Mike Bickle emphasizes the certainty of persecution for Christians in the West, drawing from John 15:18-24. He explains that while persecution is often viewed as a demonic attack, it can also be seen as a divine gift that enhances spiritual growth. Bickle encourages believers to anticipate persecution as a part of their faith journey, highlighting the blessings that come from enduring trials for Christ's sake. He stresses the importance of preparing the next generation for these realities and fostering deep relationships within the church to support one another. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper understanding of the rewards and spiritual growth that can arise from persecution.

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to John chapter 15, or you can follow along on the notes, but that's the passage we're going to read in just a moment. Father, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for access to your throne and to your presence and Holy Spirit, we ask you even now that you would inspire our understanding, illumine our understanding, touch and tenderize our heart and teach us and lead us to what you want us to understand from this passage. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, on the notes here, it says session 13. You might go, okay, what's that about? We, myself and Stuart, we've taught four semesters of Friday nights, about 15 weeks each on John 13 to 17. We have two more semesters to go, each one about 15. And this is from about a month or so ago. And I'm just redoing it here on Sunday morning because I felt like it was important for our larger family to hear, to not just the students and interns on Friday nights. I'm calling this the certainty of persecution in the Western church and its blessing. And really what I'm wanting to do is stir up a long term conversation. In one session, we can't go very far or cover very much ground, but I want to, in 2023, stir up not just a year long, but a longer conversation around this topic, what the Bible says about it, not just the fact of persecution, but the blessing. And the blessing is hard to get our mind around without the revelation of the word of God. But it's a topic we don't talk much about in the West, so it's new to almost all of us. But I believe that in the days to come, this is going to become a very necessary and very important topic. Let's look at paragraph A. Now in the Bible, persecution is both a demonic attack that hinders our spiritual growth, but it's also a divine gift that enhances our spiritual growth. There's two very different tracks, and they're not contradictory at all. We mostly, in the West, think of the demonic attack. And that's good, but that's not a complete picture of the biblical narrative of persecution. And if we only see the demonic attack side, we end up being really vulnerable to responding in fear and offense at God, and drawing back, and how dare you, and why, and what's going on. But the early church, the apostles understood the divine gift. Paul makes this really strong statement in Philippians 1, verse 29. He says, for to you it's been granted. That's the language of a gift. It's been granted on behalf of Christ to suffer for him. That's part of his gift to you. You go like, really? 1 Thessalonians 3, he goes, don't be shaken by these afflictions. And it means persecutions. I want you to know this, Paul says. We're appointed to be persecuted. And the idea is, because of the benefits that come along with it, that he doesn't mention there, but he does in other places. Now, a strange idea, but I just want you to think about it. You can't make persecution happen to you in the will of God. Meaning, you can do something stupid, and cause somebody to be mad at you, and hit you, or something. But think about the last 10 or 20 years, many of you, of your spiritual life. How many people have hit you in the face, or thrown you in jail because you love Jesus? Think, well, I guess maybe 1% or less in the room here. And my point being, you can't make it happen. And physical harm, because of Jesus, getting beat or whipped, even in the lives of those persecuted, normally it happens a time or two. And it's a gift from God. It's like God giving you a bag of gold. But if you don't understand it, you'd be confused by it. You can't make it happen. Most of you are not going to be thrown in jail, or hit in the face, or beat in the next year because you love Jesus. And again, if the Lord gives you that opportunity in the future, when it's all said and done, and you see the whole picture, you'll say, thank you, thank you. I wish you would have let me have this a couple times. It's something actually that's granted to you, and appointed to you, in the will of God at key times. Very few times. But it's very important. In Acts chapter 5, the apostles came to understand this. And they rejoiced when they had these few opportunities. I mean, Peter went to prison, I think, three times in many decades. It's not like some people go to prison 10 or 15 years, but most it's a short-term thing. And they thought, they saw the benefit of it, and they actually rejoiced in it. Let's go to paragraph C. Now we're looking at John 15, and that's the series that we've been working on in this last, in this fourth semester on John 13 and 17. We're at the end of it. In John 15, Jesus says this. If the world hates you, I want you to know that it hates me first. In other words, they really only hate you because they hate me. And if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you if you say what I say. Verse 22, if I had not spoken to them in the way I did, they wouldn't have sinned. And in this context, they wouldn't have had a national guilt for rejecting the Messiah. If I hadn't done the mighty miracles, they wouldn't have the national guilt that they have. But because I spoke to them the truth, it enraged them. Now what Jesus is teaching the apostles, he goes, I want you to know their hatred isn't towards you. It's towards me. So if you're faithful to what I say, they will hate you. So settle it in your mind. When I think of all the themes of what Jesus taught, I mean, there's no, I don't really have a category. Let's say there's 10 categories of positive things or popular things that he said, like you're freely forgiven. Those are really good. There's a lot of really popular positive things he said, but there's maybe five or 10 or more unpopular things that he said. And the Lord is going to raise up the end time church where we will stand for the popular and the unpopular. Mostly today in the West, we only talk about the popular themes. But when you look with clarity at the unpopular things he said, I mean, my goodness, it's really intense. But the Holy Spirit's gonna raise up a church the closer we get to the coming of the Lord, that is gonna stand loyal to everything he said. And the hatred will come to fullness. Paragraph D, for instance, the world hates Jesus's teaching about man's sin and guilt. They don't like that. They like love of God, free forgiveness, divine blessing, not sin and guilt. They don't like his claim that he's God. They think that's a little intense and he's judge. And he's the only way of salvation. And he's the only accurate standard of morality and judgment. They don't like that idea. They don't like the idea that they need his work on the cross to be saved. But Jesus is again, he's coming back for a church that's gonna be faithful to say the whole story. Paragraph F, well, we know that John is writing John 15, that's why it's called John 15, but he's quoting Jesus. But later he writes his own epistles, his own letters. And this is third John, some century, I mean, some decades later. He says, I wanna elaborate on what Jesus said on the night before he died about being hated. He goes, here's what I want you to know. Don't marvel when the world hates you. And what that means is anticipate that if you're faithful to say all that he said, you're gonna be hated, just settle it. Now what happens is that because we're not clear on this, we marvel, we're shocked when we're hated. Like, what did I do? I just said this or we're surprised. Now here's the problem. If we don't anticipate being hated and we're shocked by it, surprised by it, taken off guard, we're far more vulnerable to be offended at God, far more vulnerable to be overcome by fear. But when we see what the scripture says and we rehearse these truths in conversation with God, many times our hearts get established with clarity. And we go, okay, we get what's going on. We get the, a little bit, the eternal rewards. We get the benefits of glorifying you. We get the transformation of our life. We see it more clearly what's really going on. Okay, okay, that makes more sense. But if you're not thinking about it and you're suddenly surprised and the knock on the door comes, like in many countries and the authorities say, you got a decision right now to make. You're either gonna say no to the things that Jesus said or you're going to jail or your children are. And then, you know, in a moment they're going, uh, I haven't really thought much about this. And so Jesus is preparing them in John 15. And John is saying here too, don't, don't marvel. Don't be shocked by this, actually expect it. Paragraph G, John 15, this, the chapter we've devoted that fourth semester to, that fourth module, is the chapter well-known as the intimacy with God chapter. Two thirds of John 15 is intimacy with God, abiding in Christ, et cetera. But the final third is about being hated for loving and being loyal to Jesus. So two thirds of John 15 is intimacy. One third is the prophecy from Jesus of being hated. Now, what Jesus is actually doing, and we'll look at this in a minute, is that this is Thursday night, the last supper, he dies on Friday. This is the night before he's elaborating on this idea of being hated that he told them on Tuesday. Two days earlier, in Matthew chapter 24, he said, I want you to know you're gonna be hated. So that's Tuesday. Now it's Thursday. He goes, let me unpack that a little bit more to you and explain why and how it works. And of course, again, the apostles, they're not really grasping what's going on until later. Now it's, look here in Matthew chapter 24, the two days earlier before he spoke here in John 15, he says in verse eight, and the verses before, he gives a number of things, trends that are happening that he calls the beginning of birth pangs. Then in verse nine, he says, then, which means after the season of the beginning of birth pangs, all the nations will hate you. Lawlessness will escalate at a level beyond any time in history. But the good news is, it'll be the greatest release of the Holy Spirit power. The gospel will go to the earth. And again, a phrase we use the billion soul harvest, multitudes are coming and signs and wonders. And the context for the signs and wonders in this great manifestation of power in verse 14 is actually the hatred and lawlessness earlier. Now, here's what I want you to notice here. And I've missed this for years. The verse nine says, then, meaning that's a timing indicator. It's after the season of the beginning of birth pangs. It's after that season. Now, I believe prophetically, we're still in the season, the beginning of birth pangs. I believe we're getting closer to the end of that season. I don't know when, but verse nine, it's after the beginning of birth pangs, a new dynamic takes place. And here's the word I've missed over the years. You'll be hated by all nations, not a few nations, all 200 nations in the earth. After the birth pangs season, the beginning of birth pangs season is over. A new dynamic is going to happen. Lawlessness will explode. The hatredness will be solidified. Every nation of the earth. There's about 