Welcome everyone and good morning.  Pastor Chris is away at a wedding this week so it is my pleasure to bring the second message in this new series of messages on the topic of the Sermon on the Mount!  Chris’s message last week really brought to life the fact that this sermon by Jesus was truly the best sermon that ever was or ever will be delivered.  So, on that note, I will see you all later.  Just kidding!!  I am excited, so let’s dive in. Would you pray with me?  “God please make your word real to us this morning.  Help us to understand the first part of this amazing call found in the Sermon on the Mount to living a life truly devoted to you. Show us how we can shine your glory to the world through living lives that reflect your word in which we are studying today.  In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

            Let’s begin by reading together the passage that we are studying today.  Matthew Chapter 5:1-12.   As we read together you probably noticed that we said the word blessed nine times.  Before we go any further I want us to examine what the word blessed means in this context. It is important in connecting the dots as to teaching us how to live a life connected to God and reflecting his character.  The word blessed comes from the Greek word ìáêάñéïò (makarios).  Makarios means to be blessed, happy, or well off.  Now we need to understand that this type of happiness is more than the happiness that we so often associate with in or daily lives.  When we think of happiness we usually think of the emotion of happiness which is usually based on our earthly circumstances.  But the catch about being blessed (makarios) is that our happiness or our blessedness is not based on our circumstances.  It is the distinctive joy found in our spiritual well-being in which Jesus is the author and perfecter. 

            So what does that have to do with this passage?  I am glad you asked.  Because Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith (which we find in Hebrews 12:2) he knows how we can attain spiritual blessedness.  We find spiritual blessedness in being a disciple of Jesus.  When we take seriously the call of being a disciple it is then that we give up our control and trust in someone more than ourselves.  So many times we try to be both the teacher and the disciple.  We get in the way of  truly learning how to live a life of makarios. 

            Jesus taught us what a disciple truly is right here in these 12 verses.  A disciple is one who is poor in spirit not leaning on our own understanding but trusting in God that he will grow us through His Spirit.  Being poor in spirit does not mean being financially poor on earth.  What it means is that we realize that we can’t do this life relying on our own wisdom, but that we need God for salvation and to show us that this is way more than this blink of an eye life we live.  When we rely on God and not our own self sufficiency we will experience spiritual makarios which is way better than any earthly blessing because we inherit the kingdom of God.  We can’t earn the kingdom of God, it is a free gift given by God through Jesus (by grace through faith).

            A disciple is one is blessed when they mourn.  This one may be hard to understand but I understand it 100%.  When we mourn it is usually the passing of a loved one.  When my six year old brother was hit and killed you better believe I was mourning his loss. In fact the Greek word for mourn actually means to wail and that is a way better description of what I was experiencing.  Blessed are those who mourn…  It was hard but I knew in my heart and so did my parents that God was still in control.  Even though we couldn’t understand why Jaden was taken from us, we still had assurance that God knew exactly why and we were blessed by that.  Now the second part of this verse I know from this experience just proves that God’s word never fails. “For they will be comforted.”  I cannot explain to you the outpouring of God’s people when this happened.  We were taken care of from morning until night and even while we were sleeping.  God provided so many people to come and care for us that it was unbelievable.  We were truly comforted.  When you can trust God enough to let Him work in your times of trouble you will be blessed.

            A disciple is one who is meek before God.  Meekness is not weakness.  Meekness is humility in waiting.  When I looked up the word meek on dictionary.com there was one definition that really stuck out to me and that was overly submissive or compliant.  Think about that.  When Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross do you think he earned our meekness?  Do you think he earned our patience in waiting humbly for Him to work in our lives?  Being a disciple is a life long process.  When we are humble before God he can work on us and use us for His renown.  James 4:10 teaches us that when we are humble before God, He will lift us up.  The same blessing comes here.  “They will inherit the earth.”  Think about that for a minute…Have you have ever inherited something from your parents or grandparents?  Was it the earth?  When I think of someone who is meek, I think of someone who has been praying for a person for years to come to know Jesus.  I know a few people who prayed for a man to accept Jesus for over 20 years.  They waited humbly and patiently before God trusting that he was in control.  Then one day two years ago this man went forward at a gospel presentation and accepted Jesus.  Wow.  You should have seen these people surround him weeping with tears of joy and assurance that “Yep!” God is indeed in control!  For them, all their waiting and praying gave them an assurance of God’s inheritance for this man in heaven and they gained this amazing answer to prayer which is worth more than the whole earth!

            A disciple is one who has an unquenchable hunger and thirst for righteousness.  This is a desire to seek God day and night believing that he will reveal Himself more and more.  A person who hungers for something is one who is passionately committed to following through on fulfilling that hunger.  Sometimes, for instance, I hunger for Southwest Bacon Cheeseburger from Chili’s and I thirst for their Blackberry Lemonade.  This craving can get pretty strong.  I would do just about anything when I have this hunger and thirst to fulfill it.  You see, that is what God wants for us.  Not that we would hunger and thirst for a Chili’s meal but that we would hunger and thirst for Him and for His righteousness.  That we would passionately seek Him out and go deeper in His word and in prayer and not be inch deep followers that are a mile wide but be inch wide followers who are 1000 miles deep reaching down into the core of God seeking to show the world who He is so that others can hunger and thirst for Him as well.  Now here is the promise:  “they will be filled.”  When we are filled by God there is no other thing that we need.  When we hunger and thirst for Him, He will fill us.  If you want that in your life, what is holding you back? 

