Our Identity in Christ and Persecution

Um, if you're new in the church, I am not the lead pastor. That's Pastor Wayne. And, uh, Pastor Wayne's, uh, gone, so I'm one of the other pastors here. And so he's asked me to cover in and I'm very happy to be able to do that. Um keep pastor Wayne in your prayers if you would. He is on the mainland to attend his sister's funeral. Um and so that's obviously difficult and um he'll have opportunity to spend time with his family there. So uh please keep him in prayer. Um, and if you see me squinting, uh, two weeks ago, he was also traveling and and he asked me to preach and I did then, but I had forgotten my glasses and I struggled to see my notes.

But when I got here today and I got out of the car, I closed the car door and I thought, I forgot my reading glasses again. So, if you see me squinting, don't fear. It's just I'm getting old and I can't see. But I had been studying the book of Colossians to share with you guys today. And I had planned actually to follow up on Pastor Wayne's message from last week. He had spoken about how we have or how our identities will change when we get when we get married, when we take on those husband wife roles. Uh and Paul speaks to that in Colossians. But before Paul gets to that point, he he speaks about another way that we have been changed.

He writes that how prior to our identity and marriage changing that that our whole identity changes because we are in Christ. For those that have faith in Jesus Christ and have believed that he has died for our sins, was buried and rose again and now reigns over all creation, uh they have a new life in Christ. In Colossians, he mentions this in Colossians chapter 2:3 says, "And you uh being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he hath quickened together or made alive together uh with him having forgiven you all trespasses." And so those who have faith in Jesus Christ are changed and there's an actual difference within us.

And in that new life, we find our identity now in Christ. And as Paul goes through there in Colossians, he talks about some other aspects of that. And then he gets into the marriage issue. And that's where I was going to go. But but I'm going to change it up a little bit because not only does our identity affect our marriage relationships, but it also affects how we live as citizens within our country. And as citizens in our country, it's been a a hard week for us, hasn't it? I've heard it mentioned during Sunday school already. I heard it mentioned during the worship time. And I I know it's on all of our hearts.

There was a Denver high school shootings that we're almost forgetting about. And and then there's a Charlie Kirk assassination. And another school shooting definitely troubles us, but but we're troubled greater by the the killing of Charlie uh Kirk. And so as I saw this and even felt this within my own heart, I wanted to change directions and focus on our identity in Christ that guides us as citizens in a country that has turned from Christ. If you're not familiar with Charlie Kirk, he was a outspoken conservative speaker who would often begin or interrupt his speaking times to say that that the most important thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

and it rises far above any political view. This young man was was bold in his faith, but because of his faith and because of the politics that he held, he was hated. And it has even been noted that people are celebrating his killing. And as Americans, we we wonder what in the world is going on that a young man, a young father, his death would be celebrated. But we must realize though is that our American history is a unique time in history. Most of human history is violent. Most of human history shows a hatred to the things of God. And that's the norm. Periodic periodically God does rise up a gentile group that that turns to him.

We see this in scripture. We see it all the way back in Genesis. In Genesis chapter 14 we hear about MelkiseDC. He was a obviously a gentile didn't come from Abraham. He's the king of Salem. Then in Genesis 14:18, it says that he was a priest of God. We see it in the book of of Jonah where there's Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, the Assyria I'm sorry, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The the Assyrian Assyrians, if you're not familiar with them, were extremely violent and extremely bloody. And yet the entire city repents and turns to God. And so God does move within the gentile nations that at times uh but but with Nineveh and with all nations, they eventually turn back to their sinful ways, which is what we're seeing in our country.

And maybe we have a revival, maybe we don't. I really don't know what God has planned for us. But the reality is is that is that every nation over time will will turn away. And the reality of this is it leads to persecution. And persecution, that idea as Americans, we have never really experienced that before. We have we have things that don't go right for us or people dislike us and and and and we take offense of that and we think, "Oh, whoa, it's me." But the reality is we've never really faced the true persecution. Not like our brothers and sisters in most the other nations of this world. And so because of that, we're we're shocked with the killing of a conservative Christian who chose to spoke about his beliefs.

