Drifting from the Love of God
Youth Service
The film that you will see will last only about 6 minutes but it will make you think. To set the scene let me tell you about it before we start. The man and woman in van are a Pastor and his wife who are on vacation. He has preached about Jesus all of his life and proclaimed his love for God from the pulpit time and again. On this day, they stop to pick up a hitchhiker, but as the video begins, things have gone terribly wrong. The hitchhiker has pulled out a gun and is threatening the pastor. Now we will begin the video and watch what happens. Pay close attention for we never know when we will be confronted with a similar decision.
(Play the Video) (For those who read this message, the video is titled “Drifting” and can be purchased at Sermonspice.com)
Like the preacher in the video, many people have been pushed into a corner concerning their confession of faith and love for Jesus, and many have given their lives for the cause of Christ.
Every day, somewhere in the world, Christians are still being persecuted greatly. Some are cast into prison for preaching the gospel. Some are exiled to labor camps, never to be seen again. And some will pay the ultimate price for their faith and give their lives for the Lord.
You might think that this can’t happen to you, not here in the United States of America. Don’t be fooled, it can happen even here.
Let me give you a few examples:
Judge Roy Moore was the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. But because of religious persecution against Christians, he is no longer a member of the Alabama Supreme Court, and there’s a good chance that he will no longer be allowed to practice law at all. Why? It all resulted from his stand for Christ by refusing to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from a public building in Alabama. The freedom of religion is no longer a freedom for Christians and any of us could face similar persecution anytime that someone wants to come against us for our testimony in Christ.
On April 20, 1999, our nation was shocked by the massacre of high school students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Many people believe that the two students who did the shooting were specifically targeting Christians. Not all those killed or injured were Christian but many were.
One eyewitness said, "I saw them shoot a girl because she was praying to God."
It is known as fact that at least three of those targeted for death were devout Christians.
At one point the terrorists asked a roomful of trapped and panicked students if there were any Christians present. One brave young woman named Cassie Bernall, who was only 17, stood and declared her faith in Christ. The killer smiled and then shot her dead. Cassie never expected to die for her faith, but when the time came, that’s what she did.
John Tomlin was a 16-year old who attended church with his family every Sunday. He had recently completed a missions trip into Mexico, witnessing and working for the Lord. He had even helped do build a house for a poor family who had been living in a shack. He was killed because he confessed Christ as his Lord and stood for his belief.
Rachel Scott, only 17, had thought about graduating early to travel with a Christian drama team and become a missionary or work with troubled young people. She let her light shine everywhere she went. On this fateful day, her faith and love for Jesus was recognized, and she was rewarded for her confession of faith with a bullet that took her life. Today she is with the Lord that she loved so much, killed for her testimony in Christ.
None of these people expected the persecution and death that awaited them, but it came. When those three young Christians woke up that morning and dressed for school, just like they had done for years, I’m sure that they never thought that this day would be their last and that they would have to die for their faith.
Not one of us is exempt from persecution. I hope that none of us will face it, but I expect that some of us will.
Perhaps it won’t come as a threat with a gun in your face, but it could come in other ways as well.
A lady in Houston, Texas was ordered by local police to stop handing out gospel tracts to children who knocked on her door during Halloween. Officers informed her that such activity is illegal (not true), and that she would be arrested if she continued.
Raymond Raines, a Pentecostal, was in the 4th Grade. He always bowed his head to say “Grace” before he would eat his lunch. He was told that it was illegal to pray and will placed in detention to force him to stop. He had to go to a private school to escape religious persecution.
Two girls in middle school were told that their Bibles are "garbage." The teacher threw the Bibles into the trashcan, and took the girls to the principal’s office. Three students at the same school had schoolbooks with the Ten Commandments on the covers. School officials threw the book covers into the trash, saying that the Ten Commandments are "hate speech."
A federal judge in Texas ruled that any student who uses the word "Jesus" during the school’s graduation ceremonies would be arrested and sent to jail.
Perhaps persecution could simply come by someone making fun of you or calling you a Jesus freak, or a Holy Roller. Or it could become much more than that.
The question is, “How much do you love Jesus? What will you do in the face of persecution? Will you allow the opinions of worldly friends to sway you from serving and worshipping Jesus?
Maybe no one is holding a gun to your head right now, but you can rest assured that Satan is doing his best to kill, steal and destroy your life at his first opportunity. Those who serve Jesus cannot be friends with the world because we can’t be like them.
James 4:4, "… know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
When the pastor in the film was confronted with his confession of faith, he discovered that he really didn’t have the real thing after all. He wasn’t serving God because He loved Him. He was only professing to be a Christian but he wasn’t one at all.
Is your faith in Jesus real? Are you serving the Lord because you love Him, or because its just the thing to do for now?
If you truly love the Lord and your faith is in Jesus Christ, you won’t have to worry about whether you will stand in the hour of persecution. The Holy Spirit will help you to stand strong. No power on earth, or in hell, can make you deny Christ if you truly love Him.
Romans 8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What about that pastor in the film? He finally had to come face to face with the fact that he had denied Christ and counted his life as more important than his faith in Jesus?
Matthew 10:37-39, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it"
Matthew 16:25-26, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 10:32-33, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."
Is there any doubt that this minister needed to really commit his heart to Jesus and quit playing church? Think about your own life and ask yourself whether you love Jesus that much, or do you need to love Him more.
One very important point of the video is this. There are sinners who are looking for someone who is real, someone who will practice what he preaches and someone who really is a true Christian and not just someone who talks about being a Christian.
What do your friends see when they look at you? Does your testimony for Christ make an impact upon them in a positive way?
Do you talk about Jesus at all when you are around them, or do you avoid bringing up “church” and being saved? Do your friends even know that you are a Christian?
Do you talk about Jesus, talk about church, and maybe even invite them to church, but then you act just like they do? Why would anyone want to be like you if you are already like them? You can’t have it both ways. Either you will serve the Lord or you are serving the devil. Those are the only choices.
Too many of our Pentecostal youth are afraid to even tell other kids about Jesus. They don’t want to be branded. They don’t want to lose those friends who won’t want to hang out with them because they talk different and act different and can’t do all the things that their friends want to do.
That’s when you have to make your choice. This kind of action is also a form of persecution. Rejection from your friends will come because they don’t want to serve Jesus like you do. What will you choose to do then?
What’s the difference between someone holding a gun to your head and requiring you to either confess or deny Jesus, or having a friend hold their friendship over your head and requiring you to choose either their friendship or serving the Lord? They are both forms of persecution. They are both things that will bring you to your point of decision. What you decide will show just how much you really love Jesus.
Maybe those who are forcing you to make your decision are just waiting to see if you really believe what you say. Maybe they are just looking for someone whose testimony for the Lord is real. How you answer and what you do could determine where both you and the one you are talking to will spend eternity.
That’s what “letting your light shine” is really all about. It’s all about winning your friends to the Lord. Don’t ever forget that every one of them will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire if you don’t tell them about Jesus, and their blood will be required of you because God has called you to be His witness. No one else, not the preacher, not the teacher, not their parents, no one can speak to them like you can.
Is your light shining for the Lord? Do you really love Jesus? What have you said or done when someone cornered you about your faith in Christ?
Only those who confess Jesus before the world will be allowed into Heaven. If we deny Jesus here, by either not witnessing to others about Him, or by denying Him by living according to the world, we will not make Heaven our home.
Is your eternal life worth a little pleasure and a few worldly friends? Is eternity in the Lake of Fire worth having your fun in the world?
Do you really love Jesus? Are you willing to serve him with all your heart and life? That’s what it will take. Nothing less will count.
If you don’t know, then you need to know, and you can right now. Let’s go to the Lord and ask Him to reveal just what we are. Let’s ask Jesus to make our love for Him strong so that we can stand in the times of persecution and confess our faith in Him in front of anybody.
