Just wanna add a couple little things about Easter to your radar. Please be praying this week or the 12 pastors, leaders are gonna be recording for the Easter content for the augmented reality. So that'll be happening this week on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. So please be praying for that. Also, this week we've got a bunch of advertising going. Out, which is in the newspaper, in the local rag in Fremantle. It's called the Fremantle Herald. And then also at South Mantle Football Club.
Does anyone know where South Mantle Football Club is? Oh, look at you or go. They've got a very large LED screen there. I don't know if you've seen it. Every 150. Seconds. There's, a rotation of 10 different adverts, and guess what's on there? Starting tomorrow morning at the Cross Live. If you wanna know more about the event, make sure you go to the website, use a QR code. Very good. Last November, we did a thing that we've done pretty much every year.
Called Love Attack. Everyone Say Love Attack. And last year, last November, we were hoping to go to another church, but that kind of fell through and then all of a sudden we had to put our creative hats on and go, how are we gonna attack with Love the church? Well, someone came up with a brilliant idea. I can't remember who. The Holy Spirit, I believe. Oh, you wanna take the credit? It's amazing what you can do when you don't care who gets the credit.
But, we wanted to attack with Love the Persecuted Church. And the way we did that was actually quite a moving service, which we ended up praying in other different languages in sort of in a regional way. And I remember, uh. When we did that, we recorded it and sent it over to open doors, who we were partnering with on that day. And Steve will probably tell you a bit more, but it was really moving, for them, in as an organization to hear what we were doing in Perth, Western Australia.
So it's a real blessing to have Steve Swensen with us today, and he's gonna be sharing from open doors. He'll be sharing a bunch of stuff. Why don't you welcome Steve milking Phil at home. He is never been here before, but he's been in WA for a couple of weeks and having a brilliant time. Welcome, Steve. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Just while we're still talking about the love attack, it almost sounds frightening, doesn't it? But, that's a different meaning in Queensland.
But, but, just, just the fact that, the way that you creatively took hold of that and everyone leaned into it. Has actually helped us in how we are going to reach out to other churches. You will be an example of how creatively you've taken what you were given and made it into something. Because our heart is to, on the first weekend of November, every year we join with other ministries that serve persecuted people, to try and motivate the church around Australia and New Zealand to pray.
Last year, open doors, was hoping to have 500 churches participate. We failed in reaching 500, we got 912, but we fail forward. But with your help and your creativity, I've already shared that with other churches who I've been explaining what it's about and told them what you did. Because I think, you know, for all of us to immerse ourselves into. Into something that we pray for that's not on our front door. It's very difficult. But what you did was brought everybody into an experience.
And as I shared that around our, ministry, people just cried as they listened to people praying in their own mother tongue. And so thank you for the way that you did that and the way everybody leaned in and for your generosity. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. Your generosity was off the charts and was such a blessing for us to be able to say that into the field, to bless and strengthen persecuted believers around the world. So thank you.
I'm just going to introduce myself a little bit more, so just pretend you're here for a moment. Like I said, I'm from Queensland. I've been here 16 days and I'm going home tomorrow. My wife's been sleeping very well without me, but I'll ruin that when I go and snore tomorrow night and their bed. But, I just want to, also honor your leadership here because I know their heart is unity of the body of Christ.
Since I arrived, I've been staying at the YWAM base and since I arrived 16 days ago on the Friday night, and I walked in and there was about 170 young people there, all with their hands raised, crying out to God for his, his, his anointing on their life, his presence to be manifest in their life so they could go out and share the gospel on the streets that night. Right through to today, coming here and everything.
I got here a bit early 'cause I'm notoriously, early 'cause I don't want to get stuck in traffic and then not be here when you're calling me up to speak. But I couldn't, some of the doors weren't open and so I went down into the youth section and there's no seats there and I thought, oh cool. No seats tonight in church. But, to find my way here, everybody has just been so welcoming. And such a blessing. It's amazing.
