March 28, 2024 • 28 mins
In Episode 21, Those Crazy Bible Study Guys see an awesome example of how Jesus is not only our Saviour but a great model for leadership! He doesn't want His disciples to be just followers or be His "posse" but He shows how He is the ultimate leader by developing His inner circle into future leaders as well! They unwrap the remaining beatitudes that show the contrast between the world view and heavenly view of what it means to be truly blessed! And then Those Crazy Bible Study Guys get a mic drop as they wrap up today's episode learning that experiencing hope and joy, no matter what the situation in our life, is how we authentically encounter God's blessings!
NOTES: Books referenced in this episode:
- "Jesus, CEO" by Laurie Beth Jones
- "Jesus Freaks: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus, the Ultimate Jesus Freaks" by dc Talk
- "Jesus Freaks: Martyrs: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus: The Ultimate Jesus Freaks" by dc Talk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey everybody, welcome to episode 21. I'm Jim. And I'm Dale.
And we are those crazy Bible study guys.
Music.
And happy day to you, Jim. Hope you're doing well today.
I am feeling a little crazy, man. I haven't had coffee in two days.
(00:23):
Oh, man. Why would you do that to yourself?
Yourself i don't know man i i'm trying to
do a little better but i think i'm going to have some later today but
yeah like that's wild man there you go
if you didn't think we were crazy how about them apples that that
right there that's proof right there that
yeah oh my goodness well i haven't had any yet today
(00:45):
either but but i smell it brewing in
the other room so uh and again we all know it's
biblical because it is in the bible yes we do bruise
yeah bruise yeah he does good stuff oh
man we're we're going back into those uh beatitudes
today you know getting back up on the sermon mount but jim he's okay if you
(01:06):
kind of do a super quick recap for us but i think something like you mentioned
about too is the setting i know we talked a few minutes before we kicked this
off but yeah like the the thought of the setting of who he's talking to at this
moment is really captivating. Yeah.
Where, you know, Jesus went back to Galilee, that John was imprisoned there.
And then he, he starts to set up his leadership team with the four disciples,
(01:28):
the four fishermen and starts to preach and heal, you know, holistically,
like whole, that's what I like holistically, right?
He's, he's healing mind, body, spirit, right.
And doing all those healings. And now, I mean, the crowds are starting to gather.
So he needs a little bigger venue up on on the mountainside,
but you and I were both caught off a little bit by this.
(01:51):
We were thinking all these things were just being said to the crowd,
but he's kind of having this leadership meeting before this happens to kind
of set the tone and help people to help his leadership team understand, Hey, this is who we are.
This is who, this is what I represent.
And so we got about halfway through that last time.
(02:13):
Yeah. And you know, and I was thinking too, like, I mean, again,
I was just with you thinking that this was out to all but I mean it really tells
us and again Yeah, how do we know that we look at verse 1 and 2 in chapter 5 here?
Matthew says his disciples came to him and he began to teach them So it's just
interesting like when does he switch to you know, the overhead speaker and starts
(02:33):
talking to everybody so I'm kind of curious to see how that goes because I mean
I'm seeing a lot of a flow here, so.
Hopefully we'll we'll figure that out and we'll we'll also
look at the footnotes to help guide us through this so i'm excited because
i think a lot of the footnotes today might still touch base on some
of that so yeah i think they're going to hit and it
looks like they're going to like just in general
(02:53):
talk about those beatitudes there so
yeah and it kind of makes sense too right you think
about if you've ever been to an event or ever backstage you
know if you're like yeah you know wayne's world you got the
the badge and you're going you know vip and going to the backstage but
you know there's a lot of times like an artist or
or the speakers and stuff they're they're talking with a
(03:15):
couple of people they're preparing they're getting ready as
everybody's coming into the auditorium as everyone's
getting ready to take their seats and the lights are ready to to dim out and
the show kicks off there's some prep work and this is kind of what we see i
mean you know jesus is doing that that behind the scenes you know video here
of getting ready before he takes the stage. So pretty cool.
(03:38):
Yeah, but isn't it an awesome, I mean, that's the thing about the Bible, right?
It's just got life application to us, even in leadership, right? He's basically.
Because, you know, I'm doing some softball coaching right now,
and I'm lacking a little bit in my leadership with my leadership team.
(04:02):
I'm just kind of going and doing and saying, hey, we're going to do this today
versus kind of bringing them together and saying, I mean, I've talked to them
about our vision and our values and stuff like that.
But I just need to do a little better job before we bring the team together
here to help them understand, hey, this is what we're going to do.
This is the roles I need you to play and stuff like that.
(04:23):
So I think it's really cool how he kind of sets that example here of like,
okay, this is, this is going to be more than just me here because we've got
these huge crowds and I need, I need a team here, but we need to,
we need to all be on the same page.
So, yeah. Yeah. And again, all the prep that he's doing to coach them,
(04:46):
they don't even realize yet at this point, like how much the next last episode
we could, we started, right.
We started into the Beatitudes. and we kind
of learned a lot that like this is kind of where he first starts talking about
money talks about the importance of being in the spotlight and
how it's going to be changed and don't let it get to your head
so i mean yeah this is pretty pretty interesting and
(05:06):
again going back to that simple thought of i never really picked
it up at the moment that he was specifically just talking with
the disciples in this moment and you know that beautiful
moment they had together before he really addresses to
the you know to the crowd and into the audience on
a huge scale so man great great recap
man this is awesome so yeah well i'm gonna throw in
(05:28):
one other thought there too is like you know they're following jesus they're
they're for you know i don't for lack of a better term you know like if someone's
famous or something they've got kind of their posse right that goes along with
them and goes everywhere they go and stuff and and they're They're kind of a
long for the ride, right?
