Matthew 5: Pickles, Manure, And The Smell Of Faith

Getting mocked for your faith feels like failure, but Jesus calls it blessing. We open Matthew 5 and sit with one of the most confrontational lines in the Beatitudes: persecution for righteousness. Along the way, we name a hard reality most of us have seen up close, sometimes in ourselves: not every backlash is persecution. Sometimes Christians “smell bad” because we’re being unkind, arrogant, or more committed to outrage than to Jesus’ actual way of mercy, humility, and peacemaking. 

Then we pivot to the uncomfortable truth that even genuine Christian love can still offend. Using the “fragrance” language of 2 Corinthians 2, we talk about why living the Sermon on the Mount can feel like a rebuke to the people around us, even when we’re not trying to condemn anyone. We also address the exclusive claim at the center of Christian discipleship: Jesus doesn’t share the throne, and “the narrow gate” cuts across a culture that wants spirituality without commitment. That tension shows up everywhere from friendships and workplaces to government policy and public life. 

We end with practical encouragement for anyone facing pressure to blend in: how to respond without bitterness, how to keep your joy, and why the kingdom of God keeps moving forward when the world pushes back. If you want a clearer, more grounded approach to persecution, religious freedom, and faithful witness, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

The Mountaintop Teaching That Confronts Us

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Jesus gathered his disciples and walked to a high spot as a crowd swelled the students. Curious onlookers and possible enemies wanting to hear this religious leader who seemed different. Could it be the Messiah they have been waiting for to save them from their enemies? Could the old kingdoms of this world be passing away? Was this Jesus finally ushering in the kingdom of God? And then he spoke a verbal attack on unrighteousness and self-righteousness. An assault on I'ma get me and mine. And it was a message for the broken. Blessed are the poor spirit, the spiritually bankrupt, those who recognize desperate need for God. And starting with this deep truth, he dispensed world-changing, life-rearranging understanding. Love your enemies, be generous to everyone. Come on. For real?

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You will never be good enough by working harder. Pray this way. You are the light of the world. Do not worry about your life.

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Be realistic, Jesus.

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Ask, seek, knock. Stop performing. Enter the thing. Enter through the narrow gate. Feeling your foundation upon something that lasts.

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Today, many likers of Jesus listen to these words and they say, He probably didn't mean that, but if we truly assume Jesus meant what he said, a better kingdom would shine brighter in a darker world. Together we can look to the Savior on the mountaintop and soak in the teachings of life. Join us for uncommon sense, joyfully living out the challenges of Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Why A Physical Bible Helps

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Today we're gonna be in our Bibles in Matthew 5 once more. And I'm actually gonna start us out in uh verse three, which you've already heard that. We've already taught on that. But one of the things we figured out is you you kind of gotta go through like where you've been a little bit sometimes. And since we have a shorter text, um we can go there. So I hope that you guys will go there with uh with me to Matthew 5. Now, here's what I would say to everybody um we love when you have these physical Bibles. Why? Because when you look at a Bible, um, you can see where you're coming from and you can see where it's going. When you look at a phone, you only see the text you're in. So it's okay, y'all have phones, everybody has phones, nobody's mad at you for that. But let me just let me just say to you, when you have this thing out, you can see like all of it in one place at one time. It's very helpful to me. You can know the context, you can know what's just happened, where it's going. So some of you are like, Well, I don't got the money for a Bible. Well, we do, and we got a money, we got the money for a Bible for you, and we'll go bankrupt giving away Bibles if you actually need one. And so we have free Bibles available on both sides. You'll see them up there and on that side. Um, they are study Bibles in English. We also have uh bilingual Bibles, we have them in Tagalog, and we have them in Haitian Crayol. So tenemos Biblias Bilingue disponibles al costada del salon, bonju, when sat sim cantar, nueva vecin bib kray, si e puno gratis, nasam o creo. Now, as you guys know, we have a reminder for everyone. When we hear kids, we love the sound of kids. The kid kids are a beautiful noise to our ears because it knows our church will exist long after we're gone, right? So we always say that a crying church ain't a dying church, yes. So if you ever see a family with a child here, there may be a reason the child has to stay in the service. We're glad they're here. Always glad they're here. We're pumped that they're here. All right, so are you getting there to Matthew 5? Let me just start by saying this. Every Christmas,

