 If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts chapter five. We're not gonna read it right away, but we're in a series called Wind and Fire, and we're going through the book of Acts, and that is the birth of the church of Jesus Christ. And so it's an incredible section of scripture that just contains so many miraculous moves of God, so many things that are really the foundation of who we are thousands of years later as a church. And that's what I appreciated so much about Pastor Lee's message last week when he talked about Christians have always been counter-cultural. The church has always been a different kingdom, and so we value things like life, we value people, we love unconditionally, and that's not something that's recent, that's not something that's been a blue and red topic, it's not a governmental, it is at the core of who we are as followers of Jesus. And so that's what the book of Acts does. And so this week, I've entitled the message praise and persecution, because we're gonna talk about the two responses that always take place when the gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully declared. And so again, I told Pastor Lee, like man, last time I spoke on misunderstandings and how we deal with that, and now I feel like I don't wanna be the resident, like persecution expert, but I'll do whatever you want, so no, we are gonna talk about, hey, how do we respond to those who are not Christians, who may not be wanting to hear the good news of Jesus, because I'm gonna start the message this way, as I said, when the gospel, and this is the gospel that we cannot save ourselves, that God created us, perfect, an imperfect unity and fellowship with him, but sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam, and even since that time, all of mankind has been infected and affected by the presence of sin. And so we know that, we know that internally, the Bible says that eternity is in the heart of every single person, and so there's this disconnect and brokenness in every single person, and the good news isn't that you can do enough to save yourself, isn't that, hey, as long as you're better than most, you're gonna be okay, it isn't that, hey, if you really try hard, no, the good news is that Jesus Christ came as a spotless lamb without blemish, and he lived a perfect life, and he sacrificed himself, he gave his life, and he said, I will become sin so that you can become righteousness, and all who believe in me, though they die, yet shall they live, that is the good news of Jesus Christ, that you don't have to save yourself because you can't, and Jesus did what only God can do, and we are the recipients of that grace, and when that message is declared, one of two things happens, first, people will praise God for it, people will be convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, people will recognize I am broken, I am sinful, I do need a savior, and Jesus comes in, and the Bible says that as soon as you call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved, your spirit is reborn, it isn't a process, it isn't, hey, now you gotta check enough boxes or do enough things, in that moment, the Spirit of God comes and enters and becomes one with you, the dwelling place of God is your body, is your spirit in that moment, and we see that, but then there's another response when the gospel is faithfully declared, and it is one where there's a fence. There are going to be those who don't wanna hear that they're broken, don't wanna hear that they're sinners, don't want to hear that they're in need of a savior, and so they are offended, and they begin to attempt to marginalize or misrepresent mock or even malign the message of Jesus Christ, and both of those are responses that have been universally true in the church, so we're gonna see it in the book of Acts 2,000 years ago, and we see that today in 2022, that is always going to be the case. There will be those who praise God for what he does and what he's done in Jesus, and there will be those who reject and resent the message of the cross, and for those who have accepted Jesus, it can lead to a place of persecution, a place of having to navigate the waters of what does that mean? So in the first three chapters of Acts, and I'm just gonna give us a quick recap, we see the first response, we see the praise, and we see the power of God moving mightily. Here's, I mean, it started with Jesus being raised from the dead, he, for 40 days, is walking around, he's ministering to the disciples, 500 other people witness Jesus being alive even though they knew he was dead for three days, and then at the end, he looks at his disciples, and he says to them, Terri in Jerusalem, you're gonna be the carriers of this message, but I want you to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come, and when he does, you're gonna receive power so that you can be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even to the ends of the earth, and then he legit just does like a David Blaine special and moves up into the clouds, and he just goes away, and the disciples are like, they'd probably still be doing this today, but two angels show up and they say, hey, why are you just staring into the clouds? Why are you gazing into the clouds? The same Jesus that you saw going to heaven is gonna return in the same way, and now there's work to do, and now there's a mission that has to take place. Go and do what he says, so they pray, and