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Father, I do again thank you
for this unique Sunday. This is IDOP Sunday. And again,
Lord, we just I pray for your Spirit's presence. I pray for
the words that you've given me to speak, but I pray especially
for your Holy Spirit's moving in the hearts of our body Lord
we We need to have hearts that are on fire for your church and
father I pray your Holy Spirit who alone can do that would do
that this morning and I pray this in Jesus name. Amen Well,
I'd up Sunday is about two very distinct and critical issues
that the church has been called to one is prayer and the other
is the persecuted church and And this is the Sunday where
we put both of those together. This Sunday is IDOP Sunday, and
IDOP stands for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted
Church. It's a day given to turn our attention to prayer for those
willing to pay the price of publicly acknowledging Christ. And this
morning I want to revisit the teaching at IDOP that I give
each year by restating their official pronouncement. They
said this, The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted
Church is a global day of intercession for persecuted Christians worldwide.
Its primary focus is the work of intercessory prayer and citizen
action on behalf of persecuted communities of the Christian
faith. We also encourage prayer for the souls of the oppressors,
the nations that promote persecution, and those who ignore it. IDOP
began in 1996 through the efforts of the World Evangelical Fellowship
in cooperation with a variety of denominations and faith-based
organizations. From a core group of approximately
7,000 churches, the IDOP has grown to be the largest prayer
day event of its kind in the world. The IDOP is a rallying
point for Christians and others to stand behind those who suffer
for their faith by providing prayer support and appropriate
advocacy. We need a day like today. We
need a day like today because we are easily distracted from
this task and, truth be said, out of sight is very easily out
of mind. And last time I asked why it is so critical to get
our heads, our hearts, and our hands into the idea that the
persecuted church deserves our passionate commitments. And first
was our heads. And my first question was a sports
question. I said, is your head in the game? You know, this question may sound
strange at first, but having had lots of kids who are into
sports and being around lots and lots of coaches, I heard
that sentence spoken to players many, many times. Is your head
in the game? And it was a less than polite
way of asking, do you care at all about what is going on all
around you? You see, the coaches knew that if a kid didn't didn't
really care about the game, that all the talent that he might
have, well, it it really wouldn't matter. If he wasn't mentally
prepared to compete, if he didn't put the effort in to focus his
mind on the task at hand, then it really wouldn't matter how
skilled he was. His effort was going to fail.
And when it comes to the persecuted church, it is crucial that we
have our heads in the game. Because the stakes are infinitely
higher on both sides of the issue. There's the persecuted church
who desperately needs our prayer and there's us who desperately
need to pray. And to do that we first need
to get our head into the game of praying for the persecuted
church. Gospel for Asia says this, quote, Americans who have
not experienced persecution do not fully understand what it
means to have their lives threatened, homes destroyed, Rights violated
and loved ones imprisoned, all because of embracing faith in
Jesus Christ, said K.P. Yohannan, GFA founder and president,
in a statement. In the 14 countries we serve,
persecution of this sort has become a normal way of life,
especially for those directly involved in mission work. This
morning, I want to address the same question I addressed one
year ago. It is the heart question that I address each year at this
time. Actually, it's a question I think
that lingers inside the minds of most of us when it comes to
this kind of prayer. And the question really is, why
should I? I mean, to put this cynically,
if God is truly sovereign, why does he need us to pray for someone
on the other side of the world? I mean, why can't we just say
that one part of the Lord's prayer that covers it all? And why can't
we just say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and be done
with it? I mean, after all, it is his
kingdom, and ultimately, it is his will. So how can we imagine
a sovereign God is somehow stopped in his tracks by my failure to
pray? Well, the fact is, he isn't. But he still insists that we
pray. I'd like to give the organizers
of IDOP a chance to address that issue. This is their official
statement on prayer for the persecuted church. They said this. We believe
that prayer changes things. Exactly what happens is a mystery
of faith. God invites us to present to
him our requests and to pray without ceasing. Persecuted Christians
often plead for prayer to help them endure. The most we can
do is the least we can do. Pray. And this morning, I'd like
to first revisit the hard part of this message by unpacking
that statement line by line. The first statement says, we
believe that prayer changes things. Is that so? Well, I'd like to
start out with one example. We have been praying for Saeed
Abedini for a few years now. Pastor Abedini is an American
citizen who had traveled to Iran to help out with an orphanage.
