The Cost Of Christ

This is Robbie Dilmore from the Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

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May yours truly once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's nightmare. Yours truly, Nikita Kolov, also host of the Man Up show airing on Truth radio stations on Saturdays as well as your podcast platform and Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers. And I'm excited to be back with you today. Special sit-in, special host. You know, I just can't measure up to Stu Epperson, but I'm going to do my best to see if I can fill his shoes today. How about a plug for Robbie Dilmore, Christian Car Guy.

Man, you have some amazing hosts on Truth Talk Live. Hey, I have a question for you. Have you, here's the question, have you counted the cost for serving Christ? There is a cost to serving Christ. There is a cost to serving Christ.

Have you counted the cost? That's what we're going to talk about and discuss today. And I'm looking for maybe some stories. Jesus said, hey, they hate me, they're going to hate you. If they know you're a Christ follower, you're going to be persecuted for my name's sake.

I'm maybe looking for a story or two of how you've been persecuted, especially here in America in today's climate and culture. And we're going to talk about that today. And if you know me, if you've heard me in the past, you know, I like trivia. I like Bible trivia. I'm the trivia guy and I like giving away autographed 8x10s, even if you're not a wrestling fan, a professional wrestling fan.

Maybe you know somebody who is, and I like to give away, but you've got to answer trivia questions. So let me just throw the first one out here, give you something to think about. It's almost kind of a trick question, but you've got to think about it. Who built a house with seven pillars? Who built a house with seven pillars? Here's your choices. Nimrod, Belshazzar, Wisdom, or Solomon. Who built a house with seven pillars?

When I say there's a cost to counting, serving Christ, I should say, I know there are stories out there. It looks like we've got Bucksman from Ohio. Bucksman, I'm kind of getting used to you calling in from Ohio.

Bucksman up in Ohio, how are you today? Nikita, we're the heart of it all. Remember that, brother. We are the heart of it all. I am proud to call myself an Ohioan and a Buckeye. There's so many great ministries here, but I know the other 49 states have great ministries and great men and women of God too, Nikita, but we're the best!

All good. Hey, Bucksman, give me a short story of persecution, man. There's a cost to following Christ. Have you counted the cost?

I have. Luke 14. Luke 14 is where we're going to read about this, guys. And yeah, I remember early on in my walk with Christ, Nikita, the first people to reject me was my family, my older brother. I'm number three, Nikita, and number two, wow, Nikita, he would just derail me. And when we got to be older, I mean, he hated Christians, Nikita, and he was a very intelligent young man, and he honestly, I have to say this, Truth Talk Live, he denied Christ all the way to his death, all the way to his death. And he persecuted not just his younger brother, Nikita, but anybody who claimed Jesus Christ was God, and he claimed he knew, you know, philosophy and things that and the other, and he was a, I don't know, Truth Talk Live knows that, but the flying spaghetti monster. He had that tattooed on him, Nikita, he just could not stand Christianity, he could not. Yeah, couldn't reconcile his, how smart he was with, really, in a sense, how smart he really wasn't, right?

He was incredibly smart, too, Nikita, so, and funny, oh my goodness, he was such a funny guy. But yeah, unfortunately, he was probably my number one persecutor. It hurt coming from him.

Yeah, of course, I mean, close to family, right? I've got a wrestling buddy who sounds like a very similar story, his older brother was like, he, my wrestling buddy, he says, my older brother's so smart he's stupid, right, because he just won't open his eyes to the gospel, right? He'd just deny it, deny it, deny it, and yeah, sometimes family is the hardest, and so you have counted the cost, and of course, you know, that's, Jesus said is potentially what we could face, and unfortunately, sometimes it's the closest to us as well, right? They hurt the worst, Nikita, they really do.

They do, but nevertheless, we're not going to stop. I know I shared with them, Nikita, all my family, I shared with Jesus Christ, too, so Ezekiel 3, when God says to Ezekiel, hey, the blood will not be on your hands if you show them, and they still move in their sin. And I do know that, Nikita, that our Father will say, Buskman, well done, good and faithful, you minister to each one of your siblings. I brought my mother to Christ.

I did, too. At age 76 I led her. At age 76, and hey, you bring up a valid point for all our listeners out there, you know what, God puts people on your heart, look, you do your part and just be obedient and tell them the story, you know, you're not responsible how they receive it or respond to it, you just do your part and the blood's not on your hands. So, Buskman, appreciate you calling in, man, thank you today. Love you, brother.

