Beatitudes V

well I'd like to give you all a warmwelcome on this beautiful morning atleast here in Baran Springs the sun isshining and the Jew is glistening on thegrass and it is a privilege and apleasure to wake into God's mercy toawake into a world where the oxygen isfresh the grass is green and uh evenwhile I've been asleep last night Godhas been providing for life this morningwhen I got up this morning we serve agracious heavenly father and it's myprivilege to share with you today thefinal of our journey through theBeatitudes in Mark chapter MatthewChapter 5 uh We've looked so far at theoverall structure of the Beatitudes inLuke 6 and Matthew 5 we've worked ourway through the Beatitudes one by oneand today we're going to be looking atthe last two Beatitudes in Matthew5: uh 10 11 and 12 and uh as we open ourBibles I'd invite you to Bow your headswith me whether whether you're at homeonline whether you here in thecongregation and we'll ask for God'sblessing so shall we pray oh HeavenlyFather uh we thank you for the way thatyou lead us through life and father Ithank you that in these Beatitudes wefinally come to where Jesus himself ispersonally mentioned I thank you Fatherthat the promise is that Jesus is withus in the midst of the most terribledifficulties we may go through so fathertoday in our troubled world I pray thatJesus will be present in our lives in avery personal and a real in a meaningfulway today and Father I ask that yourspirit will speak to our hearts that youwill soften our minds you'll remake ourhearts you'll guide our feet H you willchange the way we live as a result ofgoing through the Beatitudes andfollowing Jesus in the path he's laidout for us thank you Father for hearingthis prayer in the name of Jesus I askamen so the these two Beatitudes at theend of Matthew 5 you see the first oneup here they have to deal withpersecution and today I'm going to betalking about the topic of persecutionthis is not an easy topic to talk aboutum but I know that in different parts ofthe world today persecution is very realand so this is a very painful topic formany people uh many people that I'vebeen a privilege being a pastor forthey've arrived in the United States orthey've arrived in England fromcountries where they experienced veryreal persecution and so uh I'm going tobe talking today about what is asensitive topic um there are many peoplein our pews who've come through extremepersecution and they come and sit in ourpews and if we don't ask them to telltheir stories to let them share what hashappened to them uh they carry a lot ofpain and suffering within their heartsand this beatitude of Jesus um it speaksto those who have gone throughpersecution and to those who have yet togo through persecution and so the firstof these Beatitudes says this blessedare those who have persecuted forrighteousness sake for theirs is theKingdom of Heaven just as the first beitude starts out blessed are the poor inspirit for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven those who have open hands beforeGod who know that they need the grace ofGod to receive salvation who have nosense of self-sufficiency so at theclose of the Beatitudes there was thepromise that those who make it throughpersecution they will also receive thekingdom of heaven then the nextbeatitude that we're going to focus onis this blessed are you when peoplerevile you and persecute you and utterall kinds of evil against you falsely onmy account and this is the only timethat Jesus mentioned within theBeatitudes here in the midst of thefinal beatitude on my account then itsays for your reward is great in heavenfor in the same way they persecute tothe prophets who were before you upuntil this point all of these Beatitudescan be explained in Old Testament termswe've already seen repeatedly that Jesusis drawing the Beatitudes essentiallysummaries of Kingdom living from thePsalms particularly Psalm 23 and Psalm24 but now for the first first time inthe Beatitudes we find Jesus and In thispassage here the phrase on my account ittells us that what Jesus is interestedin is our personal loyalty to him God isnot so much interested in in me uhlooking for persecution for the sake ofbeing persecuted but God understandsthat his children may go throughpersecution because of their personalconnection with Jesus Christ because Ichoose to follow Jesus Christ andbecause the world hated Jesus Christ andbecause the World crucified Jesus Christtherefore as his follower in solidaritywith him I understand that one daypersecution is going to come my way nowJesus was not just executed by theRomans because of what he taught he wasalso executed because the of the factthat he lived out his teachings and atthe conclusion of The Sermon on theMount Jesus says the wise are those whoput his teachings into practice and theearly followers of Jesus if you look inActs chapter 2 3 4 and 5 they were notpersecuted so much because of theirinner convictions but they werepersecuted because they put theteachings of Jesus into practice if youlook in Matthew 5 and uh verse 10 itsays blessed are you those who arepersecuted for righteousness sake theearly church was persecuted because theystood up for righteousness within theirsociety Matthew 5:11 uh on my accountthey were persecuted because theyproclaimed Jesus as the Risen Lord uh inJerusalem to the rulers who justcrucified Jesus and Matthew 5:12 theylived the same way that Jesus did theearly Church in Acts chapter 2-5 shows abody of Believers a community in whichsocial and gender and economic barrierswere being torn down systematically andmen and women were able to live inharmony with one another and as a resultof this they face social