Jesus' Manual on Persecution Part I Matthew 10:16-25

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On Wednesday nights, we have started a Bible study on church history. We are taking a look at one person from history who has been influential, who we can learn from.
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And one thing you learn quickly is the severe persecution of the early church.
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A week ago, we saw this with the twelve disciples. Ten were martyred, one was exiled, and one betrayed
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Jesus. The difficult experience continued for the men right after these disciples.
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Polycarp, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr, who is appropriately named, were martyred for their faith in Christ.
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Irenaeus, who came after them, took over as pastor for a man who was martyred. At this time in church history, the
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Roman Empire was hostile toward Christianity. The Romans believed that there was no king but Caesar, and there was no room to claim there was one
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God, as the Romans believed in many gods. What they believed is that they needed to honor these gods for their life to go well.
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But Christians presented a problem. The Christians called all of these gods false.
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This was problematic for the Romans because they believed that if their citizens did not pay allegiance to the gods, they would have bad weather, famine would come, they would lose wars, they would lose territory, and all kinds of disaster would come upon them.
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The early Christians were sometimes blamed for these difficulties and calamities because they defied the king by not giving him the highest allegiance, but they instead gave the highest honor to their king,
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Christ, and they defied the nation by not submitting to their gods, but only to the one true
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God. So the solution for the secular Roman leadership was easy.
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Let's get rid of the problem. Up until the time Christianity was legalized by Constantine at the
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Edict of Milan in 313 AD, there were several Roman emperors who had no problem sending
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Christians to their death. Two of the worst were Nero and Trajan.
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This would be the climate that his disciples would live in. During Jesus' ministry, he warned his disciples and he warned all future disciples that you will experience opposition from the world.
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The same world that opposed Jesus, the same world that crucified
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Jesus, is the same world that would oppose his followers, a reality that Jesus did not sugarcoat.
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When Jesus presented what it means to be a disciple, he didn't say, I'm going to make it sound good and then later on, once they're in, they're going to find out how difficult it is.
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No, he said right from the outset, this is what you are going to face. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see
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Jesus speak very frankly about the opposition that all genuine
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Christians should expect in this world. So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 10.
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Our text is verses 16 through 25. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 969.
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This sermon is titled, Jesus' Manual on Persecution, and this sermon will take two
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Sundays to get through. So let's begin by reading the whole text here, verses 16 through 25.
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These are the words of the Lord Jesus.
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Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
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So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the
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Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
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For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death and the father, his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.
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And you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.
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For truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the
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Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master.
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It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house
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Belzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?
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This is what the sermon is calling us to do. Prepare yourself for inevitable mistreatment from the world.
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Prepare yourself for inevitable mistreatment from the world.
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Now, before we jump into our text, let me show you where we were one week ago. We looked at the passage where Jesus called his disciples and then gave them instructions.
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That sermon called each of us to live knowing that Jesus calls you on the greatest mission.
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We saw four realities in that text. The first is that you are to follow in the footsteps of the triumphant.
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The second is that you minister in God's power. The third is that you are not to value abundance in this life.
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And the fourth is that you are to prioritize the message to the receptive, those who are willing and ready to hear the gospel.
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We must always remember that the call to follow Jesus is the greatest call there is, and we need to be motivated to live in light of that.
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Now, this leads us back to our text this morning, the text that we've already read. As we saw,
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Jesus gives this serious prediction of the troubles that his disciples and all future disciples will face.
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Out of the text we just read, we are going to see seven instructions that Jesus gives to prepare us for persecution.
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This is why I titled this Jesus Manual on Persecution, on preparedness to face opposition.
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So here are the seven instructions. We're going to look at three today, and we're going to look at four next
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Sunday. Here's the first instruction. You are living among hostile people.
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You are living among hostile people. Let me read this in verses 16a, 17 and 18a, and then verse 21.
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He says, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
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And then verse 17, beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake.
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And then in verses 21 and 22, brother will deliver over brother to death and the father his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death and you will be hated by all for my namesake.
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Wow, we either can call Jesus an alarmist or this is going to be trouble and we know he's not an alarmist.
