The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Blessed

Episode Date: April 19, 2020

Jesus did not come to make bad people better or sad people happy. He came to give life to the dead and salvation for sinners. For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For Disciple Group Curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups

Amen and amen. You can be seated here and in your living room or hopefully you stood up for the reading of God's word. Hey, it's good to be with you, church. No matter where you are, we just saying that he is here. And that is true because we are declaring his word out loud and he is here wherever here is for you. Whether it's just you and your iPhone or it's your family or whoever it is, he is there if you are gathered together in his name. And we are very excited that you would be here with us.

If you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, over the next 13 weeks, We are going to be in Matthew, chapter 5, 6, and 7. We're going to start in Matthew chapter 5 right now. Or if you haven't downloaded your journal, then we've got that online. So go there now and download it. I would suggest you print it out because the text is going to be there, and there's some action steps. There's a place to take notes.

It is all there. And we are going to be on page 10 in our time together today. And so as you head there, one of the things I want to update you on is I just want to say way to go, Church of 1122. Last week was Resurrection Weekend. We did services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I don't know how many services we did. It was about a million.

It felt like to me. We had around 50,000 people attend via online all over, really all over the world. Praise God. That's awesome. And even better than attendance, we had 154 human beings signify a first-time decision to follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Praise God. And so we're going to follow. follow up after Easter for the next 13 weeks and what we are calling the best sermon ever.

Now, I will assure you this will not be the best sermon ever because I am not the best preacher ever, but we're going to study word by word, the best sermon ever, by the best preacher ever. His name is Jesus and it's called the sermon on the mount. And so I want you to just imagine with me, if you will. For some of you, you can just kind of remember this, But I want you to imagine you and I and some of our friends, we get together and we get on an airplane and we fly over the Atlantic Ocean and we land in Tel Aviv and then we hop on a bus and we drive north past Jerusalem and we pull up to the Galilee, the area where the sea of Galilee is. And you look out your window and there's rolling hills and palm trees and dates and it's beautiful. It's really beautiful. This may be why Jesus, when he found out that his first cousin, John the Baptist, was put in prison.

He moved from the Jerusalem area. He moved up to the area known as Galilee. You got to live somewhere. You might as well live somewhere awesome. Amen. And this area is awesome. It is my happy place. And then we got on a bus and we went up to what's known as the Mountain of Beatitudes, the place where Jesus delivers the sermon on the Mount.

You can go there today. and we park the bus in this big bus parking lot because there's bus parking lots everywhere in Israel. And we make our way up this trail and we pass the toilet that you've got to pay a dollar to go into. Grace is free, but the bathroom's in Israel or not. I don't know what that's all about. And then you pass the gift shop because there's a gift shop everywhere. But once you pass kind of all the icky stuff, then you're on this beautiful mountain. You can look down to the south and there is the Sea of Galilee.

and in your mind you could see it. You could see how Jesus could preach to thousands of people because there is these natural amphitheaters that are created on the hillside in Galilee. And along the way, as you make your way up to this church, everywhere that something awesome happened in the Bible, now in Israel, there's a church. But on your way, you pass these little placards.

And there's eight of them along the way. And one says, blessed are the poor and spirit. And then the next one says, blessed are those who mourn. And the next one says, blessed are the meek. And then blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And then blessed are the merciful and blessed are the pure and heart. And blessed are the peacemakers. And the last one said, and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake.

And as you walk up, the eight things that you have just walked about, are known as the beatitudes. And you think, I wonder what that means. Well, I think the beatitudes, which were the beginning of the sermon on the Mount, I think it's one of the most misunderstood teachings of Jesus in all of the scripture. You see, so often the way I've heard it taught, and the way that we tend to digest the beatitudes is we see them as eight separate conditional blessings for people. In fact, the last time I was there, and I walked by those eight headstone-looking things with the eight beatitudes on them.

We, our church, who was there, we had a worship service together, and then we sat on this mountain and just read our Bibles. And as I was sitting there, another church came into one of the little meeting areas, and I heard the pastor of that church share the beatitudes with his congregation or, you know, a few people that were there. And ultimately, he said, the point of the beatitudes is this, is that if you lift up the lowly, then God will lift you up. And I thought, oh, no. Oh, no, he missed the whole point. You see, what Jesus is going to do in the best sermon ever, what Jesus is going to do in the sermon on the mount,

see, Matthew's writing to a Jewish audience. And so Matthew wants his audience to know that Jesus is the greater Moses. And so Moses, back in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus, chapter 19, he is leading a whole bunch of people, and he goes up on a mountain to meet with God, and he gets the law of God, and then he brings the law of God back to the people, and he says, you better obey this or else. And now what Jesus is going to do is Jesus is leading a whole bunch of people,

and he goes up on the mountain, but he does not say, y'all wait here. He says, you come with me, and then he lays out this new kingdom ethic, but it is significantly different than the law of God, known as the Ten Commandments, because if you're serious about the Bible, then I hope you are, If you read through the sermon on the mount, not the suggestion on the mount, not the op-ed on the mount, but if you read through the sermon on the mount how Christians ought to live, your only conclusion could be this, there's no way. There's no way. You mean it's not enough to not commit adultery? I can't even think a lustful thought in my mind. Uh-oh. You mean it's not enough to just not murder, but if I've ever just had this thing against something, I get some of it. somebody in my heart that I'm already considered a murderer?

