Do Not Fear Men When Obeying God’s Word (Matt. 10:26-33)
The title of today’s Word is, “Do Not Fear Men When Obeying God’s Word.” “Do not fear men” does not mean to live recklessly or live before men, it means when you face God’s Word, you will face persecution, so don’t be afraid of that. If you misunderstand these words, you’ll think, “Do not fear men” means you can do whatever you want to men and to not be afraid, but that’s not the Bible, but the Bible tells us to love others, the Bible tells us to love the gospel, but do not be afraid of the people that persecuted you because of this gospel.
The devil uses men to interrupt evangelism. It doesn’t matter what else you do, the devil will let you do that. Whether you’re pursuing your hobbies, your success, or something you’re good at, the devil doesn’t care about that; in fact, the devil makes you live your life stuck in that. However, if you’re testifying God’s Word, then Satan will be strictly opposed to that, and he does that through people. Do not be afraid of a single part of that.
Even a new believer who believes in the gospel will receive much persecution around them. There will also be much persecution for the evangelist who testifies of the gospel, why? Because if the proper gospel is being proclaimed, the devil will not stay still. It is revealed through people. When you first believe in Jesus Christ, the people in your family will go against you. Because you’re living your life with the standard that is completely different from everything you lived with previously, the devil will use your family to go against it. If someone goes to church for a long time and one day realizes the proper and accurate gospel, all the legalistic people in the church will be against them. The devil will never leave this person alone. No matter what, Satan stops this perfect gospel from being revealed and testified.
Why is it that when someone realizes the gospel, they’ll do unnecessary things even though they believe the same thing? It’s different, there’s a difference between the gospela nd religion. Most people are religious and think it’s all the same, but it’s different. The devil works through religion so he will never leave the person who has this perfect gospel alone. “Are you the only one who has the gospel?” Everyone needs the gospel, yes, however, these are the words of the legalistic, religious, and mystical person. If you remain in that, Satan will make them freak out.
If you want to save a new believer or to testify of the gospel yourself, you have to know these facts from the Bible.
1. Why are you persecuted when you evangelize and obey God’s Word?
Persecution is what happens when the gospel goes in. The Jewish people who lived centered on legalism in the Old Testament were strongly persecuting the gospel.
1) The herd of religious wolves (Matt. 10:16)
In Matt 10:16, Jesus says, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” As you hold onto the gospel and go out into the field, that is a place that is crawling with wolves, and these wolves attack sheep. That’s rightful, but do not be afraid. You should not fall under the misunderstanding that if you have the gospel, everything should be peaceful and easy; that’s opposite from what the Bible says, that person is going in the opposite direction, emphasizing peace and comfort and humanity that peopel talk about. That’s not the gospel, when the gospel goes in, the devil is bound to attack because he will not allow someone to relay the gospel in the field. When this person meets persecution they think, “I’m facing difficulty,” and that’s when they’re deceived.
2) Those who disobey (Matt. 10:17)
“You will be handed over to the local councils.” In other words, the people who do not live following the gospel will send you to the councils to be legally punished. In the Jewish church, it was illegal to testify the gospel of Jesus Christ, so they will send you to the council. “Why do things like this happen even though we have the gospel? Is God dead?” It’s because you don’t know the gospel, when the gospel goes on, then extreme things will take place, all the religious people will not stay still, and you need to prepare yourself for that.
When someone receives the gospel for the first time in a family, all the Christians, religious people, idolaters and unbelievers will begin to revolt against only Christ, they will say things like, “Are you the only one going to church?” That’s how they revolt. “We all go to church, we all believe in Jesus!” but when you talk about only Jesus, they will revolt. The devil cannot let that happen because it must be only Christ to break down the devil.
If Stephen had not been testifying of only Christ, he would not have been stoned to death. When you face danger, most people do not say “only Christ,” they kind of and our danger. The devil is not afraid of people like that. That person will live their entire lives as prey to Satan, and even their next generation will live as Satan’s prey.
3) Officials with disbelief (Matt. 10:18)
4) Worldly religions (Matt. 10:18)
Even the governors and kings will not be able to stay still. The Gentiles will not be able to stand this, either. However, if anything, this will become evidence for the Gentiles, and that’s what happened to Paul. He was dragged to prison, however, that was used to testify of the gospel to the Gentiles, the Romans. If you’re dragged off because you did something wrong, you should repent about that. If you cheated someone and went to prison for it, you should repent about it, but God reconciles that.
Conning people is not God’s will. Deceiving someone to make more money for yourself and your business isn’t God’s will. If you cheat someone to give offering, God doesn’t even accept it. If you’re stealing it from someone else to give offering, would God accept your offering? God would not accept it.
5) Non-Christian family members ( Matt. 10:21)
When you believe in Jesus Christ, your family will not stay still. They will fight you until the very end. When my father passed away, all the family members were expected to bow down to him. Whenever that would happen, all the neighborhood adults would come, and I was the only one who wasn’t bowing down, and all of the people would point and say, ”Oh, who is this kid? Aren’t they related?” My grandmother would protect me, “No, they’re not related.”
All the neighborhood adults began to grumble and whisper about me because I refused to bow down while everyone else was bowing down as custom to my father. I just received Jesus Christ just a few years ago and I knew it isn’t good to bow down to dead people, so I just stood there. First, when I believed in Jesus Christ, my father and mother looked at me critically, and all my closest friends looked down on me, too. It’s the same for my close relatives. There’s not a single person who said I was good for believing, and most of them did not remain quiet; most of them said bad things. For most religious people it wouldn’t matter, they just say, “oh I go to church” but the people in my family were revolting because I was saying, “Everyone must believe in Jesus.” When my father heard this, he was offended, “This is my kid and he’s picked up some strange thing that goes against his parents’ teachings.” My mother said, “I don’t believe but I’m okay if you believe.” Of course I’m not going to stay still, I kept on trying to proclaim the gospel to my relatives and my family but they didn’t like it. If I just stayed still and went to church by myself, then no one would say anything to me, but if I preach them the gospel they will for sure attack me, “Don’t preach to me, you take care of yourself,” and what they were saying is, “Why don’t you worry about getting married?”
So then I got married. “Come talk to me when you have a kid,” so I had a kid. A month after my daughter was born, he passed away. It’s all lies, all of them say different things but they’re just not accepting it, it’s the same for all my friends. If you just go to church and keep your mouth shut and stay still, no one is going to say anything to you including your family and friends, but if you receive donly Christ, you can’t keep your mouth shut about it proves that you don’t have only Christ.
When you receive the gospel, you feel so bad about everyone else that they’re going to hell, and you feel so bad for them. That’s how I felt when I first believed in Jesus, keep my mouth shut. All of them said, “Believe in a moderate amount; why are you talking as if you’re the only one?” It’s not just me, but everyone needs the gospel. These are the things that arose because everywhere I went, I proclaimed the gospel. If I went anywhere and said, “I believe in Jesus” and kept my mouth shut, no problems would behead, but in my eyes, those are religious people; that individual does not know the gospel.
If they properly received the gospel, they would see it. The most unfortunate thing is flesh and blood, the most frustrating thing is, what if they go to hell? That’s the normal thought of someone who has salvation, so when you look at your family, friends, and parents, you feel so bad about It, what if they go to hell? Forget about all the suffering they endure on this earth; what happens if they go to hell, because they will for sure will, and if someone doesn’t speak out loud about that, they do not have the gospel. Either they go to church without salvation, or they receive a religion. These people think, “What you have is good, what I have is good, we just have good relationship and that’s what’s important,” but that’s never the case.
6) Satan works to stop the Gospel (Matt. 10:23)
Satan does all sorts of things to stop the gospel. Matt. 10:23 says, when you’re persecuted in one place, flee to another. No matter where you go, if you have the gospel, you will face persecution, but during this time, there’s something you must remember.
