Let's stand together for just a moment as we read God's word. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Amen. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you this morning for this precious word that comes to us. May it speak to us. Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's presence to impress these things upon us. Give me the words to say and help us, Father, to understand it, to believe it, to live it out in our daily ministry and the life that you have laid before us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen. Please be seated, brothers. Well here, brothers, we are called to this, our lives, a living sacrifice to God. Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, resting in the mercies of God, relying upon the grace of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This is what we are, brothers.

We are a sacrifice to God. We are to be on the altar, and that is the reasonable service, the absolutely rational, reasonable, appropriate, totally acceptable service to God. This is what we're called to be, this is what we're called to do, to be on the altar. And the tendency, of course, when you get on the altar and the fire heats up a little bit is to crawl back off the altar. And so easy for us to shrink back when the trials come.

And we don't realize that we're there because it is the reasonable thing. The reason we shrink back, The reason we spawn as we do to the trial, to criticism, to people leaving the church or whatever it might be, or the criticism that's leveled towards our own children or our wives or whatever it might be, we shrink back. We don't think of this as something that is appropriate, but it is the most appropriate. This is the most reasonable. We are to be the sacrifice.

We belong there. We are to take it in stride as the way it should be. So similar, 1 Peter chapter 4, the apostle says, do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial as though some strange thing has happened to you, 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. But see, this is the tendency with us to say this is not something that would be expected or something that should happen to me. But indeed we're to renew our minds this morning according to the will of God for us and the will of God for our lives is really to be that sacrifice.

This is the reasonable thing, this is the rational thing, this is the appropriate thing, This is the way it should be for us. And when the tidal wave hits us, it's typically a shock, a surprise, a sense that this should never happen, that this is not according to the will of God for our lives, but indeed that's what it is. Let me give a couple of what I call aggravating factors that lead to much suffering, especially within the context of the church and leadership within the church. I wanna give five aggravating factors. First of which is that we we today are living in an apostasy and this is the most significant apostasy in the history of the Christian Church as I see it.

Much like what The Jews experienced in AD 70. That's one reason why I call it the rise and fall of the West because we're experiencing much like what was experienced by the Jews in AD 70 and Rome in 476. This apostasy is happening all around us and it's a very difficult time for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We came out of the Jesus movement of the 1970s and it had some positive effect actually upon the church, the ministry of Martin Lloyd-Jones and others in the 1960s, 1970s yielded a great deal of fruit. But as of the last 15 years, we're seeing the apostasy back in full swing.

It's a very difficult time. The nuns have increased significantly even within the context of the evangelical church. Seems as if almost every denomination is compromising on very basic doctrines. Something that was mentioned I think in the Q&A period yesterday, But this is a very difficult time. There's a degree of tragedy happens as so many are walking away from the church.

I think of the last maybe three generations of young people that we've seen wander away from the church. And of the original children that were 24 years ago the the children remaining are my five children and one special needs child Are still there in the church after these 24 years? Now others have come and they've been discipled and I've had the opportunity to mentor young men and praise the Lord they're having children and they're obedient to the faith and there's some great things happening in the process but coming out of the 1990s early 2000s we've already seen a great deal of apostasy. And this itself is a trial. This itself is a time of difficulty, much like what the Jews and Christians that were converted out of the Jewish tradition in the first century were facing in Jerusalem in the 80s, 60s, and this is very similar to what we're facing today.

George Barna has done a recent study and found only 1% of the Gen Zers maintain the very essentials of a biblical worldview, not quite as well defined perhaps as some of us would define it, but only 1% he says of the Gen Zers hang on to a biblical worldview, down from 2% in 2019, down from 12% in the 1990s. And this itself can be a bit discouraging in that so many of us have worked hard through the homeschooling movement, through the worldview ministries, through the churches and such, to equip the men and women of God for every good work and to lay down strong foundations as far as the biblical worldview is concerned. And so we have worked very, very hard and yet have lost 80 to 90% of the ground since the early 1990s. So in other words, things have gotten far more difficult instead of getting easier. And it's interesting also that as 1% of Gen Zers retain a biblical worldview, still 57% call themselves Christians or think themselves to be Christians.

Only 1% think like Christians, whereas 57% of them still think they are Christians. So you've got a lot of deception going on around us, a lot of apostasy, an abandoning of faith, of the basic foundational footers or presuppositions of a biblical worldview being increasingly abandoned by the Gen Z generation. And so the point is that as we're running through this massive apostasy away from the Christian faith in the Western world, specifically in America, it's already happened largely in Europe and Canada, but it's now affecting the United States, this is a time of trauma and difficulty, tragedy. These are our friends, these are our relatives, these are people who have attended our churches over the last 15, 20 years. And so there is a degree of trauma that affects us as we're riding this ship through a category eight hurricane and seeing so many going off this side of the ship and others going off that side of the ship, so many falling off, it makes for a difficult time for leadership and ministry in the church.

