March 31, 2025 • 46 mins
Special Guest Steve Swenson from Open Doors sharing on The Persecuted Church at The Red Door Community Church.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Just wanna add a couple littlethings about Easter to your radar.
Please be praying this week or the 12
pastors, leaders are
gonna be recording for the Eastercontent for the augmented reality.
So that'll be happening this weekon Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
So please be praying for that.
Also, this week we've got a bunch of
advertising going.
(00:21):
Out, which
is in the newspaper, inthe local rag in Fremantle.
It's called the Fremantle Herald.
And then also at SouthMantle Football Club.
Does anyone know where SouthMantle 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.
(00:43):
Seconds.
There's, a rotation
of 10 different adverts,and guess what's on there?
Starting tomorrow morningat the Cross Live.
If you wanna know more aboutthe event, make sure you go
to the website, use a QR code.
Very good.
Last November, we did a thing thatwe've done pretty much every year.
Called Love Attack.
Everyone Say Love Attack.
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And last year, last November, we werehoping to go to another church, but
that kind of fell through and thenall of a sudden we had to put our
creative hats on and go, how are wegonna attack with Love the church?
Well, someone came upwith 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 dowhen you don't care who gets the
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credit.
But, we wanted
to attack with Love the Persecuted Church.
And the way we did that was actuallyquite a moving service, which we
ended up praying in other differentlanguages in sort of in a regional way.
And I remember, uh.
When we did that, we recorded itand sent it over to open doors,
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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 weredoing in Perth, Western Australia.
So it's a real blessing to haveSteve 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 welcomeSteve milking Phil at home.
He is never been here before, buthe's been in WA for a couple of
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weeks and having a brilliant time.
Welcome, Steve.
Thank
you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
Just while we're still talkingabout the love attack, it almost
sounds frightening, doesn't
it?
But, that's a
different meaning in
Queensland.
But, but, just, just
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the fact that, the way thatyou creatively took hold of that
and everyone leaned into it.
Has actually helped us in how we aregoing to reach out to other churches.
You will be an example of howcreatively you've taken what you were
given and made it into something.
Because our heart is to, on thefirst weekend of November, every
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year we join with other ministriesthat serve persecuted people, to
try and motivate the church aroundAustralia and New Zealand to pray.
Last year, open doors, was hopingto have 500 churches participate.
We failed in reaching 500, wegot 912, but we fail forward.
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But with your help and your creativity,I've already shared that with other
churches who I've been explaining whatit's about and told them what you did.
Because I think, you know, for allof us to immerse ourselves into.
Into something that we pray forthat's not on our front door.
It's very difficult.
But what you did was broughteverybody into an experience.
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And as I shared that around our,ministry, people just cried as
they listened to people prayingin their own mother tongue.
And so thank you for the way thatyou did that and the way everybody
leaned in and for your generosity.
Oh my goodness.
Thank you so much.
Your generosity was off thecharts and was such a blessing
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for us to be able to say that into
the field, to bless
and strengthen persecutedbelievers around the world.
So thank you.
I'm just going to introducemyself 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 andI'm going home tomorrow.
My wife's been sleeping very well
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without me, but I'll
ruin that when I go and snoretomorrow night and their bed.
But, I just want to, also honor yourleadership here because I know their
heart is unity of the body of Christ.
Since I arrived, I've been stayingat the YWAM base and since I arrived
16 days ago on the Friday night, andI walked in and there was about 170
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young people there, all with theirhands raised, crying out to God for
his, his, his anointing
on their life, his presence tobe manifest in their life so
they could go out and share thegospel on the streets that night.
Right through to today,coming here and everything.
I got here a bit early 'cause I'mnotoriously, early 'cause I don't
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want to get stuck in traffic and thennot be here when you're calling me up
to speak.
But I couldn't,
some of the doors weren't openand so I went down into the youth
section and there's no seatsthere and I thought, oh cool.
No seats tonight
in church.
But,
to find my way here, everybodyhas just been so welcoming.
And such a
blessing.
It's amazing.
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You can be 3,600 kilometersfrom your home, but walk in and
feel like you're amongst family.
So I want to thank you, but I also wannathank you and your leadership because
I know your heart is for unity of thebody of Christ, and I've seen that.
You know, I've, I've been in everydifferent type of church denominationally
from Independence through the Seventh DayAdventist, Pentecostals, Baptist, all,
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all sorts, and it has just been the mostenriching experience as I stand along
side brothers and sisters who expresstheir Christianity in a different way,
their worship in a different style.
And it's just been so refreshing.
So thank you because I knowthat you have sown seeds
and for, pastors Adam
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and Dale, I know that that wouldcome at times at great expense over
the many years you've done that.
And I want to thank you forpaying that price because the
body of Christ in Australia isbetter for it and I honor that.
As somebody who's grown up as a pastor'skid, you know, you grow up in a style.
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And the style that you grow upin, 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 andsupport persecuted believers,
they don't have what we have.
So obviously God doesn't go to thosechurches 'cause they don't have
drums, you know, like, you know,we have these, these, these, uh.
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It's almost a, I call it I, I,I'll, I'll just criticize myself.
I was a Christian bigot in thatit 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 weare lifting up the name of Jesus,
he draws all people under himself.
And so I want to thank youfor what you have done.
I bring greetings from my wife.
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I go home and it'll be the last day ofMarch 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 thathas been with me 31 years proves
to me that Jesus still does
miracles.
For her to,
it's a lot of
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chocolate, to keep herwith me, and the blessing
of God.
And I have two beautifulchildren who also would love me
to greet you on their behalf.
My daughter, JIRA, who's 27, she's aspeech 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.
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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 foundout 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
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it is to be with you tonight.
What I also love about WA isthere 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-Christiansbecause I think it's very important how,
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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 Ibelieve that God is moving by
his power in an incredible way.
And we can look at all the thingsthat are going on in the world and
start to think the sky is fallingin, but we serve a risen savior who
will build his church and the gatesof hell will not prevail against it.
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And so, particularly with thisEaster season coming upon us.
Take the opportunity to invite anot yet Christian to come with you.
Go that step further and don'tjust invite them to come with
you, but bring them with you.
Bringing, there's a supernaturalelement to bringing it.
The devil will try and stop them coming.
If you say meet me in the carpark, 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
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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,
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our mission is simple.
It's to serve the persecutedand strengthen the church.
And for over 70 years, or 70 yearsthis year, we've been doing that
and strengthening Christians insome 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.
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He would put Bibles in boxes andunder seats and in panels and
in the front bonnet area, andhe would drive to the border.
How many have read the book?
God Smuggler.
I read the comic.
They came out around thesame time there was a
comic, but I've read
the book since.
But his mother put a Bible in his.
(10:28):
In his clothing when he went toserve in the armed forces and he was
injured and someone got that, he'dnever 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 wordof God to places who didn't have it.