Starbucks Cups And Fake Outrage

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people flock to Starbucks for their wonderful cups of sugar, cream, and then, you know, if they feel like it's some coffee. You know, we call it what? Diabetes in a cup. That's what we call it. Now, often the outside of the cup would give us a sense of like whatever holiday was coming up. That sense of Christmas whimsy, especially. And so one year they had snowflakes, the other year they had snowmen, another year they had pine trees. I was looking it up in 2011. I liked there was this one guy sledding downhill with a dog on the sled with him. Love that one. Um, but then in 2015, Starbucks chose violence and they got rid of the images on the cups. And, you know, I was so angry that, you know, where's the winter symbolism? Like they must hate Jesus. Um, so we had these internet pastors that went crazy. Um, what they did is they went online and they said that Starbucks is persecuting us because they have red cups. It's a war on Christmas. Was that persecution? No. Did the anger make some people money though, and get them some clicks? Yes. Did the devil win that stupid battle? Also, yes. Good thing is God uses everything for his glory. Now, let me take you to my senior year of high school. In my senior year of high school, it was the year 2000. Some of you say, Oh, he's so young, some of you are so old. That's great. We're mixed together. In my senior year of high school, I had been a Christian for about a year. And so I knew everything about the Bible. Like more than I know now, you guys. Um, I had also been reading the entire series of this book series called the Left Behind series, where I learned that Jesus was going to return and we were gonna go up into the clouds, all our clothes and our fillings were gonna fall onto the ground, and we would just be with Jesus. And so, you guys, I knew everything about Jesus. Um, left behind, and I read the Bible like once or twice at that point. And so, what's crazy is that like I was maybe just a little arrogant, which you might have figured out by now. Um, I was uninformed in many ways, and I loved God, and I was passionate about God. Okay, so I wasn't saying I was like not loving God, but um, I had an English teacher who gave me a prompt to write about my life in my senior year. And while I was uninformed about God, I I loved him, right? So now I was a terrible student, I'm not gonna lie to you, but a bad writer, I was not. I remember getting like a D minus um on a pretty well-written essay, and scribbled on the top was God is not real. Tell me about your real life. Now, was that persecution? I'll say yes, some.

A Real Moment Of Pushback

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But the question is, did I handle it with grace? No, heck no. Actually, I was outraged, and this was the greatest travesty in the history of mankind. Um, besides, you know, some of the other things that happened, but I missed out on something, friends. I missed out on the joy of persecution, the blessing of it. I missed out on a chance to honor God. Persecution is not always, though, just someone killing you for your faith. It can be big, it can be small, but Jesus says we are blessed when it happens. And I know in a lot of these things you might want to push back, you might want to push back on Jesus. But these are the words of Jesus, and he says, We are blessed when this happens, and it is a great chance for our light to shine bright in a dark world. See, um, Pastor Matt Chandler he says it this way He says, Sometimes persecution is overt, other times it's veiled in professionalism, politeness, or so-called progress. However, it comes, persecution for righteousness' sake is real. So, guys, when faith is rooted in Christ, we will stink to death for some people, stink like death for some people. Yet when we are insulted for righteousness, God is glorified and the kingdom of God moves forward. So I hope you're with me in Matthew 5. I'm gonna start at chapter 3, even though not teaching on that. I feel like we need some of that context to come back into this. We good? You with me? Does anyone have a physical Bible with them today? I just love seeing those, thank you. I'm not mad at anybody else, just like seeing it. And yes, phones are physical. Matthew five. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Now on to our text, verse ten. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you, and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven, for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is God's word. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for another day for many of us. But we also acknowledge that there's someone we love who was sitting with us here last week, hugging us, singing with us, laughing with us. Our brother Rick is no longer here. He's been called home to be with you. And while we understand it is better for him, it just sucks for us. We miss him. I wish I could go back in time and hug him tight one more time. Feel that back brace under his shirt that he always wore, keeping his back upright. I miss my friend. We miss our friend. And we grieve with Rick's family. We ask that you would feel close to Sharon and his son Paul. We also ask that you would comfort the Santos family as they travel home from the funeral for Mark's brother. So much grief in this world. But we do not weep like those who have no hope. Our hope is in you, maker of heaven and earth. And we need to lean heavy on you this morning. We put our trust in you. We ask you would teach us to see the world through your eyes. And when we see darkness all around us and decay and death, would you reveal pockets