You can be 3,600 kilometers from your home, but walk in and feel like you're amongst family. So I want to thank you, but I also wanna thank you and your leadership because I know your heart is for unity of the body of Christ, and I've seen that.
You know, I've, I've been in every different type of church denominationally from Independence through the Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostals, Baptist, all, all sorts, and it has just been the most enriching experience as I stand along side brothers and sisters who express their Christianity in a different way, their worship in a different style. And it's just been so refreshing.
So thank you because I know that you have sown seeds and for, pastors Adam and Dale, I know that that would come at times at great expense over the many years you've done that. And I want to thank you for paying that price because the body of Christ in Australia is better for it and I honor that. As somebody who's grown up as a pastor's kid, you know, you grow up in a style.
And the style that you grow up in, you think that is evidence of the, the presence of God or, you know, but it's just a style. Yeah. And the more I, work with and support persecuted believers, they don't have what we have. So obviously God doesn't go to those churches 'cause they don't have drums, you know, like, you know, we have these, these, these, uh. It's almost a, I call it I, I, I'll, I'll just criticize myself. I was a Christian bigot in that it had to be a certain way.
Other God wouldn't show up. Otherwise God wouldn't show up. But as long as his, as long as we are lifting up the name of Jesus, he draws all people under himself. And so I want to thank you for what you have done. I bring greetings from my wife. I go home and it'll be the last day of March when I arrive home, but on the 9th of April it will be our 31st wedding anniversary. So, bring greetings from her.
And I know having a wife that has been with me 31 years proves to me that Jesus still does miracles. For her to, it's a lot of chocolate, to keep her with me, and the blessing of God. And I have two beautiful children who also would love me to greet you on their behalf. My daughter, JIRA, who's 27, she's a speech pathologist and my son Nathan, who's 22, and he's a. Yeah, chippy. He's just finished his apprenticeship. But if you think to pray for anybody, pray for my boy.
Just before I got on the plane a few days before. He is been having some back trouble. And, so he went to the doctors and they found out he's got fractures in his spine, work related injuries. So thank the Lord for work cover. But yeah. But we don't want work cover. We want healing in Jesus' name. So, yeah. But I'm just so blessed that they release me to be here and, what a privilege it is to be with you tonight. What I also love about WA is there are no non-Christians here.
I have not met a non-Christian here. Stay with me. You said, let me take you somewhere. I say I have met no non-Christians because I think it's very important how, what we declare over somebody's life. I've only met not yet Christians. I've only met not yet Christians. And I say that because I believe that God is moving by his power in an incredible way.
And we can look at all the things that are going on in the world and start to think the sky is falling in, but we serve a risen savior who will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so, particularly with this Easter season coming upon us. Take the opportunity to invite a not yet Christian to come with you. Go that step further and don't just invite them to come with you, but bring them with you. Bringing, there's a supernatural element to bringing it.
The devil will try and stop them coming. If you say meet me in the car park, the kid will vomit on their shoulder on the way out. But if you are picking 'em up, they'll go back in and change their shirt and get in your car to come. And so use this time as an opportunity to bring people, that you're discipling in your world to Easter. Because it's a time they will come, but, we don't all share the same freedoms in this world. And today I wanna share a little bit about that.
At Open Doors, our mission is simple. It's to serve the persecuted and strengthen the church. And for over 70 years, or 70 years this year, we've been doing that and strengthening Christians in some of the most difficult places to follow Jesus on the planet. Our founder, brother Andrew, started smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain in his blue vw. He would put Bibles in boxes and under seats and in panels and in the front bonnet area, and he would drive to the border.
How many have read the book? God Smuggler. I read the comic. They came out around the same time there was a comic, but I've read the book since. But his mother put a Bible in his. In his clothing when he went to serve in the armed forces and he was injured and someone got that, he'd never read it, and he got that out and the word of God changed his life. God spoke to him in brief. God spoke to him about taking the word of God to places who didn't have it.
