This morning, we are starting a new series. And that series, well, we read Matthew chapter 5. In other words, the Beatitudes, those special sayings, statements that the Lord Jesus made at the beginning of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Attitudes. Happy means happiness, that's blessedness, real happiness of soul that will attend people in the categories that are here listed. So when he pronounces happy are they, well Indeed, the poor in spirit, or those who mourn, the meek, the hungering after righteousness that is declared by him to be a good state to be in, that there is a happiness that attends it. And we should give that word its full weight. It's not as though we kind of say, oh, happy, you know, happy, and you're actually feeling very miserable and very sad. there's a blessing, that's what it is, a blessing of the people who are in this particular state and these various conditions that are listed here. Now you'll find a similar teaching given perhaps on a different occasion, similar, but then also with some differences in Luke chapter 6, blessings that are there pronounced upon people and in similar categories to what we have here. But this is on this one occasion, this one sermon that was preached on this unknown mountain or mountainside. We call it, as I say, the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm sure you're aware of that. And we find some of the content of the Sermon on the Mount appears in other gospels and in other places. So it's not as if, having said all that he said at the Sermon on the Mount, that that was it. Don't have to repeat any of that again, but no. Different parts of it are repeated for different audiences and different places, slightly different applications on occasion. But that's the glory of being in the presence and company of the master teacher, isn't it? That he can adapt, he can adjust, he can use and reuse, recycle material already used, but repurpose it as needed. And that is because of his infinite, infinite wisdom. Well, these words are often heard, and perhaps some of us there of that generation, when they're often read at school assemblies, and teachers, I can think of the headmaster at the school, I was at, would gamely read through it. I don't know whether he understood it or whether he actually believed it, but such were the days when the Bible was not something to be ashamed of, an embarrassed bout, but was proclaimed at least to that extent in school assemblies. You didn't hear any other book, no other religious creed Any other thought of that, just the Bible, and this would often be read. Atheists, respect this. They admit, this is good. These ethics are very, very good ethics. Well, they might want to get rid of all the supernaturalism that surrounded the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we'll think in a moment to go and we'll think of it again. You can't do that. It's all of a piece, actually. Everything, everything he did, everything he said, All the amazing things that accompanied him are all part of who he is, highlighting him and emphasizing what he's doing, what he's come to do, and what he is teaching. So while atheists like the Sermon on the Mount, most of them, many of them do. I guess we did a poll of them there. Well, so again, I promise you what the results will be exactly, but I'm sure many, if not most of them. So yes, we'd all be better people for following this, following the Beatitudes and what they say. We'd be better people for that. Well, we might be in some senses, but we'd be even better people if we knew the person who is doing the teaching on this mountain and believed in him. But we have to say surely yes, What is being described here is the best way of living, is the highest ethic. Nobody's improved on this. Nobody has found some fresh, innovative way of saying something as good as this. This just stands out as being superlative ethics. Why, yes, if we were like this, this is a life worth living. This is a worthy life. This is full of weight. and relevance and importance. And so he taught it. And these are vital statements, profound statements. They're challenging statements. And were we to look at the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount, that's for another series, another day to pursue that. We're just, over the next months, I guess it will be months, we'll be looking at the Beatitudes and just confining our attention to those. But there's a lot that's challenging and a lot that overturns expectations. and a lot of it goes completely against the grain of what the world then, the world still, would do. Because the world is always a kind of manifestation of the sinful nature of men and women. It always carries, sometimes to a lesser extent, sometimes sadly to a greater extent, what is in the human heart, that they kind of combine production of a nation's worth of sinful hearts, generates a kind of cultural atmosphere in which you're implanted. Some of them, not explicitly, but they're there, they're in the ether, implants, what you're to do and not do, what's okay, what's not okay. And people read the signals, you pick up what's in, what's out, and how to best fit in here. what we have in the Sermon on the Mount goes against the grain of so many cultures and the world in general. And though atheists would say, well, we like this, but we would say, yes, but then you're busy destroying every opportunity for us to get near to this. You're holding this up, but then it's as if you're just kicking away the legs of the chair in which it will all stand because of your denial of the Lord Jesus Christ. So these statements actually are not meant to be comfortable. They're not meant to make