Transcript for:
Galatians 6:11,18 -Stigmata- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-11-30

Galatians six verse 11. You see how large a letter I've written unto you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy upon the Israel of God. From henceforth, let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Father, we thank you for your holy word, and Lord, we're just in we're humbled as we look at this passage and we see what Paul's alluding to, Lord, that he's not gonna boast in the way the false prophets do and how big his church is or all the people he's led to Christ or that sort of thing. Instead, he's gonna he's if he's gonna boast, if he's brought that low in comparison, Lord, he's gonna show the scars. He's gonna show what he was willing to suffer for Jesus' sake, to show credibility, to show his sincerity, to show his love for Jesus and his love for the body of Christ. And, Lord, we pray that you'd awaken us and alert us, Lord, in the times in which we're living, of charlatans, of false prophets, and false Christs, and people that are masquerading as angels of light and ministers of righteousness, and that we, Lord, would use this rule, that we would use this means of evaluation, Lord, as you lay out in the scripture, Lord, if they bring a different Jesus or a different gospel or a different spirit or if they don't bear the fruit of love, if they compromise the exclusivity of who you are, Lord, then Lord, we pray that we'd not bear with them, that we'd expose them, that we'd stand for truth, and we'd be willing to suffer for that truth. We'd not comply. We'd not conform to the things of the world so as to be liked by the world, Lord. So strengthen us. Help us, Lord, to discern truth today from error. Help us to be filled and refilled and continually being filled with your holy spirit, the power of your holy spirit to be able to live the Christian life and the power of the spirit, Lord. So blessed, we pray in Jesus' name. Be our teacher in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. And I like in Luke's gospel where it says, take up his cross daily and follow me. We might think in terms of taking our cross up one time and not taking it up daily. But if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. In Galatians two twenty, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Are you crucified with Jesus this morning? Are you crucified with him? How have you suffered? Three different ways that we can determine if we're crucified with Jesus. And the first is that of how have you suffered? In verse 11. You see how large a letter I've written unto you with my own hand. Paul had an eye problem. Paul had a partial blindness. Paul, many feel that messenger of Satan that was buffeting him was a physical infirmity that he prayed three times that the Lord were removed from him, and many commentators claimed that in that region, there was a common malady called ophthalmalia where, it could be just today's today can be just a few cents worth of medication to, solve these problems. But an oozing of the eyes, a pussing that comes out of the eyes, maybe a byproduct of getting malaria. And, so it affected his vision, and he would typically have a secretary, somebody that would he would he would speak, and then somebody would write it for him, and then he would sign the letter, at the bottom at the very end, to show the authenticity thereof. And so he says, you see how large a letter so he's having to write with larger letters. I've written unto you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. The false prophets do not suffer. Paul's saying, they want you to be circumcised. They want you to go be circumcised, compelling you that the the persecution that comes against the church would cease. So conformity, being conformed to Judaism, being conformed to, the Judaizers that were coming at the area of the churches of Galatia that Paul had planted, one of the ways that you could forego or remove persecution is simply conform. Conform to the world, conform to the Judaizers. So the false prophets, they don't suffer. They're they're they have no problem, you know, shutting the church down, wearing the mask, loving their neighbor, whatever it takes. They they conform like the world. So the apostle Paul told us in Romans chapter 12 verse two, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove it as a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Conformity speaks of allowing the media, allowing the culture to morph you, to bring you into its image, into the picture of who the world is. And and so what we do is we tell ourselves in order to reach people for Christ, in order to grow our churches, we're going to bring the world in for relevancy. To be relevant, we need to bring the world into the church. And the bible says the exact opposite. No. You don't want to be relevant in that in that in that fashion. And they try to use verses where Paul said, I became all things unto all men that I might, you know, save some so you become like the world. But, no, he's not saying that. Be different. Be distinctly different. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't allow the world to press you into its pattern. Don't be looking for likes. Don't be looking for, you know, the outward, things that you apply to your life that are worldly things. Don't try to make worldly people, unbelievers, comfortable in the church. What does Christ have in common with Belial? Don't be an equally yoked together with unbelievers. So, you know, the churches today, in order to be liked, they don't mention repentance. They don't mention sin. They don't mention hell. They use the word love loosely, meaning, conformity, meaning tolerance, meaning that we should tolerate every kind of sin and every kind of ism, every kind of everybody, and and Jesus, after all, isn't the only way. You know? All roads lead to heaven. That's that's a existential humanistic philosophy, man at the center, and it's an ecumenical effort to get all religions on board and to quit fighting about Jesus being the only way. The false prophets, they do not suffer. They refuse to take up their cross and follow Jesus. They deny the cross through compromise. I don't wanna compromise with this world. I don't wanna give into this world. I don't wanna go along to get along. I wanna continue to stand for the truth. And by standing for the truth and taking my cross up and following Jesus, there's gonna be trouble. Trouble's gonna come into our lives. We're gonna be persecuted. People are gonna hate us. The Judaizers were compelling the Galatians to be circumcised to avoid persecution. Now circumcision was a sign that was given to Abraham and to signify the people that were gonna come forth to him. That would be in the Hebrews, the Jews, and it's not something that, to be enforced upon the church, to be enforced upon Gentiles. And so in Acts chapter 15, we had a tribunal when we were studying the book of Acts where they came to James, the brother of the Lord, and Peter chimed in, why put a burden upon the Gentiles that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? So the symbol of the circumcision was the keeping of the law. So not only the symbol, but then imposing upon the church the 613 precepts of the Mosaic law. And so Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law, and, and we are able to rest in his finished work. He said to Talistide, paid in full. It's all finished, and we have a rest. There's a rest available to you and I by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. We don't need to work our way to heaven. We don't need to work our way to sanctification. We can rest in his finished work. And then it's the power of the holy spirit. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. It's the holy spirit living through me that empowers me to live according to a life that's pleasing unto the lord. A life that's pleasing unto the Lord doesn't want to commit adultery, doesn't wanna commit fornication, doesn't wanna lie, cheat, and steal. A life that's lived pleasing unto the Lord, is a life of obedience unto the Lord, obedience to what he's called us to do and be, which is love is the fulfillment of the law. To become Jews, to identify with Abraham instead of Jesus. So the sign of circumcision, it's a means of identification with Abraham instead of Jesus. So when we look in terms of the times we're living in, the Abraham Accords that are taking place to bring forth a a one world religious system, part of it part of it's morphing moving in that direction that president Trump and Jared Kushner and other are negotiating with with various people groups, Saudi Arabia and places like that, and Bahrain and and others, and so with Israel. And so the Abraham Accords, Abraham's at the middle, at the center, and so as a Jew, I can identify with Abraham. As a Muslim, I can identify with Abraham because he's suppose supposedly, you know, Muhammad was a prophet, and we worship Allah, but they think in terms of we're worshiping the same guy. And so the Muslims emanating from Esau, and and so, hey. We can we identify with Abraham. And then Christians, we we can reach back, and we can say, alright. We identify with Abraham also because he's the father of our faith. And so you bring these three together under the banner of Abraham, but instead it should be under Jesus, the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. And so we say no to that that identification. We say, yeah. Abraham's a friend of God. Abraham is a prophet, but he's not God, and we don't go through Abraham. There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And so when you when you bring forth Jesus as the only way, that's where people are gonna get angry. If you bring in inclusivity that we can include all religions and always lead to the same place, As George w Bush once said after nine eleven, that's error. That's heretical. And Jesus said, destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. There's the proof. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and the only sign gonna be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The resurrection, the crucifixion burial, resurrection sets Jesus apart from every other ism, every other false prophet, everybody that's out there. He's the only way. And he said that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come to the father but by me. Now standing firm in that will mean you're gonna be troubled. You're gonna be persecuted because the devil hates Jesus. The devil hates the truth of God's word, and there are gonna be people that will say, you're a bigot. You're intolerant. You know, how come gay guys can't be married? How come people can't just live together? Why why do you hold to such a strict adherence to God's word? Well, we're not it's not legalism. It's love. It's love. We love the Lord, and we love him enough to tell the truth because true love warns people of the consequences of living outside of God's word. People that live together, they're not gonna enjoy the blessings of marriage. It's a it's a it's a counterfeit, if you will. It's a degradation. It's a perversion. And that's why, God's idea that of marriage and marriage have been debated, and Barack Hussein Obama says love got it right. Love wins. And so they, you know, they they bring forth a same sex marriage and impose it upon the kids and the culture, and now they don't even know what gender the kids are anymore. Now they're gonna impose this, you know, all over all over society. Satan's the author of confusion, and we stand with the truth, and we're and we're said that we're homophobic. We're bigots, we're racist, you know, you don't conform, you're not giving in it, you're inviting persecution. You're gonna be persecuted when you stand for the truth. If you want to be liked, then give in. Just give in to it. Give in. Rationalize. Rationalize it. Make an excuse. It doesn't matter to me what, you know, what they do in their bedrooms and stuff. Well, it should matter to you because pretty soon, they're gonna make pedophilia legal. Then what are you gonna do? When are you gonna stop it? When are you gonna stand tall? When when are you gonna protect society from the putrefaction of society? And so we're made out to be bigots, homophobes, mean, nasty, hateful people, and we're we're simply showing them that Jesus is the answer. We're not even allowed to proselytize. We're not even allowed to preach the gospel. We're not even allowed to, you know, try and rescue these kids from the lies that they're they're, receiving in the public school systems and such. And so we're we're marked and we're hated because we do it God's way and only his way. Jesus said in Luke nine twenty six, whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and his father's and of the holy angels. And so if you're ashamed of God's word now and you're hiding it, you're bearing, you know, bearing your talent underneath the ground, there's a day of reckoning when the Lord comes where he says, I'm gonna be ashamed of you in front of my father and the holy angels one day. Verse 13, for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. So they want to get numbers. They want to get the nickels and noses. They want you to be a part of their their growth, if you will. And so by branding, by you becoming a part of their brand, the circumcised brand, they can glory in your flesh, and yet they're hypocrites. They don't really care about you. They're being pragmatic. They're just going along with what works, and, it's nickels and noses. It's always church incorporated along these lines. And Paul says in Colossians one twenty three, we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness. And so we we preach that Jesus was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, and the Jews look at that like that's crazy because why would why would the Messiah, the anointed one, why would he be crucified? That's ludicrous. He's gonna come and give us the kingdom age and all. And then the Greeks are looking at with all the Greek philosophy of Hercules and all their Zeus and all their different, deities, you know, they're supposed to be conquering deities. Why would God send his only son to die upon a cross? That doesn't seem like a God that we could follow, you know. And so in their mindset, they see that as a as a not God worthy, if you will. And and so they they they mock, and and they think it's just foolishness. It's but the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And, the foolishness of God is wiser than all the wise men of the world that think they're so wise. And so, this idea of dominion theology, this idea that we're gonna dominate the world. So rather than resting in the finished work of Jesus, you have people that are still working, people that are still trying to do good deeds and make the world good and try to usher in the golden age, the millennial age, by, taking over the planet and and working it, you know, working it thereunto good. You and I, we let people rest in Jesus, in his finished work. He's already done the work, and he's let us know that the world's gonna reach a place of perplexity. These people that are trying to get you on their brand of making the world a better place, they're gonna fail miserably. It's gonna be a time that Jesus said that the world has never seen nor ever see again the time of the tribulation period. And so people's hearts failing them for fear because of things that are coming upon the earth. But, their champion, the Antichrist, they're gonna run their campaign on peace and security. They're gonna build their beast system, and then they're gonna try and incorporate and get everybody to in the flow of this beast system. But praise God, the greatest revival that that we see looking forward is in Revelation six and seven, innumerable multitude of people that say no to this system, that say no to the antichrist, they will not take the mark of the beast. We see in Revelation 20 verse four, they're willing to give up their lives for the truth. They will not conform. They will not compromise. They will not take that mark. So the Judaizers are wanting the Galatian church to take the mark on their foreskin of the males as a symbol, as symbolic of keeping the mosaic law, and they want to make proselytize