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  PERSECUTION COMES
  by Don McClure
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Summary: The Beatitudes are a series of blessings that transform a human
being into someone who is truly happy and fulfilled, but this
transformation often leads to persecution.

Duration: 42:35 Topics: "Beatitudes", "Righteousness"
Scripture References: Matthew 5:3-8, Matthew 6:33

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the Beatitudes from Matthew
chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. He describes these blessings as
the central message of the Bible. The Beatitudes are a series of
blessings that are bestowed upon those who approach God with humility
and contrition. The preacher emphasizes the importance of a contrite
spirit and a hunger and thirst for righteousness, as these qualities
lead to a transformation and filling with God's presence. He also
highlights the significance of mercy, forgiveness, and purity of heart
in experiencing the blessings of God.

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CONTENT
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Turn with me if you will to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue on in the
Sermon on the Mount. While you're turning to it I'll review just a
little because we've actually been away from it for a few weeks and so
just to bring us up-to-date as to where we are in it. Here as Jesus is
giving to us the central message I suppose of the Bible, greatest sermon
I suppose debatably ever preached undebatably I suppose ever preached,
but it begins with what is known as the Beatitudes.

And these Beatitudes are a series of blessings in a sense that happens
to a person that finds himself truly essentially doing business with God
on his terms. And here in these Beatitudes Jesus is literally
transforming a human being as you will recall if for those of you that
have been going through it with us. There it tells us that Jesus as he
stood up there and he began to preach.

There he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God. And here through these Beatitudes that we have been through so far
as you will recall, I'm sure you do, and but just in case there's one
that has slipped your mind. Here essentially in the first three there
Jesus is simply reducing a man to reality.

So often we have such a terrible time coming to grips with the with the
real truth of what a man is and the only time we'll ever know that for
sure is when we measure ourself not by one another but we measure
ourself by God. For any man who measures himself by God he'll
immediately be poor in spirit. When we realize I was created in his
image and then I look at myself now and I look back to what I was
created to be, I've got to stop and say what has happened to my spirit?
I was once in his image, his love, his life, his power, his majesty, his
identity.

I was somebody that you could literally look at man and know what God
was like. When God said in Genesis 127 let us create man after our own
image. 126 I think.

What, what, you look it up yourself. You can find it. It's in the Bible.

But anyway there when he, when he tells us there that's what I was made
to be. But yet because of sin we have fallen and the most important
thing is first of all I become poor in spirit. I realize something has
happened.

Then I take responsibility for my own failures in life and if I do I'll
mourn. I'll grieve. There'll be something that happened to realize God I
have sinned.

I have failed. I have missed the mark. I obviously you know have taken
over my own life.

I have been ruling it. I have been running it and I run it right into
the ground. And therefore Jesus said a man that's going to be truly
happy is a man who's poor in spirit and he mourns over it.

He grieves over it and that grief will produce a meekness. For he says
oh how happy are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Here now and
instead of coming before God and my pride or my arrogance and my demands
and I want I'll have and you owe me.

I now come before God. Don't give me what I what I what you owe me.
Don't give me what I've got coming.

God do you have anything else you can possibly do and we come in
brokenness. We come in humility. We come in breaking and in meekness
before God.

God loves meekness. A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.
He loves a contrite spirit.

Somebody who comes in humility and says God would you please be merciful
unto me a sinner. Then Jesus said I'll tell you that man is on the road
to happiness for then he says oh how happy are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. The first three
drained a man but then once were drained of all the old and where
there's a godly sorrow within us it produces an insatiable hunger and
thirst for God himself.

In there as we begin to hunger for him he fills us with nothing less
than himself. In there as we find ourselves filled with him the
revelation and the joy of that fullness results in now we begin to see
some of the most wonderful and deep and profound qualities of God's
character being fashioned and formed within us for then he says oh how
happy are the merciful. Now there is somebody that they're looking at
their own heart their own life and and because God has been so merciful
unto them they now forgive others as they have been forgiven.

They now have found a message for anybody and everybody else whose life
is being driven by their own selfish pride and arrogance. They now can
tell them wait a minute what you need is to turn away from yourself and
seek a humility and a brokenness before God. Take responsibility for
your own sins and come before God in humility and I'll tell you if you
do he'll fill you and he'll forgive you and he'll transform you and then
he'll begin to pour his very nature into you.

