1 John

Now if you want to turn back to 1 John, 1 of the 1 of the great themes, in the Bible, and you may have noticed if you open the Bible is the theme of 2 families. Ever since at Adam and Eve broke off their relationship with god, their father, and they were expelled from the garden of Eden. Ever since that expelling, there's always there's been 2 groups. There's been 1 group that listen and trust God as father, trust is his word, and another group who don't. Now, the group who don't maybe extremely religious and think they're serving god but they're not listening to him.

Both groups are earth born obviously, they're born into this world, but 1 group has been brought into god's family and are heaven born. They're born again. That's what it what what it says. So 2 groups, 2 families, 2 cultures, 2 worlds, if you like, represented in 2 groups of people. And there's always been a tension between these 2 groups always.

Now in 1 John we've been seeing that John shows the contrast between these 2 groups. And he's talked about and we've seen this in our in our series already. He's talked about the contrast of truth and lies, love and hate, righteousness, and wickedness, obedience, and disobedience, light and darkness, children of god, children of the devil. John loves to talk in these contrasts and he's been showing us these 2 different groups under those under those themes. In the old testament, it all starts with Kain and Abel.

We've just read that from Genesis chapter 4. Earthly blood borne brothers, but soon you see they represent 2 camps. These 2 family groups And then as you read through the Bible, you see that that god expresses that again and again and again. So you have isaac and ishmael You have Jacob and esau. You have Joseph and his brothers.

You have Moses and the Egyptian family. You have David and saul and so it goes on. 2 groups. Some of them born into the same earthly blood family, but actually they're they're in different they're in different families. 2 groups.

1, always opposing the other, always opposition. Back to 1 John and the verses that we've just read, in those verses, you see again a contrast that John is trying to show us. Love contrasted with hate, life contrasted with death, murder the taking of life contrasted with the giving of life for other people, words without deeds. So you've got this This culture, these different cultures, you've got a culture of death with empty words, lots of words, lots of promise, but actually it's a culture of death, a culture of hate, and a culture of take, and that clashes with this other culture culture of life and self giving, a culture of love and real action, not just words. Do you ever wonder why Jesus who clearly brings good news?

I mean, I mean clearly brings very, very good news was attacked and opposed so much in this world. God, we know at Christmas time and it's an extraordinary thing. God took human flesh, but humans want to rip that flesh apart. Why? What's that all about?

People seem bent on destruction when they meet Jesus. And the gospel writers show us this again and again and again. So when Jesus was born, you have king herod, and he's so opposed to the birth of Jesus that he was prepared. It says that he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity under, who were under 2 years old and under. 2 years old and under.

So so much violence. At the birth of Jesus that he's prepared because he doesn't know which 1 Jesus is to kill all the boys in that area to and under. Why? When Jesus comes to bring good to the world. And then throughout the life of Jesus, there's constant opposition constant criticizing, constant hating, constant stirring of the crowds against him after he's cared for the crowd and loves the crowds and feeds the crowds and heals the crowd.

They still call for his blood. Why? The gospel writers show us at the end of Jesus' life that the world with all its power that the world as a sort of institution is so against the world of Jesus. They call for his death. Political powers.

The Roman power of the day and king herod under them. Political call for his death. The religious powers, the sanhedrin, the Jews, even enemies in religious world come together as a power to kill Jesus. The popular powers, the ones with the popular vote the ones that can vote in the political powers in some ways. They just follow and they vote against Jesus.

When you get this frenzy of destruction, this cruelty and death around Jesus around his birth all the way through to his death, the mocking, the torture, the crucifixion. When you get that, you're meant to see that there's a a clash of 2 cultures, a clash of 2 sets of agendas, a clash of 2 families, a 2 worlds colliding. A world bent on destruction against Jesus and his message. However much good Jesus and his message bring to the world which it does still they hate the message above and beyond the good that he does. It's a culture of death a culture of darkness that wants to put out light and life of the lord Jesus.

In fact, Jesus prays for his followers when he's resurrected and then ascended sends into heaven. His prayer for his followers is this in John's 17. Have a listen. He's praying to the father god. I have given them your word and the world has hated them See the 2 worlds?

