We'll be in James 1 still starting in verse 2:00.
We, we started there last week, but I think especially with the
events this last week, going back through and just kind of
stepping through it. Count it all joy, brother, my
brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for, you know,
the testing of your face. Fate produces steadfastness, and
let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking nothing. If you lack wisdom.
Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without
reproach, and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith with no dialing.
For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven
and tossed by the wind. For the person, that person must
not suppose that he received anything from the Lord.
He's a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
And you can also put your look up Act 6.
We'll be in We'll be there later.
And so this is one of those one of those moments in the world to
what is counted all joy look like, right.
If you look at Charlie and I I don't want to as I go through
this there, there's an end to my study, but I I don't want you
guys to make it. I don't want to sound like I am
making light of of what what happened to Charlie.
What if you guys don't? If does everybody know?
What I'm talking about? Anybody not know what I'm
talking about? Charlie Kirk, the founder of
Turning Point, debated on college campuses and he was shot
and killed this week. His wife is going through this
right now, right? Charlie's, Charlie's with the
Lord, but his wife and his children are going to go through
this. And the thing and I was I was
sharing with Aunt Sherry last night was there there's going to
come a point where life gets quiet in her life, right?
Right now, it is it is out in in light and everybody sees it.
But it's going to get quiet and she's going to get alone.
And those are the times that she's going to need need our
prayers. So don't stop praying for her,
right? Don't start praying for those
that go through this now around the world, everyday tragedy
happens, right? This one happened on T on on
YouTube and it's filmed, but it happens everywhere, right?
The question is, how do we respond, right?
And are we steadfast, steadfast in our faith because we have
allowed the maker to make right? And that's the that's when it's
counted all joy when you fall into various trials, right?
Because he's making you steadfast through that, through
your faith and you've been tested and tried.
And, and I would tell you that that Charlie's wife didn't wake
up and suddenly have the ability to stand up and share the way
she did. That was, that was something God
built into her over over the time they've been together,
right? This is a, this has not been a,
this was a sudden end to his life, but not a sudden battle in
their lives, right? They've been, they've been out
sharing what the Lord's putting on his heart and on their heart
for their entire marriage. And, and what she's laying back
in right now. And what we lay back in in those
moments is knowing he has a plan, right?
Not knowing he has a plan today. Like I talked about last week,
the tools that we're being made into that, that he has a plan
for that, that all things that we trust him, that he's in
control of it. Steadfast, which is the, the
title of the, the study today is steadfastness in full effect.
And steadfast just means immovable or loyal.
It's firm or fixed in place. It's, it's determination, right?
And you don't, so you don't coast through life ignoring the
Lord and doing what you want to do.
And, and then when the trial comes, have steadfastness.
It doesn't work like that, right?
You, you, you get what? When, when the struggle comes,
you need to have that steadfastness which is built
over time. And it's, it's not built because
you work hard. It's built because you've
surrendered those things to him, you know, and there are, we have
shared in the past, Joe and Jenny Cotta are and, and one day
Joe will come and they probably around Christmas, he'll probably
come up and share with you guys about about his son.
But when they lost Jacob, that is So that isn't the day that
they applied their steadfastness, right?
That isn't the day that they went, oh, we need to, we need to
act like Christians, right? They were already there.
They were prepared. They didn't want to be prepared,
right? That wasn't.
But then at that moment they had an opportunity to use the trial,
the the awful to share and and people got saved.
Right, I, I wish you could have seen.
Jacobs Jacobs celebration of life and I've I had a had a kid
at a man I graduated high school would have graduated high school
with died at young and his funeral was at 16 years old.
Zach's funeral was to this day like it just sad.
It was it was it was sad. It was heartbreaking, right?
And I was not a believer and neither was he and his fit.
You know, there was crying and it was it was a hard thing to
bury a classmate. And then I go to Jacob's funeral
that lasted and I am not kidding, 3 hours of people up
front singing and talking about Jacob.
And there were, there was a joke about a yellow suit and there
were probably 1520 kids that it went out and bought these, I
mean, like Minion yellow suits. And it was a day of celebration
of Jacob's life because we absolutely knew where he was at.
