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Hi there, my name is Micaiah and I serve right over there typically. And today

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I'll be reading out of Matthew 5, 1 through 12, which will be page 551 in the

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Bible's in the back of the pew. When he saw the crowds he went up on the mountain

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and after he sat down his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them

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saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

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Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble for

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they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for

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righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they will

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be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are

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the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are

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persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed

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are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of

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evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is

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great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who are before you. This is

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God's Word. I'm gonna use a handheld today because it's too much trouble to

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switch between all sorts of different kinds of mics so we'll stick with this

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one today but thank you Micaiah for singing or for reading. Sorry that the

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translation or version was off from the screen there I don't know what happened

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there but we'll we'll figure out that kink. Today's scripture marks actually

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the end of our look at the portion of the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest

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sermon that was ever preached. The portion of that sermon called the

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Beatitudes or the blessings or blessing statements. The Beatitudes are a set of

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eight proclamations. Eight proclamations about what life as a kingdom citizen

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looks like. They tell us how the poor in spirit and the mournful, the

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humble, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in

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heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted are actually the blessed and

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fully satisfied ones. So if you think about it if the world was making a list

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the world was making a list of what blessed looks like what might their list

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include? Would it look similar to the Beatitudes you think? Or let it look very

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different? Well Josh Miller he's a writer a blogger and he took the challenge and

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decided that he was going to write the Anti Beatitudes and here's what he came

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up with. He wrote, blessed are the self-sufficient for they will climb the

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ladder of success. Blessed are those with thick skin and no regrets for they won't

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appear weak needy or dependent on anyone. Blessed are the bold for they will

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conquer any challenge no matter who or what is in their way. Blessed are those

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who live by their own personal truth for they will never have to be corrected or

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change their mind. Blessed are those who judge and cancel others for they will

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always feel morally and intellectually superior. Blessed are the carnal in heart

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because they don't need God. Blessed are the fighters for they will tear down

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anyone who disagrees with them. Blessed are those who are praised, celebrated and

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honored by many for they have reached the pinnacle of success. Blessed are you

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when people love you, envy you, and follow all of your social media accounts.

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Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in this life for in the same way

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they celebrated all the other important people who came before you. Now you know

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the world has a list like that, don't you? You see it in the way that

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people live. Maybe you've bought into or believed one or two of those anti

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Beatitudes at some point in life. If the Beatitudes describe what life as a

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citizen of the kingdom looks like, then these anti Beatitudes do a good job of

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elucidating what life of someone who's caught up in the pattern of this world.

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How many of you guys know someone who maybe thinks more like the anti Beatitudes

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than the Beatitudes? Anyone know anyone? Someone? Depending on when and where you

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grew up some of those anti Beatitudes might even sound virtuous to you. Nothing

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wrong with them at all. And that's why Jesus's description of what it is to be

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in the kingdom life is so upside down. It's a foreign concept to our world.

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Why would you humble yourself? Why wouldn't you claw and scratch to get

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ahead in this world? Why wouldn't you fight to get that promotion or position

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even if it costs that friendship with that other person or that relationship?

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Look out for number one. Go get you what you can while you're alive. Blessed are

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the self-sufficient. Jesus comes along and says blessed are the poor in spirit.

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Blessed are the mournful. Blessed are the humble. This final macarism that we're

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going to study today in verse 10. See we're gonna study verse 10 which is the

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final one of the eight Beatitudes so we're coming to an end here and then

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there's also verse 11 and 12 which are just expounding on that one on verse 10

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and they move from that general blessed are those who do this to that very

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personal blessed are you when you are persecuted. Verse 10 and 11 and 12 goes

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like this. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for

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the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you, persecute

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you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Be glad and

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rejoice because your reward is great in heaven for that is how they persecuted

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the prophets who were before you. We're gonna look at today's scripture under

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three headings. The first one is blessed persecution. Blessed persecution. Verse

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10. The word that's used that we translate as persecuted it has this

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kind of range of meaning to it. It can mean driven away, being driven away or

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put to flight or run out of town or run out of home. It could be by bullying, it

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could be by pressure or by violence, opposition. And this this mean be attitude

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right here number eight. Blessed are the persecuted. This one might be just might

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be the most upside down of them all. Think about it. Blessed persecution. Happy

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are the harassed. Blessed are the battered. How can this pronouncement be?