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Jesus describes the world you are going out into as wolves, and he describes his people as sheep.
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Earlier in Matthew 715, Jesus described false prophets and false teachers as wolves.
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They prey on people for their own gain. And in this text, it is extended to any unbeliever, a certain kind of unbeliever.
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There are exceptions. Sometimes you meet someone and they're, you know what, this person is pretty friendly to Christians. There are exceptions, but largely speaking, unbelievers will be hostile toward Christians and the
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Christian message. And in this passage here, he's talking mostly about those who are in authority.
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Those who have the power to deliver a sentence that will harm you. Now we know a little bit about wolves in this area.
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In fact, Derek was telling me that there's a pack up between Luck and Frederick.
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Mark and I, we went ice fishing maybe a month ago and we were driving up by Sconewood and we think we saw a wolf.
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It was either a wolf or a coyote. We saw a deer that knew the wolf was there and was hiding.
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So they are around this area. Maybe you've seen one recently. No animal or human desires to cross a wolf or a wolf pack in the wild.
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They are ferocious and dangerous and they'll do you harm if you cross them at the wrong time.
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What Jesus is telling us here is about the danger of people and he compares them to wolves.
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We might think that the only dangerous people are those criminals in the world who do bad things and they're put away, they're put in jail.
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But Jesus is describing the world's general opposition to believers.
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The world opposes the ones who pursue righteousness. The world opposes the ones who are doing what they're supposed to be doing according to their
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Creator. We like to think of people in the best light. What we need to understand is that the
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Bible accurately describes the world as hostile toward Christians.
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For most of our nation's history, this was very difficult to understand. You'd read passages like these and it would seem so foreign.
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The country we lived in was Christianized. This was a very friendly place for Christians.
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But in many places, it is not this way anymore. Now we live in a rural, more conservative area where you don't see this quite as much.
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In fact, I write in the paper every month, the leader paper, and I can say whatever
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I want. It's nice and that's the America of old. So we still have that here.
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Two of my sermons go on the radio every month and it's remarkable because I can say whatever I want without anything being filtered.
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I was talking to one pastor who also has a couple of sermons on the same radio station and he said, we can say more on a secular radio station than some pastors can say on Christian stations, which says something about the state of Christianity in America.
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That's true. It's really remarkable. So there are some blessings that are still there.
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But this isn't the way everywhere. And as we live in Polk County, Wisconsin, we must understand that we may not be killed for our faith in Jesus, but from what we see happening in America, it will be more difficult even in a place like Polk County.
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Some of you are already experiencing this in some way. The more secular place you are in, the more you will experience this.
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You will get into trouble for doing the very thing that Jesus tells you to do. In verse 18, what
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Jesus tells the disciples is that they will stand before governing authorities and he describes physical affliction for them.
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They will be dragged in front of them and flogged by them. Now here's the sobering part of this passage.
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It may be that you have strangers who tell on you to get you into trouble.
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They're willing to tattle on you in order to supposedly work on behalf of the state.
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This happens. But what Jesus says is that one's faith in Christ is going to divide families.
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Some hostile family members will be willing to throw you to the wolves. As persecution increases, people will pay allegiance to the government over family for the sake of self -survival.
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As verse 21 says, brother will deliver brother over to death and the father his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.
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Wow. Now, this sounds extreme.
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But do we see maybe on a smaller scale this happening in America? There are whole families that aren't talking to each other because of the last year, right?
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Differences of opinions on different matters. There have been children who have disowned their parents, aligning themselves with secularism rather than how their parents raised them.
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I have seen division in my own extended family. I've seen division with people who used to be in my youth group in my church growing up.
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Christians who do what Jesus tells them to do will run into opposition with the government as the government moves further and further away from the
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Bible. Inevitably, opposition will come. And it makes you wonder, would people you were once friends with approve of you being thrown into jail for holding firmly to everything that Jesus taught?
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There's one Christian writer by the name of Eric Metaxas. And he said that he's had a ton of people who have just stopped being friends with him.
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There's stories like that all over the place. And people will deliver you to the wolves for the sake of self -survival.
