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God’s Faithfulness in Persecution

May 18, 2011

God’s Faithfulness in Persecution

May 18, 2011
1-Bryce
2- Joi
3- Mario
4- Chad
5- Paul
Sound - Daryl
Camera / Light - Danielle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F1SpaiNDuc

1: This morning we are gathered BY GOD to remember all

of the ways that he has been faithful to his people during
times of persecution. We are here today not only
because the bell rang and we are in the habit of following
the herd to the chapel.

2: The bigger reality is that God has actually invited you

to come here to worship Him today. SO, we respond in
gratefulness at the invitation and say, YES, we will
worship you, LORD, in spirit and in truth.

3: What do you think of when you hear the word,

“Persecution?
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4: Do you think of being cut off by that jerk on the

highway? Do you think of being marked tardy for only
being one second late?

5: What about when close friendships come to an end

because of disagreements? Are you being persecuted
then?

1: All of these are hard things, without a doubt, but they

aren’t actually persecution.

2: Persecution is when someone suffers because of their

faith and for the sake of Christ. Did you know that since
the time of Christ, 70 million believers have been killed
BECAUSE of their faith in Jesus?

3: And even in these real persecutions, God has been

there and has been faithful.

4: Sometimes, it’s easy to think that if someone died for

their faith that God must have turned his back on them
and not followed through on protecting them.

5: If we look at this life on earth as the ultimate goal, then

this viewpoint makes sense. BUT if we see our lives as
just the beginning of eternity, we see that God is faithful
to provide a place for us in heaven and will bring us there
safely.

1: Is persecution a bad thing?

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2: According to Jesus, it’s not. In Luke 6, he says,

“Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude
you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of
Man.

3: Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is

your reward in heaven.” (Luke 6: 22-23a)

4: Did you hear that? Jesus actually says, “REJOICE”. He

doesn’t say put up with this or suffer in silence or just cry
yourself to sleep. He says, REJOICE and LEAP FOR JOY
because suffering for the sake of Christ is not loss, but is
actually gaining God’s kingdom.

5: God’s people have been experiencing his faithfulness

through persecutions since the beginning of time.

3: Think about the story of Noah. Here you have a guy

who is just following directions from God, although they
were pretty extreme, boat building and all.

1: People thought he was crazy and let him know it.

They hurled insults and didn’t listen to his warnings.
Noah could have become discouraged and thrown in the
towel. But by God’s grace, he persevered.

2: God was faithful to his word by giving Noah everything

he would need to complete this task for the Lord. God
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was then faithful to follow through on his plan destroying

the earth and saving Noah and his family.

4: The history of the Israelites is full of persecutions.

From Egypt to Babylon, God’s people were constantly
suffering. Remember the story of Esther? At this point in
Israel’s history, their very existence as a people was
being threatened.

5: Plots to eliminate all Jews were being worked out, but

God’s plan and promise was that a remnant of Jews
should remain to ultimately bring the Messiah. So to
accomplish his plan, he was faithful to lead Esther to
rescue her people.

4: Did you know that the Book of Esther doesn’t ever

mention God, worship, prayer, or sacrifice? The author
intentionally left them out to heighten the fact that God is
sovereignly working in all things.

3: He is faithful even when we don’t see him at work.

2: The story of Job is a perfect reminder of this truth.

Satan was unable to fight directly with God, but knew
that he could best succeed if he attacked part of God’s
creation. Satan, the accuser, challenged God that Job
would curse him if he took away blessings from his life.
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1: As the book progresses, every single good thing is

taken away from Job. Even God’s reassuring presence is
something that Job can’t feel.

5: He is in the pit of despair and STILL doesn’t curse God.

4: You see, all along, God’s plan was to prove that His
followers must trust him and that sometimes the
persecution we see is a result of a battle between the evil
one and the God of the universe.

3: Because he has shown himself faithful, we can trust

that God is working even through the darkest time.

2: As we think about the ways that God has been faithful

to his people, let’s sing together. God is here and ready
to receive our praise of Him. Be bold in the way you sing
this. He deserves our very best offering.
Please stand.

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

1: Please be seated.
Stories of God’s faithfulness through persecution FILL the
pages of the Old Testament and they don’t stop when we
get to the New Testament with stories of the early
church.

2: Do you remember the story of Stephen?

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Scripture says that he was a “man full of God’s grace and

power” and that he did “great wonders and miraculous
signs among the people.”

3: When the Jewish leaders saw all that he was doing,

they became jealous and argued with him.

4: Stephen’s response? Beginning with Abraham, he

preaches through the history of the Israelites, proving
that every time God sent a prophet to tell the truth, the
people persecuted them.

5: The Jewish leaders were furious when Stephen put

them in their place. In the most extreme act of
persecution, they dragged him out of the city and stoned
him. Even while he was dying, he cried out to God, “Lord,
do not hold this sin against them.”

4: The man overseeing this stoning was none another

than Saul. God would do a great work in calling Saul to
himself and changed his name to Paul.