Reading The Beatitudes On Persecution

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of light that put evil to flight? Please empower us. Give us boldness and grace by your spirit. We love you. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said. Amen. Every Saturday night, my wife and I go out on a date. It's like we protect it at all costs. Um we eat out basically. Usually we go to eat out. We often eat at the same Laotian place for dinner, get the same meal. We roll up, the food is like almost ready for us, and we roll up. It's like that bad. Um it's good, man. Uh, you know, I have celiac disease, so we kind of want to get the same thing so I don't get sick on Sunday morning. Um, but then we go out and we get the same, go to the same ice cream place almost every time, North Park Creamery, sometimes to Anne's uh Anne's Electronics, which is actually an ice cream place. Um and we just kind of do the same thing every week, and I love it. We go to Shelter Island and we read books and we go on a walk, and it's great. I love it. Now, it's romantic too. I'm not gonna go into depth, but it's romantic. And if my wife actually really doesn't want a kiss from me though that night, she knows what she needs to do. Now, it's not it's not being grumpy that's gonna stop me. It's not dressing in a potato sack. She knows that she looks fine in what she calls her frump a dump clothing. No, if she really doesn't want a kiss from me, she eats pickles. Pickles on her burger. It is the worst smell ever. Now, do any of you guys have just like a smell that you just detest? Yeah. What is it and why is it pickles? I'm just wondering. Um, there's something about the smell of pickles that just makes me want to wretch. It's the worst smell imaginable to me. Now, 2 Corinthians 2 says this says, our lives are a Christ-like fragrance, rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. Those who are perishing, we are a dreadful to those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom and pickles. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And so today I'm going to give you two smelly things about persecution, two smelly things about persecution. And my first point is this sometimes Christians smell stanky because we are being jerks. Sometimes Christians smell stanky because we are being jerks. Now, I want you to see uh we, I'm not saying you, okay? Like I'm included in this, alright? You look at verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Notice Jesus is not saying, blessed are those who are persecuted because of anything else. Later on, he says, when they insult you and persecute you falsely and say every kind of evil against you, notice he says falsely. That's an important word there as well. And it's on behalf of Jesus. So there's a the important turn of phrase there for Jesus, right? Because of righteousness. It's so so important. See, Christians are sinners, yes, but also God is slowly transforming us to become more like him. Also, notice Jesus says when they insult you and falsely say evil against you, falsely is an important word. So here's what we're gonna have to talk about, friends. People who have claimed Christianity over the millennia have been responsible for some despicable things. Can we all agree on that? Yes, it has kept people away. It's sad. We have the crusades, we have mass shootings, we have war, we have chattel slavery. Guys, when we do terrible things to Muslims, when we abuse and mistreat women, when we mistreat and tease people who have different views than us on sexuality, and these people fight back, that's not persecution. That's a response to us being terrible. Okay? I'm not talking about righteousness, I'm talking about unrighteousness, okay? So hear me out. Now I've met plenty of people who are mad at be at God because they followed him and things turned

Pickles And The Fragrance Metaphor

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out bad. But the the hard thing is like Jesus says to follow him and pick up your cross. It's an instrument used to kill revolutionaries. Like, what did we think that meant when we came to Jesus? Oh, oh yeah, it's gonna be a cakewalk. No, he said it's gonna be a walk to your grave. But that's not the suffering that we're talking about following Jesus. This is not the suffering, this is the suffering that comes out because of your actions, my actions. Like, sometimes we'll say, Hey, you need to stay away from that area, you need to stay away from that person, you need to stay away from that sin. It's gonna cause you to sin. And we often say, No, I got this, I got it this time. And then you suffer and then you get mad at God. This is not what Jesus is talking about. Or we'll say, Hey, you need to spend your time with Jesus church so you can build relationships and grow and make the things of Jesus a priority in your life, and we'll say, No, I'm good, I got this. And then you have no people to encourage you when your worst moment comes along. Jesus is not talking about this. So we say, Don't blame God, don't blame persecution, don't blame the church when your decisions hurt you, okay? Especially your sins. Now, I don't want to trigger anyone in the room, but I'm going to. Um, do you guys remember uh 2020? That was the longest decade of our lives, right? Like a largely unknown virus was spreading across the world. We called it the coronavirus, uh, soon to be shortened to the Rona, and then it became COVID-19, which became COVID. And um, there was a problem. At that time, all large gatherings were canceled. Now, most churches moved online, then we moved outside with masks, then we moved outside without masks, then we moved inside with masks, and then we moved inside without masks. It was our progression. I don't know if you guys remember that. And um, during that time, I would say some governments overreached. Um, some allowed other gatherings first before they allowed church gatherings. You had groups who mistook this though as an opportunity to just be all about outrage, to feign outrage, to gather more people to their cause to say they're not letting us worship, and we're out here worshiping God in the park. Like, what do you what are you talking about? But many of you guys, you were worshiping God in other ways, unrelated to music. You were worshiping, like you served your neighbors thousands of pounds of food and supplies, diapers, toilet paper, um, everything else in the name of Jesus. We called it what the toilet paper, we called it white gold, right, Race? Remember that? Um, it was hard to get. You helped vaccinate people in Mount Hope, hundreds of people in Mount Hope as the church. You loved your neighbor. You saw this as an excuse to worship God. You worshiped outside at Gompers Park for a longer time, so those who had weakened immune systems would be safe. And I loved when Parks and Rec came to me and said, We've had more murders in this park than almost anywhere else, but as your church has been here, we've had none. We went on break for a month because COVID got worse, and there was a shooting. Like you worshiped God. It was a chance to bring glory to God, or pretend to be outraged, or find a reason to be outraged. There were churches who made outrage their brand, some in San Diego, demanding rights, and they actually grew bigger with cultural angry Christians. I'm not here to talk about them though. They smelled terrible to everyone, to everyone else but the cultural Christian. Friends, here's my thing. If I smell like manure, I want it to be for the right reason. Like I want to be tending a garden, planting tulips, I want to be planting trees, I want to be planting flowers. I don't want to smell like manure because I want to roll around with pigs. There's two different reasons you smell bad.