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And not only that, but there's a deception. The ones who've been deceived will think they're doing right when they're not.
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And this has happened historically. It is happening to a certain extent right now, and it will only increase going forward.
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As a Christian, you live in a hostile world. And this hostility will come from the government.
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It will come from strangers. It will come from friends and even your own family that do not believe in Jesus Christ.
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So as we think about, you know, can we all just get along? What does Jesus tell us?
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He says it's inevitable that if you're committed to him, it doesn't mean you get along with everybody. It doesn't mean you attack the people.
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It doesn't mean that you look for trouble, but it does mean that opposition will come. That's the truth of the matter.
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So prepare yourself for inevitable mistreatment from the world. The first instruction is that you are living among hostile people.
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And note, too, that you're not the hostile. You're just doing what you're supposed to be doing, and this is what you will run into as you do that.
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The second instruction that Jesus gives to prepare ourselves for inevitable mistreatment from the world is this.
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They hate you because they hate Jesus. They hate you because they hate
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Jesus. Let's look at these verses here. Jesus says, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake.
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And then verses 24 through 25, he says, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master.
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It is enough for the disciple to be his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called me the master, if they have called the master of the house
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Belzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? So as we live in this world, one thing that should shake us is the reality that the only perfect person who has ever lived was murdered by sinful men.
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Let that sink in. There's a book written a number of years ago of Misan men.
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And the two main characters are Lenny and George.
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And George is the one who comes across as the rational one. He's the responsible one.
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He takes care of Lenny. Lenny is this big, strong guy and he loves people.
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And he loves people. And he loves people so much that he can't restrain his strength, that he'll put people to death because he squeezes them so hard.
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And it's interesting that this story is a parallel with Christianity.
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They had to get rid of Lenny because he loved people too much. And so George, his friend, knew that he couldn't live in this world and so he ended his life.
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And that's the parallel with Christianity. Jesus loved more than anybody.
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And yet he loved too much for this world. He was ripped out of this world.
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Interesting story. I learned that from R .C. Sproul in his book, The Holiness of God.
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He talks about that parallel between the story of Misan men and Christianity.
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The one who loved so much was too much for this world and was taken out of the picture.
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So let that sink in. But we have to understand, though, that God used the deeds of sinful men who killed
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Jesus, who crucified him, to bring salvation to the world. Perfection was among them and the
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Jews didn't like it, so they plotted to kill Jesus and they got the Romans to do the dirty work for them. What Jesus says in verse 25 is that even though you are not him, it is enough for them to treat you like they treated him.
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What they did with Jesus is call him blasphemous names. What the Pharisees said in chapter 9, verse 34, is that his power came from the prince of demons,
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Satan. In verse 25, Jesus tells them that they called him Belzebul.
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Belzebul was a Philistine god that the Jews associated with satanic idolatry.
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If they treat Jesus like that, how much more will they treat you that way? Jesus said in John 15, verses 18 and 19,
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If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.
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But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
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When you become a Christian, you must understand that the world will not celebrate you. Now it is true that there will be some who respect you, that happens.
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We've already seen this in Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 18. As you are salt and light, some will praise your father in heaven, while others may be one to Christ through your witness, but many others will be hostile to you.
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And that's the warning that Jesus gives right here. If you were to ask the hostile world why they hate you, what do you think they would say?
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They won't say, it's because you're a Christian. The word
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Christian, by the way, there's confusion around what that means. Because you talk to a lot of people, they would say, yeah,
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I'm a Christian. But the question is, are you a Bible -believing Christian? Are you a
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Biblical Christian? Our definition of who a Christian is comes from the Bible, it doesn't come from society.
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Christian persecution always inevitably runs into opposition with the state.
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So it's not by you saying, I'm a Christian. It's because you're an enemy of the state that they will come after you.
