I want to begin by asking the question, have you decided in your life to choose to follow God? Have you decided already resolved in your life to choose to live a life that will be pleasing to God? And perhaps while you decide to choose to follow God, it seems temporarily at this time, sometimes following God and following Jesus and doing the right thing seem like it doesn't really pay. It doesn't give any profit when we decide to follow God. Moreover, sometimes when we decide to follow God, it seems like the opposite is true. Rather than being rewarded by God, it seems that when we decide to follow God, it ends up where we end up suffering more or pay a heavier cost to our own personal life and to our own personal gain. And yet, is it worth it to decide to follow Jesus Christ? And I would say, yes it is, because whenever we decide to follow Jesus Christ and to obey Him, there are blessings. Today, in our passage today, I see that there are four pronouncements of blessings, four pronouncements of blessings that we see in verses 20 to 23, that shows that when we decide to follow Jesus Christ obediently, there's four pronouncements of blessings that Jesus pronounced for those who are suffering. And that we want to see this so that we will be comforted by Jesus to continue to obediently follow Jesus Christ. Moreover, I also want to preach the text faithfully. Because besides just only the blessing, we also see just as real, just as true the words of comfort is also the woes of Jesus. The four woes we see that begins in verses 24 to 26. When you actually look at verses 20 to 23, and then you look at the second half, 24 to 26, you'll see that there are actually exact parallels. There are exact parallels. For instance, the very first blessing is, blessed are the poor, and really the poor in spirit, who trust in Jesus. That's what you see in verse 20, right? Where it says, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Notice the first woe is exactly mirroring the first blessing. If you look at verse 24 in the beginning, it says, But woe to you who are rich. Now it addresses the opposite, those who are rich, for you are receiving a comfort from the fool. And on and on it goes. When you look at all these four woes and four blessings, they're mirror of each other. So in preaching this today, we will look at this as four blessings. By the same time, there's four blessings when we suffer, when we decide to follow Jesus Christ. There's also four warnings. If these things are not true in your life, perhaps you need to search your heart to say, am I really truly following Jesus Christ in a way that is sacrificial, in a sacrificial love? We begin with the first point today is, We see the comfort of Jesus Christ that he says, blessed are the poor in spirit and trust in Jesus. Again, if I could read the second half of verse 20. It says, blessed are those who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Jesus says this message with intensity. We know he says this with intensity because the first half of verse 20 says that he turned and gave his gaze towards his disciples and then he began to speak. Now in this passage in Luke chapter 6 onwards, we'll see as he goes on and speaks all the way to chapter 6 of verses 49. Here is what we often call the Sermon of the Mount. Jesus Christ is preaching. Now remember the context here, remember we saw a few weeks ago in verses 17, there's all these people coming from all over, Judea, Jerusalem, even from areas that are non-Jewish, like Tyre and Cedar. They're coming all over, mainly to hear Him, but mainly to also be healed. And yet, in the midst of all this, though they felt they have all these felt needs, oh, I want to be healed of all my disease, Jesus Christ addressed their true needs, that is, their relationship with God, as we see in verses 20 onwards. Because He still is not compromising, He'll give the Word of God, despite what people feel, oh, these are my felt needs, He addressed their true needs, which is their righteousness, and righteousness before God also as well, and everything else. The spiritual condition is what they're concerned with. When He says here, blessed are you who are We must ask the question, what does he mean by poor? Now, the Greek word literally is one who crouches. We can see this imagery, one who crouches is what? Almost an imagery of one who's begging, right? Crouching down and saying, please, please give me begging for money. That's the imagery that is used here of the word when we see the word translated poor. That's the imagery that was originally the root word is meaning one who bows down, one who's desperate, one who lacks something and is so desperate that he's begging. That's the root of the idea of the word here for poor. Now notice, when He described those who are poor, have you guys noticed? Jesus Christ described it as you. That is, He's speaking to His disciples and saying, hey, don't think this is just for others. But this might be a real case with some believers, that because of their faithfulness to God, they might end up being impoverished and in actually need a physical need. Now, put your pickie or thumb and turn with me real quick to Matthew chapter 5 verse 3. Matthew chapter 5 Actually, Matthew chapter 7, by way of context, is also the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew's version, gives a little bit different description and words that perhaps Luke did not focus upon. Now, in Matthew chapter 5, just the same way as in Luke chapter 6 verse 20, in beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the very first thing Jesus Christ addressed is the blessing and woes of true disciples. And he's there to preach this to comfort them. Because he knows that his disciples, in the very beginning, he's already preaching saying, hey, life is going to be very difficult in following me. And notice his care also as well. Now, in Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, we see in further details, what does he mean by poor is this. Verse 3 says, blessed are the poor in spirit. So these are not just poor, just physical poor, though I think that's true. But he's saying this is more than that. Those who in their very soul, their very gut, their true inside are also impoverished. And he's saying blessed are those whose poor, not only physical condition, I think he includes that. The reason why I believe it includes real physical impoverishment is because if you look in verses 24, back to Luke chapter 6 verse 24. Notice it's talking about, in contrast to the poor, it's talking about those who are physically rich. For their, well