God-Dependence Invites the World’s Resistance

Jesus warned us: if we truly abide in Him, the world won’t celebrate us—it will resist us. In this message from John 15, we explore four ways the world hated Jesus—and still hates His followers today: misunderstanding, misrepresentation, marginalization, and even martyrdom. But we’re not left alone in the resistance—Jesus gives us His Spirit to walk beside us through every fiery trial. Learn how to suffer faithfully, live joyfully, and pray dependently in a culture that misunderstands the way of Jesus.

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All right guys. What a joy to be back. I’ve been gone for a few weeks. I don’t know if you noticed, but, uh, it’s a joy to be here. Uh, the joke is my family was vacationing. I was working, I was preaching at a couple different churches in California and a youth camp in Tennessee, but it’s so good to be back with you.

Open your Bibles to John chapter 15. We’re continuing our study through the upper room discourse all summer. And hey, no matter how your week went, we wanna remind you that God, the father loves you. Jesus Christ is sufficient and supreme, and the Holy Spirit will transform your life from the inside out if you let him.

So let’s let him. I fooled you now stand. Alright, let’s stand in honor of reading God’s word. We do that because we treat this as sacred words from God himself. Starting in verse 18. If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it. The world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you? A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on the account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates me also hates my father. If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, they have seen and hated both me and my father, but this happened.

So that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled. They hated me for no reason. When the counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. You also will testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

I’ve told you these things to keep you from stumbling. They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he’s offering a service to God. They’ll do these things because they haven’t known the father or me, but I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember I told them to you.

I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning ’cause I was with you. Let’s pray. Father God, we just submit our hearts and our minds to this passage. Use this passage the same way. Holy Spirit, you’ve used this the last 2000 years and it’s comforting those who are persecuted. It’s drawing near to those who have been marginalized and ostracized because of the gospel.

God made this passage also convict us who maybe haven’t really been hated by the world because we are acting too much like it. Whatever it is you have for us, God, we put our yes on the table. Our hearts are completely open to you, surrendered in obedience. In Jesus’ name everyone says amen. Amen. You may have a seat.  📍

This picture here was a picture of my family the month before we launched our church. Uh, there is a lot I would tell  yester Trey if I was given the opportunity to go back a decade ago, but I’m not sure he would have listened. I was here actually 23 years old, almost 24 when we started this church. The fun fact, faith who’s here in the front row, 10 years old now.

She was not even one when we started. We did have our beginnings in a movie theater. In some ways, I was ready to plant this church. I had a lot of experience for my age. I’m actually really grateful and honored my fa father and mother in their house. Uh, this morning. They gave me a lot of opportunities at Harre Church.

I got to preach when I was 16. I was theologically trained at the California Baptist University, the best university on the West Coast, at least something like that. Loved my time there. I was filled with passion for the loss. We started the church because back then, especially there were only like two churches in all of Queen Creek, and we wanted to create a place where lost people can honestly encounter the gospel and, and to grow up in all the life, truth and ways of Jesus.

But I, what I wasn’t ready for was the relational heartbreak. I wasn’t ready emotionally in a word. I was too easily surprised. It didn’t take much to surprise me. 10 years ago, I was stunned when people went back on their promises. I was crushed. When others would twist my words. I didn’t have categories for giving and giving and loving only for them to not return in kind.

In fact, to walk away, I had to quickly learn. I needed to get street smart. It wasn’t enough, just enough to be book smart. I needed to be street smart without losing my heart though, without losing my compassion. One of the ways I kind of got street smart was studying the 48 laws of power and have you heard of this book or you guys are sanctified people?

God bless you. Uh, it’s 48 Laws of Power is honestly terrifying. I didn’t read this to use these, these laws, but I read it to recognize when it’s at work in our community and at work, honestly, against me. Here’s a few laws that won’t be on the screen, but some of these laws shocked me, but then I can see how people use it all the time.

Law number three, for example, is conceal your intentions. In other words, just because someone’s smiling at you and talking well of you doesn’t mean they’re not planning something behind the scenes to hurt you. I just took people at face value and trusted what they told me. Law number 12 is use selective honesty to disarm your victim.

See the problem when people are caught up in the ways of the world and honestly being used by the enemy, it’s not what they say that’s harmful. It’s usually what they withhold that is setting the trap. Law number 15 is crush your enemy. Totally. I’ve been shocked by this. Sometimes we have had altercations where I try to do everything I can to bring about reconciliation, but at some point, some people, all they’re interested in is domination.