But Jesus is, like you were saying earlier, you kind of sparked this thought.
(05:53):
He's saying, hey, you're not...
You're not the posse i'm here to help develop you
guys to become the next leaders when i
have to go on to be with my father here like he
he's that's a huge sign of leadership right is that you don't make it all about
you you're you're developing others to help continue to be future leaders and
(06:18):
and carry on the mission when you're gone your legacy right there man yeah yeah exactly
so yeah good stuff yeah all right
well let's let's jump into some of this and i'll open us
in prayer then we're going to kick back into matthew chapter
5 i am going to backtrack and reread verse 3 through 6 and then but we'll pick
(06:39):
up our footnotes for the listeners today from 7 through 12 perfect so lord lord
we thank you for this new day god thank you for just demonstrating so much to
us, even to the disciples,
when we just don't even sometimes realize it.
I know in my faith, in my walk journey, Lord, I never really saw some of these
steps of you being such a devout leader.
(07:01):
Like I knew you were, but Lord, here it is, even from the very beginning,
you had these disciples, you know, you were ministering to them,
you were explaining to them, you were coaching them on a deeper level than I ever really realized.
So I thank you for this study. I thank you for for diving deeper,
learning more about your amazing work and all that you've done,
and ultimately for your sacrifice to save us of our sins.
(07:25):
Lord, we thank you so much for all that you did. Thank you for our listeners.
I pray you'll be in their lives, impact their hearts, stir their hearts,
and continue to coach and educate them just as much as you're doing with me and Jim.
And just thank you for my brother Jim, his time to be able to do this and just
grow together in spirit.
We thank you for all things. Thank you for our family and friends.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
(07:47):
Man, man, I mean, I just, again, I just got, I'm dumbfounded by like,
I mean, I guess to let everyone know my spiritual walk a little bit about me,
I didn't come to faith until I was 13.
And, you know, here it is. I'm a lot older than 13.
Now, sometimes my wife will probably say I act like 13, so quite a bit,
but I am much, much older and my, my forehead shows it.
(08:09):
But to think though, like, again, I mean, we're talking multi-decades here.
Like i just again like you were saying i
just never realized he was specifically talking to the
disciples in this moment that leadership drive that you know encouragement legacy
minded so i'm just i'm just a little dumbfounded right now like again i this
is why i love this study i hope everyone out there listening and is getting
(08:32):
those benefits too so all right matthew chapter 5 verse 3-12, and it goes like this.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
(08:57):
In our new verses today, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(09:20):
And blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you,
and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me rejoice and
be glad because great is your reward
in heaven for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you
(09:42):
very interesting what immediately
popped out to me on this deal was like
like towards the end there was like you know
others had been persecuted that way right because
their faith but it's kind
of a foresight of what he's personally going to
go through right right right yeah
(10:04):
i mean man i mean if you look at
it i mean verse 10 and 11 i mean it's a lot about yeah persecution you know
yeah blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness you know
but then again blessed are you when people insult you i mean can think about
that statement even today like nobody wants to be insulted nobody wants to be.
(10:28):
You know falsely accused or called out publicly displayed in shame you know
or just awkwardly yelled at right i mean nobody wants that but here it is jesus
has that foresight to say when you're doing my work when you're doing god's work.
They're going to do that to you there's there's not a if they will it's a win they will,
(10:49):
and blessed are you for maintaining and like them again what what hope i couldn't
imagine living in this world without hope man really couldn't yeah he he's trying
to because when we're going through tough times right it's hard to see the bigger
picture on things yeah or the other side of things And,
you know, even himself,
(11:12):
you know, come Easter, Good Friday, you know, he's persecuted.
He's being insulted, falsely being accused of things.
But he sees that bigger picture of the kingdom of heaven for all of us and what
he's doing. So that it's, that's sometimes real.
(11:32):
I mean, I think we all suffer with that, right.
Is it's really hard to see that in, in times of difficulty and it's even harder to sustain, right.
Being, you know, trying to be a peacemaker when you're being persecuted.
Right. yeah exactly yeah no no
(11:54):
but i mean this one is interesting i mean
like you were saying kind of shifting that mindset to the
peacemakers like he's calling out you know seek seek
that simplicity quiet you know seek out you know to solve things in a in a calm
manner you know i i mean again it's weird like that's not an easy thing to do
(12:16):
when when the moment is hot and people People are seeing red,
you know, to have someone come in and just kind of dissolve it and almost like
with a fire extinguisher, it's simply putting out the fire.
It's not an easy task to do. I know there's been times in my life where I've
been involved in, and it's just really, it's a prompting of the spirit.
(12:38):
Like you just are like, okay, let's take a deep breath. I understand.
You know, like you, you start saying things you normally would never think of
like, wow, wow, I just really was able to help.
Like God helped me calm that storm down, whether it's in myself or others.
Yeah, I always think that's a neat call out, the peacemaker peace.
But then, I don't know, verse eight was really special today too.
(13:00):
Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
That's, that's a really sweet, you know, line that he said there to the disciples.