Absolutely. And and that was not a not a
guess. And, and but that wasn't
something that they applied for that day, right?
That was something that was built in that, that Joe and
Jenny had done, that they had, they had went through the
battles that got him to that point.
And like I said, I'll let him tell one day.
He'll come and and share with you a he's he's an awesome
teacher but Hebrews Hebrews 12/2 kind of looks into this looking
to Jesus, the founder perfector and in the new King James.
It's the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and
he sitted. He's seated at the right.
He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and do we
in all things, even this right when when she got the phone call
or or saw the video, I don't know how she was informed or she
might have been there. Did she trust the maker?
Did she trust the author right? Do we trust the author when
things suck? They will tell you that my my
most annoying dad statement that my kids ever hear is if it's
funny later, it's funny now. And and that works for
everything up to death, right? I mean it.
It let broken bones, wrecked cars.
We all tell the story later. Laughing about it.
Whatever it is, even if it's the stupidest thing I've ever done
right or the most horrific moment.
But it's funny later because now I can tell a story about it.
And so if it's funny later, it's funny now.
But part of that is perspective. Do you know who our God is?
Do you know how big he is? Do you know how much he's in
charge? And the, we're going to talk
about martyrs today. And I don't know that
everybody's calling Charlie a martyr, and I don't know if he
would have called himself a martyr.
So I don't want to put that on that, but I do want to do some
comparisons. And Nate St. and Jim Elliott and
two other guys back in the, I think it was in the early 50s,
died on a beach in Ecuador. And they died on a beach trying
to reach a try, a tribe that hadn't been reached, that was
known to be known to be killers. And they thought they had, they
had an open door, they had had breakfast, they had, they had
had a meeting the day before and everything was good.
And somewhere there there was a miscommunication with the tribe.
And the tribe came and killed them all the next day on the
beach. And their story is, if you guys
ever want to read a the it's into the spear.
And it is four guys that absolutely knew what they were,
they were being asked to do and what they were willing to do for
it. And I've got some.
I don't know what no it no, this this this went dead.
So yeah, just a second, guys. All right, so so there's Jim
Elliott, Elizabeth Elliott. These are people that you get to
hear fake quote Elizabeth a lot, but Nate St. was the pilot and
it I read so they all have they all have biographies and Nate
Saints biography. If you if you want to read it's
like now and then's they're like 8th grade level reading books.
They are amazing to read about great Christians that have lived
over the years and Nate St. has one of those that just explains
how how much God had built into him.
It wasn't like wasn't that he graduated from high school and
said, hey, I'm willing to go to Ecuador.
And die on a beach. Right there was a process of
learning and, and how that happened in his life that that
God built him to be that man. And then his son, his son has
started a lot of nonprofits over the years.
He he does ministry in that country and his quote, his name,
Steve St. and he has a quote that says, I have come to
understand that life is too complex and much too short to
let an amateur direct the story. I would rather let the master
storyteller do the writing and do we do that?
Do we trust that? I don't know, do I do I trust
that do when I when I'm reading my Bible or when things come at
me, do I trust that the way he says I'm supposed to deal with
it is the right way to deal with it?
Or do I apply my logic and do I trust his story to eternity over
my plan for next week? And that was, I'm sure you guys
have all over the years with, with different things, but mine
was a money thing way back when. And it was one of those days
that I had a calculator and I could enter the numbers and I'm
like, it ain't going to work. And I know what he's saying, but
we're not going to do that because that won't work.
I've done the math. If I worked, if I worked 60
hours of overtime a week, we still lose the house in three
months. It's a horrible plan.
We can't do it. And Fast forward to we actually
by the rest decided to do it and had no idea how it was going to
work. And then it worked beyond my
ability to cover it because he knew.
He knew what the he knew the numbers didn't enter in the
calculator. I didn't, right.
I had numbers that I thought, yeah, but you don't know what
you don't. You have no idea what the
numbers are. And that's the part with the
storyteller versus he has a plan for eternity, and I have a plan
for as far as I can see. Right.
And if they was talking about that this morning with being in
the moment, right. Don't worry about tomorrow.
When we look at the big picture, Elizabeth Elliott, which is one
of the guys on the beach, his wife, and she talks about faith
like this. And faith is not an instinct.
