Exploring Happiness in Hardship: A Journey of Faith, Joy, and Persecution (Matthew 5:11-16...Part 3)

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith podcast. I am your co-host, michelle. This is the host Mitchell.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Technically, you're the host, am I, though? Because you're the one that is announcing things.

Speaker 1: 0:22

But I really I'm not the one who talks throughout the podcast, so technically I'm still the co-host.

Speaker 2: 0:26

You probably talk more than I do.

Speaker 1: 0:27

Not really Okay, anyhow.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Actually, technically, we're both co-hosts, Okay so we're just hosting this thing.

Speaker 1: 0:33

We ask that you like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification icon to be notified when new episodes are released. Good job.

Speaker 2: 0:45

I didn't do anything I know right, all right.

Speaker 1: 0:48

So how are we doing? We got a special announcement.

Speaker 2: 0:50

We do have a special announcement. So if you watch this or listen to this within the first couple of days of its release, then we invite you to come out Saturday, october 7th, to our Living Waters Ministry, to our church building. We will be showing the Blind. It is the movie of the Phil Robertson story.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Yeah. So if you're a Duck Dynasty fan which I know there's plenty of you out there or if you are an unashamed podcast listener, you would find some probably some good and bad and ugly in this movie.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Yeah, so this is depicting the actual transformation that Phil went through from what they all call his BC area, so before Christ's era, when a lot of drugs, drinking, a lot of rough stuff went on in his life. So this is depicting that. And then his change, his acceptance of Christ, and then the growth from there.

Speaker 1: 1:55

It looks like. I saw the trailer. It looks like it's really going to tell a good story. Maybe some very dark moments in his life to grace, really. I mean that's what it kind of looks like to me. So we are honored to be showing this here at Living Waters Ministries here on Saturday, october 7th. Two showings We've got 4pm and 7pm. You can get tickets online to the show or you can get them at the door here.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Yes, we are able to sell tickets at the door and I will put the link to. If you want to buy tickets, I will put the link in the show description of the podcast or the YouTube video, whichever you are watching this on.

Speaker 1: 2:39

And as a bonus, we do have daycare that's going to be provided downstairs, I imagine, in the play area. So if you have young ones that you wouldn't be able to find a sitter for, they're welcome as well. And the donations if we receive donations for that, it's going to be going to Christmas.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Operation Christmas Child.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Operation Christmas Child, where we put shoeboxes together and send them to children all across the world. So that would also be a benefit, and so we do. We ask that you come and join us, if you can, on Saturday, october 7th. Two showtimes, 4pm and 7pm, and Mitchell will have the address and the link and everything, maybe even the flyer that shows some information on it here on our YouTube podcast Sure, yeah, okay, fantastic. And also, if you happen to have our email address or either one of our phone numbers, feel free to reach out to us and we can answer some questions as well. Yay, Yay.

Speaker 1: 3:47

I know I'm super excited about it and if it goes over well, maybe we can do another showing, so, which would be fantastic, because we need to have a minimum of 10, a maximum of 80 per showing.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Yes, and that maximum is just because that's all the people we could pay.

Speaker 1: 4:02

That's all the chairs we have. Yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Well, we have more chairs in that, but that would be comfortable.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:09

So yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:10

I really think it would be a nice place. We've watched movies here before, you know. It's a nice, cool environment and Mission chairs Restrooms. We've got an area in the back for drinks and what have you?

Speaker 2: 4:22

Yeah, we'll be having popcorn and some snacks.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Yeah, so something different. I mean, it's actually kind of exciting. Mitchell sent a message and I thought boy, this is, this sounds like a really neat thing that we can do. So and of course I. When we first started doing this podcast I think I've mentioned this before in our earlier episodes, but I wasn't too sure on if I could do a podcast and what to talk about. And so, mitchell, he referred me to a couple of them, and Unashamed was one of them, and let me tell you they don't. They don't get a lot done. I will study either, which I don't know if it's good or bad, but you know they, they tell a lot of stories.

Speaker 1: 5:02

They do tell a lot of stories, but it's just very inspirational to hear Phil talk as well and then to hear the growth of his boys and his brother. Is it Phil's brother, uncle?