Followers of Jesus are gonna be hated. Listen, For they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but you protect them from the evil 1. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I send them into the world, a world that is against the world of god. Now here in 1 John, John takes this theme up. He's writing to Christians and he's reminding them of this theme that he's throughout the whole bible. He's reminding them of these 2 world views and the difference in lifestyle and the difference in attitudes and he says, don't be like 1 but do be like the other. Look at verse 11 of 1 John chapter 3.

John says right at the end of that verse 11, we should love 1 another. He's talking about brothers and list is in Christ, the the real church. We should do that. Then look at verse 12, john says, do not be like Cain. We should love 1 another.

Do not be like Cain who hated his brother. So they're my points. Here's the 4 first point. Do not be like Kain. Don't be in that world.

Do not be like Cain. Don't follow that world with its power, and it's attitude to Christians. Do not be like Cain. He hated his brother and he takes his brother's life. Don't be like Cain.

Kain is the first human being born into this world. Abel, his earthly blood brother, is the second human being born into this world. So unlike adam and Eve that were created by god and placed in the garden, Kane and Abel are the firstborn of the world outside of the garden of Eden. Yeah. Because Adam and Eve rejected and rebelled against god, and they rejected from the garden.

So this is the first recorded event east of Eden. The first recorded event out side of of the garden and it's the result, the first recorded result, if you like, of their sin in in this world outside of Eden. What a mark against our world and against humanity, that the first baby born into the world is a murderer, and the second baby born into the world is murder. Kain is put up as the perfect illustration of the world's attitude to those who follow god. That's why it's written about.

Cain's, if you like, the first in the family line of those who oppose the followers of God. That's why I went through that whole list in the old testament. He's the first of them. Now, it's not saying this, so don't get me wrong here. It's not saying that everyone that's in the family group of Cain ends up murdering like Cain, obviously not.

But it's saying that under that family group, there is hostility to god's people. And if you're in the family group Kain, there will be some kind of hostility to to god's people. So so Kain is like the head of this family group and he represents the family, if you like. That's what's going on here. Not only is he disobedient to god?

Not only does he fail to listen to god's warning when he is obedient to god, but he harbors this hatred in his heart that goes to the extreme conclusion of murdering his own brother. Now it's interesting that John here uses a very graphic term to describe Kain's actions. It's very graphic. It means to butcher, to massacre, to chop to pieces, He really is the first murderer, the axman that chops his brother brother and butch is his brother. It implies brutality.

It implies savagery. It it it's a hatred on Kain's part to his his brother. This isn't just a tragic incident. This isn't sort of sibling rivalry. Just gone a bit too far and Kain took it a little far and he killed his brother and oh, he didn't mean to do that.

This is premeditated, fought through butchery. Violence against his brother. And here's the question though. Why did Cain murder his brother? Why did he murder his brother?

Was it that Abel was the baby because he was the second born and you know what second borns can do? They can get mommy's attention and say he hit me. He hit me when he didn't. You know, is it that? Because little brothers can do that.

Is it that that that that Cain sort of was, you know, uh-uh Abel was constantly going at Cain and saying, I'm the little 1. I'm the loved 1 or but but we don't know it. We don't know any of that. Was it that actually Kain just had a deep seated derangement He was delusional. He had some kind of serious mental delusion and therefore killed his brother.

He didn't really know what he was doing. Well, in Genesis 4 that we read, we see that Caine is hurt Why? Because his brother Abel is right with god. God was pleased with able and what able brought as a sacrifice. And so we see jealousy grows jealousy turns into bitterness and envy, hatred, and then massacre murder.

In Hebrews, another book in the New Testament part of the Bible Hebrew is chapter 11. We're told this by faith able brought god a better offering than Cain. By faith, he was commended as righteous when god spoke well of his offering. So Abel presents an offering to God by faith. Now, what does that mean?

It means by trusting what god says he wanted. And in Abel's case, he brought the sacrifice of a lamb. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. This passage is not saying that Abel is a better person than Cain It's not saying that Abel was in himself. You know, had something that that God lied No.

He brought a better offering and the offering was a lamb and a lamb dying in his place. And by faith he knew, that's what god wanted. The sacrifice of a lamb to die for his sins. Caine, on the other hand, apparently thought that his sweat and blood was good enough for, for god. And so he went to his field and worked hard and thought, I'm not gonna inquire what god wants, what pleases god.

But this should please him because I've I've worked hard at this. So Abel brought a blood sacrifice. Cain brought sacrifice of his own hands. So here's the question though, why did Cain kill Abel? Well, John says because he belonged to the evil 1, so he belongs to the family group of his father who is a murderer from start.

Yes. Because he belonged to the evil 1, he did evil. But then it has this, but not just that. Look at verse 12. Do not be like Cain who belongs to the evil 1 and murdered his brother, and why did he murder him because his own actions were evil.

Yep. That's obvious. His own actions are evil. We know that bit, but here's the bit. Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Kain murdered his brother because he hated the righteous acts of his brother. You could almost hear Kain mumbling to himself, although he didn't really want god to hear, but you can almost hear himself. Well, well, you know, God wants blood. God wants a lamb. Well, I'll give God blood then.

I'll him blood of massacre, my my brother. Now, that's shocking. Because we we know Kain killed his brother because Kain is evil, but actually what we're being shown here is Kain killed his brother because his brother was righteous. And that's the thing I think John wants us to get. Because he says, don't be surprised by that.

Look at verse 13. Do not be surprised. And then John turns it and applies it to us living today. Do not be surprised that Cain would kill his brother because his brother is righteous. Look, do not be surprised my brothers and sisters if the world hates you.

Don't be surprised. Why are we surprised about this? 1 of the marks of an unbelieving world is that they follow the prototype which is Kain. 1 of the marks of an unbeliever is they do not love god's people. That's 1 of the marks.

And Kain is the prototype of how the world thinks about god's people. And John says that thinking, that attitude is still being displayed in all its ugliness a day, don't be surprised that that's how the world will treat you. He's showing us That's the pattern right from Caine all the way through. The 2 families are at war. Now we've seen this already in John, in 1 John.

Remember, I told you right at the beginning, well, you may not remember, that 1 John is like a spiral staircase. You've got the pillar of truths that he wants us to see. But he's walking around and round and we see it from different angles the same truth and we're now seeing this same stuff. I preached a sermon called 2 tribes go to war and you've got the same thing here again but he's he's bringing a little bit more further into us. Don't be surprised.

And yet we are surprised. You see, if you read the story of 1 of those couples that I talked about David and saul haven't you ever read the story of saul and uh-uh David and saul and thought why why is saul against David. David only blesses saul. Only ever does good for saul. You know, David could have taken Saul's life, but he doesn't.

He only ever did good to saul but saul hates him. So it's not good that saul is against or Jesus. He shows love to the crowds. He blesses them. He heals them and they cry out crucify him.

Why? I remember when I was first, became a follower of the lord Jesus. I heard a man back in the early eighties called Joseph Ton passed the Joseph Ton. You you may have heard of him. He was a Romanian pastor.

It was under communism, Romania, under very strong communism. And, he was a Christian pastor. He was he was beaten and imprisoned and, eventually expelled from Romania where communism was the power. And I remember him speaking very clearly about the Christians in Romania and how and he proved this how the Christians were the very best citizens of Romania and yet they're cruelly persecuted. Why?

They're good citizens. Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones writes this. Listen to this. You've got this is really important to to grab hold of because this is what John is telling us. The world does not hate because you are hateful people.

The case of Cain Enable proves that. Kain did not hate his brother because there was something hateful about his brother. There was nothing hateful in but Cain hated him in spite of that. Neither does the world hate us because we are good Let us be quite clear about this. The world does not hate good people.

The world only hates Christian people. And that is the subtle vital distinction. If you are such a good person, the world far from hating you will admire you. It will cheer you. And what is true of the individual is true of the whole church.

If anyone did good of this world, it was the lord Jesus Christ, but the world hated him. Do you see what he's saying? It's not the good. See, we think we think. Look, Christians are very good citizens.

We pay our taxes. We try to obey the law. We try to love people and yet Christians around the world are despised and hated. Why? Why?

Not because they're good, but because they're from a different family because of righteousness. Sometimes people look at Christians and hate the fact that they've got their lives together. Sometimes people look at Christians and they see that they love god and they talk about god loving them and that God is their father. Sometimes people look at Christians and they say, well, they talk about having a family, the church, How dare they have another family other than mine? Kain, you see, wasn't being affirmed by Abel, was he?

It's infuriating to Kain. Because Abel has this peace with god, this joy with god, this acceptance of god, he knows God is pleased with him and that was non affirming to abe to Cane's sacrifice. So he's furious about it. He's not being affirmed. So Kain looks at his own hard work and says, look at the works I do, look at the good works I do, and you're just right with god through faith?

And he hates that. He's angry about that. There's a great illustration in John Bunion's pilgrims progress, which we looked at over quite a few years in our mix services. So you can go and listen them. But 1 of the great and most famous scenes in all of literature is called Vanity Fair.

And it's where Christian and faith are walking through Vanity Fair, which is a picture of this world. They're not criticizing actually vanity fair, not at first. They're just walking through. They want to get through it, but they're not buying. They're not buying what the world Vanity Fair has on offer.

They're not submitting to the salesman. They're not causing a fuss. They're just walking through but you don't buy. These people don't buy. They're judging us.

They're not affirming us. And so they shout out and they get beaten up not for doing anything other than being righteous, and 1 gets killed and the other escapes. In Reading, The first American fast food Chick fil A. It's just a fast food chicken company. Opened up in Reading in the Oracle, a shopping center in Reading.

The Oracle. It's interesting. You should listen to that. And, I mean, they're genuinely just a fast food. It's very nice.

If you've been to America and you've eaten Chick fil a in orida and stuff. It's very tasty, very juicy chicken way better than KFC, although I'm probably not allowed to say that. But it's less greasy and delicious. They opened up their first store in Reading in the Oracle. A group of people hate them because they're Christian.

On all accounts, to work for Chick fil A, they're open to anyone working for them, They're good to their their workers. They pay more than the average wage and they have Sundays off because they're Christian firm. And as a Christian firm, they give to charity, and they give to Christian charities because they're a Christian firm. But they don't give to other charities. When you can't give to everything, you give to the ones that you like and they like Christian charities, but a group of people In the name of freedom, shouted out, campaigned fundamentalist, lgbt fundamentalists, that if this group does not submit to their charities, they should not be allowed in the oracle.

They made such a fuss that the oracle manager has stopped the license of Fille. I've written to the manager 4 times. He says that Chick fil a don't fit in the oracle. The strange thing is that they have McDonald's in there and dunking doughnuts and Starbucks, and they haven't got a chicken company, so it fits perfectly. You ask them, why doesn't it fit?

And he says, I'm not telling you, basically. You write to him 3 more times and say, you must know why it doesn't fit. Can you tell me why it doesn't fit? Now the point I'm trying to show is that this company are hated not because of the bad chicken they sell or, because they're nasty people, they're good is because they're Christian. There was a young student girl who used to come to us when she was a student here in went back home.

Her pastor her dad is a pastor, part time pastor, worked in a local school, pastor Keith Walker. Pastor Keith Walker puts up a tweet about something that I wouldn't go to this particular march because it's or I wouldn't take children to this particular march. He retweeted someone his tweet. But this group of people were furious, and they went for blood. And I was reading it today.

Even though he apologized for the tweet and said, yeah, what tweets are silly? I shouldn't have just put it up. I should have thought then the article, the local article and the local paper, was saying, well, he's apologized, but we want more than an apology. Well, what is more than an apology? Do you see how it goes?

And then they quote his Christian website and turn everything upon him. Now, this has been the pattern of life since Kain and Abel. We shouldn't be surprised. Don't be surprised if the world hates you. Even if you do good to the world, Don't be surprised because they're not angry at your good.

They're angry at the righteous behavior. We pray for the world. We befriend the world and the case of this world. We try to do them good. We love them.

We care for them. We stand up for them where we can stand up for We are to love them and give our lives to tell them about the righteousness of Christ, but we don't fit in this world. We don't fit in this world, and we never will. Doing good doesn't make people like us. Jesus said this.

We learnt this in our evening services when Tom opened up Luke 12. Jesus says, they will be divided. Father against son and son against father and mother against daughter and daughter against mother and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. There's going to be a division even in the blood family because they're angry that you're in the family of god. So don't be like that.

That's the first point. Here's the second. Don't be like Kain. We'll apply it in a minute. See how this applies in a minute.

But don't be like Kain, but do be like Christ. Do be like Christ who gives his life for others. Don't be like Cain. Do be like Christ. Look at verse 11 of chapter 3 of 1 John.

For this is the message you heard from the beginning, we should love 1 another. So we're called to a completely different lifestyle. We're called to love. We are followers of Jesus and we love Jesus and we are called to love the followers of Jesus. Cain hates and takes life.

