[0:00] Well, we left some snow behind and came to bare fields, bare roads. Great. We drove up partway on Friday night trying to get ahead of the snow that was predicted for our area, and we managed to do that and had a beautiful day here yesterday and had some appointments, so it was a beautiful drive coming in.
[0:24] It's good to be with you this morning to praise our great God together, for He truly is worth worthy of our worship, of our praise, for He's done marvelous things for us.
[0:39] The matchless, wonderful name of Jesus. A man by the name of Frederick Whitfield very fittingly wrote a song, Oh, How I Love Jesus.
[0:52] And the song from the beginning to the end magnifies this Jesus, this one who's come to claim or reclaim sinners unto Himself, to purchase them, to redeem them from the grips of the evil one, of Satan himself.
[1:07] I just want to quote the lyrics for you, and I'm sure it's a song that you sing in church here as well. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth.
[1:19] It sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth. And then in the verses that follow, He tells what the name of Jesus means to Him as a redeemed sinner.
[1:30] He says, And then in the course, He affirms His love for Jesus, saying, Oh, how I love Jesus.
[2:00] Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. And then He says, Thank you, brother, for reading that Scripture passage for us.
[2:14] And two things that really come out, stand out to me in that passage is do not fear and do not be ashamed. Now, when it comes to God, we ought to fear.
[2:26] But Matthew is writing to us and he says, Do not fear man. Do not fear man. And Proverbs says that the fear of man bringeth a snare to us. And so that is what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 10, that when we fear man, we are ensnared.
[2:44] And one of the ways that manifests itself that we are ensnared is when we are ashamed of this Jesus that this Frederick Whitefield has just told us about. And it comes out in so many different ways how we can or how we sometimes do demonstrate fear of man and a shame of owning the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3:07] So in my introduction, I just want to ask us the question, do we love Jesus? Honestly, do we love Jesus who loves sinners? Who's loved us?
[3:18] Who's given us His life? His body to be broken, His blood to be shed as you're going to be commemorating on communion service, that very thing, that very event that has changed the course of history for mankind, has changed the history for me, has changed the history for you.
[3:37] Do we love this Jesus? If we do, why do we personally love Him? And I think each one of us, we have to come to that point. And as children growing up in a Christian home, that was the case for us, we were taught about the love of Jesus.
[3:52] And for many years, we followed this Jesus on the apron strings of Mom, who was a Christian before Dad was. But Mom made that very clear to us as children.
[4:04] You need to come to a place where this Jesus that I know, this Jesus that I serve, He becomes your Jesus. He becomes your Savior. And very clearly, that was pointed out to us, John 3, 16, 2.
[4:18] For God so loved Monty, that He gave His only begotten Son, that if Monty believes, He shall receive eternal life. And that became very personal to me, very helpful to me in my life and my decision to love Him.
[4:35] Can we wholeheartedly agree with what Frederick Whitfield writes in this song? Do we love Him because His death secured our freedom? And His shed blood satisfied God's just and righteous demand as payment for our sins?
[4:48] Do we love Him because through Him, we can know the Father's purpose for our lives, His plan for us, and that our trust in Him will grow more and more each day as life becomes darker?
[5:00] And we don't have to look very far into the world. We see things are becoming more and more dark for the world. But yet, as a Christian, as a believer, our light never fades because Jesus is our light.
[5:13] He is the light that lightens our pathway. And He will provide sunshine for us no matter how dark it gets. Do we love Him because He can feel our deepest sorrow and not only identifies with us, but He also helps us carry the load?
[5:31] This morning, I want for us to see just how capable we are of convincing ourselves and others that we love Jesus when, in fact, we may not really love Him with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength.
[5:47] We sometimes can fool ourselves and we can fool others, but we can never deceive the Lord.
[5:58] He knows if our heart is genuinely His, sold out for Him. May we not live hypocritically. May we live sincerely, authentically, that we are a son or a daughter of God, and we're not ashamed to make that known.
[6:18] So I've titled my sermon very simply this, Ashamed to Own Jesus. Let's pray. Father, it is in my heart, my desire, that You would find in me a heart that is sincere, that is true, that is not ashamed of owning this Jesus, who has given His everything for me, and who has gone to prepare a place for me and for us.
[6:48] Lord, if there is in any of us a heart of fear, a heart that's easily shamed when we are questioned or when we are observed, Lord, that in our heart there would never be a trace of being ashamed of You.