So he took Bibles behind the Iron Curtain where there were churches that were basically a front for the government without a Bible in them, and he became famous for praying this prayer as he approached the borders. God, you have made seeing eyes blind. I'm now asking you, sorry, sorry. You have made blind eyes. See, I'm now asking you to make seeing eyes blind. Mm. And he would drive to the border and literally time after time, they would stop all the cars in front of him and his car.
They'd either just wave through or they would come, they'd look in his car, they'd open the boxes, not even see Bibles and wave him on, or the compassion that, or he'd find a compassionate border guard who would just let him through anyway.
And from that time till now, open doors continues to smuggle Bibles into countries that don't have them, and provide Bibles in a language for people who haven't ever had a Bible in their own language and provide other services to strengthen persecuted believers around the world. If you've ever read your Bible, from cover to cover numbers of times, there are certain verses that jump out to you that you wish weren't there. Here's one. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.
You, you mentioned a verse before in James chapter one. I memorized it from the message translation, and forgive me if you think this is crass, but when I read it in the message translation, I thought he must have written it downwind from a marijuana burn off because it says, consider it a sheer gift when tests and challenges come at you from every side. Yeah, when it's Christmas time at our place, we write a list of the gifts we want.
If that was the gift someone gave me, I'd say, can you give me the receipt? 'cause I want to give it back. But blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Persecution is one part of the call that we willingly take up our cross to follow Christ. But also we are called to stand alongside persecuted brothers and sisters and strengthen them when they're going through trial. Jesus also told his disciples in John 1633, in this world you will have tribulation.
I'm glad it doesn't stop there. It goes on to say, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So as I said earlier, let's never forget that Jesus is our risen. Glorified savior, he's victorious. And who despite persecution, he's building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Someone say Amen. Amen. So I wanna briefly share something that will be something that strengthens you.
And we can strengthen our persecuted brothers and sisters with, I grew up as a pastor's kid, and so we would often have missionaries come to church, and it's important that we hear the stories that they share, but sometimes it seems so distant from me that I couldn't relate it into my own world, and I'd sit for two hours and watch them. Show me videos or pictures or slides back in the day of, you know, them going overseas in their safari suit with their pith helmet.
You know, there are walls in the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa, Pygmies on one side, elephants on the other. Have a look now and you know, but I'd sit there going, how does that even relate to me? But I'm very aware when I stand before a group of people that you are walking through some things of your own that relate to these verses.
You're facing trials and tribulation in your own life, and right now it's even hard for you to be, and it, it's not selfish of you, but it's even hard for you to think about what's going on over there because in your world right now, you're facing trials. So I just wanna give you three simple points tonight that I would share with a persecuted believer to strengthen them, but also I wanna share with you to strengthen you tonight.
Because some of you right now, you're going through a physical diagnosis that the doctors have given you and it's just too hard for you to bear. Some of you, you're in, a family situation of turmoil right now where perhaps you're estranged from your family or even your marriage is really on the rocks right now. Perhaps you even walked in here tonight holding hands so nobody would know. But you know, deep down it's just gonna take one little thing. God cares.
And I never want to give the impression that when I share stories of the persecuted people, that God loves them more than he loves you. And so my heart is to strengthen you tonight as we consider what our persecuted brothers are going through and our persecuted sisters are going through, that God would also strengthen you by his mighty power. Amen. So the first thing, and I believe it's the word of the Lord for some of you tonight, is this. Isaiah 41, verse 10. God is with us in suffering.
Fear not for, I'm with you, but lemme just talk about the presence of God very quickly. When we talk about the presence of God, it can be broken down a number of ways, but there's the omnipresence of God. He's everywhere. Blew me away when I was a teenager to understand that and I'm thinking he was where, and he's with us. He's with us here right now in Red Door Church. He's over in Queensland right now. He's over in Nigeria right now. He's in North Korea right now. He's in Sri Lanka right now.
