WEBVTT
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Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and our Lord
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and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
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The text is the text that was read earlier.
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So from Revelation, chapter six.
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Now, back before I became a prof at the seminary, I was invited to
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lecture in Ogbomosho, Nigeria on early African Christianity.
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As part of the lecture, I would have my students read various
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martyrdom accounts from ancient Africa, including the one about
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Perpetua and Felicitous that we are observing today.
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I was always amazed at how they got into their roles. When reading
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these early martyrdom accounts
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there is this back and forth that you have between the Roman
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proconsul and the Christians. Where the proconsul is reasoning with
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the Christians as to why it is in their best interest to just pinch
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some incense to the genius of the Emperor and then go on their way.
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No big deal.
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The procouncil would emphasize they weren't asking for much.
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In fact, the bar was set pretty low for honoring the gods of Rome.
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All you had to do was show up and do the bare minimum, pinch some
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incense, mumble a few words.
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Pretty easy unless you were a Christian.
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And my Nigerian students understood this very well.
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As I say, when they read their part of the dialogue, they didn't just
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read it, they shouted it, they lived it.
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I mean, when a martyr said in public, I am a Christian, he had
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basically signed his death warrant. Claiming the name Christian was
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enough to get you sentenced to death.
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And I had a conversation with one of these students after we had the
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class, who asked to speak to me in private.
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I could see he was upset.
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He wanted me to know that in Nigeria, the scenario we had just run
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through in class could be all too real, especially if you lived up in
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the north, or perhaps in Jos in the central part of Nigeria.
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He told me how he had been approached by Boko Haram.
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You're familiar with that group right there against the west group, I
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should say.
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The Boko Haram had come to his village, and these guys pointed at AK 47
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at his head and demanded that he recite the Shahada, the Muslim creed,
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which says, there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.
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Well, the student was able to recount this story to me, so maybe he
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did recite it.
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He didn't say and I didn't ask.
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But I realized that these historical texts we were reading were not
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just history.
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Martyrdom was still happening in the 21st century, and my African
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students had experienced it
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firsthand.
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And I had heard similar stories over the weekend when I was on a Zoom
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call with some of my Chinese colleagues. And they told me how pastors
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there were being arrested in China for committing fraud by accepting
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donations.
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It was fraud because they were considered an illegal church and
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therefore accepting donations was a criminal act.
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That's how the government is doing it these days.
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So I can hear these pastors, these students joining the saints under
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the altar in Revelation in that same loud voice, how long, O Lord,
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holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on
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those who dwell on the earth?
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That is the cry of the martyrs.
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And the story of Perpetuate Felicitas is another one of those martyr
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stories, and it should be disturbing to anyone who has heard of read
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the story.
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I don't know if you know it or not
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it's online, you can find it there.
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But let me also pause here for a second.
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This is a story about two women.
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Women in the early church were often the ones who were asked to lay
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down their lives for their Lord, which they did faithfully, including
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two deaconess who were interrogated and tortured by Pliny, the
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governor of Bethania at the end of the first century.
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But today we hear about two more women who were thrown into prison
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awaiting their execution, along with some other Christians.
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And so one of them was named Perpetua
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she was probably around 22 years old.
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She was from the upper class of Roman society, and she had just gotten
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married and had an infant son
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she was still nursing.
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With her was a slave named Felicitous, who we also assume had just
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gotten married
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and she was pregnant there in jail.
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And to add insult to injury, Perpetua's father kept coming to the
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prison trying to get her to sacrifice to the gods.
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He would say, if not for herself, then for him, so she could take care
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of him.
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And if not for him, he would say, what about your baby?
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Why not for him, that newborn son?
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I mean, talk about pressure.
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Both women ended up in the arena and condemned to the beast
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damnatus est bestia
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in Latin. There was a heifer, a female cow who attacked them but
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didn't quite kill them off.
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So a Roman soldier ended up finishing the job.
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And the text says they rejoice that their names are written in the
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Book of Life.
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Now, that's the Cliff Notes version.
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It's quite a bit longer, but as I said, you can find that on your own.
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But I guess my question to you is, what do we do with this text?
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As I said, this was all too real for my Nigerian students and still
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for many Christians around the world.
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And the statistic is well known that more Christians died for their
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faith in the last century than died in all the previous centuries
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combined.
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But what does this have to do with you?
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What does this have to do with me, for that matter?
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Well, first of all, we should be praying for our brothers and sisters
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in persecuted churches.