In there that then the next step that he has to say oh how happy are the
pure in heart. Somebody whose life now there's a purity there's a
singleness of I there's a singleness of heart and of heart and of desire
for them I want to be more and more like my God who has loved me and
given himself for me Jesus and I'll tell you that's a man that's going
to be wonderfully happy. He then says oh how happy are the peacemakers
for they should be called the children of God.

Now there is somebody who can actually virtually go to anybody in the
world anybody where there's an internal battle where their own life is
is raging in in hopelessness or in struggle fighting against God
fighting against themselves fighting against one another and they of all
people know the message of peace they are a peacemaker. They can sit
down with anybody as I can tell you exactly what's wrong with you. I can
tell you exactly where your your heartache and where your grief is.

I can tell you exactly where the frustration is within your life and it
isn't somebody else outside your skin. It isn't another person it isn't
another events outside the deepest battle the deepest war is raging
within your own heart. You need to be able to turn over your heart to
God to find his power to let him break you and let him fashion you and
mold you and make you and fill you with himself.

Now Jesus said oh how happy are the peacemakers that person can go out
and say I know not simply how to have peace and enter into peace myself
I can come into a home or a life or other people that are broken and
struggling and shattered and where there's battles and wars that rage
and I can bring peace. A lot of people they can only they were always
hoping we can go where there already is peace. But the child of God is
actually somebody there he loves to go where there isn't.

He loves to go around lives where they're ripped and they're torn and
they're struggling and there's great heartache because he's got the most
wonderful gift in the world. He's got the ability to help and to
minister to somebody to bring peace. It's one of the great evidences of
true happiness of true fullness of God within one's heart with one's
life is to want to actually look at areas and places and needs you know
of lives and to bring peace.

Can you imagine if you went to you know to college and then on to
medical school and you were got all the training to be a brain surgeon
or a heart surgeon and you had all of this training and you could do it
you could do the greatest and most intricate of all surgeries would you
like to find yourself being a you know a paramedic or something you know
out there you know just rushing up and picking people in and rolling
them off for somebody else or wouldn't you rather be looking for people
say I want to find people whose hearts are broken or dying where they're
everything in it is falling apart within them where their arteries are
all in trouble where they're they're not functioning and be able to
actually open up the chest cavity and go in there and operate and heal
and put them back together and close them up. We wouldn't mind that.
We'd love that if we had that training we had that capacity.

At the same time though not having that capacity. If you're about to
have a heart attack I recommend you don't call me. You know the I can
come and give you the last rights or wrongs or whatever else you may
have coming but don't but don't if it particularly if you haven't had a
heart attack and are dying yet if I approach you with the knife then you
ought to have one because I wouldn't know what to do.

I can maybe open you up but I never have any idea what I'm looking at
inside and I'd be scared to death to come across your heart if it's in
trouble but if I had the training and so also somebody that is really
being transformed by Christ themselves through these things they have
been trained they've been equipped and now they are actually looking for
mission fields for their own life their own message to be able to go
where is their heartache and grief and divisions and strife and misery
and to be able to go with the message of hope and then Jesus goes on
where we pick it up tonight and we get a little bit more complicated for
some but by the way I usually never take surveys but just to take one
tonight how many of you believe your Bible just raise your hand if you
believe the Bible oh

wonderful then this will be easy because I think you know some people
they don't believe the Bible and it's really ridiculous but I'm glad to
realize all of you do because here Jesus says something that some people
might not agree with but you all do and so this is wonderful but then he
turns he says blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness oh
how happy are those that are persecuted for righteousness say for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven you're excited already aren't you and he says
all happy blessed are you and men to revile you and persecute you and
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be
exceedingly glad great is your reward for so in heaven for so persecuted
they the prophets that were before you and isn't that exciting news that
you get

to go be persecuted and reviled and have people say all manner of evil
against you falsely you can hardly wait to get out of here and go have
it happen I'm sure so we can just close now no actually it's amazing how
so often we profess and we do believe the Bible but yet sometimes the
Bible says some things that everything within it says I don't want that
kind of happiness but here Jesus is literally saying there to the person
there that with there with one of the most amazing things about a person
here you get somebody who's there there they they they're poor in spirit
they mourn over it they become meek before God their hunger and thirst
they filled with God they now actually become merciful they have a pure
heart they're now a peacemaker and such a wonderful peacemaker that
people

actually call them children of God the for he shall be called the
children of God and then the most amazing thing after all these
wonderful things Jesus then turns he says oh by the way oh happy are
they that are persecuted for righteousness sake theirs is the kingdom of
heaven oh how happy are ye when men shall revile you you revile you
persecute you say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake he
says rejoice and be exceedingly glad he actually looks now at a person
he says the most amazing thing happens to a person now at this point and
he says that actually instead of being loved by the world admired by the
world taken in by the world respected by the world that the world now
looks at this person and says man are you ever wonderful are you ever
dynamic are you ever awesome

and gives him applause and gives them Nobel Peace Prizes and gives him
awards name city parks after him and streets after him instead of that
here Jesus said what will actually next happen to you if you are really
a person that has gone through the aspects of the Beatitudes he says the
most amazing thing will now occur people won't like you instead of being
in loved and admired and respected and applauded and having cities and
towns named after you and people rushing to your feet to say help me
they actually will turn and they will begin to persecute you revile you
it will begin to say all manner of evil against you falsely and you see
this is such an interesting thing but basically what has happened
through the Beatitudes just to kind of sum it up is that the the it
through the process

of the Beatitudes something has happened to a human being where they are
no longer anything of what they once were the their own ruler their own
king their own master that's been broken they're through with that I
don't want to run my own life they now have that they actually mourn
over their sin their sin of their ego and their pride in their self-
righteousness and it's produced a meekness who you humility in them
before God and me and crying out to God and God now begins to pour his
very life with it and there's been an entire transference of power your
own personal throne has been relinquished you surrendered your life to
Christ you've been raised and resurrected and restored he's regenerated
his nature back within you he's pouring his love and his life and his
nature and his character

in you and his and the fruit of his spirit and the power of his spirit
and through all of these process what has simply happened is that the
old man has died and he's been replaced by Jesus Christ as King and as
Lord and you may think that the whole world all around us would welcome
this news of Jesus taking over our lives you would think that that the
choice between who we were outside of Christ what we did and what we
were all about as opposed to now who we are in Christ it would be a
slam-dunk you know easy choice to make I choose the Christian you know
when you are out there carousing and fighting and yelling and screaming
and drinking and beating up on anybody and everybody and and ruining
everybody's life and blowing your life and bringing tension wherever you
went as opposed to now

you would think everybody say look at this you want to follow God you
want to build a home you want to live peaceably and joyfully and
righteously you think the world would say this is an easy choice I like
this one but amazingly amazingly the thing that has actually happened
through this is that now all of a sudden a person that was once there
far from God and living in darkness and could walk around all the rest
of the world in their darkness around them and they liked him now all of
a sudden because men love darkness and their deeds are evil now a
Christian walks in and the light of his life begins to convict and
condemn others the light of his life begins to come and make one
profound statement to everybody else around you it begins to declare
that if the other people do not want the

life of Christ if they do not want to get off their own high horse if
they don't want to you know dismantle their own throne if they don't
want to turn their life over to God and let God lead and guide and fill
and bless their life that's the deepest sin of all and the amazing thing
is that rather than people welcoming it they hate it the amazing thing
that happened is Jesus once said a servant is not greater than his Lord
they have hated me and they will hate you hear what happened when Jesus
came in his own body and as he walked around he had a way of separating
you know husband against wife and parent against child and in-law
against in-law and there were people as they ended up having to take
sides either they were for him because they wanted his love in his life
and they wanted his

throne they wanted to be transformed they wanted the kingdom of heaven
they wanted forgiveness of sins they wanted an eternal hope or they
wanted to go back into their own darkness and say no thank you as a
matter of fact not only no thank you either you go away or I'll put you
away and that's what they did to him they killed him and now the amazing
thing that happens is that now that once again Jesus Christ has been
given another body not his own this time but now is owned by by by
surrender his own by gift we now present our bodies to him a living
sacrifice we say Jesus here's my body I'm through with it I'm done with
it every time I dry I sat on the throne I made the decisions I ran my
own life I did my own thing I ran in the ground and I'm tired of it and
I want to present my body to