He's in Morocco right now. I'm not sure if he's in New South Wales. I think that's where the devil lives. He's omnipresent. He is everywhere. So that's the omnipresence of God. Oh, if you haven't worked out by, by now, I don't take myself so seriously. So it's okay to laugh in church. Okay. But then. There's the omnipresence of God, but then there's the indwelling presence of God. When we submit our life to him and we say, please be the Lord the boss of my life. I confess my sin.
I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me. Come in and fill me. The fullness of God comes into us. So there's the omnipresence, then there's the indwelling presence. Sadly, too many Christians just stop there. But then there's the manifest presence where God out there comes in here and wants to flow through us to bring change to our community.
And so in the midst of understanding that God inhabits the praises of his people and inhabits us and is with us, we look at these verses and so the, the word for some of you tonight to strengthen you in the midst of your trial and your tribulation right now that you are facing is these words, fear not for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I'm your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous.
Right. Hand, God is with you in the midst of your suffering right now. So do not fear. I found myself in a a period of my life where I had anxiety and depression, and I wondered if I ever would be okay again. I. Something had broken on the inside and I felt like my pillow at night was a trampoline of terror, and I fear would come over me, irrational thought, and I had to strengthen myself in this verse. Fear not for I'm with you.
The second thing we need to understand about how his presence sustains us is found in two Corinthians 12, verse nine has become one of my favorite verses. He says to, to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. That word power is where we get the word dynamite. The word dunamis can be broken down even further to these three words, the ability, the efficiency, and the might of heaven in your weakness. He promises to give you a gift of grace.
His power that is made perfect in your weakness, in your own strength, what you're facing right now may be just too much to bear, but he gives you his ability. What you're facing right now to even be able to complete the call of God on your life, in your own strength is beyond your own efficiencies. But he can make you efficient for the task and what you're facing right now may need the supernatural power of God to intervene and in your own power.
You can't do it, but his power, his might, is perfected in your weakness. So what are you facing right now that's too much for you? Be encouraged. Do not fear and his power is made perfect in your weakness. And then the third point, God works all things for good. Romans 8 28. And we know that all things work together for good, that them, that love of God and are called according to his purpose. It doesn't say that all things are good. But he can turn all things for good.
I wanna share a quick story about my family, which my mom is my hero, and you'll understand why, because she has modeled to me how the presence of God sustains us. When I was, my mom and dad when, when they were young, they went to Bible college in Brisbane. They, a OG pastors went to Bible college and then they went to, south Australia to pastor a church in Mitchell Park. They stayed there for a couple of years.
My sister was born there and I was born there, and when I was one month old, God moved them, called them out of that established assembly. They felt called by God to go to Country Victoria and plant a church in a place called Moi. When they got there, the church planting arm of the Assemblies of God, if someone got the call of God, they'd clap them and send them off with a prayer and no finance. So my dad, who was a panel beater by trade, he would do up old cars.
And the pastor who was doing the same thing in GaN was a mechanic. And together they would do up old cars and they would sell them to raise money like tent maker ministry so that they could continue to serve the Lord. And all their needs were met by God that way. It was really cool. But when, my mom had been there for some time, she was missing her family, and so dad said, well, why don't you take the kids and go back to Queensland and visit your family? I'll stay, look after the church.
I've got some cars to work on, have a holiday and then come back. My mom at the time was also pregnant with my little brother. She didn't know I was a boy at the time, but she was pregnant and so she came back to Queensland. But while we were in Queensland and not came at the door, they went and opened the door at my grandparents' house. It was the police. They came and said to my mom, Lorna, I'm sorry to inform you that your husband has been killed in an accident. He was welding under a car.
There was no safeties in the Jacks gave way, and he was crushed and burnt to death. How? How does somebody get through that? Right. That's what I think. I haven't faced that myself, even though it was my dad. I was a little fella, but his grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in her weakness. The presence of God sustained her.
