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PRCUALife, protecting life through all its stages. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God with Mike Zwick, I am glad to be back with you today. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And so, you know, it's interesting. I feel like a lot of a lot of our shows recently, we've been talking about the potential, the persecution that may be coming to America. And it's really nothing new all across the world because it's happened all over the world and stuff like that.
But I also wanted to encourage you that this is not going to last forever. And one of the things that I was thinking of is there was a lady named Florence Chadwick. Florence Chadwick, actually in 1950, broke the world record for swimming the English Channel in 13 hours and 23 minutes. Thereafter, in 1952, Florence attempted to swim the 26 miles between Catalita Island and the California coastline. As she began, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if she got hurt or grew tired. After about 15 hours, a thick fog set in. Florence began to doubt her ability and she told her mother, who was on one of the boats, her mother told her to keep going, keep going. And about an hour later, Florence was in the middle of a thick fog and she told her mother that she could do it no longer and they pulled her out. When they pulled her out and they went to the shore, they found out that she was only about a mile away from the shore. And so, she realized that she was so close to her destination that it was just, she got so frustrated. And what she said in the press conference later on in the day, she said, all I could see was the fog. She said, if I could have seen the shoreline, she said, I would have made it. And so later on, she actually swam that same distance again and this time she wasn't able to see the shoreline.
And there may have been some fog, but what she said was she had a mental image in her mind of the coastline, of the shoreline, and she was able to make it. And maybe that's what I feel like some of you today may be going through as well. In the book of James, it says that you know that your life is like a vapor where we're here today and then almost immediately we're gone. You know, I was looking up something and it was in the book of Hebrews and it's actually in Hebrews chapter 11 and throughout the book of Hebrews, the people in that book are going through many, many tough times. And so at one point, I mean, they're saying that they were beaten, they went around in sheep skins and goat skins and it goes on and on and on. But if you go to verse 14, it says, for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared them for them a city. And so when we look at the heroes of whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, many of them, they had a chance to deny Christ to say, hey, no, we're not going to follow you or we're going to kind of fall by the wayside. But what they said is they said, no, Lord, they said, we're going to follow you at all costs. It doesn't matter what it costs us.
It doesn't matter if it costs us our life. Matter of fact, and we had talked about this before in Acts chapter six and in Acts chapter seven, that Stephen, he performed great miracles among the people who were the naysayers. And they said that they could not deny his miracles, but they still caused problems and they caused a commotion among the people and they riled up the crowds. And even with all of the miracles and all the signs that he was performing and he was able to basically out argue all of them, they still said that we're going to stone you. And they got furious at him and he came and he showed them that Jesus was the son of God.
He proved it to them and they got so furious that they ended up stoning him and he became the first martyr. We've talked about this before, but Stephen was an unlikely hero. Stephen was actually doing a job that the other apostles didn't really want to do and they said find some people who are highly acclaimed and find some people who are well known throughout the community and we'll have them do this because we can't do this job.
We have more important things to do. And it's funny that when they said that and when they chose Stephen, Stephen became famous. Famous in heaven, famous on earth.
We still talk about him today. People name their kids after Stephen and he ended up being stoned. He was the first martyr, but one of the things that he said was when he was being stoned, he said, Father forgive them, sort of similar to what Jesus had said when he was on the cross, and he said they don't know what they're doing. And some people say because of what he said and because of that story right there that Saul at the time, who later became the apostle Paul, was one of those who was collecting garments at Stephen when he was being stoned.
So I don't know. It's just maybe somebody today needs to hear that, but it's funny. It may not always be easy, but Stephen saw Jesus and he saw him standing up in heaven and he saw the whole thing. He says, what does it matter? This world is not my home. He says no matter what happens in this world, I realize I'm going to a better place and in the book of James where it says your life is like a vapor. Right now, you know, and I've heard people say this before, that the devil, Satan, he wants people to think that the here and now is going to last forever and that eternity doesn't seem that long.
Really it's the other way around. And so yeah, we talk about all the tough times that may happen. We talk about the people right now that are being persecuted. We talked about what's going on in Canada, how the church in Canada is being persecuted and it's growing. Yes, I said Canada.
I didn't say China, but Canada. And there should be no surprise that persecution is coming to the United States. You know, we see right now where, you know, there's people going around door to door trying to give people a shot. I mean, you know, whatever it is and people think they say, well, you know, my freedoms are being taken away from us.
Yes. I mean, I'm not going to take that shot if they came to my door. I wouldn't take it anyways because of the dream that I talked about where my dad told me not to get that shot. But it's important that we stand firm and that's just, that's one of the things, but the most important thing is that we stand firm for Jesus. We stand firm for biblical values that no matter what comes, no matter what happens, you know, just because the world says, hey, you need to leave people alone if they're, you know, if a woman wants to get an abortion, then that's her choice and it's no big deal and it's none of your business. You know, it's funny that the people who say that are the same people who tell you, you need to get the shot. But, you know, the people who say things like that, they don't realize that.
I've heard people say that, you know, and I've heard a lot of people say this. They say that, you know, life begins at conception and, you know, I, to a certain extent, I agree with that, but it says in scripture, he says, I knew you before you were born. I knew you before you were, I knew, I knew you before I formed you. I knew you before you were born. So not only does our, we, does God know us at the point of concession, He knew us before that. He knew us way before that and so that's why I do feel like it is important that we, that we stand for truth and that we do stand for biblical values. I mean, we had a, we, a lot of us will go to the abortion clinic.
There's something called Love Life. They have an abortion clinic in, in Greensboro. There's an abortion clinic in, with her really all over the place and, and we have Christians who are going out there and praying, praying that God over, that the Lord helps us to overturn these laws that allow people to kill their children. And we pray that people who go to these abortion clinics, we pray that they, that the, the, the, the, the minds of the women, when they go in there, or sometimes when they go with their boyfriends or husbands, that when they go in there, whether their mind has changed or their husband's mind has changed or boyfriend's mind and they decide to go out. And I remember one day that I went over there and I was praying and I felt very strongly to pray in the Spirit at that point that a, that somebody would just leave right then who was going to get an abortion.
And what they told me later on is, and we, and we were able to point it back to that spot that a woman just left the abortion clinic and she decided not to kill her child. And when I talk about that stuff, you know, there, there are many women who have had abortions and abortion and abortion is not the unforgivable sin. So you can ask for, ask God to forgive you, ask for repentance, ask for healing, but we also want to encourage people not to do those things that we know are wrong. You know, it's funny, I've gotten some flack about the whole LGBT thing. Once again, you know, to be gay or lesbian, if you're living that lifestyle and you decide to turn away from it, that is not the unforgivable sin. And I've, I've talked about this before, um, but I'll, I'll, I'll say it again, that if, if there were, there were times in my life where I was not living the way that I should be living, I was struggling with sins. I was struggling with, you know, many of the sins that, that people who are listening to or people out in the world are listening to, if they're listening to the show or even if you just share this with them or whatever it is, where I was struggling with that. And the reason, one of the reasons why I was able to overcome those is not because I felt, okay, people were just nice to me and they said, Mike, you can live however you want to live, but that I went to a Bible believing church and said that, look, the Bible says that you're not supposed to have sex outside of marriage. You're not supposed to, you know, you're not supposed to love money. You're not supposed to do all these other things that the world seems to say is okay. Um, and, and so I love other churches.
I love, I love people. I love when we stand for the word, but we do realize that there are a lot of other churches that are out there who are just not saying anything about these issues. Now we know some churches have just embraced these issues and have embraced them full force, 100%. And they say, it's okay to live however you want to live, do whatever you want to do.
And that's fine with us. And there are some churches that are standing firm and saying, look, we love you. Uh, but the Bible clearly says that if you're living this lifestyle, um, that it is wrong and it could be sex outside of a marriage. Uh, it could be, you know, gay, lesbian, whatever it is that God loves you, Jesus, you know, he wants to save you, but you can't continue to live in that lifestyle and claim that, you know, Hey, I'm just going to go to church every Sunday.