[7:04] Just as Jesus Himself taught here, that if we deny Him on earth, He will deny us there in heaven too. And Lord, what tremendous impact that would have on us, Lord, to hear those words.
[7:20] But I pray that in our hearts we would have been sincere, right from the time of our conversion to the time of our death, that we are authentically the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we belong to Him.
[7:31] Give us the insight, Lord, the understanding, but also the heart conviction this morning to just as Psalms 139, 23, and 24 say that we ask You to search for us, to try us, and to find out if there's any evil way in us, Lord.
[7:48] We do not want to be ashamed. We do not want to fear man, for they can just kill the body, but they can do nothing to the soul. It belongs to You, Lord. And so for that, we praise You and thank You again this morning.
[7:59] In Jesus' name, amen. Ashamed to own Jesus. I remember a story that we read some time ago, and my wife and I both looked for it quite feverishly because I wanted to relay it to you as best I could, and now I've got to go by memory, and my memory is still good, but it isn't like it used to be when I was 20 or 30.
[8:26] But the story goes that I believe it was a group of soldiers that burst into, it was either a schoolhouse or it was a home, a church home, church house, and they came with rifles pointed, and they said, all of you Christians against the wall, and those that are not to leave.
[8:48] And so that's what happened. A whole group of Christians would gather against the wall and had come. And so when the others left, they closed the doors, and they revealed to themselves the reason they did that is they wanted to meet with authentic Christians, unashamed of Christ, willing to lay down their lives for Him, and they had sweet fellowship in that.
[9:14] We may never be called to declare our faith in that way, but we ought to always be ready. We ought to be ready if that is what the Lord would have us to do, that we are not ashamed of owning Him.
[9:33] Are some professing Christians ashamed to own Jesus today? Let's bring that a little closer. Remember, if we were to personally respond to that question, am I ashamed to own Jesus, and we were to write our answer on a piece of paper, what would that be?
[9:50] What if others were to answer that question on our behalf? What would they write of us? What would Jesus write if He was here on earth and He was to give an answer for us?
[10:02] We know for certain that Jesus' answer would be correct. And I know most of us would probably say, no, I'm not ashamed of Christ.
[10:12] He's given His life for me. I love Him with all my heart. It's easy to say when all things are good, when there's no persecution, there's no pressure on us to declare our faith.
[10:25] It's easy to say that. But may in this time of freedom, may our roots continue to go down deeper and deeper into the Lord Jesus Christ, that we value His life, His blood, each day more and more, that as the day of our freedom is continually eroding, that we are so settled in there that it doesn't matter.
[10:46] Just as Job says, though the Lord slay me, yet will I praise Him. May that be our response in a time of questioning or persecution.
[10:57] Jesus says here in our text, Matthew 10, 26, there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and there is nothing hid that shall not be known.
[11:10] That is true whether good or evil, truth or deception, pretense or sincerity. Where am I concerning my love for Jesus?
[11:20] You know, when I think all of us, when we think of the word imposters, our mind references something that is a symbol of pretending to be something or someone, when in reality it's something different.
[11:41] I farm a little bit, just enough to kind of get my fingernails dirty, but I enjoy it. And this last couple of years, I've had a weed that was introduced to my field from a neighbor's field.
[11:57] It's called wild mustard. I don't know if any of you know what that looks like, but it looks identical to canola. Until you get close, and then you can see a difference in the petals, you can see a difference in the stem and the leaves, there's a bit of a difference.
[12:13] But driving past on a field, you could not discern wild mustard from canola. And so I farm organically, so chemicals are forbidden for me to get rid of them.
[12:26] So I try to control it, well, really I'd like to eradicate it, but that is a very, very aggressive plant. But I thought just as a spiritual application, this is what Jesus himself talked about in the Gospels when he told the parable of a farmer that went out to sow seed.
[12:51] And he sowed good seed. It was pure seed. There was nothing wrong with it. But then an enemy went into the field after it was planted with good seed, and he spread his weeds. And they both grew up.
[13:03] And then the disciples said, well, should we uproot those weeds? And Jesus says, no, you let them grow till harvest, and then you separate them.
[13:17] Well, that's what Jesus is going to do in the day of judgment. He's allowing the Christians and non-Christians to grow together, and those that are professing Christians that are not truly Christians, they're growing up in the church, in the community, and then in the day of judgment, then there is going to be that separation.