But one of the things that she, I mean, she had to go down and identify the body and move all of the stuff back to Queensland, but in the midst of that, some time went by and she gave birth to a little boy. She was worried through that whole process, not worried, but just disappointed that my dad, David, would never see his child grow up. A couple of hours after my brother was born, she named him David. After my dad, he passed, he died.
So this, you know, things just pile on top of each other, but God's presence sustained her. She was lying in hospital after that had just happened and she fell asleep. Turmoil was filling her heart, but she fell asleep as she prayed and God gave her a dream. And in the dream, she was holding baby David and Jesus was standing at the foot of the cross in front of her. The other side of the cross was my dad, David. And she walked to the foot of the cross and handed baby David to Jesus.
And Jesus took him and walked to the other side of the cross and said to my m he will raise his namesake and then put him in my mum's arms. Now theologically. That's probably not sound, and please don't come to me later and try and give me a theological lesson. You've missed the point entirely. When we need God to be strong, when we are not, he gives us things that sustain us, that dream, whether it's theologically sound or not.
Sustained my mum and brought her out of a pit of despair to a place of hope. She comes outta hospital. She has the thing, she might withdraw out of circulation, but she just feels God has saved us for a purpose and called us. And so there was a man sharing in our home church at the time about a ministry that had been started in America by Dave Wilkerson called Teen Challenge.
And they were starting a home in Brisbane for women who are getting outta prostitution, drug addiction, domestic violence, and alcoholism. Now looking for somebody to run that home. My mum volunteered. So I became the man of the house at three. We had up to 12 people living in our home at any one time. Again, the presence of God sustained her and what can come out of brokenness is good.
And so in the midst of that, there was another facility around the corner that was a men's facility for the same sort of ministry. And there were, we, we'd get together from time to time with the guys and we'd go to the same church. They would take them to youth group and young adults things. They didn't have it then it was all in one.
And, we'd all go to church together and have picnics and I dunno what was playing at the time, but there was a man, that was volunteering in that men's facility on the weekends. He had another job during the week, but he would volunteer. And there was a get together one night, and like I said, I dunno what was playing on the record player, maybe it was, you know, uh oh baby. Because he looked across the room and he saw my mum.
He'd met her a number of times, but he felt God speak to him and say, that's going to be your wife. The miracle of it was he didn't only choose her, but he chose to take my sister, who by this time was seven and a half and I was five. He chose a wife and a family, but she was 28. He was 19. That was the response of a lot of people. Whoa. There were a lot of people in the church at the time that said, this'll never work. Don't do it, man. Run, run, run.
Last year in November, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and we know all things work together for good. To them that love God and are called according to his purpose. Take it one step further. My biological dad, his name, I only use those terms so you understand who I'm talking about. His surname was booze. BUSE. Booze. Right. I know that's not how I spelled, but that's how you say it. We were never to know.
That when I was a youth pastor of a church, I would meet a young lady who would become my wife, whose name is Sherry, S-H-E-R-R-Y, la la la. She's already told me many times if my name was still boozy, she would not have married me even though she loves me or she said, you, we, you'd have taken my name, not yours. And we know all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.
I share that with you tonight because some of you're going through tough stuff, you're really facing stuff right now, and it's just too hard for you. Fear not for I am with you. My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in your weakness. And we know that all things work together for good to them, that love God and are called according to his purpose.
And that's the same for our persecuted brothers and sisters, that they would be strengthened and understand that power of those scriptures. So let's jump into this because you don't wanna have breakfast with me when I finish, so. The statistical reality of persecution in the world right now is staggering. Over 380 million Christians on the planet today face severe violence and persecution for being followers of Jesus Christ.
It's gone up by about 25 million from last year, 380 million that is one in seven believers around the globe currently face severe violence and pressure. For raising their hand to say, I've decided to follow Jesus. It's not one in seven in those countries. It's one in seven around the globe, but behind those massive statistics are individual stories.
