Episode 162 - Murdered For Jesus

Just as Stephen the first recorded martyr of the Church was Murdered For Christ, so are we killed all the day long as sheep for the slaughter.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Loved the Lord. He heard my cry, and he has
pitied every groan. So as long as I live, I
will call up on the name of the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved
from my enemies. This poor man cried, and the Lord
heard him and delivered him from all of his fears.
We welcome you once again to this another edition of

(00:36):
End Time Revival Ministry USA podcast for those of you
who do listen to us by way of all audio podcasts,
which of course can be found through multiple platforms, and
we certainly invite you to if you have not already,
become a subscriber, and certainly by all means share it
with someone else. Amen. Because again our aim and our

(00:57):
goal here is and teach the Word of God in truth,
with plainness, boldness, clarity, and certainly with an adherence to
what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. Amen.
And we want to be Amen, found faithful, We want
to be consistent, Amen, in proclaiming the liberty that is

(01:22):
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. So again welcome, We
welcome those of you listening to us by way of
our audio podcasts, and we also simulcast on our YouTube channel,
One Voice in the Wilderness. We thank God again for
those of you who pray for and support, Amen, the
work of this ministry One Voice in the Wilderness on

(01:44):
our YouTube channel. Please by all means, of course, as well,
you can become a subscriber there also. Again, Amen, we
are called to speak forth the word of God. Amen,
in such a time as this God has a purpose
in all that he has allowed, all that he has decreed,

(02:05):
and we want to be found in the will of
God doing what God has commanded and commissioned us to do. Amen.
So we continue in our series God, Government, Church, and State.
And before we begin Acts, chapter number six is where
we're going to be today, six and a portion of
chapter seven, Acts Chapter six. If you have your Bible

(02:26):
you can follow along with us. Father again, thank you
for the emerging grace, favor, loving kindness, peace, joy, the
hope that we have in Christ Jesus. Thank You for
the very breath of life that is in our bodies,
even now, allowing us again this opportunity a man and
this privilege to be a spokesman for the cause of Christ,

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for the name of Jesus, for the Church of the
Living God, bless us, and we shall be blessed. Lord.
If you keep us, we shall be kept. And we
pray that someone's eyes and ears will be open and attuned.
Amen to the voice of the Savior who knocks at
the door of the hearts of men. Any man open,
you say, you will come in and sup with them. So, Lord,

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we pray to someone somewhere will come boldly to the
throne of grace to receive the mercy that you have
and the help that you have in this time of need.
We give you praise, glory and Nona and all things
in Jesus Christ's name. We pray, Amen. Amen, all right,
Acts Chapter number six. A man murdered for Jesus, murdered

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for Jesus. Amen, We've already been examining how that there
has been persecution with the church, government, leaders, rulers, one
same ones, the same group for the most part, who
will hostile against Jesus. Had Jesus murdered, are now a

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man harassing the church? They cannot, as I've already shown
and demonstrated, they cannot for a moment. Door opposition changed
to the status quo, others garnering as it is in
their eyes power and control over the people. This is

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what they see the Church as being competition. Amen. And
of course a man we know the mastermind behind the
scenes is Satan himself. But again the promise of Jesus is,
I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail. We win, ladies and gentlemen, Church of
the Living God, never forget that we win. So we

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move now to Acts chapter number six, where we'll find
a man by the name of Stephen, who becomes the
first martyr of the Church, as recorded a man in
the Book of the Acts in the History of the
Church Versse number nine. We'll pick it up there. And Stephen,
full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles

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among the people. Then there arose certain of the Synagogue,
which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines, and the
Sirenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Silesia and of Asia,
disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist

(05:18):
the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then
they suborned men which said, we have heard him speak
blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred
up the people and the elders and the scribes and
came upon him and caught him and brought him to

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the council, and set up false witnesses, which said, this
man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy
place and the law. For we have heard him say
that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and

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shall change the customs which Moses delivered us, and all
that said in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw
his face as it had been the face of an angel,
the first martyr of the church, murdered for Jesus. Now,

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of course, Jesus, as we've already amen discussed in previous episodes,
he had already well prepared his disciples, his apostles, whom
he had chosen and man, for the hostile opposition to
his name that they will be facing. He said, they've
rejected me, They're gonna reject you. If they receive me,

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they'll receive you. They hated me, they're gonna hate you.
You'll be hated of all nations, he said, for my
name's sake. And we've already seen how well prepared apostles
were when they were threatened, when they were arrested, when
they were beaten when they, of course, were brought up
before the government to give an account for their disobedience

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to the decrees, by the way of the leaders of
the government, that they should no longer teach nor preach
in the name of Jesus. However, you remember the apostle Peter,
along with John, and they of the apostles at large.
They said to them, we ought to obey God rather
than man. And so now they took good counsel, as

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it were, from Gamalia, as we saw in our previous podcasts.
And the church is growing. The church is a man
expanding by leaps and bounds. And now with this explosive
growth of the church, in full of fact, by the
move of the Holy Ghost, the Lord confirming his work

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with signs and wonders, by the hands of the apostles,
by them preaching faithfully the Word of God, the Gospel
of Salvation, the name of Jesus. The apostles have to
now again, because of the growth, explosive growth of the church,
they have to now delegate some duties to others in
order for them to be free and man to give themselves.

