Episode 6

Blessed are the Persecuted (North OC)

We conclude "The Upside-down Blessings" series with the most upside-down blessing of persecution. How can it be a blessing to be persecuted. Eric Ennis helps understand Jesus' radical teaching.

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OC Church of Christ

Transcript
Speaker:

Upside Down Blessing.

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Uh, we are wrapping up today our last of

our series of the Upside Down Blessings.

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And if you weren't here for

the last several weeks, what

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are the Upside Down Blessings?

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We're actually talking

about the Beatitudes.

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Probably the most famous

sermon ever given by Jesus.

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What was that sermon?

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It was this.

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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

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Blessed are the meek, for

they will inherit the earth.

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Blessed are those who hunger and

thirst for righteousness, for they

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will be shown, for they will be filled.

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Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

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Blessed are the pure in

heart, for they will see God.

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Blessed are the peacemakers, for

they will be called children of God.

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All of this we've been covering.

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And you see this, and it's like,

that's an amazing life to live.

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And what it's actually defining, for

us, is our character and actions.

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The blessings that come from

having a character and living

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a life that demonstrates this.

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But this is not where the Beatitudes end.

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Because the next part of the blessing,

of the upside down blessing, deals with

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the blessing that will come from the

world's response from living like this.

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You think, well what's going to be the

world's response for living this way?

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Well, It's this.

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Blessed are those who are persecuted

because of righteousness, for

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theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are you when people insult

you, persecute you, and falsely say all

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kinds of evil against you because of me.

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Rejoice and be glad, because great

is your reward in heaven, for in

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the same way they persecuted the

prophets who were before you.

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If you live this way, God says,

or Jesus says, you're blessed.

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The upside down blessing.

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That doesn't make sense.

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Because when I read those qualities,

a peacemaker, someone who's, who's in

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mourning, someone who's meek, I don't

think, yeah, I want to get that guy.

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That's the guy I want to go after.

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That's the person I want to persecute.

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But that's what the world will do.

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And not only will they do

it, they've done it before.

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To the prophets of old.

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So let's dive into this.

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Blessed are the persecuted because of

righteousness for the kingdom of heaven.

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Now, we're using a word here that is

kind of a churchy word, persecuted.

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And so I wanted to find it for us.

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But because it's a churchy word

and people don't often times use it

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outside of a church context, I think

it's sometimes helpful for a word

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that we're familiar with but we don't

often times know the full definition.

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to kind of unpack it a

little bit and here's why.

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I want to first go with what it's not.

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Because sometimes we can have the

feeling, like, I know what that word

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means, so let me go with what it's not.

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And I think this will help us

to better align ourselves with

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what persecution really is.

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So, what persecution is not?

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It is not secularization.

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It is not the removal of religious values,

institutions, ideology from society.

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Now, it can feel oppressive sometimes when

a society becomes more secularized, but

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that doesn't mean we're being persecuted.

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Now, there are some groups who will use

secularization to persecute, but that

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doesn't mean it's directly persecution.

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So, I don't want you to get offended

this Christmas when someone says,

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Happy Holidays, and you're like, It's

Merry Christmas, I'm being persecuted.

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No, that's not persecution.

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Persecution is not also, in that vein,

aligning ourselves with some kind

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of political ideology inexplicably.

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And we say, because of this

political ideology, if you attack

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my political ideology, you're

persecuting me for my faith.

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No.

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They're not persecuting

you for your faith.

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They probably don't like your political

ideology, but that's not what persecution

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here that Jesus is talking about.

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And in that vein, persecution

is not when you browbeat.

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and humiliate and, and share your

faith in a way that spites people.

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That's also, and their response

to that is also not persecution.

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The Bible says speak the love, speak

truth in love, not speak truth in spite.

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So if, if your response to people

and sharing your faith is over

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the top and hurtful, and, and

purposely hurtful, in a way that's

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not loving, well, their response

may not necessarily be persecution.

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It's also, not if someone

just unfollows you.

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Because you're kind of

being weird on social media.

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That's also not persecution.

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I want to make sure that's clear.

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Stop being weird on social media.

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If the world calls out you're

hypocrite, that's not persecution.

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Stop being a hypocrite.

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They're just calling you out.

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That just means that I need to

take a better look at myself and

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my beliefs and go, Man, maybe I

need to think of some things and

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figure out some areas and repent.

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And in that regard, persecution is

not when a brother or sister helps

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correct you or even rebukes you in love

to help draw you back in your faith.

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They're doing so out of love.

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That's helpful.

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In fact, you should thank them.

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Because they are trying in the best

form they can to help you better

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align yourself with God's Word.

