The Beatitudes #10

So this morning we're going to be finishing our study of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Our text will be verses 11 and 12. Those will be what we're focusing on. These verses are the culmination of this section. They're sort of the conclusion. And ultimately, these few verses tell us what the ultimate result of everything that Jesus has said up to this point. When we first started this section on the Beatitudes, one of the things that I said was, These are spiritual qualities, spiritual things that he's calling us to do. These are not things that we do naturally. This state of blessing is something that we would all desire, something we would all want. We would all want to stand before Jesus and have him say to us, blessed are you. But when he describes those who are blessed, we think that's not what I am or that's not what I do. And that's why it's a spiritual thing to be poor in spirit or to mourn or to be gentle, to hunger and thirst for righteousness or be merciful.

to be pure in heart or to be a peacemaker. We see these are things that are not ours to take off the shelf and use at will. These are things that we need God to give us and to make true of us. And so as we come to these last few verses by way of introduction, I want you to see that as we're doing those things, as God's doing those things in us, he tells us what the result will be. And we started looking at it a little bit last week, but this week we're going to bring it more into focus. so that our expectations are tuned to what we should expect as Christians in this life. My hope this morning is that our Heavenly Father will help each of us to be more faithful to him, even if it causes us trouble, because that is, in the end, what these verses warn us of, is that there will be trouble or there will be hardships as a result of serving God. Our text is Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 to 12. Would you please stand as we read the word of the Lord? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. So when we read verse 11, Jesus tells us, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. And so I want to start by simply stating to all of us that every one of us has experienced being insulted, being singled out or persecuted, or having lies told about us. For most of us, that was called middle school or high school or the office. or having siblings. It's a sort of thing that is just regular. It's largely what goes on on social media. Lots of insulting, lots of persecuting, lots of canceling, lots of lies and missing context. My point in saying this at the very beginning of our text is to say this is the way of the world, insulting, persecuting, lying. It is how we naturally interact with each other.

But that context in school, around people, just what happens in our daily lives as a result of sinners interacting with each other, getting frustrated with each other, or jealous or whatever, is not what Jesus is talking about specifically here. He doesn't say, if you're insulted or persecuted, you're blessed. Only, he says, if you're insulted or persecuted because of me. And we're going to come to this phrase, because of me, in just a minute. But I want you to see that from the beginning that not all of the suffering that you endure is the result of you being a Christian. I think there's a danger that Christians can fall into where they think, because I'm a Christian, if I'm insulted, it means I'm blessed. But that's not what the Bible teaches. It doesn't say, if you're insulted and you're a Christian, then you're blessed. Now, why doesn't the Bible teach that? Well, because Christians still sin.

Christians still do wrong. In 1 Peter chapter 4, he warns us. He says, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer. And he's taking suffering and he's saying, okay, there are different ways of suffering. Let's compare them and say, let's avoid this one and understand this one. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. Now, which one of us, if we're honest, can't see in our own lives that we've brought some of the insults and some of the singling out persecution or invited some of the lies that have been told about us? That our actions actually have brought those sorts of things to us. How might we do that? Well, what if someone lies about you first? What if someone mocks you or makes fun of you first? What if someone at work or at...

in class, decides that they don't like you. And they're going to get everyone else not to like you. What is the natural response to that? Well, it's for you to dig in and start doing the same thing to them. How many of us have gotten angry when someone's turned on us and has put us in their crosshairs and refused to realize that our actions are what got us there in the first place? We did something that caused them to become angry, frustrated. We provoked them. I want us to be clear from the beginning that not all of the insults that we endure, not all of the persecution that we endure, not all the lies that are told about us are the result of us being faithful to God. That there are insults that are because we've sinned and there are insults because we've been faithful to God. And those things are not the same thing. When our sin is the cause of our suffering, We should never think that this means we're blessed. What we should think is, this means I should repent. One of the things in the Bible that is warned against is fathers exasperating their children. And he says that the reason that fathers shouldn't do that is so that their children don't lose heart. But I want to ask you for a second, what does a son who's exasperated do? What does losing heart look like? I think we can all get a picture of it, and it's not a pleasant picture.

He digs in his heels. He fights. He yells. He may throw things. He may slam doors. He may punch holes in the wall. And the parents left standing, they're saying, what's wrong with you, son? Well, what may be wrong with that son is that his father has exasperated him, that he's driven him to this point where his son doesn't want to be in the room with him, doesn't want to talk to him, doesn't want to have any fellowship with him. And so we have to look at our lives. Honestly. To the best of our ability, we have to look honestly and say, what have I done to contribute to or to cause this situation? And the reason I say we have to be careful and conscientious to do it is because our natural inclination is never to. But to always think it's their fault. They did it. It wasn't me. It was them. They made me do it, which is what Adam said in the garden. It was the woman that you gave to me. And it's what Eve said in the garden. It was the serpent who deceived me. It's our nature.

to pass the buck, to blame other people and to say, it wasn't me who did it. I didn't elicit that response from them. I didn't provoke them. I don't know why they're so upset. But if you're anything like me or like the people who live in my house, that is often not the case. The fact is, you often are insulting other people and frustrating them and pushing them until they get upset and retaliate. Now, am I justifying the retaliation and saying, well, it's your fault? No. I would say to the son who's exasperated and who lashes out at his parents that there's no excuse for his behavior, that there's no justification for it. And yet he has been pushed beyond what he was able to manage and to control. And so when we're insulted, when people are upset with us, when they're spreading lies about us, the first thing we ought to be examining is why. And did I cause this?

And the reason we ought to examine these things is because Jesus says, if you're insulted, persecuted, or lied about because of me, then you're blessed. That little phrase, because of me, is the whole ballgame. Is the trouble you're facing because of me? Last week when I was preaching, we studied the verse just preceding this. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. And what I said to you last week, and I want to reiterate to you today, is what righteousness produces. The first thing that righteousness does that we talked about last week is it divides. It separates. It draws a line and says, there's people on this side and there's people on this side. And they do different things. They're different types of people. They have different priorities. They have different affections and loves. They're motivated by different things. It divides us. The second thing I said was righteousness judges. The unrighteous are judged.

They feel judged by the righteous. If you don't do what I'm doing, then by your refusal to do it, whatever it is, cursing, going out and getting drunk on the weekends, fornicating, doing drugs, cheating on your taxes, cheating on your wife, whatever it is, if you don't do what I do, if you refuse to, then you are at the very same time judging me because you're saying what you're doing is wrong. That's why I don't do it. And it's these things, this division and this judgment that causes persecution. And so it follows right on the heels of blessed are those who've been persecuted for the sake of righteousness that Jesus would say, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. He says, you're Christians. You're going to need to live in obedience to my word and my commands and do what I say. That's going to cause you problems.

It's going to cause you problems. It's going to cause tension in relationships. It's going to cause trouble in your family. It may cause you trouble at work or in school. And the response to all of that is going to be things like insults, being mocked, being made fun of, being persecuted, being lied about. And so when I say we need to examine ourselves to see why we're being insulted, I don't know that the examination is that difficult. The thing we should ask ourselves is, are the things that are being said about me the result of my love for Jesus? Or another way of asking it is, why did I do the thing that they're making fun of me for, lying about me for? Why did I do it? And if the answer is, I did it out of devotion to Jesus Christ and because I love him, then you're blessed. These are who Jesus is speaking of. The only ones who are blessed are those that suffer insults, persecutions, and lies.

as the direct result of being a Christian and obeying God. Now, here's the difficulty. We don't want suffering to be the result of being a Christian or being faithful. There's a lot of pressure today on you, on me in the church to be faithful to God and yet never to realize that that leads to suffering. As I was preparing this sermon and thinking about it last week, I thought, you know, I'm always talking about suffering and persecution. I'm just always talking about it. I was talking about it in 2 Timothy, and here we are, we'll preach in the Gospels, and here we come, and here we are suffering again. And I get weary of it because I'm thinking, this is all I ever talk about. But the thing that comes to my mind is, this is what is all through Scripture. And how have we lived our whole lives and missed it? How have we gotten into adulthood, grown-ups, who don't know what the Bible says about suffering?