Jesus loves and gives his life. Cain sheds the blood of another. Jesus sheds his own blood for love. And look at verse 14, we know that we've passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer and you know that no murderer has returned life reassigning in him. Love for our brothers and sisters is the test whether you've come from death to life love for your brothers and sisters is a sign whether you're in the life of Christ or not. That's how we know, says John. How do you know what's your assurance If you don't have love for brothers and sisters, you have no right to be assured of your salvation. You have no right to think that you're in the area of life.

You're in the family of Jesus. That's what John's saying. Now, we'll look at more of this knowledge and this assurance week and it's a very important passage. But this is how we know. Now, what is love then?

That's the question. What is love? Well, we've seen that Kain is the example of hate and murder and that family group and now he turns and he looks at Jesus as the family head of this family group. And verse 16, he says, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid his life down for us.

That's 1 of the children's songs. This is how we know what love is that that's it. And so he tells us what the essence of love is. The essence of hate is that you take someone's life The essence of love is that you give your life for someone. The essence of hate is that you remove a person from your The essence of love is that you give to that person.

The essence of hate is that it despises righteousness The essence of love is that you promote righteousness. Hate seeks harm. To the other person as it builds itself up. Love seeks good for the other person. Hate leads to actively going against other people.

Love leads to actively being for other people. Hate leads the murder, loves leads to self sacrifice verse and Jesus is the great example and definition of love. And we've seen that in 1 John before and we'll see it again. What was Cain's desire to rob Abel of life? So he wasn't shown up.

What was Christ's desire to lay down his life? What is love? It's giving at all costs. The cross of Christ is the symbol of love, but love directed to brothers and sisters. The real blood brothers.

Your real blood others are blood bought people by the blood of Christ. And that may bring tension in your earthly family In fact, it will. See, being a Christian, get this, is not a surface thing, It's not just theory. It's not just theory. Our love mustn't be sort of that grand theoretical love the world, peace and love, sort of just that sort of grand theory, its action.

Look at verse 17 of chapter 3. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of god be in that person? You see a brother and sister in need and you don't is is this isn't word only. Look at look at verse 18. Dear children.

Let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. Any idiot, anyone can say I love you. James talks about people in the church saying, oh, there you are in your poverty and in your need. Bless you. I'll pray for you.

Any idiot can send little praying hands or pray for you but don't pray Anyone can say they love but don't love. We're all gonna say we love But the reality is it's not just lip service. It's not just words. It's caring. It's action.

It's costing. It's laying your life down. It may cost you material possessions. If you're on the side of Jesus, if you were born into his family, then brothers and sisters are essential It's not just an add on. Church is not an add on.

It's family. It's your real blood bought family. And if you don't show love, in that family, then John saying, Hey, you have no right to assurance. That's why a lot of people don't have assurance because they're not connected to a church. Ch church is not an add on.

It's essential. Anonymous church going is no church going at all. I mean, believe it or not, there are people, maybe some here today, that that travel around gypses going from 1 church to another church to another church. They're not part of the church. They they're just sermon hunting or you know, wanting the latest doughnut that the church particularly gives out or the latest excitement in the songs.

They want a church that has a band, not a church that doesn't have 1. I mean, I've come to this church. There's no band. Yeah. I don't even have musicians in that church.

You cannot love You cannot be Christlike with other without other people. You cannot be and anything that takes you away is something you need to battle with and deal with. Remember, I gave an illustration in another 1 of these sermons about Pebbles on the beach. Why are pebble smooth? Because they're a whole load of pebble was bashing up against each other.

They don't start smooth. They're, you know, sharp edges. But as the sea bashes up and as you bash up against fellow Christians, then you become more Christlike. You can't do that on your own. We're not here to have private devotions to god.

Do that at home. We must greet 1 another. We must fellowship with 1 another, serve 1 another, love 1 another, We come not just to sit on a seat and go. That's not church. It's not a driving church.

Where you come in your little box in your seat. It's not a cinema where you sit next to someone but you wish you weren't. You want to save a seat so you can put your coat on it. And you're irritated by the bloke behind eating the popcorn, and you think I'll move, and I'll try and see when, you know, those premier seats that have been sold, I'm gonna move to that because I'm not paying for that. I mean, 5 quid for that.