200 nations on the earth. Right now, there's about 60 nations that on the persecution watch list, there's 60 nations that are identified as intense persecution, 60 out of 200. There's 140 nations that aren't identified that way. My point is the season where all nations hate those that are loyal to Jesus has not happened yet. It's yet future. We see it increasing, but the word ALL is not happened. It's yet a future thing that's gonna unfold. Now in paragraph H, when reading John 15, again, top of page two, some focus on the Matthew 24, what he said on Tuesday, the end times, the hatred, the persecution. Now that's happened all through history, but it escalates at the end time, way beyond the early church. And a lot of folks, they study the end times. And they don't really prioritize the intimacy part of John 15. Other groups, they really prioritize the intimacy, but they don't think much about the end time storyline. But both of them must go together. And that's one point that Jesus is making here. You know, one of the words the Lord gave us in a very dramatic way, I mean, many years ago, 1988, was Song of Solomon, chapter eight, verse six. He spoke it audibly. Song of Solomon, chapter eight, verse six. He talked about the seal of love empowering the church. And this is a promise. The Lord is gonna release this seal of divine love of this bridegroom's love for his end time church as a mature bride. And this seal of love is an anointing for the church across the whole earth. And it's just beginning to increase. We're watching it increase, but it's really gonna escalate. Jesus is coming back for a church that will be loyal in love and fearless even before death. Her love will be stronger than death. And the end time church will love Jesus even in the face of martyrdom. They will say, we love him way more than your threats can cause us to back away. Roman numeral two. Now I mentioned already, paragraph A, there are several persecution watch lists. They identify 60 nations that have a high level of persecution today. And those 60 nations encompass about or involve about 300 million believers. Now these 300 million believers, all of them are not being directly persecuted, but all of them are in close proximity to somebody who is. And the threat that maybe next week the knock will come on their door because it's already come on the door of some of their friends or family members. So they're living in this challenge, this maybe a month from now. So they've really got to determine where they are with God. And paragraph B, the common elements of the persecution. And there's so much to say on this. This is such a quick, just again, I'm just wanting to stir up our conversation on this subject. Thousands and thousands have been thrown into jail. I mean, the last 10 years with no trial in these nations, or they're given long sentences in quote re-education camps, which are prison camps. Many, I mean, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, actually some millions have been raped, beaten or killed. I'm talking about in the last 10 years, in the last 50 years. Villages, Christian villages, entire villages, small villages, but their homes are burned. The churches are burned. All their crops are burned so their families starve. Many nations have anti-conversion laws. It's particularly Islamic nations, radical Islamic nations. And these anti-conversion laws are enforced by the penalty of death. That if a Muslim turns to Jesus, it's blasphemy against Allah. The same is true in India, in Hindu areas of India, it's a death penalty to renounce Hinduism and come to Jesus. The most invasive of all, which we're familiar with, is China and the surveillance state that China is. There's well over 500 million cameras right now in China. And their goal is to make it several billion before it's over. Cameras in some places, every 50 yards on the highways, I mean, on the streets and shops, with artificial intelligence, facial recognition technology. And what they're doing is they're developing, well, they've already developed the system, but they're spreading it out. It's only in part of China, but their goal is to fill China with it. A social credit score that is really against Christians. And if you have a bad social credit score, because they can see everywhere you go, what you purchase, what you buy, where you go, what's said in the meetings you go to. And loyalty to Jesus teaching will be considered a hate crime and a crime against the state. And if you get a bad social credit score, you cannot rent an apartment, buy a house, get a job. You can't get on a train or a plane. I mean, it's so severe. Just go on the internet and check out some of the people. Their lives are devastated because they get a low social credit score because of their commitment to say things. Anyway, this is gonna be worldwide before it's over. I don't mean every nation will have the same intensity. I don't know that. But this persecution is. Paragraph C, Pope John Paul II established a commission for martyrs. And you can check this out if you want to. And he categorized and researched all that this commission did, all that have been killed for their faith in the 20th century. And here's what their report is. There are more Christians killed for their faith in the 20th century in a hundred years than in the 1900 years before. More than double in the 20th century than the 1900 years before. That's a remarkable statement. But this other website, the Esther Project, they say in the last 10 years, about 100,000 people every year are being killed, not put in prison, but killed. Many more are being persecuted in a very severe way. And the numbers escalating rapidly. And it's only a short amount of time before the church in the West, because we're a bit, I'm in it too, we're a bit in a bubble. And this isn't really part of our family conversation. We think about it a little bit, not