God bless you, love you, too, thank you. Buskman from up in Ohio, and hey, who built a house with seven pillars? Come on, who's going to get that first autographed eight by ten? Is it Solomon, Wisdom, Belshazzar, or Nimrod? Call 866-348-7884, that's 866-348-7884, 86634 Truth.

Who built a house with seven pillars? And gave you a clue there, it's almost kind of a trick question, but hey, we're talking about persecution, counting the cost for serving Christ. You just heard Buskman talk about how one of his siblings was, railed him the most when it came to following Christ. We'll be back, and we're going to talk more about this, I've got some things I want to share that I come across that are going to, could be pretty eye-opening for you in other countries and what it looks like to count the cost outside of America. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back, Truth Talk Live! Bible trivia, looks like Bill from Charlotte, North Carolina might have an answer to my question, or Bible trivia question here. Bill, are you there? Are you there, Bill? Yes sir, I am. Hey Bill, welcome to Truth Talk Live, you got an answer to my Bible trivia question?

Yes, in Proverbs 9-1 it's Wisdom. Wow, you even had the address, I call it the address, Proverbs 9-1, Wisdom built a house with seven pillars, man. Good job, Bill, appreciate it. Down there in Charlotte, North Carolina, huh? Yeah man, I used to stop down here, I'm 64 now, so man, going way, way back in the WCW days, you know, Ricky and Bob, I used to run with some of my buddies and I actually stayed up one night with Mike the Hawk. Well yeah, if you were with the Hawk, BC before Christ, yeah, he stayed up all night is not a surprise. I got you, Bill, I got you.

Ricky and Robert could run with the best of them as well, the Rock and Roll Express, right? Yeah, those were, those were, uh, yeah. BC, that's right.

BC, we'll leave it right there. Well, hey, I appreciate you listening to Truth, you'll be an avid listener of Truth Talk, Truth Radio and Truth Talk Live. I missed the other cat, Steve Noble.

Yep. Yeah, I missed him. Steve's pretty good, but Steve's good too, you know, and you're doing a really good job hosting as well.

Oh, I appreciate it, I'm having a lot of fun. Thank you for being, hey, hopefully our paths, I get down to Charlotte, so hopefully our paths will cross here sometime soon, Bill. Yeah, you're in Concord, right? In the Concord Kannapolis area, yes sir, and so. Yeah, I do this commercial for that car company, yeah, so I'm involved, I get to go to prisons, that's actually where I learned about the Lord in 91.

Come on. Because I was being an idiot, but I get to do a ministry called Kairos, I don't know if you guys heard of it, it's an international prison ministry. I am familiar of it. So what I'm hearing is you've counted the cost of serving Christ, right? Well I mean, yeah, well I get more out of it than the guys get, and I go to a really spirit-filled church who used to have a robust prison ministry, actually Tully was the head of that, the central church of God, Tully was running that many years ago, and now it's, of course he's not around, but.

Who's that, Loran Livingston, wasn't it? Yeah, Pastor, he's still preaching, we've got Mike and Larry on staff as far as prison ministry, and we used to go to a lot more prisons, now we go to one a week, we go to one a month with Piedmont and Salisbury, the last Thursday of every month, so we used to go a whole lot more. But if I get to do the Kairos, which is cool, at Alexander Correctional in Taylorsville, and then also with another group called Forgiveness and Free, it's a little thing we tell forgiveness stories, and we go meet with gang dudes, and these are late Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday deals up in Morganton at Foothills.

And it's fertile ground, man, because those guys right now, there's no correction officers, nobody wants to be a CO, so the dudes only get out of their cell like an hour and a half a day just to go down to the day rooms, they don't get any rec, they don't even get to go to the chow hall. Well, you keep up the good work, Bill, and you hang tight there, so we get your address and we get that 8x10 sent out to you, and thank you for being a Truth Talk Live listener and supporting Truth Radio, we appreciate you. Well, God bless you, sir, God bless you in all you do.

Thank you, bless you as well, thank you, sir. Alright, Truth Talk Live here, we're talking about counting the cost, and perhaps you have a persecution story, how you've been persecuted, we heard a story earlier from a bucksman up in Ohio, how one of his siblings, older brother, persecuted him. You know, if they know, if people know you're a Christ follower, especially in today's world as things seem to be intensifying, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to be persecuted for your faith. Hey, another trivia question, we gave out the first 8x10 there to Bill, during his temptation in the wilderness, what Old Testament book did Jesus quote to rebuke Satan?