proselytize them, And and yet the church is bursting forth, starting out Jewish and Gentile, male, female, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, and the church is free. And then these false prophets, these Judaizers, are wanting to bring the church back under bondage. And so it's sold as freedom, giving up your freedom for security. So the real ID and the the the I read an article this morning where the young people are willing to give up their sovereignty, their freedom, unto artificial intelligence and and algorithms that would take the place of government. People are reaching a place where they don't trust government, Republican or Democrat, so they're being groomed and brought to a place where they'll trust AI. AI will make the decisions concerning whether you can get the surgery or not, of whether you get insurance or not, of whether you get to go to college or not. Everything will be through an algorithm that the that the technocrats are developing with demonically inspired to assist the Antichrist in the governance of the world. And so you and I aren't gonna be there. We're the church, but the tribulation saints, those who are there, innumerable multitude of people say no. And so they overcome the the devil by the word of their testimony, and by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives unto death. They're willing to die before they conform to what the world is demanding of them. Compulsory. It's demanded. You either take this mark in your right hand to your forehead, and you say Caesar is lord. You say the government is Lord, or you're gonna be executed. And they choose execution. They choose to be asked of the body to be present with the Lord, and so they love not their lives unto death. But the church of Galatia was giving in because they were trying to avoid the persecution. And the letter to the church, to the believers, the Hebrews, the letter of Hebrews, same thing happened. Many of these were Jewish believers who were being persecuted, and when I say believers, Christians, and there's warnings all through, the book of Hebrews. I believe the apostle Paul is the writer thereof. We don't know who the writer is, dogmatically, but it's in his style. And, but the objective there was the Hebrew believers were falling back into Judaism so they could avoid persecution. And so the writer is trying to get them to understand that, no, you have better. You have a better understanding. You have a better relationship. You know, you don't have to go by way of Moses. You can come by way of Christ, come by way of Jesus, and trying to exhort them to not fall back, to not drift. And then in chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, he shows those that please God, for without faith, it's impossible to please God for they that come to must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And in chapter 10, it says he takes no pleasure, you know, in those who draw back. In chapter 11, by faith by faith by faith by faith, and he shows all the Old Testament patriarchs that these Hebrew believers were aware of that pleased God, and the Holy Spirit edited out their sins, edited out their lapses of faith, but the Holy Spirit shows how Abraham pleased God by believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead. How how Moses pleased God by believing that, his plan was much better than that of Egypt. He esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all the splendor of Egypt and how they subdued kingdoms and and all this. And then and then he goes to the others, the others of a different kind that were willing to suffer and to live in dens and caves and of whom this world was not worthy, you know, to receive these others of a different kind. So the emphasis upon faith rather than a religious system conforming to a religious system so as to avoid persecution. Are you gonna conform to this world? Are you gonna give in to the pressure that the world places upon you? The COVID pandemic plandemic was a test run. It was a test run to see who would conform and who would hold the line, who would shut their church down, and who would stay open, Who would be overwhelmed with fear, and who was willing to walk by faith? It's a real simple lesson. I used to say during that time, it's like watching VeggieTales. It's simple. We we're not afraid of you, o king. Right? You you take the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the VeggieTales, it's it's nursery school. Why is the church so confused about this? It's no. It's an absolute no. We're not ever gonna shut the church down. You're not gonna tell us we can't partake of communion. You're not gonna tell us that we can't worship. It's ludicrous, and the church loses its mind. Well, what was happening behind the scenes? The churches were being bought off. They were getting money. They were getting the PPP money. They were getting money to shut their churches down. They were getting money to conform to the lie. They were even putting tents out front so that people could get jabbed out in front of the church. It's insane. It's insane that lack of courage, how quickly the church took the bait and believed the lie. There was a 99.9 recovery rate for people that got COVID. Can you trust God for one percent? Half a percent? A tiny a tenth of a percent? Couldn't even trust the Lord for that. And it's based upon lying. It's based upon not knowing the truth. It's based upon you don't have discernment. You're so easily swayed, so easily moved, so easily manipulated. And when you stood against it, what do people say, all the Chads and the Karens out there? You're a jerk. I had people tell me, you're a jerk, man. You're a jerk. You're you're not loving your neighbor. I got kicked out of so many places. Glory in it. Praise the Lord. I'm getting kicked out of another place, you know, another restaurant, another hardware store. You know? Tractor Supply. You can't buy here. You can't this. You can't Ace Hardware. You can't this. You can't. You can't. You can't. And how stupid that six people at a restaurant, it's not a COVID zone, but at a seventh, and there's COVID there. And and asymptomatic, one of the symptoms of having COVID is no symptoms. You don't have any oh, that's a symptom. Why? Because once they jab you, now you got COVID. You you gotta get the flu shot to get the flu anymore. Just mindless idiocy, and I gotta live among them. You know? It's just, it's just, And then as you watch the church continue to be seduced and to conform to the world and wanting the world and love with the world, and we're told clearly, love not the world neither the things that are in the world. And that's what they're holding out to you. They're saying, you're gonna lose your job. Well, I got a mortgage to pay. I better get a job. Well, now you got myocarditis. Now you got turbo cancers. Now you got a genocide taking place, and then the idiocy of all idiocies, the man that sold the warp speed jab becomes your hero. He's the guy that's gonna fix everything. And I wanna say to you, how's that working for you? How's that working for you? As the b system's being developed at warp speed, you were tricked. You're you're you're supporting in your conformity, in your compromising, you are helping build the b system with your silence and your support. That's that's spitting in God's face. There's no faith needed. You're putting your faith in man, And it's irrefutable. It's irrefutable what's happening. Yeah. Before you think I'm a nut job and everybody leaves because I won't conform, because I won't put on a red mega hat and have a Cyrus coin in my pocket. Well, now, the very first day in office, he signs the $500,000,000,000 Stargate project with Peter Thiel. JD Vance is a prodigy of Peter Thiel. Nobody vetted these people. And now you gotta be as stupid as a COVIDian to not see what's happened now. It's in your face. The crypto digital currency, the real ID, the data centers, the whole thing is taking place. And who did it? Not Harris. She couldn't have pulled this off because the conservative Christians would have said, hey, this is wrong. Well, where's their voice now with their champion? They're