When God Calls Us To Do Crazy Things
Lessons From Ezekiel
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morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor but just call me gene that was fine for my mom so it's fine for you too so today before we begin in the rest of the story i just want to acknowledge something today is 9 11 and some of you are processing different emotions and going through different things if you know my story i was not born here who is well actually there's a generation of people now being born here i'm from new york my family and i we moved here 10 years ago we did not live in manhattan in the city proper but just about an hour and a half north a short drive to the city and so we were fairly close to it we knew people who worked there we knew people who worked in the building around the building and so it was a lot when it happened i still have memories it was kind of surreal watching it on television and you know calling your family members kind of frantically like what's going on we didn't understand it and so there were a lot of emotions around it so i'm going to help you and give you a christian perspective of this that's helped me greatly uh to be at peace with things like this and so you'll see kind of like uh these posts on social media this mantra out there never forget you see that a lot never forget well from a christian perspective that is only one half of the coin and if you stay there you're never gonna forget and you're never gonna be at peace with it either the other side of the coin is always forgive never forget yep wise as serpents always forgive gentle as doves and so as close to it as i was i'm at peace before we begin today we're going to talk about when god calls us to do crazy things and we're going to look at ezekiel and see if there's some pretty crazy things if you know the bible in ezekiel and so this is kind of just a warning if you're watching at home if you have kids i can't really see good because the light's in my eyes but feel free to take the kids to the children's ministry for an age-appropriate lesson there's going to be some graphic content today of asexual nature i am not going to read all of what it says i'm going to like encourage you to go home and read it on your own because we do have sensitive viewers but you want to probably take the kids the kids area if you're at home get the earmuffs ready to go okay so it's going to be some difficult stuff the rest of the story we heard from glenn carver last week talked about fostering children took a break from it we're back in it we looked at ezekiel chapters one through three background context going on here we have now the southern kingdom judah they're going to fall soon and so if you're looking at second kings 24 first chronicles 36 i've noted that just in the short space in your bible there's all these prophets that weave themselves through these accounts we looked at daniel and he got taken away we looked at jeremiah so he kind of stayed in judah we looked at ezekiel with jehoiachin he's taken away with the captives and what makes it really confusing is he's marking his time by jehoiachin the captive king's captivity but zedekiah the puppet king is in jerusalem so if you're reading the prophets it can be hard to count so i'm putting this together for you admittedly chronologically ish so it can get kind of difficult here so one through three to recap we looked at when it's okay to walk away we see that ezekiel's ministry is initiated i explained to you the weird whirling wheels thing with the eyes on them and the cherubim and all that crazy stuff right we broke that down i showed you the purpose but we ultimately got to was this picture of ezekiel as a watchman on the wall so to speak all right so if you warn them the blood is not on your hands warn them all right if you don't the blood's on your hands right you didn't do your job and so as we keep reading our bible what was the thing right we got to warn them but not by like doing that we have to warn them speak the truth in what love always we need to speak the truth in love and that's it if they're not going to listen we're good right if we can't convince them well what are we saying like the holy spirit can't convince them we can do any better no so move on and moving on we see this picture at the end of ezekiel 3 we didn't go there sometimes the chapter breaks are weird it's weird there so this idea that yes ezekiel will on his own free will do things but in the beginning he is held against his will he's go back to your home i'm going to tie you up with ropes your tongue is going to stick to the roof of your mouth you're only going to speak when i tell you to speak kind of thing so it starts out that way but then it will progress so let's just hop right into chapter four ezekiel 4 1 and now son of man take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you then draw a map of the city of jerusalem on it show the city under siege build a wall around it so no one can escape set up the enemy camp and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against jerusalem this will be a warning to the people of israel now lie on your left side and place the sins of israel on yourself you are to bear the sins for the number of days you lie there on your side i am requiring you to bear israel's sins for 390 days one day for each year of their sin after that turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days one day for each year of judaism meanwhile keep staring at the siege of jerusalem lie there with your arm beared and prophesy her destruction i will tie you up with ropes so you won't be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed now go and get some wheat barley beans lentils millet and emmer wheat and mix them together in