And that it is the result of living in a world that is hostile toward God and that as you're faithful to him, it will cause you trouble. It's as if we read those passages of clear warning and instruction and our eyes glaze over and we're like, but not for me. I don't see that happening to anyone else. And what we end up concluding is when we don't see it happening around us, we think, oh, well, that's what's normal and it doesn't enter our minds. Maybe there's something wrong if no one has ever suffered that I know for being a Christian. We can't divorce faith from suffering. You can't. They go together. If you avoid suffering, you will be required to give up obedience. You'll succumb to the pressure. The example I gave last week was of young people getting married and having children because that's something that's prominent in our church is a number of young people, 30 and younger, have gotten married, have had babies, and then pretty soon people start looking at you funny.

They'll look at you funny if you have a big family, but they will also look at you funny if you didn't go to college or are a teenager or you're in your early 20s and all of a sudden you're married and you're a mom or a dad. They're like, you didn't do that on purpose, did you? And if you say, yes, I did do that on purpose. We desired that on purpose. We pursued that on purpose. There's a judgment. an insult coming to you. When I was talking to Vanessa about this topic, earlier this week I was saying to her, I said, you know, I don't know that I've ever suffered the way he's describing here. I'm like, have I ever suffered for serving God? I don't know that I have. And she just looked at me and she says, well, I have. And I says, well, what do you mean? She says, well, every time I go out to the store and take our kids anywhere, I get the looks and I get the rude comments. It's just constant.

for her. And I'm like, oh, well, yes, that absolutely makes sense and is what's being spoken about here. And then I thought, well, maybe the difference is I'm a man and I'm a big man, and people are less likely to be rude to my face than they would be to my wife. But then it got me thinking about it, and I thought, you know, I think I've just calloused myself to it and just acted like suffering is not a real thing. And I'm afraid that too often that's what Christians end up doing, is that because we don't like suffering, we minimize it. We say it doesn't exist, or we set the bar very high for what suffering is. And sometimes suffering does come at a high cost, but insults, snickering, subtle jabs fall into this category. An example might be the Billy Graham rule, or the Mike Pence rule. Mike Pence is the new version, but he just copied Billy Graham. And Billy Graham understood early on in his ministry that there were...

two things that would destroy him and destroy his ministry. One was pride and the other was sexual sin. And so he said, my rule is I never spend any time alone with a woman. That's not my wife. I just don't do it ever. And in his time, everyone would have said, that makes sense. That's good. That's wise. Nowadays, that's just scorned. What are you saying about women? Why can't you control yourself? What's wrong with you? Well, the thing was, those men knew what was wrong with them. And so they took precautions against it. But there are insults, there's frustration, there are judgments that come to you for things as simple as that. You get married young. You want to have children. You care about the fidelity of your marriage. You don't speak this way or you don't watch that sort of entertainment. Little simple things that all of us, decisions all of us are having to make every day are the sorts of things that invite the insults or the lies that Jesus is speaking about here.

And you might think, well, that's just no big deal. Those things aren't that big of a deal. But I think that's untrue. I think it is a big deal. Because what I find is that people succumb to those things that aren't a big deal pretty quickly. That thing that's not so heavy to carry and wear, all of a sudden it's unbearable. And what we've done is we've not asked for help with carrying the burden. We've given up the obedience. We've learned to keep our mouth shut. We've learned to go along to get along. We've refused to be salt and light, which is in the weeks to come, which is what comes right after the Sermon on the Mount. He says salt that's lost its saltiness, it's worthless. It's useless. You're not a Christian if you're not salty. If there's not some distinct difference between you and the world around you, then there is no value here. There is no grace here. And so in short, what causes you to be insulted or lied about or persecuted for the sake of Jesus? In a word,

faithfulness to him, obedience. These are the things that cause you to get mocked and made fun of. And we are unwise if we think that it's no big deal. Here's another danger with minimizing it. And part of the reason I'm talking about minimizing it is I see the propensity in myself and in you guys to just minimize the hardships, okay? Here's the danger of minimizing it. You don't have the strength to continue to obey. if you minimize your problems. And it will never lead you to do what Jesus says here, which is to rejoice. Okay? Taking a problem and exaggerating it doesn't cause you to rejoice. Neither does taking a problem and minimizing it. It doesn't cause you to rejoice. And yet Jesus says right here, what you're supposed to do is rejoice. Rejoice and be glad. When you're insulted, when you're...

