Matthew 5:1-10...Part 11 - Embracing the Struggles of Discipleship in Christian Life

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith podcast. I am Michelle. This is my brother, mitchell. Hi, you always gotta do it right in front of my face, huh.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Okay, not right in front of my face, Not here.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Pretty much, Alright. We ask that you like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification icon so you can be notified when new episodes are released. Good job I got nothing, I know right. Alright, it's been another one of those days, or what.

Speaker 2: 0:42

I'm just tired. We were here late and I almost fell asleep.

Speaker 1: 0:47

It wasn't really that late. I mean, it's 6.34. And we prayed beforehand. I got here at like 6.28.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Yeah, it's two minutes.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Okay, two minutes. I apologize for my delay. I had a son who would not stop talking.

Speaker 2: 1:06

I have three of them. That don't stop talking.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I know right, but yours are a little.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:12

They're so cute, doesn't Zeke start school next week.

Speaker 2: 1:15

I think, so I think it goes through Discovery Day on.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Wednesday, and then he just.

Speaker 2: 1:19

I think Discovery Day is Wednesday.

Speaker 1: 1:20

And then he goes to I mean, it starts Friday, I think. And he goes three days now. Is he a morning or afternoon?

Speaker 2: 1:27

Isn't it just morning, don't they only have one time?

Speaker 1: 1:30

No, not yeah, in the afternoon. In the older class it's afternoon, it's morning or afternoon.

Speaker 2: 1:36

I have no idea. Okay, you don't know, I have no idea.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Okay, what? If you need help? Let me know. I do live like a hop skip and a jump from the preschool. Believe me, I can see it from my house.

Speaker 2: 1:59

You go down to the end of the road. You can see it.

Speaker 1: 2:01

I can see it from my house.

Speaker 2: 2:02

You can.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Yeah, the church thing.

Speaker 2: 2:04

I guess you look over top of the houses, yeah absolutely, it's true.

Speaker 1: 2:09

So how was your week? It's alright, I know right, I had a very boring week.

Speaker 2: 2:17

I don't know if I did any. I couldn't tell you, I didn't know if I did any of that, the kids started back to school.

Speaker 1: 2:24

So Daniel went back to school starting Monday. So it's just been really low-key at our house.

Speaker 2: 2:32

So yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 2:38

I'm very exciting.

Speaker 1: 2:40

You are. Look at the shirt you got on tonight.

Speaker 2: 2:42

Yeah, Catch up with Jesus.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Oh my gosh, that's a red shirt.

Speaker 2: 2:49

That's a vest from my head To my toes.

Speaker 1: 2:58

This is crazy.

Speaker 2: 2:59

That's funny, it's so funny.

Speaker 1: 3:01

You have another one too, like a green one, don't you? A relish, a relish.

Speaker 2: 3:08

And also have the Harley-Davidson.

Speaker 1: 3:11

I saw that one on Sunday.

Speaker 2: 3:13

It's Jesus Christ David's son.

Speaker 1: 3:19

So funny.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Do you see pages?

Speaker 1: 3:23

I don't think I saw pages.

Speaker 2: 3:24

It looks like the Under Armour logo, but is this Under God's Armour?

Speaker 1: 3:28

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 3:29

That's nice.

Speaker 1: 3:32

I got Jenna for a birthday. She wanted what she called Jesus' shirts, so she wore one the first day of school. So I got her that and I got her a key chain with a Bible verse on it. So, yeah, fun times, but hers weren't nearly as red as this one.

Speaker 2: 3:50

Makes me look skinny.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Yeah, I'm not making it look like I'm getting a bottle of ketchup. You should be able to catch up with Marela for like Halloween or something. Why not you got?

Speaker 2: 4:09

this one.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Yeah, oh, I'm glad you make yourself laugh. I do make myself laugh. Okay, well, all right. So today we are. We have no notes, I have no idea what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 4:26

I'll give you three guesses, but you're probably only going to need one.

Speaker 1: 4:32

We're doing a Bible study.

Speaker 2: 4:34

Yes, okay, so maybe you need two guesses.

Speaker 1: 4:37

We're in Matthew.

Speaker 2: 4:38

Wow, you're, you're very.

Speaker 1: 4:40

I'm getting close.

Speaker 2: 4:42

Yes, we're still in the beatitudes.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Shocker, it's the night. The last night, though, you said you changed your notes.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Well it may. This last one may go into two episodes, we'll have to see.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Oh my goodness gracious.

Speaker 2: 4:55

I don't know, the events have a bit of a tinge, but I feel like going on.

