When Persecution Comes, Remember This… | Matthew 5:11-12

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well, good morning, there it is, good morning, we talk through. Good morning, Good morning to you and you and you in the morning in the morning. We love to stay up late in the morning in the morning with you. Wow, there you go. How awesome is this we got? We got a double verse two verses. Second, Hey you morning, everybody. Welcome to the Bible guys. We are Chris and Jeff. Yes, yes, and we are Yes, that's who we are. Jeff, that's correct. And we are about to launch into a brand new beatitude today Matthew, Chapter five, verse ten. But before we do, excited about. It, Desiree says this, the Winter Olympics are about to start, so let's do a dr list of our favorite Winter Olympic sports. Well, you just commented on and I could't figure out what you were talking about. The Winter Olympics. There it is. I didn't know. That's what we're doing. Great. I should have prepped this one. Yeah, well I'm gonna read it. I'm gonna read a list. Okay, okay, so do rock paper scissors? So you can just go first each of them draft five, So we'll do one through three shoot. Eddy one two three shoot. I didn't pay for heated, I won because you've been choosing rock lately. Yes, And so you went scissors. Yes I did. I should have taken right, Okay, So I typed in because I just wanted to remind myself. What are what? Give me a list of winter of Olympic sports? And it says it is biatha on biathlon, biathlon, bob slang, curling, curling. That's so funny. Who would ever say that's their favorite? Maybe you? I don't know. Ice hockey, what is that? Lose lose lose. That's the fastest fastest sport in Oh. Yeah, yeah, I know what that is. I know what it is. And then figure skating or skating, speed skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, ski, mountaineering, ski, cross country skiing, jumping, skiing, nord skiing, all the other skiings combined, and snowboarding. That's not all of them though, oh, because they also do, like the shooting ones. What are those? Oh? Is that the complete list or is that a summary list? Well? I asked for a complete list. I know, but you're reading the do We're like a couple of men trying to figure ot how to use the phone? How do you use this thing? Well, I keep on in the well, you know why I went ahead and put it on. I always try to put it on silence. How many sports are in the Winter Olympics? Here you go. It says there are eight sports and fifteen disciplines. Okay, and these are that's it? Okay, So it must be the Nordic skiing one, okay? Or did they take the shooting step out? Maybe I don't know anyways, all right, so we're going to vote, all right, you gotta pickure one. So we're picking five apiece, and there's only eight sports. Three apiece. Since you've already wasted. Three minutes, okay, go ahead, all right, number one. Here's what I'll say. I will say my favorite to watch, honestly is the figure skating ice skating thing really well, because it's the most like I like, I love I love the skiing. But nobody does anything different. But with with with skating they do different things. And there's music. They're singing and dancing, right and somebody sequence bright lights. Chris is right up your ally, ud be quiet, I just I just mean it's adressive. Hey, my my wife and daughter will watch that, and then I'll be in there too, and we'll be we'll be arguing. I see your wife and daughter watch it, and you watch your butter. Fall, I will I watch it. I watch it. Yeah, well I wouldn't turn it on to watch it. I feel so manly right now. So mine was going to be hockey. So that's a I like hockey. Yeah, I like going. You know, we live here in Michigan. I grew up in Michigan, and uh, when I was in high school, I used to go, we pay seven bucks, go sit right on the glass at a minor league hockey thing, and we would get one fight for every dollar we spent. And that was that was it. Man. Well I'll tell you what. Seven That's how I've. Been to my share of Red Wings games. And I have definitely tried to watch my share of Red Wings games. And I've determined with hockey, I like it in person a lot, and I don't like to watch it on TV. Oh really, I just don't like it on TV. I just don't love it, don't love it all right, Well, hockey is it okay? And I can still remember when the US beat Russia the Miracle on Ice. I remember watching that game. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna say my next one is it's going to be the ski jump. Isn't that a neat one? I was going to claim that one too. That's a good one only because you think, Okay, this guy might die and then he doesn't die any well, maybe this guy might die. Well, I got it, I gotta say. I I just I'm fascinated with, you know, with just the idea that they're so calm and composed and they lean into the wind and then they land perfectly. I'm thinking, she whizz uh. You know, it takes a lot, a lot of strength and composure to do all that. So I like the the fast ones, like like the luge. These guys are doing like seventy miles an hour some crazy thing down the ice. And it's again, they might die, right, So there seems to be a theme for me. They might die or they might fight. Those are the right, That's so good? Yeah, So I like those the bob sled one that lose. Those are basically the same, but I think they count as two different things. Yep, all right, then I'll choose lose. I'll choose my third on Bob Slid. Yeah, it is, it is so I love I love Bob Slid. It's very interesting and uh and I always, I always just love to watch the turns, especially you know they go around the turns and there's always a camera there and whoa, they whip around the way up on that side. I have a friend that was a US Bob's letter for the US Olympics. Wow. Yeah, yeah, Chimpminton and he was a wrestler for WWF and WWE. He was mister world class afterwards. And it was after they they it was he was on the he was the pusher on the team that finally got I forgot it was bronze or silver. It was like the first medal we'd gotten in Bob sled in decades. The pusher is the most important person. Yeah, and uh so he you know, he's huge, he's like six to three probably probably ways two eighty five, solid muscle. And then when he got out of the Bob sledding thing, he had a tattoo of the Olympic rings on there and it's a world class and so then he was mister world class in the w we for a while. Did he get like really fat? Now the rings are like Drea not. Last time I saw him, he could still beat us up. Okay, Yeah, so that was kind of neat, and he talked all about prepping for that and stuff. It's pretty neat. Because I always wonder when people get multiple tattoos or actually like a lot of tattoos, which I like. I like ink on skin. I think it's really cool. Especially I'm an artist, right, so so that whole art thing is what I really like. And but when people's bodies change a lot, the tattoos sometimes become change a lot. Yes, they change a lot as well. Right, So, my brother Donnie had a unicorn and it was like this slender looking unicorn and then later on his arms get really thick, like look wide like fat, and it just became this pudgy unicorn, you know, and just like that's hilarious. Okay, do I have one more? You do? Okay? I am not lying when I tell you I watch curling? Do you really I do? Yeah? Promise you. Yeah, it's so exciting. It's kind of it's a neat game, and it's it's kind of neat. And my brother and I used to hunt up in northern Michigan and in Lewiston, where we would often stay. There's a curling club in Lewiston, and so on a couple of occasions, I went across the street from where we were staying. We're going there and just watch the guys push. It's kind of a neat it's a neat game. Yeah, I'm sorry, but it's it's every single thing is the same. It's the same. Well, if you like horseshoes, or if you like what's the bean bag toss cornhole, it's the same, but it's on ice. Shuffle board, Yeah, it's on ice. And that's it. It's a fun game. Okay, yeah, all right, so there it is, all right, good. Job us man, we nailed it. We covered six of the eight eight events in the or sports in the think so which ones do we leave off? Which ones we hate? Which ones were on that list that we left off on purpose? Nordic skiing, biathlon and biathlon? Biathlon is the one that we skiing shoot. I think cross country skiing is the worst. Yeah, yeah, that's cross country anything except driving, right Okay, Well, hey. Well I'll tell you what a lot of people Jeff when they are winners of gold medals, the other countries persecute them. Is that true? Is that true? That's the fact it has to be. Yeah, right, that wouldn't you think? Yeah, okay, yeah, okay, Well, but you know. What they should do. They should, they should they should treat them well because the Bible says they'd be blessed. Yeah, well, here it is. And that was one of the worst transitions we've ever done, which, if you're new to the show, we do that on purpose. Yes, So in Matthew chapter five, verse eleven, Jesus says, blessed are you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you, because you're my followers, be happy about it. Be very glad for a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. Well I read that, and I go, really, Jesus, of all these all the other ones, I kind of like this one. I'm like, yes, well, I got to be honest. It's it's almost like the Book of James. Remember when it says, blesses the man who endures temptation, Right, or endures trials and tribulations. Count it, Count it all joy. Count it all joy. It's sort of like the same thing. It's like, wait a minute, I'm not going to count it all joy. When I go through the worst, and I'm talking about trials and tribulations. I'm talking about the heavy ones, right, the ones that don't feel good. And this, this, this gives me that type of feeling. Here. You know, the people lie about you, people persecute you, people will hurt you, and they do all of this because you're my followers. And uh and and really what he's saying is is, you know, when you pay the price for your faith, when you stand up and do what is right, and when you stand for Jesus and people radically oppose you. Blessed are you who you know are persecuted because of faith? Now? Have you ever been? I know you have? Have you ever? Can you ever think of a time where