[13:35] May we not be like a wild mustard plant in a beautiful canola field. Let us be authentic in our faith with Christ.
[13:49] Now, we have several recorded accounts in the Scripture of people who gave the impression of being a follower completely committed to Jesus and yet failed when tested.
[14:00] There are several accounts in Scripture, but there, of course, some of them are very obvious that they were imposters, and others are a little more obscure. The commitment of one such individual that would have especially been hard to pick out is found in Matthew 26, 31 to 35.
[14:19] I'll just take and read that for you in Matthew 26, 31 to 35. Matthew 26, 31.
[14:37] And it is someone that we love dearly, and the Lord Jesus loved dearly, and this man, in a moment of pressure, a moment of questioning his faith, he let Jesus down.
[14:52] We know who the man is. Let's read that. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
[15:03] But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, that this night before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice.
[15:20] Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all of the disciples. So here is a man, he's a little more obscure in regarding to his fear of man and his being ashamed of Christ.
[15:38] We'll look at that a little bit later. Now, Peter was genuine. He was sincere. But in a moment of testing, he failed. And Jesus, we won't go there, but after Jesus' resurrection, he very gently came to Peter, and he restored Peter to a fellowship with him.
[16:00] So the first person in this passage of Scripture that we encounter is Jesus. He makes predictions concerning his father's work and also his own life. In verse 31, he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah 13.7, and openly declares a work of God, namely that the shepherd will be smitten, the shepherd will be killed, is what he is prophesying here in Matthew 26.
[16:27] Now, that was not a prophecy of some shepherd on the plains near Jerusalem. Jesus was referring directly to him. He would be the one that would be smitten.
[16:37] It was a mystery absurdly spoken of in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, Jesus openly declared who the prophet was speaking about.
[16:50] It says, God would give him up to the Jews to be wrongfully accused, and he gave him up to the Romans and to be put to death. It was no small matter what Jesus was predicting here concerning his life being taken in order for a once-for-all sacrifice for mankind.
[17:05] It was also no small matter in how it would make a significant impact on a sheep, namely the apostles. Now, literally, earthly shepherds and the work they did among sheep was looked down upon as one of the lowliest occupations in society.
[17:24] And they were, shepherds were smelly. They spent their day with the sheep. They slept with the sheep. And so if we know a little bit about sheep, their wool is quite oily, and so the moment that you rub up against them, it attaches to your clothes, and that's the smell you carry with them.
[17:40] Well, that's what shepherds encountered every day. And so it was a very smelly occupation and one that was not really, nobody was jealous of that kind of work.
[17:53] But a good shepherd who was committed to his flock was the key to the safety of the sheep he was tending and a success to the owner for whom he was working. And there was a high level of trust built into the relationship with each other.
[18:08] The same in a business world. A good CEO or a good business owner with his employees, there's a strong relationship that's built up. He puts his trust in them for the success of the company.
[18:22] And that's what Jesus does too with us. When our relationship is strong in him and we are completely dedicated to him, he then can fully trust us and that his work on earth, the kingdom building, will go on just as a good shepherd with sheep.
[18:45] To have Jesus the shepherd killed would most certainly affect his followers very dramatically. And it did. We won't go into, that's not the purpose of the sermon this morning, but it dramatically changed things for the disciples.
[19:00] So that is Jesus in this text. The next people we meet is the disciples. Jesus said the effect would be that of the sheep being scattered.
[19:10] He says, once the shepherd is taken, once the shepherd is condemned and put to death, the sheep will be scattered. And that's exactly what we see in the Garden of Gethsemane when after the rapture of Jesus and leading him away to Annas, the high priest, the disciples scatter.
[19:28] They flee. Peter, of course, stands there a little bit longer, but he leaves as well. For the smiting of the shepherd he was somewhat prepared, but it was the scattering of the sheep that also weighed so heavily on Jesus and on his heart.
[19:48] And it forced him to break the silence of sorrowful words. He says, and all ye shall be offended because of me this night. It was a prediction.
[20:00] This is what the disciples would do once they had taken him. They would scatter. They would be offended. Really, in a sense, ashamed of being part of Christ.
[20:12] And maybe fearing for their lives too. Of course, that's very human. It's a human thing to do. But Jesus' arrest by the Romans caused all the disciples to forsake him and to flee.