So he took Bibles behind the IronCurtain where there were churches
that were basically a front for thegovernment without a Bible in them,
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and he became famous for praying thisprayer 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 youto make seeing eyes blind.
Mm. And he would drive to the border andliterally time after time, they would stop
all the cars in front of him and his car.
They'd either just wave through or theywould come, they'd look in his car, they'd
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open the boxes, not even see Bibles andwave him on, or the compassion that, or
he'd find a compassionate border guardwho would just let him through anyway.
And from that time till now, open doorscontinues to smuggle Bibles into countries
that don't have them, and provide Biblesin a language for people who haven't
ever had a Bible in their own languageand provide other services to strengthen
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persecuted believers around the world.
If you've ever read
your Bible, from cover
to cover numbers of times, thereare certain verses that jump out
to you that you wish weren't there.
Here's one.
Blessed are those who arepersecuted for righteousness sake.
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You, you mentioned a versebefore in James chapter one.
I memorized it from the messagetranslation, and forgive me if you
think this is crass, but when I read itin the message translation, I thought
he must have written it downwind froma marijuana burn off because it says,
consider it a sheer gift when tests andchallenges come at you from every side.
Yeah, when it's Christmastime at our place, we write
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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 arepersecuted for righteousness sake.
Persecution is one part of thecall that we willingly take
up our cross to follow Christ.
But also we are called to standalongside persecuted brothers
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and sisters and strengthen themwhen they're going through trial.
Jesus also told his disciplesin 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 neverforget that Jesus is our risen.
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Glorified savior, he's victorious.
And who despite persecution, he'sbuilding his church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
Someone say Amen.
Amen.
So I wanna briefly share something thatwill be something that strengthens you.
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And we can strengthen our persecutedbrothers and sisters with, I grew up as
a pastor's kid, and so we would oftenhave missionaries come to church, and
it's important that we hear the storiesthat they share, but sometimes it seems
so distant from me that I couldn'trelate it into my own world, and I'd
sit for two hours and watch them.
Show me videos or pictures orslides back in the day of, you
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know, them going overseas in theirsafari 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 standbefore a group of people that you
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are walking through some things ofyour own that relate to these verses.
You're facing trials and tribulationin your own life, and right now it's
even hard for you to be, and it, it'snot selfish of you, but it's even
hard for you to think about what'sgoing on over there because in your
world right now, you're facing trials.
So I just wanna give you threesimple points tonight that I would
share with a persecuted believer tostrengthen them, but also I wanna share
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with you to strengthen you tonight.
Because some of you right now, you'regoing through a physical diagnosis
that the doctors have given you andit's just too hard for you to bear.
Some of you,
you're in, a family
situation of turmoil right nowwhere perhaps you're estranged from
your family or even your marriageis really on the rocks right now.
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Perhaps you even walked in here tonightholding hands so nobody would know.
But you know, deep down it'sjust gonna take one little thing.
God cares.
And I never want to give theimpression that when I share stories
of the persecuted people, that Godloves them more than he loves you.
And so my heart is to strengthenyou tonight as we consider what
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our persecuted brothers are goingthrough and our persecuted sisters
are going through, that God would alsostrengthen you by his mighty power.
Amen.
So the first thing, and I believeit'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.
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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 teenagerto understand that and I'm thinking
he was where, and he's with us.
He's with us here rightnow 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.
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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, bynow, I don't take myself so seriously.
So it's okay to laugh in church.
Okay.
But then.
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There's the omnipresence of God, but thenthere'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, thenthere's the indwelling presence.
Sadly, too many Christiansjust stop there.
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But then there's the manifestpresence where God out there comes
in here and wants to flow throughus to bring change to our community.
And so in the midst of understanding thatGod inhabits the praises of his people
and inhabits us and is with us, we look atthese verses and so the, the word for some
of you tonight to strengthen you in themidst of your trial and your tribulation
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right now that you are facing is thesewords, 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 themidst of your suffering right now.
So do not fear.
I found myself in a a period of my lifewhere I had anxiety and depression, and
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I wondered if I ever would be okay again.
I. Something had broken on the insideand I felt like my pillow at night was
a trampoline of terror, and I fear wouldcome 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 understandabout how his presence sustains us is
found in two Corinthians 12, verse ninehas become one of my favorite verses.
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He says to, to me, my grace issufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in your weakness.
That word power is wherewe get the word dynamite.
The word dunamis can be broken downeven further to these three words,
the ability, the efficiency, and themight of heaven in your weakness.
He promises to give you a gift of grace.
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His power that is made perfectin your weakness, in your own
strength, what you're facing rightnow may be just too much to bear,
but he gives you his ability.
What you're facing right now to evenbe able to complete the call of God
on your life, in your own strengthis beyond your own efficiencies.
But he can make you efficient for thetask and what you're facing right now
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may need the supernatural power of Godto intervene and in your own power.
You can't do it, but his power, hismight, is perfected in your weakness.
So what are you facing rightnow that's too much for you?
Be encouraged.
Do not fear and his power ismade perfect in your weakness.
And then the third point,
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God works all things for good.
Romans 8 28.
And we know that all things work togetherfor 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 aboutmy family, which my mom is my
hero, and you'll understand why,because she has modeled to me how
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the presence of God sustains us.
When I was, my mom and
dad when, when they were young, theywent to Bible college in Brisbane.
They, a OG pastors went toBible 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 wasborn there, and when I was one month
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old, God moved them, called themout of that established assembly.
They felt called by God to goto Country Victoria and plant
a church in a place called Moi.
When they got there, the churchplanting arm of the Assemblies of
God, if someone got the call ofGod, they'd clap them and send them
off with a prayer and no finance.
So my dad, who was a panel beaterby trade, he would do up old cars.
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And the pastor who was doing thesame thing in GaN was a mechanic.
And together they would do up oldcars and they would sell them to raise
money like tent maker ministry so thatthey could continue to serve the Lord.
And all their needs weremet by God that way.
It was really cool.
But when, my mom had
been there for some time, she was missingher family, and so dad said, well, why
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don't you take the kids and go backto 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 alsopregnant with my little brother.
She didn't know I was a boy atthe time, but she was pregnant and
so she came back to Queensland.
But while we were in Queensland and notcame at the door, they went and opened
the door at my grandparents' house.
It was the police.
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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 theJacks 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.
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I was a little fella, but hisgrace is sufficient and his power
is made perfect in her weakness.
The presence of God sustained her.
But one of the things that she, Imean, she had to go down and identify
the body and move all of the stuffback to Queensland, but in the
midst of that, some time went byand she gave birth to a little boy.
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She was worried through that wholeprocess, not worried, but just
disappointed that my dad, David,would never see his child grow up.
A couple of hours after my brotherwas born, she named him David.
After my dad, he passed, he died.
So this, you know, things justpile on top of each other, but
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God's presence sustained her.
She was lying in hospital after thathad 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 babyDavid and Jesus was standing at the
foot of the cross in front of her.
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The other side of thecross was my dad, David.
