Blessed Are The Persecuted Series

"BLESS THIS HOME"

wk- 4 Persecuted

Pastor Timothy Porter

Text: Matthew 5:10-12

INTRODUCTION:

Today, we're wrapping up our series called, "Bless This Home."

I'm so glad to have all of you with us. If maybe you missed other weeks, let me tell you what we're doing.

We're actually looking at the teaching of Jesus in Mathew 5, in a little section that we call the "beatitudes" where Jesus gave us 8 different qualities of those who would be blessed.

Although Jesus was talking to everybody, what we're doing for the purpose of this series is, we're applying his teaching to our homes, "Bless This Home."

Because, the reality is, if you look around today at so many homes where we live, most people wouldn't say, "Man, they're really blessed. They've got a blessed marriage, their kids are blessed."

So what we're doing is, we're asking God to teach us to live according to his word so that he would bless our homes.

?If you're taking notes, let me give you kind of the key thought that we've been looking at every single week.

• WE ARE NOT JUST A CHRISTIAN HOME.

• WE ARE A CHRIST-CENTERED FAMILY.

?TODAY’S KEY THOUGHT

You ready for some fun? Here it is:

• IF YOU ARE A CHRIST-CENTERED FAMILY, YOU WILL BE PERSECUTED.

That's what I came to hear today, a little uplifting message to make me feel good.

I can tell I'm going to love this one.

Hey! But it's true. Okay?

?If you are a Christ-centered family, what you need to understand is that people will mock you, make fun of you and ridicule you or worse because that's what happens when you are Christ centered.

I don't know how it will play for your family but it plays in all different ways for my family.

If you go back to Week No. 1, what did we talk about?

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled."

If you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness in an unrighteous world, people are going to laugh at you, they're going to mock you.

Week 2, "Blessed are the pure in heart for you will see God."

If you're trying to live with a pure heart in a world that idolizes impurity, people are going to mock you.

Week 3, "Blessed are the peace makers for they'll be called children of God."

If someone strikes you on one cheek, and you turn the other cheek, if you go the extra mile, if you forgive that which seems unforgivable, many people don't have a category for that.

"you're weird, you're a doormat; that's stupid. What's wrong with you?"

They will mock you.

Jesus said very very clearly in the 8th and final beatitude, He said in Mathew 5, verse 10, "Blessed are those who" what? Say it aloud. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Now, here's what he said and this sounds very very unusual to us:

? "Blessed are you when people insult you, when they persecute you, when they say falsely all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven." Blessed are you when people make fun of you, persecute you, ridicule you because of your faith in me, great is your reward.

Now, some of you may say, "Okay, what exactly does that mean, blessed are you when you're persecuted for right living, for doing the right thing?"

You might think, "Well, obviously, Pastor Tim, you're going to be persecuted because you're a preacher, and you're kind of odd.

So, you've got it coming to you.

" The reality is you don't need to be a preacher to be persecuted.

In fact, the very first illustration of persecution in the bible between Cain and Abel wasn't because Abel was preaching to Cain. The reason Cain was angry is because Abel was living the right way.

He was doing the right thing before God and Cain wasn't.

His own sin convicted him and he felt like -- he was angry, and maybe mad at himself, and he lashed out and killed his own brother, not because his brother did anything wrong, but because his brother did everything right.

And he was convicted by that right living.

And so, I don't know what it will be for you, but when you are a Christ-centered family, you will have different values.

And maybe you're a teenager or a young adult and you think, "I'm going to honor God with sexual purity. I'm not going to have sex until I'm married." And all your friends are like, "You're an idiot. That's the stupidest thing. Who would give that up? That's just stupid." And they're going to make fun of you.