on June 26th 2024 US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin delivered a speech as the state department released its annual report on the status of religious freedom around the world the report tells the story of people around the globe who face various forms and levels of persecution for their beliefs the goal of this annual report is to monitor inform and advocate for Religious Freedom around the world but religious persecution doesn't seem to be waning in his speech Lincoln referenced a recent Pew Research Center study that found government restrictions on religion reached the highest Global levels since
the group started monitoring such activity in 2007 Lincoln stated today governments around the world continue to Target individuals shutter places of worship forcibly displace communities and imprison people because of their religious beliefs now Christians are not the only group to face persecution much of the secretary's comments and the state Department's report focused on the persecution of Muslim and Jewish peoples in various places around the world but Christians are not immune to persecution either many areas in the world are persecuting Christians and in some places the persecution is intensifying in Western cultures persecution may not seem
severe the government does not endorse or even allow violent oppression of Christians but in other ways many Christians feel that the tide is turning while America and most Western European countries have enjoyed centuries of religious freedom it feels as though such freedoms are becoming more and more imperal many Christians wonder if persecution even violent persecution might be a reality even in Western cultures within the coming generations for those who have grown up enjoying religious freedom that can be a frightening Prospect we don't want to be targeted by our rulers we don't want our places of
worship shuttered we don't want to be displaced imprisoned or Worse killed for our faith we can't say what the future holds for any particular place perhaps violent state- sponsored persecution will arise in the west shortly or maybe it won't either way the possibility of such a thing along with the rising awareness that Christians in other places are facing such persecution should make us reflect soberly on God's word perhaps it's time for many Christians to realize that sometimes faith is very costly but this shouldn't be a surprise while many of us have grown accustomed to and
should be thankful for religious liberty God's word never promises that such should be expected on the contrary God warns us that we can and should expect persecution shortly before his arrest trial and crucifixion Jesus warned the disciples if you were of the world the world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will persecute you if they
kept my word they will also keep yours writing to Timothy the Apostle Paul echoed the Lord's shity of persecution in 2 Timothy 3:12 he wrote indeed all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted faithfulness to the Lord has always opened Christians to the possibility of persecution even in cultures where Christianity is permitted and even promoted persecution will be a fact of life even when governments don't sponsor or permit violent persecution Christians will still suffer wrongs from others perhaps they will lose friends maybe they will lose out on job opportunities
they will almost certainly be ridiculed persecution is not simply a possibility it is a promise for those who live Faithfully to Jesus of course many Christians have faced and continued to face much more than ridicule and spite even today there are places where Christians are beaten imprisoned and killed for their faith what if such harsh persecution also became our reality would we have enough faith and commitment to stay true to Jesus even if doing so required the ultimate sacrifice while none of us want to think about suffering we must must remember the Lord's promises when
suffering becomes a possibility as Jesus concluded his final remarks to the disciples he promised trials but also peace he says in John 16:33 I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulations but take heart I have overcome the world when Jesus opened his Sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings the lengthiest beatitude had to do with persecution Matthew 5: 10-12 reads blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are you when others revile
you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you Jesus never promised us that following him would be easy or free from trials he was clear that follow following him would often come at significant cost but he did promise US that the cost would be more than worth it suffering may not sound like a blessing but suffering for Christ certainly comes with a blessing When The World Turns against us
and seeks to destroy us through persecution we can find strength and comfort in the Lord's promises even though men can kill our bodies we serve a God who can resurrect our bodies and save our souls persecution is temporary God's promises are Eternal since the earliest days of the church's existence enemies of the Cross have wielded persecution as a tool to try and destroy the church whether it was the Jewish leaders of the first century the Roman emperors or any of the countless regimes and groups who have sought to destroy Christianity in the last 2,000 years
they have all used a common approach and they have all failed persecution has never deterred the Lord's Collective people in the early church Christians could not be killed quicker than they converted others thus despite the intense persecution the church grew 2,000 years later the church still stands and for however long the Lord allows the world to continue the church will continue it will face persecution in varying forms but the faithful will always continue even if we fall to the whims and persecutions of other men if we die for Christ we will gain far more than
we will lose as Jesus once promised for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it and so the question really isn't are we going to face persecution the question is do we love and Trust Our Savior enough to endure persecution when it comes are we faithful enough to suffer and perhaps even give our lives for the cause of Christ is Our Hope in the here and now or is it in the Lord his promises and Eternity are we ready to be blessed as those persecuted
for righteousness sake so that we might inherit the kingdom of God have you ever seen the accident and emergency department of a hospital have you ever seen the focus and intense demeanor of a doctor being briefed about an incoming patient have you ever seen the sight of a patient being wheeled in on a stretcher with the doctor and nurse frantically rushing to treat them everything is done with an urgency there's no time to waste because a life depends on it well may I suggest to you that this life is like an emergency room we are