ostracismexclusion from the synagogue uhfloggings imprisonment stoning executionCru crucifixion enslavement the breakupof their families the loss of theirhomes and theirbusinesses and yet to his persecutedfollowers Jesus promises at the end ofthis go of this gospel that I am withyou always even to the End of the Age nomatter where you are no matter thepersecution you may face there is thepromise that I will be with you to theend of the age turn in your Bibles toMatthew chapter 10 Jesus discusses thereality of persecution in some detail umMatthew chap Matthew's gospel actuallyhas five sermons in it and those sermonsare broken up by stories of MiraclesMatthew chapter 10 is one of thosesermons that Jesus gives in in the fivesermons he gives in Matthew's gospel andif you want to Great exercise todaymaybe go through the gospel of Matthewand identify the five sermons within thegospel of Matthew well here in thisparticular sermon in Matthew chapter 10Jesus discusses what it means for hisfollowers to go through persecutionMatthew 10: 19 let's read that it sayswhen they hand you over do not worryabout how you are to speak or what youare to say for what you are to say uhwill be given to you at that time Jesuspromised to speak for his disciples atThe crucial moment we are not to worryabout what we are to say but Jesuspromises to speak for his disciplespersecution in verse 21 it says therebrother will betray brother to death anda father his child and children willrise against parents and have them putto death so the first kind ofpersecution that Jesus talks about willcome within our own families the secondkind of persecution that Jesus talksabout is in verse 17 where it saysbeware of them for they will hand youover to counsels and to fog you in theirsynagogues so as the first kind ofpersecution was within our family inverse 17 persecution will take placewithin the family of faith that iswithin the Jewish synagogues where theearly Believers were initiallycongregating and then in verse 18 you'llbe dragged before Governors and Kingsbecause of me as a testimony to them andto the Gentiles in Matthew five in thisverse 18 that we we go beyond thebiological family we go beyond theCommunity of Faith and now persecutionbe expected from The World At Largethose who do not accept Jesus Christ astheir lord and savior and our responseto the rejection and persecution of theworld around us will determine ourrelationship with God just look furtherdown in this chapter 10 verse 32everyone therefore who acknowledges mebefore others I also will acknowledgebefore my Father in heaven but whoeverdenies me before others I will also denythem before my Father in Heaven Jesus isvery clear about this that if we are todeny Jesus in times of persecution thenwe have no part in the Kingdom of Heavenbut if we stand true to our faith and westand true to our Fidelity to Jesus whenhe says on my account then we have thepromise that Jesus will stand by us andwe have the promise of eternal life soif we ask ourselves for a moment what isthe reality of persecution today isthere persecution is it happening in ourworld it may not seem like it if you'reliving in a relatively um relativerelatively free western country but thereality today is that persecution isincreasing all around the world I seethis in my role with Adventist Frontieron a daily basis um just just I was justsharing with my colleagues as we cameout today um there's been no AdventistChurch in Syria for the last 50 yearsand because of this covid we've beenpreparing sermons in Arabic and nowthere is for the first time in 50 yearsa congregation meeting in Syria wepraise the Lord for that but they haveto meet in secret for fear ofpersecution they're afraid of al-nusrathey're afraid of al-Qaeda they'reafraid of the alawites they're afraid ofmultiple armed groups who they knowwould kill them if they know that theseyoung people have accepted Jesus Christso two great sources of information onthe persecuted Church you see them thereon the screen persecution.com that wasestablished by um the voice of themartyrs who was founded by Dr PastorRichard vrand who spent years in um theRomanian concentration camps of thechiao chesu regime in the 60s and 70sand then open doors USA um that'sanother an Evangelical group that tracksthe numbers of people who are killed fortheir faith around the world on a dailybasis persecution happens today for avariety of reasons some governmentspersecute because the claims of Jesusare higher than the claims of the CivilState and when you have a secular Statesuch as North Korea they do not want theclaims of Jesus to have a higher placein the hearts of their citizens than theclaims of the state itself so you findthat kind of persecution in communist orauthoritarian regimes sometimes you havepersecution because Christians are aminority and there's a dominantreligious group that has no interest inseeing Christians survive I'm not goingto mention any world religions by namehere but we can imagine what I'm talkingabout here the UN Declaration on HumanRights Article 18 guarantees freedom ofreligion to all citizens on Earth itsays there that everyone has the rightof freedom of thought conscience andreligion and this right includesreligion to change his religion orbelief now there are parts of the worldtoday where you have ID cards issued bythe government and you can be born andon the ID card it says Christian and ifyou want to you can change that to let'ssay another Faith but the dominant faithinstitutionally says through thegovernment you cannot change from thedominant Faith to Christianity on yourum ID cards this happens in differentparts of the world today and sopersecution is a reality