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You see all of us to a certain extent have a little cowardice in us Okay, and it stems just from being afraid We're afraid of persecution We're afraid of criticisms We're afraid of you know, the homos might come and well What are they gonna do if they protest outside our church or whatever? Well, what will they do if they kill what if they do it the kiss? Well, this is what's gonna happen. If anybody kills you you go to heaven That's It I mean is it that's like the best thing that can happen to you I'm just afraid of dying to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord Death is not the same for us as it is for an unsaved person You see an unsaved person when they die the Bible says that they lift up their eyes in hell Being in torments day and night. There is no rest for the wicked. Okay when they go to hell rest us when we die Yeah, they'll probably be like a little sliver of pain But guess what to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord You know, and what do you do to a man who's not afraid to die you see but when we talk like that and when we exemplify that we allow others who are possibly a Little bit fearful persecutions to wax bold in the Lord and what happens when someone waxes bold in the Lord They start standing up for right they start standing for the truth They start preaching the Word of God like it needs to be preached. Why because they're not afraid of anybody Okay, they start standing up against the enemies of God they start preaching and against the things that need to be preached against what does That do that causes for others to be confident in the Lord and saying look I'm afraid but I'm not afraid anymore I want to stand for truth as well. That's the purpose of enduring afflictions Look at Philippians 1 12 But I would you should understand brethren that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel So that my bonds his afflictions his imprisonment in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all the places and Many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without what beer You see they're like Paul man Paul went to jail And they're like, let's get up and start preaching, too Because there's something within us that obviously naturally we're afraid but you know what as soon as you light a fire under us As soon as you get the right example out there You know what that does that lights a fire under your hinder parts and you start getting bold for the Lord You see the wicked flee when no man pursue it But the righteous are bold as a lion the Bible says and the lion turneth away not from any the Bible tells us You know God expects us to be like lions To be bold, okay That's why it's important that we endure afflictions because there's people who are listening to us out there There's people who are watching us and guess what they like our preaching but guess what they're afraid They're scared of the persecution. They're afraid. Well, what's gonna happen if they find out? Well, you know, what's gonna happen? You're gonna wax bold in the Lord And it just put it this way anytime there's fear in your heart regarding anything That means the devil's trying to discourage you from doing something that could potentially change your life in the lives of those around you That means you probably have the potential to do something great for God But you know what? He does he doesn't send temptation. He sends fear in your heart Because fear can debilitate you it can paralyze you you can keep it from doing works for God and You know what the worst thing for a Christian to do is is look back 20 years later and say man I wonder what it would have been like if I would have just fill in the blank That's the worst place to be in better to step out in faith Have no fear be bold confident in the Lord have faith that God can do it and look back in 20 years and say I'm thankful To 20 years ago. I made that decision To give it all to the Lord to stand for righteousness to preach hard and let the chips fall where they may But what if well, you know, what if God will deliver you out of all those things? You know, typically God doesn't deliver is cowards He doesn't deliver them Okay, you see that multiple times in the Bible where people use their own understanding and their own knowledge and they try to evade Persecution they try to evade afflictions and trials and guess what happens them they end up dying anyways Look, I don't want to die No reason I don't want to die is because I want to do more for the Lord But in God's economy the way you do that is by standing for righteousness regardless of what happens. Okay?