There is no give and take. Law number 33 is discover each man’s thumbscrew. Maybe you’ve lived life long enough to notice this. Some people, they wanna find your wound. They don’t wanna find it to sympathize with you or to pray with you or to hope that you find healing. No, they find it to use it against you to press into it.

So if I can tell that yester tray of 10 years ago, I would warn about some of these laws of power. Not to be paranoid though, but to be prepared. And that’s I think, the heartbeat of Jesus here in John 15 and onto 16. This isn’t a warning that should fill us with fear and to stop us from living the life he’s called us to.

And it shouldn’t stop us from loving and being vulnerable and actually getting hurt by others, but we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens. He’s looking at his disciples, his 12 in the eye and saying, I have told you these things to keep you from falling away. Don’t be surprised when the world hates you.

Just a few years later, Peter, who was in that room, wrote a book to the church who was dispersed because of suffering, and he etched similar words. In chapter four, he says, dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you’re going through as if something strange was happening to you. No, instead be very glad.

This is a warning I want us to heed as we go line by line here in John chapter 15, because it’s usually not the suffering that sinks you. It’s the surprise. It’s the one you didn’t see coming that has the potential to make you fall away. So let’s study the words of Jesus so we won’t be surprised. We’ve titled this series the Fourth Quarter of the Fourth Gospel, because that’s quite literally what this is.

Jesus is in the final hour with his disciples before he dies for the sins of all mankind, and he’s not wasting a word here. He only has a few hours, and so every word is important. He’s preparing his disciples theologically. We learn a whole lot about the Holy Spirit, what theologians would call pneumatology here in John 13 through 17.

But also he’s preparing them emotionally. He’s preparing them for what’s to come really. He’s preparing them for the Book of Acts. When you read acts and see all the persecution and misunderstandings, Jesus warned this will come here in John 15. Now some context, John 15, one through 17. Pastor Caleb did a wonderful job.

He started with another painting last week, y’all. I told him. No more paintings. But anyways, he did a great job in his message about abiding in the vine, and it really is the blueprint for Passion Creek Church. Every week we tell you, Hey, we are his disciples, not just attenders. And so we reorient our entire life to be formed by him together.

For others, it’s to stay close to the vine. It’s to stay attached. ’cause that’s where we find our life. But now, most people skip the next part of John 15. But it’s just as important because now Jesus introduces attention. ’cause if you just keep it at verse 17, it’s beautiful. Hey, apart from me, you can do nothing but with me, there’s a lot you can do in this world.

Hey, when you’re with me, you stay attached to me. Your life will be filled with joy. Joy to the fool. But now he warns us upfront, God dependence, which is abiding in the vine. God dependence invites the world’s resistance. If you want to learn, if you want to begin to depend on Christ Jesus, you better believe resistance is coming.

We found this personally in our family. We found this in our church. We really, especially right before we do a practice series, which we’re about to do another practice in August called Witness, we gear up two or three weeks before it happens. Just crazy stuff happens. It’s never what you expect. That’s kinda the point the enemy likes to surprise, but it’s emotional heartache.

It’s relational tension. Something happens because the enemy sees, oh, you’re going to step into God dependence. I’m gonna make it so hard on you. You are going to want to quit. That’s what’s happening here as well. Jesus is warning us, the greater the dependence, which is what we’re all made for, the greater the resistance, but we should keep pressing on.

Let’s look again, verse 18. If the world hates you, understand it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However. Because you are not of the world, but I’ve chosen you out of it. The world hates you. Key in understanding this passage is understanding the Greek word cosmos.

Can you say that with me? Cosmos. Think it’s the cosmos, right? It is the world. Now, the world can mean several different things. In the Greek, you have to understand the context to know what it means. We do this in English all the time. For example, if you had a ball last night, it doesn’t mean you had a literal ball.

You could have, but you’re saying, I had a blast, right? Oh man, that was a ball. Or you can dress up and go to a ball, or you can see a ball on the ground and pick it up and throw it. Ball is the same word, but different meanings because of the context. In the same way, the world here means at least three different things.

Number one, it means the planet. So when God created the world, it’s talking about the world, the earth, the stars, the sky. Also for humanity. John three 16. For God so loved the world, world, here is humanity. It’s all the mankind. Yes, he loves the earth, but that passage there, he died for you and for me. So those, those are positive connotations of the world.