a storage jar use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side that's got to be rough right so like eight hours right and i've probably turned in my sleep 40 000 times and i still get up in the morning and i'm like this so think about that this is crazy so you may recognize 4 verse 9 because of this that ezekiel 4 verse 9 right so a lot of christians like this bread i don't at all it tastes like gravel it's really hard to eat i've found an alternative brand so we have the recipe right it's made according to the holy scriptures these people must be deep right so they know what they're talking about right they're they're deep bible believing they're in the word right i'm in the word all the time so they took the recipe right and then they made this bread that's what we're to believe here but i just i want to show you something i want to show you the rest of the recipe because they left some stuff out all right ezekiel 410 i hope they did ration this out to yourself eight ounces of food each day and eat it set times right so diet strict then measure out a jar of water for each day and drink it at set times you're going to need the water with the ezekiel bread that's for sure prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes but they're not while all the people are watching bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread then the lord said this is how israel will eat defiled bread in the gentile lands to which i banished them huh really okay now so here's the thing i hope that bread so do you if you ate it i hope that bread is not really made according to the holy scriptures i'm just saying right so here we go we have another serious verse of the day problem right so someone they were starting the company and someone's like i got a great idea right and so they just read the verse of the day and they didn't keep reading and so they built a whole company on it a whole company on it right no one says anything right which means i don't how many people work for them but you have all these christians they're there and no one says anything they make the packaging i was in business before this they make the packaging this is all very expensive we did away with brochures because every time you change them it costs like six thousand dollars right so i'm like look just go on the app in your phone right we can send that money to india so i don't know how much money this cost them they put it all together no one says anything and so here's the thing there's going to be a possible retort and i want you to see it here ezekiel 4 14 but then i said o sovereign lord must i be defiled by using human dung for i have never been defiled before from the time i was a child until now i have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or is killed by other animals i have never eaten any meat forbidden by the loss he's talking about things in the law of moses all right the lord said you may bake your bread with cow dung that's better instead of human dung instead so listen here's the thing i don't know about you but i don't want any dung right firing up my bread or in my bread or anywhere near my bread no poop at all please near my food of any kind so i hope they're really not making it according to the scriptures in this case baked with flaming poop seriously so again now here's the thing pastor gene you you talked about the blood on your hands did you say anything to them okay so i looked it up on the internet and people have already said something to them and the response is hilarious it's like they just sidestep it lawyer it nope we put too much money into that packaging we're gonna just stay the same right unreal so again verse of the day problems we need to keep reading so the blood is not on my hands according to the ezekiel bread so here's the thing the point is that they're going to run out of resources things are going to be so scarce that they're going to have to find other flammable material now guys do not leave any poop buy someone's doorstep and set it on fire that is not cool if you got that out of this you got it totally wrong that's for the kids and then we should be over that right so now we get to chapter five right people have taken some of the things i've said very literally in the past and so it can be concerning chapter five ezekiel is going to be called to do more crazy things right so here i want you to shave your head alright so shave your head you're gonna get your hair in like three parts burn some of it some of it gets scattered to the wind so chapter five the point here for the bulk of it is just an illustration like so you've heard that like wheat and chaff thing where you're going to be scattered you're going to be blown to the wind and ezekiel's probably thinking why do i have to shave my hair like light on fire and throw it around right so it's all these illustrations it's very serious again when we see and this was a theme we've talked about in the past cannibalism comes up so before we do this and say oh god is so mean you know no these people are getting what they deserve so they're eating their own children they're crazy so very bad now we're talking about when god calls us to do crazy stuff all right so that theme will kind of reoccur a couple of times so what i'm trying to do is i'm trying to give you the theme right so we get the big picture here i am going to go through ezekiel really fast with a broad brush stopping the tour bus from time to time to point out something in the theme this does not mean that i don't want you to read it or understand it so i'm just encouraging you read it look at it yourself all right so it's going to be pretty quick chapter six judgment to the mountains seven the coming of the end eight idolatry in the temple nine we're going to kind of stop the