2. When we are persecuted, we must remember the following:
1) Jesus was persecuted as well (Matt. 10:25)
So, if the disciples preach of Jesus, it’s rightful for them to be persecuted as well. If there’s any of you who say you have the gospel but if anyone is staying still, that person for sure is living a religious life; they’re not holding onto and enjoying the gospel. Withouta doubt, if you have the gospel, you’ll want to testify of it. If you don’t have the heart to testify of the gospel, you’re a religious person. That person is just satisfied with their prosperity based faith, its’ evidence that the accurate gospel isn’t into them. If the gospel accurately goes into them, then everything isn’t finished, there’s nothing more to seek for yourself.
But if the accurate gospel hasn’t gone into you, you’ll always be wanting things for your success, your benefit. You may believe in Jesus Christ, but the accurate gospel hasn’t gone into you. You’ll have really good relationships, you’re close to unbelievers and religious people in your house. I’m not telling you to fight with them. But I’m saying the problem is that there’s no change. That person without a doubt is religious. Have you seen anyone persecute a Buddhist? Have you? Have you seen anyone persecute someone for being a Buddhist? No. No one persecutes someone who is Catholic, however, if you have the gospel, you cannot keep it still, so you talk about the uniqueness of the gospel and people can’t stand listening to that. But this persecution is temporary, it is not long. Do you think God is powerless? The gospel goes in, and immediately, there are changes that take place and it’s very loud.
2) All that is hidden will be revealed someday, so we should not fear anything (Matt. 10:26)
Nothing is concealed that will be disclosed. When the gospel goes in, then religion will be revealed, especially, legalistic people will be repealed. “First, fix your own actions and then believe,” that’s a complete Pharisee. Even now, there are those who cannot understand those words. “Of course if you believe in Jesus you should act right. If you believe in Jesus, of course you should live a good life, how else should you live?” Then that person will suffer a lot, they don’t know what the gospel is, they might know Christ, but they don’t know the gospel. That person will constantly be suffering for themselves, and they will judge others constantly.
The individual themselves may not know this because they are suffering in their own frame, it doesn’t matter how much you give the gospel to the Jewish people; they cannot understand. Even if they listen to the words, they’re not able to understand what they mean because they’re so veiled, so naturally, all they do is fight and judge others and dispute. The gospel hasn’t gone into them.
“We all have the gospel, why do you keep saying that?” That’s not true. What is the gospel? When you ask the gospel, even elementary students will know, but it’s not enough with that gospel; you have to become gospelized. In other words, you have to be able to tell the difference between legalism and the gospel. I do believe in Jesus Christ, but it’s a JEsus like Moses, I’m a realistic person. So even though you believe in and pray in the name of Jesus Christ, that person believes in Jesus in the similar way to Moses, but they have failed so much,they can’t realize it. They just know everything like that. They believe in Jesus Christ, but they’re actually following Him like Moses, but these people say they believe in Jesus, and because they go with this kind of Jesus, they are bound to butt heads with people who don’t have the complete gospel, because first of all God was not pleased with him. Matthew 17, there was no one other than Jesus Christ, that’s what delights God.
3) Spread the Gospel even more boldly (Matt. 10:27)
Because whatever is bound to be disclosed will be disclosed. Because all of them shared the Jewish bloodline, they were close in maintaining family relationships. Because we all have the same ancestors, they had a commonality and had good relationships with one another. That’s a commonality between you and me, but the gospel starts to go in. In the past, they used to maintain this Jewish relationship with their common ancestor, but now there’s Christ, from that point on there’s going to be a change or shift in the family line. Before this point, they liked each other because they were the same, but when the gospel goes into somebody, the other person will recognize that.