Here in John. You also see in one John chapter two, world has a very negative context. I think the best word to describe this kind of world is what we, you and I would probably call culture. It’s like a set of values and habits and attitudes that pervade society. And you’ll find those values, those habits, those attitudes are contrary to the way of Jesus.

Like Jesus says, love your neighbor. That is not the world. The world hates their neighbor or only loves those who give something back. We’re constantly at odds with the world. Dr. Gary Beshear is really helpful here. Here’s his definition of the world. Quote. The world is Satan’s domain. Where his authority and values reign.

Though his deception makes that hard to realize. Even as Christians, we can forget. We can have certain values in our life, we think is from God, but actually upon further examination, it’s something we were passed down from the world that infiltrated our mind. If to end the quote, if you are of the world, then it all seems right.

My favorite way to describe the cosmos is the following way, the world. Here’s what the world does. The world normalizes rebellion against God and incentivizes retaliation against man. A quick word on both. Number one, normalizes rebellion. You’ll see this in every generation. There’s new sins that we paint as virtues.

For example, greed. Greed can be thwarted and painted as if you’re just being a good steward of your money. Violence. We sometimes paint that as just executing justice. A lot of sins. We label freedom. We normalize this rebellion. We’re so used to it. We don’t even repent of it anymore because this is what everybody does, which of course, the only way to really encounter Christ Jesus is to repent and be horrified by our sin, but then glorify Jesus ing it.

But the world wants you to normalize your sin. It’s not something to be sad about, something to celebrate, but it doesn’t just do that. It incentivizes retaliation. Notice how this is the exact opposite of the greatest commands. Jesus says, all of the law can be summarized as love the Lord your God with all your heart.

So mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, the world wants you to hate your God and to hate your neighbor. And so it incentivizes that. Even on social media, you’ll get more of a following if you’re angry and tribalistic versus just kind and helpful. It multiplies your income. When you pick an enemy and destroy them, you get applause from others.

When you otherwise people, you get rewarded for dividing. People dividing, uh, movements. This is what gets a lot of attention. So the church is supposed to be a community of people that says, no, we’ve been forgiven of that and we have been delivered to live a whole new way of life. We are no longer of this world, meaning we no longer do what we want, whenever we want.

That’s normal to you. But Jesus has sanctified me, regenerated my heart. I see the world totally different. When you’re of the world, it feels right and justified to give into conflict and to divide and to retaliate. But when you’re of Jesus, you repent of such gossip and drama, and you choose the hard way of forgiveness and reconciliation.

This is the beauty of the gospel. This is the invitation for you and for me. And to be honest, some of us in this room might still be of the world, and I got good news for you. You can be delivered from it because Jesus came into the world so that you could live free from it. Now the worst translations of this, the way people interpret this passage to mean is to stop caring about the world.

Hey, let’s run away. Let’s just have us in our church. They’re all going to hell in a hand basket. That is not the, that’s not the mood here in John 15. It’s saying, no, you’re not enslaved to rebellion and retaliation like them, but you’re still among them because you are called to reach them and to also invite them into this saving grace to be redeemed and to reconcile not just with God, but with the fellow man.

So that’s the context so far. That’s what it means to be of the world. And we are not of the world, but what does it mean to be hated by the world? What does this resistance actually look like? Well, Jesus continues in verse 20. Remember the word I spoke to you? I love this. He’s a great communicator. He literally just said this on the same day.

He’s about to quote what he said in John 13, which he just shows. We are just so easily forgetting a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. He’s just using really good basic logic. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours, but they will do all these things, these things to you on account of my name.

In other words, they’re hating you or listening to you, not because you’re great or bad or whatever is because of the name of Jesus, because they don’t know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates me also hates my father.

If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my father. There’s a lot of theological confusion here. We use the Bible to interpret the Bible just because Jesus is saying, Hey, I was with them. I performed miracles, and they didn’t believe.

So now they’ve counted as sin. But Romans one also says, just, you know, just to be in creation, not to see God or special revelation, but just to look around. We incur guilt. There has to be a sign that God clearly exists and we have sinned against him. But I think what we’re saying here, and commentators would reassure us this guilt of sin is the sin of blaspheming, the Holy Spirit.

They’re clearly rejecting God and they will spend eternity away from ’em. So this is a warning man. If they didn’t trust me when, when I’m here, they’re certainly not gonna trust you, verse 25. But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled. They hated me for no reason.

