Blessed and Reviled

Welcome to the Thirst with Hunger podcast with Pastor Sandy Edwards, where we destroy every obstacle that hinders people from knowing God. Here you'll be challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue his presence, walk in truth, and live with bold faith. Let's dive in.

Hello everyone and welcome back To what is the last and final episode of season 2 of the Thirst with Hunger podcast. This has been one of my favorite seasons ever, um, because I love how Jesus just makes everything so plain for everyone to understand, right? And that is our goal here at Thirst with Hunger, to make the Bible plain enough for everyone to understand. Within the context of what the scripture is actually saying and helping us destroy those obstacles that have hindered us from knowing God, from intimacy with God, from growing with— in intimacy with God. And, you know, one of those ways that we do that is by being confrontational about lies and things that we as people of God have been indoctrinated to believe. Because God wants us to know the truth, and it is only the truth that sets us free. And I just have to say that every last one of us have the ability to hear from God. Every last one of us as children of God can hear from God. We have to be intimate with him to understand and, and grow in knowing his voice and following his leading. And the only way that we do that is by spending time in the Word so that we can understand the character of God, the nature of God, and grow in that understanding and mature in that understanding. Before God's Word materializes in the natural, it must first be internal with you. All right, you must eat of the bread and drink of the cup first. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 11 through 12, it says, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In our last episode, we talked about persecution and what actually qualifies as persecution, which means that persecution, in order for it to qualify in God's eyes, as persecution. It must, it must be for righteousness' sake. And Jesus, in Matthew 5:11-12, he, he turns to the disciples and he makes this verse personal to them. He starts using words like you, your, and makes it personal. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Jesus explains to them that when people are uttering all kinds of evil against you, it's on my account. My account. So when people lie on you, the command is to rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. And does that mean that You are jumping off the rooftops because somebody lied on you. No. Again, joy is a posture of the heart that is produced from dwelling in the Spirit. It means choosing the way of God in a moment where you could choose to interact and engage in the flesh because you're being lied on. Or because someone accused you of something, or because you're being persecuted for righteousness' sake. Every single beatitude before this one describes your relationship with God and what it should look like. Every single day, that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit. You are blessed when you are meek. You are blessed when you are merciful. You are blessed when you are pure in heart. You are blessed. When you walk in all of these characteristics that are birthed from intimacy with God, Jesus starts with intimacy by telling you that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit, realizing your need for God, and he ends it with another level. Of intimacy that you will bear witness with as a result of being persecuted for righteousness' sake. It starts with intimacy, it ends with intimacy, and that intimacy gives birth to a reward. Where else do we see this in scripture? Where God says that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And here's Jesus using this same word again, reward, in Matthew 5:11-12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, and diligently seeking him is what is righteous to God. When you diligently realize your need for God, when you're diligently practicing meekness, When you're diligent and being merciful, when you're diligent and you're being pure in heart and not so focused on the external but the internal. Our internal works have a soul, not our external. The internal works produce external works. So as I said a few episodes ago, are you practicing the faith? When Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount, he starts out with intimacy and then tells them what their intimacy with God in the pursuit of righteousness in God will produce in their life. So when Jesus is telling the disciples in Matthew 5:11-12 to rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, he's not telling them to ignore the physical, mental, and emotional pain that may come from Betrayal or being lied on. He's not telling us to smile when we feel grief. He's not telling us to suppress the pain that we feel after we feel the human effects of being lied on and persecuted. He's not telling us to do any of that. Rejoice as Jesus meant it. Means that we take on the posture of joy, understanding that our hope and our peace will never be found in and of this world. So when we read words like rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, we mistake that word to mean I'm always going to be happy about my circumstances, or I am supposed to overlook the pain, or I am supposed to overlook how I feel when I'm betrayed, or I'm supposed to overlook how I feel when people consistently lie on me and keep my name in their mouth and say things that I never said or accuse me of things that I never did and never said, that I'm supposed to overlook all of that. That's not what he's telling us. Joy does not mean erase the pain. Joy does not mean I overlook how difficult it may be to process something in the moment. We have been taught and indoctrinated to believe that joy means Fake peace that you put on a face, that you shut off the idea that you may actually be grieving the fact that this person who was close to you, or maybe they're not close to you, or maybe you got an online audience and people always coming up against you. He's not telling you to act like none of that stuff is going on. What he's saying when he says rejoice and be glad is that the grief of the moment of being