It is certainly not a feeling. Feelings don't help when you're
in the lion's den or hanging on a wooden cross.
Faith is not infirm inferred from the happy way things work.
It's an act of will, a choice based on an on the unbreakable
word of God who cannot lie and who shows us what love and
obedience and sacrifice means in the person of Jesus Christ
right. So and and her story guys, is
ever just want to live your life in conviction Read one of her
books because when, when Elizabeth said when Elizabeth
Elliott says embrace the suck, she she has reference right?
That is, you know, her, her husband died when her when her
daughter was just born. Her next husband died of cancer.
I mean she's she's got and and never lost her joy, right?
She has she has a a story that is inspirational, but it wasn't
because. She was out trying to make that
story. Right, she really just went
where God want She has a thing about just do the next thing
right And that is that's how Elizabeth Elliott walked walked
with Christ and that's what I would tell you Jessica or not
Jessica Charlie's wife is doing. I just forgot her name.
What is it, Erica? That is what she's doing the
next thing, right? And we can count it all joy when
we have faith that's beyond our understanding.
And when when we have that base, we are able to be used to
perform steadfastly the job God intended us for, right?
And that is, you know, the guys on the beach, they had a gun.
And the story is that they didn't, I mean that nobody was
there with them, but they didn't use the gun because the, the
natives, the, the reason those four guys were on the beach was
that those guys got to hear about Christ and have a chance
for eternal life and shooting them.
The four guys that they got to go to be in glory, but if they
were to shoot any of the their attackers, their attackers
weren't going to glory. Now, I'm not saying that I'm
not, I'm not adding a theological statement there, but
that's the facts, right? They had a gun that they didn't
use and had the ability to use it.
And Jim Elliott said one of his quotes is he is no fool who
gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose,
Right. And and that's that, do we trust
the Lord? And there's nothing that's
that's this week as I was. As I was.
Pondering this and me and the Lord were talking like, Lord, is
there anything I'm holding between me and you?
Is there something, Is there anything I'm not willing to give
up if you asked? You know, I mean, guys, come in
here. One of the things I had to give
up was Africa, right? That's that's one of those
right. That's a that's a ministry.
God gave me a a heart. God gave me.
Now I still get to go, but it's not my focus.
And it was something that I mean, that was a like, I think
Mark shared that, you know, that was one of his concerns was I
was going to come and be a African missionary with the
church and God in no one certain term said that can't be.
You know, that was part of our my my walk with him through it
was Lord, you've given me, you've given me a a burden.
And he says, and, and he was, and I carry that burden egg.
That's for me to carry. You got to give it you, you, you
take the burden I give you and and you know, it's, it's that's
who I've been for. I mean, that's who I've, I've
been for the last almost 20 years is the guy that goes to
Africa, the, the guy that, you know, if you want to know about
mission work in Africa, I'm the guy to talk to.
You know, for years they called me a missionary and they used to
laugh at him and go, no, I, I go to Africa every, I go to Africa
every every year. But that doesn't make me a
missionary when I lived there. We can talk about that.
But and so, but being willing, no matter what, God's asking you
to lay it down, right is, is to be flexible with that.
And, and he does change what he's doing with you, right?
So being willing to never hold something and think this is
mine, letting him tell the story.
So when we look at James and John and this is another one of,
of the guys that This Is Us. I, I always look at James and
John and think I would do this James and John.
So this is Matt Mark 1035 and 37, James and John's the son of
deputy came to him and said, teacher, we, we want you to do
whatever we ask, ask of you. It's a new mic up here.
And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?
And they said to him, grant us to sit one on your right hand
and the other on your left in glory, in your glory.
And what they thought they wanted was power and comfort in
this world. You know anybody like that?
And in the end, they do get to sit on Thrones, right?
Jesus promised in Matthew 19 verse 28.
It says truly, I say to you in the new world, when the Son of
Man will sit on his glory, on glorious on his glorious throne,
you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones judging
the 12 tribes. And and this is picking on James
and John. But all of the apostles were
looking at Jesus and the power that they witnessed him used.
And they believed that they would have Thrones and they were
planning for their next week, right?
Or their or the next month. And they could see that they
were on the winning team. They were with the guy that was
going to that was going to come in and kick Rome out.
Well, his story to use them did change the world, right?
And he built the but, but in the process, he built them into the
tools that he needed for the task in his story.
They all did get Thrones. They there, there was just more
of a cost than they thought there was going to be when they
asked that question. So if you look down through the
group of them, Peter was crucified upside down.
James the greater was beheaded. James the less stoned and beaten
to death. Jude beaten to death with clubs
and hacked with an axe. Philip crucified by soldiers.
Thomas blows of a spear, Simon stabbed with a sword Bartholomew
was crucified. Andrew nailed to the to an XX
shaped cross. Matthew was crucified and John
did die, but he was he was first.
There's, there's a tradition that said he was boiled an oil
and didn't die and that's why he ended up on a on the island of
Patmos in exile, but he ended up dying of natural causes.
They don't have. There's, there's a rumor out
there that he never died, but that is kind of funny when that
rumor comes up because he in in John points out that that isn't
what that means because Peter asked, well, what about him?
And Jesus said, what if it what if he stays until I come?
And John says, some people say that's because I never died, but
that's not true. I'm going to die.
So just kind of a a funny to side.
But when I heard about Charlie getting shot this week, I
instantly, like I said, started thinking about where I was in
this as far as am I ready for that?
You know, I mean, I don't, I don't have people shooting at
me, but there's a guy in in the tri-cities, Rick Thursby died
suddenly. He was walking across the
parking lot and talking to guys about Jesus.
If you, if you knew him, that's his life in general.
He was a salesman, but he was he was always sharing and massive
heart attack died in the parking lot and Rick left a hole right.
There was a where Rick filled filled the filled the church
with people from all over the community for his for his
service. But he left a hole.
He left a hole at work. He left a hole in his church.
He left a hole in ministry. He left a hole in his house.
He left a hole. And what that means is there was
there was a reason for him, right?
And God had been using him in all these people's lives.
And and when he passed, suddenly he left a hole.
But he was ready, right? And and I would tell you when
you, when you watch Charlie and you watch his, his life, he was
ready, not he wasn't. I want to go, you know, I'm sure
just like any daddy wants to, he wants to watch his kids grow up.
And but he was ready. And when you listen to the way
he could share that I was, he's 30 years old now.
He has kids or was 30 years old has kids.
And if you watch him six years ago, seven years ago, he his,
his, he was more abrasive on the political side.
And the longer, the more, the more time he got, the more
maturity he got, the more he just kept pointing him to
Christ, right? And, and you can, I mean, he's
got an ability or had an ability to just explain it in a non
argumentative way that shut down their arguments.
Not and and not because arguing with people never works.
I always tell people it's really simple.
You just have to go back to being a kid.
And have you ever been arguing with your parents and halfway
through the argument figured out you were dead wrong at that
moment? Did you say I'm sorry, I'm wrong
or did you dig your heels in and go, I'm winning this argument?
That's what that's what happens to an argument, right?
Arguments don't work. Now conversations, sharing,
sharing truth being will list the other person, right?
That works because it makes the other person think.
I always think about Jesus and the Pharisees in in the temple.
They came to him and said, by what power do you do these
things? And he goes, I will answer that
question if you answer mine. Who sent John?
Was he, was he from God or from man?
And they got over by themselves and they're like, well, if we
say it was from God, then they'll ask why we're not
following him. And if we would say it was from
man, they're going to stone us. So they came back and said,
we're not answering. Well, all those Pharisees had to
go home alone and decide why they couldn't answer that
question. Why, if they were, if they were
the, you know, that Jesus asked him a question they couldn't
answer and they had to sit not in the they don't get it.
They don't go home in a mob. They go home alone.
And when you're talking to somebody, when you're sharing
with somebody, what you want to share with them is what Jesus
said, right? Because you want them going home
arguing with Christ. That's you don't want them
arguing with me, right? You don't want them arguing with
you because they can win that argument.
If you've ever done that, you know, you walk away from an
argument that you were losing, but you walk away and you think
of all the ways you could have won if I did just said this or I
just said that. If you leave them with what the
Bible says it it takes all the wiggle room out.