us think, oh, that's nice. Are we doing okay here, you know? They're actually to challenge us, shock us, surprise us. And if you see that at the end of it all, and of course in that, you have to include all the rest of what the Lord's going to say after the Beatitudes, the reaction of the multitudes who were there and who heard these words, as in Matthew 7, verses 28 to 29. so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority not as the scribes. They were astonished, this is not every day, this was not what they'd heard from their own teachers, no far from it, and in fact of course what he's saying were we to read through the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount they'd find He's conflicting at very many points with exactly what the scribes and the Pharisees both taught and did. Astonishment was the result. So the Beatitudes, we're just looking at verses one to two this morning, but, and I put as a subtitle, Raising Our Sights, Raising Our Sights. First heading, well, who is speaking? Who is speaking? Who is the one who sees the multitudes, goes into a prominent place up on a mountain so that he can be seen and heard and sits with his disciples and then opens his mouth? Who is this person? Well, fact that he is seated shows he's a teacher, that was the custom. If you were going to teach, if you were assuming the mantle of a teacher, then you would be seated. You would from that position then dispense your wisdom, your understanding of the law of God. So he is certainly a teacher, And as with everywhere that he went, gracious words followed. That's what they said of him in Nazareth. Gracious words that proceeded from his mouth. Well, these are indeed very gracious words that we have here. Because our Lord, that we know that he is to go to the cross, There is something very, very important that is to be done ahead of this ministry. But he's here also to open his mouth and teach people and say things. He's come to preach. On one occasion when everybody was looking for him, everybody's searching for you. And he said, well, we must move on because that's why I was sent. We must preach in other places. So here he is on this occasion preaching to the people who were there. Of course, so often he has to be found teaching the people, whether it's in parables. Very often, isn't it, in parables. There are in the Sermon on the Mount some smaller parables. Of course, ones like the man who built his house on the rock and one who built on the sand, that's how it finishes. But more straightforward in the sense, teaching here. Other places, he taught them only in parables. Challenging. stories, which to some they look on this as an insult to their intelligence, provoking, requiring a response, knocking at the door of the conscience by using there a story to draw you in and ask yourself, where do I fit in, in this story? Am I comfortable with this story? What's this story saying here? And there were those who would then, I've heard enough, I'm going. or others who hadn't heard enough yet and wanted to hear more and make further inquiry. That was it, it was like a sifting process. So many times he would teach in parables, sort of veiled sayings designed to challenge, either to confirm people in their hardness of heart or be that very word of life to those who would believe. In other places, it's more interactive teaching. So if you follow through in John's gospel, for instance, how much of what we learn from our Lord's lips is as a result of interaction. Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the Pharisees coming and arguing with him, criticizing him, and our Lord's answers, all pearls of wisdom. How many of our crucial texts actually arise out of an interaction, and one with a critical audience at that. But here, this is more by way of a monologue. He's just teaching. We don't hear people arguing with him and say, well, what about this? Or what about that? He's just teaching. And we imagine that there is stillness, silence, a hearing that he gets on this occasion. Because whether neighbors look to each other and say, that was interesting. But did you hear what he said about the Pharisees there? I hadn't heard that before. There might have been a fair bit of that happening. But he didn't have people standing up and asking some question or testing him, as is often the case elsewhere. He's just speaking, making statements. And you find that elsewhere in other Gospels, too. We mentioned John, and how very often it's an interactive sort of situation he's in. But then if you were to read, say, John 13 to John 16, mostly a monologue. A little bit of interaction from the disciples, often an interaction that shows haven't really heard what he was saying, but mostly it's the Lord speaking. So there are different situations, but he is ever opening his mouth and teaching people, whether his immediate entourage of disciples, and they are there, they come to him. But he's not just speaking to them, he's got the multitudes in view also. He's speaking for the benefit of his disciples, but also speaking over their heads to everybody else. So that's who is speaking. It's a great teacher. Why we go further, don't we, and say it's the son of God. It's the son of God. No wonder this teaching is unparalleled. No wonder the ethics that it holds to us there, the kind of good life that it extols has never, never been better expressed, never been better put, never has anybody spoken like this man. No wonder. He is the son of God. And that means he can speak with authority. That's what struck the people. He speaks with authority, like the scribes and the Pharisees, that he shows such insight. He demonstrates that he knows what he is speaking about and that that comes from within him, that he hasn't had to sit and ask Nicodemus for an opinion or a thought to sort of mold his thinking, having heard that, and ask another of the rabbinical schools, what do you think? And then sort of bring that into his teaching. He's never had to do any of that, because it arises from within himself. And the way in which he conveys it shows he has perfect understanding of the will of God. Because when he interprets what is there in the commandments, when he interprets how people are speaking about the commandments, what they're saying, and then says what he has to say. It's just such perfect understanding. Nobody's ever understood the law of God, what it is, how to apply it, what it means, what it doesn't mean, like him. They haven't heard the like of this before. There is depth, depth of insight, both into the commandments and into the human heart, that he is many occasions, basically saying, I know what you're thinking. I know what's in your heart. I know what you're saying. I know, I know what the Pharisees do. I know exactly what they do. And that depth of insight is there. Why in every verse we can say. breadth of knowledge, it could range across the whole scope of scripture, draw upon something there, or draw upon something there, and do it so exactly, demonstrate such a competence, managing it, handling it, understanding it, and then applying it, that it was truly, truly breathtaking. They were astonished. They'd heard rabbis and scribes and elders. They weren't ignorant people, these are tall. And he wasn't speaking, well, you've heard it said. I said, well, I've never heard that said. No, they knew exactly what had been said. He chimed in with their own experience. And they knew the Pharisees too. When he does his portraits of them in, say, chapter six, oh yes, I've seen them do that. He knew. His breadth of knowledge, his depth of insight. and they'll do it in a way that we just can't quite capture. How did he say these things? We read these words and public reading of scripture, you try to convey something, but you're always knowing what did it actually sound like when he first said it? Well, okay, it would have been in Aramaic, it wouldn't have been in English, we get that right, but how would it have sounded to their ears? How did he say it? Then we could perhaps just make a few comments there a gravity with it, wouldn't there? There'd just been a weight, a gravity, something very, and in the best sense of the word, impressive about it. That the demonstration that he knew what he was talking about, no hesitation in what he was saying, no sort of fumbling around for words and, oh, now where was this particular reference? It was there. And it was spoken with a gravity. He knew what he was speaking about. no lack of conviction, that he was heart and soul in the message, that he wasn't sort of detached from it. Well, you know, teachers and university lecturers and that, some of them are so boring, aren't they? And they got their prepared notes and they go through them. Well, I'm sure good material there, but it's like watching paint dry, isn't it? You know, we're listening to this stuff. But it wouldn't have been here. This would have been him invested in it. Not just reading it like some sort of speech, just reads out to the crowd, puts it down, that's it. There would have been life, energy in this. There would have been meaning in this. People would have understood he really means this. He really means this. And he really wants us to understand this. He's putting himself into this message. There's no kind of gap between the message and the man. They are one. And he's just conveying conviction, reality, and genuineness. Not putting on an act, in other words. Not an act, that's the Pharisees. They put on the act and our Lord dissects that act and then just brings out the hypocrisy of it. They couldn't charge him with hypocrisy. means this. When he speaks of God, we feel he really knows God. And when he talks about God's word, there's a knowledge there. And this showed in how he delivered it. No kind of effort to impress, no kind of artificiality brought into it there, just a sort of cheer people up a bit here, some needless anecdote here, or look how impressive I am that I know about this sort of stuff, plugged into it there. It was straightforward. Such mastery of the truth. And even here, he anticipates objections. And what people might say, in other places, the objections are actually written in, aren't they? We find the objections are made, and he responds to them. Whereas here, we don't hear those objections, we said it's a monologue, but he's anticipating them, and he's dealing with them with such ease, so comfortable on it, and is able to answer them without a hesitation, without somewhere looking a bit uneasy. Well, you know, politicians there. Reporters do, don't they? They get them in the chair and they ask them some hard questions. Difficult questions. And you watch. Oh dear. They're squirming. They try not to show it and they give an answer. There's always something to say, isn't there? You find a politician who's got nothing to say has found something remarkable. They've always got something to say, but it won't necessarily answer the question that was asked. And some questions there famously, of course, don't put up with that. They ask the question again and again and again. and you get this answer coming back. But here there is an answer. And here there's something that is relevant to the case. There's no kind of just words for the sake of words here, or floundering around a bit here, or I don't really want to answer that question, so I'll just say