Before this point, everything was centered on our ancestors and commonalities, but now we’re centered on Christ so we are not aligned. Don’t you think it’s normal to be like that? It is. If you believe in Jesus and nothing happens, that’s strange because your standards and values have completely changed. I could feel the reason my dad was mad at me was because he thought I was bringing something he did not teach me to harden him, and as the tip of the household, my father would want everything I learned and said to come from under the umbrella of what he taught me, but because I brought something that was opposite of what he told me so he could not stand it. And the devil uses that. I was so scared. How dare my son bring in something I never taught to my family, and we never had in this family, and now he’s making everything weird. So much is bringing friends. All the friends I used to drink with, the ones I hung out with while I was young, because I was not drinking alcohol and smoking, they began to doubt me. Because we’re friends, we had commonalities, for example we grew up in the same neighborhood, and school, but now, the commonality is no longer my main point of my interest, I’m more interested in something else he does not have, so our relationship became more distant. The devil knows this and started to attack me through my friend. So when my friends saw me they felt so disappointed. They were thinking “Why can’t you just go back the way you were when you were close with us?” But because I received the gospel, I didn’t want that anymore, but they really wanted me to keep doing the some things I did when I was close to them in the past, so even now, it’s the same way. When my father in-law passed away, I was in Korea, I went to visit my friends. They’re 60 years old now, but they said, “I like the old you; the new “you” is not cool. Because we used to get along so much with these commonalities, but now I think they look childish, they feel so sad. Every person is so centered on themselves that they can only be friends with someone if they’re aligned or connected on something, but it’s not that I talked about the gospel, either, they already know I”m a pastor. Every once in a while, I’ll give some kind of gospel message into the group chat, but every friend that I meet says, “Oh you seem like a pastor.” First, when I look at your expression there’s something I can see, because I know my life from the past.
You don’t know very well but I know my past and all my identification photos were taken hung over right after drinking. Whatever you look at the identification photos, whether it’s for my job or my drivers license, it was always the day after I drank, when i was hungover, so that means I was drinking every day, and that’s the “me” they liked. They liked me when I vent all night with them, and I would really eat with them until the end of the night and not go halfway, but now, I come back and I’m so warm to them, it seems God has great plan for them, so even though they’re disappointed, but I still influence them, there was my friend the couple who came to visit. And they said, “Everyone says your face looks different.” One of her daughters goes to a school in Canada and she went to a church there a few times.
She also sees that all her husband’s friends and husband are all turning white and balding, so she looked at me and said, “Oh you look so classy” and they asked me multiple times if they can come to church, I say, .Why would you go to my church when you don’t believe?” And he said just let me go once.
So I was thinking, “If God wants to send my friend to my church, and if they ask me again I’ll say yes.” “they asked again, and I said yes, they came here and they said once they go back to Korea they’re going to start going to church again. And a few weeks ago, they contacted me and said they’re in Chicago. And they’re going to visit in December and they wanted to meet me. And I never mentioned Jesus to them, because they already know me . so ultimately this gospel influenced those. At the beginning, they may feel so disappointed or a little offended, because this person is different than the person I used to know.
4) Fear God, who reigns over us and those who persecute us (Matt. 10:28)
Do not be afraid of man, but be afraid of God. After time passes, everything gets taken care of.
The hardest part for me was while I was in Korea. While I was going to the Saturday Message, I met someone that was the same age as me, that I knew from the military. And because he was older than the other new recruits, he would be given the easier tasks, and at that point, I didn’t even have a dollar to my name. As soon as he saw my face, he can get a vibe of where I am, so he gave me the up and down, and he realized, “oh your pants don’t fit, or your shoes don’t match,” and he said he’s so busy he just gave me his business paper. “I have to go on a business trip to Brazil so let’s get in touch after, and he gave me his business card.”