But the reality is, brothers and sisters, is that as our country continues to turn away from Christ, persecution will become more common. And it may not take its form in in an assassination, but but the reality is the opposition will increase. And while that's a horrible thing, as JJ noted a few minutes ago, the Bible, God's word has not left us unprepared, God has given us all we need in his word. And and so this morning, what I wanted to do is I wanted to spend a little bit of time hopefully to develop a biblical uh perspective on persecution, on the opposition that we'll face as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And the first thing I want to note in all of that is that persecution is is not an intellectual issue. Persecution does not come from a people's lack of understanding about what Christians believe. You know, during the early days of the church between around 100 and 200 AD, uh the uh Romans uh they persecuted the church. It's interesting. They actually saw Christians as atheists. And I always think that's kind of funny. You know, we think of atheists that don't believe our God. But but Romans saw Christians as atheists. If you go back and would read the uh account of Polycarp's um murder when they killed Polycarp, Polycarp was a disciple of John the Baptist.

I'm sorry, not John the Baptist, but the Apostle John. You'll you'll see that within that recording or with within that account, they they they reference him as a um as an atheist. And that's because they're not believing what the Romans believe. they're not they're not submitting to the emperor or worship that was common there in the empire. And so a series of Christians got together uh smart men and they started to write pamphlets uh about what Christians believe and how uh early church worship services took place and they sent them to the Roman officials in the hopes to educate them to uh stop the persecution.

It didn't make sense the persecution. And while those letters give us an amazing recording of what the early church believed, which by the way is what we believe if you believe in God's word, as well as how they worshiped, which is very similar to how we worship today. While we have that record, the reality is is it didn't make any difference within the Roman Empire and the persecution continued up until Constantine time. Because persecution is not based in a knowledge, it's based in unbelief. And we see that in our Lord Jesus Christ's life as well too. Turn to uh John chapter 11. John chapter 11.

This is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. In that story, Jesus learns of Lazarus's sickness and he delays going to him so that Lazarus passes away before Jesus can arrive. When Jesus does arrive, scripture tells us that Lazarus has been dead for four days. And and I want to pick up the story now in John 11:18. John 11:18 says, "Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about 15 furrows off." So it's about 2 miles away from Jerusalem. And many of the Jews came to Mary and Martha, the Jews coming from Jerusalem to comfort them concerning their brother. Now in this story, I want to focus on this group of the Jews.

And and in this story, everybody's a Jew. Jesus is a Jew. Mary Martha is a Jew. Lazarus is a Jew. The disciples are a Jew. Everybody's a Jew. But but when John speaks of the Jews coming from Jerusalem, what he's speaking of is is of some sort of delegation from the leadership. It seems that Lazarus or his or his family had some kind of influence in Jerusalem. And so the leadership there sent the delegation over to comfort Martha and Mary. And it is this group who we don't know exactly who they are, but this group that has come there uh goes with Mary when she rushes out to see Jesus. And they're they're there when they when when when she meets with Jesus.

And they're there when Jesus weeps. And they're and they're there when when Jesus goes to pray uh to have Lazarus before he raises Lazarus from the dead. And in his prayer, he says out loud that I'm doing this so that they know. And they hear this and they hear uh Jesus cry for Lazarus to come out or command for Lazarus to come out. And they they see with their own eyes uh Lazarus come walking out of the grave. A man who had been dead and and and and was fou older and older by now. They said now he comes out alive and they see this and we get the result of all this in verse 45 of chapter 11. There says then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him.

Well, praise God for that. Some of them actually turned to Christ. But but look at verse 46. Some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. We have unbelievers here that have seen everything here and basically now go to tattle on Christ. They have undeniable evidence that the Lord Jesus was their Christ. And they take this undeniable evidence uh to the leadership and jump down to verse 53 and you'll see what the you see what the result of all of it is. Verse 40 53 says that then from that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death with indisputable evidence of who Jesus was.