Speaker 1: 4:57

All right, well, works for me.

Speaker 2: 5:00

Okay, but yes, we are on the last beatitude. So this is Matthew 5.10, which is Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So we've already kind of discussed some of this in past episodes. So this is going to be like half review, half new stuff. I'm actually proud of it's new, but that's all right.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Okay, yeah Cause. I think, we actually talked about it last week.

Speaker 2: 5:35

A little bit.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:37

But we talked about righteousness back in. I think it's part seven. So if you want to go back and I'll put a link, okay, in that corner, in that corner or this corner, okay, I don't think I can change the corner on that Okay. But yeah, we discussed that when we were talking about those who are blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, so we kind of discussed the different types of righteousness there. I do plan on reviewing that again now, because there are two different viewpoints when it comes to righteousness. You can either view it as in God's righteousness or ours.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Okay.

Speaker 2: 6:20

So God's righteousness pertains more to God fulfilling the promises that he made to basically us as humans, to the biblical characters from Old Testament, you know, all the way up through the entire Bible. But focusing on the Old Testament and then also his enforcement of the promises that we made to God, Okay.

Speaker 2: 6:53

So what does this look like? Well, the story that best explains kind of what I'm talking about here, that kind of puts all of this together as far as God's promises and how it pertains to his righteousness is, as we know, in the Old Testament, god makes a lot of promises to us Like he would never forsake us, he would never leave us, he would protect us. But there's also promises about judgment that we typically like we see it.

Speaker 1: 7:33

We read over it.

Speaker 2: 7:34

We kind of read over it a little bit, because even if you go back to the story of Abraham, where before Abraham even had Isaac, Okay.

Speaker 2: 7:48

When God came to Abraham and spoke to Abraham, he was telling him you are going to be the father of many nations. Abraham's like I don't have any kids yet. What are you talking about? Because you're going to be a father of many nations and your descendants are going to be sojourners in a land that's not theirs. Sojourners is somebody. They're going to be basically transplanted. They're going to be one nationality living in another country that's not their own. So he was referring to the Israelites going to Egypt and then eventually becoming enslaved in Egypt. Well, whenever God's making that promise to Abraham, he said your descendants are going to be sojourners, but I will bring judgment on the nation, on that nation. So right there, god's making a promise to judge a nation in the future. That's what Jesus is, several hundred years before this all actually happens. As far as the judgment on Egypt happens and, as we know, that judgment came in the form of the 10 plagues- oh yes.

Speaker 2: 9:14

So that was the judgment on.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Egypt.

Speaker 2: 9:17

Then, even after they were fleeing Egypt, they get to the point to where Moses in, the Israelites are on the shore of the Red Sea. Oh yeah, and here comes the Egyptian army coming to take them out, chariots and all this other stuff.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Well, god made the promise that he would protect them. So God had Moses hold up a staff, or put the staff in the water. I don't remember which one it was, but he parted the Red Sea. Israelites moved through, the Egyptian army was falling behind and the waters came back and crushed them and killed all of them.

Speaker 2: 10:04

So that was protecting the Israelites as they were fleeing. So right there you have God's judgment on Egyptians through the plagues. Now he's protecting the Israelites through that parting of the Red Sea, but then even that, he was guiding them because, if you remember, there was a pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:26

A pillar of smoke by day, pillar of fire by night. And that is what led the Israelite nation, as they were traveling and they traveled for a while, because they weren't great people yet, so they spent a lot of time traveling- Many years. But those were promises God made to Israel, to people, and those promises can also be transferred forward to us today. I mean, we still sit in those promises, but back then there was actual physical things happening.

Speaker 1: 11:08

The sea.

Speaker 2: 11:09

The sea, god fulfilling these promises. But that's what God's righteousness is he's making these promises and he is fulfilling those promises. Well, it doesn't always look nice whenever God is judging nations, persecuting nations. God kind of gets a better at for some of that stuff. But that is God being righteous. But at the same time, that's not our righteousness. We're not called to judge and persecuting people. Our righteousness is more along the lines of well, the actual definition of righteousness is doing what is right. So for us as humans, our righteousness, as far as biblically speaking, is doing what is right in the eyes of God, which I've said this multiple times throughout the study.

Speaker 1: 12:17

You have.