And she walked to the foot of thecross and handed baby David to Jesus.
And Jesus took him and walked tothe other side of the cross and
said to my m he will raise
his namesake and thenput him in my mum's arms.
Now theologically.
That's probably not sound, andplease don't come to me later and
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try and give me a theological lesson.
You've missed the point entirely.
When we need God to be strong, whenwe are not, he gives us things that
sustain us, that dream, whetherit's theologically sound or not.
Sustained my mum and brought her outof a pit of despair to a place of hope.
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She comes outta hospital.
She has the thing, she might withdraw outof circulation, but she just feels God
has saved us for a purpose and called us.
And so there was a man sharing in ourhome church at the time about a ministry
that had been started in America byDave Wilkerson called Teen Challenge.
And they were starting a home inBrisbane for women who are getting
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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 livingin our home at any one time.
Again, the presence of Godsustained her and what can
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come out of brokenness is good.
And so in the midst of that, therewas another facility around the
corner that was a men's facilityfor the same sort of ministry.
And there were, we, we'd get togetherfrom time to time with the guys
and we'd go to the same church.
They would take them to youthgroup and young adults things.
They didn't have it then it was all in
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one.
And, we'd all
go to church together and havepicnics and I dunno what was
playing at the time, but there
was a man, that was
volunteering in that men'sfacility on the weekends.
He had another job during theweek, but he would volunteer.
And there was a get together onenight, and like I said, I dunno what
was playing on the record player,maybe it was, you know, uh oh baby.
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Because he looked acrossthe 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'tonly choose her, but he chose to
take my sister, who by this timewas seven and a half and I was five.
He chose a wife and afamily, but she was 28.
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He was 19.
That was the response of a lot of people.
Whoa.
There were a lot of people in the churchat the time that said, this'll never work.
Don't do it, man.
Run, run, run.
Last year in November, they celebratedtheir 50th wedding anniversary, and we
know all things work together for good.
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To them that love God and arecalled 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.
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We were never to know.
That when I was a youth pastor ofa church, I would meet a young lady
who would become my wife, whose nameis Sherry, S-H-E-R-R-Y, la la la.
She's already told me many times ifmy name was still boozy, she would
not have married me even thoughshe loves me or she said, you, we,
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you'd have taken my name, not yours.
And we know all things work togetherfor good to them that love God and
are called according to his purpose.
I share that with you tonight becausesome of you're going through tough
stuff, you're really facing stuff rightnow, and it's just too hard for you.
Fear not for I am with you.
My grace is sufficient for you, and mypower is made perfect in your weakness.
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And we know that all things work togetherfor good to them, that love God and
are called according to his purpose.
And that's the same for our persecutedbrothers and sisters, that they
would be strengthened and understandthat power of those scriptures.
So let's jump into this becauseyou don't wanna have breakfast
with me when I finish, so.
The statistical reality of persecutionin the world right now is staggering.
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Over 380 million Christians on the planettoday face severe violence and persecution
for being followers of Jesus Christ.
It's gone up by about 25 million fromlast year, 380 million that is one in
seven believers around the globe currentlyface severe violence and pressure.
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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 theglobe, but behind those massive
statistics are individual stories.
Stories like Helen from Eritrea,
who was locked in a shippingcontainer for 32 months for choosing
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to sing Christian songs on thesteps of her church in Eritrea.
It's not against the lawto be a Christian, but it's
illegal to share your faith.
They tortured her with a tool thatwas meant to kill her, but she kept
saying the name of Jesus and she saidThe name of Jesus is like a medicine.
The presence of God sustained her.
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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 ofthese, a physical copy of the Bible.
He wasn't preaching from it.
He just had one, and the communistpolice came and took him and his Bible
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away, and she's never seen him again.
But the presence of God sustains her.
The people like Pastor Barnabas in Nigeriaright now where there is 16.2 million
persecuted believers displaced from theirhomes for being followers of Jesus Christ.
Most of them live ininternal displacement camps.
Where a family of four orfive will live in a tent the
(28:25):
size of a queen size mattress.
He's been there nearly five yearsand at his own risk, he pastors
people in one of these camps, butthe presence of God sustains him.
The people like Brother Harun,who's a third generation imam
or was until he miraculously.
(28:49):
Encountered the love ofJesus and became a Christian.
He went and told his family about it.
They loved him so much that theybroke 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, washealed, and he's the kicker.
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The presence of Godjust didn't sustain him.
It has empowered him and he'splanted 30 churches to this point.
Praise the Lord.
The people like M from Bangladesh, little9-year-old girl in an Islamic community
whose family came to know Jesus all atonce, is brought great persecution to
their family, but she's so proud 'causeher dad is a pastor and an evangelist.
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Her mum leads the ladies ministryand she also teaches Sunday school.
And M used to have a lot offriends, but now she has none.
She's isolated at school, and herfriends don't only just isolate her, but
at lunchtime they hit her with sticksand throw bricks and stones at her.
And she walks to school three kilometers,and that doesn't seem very far, but
(29:59):
for her as a 9-year-old walking throughcommunity where she's ostracized, and even
the people with tricycles are not allowedto 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.
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And the people like a Yuba and hissiblings again from Nigeria, Bako, her
arm, came into his village and theysimply went around knocking on doors,
asking people if they're a Christian ora Muslim, and if they answered Christian,
they would kill them on the spot.
But he and his siblings hadescaped into the bush in the night.
They came back the next morning tofind his father had been killed.
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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 needto get revenge on who did this.
But because of the generosity of churcheslike 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 siblingshave been able to go and find healing.
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The presence of God has sustainedthem and brought healing for
their soul and their spirit andtheir body, and he now says this.
He says,
I wanted revenge, but I'velearned to forgive and leave
everything at the feet of Jesus.
The presence of God sustains him.
Now, those stories can seem so far awayfrom us, but the Bible tells us in one
(31:28):
Corinthians 12 that we are all one body.
Body's made up of many parts, andwhen one part suffers, we all suffer.
My wife was walking out of thelaundry and kicked her little toe
on the skirting board, bent outat right angles and snapped it.
I've got, I've got the x-ray.
It's a great picture, but we learnedin that moment what this verse meant
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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 allof 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 playingin the body of Christ for our
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persecuted brothers and sisterswho are suffering around the world.
So how do we respond to this?
Well, the first thing is we needto pray for our persecuted brothers
and sisters, and you do that.
But again, I just want to give youone story about the power of prayer.
'cause sometimes we forgetthat prayer is powerful.
David Livingston is a
well-known, medical mission
(32:32):
reader, Africa and an explorer.
He was sent from his church in Scotlandto go over to minister to the people
in the, the continent of Africa.
And he would meet unreached people groupsand they would share the gospel with
them and, and medically care for them.
But there was this one tribe wherethe chief was so angry, he said.
I don't like your message in the wayhe would say it, but tonight we are
(32:55):
coming to kill you and your team.