That's just what it says. You know, if somebody tells you
they're not a Sinner, but they believe the Bible, you can take
them to Romans 323 and says all, all of sin and fall short of the
glory of God, right. And I didn't say that God did
right. And it's that kind of that kind
of conversation, but being willing and stepping into that
and then remembering something I'm sure Charlie knew we're not
wrestling against flesh and blood, right?
Ephesians 612 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
And then I want to. I want to flavor that with And
no, there is not a. Demon under every rock.
Right, That is not, that is not what what's being said there,
but what is being said there is that the enemy wants to drag as
many souls to hell with him as he can take because the only way
he can hurt God is by hurting us.
That's it. He, he doesn't have any more he,
he is not at God's level. If anybody doesn't know that he
is, he is a created being and has zero power to affect God
except where he gets to hurt God's people.
Right. And if you ever want to read a a
book about how manipulative and how easily manipulated we are,
read Screw Tape Letters by CS Lewis.
It's it's a great picture of how quickly we can overcompensate to
the left or to the right. But to remember that people you
meet on the street are not our enemies, right?
They no matter their actions. Now, sin is sin and call it what
it is, right? But but remember that without
Jesus, we're all lost, dying blind, right?
We we have to remember our position without him, right?
Romans 58 says but show but God showed his love for us that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And this is something that so I've been saved for 24 years now
and I, I truly remember the first 30 years of my life.
I can tell you I need you, I need Jesus.
I can remember the last 24 years of life, my life, and I can tell
you I need Jesus every day, all day long.
And there's never a point where I think that I have arrived and
I don't need as much Jesus today as I needed the day I got saved.
He died for me, not because I was worthy, not because I was
good. He died for me because I needed
a savior. And everybody that isn't a
believer today needs a savior, needs him.
And what he did on the cross and he did it.
He did it for me while I was still his enemy.
And he's done it for them while they are still his enemy, right?
Because when we are when we're battling for souls, Satan wants
as many to be lost as can be, right.
So Job 17 is, is one of these scenes.
Lord said to Satan, from where have you come?
And Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro on
the earth and walking up and down and seeing who I can
devour, right? That's his goal now it's Job's
response to that is is because of the work he put in, right?
Because as Joel went, as Job went through trials, Job was
able to stand when the time came.
So God cannot touch us, right? That was wrong because Satan
cannot touch God. He can hurt those God loves, but
if we pray if we're prayed up and trust in the Lord, all the
enemy can do is add to our faith.
That's all he can do to us right because as you rest in in
Jesus's strength, you get to see his power right Job 121 is this
is Job says naked I come come from my mother's room and naked
I shall return the Lord gave the Lord is taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord and that is just understanding
and Job understood who God was in his life right?
Because not because Job once again, not because Job didn't
know who God was and didn't didn't trust in him for his
entire he trusted him and went through the process and when and
when the suck happened, God had prepared him for it.
Last week I talked about James being the first of the apostles
to die. And so here in Acts 12, James,
the brother of John was killed with the sword, but the first
martyr was a man named Stephen. And I, I think the, the
correlations between Stephen and Charlie in just their, the way
they, they went out. And I've been thinking about how
they went out together and they, they would have been brothers.
I, I imagine Charlie at this point would be telling me that I
need to shut up and not compare him with Steven.
But there, there's a lot of similarities.
Steven was a was full of faith in the Holy Spirit And and if
you watch Charlie's life, he the way he shared his faith, there
was a Holy Spirit clarity, a gift that he was given by God to
do that. There was a Rolodex.
And if you watch him rapid fire scriptures and be able to and
that isn't just because he is smart, right?
It's when you have the the book memorized to the point that you
can do that. You still have to be able to.
Organize it and there's a. It it's a gift that the Holy
Spirit gives some people to be able to do that.
And he had that, but he had it in such a way that it didn't
come off. Condescending, right?
He. Can he can truly share with
people and I, I believe Stephen in in Acts 6 is when he gets
chosen and they say and and they chose Stephen, a man full of
faith and the Holy Spirit. So Stephen was loved by all
those he knew. If you read that if you read
chapter 6 you'll see it and and Charlie was loved by as by many.