Speaker 2: 12:18

Yeah, you don't remember. Yeah, you gotta go back and listen to the old episodes. Hold on, I need to find where I'm at, do you? Have none on the X-ray. No, but it's flowing no. It's just trying to get you all worked out.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Well, I thought maybe you might actually have, because I don't have a copy, and I thought you said that you weren't going to use notes, so but it's flowing.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Well, there's words in front of me.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 12:45

But anyways, okay. So going back to our righteousness Again, doing what is right in the eyes of God. Well, again, it just has a different feel, has a different view behind it Because, like I said, we're not persecuting or judging anybody. And going back to what this beatitude is about those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Well, our righteousness, doing what is right in the eyes of God, that could be these beatitudes.

Speaker 2: 13:19

That's why this verse is kind of considered a conclusionary A number all some of the seven beatitudes that came before it, but this is a beatitude because of its structure.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Okay.

Speaker 2: 13:36

Because it starts with that micario.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yes.

Speaker 2: 13:37

As a blessed art. It has the people group or the scenario, like all the other ones do, and then there's the first part and the second part, like structure wise, it is a beatitude.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Right.

Speaker 2: 13:52

As we see, as we get into the next verse, which is normally put with the beatitudes, because it starts with micarios, it has a whole different, feel, different structure, which we've kind of talked about that in the past too. The verse changes or the tense changes and all that other stuff. This is still very much a beatitude, but with it being the eighth one, a lot of people which you can take this to the grain of salt I don't know if I necessarily believe it, but there are eight beatitudes A lot of people say there are seven beatitudes Because they want that number seven and then this is a general conclusion to the beatitudes. That way things say there's seven beatitudes. I don't know if there's anything to it, it kind of sounds good and looking at what this beatitude actually means, I can kind of see it Okay Because, like I started to say, those who have persecuted righteousness, take doing what is right. Well, following the Beatitudes, like we've said before, is the general guideline for how we should be living our lives as Christians right.

Speaker 2: 15:07

That's why I call them the Christian core values.

Speaker 2: 15:09

They are Our things we should be striving for right like I said last week, the first four are about Creating a deeper relationship with the Lord right the next three are about ways to live your life, three different states of being that you can live your life in to help you become a better Christian. Well, put all of them together and if, for any of those reasons, you're doing that and you're persecuted because of that, that is where this last one kind of comes into play. So if you are Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, if you're having that, that Deep hunger and desire for a deeper relationship with the Lord, well, if you're doing that and somebody Comes against you and persecutes you for that, well, that's where this comes into play. But I could use any one of these as an example. And if you're persecuted for any of them, that is what this is about.

Speaker 2: 16:09

Hmm and as we get into the next section it goes even deeper into this. So it kind of takes the same thing but expands it, and Then different types of rewards start coming to play and gotcha.

Speaker 2: 16:25

So well, we'll look at that whenever we cover those. But One of the things about being persecuted for righteousness is sake. Well, if you never Share Jesus, if you are not in the community, if you're not doing something to Share the good news, then there's no way you could be persecuted. Oh, and if you never get persecuted, then Technically you wouldn't be blessed either.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Right.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Which this was going to also be a thing carrying on through a lot of the upcoming future Versus there will be covering, so I'm going to be getting into it now, but this is one be an ongoing theme.

Speaker 1: 17:24

What are you looking at?

Speaker 2: 17:25

the time.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Why?

Speaker 2: 17:28

I was expecting that to take a lot longer than what I oh yeah, I'm running my. I'm just curious I got my timer going.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Okay, you're yelling at me trying to tell me that I'm not doing my one and only job here. Looking at that, you even know that was there until the one time that we had a hard time finding it. It's like what yeah, cuz you need bifocals, old man.

Speaker 2: 17:50

No, I'm sorry. Good vision, I Can read. I can read exit really good.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Boy, I can't do. The big red letters do nothing. It's just the fact that it says exit.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Yeah, okay, please, where was I? I get? I get distracted. So whenever we accept Jesus, when we become Christians, yes we also become disciples okay. That's just the way it works, mm-hmm. And today's Christian community? That seems to be forgotten. A lot of Christians believe that it's just the rule of the pastor or or I don't know whoever is up front your pastor, your, your preacher, your whatever you decide to call them like they are the disciple and everybody else is just bothers.

Speaker 2: 18:50

Yeah, but no. No, typically speaking, if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a disciple. We've covered this in the past. What is the actual definition of a disciple? That is, somebody who studies and learns and follows Jesus Christ, or somebody, in this case, jesus Christ. So that makes us disciples of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:16

Okay.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Well as disciples. Jesus tells us at the end of Matthew to go out and to baptize others. Go make other disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. So we are called to go out to make more disciples. We can't do that if we're sitting on the couch watching football all day, sunday, or you can watch a couple games. I, I record them and then it takes me all week to watch one game.