silent. They're silent. So he disarmed them. He got them to trust them. Oh, the globalist know. That's a much better way. These evangelicals, we can steer these evangelicals by offering them the world. We can offer them prosperity. We can bring in the Ordodonal who will make everything gold, the golden age. And then he signs the genius act, and he signs the Genesis act. Look at the words he's choosing. Look at these acts. It's all about AI. It's all about the beast system, and it's all promoted as peace and security. And it's all it's it's all marketed with riots in the streets now. A need for martial law, a need to collapse the dollar, crisis reaction solution. And if you don't conform, you're gonna be the pariah on the outside. You're gonna have to conform. You're gonna have to give into it. You're gonna have to incorporate it in your churches or not. If you don't and I had to go on record before all this happened in saying, alright. I kept saying I was a political atheist. People didn't like that. You gotta vote. You gotta vote. How's that working for you? Do we vote should we vote harder next time? Your country's been taking over. We're moving into globalism. You're being played left and right, Democrat, Republican. You're supposed to be a Christian. You're supposed to have discernment. You're not supposed to follow these pied pipers and their Trojan horses into these things. You're supposed to be a critical thinker. Supposed to based upon truth. They shouldn't be able to dupe you. So I said, alright. Finally. Alright. Alright. I'll vote. But I want you to know I'm voting because voting for Donald Trump will facilitate the return of Jesus Christ sooner. What would he mean by that, pastor? Because he's gonna build the beast system. And by building the beast system, it means these are the birth pangs that prepare the way for the Antichrist, which means I'm a pre trib, predispensational, premillennialist, that means I believe in a pre trib rapture. The rapture is coming before the signing of that peace treaty. That that Daniel nine twenty seven covenant the Antichrist is gonna make. And that antichrist is gonna need the technology because he's not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. He's not omnipotent. He's gonna need the technocrats to divide the world into 10 regions and to govern the world digitally through artificial intelligence. And the Trumpster's the one that's gonna sell it just as they sold the war's free jab to the Christians, to the apostate church. And now I'm watching the prophecy guys. They're starting to get it, but they won't mention his name. They'll mention the same things I'm mentioning, the advent of the technocracy developing, but better not mention his name because you're gonna lose people. We'll we'll bring that up later when everybody knows, when everybody's saying it, when there's no more risk involved. Don't wanna mark a false prophet yet. Don't want people's blood on my hands. Don't wanna lose my head like John the Baptist simply because I spoke up. God forbid to speak up. What if John said, I like to party. I'm gonna go over and party with Herod and Rhodius and Salome. I'm not gonna mention a word about Herod taking his brother Philip's wife. Nobody wants to make Herodias, you know, Hillary Clinton angry, man. You'll be on her death squad. You know? Your head will be on a platter. I better keep my mouth shut, you know? Can't let those Epstein files be get out there. We'll all hang. So we buy into the lies and excuses, and we conform, we compromise. And what do we want out of all of it? We wanna go back to normal, and they know it. So they'll promise they'll get you back to normal, but it's a lie. Normal's not coming back. Jesus is. Right? So the outward marks of circumcision, the tattoos, the gold crosses of religion, but it's all a show. An unwillingness to suffer with Jesus to be crucified with him exposes your profession of faith as being false. I've told you this a million times. In China, they don't consider you you to be a pastor until you spent time in prison. That's how they know you're the real deal, that you're not a government pastor accumulating info on them. I read where one of the house church pastors, we we do a Monday night house church. The church might have to go back to doing house churches someday. And one pastor just was released from prison spending twelve years in prison for being a pastor in a house church. And a couple others this week are put in prison simply for being Christians teaching the word of God. Now don't think that they don't have state run churches in China. Don't think that they don't have the Donald Trump bible in China. The state run bible. They do. And if you want me to sign your bible, I'll sign your bible. Kiss my ring, and you can do it all. It's mindless. It's crazy. It's just an unwillingness to suffer. Easy to spot. They're selling prosperity, peace and prosperity. Luke nine twenty four, first and 23 said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Then he goes on to say in verse 24, whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. You got a choice. You're either crucified and letting Jesus live through you, or you can live in fear trying to save your life, and you're gonna lose it. You're gonna lose your witness and your testimony. Where's your faith, man? When the son of man comes, will he find even faith upon the earth? Will there still be believers, you know? Certainly, he's always got a faithful remnant. Second Timothy three twelve, this one you pull out of your Joel Olsteen promise jar. Remember the promise jars? All they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you're not suffering persecution, it's because you're silent. It's because you've shut your mouth. It's because you're afraid. It's because you're conformed. That you're in a church that's conformed to the world. There's no risk. A church that never is in any kind of trouble at all. It's an escape church. It's a church we run to to evade trouble. We don't wanna think about prophecy. We don't wanna think about the crash of the dollar. We don't wanna think about 2026 in The Economist magazine projecting all the stuff they have in store for us in 2026. We don't we wanna live in denial. We wanna find a church that just tells me smooth things. We wanna live in the past, in our past glory days. We don't wanna live in the moment as watchmen upon the wall, risking everything for the sake of the truth. You ever heard of the voice of the martyrs in Romania, communist Romania, Richard and Sabina Wormbrand, they were imprisoned and beaten for speaking the truth. And at a public meeting, the officials, the communist leadership was denigrating the church and denigrating Jesus, speaking publicly. And Sabina Wormbrandt, she was alarmed, and she she said, they are spitting in the face of Christ. Richard, stand up and wash away the shame. And he famously said, if I do, you will lose your husband, he replied. And she replied, I don't wish to have a coward as a husband. She spent eight years in prison for that. He spent fourteen for simply standing up, not wanting Jesus to be spit upon. Stand up. Say something. Who will stand? The only only way to avoid suffering is conformity to the world and remaining silent. Are you crucified with Jesus? How have you suffered? Now, I wanna say this. For those of you that have suffered, it's not because you lack faith. It's not because you're a second rate Christian. You go through financial trouble. You go through physical trouble. You go through relationship trouble in your families. Especially during COVID, you saw it manifest itself. Grandparents not allowed to see their grandkids and stuff. It's because you're a believer in Jesus. You're a lever of truth. It's a badge of honor. It hurts. Jesus said, woe on you when all men speak well of you. You're a conformist. You're a politician. It's nickels and noses, and it's pinching the baby's cheeks and slapping the backs and never speaking up. Working the crowd. It's marketing. But if you speak up, you speak the truth, be ready to be hated. Jesus said, they hate me, they're gonna hate you. So don't think somehow