When Christians Suffer For Being Jerks

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I would rather smell bad for the right reason, friends. I don't want to smell like manure because I'm rolling around in it. There's a difference. One is the way to life, one is the way to death. But City Life Church, you didn't do the outrage a bit. We had a few people leave. But you chose to bring glory to God. You fed the hungry, you helped to heal the sick. You chose your inconvenience so others could worship God. One woman in our church, she made thousands of reusable masks, and we handed them out in Mount Hope. Mount Hope was blessed during this season because of Jesus' church. Now, 1 Peter 4 says, Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in having that name. See, this is beautiful, friends. This is saying, suffer for the right reasons. Suffer for the right reasons. So much of what the church has to do is to walk a fine line, though. For years people followed the exclusivity of Jesus, but they had no compassion for anyone else. We disagree with the world as believers. We do. It's just it's inevitable. Um, but we have to hold our faith in humility. After all, we are broken in spirit, right? The spiritually bankrupt. That's Jesus describing us. I talked to a friend this week who confessed uh their sinful desires to a pastor. The pastor immediately called him a sissy, told him to get out of the church. Leaders in the church didn't want their kids around him, even though it was not an attraction to children. And it was wrong. It was justice without grace. And so today when people hate the church, um many of them hate the church because of things like this. They don't hate you for being righteous, like Jesus says. They hate us for being jerks when we don't do righteousness in always. See that man had confessed his struggle to a pastor and he was not shown love. He was shown ungodly hatred. Now here's the problem though. We often stray from the words of Jesus from one side to the other in showing mercy, don't we? Suddenly we deny justice exists. We deny the justice of Jesus. We pretend our desires cannot be sinful, and we affirm sin Jesus knew and said was destructive. No, that's not love either. That's enabling and it's denying the words of Jesus once more. That's not righteousness, that's not holiness. People won't hate you when you affirm their decisions. They're gonna love you. You're gonna smell sweet to them. But Christians, we can't do that wholesale, can we? When you are gossiping, when you are fighting, when you are sleeping with someone outside of Christian marriage, when you are overworking and not ever seeing your kids, when you are abusing drugs, alcohol, or someone you love, the people who love you in the church are gonna call you to something better because Jesus demands that of us, but we speak in love, and let me just be the first to say, I get it wrong all the time. And I've got it wrong to some of you. Trying my best to hold you accountable in love and just coming across as someone who just hates you. It's wrong. If the world though agrees with everything our church does, if we affirm the world and everything it does, if we smell like flowers and there's no manure, we're getting it wrong still, aren't we? Because those who belong to Jesus are constantly repenting of our sins. We are seeking to align our desires with God, it's not our own. See, when faith is rooted in Christ, mercy, humility, peacemaking, purity will stank like death to some people, but it's okay. It's good. Now, Zambian pastor Joe Capolio he says righteous living challenges wickedness. In individuals and societies and unsettles their consciences. And so persecute Christians. So this is for the right reasons. See, this is when you're at your house and you hear a smoke alarm and you go, Whoa, I need to sleep. That's an annoying sound. And so what do you do? You go to that smoke alarm and you break it. Or you pull out the batteries and say, I don't want to hear that junk. It's bothering me. The problem is, what if there's smoke? What if there's a fire? You're punishing something for being honest only and doing its job. Sometimes Christians, when we do our job, will be punished for it. We believe in something much worse than fire, don't we? It's eternal separation from God, a place of darkness and gnashing of teeth. It is our job to lovingly warn the world even if we get smashed for it. And not smashed in that other way. With compassion and grace, friends. See, when people bring difficult news, none of us like to hear it. But the gospel starts with difficult news, but never never stays there. The gospel is this, right? That we understand we have a broken relationship with God that cannot be mended by our own works. No matter how many good things we seek to do, no matter how many things we deny, no matter how many right things we do, our relationship is still severed with God. There's no way to fix it without the love of Jesus. So we understand that Jesus came to this earth, died on our behalf as a sacrifice for