The leadership's decision is yeah let's let's kill him. Everything points to him being divine. Everything points to him being the Christ. Everything points to the fact that he has this special connection with God the father. And what's the decision? Oh, let's kill him. And we think what in the world? How'd you how'd you get that decision? Well, the reason is is because God blinds them. turn to uh let me read to you 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 starting in verse 9 there says even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs uh and lying wonders speaking of the antichrist and with all deceitfulness of unrighteous in them the rest that deny that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

You see the rejection of the truth that saves the rejection of the gospel message results in God sending a delusion so that the rejectors believe in what is false. We have the same truth in Romans chapter 1:es 21-22 there says because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imagination and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools. Similar idea here. They they reject God and the results are that their their thinking is then affected and their hearts are then darkened. So that while they completely believe they are the wisest people around, the reality is they become fools.

The rejection of the truth brings blindness. And that is what we are seeing in our country. And and it's harsh calling people a fool, but but scriptures calling them that. And the reality is is that is that men and women have risen up into positions within the colleges, within the uh government, positions of power and positions of influence that truly believe things like sexual perversion is good. That truly believe that within the Bible it preaches hate. And they believe this and it's because they're blind. They have rejected the truth. And the reality is now their eyes cannot see. and within their blindness they see what they think is another truth and convinced of what this other truth

they they live that out and that that that causes them to turn their energies against those who reflect the Lord Jesus Christ and and Christ warned us about this in John 15 18- 19 it says if the world hate you should know that it hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world would love his own but because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you. And so that hate comes to us, but but that hate will also express itself within or with murder because within the hearts of those that have been blinded is still the sinfulness that seeks to shed blood.

Romans uh 3:15, their their feet are swift to shed blood. Now, someone may look at this verse and say, "Well, John, this is this is limited. This is not everybody because we only have in in society only a percentage of people that are murderers. But but the reality is this speaks actually to the condition of the heart because the thoughts that come up within sinful men are thoughts and women are thoughts that want to shed blood. This is why when you accidentally cut somebody off on the freeway and they go ballistic on you, it's because within them is that rage that that that sinful hate that's there that desires to strike.

It's within the unsaved. They they have an internal desire to to seek after blood, but but but we have laws that that do limit it. And so we don't physically see it played out. But that doesn't mean that it's within their thinking, within their thoughts, within their desires. And and those of us that have come to Christ as adults recognize that that prior to us coming to Christ, the things that we could think about or the things that we would dwell on could be utterly wicked. But yet that's coming out of that heart. And it is unfortunate that this week that that that that desire to shed blood showed itself.

But I want to put a warning out on this though too. And that is how is our reaction to this week's events? I don't watch a whole lot of news to be honest. I I try to pay attention to enough to generally understand what's going on. I'm I'm busy. I don't want to spend the time, but I know enough and seen enough to know that there's folks out there that are like, "Let's rally. Let's go get these guys. Let's fight the opposition." And the reality is is that if you saw the events of this week and within your heart you had the desire to eliminate a certain political party or or or see a group be damned or wishing destruction on any group or evil upon any other group means you're simply following after the flesh and you're following after that same exact heart that brought the blood and it's wicked and we cannot go there.

And if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have been made new with inside, that's the old flesh that's coming up that we need to put to death. Now, maybe somebody would look at me and say, John, no, I disagree with you. I'm mad and it's a righteous anger. I would say if that's your thinking, then you need to take your righteous anger and express it towards yourself first. We have no righteous in of ourselves and we deserve the wrath of our God upon us. It's only because we've been saved by our Lord Jesus Christ that we can avoid that. I read one time and I wish I could remember who wrote it because I'd look it up to to try to get the story more accurate, but but there was a

writer one time who made the comment and he said, 'You know, um, prior to us coming saved, we're we're like a bunch of blind people that are in a pit and we're bumping into each other and getting mad at each other as we bump into each other and striking at at each other as we're we're wrapped up in this pit and then then a rope comes down and lassles us and pulls us out and and and and heals our eyes and and and free and be able to see. We look down into the pit and we look at the people bumping into each other and fighting with each other down there and we say, "Oh, you fools down there, you horrible people."

