Text:\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:12<\/p>\n
You\u2019re looking for a house to buy or rent.\u00a0 Or maybe you watch one of those shows on the Home and Garden channel.\u00a0 The realtor takes you from room to room.\u00a0 The entry way, the family room, look really nice.\u00a0 It\u2019s bright and open.\u00a0 You can see that the kitchen has been redone.\u00a0 I like those stainless steel appliances. Then the master bedroom.\u00a0 A nice big closet.\u00a0 And the bathroom.\u00a0 Looking good.\u00a0 Room after room she leads you.\u00a0 You\u2019re feeling pretty good about this house.\u00a0 Then finally the realtor says, Oh, there\u2019s something else you need to know about this house.\u00a0 What that?\u00a0 The neighborhood.\u00a0 What do you mean?\u00a0 It can be kind of unfriendly. Suddenly you\u2019re not feeling so good.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a walk through the house of our Christian faith.
\nFirst of all, realize.\u00a0 You and I don\u2019t even deserve to be invited inside.\u00a0 We know that.\u00a0 We prove it every day.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all fallen so very short.\u00a0 It\u2019s only by the wondrous grace of God that any of us have what we have in Christ.<\/p>\n
But we do. So let\u2019s take a walk through this house of our Christian faith.\u00a0 Look inside here.\u00a0 There you see a perfect life lived for you.\u00a0 Then that very same life given for you on a cross.\u00a0 The life of God\u2019s own Son that covered our sin with God\u2019s forgiveness. How do we know?\u00a0 He rose from his grave and lives.\u00a0 So look in that room and sense, feel, and rejoice at God\u2019s great love for you and me.<\/p>\n
Now look in this room. It\u2019s a room filled with God\u2019s promises.\u00a0 And our Bible tells us about them.\u00a0 Every one of those promises is, Yes in Jesus Christ<\/em>.<\/p>\n We only have time to view a few of them this morning.\u00a0 Every one of them is precious assurance for our lives. God promises you:\u00a0 Never will I leave you or forsake you.\u00a0 He promises:\u00a0 I will help you.\u00a0 He promises to hear and answer your prayers.\u00a0 He promises to make all things work for the good of you, his people. That\u2019s a good room to spend time in when life doesn\u2019t look so good.\u00a0 God\u2019s promises in his Word.<\/p>\n But we need to keep moving this morning.\u00a0 Here\u2019s another room.\u00a0 Somebody once said, you can get through most anything if you have hope.<\/em>\u00a0 Well look inside this room of our Christian faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s full of hope.\u00a0 And not a wish, not a maybe.\u00a0 No in Christ our Savior we have the hope of life like it was meant to be.\u00a0 No sorrow, no pain, no evil, no tears, but life, life with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s another very special room in this house of Christian faith.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s kind of nice.\u00a0 We don\u2019t live in this house alone.\u00a0 We have brothers and sisters here and everywhere. \u00a0Brothers and sisters who care about each other and pray for one another.<\/p>\n It all sounds really great like that other house. \u00a0But our lessons this morning, tell us more.\u00a0 It\u2019s like our Lord and the apostle Paul say to us.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one more thing you need to know \u2013 Christian \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So that brings us to this Word we need to know.\u00a0 As Paul wrote from a Roman dungeon to a young pastor Timothy, Everyone who wants to live to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted<\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0Persecution means to harass or oppress someone.\u00a0 To make life harder, more difficult or even dangerous.\u00a0 For the Christian, persecution is a cross this world throws in our path.\u00a0 And it can include a lot things.\u00a0 From the snide remark.\u00a0 To the tension at home where believer and unbeliever can live side by side.\u00a0 To a job interview where you don\u2019t get the job because the interviewer realizes Sunday Worship is important to you.\u00a0 Persecution can be a quiet thing where people avoid us.\u00a0 But it can also turn ugly.\u00a0 I remember the man who lit into me just because he knew I was a Christian. \u00a0\u00a0Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted<\/span>.<\/p>\n Our Lord Jesus promises the same in our gospel lesson. If we follow him, if we share a gospel that Satan hates, if we try to be the people Jesus calls on us to be, if we bear the name of Jesus, not hiding our faith, Jesus tells us, THEN people will hate you.\u00a0 People will despise you and sometimes worse.<\/p>\n Two things here.\u00a0 I think of a woman suffering persecution in her land.\u00a0 You know what she said?\u00a0 The fact that she was persecuted told her she belonged to Jesus.\u00a0 She was probably thinking of these words of the apostle Peter.\u00a0 He wrote them to Christians taking it on the chin, If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name<\/span>.\u00a0 And what name is that?\u00a0 That one name given to us by which we are saved.