bus for a second here the idol worshiper so you see this guy with a writer's case and he's supposed to you know mark people so that they're saved these are the good people now when we think about marking people with something you guys are going to hop to revelation right and so you're going to go to revelation 13 and say oh the mark of the beast but what a lot of people don't pay attention to is we're going to see it today right in the beginning of revelation in chapter 7 and 9 we say that there's a good mark 2. so ezekiel you read the prophet that's why i don't always go to revelation until we've done the prophets until you understand otherwise you're going to get it wrong like most people do 10 the glory of the lord leaves the temple we see the whirling wheels again and the cherubim 11 judgment on the rulers hope for the exiles now the glory leaves jerusalem not just the temple the sign of the cooking pot signs of the coming exile again ezekiel does some crazy things he makes him pack his bags like he's going to leave right he goes and does that during the day time night time he digs a hole through the wall so it's just symbolic so again he's forced to act out all these things it's going to be like this watch ezekiel 13 is kind of interesting because you get the term whitewashed walls and so basically like you're clean or presenting clean on the outside on the inside you're filthy this is the charge that paul makes against ananias the corrupt high priest in acts i believe it's chapter 23 so he makes that charge you're a whitewashed wall right slap him and he pretends like he doesn't know who he is so anyway you see jesus and paul speaking against the religious leadership that's the equivalent of me calling out like a false teacher or something like that right someone in the position to then do that to a religious leader you don't see them talking that way to like worldly leaders right so no 14 certainty of the lord's judgment interesting uh phrase there you can mark in your bible even if noah daniel and job were there their righteousness wouldn't save you and poetically it kind of repeats that phrase then you have a section 15-19 the parables of doom and so interesting stuff the useless vine the unfaithful wife that's one you don't want to read around the kids anytime soon right so sometimes israel jerusalem's likened to a bride or a child it is both in this case and it gets weird all right so you can read that on your own 16 17 2 eagles 18 paying for your own sins we talked about this generational curse thing aka the excuse to sin jesus breaks the curse we are sealed with the holy spirit but here we see no you don't pay for your parents sins anymore a funeral song 19 for the kings 20 they send a message lord says nope or they want a message nope and here we see child sacrifice again so they're not just like oh they're worshiping other gods what's the big deal no very big deal it's not like you sitting here in church no it's like you coming to church and killing your child for another god bad so again these people are getting what they deserve 21 and 22 summary of rebellion and judgment now for the kids earmuffs for the children and i'm not even going to be as bad as it actually says so ezekiel 23 1 this message came to me from the lord son of man once there were two sisters who were daughters of the same mother they became prostitutes in egypt even as young girls they allowed men to fondle their breasts the older girl was named ahola and her sister was a holaba i married them and they bore me sons and daughters i'm speaking of samaria and jerusalem for a hola is samaria that is in the north they have fallen already and holoba is jerusalem this is we're getting all these judgments now i'm going to encourage you hopefully maybe entice you to read your bible on your own it's some pretty graphic and wild stuff so take that home and read that we can talk about it at bible study so then we get to ezekiel 24 there's basically the summary of it would be there's this cooking pot you put all these different whether it's choice ingredients or bad grain you put all the ingredients in the cooking pot you stir it up and you're like boiling it for a while and it gets stuck to the inside so think of the white washed wall again this is what a judah is like all right so you try to clean the cooking pot out but whatever you've left it there you've mingled with the bad ingredients for far too long and we can't get it clean so you know we're going to do break the pot so that's what's happening and so it's their judgment can't be clean throw it away ezekiel 24 15 then this message came to me from the lord son of man with one blow i will take away your dearest treasure yet you must not show any sorrow at her death do not weep let there be no tears groan silently but let there be no wailing at her grave do not uncover your head or take off your sandals do not perform the usual rituals of mourning or accept any food brought to you by consoling friends so i proclaimed this to the people the next morning and in the evening my wife died the next morning i did everything i had been told to do and so he does he doesn't mourn he doesn't act any differently and people are like what is going on here what does this mean basically this is what's going to happen to you you're going to have your treasure taken from you don't mourn there's going to be no mourning you're getting what you deserve so he says ezekiel he's just an example for you acting out these crazy things so think about it now now here's the thing you know a lot of times when you go to like a crazy section of the bible and there's one another reason why we do large sections right because they'll say oh why are you hanging on that one verse pastor gene you know can you see how many chapters that