            A disciple is one who shows mercy because of what Jesus has done on the cross for him.  Jesus has already been merciful to us so we need to show that same mercy to others who, some may say, don’t deserve mercy.  Is there someone in your life that you need to show mercy to?  Someone you need to forgive? Maybe you need to show mercy to yourself…God has already shown you mercy so what is holding you back?

            A disciple is one who is pure in heart.  The heart is the very center of a human being.  It is the mind, will, and emotions.  When you can keep your mind pure, your will pure, and your emotions pure you will see God!  There are two components of the mind, will, and emotions that are the toughest to keep pure and that would be the mind and the will.  If we can let go of our mind and will and surrender them to God with humility then God can turn around and reveal even more of Himself to us because we have nothing standing in the way that would hinder God.  So many times sin sneaks in and corrupts our mind, will, and emotions a lot of the time even in just a small idea.  Is your mind dedicated to God and his righteousness?  Is your will seeking after God’s will?  Are your emotions based on God’s view of who you are or do you let sin creep in and convince you that you aren’t good enough? (Just read Psalm 139)  Having a pure heart for God is probably the hardest thing to do today just because of all of the crap that the world throws at us.  But if we can rid our lives of sin daily and resist it in the future then God can reveal Himself to us!  And God has given us power over sin through Jesus who overcame it on the cross!!  Let us seek to have pure hearts so that we can know God more deeply.

            A disciple is one who is a peacemaker.  Let me ask you a question.  This question may make you angry or you may breathe a sigh of relief, nonetheless here it is:  Are you a peacemaker or do you like to create situations where you feel superior based on hearsay?  Gossip falls right into this category of being a peacemaker.  Peacemakers don’t gossip.  They seek to create peace in every situation.  Is there a situation in your life where you need to make peace with someone?  Maybe it is a financial situation, maybe it is a situation where you need to ask forgiveness from someone for something you said or did.  The blessed part of being a peacemaker is that you will be called a son of God.  Do you want to be called a son of God?  I know I do.  Disciples seek peace and unity not distortion and division.  I was apart of a group once that favored division more than the peace and let me tell you, God was not in it.  My life felt very empty and I was not pure at heart, I was not showing mercy, I was not being meek, I was not being poor in Spirit but rather the opposite of all of those things.  I wasn’t living in the blessing of God and I was a believer and called myself a follower of Jesus.  If God would have spoken to me, I don’t think he would have called me His son because I was certainly not reflecting his character.  I then repented of that situation and distanced myself from that group and I then began to see God work powerfully.  All that time, I was in the way holding God back from what He wanted to do in my life.  I determined from that point on, I wanted to be a peacemaker not a war starter because I wanted to live in the spiritual blessing and joy of God.

            A disciple is one who will undergo some type of persecution because of their righteousness.  Now for us in America, this passage has a much different meaning than for a believer worshipping in a house church in Iran where the leader has converts arrested and in some instances killed.  For us, it might be a person at work who is an atheist and tells us that our God isn’t real and may swear at you when you leave.  But for a worshipper in a house church in Iran it might mean death at the next sound of the doorbell.  The point is that we believe in a God who sent his Son to die for our sins.  Something we can’t earn but rather it is a free gift given to us.  Some people don’t believe that Jesus is who he says He is and this leads to people speaking against us.  Here is the thing.  No matter where you are there will be people who need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ!  Paul was the chief persecutor until he had an experience with Jesus.  Jesus radically changed his life and Paul became the author of most of the New Testament under the Holy Spirit’s influence.  When you undergo persecution hold on firm to the truth that our God is who He says He is and yours will be the kingdom of heaven.

            “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”  We are blessed when we do what Jesus tells us to do.  We are blessed when we seek to become a disciple like we have talked about today.  The world will recognize a difference and they might not like it.  They might call you a holy roller.  But who cares, the fact is that you are standing up for Jesus and for the salvation that He offers us!  People may slander you because of your faith behind your back.  Jesus says you are blessed!  Students you are blessed when you take a stand against the idea of evolution and stand for creationism.  Even though your friends might say evil things about you, it doesn’t matter because your reward is in heaven not here on earth.  Stand with Jesus not for the world.  When you do this your reward will be great and you can rejoice and be glad in that! 

            There are a lot of meat and potatoes in this message today.  And maybe for some of you there might have been a rotten tomato— that is something in your life that you need to get right with God.  But the one thing that the Beatitudes teach us is definitely how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Jesus knew that, that is why He told us.  He knew we can’t live a life of godliness apart from God which is why He gave His life for us and then rose again to overcome sin and death!  He loves each of us so much and wants us to experience living makarios—living blessed and fulfilled lives devoted to Him.

            That leads us to this weeks challenge.  This week’s challenge is more like a spiritual physical.  How are you doing?  Are there any areas that we talked about today that need some work?  Are you living a life as a true disciple to Jesus Christ or trying to live a life as a disciple to yourself?  Let’s pray….Amen.