Yeah. I'm gonna get it free. It's that's not a church. We welcome each other. We pray for each other.

We teach each other. We love each other. We forgive each other. We tolerate each other, more, we love each other. We want each other to be more righteous.

We serve tea and coffee to each other. We play music to help in our worship so that we can worship god together. We put out chairs. All of these things. We make meals when people are ill.

There is no such thing as a hermit Christian. And if that's your tendency, you've got to deal with that. Before god, ask him to help you to come out of your hermit way of life. Part of the mark of a Christian that you desire to give your life for others. And the motivation and the empowerment of that is that Christ lays his life down.

Look at verse 16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid his life down for us, and we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers and sisters. That's our motivation. Now last point, sorry.

I've gone on too long now. The tension. The tension here the tension between these 2 worlds in your life. There's not only tension between the Kain and Abel family groups, but there is tension within us because we're born into this world and we're born again into another world. So there's a tension.

While we wait for the glory, there's a tension and unless you understand that tension between the 2 worlds within you, the internal tension, you won't do battle. You won't fight you'll give up. Now think about it. Let's just think about this because this is shocking if you get this question right. Why is John writing to the church about Cain.

Did he really think that there were 2 brothers gonna 1 of them is gonna there's gonna be murder in the church. I've heard of some atrocious things going on in church but I've not been in a church where that's happened I was in a church where a bloke opposed everything in a self righteous way and he dropped dead I was in a church there where he said god is telling us not to do this. We mustn't and he died. I was in a church there. That was extraordinary, and that brit brought a hush to the congregation, I can tell you.

I've never been in a church where someone said, right poof dead massacre the brother. Alright. So why on earth is John talking about Kain here. Does he really think someone's gonna murder? Well, you've gotta remember that murder is only under the family group of sin of hate.

Jesus says, you have heard that it was said to people long ago, you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, says, Jesus us that anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother or sister, racker, is, answerable to the court and anyone says you fool will be in danger of hellfire. Hate and treatings is it's it's not in the fun sense to say oh, he's a fool. Oh, he's a it means that you despise someone.

You don't talk to them. You So that is in the family group with murder. So if we don't do battle to love, we can so easily fall into the cain like attitude of the world and hate and murder. See, John does say do not be like Cain, and he does say we ought to our lives down. It's not automatic.

This is a command we have to work on in the power of the spirit as we look at the lord Jesus Christ. Some we Christians can allow a Kain spirit to grow in us. Are you 1 of them? Are you more like Cain or Jesus right now? Is there a Christian brother or sister here that you don't talk to because you don't like.

Is there anyone like that? Oh, stop that. That's a pain like spirit. That's in the camp of murder. That's the world That's not like Christ who laid down his life for brothers and sisters.

Is there someone you don't like in this room and you won't talk to and you avoid or stop that, says John. Do battle with that. Don't allow that to grow. Don't look at them and let that fester and grow into murder in your own mind. Go now.

Get a coffee. Talk to them. Are you 1 who sympathize or your sympathies are aroused when you see trouble, Christians in trouble. Are you aroused by the Chick fil Athing or our brother Keith Walker? Should arouse you, should love that brother.

We need to write to him and We will. So stick in there, brother. Stick in there. Follow Christ. Even if you did make a mistake, follow Christ.

You aroused when you hear of Christians persecuted. It hurts you. You you wanna give when we have our Christmas appeal for open doors brothers and sisters in Christ suffering right now. However, odds some of them are I mean, it's true. Some of those open air speakers that are arrested in our country are very, very odd people.

But there are brothers and sisters, and we're stand by them even though they're odd. Do you bring life or death into a situation by your words? Are you grumpy and critical Is that the first words that come out of your mouth? Isn't that like Kain? I mean, those of us that are getting older, we gotta be careful.

It's so easy I'm noticing to turn into a grumpy old windbag. Everything is annoying. We should learn to be thankful. Thank people. That will change our attitudes.

We can't grow as a Christian outside of the local church and you won't know assurance if you try to. So don't be surprised. Bless the you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Not because you do good works, but because of me. You're a foreign of Jesus, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the fits who were before you.

Father God, there are great challenges here. Please pleased by your spirit help us to do battle with the cain like spirit and have a spirit of Christ in us in Jesus' name, our