So David Livingston considered itpure joy, went back to his compound
and got down on his knees and hecried out to God, please protect us.
Please save us from these threats.
And then he made an entry into his diaryand he closed his diary on that date.
And then they waited forthe Lord to deliver them.
(33:17):
That night nobody came.
He continued to work with his team,and again, they reached out sometime
later to that same tribe that chief whoresponded badly, suddenly was moved by
the love of Christ and gave his lifeto to Jesus, and the rest of the tribe
followed him to become Christians.
So David Livingston says to thatChief, you said you were going to
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kill us, but why didn't you come?
He said, oh, we did come, butwhen we came, your compound was
surrounded by 39 giant warriors,and we knew we could not take them.
David Livingston goes home to AscendChurch sometime later, and he's
talking with them and he's telling himthis story and the secretary of the
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church comes to him and says, do youremember the date that that was on?
And he says, yes, I madean entry in my diary.
And so they compare diaries.
And on that same night in the churchback in Scotland, there was a prayer
meeting for David Livingston and his team.
Do you know how many peoplewere in that prayer meeting?
(34:20):
39. 39 people praying.
39 giant warriorssurrounding 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
(34:41):
second thought that as you pray, Godis moving in Nigeria, God is moving in
North Korea, God is moving in all of theother countries that you can pray for.
Prayer is powerful.
And then the the second thing I wannaencourage you to do before we land this
plane.
Is, I want to
challenge you to sow a supernaturalseed as you already have done, but
(35:03):
I want you to wait and listen to thevoice of the Holy Spirit as to what he
might lead you to do and simply obey.
I'm not asking you togive your tithes to us.
'cause sometimes you can hearsome sad stories and think, oh,
instead of me giving it to whereGod 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 tosupport the vision where you are.
(35:26):
But if he speaks to you above and beyondthat, then we can receive an offering
down the back at the table later witha 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 recentlyand they're trying to stuff.
Money in my pockets whileI was talking to people.
It was rather
uncomfortable.
But it was,
it was a seniors meeting so it
wasn't so bad.
(35:47):
But yeah,
there's envelopes there.
That's a cash handling process as well.
So you don't think I've gone toMcDonald's with what you've given,
but so is supernatural seed.
$20 will put a Bible in the handof 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 youcan't buy one and do that.
(36:10):
It will also go
towards, sowing into
discipleship materials, leadershipdevelopment, emergency relief, community
development, and trauma care centerslike UBA and his siblings have gone to.
So I just simply ask you, what'sthe Holy Spirit saying to you?
And just listen and obey.
(36:31):
Um.
Also, God speaks to people from time totime and you've been given the gift of
philanthropy or you know, he speaks toyou 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 youto take away and pray about what you
(36:54):
might feel the Lord is leading you to do.
So together we can stand shoulderto 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
(37:16):
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 upfrom all around the room.
So all that means is yes,it'll blow up the building.
Fantastic.
Always wanted to see that happen.
(37:45):
I would like to finish by givingyou the opportunity to understand
what it might be a little bit like.
For a persecuted believer,
and if you just give a secondto try and set myself up here,
(38:09):
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?
(38:29):
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 projectsyou're sewing into tonight.
Thanks, mate.
Fantastic.
You should do this for a job.
(38:51):
Just you can't have my job
a purposely of unplugged itbecause when a persecuted person,
this is just one experience.
But when many persecuted peoplego to church, it's quite good here
because it's like a warehouse.
They don't go to a church building.
(39:12):
And it certainly doesn't look likethis, 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.
(39:32):
And so if you're open to thisexperiment, I believe the Holy Spirit
can speak to you in the midst of it.
So just imagine for a momentyou've arrived at church.
But instead of a comfortable seat,you're sitting on the floor, your
feet and your legs ache, and you'reexhausted because it's taken you
three hours of walking to get here.
(39:55):
Despite your exhaustion, you feel adeep sense of gratitude to just be
gathered in the presence of a few otherbelievers who made it to the gathering.
You press your handagainst your left cheek.
Trying to stop the bleeding from acut and a bruise, which is a painful
reminder of an attack that youjust faced on your way to church.
(40:18):
Someone from the community hadthreatened you with a knife trying
to scare you away and preventyou from attending the gathering.
But fortunately, you escaped, and nowyou are here, but you realize there's
bitterness growing in your heart towardsthat person who attacked you because
it's not the first time they've done it.
And you bring it to God and you'rereminded of Jesus' words that says,
(40:41):
bless those who persecute you.
So you lay it at Jesus' feet and youfeel 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 noticeone believer, a young woman
(41:02):
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 awareof the cost, desperate to worship
(41:26):
and be with fellow believers.
You thank God for his promise, neverto leave you alone or anyone else.
And you pray for protection.
Protection for today's meeting, thatno one would violently interrupt it.
This time, the sound of aguitar narrows your focus.
(41:46):
It's your opportunity toworship the King of Kings.
I want you to maybereflect what you would do,
what you would do if you knew.
That coming here tonightmight cost you everything,
(42:07):
that singing a song and worshipingGod might mean that the neighbors
call the police or raid your service.
I just want you to stay in this moment.
I
(42:29):
What would you do?
How great
Isga seeing with me.
How great Isga no, seehow great, how great is.
(43:00):
How great is our God seeing with me?
How great is our God?
Oh, see how great, how great
is.
(43:28):
The name above
you are worthy of all praise.
And my heart will say, how great
is our God?
(43:53):
How?
Is Aga seeing with me?
How great is aga?
No, we see how great.
How great is.
(44:20):
Well, we've already joinedtogether in prayer tonight for
persecuted brothers and sisters.
But again, we think of themwherever they are right now.
Of the 70 countries that open doors hasthe privilege of strengthening believers.
Would you be with persecutedpeople right now in North Korea?
Would you strengthen families in Somalia?
(44:41):
Would you be with people in Yemenand Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria,
Eritrea, Latin America, Asia.
Too many countries tomention by name tonight.
But God, would you please strengthenthem, fill them with your Holy Spirit.
Yes, that they might have theability and efficiency and the might
(45:05):
to stand under great pressure andpersecution, that your name would be
glorified and your kingdom extended.
And for those who have shed theirblood for the cause of Christ,
we believe that that blood shedwill actually be the beginning.
Of the seed of revival in those nations.
They have not died in vain,but you are working and has
(45:28):
already been prayed for tonight.
I was so blessed as we were let in prayerfor the persecuted and the persecutor.
So God, speak to those that areplanning atrocities tonight.
Reveal yourself to them.
In Jesus name
mean God.
For us as the church that comesto church in such comfort, may
you wake us from our slumber.
(45:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, may we never take for granted theprivilege of driving into a beautiful
facility, parking our car, gettingout 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
(46:14):
either.
We thank you for your goodness.
That you are building your church and thegates of hell will not prevail against it.
Yes.
Bless each of these fine peopleas they lean into this moment.
Holy Spirit, speak to us.
Break our heart for what breaks yours.