3: Paul would go on to be constantly persecuted for

preaching the Gospel. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul
lists the things that he had to endure:

2: “I have worked harder, been in prison more frequently,

been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death
again and again.
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Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus
one.
Three times I was beaten with rods,
once I was stoned,
three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day
in the open sea.

1: I have been constantly on the move. I have been in

danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger
from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in
danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at
sea; and in danger from false brothers.

5: I have labored and toiled and have often gone without

sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often
gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides
everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern
for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

4: You would think that after going through all of these

persecutions that Paul would have given up. He may
have even thought that God had abandoned him or that
God wasn’t powerful enough to stop the persecutions.

3: Instead, we see Paul take a totally different stance on

what it means to suffer for Christ.
2: “But whatever was to my profit…I now consider loss for
the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider EVERYTHING
a loss compared to the SURPASSING greatness of
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knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost

ALL things.

1: I consider them RUBBISH, that I may gain Christ and be

found in him,

2: Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from

the law,

3: But that which is through faith in Christ – the

righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

4: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection

and the fellowship of SHARING in HIS sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to
attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3: 7-11)

5: Did we hear that correctly? Is Paul ASKING for

suffering? How many times do we ask God to take away
our suffering? Paul is saying that suffering is good
because then he can know more of what Jesus went
through when he suffered and died for us.

2: So this morning, we invite you to sing another song

with us. Part of this song is especially important for the
topic of today’s chapel. The words of the chorus are
incredibly simple: all you’ll sing is “Yes, Lord.” As you
sing this song, we invite you to consider the ways God
may be calling you to share in his sufferings.
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4: Is he calling you to stand up for His truth? Is he calling

you do what’s right even though you might lose friends?
Is he calling you to humility?

1: As you sing “Yes, Lord,” also consider how he has been

faithful to the millions of Christians who have faced
persecution over the centuries. Consider how he is
faithful to you. Please stand to sing.

Trading My Sorrows

3: Earlier, we mentioned the fact that, over the centuries,

70 million Christians have faced death because of their
faith in Jesus. Think about that: 70 million. That’s about
one fifth of the population of the United States.

5: To most of us the idea of losing our life for our faith in

Christ is such a foreign idea. There may be verses in the
Bible about persecution, but it’s not a part of our
experience.

4: However, to many people in the world today

persecution is a daily reality.

2: Perhaps you’ve heard stories of Christians in other

countries before. Maybe the story was about a Christian
in a Muslim country. Or, perhaps it was a person resisting
the ban of religion in a communist country.
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1: It can be really easy to dismiss these stories because

the lives we live are so different. However, the
importance of these stories is not about the places or the
geography. It’s not about the people, either. It’s about
God and his faithfulness.

4: So, we’d like to share a story of a pastor and his family

living in Uzbekistan. Though Uzbekistan is a far off place,
located in Central Asia (show location of Uzbekistan in
Ppt.) we invite you to see how God is faithfulness. God is
faithful even in the midst of intense persecution.

Play video: http://vimeo.com/21449358

3: As Christians living in the U.S., how do we respond to

seeing and hearing stories of persecuted Christians?
Most have never been faced with imprisonment because
of our faith. We all have plenty of food.

5: For some of us, the response might be guilt. We feel

like we’ve done something wrong because we’ve never
faced intense persecution. The problem with guilt is that
it’s really self-centered. When we feel guilty, we focus on
ourselves. That’s the opposite of what god calls us to be.

5: So instead of feeling guilty, our response today is going

to be prayer. We are going to focus on God rather than
on ourselves.
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1: In light of the Scripture we’ve read and the stories we

have seen, we invite you to pray silently with us in three
different sections.

2: First, what do we have to thank God for? As we think

about persecution, we can be really thankful. How has
God blessed you with family, relationships, material
possessions? How has God blessed you through his
Word?

3: Second, what do we have to confess? How have we

sinned or fallen short? How have we failed to stand up
for what’s right? How have we failed to walk humbly in
truth? How have we taken our blessings for granted?
How have we mistaken small challenges for persecution?

4: And third, how can we pray for Christian who are

persecuted? We will spend the most time on this section
of prayer. We invite you to look at the screen for this
section as the different continents of the world are
displayed. As they are shown on the screen, we ask you
to pray for courage and protection for the Christians
persecuted in these areas.

5: Chad will lead us in each section of prayer. When he

says, “God, hear our prayers,” that’s our cue to pray
silently in our seats. Remember to look at the screen for
the third section of prayer to see which continent we are
praying for.
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4: We invite you pray with us:

Read Thanksgiving prayer & finish by saying “God, hear

our prayers.”
(leave one minute for silent prayer)

Read Confession prayer & finish by saying “God hear our

prayers.”
(leave one minute for silent prayer)

Read Supplication prayer & finish by saying God hear our

prayers as we pray for the Christians on the different
continents around the world.
(leave one minute for silent prayer)

In the name of Christ, Amen.

2: We invite you to stand for a closing blessing.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through

and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be
kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (1
Thess. 5:23-24)

1: A more God-centered response is one of

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