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Well 1st Peter, the book of 1st Peter, it's a letter that was written by the

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Apostle Peter to who he calls exiles and strangers in this world. Those who are

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foreigners living in a land that is opposed to them, opposed to the gospel.

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And he's writing to them who experience suffering at the hand of the very world

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that they're trying to reach with the gospel of hope that is Jesus Christ. And

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what he writes in chapter 1 verse 3 may very well help us understand this

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blessed persecution that Jesus talks about. He begins himself with a

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macarism. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his

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great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the

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resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is

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imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being

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guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed

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in time. And you rejoice in this even though now for a short time if necessary

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you suffer grief in various trials. Why? So that the proven character of your

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faith which is more valuable than gold though perishable is refined by the fire

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may result in praise in glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What

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does Peter tell us about suffering for Christ? He says that it proves the

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genuineness of our faith. Oh blessed persecution for you prove the

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genuineness of my faith. That it refines our faith to make it more pure and that

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our sufferings in our trials can result in reward. Praise, glory, and honor. Why

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blessed? Why is it blessed? Persecution because persecution will wean you off of

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your enslavement to this world's way of thinking. Persecution will wean you off

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of the anti-be attitudes. Persecution will help you exchange the temporal for

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the eternal. Persecution will both draw you nearer to the Lord in trusting faith

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and it will solidify your faith in your convictions as you face that opposition.

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You don't know how strong your faith is. You don't know how strong your

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convictions are until they are tested and only then is the genuineness can the

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genuineness of your faith be proven. We can say all sorts of things when we're

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not facing opposition. We can say all sorts of things about our faith in God

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when there's no pressure, when there's no suffering, when there's no pain. But

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persecution is blessed because it can push. It can bring pressure down.

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Opposition and the genuineness of our faith can be proved and that can result

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in rejoicing and joy within us. But this persecution is not just for anything

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right? We're told in Matthew that the Blessed One is the one who's persecuted

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for what? Because of righteousness. He's persecuted because of righteousness. We

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already talked about righteousness back in verse 6 when we studied that blessed

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passage but more or less it's the idea that because of your status with God,

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that he has redeemed you and and you are made right and whole in him, you are his

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now. More than just his subjects, you are kids of the king. You are in the family

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made right. And because of this status change and because that also includes

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all of the other beatitudes that we've been talking about that's come before,

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remember those are marks, marks of the kingdom citizens, marks of the

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kingdom kids, the other bad attitudes, the status change as well as the other

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beatitudes because of all of those. Guess what's in store for the believer?

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Persecution. Persecution. And that persecution and when you're in it, you

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are blessed. This is what Jesus says. Because of your status change, you will

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also serve God and you will stand with God and with his life and with his truth.

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This is what it means to be a child of God, that you stand with God in his life

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and in his truth. You will no longer stand with the world. So what does that

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mean? It means that when you stand with God for the sanctity of the unborn life,

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you will be standing against the world. It means when you stand with God's ideal

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of what human sexuality and sexual purity is to be, you will be standing

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against the world. It means when you stand with God against the oppressor and

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when you stand with the oppressed, as his word makes abundantly clear, you will be

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standing against the world and brother and sister at times you'll be standing

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against Christians too. Christians who are worldly. Now suffering because you

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act stupid or because you do or say idiotic things is not in mind here. If

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you act stupid and say idiotic things, guess what you deserve? Persecution. At

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least correction. At least correction. But let me ask you this. Is God ever

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rejected and hated by people today? If yes, raise your hand. If God is hated and

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rejected by people today, do you say yes? Then why do you pretend that they would

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love you or they should love you? Today they're rejecting God. Today they hate

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God. You're his kid. Why pretend that they should love you and embrace you? What is

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the promise of the persecuted? What is the promise of this final beatitude? It

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is that the persecuted who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The

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kingdom of heaven is theirs and you'll notice that we're right back where we

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started because the poor in spirit were also those who are inherits the kingdom

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of heaven is theirs. And this brings us great assurance in our salvation. I don't

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know if you know that but persecution testing your faith and the genuineness

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of it brings great assurance of salvation. It is blessed. And what you

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have right here by having the same response blessed are the persecuted

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those who are persecuted for righteousness for the kingdom of heaven

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is theirs and that's the same as blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom

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of heaven is theirs. This is called an inclusio. This is a way that they would

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write where they would book and both of them so that we know this is a section.

