WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.479 As Russ mentioned, I'm an elder. 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:12.640 My name is Brad Respus, and we could kind of be accused like my dad used to accuse my mother's father of delaying dinner. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:21.519 Whenever they go down to eat dinner at their house, he he was always late preparing the meal and having uh whatever his grill and be ready. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:25.679 And my dad would say, he's doing that so that we'll like his food even more. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:35.920 And so I wonder sometimes, if you wonder, if we have this last three or four weeks where you have other people preaching, is that so that you'll enjoy Russ's preaching even more when it starts back? 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.840 And uh, like you, I can't wait for him to come back and be preaching next week. 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:47.039 We love Russ, so thankful for what he's done the last uh three years here and the year or so before that. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:53.840 Um I also want to mention one thing that was big last week uh here. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:59.280 When I showed up last week, it had been a very difficult morning. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:00.719 And I want to read this. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:03.280 Uh this is from our bylaw. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.840 I might cry a little bit today, I'm sorry if I do. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:22.879 But um in our bylaws, we have a quote, I think, that Mandy brought together from Abigail Van Buren, and she said, The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.200 And I'll read that one more time. 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:30.400 The church is a hosp is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:39.680 And I love that about our church, that I can come here broken or sad or hurting or just a wretched, miserable sinner. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:43.840 And it's okay to sit and find rest in this place. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:46.239 And so I'm so thankful last week I could do that. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:49.760 And that's the heartbeat of our church is that place. 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:52.640 Let me pray and then we'll start. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:59.120 Father, I know that your word is enough. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.000 Please speak through me today as well. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:07.680 In Jesus' name I pray. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:08.639 Amen. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.280 It's hard for me to uh talk a little bit. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:14.479 I'm sorry. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:21.120 The text today is Matthew 5, 11, and 12, and I'll read it again for you. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:29.039 Blessed are you and others revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:37.919 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who are before you. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:42.960 We've been talking about the Beatitudes now for, what, four or five, six weeks. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:46.240 Russ started it, and then the the elders carried through. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:59.360 And it's really been a neat time for me both to hear and learn something new about this familiar passage, but also for me this last week to work through and listen to what God was teaching me. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:03.680 Last week, Rob came and talked about persecution. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:11.520 And he talked about how persecution today is is very different than what we might have seen 2,000 years ago for the early Christians. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:17.360 Let me tell you a story, though, about persecution that's pretty pretty recent and relevant. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:23.599 You know Indonesia, it's a country that's got 204 million Muslims. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:27.120 It's over kind of in the Asia-Pacific world. 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:32.000 Indonesia's got the most number of Muslims of any country in the world. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:38.000 But there's about 10% of the population that's Christian, so about 20 million people in Indonesia are Christians. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:57.120 In 1999, they were having a like a VBS, a Bible camp at a local university, and they had little children all the way up to teenagers who were gathered to learn about the Bible and grow in their faith, and just like VBS here. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:05.199 And in the morning they send out cars and they go to villages and they pick up the kids and they bring them back to this university that was letting them use their space. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:09.439 And then in the afternoon they get cars and they fill them back up with kids and they send them back out. 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:15.120 And one day during the week, they didn't have enough cars to get the kids back to their villages. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:28.399 And so there are four men who were left there, and they they left and they said, All right, teenagers, you stay and you you watch out for the little ones, and we're gonna go walk to the closest village and try to find some more cars so that we can get the rest of these kids home. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.399 And they waited and they didn't come back. 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:45.040 And next thing you know, they heard this mob coming at them, chanting and yelling and full of rage and kind of a twisted mad excitement. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.879 And one of the teenagers realized what was happening, and they said, The Muslims are coming. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:52.959 We've got to hide the little kids. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:05:02.079 And they didn't know, but the four men didn't return because they'd been ambushed on their way to a village, two of them killed, and their bodies burned. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:19.439 And the Muslims, this mob showed up at the university, and the little ones had been hidden, and they found the teenagers, and they brought them out in the courtyard, and they lined them up and they said, Renounce Jesus, or we'll kill you. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:27.360 And one boy, 15 years old, he said, He said, I'm a soldier for Christ. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.920 And warned the guys in the mob, took a sword. 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:36.079 This is 1999, this is not very long ago, took a sword and swung it at him. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:47.040 He was holding his Bible and hit his Bible and knocked his Bible to the ground and saved him, but not the second time when the sword came back and cut him through the stomach and he fell to the ground and died. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:53.120 They said his last word was Jesus. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:56.959 It's a persecution that none of us knows. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.800 Nobody in this room really has any idea what that kind of persecution is like. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:16.079 We're persecuted like Rob was saying last week, because maybe we don't get a job, or maybe we don't get invited to that party, or maybe you know we we don't get invited to the inner circle of some group of people, or we're at school and the cool kids don't ask us to come hang out with them. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:21.199 But it's no kind of persecution like the rest of the world hears. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:26.240 Y'all know Richard Samuel, he's been here to talk as a guy that our church supports. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:27.519 He lives in India. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:35.600 There's a group of uh local kind of U.S.-based missionaries from a church who want to go and just go spend some time there. 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.199 And Richard said to them, Don't come right now. 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:45.120 Because you might have a visa, you might get to the border and to the airport, and they'll send you back. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:52.480 Because the government of India is trying to make this Hindustan, the nation of Hinduism, again. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:59.759 And the the Christians in India are being persecuted, like the boy Roy Ponto I mentioned in Indonesia. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:30.879 The Sermon on the Mount is is this beautiful story that starts in Matthew 5 that Russ has been telling that that Jesus begins to preach on this concept which is so incredible, it's this gigantic theological position that that is so so amazing that he says, you, if you want to be holy and righteous and walk with God, and if you want your life to be right, you gotta be perfect. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:33.040 This is Matthew 5.48. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:34.959 You've got to be perfect. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.920 And he goes on to say it's it's not that you can't just not have an affair and cheat on your spouse. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.160 It's that you can't even look at someone else with lust. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:52.079 It's not that you can't murder someone, it's that you can't even have anger in your heart towards them. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:08:00.720 And he's beginning to say that the the criteria for perfection is more than your actions, but it's your heart and your intent and what's deep inside of you. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:11.920 And he begins this whole passage with the Beatitudes, beginning to take us down this path that says, You've got to be perfect. 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:16.240 And yet he's saying at the same time, I know you can't be perfect. 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:17.439 I know you can't be. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:22.560 And he's setting us up to tell us you need a rescuer, a redeemer. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.000 And that's Jesus. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:30.240 Jesus, the one who will live that perfect life, who will do everything required of man. 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:35.360 He'll be kind, he'll be humble, he'll be meek, he'll be giving, he'll serve. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:37.840 He'll never sin. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:47.600 And he'll exchange, when he dies on the cross, he'll set up the opportunity for us to exchange our imperfect life for his perfect life. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:52.960 Jesus, the rescuer and the redeemer. 00:08:53.200 --> 00:09:07.519 But yet at the same time, when we read the Beatitudes, when I read them this week, I'm reminded that Jesus is teaching something to his disciples that's so practical for them that day that I think as well has practical application for us today as well. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:15.120 I think Jesus is teaching and showing his disciples something as small and as simple and yet as profound as this. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.279 Where will you find true happiness? 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:25.039 Because your life, disciples, and your life, Christians, is going to be very, very difficult. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:27.039 Where will you find true happiness? 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:34.320 And so I started thinking about my life, and if you look at my life and what I do, you would think, where does Brad find true happiness? 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:39.279 Well, yesterday morning I spent about an hour trimming the ivy off the side of my house. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:44.399 So you might think he finds true happiness when he has his uh ivy in order. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.440 And it does provide some happiness short term. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:51.360 Of course, you know the old adage, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:54.799 So maybe if mama's happy, then I've got happiness. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:00.960 Or maybe if my inbox on my email is empty, then I can find happiness there. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:04.480 We search for happiness in so many ways. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:22.879 If your golf game is right, if your career is going down the right path, when you hit a certain level in your income, if you if you've reached the right circles, if you've moved to the right house, if you go on the right vacation, and on and on and on, we seek for happiness in so many ways, and my life is reflective of that. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:29.759 And yet Jesus is saying, that's deceitful. 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:31.600 So I I bought this. 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:33.600 This is cotton candy. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.519 I thought I could find a big bucket of it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:46.480 And last night we were down in Atlanta, and we happened to run across Brian and Mandy, and Brian told me that a dentist invented cotton candy. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:52.080 Not pretty good. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:54.960 Pretty deceitful for him to do that, isn't it? 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:55.919 Yeah, here we go. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:56.720 Cheers. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:07.440 You see, you see cotton candy, and it's big and it's fluffy, and it looks like if you didn't know what it was, you'd think, man, if I eat all that cotton candy, I'd get full. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:10.559 But you know it's empty. 00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:12.320 You know it's devoid. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:15.039 You know it doesn't bring any nutritional value. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.919 Maybe it helps a dentist pat his pocket. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.399 But outside of that, it doesn't bring anything. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.759 And that's what the pursuit of happiness in this life brings for us. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:28.000 It's deceiving. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:32.320 And it's void of value and real worth. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:35.039 The Stoics knew this. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:38.720 I'll move that before communion. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:40.320 The Stoics knew this. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:47.039 They said, look, don't seek happiness, don't seek good, don't seek joyful times, seek misery. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:48.879 Seek to be miserable. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:52.720 And only in that place when you're miserable will you find real happiness. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:57.679 Because then you can create happiness out of misery because you'll have nothing to hang your hat on. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:03.360 They knew that things and stuff and achievements would never bring happiness. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:07.919 So if you create the opposite of that, then you can create your own happiness. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:11.840 And then your happiness can be pure because it's not dictated by situation. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:20.879 But we know that we can't create our own happiness either, because we've been in that place of misery and it lasts but just for a moment. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:33.200 And Jesus' teaching to the disciples as you read through the beatitudes, that true happiness is going to come beyond this world. 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:38.080 Your reward as Christians, your reward is not in this world. 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:46.320 True happiness is when you realize that what will come, your reward will come down the road. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:48.639 Your reward will come after this life. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:13:02.559 And what's great about that to me as I read through this, as times are tough, as we face difficulties, as we have heartbreaks and persecution and be reviled and we have things that are broken in our life. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:15.600 Jesus is saying, when you set your sights and your mind and your hope on something beyond this world, then you can always have hope that your condition today will change. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.919 You will always know your condition will get better. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:21.200 Always. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:27.679 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:28.720 Let me go back. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:33.039 Blessed are you when others revile you. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:39.840 Jesus wasn't telling his disciples, hey, blessed are you if others revile you and persecute you. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.519 Jesus was saying, Blessed are you when win. 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:49.440 Think about what Jesus is getting ready for. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:50.559 Persecution. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:14:00.159 And not only did we know the story of the cross, but his whole life, the religious leaders pursued him, and they were doing their very best to catch him. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:05.519 They were it went so far as to bribe someone to betray him. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:12.240 And Jesus was telling his disciples, yes, I'm going to live that life. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:16.159 I'm going to have a lot of persecution, but so will you. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:17.039 So will you. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:18.240 Think about in Acts. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:26.240 After the Spirit comes and comes and indwells the disciples, and Peter gives that great sermon, and 3,000 people come to know the Lord. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:32.639 The next story is Peter and John walk into the temple in Acts chapter 3 and 4. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:40.240 And on the way into the temple, there's a man who's lame and he's crippled, and he asks for some money, and Peter says, I don't have any money, but I'll give you something better. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:41.279 And he heals him. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:52.000 And in that healing, in that, in that turn of events, the religious leaders know and they're threatened, and they go and they get Peter and John and they throw them in prison. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:57.360 They imprison them for healing someone and teaching about Jesus. 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:07.600 Jesus is saying, you're going to have the same struggle, the same persecution that I had and that I will have. 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:12.960 And so when I was in college, I went to Georgia Tech. 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:13.840 I came from Valdez. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.519 I went to Georgia Tech and I went to um, I was looking for a church. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:23.360 I wanted to go to church somewhere in Atlanta, and I really was hoping to go to kind of a radical, neat, cool church. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.799 And so I went to a church called Blood and Fire. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.039 Have any of y'all heard of Blood and Fire? 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:29.759 Anybody? 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:30.879 Nobody. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:31.360 Okay. 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:32.960 Read Acts chapter 2. 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:37.120 I think it's where Peter's talking about blood and fire and billows of smoke. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.679 And so it's biblical, the name is anyway. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:44.879 But you might think, well, snake handling and poison drinking. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:45.840 It wasn't that at all. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:50.000 The Atlanta Vineyard planted a church very near the Capitol. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:55.200 So on MLK, right across 75 from the Capitol in downtown Atlanta. 