Several months ago, Daw and I led a group to Greece and Turkey on the Footsteps of Paul tour. We followed the footsteps of Paul. And our guide took us to an old Greek Orthodox church. And the first room we went into in this old Greek Orthodox church, the kind of the narthex or the lobby. They had this painted on the wall.
It was an ancient painting. of Christians being killed for Christ.
Some are crucified, some are beheaded, some are skinned alive, some are burned alive. That's the first thing you see when you walk into this room.
Now, I'd never heard this before. Our guide said, In the Greek Orthodox Church, they would bring people who want to be part of the church into this room first. And they'd show him these pictures. And here's what they're basically saying. If you want to join our movement, If you want to be one of us, I want you to look around at what might happen to you.
if you follow Jesus Christ. You follow Jesus, you may be killed. You may be tortured. It may cost you everything.
So before you say, I'm going to follow Jesus, look around this room and ask yourself. Are you willing to pay the price? It might not be a bad idea for every church in America to have that painted in their lobby. To ask everybody, look, are you into easy believism? Just mutter some prayer and go throw a couple dollars in the offering plate?
Or are you really willing to live a kind of life that may cost you everything if you follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Crusade. It's what Peter is saying here in 1 Peter chapter 3. Remember last week we said in 1 Peter 3. Peter is preparing the church not just to live and get by in a chaotic culture.
Now, he's teaching the church how to thrive in a chaotic culture. He is saying to the church. They're coming for you. It's gonna get Tougher and tougher to follow Jesus in this chaotic culture. How do you thrive in this crazy, chaotic culture?
And he kind of gives us a little handbook here in 1 Peter 3, verse 13. He says, Church, and who is he who will harm you? If you become followers of what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you're blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, and don't even be troubled.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, but you do it with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Now, remember, last week we said, Peter said, here's how we. We thrive in this chaotic culture. Number one, he says in verse 13, Keep living the good life. Be good, joyful, happy, kind, godly people. Keep living the good life.
Then he said, number two. Don't be afraid. And in verse 14, he says, hey, don't even be troubled. Don't even be rattled when you see all this craziness going on. Don't be afraid.
And don't even be rivaled or upset. And then number three. If we're gonna Listen to me. If we're going to thrive in this messed up culture, If we're going to stand strong in this messed up culture, he says, number three, we've got to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Look there at verse 15.
Now, I want you to see this. Verse 15, it says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
Now. Won't you look at this? This is what we call a textual variant. I'm going to talk about this next week. You can trust your Bible.
Do you know there are thousands and thousands and thousands of ancient copies of our New Testament? Did you know that?
Now, one of the challenges with that many copies is they're all copied by hand. And the Bible is without errors, but sometimes the copyists will make mistakes. You got some spelling errors and this or that. There aren't many significant errors in these copies, but this is one of them. Because some of the ancient copies and the ones that your King James Version is based on say this in verse 15: but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
Other ancient copies, like the English Standard Version, the NIV, New American Standard, are based on say this, but sanctify or set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts.
So some say, sanctify the Lord God.
Some say sanctify set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts. Without getting to the weeds, I did some pretty in-depth study this week, and I'm convinced the newer translations get it right. Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Now, what does he mean by that?
Well Slavery was the most common social institute in Peter's day. And slavery had two participants. You had the doulas. The slave, not servant. I know your Bibles say servant.
It's because we're still stinging from the Civil War and we want to tone it down a little bit. It's not servant, it's slave. You had slaves. And then you had Kurias. Lords, masters, owners.
And when the church was trying to figure out what's the best way to describe the Christian life to this culture, what they said is it's like the slave-master relationship. When you get saved, What Jesus has done is he's gone to the slave market and he sees you in bondage to sin, lust, Satan, fear, death, and he says, I'm going to buy you out of bondage with my precious blood. You now belong to me. I am now your master. I am now your Lord.
I am now your slave. You belong to me. And that is, listen to me, that is the most predominant analogy of the Christian life in the New Testament. For example, Jesus is called Lord or owner. more than any other title in the New Testament.
In the book of Acts, Jesus is called Savior. Three times. He is called lord or owner. Ninety times. 124 times in the New Testament, we have this word doulas or slave describing a Christian life over and over and over again.