they're in a prayer meeting, and it's 10 days, and then they're gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit floods that place like a rushing wind, and they're all filled with the Spirit, and it says, divided tongues as a fire are landing on every one of them, and they're speaking in other tongues, and they're prophesying, and there's tons of nationalities represented in Jerusalem at the time, and they all can hear people speaking in their native tongue, and they're like, this is crazy, what's happening? How is this possible? They're amazed, they're marveling at the work of God. Some other people are like, well, they're just drunk, and then Peter rises up in that moment, and he preaches the very first sermon, and he says, these are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only the third hour of the day. If it was the fourth hour, I could see why you might, no, I'm just kidding. It's only 9 a.m., but this is what's happening, and he preaches an incredibly powerful message about who Jesus was and how they crucified him, but in glory, God raised him from the dead, and now all who would believe, and the Bible says in verse 37 of Acts 2, that they were cut to the heart. They were cut, there was like this, and they said, what do we need to do? They began to praise God, this was their response, and Peter said, repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, every one of you for the remission of your sins, and you'll receive the same Holy Spirit, and 3,000 people come to know Jesus from one message, 3,000 repent in one day, and they're crushing it. I mean, there are miracles that are taking place. There are signs and wonders. There's insane unity among the church. Nobody's saying, hey, this is mine, and I'm keeping, no, they're generously giving. They're meeting the needs of others. They're marked, the Bible says, by joy and by gladness. Man, I want that for me. I want that for Christians. Like, John's life was marked by just joy. In the presence of God, there's joy that is unfailing, that is not marked by, that's what's happening in their midst, and everything is going great. I don't know if they had a church name yet. I don't know what they put on their youth van, but it was probably something like the literal first congregational temple of the Terri in Jerusalem to the spirit comes with dunamis power church of the Apostolic Christ. That's probably what it was. And it was on their van and they were killing it, and everyone was like, this is amazing. Then, in chapter three, Peter and John are just going to prayer as they normally would. There's a man, Pastor Lee talked about it last week, who's being placed there every single day at the gate called Beautiful, near the temple to Beg, because he's crippled. He's been lame since birth, and he looks at them and he thinks he's going to give them something because Peter locks eyes. Oh, they're going to give me some, here, give me, and Peter says silver and gold, I don't have, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise up and walk, and this guy gets up and walks, and he starts praising in the temple, and he goes with them into church, and he's worshiping God, and sometimes we can read and be like, okay, yeah, he's worshiping. No, listen, I remember once I had a Charlie horse for like 10 seconds, and when away, I was like, thank you, Jesus. Oh, imagine you haven't walked in 40 years, and everything's restored, and he's just going, and so people are noticing, like, what is happening? What's going on? And they knew him, they've seen him every day as this crippled beggar, and now he's jumping and praising and doing yoga and insanity and P90X, and Peter takes that opportunity to give another message. Hey, this was in our work, this was in our power, this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ whom you crucified, and like 5,000 people come to know Jesus. So the gospel is spreading, the disciples are revered in the eyes of the people. Like, it's an incredible move of God that's happening, and that's our first response, this praise, but then always when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented, there will be those who don't want to hear it, who reject it, and who ultimately want to marginalize what God is doing, and that's what we see beginning in chapter four. And interestingly enough, it's happening from the inside. It's happening by the scribes and the elders and the Sadducees, the religious leaders. Why? Because they don't care about people. They don't care about the message of God. What they care about is they're the smart ones, they have influence, they have authority, and they don't want these uneducated peasant guys coming in and stealing their thunder. So they're upset, and so they gather together and say, what are we gonna do? We can't deny it, like this guy was crippled and now he's not, and everybody's freaking out about it. So what's the plan? And it's just crazy that they're not like, man, maybe we should give God some glory for this. That was never on the list of things to do. Instead, they bring in the disciples and they say, by what authority are you doing these things? And Peter again, boldness comes upon him and he goes off on the religious leaders. And in Acts 412 he says, and there's no other name under heaven by which men must be saved than the name of Jesus. And the Bible says these religious leaders looked at them and they're astonished. Like, who are these guys? They're