The Insanity of Obedience

I feel like we have a pretty good small group program at our church. But we routinely fail to bring in the under-50 crowd, no matter what the topic. It's been frustrating. But I believe that our last series was given to us by God in order to get us away from trying to hook them, into getting us ready for what's to come.

During the first session, I looked at the several hundreds of books on the shelves behind our facilitator, all written by godly men and women over the years. (Well, most of them. I found a couple Bill Johnson books and round-filed them.) There are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Christian books out there. Yet things continue to get worse. It occurred to me that we aren't spending enough time finding the answers to our problems in the Bible itself. The Rick Warrens of the world get paid by the page, not the practical proverb. (A tip of the hat to Mark.)

Really, what does the Bible say, especially Jesus' written words?

Our last small group used the Nik Ripken book, The Insanity of Obedience, written in 2014. His first was The Insanity of God, which helps people cross the street and share the Gospel. This one is to help those who answer the Great Commission, and go to the hard places. But 7 years later, America is becoming a hard place. For the first time ever, only a minority of Americans claim to be Christians, and we see signs of soft persecution everywhere.

Nik Ripken and his family were missionaries in Africa, including Somalia, and lost a son on the mission field. In the coming days, I will share snippets from his book and his heart, and I believe also from God's.

CHAPTER 1: OUR MARCHING ORDERS

Are we willing to walk with Jesus in the hard places?

This book is offered to Christians who are tired of merely being "members" of a church and who want to be "true followers" of Jesus.

It is also a spiritual guide for experiencing the battle between the principalities and powers while squarely on the side of the Good News. Have no doubt; this is a dangerous stance to take.

Be defined by the Resurrection.

The church cannot be the church if it is not going and making disciples.

An intimate relationship with Jesus necessarily leads to a life of ministry and service and mission for all believers. He draws people close and then sends them out.

He clarified the identity of the people they would meet in the world; they are like wolves. (Most of the wolves are in the big cities. Or they're big tech and can reach us just about anywhere. And they're both already attacking us.)

For those who would obey Him, persecution is a certainty.

Obedience to these ancient words (Matt 10:16-23), in today's world, would potentially be seen as unbalanced - even insane. Even within much of the Church today, we might be encouraged to avoid taking Jesus' instructions too seriously.

We long to believe that these verses are merely "historic." We desperately cling to the possibility that these hard verses do not apply to us.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Is this command of Jesus always defined by His desire today to "seek and to save" those who are lost? Who are you seeking today?
* One enlightened brother said that every church who has a heart for the Nations needs four types of people: (1) Those who go, (2) Those who send, (3) Those who raise support for those who go, and (4) Those who welcome the Nations in their midst to their homes. What is the obedience level of your church?

CHAPTER 2 WHERE'S THE PARACHUTE?

Sit and learn at the feet of believers around the world who know how to live and thrive in settings of intense persecution. Gather valuable insight from our brothers and sisters who live in the hard places.

This book has 5 major sections: (1) Who does God command to be on mission? (2) Is it possible for faith to be born in settings of hostility and opposition? (3) As faith is born, how does it then move from one family to extended families and communities? (4) What are the leadership dynamics that foster healthy growth? (5) Is it possible for believers not merely to survive in settings of persecution, but also to thrive?

How does the Gospel spread in a communist or atheistic context?

Will we allow ourselves to be seized by both and content and the context of the New Testament?

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Where are you intentionally being among the "wolves"? At work, deliberately during recreation, or having families who do not know Jesus in your home?
* What percentage of your time is spent being "sheep among sheep," or as "sheep among wolves"?
* How in this world does one love wolves, especially those who harm and slay God's lambs?

CHAPTER 3 DID I SLEEP THROUGH THIS CLASS IN SEMINARY?

Persecution was simply to be expected for followers of Jesus. And God's ability to intervene and use persecution for His purposes was expected as well.

One of the great struggles for followers of Jesus is to develop and embrace a biblical worldview which, in most cases, is radically different than the worldview we already have.

Eighty percent of the world's believers who are practicing their faith live in persecution.

Persecution increases as people respond more and more to the activity of God, which is precisely what we find happening in the book of Acts.

The way to reduce persecution is simply to keep people from coming into relationship with Jesus. Given our call and our mission, the reduction or elimination of persecution is not our ultimate goal. The goal is to see persecution that way that Jesus sees it, an inevitable result of the obedience of His followers.

In the face of persecution, several different responses are possible: (1) "God, save us!" (2) "God, judge them!" (3) "God, forgive them!"(4) "God, forgive us as we forgive others!" (5) "God, glorify Your name!"

Believers can chose to glorify God regardless of their setting. A healthy understanding of persecution leads us to a confident trust in God to use it for His purposes. The hope that we can somehow be obedient and avoid persecution is a naive and misplaced hope.

God may have a higher purpose than lessening the suffering of persecuted believers.

Wars have been fought based on the belief that Western styles of government and the kingdom of God are essentially synonymous. This is a dangerous, non-biblical assumption.

The vast majority of movements toward Christ today are in countries and among people groups where persecution abounds. In almost every Western environment, Christianity is in decline.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Perhaps the crucial question is not: How can I keep persecution from happening? Perhaps this is a better question: Why am I not being persecuted?

* Why is there little persecution in the West?

joecool wrote: * Why is there little persecution in the West?

In today's Western culture, we are starting to see it used by the left, and it is abetted by woke government officials and cowardly corporations. It will get worse. I don't think it would take much of a push to get liberal "Christians" to do exactly what Jesus said would happen (see John 16:2-3).

CHAPTER 4 DEFINING THE CONVERSATION

Foundational Truths: (1) Persecution is normal (2) Persecution happens because people give their lives to Jesus (3) Believers who respond faithfully to Jesus' call to go and make disciples will precipitate persecution, suffering and martyrdom.

Most of the people of the earth who have little or no access to Jesus essentially live in an Old Testament environment. They were suffering before they met Jesus; now, at least, their suffering has been giving meaning.

There are different categories: (1) Census Christian are people who, if asked about their religion, would say "Christian." This is a cultural answer. (2) Member Christians are those who claim some sort of identification with a particular Christian institution or organization. (3) Practicing Christians participate in the life of a church, involving themselves in the forms and rituals of the faith. (4) Believers are people for whom the Christian faith is central and shaping. They strive to live out their faith and communicate their faith to others. (5) Hidden Christians are people who believe secretly and don't share their faith, because they are fearful of persecution.

The persecution of followers of Christ is rampant; martyrdom is not.

Every believer is a sent out one. The command to be on mission is a command to be both local and global.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Can you imagine the Old Testament being present today? Where in your city might it be?
* Can you imagine experiencing church without a church building? If house churches were the New Testament norm, what might that say to us in the future?
* How would you define faith and church quickly and clearly to a nonbeliever?

CHAPTER 5 THE NEED FOR WILLING AND TOUGH WORKERS

What is required of us is not a casual or temporary response to Christ's command, but a radical lifelong commitment.

Some of the obstacles that might keep the gospel from taking root in a host culture:
(1) Workers' preoccupation with a spiritual harvest. The task of the believer is simply to share the gospel so that all peoples have an opportunity to hear the Good News. If a harvest is our motivation, we will likely avoid places where response is less likely. The vast majority of overseas workers today reside in environments which are already defined as "Christian." Focusing on the seemingly fruitful areas is not a balanced biblical approach.
(2) Workers' knowledge of only one way to do church. More than 80% of the unreached people in the work live in oral cultures. Superimposing our traditions and abilities into a new, host environment is typically ineffective. Don't be surprised when unreached people act unreached.
(3) Workers' need for security. Missionary agencies tend to focus on "Christian" areas and more responsive countries where security concerns are not quite as acute. (During the Year of COVID, we saw most agencies pull missionaries off the field. It's understandable, but how does that make the unreached feel?)

Going is an excellent first step. What is required next is staying in the midst of an unreached people group with long-term, viable ministries and approaches.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Discuss the cost of reaching the unreached. Discuss the cost of not going.
* Think creatively about how to care and support those who live in the toughest places on the planet - which might be inner city USA.

CHAPTER 6 CLEANING OUT THE CLUTTER

Our priorities are reflected by the way we use our time and money.

Three basic ingredients present in most mission endeavors: (1) Where will we place our focus? (2) What will be the dominant and driving force of our work? (3) What will motivate us and shape our decisions?

Success is often measured by numbers. Administrative concerns can easily take precedence over creating a new vision for a lost world.

Creative and responsive sending churches develop approaches that grow out of ministry encounters.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Based on budgets, time and resources, what does our church or denomination care most about? What do I care about?
* How many spiritual conversations do we have each week?
* How is success ultimately measured?

CHAPTER 7 LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES

God's Word is so clear. God's command's are so direct. God's intentions for His church are so compelling. Yet, if that is true...
- Why is more than 70% of the world's evangelistic witness focused on the world's historically Christian countries?
- Why does the church in the West retain well over 90 percent of God's resources for itself?
- Why is the bulk of sacrificial offerings directed toward buildings, staff salaries, and educational materials for those already in the kingdom?
- Why is the church in the West willing to share only the leftovers with the Nations?
- Why do unengaged and unreached people groups today still lack even minimal access to the gospel?
- Why do many seminaries in the West, filled to overflowing with capable and committed students, send fewer than 10% of their graduates to the Nations?