was and what the theme is that's a really large portion of the bible we see that ezekiel is called to do some crazy things some wild things unimaginable so it goes from like you know shaving shaving your head eating flaming poop now god is going to kill his wife that's what happens read it for yourself god kills ezekiel's wife that's crazy that is some crazy stuff so here's the question application today you know it's coming you don't want to hear it but how much of ourselves are we willing to give up for god how much we've talked about what god does through us right we don't really do anything god does it through us it's god but how much are we willing to do okay would you shave your head for god you're good with it so you sat up front man that was on you all right so yeah okay good right i don't know right so i i look really scary when i'm especially with a goatee i like that look but my wife won't let me do it she's like no no no but would we be embarrassed for god how much would we embarrass ourselves for god right would we inconvenience ourselves even for god would we accept the loss of money for god the loss of a job for god loss of family members for god even the loss of our spouse where is god in our life order interesting to think about what if god called you to do something like this so i've noted that as christians we will have times of prosperity there's nothing wrong with that nothing all right so a lot of people out there preaching what i call the half gospel because they're only preaching like half of it so this is all the good stuff but you will never hear them preach about this that's why ezekiel bread right they never preach about this right certain churches will not they won't touch this with a ten football and so you get a lot of ignorant christians out there right like oh ezekiel 4 9 it's so tasty but think about it right they'll only preach half of the gospel or less actually there's more tough stuff in there than there is like fun stuff it's not a letter to us that says oh in all your sin you're doing amazingly well but that's what some churches preach i call it the half gospel yes yes but there's the other half it says very clearly and we're going to do this today it's going to be a lot of scriptures but i got to let god do the talking because it's so countercultural if i say it you're going to be like i don't think so no i'm going to let god do the talking today so both the bible says we will be called to suffer anyone paul writes a timothy wants to live a godly life in christ jesus will suffer persecution he addresses sickness too that happens so let's look at what they did let's look at what the early church did so the new testament best commentary we have on the old testament right so what did they do when faced with this because it happens a lot and i want to look at this and i want you to hear something let let a word absorb this morning i want you to look at what jesus commands us to do do we understand that because there's a lot of buffet christians out there right like yeah loving implicitly loving my neighbor all the time but jesus said that summarizes the whole bible matthew 7 12. loving your neighbor right so treating others the way you want to be treated that's the whole thing she says that you want to get the point there you go commands us these aren't options these are commands from god all right review all right so good teachings we review right so we pick up maybe if you're new i just want to remind you to remind you to remind you moreover i want you to show you that we're looking at the full context of god's word right now the verse of the day scripture validates scripture so the full context so we're going to move today but this is review you always go back and watch hebrews what's the point of hebrews okay so if you're an axe so take acts 17 thessalonica fun word to say right that's a laniki if we're being greeky so anyway only like theodora found that funny but and now she's going to criticize my pronunciation later for sure so anyway we're there and we see that they're getting persecuted by their own people so at first christianities they're like jews who become christians it's seen as a sect right so some people don't like it and so poor jason gets beat up in thessalonica so they start getting persecuted this is why paul when he writes to that church one and two he's addressing suffering and persecution going through stuff that's why we get first thessalonians 4 right he reminds everybody we don't grieve like others who have no hope because jesus is coming back that's the point so that's what's going on here now church in hebrew it's probably a sermon preaching to that church they're jewish believers christians and they're thinking about going back which is why they're preaching right jesus is superior jesus is superior to the prophets the angels he's the superior son he's superior to moses chapter three he's superior to joshua chapter four five through seven he's superior to the priesthood and melchizedek the better priest he's the mediator of a superior covenant eight through ten so we live by faith all the examples of people by faith chapter 11 12 we live disciplined lives because why hebrews 13 8 jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever in the midst of it this is the encouragement to those who are suffering hebrews 10 32 think back on those early days when you first learned about christ first we're enlightened remember how you remain faithful even though it meant terrible sufferings sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten and sometimes you help others who are suffering the same things you suffered along with those who were thrown into jail and when all you owned was taken from you you accepted it with joy you knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever not the verse of the day we've seen this repeatedly in the new testament we are called to be citizens of heaven our focus is always there not here philippians paul is writing it from a jail cell it's the greatest theological thank you note ever written he's thanking them for supporting him while he's in prison and he reminds them you are going to be called to suffer with jesus philippians 1 27 above all you must live as citizens of heaven conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about christ then whether i come to see you again or only hear about you i will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose fighting together and that's really more like contesting together it's it's not about a physical fight for the faith which is the good news don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies this will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed but that you are going to be saved even by god himself for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in christ but also the privilege of suffering for him not the first time it comes up this is not a physical fight it's going through enduring i'm going to see the words patient endurance comes up a lot it's it's fighting to the end meaning you're going to suffer through this thing and again paul is in a jail cell he has submitted to authorities right he didn't get there by like hacking some people apart or fighting anyone no nope no he's in jail we are looking forward to better things because our primary residence and citizenship is not here that's true faith that's true faith the opposite of true faith is putting all our trust here because that's all we can see but what is faith it's the reality of things that are what hoped for not seen that's faith when people just keep talking about stuff that you can see or attain right here short victories they're faithless that's what they are yet they claim that you need faith and if you have faith you'll get all this stuff it's the opposite the enemy wants us satan wants us to look for the victory here this is the rebuke jesus gives peter right you're thinking like a man not like god all right jesus you can't lose here really get behind me satan that's how he responds to that kind of thinking get behind me he tempts us with worldly things jesus is temptation what's the first thing you must be hungry jesus turn that stone into bread no man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of god he rejects worship me you can be king of all these nations he's like no he rejects the devil can give us short-term blessings that's what he's trying to do with jesus but he passed the test they seem good but they're all temporary right that's the thing they're all temporary there's these are just false victories especially if they're achieved in sin which is hating your enemies if they achieve that that's a false that is a victory the enemy wants you to have achieving a victory through hate he doesn't need to work on you anymore he's good he gets to move on to the next tool don't be a tool for the enemy always love so let's keep reading i want to get to revelation here so in the app and you'll be told how to do that how to download the app it's just c3 enables you can search it in your app store in there i hope it's in there there's two videos i don't normally endorse any teaching because what happens is i'm like oh that guy's good and then i find something about him or he teaches something crazy so i don't usually do it but this guy tim mackey is pretty good reads scripture and he does these like cliffs notes summaries cartoony but it's not for kids it's actually really good i go back and watch him sometimes i'm like yeah and he really nails it so it's a two-part video on revelation they're like 10 11 minutes each and it's really good it's really really really good so if you don't understand revelation you've been struggling with it two videos you can watch and i believe they'll be in the app if they're not i'll email it to you whatever they're totally worth it so the big deal is this a big picture so the problem with revelation is speculated on so much it's crazy and people don't like read it all in one sitting right so they'll just pick apart little verses and then listen to someone speculate on that verse when that's not at all what it means all right so we know this broad brush they're suffering they're suffering john gets the prophecy right so he's going to share it first things then like probably like 95 a.d right so in john's lifetime there are seven churches asia minor that he's going to point out things too all right so that's then one through three four through 19 and a half that is most likely about rome things going on not quite then a little later but then then definitely halfway through 19 through 22 now you're dealing with the future so it's brought broad brush that's probably what's going on there people speculate but that's the don't like that's the problem because you're gonna miss the point so we're gonna get the first point this is how jesus sets up revelation and so if you understand this when i'm telling you today if you let it absorb then when you read the rest of revelation you'll get it you'll get what the actual point is so let's just look how it gets set up here revelation 1 1 this is a revelation from jesus christ which god gave him to show his servants better translation is slaves the events that must soon take place he sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant no doula so john who faithfully reported everything he saw this is his report of the word of god and the testimony martirion so it's like uh i'll tell you in a minute of jesus christ god blesses the one who heals the words of this prophecy to the church