it's my great privilege to invite really
a king's family member to come and
minister tonight for a number of years
he was worship pastor here in our church
and then a couple of years ago moved
down to Sydney to work for open doors
and then managed to get a transfer back
up to the Gold Coast and so he's
ministering all around Queensland on
behalf of open doors and I'm just really
wrapped that he would be with us tonight
he's no stranger he's a member of our
church is a member of our family so why
don't you welcome James Kadena as he
comes up oh there is Thank You pastor
been and Trish Mike take your seat how
embarrassing my goodness I just want to
say that took me completely off-guard
about the offering tonight and I just I
just want to reiterate on behalf of the
people we serve that I am so grateful
and as you're hearing the stories
tonight this is for you really pastor
Ben and Trish as you lead this but also
for the rest of this incredible church
that as you hear these stories it's not
just money into a bank account this is
this is rebuilding people's homes this
is feeding a family this week that
otherwise wouldn't have been able to
provide this is providing someone a job
opportunity where they've been shunned
out of every other opportunity just
because they follow Jesus you are
literally feeding the widow and the
orphan with your generosity tonight I'm
so humbled and I'm so so grateful so and
it's my prayer as well that the return
gift from the persecuted Church would be
just a newfound passion and boldness to
share the gospel the Gold Coast
desperately needs Jesus and the message
of the good news of the gospel it's my
prayer that tonight through their
stories and their testimony that you
would be encouraged and inspired tonight
can I just pause and pray we've prayed a
number of times but why don't we just
commit this segment of the night to the
Lord Jesus we become aware of you and
you are such a good God despite the
challenges that the world is facing we
still trust you we can say with
a heart full Lord we know that you are a
good God and a gracious and a merciful
and a loving God we love to serve you we
love to worship you and we've become
aware of the fact that you've got a
purpose for our lives tonight help us
hear your voice and help us hear your
heartbeat for the nations of the world
tonight in your mighty name we pray amen
and now it would be remiss of me not to
mention my beautiful wife and she just
gave me a lovely smile but stiff really
as you're hearing these stories I want
you to imagine every time I mentioned I
met this person in Vietnam with the
exception of Vietnam actually I met this
person in Egypt that usually meant Steph
was back at home with a handful of
crying children on her own so Steph
really is one of the heroes of this
story and so I honor you my love you're
amazing yeah I even have a little photo
actually that I don't know Steph knows
that I use in my presentations are there
you go aren't they lovely
and I didn't realize it until that epoch
LED screen at Pimpin ma this morning but
Jude has got food all over his face but
I love it I think it's got character so
Jude is now 6 years old Rose is 8 years
old my little ballerina there and you
most of you will know that we've got
another edition joy and she is fast
asleep for the moment so that's good
what I'll do is I'll press on tonight
it's going to be a mix of Scripture and
you're going to get an understanding of
what persecution looks like throughout
the Word of God from both the Apostle
Paul and from Jesus himself but I feel
the best way to illustrate what's
happening around the world is is through
stories and so I'll start by telling you
a story from the nation of Egypt and I
had the huge honor of meeting believers
right across the nation of Egypt in
October of last year and I visited this
location it'll come up behind me this
photo of where there was this display of
women on the wall and you might be
thinking what's that about the next
image shows a little bit clearer what
we're standing and looking at on the
right hand side there is a tribute to 27
women and what happened in this
particular location is a young Islamic
extremist took it upon himself to kill a
Christian leader in downtown Cairo when
you as anyone I don't know if anyone's
traveled to Cairo but as soon as you
land and you're traveling through the
city you look out and there's a sea of
crosses and a sea of crescents on
mosques it's a fascinating visual
conflict and so this Islamic young young
Islamic extremist took it upon himself
to kill a Christian leader and he had
never set foot inside a Christian
compound before so he thought this will
be simple like a mosque there's just one
main building he had straps a number of
explosives
to his body and stumbled somehow past
the security checkpoint and then was
shocked because there was a large number
of buildings in the compound and he was
confused thinking wait a minute where is
this leader going to be based I can't
see it easily with my eyes so he began
