03.10.2021 | EVERY BELIEVER WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION
EVERY BELIEVER WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION
2 Timothy 3:12 – “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
John 16:33b – “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Persecution: What, Why, and How?
1. What is Persecution?
Persecution is rejection: rejection of God, and those who represent God.
Persecution can be physical, verbal, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational.
Matthew 5:11-12 – “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
2. Why Do We Experience Persecution?
John 15:19 – “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.”
John 7:7 – “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.”
1 John 5:19 – “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
3. How Do We Deal With Persecution?
a. Be spiritually prepared.
Mark 4:17-18 – “These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the Word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the Word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”
Ephesians 6:11 – “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
b. Don’t take it personally.
John 15:21 – “But all these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”
c. Trust in the Holy Spirit.
John 15:26-27 – “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
d. Debrief with Jesus.
1 Peter 5:7 – “Casting all your care (anxiety) upon Him, for He cares for you.”
e. Ask Jesus to wash your feet.
John 13:10a – “…He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet.”