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Desire for us as a church is just to raise awareness today. Today is called the International Day of Prayer. It’s a day in which Christian churches around the country and around the world are focusing on the persecuted church. The desire is to be one with those who share your faith and not, but not your freedom. Did you notice the sort of. This is an interesting fact when you study church history the first 300 years after Christ was crucified, the church experienced massive persecution that took place. You’ve seen it even in the lives of you. Read Scripture. The Apostle Paul was one of the persecutors of the church before he became a believer. And for the first 300 years until the Edict of Milan, Christianity lived under persecution. But today more Christians die for their faith now than ever before, just short of 200,000 people give their lives for Jesus nearly every year. And today, I’m happy to share a message related to those who sacrifice their lives for Christ. Not because people are dying, and not because I want to relate to them in any way. I don’t want to compare myself to the sacrifice that they’re giving, but I feel like if anyone in America can understand what it means to give up something for Jesus, it’s believers in the state of Utah. Understanding what’s happening around the world is important. And I can remember the first time that I became a believer and the reality check that I had, that when I came to trust in Christ, that not everyone was going to receive that warmly.
I can remember the first time I worked up the courage to go tell someone I became a Christian. I walked right up to them. I picked someone that I thought would be easy, and I told them, thinking they’d be happy. And their immediate response was, you know what? It’s your life and you can waste it however you want. And those moments began to realize when Jesus shared in Scripture, count the cost before following me. We were to take those words literally. How do we know that our faith is real and genuine? That it’s just not some sort of head knowledge that we’re receiving? Like this morning we come here and we open up the Word of God, and we read it and we gain all this mental knowledge for ourselves. How do we know that our faith is real and genuine? I would say we begin to take that step from just head knowledge to genuine faith in our lives, when our faith really begins to cost us something and we willingly pay the price. Your faith in Christ becomes real when you’re willing to sacrifice for Jesus. When we look at those who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of Christ, there’s something simple and simplistic and beautiful about the relationship with the Lord. They come to him as if their life really depends upon it.
They live their lives as if they truly depend on Jesus. Around the world today, Christians are facing persecution. They’re gathering on days like Sunday and secluded places hidden in small groups to worship his name, some just clinging to just a page of scripture, reading it and reciting it, and being thankful for that opportunity together. Far different from the American church. We don’t come to church if it’s inconvenient. Did you know it snowed? That is enough of an excuse for America not to come. Thank you for coming today, by the way. We’re a church of convenience. We’re a church of consumer Christians rather than commuter Christians. We won’t walk in the door if it’s crowded or if the temperature isn’t right. The difference between a communal Christian and a consumer Christian is as a consumer. Christian just comes to church on Sunday, and all they’re interested in is what you can do to fill them up and satisfy their lives so they can feel good about themselves and leave. A commuter Christian is one who looks at the body of Christ and asks the question, how can I be a part? And how can I bless their lives to what Jesus has called them to be, not just here locally, but globally. In order to really live the type of life that Christ has called you to, you’ve got to be a part of a community. God has asked you to get involved and encourage each other to commune with him, and to commune with others who are seeking after him.
It’s not about just inspiring our lives, it’s about motivating other people to see him too. Believers around the world at the sake of being inconvenienced. Pursue Jesus and we know their faith is genuine because it’s costing them something. I’ve had the pleasure in my life of meeting several people who serve in countries that are extremely heavily persecuted. The last couple of weeks, I’ve actually had the opportunity to sit down with a couple of my friends who serve in countries that I can’t even tell you where they’re at because we record our messages, and if it ever gets discovered, then they could be kicked out of the country. I sat down with one of these guys, came and did our men’s retreat just a few weeks ago, and I sat down with one of them one night at the men’s retreat, and I said to him, um, how difficult is the persecution that exists in your country? His goal? He’s in the in the Middle Eastern countries, reaching Muslims for Christ. And his goal is to reach people in his own country and in the country in which he lives. People travel to other countries surrounding his country because his country is very good at commerce, and so he wants to reach people for Christ in this country and then send them out to the surrounding countries in the Middle Eastern world to start other churches in a place in the world that if you say that you know Jesus, you’ll get your head cut off.
