For Your Reward Is Great In Heaven

Welcome to family policy matters.

Production of the North Carolina family policy Council this week we bring you an inspiring speech by David and Jason Bana courageous twins who are nationally recognized for their advocacy on critical family policy issues. This message was delivered at NC families major speaker series dinner in Greenville, North Carolina on March 13.

We hope you enjoy. Matthew 511 Jesus said blessed are you when men persecute you and falsely accuse you. We can't forget that that's in the Bible that Matthew Farland look it up yourself when they falsely accuse you for my namesake. He said, rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great you know we lost a multimillion dollar reality television show. We had endorsements coming in with multi-commas and crooked numbers for those of you that are in the financial world when you start giving the crooked numbers you're making some good money but you know what that matters nothing to us because our reward in heaven is far greater than any amount of money we can make here on this earth if we were to take the values of Jesus Christ. The commands of God when it comes to marriage when it comes to life. Those are the two big issues if if we would have cowered back on those issues we would not have been standing boldly for Jesus Christ, but I'll say this, Martin Luther, the great reformer once said, if I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth except precisely that one point, which at that moment the world and the devil are attacking. I am not professing Christ, no matter how boldly I may be preaching Christianity where the battle rages there. The loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all battlefields. Besides his mere flight in disgrace if he flinches at that one point in right now is the body of Christ we are flinching at these flashpoints.

That's why I thank God for John Rustin in the family policy Council standing up in those flashpoints in the Bible we call those exposed places in the wall and so here Jason and I we find ourselves thrust in the middle of all of this. Having read the Bible for so many years and thinking Lord. Here are some flashpoints where you are very clear in your word and when we were called that were to tell you little bit about our story, but we were called, and we were told hey some stuff coming down the pipe. I can remember Jason and I think in you know what where the voices and culture that are standing and speaking.

How many pastors that have these multimillion dollar book deals in all this are standing and speaking in the line of fire. How many Christian celebrities look in North Carolina. Every celebrity known to man is vilifying our state board about the Christian celebrities about standing up for our values here in North Carolina so this is the greatest time ever to be alive.

I mean, do you think Lebron James wants to play in 80 to mop up games a year. That's not what he wants the greatest athletes want the game to come right down to the line and then they look at the Costa Mesa give me the ball. That's the type of person that God is looking for today. Jason and I we we are from Charlotte in 2015. Our dad was at the city Council dinner meeting and they brought up this whole transgender bathroom. Bill they they said hey were going to do is were not gonna try and take this, but my dad heard all this were not a try. Take this public.

But on Tuesday, working on pass the transgender bathroom bill and what we want to do is in and they had a whole list of things we want to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the city's nondiscrimination ordinance, which by the way, for some treatable points when you guys are engaging on social media. Remember, this law is to be based on an objective standard for people's safety law is not supposed to be based on a subjective standard for people's comfort. But what we've got is when you take a law and you based on sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual orientation, how do you even define the stuff sexual orientation is who you go to bed with gender identity is who you go to bed as we are now putting sexual orientation and gender identity in law encoding it in law for people's comfort and it's based on a subjective standard that is fluid itself professed its fluid with. That doesn't mean you hate homosexuals. That's the most ridiculous thing on earth because we have Jesus in our hearts. We love all people we love them but we don't want to encode a law that is good to be used as a weapon to target religious liberty is this is a wise philosopher said, and during World War II times.

Albert tell Moses his name. He said there always comes a time in history when the person who dares to say that 2+2 = 4, is punished with prison or death, and the issue is not what reward or what punishment will be the outcome of such reasoning. The issue is simply whether or not 2+2 = 4 is an amazing that for a pastor today to stand up in his church, or even say it publicly to simply say marriage is between one man and one woman in everybody's like you are so bold, how did we get to this point right below. If you take the two ingredients of one man one woman out of marriage. That's like taking chocolate out of brownies. You let the Blondie's that real people don't need those suckers anyway right, especially not North Carolinians so Jason and I we were in 2015. My dad was at this dinner meeting and then he calls us in places boys you'll never believe what I just heard they're going to push the sub bathroom bill on Tuesday we got a mobilize. You need to call this number and sign up to speed. So Jason and I we call in the number we sign up to speak and we called everybody we knew so we show up to speak and I was the hundred and 70 spots were taken to speak in 150 of them were believers in 20 were some other folks. I mean, there had been a most of thousand people. There was just overwhelming 20 some thousand emails were delivered to the between that day in and Tuesday delivered to all the councilmembers well by God's amazing grace. It was struck down. So we walked out of there thinking this is amazing in our dad said you watch what happens this next election will November comes around of the evangelicals that were registered to vote in Mecklenburg County. 92% of them did not vote in November's election. We got a new mayor in got two new councilmembers in the first agenda item was to push that bathroom.