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So people will hate you because you are an enemy of the state, and we see this in our country right now. If you say that life begins at conception, okay, these are all
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Biblical things I'm about to say. If you say that life begins at conception, like the Bible teaches, if you say that marriage is between one man and one woman, like the
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Bible teaches, if you say that every life matters, like the Bible teaches, if you say that there are only two genders, like the
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Bible teaches, if you say that parents should be the ones who teach the kids about sex education, which you can draw out of the
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Bible, if you say that man is not responsible for saving the earth, but God is, like the
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Bible tells us, if you say that evolution is pushed as a religion in order to get
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God out of the picture, it's the sinful human heart that does this, like the Bible warns us would happen, if you say that there is only one
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God and all others are inventions of Satan, that's what the
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Bible teaches, if you say that Jesus is your highest authority, not government, that's what the
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Bible teaches. Okay, so if you believe all those things, you can say, yeah, great job, great job, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, they'll be like, what will they call you?
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What will they call you? These are Biblical convictions. The world says one thing and the
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Bible says another, you have these convictions because of your relationship with Jesus Christ, the only perfect one who's ever lived.
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Jesus subscribes to these and his followers do also. Recently, something happened that shows this advanced effort against Christians rising in American society.
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This is not being imagined. Comedian Bill Maher, on his show, he actually said that the ones who stormed the
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Capitol on January 6th were evangelical Christians. Now, I don't know one genuine
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Christian who supports the storming of the Capitol. We all condemn it, as we should, and yet elite secularists like Bill Maher, I think that's an accurate description, who have influence, say there's no difference.
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You can look this up on YouTube, it's down there. Now, this is a misrepresentation on steroids and making a stereotype at the highest degree.
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People like Bill Maher, frankly, they don't care about facts. He lives in the world of propaganda.
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Like so many in that arena, they are okay falsely labeling
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Christians, putting them in a disgusting category that they don't belong in. Now, if you tell many secularists you are a
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Bible -believing Christian, this is what they will say about you. They will call you a white supremacist, a domestic terrorist.
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It doesn't matter how irrational this is and how false it is. Have they talked to you? Have they asked you your beliefs?
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Do they know you? No. There are many people who are deceived by these lies.
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This is a more dominant view in our society than many people realize. You can see how persecution comes.
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You are following Christ and yet they call you something that you're not. They tie you with people who you would never tie yourself with.
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What is happening in America right now is nothing new. This happened to the early church. This is why it's so important to understand history.
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History repeats itself. I say that all the time, but I'm going to say it again. The early church were called cannibalists because they ate the
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Lord's Supper, where Jesus says that his body is broken for you and his blood is shed for you, so they called them cannibalists.
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They called them child molesters because they had old and young people all meeting in the same place.
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They were called haters of mankind because they wouldn't go with the trends of society.
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They were called misguided creatures because what they would do is they believed that they were immortal and they believed this by faith alone in Christ.
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And people thought they were nuts for believing in this crucified sage. You will be labeled things that you are not.
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The attacks against you will be irrational, but people don't care about truth to begin with.
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We live in a country that doesn't care about truth. Truth is only used when it's convenient. If it's not convenient, we'll make something else up.
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Look all around you. That's what it is. People will be glad to label you all different false things and people will believe the lies that are fed.
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And this is how mobs form, right? If lies are told by powerful people, then a large group of people believes it.
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And what happened historically, what is already happening in this country, is that the highest people in government say that these people need to be dealt with.
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We need to marginalize these people. We need to silence these people. We need to kick these people out of the mainstream of society.
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What they are already saying and what they will say more and more is that we are a detriment to society.
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We are holding back progress. We are Neanderthals living in the Stone Ages.
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One author said we are narrow -minded bigots, when in reality, all we are doing is believing in the timeless truths of Scripture.
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All we're doing is loving according to how God has defined love. We are following our
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Creator who sets the standard for all that is true and good.
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And anyone who has an accurate understanding of who you are would say that, that this person is a blessing to me.
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This person is, if everyone was like this person, think of how great this country would be. That's if someone has an accurate understanding.
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You might be saying, I'm a good neighbor. I'm a law -abiding citizen. I pay my taxes.
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I treat everyone fairly. If someone needs help, I will help them. Even if they don't need help,
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I will ask them if they need help. I realize that I am a sinner in need of a
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Savior, but as I live out my Christian faith, society is blessed by Christians and not cursed.
