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Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP190518A
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00:10 >> Let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, oh, what an awesome day, this glorious 00:16 Sabbath, that we just want to thank you for bringing us morning by morning, day by day. 00:21 So we just ask that You be with us as we worship and praise Your name. 00:25 In Jesus' name. Amen. 00:27 If you believe God has been faithful to you this week, can I 00:31 hear you say amen? >> Amen. 00:33 >> Yes. And He deserves all the glory and praise. 00:36 So join us as we sing "Prince of Peace." 00:40 ♪♪ 00:50 ♪♪ 08:20 >> Amen. With a God so powerful and so strong, there's nothing that we 08:26 should be afraid of, because He is alpha and omega, the beginning and end. 08:31 He is with us on the journey. He goes before us. So if you believe or you want to 08:36 say that is my desire, to serve Him, to give Him all my problems, no matter what I'm 08:41 going through, to trust Him, I just invite you to stand as we sing. 08:47 ♪♪ 08:57 ♪♪ 09:07 ♪♪ 12:49 >> Good morning, boys and girls. >> Good morning. >> Now, I know you can make more 12:57 noise than that. Good morning, boys and girls. 13:01 >> Good morning! >> That's good. Good morning. 13:06 You all look so beautiful and handsome. 13:09 I have a question. How many of you -- just raise your hands if you've ever been 13:15 to war. >> Me! >> There's one right there -- 13:20 two, two. You and you. You, really, to war? 13:27 Wow! Do we have any 7-year-olds here? >> You're 7, too, and you went 13:34 to war? Man! You know, I've spent a career in 13:42 the U.S. Army, flying helicopters. I went to war five times, but 13:48 never as a 7-year-old. [ Laughter ] Never as a 7-year-old. 13:54 However, I want to tell you a story that when I was 7, I was out playing in my yard. 14:01 Now, check this out. So, I was playing in the yard by myself, and these boys were 14:10 running past my fence, in my yard. And they were running, and they 14:17 were carrying sticks. And they had branches from the tree, and they were dressed in 14:23 all this kind of stuff, and some of them had hats on. Some of them had bicycle 14:29 helmets, football helmet here and there. And they were running, and they 14:33 were shouting, and I was like, "Where are they going?" And they passed my house and 14:39 went on, and I didn't hear them or anything like that. And about an hour later, they 14:44 came running back, and they were shouting, and they were singing, and they were having a good 14:50 time. And I was -- "Where did you guys go?" 14:54 And they said, "We went to war, and we won!" And I said, "I want to go to 15:00 war." And, then, the next day, they did it again. 15:04 They ran by my house. They were all dressed in all kinds of things, and they all 15:09 had sticks this time. Some of them had sticks that looked like swords they had 15:13 made. And they were going to war. And I said, "Where are you 15:17 going?" And they said, "We're going to war with the enemy!" 15:21 And I ran to ask my father. I said, "Father, can I go to war with these children?" 15:29 And he said no. [ Laughter ] And I was very sad, and I had to 15:34 watch them go off to war. And they came back an hour later, and they were cheering, 15:39 and they were chanting, and they were singing songs, and they had conquered some enemy. 15:47 And I thought to myself, "I have to go to war with them. The next time they come, I'm not 15:52 gonna ask my father." And sure enough, the next day, they came running by, and they 15:59 were like, "You need to come. We're going to war." And I climbed over the fence, 16:05 and I went to war with them. They went to this huge field in the woods. 16:12 And they were looking around and all this. And I said, "What are you 16:15 doing?" They said, "We're looking for the enemy." 16:18 I said, "Who's the enemy?" They said, "The bees are the enemy." 16:23 [ Laughter ] They were looking for a beehive. And, then, some of the other 16:28 boys, they would just take their sticks, and they found one, and they started smacking it. 16:34 And all of a sudden, the bees came out. But these weren't bees. 16:40 They were hornets! They were big, old suckers, too. And you know what? 16:46 We were swinging. I grabbed the stick from the ground, and I'm swinging. 16:51 And you can't hit a hornet with a stick. And somebody was swinging their 16:56 branches. They had leaves on it, and you can't take out a hornet with 17:01 branches with leaves on it. And so someone said, "Run!" And we all ran. 17:06 [ Laughter ] And I ran. And there were like 10 hornets 17:10 chasing me, and they were stinging me on my butt, and they were stinging me on my legs, 17:15 'cause I was wearing shorts. They were stinging me all over my face. 17:19 And, you know, I have an allergic reaction every time a mosquito stings me. 17:25 My heads gets all shapen. Does your head get shapen like that? 17:29 No. That's a good thing. I ran home, and I was crying, and I climbed the fence, and the 17:37 hornets were still stinging me. And I ran in the house, and I said, "Dad, please help me." 17:44 And he did. He took some ointment, and he put it on those stings, and it 17:51 hurt even more. And I had a whole bunch of Band-Aids. 17:55 Who likes Band-Aids? >> Me! >> I like Band-Aids. 17:59 Yes! And, you know, I expected my father to give me a spanking. 