us, rose again, showing that he defeated sin and death. That is the good news, friends. We never stay at the fact that we are broken. We never stay at the fact that we are poor in spirit. We worship a God who is rich in spirit and generous. That's the beauty of the gospel. That is the good news. We don't earn anything with God. We freely receive it and we freely give it. And then when we fully embrace Jesus, we fully embrace His Word, we fully embrace His church, something else happens. And that's where we get our second point. Even Christian love will smell like death to a world against Jesus. Even Christian love will smell like death to a world against Jesus. You can't win, friends. Verse 11, you are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice. You hear that? Be glad and rejoice. See, this can actually be translated as leap for joy. And you're like, mmm, Jesus, come on, man. Really? Leap for joy because we're being fired from our job because of you? Leap for joy because people are killing Christians all over the world at a clip higher than ever before. Leap for joy because your reward is great in heaven, he says. For this is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, everyone receives trash talk. It doesn't matter what whatever stance you take, you will get trash talked. It's just a part of life. Um, but the important thing here is because of Jesus. Because see, when we seek to truly live out the Sermon on the Mount, it will invite hatred. It will invite hatred and dislike. No matter what, someone won't like it when you stand for anything, friends. We might as well stand for the right thing. Some will hate you if you stand for justice. Some will hate you if you stand for mercy. But this is a good thing. It should be something that causes us to leap for joy. Now, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, like Jesus was pointing out, people are going to think you are judging them. Like they're gonna be at this, they're gonna be at like a Las Vegas buffet of sin. That works together multiple ways, doesn't it? Huh? They're gonna be at a buffet of unrighteousness. And they're gonna see you not eating, and they're gonna say, Why are you judging us? And you're like, hey man, I'm I'm not here to judge anybody. I'm just not gonna eat from that buffet. But people who are not seeking a pure heart, they hate to see someone else trying to be pure. Notice I'm not saying trying to make everyone else pure. Did you hear me? Just your seeking purity will feel like people uh will feel to people like you're judging them. But this is a good thing. Jesus says, leap for joy for this. Guys, when I don't smoke or curse around some people, it makes them feel icky. Like I'm not trying to do anything to them. They don't like it when I'm nearby when they smoke weed or get drunk. I've been yelled at for existing in moments. Like people are smoking sharm around me. I just have my Bible, I don't even have it open, I'm not preaching, I'm just there. And people will say, Pastor, I don't want you around me. You need to leave. What am I doing? What scent am I giving off when I've showered that day and they don't want me around them like that? That's not my fault. I'm not interested in condemning them. I'm just trying to follow Jesus. And when people ask me about what it means to follow Jesus, then I'm ready to tell them about him. But when you seek to follow Jesus, you will smell like pickles to some people. I know some of you like pickles, and I'm just gonna stay on this. I don't care. Friends, some will hate you for believing something just exclusive. Just exclusive, but Jesus doesn't share. He refuses. He tells us there is only one way to the Father, only one way to be saved, and it is through what he calls the narrow gate. Jesus alone. Now, a pluralistic society, and guess what? We live in a pluralistic society, a pluralistic society hates exclusivity. And it's such an exclusive hatred of exclusivity that's so funny to me. The only way is every way. And if you disagree with us, then you're wrong. Well, wait, hold wait, what? This is what it reminds me of. Now, when it comes to immigration, I want our country to be more welcoming to immigrants and to refugees, but that this is something really funny to me. And and the hypocrisy of the exclusive hatred of exclusivity reminds me of this. Whenever I'm driving from this neighborhood to Balbo Park, you pass by a house, and on this wall in front of a house, there's a sign, and it says no border wall. And I think for me, um, for those of you who hold my opinions on immigration, which I'm not giving out, like I'm I'm just not gonna say. Doesn't matter. But what's funny to me is this idea of someone having a wall in front of their house to keep people out that says no walls. Like that's what this feels like to me. Like I get the sentiment, but here's the thing it's a bit like this idea that there's no exclusivity. You cannot have exclusivity. We're exclusively saying there's no exclusivity. That's a problem with our culture. Jesus is the only way

Holding Justice And Grace Together

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to heaven, the only way to the Father. He says that, he means it. People will hate it, and people will hate you for believing it. So I can't stand before you and say with all honesty and humility that Islam is the way. Islam is not the way. The nation of Islam is not the way. The Baha'i faith, which I grew up in, is not the way. Hinduism, universalism, Shintoism, secular humanism, agnosticism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, those are not the way. No matter how much they claim it, they are not. Either Jesus is everything or he's nothing. Now, if you feel yourself getting riled up by this, if you feel yourself getting riled up by this, I just want to point out one thing. If you feel I am wrong for this, I get it, and you are entitled to your opinion, but I am using the words of Jesus to speak to his exclusivity. Look it up for yourself. Don't say that you like Jesus, but you don't like what he says. In John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's exclusive. There, these are the words of Jesus and they're exclusive, so he doesn't share. He is too kind to allow you to build a foundation on something that won't last. He's too loving to allow you to chase the wind and end up hurt. The moment you push all religions, you are making an exclusive claim. And while you feel inclusive and feel good about yourself, you deny the words of Jesus. Either he's right or he's a false prophet. Now the Chinese government is fine with you being a Christian. They're totally fine with it. So long as the Chinese Communist Party comes first. Well, that's not Christianity. That's a problem. That's not putting Jesus above everything else. And so they've arrested scores of pastor, pastors, although our information is very limited on how many they've arrested. We know many have been arrested. Yet when they are insulted for righteousness, God is glorified and the kingdom of heaven moves forward. Now, what this means is there are true Christians worshiping in house churches all over China. It is believed to be in the millions, where every house church in China is considered, quote, illegal religious activity. All they have to do is say they believe Jesus so long as China comes first. But Jesus doesn't share. Now in India, Christian evangelism is illegal. If you go and tell someone about Jesus, you can be arrested. Now I recently read about roving religious gangs in parts of India interrupting Christian services and beating pastors with their shoes. This is especially bad in northern India. But when the churches call the police, they accuse the pastors of deserving it because of evangelism. Now, this sounds like kind of just like stories, so why don't we do a recent one? May 31st, last Sunday, 25 Christians were attacked in India's uh Chatish Chattishgar region, including the pastor and his very pregnant wife. And even in their suffering, God is glorified, and the kingdom of heaven moves forward. They rejoice in their suffering. So I say, pick aside. And once you pick aside, know this. They will insult you, they will curse you, and they will spread all kinds of evil against you. How do I know this? Jesus told us. The religion of this world loves the idea of Jesus. The idea, but they spit on his sacrifice. They they like his hair and some of those pictures. He looks all gentle and sweet, and it's like, oh, he's like Middle Eastern, but he looks European, and he like apparently has like a really good launderer because his clothes are always super clean looking and beautiful. He has all his teeth, although probably like at 30 years old, you would be missing teeth if you were Jesus in that time. But yeah, yeah, he's beautiful. We love this idea of him that doesn't exist. But they spit on his ideals. They like his justice only when it suits them. Now, this world tells you, friends, to seek your peace. But Jesus tells you, seek peace. And I will just tell you, a lot of times when you seek peace, it is not your peace. And it's not fun and it's not easy. This world tells you to live your truth. Jesus says, He alone is the truth. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. This world says to win at all costs. Jesus says to follow him and lose your life. See, when your boss tells you to lie and you say no, when you refuse to go to the strip club, even if it'll help you in your career, when you make your work schedule for Sunday services and city groups, when you do whatever the world is telling you to do instead of choosing Jesus, you'll have a problem. But if you follow Jesus and the world gets mad, you will be persecuted, you will be disliked, you will be mocked. The world doesn't like this part of Jesus. They like the Jesus who accepts everyone exactly as they are and never asks them to change. You know, I I I'm gonna be real with you. I often like that Jesus too. Um, and uh that Jesus, um, he's me. He tells me exactly what I want to hear. He's a fake God. And sometimes actually I think he's my mom's voice in me that says, You can do anything you try. You are amazing, you're the best kid at school, you're the most handsome, most polite. Like, that is the Jesus that I want to follow, who just tells me all the things I want to hear. But that's not Jesus, that's an idol of my own making. That's me making an idol out of me and my needs. He is far too loving to allow that in me. But you cannot study the words of Jesus and say they work with these other exclusive faiths. It's just it you can't. And so, what I would say to you is when you start to maybe consider doubting Jesus, when you say, Maybe I maybe everybody's okay, then just know you're saying he's not real anymore. And I just want you to know he's not just a good teacher, what you can doubt, he is everything, he is the teacher. He claimed to be divine, he claimed to die for the sins of mankind. And Islam will just tell you he's a good guy, he's a prophet, but he was raised from the dead on the third day, showing that he wasn't lying. There's no Jesus and friends. The Bible calls our God jealous, and and and I understand, like, jealousy is a weird term for God. Like, I don't know if anybody else reads the Bible and goes, jealousy, really? And I, you know, there's some jealousy that's not good, right? Like, I've always thought, like, if if I died before my wife, I'm super jealous of the guy that gets to be with her. That's not a jealousy that God has. That kind of weirdo husband jealousy. No, no, this is the good husband kind of jealousy. He's jealous for our hearts because he loves us like a good husband who doesn't want his wife running in the streets with other men. He's his jealousy is