fishermen. They didn't go to Bible school. They're not trained, they're not educated. And it says when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and the disciples, they realized they had been with Jesus. And they warned them, they sternly warned them and said, do not speak anymore in the name of Jesus, or you're gonna get in big trouble and they said, you decide whether we should obey you or obey God, but all we can do is talk and do what we have seen and heard from Jesus. And they go back and they keep doing exactly what they're doing, all right? And then we're in chapter five. So there's a little backstory. You're all caught up in Acts. All of you have a slight Bible degree. Okay, Acts five, verse 12, it's gonna come up on the screen. It says, and through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord and Solomon's porch and none of the rest there joined them, but the people esteemed them highly and believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that even the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them and heal them. Also a multitude gathered from surrounding cities to Jerusalem bringing sick people at those torment of unclean spirits and people were all healed. Like the gospel is just spreading like wildfire. Verse 17, but the high priests and those who were with him, the sect of the Sadducees were filled with indignation, jealousy, anger. They're not accusing them of false teaching. They're not accusing them of, hey, that what you're saying isn't actually working because it was, they're more upset about what's going on and how it affects them. So they laid their hands on the apostles. That's not like, let me pray for your brother. That's like WWE chokehold. And put them in prison. So here we see this is the first instance of persecution in the early church. First they were kind of yelled at and warned, but this is now they're in prison for their faith. They're in prison for preaching the gospel. They're in prison for doing exactly what God asked them to do. And it says, but at night, listen to this, an angel of the Lord, this wasn't like, hey, I'm gonna, someone will hopefully make bail. We're gonna be in here for 30 days. That evening, this is how important it was that the gospel got out. An angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out. And this is what the angel said, go stand in the temple and speak to the people, all the words of this life. I love that. The angel didn't say, hey, go to the temple and tell everyone to just pray a prayer and then live however they want. Hey, go to the temple, tell everybody, hey, go to church when you can. It was, no, this is an entirely different way of living. This is an entirely different way of existing. There is an entirely different way of surrendering to who Jesus is and what he's done. And that's the way of life that's taking place here. And so what do they do? It says, and when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and they taught, they were obedient. So the high priest and those with him, verse 21, called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel and they sent to the prison to have them brought. I love this part. So they don't know that this happened. They don't know there's been a Shawshank redemption that took place. And so they're like, what are we gonna do? Here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna get those guys, they send someone, go get the prisoners and bring them back here and we're gonna figure out what we're gonna do with them. But when the officer came, he didn't find them, verse 22, in the prison and he returned. I love this, I want you to think about this. There's all these religious leaders and they're all freaking out about what's happening. And they're like, okay, they're in prison, go bring them back. And the guy comes and he's like, look, I got good news and bad news. What do you want first? Good news is all the prison doors are still locked and the guards are where they're supposed to be. Bad news, they're not in there. Look at, listen, it says, we found the prison shut securely and the guards standing outside before the doors but when we opened them, no one was inside. Now when the high priest and the captains of the temple heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. I love the Bible sometimes. I can imagine them in the meeting going, hmm, I wonder what this outcome will be. I'm sure they were freaking out way more than that. But verse 25, so one came and told them saying, look, the men who you put in prison were standing in the temple and teaching the people. So the captain went with the officers, brought them without violence, for they feared the people. This is so interesting. They could not lay their hands on them. They could not because the people were revering the disciples at this point. They were enamored by what God was doing. And so the high priest didn't want to jeopardize what might happen to them. And it's a complete flip from just a few weeks ago when the religious leaders were able to incite the entire crowd against Jesus. Remember? They were like, this man is dead. He's gonna destroy the temple. This man is a false prophet. And they were like, yeah, crucify him, crucify. And now we're just a few weeks out and they're seeing the power of God. And now the religious leaders are afraid of the people. So they did it without violence, lest they should be stoned. And when they brought them, they set them for