\u00a0 Persecution tells me I belong to Jesus.<\/p>\n Then this.\u00a0 This encouragement not to hide from people\u2019s poor opinion or the grief they give you for following your Savior.\u00a0 You heard it minutes ago.\u00a0 Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.\u00a0 Think about that.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of nice to be recognized.\u00a0 For someone important to point to you and say he or she is my friend.\u00a0 Well this you can know.\u00a0 Hold on to Jesus, confess his name and one day you will hear him say to his Father.\u00a0 He\u2019s one of my own.<\/p>\n Yet when we think about it.\u00a0 Persecution is not that big a deal for we Christians in the West.\u00a0 We can speak freely about our faith, our churches.\u00a0 We can openly carry and read our Bibles.\u00a0 We can wear crosses around our necks and not have to keep looking over our shoulder wondering if we will be arrested or attacked.<\/p>\n Our churches are well built.\u00a0 We can put up signs promoting them.\u00a0 Your pastor can focus on his ministry without having to worry about angry mobs or police out to get him.\u00a0 Our freedom of religion is protected by our government and is part of our social fabric.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s easy to forget that most of the world\u2019s Christians don\u2019t share in that kind of situation.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the point.\u00a0 Persecution comes to people we must not forget<\/strong>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a young Christian mother in a Pakistani jail.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard me speak of her before.\u00a0 I think it was two years ago.\u00a0 Her death sentence has just been upheld by a Pakistani court.\u00a0 She was convicted of blaspheming the name of Muhammad.\u00a0 And many think she was falsely accused because she is a Christian.\u00a0 Her name is Asia Bibi.\u00a0 Remember it.<\/p>\n You can also read about the Coptic Christians in Egypt and what they have suffered.\u00a0 Daughters kidnapped and sold into slavery.\u00a0 Churches attacked and burned.\u00a0 You can read the same about the Christians in Nigeria. And if your heart is not moved by this, then think of the Christian children of Iraq and Syria.\u00a0 Many have fled with their families, but not all. A missionary just wrote of this.\u00a0 How ISIS took over the town they were in.\u00a0 They were going systematically house to house to all the Christians and asking the children to denounce Jesus.\u00a0 So far not one child had.\u00a0 And when they refused, they killed them.\u00a0 They beheaded them in front of their parents. Persecution comes to people we must not forget.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>What can we do? \u00a0Think of these words in the letter to the Hebrews.\u00a0 Jewish Christians who were suffering too.\u00a0 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering<\/span>.\u00a0 (13:3) What can we do?\u00a0 God\u2019s Word tells us.\u00a0 Remember them.\u00a0 Remember them in your prayers.\u00a0 Remember them to our leaders.\u00a0 Our President has done very little to help. We can write letters to raise public awareness.\u00a0 We can use the social media.\u00a0 And it\u2019s worked.\u00a0 Prayers have been answered.\u00a0 Remember the lady released from the Sudan also under a death sentence. Persecution comes to brothers and sisters we must not forget.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>And even here our Lord is not absent.\u00a0 Even here as precious little ones have been put to the sword.\u00a0 For what has the Lord done? He has taken them to heaven and allowed them to become martyrs. \u00a0Martyrs.<\/em>\u00a0 Do you know what that word means?\u00a0 Sadly it\u2019s been hijacked by those who want to blow themselves up and kill others who are not Muslim.\u00a0 But a martyr is something different.\u00a0 A Christian martyr is someone like those children in Iraq.\u00a0 They would rather die than turn away from Jesus.\u00a0 And when they do, that makes them a martyr, a witness.\u00a0 For their death says something so powerful about Jesus. To know him, to believe in Him is more precious than even this life.\u00a0 And if you know the history of the church, you know this The blood of the martyrs and their testimony has changed many a heart, even in these days, the hearts of some in ISIS.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s God\u2019s business.\u00a0 Using that tragedy.\u00a0 Our business is this: \u00a0to remember our Christian brothers and sisters.\u00a0 To pray for them and to help them in whatever way we can.\u00a0 For persecution comes to people we must not forget.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:12 You\u2019re looking for a house to buy or rent.\u00a0 Or maybe you watch one of those shows on the Home and Garden channel.\u00a0 The realtor takes you from room to room.\u00a0 The entry way, the family room, look really nice.\u00a0 It\u2019s bright and open.\u00a0 You can see that the kitchen has been redone.\u00a0 I like those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Persecution will come to you who live your faith
\nII.\u00a0 Persecution comes to people we must not forget<\/p>\n