Experience TRUTH - #30

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This is the Truth Network. Are things getting better or worse for believers before Christ's return? Have you ever been hated because you love Jesus?

Wow! By your own family? Anyone ever been disowned because they followed Jesus and they became owned by him?

How about that? And what about the Holy Spirit? How is he leading you, and how is your faith on trial more and more in these last days? Welcome back to Experience Truth.

I'm Stu Everson. Robby Dilmore, the Christian car guy, agreed to come back for another week, and he's gonna read the Scriptures, and we're gonna just ask maybe those final few questions and wrap up Luke chapter 21, this wonderful passage on the return of Christ. Luke 21, 17, excuse me, Luke 21, 7 through 19.

So they asked him, saying, Teacher, by when will these things be? And what will the sign be when these things are about to take place? And he said, Take heed that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time has drawn near.

Therefore do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified, for these things must come to pass first. But the end will not come immediately. Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be signs and great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences, and there'll be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You'll be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore, settle it in your hearts, not to meditate beforehand on what you'll answer, for I will give you a mouth in wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.

And you'll be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience, possess your souls. So we're going to study more in Luke 21 later, even more signs of the times, more seasons, more warfare, nation against nation.

The parable of the fig tree, that's coming up later in the chapter. But Jesus Christ opens up this powder keg of really answering the disciples' question, when's this going to happen? We want to know what's going on.

They asked it a lot of times, not just here. But I love verse 13, Robbie. This all, this tough stuff, this absolute persecution that Christians are going to face in the last days, that many Christians are facing right now. He says, this will be an occasion for testimony. And you think about just suffering. True suffering, biblically, always exalts and points to Jesus. So you want to know why you're going through what you're going through.

It's not for me to tell you. It's for Jesus to tell you, as an occasion for testimony. We're in this fallen world.

We got a lot of junk going on. We have a lot of people that hate, if you're a Christian, you're hated, whether you like it or not, no pun intended. But suffering also draws the Christian closer to Christ. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3, 10, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, of course, but the fellowship of his suffering, and there's a, the word fellowship there means partnership. There's an intimacy with Jesus in the suffering. Now, Robbie, you've been through suffering, physically.

And on the, now it may not have felt this way then when you're laying there with a destroyed leg, or when you're laying there in cancer thinking, I may die tomorrow, or you're laying there in a pile of woundedness after falling out of a tree. I mean, you've been through a whole lot, brother, like a modern-day Job, and you may not have felt this vibrant testimony for Christ then, but as you look back on that suffering, do you see how God's used it? Now, selfishly, I can say I've seen God's used that in my life, and I've told your story to all kinds of people. I've heard you speak to hundreds of people. I've seen people get saved from your testimony on the radio and speaking at churches where you preach and all, but from your standpoint, how do you, how have you been able to connect suffering with Christ in the stuff you face, the trials? Oh, yeah, it changed my life completely. Fascinatingly, you know, after the cancer, after the leg, I got to have to speak more and more and more. I was speaking in all sorts of groups and churches, and that actually led to, you know, the ministry on the radio, and where God, you know, called me to do that, but it did base, it did come through those things that I went through physically, but there's also a passage that just kind of blows me away where he says that I fill up what's lacking in Christ's sufferings. I don't know if you're familiar with that.

I've heard that, yes. And the idea is like, oh, there is, and I think that when we're reading this passage, Jesus is saying, there's a whole lot more to come, and the good news is, is the earth groans under the weight of the evil one, that when we speak of the beauty of what he is doing in the midst of all the pain, it's a light that he really wants to share, and it's an opportunity that truly is beyond beautiful, and he will, I love what he says, not one hair of your head will be lost. He doesn't say you're not going to die. Of course, the bald guy's like, my buddy Greg Laurie, he loves passages like that.

He's like, well, I guess I'm good, you know. That's a great point, but you know, it's interesting, you have all kinds of trials. You know, James 1, count it all, joy, James says, when, not if, you fall into various trials. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, yea, all those who love Jesus will suffer persecution. So either there's a suffering that's just like you suffered, injury and things like that, or like our friend Moses Palouse and these guys in India who've been beaten by mobs.

They've had mobs nearly tear them apart in India because of the crime of preaching the gospel, of telling these folks in India that Jesus loves you, and he's the only way to heaven, and not your two gazillion deities that Hinduism is purporting. So he's been cut. I mean, I had him on my radio show. I was sitting this close to him. I said, look, you know, he'd been cut, he'd been stabbed, he'd been beaten, he'd been kicked and punched and everything, and nearly skinned alive. And it's a miracle how God got him out of that for the sake of Christ.

And the guy looks at me beaming. I mean, you feel the Holy Spirit of God all over this guy. Yeah, you think how lucky we are, too, that we get to see. I think about the pastor that was in the swamp in Vietnam for years. That's where he was in the prison for preaching the gospel, leading people to Christ. Unbelievable. In this swamp of filth and the God protecting through the whole thing.

And we complain because we only have one color TV and we only have 25 study Bibles at our house, so that guy would give anything for the book of John in his own language. But you saw that guy. You met him. Yeah, he was right there.

I'm like, oh my goodness, look at this person. And you wouldn't think that he had suffered anything. I mean, he had a joy in him, and you experienced it with Moses.