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As we see in chapter number six here to the
ministry of the Word and to prayer, as they would say.
The burden of the numbers that they were having to
now see to was too much for them, and so
now delegation of duties needed to come about. And so

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they chose Stephen and six other men, a man from
among the people, to assist the apostles with the care
of this growing church. And Luke tells us that Stephen
of the seven was full of the Holy Ghost and faith,

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and so much so that he also Stephen also did
great wonders and signs among the people. And of course
this did not sit well with the powers that be,
the demons and the devils, those who aligned themselves with

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the power of darkness, with the kingdom of this world.
They were not at all pleased. And now not only
the Apostles were doing these great things, but now, as
it were, in their eyes, lesser men such as Stephen
were now coming to a man forefront and doing great
things and wonders and signs and miracles, as the Bible

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tells us, here in the midst of the people. And
so the Bible tells us that they opposed Stephen, and
they began to challenge him, to dispute with him publicly.
But when they were unable to argue effectively, UH, in
defense of their religion, in defense of their philosophy, in
the defense UH of their wisdom that they used by

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way of man, the wisdom of this world. The Bible
tells us Paul ris to the ch Corinthian Church. God
has made foolish the wisdom of this world. And that's
all they had. They had their philosophy, they had their religion,
They had the wisdom of man, which of course is ineffectual.
And so they were simply relegated to being babblers. And
and and of course they were under the influence of

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their father, the devil, and of course again unable to
resist the wisdom by which Stephen was a man being
used by the Holy Ghost to a man, combat them
as it were. Uh. They of course did what the
devil does, did what devil followers do, did what devil

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worshipers do, did what God haters do. Those who you know,
hate the Church, hate the name of Christ, who persecute
the church, these did the very same thing. First of all,
they lied, They did the deeds of their father, As
Jesus said, you are of your father, the devil, and
the deeds of your father that you will do. He

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was a liar from the beginning. He comes to steal, kill,
and to destroy. So the devil is a liar, the
devil is a thief, The devil is a destroyer, the
devil is a murderer. And so this is the same
ammo if you will, that they're going to use and
try to resort to to combat Stephen. So they lied

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and then suborned perjury from like minded nefarious their do
wells if you will slanderers who were maybe even paid,
I don't know if they were paid to do it
or not, but they were certainly willing to bear false
witness against Stephen. And so they testified to the council,

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brought up these acts against him. And on the strength
of these accusations against the man Stephen, they went on
to stir up the people the Bible tells us and
the government leaders, the scribes, and they brought their case
amen to this council as it were. Again, again the

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council is just they got. They got their hands full
of trying to control the church, try to stop what
God is doing. But again the devil is I mean,
he's insistent on being defeated, And so here they come.
Since they couldn't oppose Stevens, since they could not argue
effectively against what he was preaching and teaching, against the

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miracles and signs and wonders that were being done by him,
they went to the next level in their helplessness. They're
still helpless, but they don't realize it. When you're living deception,
you don't realize you're helpless. You don't realize you defeated.
You don't realize you're on the losing side. Do you
think you can win it? Because the state of delusion,
and so they think that they can go to the

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next level and their helplessness against what God is doing
with his church. And remember Gamalia had given them good
counsel already. If this thing is of God, you cannot
fight against it, you cannot oppose it. You'll be fighting
against God. You're fighting a losing battle if this is

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God's work. And as it was, with the apostles being
unsuccessfully threatened UH to be silent. Uh, these willing weapons
of hostile hatred against the Church, now hope that they
can somehow silence Stephen, somehow put him to shame. And

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UH and so now Stephen finds himself before the high priests,
being brought up before the government rulers again, as it were,
to give an answer for his ministry against the charges
that they have leveled against him. And so Stephen would
proceed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus
taught his apostles disciples, Hey, when they bring you up,

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and you will be brought up before the council, he
warned them. He said, they're gonna bring you up, They're
gonna they're gonna do these things. And uh, but don't
even meditate beforehand what you're gonna say, because the Holy
Spirit will speak through you. I'll be with you, I'll
never leave you, I'll never forsake you. And so Stephen,
under the power of the Holy Ghost, would proceed to

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provoke them, as it were, even more so, to take
their hostile hatred to the utmost level of effectiveness. Of course,
in their minds, the most effective way to silence those
who they oppose the church is to kill murder. Amen.