the patient we're fighting for our lives we do have help however just as in the real world we have doctors and nurses in the ER in a spiritual sense we have the Holy Spirit we have the word of God we can call on Jesus any one of these options can revive us and bring us back to life or through to eternal life so in the emergency room of life I would like to speak to you on the importance of living with a sense of urgency live with urgency because here's what the Bible says in Psalm
103: 15-6 as for man his days are like grass he flourishes like a flower of the field for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more time is short life is short so live with an urgency you see it's a natural tendency for us as humans to get complacent we're creatures of comfort we all have a tendency of putting things off that we know we should be doing in order to progress in our faith and our purpose for example you know you need to spend time in prayer
but how many times do you put it off you know you ought to give to that woman or help that man or spend time reading God's word but how often do we have a lack of urgency when it comes to the things of God if you read Proverbs 3:28 the Bible basically tells us not to wait until tomorrow when we have it in our power to act today and then James 4:1 17 tells us that we are actually sinning when we know the good we should do and we don't do it this should serve as
a reality check for all of us we sin just as much by Omission as we do by commission meaning that you sin just as much by not doing something as you would by doing every sin against God is not necessarily something we do our lack of urgency leads us to sin by not doing what we know we should do God has created each of us to contribute to his kingdom that's why he gave all of us unique gifts and talents all so that we impact the body of Christ and be fruitful in this world but
you see when we get comfortable when we experience joy peace and a certain level of worldly success we tend to drift into thinking that we have all the time in the world to get to know God and check your own heart to see if what I'm saying is applicable to you we look at tomorrow as though it's a guarantee so we put off reading the word I'll start to tomorrow do you see the lack of urgency the only time we ever surely have is right now the only opportunity that we know we have is the
one in front of us right now God wants our time our energy our commitment our willingness to sacrifice for him and my advice to you is that there is no better time than now than today to start giving the Lord all of your energy all of your time and to have a willingness to serve him there's no better time than the present the Lord wants to be the priority in our lives so we should make every effort we can to get to know Jesus Christ with an urgency we should work intently to do his will
while there is still time life is short our days are numbered James tells us that we don't even know what will happen tomorrow he called your life my life a Mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes we are so temporary to this world that our lives are compared to the liquid we see for a second coming out of a spray bottle that tiny mist is you that tiny mist is me in the grand scheme of things that's how quickly we appear and vanish in this life so hear me when I say that
we need to live with an urgency an urgency to do everything Jesus Christ has set out for us to do live with an urgency because you don't have the time to waste by not being who God called you to be we don't have time to dabble outside of what we know we're here for a pastor I know asked an older man on his deathbed what's one of the most sobering realities of life that comes to mine for you right now the old man answered the brevity of it it's short it passes by quickly and many
people are hit with the reality that life has passed by very quickly when it's too late so hear me clearly time does not wait on you it will never wait on you God purposely gave you this one brief life so make your time count the number of days you have on this Earth should produce some kind fruit for God's purposes you have lives to touch you have unbelievers that you need to point to Christ you have a call to serve you have assignments to fulfill with a due date that you are not aware of let
that not lead you to procrastination with your Deeds let it instead lead you to labor like the due date is today work with urgency serve with urgency love with urgency pray with an urgency seek God with an urgency we have work to do little time to do it we all know that no man knows the day or hour that Christ will return at any moment he could decide to snatch his church away so what would each and every one of us have to show for our lives up to this moment we've all heard the phrase
the last days since been Biblical times a few of the New Testament letters include this phrase as the writers press their readers on toward greater acts in the name of the Lord they did not know whether the Lord would return very soon or not but they knew it was important to stress that we are living in the last days in God's eyes maybe this is because every generation needs to have a sense of urgency in their actions perhaps the term last days isn't necessarily a definitive countdown of the exact number number of days until Christ
returns perhaps the term the last days is simply another way of saying live with urgency because life is short every generation needs to know that it could in fact be the last days during their lifetime every generation needs to know that they have an important role in God's plan for the kingdom we're all contributors in the body of Christ we're all important we're serving the kingdom of God and so we should be we have to be effective members in the body of Christ now more than ever there needs to be a sense of urgency in
our hearts that leads to action live every day as if the return of Christ is during your lifetime he is coming back be prepared Revelation is a daunting book it's written in prophetic language that is difficult to understand some Christians throw up their hands in defeat and ignore the last book of the Bible but such is a mistake much good can come from wrestling with difficult texts God did not give us his word so we would only read the easy Parts also while there are difficult passages in Revelation there are also clear and straightforward passages
these sections have direct admonitions we can learn from for example chapters 2 and 3 are a collection of brief messages addressed to seven different congregations even though Revelation was addressed to these congregations nearly two Millennia ago the messages they received are incredibly contemporary and helpful for congregations and Believers today the first church addressed in Revelation is the congregation at Ephesus Jesus commended this church for multiple reasons Jesus praised their work and toil the Ephesians were not lazy Christians they were also patient and willing to endure hardship the New Testament often calls Christians to hold fast
and to Bear up and endure especially during times of persecution Ephesus did just that and was commended the Ephesian Christians at least at this point were not easily swayed by false Apostles they tested what they heard and did not put up with evil people and false teachers Ephesus was a strong and vibrant Church in many ways highly commended by the Lord but all was not not perfect Jesus also said this to the group but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first remember therefore from where you have fallen