what doespersecution look like in practicepersecution today involves verbal harharassment hostile feelings attitudesand actions involves Christians in areaswith severe religious restrictionspaying a very heavy price for theirfaith Chris persecution today involvesin June 2020 beatings physical tortureconfinement isolation rape uh severeeconomic punishments imprisonmentindentured labor discrimination inemployment and education the governmentrefusing to employ Christians becausethey are Christians and extreme violenceperpetrated on Christian communities ifwe open our eyes we as Christians in thewest we are so suffocated with the frothof meaningless entertainment that we'reoften blind to the reality that on aweekly basis entire Christian Villagesare being torched and their inhabitantshacked to death in some parts of WestAfrica uh I I've been in those parts ofthe world I've seen those results formyself it is real and is happening on aweekly basis but as Western Christianswere almost blind to the reality of thepersecution that's is happening aroundour world today persecution is not anabstract con concept it means youngChristian girls being kidnapped andforced into marriages with older menagainst their will it means that wholeCommunity is being burned alive bygroups like Boko Haram it meansexclusion from jobs and and educationalopportunities in some parts of SoutheastAsia it means being beheaded along thebeaches of Libya for your faith by ISISit means no access to Christianliterature to Christian churches toChristian internet radio or TV um of noChristian Media literature for thoseliving under certain religious rules itmeans willful self self-censorship inAmerica for those who would otherwisesuggest that a straight reading ofcertain religious texts indicate thatsome religions are not religions ofPeace but they are religions of violentrepercussions and anger and so we speakvery carefully when we speak aboutpersecution because what we say inAmerica and what goes out on theinternet can have consequences for ourbrothers and sisters in other parts ofthe world tomorrow when a mob might comeand burn down their church because ofwhat we might say here in America todaythis is a reality in our world today andso we speak carefully about thesematters who is our enemy our enemy isnot a human being uh we are blessed asAdventists with Incredible insights intothe great controversy between Christ andSatan our enemy is real he is literal heis personal he is a malevolent FallenAngel known as Satan who has fallen fromthe glories of Heaven who engagesRelentless war against Jesus Christthrough primarily attacking his childrenum every missionary knows that Satanwill attack your ministry throughattacking the bodies of your childrenevery missionary family when they signup to serve with AFM we have to pointout to them that your children will behurt your children will suffer yourchildren will face demonization yourchildren may face sexual or physicalassault in the mission field this is howSatan will try to drive you as a familyfrom the mission field people will takepain in their own bodies but pleasedon't harm my children and Satan attacksChrist through attacking his childrentoday Satan is described in thescriptures alternately as the ruler ofthe kingdom of the air the prince ofthis world the God of this world theprince of demons the hinder the accuserthe liar and Father of Lies an angel ofLight the tempter a roaring lion and inthe words of Jesus in John 8:44 he is amurderer but despite these fearsometitles the good news is that Satan is adefeated enemy he he goes around withgreat wrath because he knows knows thathis time is short he knows what theprophecies say he knows that one dayhe'll be cast into the Lake of FireJesus saw Satan fall as lightning fromHeaven to Earth when the apostlesministered in Divine strength and castout demons in Luke 10 and Jesus haspromised us in John 16:33 that samevictory over Satan today the ApostlePaul experienced this victory in his ownlife and he wrote about it to the churchin Romans 8:28 and the Apostle Johnpromised us that Satan will finally bedestroyed Revelation 20 in: 10 which Isay hallelujah or in a more Frank momentburn baby burn Satan is powerful he iscruel and he is evil but we are not tobe afraid because the Apostle Paul saysthanks be to God he has given us thevictory through our Lord Jesus Christand what is Paul talking about therehe's talking about victory over deaththat death has lost its sting theultimate Curse Of Satan has been brokenand Christ has given us the Victory andwe praise God for that that so how doesSatan attack the church Satan attacksthe church um externally through atleast five different means he attacksthe church through Civic rulerspersecuting the church in in the time ofJesus Pontius Pilate was a Civic rulerand he attacked the church in our ownera uh Kim Jong-un North Korea chesu inin in Romania the the Castro regime inCuba other communist countries thatstill exist today are still persecutingthe church Satan also attacks the churchthrough religious leaders it was theJewish Priestly class who had JesusChrist crucified and today there aremany clerics of different religions whowill whip up mobs to burn down Christianhomes and businesses and to destroytheir inhabitants Satan attacked theearly church through Business Leaders aclassic example of there is the silverSmiths of Ephesus in Acts chapter 19persecuting the church and we now havein America modern day equivalentsinclude Pro lgbtq corporationsbusinesses such as PayPal Apple the NBAand Airlines such as United and Americanwho are imposing their social agenda onsociety as a whole we also see thatSatan attacks the church through