(46:34):
Yes.
And change us to become more like Jesus.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Just wanna add a couple littlethings about Easter to your radar.
Please be praying this week or the 12
pastors, leaders are
gonna be recording for the Eastercontent for the augmented reality.
So that'll be happening this weekon Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
So please be praying for that.
Also, this week we've got a bunch of
advertising going.
(00:21):
Out, which
is in the newspaper, inthe local rag in Fremantle.
It's called the Fremantle Herald.
And then also at SouthMantle Football Club.
Does anyone know where SouthMantle 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.
(00:43):
Seconds.
There's, a rotation
of 10 different adverts,and guess what's on there?
Starting tomorrow morningat the Cross Live.
If you wanna know more aboutthe event, make sure you go
to the website, use a QR code.
Very good.
Last November, we did a thing thatwe've done pretty much every year.
Called Love Attack.
Everyone Say Love Attack.
(01:04):
And last year, last November, we werehoping to go to another church, but
that kind of fell through and thenall of a sudden we had to put our
creative hats on and go, how are wegonna attack with Love the church?
Well, someone came upwith 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 dowhen you don't care who gets the
(01:25):
credit.
But, we wanted
to attack with Love the Persecuted Church.
And the way we did that was actuallyquite a moving service, which we
ended up praying in other differentlanguages in sort of in a regional way.
And I remember, uh.
When we did that, we recorded itand sent it over to open doors,
(01:47):
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 weredoing in Perth, Western Australia.
So it's a real blessing to haveSteve 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 welcomeSteve milking Phil at home.
He is never been here before, buthe's been in WA for a couple of
(02:09):
weeks and having a brilliant time.
Welcome, Steve.
Thank
you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
Just while we're still talkingabout the love attack, it almost
sounds frightening, doesn't
it?
But, that's a
different meaning in
Queensland.
But, but, just, just
(02:30):
the fact that, the way thatyou creatively took hold of that
and everyone leaned into it.
Has actually helped us in how we aregoing to reach out to other churches.
You will be an example of howcreatively you've taken what you were
given and made it into something.
Because our heart is to, on thefirst weekend of November, every
(02:52):
year we join with other ministriesthat serve persecuted people, to
try and motivate the church aroundAustralia and New Zealand to pray.
Last year, open doors, was hopingto have 500 churches participate.
We failed in reaching 500, wegot 912, but we fail forward.
(03:13):
But with your help and your creativity,I've already shared that with other
churches who I've been explaining whatit's about and told them what you did.
Because I think, you know, for allof us to immerse ourselves into.
Into something that we pray forthat's not on our front door.
It's very difficult.
But what you did was broughteverybody into an experience.
(03:36):
And as I shared that around our,ministry, people just cried as
they listened to people prayingin their own mother tongue.
And so thank you for the way thatyou did that and the way everybody
leaned in and for your generosity.
Oh my goodness.
Thank you so much.
Your generosity was off thecharts and was such a blessing
(03:59):
for us to be able to say that into
the field, to bless
and strengthen persecutedbelievers around the world.
So thank you.
I'm just going to introducemyself 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 andI'm going home tomorrow.
My wife's been sleeping very well
(04:20):
without me, but I'll
ruin that when I go and snoretomorrow night and their bed.
But, I just want to, also honor yourleadership here because I know their
heart is unity of the body of Christ.
Since I arrived, I've been stayingat the YWAM base and since I arrived
16 days ago on the Friday night, andI walked in and there was about 170
(04:42):
young people there, all with theirhands raised, crying out to God for
his, his, his anointing
on their life, his presence tobe manifest in their life so
they could go out and share thegospel on the streets that night.
Right through to today,coming here and everything.
I got here a bit early 'cause I'mnotoriously, early 'cause I don't
(05:03):
want to get stuck in traffic and thennot be here when you're calling me up
to speak.
But I couldn't,
some of the doors weren't openand so I went down into the youth
section and there's no seatsthere and I thought, oh cool.
No seats tonight
in church.
But,
to find my way here, everybodyhas just been so welcoming.
And such a
blessing.
It's amazing.
(05:24):
You can be 3,600 kilometersfrom your home, but walk in and
feel like you're amongst family.
So I want to thank you, but I also wannathank you and your leadership because
I know your heart is for unity of thebody of Christ, and I've seen that.
You know, I've, I've been in everydifferent type of church denominationally
from Independence through the Seventh DayAdventist, Pentecostals, Baptist, all,
(05:46):
all sorts, and it has just been the mostenriching experience as I stand along
side brothers and sisters who expresstheir Christianity in a different way,
their worship in a different style.
And it's just been so refreshing.
So thank you because I knowthat you have sown seeds
and for, pastors Adam
(06:07):
and Dale, I know that that wouldcome at times at great expense over
the many years you've done that.
And I want to thank you forpaying that price because the
body of Christ in Australia isbetter for it and I honor that.
As somebody who's grown up as a pastor'skid, you know, you grow up in a style.
(06:28):
And the style that you grow upin, 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 andsupport persecuted believers,
they don't have what we have.
So obviously God doesn't go to thosechurches 'cause they don't have
drums, you know, like, you know,we have these, these, these, uh.
(06:53):
It's almost a, I call it I, I,I'll, I'll just criticize myself.
I was a Christian bigot in thatit 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 weare lifting up the name of Jesus,
he draws all people under himself.
And so I want to thank youfor what you have done.
I bring greetings from my wife.
(07:15):
I go home and it'll be the last day ofMarch 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 thathas been with me 31 years proves
to me that Jesus still does
miracles.
For her to,
it's a lot of
(07:35):
chocolate, to keep herwith me, and the blessing
of God.
And I have two beautifulchildren who also would love me
to greet you on their behalf.
My daughter, JIRA, who's 27, she's aspeech 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.
(07:56):
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 foundout 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
(08:18):
it is to be with you tonight.
What I also love about WA isthere 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-Christiansbecause I think it's very important how,
(08:41):
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 Ibelieve that God is moving by
his power in an incredible way.
And we can look at all the thingsthat are going on in the world and
start to think the sky is fallingin, but we serve a risen savior who
will build his church and the gatesof hell will not prevail against it.
(09:02):
And so, particularly with thisEaster season coming upon us.
Take the opportunity to invite anot yet Christian to come with you.
Go that step further and don'tjust invite them to come with
you, but bring them with you.
Bringing, there's a supernaturalelement to bringing it.
The devil will try and stop them coming.
If you say meet me in the carpark, 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
(09:24):
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,
(09:45):
our mission is simple.
It's to serve the persecutedand strengthen the church.
And for over 70 years, or 70 yearsthis year, we've been doing that
and strengthening Christians insome 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.
(10:07):
He would put Bibles in boxes andunder seats and in panels and
in the front bonnet area, andhe would drive to the border.
How many have read the book?
God Smuggler.
I read the comic.
They came out around thesame time there was a
comic, but I've read
the book since.