to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. So I believe in verses 20 when it talks about you who are poor, the disciples will be poor. Yes, it's talking about physical wealth being lacking in those who are falling, who need to be comforted because they're falling down in such a way where it's being, end up being an economic cost to their lives. But more importantly, they're also impoverished in their spirit also as well. Now, why is this a blessing? Why is it a blessing to actually be really physically not financially well off, and also why is it a blessing even when you're spiritually poor? Now, we could preach this wrongly. We could preach this and say, oh, you know what, every one of us should be poor. But I don't think that's what the passage is trying to say. The goal in our life is to be spiritually poor or to be physically poor. Because if that's the case, if everyone in church is going to go pursue a life of being physically poor, then there will be no church. Because why? No one will be able to help those in true need. Because now everyone is trying to be dependent upon other. I don't think this is what the pastor is trying to say. What I think he's trying to say is this. that what makes it good is that when you realize you are poor, then you truly realize your need to trust in God. Yes, catch that? What is good about it, why it is a blessing is that when you realize your true impoverished state, even in your spirit, spiritually impoverished, then you will realize finally your real need of God. And from that realization of your real need in God, then God will bless you when you decide to trust in him. Note the comfort of blessing here as it goes on the reason why he is also is given in verses 20 of why is it blessed are you who are poor it goes on it says for quote for yours is the kingdom of God now notice how Jesus Christ comforts them. For those that really realize their need for God and their need to trust in God, the comfort that He provides is this. The reason why they are blessed is because what? Jesus is pointing to something spiritual. He's pointing to the Kingdom of God. Matter of fact, He's not only talking about the Kingdom of God, He's pointing to the Kingdom of God that is coming to the future. He's bringing the future hope. and saying, hey, these are your comfort when you realize your need for God and from that realization of need for God, you trust in God and there is a future hope also as well, the kingdom of God is yours and the word is there, is actually in the Greek and also in English, is present tense, right? It's saying even right now you are able to experience the kingdom of God and the goodness of God and the reign of God also as well in your life and I think you need to realize that When we realize our desperate situation, this is why in our church, whether our Bible studies or Saturday or whatever else or Sunday, we do preach heavily on sin. Some people might say, well why do we do that? The reason why we do that is not because we're killjoy, not because we're legalists. But the reason why we do this is to show people's need for God. And from realizing their need for God, then they go to God and truly trust in Him. Then they are truly blessed and find true peace and joy from realizing that their comfort and their relationship with God is worth so much more than the present situation. So that they would actually find true joy by realizing that they're impoverished and they need God and they turn and trust in God. Now, there's also a warning here also as well. Notice in verses 24, there's a warning that if the opposite is not true in your life, if you in your life don't realize that you're impoverished or you don't realize your need for God whatsoever, notice the dire warning. Now, this is pretty serious. I think in this passage, some of these parts might seem very hard to apply to our lives. For instance, the persecution, we realize there's not really much persecution in America in terms of what the rest of the world is experiencing right now or throughout history. But this is very dire, because we live in a world of first... You guys realize we have a lot of first world problems, right? People have problems with eating too much, right? With gluttony. That's a first world problem. Look in verses 24, But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. The warning of the fact that if you don't realize that you are impoverished, spiritually also as well, is that, A, your only comfort and everything good in your life is only good right now, and there is no goodness of anything in the future. It might help us to realize that I don't think this passage is preaching against those people that are rich. I don't think that's the main purpose of this text. I think what he's addressing, Jesus Christ is addressing, is those who are rich and trust in their riches rather than trust in God. Put your pinky or thumb here and turn with me real quick to the book of Proverbs chapter 11 verse 28. Of course, Proverbs is written before Jesus preached His passage. For the hearers that know their scriptures, I think when they hear the words of verse 24, where Jesus Christ was saying, Woe to you who are rich for receiving your comfort in full, perhaps some of them would have thought and had echoes of thinking of Proverbs chapter 11, verse 28. Proverbs 11, verse 28 says this, He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf." And faith is really basically trust. That's what faith is. It's more than just mere intellectual belief. It's trust. Full-hearted trust. Notice in verse 28, it says that those who trust in their riches, what will happen to them? They will fall, right? They will fall. And you see, I think what he's talking about here, Scripture warns oftentimes that it's not riches in and of itself that's wrong. Among Jesus' disciples, there were some that were rich, yes. There were some Christians that were rich in the early church also as well. And scripture is not a communistic message saying, everybody that's rich, you're wrong, you're sinful. But what it is, is warning that, hey, make sure you don't use abusive power that comes with that. Whether if you have slaves or co-workers, whatever, don't abuse them. And the other thing is don't trust in it as the way it becomes your functional God, that it becomes an idol in your life. Turn also with me to the New Testament, to 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 also as well. First Timothy is a few decades after Jesus Christ preached the message. The Apostle Paul is now on the scene and he writes this letter to a disciple of Jesus named Timothy. He writes to Timothy a letter. Timothy is a young pastor. And he's writing to them at the time of Ephesus to say, hey, when you minister at this church, it's going to be very difficult. It's going to be very difficult. Here are some biblical insights, word of God insight of how do you pastor. But most importantly, of course, being a pastor also, you have to be one who's a man of God. And of course, a lot of it address the person of Timothy more than the office, the function of what you do and the hours or whatever else, but mainly who he is. In the midst of this context, He talks about those who are rich and he says, hey, instruct those who are rich with these words. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 says this, instruct those who are rich in the present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. So, I think when we see that scripture talks about, hey, don't trust in riches like the way you trust in God, then you realize, I think when you read back to verse 24, he's addressing to those who trust in their riches and saying, hey, if you are one of those rich who trust in their riches, guess what happened? All your comfort right now have been only in the present, only, and that's it, right? Now, how does this apply to our life today? I think we need to realize One of the ways you could realize who's your God in your life, or the functional idol, or the functional God in your life, is to say, whatever thing you put as God, you have your joy from. You guys realize that? If you really truly love God and trust in Him, then just studying God, studying theology I would even say, reading Wayne Grudem also is where you actually worship God in the middle of the night. But if you read the Word of God and you have no comfort, perhaps you might have something else that you enjoy more that becomes the God of your life, right? Now, if money is riches, how do you know whether or not money is the God of your life or riches? Is this, do you find joy in actually riches itself? Or the attainment of more material goods? Or the attainment of more monetary goods also as well, right? And if you realize it, then you realize, hey, like what verse 24 says, your comfort, all the good things, all your good toys is only now, but nothing for the future, right? How do we apply this right now even also as well that if sometimes we follow Jesus Christ means that we might actually be impoverished. Think about this. If you're going to be working in the workforce as a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're in the business sector, sometimes being a follower of Jesus Christ means you cannot cut corners, right? It also means that in your life, Are you asking yourself the question, am I following God even in the area of work? Even if it means that I might make a little bit less money, but yet in the end you do not sin. Are you sinning in the area of your work? That is, are you cutting corners in order to make a little more money? Are you ending up sinning in the sense of stealing or lying? or lying to clients, or cheating, or whatever else other way, or gossiping against others so that you will be able to make others look bad so that you look good, so that you will have higher promotion. In other words, are you engaging in sin or are you faithful to God? And sometimes being faithful to God means, practically might mean also that you might not get the promotion that you want, you might not get the amount of sales or commission that you want, but you are faithful to God no matter what. If you're faithful to God, even if it means that it affects you financially also as well. One of the things I enjoy hearing Pastor Ling talking about, just one time I was just with him in the car, we were all visiting someone in the hospital, and I love just sitting in the car just talking to him, like, hey, what is the church like that you've been a pastor for 30 years? One of the stories that I really liked was a story that he mentioned about how he became the pastor of True Chinese Alliance Church. He was a young graduate, came down here in Southern California thinking, which church will I be at? And two churches, it looked like very possible churches of the same, that would look for him and say, hey, we really want you to be a candidate. And for him, he was praying to God, saying, Lord God, whatever church responds first, I'm going to follow this and say this is your will, God. One church was pretty, pretty big, pretty stabilized. And the other church was a small little Monterey Park Bible study, or so I've heard. And they decided, hey, you know what, like a few families together, they just want to start a church and they're looking for a pastor. One was financially well, the package. The other one was okay. Not that, you know, they were trying their best and everything else. And of course the first church that responded to him was actually True Chinese Alliance Church. Or later will become the True Chinese Alliance Church. And the other church responded a little bit later. But they had a greater, better financial package. And he decided, you know what? I pray to God saying, whatever your will is, we'll be the first one to respond. And he saw that and says, you know what? I'm going to follow whatever God says. Even though at that time there's not certainty of any church plan, there's not certainty. He decided to follow God even though at that moment he would say, hey, I don't know whether or not I'm going to be financially well off. I don't know if it means that I will be poor. But he decided to follow God and then I asked him, was it worth it? And of course, there's no doubt in his mind, yes, it was worth it. Because the will of God means also as well that it's better to be, listen, it's better to be in the will of God and also be slightly financially less well off than to be outside the will of God, to have all the material things in the world and realize every moment you have that guilt of thinking, man, all these things are in vain and could be taken away. Listen, we need to realize the goal we need to seek in our life is to be in the will of God. In terms of application question, should our goal be trying to be super rich or super poor? I would say neither. Our goal should be, rather than asking how much money we would make, the goal should be whether or not we make enough to trust in God and to obey God. Turn with me real quick to Proverbs chapter 30 verse 20 or verses 8 to 9. Proverbs 30 verses 8 to 9 is really realistic. He points out the problem of rich and also points out the problem of being poor. Very realistic picture. Again, we should