mobsthrough literally mobs running throughthe streets this happened repeatedly inthe book of Acts such as the mob ofthessalonica of Acts 17 in verse 5 andthose mobs happen today they happenliterally in the streets of thesubcontinent um places like Pakistan andBangladesh they also happen in the westwith online online mobs you try andspeak up for a Biblical concept ofgender or sexuality or marriage and I'lltell you from personal experience thehate mail you will receive is verypainful there are these online mobs theyare just as active as physical mobs inthe streets and Satan attacks us throughour families rejection by a familymember goes all the way back to Abel'sMurder By Cain Jeremiah's own familytried to murder him in Jeremiah 12:6Jesus's own family thought that he wascrazy and wanted to take and lock him upin Matthew 1035 through 36 and manyconverts today face extreme persecutionwithin their own families I know of manycases of women who' have accepted Jesusas Lord and Savior and they keep apicture of Jesus hidden somewhere intheir property terrified that theirhusbands will find out for if theirhusbands do find out they may besummarily divorced on the spot they loseaccess to their home to their childrenforevermore and they'll be forced out onthe streets there are brave women aroundour world today following Jesus insecretin fear of theirhusbands Satan also attacks the churchinternally he attacks us through Pridethrough self-exaltation he attacks usthrough true guilt and there's adifference between true guilt and falseguilt um a a true guilt I'm not sure howthat came up there true guilt is whenSatan accuses us in our own hearts ofour sins and our mistakes and one reasonthis sat this strategy of Satan is soeffective is because we know it'spartially true we are indeed sinners andthere is much that Satan can accuse usof when he accuses us we know in ourhearts that those accusations are trueand what he says to us is this is whatyou did how could God forgive such asinner as you how can you sit in the Pewdress nicely on Sabbath to Sabbath whenthis is happening in your life and heattacks us with with true guilt andthese are often cherished sins that wehave yet to confess when the Holy Spiritspeaks to us he says Conrad there is asin in your life why don't you repentand God will offer you forgiveness turnaside from this when the voice says toyou in your heart Conrad there is thissin in your life God could never loveyou because the depth of this sin thatis not the Holy Spirit speaking that isSatan speaking to your heart Satan alsoattacks through false guilt false guiltis when he accuses you of things or hebrings to your remembrance uh sins thatyou've already confessed to yourheavenly father you receed the gift offorgiveness by faith and and Satanbrings these things up and in thosecases the best Christian response is toquote to quote the promises offorgiveness in Scripture that no I haveconfessed this 1 john9 is a greatexample that he will if we confess oursins he who is faithful and just willcleanse us of our unrighteousness and soSatan attacks us through fear um if mensuffer from pride in my experience as apastor maybe the dominant uh emotionthat women tend to suffer from is fearfear of loss fear from being alone fearof Abandonment fear of how they're goingto be protected in a time of chaos andfear is is a is a very very powerfulmotivating force it's not oftenarticulated but it is it is an verypowerful force and Jesus has a lot tosay about this in Luke 12 through 4-5the enemy can only harm harm our bodiesbut he can't hurt our Eternal Destinyand so Jesus commanded us to set ourpriorities straight and speaking thosewho are filled with fear he sayso not beafraid of Those Who Kill the body butcannot kill the soul rather be afraid ofthe one who can destroy both soul andBody in heaven and the Really the otherway that Satan attacks the churchparticularly the western church isthrough materialism and we think thatbeing blessed financially we think if Ihave a lot of money a lot of possessionsand God has blessed me well maybe thatis the case the challenge with materialwealth is it is easy to forget God inthe midst of our wealth a RomanianChurch leader in the late 70s who livedthrough cha esu's persecution had thisto say he said in my experience 95% ofthe Believers who face the test ofexternal persecution will pass the testbut 95% of those who face the test ofprosperity will fail the test like firemoney is a good servant but adestructive Master materialism is aseductive power and it will cause peopleto do almost anything the hearts of thewealthy are often harded hardened to theneeds of the poor Mammon is a power thatseeks to dominate us it is an insatiableGod and by God's grace it must beovercome come this is why returning afaithful tithe and giving sacrificiallyis not just um a gift of gratitude toGod it is an antidote to materialism inour lives so I'd encourage you if youare struggling with materialism if forno other reason return a faithful tithebecause you will experience the antidoteto the the draw of materialism in ourlives so we may ask ourselves uh todayum do we see this kind of persecutionarising say in America well I just wantto reflect for a few minutes on what'shappened in the last three months duringthis pandemic um would persecution cometo America could persecution come toAmerica well I would suggest thismorning that as we look at what hashappened around us all of theingredients are now in place forpersecution for God's end time peoplewhat are some of those ingredients wellthis is what has happened this is whatwe've seen literally America in the lastthree months with no acts coming out ofcongress with no executive