But his mother put a Bible in his.
(10:28):
In his clothing when he went toserve in the armed forces and he was
injured and someone got that, he'dnever 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 wordof God to places who didn't have it.
So he took Bibles behind the IronCurtain where there were churches
that were basically a front for thegovernment without a Bible in them,
(10:49):
and he became famous for praying thisprayer 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 youto make seeing eyes blind.
Mm. And he would drive to the border andliterally time after time, they would stop
all the cars in front of him and his car.
They'd either just wave through or theywould come, they'd look in his car, they'd
(11:11):
open the boxes, not even see Bibles andwave him on, or the compassion that, or
he'd find a compassionate border guardwho would just let him through anyway.
And from that time till now, open doorscontinues to smuggle Bibles into countries
that don't have them, and provide Biblesin a language for people who haven't
ever had a Bible in their own languageand provide other services to strengthen
(11:35):
persecuted believers around the world.
If you've ever read
your Bible, from cover
to cover numbers of times, thereare certain verses that jump out
to you that you wish weren't there.
Here's one.
Blessed are those who arepersecuted for righteousness sake.
(11:55):
You, you mentioned a versebefore in James chapter one.
I memorized it from the messagetranslation, and forgive me if you
think this is crass, but when I read itin the message translation, I thought
he must have written it downwind froma marijuana burn off because it says,
consider it a sheer gift when tests andchallenges come at you from every side.
Yeah, when it's Christmastime at our place, we write
(12:17):
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 arepersecuted for righteousness sake.
Persecution is one part of thecall that we willingly take
up our cross to follow Christ.
But also we are called to standalongside persecuted brothers
(12:40):
and sisters and strengthen themwhen they're going through trial.
Jesus also told his disciplesin 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 neverforget that Jesus is our risen.
(13:01):
Glorified savior, he's victorious.
And who despite persecution, he'sbuilding his church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
Someone say Amen.
Amen.
So I wanna briefly share something thatwill be something that strengthens you.
(13:22):
And we can strengthen our persecutedbrothers and sisters with, I grew up as
a pastor's kid, and so we would oftenhave missionaries come to church, and
it's important that we hear the storiesthat they share, but sometimes it seems
so distant from me that I couldn'trelate it into my own world, and I'd
sit for two hours and watch them.
Show me videos or pictures orslides back in the day of, you
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know, them going overseas in theirsafari 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 standbefore a group of people that you
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are walking through some things ofyour own that relate to these verses.
You're facing trials and tribulationin your own life, and right now it's
even hard for you to be, and it, it'snot selfish of you, but it's even
hard for you to think about what'sgoing on over there because in your
world right now, you're facing trials.
So I just wanna give you threesimple points tonight that I would
share with a persecuted believer tostrengthen them, but also I wanna share
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with you to strengthen you tonight.
Because some of you right now, you'regoing through a physical diagnosis
that the doctors have given you andit's just too hard for you to bear.
Some of you,
you're in, a family
situation of turmoil right nowwhere perhaps you're estranged from
your family or even your marriageis really on the rocks right now.
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Perhaps you even walked in here tonightholding hands so nobody would know.
But you know, deep down it'sjust gonna take one little thing.
God cares.
And I never want to give theimpression that when I share stories
of the persecuted people, that Godloves them more than he loves you.
And so my heart is to strengthenyou tonight as we consider what
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our persecuted brothers are goingthrough and our persecuted sisters
are going through, that God would alsostrengthen you by his mighty power.
Amen.
So the first thing, and I believeit'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.
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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 teenagerto understand that and I'm thinking
he was where, and he's with us.
He's with us here rightnow 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.
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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, bynow, I don't take myself so seriously.
So it's okay to laugh in church.
Okay.
But then.
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There's the omnipresence of God, but thenthere'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, thenthere's the indwelling presence.
Sadly, too many Christiansjust stop there.
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But then there's the manifestpresence where God out there comes
in here and wants to flow throughus to bring change to our community.
And so in the midst of understanding thatGod inhabits the praises of his people
and inhabits us and is with us, we look atthese verses and so the, the word for some
of you tonight to strengthen you in themidst of your trial and your tribulation
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right now that you are facing is thesewords, 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 themidst of your suffering right now.
So do not fear.
I found myself in a a period of my lifewhere I had anxiety and depression, and
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I wondered if I ever would be okay again.
I. Something had broken on the insideand I felt like my pillow at night was
a trampoline of terror, and I fear wouldcome 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 understandabout how his presence sustains us is
found in two Corinthians 12, verse ninehas become one of my favorite verses.
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He says to, to me, my grace issufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in your weakness.
That word power is wherewe get the word dynamite.
The word dunamis can be broken downeven further to these three words,
the ability, the efficiency, and themight of heaven in your weakness.
He promises to give you a gift of grace.
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His power that is made perfectin your weakness, in your own
strength, what you're facing rightnow may be just too much to bear,
but he gives you his ability.
What you're facing right now to evenbe able to complete the call of God
on your life, in your own strengthis beyond your own efficiencies.
But he can make you efficient for thetask and what you're facing right now
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may need the supernatural power of Godto intervene and in your own power.
You can't do it, but his power, hismight, is perfected in your weakness.
So what are you facing rightnow that's too much for you?
Be encouraged.
Do not fear and his power ismade perfect in your weakness.
And then the third point,
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God works all things for good.
Romans 8 28.
And we know that all things work togetherfor 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 aboutmy family, which my mom is my
hero, and you'll understand why,because she has modeled to me how
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the presence of God sustains us.
When I was, my mom and
dad when, when they were young, theywent to Bible college in Brisbane.
They, a OG pastors went toBible 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 wasborn there, and when I was one month
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old, God moved them, called themout of that established assembly.
They felt called by God to goto Country Victoria and plant
a church in a place called Moi.
When they got there, the churchplanting arm of the Assemblies of
God, if someone got the call ofGod, they'd clap them and send them
off with a prayer and no finance.
So my dad, who was a panel beaterby trade, he would do up old cars.
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And the pastor who was doing thesame thing in GaN was a mechanic.
And together they would do up oldcars and they would sell them to raise
money like tent maker ministry so thatthey could continue to serve the Lord.
And all their needs weremet by God that way.
It was really cool.
But when, my mom had
been there for some time, she was missingher family, and so dad said, well, why
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don't you take the kids and go backto 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 alsopregnant with my little brother.
She didn't know I was a boy atthe time, but she was pregnant and
so she came back to Queensland.
But while we were in Queensland and notcame at the door, they went and opened
the door at my grandparents' house.
It was the police.
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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 theJacks 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.
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I was a little fella, but hisgrace is sufficient and his power
is made perfect in her weakness.
The presence of God sustained her.
But one of the things that she, Imean, she had to go down and identify
the body and move all of the stuffback to Queensland, but in the
midst of that, some time went byand she gave birth to a little boy.
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She was worried through that wholeprocess, not worried, but just
disappointed that my dad, David,would never see his child grow up.
