But Paul said, I take pleasure in persecutions.
Let's look at a lot more scripture on this.
Go to Luke chapter 6.
And while you're turning to Luke chapter 6, I'm going to read for you from Acts chapter
5 verse 40, and to him they agreed, and when they had called the apostles and beaten them,
they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing, they just got beaten folks,
they just got flogged, they got literally caned and whipped, and it says they departed
from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for his name.
That was the reaction to being beaten.
And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus
Christ.
Look at Luke chapter 6 verse 22, this is a famous passage.
Luke 6 22, blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from
their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's
sake, rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy.
And lest you think he's just saying figuratively, he says no no no, leap for joy.
Leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner did their father
under the prophets.
And you know, whenever I see this phrase leap for joy, I always think of back in the 80s,
that ad campaign for Toyota.
You know, I love what you do for me, Toyota.
And then they like, you know what I'm talking about, they'd freeze the guy.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
But you want to know what's funny?
I actually kind of did love what Toyota did for me.
But Toyota actually hates me personally, it turns out.
There was an article in the London Times a few years ago about how Toyota pulled all
their advertising off of YouTube because they said in the article that their ads ran on
a Steven Anderson video.
And so Toyota said, we don't want our ads running on Steven Anderson's videos.
And so they literally pulled all advertising from YouTube.
It was an article, I have the article clipping in my office somewhere, so that's why I'm
driving a Ford now, amen?
But I used to have a Toyota.
But you know what, here's the thing, but when Toyota persecutes me, if Toyota says, hey,
we're going to pull all our advertising, and guess what that resulted in?
Toyota and other companies pulled their advertising from YouTube because of moi and others, and
then guess what, now YouTube did.
YouTube deleted my channel.
And you know what, I still say, I love what you do for me, Toyota, because when I get
persecuted I'm going to leap for joy.
I still love what Toyota does for me, because Toyota earns me rewards in heaven.
This message has been brought to you in part by Toyota.
Just to be clear, I never run any ads on any of my videos.
None of my videos have ever been monetized, but what it is is other people upload my preaching
and they monetize it.
And I'm all for other people monetizing my preaching on their channel, it's just something
that I don't do.
You know, I don't run any ads and never have, but other people do, and I think it's great
for people to upload my videos and run ads, especially because the way the algorithm works
now, if you run ads on the videos you get more views because YouTube makes more money.
That's another story.
So look what the Bible says in verse 26, it says, woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
He said, look, woe unto you when everybody likes you, but he says, blessed are you, in
verse 22, when men shall hate you.
Blessed are you when they shall separate you from their company.
Blessed are you when they reproach you.
Blessed are you when they cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake, for the
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy.
And look, he's not even saying rejoice about it later.
Hey, someday you'll look back and rejoice.
He said, no, rejoice the same day it happens.
Rejoice the same day it happens.
Look, Job lost everything, and you know what he did?
He said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
It also says that Job worshiped the Lord in that day.
He worshiped the Lord, and he praised God.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And the Bible says here, rejoice in that day, because it's like, oh, is it too soon to rejoice?
Nope.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven.
Flip over if you went to Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5's parallel passage is a similar sermon.
Luke 6 is known as the Sermon on the Plain.
Matthew 5 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and these are parallel passages where Jesus
covers a lot of the same subject matter.
Look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 11.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they,
the prophets which were before you.