persecuted. Can coexist with joy. You can be experiencing torment and still be anchored in the hope of Christ. You can still be experiencing grief that comes from being tortured, from being persecuted, from being lied on, from being falsely accused. And still be anchored in the hope that comes from Christ. And having your hope in Christ in moments where you're experiencing persecution means that you have your heart fixed on the reward that you're going to receive. Notice how Jesus didn't just tell them to rejoice and be glad. He told them where their reward is. He didn't just tell them to rejoice and be glad because they're being persecuted on his account. He told them where their reward is, what they will receive as a result of standing steadfast in the word of God, being willing to lay their lives down. He told them what their reward will be like. What they will receive as a result of standing firm on the foundation of Christ, standing firm on the word of God. It wasn't if the persecution was gonna happen, it was a matter of when the persecution was gonna happen. Jesus knew these things would happen, so he prepared them. He prepared them. So grief of the pain of being betrayed or persecuted or lied on and joy can coexist because your joy is not found in what is happening to you. Your joy is found and anchored in the hope that can only come from Christ. Let's look at Acts chapter 5, verse 40 through 42. It says, then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Again, they didn't take on the offense of the people who were persecuting them. They kept right on preaching and teaching in Jesus' name, even though they were told not to. Because for them, the sacrifice of teaching the word, preaching the word, making sure that every man, woman, boy, and girl heard about the message of the gospel was more important than their convenience. More important than them being comfortable, more important than even their own bodies. So they were willing to offer their bodies up to be beaten if it meant continuing and advancing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They didn't allow offense of what the Sanhedrin was requiring of them at the moment. They didn't allow offense to seep into their heart. To stop the message of what God sent them to say, of what Jesus commissioned them to do. They did not allow offense of the persecution. And that's a big, big, big, big deal to God right now with the body of Christ, is that we take on offense of the persecution instead of continuing on preaching the gospel, doing what God assigned us to do. Instead, we're getting caught up in our minor disagreements and taking on the offense. Of what we shouldn't be taking on. Jesus told them what their posture should be, and here they are later on in Acts chapter 5 living out the very thing that Jesus commissioned them and told them to do, what their heart posture should be when they are going through persecution. And again, these people were human just like you and I. They They were not Jesus. These people were human just like you and I. Just like you and I. They had spent time with Jesus, and the Bible makes note in Acts chapter 5, verse 40 through 42 that they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy To suffer dishonor for the name, rejoicing that they were counted worthy. The instruction from Jesus was to rejoice and be glad, not take on the offense of the people who are persecuting them. It doesn't mean you don't process the pain. It doesn't mean that you don't hurt. It just means that there is a greater glory that I need to tap into when I'm being persecuted. Otherwise, it's going to hinder the message. This is why the church is not advancing in this time. Is because we're spending so much time being offended with people who are persecuting Christians than we are continuing on in the teaching and the preaching of the message of the gospel. The instruction from Jesus was to rejoice and be glad because you are suffering on my account. You're being persecuted on my account. And notice it says that they were suffering for the dishonor of the name of Christ, not petty behavior, not minor stupid ignorant minor disagreements that don't matter. They did not cease teaching. They had no time to dwell on offense. Why did they have no time to dwell on offense? Because they understood the time was short. So let us continue teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. Yes, they felt the beating. I'm sure they had bruises. I'm sure they were tired. But it was the glory of God and them taking on the heart posture of rejoicing and being glad That allowed them to continue to preach the gospel. So the grief of being beaten and the joy that comes from being focused on Christ were dwelling together in Acts chapter 5:40-42. Here's our real-life account of what happens when you choose to rejoice and be glad. Because as I've said before on this podcast, as I've taught in our courses, as I've said in articles that I've written, as I've said before, we always think that we don't have a choice. I, I just can't help it. I just can't help it. You're right, you can't. And that's why you need the Holy Spirit, who teaches you and sustains you. And that's why you need God, because you can't find any peace within yourself. You cannot find peace within your marriage. You cannot find peace in your purpose. You're not going to be able to find peace in anything else except for Christ. You're not going to find any peace anywhere else except for Christ. If we look at Stephen, this man is being stoned. To death by a crowd that hates him for preaching Christ. Acts chapter 7, verse 59 through 60 says, and as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. You have to start pausing and reading scriptures like that and really think and not gloss over And not gloss over this very important moment that really did happen in real life. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Do not hold this sin against them. How does a person who is being stoned to death in a public square not take on the offense of How he's being stoned to death, which I'm sure it hurts his physical body. Call out to God and say, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. He doesn't take on the offense of what they are doing to him.