not be surprised because the Word of God describes the human condition accurately. And that's why the Word of God is always relevant to no matter what culture it is because it speaks to the human condition. Human nature has not changed for the last whatever thousand years, right? Proverbs 30 verses 8-9 says this, Keep deception and lies from me. And notice it says, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion. That I may not be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? Or that I may not be in want and steal and profane the name of God. Here the author of Proverbs is saying, I don't want to be rich where I forget God and say, I don't need to depend on Him. But I also don't want to be so poor where I end up sinning, stealing, and also lack trust in God. Rather what he's saying is, make sure Lord God, whatever financial income I have, that I learn to trust in You. That I learn to trust in You. And I think the greatest way to make sure that you are living out a life of God, even in the area of faithful to God, will God bless you, is ask yourself the question, are you giving in a way that is sacrificial? Are you engaging in sacrificial giving to the Lord, right? And I don't mean just giving, but giving in a way that is sacrificial. And go before the Lord in prayer, whatever else it is, it's going to be up to each one of you guys before the Lord. It's between you and the Lord. I'm not going to say, oh, a certain percentage. I think that could be very immature. And just as the way my income is no secret, you know, just because the church vote on it and whatever else and the deacon board decide. I'm not saying this to brag or anything else, but Nancy and I, we decided in our life very early on, even in 70 years when finance was difficult, that we want to give to the Lord and we want to give joyfully and sacrificially. Last year, in terms of our giving, we gave up to 25% of our giving. We decided that, you know what, we would cut certain things in our life so that we could give sacrificially to God. And the reason why I say this is not so much a brag, it's to say that, you know, there's a joy in the Lord when you give sacrificially. There's a real joy in the Lord. I would actually say there's a blessing from God also as well. Now, it's not religiously, I'm not telling you guys, hey, every one of you guys ought to give 25% or 20%. I think that could be very immature when it's said, oh, a legalistic reason. And that number could fluctuate. The children could grow up a little bit more, and that number could fluctuate up and down, or whatever else it is, according to the will of God. But if I could say, just even living this last few years of just sacrificially giving to the Lord, There's a true joy. There's a true joy of saying, hey, you know, I will hold certain things so that I will be able to give for certain cause to the Lord, outside of our church and in our church. And there's a true joy because you realize, hey, I'm giving this because I'm doing this for Jesus. And I could say, the greatest way you can realize that you are in the blessing from God is that even if you're poor, rich, whatever else, is to say, give to the Lord and you'll see that the Lord bless you, mainly I would say, with your relationship with God, from trusting and obeying Him. Second point, blessed are those who also hunger for righteousness. I see that taught in verses 21 and in the first part of verse 25 also as well. Verse 21 says, blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. You who hunger now, the word here in Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, Matthew 5 verse 6 also illuminates a little bit more, just like what we saw earlier, Matthew 5 verse 3 illuminates this passage. If you could turn to Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, it illuminates this passage a little bit more, what it means by hunger. What is he talking about here? Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, slowly turn over there, Matthew 5 verse 6 says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what? for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. One added detail that Matthew added that Luke did not include is the word for righteousness. When we go back on to Luke 6 verse 21, we need to understand that yes, What he's talking about is those who hunger for righteousness and thirst for it. And what he's talking about is a desire that you want to seek God's righteousness, right? Now, I also don't want to allegorize and just talk all about righteousness because I think it's also very real what Jesus Christ is saying, that this is a real physical hunger also as well. The reason why I say this is because when you look contextually, verse 25, notice it talks about, woe to you who are well fed now. So he's really talking about physical hunger and physically filled stomach. But why is it then in Luke, in Matthew, it talks about a more spiritual aspect of hunger for righteousness? Is this a contradiction? I would say no. I would say this passage what it's talking about is this, that those who desire to seek God so much that some situation they might end up being in hunger also as well. Real physical hunger because of the fact they've decided to seek righteousness before God first. Their desire for God and righteousness is so great that it would even also mean that at a certain time in their life it might mean that they might be in an impoverished situation when they are in hunger. Well, they will not be well fed here. Now why is this a blessing? Notice it goes on in verse 21 to say the reason, for you shall be satisfied. and notice here it says you shall or some of your versions say you will or it's really future tense again notice again Jesus Christ does this pattern whatever present condition that's uncomfortable he said you are blessed and the reason why it's always pointing to the future the reason why you will be comforted and why it's a blessing is because in the future you will be satisfied the Greek word for there for satisfied I think it's actually kind of funny the word there is actually the idea of feeding an animal to to the reality where they become fat, right? Think about, you know, you're feeding a, I don't know, a pork, whatever else, you know, and you're making them fat, a fat beef, right? That's the imagery here. Now, the imagery here is a funny one. Now, I know today we look down as being fat as an aesthetically pleasing or an ugly thing. But you have to understand that in their culture, people are not usually overweight. Usually, in fact, if someone has a little bit more layer around them, it shows that they are rich because they are able to eat more, right? So, it shows that this is a blessing in that sense that they are able to enjoy the goodness of life with food. Now, in this passage here, he's saying, you know what? While you hunger in heaven, you will be truly satisfied. Think of an animal eating food and enjoying everything to the fact that they're gaining weight, is the imagery here. I know it's not a very pleasing imagery for us in our culture, but the imagery at the very least, I think it's translated correctly, is the imagery what it's trying to convey is one of satisfaction, right? A future satisfaction. And yet there's also a warning of the opposite in verse 25. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. In contrast to that, if you in your life have never followed God in such a way where you hunger for God's righteousness more than anything else, even greater desire for righteousness, even for the fact of physical suffering, of actual hunger, then guess what happened? All your life right now might be well fed, but in the future, you'll be hungry. You will be hungry here, right? Now, hunger is an amazing force. I would say hunger, if you have ever been hungry for like, I'm not talking about like for a day, but like for a few days, it's an incredible power in your life. Matter of fact, hunger is a great power that you could end up being quite irrational also as well. I think the In my life, the most hungriest time I've ever been was actually in the Marines. In Iraq and also in Marines boot camp. One of the times I remember in Marine boot camp, we're so hungry, I remember when people sent care packages, sometimes a drill instructor will smile as when they get a little sadistic, they'll throw it all away in a dumpster. But they know that most of us will be so hungry, when we throw out trash, people will want to, in the middle of the night, go over and steal food. So what they do is, they'll stand there with their uniform, and they'll get like a, what do you call it, a laundry detergent, and like vinegar, and they'll pour it all over so that we realize, A, you cannot eat the food. I remember one time a care package was sent where our drone shooter was nice enough, they allowed us to eat the food, but I saw this one guy, and everybody else saw in the front also saw this one guy, threw his package underneath the bed and the drone shooter didn't see it. So we all looked at him and smiled because guess what happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, people were going to go and ask him for food. So I remember I was on the first night on guard duty that night and I was thinking I need to find this guy because I'm so hungry too. So I go to his bed and he's not there. I think he's hiding in the restroom. I go over there and there's all these other guys and you know what? Skittles! You know Skittles? A small little package of Skittles. I never thought in my life I would ever hunger for Skittles so much, right? I mean it was like the rainbow, the end of the rainbow, right? I remember going opening the door and I smelled the smell of skittles, right? That's how hungry we were. And eventually I went over there because there's not enough skittles, there was actually a fight and the drone sort of came in and I was freaking out and everything else because the drone was sort of like pushing everyone away, right? That's the power of hunger. Hunger is so powerful that it makes people do irrational things. And here the Word of God is saying, you know what? If you hunger for the righteousness of God, it will be a greater hunger, even if it surpasses that, you will rather hunger for the righteousness of God rather than the physical hunger that you have in your stomach, right? Now you might say, how does this apply to my life? I would say, in your life, when was the last time you engaged in fasting? Now, scripture never says, thou shalt fast. If you actually look into scripture, it never says, thou shalt fast once a week, thou shalt fast whatever. It never says when. But it also shows the reality that, hey, there is a time of fasting. Because while Jesus Christ was with his disciples, the scripture says, the enemies of Jesus Christ came along and said, hey, how come your disciples don't fast? And Jesus says, hey, you know what? Now that the bridegroom is here, it's a wedding. It's now the time for fasting. But there will come a time where there will be fasting, right? When was the last time you decided to say, you know, I want to go before you God because you're pressing in my heart something that is righteous, something that is spiritual, something that I want to desire the will of God so much that I'll forgo food and I will go before you God and say, I'm going to choose a time period of prayer and also as well rejection of food for a limited time period according to your health and saying, hey God, I want to seek you so much that I want to experience hunger and say I hunger for you more than the hunger of food, right? So that's an application to ask yourself that. In terms of another application question, I think it's important to ask yourself also as well, is, do you hunger for righteousness? Do you actually in your life say, I want to seek the righteousness of God? Listen, most of us, we eat three squares meal a day, or some of us eat a little more, right? Or some of us eat a little less, right? But we make it a goal in our life, oh it's 12 o'clock, oh it's time to go eat, right? Because it's a healthy thing to do. But so many times in our life, when it comes to our relationship with God, it's almost like we hope God will work in our life by accident, right? We don't really go seek Him. We don't really actually, with full intention, say, I want to be satisfied with you, God. And we go around and say, you know what? God will feed me whenever He wants, whenever bad things will happen, when He brings it around, and caused by accident. Almost like your situation will dictate whether or not you seek God. May I say this, brothers and sisters? Our life and our walk with God ought to be so deep that we intentionally, we intentionally seek the righteousness of God, right? We intentionally seek the righteousness of God. I was actually thinking about this. I was preaching at another church yesterday and someone was mentioning, oh, there was a pastor in the old church in the past who preaches at this church. I was thinking, wow, that old pastor gets around preaching everywhere. And they were telling me about, wow, we've seen him in the last three years that guy who used to be your pastor has grown in even his passion in how he preaches and has also grown also as well visibly in also his holiness and I was just wow that's really good in two or three years people would say wow they could even see his holiness vibrating in him I was thinking to myself wow I want to grow like that I want to be in two or three years from now to be a different man of God that other people could say, not for bragging purposes, to say it's visibly true in my life, evident that my relationship with God is so real that I intentionally pursue Him and God has changed me and developed me and my relationship with God is much more deeper. And as I was thinking about that last night, I was thinking, That doesn't come about by accident. It can only come about if you say, Lord God, in prayer, make me and change me. And I woke up this morning thinking, wait, what did I just pray last night? Praying that prayer also is well, God will answer that prayer. I believe if you pray that, God will make your relationship deeper and you'll pursue more righteousness. but you also realize sometimes the way he does that is to bring about what often times the world call a curse bad things happening so that God will discipline you so that God will prune you so that God will give you trials so that you will grow to become the man and woman of God that God has called you to be it is difficult but yes be blessed be comforted be comforted that God will for those that are hungry will be filled will be filled with God now will be filled with the Spirit and will be filled evermore in eternity third point of how God comforts us is blessed are those who weep concerning the things of God look with me in verse 21 the second half it says blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh pretty sobering I would say I think of all those four points this to me was the one that really spoke to me as I was preparing Because as I was preparing this, I was asking myself, when was the last time I've actually cried? I know that's a weird question perhaps to ask guys. I think that would be a good question, right? Invite me with you guys for lunch and say, when was the last time you cried? But more than that, is ask the question, when was the last time you weep for the things of God? When was the last time you weep for the things of God? And if there isn't ever any weeping in your life of the things of God, verse 25 is very convicting. Verse 25, the second half, is a parallel of the blessing of those who weep in the things of God. The woe in the parallel of verse 25, second half, says this, Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. I believe that the Christian life, if you really walk in the will of God, if you really trust and obey, is not easy and it's difficult. And part of that difficulty might mean there's times in the Christian life, a time to laugh and also a time to weep also as well. The word here for weep is actually very specific. It's not just crying a little bit. It's actually a very grievous tears, right? Flowing tears where one is a response to tragedy. It's a response to tragedy and oftentimes in the rest of the scripture, it's a response to tragedy of sin, right? When was the last time in your life that you actually cried in your prayer to God, and say, hey Lord, I am so wrong in my sin, and here I am so sorry, and you actually were emotionally disturbed? You see, I'm afraid, I'm afraid that in our life it's so easy when we hear the grace of God. The grace of God is amazing, amen? The grace of God is amazing, amen? Okay, the grace of God is amazing, okay? The grace of God is so amazing, but so many times we could misapply the grace of God. We think, oh yeah, it is true. Jesus Christ will always forgive our sin, true or not, true or false. If we go before and trust in Jesus Christ, He will always forgive our sin. But sometimes people could misapply, I could also misapply in my life to think, Jesus Christ becomes nothing more than my sin manager. You know, it's like once a week I go before Him and say, uh, you know, what are my statistics of sin? Oh, it's going down a little bit. Okay, this week is okay. I sinned a little less, or I sinned a little more in this area, or I sinned a little less. It becomes almost like Jesus Christ is our sin manager, whereas Jesus Christ is really our Savior and our Lord. You know, we ought not to be what John MacArthur said, be entertained by the sin that Jesus Christ died for, right? Now, part of that is we realize sin for what it is, that it's a true offense towards God, We would actually be very grievous that a loving God who gives us so many good things, we ourselves would still offend this good God by actually breaking our relationship, by breaking the laws of God and disobeying Him. Put your pinky or thumb, turn with me real quick to Psalm 51 verse 4. Just so that I could catch my breath and drink something. Victor, when you are there in Psalm 51 verse 4, could you read that? Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak just as a judge. And you see in Psalm 51, by way of context, who is this writing this psalm? We know who it is because of that part that's in italics on above, verse 1, which is really part of the Bible, which is the Hebrew verse 1. It's a psalm of what? Psalm of David, right? Or David in Hebrew, right? What was the occasion when Nathan the prophet came to him after he's gone in to Beersheba? Pretty big sin, right? When David was unfaithful and committed adultery. He eventually even murdered But Shiva's original husband, the Hittite writer, pretty grievous sin. And he writes this psalm, Psalm 51, crying out to God, verse 1, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. I would say, if we were to do the scripture reading, if we do this again in Psalm 51, many years from now, we ought to read this with a contrite heart, right? Because here is this guy crying out to God, as we see in verses 4, saying, hey, I have sinned against you. I have grieved and I've gone against you. And we see in 1 Samuel, or 2 Samuel chapter 11, afterward, he's grieving. He's grieving, realizing the consequence of his sin will cost his own son's life also as well through G-d, Sheba also as well, right? When was the last time in our life that we've gone before G-d in grief of sin? I'm not saying every time we have to cry. I'm not saying every time we have to cry. But if your life you've never realized sin is so wrong against G-d that you break down in tears. And don't fake it. Our emotions follow our true thoughts. Our thoughts, we arrange things what are our values. If we really value God first, you'll realize we've sinned against Him. And out of that