That is the first aggravating factor. The second is that we have entered into a post Christian age, an anti-Christian age, that is increasingly aggressive against the Christian faith and the Christian church and church assembly. And The world, the devil, is aggressively grabbing for our children, our church members, etc. We're in a high degree of contra mundum right now. We're up against educational institutions and media that is extremely anti-Christian, far more so than it was in the 1880s, when McGuffey was doing its readers, and Noah Webster had his material.

These were actually committed Presbyterian Christians of the 1800s, but that's all changed since John Dewey, and this massive institutional shift is aggressively anti-Christian, and they will tell you they're against the Christian faith. And so that means that godly pastors, godly churches absolutely must call their members away from the worldly ideas in media and K-12 schools and the universities. They need to equip their families to be able to cast down the imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God in Christ. And so we have a nation that is explicitly anti-Christian and that calls for a great deal of courage on the part of pastors to stand and to preach, to bring the word of God, and to impress the importance of the fear of God, the reverence of God, the worship of God, as the beginning of wisdom and knowledge in public school classrooms, and where God is not acknowledged, God is not prayed to, God is not feared, God is not worshipped in the public school classrooms. We really need to call these kids out of those classrooms.

And we need to stand up, be courageous, and even if we're going to receive a fair amount of pushback from the world or from even church members. Think of August in City of God, one of the classic books of all time has a prophetic statement towards the very end. I was so shocked to come upon this, I read it to my wife and she said, he's talking about us. It was a prophetic statement towards the end of the book where he's dealing with eschatology and he says there's a point in the future at which the nations, the institutions of men will turn against God and declare war on the Church of Jesus Christ. All of the institutions will be turning anti-God, anti-Christ, educational, academic, political, et cetera.

The nations, the institutions of men that are funded, of course, as we say, at trillions of dollars of tax monies, these will be leveled against the church of Jesus Christ. And then Augustine says this, That the devil himself is unleashed and he will target specifically the hearts and minds of children Raised in Christian homes and then he says this there shall be Such resolute nest in Christian parents and I would add pastors there's got to be a resolution to fight against the powers of hell itself. That they shall, and here's what he says, they shall these parents will be so resolute to hang on to their children's minds and hearts and souls, that they shall conquer the devil himself, though he be unbound, though he employ such wiles, and puts forth such force as he never used before, And these parents shall snatch their children from the arms of the devil himself Does anybody say that sounds like us right now Friends we're losing 60 70 80 90 percent of each successive generation because of the forces of the evil one who through these powerful institutions of media, music, movies, education, etc. He's got his guns focused in upon the hearts and minds of our children and it will take pastors and shepherds that love these children and will passionately call parents to this task of resolutely capturing their children away from the wiles and the powers of the evil one.

Is this vile world a friend of grace to help me unto God? Think of Isaac Watts writing in the 1700s, probably facing the enlightenment forces that were on the rise during those years. And by the way, I remember sitting in family worship in our little home in Santa Maria, California, heading off to college. I was going off to Cal Poly, Santa Melissa Bistro. This would have been 1982, 83.

And my family was singing this song in my ex-soldier of the cross, the follower of the lamb. Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? We were singing this song and I said to myself that's my marching orders as I walk out into that world. I've carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. So the world the devil is aggressively grabbing for our children and our church members.

That's number two. There's aggressive battle going on. We got to fight the good fight brothers. Number three, the third aggravating factor that increases the suffering factor in our experience today is this higher degree of demonic activity has been invited into our communities by the participation of our church members in the mediums, with the mediums, the media. Media is a medium.

Does everybody understand what I'm talking about? Media turns into a medium through which the demonic influence is channeled into televisions and hearts and minds and demons are there and associating with the channeling of those ideas and that itself I think is extremely dangerous. I believe it's affected our church and I believe that we have faced tremendous spiritual warfare unlike anything I had ever expected or ever experienced, even on the mission field, when the demons were out there, I think we're subject to higher degrees of demonic involvement today than ever before in this nation's history because We've opened the doors. We've slammed open Pandora's box. And these demons are all over the place.

And they're affecting us. About 10 years ago before we really hit the major hurricanes and tidal waves in our own church, I had a dream, I woke up. And that dream was of a demonic spiritual attack unlike anything I'd ever experienced. It was real within the context of the dream itself but then in the dream our whole church showed up and we walked through this mall and we shut down all this demonic activity and we went off to Country Buffet and sat down and had a meal together. I don't know how Country Buffet showed up in the dream, but it's always been a big part of my family's life actually.

But I woke up, it was actually a really powerful dream. I woke up and I was crying and I told my wife, he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And it was that verse that hit me. Now I am not making a big deal out of dreams, I'm just simply saying when our attention is brought to a verse in scripture and the Holy Spirit is drilling that into the very core of our hearts and minds, that affected me so much and there are so many times where I'd walk into our church and I'd tell you what, There was a demonic presence surrounding that building. And I remember sometimes walking into our conference area where the pastors pray and there was a extreme spiritual presence in that room.

But this verse would come back to me, but today, he's gonna prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And as the word of God is brought forth in the preaching, man, you can hear the demons screeching and hollering and flying out of that building as the Holy Spirit comes in and does this mighty work in the hearts and souls of our people. So I'm telling you, it happens. It's real. The spiritual warfare happens.

Any of you sense any spiritual warfare going on on a Sunday morning in your churches? I believe it's real. And I do believe that he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies on a weekly basis. But this higher degree of demonic activity, I think, does come through music, movies, Dungeons and dragons. We've seen that.

Even in our church, it's sort of surprising the young people giving way to some of the pornography in the churches. Talking about 80% per covenant eyes, 80% of young men in evangelical churches are hitting the porn sites on a weekly or monthly basis. It's upwards of 70, 80%. That, friends, is slamming the door open to demonic activity in our churches, I'm telling you. It's extremely dangerous.

Harry Potter, Halloween is big now. This is similar to the time of Christ. I'm telling you that it's interesting. Is it interesting to you that when Jesus comes to the scene in the gospels, the demonic activity is everywhere? We don't see it as much.

We see it with Saul in the Old Testament, but suddenly it explodes on the scene and prepares the way for AD 70, the destruction of Jerusalem. So evidently there's a severe spiritual attack going on and of course Jesus is our example of the one who casts the demons aside, establishes a kingdom as kingdom overcomes and overwhelms. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch that play itself out, and yet there's so much paralysis and so many demon possessed children. Jesus, how long must I be with you, you perverted and faithless generation. And this is the spirit of the pastors as we see so much demonic influence upon families and the horrible effects that it has upon their children.

We've seen this in our own church. I believe I've seen a number of instances of demonic possession as well. Sometimes we've seen some real amazing deliverances, but other times it doesn't go quite that well as people leave the church and so forth. Okay, fourthly, just remember also that the church is the target of the dragon. Revelation 12, he makes war with her offspring.

But remember they overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives even unto the death. So just briefly, our strategy against the evil one is there. We overcome by the accused of the brother and by the blood of the lamb, shed for us, propitiatory sacrifice, we're forgiven. We stand received by God himself through the blood of Jesus Christ. This gives us a power, this gives us a faith and a strength in the battle.

And by the word of our testimony, say it, say it out loud. Say what you believe. Don't say it in your head, say it out loud. Share it with your wife. Share it with others around you.

This is what we believe, say it out loud. And of course we do not love our lives unto the death. With the breakdown of the Christian influence in the Western world, and I believe it occurred roughly 2006, is the point at which finally the Christian influence of a thousand years has depreciated to the point it hardly affects the nation as of about 2006. It failed in Europe a long time ago, but in America it was 2006 where I see the Christian influence failed at which time you know we get another president who is opposed to the Christian faith, the Christian church, and persecution rises because of this lack of influence in the Western world. The persecution has risen around the world, and we're dealing with a worldwide persecution unlike anything we've seen in the history of the Christian church, and pretty similar to the first centuries of the church in terms of the rate of persecutions that's come on the world in our day.

So keep that in mind that we are in a unique time in human history. And I think it's a great time in which we need to be remembering the saints who are bound. That's why we put in the worldview.com every morning. We have a five minute biblical world view, world news update that comes through generations.org and you can get the little app. But we update what's happening in persecution around the world because this is the most important thing that's happening in news, is how the Christian church, the followers of Jesus Christ are being impacted by the rising persecution.

This is a very unique time in history and also as our churches and our church, we're suffering with the saints a lot. We present the suffering saints. I'm sure many of you pray for the persecuted church. Yes, a major emphasis within the churches and to raise the funds. When so many of those brothers and sisters were slaughtered in northwest India or northeast India, we gathered up something like $25,000 of support for Christian Action Fund.

And these are the times to help India, Nigeria, elsewhere. We've got to pull out all the stops now in providing for the least of these Jesus' brothers that are being persecuted around the world. Most unique time we've had in probably at least 500 years since the Reformation, possibly since the beginning of the church. So don't pass over this opportunity. This is actually something Jesus considers so important, he mentions it at the final judgment.

I mean that's essential it is to be looking out for the least of Jesus' brothers at this point, at this time in history, essential. That we're concerned for the suffering saints and we are suffering with them to the point that we're gathering up $40,000, $50,000 a year from tiny little churches across America to help out. Okay, fourth aggravating factor is this. This nation itself is very much subjected to the judgment of God. Brothers, we're in a time of suffering.

We are suffering, and we will suffer. Because this nation is cruising for a bruising. Big time. That's an old statement they used to use in the 1950s. I think it applies today.

This nation is cruising for a bruising. Storm clouds are gathering. I don't know if you've noticed the darkness that's come down over the world and our country especially. Friends, it's just overwhelming to me. It's just overwhelming.

There's no political solution. There is no political solution. We're past that. We're way past that. 80 million dead babies, at least 67% of babies conceived each year are killed by abortion.

Hardly surgicals anymore. Surgicals are non-issue. It's the kill pill, it's the day after pill, and it's the IUD. The IUD itself takes out 12 million babies a year. Surgicals are 500,000.

The IUD itself, high efficiency birth control, is taking out 10 to 15 million babies. At least 67% of babies conceived are slaughtered by high technology. Technology not available in the 1990s. It's way worse today. It's way worse than it was.

A lot of pro-lifers say, we're making a little bit of progress reducing the number of surgicals. No, no, it's 10 times worse than it was in the 1990s. We haven't improved anything in terms of politics. Reversal Roe v. Wade didn't do anything for the nation.

The Kill Pill by Mail program is taking care of all that business right now. The Supreme Court in the United States understands this. So brothers, the scourge of pornography, sexual sin, you know the rest of it. And I just did a worst nation in the world when it comes to family integrity on my daily program, the most dysfunctional family life in the world is America and Russia. Okay, of the 210 nations, you would be much better moving to Mozambique.

You'd be much better in Chile. America, according to the indexes I use, illegitimacy, divorce rate, etc. America is the worst nation in the world. You live in the worst nation in the world. But you know what?

We don't think so. We think we're living in the best nation. We've made America great again. We need to get the red hat that says MAHA, not MAGA. Make America humble again.

Let's get those hats. But we're way past that. There's no humility among the Republicans and the proud homosexuals. There's no humility in this nation. Anywhere.

Hardly in the churches. We think we're the greatest nation. No, we're the worst nation in the world. In terms of despair deaths, drug use, America is by far the worst nation, worse than Russia. On these indexes, you live in the worst nation in the world, subjected to the judgment of Almighty God, and it's already coming down on us.

Now, here's the other thing, to remember, brothers, and this is a reality, I'm trying to give you a dose of reality this morning. Brothers, judgment must begin in the household of God. If you read that, 1 Peter 4, you understand that, you know, and If the Church of Jesus Christ will, you know, barely weather, but will weather this judgment, what will happen to the rest of the world? That's the question I'm asking as we approach the 2030s and 2040s, especially as we prepare our children for the rising storms that are coming. The socioeconomic, the World War IIIs, the whatever it is, the out of control science that's creating strange diseases, et cetera.

I have no idea what the future holds. But man, we better be preparing our churches for suffering and to face the future with faith, not with fear, but faith, the fear of God. This is where we need to be. So because judgment begins in the household of God, brothers, we are going to have to deal with unprecedented levels of church discipline and actually we have in our church unlike anything I've seen in 30 years. The last three years have been really intense, extremely intense.

We had so many discipline cases in a tiny little church. I put it on a spreadsheet, and I put it before our accountability group. We have a little tiny presbytery where it's accountability group, and I just walked through this with our shepherding committee and said, guys, we have so many that I just need to go through the spreadsheet with you to be sure that we're not overcompensating or something. I need some wisdom here, because I have never faced anything quite like this in my life as a leader in the church. So we're dealing with huge levels of church discipline.

And I just met with a megachurch pastor He said I don't even know my people. I don't know what's going on with them Well, that's a just I'm sorry, but that's a disaster. It's just a disaster. It's not going to be a Church at all Not in this storm In this storm we've got to be addressing these things. I understand.

It rocks the church. I mean every one of these has rocked our church. We bring the men together, sometimes the entire church together, and say, hey, one more, to the point where the men don't really want to come together on a Sunday afternoon. They're like, what more bad news? It's hard, it's uncomfortable, it's suffering.

The church suffers as we deal with these difficult issues. And then here's the point, I'll call it the last of the aggravating points, and that is, brothers, we are not big on suffering. So this aggravates the problem, is that not only are we seeing the judgment of God and we're seeing this massive spiritual attacks and these difficulties that are aggravating the situation, bringing suffering into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 2020s, but we're just not big on suffering. America uses 10 times the pain medications, the drugs, the psychotropic drugs and so forth, 10, maybe 100 times more than a lot of other nations. We're out of control in the use of drugs.

So I mentioned the despair deaths and drug overdoses way, way, way more than any other nation. No other nation's even close to us. Why? Because Americans hate suffering. Because, because we're soft.