and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says for the time is near key phrase obey people don't like that word but it's there so james we must be a what hear of the word and a doer of the word again the other side of the coin now john sets the stage right so where he is coming from revelation 1 9 i john am your brother and your partner in suffering does that sound familiar uh-huh like philippians and in god's kingdom and in the patient endurance to which jesus calls us i was exiled to the island patmos for preaching the word of god and for my testimony about jesus so i put the greek up there i don't expect anyone to be able to read it but i want to point out a couple of different things of interest to you i use it in nlt on sunday and as you can see i try to prepare my messages and read it in the greek too and when i see something where i'm like they went a little far why are they going that way well they're thinking right it's an easier reading thing like maybe i have a second grader reading it if they can read at that level or i have you know a professor reading it so they're trying to like i've described this this is hard one room schoolhouse i have new people and people who know the word well so you kind of gotta come up with a translation that everyone's going to understand all right so but a lot of people are very prideful and they like to confuse their people i'm trying to teach you so i use that and then when it veers off the greek i'm reading in the best translation which is right there the original right so i'm like ah now that's not really what the word says i want to point out a couple of things so they have this in common so there's word like common it's this togetherness they're sharing this in this like kind of communal suffering for jesus right so it means we're together john i am together with you you are together with me in this suffering right for jesus for the kingdom uh there's one word there and it's probably the first word second line down so it's going to be different on mine but flipsy right so this word here suffering fine fine because that's the point right but that word there that normally gets translated affliction like horrible affliction that's that's what that word usually gets translated as greek always has a thought they want to see a picture when they say a word we do too but the thought there is like you getting crushed like so in america we would think of it like like the salem witch trial or something where they're like stacking the stones on someone until they die it's horrible the other one second to last word right before jesus is the last word so it's of jesus so testimony this word martiran it's more like like a witness and you can also translate it martyr sometimes so you see the context here so it's all this theme of being together have common suffering together in like this martyrdom do you see how that sets the stage what are we gonna do right we're warriors for christ you know opposite opposite he's setting this sets the stage here for the rest of the thing so it sounds very familiar repetitive themes if we keep reading and you can do this on your own you're going to see it sounds a little bit like ezekiel the burnish or polished bronze feet but you see like we sing in the song he has fire in his eyes a sword of judgment double-edged shorts coming out of his mouth he's white right like the transfiguration so he has the seven stars the angels in his hand he's standing among these lampstands which are the churches so there's the stage for the churches and you have these churches and it's interesting it's not funny but it's kind of like jesus is they're not long letters like paul's letters or something like that they're really short letters and so jesus is giving these letters to the churches and it's like a report card because he's saying to most of them you're doing really well but and it's like there's the rest of what he really wants to say to the church and it kind of goes in this pattern anyone with ears to hear listen and hear what the spirit says to the churches and so that'll be a refrain that goes over and over and over again so you have ephesus right so you're doing well but you've fallen out of love with me smyrna check so we're going to look at that they're doing pretty good pergamum you're following after the sins of balaam and maybe you remember that in numbers and so it's idolatry and sexual sin uh thyatira jezebel you have a jezebel among you again sexual sin sardis wake up you were alive but now you're dead philadelphia check they're doing all right laodicea you've probably heard the hot or cold you're neither hot nor cold i'm going to spit you or vomit you out of my mouth then you stop reading because what he says next is oh you're rich but you're poor buy gold for me that's been refined in the fire it doesn't mean real gold he's like you're rich but it's meaningless it means nothing and in fact it's made you complacent that's why you're not hot or cold you're comfortable and that's not a good thing so you're going to get really uncomfortable here go back to smyrna revelation 2 8 write this letter to the angel of the church in smyrna this is the message from the one who is the first the protos and the last eschatos so the first and the last literally but it's like ultimate last it's bigger than just last it's like a big word who was dead but now is alive i know about your suffering and your poverty but you are rich he says the opposite to this church i know the blasphemy of those people opposing you they say there are jews but they are not because their synagogue belongs to satan don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer the devil will throw some of you into prison to test you you will suffer for 10 days but if you remain faithful even when facing