grief of that sin, then flows the emotion of saying, how terrible it is that what I've done against you, right? So, true love also, I would say, include pain at times, right? True love, I would say, include pain. When was also the last time that you weep or grieve bitterly for the things of God, right? When was the last time you grieve, not only for your own sin, but even for those that are lost? When was the last time you went around and saw that there were people, your friends or family or strangers, that you look around and say, hey, you know what? These people are lost and you grieve for their soul, right? I make it a point of buying candies from time to time to when I teach good time learning these little kids on Friday So I go to 99 cent store to pick up candies The reason why I go there is not because it's only cheap because I love going around 99 cent stores sometimes just to sit there before you know idling for 10 minutes just looking at people walking in and out, right? Just watching people. And that's how it is, I guess, for me to cultivate the desire and the love for people. Where you're looking and thinking, you see a mom there, perhaps a single mom with a bunch of kids, or you see all these people, an older gentleman trying to shop, you know, probably just trying to make it by, just financially with his budget. And as you're looking, your heart breaks for people, thinking of people's eternity, right? Cultivate that. Pursue a passion for loving people. Cultivate that by observing people, just looking, not just looking at how they're bad, but to look at them and say, these are people in their day-to-day life, in their day-to-day struggle, and they don't know Jesus, and they don't even know the worst news of all, as difficult as their life is, there's a bad news of heaven and hell also as well. A heaven that they're not going to and a hell that they are going to. And that should break your heart, that should tear you up before you know it. When my dry spell of not wanting to evangelize, spending those times in 7-Eleven or just walking around somewhere, just looking at people who now suddenly make me rejuvenate and say, you know what? I have now this compassion for people. I now am weeping for people, for people who are lost, for family members, for my mom and family members, extended relatives who does not know Jesus. Man, I want to see them get saved. Then your desire will fill out and you're weeping and you want to evangelize because you care for the things of God. Right? Fourth point. Blessed are those who... Fourth point we see is in verses 22 and 23. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of Jesus. 22 and 23 gives us another word of comfort, another word of blessings. Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Verse 23. Be glad in that day and leave for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. This passage here revealed that the persecution that occur is described with various words here, right? For instance, hate you, ostracize you, insult you, scorn your name as evil. All these things occur for those who follow Jesus Christ. And it's really for the sake of the Son of Man, right? If you are truly following God, There will be those that yes will listen to you, those that admire you, perhaps those that respect you. But do not be surprised when there are some that perhaps of your faith they look down upon you and actually they don't like you also as well as it says, for the sake of the son of man. And yet this passage says if this is true in your life, it says blessed are you, right? Why is that? And the reason why oneness could truly be counted as blessed is because of verses 23. And again, the reason why Jesus said blessed are those who suffer persecution for the name of Jesus Christ is because He's pointing to the future and saying you will receive a future blessing. Dwell upon it and you will be blessed and have peace with God. Verse 23, great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets." Verse 23, he's saying here, your reward in heaven is great whenever you suffer the persecution that comes from following Jesus Christ. The word there, great, there could be two kinds of great. A qualitative great, like, oh, whoa, that guy's a really great actor. Or there's a great in terms of numbers, like, whoa, that's a great massive amount of number. The word here for great is actually more of the quantitative aspect. That there is a multiple amount of reward. Now we don't know what that looks like in heaven. I don't know what that looks like. It might be some physical material blessing. But even then our greatest blessing of all, greatest reward is our relationship with Jesus Christ. But the scripture makes it very clear. There will be a multitude, a great quantity of blessing for those as a result of them deciding to trust and obeying God. are scorned, are persecuted, and they will be blessed. And Jesus Christ realize, realize that when you and I live our life, there will be some sense of people giving us a hard time for our faith. I think today, we might not necessarily have someone pulling a gun in our head and say, do you believe in Jesus Christ in North American churches today? That's not really our context. Although that's true in different parts of the world. I think practically how we often times, I think the most part that's true is the fact that they say, insult you, right? That's probably the most we will get. They don't really cut us off. It's really to insult you in verses 22. In light of that, that insulting could be anything. I think oftentimes, how it often happens in our life is when values clash, right? When values clash. When you're living your life We'll hear friends or co-workers or family members, they don't believe in God or they don't believe in the Bible. They have a different value system. And suddenly there's a clash or conflict where you do things a certain way, obediently to God. And as a result of obedience to God, they will say, hey, that is so weird what you believe in. Or sometimes it might be even the discussion among co-workers or whatever else, or friends or schoolmates or whatever else. And it becomes realizing, well, there's a different value system. Where one says, oh, you know what, homosexuality is okay. And then they realize, hey, you don't believe it's okay? Wow, you're so narrow-minded. Welcome to the 21st century or whatever else, right? Now, I think that's usually where the clash happens. And also sometimes it also means personal mores also as well. For instance, as Christians, we believe that people should not be living together that are in