you were persecuted publicly for faith? Yeah? Yeah, on multiple occasions, even young in my faith as a as a kid, as a teenager, multiple times I used to have kids who beat me up in school over because I was always a fighter. And then suddenly I wouldn't fight anymore. And kids would punch me. How about now Christian? Right? They would literally do that to me, beat me again, beat me again. And I can remember going to my dad. My dad said, listen, if they're taking your lunch, break their nose. If they're beating you up because you're a Christian, take it. And I remember going and so I can remember taking hits as a kid. You know, protect your property if that's all. This isn't a faith thing. But if they're beating you because you're a Christian, he said, how are you going to prove that you're any different than them if you fight them back? And I remember thinking, man, that's a tough one, but I did it. I can remember same thing with coaches. I had coaches do that. But then I was working in Chicago with gangs and we had some gang members decided to come after us, not because we were out of place in their neighborhood, but because we were Christians, and they smashed out our windows. And they matter of fact, they come right, they smashed out our windows. We go running around the corner. It was a couple of about fifteen year olds. I was nineteen twenty, that's about twenty twenty one, come run around the corner and realize they had baited us into a back alley where they are about fifteen guys with bats and chains, and it was all these eighteen nineteen twenty year olds, So it was two fifteen year olds. I thought, oh, we're gonna beat these kids up. And then we get around the corner and it was just that they were baiting us into that area so they could beat us up, and they sent the message, we don't like you or your Jesus, and that's what therefore we got away. We wound up not uh getting beat up too bad, but we got away. But that was the message they were sending. So, yeah, that's happened. And then other things throughout my life and even in some of the missionary stuff that we do. Yeah, very clearly, it's it's an issue. So my son was attending Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Did you know? He went there for semester and uh, semester and a half. Actually the undergrad stuff is free. Yeah, you can go to Moody Bible Institute. Yeah, he free. He was he was paying the undergrad He was. Paying room and board though. But but yeah, the actual you know, education classes. Yeah, curses per portion was free. So he was walking back from his job in downtown Chicago. He had well, he had to walk like six blocks to work, and he worked as he worked as a balloon twister in restaurants. Oh cool, and then people would tip them. You know, he made ed de Bevick's. Is that where he worked? Oh, I have no idea because they used to have balloon twisters anyway, but. Anyway, but but he but he made tremendously good money. It was really good. So he's walking back to his dorm and he approaches the city block that Moody is on. So there's like one big, huge city block and his dorm is on that block. But there's a big field and uh, and so he sort of crosses the street and he's walking toward his dorm and I am currently on the phone with him, right because he would often call me on this walk back to the dormitory. And there was a gang of people who jumped him and beat him up. And they said that they did that because they didn't like the Christians who went to Moody. So there's this gang and they and they verbally attacked him. When when when I was. I was listening to it on the phone, and uh, and then the phone goes dead as I hear him getting beat up. Then the phone was dead. Wow, Well he's he's fine, all Midley and he gets up and he you know, they threw eggs at him, and he had this jacket, this really expensive jacket, so he threw that away and he was covered in eggs and they'd beat him up, and you know, he kicked him and everything else. So he had to get up and he had to go like take a shower immediately, so he didn't answer his phone. So imagine me, I'm on the phone with him, I hear him getting attacked. By when you're five hours away and I'm five hours away. It goes silent as I hear him getting beat up, goes dead. I call back one hundred times, no answer because he's taking care of business in the shower, you know, just getting all the eggs off him, and I'm thinking, what am I thinking? Right? So anyway, it was very very traumatic for me, nonetheless, But that's what steps out in my mind every time it says persecuted for faith. He was he was beat up just because he was a Bible College student. There's a note in the Life Application Study Bible that says, g this is said to be happy when we're persecuted for our faith. And then it gives reasons why persecution could be good. Right, But man, these are very humbling to me because they don't feel good. Persecution can be good because one, it takes our eyes off earthly rewards, so it really it reminds us what's most important, and we forget that this isn't really home. We're just travelers passing through, right, So that's one. Two, it strips away superficial belief