January 12, 2025 • 40 mins
Pastor Daniel share the Sermon on the Mount - from Matthew 5. This sermon aired on January 12, 2025 located at 563church Cornerstone or https://cornerstone-eldridge.org/
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If you have your Bibles, Matthew chapter 5 is where we're going to be.
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We're going to start walking through the Sermon on the Mount together, so hopefully we'll
get to be familiar with it.
I encourage you to find that as we read that here in just a minute.
There was a preacher by the name of Wilbur Reis, no relation that I know of, but he once
preached a message in which he presented a listener's guide to sermons.
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He stated that sermons ought to be rated in much the same way that we rate movies today.
So he said, G-rated sermons are those that are generally acceptable to everyone.
They contain phrases such as going into all the world and smile, or what the world needs
is peace and they need you to live your best life.
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Sermons such as these are often greeted with a response of, oh, wasn't that wonderful?
Wasn't that marvelous?
I mean, everyone loves a good G-rated sermon, and they will never offend anyone.
Then he gets PG sermons, and they're for more mature congregations, and they have mild
suggestions for change, but they're subtle enough to allow the preacher to backpedal
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or change the meaning if he finds that he has inadvertently offended someone.
You know that someone has preached a message like this when people walk away in wonderment,
shaking their heads and saying things like, that was so deep, very, very thought-provoking.
Of course, if you've done a PG sermon really, really well, nobody actually knows what you
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said, but nobody's really usually willing to admit it.
Then there's R-rated sermons.
This is when the preacher tells it like it is.
They usually indicate that the preacher has some sort of outside source of income, has
a pretty good, healthy self-image.
These sermons aren't intended for everyone.
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They're just really for those who wish to be challenged in their spiritual walk.
And then you get to the X-rated sermons.
These are the explosive ideas of the kind that got the prophet Amos ran out of town,
got the prophet Jeremiah thrown into a well.
When you preach an X-rated sermon, you have a moving van ready.
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Jesus was the master of the X-rated sermon, and the sermon on the mount was the mother
of all X-rated sermons.
You might object to that, and you might say that, well, that isn't true.
The sermon on the mount is one of my favorite passages of scripture.
I don't find it the least bit shocking.
It's not offensive to me.
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And the reason for that is because you're not reading it in the way that Jesus preached
it.
We try to rationalize the sermon on the mount, or we try to explain it.
Explain it away.
But when the rubber meets the road, and you take a look at the sermon on the mount at
its face value, it would not only change our church, it would change the world.
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And after all, it was preaching like this in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 that got Christ
crucified.
But we try to soften the blows, and we try to turn the sermon on the mount into a GPG
or even an R-rated sermon.
Today, some believe that the sermon on the mount can't really be, shouldn't be taken
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serious by those who function in today's world.
This can't really apply to our political and economic and social realities of the world
we live in.
What do we do with terror?
What do we do with nations like Iran?
Surely we don't take it seriously where Jesus tells us to resist our enemies.
And I'm sure it was a lot easier not to lust after women back in Jesus' day when women
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are covered from head to toe in robes.
I mean, it was hard to say what was underneath all that stuff, right?
And then you hear things like, well, maybe it's not the sermon on the mount, it isn't
so much for the past, but it's more for the future.
You know, a glorious new time when God establishes the new Jerusalem.
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Now although all of these views are presented by sincere Christian men and women, they were
formulated for one reason only.
And that was to take the sting out of the words of Jesus and to soothe our guilty conscience
for neglecting to implement in our lifestyle the words that are in the sermon on the mount.
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You see, the sermon on the mount can be a GPG or R rated sermon, but when you begin
to view it as commands for your life today in this world, in your context, and it very
quickly becomes an X rated sermon.
I wonder what would happen if we took the sermon on the mount as not a set of quaint,
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antiquated teachings, but we actually put the words of Christ into action.
What would that look like on a daily basis?
I wonder what would happen if we sought to make the words of Christ come to life in all
of our relationships from personal to international, political, economic.
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I can't answer that.
I can't answer that because since the time that we've had the sermon on the mount, we
have failed as believers to take serious the ideas that are contained in this passage.
And because we have failed to implement the basics that Christ laid out for us, we have
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ended up as a pretty messed up society.
We've ended up as a pretty messed up church.
And so we're going to dive into the sermon on the mount.
I'm going to invite Jackson up here.
He's going to read our passage this morning.
He's going to read the first 12 verses of chapter five if you're able.
I'd encourage you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.
Again even more stuff of me.
So that's what Jesus said on the third day.
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Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to
him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
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Blessed are those who are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
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falsely on my account? Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so
they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jackson. Thank you for his willingness to serve our
church today. Thank you for giving him a desire to read your word. I pray that you bless him
for it. I pray, Father, that as we look at this familiar text, that we will see it in
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the way you presented it, that we will be challenged by it and convicted by it. We ask
all these things in your name. Amen. Thanks, Jackson.
So before we get started, let's set some guidelines about the Sermon on the Mount. Number one,
the Sermon on the Mount does not contain everything that Jesus taught. The Gospel of Matthew contains
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five major teachings of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is the first of them, and that
means that several of Christ's major teachings are not in this sermon. Instead, it is the
meaning of everyday discipleship. And so up until now, Matthew has covered the birth of
Christ. He's introduced us to John the Baptist. He's narrated the count of Jesus' baptism
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and his temptation. We've watched the first four disciples be called, and we've kind
of followed Christ through his preaching and healing ministry in Galilee. So this is not
the whole thing. The second thing is this is not a full-blown theology of Christ. Instead,
the Sermon on the Mount is practical instructions to those of us who dare to be his disciple,
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realistic and literal, not an ivory tower fantasy. Those who dare to take the message
of the Sermon on the Mount serious will change the world. The third thing is the Sermon on
the Mount is not a system of laws for the Christian. Christ didn't plan on his followers
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to simply exchange one set of rules for another. His mission here was for us to be free, for
us to function in how he designed for us to look like, and that is to look like Christ.
When we start any series, any new series or any new book, we have to look at the context.