He was pulled off a bus, given a sham trial, and then sent off
to prison. World Magazine recently reported
this. It said, Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned
in Tehran for his faith, has been moved to one of the country's
most brutal prisons, according to his US-based legal team. So
how do we pray for Pastor Abedini? You see, now we as believers,
we've been able, so to speak, to get our head into the game
by reading books like Nick Ripken's The Insanity of God. That book
gave us an invaluable insight into how we should be praying
for those undergoing persecution. This is what Ripken says. He
says, for decades, the Western church has been taught to pray
and work for an end to the persecution of fellow believers around the
world. We enlist our congregations, our denominations, and even our
governments to speak out and pressure oppressive regimes and
hostile nations to end discrimination. Sometimes we even demand that
the persecutors be punished. We seem to forget that Jesus
himself promised that the world would reject and mistreat his
faithful followers just as it rejected him. Ruth, that's his
wife, Ruth and I seldom encountered a mature believer living in persecution
who asked us to pray that their persecution would cease. We have
never heard that request. Mind you, they've interviewed
over 700 persecuted Christians. They say, rather, believers in
persecution ask us to pray that they would be faithful and obedient
through their persecution and suffering. That is a radically
different prayer. Now, Saeed Abedini was imprisoned
in Evin Prison, which is a notoriously bad place. He sent his wife,
Nagma, a letter that confirms what Ripken had said about persecuted
believers. And in that letter, you can see
there's no request that the persecution would end. Rather, there was
this type of acknowledgment. This is what he said, quote,
I forgave the prison doctor who did not listen to me and did
not give me the medication that I needed. I forgave the interrogator
who beat me. Every day when I would see the
interrogator and for the last time when I saw him, I forgave
him. I smiled at him and with respect shook his hand and said
my goodbye. The minute I forgave them and
loved them, that second I was filled with unspeakable joy. I just want you to take a second
and imagine yourself, just imagine yourself being incarcerated in
that prison, having been a citizen of the United States, living
in the Midwest. And yet in the midst of that
hideous prison, we find him saying that he was filled with an unspeakable
joy. It is God alone who gives the
power and the grace for that, and he does that in response
to prayer. Now, our church and countless
others have been praying intensely for Pastor Abedini, only to find
out the following. This is from World Magazine.
It says, guards at Eben prison told a family member who went
to visit Abedini today that the pastor had been moved to Rajai
Shahar prison in Karaj, about 90 minutes outside the nation's
capital. Guards there told Abedini's family he was not allowed to
have any visitors. In other words, he was moved
from a really, really bad prison to one that is much, much worse. He goes on to say, Rajai Shahar
is known to house the country's worst criminals, murderers and
rapists. Lawyers with the American Center
for Law and Justice, who represent Abedini's wife, say he now faces
life-threatening conditions. A Dutch diplomat who visited
the prison in 2005 described it as a place where political
prisoners are sent for the most severe punishment. Because many
of the criminals housed there already face the death penalty,
violence between inmates is common. So here's the question. The question
is, does prayer really change things? Many have been praying
for Pastor Abedini's release from prison, and that obviously
has not happened. But I want to show you through
the words of Pastor Abedini's wife, Nagma, just what prayer
has done for this persecuted saint. I want you to look at
a video that's up. This is his wife addressing Liberty
University about what's taken place in the life of Pastor Abedini. Good morning, it's great to be
here. As you know, my husband is serving an 8-year sentence
in Iran's notorious Evin prison, which is one of the worst prisons
actually in the world. He's been tortured and abused
and forced He's been asked and tortured to deny his Christian
faith and return to Islam. And he has not. They've told
him many times that they would free him and allow him to return
to our family, the kids and I, if he would deny his Christian
faith. And he stood strong in that prison.