right when you're being persecuted, you find out do you really believe this or not? When you're being persecuted for your faith, do you really believe it? Number Three, it strengthens our faith if we endure. If you make it through it, and you endure, you know, okay, God will carry me through this. God can even help me through this bad thing. And then for it serves as an example to others who follow as they see the way that we live while going through it. Because persecution is going to continue happening. The next generation is going to be persecuted. The only way they're going to make it through is knowing that others have made it through right right, That's it and it so we can be comforted knowing that God's greatest prophets were persecuted, including Elijah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. The fact that Christians in many times and places around the world have been persecuted as evidence of faithfulness. Faithless people would be unnoticed and we wouldn't remember them. In the kingdom, God will reward the faithful by receiving them into his eternal kingdom where no one will face persecution. So there's a couple of things. One is you're going to find out what you really believe. You don't know what you really believe when everything's easy, right, that old gospel song we talk of faith when we're up on the mountain, when talk comes so easy, when life's at its best. Yeah, But it's down in the valleys of trials and temptations. That's when we when our faith is really put to the test. It's so funny that you thought of an old gospel song. I was thinking of Steve Green's all who come behind us fine as faithful? Oh yeah, May the. Fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe in the life we live, inspire them to obey. Yea. So there is this idea that the fact that we have great people who came behind us that are are continuing or that that then inspire us. And then there's going to be I mean, people who came before us that inspired us, and then there's going to be people behind us, right that will be inspired by our decisions. And that's been that way. John Fox wrote that the that the persecution of the saints, the blood of the martyrs, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And that's true, and that's been true all around the world. Were you with us at the Timothy Initiatives Global Partners weekend when we showed that video of that guy who was sitting on his phone and he texted he sent us of video saying they're threatening to kill me and I'm not afraid to die, but what a up my children? His wife had died, I don't think so. And he was asking what do we do? So he was planting a church in an area that had a bunch of radical Hindus that just kill and they burned down ninety churches and they did all kinds of just horrible things towards the Christians. They hate Christianity in that area, and not all Hindus do, but in that area there is a radical group of violent Hindus. And so they threatened him, if you preach the gospel here, we will kill you. And they put them on notice, and they left messages and they let the children know. His wife had just died from kidney failure. And so here's a single dad raising his two kids and they say we're going to kill you and your kids. So he sent us a video and he said, what do I do. I'm not afraid to die, just tell me what I do. What do I do with my children? Right? And he sent us a message, I'm going to go preach the gospel anyways, otherwise how are they ever going to hear? So some of our team intervened, They jumped in, they pulled him and his children out for a little while. Things calmed down a little bit, and then he went back and actually planned the church in that village. Wow, can you imagine? No, I canotomy I can't. And now let me tell you this. It's one out of every seven Christians in the world live in a place that they're threatened NonStop. One out of every seven. Wow, Christians of the world have a threat against their religion and their faith. And I wonder how full our churches to be on Sunday if one out of seven people sitting in our auditorium were also threatened. Right just in the West, Yeah, yeah, in the West. It's just the commitment of the Christian brothers and sisters around the world are incredible. So way back when Fidel Castro was still alive, it was, you know, still the regime in Cuba, we had flown into Cuba and we were doing a video for you know, this organization called Cuba for Christ and they were wanted, you know, the gospel to be spread throughout Cuba. Well, first of all, we barely got into the country, right because back then it was even way more touchy than it is now, you know. And then we actually yeah, and then we actually stayed at a rest or at a at a hotel, the Copo Cabana. Actually it was a very famous Copo Cabana. Uh that right, right, and uh but anyway, but but it was bugged. It was bugged. So they told us, they said, don't say anything about our work. That we're doing in the hotel hotel room because it's bugged, and like I literally walked by when the door was opened, and I saw all the screens in the hotel rooms like that. I mean, I'm not kidding, like like violating, there's. No