And we start pointing fingers at them, not not taking into consideration that's us. We've been rescued from the same exact pit. Praise God for that. But we've come from the same pit. The reality is is we need to accept that Christ's righteousness is what covers us and that's what sets us apart. and that this one that has placed his righteousness upon us is also the judge and we need to leave that judging for him. Instead, we're called to be peacemakers. Look to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, we get the biatitudes and I want to read through that starting in Matthew chapter 5:3. And there it says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. We're to be peacemakers. Peacemakers that see persecution in a different light. Now, I want to say something and and I don't want to be taken the wrong way and recognize that I don't justify anything that happened this week. It's evil. It's horrible. It's sinful. Should not have happened. But there is something out of place with some of the discourse that's happening today. And we don't want to fall into that. You know, I've watched, like I said, only a little bit of Charlie Kirk, and one of the things I noticed was that he did try to be a peacemaker.

I noticed that he did try to be gracious with people. And he did that when they were talking on oneonone and he he you could see his heart and that was kind of neat. But when it came to a group of people, there was not peace. people would get upset with him coming somewhere as they do with other speakers that are similar to him and and their presence these speakers their presence in certain areas generates discord not peace and it's often true that when uh people are in a crowd or they're anonymous like on the internet that they're more willing to then group together and express their hatred towards God and his truth and more more inclined to close their ears to any kind of truth so they cannot hear I find it interesting that when Jesus said not to give what is holy to dogs and not to throw our pearls before swine, he he doesn't say dog or pig.

He says dogs and swine. He uses the plural because running into a pig can be a problem. They're they're if you guys haven't they're extremely tough animals, but but running into a pig can be a problem. But running into a group of pigs is a real problem. If you can't tell already, I have pigs that come in my yard. I'm familiar with pigs, wild pigs. And uh there was a period of time where we had a lot of mountain apple trees. And if you're not familiar with mountain apple trees, they the fruit all comes at once and it drops all at once. And so you cannot give it away fast enough and eat it fast enough.

So you wind up with a bunch of decaying fruit on the ground. And and if you've seen my house, it's we have a a grass area and a chaining fence and then it's just just jungle down to the stream. And and the the pigs come and they come and eat the fruit. And one time I was working at the house and and uh all a sudden I heard all this noise and I heard pigs just squealing like crazy. I heard a dog barking and then what concerned me the most is I heard people yelling. And so because we've been having problems with the pigs and they've been getting a little aggressive, I I I had a a pole that I had sharpened that that I would go out there with and I grabbed that and I ran out to the chainlink fence to see what was going on.

And just as I get there, I see this brown little dog come running up the hill and gets to the chain link fence where my house is and runs along the chain link fence and runs away. And I think, "Oh, I never seen that. Never seen that dog before." And then a minute later, my neighbor comes up and he and he's all panicked and he goes, "Have you seen my dog?" And I'm I'm thinking, "No, you have a white dog." And then also my brain clicked and I think, "Oh, I didn't see a brown dog run away. I saw a little white dog that liked to chase the piglets. I still have a little white dog that finally got caught by the male or the adult pigs who took it to town in the mud and turned that little white dog into a muddy little brown dog.

But that's the image that Jesus is speaking of. You throw the pearls out in front of a group of pigs. It's not what they want. They got to grind you into the mud. And so Jesus says don't because they're going to attack. And this idea of we got to get the message out. We got to be bold within their face also has to be uh balanced with the idea that we're called to be peacemakers. And so we need to be smart. We need to be wise. We need to pay attention to when and where we do this. We have a we have a message that is that is offensive. But at the same time, we don't want to use that that message to intentionally antagonize people.

You know Jesus when he ran into these kind of situations he would in the gospels you see him often walking away. In fact he doesn't actually stay with the persecution till it comes for the time for him to be crucified. In that story about Lazarus in John 11 if you're still there if you look down at verse 54 you'll notice that it says that Jesus after this event no longer uh openly or walked openly among the Jews. He moved over to a place called Ephra Ephraim. Ephraim, I'm not sure how to say that. And the same thing happened in John chapter 5 when there was conflict with the Jews there. Uh after that conflict developed, Jesus would went north up into Galilee, far away from Jerusalem, so he could minister there.

