Come, Know Jesus! But It'll Cost You

[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to John's Gospel.

[0:15] John chapter 15, John 15. If you need a Bible, there's a black Bible in the chair in front of you. In the pocket down below, you can pull that out.

[0:26] Excuse me. Go to the back, find page 86. I believe, 86. You'll find John 15, starting in verse 18. Today we're going to study John 15, 18 to 16, 4.

[0:42] So I think these four verses in chapter 16 go with 15, 18 through 27. So we're going to pull that in with chapter 15, 18 through 27.

[0:52] So again, John 15, page 86 in that black Bible. John 15, 18. Let me read and then we'll jump in with both feet.

[1:05] If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.

[1:16] But because you're not of the world, but I myself chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you. A slave is not greater than his master.

[1:29] If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

[1:45] If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, but now they have no pretext for their sin. The one who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned.

[1:59] But now they have both seen and hated even me and my father. But in order that the word that's written in their law may be fulfilled, they hated me without reason.

[2:14] When the paraclete comes, I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will testify of me. And you testify also because you've been with me from the beginning.

[2:27] These things I've spoken to you, chapter 16, I've spoken to you that you may not stumble. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you thinks he's offering service to God.

[2:45] These things they will do because they've not known the Father or me. But these things I've spoken to you that when their hour comes, you may remember them that I told you of them.

[3:04] The story is told about a minister giving another minister a red carpet tour of their new church building. Oh, it was beautiful.

[3:16] Showing the rich, nice, imported pews. Wonderful decorations. He says, sense of pride this minister has, he'd given this other minister a tour.

[3:29] Then they went outside, there's a huge cross outside atop their steeple. And the minister is there, he says, that cross alone cost us $10,000, had a satisfied smile.

[3:43] And the other minister said, well, you got cheated. Times were when Christians could get them for free. Well, actually, not totally true. You would actually have to pay for it with your life.

[4:00] You would pay for the cross with your life. The cost to following Jesus is high. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right.

[4:15] When Christ calls a man, he bids him, come and die. Come know Jesus, John says. And this is for those of you here who don't know Christ, you have not responded to Christ, you have not embraced Him as Savior and Lord.

[4:31] You should come and know Jesus. Come to know Him. But if you're a follower of Jesus this morning, which there would be many of you here that are, come know Jesus even more, deeper, in a more intimate, relational, communion-type way.

[4:50] Come know Him more. But realize this, if you're here and you don't know Christ, you need to respond. And if you're here and you do know Christ and you have responded, know this, when you come to know Jesus, it's gonna cost you.

[5:05] So John 15, verses 18 through chapter 16, verse 4, we will see that we must come to know Jesus. Come know Jesus, but it will cost you. It will cost you.

[5:23] To follow Jesus will cost you. People will hate you. Not to follow Jesus means you side with the, Jesus hating, Jesus persecuting world.

[5:41] And when we're talking here about hate, they hate you, I wanna be clear about something. We're not speaking politically.

[5:54] We're not talking about, well, you believe in Trump being president. We're not talking about that. You're conservative. You're pro-life.

[6:09] That's not what Jesus is talking about that. Don't read that into the text. There may be some Christians who want Trump to be president.

[6:24] Christians who are conservative. And the Christians who are pro-life. But not all pro-lifers are Christians. Some people pro-life, they're atheists. Did you know that? There's actually a website.

[6:35] You know, atheists, they're pro-life. There's a website. You actually Google it. You'll find it. Somebody told me, that's not true. Yes, it is. So don't link this with your political agenda.

[6:49] Don't do that. You're reading that into the text. And I really want to make this clear because one of the things that just gets under my skin is when people think that it's about me following Trump, that's why people hate me, and they link that with Jesus.

[7:03] That's not the case here. Okay? You're a follower of Jesus. They hate you because you love Jesus. Because you worship Jesus.

[7:17] And here's Jesus' encouragement, exhortations of His disciples. Stay the course. Stay faithful. On the eve of Him leaving them. And even more encouraging, they get help from the Trinitarian God.

[7:33] I mean, how much more help can you get from that? Not much more. So though we, experience the love of the Father and the Son being united to them.

