Sermon Tone Analysis

Thanks for WorkBee last Sunday

Did you ache the next day?

My aches had aches.

Plans - Painting the outside at front.

New sign.

Grounds clean up.

Celebration Weekend around August? Special Sabbath and Community Sunday.

Pray about it.

The 8th and Last Beatitude

Number 8 of 8

I hope you have been blessed by the series.

We will continue starting next week through the Beatitudes.

(Slide) We live in the Land of Giants

Do you remember the series?

We live in the Armpit of the Universe.

Set fifteen years in the then future year 1983, the series tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport ship named Spindrift.

In the pilot episode, the Spindrift is en route from Los Angeles to London, on an ultra fast sub-orbital flight.

Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the Spindrift encounters a magnetic space storm, and is dragged through a space warp to a mysterious planet where everything is twelve times larger than on Earth, whose inhabitants the Earthlings nickname "the Giants."

We live among Giants, in the Armpit of the Universe.

The Giants are not named in the TV series.

Some are friendly, some are not.

We live in the Armpit of the Universe.

And We live among Giants.

(Slide) Honey, I shrunk the Kids

1989 Movie.

It tells the story of an inventor who accidentally shrinks his and his neighbour's kids to a quarter of an inch with his electromagnetic shrinking machine, then throws them out into the backyard with the trash, where they must venture into their backyard to return home while fending off giant insects and other obstacles .

We are all on a journey home and the path is thwart with danger.

But the path is thwart with danger.

Do you feel sometimes that you are on a journey, with very little control, surrounded on all sides by forces, hidden and visible, much bigger than yourself?

One side trying to get you back home with God, the other side trying everything to ruin that.

And Sometimes we are our worst enemies

That is the Great Controversy in a nutshell!

We can feel so tiny, stuck, while this whole thing plays out around and in us.

Or we can be so self deceived and actually think we are in control.

y feel we are in control :)

Here is the promise...

We will make it home!

That is God’s promise.

That is God’s promise,

None that are His shall be plucked out of his Hand

(Slide) We must Name our Giants, our Enemies

The Big Three - The World, the Flesh and the Devil.

They are all enemies.

They are at enmity with God.

This is what the great controversy is all about.

The Big Three - The World, the Flesh and the Devil.

We live in a World that is at enmity (hatred) with God.

The values in the world are the complete opposite of the Sermon on the Mount.

The true God not really acknowledged and followed in this world!

It is a battle every day in this world to walk as a believer.

We live in a body where our Old Self or Flesh is still very much alive and at enmity (hatred) with God.

The Old Person vs the New Person.

There is a constant war and struggle within.

Read .

And We have an Intelligent Spiritual Foe, the Devil, and his fallen hosts, that are constantly at war and enmity with God and Believers.

Eventually in Christ, we will Win!

That is a promise.

It is a fact.

We need our spiritual eyes opened everyday to the clear and present dangers we face.

But now is the time of the fight of our lives.

We are (present tense) living in the land of Giants.

But now is the time of the fight of our lives.

We are (present tense) living in the land of Giants.

But now is the time of the fight of our lives.

We are (present tense) living in the land of Giants.

(Slide) All who live for Jesus will face Persecution

It is a promise of God.

Full stop, it will happen!

You can take it to the bank.

The Bible is very clear.

ALL will face Persecution, who live a godly life.

I hope that is clear already, ALL will face Persecution.

But then we are surprised when it happens?

But ALL will face persecution of various Kinds!

It is a promise of God.

Full stop.

You can take it to the bank.

Full stop, it will happen!

You can take it to the bank.

Here Christ refers primarily to persecution suffered in the process of forsaking the world for the kingdom of heaven.

ALL!

ALL!

There it is, our response should be Peace, Joy… How are you doing?

Come back to that.

(Slide) The 8th Beatitude (like all before) is Progressive and Perpetual

The 8th and final beatitude is Personal.

They All are characteristics of All Believers.

This 8th and final beatitude is Progressive.

It is a direct result of living out the previous 7 in everyday life.

It is in the context of the previous 7.

It is a direct result of living out the previous 7 in everyday life.

It follows Peacemaking.

It may seem strange that Jesus should pass from peacemaking to persecution, from the work of reconciliation to the experience of hostility.

The 8th and final Beatitude is also Perpetual.

It is a characteristics of All believers for All their remaining earthy life.

It is part of the “Already, Now and Not Yet” for the Believer.

Jesus here is not talking about persecution in the context of some “end end time period”.

Jesus here is not talking about persecution in the context of some end end time period.

It is persecution that is happening every today.

It is persecution that is happening every day as we live for Christ.