too much. It is going to be knocking on the door of the Western world very, very soon. And very soon might mean five years, might be 10 years, maybe later, maybe sooner. I don't know. I don't mean next week. Now we've seen some persecution emerging, but it's mostly economic persecution and, or getting censored on social media and things like that. It's going to go far beyond this. We need to be aware and be informed and have those conversations with the Lord and our family where we say, okay, the word of God says this, promises that, this is the reason. Okay, okay, I got it. I'm with you. Paragraph D, Christians enduring persecution in end time prophecy is a very sober reality. And we can't brush this reality aside. I mean, these prophecies are going to come to pass. And I have a few examples here in Revelation 6 that Jesus won't return until the number of martyrs is completed. There is a number that God is ordained or knows. I don't know how it all works, but until that number is complete, the Lord's not returning. Revelation 17, verse six, the harlot Babylon system will be drunk with the blood of the saints. Drunk means intoxicated, frenzy, bloodlust, meaning they get more intense. The more they kill, the more they want to kill. Drunk with blood. Now the problem in the West for all of us, I'm in the same situation. We look at these prophecies and we think of mostly the demonic attack. And again, fear or offense or confusion. But here's the good news. When you read the apostolic witness and the revelation of the gift that's happening, I have good news for you. I believe that we read those prophecies and go, oh no. But when they come, we're going to be surprised how the spirit of glory and how the power of God is going to be with us in a way that we're not imagining right now. Because the apostolic company, they rejoiced and said, thank you. It's the gift of God. This is really helping us. So we're going, really? Well, we don't have that spirit of glory resting on us that Peter talked about, which I have on later in the notes. When Peter said in chapter four, verse 14, when you're persecuted, the spirit of glory will rest on you. And I've had the opportunity to talk to a number of folks. I don't mean like 100, but 20 or 30. I don't know the exact number that have been really severely persecuted. And I've said, what was it like? They said, well, I hated it. But there's something happened inside of us that, wow, it was remarkable. I don't want to get hit again, but something happened. And it was bigger than I thought in a good way. Paragraph three, how do we respond? How should we respond to these end time prophecies? Well, I have three applications. There's more than three, but this is just a quick overview. Application number one, Peter said chapter four, verse one, arm yourself with this mindset. In other words, inform yourself what the Bible says about persecution. Now, most of us don't know much. We know it's going to happen, but we don't know why. We don't see the benefits. We don't know the rewards. We don't know. We just kind of have heard it's going to happen. And we hear stories from over there. We go, oh no, oh no. But Peter said, arm yourself for this. Fill your mind with the biblical narrative as to why God's allowing it to happen. What are the benefits? What are the eternal rewards? This will get you ready. Then arm yourself by being more intentional about developing intimacy with Jesus. You know, the first two thirds of John 15, not just the final one third of the persecution. And thirdly, we have to be in, we have to cultivate deep kingdom relationships of people that are radically committed to Jesus that won't back down. Meaning people are saying, you know, I've set my heart. I'm going all the way. I'm not just casual Christianity, weekend Christianity. Then the rest of the week, I do what I want. Develop relationships with people that are sober about these realities. So that's application number one. Application number two is the one I'm, well, I'm really, I'm passionate about number one, but I'm really passionate about number two. And that is as a spiritual family, I have a personal mandate, but we do as a family too, that we need to arm and prepare the next generation with biblical understanding of these things. Right now, the church in the Western world, bigger than America, this train of persecution is racing fast. Most young adult believers are completely unaware it's coming. And it is going to blindside them and hit them in devastating spiritual negative results. If they're not ready or prepared and as spiritual moms and dads here in this house, and there's many others outside of here, of course, we want to be intentional about arming them, storing up the conversation in our families and our friendships, talking about it, not only about it, but we need to get sober about this and train the next generation with intentionality. And then paragraph C, we need to help the persecuted church with finances, prayer, encouragement. And I want to encourage you to go on, I have it written down there, YouTube and just put persecution of Christians. There's so much information going on around the world. Most of us in the West are in a bubble. We know a little bit, but there's much more that's happening than we're aware of. This bubble we're in is dangerous for us to stay in it. That's why I'm wanting to begin 2023, not make this our number one subject, but an intentionality about studying what the Bible says, the benefits of it, the eternal rewards with the spirit of glory, why it's happening, where it's happening. And we want to get ready because I assure you, Jesus is coming back for a victorious church that's ready. But I want to be a part of the solution of that. I want to be used to get people ready because they will be ready. I assure you that. Top of page three. How persecution benefits a believer. This is a really