ordersrequiring this from the presidency whatwe have seen is a corrupt Internationalmedia from whom truth has departedpushing a narrative and agenda wherebyour civil liberties constitutionalrights and religious freedoms areindefinitely suspended during states ofemergency at a state level we have seensocial media Giants restrict anddeplatform any voices that question thedominant narrative we've seen dissentersto the dominant narrative beingdemonized by the media and by onlinemobs and are ascribed the worst possiblemotives by national political leaderswe've seen Gatherings for work worshipand evangelism have been banned in theinterests of Public Safety and deputieshave been sent by local Mayors to findthose gathered for worship Servicesagain unconstitutionally hot lines havebeen established in different states andAmericans have been encouraged to reporton their neighbors if they're suspectedof failing to comply with the dominantnarrative so-called track and Trace appsare being developed and they will beused to monitor the entire physicallocation of the population again in theinterest of public health and safetygiving the authorities unprecedentedintrusion into your privacy we have weall have Smart Tools Siri Alexa Amazon'sEcho Dot and Google's Nest mini they arenow used in millions of homes and phonesacross the United States and they havethe ability to record every word thatyou speak and it's my conviction thatthey are listening to you not thatsomebody's listening like what's Conradsaying today but if you start saying toyour if you have a spouse you startsaying I'm thinking of buying a lawngarden tractor you say that for about 2days and suddenly on your social mediaadverts for lawn garden tractors willstart filling your entry okay somebody'slistening we know that because you starttalking about these things and the adsstart appearing on your Facebook feedState's attorney generals havearbitrarily revoked business licensesand business registrations denyingindividuals and this has shades ofRevelation 13 the ability to buy sell oroperate a bank account we have also seeninternational travel brought to ashuddering halt at the stroke of a penalmost all all us colleges and churcheshave been ordered shut indefinitely inthe interest of Public Safety and Truthis often declared as hate speech and isdriven from the Public Square let us notthink that the ingredients for end timepersecution are not already in place itdoes not require an act of Congress thisis happening at a state level and withlocal Mayors what could it look like forAdventists in the Final End Timepersecution well based on what we'veseen with no extra acts of Congress thisis what this is what we may be facingfor being true to Jesus Christ our civiland religious Liberties will be revokedindefinitely for the First Amendmentfreedoms freedom of speech and freedomof religion will be meaningless we willsee the closure literal closure of allAdventist Church buildings all Adventistcolleges conferences unions divisionsand Adventist entities gone we will willnot be able to gather together forworship for prayer or for evangelism theproclamation of the Gospel will now bedeclared as hate speech we will bedeplatformed on social media and Ccanell in modern popular cancel cultureour ability to buy sell bank and travelwill be suspended indefinitely for alltime my mother and father live inEngland I cannot get to see them uh mytreasur who I work with his mother livesin in Croatia she's recovering fromserious surgery he cannot get to see herum we have people who are stranded ondifferent sides of the worldindefinitely we cannot connect with ourrelatives our savings our IAS investmentaccounts will be frozen gone forevernever to be used again unable to pay ourmortgages or or rents we'll be forcedfrom our homes and our possessions willbe gone we will be demonized across thepolitical spectrum and across all socialmedia as Jesus says in Mark 13 you'll behated by all men for my name's sake justas the the the parable the um beatitudesays when You Face persecution on myaccount we will be hounded by mobs inthe street and by state bureaucratsdrunk on the absolute powers that theemergency declarations give them trackTrace apps on our phones will Trace ourevery movement and our smart deviceswill record every word we ever utter theonly thing that remains is a politicalexcuse to turn these ingredients ofpersecution on God's faithful people wehave already seen the ingredients inaction this is not some dystopiannightmare I'm describing this is realityof America 2020 the ingredients forpersecution are already there it doesnot require an act of Congress all itrequires is a an emergency and our civilliberties our religious Liberties aregone just like that so how do weanticipate how do we respond to those uhI need to move on very quickly here howdo we respond to those experiencingpersecution well Hebrews 13 and versethree says this do not remember thosewho are in prison as though you were inprison with them those who are beingtortured as though you yourselves werebeing tortured I want to challenge ustoday educate yourself about religiousliberty join your local religiousliberty team this is perhaps theministry for the Agee in which we areliving today secondly slow down andrecognize their suffering Job chapter 2112 through 13 we alluded to this passageuh two days ago when they saw him from aassistance from a distance that is thefriends of job they did not recognizehim and they raised their voices andwept aloud they tore their robes andthrew dust in the air upon their headsthey sat with him on the ground sevendays and seven nights and no one spoke aword to him for they saw that hissuffering was