You mean to tell me that if I am looking for satisfaction in the things of this world instead of in you, then I am lost? Uh-oh, there is a problem. Once a man came to C.S. Lewis and said that he hated the sermon on the mount. And C.S. Lewis said, me too, because it is like a sledgehammer that has destroyed the entire foundation of my life. That is what the sermon on the mount is. And because of that, I think what Jesus is doing through the beatitudes is not eight separate conditional blessings. Anybody pure in heart? Raise your hand. I got a blessing for you. Anybody merciful? Raise your hand. I got a blessing for you. Anybody down and out? Well, that's all right because I'm going to lift you up. I don't think that's what it is at all. I think what Jesus is doing in the beatitudes is there not eight separate conditional blessings, depending on personality types or situations.

in life. I think they are building blocks of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think it's going to start with our understanding of our wretched condition. He's going to talk about justification, sanctification, and then one day glorification. And the reason I think he does this is because what grace does for us is that the verdict comes before the performance. When does that ever happen in our life? Jesus, in his court of law, says, you are innocent, not guilty, now give me the evidence. And I think if we don't understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, then what will happen as we get into the practical implications of a gospel-centered life is we can begin to just simply trade out

the law of Moses for the sermon on the mount. And it will leave us utterly exhausted. did. And so, you see, part of the reason it's hard for us to understand the sermon on the Mount is because the way it starts with this, the Greek word is Mercurios. It's translated in the ESV, the version that we use, is translated as blessed, which is a great translation. Another good translation is flourishing. Like God has a plan for your life and his way of doing life is just better. But sometimes I've seen a lot of people preach, hey man, this is how to be happy. Eight ways to be happy.

I hope you know that God is not super concerned with your happiness. He's very concerned with your holiness. And in fact, happiness, man. Happiness is just rooted in our happenings. It's so fleeting. But joy is rooted in Jesus. And this word is so much deeper than just being happy. And think about it, man.

We're supposed to be the happy people. Right? I mean, in our founding documents. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And guess what, America? It's not going well. About a year ago, they did a happiness survey, and they surveyed all of the countries in the world

and ranked us according to how happy we are. And guess what? America, we're 19th. How do you get 19th? When in your founding documents, we're supposed to be the ones that pursue happiness. There are 18 other countries that apparently are happier than we are. are. Number one was Finland. Number two was Denmark. Number three was Norway. Number four was

Iceland. Number five, Netherlands. Wherever Anna and Elsa live, those are the happiest people on the planet apparently. I think it's just so cold there. They're just day drinkers. They're in the house drunk, all right? And so they poll well. That's just my commentary on it. I don't know. You see, so I don't think these are eight ways to be happy at all. I think it's the progression of the Christian life that Jesus is laying out the gospel. And if you miss the gospel found in the beatitudes, then the sermon on the mount will just feel like a heavy weight on your shoulders that you can't bear. Instead of understanding that the verdict comes before the performance.

So let's just walk through them. The first one, Jesus. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit. So many people will say that this means that blessed are the poor. You're not necessarily blessed if you're poor. Because there are some people that are poor and there's a righteous poverty and there's an unrighteous poverty. Some people are poor because of unrighteousness. The Bible says if you don't work, you don't eat. Some people are poor because they're lazy. Then there are some people that are righteously poor. They just decide to give so much

away investing in the kingdom of God that they don't have a lot for themselves. And just like, just like some people are righteous or unrighteously poor, there are some people that are righteously rich and unrighteously rich. The amount of money in your bank account does not determine whether you are blessed or not. What he's talking about here is not poor in money, but poor in spirit. Literally the word here, poor means that you're a beggar. Blessed is the person that gets to the place in their life where they realize that they are spiritually bankrupt. Because when you get to that place where you realize that there's nothing that you can do for yourself to fix you. Blessed are you when you get to that place where you realize it's not that I'm just broke.

My problem is that I am broken. that as I look on the inside of me, there is something missing and I cannot do anything to fix this on my own. And so I am like a beggar. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Blessed are you, blessed are you when you begin to understand that at the heart level that you and I are wretched, blackhearted sinners in need of a Savior. It's a blessing. Blessed are you when God allows you at the soul level to fall flat on your back because then you are positioned to look up to him. It really is a blessing.