He is the master, he is the owner, he causes the shots. I just belong to him. I am his possession. Yes, I'm his friend. Yes, I'm an adopted child of the most high God.
Yes, I'm all that kind of stuff. But I am also a slave of Jesus Christ. He owns me. And beloved, the early church understood that big time. In fact, Um the earliest Statement of faith in Christianity was this.
Jesus is Lord. which means Jesus is my owner. And the New Testament leaders understood this. Had lunch with just a dear brother of Christ, great guy this past week. And I asked him, I said, Can I use this as illustration?
He said, Yeah, you can use this.
So I have his permission. But, you know, at our church, we have this volunteer structure called, have you ever heard of this, DCLA? We've got directors, volunteers. Uh got coaches. Leaders and apprentice.
Directors, coaches, leaders and apprentice. Hey, so Chad, I gotta be honest with you. I was a director in this ministry. And then they asked me to shift over to another ministry. And when I shifted over to the other ministry, I was no longer a director.
I'm now a coach. That really bummed me out. Because I was used to being a director. And I'm just a coach. And I talk to other people who have some of the same challenges.
Well, I used to be this, but now I have this title. I'm just a leader. But man, I'd love to be a coach one day. And all this title stuff. Oh big on titles.
During the first century, the most common title that the leaders of the church used in the first century was slave of Jesus Christ. James 1-1, not James, half-brother Jesus, James, the leader of the church of Jerusalem. No, it's James, slave of Jesus Christ. Romans 1-1, Paul, slave of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1-1, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1.10, Paul, slave of Christ. 2 Peter 1:1, Peter, a slave of Christ. Jude 1, Jude, a slave of Christ.
So can we stop playing the title game and just say, call me what you want? I'm just a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, you can clap, or you can sit there and say, What's the guy's problem? My problem is, we're living in a culture that throws titles around. You can call me pastor, you can call me lit. This man is just a slave of Jesus Christ. I belong to him.
He belongs to me. I am his possession. That's all I want to be known as. Slave of Jesus Christ. And beloved, The New Testament starts to make sense.
when you view the New Testament through the lens of the master-slave relationship. Let me give you some examples. In Galatians 6, 17, Paul says this. I bear in my body The marks of the Lord Jesus.
Now that word marks, I bear in my body, the mark of the Lord, that word in Greek is stigmata. Have you heard of the stigmata? I've been into horror movies. Wasn't there like a horror movie called The Stigmata or something?
Okay. And Catholics will say: well, the stigmata is you'd have these saints walking around, and all of a sudden their hands would start bleeding like the hands of Jesus, and their feet would start bleeding. That was the stigmata. That's not the stigmata. Stigmata marks.
That is a slave term. In Paul's day, Peter's day, Jesus' day, if I bought a slave, I would take my personal branding iron. I'd heat that thing up and I'd brand that slave's body and say, That slave belongs to me. How do you know? Because my mark is on that slave.
And what Paul is saying is. I've gone through heartache. I've gone through betrayal. I've gone through shipwrecks. I've been whipped, beaten, scourged, knocked around, stoned.
I have all these scars in my body, but it didn't bother me. All these scars are the march for me to tell the whole world: I belong to that man, Jesus Christ, I'm his slave. Hey, here's another example. Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, 20. You have been bought with a price.
Do a deep dive into that word bald, it's lutron, it's a slave term. It means this, again. I was a slave. to Satan. Sin.
Lust. anger, fear, whatever it is. And Jesus Christ came and said, Here's my blood. And with my blood, I'm buying you. You now belong to me.
You have been bought with a price. That's slave language. Hey, here's another one. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus says this: No man. can serve two masters.
That's actually not true. How many of y'all worked two jobs or have worked two jobs in your past? You've had a master, a boss that you serve in the daytime. You have a master, a boss that you serve at night. You can serve two masters.
But if you translate it the right way, it literally says in Greek: no man can be the slave of two masters. And that's true. Beloved, you can't be a slave to Satan and a slave to Jesus at the same time. You can't be a slave to yourself and your passions and a slave to Jesus. Once you belong to Jesus, you belong to Jesus.