indeed very great sittingin Silence with somebody letting themtell their story not denying orquestioning the truth of what they'resaying this is a powerful therapeuticmechanism for ministering to someonewho's just come out of persecution wehave Refugee Adventists in here in thestate of Michigan they come from partsof Southeast Asia they're often hiddenbut if you come visit them in theirhomes or invite them to your home andsay tell me your story you will hearstories of heroism that maybe you'venever heard before people who've enduredyears in Camp s or prisons indefinitelyin prisons in other parts of the worldand they sit humbly in your in your roomand they're not filled with anger butthey're filled with gratitude to Godthat they made it out of the persecutionwith their faith intact the third thingwe can do is to speak up on behalf ofthe voiceless give Justice to the weakand the orphan maintain the rights ofthe lowly and the destitute rescue theweak and the needy deliver them from thehand of the wicked speak out for thosewho cannot speak for all the rights ofthe destitute we are not called by Godto be a comfortable middleclass churchwe are not called by God to assume thatbecause things are okay with me thatmeans everything is okay with everybodyelse we worship God according to ourconscience that is the first commandmentand in turn God calls us to love ourneighbor as ourselves thus we cannottalk about freedom of conscience andreligious liberty and be silent whilesingle parents struggle to survive dayto day while the victims of humantrafficking and brutality and economicinequality and environmental degradationand family breakdown sit in silence andsuffering in the pews next to us we arecalled to speak up for those who cannotspeak and the fourthly in scripturewe're are called to offer practicalsupport and comfort if one membersuffers all suffer with it if one memberis honored all Rejoice together with itmany years ago I was the Secretarytreasur of the Middle East Unioncovering the Middle East legal andfinancial issues and I I loved my workbut the thing that stands out in mymemory was one day a young lady came tochurch uh in the city where I was and uhshe was covered with bruises around herneck and her upper chest and shewouldn't say anything and she came for afew weeks and eventually we figured outthat she was a victim of humantrafficking and she was allowed to cometo church on a Sabbath morning but thenshe was put back to work Sabbathafternoon and so uh we decided what arewe going to do about this and so weasked her for a copy of her passportwhich she gave us and um then we said toher we have bought you a ticket to yourHomeland your parents will be meetingwith meeting waiting for you on thatwhen you arrive in your Homeland if youwant to get out we will drive up outsidethe brothel where you're being forced towork you literally walk out the frontdoor into the car will take you to theairport with a police escort and that'sexactly what happened that young ladymade her way home that is what it meansto offer practical support and comfortit was kind of terrifying because shewas we were taking her from the grips ofthe mafia but we sent her back to herfamily and in my mind that was thesingle best thing I did while I was thesecretary treasurer of the Middle EastUnion we are not to turn a blind eye tothose caught up in the midst ofsuffering I have a daughter and if mydaughter were ever caught up in thatliving hell I'd ask you to do the samefor her as well so how do we prepare forpersecution ourselves well Adventistescapology tends to focus on thesequencing of timelines and road maps tothe second coming we talk about thingslike the closing of probation thesealing of the Saints Jacob's time oftrouble and the time of the end toot andthe end of time eot as the theologiancall it two of the most commonstatements that we hear relating topersecution are this number onepersecution will never happen here andnumber two we never thought thatpersecution would happen here now thoseare the two most common statements youhear relating to persecution and yet theApostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 13-4 you see it on the screen there hesaid blessed be the God and father ofour Lord Jesus Christ the father ofmercies and the God of all consolationwho consoles us in our Affliction sothat we that is the persecuted Churchmay be able to console those who are inany Affliction with the consolation withwhich we ourselves are consoled by Godwhat Paul is saying here is that theFree Church and here in America we stillconsider ourselves part of the FreeChurch we are we are called to learn thelessons from the persecuted Church ofwhat it means to go through persecutionwe are called to listen deeply andrespectfully and to learn fromChristians who are going through or havegone through persecution so that we canbe ready for ourselves the Free Churchneeds to learn from the persecutedchurch we cannot just pretend thatbecause we live in the Free Church thatthe persecuted church does not exist orthey have nothing of value to offer uswe may think that we may send them moneyto help them out but more importantlythey can share spiritual truths to helpus out to prepare for when we Facepersecution so how do we prepare forpersecution well intellectually I knowthat I will experiencepersecutionspiritually am I ready forpersecution andpastorally have I prepared mycongregation and my family for when I amgone one of our workers in AFM comesfrom Southeast Asia her fatherdisappeared into a communist prison cellin deinitely in the 70s and he was therefor many years and one day he reappearedat home the family had to continue foryears not knowing where