you a living sacrifice would you mind taking it over and he says sure
but I'll also live in it the same way I lived my own also there by the
way that I want to live within it I'm gonna let the life of God and the
love of God want to flow through it and reign within it and when
somebody comes to realizing there that when now they surrender their
life to Jesus Christ and he does take them and he fills them and he
lives within them and he begins to reign within them that there'll be an
awfully lot of people who say no thanks there'll be an awfully lot of
people that'll it'll look at you and not care for what you're all about
I'll never forget one time many years ago was when I was on staff back
here the last time and had to come back to see if I could do it right
this time but anyway when I

was here last time in the early 70s I'll never forget one Sunday morning
there's a you did after it was in the prayer room over here after one
service and I came walking out to go over to it was about time to start
the next service and I came walking across the front of here to go over
to the other side and as I came walking by I hear this voice you know it
says McClure you just like one of the like what is I'm walking by and I
look and here's a fellow about four rows back and I looked over at him
and he looked at me and our eyes met and he and this is I'm walking by
here he he looks and he had this look like what are you doing here and
he why worked his way out of the aisle and I said hey Alan that was his
name and I and I said how are you and he says great and he and and all
of a sudden

I realized the last time I believe I'd set eyes on him was when I was in
college I was in a fraternity and all I could remember I don't know
which one of us probably helped the other one get home but we had that
kind of a relationship whether I helped him get home or he helped me get
home and that was the last memory I can think of having and so next
thing I know here he is working his way I'm walking and he looks at me
he's what are you doing here and I didn't know what to say I said I said
well I go to church here I was a truth kind of and he says you do and I
said yeah what are you doing here and he says well a friend brought me
said I needed to come here and I said it's probably true you know and
things in the well I was I said look I said let me grab you right after
the next service

I gotta go and I and well then I went back and they said hey we need you
come do announcements and so I come the next thing I know I come walk
back out for the next service he's still sitting there the service just
he watches me come sit down next to Chuck and he had one of these looks
like oh boy I don't know who you're calling baby but this is really good
but the interesting thing is is we had a number of opportunities after
that to talk and to share and we who were such great friends at once
used to do all sorts of sports together and partying together and all
sorts of experiences to get all sorts of laughs and memories and things
together the next thing you know is that because of what it transpired
in my life I was no longer of interest to him I found that to be true
with most all my

friends when I came to Christ all these guys that you thought was as
great friends ended up not to care for you at all because when you came
along and you spoke of another world in another life and this is
something that a Christian has got to come to grips with he's got to
count the cost Jesus there he made it very clear when somebody begins to
follow him so if anyone come after me and hating on his mother father
wife children yay even his own life he isn't worthy of me now obviously
Jesus never taught us to hate anybody he made it very clear by the rest
of the scriptures we're to love our mother and father we're to honor and
we're to love all even our enemies but here when Jesus said if any man
come after me and hate not his mother father wife children even his own
life to me what I

believe very simply saying is listen if you're gonna come after me and
you're gonna follow me and there is any other relationship any other
friendship anything else in the whole world yay even your own life that
means more to you any other relationship that would ever take precedence
over ours he says then you need to hate that relationship not the person
but hate the fact that there's another being other than God another
force another quality another relationship other than God actually takes
precedence over his his right to rule after he's redeemed to shed his
blood for us paid the price that he has in here we find ourselves so
often backing off from other relationships quieting down you know not
having the courage to stand for our relationship with Christ around
others because we fear

the relationship we're insecure and whatever thing is we don't want to
jeopardize thing and how it ought to be that a Christian looks and they
realize Jesus anything that would ever come between you and me any
person in a relationship any desire anything that would ever take
precedence over you I hate it I hate his force I hate his power I hate
the threat that it has against your throne within my life and we have to
do that and the person there that counts the cost that pray that pays
the price they'll give up whatever it is in all the world to follow him
that's a person that by virtue of doing that the rest of the world's
gonna look at them who holds on to all of its things all of its
priorities all of its sins all of its pleasures all of its thrones all
of its own pride and arrogance

and party is gonna look and your very existence will threaten them your
very life and value to somebody else will look at you and they'll see
somebody that loves the Lord with all their heart mind soul and their
strength they'll see somebody whose life is surrendered to him they're
filled with him and his mercy and the purity of his heart and his peace
so reigns within them and the viewer very presence around them will
convict them of the life that they ought to be living the image that
they were created to enjoy and to be experiencing it and they're sitting
against it they're running from it they're violating it and here Jesus
said for you and I says you ought to cost to count the cost and of
course in the New Testament they understood this the disciples the
Apostles they understood this

very very clear I mean even you know Paul when he says all that I may
know him Paul looked in Jesus was so real to him all that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings if
that by any means I might be made attainable unto his death he looked
there and he says God I just want to be so filled with you I don't care
if I live I don't care if I die I want a life that is so surrendered to
you that you can just take me right up to the tomb and I'll drop into it
I'll yield my life I'll surrender it as you surrendered yours and when a
person begins to realize this is the happiest person in the world Jesus
said whosoever would save his life will lose it but whosoever loses life
for my sake this angel save it when something happens within us where we
realize