Maybe you're familiar with the story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15. No one, we call it the prodigal son. I talk about it all the time because Jesus lays out the gospel in this parable and he says there's a dad. He's got two sons. The younger son rejects his father. He says, Dad, you're dead to me. Give me my inheritance. And the father does.

And then the boy goes off and squanders it away. wild living. And then when he's at the lowest of the low of the low, he's an Orthodox Jewish boy feeding pigs, and he looks at the pigs, and he is jealous for the food that they eat. And the Bible says that no one gives him anything. He is at rock bottom, and this is when the blessing is about to come. Because then and only then, the Bible says he comes to his senses. Jesus says, blessed are you when you realize your spiritual poverty, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. All throughout the gospels, Jesus would say, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Listen to me. Blessed are you when God opens your eyes and lets you see your life for what it really is?

And you realize that you are a sinner in need of a savior because you are within the grasp of salvation in the kingdom of God. It is that close to you. You are blessed when you realize you're utter depravity. Which leads to the next one. This is why I think they are linked together. Because when you get to the place where you realize your poverty of spirit, then you can mourn. Blessed are to those who mourn. For they shall be comforted.

Now, again, if this is an individual circumstance, this doesn't make any sense. Happy are you who cry? That doesn't make sense. Now, God has given us emotion to navigate this thing called life. So when it's time to cry, you should cry. So that when it's time to laugh, you can laugh. But I don't think that's what he's talking about here. I think what he's saying is,

blessed are you when at the soul level, you don't just mourn that you got busted. You mourn that you are busted. That you begin to see God for who he really is, and you begin to see your own selfishness, your own ego, your own insecurity. and you say, what is wrong with me? You begin to see how your sin and your sinfulness have impacted your relationship with the Lord

and your relationship with others, and you mourn that. Theologians would call this word regeneration, that at the heart level, what breaks the heart of God begins to break your heart. Blessed are you when you mourn. Why? Because you will be comforted. Now, we're not talking about regards. regret and resolution.

Regret and resolution means, oh, no, I'm going to try harder. That's different than mourning. Morning is when the spirit of God convicts you of your sin, and you begin to realize you're wretched, poor, pitiable, and naked. And you think, oh, no, what do I do? which he says you're about to be comforted. You shall be comforted. Do you know what this means, man?

You are so close to salvation. Jesus said the primary role of the Holy Spirit when he sent him was going to be a comforter for you. You were on the verge of being comforted. Which again, I think leads to the next one. This is why I think they are linked together. He says, blessed are you who are meek. Blessed are you who are meek. for they shall inherit the earth.

Now see, I don't know a man that wants to be meek. I don't know a man. I've never met a guy. Hey, give me some life goals. You know what I want? I need some more meekness in my life because I don't think we understand what the word means. I don't know the man.

It says, at my funeral, I hope they'd gather together and be like, he was meek. I don't know the man, okay? And oftentimes it's because we think meek means weak because it rhymes and we hear songs like meek and mild and we think, I don't want to be that. Well, actually, meek is not weak at all.

The Greek word for meek it actually means the bit that they would put into a horse's mouth. Meekness in Greek means controlled or directed strength. You see, meekness is this picture of taking this thoroughbred, this horse, all of this huge, powerful,

strong animal, and just giving control of that animal over to his master. Man, there were years and years ago, I don't know, four or five years ago, and I went, I went elk hunting in Colorado because it's awesome. And on the first day, this elk walk out 450 yards, and I just believe what the Bible says when God revealed to Peter, he says, rise up, kill, and eat. So I was just trying to be biblical and just be obedient to the word of God.

And so that elk came out and I dropped him. And then the way, he was way down in this canyon. And then the way we would go and recover the animal is we would go get, like, saddle up these horses with a real cowboy in Colorado. And he looks at me and he goes, are you an experience horseback rider? And I said, yes, sir, I am. About seven years ago at youth camp, I did a trail ride with many teenagers. So I feel like I got this. My horse's nose never left the rear end of the horse in front of me.

We were that close the whole way, okay? But this was like real stuff. And so we're kind of trotting out to the edge of the cliff. and we get to the edge of it and we look down to where my elk is down there. And I thought we were just looking. I mean, I thought there's no way. Like, where's the on ramp? I don't under it.

Where's the thing, you know? And then all of a sudden my cowboy goes, boop, over the hill. And I go hoop over to hill. Now here's the thing he told me before we go. He said, if you don't take these reins and hold back a little bit, your horse is going to kill you. He's going to go straight down, and he is not taking into account that there are limbs that you cannot fit under.