During his temptation in the wilderness, so the 40 days, right, he's out in the wilderness, 40 days, Satan is tempting him, and what Old Testament book did Jesus quote to rebuke Satan? I'm going to give you some choices here, okay, Isaiah, Psalms, Deuteronomy, or Exodus, 866, 348, 7884, if you've got the answer to my trivia question, Bible trivia question, or if you have a story of persecution, we'd love to hear your story, how you've been persecuted for your faith. And you know, I came across, and this is just almost not crazy to me, but you know, when it comes to sharing your faith or standing up for Jesus Christ, overseas, now I've had the privilege of traveling to over, well at this point 36 different countries.

And I can tell you, in some of those countries, some are more friendly towards Christ followers, some are less friendly, and of course as we know, in some countries, especially in Asia, and the Middle East, they're not receptive at all to Christianity, right? I mean there's heavy, heavy persecution, I mean it can cost you a lot, in fact, I came across this questionnaire from a church in South Asia, okay, are you ready for this? Alright, listen, check this out, here's a questionnaire, alright, you've got to count the cost, count the cost of serving Christ, here's the questions, are you willing to leave home and to lose the blessing of your father? Right, meaning your earthly father, you know, you may have to leave home, you may be shunned by your earthly father and by your family, Bucksman was shunned by his older brother.

Are you willing to lose your job? Think about this, like hey, here's a questionnaire before you make this decision, surrender your life to Jesus, you really need to think about these questions and see how you would answer, right? Here's another one, are you willing to go to the village and to those who persecute you, forgive them and share the love of Christ with them? How about that one, go back to the village, go back to those who persecuted you, forgive them and share the love of Christ with them. How about this question, are you willing to give an offering to the Lord, are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith? Okay, alright, a church in South Asia, there's two more, are you willing to go to prison? And then last but not least, ready for this one, if that wasn't enough, are you willing to die for Jesus? Questionnaire from a church in South Asia, here's the reality, here's the reality of what it looks like to follow Jesus in other countries around the world. You know, sometimes I say, I've been saying this more recently, we almost make it too easy here in America, right, and I'm guilty of this myself, like, you know, you give what's called an altar call, right, or an invitation, alright, everybody bow their heads and close your eyes, and hey, nobody looking around because we don't want to embarrass anybody, and look, and again, I'm as guilty as the next guy who's asked people to do that, but I almost think it's too easy in a sense. How about this, how about, okay, nobody close your eyes, everybody looking around, we're going to count the cost right now, if you really want to give your life to Jesus, we're going to count the cost right now and make it really uncomfortable, because I want you to get out of your seat and walk up here in front of everybody, staring at you, looking at you, and perhaps, just perhaps, just maybe, if we were to approach it that way, once you walk out of the sanctuary, the safety of the sanctuary, when it comes to standing up for Jesus, you might be a little more serious about it, I don't know, it's just a thought, hey, we're talking about counting the cost for serving Jesus today, you got a story of persecution, we'd love to hear it.

Welcome back to Truth Talk Live, and hey, let me mention, I want to mention a couple of our major, just major, major sponsors, advertisers, supporters, Le Bleu, Ultra Pure Bottled Water, and I will say for the record, there is a difference, if you're going to drink bottled water, there is a difference, and Mighty Muscadine, king of the super fruit, I've been sipping on a little tasty antioxidant beverage here called Vintastic, and of course, if you want to learn more about either of these products here, go to lebleu.com, or you can go to the Mighty Muscadine website, and the Mighty Muscadine, trying to find the website, I know it's here somewhere, I'll get it for you, but you can probably find it through Le Bleu as well, they're connected at the hip, but the Mighty Muscadine grape seed is filled, filled with antioxidants. So hey, Truth Talk Live, we're talking about being persecuted, counting the cost for following Christ, and I'm waiting to give away another 8x10 autographed photo as well, during his temptation in the wilderness, what Old Testament book did Jesus quote to rebuke Satan? Was it Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, or Isaiah, call 866-348-7884, that's 866-344-TRUTH, and if you got the answer to my trivia question, call on in, and we'll get you, if you got the right answer, we'll give you an 8x10 personally autographed photo, yours truly the Russian nightmare, or if you got a story of persecution, how you have been persecuted for your faith, can you think about what I just shared with you, the church in Asia, I mean the truth is, being a Christ follower will, you know what, it'll cost, really we can say it this way, making that declaration, being willing to even go through, you know, and even some of the things or anything or everything Jesus went through, because why?