That’s really how it feels when we are living the Jesus life. It’s really disorienting because it’s hard to logically figure out why some people hate us. It feels like there was really no reason behind it other than just that we follow Jesus and that’s what it is. Jesus, in his life, he experienced a lot of opposition, a lot of resistance, and he’s saying you’ll experience it too.

Jesus. Like, I’ve healed people, I love people and they hated me for it. What do you think they’re going to do to you? So I wanna mark, just in my own reading of the Gospel of John and Acts and my own experience, at least four ways you and I experience resistance from the world, it goes from kind of bad to really bad, okay?

The first way is if Jesus is your master, you will be misunderstood, kind of like always. Almost be careful if you’re not misunderstood. See in the gospel of John, people misunderstand the greatest communicator of all time, king Jesus. John chapter three, for example, he talks to Nicodemus and he tells them, you must be born again.

And how does Nicodemus respond? I’m supposed to go back in my mother’s womb, right? He’s just misunderstanding the gospel. Later in John chapter six, he feeds the thousands, and then though they realize, or Jesus points out, disciples don’t want the bread of life, they just want bread. So he looks at all the disciples and says, eat my flesh and drink my blood.

The disciples, many who were following him, walked away and they said, this is too hard of a teaching. They just didn’t understand the gospel. And if you’re following Jesus today, expect to be misunderstood even from those really far from God. Uh, you’ll probably be labeled judgmental for believing in absolute truth, and that doesn’t feel fun.

We’re not celebrating that we’re called judgmental, but we still have to believe in absolute truth. Some will think you have a hidden agenda because you’re too kind or too nice, and so they don’t trust you. You’re just being misunderstood, and that again is because obedience to Jesus, his kingdom ethics look irrational to the value systems of our world.

Why would you not take the promotion? Why would you not gossip behind their back? Why would you not X, Y, and Z? Well, it’s because we have a whole new value system because God has given us a new heart when we put our faith in him, but it doesn’t just stop there. It’s one thing to be misunderstood. The next is to be misrepresented.

Number two, if Jesus is your master, you will be misrepresented. And this one’s really hard for me. I hate this one. In the gospel of John, you see people misrepresent Jesus all the time. The Pharisees, one of their favorite things, I like to call Jesus was a demon. They were saying, okay, he’s casting out these demons.

That’s because he is a demon. And Jesus goes, A house can’t be divided against itself. This is no, this makes no logical sense for you to say, I’m a demon when I’m casting people free from demons. This is what he was called. All the time. They would call him other things like when he was crucified, it was because he was posed as a political threat saying, Hey, we need to put him away.

’cause he’s gonna make Rome upset. Jesus says, my kingdom’s not of this world. I didn’t come to bring a sword. I came to bring peace. But he was misrepresented and it caused people to fear. Even as I’m thinking, we studied the book of Acts all of last year, and Paul was constantly misrepresented. He was kind of accused of leading a revolt of rebellion and so that’s why they were trying to, uh, this whole mob was trying to put him in jail and it’s like he wasn’t even, he didn’t even do that.

Misrepresented. And you, if you follow Jesus long enough, you’ll experience this too. Any among us, I imagine there would be a yes in Amen when your conviction was labeled as arrogance. When your friends and family would tell you, oh, you think you’re better than me. You care for someone, you counsel them, and yet they walk away and label you.

As an evil doer or label you as someone who never cared for them. It’s a misrepresentation or it’s even really hard. I hate this after a disagreement, ’cause conflict happens. This is what life is. You choose to take the high road and you stay silent. You don’t speak ill of the person you disagreed with, and yet that person, Mars, your reputation, gossips about you, spins the story and makes you look like the villain.

What do you do now? Well, you remember they did this to Jesus. They’ll also do this to you. It gets even worse. Number three, if Jesus is your master, you will be marginalized in the gospel of John. You see people push Jesus out of the inner circles. He loved the outsider. He was with the SE Samaritan woman at the well.

But anytime he would go into Jerusalem, he’d quickly be kicked out to go back to Galilee. Jerusalem was the epicenter of religious activity. And Jesus would come and perform many miracles, but they pushed him out or they try to run him off a cliff. He was often marginalized. Isaiah the prophet, 600 years before Jesus’ arrival says he was despised and rejected by men.

So don’t be surprised when you are despised and rejected as his disciples, and this is what happens maybe here in America. You’re not ostracized, but you just slowly stop getting invited to things. Have you guys experienced that before? We certainly have. Or you’d be left outta friend groups or you find out there’s like a whole text thread that you assume you should be a part of that group, but you’re not.

