Hartland Spring Convocation 2019: Ye Shall be Witnesses

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Jason Sliger

A Sheep Among Wolves

Father in heaven, we've come together 1 last time as we linger in your presence, Lord.

We plead, Father, for 1 more blessing from the throne of grace before we all disperse and go our various ways.

Father, we've learned a lot over the weekend.

And I pray that you would part the way and help us together today to learn 1 more thing that will draw us nearer to you.

Speak to us, Lord, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Blessings are all over the place in the Word of God.

There are lots of places where you can find blessings.

In fact, in my humble opinion, every time you come across the promise, there you find a blessing.

And in the greatest sermon that was ever preached by Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, there at the very beginning, he goes through a list of blessings.

Matthew chapter 5, Jesus lists these 9 different blessings.

And we're not gonna go through all 9 of them, but very quickly here, we can look at some of these blessings.

Verse 5, the Bible says, blessed are the meek.

Verse 6, blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Great blessings, lots of blessings that God wants to give to us.

And at this point in Jesus's sermon, I'm tracking with him.

But then something really strange happens in blessing number 8 and blessing number 9.

2 things that he mentions that you would not consider a blessing.

Jesus says this, verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

And if that weren't enough, rejoice and be exceeding glad, For great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

We don't think of that as a blessing, do we?

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.

I've never gone to church on Sabbath morning and heard 1 of the dear saints during the praise and prayer request time say, I am thankful that God has given me the blessing of persecution this week.

In fact, what we usually hear goes something like this, I'm thankful that we live in a country where we are free to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience and we're not persecuted for what we believe.

Or maybe you'll hear something like, I've gone through a trial this past week and I'm being persecuted by my coworkers and my family, would you please keep me in prayer?

Yeah, that's usually the stuff we hear on Sabbath morning, right?

But Jesus, at the very beginning of his sermon, he goes through all of these blessings and people are like, yes, the peacemakers, they're blessed.

I didn't sign up for those kind of blessings.

The book Desire of Ages makes a very interesting statement.

Why is it that God's people are blessed when they are persecuted.

It is fellowship with God that brings them, God's people, the world's enmity.

Is it a blessing to have fellowship with God, yes or no?

So there we find a blessing, but she goes on and she says, they are bearing the reproach of Christ.

They are treading the path that has been trodden by the noblest of the earth, not with sorrow, but with rejoicing, should they meet persecution." How should we meet persecution?

Each fiery trial, listen to this, don't miss it, each fiery trial is God's agent for their refining.

Each is fitting them for their work as collaborers with Him.

Each conflict has its place in the great battle for righteousness, and each will add to the joy of their final triumph.

I would submit to you this morning that we should thank God both in times of peace and in adversity.

But I want you to go over with me a couple of chapters to Matthew Chapter 10.

And Jesus is giving His, what some people refer to as His ordination speech, as He's sending out his disciples to go and be workers.

And he says this in Matthew 10 and verse 16.

Jesus makes another startling statement to his followers.

It says, Jesus says, Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves, Jesus defines the identity of his followers.

And he also defines the identity of those that his sheep are going to, they are what?

Now, do I really need to explain to you this morning what happens when sheep are amongst wolves?

Is it a good outcome usually or a bad outcome?

And you know it's interesting to me that it doesn't take a lot of wolves to cause much damage among sheep.

And in fact, in the natural world, what you find is it doesn't matter how many sheep there are, if there's 1 wolf, there will be damage.

But I wanna tell you something this morning.

We're gonna find out here in a few moments that that's not the way it is in the church.

But I want to tell you something this morning.

We're going to find out here in a few moments that that's not the way it is in the spiritual world because God's sheep can triumph over the wolves.

And we're going to see how that happens here in just a few moments.

But Jesus defines the identity here of his followers, that they are sheep in the midst of wolves.

But I don't want you to miss an important comparison.

Isaiah 53, verse 7, Jesus, the Old Testament prophet speaking about Jesus, describes him as 1 who is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.

When you send sheep in the midst of wolves, you are sending them to be slaughtered.

And so in essence as Jesus is doing his ordination sermon for his disciples as he's getting ready to send them out to work for him, he's basically saying, you are going to do the same thing that I have done.

Now maybe you, as I and many others, have heard this idea that the safest place for us to be is in the center of God's will.

I want to tell you something, brothers and sisters.

As you read through scripture, you will actually find that that is not biblical.

Spiritually, the safest place for you to be is always in the center of God's will.

Because what if the center of God's will for you is to be a sheep in the midst of wolves.

Is that a physically safe place, yes or no?

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A Sheep Among Wolves

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