your Christianity is not working out. That somehow you did something wrong that you're not in the bless me club. No. You chose to not be in the bless me club, to be willing to suffer, because like Sabina Wormbrat, you were disgusted at people spitting in Jesus' face. You couldn't take it anymore, and you spoke up. And that's why you're hated. That's why you're laughed at. That's why you're gossiped about. That's why you're not in the in the club. Are you crucified with Jesus? How have you suffered? Secondly, how have you survived? How do you survive? He says, but God I love the but gods. But God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Paul could boast of a man whether in his body or not in his body caught up to the third heaven. He could boast about, hey, one time I was stoned at Lystra, and you know, I went up to heaven. And let me write a book about it. Let me write a book about what it was like to die and go to heaven. No. He's not gonna do that. He he spoke in the third person. He wasn't gonna give in to the false prophets and the way they self aggrandize and boast the boastimonies of what I've done. Look what God's done through me. I raised Dorcas. You know, Peter raised Dorcas from the dead. I I I raised Eutychus from the dead. People were complaining that I preached too long, and Uticus fell asleep, and boom, he died. And I went over there and raised him from the dead. What you guys raised somebody from the dead? I cast out demons. Any of you cast out demons? He could have boasted in that way because that's that's that's a press release. Look at this guy. He's a heavy. Instead, he boasted in his sufferings and what he suffered. He says the only way you can survive the torture of the cross is to be dead, to be crucified with Jesus. Let me read this again. But God forbid that I should glory. Only I'm gonna glory in is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me. The world doesn't have that hold on me. I'm not Saul of Tarsus anymore. I'm not that guy being groomed to be a member of the Sanhedrin and maybe the next, you know, part of the priesthood, the the the upper echelon of Judaism. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a concerning my contemporaries, I exceeded them all. I was voted most likely to succeed of all of them. I was raised at the feet of Gamaliel. Hebrew Hebrews, a Benjamite, and I consider it all as dung and refuse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Jesus revealing himself to me. I've crucified that old life. And the Jew for a Jew, in a Jewish family like Paul, they would have a mock funeral for you. You're no longer a member of the family. You come to Christ. And Paul says, I crucified the world. The world's dead to me. The world is dead to me, and I am to the world. So the only way you survive the torture of the cross is to be dead, to be crucified with Jesus. If you're a whiner, if you're a complainer, the solution is die. Dead men don't whine. You're just not dead yet. There's too much of you. Too much of you still wanting to live, still wanting your way. Gotta die. Remember, we die daily. We take our cross up. The cross is symbolic of death. We take our cross up daily and follow Jesus. No longer us living, but Christ living through us. But if I stop along the way and demand my rights, demand an explanation, demand that this this isn't right. You know? I I watched I watched this clip. I don't know if these clips are true or not. They so grieve me. They make me wanna cry when I see them. People are so lost. And there's this woman, and she's in a store. And she tries to use her EBT card, and it doesn't work. She doesn't have any money, and she's got this cart filled with food. Maybe it's not true. Maybe it's they're just making fun of her. I don't know. But the story part of it really grieved me when I saw her screaming like a lunatic that somebody needs to come over and pay her bill. Somebody pay my balance. She's going crazy, crazy woman. And sometimes we as Christians, that's how the world sees us. I deserve this. I'm entitled. I don't deserve to suffer. I shouldn't suffer. I didn't sign up for this. I'm out of this marriage. This marriage is too hard. I want my best life now. Jesus was marketed to me that all my problems would go away. And I got more problems now than ever because I married a fool. I married a fool that wants to go serve Jesus. Kathy said to me, Rick, you know what happens to us when you do that. We get hit financially. Every time I moved in a direction to serve the Lord, we get hammered. So I reached a place in school, and I said, honey, do you want me to quit again? I quit the first time, got back to work, fixed everything, got blessed, on our way to get an American dream, but I was empty inside. There had to be more. So you can't force your wife. So I said, hon, we we we need to start a bible study at our house on Friday nights. And she said, Rick, you know what happens to us when you do that. And I said, well, alright. I won't do it. I'll wait. Because I couldn't grab her by the hair and drag her into the ministry. You will submit. That's not gonna work. So I waited and I prayed, and she came to me a few weeks later and said, you know, I think God wants us to start a bible study in our house. And we did. And we continue to watch our outward man perish. We continue to watch the devil try to get us to say uncle, to quit, to quit the ministry, to quit even going to the ministry by taking away all of our stuff. And I watched a lot of guys in the school that I was in, they did quit. The economy got harsh, and and they began to say to the Lord, you know, Lord, if you sell my house for x amount, if you do this, that, and the other for me, then I will go. And I've never been able to negotiate with God in that way. For some reason, he doesn't listen to me. I don't know. Never worked that way for me. I'm just not that big a prize. And so we did the bible study, and it grew and finished school, didn't know what to do, where to go, and wound up leaving California with a thousand dollars, left everything behind, and ventured out in faith. Huge step of faith to go plant a church. Wound up in Oregon, and then one of the families from our bible study that Friday night wound up here in Kitsap County and invited us. We came here and began to teach a home bible study, then we went to Illy State Park for the summer and and started renting buildings and stuff. I've been here thirty years, and it's been real hard. It's not easy. But I've got a wife that said, when I said, you want me to quit school now? Want me to get back to work? Focus just on us? Making money down there was so easy. There's so many wealthy people that love to be served. And when the devil leaves you alone, it's so easy to make money when you're not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. He wants to neutralize you for the kingdom of light. He doesn't want your life to be that corn and wheat that fall to the ground and die and bears much fruit. So you leave the you leave the security and the safety of everything you've known and the blessings thereof, and you venture out in faith and all hell breaks loose against you. First day here in Bremerton, we got in the head on car wreck. It's been a battle. But Kathy said to me, we've come too far. We're not quitting now. But again, I had to give her an opportunity to say enough's enough. But she was all in. And once I knew she was all in, I knew we could survive anything because we're gonna rely upon the Lord, that his grace is sufficient. But I couldn't weather a marriage where the devil comes in and divides us. We needed to be like minded. We needed to be of one accord that God has called us as husband and wife, as a family, to serve Jesus here in Kitsap County. And that served us well because it's an absolute truth within our heart that we don't we don't doubt. We know we that we we are in God's will, and we don't impose upon the ministry our ideals and our desires and our dreams. We take our cross up and we follow Jesus, and each and every day we discover what he has in store, what he would have us do. That's how we survive, walking by faith. We started by