Lies that can contribute to our not taking biblical commands seriously:
(1) The Bible is an old book, meant for yesterday. This belief allows people to pick and choose which portions of the Bible might still apply today and which parts can be dismissed without a second thought.
(2) God is moving powerfully overseas, but His miracles do not happen within the Western world.
(3) We must reach our own country's spiritual need first, then we can go to the Nations.
(4) If I work really hard in my own church, especially in supporting mission work, then He will keep His hands off my children and grandchildren.
(5) God seems to be calling more single women to the Nations. Evidently, He does not call as many single men. (For every single man in overseas service, there are approximately 7 single women.)
(6) The primary way our church supports work among the unreached is through our financial giving. As long as we give money, we have fulfilled our responsibility for the Nations.
(7) The safest place in the world is within the will of God. (But if safety is our primary issue, it's safer not to send anyone.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* What hold does fear have over you? Of what are you afraid?
* Men, are we entitled by God to a life of ease, without suffering or allowing our family to suffer for Jesus? What must change in our religious culture for men to step up?

joecool wrote: CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* What hold does fear have over you? Of what are you afraid?
* Men, are we entitled by God to a life of ease, without suffering or allowing our family to suffer for Jesus? What must change in our religious culture for men to step up?

A dozen years ago, as my younger son was getting ready to pop the question, his girlfriend stopped him, saying, "You know that I plan on going to the mission field at some point. Are you ready to do that?" Months later, he ended up going to a missions conference in Springfield, returned and told her, "Yes." She then said, "Okay, you can ask me that question now." During those months, he realized that he had lived a life of ease which was devoid of want and sacrifice. They have yet to go, but they're listening and waiting on the Lord.

Personally, I would like to go to one of the Mercy ships and help teach the children of the medical missionaries onboard. At my age, it's a daunting 2-year commitment. I'm willing - my wife, not so much, though she could also teach. What's really holding me back? My elderly Mom is in a downhill mental slide and my brother has advanced Parkinson's. I help both of them a lot. Jesus spoke of not looking back and of letting others take care of family matters, but I still hold back. I hope that my own delay is actually part of His plan, and that I'm ready to go when the time comes.

CHAPTER 8 STAYING PUT

Christ's command to go to the Nations is a command incumbent on every one of His followers. Those who are sent out are to be supported by those who are called by God to stay and fulfill the task of growing and nourishing the existing church (Rom 10:14-21)

Spiritual harvest and persecution go hand in hand. It is the New Testament norm.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* Where in your world are discussions concerning persecution and ill-treatment of believers part of your weekly worship cycle?
* To what are we entitled to as Western Christians? Sunday morning message from the pulpit? To die peacefully in our sleep at a comfortable old age?
* Has Christ promised ought but a cross?
* Where would we be if God had shaken the dust off His feet in regard to our disobedience?

joecool wrote: * To what are we entitled to as Western Christians? Sunday morning message from the pulpit? To die peacefully in our sleep at a comfortable old age?

It reminds me of a 2-time Medal of Honor recipient. At the Battle of Belleau Wood, he asked his fellow Marines, "Come on! Do you want to live forever?" and led them to a victory.

There are a lot of missionaries today that live this way. In fact, there's a missionary movement called Live Dead. These people are worthy of our support.

CHAPTER 9 THE PERSECUTORS

As long as the church is not perceived as a direct threat to the government, the persecution will be minimal.

In some former USSR countries, such pressure (threats against property) was so effective in holding the clergy hostage to their own blessings/possessions, government records show that 90% of the clergy cooperated with the State in persecuting their own flock of believers.

The second type of persecution once again involves the State. In this case, however, an "ideological partner" joins the State.

One of the central lessons taught that it is the persecuted - not the persecutors - who determine how they will live and how bold they will be with their faith. Witness is ultimately not about freedom; it is about obedience.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* How are we loving those perceived as hostile to the kingdom of God?
* Explore the statement "Thank God we live in a country where we are free to worship," against the almost never heard prayer, "Thank God we live in a country where we are free to witness."

joecool wrote: In some former USSR countries, such pressure (threats against property) was so effective in holding the clergy hostage to their own blessings/possessions, government records show that 90% of the clergy cooperated with the State in persecuting their own flock of believers.

The second type of persecution once again involves the State. In this case, however, an "ideological partner" joins the State.

I see the gov't revoking tax-exempt status for those denominations and individual churches that don't toe the line. It will happen in my lifetime. Be ready to shift to home churches. I know someone who's father is a member of an underground church in Georgia. A bit premature perhaps, but coming to a theater near you.

I see the left/woke church as the State's ideological partner. I have relatives in different woke denominations and they look upon Bible-believing churches as needing to be purged from society. In their eyes, we are not brothers and sisters, but the enemy.