Stories like Helen from Eritrea, who was locked in a shipping container for 32 months for choosing to sing Christian songs on the steps of her church in Eritrea. It's not against the law to be a Christian, but it's illegal to share your faith. They tortured her with a tool that was meant to kill her, but she kept saying the name of Jesus and she said The name of Jesus is like a medicine. The presence of God sustained her.
And many people in that time, in that shipping container came to know Jesus Christ. The presence of God sustains us. Presence of God sustains people like Jijo. From North Korea. Her father was found to have one of these, a physical copy of the Bible. He wasn't preaching from it. He just had one, and the communist police came and took him and his Bible away, and she's never seen him again. But the presence of God sustains her.
The people like Pastor Barnabas in Nigeria right now where there is 16.2 million persecuted believers displaced from their homes for being followers of Jesus Christ. Most of them live in internal displacement camps. Where a family of four or five will live in a tent the size of a queen size mattress. He's been there nearly five years and at his own risk, he pastors people in one of these camps, but the presence of God sustains him.
The people like Brother Harun, who's a third generation imam or was until he miraculously. Encountered the love of Jesus and became a Christian. He went and told his family about it. They loved him so much that they broke both his arms, both his legs, all his ribs, and left him to die. But the presence of God sustained him. He got to a hospital, was healed, and he's the kicker. The presence of God just didn't sustain him. It has empowered him and he's planted 30 churches to this point.
Praise the Lord. The people like M from Bangladesh, little 9-year-old girl in an Islamic community whose family came to know Jesus all at once, is brought great persecution to their family, but she's so proud 'cause her dad is a pastor and an evangelist. Her mum leads the ladies ministry and she also teaches Sunday school. And M used to have a lot of friends, but now she has none.
She's isolated at school, and her friends don't only just isolate her, but at lunchtime they hit her with sticks and throw bricks and stones at her. And she walks to school three kilometers, and that doesn't seem very far, but for her as a 9-year-old walking through community where she's ostracized, and even the people with tricycles are not allowed to pick her up for fear, that they'll be persecuted for helping a believer.
But she prays every day for friends, and she prays every day for her persecutor because God has forgiven her. She wants God to forgive them. The presence of God has sustained her. And the people like a Yuba and his siblings again from Nigeria, Bako, her arm, came into his village and they simply went around knocking on doors, asking people if they're a Christian or a Muslim, and if they answered Christian, they would kill them on the spot.
But he and his siblings had escaped into the bush in the night. They came back the next morning to find his father had been killed. And even though he was a Christian, revenge went in his heart and bitterness grew up in his heart. And he was just like, I need to get revenge on who did this.
But because of the generosity of churches like yours and people who are sewn into open doors throughout the world, we've been able to start trauma care centers where a Yuba and his siblings have been able to go and find healing. The presence of God has sustained them and brought healing for their soul and their spirit and their body, and he now says this. He says, I wanted revenge, but I've learned to forgive and leave everything at the feet of Jesus. The presence of God sustains him.
Now, those stories can seem so far away from us, but the Bible tells us in one Corinthians 12 that we are all one body. Body's made up of many parts, and when one part suffers, we all suffer. My wife was walking out of the laundry and kicked her little toe on the skirting board, bent out at right angles and snapped it. I've got, I've got the x-ray.
It's a great picture, but we learned in that moment what this verse meant means when one part of the body suffers, the rest of the body has to adjust and compensate till we find healing. Not only did her body suffer, but all of ours around her suffered as well. But you get what I'm talking about. That's our part that we play. We have the privilege of playing in the body of Christ for our persecuted brothers and sisters who are suffering around the world. So how do we respond to this?
Well, the first thing is we need to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters, and you do that. But again, I just want to give you one story about the power of prayer. 'cause sometimes we forget that prayer is powerful. David Livingston is a well-known, medical mission reader, Africa and an explorer. He was sent from his church in Scotland to go over to minister to the people in the, the continent of Africa.
