The Bible Belt Cultural Christian

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Series: The Real Thing

Title: The Bible-Belt Cultural Christian

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In the movie Facing the Giants, the coach of the high school football team knows that his team is filled with doubt and not really committed to each other. So he shows them an example of what can happen when they really get committed—when they go “all in.”

Video - Facing the Giants

Show the clip from Facing the Giants.

You see, the coach knows that Brock can lead this team if he really believes in what they can achieve. If you remember the movie they win the state title trusting in God and being totally committed to one another. They prove this statement to be true: YOU’VE GOT TO BE ALL IN BEFORE YOU CAN GO ALL OUT. You’ve got to be all in before you can go all out. You’ve got to be fully committed to the cause if you are really going to be successful in life.

That truth can also apply to Christianity. We’ve been in this series called The Real Thing. We’ve been talking about how so much of the church, especially in America, has settled for a half-hearted version of Christian commitment that we have called Cultural Christianity. In fact, Al Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary calls the American version of cultural Christianity the “new American religion” that is committed to five basic Tenets:

· “A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.”

· “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”

· “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”

· “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.”

· “Good people go to heaven when they die.”

We also said that this “cultural Christianity” has at least three different expressions in our culture. Last week we considered the liberal Christian showing how they reject important doctrines, compromise biblical morality, and pursue relativism because they fail to understand the supernatural nature of this book. Frankly, most of you do not struggle with that one, although I think it’s pretty safe to say that you know someone who does.

BACKGROUND

Today, however, I want to turn your attention to another expression of cultural Christianity that will hit a lot closer to home. I call it the Bible Belt Christian. Bible Belt Christians are known for their CONSUMERISM. They have been catered to by their local church for so long that they have come to expect it. They think that the church exists primarily to meet their needs.

As a result, their COMMITMENT TO ANY PARTICULAR CHURCH IS WEAK OR NON-EXISTENT. As long as the church operates as they think it should—especially when it comes to the things that make them comfortable—they will stay. If it begins to make them too uncomfortable, they’ll find another church which will do a better job of catering to their whims.

Part of their desire for comfort centers around their DESIRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN PROGRAMMING. They hire pastors whom they expect to produce great music, excellent entertainment at holidays, and well-communicated sermons.

Many Bible-belt cultural Christians LACK A CERTAIN SELF AWARENESS. They view themselves as a mature Christian, but they are not growing nor becoming more like Jesus. They are immature when it comes to walking with God, but they are often veteran church members.

When you boil it all down, you have one primary spiritual characteristic: They have great ACCCESS to the gospel, but they have little true UNDERSTANDING of the gospel. They identify with Christianity as a way of life, but they do not believe and follow the gospel in such a way that it truly changes what they do every day.

As the novelist Flannery O’Connery says, while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. There is a lingering influence of Christ in the culture: infants are baptized, funerals are Christian, weddings must happen at church, and Grandpa leads the family in prayer at Thanksgiving dinner. As Dean Inserra says,

The name of Christ lingers, appearing from time to time at family functions, milestones, and traditions. The cohabitating engaged couple with no church affiliation asks a pastor to perform their ceremony, rather than a notary, and they have an uncle do a Bible reading during the wedding. There is some unrelenting, nagging pull that can’t seem to leave them—the existence of God and that it means something for their lives. Perhaps there is an awareness of the need for redemption and even a longing deep down for repentance. Billy Graham is revered, apologies are made to the pastor when you cuss in front of him, and there are certain people you feel guilty drinking beer in front of when they see you at a restaurant. Image matters here. Being seen as a Christian can be more important than actually being a Christian. When I think of the Christ-haunted South in today’s Bible Belt, I see all around me an awareness of God that brings with it an internal guilt you just can’t shake or run away from. God can’t be ignored, and Southerners know it. But the idea of God interfering with their lives, and things changing if they follow Jesus, is too much to handle, so the haunting remains.

Slide- Pic Young woman singing

Take Amanda, for instance. She sang at church while she was in High School. She believes in Jesus and intended on saving sex for marriage. But then she went to college and quickly learned that such a lifestyle was not “realistic.” Everyone drinks and hooks up. Now she didn’t become an atheist, she just counted the cost and realized that following Jesus just didn’t line up with the “real world.” Amanda’s boyfriend, Dave, knows that his drinking would have to be curtailed if he were to be more serious about his faith. He knows he’d have to explain to the guys why he probably shouldn’t be going to their favorite clubs anymore and he’d have to explain to Amanda that he loves her, but unless they get married, they shouldn’t be living together. He knows the social implications of a radical lifestyle change. And it’s a change he does not want to make. He likes his life, his friends, his comfort, and can’t understand why a loving God would really want him to give it all up. That’s the Bible-Belt Cultural Christian dilemma: I believe in Jesus, but truly surrendering to Him would interfere with my life.

NEED

Does that sound familiar? I think it’s possible that this description fits some of us in this room. I would not for one moment think that I know who is genuine and who is not. That’s way above my pay grade, but I do believe that there are some Bible-belt cultural Christians and, please remember what we said: Cultural Christians are not really disciples of Jesus at all. That’s why I want you to listen: I have a burden for you if this is your description. I want you to know what it means to make an all in commitment to Jesus Christ.

But, I am also aware that there are many of you here today who are genuine believers. Well, if that’s you, don’t tune me out because, in this city, there is plenty of “Jesus-haunted” people who have never come to fully know Him. They may talk a good game, but they are lost.

TRANS

If that is the case, I really want to connect you with a passage of Scripture that addresses the Bible-Belt cultural Christian head on. You find it in . Read it with me:

Luke 14:24–35 NKJV

For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ” Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Luke 4:24–35 NKJV

Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way. Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.

25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. 34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. 34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

So, what’s the difference? What’s the difference between a Bible-belt cultural Christian and a genuine disciple of Christ? Well, these verses tell us that a real disciple does at least three things. In the first place,:

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A REAL DISCIPLE CONSIDERS THE COST

A REAL DISCIPLE CONSIDERS THE COST

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I see in these verses what I would call the process of becoming a disciple.

The process of discipleship begins with curiosity.

It begins with CURIOSITY. V25 says, Now great multitudes went with Him . . . The obvious question is “Why? Why were they following?” I think it is because Jesus was doing some amazing things and people were coming from all over to see His miracles and to hear his message. They were curious. But Jesus knew that curiosity wasn’t enough to change their destiny . . .

The process of discipleship issues a challenge.

Luke 14:25–26 NKJV

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Lu 24:14

So He issues a CHALLENGE. V25 says, 25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me . . . Now, why would He say that? They were already coming to Him, weren’t they? It says that they were following Him around. But that following of curiosity wasn’t what Jesus wanted. No, He wants them to commit to Him. You see, the process involved curiosity and challenge . . .

So He issues a CHALLENGE. V25 says, 25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me . . . Now, why would He say that? They were already coming to Him, weren’t they? It says that they were following Him around. But that following of curiosity wasn’t what Jesus wanted. No, He wants them to commit to Him. You see, the process involved curiosity and challenge . . .

The process of discipleship requires consideration.

And then it involved CONSIDERATION. When Jesus says If anyone comes to me He goes on to give the requirements of being His disciple which we are going to look at in just a minute, but He tells the people He challenges that, before they make the commitment, they need to count the cost of what He is asking them to do. Then He gives them a couple of word pictures to show them what He means by counting the cost.

Slide - Pic - Tower

The first picture is of a landowner who wants to build a tower to provide security for his property. V28 says, For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Before beginning the project, the owner foolishly fails to check his bank balance. He lays the foundation and he’s out of money. So people, seeing his unfinished tower, walk by and make fun of him. They laugh and say, “What an idiot! He didn’t count his dough before he started his show.”

Slide - Pic - Ancient army

The second picture is of a King. Look at v 31Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. Obviously, if you attack someone else without provocation and then have to ask for peace, the price for peace is going to be decidedly high!

The point is this: Jesus is telling us that, before we sign up for the commitment He is asking us for, we need to count the cost.

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And that’s a process most Bible-Belt cultural Christians have never really gone through because, for most of them, they don’t think that there is that much of a cost. They think that passages like this are for the super Christians and they just don’t care to be on the “super-Christian” level. They are Christ-haunted, but they are not all in. They may have even, to some extent at least, considered the cost and just decided that it was too high, but they somehow think that their half-way commitment is enough.

And the cure for the Bible-Belt cultural Christian is this: He has to sell out! He has to go “all-in.”

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And what does this all-in commitment look like? Well, not only does a real disciple consider the cost, a real disciple also:

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A REAL DISCIPLE MAKES THE COMMITMENT

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And the commitment that he makes is not some generic decision that merely causes him to agree to some set of facts. O no, Jesus gives, here, the specific decision that a real disciple makes. That decision involves three very specific pursuits.

The commitment requires three pursuits:

A prioritized love.

A real disciple pursues, first, a PRIORITIZED LOVE.

Luke 14:26 NKJV

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Now, if you do not understand what is going on in this verse, you may be really confused: Is Jesus telling you that you actually have to hate your own family?

Well, actually, in this verse, Jesus is using a Semitic Idiom. In the Old Testament, to love one person more than another is described as “loving one and hating another.” The classic example is in where Paul says that God says, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Now God didn’t hate Esau, but He did prefer Jacob in the sovereignty of His plan.

So when Jesus tells us to hate our wife, etc., He is saying that our love for Him must come before our love for our family or for anyone else. A real disciple pursues a priority in His love. Christ comes first ahead of everyone else!

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Is that true for you? Do you prefer Christ over your own wife or husband? How about your children? How about yourself? Sadly, the average Bible-Belt cultural Christian treats Jesus the way the average Southerner treats the American flag. They feel very nostalgic when they see it waving and they get mad when an athlete kneels during the Anthem, but would they die for it? Would they put it above their own families?

You see, that’s what a real disciple does. Christ comes before all other loves. He pursues a prioritized love and . . .

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A complete surrender.

He pursues A COMPLETE SURRENDER. You see this second pursuit of a real disciple in v

Luke 14:27 NKJV

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

The action of this statement flows from what we are called to bear. It is “the cross.” In that day the cross was not a diamond-studded necklace for the fashion conscious; it was an instrument of death. When we are called cross, we are called to die with Christ. The action, then, is to follow Jesus all the way, even to the point of death, just as Jesus did.

And, will you notice the extent of this action. We are not told to “take up” the cross here, we are told to “bear” the cross. Bearing the cross is not a one-time decision, but a long term process. We are to bear and bear and keep on bearing the cross. The point is that if we are to be followers of Christ, we are to follow Him completely, for all time, to the point of pain and even death!

ILL

This all came home to me back in February of this year. Tony and Dana were visiting from a closed access country and they were telling us about some of the persecution that is going on with students who have proclaimed that they are followers of Christ. Some have been arrested and had their freedom of movement limited. They were undergoing tangible persecution.

Well, since Tony used to be on staff here at the church, I was sharing with him some of the struggles we had been going through. Now, if you know Tony, you know how he has a way of cutting through all the fluff and getting right to the issue. So I was kind of complaining about how some people were acting over an issue that really didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things and, as I was whining, he just started laughing. He looked at me and said in so many words: “Let me see, Rusty: Being arrested for your faith and getting a few complaints. Not much of a contest.”

O, but that is what happens to Bible-belt cultural Christians. They begin to stress over little issues that do not matter and seek their own comfort when a real disciple pursues complete surrender to the point of death.

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An active sacrifice.

And this complete surrender gets lived out. You see, not only does a real disciple pursue prioritized love and complete surrender, he also pursues ACTIVE SACRIFICE. V 33 says, So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. The pursuits of a disciple are not theoretical or simply spiritual; they get fleshed out in real actions that sacrifice for the Kingdom. One commentator wrote: The will to renounce all possessions and to ally oneself totally to Jesus is the essence of discipleship. Persevering with Jesus means to be attached to Him, not possessions. If Jesus offers hat He says he offers, then there can be no greater possession than following Him.

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So are you actively sacrificing your life to follow Christ? And I know that when you hear that, you may have some questions. Quite frankly, I do too. Some may say, “Rusty, that is not Christianity, that is fanaticism. It’s too much for God to ask. He tells me to make all of my existence about Him, not myself and that, if I don’t, I will suffer eternally. That’s like telling me to love Him with a gun to my head. Is God really just an ego-maniac?”

O no, my friend. The problem is not that God is an ego-maniac, we are. You see, God is the creator—the one Who made and sustains us. It is not wrong for Him to desire glory. He’s not the ego-maniac, we are! It’s us who walk away from His plan and try to become our own god. That is true ego-mania!

No! When God calls us to follow Him completely, He does that knowing how we were created and what will truly bring us satisfaction. When Eve sinned in the garden, she bought into the lie that her happiness was somehow something she should seek for on her own and which could be gained by her expressing her own will apart from God. The result was disaster! God calls us to follow Him because following Him is the only way that we will ever be truly satisfied.

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So are you actively sacrificing your life to follow Jesus? Are you a real disciple or are you a Bible-belt cultural Christian? Are you gospel-centered or gospel-frightened? Are you Jesus-focused or are you Jesus-haunted? You see, the average Bible-belt cultural Christian has just enough of Jesus to make them miserable, but not enough to give them joy. The answer is not for them to turn from surrender and take even more control of their own lives so that they can be happier. No, the answer is to completely surrender to Him so that they can learn how to experience the joy He created them for.

And when Christ-followers begin to make that kind of surrender, some amazing things happen because not only does a real disciple consider the cost and make the commitment,

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A REAL DISCIPLE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

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This teaching of Jesus ends with an interesting illustration which I didn’t understand when I first read this account.

Luke 14:34 NKJV

“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

Now I struggled to understand the connection between all that Jesus was saying about the commitment of a disciple and salt. It seemed like He was talking about one thing and all of a sudden started talking about something else.

In v 34 Jesus says, Salt is good, but if the salt has lost it’s flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out . . . Now I struggled to understand the connection between all that Jesus was saying about the commitment of a disciple and salt. It seemed like He was talking about one thing and all of a sudden started talking about something else.

But if you stop and think about the purpose of salt, it all begins to make sense. Salt had many purposes. It could be used to season food and make it appealing to those who were hungry. It could be given to people or to animals with the purpose of making them thirsty and keeping them hydrated. It could also be used on meat to keep it from spoiling.

Salt had many good purposes unless—unless it lost its flavor. If it lost its flavor, it wouldn’t make food tastier, people thirstier nor preserve meat.

Now here’s what I believe Jesus is telling us. If we are the kind of disciples He’s describing here; If we prioritize our love for Him, completely surrender our lives to Him and then actively sacrifice our lives for Him, we will be like salt that has its flavor. We will make men hungry to know God; thirsty to drink from His spring of living water and the impact of our lives will be to bring many people to Christ so that they can be preserved from Hell. We, in short, will make a huge difference in the world around us.

If, however, we settle for Bible-belt cultural Christianity, we will be like salt which has no flavor. We will have no impact.

ILL

Slide - Pic - Tom Brady

He’s been the NFL MVP three times. He has been the Super Bowl MVP four times and he has won a record six Super Bowls. He’s Tom Brady who at age 42 is still playing well. Commenting on his achievement, Mark Schlereth who played for 12 years in the NFL and was Brady’s back up quarterback said of Brady.

For Tom Brady, playing quarterback is not a job; it’s a lifestyle. You gotta be willing to commit your life to it. He wakes up, and it's all about what am I going to do today to be the best quarterback I can be for this organization. That means diet. That means exercise. That means hydration…

You see, for most players, Sundays aren't the problem… Monday through Saturday that's the problem. You get to a point somewhere in your career: "I don't want to prepare anymore. If I could just show up on Sundays that would be great. But I don't want to go through the grind, the grind of preparing to get to Sunday." Brady still eats that grind for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed."

He is not satisfied by success. He continues to prepare; he continues to grind. His quote is this: “If you want to beat me you better be ready to lose your life because I’ve already given up mine.”

Did you catch that? Brady said, “If you want to beat me, you better be ready to lose your life because I’ve already given up mine.” When I read that I remembered what the Apostle Paul said in . He said They do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. Jesus calls us to lose our lives not for a crystal trophy or a diamond ring. He calls us to lose our lives for Him and, in the process, be filled with His amazing joy. And it is THAT kind of commitment that turns a bland Bible-belt cultural Christian into a salty, radical, all-in disciple.

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And we really need to hear this! We need to hear it because if the world ever needed salty Christians, it’s right now! Christianity is no longer viewed very positively by many people. Why not? It’s because the Church is inundated with cultural Christians who aren’t very salty. The world needs the impact of committed disciples who genuinely love Jesus and are willing to sacrifice their lives for others. We need to know this truth because of THEIR NEED FOR IMPACT.

And we need to know this truth because of OUR NEED FOR IMPACT. Why is the church in this country dying? It is because the world is getting more sinful, even though it may be. It isn’t because persecution is growing, even though it surely is. It is because the followers of Jesus inside the church need a revival—a genuine experience of the Holy Spirit’s power that would shake us up and make US truly believe what we say we believe. I think that the only way that revival is going to come is when you and I as individuals begin to go all in with Jesus and get salty. I believe we will see Him work among us and we will be encouraged. We need to know this truth because of THEIR need for impact and because of OUR need for impact.

Last, we need to know this because of OUR NEED FOR JOY. There is an amazing verse of Scripture in . Peter and the other Apostles were brought before the Council in Jerusalem for preaching about Jesus. They are ordered to stop, but they will not agree. So the Council has them beaten, tells them to shut up about Jesus, and lets them go. says this: So they departed from the presence of the council (watch this!) REJOICING that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Now I know we might look at that and think that maybe Luke is exaggerating a little bit. Surely these Apostles didn’t really REJOICE in their suffering did they? How is that possible?

I’ll tell you how: When you genuinely go all in for Jesus and you begin to sacrifice, your life become salty and when that salt begins to change lives around you, even though there is persecution, YOU HAVE JOY! But that kind of joy doesn’t come to those who are merely HAUNTED by Jesus. It comes to those who are totally and completely POSSESSED by His Spirit. It doesn’t come to the Bible-belt cultural Christian; it comes to those who have gone ALL IN so they can go ALL OUT!