Speaker 1: 19:53

But then you see all the highlights and you know who won the game.

Speaker 2: 19:55

I don't watch TV, so I can't.

Speaker 1: 19:58

I can honestly tell you that the only time I watch TV is to watch sports.

Speaker 2: 20:02

So the only time that's one reason I have TV is really for football season. Okay so I don't watch any other sports, mmm Anyways. So yeah, we can't be sitting on the couch. No eating, eating tomatoes, it shows are really good as those long pepperon.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Oh yeah, you've been a lot to me, I do.

Speaker 2: 20:28

You haven't, let's me know I should be indestructible.

Speaker 1: 20:30

I know you do, but let me, let me just cut in here, they're real quick.

Speaker 1: 20:35

So I talked about it was the first day of school, why, you're looking for your notes. Okay, first week of school, okay, and the first project that they had and as a senior in their comp, he was in this comp to class Think it was Daniel came home and his assignment was that he had to record himself saying His top 30, 30 things that he believed in. And he's like I said, oh, okay, he's like, yeah, I got recorded to on Friday. Okay, he's like Don't quite have 30. I'm like, all right, that's fine, so how many have you say? I got like 20, something like okay, he's like you want me to read you my list? Damn, doesn't usually share much information with me like this is totally off the wall and it's been going on all week. And his first one. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, perfect.

Speaker 2: 21:25

Perfect.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Is this not? And you know what? If he's not the only one to be this teacher and watch these, I just wonder how many of these kids, if that's their first one?

Speaker 2: 21:36

Hopefully a lot.

Speaker 1: 21:37

Oh, I hope so too, but I was dang proud of him.

Speaker 2: 21:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:41

I was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Yep, I'm gonna go to bed now and cry, but I mean, well, no right. And and I think the second one was like you know, the first one, he was that and I think the second one Was faith-based also. I mean, I think I was just like, oh, oh my gosh. He like, could you know their teenagers? They come, they come to church, they sit here and they're playing with Eli and Ephraim and picking up the toys, and you don't know if they're hearing the message.

Speaker 2: 22:13

I have a hard time hearing the message Sunday.

Speaker 1: 22:16

I usually try not to sit behind you guys.

Speaker 2: 22:21

In 10 minutes only. I don't know what he just said.

Speaker 1: 22:24

But you know it, you as a teenager, you know. You know we've got Daniel, we've got Caleb, that you know well. They're the ones that are. They're sitting behind each other but next to each other. And Even even Kennedy, you know, when she's here with me and I know that Kenny's making notes, I know she's, she's focused on everything. But Daniel is just like you know, he just sits there. And the one time I didn't come up to do worship, I Sat at my seat. I I can honestly say it's cuz I didn't know one of the songs and it gave me anxiety cuz, like I didn't know the words.

Speaker 2: 22:55

I did one house.

Speaker 1: 22:56

I'm like you got those ladies, I'm gonna sit back here. But anyhow, I sat back there and, you know, the first song pops up and I never, I'm never sitting in my seat, I'm never sitting with my family, and Daniel was singing and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is this is fantastic.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Did you hear me singing?

Speaker 1: 23:16

Oh, we can't not hear you. If you call it thing, we can't ever not hear you. That's some of the reasons why I go up front and so I can't hear you so well.

Speaker 2: 23:28

Don't lie.

Speaker 1: 23:30

The joyful noise that comes out of your mouth.

Speaker 2: 23:32

I know where you guys just asked me to join the praise team.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Well, maybe that'll happen. Let me send Denise and Becca message.

Speaker 2: 23:47

I don't want to be, all be about me right right. So it's great exactly.

Speaker 1: 23:51

But you know this is, you know we talked about, you know you know believers and everything and and we need to go out there and we're the, we're Disciples and we need we need to share the message and you know, especially as a high school kid, this is not something that I think a lot of kids will just go out and say or record them saying it. It is recorded. Is she gonna play in front of the classes? I have no idea if she does good for her.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Yeah good for her be, awesome it would be, but I just I that, really, when you said that I wrote it down because you were talking about, like I remind, I remind myself to tell, tell everyone that Daniel did that. So I'm super proud and I hope I do.

Speaker 2: 24:32

I hope there's many more that did it hopefully yeah but here's the thing if Daniel does that, she does play it in front of the class. Everybody sees it Well, if Daniel is attacked because of it, oh, that is persecution, see this is why.