their husbandand father was this is the reality ofpersecution we know we're going toexperience persecutionare we ready for that persecution andhave we prepared our families and ourchildren and our congregations for thetimes when we may be out ofcirculation so there are some biblicalresponses to persecution that we can wecan see in the scripture and we're goingto derive these from it from storiesthat we find in the Bible the first ofthese are the teachings of Jesus Jesussays but I say to you who hear love yourenemies do good to those who hate youbless those who Cur curse you and prayfor those who spitefully use yourepeatedly we hear of conversion storiesof persecutors of the church who are soimpressed by the demeanor of thepersecuted disciples that thepersecutors themselves are converted themost famous example in history is theApostle Paul he was a Jewish Jihadikilling Christians and yet when Jesusspoke to him on the road to Damascus itsays it hurts you to kick against thegoats which means Paul even while you'rekilling Christians the holy spirit isworking on your heart this is a commontestimony from many former jihadisand and persecutors of the church eventoday we canflee it is a Biblical response topersecution to flee we flee when it isclearly the will of God such as Josephand Mary fled to Egypt when instructedby an Angel to do so to avoid theslaughter of the babies of BethlehemJesus also commanded his followers toflee from one town to the next if theywere persecuted we have much of ourwealth tied in material Goods maybe weshould be starting to think about howcan we have portable wealth rather thanmaterial wealth there are some peoplegroups in history who restore theirwealth in things like diamonds becausethey know they will face persecutionthey go from one country to another andstill maintain their wealth when ourwealth is tied up in physical propertyit becomes a God to us and and likeLot's wife we're looking back all thetime we're reluctant to leave it behindand willing to compromise to keep ourmaterial wealth another biblicalresponse to persecution is to stay andendure it this was modeled for us byJesus himself In The Garden ofGethsemane Luke chap 22 another biblicalresponse is to hide literally tophysically hide Rahab hi the two spiesmany modern day Christians are forced toeither hide or to hide others duringtimes of persecution back in the mid90sI was in Tajikistan there was a civilwar between Communists and jihadists anduh that one of the Jihadi leaders wantedto kill westers there about 100 westersin the country at the time and so whatdid I do when I was a Target they werehunting westers they caught four or fivewesters they were all brutally killedincluding one lady I worked with theyblew her up with a grenade so what was Ito do well I hid I hid with an elderlyman for three months I didn't go out ofthat house for three months he was aDear Old Saint in the Lord he'd survivedcommunism he'd survived the jihadis he'dsurvived a lot of life and thrown at himand he hid me for three months untilthat Jihadi leader was killed then wecould reemerge to safetyagain we can boldly remain as the Saltand Light of the World this teaching ofJesus in Matthew comes in immediatelyafter the beatitude on persecution inmost of our Bibles we come to the end ofthe Beatitudes then there's a break andthen it says something like salt of theearth yes but if you if you take out thethe the the paragraph break Jesus saysblessed are you when you are persecutedon my account and the next thing he saysis you are the light of the world andyou are the salt of the earth whichmeans that in in context we shine forJesus the brightest in times ofpersecution we are a preservinginfluence for Jesus the most when westay and Shine for himin response to persecution because saltpreserves and light dispels and whenChristians flee they're preserving andenlightening influence disappears fromsociety we affirm a nonviolent responseyou can see some of the the the textthere on the screen for you our time'salmost up here and sometimes we arecalled to lay down our life this indeedis a legitimate response to persecutionand a special Crown is reserved forthose indeed who lay down their life fortheir faith Revelation 2 and: 10 we canexercise our legal rights the ApostlePaul um regularly exercis legal rightsas a Roman citizen to enable him tosurvive whatever persecution was cominghisway we can we are not to be surprisedthe Apostle Peter counsels us not to besurprised that we Face persecution in 1Peter 4:12-13 that we are commanded torejoice in our sufferings and in allthings why because God is allowing us togo through it and if God allows us to gothrough a trouble he will not be he willnot be slow giving us a means to escapethat trouble as well 1 Peter 4:13 andPhilippians 4:4 we're to pray withthankfulness we are to pray in allsituations according to Philippians 4:6including in times of persecution we areto be we are to refuse to be ashamed forour faith we are not to hide but we areto stand tall and boldly for ourheavenly father if anyone suffers as aChristian let him not be ashamed but lethim glorify God in this matter we are totrust in God's abiding present presentRomans 8:31-39 nothing will separate us from Godand his personal love for each one of usso I want to conclude we have somequestions here in what areas of my lifeam I consciously building on theteachings of Jesus we've gone throughthe Beatitudes Monday through Fridaythis week I want to challenge you thewise build their lives on the teachingsof Jesus do not just hear these talksabout the Beatitudes but seek to livethem by the grace of God ask this holyspirit to guide you in how you can putthese Beatitudes