So as you come to said limbs, you have to steer this horse to the left of the right so that you don't get killed. Ready, go. And this big, powerful, strong horse allowed me, which they were so well trained. As he's going down this hill and I thought I was going to die, literally my stirrup for like right there by his ears. I felt like I was standing all the way up. And as I would see stuff come and I would just, I would turn him a little left, turn him a little right. That's what meekness is.

Real talk. Blessed are you? When you get to the place in your life where you realize I'm spiritually bankrupt. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. Blessed are you when you are convicted of your sin. Blessed are you when you take the reins of your life and you turn them over to the master and you say, God, my way is not working. I want to put control of my life into your hands.

That's what meekness is. the theological term would be repentance. Blessed are you when you hand over the reins of your life, when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and you say, God, I admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe Jesus when you died on the cross somehow, that counted for me, and now I confess you as Lord. Here, I surrender.

You take control. And then God guides and directs the rest of your life. And notice what happens. You shall inherit the earth. Directional terms. because if you don't do this, you will not inherit the earth. This doesn't mean like in your life you will inherit the earth. I don't have time to get into it, but Revelation 19 and 20, there will come a day where all of this burns up, according to 2nd Peter.

And then John sees this revelation in a new heaven and a new earth coming and a new Jerusalem. And we as believers in Jesus Christ, we inherit a new earth and a new heaven. for anyone that does not surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, God will give you in eternity what you ask for on this earth. Meaning you ask for a godless life on this earth, and you will get that in all eternity, and you will forever die without ever being dead. But you get to the place in your life where you say,

Father, I surrender to you through the blood of Jesus Christ, then you will get a forever relationship with him ruling and reigning on high. Blessed are you. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. If you're taking notes, I think this is the moment in the beatitudes. This is the salvation moment. This is the moment when the person is justified, where they turn from their sin and they turn to the Lord, which leads to the next one. Again, they're linked together. Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now, let's just be on. honest, okay? This is why I don't think it's personality types or eight separate blessings.

How many of you hunger and thirst for righteousness? I hunger and thirst for Cheetos and beer, okay? That's what I hunger and thirst for. Now, I know some of you, like, can't wait to get up tomorrow to do your quiet time. I get all that, okay? But very few people. Most of us hunger and thirst for us, like what makes us happy. And he's saying, blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness for you will be satisfied. You see, here's what I think he's talking about here. He's talking about sanctification. You see, when we get saved, you're actually saved, according to the New Testament, past, present, and future. You have been saved, you are being saved, and one day you will be saved.

That you have been saved. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have been saved from the penalty of sin. You are being saved from the power of sin, and one day you will be saved from the very presence of sin. That's called justification, sanctification, and glorification. And here's what he's saying. Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now 1122, you are experts in righteousness. Not acting righteous. We've got a lot of work to do, but knowing what righteousness is. Remember, we studied the book of Romans for 34 weeks? That righteousness is not right activity. Righteousness is right identity. Righteousness means to have a right

standing before God. Now for sure, if your identity is rooted in Jesus, for sure your activity will change. This is what all of the rest of the sermon on the Mount is. If you understand that the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you and that your sin has been imputed to him on the cross, of course you're going to do everything different. You're going to do money different. You're going to do marriage different.

You're going to do forgiveness differently because Christ lives in you. But once again, the verdict comes. before the performance, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for that right standing before God. Here's the way Paul says it in Romans 3. Maybe the clearest declaration of the gospel, in my opinion, in all of the Bible,

is in Romans chapter 3 in this paragraph. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the wrong. righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Did you hear that?

No one will be declared right before God, no matter how many good things you do in a row, and no matter how many bad things you avoid in a row, no one will be declared righteous. Anybody, particularly religious people, that declare themselves, self-righteous because of their religious behavior is by definition just self-righteous. And the Bible says that is not what righteousness is. Righteousness is manifested apart from the law. And the way that we are made right before God is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. That we believe, that we trust that when he died on the cross, that somehow that counted for me.

I'm going to be honest with you. I've been doing this a long time. I have degrees in this stuff in Hebrew and Greek. I've been a pastor for 20-something years, and I can't get over the gospel. I can't. I can't. Because here's what I know. Here's what I know.

I know how crooked I am. I know how wretched I am. I know how sick I am. I know how selfish I am. I know what an egomaniac I can be. I know me. And yet, Jesus came and died for me. Like, I get it that he would come and die for you

because you're probably awesome, but I'm not awesome. And so it's like the deeper and deeper and deeper I dive into the gospel. The deeper and deeper I dive into my relationship with Jesus. It's like the more hungry and more thirsty, the more hungry and more thirsty I get for that right relationship with him. because I just can't get over it. Who am I that he would take my place? That's why when we sing songs, man,

like we're going to close the service. We're going to sing, how great thou art. One of my favorite hymns of all time. And the second verse says this, and when I think of God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That's what the songwriter is saying. When I think that God did not spare his son and sent him to die, for me,

I can't even get my mind around it that on that cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin, which leads to then sings my soul, my Savior, God to thee. When we sing songs about the gospel like this, this is why my hands go up and the tears come out and I just lose it. Now, some of you worship like a mannequin, you're like, I don't know how you do it. You're like, it's in my heart. Is it? Is it? Because when mine gets shaken up, man, it just comes out of my eyes and out of my mouth, and I just want to, I want to, I hunger and I thirst for that right relationship with him.