repent and do the works you did at first what was this first love commentators have many opinions was it their love for Christ love for Brethren love for lost souls a good case can be made for these and other options the key here is that if we aren't careful love can grow cold Jesus warned in Matthew 4:12 and because lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold the Ephesians love had grown cold and they are admonished to rekindle it as it used to be the next Church addressed by Jesus is the church
at Smyrna this group is noteworthy for Jesus has no rebukes for them but their lives were not easy this group faced severe trials physical poverty and frequent slander from Outsiders and they suffered intense persecution but Jesus proclaimed that this group was actually rich because of their faithfulness and he promised that if they would remain faithful to him even to the point of death he would give them a Crown of Life next up is pergamum this group was commended for holding fast to Jesus despite facing persecution one of them a man named Antipas had even been
killed for his faith still the congregation remained loyal to Jesus but the foundation of their loyalty was showing cracks as Jesus explained he had a few things against them primarily they sympathized with and shared views with the nicians Jesus had already stated that he hated the works of the nicians to Ally with this group then was to embrace a false doctrine that was contrary to Jesus's will loyalty to Jesus is a beautiful thing but such loyalty must also be practiced in doctrinal Fidelity thyra is the four four congregation addressed the Lord's address to this group
begins with High Praise he commended their Works Faith love service and endurance they were growing in their labors for the Lord's Kingdom but thyra had a problem much like pergamum Jesus accuses thyra of tolerating a woman labeled as Jezebel who is teaching Christians they could practice sexual immorality and eat food offered to Idols once again Fidelity to the Lord's commands cannot be safely compromised next we read about the church at Sardis the church had a good reputation among others but Jesus knew the truth this church had a reputation of being alive but Jesus said they
were dead their Works were not complete in God's sight they appeared righteous to others but Jesus knew they were spiritually lazy while a few individuals among the congregation had not fallen into such slothful ways the rest of the congregation is warned to wake up next comes Philadelphia like the group at Smyrna no rebukes or Levy towards this church also like Smyrna the Christians in Philadelphia weren't much to look at from a physical secular Viewpoint they had little power but Jesus says they kept his word and did not deny his name it doesn't take worldly greatness
or wealth to serve Jesus Faithfully this church had also suffered persecution but remained faithful and were th promised Deliverance last is the church at Le oosa here again we find a church that received no praise this church was filled with lukewarm Christians Jesus is so disgusted by lukewarmness that he says he will spit them out of his mouth this group believed they were rich but were spiritually poor they thought they were wise but they were blind they felt they had prospered but Jesus says they were miserable pitiable and poor even though they angered the Lord
Jesus loved them and thus admonished them to fix their lukewarm Ways by becoming zealous for his kingdom the seven churches of Asia provide us with some practical and modern lessons if the Lord wrote letters to seven different churches today they might sound quite similar to these ancient words but These Warnings can also help us individually most Believers will fit nicely into one of these descriptions some Christians are like the Ephesians they're very proper and very committed to the the truth they stand against false Doctrine and do what is right they're even willing to suffer for
their faith in many ways they are strong Christians but they are unloving they don't love their Brethren as deeply as they should while they hate false Doctrine they don't love lost souls their love has grown cold and while their faith is technically correct they are in danger of dying because of their loss of Love such Christians need to continue their commitment to the truth but must also fan the Flames of Christ's love into their hearts and live that love out vibrantly thankfully there are Christians like the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia they have hard lives
are not wealthy and aren't liked by most of the world they are powerless in the schemes and machinations of society but they love Jesus and are faithful to him they are willing to work for the Lord in whatever capacity they can they quietly endure trials and place all of their hope in the Lord and while many will Overlook them they are rich beyond measure and they are loved and highly valued by Jesus don't concern yourself with how the world sees you if you please the Lord you are rich indeed some Christians are like the churches
at pergamum and thyra anyone who asks them will learn they are a Christian they aren't going to deny Jesus and they may even be full of good works they may love to serve others and do good things but they also follow false Doctrine they allow false teachers to persuade them to live in unchristian and immoral ways in their words and actions of service they follow Christ but in their Doctrine and morality they deny him charitable works are wonderful and proclamations of Faith are Grand but they must be joined with obedience and faithfulness to the Lord's
commands sadly some Christians are like Sardis to other people they look great they have excellent reputations and are highly respected but the truth is they are spiritually dead they' fallen asleep and are not really serving the lord Jesus warned such Christians to wake up and grow spiritually stronger before Eternal death sets in and lastly perhaps most pervasively are the Christians like the Le oans they haven't given up their faith but they aren't zealous either their faith is just one aspect of many in their lives they are content to go through religious motions but focus more
more on worldly wealth and pleasure they aren't terrible people but they aren't great Christians either they're just mediocre lukewarm Christians they are pleased with themselves but they disgust Jesus the Lord doesn't want a portion of our hearts he wants everything he wants Christians who are zealous and fervent if you're a lukewarm Christian know that Jesus loves you but he demands you repent and change or you will face his Wrath of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 which would you be most at home in which church fits your current life consider their examples and
consider the Lord's teachings while the Lord's words were given to these churches long ago they were given for us too we also must hear the Lord's warning he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches [Music]