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We should also try to help them where we can, but what I don't want to
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do is compare our sufferings with theirs, although we should always be
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ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us,
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as Peter says. The church chose to remember their lives and their
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deaths, as we're doing today, for of a reason.
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By the beginning of the fourth century, persecution had largely
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ceased, except perhaps in places like the Persian Empire, where it was
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still going on.
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But something had begun to take its place.
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Instead of martyrdom in the arenas, we find another type of martyrdom
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occurring, another type of contest, if you will.
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Spiritual athletes were sprouting up everywhere in the desert, and
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they were engaged in spiritual warfare, battling demons and their own
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sin in a world that was structured to tempt, and if not, to tempt them
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to distract.
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And if not, to distract them, to corsen and desensitize, all with the
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goal of snatching us out of our Father's hand.
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And, you know, the older I get, the more frustrated I get with how
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hard it is to be a Christian.
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I mean, it's hard work.
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And I say this as one who knows and believes
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I am saved by grace, through faith, not by works.
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As I was telling my class the other day, sin and temptation are kind
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of like that game Whack a Mole.
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You know, you conquer one thing here, and another pops up over here
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and then over here and over here, and it's hard to keep up with them.
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You finally conquer this sin, and another one springs up.
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You conquer envy, and pride pops up.
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In fact, in the words of the fifth century Roman Bishop Leo, he says,
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satan knows you very well.
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He knows whom to overwhelm with grief, whom to cheat with joy, whom to
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surprise with fear, whom to bewilder with amazement.
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There is no one whose habits he does not sift, whose cares he does not
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winnow, whose affections he does not cry into.
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And wherever he sees a person most absorbed, he says that is where he
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looks for an opportunity to injure him.
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It's exhausting.
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But the old enemy doesn't get tired.
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He's a spirit.
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And spirits are like two year olds.
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They'll outlast you every time.
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And so we ask, you know, how much longer is this going to go on?
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Well, that's what the saints under the altar are asking.
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And notice what answer they're given a white robe with the
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recommendation that they rest a bit longer, because some more people
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are going to be killed for what they believe and confess.
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Interesting.
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Not what I would have expected.
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Now, the white robe, of course, stands for the world of righteous that
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they receive, but it's not for what they have done
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in that arena.
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It's not for
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the blood they have shed, but for what the Lord they are praying to
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has done.
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Because in the very next chapter of Revelation, chapter seven, we're
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told that the saints are the ones who have washed their robes and made
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them white in the blood of the Lamb.
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Again, not their own blood, but the blood of the Lamb.
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And this is what makes them righteous and clean and holy.
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The blood of the Lamb sacrificed at Calvary, and not their own blood
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that that they sacrificed, as I said in the arena.
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Well, the white robe tells us that everything is taken care of, that
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there is nothing left to do.
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And I imagine Perpetua and Felicitous wearing their white robes now.
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But again, what do we learn from their lives?
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What do we learn from their death?
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Perpetua and Felicitas also teach us something we often forget in
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this world.
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A world that, because of sin, is now structured to occupy our every
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waking moment with its temptations and distractions to think about
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anything but God.
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So what do the martyrs teach us
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ultimately? They teach us that this is not all there is.
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It never has been.
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We were created for something more, much more.
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Jesus said, Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
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He knows that there is a whole other world out there at the
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undiscovered country that lies just beyond the horizon of what we can
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see.
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Because right now, what we see is a lot of suffering, a lot of
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loneliness, a lot of death, a lot of frustration, a lot of daily death
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that we die.
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But just beyond that horizon, there's something beautiful, something
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wonderful that is waiting for us.
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And Christians are supposed to know this.
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God's Word keeps reminding us about it.
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The martyrs under the altar know this and cry out for it.
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The one who saved us is coming back, just like you see in that window
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over there.
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And he has a beautiful world in store for us, with no cancer, no
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loneliness, no crying, no pain, no suffering, no worrying about
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whatever it is that is bothering you right now.
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And no sin.
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That's what's coming.
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And that's what I want to leave you with that thought.
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Because that is God's promise to you.
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As St.
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Paul put it, I consider the sufferings of this present time not even
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worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.
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It's coming.
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It's real.
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It's not fake news, and it's yours.
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No one can take it away from you
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because we have someone who has seen the other side.
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He's seen the other side of death and knows that that is not all there
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is.
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So trust him.
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He's got your back.
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And he's got a monogrammed white robe waiting the last suit you'll
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ever wear, the women and men in white.
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May it be so for Jesus sake.
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Amen.
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And the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, shall keep
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our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus unto life
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everlasting.
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Amen.