[7:46] We saw that last week, right? Oh, it's just wonderful. It's like roses. I got my wife roses for her birthday. It's roses. It's just wonderful. We have that love.

[7:58] Verses 1 through 17 in chapter 15. But now there's the fact that Jesus' followers will also experience hatred from the world because Jesus' coming has exposed their ultimate sin.

[8:12] What's their ultimate sin? They've rejected the ultimate revelation from God, Jesus. They've rejected the ultimate expression of the love of God, Jesus.

[8:26] They have no excuse. And yet, the paraclete will testify and Jesus' followers will testify to the truth of Jesus' identity, to the truth of Jesus' mission.

[8:43] All will not be lost. And because we'll testify as the Spirit testifies, people will come to Christ even in the midst of that hatred.

[8:54] So don't be surprised then. We must not be surprised when the world hates us. Instead, remember, God is in charge. He's in control.

[9:06] He's sovereign over it all. So now, let's walk through this text. The world will hate us. There's gonna be three questions that arise from the passage.

[9:18] This is question number one. Why will it hate us? Why will they hate us? And Jesus gives six reasons here in this first question. Six reasons.

[9:29] The first reason is because we belong to Jesus. Verse 18 and 19. The world will hate us. Why? First question, why are they gonna hate us?

[9:40] Well, the first reason, we belong to Jesus. Look at verse 18. If the world hates you, by the way, this means the created world order actively rebelling against God.

[9:52] It's not leftist. It's not progressives. It's not Joe Biden's administration. No, don't read that into the text. Don't do that.

[10:05] It's the created order actively rebelling against God. Which could be the guy down the street who loves Donald Trump and who's a conservative and yet he hates you.

[10:22] Notice, you know that's hated me before you, Jesus says in verse 18. We have an intimate love relationship with Jesus, but we will have a distant hate relationship with the world, or rather, they're gonna hate us.

[10:35] There's a hatred between the world and Jesus, so there's a hatred between the world and Jesus' disciples. If the world hates us as Christians, Jesus says, no, this, they hated me first.

[10:52] And so this would be of no surprise to you and realize that this hatred is primarily directed at Jesus than at those who belong to him.

[11:08] Because we affiliate with and participate in Jesus and his word or his truth, we will experience real hatred from the world, which is known for their supreme hatred of Jesus.

[11:23] You associate with Jesus, they'll hate us. Those who proclaim toleration won't tolerate you because you are joyfully devoted to the King of Kings.

[11:40] Verse 19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Here it is. Why do they hate us? Because we don't identify or belong to them anymore.

[11:58] They would love its own, but because you're not of the world, but I myself chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. No longer from the world.

[12:11] We're no longer from the world, though we are still in the world. We're strangers. We're aliens. We're not of this world.

[12:24] Still remember that. Petra album, Not of this world. Did you ever listen to that? I had that album when I was a kid. We're strangers. We're aliens. We're not of this world.

[12:35] Still remember that song. Back in the 80s, early 80s. Ringing true here. Well, yeah, we're strangers, but actually, to be honest, we're the normal ones.

[12:50] You realize that, right? We're actually the normal ones. We live life the way it's supposed to be lived, in submission to Jesus, in submission to the Father, with joy and love for the Father.

[13:05] So we're actually the normal ones. So to be not of this world means you actually fit in. And if you, so to speak, fit in, you're the alien.

[13:17] So kind of flip that around. We're the normal ones. But to the world, something's wrong with you because you love Jesus. And notice what Jesus says.

[13:31] I myself chose you out of the world. Once again, the doctrine of election. You can't get around this. Jesus elects his people who go from coming out of the world and belonging to the world to being of Jesus and belonging to Jesus.

[13:51] We belong to Jesus. That's why they hate us. We're foreigners in this world. This means that our following Jesus demands a new relationship with the world. Listen to what Carson says.

[14:04] Quote, Former rebels who have, by the grace of the king, been won back to loving allegiance to their rightful monarch are not likely to prove popular with those who persist in rebellion.

[14:19] Good statement. Very true. Side note question. What if someone from the world does not hate me?

[14:33] Does that mean I'm compromising? Maybe. It depends on the people in the situation. I had one person whose background of, I'll just say religious people, has been very antagonistic and very much in this person's face.