It’s different if he’s my friend, but he was actually below me in the military, so the way he was looking at me is thinking, Oh you were superior to me in the military but not in the real world. And I was so upset because I was here without anything to train for the sake of the gospel. But it was one thing if he was my friend, but he’s way below me so it was really hard. And I think he still thinks of me the same way he met back then. So everywhere you look there are a lot of ways the devil deceives you like this. If I just believed in Jesus Chris and did not go to training but kept on loving however I wanted, I wouldn’t have faced that problem. Isn’t that right? If I believed in Jesus Christ and kept on living diligently in prayer for my own goals then that wouldn’t have happened.
But after I believed in Jesus Christ, I let go of my will and pursued God’s will, and thee are what happened to me. But those were so momentary, God made me suffer like this over and over. For 10 years I was living my life In Korea and I could testify about things I went through endlessly. And the kids are saying they are going to Korea to receive training, that’s not even training. If you’re going to do that for training don’t do training at all. You go there empty handed to see how God will work from the bare ground starting from the spiritual, to the material, to the church, and to evangelism and prayer. But there’s a son of an elder who’s going to Korea for training and he’s getting 100s of dollars of allowance every month, that’s not training. Of course a father wants to do that for their sons but that that’s not going to help their sons with training.
If you want to be a pastor you have to personally experience God giving you the mana and guiding you through the wilderness, and see the land of Canaan. Otherwise, you are bound to get caught in this field of America, because you can’t overcome your material needs, you can’t overcome problems, you’re trembling in fear. Isn’t that right? Because you’ve never received an answer to overcome those problems, you’re going to get caught in them. And without a doubt, you’re bound to tremble and crawl before the field because you don’t know what to do.
There was a time where I went to college campus ministry by myself for about 4-5 years everyday. And there’s not a single word, so I don’t even know I went there myself. But there’s not one or two things like that. I went to the Seoul University field for 4-5 years, I went there longer than a Seoul student. My backpacks were bigger than a Seoul student. It doesn’t fit me at all, why am I here? If great works were taking place, that would at least justify my being there, but there weren’t any works. It was the same with all the other colleges I went to. For 10 years I went to college campuses like this. I didn’t go there because there was some kind of system, I went there on bare ground.
And as I was going on bare ground, I tried and tried and tried, God gave me so many answers and grace. If you think you’re confident in evangelism come talk to me. That’s not evangelism. You shouldn’t say it’s working or it’s not working. There’s something that takes place when all of the systems are set, and there’s something you need to do when there’s nothing at all. And of course, yes it may be easier if there’s a church with all the systems set up. And when I went to Korea, there was a system that was set up, so when I went into the system, the works took place. But most of the time I spent in churches that didn’t have any systems. So you should never talk about whether it’s working or not.
Without a doubt, the fact that you’re stepping on this stool, something will take place later around. What’s important is how God is going to raise up this evangelist. The Shamanism fields, Mental Hospital fields, until I surely confirmed the works of demons, and the mental institutions.
And after going through all of these fields, and seeing the fields of America, it became my foundation of faith. But if I stuck with a few kids at church and did the way of salvation, that would never work out, and evangelism wouldn’t take place. Because if I proclaim the gospel to one kid, then that kid will raise another kid, and rightfully it takes place. But that’s not how God trained me. God made it so that I would go into the field irrelevant to the church. So when I listened to the messages, it kept on saying it’ll take place naturally, it didn’t for me.
I would go to the core message, receive strength, and go into the field, but it wouldn’t work out for me that way. Because I was going in there by myself back and forth even if no one else was there. It was no small feet. But there were things God showed to me through this. He opened my eyes to see the field. He showed me what continuation is.
I went to evangelize in UC Irvine for 10 years; when I tell that to others, they laugh at me. I wanted to go longer, but I gave it away to Pastor Lee, because we have to do the young adult evangelism school; otherwise, it would still be going now. Through that, what did God show me? There’s no such thing as things working out or not, but God is going to work out the time schedule.
