This morning, I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and go with me over to the book of Matthew and chapter 5. The book of Matthew, chapter 5. Very interesting book of the Bible. It literally has the whole lay of the land with regard to the kingdom of heaven. In fact, in chapter 4, the devil tempts the Lord and after the temptation of Christ, he comes out into the public and he begins to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And with that being said, that sets the stage for chapter 5. This is one of his most notorious sermons. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a section that we're going to look at in the Sermon on the Mount today called the Beatitudes that I want to draw your attention to. Now, I want to say at the outset, these are not do attitudes. These are be attitudes, okay? This is something God wants us to be and to become, to be changed. You know, changing me and changing you. We just sang about that. Because these words are really life and peace and joy. They make sense of the whole lay of the land in your life if you can get a hold of them. The Bible says in verse 1, And seeing the multitude, Jesus went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and he taught them. Now, you have to understand, there were two different types of speaking in the public arena back in those days. In the Jewish world, it was a lot of times they would sit as they would speak. Other times, the newer kind of lay of the land was called a peripateo, which patio, you hear it in there? It's the idea of walking, and then the idea of paris, walking around. It's walking around, okay? That's called peripateo kind of preaching, and that's what was taught in the school of Gamaliel. You may have heard of Paul being taught there. So walking around was done, sitting was done. Jesus is taking a seat on top of a mountain, and he's literally getting ready to speak. And I think that when we gather together, liturgy is something to be mindful of, right? In our minds, we think, okay, we stand, we sit, you know. We stand, we sit. Yeah, that was the right way. I got my directions right. We take the offering, we sing, we pray. All those things are part of a liturgy. But you don't want a liturgy to become something that you are a servant to. It's just something that helps us know what to expect and makes it familiar. And the more you get around it, the more it works for you. But what I want you to see is he's beginning to preach and the very first message he gives is a message that tells you how you can know you're going to heaven for sure. Wow. Wouldn't you like to know you're going to heaven for sure? I've asked people that. Do you know for sure you're going to heaven? Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they think they do. And when you ask a little further, they're like, oh, I didn't know that. And so it's very important for us to understand that the Bible is replete with this message of how to know you're going to heaven for sure. And what you're seeing in these Beatitudes is the Lord is literally laying the groundwork for how to get into heaven. And he tells us at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, when you get to chapter 7, that many are going to come in the last days and say, Lord, Lord, have we not done many things in your name? And he's saying, depart from me. I've never known you. So a lot of people are in the machinery of Christendom, but they don't know they're saved. And they, many times, think they are. And having thought that they were, they began to just lay back and lean back and act like, OK, it's true. So therefore, I'm just going to let that be a done deal. But their done deal was not rooted and grounded in the scriptures. And so with that said, look at the first thing he says when he began to preach in verse three, it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Indeed, blessed are ye when men revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. What a treatise of truth right there. Reach down to the very end of the chapter in chapter 5. The Bible says, Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. That's where he's taking you. You know why? Because nobody, and I mean nobody, gets saved until they get lost. You and I need to realize that when Jesus comes and says some of those lofty things that we sit back and our knees buckle under, that he's doing that because that is what is required for a person to understand salvation. Because we come to the whole issue of eternity with a whole lot of preconceived ideas. This world teaches us that if you're a good person, you're going to go to heaven. But the Bible teaches us that there is none good. The Bible teaches us there's none to seek after God. The Bible teaches us that there is none righteous, no, not one. Why does it teach us that? Because in the presence of a holy, perfect God, we need to recognize where we stand. Rather than comparing ourselves with one another, we need to compare ourselves with God's absolute perfection. And when we do that, the very first response will be, that we will realize how bankrupt spiritually we are. Hence, blessed are the poor in spirit. You've got nothing to add, commend you to God. You've got nothing that can make you to say, hey God, look what I've done, that he will be impressed by. Because God's standard is absolute perfection. Go with me in your mind's eye. Genesis chapter three, they were told not to eat of a tree. One tree, one choice. How many choices do we have today already, right? One choice, donated the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. It was like taking a cookie