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And finally, persecution is

not just general suffering.

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If you're going through a tough season

in your life, I understand that.

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But that doesn't mean

you're being persecuted.

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It just means that you're

going through a tough season.

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So, this is what persecution is not.

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So then, what is persecution?

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In the Greek, it actually used

the word like chase or pursue.

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It's the idea of pursuing somebody

with repeated acts of hostility.

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That's what persecution is.

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So Jesus outlined some of them.

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Verbal threats and slander.

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That's persecution.

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Oppression for the sake of Christ.

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Persecution.

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If you're rejected or ostracized

because of your faith.

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Persecution.

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If you are suffering physical

harm, even unto death.

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That's persecution.

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But it has to be for the sake of Christ.

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In 1 Peter 4 it talks about if

you're persecuted because you're a

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thief, a murderer, or even just a

meddler, that's not real persecution.

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It's gotta be for the sake of Christ.

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Now this is hard to hear.

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And this last weekend, I spent a

lot of time, uh, almost 3 4 hours

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just reading about persecution.

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From the past, our old

prophets, even to today.

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And this was a heavy thing

for me, to be honest.

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It really, you know, my wife looked

at me and was like, Man, you feel sad?

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I'm like, I feel sad, reading

about some of this stuff.

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Because it's hard to hear.

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But it was also really enlightening.

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Let me give you a

different perspective here.

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I was baptized in 1994.

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That's when I became a Christian.

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And there's an organization

called Open Doors.

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And Open Doors tracks countries based

upon the level of persecution for

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people who profess the name of the Lord.

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of our Jesus.

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That's who they follow.

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Is if you're in an area where you live

in a country where you're professing

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to believe in Jesus, they track is

you know, is it a high, very high,

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or extreme levels of persecution.

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Now I also know looking in this room

not all of us have geography majors so

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I just want to remind us where we are.

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Just in case.

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I know, I'm here for

you, I understand this.

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But notice in 1994 when I was baptized,

all the persecution was over there.

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That's where I was.

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Far removed from where I'm at.

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And there's 40 nations that were

on this list in Open Doors in:

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In 2023 it's now 76 nations.

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Almost doubled since I became a Christian.

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And notice, it's starting

to come to our shores.

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It's coming.

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It's more than doubled in the

time I've been a Christian.

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Where will it be in another 30 years?

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Persecution will come.

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And when I say persecution,

what am I meaning?

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492 people every month are

killed for their belief in Jesus.

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Every month in the world.

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214 churches are burned or destroyed

every month around the world.

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And 772 forms of violence

are committed against people.

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who profess to be believers around

the world, and that includes raped,

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forced marriages, acid thrown on their

face, tortured, and abused every month.

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And that's what I spent a reading about.

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And I was like, man, that is heavy.

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That is heavy on a Sunday.

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And yet, this is our reality.

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This is the reality of

Christians all over the world.

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It may not feel like this for

us here in a public school.

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But around the world, this is unique.

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This is what it looks

like around the world.

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This is a church that's been bombed.

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These are the deaths because of it.

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These are the protests happening around

the world where people have to walk

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around with signs saying Stop Killing Us.

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Why?

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Because they're being killed.

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Today.

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In fact, there are more people dying

for the profession of faith today

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than at any time in our human history.

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Today.

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It's just happening someplace else.

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And so we don't always perceive it.

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We don't always think about it.

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Because we're far removed

from this type of persecution.

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That doesn't mean we don't

suffer our own persecution.

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But this is hard for us to grasp.

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But this is real.

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And it's today, and it's

happening someplace.

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Paul will say to this in his

letter to Timothy, indeed all who

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desire to live a godly life in

Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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All, every one of us who desires to

live this life will be persecuted.

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Now why is Paul saying this?

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Paul's saying this for a

few reasons, I believe.

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One, Paul was a Pharisee

amongst Pharisees.

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He was someone who knew Biblical history.

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And if you go back in Biblical history,

it's been this way since the beginning.

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In the very beginning,

Adam and Eve had two sons.

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Cain and Abel.

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Both sacrificed to God, except

Abel's sacrifice was more righteous.

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Because it was the first fruits.

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And that's all he did.

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He just gave more out of a heart

that just said, I just want to,

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I just want to give to you God.

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And the response of Cain

was to kill his own brother.

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Persecution has been with us since

the beginning for people who want

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to follow Christ, who want to devote

their lives to Christ, who wanted

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to give their everything to God.

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It's been this way since the beginning.

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And the other reason why I think

Paul is so confident when he says

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all will suffer persecution because

he also knows the words of Jesus.