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:58.960 And that church was located across the street from some housing projects. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:06.480 So you can imagine a big ministry of the church was to reach out to poor, very poor kids who had very little hope in life. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:13.279 And the other ministry was for homeless men who had all kinds of addictions. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:16.000 And that's where I sunk my teeth in, was with those guys. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:26.480 I'd hop on my mountain bike, I'd ride down Peachtree or whatever street and get down to the Capitol and hang a left on MLK and show up at Blood and Fire. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:40.080 And they had this old warehouse and it had dorms in it where these men would come and live for six months at a time and they learn about Jesus and they get a biblical foundation and they would work on their addictions. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:44.720 It was a time of great learning for me as well. 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:48.559 One of the things I learned was about being bold for my faith. 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:50.960 So we had shirts just like this. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:58.000 Right? 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:02.799 Well, this is a shirt that we had something very similar to, except it would have said blood and fire and red. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:03.759 There you go. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.079 Matt's taking a picture. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:11.599 So here's here's what I what I when I look back at this. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.640 I wore this shirt sometimes out. 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.759 And you've seen these people before, right? 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:25.680 You come out of the Braves game, and there they are, they're holding the signs, and they're yelling at you, and they're saying, repent or you're going to hell, those kind of people. 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:27.119 You know what I'm talking about, right? 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:28.400 That was me. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:29.680 I mean, believe it or not. 00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:31.279 So I was thinking about this. 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:35.359 You know that I love the west side in Atlanta. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.079 And there's a little taco place called Tacaria del Sol. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:39.359 Maybe you've been there before. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:45.200 I'd like to get a chicken, a Memphis, and a fish, and maybe some guacamole or a salsa trio and a west side. 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:46.079 It's great. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:51.599 Well, imagine if I stood in that line for 45 minutes and I wore this shirt. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.440 I'd get some looks, wouldn't I? 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:55.279 I mean, you know the guy that takes orders. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:56.240 I don't know if you've ever been there. 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:00.880 There's a guy that takes orders, and on his shirt, he says there are 10 types of people in the world. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:04.240 Those of us who understand binary and those who don't. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:06.880 You'll get that later, maybe. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.200 We laugh and mock him, don't we? 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.200 You would mock me if you saw me wearing the shirt in that line. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:15.279 But I want to ask you a question. 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:24.240 Would you mock me because of I'm a Christian, or would you mock me because of my abrasive, arrogant, terrible selection in clothing? 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:35.440 And my point being, so often we as believers, we read the Beatitudes and we think, man, Jesus is saying, Blessed are you when you're reviled and persecuted. 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:38.079 So therefore, let me go and get persecuted. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:47.039 Let me go and wear this shirt so that people persecute you, persecute me, so that when I'm persecuted, I can receive his blessing. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:51.359 And Jesus is not saying that at all. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:19:00.799 He's saying, because you are a believer, because you have been pulled into my family, you'll be persecuted just for who you are. 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.119 Not because of what you do. 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:05.680 Not because of what you do. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:14.640 If you follow Megan on Instagram, you might have seen this before. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.079 She's a pretty good Instagrammer. 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:17.279 If not, you should ask her. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:18.400 She's great at it. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:26.400 We were sitting at dinner last week, like a week and a half ago, and we were on a lake, and we were sitting on a square table. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:30.880 And so, you know, a square table, and we were sitting side by side and we were looking out over the lake. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:34.160 And so I was like this, and Megan was was like this. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:36.480 And we ate our dinner and we got done. 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:39.279 And um we had told the waiter, he said, Do you want anything more? 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:41.039 And we said, No, I think we're good. 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:43.359 We're gonna kind of walk around a little bit. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:46.799 And uh, and then Megan like stopped. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:49.920 I mean, like stopped. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:54.559 And she's like, Brad, Brad, there's Robert De Niro. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.880 I don't know if you've seen this picture yet or not. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:03.119 But so here's our table, and here's this guy named Robert De Niro sitting right here. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:04.799 I can't see him at all. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:06.640 But Megan can see him. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:07.759 So she's over here. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:08.720 She's like, no, no, no. 