God I've spent my life trying to save it tired it's the most exhausting
project in the world I now want to lose it give it to you Jesus said
that'll be the happiest day you'll ever know when finally they're broken
is finally a yield but we should never be amazed at the sufferings that
would ever come we should never be you know it in the rejections and the
persecutions that come unfortunately sometimes we are although Peter
commented about it in his epistle in first Peter 412 Peter says beloved
think it not strange concerning the fire try a fiery trial which is to
try you as though some strange thing happened unto you rejoice in as
much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory
shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy if ye be
reproached for the name

of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of the glory and for the spirit of
glory and of God rest is upon you and on their part is evil spoken of
but on you your part and him is glorified here Peter writes and he said
you know when you've got the opportunity to so identify with your Lord
and Savior you get to be a partaker of his sufferings where the same
attitude that the world once had about him it now happens to you what a
thrilling thing what a wonderful thing you are now discovering and
sharing in his glory you know one of the most amazing things in all the
Bible to me as a sense it is of course as they began to understand this
the the early church they got so excited about these promises that the
Bible of course in Acts chapter 1 it actually tells us that there was a
hundred and twenty

people so committed to wanting to surrender their life to the Lord Jesus
Christ to let him take over the throne to rule and reign entirely within
them that there was a hundred and twenty up in an upper room were
absolutely convinced of the truth of Jesus Christ and those hundred and
twenty who were convinced of the truth of him in Acts chapter 1 entered
into the good of him in Acts chapter 2 he by the power of his Holy
Spirit came took over their lives flooded their soul began to fill them
in such a way as they went out with a newfound glory and life and power
and the next thing you know in Acts chapter 3 those who found themselves
convinced of the truth of it in Acts chapter 2 entered into the good of
it and then they demonstrate the fact of it when they're Peter and John
at the gate

beautiful they come walking up fix their eyes on a man silver and gold
have I none but such as I have in the name of Jesus rise and they're the
man he reached Peter reaches down takes his I'd take lead takes me lifts
him up the man is up walking and leaping and praising God is now they
demonstrated here Peter listening experiencing the very same things that
he had seen Jesus do and the things that he had shared in the life that
he lived in another body outside of him but now at Pentecost he'd open
his heart been filled with Christ in such a way as now he was living his
life through him and then that gave them the right in the rest of Acts
chapter 3 and in Acts chapter 4 to preach in the power of it now when
everybody turned and took notices how do you do this they said oh we
didn't do

this wasn't by anyone in us or any goodness within us he says but all of
this was by the power of Jesus Christ whom you crucified as he lays it
out to follow that you tried to get rid of he's alive and he's doing
quite well thank you very much in this there now the convinced of the
truth they entered into the good preached demonstrate the fact that they
preached in the power of it the next thing you know the Sadducees and
the high priest they all they end up thrown in jail overnight thrown in
prison trying to stop this thing they were very upset you see they had
spent a tremendous amount of effort only a couple of months earlier to
kill Jesus and they thought they did a good job of it they thought he
was finished and now all of a sudden he's back and he's all over the
place he's living in

people's lives and they bring him in they said listen you'll no more
preach in the name of Jesus it's alright if you do this stuff but don't
credit him for it he said I'm sorry I beg your pardon but whether we
obey God or we obey man you be the judge they simply looked and said I'm
sorry but nothing will ever take precedence over Jesus he's King and
he's Lord of our lives and he did it and we'll credit him for it and
we'll reveal his life and his love wherever we go he's all we're about
from now on out and here the amazing thing after they you know they
threatened them and thrown him in prison and done all this it was just
the beginning of persecution but the most amazing thing it tells us the
church gathers together they all come together and they start worshiping
and praising God