love until what? Until They're married, right? Until they're in marriage. But today's world is popular. I mean, even quote-unquote, people that are goody-two-shoes in the world today, that, you know, people would say, like, are crazy criminals. In this world, it's accepted for men and women to live together. Boyfriend and girlfriend to live together. And they say that's normal, right? They say that's normal. But in the laws of God, living together will very likely result in sexual sin. That's why we avoid that, right? But in this world today, there are people who think you're really weird when you think, oh, this is the case. Or the other thing is this, we decide to follow God, and part of following God is we decide to also be sexually pure. And in this world today, the world makes fun of virginity, yes? I mean, there's movies making fun of people that keep their purity, right? Movies like 40-Year Virgin, not that I've watched it, right? Making fun of the fact of just faithfulness to God, right? And then when you say things, oh, you know, I'm a virgin because I want to be pure before God because of my faith. They say, no, it's not because of your faith, it's because of your face, right? Or whatever else. They might make fun of you for that, but guess what happened? It's all okay because we need to serve God first, right? We need to not compromise. And I think the area we need to also realize is the persecution could be very subtle. I want to address this because in America it's much more subtle. It might be also with the influence of our friends to say, you know what? The standard of what is righteous, the standard of the mate that you want, guy or girl, hey, you know what? Your standard is too high. Like you're like a, you know, like a a priest or something or a nun the way you're going, you know, a Catholic priest or nun where you're not getting married. And they say, you know what, it's okay, what about this, what about that, whatever. And sometimes they meant in a well way. But you know what, sometimes the subtle things is the worst. When someone says, hey, compromise right now or else, we would say, our guard is up. But watch out also for the subtleties of things where people make fun of our faith in a subtle way of moving us from faithfulness and trusting God and say, you know what, I will be faithful and I will trust and obey because there's a blessing that it follows that no matter what happens, I know that the Lord will give me His reward to me, no matter what happens, right? But catch the opposite also as well, 26. Woe to you when all men speak what I love you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. The other previous part, you know, your name gets slandered, your characters attack, they attack you, ostracize you, insult you. But if your life, every time you evangelize and everybody always, you come back and say, you know what, man, I'm like a super evangelist, Jimmy. You talk about people rejecting you, everybody says they love me. Now, I also think we need to balance this. If everybody, when you evangelize, no one ever says to you, oh, you know what, you really spoke to my heart and my condition. And everybody that you ever spoke to, they say, man, you're a jerk. May I submit to you? Maybe you are, right? If 100% of all people you talk to, they say they don't like what you have to say and they really hate you, it might be because you're a jerk and not because you're the son of man. But at the same time, also as well, realize that if you really speak the truth, there will be people, yes, that will reject you. But if everybody speaks well of you every single time, notice verse 26, the opposite is, we also be cautious that perhaps we like to please man more than God, right? pleasing man more than God. Don't forget here in this passage we need to follow God no matter what as we come into a close in revealing God here through Jesus Christ. His main point I love how this early on, he begins this sermon on the mount, where really the very first thing, he didn't even begin with the evangelistic thing of say, repent, sin, everything else, be baptized, of course he said that earlier a little bit, but in beginning the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes, the very first thing he does is address the believers, because he knows Even three years down the road, these guys are going to go through so much persecution. Even more persecution even after his death. And his love for us is so great that his first beginning message, even before witnessing to non-believers, he addresses us, the believers, to say, you know what? Following me is difficult. Don't compromise in the standard. But when it gets difficult, come before Jesus Christ for the comfort. Be comforted about the end times. that you will get your reward. That is one of the reasons why we have gone over on Thursday night and we have recorded and you guys can go back the details for 20 something weeks about the details of the end time so that the more we think about, the more we study it, the more we would say, you know what, what happens presently right now, it's okay whatever suffering if I'm obedient because there's a greater reward that is to come. Find comfort ultimately in Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 will be our last passage. Ultimately, in all things, when you are living out the difficult Christian life, the blessing comes from who you know. The blessing really comes from our relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the most beautiful words in the scripture is found in Matthew chapter 11. Now, by way of context, verse 21 to 24, Jesus preached a very hard message. He's pronouncing woe and punishment upon sin, upon cities. He's predicting the destruction of cities. That's, by the way, also predicted in the Old Testament. The destruction of whole population will be wiped out for their sin. That's a pretty hard message. But after this message, there's the comfort of Jesus Christ of those that would come to Him, that would trust in Him. Matthew 11, 28 says, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Go to Jesus Christ and find His rest. Take up His yoke, as verse 29 says, and learn from Me, for I am gentle in heart. See, obedience of God is not a contradiction from the comfort of God. Find the comfort of God, find your hope, find the blessing in God from His Word, find the promises of God's Word, and say, I want to be a promise-driven people, and then pick up this yoke, pick up this commandment, trust in God, and then obey, and find the blessing in walking with God and following Him even in the hard things.