Speaker 2: 5:14

or Si, yeah it's.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Phil's brother. Okay, so I'm not a Duck Dynasty person, so I I never watched one episode of that, but Well, uncle Si has his own show.

Speaker 2: 5:23

It's called the Duck Call Room, so it's Si. Well, there's a whole cast there, but it's mainly Si and Martin.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Again.

Speaker 2: 5:37

And then I got. Onàirstone깡ья. Yeah, yeah so.

Speaker 1: 5:45

I can tell you that just talking to a co-worker, I said something about it and she didn't know anything about the movie and I said, I said Phil Robertson. I said he's like Duck Dynasty. She's like, oh, we watched Duck Dynasty and I'm like, okay, yeah, I did. And she's like, oh, yeah, they do. They talk a lot of, a lot of faith-based things on the show. You can tell they're very faithful people and very much into their religion. I'm just like, oh, yeah, I don't know that, but I'm assuming.

Speaker 2: 6:12

Actually the funny thing is the reason Phil's not on the show. A whole lot Duck Dynasty like he's on there, but not in extreme, leo, not every episode. He's not like a main character type thing. That's because every time they put him on camera he starts talking about the Bible. And so they just cut all that stuff out because he would talk too much and they had to cut it out.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Yeah well, you'll have that, I guess, yeah Well, so All right. Well, good things are happening, so we hope that you can join us.

Speaker 2: 6:47

But, like Michelle was saying, if you want to see it but October 7th doesn't work for you still reach out to us and let us know. And if we get enough people that say hey, we want to see it, but we can't make it October 7th, then we will try to set up another date later down the road. I think it has to be before November 6th, so it'd be later on this month, so we can try to get another showing.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Yeah, and if a Saturday evening doesn't work and say a Sunday afternoon works better, then we, whatever we have a greater volume for we'll see what we can do. Yay, I know I'm excited. Anything else going on? How's your cat doing?

Speaker 2: 7:28

It's good.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Is it?

Speaker 2: 7:31

Yeah, okay, thanks for learning its name.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Okay, is it getting yelled at? Is that how it's learning its?

Speaker 2: 7:37

name Sometimes.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Okay.

Speaker 2: 7:40

But I can start to understand what people like to watch cat videos. I was never a cat video kind of guy. Yeah, I'm not, but watching that cat. It's comical.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Is that right?

Speaker 2: 7:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:53

It's very playful.

Speaker 2: 7:54

It's very playful. The other day it was on the back deck and we have a toothier deck. We've got a step up.

Speaker 2: 8:04

Well, there's a butterfly or something flying and it came running, jumped up to the second step and kind of used it as a springboard. It went backwards and it went backwards but it went out with all four legs completely out flat like in a belly flop. It was just flying through the air. It was pretty funny. I was like I'm so glad I seen that. I wish I got it on video because it was hilarious.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Oh, so yeah, that's probably what we're going to start doing is recording this cat while it's playing.

Speaker 2: 8:38

No, I haven't done that yet.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Our cat is truly a scaredy cat, so our laughs come from like if you go behind it and you scare, it literally jumps off the ground scared. It's hilarious, it is truly a scaredy cat. So, yeah, that's where we find humor in most of ours. But she doesn't play with a lot of toys. Now she will bring us treats to our back door every once in a while, which I don't care for, but I'm like oh thanks, You're doing a great job.

Speaker 2: 9:15

Yeah, this cat actually likes playing with balls.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Okay, like basketballs.

Speaker 2: 9:21

No like just small foam balls that we have, or and it'll just pat her around and chase it around, and I still think one of the funniest things is if the boys are. If she's like sitting somewhere and the boys run by, she like run out and like jump off of them and use them as a springboard and just like hit them and jump off and are they okay, or do they say what are you doing? Most of the time they don't even notice it.

Speaker 1: 9:53

That's pretty funny. I do. I enjoy the stories only because of the fact that you know we have barn cats, I guess when we grew up. But I'm not like a cat lover by any means.

Speaker 2: 10:04

It's the first time I've ever like had a cat.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Yeah, Did I actually like you? I actually came around Most of the time.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Whenever cats came around, they annoyed me.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:17

But whatever.

Speaker 1: 10:20

All right, so what have we got?

Speaker 2: 10:23

All right. So we're going to be continuing on. We're in verse 12. We got halfway through verse 12 last week. We're going to try to get through the rest of verse 12 this week. I do want to take a step back a little bit. Okay, let's just go ahead and do a brief overview again.

Speaker 2: 10:48

So again, verse 11 and 12 is kind of like part one and part two of the attitude. It's where verse 11 would be, that part one. So it's describing a particular group of people and in this case Jesus is saying that it is anybody who is reviled, persecuted or have any kind of evil uttered against them falsely Right. But then it takes a step further. It's when you have those things done for the sake of Jesus.

Speaker 2: 11:22

So if you're out spreading the good news of Jesus, talk about Jesus during your faith, and you are reviled, persecuted or have false rumors spread about you, then that is the group of people that Jesus is talking about. And as we got into verse 12, verse 12 is that promise. Well, if you happen to fall into that category, that specific category that Jesus is talking about, it says to rejoice and be glad. And we talked about this rejoice a little bit last week, but when I talked about it. I don't think I didn't get the reaction out of you that I thought I would, because I don't think you understood the full depth of it.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Okay.

Speaker 2: 12:13

So I want to go back and hit on that a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Wait, you're basing this all my reaction yeah, maybe it's because I was tired of listening to you.

Speaker 2: 12:22

That's very possible, but the Lord put this on my mind, so I'm still going to talk about it. Okay, okay, so rejoice.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Rejoice, again, rejoice and be glad. I like that song, so, anyhow, go ahead. What's the song? Well, it was a song, a gospel song. Yeah, I played it.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Probably not I just know names, that's okay. So yeah, what is at the core of rejoice?

Speaker 1: 12:53

Joy.

Speaker 2: 12:54

Very good.

Speaker 1: 12:54

We went over that last week.

Speaker 2: 12:55

We did. But that's what I don't think fully hit, because remember what is joy If we go back to the beginning of verse 11 and all of the attitudes verse three through 11, they all start with blessed R, which is Macarios. That's actual definition of Macarios again is happy or to be envied.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Okay.

Speaker 2: 13:21

And remember that happy is just a feeling. Well, the way we look at happy in today's society is as a feeling, but this doesn't mean the feeling of happiness. It means the state of being happy, which, in today's society, is better interpreted as joy, the state of being having joy, yes, well again, if we remember what living in the state of joy actually means, it means that no matter what happens in our lives, whether it's Good, bad or indifferent. Yes, we can live in a state of joy because we know that.

Speaker 1: 14:04

The kingdom of heaven is in our future.

Speaker 2: 14:06

Yes, we will have eternity with Jesus. We won't have the heartache, the despair, all the bad things that are in this world, the sickness, just all the evil. We won't have that when we get into heaven, right? So, yes, we have to go through all that in this lifetime. I mean, like for us it's been what It'll be five years. Five years or six years, let's me say past.

Speaker 1: 14:40

It's gonna be six years, I think we're coming up on six years. It's one.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Coming up on seven years anniversary of.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Are you, bajah, and I, I think? I don't know, I thought it was just five years, but maybe it's six.

Speaker 2: 14:50

It would have been 2019.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Okay.

Speaker 2: 14:54

So we're coming up on It'll be April 29th of 2024. It will be the anniversary.

Speaker 1: 15:02

And that's five years.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Yeah, okay, so we've been here the last five years.

Speaker 1: 15:07

And look, I've got my sweatshirt on today. That is true, yeah, but what you're saying is exactly true. You know we went through devastation, yeah, and at this point in your faith, you might have already been at that part where you could find joy in all of it. But I couldn't, mom couldn't, dad couldn't, matt couldn't, dylan couldn't, our families, like, out of all honesty, you and Paige probably were the only two at that point who could find joy in all of it.

Speaker 2: 15:43

I don't know if that's true or not, but possibly. But like I was we've talked about this before in the podcast but that whole situation, that scenario because she was what was a year that she fought the cancer.

Speaker 1: 16:01

It would have been two years, because it was previous to your wedding that she was diagnosed. Then we told mom and dad the day after your wedding and then she passed away a year after that, right.

Speaker 2: 16:17

I thought so See, it's fine. Yeah, yes, yes. So have I only been married five years, no six, it'll be six.

Speaker 1: 16:27

It'll be six.

Speaker 2: 16:28

Right now it's only five.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Right.

Speaker 2: 16:31

I thought it was five Right. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Five is six. I don't know how old I am, but I got married in the year 2000,. So it always. It's always, no matter how many years I've been married.

Speaker 2: 16:45

Well, you thought it was before that date or after that date.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Oh, it's oh the year of 2000,. I know how long I've been married. Anyhow, you're exactly right, she's been gone one year longer than your anniversary.

Speaker 2: 17:05

No, it is two years.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Is it?

Speaker 2: 17:08

Yeah, it's six. Zeke was already born. Zeke was born. We got married in 2017.

Speaker 1: 17:16

You were deployed. When were you deployed?

Speaker 2: 17:17

2019. We got married in 2017. So it was two years.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Oh, did you get married in 2017?

Speaker 2: 17:23

So it was two years after we got, so it was two years Mom it's going to be so upset with us. That was a lot of talking to figure out. It's been two years.

Speaker 1: 17:37

It's been a long time. She did battle cancer a long time.

Speaker 2: 17:42

Maybe that's why my dates were off, because I thought it was a year, but now it was two years after, on our anniversary, two years later. Anyways, I don't remember what.

Speaker 1: 17:54

We're finding joy.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Yeah, so, oh yeah. So it was in that two year window that that's where I really started to develop my faith and when I really started to become a little bit more bold.

Speaker 1: 18:11

More vocal to us, more vocal.

Speaker 2: 18:13

Yes, I just start within the family and now, eventually, it's a YouTube channel. I know right.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Anybody can do it.

Speaker 2: 18:23

So, yeah, it did start small and grew, and it was through Missy Struggle. That, because that's where I started to, is like trying to prepare the family for what could possibly happen and why things were happening and to remain faithful to the Lord through all of it and all this other stuff. Right, so that's where my discipleship started, I guess.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Yeah, I would say but, yeah, it was through those struggles. And then here, a couple years ago not quite two years ago yet dad passed. So we've gone through hardships, we've been through struggles, but, yes, we have joy throughout all of that Because we know that when it is our time to go, when it is our time to cross over, we will be with Missy, we will be with dad, we will be with other family members that have gone before us.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Right.

Speaker 2: 19:26

But more importantly, we will be with Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Right.

Speaker 2: 19:29

And we will have those, all the struggles, all the weight, all the aches and pains and heartache and everything that is bad about this world that we live in. It'll be gone and we will be living in that cloud of love that comes from Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Right and not to go off too much about this, but you can be in a season of darkness, a season of sadness, a season of grieving, and that season can last a long time, but that doesn't mean that you don't have joy in your heart too. Yes, I just want to make sure that people I mean because I could say that with both Missy's passing and dad's passing that I was at a very dark season and I knew that there was joy in all of it. But it took a while and I saw the most with mom, with dad's passing. Like mom grieved a long time. She knew that dad and Missy were together, but she grieved dad's death for a very long time. But you can tell now that that season is passing and that she is, you know, she is more acceptance of you know.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Okay, this is what's happened and I will see him again one day. But it's a season that we live in and I heard that on a podcast also. I never knew that's what it was called before and I'm like the light bulb goes off. I'm like it's a very good way of saying it and some people don't understand that. So, even though you go through those times, you can still find joy in all of it.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Yes, and that is really what we're talking about here, and bringing it back to verse 12, you know, for verse 11 and 12, for those who are revived, persecuted and had a false rumor spread about them for the sake of Jesus, that's going to be potentially a dark spot in your life. But if that has ever happened to you, if it is currently happening to you or if it will happen to you in the future, jesus is telling us to rejoice and be glad. So, again, rejoice. This is celebrating in that joy, because we know that well, now, yes, we have that joy that is giving us that promise of a future, an eternity with Jesus. But we can now celebrate in that joy because, since you were persecuted for the sake of Jesus, you will receive a great reward in heaven. So that's the significance of this rejoice and be glad. It's about celebrating in that joy. So hopefully that explains it a little bit better.

Speaker 1: 22:20

Yeah, I thought I said the first time, but you had the vibe, I didn't.

Speaker 2: 22:24

Okay, all right, so continuing on. We're going to talk about the rewards at a later date, because I'm not ready for that.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:41

So, moving on to the next part of this, or the last part of this verse verse 12, is for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you over the time. No, it's not.