And I asked him, how difficult is it for you to be a Christian in the country in which you live? And he said to me, he said to me, it is entirely possible in the place in which I live, for two brothers to be living in the same home, to know to for both of them to be believers and to for neither of them to know that the other one is a Christian, because the minute one of them tells the other person that they’re a believer, they put their life at risk. It is lonely. Had another friend serving on a country that is going had gone through some heavy persecution in recent years, and I asked him how things were going. He’s only been there for a couple of years. He’s got a lot of language learning to do, but he’s seen a church that started there, people coming to know the Lord. I asked him how how it was going. He said, you know, when we first got here, it was great. We saw people come to know the Lord and we’re trusting him. We’re gathering in secluded places, worshiping Jesus. And there was. But there were these three high school girls that were part of our church. And they got to to be harassed a lot because of their faith in Jesus.
The community found out about it. And so out of fear, they began to walk to school together. Every morning they would meet each other and they would walk to school together. One morning, two of the girls showed up, couldn’t find their friend, went on to school because they figured she stayed home that day for some reason. Along the way they saw her in the ditch and she had been decapitated. And since that day, it’s been a struggle for us. When I was in college, I had a friend from Sierra Leone. You know, the country of Sierra Leone in the 90s. It went through horrific persecution. This young man who lived in a muslim community, his father was the tribal leader of that community. His father had multiple wives. His mother obviously was one of those wives. And he spoke about how these southern tribes came to the north to attack all the Christian communities and to kill them. And if they didn’t kill you, you were lucky enough to have your life spared. They would cut limbs from your body. You would literally, if you survived, had no arms or legs. Today you can get on the internet and see pictures of those who survived the massacre in Sierra Leone. They have no arms and legs. And he said one day he was at home. His mother saw these angry militiamen coming into the village. She took her son, threw him in the rafters of the home.
He could peek below the rafters to see what was happening. These men entered into the home and he watched from above as his mother, entire family, all the ladies were raped and everyone was killed and he escaped. He got asylum here in the United States. For the four years that I knew him in, in the Bible college that I went to. His desire was to go back to that country and to share the gospel and minister to those people with no arms and legs. And he spent the entire four years trying to get one family member from Sierra Leone to this country. It was his niece, and it was the only surviving member in his family. We don’t hear about this stuff in the news. Apostle Paul wrote an interesting verse on the lives of believers who are facing persecution. It’s sort of the anthem verse for all those who endure persecution around the world. It comes in, my remote’s not working, so you have to give me a click. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse three. We’ll go back. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. God’s got this picture of his church working together for the cause in which he created us to live out for his kingdom on this earth. We just sang the song right build your kingdom here.
Change it. God. And Paul writes this verse thinking about those who are in prison, wishing and desiring for us not to forget them, but to consider themselves ourselves a part of them. We are one with those who face persecution. They’re not forgotten. My question this morning, knowing that today is International Day of Prayer and knowing that God would desire for us to recognize the life of these believers, to think outside of ourselves for just one Sunday. How do we live this verse out? What is it that we can do thousands of miles away from most of these countries in which people experience severe persecution? The Apostle Paul actually answered that question for us comes in his book in Second Timothy. Mark, can you give me a quick again? Apostle Paul wrote the book of Second Timothy from prison. It was the last book that the Apostle Paul wrote. It was the book that he wrote just before he lost his life for the sake of Christ. When you read the context of this book, in a lot of ways, you get the idea that the Apostle Paul is feeling isolated and somewhat lonely. He reflects on his joy in Jesus, knowing that he has endured persecution and he has been faithful to Christ no matter the cost. But he then begins to reflect on the global body of the church and their responsibility to him. As he is stuck in this prison and about to face death.
He’s about to be decapitated in Rome. And so he writes these verses in Second Timothy chapter one and verse 15. It starts off, he says, you know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me at this time. Asia is really just a region. Don’t think continent thinks smaller like a country size. But Asia, everyone in the area of Asia. This is where Ephesus and Colossae was located. Those two churches that you have books of your Bible named after, including I like this. He names two people. They sound like Harry Potter people to me, featureless and homogenous. I don’t know if that came from there or not, but they he he has two people specific. How would you like to get your name in the Bible for that reason and all these good people. And then there’s these cowards and their names are don’t name your kids, right? Featureless and homogenous. Those are bad names. If you’re considering, may the Lord show mercy to the house of Anestrus because he often refreshed me. I was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. And may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day. You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. We consider the question, how can we encourage and support the persecuted church? There’s really three responses that the Apostle Paul gives here in verse 16 and 17 that we’re going to focus on together to remind ourselves of the need that exists around the world.