And how many of you know that the more you feed something, the more that appetite grows? That could be a good thing or a really bad thing? It's like Thanksgiving. Remember Thanksgiving? You gather around the table. You eat until your jaw hurts. you go halfway through and put on some yoga pants, come back in, and just eat, and you think, I am, I'm done, I'm done. And then what happens? Later that day, later that day, you got a turkey sandwich and some peanut butter pie on the same plate.

You're just stuff in your face. I'm telling you, the more you dive into the gospel of Jesus Christ, the hungrier and hungrier and hungrier you will be for this relationship with him. and then you know what the result of that is? The result of that is that you will be satisfied. You will be satisfied. Do you know why so many of you are so dissatisfied with your life? Because you hunger and thirst for the things of this world instead of that right relationship with him. Blaze Pascal is famous for saying that God made us with a God-shaped hole

and there's no other thing that can fill that hole. Augustine says, thou madest us for thyself and our heart is restless until it rest in thee. If you consider yourself a believer, are you looking for your satisfaction in your right relationship with God? And I know you're not. I know you're not because we talk to you all the time. And you're saying, I'm just so restless. And I go, well, where are you looking for your satisfaction? And you say, well, you know, I mean, we bought a new house. And let's be honest.

I mean, new houses are great. but in a minute it's just your house, isn't it? You know, you can only be in one room at a time. No matter how many rooms you got. You can only be in one at a time, and eventually it's just your house, and it will not satisfy. Or you think, I got a new truck, that'll do it.

I got a new little sports car, that'll do it. You'd be like, I'll be so impressive driving around in this. You can't even see what you look like driving in your new car. And in a minute, it's just your car. Or some relationship, some relationship you think that that person is going to fully and finally satisfy you. By the way, that kind of idolatry for any human being will crush them.

It's too heavy a weight to bear. And anyone that you idolize, the moment they let you down and they will let you down because they're imperfect, then you will demonize them. That's why you go to bed at night and you're so dissatisfied. Because some of you have attained all of your goals. You've got money in the bank, house, kids. Marriage is going okay. But apart from Jesus, man, you lay your head.

on the pillow and you think, is this it? And listen, apart from Christ, that's it. That's it. But you were made for more. Blessed are you? Blessed are you? When you continuously discover and deepen your relationship with Jesus because what happens is that your soul can be satisfied in a way

that nothing on this planet could ever satisfy. It's just true. And now the beatitudes are going to make a shift. Much like the Ten Commandments shift, the first three or about our vertical relationship with God. The fourth is a hinge commandment. And then five through ten in the ten commandments are about the way we treat one another.

Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like it is to love our neighbor as ourself. And so this is why I believe this is Jesus just laying out the gospel. Because he's saying, blessed are you, blessed are you when you're convicted of your sin, blessed are you when you begin to mourn for not doing things God's way. Blessed are you when you turn over the range of your life to him and blessed are you as you continuously deep in your walk with him.

And now what's going to happen to you is you are going to begin to treat people differently because of the way God has treated you. Which leads to the next link in the chain. Blessed or the merciful. You see, I'm so glad that these are not personality type because I would look at this and I'd be like, I'm not very merciful, so I'll just give on the next one. But the reality is every person that has put their faith in Jesus Christ is merciful. You are full of mercy.

Blessed or the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Do you know why? Because you have already received that mercy. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 that every single one of us, we were dead in our trespasses. That by nature and nurture, we were not bad people that needed to be better, that we were dead people with no hope, that you and I were children of wrath. We don't use that terminology very much. Well, maybe you do now because you've been staying at home with your family, and you'd be like,

you children of wrath. But this is what the Bible says, that every single one of us, by nature and nurture, our condition apart from Christ is that we were dead and we were children of wrath. But God, being rich in life. mercy. When the Bible says someone is rich, that means that they have more than enough, but God being rich in mercy that he made us alive in Christ. That when God poured his mercy on us, he did not just put enough mercy on us for us to not go to hell. But he lavishes his mercy upon us. He heaps his mercy upon us. He does not just give us enough mercy just to barely make it into heaven.

But the moment we surrender our life to Christ, by his mercy, he adopts it. listen to his family. He changes our name to his name. He calls us co-heirs with Jesus. And we learned last week that we are seated on Jesus's throne with him at his heavenly banquet table forever and ever and ever and ever. And so blessed are you when the mercy gets on you and God gives you so much mercy that it spills out on everybody else. That's what Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 18, the parable of the unmerciful servant, that the servant gets forgiven an incredible, impossible debt,

and then he goes out and he will not forgive the small debt that someone owes him? The point of the parable is, how could that be? Because forgiving people, forgive people. In other words, this is not good grammar, but it's good theology. If you ain't given it, maybe it's because you ain't got it. And so blessed are you

when you get run over by that grace train to the point where the forgiveness of God towards you is so overwhelming because you know that you didn't deserve it, then when people sin against you, then you show them that same kind of mercy. Blessed are you? Then he says, blessed are the pure and heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. All right, again, here's how we know these are not a conditional blessing. If you're pure in heart, raise your hand.

If you're like, oh, that's me. Where do I sign up for this? If you self-identify as pure in heart, it is evidence that you're not because you're full of pride and you're full of ego, that you have a wretched, wretched black heart. And yet every single one of us in Christ is talking to us that we are pure in heart. Why? Here's why. Ezekiel 3626, 26.

God says, and I will give you a new. heart and a new spirit I will put within you, I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. This is the sanctifying process. That God, the moment you surrender your life to Jesus, he takes your wretched heart out of you, sends it to hell and gives you a new heart. He gives you your heart, gives you his heart. It begins to beat for the things that beat for God. And then you say, okay, well, if I'm a new creation, if I have this new heart, then why do I still struggle with sin? Because you still got the same crooked mind. This is why Paul says in Romans chapter 12 that we've got to not be conformed to the pattern of this world.

That means for all of our life, man, this world has just been playing these tapes in our ears, trying to get us to buy into the patterns of this world. Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The moment you surrender your life to Jesus, you are justified. But the sanctification process takes a long time all the way. until you're dead. And there is this constant taking off of the old lives of this world and putting in there the truth of God's word. David says in Psalm 51 created me a clean heart, oh God, to renew a right spirit within me. Second Corinthians 517 says, therefore if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold, the new has come. It says, blessed of the pure and heart, for you will see God. I talk about this all the time. But when God made the very first man, he gathers together the dust of the earth. And the Bible says he's not yet a living creature, and then he breathes in his nostrils close, ruah of life.

And when Adam opens his eyes, what is the first thing he sees? He sees God. At that point, he is pure in heart. And he sees God. The problem is Adam and Eve sin, and when you sin against a holy, perfect God, it separates us from him. And so with crooked and depraved hearts, we don't get to see him. And every single one of us was made for that moment.

Every single one of us was made to see God face to face. That was what you were created for. And sin separates. Every spring, I watched this series of videos on YouTube. for sermon prep reasons. It's called my life as a turkey. If you're a turkey hunter, you should watch this. It's incredible.

This southern biologist gets these eggs, and he incubates them, and then when they begin to break out of the eggs, he gets with them face to face. There is this biological phenomenon called imprinting. And as the turkey babies come out of the eggs, he's making turkey noises. and then when they come out and they look at him, apparently whatever the first image that a turkey sees and hears, that image is imprinted on them. And that's their mama.

Even though it's a dude from like Alabama and their turkeys, they're not even the same species, they're like, I see his face and I hear his voice, that's mama. And so for all of their juvenile life, for like a year, they're just walking through the woods. this dude is just walking through the woods making turkey noises, and his little turkey babies are just following him all around. You see, I don't think that that's just a biological phenomenon. I think it's a theological reality that the very first man, when he saw the face of God created in his image, then it was imprinted on the soul of every man and every woman.

And that's what you crave. Except there's a problem. Sin separates us from the face of God. This is why Moses, man, Moses, he was pretty pumped about seeing God. He said, God, show me your glory. Show me your glory. God's like, you can't handle my glory. It'll kill you.

Jesus has not died on the cross yet. Jesus has not put death to death yet. Jesus has not paid in full our sin debt. And so God looks at Moses and it's like, if you see me, if you see my face, you'll be dead. And so he takes him, he puts him in the cleft of the rock. He hides him with his hand and then he kind of walks by and lets him just kind of see the afterburners. to the point where Moses' face was glowing. He had to put on a face mask because it was freaking people out.

But in the New Covenant, in the New Testament, when Jesus comes through the gospel, through his blood, he looks at his disciples. He's like, here, look right in my face. When you see me, you see the Father. So blessed are you when God rips out your heart of stone and puts in his heart? Because when we do that, when you breathe your last here on earth,

the next breath you take, you will forever and ever and ever be in the very presence of God, and you will not be burnt up as if he was judging you by his wrath, but you will be invited in as his son and as his daughter. I tell you this, man, my little girl, she walks in the house. We have plenty of seating for all the Martins, many different places. You know where she sits? She sits right there, not even like right.

half on me and half right there puts their hand on my head and just swirls it like this with great boldness my kids have no problem walking into my bedroom and waking me up at two o'clock in the morning for a glass of water who wakes up a king for a glass of the water i can tell you who can do that their son or daughter blessed are you who have given your heart to jesus because we will see him face to face which goes to the next one another link in the chain And blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers. For you'll be sons of God.