Speaking poorly of them, people are lying about you. When you're suffering, what you're to do is to rejoice. The other thing it keeps you from doing if you suppress it is it keeps you from ever talking to other people and help letting them bear your burdens. I can't tell you how many Christians I know and how common it is for Christians to feel like they're on an island with their burdens, that nobody else is there to carry them. And I'm left thinking, do you tell them? And we all have a reason for why we can't or shouldn't or won't. And so we isolate ourselves, which means that we're left alone to deal with the insults, the weariness, the persecutions, the lies, the fears, the exhaustion, with no help. Why should people come to church? Here's one of the reasons. So that other people can help you, stir you up, and encourage you to be faithful to God. Because you don't have the strength to do it yourself. You just don't. When people say, I can be a Christian. I don't need to go to church. I'm like, no, you can't.

And yes, there are theological reasons for me saying that, but there's also practical reasons for saying I've never seen anybody succeed in serving God by themselves. And if they did, it was an extraordinary kindness of God. It's not normal. You read things in Scripture where Paul says, I'm absent in body but present in spirit. And it's meaningful what he says. I'm there with you. You should feel it and know it. And I feel it and I know it. And I consider us knit together that tight. We are not separated. And we say, I don't even need to be there in person. I don't need any of that. Paul says, I need you. You need me. We need each other. In Hebrews 10, it says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. And you have to wonder, what would make us waver? Our confession of hope is what we have to hold on to. And what would make us waver in our holding on to it? Insults, persecution, suffering. In a nutshell, that's what will cause you to waver.

Hebrews goes on, for he who promised is faithful. And then you see that this is not a statement to an individual, but a statement to us, to a corporate body. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Do you guys know what comes next? It's the part that gets sucked out of this context. Not forsaking our own gathering together, as is the habit of some. but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. In Hebrews, you see that there's suffering, there's trial, there's burdens. And what Hebrews teaches us is you need to be with other Christians when you're facing those things or you will not be able to endure it. You will not be able to endure it. Your strength to resist your own sins will diminish. Your strength to endure suffering will diminish. All of the justifications that are just waiting right outside your heart get welcomed right in.

when you're alone. And so what I want you to know is that if you're going to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to serve him, you must do it with other people who are doing the same thing. You have to. Now, some might look at that and say, well, that's tribalism. That's you holing up and only caring about yourselves and being different and being odd and living in a bubble. It doesn't have to be that. I'm not saying you should never have interactions with people outside the world, but I am saying you will not be faithful to God by yourself. You need other people, and you need other people who know what you have going on and who largely are going through the same stuff, who have the same commitments. That's what the church is. Why would we need to be stimulated to love and good deeds? I don't know. What needs to be stimulated? Well, something that's not firing, something that's not working, something that's stopped functioning. All of a sudden, you stimulate it. If you have a muscle that's...

got a problem, they'll put little electrodes on, they'll stimulate it and try to get it to work again. You and I, we need stimulation because the insults turn us off. Lies become heavy and weary and hard to carry. And so we need to be stirred up or stimulated to love and good deeds, to persevere, to continue. We need to be encouraged. The interesting thing, though, is that insults and suffering often cause us to want or to desire the exact opposite. Instead of coming into community as the result of suffering, we withdraw from it. Why do people withdraw from their friends and from their family when they're suffering? There's a number of reasons. Embarrassment, shame, pride. It's unnatural when you're suffering to go toward other people. It is what you must do.

I don't want to tell them about this problem. I don't want to tell them about this sorrow. I don't want to tell them about what's really going on. So I'm fine. I'm just tired. The man who does that will never enjoy the blessing of God and will never come to rejoice because they've chosen to bear their burdens alone. And in due time, they will succumb to the pressure that they face. Rejoicing, being glad, is a spiritual response. That requires faith. I don't want you to think that when Jesus says, when you're suffering, when you're insulted, when you're lied about, when you're hurt, when all that's going on, that rejoicing is something you may feel like doing. It's not. Could it be that God would tell you to rejoice when you don't feel like rejoicing? None of us want to say yes. Have you ever said to one of your children, you need to smile? And had your child say to you, I don't feel like it. And what do you say? Oh, well, if you don't feel like it.