And so while we were to be bold for Christ, the and we have this gospel message that stirs things up, we are not to be foolish and blast people intentionally causing discord. There's that right time and that right place. Now, practically, I wanted to look at the early church here kind of for my second point because we're a group of people that haven't had the persecution and we're working into this rejection and this opposition and future persecution. And and the early church kind of went through that same process and they set us a wonderful example to follow. So I wanted to look at them in Acts chapter 1.

After the death of Christ, things don't look very promising for the church from a human perspective. There's they're small. Christ has been put to death. Only the disciples know of his or his close disciples, I guess, know of his rising. But after the disciples are are given the Holy Spirit, things suddenly turns around and Peter goes out and preaches in Jerusalem and and 3,000 people come to Christ. That must have been amazing, right? Being in the early church of that period of time, seeing that. And then in Acts chapter 3, John and and Peter, they heal a lame beggar outside of the temple and it draws a crowd and and more people become saved.

And scripture tells us that the church jumps up to around 5,000 men. But then in Acts chapter 4, uh, the persecution starts and it starts, I think, how it would normally do. It starts small. Peter and John get arrested and threatened by the Jews. They're told to stop preaching the resurrection of Christ. And we see now that the church or the the leadership is now turning directly against the church. And with this introduction to persecution, how how does the church respond? Well, I think that we would respond exactly the way we are. And that's that's first of all to go to prayer. But I believe what we tend to pray for, we miss the the the the main direction that we need to go.

And as we look at the church, we'll see that that that or we see the example the way that we should go. Because for you and me, often when we run into difficulty or we run into strugglings or opposition, we pray that that opposition would get taken away. But the early church didn't pray for that. Look to Acts chapter 4 and we'll look to see how they prayed. Acts chapter 4, starting in verse 23. Acts 4:23, uh, it says, "And being let go, Peter and John, uh, they went to their own company, Peter and John, go back to their other believers and report all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.

And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. And they said, here's their prayer, starting in the middle of verse 24.Lord, thou art God, which hath made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. Who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Notice that they understood scripture and they understood from scripture that unbelievers will turn against God and his chosen one. They continue in verse 27.

for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined be before it to be done. And now here comes the request. Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that thy that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thy hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. Signs and wonders were proof in the early church that that what they were saying from God. But note that they didn't ask for persecution to end.

They actually know from God's word that that persecution comes to those who follow Christ. And and so what they ask for is they ask for boldness in spite of that. They ask for boldness and they ask for the proofs that will show that what they're boldly proclaiming is true. They've been they've been bold already, but but they're calling either for more or assurance that they will continue to be bold. In verse 13, look back over there because it speaks of their ongoing boldness. It says, 'Now when they, the Jewish leaders that that had had Peter and Paul arrested, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they they marveled and they took knowledge of them or they recognized that that they had been with Jesus.

Their boldness up to date had been had been evident so much so that it it showed people uh especially the leaders here that they were connected to Christ. They prayed for the miracles which was common in the new in the early church stages to to give that proof. But but but even without that their boldness was enough to testify to their connection to Christ. And so they prayed for that that boldness. It seems they be they seem to be in fear of losing that in face of the persecution. And so they pray for it and and God answers. Look at verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness.

They they spoke with boldness. You know, as our as our nation turns more and more away from Christ and greater persecution develops, you know, we too should not be surprised that the heathen will rage. While we've been given this special grace that has avoided our nation of about 250 years of persecution, the rage against God and and his Christ is the norm for humanity. And for that reason, instead of seeking some way to subdue the opposition, we need to be praying for boldness. And the boldness that we have not go away, but the boldness grow in face of the opposition because it is only through the gospel message that that opposition can have their eyes opened.

