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

Upside Down Blessing.

2

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

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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.

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And I stood there, and I prayed.

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Because I thought, would I

be willing to be here too?

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Is this where I want my life to end up?

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And then I had to think, how much

do I really want to know Christ?

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Because this is why Paul was

so willing to walk to the end.

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For to me, to live is

Christ, and to die is gain.

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And I walked through the catacombs

in Rome, where they put the martyrs.

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And I was asking about, you know, do

they come, do they have church down

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here, do they have celebrations?

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And they said yes, they would always

come and celebrate the day of the death.

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Because that's what they

called their birthday.

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That was the birthday they celebrated.

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The day they died and

were united with Christ.

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That was the birthday

they were so hopeful for.

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To be born anew, to know the power

of the resurrection, and to receive

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that great reward that was promised.

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For in the same way they persecuted

the prophets who were before

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you, this is not new information.

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This has been going on

since the beginning.

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And if you read about the

prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,

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Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Amos, what

you'll read about is persecution.

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And many of them also died.

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And if you want to read about the

Apostles life, what you'll read about?

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Persecution.

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And 11 out of 12 of them were

also killed for their faith.

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Wow, this is a cheery Sunday morning.

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And yet we're to listen, read all

this, and rejoice and be glad.

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Because it's a promise that

great will be our reward.

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Hebrews 11, 35 38.

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There were others who were

tortured, refusing to be released.

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And it's amazing that the

Bible just said others.

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Who refused to be released, so they

might gain an even better resurrection.

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Again, I don't know what that means.

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How do you get a better resurrection?

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Is there more lights?

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I don't know.

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Ears and flogging and even

chains and imprisonment.

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They were put to death by stoning.

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They were sawed in two.

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They were killed by the sword.

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They went about sheepskins and goatskins,

destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.

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The world was not worthy of them.

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How amazing would that be?

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We oftentimes think when we die,

we want to see Jesus and Him to go,

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well done, good and faithful servant.

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How amazing would it be to see God

at the end of our life and him to

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say the world was not worthy of you.

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I'm glad you're home.

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We are here such a short

time, and we're there forever.

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This should motivate us.

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He is no fool who gives what he cannot

keep to gain what he cannot lose.

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Jim Elliott, another guy

who died for his faith.

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I'll close out with a story from

Daniel, from the Old Testament.

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Daniel chapter 3, three guys,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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Three Jewish people living in Babylon.

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And King Nebuchadnezzar was there,

he oversaw it, and he said, No,

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we're gonna build a monument to me,

and I want everyone to worship me.

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And then, during that time, these three

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

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

not gonna sacrifice our God for this idol.

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We're not gonna give it up.

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And King Nebuchadnezzar pulls him

aside so angry at them that he

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throws them in a fire, bound to die.

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And the fire was so hot that the guards

who put them in the fire, they died

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just being on the outside of the flames.

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And then King Nebuchadnezzar

looked inside at those three

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men and says, Look what I see.

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There were three men thrown in

the fire, bound and chained up.

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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.