He's led many, many, over 30 people to Christ in that prison. He's endured an intense time
in that prison. He's been taken to solitary twice
because in an attempt to break him and have him deny his Christian
faith. And the kids and I desperately
want him back, but we're proud that over us, he's chosen Christ. Even over coming back to us,
he's chosen to stand up for his faith and not only stand up for
his faith, but to proclaim the gospel in that dark prison and
bring hope where many of those people are on death row, have
long-term imprisonment, and for me to know that so many of them
now know Christ, it makes it worth it. I know His imprisonment
is not in vain. I wanted to share something quick
with you about my testimony. When I heard about His imprisonment,
I got a call in the middle of the night. My nightmare in a
way started. My whole world was taken from
me. My future, my best friend, my husband, my father to my kids,
and my whole future, finances. dreams and everything was taken
from me and I'd always feared what would happen if I lost someone
or if I would go through an intense trial if I would question God
and his goodness and I reached a deep dark time of despair and
I reached out to Jesus and I've known him since I was nine but
I found the most I connected to him in such a deep way that
not only did I not question his goodness I proclaim his goodness
and how awesome he is and I got to drink of his goodness and
he gave me strength to stand up and he's given me joy and
peace. I've had atheists and Muslims
come up to me and say there's something, there has to be something
real about your God because you, this is not possible for you
to stand up and have so much peace and joy and to be able
to give it to us and you know the world crumbles under pressure
But we not only survive it, but we thrive, because only pressure
allows us to even connect deeper with God, Almighty God. We have
that. No religion has that. Only Jesus
Christ has that. And under pressure, we are broken,
and we realize our weakness, and we can connect to God, and
we can receive even more joy and peace. And the world doesn't
understand that. And the world needs to see that
in us. They need to see our passionate walk and relationship and love
story with Christ. And I would always be confused
by something Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. He would say, I take pleasure
in my infirmities and my weakness and my distress. And how? Why does he take pleasure?
The Lord opened it up for me. during this time, because he
realizes how weak he is, and he discovers the strength of
Christ. And I just want to end with this. I want to say, you
know, in this trial, I've found, I've tasted a new intimacy, I've
reached a new intimacy with Christ, that I pray that our nation and
us as Christians would discover His goodness, because the world
needs to see our relationship and our fire. are the truth of
Jesus Christ. We can't be preaching it. We
have to be living it. And in order to reach the gospel, we
have to experience it first. And, you know, I have to say
that when he brought me out of this darkness, he allowed me
to preach over and in front of over a hundred nation. I you know I was present in June
and I was I was speaking in front of the United Nations in Geneva
and over a hundred ninety six countries are are are there and
I got to tell them that Jesus Christ is the way to God, and
he's the God of peace they're looking for. And you know, Saeed
and I had always dreamed to reach millions of Muslims for Christ.
I got to do that. I got to go in media, like BBC
Farsi and Voice of America Persia, that broadcast into Iran. Over
50 million Iranians got to hear me on live TV as they were watching
to tell them about Jesus Christ. And so I praise God for that. I don't have a ministry. I'm
just a girl who loves Jesus. At age 9, I asked the Lord, I
was reading Psalms 2, and I asked the Lord for the nations. In
Psalms 2, it says, Today I begotten you. Ask of me and I will give
you the nations for your inheritance. I pray that tonight Today, the
Lord would awaken your desire to ask for nations for your inheritance,
that you would be not lukewarm, but you would be on fire for
the living God, and you would go out and ask. I would ask when
I was nine, I would say, Lord, give me the nation of Iran for
my inheritance. I want it. I didn't see it until
this year that I got to speak to millions of Iranians. I've
led so many Muslims to Christ. Saeed and I have led hundreds
and hundreds of Muslims to Christ. And to see that become a reality,
I pray that you would ask the nations as your inheritance.
God bless you. Here's the question that we were
asking. The question that we were asking is, does prayer change
things? I think we just got our answer.
I mean, his wife is explaining the fact that, you see, the Iranian
government thought they could squash the gospel and they thought
they could squash it by squashing Pastor Abedini. And here's his
wife saying 50 million people have heard the gospel through
her. And we've learned that 30 people have learned that there's
only one way to be right with God and it is not the five pillars
of Islam. They have learned something through
Pastor Abedini that was absolutely unthinkable to a Muslim mindset.
They learned that God would become a man and live out his life perfectly
on this earth and then offer that life up as a perfect sacrifice
in exchange for our sins on the cross. These men have learned
in one of the darkest places on the planet that while they
were still sinners, Christ died for them. It's because Pastor
Abedini has been so effective that he has been sent to a far
worse place. And we have learned from scripture
that our task is to imagine the horror of the place that he is
in. To place ourselves physically
in his shoes, trying to imagine the fear and the anxiety and
even the despair that would haunt a hideous place like that. You
see, God calls us to such an exercise because we are connected
to Pastor Abedini through the body of Christ. And God wants
us to care as much about his fate as we would care about any
other part of our own bodies. Hebrews 13.3 says, Remember those
who are in prison, as thou in prison with them,
and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body. We are called to pray for people
like Pastor Avedini. To pray that he has the grace
and the strength and the supernatural power that he needs to withstand
that prison. and to channel the light of Christ
into even more darker places than that. May I suggest to you
that as recently as a few months ago, a few years ago, we didn't
even know how we were supposed to be praying. We didn't know
how to pray for persecuted saints. And we've been praying this way
for a few years now. And as we prayed, God has enlarged
our vision on just what it is we are to be praying for. So
we can affirm the first statement, we believe that prayer changes
things. The second statement is this, exactly what happens
is a mystery of faith. Now to repeat what I said the
last time, it's been said that all answered prayer begins and
ends in the throne room of God. You see, when we pray, we are
really a part of a very complex process that God uses to move
things on earth. When God wants to move a mountain,
he doesn't just move a mountain. The first thing he does is he
starts to move some of us to pray that that mountain would
be moved. And then he moves the mountain in response to the prayer.
You see, prayers like the inner workings of a cell, it is far
more complex, far more wonderful than it appears on the surface.
I've described the whole process as an electric circuit. The current
flows first from the throne room of God, then through us, and
then back to the Father for an answer. Here's how I believe
it goes. The Father initiates, the Holy
Spirit translates and intercedes, we participate, Jesus advocates,
and then the Father answers. First, the Father initiates.
Philippians 2.13 says, For it is God who works in you both
to will and to do for his good pleasure. God is the source of
everything we do, including what we pray for. Secondly, the Holy
Spirit translates and intercedes for us. Romans 8, 26 says, likewise,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words. And he searches hearts, knows
what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God. Let's think about
this for a second. What God is saying here is that
our role in prayer is so crucial. It's so critical that the Holy
Spirit has to come alongside us, understanding that we don't
do prayer as we ought. The Spirit of God works with
us to empower and translate our efforts. And thirdly, we participate. Ephesians 6 18 tells us we're
to be quote praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer
and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance
making supplication for all Saints Fourthly Jesus advocates John
1st John 2 1 my little children these things I write to you that
you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with
the Father Jesus Christ the righteous finally the Father answers 2
Thessalonians 1 11 it says to this end we always pray for you
that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill
every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power and
Then God reveals why it is we pray He says so that the name
of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according
to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Now what is
amazing about this process is that it can be described as a
circuit, including Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And right in
the middle of that circuit is a switch. And the switch is made
up of human beings, you and me. The Father initiates, the Holy
Spirit translates and intercedes, we participate, Jesus advocates,
the Father answers. For God's own glory, He has elected
to run this circuit through human beings. You know, the second
statement is exactly what happens is a mystery of faith. And I
agree, much of it is still mysterious. But the great mystery is that
God would use us in such a critical way to fulfill his role on this
earth. Statement three says this, it
says, God invites us to present to him our requests and to pray
without ceasing. Do you see why? We can just make
a general statement. It's because God stoops to conquer. You know, there's no question
that anything we can do, God can do better. I mean, so why
does God waste all the time and effort inviting us to pray to
him? I mean, why does God stoop so
to involve us in his plans? Well, it has to do with who God
has chosen to defeat the enemy. He's chosen us. Listen to what
2 Corinthians 4 says. It says, For what we proclaim
is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
servants for Christ's sake, for Jesus' sake. For God, who said,
Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God
and not to us. Here's what God is telling us.
He's telling us we have been given the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we've been
given it to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not
to us. Now, I've often described our
lives as we are the nexus. We are the connection in a proxy
war we see being played out between the kingdom of light and the
kingdom of darkness. Satan caused all of creation
to be cursed through Adam's fall. Jesus took on flesh and became
the second Adam, and by his cross he is leading us as we take back
the kingdom from the enemy through prayer. It's as if God told Satan that
his ultimate defeat would come not through his hands, but through
ours. And he tells us how we're going
to do that in Zechariah 4.6. He says, not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." See, God
stoops to conquer primarily through prayer. I'm still awestruck that
God has chosen us as His means to meet His ends. Consider God's
treatment of Noah and the ark. God created the entire universe
in six days. God told his servant Noah to
build an ark and the scripture tells us he waited patiently
year after year after year while it was being built. Clearly God
thought far more of the importance of Noah's input than he did about
his own efficiency. I've said it before and it bears
repeating, God using Noah to build an ark is like me using
a hamster to plow a field all for the sake of a hamster. It's not very efficient. It's
going to take them a long, long time. There's got to be an easier
way. But you see, God never chooses
on the basis of ease or efficiency. And you know, consider Satan
himself. I mean, why didn't God just take Satan out the first
time he rebelled? Why did God himself become one
of us, live this spotless life, and die the death we all deserve
to die, instead of just judging Satan's sin instantly? I mean, wouldn't that have solved
the problem? Well, it would have solved a
problem, but not God's problem. God's problem is us. I mean, we are the crown of His
creation. God has made us temporarily a
little lower than the angels, but that is just temporary. He
tells us in 1 Corinthians 6, 3, Do you not know that we shall
judge angels? How much more things that pertain
to this life? We who will judge angels in the
next life are to engage them in this one through prayer. Like I said, we are engaged in
this proxy war that exists between two spiritual superpowers, the
kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. And God chooses
to defeat the kingdom of darkness by engaging his image bearers
on the front line of that war. God could have defeated Satan
instantly. After all, God created him. Instead, he chooses to defeat
Satan through the agency of human beings. And he tells us his strength
is made perfect through our weakness. God has chosen his weapon. And
his weapon is you and me. That is the church of Jesus Christ.
And he's very blunt about telling us this is war. And you're part
of it. In 2 Corinthians 10.3 he says
this, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according
to the flesh. In Ephesians 6, verse 12, He
says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly places. So like it or not, God has tied
His kingdom into our prayer. That's why God tells us in 1
Thessalonians 5 to pray without ceasing. In Matthew 21-22 he
says, whatever things you ask in prayer, believing you will
receive. In Philippians 4-6 he says, be
anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. In Colossians
4-2, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. James 5-16, the effect of fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much. We saw that. We saw Elijah prove that on Mount
Carmel. This is what God is trying to show us constantly in Scripture.
In fact, He even gave us a literal picture of the power of prayer
was during Israel's very first battle with the Amalekites. If
you remember, the Amalekites were an enemy of Israel and they
were the first to attack their rear flank. The Amalekites were
the offspring of Esau. They were bitter foes then, they're
bitter foes today. They are the forebearers of the
present-day Arab world, which still obviously bitterly hates
the Jews. Exodus describes this battle. This is what took place
in Exodus 17. It says this, And Moses said
to Joshua, Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod
of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to
him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held
up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy.
So they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on it.
And Aaron and Hur supported his hands one on one side and the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and
his people with the edge of the sword. You see the picture that
God is painting here? This is an amazing picture. Uplifted
hands is the universal symbol of prayer. And when the hands
were uplifted in prayer, victory was at hand. When the hands began
to drop, well then defeat was at hand. Now here's the amazing
thing in all of this. If you notice, it's not the warriors
who are growing exhausted. It's not the archers. It's not
the chariots. It's not the swordsmen here who are getting weary. It's
Moses. It's the prayer warrior. You
see, God wanted Israel to know that its very survival as a nation
was a function of its corporate prayer. See, I think we will
never know this side of heaven how crucial our prayers are to
these churches that are under attack today. Now, Moses grew
physically exhausted. We grow mentally and spiritually
exhausted because we don't really understand the cause, so we start
to doubt the effect. If you doubt how important this
human connection is to God, let me give you another example.
In Acts 10, we have the story of Peter and Cornelius. It's
a first-hand account of the power of prayer. Cornelius is a devout
and righteous man who's seeking God in prayer. In Acts 10.1-4,
it says this. It says, there was a certain
man in Caesarea called Cornelius. a centurion of what was called
the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with
all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and
prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day,
he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying
to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he
was afraid and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him,
so he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have come up for
a memorial before God. First off, I'd like to have that
as an answer to your prayers. Would you like to be praying
and all of a sudden there's an angel standing right there and saying,
we hear you. That's a pretty amazing statement. God tells
Cornelius to send men to Joppa to find Peter. He even gives
Cornelius directions to where Peter is saying. This is Acts
10.32. He says, send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who
was called Peter. He is lodging in the house of
Simon, a tanner by the sea. God's literally giving street
directions to Cornelius to find this fellow, Peter. Meanwhile,
the Holy Spirit, in a rooftop vision to Peter, is telling him
that he's going to meet with Cornelius. And all of this begs a very important
question. Why go to all this trouble? I
mean, why did God send Peter to answer Cornelius's prayer
instead of just answering it himself? You know why? Well, it goes back to that same
circuit of prayer that I spoke about at the beginning. God sent
Peter to Cornelius because he wanted a human in that formula. In Acts 10, God is literally,
he's pulling both Peter and Cornelius together. I mean, he's giving
Cornelius a Google map and he's telling Peter, I'm going to give
you a vision. Acts 10, 19 says, while Peter thought about the
vision, the spirit said to him, behold, three men are seeking
you. Arise, therefore, go down and
go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Just think
about this for a second. This is God himself literally
arranging a meeting of some humans. It goes on to say in verse 21,
then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from
Cornelius and said, Yes, I'm he whom you seek. For what reason
have you come? And they said, Cornelius, the
centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation
among all the nations of the Jews, was divinely instructed
by a holy angel to summon you to his house to hear words from
you. Why did God just tell Cornelius
himself? Cornelius is seeking God. God says, wonderful prayer,
Cornelius. Let me get you a human. That's
amazing. Let me divinely instruct a holy
angel to summon Peter for you. Those are the exact words that
he used. Again, the question is why? And again, the answer
is we are in the middle of a proxy war. And we are God's weapon. Statement three says, God invites
us to present to him our requests and to pray without ceasing.
That's because God stoops to conquer. And we are the agency
that he stoops to work through. And finally, there's the fourth
statement. Persecuted Christians often plead for prayer to help
them endure. The most we can do is the least we can do. Pray. You know, the whole IDOP statement
is really an answer to the question that I raised at the start of
this message. And that question was, Why should I? Let's review
the bidding to see if we understand where our heads, our hearts,
and our hands belong here. Again, to quote IDOT, they said,
we believe that prayer changes things. This is the head part.
Our knowledge of who we must be praying for and our understanding
of how we must be praying has all changed and has all grown
directly as the result of prayer. Pastor Abedini's ministry and
his very life are being held up and empowered by that prayer.
So we can say, yes, we do believe that prayer changes things. Secondly,
it says exactly what happens is a mystery of faith. Well,
God gives us this immense privilege of being part of this circuit
that connects heaven to earth through us. It's a sacred privilege
and a sacred responsibility. Thirdly, God invites us to present
to him our requests and to pray without ceasing. This is the
hard part. Like Moses, we lift our hearts in prayer and the
kingdom advances. Like Moses, we grow weary or
disheartened and the enemy advances. And fourthly, persecuted Christians
often plead for prayer to help them endure. The most we can
do is the least we can do. Pray. Obviously, this is the
hands, this is the feet part. And this last sentence really
says it all. The most we can do is the least we can do. You know, there are two great
sin issues that we Christians deal with. Two different types
of sins. There are sins of commission.
Those are things that we do that we are not supposed to do. But
there also are sins of omission. Things that we don't do that
we are supposed to do. We evangelicals are very big
on the former and very small on the latter. That is, we don't
curse, steal, lie, cheat, or lust very much. And if we do,
we certainly are aware that it's sinful. But I think we seldom
think that God holds us accountable for things that we simply forget
to do or things that we just don't feel like doing. Prayer
is one of those things. James 4.17 sums up God's opinion
of the sins of omission. He says this, Therefore, to him
who knows to do good and does not do it, To him, it is sin. See, God has made it crystal
clear what his expectations are concerning those who are being
persecuted for Christ's sake. Hebrews 13, 3 says, Remember
the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated,
since you yourselves are in the body also. God is referring to
those persecuted for the gospel, and he gives us a very simple
one-word command. Remember. Remember. Now I want to repeat this awful
picture that I've said before I have in mind. This picture,
I'm standing before God and he's judging my life and he's pointing
out some very obvious things to me. He says this, he says,
Tom, I placed you in the wealthiest country on earth, in the safest
country on earth, in a place where you'll never have to worry
about whether you're going to get enough food to eat or have a roof over
your head. I placed you in a place where
you'll never have to worry about getting yanked out of your house in the
middle of the night and sent off to prison for proclaiming my
name, at least yet. But this much I asked of you.
Remember the prisoners as if chained with them. Imagine if
God then asked you, can you tell me the name of a single prisoner
who you chose to remember? Can you show me that you cared
enough to remember even one of them? Well, my answer would be Saeed
Abedini in Iran, Gao Jiezhen in China, the families of Ugar,
Nakati, and Tilman in Turkey, the Christians living in Dogonawa,
the small village south of Joshua, butchered by Muslim fanatics
in Nigeria. Miriam Rostampour and Marzai
Amirizadeh, the two women who were arrested and imprisoned
for their faith in Iran who defied the authorities in court by insisting
that Jesus and not Allah was God. By grace and through prayer,
these women are now free. They've written a book, Captive
in Iran. We've talked about and remembered
them all each Wednesday at corporate prayer. I hope by now all of
us have heard about Asia Bibi. I mean, she's a 45-year-old Pakistani
mother of five sentenced to be hung for the crime of claiming
Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Will you remember her
as if chained in prison with her? She's one of the thousands
who are still part of the persecuted church. You see, there's good
news in this and there's bad news in this. The good news is
that there are organizations like the Voice of the Martyrs
now who make it so incredibly simple and easy to pray for and
care for our persecuted brothers and sisters that much of the
heavy lifting has already been done for us. In fact, there's
a brand new tool available for anyone with a smartphone or a
computer. If you look on your screen, it should pop up there
right now. This is an amazing website just
I challenge you to go on to that website and just start looking
at what they have there There's there's a lot of films about
individual people and the films are graphic. They're difficult.
They're bloody. They're not fun to watch But these are real people
that we are challenged to remember You can get these studies on
these Saints directly off the IDOP website or the voice of
the martyrs website as well They also make it incredibly easy
to write our brothers and sisters in prison in whatever language
they speak. I just sent a letter off to Evan
prison, cost me $1.49 in postage. They'll help you put it together
just to encourage our brothers and sisters who are in foreign
prisons. You can also sign petitions demanding their release. I've
done that as well. And all of that is the good news. The bad
news is that we have absolutely no excuse for refusing to remember
our brothers and sisters. James says, therefore, to him
who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Now you might say, well, that's
being awfully legalistic, isn't it? I mean, that's not grace,
that's law. Here's the rub. I'm really only doing what James
4 is telling me to do. You see, I know for me the good
that is necessary is to tell you what God's expectation of
us is. And if I neglected to do that,
for me it's sin. I mean, we're really not talking
about the difference between grace and law. We're talking about
the difference between grace and disgrace. If you notice in that proclamation
I read this morning, it called for prayer, not just for persecuted
Christians. It also said this. It said, we also encourage prayer
for the souls of the oppressors, the nations that promote persecution,
and those who ignore it. Now for many years I've had to
count my name among those who have chosen to ignore it. Just
too much other stuff going on. I think God is saying maybe we
need to prioritize our stuff. Now a great many Christians don't
really have a heart for prayer because they don't really get
it. They wonder why a sovereign God
needs the input of puny human beings. I don't realize the incredible
privilege and awesome responsibility that God has laid at our feet. And I understand that because
for many years I didn't get it. And I get it now. Head, heart,
and hands, I get it. Now is the time for all of us
to get it as well. You know, the world will never
understand the power of prayer for the persecuted church. And
the question and the challenge that I have for all of us this
morning is, do we? Let me conclude with their final
prayer. Let us pray to encourage and
empower Christians to fulfill the Great Commission in areas
of the world where they are persecuted for their involvement in propagating
the gospel of Jesus Christ. To give relief to the families
of Christian martyrs in these areas of the world. To equip
local Christians to win to Christ those persecutors who are opposed
to the gospel in countries where believers are actively persecuted
for their Christian witness. To undertake projects of encouragement,
helping believers rebuild their lives and Christian witness in
countries that have formerly suffered communist oppression.
To emphasize the fellowship of all believers by informing the
world of atrocities committed against Christians and by remembering
their courage and faith. Amen. Father, I just want to add my
prayer to this prayer. I want to thank you for the heart
that this church has, the desire that this church has to pray
for the persecuted church. Father, I just thank you for
all those who have joined in that effort, for all those who
make it their business to understand and know and be familiar with
names like Gaujay, Zen, Saeed, Abedini, people like that. Father,
I'm just thankful that you are moving in this church. I pray
you would continue to move that each of us would have our hearts
torn by what we see our brothers and sisters going through. Give
us your heart for this. Give us the ability to remember
those in chains, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
IDOP Sunday 2013
| Sermon ID | 1110131340292 |
| Duration | 37:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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