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We need to understand the context. And the question I always ask is, who was this written
for? Thankfully, this one's easy because Matthew tells us in the first verse, this Sermon was
for his disciples. Now, there might have been a whole bunch of people on the mountain that
day, but they were just overhearing what Jesus is telling those who have decided to follow him.
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Because it says, when he saw the crowds, he left and he went up to the mountain side. It was the
disciples that he was teaching. The words of the Sermon were for them, not the crowds. The Sermon
on the Mount was not rules by which you get into the kingdom of God. Instead, it was guidelines
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to be followed once you're in relationship with him. Now, Christ is about to embark on a voyage
today into a subject that is just as relevant today as it was when he preached it. And that
question, that topic is, what is happiness? That term that Christ uses in his teaching,
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which we commonly refer to as Beatitudes, is blessed. And then the original language, it
literally meant supremely blessed, well off. It means fortunate or happy. But the question still
begs to be asked, what is happy? Now, thankfully, the editors of Psychology Today did a big study on it.
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Thousands and thousands of people were interviewed. And the problem is, they couldn't
pin down happiness in a study. But they did discover what unhappiness is. Listen to this.
It says, unhappiness is what I don't have, but think you do have. And so they use, the stay-at-home
mom thinks that she is deprived of the independence that the woman who works outside enjoys. While
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the working mom figures that the stay-at-home mom gets the freedom to do what she wants all day long.
And so we gauge our happiness by what we perceive somebody else's happiness to be. Another source
of unhappiness is wanting what I can't have. For example, if I were to think that my happiness
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depends on me having a lake house, I'm going to be severely disappointed for a long time,
because it's not practical or reasonable for me to have a lake house at this point in my life.
Unless one of you wants to gift it. Just going that out there. Unhappiness is also not wanting
what I can't have. And so in attempt to find this elusive state, we read books on how to be happy.
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We take happy pills. We wear happy faces. We go to happy hour. Without any real success, we have
allowed the advertisements to tell us what happiness is. Jesus states his views on happiness
in these eight poetic sayings that we call the Beatitudes. They are rated X because they have
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little to do with the pursuit of happiness as we know it. And so let's understand a couple things.
Number one, happiness is a result, not a goal. It's not something we search for and find.
Instead, it is something we find while we are searching for something else. That something else
that we are supposed to be searching for is the kingdom of God. Matthew tells us in Matthew 6,
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but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as
well. Christ is not telling us to pursue happiness. And if that's why we embrace God, then you have
come to God for the wrong reasons. We tend to forget that the pursuit of happiness is just as
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idolatrous as the pursuit of a new career or lots of money or a bigger house. And so Christ begins
the Beatitude, which by the way means a state of blessedness by making this remarkable statement
that's found in verse three. He says blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
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Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, it's kind of strange way in my opinion to start off a series
about happiness, talking about the poor in spirit. A more accurate translation might be those who are
not inflated in spirit. And so Christ says happy are those. Blessed are those who are unspoiled,
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who don't get ruined by delusions of deserving the kingdom of God. Happiness will never find any of
us as long as we see ourselves as good enough to make it on our own. All of our lives we are told
how great we are. We tell our kids how great they are, how special they are. If a man or a woman will
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realize his own helplessness, then he can put his whole trust in God. And when he does that,
two things are going to happen. The first is that he will be completely detached from things,
and then he will become completely attached to God. And so Christ says blessed are the poor in
spirit. Why? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, until we
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become poor in spirit, we can't accept Christ. And until we accept Christ, we can't gain knowledge
of the kingdom. Until we understand our sinfulness and the futility of our works, we will never see
the need for salvation. I mean Christ spelled it out for us in Luke chapter 19. He says for the son
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of man came to seek and to save what was lost. Is that because those who aren't lost don't need to
be saved? No, the Bible is clear that everyone is lost. But until you admit that you're lost,
you aren't going to ask for help. Christ's next statement seems almost as absurd as his last one
in verse four. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The word that Christ
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uses here is the strongest possible word in the Greek language for mourning. A few years ago,
I was at a meeting and I met this couple that had just experienced four miscarriages. And they
were talking about that grief and everything that goes along with that situation. They talked about
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how it made them even more grateful for the children that they did have. They talked about how
grateful they were that they still had strong faith in Jesus. A few days later, seeing an I
are in the same position for the first time. That's the type of grief that Jesus is talking about.
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And so is Christ saying that the true path to happiness is through grief? I believe so.
And anyone who has ever lost a loved one through death or divorce or rejection knows that there is
no greater unhappiness. In our minds, happiness and grief are at the far ends of the human emotion
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spectrum. They don't go together. And we spend most of our adult lives trying to insulate ourselves
from grief. And yet Jesus definitely links our happiness and our grief. Someone said that the
second beatitude is linked to the first. And so Christ begins by saying, happy are those,
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blessed are those who know they are sinners. And then he continues by saying, and happier those
who grieve for their sinfulness. Now, while the concept of grief over our sinfulness may be a
part of what Christ is saying, I really don't accept it as the total sum of what Christ is trying
to get at. But here's what I know. Number one, we never fully live until we experience grief and
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overcoming. Part of being human is conquering grief in such a way that we come out of it as a better
person, not a bitter person. What would what would we be as people if we never experience grief?
A rock, a robot. It's been said that all sunshine makes a desert. And that's true. The ground upon
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which the sun is always shining becomes arid and barren. Without grief, you can never ever fully
comprehend joy. Without grief, there would be a no way to tell the difference between good and bad,
between worse and better. Until we grieve, we won't be able to relate to others who grieve.
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The couple I met at that conference was able to minister to me as Sina and I were dealing with
our first miscarriage. Was it because of their great theological knowledge? No. Was it because of
their great counseling techniques? No. It was because they had experienced what we were going
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through. The truth of the matter is that God never promised us a sorrow-free environment.
Also, when you grieve, make sure you grieve over the right things. I've discovered that unhappiness
doesn't come from grieving as much as it comes from grieving over the wrong things. Happiness
happens when we grieve over the right things. That's Jesus' message for us. But what are the
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right things? Jesus gives us a clue in Luke 22, 23. As he's carrying the cross up to Calvary,
he notices these women crying over him and he says, Jesus, turn and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem,
do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. I think the message is this.
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If you're going to weep, if you're going to grieve, weep for the things that God weeps over.
Happier are those who mourn for what mourns God. And what does God mourn? He mourns the
lostness and the brokenness, the confusion of the world that he created, so full of beauty, so full
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of love. God weeps over those who refuse to acknowledge their sin and die and end up going to
hell. God weeps over those who ignore the plights of their fellow man and their fellow Christians.
God weeps over the things that stand in the way of the kingdom of God. And so Christ doesn't say
that we will always be comforted when we grieve, but that we will always be comforted when we
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grieve for the right things. For as we learn to grieve, we also learn how to lean on him. And as we
cry, we find that there is a God who can wipe away every tear. Jesus continues in verse five,
blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, that's a radical question.
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Now, that's a radical concept, isn't it? Blessed are the meek. That statement is totally contradictory
to our entire way of thinking. If we were to develop a Western beatitude, it would be,
blessed is the aggressor. Happy is the aggressor. We are aggressive in everything that we do,
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from business to sports to finding a parking spot at North Scott. We are aggressive in everything
we do. And if you're not aggressive, if you're more laid back, you can take aggressive training,
and you can learn how to be aggressive so that you can tell people what you want and how you want
it and when you want it, and you can start getting your own way. For most of us, meek means weak,
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and none of us wants to be thought of as weak. You probably won't find a pile of people lined up
for meekness training. Our experience has shown that the meek don't inherit the earth.
You got the multinational corporations, you got the slick politicians, you got the multi-married
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movie stars, military dictators. It seems that those are the ones who inherit the earth. So,
there doesn't seem to be much hope that that will hear, let alone heed, Christ's third suggestion
for happiness. What Christ is saying with this virtue is, happy is the man, happy is the woman
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who gets angry at the right time and doesn't get angry at the wrong time. If we see this in the
context of the rest of Christ's teachings, it would say that it is never right to be angry
over a wrong done to ourselves, but it's often right to be angry at injury done to others.
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Selfish anger is always a sin, but selfless anger can be one of the great moral dynamics of our time.
It is this type of anger that changes the world when it sees injustices done,
and there's a lot to be angry about out there, isn't there? Christ goes on to say,
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for they shall inherit the world. So, the world belongs to the gentle, not to the conqueror.
The world belongs to the saviors, not the conquerors. Remember holidays, remember who they're
usually for. We continually honor those who have sought to make the world a better place to live.
We honor Lincoln, not Napoleon. We honor FDR, not Hitler. If we look beyond today,
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beyond the immediate, we discovered that the world doesn't belong to the aggressor, but to the me.
Verse 6, bless it to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Now, every single one of us in this room, every single one of us on this planet was created
with a different personality, a different set of fingerprints, a different DNA makeup,
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known only to us. God created each of us in His image, but yet we are so uniquely different.
No two of us are the same. It has been estimated that 106 billion people have been born and have
walked on this earth since the beginning. I mean, can you imagine that? 106 billion different sets
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of fingerprints. While all different in many ways, there are at least two things that we share in
common with one another. We hunger and we thirst. Now, most of us have no problem eating,
but the thirsting part for most of us leads for improvement. Because if you ask anyone,
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how much water they drink, hardly anyone ever says the right amount they're supposed to.
Something so important for our well-being, something so vital to our health, we eat so little
importance to partake of. Do you know how important water is to our physical bodies?
When our bodies fail to retain the right amount of water, dehydration sets in.
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It is the water in our body that determines our vitality and strength and energy that's associated
with daily living. Think about these facts associated with our bodies and water. You know most of these.
The human body is two-thirds water. The body absorbs cold water faster than hot water.
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By the time you are 70 years old, some of you,
some of you, you will have required one and a half million gallons of water.
Studies show that increasing water consumption can decrease fat deposits.
Water is a natural appetite suppressant. If you lose two percent of your body's water supply,
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your energy will decrease by 20 percent. A 10 percent decrease in your water supply,
you will be unable to walk. A 20 percent decrease in your water supply, you're dead.
And so what is true of the physical is also true of the spiritual because God has made you
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with a spirit and soul that get thirsty. If you fail to satisfy that thirst, your spirit,
soul, your body become dehydrated. And so I got the thinking what is our thirst level?
What's our thirst level when it comes to the things of God? I mean sure we all have a thirst
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for God at salvation, right? We have lots of questions. There's lots of passion, but as we,
our relationship grows, how much do you truly thirst and hunger for the things of God? Because our
text indicates, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
So the degree of our desire indicates how much of God's righteousness we have in the gas tank.
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The degree of our desire indicates how much we have of God's righteousness.
Are you one of those people like my wife who can drive around on empty and not be bothered by it?
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Or do you like it better when the gauge reads more full?
And then the question needs to be asked is the tank half full or half empty?
Isn't it interesting that God leaves it up to us to decide how much righteousness we could have in
our tanks in our lives at any given time? God leaves it up to us to decide that. When I think
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about the word thirsty, I wonder about the different degrees of that word. When we are sick,
what do doctors tell us that we should be doing? Drink liquids.
Drink liquids. But when I'm sick or I have the flu, the last thing I want to do is eat or drink anything.
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Because you're taking a risk if you do that, right?
If you find that you're not desiring the things of God, I would suggest that you're spiritually sick.
And the problem with that is that many of us find ourselves content with that.
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You go from week to week, never considering Him, never pursuing Him. You show up on Sundays and
call it good. What is your thirst level for the things of God? Is it dangerously low or running
over like springs of living water? David knew where to find God. It wasn't out in the world in the
dry, thirsty land. It was in the intimacy of worship where he found Him. That His soul was nourished.
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That God's power and glory, He could experience firsthand. It's the same thing for you and I.
It's the same thing. That's what praise and worship is for. That's what hearing the word of God is
for. David spent his life desperately thirsty. He was in that category, constantly speaking,
after the things of God. It's no wonder to me that God wanted the world to know the kind of
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relationship that he had with David, that he was a man after his own heart. We should all strive to
have that. We should all pursue that, that we can have a relationship with our maker. We have the
same opportunity that David did. What he did for David, he will do for anyone who desperately
seeks after him. How desperate are you to have your needs met? There's a story of a young salesman
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and he lost his big sale and so he goes to his sales manager and he lamented. He goes, I guess
you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. The manager replied, take my advice.
You can't make him drink. Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.
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So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be filled with Christ that it makes others thirst
for the gospel. I'll lead us to verse 7.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Mercy is the way you treat someone who
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has done you wrong when suddenly you find yourself in a position where you have some power over them.
It's the attitude that Stephen had toward people who were pumbling him with stones.
Since then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord do not hold this sin against them.
When he had said this he fell asleep. It's the attitude Jesus had on the cross in Luke 23.
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He said, Jesus, he said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
I just wanted the truest test of Christian character to give mercy to a person even when
they don't deserve it. Even when we feel wronged. Being merciful is recognizing the mercy that has
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been given to us and extending it to others. Don't ever say, I can't forgive that person they don't
deserve. You can do anything you choose to do especially with the Lord's help. If that's you
just be honest and say I won't forgive you. Not going to forgive you. Not going to let it go.
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Be better if you choose in hopes that somehow you'll get even but in the end you'll see that
you're only punishing yourself. Mercy is an outward characteristic but then in verse 8 Jesus
addresses an inward characteristic. This is blessed are the pure heart for they shall see God.
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Biblically speaking what is the heart? It's the sin of a person's being. It's the fountain of who
they are. It's also the source of a lot of trouble. Jesus says in Matthew 15, for out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulteries and fornications and thefts, false witness,
blasphemies, all these things. One of the biggest lies these days is the thinking that man is in
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trouble because of the environment around him. May I remind you that when Adam and Eve sinned,
they were in the perfect environment. They could choose not to sin but they chose poorly.
Man will sin even in paradise. Pure in heart means sincere. That means being without hypocrisy.
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That means nothing hidden. No doubt this was for the Pharisees. This is for the religious leaders
who are only concerned about their outward appearance. Pure in heart means what you see
is what you get. Don't hold things in. Be forthright. Be honest. Ask questions. Don't let your
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imagination run wild with things. This is really doing yourself a favor. You're keeping a clean
slate. You're making things right with God. You're making things right with others. When you've done
wrong, it helps make your vision clear. It's kind of like windshield wipers on your windshield.
Notice the promise. The pure in heart. They're going to see God. We know this is true as a
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future event but I also believe it applies now. Jesus said that we are to remove the plank,
remove the 2 by 4 from our own eye and when we do that, we will be able to see clearly.
And then we can sense his presence like never before and we can see him in more reality than
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we ever could through the muddy waters of our impure heart. Then we get to verse 9.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Notice it says peacemaker,
not peacekeeper. There's a major difference there. I hear this all the time and I'm just trying to
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keep the peace. Just trying not to offend anybody. Those words haven't come out of my mouth but I've
heard it. Maybe the peace doesn't need to be kept. Sometimes the best way for peace
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is through conflict. Sometimes it's to hash things out so that bitterness and anger don't
happen so justice can happen. There are times in my home that I don't want the peace to be kept.
Because I see some behaviors that need to be addressed and if we just sit back and keep the
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peace and just make sure everybody's happy, we're not doing anybody any sort of good.
We are to be peacemakers. Sometimes that means that we call out sin. Sometimes that means in order
for us to be of pure heart, we do our best to eliminate conflict in our lives with others.
What would this world look like if we didn't engage in World War II with Hitler?
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What if we had to let's just keep the peace mentality? Well, he's powerful.
I don't want to upset him. So let's just kind of sit back and keep the peace and just make
sure he's happy with us. Treaties of peace are signed after there is conflict, not usually before.
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Now we do it in a way that honors the Lord. We love people with love and grace, but sometimes
we fail to love others because we fail to be a peacemaker. We're just acting as peace keepers.
Then Jesus ends the Beatitudes by addressing persecution in verses 10 through 11.
Now the chances of us facing the type of persecution that his disciples face is slim,
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but there's still going to be times where we have to stand up and do what is right in the
eyes of the Lord and not man. And when you do that, you will more than likely face some sort
of difficulty. You will lose relationships. You will be mocked. You will be questioned because
your line of thinking does not line up with what the world tells you it should. In those moments,
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when that happens, Jesus says, remember your reward. Remember where your home is. Rejoice in
the fact that he found you worthy enough to be persecuted for himself. Celebrate that this world
is temporary and one day we're going to be with him and his kingdom forever.
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I'd be willing to bet that we have never dared to take the Sermon on the Mount serious,
but have pondered off some sort of dated and practical idealistic teaching.
Instead of using them to change culture, we have allowed culture to change them.
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We have to hear Jesus' Sermon one more time. This time the way he preached it.
And during the next few months, we're going to do exactly that. We're going to look at the Sermon
on the Mount. And during that time, I trust that you will read it several times. I'd encourage
you to read it multiple times, multiple translations, and perhaps, like me, you will discover that
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your impressions of what the Sermon on the Mount says and what it really says are two different
things. So I'm going to invite our worship team up here and we're going to have time to respond.
And I don't know what that looks like for you, but I'd be willing to bet a few words to take the
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beatitudes. And you were to line yourself up with where you are. There are some things that we need
to do better. There are some places that we're pursuing happiness where we shouldn't.
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Are you poor in spirit? Do you realize that you have no shot without them? You can't do this on
your own. Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Is your tank empty? It can be filled, it can be
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filled, but it's up to you. Have you been keeping the peace instead of making the peace?
I don't know. It's up to you. Am I going to pray for us and we're going to respond however the Lord
leads? I'm hoping some of us are offended today. I'm hoping you've been challenged today by the
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words that Jesus preached. I pray right now that as we close out the service,
as we close out another week of church, as we sing in response, I pray, Father, that you'll speak to
our hearts. I pray that you'll bring conviction. I pray that you'll bring healing. I pray that you
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will be heard. Help us understand that it's only because of you. So Father, fill this place with
your presence. Speak to our hearts and change us. Ask all these things in your name. Amen.
If you have your Bibles, Matthew chapter 5 is where we're going to be.
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We're going to start walking through the Sermon on the Mount together, so hopefully we'll
get to be familiar with it.
I encourage you to find that as we read that here in just a minute.
There was a preacher by the name of Wilbur Reis, no relation that I know of, but he once
preached a message in which he presented a listener's guide to sermons.
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He stated that sermons ought to be rated in much the same way that we rate movies today.
So he said, G-rated sermons are those that are generally acceptable to everyone.
They contain phrases such as going into all the world and smile, or what the world needs
is peace and they need you to live your best life.
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Sermons such as these are often greeted with a response of, oh, wasn't that wonderful?
Wasn't that marvelous?
I mean, everyone loves a good G-rated sermon, and they will never offend anyone.
Then he gets PG sermons, and they're for more mature congregations, and they have mild
suggestions for change, but they're subtle enough to allow the preacher to backpedal
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or change the meaning if he finds that he has inadvertently offended someone.
You know that someone has preached a message like this when people walk away in wonderment,
shaking their heads and saying things like, that was so deep, very, very thought-provoking.
Of course, if you've done a PG sermon really, really well, nobody actually knows what you
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said, but nobody's really usually willing to admit it.
Then there's R-rated sermons.
This is when the preacher tells it like it is.
They usually indicate that the preacher has some sort of outside source of income, has
a pretty good, healthy self-image.
These sermons aren't intended for everyone.
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They're just really for those who wish to be challenged in their spiritual walk.
And then you get to the X-rated sermons.
These are the explosive ideas of the kind that got the prophet Amos ran out of town,
got the prophet Jeremiah thrown into a well.
When you preach an X-rated sermon, you have a moving van ready.
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Jesus was the master of the X-rated sermon, and the sermon on the mount was the mother
of all X-rated sermons.
You might object to that, and you might say that, well, that isn't true.
The sermon on the mount is one of my favorite passages of scripture.
I don't find it the least bit shocking.
It's not offensive to me.
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And the reason for that is because you're not reading it in the way that Jesus preached
it.
We try to rationalize the sermon on the mount, or we try to explain it.
Explain it away.
But when the rubber meets the road, and you take a look at the sermon on the mount at
its face value, it would not only change our church, it would change the world.
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And after all, it was preaching like this in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 that got Christ
crucified.
But we try to soften the blows, and we try to turn the sermon on the mount into a GPG
or even an R-rated sermon.
Today, some believe that the sermon on the mount can't really be, shouldn't be taken
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serious by those who function in today's world.
This can't really apply to our political and economic and social realities of the world
we live in.
What do we do with terror?
What do we do with nations like Iran?
Surely we don't take it seriously where Jesus tells us to resist our enemies.
And I'm sure it was a lot easier not to lust after women back in Jesus' day when women
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are covered from head to toe in robes.
I mean, it was hard to say what was underneath all that stuff, right?
And then you hear things like, well, maybe it's not the sermon on the mount, it isn't
so much for the past, but it's more for the future.
You know, a glorious new time when God establishes the new Jerusalem.
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Now although all of these views are presented by sincere Christian men and women, they were
formulated for one reason only.
And that was to take the sting out of the words of Jesus and to soothe our guilty conscience
for neglecting to implement in our lifestyle the words that are in the sermon on the mount.
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You see, the sermon on the mount can be a GPG or R rated sermon, but when you begin
to view it as commands for your life today in this world, in your context, and it very
quickly becomes an X rated sermon.
I wonder what would happen if we took the sermon on the mount as not a set of quaint,
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antiquated teachings, but we actually put the words of Christ into action.
What would that look like on a daily basis?
I wonder what would happen if we sought to make the words of Christ come to life in all
of our relationships from personal to international, political, economic.
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I can't answer that.
I can't answer that because since the time that we've had the sermon on the mount, we
have failed as believers to take serious the ideas that are contained in this passage.
And because we have failed to implement the basics that Christ laid out for us, we have
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ended up as a pretty messed up society.
We've ended up as a pretty messed up church.
And so we're going to dive into the sermon on the mount.
I'm going to invite Jackson up here.
He's going to read our passage this morning.
He's going to read the first 12 verses of chapter five if you're able.
I'd encourage you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.
Again even more stuff of me.
So that's what Jesus said on the third day.
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Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to
him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
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Blessed are those who are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
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falsely on my account? Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so
they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jackson. Thank you for his willingness to serve our
church today. Thank you for giving him a desire to read your word. I pray that you bless him
for it. I pray, Father, that as we look at this familiar text, that we will see it in
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the way you presented it, that we will be challenged by it and convicted by it. We ask
all these things in your name. Amen. Thanks, Jackson.
So before we get started, let's set some guidelines about the Sermon on the Mount. Number one,
the Sermon on the Mount does not contain everything that Jesus taught. The Gospel of Matthew contains
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five major teachings of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is the first of them, and that
means that several of Christ's major teachings are not in this sermon. Instead, it is the
meaning of everyday discipleship. And so up until now, Matthew has covered the birth of
Christ. He's introduced us to John the Baptist. He's narrated the count of Jesus' baptism
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and his temptation. We've watched the first four disciples be called, and we've kind
of followed Christ through his preaching and healing ministry in Galilee. So this is not
the whole thing. The second thing is this is not a full-blown theology of Christ. Instead,
the Sermon on the Mount is practical instructions to those of us who dare to be his disciple,
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realistic and literal, not an ivory tower fantasy. Those who dare to take the message
of the Sermon on the Mount serious will change the world. The third thing is the Sermon on
the Mount is not a system of laws for the Christian. Christ didn't plan on his followers
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to simply exchange one set of rules for another. His mission here was for us to be free, for
us to function in how he designed for us to look like, and that is to look like Christ.
When we start any series, any new series or any new book, we have to look at the context.
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We need to understand the context. And the question I always ask is, who was this written
for? Thankfully, this one's easy because Matthew tells us in the first verse, this Sermon was
for his disciples. Now, there might have been a whole bunch of people on the mountain that
day, but they were just overhearing what Jesus is telling those who have decided to follow him.
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Because it says, when he saw the crowds, he left and he went up to the mountain side. It was the
disciples that he was teaching. The words of the Sermon were for them, not the crowds. The Sermon
on the Mount was not rules by which you get into the kingdom of God. Instead, it was guidelines
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to be followed once you're in relationship with him. Now, Christ is about to embark on a voyage
today into a subject that is just as relevant today as it was when he preached it. And that
question, that topic is, what is happiness? That term that Christ uses in his teaching,
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which we commonly refer to as Beatitudes, is blessed. And then the original language, it
literally meant supremely blessed, well off. It means fortunate or happy. But the question still
begs to be asked, what is happy? Now, thankfully, the editors of Psychology Today did a big study on it.
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Thousands and thousands of people were interviewed. And the problem is, they couldn't
pin down happiness in a study. But they did discover what unhappiness is. Listen to this.
It says, unhappiness is what I don't have, but think you do have. And so they use, the stay-at-home
mom thinks that she is deprived of the independence that the woman who works outside enjoys. While
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the working mom figures that the stay-at-home mom gets the freedom to do what she wants all day long.
And so we gauge our happiness by what we perceive somebody else's happiness to be. Another source
of unhappiness is wanting what I can't have. For example, if I were to think that my happiness
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depends on me having a lake house, I'm going to be severely disappointed for a long time,
because it's not practical or reasonable for me to have a lake house at this point in my life.
Unless one of you wants to gift it. Just going that out there. Unhappiness is also not wanting
what I can't have. And so in attempt to find this elusive state, we read books on how to be happy.
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We take happy pills. We wear happy faces. We go to happy hour. Without any real success, we have
allowed the advertisements to tell us what happiness is. Jesus states his views on happiness
in these eight poetic sayings that we call the Beatitudes. They are rated X because they have
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little to do with the pursuit of happiness as we know it. And so let's understand a couple things.
Number one, happiness is a result, not a goal. It's not something we search for and find.
Instead, it is something we find while we are searching for something else. That something else
that we are supposed to be searching for is the kingdom of God. Matthew tells us in Matthew 6,
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but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as
well. Christ is not telling us to pursue happiness. And if that's why we embrace God, then you have
come to God for the wrong reasons. We tend to forget that the pursuit of happiness is just as
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idolatrous as the pursuit of a new career or lots of money or a bigger house. And so Christ begins
the Beatitude, which by the way means a state of blessedness by making this remarkable statement
that's found in verse three. He says blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
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Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, it's kind of strange way in my opinion to start off a series
about happiness, talking about the poor in spirit. A more accurate translation might be those who are
not inflated in spirit. And so Christ says happy are those. Blessed are those who are unspoiled,
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who don't get ruined by delusions of deserving the kingdom of God. Happiness will never find any of
us as long as we see ourselves as good enough to make it on our own. All of our lives we are told
how great we are. We tell our kids how great they are, how special they are. If a man or a woman will
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realize his own helplessness, then he can put his whole trust in God. And when he does that,
two things are going to happen. The first is that he will be completely detached from things,
and then he will become completely attached to God. And so Christ says blessed are the poor in
spirit. Why? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, until we
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become poor in spirit, we can't accept Christ. And until we accept Christ, we can't gain knowledge
of the kingdom. Until we understand our sinfulness and the futility of our works, we will never see
the need for salvation. I mean Christ spelled it out for us in Luke chapter 19. He says for the son
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of man came to seek and to save what was lost. Is that because those who aren't lost don't need to
be saved? No, the Bible is clear that everyone is lost. But until you admit that you're lost,
you aren't going to ask for help. Christ's next statement seems almost as absurd as his last one
in verse four. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The word that Christ
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uses here is the strongest possible word in the Greek language for mourning. A few years ago,
I was at a meeting and I met this couple that had just experienced four miscarriages. And they
were talking about that grief and everything that goes along with that situation. They talked about
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how it made them even more grateful for the children that they did have. They talked about how
grateful they were that they still had strong faith in Jesus. A few days later, seeing an I
are in the same position for the first time. That's the type of grief that Jesus is talking about.
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And so is Christ saying that the true path to happiness is through grief? I believe so.
And anyone who has ever lost a loved one through death or divorce or rejection knows that there is
no greater unhappiness. In our minds, happiness and grief are at the far ends of the human emotion
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spectrum. They don't go together. And we spend most of our adult lives trying to insulate ourselves
from grief. And yet Jesus definitely links our happiness and our grief. Someone said that the
second beatitude is linked to the first. And so Christ begins by saying, happy are those,
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blessed are those who know they are sinners. And then he continues by saying, and happier those
who grieve for their sinfulness. Now, while the concept of grief over our sinfulness may be a
part of what Christ is saying, I really don't accept it as the total sum of what Christ is trying
to get at. But here's what I know. Number one, we never fully live until we experience grief and
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overcoming. Part of being human is conquering grief in such a way that we come out of it as a better
person, not a bitter person. What would what would we be as people if we never experience grief?
A rock, a robot. It's been said that all sunshine makes a desert. And that's true. The ground upon
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which the sun is always shining becomes arid and barren. Without grief, you can never ever fully
comprehend joy. Without grief, there would be a no way to tell the difference between good and bad,
between worse and better. Until we grieve, we won't be able to relate to others who grieve.
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The couple I met at that conference was able to minister to me as Sina and I were dealing with
our first miscarriage. Was it because of their great theological knowledge? No. Was it because of
their great counseling techniques? No. It was because they had experienced what we were going
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through. The truth of the matter is that God never promised us a sorrow-free environment.
Also, when you grieve, make sure you grieve over the right things. I've discovered that unhappiness
doesn't come from grieving as much as it comes from grieving over the wrong things. Happiness
happens when we grieve over the right things. That's Jesus' message for us. But what are the
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right things? Jesus gives us a clue in Luke 22, 23. As he's carrying the cross up to Calvary,
he notices these women crying over him and he says, Jesus, turn and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem,
do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. I think the message is this.
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If you're going to weep, if you're going to grieve, weep for the things that God weeps over.
Happier are those who mourn for what mourns God. And what does God mourn? He mourns the
lostness and the brokenness, the confusion of the world that he created, so full of beauty, so full
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of love. God weeps over those who refuse to acknowledge their sin and die and end up going to
hell. God weeps over those who ignore the plights of their fellow man and their fellow Christians.
God weeps over the things that stand in the way of the kingdom of God. And so Christ doesn't say
that we will always be comforted when we grieve, but that we will always be comforted when we
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grieve for the right things. For as we learn to grieve, we also learn how to lean on him. And as we
cry, we find that there is a God who can wipe away every tear. Jesus continues in verse five,
blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, that's a radical question.
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Now, that's a radical concept, isn't it? Blessed are the meek. That statement is totally contradictory
to our entire way of thinking. If we were to develop a Western beatitude, it would be,
blessed is the aggressor. Happy is the aggressor. We are aggressive in everything that we do,
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from business to sports to finding a parking spot at North Scott. We are aggressive in everything
we do. And if you're not aggressive, if you're more laid back, you can take aggressive training,
and you can learn how to be aggressive so that you can tell people what you want and how you want
it and when you want it, and you can start getting your own way. For most of us, meek means weak,
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and none of us wants to be thought of as weak. You probably won't find a pile of people lined up
for meekness training. Our experience has shown that the meek don't inherit the earth.
You got the multinational corporations, you got the slick politicians, you got the multi-married
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movie stars, military dictators. It seems that those are the ones who inherit the earth. So,
there doesn't seem to be much hope that that will hear, let alone heed, Christ's third suggestion
for happiness. What Christ is saying with this virtue is, happy is the man, happy is the woman
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who gets angry at the right time and doesn't get angry at the wrong time. If we see this in the
context of the rest of Christ's teachings, it would say that it is never right to be angry
over a wrong done to ourselves, but it's often right to be angry at injury done to others.
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Selfish anger is always a sin, but selfless anger can be one of the great moral dynamics of our time.
It is this type of anger that changes the world when it sees injustices done,
and there's a lot to be angry about out there, isn't there? Christ goes on to say,
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for they shall inherit the world. So, the world belongs to the gentle, not to the conqueror.
The world belongs to the saviors, not the conquerors. Remember holidays, remember who they're
usually for. We continually honor those who have sought to make the world a better place to live.
We honor Lincoln, not Napoleon. We honor FDR, not Hitler. If we look beyond today,
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beyond the immediate, we discovered that the world doesn't belong to the aggressor, but to the me.
Verse 6, bless it to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Now, every single one of us in this room, every single one of us on this planet was created
with a different personality, a different set of fingerprints, a different DNA makeup,
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known only to us. God created each of us in His image, but yet we are so uniquely different.
No two of us are the same. It has been estimated that 106 billion people have been born and have
walked on this earth since the beginning. I mean, can you imagine that? 106 billion different sets
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of fingerprints. While all different in many ways, there are at least two things that we share in
common with one another. We hunger and we thirst. Now, most of us have no problem eating,
but the thirsting part for most of us leads for improvement. Because if you ask anyone,
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how much water they drink, hardly anyone ever says the right amount they're supposed to.
Something so important for our well-being, something so vital to our health, we eat so little
importance to partake of. Do you know how important water is to our physical bodies?
When our bodies fail to retain the right amount of water, dehydration sets in.
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It is the water in our body that determines our vitality and strength and energy that's associated
with daily living. Think about these facts associated with our bodies and water. You know most of these.
The human body is two-thirds water. The body absorbs cold water faster than hot water.
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By the time you are 70 years old, some of you,
some of you, you will have required one and a half million gallons of water.
Studies show that increasing water consumption can decrease fat deposits.
Water is a natural appetite suppressant. If you lose two percent of your body's water supply,
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your energy will decrease by 20 percent. A 10 percent decrease in your water supply,
you will be unable to walk. A 20 percent decrease in your water supply, you're dead.
And so what is true of the physical is also true of the spiritual because God has made you
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with a spirit and soul that get thirsty. If you fail to satisfy that thirst, your spirit,
soul, your body become dehydrated. And so I got the thinking what is our thirst level?
What's our thirst level when it comes to the things of God? I mean sure we all have a thirst
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for God at salvation, right? We have lots of questions. There's lots of passion, but as we,
our relationship grows, how much do you truly thirst and hunger for the things of God? Because our
text indicates, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
So the degree of our desire indicates how much of God's righteousness we have in the gas tank.
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The degree of our desire indicates how much we have of God's righteousness.
Are you one of those people like my wife who can drive around on empty and not be bothered by it?
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Or do you like it better when the gauge reads more full?
And then the question needs to be asked is the tank half full or half empty?
Isn't it interesting that God leaves it up to us to decide how much righteousness we could have in
our tanks in our lives at any given time? God leaves it up to us to decide that. When I think
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about the word thirsty, I wonder about the different degrees of that word. When we are sick,
what do doctors tell us that we should be doing? Drink liquids.
Drink liquids. But when I'm sick or I have the flu, the last thing I want to do is eat or drink anything.
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Because you're taking a risk if you do that, right?
If you find that you're not desiring the things of God, I would suggest that you're spiritually sick.
And the problem with that is that many of us find ourselves content with that.
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You go from week to week, never considering Him, never pursuing Him. You show up on Sundays and
call it good. What is your thirst level for the things of God? Is it dangerously low or running
over like springs of living water? David knew where to find God. It wasn't out in the world in the
dry, thirsty land. It was in the intimacy of worship where he found Him. That His soul was nourished.
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That God's power and glory, He could experience firsthand. It's the same thing for you and I.
It's the same thing. That's what praise and worship is for. That's what hearing the word of God is
for. David spent his life desperately thirsty. He was in that category, constantly speaking,
after the things of God. It's no wonder to me that God wanted the world to know the kind of
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relationship that he had with David, that he was a man after his own heart. We should all strive to
have that. We should all pursue that, that we can have a relationship with our maker. We have the
same opportunity that David did. What he did for David, he will do for anyone who desperately
seeks after him. How desperate are you to have your needs met? There's a story of a young salesman
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and he lost his big sale and so he goes to his sales manager and he lamented. He goes, I guess
you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. The manager replied, take my advice.
You can't make him drink. Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.
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So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be filled with Christ that it makes others thirst
for the gospel. I'll lead us to verse 7.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Mercy is the way you treat someone who
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has done you wrong when suddenly you find yourself in a position where you have some power over them.
It's the attitude that Stephen had toward people who were pumbling him with stones.
Since then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord do not hold this sin against them.
When he had said this he fell asleep. It's the attitude Jesus had on the cross in Luke 23.
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He said, Jesus, he said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
I just wanted the truest test of Christian character to give mercy to a person even when
they don't deserve it. Even when we feel wronged. Being merciful is recognizing the mercy that has
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been given to us and extending it to others. Don't ever say, I can't forgive that person they don't
deserve. You can do anything you choose to do especially with the Lord's help. If that's you
just be honest and say I won't forgive you. Not going to forgive you. Not going to let it go.
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Be better if you choose in hopes that somehow you'll get even but in the end you'll see that
you're only punishing yourself. Mercy is an outward characteristic but then in verse 8 Jesus
addresses an inward characteristic. This is blessed are the pure heart for they shall see God.
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Biblically speaking what is the heart? It's the sin of a person's being. It's the fountain of who
they are. It's also the source of a lot of trouble. Jesus says in Matthew 15, for out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulteries and fornications and thefts, false witness,
blasphemies, all these things. One of the biggest lies these days is the thinking that man is in
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trouble because of the environment around him. May I remind you that when Adam and Eve sinned,
they were in the perfect environment. They could choose not to sin but they chose poorly.
Man will sin even in paradise. Pure in heart means sincere. That means being without hypocrisy.
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That means nothing hidden. No doubt this was for the Pharisees. This is for the religious leaders
who are only concerned about their outward appearance. Pure in heart means what you see
is what you get. Don't hold things in. Be forthright. Be honest. Ask questions. Don't let your
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imagination run wild with things. This is really doing yourself a favor. You're keeping a clean
slate. You're making things right with God. You're making things right with others. When you've done
wrong, it helps make your vision clear. It's kind of like windshield wipers on your windshield.
Notice the promise. The pure in heart. They're going to see God. We know this is true as a
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future event but I also believe it applies now. Jesus said that we are to remove the plank,
remove the 2 by 4 from our own eye and when we do that, we will be able to see clearly.
And then we can sense his presence like never before and we can see him in more reality than
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we ever could through the muddy waters of our impure heart. Then we get to verse 9.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Notice it says peacemaker,
not peacekeeper. There's a major difference there. I hear this all the time and I'm just trying to
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keep the peace. Just trying not to offend anybody. Those words haven't come out of my mouth but I've
heard it. Maybe the peace doesn't need to be kept. Sometimes the best way for peace
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is through conflict. Sometimes it's to hash things out so that bitterness and anger don't
happen so justice can happen. There are times in my home that I don't want the peace to be kept.
Because I see some behaviors that need to be addressed and if we just sit back and keep the
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peace and just make sure everybody's happy, we're not doing anybody any sort of good.
We are to be peacemakers. Sometimes that means that we call out sin. Sometimes that means in order
for us to be of pure heart, we do our best to eliminate conflict in our lives with others.
What would this world look like if we didn't engage in World War II with Hitler?
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What if we had to let's just keep the peace mentality? Well, he's powerful.
I don't want to upset him. So let's just kind of sit back and keep the peace and just make
sure he's happy with us. Treaties of peace are signed after there is conflict, not usually before.
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Now we do it in a way that honors the Lord. We love people with love and grace, but sometimes
we fail to love others because we fail to be a peacemaker. We're just acting as peace keepers.
Then Jesus ends the Beatitudes by addressing persecution in verses 10 through 11.
Now the chances of us facing the type of persecution that his disciples face is slim,
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but there's still going to be times where we have to stand up and do what is right in the
eyes of the Lord and not man. And when you do that, you will more than likely face some sort
of difficulty. You will lose relationships. You will be mocked. You will be questioned because
your line of thinking does not line up with what the world tells you it should. In those moments,
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when that happens, Jesus says, remember your reward. Remember where your home is. Rejoice in
the fact that he found you worthy enough to be persecuted for himself. Celebrate that this world
is temporary and one day we're going to be with him and his kingdom forever.
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I'd be willing to bet that we have never dared to take the Sermon on the Mount serious,
but have pondered off some sort of dated and practical idealistic teaching.
Instead of using them to change culture, we have allowed culture to change them.
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We have to hear Jesus' Sermon one more time. This time the way he preached it.
And during the next few months, we're going to do exactly that. We're going to look at the Sermon
on the Mount. And during that time, I trust that you will read it several times. I'd encourage
you to read it multiple times, multiple translations, and perhaps, like me, you will discover that
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your impressions of what the Sermon on the Mount says and what it really says are two different
things. So I'm going to invite our worship team up here and we're going to have time to respond.
And I don't know what that looks like for you, but I'd be willing to bet a few words to take the
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beatitudes. And you were to line yourself up with where you are. There are some things that we need
to do better. There are some places that we're pursuing happiness where we shouldn't.
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Are you poor in spirit? Do you realize that you have no shot without them? You can't do this on
your own. Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Is your tank empty? It can be filled, it can be
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filled, but it's up to you. Have you been keeping the peace instead of making the peace?
I don't know. It's up to you. Am I going to pray for us and we're going to respond however the Lord
leads? I'm hoping some of us are offended today. I'm hoping you've been challenged today by the
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words that Jesus preached. I pray right now that as we close out the service,
as we close out another week of church, as we sing in response, I pray, Father, that you'll speak to
our hearts. I pray that you'll bring conviction. I pray that you'll bring healing. I pray that you
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will be heard. Help us understand that it's only because of you. So Father, fill this place with
your presence. Speak to our hearts and change us. Ask all these things in your name. Amen.
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