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And Jesus says this in

John 15 verse 18 to 20.

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If the world hates you, keep

in mind that it hated me first.

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If you belong to the world,

it will love you as its own.

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As it is, you do not belong to the world,

but I have chosen you out of the world.

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That is why the world hates you.

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Remember what I told you, a servant

is not greater than his master.

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If they persecute me, They

will persecute you also.

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Paul knew Jesus words.

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If they persecuted me, we follow a Lord

in Christ who went to the cross and he

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tells us to take up our cross daily.

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Be willing to be persecuted.

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He knew Jesus words.

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And why are we being persecuted?

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For living this way.

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As a Christian, if we want to be poor

in spirit, meek, hunger and thirst

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for righteousness, merciful, we

will be persecuted, living this way.

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And how do I know this?

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Because this describes Jesus.

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Poor in spirit, was anyone

more humble than Jesus to God?

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Morning, Isaiah responds to the Messiah,

he says, he will be a man of sorrows.

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Certainly, he was meek in a controlled,

submissive way, and certainly

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in submission to us and to God.

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He hungered and thirsted

for righteousness.

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He was merciful, pure, and was there any

more of a sight of a peacemaker than one

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who dies for us to give us peace with God?

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Jesus lived this out, and

the world hated him for it.

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And I was thinking, when I

look at these qualities, I

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think, why does the world hate?

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This.

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So much.

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Why?

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I had to go back to

God's Word and to Jesus.

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Everyone who does evil hates the

light and will not come into light

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for fear their deeds will be exposed.

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When you live a life that is

righteous, that emulates the qualities

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of Jesus, you expose the world.

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That's what a righteous life does.

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Exposes the world.

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If you're merciful, you expose

the world's malevolence.

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If you demonstrate chastity,

you show the world's immorality.

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If you're trying to live a life

that says, you know what, I'm going

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to wait till marriage to have sex.

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Because I want to be

chaste, I want to be pure.

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See what the world will say about that.

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If you want to show diligence in life,

you'll expose the world's laziness.

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If you are brave for God.

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If you show the world's caroling ness.

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If you demonstrate self control,

you show its self indulgence.

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And if you are humble, you

show the world's pride.

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You expose it.

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And the world hates to be exposed.

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Jesus goes on in Luke to kind of further

explain this ideology, and I'll, I'll

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I'll unpack this for you a little bit.

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It says no one can serve two masters.

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Either you'll hate the one and love

the others, or you'll be devoted

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to one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve both God and money.

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The Pharisees who loved money heard

all this and were sneering at Jesus.

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Notice, instantly, the

persecution's coming.

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They're sneering at

Jesus for this statement.

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Jesus says to them, You are the ones

who justify yourselves in the eyes

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of others, but God knows your heart.

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What people value highly is

detestable in God's sight.

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In order to justify ourselves in

the world, they will persecute you.

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Because if you expose their self

indulgence, if you expose their

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cowardliness, if you expose their pride,

just by living a godly life, to justify

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themselves, they will persecute you.

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How do I know this?

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Because they persecuted Jesus for it.

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Just for living the life.

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Which means we cannot be people who hide.

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We cannot put our light under the bushel.

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We can't do it.

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We have to be willing to expose the world.

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We have to be willing to bring the light.

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And that just means living the life.

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We have to be willing to.

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Because I know the temptation,

because I feel it too.

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The last thing I want

is people to hate me.

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I don't want it.

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I really don't.

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And I know when people say stuff to

me, there's times where I feel like

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I want to give an answer that will

get me out of the situation, that

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they'll think more highly of me than

actually to speak the truth and love.

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We cannot hide our lights.

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Because if we do, God says, I'll raise

up rocks and stones to preach for

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me if you're going to cast me aside.

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Through many tribulations, We

must enter the kingdom of God.

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If you want to enter the kingdom of God,

it will be through many tribulations.

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It's a promise of God.

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We love promises of God.

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There's books about promises of God.

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Here's one.

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It's funny how you never see

this one in any of the other

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promises books in the Bible.

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You know, when people write these promises

of God, you're going to be persecuted.

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Promise one, mm, I don't like that one.

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Let me get a different promise of God.

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I don't like this promise.

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But it'll be through many tribulations

we'll enter the God's kingdom.

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So what's our reply?

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What is our response to all of this?

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Here on this Sunday morning.

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What should we do with this?

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Blessed are those who are persecuted

because of righteousness, for

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theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who people insult you

and persecute you and falsely say all

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kinds of evil against you because of me.

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Rejoice!

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And be glad!