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This is one section or one unit of sayings and thoughts and so we've

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come to the end of the beatitudes with this. The kingdom of heaven is theirs.

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Who's the persecuted? But the beatitudes really actually kind of culminate in

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number eight. See you live the kingdom life long enough. You live one through

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seven and guess what's going to happen to you? Eight. You live as a poor in

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spirit, humble, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those

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who have a pure heart before God. Number eight is coming. Number eight is coming.

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Point number two. Blessed accusation. Blessed accusation. You are blessed when

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they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against

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you because of me. You are blessed. Now we're making that turn from blessed are

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the to you are blessed. At this point Jesus turns and speaks directly to his

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disciples and he says to each one of them individually not as a group. You are

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blessed. When someone insults you, when someone persecutes you, when someone

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makes up stuff about you and falsely accuses you, you are blessed. Remember

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that. You are blessed. This blessed accusation. And we might deduce from this

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that experientially you're not blessed if people are not insulting you,

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persecuting and falsely saying all kinds of evil against you because of Christ. If

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it is blessed to stand in that place, to be in that place, to have that status,

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then it would be less blessed to be outside of it, wouldn't it? And to the

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greater degree in which you experience that blessedness or you experience that

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persecution, that same degree you'll experience a greater blessedness. Again, a

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greater assurance. I know this sounds like crazy talk. Insult me? It really

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literally means to knock my teeth in. Knock my teeth. Blessed are you when

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people try to destroy your reputation? Blessed are you when they deliver the

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final reputational blow to you? Left, right, left, left. Because of me. Why?

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Because you are so closely identified with Christ that you cannot escape the

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very same thing he would go on to experience and that Jesus Christ today,

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even as we testified, still experiences the hostility of those who refuse to

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believe and hate God. You have raised the flag of the King and the

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Kingdom so high in your life that people know who you are. I don't know if you

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know this, but there are no undercover agents in the Kingdom of God. You know, no

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secret agent man out there. You know, I'm just trying to infiltrate this world. I'm

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gonna act like them. I'm gonna talk like them. I'm gonna behave like them and one

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day I'm just gonna boom, pop on the scene or maybe they'll just never notice. I'm

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gonna get through this world without them knowing that I was a Christian and

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Jesus is gonna be happy with me. There's no undercover agents in the

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kingdom. You can't say I'm an undercover Christian. You are blessed when you are

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known as his to such a degree that they slander you. When they want to cancel you

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to such a degree that they want to assign false motives to you because of

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Christ's blessed accusation. You and I cannot seek this out, believe me. We can't

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go around offending so that we get accused. But are there people in the

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Sacramento area who hate God? Are there neighbors of yours who hate Jesus? Some

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Christians will go out of their way to keep the things that people hate about

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God on like the down low in their life. Those things that, oh he's morally

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restrictive. He doesn't let me have fun. He doesn't let me do all the things

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that I want to do and Christians will go, okay well I'm just gonna leave those out

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when I talk to this person. I'm just gonna leave this whole idea of what

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God is like and what he requires. As Nick talked about earlier in our confession

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time, looking to God and seeing his holiness. There's no greater way

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to know our sin and see our sin than to see his holiness. When we begin to compare

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that, well as believers if we try to hide it under a bushel, keep it out of

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sight. Whatever those things are that the world doesn't like, I'm just going to

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take note and keep them on the DL. Keep them out of sight. There are Christians

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who will distance themselves from their King and their God so that folks will

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see them as kinder and more loving and tolerant than God is. I'll say that

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again. There are Christians who will distance themselves from their King and

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from their God so that other people will see themselves as kinder and more loving

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and tolerant than God is. Jesus says that my disciples will be so identified with

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me that they will be treated just like me.