the council. And they said, didn't we strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. And you're trying to bring this man's blood on us. It's like whatever, this man's blood is on you. Verse 29, Peter and the other apostles said, we have to obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him, God, has highly exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior and to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. Peter, just again, bold proclamation, bold in the face of this persecution, tells them, no, this is what's happening. And they're furious and they plot to kill them. But then one from the council, Gamaliel stands up and I want to just go to verse 40, verse 40. So they decide not to kill them. And verse 40 says, and the religious leaders agreed with him and they called for the apostles and after beating them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Verse 41, so the disciples departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. And daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ. Just an absolutely amazing testimony of what it looks like to face persecution, what it looks like to be an ambassador of the gospel and how we are the recipients. These, the boldness of these 12 men and then the thousands who came to know Jesus, that is the foundation that billions of people who are worshiping today on a Sunday morning are the fruit of their boldness, their declaration, their unwillingness to bend in the face of persecution and in the face of trials and difficulties. And now 2000 years later, I want to take the time that we have to talk about how do we navigate the waters of persecution? How do we respond to those who are not wanting to hear the good news of Jesus, who are going to come and attack us, marginalize us, make us out to be villains and make us out to be racist and homophobic and haters and all of the things that are being attached to what it means to be a Christian. We have to understand that that is going to happen. It is happening and it's going to get worse before it gets better. That's just the reality. And so just as Peter and John and the apostles and later we'll see Paul stood strong in the face of persecution and in the face of the trials, we have to adopt the exact same power of the Holy Spirit. And I want to say, how do we do that? Three things I'm going to give you of how Christians need to navigate persecution. And look, it's going to look different. We're not at a place where we're going to go to prison for believing in Jesus right now, but there are pastors in Canada and Norway and other places that have gone to prison for speaking what the Bible says is true. So it's not far from the truth. We're not that far from what was happening 2000 years ago, but again, persecution may look different. You may have jobs that you can't get based on your religious beliefs or what you believe about Jesus. You may have family or friends that have ostracized you or cut you off or are ridiculing you. There may be those who are in school or in universities and you're just bombarded with hate speech about what you believe is Jesus and who he is and what he's done. So this is a reality. It may look a little different, but this is what's happening in the world around us. And so the first thing as Christians we need to do is we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared for persecution to come. The disciples were not surprised. They were not like, wow, where did this come from? The Bible says they rejoiced that they were able to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Like that's incredible. They weren't like, God, why is this happening? We're just doing what you said. We're trying to follow your will and they weren't complaining and they weren't moaning and they weren't, woe is us. They were like, no, this is what is going to happen when you're a Christian because Jesus warned them that it would happen. Jesus told them to be prepared. Listen to Luke 21, I'll read it quickly. But Luke 21 verse 10, this is Jesus speaking about the end of the age. He said, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes, famines, pestilence, 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 namesake, 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 will answer for. I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You may be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, friends, some of you will be put to death and you may be hated by all for my namesake. This is not what you necessarily want to hear when you're a Christian, but this is the reality that we live in, is that there are going to be those who do not understand, who do not agree, and are not going to say, well, you have your way and we have ours. No, there is going to be direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ, direct opposition to what God wants to do in our city, in our nation, and in the world around us, and we have to be aware of that. That's all I'm saying is be prepared. There are too many Christians who think the moment they face opposition, that they shrink back, they say, oh, I don't want to be a fanatic. I don't want to be crazy about it. I don't want to be psycho for Jesus. No, we have to be prepared to take a stand. The environment that you're going into is what requires the preparation. So we're going into a dark environment as Christians. The Bible says that we're pilgrims, sojourners, this world isn't our own. And