Because we're the most prosperous nation in the world and we're living through the most prosperous time and the most comfortable years in all of human history between 1946 and 2024. The last 80 years, we've been through 80 years, the last two, three generations who have lived from the silent to the baby boomers on into the Gen Xers and so forth. We have gone through 80 years, the most prosperous, the most comfortable years ever, and we now still have just enough debt money to pay for the last few psychotropic drugs so we can avoid facing the reality of what we're dealing with as a nation that's where we are right now. Right now. So the point is we will suffer and we are suffering.

And the church is not ready for it, by and large. And the church is not ready for it, by and large. But brothers, do not think it's strange. It is for us to be a little less. Absolutely appropriate and reasonable.

Yes, this is who we are. To face off the self-centered generation that is using the porn and all the rest, it's just a self-centered generation. Nobody's wanting to have children because there's a little suffering associated with it, et cetera, and the birth rates of evangelical churches are 1.8 versus the national 1.7 per Christianity day study of about two, three years ago. Absolutely horrendous, horrendous. That the birth rate is 1.8, why?

Because they don't want the suffering of children They don't want their lives on the altar They're avoiding it. They're running away from it. It's not appropriate in their minds. It's not the appropriate service in their minds This This is what we're dealing with today. But brothers it is absolutely appropriate.

Absolutely. This is no strange thing. But let me look at history for a minute. I want to encourage you with some history. Great sufferings always attend great breakthroughs for the kingdom of Jesus.

I want you to remember that. I was just reviewing some of the examples I wanted to give you and I found they appear during times of tremendous explosions for the Christian Church around the world We are surrounded by cloud of witnesses. It's appropriate that we go if we say you know what? I'm going to heaven on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and their bloodies. Oh, praise the Lord for those who were sailing through the bloody seas, but I'm going on a bed of roses.

That's inappropriate. That itself is inappropriate. That's not reasonable. So we start with what's reasonable. It's reasonable.

We're gonna go to Jesus in a little bit, but we have a great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. Hebrews chapter 11, we could go through those examples as well. But others have faced these horrible sufferings. I think of Sanctus in the 170s in Gaul. Do you remember the brother, young man, I think 19, 20 years of age, and they were tormenting him.

Give me the names of the others, etc., etc. All he would say is, I am a Christian. I am a Christian. He kept repeating that, I am a Christian. They'd ask for his name, I'm a Christian.

They asked for others' names, I'm a Christian. They'd beat him, beat him, threw him back into prison, brought him back, they said towards the end, he was unrecognizable. Nobody could even recognize who he was. He was so beaten to a pulp. There he was raised himself up and they say he was even more resolute.

His second tortures became not his torment but his cure. Only they could see a hole in his face where his mouth used to be And a hoarse voice could still be heard. I am a Christian. I am a Christian and When he found the corpse He was one continuous wound mangled and shriveled. He did not even look like a human being I am a Christian So many stories to tell the Dutch Inquisition probably the worst of all the persecutions surrounding the Reformation period.

Thank God for William the Silent. I tell the story in freedom, the story of freedom, because he is really a powerful, powerful story. But there was a father and son in the Dutch Inquisition. Son could not have been older than 16 years of age. There they were on a father-son retreat, burning the fire.

And the son could be heard praying, and this is what they wrote down. Oh God, eternal Father, accept the sacrifice of our lives. In the name of thy beloved son. A monk cried out, thou liest scoundrel, God's not your father, you're in the devil's children. As the flames rose, the boy spoke to his father.

Oh look my father, all heaven is opening, I see 10,000 angels rejoicing over us. Let us be glad for we are dying for the truth 16 year old boy Thou liest thou liest The monk continued to scream out The men in the fire paid no attention to him. They continued to speak to each other in normal tones as the fire burned the flesh off of their bones. Beautiful, a beautiful sacrifice, an acceptable sacrifice. Brothers, this is us, amen.

This is us, brothers. It's what Jesus calls us to. So many other examples, the missionaries. So it talked about the early church, yes, an explosion of the church over the entire world, and the persecutions associated with it. And then the Reformation period, yes, so many persecutions.

But the missionary age brought out its persecution, sufferings. Oh, such sufferings. I tell the whole story. I've doubled the size of taking the world for Jesus. It's coming out in about two weeks now.

700 pages. You got to read the whole story. Amazing of how Jesus took the world. By missionaries, by the work of men and women who sacrificed their lives, the Pigott family's, one of my very favorites, they were those ministering in China during the Boxer Revolution. And a powerful story, the son, 12 years of age, wrote back to his friends at home, I hope that I can be a martyr for Jesus.

And not a few weeks later, they arrested him. They say he was the Nero of China who called this family into the court. And, but it took about 48 hours to make it from where they were all the way up to the court of this horrible persecutor of God's people. And they taught the word of God the entire way. And they were warned all the time, this is why we're killing you.