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Blessed accusation. Which leads us to the third point. Blessed reward. The final

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verse of that section, verse 12 says be glad. Be glad. The other ones were

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descriptions and proclamations. Do you know that? Blessed is a proclamation. It's

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saying, wow how awesome is the life of the poor in spirit because they inherit

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the kingdom of God. And Jesus looks at his disciples and says blessed are you

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when you're persecuted. And then he goes on to expand and he says here's a couple

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more words you can add to your vocabulary to expand on what it means to

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be blessed. Here they are. Be glad. Rejoice. Be glad. Rejoice. Because your

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reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who

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were before you. Be glad. Rejoice. You're in good company my friends. You're in

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good company because whatever you are losing here on earth in persecution and

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suffering is being offset in heaven by something so much greater. So much

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greater a reward. Whatever is to your loss is gain in heaven's economy. All we

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need to do my friends is just look to Jesus to see this. When you look to Jesus

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as spelled out in Philippians where it says Jesus who existed in the form of

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God but did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited instead

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what? He emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant and taking on the

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likeness of humanity. When he had come as a man he humbled himself by becoming

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obedient to the point of death even to death on a cross. And for this reason God

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highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the

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name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth

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and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

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Father. Just look to Christ. Just look to Christ who made himself nothing and was

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exalted to glory. Oftentimes when we encounter opposition in our faith we

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will immediately think something like what's wrong with me? Oh my goodness.

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People don't like me. What's wrong? What am I doing wrong? Why don't they

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like me anymore? I'm just representing Christ. He's the most loving one ever. Why

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don't they like me? And Jesus himself knew that would be our experience and so he

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left for us his word in John 15. A servant is not greater than his master. If

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they persecuted me they will also persecute you. If they kept my word they

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will also keep yours. They will. Jesus told his disciples this and I don't know

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if you guys know but this is exactly what happened. Church history tells us

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that Paul the Apostle was beheaded. Peter the Apostle was crucified upside

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down. Andrew was also crucified. Thomas was pierced by four spears while he was

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bringing the gospel to India. Philip was put to death.

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Matthias he was burned to death while alive. Matthew was stabbed to death in

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Ethiopia. James the son of Alpheus was beaten with clubs over and over until he

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died. Simon the Zealot was killed in Persia after he refused to sacrifice to

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the Sun God. Dominic that would sound like a tragic loss. Like a failed

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mission. Like what on earth is this Christianity thing? Everyone died. Where

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is the triumph? Where is the ascension to the high place to success? That's

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anti-be attitudes people. It was first apprehended by these disciples by faith.

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They believed what Jesus said. We're blessed and then upon their death it was

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sight. They received their reward. You want to go deeper into all kinds of

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stories look in Hebrews 11. Those who by faith followed God and endured all

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kinds of suffering. But there is one story in the New Testament of a man

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named Stephen and we hear about him in the course of his service to the church

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in Jerusalem. He is appointed to provide service to widows in the church of

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Jerusalem and we learn that he's a person who is full of wisdom and full of

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the Holy Spirit and he convincingly is able to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ

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to other people and they're wowed by it and he's accompanied by miracles and

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signs. But there are some in the Jewish community there who oppose him. And one

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of the synagogues the synagogue of the freed men they they go to some ruffians

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some some people on this you know the street who will make trouble for them

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and they go to them and they say hey could you make some false accusations

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against Stephen? Could you say things that are not true of him that he

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blasphemed God that he's against God so that we can get him arrested and shut up

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talking about Jesus? And they did that. They spread false rumors and they had

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him arrested and he was brought before the Sanhedrin accused of the crime of

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blasphemy against God and when Stephen appeared before the ruling council to

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give his defense instead what he did was basically preach a message that said to

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the council you guys misunderstood scripture you have hardened your heart

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toward God and you're resisting the Holy Spirit you resisted it ultimately by

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killing Jesus who is the righteousness of God and when they hear that they

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began to yell at the top of their lungs because they don't want to hear it.

