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Harvest Carnival Message · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  And each one of these children, Lord, and even the parents as
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  well. And I just thank you, Lord, in
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  Jesus name we pray, Amen. All right, so tonight, so I
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  could come up here and I could talk about, I could just dive
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  into the, the darkness of, of Halloween, right?
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  The, the symbolism, the costumes, the historical
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  background behind it. I could dive into all of that,
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  right? So I know this is a topic that's
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  kind of been a little bit controversial in some people's
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  eyes, you know, should Christians celebrate Halloween,
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  You know, should Christians go trick or treating?
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  Should Christians dress up? Should, you know?
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  And so the biggest thing for me, and the biggest reason why I
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  choose not to celebrate Halloween is because God talks
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  about in his word how we're supposed to be set apart from
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  the world, right? We're not.
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  We're supposed to be lights in darkness.
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  And the reason why is because we are in the world, but we're not
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  of it, right? So we're we're called to be
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  lights. We're called to be lights and
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  we're called to be different from from the world we're
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  supposed to love different from the way the world lives.
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  We're supposed to talk different the way the world talks and
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  we're supposed to live different, right?
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  And because of that, we're going to receive a lot of hatred and
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  persecution from the world. And in the past is that we're
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  going to look at today Jesus kind of shares with his
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  disciples this very lesson about hatred from the world and why we
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  get hatred from the world, right?
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  And the reason behind it. And I think it's important for
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  everyone in this room, but especially the kids, because I
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  think you guys can agree with me that in today's world, the kids
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  get attacked with so much work. So where I'm going to go with is
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  I'm going to go to John chapter 15 and I'm going to look at
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  verses 18 through 25. So this is the, the title of
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  this section in my Bible is called the world's hatred.
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  OK, so I'll, I'm just going to go verse by verse with this.
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  So we'll start with verse 18 where Jesus says, and this is
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  Jesus talking to his disciples here and he's talking about, he
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  says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before
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  it hated you. If you were of the world, the
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  world will love its own yet, because you are not of the
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  world. But I chose you out of the
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  world, therefore the world hates you.
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  Remember the word that I said to you.
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  A servant is not greater than his master.
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  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.
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  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
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  But all these things they will do to you for My namesake,
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  because they do not know Him who sent Me.
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  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin.
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  But now they have no excuse for their sin.
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  He who hates Me hates My Father also.
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  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did,
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  they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also
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  hated both me and my father. But this happened that the world
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  that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in
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  their law. They hated me without a cause.
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  Alright, so just kind of going through this.
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  So starting with verse 18, if the world hates you, you know
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  that hated me before I hated you.
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  So why does the world hate us? I hated Christ first, simple as
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  that, you know, and we're talking about Jesus Christ, the
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  perfect Son of God came into the world, never made a mistake,
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  never sinned, right? Did all these signs, all these
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  wonders and they still hated him, right?
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  Not even just the the unbelievers, but even his own
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  people hated him. Could didn't accept him, right?
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  So if he suffered and he was persecuted, right, what makes us
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  think that we're not going to be right?
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  And I mean, I could go into a bunch of examples of, of people
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  who who ended up losing their lives over the gospel, so many
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  different martyrs and, and, and people throughout history as his
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  own disciples, right? Christ himself murdered because
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  of his because of the truth. And the world just couldn't
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  accept it. And you know, Jesus told us in
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  Matthew 5 in the beatitudes, he said, blessed are you when they
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  revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you
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  falsely for my sake. Notice he says when, not if,
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  when. So what that tells us is if
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  we're believers and we're truly walking in in Christ, we are
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  going to receive persecution from the world.
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  It's just it's guaranteed, right?
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  So we and we know that it's the world hates us because I hated
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  Christ first, right? So we know why that hate's
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  coming. Verse 19 he says, if if you are
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  of the world, the world will love its own yet because you are
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  not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
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  the world hates you. So why does the world hate us?
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  Because He chose us out of the world, we are different from
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  what the world thinks is normal, right?
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  We don't do the same things the world does.
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  For example, tonight everyone else your guys's age is out here
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  dressing up in costumes or going around trick or treating.
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  They're watching horror movies. They're doing all this stuff
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  right. And you guys are here in the
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  church, fellowshipping with other believers and hearing the
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  Word, right? If we acted just like the world
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  did, the world would love us, right?
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  There would be no persecution, there'd be no hate.
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  There'd be none of that, right? But because we don't join in
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  what the world does, it's weird to them that we don't
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  participate in something like Halloween, right?