faith. We continue by faith. In Luke seventeen thirty two, Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. The world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. It's death to self. He says verse 15, for in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, very important phrase there that we're gonna see in the book of Ephesians. Very important. Are you in Christ? For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. The church is an organism, a mystery once hid now now revealed. And it's made up of Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised, has no bearing, has nothing to do with this new creature if we look at it as the church. But you and I individually, we too, according to second Corinthians five seventeen, we're a new creation, a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away, all things have become new. There's a newness of life, the life of the spirit. And then that life of the spirit is no longer us living, but again, Christ living through us. He says, but a new creature. So when the torture comes, the externals can't help. You're apprehended and you're hauled away. Now I might be able to say when I'm apprehended and hauled away, I might be able to say, hey, Calvary Bremerton, come help me. And you reached out and you helped Wayne and Brittany, you're there. That's the body of Christ. But there's no guarantee, is there, that your brand is gonna be there for you, that the externals are always gonna be there. It may come down to a prison cell, and it's just you and Jesus. And if it's just you and Jesus, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Since God is for you, who can be against you? And you're gonna get to know him cause all the peripheral, all the externals, everything has dissipated and gone away, and you're narrowed down. You're separated unto him. And he's there with you, along with you always, even to the end of the age. Your brand can't help. Calvary Chapel's not coming to the rescue. I saw that when we were going bankrupt. Nobody stepped forward to help nobody through a line that can't save you. And in many ways, that's a good thing because you're forced to trust in Christ, trust in him. In other ways, it hurts because it's like, wait a minute. No man goes to war at his own expense. Where's the help? Who's gonna help? And so you're exposed. You're sifted. You're the sifted remnant, and we're able to determine who are the real Christians and who are the false ones because you're put in hot water. You're being tortured. It gets difficult. In a time of prosperity, we don't know who the sheep are, who the goats are. Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruit, and you'll know them by their love. I noticed that when we get our way, when we get what we want, we're really loving. We're really civil and kind to each other. It's when we're put in hot water that we begin to see the bitterness, the anger, the jealousy, the envy, all these things that are of the flesh. The flesh is exposed and comes out. The flesh doesn't like to be tortured. In first John two nineteen, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. So you got a group of people professing to believe in Jesus, some persecution comes against it, and a bunch of them bail, bunch of them leave. And John says, well, they weren't of us. It's okay. Torture exposes what's on the inside of us. When man fails you, Jesus never fails. Never gonna fail. How have you survived? Why hasn't your faith failed? What keeps you going? Some of you have lost children, small children. Why hasn't your faith failed? How did you keep going? Some of you have lost a husband, a wife. How'd you keep going? How do you do it? How have you survived? I'm a new creature. I'm the real deal. It's Christ living through me. Jesus never fails. I felt like quitting many times, but Jesus is so incredibly faithful. And when I'm weak, he's strong. His grace is sufficient. His strength's perfected in weakness. He gives us that grace to get through those times, that dunamis power, that explosive desire to love, to believe and to persevere, to glorify Jesus. The love of Christ constrains us. We can't quit. We cherish the calling he's placed upon each of our lives. We cherish the calling within our marriage. We're not gonna quit on this marriage. We we've been in this marriage thirty years, forty years, fifty years, ten years. I'm not gonna quit now. We're almost the finish line. We're almost there. There awaits me a crown, a crown of righteousness. Why would I quit now? Why would I succumb to the pressure now? We've been through so many scrapes together. We've been through so many things, and the Lord has caused our outward man to perish, but our inward man's being renewed day by day. We're growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We're getting to know him better. And Paul said that I might know him, in Philippians three ten. That I might know him. I know a lot about the Mosaic law. I know a lot about Judaism. I was raised in it. I know it. But I didn't know Jesus until that day that he met me. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. I knew so much. I had so much facts, so much learning, but I didn't know God. I made my first communion confession. I did it all, man, but I didn't know Jesus. He said, Rick, you must be born again. You must receive me in your heart and life that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. But he doesn't stop there, and he says, and the fellowship of his sufferings, plural, being made conformable unto his death. It's in the suffering. It's in the breaking. It's in that place where we get to know Jesus, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In his suffering. He's suffering there with us as we go through the suffering, and we're getting to know him to a greater measure than we've ever known him on the mountaintops. It's in those valleys. He's there with us ministering to us. And yes, the power of the resurrection to list list to lift us above ourselves in the power of the resurrection to enable us to fulfill the ministries that he's called us there to. You moms and dads that have been entrusted with a Down syndrome child that the doctors and people said to abort. How do you survive it? How do you do it? How do you make it? One of the hardest callings any parent, any person could ever have is that of caring for someone else twenty four seven. How do you do it? And yet the Lord gives you the strength, and it's not a burdensome thing. There's such love. There's such joy. There's such blessing. As the Lord manifests himself through this child. I remember when David was with us, and he he always always always used to remind us, pretty soon, I'm getting my new body. Pretty soon, I'm getting my new body. He's smart enough to know that he wasn't didn't have it all together. He knew he had Down syndrome. He knew it, but he knew it wasn't over. He knew with Jesus, in that moment, to ask him the body to be present with the Lord, there's a new body waiting me. That was his hope. How do you do it? God's entrusted this child to you. You didn't give in to the doctors. You didn't give in to society. You didn't give in to the notion of aborting this Down syndrome baby. You said, no. This is a child of God, and God has entrusted this child to me, to us. And we're gonna raise this child in the nurture and admonition of Lord. Look how giant David's faith was. Job like faith in Jesus. And I met others, and I met families that are entrusted with with with children and with family members where it just taxes you to the max. And with the help of the holy spirit, you're able to do it. In second Corinthians four verse seven, Paul says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. This body is made out of clay, clay pot, jars of clay, good name for a band. That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled. Notice this word troubled. Pressure. Jesus said Jesus promised us you will have tribulation. Pressure. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed. Perplexed means there's no way out, but not in despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken. Jesus said, lo, I'm with you always, even the end of the age. We're cast down, oh, why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? We're cast down, but not destroyed. We're always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. So people are watching, they're seeing the pressure, the the the abuse that's coming against your body, that's coming against your life. They're reminded of the cross. By your countenance, that resurrection power and that love that's emanating from your life. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus, for his sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, crucified, buried, and risen from the dead. Are you crucified with Jesus? How have you suffered? How have you survived? For many of you, I look at you and I just marvel what God's entrusted to you in the way of suffering, the way of difficulty, and I just marvel. And I I ask that question, how do they do it? How are they surviving? And not just surviving, thriving. Thriving spiritually, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. That which the enemy meant for evil to destroy you, to wipe you out. God's using it for good, to save many people, to shout from the rooftops what it means to be a Christian. Are you crucified with Jesus? Have you suffered? Have you survived? And thirdly, where are the scars? I think it was Jaws. The guys are sitting there pulling their shirts up where a shark bit them, and this bit them. You know, guys come back from war. I got a purple heart for this, and I got that. And then you're with your grandkids. Oh, man. They love to show you where they got cut, and I got stitches here, papa, and I got my teeth knocked out. You know? And what happened? I crashed my bike. Well, did you run home to mommy? Yeah. I ran home, and she toughened me up. She said, don't bleed on my carpet. Get outside. My mom would laugh at me. She'd mock me. Didn't want me to be a wussy. But if an adult or somebody overstepped their bounds, she's like a angry angry mama grizzly, but she's toughing me up. Where are the scars? And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, peace and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God is not the Jacob, the Israel of God, a changed name, a changed person, a new creature. The true believers, the Israel of God, they walk by faith and experience his peace and his mercies. His mercies are new. Every morning, in the midst of the trials, as we celebrated Thanksgiving, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication. So you're in a trial. You're in a difficulty. Don't be anxious for anything. Don't go on the Xanax yet. Don't take the gummies. Don't try to cope with pharmaceuticals, or in my case, sugar. Don't go there. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. That's hard to do. Lord, I thank you for this trial. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. How valuable is peace in a time of crisis, in a time of chaos, in the world in which we're living? We may not be able to change the circumstances. We pray, we petition, we supplicate, and we bring forth thanksgiving, and we begin to worship the Lord. And as we begin to worship the Lord, he changes me. Maybe later he'll change the circumstances, but he's after me. He's gonna change me from the inside. I'm gonna go from a selfish whiner to a worshiper. He's gonna make me a worshiper. I'm gonna be like Job. Naked came I into the world. Naked, I'm gonna go. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's a good song. He says verse 17, from henceforth let no man trouble me. There's that word. For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. So Paul's saying, all these pretenders, all these false prophets, everybody's after me because I'm telling the Gentiles they don't need to live according to Mosaic law, that they're free, that Jesus fulfilled all the 613 precepts, that they're saved, they're delivered from the past penalty of sin, the present power of sin, and in the future, their very presence of sin. They should learn to enjoy their salvation rather than going back into bondage, back into the law. And yet they trouble me. They're always troubling me. But I have the credibility. I have the marks of approval. I have the marks of authenticity. What I was willing to suffer, not receive as a Christian, your best life now, but what I was willing to give, what I was willing to sacrifice, what I was willing to receive from the Lord in the way of the stigmata, the scars, all the proof needed, not a green screen Hollywood AI production. When it gets tough, when the pastor is speaking of tough things and hard things, I don't look over at my husband and say, we gotta get out of here. Let's find a place that we can hide. This kind of talk makes me nervous. I'm not ready for this kind of talk. Am I speaking Baudrilles or first Bolonians? Am I making this stuff up? Is this not what the bible's teaching? Why would you be afraid? Why would you run somewhere to receive psychology and self help and preppy little sermonettes for Christianettes. That's not gonna solidify and strengthen you as a Christian. That's gonna cause you to depend upon yourself and your own ideas and that man's ideas, and he's gonna be a life coach to you. He's gonna try and give you the formula where you can negate all trouble. If there's any trouble in your life, it's because you don't have the formula right. You're not praying enough. You're not giving enough. You're not working enough. You're not knocking on enough doors. And even to the point you're not believing enough. Think about faith in faith. Faith and prosperity gospel, you know? Yeah. That's where I wanna hide. I want someone to lie to me. I want doctrines of demons. I wanna rest in that. Yeah. That's where I wanna take my family. And you're starving. You're starving. You're not getting fed the word of God. You're getting anemic. You're insipid. You're lukewarm. You're powerless. And the devil leaves you alone. He's got you right where he wants you. And when and when circumstances change, when a crisis hits, you're gonna find out you're not in control. You thought you had some vestige of control. You don't. God is sovereign. He's in control, and I rest in his sovereignty. I rest in his will. I rest in his power to get me through whatever gets beyond that hedge of protection he has around me. If he allows it, if he brings it, if he allows the devil through that hedge, then I gotta believe he's gonna prepare me. And I wanna be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I wanna say, oh, king Nebbe, we're not careful in how we answer you. We're not afraid of you. Our God is able, and even if he doesn't, if it's not his will to deliver us from this fiery furnace, we still will not bow down and worship you. It's non negotiable. I love that kind of faith. Paul says, of the Jews, five times received thy 40 stripes save one. What's that mean? You're not allowed to give them more than 40 or you're gonna get punished. So they pull it back to 39. 