I'm loving everything. You know, I can do whatever I want to do because scripture clearly tells us that we do need to turn away from our sin. Um, and we don't judge people. And I know that, Hey, I, I'm not judging people.
I can't, you know, I, I have had a lot of stuff in my past that I've had to deal with. So I'm not judging people, but I'm just telling you what scripture says. Um, and if you look in the book of revelation, it tells us again and again, and again, you must repent. You must repent.
You must repent talks about in, uh, revelation three, 15 through 16. He says, I know your works. He says that you are neither hot nor cold.
He says, but because you are lukewarm, I'm about to spew you out of my mouth. And so I know many of us are on fire, but I want to encourage you to continue to stay on fire for Jesus to continue to stand for the truth. No matter what it could cost you.
I mean, who cares what it costs you? I mean, Jesus said, you know, he who doesn't even love his life unto the death. He says, those are my followers. He says, he who endures to the end shall be saved. And I do believe that so many times we've, we've got a gospel out there that says, Hey, you know, we just want to love you. Jesus just wants to be your friend. And I agree with that, but I do believe that if we're leaving out the other part of repentance that I do believe that we're missing a part of the gospel.
So, um, that's, I guess what I wanted to say about that. Um, as far as, uh, you know, God having a lot of, uh, promises in the Bible, God does have a lot of promises. Uh, Jesus said to love the Lord, you know, to love the Lord, your God with all your heart and love your neighbors yourself. Those are the two great commandments.
I want to encourage you that you never know what you're going to do. I mean, the, when, when Billy Graham went to a crusade, I believe it was Mordecai Ham. Mordecai Ham never knew that there was a Billy Graham that was going to be, um, that was going to be, uh, in that crusade and give his life to Christ.
But he, he decided to, uh, he decided to, uh, answer the call. Um, you know, one of the things that I think about too, when we talk about, when we see the times getting worse and worse and, and the times getting tougher and tougher is that, you know, Jesus tells us, he says, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear the terror that you could, you could endure. I mean, he says, and we were talking about this the other day in Revelation, where it says, um, you will suffer tribulation for 10 days. He will put some of you into jail, uh, and some things will happen to you. Now that may not be a literal place because we know some people suffer persecution for longer than that, but it will end and the persecution will end. But when we stand for Christ, that's, that's going to last forever.
Um, so I just want to encourage you to stand for Christ, um, to stand for what you know is right because Jesus loves us. And when, when I talk about not worrying, one of the, one of the stories that I was thinking of was there was, there was a guy who said, who heard a sermon on not worrying. And after he heard that sermon, he says, all right, I'm not going to worry. And so what he did was he, he said, I'm not going to worry. He completely changed.
And another guy at that church later on saw him. He says, he says, John, he says, I noticed that you're not, you're just, you don't seem to worry about anything anymore. And, uh, and the guy looked at him and he, and he said, yeah, I don't worry about anything. He says, what I've done is he says, I've decided to pay a guy $10,000 a week to do all my worrying for me. And the guy says, what are you talking about? He says, I think that's great. He says, but I know you, I know how much money you make. He says, you don't make $10,000 a week.
How are you going to pay this guy $10,000 a week to do all of your worrying for me? The guy says, I'm not going to worry about it. So I do believe that there is a, that there is a point where we do have to, we don't worry, but we also, uh, we also have to be smart about things. And it says in scripture, um, it says that, that we have to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. So I do believe that the time we're in, in this time of preparation, preparing our minds, uh, I believe that we're going to have to be really, really bold, but we're also going to have to be really, really smart and listen, listen to the Lord. Um, because we know that it's, it's not going to last forever. And, and we think about it and about how wonderful that heaven is going to be.
Uh, and I just want to encourage you never to never, never, never give up. Um, one of the things in the stories that I was talking about before is there was a guy named Peter Cartwright and, uh, Peter Cartwright was a famous preacher back in the 1800s. And like I told you before, one day, uh, Andrew Jackson had decided to, uh, to come to the church and, uh, his, uh, the elders of Peter Cartwright's church said, look, we know sometimes you get a little carried away. Sometimes things get a little crazy, you know, you, you, you tend to just talk on about stuff or whatever, but we want to let you know that Andrew Jackson is going to be in the congregation tonight.