We have more to do. So each village, they continued to preach the word of God as they went. That night before they were martyred, the wife was ministering to a woman in the jail who had murdered her husband. And so by the time they got to the courtroom, the pastor, the missionary, Mr. Pigott, continued to minister, continued to preach.

He preached to the Nero, he preached to the court, he preached to all the witnesses. He continued to preach and he continued to preach until they cut off his head and that's when he stopped preaching. Brothers this is our call to the end, fulfill the ministry. We've got a task to accomplish for Jesus. We have something far more important than whatever these magistrates are attempting.

No, no, we're on commission. This man fulfilled his commission to the very end, to the bloody end. I could give you so many other stories. William Carey, horrible, horrible criticism. Lost his wife, his son, seven years first convert.

Adoniram Judson, you know the stories, threw into a French prison even before he got there, widowed twice, lost several children. He was in prison for 18 months, tortured in a filthy Burmese prison. You remember he had to sleep upside down, his shoulders just barely touching the floor. Seven years before his first convert, and by the time of his death, he'd established 63 churches in Burma. John Williams out in the South Seas, gotta read all these stories to your kid.

John Williams lost seven children on the field, built his own ships in order to get to Tahiti and Samoa. Amazing man of God. I mean, a man can do kind of guy. Phenomenal story. William Williams, by the way, similar down in New Zealand.

But again, John Williams lost seven children on the field is martyred finally in the new Hebrides And then John G Payton was on the next ship virtually and you know the story of John G Payton He lost his wife his newborn child three months after getting to this the island natural disaster disease wiped him out a number of times, he escaped Tana, only with the clothes on his back, armies of natives chasing him, soon returned and whole islands of cannibals came to know Jesus. So you know these stories, phenomenal stories. Fiji is one of my favorites. Wow, John Hunt, a man of God, seven years, ministered again. Almost all of them would minister for seven years, seven long years through torturous spiritual opposition.

On Fiji it was worse than anywhere else. They cannibalized two-thirds of the babies. They would do human sacrifice 20 feet off of the mission compound. The smells were overwhelming, but the spiritual oppression even worse. But then one day, one day, one of the first converts, an old man was praying in this grass hut and the whole thing shook and the winds came through And the Holy Spirit showed up.

And Fiji changed that day. In the most amazing Holy Spirit revival I think I've ever read of. In all the Pentecosts I've covered in the book, Taking the world for Jesus. It's amazing, amazing story. Brothers, what is it that make these people tick?

What steeled them to the mission? The average life expectancy of a missionary to Africa in 19th century was eight years. They said you got to build a graveyard before you build your first church. One missionary said I will open Africa to the gospel or die trying. And that was the mentality of the missionaries that took Africa for Jesus.

I mean amazing. Brothers, these are the ones that go before us. We live in comfy America. Forget that, amen? Somebody say, forget that.

Forget that. No, no, we follow in their footsteps. This is us, brothers. They had an acceptance and a realization of the eternal significance of the mission. Jesus, our captain, the one who died for us, he set us on this mission.

If C.T. Studd, amazing missionary in the Congo, Wasted the last 18 years of his life, never took a furlough. Worked 18 hour days for the last 18 years of his life. Translating the Bible, trouncing into the heartland of the Congo. Phenomenal man of God, he said, if Jesus Christ be the son of God and gave himself for me, There is nothing I cannot give for Him.

Brothers, that's it. That's the mentality. It's an understanding of the scope of the mission. That's why the seven years. That's why the 14 years.

That's why the 28 years. That's why we've been in it for 36 years. It's the scope of the mission. Teach them to observe everything I've commanded. And we all know that that takes more than a day.

Tell a child at seven years of age, obey your mom and dad. There, check, finished. No, you're gonna have to go back over it a few times. For the next 14 years, teach them to observe everything I have commanded you. Okay, brothers.

Also, a confidence in the eventual success of the mission. This is something else that armed them to the task. William Carey wrote, though the superstitions of the heathen were one thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse. Oh man, amen to that. Though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith fixed on that sure word would rise above all obstructions, overcome every trial.

God's cause will triumph. Be encouraged by these words brothers, but I Mean, let me answer this question now I'm gonna get into the practical things for you and me as Pastors laboring and yeah suffering through the criticisms and everything else. Heard some of that yesterday, and brothers, yes, amen. I go through that myself, and I get a B minus. Sometimes I get a C plus, and sometimes it's a D minus.

You gotta give yourself a grade when you get through it, right? It's a trials of four. How'd you do? The question is how'd you do? Not how did everybody else do, how did you do?

So here's a few things to remember. Why do we suffer, here's number one. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, Jesus said, they will also persecute you. And this is therefore reasonable.