rights, there's no rights and so and so, and it was just terrible. And so I just thought to myself, somebody's watching me. It's creepy, you know, or listening or whatever. So I really couldn't tell. But anyway, the bottom line is is we were filming in the streets and we were doing an interview on the thoroughway and as we're asking about this guy to talk about his ministry, there were some people walking by and they kept on getting closer and closer and hanging around, and one of them was an old woman and they said, we have to go because we're going to get in trouble and the police are going to come and they're going to arrest us for talking about Christ on the streets. And I was like what. And so we had this all this filming gear and we had to literally pick it up and go, and I was like, what are you talking about? There was no police around, and what they explained to me, was is that the people make no money right now, only make twelve dollars a month on the average. Oh now it's thirty five. Okay, Well back down if. Yeah, doctors would be like fifty bucks okay, and then everybody else, street cleanings, police officers, everybody else makes it okay. Well, but either way, but yeah, yeah, yes, way right, I mean back then it was way less. Y're right, so anyway, at the bottom line is they had said that the government offers rewards, yes, for those who turn in Christians, and so they said the reason why those people were hanging around is they had overheard my conversation and they have called the police and they're waiting around for their reward. So we need to go. And I'm like, how do you know that? And they're like, trust me, and I was like, that is incredible. I met with a guy he was called by the other pastors. He was the Lion of the Mountains. He was an older man that had led a church planting movement in the mountains in the eastern portion of Cuba and it's all just wild jungle. It's incredibly difficult there. And he had been in prison like fifteen times and he was talking about he had helped a bunch of guys go through Bible College and get training and stuff like that. He said, but we wouldn't have ordained them until they'd been in prison. So you could get a Bible College degree, but we wouldn't ordain you until you've been in prison, because he said, how do we know if you have what it takes? That's hardcore? Well that's a. Pretty high standard right there. And I can't imagine the Cuban prison is really great. Yeah, right. He talked about the nightmares that he'd seen, you know, in prison and stuff, but he just sat there. I've got pictures sitting in his home and he was just telling stories about that. And you know, it's not quite difficult now, but it's still very, very difficult. They still have Communist Party leaders on every single block, and they're just paying attention to who comes on, who leaves, Why did you talk to that person? Who are you with? All that kind of stuff all the time? Is that way? I've been in other countries. I'm not going to say the names of the countries because I'm thinking about it, but some other very difficult countries where the police non stop wouldn't leave us alone, just everywhere. We went to the point where they were actually staying in the room next to me on purpose. And when I texted my friend, Hey, I'm leaving go down to breakfast. I step out of my door and the police officer steps right out of history right next to me, makes eye contact with me and gets on the elevator together. Wow. Right, just letting us know we're watching you. We're paying attention. Have to be very careful about that stuff. And that's for Westerners. They don't care about me or you, right right. But what they're doing is they're paying attention to like we're leaving breadcrumbs for the people that we meet with. Now they're paying attention to who didn't me, and they're trying to build all these networks and figure out how to bring down Christians just that way. But in Nigeria, we had Timothy Initiative last year, had a whole family associated with Timothy Distry kidnaped by Boko Haram. Boko Horam is one of the worst terrorist organizations the world. Sworn allegiance to ISIS and to the Taliban, and they're out there, they're killing They killed five thousand Christians last year just them. Can you imagine you just go into your church on Easter Sunday, they chain the door shut and burn the building down right there. It's horrible what's happening to some people. And yet Jesus says that you can count it joy. And I don't get but you're gonna be blessed if you go through persecution. It's not for in vain and God will reward you. If you're struggling through persecution, just be like Jesus, and. Most of us won't have to get in you know, burning buildings or no or anything like that, or get arrested, but you can step out and make a difference at your workplace. We're afraid somebody might make fun of. Us, right right, that's our persecution exactly. So yeah, get a little bit more courage, right, I mean, let that inspire you to step up and make a statement for Christ today and so let's apply it today. So hey, that's our time. So hopefully we'll see tomorrow. On the bibble, guys,