big statement that Peter says, he says that he that has suffered in the flesh that's talking about persecution, by the way, it's not talking about sickness. There's other verses about sickness. It's not talking about a personal tragedy. Your house burned down, your car wreck, you had bankruptcy. Those are all real issues, but that's not what Peter's referring to in first Peter. He's talking about physical. I mean, he's talking about persecution for standing for Jesus. He says, I have good news for you. When you get persecuted, you cease from sin. Like what? The things that we easily tolerate in the West, the sins that we kind of weak at, not too serious about over in Iran, they don't tolerate those. The conversation in their soul with God, the conversation they have in their families and with one another, the sermons they preach, the prayers they pray are greatly affected by the persecution. The options they have to go out and do this. Those options are off the table. They used to do them, but they don't anymore because persecution shifts the conversation and the internal processing in a dramatic way. And when we stand before the Lord, we'll say, thank you. We always wanted to shift that conversation. We were always going to, but here we are 10 years later, we're still spiritually bored. Now, how many people, this is the year 10 years later, they're still stuck in compromise and spiritual boredom. Persecution unsticks the church because it's help because it shifts options and mindsets and conversations in a very, very dramatic way. Plus there's a 1 Peter 4, 14. Look at it. The spirit of glory rests on them. Paragraph B, Paul talked about this and wrote a Romans 5. He talked about tribulation. Again, this is not sickness or a family tragedy or economic collapse. I mean, bankruptcy type thing. This is persecution. He says it causes godliness to increase in you, causes godliness. And I have written here, the oil of intimacy is best cultivated in the fires of persecution. Now, I would like to go deep at intimacy without persecution and I think we can, but we're far more urgent about it when the pressure's on. Paragraph C. Now, this is the really important chapter here, passage. 2 Thessalonians 1. Now, I want you to say to yourself, 2 Thessalonians 1, you can say to your neighbor if you want to. Now, you probably haven't said 2 Thessalonians 1 twice in your life, but now you've said it twice today. I mean, nobody studies 2 Thessalonians 1. I've looked at it over the years. It's complicated. I mean, the language is like, what? Paul, in this chapter, I will say this, this is the most important chapter in the Bible explaining why persecution is a blessing sent by God. Now, when you read it at a fast read, you won't catch it. I have read this chapter. I've checked commentaries. Most of the commentaries, they didn't really say anything because it's complicated. And I said, Lord, we got to get into the understanding of what Paul was saying because there's no chapter that says it more clearly than this chapter, but the language he used, you got to really camp out on it for a while. And what I'm really wanting to do is not go in an in-depth. I give a few statements on four evidences. Paul says, this is evidence that God's leadership is good by you being persecuted. He gives four reasons why God's leadership is vindicated as excellent because we're persecuted. Now, again, you read it fast, you're going, hmm, what are those four now? And I've really poured into this, but I'm determined. I'm saying, Lord, I really want to see what Paul saw because I believe that the end time church will have far more intense persecution than the early church. And if we get into this apostolic understanding, we can be equipped and rejoice like they did, maybe even more so because we have the bride of Christ revelation. Jesus is coming back for the spirit and the bride try and come. There's going to be this first commandment dimension that's so strong. But anyway, I'm going to kind of give you just a quick snapshot at a passage you're going now. What? First, he starts off verse three and he tells them, now this is a young church, by the way, this is not a years and years old. It's a young church. He goes, your faith is growing so fast and your love is abounding in the midst of persecution. That is a miracle for people to have abounding faith, meaning they think Jesus's leadership is excellent. That's what faith abounding means. We love your leadership. We believe it and we trust. That's what faith means. And our love is abounding in the midst of persecution. Beloved, that is a miracle beyond measure because our human strength alone without the aid of the Holy Spirit, no way we can endure persecution with confidence in his leadership and love overflowing. I mean, people through history have been persecuted, but they're mad and afraid the whole time they're being persecuted. This is a miracle of what's happening there. And he's saying, I want you to know, verse five, your perseverance in persecution with love and faith, you are a portrait that God is real and living in you. No one could have confidence in God with joy and love like you do without God being near you and invested in you in a deep way. You are portraits of the glory of God. For other churches are looking at Thessalonica and going, wow, Jesus is close and near and committed. Look at that. He goes, and you're a picture to the unbelieving world. It's your proof of God's leadership. When he says manifest evidence, meaning proof of God's good leadership, your manifest evidence proof. Now here's the tricky phrase. He says in verse five, it's manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Now we think of judgment. We think of punitive judgment and judgment has a punitive dimension. But when the word judgment is used, it's like the, you know, the trial that the guys put on trial and the judge then gives