Oh yeah, so it's really cool. So back to that question, have you ever been hated because you love Jesus? That's a convicting question for me. And is it for his name's sake, as this passage delineates verse 12, are you dragged in front of the synagogues?

Are you thrown in prison? Are you persecuted? Are you accosted for my name's sake?

That's the important thing. Is Jesus Christ living through me, in me, in such a way that that's offending others? And that will offend others. Christ in you will be offensive because he is the only way. And because, by the way, you know why it's offensive of others? Because they've offended God. Because we're sinners.

And no one wants to be told they're guilty. No one wants to be told, like Peter told the thousands at Pentecost, you murdered Christ. You killed him.

Him who you crucified. And you flip on the light, the roaches get upset. That's exactly right. And that's what happens.

And the beautiful thing is God is there offering the gift of salvation, which is tremendous. So what a statement. You'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. This is very common in foreign lands, even as we speak. People that come to Christ are disowned, sometimes even killed in Islam. There's a thing called mercy killings, where they will kill you.

A father will kill his daughter if she comes to Christ. And it happens all the time. It happens in America, and the media doesn't talk about it much, but it happens. Parts of Asia, Europe, Middle East, hotbeds for persecution. We've talked about some of these wonderful guests that we've... If you go to persecution.com, you can see modern day stories there.

Also, the station you're listening to probably has a lot of that. But think about the only the persecution in your own life. And think about these awesome saints. Read Hebrews 11, the Old Testament saints in all of the hall of faith, Hebrews 11. These dear men and women of God and the suffering that they faced.

But here's a cool thing. Even if you're killed, the believer is secure in Christ. This person, you are spiritually invincible. I love what Dr. Erwin Lutzer said in his program one time. He says, believer in Christ, you are invincible until God wants to take you home.

So there's nothing. And that's really what Jesus meant here by not a hair on your head. Because we know that hairs and follicles fall out all the time.

For those of you that still have some hair, I'm losing mine pretty quick. But the fires and trials of persecution always purify the church. They also separate the truth, the true and the false, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares. But as the days get darker, the need to focus on the light of Jesus is greater. Hebrews 12, to keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Robbie, take us home with these final questions right here, and we're done. So if you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? How do you see the signs of times today?

And if you woke up this morning, I'm guessing you'd see them everywhere. What's my motivation for seizing every opportunity to share the good news of Christ? Yeah, and so just pop, pop, pop. If you're on trial for being a Christian, the fact is, if you are a Christian, you'll face trials. And you know how you know that you're truly a Christian, is what comes out. And what God's saying is, is trust me, let patience have its perfect work, that you'll be mature, perfect, lacking nothing, and ask for wisdom. And so if you're going through a mess and you're on your knees calling out to God, guess what? You are saved. Because you're doing what James 1-5 says. You're realizing, hey, I'm going through this either outside persecution or internal suffering, maybe even at the hands of people that I thought loved me.

If you're calling out to God, that shows, hey, I'm yours, Lord, and I can't get through this. But you can. Like Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Like Job said, I'll go through the fire and I'll come out as gold. Because you can't have pure gold without some hot heat, right?

High heat. And then the signs of times are all over us. I mean, that's really powerful.

We're going to get into that more next time. I love this question about, how am I seizing every opportunity? How am I seizing every opportunity?

How am I sober and vigilant right now? How am I looking around for ways to touch, minister, and love people in Christ? It's everywhere, Robbie. Ministry doors are everywhere. We're going to walk out of here and walk into ministry doors everywhere. And sometimes we don't even see them.

It could be just that kid. I'm on my phone. I don't even see my daughter sitting right there as I walk right by going to do my next thing instead of stopping and saying, hey, how can I love you? How can I serve you?

How can we hang out? And what's your challenge on all that, Robbie? Seizing every moment to share Christ. Yeah, because you see somebody hurting, they could be standing around a corner.

Or they could be walking towards your car. And it's a matter of getting in conversation right then with Jesus to say, okay, what are we doing in this one? Because it takes that. Yeah, and what you said about conversation with Christ, and really the disciples were asking the right person. Maybe they were asking the wrong question when they were talking to Jesus about when, when, when.

We kind of want to know when, right? But we want to shortcut the painful stuff. But they're talking to the right person. And that's what we would encourage you to do here on Experience Truth. Talk to Jesus. But how do I witness it work? No one's a believer there. Who am I?

What am I going to do? I don't want to break the law. You know, separation of church and state. Well, guess what? Don't ask me.

Ask him. You say to Jesus, get on your knees and say, Lord, open a door for me to share the gospel at work and whammo. And I've challenged people to do this, and they've called me in tears saying, it's crazy. I shared Christ with my boss in the visitation room at the funeral home after his relative passed away. And I can't believe I went into the whole gospel with my boss there. After all these years of saying, oh, don't witness it work. See, God opens the door. Of course you're not going to, you know, during work time, on their dime, stand on the desk and preach the gospel the whole time. You're going to cross the T's and dot the I's and do the job you're called to do, whether it's in sales, whether it's in finance, whether it's whatever you're doing. But God will open those doors because that's why you're there. You're there to show other people the goodness of God and invite them to Christ.