Now, not peacekeepers. There's a big difference between peacemaker and peacekeeper. A peacemaker is what we've been doing in our homes during this quarantine. Hey, kids, shut up. You go to your room, you go to your room. Oh, finally some peace. No, man. That's just some peacekeeping, okay?

But blessed are you when you make shalom happen, fullness or wholeness. Let me just ask you this, Christian. When you walk into the room, does peace walk in with you? Here's what he's talking about here. Every single one of us by nature and nurture are traitors. We've committed treason against the most high king. And yet God being rich in mercy.

I mean, what king steps off of his throne and lays down his life for his enemy? Our king does. And he reconciles us unto. himself. And blessed are you, blessed are you when you help other people reconcile themselves to the Father? Paul says it this way. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And it entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. You could call that peacemakers. That we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. Listen to me, Church of 1122. Every time you invite that one more, every time you share a message, every time you just call somebody and be like,

how can I pray for you, that on behalf of Christ, you are making an appeal that God is making his appeal through you. May we never stop sharing the gospel with the one mores that he's placed in our life. May we never stop trying to make peace between the enemies of God and God himself. This is what he has given us to do. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. Blessed are you when you really,

realized God loved you so much that he sent his son on a rescue mission for you. And blessed are you, the moment you get rescued, you realize that you are now on the rescue team. In Greek, the way you would call somebody godly is he would say that they are a son of God. And what did the son of God do? He did whatever it took. He went to the cross to reconcile us to God. And there's nothing on this earth that you could do that would be more like the son of God. than doing whatever it takes at great expense to yourself to help people know the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then finally, the eighth one, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It started with the kingdom of heaven, and it ends with the kingdom of heaven. And then he gets going. Verse 11 and following those, it's like commentary on that one, Blessed are you and others revile you and persecute you. and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. Why can you rejoice and be glad?

For your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted prophets who were before you. Again, if this thing starts with our understanding of our own sin and the regeneration of our heart and repenting and handing over the reins of our life to God, and then God beginning to sanctify us as we hunger and thirst for this relationship with Jesus, We continuously discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus, and we forgive because we have been forgiven. And God continuously sanctifies us so that we be more and more like him, so that we can look forward to that day when we see him face to face. And as we pour out our lives for the sake of the Great Commission, for the sake of the gospel, if we do this, you will be persecuted for righteousness.

Why? Because when we live in a world that's all about me, when we stand up for truth in a world that says there's no such thing as truth, self-rules, we will be persecuted. And we should not be surprised. Jesus himself said, look, they hated me. They're going to hate you to. Don't you understand this? I'll tell you If occasionally you don't get a bloody nose from this culture Then my question is, man What team are you playing for? If you don't feel a steady A steady pressure of this crooked and depraved generation

pushing against you, it could simply be that you're just going with the flow. And here's what he says. So when people at work make fun of you because you're a Christian or people at work make fun of you or look down their nose because you believe what God's word says versus what is popular in this world if you get persecuted

because of your walk with Jesus Jesus says rejoice and be glad rejoice and be glad that there should be this thing in you that rejoices that you would be counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Why? Because there is a reward for you in heaven reward is this, that you get Jesus. This is called glorification. You see, I think, again,

if you don't understand the gospel as Jesus lays it out in the beatitudes, then the rest of the sermon on the mount will not be like good news from a good dad that wants what's best for you. It will just feel like a crushing indictment on you because you can't pull it off. You see, Jesus did not come to make bad people better or sad people happy. he came to give life to the dead and he came to give salvation to sinners. And a part of the way that we know what a sermon is about is how it starts and how it is. So in 13 weeks we're going to come back to the ending, but I want you to flip over, I want you to flip over to chapter 7, beginning of verse 21.

This is how Jesus concludes the sermon on the mount. So as to make sure you don't miss the point of the gospel. Again, because the moment we get into pragmatism and practicality, and the gospel is practical, the gospel changes the way we marry, the gospel changes the way we do money, the gospel changes the way we treat one another, the gospel changes the way we look at people. It changes everything. But the sermon on the mount is this big gospel sandwich. He starts with the gospel and he's going to end with the gospel.

This is how we know the beatitudes are all about the gospel, not making sad people happy. but bringing dead people to life. Because in 721, Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. I don't know if you take the Bible very seriously, but check this out.