18:07 Who likes spankings? [ Laughter ] There's one! 18:15 Spare the rod, spoil the child. That's right. No. So [chuckles] I didn't get a 18:22 spanking. I thought I was gonna get a spanking. 18:25 In our house, we called them whippings, 'cause they really weren't spankings. 18:29 They were more whippings. But he said, "You were disobedient. 18:36 You could have been hurt more had you gotten stung more." You know, some people are 18:47 allergic -- they're so allergic to stings from a bee or a hornet that they go to sleep and they 18:54 don't wake up. That's right. Some people are like that. 18:59 Sometimes, you don't know until you get stung and you have a reaction. 19:04 You know, I'm reminded of the fifth commandment. It says, "Honor thy father and 19:11 thy mother so that thy days may be long." You know, for some people if you 19:19 don't honor your father and your mother, your days aren't gonna be long. 19:25 It's very important. And so what I want to do right now is I want to pray that we 19:32 honor our father and our mothers and be obedient. Do I have two volunteers to -- 19:38 yes, come on. Two volunteers. One more. Come on, come on. 19:43 One more. You want to come, too? Okay, we'll have three. 19:47 All right. Here, stand up. So, you're gonna pray for 19:50 everybody and yourself so that you can be obedient. Okay, so let's fold our hands so 19:56 they're not a distraction. Let's close our eyes so that we're not distracted. 20:01 Here we go. >> Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. 20:05 Thank you for the kids are here, and now we won't be disobedient, and we'll be nice and kind, and 20:11 we'll listen to our moms and dads and that the hornets won't make you sick. 20:17 And please bless us today, and his story was great, and we love you. Amen. 20:22 [ Laughter ] >> Thank -- Amen. Okay. 20:26 >> [ Speaking indistinctly ] Amen. >> Amen. 20:37 >> Dear Father, help the days, and help other people to not get stinged by hornets, and help 20:45 other people to know that they should be obedient. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 20:49 >> Amen, amen. Okay, you can go back to your seats. 20:52 Very quiet. Be careful going down the steps. Good. 20:58 ♪♪ 21:12 >> You pray that prayer, "Give me Jesus," every morning of your life and mean it, and I promise 21:18 you, life for you will be an adventure and, as Oswald Chambers puts it, and "a 21:23 romance." "Give me Jesus." Wow! 21:29 That's what we need. That's what we have to have. As exiles, we have to have Him. 21:36 Let's pray. Lord Jesus, what Julie just saying with Ken, we have to have 21:42 Him. We can't live without Him, not as exiles. 21:45 If we weren't exiles, we could pretty much take care of ourselves, but we're exiles. 21:52 Oh, Lord, bring Yourself into our lives every day, right now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 22:03 So, I want to share with you four very short tales. 22:07 Amazing reality of these tales is the stunning shared bottom 22:15 line. Very short tale number one, once 22:17 upon a time, there was a girl, a beautiful girl, and she won the 22:20 national lottery for queen. She became queen. 22:24 And she was a Jew and an exile at that. 22:27 Go figure. 22:29 And she was planning to live her life happily ever after, because nobody knew that she was a Jew. 22:35 Uh-oh. But there was an evil man who hated Jews, and he crafted a law 22:44 through duplicity to exterminate every Jew in the entire kingdom. But the queen found out about 22:52 it, and in a stunning turn of events, the evil man gets impaled, the king and the queen 22:59 collaborate to countermand that first decree with another to spare the lives of every Jew in 23:06 the empire, and the Jews and the queen are saved. The end. 23:12 Very short story number two. Once upon a longer time ago, there was a young man taken 23:22 captive, marched to a city he'd never heard of, exiled. But lo and behold, when he gets 23:32 to the city, he is enrolled in the greatest university in the land. 23:36 Can you believe it? And he gets to eat in the king's cafeteria. 23:39 No kidding. Only the cafeteria offers foods and drinks that are not only 23:45 unclean, they are unhealthful. Now, contrary to the girl who wouldn't admit she was a Jew, 23:53 this boy is very up front, "I am a Jew, and I will not eat that food." 24:00 And so, with a little test about vegetables and water -- go figure again -- he and his 24:07 buddies come out of that test, when it's done finally, 10 times smarter than every student 24:15 enrolled in the national university. Wow! 24:20 They got appointed as councilors, by the way, to the king himself. 