Because, well it cost Jesus everything, I mean the least we could do in terms of surrender is be willing to face any persecution, right? What's your story of persecution? Call us at 866-348-7884, that's 866-344-TRUTH, or if you have an answer to my trivia question, would love to give out another free 8x10 autographed photo during his temptation to the wilderness, what Old Testament book did Jesus quote to rebuke Satan? Your choices are Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, so call us, give us the answer to the trivia question, call us with a story of persecution, you know there is a story that I recently came across, speaking of persecution, and it has to do with the country, we're talking about what it's like to live overseas and follow Christ, and there's a story about Romania, when communism was first coming to Romania, and they gathered up all of the church leaders, spiritual leaders, brought them all together, and we're going to have them one by one share on live national radio, you know just how wonderful communism was going to be for the country and the economy and everything else, and so one by one by one they came up with sharing, you know each leader, each church leader, each pastor was sharing, and about halfway through a wife, true story, a wife of a pastor leans over and says you know when it's your turn, you need to get up there and wipe the smudge off the face of Jesus and tell the truth, to which he leaned back over to her and said if I do that you may not have a husband, to which she leaned back over and said if you don't do that I will have a coward for a husband, and so you know he took up the challenge and halfway through what he was saying they cut off the live radio feed, a few days, weeks later at some point, car rolls up as he's walking outside, picks him up, takes him off to prison, and in fact spent many times, about three years in solitary, and you would think well that was the end of his ministry, but actually as the story goes, true story goes, his ministry exploded in prison and was able to lead many to Christ in prison, counting the cost. Have you counted the cost to following Christ? We sometimes I think have made it just a little bit too easy to follow Christ. It's more than just a prayer. It's more than just a prayer.

Looks like we have an answer for our trivia question. Joseph down in South Carolina. Joseph, are you there? Hey Nikita, how you doing?

I'm wonderful, Joseph. Thank you. Where abouts in South Carolina are you? The Upstate hearing, Greer. Upstate in Greer. Next to Greenville.

Yeah, right next to Greenville. Well, wonderful. I appreciate you calling in, being a listener of Truth Talk Live and a supporter of Truth Radio. You have an answer to my trivia question.

I hope so. Okay, go for it. I think it's Deuteronomy. Boom, ding, ding, ding, ding. Joseph, you are the winner. It is Deuteronomy. There we go.

It is, very good. And the story, I'll test your Bible, which book? I'll give you a hint. Which one of the four Gospels specifically? It's in several, but any guess?

Any guesses? And now you're going to embarrass me. No, I don't want to embarrass you. Look, I'm still learning the Bible myself. I just wanted to see the last guy's like, it's Proverbs chapter 9 verse 1.

I'm like, bam, wow, impressive. I don't know. All good. Book of Luke. Luke.

This particular, I mean, it's in several accounts, right, for his wilderness trip, but this particular reference was Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 12. But I appreciate you, Joseph, and story of persecution for your faith. Anybody giving you a hard time for being a Christ follower?

Well, I think the general public does. I don't have an example, but I just want to say thank you. You know, I grew up watching you guys on TV, and I know a lot of professional wrestlers have seen the light. And that's just an inspiration to me that you guys, big macho guys in the ring, the road warriors, you, Ted, you guys are just leading the way and saying, hey, it's OK to be a Christian. Thank you so much for this.

Such a blessing. Thank you, Joseph. Well, I appreciate you. I appreciate you calling in today. And if we haven't got your address already, hang tight.

We'll get that address, and we'll get that 8x10 sent out to you. Thanks for being a big supporter of Truth Radio. Thanks, Nikita. Have a good one. All right. Have a blessed day. Thank you.

All right, Joseph down in Greer, South Carolina, our second winner. Hey, let me see if I can give one more away. Let me get to another question, see if I can give one more away here before we run out of time today.

OK, here's another question. Which of the following cities is not mentioned by Paul as a city in which he had suffered? Talking about persecution, talking about somebody who suffered for Jesus Christ. You ever read his account about how many times he received 39 or 40 lashes minus one, and how many times he was shipwrecked, and had his feet beaten, and they stoned him, and good night.

He goes through this whole list of things, and at the end he goes, among other things, I'm like, oh my gosh, if that's not enough. Which of the following cities is not mentioned by Paul as a city in which he had suffered? Here's your choices. Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Tyre.

So, a little more difficult question there. Which of the following cities is not mentioned by Paul as a city in which he had suffered, where he was persecuted? Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, or Tyre, 866-348-788, truth, 3-4 truth, give us a call, want to get another 8x10 out to somebody, want to hear your story of persecution. How have you been persecuted for your faith? You know, it seems like, as I'm trying to pay attention to what's unraveling in our nation, it seems like more and more and more there is more persecution coming.