something else here, and just words coming out of his mouth that are needless words. Doesn't happen like that with him. And the wisdom, and there's wisdom isn't it here, the wisdom, these insights, this, what's happening, what we need to know, what we need to do with what we know, is all backed up by the signs and the wonders. They're here, happening. in this particular sermon, but were we to have read elsewhere, in fact, just leading up to Matthew 5, there's a great summary at the end of Matthew 4 of miracles, the healings, and all manner of things that he was doing. And as his words led to an astonishment, well, I'm sure we know so did the signs and the wonders that he did. They led to astonishment. Luke 4 is an instance from verse 36, after he's cast out a demon of a man, the synagogue in Capernaum. And here's the reaction, Luke 4, verse 36 and following. Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves saying, what a word this is. For with, then they used the word again, authority and power. He commands the unclean spirits and they come out. And the report about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. That's not a one-off, to turn the page there in Luke chapter 5 verse 26 and this is at the end of when the paralyzed man had been lowered through the roof and sins have been forgiven, take up your bed and walk and the reaction in Luke 5 verse 26 and they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear saying we have seen strange things today this has been a most unusual day we haven't seen the likes of this in Capernaum ever and seeing that paralyzed man walking out with his bed astonished them. And just a final instance of this, Luke chapter seven, verse 16, after the widow of Nain, her son died, was raised, then verse 16, then fear came upon all and they glorified God saying, a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited his people. So the signs and the wonders and the teaching are all of a piece and they generate their amazement and astonishment, a willingness to give glory to God, to credit God. doing something amazing through this person that is there in their midst. I never heard anybody teach like this. I certainly never seen anybody heal like this, raise the dead like this man. I always heard in their history Elijah and Elisha, for instance, did incredible things. Other people had on occasion done some amazing things like that, but that was pretty unusual then. And now they're faced with something beyond. This is beyond, a greater than Jonah is here, a greater than Elijah, a greater than David, a greater than any of the Old Testament prophets or any of their teachers. And so there the signs and the wonders help to establish the credentials of this person and highlight him as being worthy of all our attention, our praise, our worship, to hang on his every word, to watch his every deed. And of course, eventually to follow him all the way to the cross and see that that person who had done those things, said those things, taught in that way, showed this incredible insight, was actually destined to have to put himself there to receive the wrath of God on our behalf. And we would conclude, yes, he is a sufficient saviour. everything about him, all that we've seen, the Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount, every last part of it makes perfect sense of what he's doing on the cross. And that who is speaking, the final point just to make, were we to read on, I'm sure you know, we would find him contrasting himself with what other people, other authorities were saying. But I say to you, you have heard what they have said of old, you have heard it said, and he will say whatever it is, some commentary upon one of the commandments. But then he will give his interpretation of the commandments and differ, quite considerably differ, from what was commonly taught. I say to you, you can find it again and again, Matthew 5, and verses 21 to 22, 27 to 28, and so on and so on. Not reliant upon the counsel of others, but able to say, I say to you, because I bring it from within my own resources, my own understanding as the son of God. He is that source and he is able to authoritatively and infallibly differ from others and to put the record straight. And none of it we've mentioned already, but just to mention again, none of it done out of self-interest. We're not on some sort of power trip here. He's fully submitted in what he is teaching, fully submitted. This is the mystery, isn't it? The incarnation, word made flesh, that he is God, but he has also come as a servant. And so places himself in the hearing of all and there in his own consciousness. places himself there at his father's disposal, and says that I'm not saying anything on my own authority, but I'm given the words to say, and I say what has been told to me. So in John 5, verse 19, Jesus answered and said, the most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself. What he sees the father do, whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. Or in John 5 again, and there, For instance, in verse 30, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge. My judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. That's interesting, curious differentiation of himself and the will of his Father, the submission to the Father's will that he makes most explicit and most clear. So what he is saying here on the Sermon on the Mount He speaks in that capacity of being the one sent by his father, submitted to his father, in agreement with his father. So nothing that is given there conflicts with his own will. But he wants us to know that that is his place, that he has taken among us, coming to serve us. Second heading