You are His and He is yours. Does that make sense? And so the Bible starts to make sense once you understand this concept of the lordship of Jesus.
So I'm going to say it again. Yes, you're an adopted child of God. Yes, you're a friend of God. But, beloved, if you really want to understand the Christian life, you've got to understand this concept that He is Lord, He is your master, He is your owner. And believe it, we gotta get the gospel right.
Because we ain't getting the gospel right. In fact, I'm seeing this creeping universalism in the church. There's this universalist gospel that says. Everybody's children of God. Hey, everybody's going to heaven.
God is just this nice old grandfatherly man in heaven. He's got a little touch of dementia. He just wants everybody to get along with each other. We're all saved. We're all going to heaven.
That's universalism, and that's not right. And you say, Well, Jad, you need to be a little bit more open-minded. You know, I've met so many open-minded people, their brains are starting to fall out of their minds. I'm the most open-minded man you'll ever meet. My mind goes from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
But then after that, my mind starts to shut down. That's the universalist gospel. Here's another gospel, it's the cultural gospel. You know what that means? I'm born.
In England, And by virtue of me being born in a Christian nation, I'm a Christian. I'm born down south. to a good old Christian family.
So since I'm born in the southern United States, I'm just automatically a Christian. Hey, listen to me. You can be born in a garage. That'll make you a car. Just because you're born somewhere doesn't make you a Christian, but that's this cultural gospel.
Here's another false gospel that's out there, and that's the fire insurance gospel.
Sorry. I want the best of both worlds. I want to live like hell on earth and sleep with whoever I want to sleep with and live however I want to live, but I don't want to sizzle in hell for all eternity.
So here's what I'll do. I'll mumble some sinner's prayer. I'll say some little mantra at the end of some preacher's sermon. And if I just repeat the right words, then I'm all right with God. And I won't go to hell and fry for all eternity because I've said the prayer.
Okay, that's not biblical. You're not saved by just repeating some prayer. No. I believe and I preach, and the Bible teaches a lordship gospel. The lordship gospel is very clear.
And you surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Listen to me. I've heard people say this before. Have you ever heard of this? I made Jesus my Savior when I was 10 years old.
And then I made him my Lord when I was 30 years old.
Now, first of all, you don't make Jesus anything. He's Lord already. The question is: have you submitted to his Lordship or not? You don't make him anything. But secondly, Jesus never taught this two-tiered gospel thing.
Jesus over and over again said to sinners, If you want eternal life, You leave everything and you follow me. You want to have eternal life. You surrender your life to me. That's the Lordship gospel. And beloved, Peter is looking at this church, about to go through a chaotic season like you can't even imagine.
And what he's saying to them is: if you're going to thrive during this cultural chaos, you've got to get the lordship thing right. He's got to be Lord.
Now What do I mean by Lord? I want to give you an acronym. I'm very careful about acronyms because people can get cutesy with acronyms, and you can read things into acronyms. Every day. every day.
I have to wake up. And ask myself. Who's in charge today? Whose agenda is going to win out today? Mine?
Or Jesus. And for Jesus to be Lord, I want you to look at this: L-O-R-D. When I say Lord, jot this down. L-O-R. Of the Lord L-O-R-D.
L means loyalty. Your first loyalty is to Jesus Christ. You gotta get this right. Your first loyalty is not to the Republican Party. It's not to the Democratic Party.
It's not to your race or to your family. If you're going to be born again, And a slave of Jesus, your first loyalty is to Jesus Christ. Jesus himself says this in Matthew chapter 10 verse 37 he who loves father or mother more than me Not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me. Is not worthy of me.
Do you see what he's saying? No, no, no. Your first loyalty. Jesus says is to me, if I'm Lord. I'm number one in your life.
We're going to have a missionary here in a couple weeks preach, and he ministers in Indonesia. And I'll never forget this story. He said, at the soil church we were at, there's a mighty move of God, a lot of young people.
Now, Indonesia has the highest concentration of Muslims, from understanding, than any country in the world. And in spite of all this Muslim stuff around us, he said, these kids were getting saved. And he said, um He said, in our baptism service on a Sunday night, there's a line of former Muslim youth. who are getting baptized, making a stand for Jesus. He said, there's one young lady there that had two suitcases with her.
And he said, I went up to her. I said, are you born again? She said, yeah, I'm getting baptized. I'm making a stand for Jesus. He said, what's the deal with the suitcases?
She said, well, I'm from a very staunch Muslim family. And tonight, when my dad asked where I was going, I said, I'm going to get baptized and stand for Jesus. And my dad said to me, We're a Muslim family. If you give your life to Jesus, you are dead to us. You are no longer part of this family, and you're out of the house.
And she said, These are my belongings. I don't know where I'm going to go after the baptism. All I know is I have decided to follow Jesus. That's loyalty. In fact, between services.
I had a lady from Turkey, again, an Islamic country. She's actually from Tarsus, the town that Paul was from.
So I said, You might be a cousin of the Apostle Paul. She's like, Yeah, maybe. But she said, She said, I was from a Muslim family. She said, same thing happened to me. When I gave my life to Jesus.
My whole family disowned me. And then, right there in the lobby, she did this. She went, but Jesus is worthy of it all. Isn't it great? That's loyalty.
Now listen. Your loyalty is being tested every day as followers of Jesus. That's not just in Islamic countries, and that's not just in first-century Rome. Your loyalty is being tested every day. Let me give you some examples.
When you're watching a movie, and this is, I don't, I'm not just reading into it, I'm seeing this more and more. When you're watching a Hollywood movie, And they say, Jesus blanking Christ. Do you keep watching the movie? Or do you say, I'm done with this? I'm not going to listen to them drag the name of my Lord through the mud.
What do you do? That's a question of loyalty. Here's another one. And I know we're dealing with this as a church more and more. People ask me this all the time.
Do I attend my gay son's homosexual wedding? I'd never heard before. Here's what this pastor said: He said, if you go to a gay wedding, And it is officiated. by a so-called pretend clergy. What they're saying is, hey, God is.
is pleased with what's happening here today. That's blasphemy.
So the question is, are you going to attend a blasphemous service? Um Historically, Your presence at a wedding meant you approve of this marriage.
Okay, are you going to go there? Yeah, well, if I don't, I may offend my son. Yeah, what about offending Jesus? And I know some of y'all are saying, well, I'm going to go to the wedding because I want to keep the good relationship so that I can lead them to Jesus Christ. Hey, part of leading somebody to Jesus Christ is repenting of their sins.
You don't help them repent of their sins while celebrating their sin at the same time. And how far are you going to take this? Are you going to say, well, my co-worker is having an affair with his girlfriend? He's cheating on his wife, but I'm going to drive him to his girlfriend's house for the hookup because I want to maintain the relationship so I can leave him to Jesus Christ. It doesn't work that way.
And so this loyalty thing sounds good in theory. In practice, it's challenging. L loyalty. When I say Lord, O, jot this down, means obedience. Not that we're perfect, not that we don't make mistakes.
I tell you this all the time. I'm a messed up man, leading a bunch of messed up people. Here's the question. Deep in your heart, even when you mess up. Is there a desire to want to obey Jesus and live for him?
Because here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, verse 21: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord. Will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. He who what? Does the will of my Father.
Now and again, I'm not saying we don't, we all mess up. But if you don't have a desire to live according to this book, And this book is unambiguous when it comes to the kind of life Jesus expects of his disciples. If you don't have a desire to be obedient to this word, or when you're living in sin, there aren't bells and whistles going off. I don't know that he's Lord. In fact, I uh look I'm going to tell you what church it was, but I pastored one church, and there was a notorious guy.
He was a drug addict, drug dealer, pervert. He's a wicked man. Young guy, wicky guy. And I can't remember how he died. It was a shooting or an automobile accident or something.
And he died. And his grandmother is going around church saying, Yeah, he's dead, but praise God. I want to see him again one day because when he was six years old at vacation of my school, he prayed the prayer.
Now I didn't correct her. You don't do that to grieving grandparents. But I'm like, I don't know that you're going to see him again. Because that book right there says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. People who live in open fornication, people who live in open rebellion, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Jesus says, You can call me Lord all you want. My question is, what kind of life are you living? R L O R is rejection. You follow Jesus. At least once in your life, you gotta be rejected.