stumbling around looking for the place
where he could hear the most sound
coming from and on that day it was a
worship and prayer meeting for women
around 150 to 200 women had gathered to
worship Jesus on this day so he's
stumbling towards the entrance of the
chapel one man was present was the
security guard at his position in the
gate and he could see the men coming
towards him and he knew immediately
something was wrong
so we motioned for him to stop the men
continued coming he eventually took some
steps towards him and eventually began
running running towards him when the men
detonated the vest and killed the
security guard instantly but also these
beautiful women lost their lives on that
day I want you to think for a moment
would that rattle your faith in Jesus
would that affect your passion to come
with joy as pastor been said to worship
in the house of God you can see on the
left hand side the visual impact of the
destruction is like nothing I've ever
seen for me that was the first time I'd
visited a physical location where people
had died in an attack like that you can
see that the shrapnel marks all at the
side of the column the charcoal at the
top but it wasn't the destruction that
stunned me the most it was the next
image which was the fact that on the day
I was there
there was still 150 women gathering to
worship Jesus you can see behind the
scaffolding there a third of the room
was still being repaired there was
around 15 men there while the service is
happening chipping away and repainting
the wall I'll never forget that site but
again it wasn't just the gathering of
those women that shocked me it was this
next woman on the next slide her name's
Maria it's my prayer that you'll
continue to remember Maria and pray for
her as I do as we were walking out of
the building our security guard which is
the way we're allowed to get around in
Egypt our travel agent said you need to
meet this woman I know her personally as
we're walking towards her we could see
that she was dressed in black which is
obviously that she's still in mourning
and and our guide said to us the reason
I know this woman is because I was the
first responder on the day of the attack
as we approached we could see the photo
around her neck was her husband the only
man that died on that day I want you to
think about Maria for a moment as I said
would you continue not only to worship
Jesus maybe your faith would be rattled
and you'd run away from him but would
you continue to choose to worship in the
same location multiple days a week with
a visual reminder of your husband's
death you know what Maria's one request
to her Christian community of faith was
can I take up my husband's position and
greet people as they come to worship
isn't that amazing and look at the joy
on her face radiant greeting people as
they come to pray and worship Jesus
Maria is an example of the kind of
people we serve all over the world
opened doors was founded by a man named
brother Andrew he used to smuggle Bibles
back in the 50s into what was then the
Soviet Union and I found out after I
started working at open doors Poland
which is where I'm from I got to visit
the Baptist Church that was his partner
right in the middle of Warsaw and he
would made over 330 trips filling his
swaggin beetle full of bibles just the
dutch way get it done just and he just
pile these bibles in and drive over the
border 330 times he used to pray a
prayer famously known as the Smuggler's
prayer where he'd say God in the Bible
you made blind eyes see now I need you
to make seeing eyes blind people would
open the trunk of the car and see
nothing there
330 successful crossings I always have
the idea that Andrew didn't envisage
this massive global entity is quite a
simple man but people came alongside him
and said hey we want to be a part of
this and we've just added our 73rd
nation to the list of where we work I've
got a map on the screen that shows you
visually the top 50 most dangerous
countries to follow Jesus we call this
the world watch list again remember this
is where your funds are going today and
I it's so easy for me I can say that you
guys are already a part of this
adventure it's so cool up there on the
top right hand side next to China is a
country called North Korea I'm just
going to jump through a few nations
around the world maybe the team can
follow me through these really quickly
something you might not know about North
Korea is that it has been the most
dangerous country to follow Jesus for 18
years in a row 18 years you might think
maybe Christianity has been crushed or
that it ceases to exist there 300,000
Christians alive in North Korea but
70,000 of them are in prison as we speak
and we're not talking in Australian
prison we're talking some of the most
horrific human rights abuses known to
men are happening to Christians in North
Korea right now we received a report a
few weeks ago of 20 women being detained
in a 3x3 meter cell six of them had died
while they were in detention just think
of the trauma and the horror but again
the church is alive and the gospel is
advancing despite the risks I just
mentioned briefly the second country
that comes to my mind is Iran number
nine on the world watch list got it
right I just paused for a moment Iran
despite the fact that it's the ninth
most dangerous country to follow Jesus
get this
fastest-growing evangelical church in
the world haha
it's a pretty rubbish strategy as you'll
see across the night oppress the church
it just explodes amazing number nine I
met a pastor who's actually become quite
a dear friend his his name's arm in and
I'm in told me a story when he was 16
years old that he used to have questions
about that the prayers that he was
praying as a Muslim and eventually Jesus
appeared to him in a dream 5 a.m. he
woke up terrified the presence of God
which he now knows is the presence of
God was all around him and he was
weeping uncontrollably and the first
thing he could hear as he woke up was
his sister and his mum were also weeping
uncontrollably in other rooms of the
house and he went and he spoke to them
they had had the same dream as him the
whole family immediately became
Christian 5 hours later
knock on the door one of our partners
turns up and says I was praying this
morning and I felt that our mins family
were ready to receive the gospel here
are three Farsi Bibles for you the story
goes on we're actually hosting a night
here in a couple of weeks time where I
mean we'll come and speak amazing
amazing man of God just remember that
persecution suffering not always such a
bad thing for the sake of the gospel I
mentioned number 10 India you guys might
not realize despite the fact that this
is the world's largest democracy they're
actually going to vote in the next
couple of weeks it's the tenth most
dangerous country to follow Jesus and
the persecution here is absolutely
horrific there's a group called the RSS
which are like the ISIS of Hinduism
extreme Hinduism and they have made a
statement that they will eradicate
Christianity from India by the 31st of
December 2021
pastor Ben I'm sure has got a mission
statement for the church here the RSS
has got a mission statement to eradicate
Christianity by the end of 2021 what
that means is Christians are either
killed I have to convert back to
Hinduism which is called a homecoming
ceremony or they're forced to flee the
country despite the fact we will be
serving 1.2 million Christians in India
this year in that amazing but
is alive thriving final country I
mentioned really briefly is number 12
breaks my heart the nation of Nigeria in
the last 12 months we documented over
3,700 martyrs in this one country alone
over 90% of the world's Christian
martyrs occur in one country and it
scarcely appears on our news feeds crazy
daily attacks again I've met people I
met him just a humble man willing to
serve Jesus despite the fact that his
own family are in risk at risk every day
of his life let's have a look at what
the Bible says about persecution some of
these verses might shock you a little
bit and that's kind of also one of my
prayers for you tonight this could be a
little bit uncomfortable Paul is writing
to the church in Philippi here now just
a bit of a reminder Paul previously Saul
was an expert in the art of persecuting
Christians he was complicit in Steven
the first martyrs death we know he's
there holding other men's garments while
they stoned him to death then he has a
profound encounter with Jesus on the
road to Damascus and then goes on to
lead many many churches obviously right
so a huge portion of the New Testament
but here he is writing to a church that
is about to or is already undergoing
severe persecution and Paul himself as
you can hear in his language has been
seriously persecuted himself but again
it's not all a bad news story Paul
himself says but I want you to know
brethren or bros as I like to say that
the things which have happened to me
have actually turned out for the
furtherance of the gospel there it is
wait a minute don't go on mourning or
complaining or whinging or putting up
the Facebook posts about how bad that
you've been tweeted being treated wow
that was like it that was an awesome dad
joke and I did not even mean it how
badly you've been tweeted I like that
I'm gonna write that down for next time
it's actually turned out for the
furtherance of the gospel so that it's
become evident to the whole palace guard
why
my favorite quotes here and to all the
rest just a whole lot of random people
that we don't even know who they are
have become aware of Jesus they've
become aware that my chains are in
Christ and most of the Brethren in the
Lord have become confident by my chains
and a much more bold to speak the word
without fear isn't that amazing
that's my heart for you tonight but
despite the fact that they suffer for
Jesus you would become bold in your
faith I'd say you're a really quick
story from the nation of China 27th most
dangerous country this year to follow
Jesus previously very very difficult in
the in the 1980s brother Andrew came up
with this crazy plan because the church
there despite the fact that it was
suffering so much had grown from 10 20
30 thousand Christians he thought they
would all be dead now 10 million
Christians alive in China but they have
no access to the Word of God so they say
you know what we need more than anything
else is Bibles he says okay fifty
thousand Bibles maybe 1 million is what
we need we need a million Bibles so they
smuggled literally a million Bibles in
one day google it
great story now China it's becoming a
little bit easier to follow Jesus number
27 and my boss interviewed a pastor
there spoke with him having a chat and
he said pastor how can I pray for you do
you know what he said I said I want you
to pray that persecution never leaves my
country because I see your church in the
West and I see a church where the value
of faith has dropped and people are
unwilling to share the gospel isn't that
amazing that might tinker with your
theology a little bit so I'll let you
sit on that that's all good we'll go on
and see what Paul has to say he says for
I know that this will turn out for my
deliverance through your prayer remember
that the word prayer it's important it's
one of our seven core values actually so
if nothing else be compelled to go home
and pray for our brothers and sisters
who are sitting in a prison cell tonight
they may even die tonight think about
that for a moment but your prayer and
the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ
according to my earnest expectation and
that in noting I shall be ashamed there
it is again
can you honestly look at your life and
the way you follow Jesus and say that I
am ashamed of nothing for Jesus I don't
know about you but I probably can't say
that but it's his prayer it's Paul's
prayer for the church it's my hope that
in nothing I shall be ashamed but with
all boldness as always so now also
Christ will be magnified in my body
whether by life or by death for me to
live is Christ and to die is gain
we met a Pakistani believer a woman who
was continuing to worship even though
bombings were imminent in her church and
you know what she said she said if I am
worshiping Jesus today at church and a
suicide bomber comes in and I die at
least then I will enter into the
fullness of glory the fullness of
worship I thought I understood this
verse as I was growing up in church to
live is Christ and to die is gain these
people literally are living a life that
looks like this I'll tell you a story
again from the nation of Vietnam you
might be surprised to know that Vietnam
is the 20th most dangerous country to
follow Jesus despite the fact that it's
the sixth most popular tourist
destination for Ozzie's while I was in
Vietnam I met these three men on the
next slide I'll tell you the story of
the man in the middle his name is Dinh
bends in it was my age within one month
and he had two kids the same age as rose
and Jude within one month so his story
obviously resonated with me gin Venzon
lives in a village of 100 people it's
maybe this portion of the room I reckon
100 people his entire life everyone he
knows is wrapped up in that village
community most of them are probably his
family right a huge number of them at
least his close friends and is a
subsistence farmer so that means he just
grows a basic crop at the back of his
property to feed his family that's all
he's got to live on in Venzon heard the
Gospel through one of our partners in a
radio broadcast and was profoundly and
radically saved the first thing he did
as is often the case when we first
Jesus went and told everyone he knew
about Jesus and in the first three
months five families had become
Christian in that village wouldn't that
be like revival breaking out in the
central highlands of Vietnam five
families of 100 people but you see in
this part of Vietnam it's still a
communist government only five left in
the world even though communists
generally would say that there is no God
in this part of the central highlands
there's still a lot of what we call
animism idol worship people will
sacrifice food animals to idols so that
they have a successful crop the
following year so when the villagers
could see wait a minute all of these
people are becoming Christian and
they're no longer taking part in the
sacrifices for the animals
maybe our food suppliers in danger so
we'll notify the local authorities it's
not very difficult to do because there's
a ratio of one police officer for every
12 citizens in this part of Vietnam the
government knows everything they can see
everything they hear everything so they
call a local town hall meeting get all
100 villagers inside and put in vans in
on stage set up a PA system and
projectors and begin to roll videos of
malnourished African children and they
say to them all if you allow this man to
convert your village to Christianity
this is what will become of you they do
that every night for seven nights until
by the end of a week the villagers are
enraged screaming at him swearing at him
spitting on him spitting on his children
the government know they've done their
job and they backed down the PA system
and they leave town din Venzon by now
was beginning to weep with us as he
shared these stories
he said the villagers would come through
and let their cattle loose through my
property destroying my rice crop he had
no way to feed his family anymore
he was a little bit of an entrepreneur
so he had a small plantation of trees
that he was intending to use as a paper
mill to sell at the market so he could
give his kids a bit of an education
think how demoralizing this would be
they came through and just cut the trees
down in front of
they had just enough income to feed one
Pig doesn't sound like a big deal to us
where we just drop down to the
supermarket but it wasn't for them to
eat this was equivalent to three years
salary the villagers just killed the
animal in front of them a few months
after I was in Vietnam I was sitting in
Hillsong conference 20,000 people
absolute freedom absolute prosperity
which I must say I don't think that's a
bad thing I think God has given us a
window of opportunity that we may not
always have here in Australia but while
I was sitting there I received an email
from one of my colleagues that was with
me an it was a video of a young man the
same age just invention I can't be sure
that it was him but it was a young man's
house being systematically destroyed by
a mob of 30 40 villages I just thought
you know what would I be able to endure
that kind of suffering you know we asked
invention two questions we said can you
tell me why do you follow Jesus despite
what's happened to you I'll never forget
his answer because I know him do you
know Jesus do you know Jesus like that
because as soon as I heard that sentence
it rocked me to my core our job is to
strengthen Christians to remain in these
communities so I was surprised when I
heard our next offer our field team said
to him you know what this is extreme
persecution we think we might need to
move you to another village for a season
so you can replenish your health your
emotional state do you know what he said
to us if I go who will share the gospel
with them if I go who will share the
gospel with them I know Jesus and I know
his purpose what an amazing amazing man
of God let's have a look I said that I'd
mentioned the words of Jesus and I love
this verse one of my favorite verses in
the Bible
I'll just read it off here actually
Jesus says very truly I tell you unless
a kernel of wheat falls to the ground
and dies it remains only a single seed
but if it dies it produces many seeds I
used to think I understood this verse
and that I realized wait a minute Jesus
is first of all prophesying his own
imminent death but I believe there's a
message here for all of the martyrs that
would follow Jesus realized that their
death is not for nothing and I see my
job as as an incredible responsibility
to share that seed as I read this verse
I'm reminded that they shall overcome by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word
that is their testimony
I believe the seed is their testimony
it's my prayer that it would fall on
good soil tonight that you would be
emboldened and encouraged to follow
Jesus that you would be able to say to
live is Christ and to die is gain I'll
finish by telling you one more story and
I've got an incredible video from Iraq
of a young man but Iraq is is a
seriously dangerous place to follow
Jesus it's now number 13 but in previous
years it's been much higher because of
the horrors of Isis in that country I
traveled to Jordan October a year ago
and was able to meet firsthand Christian
refugees who had fled seen some of the
most horrific things you can imagine
while I was there I met a few children
the next two slides so you show you some
of these incredible kids when I think of
the seed I think of the next generation
I think of the fact that there is hope
despite the darkness in these countries
the next slide is a young boy this one
here his name's Solomon Solomon was five
when I met him remember the same age as
my little boy dude he'll always be in my
heart
the day I met Solomon I was standing in
one of our partner facilities there it
looked like one of our childcare centers
clean air-conditioned and there's about
35 kids in the room they had different
paper
all spread out in front of them
different colors of pens and
paintbrushes to choose but this day
Solomon had chosen a sharp graphite
implement to draw with and he was just
scratching over and over on the piece of
paper until it broke through he was
drawing on the table underneath I was a
bit confused
I turned to our partner there and I said
what's going on here they said well you
see this room is full of orphans and
most of them have witnessed their own
parents death so by the time they come
to us fleeing on foot many hundreds
thousands of kilometers into Jordan by
the time they reach us they're so
distraught that they're in a catatonic
state they can't even speak I put it to
you how do you begin to see healing in a
child's life that can't even articulate
with words what they've seen our partner
there is pioneering art therapy for
children and so they'll sit alongside
them and they'll say they'll weep with
them and they'll say I can't imagine
what you've seen but maybe you'd like to
draw it for me Solomon took me by the
hand to one of his paintings on the wall
there was a little bit of a chronology
of his artworks from beginning to end
left to right so he took me to one of
the ones on the left-hand side one of
his first paintings with us and he told
me via a translator I knelt down beside
him and he said to me this is my last
memory of my village in Iraq he
witnessed his parents killed in front of
his eyes
i assessed had taken control of the
local mosque and they say if you're a
Christian you don't get up by midnight
you will need to be beheaded what option
leave I'll be beheaded his parents
didn't make it out alive and his last
memory of his village looking over his
shoulder was his church on fire you
might think James that's a horrific
story where's the hope in that and I
don't want to just wish it away with a
magic wand I don't think God works like
that but on the day I saw Solomon
he was laughing he was talking to his
friends there was a community of
believers around him there was parents
that have taken him under their wing
pastors that have said you're going to
be a man of God these are the scriptures
these are how you follow Jesus this is
how to be a disciple he took me to one
of his newer paintings which looked a
little bit like this and you can see a
bit more color and a bit more life he's
beginning to get excited about the
future and the hope that he has in Jesus
again it would be wrong of me to just
assume that that trauma hadn't happened
I believe he'll carry that for a very
very long time
maybe you'll continue to pray with me
for his healing beyond tonight again
despite the suffering there are some
real heroes of the faith this next video
that I'll show you in closing is a young
man named Noah he's from a village
called Corrales take a look
a leave addressed Allah oh Allah Sophie
know Bakura do system out you are
hassansins Givi all of you are called an
escape an of crocodile are no karate
tournament that Agri Haku one of the
nura eliya in battle hello
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I love alive with either your foot you
are I never know I might require oh I'm
alive declared a double aa double e oh
pleasure sir oh I wanna pee we surrender
[Music]
told me I liked even darker my segment
are eligible fashion motherís that oh I
live with Val value or Jalan enough
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Alex I said chakra meditation whoo ha ha
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[Music]
I mentioned that huge numbers of
Christians are now able to return to
Iraq just the most amazing if you want
to go home and Google that open doors
Palm Sunday just amazing footage
thousands and thousands of Christians
are now returning home we're helping
them rebuild their lives we've since
taken Noah to Parliament in in Britain
to the head of the European Union to
Washington he's advocating on behalf of
Christians all around the world there is
hope in the darkness people are
advancing the gospel you guys have
already done so much for us tonight but
Emily one of my incredible team members
with us in the Queensland office is here
she just gave me a wave over there if
you have any questions about partnering
further with us beyond tonight feel free
to come and see em at the stand we put
it quite simply we don't really it's
really not about your money we want you
to be with us for the longest time
possible
so maybe just think about a regular
subscription in your life I joke about
Netflix that you paid $12 a month then
you continue to get the benefits of
Netflix or whatever they might be day is
wasted on end I'm guilty of that by the
way I often joke yes Netflix don't
patronize me I am still watching imagine
if that subscription you matched it to
the survival of the persecuted Church I
can vouch for this ministry I've met
these people
amazing amazing that's close in prayer
lord I thank you for your gospel I thank
you that it has the ability the
authority to break the chains of the
enemy Lord that we continue to serve you
and worship you and praise you despite
the challenges that we see Lord God we
continue to raise a hallelujah for you
Lord we continue to worship you because
you're worth it Jesus more than anything
else not because of what you've done for
us but for who you are we love you lord
I pray for this church you give people
boldness a new boldness to share the
gospel new excitement to walk with you
every day Lord Jesus I pray that they
would see a tangible result in their
faith journey from the contribution
they've already made tonight what an
incredible generosity Lord Jesus
let them be inspired by the stories of
the persecuted Church we stand with them
tonight Lord your name we pray