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:18.079 Uh we we'll take a um a coffee and some cake and some ice cream, and she takes a picture of him, and she's putting this on Instagram. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:23.440 And it's so fascinating because I told my brother, I said, can you believe it? 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:29.599 We saw Robert De Niro at uh at this restaurant, and he said, he said, he's the greatest. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:32.960 I mean, a lot of people consider him as one of the greatest actors of all times. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:37.200 You know movies have been Casino and Untouchables and Meet the Parents. 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:40.319 I mean, just all kind of great, but really some great movies. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:48.319 But the reality is when Robert De Niro walks in, we know who he is. 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:52.640 He doesn't have lights, he doesn't have a big t-shirt, no red carpet, he just walks in. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:57.440 He actually walked in trying to not be known, and yet we know who he is. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.279 And a little bit that's what happens. 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:08.480 It's a it's I can't relate the Christian life to Robert De Niro, even though I want to try. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:14.960 But when you become a believer, when we become Christians, our identity changes. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:20.880 And Jesus was preparing his disciples the same way he wants to prepare us. 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:38.160 When you become a believer, and for them is when the Spirit comes back, this is in captured in Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes back, when Jesus, when Jesus ascends into heaven, the Holy Spirit comes and and dwells in people, our identity will be changed. 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:45.680 We'll be adopted into God's family and into sonship. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:51.440 And we'll be sons and daughters, and he'll seal us with his Holy Spirit. 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:58.640 See, I saw I thought for so long this t shirt is a an example of this. 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:02.160 If I will see Persecution that I'll be more blessed. 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.480 And Jesus is not saying that at all. 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:08.160 He's saying, look, you're blessed because of who you are. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:09.359 You're blessed. 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:14.559 Your happiness, blessed are you, is really happy are you. 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:16.720 True happiness you have. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:27.440 Not because of what you're going to do, not because of what you accomplish as Christians, not because of what you go do in my name, but because of who you are in my name. 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:35.920 And it starts back with Jesus himself saying, I am. 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:37.119 He is. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.920 Jesus, the Son of God. 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:43.599 There's a story in Matthew chapter 14. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:47.599 I'm almost done, so I'll try to get through this. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:56.960 In Matthew 14, verse 25 through 27, and in the fourth watch of the night, he, meaning Jesus, came to them, walking on the sea. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:23:05.440 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost, and they cried out in fear. 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:12.000 But immediately Jesus came, spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is I. 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:14.079 Do not be afraid. 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:32.000 When Jesus said, It is I, in the Greek, he's saying the same thing that when Moses said to God the Father, When I go to Pharaoh and say, Let my people go, when they ask me who sent me, what do I say? 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:33.519 And what did God say? 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:34.559 I am. 00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:37.680 Tell them I am, Yahweh, tell them I am. 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:41.440 And Jesus here to the disciples is saying the same thing. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:42.480 I am. 00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:48.880 In your fear, in your situation, what's happening in the world, you will always know I am. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:24:13.359 And because Jesus was the same, because God is the same as he was then, as he is now, and will be forever, God being always, always who he is, creator, loving, giving Father, calls us into that, into his family, adopts us as his own, and we can know that no matter what happens, we're his. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:16.240 This is Galatians chapter 4. 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:31.039 When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:38.720 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:41.839 So you are no longer a slave, but a son. 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:46.480 And if a son, then an heir through God. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.240 Yeah, the Beatitudes, they do reflect our lives as Christians. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:54.559 They reflect what it looks like as believers and how life looks. 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:01.279 But they point to our lives as being, not as doing. 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:03.599 As being is not as doing. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:08.640 True happiness comes as a reward from being, not from doing. 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:13.359 As we've said so often here, it is finished. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:14.640 It's been done. 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.519 The reward that we have is in heaven. 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:21.599 The reward is beyond because of who we are as his sons. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:31.359 So I encourage you, be, be, and rest in that place, knowing that your reward will come. 00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:32.880 Let me pray. 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:53.359 God, I thank you so much that you are a loving Father, the great I Am, and that through your Son Jesus, you exchange our life that will never be enough with His that fulfills every requirement. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:26:11.839 I thank you that we are blessed, that we can find true happiness as believers, and knowing that we are yours and that our reward is to come as sons and daughters of the Creator of all. 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:14.720 Amen.