This sermon reflects on the global growth of Christianity despite persecution, the unwavering faithfulness of God, and the call for believers to honor their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, embracing true freedom in Christ.
Transcript
Global Church Growth
Now, before I pray, I just want to… I just want to… you look sometimes at the world around us, the church, the state of the church in the United States and in the West, it can get really discouraging. We have hardly anything to deal with.
I was thinking this week about Iran, the nation of Iran, and all that they’ve had to go through. It’s kind of interesting because the Islamists have ruled Iran since 1979. It’s extreme, the oppression that they’ve created there. The Islamic law says that if a person is born of Muslim parents, if they convert to any other religion, then the law requires them to be put to death. It’s a place where Bibles are confiscated. If someone thinks that you might be a Christian, they put you under surveillance. If you are really suspected to be a Christian, they bring you in for questioning, interrogation, and then torture. It’s a lovely place to be a Christian.
So, what do you think is happening in Iran? Christianity is growing. It’s the fastest-growing religion in Iran by far. In fact, percentage-wise, in Iran, Christianity is growing faster than in any other place in the world. According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, back in 2013, there were 370,000 Christians in Iran. Last year, 2020, there were over 720,000, which more than doubled. This year, there’s more than a million Christians in Iran. It’s really growing incredibly fast.
God blesses. God will bless His church, and His church will never be held back. We may lose some battles, but God will win in the end. The gates of hell do not stand against His church.
So, with that encouragement, I want us to look to the Lord, reflect on His faithfulness to us, and praise Him for what He’s doing in the world.
Prayer for God’s Faithfulness
Father, we thank You so much for being the wonderful, faithful God that You are. We thank You, Lord, that as we’ve just sung, as we’ve quoted from the prophet Jeremiah in our song, Your mercies are new every day. We thank You, Father, for the way that You— that is true of Your nature. You are sovereign and in control and unchanging. Yet, You’re a God of mercy and love and grace. You’re perfectly holy, yet You’re able to reach down to save sinners.
We thank You for such wonderful report as we found with Christians in Iran, knowing that now, more than ever, Christianity is hated in Iran. So, we lift up faithful believers and those tiny, tiny four and five-member churches throughout Iran and ask, Father, that You hold them up, that You enable them to grow, and to endure.
Father, I pray that You provide pastors for these people, knowing that so many pastors have been put to death already. We ask, Father, for Your provision for them. Lord, we pray for us as well. We who take for granted grace, so much so that we throw it away too easily. Father, we pray that You work on our hearts and help us to recognize our great need for You. Help us, Father, to bathe our nation in prayer. Father, help us to bathe Your people, especially, in prayer so that so that the things that are happening in other parts of the world with the miseries that are that happen when governments are so oppressive, so that those things wouldn’t happen here. We ask, Father, for Your mercy in that.
Lord, we recognize that whatever happens, You will bring victory. You will be glorified. We thank You, Father, for these truths. Lord, we pray for Your blessing today. Please bless this little church and the members who gather here. Father, I pray special grace for each, each one who comes here. I pray, Father, that You bless their life, that You enable them to grow in faith. Father, that You encourage them individually in heart, and Lord, I pray that You would show Your special mercies to them. Lord, we thank You for all that You’ve given us so far.
Like, like we are to do, Father, we lift up our Ebenezer, recognizing the stone of help. Thus far, thus far, You’ve helped us. So, we ask, Father, for Your continued grace. Lord, please bless those who are going through difficulties and physical illnesses and struggles. I pray for Sue, that You would bless her and strengthen her body and help her. And for George as well, thank You for the progress he’s made. Please bless him. Father, I pray for Lance and ask, Father, that You bless him so that he’s able to find relief from his pain, and that You would encourage Debbie.
Father, we thank You that Jimmy’s surgical procedure is scheduled for tomorrow morning. We ask, Lord, for Your special grace for him, that he would be able to receive that, that it would go well. Father, that this would bring relief to his breathing condition. Father, I just thank You for the for the prospect of that. So, we thank You, Father, for all these good blessings.
Lord, we pray for each of us, individually and corporately as a church, that as we understand and conform to Your word, that You would enable us to grow more and more in Your love, recognizing, Father, that it takes submission to Your word to be able to see the growth. We ask for that. We pray, Father, that You would help us to love our Savior more and more. We pray, Father, for Your blessing in these ways. Father, as we read from Your word, thank You for it. We ask that You would help open Your word to us today, so that we may be able to understand, and understanding, Father, that the Holy Spirit would apply truth to our heart, so that we would be changed through Your truth. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Primary Scripture Reading: Psalm 42
I’m reading from Old Testament reading from Psalm 42. This may be one of the most frequent Old Testament passages that I’ve read in the history of this church. It’s still worth visiting once again. I’m reading it in particular today because I found verse 11 particularly encouraging. God is the unchanging God, and He is a God of mercy. So, going through difficulties, we can plead His mercy. If we recognize rightly that we don’t deserve any mercy from God, we can recognize that God is also gracious. He gives not because we deserve it; He gives to us because He’s a giving God; He’s a loving God out of His own nature He gives.
So, this is God’s holy and inerrant word.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
These things I remember
And I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, and a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan,
And the peaks of Hermon, from the mountain Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to God, to the God of my life.
I will say to God my rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God,
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.
Amen.
Integrated Worship: Hymns of Faith
Please take your hymnals and turn to number 535. We continue our worship with the hymn, “O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus.” Just as we read in the Psalm, “Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls, all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.” In this hymn, we sing about the great, vast love that Jesus has for us, that God has for us. In this hymn, it’s described as waves, as water that engulfs us. Just like the ocean is vast and unmeasured. Please stand.
[Hymn Singing: “O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus”]
You can turn to number 92. The next hymn we sing is… if there was a theme of the Reformation, it might be it, “A Mighty Fortress.” This is a hymn that’s based on Psalm 46, which says that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.
[Hymn Singing: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”]
Prayer for Sermon Instruction
Please join me in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank You for that reminder of what the the rest of the world suffers in Your name, Lord. We thank You for that reminder of Your Your faithfulness to Your followers, Lord. Such a precious reminder to us. Lord, we pray that we don’t lose sight of the road before us here in Roanoke, Lord. That we would go out with without fear, with courageousness, with boldness, Lord, to proclaim Your name to those around us. Lord, I thank You for all that You’ve blessed this church with, Lord, for strong believers, for a dedication to Your word, Lord. I pray that You would continue to bless us, Lord, and that we would continue to be able to serve You, Lord, and and more fully understand Your truth. Lord, I I pray that You bless our worship today, that it might be glorifying to You. Your name we pray. Amen.
Sermon: Our Holy Bodies
If you would open your Bibles to First Corinthians, we’re going to pick up in chapter 6, beginning at verse 12. We’re going to examine this section that has to do with sexual immorality and the nature of the body. It’s probably one of the most important passages of scripture in our particular culture that we live in today. I think that you’ll see that as we this this passage unfolds this morning. Let me begin by simply reading reading the passage. This is God’s holy and inerrant word.
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will do away with both of them.
Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you’re not your own? For you’ve been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
Please pray.
Father, we are grateful to You for the kindness that You have given us in this passage of scripture. Father, we are grateful to You that You have given us such clear instruction, so that we can be guided in this world that we live in, with all the competing ideas about the nature of a person, about the nature of the body, and the consequences that flow from wrong ideas when we embrace them. We ask, Father, that to any measure that any one of us individually, and especially in any corporate thought that we might have in regard to any of these things, Father, that Your word would correct us, that we would see our errors and repent of them.
Father, I pray that as we speak from this passage, as we talk about it, that You would especially protect me, keep me from error in explaining anything. Help us, Father, this morning that we would be truly guided by Your Holy Spirit. So, being guided, we would be sanctified through the gift of Your word. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.
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Note: The provided video ends abruptly at 41:04, mid-sentence of a prayer. The sermon’s main exposition on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, which the speaker introduces at 41:05, and its full concluding prayer, are not contained within the provided video. The transcription reflects the content available up to the video’s end.