Quickly through the beginning here, because we want to take a couple minutes and hear from Brother Krigo. Appreciate him taking time to just stop in. He wasn't scheduled to be here or anything, but was in the area and wanted to just stop in and see our church. And I wanted to hear about the ministry that God's called him to. Now, he does have a short presentation. Would it be more effective for you to introduce it and talk beforehand or watch the presentation and talk after? Okay, so we'll watch the presentation at this time and then at the conclusion of that, why don't you come up and introduce yourself in person and give us an update of where you are currently and how things are going. Okay. After graduating from high school, the board of alumni found a college, and it was there that the board elected me to go. After continuing to meet each other, we realized our mutual desire for admissions and the environment for the Muslim people. Now we are thrilled to be on this journey together as missionaries in the Middle East. In October of 2021, we had the opportunity to take an interstitial trip to Abu Dhabi to visit the Al-Aqsa Missionary Center. Our desire. Islam to Christ often means bringing shame upon your family. To turn from Islam to Christ often means signing your own death. Yet many Muslims today are turning from Islam to Jesus Christ despite the consequences and finding new life in Him. You may wonder if these things are true. It is for the ears. We are thrilled to have this honor to serve our Lord. It makes me proud to be a part of this work. ♪ They have my wife, I've had so many men, I'm every man ♪ ♪ And all their love, dearie boys, have I had before me ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Well, good evening. It's good to be back. I've been here a couple of times over the years, and it's good to see some familiar faces. My name is David Krigo, and I'm here with my wife, Rebecca, and we have a little daughter, Carol Lynn. She's a little bit bigger than what you saw in the video. She's walking now, and I'm talking away, and we enjoy her. If we look a little bit frazzled, we barely made it in. I underestimated the D.C. traffic. We went to Washington, D.C. today, and boy, I should have planned an hour more than what it said. But we're glad to be here tonight, and boy, God is working, going before us, preparing the way. We started in July raising support, July of last year, and things have gone very quickly. Even before then, we've seen the hand of God working in our ministry and preparing us for what he has for us in the future. I was actually a Brother Hunt that introduced me to the truck stop ministry back at Fairhaven Baptist Church. And I think it was Christmas, we were out this way, and he said, hey, I have a great opportunity for you to reach out to Muslims in our area. And I At first I didn't quite know how to take you seriously because we really don't have that big of a population right near Chesterton. But it was through the truck stop ministry that I realized that around 20% or so of the truck drivers that come through are Muslim. And so every week we would go and have opportunities to share the gospel with the truck drivers and get tracks in their hands. and through that speak to many Muslims and different contacts that I've been able to have over the years and even still with one of the young men in the college that has taken that, he's talked to some Muslims that have been more open and he's passed that contact on to me. There's two men that I have right now. One is Usman from Northern Africa. And he's been open for a while, but it's been a couple of weeks and I haven't heard from him. So if you think about him, please pray for him. But I want to encourage you. What we see on the news with the Middle East is not a clear picture of what God is doing, and it's not a clear picture of the average everyday people in the Middle East. Are there Islamic terrorists? Is there persecution? Are those things a reality? Yes, very much so. But amidst that, there are many that are hungry, that are seeking the truth, and not only seeking, but finding Christ and living out their newfound faith in Christ, living that out boldly. Yesterday, last night, I was speaking with a young man who has a heart for the Muslim people, and over a phone call, he was able to help an Afghani refugee over the phone who is a believer, help him lead his family to the Lord who is still in Afghanistan. And that's just one of many, many, many, many countless examples of what God is doing. And in the darkest of places, Muslims that are coming to Christ and standing forth boldly for the cause of Christ. So we started in July of last year. And just this past week, we were able to reach full support And times are changing. We live in a unique time where the world all over the place, it seems like everything is changing and changing rapidly. So we don't know what the next couple of years hold as far as politically or what things will look like. But we're excited that God has sped us along our journey. It went far faster than we anticipated. And Lord willing, by mid-end of July, we'll be able to move into Jordan and get started with language training. In 2021, some of the pictures and video that you saw was from our trip. In 2021, we were able to spend some time in Cairo, Egypt, and then some time in Jordan. And we'll be moving to the capital city of Jordan. In our first two years, our goal, our focus will be language. Extremely important for us to be able to effectively communicate with these people in their own language, the Arabic language. And so this language school was started about 60 years ago, and its purpose is to train Christian missionaries, Christian workers in the Arabic language to be effective communicators. And that's still their purpose today. And so that's our goal to invest those first two years into that. There's some missionaries that we know there that will be able to get to know better and their ministries and what ministry looks like in that context. but please pray for us. Please pray that God would keep us safe, that he would go before us, that the hands of the evil one would be bound, but more than that, we understand that where we're going, there's possibilities of danger, but we serve an almighty God who holds us in his hand. And so more than our safety, although that's very important, please pray that God would give us boldness, to step forward in that time of opportunity, even when it may not make sense in that moment. But we know that God, through the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads and guides us. He's the one that leads and guides us each day. Please pray that we would have the boldness to step forward as God gives us opportunity in the Middle East, and I know he will. We're excited for what God has done, and we're excited for what he continues to do and what he will do in the future. I know that was a very quick summation of our testimony and how God has brought us to this point. what our desire is as far as following his leading in the future. But if you have more questions, we will stick around after the service and we'd love to answer any questions that you might have regarding what God is doing and how he's leading me and my family specifically. Thank you, Pastor. Amen. The average time for a missionary today to raise support to go to the field is about three years. It's about how long it takes. They have to get into somewhere over 300 churches, usually, to try and get about 100 churches to support them in order to get enough funds to be able to go to the field. Those are just rough round numbers. It all varies depending upon where they're going and all of that. But it's evident that God's hand is on somebody in something when somebody is able to raise support in less than a year. And they're going to be leaving to the field in less than a year from when they started. And that is phenomenal. You know, just a testament to what God's doing. And I would encourage you to hold them up in prayer. Obviously, many of you recognized some of the missionaries in the photos that they have some connections with. And so you know that they're out there doing the work as well. And so we praise God for that, but pray for the Kregel family. And after tonight, when we dismiss, spend a few minutes, get to know them a little bit. They are at 100%. They're just short time away from heading heading away, going to the field as a church. We will give them a nice love offering tonight just to say thank you for stopping in and be a blessing to you as a missionary from Hunt Valley Baptist Church. You know, we love missions and we want to try and be helping and encourage missionaries on their way and offered them a place to stay. But they said they didn't want to stay here tonight. They're gonna they're going to hit the road. But anyways, they'll be around for a little bit after church. We have been studying the book of First John, turn there if you would. I have got to move quickly in order to get done at a reasonable time this evening. Hopefully still leave some time for prayer at the conclusion. Although there is a lot to cover tonight in the topic that we want to look at. I just dropped a cough drop in my mouth. It's called a fisherman's friend. It's potent. I mean, it's potent. Yeah, my mouth feels like it's on fire, but maybe it'll clear the passageways and make it so I can speak till the conclusion here. We are in 1 John chapter number three. We've been looking at this passage of scripture, studying the book of 1 John. I considered calling this the love life, although I did not want anybody to confuse the topic on this portion of scripture. or be distracted by the title. So this evening I have titled this passage of scripture, the new life, the new life. This is the new life that we have in Christ. And this new life we have in Christ is defined because love is central to it. When you understand the commandments that are given to us by God, when you understand, and we've taught on these things a little bit, I don't want to belabor it, but love as a Christian is central. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Love thy neighbor as thyself. These, you know, of course, are the great first commandment and the second is like unto it, those two sum up all of the law. If we would keep those two commandments, we would keep all of the commandments. So love is central to the Christian and the Christian's life. Look with me if you would in 1 John chapter 3. These verses contained in our thought tonight as we look at this new life that we have in Christ is verses 11 through 18. He says, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and whether slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you, would we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But Whoso hath this world's good and see his brother having need and shutteth up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So we're going to look at this new life that we have in Jesus Christ. We have a new nature and love is central to it. We, of course, know that this new nature we have from Jesus Christ does not destroy the old nature. The old nature is still there, and it's something that we've been talking about in Sunday school as we battle the world, the flesh, and the devil. And that old nature is there, and it's something we're still going to have to deal with. But we do have a new nature given to us, and that new nature gives us new appetites. That new appetite is a desire to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. So we want to see several things this evening, and we're going to try and go through this relatively quickly. But I want to try and dissect these verses a little bit, try and give a little bit of insight to each of them. I know just by reading them that if you've been in church in any length of time, you have a working knowledge of this passage of scripture. The text that we've read makes sense to you. I don't know that there's anything that we read there that you would be like, well, what is that talking about? I mean, to me, it's pretty straightforward, but we want to dive into it a little bit, maybe give a little bit of clarity, maybe show some of the importance of it. And I want you to understand, beloved, that as I read this text, I myself was convicted. I believe that this is talking about a type of life, a new life in Christ. This is a type of love that I have yet to attain to as a believer. I think it's talking about a type of love that God expects out of the heart of the Christian that I still need to aspire to. It's something that I that I looked at and I thought, wow, how far short do I come from understanding, from fully grasping and living out this love that Christ expects for the believer to have? And I know that we hear about love and we talk about love and we say, oh, yeah, we ought to love one another. Amen. But I'm not sure we fully grasp or understand it. And that's what I hope tonight for you to get. First of all, I want you to see the clarity of the command. The clarity of the command is given to us there in verse number 11. He says, for this is the message that you've heard from the beginning that we should love one another. John is going to go a little bit deeper into the truth that he introduced to us back in chapter two, excuse me, in verses eight and nine. You turn back there if you would, chapter two, verses eight and nine. He says, again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you? Because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. This new commandment he's talking about there in verse eight is the commandment that you love one another. In John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, if you want to write that next to those verses, two, eight, and nine, or write it next to verse number 11 of chapter three, write John 13, 34 and 35, because that's where he talks about that new commandment. He says, a new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another. So he was given him a new commandment, and we talked about the idea back when we looked at this passage of scripture in chapter 2, that it was not new as in not having been said before, but it was new in the importance that God was placing on it. It was new in the focus that God was presenting there to them, and we described and talked about that, and we're not gonna go over that again, but there's no question, there's no doubt, that the believer is to love one another. It has always been part of God's plan from the beginning that God's people would be known by love. This is how that the world would know that you are my disciples. How is that? How is it? The Bible tells us this is how men know that you are my disciples. that you love one another. That's what the Bible says, that you love one another, that's how. I just wanna make sure I hit the ground running and I'm gonna keep on running, but I don't want you guys to put your mind in neutral. I've gotta move quick to get through all this tonight, and I believe that it's very important what we're gonna get. But from the very moment that man was given new life in Jesus Christ, he is committing to a life that should be governed by love. Now that sounds wonderful, and that sounds sweet, and we think, oh, that is fantastic, but I hope tonight that you'll understand the full meaning of that, and maybe the importance of it will be driven home to our heart this evening. This, again, is a test of sonship. We've talked about this all through 1 John. You have the test of sonship. There's many different ones given. If you're wondering about your salvation, if you're saying, oh, I wonder if I'm saved, well, This is one way, one test of sonship, something that you can look at and say, OK, do you have a love for the brethren? Is there an undeniable love for the brethren that's present in your life that you can't get away from, that you can't deny? It's going to be there. It's very clear that he tells us that this will be present in the life of anyone that is truly a son of God. The storms of life reveal the true character of a child of God. And so it is the conduct of man reveals what he is. Just like you know a fruit by the tree that it bears, when the storms of life come and men live their lives, we get to get a picture, we get to see who they are. And so is love a defining characteristic of your life? To love is to live, but to try and live without love is to die. that when you look at this passage of scripture and dissect it and break it down, you see that very clearly. To love is to live in the light, but to hate is to live in the dark. You can see that very evident on somebody's face. You find a young man or a young lady that's in love, and their face is all aglow. They're alive, they're so happy, I mean, they're in love, and oh my goodness, nothing in the world could possibly damage or hurt this. I mean, they're just in love, and their faces all aglow, but then you find somebody who's bitter and angry and upset, and their face is full of anger and hatred, and you see that, it's evident on their face. That darkness that's inside is present. It's evident, you can see it. And that's what he's describing for us here. He gives us a contrast in the following verses as we see the opposite of love is hate and the result is murder. We see it in the contrary message of Cain in verse number 12. He says, not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him? because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. So we have this contrast here. It's contrary to that love that was the kind that Cain had. It's contrary to the love that the world even knows and expects. It's different from the love that men see in the world today. The characteristics of worldly love are this, and I don't have time to dig into these, but I want you to know worldly love is satanic in its origin. It's trying to get all you can instead of give. It is selfish in its operation. The characteristics of worldly love, satanic in its origin. It's selfish in its operation. We see that Cain just wanted what his brother had. and it is sinister in its outcome. We see that in verse number 15. He said, whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Love is sinister in its outcome. This is the worldly love, the style of love that the world has for one another. They do have and they do know love, but this love that is satanic in its origin and selfish in its operation and sinister in its outcome is not the kind of love that we have given to us and birthed in our heart as a new life in Jesus Christ. It's a love that's altogether different. That's what we want to see tonight. Thirdly, we see the cause for this world's cruelty in verses 13 through 15. The cause for this world's cruelty. As he says, marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. Marvel not. Don't send any question, don't wonder, don't think, boy, why do they hate me? Beloved, it's just the fact of the matter is the world is gonna despise the righteous man. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because his works were evil. That's what the Bible says there. Because his works were evil and Abel's were righteous. The actions of the righteous will reveal the wickedness of an evil man. And so the evil man doesn't like that. The world sees that and every Christian who is living as he should without saying a word is a beacon of light that shines into the wickedness of a corrupt society. Every Christian who's living as he should is a beacon of light that shines into the wickedness of a corrupt society. And so the world doesn't like that. They don't like you shine. You don't have to say a word. You don't have to preach at all. It is your life that stands as a testament of the mighty works of Jesus Christ. And they look at you and they realize in what you are in Christ is what they should be. But they know they're not. And the shame and the guilt causes them to reach out and attack you. That's what happens. How could we expect any different than that which they did to Christ? They despised and rejected him. Matthew 24 verse 9 says, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Luke 6, 22 and 23 says, He's saying this is the way it's always been. The world hated him before it hates you. And if you're gonna live and do right, the world's gonna despise you. So we should understand that the cruelty of the world and where it comes from. We see the evidence of new life in verse number 14. He says there, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. It's an evidence of the new life that we have, this new life in Christ. That evidence should be present, the evidence that you do love the brethren. Beloved, love is not the cause of this new life, but it is the confirmation that you have new life. It is the confirmation that you have new life when you love the brethren. This love is a desire for the well-being and the benefit and the blessing of other men. You desire that they experience the complete and full blessing of God in their lives. In verse number 15, he explains to us that the very act of hating is likened unto murder. Of course, calling to mind that passage in Matthew 5, 21 and 22, He, having heard that it was said by them of old that thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. And whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. You see, beloved, the law forbid murder, but love forbids anger. Love forbids hatred. Love forbids in being. in jealousy. The pulpit commentaries comment on this particular verse says love is the only security against hate. And as everyone who does not love is potentially a hater, so every hater is potentially a murderer. A murderer is a hater who expresses his hatred in the most emphatic way. but a hater who does not murder abstains for various reasons from this extreme expression of his hate, but the temper of the two men is the same." He's saying the feeling in the heart is the same, although for various reasons, one person is able to refrain from actually committing the murder. The root problem, the heart problem, is the same in both men. One person somehow is restrained from committing the act, but they are both guilty of the same sin. That's what he's describing for us here. So he's saying you might call yourself a believer, but if you have hatred in your heart, eternal life does not abide in you. You see, beloved, so many people call themselves Christians, even God-fearing, God-loving, Bible-believing, Baptists, in church every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Thursday night. And yet there's people that they will not talk to. God's saying, don't talk to me about the love you have for God when you have hatred in your heart for your brother. He said, don't describe for me your love for God when you can't even get along with your brother or sister in Christ or, God forbid, one of your own family members. You can't get along with your own wife, your own husband, your brothers or sisters. This is a serious matter. Verse John two, verse number nine says, he that saith he's in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. Listen, I know Christians that would get up and teach a seminar on soul winning, but they won't even talk to their own kids. They won't have fellowship with their own family members. There's a problem there. You can justify it and explain it however you want. The Bible calls it sin. It's not right. We need to get off of our high horse and our own little holiness, holding our own halos and get real before God. Because he says it's not right. He quite literally says, if you live that way, you don't even have new life. We see in verse number 16 the character of Christ. He says, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Christ gave himself first, always Christ gave himself. Not just gave things, not just gave money, but gave of himself. Christ gave of himself. I think sometimes our problems with our children in today's world is because we believe that the giving of things can replace the giving of self. And this is not true. Your kids could do with a whole lot less things if they had a little bit more of mom and dad. Giving of your time. Giving of yourself. Not just, oh yeah, here, let me give you another toy. Oh, you know, kids, they like toys. They're not gonna turn it away. They're not gonna regret it. But you know what? Given enough time, their hearts are gonna cry out. They would gladly leave the toy if they could just have their dad. Giving of ourselves. We see that example in Jesus Christ, who gave of himself first. Giving of yourself is the expression, the greatest expression and demonstration of your love. If you want to know what love is, or you want to know how to express or show your love, look at the character of Christ. First Peter 2.21 says, for even here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. that you should follow in his steps, his steps of giving himself. If you and I are to follow Christ's example, this equals giving, giving of ourselves. We see verses 17 and 18. Lastly tonight, the commitment to compassion, the commitment to compassion. He says, but whoso hath this world's goods and seeth his brothers having need and shoved up his bowels of compassion from him, How dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. He's saying don't just talk about what you might do, but give of yourself. Give, have compassion on others. Let it motivate and change you. Let it be something that you use and do to make a difference in people's lives. Christ laid down his life for you and I. He gave himself, he sacrificed for us. You might say, well then, is that to be my end? Am I to sacrifice my life as Christ did for Christ or for my fellow man? Maybe, but we know for sure that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So he's not calling you maybe to give your life and death in service to the cause of Christ, but he's certainly calling you to give your life in life for Jesus Christ. If you have the ability, then do it. If you can shut up your heart to the needs of men and deny the love of Christ, we're not following his example. But if you're willing to sacrifice that which would have been spent on you to help another, although it's surely not as intense of an application as sacrificing yourself, it still is sacrificing what you would have been yours or what would have been spent on you or what you would have been able to enjoy yourself and said, OK, You know, I take my emergency fund, and more often than not, I give it away. We were down in Indiana, and we were at the graduation, in the middle of graduation service. God spoke to my heart and said, there's a couple young people here that need some encouragement. And I reached over to Grandma, and Grandma Samuel was sitting next to me. And so during the song, I said, hey, you got $50? I can give you $100 for her. She says, why would I do that? I said, well, I would do that any day. Anybody ask me that? And I says, well, God wants me to give $50 to somebody. I'll give you $100 so I can give them $50. She's like, well, I got changed for $100. I said, great. So I took my emergency fund, and I divided it up. I gave it to Mary because it was a couple of young ladies. And I said, I don't want it to be coming from me. I said, would you take this and give this to these ladies and tell them that they just need to stay faithful? I know that they're discouraged. They're struggling with something. I don't know what it is, but would you just give it to them? Tell them that God will take care of them. It's such a small thing. But just taking something that, yeah, I mean, I could have used that for myself. I could have used it for one of my kids. But something small. God said, hey, give that to them. Who knows how far reaching that little bit of encouragement would be? You know, Mary exemplifies this for me very often. All the time I see Mary do this for me. I mean, I was trying to think of specific examples, but there's just so many things that she does, and my kids might be able to tell you exactly. But what she'll do is, maybe we're somewhere, like, let's say we're at the graduation. And she'll say, do you want some cake? And I'll say, sure. And then she'll come back, and she has a piece of cake, and she gives it to me and sits down. And I'll say, oh, you didn't get one for yourself? And she'll be like, no, that was the last one. I just got it. I got it for you. And I'll say, well, no, you can have it. And she's like, no, you get it. You wanted a piece of cake, you can have it. I'll just eat this peanut. No, she gladly, graciously, she wants me to have it and enjoy it. You know an example? The other day we went out to eat, and they found out it was our anniversary on our anniversary day, and so they said, well, you get a free dessert, which is pretty awesome, because we're at Fogo de Chão, and a dessert's like 14 bucks there. And so they give you a free dessert. And you know Mary loves chocolate, anything chocolate. And I said, hon, this is your anniversary. You get whatever you want. And she's like, oh, no. She's like, I know you would want the cheesecake. You can get the cheesecake. And I said, no, you get whatever you want. I'll enjoy whatever. She's like, no, you get the cheesecake. So we got cheesecake. Stuff like that she does all the time. But I'm saying it's just small expressions of love. Can you see how Christ says, if this display of love is absent from your life, then it's quite possible you don't have new life at all. No amount of talk will ever replace caring for the crippled, guiding the blind, or feeding the hungry. You know, you and I don't have a hard time with compassion when it's talking about, like, Mary and I loving each other. I mean, that's easy, right? It's easy for me to love her. It's easy for her to love me. I mean, obviously, right? I mean, wow. It's easy, but the love that we're talking about as far as what Christ is talking about, think about Christ. who loved those men that put him on the cross. You see, you and I, as Christians, we understand love, and we say, yeah, we're supposed to love one another, and after all, Galena, she's a very giving person, and she'll give anybody a ride, and if she needed a ride, I'll give her a ride. Yeah, sure, I'll be happy to help you, Galena. But, you needed something, You're stuck on the side of the road, and Brother Krigo drives by. And you see him, and you say, hey, Brother Krigo! And he just goes, see ya! And just keeps on going. And then the next day, you're driving by, and Krigo's on the side of the road. What are you going to do? See ya! Because that's how we are, right? Because we would look at it and say, hey, what goes around comes around. You're going to reap what you sow? Ha! Instant justice. Oh, look at that. You got what you deserve. But the love of Christ says, I don't care how I was treated yesterday. If he's on the side of the road, I stop for him. And that's where we are missing the boat, Christian. That's where we're missing the boat. Richard Wernbrand. in his book, Tortured for Christ, describes page after page of such horrific abuse of Christians for nothing other than just naming the name of Christ. And yet, somehow they found ways to love those that captured them and beat them. Let me give you just a couple of examples. Let me read for you. The communist discovered one young girl who had been spreading the gospel to other children. They decided to arrest her, but to make her arrest as agonizing and as painful as possible, they found out her wedding day was a few weeks away. So they waited until the day that she was to be married, on her wedding day, standing at the altar in her bride's dress with her groom, the most wonderful and joyous day of her life, they suddenly broke through the doors of the church and the secret police rushed in. They roughly put manacles on her wrist and she looked towards her beloved and kissed the change and said, I thank my heavenly bridegroom for this jewel he has presented me on my marriage day. The tortures and the brutality continued without interruption. Many times I lost conscious and he was in prison for over 14 years. Many times I lost consciousness, it became to the point where the torturers thought I would die and they would return me to my cell, allowing me to gain a little bit of strength so that they might bring me back and begin their work again. Many men died during these stages of ongoing beatings, yet somehow my strength returned and I went through it over and over and over again. During the ensuing months and the years, through several different prisons, they broke four vertebrae in my back, many other bones all throughout my body. They carved me up in dozens of places. They burned and cut over 18 holes into my body. I have passed through brainwashing myself where I had to sit for 17 hours a day for weeks, months, and even years, hearing that communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, Christianity is stupid, Christianity is stupid. For 17 hours a day, they piped this loud volume. Several Christians have asked me, how could you resist such brainwashing? There's only one method of resistance to brainwashing, beloved, and that is heartwashing. When a heart has been cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if the heart loves him most of all, you can resist all torture. A pastor was tortured with red hot irons, then cut with knives, then beat very badly, and stuck into a cell with starving rats. He could not fall asleep, because to fall asleep would mean the rats would begin to eat him. He stayed awake, defending himself on his feet for over two weeks. Day and night, the communists brought before him his 14-year-old son. and began to beat his son until finally the pastor could take it no more. Driven almost mad himself, finally he cried out, Alexander, Alexander, I must say what they want. And the son answered the father and said, do not this injustice. Do me not this injustice of having a traitor as a father. Withstand, dad, withstand. If they kill me, withstand. Handcuffs with sharp nails on the insides were placed around our wrist. When you shook in the bitter cold, the nails would slowly tear into your skin. We were placed in cells called ice boxes. They were so cold that frost and ice would form over the box and covering the inside of the box. Doctors would watch through the opening until they saw that we were on the brink of freezing to death. They would pull us out, warm us up just enough to put us back into the box to freeze to the brink of death again. We were forced to stand upright in boxes that had been filled with nails. As long as you stood perfectly still, you were in the center of the box and free from puncture. But as your body fatigued and as hours turned into days, you would fall asleep and you would drift in one direction or another and become stabbed by the nails that surrounded you on every side. What the communists did to Christians surpasses all human understanding. We were given one piece of bread a week, some measly dirty soup each day. When one Christian was sentenced to death, he was allowed to see his wife before his execution. His last words to his wife were, you must know that I die loving those who kill me. They do not know what they do. And my last request for you is that you do love them too. Do not have bitterness in your heart because they have killed your beloved. but have love that they might know your Savior. On page 63, he says, this book has not been written as much in ink as it has been in the shed blood of those that have gone before. As in the book of Daniel, when the three young men who were put in the furnace did not smell like fire upon being delivered from it, So the Christians who have been in communist prisons do not smell a bitterness against these communists. No, a flower, if it is bruised under your feet, rewards you by giving you its sweet perfume. Likewise, a Christian tortured by the communists rewarded their torturers with love. and thereby brought many of their torturers to Christ. And he said, we have one desire, to give to these communists who have made us suffer our very best, and our very best is the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. That's the kind of love that he's describing in the book of John. I don't think it's the kind of love that we think about. And oh, I love Mary, and Mary loves me. And oh, I love my kids. And yeah, well, I love my church family that's good to me and cares for me and prays for me. He's saying, no, I love those that hate me. and despitefully use me. When we learn to love like that, then we've learned to love like Christ expects someone with new life. Would you stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? I'm going to ask the pianist to come, and I've gone a little bit long for our prayer time still, but we want to have a moment of invitation. I can tell you, beloved, I fall woefully short of loving with that kind of love. Loving even those that cannot or would not love me back. The piano's playing, you do what God wants you to do. you