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Think about the influence of Christianity on America, how much of a blessing it's been. Where did all these hospitals come from?
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They came from Christians. Where did all these schools come from? They came from Christians. Where did all this help come from?
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Helping the sick, helping the poor came from Christians. If people follow biblical standards, if people are
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Bible -believing Christians, and that is the dominant movement in society, it's going to be a blessed country.
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Far and away the most blessed country in the world. Because you're doing things as the Creator designed.
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But that reality is dismissed and instead a false label is put on you.
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You're those crazy people who believe those crazy conspiracy theories. We must understand who's behind all this.
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Satan is the one who deceives those who oppose you. The people with the most power view you as enemies of the state, as people who need to be dealt with, as people whose society needs to move away from.
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That was so yesterday. In fact, just this week, D. James Kennedy, who passed away a number of years ago, but he's known for the evangelism explosion.
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I know my dad was involved in that many years ago. He had a program on Lifetime Network, and the program said,
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Truths that Transform. And this program was pulled off of Lifetime because they had controversial content.
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And the controversial content was, they talked about abortion. They even talked about George Washington and his spiritual life.
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George Washington, by all accounts, was a Bible -believing Christian. And they detailed that in the broadcast, and yet it was deemed as controversial.
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And so they took it down. Satan is a master deceiver.
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Things like this have happened everywhere. John 844 calls him the father of lies.
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A society that Satan has in the palm of his hands calls good evil and evil good.
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It's all reversed. It's a backwards place. So instead of people seeing you as a blessing, they see you as a curse.
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When everything is backwards, you are ridiculed for doing good. So Satan is the real reason you are a target to radical seculars.
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Satan hates Jesus, and Satan hates you. And he's very clever.
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The world belongs to him. In fact, 1 John 518 says that the whole world lies in the hands of the evil one.
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So you must understand why certain believers will oppose you. Now, there's some unbelievers who have
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God's common grace. They won't view you this way. They will view you much more accurately, and they won't treat you poorly.
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But many will treat you poorly. And this is a spiritual war that is happening.
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Their animosity is rooted in their hatred of Christ driven by Satan. They believe lies and truly think the world would be a much better place if Christians were off the scene.
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So prepare yourself for inevitable mistreatment from the world. The second instruction is that they hate you because they hate
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Jesus. And even as I say that, by the way, they hate the true Jesus.
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Everybody likes Jesus until you actually learn who he is. Read the Gospels. Jesus just told us that families will be divided because of me.
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That's the true Jesus. Jesus says the path to life is narrow and the path to destruction is wide.
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The true Jesus, according to society, is a narrow -minded bigot. But the true
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Jesus is the author of life. Okay, here's our third instruction.
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So prepare yourself for the inevitable mistreatment from the world. And the third instruction is this. This is the last one we're going to look at today.
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Live wisely and righteously with opposition lurking. Let's look at the second half of verse 16, where Jesus says, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
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Jesus' instruction here echoes what the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 4, verses 5 and 6.
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He says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. He also wrote in Philippians 2 .15,
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where he calls us to be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
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The illustration is of serpents who are wise. Now, we don't think of serpents as wise, right?
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We think of them as disgusting and terrifying. And if we had a snake go down this aisle here, we'd all jump up and run.
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And thankfully, let's be thankful for winters, by the way. We don't have to deal with dangerous snakes. So thank you, winter.
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But anyway, snakes in ancient Egypt, in their writing symbols,
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Egyptian hieroglyphics, this is before letters were invented. This is how they wrote, right?
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They had hieroglyphics. Snakes were the symbol of wisdom. Because if they were writing something about wisdom, they would write a snake.
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So that's where Jesus is coming from as he says this. Serpents are not dumb, like some animals are.
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They are very smart and cautious. So Christians are to be smart and cautious.
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We are also to be innocent like doves. Doves were harmless birds.
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We are to be like doves in our righteous lives. We are not to bring shame upon Christ through a sinful lifestyle, nor are we to look for persecution.