Yeah. Goes back to that heart matter. Yep. Hey, I know, I know we were just
talking about verse 11 with the persecution stuff.
I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to go a little off script today and I think I'm
(13:21):
going to go right to that footnote on verse 11 and then I'll go back to the
other footnotes that kind of cover all of the Beatitudes.
All right. So, so this is where, you know, he's saying when people insult you,
persecute you, follow falsely say all kinds of evil because of me.
When we're talking about this, Jesus said to rejoice when we're persecuted, right?
(13:41):
So again, seeing the other side of it or what will happen.
So here's some good lessons. Persecution can be good because one,
it takes our eyes off earthly rewards.
Two, it strips away superficial belief. Three, it strengthens the faith of those
(14:02):
who endure it. and four, our attitude through it serves as an example to others who follow.
We can be comforted to know that God's greatest prophets were persecuted,
Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel.
The fact that we are being persecuted proves that we have been faithful.
Faithless people would be unnoticed.
(14:26):
In the future, God will reward the faithful by receiving
them into his eternal kingdom them where there
is no more persecution man okay
so all right i i got
something on this one because i remember it's
an older book really cool book it was actually written
by the or inspired through they use
(14:47):
their brand name the old christian i won't say old but the christian group called
dc talk excuse me they ended up creating a couple of books they may have like
two or three of them about martyrs and they really were inspired to show these
stories of people who faced persecution,
and i remember one of them and
(15:09):
again this has been a long time since i remember reading these books but i remember
one time there was one story they were talking about a man who was literally
being publicly shamed and his family was begging him to just give in right give
in say you know say whatever they want here,
get out of this, keep your life beat up, you're bruised up, just let it go.
(15:34):
And this man, very similar, I guess, kind of like Job, he didn't give in.
And he ended up saying, listen, if my life, it cost me my life to have to go
through this, but it inspires one person in this crowd to see that I didn't give up my faith.
(15:55):
How important is that to then
inspire that individual who can come to know christ and it just i don't know
that kind of really resonated with me with these footnotes that you're reading
about is yeah like you're saying in the moment it's hard the persecution it's
not something anybody wants to go through like i mean yeah i wouldn't want to
(16:15):
go through all of that but,
it's that moment that what if it inspires somebody in that crowd who's been
struggling with is Is this real? Is this not?
But then see someone just going through the ringer and not backing down because
they believe and have so much faith that it inspires them to say, you know what?
(16:39):
I'm going to commit my life to Christ.
And how much greater is it than at that point? And again, would we ever know?
No, we may never know the impacts that we make in people's lives through our
actions and our heart's desire for the Lord.
And that's okay not to know those. But yeah, I mean, there could be some major
implications by going through that trial that you save a heart,
(17:02):
a soul, or a multitude of people.
Yeah, I just don't know why that story popped in when you were kind of reading
about one of those notes about our attitude gives an example for others to follow.
It can inspire in ways we can never imagine.
Yeah i'll i'll look up those dc
talk books and actually throw them in the overview at
(17:25):
the bottom of our overview for this particular episode so for
episode 21 yeah some of them were hard to
read but they it was amazing that they show their stories
because again a lot of people people are still going through persecution and
it's only ramping up but a lot of people have gone through it so it was really
cool it was a really cool book yeah i mean not persecution for the faith but
(17:47):
But with social media nowadays, I mean, there's like...
Persecution going on everywhere. You know, it's just, people are judgmental
and, you know, just persecuting what someone's wearing or how they look or what they're doing.
(18:07):
Or it's, it's, it's crazy how much it's fueled that fire just in general,
just persecution in general, not necessarily persecution for people's faith.
But I know that that occurs as well too, but just Just crazy world we live in, man.
Yeah, for sure, man. It ain't getting any better. That's for sure.
(18:27):
All right. So I'm going to dive. So we've got three footnotes here,
and they're all just kind of giving us a general overview here versus three through 12.
So I'm going to hit the first one here.
It says there are at least four ways to understand the Beatitudes.
One, they are a code of ethics for the disciples and a standard of conduct. For all believers.
(18:53):
Two, they contrast kingdom values, what is eternal, with worldly values,
what is temporary. Okay?
Constant theme, right, that we've been noticing through our Bible study,
the worldview and the godly view of things.
Three, they contrast the superficial faith of the Pharisees with the real faith Christ wants.
(19:19):
For they show how the old testament
expectations will be fulfilled in the new kingdom
these beatitudes are not multiple choice
pick what you like and leave the rest they must be taken as a whole they describe
what we should be like as christ followers which makes sense right if if they're
(19:41):
going to be the disciples there amen this is this is what i'm looking from you Right, right.
He set an expectation, you know, again, you know, just for our listeners to
know both you and I can't, excuse me, man, now we're just getting there.
You know, you and I both come from the business world and every good business
is going to have a code of ethics.
You know, you, you got your, your mantra, you know, you got your,
(20:04):
you know, your, your core values. I think the current company you and I served
at one point had seven core values.
And and so it's like, again, here's that leadership showing it.
He's setting the stage. He's got his mission statement.
Now he's got his code of ethics, which is what the footnotes said, literally.
Like, it's pretty cool. Like, you know, here is.
(20:28):
Here's what we're looking for you know and and really i
didn't catch until you said it was that
third point of it was to show the
contrast between the superficial faith of the
pharisees to what christ really desires i didn't
really pick it up in that perspective view but again yeah it's going against
what the world they were very worldly legalistic perspective and you know god's
(20:52):
saying i want something more but it's a it takes a different you know focal
lens to look through so Yeah, that was really cool.