from the cookie jar, just one. And literally, because they did that, God had to remove his manifest presence from them, and they were cast into a lonely, lowly, humiliating condition called the fall of man and having a sinful nature, and then beginning to bring forth children. And you may remember that in the Bible, the Bible says that Adam and Eve, they conceived, and she brought forth her first son. His name was Cain. And she says, because I've acquired a man. And so she's thinking it's going to be OK, because God gave her some kind of a promise she might have misunderstood. But she's, I got me a man. Maybe this is the guy that's going to help us all. And it's funny because his name means acquired. Second kid comes along, his name's Abel. Abel means vanity. He's, I've got one, I've got two. You know, right away they knew it was going to be tough. Because chasing that little toddler around, you say, come here, he goes the other way. You say, don't touch that. He says, what? You know, he grabs that baby. Because that was the drill was going to be all through history, right? Life was going to be tough. Everything was going to come hard. And you and I need to realize that in the presence of Almighty God, we've got a whole lot more than one cookie. in our pocket. We've got a whole lot more offenses than one. And the problem is that we like to think of ourselves highly. We've been told that that's what we might call the lore of our day. That is the psychological religious idea that you are a good person. It's not your fault. Nothing you've ever done is your fault. You don't have any accountability or anything because obviously you can blame your parents. Gee, thanks, right? A whole group of people in the world were ruined by a man named Dr. Spock, who really didn't even have any kids when he spawned his ideas, that you never discipline your children, you just always affirm. Now, there's something to be said about, you know, affirming, but let us not get out of control here, because children need some correcting. But my point is this, is the Bible starts right where we need to start. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, that doesn't mean you're poor in spirit today and not tomorrow. It means always. It means you understand. Because it says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs and theirs only is the emphasis of that verse. Theirs and theirs only is the kingdom of heaven. Now, the kingdom of heaven is an issue that is very interesting for us to ponder because it is in Matthew where the bulk of all of the references to the kingdom of heaven are made, right here. Because he's talking about the king on site. Matthew's telling us about King Jesus. He's instituting his kingdom. He's coming to fulfill everything that needed to be fulfilled so that the kingdom of heaven could be populated in the church age. And when we are raptured out of here, he's going to reclaim our Jewish brethren, as it were, those that will be saved. through the tribulation, and then everything's going to be all in all. But the kingdom of heaven is Jesus' kingdom on earth. You and I, who know Jesus, are living in it right now. And if you ever get over the fact that you're poor in spirit, and if you ever can get over it, maybe you didn't understand something at the door, okay? You know, it's always your fault, okay? Most of the time we say, oh, I didn't do anything, it's not my fault, you did this, you made me mad. No, no. We just understand that when we start that down that road, right away we check ourselves because, no, I know there's something I've done and I've said or, you know, it's, you know, I've got to think about that. I've got to think about that and work it out. Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's a disposition. If you were to go through the scriptures, you'd find other passages that would amplify the reality here. Matthew 11, 25 says, At this time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, but you've revealed them unto babes. Do you know when you scold a child, most often, there are some very strong-willed children, but for the most part, if you scold a child, they'll wilt. And you know, every time I get up and I face a new day, I feel scolded by me. Many times I feel scolded by me because I know when I do wrong. Who's most responsible, right? If we have children, I was at the store the other day and this little boy was there. He was just a little guy. He's probably no more than three years old. He was really intrigued by the pretty little crown on top of a pink cake. And he said, I like that one. She said, well, you're a boy. That's for a girl. And she moved him. I went by and said, a man. Somebody need tell him. Because this world would say, oh, how dare you. You're abusing that child, telling that little boy what he is when he hasn't made up his mind yet. You see, my point is, is that we are living in a time where we don't know what's up and what's down because we've given so much ground away that for us to have any absolute truth at all makes us to be somehow looked at sideways. And that's why it gets to the place where it talks about, blessed are you when you're persecuted, because if you start telling truth, somebody's not going to like you. But we have to double down on truth. And frankly, it's much easier today because the truth is so much more easily delineated than maybe at other times. Well, the Bible tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit. Let me show you some things about this being poor in spirit. The Bible says in Job, chapter 42, verse 5, this is how Job felt when he saw God. He says, I've heard of thee with the hearing of my ear, but now my eye seeth thee. And this is Job, though, and he says, therefore, I abhor myself. and I repent in dust and ashes." We treat God like He's the good Santa Claus in the sky, the man upstairs. No, He is Almighty God. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Every molecule that holds this together and those chairs together and you and me together, it's upheld by the word of the power of Almighty God. And only by His grace do we not just fly into oblivion and our souls to hell. Because God is merciful and God is good. But I know me. I know me. And you know you. But you've got to be honest about you. Because until you get honest about you, you'll never be born again. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And when he, Job himself, one of the highest ranking of our saints in the Old Testament, He said, I have heard about you with my ear, but now I have seen you with mine own eyes, and I repent in dust and ashes. I got nothing to say. And he just wrote 41 chapters of him talking a whole lot. Bible says in Daniel chapter 10 and another one of our great heroes of the faith Daniel He says I Daniel alone saw this vision for the men were with me that they saw it not It sounds like Paul in the road to Damascus, but Daniel had a vision too where the men with him couldn't see it But he saw it He said they didn't see the vision but a quaking fell on those guys so that they fled to hide themselves They didn't know what was going on, but they ran he said therefore was I left alone and and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me. For my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength." When was the last time you got in the presence of God and got real quiet? And allowed the tears to come and say, you know what? I'm sorry. I'm just sorry. You see, We as saints have this truth in our bosom that is so amazing. We have this, what the Bible calls it, this treasure of salvation in earthen vessels, but we're still earthen vessels. And it's almost like, you know, you want to put something clean into something clean, but we're earthen vessels. And as a result of our corruption, it's kind of hard to get our mind around it, but we have to settle in and we have to realize that we're supposed to walk with a little bit of a humble spirit because we are bequeathed this thing. This is given to us and we got this truth. And then we got to be careful because knowledge, the Bible says, puffs up. So I go, now I got knowledge. Boy, I'm smart. And I'm smarter than, no. See, this is the problem with the political environment we find ourselves in, is we can say, well, common sense makes all the sense in the world. No, common sense can get you in trouble, because the more you prosper, the more danger you bring upon yourself. It was the chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs. Give me not more than I need, lest I forget you. Give me not too little, lest I steal and bring reproach to your name. You see, the biggest thing about prosperity is there's no humbling agent in it. So if things go well and happy days are here and everybody's singing, you know, how wonderful things are, they lose a sight of the fact that they're mortal still. And that everything that was going wrong could get worse all over again in a minute. We've got people in strong places of power who've shown themselves to be very willing to do bad things. And more bad things are going to come out about people who wore the suits, the ties, and had all the good, you know, powerful places. And I'm talking not just politicians. We're talking actors and actresses and, you know, sports figures, all that stuff, right? You and I are living in a very dangerous time, and we can't afford to get haughty. We have to be humble. Blessed are the poor in spirit." That's a disposition. It's a be attitude. We need to be humble. We need to continue to find our way to humility. The Bible says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. We talked about Daniel and we talked about Paul. I mentioned him for a moment. But Luke chapter 18 verse 13, the Bible says, and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. And he smote himself upon the breast, and he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And in the Hebrew, or I'm sorry, in the Greek, it's got an article in there. They put a sinner. But the article's that, meaning that he didn't see anybody else but himself. You see, you don't got time to look at your husband or your wife. You don't got time to look at your preachers, your politicians, You're playwrights. You don't have time to do all that. Just sit there in front of God and realize, it is me, the sinner, and I just need to get right with God today and go through the day and try to figure it out. When I tell you that I'm having a problem calming down to get here, I want to be here for you. I want to get this word out to you. I want you to understand something that thrills my heart. This message has been born from years of ministry. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And the word blessed is the Greek word mekerios. There are two. One is blessed eulogy. Oh, you heard the word eulogy. You tell some good things, good, you is good. And then logos is words, good words about somebody departed, maybe eulogy, but that's not this. This is mekerios. This is the person who is to be congratulated, to be envied, to be emulated. This is the person. Blessed, that person, mekerios. Happy is this person. You want to be like them. And this is his first public speech. And he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. It had nothing to do with their bank account. It had to do with the spirit. Poor in spirit. Now, I don't know what it's going to take to make us poor in spirit in America again, but we're not there right now, OK? I'm talking America now. I'm not talking about Christianity. I'm just talking about America. America is not poor in spirit. We're pretty high on the hog. We think everybody ought to be executed that ever did anything wrong. That's invoked now, but about three, four, five years ago, everybody was like, oh, you, you terrible person, you aren't wearing a mask. You terrible person, you didn't get a shot. You terrible person. And then that made them haughtier than the others. And so everybody was pressure, pure pressure. And then we began to see the mask tip off and we begin to realize that we're lying to us. I want you to know something. The devil has been lying to you since you were born. It's not new. That's what he does. He's the father of lies. He's a liar from the beginning and the father of it. He came not but to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants your soul. And what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? If he gains the whole world and loses his soul, what shall it profit him? The Bible says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's theirs. And by the way, once it's yours, it's always yours. You'll never lose it. You get to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. when you come through the right door. The Bible says, Strive ye to enter into the straight gate. Straight is the gate, narrow is the way that leads to life. Few there be that find it, he says even in this sermon. Let's move on. The Bible says in verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Some people are very early on, they know that they're poor in spirit. And it's not having anything to do with spiritual things. It's because of the dog-eat-dog world we live in. When we stratified all of our schooling and all the eighth graders hung out with other eighth graders, they had nothing to offer each other but mayhem. Okay, bully mentality. So if you were sitting all alone at school, you might have been a person who was poor in spirit, but you have nothing. It doesn't make you a kingdom of heaven person just because you're poor in spirit. There's got to be something there. Because see, listen, some people had a bad hand dealt to them in life, right? They got it harder. And they have more of a closeness to that kingdom gate because they're already struggling. Because the impoverishment of disinclusion or the impoverishment of lacking some of the talents or whatever other people had. Those people went through that beginning of their life being beaten up every day, whether emotionally or physically, right? Parents that abused and called him stupid or, you know, you idiot. And they were seen as, we all have to realize everybody came from somewhere. And sometimes we think, well, those people over there, they're not like us. Well, listen, the reality is all families are dysfunctional. They're made up of sinners. That's why we brag on Jesus at home. In the morning when you rise, in the nighttime when you go to bed, when you go out, when you come in, Jesus has told us we need to be speaking of Him. Because what you as dad and mom really, you know, puppy dog too, your kids will. You got to be real. You can't just, okay, I'm going to go drop them off at church and go over and get a cup of coffee. McDonald's will pick you up in an hour or two. That's what's happened today. And there is no Sunday school in the Bible, none. Sunday school's at home, okay? It's at home. That's a parent's job, okay? We ascribe to making it available because we want people to come in and learn that are adults, and we're used to it, and we just adopt, but it's not what's a mandate. It's not what's necessary. What's really necessary is that mom and dad get their game face on, and then they go from there, and the kids follow that. The Bible says, blessed are they that mourn. Why would you be mourning? Because you're poor in spirit, and you don't have any information. And you're just miserable, man. I can't get it right. I told mom I wouldn't do this, and I did it. I stole something, and I feel bad. Nobody knows, and I can't even enjoy it because it's not mine. Mom would know. You know, those kind of things. What is this? And you mourn over it. It's like, man, and as time goes on, if you're in a world like in the past when there was no welfare state, there was, you know, if you didn't have any money, you didn't eat, right? You had to go work. When things were so hard and the bottom fell out of economies, like in the Great Depression, people killed themselves because they had no way to make ends meet. Because they just fainted in their spirit. Why? Because they didn't have information. They didn't know that no matter what happens down here, the psalmist said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread. If you're living a righteous life according to the scripture, you will be provided for. And I'm talking about a righteous life that is rooted and grounded in Jesus, because people can be right nice people and They can prosper from that because wisdom begets a favor. You go to work, you work hard, you come home, you pay your bills, you're going to have a nice situation. Problem is most of us are wealthy beyond our measure. We think we deserve everything. When was the last time you barked at somebody waiting on your table at the restaurant? I can't get the steak right, you know, and I'm just, you know, we got all this going, why don't you pull out in front