First comes in verse 16, very end of the verse. He was not ashamed of my chains. Apostle Paul comes out with one request for those who want to support the people who are giving their lives for the sake of Christ, do not be ashamed of them. Several people became ashamed of the Apostle Paul. Area of Asia, and a couple of what Paul considered to be his friends. I got to say this morning, when we talk about being ashamed for the gospel, a lot of us might even come out and just say, you know, I’m not I’m not ashamed of the Christians who who are in bonds. And we’re America, right? We like everybody. Maybe for us, the world, the word could. Maybe we could substitute the idea of just inconvenienced. Or not necessarily ashamed of the gospel, but to to look at these people, to take time to pray for them to consider their change. It’s just inconvenient for us, right? I’ve got my life and it’s busy. Hebrews 13 says, don’t forget about them. But that means other people who aren’t as busy as me in the time that I have right now. We’re not ashamed of them. We just don’t want to acknowledge them. I think for us as people, when we start looking at the idea of suffering, it makes us uncomfortable.
It makes us uneasy. We don’t really want to look at it or discuss it because we don’t like to deal with it. You ever encounter someone that you know is in tremendous pain? Someone whose life is a lot more of a struggle than yours? You don’t always know what to say or what to do. It’s better if you just look the other way or avoid it. Just walk on by and ignore it. I like my picture of Jesus, where he’s clean shaven and bathed and well combed, right. Jesus had access to some of the best hair care products in the world, man. He had to be the inventor of the comb and Rogaine and conditioner and whatever else is out there. That boy always looked good, didn’t he? Every picture you see of him, every time I see a Jewish person today, their hair is either crazy or they’re bald. But Jesus, for some reason made it through beautiful. And that’s that’s just the picture that I want the convenient Jesus. The Apostle Paul says, when we talk about the body of Christ and we talk about suffering, it’s not always that way. Got to be honest and saying that ignoring suffering is a fix. But the problem is, is it’s just a temporary fix. It doesn’t provide for us a long term solution. You can ignore it for a moment, but it’s just not going away.
And so we we ask ourselves the question how can we address the problem? What is it that we can do? I just leave you with a thought where Jesus is King, sin will die. Sin will die where Jesus is King. Meaning when you look in the world and you see all the injustices and you see people unjustly suffering, but just because they stand for Jesus. I find it interesting, and I know I’ve said this before, but when you go to the country of India, India has 300 million gods, but you put a cross up and you acknowledge Jesus as one of those gods and you go to jail. How is there no room for Jesus in that? The solution for us is to recognize that when Jesus is king, sin dies. The way to see persecution and the way to see suffering and injustice that we inflict upon one another to end in this world, is to see people come to know Jesus. You can throw all the money in the world at things that are going wrong. But what really needs to happen in the lives of people who are bringing injustice is a heart change. You look at what happened in the life of the Apostle Paul, the persecutor of the church, and rather than just throw money at him, they they throw Jesus at him. And the church kept loving him and praying for him and ministering for him and Jesus on the road.
Or excuse me, Paul, on the road to Damascus, Christ came into his life and transformed him from the inside out. Some of the greatest persecutors become some of the greatest praisers of the Lord. And so the way that we see those lives changed was through Christ. And where Jesus is King, sin will die. And so the responsibility for us as a church becomes. We aren’t ashamed of the believers who are suffering, and we’re not inconvenienced by the believers who are suffering. They are one with us. They are part of Jesus’s bride, and Jesus loves his bride. And so I want to love them too. And I’m going to pray for them, that God’s heart would begin to soften the people who are persecuting them and give them strength. God sustained them. There was a pastor who traveled to a country where he knew a man who was suffering for his faith. He was in jail, and the pastor went and visited this man in jail. Knowing that him taking this step out as a believer and visiting this man was also putting his life at risk. And the man looked at this pastor and said, you just being here is worth more to me than ten sermons. Your presence. I’m just saying that you love me. You care about me. That’s worth more to me than anything else you could do. The way you care for others is your true Jesus message to them.
