Good morning, church. If you would turn with me in your scriptures this morning to John, chapter 15. That’s where we will be this morning in John, chapter 15. We’ll be working through verses 18 through 27, and we’re continuing to work through the book of John. Last week we talked about how we need to love one another. This week we’re going to talk about hate, which is kind of ironic because Jesus just got done talking about how we are called to love one another. But then he warns his disciples in these verses this morning that you’re going to be hated, which is why I titled our message this morning “The Haters are Gonna Hate.” It’s a colloquial phrase you’re probably familiar with, but we often say that phrase because when we experience criticism or disagreement or hate, we kind of dismiss it by saying, well, I’m always going to have haters, so I’m just going to keep being who I am and I’m going to keep going. But this is where I’m going to disagree with the New Age philosopher Taylor Swift. Now, we can’t just shake it off because hate is experienced by the church. And we’re going to see this morning this really important idea that I don’t think we consider enough because hate and persecution against us may be foreign. We do live in a country that is supposed to be open to religion, open to freedom of religion. And so it may be something foreign to you. But I’m telling you more and more increasingly in our culture, in our country, hate and persecution for Christians is going to grow. And so this morning, I hope you see this idea that Christians, they will encounter hate and persecution if they genuinely follow Christ. It’s true. Now, I’ve got several examples, but I’m just going to give you a couple just as we begin this morning. But I’m sure you’ve heard of this idea of cancel culture, right? This is the I mean, this has been happening since Jesus’s day, but we have titled it Cancel culture. But it’s when the world hears something it doesn’t like, disagrees with it and tries to cancel it with every tool that it can. We see this recently with a movie called The Sound of Freedom. I don’t know if you have seen this or heard about this. This movie was exposing the evilness of human trafficking, and yet it got limited coverage, delivered limited advertising and purposely poor reviews because they didn’t like what it had to say. But we see all of this here recently with a man named Mike Johnson, who’s a congressman from Louisiana. And when he was being sworn in to be the speaker of the House, publicly kneels down and prays. And he was ridiculed– sorry– He was he was ridiculed and made fun of and they even called him a religious extremist for praying in public. We see this even a little bit further back. But still in recent history, in 2016, a guy named Joe Kennedy was the high school football coach. And he had this routine that after a game he would go to midfield and pray and he was fired for that because they thought that he was drawing students in to pull them into his religion. This truth is here before us this morning, and we’re seeing this increased rise of hate against those who would love God. We see this in Israel. We see this even today. But this is what we’re going to tackle this morning that Christians are going to encounter hate if they genuinely follow God. But I’ll make a disclaimer this morning, because I don’t want this to be confused that the goal of Christians is not to be hated but to be holy. This is very important because the church is not called to live a very judgmental, Bible thumping attitude that we draw hate. That’s not the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is to live in such a way following Jesus that our ways of life are so different from the world. It’s going to result in hate. But it’s because of our faithfulness to God and His Word and our love for the world that it’s going to in return hate us. So we’re going be looking here in verse 18. I want you to find it in your Bibles, John, Chapter 15, verse 18. And this is what it says. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. So this idea that Jesus is getting across is that if they hated you disciples know that it’s hated me before it’s hated you. See, the disciples were being prepared to be hated, but Jesus wants them to understand that, listen, before it’s hated you it’s hated me even more. If it’s– if someone’s going to hate the general, they’re going to hate the soldiers. And in a minute, he’s going to say, if they’re going to hate the master, they’re also going to hate the servant. So this idea is simple. Christians are hated by association to Jesus. And we kind of see this in the office because we have a clear divide between U of L fans and UK fans. And just by mentioning that, you are a fan of a rival team will get you a little hate just because you’re associated with that team. Right? And you may know this if you if you have someone you know or someone you meet and they say they’re a fan of a rival team, you’re going to think about them a little bit differently after that. Right. But it’s similar to us as Christians. Like if we mention that we are a Christ follower or we believe these certain things, you’re going to get hated just because you’re associated with Christ. And that’s what he’s warning his disciples of here. So Jesus warns us that Christians will experience hate. Jesus warns us that Christians will experience hate. And so whether we’re prepared for it or not, it’s going to come because if we’re following Jesus, we’re living out our faith, we’re going to experience hate because of it. So there’s a verse I want to look at and I think is going to help us understand this idea in John, but I want us to know this, that if you live your life to genuinely follow Jesus, listen, you’re going to be hated for it. That if you truly follow Jesus, you believe what Jesus says. You’re going to do what Jesus has done. Then listen, the world is going to hate you for it. But He goes on here and expresses this in the next verse. He says, If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own because or but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, he says, therefore, the world hates you. He’s saying if you were of the world, that is, you agreed with the world. You you kind of said the same lingo as the world. You live like the world. You carry the same lingo. You have the same conclusions of the world. What it says is that it’s going to love you. The world loves those who agree with it. But as soon as you step out in faith and you leave the world and leave those things that the world promotes, you’re going to be hated for it. And I want to be clear here, when Jesus says the word world, he’s talking about those who have not accepted the gospel, who haven’t received the Holy Spirit. It’s those who are anti gospel or anti-Christ, and they hate God. So I understand this morning that the church, what Jesus is saying here has been chosen out of the world. They’ve been called out of the world, and God has done that so that we would be holy. I’m not sure if you know this, but the word church in the English, it comes from a Greek word as we read it in the New Testament from a word ecclesia. And this is what it literally means. It means called out once, but we translate it into English Bibles as the church. But what it means to be the church is that you have been called out of the world. So God has chosen us out of the world, called us out of the world for the purpose of being holy. So by definition, if you are in the church, you are of the church. That means you are not a part of the world any more. And Oh church, Oh Christians, if –I hope we understand that this morning, it is by grace alone that any of us have been called out of the world. That’s why it says God chose us. We didn’t choose God. It is by grace alone that God calls us out of the world. Ephesians two says this so clearly. Ephesians two says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins. in which you once walked following the course of this world, then in verse four, I love it, it says, But God being rich in mercy with a with a love that He has for us, that even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. So for us, if we are called a Christian today, we believe we are in the church. It’s by grace alone. And we need to have a extreme gratitude for God for calling us out of it friends. And for those of you who are searching for God– amen, yeah, amen to that– and for those of you who are searching, you still haven’t understood the gospel yet. You’re still searching for God. It is by this same grace that you can be called out of the world today. But here’s the reality. When you do not practice the same lifestyle, repeat the same talking points, celebrate its values, the world will hate you. Look at this in 1 Peter 4:4– I think it helps us understand this– With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you– in other words, when you don’t join them in it, they hate you for it. When we don’t look like the world, they hate us. So listen, this is a sobering thought that I came to as I was studying and I was convicted and challenged by this, and I hope that you are as well this morning, that the world will not hate a Christian who looks like it. So if a Christian Christian says, I follow Jesus, but they look exactly like the world, why would the world hate that Christian? In fact, that person is doing the work of the world, except they put a banner of Christianity over themselves. But in fact they look more like the world than they ever did of the church. And I hear this phrase sometimes, this phrase of worldly Christians. Y’all ever heard that? I think that word is is so untrue. Worldly Christians don’t exist. It’s because those two words, by definition, are the exact opposite to say I follow Christ, but I am worldly. Those things don’t exist, so I can’t say I’m a worldly Christian. I’m just worldly. You’re either of Christ or you’re of the world. And so this reality kind of helped me understand and challenge me to, you know, this as I was praying this week that if the world doesn’t hate me, I’ve never experienced any opposition to my faith, that if I boldly and genuinely live out my faith in the world and I’ve never experienced opposition or hate against that, maybe the question is I look too much like the world and not enough like Christ. 1 John 2:19 says this, They went out from us. That is, people who were in the church. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. It’s a sobering reality, but they were dealing with it in the first century church as we’re dealing with it today. But they weren’t really of the church. They weren’t really with Christ. They were of the world. They just had sheep’s clothing on. And this quote from Jim Elliott, I think think helps us understand this a little bit better. Jim Elliott said, The world can not hate us. We are too much like its own. And his prayer is, Oh, that God would make us dangerous! That the world would see us as dangerous because we’re living so counter-culture to the world. We’re living like Christ. We believe in the things that Christ has said and taught, and we live it out in our faith. And because of that, the world sees us as dangerous. And again, I remind you, our calling is not to to be hated, our calling us to be holy, which will draw hate. So my first point for you this morning is that we need to live a called out life. If you claim to follow Jesus and you call yourself a Christian, we’re called to to live a called out life. We’ve been chosen out of this world. Are you living that way? Or if you think back to how you’ve lived and and what you’ve been teaching and what you’ve been been promoting, is that actually more like the world or is it more like Christ? Oh friends, that we would live a called out life! So he goes on here in this next verse. Verse 20 This is Jesus continuing to teach here, teaching his disciples saying, Remember the word that I said to you. So he’s looking back here at verse 18, He’s going to say the exact same thing a little bit differently. He says, A servant is not greater than his master. In other words, if they’re going to persecute and hate the the master, you best believe they’re going to do that to the servant. And he gives another if clause here. He says, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Jesus does this a lot in the Gospels because the disciples are hard headed. Anybody else hard headed in this room? No one wants to raise their hand for that. I’m hardheaded. I need to hear something over and over again so I can understand it. And Jesus keeps telling them if they persecuted me, they’re going to persecute you. But then he adds something really unique here. He says, If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. So I think it’s simple what he’s saying here is Christians will receive the same treatment as Christ. How they treated Christ is how they will treat Christians. So if they persecuted Jesus, they’re going to persecute us. If they kept the word of Jesus, listen, they’re going to be open to the gospel. They’re going to be open to the Bible. So we’re going to receive the same treatment as Christ. So here’s another verse here in 1 John 4– I think it illustrates this really well, says they are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. But we are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. See, I think I understand this really well. When I was thrusted out of my city life and I was put into the country life, in my first ministry position, and I was having this conversation with some of our church members and these- this word came up and I had no idea what it meant. I was completely cut off and asked and I didn’t understand it. They said, Yeah, we’re about to go in the back and use the Bush hog to cut up some stuff. A bush hog? What in the world is a bush hog? I’ve never seen those two words. Bush and hog together, like that doesn’t make any sense to me. So my first thought was we as a church had a hog that ate bushes. I was literal about it. But come to find out after a little bit of embarrassment, I said, Can you all tell me what a bush hog is? And they said, Oh, now, when they explained it to me, okay, I know what that is. Obviously, I know what a bush hog is, but I didn’t never associate it Bush hog with that, you know, big piece of equipment. So I was like, no, I was caught off guard. Have you all ever been like that? But listen to me. When I was called out of my city life and into the country life, I stuck out like a sore thumb for a lot of reasons, not just because I was bald, but because I didn’t have all the the country understanding, things that I understood about the country life. But eventually I figured it out. But for us as the church, that’s how we should feel sometimes we should feel a little strange, a little alien, a little different, because we’re in a world that doesn’t love God, that doesn’t love Christ, that doesn’t love his word, that doesn’t love good things, that doesn’t love morality. And if we are standing for those things, we need to feel a little different. He goes on in verse 21 here, But all these things they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me. So notice when a Christian or one of the disciples was persecuted, they were doing it on account of the name of Jesus, not on their name. See, we’re not hated as a church because of us individually. We’re hated as a church because we love God and we bear the name of Christ on us. And they hate us because of it. And notice what it says in that verse. It says because they did not know God. Often the world hates and persecutes because they don’t know or love God. And this is a sobering reality and it should bring us to a place of conviction. But the world is perishing in a blind rage because it does not know or love God and as Christians, that should terrify us. Like we want the world to know who Jesus is. But right now the world is perishing away in ignorance and ignorance because they don’t know or love God. And we pray that by our actions, by our life, by our words, that we ourselves can show them who God is. But it’s by ignorance that they hate the word, but it’s by ignorance that they hate the church and by which they hate God. But he goes on here now Jesus goes here in verse 22, and He begins discussing his ministry because two things about Jesus ministry that he would do, he would teach, and then he would do some crazy miracles. Amen? In this verse he talks about how he was teaching the world. He says, If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. See, Jesus came teaching the law in a– He came teaching the law in a true way. See, they had a bad understanding of what the law was. Jesus came on the scene and was teaching the law for the, you know, in the real sense. And he was teaching them the gospel, giving them the new commandments. And Jesus was teaching and they hated him because of it. And this is what the Bible does. This is what the teachings of Jesus do, is that they expose our hearts and intentions so that we have no excuse for our sin. And isn’t this good parenting? And this is a perfect example of good parenting, because as parents, we need to expose our kids to their sin. Maggie and I are in a season right now where we’re working with our daughter of trying to help her see sin and disobedience and and what those things are and using, you know, means to discipline her so that she can see her sin, but not just her sin. We want her to understand that she needs grace. And friends, I don’t think we often think about this, but as the church, the reason why we point out sin and disobedience is because we want people to know that they need God. That’s the end goal. Yes, this is sin in your life, but I want you to lean on the God of grace who can save you from that sin. But the question is, are we going to be willing to call sin Sin? Because here’s the thing. You’re going to be hated for it because if the church does not teach and proclaim the gospel to the world, the world is going to remain oblivious to their sin. Who’s going to tell them? Who’s going to tell them that this sin is actually sin and it’s pulling you away from things that are good in life and it’s pulling you away from an eternity from a God who loves you. That we as a church have to be bold enough to say, Listen, this is in your life and there’s a God who can save you from it. But you’ll be hated for it. That’s the reality we live in. If we live for gospel truth, you’re going to be hated because you talk about it. Listen to this, Romans 10:14, verse 14. Paul’s saying to this church, he’s saying, how then will they call on God, on Jesus, in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in him, of whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching, and how are they to preach if they are, unless they are sent? So as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! Friends, how is the world going to turn and repent from their sin if we don’t tell them what sin is? How is the world going to turn to a God who loves them and can save them if we don’t tell them that there is a God who can love and save them? But as I’m going to talk about a little bit later, we get really quiet when moral issues, and we get really quiet when gospel issues come up. You know why? Because we don’t want to have hate. But as I’m going to tell you in this title, haters are going to hate anyway, Jesus here goes again in verse 23 and says it very– in a very quick way. He just says, Whoever hates me, hates my father also. If you hate Jesus, you hate God. Do you see that? He’s saying something very simple. You can’t hate the son without also hating the father. You can’t hate Jesus without also hating Yahweh, because they are, they share the same divine nature. They are both equally God and because of it if you hate Jesus, guess what? You’re going to hate the Father. And so he– Jesus is connecting the dots. And I hope you see this church that if the world hates the church, it’s because they hate Christ. If the world hates Christ is because they hate God. So it all comes back to this idea that the world hates us and it’s because they hate God himself. So Jesus goes on here and talks a little bit more about his ministry in verse 24. First he says, I taught them. And now Jesus says, I performed all of these signs and miracles. He says, If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, signs and miracles, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. Here’s the reality. Jesus came, He performed miracles. He performed signs because he wanted to prove what he was saying. He was doing these things because he wanted people to hear and believe in the gospel. And what Jesus did is he revealed to the world their lack of faith. So Jesus performed these signs and miracles. He wanted to reveal their lack of faith that they really didn’t believe in God. These Pharisees who knew the Bible really well, they really didn’t know God. And so Jesus performed these signs because He wanted the gospel to spread. That was the purpose of signs and miracles in the New Testament. They are always associated with the gospel and this is what Jesus was doing. He goes on in verse 25, But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled: They hated me without a cause. Jesus goes back to the Bible, Psalm 35, He says, Just like David was hated by his enemies, that hate has been passed down from generation to generation. And now you are hating me without a cause. But without a cause, all that means is, it’s without reason. They really don’t have a good reason to hate Jesus. And if I could be honest this morning, one of the most unreasonable things a person can do is hate God who created, loves and saves the world. I mean, think about all , all the unreasonable things that we could do or say. This is like a child who, in anger, lashes out at their father and says, I hate you. Only that we would hope that they would realize how unreasonable that is. A good father is never going to hate their child, and a heavenly perfect father will never hate those who seek who he has created. He loves the world. John 3:16, For God so loved- God loves the world. He loves the world so much that He sent His son Jesus to die for the world. And that’s the world reacting, saying, God, I hate you. If only they would see how much God loves them. So my second point for us this morning, Do not be do not be surprised by the hatred of the world. This shouldn’t catch you off guard, church. This should not catch you off guard. 1 John says this really clearly, it says, Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We shouldn’t be surprised that a world that is anti-God, anti-gospel, anti-morality is going to hate us. But the question is, are you going to be so scared that you’re not willing to live out your faith? Because the reality remains to be true, that the world may rage against God and his church, but God still sits on the throne church. Psalm 2 says it, The world may rage, but God is on the throne. He’s in control. He is sovereign. He knows what he’s doing. And yes, the church will still be hated, but that doesn’t mean God is not in control of your life, everyone’s life, and specifically of the church. Let’s look at these last two verses here in our main passage, Jesus says, But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the father, He will bear witness about me. Jesus here is saying the helper, the paraclete in the Greek, it’s helper or comforter. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit, as we’re going to look at in chapter 16. But Jesus is saying, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit into the world as He comes from the Father, and he’s going to bear witness about who, Me? Something’s interesting. I think we talk about how Jesus was humble. Of course, Obviously he is very incredibly humble, Philippians 2 talks about it. But often we don’t talk about the humility of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit comes and the Holy Spirit is not saying, look at me. Holy Spirit is saying, look at Jesus. Holy Spirit comes and He dwells in those who would believe. And once they hear and believe in the Gospel, the Holy Spirit points people to Jesus. You ever think about why? See, the Holy Spirit delights in pointing to Christ because it is in the name of Jesus that the world can be saved. Acts 4:12 says it, There is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It’s only the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit delights in pointing to Jesus. I love this verse in Ephesians 1, in Him– that is in Jesus, when you come into relationship with Jesus–you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation and believed in him, Christian, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. That is when you heard the Gospel and you believe for the first time this is universal for every Christian ever, that you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. And what’s interesting about a seal is when someone was trying to make an agreement or someone’s making a contract, you would put a seal on it as a stamp of approval. This is going to happen. So what a seal does is it takes away doubts. So when Jesus says, when I send the Holy Spirit to you and you receive the Holy Spirit, there is no doubt that you are a believer and Christ is in you. And He does this as a guarantee, as the verse says, for an inheritance, until we acquire possession of it when we go home to be with Christ forever and ever and ever. Know this morning that the Holy Spirit seeks to witness to us about Christ, just as He did in the first century. Listen, the church, the church was not established or it was not held together even today, by personal opinions of men, but the true and perfect witness of the Holy Spirit. That’s how the church was founded. That’s how it continues to go. It’s not by the opinions of men who think, Hey, let’s start a religion. It’s by the power of the Holy Spirit coming and bearing witness about Jesus himself, so that now thousands of years later, we stand and we remain as the church. Last verse for us this morning here, the main passage: And you also– now Jesus says, you disciples–you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. The Holy Spirit is going to come. He’s going to bear witness to you. But here’s the next step, disciple. Here’s the next step, christian. Now it’s your turn to go. Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit so that we could sit in our comfortable castles at home with our wife buying our groceries, and never get out into the world to share the gospel. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to you and me so that we could be a witness to the world. Amen? And listen, the Bible itself, it doesn’t rely on second hand accounts, but of eye witness testimony. Every book in the New Testament that we have, it is directly linked to someone who used their eyes to see Jesus. We have a firm authority because the disciples had been with Jesus since the beginning. And so every book that we have, our testimony, our witness is solidified and grounded in people who saw Jesus with their own eyes. Talk about authority. But listen, now you all are going to bear witness about that testimony. That’s what our call is as a church. The church is called by God to live on mission and be a witness to the world. That’s our calling. Whether you’re at the grocery store in your homes, at work, wherever you go, you’re on mission for Jesus. And you right there are to be holy and set apart from the world. Here’s my last point for us this morning. Be ready to make a defense of the gospel. Be ready. A part of that is you got to know the gospel. You need to be in your word. You need to be in prayer. You need to be ready to make a defense for the hope that is in you. Look at this in 1 Peter: But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Christians, be ready. You will have opportunities all throughout your day. If you would open your eyes, if we would open and see that we have an opportunity before us to share Christ with the world. So I’m going to end here because I got as I was preparing this, God was really laying this on my heart because we are at a place in our country, and I think even expanding out to the world, that we face a great temptation. The church continues honestly, to face this temptation, and that’s to remain silent, to backpedal into moral neutrality like there is no good and evil. There is no right and wrong. There is no good or bad like everything’s okay. Just live your truth, do the way that you want and we’ll be okay. You do your way. I’m gonna do my way as a Christian and we think that’s good enough. But what happens is it turns into accepting sin. And we see this in our denominations today, even in our church culture, where we saw churches who were standing firm on God’s word, who are today having homosexual and transgender pastors. How does the church get there? It’s because of the backpedaling. It’s because I don’t want to stand up for truth, because I don’t want to be hated for my faith. Listen to this quote, Though gradually, though no one remembers exactly how it happened, the unthinkable becomes tolerable, and then acceptable, and then legal, and then applaudable. Is that not a picture of our culture today friends? And I think a reason why is because the church was not willing to stand firm on God’s word and in love and grace say that is sin. So we have a challenge today. We continue to face today. Are we willing to be hated for our faith so that the world would come to know Jesus? Are we going to keep backpedaling and letting things that should be called sin let it be okay? The church must not have a militant response of brute force, but a missional response of bold faith. And so we’re going to look at a couple of things before we end because I believe if we want to impact the culture, not just for the sake of the culture, but for the sake of the world, we want to save more people, this is what a bold faith looks like. A bold faith does not become friends with the world. A bold faith following Jesus does not become friends with the world. Look at this verse in James: It says, You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is division or enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You can’t be both. You can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. It doesn’t work that way. You’re either a Christian following Jesus being hated for your faith, or you’re in the world and you don’t care about the church. Second thing: A bold faith does not run from the world. And maybe this hits home for you. This is what it says: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, Jesus says, but that you keep them from the evil one. Don’t you think if Jesus wanted to protect his church, he would just take us out of the world completely? He didn’t do that, did he? He wants us in the world, but not be of the world to be in the world, to share the gospel and occasionally be hated, persecuted for our faith so that we can see more people join the church and experience true salvation. Are you going to be bold enough to not run? Last but not least, a bold faith does not deny their beliefs to the world. We have one of Jesus own disciples do this. This is. This is John 18, The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are you also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you? He said, I’m not. Oh church., a bold faith does not run from opportunities to share about Christ. That we would have a bold faith to say, I am going to stand up for believing in Jesus because I want this person to know them even if they hate me for it. See, the world will recognize if you have been with Jesus because of your bold faith. They’ll know it, they’ll see it. They’ll see it in your actions. They’ll see it in your words. Here’s my last verse first this morning, and I believe this is going to to wrap and bring this to a point. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And look, look what this says. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Can you say that about your life, christian? Can you say that about this church that we are so bold in our faith that they recognize that you’ve been with Jesus? Here’s our challenge this morning. Does the world recognize that you have been with Jesus Church or whether we would be dangerous not for the sake of being hated by the world, but for the sake of being holy, that we see more people come to know Jesus because we love the world. We want to love them through, even despite their sin, that we want to love them and we want to get them in the church and to believe in the Gospel so that they can be a part of the church and eternity with God forever. But it requires us to be okay with being hated. So let’s pray. Father, I believe that your son Jesus modeled this perfectly for us, that Jesus didn’t did nothing wrong. There was no sin in Jesus, and yet the world hated him for it. And Jesus went to the cross being hated and by grace died on the cross, was buried and raised again so that those people who hated him would receive the gospel and belief. So we as Christians, God, I pray that you would embolden your church to not be shy about our faith, that you would help us to be unashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation to those who would believe. that you would embolden your church to live out their faith. And I pray, Father, when we get scared, when we experience fear, though we would remember that you were on the throne and that you’ve already written the end of this story and we pray that you would use our life to bring more people into the church. God, I pray all this in the beautiful, majestic name of Jesus. Amen.