just the last in a history of religious atrocities.
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That's what they said, that's what atheists now use as their calling card, they even go as far as to say this, they say religion is the biggest problem in the world.
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And if we would just get rid of religion, there would be no more wars, no more violence, no more fighting, no more nothing.
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That's what they say.
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And beloved, because people watched the events of 9-11 and they knew that it was the result of a religious aberration, that attitude has caught fire and it has begun to spread.
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And the church has been lumped right along in with Islam as just being another fanatical religious organization that's just as dangerous as any of the rest.
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Atheists are making bold claims and they're basing them on history, they're saying, well, the church's history is filled with atrocities.
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Christians took up the sword against Muslims who captured Jerusalem in 1071, Jews and other infidels during the Crusades from 1095 to 1272 and thousands were killed in the name of Christ.
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Protestants and Catholics slaughtered each other in battles that tore Europe apart during the Protestant Reformation.
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And the Roman Catholic Church tortured, burned and drowned hundreds of thousands of heretics between 1184 and 1860 during the time of the Inquisition.
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So they look to history and they say, see, the church can be just as bad.
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And that's causing a rise in atheism.
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It's causing a rise in people who say, well, I don't want any part of any organization that has a history of things like that.
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One famous talk show personality was quoted as recently having said, well, it wasn't too recently, maybe about five or six years ago, they were quoted as having said radical Christianity is more dangerous than radical Islam.
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And all of us say, wait a second, wait a second, that's not fair.
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Radical Christianity never flew a plane into a building.
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Radical Christianity never did any of those things.
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The problem is the atheist doesn't just look at the last 20 years of history, they say go back a thousand years and you'll see all kinds of things done in the name of radical Christianity.
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And all of you would sit there and say, but that's not real Christianity.
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And I would agree.
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It was done in the name of a state church system based on a Roman Catholic hierarchy, which had nothing to do with the Bible, God or Christianity in general.
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But yet still, you can see how the atheist would make his mark against religion by saying, look at what religion does.
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It just brings war and death and hate.
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And beloved, if you don't think that is how our nation is bending right now, you don't watch television.
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And if you don't, God bless you, because you probably shouldn't.
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But.
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But all you have to do is turn on the television, you see people when they talk about religion, it's in hushed tones and it's in it's in a mocking sense and it's in the idea, well, yeah, that those anybody who really lives for their really lives for Christ, they're radical.
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You see, we talk about radical Islam.
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Those are the type of people who we say fly planes in the buildings.
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But but that's not the only place where radical is being used.
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That term radical is being used against people in the church.
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If you homeschool your children.
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Let me tell you something, the government considers you radical.
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If you believe in biblical home structure where the husband is the head and the wife's primary duties are in the home, you are way radical.
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If you own a gun, you're a dangerous radical.
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I'm serious.
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You know, I'm being serious.
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And that's what has happened is we have a a a a stew has been created with all these different ingredients.
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And it's percolated and atheism is providing the fire because what they're saying is all religions are bad.
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All faiths are equally repugnant.
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We need to divide ourselves from it all.
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Beloved, that is the condition of our nation and scary.
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Third and lastly, as far as this list is concerned, we've seen that arguments against Islam are now being used against the church.
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We've seen that atheism agnosticism are becoming mainstream.
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And third and finally, and sadly, more and more Americans are embracing Islam.
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You would think that after 9-11, more and more Americans would repudiate Islam.
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Hey, they would blame Islam for what happened.
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And many of them have.
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And there's been a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric that's happened and a lot of anti-Islamic hatred has come as a result of 9-11.
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But yet what we didn't expect, but what has happened is that the Muslim population in America is growing, not declining.
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Jennifer and I know of a young girl.
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And it saddens our hearts to the extreme because she was in our youth group.
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She sat under the preaching of the gospel.
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She sat in Bible studies with us for years.
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We knew her since she was probably 11 years old.
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She's in her early 20s now.
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And she has been influenced by Muslims and her friend community and is now embracing Islam.