No one cares what you know until they know that you care. Right. You. Your love for people validates the truth that you believe and the message that you proclaim. If you have no love, you have no message. A man that shows his love for Jesus carries a message worth far more than one who simply says he loves Jesus. I think I’ve heard James say that before. Faith without works is dead, right? Right. You show me your faith and I’ll show you my faith by my works. The way that we live validates the truth of what we believe. The way that you know your faith is genuine, is that you’re willing to lay down and provide a cost for it. God, I’m sacrificing for this because it’s real. God, if it’s inconvenient for me to look at this, I’m living in that inconvenience because it’s real. I love this morning, you guys. If you’ve got if you’ve got a bracelet, if you haven’t, you can pick one up after the service. But on the back of it, if you flip it over, it’s got a website address. Open doors USA. Org. It gives you all the information of persecuted churches. Another organization that’s done a wonderful job at getting the voice of persecuted churches out there. It’s called voice of the martyrs. They’ll even send you a monthly magazine for free to your house if you’ll just pray for the Christians that are being persecuted.
I got to tell you, if you’ve got young kids, the pictures in there can be graphic, but it’s just a raising awareness and to give a voice of people around the world that we’re totally unaware of because our news won’t broadcast it. What’s happening to the lives of Christians until a faith is lived out? It’s not a real faith. It’s simply an unproven theory. And God expects us as people to do something with the faith that we have in him. Together, we’ve studied the Tabernacle in recent months. Right. Excuse me in recent sermons last three weeks. And we talked about the beauty of the tabernacle, God’s presence dwelling in the tabernacle, and then Jesus coming to earth, and Jesus calling himself the temple or the tabernacle, and then Jesus, when he died on the cross, he tore the veil and he took the Spirit of God, which dwelled in the temple which came with him. And he placed it within us, saying to us that now we as people have become that temple of God, the Spirit of God dwells within you. It’s a beautiful picture. But get this God, put that spirit within you so that spirit could get out. Jesus calls that living waters. It just flows from our lives. God didn’t want it. Just get it in there and get it stuck and get it stagnant. God wants that Spirit of God within you to express itself in the world, but God expects you to do something with the faith that you have in him.
If you don’t have a desire to display a love for Jesus, really, ultimately you should question your love for Jesus. If your faith doesn’t cost you something, you should ask yourself if it’s real. Is it just head knowledge or is it truly following Christ? Paul identified those for us who likely weren’t following Jesus or weren’t following Jesus. They deserted him. And he says in verse 16, don’t be ashamed of my chains. Verse 17, what Paul says in the following verse as he describes what Nicephorus did for him. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. I like it, he just doesn’t say on this verse gave a shot and finding me. He gives this idea in our head that I mean, he was diligent in this. This was this one test. This guy wasn’t going to eat or sleep until he got to the city of Rome. And he found the apostle Paul. It’s kind of like a mother going to the shopping center. The kid gets lost, right? You run frantically through the aisles trying to find him. You can imagine in Rome at the time the Apostle Paul is in jail. Peter is about to be killed as well. It’s dangerous to be a Christian. And here’s this guy knocking on every door that he can think of, asking people if they’ve seen Paul identifying himself as a believer.
I don’t care that it’s putting me at risk. I just want to find Paul and let him know how much I care about him. Let him know how much I love him. Let him know what Jesus is doing in this world, and thank him for the inspiration he’s given us as believers by standing for Christ. He says search for them. And I love that because it reminds us as a church, just what we’re about. Relationships. Love God with all your heart and through the love that you carry for Christ. Allow God to work in you and through you to love this world for his sake. Just love on this surface. That was his message. He sang to Paul. Paul, listen, my message is real and I’m so thankful for what you’ve done. Unless we as people make a commitment to seek those in need, we’re not going to care about how we can help. I think today, one of the reasons that we’re so unconcerned, maybe with the church and what’s happening globally is just because we’re uninformed of what is taking place. But I’m so thankful as a church family, as we look to buy a new building, we look to move forward. We look to grow and expand that. We’re just opening our eyes, even this morning, to what’s happening outside of Utah, to say to ourselves, we’re not just a part of what God wants to do here.
We’re a part of what God wants to do everywhere. Amen. So how can we help in Pakistan today? It’s about becoming informed. But in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt. If you’ve even watched our own worldwide news here, locally local worldwide news, a lot of these countries have been talked about in their persecution very limitedly. But they’re making our national news which says it must be pretty severe in Iran. Excuse me. In Pakistan today there is a lady named Asia Bibi. You’ll see her in just a minute. Her name looks like Asia, but it’s pronounced Asia. She is currently in jail because of her faith in Christ. She is both a wife and a mother of two young girls. She’s been in jail since 2009. Her reason for being arrested is simply because she’s a believer in Christ. Mark’s going to take some time just to share a video with us, just to let us know about her. My name is Ashiq Masih. Aisha’s husband. Please pray for my wife and our family. She will never deny her. Jesus. As Isaiah was working with several other women on the form of a muslim land owner, there was an intense discussion among the women about their faith. As the woman told us here about Islam, she responded by saying, Our Christ sacrificed his life on the cross for our sins. Our Christ is alive.