24:24 Once upon a time, that king couldn't sleep. Just like the king in the first 24:28 story, by the way, this one can't sleep either. Calls in his wise men, "I've had 24:33 a dream." They can't tell him the dream, and so they can't interpret the 24:37 dream. He's so furious, he orders the execution of all of them, 24:41 including our young exiled Jew with his buddies. They pray fervently to their 24:46 God, and would you believe it, that night, their God gave them the dream and its 24:51 interpretation. That young exile went before the king. 24:55 The king was so amazed that at the end, he falls on the ground in obeisance to the God of this 25:03 exile. Very short story number three. Once upon a later time, the 25:11 three friends of that Jew exile young man are gathered with empire officials in a wide, 25:18 sprawling plain. And in the middle of that plain is a tall, golden image. 25:25 And the vain king announces "That image is me, and I'm commanding you now to bow down 25:31 to that image as a sign of your loyalty to me." The king's brass band began to 25:38 play, and -- whoo! -- everybody on that plain on their faces, worshipping the king, except -- 25:45 you guessed it -- the three friends of that young Jew exile. The king is livid. 25:52 He bellows, "Make the furnace seven times hotter, and throw them in," and they do. 26:00 The king cannot believe his eyes, because the three young men are walking as if there is 26:05 no fire in town. And as he looks closely, there's another being that looks a lot 26:10 like a god. And I love this part of the story -- the king issues another 26:14 order -- "Yo, boys, come out." And they come out, and the king issues a proclamation, "There is 26:21 no god greater than the God of these three boys, and I'll kill anybody who says there is." 26:28 Very short story number three. Here comes, finally, number four. 26:32 Very short story, because that young Jew exile gets older. He gets older and older, and the 26:39 empires change, and the kings come and go, and he's still there, close to the throne. 26:47 Some evil men are jealous of him, and they devise through duplicity a way to convince the 26:52 king to pass a law that for the next 30 days, nobody can pray to any other god but to me. 26:59 The very next day, after the law is passed, guess what? That now elderly Jewish exile 27:05 boy, now man, opens the windows to his house and three public times prays to the God of gods 27:12 and the Creator of Heaven and Earth. With glee, the evil men run to 27:18 the king and demand the execution now of that elderly exile. 27:22 The king is distraught, but there's no way to change the law. 27:26 Into the lions' den the man goes. The king fasts and prays all 27:30 night to the God of the exile, saying, "Surely you can deliver this boy." 27:36 The next morning, early, he hurries to that subterranean pit, and he calls down, his 27:43 voice echoing, and he hears a human voice coming back from those roars. 27:50 I want you to pick up this fourth story right here. Open your Bible to Daniel -- 27:55 Daniel chapter 6. We got to see this for ourselves. 27:59 There's something going on here. Four exile stories. Very short, but very profound, 28:09 the shared bottom line. We haven't seen it yet, but we're wondering, "What could it 28:13 be?" This is Daniel chapter 6. We'll pick it up in verse 19. 29:40 The end. Four tales, one stunning bottom line that hasn't occurred to you 29:47 yet either. Because, you see, when it comes to this quite unpleasant subject 29:54 of persecution, which is the common denominator in all four exile stories, there's some 30:00 surprisingly good news. Now, I don't know about you, but I grew up as a kid, and my folks 30:04 were talking about persecution coming, and, boy, it made me nervous. 30:07 I said, "I don't want to go into persecution. Whatever that is, I don't want 30:11 it to happen to me." Jesus said, "Deliver us from evil." 30:14 That's the prayer we ought to be praying. But imagine, as I have had this 30:21 opportunity now to ponder these stories of these exiles, imagine to discover that in fact, 30:31 there's some very good news. Now, look, if I had a whiteboard right here, and I said, "Give me 30:35 some reasons why God lets His friends be persecuted," we'd come up with at least three of 30:39 them. We'd all agree. We got the three. 30:40 We wouldn't come up with number four, but it's number four we need to understand today. 30:44 So pull your study guide out right now. We'll turn it into that 30:47 whiteboard. Pull out your study guide. It will become your whiteboard. 30:50 And we're gonna write down four reasons God permits His friends to be persecuted. 30:56 Those of you watching on livestream right now, you're 30:59 already at the website. You just pull up that study 31:02 guide. This is a little serious called 31:04 "In Exile: Cadences of Home," title of episode number 2 today, 31:07 "Really, Really Faithful Under Fire." 31:10 You'll see study guide, and you'll have the very one we 31:13 have. All right? 31:14 You see the website on the bottom of that slide, 31:17 www.newperceptions.tv. 31:21 Okay, let's go. Four reasons why God permits His friends to be persecuted. 31:32 And may I remind you that the devil is "evil" with a "D" in 31:35 front of it. He's nothing but trouble. 31:39 He's evil to the basest core. He's not your friend. 