And I just thought that was kind of fun that it's, again, another demonstration
of, you know, Christ setting up that leadership role.
Yeah, I love your observation on there, too, of just another example of biblical
(21:13):
principles that can be applied to running a successful business, right?
Right, is when you do have that vision, people clearly have,
that's kind of your litmus test in all that you do.
And then your values, right? It's like, how do we act? How do we behave?
How do we treat people? You know, and if you have those things,
(21:34):
that'll solve most of your problems, right?
Because you can go back to, Hey, are you upholding our vision?
Does this support our vision statement right so anything
we're doing if you bounce that off the vision statement
it should it should hold up right it
should hold water and then they you know
your your code of conduct or your your ethics your
(21:57):
code of ethics you know those are behaviors how
do you how do you work throughout the day right if if you're
not working that way and what you're doing doesn't support
the vision statement then hey we need to course correct here
so i love yeah i love these uh because i
i love business and stuff and it's really cool to see you know jesus throwing
(22:20):
throwing those principles out right right at the get-go here that's it man he
was he was the greatest ceo yeah absolutely yeah yeah i think there's a book right jesus ceo i think.
Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I hadn't heard that. Yeah,
that'd be a neat one. Yeah, I'll look that one up too.
And kind of like what you did last time, like you kind of, last time we looked
(22:40):
at the beginning portion of these, the start of the Beatitudes,
and we kind of like looked at the reference, like it was like the poor in spirit,
the mourning, the meek, you know, like looking at seven through 10, that's very similar.
Are like, again, going back to those core values, the code of ethics,
you know, say was, you know, mercy, show mercy.
So being merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and then be prepared,
(23:04):
you know, when you have the bad, you know, customer calling in,
right? You're going to be persecuted.
And so again, what I love, and I've just been watching these sentences,
these statements is every time there's something that, again,
which the world would now doesn't want you to be merciful. The world doesn't
want you to be pure in heart. It wants you to be corrupted.
It doesn't want you to be peacemakers. It wants you to fight for what you want.
(23:26):
Every statement has such a beautiful benefit to it. You know,
if you are a mercy, you'll be shown mercy yourself.
If you're pure in heart, you're going to see God.
And again, none of us are going to be pure in heart, like in the mindset of
we're perfect, you know, we're perfect, we don't sin.
But it's just saying that you have the right motives. It's a heart matter,
you know, check your heart kind of a thing.
(23:47):
Yeah and if you're you know if you're trying to keep peace
you know you're going to be called children of god i mean like it's just really
cool each statement that is is
a challenge has such a beautiful reward and
in the back end of it it's just really cool so the the footnotes go on to kind
of write on that hb attitude tells us how to be blessed blessed means more than
(24:12):
happiness It implies a fortunate or enviable state of those who are in God's kingdom.
The Beatitudes don't promise laughter, pleasure, or earthly prosperity.
To Jesus, blessed means the experience of hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances.
(24:33):
Okay, that's an underline for me. I'm not going to underline that.
To find hope and joy, the deepest form of happiness, follow Jesus no matter what the cost.
That's rich, man. It is. And the next footnote adds on to following Jesus.
(24:54):
If it's okay, real quick, I want to touch on that. So, like,
I liked how they defined blessed.
And I was curious to say, what does Google define it as?
And blessed is just made, you know, they have two different adjectives for it.
One, made holy, consecrated, like the blessed sacrament. or in formal use,
used in mild expressions of annoyance or exasperation, which is probably where
(25:18):
we get the bless your hearts.
And if you don't know what that is as a Southern term, it doesn't always mean
to actually bless your heart. It means something else. Oh, yeah.
But yeah, they're just saying it's just holy. But look again at how you've read
that blessed means more than happiness.
To Jesus, blessed means the experience of hope and joy independent of outward circumstances,
(25:40):
circumstances no matter what you're going through you
still find hope and joy when you're
persecuted the pain hurts the the sorrows
are just like christ when he suffered on the cross but he
saw the big picture there was hope and joy knowing he was
doing the father's work that it was completed and
now salvation is open to all he saw
(26:03):
hope and joy in midst of
the horrible circumstance stance when he
was hung on that cross that's that is really
beautifully defined as blessed right there like that now
granted not blessed to be on the cross but i'm saying it's like blessed to see
that like that hope and joy of something bigger than what was happening in the
moment like that's a really cool definition of blessed yeah that that's that's
(26:27):
a mic drop one there from the footnotes yeah yeah that was a very well done one there yeah so you.
To wrap it up, he's going to go back into this whole, hey, man,
the worldview and the God view of things are different.
So he says, well, Jesus's announcement that the kingdom was near in 417,
(26:48):
people were naturally asking, how do I qualify to be in God's kingdom?
Of course we would. Jesus said that God's kingdom is organized differently from worldly kingdoms.
In the kingdom of heaven, wealth and power and authority are unimportant.
Kingdom people seek different blessings and benefits, and they have different attitudes.
(27:12):
Attitudes are your attitudes a carbon copy
of the world's selfishness pride and lust
for power or do they reflect the
humility and self-sacrifice of jesus your
king and i wish i had a mic drop sound effect right there yeah dun dun yeah
(27:33):
i don't know that part yeah like that is wow yeah man these were good they were
on point at the table when they were doing these For sure. Oh, man. Absolutely.