Upon hearing this response, the Muslim woman became angry and began to beat Ayesha. Later on, Pakistani police filed the charges under most controversial blasphemy laws and arrested Asia Bibi. On June 19th, 2009, after a lengthy and one sided trial. On November 8th, 2010, Asia Bibi was sentenced to death as she has attorneys filed an appeal and now wait for the court’s final ruling. If the appeal is rejected, Asha would be the first woman to be lawfully executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. She remains in prison, waiting to hear the high Court’s ruling. Even in the police station, she was asked to convert and accept Islam. She said, no, kill me, but I will not deny my Jesus visit. Call for mercy. Com to sign a petition directed towards the Pakistani Embassy in the US requesting Asia Bibi’s release. This is the time for our intense and earnest prayers for Pakistan. So we’re still having a little video technical difficulties there. What the story there didn’t tell you is the two gentlemen they showed I think there was actually three gentlemen in the picture, but two of the gentlemen they showed in the picture who are trying to help to get Asia released from jail in Pakistan. Been there since 2009. 2010. She was sentenced to death. Those two gentlemen are government officials in Pakistan and because of their desire to help her be released, they were both gunned down in the streets seeking her freedom. And so today, I see us still sits in jail, and her family’s been able to visit with her.
And they’ve dialogued and sent back even word to other people to let her know how she’s doing. Listen to this. It says imprisoned. I see a Bibi was visited by her husband Ashiq on on March of 2012, this year, when ACA inquired after her two young daughters. A sheikh told her that the children were healthy and doing well in school. She told him she was feeling discouraged about ever being released, and he said yesterday when we had family prayer, I asked the children what they were praying for, and they said we were praying for those who were helping us, and we’re trying to release our mama. We’re talking about real people, real people facing hardships. And God has given the opportunity as his church to pray for their needs. Not just pray for their needs, but you can even go to the website, call for mercy and sign petitions to help her be released. Those aren’t the only petitions that exist on the website just for a sea of other people around the world in similar situations because of their faith in Christ. And we can see the genuineness and the beauty of their relationship with Jesus, because it’s costing them something and they’re willing to pay the price. I think out of all the things that Paul says to us, though, in this passage of Scripture, the most beautiful thing to me is in verse 16 says, May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus because he is often refreshed.
Me. We seldom think about just the contribution that we bring to church. Oftentimes we look at church at what it can do to me. But seldom times we spend opportunity thinking about what we can do for it. And Paul talks about the beauty of this man coming to his jail, seeking him out diligently, and how refreshing it was to his soul. We as a church family want to encourage that even among ourselves here this morning. We like to say, even here, collectively, man, we just we have to consider each other family. Biblically we are. We’re a part of God’s family, but we really need to look at each other as family when we’re hurting love and when we’re excited. Cheer, right? Stacy and I are about to have a baby. That’s cool. Right? Yeah. Found out she was pregnant. She actually told me as I was walking out the door to come to church last Sunday. So I don’t know where I was last Sunday, but but, but when it’s exciting, we cheer. And when when we’re sad, we get together and and we encourage one another. We become a part of God’s family. And the the important thing that we see in that is that in all those things we become refreshed together. Which which means if if we’re hurting, it requires us as people just to be open and honest about it.
Don’t take the world on your own. The Bible never tells you to do that. In fact, God’s given you a body for that reason and we’re excited to share it. Paul talks about the importance of that. Refreshing. Listen to this. I’ll see you in jail in June. A chic went back and reported that Isaiah was feeling better. She said a group had brought her some food and clothes and she was thankful for them and their prayers. Our church exists. God created his church to exist, to equip and empower God’s people for the work that God has called us to do. You will not live for what Jesus has called you to do in this world, without becoming a part of God’s body. When you read Corinthians, the Bible tells us that he’s he’s fitted us all together, and he’s given us all separate gifts in which to bless the lives of one another. God has gifted me in certain ways to bless you. God has gifted you in certain ways to bless me. Both of us are reflecting the beauty of God’s character to one another, and in that we see the love of God modeled with each other. You can’t do that on your own. It’s important for us to recognize the insignificance of life outside of ourselves. And so let me just answer this question now. We looked at how the apostle Paul just talked about how we can be a part of encouraging the the body of Christ globally as it’s suffering and the importance that we can carry, and just refreshing and just seeking out diligently and not being ashamed, but to become knowledgeable about them.