[14:56] And I'm just, I'm not really like that. It was, hasn't been in this, I have not been in this person's face. And the person said, you know, you're very pleasant to be around. And said to me, it was kind of a hope for religious people, the fact that you're kind of pleasant to be around.

[15:09] You're not in my face. So, it's a little bit different than what we're talking about here. But overall, we'll stand out from them. It's the first reason we belong to Jesus.

[15:23] And the second reason, well, it's pretty obvious, we follow Jesus. Look at verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you. A slave is not greater than his master. Jesus is referring back to chapter 13, verse 16.

[15:40] So our identity is totally grounded in our relation to Jesus because we follow Jesus. So we receive the same kind of treatment that he received. We follow Jesus.

[15:53] If Jesus, our Lord, suffered, then his slaves who follow him will also suffer. And by the way, he doesn't call us slaves anymore. He calls us his friends.

[16:04] Remember he said that in the early part of chapter 15. We're now his friends. So we're definitely going to receive ill treatment because we follow him.

[16:18] That's why he says here in verse 20, if they persecuted me, they'll also persecute you. If some listen to my word, then some will listen to your word.

[16:31] In obedience, just like they did to Jesus. Jesus says, remember my words. If you follow me, they're going to hate you.

[16:44] If we preach Christ, Jesus, and him crucified, the gospel, and live our lives in devotion to him, we'll receive the same hate as he did.

[16:54] It doesn't make any sense. We should not expect to receive better treatment than our Lord. We should not expect that. We belong to Jesus.

[17:07] We follow Jesus. Reason number three. They reject Jesus. That's why they're going to hate you. Why would they hate us? We belong to Jesus. We follow Jesus.

[17:18] And they reject Jesus. Look at what it says in verse 21. But all these things they'll do to you because of my name. The ultimate source of the world's hatred is twofold.

[17:32] First here, they rejected Jesus. All for which his name stands. That's why it says in his name. Because the name is about, talk about someone's name, it's all that their name stood for, their character, who they are.

[17:51] So they will also reject us as his followers because we stand for his name. You reject Jesus.

[18:03] It's going to reject you because you stand for all that his name is. This leads to the fourth reason. They reject Jesus. They don't know the Father.

[18:15] The next part of verse 21. For they do not know the one who sent me. They reject Jesus and they don't know the Father. If the world rejects the ultimate representative from the Father, Jesus, then it means they don't know the one who sent the representative.

[18:35] If they reject the ultimate representative from the Father who came down, then it means they reject the one who sent him. they don't know him.

[18:51] So to reject the Son is to not know the Father. To reject the Father is to reject the Son. And to reject the Son is to reject the Father.

[19:04] They go hand in hand. Why would they hate us? We belong to Jesus. We follow Jesus. They reject Jesus. They don't know the Father. And then this leads to the fifth reason which you'll see.

[19:15] They hate Jesus and they hate the Father. Chapter 15, verse 22 to 24, and then we're going to drop to chapter 16, verse 3.

[19:26] Look at verse 22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned. What does Jesus mean by this? Well, he wasn't saying that before his coming they didn't sin.

[19:39] He wasn't saying that. He was saying this. Sin became crystal clear and apparent at Jesus' coming because he is the ultimate expression of God and his character.

[19:54] Jesus is the expression of the love of God upon the world. Jesus is the expression of God's love from the Father upon the world.

[20:10] And in his words made very clear he truly came from God. That he came from the Father and also his works too. We'll see that in a moment. But they made clear his identity.

[20:21] They made clear his mission. And his identity made clear that the world's deeds are evil and that they wholeheartedly prefer the darkness rather than the light. John chapter 3.

[20:34] The light's coming to the world but men love the darkness rather than the light. So, Jesus climactically revealed sin exposing its full nature.

[20:49] Rather than embracing the love of God they reject the love of God. The full exposure of sin has been revealed.

[21:02] Sin is a distortion of all that God has made good, right, true, and lovely. Right? That's what sin is. Sin perverts what's true, good, and lovely.

[21:15] Sin turns it all upside down. You see this in our culture. Evil is good, good is evil, right? You see that in our culture.

[21:25] It permeates everywhere in our culture. It's perversion. So, to reject the Son is the ultimate sin, the greatest sin because He's the greatest expression of the Father.

[21:44] He's the greatest expression of love from the Father. that's what Jesus means. I mean, that's one thing to reject those who came before Jesus.

[21:58] But now that Jesus has come to reject Him and those sent by Him, that's the ultimate sin. So, Jesus arrived, notice, again, verse 22, if I had not come and spoke to them, they would not have sin, but now, they have no excuse or pretext for their sin.

[22:19] Their guilt and verdict is clear because of Jesus' coming. So, here it is. Either one receives Jesus' just judgment that they deserve, or one trusts Jesus who takes that judgment upon Himself.

[22:40] and you experience the full expression of the love of the Father. So, if you're here, you don't know Jesus, do you want to experience the full expression of the love of the Father?

[22:58] Then come, trust in Jesus, and He will save you. He'll forgive you. He'll show you mercy and compassion. And you won't face judgment.

[23:12] Jesus didn't come into the world to judge the world. He came to save the world. So, come. He'll save you. That's the essence of the gospel. That's the good news. So, Jesus exposes this, okay?

[23:29] His very words, and then look at what He says in verse 23. The one who hates me hates my Father also. His words and works clearly reveal His identity.

[23:40] As the one sent from the Father. If you hate Jesus, you hate the Father. If you love Jesus, you love the Father. Look what He says in verse 24.

[23:51] Not just His words, but His works. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, and no one else did these works that Jesus has done, they would not have sinned.

[24:04] Jesus also exposed this world to be laden with sin because His works or really is talking about the signs. Remember the seven signs in John's gospel? Signs, they revealed the character and power of the Father and the Son.

[24:21] Also showing His true identity and mission. So remember, the signs were signposts. They pointed to Jesus. Not just to some miraculous work that, well, Jesus can give me lots of bread and He can do all these things for me.

[24:36] He's not a genie. Not a genie in the lamp. These signposts to Jesus, they gave the full revelation from God who God is.

[24:47] The fullest revelation of God there ever can be is wrapped in Jesus. And His works pointed to that. So Jesus says, if I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have that sin, but now they've both seen and hated even me and my Father.

[25:06] You see, why do they hate us? Because they hate Jesus and they hate the Father. And by the way, we were also at that time separate from Christ.

[25:19] We were also dead in our trespasses and sins. We also were people without God, without hope, without grace, hating and despising God and all that He is up to the moment that His grace broke through and opened our eyes.

[25:37] We're no better than these people. We need grace just like everyone else. Now go to chapter 16, verse 3.

[25:48] Look again how this shows us the hatred that they have for Jesus and the Father, which is another, the fifth reason why they hate us. Chapter 16, verse 3.

[25:58] And these things they will do because they've not known the Father or me. They don't know the Father.

[26:09] They don't know Jesus. We see again this intimate relation and union between the Father and the Son. So to reject the Father is to reject the Son. They'll hate God's children because they hate the Father of those children and the Son of the Father.

[26:28] Knowing Jesus as the Father's ultimate revelation means one knows God Himself. To hate one is to hate the other and His followers.

[26:42] Side note. How much do they hate us? This is a different question. It's still embedded in why they hate us. But notice how much.

[26:53] Look at chapter 16, verse 2. This is how much they'll hate us. They'll make you as outcasts from the synagogue. Now historically these 11 disciples faced this firsthand.

[27:07] They'd be excluded from the synagogue. Those in the first century they really understood this. But practically this would look like for us. We be considered as outsiders.

[27:21] That's how much they'll hate us. God's kingdom has come but truth is for those who live under the rule of Christ and His kingdom will face persecution. To what degree?

[27:31] Look at what he says in the next part of verse 2. An hour is coming for everyone who kills you thinks he's offering service to God. They think they're doing God us a favor by killing you.

[27:47] Following Jesus means you may lose your life because these Jesus haters would actually think that killing one of Jesus followers would be a service to God.

[28:02] Those who cling to false teaching of other religions they're the ones who are most offended. Like who? Muslims? Jews?

[28:15] Judaism? Mormons? You tell a Mormon they're not a Christian? Oh my goodness you get a backlash you would not believe. They will hate you.

[28:27] This is what Jesus is talking about here. This is how much they'll hate us. If they hate Jesus they're going to hate the Father and that's the fifth reason why they're going to hate you.

[28:40] We belong to Him. We follow Him. They reject Jesus. They don't know the Father. They hate the Father and they hate the Son. Here's a sixth reason. Sixth reason number six.

[28:52] It fulfills Scripture. Look at verse 25 of chapter 15. But in order that the word may be fulfilled the word that is written in their law may be fulfilled.

[29:06] They hated me without a reason. Their hatred and rejection of Jesus which will also be transferred to His followers. It was a fulfillment of Scripture.

[29:18] We read from Psalm 69 from verse 5 one of those verses and also it's a passage in Psalm 35 verse 19. And interestingly how Jesus says their law.

[29:29] Did you see that? Their law. Why does He say that? Because they boasted so highly in keeping the law that it would be that law that would expose their apostasy.

[29:43] and would expose this hatred that they have. And all this hate believe it or not is part of the purposes of God which can never be thwarted.

[29:57] It's fulfilling Scripture. It's in God's plan. God will accomplish all His good pleasure fulfilling every part of Scripture despite the world's hatred. Oh and by the way it's quite ironic how they think they're offering a service to God by killing us.

[30:17] The death of God's children is truly an offering to God isn't it? We are offering ourselves to God because we love our Lord.

[30:28] Aren't we doing that? Interesting. The irony and the so there's a six reasons from this first question why they hate us. Here's a second question which is going to be is an obvious question what gives us hope or comfort or comforts us in this hatred?

[30:45] What gives us hope in their hatred? What comforts us in their hatred? Two answers to this.

[30:56] Number one the paraclete will testify. Look at verse 26. When the paraclete comes now we'll stop there because you know from a couple weeks ago you know the New American Standard defines us as helper some translations say comforter and that can be deceiving because the Holy Spirit he helps he comforts he empowers he does all those things so don't relegate it to just one word he does all those so let's just that's why I kept it with just the paraclete that's the Greek word because he does all those things so notice and here he's called the Spirit of Truth by the way verse 26 again when the paraclete comes whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father he will testify of me the Spirit of Truth he comes from the Father sent by Jesus he'll testify about Jesus why does he say this?

[31:59] again Jesus gave words of encouragement and consolation to his disciples think about it they're just told the world's gonna hate them wait wait wait wait wait Jesus wait a minute you just told us that you love us chapter 15 1 through 70 you just told us to stay in the vine to stay in your love yeah we're in that we're with you Jesus but now you're telling us the world hates us how do they face this?

[32:41] how can we face the world? what hope do we have that the gospel will actually go forth wait a second Jesus you just told us we're gonna bear fruit you just told us there's gonna be gospel converts in chapter 15 1 through 17 you just told us we're gonna bear fruit now you're telling us the world's gonna hate us?

[33:02] this doesn't make any sense the spirit of truth the one who communicates the truth will make gospel fruit possible that's the encouragement it's like oh okay that's good good they're gonna hate me but the spirit is gonna come he manifests the presence of God in the world he's the power of God to accomplish God's mission to the world and the spirit indwells each believer he's with us and in us Jesus said that in chapter 14 so the spirit he's gonna testify to Jesus by using the truth to penetrate the hearts of those who hate you that's good news isn't it?

[33:58] I don't want you people saying amen and the way we're gonna look at this in a moment a little bit more the way he uses the truth is by Jesus' disciples speaking the truth you need the paraclete to do this or else no one no one would trust in Christ that's why we sang that song how sweet and awful is the place because it has lines in there about why was I a guest why would you choose me it's the spirit of God working in me so then we pray oh God we long to see your church is full constrain the world to come that's why we sang that because we need the paraclete to break in and enlighten minds enable minds and warm hearts we need the paraclete to do that ah the paraclete will testify and God's children will testify look at verse 27 and you testify also because you've been with me from the beginning and now these 11 this would specifically refer to them okay so don't initially take this about you initially take this about them they will specifically testify about Jesus because they were with them from the beginning you haven't been with Jesus from the beginning you weren't with Jesus they were they've been part of his ministry from the start so this is specific only to the 11 but it also does apply to us how so this way

[35:35] I'll show you the spirit of truth the spirit of truth keeps using us as Christ's body to continue Jesus' ministry through us speaking this truth to the world we're the speakers of the truth people don't come to Christ in a vacuum as it says I'm not ashamed of the gospel it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes Romans 1 16 the spirit will empower us to testify of Christ as we speak truth to this lost world this lost Jesus follower hating world God's truth the gospel stands on its own it's authoritative it convicts hearts and it does it by means of the powerful spirit who uses us to speak the words of truth the gospel that's what he does or I'll put it another way the spirit of God does not work apart from the truth of God or apart from the children of God to speak about the son of God he doesn't he doesn't work apart from the truth he doesn't work apart from us to speak about the son he uses us to do that so we've looked at two questions so far why they hate us we've looked at six reasons another question what's the encouragement we're going to have in the midst of this paraclete testify we will testify a third question why did Jesus tell us about this hatred there's two reasons he gives why does Jesus tell us of this hatred first to keep us from stumbling stay faithful look at 16 verse 1 these things

[37:30] I've spoken to you so you won't fall so you won't stumble these things that's the hatred from the world why does he tell us these things he says to keep you from going astray from apostasy from walking away from the faith why would somebody walk away from the faith hatred from people that's pretty discouraging don't you think it's disheartening when people are constantly constantly bombarding you because you follow Jesus how do you think the person who the pastor lives in the Middle East we prayed for them this morning how do you think his congregation feels and we don't know where this training center is in the Middle East how do you think they feel constant bombardment of persecution and hatred because you follow Jesus you get discouraged it's disheartening sometimes you just want to throw in the towel no Jesus wanted to strengthen and encourage all his disciples in the midst of the difficult circumstances in which they may be how are we as Jesus disciples to react to the world and this hatred stay faithful stay faithful stay faithful keep going

[39:06] Jesus I my cross have taken that's why we sang that song that's why we sang that perfect song for that so why does Jesus tell us first reason to keep us from stumbling second reason to remind us I don't know why that slashes there not to be surprised trust Jesus to remind us don't be surprised look at verse 4 the first part of verse 4 of chapter 16 but these things I spoke to you that when their hour comes you may remember them that I told you of them it's a reminder from Jesus so that they would not be surprised but instead we would live our lives under Jesus guidance and protection by means of the spirit and trust Jesus that he is in control he's in control our faith is strengthened because

[40:08] Jesus assures us that what's taking place is not Jesus like oh no they hate you I didn't know it was going to happen no he knows what's going on he's in complete sovereign control he knows all it's okay it's all good he knows what's going on and by the way notice what Jesus says this part when their hour comes another ironic twist because it seemed that when Jesus suffered it seemed like there was utter defeat right it seemed like there was failure when he suffered and died and yet in reality he was winning the greatest victory so when it seems like to beat defeat when you're facing the hatred and the persecution from the world no no no no my friend no it's not defeat it's not failure it's victory it's success it's going to cost you to follow

[41:21] Jesus will cost you people will hate you not to follow Jesus means you side with the Jesus hating Jesus persecuting world so let's stop and let's pray asking for God to give us his grace in the midst of this hatred and that's what we pray Father Father we're so thankful for Jesus who is as we have seen today have seen in weeks months and years gone by and we remind ourselves again today he's the expression the great expression of your love we're so grateful and so Father we pray by your spirit prepare us help us help us as we face the hatred from the world we have this challenge that's been given to us Father for this year one to five people we're going to give them the gospel and invite them to a church service

[42:28] Father we may face lots of backlash from that so prepare us let's be ready for that to understand why they hate us how much they hate us what gives us such encouragement this time and also why you're telling us this help us to stay faithful and to trust you oh Jesus I encourage you take these few moments it's less than a minute take these few moments to to ponder and to to reflect upon the gospel truth what we've seen from God's word this morning maybe this is something that resonated with you even more because this past week you faced the hatred and the onslaught of the world because you talked about the Lord

[43:31] Jesus Christ take this time to cherish the words of scripture and you will sing or pray at this time these few moments moments of silence between you and the Lord to reflect upon and to let your mind ponder the words that we've seen from his word this morning do that now please you