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  It's weird to them. So they're going to respond with
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  hatred and mockery. Mockery, right?
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  So refusing to wear a costume or trick or treat, refusal to go to
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  a costume party, like I got invited to a bunch of them this
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  week and I said no to all of them.
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  I got met with a lot of different stuff, right?
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  Choosing to honor God will shine an uncomfortable light on since
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  what that means is like, if you guys are different, right?
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  And the world tries to get you to, to participate in sin and
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  you go against it because of your faith in Christ, right?
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  The world sees that and they feel that, right?
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  Because it's almost like you're shining a light on, like the
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  wrong that they're doing, and they can't accept it.
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  So in return, that's where the hatred comes in, right?
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  And Jesus's words here are encouragement, right?
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  Because like, if we're being persecuted for our faith, that
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  means that we identify with him, right?
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  First, Peter 29 But you are a chosen generation, a royal
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  priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may
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  proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into
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  his marvelous life, right? Second, Peter 18 and 9 it says,
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  therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
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  of me his prisoner. This is Paul talking here, but
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  share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the
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  power of God, who has saved us and called us with the holy
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  calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
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  purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus
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  before the world began, right? So we're called to be different
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  out of the world. He called us to be set apart,
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  right? Romans 12/2.
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  And you sure you all have heard this.
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  Therefore not conform into this world, but be transformed by the
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  renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good,
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  acceptable and perfect will of God, right?
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  Do not conform to this world, right?
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  Don't. Don't let the pressures of the
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  world, the pressures of your peers, the pressures of what you
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  see on TV, what you see in books, whatever, Don't let that
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  pressure you to change and to fit into the world's norms, but
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  be transformed. Why?
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  So that we can prove the acceptable, good and perfect
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  will of God. So we can be that light and show
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  Christ in this in this world, right?
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  So we can be set apart. Go into verse 20 where he says,
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  remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater
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  than his master. If they persecuted me, they will
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  also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will
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  keep yours also, right? So same thing if they persecuted
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  Jesus, they're going to persecute us.
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  And a servant is not greater than his master.
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  So Jesus said that after he washed his disciples feet to
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  kind of give that, to kind of give that example of like, you
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  know, you call who said you call me Lord, Yeah, I just washed
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  your feet. And that's the example that that
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  he set for us. But also shows that like, you
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  know, if he was met with persecution, that means we're
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  going to be as well as his, you know, as his servants, right?
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  And in contrast, he says, if they keep my word, if they kept
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  my word, they will keep yours also.
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  So those who hear the gospel and respond, right, and accept it
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  and listen to it, those are the ones who keep his word.
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  And you know our word because our word is his word.
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  We're out here preaching his gospel.
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  Everything in his word is what we're out here sharing with
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  people. If they accept it, they accept
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  Him, right? But those who reject it reject
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  him also, right? So like when we're talking about
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  sharing the gospel, and we actually talked about this in
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  our conversations class last Saturday that we had where if
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  you share the gospel with someone and they don't accept
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  it, they're not rejecting you, right?
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  It's not you they're rejecting, it's God that they're rejecting,
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  right? And that's what he's kind of
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  saying here is if they keep my word, they'll keep yours.
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  So if they listen to what I say and if you're speaking my words
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  to them, then they're going to respond if they truly accept it,
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  right? 21 it says, but all these things
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  they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not
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  know him who sent me. So why does the world persecute
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  followers of Christ? They don't know who Christ is.
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  They don't truly know who Christ is.
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  You're going to hear a bunch of different ideologies about who
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  Jesus is to the world. They have all these different,
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  their own forms of Jesus, the affirming Jesus, the one who
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  accepts everyone's lifestyle, no matter who they are or what
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  they're doing. You know, the, the one that says
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  love is love no matter who it's between, right?
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  Even though the Bible talks about how marriage between a man
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  and a woman, you're going to hear different ideologies with
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  that as you guys get older, right?
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  And because we don't go along with it to the world, we're
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  strangers, we're outcasts, foreigners.
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  I like to use the word aliens, right?
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  I, I used to use that word all the time when I was talking
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  about just being different, when I, I talked about I like to be
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  an alien, right? So when we don't participate in
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  the things in the world and we get persecution, it's because
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  the world doesn't know, they don't know the truth.
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  And that's why we're called to be the examples, right?
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  We're supposed to sit, we're supposed to be light in a Dark
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  World. So when they see that light,
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  they gravitate towards it. And then and in return they
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  gravitate to the Father, right? So first Peter 4/4 says in
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  regards to these. So he's talking about those
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  people who are out of the world. He says they think it's strange
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  that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation,
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  speaking evil, you said, because we don't go along with what the
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  world does. They're going to speak evil on
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  us. They're going to hate us.
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  We're going to get hit with persecution, mockery, You know,
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  kids, you know, for your guys, you know, kids will make fun of
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  you. Kids will isolate you.
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  You won't be invited to hang out with them as much.
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  You'll have a lot of lonely nights.
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  Trust me, I've been there. I'm still there.
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  I'm still there. I have a lot of friends that
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  aren't saved and whenever I don't go along with them to do
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  the things that they want to do, a lot of Friday, Saturday
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  nights, I'm at home by myself or I'm at home with my mom and dad
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  watching college football or watching college basketball, you
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  know what I mean? But it's because I'm not.
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  I don't want to go along with that darkness and neither should
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  you. So stay in the light.
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  Do not let the world pressure you into following their norms,
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  right? Stay in the word, stay in Christ
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  verse 22 he says if I'm not come and spoken to them, they would
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  have no sin. But now they have no excuse for
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  their sin. So remember, so Jesus came to
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  earth. All these people witnessed his
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  signs. They witnessed him healing
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  people, raising the dead, you know, making the lame walk,
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  making the mute speak. They saw all this stuff and they
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  still did not accept them. They had no, like there was no
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  more proof that he could have given to them that he was who he
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  said he was. And they still rejected them
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  today. You know, people hear the
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  gospel. They see all the stuff that's
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  going on in the world, right? They see like they literally see
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  it in the Bible coming to life right now and they still won't
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  accept it, right? And that's what you used to talk
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  about. You know, if I'm not coming
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  spoken, they ought to know sin. But now they have no excuse for
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  their sin. The world knows good and evil.
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  They know they're choosing to walk in the evil right?
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  But you guys are choosing to walk in the light and if you
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  keep being that example and keep staying strong and and showing
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  people light, eventually no gravitates to that light, right?
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  So just keep being that example and don't feel like just because
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  there were, you know, just because they don't accept it
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  right away that you're not doing something, you're not making an
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  impact. That could be that couldn't be
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  further from the truth. They're seeing it, they're
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  feeling it. You may be planting a seed and
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  you don't even know it. So keep being alive, keep being
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  alive. Verse 23, it says he who hates
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  me hates my father. Also another thing you're going
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  to hear a lot of people when you talk about, ask about their
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  faith. Oh, I believe in God.
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  Well, what about Jesus? You know, who do you believe
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  Jesus is? Jesus was the prophet.
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  Jesus was, you know, he was a man who came to earth.
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  Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?
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  No. So if the world rejects God the
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  Son, how can they accept God the Father?
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  All right, That's what you're saying here.
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  He who hates me hates my Father. Also, you can't claim to love
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  God and not love his Son. It's just it's not possible,
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  right? And again, you're going to have
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  a lot of people trying to tell you who Jesus is, who they think
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  Jesus is, right? This right here tells you who
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  Jesus is. There are numerous scriptures I
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  could go to that talk about how Jesus is the Son of God.
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  Jesus came to earth, died on the cross for our sins, rose again
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  in three days. Not even just in here.
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  There's historical evidence of it, scientific evidence of it.
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  So don't let the world try to tell you who they think Jesus
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  is. Let this tell you who Jesus is.
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  This tells you everything you need to know.
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  All right, first, John four, one through 6 talks about, you know,
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  test the spirits to see whether they're of God because many
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  false prophets have gone out into the world and that's
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  happening today. You got a lot of, I'd say a lot
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  of pastors that are not following this, they're going
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  into their own different ideologies.
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  A lot of Christian influencers you see on TikTok, because I
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  know a lot of you guys are on TikTok, a lot of Christian
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  influencers on TikTok going against this, right?
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  So stay in the word. So that way if you hear
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  something, you'll get some point where you'll hear something and
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  you almost get like a funny feeling in your stomach.
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  That's the Holy Spirit. That's that spirit of the sermon
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  inside of you telling you this is truth, this is a lie, right?
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  So make sure you guys stay in the word and if someone if
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  people reject Jesus, they are rejecting God as well.
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  All right, two more verses. So verse 24 says if I not done
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  among them the worst, which no one else has did, they would've
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  had no sin. But now they have seen and also
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  hated both me and my father. So again, like I said, you know,
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  the world saw Jesus do the things that he did and they
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  still rejected him, right. And, and I was talking about
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  that, about this earlier, like whenever, and he has examples
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  and he went out and preached the gospel last year at a witch
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  festival. Was it a witch festival?