[20:25] And he was deeply grieved over the burden of humanity's sin and that he had to bear. But that it would result in the disciples deserting him troubled him too greatly.
[20:35] What would you and I have done had we been there that day? Would we have stayed with Jesus in the moment?
[20:49] Or would we have, like Peter, have been ashamed to declare our association with him? Let's look at the third individual we meet here in this passage of Scripture in verse 33 and on.
[21:05] Peter says to Jesus, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Peter, a man who is bold, a man who is courageous, and sometimes a man who is very outspoken.
[21:29] We've come to know Peter in this way. We've come to love Peter in this way in what he has written for us. He's a very natural person, very forthright, very blunt, outspoken character.
[21:43] Sometimes it has been said of Peter that at times he spoke before he thought, and sometimes that got him into trouble. And this is one of those times where it got him into trouble.
[21:57] But what we love about Peter, what we love about some of the apostles, is to see their humanness, to see that we identify with who this individual is.
[22:10] If Peter was not above denying the Lord to be ashamed of him, be careful where we stand as well. It is possible when that comes to us without any warning.
[22:23] So here, too, Peter's boldness and quick-to-speak character shows. We listen to his confidence, though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I not be offended, yet will I never be offended.
[22:42] In Luke's account of this event, it's written of Peter saying, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both to prison and to death. That's how committed he was in his intellect.
[22:54] But his heart wasn't quite there. But Peter, to demonstrate how serious he was with his word toward Jesus, he took his sword and he sliced off the ear of the high priest's servant.
[23:10] And he was doing that in defense of Jesus. He was going to fight for Jesus. He was going to stand by him to the very end. So it appears to us, judging by ear and by the eye, that Peter was completely sold out to Jesus' master.
[23:29] But let's wait and see if what appears to be dedication is actual commitment. What Jesus spoke concerning all ye shall be offended because of me this night, he was referring, of course, to the media that were around him.
[23:45] But he fleshes out what he meant in a particular way as he narrowed it down and responded to the disciples' Peter's statement. Jesus said that he would not only be offended because of him, but that he would also deny knowing him.
[24:03] Now, if anything would cut to the heart, that would be that. If that's what Jesus should say to us, not only will you be offended by me tonight, but you're going to deny me.
[24:16] And I think all of us, like Peter, would say, Lord, that's never going to happen. We value the price that you've paid for us so highly, we will never deny you. So we can identify with Peter in that, can't we?
[24:31] Now, all of the gospels record Peter's denial, denial, but I want for us to turn or to read here in Matthew 26 what that looked like. Let's read from verse 69 to 75.
[24:49] Matthew 26, 69. Now, Peter sat without in the palace, and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.
[25:00] But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. So that is kind of a general word by saying, well, I don't know what you're saying.
[25:14] Maybe I don't understand. Maybe you've got an accent that I don't understand what you're saying. But his denial is there in verse 70.
[25:25] Then in verse 71 we see, And when he had gone out into the porch, another maid saw him and said unto him that were there, this fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man.
[25:39] Now it becomes much more personal, much more direct, much more focused on Jesus. I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou all are also one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee.
[25:59] We can hear it in your voice, in your dialect, in your pronunciation of the words that you are also a Galilean as Jesus.
[26:19] Then in verse 74 we read, Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the words of Jesus which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
[26:35] And he went out and wept. Peter failed. When the pressure was turned on and it increased, he failed.
[26:47] And Jesus said, You will. You will fail. Not only be offended, but you will deny me. You know, Jesus can look through our veneer, as to say.
[27:01] He can look through our pretense. And he can see exactly our heart and how we would react to any situation that might come to us.
[27:13] This is how Peter reacted. So Peter's first denial to the palace girl simply was put, I don't know what you're talking about.
[27:26] His second denial to another lady, another young maid, is I don't know the man. I don't associate with this man. And then Peter's third denial, I don't belong to him.
[27:42] I have no part of him. Now, scarcely had the words left Peter's lips when the rooster crowed, and he remembered his denial of his Lord.
[27:55] Peter had stuck with Jesus the furthest into the trial, but at last he also failed his master, and probably worse than all of the other disciples. When the most difficult moment of testing came, Peter had been ashamed to be identified with Jesus.