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Just a plain Jane little girl from Ocean Way, but it's happening all around us.
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The Americas is the only region in the world where the prospective percentage increase in the number of Muslims will be greater from 2010 to 2030 than it was from 1990 to 2010.
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Right now, there are 2.5 million Muslims in the United States.
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It is projected in 20 years there will be 6.2 million Muslims in the United States, an increase of 139.5 percent.
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If birth rates, conversion rates continue as they are, Islam will grow by 140 percent in the next 20 years.
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The church is not seeing that type of rapid growth.
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Not in America.
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Now, there is rapid growth in the church in places where the church is being persecuted.
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China is seeing rapid growth of Christianity because Christianity is persecuted there.
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Africa is seeing rapid growth in Christianity.
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Christianity is persecuted there.
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But here, where it is just as nice and comfortable and air conditioned and free here as it is in anyone's home, this is where Christianity is being pushed aside.
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The reason why we need to be keenly aware of all of this is because the effect it's going to have on the church.
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As Islam grows in the United States, it will not tolerate opposition.
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And as we have seen in other nations where even the likeness of Muhammad in a cartoon causes acts of violence, so too will come in the United States.
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Our most beloved freedoms, specifically those of free speech, are being stripped away so as not to offend the growing number of Islamic people in our nation.
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And this will have necessary repercussions in the church as it may one day become illegal to stand up and speak out against the falsehoods and false teachings of Islam.
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What I said earlier about having a false God, a false theology and a false view of Christ is illegal in many nations and too may so one day be here.
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So, beloved, let me again go over the condition we are left that we are in now since the attacks of 9-11.
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Arguments against Islam are now being used against the church.
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Atheism and agnosticism are becoming more mainstream and more and more Americans are embracing Islam.
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As a result, the church in America is facing what could potentially be its first real threat of persecution since our nation was founded.
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Now, surely we have experienced some persecution in the United States, but beloved, let me remind you, the persecution that we have suffered in the United States has been nothing compared to what is suffered overseas.
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We get upset when they take Merry Christmas off of the Wal-Mart store, but that's not real persecution.
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Real persecution is what we see in the news or what we don't see in the news because it's hidden from us, where pastors and church members are slain for having preached the gospel in a nation which is under Sharia law.
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That's real persecution.
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In America, the church has always had the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and thus we have been kept from a great deal of persecution.
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We have not faced in this nation what our brothers and sisters in Christ have faced in other countries, things so heinous and frightening that I shudder to even think about them, let alone even mention them.
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What will happen when hate crimes bills begin to silence the pulpits of America? Will we continue to preach the truth and suffer what may or will we be afraid and go into our holes and be quiet? What happens when churches are told that if they say anything that would offend other religions or people groups, that they will be forced into closure due to taxation or other types of threats? Are we prepared? To deal with the persecution.
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When it comes now, I realize some of you probably came today hoping for a message that would bring comfort, and if this message does not comfort you, then let it be known this my job is not to comfort you.
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My job is to tell you the truth, prepare you for what may be.
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And that's why I picked first Peter five.
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What a passage to pick on a day like today.
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First Peter five, six.
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Why did I choose that? Well, Peter was writing to the early church on an occasion when they were dealing with severe persecution themselves.
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They were dealing with the persecution of the Emperor Nero.
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And Peter gives them very practical advice on how to manage their persecution.
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Now, I realize it's taken me a long time to get here, but I want to walk through the text with you very quickly and just explain to you why I chose this text for the morning.
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First, Peter, chapter five, says this, it's as humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties upon him because he cares for you.
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In that one passage, Paul or Peter is reminding his hearers that God cares about them.
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And they have a responsibility to continue to submit to him and to trust him, even when times are tough, even when times are anxious, even when there is great persecution, trust in God, be sober minded, he goes on to say, be watchful, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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Beloved, I don't think we believe in the devil anymore.
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I think he's a concept.
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But not a person.
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This verse makes it very clear.
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He'd eat you if he could.