And so the important question then becomes for us, how does Paul’s message help us walk with Jesus? How does that help us look like Jesus? The Bible actually says this in first or Proverbs, excuse me, chapter 11, verse 25, he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Can I tell you in our lives, some of the best people to get next to are the people who are going through struggles. The people that are in valleys. And here’s why. It’s because when they have a relationship with Jesus and they’re walking in a valley, when they begin to pray and talk to God, they’re praying from a deep state that they just want to connect with the Lord and experience him in their lives. To those of us who may be walking in a life where it’s just convenient, everything’s going the way that we want it to, nothing’s really hard. We just kind of treat God like he’s the pinata in the sky. We sort of whack whenever we want, right? That relationship oftentimes can feel distant. But when you find someone going through a struggle who loves Jesus and you get next to them, not only can you encourage their lives, but you can just be inspired by their love and passion, their caring for the Lord.
In the midst of that trial, they’re experiencing God help. I think the life of Jonah when he was captured in the whale. What a beautiful prayer he had in the belly of the whale. God help. Right? Doesn’t take a lot. Just that cry from the heart to the Lord God, I’m connecting with you and asking you to work in my life. How beautiful it is to get with that. How refreshing for our soul as we seek to refresh those, and in the end, they end up blessing our lives. And the second thought I would carry with this is that the Lord blesses that when we think outside of ourselves, we go into this world to be a light for Christ. The Lord blesses that. That’s what he’s called us to be. He he brings us joy in that. He’s created us for relationships. And when we’re living that out, the Lord blesses that. Second thought is this. The book of John Jesus talked about a comforter, which was the Holy Spirit, the comforter. Jesus was interested in sending to this world that it would indwell us, and it would bring us comfort as we seek to minister for the Lord in this world. John 14 1516 Jesus talked all about this. Holy Spirit referenced him as the comforter several times. But it says in John 1426, But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.
Thank God for the comforter, right? In John 16 he goes on and says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. That’s good. I want that comfort that God promises. I want that comfort comforter with me. Interesting thing though, in Hebrews chapter ten, the Bible then starts to talk about the church. Here we have in John talking about the Holy Spirit and then John chapter ten. It starts talking about the importance of the church. It says this that we’re not giving up on meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging, or some translations say, exhorting one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. What’s this passage saying to us? You look at the original context of the original language in which these passages are written. The word comforter and the word encourager derive from the same word. Essentially, what the Bible is saying to us when we encourage others, we come close or we come as close to the work of the Holy Spirit as anything else we can do in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is a comforter and encourager within us, and when His Church gathers together, when they assume the role of encouraging and comforting one another, it’s an indication in our lives that the Holy Spirit is working within us and making itself known in the lives of other people. There is no greater way for which Jesus makes himself known. And when we’re doing this, you’re looking just like Christ. When we’re taking the words of the Apostle Paul and what he’s saying about the church, and we’re seeing them maybe even as commands to us of what we need to do, it’s also important to recognize that it’s the indication that the Holy Spirit of God is working in your heart and life. You know, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit, his goal is to make Jesus known. That’s the primary goal of the Holy Spirit. But the way that he does this is by working in our hearts and our lives to love others to Christ. Don’t care what you know until we know how much you care. And so these passages are reminding us to allow the Spirit of God to move freely in God’s people, the way that you do that give your life to his control. And look at the needs of the body and come into church on Sunday morning and Monday. When you think globally about this world and seek to encourage those who need encouraged.