Personal.

He chooses not to take on the offense of what is happening to him. Personal. That's what it looks like for you to suffer on the account of Christ. He cried out with a loud voice because it was hurting his physical body. And even in his loud voice, he does not say, make the pain stop, take it away, I don't want to feel it. He says, receive my spirit. Do not hold this sin against them. If we look at John the Baptist, confronted a king, told him directly, told him the truth. About his unlawful marriage, and he was beheaded as a result. That's Matthew chapter fourteen verse ten through eleven. It says he sit and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. While John wasn't killed for preaching the gospel of of Christ crucified. He was killed, he was beheaded for telling the truth and refusing to back down from it. This is a pattern that has been happening since the fall. So this week, as we close out this season, I really encourage you to go back and listen to episode 1 of season 2 of the Thirst with Hunger podcast. And listen all the way through until the end. So that you can live a fruitful and righteous life in Christ, the way that God intended for you to live, and not the way that you assumed you should live because you've been indoctrinated to believe it, but the way that God wants you to live when it comes to being poor in spirit, when it comes to being meek and merciful. These things are very foundational to our faith, but we don't like to spend a lot of time in the foundations because it's not cute. There's no clout that comes from following the foundations of Christ. It's often very slow, but that's on purpose. We're gonna lose our souls if we don't get back to the foundations of Christ. Why did Jesus start here? Because he knew that his disciples would need to understand how to live their life in intimacy with God first, so that it would overflow in the external as they went and did ministry and preached the gospel. And preaching the gospel isn't just the responsibility of people who are Bible teachers and pastors and apostles and prophets. It is all of our responsibility to be able to communicate and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. You should know what the gospel of Jesus Christ is and communicate it to others. And you should be able to disciple people on what the scripture says. You should be able to tell anybody that you meet about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth as it relates to God's word. And even if you don't know something, saying you don't know, but you'll get back to them. And going and praying, asking God for what you should say. Every last one of us should know the gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to communicate it. But you know why we can't? It's because we don't even fully understand foundational things like we should, because we, we have spent the last 20 years being so focused on The deeper things of the spirit that we have no foundation to anchor us when we go out there. And it's good to understand demonology, it's good to understand spiritual warfare, but if you have no foundation in Christ, how you gonna fight a demon? How you gonna war in, in the spirit if you don't have the word? We spending so much time trying to be deep and we don't know the word. There's no excuse for it. You're not ever going to be able to give God a reason as to why you don't know your foundations. And I know people get tired of me fussing. I know people get tired of me talking about the same thing over and over again. I don't get tired of talking about the same thing over and over again, because one thing that's never going to happen is the blood is not going to be on my hands because I did not warn or I didn't teach. How God told me to teach. It's not ever going to be said of me that I sat back and I didn't say nothing. We so focused on being in the spirit that we have no foundations in Christ. And your foundations in Christ are supposed to be what anchors you flowing in the spirit. So when we don't have an anchor, in our foundations. We can't even receive simple words like, maybe you just need to pray about it. When somebody says, blessed are you when you are poor in spirit, you run and jump and say, well, I bind a poverty spirit, I bind a poverty mindset. This ain't got nothing to do with poverty. It's about your dependency on God. And some of us are too full of ourselves to depend on God. And then we looking at the fruit of our life and it matches our lack of dependency on God. The very first beatitude that Jesus taught the disciples was one, depend on God for everything. You have a need for God. Never forget that you have a need for God. You have a need. You have a need. You have a need. You have a need. You have a need. You have a need for God. The very first thing. God is a God of firsts. He said, and this can be confirmed in the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Here's Jesus preaching in the New Testament: Blessed are you when you are poor in spirit. In other words, let's translate it. Okay, because it's confirming the same thing. Jesus is the Word. Is it? Let's translate it. Okay, since we want to be spiritual, let's translate it. Blessed are you when you have no other gods before God the Father. Blessed are you when there are no other gods except God the Father, because he will have no other gods before him. Later on, they asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and the second one is just like it: to love your neighbor as yourself." Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. To love the Lord your God. Blessed are you when you're poor in spirit and realize your need for God. The whole Bible. Works together, together, together, together. Touch your neighbor, say the whole Bible works together. Okay, if you don't have any foundations in Christ, if you don't know your foundations and you spending a lot of time in prophecies and you spending a lot of time trying to have words of knowledge without the word And you spending a lot of time trying to pray without the word, and you spending a lot of time fasting but not feasting on the word. You spending a lot of time consecrating but not focusing on the word. You spending a lot of time teaching but not dwelling in the word. You spending a lot of time trying to deliver people from demons, but you don't have no word in you. You spending a lot of time trying to care for the soul of others, but you not caring for your soul by feasting on the word. You spending a lot of time trying to tell other people how they should live, but you not living according to the word. These may be hard words to hear, but this is where God is coming after the body of Christ because he wants us to be pure. And spotless and blameless when Jesus returns. And how we gonna get there if we don't dwell in the word and allow the word to cleanse us? The word is Christ. The best prophetic word that you could ever receive is Christ. The best word of knowledge that you could ever receive is Christ. So I pray that God will begin to stir up your spirit to be hungry for the Word of God and allow it to examine your mind, your will, your emotions first before you go out here trying to heal The land and trying to tell people all the things, make sure you have received it first. Make sure you live in it first. Make sure you believe it first. Make sure you're walking in faith concerning it first. And even if your life and circumstances in your life haven't changed yet, that doesn't mean stop believing. The word of God. That doesn't mean don't tell people the word of God because your life doesn't match yet with things that you believe God for. It doesn't make God's word a lie. It doesn't make God's word a lie just because your circumstances don't match with it yet. What I'm saying is allow your intimacy with God to be internal before you go trying to share it with everybody else. Your internal life produces external fruit, not the other way around. Internal unity and agreement with God in the Spirit produces unity externally, not the other way around. Not the other way around. Whatever you do, refuse to take on the offense of people who have wronged you. Keep Fix your eyes. Fix your mind. Set your affections on things above. So that you can live your life in intimate See with Christ personally first and give birth to righteous fruit externally. God bless you.

Thank you for listening to the Thirst with Hunger podcast. We truly appreciate you joining us on this journey. Your support makes it all possible. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our channel, hit the like button, and leave a comment below with your thoughts.