Is that is that way you see it? This is reasonable. Jesus said a servant is not above his master. Is that reasonable? That's infinitely reasonable, given that Jesus is the master.

And we are the servants. I like to say a very flat org chart. Master, all of us. The servants are not above his master. You can't be riding in a red sports car, you know, behind the Lamb of Calvary, dragging the cross up to Calvary, honking your horn, get out of the way, get out of the way.

I'm sorry brothers, you can't do that. The irony of this is that Budget Rent-A-Car gave me a red sports car yesterday. And I was thinking this illustration may not work as well. But it applies, doesn't it? It applies to me.

It applies to all of us. We've got to get out of the car, take up the little cross and follow Jesus with the big cross. That's it. That's reasonable. That's acceptable.

That's ultimately rational. Absolutely. This is our reasonable service. Run into young men, very ambitious young men, they wanna be influential, they wanna impact, it's all about impact. By the way, I don't like the word impact.

Impact is not us. We're seed planters. God brings forth the increase. The impact is not us. So, But they wanna make an impact.

They wanna be something special. This young man one time, he just had this attitude. It was just a cool thing. Ministry is cool. Hey, ministry's not cool.

There's a lot of adjectives for ministry, but it's not cool. And so I was thinking about this young man and was coming back from the Bible study with him and I came up with this idea. Let me get like a nice framed picture. I went down to Walmart, got me a frame, and then I printed out a picture of a man who'd been through 60, 80 stripes, just furrows down his back, just one of those horrendous, nightmarish pictures of somebody who'd been through beatings. And so you have this back that's just furrowed and just scarred and blood and all this.

And I put that on the picture and I gave it to him and said, and the bottom of it read ministry. And he said, I don't want that picture. Just take it back. That's what he told me. But I think we need to give every, how much more time do I have, brother?

About five, okay, thank you. That helps. Okay, brothers. That doesn't help. That actually doesn't help.

Servant is not above his master. One of the greatest ironies of all the gospels is Matthew chapter 20. Brothers, I know you've read this, but bring your attention to it again. Jesus in verses 18 and 19 in the passage says, the son of man will be scourged and then will be crucified. The very next statement is John and James' mother comes to Jesus, grant them my two hands, two sons of mine be sent, one on your right hand, the other on the left, for you give your kingdom.

Boy, there's a non sequitur. There's a non sequitur of all non sequiturs, as far as I can tell. Jesus is gonna be scourged and crucified. These two guys, can we be on your right and left hand of the kingdom? Jesus answered and said, you do not know what you ask.

Y'all relate to that? I think we understand what Jesus is thinking and what he's saying here. You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? Rather, if you preach, you will be beaten.

You will be oppressed. I think of Richard Wormbrand. One of the greatest statements in his biography about his sufferings in Romania was that he said, we had a deal. The guards would beat us and we would preach. That was the deal.

And he said, he gave the example, the guy is preaching to the other guys in the cell. And the guards came in, dragged him out, and they beat him and beat him and they could hear him scream for the next hour and the guys brought back in he's thrown on the floor and there he's laying on the floor and he crawls over to the little makeshift podium and he gets up he said where did I leave off brothers that's us to the end preach the word in season out of season, as my brother said yesterday. And you will be oppressed for it. You'll be buffeted at one side and down the other for it. When you get into ministry, welcome to the torture chamber.

Okay. Paul brings this out in 2 Corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 4, death sentence on us, burden beyond measure, we're hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Number two, here's number two, just realize, we declare war on Satan. We declare war on the dragon. We rob his house.

We have declared war on his world. Now what do you think's gonna happen? He will come after you. One of the ways I put it is you suit up, put the helmet on, get the shoulder pads on, grab the ball, start running across the field, You're gonna hear a rumbling sound. It's the other team coming after you.

Brothers, this is the way it works. Either we'll be tempted, I just call it the good cop, bad cop, either we'll be tempted by the good cop, by the prostitute or whatever it is, or we will be beaten by the bad cop. It's one way or the other. It's interesting, earlier in my ministry is more the good, the tempting thing. And then once you reject the temptress, the bad cop shows up and he will beat you senseless for the next 20 years.

That's the strategy. And then thirdly, realize this is the modus operandi of the kingdom of God. This is how it works. This starts with Jesus. He was the lamb to the slaughter, but we are lambs to the slaughter as well.

And we conquer through sufferings, more than conquerors through him who loves us but in all these things in what things in tribulations distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword we are in all these things through all these things from the modus operandi of all this tribulation and persecution we are more than conquerors through him who loves us this is how we conquer this is how it's done we are whipped we are beaten broken legs broken teeth that lamb riding the horse saying God's got this Jesus has got the victory for us. That's the way we ride in on a Sunday morning. Fourthly, realizing, brother Scott Brown mentioned the suffering is essential to our spiritual life and sanctification. Absolutely. Our greatest enemy, I'll say this personally, my greatest enemy, Achilles heel of all my Achilles heels, the greatest temptation for every guy that gets up front is, you can all say it if you want to, pride.