death i will give you the crown of life i'm not talking about this one anyone with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he's saying to the churches whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death how do you achieve the victory by doing what jesus did by finishing to the end even in the face of death the early church understood this i've told you polycarp different church fathers right they would serve meals to the people about to execute them they got it so we looked at first peter i want to go back and do a tiny bit of review we'll do this really quick again it's written in the context of a church that's suffering persecution that's the whole kind of point he's encouraging them right so and reminds them right out the gate you are temporary residents some versions say aliens right you're just sojourning through you're just passing through this that is the first reminder peter gives them then he gets to honor all authorities even if if we operate in fiery trials right so the emperor they're burning people alive or they're about to so check this out first peter 2 19 for god is pleased with you when conscious of his will you ah there it is again patiently endure unjust treatment god is pleased with you when you patiently endure unjust treatment of course you get no credit for being patient if you're beaten for doing wrong but if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently god is pleased with you for god called you to do good even if it means suffering just as christ suffered for you he is your example and you must follow in his steps jesus never sinned nor deceived anyone he did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threaten revenge when he suffered he left his case in the hands of god who always judges fairly a lot of people saying like jesus took the cross for us now you're good that's not what jesus says deny yourself pick up your cross then you can follow me that's what jesus says pretty clear this is very clear too and it's incredibly redundant we'll run out of time if i keep going but i could go all day so we'll do more at bible study god he left his case and being god right who always judges fairly we don't 2-9 so i'm going to go back to ephesus and show you something revelation 2 2. i know all the things you do i've seen your hard work and your patient endurance i know you don't tolerate evil people you have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not you have discovered they are liars you have patiently suffered without quitting it is unbelievably redundant i read the bible a lot patient endurance i was just remarking as i prepared for this message i'm like this phrase comes up a lot a whole lot and that's the point suffer without quitting now here's the thing back to the beginning and we're gonna wrap up soon i know you're tired endure endure you'll make it we have food afterwards so just endure to the end and you'll get the victory right so it's good back to the beginning right all right jean you're so serious i think that was my wife it's okay anyway we roll with it the beginning i know right so we have emotions we're human i get it there's a lot of injustice in the world but there always has been there's nothing new under the sun i assure you of that i totally get it but here is faith faith is trusting jesus to bring the justice that's faith footing what can we do better than him and moreover i've said this in the past what kind of revenge read romans 12 you're not supposed to look for it what kind of revenge can we inflict on any enemy of ours that's worse than what jesus is going to do when he comes back nothing nothing again pray for your enemies so when you see a you see an enemy ah you know this is going to be very bad i pity you i pity you it's going to be horrible i don't want to see anyone experience that so i'm going to pray i'm going to pray that you become a christian right please horrible if we really believe this maybe that's the problem we're commanded to let jesus bring the justice james we've talked about that in the past more review james 1 20. human anger man's anger does not produce the righteousness god desires james 5 7 if we go towards the end of the book dear brothers and sisters be patient as you wait for the lord's return consider the farmers who patiently wait for the reins in the fall and spring they eagerly look for the valuable valuable harvest to ripen you too must be patient take courage the coming of the lord is near that's the hope right so many get discouraged right because why why do you get discouraged if you've been discouraged lately have you felt let down right so just kind of minister into those feelings you need to think about it why you keep getting let down because you put your trust in a person that's it's the first problem right so that's kind of samuel if we went back to samuel right like we tried with moses or we've tried with nobody garden of eden right just god god should be enough nope don't listen to him they keep messing up that just sketches the world with the flood and then we keep going right so eventually they get moses doesn't work he doesn't even get to the promised land joshua he doesn't totally conquer it that's what hebrews says right doesn't work then god appoints judges it doesn't work they go we want a king that's like samuel don't worry they're not rejecting you they're rejecting me the first problem right the adoption of a nation was the rejection of god god needs to be enough but no we put our hope in some political party some other ideology whatever it is instead of just putting our hope in jesus and going you guys are a bunch of israelites i'm out right and so we honor we love we care we can have opinions but that's not where my trust is or my hope and just i gotta be honest with