A couple of hours after my brotherwas born, she named him David.
After my dad, he passed, he died.
So this, you know, things justpile on top of each other, but
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God's presence sustained her.
She was lying in hospital after thathad 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 babyDavid and Jesus was standing at the
foot of the cross in front of her.
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The other side of thecross was my dad, David.
And she walked to the foot of thecross and handed baby David to Jesus.
And Jesus took him and walked tothe other side of the cross and
said to my m he will raise
his namesake and thenput him in my mum's arms.
Now theologically.
That's probably not sound, andplease don't come to me later and
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try and give me a theological lesson.
You've missed the point entirely.
When we need God to be strong, whenwe are not, he gives us things that
sustain us, that dream, whetherit's theologically sound or not.
Sustained my mum and brought her outof a pit of despair to a place of hope.
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She comes outta hospital.
She has the thing, she might withdraw outof circulation, but she just feels God
has saved us for a purpose and called us.
And so there was a man sharing in ourhome church at the time about a ministry
that had been started in America byDave Wilkerson called Teen Challenge.
And they were starting a home inBrisbane for women who are getting
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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 livingin our home at any one time.
Again, the presence of Godsustained her and what can
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come out of brokenness is good.
And so in the midst of that, therewas another facility around the
corner that was a men's facilityfor the same sort of ministry.
And there were, we, we'd get togetherfrom time to time with the guys
and we'd go to the same church.
They would take them to youthgroup and young adults things.
They didn't have it then it was all in
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one.
And, we'd all
go to church together and havepicnics and I dunno what was
playing at the time, but there
was a man, that was
volunteering in that men'sfacility on the weekends.
He had another job during theweek, but he would volunteer.
And there was a get together onenight, and like I said, I dunno what
was playing on the record player,maybe it was, you know, uh oh baby.
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Because he looked acrossthe 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'tonly choose her, but he chose to
take my sister, who by this timewas seven and a half and I was five.
He chose a wife and afamily, but she was 28.
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He was 19.
That was the response of a lot of people.
Whoa.
There were a lot of people in the churchat the time that said, this'll never work.
Don't do it, man.
Run, run, run.
Last year in November, they celebratedtheir 50th wedding anniversary, and we
know all things work together for good.
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To them that love God and arecalled 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.
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We were never to know.
That when I was a youth pastor ofa church, I would meet a young lady
who would become my wife, whose nameis Sherry, S-H-E-R-R-Y, la la la.
She's already told me many times ifmy name was still boozy, she would
not have married me even thoughshe loves me or she said, you, we,
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you'd have taken my name, not yours.
And we know all things work togetherfor good to them that love God and
are called according to his purpose.
I share that with you tonight becausesome of you're going through tough
stuff, you're really facing stuff rightnow, and it's just too hard for you.
Fear not for I am with you.
My grace is sufficient for you, and mypower is made perfect in your weakness.
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And we know that all things work togetherfor good to them, that love God and
are called according to his purpose.
And that's the same for our persecutedbrothers and sisters, that they
would be strengthened and understandthat power of those scriptures.
So let's jump into this becauseyou don't wanna have breakfast
with me when I finish, so.
The statistical reality of persecutionin the world right now is staggering.
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Over 380 million Christians on the planettoday face severe violence and persecution
for being followers of Jesus Christ.
It's gone up by about 25 million fromlast year, 380 million that is one in
seven believers around the globe currentlyface severe violence and pressure.
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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 theglobe, but behind those massive
statistics are individual stories.
Stories like Helen from Eritrea,
who was locked in a shippingcontainer for 32 months for choosing
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to sing Christian songs on thesteps of her church in Eritrea.
It's not against the lawto be a Christian, but it's
illegal to share your faith.
They tortured her with a tool thatwas meant to kill her, but she kept
saying the name of Jesus and she saidThe name of Jesus is like a medicine.
The presence of God sustained her.
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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 ofthese, a physical copy of the Bible.
He wasn't preaching from it.
He just had one, and the communistpolice came and took him and his Bible
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away, and she's never seen him again.
But the presence of God sustains her.
The people like Pastor Barnabas in Nigeriaright now where there is 16.2 million
persecuted believers displaced from theirhomes for being followers of Jesus Christ.
Most of them live ininternal displacement camps.
Where a family of four orfive will live in a tent the
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size of a queen size mattress.
He's been there nearly five yearsand at his own risk, he pastors
people in one of these camps, butthe presence of God sustains him.
The people like Brother Harun,who's a third generation imam
or was until he miraculously.
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Encountered the love ofJesus and became a Christian.
He went and told his family about it.
They loved him so much that theybroke 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, washealed, and he's the kicker.
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The presence of Godjust didn't sustain him.
It has empowered him and he'splanted 30 churches to this point.
Praise the Lord.
The people like M from Bangladesh, little9-year-old girl in an Islamic community
whose family came to know Jesus all atonce, is brought great persecution to
their family, but she's so proud 'causeher dad is a pastor and an evangelist.
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Her mum leads the ladies ministryand she also teaches Sunday school.
And M used to have a lot offriends, but now she has none.
She's isolated at school, and herfriends don't only just isolate her, but
at lunchtime they hit her with sticksand throw bricks and stones at her.
And she walks to school three kilometers,and that doesn't seem very far, but
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for her as a 9-year-old walking throughcommunity where she's ostracized, and even
the people with tricycles are not allowedto 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.
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And the people like a Yuba and hissiblings again from Nigeria, Bako, her
arm, came into his village and theysimply went around knocking on doors,
asking people if they're a Christian ora Muslim, and if they answered Christian,
they would kill them on the spot.
But he and his siblings hadescaped into the bush in the night.
They came back the next morning tofind his father had been killed.
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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 needto get revenge on who did this.
But because of the generosity of churcheslike 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 siblingshave been able to go and find healing.
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The presence of God has sustainedthem and brought healing for
their soul and their spirit andtheir body, and he now says this.
He says,
I wanted revenge, but I'velearned to forgive and leave
everything at the feet of Jesus.
The presence of God sustains him.
Now, those stories can seem so far awayfrom us, but the Bible tells us in one
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Corinthians 12 that we are all one body.
Body's made up of many parts, andwhen one part suffers, we all suffer.
My wife was walking out of thelaundry and kicked her little toe
on the skirting board, bent outat right angles and snapped it.
I've got, I've got the x-ray.
It's a great picture, but we learnedin that moment what this verse meant
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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 allof 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 playingin the body of Christ for our
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persecuted brothers and sisterswho are suffering around the world.
So how do we respond to this?
Well, the first thing is we needto pray for our persecuted brothers
and sisters, and you do that.
But again, I just want to give youone story about the power of prayer.
'cause sometimes we forgetthat prayer is powerful.
David Livingston is a
well-known, medical mission
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reader, Africa and an explorer.
He was sent from his church in Scotlandto go over to minister to the people
in the, the continent of Africa.