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But we are to live faithfully, anticipating that it will come. A big difference there. We don't go out looking for persecution.
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But we live how we're supposed to live, anticipating that we probably will face it.
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It can happen that we look for trouble, but this is not what we are called to. We are called to live wisely.
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And as we live wisely, we should expect opposition. A while back, I saw a
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Christian who it seemed was looking for trouble. And I was like, okay, that's not what Jesus calls us to. He and other
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Christians were having a hymn gathering at a government facility, and the police officer told him not to stand too close to someone.
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And what he did was he gave a big bear hug to the guy, and the police officer arrested him.
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This is not what Jesus is talking about. I agree with the police officer. He should have arrested him because he gave him a clear command.
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He went against the command, and you're going to face the consequences. We are not to suffer for being foolish, as 1
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Peter 4, 15 says. He is saying live wisely and innocently. When persecution comes, it won't be because we sought it, but because we were living faithfully.
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And it was unavoidable to be faithful meant to receive opposition. Like, for example, if we are told we can't meet, let's say a law is passed that says that if you preach against certain things, you can't meet anymore.
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Well, we're going to meet. We're going to do what's right. And that's how opposition comes.
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A great example of this is the story of Daniel in the lion's den from Daniel chapter 6.
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In that chapter, King Darius appointed 120 men known as satraps who were below Daniel in authority, and they were jealous of him.
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Daniel was a very righteous man, and they knew that. So they said in Daniel 6, 5, we shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his
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God. These men, along with two other officials who were equal to Daniel, asked
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King Darius to make an ordinance that anyone who makes a petition to any
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God or man except the king, they would be thrown into the lion's den.
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Daniel did not pursue persecution, but he did what was right. And he paid the price.
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He prayed publicly. And as he prayed publicly, as he did before this edict went out, he received persecution.
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We know what happened, right? He was thrown into the lion's den. But as we know how the story ended,
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God delivers him from the lions. We should expect that some opposition will happen to us.
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My old pastor used to say, it might not be a raised fist, but it might be a raised eyebrow.
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People will think you're crazy. I mean, that's a mild form of persecution.
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So if a day comes where we're told we can't meet, if we are told not to read our Bible in public, or pray, or share the gospel, or compromise on any truth from the
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Bible, we are not to stop this, but stand your ground and continue. And opposition will inevitably come.
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Now, we need to do it wisely. Do not agitate. But you and I are to faithfully live for the
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Lord in this devil -ruled world. And we should expect to experience opposition like God's people have for thousands of years.
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Why would we be immune to it? They weren't immune to it. Why would we be? So we are to prepare ourselves for inevitable mistreatment from the world.
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And the third instruction that we have seen is to live wisely and righteously in this hostile world.
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So those are the three instructions that we have looked at today. Now, next Sunday, we will look at the next four.
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And let me preview that to you, what is coming here in the remainder points.
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Next week, we will see, I'll give you the first one, okay? We'll see that your sincere faith is shown through enduring trouble.
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Okay, so these are instructions that Jesus gives us. But let's close at this time. Let's bow our heads in prayer.
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Father in heaven, this sounds like alarmism.
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When someone says something that isn't realistic, just to get everybody afraid. And yet, this is realistic.
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All we have to do is look at history. And more than that, the words of Jesus are 100 % true.
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So we should listen to these, Lord, and say, yes, this will happen. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
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Persecuted. We should expect to experience opposition of some kind, whatever that looks like.
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And so my prayer, Lord, for our church is that we would be ready for it when we face it. And as Peter said, that we would not be surprised when it comes, but that we would be ready to face it.
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And then we would do it all with joy. As Romans 8 says, I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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We don't endure this with no hope for the future.
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We endure it realizing that there's the greatest hope for the future. That there's life with you forever,
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Lord. With fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. The worst we will ever face is in this life.
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And so I pray that we would understand that, Lord. That this is the path of life. So may everyone,
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Lord, who hears my voice, understand this. And may the Spirit use this in each one's life to realize that Jesus is the treasure.
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And to realize that pursuing this treasure in this life will meet opposition.