so we're entering in, in many ways, spiritually into enemy territory. And so you have to be ready for battle. I mean, Mr. Mike Flick's a firefighter. He's in the front row here. He doesn't show up to a fire in shorts and a wife beater, right? Hey, I'm ready, put me in. No, he's prepared. There's a suit that you put on. There's fire retardant things. There's boots, there's all of these things. Why? Because he knows the environment he's about to go into. And he's not gonna just say, oh, well, whatever. You know, put me in there. You don't go into space. Elon Musk probably doesn't go into space. And then show up and go, you know what, I should have brought some air. There's like none up here. This is crazy. No, you prepare. You prepare for that. And too many Christians think that life is all a cruise ship when it's supposed to be a battleship. That's the reality. And we're on a Christian cruise ship where all we care about is comfort. All we care about is my safety. All we care about is, hey, I don't want people to be mad at me. And then all of a sudden the captain's like, hey, we're heading into enemy waters here and there's a nuclear submarine with warheads and missiles. But don't worry, our boat has a splash pad. So we're gonna be fine. No, at that point you're like, wait, we're on a cruise ship. And we're in a battle. And listen, I'm not saying you can't have fun. I'm not saying life. You can't take vacay. I'm not saying every second you have to be like, oh no, the end of the world. But you better be prepared that we are living in the last of the last days. And persecution is gonna take place. And we're living in a world where even Christians and many churches and denominations rather than standing on the solid rock of God's word are saying, you know what, it's just easier to say, look, everybody's welcome. It's fine. You don't have to change. Don't be uncomfortable. You're fine just the way you are. The Bible never says you're fine just the way you are. It says you're loved just the way you are. And when you come to Jesus, you say, I surrender to you. I pick up my cross and I deny myself. And now I can be a follower of Jesus. But we have an entire generation that thinks, you know what, this is my life. And if things get really bad, maybe I'll call on the Lord to bail me out. And that is not the gospel. That is not the gospel. So we have to be prepared. It's gonna happen. You're not always gonna be popular and it's not always gonna be easy. And what I can tell you about Radiant Church is we will never change our stance about what God says, what the Bible says, the word of God is true. God is true and every man is a liar. That has to be our stance. It has to be. It has to be. But the second thing that we do when we're prepared, but secondly, we have to respond the right way. There's a way that we have to respond as Christians because sometimes we can be like, that's right. And we're good and they're bad and we're righteous and they're evil. And we can point at people and say, they're the problem and it's not our fault that they're that way. And so, you know, whatever. And then we just kind of hide in our Christian bubbles. No, there are two ways that we need to respond. The first is in obedience. Like I said, we don't change our stance. We don't change the message of the gospel for culture, for the masses. What did Peter and John do when they were warned, when they were threatened? They went right back to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They went right back to doing what God asked them to do and what the angel told them to do. And then they were beaten and flogged. And what did they do? They rejoiced that they were counted worthy. Sometimes when we experience suffering or conflict, we're like, oh, I can't do this. And I'm not saying it's fun, but at the same time you can recognize, look, if I'm being persecuted is because I'm on the devil's radar. And if you've never experienced persecution, if you've never experienced conflict in your Christian walk, I would submit to you that maybe you haven't been as bold as you need to be in your walk with Jesus and in your stance. Like that's just the reality. It will happen, but you have to respond in obedience. You have to respond in a way just like Peter and John that continue to do what they did. But the second thing and maybe even more importantly is we have to respond as Christians in love, in love. We're not in a battle against people. We're not in a battle against people groups or different denominations. We're not in a battle against atheists or Muslims or they're not the enemy, they are the prize. And they're not who we're fighting against or who we're fighting for. I am convinced that our leaders, government leaders want us to hate each other. I am, I think that that literally might be the goal. It might be like written on their wall of here's what we're working on today as we want people in our, to hate each other. And that is not the way of the cross and it's not the way of Jesus. That's what he was talking about in Matthew five on the Sermon on the Mount. Sometimes like we read that sermon, it's beautiful, it's so eloquent. Oh, it's just poetic. No, it's brutally counter cultural and hard. It was not a crowd pleaser. Let's put it that way. Jesus wasn't like, now look at your neighbor and say your breakthrough is coming. That was not the message. It was blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those when you