31:46 There is persecution because it is the expected modus operandi, 31:49 mode of operation, of the devil, in his "great controversy" 31:53 warfare to do what? Jot it down. 31:55 To silence the divine allies and exiles on Earth. 31:59 You are an exile. I am an exile. 32:01 There's one strategy -- "Silence her, silence him. I don't care what you do, I 32:05 don't care what it takes, just get his voice shut. Turn it off." 32:11 Those are the orders every demon of hell lives under -- just silence those exiles. 32:18 Hmpf. If you're an ally of God, if you're a disciple of Jesus, 32:22 guess what? Whether you want to, whether you know it or not, you've already 32:25 been marked. May I share a line with you, put it on the screen? 32:28 This is that line in 2 Timothy 3:12. "In fact," Paul writes, 32:33 "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be"? 32:39 Oh! Did you have to read that one today? I mean, it's sunshining out 32:43 there, for Pete's sake. Nope. You want to live a godly life, guess what? 32:48 You've signed on for persecution. You pray the prayer, "Give me 32:51 Jesus," ooh. But I guess He was persecuted, too, wasn't He? 32:57 Yeah. You may be persecuted for your faith on the job. 33:01 You may be persecuted for your faith in your marriage. You may be persecuted for your 33:06 faith in your school. It doesn't matter where, and it doesn't matter how. 33:09 If you're persecuted for your faith, that's persecution. You don't have to have stones 33:14 and guns and sticks and rocks. All right. Reason number 2 why God permits 33:24 persecution to come to His closest friends. 33:31 That's why God allows human suffering. Some of you are suffering right 33:35 now. That's the whole point. Suffering takes us through, 33:37 because of the great controversy between Christ and Satan -- welcome to it -- takes us 33:42 through. So we have to suffer. Sorry. Never forget the words of Jesus 33:48 on the eve of His own execution. So this is late Thursday night when Jesus speaks these words. 33:52 You see them. John 16:33. 33:54 Jesus talking to His followers. "I have told you these things, 33:58 so that in Me you may have peace." 34:00 That's the whole goal. "I want you to be at peace." 34:02 And when the subject is through, you'll be at peace. 34:06 "In this world," Jesus goes on, "you will have trouble --" or 34:09 "tribulation," depending on your translation. 34:12 Put them both down. "You will have trouble. 34:14 You will have tribulation. But take heart! 34:16 Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." 34:19 What do you say to that? "I have overcome the world, 34:21 guys. The enemy has already been 34:23 overcome. Not to worry." 34:25 Phew! No wonder Peter wrote the way he 34:28 did. And by the way, this is Peter 34:30 who when it comes to his moment for martyrdom, he says, "No, no, 34:33 no. You can't crucify me right side 34:34 up. You got to crucify me -- that's 34:36 my Lord's way. You turn me upside down." 34:39 Peter writes to the believers of that 1st Century church. 34:43 On the screen, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery 34:46 ordeal that has come on you to test you." 34:49 That's why they come. They test us, as though 34:51 something strange were happening to you. 34:52 "But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of 34:55 Christ." 34:56 If you're singing with Julie, "Give me Jesus every morning," life will be an adventure, and 35:00 it will be a romance, and it will put you in the footsteps of your master, who knows all about 35:07 persecution. Sorry. That's okay. 35:11 Peter says, "Rejoice that you participated with Him so that 35:14 you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed." 35:17 >> 'Cause Jesus is coming back. Hallelujah. And He gets the last word. 35:20 What do you say? Yeah, that's it. Trials and tribulations. 35:22 Some of you are going through trials and tribulations right now. 35:28 Don't you worry. The Jesus you pray for every day is the Jesus who goes through 35:34 those with you. Okay, number three -- there are only four of these. 35:36 Here comes number three. Why does God permit persecution for His friends? 35:46 Walter Brueggemann, the great Old Testament scholar, in his wonderful book "Cadences of 35:52 Home: Preaching Among Exiles" -- I love that book. That's where I got part of our 35:56 title, "Cadences of Home." 35:58 Brueggemann writes, "The great problem for exiles --" speaking 36:02 of you and me, because he believes that church today is in 36:05 exile. And so do I. 36:06 "The great problem for exiles is cultural assimilation." 36:10 Ooh. Would you write that big word down, two "S's," cultural 36:15 assimilation? What's assimilation? 36:17 That's where everything gets mixed together, and you can't 36:19 tell the difference. It's just all running all over 36:21 each other. Everything's the same. 36:24 Cultural assimilation is the great problem for exiles. 36:27 Keep reading. "The primary threat to those 36:30 ancient Jews was that members of the community would decide that 36:34 Jewishness was too demanding, or too dangerous, or too costly, 36:40 and simply accept Babylonian definitions and modes of 36:46 reality." 