He reflected Christ and if you listen to all of the and I don't
listen to all of it I I avoid a lot of it.
But if you listen to everybody talking right now, the there is
a bunch of people that love him and have no and not because
they're believers. I mean, we'll pick on Joe Rogan.
Joe Rogan is not a believer, right?
He wouldn't claim he is. And he loves Charlie because of
his just straightforward honesty, right, of sharing his
faith and doesn't, I mean, he doesn't know what that power is
that Charlie had, but he does know that it was respectable.
I have a a guy in the tri-cities Bruno.
I'm sure you've heard about him because I I only have so many
guys that impressed me. Bruno.
I have AI want to make him a shirt that says we don't
disappoint Bruno. He's our he's the safety guy and
Bruno loves people and Bruno loves the Lord and and his
ability to combine those two in in his role as the safety guy is
phenomenal. Because when you insight support
and it used to be our specific safety guy, insight support.
Like I have 20 people when we're online and you can make a
relationship with 20 people pretty easy.
But when we go into outage that grows to 400 people and Bruno
could get buy in from all of them. 16 years we went without
an OSHA recordable, which is on a phenomenal thing when you're
bringing in that many people every two years and doing that
kind of work. But everybody asked would ask
him what what his secret was. And this is Bruno in corporate
offices and everywhere. They would be like, how have you
done it, Jesus? Like, let me be clear, Jesus.
And they were like, yeah, but no, it's Jesus.
And he would get he would get frustrated with with us because
we would give him credit. And I said, Bruno, we're not
giving. I mean, you know, me and him
have a have a relationship with these guys are not giving.
They're giving you credit because you reflect Christ to
them. They don't know that.
I mean, you tell them all the time, but they don't they're
they're blind to their why does it work?
But the reason it works is because you truly care about
them. You truly do not want one of
them to get hurt. And not because there's
paperwork and not because it costs money and not because
there's a there, there is a there's, there's a streak, but
because when you cut your finger and go to Bruno, he hurts for
you. I mean, it's and I I not in AI
could not pull it off like I was joking.
Tell Faye I shouldn't be a pastor.
I don't love people enough. Bruno really cares and and he
can share that with people and that's something that's a gift
that he has in reflecting Christ.
And I believe Charlie had that gift when you watched him talk
to people that would come up and be very combative and he would
have a way of sharing with him and sharing truth and being
direct. And there were some that were
just purely there to have the fight, though that he, they
couldn't have, but some of them got to nodding along because of
how he was sharing. And and that's just loving
people in truth, right? You don't win.
We, we cannot win the battle that we're, we're in with hate,
right? If, if Christians are saved, if
you picture us being in lifeboats, those that are not
saved are in the water. And very often what we do is
scold them for being wet, right? And we're not wet.
We're dry. We're up in the we're up in the
boat. Why are you so wet?
Get off my boat. You're getting it wet, right?
I mean, that's that's the thing. But then if you, if you take
that a step further, when I go in after them, anybody, ever,
anybody ever done lifeguard class?
If you if you try to rescue a drowning victim, what is the
drowning victim going to try to do, right?
Is that because they don't need to be saved?
No, right. That's their reaction.
And so we as believers need to need to know our position,
right, That we are supposed to be out there saving those people
that are drowned, not, not adding water to them, not, not,
not scolding them for being wet, but actually getting wet
ourselves in it, not, not sinning, right?
Everybody goes, well, Jesus, Jesus always hung out with
sinners and he did. And then they quit sinning,
right? He didn't go and he didn't go,
he didn't go drink and cuss with him.
He went and retrieved him and said, you know, be saved and sin
no more, right? That's so.
But we need to be out in our community sharing with people.
I mean, that's Charlie going into going on to college
campuses, that's going into the community, right and being
willing to have those conversations.
But if we try to do it without God's grace, it's like a toddler
trying to fight a 30 year old. That's the part with the enemy
that we have to understand that the only way we win a battle is
if the, if the Holy Spirit does it right.