because of the fact that literally Jesus Christ was alive in them they
actually looked and said they want to beat us they want to threaten us
now they're after us they thought they killed him and now they're
actually mistaking us for him talk about an excited mistaken identity
they now looked around and said this is living and they were ones there
that were so thrilled they were so taken in with the opportunity to
literally find out this was why they were alive this is why you're alive
this is why I'm alive this is why the Lord wants to take us and to make
us where we are poor in spirit and we do mourn about it and it produces
a meekness within us that creates a tremendous hunger that he now fills
us with himself gives us there a merciful heart a pure heart a peaceful
life now sends us

out and there he sends us out that we would have lives so entirely you
know to surrender to him that the world would see him again through us
and here that that is why you're alive Jesus wants to take us and fill
us with his spirit and fill us with his love and fill us with his life
give us his throne and as he does it it just isn't so I can just go home
and kind of sit around turn out the lights and see if I can glow in the
dark on my own or something whoa so I can maybe go out and you know fill
up my kids you know a little rubber pool and see if I can walk across
the top of it on water you know or something he he lives his life within
us Jesus he gave himself for us on the cross that he might give himself
to us that he might live his life through us and here Jesus said if you
if you if

you allow me to give myself for you and to give myself to you then let
me live my life through you and by the way the same thing they did to me
the last time they'll do it again only this time you can share it with
me you can go along I'll use your lips to share instead of my own I'll
use your heart to love I'll use your hand to reach out to others I'll
use your eyes to look into their heart and tell them God loves them I'll
use you you know to share the hope of eternity and yes in the process
there will be those who don't like it but he says oh how happy will you
be when you are persecuted for righteousness sake when you are
persecuted because you know real righteousness and as we even sang
earlier tonight you know that not by my righteousness but by thy blood
I've been redeemed you know

when we can look and say my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus
blood and righteousness and here when I am persecuted because of the
righteousness of God of Christ living in me and he says you know that
you will be persecuted you will be rejected now let me make it clear he
didn't say here oh how happy or blessed are they that are persecuted for
being obnoxious or blessed are they that are prayer you're persecuted
for being stupid or weird or fanatical there I haven't sure we've all
met and seen people that they seem almost to thrive on that when I was
in San Jose there's a following come to our church a few times a year
and every time the guy had come he was a character he was a character he
ran for mayor he tried to you know you get you know a bunch of
signatures to get on the

ballot he ran for city council and he used to go down to the city
council oftentimes and he would stand up there and he would want to
preach Christ and he would tell him he says you're all a bunch of
wretched sinners and until you know you repent you turn your life over
to Christ and some of the things he said were kind of true no question
of not kind of they were true but he did things in such a way in such a
way that he was so obnoxious about it he went down there was one time in
the paper he went in and he told him he says until you guys in this city
council got enough courage to deal with the homos and the queers and the
weirdos in this city he said you got no right to be around here well I I
kind of agreed but I it isn't the way you kind of want to say things
people have a tendency

to kind of look at you and say you know something I don't like you in
fact I'd like to kill you but not because I see Jesus in you I just see
a weird fanatic one time I was in getting in McDonald's I was about to
get just in line just standing there up and ordering and I turned around
the fellow walked in and I turned oh no here he is and as he and and
there's about three or four people behind me and he yells out a pastor
Don yes I praise Jesus hey do you suppose everybody in McDonald's is
saved yet I'll bet you sure preach to him no not just yet but I'm sure
you will I said that too and he did and in the process of it you could
it had it was kind of like taking your fingernails on a chalkboard you
know as a guy yeah it wasn't something he said amen preach that again in
fact that's so

good let's take up an offering you know or something you know you know
it was no let's just make a sacrifice right here and offer somebody but
here that but Jesus there he's saying that you are persecuted for
righteousness that you so reveal the love and the redemption and the
hope and the message of Christ that people understand that what it is
that they're rejecting isn't some weirdo or some obnoxious fanatic
they're looking at somebody that is gentle and merciful and loving and
joyful and peaceful and kind and long-suffering who cares for them with
all their heart and Jesus said I'll tell you that kind of a person when
they come along they're gonna boy you started late tonight or something
because it's not this late really the Chuck you need to give me one of
those atomic clocks or