Speaker 1: 24:48

This is why I brought it up. Yeah the Lord's working here. I didn't a pretty bow right and if, and If somebody hears it and says, wait, daniel goes to church and believes that the, the Jesus Christ, is Lord and Savior. Maybe, maybe I can go to church and you know maybe though just ask him about it.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Yeah and he can invite them and.

Speaker 1: 25:16

Exactly like I said, there's a, there's a. There could be a deep message in all of it. So I'm just glad that she did it and I'm glad that she's having the kids do this. So yeah. Did you find a place in your notes? Yeah, I really did you notice that I didn't even cry through all you close. Oh, I know, oh that face.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Anyways.

Speaker 1: 26:25

Okay, sorry, okay, have no water Go.

Speaker 2: 26:30

So here's some verses you can share with Daniel If he is persecuted because of that thing. That he believed in. The foremost belief is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. So first one is John 7.7. And this says the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that it works, that its works are evil. So this is just basically saying that, and this is all based on the premise that you are being persecuted. So you like, we're using Daniel right now as a people.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Daniel puts this out there, classmates see it, and one, two, multiple of his other classmates attack him because of his faith, because of his belief. Well, when he is being attacked, it's not him Like, for example. If this does actually happen, first thing you need to tell him is they're not attacking him because of him, or his beliefs.

Speaker 2: 27:37

They are attacking Jesus Christ. They're not attacking him, and that's what this is about. The world cannot hate us because of our faith. They hate Jesus because of what Jesus does and Jesus testifies about them saying that, hey, your works are evil world. So, whenever they come, attack us.

Speaker 1: 28:00

It's not about us, it's and we say that all the time. It's not about us, it's not about us.

Speaker 2: 28:07

So even when somebody attacks us, it's not about us, it's about Jesus. So we can't take that personally.

Speaker 2: 28:13

Right and a lot of these other ones are along that same general concept. So the next one is John 15, 18 and 19. And this says if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before. It hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you, and I actually use that a lot. The fact that we are not of the world, even though we are in the world, we are not of the world. So that would be another great one. I mean, why is Daniel being persecuted Again in this scenario? It's because Jesus chose him out of the world. So those who are persecuting him, they are doing it because they don't know Jesus. They're state of Jesus.

Speaker 2: 29:13

They prefer to live in evil and darkness. They don't like the light.

Speaker 2: 29:19

Do you think my next verse actually talks about light. It does, and so they don't want that light around them, they want to live in that darkness. So they are in the world, they're of the world where we are, not of the world. So that's a big difference there. And then my next one is John 320. And that says for everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. So this is again along the same lines that those who do evil live in darkness. I mean, there's a lot, and this is actually going to be coming up too, so try not to get too deep into it.

Speaker 2: 30:08

Now, where Jesus is the light, and you don't want to put your light underneath like a basket or you don't want to shade it, you want that light to shine, so that's going to be coming up here very soon, but this whole I forget what word I actually want to use this whole idea of the light shining in the darkness that is a theme throughout the Bible.

Speaker 1: 30:40

Oh, we're out of time.

Speaker 2: 30:42

Okay, let me go ahead and finish up, since we are so close. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So this is the same secondary clause that was in the very first one in verse three. So blessed are the poor spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the same concluding secondary clause which, like I said at the beginning, kind of makes this book ends from the first one to the last one, and again, this is in present tense. All of the ones between verse three and this one in verse 10 have been future tense, but three and ten are present tense. So that means if you are persecuted, for again let's use Daniel as an example if Daniel is persecuted for this project that he's working on for school, he receives the kingdom of God. So he will have it. And I mean there's really no other way of saying that.

Speaker 2: 31:47

And really that's about it. It's present tense, so we can have it now. We will have the full fulfillment of that when we reach the afterlife, and that is the end of the chapter. Yay, I really thought I was going to go a lot further than that. My tangent wasn't as big as I thought I was going to.

Speaker 1: 32:07

No, it really wasn't, and I interrupted you.

Speaker 2: 32:09

And you did.

Speaker 1: 32:10

You did pretty good.

Speaker 2: 32:11

I don't know about that.

Speaker 1: 32:12

All right. Well, we thank you for joining us. Please leave a comment on this video or go to the contact page on PureFaithLivingcom to send us a message and, as always, if you like what you hear, then we ask that you show this.

Speaker 2: 32:25

You show it to others.

Speaker 1: 32:26

Yeah, you show this. You share this show with others so we can all work together in spreading the good word of Jesus Christ. Don't forget to subscribe and we will talk to you again next time.

Speaker 2: 32:36

Have a blessed day everybody.