Would You Be Willing To Die for Your Faith? | Matthew 24:9-10 | August 9, 2024

[00:00:00] We'll Truth Daily. This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman. This is what they would face. We talked about this verse verse 9 yesterday, then they will deliver you up to Tribulation and put you to death. And You Will Be hated by all nations

[00:00:42] for my name's sake. Now listen to verse 10 and this is the focus of our discussion today. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. So think about

[00:00:55] this. Persecution was coming. People were losing their lives as a result of it. Some of those who were just deeply rooted in Christ, looked at that and as a result of that said, I'm out.

[00:01:08] I'm not doing this. I'm not willing to lose my life for the sake of this Jesus fellow who may or may not be the Promised Messiah. Now what did that cause? That cause betrayal. It caused hatred.

[00:01:22] You see what happened. Probably those people had fell away. Those who were persecuting them came to them and said, okay, you're not a believer in this Jesus anymore. But who is? And so they turned the other people who remained faithful to Christ into the authorities and those people

[00:01:36] lost their life. What did that create? Hatred, bitterness and betrayal was all around in the early church because there were many who were false believers who really not were willing, who really

[00:01:49] weren't willing to die for the faith. Now why is that? Do you think? Now listen to this folks. They must not have been convinced absolutely deep down in their heart of two things. Number one,

[00:02:05] that Jesus is who he claimed to be and number two that if you put your trust in him, you really will go to a better place. You really will have eternal life. These folks

[00:02:16] weren't convinced that that was true. So as a result of that they said, okay, we're really not sure. We're really not convinced. So we're going to save our life instead of losing it. Now

[00:02:27] Jesus talked about that. He said this earlier in the book of Matthew who would whatever will lose their life will save it. In other words, if you lose your earthly life, you're going to

[00:02:40] save your life for eternity and whoever would save his life here on planet Earth will lose it into eternity. Wow, what a statement that is. So Jesus, statement, is that many people were willing

[00:02:57] to say I'm willing to lose my earthly life knowing that I have heavenly treasures instead of denying heavenly treasures and keeping my earthly life. So that brings us to the question,

[00:03:13] would you be willing to lose your life for the sake of the gospel? And I know you're thinking what faster day that's probably not going to happen. We're pretty safe here in the United States,

[00:03:22] the persecution level as low. I really don't need to worry about it. Really? The way secular humanism is escalating here in the United States. You really thank you. Don't need to worry about it. Not probably not, but it could happen. So my question is very relevant,

[00:03:46] probing and thought provoking. Are you willing to die for your faith? Do you know what? We don't know until we're persecuted to that point. But my prayer for myself and for you is that

[00:04:02] God would keep us steadfast in His word, that no matter what comes our way, nothing would cause us to give up our faith, allegiance and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I pray for that right now?

[00:04:17] That the Lord would keep us faithful to Him and steadfast in His word? Let's go ahead and pray right now. Heavenly Father, I come before you. Knowing indeed that things are escalating here in the

[00:04:28] United States and yes, Lord, if I were to predict what's going to happen here in the United States, I don't think any of us will face the kind of persecution that they're facing in China

[00:04:39] in Africa but you never know God. And when I look at those early church disciples, the ones are remain faithful realized that they were going to lose their earthly life to keep their eternal life.

[00:04:52] Jesus, you said in Revelation chapter 2 that if we're faithful to you to the point of death, we'll receive the crown of life. So Holy Spirit, I pray that if persecution comes our way

[00:05:03] in very serious degrees, that no matter what, you keep us steadfast in your word and keep our eyes of faith fixed on your son and our feet firmly planted in the promises of your never-ending,

[00:05:19] never-failing word. Oh, Lord Jesus, as we are faithful to you through your word and sacrament as you feed us through your word and sacrament, help our faith to grow so that if

[00:05:32] persecution gets to the place here in the United States where we'd have to face losing our life for the sake of the gospel, we would be willing to do it just like the early church followers of

[00:05:44] you Lord Jesus. Lord again, as I pray, keep us faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what and we will give you all the glory, all the praise, all the honor that you are

[00:05:59] do for what you have done in our life. We love you, Jesus. Thank you so much for loving us and Lord, as I've said before, help us to always remain riveted, connected and faithful to you, Lord Jesus Christ. In your precious name we pray all these things Amen.

[00:06:25] That is today's daily truth, pretty serious one today, right? That is today's daily truth of a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for tuning in todayly truths with Dave Olman, Master Dave Olman is the pastor of Mount Hoorch, and Boulder, Colorado.

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