And it’s because maybe you don’t participate in gossip like you used to. Even in church, some would claim you’re too intense for your faith, you serve too much, we’re not gonna hang out with you as often. It’s really easy to slowly get marginalized, pushed on the outside. But this is what happens when you follow Jesus.

Don’t be surprised, of course. Number four, if Jesus is your master, you could be martyred. And the gospel of John Jesus says in John 10, Hey, I’m the good shepherd and I’m gonna lay down my life for my sheep, and he does that right after this upper room discourse, Judas betrays him and he goes and he gets beaten, mocked, spat upon crown of thorns, put on his head, and he was crucified, all because he loved the world.

Some followers of Jesus actually still experienced this today in 2024, last year alone, 4,476 Christians were killed for their faith. I think what makes that number even more astounding is when you realize that’s roughly 12 Christians per day are dying for their faith in Jesus. US. Last year alone, 380 million Christians faced high to extreme persecution and discrimination.

I’ve spent some time overseas where there was, if you, if it came out that you were a Christian, you were in in jail at best or dead at worst, you maybe even heard some stories. But there’s over 7,700 churches in 2024 that were attacked or the building was set on fire. By God’s grace here in America, most of us aren’t dying for our faith.

There’s a good chance you’ll live your life without getting Mar martyred, which is why it’s a fun holiday weekend. Shout out to July 4th and shout out to our freedom of religion, but we should still remember you and I still have a lot of dying to do, dying to the comfort of this world for the sake of the kingdom dying to our reputation and trusting God to defend us, dying to our dream, so that God would do what only he can do.

But I don’t think most of you are surprised still. I think we kind of, most of us know following Jesus means you’re gonna be misunderstood. You’ll probably be misrepresented by those in the outside world. It’s kind of common to know you’ll be marginalized and it makes sense that those around the world are martyred.

But for me, that 23-year-old Trey was surprised that a lot of that misunderstanding, misrepresentation, marginalization, often happens within the church. And that’s often the biggest surprise. We even see this in the story of Jesus. In John 18, Jesus finishes his discourse in one of his own 12. Judas betrays him with a kiss.

That same exact chapter in John 18, we see Peter three times was asked, do you know Jesus? Is he your Lord? Do you follow him? And he says, I don’t even know him. The rest of the disciples besides John ran away and deserted Jesus. Only John was there with his mother at the time of his crucifixion, and that’s shocking.

It’s shocking when the hate or the hurt comes from within the church theologically. There are reasons why sometimes the Bible details, it’s because it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We have to remember we have an enemy, and of course he will send people in to infiltrate, to dominate and to divide a church.

And so as shepherds pray for us, me and Pastor Caleb have to think through that and pray and ask for discernment. Are there any wolves among us? We have to always ask ourselves, are we caring for the sheep the way you have called us to care? Other times, and this is often more likely, the sheep are either wounded themselves and they haven’t allowed the gospel to heal them, and so they take their wounds and make sure.

They wound those around them because hurt people, hurt people. Other times it’s because sheep are more formed by the world than the word, because they spend way more time watching social media, watching the values of the world than spending time in the word of God. So it’s no surprise that their way of life begins to infiltrate ours, and that’s because we live in the world still.

We’re not of it. But man, you and I, we’re still in it. And the world theologically is Satan’s domain. He’s a defeated enemy, but he still has this domain until his second coming. And so John, just a few chapters earlier, says his chief strategy, he’s a thief who comes to still kill and destroy. I just wanna warn you, friends.

The enemy doesn’t just attack from the outside, he infiltrates from the inside. ’cause Satan knows if he can’t destroy the church, he will do all he can to divide it. And how do you divide? By distorting the truth, by whispering lies in the heart of other believers, slowly beginning to misunderstand each other, to misrepresent each other, to marginalize, to push the church out, or its leadership.

And this is what’s caused me the deepest sorrow. And yet it brings me so much joy when our church isn’t surprised and we stick to the truth. We seek reconciliation. We lean on God in the midst of the resistance. And yet I still want to say to you, it hurts. And I’m sorry. Sorry. If our church has ever contributed to this type of hatred at the same time, we all have to completely remember.

Sometimes it hurts because we’re the one in sin. So actually the sin that we’ve committed, it’s because we’re wrong. And so just because we felt bad, we should still repent of it. There’s so many things there. We’ve talked about that before. But let me just say, this is why I’m grateful Jesus doesn’t just end with a warning.

Hey, persecution is coming. It’s gonna come in weird places, but he keeps on teaching. Let’s see what he teaches. In verse 26, it says, when the counselor notice the capital Cs referring to the Holy Spirit. When the counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

So much of the Trinity here. It’s beautiful. You’ll also testify or witness, because you have been with me from the beginning and I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he’s offering a service to God.

You guys see that on the news that there’s a guy here in Phoenix who had a hit list of 14 pastors because he claims, well, because these pastors claim Jesus is the son of God. I believe he actually, he did murder one, but they caught him and he was saying, this is what God told me to do. It’s crazy stuff, but it happens.

Verse three, they will do these things because they haven’t known the father or me, but I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you saying, don’t be surprised. Here’s also what he’s saying.

Look, taking away the surprise doesn’t fully take away the sting, and that’s why Jesus doesn’t just warn us, warn us. He sends help. He’s not just saying, Hey, surprise is coming. Be careful. No, he is saying, you probably, you can’t do this without me. You need the comforter. You need the counselor. That Greek word here is paratas, which is an advocate, a helper, a counselor, a comforter.

Literally, that word means the one who comes alongside of you. So this is the beautiful invitation. Jesus is about to say. It’s better I go because the Spirit is coming. Because the spirit of God will be in you and with you and beside you to comfort you in the midst of all of the misunderstandings, the misrepresentations, the marginalizations, and the martyrdoms.

But we have to remember this. The Holy Spirit doesn’t intrude. He comes when we ask him to, and the sad reality is some won’t consider it worth the cost. Our anchor passage for the entire year has been marked chapter four. We’ve been talking a lot about the four soils, and Jesus warns his disciples become the fourth soil.

Here’s his warning about the second soil, I think is worth bringing up according to this passage, he says, and others are like seeds sewn on rocky ground. When they hear the word immediately, they receive it with joy, but they have no root. They’re short-lived. So when distress or persecution comes because of the gospel, they immediately fall away.

Jesus has taken that same principle and telling the disciples, don’t be the second soil. Persecution will come, and I don’t want you to fall away. That word fall away is the same Greek word that we see here in chapter 16, verse one that says, stumbling. Literally the ESV translates. Uh, John 16 one, I have said all these things to keep you from falling away.

It’s the same word. Hey, persecution comes and there’s a chance you’ll fall away. Don’t fall away. Lean into the counselor. Let him comfort you. You can’t do this fight on your own if you lean into him. He will be faithful to keep you going. So is there a practice from the way of Jesus that empowers you and me to endure hardship when persecution comes?

There are many, but chief among them is the practice of prayer. We talked about prayer all of May, and I pray that you are still praying now, and that’s the practice for this week. My encouragement to you is to do two things. First of all, the main thing is to practice coming to the counselor in prayer. I think we often forget this is what we’re supposed to do when we feel distress or persecution.

That’s why we have a helper. It’s why we have an advocate. We’re supposed to go to God and say, God, I’m filling these things. I’m worried about these things, and hand it over two ways. I encourage you to particularly pray when you feel pressed on every side from the world. Number one, don’t retreat. Rejoice.

It’s very easy to get made fun of for sharing your faith or your family begin to ostracize you don’t retreat. Rejoice that you are worthy of suffering for the gospel. Jesus, put it this way, in his sermon on the Mount, Matthew five, verse 11, you are blessed. You’re happy when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil thing against you because of me.

Be glad and rejoice because your reward is great and heaven for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So honestly, this week, if you feel a temptation to retreat, don’t rejoice. Say thank you, God, thank you that I’m being misunderstood. Thank you that I’m being misrepresented. Which leads to number two, don’t defend.

Depend. When I look at my last 10 years, I wish I learned this way sooner. Dallas Willard would often encourage pastors and Christian leaders by saying the following, trust God with your PR department. Meant, don’t worry about your public relations. Don’t worry what people are saying about you. Make sure you’re following the way.

And if people call you out of your sin, of course, repent of that. But sometimes you’ll just be misrepresented and misunderstood and marginalized. But guess what? It’s not your job to defend your reputation. It’s not your job to make sure, okay, who heard this gossip, how They need to know the full story.

Trust God to defend you. He’ll take care of you. Keep walking in integrity as we are about to respond as the music comes up. I read this quote this morning, this prayer from Thomas St. Keas that I think is so helpful. It’s not on the screen ’cause I just came up with it, but Thomas St. Keas prays this. He says, God, grant that I may die to all things in this world, and for your sake, love to be despised and unknown in this life.

Let’s pray.