Why Jesus’ Exclusivity Offends

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not trivial, it's a good kind, it's a loving jealousy. It's a it's not insecure. Following Jesus costs everything. And people will hate you for following him. People will hate you for studying his words and applying them to your life. People will hate you for growing because it will draw attention to the fact that they're not. But it has been the greatest joy of my life. And I know for many of you as well. Following Jesus costs everything. Now, Dr. Tony Evans says this if you're willing to be rejected by men, to be accepted by God, the kingdom of heaven is yours. In Acts 5, um, there were a bunch of apostles who had been arrested. Those were just followers of Jesus who took the word to the world. In Acts 5 40, they called in the apostles and had them beaten, and they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then they released them. Then they went out from the presence of the leaders, the religious leaders, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name. Friends, when people mistreat us for following Jesus, does is joy the first thing that comes to mind or outrage? I really hope more and more we can ask God to help us exhibit joy and even love to those who beat us, who mistreat us and hurt us. First Peter four thirteen says this rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. Friends, if you stand with Jesus, you will be persecuted. You will smell like pickles to some people, no matter how kind you are. If they hated him, who did everything right, they're definitely gonna hate us because we're not gonna get it right all the time, are we? And sometimes I think I need to be kinder, I need to say it different. Um, and that can be true, but sometimes they just hate you because they hate Jesus, and that's okay. Um some of you in the room kind of walk with Jesus at the moment. You follow him as long as it doesn't cost you anything, and I tell you, let's be done with this. Your family doesn't um your family doesn't think you are crazy, they just think it's a phase. Um but when you finally give in and you give him everything in your life, you too will leap for joy and you'll be mistreated. And even when they dog you, even when they're at parties and they're talking about you, you will be blessed. Now, in the last 20 years, I've had many Christian friends move away from San Diego and California because California, quote, loves taxes and hates God. They've told me this. I get it. Like my friends move to places that are known for loving the Bible as part of their culture. It's a cultural thing to love the Bible. Um, maybe it's not always a true faith, but most people in those places at least pretend to follow Jesus, which I think is extremely dangerous. But you know what I love about Christians not being in charge here? It means we get to share the gospel from the gutter. It means we get to share the gospel in meekness, we get to share the gospel in humility, where we know that if they accept Jesus, they're not doing it to move up politically. We know here that if they accept Jesus, they're not doing it to get a raise at their job because most people are not Christian here. It's beautiful. Now I don't want it to stay that way, but I want us to move forward as real Christians here. So what that means is that we have uh a place of suffering and pain here that is is is a different faith. So, friends, the unofficial power religions of San Diego are these secular humanism, agnosticism, politics, and here is the big one I'm gonna throw at you. Chameleonism. I think the faith of San Diego is chameleonism. I made that up by the way. Um, just where you just change for whatever you need. But Christianity, true Bible-believing Christianity, is not that. This means anyone who fake the funk and pretend, they're not gonna do it for very long because it's gonna cost them something. It means leadership at our schools are pushing secular humanism in a desire to be inclusive, and yet as they exclude Christian faith, it moves the kingdom forward even when they don't want it to. Because all these leaders pushing all this stuff right now, they're anxious, they're performative, they're constantly fighting each other. And this next generation that I'm seeing in the high schools right now, they're seeing that. They're seeing that, and they're not blind to it. These young kids coming up are seeing what that faith has wrought, and it's sadness, it's disappointment, it's bitterness, and it's missing the joy of Jesus. Guys, the more they push back against Christianity and leadership, the more they offer hope in seeking your own truth and your own peace, the more they mock Jesus, the more they mock the Bible, the more the kingdom of heaven is going to move forward. It's fertile ground for the gospel. Now, the better soil is described by African bishop Tertullian, where he once said, The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed for the church. And we just had our primary in California. I'm not about to give you my opinions. I didn't vote for people though that hate Christianity, but let me just say this, you might get mad at me. There's a tiny part of me that gets excited when they win. Because when they win, they are exposed. There is an undressing of secular humanism and universalism at the moment. And when Christians pray for the people who hate them and mistreat them, God's kingdom moves forward. When they call us religious bigots, we show them love and compassion. When we lose jobs and clients for our faith, we wish them no harm. We still exhibit the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. If they beat us, we celebrate and we show them kindness. If they hurl insults at us, we offer them blessing. We are blessed. We can leap for joy. Not only can they not hurt our faith, but when they attack our faith, Jesus' spirit comforts us and the kingdom of God grows, it swells, it balloons. Let us leap for joy at the prospect of suffering for the one who suffered for us. Now, Christian martyr um Lawrence Saunders, as he was being killed, he kissed his own execution stake and he said, Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life. That's joy in the midst of sorrow, real joy. Now, I know some of you in the room, you've given up everything. You've left gangs, you've left other organizations to follow Jesus, and it might be to your death. Some groups are blood in and blood out, meaning you have risked your life to follow Jesus and you refuse to take part in the deeds of darkness. I'm so proud of you. I want you to know that we're proud of you and we've seen Jesus leading you to trust him more and more, knowing you might lose your life for following Jesus one day. Now, I'm gonna tell you one more story before we we go. Um the local government in San Diego, did you know that it's pretty liberal as far as the Bible? Um, did you know that like they're not big fans of the church in the most part? Um, well, I I I'm blessed as a Christian to try to live my life out to bless our community. And so what that means is it means that people who don't believe in Jesus will often come to me and want to be a part of what we're doing, even if they don't believe it. And so I had a neighbor who worked for the city government, and she came to me and she said, Hey, Pastor, I know that you're trying, I don't know if she said pastor, probably not. She would have said pastor, Dale. Um, do you think that you would be interested in building some of those little libraries you were telling me about that you wanted to do? See, we had seen that there was not a lot of access to books in our community. Uh you had Malcolm X library