to whom is he speaking? Well, the multitudes. Multitudes of ordinary people, right? Ordinary He's got plenty to say about the religious experts and the scribes and the Pharisees, but he's not primarily addressing them. He's speaking to his disciples, yes, and over their heads to the multitudes. Amongst whom, sure, there have been Pharisees and Sadducees and every other kind of grouping and society of religious people. But it's ordinary people that he is here to help, quote unquote. ordinary people. Well, find me an ordinary person if you can, you know what I mean. But actually, unexceptional people. People with no great standing in society. Just ordinary people. And he's happy to speak with them, happy to help them. and indeed actually bring them out from under the kind of power of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Even the disciples, perhaps later on, we learn a little bit in awe of the Pharisees. Still, what they grew up with, you know, these were the people, these were the religious leaders. Ooh, you know, you kind of carried with you their teachings embedded. So in Matthew chapter 15 and in verse 12 when the disciples, talking about washing of hands and cups and pots and things, and the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? Do you know that? They were offended. You can always feel a little trouble, a little unease in the disciples as they say that. This is controversial and they know just want to hear his take on this because they're unhappy and some of that unhappiness of the pharisees and their murmuring is perhaps unsettling the disciples and so they and if we can say their experience is the experience of the ordinary people but in all of the pharisees and if they say anything you better believe it you better do it you'll be put out of the synagogue or the temple if you didn't comply Well, what they hear in Matthew 5 verse 20, beyond where he leaves us with the Beatitudes, here's the shock of all shocks. He says, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And that would have been a huge shock. You mean the Pharisees, who do all the stuff they do, and who tithe all their herbs, and who are so careful what they do on the Sabbath day, and they don't do this, and they don't do that. They're discussing all these things at length. And when they come in from the marketplaces, oh, they wash those pots, and there are things that I don't even think of, and they wash them too. Everything, amazing stuff they do. So, so concerned, so serious about what they do. And the Lord says, but if you think that's a righteousness, you need a righteousness beyond that to enter the kingdom of heaven. They're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven, he's saying. And that would have absolutely astonished the ordinary people. And then when he comes and brings out the attitude of the Pharisees and what they're doing, supposedly to be seen by God, but it's actually to be seen by men, why the whole position of the Pharisees then unravels in the eyes of the ordinary people. And our Lord is saying to them, and he's saying to us, isn't he? Raise your sights, raise your sights. Religion, religion is not going to do it. It's not enough. People are very diligent in religion. There are all kinds of particular things religious people do. They would have spent two hours knotting their tie or doing something like that to make sure they're just there and the vestments are right there, not suits that I sort of come out in here, fine robes and collars and meticulous in all of that. And he's saying, but that is not enough. It's not even necessary. You've got to raise your sights. This is something higher. We're looking for something beyond it. God is looking at the heart and he is wanting to find happening within the heart that which you find happening here in the Beatitudes. That is not something that grows in its native soil in the human heart. This is asking much, much more. whereas we see in the Lord Jesus Christ who understands the law and also fulfills the law, that what he is talking about he's doing. When he talks about the meek, he's meek. The merciful, he's merciful. When he talks about those who so engage with God and living for God, well he's doing this. He is fulfilling the law. That's not a comfortable fit. People didn't look at him any more than we should look at him and think, oh, I'm doing that. Oh yeah, I'm ticking that box and being a bit merciful. I do that and I'm meek and I'm tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. No, he is asking us to make some inquiries into our hearts and where we are. Are we really this? Are we really like this? And whereas he is like this, there are no plaudits for any of us. Nowhere where we can look at this and sing, congratulations, dear self, congratulations. You're meeting the specification, your righteousness exceeding the Pharisees or any kind of modern day religion. We're in the right place, entering the kingdom of heaven. No problem. That is not what we're meant to be thinking here. No well done's to ourselves, but it's inviting us go deep. ask questions, questions, asking yourself, am I like this? Is that me? Am I pure in heart? Am I an instinctive peacemaker? Is that who I am? And the answer that comes back to us is no. I find the opposite. Working within. We can certainly say there's a non-Christian, but you can sadly say there's Christians too. We find there's a struggle here, there's a battle, there's something else wants to express itself here, something else wants to assert itself here, and I have to acknowledge that. And we see everything desirable in what we read in the Beatitudes, but we don't see within ourselves that it's