Dr. David Jeremiah: END TIMES - BE PREPARED | David Jeremiah Sermons [13:28-18:29]

I don't have any money left in my account. I'm going through a time of persecution. No, you should have saved some. We use the word persecution as sort of a cover word for everything that's negative in our lives. But persecution doesn't fit any place except in this narrow place. Persecution is what happens to you particularly because of the fact that you are a Christian, a followers of Jesus Christ. And that raises an important question. I'm going to ask you, and I hope you'll think about it this week. I'm not asking you about your salvation. I'm asking you, have you ever publicly identified yourself with Jesus Christ in such a way that those who know you know what you believe? And have you ever, ever told anybody that you didn't think wanted to know this, that you were a Christian, that you were a follower of Christ? Here's another way to answer that question. This is a great question for all of us, especially for the younger ones. If you got arrested for being a Christian, is there enough evidence to prosecute you? Everywhere you look today, there are people who are tucking their new testament in their inward pocket and walking by because they don't want anybody to know that they belong to Jesus. If they don't know my Christian, I'm still a Christian. You have a not a very good one. Not the kind of Christian God wants, He doesn't want us walking around, sticking our faith in everybody's nose, but He doesn't want us covering up our faith in any situation for any reason. We're to stand up for what we believe and not be ashamed to do it. And sometimes you have to confront what's wrong. When I was a pastor back in Fort Wayne and I was first getting started, I was probably in my late 20s, early 30s, much to my wife's frustration. I played in two industrial basketball leagues every week. One was in the Y in downtown Fort Wayne and another was in another place, so I played basketball two nights a week. And I made a lot of friends there. It was the only contact I had with people who weren't Christians because if you're a pastor, soon as you walk in the room, they get on a report, and pastor's here, you gotta behave and all that. When you're playing basketball, nobody cares about that. So I'm playing against this guy and this one particular game I remember, he was using the Lord's name in vain every time down the floor. He was having a bad day and he wasn't making his shots and every time he missed his shot, he took the Lord's name in vain. And finally, during a time out, I went over to him and I said, you know what? You gotta quit doing what you're doing. He said, what's that? I said, first of all, Jesus isn't missing the shots you are. So quit using his name. And secondly, Jesus Christ is very special to me and you're using his name in a way that's very dishonoring to him and it's hurtful to me. And if you keep doing it, I'm gonna have to not play in this league anymore and you know that wouldn't be good. The rest of the year, I never heard him peep one word. That wasn't, I mean, he might have said jeepers once, but I'm not, I'm not sure. Now you say, well, Pastor Jeremiah, that's a silly little story, yes it is. But how easy do we just accept what happens? Cause we don't want people to know that we are Christians. And the Bible says, we will have to stand up for our faith and when we do, we will have issues. Jesus is telling his disciples this because he wants them to get ready. He knows they're gonna face some stuff like this. And so we have the record of persecution and the reality of it. Here's the response to it. Let me tell you another story, most of which you may know. Coach Joseph Kennedy has inspired those of us in America with his example. As a high school football coach in Seattle, he would always take a moment to kneel and prayer on the 50-yard line after the game. No matter when or lose, sometimes members of his team joined him for the prayer and sometimes even players from the other team joined in. But whether in a crowd or alone, coach Kennedy prayed after every game and he did it for seven years. Then in 2015, an opposing coach noticed what he was doing and reported him to the Bremerton High School principal. Soon after that, the school athletic director told Kennedy to stop praying, citing the school district's policy regarding religious expression. The coach tried to do as instructed. In fact, he skipped his weekly prayer after one game and felt so guilty and regretted his decision so much that before he got home, he turned his car around, went back to the empty stadium, tearfully returned to the 50-yard line as God have forgiven for not doing what he should do and expressed his love for the Lord. He resumed the ritual of post-game prayer the following week and the week after and that's when the officials placed him on leave and then declined to rehire him for the following season. Joseph Kennedy had spent 20 years serving his country as a United States Marine and he was fired for 20 seconds of prayer.