Responding With Kindness When Rejected

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down the road, but it was hard to get to them. So we started wanting to put little libraries in our neighborhood. And my friend, she contacted me and said, Hey, we have grants with the city that can get you um the the materials for a little free library. Would you like that? And I was like, Heck to the yes. What do I gotta do? She's like, fill out seven billion forms. Okay, great. All right. So I did. And then they would say, Hey, we need something else. And then I filled it out. And they said, Hey, this expired. I'm like, wait, we gave it to you. What? And so, like, we need to give you a new one. And I'm like, okay, cool. And it just kept going and going. It took months and months. Finally, they got back to us. I just want to read you the email that they sent me. Hi, Dale. You can find council policy 100-06 here on page two, number six. It states, funds are not permitted to be used for food, beverages, and travel. Funds shall not be used for any private purpose, political, religious, or fundraising activities. Thus, with a proposed $400 book budget, the city attorney is asking for written assurance that only secular books will be purchased with that money. Me. This is my response. So we have no problem not purchasing religious books with city funds. But we have lots of books already to go in the libraries that are from our homes. We absolutely own lots of quote religious books, and we plan to put them in the library at my home in particular. We love books and have them on subjects we love. If this is a problem, we would be happy to stop the process. The Little Free Library is at the discretion of the neighborhood. It is a quote, take a book, leave a book, meaning it could contain anything. My family has books that can be Christian in nature because those are the books we often read, but anyone can contribute. So then it goes back and forth where they basically said, okay, we'll pass it on. And this is their final response. Good morning. I regret to inform you, and I'm just like, why do you have me fill out so much stuff before you figure this out? I regret to inform you that the city attorney's office has determined that this application does not meet Council Policy 100-6. The deputy city attorney states, quote, in reviewing the updated application, I do not believe it meets the criteria of Council Policy 100-06. Although they will not be using city funds to purchase religious books, they will still be using city funds to create little libraries that include religious books, which is a violation of the policy. Now, guys, I had an opportunity here. I had an opportunity to be outraged. I had an opportunity under the law to pursue justice. But I also know that how we treat the people who mistreat us says a lot about who we worship. So I sought to say, hey, I understand. I want you to be aware of the fact that this is illegal what you're doing, but we're not going to pursue this any further. We're not going to pursue this in a legal manner. We're going to do whatever we can to help our neighborhood in other ways. Thank you for your time. That's not because I'm awesome, it's because I got a few days to like, like, you know, like I deleted that one email that I sent back. You know what I mean before I sent it? Um, but the city went to us because as the church, we were being the hands and feet of Jesus to our community. They asked us to do this. It's why they approached us, it's why they said apply for this grant. And yet someone at the city did not like what we stand for. And I'm just gonna be honest. Um, in the end, it's often sexuality, our views on sex. And that's it. That's where it comes down to. And it's crazy because I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't give a lot of sermons on sex. Um, I'm not trying to preach on sex, I'm just preaching what's in front of us. But they knew what they were doing was illegal, but it didn't matter to us. We let them know we weren't gonna fight them because you are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Jesus. Be glad and rejoice. And here's the thing, we didn't need them. We just needed God and his church. And here's the good thing: God's kingdom is so much bigger than any kingdom on earth, especially the kingdom of California, the kingdom of the United States, the kingdom of San Diego. He's especially bigger than those places. We got contacted by First Baptist Church of Russellville, Arkansas, and they said, We know you want to do some libraries. Can we help? And they built eight in this community. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give it up for God. And we filled those little libraries with hundreds of books, many of them were secular, um, and many of them were also Christian. But guys, we no longer had to worry about what the city thought. Um, and now God gets the credit. See, here's the thing: nobody in this neighborhood really knows anybody from Arkansas. Maybe a few people, but none of the people that came and did libraries. Don't put your hands up. Um knows the people who built the libraries here for the most part. Nobody knows them. And when people say thank you for us building the libraries, we can honestly say, we didn't do it, somebody else did it. See, God gets the glory in this. Somebody may have persecuted us, maybe. Um, and still, when we respond with kindness and love, God got the glory. And now, that little free library, we have filled it up with so many C.S. Lewis books, Tim Keller books, uh, Brian Laritz, Beth Moore. The fact is that we've had people send us hundreds of Christian books from other places to help fill our libraries. Doesn't matter what the city attorney thinks of us now, it's private property. God's kingdom moves forward even when the kingdoms of this earth push back, especially when they push back, don't miss that. And so I'll just close with this City Life, Church, and guests. When faith is rooted in Christ, in mercy, in humility, in peacemaking, in purity, we will stink like death to some people. But don't stink from being a jerk. Let your stink be the offensive scent of the righteousness of Jesus. You may one day have the honor of being insulted for righteousness. God will be glorified, and the kingdom of God will move forward. Let's pray.