CHAPTER 10 GOD'S SPIRIT IN PRESENT ACTIVE TENSE TODAY

A Pentecost-like event will often be necessary for the birth and growth of believing communities, especially in areas of persecution.

The church in our post-Pentecost world focuses on maintaining the organization, with very little expansion outside biological growth.

The majority of a church's funds are spent on the 99 sheep already found. Training is often based on the transfer of information and may have little to do with character formation.

The task that stands before us is to give billions of people access to Jesus. This requires that we deliberately leave our nests, go to a pre-Pentecost world, and exit quickly from any Pentecost-like outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Renewal, even in the post-Pentecost church, can be experienced as believers obediently embrace those without Jesus in pre-Pentecost settings, across the planet or across the street.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* What should we take with us to pre-Pentecost?
* What should we leave behind?

joecool wrote: Renewal, even in the post-Pentecost church, can be experienced as believers obediently embrace those without Jesus in pre-Pentecost settings, across the planet or across the street.

For some time, I've been saying that people are harder and harder to reach because they don't have the usual foundational knowledge on which to build on. A concept of God, right and wrong, etc. Does that mean that they are in a pre-Pentecost world/culture? Does that speak to a radical change in how we witness?

CHAPTER 11 SUPERNATURAL CONVERSIONS THROUGH WESTERN EYES

In the unreached areas of the world, more than 90% of followers have come to faith without the help of an outsider or a believer from another culture. God is not waiting on Western workers to reach the peoples of the world. God always takes the initiative. There are simply not enough overseas workers to reach the Muslim populations of the world.

How do "Muslim Background Believers" find God in their journey?
(1) Most report dreams and visions, up to 30 of these spiritual encounters before their decision to follow Jesus.
(2) There were dramatic encounters that led them to a copy of the Bible.
(3) Encounters with in-culture or near-culture believers.

How do "Hindu Background Believers" find God in their journey?
(1) Small groups of HBB travel to an area in which they share a common culture. They will offer the gift of healing, producing scenes seemingly straight out of the New Testament.
(2) Baptism quickly follows. But there is very little teaching and discipleship, which leads to a shallow faith unable to stand up to persecution.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* How are people in our own country who do not come a church background finding Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
* How can we know what God is doing within our own culture and country and join Him in His work?

CHAPTER 12: WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER

For Americans who are outside of a traditional church environment, typical entry points to faith are either a significant personal crisis, or a close relationship with a believer.

We often expect others to come to faith in the same way that we encountered Jesus.

CLOSING QUESTIONS:
* What oral tools are in your tool box for reaching those who are not literate? What tools can you suggest need developing? (Going forward, will a continually-lowering level of literacy in America be a problem in America?)
* How much of the Bible can you reproduce upon request?
* How many non-believing families have visited your home for a meal this past year?

CHAPTER 13 MORE BARRIERS?

This chapter dives in to possible reasons why it is so difficult to grow the church in Muslim countries....
1) External extraction of believers when persecution begins.
2) Marriage to a majority (Muslim) woman.
3) Remaining single, because of so few believing women.
4) Loss of voice and witness because of choosing to be silent.
5) The presence of "fringe" people, who are generally anti-culture, in the early stages of the movement.
6) Compulsive fleeing and internal extraction.
7) Expatriate hiring practices, which is less than helpful.
Education outside of culture has a detrimental effect on their witness.
9) Marriage to an expatriate greatly hurts their witness.
10) Pseudo-martyrdom, which is persecution for reasons "other than for who Jesus is."
11) Betrayal of faith by an internal Judas.
12) Grandparents who have the power to remove children from believers.
13) The desire for a better life is a powerful lure that takes them out of their community and culture.

As the USSR fell apart, 45% of Russian pastors emigrated to the West. As China prepared to take ownership of Hong Kong, 75% of its pastors left. Twenty percent of Arab Christians are moving to the West.

CLOSING QUESTION:
* Do any of these reasons apply to the Western church?

CHAPTERS 14-24 HIGHLIGHTS

Becoming a "missionary tourist" engaged in spiritual "drive by shootings" is unacceptable. This is meant in love, but...

When workers come to grief is when the assume the role of a pastor. It is a rare worker who works hard to stay among the lost.

The Western church seldom prepares its members to create worship for themselves as individuals.

In times of persecution, do not look to bring a person to Christ; instead reach entire families and social units for Jesus.

Most Western-based discipleship programs are essentially information transfer. Discipleship in times of persecution is based on relationship. Discipleship is about building strong character.

Effective leaders duplicate themselves.

Believers in settings of relative freedom have the most to learn from believers in persecution.

Satan cannot be everywhere at once. He cannot know everything. He does not possess all power.

CLOSING QUESTION (To Myself):
* 100% of me knows to share the Gospel. 95%+ of me is invested in strengthening the local saints. Am I unbalanced, or is this okay? Is it pleasing to God?