are, you're persecuted. Blessed are those are you when they revile you and they speak evil against you. Well, why are you blessed? Well, because they did the same thing to the prophets before you. They did the same thing to Jesus. And so what are we supposed to do? Do we get arms? Pick up our weapons? No, we bless them. We pray for them. We love them. Those who persecute you, those who revile against you, that is the call of the Christian. Ephesians four 15 says, we speak the truth, but we speak the truth in love. So in the kingdom of God, you can be right and still be wrong. You can be right factually. You can be right theologically, but if you're not communicating it in love, the Bible says you're still wrong. Jesus in John 13, 35 said, they will know you're my disciples by the way you vote, how many bumper stickers you have on your car, how many times you've used the word phrase turn or burn. Like those are not what the Bible says, by your love, one for another. We have to be marked by love. We have to ask God to break our hearts. And I'm not up here saying it's easy. I'm not up here saying I get it right all the time. It is a difficult pride swallowing siege many times. And I'll just speak frankly, we have some, and it's not the first time, but some people who are sharing some Facebook posts about match head and our downtown presence and that we're all racist homophobic haters and we're taking all the profits and keeping them and we're driving out every other business and we are, you know, categorically, I don't know, there was like 11 things and at least 10 of them were not true. One about parking illegally, I've done that a few times, fine. Forgive me, Lord, okay, downtown. I've also paid a bunch of tickets. I should have a brick somewhere that just says paid for, but again, you can go and you can go look, lady, Karen. No, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. I love Karen's, all of them. This isn't even true, but you know what? We've decided we're gonna respond in love. God is our defender. God is our witness to this and we love our city and we wanna bless our city and we wanna be a presence of God. That's why we pray morning, noon and night downtown. There is praise going up and in my opinion, there's some fat, lazy demons that have had their reign and rule over downtown Kalamazoo that are getting their feathers a little fluttered and they're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not liking this. And so they're raising their ugly heads and they're getting on, you know, their bull flags and say, we better get in shape because there's some real Christians that are coming and praying the name of Jesus down here. And so how do we respond to persecution? We do it in love. We have protestors in front of match head. We'll buy them coffees. We'll give them, like this is the heart of Jesus. No one has ever been beaten or bludgeoned or battered into the kingdom of God. That isn't gonna work. They'll know we're Christians by our love. Last thing and maybe most important, how do we respond to persecution as we have to access the secret weapon given to us and it's this, the spirit boldness. The holy spirit boldness is the defining difference in the book of Acts. You go back a few books, the Gospels, and Peter is denying Jesus three times in front of a 13 year old school girl at a campfire. Like he's scared, he's watching from a distance. I don't even know Jesus. And then three weeks later, he's preaching boldly. He's yelling at the Sanhedrin. He's saying, this God who you crucified and hung on a tree, like what is the difference? It is the spirit of God. And when the Pharisees looked at Peter, they said, what is going on? He's uneducated. He doesn't have a degree. He's not from our lineage. What'd they say? He has been with Jesus. Boldness for your journey. Boldness and persecution. Boldness and the darkness that we're gonna face as Christians that we're walking into is going to only be possible through connection with the Holy Spirit and intimacy with Jesus. The disciples walked with Jesus. They knew his heart. They got it wrong a bunch. Like, should we call fire down on them? No, no, no, no. You don't know your own heart. That's not what we're doing. But they learned and they were with Jesus. And then the Holy Spirit, when he fell in them, it confirmed that and they walked in that power and they walked in that boldness and enabled them to rejoice when they were persecuted. Enabled them to see, to perceive totally different what was happening. The most important thing you can do is build equity and relationship with God in the secret place. That's how you get boldness. It's not a personality type. It's not like, hey, I'm loud, but, you know, so I can be bold or I'm more quiet and reserved. So no, no, boldness is internal. And it comes from a place of knowing Jesus. Let me just say this. You will never, another word for boldness is confidence and you will never be confident in something that you don't have knowledge of, whether it's something or someone. I haven't told this story often. It's not one of my proudest moments, but I will say it to you because I love you God and I trust you. Anyway, I think it was at least 10 years ago, I have a buddy who's in the medical practice and he was like, bro, I'm going to a conference and it's in San Diego and I want you to come because my wife can't go. And I was like, bro, I can not be your wife. And he's like, listen, all you have to do