[28:14] And it is possible that all of the disciples, Peter may have been offended the most. For it's not in Jesus' post-resurrection appearance behind locked doors that Peter was restored to the Lord, but in his third appearance to the sea of Tiberias after eating breakfast.
[28:33] It is then that Jesus focuses again specifically on Peter. And he says, Peter, do you love me? He's coming back to the heart issue.
[28:45] Peter, do you love me? Jesus is a very gentle shepherd, and he comes in a very gentle way to restore us to himself.
[28:58] It shows us the deep concern of Jesus for us, as it was for Peter. It's not that Peter didn't love his Lord before, but it was not with a perfect love.
[29:12] It was motivated out of a human will and effort rather than being empowered and directed through the Holy Spirit. And I think that is an application for us as well, that we do not rely on our human will, our human strength, our human dedication, but rather rely on the Holy Spirit that fills us and that empowers us to stay true to the Lord, to never fear what man can do to us, but rather fear God that can destroy both body and soul.
[29:49] It's the Holy Spirit in us that would equip us to never be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, of owning him. God's love. Amen. I know we read all these biblical accounts and we have an advantage over the disciples, we have an advantage of Old Testament prophets in that we have the entire text before us, the entire scriptures.
[30:14] We can read, we can know, we can understand everything. Much better than the people did back then. But I believe you and I may agree that Peter would have been the most unlikely person of the twelve who would have denied him.
[30:31] But that is what Jesus predicted and that is exactly what happened. But before we find ourselves bearing down hard on Peter for doing what he did or not doing, let us take stock of our own lives, of ourselves where we are today.
[30:53] As Christians of the 21st century, Jesus had told his disciples what the result of the offense would be. Most of them deserted him, fled when he was captured, and Peter verbally denied knowing him.
[31:10] But Jesus has also shown us in his word the very real possibility of our taking offense in him when we are tested. Again, let's turn back to our text, Matthew chapter 10.
[31:25] Matthew 10. I want to read 32 and 33. Matthew 10, 32. Now Jesus had just finished teaching concerning discipleship and the suffering that they would include by all men, causing or caused by identifying him, which would be a part of being his follower.
[32:07] Jesus knew how real it was for them identifying with him and then to be tested. He knew how real that was. He knows how real that is in our world.
[32:19] In John chapter 17, Jesus did not pray that God the Father should take us out of the world, but that he would keep us from the evil one.
[32:29] And that is what the Holy Spirit does is we surrender our life to him as the Holy Spirit lives through us, lives out Christ's life in us and through us. That is where the strength comes for resisting the being ashamed of the Lord Jesus, resisting denying him.
[32:49] We cannot rely on the flesh of the arm, but we must rely on the Spirit of God. That is where we will remain true to him. Three times in verses 26, 28, and 31, Jesus dispels timidity by speaking powerful, emboldening words.
[33:10] He says, fear them not. Fear them not. Intimidation and being ashamed of our identification with Christ is driven by a fear of man being greater than the fear of God in us.
[33:30] That is why it is so important that we learn and we understand what the true fear of God in our hearts is. For when that fear is there, we will not fear man.
[33:41] We will not fear what they can do to us, but we will fear him who owns us, who has purchased us, and who is coming to claim us for himself.
[33:57] If we would have lived in Jesus' day and have been in Peter's shoes, would we have stood up unashamedly to be identified with Jesus and to speak in support of our Savior?
[34:10] I know it's a sobering question, but I'd venture to say we'd probably have fled with the other disciples and not even have done what Peter did. Peter, or Jesus, says in Matthew 26, 41, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[34:32] We identify with the weakness of the flesh often, but the spirit, our spirit is willing to remain true and sincere and fully committed to the Lord.
[34:42] It sometimes troubles me in our churches, and I'm not talking only our conference churches, broader in the evangelical circle, how some, when you want to strike up a conversation about the Lord and about their salvation and to really have fellowship of what the Lord is doing in their life today, that you sometimes encounter reluctance and they steer away to the weather or to their job or to their family or something else.
[35:18] Is that in a sense being ashamed of Christ? Or is that an indication that I'm not fully sold out to the Lord?
[35:30] Be it what it may, God knows our heart, and God has the remedy for that. I read a sad statistic some time ago that said that less than 2% of born-again Christians openly share their faith with their neighbors.
[35:58] Also a form of being ashamed of Christ. The Christ that has given all His life for us to redeem us, to purchase us back with His precious blood. This morning we have considered both the prediction of Peter's denial and the commission of Peter's denials.