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Stop him! They gnashed their teeth it says. Stop him from talking no! Obviously

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that didn't go over very well for Stephen. Having given his witness before

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them of what is true his witness basically condemned him to death. They

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began to reach for stones they dragged him outside of the city and began to

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stone him. There witnessing this was a young man named Saul. Saul would later go

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on to be what we know as Paul the Apostle Paul who was killed for Christ

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but there he is giving approval to this and while they're stoning Stephen he

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says that he looked out he cried out Lord Jesus receive my spirit he knelt

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out and cried out with a loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against them and

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then he was killed. Right before that right before they began to yell at the

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top of their lungs Jesus Stephen says something that triggers them. This is

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what Stephen says right before. Says Stephen looked up to heaven and he said

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look that's in the Bible particularly in our English translations look is

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typically behold behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man is

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standing at the right hand of God and maybe you've heard this passage before

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but have you ever wondered why is Jesus standing? A lot of the other passages

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talking about the heavenly scene Jesus is sitting his work is done you know

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down on the throne he's doing that ruler thing in this vision he's standing for a

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ruler to stand it was a sign that Jesus received and accepted Stephen's

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testimony. It was a sign that he validated Stephen's message that the Son

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of God and of man honored the man Stephen for his faithful witness even unto

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death. Jesus stood for Stephen because Stephen stood for him. Could there be any

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greater reward? All over the world today my friends Christian brothers and

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sisters are standing with God and with Christ Jesus in the face of opposition

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in the face of slander and false accusation and even in the face of

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imminent death and they are holding their ground and standing because they

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believe that the measure of faithfulness or the measure of faithfulness to in the

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kingdom of God is obedience to God no matter the cost no matter the cost. Can

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we go ahead and get the lights down and since it is missions missions month

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we're gonna go ahead and play a video here to kind of cap off the sermon and

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we'll get the lights down and get ready to play that but as I say all over the

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world our brothers and sisters are experienced this and this is one story

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we heard the stories from the past we heard the stories of the Apostles and of

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Stephen it continues that tradition continues today of faithful obedience

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to God let's go ahead and watch this really good.

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God I don't want to die.

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Who will take my place if I do?

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Jesus told his followers to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the

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whole creation to every nation to the ends of the earth. John Chow was a

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teenager when he took his first missions trip and when he felt called to invest

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his life to reach the people of North Sentinel Island who had violently

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rejected all previous contact with outsiders. John answered that call here am

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I send me. For the next nine years every decision John made was with an eye

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toward going ashore on North Sentinel Island. He served in multiple countries

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to gain missions and ministry experience. He trained in linguistics to help learn

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their language. He was certified as an EMT in the hope of serving the tribesmen

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medically. Once I said yes to Jesus I was committed I was all in. I believe that

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the measure of success in the kingdom of God is obedience. I want my life to

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reflect obedience to Christ and to live in obedience to him. I think that Jesus

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is worth it. He's worth everything.

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In 2018 with the backing of his missions agency John went to North Sentinel

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Island. He knew the risks but his passion for the North Sentinelese and

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his desire to be obedient to Christ drove him forward. Sitting in the boat

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getting ready to go ashore John penned a final note and a challenge to his family.

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You guys might think I'm crazy and all this but I think it's worth it to

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declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get

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killed. Rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever he has called you

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to and I'll see you again when you pass through the veil. The eternal lives of

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this tribe is at hand and I can't wait to see them around the throne of God

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worshipping in their own language as Revelation 7 9 to 10 states. I pray none

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of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ.

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Within hours of writing those words John Chow was killed by the Islanders.

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John believed that the measure of success in the kingdom of God is

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obedience and he would be obedient to God's call no matter the cost. Who will

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pay the price to go to every tribe?

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Was John Chow's life a failure? Was that a failure? I think not. He said in himself

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I believe that the measure of success in the kingdom of God is obedience and he

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obeyed and he went and there's no story. This isn't a Jim Elliot story where

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later some people it maybe it's still being written we don't know. All we know

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is he said yes and then he died but we know that in the economy of heaven in

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the kingdom of God obedience is what we are asked to do and all over the world

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people are obediently going and we're we're not measuring their success by

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how many people they reach or how many you know codes they cracked in the in

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the communities they go to but instead did they go and answer the call? Did they

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respond even in the face of great opposition? The likelihood of death. When

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you are persecuted your life your life is counting for Christ and will one day

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be recognized by him.