So if you could just tone it down a little bit and, uh, Peter Cartwright says, you know, kind of smiled and nodded. And so when Peter Cartwright started his sermon, uh, one of the, one of the first things that he said was he said, I hear that Andrew Jackson is in the congregation tonight. And he's saying, I just want to welcome Andrew Jackson. I also want to tell Andrew Jackson that if Andrew Jackson does not repent and give his life to Christ, he is going to split hell wide open. So, uh, afterwards, I think a couple of the elders went over to, um, Andrew Jackson and they actually apologized. And Andrew Jackson supposedly came back and he says, no, he says, don't apologize. He said that, uh, if I had a thousand men like that in my regimen, I could take over the world. And so part of what it's going to take is boldness, but, you know, like I said, if, if we don't have that end game in mind, I think it's going to be really tough.
And, and what I do is, is sometimes when I, when I get a little frustrated or when I, uh, when I say, man, this, this seems to be lasting forever. I look at the book of revelation and I realize that it's not going to last forever because at the end of book of revelation, at the end of the book of revelation, uh, and if you look at say chapter 22 and it says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, career, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne and of the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of the street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month, believes of the tree or for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it. And his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face. Heard somebody say one time, they said one of the greatest parts of probably the greatest part of going to heaven is that we're going to see the face of the Lord. That they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads.
There shall be no night here, no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun for the Lord, for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, these words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the, and the Lord God of the holy prophecies, prophets sent his angels to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.
And this is where Jesus says, behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Now I, John, saw and heard these things.
And when I, when I heard and I saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, see that you do not do that, for I am your fellow servant and of your brother and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book, keep the words of this book, worship God. And he said to me, do not seal the words of God.
Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me. Thank God for that, with me, to give to everyone according to his work. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do his commandments, do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.
But, but outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie. I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root in the offspring spring of David, the bright in the morning star and the spirit and the, and the spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears say come and let him who thirsts come.
Whoever desires, let him take the waters, the water of life freely. And here it is, listen to this, this is very important because this is applicable today. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecies of this book, if anyone adds to the word, to these things, that God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.
And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of the prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things surely says surely I am coming quickly. So there you go, he's coming quickly, he's coming, he's coming soon and, and I believe that we're living in times where I don't think we've ever seen times like this before.
It's, it's been, it's, it's really never been like this and it's interesting. Years and years ago I heard in the 1800s a letter was written by a young missionary pastor in Africa. Tradition tells us that this young pastor had read the writing on the wall and that he knew that he was going to be martyred and he knew that his days were numbered and it was said after he was martyred for the faith and that they were going through his papers, they found this letter where this young pastor wrote, I am now part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have holy spirit power. The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of the unashamed. I'm a disciple of his. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed and my present makes, present makes sense.
My future is secured. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed vision, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudance or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, recognized or praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith and I lean on his presence and I walk by patience.
I'm uplifted by prayer and I labor by his power. My pace is set. My gate is fast.
My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few. My guide is reliable and my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up till I've stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, perched up for the cause of Christ. I'm a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach to all know and work till he stops me and when he comes back, he'll have no problem recognizing me as his own.
My banner will be clear and if you listen to that guy, that's somebody who's not backing down or giving up. Pray with me right now, Lord Jesus, I just pray that you give me boldness in the days ahead to stand up for you, Jesus, because as I read in Revelation chapter 22, it's going to get tough, but in the end, in Revelation chapter 22, we know that we win. We know that we win and just like in Hebrews chapter 11, 15 through 16, they were looking for a better place.
We're looking for a better place and I pray that you give us boldness to stand firm and if anybody who's listening has never said yes to Jesus, let me tell you, the time is running out. Just pray with me right now, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I need your saving grace. I know that I need to believe in you, Jesus, to enter eternal life. I accept you right now as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, amen.
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