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I don't hear a lot of rejoicing me laddie.

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I know, exactly.

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It doesn't even feel like

those words should be there.

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Feels like that's a mistype.

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I knew it.

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Someone messed this up.

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No, we're to rejoice and be glad.

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Why?

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Because great is your reward in heaven.

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The upside down blessing.

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Because great is your reward in heaven.

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Now, I'm going to be honest.

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I don't even know what that means.

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I don't.

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But I know what Peter says.

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Dear friends, do not be surprised

at the fiery ordeal that has come on

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you to test you, as though something

strange were happening to you.

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But rejoice in as much as you

participate in the sufferings of

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Christ, so that you may be overjoyed

when his glory is revealed.

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If you are insulted because of the name

of Christ, you are blessed, for the

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spirit of glory of God rests on you.

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God's Spirit.

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will be with you when you are persecuted.

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It will rest upon you.

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Rejoice and be glad because as

we glory in the suffering that

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suffering produces endurance and

that endurance builds character

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and that character produces hope.

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It's amazing how we want to grow in our

character but we don't want to suffer.

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We want to grow in more hope

but we don't want to suffer.

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And yet suffering produces this.

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That's why we glory in it.

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We want to skip.

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But if you want to develop a faith

that works when life doesn't,

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you must glory in the suffering.

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Because that will increase your faith.

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It will strengthen who you are.

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There's also something I

learned recently in this.

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When I looked at this, rejoice

and be glad because this, because

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great is your reward in heaven.

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I thought heaven was the reward.

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But great is your reward in heaven.

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That means there's an

extra reward in heaven.

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I don't even know what that means.

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In Greek, this is the only time

this is mentioned, by the way.

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In the New Testament, this is

the only time this phrase is

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mentioned in the New Testament.

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And again, I looked at this and

I'm like, what's the extra reward?

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Do I get, like, an extra house?

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Like, what does it mean?

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Is there, like, my own golf course?

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Like, what does it mean?

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Do I have to use the public

golf course or do I get my own?

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You know, what does this mean?

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And again, I don't know.

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But I know the reward

that we get in heaven.

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Or I know the reward we get here.

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And that's this reward.

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Philippians 3, 10 and 11.

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This is what Paul says.

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Paul says this.

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I want to know Christ.

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Yes, to know the power

of His resurrection.

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It's amazing how much we love to talk

about the power of His resurrection.

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How amazing that is for our lives.

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I love the power of His resurrection.

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Oh, there's an and there.

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Dang it.

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Yes, to know the power of His resurrection

and participation in His sufferings.

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Becoming like Him in His death,

so somehow attaining to the

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resurrection from the dead.

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To know Christ, if you really want

to know Christ, you've got to know

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the power of his resurrection and

the participation in his sufferings.

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This past summer, uh, I was in Rome.

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And being in Rome, you know, it sparked

me to want to study out Paul a bit more.

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And if you study Paul's life, you see that

this is not a theologian who's talking

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about persecution from the abstract.

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He's someone who lived it.

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He was imprisoned.

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He was flogged for his faith.

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Forty lashes minus one.

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He suffered that five different times.

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He was beat with rods three times.

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He was stoned.

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He was shipwrecked three different times.

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He faced hardship for Christ.

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Many times.

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So when he's saying I want to know the

participation of sufferings, he lived it.

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And he lived it unto death.

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When my wife and I were in Rome,

we were at the very spot that

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they believe Paul was, was killed.

411

:

And I stood there, and I prayed.

412

:

Because I thought, would I

be willing to be here too?

413

:

Is this where I want my life to end up?

414

:

And then I had to think, how much

do I really want to know Christ?

415

:

Because this is why Paul was

so willing to walk to the end.

416

:

For to me, to live is

Christ, and to die is gain.

417

:

And I walked through the catacombs

in Rome, where they put the martyrs.

418

:

And I was asking about, you know, do

they come, do they have church down

419

:

here, do they have celebrations?

420

:

And they said yes, they would always

come and celebrate the day of the death.

421

:

Because that's what they

called their birthday.

422

:

That was the birthday they celebrated.

423

:

The day they died and

were united with Christ.

424

:

That was the birthday

they were so hopeful for.

425

:

To be born anew, to know the power

of the resurrection, and to receive

426

:

that great reward that was promised.

427

:

For in the same way they persecuted

the prophets who were before

428

:

you, this is not new information.

429

:

This has been going on

since the beginning.

430

:

And if you read about the

prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,

431

:

Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Amos, what

you'll read about is persecution.

432

:

And many of them also died.

