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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Freedom in Slavery

Father, we thank you so much this morning for the power of your Word, the power of Christ, the living Christ, who doesn't just dwell in the world, but he's promised to dwell in our hearts.

And Lord, Jesus gave all, and I pray today that in our own hearts, we would also make the decision to give all.

And Lord, as you held nothing back from us, so may we hold nothing back from you.

And we ask, Father, that you would sweetly draw near to us, that we would see and know your love, and that we'd experience the transforming power of your grace to change our lives, to make us vessels of light, vessels of truth, vessels of hope to all those who are around us.

And Lord, today, as we look at some of the elements of religious liberty, we're by no means exhausted, but Father, I pray you'll give us a little picture of ourselves and of you and of the world you want us to reach.

And we lift up all those who are sick today, our school down in Jackson, we lift up all these requests, Lord, there are so many.

We come in Jesus' name, let everyone say amen.

In 2016, about 90, 000 Christians were killed around the world because of their faith.

In the last 10 years, about 900, 000 Christians were killed for their faith that averages out to about 1 every 6 minutes are killed for their faith oftentimes we don't even begin to imagine what others, our brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they are Seventh-day Adventists or not, are dealing with around the world.

I visited some of them in various countries that I've been to.

I've heard numerous stories, but there are countless stories.

There are probably, in fact, so many stories that only God knows them all.

There are people who have died in solitude and confinement and no 1 else knew about them, but the angels of heaven knew.

And in this country, we've had the blessing of religious liberty.

We've had the blessing of freedom to worship according to our conscience.

But you know, friends, the reality is, is that sometimes when you get too much religious liberty, it can almost become a curse, in a sense.

Not because of too much religious liberty, but too much religious liberty and too much prosperity and too much wealth makes us lazy and it makes us ungrateful for it and it makes us comfortable, almost comfortable to the place that when we do hear about it, we turn our heads.

In North Korea, under the dynasty of Kim Jong-un, I guess is how you say it, Christianity is seen as a Western-based mass delusion.

There's about 300, 000 Christians in North Korea and about 70, 000 of those are imprisoned in the labor camps because of their faith.

I want to tell you a story about a man from Pakistan just some stories about people who have suffered for their faith.

Samuel Mashi was a simple street cleaner 1 day while cleaning a garden in a certain town a 27 year old Pakistani was accused of deliberately piling garbage against the wall of a mosque, a Muslim mosque.

He was arrested and thrown in jail where he was repeatedly tortured for his faith and while being treated for tuberculosis which he contracted in prison, a police constable decided to earn a place in heavenly paradise by killing him with a brick-cutting hammer.

Deep in the Brazilian rainforest, a 73 year old lady, Dorothy Stang, a Christian lady, was used to living among people who wanted her dead.

She had long been trying to protect peasant labors from the exploitation by logging firms and rancers.

1 day, while walking to a meeting of poor farmers near the town, a specific town in the area, 2 armed men intercepted her on the path.

Taking out her Bible, she began reading to them, and for a few precious moments, they listened before opening fire.

She was shot multiple times and died on the spot.

Do you ever hear about these kind of stories?

Christian believers slain for their faith.

In modern Western America we often think that these are tales of the past.

But 90, 000 Christians last year died these types of deaths for their faith.

And it seems so far away from us, doesn't it?

It seems so far and it seems so distant from us.

I think about the text in Revelation chapter 14 and verse 13 where the Bible says, here it says, Revelation 14 verse 13, Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.

Often many times people who die for their faith valiantly, who die for their faith courageously, who die for their faith faithfully are often by their accusers of course brutally tortured and killed but many times it's been proven that the testimony of their faith pierces the conscience of their persecutors, and many of them cannot rest until they give their lives over to Christ.

Around the world, in the Muslim nations, People by the tens of thousands are flocking to Christianity and the truth of Scripture.

Many of them are finding the Bible and the 3 angels' message, and they're leaving the Muslim faith and embracing the Christian truth and the Adventist message at the risk of their own life.

I remember when I was in Malaysia just a few years ago, I don't know, 3 or 4 years ago, and I was doing a youth conference there, a family was telling me about the local Seventh-day Adventist pastor.

Now, in Malaysia, there's only a limited amount of religious liberty.

People who are native Malaysians, it is required by law for them to be Muslim, okay?

But there are many immigrants from other nations, from China, from India, and from other places.

Those people who are not of Malaysian citizens have freedom of religion.

So in other words, a Chinese person can worship as they please they can they can go to other Chinese people and tell them about Their faith and convert them to their faith, but native Malaysians must be is Muslim and it is against the law for them to try to convert anyone else or to be converted to another faith.

And so there was the story of the pastor, the family was telling me it was actually their local pastor who had been faithful to his post, who was requested by a Muslim family to give Bible studies to them, native Malaysians.

He secretly was giving them Bible studies in his home And then the morning came when someone found him, someone had found out that he was giving, had turned him in, and they came into his house, and he had been brutally killed.

Brutally murdered, a Seventh-day Adventist minister in Malaysia, brutally killed for his faith.

Oftentimes, we don't hear of these stories, but this is the reality of the rest of the world that we live, you understand?

This is the reality of a sin-sick world when Satan is on a war path to destroy God's people and the truth and the faith of Jesus, You understand?

But thank God for people who are faithful to their post.

People who have given their lives and the life that they live without Christ is worse to them than death, and they're willing to go to the grave for Jesus.

I think of that text in Revelation also, chapter 12, and verse, let me find it here.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and notice the rest of the text.

And they did not love their lives to what?

Now most people imagine that text to be describing martyrdom, right?

But in actuality, if you read the text very carefully, it says that they did not love their lives to the death.

They loved not their lives up to the point of death.

They died to self up to the point of death.

And friends, let me tell you today, if we die to self every day, if we die to self and we are crucified with Christ, And we have that experience of conversion and the indwelling Spirit of God, the indwelling Christ in our hearts who drives out sin and drives out the love of the world.

If we have this experience upon our knees every day.

If we make the conscious choice to give our hearts holy to Him every single day, then friends, at the end of our life, whether we're faced with persecution or difficulty or trial or death, we will have no problem dying for Jesus because we who die for Jesus have also lived for Him.

And Jesus says, I have the power to lay down my life.

And he did it out of unselfish love for you and I.

And he says, but I also have the power to take it up again.

And not only does he have the power to take up his own life again, but he has the power to take up our life, amen?

The apostle Paul said, to live is Christ, but to die is what?

Just not too long ago, I think it was last year or even maybe the previous year or I'm sorry not last year but yeah it was last year or maybe 2015, in Russia a law was approved by President Vladimir Putin effectively lumping Christians with terrorists on July 20, I believe it was last year, the article didn't quite say, it was either last year or 2015.

And it's causing the country to wonder if it's returning to its totalitarian regime.

Introduced as part of Russia's campaign against terrorist activities, the legislations allow authorities to target illegal house churches and worshipers who are not part of state registered denominations.

The new law now makes it illegal to share one's faith in residential locations, creating a serious problem for house churches.

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Freedom in Slavery

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