And he would meet unreached people groups and they would share the gospel with them and, and medically care for them. But there was this one tribe where the chief was so angry, he said. I don't like your message in the way he would say it, but tonight we are coming to kill you and your team. So David Livingston considered it pure joy, went back to his compound and got down on his knees and he cried out to God, please protect us. Please save us from these threats.
And then he made an entry into his diary and he closed his diary on that date. And then they waited for the Lord to deliver them. That night nobody came. He continued to work with his team, and again, they reached out sometime later to that same tribe that chief who responded badly, suddenly was moved by the love of Christ and gave his life to to Jesus, and the rest of the tribe followed him to become Christians.
So David Livingston says to that Chief, you said you were going to kill us, but why didn't you come? He said, oh, we did come, but when we came, your compound was surrounded by 39 giant warriors, and we knew we could not take them. David Livingston goes home to Ascend Church sometime later, and he's talking with them and he's telling him this story and the secretary of the church comes to him and says, do you remember the date that that was on? And he says, yes, I made an entry in my diary.
And so they compare diaries. And on that same night in the church back in Scotland, there was a prayer meeting for David Livingston and his team. Do you know how many people were in that prayer meeting? 39. 39 people praying. 39 giant warriors surrounding the compound. Coincidence, I think not. There is power in prayer.
So when you're praying, don't pray, worrying your prayer like it says in the book of James, don't worry your prayers, pray boldly, believingly without any second thought that as you pray, God is moving in Nigeria, God is moving in North Korea, God is moving in all of the other countries that you can pray for. Prayer is powerful. And then the the second thing I wanna encourage you to do before we land this plane.
Is, I want to challenge you to sow a supernatural seed as you already have done, but I want you to wait and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as to what he might lead you to do and simply obey. I'm not asking you to give your tithes to us. 'cause sometimes you can hear some sad stories and think, oh, instead of me giving it to where God has placed me, I'll, I'll give that to open doors this week. I don't want that. God's call to you into is to support the vision where you are.
But if he speaks to you above and beyond that, then we can receive an offering down the back at the table later with a QR code you can go to or cash please. There's an envelope there. You can put the cash in. I was at a church recently and they're trying to stuff. Money in my pockets while I was talking to people. It was rather uncomfortable. But it was, it was a seniors meeting so it wasn't so bad. But yeah, there's envelopes there. That's a cash handling process as well.
So you don't think I've gone to McDonald's with what you've given, but so is supernatural seed. $20 will put a Bible in the hand of a believer in a country in the format they most need it. You can't buy one for Ong for that. God bless Ong, but you can't buy one and do that. It will also go towards, sowing into discipleship materials, leadership development, emergency relief, community development, and trauma care centers like UBA and his siblings have gone to.
So I just simply ask you, what's the Holy Spirit saying to you? And just listen and obey. Um. Also, God speaks to people from time to time and you've been given the gift of philanthropy or you know, he speaks to you at times to sow into large projects. I have three large projects that I have information on, in Asia and the Middle East. And if God speaks to you tonight, then please come and talk to me.
I'd love to give that for you, for you to take away and pray about what you might feel the Lord is leading you to do. So together we can stand shoulder to shoulder in faith and serve the persecuted and strengthen the church, but also help advance the gospel into countries that need it the most. I wanna try something tonight. If you'll allow me, I want you to, imagine for a moment and I might ne can I unplug that or that blow the whole system up.
We we're getting thumbs up from all around the room. So all that means is yes, it'll blow up the building. Fantastic. Always wanted to see that happen. I would like to finish by giving you the opportunity to understand what it might be a little bit like. For a persecuted believer, and if you just give a second to try and set myself up here, that'll be lovely for everyone. This is just an experiment. Oh yeah. Yeah. That'd be good. Oh, he's a good fella, isn't he?