36:48 That's the reason our schools exist. Do you know why 36:52 Andrews University exists? For that very reason right there. 36:55 Seventh-Day Adventist Church schools don't exist just so that our kids have something to do on 36:58 Friday nights when they can't go to sports. That's hardly it. 37:03 They exist to make clear the line of demarcation between the captor, the dark lord of 37:08 captivity, and the exiles. Line of demarcation. There's been a line drawn in the 37:18 sand of the exiles' wilderness. Is it an easy line to draw? I'm telling you what, the longer 37:24 I live, the more complicated it seems it is to draw, to know where to draw that line. 37:29 But it still must be drawn. We have to draw it and hold the line. 37:35 Lee Beach in his book "The Church in Exile: Living in 37:37 Hope After Christendom," one line, wise bit of -- pithy bit 37:41 of council here. 37:49 You don't have to conform. You don't have to be sucked in and assimilated. 37:54 You can stand up. Four exile tales. Every one of them stood up. 38:01 I got to tell you, Esther and Daniel had to live with dual loyalties. 38:04 They had a loyalty to the king, and, then, they had this higher loyalty to their God. 38:08 But when push came to shove, they are firstly loyal to their God. 38:12 Jesus was praying for you and me there in John 17 when he says, "Oh, Father, I don't ask that 38:16 you take them out of the world. Just don't let them be of the world." 38:27 In the world, but not of the world. That's the line of demarcation. 38:32 "I want you to be in, but not of." No assimilation. 38:36 Stand tall. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to be an Esther. 38:40 Stand tall. All right. Ah, but there's a fourth reason. 38:47 We wouldn't have put it on the whiteboard, 'cause you wouldn't have thought of it, and I 38:51 wouldn't have before looking at these stories. There's a fourth reason for 38:54 persecution I find utterly stunning and clearly evident in the Diasporic -- and that's what 38:59 they call the disaspora is when the Jews are spread. They call them di-a-spor-ic or 39:04 di-as-por-ic morality tales. There's something there we haven't caught. 39:08 Number four, write it down. Here it is. 39:16 Amazing, amazing. Persecution grows the kingdom. 39:22 Consider the biblical evidence. Last week, we purposely left a 39:26 line out of Esther's story. You've never read this line. 39:30 You read right through it, but you've never stopped and looked 39:33 at this line. I want you to look at it in your 39:35 Bible right now. Come on. Find Esther. 39:36 It's not after Daniel, though she lived after Daniel. 39:38 You got to go back before the songs, before Job, and then 39:41 you'll run into Esther. Go to Esther chapter 8, please. 39:44 Esther chapter 8. Drop down to verse 17. 39:48 Esther 8:17. We just blow right through this, we're so excited that the 39:53 story's finally turning out to be good news for the Jews. Esther chapter 8. 39:56 So, Haman's decreed death overnight. One-day, universal death decree. 40:02 The king countermands it, and when the Jews hear that it's been countermanded, they're 40:06 rejoicing. Verse 17, the last verse of Esther chapter 8. 40:19 Now here it comes. 40:30 You never saw that before in your life. But here's the point -- 40:35 persecution grows the Kingdom of God on Earth. And it happened with Esther. 40:42 They became Jews. The decree to exterminate the Jews, coupled with their 40:48 courageous stand -- "We will not bow. No matter what the decree is, we 40:53 will only stand for our God --" that just wowed the neighbors, and they said, "There's 40:58 something about this religion we do not understand." And many of them became Jews. 41:04 Isn't that amazing? Never, by the way, underestimate the power of an exile's witness 41:09 under duress. You're on the job and you're under duress, that's when your 41:12 witness shines. You're in a marrage that's not working out, that's when your 41:16 witness shines. You're in a school where they're making fun of your face, that's 41:19 when your witness shines. Don't bail out now. You're exactly where God needs 41:24 you, because persecution grows the Kingdom of God on Earth. Man. 41:30 And, by the way, did you notice, that response during the time of Esther had already been 41:36 precedented, because Daniel happens before Esther, with all the monarchs that Daniel has 41:40 dealings with. Did you notice that? Come on, I want you to jot these 41:43 down. This just blows your mind, but it's there. 41:45 Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar's dream -- what does the king do at the end? 41:48 The king falls at Daniel's feet in obeisance to Daniel's God. Persecution. 41:54 "I'm gonna kill all of you." And the king says, "Your God's the God." 41:59 Here's another one. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego 42:01 and the king's image. What happens there? 42:03 The king decrees their God above all other gods. 42:05 Same king. Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar after 42:09 his insanity -- that's one little morality tale we didn't 42:12 touch -- after his seven years of insanity, Nebuchadnezzar now 42:15 gives a personal testimony. And this is an exact quote -- 42:18 "I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King --" 42:21 listen, the King of Heaven. 42:23 You can praise somebody, you can exalt somebody, but when you use the word glorify, you are 42:28 saying, "I am bowing down in adoration and worship to this being." 42:31 Whatever you glorify, you worship. If you glorify your money, 42:34 you're worshipping it. If you're glorifying your possessions, you're worshipping 42:38 it. If you're glorifying your success, you're worshipping it. 42:42 Whatever you glorify, you worship. 42:45 And he confesses, "I glorify the King of Heaven --" wow! 42:50 "-- because everything He does is right." 42:52 In other words, Nebuchadnezzar got saved. Let me hear an amen for the 42:56 saved king. When you get to Heaven, I want you to look up the guy with the 42:59 funny-looking beard. That's Nebuchadnezzar. And you go and give him a 43:03 high-five, and you say, "You know what? Your story inspired me." 43:08 If God had not had exiles in place in both kingdoms and empires, the kings would never 43:15 have been saved. Impossible. Somebody has to get close to a 43:19 person of influence. Some of you need to be praying for persons of influence in the 43:24 world today, because you may be the one that God is planning to get close to one of those 43:29 persons of influence. You never know. 43:36 Oh, yeah, and, by the way, Daniel and Darius the Great -- 43:39 Darius issues this decree. I read it just a moment ago. 43:41 "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must 43:43 fear and reverence the God of Daniel." 43:45 In other words, the persecutions of Esther, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego all 43:51 resulted in a major net gain for God of both monarchs and peoples. 43:59 Persecution grows the Kingdom of God on Earth. Tertullian, the ancient church 44:07 father, during a bloody and bitter time in the early history of the Roman Empire, or the 44:11 early history of the Christian Church -- what's going on in the Roman Empire? 44:15 Tertullian wrote this line. You've heard it before. "The blood of Christians is" 44:18 what? >> Seed. >> Come on, say it out loud. 44:20 "The blood of Christians is seed." What do you do with seed? 44:24 You plant seed, because seed planted then bursts into a harvest, right? 44:27 "The blood of Christians is seed." 44:34 A friend of mine gave me the second volume of Frederick Dale Bruner's 44:39 marvelous commentary on the Book of Daniel. So this is volume 2, the last 44:43 half of Daniel. Where Bruner is commenting on Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:9, 44:47 He says, "By the way, they're gonna kill you. I just need you to know they're 44:51 gonna kill you. They're going to kill you after I leave. 44:55 I'm telling you, they will kill you." Bruner commenting on that -- oh, 45:01 this is good. 45:03 Put it on the screen for you. 45:13 Bruner says, "Lookit, guys. We're in it. 45:15 The tribulation of persecution is the essence of Christian 45:19 mission --" key word "-- a winnowed, persecuted, purged, 45:22 minority Church -- paradoxically, evangelically --" 45:25 we'd say evangelistically "-- grows." 45:31 All the biblical evidence, the comments are all conspiring to lead us to one conclusion -- 45:36 persecution grows the Kingdom of God on the Earth. That's it. 45:40 You never thought about that before, and neither did I. But that must be why He has 45:46 exiles. That must be why He has Diaspora. 45:50 He wants to move His people out. I mean, look what happened to the Church in the New Testament. 45:54 Look at this. This is Acts chapter 8. "On that great day," after the 45:58 stoning of Stephen, "a great persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem, and all 46:02 except the apostles were -- what's the word? That's why God allows 46:05 persecution. Get them out. "You guys are like a salt lick 46:09 around here at Berrien Springs. You're not going anywhere. You die here. 46:12 You come here early. You die in the end. You haven't done a thing for me 46:16 beyond this little village, and you're only talking to yourselves here anyway." 46:21 Guys, it's the truth, it's the truth. But God has a way to get us off 46:26 our what my friend Michael Hale has called the behind. [ Laughter ] 46:35 God has a way to get us off our behinds. "Out, out, out, out! 46:39 Go, go, go!" That's what happened. "All all except the apostles 46:43 were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." And what did they do when they 46:46 were scattered? "Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they 46:49 went." Everybody's preaching now. We don't have a professional 46:52 clientele, because the professional clientele's still back in Jerusalem. 46:54 So everybody else is preaching. They don't have credentials. They're just preaching, women 46:57 and men. Man. Persecution is how God grows His 47:02 Kingdom and Church. And, by the way, look what's happening in China. 47:07 Look what's happening in Islamic countries. The number-one repressive regime 47:11 on the planet today against Christianity, North Korea -- the number one, opendoorsusa.org. 47:17 Go look at that sometime. Mm-hmm. The number-one regime is North Korea against Christians. 47:23 But have you noticed this? The more repressive the government becomes, the more the 47:26 Church explodes? That's the point! Wow. 47:33 That's what happened with Persia, Haman's death decree. I'm gonna read Esther 8:17 47:37 again, that last line. "And many people of other nationalities became Jews 47:43 because of the fear of the Jews had seized them." Christian scholars agree that 47:50 one line is hugely missional in its intent. It happened that way for Esther, 47:57 Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and it's gonna happen that way for you and me, because 48:01 now we come to where the rubber meets the road. And we're gonna talk very 48:04 frankly here. That should be good news for us when we're hearing all of this, 48:10 exiles as you and I are, we, who like these Jews, are exile Sabbatarians, worshipping the 48:18 Creator God of the universe, who on the seventh day set aside the Sabbath as an eternal memorial 48:27 of His Lordship over creation. Yep. Let's not kid ourselves. Revelation 13, which is about 48:35 the sea beast and the earth beast and the mark of the beast -- Revelation 13 is clear 48:40 enough. There is coming one day, sooner than we may imagine, a strong 48:44 and violent pushback against the faith community that refuses to bow down to the authority of the 48:51 majority in their tampering with the fourth commandment. We're not bowing down. 48:56 We will not bow down. I don't care what you say. Heat it seven times hotter. 49:01 Fine by me. And if my God does not save me, I'm not worried. 49:07 He still wins. I don't have to be saved for Him to win. 49:13 Wow. Just like the Jews of old, this countercultural community of 49:18 Sabbatarians will become, to quote Bruner, "a winnowed, persecuted, purged, minority 49:23 Church that grows." Revelations predicted persecution at the hands of 49:27 Babylon with its own universal death decree, just like Haman's, precipitates a final burst of 49:32 harvest growth for God's Kingdom. That's why that universal death 49:36 decree will come. Yeah, but it'll go -- whish! -- right over our heads. 49:43 Sorry. Last quotation. Little American writer named 49:49 Ellen White. On the screen, a century ago, links persecution to growth. 49:54 Watch this. "The two armies --" so, she's 49:55 talking about two different faith communities. 49:57 By the way, at the end of time, there's not gonna be three 49:59 choices. There's not gonna be four 50:00 choices. There's not gonna be 5, 6, 10, 50:02 20. No. There will be only two -- 50:04 light and darkness, truth and error. 50:08 "The two armies," the two faith communities -- this is something 50:12 "-- will stand distinct and separate, and this distinction 50:16 will be so marked that many who are over here, in the darkness, 50:20 shall be convinced of truth and will come on the side of God's 50:23 commandment-keeping people." 50:25 Persecution will grow the Kingdom right at the end, before the last curtain drops. 50:33 Now, I would have been glad if she'd have just stopped right there, because that's fine. 50:35 Okay, I accept that. That's a little principle -- "persecution grows the 50:38 Kingdom of God on Earth." But no! She says, "Let me tell you what will be happening at 50:40 that time." 50:42 Read the next sentence. "When this grand work is to take 50:45 place in the battle, many --" Did she have to use that word, 50:48 "many"? "Many will be imprisoned." 50:50 Ah! "Many --" many? 50:52 "Many will flee for their lives from cities and towns, and many 50:55 will be --" What's the word? What's the word? 50:58 "Many will be martyrs." 51:00 See, we think -- whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! -- "Won't happen to me. No, because I'm faithful. 51:04 I'll come out of that fiery furnace just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 51:08 Not to worry." You better not stake all your faith in Jesus on that outcome. 51:17 Many in the final battle will be martyred. Why?! 51:23 Because the blood of martyrs, the blood of Christians, is seed. 51:27 And when blood gets planted, the Kingdom grows with new people flocking, or whatever it is that 51:35 makes him stand like this. Whatever it is that makes her stand this way, I want it. 51:40 I want it for me. That's what happened with Esther. 51:45 Many! "There will be many marytrs for Christ's sake in standing in 51:52 defense of the truth." Is anybody here surprised? I mean, come on. 51:57 Tell me, honestly, are you surprised? Did you think we had a "get out 52:01 of jail free" card that takes us all the way to the Kingdom? That's "Monopoly," folks. 52:06 This is life. It's gonna come. "You trying to intimidate me, 52:14 Dwight?" Nope, I'm not. But I am asking for a reality 52:17 check, because some of us are living as if we had forever. Never have to make a decision 52:20 for Jesus. "I'm just gonna live it. I've got my portfolio. 