is just pay for your flight and we're going to stay at this hotel and it's going to be in May, you know, and it's March in Michigan. So we have like four more months of winter. So I was like, okay, I'll go and you don't have to do anything. Just hang out with me and da, da, da. So I go, well, long story short, somewhere along the line, it was communicated that I also was in some sort of medical field. And it was like, dude, I kind of had to tell him that you work in a lab. I was like, what? Bro, you told me I was your wife, bro. And so I'm freaking out and we're at dinner with all of these people and they're having conversations about things I know nothing about. So you can, and I'm a pretty vocal person, but I had the, I was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And then literally someone was like, so what do you do, John? Like, what's your role? And I was like, I take things to the analyzer and I have them labbed. Like I didn't even, I was like, I have a lab coat, I know what a stethoscope is, like I was not confident in that moment because I didn't know anything about what we were talking about. I was like, please, don't make me do a surgery. Don't make me prove. And then it came out pretty quickly that that, and it wasn't a big deal and it was fine. But I say that to say there's too many Christians who, when they're faced with something, they just don't, they don't know God. They don't know Jesus. They don't have intimate relationship and you will not last when persecution comes. You will not survive when opposition comes against you if you only have a surface relationship with Jesus. You just won't. And so that Matthew 6-6 lifestyle where Jesus said, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret and your father will reward you openly. The reward of a Matthew 6-6 lifestyle is you know God. And when you know God, you can trust God. And when you trust God, what's happening around you doesn't have the impact that it has on so many others because you're on a firm foundation of who you are because you know who's you are. And you belong to Jesus. And that's what happened to the disciples. That's what happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed and go, what did they say? You're gonna get thrown into the furnace if you don't stop worshiping. They didn't stop worshiping. You know what their response was? Our God is able to deliver us from this furnace. He is, we believe that. But even if he doesn't, still we will not bow. We will not change. We will not shift our position. We worship and serve Jesus. And if that means we get, and they got thrown into the furnace, but there was a fourth man in the fire. And the presence of God never left him. Listen to me, the Bible doesn't promise. Jesus doesn't promise life will be easy. Life will be all roses. You're not gonna have opposition. You're not gonna have difficulties. What he promises is, even in the fire, I'll be with you. Even in the storm, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And when you know God, you can trust God. And when you trust God, circumstances of life do not move you off of the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord and he's for you. Will you stand with me? I wanna pray. And I wanna pray for boldness, honestly. Everybody's journey is different. If you're not a Christian in this room, we wanna pray for you to become one. We wanna have an opportunity to lead you. But right now, this is for those who know Jesus and walk with Jesus and wanna have boldness to be able to navigate the persecution and opposition that's coming. Maybe it's at work, maybe it's at school, maybe it's a family member. Everybody's journey and story is different. But if First Peter says it, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will face persecution. So if you've never faced persecution, it may have something to do with how loud you're living and how bold you are in your relationship with Jesus. But if you are, you'll face it. And my prayer is that we do not shrink back. We do not shout at darkness. We're not angry with the lost. But we love like Jesus and we live like Jesus and we operate out of a place of relationship with Jesus. That is where boldness comes from. So I just want you to just extend your hands. And Father, we pray right now as a church, the church of Jesus Christ. You would strengthen us supernaturally, God. Just like you did in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit would come and fill us with supernatural courage and boldness. God, we don't want to pray safe prayers. We don't want to pray, God, God, help us be safe or keep us comfortable. No, we want to pray, Holy Spirit, strengthen us with boldness to preach and speak your word, to do what you've asked us to do, to be light and salt in the nation's God and in the world among us. And Father, we ask as followers of Jesus, it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by your spirit. We ask for a greater measure of your Holy Spirit, a greater measure, greater measure of intimacy with you. We want to live out of that secret place so that God, when trials come, when opposition comes, when persecution raises its head, we respond with love, with grace and with obedience because we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You are King forever. You are matchless and you stand alone and our lives belong to you, God. Fill us, we pray with your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen.