Kingdom Dynamics

SERMON: 2011-05-22--mt1011--kingdom-dynamics SOURCE DURATION: 00:51:10.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with contextualizing the scripture passage (Matthew chapter 10) and concludes with a sustained musical/prayer reflection that is integral to the sermon's closing message. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:46:27.820-00:46:31.520, 00:46:39.260-00:51:08.840 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Matthew chapter 10 really begins earlier in Matthew 9 where Jesus is engaged in ministry. And as he's engaged in ministry, he is overwhelmed by the needs of the crowds. In fact, verse 36 of chapter 9 says when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And then he says to those who are with him, pray for the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers to send them out into the harvest. And then he answers his own prayer in chapter 10. He calls his 12 disciples to himself and then he sends them out. And then he instructs them on their mission and what he can expect to happen when they step into that mission. So that's where we pick it up. From Matthew chapter 10, verse 5, these 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions. Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message. The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey or extra tunic or sandals or a staff for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it. If not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. And then, of course, he goes on to say how to deal with the fear that comes when we are called to account because of the name of Jesus. There is the temptation to say that when there were struggles in the life of the church, that everybody has got to be at fault and equally so. And often, that's true. And wherever that is the case, we need to own, we need to repent, we need to get our lives back on track. That said, there are also kingdom dynamics that are at play that we fully need to understand that Jesus lays out before us in this passage before us. As I said a few moments ago, here is Jesus sending out his disciples to engage in his mission. And as we look at the verses that we've read together this morning, there are five things, if we have time for it, that I want to try to walk you through. Five things that I think will help us to understand what happens when the kingdom of God comes in power. The first is this, Jesus commissions his disciples. Listen again to these verses 5, 6, 7, and 8. These 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel, as you go preach this message. The kingdom of heaven is near, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons, freely you have received, freely give." Two things I'd like for you to note in that passage. And the first is that Jesus sends out his disciples. We talked earlier about the backdrop. He's overwhelmed by the needs in the community. He says, "They are helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers." And then he answers his own prayer and he calls his disciples and they become the extension of his ministry. And so throughout the course of history, God comes to the body and he says, "I am raising you up to share in my ministry of salvation." That's the first thing I want you to know. Second thing I want us to note here then is that he shares with them a threefold mission. As you go, preach this message, "The kingdom of heaven is near, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons." If you read the earlier chapter, you discover that's precisely his ministry in bringing about the coming of the kingdom of God. I love Acts chapter 10 verse 38 because it's one of those passages the Lord has used over the years in my life to set the direction for my own ministry as it seeks to follow the Lord Jesus. But Peter says in this context and he's speaking to the Gentile house of Cornelius, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in power and how he went around doing good, healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him." I love that succinct description of the ministry of Jesus, delivering people from the power of the devil and setting them free into the coming of God's kingdom. As you know, I like to present it pictorially like this, I won't spend a lot of time on it other than to say that by nature we're in a world filled with brokenness alienated from God's life. Jesus comes into the world to bring us from the kingdom of darkness back into the kingdom of God and he does that in three ways. He does that by preaching, why? Because when you're lost you need to know why you're lost and how you can get back. And the message of the kingdom is we made a mess, Jesus comes to pay the price and if we will humble ourselves, step into repentance and faith, then God will heal and restore. And this place is filled with people who have heard that good news, have you not? Your lives have changed because you met Jesus face to face. It isn't just theology, it isn't just a belief system, it is a relationship because you met the true and the living Christ. But we not only need to be told how to get back, we need to be helped on the way back because you see what sin does is it breaks us. It destroys our capacity to will and to move and to go towards God. And so the ministry of Jesus is also a ministry of restoration, a ministry whereby he touches us in the deep spots of our lives and he says, "I'm not just going to tell you what you ought to do because that's the law, I'm going to come right alongside you, I'm going to come live in you by the power of the Lord, I'm going to fix you up so you can live for the glory of God." And so when you look at the miracles of Jesus throughout the New Testament, what do you find? The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, you've heard us talk about that a lot. But why? Because they all represent functions of the human being that have been compromised and destroyed by Satan. And God comes along in Christ and he says, "I'm going to restore your song, I'm going to restore your dance, I'm going to restore your life so that you can live before my face. Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself." The third component of that is the casting out of evil spirits, we'll talk about that in much detail now, other than to say Satan is real, his demons are real, they try to invade the human being to keep us from knowing God and from walking in his ways. And so the commission that Jesus gives to his disciples here is a holistic commission. It is a commission that says, "Your job in my name is to take my power and to set captives free." And if you would have told me any number of years, or for that matter days ago, that classes would request the council of this church to suspend me, because among other things I'm guilty of abuse of office, in that I created, directed, and participated in a healing ministry that puts people at risk, I would not have believed you. Because I would have thought that's the ministry of the church. And I will bow my knee in any and every place I need to bow my knee, but I'll tell you one thing, I will die, I will die before I give up my claim to the truth of scripture and to the mission of the church that God cares about the last and the lost and the least, because that's what we're called to be, and that's what we're called to be together. Give God glory. But somebody says you're doing it all wrong, and that may be. Let's, hey, none of this people, I'm laying before you the truth of scripture. This isn't about me, this is about the calling of Jesus. But he says, well, you're doing it all wrong, well, maybe we are. But I love this story told about Dwight L. Moody. Dwight L. Moody was a massive evangelist in the 1800s and pioneered some different ways of doing ministry. And one day a woman comes to him and says to him, I don't like the way you're doing this. And Dwight L. Moody says, well, you know, truth be known, I don't like it very much either. But he says to her, what's your method? And she says, I don't have one. And he says, well, then I like my method better than I like yours. At the end of the day, our job is to be faithful to Jesus and to help people fulfill the mission that Jesus has for their lives. Is that true? Does that make sense? Is that irrational? I don't think that's irrational. So Jesus commissions his disciples, and I believe he shares with us his mission according to scripture. Second thing I want us to note in this particular passage, then, is that Jesus warns his disciples to expect a mixed reception. Because notice, again, these verses, whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave, as you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest upon it. If it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or that town. Colleague of mine, he used to be pastor in Edmonton many years ago, tells the story. He was preaching, and as he was preaching, one of the members of his congregation comes marching on the center aisle, right up to the front, shakes the dust off his feet, and marches out the side door in literal fulfillment of what this passage says. Another colleague of mine, John Van Till, tells this story. He was speaking at a church out in the Elmer, St. Thomas area, years ago, and they'd had a youth rally that weekend, and he was asked to say some things about music and youth in his message, and so he did. Pretty balanced, he thought. But after the service was done, and he's going to the back to shake hands at the door, the serving elder, or one of the elders, gets up in the pulpit, takes the microphone, and says, "Counsel does not endorse this sermon that this preacher has just preached." And you can imagine the kind of chaos that produced in the context of community. And I, myself, and you've seen it this morning, have been in situations where people challenge or confront, and there are many reasons for that. But let's not lose sight of the fact that the gospel, by definition, is going to receive a mixed reception among people in the world. And we have to be very careful not to demonize those who disagree with us. We have to be very careful not to put ourselves up on a pedestal as if we're all right. But we still need to understand the gospel, and the gospel is this. When Jesus calls us into relationship with himself, and he offers us the way, then there are those who receive it, and there are those who reject it. And the reason for that is not that difficult to figure out, because if you look again at those kingdom circles for a moment, then what happens is that the message of the kingdom impacts all our lives because in our hearts, we're either fundamentally directed in this direction or we're fundamentally directed in an other direction. The only way that I can explain that is in terms of election. By nature, we're all alienated from God. By nature, we have no interest in God. But there is something about God's love for his people, where he calls us and then there is something deep inside that resonates with truth. And then when we hear the word of God, when we hear the good news of the kingdom, the offer of salvation, there is something inside us that resonates with it and that creates a hunger. And so you're either drawn to the good news of the gospel or you're repelled by it. And so you can have a whole group of people, they're like wheat and tares, throw them together and they look indistinguishable. In fact, sometimes weeds look better than wheat, the seeds do, but you speak the word of God into that situation, what happens is it begins to grow and it begins to mature because those who are fundamentally oriented towards God, they recognize the truth, they're drawn by it and they respond to it. And those whose hearts are fundamentally turned away from it become harder and harder and harder and their lives become colder. Here's how John puts it in 1 John chapter 4 verse 6. He says, "We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. And so as that seed takes root and it grows, the difference between those heart conditions comes to manifestation. The gospel is by definition divisive because by the time history ends, it's either sheep or goats, you're either in the kingdom or you're out of the kingdom, there is no in between. Now, here's the danger and the danger is that we think of ourselves as all good and of opponents as all bad. And the temptation then is always to demonize the opponents and to justify and to sanctify ourselves. In reality, these two seeds flow through all our hearts and lawyers. The difference is that if we've come to Christ and are yielded to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit convicts us. We are called to put off the old, we are called to put on the new, and we are called to increasingly manifest the character and the nature of Christ. And so in the parable of the weeds and the tares, as you find it in scripture, the two are indistinguishable at first. But then as they grow, then the harvest comes to maturity and you separate the wheat from the tares. And it's not our job to point fingers at other people and to say, "Well, you're this or that." It's our job to look at our own hearts and to say, "Is my life bearing fruit? Is my life demonstrating the reality of the kingdom? And am I being changed and transformed to be more and more like Jesus? Am I making sense here? Never point fingers at other people. God will be the judge, but look at your own heart and say, "Lord Jesus, help me to put off the old. Help me to put on the new." So Jesus commissions his disciples. He not only commissions his disciples, but he warns them that they can expect a mixed reception wherever the gospel goes. There are those who receive it and there are those who reject it. There are those whose lives bear fruit for God and those whose lives move the other way. And then, and this is a real tricky one, and again, we have to be so careful not to just put it in our own context and demonize those with whom we disagree. But here is the biblical reality that people are judged, cities are judged, nations are judged in scripture by what they do with the ones God has sent them. Listen again, Jesus speaking to his disciples, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town." Sodom and Gomorrah throughout scripture is used as the ultimate example of God's judgment. And here again, there is the danger that we say, "If somebody disagrees with you or me, well then, you know, they're under judgment. Be very careful about that." Because ultimately, that's God's business. But understand that to the degree to which you and I represent Jesus Christ, to that degree, the reception that we receive from the nations of the world will be the measure that God uses ultimately to judge them. Later on in the passage, Jesus puts it this way, verse 40, "He who receives you receives me and he who receives me receives the one who sent me." And in Luke 10, 16, he puts it even stronger, "He who listens to you listens to me. He who rejects you rejects me, but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." Now let's be very clear. I'm not laying this on you to say, "If somebody disagrees with me or if somebody disagrees with counsel, they're automatically on the wrong side." There is plenty of room for discussion. There is plenty of room for disagreement. I would never say nor would counsel ever say we have the sole corner on the truth. Doesn't change the fact that to the degree any of us represent the authority of Jesus and speak into given situations, to that degree, what people do with the message of Jesus is the standard that God uses to lay bare their hearts over against their relationship with him. You find the same thing in Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25 is where Jesus judges the nations and he separates the sheep from the goats. He says, "Inasmuch as you have done it for the least of these, my little ones, you've done it unto me." Remember that story? Now, a lot of people think that refers to how you take care of the poor and you hear all kinds of sermons about it, "A cup of cold water in my name will not be lost." I think that's a misinterpretation of the passage because Jesus never identifies himself with the poor in the way that they are his brother unless they have actually come to faith in him. It's in the context of I am sending my apostles out to the nations. As they go to the nations preaching the good news of the kingdom, some people receive them and their message. Some people reject them and reject their message. And in the end of time, they're going to be judged by their reaction because the representatives of God, and this, you know, sounds weird, but the representatives of God inasmuch as they represent Jesus become the flesh and blood representation of Jesus Christ. And again, that doesn't mean you can't disagree with the preacher. It doesn't mean you can't take issue with all kinds of things. But it does mean you need to be careful that we understand those kingdom dynamics. That in the end, the nations of the world will be judged by what they've done with the Christ and to the degree to which you and I represent Jesus. To that degree, we represent him to people around us. Am I making sense about that? It sounds elitist. It sounds like we're trying to put ourselves up someplace. It sounds like nobody ever better disagree. That's not the point. I'm quoting the words of Jesus here who says, "He who receives you receives me. He who rejects you rejects me." And that's not a point of argument for saying that we can never be wrong or that we can never be criticized or we can never be held accountable. It's a principle that I'm trying to describe in terms of the coming of the kingdom. Nations and cities are judged by what they do with the representatives of Jesus Christ. Am I making any sense here? All right, then Jesus says if you want to understand kingdom dynamics, the next thing you have to do is you have to watch your step because he goes on to say, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves, therefore be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." I like the old translation, wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Wise as serpents means to act strategically. We need to act strategically because as we bring the kingdom of God to the nations of the world, we immediately enter into spiritual warfare. The danger and the temptation is to think that we're simply fighting people when there is conflict or confusion. That's a mistake. The Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against principalities and powers behind the scenes that want to stop the coming of the kingdom of God. Let me ask you this question. I'll lay it on the line with you. Do you think it's coincidental that within two weeks of opening this new church building, we were confronted by a lawsuit? Do you think it's coincidental that within three days of the lawsuit being dropped, we are confronted by a church visitor's report that institutes a committee to assess the situation here? We had three days to celebrate. Do you think it's coincidental that within two weeks after celebrating Good Friday and Easter, biggest services we have ever had, that we find ourselves in a situation where a bombshell is dropped on us at classes that nobody saw coming? One of the questions that came up at the congregational meeting is why haven't you communicated more to the church? The matter is we knew there was a report coming. We would have never, in our wildest fears, known it would be as brutal or as radical as it was. There were only three people at classes that knew it was coming. Nobody else did. Everybody was flabbergasted and therefore didn't know what to do. That's why the vote went the way that it did. Those of us who were there can testify to that. Part of what we're appealing is that process, because we feel that due process was not carried on. Now, I'm not pointing fingers at individuals when I say that, but I'm trying to get us to understand the bigger picture. If this is a place where we preach the good news of the kingdom, and if this is a place where people come to life in Jesus, where marriages are healed, lives are restored, hearts are mended, then forget the human dynamic for just a moment, would you please? But if you were the devil, would you not do everything you can to stir dissension, confusion, capitalize on everybody's failures, capitalize on whatever you could to cause division or difficulty in the body of Christ? Isn't that not true? And isn't it true that in that situation, if we can stand against each other, not cover each other by grace and say, "I've got your back covered, man, and I know you're going to make mistakes and I know you're going to do stupid things, but in Christ we're in this together, and as long as we humbly kneel before the cross, Jesus will meet us with the Holy Spirit and we will not let the devil defeat the call of God upon our lives and upon the life of this church for the glory of God. Doesn't mean we don't make mistakes, doesn't mean I don't make mistakes. In fact, I know my sins better than you do, but you know how many of your sins I've covered and how many of your sins I've taken with you to the cross of Jesus and said there isn't any crap so big, excuse my language, there isn't any stuff so big, but Jesus is bigger and we find life and unity in the presence of the living Christ who said, "I don't care about your past, just own it and I will make all things new." Sunday is here because Jesus is alive, but see Satan has a strategy and his strategy is to find whatever he can in your life or my life and nail it to the tree and his strategy is to do whatever because Paul goes on in that particular passage to put it this way, he says, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil's schemes and to be shrewd as snakes is to understand how Satan plays on all our failures, on all our fears and all our places of brokenness and he wants to set us all up against each other so that we collapse under the weight of our own stupidity." And scripture says, "Be smart, understand what the wilds are and put on the whole armor of God so that you can be protected." And if you look at the ministry of Jesus then you will see that time and time again as people lay in wait to try to capture him at something, he had the wisdom of God the Father always to be ahead of the game. We got to think wisely and strategically but we also have to be innocent as doves. That is to say we need to make sure we don't cause needless offense and if we do we need to take ownership of that. And right now I'll take ownership of something I said last week that came up at the congregational meeting and that was troublesome to some folks. I said at the end of the week council has gone out on a limb for you and they need your encouragement and your support and I linked it to coming to the Lord's Supper and a number of people have made the observation that that was an unfair linkage as if coming to the Lord's Supper was a vote of confidence in council or in staff. It came out in ways I did not attend, I am very sorry, I apologize, I ask you to forgive me what I was trying to say is these folks have gone out on a limb. Please support them and help them stand because these kinds of battles are tough on the solo. You know how many hours of sleep all of us lose because we're trying to safeguard the life of this community and give voice to those who have no voice and to bring salvation to those who have never had an opportunity for salvation. Will you please forgive me, we're stepping out of line, would you do that? Thank you. I said earlier when the service began I hope to be raptured yesterday and if you follow the news you know what's behind that, Harold Camping an 89 year old preacher and his movement has spent $100 million advertising in billboards all across the world that the world was going to end May 21st at 6 p.m. local time. And I first became aware of this when a couple of weeks ago Michelle and I traveled to see Jonathan and Tanya in Austin and here are all these signs, "Judgment Day May 21, 2011, Cry mightily unto God" and the Bible guarantees it. And of course all our atheist friends and agnostics are just a-twittering away today because they're having survival parties and it's another one of these situations. We did think that maybe we'd put something on the sign outside about the church being raptured and see what everybody's reaction was, but you know we thought better of it. I'm reminded of a little story that Bill Heibos tells, remember Jonestown and all the mass murders? Well his junior high team was at a camp by a river up in northern Michigan someplace where all these tour boats were coming by and the youth leaders and the kids decided they're going to play a trick on all these tour boats and they had their little paper cups filled with Kool-Aid and they lifted them to their mouths and then all dropped down on the beach. Oh, not a happy occasion because it hit the newspapers and Heibos was so furious he got in his car and he drove 13 hours up there and he said, "What in the world were you thinking?" We all have moments where we say, "What in the world was I thinking?" But I digress, back to the issue at hand, if I can remember where we were, oh the world was going to end, but here's the problem of course, when you and I step out of line we cause opportunity for the enemy to seize on our shortcomings and to nail us to the wall. And so Jesus says, "Not only be wise as serpents, but try to be innocent as doves and try to own whatever you can as soon as you can because, well if you're shining the light, and you'll find this in your own life, when you're shining the light of Christ into somebody's life or somebody shines the light of Christ in your life, what happens? You immediately become defensive and you immediately want to start fighting back by trying to find fault in that other person's life. There are times around here, I'm sure, that as leaders we've done that, and we'll gladly apologize to anybody if we have ever said to you, your issues invalidate your opinion because we don't want to be that kind of community. That said, light stirs up things and so it's very easy then for people to come at us and attack us and put pressure on us because the light of Christ is shining in people's lives. So very quickly to review, Jesus commissions his disciples in this passage. He warns them to expect a mixed reception. People are judged by what they do with those who represent the Lord Jesus in mission situations particularly. He says, "Watch your step," and then finally he says in this passage, and this is the one that we don't like, he says, "Expect trouble. Expect trouble." He goes on to say, "Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles." Now let me say again, there are many reasons we get into trouble as Christians with authority figures whether secular or spiritual. Many times it's because we make mistakes. I would never say that any or all criticism directed at me or against staff or even against council has nothing to do with us. We are as human as you are and we continue to extend an invitation that if you know of places where we have hurt you or hurt anybody else in this ministry or in any of the ministries of the church, please sit down with us and we will do everything we can to make it right. We don't get up in the morning wondering how we can mess people around. We really don't. We love you and we want to help you even as you love us and you want to help us. That having been said, please understand that you can do everything right and you still get into a lot of trouble. When you do things wrong, Peter says, "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed but praise God that you bear that name." Not all suffering is because of our own stupidity or sin. There is also a suffering for Christ and I've never really understood what suffering for Christ was until I have to tell you I got into ministry and my motives and my character and my heart were laid bare for all the world to see. And I've often thought, let me back up and say that whatever trouble comes my way is almost always due at least in part to the fact that I'm not perfect and that I sin and so do you just to make sure we're on level ground. But nobody was more perfect than Jesus. Nobody did it better than Jesus, loved God perfectly, loved people perfectly. What happened to Jesus? He got nailed to the cross, why? Because that's the nature of the clash of kingdoms. And so if we're going to follow Jesus and if we step into situations where the kingdom of God clashes with the kingdom of darkness, then we're going to experience trouble. And we'll be hauled before councils and we'll be flogged in synagogues and we will be held accountable for things that we're being challenged by. And this happens, says scripture, for two reasons and it's very important to keep this in mind because most of us spin out really bad when things go wrong and we automatically assume we've got to be doing something wrong. And if I were you and I hear that church visitors challenge us and that a classical committee challenges us, then my first question would be what in the world is the matter with you people and what are you doing wrong? And we are non-perfect, but please understand this. And remove it totally from our present situation, put it in an academic abstraction. When the kingdom of God comes and it comes in conflict with the kingdom of the world, then out of that clash of the kingdoms, there is a clashing for two reasons. The first is that Satan's kingdom always threatens the kingdom of the world. Let me try to describe that for you just very briefly because remember, here's the kingdom of God, here's the kingdom of the world. You and I have those two kingdoms even streaming through our own hearts and wherever you and I want what we want and God comes along, there's a clash. In the world where the kingdom of the world has power structures that are at odds with the coming of God's kingdom, to that degree, the authority of Jesus is extremely threatening. And so all over the world, wherever God's people rise up, there is a clash between the world and the kingdom of God. You see it in China where the biggest house church in Beijing has run into huge issues with the Chinese government because they had bought land to build a building. The government put pressure on the owner of that property to not sell it to them. They said, "If you won't let us build a building, we're going to have an outdoor meeting." They had outdoor worship services. The police moved in and they carted everybody off. Why is the Chinese government so worried about the Christian church in Beijing? Because there is the conflict of kingdoms. And you don't have to go to China. You don't have to go around the world to run into that conflict. It will happen. It will happen even in our own hearts, in our own lives, and in our own families sometimes because Jesus said, "This conflict runs throughout every human relationship." But there's a second reason for this. And that's also very important to understand. And the second reason is that we get to bear witness to the coming of Christ's kingdom. On my account, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. And I don't like trouble any more than you do. And I spend most of my life trying to stay out of trouble, but trouble seems to find me and I don't like it. But here's what I want us to understand. When people challenge us, when people challenge us as a church community, when people say, "What in the world are you doing?" Here is an opportunity to tell the story of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done in our lives. Is that not true? We're called to bear witness to Jesus. It grieves me when people rejoice because we struggle. It grieves me when people in neighboring churches stand around after a service and say, "I'm glad this has happened. It should have happened 20 years ago." It grieves me because that's not the spirit of Jesus. The spirit of Jesus is that we just want to be about the business of the kingdom and we want to love God with all of our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our mind. Wouldn't you agree with me on that? That's our passion. That's our passion. And I don't know what else to say. My heart hurts over this. And I'm hopeful and confident that when classes revisits this issue, we'll get a chance to talk about it more and say, "Listen, if we're wrong someplace, please show us where we're wrong. Help us to repent. But don't take away from us our calling, our passion. How many of you in this place would not be here today, would not be alive in Christ if it weren't for the ministry of this church? That's why we do what we do. There's all kinds of fear in all kinds of things and all kinds of lives. And Lord willing, if we come back to this at some point, that's what Jesus begins to talk about in the passage. And I don't have a nice neat way of wrapping this up except to say that I really love you, except to say that I don't ever want my shortcomings or my sin to reflect on you or hurt you or the cause of Christ in any way. At the same time, I will not let anybody take away from me my calling before God to love the last and the lost and the least and to be their voice for the glory of God. And I invite you to stand with counsel and with staff and say, "We believe there is a work of God that's being done here, and we don't want to demonize our opponents. We want to love them and demonstrate Christ-like love, but we want to be able to say, 'Jesus, we love you, and we love your people.'" If I said anything amiss this morning in the pain and the anguish of my heart, please forgive [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:46:27.820; remove through 00:51:10.000] me and let's see where God will lead us as we [CUT] go forward. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your perfect love is casting out fear. And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life, I won't turn back, I know you are near, and I will fear no evil, for my God is with me. And if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear, whom then shall I fear? Oh, no, you never let go through the calm and through the storm, oh, no, you never let go in every high and every low, oh, no, you never let go, Lord, you never let go of me. And I can see a light that is coming for a heart that holds on, a glorious light beyond all compare, and there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, we'll live to know you here on the earth, and I will fear no evil, for my God is with me. And if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear, whom then shall I fear? Oh, no, you never let go through the calm and through the storm, oh, no, you never let go in every high and every low, oh, no, you never let go, Lord, you never let go of me. And I can see a light that is coming for a heart that holds on, and there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, still I will praise you, still I will praise you, oh, no, you never let go through the calm and through the storm, oh, no, you never let go in every high and every low, oh, no, you never let go, Lord, you never let go of me, oh, no, you never let go through the calm and through the storm, oh, no, you never let go of me, Lord, you never let go of me. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:51:10.000; resume after this marked segment]