Bill right through and we watched it we were there we probably had a thousand people there and we were there speaking and I knew this. It's over this thing's gonna pass. And sure enough it pass that night and by God's amazing grace thank you HUD for the North Carolina family policy Council and others that were pushing the governor and the legislators to call a special session and then of course we understand house bill to your listening to family policy matters of resource from family to listen to our radio show online and from what resources that will be a voice of persuasion in your community to our website and see family.org. This is how the radical left works frame facilitate and fracture you frame the issue you make it your issue framing you take the moral high ground. Then you facilitate your network and where you facilitate your network is and culture. You don't have to facilitate a political network or even a legal network you have them in place in case you need them, but you facilitate a cultural network, movie stars, athletes, business, you go get all of them and then when you get all that in place and you start pushing your narrative you fracture any dissent you pick off anybody that would dare speak, and you call them bigots and haters and homophobes, and you hate this, and you hate that.

And so when someone stands up to speak you. They're going to absolutely vilify you. That's why start with Matthew 511 because Jesus said in his own words when they falsely accuse you what are you your blessed, because great is your reward in heaven now, they should falsely accuse us because our attitude is bad, they should falsely accuse us because were attacking individuals know we reach out with compassion to all individuals, but we resist agendas with courage and that is the key and the problem today in America is not the presence of darkness, the problems, the absence of light. My little sister goes to sleep at night. He does not turn the darkness on to go to sleep hey babe, turn the dark on time to go to bed. What's he got a new turn the light off the nature of darkness is that it does not prevail unless lights turned off so we have to understand as you continue reading five verses later in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven now light exposes our good works. As believers, but guess what else like does John chapter 3 and darkness hates the light, because it exposed that its deeds were evil.

Light also exposes the world's evil deeds. Jesus. Jesus said in John chapter 7 the world hates me because I exposed that its deeds are evil. So when we shine our light, we shine the light of God's truth. Yes, we talk about marriage yes we talk about life.

Yes, we talk about religious liberty in all the wonderful incredible things in doing that it will expose evil agendas that want to destroy melt in the church today. We got the wrong idea of light received most of us grew up Baptist singing this little light of mine I'm going let it shine right. Don't let Satan blow it out right so the image that we have of light is that of a candle to carry our candle into the darkness right. Okay.

What happens when the wind comes along and blows the candle would have to select because out that what if you were to replace the image of a candle with the image of a coal like the look of burning ember inside of a fire pit the same wind that extinguishes the candles light actually ignites the coals light. What's the difference between a candle and coal candles lit from the outside. Coal burns from the inside. Jeremiah says your words like a fire, and it is shown in my bones and I am weary of holding it in. You know how God gets the light out of you into the world. He put you in situations to where you will be falsely accused and the devil is trying to extinguish your life by blowing as hard as he can on you and when you've got God's word very deep down into your heart. Buckle up because the very act of the devil trying to extinguish your light is the thing that's going to ignited what God does is he put you in these situations because he wants you took to shine your light and you don't have to try to do it. You know what you need to do. You need to spend time daily in God's work you need to be on your knees all along early in the morning down along with the Lord, going deep with him and then you get up and you be the best insurance broker, you can be. You be the best banker you can be the best stay-at-home mom that you can be and then we God put you into a situation to where you simply need to speak speak and watch all hell break loose around you and all I can do something, then you can just back right out. Just watch the show. You know how you become more than a conqueror. You get out there and you kick butt and you enjoy doing and you're happy about it and you're not mad at the people whose ideas but you're kicking it up as God loves all people that he does not love all ideas. He does not love. All behaviors and we need godly men and women who are willing to say that right the same boiling water that hardens the egg softens the carrot we don't need to turn the temperature of the water down what's in the water need to consider the substance that it's off right. So God taught us this when we were kids.

How many of you know that courage is contagious cowardice is contagious to the growing up as kids, we discovered that the things that were caught were far greater than the things that were taught that taught us a lot of stuff but what we call from him was courage.

It was a pastor of a small little church in Dallas, Texas, and yet God did something amazing in my dad's heart about six or seven years into his pastorate. He really got got a burden for for life specifically to to do something in the speak out about abortion in the Holocaust that was taking place and so he said guys only take month my little church office that got here at the house and I want to actually put it next to the busiest abortion clinic in Dallas, Texas.

So that's what he did well he did realize that the Jane Roe of the Roe versus Wade Supreme Court case worked at that abortion clinic two years later she got radically save my dad baptized her and someone swimming pool and it was Thing is was three weeks ago four weeks ago she went to be with the Lord. And right now she's chill and she knows what Jeremiah looks like. Like she knows what Jesus looks like that is so cool she's chill and up there with these people because our dad decided to turn his theology into biography. Thank you for listening. Be sure to tune in next week as we hear part two of his inspiring speech by David and Jason Bana you've been listening to family policy matters production of NZ family to listen to our radio show online, and for more valuable resources and information about issues important to families in North Carolina go to my website and see family.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook