The 3 R's (4 of 6)
Series: When Everything Falls Apart
Craig Smith
John 15:18-27
I. Introduction
Welcome to all of our campuses, including church online. If you're just joining us, let me catch you up. We're in the middle of a series call When Everything Falls Apart where we're looking at the secrets Jesus taught to facing difficulty without despair. Jesus says that difficulty is inevitable, but despair is optional, so he's teaching us how to face difficulty with peace, hope and even joy.
Now, a lot of what Jesus teaches us about facing difficulty is applicable to any kind of difficulty. But today, we're going to be looking at what he says about facing a very particular kind of difficulty: religious persecution. Persecution is when we face difficulty from the world because we stand for Jesus.
Now persecution takes a lot of different forms, from the very major to the fairly minor:
• On the very major side of things, sometimes people lose their lives because of their faith in Jesus. I have a friend working on a Bible translation in a remote part of Mexico and just recently, two of the pastor working with him on the translation started getting threats to stop spreading the Gospel...and he didn't stop...and he was killed.
• Sometimes Christians lose their homes. I have a friend in Pakistan who leads a church and a couple of years ago many of the people in his congregation had their homes bulldozed by the government. The claim was that they were making room for a new highway, but several years have passed now and there's no sign of a highway being built...and no-one but Christians lost their homes.
• Sometimes Christians are denied opportunities...jobs or promotions or other kinds of opportunities because of their faith.
• Sometimes Christians lose relationships. Sometimes that happens with family members or with neighbors or co-workers or friends.
• And on ''fairly minor'' side of the spectrum, sometimes things just get weird. Maybe ...
Series: When Everything Falls Apart
Craig Smith
John 15:18-27
I. Introduction
Welcome to all of our campuses, including church online. If you're just joining us, let me catch you up. We're in the middle of a series call When Everything Falls Apart where we're looking at the secrets Jesus taught to facing difficulty without despair. Jesus says that difficulty is inevitable, but despair is optional, so he's teaching us how to face difficulty with peace, hope and even joy.
Now, a lot of what Jesus teaches us about facing difficulty is applicable to any kind of difficulty. But today, we're going to be looking at what he says about facing a very particular kind of difficulty: religious persecution. Persecution is when we face difficulty from the world because we stand for Jesus.
Now persecution takes a lot of different forms, from the very major to the fairly minor:
• On the very major side of things, sometimes people lose their lives because of their faith in Jesus. I have a friend working on a Bible translation in a remote part of Mexico and just recently, two of the pastor working with him on the translation started getting threats to stop spreading the Gospel...and he didn't stop...and he was killed.
• Sometimes Christians lose their homes. I have a friend in Pakistan who leads a church and a couple of years ago many of the people in his congregation had their homes bulldozed by the government. The claim was that they were making room for a new highway, but several years have passed now and there's no sign of a highway being built...and no-one but Christians lost their homes.
• Sometimes Christians are denied opportunities...jobs or promotions or other kinds of opportunities because of their faith.
• Sometimes Christians lose relationships. Sometimes that happens with family members or with neighbors or co-workers or friends.
• And on ''fairly minor'' side of the spectrum, sometimes things just get weird. Maybe ...
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