There's going to be surprised people in heaven. People in line. And they get to Jesus, and he's like, nope, not in. What? What do you mean on him? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. And what he just laid out is what it means to do the will of his father is to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus. And on that day, many will say to me, what they're going to do here now is they're going to give him a list of their activities. These people misunderstood the sermon on the Mount. They're going to say, here is a list of our activities. on that day

many will say Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name here's what they're saying we tried really hard God now listen if you look through the list you would think this people with with this kind of

work history you would think they'd be all in I mean, we've got any prophets in the house here? Or how about the cast out demons? You ever cast it out a demon? You would think if you're on the exorcism committee at the church, you're probably going to heaven, right? I've never cast out a demon. I've told you before. I sent a seventh grader home from camp one time.

That's the closest I've ever been to exercising the demon. And then I met his mom, and I realized it was one of those generational curses. It was passed down. Here's what they're doing, man. They're saying, We tried to do, in our culture, it would be this. Hey man, I went to church every weekend. I went to church every weekend.

And I sang, I didn't even get there late during the second song. I was there before the first song, and I would raise my hand, close one eye sometimes. And I would tie, well, I didn't tie, but I would give some money sometimes when I had some. I sponsored compassion kids, and I was in a disciple group, and I did all the stuff. and look at Christ's response to when we lay out all the stuff that we have done. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name

and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. You see, any time we try to put the performance before the verdict, anytime we begin, we begin to believe, if I obey, then I will be accepted. Anytime we think that our works of the law will declare us righteous,

then it is clear than what we have done because of our own self-righteousness is reject the grace of Jesus on the cross and say, nah, forget you, I got this. And Jesus says to us in that moment, if that's what you do on this, earth and that is what you will receive for all eternity. You reject Jesus now and you will forever reject him for all eternity. But for those who realize that their resume is not enough to save their soul. And we come as a poor beggar to him saying, who am I that you would take my place? That I believe that when you died on the cross, when you pronounced, it is finished. That somehow all of my sins and all of my habits and all of my mistakes and all of my problems and all of my

addictions and everything I'm ashamed of. Somehow when you said it is finished that that was taken care of, that was paid for. And somehow your perfect life and your perfect relationship with the Father was credited, credited or counted to me. That on the cross, you gladly bore my sin. You gladly bore my sin. You gladly bore my sin. Let me ask you this. Do you know him? That's what it comes down to right here. He said, hey, I never knew you. Do you know him?

Do you know him? Did you know you can know him right now? Blessed are you if in this moment right now, in your heart, you realize that you're spiritually bankrupt. And blessed are you right now, if in this moment you are ready to turn, hand the reins of your life, control of your life, over to him.

Blessed are you if you will repent and turn to him and say, it. I'm not a sad person that needs to try to be happy. I'm a dead person that needs life. I'm a sinner that needs a savior. And I believe that somehow when you died on the cross, that counted for me. And right now, I confess you as Lord. And the Bible says, you're safe. And the Bible says, in that moment, you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. So no matter where you are or who you are, or what you've done or who you've done it with, no matter what your struggle, no matter what your sin, if you think you mean that counted for me yeah for anyone who would believe if you're ready right now to put your faith in jesus christ

i want to give you that opportunity would you bow your head would you close your eyes and if that's you if god is speaking to you and you're spiritually poor and you know that you need a savior and in this moment you are ready to admit your sin believe when christ died on the cross that counted for you and confess him as your lord then just do it in your own words right now our good and gracious heavenly Father, God, we praise you and we thank you that Jesus came on a rescue mission for us. God, when we think about it, we can scarcely take it in. We can scarcely get our mind around it.

But you did not withhold your own son, and he went to the cross. He bore all of our sin. And God, we surrender. We surrender to you once and forever. and God we proclaim oh how great you are God I thank you and I praise you for the men and women

the students right now in this very moment that they are crossing from death to life we pray this in Jesus' name amen hey if you prayed that if you surrendered your life to Christ then right now would you just let us know would you let us know there's a button there that you can click

that says I raised my hand I surrendered my life to Christ and we want to follow up with you because we want you to be a part of this faith family. And we respond to the gospel every week. And one of the ways, again, that you can respond is if you put your faith in Jesus, would you please just let us know? Fill out that information so that we can help you take the next step in what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And for many of us who are believers in Jesus, especially if you're connected here at 1122, then the way we respond is we give. We bring our first and best, our ties and our hearts. our tithes and our offerings, that we take a part of the resources that God has blessed us with, and we bring them back to Him saying, God, we bring to you our first, our best, our tiths, our offerings, because you first loved us by giving us your best in Jesus Christ. We respond by praying and we respond by singing, by joining our voices together, in declaring the worthiness of our God.

And so, would you please stand with me as we close with how great that are? Thank you.