you guys off the cuff like a part of ministry is hard for pastors because we see all the stuff right and so you see death and i've seen two different kinds of people die i've seen those who put all their trust in jesus and kind of did this to the world they're good because they're leaving the world and they never cared about it anyway they were like paul i'd rather just be with jesus right now die he says that in philippians i'd rather just go home and be with the lord that's better than this this place is terrible right attitude then i've seen people put all their hope or even too much of it in the world you know what they do panic come with me on one of those visitations and i'll show you what terror looks like be careful right and some of you are going to go out of here today and be like whatever i got a long time before i got to face that oh you may not you may not be careful right so joy comes through jesus so here's what i want to show you the seven victories we'll put those up we'll move right there and then we'll close today i know you're hungry so seven victories that's a lot of scripture but yep i told you and i warned you there's a reason i do that so here's the thing we do have to address some things right we have to be the watchmen like ezekiel warn people blood's not on my hands right but lovingly right i've never won an argument never right i've loved people into the faith that's kind of worked kind of like a lullaby right ringers are just going off today i mean i want to put the sign out but i don't want to be all negative when you come in here right turn your phone off anyway love love love okay and if we love and if we obey to the end if we endure to the end and we make it that's victory okay so you're gonna see the word victory in here or if you're looking at it already and your eyes are better than mine right so victory how do we achieve the victory again patient endurance being just like jesus that's what it calls us to do but check this out here's the encouragement anyone with years to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he's saying the churches to everyone who is victorious i will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of god anyone with ears to hear smyrna must listen to the spirit and understand what he's saying to the churches you too whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death second death you will die once then everyone's going to rise up second death not good that's that place your enemy is going to fire not a good thing but you won't achieve it if you're victorious to the end pergamum anyone with years to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what he's saying to the churches to everyone who's victorious i will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven you will be sustained for eternity via tyra to all who are victorious who obey me to the very end to them i will give authority over all the nations they will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots and you know what if you get beheaded you get raised up first you get raised up first to rule the nations for a thousand years with jesus there's your revenge that's what it says sounds good sardis all who are victorious will be clothed in white i will never erase their names from the book of life but i will announce before my father and his angels that they are mine philadelphia all who are victorious will become pillars in the temple of my god and they will never have to leave it i will write on them the name of my god and there will be citizens in the city of my god the new jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my god and i will also write on them my new name like ezekiel see it there laodicea those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne just as i was victorious and sat with my father on the throne that is where you put your hope right there and nothing else nothing is better than that we are to obey until the end all of god's word we are to imitate the lamb now it's our prayer and our hope for people who are not but suffering unjust treatment that's the hard stuff oh it is so easy to be angry oh it is so easy to do that and it feels good but it's like a drug it's so easy to fight and be mean and insult people and do all this and again i've never won an argument never won an argument but when jesus changed my mind reversed my my ways my evil sinful angry ways i have loved people into the kingdom okay whatever i don't want to talk about it right i love you what's your favorite flavor of coffee you know whatever it is that's it just keep doing that why are you doing that because that's what jesus told me to do that's interesting now they listen think about it those who obey and i just want to encourage you your rewards are in heaven if you pass the test if we endure we'll be given the fruit from the tree of life in paradise think about it will not experience the second death sustained by the manna in heaven will rule the nations our names will be found in the book of life sealed in him forever and ever we will be seated on the throne with jesus those are the promises from the word not the world we have a prize awaiting us where thieves can't steal moths and rusts cannot destroy an eternal price that cannot be taken from us let me pray from the scriptures for you as i close from colossians second second corinthians sorry four that is why we never give up though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day for our present troubles are small and won't last very long yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever so we don't look at the troubles we can see now rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen for the things we see now will soon be gone but the things we cannot see will last forever amen you