Thank you, Lord. Yeah. I'm going to close down here, brother.
Father God, thank you so much for your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ,
and for his leadership example.
(27:54):
I ask that you impart that in our hearts today as we go into the workplace and
just ask that you continue to bless each and every one of our listeners.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Well, have those B attitudes in your hearts today and see the world in
a different perspective.
Music.
And until next time, enjoy the gift of today.
Hey everybody, welcome to episode 21. I'm Jim. And I'm Dale.
And we are those crazy Bible study guys.
Music.
And happy day to you, Jim. Hope you're doing well today.
I am feeling a little crazy, man. I haven't had coffee in two days.
(00:23):
Oh, man. Why would you do that to yourself?
Yourself i don't know man i i'm trying to
do a little better but i think i'm going to have some later today but
yeah like that's wild man there you go
if you didn't think we were crazy how about them apples that that
right there that's proof right there that
yeah oh my goodness well i haven't had any yet today
(00:45):
either but but i smell it brewing in
the other room so uh and again we all know it's
biblical because it is in the bible yes we do bruise
yeah bruise yeah he does good stuff oh
man we're we're going back into those uh beatitudes
today you know getting back up on the sermon mount but jim he's okay if you
(01:06):
kind of do a super quick recap for us but i think something like you mentioned
about too is the setting i know we talked a few minutes before we kicked this
off but yeah like the the thought of the setting of who he's talking to at this
moment is really captivating. Yeah.
Where, you know, Jesus went back to Galilee, that John was imprisoned there.
And then he, he starts to set up his leadership team with the four disciples,
(01:28):
the four fishermen and starts to preach and heal, you know, holistically,
like whole, that's what I like holistically, right?
He's, he's healing mind, body, spirit, right.
And doing all those healings. And now, I mean, the crowds are starting to gather.
So he needs a little bigger venue up on on the mountainside,
but you and I were both caught off a little bit by this.
(01:51):
We were thinking all these things were just being said to the crowd,
but he's kind of having this leadership meeting before this happens to kind
of set the tone and help people to help his leadership team understand, Hey, this is who we are.
This is who, this is what I represent.
And so we got about halfway through that last time.
(02:13):
Yeah. And you know, and I was thinking too, like, I mean, again,
I was just with you thinking that this was out to all but I mean it really tells
us and again Yeah, how do we know that we look at verse 1 and 2 in chapter 5 here?
Matthew says his disciples came to him and he began to teach them So it's just
interesting like when does he switch to you know, the overhead speaker and starts
(02:33):
talking to everybody so I'm kind of curious to see how that goes because I mean
I'm seeing a lot of a flow here, so.
Hopefully we'll we'll figure that out and we'll we'll also
look at the footnotes to help guide us through this so i'm excited because
i think a lot of the footnotes today might still touch base on some
of that so yeah i think they're going to hit and it
looks like they're going to like just in general
(02:53):
talk about those beatitudes there so
yeah and it kind of makes sense too right you think
about if you've ever been to an event or ever backstage you
know if you're like yeah you know wayne's world you got the
the badge and you're going you know vip and going to the backstage but
you know there's a lot of times like an artist or
or the speakers and stuff they're they're talking with a
(03:15):
couple of people they're preparing they're getting ready as
everybody's coming into the auditorium as everyone's
getting ready to take their seats and the lights are ready to to dim out and
the show kicks off there's some prep work and this is kind of what we see i
mean you know jesus is doing that that behind the scenes you know video here
of getting ready before he takes the stage. So pretty cool.
(03:38):
Yeah, but isn't it an awesome, I mean, that's the thing about the Bible, right?
It's just got life application to us, even in leadership, right? He's basically.
Because, you know, I'm doing some softball coaching right now,
and I'm lacking a little bit in my leadership with my leadership team.
(04:02):
I'm just kind of going and doing and saying, hey, we're going to do this today
versus kind of bringing them together and saying, I mean, I've talked to them
about our vision and our values and stuff like that.
But I just need to do a little better job before we bring the team together
here to help them understand, hey, this is what we're going to do.
This is the roles I need you to play and stuff like that.
(04:23):
So I think it's really cool how he kind of sets that example here of like,
okay, this is, this is going to be more than just me here because we've got
these huge crowds and I need, I need a team here, but we need to,
we need to all be on the same page.
So, yeah. Yeah. And again, all the prep that he's doing to coach them,
(04:46):
they don't even realize yet at this point, like how much the next last episode
we could, we started, right.
We started into the Beatitudes. and we kind
of learned a lot that like this is kind of where he first starts talking about
money talks about the importance of being in the spotlight and
how it's going to be changed and don't let it get to your head
so i mean yeah this is pretty pretty interesting and
(05:06):
again going back to that simple thought of i never really picked
it up at the moment that he was specifically just talking with
the disciples in this moment and you know that beautiful
moment they had together before he really addresses to
the you know to the crowd and into the audience on
a huge scale so man great great recap
man this is awesome so yeah well i'm gonna throw in
(05:28):
one other thought there too is like you know they're following jesus they're
they're for you know i don't for lack of a better term you know like if someone's
famous or something they've got kind of their posse right that goes along with
them and goes everywhere they go and stuff and and they're They're kind of a
long for the ride, right?
But Jesus is, like you were saying earlier, you kind of sparked this thought.
(05:53):
He's saying, hey, you're not...
You're not the posse i'm here to help develop you
guys to become the next leaders when i
have to go on to be with my father here like he
he's that's a huge sign of leadership right is that you don't make it all about
you you're you're developing others to help continue to be future leaders and
(06:18):
and carry on the mission when you're gone your legacy right there man yeah yeah exactly
so yeah good stuff yeah all right
well let's let's jump into some of this and i'll open us
in prayer then we're going to kick back into matthew chapter
5 i am going to backtrack and reread verse 3 through 6 and then but we'll pick
(06:39):
up our footnotes for the listeners today from 7 through 12 perfect so lord lord
we thank you for this new day god thank you for just demonstrating so much to
us, even to the disciples,
when we just don't even sometimes realize it.
I know in my faith, in my walk journey, Lord, I never really saw some of these
steps of you being such a devout leader.
(07:01):
Like I knew you were, but Lord, here it is, even from the very beginning,
you had these disciples, you know, you were ministering to them,
you were explaining to them, you were coaching them on a deeper level than I ever really realized.
So I thank you for this study. I thank you for for diving deeper,
learning more about your amazing work and all that you've done,
and ultimately for your sacrifice to save us of our sins.
(07:25):
Lord, we thank you so much for all that you did. Thank you for our listeners.
I pray you'll be in their lives, impact their hearts, stir their hearts,
and continue to coach and educate them just as much as you're doing with me and Jim.
And just thank you for my brother Jim, his time to be able to do this and just
grow together in spirit.
We thank you for all things. Thank you for our family and friends.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
(07:47):
Man, man, I mean, I just, again, I just got, I'm dumbfounded by like,
I mean, I guess to let everyone know my spiritual walk a little bit about me,
I didn't come to faith until I was 13.
And, you know, here it is. I'm a lot older than 13.
Now, sometimes my wife will probably say I act like 13, so quite a bit,
but I am much, much older and my, my forehead shows it.
(08:09):
But to think though, like, again, I mean, we're talking multi-decades here.
Like i just again like you were saying i
just never realized he was specifically talking to the
disciples in this moment that leadership drive that you know encouragement legacy
minded so i'm just i'm just a little dumbfounded right now like again i this
is why i love this study i hope everyone out there listening and is getting
(08:32):
those benefits too so all right matthew chapter 5 verse 3-12, and it goes like this.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
(08:57):
In our new verses today, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(09:20):
And blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you,
and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me rejoice and
be glad because great is your reward
in heaven for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you
(09:42):
very interesting what immediately
popped out to me on this deal was like
like towards the end there was like you know
others had been persecuted that way right because
their faith but it's kind
of a foresight of what he's personally going to
go through right right right yeah
(10:04):
i mean man i mean if you look at
it i mean verse 10 and 11 i mean it's a lot about yeah persecution you know
yeah blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness you know
but then again blessed are you when people insult you i mean can think about
that statement even today like nobody wants to be insulted nobody wants to be.
(10:28):
You know falsely accused or called out publicly displayed in shame you know
or just awkwardly yelled at right i mean nobody wants that but here it is jesus
has that foresight to say when you're doing my work when you're doing god's work.
They're going to do that to you there's there's not a if they will it's a win they will,
(10:49):
and blessed are you for maintaining and like them again what what hope i couldn't
imagine living in this world without hope man really couldn't yeah he he's trying
to because when we're going through tough times right it's hard to see the bigger
picture on things yeah or the other side of things And,
you know, even himself,
(11:12):
you know, come Easter, Good Friday, you know, he's persecuted.
He's being insulted, falsely being accused of things.
But he sees that bigger picture of the kingdom of heaven for all of us and what
he's doing. So that it's, that's sometimes real.
(11:32):
I mean, I think we all suffer with that, right.
Is it's really hard to see that in, in times of difficulty and it's even harder to sustain, right.
Being, you know, trying to be a peacemaker when you're being persecuted.
Right. yeah exactly yeah no no
(11:54):
but i mean this one is interesting i mean
like you were saying kind of shifting that mindset to the
peacemakers like he's calling out you know seek seek
that simplicity quiet you know seek out you know to solve things in a in a calm
manner you know i i mean again it's weird like that's not an easy thing to do
(12:16):
when when the moment is hot and people People are seeing red,
you know, to have someone come in and just kind of dissolve it and almost like
with a fire extinguisher, it's simply putting out the fire.
It's not an easy task to do. I know there's been times in my life where I've
been involved in, and it's just really, it's a prompting of the spirit.
(12:38):
Like you just are like, okay, let's take a deep breath. I understand.
You know, like you, you start saying things you normally would never think of
like, wow, wow, I just really was able to help.
Like God helped me calm that storm down, whether it's in myself or others.
Yeah, I always think that's a neat call out, the peacemaker peace.
But then, I don't know, verse eight was really special today too.
(13:00):
Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
That's, that's a really sweet, you know, line that he said there to the disciples.
Yeah. Goes back to that heart matter. Yep. Hey, I know, I know we were just
talking about verse 11 with the persecution stuff.
I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to go a little off script today and I think I'm
(13:21):
going to go right to that footnote on verse 11 and then I'll go back to the
other footnotes that kind of cover all of the Beatitudes.
All right. So, so this is where, you know, he's saying when people insult you,
persecute you, follow falsely say all kinds of evil because of me.
When we're talking about this, Jesus said to rejoice when we're persecuted, right?
(13:41):
So again, seeing the other side of it or what will happen.
So here's some good lessons. Persecution can be good because one,
it takes our eyes off earthly rewards.
Two, it strips away superficial belief. Three, it strengthens the faith of those
(14:02):
who endure it. and four, our attitude through it serves as an example to others who follow.
We can be comforted to know that God's greatest prophets were persecuted,
Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel.
The fact that we are being persecuted proves that we have been faithful.
Faithless people would be unnoticed.
(14:26):
In the future, God will reward the faithful by receiving
them into his eternal kingdom them where there
is no more persecution man okay
so all right i i got
something on this one because i remember it's
an older book really cool book it was actually written
by the or inspired through they use
(14:47):
their brand name the old christian i won't say old but the christian group called
dc talk excuse me they ended up creating a couple of books they may have like
two or three of them about martyrs and they really were inspired to show these
stories of people who faced persecution,
and i remember one of them and
(15:09):
again this has been a long time since i remember reading these books but i remember
one time there was one story they were talking about a man who was literally
being publicly shamed and his family was begging him to just give in right give
in say you know say whatever they want here,
get out of this, keep your life beat up, you're bruised up, just let it go.
(15:34):
And this man, very similar, I guess, kind of like Job, he didn't give in.
And he ended up saying, listen, if my life, it cost me my life to have to go
through this, but it inspires one person in this crowd to see that I didn't give up my faith.
(15:55):
How important is that to then
inspire that individual who can come to know christ and it just i don't know
that kind of really resonated with me with these footnotes that you're reading
about is yeah like you're saying in the moment it's hard the persecution it's
not something anybody wants to go through like i mean yeah i wouldn't want to
(16:15):
go through all of that but,
it's that moment that what if it inspires somebody in that crowd who's been
struggling with is Is this real? Is this not?
But then see someone just going through the ringer and not backing down because
they believe and have so much faith that it inspires them to say, you know what?
(16:39):
I'm going to commit my life to Christ.
And how much greater is it than at that point? And again, would we ever know?
No, we may never know the impacts that we make in people's lives through our
actions and our heart's desire for the Lord.
And that's okay not to know those. But yeah, I mean, there could be some major
implications by going through that trial that you save a heart,
(17:02):
a soul, or a multitude of people.
Yeah, I just don't know why that story popped in when you were kind of reading
about one of those notes about our attitude gives an example for others to follow.
It can inspire in ways we can never imagine.
Yeah i'll i'll look up those dc
talk books and actually throw them in the overview at
(17:25):
the bottom of our overview for this particular episode so for
episode 21 yeah some of them were hard to
read but they it was amazing that they show their stories
because again a lot of people people are still going through persecution and
it's only ramping up but a lot of people have gone through it so it was really
cool it was a really cool book yeah i mean not persecution for the faith but
(17:47):
But with social media nowadays, I mean, there's like...
Persecution going on everywhere. You know, it's just, people are judgmental
and, you know, just persecuting what someone's wearing or how they look or what they're doing.
(18:07):
Or it's, it's, it's crazy how much it's fueled that fire just in general,
just persecution in general, not necessarily persecution for people's faith.
But I know that that occurs as well too, but just Just crazy world we live in, man.
Yeah, for sure, man. It ain't getting any better. That's for sure.
(18:27):
All right. So I'm going to dive. So we've got three footnotes here,
and they're all just kind of giving us a general overview here versus three through 12.
So I'm going to hit the first one here.
It says there are at least four ways to understand the Beatitudes.
One, they are a code of ethics for the disciples and a standard of conduct. For all believers.
(18:53):
Two, they contrast kingdom values, what is eternal, with worldly values,
what is temporary. Okay?
Constant theme, right, that we've been noticing through our Bible study,
the worldview and the godly view of things.
Three, they contrast the superficial faith of the Pharisees with the real faith Christ wants.
(19:19):
For they show how the old testament
expectations will be fulfilled in the new kingdom
these beatitudes are not multiple choice
pick what you like and leave the rest they must be taken as a whole they describe
what we should be like as christ followers which makes sense right if if they're
(19:41):
going to be the disciples there amen this is this is what i'm looking from you Right, right.
He set an expectation, you know, again, you know, just for our listeners to
know both you and I can't, excuse me, man, now we're just getting there.
You know, you and I both come from the business world and every good business
is going to have a code of ethics.
You know, you, you got your, your mantra, you know, you got your,
(20:04):
you know, your, your core values. I think the current company you and I served
at one point had seven core values.
And and so it's like, again, here's that leadership showing it.
He's setting the stage. He's got his mission statement.
Now he's got his code of ethics, which is what the footnotes said, literally.
Like, it's pretty cool. Like, you know, here is.
(20:28):
Here's what we're looking for you know and and really i
didn't catch until you said it was that
third point of it was to show the
contrast between the superficial faith of the
pharisees to what christ really desires i didn't
really pick it up in that perspective view but again yeah it's going against
what the world they were very worldly legalistic perspective and you know god's
(20:52):
saying i want something more but it's a it takes a different you know focal
lens to look through so Yeah, that was really cool.
And I just thought that was kind of fun that it's, again, another demonstration
of, you know, Christ setting up that leadership role.
Yeah, I love your observation on there, too, of just another example of biblical
(21:13):
principles that can be applied to running a successful business, right?
Right, is when you do have that vision, people clearly have,
that's kind of your litmus test in all that you do.