something because this thing's this thing's way off but the okay okay
it's a full hour ahead okay I do have some notes I just never got to him
let me but let me but here Jesus is he simply closing he looks at us and
there as he looks at the person that be out of duty says do you know who
you are yet do you know why you really exist has it settled in sometimes
I think we as Christians on one hand we're an amazing paradox because
there's half of us that we are with our own nature where we love the
Lord and we worship him and he's hoping he's life and he's everything to
us and yet at the same time when it comes down to the cost of wanting to
follow him and enter into the greatest joy of all the greatest hope of
our existence why we really live so many times we are so preoccupied
with our own

comforts and our own pleasures and our own place and station in life
that somehow another we end up losing our own hope and the full reason
for which we live to be somebody that we find ourself oh it's a struggle
and the disciples they had to go and pray for boldness they saw the
person keep persecution coming and it was real and it could be traumatic
but they same time looks as this is why I'm alive I am with soon this
light won't you know as well somebody once said you know soon one life
will have come and passed and only what's done for Christ will last when
we find there the reason my heart beats the reason the blood flows is
not to go out there and play the same old games that everybody else
lives for in place and to be cut out caught up in the same priorities
and mistakes of

identity that they're caught up in I found heaven as Paul once told the
church he said let heaven fill your thoughts live for heaven for the
kingdom of heaven to reveal it and let your light so shine as we'll look
at next week before men but that we would find ourselves really truly
wanting to live for him years ago when my kids were young and starting
to pressure us to you know go to movies we weren't so much into him one
time we thought okay here's we'll do we'll go get a video we'll get
popcorn and we'll have you know a movie night and so they went down and
then the movie had just come out Superman and they wanted to see
Superman they had their little Superman underwear and capes and
everything and so they wanted to see Superman and here you know of
course the story of Superboy and

Superman and all this but as the thing began so amazing because here's
young Clark Kent he's just a kid and he's in high school and he's the
water boy for the football team and here he is as the water boy you know
and there's the football players and there's all the pom-pom girls and
the yellow leaders and all that and they're all googly eyes over the
football players and waiting for them to finish practice and practice is
over and all the girls get in the convertible and go driving off with
young with all these football players and Clark is left there to clean
up the you know and all the equipment manager and put everything away
and he kind of turns he watches the convertible drive off and he turns
around there's a football there and he goes over he kicks the thing to
Japan or somewhere

just takes off and and then and then it took him about two and a half
seconds as if he puts everything away and it's in his lock and then he
goes running home and on the way he passes a train and all this other
stuff just flying you know their speed of light you know or something
and the next thing you know he's leaning up against a post they're back
home and next up comes this convertible that left at the beginning with
the girls in it and they come driving up they say Clark they're
astounded they look at him and said how did you get here and he says I
ran and they saw that Clark so funny and then they turn and go driving
on Clark's walking up the stairs up the driveway and his dad sees him
there you know the guy who found him when he landed from Krypton or
wherever anyway and and he

walks down he looks at him he sees the disappointment on his face and
and he says what's wrong he says dad why won't you let me play football
I'd score every time I'd be great I could do it why won't you let me
I'll never forget he turned and he looked at him and he says Clark I
don't know why you're here but I do know it's not to play football and
you know I sat there and ended up turn it off and my kids give me a
whole sermon on this thing they didn't appreciate it any more than you
probably will but to me the average Christian the average Christian is
somebody there that we whatever we do have we want to take it out on the
world's field and play their game with it and we get wrapped up and
that's why we're alive and how I think the average Christian I'd like to
sit there and say you

know and I can say not like he said his dad said I don't know why you're
here the Bible says I'll tell you why you're here and it's not to play
football and it's not to play their games it's to live for him and
whatever it cost to rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your
reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets that were before
you Jesus said you want to know the greatest joy of all you want to know
the greatest crown those that one day will awaken his likeness those
that find there that love not their life even unto death revelation
tells us and the special reward there that people have that get within
their life Lord I don't want to just you know see how long I can keep my
heart beaten in the blood flowing I want to live for you with all my
heart and I want you to

live in me and I want your love and your life and your power to live and
flow unreservedly everywhere I go live through me work neighborhood in
the office and we cry for boldness and we long for the strength but as
he gives it that's the person that's alive the only person I think is
ever really alive in this life as the one who's dead dead to this world
dead to the South they will know a greater joy than anyone else amen

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/8/SID8727.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/don-mcclure/persecution-comes/
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