It says in John 15:20, Jesus says this: A slave that you. is not greater than His master. If they persecuted me. They're going to persecute you as well. In fact, I love what it says in Hebrews 13.
It says this. Jesus was ostracized and kicked out of the city. Therefore, let's be ostracized right alongside of him and join him outside the city. They rejected him. They're going to reject us.
If you're not rejected at least once, ma'am, at least once in your life. There'll be a guide that says. I ain't I'm not asking you out. Yeah, you're beautiful, but you're a follower of Jesus Christ, and I know you won't compromise on your values. I'm not going to ask you out.
Tell us at least once in your life. The guys that work have got to say Sorry, you're not invited to the strip club. We know what you're like. You won't fit in there. You can't go with us at least once in your life.
If you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you've got to be rejected. If you're not rejected at least once, you're probably not doing this thing right. And Christianity is the most rejected religion in the world. In fact, Now sociologists are telling us Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. According to one study, Thirteen Christians are dying because they're Christians every day, somewhere around the world.
According to this same study, Listen to this. 200 million Christians are assaulted, arrested, tortured, and imprisoned for their faith every single year. You say, why is that? Because Jesus said, you don't belong to this world. This world system is antithetical to me.
They rejected me, they're going to reject you as well. L loyalty, my loyalty is to Jesus. O is obedience. I obey him. R is rejected.
You're going to be rejected if you do this thing right. And then D is death. Death to self. Every day you've got to wake up and say, I am crucified with Christ. Jesus says in Luke 9:23, if anybody's going to follow me, they're going to have to deny themselves.
Take up their cross, which is an instrument of death. Daily. And follow me. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, I die daily. Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I don't even live anymore.
It's Christ who lives in me. If Jesus is going to be Lord.
Something's gotta die. Your ambition Your way of doing things. You deciding your value system is going to die. It's all about Jesus Christ. In fact, one of my favorite heroes of the faith is a man named George Mueller.
Have y'all heard me talk about Mueller before? George Mueller in Victorian England. He took care of 10,000 orphans. without asking for any money. He just prayed and the money came in.
He took care of 120,000 poor children through his schools. God's just great evangelists. Man did incredible things for the Lord.
Somebody asked him one time, they said, hey, George Mueller, what is your secret? You fed all these people, helped all these people, led all these people to the Lord. What's your secret? George Mueller said, what's my secret? He said, here's my secret.
There was a day when I died. Utterly died. Died to George Mueller, died to his opinions, died to his preferences, died to his tastes and his will, died to the world, not caring if the world accepted me or rejected me, died to the approval or blame of even my family and friends. And since that day, I have only one thing: I just care about God's approval. I told y'all a little while back.
Here's how God's been spent. I'm not here yet. I want to get here. But God spoke to me and said, check, go to a cemetery. Go to a grave, got the headstone right there.
and point down. And just start. Tell them how bad that person is. You're no good. You're worthless.
You're a jerk. I can't stand you. You know what that corpse is going to do? Nothing. Why?
It's dead. I can point to that corpse and also say, You're the best guy in the world. Oh, you're wonderful. I love you so much. Everybody loves you.
You're so great. You know what he's going to do? Nothing, because he's dead. And the Lord spoke to my heart and said, Jed, I want you to die to criticism and to praise. I want you to be a dead man walking.
That's what God's called us to do. In fact, Leonard Ravenhill captures the essence of a New Testament Christian slave when he says this. He has no ambition.
So he's got nothing to be jealous about. He's got no reputation.
So it has nothing to fight about. He has no possessions, so he has nothing to worry about. He has no rights, so he can suffer no wrong. He is already dead, so nobody can kill him. In fact, that that is the key to revival right here.
When we get this right, the lordship right, in fact, I was talking to a Pentecostal leader, his name was John Bueno in El Salvador. He started this church in El Salvador, worked there for nine years, could only get it up to about 300 people. And God spoke to him one Sunday and said, I want you to preach on the lordship of Jesus. He preached on the Lordship of Jesus one Sunday. They all just stared at him.
And it's time for the next week. He said, God, what are you going to preach on? God said, preach the same sermon on the Lordship of Jesus. He got up two Sundays in a row, preached the same sermon on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God said, Okay, now, God, what do you want to preach on?