No, honey, you need to smile. One of the things I'll say to my kids is your job is to bring me joy. And that sourpuss face doesn't do it. You have to smile. I need your smiles. And whether you feel like doing it or not has no bearing on it. I need it. So you have to smile. Now, am I being oppressive and mean to my child? Make me do something I don't want to do. I'm preparing you for a lifetime of having to do things that you don't want to do all the time. If our guiding principle in our life is I do what I want to do and I don't do the things I don't want to do, we can rest assured that our final place will be in hell. A Christian does things they don't want to do by faith. I mean, it's crazy to tell someone who's suffering that they should rejoice. And yet here, Jesus tells them, rejoice and be glad.

In James, at the very beginning of his epistle, he says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the test of your faith produces endurance. And after the apostles and Acts were creating quite an uproar and they get drug into by the high priests and they get told, You can't teach in this name anymore. And they were beaten and they were flogged. They go out probably still with bloody wounds. rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. And so you realize this joy that Jesus is commanding here is not something you necessarily feel like doing. It's a learned grace. It's something we should ask God for. Would you help me, help me, make me rejoice when I suffer? Bring people around me who will help me rejoice, who will carry my burdens. Time and again.

Joy is the response of suffering. This is what the Bible teaches. In Philippians, where Jesus is described, his death on the cross is described, how does Paul describe it? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. And to our minds, we're like, how does that make any sense? What joy was there? When I have to suffer, when I have to die, when someone tells a lie about me, my joy is gone. And I think that our understanding of joy and rejoicing is just deficient. That we don't see that it is, It is not the result of our circumstances. If you think that joy or contentment or peace or comfort in your life are going to be the fruit of your life going well, you will never have them. You'll never have them. And you say, why do you say that? And I say, because time and again the Bible tells us that faithfulness to God will bring about suffering in our lives, not comfort. Why does it have to be that way? I don't want it to be that way. And I go, okay, well, at least now we're being honest.

At least now we're saying, I don't want to be like that. I'm convinced that it's God's kindness that he brings suffering and sorrow into our lives because it's the only thing that will make us reconsider our devotion to this world. We're so committed to it and to its comforts. We won't go without it. We don't think we should have to. And yet we're not a happy people, not happy the way we should be. And I think it's because too much of our hearts are still captivated by this world. And I think it's the kindness of God to just go about the work of bursting that bubble time and again. This world will not give you joy. This world will insult you. This world will tell lies about you. This world killed your Savior. This world is not your home. The things in this world are going to burn up. When you die, you won't take any of it with you. Time and again, the Scripture tells us these things.

And I think it's God's kindness to bring struggles and trials into our lives to help us believe it. Because otherwise, I don't think we would. I just don't think we would. You remember I said earlier that when you're suffering, you tend to withdraw and be alone. And I think the reason you do that is because you think, I really am the only one doing it. But here, as Jesus concludes this section, he says, For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And what is he saying to you? Except you're not alone. The lies that you've believed that I'm alone in this are just that, they're lies. I have the benefit as the pastor of this church and the elders do of knowing more intimately than the general population of the church what burdens you guys are carrying. Now, do we know all of them? No, because sometimes you don't tell us.

And that's to your harm, not to your good. You think, well, I don't want to discourage the elders and the pastors. I don't want to bother them. So you'd rather suffer alone and curse God rather than let us help you. Doesn't seem like a wise course of action, wise choice. My point in bringing that up is to say, you're not alone. You're not alone. Jesus says this is what happened to the prophets before you. Now, why does he say prophets? You might think, well, am I a prophet? No, you're not a prophet. Why does he say prophets? He says prophets because they were the ones that were understood in the Old Testament to be the ones who spoke for God and served God well. They were the faithful ones. He says you're just like the faithful ones that went before. They spoke the truth of God. God spoke to them. They spoke it to the people. It brought about a lot of difficulty for them. Why would you expect differently?

They were mistreated for their faithfulness. You will be too. I think it's in Peter where Peter says, why are you surprised at this fiery ordeal? Why is this a shock to you? Because it really is rooted deep down into our hearts that our lives shouldn't be difficult and hard and that being a Christian should resolve the conflict, not create it. But it is what creates it. And so we're left scratching our heads. at the holidays and we're left trying to figure out how to figure it out at work or how to figure it out in the classroom. Whether you're in the classroom as an elementary school kid or little kid or whether you're in the classroom as a college student. How do I figure out, how do I negotiate the tensions? How do I avoid all the tensions? How do I keep from being insulted, made fun of, pointed at and snickered at, kicked out of my program? When instead what we should be asking is, what does God require of me here? What would faithfulness look like?

What should I say? What would be a faithful thing to say? What would be a faithful thing to do? And then immediately we should realize if I do the faithful thing, it's not going to resolve the tension. It's probably going to intensify it. That's okay. God's not put to shame when his people suffer for him. He doesn't disown you and say, oh, look what you did. You've made a mess of it. People are saying bad things about me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great. That's the last thing I want to talk about is your reward in heaven. I said earlier that I think suffering and sorrow is what God uses to pry our hands open, to let go of this world. And Jesus here says that when you suffer for his sake, your reward in heaven is great. There's a question of whether Christians should be motivated by rewards. Should we obey God because we want the blessing of obeying him? Should we? Yes.

But do you know that there's this idea that, and I think it's probably, we all can say yes, but I think many times we think, that's not as holy as if I just did it out of the goodness of my heart. What goodness? Why do you think the Bible is full of promises of blessing and warnings of curses? Except that those things are supposed to motivate us. And so Jesus says, here's one example of it where Jesus says, rejoice and be glad. when you're insulted and treated poorly for me, because your reward in heaven is great. Why would he talk about our reward? Because we're supposed to want it. We're supposed to pursue it. We're supposed to desire it. I think this idea that we shouldn't be motivated by rewards is closely related to this idea that I shouldn't do anything I don't want to do. And I just think it's bankrupt. It's a foolish way of thinking. It's unbiblical. It's ungodly.

God promised us rewards. We should want them. He tells us to do things we don't want to do, and we should do them anyway. And what you'll find is if you'll submit to God and you'll do the things that he requires of you by faith, he's often merciful in giving you understanding about those things as you do them. You see the benefits once you've obeyed that you couldn't take hold of before. So do you want a great reward in heaven? That's the question here. Do you want a great reward in heaven? If the answer is yes, then you should go, okay, then that means in this life I should not be surprised or try to avoid the insults, the lies, the hardships, the suffering that come with serving Christ. I shouldn't avoid them. Does that mean that you should seek them out? No, you don't have to go seeking out trouble. You should desire to live a peaceful, quiet life. But when trouble comes, you shouldn't run from it. Christians ought to be a happy people.

They ought to be a people who know themselves and know their sins. Our Christian joy is not the result of ease or comfort, and it's not the result of not having trouble. It's the result of loving God because he's loved us first. That's what gives us joy. We're about to partake of communion, and what's this meal represent? It represents, what'd you say? The death of Jesus, that's right. It represents the cost of our sins, the payment made for them. So we should rejoice at this meal and be grieved by what we've done, by our behaviors, by the things we've said, by our hardness of heart, our coldness of heart, by our refusal to suffer, by our refusal to be faithful. That in this last week, when we had the chance to say something and we went, And just that long, just that quick, that's how long you had and you decided. And now the opportunity is gone. We should come to this meal and we should say, you know, I refused. I refused to be insulted. I refused to trust you. I refused to speak or to act in a way that honors you. I didn't do it. And I didn't do it because I didn't want the hardship that came with it. And I robbed myself of joy. And I robbed you of glory because I wanted comfort and ease.

What this meal represents is mercy for people who did that and things just like it this week, time and again, provided that they see their sins and that they hate them. This meal should be an occasion for us to rejoice. It should be a reminder to us of where our treasure should be. Jesus did not die so we could have a comfortable, easy life here. He died so that we would be welcomed into heaven and be free of this place. That's what this meal represents. And so the path to glory and to heaven is paved with insults and lies and suffering and persecution and misunderstandings and bitterness and all kinds of hardship. But in the end, we'll see that God is no man's debtor. That in the end, when we stand before him and he welcomes us into his presence, we won't go, I think you still owe me something for all of the hardship, for all of the sorrow, for all of the pain, for all the sleepless nights.

or whatever it is that we've had to endure. God is no man's debtor. And so we shouldn't be ashamed of him. We should be willing to endure the same sorts of things that Jesus endured. Let's pray.