He's take you home with me, keeper. He's a keeper. Alright. Might have to buy him from you. That's one of the projects you're sewing into tonight. Thanks, mate. Fantastic. You should do this for a job. Just you can't have my job a purposely of unplugged it because when a persecuted person, this is just one experience. But when many persecuted people go to church, it's quite good here because it's like a warehouse. They don't go to a church building.
And it certainly doesn't look like this, but when they go in, sometimes it's kind of like the lights go out and they don't have microphones, they don't have amplification. And so if you're open to this experiment, I believe the Holy Spirit can speak to you in the midst of it. So just imagine for a moment you've arrived at church.
But instead of a comfortable seat, you're sitting on the floor, your feet and your legs ache, and you're exhausted because it's taken you three hours of walking to get here. Despite your exhaustion, you feel a deep sense of gratitude to just be gathered in the presence of a few other believers who made it to the gathering. You press your hand against your left cheek.
Trying to stop the bleeding from a cut and a bruise, which is a painful reminder of an attack that you just faced on your way to church. Someone from the community had threatened you with a knife trying to scare you away and prevent you from attending the gathering. But fortunately, you escaped, and now you are here, but you realize there's bitterness growing in your heart towards that person who attacked you because it's not the first time they've done it.
And you bring it to God and you're reminded of Jesus' words that says, bless those who persecute you. So you lay it at Jesus' feet and you feel a sense of peace come over you. It's peace that obviously is not your own. The Holy Spirit is at work. As you look around, you notice one believer, a young woman sitting quietly in the back. You know her. She's here in secret. 'cause if her family knew she was here, not only would they discourage her from coming, they may even take her life.
Yet she's here with you, fully aware of the cost, desperate to worship and be with fellow believers. You thank God for his promise, never to leave you alone or anyone else. And you pray for protection. Protection for today's meeting, that no one would violently interrupt it. This time, the sound of a guitar narrows your focus. It's your opportunity to worship the King of Kings. I want you to maybe reflect what you would do, what you would do if you knew.
That coming here tonight might cost you everything, that singing a song and worshiping God might mean that the neighbors call the police or raid your service. I just want you to stay in this moment. I What would you do? How great Isga seeing with me. How great Isga no, see how great, how great is. How great is our God seeing with me? How great is our God? Oh, see how great, how great is. The name above you are worthy of all praise. And my heart will say, how great is our God? How?
Is Aga seeing with me? How great is aga? No, we see how great. How great is. Well, we've already joined together in prayer tonight for persecuted brothers and sisters. But again, we think of them wherever they are right now. Of the 70 countries that open doors has the privilege of strengthening believers. Would you be with persecuted people right now in North Korea? Would you strengthen families in Somalia?
Would you be with people in Yemen and Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Eritrea, Latin America, Asia. Too many countries to mention by name tonight. But God, would you please strengthen them, fill them with your Holy Spirit. Yes, that they might have the ability and efficiency and the might to stand under great pressure and persecution, that your name would be glorified and your kingdom extended.
And for those who have shed their blood for the cause of Christ, we believe that that blood shed will actually be the beginning. Of the seed of revival in those nations. They have not died in vain, but you are working and has already been prayed for tonight. I was so blessed as we were let in prayer for the persecuted and the persecutor. So God, speak to those that are planning atrocities tonight. Reveal yourself to them. In Jesus name mean God.
For us as the church that comes to church in such comfort, may you wake us from our slumber. Yeah. Yeah, may we never take for granted the privilege of driving into a beautiful facility, parking our car, getting out and shouting across the car park. God bless you. Happy Sunday. It's so good to be at church. May we never take that for granted. May we never lose that, but may we not come become complacent either. We thank you for your goodness.
That you are building your church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Yes. Bless each of these fine people as they lean into this moment. Holy Spirit, speak to us. Break our heart for what breaks yours. Yes. And change us to become more like Jesus. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.