Persuction Is Increasing

Last week as I began my sermon from Mark 3 about how many of the people who were following Jesus were only seeking what he could do for them and not who he was and what he came to accomplish, I asked the question that is every earthly possession or relationship you hold dear was ripped away, would you still hold on to your faith.

It’s a question that we can piously and flippantly answer “of couse I would” but often we cannot know until we are in that position.

Today, there are 6 families from Nashville Tennessee who are finding out how strong their faith is.

On March 27th, 2023, just 6 days ago, a woman who claimed to be a man, entered The Covenant School in Nashville, an elementary school started out of the ministries of Covenant Presbyterian Church. She opened fire, and killed 6 people, including three nine-year-old children, a substitute teacher, a custodian, and the head of the school.

Another school shooting. Another tragedy.

I don’t speak to these kinds of events every time they happen. The sad reality is that its hard to keep up with all the violent crimes that occur.

This one is a bit different, as it hits a little closer to home.

Upon searching the shooters home, police found detailed maps of the layout of the school as well as a manifesto, the details of which have not yet been made known to the public.

Brothers and sisters. This is was not a random act of evil.

This was a remediated, targeted attack upon a conservative Christian school by an woman who identified as a transgender man. This was targeted persecution.

This is not the first time a Christian group has been targeted like this. You might remember a shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a shooter killed 26 and injured 22 at a baptist church before taking his own life. At the regional yesterday Dave Deets, who helps churches train their leadership, shared with us his experience working with that church, and how that was a case of a personal vendetta. The group was a church, but I would be hesitate to say it was specifically Christian persecution.

The Nashville shooting was persecution. And the way this story is being covered is vastly different as well. Though there are many news outlets who are rightly condemning the violence and actions of the shooter, there are some who seeking to frame the narrative in such a way to as to paint the shooter as the victim. That this never would have happened if that Christian School didn’t hold to their backward beliefs about human sexuality and gender identity.

Even our own president has made comments just days after the shooting for “transgender day of visibility” condemning quote “an epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls”

Why do I bring all this up?

It is not to scare us. The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? Fear not those who can kill the body, but him who can cast both body and soul into hell.

It is not to throw a pity party and cause us to develop a persecution complex.

I aim is to prepare us