Stand Firm: Faithfulness in the Face of Opposition

The kingdom of God will move with us or without us. It just will. God is not limited. I'm not gonna get up here and be like, God needs you this morning. He needs you, and God can't do what God wants to do unless we all get on board. The kingdom of God will advance whether we're on board or not. He is unstoppable. What's at what's at risk here for us is us one day seeing him eye to eye, locking eyes on him, and him looking at us and say, I'm so proud of you. Well done, good and faithful servants. [01:17:05] (38 seconds)  #KingdomMovesOn

He respected the truth, but he wouldn't submit to it. And John didn't adjust his message so to keep Herod comfortable. He chose courage over safety. And here's something powerful for us to remember. John the Baptist was not only the first great witness to Jesus, he was also the first martyr. And what does the word martyr mean? It means witness. Because in the early church, to bear witness to Christ often meant that you would suffer a martyr's death. [01:02:50] (30 seconds)  #CourageousWitness

Following Jesus sounds inspiring until it becomes difficult. Because we all we all like the idea of purpose. We we love the idea of being used by god, but what we don't always anticipate, expect is is resistance. Sometimes, we assume that we aren't doing the right thing or or that if we are doing the right thing, everything should be smooth sailing, that that life should go good for us if we're for following the lord, but scripture and history tells us a different story. [00:41:27] (42 seconds)  #PurposeHasResistance

Sometimes, the tension in your life is not because you're doing wrong, it's because you're doing right. And truth exposes what's already there. That's been done in my life. And God's used me in that way in someone else's life. John also teaches us that we've gotta let courage be stronger than our fear. Interestingly, Herod himself is conflicted. Look at verse 20. It says he feared John. He knew he was righteous, and he even liked to listen to him. But he never repented. [01:02:12] (38 seconds)  #CourageOverFear

So what do we do? Remain confident even when evil seems to prevail. When you walk outside, when you read the newspaper, when you listen to the news, when you get on your social media feed, it looks like evil is prevailing everywhere we look. On all sides. What would the Lord God say? Remain confident. From a human perspective, this looks like defeat. A faithful man dies. A wicked ruler stays in power, but this is not the end of the story. So remain confident even when evil seems to repair prevail. [01:06:10] (36 seconds)  #RemainConfident

When God is at work, people will notice. And not all attention is positive. Some some said, well, Jesus is Elijah resurrected. Others thought he was just a prophet. But notice what when Herod hears about Jesus, he immediately says this is who? John the Baptist, whom I've already beheaded. He's been raised. Why does Herod immediately think that? Because his guilty conscience is haunting him. We can expect resistance because people have a conscience, and they don't like their conscience being pricked by biblical truth. [00:54:54] (42 seconds)  #GospelPricksConscience

So as we step into this passage, what we're really seeing is a collision between two kingdoms. Right? This whole series is about the kingdom of God, and we see a collision between two kingdoms here. On one side, you have a a ruler of a political authority who has no moral clarity. He has no spiritual backbone. He has no control over his own desires. And on the other side, you have a prophet who has zero power. He has zero position. He has zero protection, but he has the truth. [00:52:38] (32 seconds)  #KingdomsInConflict

And into that step that that situation of adultery and incest steps in one mighty prophet who refuses to be quiet, John the Baptist. John looked at the most powerful man in the land and said, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And that kind of courage oftentimes comes with a cost. Herodias wanted John dead. Herod himself is conflicted. Mark tells us that he actually feared John, even respected him. He liked to listen to him, but he was also a weak man. [00:51:38] (38 seconds)  #CourageAgainstPower