into practice secondlyhow are we responding today to thereality of persecution of Christiansworldwide I would encourage you to checkout um persecution.com and open doorsusa.org where you can learn more aboutthe reality of persecution and becomeinvolved in your local religious libertyMinistry I truly believe this is aMinistry for our era today are we readyfor persecution ourselves this involvescutting away the gods of this world wecannot serve both God and Mammon asJesus says later in The Sermon on theMount in Stalin's concentration campsthe guards had a trick for ensuring thecompliance of their prisoners they knewin the early 1950s that if you gave aprisoner one personal item maybe a combor a toothbrush the fear of losing thatone item was enough to guaranteecompliance from The Prisoner throughtheir 10 or 15E prison sentence can youimagine the holds that one materialpossession has on a human being it'stime for us to disassociate ourselvesand to to turn away from the gods ofthis world the material gods that we allhave around us because if we are notcareful those Gods will snare us and wewill turn back as did Lot's wife andwhat promise or invitation is there fromGod for us in these Beatitudes Jesus iscalling us to live as he lived not justto hear the words of the Beatitudes butto put them into practice he's callingus to be merciful to be peacemakers tobe pure in heart to hunger and thirstafter righteousness and In this passagehere is calling us to stand true for himpersonally whenever we Face persecutionand some of the last words Jesus everspoke to us are found in the Book ofRevelation there are some promises thereto those who overcome the persecutionthat they face I want to conclude thisuh discussion this week with you ontalking about the Beatitudes with apromise of Jesus to those who overcomein the face of persecution this is whatJesus says to him who overcomes I willgive to eat from the Tree of Life whichis in the midst of the paradise of Godto that I say Amen to him who overcomeshe shall not be a hurt by the seconddeath I lost my cousin to cancer a fewyears ago she was in her early 30s she'sfaced the first death but by God's graceshe will overcome the second death tohim who overcomes I will give him someof the Hidden manner to eat and I'llgive him a white stone and on the stonea new name written which no one knowsexcept him who receives it a new namerepresents a new character I lookforward to seeing what Miracle God doesfor me in the heavens made new and hewho overcomes and keeps my works untilthe end to him I give power over theNations he shall rule them with a rod ofiron they shall be dashed to pieces likeThe Potter's vessels as I also havereceived from my father and I will givehim the Morning Star I look forward tothe day when I'm entrusted with thesaints of God with the Dominion of JesusChrist the Dominion of the son of man inDaniel chapter 7 the saints of God willbe trusted with an eternal Dominionbecause we have tasted and seen that Godtruly is good we know what mercy andforgiveness really taste like he whoovercomes shall be clothed in whitegarments and I will blot I will not blotout his name from The Book of Life but Iwill confess his name before my fatherand before my angels I will confessJesus today before whatever um tribunalI may behold an employment tribunal alegal tribunal because I know that in sodoing I have the promise that Jesusconfesses my name in Heaven above he whoovercomes I will will make a pillar inthe temple of my God and he shall go outno more I'll write on him the name of myGod and in the name of the city of myGod the New Jerusalem which comes downout of Heaven from my God and I willwrite on him my new name a beautifulpromise that we will be pillars of Godthroughouteternity and finally to him whoovercomes I will grant to sit with me onmy Throne as I also overcame and satdown with my father on his throne it'sso beautiful promise to those who endurewhatever persecution this world has tooffer immediately after concluding theBeatitudes and I think we have 30seconds left here so I'm going to takethose 30 seconds um I'm legalist when itcomes to our time allocation immediatelyafter talking about the Beatitudes andimmediately after talking aboutpersecution Jesus says the next words hesays are you are the salt of the earthyou are the light of theworld it's my prayer that this is notJesus hope for us tomorrow this is hisdescription of who we are today blessedsaid Jesus are those who are persecutedfor my sake for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven let us live the teachings ofJesus let us put them into practice andone day when Jesus comes again we'llhear those wonderful words well donegood and faithful servant I invite youto Bow your heads with me as we closethis session in prayer oh Father God Ithank you for these teachings of JesusLord I Thank you that that whether welive in Africa Asia Europe or theAmericas that these teachings apply toeach one of us that none of us can saythat we are beyond the reach of thesesimple words with profound meaningsfather as we come to the end of timewhen the world is looking for amanifestation of the glory of God I askthat our lives will be transformed thatwe will live these Beatitudes we willExpress them in our daily lives and thatpeople will see that we arerepresentatives of Jesus Christ himselfI pray father that in the that time ofpersecution as in when it comes knockingon our door that we will also find thatJesus is knocking on our door and thathe will walk through us through theFlames as surely as he walked with thethree Hebrews through their fieryfurnace so father dismiss us now withyour blessing in the name of Jesus I askamen