God didn’t give you that spirit to just sit inside of him. God gave you that spirit to make itself known in this world that Jesus could be proclaimed. Let me give you one final thought here, Mark. Give me another click. Some of you may have seen this picture. It was on the news recently. It was in all sorts of articles just before hurricane Sandy hit. This is not a picture of hurricane Sandy. Just so you guys know that if you don’t know what hurricane Sandy is, watch the news. You guys need to watch the news more, right? The hurricane that just hit the East Coast. And and the reason they ran this article was because during this hurricane, they knew that these soldiers were going to be standing in this position. This is why it’s important. This is a picture of a tomb in Arlington National Cemetery. This tomb is called the tomb of the unknowns. This is a good and good for us to hear because today’s Veteran’s Day, right? This is called the tomb of the unknowns. Or sometimes it’s called the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Contained within that tomb are the remains of a World War One soldier. It was never identified. It’s brought back to America and to say to ourselves as people that they would never be forgotten. We took the soldier who was not named, and put him in a tomb to remind ourselves of all the men and women who have given their lives, and maybe not been recognized for the for their cause.
The tomb of the unknown. This soldier has been awarded the Medal of Honor, the Victoria Cross, and several other medals from four nations of the highest regards and countries. But the interesting thing about this tomb is that since the year of 1948, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. There is always a soldier standing guard next to that tomb to say to this world, these soldiers will never be forgotten. That, to me, is the closest illustration that I can think of for what Jesus has called us to for his church globally. He gave me one more click. Hebrews 13 three. Think about this verse on the back of the tomb of the unknowns. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. This passage is saying to us military says, no man left behind. The Apostle Paul, or whoever you want to say, wrote the book of Hebrews, is saying to us, no one for the sake of Christ is being left behind. God has called his church to work together, to recognize his body and to encourage one another. As the Holy Spirit works in our lives to make Christ known. That’s how we look like Jesus. We hear Paul’s words and we ask ourselves, how does this make us look like Christ? And we find it here.
So where does this leave us? It leaves us as a church with a challenge. Look for a place to be used by God, to be an encourager for him. It doesn’t even have to be globally. People are sacrificing locally for the sake of Christ. Become God’s family and be a part. The second thing is this if you think about even as a parents, if you’ve got children, show your kids the people in this world that are giving so much for their faith to prove the genuineness of who Jesus is and their desire just to love him. The importance of recognizing how precious it is to live in a place where you can openly proclaim Christ. Show yourself how important Jesus is in your own world by getting with those who are suffering, who are calling upon the Lord as if everything depended upon it, and just watch the beauty and the simplicity of their faith in Christ. Wear a bracelet. How about that? So remind yourselves to be one with those who share your faith, but not your freedom. This morning I know I’m talking about the entire world, but you really, we we can’t as people reach an entire world. Jesus can, but we can’t. And so the important thing for us is we can’t commit to everything, but we can commit to a few things and just support it. Well, right.
You look at the list of the 50 countries. If one of those countries just impacts your heart, pick a country and study about it and pray for it On the world’s watch list, there are 50 countries like. You could take one country every week out of the year and pray for that country, and you get two weeks off, right? I mean, there are things that we can do. We can think in ourselves. I don’t want to give you the specific details of all that you should do or can do. God’s called you to specific things, gifted you in particular ways. So draw your heart to minister in ways that other people he won’t draw to. What I’m saying is, whatever God is doing to impact your heart, don’t ignore it. How God is inspiring your heart and working within your heart to encourage others. Allow God to use that to be an encourager. One day Jesus will end all suffering. It’s important for us to recognize that what he’s called us to be are agents of hope going through this world, proclaiming his message of freedom in him. This is an opportunity for us as a church to think about what God has called us to do. I’m going to give us one, one more thought and be done. In the beginning, I talked about a couple of individuals who were part of countries where there is severe persecution taking place, their desires to reach those countries to be a change for the sake of Christ.
Um, I’ll tell you where they are after I turn my mic off a little later, I can tell you the countries I just don’t want to record it. But if you just feel like you want to be a part of what’s going on in countries where people are literally losing their lives for Christ and severely dangerous to be a believer, we’re going to take our offering box on the entry table this morning and just say, if you want to give to help, you can do that. Anyway, God’s blessed you with the ability to give and you want to do that. It’s another way in which you can be a part. I tell you, whatever we get in there today, 100% will go to those countries of people who are facing severe persecution for their faith in Christ. That as a church family, I guess we leave with this challenge. God, I want to think outside of myself and not just look at my need. Because when we think about our own problems and our own suffering and just things that aren’t going our way, we can really get embittered. I just want to look outside of myself. I want to see what’s going on in this world around me. I want to recognize what you’re doing in my own heart and figure out, Lord, how what you’re doing in my heart can help impact this world for the sake of your name.