Third Sunday, Lordship of Jesus. God told him to preach on the Lordship of Jesus Christ for 13 Sundays in a row, the very same sermon. And here's what John Bueno told me: He said, Chad, when I finally got my church to understand the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that's when God broke open. That was when there are signs, wonders, miracles, healing, and my church went from 300 to 22,000. When everybody got the lordship of Jesus Christ right, everything else fell into place.
It all goes back to this. Jesus, hey, we can't perfect. The statement of the first century: Jesus is Lord, period. That's what it's all about. And beloved, when that starts to get in place, Everything falls into place.
And here's something I'll say. This one's kind of bad. I gotta surrender my life to somebody else. I gotta surrender my will to somebody else. I'm an American.
I got the Declaration of Independence. I shouldn't be a slave to anybody. Can I give you the dirty secret? You're going to be a slave to somebody. That Charles Spurgeon, my favorite preacher.
Spurgeon, pastoring in the same church for many, many years. His very last sermon before he dies. Here's how he closes out this sermon. He says, hey. Every person will be a slave to somebody.
Depend on it. You'll either be a slave to Satan or Christ. Of self or the Savior. But you will find sin, self, Satan, and this world to be hard masters. But Jesus.
Jesus is so meek and lowly. that if you serve him, you'll find rest for your souls. I have served him for 40 years, and I wish I could serve him for 40 years more. That's how he closed his sermon. You're gonna be a slave to somebody.
Satan, flesh, world. Or Jesus. I'm just telling you. Be a slave to Christ. There's nothing like it.
I close with this. On this same trip I was telling you about when we went to the Greek Orthodox Church. We actually went to to Izmir, Turkey.
Now, 2,000 years ago it wasn't known as Izmir. Turkey was known as Smyrna. And one of my heroes Was burned alive there, a man named Polycarp. He was 86 years of age. He was a A disciple of the Apostle John, he actually knew John personally.
And he was, it's interesting, he was born into slavery. He was a slave for a lot of his life. And so when he got saved, he transfers this idea of being a literal slave. to being a slave of Jesus. Later on, he got his freedom and he became the pastor of the church there in Smyrna.
And I don't know when we were there a couple months ago, this isn't like me. When I read what I'm about to read to you, I got choked up. I think I got choked up because I'd read about this all my life, and now I'm standing on the spot where this took place right here.
Now, at that time, this was a big stadium. And I think I also got choked up because. This letter I'm about to read to you was written by Polycarp's Church. Everybody in the area found out your pastor was tortured and killed. What happened?
The church had a big business meeting, and they sat down and they wrote out exactly what happened and sent this letter to the other churches. Y'all want to know what happened to our pastor? Here's what happened.
So, the fact that I'm reading this letter from a church talking about the past, I don't know, it was just kind of emotional. But It shows me what it means to be a slave of Jesus. Let me read the letter. And I've updated the language a little bit, and I went back to the original Greek and updated some words here. But here's.
Here's the letter they wrote, part of the letter. The church said It was the time of the public games. The city was crowded. And the crowds were excited. Suddenly the shout went up.
Away with the Christians. Arrest Polycarp. Pastor Polycarp could have escaped. But already he had had a dream in which he saw the pillow under his head, burning with fire. And he had awakened from that dream to tell his church leaders.
I'm going to be burned alive. His whereabouts were betrayed to the persecutors by a little slave girl. who collapsed under torture. And they came to arrest him. Not even the captain of the soldiers sent to arrest him wished to see Polycarp dying.
After they arrested him on the brief journey to the city, the soldier pleaded with the old man. What harm is it, the arresting officer said, to simply say Caesar is Lord and to offer a sacrifice to Caesar to save your life? Polycarp was adamant that for him only Jesus Christ was Lord. They arrived in the city. And they entered the arena.
The governor gave him the choice of Cursing the name of Christ and making sacrifice to Caesar or death. Pastor Polycarp responded.
Okay. I've been his slave for 86 years, and he's been nothing but good to me. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? The governor threatened to burn him to death. Polycarp replied, You threaten me with the fire that burns for a little while and then goes out, when you ought to be concerned about the fire which awaits the wicked in the coming judgment and burns forever.