a verdict. He gives a judgment. It might be you're innocent. So a judgment means a decision, a verdict. And so they're saying that God's good decision-making is proven by the way you're responding. There's no way you could respond this way. If God wasn't deeply invested in you, you are proof that God lives in humans. And they're going, I guess we really are. Because a few years ago, we never could have done this. He goes, that's already God's proved himself to you. Then he goes on the next thing, verse five, he says, the second thing is you're being counted worthy of the kingdom. Now being counted worthy of the kingdom, he doesn't use the word worthy in the sense of you are deserving the kingdom. He's using the word worthy in a very different sense that you're being fitted and suited and prepared to experience more of the kingdom. He says, so the persecution, not only are you a living portrait that God's invested in you and real and loves you, he's changing you to where your spiritual capacity is increasing dynamically. And you're going to experience more of God in this age and more of God in the age to come because of this gift of persecution that you never would have picked yourself. You're changing dramatically. You're being counted worthy. You're being fitted or suited for the kingdom, meaning more experience of the kingdom activities in this age. But we find in verse 11 and 12, he really is talking about, he goes, your preparation this age is going to show forth in the age to come. And it's going to blow your mind how much the benefit you're getting by this increased character happening because of persecution. Then he goes on and he says, verse six, he goes, not only that, the very fact that God's judgments are coming against the wicked. Now, the number one thing that God's criticized for in human history is his judgments, his temporal judgments in the book of Revelation. The nation's God is not a God of love. His eternal judgments. We hate the doctrine of eternal judgment. The nation say, and the Lord says, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use the persecutors. They're going to come against you and you are going to respond in the glory of God and the darkness of their heart will come full to the surface and God's judgments in time before the second coming and afterwards will be seen as wise and good. And you're part of the story of God vindicating his wise judgments, not as evil, not as cruel, not as unfair, but as good. And the Lord's using you to help that story go across the earth. And you're going to love it when you see how the Lord feels about you being used in that. And then the big one, which you won't catch in a quick read, the big evidence, verse seven, and God's going to give you rest. He's going to bring the full completion in your life. The fullness of what he's ordained for you because of persecution, you became worthy, meaning your character increased and this full obedience put you in a position to get the full reward in the age to come. When you're at rest, when everything God's promised to you comes to you and it's secure and full and final forever. And he's vindicated your righteous choices and it's going to be amazing. You're going to be blown away. You're going to say, Father, thank you for judgment. I mean, for persecution, I'm brought to rest, meaning the fullness of all that you've ordained for me is the idea. And he develops this clearly in verse 11 and 12, this idea of the fullness. Well, middle page three, we're going to skip that. I just kind of did that fast. Okay, let's go to page four. Coming to the end here in a few moments. And we're going to unpack first, second Thessalonians one of a bunch in the days to come. But I want you in your mind to say, okay, as a spiritual family and as an individual, I'm going to understand these things. I don't want just a quick glance. I want to know what these things mean. Paragraph G, we're looking at this fourth evidence of God's. Remember, he said, righteous judgment, but it means right leadership or let's say good leadership. It's evidence of God's good leadership, his righteous decision-making. He's going to bring you to rest. This is a huge topic that he develops later on in verse 11 and 12. Let's read it again. Kind of get the feel of it. He says in verse six, he goes, it's a righteous thing. Other words, God's good leadership. It's going to be publicly seen by all in your life. When God brings you to rest. Now he's going to do this in context to the second coming. Not till then. You won't even see this until then. But I promise you, Paul says by revelation is true. He goes, and therefore, verse 11, this is this. This used to be the strangest prayer. When I prayed this years ago, what in the world is he talking about? He says, because you're being persecuted and you're responding right and God's blessing you in it. Here's my prayer. That he says, I pray this all the time for you. That God is going to count you worthy. Not just your character changed. Count you worthy of the full blessing that he ordained for you from the beginning. My opinion is, I don't have a way of knowing this for sure. My strong opinion, most believers will not enter into the fullness of the reward that God ordained for them. Because the fullness of reward, I'm not talking about entrance into heaven. That's for free. I'm talking about there's so many eternal rewards. There's so many dimensions to this. My opinion is most believers through history will not have a full reward because they don't have full blessing and only happens when there's, I mean, full obedience. Persecution is ushering them into that spot. Paul goes, I get it. It's happening to me. And I want this to happen to you. He says that God would count you worthy, meaning prepared for this calling. Well, what's the calling? Here it is. It's a strange sentence that God would fulfill. The key word is all