The Achilles heel of Achilles heel is pride. It will kill you in ministry overnight. Pride is the big enemy. And so to the extent that Jesus is going to bring us down, and He's brought me down so many times. He's brought me back to the bench.

He's broken both my legs. In fact, right now I stand on broken legs. I can barely move. As one of my pastor friends in my community says, Jesus has got me in a headlock and I just walk around like this all the time. And brothers, he understands the problem of pride, but he keeps saying, you still need to go back out there and work for me.

How we react to suffering is a great manifestation of our own faith. God wants faith out of us. God wants us believing in the storm. God wants us, the waves higher, the suffering greater. But now he wants the faith up the ante.

He loves faith, he nurtures faith, every means employed to grow your faith. He wants you surrounded, overwhelmed, on your last leg, hanging by your last thread so that your faith will grow, so that you will be a man of faith. We face treachery, betrayal, the attack on our children, spiritual oppression, slander, misinterpretation of our words, the separation of wife and children in prisons, physical torture, wounds we'll ache sometimes for the rest of our lives. We, my wife and I, are emotionally scarred for life. We know that.

But that's not the essence of us. The essence is our faith, our love for God, our love for Jesus, our forgiveness, our hope. That's our essence. But brothers, you gotta understand, you get into ministry, it's very possible you'll be emotionally scarred for life. Yes, sir.

Well, let me just briefly at the end here describe a bit what it looks like. I just want to draw this in because I think it's so important. We're in a spiritual war. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principles and powers. And this is where it is.

The problem is not Mrs. Jones in the church. The problem is not Mr. Jones on the eldership. No, no, no.

We wrestle against flesh and, not against flesh and blood, but against principles and powers. And this is where it is. The problem is not Mrs. Jones in the church. The problem is not Mr.

Jones on the eldership. No, no, no. We wrestle against flesh, and not against flesh and blood, but principles and powers. This is the evil day. It's the onslaught of tempting thoughts.

The accuser of the brethren comes. He's constantly accusing the brothers of false motives, accusing ourselves of false motives, false judging, evil surmising, notions of false doctrines, doubts, discouragements, accusations, more doubts, more accusations, more discouragements, discontentment, lust, pride, faithless anxiety over this issue or that issue in the church, ingratitude, gracelessness, strife, gossip, quarrels over minor things, diversions, distractions, empty of another's gifts, competitions, comparing ourselves with other churches, fixation on gain, budgets, bodies, bucks, buildings, programs, arm of the flesh. Above all, the temptation to quit, the temptation to walk away, the temptation to stop loving, not to love, to refuse to grow in love, and on and on it goes. This is the list, and every brother in this room can relate to what I just said. That's the evil day.

And we are assaulted by that almost every day, sometimes just on Mondays. So brothers, our response has got to be to identify with Christ, to experience in the trials, in the fire, the fourth man in the fire, the presence of Jesus. John G. Peyton on the very worst day, surrounded by the killing stones and the rifles and everything else, looked up and he said, I saw the face of Jesus looking down on me and I heard his voice I will be with you to the end of the age he said all the comforting thought that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is with me and Jesus has all authority over all things over all the earth swept over me and I realized that I was entirely in His hands. Brothers to know the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection.

Something amazing there, something beautiful. We experienced this in our trial, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before him. The joy it is, the joy of fellowship, the joy of being with his bride, the joy of being with us forever and ever. And that's the joy set before us as well. And that hope is always before us.

Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered in the heart of man. The things that God has prepared for those who wait upon Him through all the sufferings and the trials that we are going through. These sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that awaits us. The goodness of God, the amazing goodness of God, is overwhelming. Just a view of his goodness, and what that goodness will produce, and will experience in heaven is enough to keep us well comforted through the trials.

So much more to say. I love you Scott. I love you men. Appreciate you being here. Let's exhort each other, let's encourage each other.

Let's spend the rest of the time together comforting one another in these words amen and amen let's pray father father God we give you the glory and the praise for the power that works in us that even in our weakness father we get to step back and see the power of your love and your grace sustaining us through the fire and the presence of Jesus with us throughout it We're amazed not as our at our weakness but at your power and your strength made perfect in our weakness in the sufferings and Father we pray that the vision of glory, the hope of glory would be an overwhelming vision to us as we go through the fire. On this side, Father, encourage us, strengthen us by your word this day. We pray Holy Spirit to descend upon these men, upon their families, their marriages, their churches in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, brothers.