Speaker 1: 22:59

What's that? Say, okay, we get about 10 minutes or so.

Speaker 2: 23:02

Yeah, so persecuting the persecution to profits. So one thing that I want to point out here is there have been a lot of profits in the past and there were a lot of them that were not recorded in the Bible, and there's a lot of profits in the Bible that we could have chose from, but I picked one particular section, which is 1 Kings 18, 7 through 16. But in this I think we can see a few different scenarios of how profits were persecuted. But I also need to know that well, one every biblical prophet that we have was persecuted in some way, shape or form. Now, not all persecution is necessarily, you know, leads to death or to become a martyr. It doesn't have to go that far. It could go that far Like, especially if we start talking about the New Testament apostles, all but one of them were martyred for their faith.

Speaker 2: 24:27

But it doesn't have to go that far Even the one apostle who wasn't martyred would have been John, but he went through plenty of persecution. But bring this back to the Old Testament, to the Old Testament prophets. Almost every Old Testament prophet was persecuted in some way, shape or form. So again I'm going to read 1 Kings, 18, 7 through 16, and then we're going to kind of view a few things in this. So this reads and as Obadiah was on the way, behold, elisha met him and he would die, recognized him and fell on his face and said Is it you, my Lord Elisha? And he answered him it is. I Go tell your Lord, behold, elisha is here. And he said I'll have.

Speaker 2: 25:25

I sinned that you would give your servant into the hand of a have to kill me, as the Lord, your God, lives. There is no nation or kingdom where my Lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say he is not here, he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation that they had not found you. And now you say Go tell your Lord. Behold, elisha is here. And as soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. And so when I come and tell a have and he cannot find you, he will kill me. Although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my Lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? And now you say, go tell your Lord. Behold, elisha is here and he will kill me. And Elisha said as the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.

Speaker 2: 26:30

So Obadiah went to meet a have and told him and they have went to meet Elisha. So this, actually, we can pull a lot of stuff from this, but what we really want to look at and one of the first things I want to talk about is is Jezebel. Jezebel was killing God's prophets. We don't know how many. We don't know how many there were to begin with, but we know that Obadiah this Obadiah mentioned here he hid a hundred of them. So there's a hundred of God's prophets that was hidden away from Jezebel to spare their lives. So how many were killed before they got hit away?

Speaker 2: 27:22

We don't know, bible doesn't tell us, but there is a good chance. There was quite a few, probably hundreds, that were killed, but we don't know who they were.

Speaker 1: 27:34

We don't know how many there really were.

Speaker 2: 27:35

We don't know anything about them. So there were a lot of prophets, even these hundred, that were hidden away. We don't know who they were, we don't have a list of names and what they did. I mean, I'm sure there are some stories, but they're probably lost to history, so we don't know. But we do know there's a lot of prophets. These prophets were being persecuted, they were being hunted. There were a lot of them that were killed for the fact, just the simple fact, that they were prophets of of God. So there was a lot of persecution. So it's one of the reasons why I like this passage is because it highlights a large number of prophets being persecuted at once.

Speaker 2: 28:27

And just a little bit of a backstory.

Speaker 2: 28:29

For what I read, if we go back up to the beginning of this, it said that Obadiah was talking about how Ahab was going around and searching, basically hunting, for Elijah. Well, the reason Ahab was doing this is because Elijah went to Ahab and told him that no rain will fall until I say so, and then, basically, the Lord sent Elijah into hiding, and that's where we see the story of Elijah being sent next to the brook and ravens were bringing him bread and meat. He was being fed by the ravens and drinking from the brook until that ran dry. And then he went to stay with a widow and her son who had a little bit of flour and oil that never ran out, and so they fed him and took caravane and well, so Elijah was kind of in hiding from Ahab and all this time Ahab was searching for him. We don't know what Ahab's actual intentions were with Elijah, but, like we just said, jezebel was persecuting and killing all of God's prophets, so chances are it wasn't going to end well if Elijah was found.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:58

End. Now we read Elisha basically comes out of hiding and finds a servant of Ahab, which is Abodaya. And it was like hey, here I am.

Speaker 1: 30:10

Go tell him.

Speaker 2: 30:10

Go tell him I'm here. They've been looking for him for a long time. And then the story after this. What happens next is probably one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Is that right?