[36:26] How many of us have held our tongue when we should have given praise to the Lord for something that He's done, for a prayer that was answered, for miracles that He's done?
[36:39] Were we intimidated not to share Christ, not to truly say what Christ means to us? Did we have fear of how unbelievers or maybe even believers might say about us?
[36:53] I read also a man that really, I think, although we differ in faith greatly, but it is a story that inspires me.
[37:08] I trust it inspires you as well to not be ashamed of Christ. I said that this man, he was also on the plane with this Muslim man, and they were coming back from Africa, and as they were traveling, this Muslim man in front of all the passengers on the plane, be it three, two, three hundred, whatever it might have been, he laid down his blanket in the aisle of the plane, and there he knelt down to pray.
[37:42] Now we might differ on the purpose of prayer or who we're praying to, but the crux of the story is he was not ashamed to be a Muslim.
[37:54] He was not ashamed of Allah. And that spoke to me. Would I do that? We say, well, we don't have to.
[38:04] We can pray in our seat. We can close our eyes. We can bow our head. And yes, we can. A proper way of praying. As long as we're not hiding behind that when an opportunity for witnessing is given, that we don't hide behind that.
[38:18] I think that's the matter of the heart. This man didn't care what others thought of him. He was identifying with his faith and his belief.
[38:30] So I just want to encourage us. Let's throw off the shackles of fear and timidity today and boldly take our stand for Christ. In whatever way we get tested or are we given an opportunity, often I think we should rather look at it as an opportunity to share Christ and that we take that opportunity, we walk through that open door and God gives us the words to share of what Christ has done for us and to give him the honor and the glory.
[38:58] Let's throw off those shackles and surrender our heart to the Lord. Let God live his life through us. Let's witness to our neighbors, to the community we live in, of Jesus' power to forgive sins and to save sinners from eternal death.
[39:17] Let's not be ashamed to own Jesus. And I want to close with reading the lyrics of a song. Some of you may remember Carl and Pearl Butler, singers from yesteryear, a long time ago.
[39:34] They didn't write this song, but the song is called Ashamed to Own the Blessed Savior. It says, Upon the lonely tree of Calvary my Savior took the blame for me.
[39:46] Then do you think that I disown him when his own blood he shed for me? And then the chorus, Ashamed to own the blessed Savior, ashamed of him who died for you.
[39:57] Someday I know that you'll be sorry, for he will be ashamed of you. O brother, how can you deny him, ashamed to own God's gift of love, our only promise of tomorrow, our precious Savior from above?
[40:09] Ashamed to own the blessed Savior, ashamed to own him who died for you. Someday I know you'll be sorry, for he will be ashamed of you.
[40:21] And that is what Jesus says here in our text, Matthew chapter 10. May we never be, and if we fail, and we will, I have, and I'm sure you have as well.
[40:33] As Peter, we can be restored to fellowship. When we miss an opportunity, because we have the fear of man, and we, in actual, we were ashamed to declare Christ, as the Spirit convicts, let's repent, and there is multiple times God forgives, and God restores.
[40:54] He loves his children, and he wants us to be sincere with him, fully committed to him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning again.
[41:05] We thank you for your word, that the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, has spoken to us, to the disciples at that time of writing, but those words are spoken to us as well.
[41:16] How real it is, Lord, that we fear man more than we fear God. And I pray, Lord, in my own life, as in the lives of those that are gathered here this morning, that we would not fear man, and we would not be ashamed of Christ, to name him clearly and boldly, for he is our life.
[41:41] We have nothing, and we are nothing. He is our everything. Thank you, Lord God, for him, and for the salvation he's given to us through him, and that we are righteous, we are declared righteous in your eyes, Lord.
[41:56] Thank you for the relationship we have with you, and may that just encourage us today, in this coming week, to when you give us opportunities to mention the name of Christ, in whichever circumstance it is, Lord, help us to be creative, help us to be sincere, help us not only to share out of duty, but help us to share out of love, this Jesus that has given us everything, so that we can have life, abundant life here on earth, and these trials and testings of this earth are complete and over, and we are with you, Lord.
[42:30] We are looking forward to that day. Keep us strong, keep us sincere in you, Lord, and give us the strength through your spirit to always be your disciples and your followers. In Jesus' name we pray.
[42:42] Amen.