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So in their mind this is the most effective way. Uh.
But they would see they were simply not prepared for
what Stephen would say. And by the way, if you
look at of course, uh, and read the accusation that
they leveled against Stephen, And of course High Priest then
proceeds to ask Steven, are these things sold? These charges
that they've leveled against you. Steven is now standing before

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the government, the officials, the high priests to answer, uh
against these charges. And Stephen did not. He didn't even
bother with defending himself, as it were, with the charges. Instead,
he goes on to rehearse the history of the nation

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of Israel to them, and Uh, then I wanna drop
down the verse fifty one of chapter number seven, because
this is what happens. This is what this is what
happened brother, and this is what I believe got Stephen
in very hot water. This is what provoked them, because
I mean, all of the all of the history, there

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was just a little simple history lesson Abraham, Isaac Jacob
on down. But but but when he got to them
in their day and what they had done to Jesus
and and then basically he in essence called them out
for what they were uh. And and they didn't like

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that they and they had already won their apostles. Look,
why do you all insist on bringing the blood of
Jesus on us. Why do you all And Jesus had
already told him too. You are just like your fathers
who killed all the prophets. You are the murderers. You are,
you are, you are co conspirators with them, uh, even

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though you weren't there. See when you, when you are
in uh cahoots with the devil, you are just as
guilty uh as all of those who are committing murder
because you are consenting to it. You are silence and
not opposing evil and wickedness. And that's what the Bible

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tells the indictment in Roman chapter one, not only those
who do those things, but those who give approval. So
when you give approval to those who practice wickedness, you
are just as guilty as those who are actually engaging
in all of these a man indictable offenses against God.

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Go down to verse fifty one of Acts chapter seven.
Stephen finishes his remarks after this history lesson. He goes
on to bring this indictment against those who are in
earshot of his testimony verse fifty one. Listen what he says,

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Ye stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Boy,
that really got him. You calling us uncircumcised, you're calling
They knew exactly what. Listen, they knew where this came from.
Stiff neck, they knew the Old Testament, they knew the scriptures,

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and they knew what Stephen was referring to. And again
calling them out for what they were. He said, you,
stiff neck and uncircumcised, in heart and ears, you do
always resist the holy ghosts as your fathers did, so

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do you so? In other words, he you know, you
see again, these religious hypocrites, pharisees, scribes, all of them,
I mean, felt like they were above, felt like they
were better, felt like they were, you know, basically shoe ins.
When John the Baptists came preaching and baptizing people here,

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they came again because hey, somebody is gathering disciples popularity.
They came to the baptism of John the Baptists to
see what's going Awhile all these people, wait a minute,
were losing. We're losing. We're losing something here, So they
come to the baptism of John the Baptists, and John
the Baptists called them, a you generation of vipers, who

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has warned you to flee from the raft, to come
a man so again, just as their fathers had done,
they were also resistant to the Holy ghost, a man
resistant to the spirit of God. Amen. And so Stephen
goes on to say, verse shifty two, which of the
prophets have not your fathers persecuted? Tell me which of

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them did they not persecute? And they have slain them
which showed before of the coming of the just One.
In other words, the prophets who foretold of the coming
of Jesus. They were also killed, murdered for Jesus, murdered
for the a man speaking of the truth of God,

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testifying of the wickedness of their fathers. Amen. These men
were murdered, a man martyred, a man for Jesus. So
Stephen said, of whom you have now been, the betrayers
and murderers. You are guilty of the blood of Jesus.

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And remember they had already again as the apostles, very
nicely we would say to that, Please, can y'all not
continue to bring this man blood upon us? Oh, Stephen
now does it again. He reminds us, you are guilty.
You betrayed Jesus, you murdered Jesus, and now you are

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you are just as stiff necked and uncircumcised as your
fathers were. Look at verse fifty three. You received the
law by disposition of angels, and you have not kept it. Amen,
the law that was given by Moses, I mean it
came by Amen guard himself from Heaven and the oracles

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of God, the commands of God, the presence of God
was with you with your fathers. You've not kept the law.
You're not keeping the law. Now you are violating the
law in batter faight right, as I've already mentioned aforehand,
they suborn witnesses, false witness, and the Bible tells us

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one of the commands, which is somebody just the ten commandments.
Stop should not bare false witness against your neighbor, and
no problem with that. And then they subborn perjury, no
problem with that, slandering, no problem with that. I mean
they had the law. They considered themselves to be the
guardians of we're talking about the high priests. These are

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the people who are supposed to be teaching the people,
instructing the people in the world of righteousness. And they
in a way of the law of God and doing
what is right. No no, no, no, no no no no.
They were not keepers of the law. Stephen reminds them,
and the Bible says, look at this verse fifty four
when they heard these things, what things? Just those three