But I just want to close with a thought about the opposition that comes with boldness. As the early church prayed to be bold, more people did turn to Christ. But persecution also grew. In Acts 7, Stephen is stoned to death. He preaches a very bold sermon and the leaders when they hear it, they're so full of rage, they're nashing their teeth, and they stone him. And we see in Acts that that they're stoned, they're they're beaten, they're they're putting in prison. And the reality is is that being bold with the gospel in the face of a of people that are turning against Christ is going to be costly.

And in the early church, it cost them. And the question for us is is is is will we be bold and will we pray for in face of opposition. I was thinking a lot about this because I think God has graciously given the western church a wakeup call so that we can be ready uh for what's coming. And like I said, maybe there's a revival. We pray for that and and I hope that's the case. But if not, and we're following the path of every other nation, we should be prepared. And that is with the COVID pandemic we had when COVID hit. We were told that it was deadly and we needed to stay away from each other and we needed to create separation and we needed to stop going to church and we did that.

We didn't know any better. We did it. If Satan wants to stop the spread of the gospel, what better way than that? you know, whatever your view is on on COVID, we can have different views and that's I have zero issue with that. I don't think that's a problem. But the reality is is that the the things that were laid out paralyzed us and we fell into the trap. We didn't recognize it. And I do wonder if God did that on purpose to wake us up, to show us that, hey, you know what? We've gone a long time without persecution, but you know what? Persecution is costly. And to follow Christ boldly in the face of it, it's going to cost you.

And to be bold during COVID, what a cost. And I'm not saying to be foolish if there's a pandemic or something like that. I'm saying just simply be bold. I learned this lesson through or with a friend of mine, Kirby. You guys that haven't been here for a while or been here less than four or five years probably don't know who Kirby is. Kirby was a a local guy. He had um come to faith while he was in prison, got out of prison and eventually became a member here at Ohana. Uh he loved the Lord. He was bold in his testimony. Um but Kirby had cancer and he had stage four cancer and he actually passed away during during COVID and and there's a period of time shortly before Kirby passed away when things were getting bad and the pain was getting difficult that he was admitted to Kini Hospital and and we thought he was going to pass away in Kini and and he didn't.

What happened is the the pain subsided a little bit and Kirby signed some paperwork that allowed him to come home and and pass away at home which is what he wanted to do and and what happened but but at that time we were thinking he's going to pass away in the hospital and you guys know at that period of time they weren't letting people in the hospitals unless you were actually one one sick and and and I thought this is horrible this this man is going to die alone without his loved ones uh praying for him and caring for him at this time and and so I went down to Kini and and I figured I'll at least try see what I can do and I went down to Kini and and I went down there and they then they of course told me I couldn't go up and see him and and and I have to admit it it it I got mad.

It wasn't the perfect example here, right? But with that in consideration, I pushed back and I told the security guy there, I said, "Hey, you know what? You're going to let a man die alone? I'll go up there and I'll do whatever you need me to do. I'll wear a hazmat suit and I'll bring my own oxygen and I'll go up there and I'll be completely contained. tell me what you want to do and I'll meet your standard and I'll go up there. What he did is he pulled me aside after that and he said, "You know what? Call the nurses. Tell them who you are. Tell them who's up there. Tell them the condition." And basically what he was telling me is that that thing that happens so often in Hawaii is, you know, there's the official way we do things, but then there's this back door.

If we know the right people, we know how to go through. And he was saying, "Use the back door." But you know, if I hadn't gone down there and I hadn't checked and I hadn't pushed a little to say, "How can I do this? Give me a way to reach the dead and dying. I would have just stayed in my house watching TV. That's a horrible place for us to be." And so my encouragement for us as we go through this time, as we look at these things that are going on, is one, be peacemakers. Don't get caught up in the in the ruckus. Pray for that boldness. Live in that boldness. live confident in the fact that you have a greater life after this one and be willing to lay this life down for what is greater in the future.

The story of Acts is amazing and the number of people that come to Christ and how fast the gospel spreads to the known world is shocking but it came through men and women who were bold and men and women who valued their life in the future more than this life. As our country turns, may we live in this manner. Let me close in prayer. Our father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for