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  And he was met with many different responses to, you
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  know, to, to sharing the gospel. I see a lot of St. evangelist,
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  when they go to different events of the world and they go and
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  share the gospel, people are throwing stuff at them.
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  They're trying to RIP the microphone out of their hands.
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  They're trying to do all this stuff.
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  Why? Because they know it's the
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  truth. They know it's true.
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  If it wasn't true, it wouldn't affect them like that.
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  They wouldn't, they wouldn't feel that type of way.
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  You know what that is? That's, that's it.
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  That's that's Satan inside of them trying to trying to stop
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  them from hearing the truth, right?
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  And you're going to see that you're going to have times where
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  you're trying to share the gospel with people and they just
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  don't want to hear it or they hear it and they get mad.
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  They may get like enraged might cause you to lose some
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  friendships. But you know what that is?
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  That's that light that's inside of you messing with the darkness
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  that's inside of them and they won't be able to take it right?
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  And that just shows you how powerful the word of God is, how
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  powerful the gospel is, where it can cause people to, to, to feel
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  just this, this, this, this feeling of hatred, this feeling
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  of like rejection of it, right? Because it's true.
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  If it wasn't true, they wouldn't care.
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  But because it is true, you're going to get hit with all these
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  different responses. That's how you know, that's how
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  you know that the truth is that that God is bringing the truth
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  through you. All right.
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  So again, when that happens, stay strong, stay strong because
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  you're making more of an impact than you think you are, I
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  promise you. And then we'll go to the last
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  verse here. But this happened that the word
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  might be fulfilled, which is written in their law.
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  They hated me without a cause. So this is a quote from Psalms
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  69 for to show the spiritual precedent and prophetic
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  fulfillment. So remember, Jesus went through
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  his whole ministry fulfilling the Scripture, fulfilling the
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  prophecies of the Old Testament. He went through the whole his
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  whole ministry and this, this Scripture right here shows that
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  they had no 'cause they hate Jesus, they hated him because
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  they hated him. It wasn't anything that he did
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  wrong because he didn't do anything wrong in his life.
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  They hated him because they didn't accept who he was.
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  And that's the same reason why we're going to get met with
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  hatred too whenever we try to be lights is because they don't,
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  they don't accept Jesus. They're not.
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  Again, I'm going to say it again.
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  They're not rejecting you. They are rejecting God, right
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  when they're when you're sharing the gospel and they don't accept
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  it, they are rejecting God, not us.
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  OK, so and again, and we are hated and rejected for the sake
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  of the gospel. And I'm going to repeat that for
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  the sake of the gospel, OK, not just hated because of stuff that
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  we did wrong, OK, Because Peter in first Peter talks about
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  there's, you know, if you're suffering because of what of, of
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  your wrongdoing, that's an entirely different thing, right?
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  But what we're talking about is suffering for the for the sake
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  of the gospel, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
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  That's where we're that's where we can rejoice, right?
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  Because we know that we're truly set apart and like Jesus and the
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  beatitudes, great is your reward, right?
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  Rejoice and be glad. I'm gonna read one more
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  scripture from first Peter and then I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap
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  this up. I want you guys, I want you guys
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  to hear this. OK, so this is first Peter 412
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  through 14. It says, beloved, do not think
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  it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you
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  as though some strange thing, strange thing happening.
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  So what he's saying is like, don't, don't be confused or
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  don't be caught off guard when you're going through these
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  periods of persecution, these periods of, of, of people
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  mocking you and the world hating you.
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  Don't be, don't be surprised, but rejoice in verse 13, rejoice
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  to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that
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  when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding
• 18:58
  joy. So when we receive this
• 19:00
  persecution, right, it may not feel great, but we should
• 19:04
  rejoice because we're partaking in the same thing that Christ
• 19:08
  went through that all the prophets went through, that guys
• 19:11
  like Paul and Peter, Stephen, you know, Stephen, all those
• 19:15
  guys in the Bible that that caught persecution for the
• 19:18
  gospel, we're going through the same things they went through,
• 19:20
  right? Verse 14 if you are reproached,
• 19:24
  which basically means persecuted, hated, mocked for
• 19:27
  the name of Christ, blessed are you for the spirit of glory and
• 19:31
  of God rests upon you. On their part, He is blasphemed,
• 19:36
  but on your part, he is glorified.
• 19:39
  So when when we share the gospel and we and we are met with
• 19:42
  persecution, we are glorifying God by staying strong in that
• 19:46
  persecution and not letting that hate conform us or change us or
• 19:50
  try to get us to go along with the world's norms.
• 19:55
  Excuse me, Thank you. And that's a big thing I
• 19:59
  struggle with. I was, I was telling this one
• 20:00
  example that I'm done. I struggle with acceptance from
• 20:03
  the world for the longest period of my life.
• 20:06
  I. Hated being by myself.
• 20:08
  I hated feeling isolated. So I'd appeared in my life where
• 20:11
  I was trying to just make friends, trying to be popular.
• 20:17
  I wanted everyone to know who I was until I finally reached that
• 20:21
  point where I said, you know what?
• 20:23
  Like I'm not actually set apart. I'm not, I'm not being the
• 20:28
  example that I'm called to be. I'm, I'm going along with the
• 20:31
  world for what I'm going to think about it.
• 20:35
  We're we try to seek validation from a world that crucified the
• 20:38
  perfect son of God. If the perfect son of God cannot
• 20:43
  get acceptance from the world, why are we trying to why, why
• 20:47
  should we care about what the world thinks about us, right?
• 20:52
  Remember, Jesus said don't worry about those who can kill the
• 20:54
  body or those that have killed the body, but those that affect
• 20:56
  the soul, right? So where, when you know, the
• 20:59
  world may hate us on the outside, right?
• 21:01
  And, and you know, they can do whatever, but should we worry
• 21:04
  about more about eternity, about where we go when we leave this
• 21:08
  earth? I don't know about you, but I
• 21:12
  want to be an eternity with my with my Heavenly Father.
• 21:14
  I get careless about what the world thinks.
• 21:17
  And that's where I want you guys to get to.
• 21:18
  All right. So I want you guys to remember
• 21:20
  this. Do not let the world, the, the
• 21:23
  persecution, the hatred, do not let that make you sweat.
• 21:28
  Stay strong. Stay grounded in the truth of
• 21:31
  the word of God, and I promise you it'll be worth it in the
• 21:35
  long run. All right, that's all I got.
• 21:39
  All right, so I'm going to pray us out real quick and then we'll
• 21:41
  let you guys get on with your evening.
• 21:42
  I'm glad you guys were here. I'm I'm praying that you guys
• 21:46
  were touched by everything that happened today.
• 21:47
  And I mean it as stay in Christ. Do not, do not chase after this
• 21:54
  world. All right?
• 21:56
  OK, Lord, I just thank you again, Lord, just for this
• 22:00
  night. Lord, we just thank you, Lord,
• 22:01
  that he gave us this opportunity to, to meet with each other
• 22:04
  tonight, Lord, and just to, to be a positive light, Lord, and
• 22:08
  in our neighborhood, Lord, in our community.
• 22:10
  God and Lord, I just pray that everyone here, Lord, parents and
• 22:14
  kids included, Lord was touched, Lord, at some point.
• 22:17
  Lord God, I just pray that you would just always remind us,
• 22:21
  Lord, to just chase after you to, to seek first the Kingdom of
• 22:25
  God in his righteousness. God above everything, and I pray
• 22:28
  that we wouldn't be concerned with what the world thinks of
• 22:30
  us. We wouldn't be concerned with
• 22:32
  acceptance from the world, that we wouldn't be concerned with
• 22:35
  things of this world, that we would chase after you, God,
• 22:38
  chase after your righteousness. Lord, strive to be more like you
• 22:42
  every single day. And I pray, God, that you would
• 22:44
  just keep us strong in the midst of the persecution that's going
• 22:47
  on in this world. Well, I pray for kids across the
• 22:51
  nation, Lord, that are being attacked, Lord, spiritually,
• 22:54
  Lord, by the things of by the things of the devil, Lord, I
• 22:57
  pray that you would just put a special protection around them,
• 22:59
  God. And I pray that they would all
• 23:01
  cling to you, God. And I pray that you would just
• 23:03
  continue just to, to show your power, show your glory, Lord.
• 23:06
  And I pray that we would that this generation coming up, Lord,
• 23:10
  that they would be the ones, Lord, to have this world turn to
• 23:14
  you. I pray that you just be with us
• 23:16
  for the rest of the night. I pray that you just keep
• 23:17
  everyone safe as they head home and I pray that you would just
• 23:20
  continue just to keep us strong Lord, and just keep us
• 23:23
  persevering, Lord, in the faith, in Jesus name I pray, Amen,
• 23:26
  Amen.