Of course, you know, it was prophesied in the Bible, it was talked about by Jesus, it was talked about by several other writers in the book. We want to hear from you, we want to hear your story of persecution for your faith, or if you have an answer to our third question here, our Bible trivia question, 866-348-7884, that's 866-344-TRUTH, we want to know, or hear, I should say, we want to hear your story. So give us a call. Story of persecution, I tell you, again, I'm traveling primarily around America, currently traveling around America, and hearing a lot of different stories from a lot of folks around America in their own cities on what kind of persecution they're facing. We want to hear from you, we want to hear your story.

Give us a call. 866-866-348-7884, Truth Talk Live, your host Nikita Koloff, we'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back, welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I found it, I found it, I found the website, MightyMuscadine.com, sipping on a great bottle of fantastic antioxidant beverage, pretty amazing beverage here.

We're talking about persecution, also through a little Bible trivia question out there. Looks like Robert down in Mint Hill, North Carolina might have an answer for me. Robert, are you there?

Yes sir, I'm here. Robert Mint Hill, North Carolina, you know my uncle Ivan used to live in Mint Hill, just for the record, you may or may not have known that Robert, but he did. Yes sir, I did, and I actually went to school with his daughter and son. Oh my gosh, you went to school with Donald, his son Donald and his daughter, huh? Yes sir, and I remember you coming into the, him driving that old Cadillac, you, Ivan, and I think it was Crusher. Yep, yep, yep. I was down and got in trouble.

Oh my gosh, I mean it was like a Land Cruiser, you know, the biggest one you could possibly Cadillac you could get back in that day, and yeah, but it was comfortable, I will say that for the three of us, that's for sure. Well appreciate, appreciate you being an old fan, and you may have an answer for my trivia question as well, huh? Yes sir, I think I do, I hope I do, anyways. Okay, what you got? I think it was the, what was the last one you said, it was Tyre. Tyre?

Tyre, yes sir. Well, ding, ding, ding, Robert, you are the winner, winner, absolutely, 8x10 autograph photo coming your way, we'll be sure if we hadn't already, we'll get your address, but yeah, the following city mentioned where Paul had not suffered, he suffered an Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, but Tyre he had not, and the reference for that, I'll put you on the spot, put the last guy on the spot, he goes, oh you're gonna embarrass me, I'm like, any idea where that was referenced, any, which book that was referenced in, just out of curiosity? No sir, I'm just now getting back into the Bible again, I've had real hard trouble this past year, I've had a mild stroke, brain tumor taken off, and I've just had it all hit me one time. Well, you just, you know, we're talking about counting the cost for, you know, in a sense suffering for Christ, and you just gave a testimony right there, Robert, overcoming, so you said stroke, and what else?

Brain tumor, brain tumor, more or less the blood, it was caught off the brain, it was a little bit bigger than a golf ball, and my left foot's still affected, I can't get the numbness out, so. Well, in Jesus' name, we're gonna pray just for the divine touch of God on your life, Robert, and bring some healing to that body of yours, okay? Thank you sir.

And let me just encourage you with this, listen, I'm still, I read the Bible, I don't know it all, don't pretend to know it all, and still learning myself, but 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 11, is where the reference comes from for the Bible trivia question, and Robert, appreciate you, thank you for calling in to Truth Talk Live today, and being a supporter of Truth Radio, we appreciate you. Thank you, like you said, I've watched you so much, and watched Ivan, road wars from WCW to NWA, all the way up. Way back when to all the way up, that's amazing. So you're an old school fan.

Old school. I remember when the Starrcade was at the Memorial Stadium right beside CPCC in Charlotte. Man, you know that was my first title shot against the nature boy Ric Flair, in that outdoor stadium there in Charlotte as well, so.

Right, and I remember the road warriors had a scaffold match, which they were masters at. Yeah, better them than me, just for the record, I'm like, you can't pay me enough to crawl up on top of that scaffold, so. Well you hang tight here, Robert, I appreciate you, Mint Hill, North Carolina, calling in, God bless you, my brother, and I mean it, I'm serious, when I say, praying in Jesus' name, that, you know, the numbness, and from the tumor, and the stroke, God's gonna bring restoration to you. You received that today, okay Robert? Thank you, sir, thank you, and bless you for what you do, and everything you have done for everybody. Thank you, Robert.

Alright, God bless you. Alright, True Talk Live here, we're talking about persecution, and really counting the cost for serving Christ, and you know, Robert just really gave an example, now he may not be persecuted from a sibling like we heard earlier today, but you know, there is an enemy of our soul, Bible says he comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and you know, sometimes, you know, our health, our physical bodies can suffer, and sometimes, you know, it can be, sometimes it can be just poor choices on our part, right, that we're not taking care of these temples, as the Bible calls it, you know, once we give our life to Christ, we become a temple. God says, do you not know that you are the temple, the Holy Spirit is housed in you, and then there's a mandate for you and I to take care of our bodies, you know, Satan's out in the wilderness tempting Jesus, and trying to get him to turn a stone into bread, because he knows he's hungry, you know, trying to encourage him to, you know, jump, jump off, and test gravity, right, and Satan's quoting scriptures.

Now, Robert may not know the Bible that well, I don't know the Bible that well, but that's why, you know what, that's why it's so important to read the Bible every day, like for real, like, I don't care if it's just one scripture, you know, it could be an entire passage, you know, it could be, you know, today's what, May 9th, it could be chapter 9 of Proverbs, you read chapter 9 today, and that's, you don't have to worry about trying to understand it all, it may just be one scripture that God highlights, you know, in that entire chapter that you meditate on for the day, you know, maybe you read a Psalm before you go to bed, I wonder if you'd sleep better, if before you went to bed the last thing you did was read a Psalm, I wonder if you'd sleep more peaceful, I wonder if you'd have more vivid dreams that God might give you if you read a Psalm before bed, if you read a chapter of Proverbs when you wake up. We're talking about the count, counting the cost for serving Christ, you know, there's a book, I've never read it, I've heard a lot about it, I know different excerpts from it called John Fox's Book of Martyrs, and you want to talk about those who counted the cost for serving Christ and some persecution they faced, great resource for you there, John Fox's Book of Martyrs. You know, in the old, if you want to go back to, way, way back, let's go back to the first century, there's a handful of guys, I think we might call them the original apostles, those that Jesus was mentoring, and guys like Peter and Andrew and Thomas and Philip, Matthew, right, the tax collector, James, Simon the Zealot, Matthias, right, who was chosen to replace Judith, Judas, John. You know, if you've done any homework at all and you want to see what it means to count the cost for following Christ, go look at those, go all the way back, just start with those guys, and look at what kind of death they suffered for taking a stand for Jesus. I mean, Peter, quick example, Peter said, I'm not even worthy to be crucified right side up, crucify me upside down.

Get a visual of that. Now, we're all familiar with Jesus being nailed to the cross, right, spikes driven through his hands, his feet, spear through his side, the shedding of blood for the remission of sin, right, the shedding of blood, crown of thorns. Peter says, man, I'm not even worthy to be crucified right side up like my Lord, my Master, my Savior, crucify me upside down, right, at his request. And you look at some of the others, and I'll leave that as some of your homework to see how some of them were martyred. How about the pastor in Romania? How about the wife?

If you don't go up and tell the truth, then I'll have a coward as a husband. You know, you go read the book of Revelation, I think chapter 21, I think verse 8, where it talks about the list of those who will be thrown into the lake of fire. Cowards are the very first one on the list. Interesting, huh? Cowards.

Very first one on the list. And then the last one on the list, it says all liars. All liars. Wow. Like, not some liars, but all liars. And then there's a list of others in between there. But how about that challenge?

If you don't go up and speak the truth, I'll have a coward for a husband. And, you know, ministry explodes in prison. You know, not unlike the Apostle Paul, right? How much time did he spend in prison? Where did he write many of, I mean, he became a spiritual heavyweight, right? He's out persecuting Christ's followers, followers of the way. And then the next thing you know, he has an encounter on the road to Damascus. As you know the story, he's blinded for three days, receives his sight back, spends, you know, X amount of years being schooled, if you will, discipled, if you will, mentored, if you will, and then sets out to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

And again, go look at that list sometime of how he suffered, how he counted the cost for serving Christ and the way he suffered. Appreciate all you calling in today, sharing some of your stories. Those who won the autographs, the 8x10s, we'll be sure to get those out to you. Appreciate you dialing in. Being such a faithful follower of Truth Radio, go check out The Man Up Show sometime. The Man Up Show airs on Saturday on Truth Radio on the podcast platform. Go check out Q&A with Koloff Questions and Answers. Until next time, it's been a joy, a pleasure, an honor, a privilege to be with you. God bless you, have a great day.