And he would meet unreached people groupsand they would share the gospel with
them and, and medically care for them.
But there was this one tribe wherethe chief was so angry, he said.
I don't like your message in the wayhe would say it, but tonight we are
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coming to kill you and your team.
So David Livingston considered itpure joy, went back to his compound
and got down on his knees and hecried out to God, please protect us.
Please save us from these threats.
And then he made an entry into his diaryand he closed his diary on that date.
And then they waited forthe Lord to deliver them.
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That night nobody came.
He continued to work with his team,and again, they reached out sometime
later to that same tribe that chief whoresponded badly, suddenly was moved by
the love of Christ and gave his lifeto to Jesus, and the rest of the tribe
followed him to become Christians.
So David Livingston says to thatChief, you said you were going to
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kill us, but why didn't you come?
He said, oh, we did come, butwhen we came, your compound was
surrounded by 39 giant warriors,and we knew we could not take them.
David Livingston goes home to AscendChurch sometime later, and he's
talking with them and he's telling himthis story and the secretary of the
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church comes to him and says, do youremember the date that that was on?
And he says, yes, I madean entry in my diary.
And so they compare diaries.
And on that same night in the churchback in Scotland, there was a prayer
meeting for David Livingston and his team.
Do you know how many peoplewere in that prayer meeting?
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39. 39 people praying.
39 giant warriorssurrounding 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
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second thought that as you pray, Godis moving in Nigeria, God is moving in
North Korea, God is moving in all of theother countries that you can pray for.
Prayer is powerful.
And then the the second thing I wannaencourage you to do before we land this
plane.
Is, I want to
challenge you to sow a supernaturalseed as you already have done, but
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I want you to wait and listen to thevoice of the Holy Spirit as to what he
might lead you to do and simply obey.
I'm not asking you togive your tithes to us.
'cause sometimes you can hearsome sad stories and think, oh,
instead of me giving it to whereGod 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 tosupport the vision where you are.
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But if he speaks to you above and beyondthat, then we can receive an offering
down the back at the table later witha 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 recentlyand they're trying to stuff.
Money in my pockets whileI was talking to people.
It was rather
uncomfortable.
But it was,
it was a seniors meeting so it
wasn't so bad.
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But yeah,
there's envelopes there.
That's a cash handling process as well.
So you don't think I've gone toMcDonald's with what you've given,
but so is supernatural seed.
$20 will put a Bible in the handof 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 youcan't buy one and do that.
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It will also go
towards, sowing into
discipleship materials, leadershipdevelopment, emergency relief, community
development, and trauma care centerslike UBA and his siblings have gone to.
So I just simply ask you, what'sthe Holy Spirit saying to you?
And just listen and obey.
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Um.
Also, God speaks to people from time totime and you've been given the gift of
philanthropy or you know, he speaks toyou 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 youto take away and pray about what you
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might feel the Lord is leading you to do.
So together we can stand shoulderto 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
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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 upfrom all around the room.
So all that means is yes,it'll blow up the building.
Fantastic.
Always wanted to see that happen.
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I would like to finish by givingyou the opportunity to understand
what it might be a little bit like.
For a persecuted believer,
and if you just give a secondto try and set myself up here,
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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?
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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 projectsyou're sewing into tonight.
Thanks, mate.
Fantastic.
You should do this for a job.
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Just you can't have my job
a purposely of unplugged itbecause when a persecuted person,
this is just one experience.
But when many persecuted peoplego to church, it's quite good here
because it's like a warehouse.
They don't go to a church building.
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And it certainly doesn't look likethis, 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.
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And so if you're open to thisexperiment, I believe the Holy Spirit
can speak to you in the midst of it.
So just imagine for a momentyou've arrived at church.
But instead of a comfortable seat,you're sitting on the floor, your
feet and your legs ache, and you'reexhausted because it's taken you
three hours of walking to get here.
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Despite your exhaustion, you feel adeep sense of gratitude to just be
gathered in the presence of a few otherbelievers who made it to the gathering.
You press your handagainst your left cheek.
Trying to stop the bleeding from acut and a bruise, which is a painful
reminder of an attack that youjust faced on your way to church.
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Someone from the community hadthreatened you with a knife trying
to scare you away and preventyou from attending the gathering.
But fortunately, you escaped, and nowyou are here, but you realize there's
bitterness growing in your heart towardsthat person who attacked you because
it's not the first time they've done it.
And you bring it to God and you'rereminded of Jesus' words that says,
(40:41):
bless those who persecute you.
So you lay it at Jesus' feet and youfeel 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 noticeone believer, a young woman
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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 awareof the cost, desperate to worship
(41:26):
and be with fellow believers.
You thank God for his promise, neverto leave you alone or anyone else.
And you pray for protection.
Protection for today's meeting, thatno one would violently interrupt it.
This time, the sound of aguitar narrows your focus.
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It's your opportunity toworship the King of Kings.
I want you to maybereflect what you would do,
what you would do if you knew.
That coming here tonightmight cost you everything,
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that singing a song and worshipingGod might mean that the neighbors
call the police or raid your service.
I just want you to stay in this moment.
I
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What would you do?
How great
Isga seeing with me.
How great Isga no, seehow great, how great is.
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How great is our God seeing with me?
How great is our God?
Oh, see how great, how great
is.
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The name above
you are worthy of all praise.
And my heart will say, how great
is our God?
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How?
Is Aga seeing with me?
How great is aga?
No, we see how great.
How great is.
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Well, we've already joinedtogether in prayer tonight for
persecuted brothers and sisters.
But again, we think of themwherever they are right now.
Of the 70 countries that open doors hasthe privilege of strengthening believers.
Would you be with persecutedpeople right now in North Korea?
Would you strengthen families in Somalia?
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Would you be with people in Yemenand Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria,
Eritrea, Latin America, Asia.
Too many countries tomention by name tonight.
But God, would you please strengthenthem, fill them with your Holy Spirit.
Yes, that they might have theability and efficiency and the might
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to stand under great pressure andpersecution, that your name would be
glorified and your kingdom extended.
And for those who have shed theirblood for the cause of Christ,
we believe that that blood shedwill actually be the beginning.
Of the seed of revival in those nations.
They have not died in vain,but you are working and has
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already been prayed for tonight.
I was so blessed as we were let in prayerfor the persecuted and the persecutor.
So God, speak to those that areplanning atrocities tonight.
Reveal yourself to them.
In Jesus name
mean God.
For us as the church that comesto church in such comfort, may
you wake us from our slumber.
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Yeah.
Yeah, may we never take for granted theprivilege of driving into a beautiful
facility, parking our car, gettingout 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
(46:14):
either.
We thank you for your goodness.
That you are building your church and thegates of hell will not prevail against it.
Yes.
Bless each of these fine peopleas they lean into this moment.
Holy Spirit, speak to us.
Break our heart for what breaks yours.
(46:34):
Yes.
And change us to become more like Jesus.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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