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He'd spit you out if he had the chance, he'd devour you.
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In a moment.
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And he is our adversary, he is the father of lies, the father of hatred, the father of everything which is opposed to God and Jesus Christ, and he will lead the battle.
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To persecute the church.
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And we need to be watchful.
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Of his ways, the passage goes on to say, resist him.
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Firm in your faith, the only way to resist him is to be firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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That part of the passage is important.
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We should always remember when we share in suffering for our faith, we are in good company, for there are many in this world who are suffering right along with us.
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He goes on to say, and after you have suffered a little while.
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The God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him, be the dominion forever and ever.
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Amen.
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This is the wonderful promise that we have to look forward to.
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No matter what we may have to endure, no matter what suffering we may have to entail, no matter what we face, as Adam so rightly said in his prayer, God is still God and he's still in control.
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This is the wonderful promise we have to look forward to, he has called us to his eternal glory in Christ and he will assuredly see to it that no matter what we suffer, it will never be in vain.
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Now, some of you may think that I have painted a pretty bleak picture of our land.
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And the current religious condition of America, and maybe I have.
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But beloved, we face a serious reality.
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More and more am I having to spend time sitting with people who are lost in faith with God, who are lost in their faith in the God of Jesus Christ, the father of Jesus Christ and Christ himself.
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More and more people are disenfranchised with the church and the problems that are happening because they look at our world, they see the evil in our world and they do not have answers to their most basic questions.
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And the reality is that since 9-11, the religious condition of our nation has shifted.
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The religion of Islam has seen tremendous growth and atheism and non-religious groups have become very bold.
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But the church, because of a massive weakness in the pulpit and an almost universal unwillingness to stand for the truth.
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Has not seen great strides forward.
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Instead, we have replaced the godly voices of men like Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards with anemic, non-preaching voices like men like Joel Osteen and wannabe comedians like Jesse Duplantis.
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As such, we may have difficult days ahead.
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I don't want to be right about that, but let me encourage you.
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It has always been in history that the darkest days brought the brightest lights of truth.
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The history of the church shows us this.
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The Reformation was a dark time in the history of the church, but it brought the greatest light throughout history.
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The church has gone through stages, but it's always gone from terror to triumph.
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In one form or another, because Jesus said, I will build my church.
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And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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Notice he didn't say they wouldn't try.
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The gates of hell are always trying to prevail against it.
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But Jesus said that they won't.
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And that needs to be our greatest peace and strength.
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We may see persecution.
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We may personally endure trials, but beloved, we're no better nor worthy than the early church.
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Or the church of today that suffers overseas, if we suffer, let us remember this.
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No matter what we face.
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God will prevail.
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Jesus.
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Will be exalted.
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Every knee shall bow.
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And every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.
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And his people, be it now or in the life hereafter, will forever be vindicated with that peace.
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Let us pray, Father God, so much of what I have said this morning, I wish were not the case.
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We see our fellow countrymen.
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So many in mass turning away from you, turning their ears towards false gospels, towards false religions or towards materialism, a life spent devoid of any significance at all.
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Just turning themselves over to their flesh and to their desires and to their wants of being their own God.
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It is heartbreaking, O God, what is happening.
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And we know, O Lord, that only you can make a change.
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So we pray that you would use us in any way you see fit to preach the gospel of truth, to not fear persecution and to stand against the wiles of the devil, holding up the gospel, proclaiming that Christ will build his church.
39:06
And that nothing that the devil can do, not the gates of hell themselves, can conquer.
39:14
What Christ has set forth to do.
39:19
We pray, O Lord, this morning and we thank you for your gospel.
39:23
We thank you for its power to change hearts.
39:27
We pray, Lord, that we have learned this morning our responsibility to stand for that gospel, even in the midst of what may be serious persecution.
39:40
Help us to pray for those who are being persecuted and to stand if it comes toward us.
39:48
In Jesus name, we pray and for his sake, Amen.
39:55
Stand with us as we sing amazing grace and let us cry out for grace on our nation.