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verses fifty one, fifty two, and fifty three, not the
history lesson about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and how their
fathers passed over and came out of Egypt and all. No, no, no,
that's not what bribed them up. They knew all of that.
It was when they were called out for what they
are and who they are. The devil likes to work

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under cover. He likes to pretend. He likes to you know,
he likes to be in the mix, in the mingle,
and he doesn't like to show himself necessarily, at least
it out said. So he wraps himself up in religion,
and he joins himself to the church as it were,
but not a member. But he goes in and again

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with the form of godliness, but denying the power because
the power is against him. The power is against his kingdom.
If Satan cast out Satan, Jesus said, how can his
kingdom stand? So they oh, they're big on religion. Governments
don't have a like I said before, governments do not
have a problem with religion. They have a problem with Jesus,

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a problem with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the
name of Jesus, with the Church of the Living God,
with the True Church of Jesus Christ. That's what they
have a problem with. So when they heard these things,
the Bible says, they were cut to the heart, and
they gnashed on him with their teeth. They are so

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incensed that Stephen that they listen, We're going straight from
murder now, we're going with this guy. Cannot breathe another moment.
We cannot handle this, the Bible says, b e Stephen,
being full of the holy goos, he looked up stepfastly
into heaven. He saw the glory of God, Oh help us,

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Jesus and Jesus, he saw, the Bible says, standing on
the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I
see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. And the Bible says,
they cried out with a loud voice. They just couldn't.
We can't take it anymore. We can't take it anymore.

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They stopped their ears, the Bible says, and they ran
upon Stephen with one accord. And of course the text
tells us they cast him out of the city, stoned
Stephen to death as he was calling on the name

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of the Lord. And of course you know, he said, Lord, Jesus,
lay not this sin to their Oh what a oh, Oh,
what a spirit, What a spirit to have? Oh what love? Oh? Murdered,

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murdered for Jesus. The martyrs. Stephen is the first recorded
in the Book of the Acts recorded in the history
of the Church, first of many millions, millions of saints

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who would be murdered, martyred for Jesus. Now, in essence,
every true child of God is indeed a martyr for
the cause of Christ. In fact, and I'm closing here,

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the Bible teaches Jesus himself taught it. We are called
upon to lose our lives for the sake of the Gospel,
for the sake of the kingdom. We are called upon
to love, not our lives to the death. As a

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matter of fact, we're called upon not to love our
life in this world. We are called to hate our life,
to take up the cross, as it were, to follow
Jesus daily, to deny ourselves. And he's not talking about
committing suicide here in the sense that we take our

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physical lives. No, but the old man has to die.
And Jesus said, unless we deny ourselves and take up
the cross and follow him, we cannot be his disciple.
We have to be ready and willing to die for
the cause of Christ. Christ. And the Bible tells us
in Revelation chapter of twelve. The Bible speaks of those

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who overcome, And that's what Jesus called us overcomers. We
are more than conquerors. We overcome by the blood of
the Lamb, by the word of our testimony. The Bible says,
they overcame him Satan, the devil, who is at the
helm of all of this, a man hatred and malice.
And again he loves to work in the chief places

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of government, in the high places, a man. But we overcome,
the Bible says, by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the word of our testimony. And look what the
Bible says they they who overcome, did not love their
lives to the death. Amen. That's what God wants, desires

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commands of us for thy sake. The Bible says, we
are killed all the day long. We are counted as
sheep for the slaughter. Paul picks it up in Romans
chapter eight. And all these things we are what more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am
persuaded to neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, powers,
things present, things come. Nothing can separate us from the

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love of God which is in Christ, Jesus our Lord.
For thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. And it
may well be, in our increasingly hostile world of opposition
to the name of Jesus Christ, that some of us

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will be called upon to love not our lives to
the death. Some of us, indeed may be murdered for Jesus,
but absent from the party present with the Lord. Paul
facing the death penalty, knowing that his time was at hand,

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and man, he said, I fought a good fight. I
finished the course. I kept the faith. That's what I
want to be able to testify. And may we all
indeed have that testimony. May we have the boldness, May
we have the courage, May we have the strength to
stand firm in such a time as this, cleaving to
God and resisting the devil, living not in fear, because

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God is not giving us the spirit of fear, but
a power, love and a sound mind. So Lord, we
pray today someone somewhere would be encouraged, be emboldened, and
someone somewhere will hear the voice of the Savior knocking
at the door of their heart. They will open and come.
You will come in rather and be with them, Be
in them, transform there and make them soldiers, good soldiers

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fighting a good fight of faith. God, be glorified in
your people. Every where we pray in Jesus' name, Amen
and Amen,