achievable, that we can say mission accomplished, covered it, got this, I've got this. Far from it, we haven't got it, at all. And the invitation is given to us, to challenge us, to make us look again at ourselves, to feel convicted and therefore to move towards repentance. And we acknowledge in doing it that as we see this is actually what the Lord Jesus did. He fulfills all of those things that are declared blessed. He therefore is the happiest person that's ever been. that we're not there, but we want to get nearer and nearer to it. We want to receive into our soul an agreement that that is the life that is worth everything. That is the life God loves. That is the life he approves of. And he sees it in his son and he says, I am well pleased. And we are wanting, as Christians, to get nearer and nearer to this, because we know on great authority that God is well pleased with such a life. This is what he approves of. This is what he's looking for. And whereas we can't offer it, we can't bring this, we can't offer 100% worth of this, Our desire is that we want to get nearer and nearer to it. This is the life that God loves and approves of. That's the kind of attitude. It's not just superficial, is it? This is, this is in the heart. This is where we're going to come to perhaps next week. Pour in spirit. There's something about us in this. Got to be something true about the people that we are inside. Whether it's what we say or kind of, you know, in an average sort of way, this is something fundamental. And the invitation is therefore, go deeper, dig deeper. this full of promise. It's full of promise because it's Christ, isn't it, who has fulfilled the law. So all the guilt and all the condemnation of our failure, well actually he's fulfilled the law. He's lived this life and has that perfect sacrifice died on behalf of those who can't live that life. He's atoned for that. And so this mountain Well, we could contrast it with Hebrews 12 and verses 18 to 21. Mount Sinai, the thunderings and the darkness and the voice that's made all the people tremble that Moses even said, I am seethingly fearful. It's a different mountain. And the one who speaks on it has fulfilled all that Sinai threatened upon those who disobey. He is able to account for those people and offer actually the ethics of Sinai in a way here put very positively and to issue with it promises. Promises actually of help. A promise that by his spirit, he can help us move nearer and nearer and nearer to what it is that is the life that pleases God. So we don't go from the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount in despair. we go deeply challenged, we go that we know we need to do some work here, that there's repentance, there is a searching for God's help, but it comes with the promise of the one who speaks. That is promise indeed that he gives to his people, help, real help from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and gives us each other there when at our best we can encourage each other in these things. So my final heading, prospect of blessedness. That is it. There's a prospect here, there are promises here. We raise our sights in terms of the life we're to live, but at the same time as we see that, we see Christ, we see him fulfilling it, and we look to him for the help to live it and to do it. We know that holiness is what is sought for here, and we know that our Lord Jesus Christ supplies the help that we need in that. That there are spiritual possessions within reach, there is light, there is hope for the future, even vindication in the future for those who will hunger and thirst after righteousness, who will be willing to be poor in spirit, who will disturb their complacency by mourning, that there despite the fact you might think all of these things are going to make you pretty unhappy aren't they? The Lord says no, far from it, that there are good things. This will unlock things in the very depths of our being. This will fulfill longings which we scarcely knew were there but discovered and found that Christ could meet them. This thaws out minds that are sort of stuck in the ruts and affections, which are a bit sort of hemmed in and a bit sort of icebound. They thaw. And our wills, which are so reluctant, foot-dragging in terms of doing the will of God, find energy, find impetus, find willingness and desire that they never knew that they could have. All of that is on offer to us. All of it is contained under these beautiful blessings, these, these happinesses. There's something that can happen in your soul. Bring joy, comfort. a sense of belonging and adoption and all of it is there, offered to us. Spiritual apprehensions, possessions, things we can take in, changes that can happen on the inside and leave us very calm and peaceful at the core of our being. There may be plenty of things we have to be getting on with and plenty of action, but it's coming out of a sense of calm and even of joy and of peace, of satisfaction in the things of God and of a deep, deep-seated contentment. Oh, friends, this is so, so comprehensive. It touches on everything. It makes everything of this relevant, relevant to everyday life, people that we are, ordinary people in everyday life, and impinges upon it, offers hope, and promise in it. And they're blazing the trail ahead. Why that incomparable, superlative Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever he is, friends, there's always hope. There's always power. There's always good reasons, but have faith in him. And perhaps as we proceed in the weeks ahead, months ahead, we'll discover more of the depths of these beatitudes, the beginning, the sermon on the mount. But we'll finish here for today.