What are you waiting for? Do what you have to do.
So they burned him alive. And there he died for his Christ. This is what happened to our pastor. the pastor of the Church of Smyrna. This is polygarb.
who knew the Apostle John. Beloved, it is easy in this place to say, Jesus is Lord, and I am his slave. But the day is going to come, it might actually cost us something.
So let me ask you: are you just following Jesus to escape the fires of hell? You're just following Jesus because you need a Tony Robbins life coach to make your life a little bit better? Or are you following him because that man bled on a cross and died to save your soul? Why do you follow Jesus? But the team Always kind of make fun of me because they're like, Teddy, you closed out with the most morbid stories of any past I've ever heard of.
This would be a morbid story. If that was the end. But it's not the end. Because the same Jesus who was persecuted and beaten and killed. And buried Came back to life.
And those of us who belong to him, one day he will stoop down and raise us up to life just like he was raised up to life. And that same Jesus is coming back again one day. He's going to make everything right. He is going to rule the world in justice and love and peace. That's not the end of the story.
The end of the story is this: the kingdoms of this world will one day become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. Can the people of God stand and lift your hands and lift your voice and let's praise the name of the soon-coming king, Jesus Christ? Come on, church, things tied together with us today. At break of dawn. The sort of thing Heaven rose again.
For tremble.
Okay. Where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise His name forever for endless days.
We will sing your praise, oh Lord, oh Lord our God. He shall return in robes of white. The blazing sun shall pierce the night, and I will rise. Oh my My gaze True. Yeah.
On Jesus faith. Holy Yes. No. Dang. Of the Lord our God.
Oh, praise His name forevermore. Forever, Lord, oh Lord our God. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise His name forevermore, forever praise, oh Lord, oh Lord our God. Remember that ancient prayer from the early church, that great Aramaic prayer, Myronatha.
Even so, come back, Jesus. We're ready to go home. How many are ready to see Jesus Christ? And today, maybe the day. The day may be the death.
Well, just a moment, I'm going to close you out. And when I do, when I say in Jesus' name, amen. How many of y'all believe this? He is Lord, but he's also Lord over sickness. Do you believe that?
Lord over demons? Lord over strongholds, Lord over depression, Lord over bankruptcy, He is Lord over all. I've had this feeling all week. I can't escape this. I think some miracles are going to happen.
I think Jesus is going to exercise his lordship in this place in some tangible ways today.
So when I say in Jesus' name, amen, y'all dismiss, if you need. A touch from Jesus. You need a stronghold broken, a child to come back home, finances to be mended. You had a bad report from the doctor, and you need the body healed. If you need a divine touch from Jesus in some area of your life, When I say in Jesus' name, amen, I'm gonna ask you to come.
In fact, I wanna ask the prayer, can the prayer team just come just line up right here? I uh maybe I'm wrong.
Sometimes I get right, sometimes I get wrong. But I just think we're gonna see We're going to see some things broken in this place today. Jesus is going to step in and say, Satan, you've had too much rain in this person for way too long. This stronghold is going to be broken today. I think Jesus is going to step and say, Cancer, you don't belong in this body.
I'm going to heal this body today. I think Jesus was going to step in and say, ah, that kid's been away for way too long. Kid, it's time to come back to mom and dad. I think God's going to do some things today.
So when I say in Jesus' name, amen, you come. Get some prayer. The rest of you, raise your hands. Favor said it. Verse 14.
Don't be troubled. Don't even be afraid. We can live this life without fear. and worry. Because we know who we are.
And whose we are, and we've got the blueprint right here. I keep saying, you know, I've read the end of the book and we win. That's actually true. And it's not one day we win. We've won already.
We already have our victory through Jesus Christ at the cross.
Now we just need to live in that victory.
So raise your hands and receive this blessing from God. Old Hebrew blessing. Hazak! They are mods. Out that rope for all the head.
He Imecha Abenai Elehecha Behod Eshetela, which means crosses simply be bold. Be strong. Y'all don't be afraid and you don't be terrified of anything this week. Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you everywhere you go.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you. Go change your world for Jesus. Yeah.