39 stripes with a cat of nine tails. Now Jesus, he's being whipped by Romans, there's no stopping at 39. He's beaten beyond the recognition of a man in Isaiah 53. Thrice, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, there at Lystra. Thrice I suffered shipwrecked. A night and a day I spent in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, perils among false brethren, and weariness, and painfulness, and watchings often, and hunger and thirst, and fasting often, and cold and nakedness. What do you think it's like to be a Christian in Nigeria right now? What do you think it's like to be a Christian in Syria, The Sudan, China, and other places where you're the minority and you don't have any weapons, you have no means of protecting yourself? You're like sheep sent to the slaughter. Hundreds of thousands, not millions of Christians. There are more Christians martyred during the twentieth century than all the other centuries combined. It was a heyday upon Christians, and now we are in the twenty first century, and it doesn't appear to be slowing down yet. Do you have the courage to be abused? Do you have the courage to be scarred for Jesus? Rather than going to the psychiatrist and promoting the past abuses of your life and analyzing the past abuses and being a victim to the past abuses of your life, and never able to grow because of the past abuses of your life, why not embrace these scars as a badge, as a badge of honor? That even if the devil goes to this extent to destroy my faith, even before I believe in God, maybe, I will never hold these things against Jesus. Instead, I'll be reminded that he suffered more than any man. And my why question is not why did I suffer. My why question is, why did he save me? Why did he love me? Why is he the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth? Can I go out rejoicing that I was accounted worthy to suffer for his name's sake? Is that the kind of Christianity I possess? Is that kind of love that I have for my Lord? Or is it all just about me? Are you crucified with Christ? Where are the scars? Jesus said in John fifteen twenty, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they've persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they're gonna keep yours also. I'm gonna read you a devotional called standing strong through the storm, titled wounds for Christ. It's by Ron Boyd McMillan. It's called faith that endures. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been accounted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Jesus, acts five forty one. The biblical scholar William Barclay famously described a New Testament Christian as having three remarkable characteristics. Think of the church today. The first century church, these are the characteristics of the persecuted church of the first and second century. One, they were absurdly happy. They weren't depressed. Two, they were filled with an irrational love for everyone. And three, they were always in trouble. Persecuted Christians are constantly in trouble. As a Palestinian pastor put it, if they speak truth to power, power always reacts. An encounter with the persecutor reveals the incendiary nature of his gospel we follow, and if our witness does not provoke some sort of explosive reaction, we have to check whether our gospel powder is damp or dry. We should be in trouble for Jesus. If we aren't, something is wrong. Persecuted Christians are not tempted in the illusion that the world is actually a friend, a friendly place that does not mind our identifying with Christ. The world for them is unmasked and in hostility to Christ. Once when visiting Czechoslovakia in the eighties, I delivered a bible to an elderly pastor. He had not seen a bible in years. He smelled it, kissed it. With trembling lips, he cradled it. Then with great reverence opened it. Then he turned to me and said, let me tell you of my wounds. And he poured out his trials for God, which included seven beatings by the secret police, and the awful seduction of his daughter by a government agent, who then fooled her into betraying him. Then he turned to me, his eyes boring into my soul, and he asked, what wounds have you for the master? I was embarrassed to have so few to share. The questions of the persecuted church are simple. Are you in trouble for Jesus? Where are your wounds? If you don't have any, maybe you've forgotten you're in a fight at all. Whatever culture we are in, we are always being subtly coerced into spending our money, our time, or what is not of Christ. Persecution afflicts us all if we stand up for Christ. The world, the flesh, the devil will never reach an accommodation with Christ. Like it or not, we are caught up in a cosmic warfare. The gospel has landed us in it. We will all be scarred by the battle. We will all experience persecution. The difference is only one of degree and type. What are your scars? Where's the stigmata? Where's the marks? In Revelation five, there stood a lamb as though it had been slain. The only man made thing in heaven are the scars that Jesus bears that he received at the hands of his friends. Still bearing the scars. Are you crucified with Jesus? Where are the scars? Where's the stigmata? Brethren, verse 18, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. If any man come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, Jesus said. Who are you following? Who are you listening to? What are you listening to? Who owns your heart? Where's your heart? Father, we thank you. And Lord, we're sober, we're humbled, we see the apostle Paul, we see those who have gone before us, and Lord, we we hear of the churches under persecution. And, Lord, we we just can't fathom what that would be like. We've been so pampered. We've been so protected, so prosperous. And yet, Lord, we lack power, The power to transform and change our culture. The power to watch you transform and save lives. We're so in love with the world. We're so afraid, so afraid to stand. We lack courage. We wanna be liked. We wanna be liked by the world. We want the world to like us. We wanna be a friend of the world, a world that's at enmity with God. Father, give us discernment. Help us to see through the lies. Help us to see through the things that are keeping us in neutral. Help us evermore to stand for your kingdom and your glory, to stand for truth no matter who likes us and doesn't like us. Fill us to overflowing with your holy spirit, Lord, and bring in a harvest, a harvest of souls, genuine, real converted souls, the true Israel of God. Equip and use us, Lord. Take all that the enemies meant for evil against us, Lord, and turn it around for good to save many people. Let us proclaim our testimony of how you were there, how you brought us through, how we cope, how we're able to persevere, and not just survive, Lord, but to thrive like the early church. Overflowing joy, blessing, kindness, and love, even though we may always be in trouble. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if you're here this morning and you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you may be religious, but you don't know him. You don't have a relationship with him. But the holy spirit's tugging on your heart. The holy spirit's knocking on the door of your heart and showing you the cross of Calvary that Jesus died in your place, that he was crucified, that he was buried, that he raised himself from the dead, that he ascended to the right hand of his father, and that he's coming again. And you know this to be true. And now the question is, will you surrender your heart and life unto him? Are you ready to receive Christ in your heart and life? To be born again? To no longer be body and soul, but to be body, soul, and spirit. To be born of the spirit, to be born from above. In John one, as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Are you believing on his name? Are you trusting in his finished work? Not in yourself, not in your works, not in your goodness, trusting completely in him, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Are you calling upon him now? God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He hears that prayer. He hears that cry. He wants to come into your heart and life here and now, right now. This is your moment. This is the day of salvation for you. Tomorrow may be too late. Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? You want a relationship with Jesus? Lift your hand up. Father, thank you once again. Lord, if there's anybody on Facebook or YouTube or any of the other media as it goes out, Lord, we pray that you quicken their heart, that you save now, that, Lord, you save to the uttermost. Father, thank you for saving us. Thank you for equipping us and strengthening us. Help us to to live be living epistles, living testimonies, Lord, to testify of your soon return, to be your witnesses in these last days. And Lord, we we pray that evermore, we wouldn't shirk from our responsibility, that we wouldn't be fearful of man, that Lord, we'd be bold. Give us boldness. As the early church prayed for boldness, Give us boldness, Lord. Give us that desire, to be uncompromising, to stand for truth in these last days, to stand in your name. Lord, we can't do it without your help. So live through us, Lord, as we're crucified, as you live through us. In Jesus' name we pray.