And then your values, right? It's like, how do we act? How do we behave?
How do we treat people? You know, and if you have those things,
(21:34):
that'll solve most of your problems, right?
Because you can go back to, Hey, are you upholding our vision?
Does this support our vision statement right so anything
we're doing if you bounce that off the vision statement
it should it should hold up right it
should hold water and then they you know
your your code of conduct or your your ethics your
(21:57):
code of ethics you know those are behaviors how
do you how do you work throughout the day right if if you're
not working that way and what you're doing doesn't support
the vision statement then hey we need to course correct here
so i love yeah i love these uh because i
i love business and stuff and it's really cool to see you know jesus throwing
(22:20):
throwing those principles out right right at the get-go here that's it man he
was he was the greatest ceo yeah absolutely yeah yeah i think there's a book right jesus ceo i think.
Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I hadn't heard that. Yeah,
that'd be a neat one. Yeah, I'll look that one up too.
And kind of like what you did last time, like you kind of, last time we looked
(22:40):
at the beginning portion of these, the start of the Beatitudes,
and we kind of like looked at the reference, like it was like the poor in spirit,
the mourning, the meek, you know, like looking at seven through 10, that's very similar.
Are like, again, going back to those core values, the code of ethics,
you know, say was, you know, mercy, show mercy.
So being merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and then be prepared,
(23:04):
you know, when you have the bad, you know, customer calling in,
right? You're going to be persecuted.
And so again, what I love, and I've just been watching these sentences,
these statements is every time there's something that, again,
which the world would now doesn't want you to be merciful. The world doesn't
want you to be pure in heart. It wants you to be corrupted.
It doesn't want you to be peacemakers. It wants you to fight for what you want.
(23:26):
Every statement has such a beautiful benefit to it. You know,
if you are a mercy, you'll be shown mercy yourself.
If you're pure in heart, you're going to see God.
And again, none of us are going to be pure in heart, like in the mindset of
we're perfect, you know, we're perfect, we don't sin.
But it's just saying that you have the right motives. It's a heart matter,
you know, check your heart kind of a thing.
(23:47):
Yeah and if you're you know if you're trying to keep peace
you know you're going to be called children of god i mean like it's just really
cool each statement that is is
a challenge has such a beautiful reward and
in the back end of it it's just really cool so the the footnotes go on to kind
of write on that hb attitude tells us how to be blessed blessed means more than
(24:12):
happiness It implies a fortunate or enviable state of those who are in God's kingdom.
The Beatitudes don't promise laughter, pleasure, or earthly prosperity.
To Jesus, blessed means the experience of hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances.
(24:33):
Okay, that's an underline for me. I'm not going to underline that.
To find hope and joy, the deepest form of happiness, follow Jesus no matter what the cost.
That's rich, man. It is. And the next footnote adds on to following Jesus.
(24:54):
If it's okay, real quick, I want to touch on that. So, like,
I liked how they defined blessed.
And I was curious to say, what does Google define it as?
And blessed is just made, you know, they have two different adjectives for it.
One, made holy, consecrated, like the blessed sacrament. or in formal use,
used in mild expressions of annoyance or exasperation, which is probably where
(25:18):
we get the bless your hearts.
And if you don't know what that is as a Southern term, it doesn't always mean
to actually bless your heart. It means something else. Oh, yeah.
But yeah, they're just saying it's just holy. But look again at how you've read
that blessed means more than happiness.
To Jesus, blessed means the experience of hope and joy independent of outward circumstances,
(25:40):
circumstances no matter what you're going through you
still find hope and joy when you're
persecuted the pain hurts the the sorrows
are just like christ when he suffered on the cross but he
saw the big picture there was hope and joy knowing he was
doing the father's work that it was completed and
now salvation is open to all he saw
(26:03):
hope and joy in midst of
the horrible circumstance stance when he
was hung on that cross that's that is really
beautifully defined as blessed right there like that now
granted not blessed to be on the cross but i'm saying it's like blessed to see
that like that hope and joy of something bigger than what was happening in the
moment like that's a really cool definition of blessed yeah that that's that's
(26:27):
a mic drop one there from the footnotes yeah yeah that was a very well done one there yeah so you.
To wrap it up, he's going to go back into this whole, hey, man,
the worldview and the God view of things are different.
So he says, well, Jesus's announcement that the kingdom was near in 417,
(26:48):
people were naturally asking, how do I qualify to be in God's kingdom?
Of course we would. Jesus said that God's kingdom is organized differently from worldly kingdoms.
In the kingdom of heaven, wealth and power and authority are unimportant.
Kingdom people seek different blessings and benefits, and they have different attitudes.
(27:12):
Attitudes are your attitudes a carbon copy
of the world's selfishness pride and lust
for power or do they reflect the
humility and self-sacrifice of jesus your
king and i wish i had a mic drop sound effect right there yeah dun dun yeah
(27:33):
i don't know that part yeah like that is wow yeah man these were good they were
on point at the table when they were doing these For sure. Oh, man. Absolutely.
Thank you, Lord. Yeah. I'm going to close down here, brother.
Father God, thank you so much for your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ,
and for his leadership example.
(27:54):
I ask that you impart that in our hearts today as we go into the workplace and
just ask that you continue to bless each and every one of our listeners.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Well, have those B attitudes in your hearts today and see the world in
a different perspective.
Music.
And until next time, enjoy the gift of today.
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