433

:

And if you want to read about the

Apostles life, what you'll read about?

434

:

Persecution.

435

:

And 11 out of 12 of them were

also killed for their faith.

436

:

Wow, this is a cheery Sunday morning.

437

:

And yet we're to listen, read all

this, and rejoice and be glad.

438

:

Because it's a promise that

great will be our reward.

439

:

Hebrews 11, 35 38.

440

:

There were others who were

tortured, refusing to be released.

441

:

And it's amazing that the

Bible just said others.

442

:

Who refused to be released, so they

might gain an even better resurrection.

443

:

Again, I don't know what that means.

444

:

How do you get a better resurrection?

445

:

Is there more lights?

446

:

I don't know.

447

:

Ears and flogging and even

chains and imprisonment.

448

:

They were put to death by stoning.

449

:

They were sawed in two.

450

:

They were killed by the sword.

451

:

They went about sheepskins and goatskins,

destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.

452

:

The world was not worthy of them.

453

:

How amazing would that be?

454

:

We oftentimes think when we die,

we want to see Jesus and Him to go,

455

:

well done, good and faithful servant.

456

:

How amazing would it be to see God

at the end of our life and him to

457

:

say the world was not worthy of you.

458

:

I'm glad you're home.

459

:

We are here such a short

time, and we're there forever.

460

:

This should motivate us.

461

:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot

keep to gain what he cannot lose.

462

:

Jim Elliott, another guy

who died for his faith.

463

:

I'll close out with a story from

Daniel, from the Old Testament.

464

:

Daniel chapter 3, three guys,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

465

:

Three Jewish people living in Babylon.

466

:

And King Nebuchadnezzar was there,

he oversaw it, and he said, No,

467

:

we're gonna build a monument to me,

and I want everyone to worship me.

468

:

And then, during that time, these three

guys said, Nope, we're not gonna do that.

469

:

We're not gonna, we're not gonna, we're

not gonna sacrifice our God for this idol.

470

:

We're not gonna give it up.

471

:

And King Nebuchadnezzar pulls him

aside so angry at them that he

472

:

throws them in a fire, bound to die.

473

:

And the fire was so hot that the guards

who put them in the fire, they died

474

:

just being on the outside of the flames.

475

:

And then King Nebuchadnezzar

looked inside at those three

476

:

men and says, Look what I see.

477

:

There were three men thrown in

the fire, bound and chained up.

478

:

And now they're free and walking about.

479

:

And there looks to be a fourth with them

that looks like the son of the gods.

480

:

And he pulls them out.

481

:

And from their response he says,

You, servants of the Most High God.

482

:

The king went from seeing himself as God

to recognizing they served the true God.

483

:

But why do you see that?

484

:

Because they were willing

to walk in the fire.

485

:

God never said He would not

put us through the fire.

486

:

What He said was He'd

be with us through it.

487

:

He's gone before us and

He'll be with us now.

488

:

So as we get ready for communion I want

you to consider this for the joy set

489

:

before Him, the joy Set before him.

490

:

This was, he was not

a victim of the cross.

491

:

Just as a fireman's not a victim when

he goes into the fire to save lives.

492

:

They're not victims.

493

:

Jesus was never a victim.

494

:

We are not victims.

495

:

For the joy set before us, he endured

the cross, scorning its shame.

496

:

Blessed are those who are

persecuted because of righteousness.

497

:

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

498

:

Let's pray.

499

:

Fathers, we come before you now.

500

:

And we think about what the death

and resurrection of that, of Jesus

501

:

means to us in our lives right now.

502

:

Father, we are grateful for

the power of the resurrection.

503

:

We are grateful to be called

children of the Most High God.

504

:

But we're also grateful that we

get to know Christ through the

505

:

participation of the sufferings.

506

:

And Father, I pray that we

will rejoice and be glad as the

507

:

persecution comes in our lives.

508

:

Whether it's spoken, if the tongue

Or whether it's physical by the hand.

509

:

We will gladly endure.

510

:

Knowing that endurance will produce

character and that character hope.

511

:

And that hope is that

great reward in heaven.

512

:

That we can't even fathom right now.

513

:

But we know it's true and

exists because your son said so.

514

:

So as we take the implements

of this communion.

515

:

The bread that represents his

body that was crushed and died.

516

:

And the blood that was spilt.

517

:

We know that it's because

of this and this suffering.

518

:

That the power of resurrection came.

519

:

And as we take it, we know that

we, too, will also be, uh, be

520

:

renewed and resurrected as well.

521

:

We pray this in your Son's name.

522

:

Thank you, God.

523

:

Amen.

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