Speaker 2: 30:20

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I have to choose Elijah.

Speaker 1: 30:24

Is that why you named Elijah? Yeah, elijah.

Speaker 2: 30:26

Yeah, it's a story where, so basically, elijah is by himself prophet of God, there's 450 prophets of Baal and he basically goes all right, we both have meat. They both set up a sacrifice.

Speaker 1: 30:52

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:53

And like put wood around it but don't light it. You try to call down fire from your God and they spend like all day just dancing and cutting themselves and doing all kinds of weird stuff, trying to get Baal to light their fire. And the day is almost over and the advisor is like all right, guys, I got to do this. So then he prayed and like within a few minutes says is just on fire and consumed and gone.

Speaker 1: 31:25

So this just makes me laugh, because if you know Mitchell Elijah, he's very stubborn in his ways and I pray that the boy speaks words. And when Elijah is ready to speak words, he's going to say okay, lord, I'm ready. And just like the flames he's just going to be spilling out sentences and we're all going to be like where did this come from? Because he does not talk, he doesn't talk. But one day it's just going to happen like overflow.

Speaker 2: 31:57

It's very true.

Speaker 1: 31:58

It's very true. Yeah, I don't know oh.

Speaker 2: 32:04

I'm interested to see what happens.

Speaker 1: 32:05

I am ready to see what happens and I'm just. I told Paige that today when she dropped off my latte. She's like Paige, I love you. Thank you, oh yeah, she knows.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Did you give her a coupon?

Speaker 1: 32:21

No, I gave her money.

Speaker 2: 32:23

Should have gave her a coupon. I should have gave her a coupon.

Speaker 1: 32:26

Anyhow, but we talked about it today and it's his stubbornness. But you know, the story that you just tell is holding out watching everybody else do their thing. Go make fools out of yourselves. Everybody talking to him saying come on, say one word, say one word. And one day he's going to be like would you guys please just leave me alone? I know so many words and all my colors and all my numbers and you guys will not just leave me alone, right? That's exactly what he's going to do, possibly.

Speaker 2: 32:59

We'll see.

Speaker 1: 33:00

Oh my gosh, Okay, finish this up, sorry, okay.

Speaker 2: 33:03

So yeah, we're almost there.

Speaker 2: 33:07

So why does Jesus mention the prophets at all at this point?

Speaker 2: 33:13

I mean, he's talking about people who are going through their own persecutions for the sake of Jesus and the fact that they should rejoice, me glad, and they'll get a great reward, but then it's like for so they persecuted the prophets who are before you.

Speaker 2: 33:30

So why is he bringing up the prophets? Well, the main reason that I see is the fact that he, jesus, is just highlighting the fact that almost everybody who has ever spoke out for Jesus, like at least boldly, has been persecuted in some way, should perform. And if you go through that persecution, if you are in a position where you are currently or in the future, you will be persecuted or reviled or have false rumors spread about you. Because you are sharing Jesus, you should rejoice and be glad, not only because of that great reward, but it's almost like a badge of honor, because all the prophets who came before us went through this same thing or went through that same thing Again. We haven't been through that yet and we are becoming more and more bold, kind of talked about. I started out just talking about Jesus and my family and then I ended up going to the podcast and now it's a YouTube channel. And what's next?

Speaker 1: 34:49

Do I need to start standing on the street corner and I just thought we're going to start running out like the Heritage Park, the amphitheater or something. You were just going to give a message on the hill, there we go.

Speaker 2: 35:01

You can do that.

Speaker 1: 35:02

All the people will come.

Speaker 2: 35:05

I don't know if I'm quite there yet.

Speaker 1: 35:07

Right, but that's boldly the next step that you could do. So, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:15

So, yeah, that's a badge of honor to be persecuted for the sake of Jesus. Be persecuted for any other reason, just persecution.

Speaker 1: 35:25

Got you Okay, so you're done. Sure, all right. Well, we thank you for joining us. Please leave a comment on this video or go to our contact page on purefaithlivingcom to send us a message and, as always, if you like what you hear, then we ask that you show us this. Share, show me share. That you share this show with others so we can all work together and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Don't forget to subscribe and we will talk to you next time.

Speaker 2: 35:53

Have a blessed day.