52:23 We're gonna have a wonderful retirement one of these days. And that's life for me." 52:28 Wrong, because one day, all those portfolios will be dust and ash, and you'll have to 52:34 stand with nothing under you but the Word of God itself. Then we'll find out who the men 52:43 and women are from the boys and the girls. There's no intimidation to this, 52:50 folks, but look at it. If the blood of martyrs is seed, then why wouldn't God permit for 52:55 his persecution to come to his last faith community on Earth, to keep building up his Kingdom, 52:59 one last chance? If persecution grows the Kingdom, why not? 53:06 And what if it came to you? Jesus said -- don't be surprised. 53:11 Jesus said this, that same upper room, just before His death. 53:16 On the screen. "Remember what I told you: 'A 53:18 servant is not greater than his master.' 53:20 If they persecuted Me --" What are they gonna do? 53:23 They're gonna go after you, buddy. 53:25 Sis, they're going after you. Why? Because you belong to Him. 53:29 Silence them! 53:31 Remember the dragon. Silence them! Dietrich Bonnhoeffer, never one 53:38 to miss a beat. He's absolutely right. 53:45 That comes with your calling. When Christ calls a woman, he bids her, "Come and die." 53:50 It goes with the calling. If you're praying every morning, "Give me Jesus," then guess 53:54 what? You got the calling. I'm not trying to intimidate 53:58 you. You ought to be thankful. Hey, listen, listen, listen. 54:01 If you are called, if the call of martyr comes to you -- if the call of martyr comes to you, the 54:15 faith of martyr will be given to you. Don't worry about it. 54:21 Don't get all twitterpated in advance. Just be at peace. 54:24 Oh, I love what our musician sang just a moment ago, and I ran over to Dan. 54:27 I said, "Dan, come on. Give me those words on paper. I got to read them." 54:31 We sang this just a moment. Thank you, Cindy Gugu. "I know who goes before me. 54:35 I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side. 54:40 The One who reigns forever -- He's a friend of mine. The God of angel armies is 54:45 always by my side." Hallelujah. You have nothing to be afraid 54:49 of. Girl, boy, you have nothing to be afraid of. 54:54 What do you got to lose? Look, and if Jesus should come to me right now and say, 54:58 "Dwight, I have determined -- I've just done a little calculus here -- I have determined that 55:02 if you die now, I get more in my Kingdom than if you keep living." 55:05 If Jesus would come to me and say, "Do you mind if we just kind of not so natural as your 55:11 expectations were, if we kind of go with death now, for you?" What am I gonna say? 55:18 "No. I don't care about You growing Your Kingdom. 55:22 I just want to live as long as I possibly can." Am I gonna say that? 55:26 I'm not gonna say that. No. "You need me to die now? 55:30 Are you serious, Lord? You get more now than if I just die of old age?" 55:34 "Trust me, Dwight. We get more." "You got it." You're just gonna go to sleep. 55:41 You understand that? I don't care how you die. You're gonna go to sleep. 55:45 That's all it is. The next thing you see, the King of Kings, Esther's King and 55:50 Daniel's King, is sitting on a cloud, and He's saying, "Get home. 55:54 Let's go, exiles. Let's go home." It doesn't get any better than 56:00 that. Cut my head off, like they do on videos in the Islamic world. 56:04 Pssh! Go ahead. 56:06 I'm still coming back. Isn't that great news? 56:10 Listen, don't you worry about it. 56:13 The God of the universe. "Just give me Jesus." 56:14 You just pray that every morning, "Give me Jesus. 56:16 Just give me Jesus." Life will be an adventure and a 56:20 romance, and you'll never be the same again. 56:21 You pray that prayer every morning and you mean it, it will 56:24 never be the same again. 56:27 Doesn't that make you happy? It does me. When I'm sitting here, watching 56:33 you sing, and I'm listening, and I'm saying, "My God, I don't know when Your clock stops, but 56:39 if this is the group that's going to be the exiles mobilized the last time, take 56:45 them. Take them. Look at them. 56:49 Listen to them. They love You. They want to give everything to 56:53 You. Honor that! Grow Your Kingdom. 56:58 Take us home. What do you say? Amen. 57:06 >> We've been really blessed by the financial support that comes 57:08 from our viewers, and we've made a conscious decision not to 57:12 continually appeal to you for that support. 57:15 The fact is, as everyone in the industry will tell you, we're 57:18 needing to make constant upgrades to our technology. 57:21 So if God has blessed you and you'd like to further the work 57:23 of this ministry, we invite you to partner with us. 57:26 Not a single penny of your donation will go to me. 57:29 Every bit of your gift goes to the mission of blessing your 57:32 community and our world. You can donate on our website, 57:35 newperceptions.tv. Or call the number. 57:38 You know the number -- 877-HIS-WILL. 57:41 Again, that number is 877 -- the two words "HIS-WILL." 57:45 And may the God who has blessed you continue to pour into your 57:48 life the gifts of His joy and His hope. 57:51 Thank you. And I'm looking forward to 57:53 seeing you, right here, again, next time. 58:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:20 ♪♪ |
Revised 2019-05-29