If, if a toddler runs in here and wants to wants to fight me,
he loses. But if his dad walks in, right,
the toddler, the toddler wins that fight because dad's got it,
right? And that's, that's us to
remember that we are not, we're not, you know, we don't defy
Satan. Jesus takes him off out of the
way, right? We need to be in Christ having
that battle. We need to be prayed up, right?
And this is, this is Steven, right?
Steven, picture Steven at an open mic.
This is Steven at an open mic. Acts 68 and if you don't know
what the open mic thing is, that's that is Charlie Kirk went
to college campuses and put an open mic up and let him ask him
questions and they talked right. So verse 8 it says and Steven
full of grace and power was going was was doing great
wonders and signs among the people and some of those
belonging to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called,
and the sirens and of the Alexandrians and of those from
Sicily, Sicily and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen.
But they could not withstand the wisdom, this and the spirit with
which he was speaking. Then they secretly incited men
who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against
Moses. And they stirred up the people
and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and
seized him and brought him before them and the council.
And it goes on. Has Charlie ever been misquoted?
Have you ever been, you know, ran through the mud?
Has the culture tried all the same tools as the freedmen did
to Stephen? Right.
What we know is the enemy is using things that work, and are
we ready for those things? And how we get ready And how
Stephen was ready is he was prayed up and prepared.
We don't, we don't argue with the freed men.
We, we, we share truth with them.
Are we ready in our steadfastness?
Is is it in full effect? Right?
Are we have we have we embraced the trials to build us into what
he want us, wants us to be? Charlie or Steven?
Neither one of them are out looking for a fight.
They share truth and love by grace that God had given them.
They could and they could not withstand their wisdom.
So that wisdom wasn't because Stephen was ultra smart or
Charlie was ultra smart. And if you, I encourage you, if
you have not read all of all of the the story of Stephen, I
encourage you to get into Chapter 7 because Stephen, a
young man went in front of the council and explain to them who
Jesus was from Genesis to Malachi, right?
And explain to them that they should believe in Jesus because
he's all over here. Let me give you your history
lesson. This was a young man teaching
the smartest religious people in the country.
Sound like anybody you know, right?
And but we're going to close with this and I think this is
more important and I think it's really what turning point is
about what our church should be about is, is truly sharing the
Lord's heart with people and his ability to save those that are
lost. That's the thing.
Do we believe that he can save those that are lost?
So the people we could blame for Charlie, right?
The the ones that post stupid things and and worse, the
possibly encouraging the murderer.
Our flesh wants wants like judgement on that guy.
We want we want vengeance. We want, we want those
responsible to be judged. And I, I want you guys to read
Acts 7. It says then they this is, this
is Stephen dying. And then they cast him out of
the city and stoned him. And the witness laid down, the
witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young
man named Saul. Anybody know who that is in
Acts? Saul goes on in Acts 8.
And Saul approved of his execution.
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the
Church of Jerusalem. And there were all they were all
scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the
except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and
made great lamentations. But Saul ravaged the church and
the entire house after and and entered house after house.
He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Now in today's world, if I see a Saul, am I praying for him?
Do I trust that God has a plan? Now doesn't mean we don't get to
stand up for we don't get to stand in right places and defend
against appal or a Saul. But am I concerned about his
eternity? Saul was full of zeal and
passion and Jesus allowed it in his story.
How and why I'm not I, I don't go into that, but I do know
because of Paul's beginning. Paul was a crazily intelligent
man who had all the reasons in the world to be prideful and
because of his beginning as he talks about himself.
First Corinthians 15/9, it says he is his his words unworthy to
be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
Ephesians 3/8 I am the very least of the Saints.
First Timothy 112 through 15 in different spots.
It says I'm a blasphemer, A persecutor and an insolent
opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly
and unbelief. Do we do we trust that they
don't know what they don't know? And then his last line is that
Christ came into the world to save sinners of who I am the
foremost. I am the I am the the biggest
Sinner. Do we today, when you look at
your life can, can you apply some of that to you?
Do you recognize what God was willing to do to save you the
sins he paid for for you? And then when you look at the
world and can we can we trust that he has a use for everybody?
The the most colorful rainbow person out there, the most
ridiculous, right. There's a story of a guy that
goes to Calvary tri-cities. I don't know who it is.
He he came in for counseling and when he was in his 20s of one of
the, one of the pastors shared this when he was in his 20s, he,
he had an operation because he thought he was a girl.
You can't fix that. You don't there.
There's not a backup button, but God got he, he got forgiveness
and he got forgiveness and he gets to live his life in Christ
today There he still has all of that garbage, right?
But that, I mean, he was as extreme as you get and but he
was lost and blind and dying and God saved him, right?
Do we trust God to be able to do that?
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm second, second Timothy 310.
In the end, it all burns, right? If they don't know Christ, there
is judgment coming and it's awful, but the day of the Lord
will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a
roar in the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolve in the
earth, and the works that are done in it will be exposed.
So nobody gets away with it, right?
Hitler didn't get away with it, right?
It's it's eternity. He calls us to love our enemies
in Matthew and those those are our enemies and those who
persecute us and and this is a time in our life in our in our
country. I was sharing with with Luke and
Jessica before the service that that is Americans, we we have a
burden because we live in a free country in China.
When persecution happens, they know how to respond because
they're not free. They're not free, they're not
armed. They don't have liberty and, and
we very often want to stand on that.
And what we need to stand on is Lord, how do we reach them?
Because in the end, guys, it all burns.
And if we, if, if the whole time we're just scolding them for
being wet, We've, we've missed the point of our purpose, right?
The day I got saved, if my purpose was not to witness for
Him and share with others about Him and what He's done in my
life, the day I got saved, I'd have been out of here, right?
Because I can worship the Lord way better in heaven than I can
down here. I will know more about the Lord
and His Word. I will know way more up in
heaven than I will down here. I'll be able to speak to the
Lord way more clearly in heaven than I will here, but tell
others about Him. I won't be able to tell anybody
about the Lord in heaven because they'll already know right?
And we don't want to be that group right.
We want to be out there sharing and accepting the trials that
we've got. And Elizabeth Elliott, my my
last little tidbit on on what this kind what I'm talking about
as far as not doing it in our strength.
They don't go out of here thinking that I'm saying, you
know, go do be in prayer and ask the Lord what does he want you
to do? Because that's what we can do in
his, in his power. Elizabeth Elliott with her
three-year old, went to that village in the jungle that
killed her, her, her husband and her daughter's father and live
with those people. And she didn't, it wasn't she
didn't go and live with those people after another group had
went in and witnessed to them. No, she went in and ministered
to the men who killed her husband.
Like I said, if you want conviction, she's got it.
But she didn't do that because she was a good Christian person,
right? That wasn't Elizabeth Elliott
didn't wake up and go, you know what I should do?
And it would look really good on my resume.
I should go and visit these people.
God told her to go, and she obeyed.
And was it easy? No.
But it's a supernatural thing, right?
It's not something we do in our own strength.
It's not because we're picking. I I'm supposed to go to church
on Sunday. You know, God, God doesn't have
a star book up there. He wants to use us in in
magnificent ways. And that takes embracing those
trials. That's when I say when we count
it all joy and we fall into various trials.
It's because he's building us into what he needs for those
moments. So we're prepared for the
battles ahead. I was close with Corey Tenboom,
which is another one of those people.
Jesus did not promise to change the circumstances around us.
He promised great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to
believe that God actually controls it all.
And how we get to have steadfastness in full effect is
testing and trials. Give us faith when we when we
rely on Him and faith builds our steadfastness, our firmness, and
gives us the ability for complete surrender to his plan
into eternity. So we should count it all joy
when we fall into various trials because it's what's going to
prepare us for what he has for us to do.
And Lord, I just thank you for everybody here and I thank you
for this time. And Lord, a thank you for the,
the ministry of Charlie Kirk and what you're going to do with
that. Lord, in advance, I'll thank you
for that. 18,000 new charters is is an amazing number that that
there would be people that would do it in you Lord, that you
would speak through them or that it would light a fire in our
country that that couldn't be put out.
Or that it would change our young people that they would
take the take this country and turn it into the light that it
could be in this world. That we would affect the world
in a positive way with your light Lord.
But that only happens through you.
Fill us with your Spirit in Jesus name, Amen.