again, all that he's planned for you way more than just entrance into heaven. It's something I'm praying for. It's not sure yet in your life, but this persecutions leading to full obedience, it's going to lead to a full reward. He goes, I pray constantly. You can imagine the glory. This is gold beyond measure, but I think it could happen to you. Let's go to paragraph H. I have written here. Oh, to be counted worthy, which means not. It means that we're fitted. We're prepared. We're equipped in our responses to God to have a full reward with no loss. First Corinthians three. It's called the judgment seat of Christ where every believer stands. Paul talks about the people that are rewarded and all the rewards are different. Various levels. Everyone has a different measure of reward. That's clear. I don't want to go into that, but it's really clear in the scripture. But in verse 15, Paul talks about believers, and I think millions are going to be this category. They will suffer loss of what they could have had, but they're still saved. They still got the white robe. They're still in the city. They still eat from the tree of life. I mean, they're going, hey, man, we're here. They're happy. But Paul says, I want more than entrance into the city. I want that first. I want the fullness of what God ordained for me from my mother's womb. I want, I don't know what it is, but I want the fullness. John talks about this in the second John, the same John who wrote John 15. He says we don't want to lose the full reward that we've been laboring for. We want full obedience is the only way to full reward. Paragraph I. Now I want to just give you a quick, just a one, two, three, four on this. Paul was really into this idea of the full reward. This is an idea we hardly ever hear about. I mean, it's not a topic that people have teased out in the scripture, studied through the idea of various levels of reward, suffering loss, full reward, all these kinds of things. Here's what Paul says. Now this is about 54 AD. And the reason I'm giving the date, I want you to see the timeline. I'm going to do this really fast. It's about 54 AD, plus or minus a year or two. Because this, all the historians, they go, ah, it's 55. I said, no, it's 53. I don't care. 54, I'll just put the middle one. And so here's what he says. Remember it's 1 Corinthians 9. A minute ago, we were at 1 Corinthians 3. He told them about a reward and loss. Now he's applying it to his life. You know, six chapters later, he's writing the same letter. He goes, I want you to know, I'm running, meaning living my life. That's what he means by running, the race. I want the prize. I want more than the free gift of salvation. I want the prize. And he went on and identified it as an imperishable crown. And then he says in verse 27, he goes, I want this prize bad. I discipline my body, lest I be disqualified. He doesn't mean from salvation. He's not saying, if I'm not disciplined, I lose my salvation. He's not saying that at all. He says, I won't get that crown. I want that crown. That's the prize. I've locked into it. This is what he's telling the people in 2 Thessalonians 1. Then paragraph J. Now it's about eight years later. And I have the time, I get a plus or minus a year or two. Now he's in writing to the Philippians. He says, verse 12, chapter three, not that I've already attained that prize. I don't have the assurance yet. My obedience is still in place. He goes, but I'm pressing on. What am I pressing on for? Well, in Thessalonians, for all the good pleasure of God's goodness, the fullness of what God's ordained here, he says, he says it differently. I want to lay hold of that, which God laid hold of me for. I want the fullness of what he ordained for me. I mean, I'll be happy in heaven, but I know there's more. I want everything he's called for me. And he says, I haven't attained that yet. Now he's, this is eight years after he wrote. I'm going for the prize in Corinthians and he's still about six years before he dies. He goes, I want that prize. I don't have it yet, but verse 14, I'm pressing for it. The prize of the upward call. That's the heavenly call. I want that heavenly dimension of my inheritance more than entrance to the city, more than being in the family. I want those. Those are the biggies. But I want everything that he ordained for me. Now it's about six years later, second Timothy four, he's in prison. This is his final thing. He writes second Timothy four. He's writing to Timothy. And in context, you can read it. He goes, Timothy, the time of my departure is here. I'm going to die. He gets killed right after this. He goes, I finished the race again. Now this is, this is 14 years after he first started saying this in first Corinthians nine, 14 years later. He goes, Timothy, I got the crown. The spirit is made known to me. I got the crown. He's told me I made it. I know what he's talking about. Now this verse, the crown of righteousness, in my opinion is one verse that we're all comfortable with people lying about at funerals. At funerals, the brother is getting his crown. That's not true at all. Most people don't get this crown. There's no evidence in the scripture that all the eternal rewards are for everyone. Matter of fact, they're suffering loss. There's lack of full reward. And this crowd of right, everyone gets the white garment and everybody gets to eat from the tree, the tree of life. And everybody is on streets of golden, but there's 22 different types of rewards that Jesus identifies in the book of Revelation. And they're all different, various degrees and measures. But when Paul says, I got the crown and he goes, I got it, I see it. And he goes, and this crown is for everyone that loves his appearing. And that's where people get messed up because they think if you love the idea that you're going to be raptured any minute, you get a crown. No, that's not what he's talking about. He goes, if you love Jesus in his end time storyline and you're fully engaged with faithfulness because you love it, you'll get the crown too. He's not talking about everybody wants to be raptured tomorrow. There's nothing special about that because you love his appearing. You love the storyline enough to fully invest yourself in it. Even if you lose your life in it, that person who loves his appearing at that level, they get the crown. So I'm coming here to the end here. In paragraph L, worship team, go ahead, come on up. Paul says, this is fantastic. He says in Colossians, I rejoice in my sufferings. We says this a number of times. So does Peter, so do others. What do they know? We don't know. We're going to know it before it's over. I am committed as a, just as an individual, I want to know way more about this. And you are and many others are across the world that love Jesus. But look at this. This is a very strange sentence. When I read this, you know, 40 years ago in my 20s as a teaching Bible studies, I rejoice in my sufferings. I remember I taught Colossians. I'm going to fill up in my flesh that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. I went, what? Because I thought Paul was saying, I'm going to get persecuted that fill up in my flesh that he means persecution, but hit beat. I'm going to fill up what's lacking in what Jesus didn't accomplish on the cross. I go, that doesn't sound right, Paul. Go read the book of Romans, Paul, get your theology, right? And Paul's not saying Christ was, did not fully accomplish everything on his part. But what he's saying is in God's eternal wisdom and plan of the kingdom, there's Jesus's perfect offering on the cross. Once and for all it's finished. But then there in every generation, God has ordained. There's a public witness of the truth of that cross in the lives of the people. And Paul says that believers and unbelievers alike, they, the Lord says in my graciousness, I'm giving a public witness of the beauty of Jesus. The goodness of Jesus. And Paul says in my generation, people go, we don't know if that guy died on a cross. And, you know, in Jerusalem, as Paul's preaching around the ancient world, but they go, look at you, you know, something we don't know because what Paul was doing, he was a public portrait, a living portrait of the beauty of Jesus's leadership. And they, people would say, you know, something we don't know about this man and the Lord, the father says, Jesus's death on the cross, the ministry of the spirit, but the living witness of believers contributing in their generation to proving Jesus is real. Nobody could live this way if he wasn't real. Reminds me of the song of Solomon. When they go to the bride in chapter five and she's being persecuted and the daughters of Jerusalem say, what do you know about him? We don't know. And she goes all these glorious things about Jesus. And she says, this is my beloved. This is my friend. And all the others witnessed her. They said, we want what you want. Paul goes, I want to be a part of that public witness of the truth of the cross. Beloved, God's going to raise up an army of people across the earth. This privilege that we all get to be a part of in our generation. Amen and amen. Let's just stand before the Lord. Beloved, there's more understanding coming. We don't have it right now. We're going to be equipped. Our children are going to be ready. They're going to be rejoicing, not retreating in fear because more understanding is coming our way. I'm talking about body of Christ is what I mean. In time church, way more than us. Father, we ask you, let us see what Paul saw. Let us feel what he felt. And we can respond like he responded. Father, I ask you for this community. We could be spiritual moms and dads and raise up a generation of 15-year-olds and 20-year-olds with clarity that are armed for this. I ask you, help us be faithful witnesses to the next generation. And I want to invite anybody that would like prayer. Maybe you want to pray yourself. I want to be one of these witnesses. I want to partake. You could come up and get prayer. Say you're a charity. You talk to the Lord yourself. Others of you say, you know, you kind of sound like it's true what you're saying, but I'm still afraid. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know yet. I just want a little peace today. If you don't mind, come on, pray. Somebody else says my body's hurting. I need prayer for the sick or anything on your heart. You would like prayer. I want you to invite you to come up. Stand here on the dark carpet here at the front. Just come and make a line here as we worship. Oh, and by the way, happy new year. Thought I'd give you a nice cheery message. Actually, it is a cheery message. It actually is a rejoiced message when it connects. But right now it's a message. But in a minute, it'll be a cheerful message. We're not there yet. I'm not there yet, but I'm reaching for it. Father, here we are before you. I'd like a different ones to come on up and stand in front and lay your hands on them and pray for them. Ask them what they would like prayer for. Father, we ask you for the spirit of glory even ahead of time. We ask for living understanding. Lord, I want to participate in the drama of making you look beautiful to unbelievers. By the way, I love you and believe in you. I want to be like the Thessalonians. Lord, I want you to count us worthy of the fullness of what you've ordained for us. Father, I ask for the spirit of glory to come. I ask for messengers, a messenger anointing across this whole spiritual family. Lord, we want to help the next generation. We want to strengthen those teenagers, those early 20s. Jesus, we want to love you. We trust your leadership. Lord, I ask you to heal bodies, strengthen hearts, impart a messenger anointing in a greater measure. 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