What does it mean for something to be working? A person asked me, “Pastor, what do you think about evangelism?” What do you mean? It’s something that God does, just do it continuously. If there’s one missionary who has the gospel in Africa, a place where no one else has received the gospel, there’s a work God does according to His time schedule, and it’s the same everywhere. Where the gospel goes with the first wave of missionaries, everyone gets shot to death. Then there’s a second and third wave of missionaries. Eventually they plant the flag of evangelism. Evangelism has this time schedule.
When there’s someone in the mental hospital or a shaman, who comes into Christianity and that never happens randomly or suddenly; without a doubt, someone in their family line was praying for him. In order to save one person, God will set up a long term prayer background to break down the forces of darkness for that person and when you look at evangelism you have to look with this broad perspective. If you look at it too narrowly, you’ll be too excited when things work out well and discouraged when not. When things are working out, it’s not because of you, but there was a lot of time and processes that went into this. When things don’t work out, it’s also not because of me, there’s a lot of time and processing for the system to take place, but if you don’t know this, you don’t know how God is working in your field, long term.
So if your kids aren’t working out, it’s actually not that it’s not working out, but you simply need time through your prayers. If you’re not able to think that way and you only think about the things you see like the acceptance movement that takes place quickly, then you won’t be able to endure. We do everything looking at an entire lifespan, and we do everything right now looking forward to the next generations.
So why do I live in the region where I am? It’s because God commissioned me here, and if I’m simply here, praying and spreading the Word in the field, then in God’s time schedule, the plants are bound to sprout, then what’s my role here in God’s time schedule? You must know this. 99% of my family is unbeliever. If you look at other family lines, one person believes and then everyone believes. But I shouldn’t look at those families and wonder, “Why is this not happening for me?” There’s a condition within that family for them to accept quickly, but for us, we’re generations of unbelievers so God makes us break down that thousand year old foundation through prayers. At first I was so afflicted because other people would believe in Jesus Christ and others would join, but that’s not how it worked out for me. When things like that take place, it’s because there’s a whole background that’s in place behind it.
For example, someone in that family had someone constantly praying for that family. Those things all accumulate for God’s works to take place, and you can see that when God did not bring them to Canaan immediately. God allowed them to wait for 430 years, and the Bible says the sin of the Canaanites had not reached the full measure. We have to rain disasters upon Canaan, but right now, their sins haven’t reached that point, so God is allowing me this time schedule so the sin of the Canaanites will reach that threshold by the time God brings the Israelites out of Egypt in 430 years.
Then, when you look at that, what do you see are God’s plans for America? The country founded on Christinaity, why is it like this today? Why is it that America has the most seminaires and most churches, but it’s the way that it is now? it’s evidence we’re becoming more religious. Even as someone goes to church, they cannot escape from their addictions or spiritual problems. They don’t know spiritual things, they don’t know what the complete gospel is because they’ve received a mixed gospel.
Then what is God doing now? You have to know that. If you just want to do things religiously, there’s thousands of those around America. But why is it that despite all those churches, there are so many mental patients and drug addicts? If there are so many houses of prayer around America, then why is it like this? What are those prayers about? How many prayers do you think are really for the salvation of souls? Everybody who goes to church is only praying for “me, my success, my food, and that’s why God allows those churches to close down because of no matter how many of these churches exist, they cannot change the field because the field is getting so evil, the future generations weak in the covenant are being attacked.
Then what is it that God wants? You have to know this in order for you to be aligned with God’s desire and plan for america. Otherwise, you’re going to live and exist in America and make everyone fall into religion. You’re going to make them all go to church and do everything they need to do but completely, so you’re taking the kids and putting them into spiritual problems so they can never realize. The parents look at that and they’re so happy and satisfied, “Our kids are doing more than we did,” they’re slack jawed, “Oh, we came here as immigrants, but now our kids are doing better than us, so we’re satisfied.” The kids are going into slavery and they’re alreayd enslaved, but individuals don’t know this. That’s the field right now.
