It’s Time to Stand Up & Speak Up!

Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.“

I believe that I am a person who wants to get along with everyone. I don’t like confrontations with others but it seems that when you sign up to walk with Christ and He then tells you about all the good things and blessing you will receive then He tells you, “Oh by the way there is going to be some people who will not like you because you are following Me”. 

He is telling us in the scripture before us that one of the greatest blessing that you and I can have is when others revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. When are you going through this it is because it is for Jesus name sake that you are going through this. 

The Lord then tells you the result and that is to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you”. 

Isaiah 54:17 tells us, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD.”

No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, but did you notice what the main weapon was? It is the tongue. Many people will say a hurtful thing and then think that there is no responsibility for what they have said. Yet the Lord told us that there is coming a day when every idol word will have to be given account of. 

Now, before you go out hoping that someone one will come up to you and insult you, I don’t think that is the way it works. When those situations in my life have happened most of the time I was minding my own business. But in the book of Ezekiel it talks about being a watchman on the wall, and as a watchman you and I have no choice but to speak up. 

Those times that the Lord has shown me to speak up and I have, some people have thanked me for caring. But there are those who have let me know it was none of my business to speak up too, but the Lord lets me know that I was representing Him and I have no choice but to speak up.

I think one of the few times when growing up that I got in a fight was when someone said something about my Dad. How much more do we need to speak up for the one who gave His only Son to die in our place? And how much more do we need to speak up for the Lord Jesus who died in our place? 

I had someone the other day to say a derogatory remark about one of our members and that was when the Lord poked me in the ribs to speak up and I did.

Pastor Lee Cruse, who believes that as the Lord is getting ready to come that more and more of His children will be put into places to speak up. Two reasons, because we need to as representatives of the Lord, and to grow in the Grace of the Lord Jesus.