What’s so difficult? Yes, this gospel is truly everything, then open your eyes to see the field. At the very least, I need to save the region in which I live, and that’s prayer that’s aligned with God, then without a doubt, God is bound to work. Is that hard? The real thing making life hard is your nature, rooted in something other than the gospel. If the gospel is relayed, those who have gone to church for a long time will revolt, of course, because it’s not aligned with them. They say they have the gospel but they completely have religion, so they all run away because most of these adults are actually centered on prosperity and the people who are a little elevated are legalistic. If someone prays a little more, they’re centered on unhealthy mysticism and if someone is a little successful in the world then they are humanistic, but they themselves don’t recognize that, they say they believe in Jesus Christ and think, “This is how you believe in jesus.” When the gospel is relayed to them, they say things like, “Why do I have to do it like that?”
It’s not that you have to do it like that, it’s only one thing. “There’s so many things in the Bible, why do you keep talking about one thing?” That’s why it’s religion for them. Within one thing is everything. When you talk about evangelism, you’re not just talking about evangelism. When I talk about evangelism and businesspeople, I’m not saying to quit your business and evangelize, but I’m saying everything is contained in and prepared by God for evangelism, but they don’t understand that; if anything they think, “This will destroy my business, if I evangelize, it will ruin my business because I’ll have no time for my business. They’re in a state where they cannot understand. Then if you tell them to forgive others in the gospel, they say, “of course we have to correct them and raise them up; why are you saying to forgive them?” You really can’t change their minds; it’s become their nature and it takes a little time.
You yourselves do not recognize, and I myself do not recognize how legalistic I am. This may be true of you, but I’m talking about myself, I don’t recognize how legalistic I was, I thought I was gospel-centered, but it turned out I was killing everybody. My thoughts are always the gospel, but I was thinking, “Try being gospel-centered like me,” and I was judging everyone without realizing it, but when God revealed this to me by grace, I was really embarrassed, and I was thankful for everyone listening to the message and following this far.
The more time passes, the more someone should be like that: because we’re lacking, God gives us the grace to realize how lacking we are, then we’re embarrassed.
3. A sure reward and answer from God
That is God. If you serve a prophet, there will be a reward for that in heaven. However, persecution will follow. Even if you serve a cup of water to a Lord’s servant, that will be repaid by God, and for sure, there is an answer. If you don’t have an answer, it’s because you’re doing unnecessary things.
Every day, constantly, you’re centered on yourself, it’s only “my family, my kid,” and nothing beyond that. “Pastor, of course I’m important and my family is important,” but I’m talking about the ideology. I’m not saying it’s not important but it’s the ideology that this is what you’re centered on. “If you don’t give me this, I’m not going to believe,” but when you believe in the gospel, it’s not given to only your family but also the other families. Even though you may have a small business, businesspeople say, “through my business, I will benefit many other people,” but others think, “Only me and my business,” then they don’t have an answer because they’re not aligned with God. Even if they believe in Jesus and receive salvation, they’re not aligned with God.
4. Peter’s Mistake and Restoration
Peter himself made a mistake. As the rooster crowed three times, he was so certain he would not reject Jesus but he did. “I will never reject the Lord,” he confessed, but I’m sorry to tell you this, but your nature has no choice but to reject Jesus. Later on, Peter realized this and was restored. Christ resurrected and He is my Lord, He is my God. Ultimately the very first confession he made was fulfilled. Mark’s Upper Room was centered on Peter, “On this rock I will build my church,” and from that point on, he never shook as the rock.
The covenant given to you once is fulfilled via process, but it will be surely fulfilled. Ultimately, because of that gospel, he was racing and later was crucified upside down.
When we follow God’s Word, there’s no need for us to fear persecution. You must respect people. But these are all temporary things. Jesus Himself said, “If you disown me before people, i will disown you before My Father.” You should be one who acknowledges God. may you have victory
Prayer
Father God, we thank You. We pray You will allow us to be bold so that we will not fear when people persecute us when we testify of the gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.