of me? It's a good thing we don't have little missiles on the dashboard, right? We would have thought better of it later, but you know, where that, that button's not working. You see, we, we're pretty full of ourselves. And I'm not saying you, I'm saying we. This is, we forget, it's a madness. There's a madness about our condition. But mourning over it, that's where you get it right. At night, you're laying on bed and you're thinking, man, I was pretty unkind. I was unfair. I was not nice. I should have shared the gospel with this person. I should have given a track to that person. I should have been nicer to my wife. My husband, I should have been more kind and encouraging and understanding. But I wasn't. Is that one piece of fruit from the tree? What happens when a Christian sins? Well, they'll mourn over it, because that's part of it. Part of it is you're going to mourn. The Bible talks about this in the book of Ezekiel. It says, And the Lord, when He was getting ready to destroy the city of Jerusalem, it says, Go ye into the midst, He said to an inkhorn angel. He says, Go into the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations. that have been done in this city in their midst. Can you imagine being a lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah? And it was so bad that all of those sin-stirred and mangled men came pounding on the door saying, give us those men who came in unto you that we may know them. They were going to rape these angels. And Lot's like, no! But after being in that city so long, what did he say? Take my daughters, who've never known a man, but don't touch these men. You know Christians can get it on them, right? You know that? How do you feel when you get it on you? What do you do when you get it on you? You mourn over it. You're like, man, because that's part of the disposition. This is, blessed are those that mourn. There's a sadness over the sickness of the sin, what they've done to children. I mean, I don't even have to reach for things anymore. Do you know they've been teaching your children for years that if your parents are mean to you, you can call this phone number and you can report them? I was aghast when my kids were little to see on some Saturday morning cartoons or something. I had a little commercial. You can call the police on them. This is a world that has lost its mind because it's lost its faith. But for you and for me who are trying to hold on to everything Jesus and all things good and all things God and all things Bible, there's going to be some pushback. Because you're the one who's not dancing. They've piped to you and you've not danced. They've wept. They've played music to you. You've not wept. I mean, this is... They want you to do what they want you to do. It's like sheep. You know, perhaps, the characteristic of sheep and a flock. If one starts jumping on a perceived little rock, and there's no rock there, he jumps. Other ones will jump too. They just start jumping. So they've got a hoppy, not happy, but a hoppy flock, right? And that's what's true about humans. Do you realize the way that the birds move, you know, in that herd mentality, that flocking mentality? That that's what's happening today. One minute we're against Russia and for Ukraine, next minute we're against Hamas who were the terrorists and we're for them and we're against Israel. You see how quickly things changed? Hamas was the terrorists a few years ago. Now it's like, oh, Palestine, you know, we need to get... What? Think about that for a minute because you're subject to it too. And you have to be careful. You have to have truth centered in your heart. And it may make you sad that you don't. And it may make you sad that you don't understand why you don't know more. And that's okay because that's a good starting place. Blessed are the poor in spirit. I'm a sinner. I repent and dust and ashes. I got nothing. And it makes me sad. I read these words and they make me sad because that means my loved one went to hell. I had a girl that I walked with in our graduation in Ontario years ago, years, years ago. Well, after I'd gone to school, she came over the night I was getting ready to go back to school, because I'd been home for a week. She found out I was in town. She says, hey, Dave, can I sit down with you? We literally stayed up all night talking. And she was such a sweet girl. And I almost wanted her to Jesus. She was in tears. She said, I would, but if I believe that, then I have to say my mom. is lost. She put that together. Now, is that a reason not to come to Jesus? No. And I didn't know near as much as I know now. I could have told her, I said, you don't know, she might have watched some good preacher back then, Billy Graham or something, prayed with him. You don't know. Leave that in God's hands. You need to run to the cross. You need to get saved. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted." How cool is that if you're being comforted by God? I mean, that's His comfort. When I met Dylan and talked to him just five minutes, man, he's like listening and he's open to hearing what I had to say. And what was really neat was, is that he had only a short stint and he put it together. He said, I said to him first, but he picked it back up later. How did we meet? God did that. He told me his story, and he would lay with the New Testament on his belly as he slept at night, saying, I need to know something. God put him right next to me, a preacher. I got to share with him the unsearchable riches of Jesus, and he trusted Him there and over by the 71, McDonald's. Guys, when He comforts you, that's personal. Nobody can take that away from you. The Bible says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5.5 says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Once you've been comforted, it's going to only be one way, and it's going to be through salvation. That's how you get comfort. And when you get done getting saved and you wipe your tears away and you blow your nose, you know, you get up and you realize, what do I do now? I'm a mess. I don't even know how to live. It's like a little baby. They've got a diaper and somebody's got to help them with that, right? They can't take care of that. As we're babes in the Lord, we're going to do bad things. I smoked in the boys' room at the school after I got saved. Still had my long hair, still looked like I used to look, but it was one day to the next. Born again, not born again. Right with God, not right with God. And I didn't even register that smoking in the boys' room was wrong, even though it was a rule. I just thought, that's what I've got to do, you know. Took a while for the vestiges to wear off. I didn't beat myself up about it, but what was I doing? Somebody else watching me. Might have gotten a bad impression, had they known. You see, we don't know how to walk until we do, and so there's a need for meekness. So you come to grips, okay? Meekness is a word that literally means power under control. In other words, you know salvation. You might want to go tell everybody, grab them by the throat and say, you need to get saved. No, wait a minute, calm down. Just breathe. The Lord's been on this job for a long time and everybody's being worked with. You need to get yourself together first. And power under control, this word meekness is used like of horses that are gentled horses. Horses that can run just as fast as a wild horse, but they can be useful. You can race them and you can get to the other side of the canyon in a hurry because you can grab them, jump on them, they're not even asking any questions, let's do this. You can get them to run into battle, man, they'll be snorting in there, let's do this, they're with you. That's a good horse, but what that wild one does is no good. What about wind? Wind is used for meekness. It's like when wind comes, it can destroy things. But also wind has the idea of being useful when you put up a sail and you're on the ocean and it blows you forward on your journey. It's harnessed. That's what it is. And he says, blessed are the meek. They're going to inherit the earth. These are the people who literally understand these things. And they have all this power of this knowledge. And they have this knowledge because the Bible tells us, all have sinned, there's none that seeketh after God. They're looking for the mercy of God. In other words, they begin to realize it's not about the person they're talking about, or talking to, or living around, as much as it is about what's God up to. Because God's in the soul-winning business. He sent the Son to save the world. The Bible says, as my Father sent me into this world to save sinners, even so send I you. It's about getting other people saved, but some people aren't there yet. It's like going out in the garden, man. Sometimes those ripe ones are there, and those not-so-ripe ones, and some are overripe, and you've got to clean, and then you've got to weed. You've got to figure that out. You see, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The Bible says, blessed are the meek. You're the one who got yourself together. You collected yourself. You know, pull yourself together, we used to hear people say. And when you collect yourself and you begin to look at the world, it's a mess. It's a big mess. And that's kind of hard, but you can get it because God reached down like a brand snatched from the fire. I got, this one's mine. And I'm like, yeah, wow. I love that. That was his blesser of the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Did you know we're going to inherit the earth? We pray about it. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Did you know this? Did you know we're going to rule and reign? It's all going to be ours. All things are yours. It says in Corinthians, all things are yours. Bible says that we are inheritors with Jesus. He's got the title deed. It's all ours because he's our bridegroom. It's ours. We live already seated with him in the heavenly places. Read it in Ephesians chapter two. You're seated with him in heavenly places right now, far above principalities and powers right now. And that's pretty heady stuff. So I'm going to go out and be pompous and pious and smarter and better than everybody else. No. Meekness says, no, because I've got a lot to mourn about in me. I've got a lot to mourn about in my friends, my family, people I love that aren't saved. I've got concerns that are more pressing than me being seen, patted on the back and liked. No, blessed are the meek, the ones who are power, because the power of God is salvation. The Bible says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That's in us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, and we go into our world with our eyes on our head, and we see it for what it is, and we try to do what we can to get under somebody else and bring them along, too. It's a massive train wreck, folks, and everybody out there is bleeding, whether they know it or not. They've got the bell rung, and they're walking around insane, chasing other people's spouses. They're chasing skirts without ever being married. They're doing all the terrible things They're taking their children, they're maiming them. They're teaching them bad things, you know, accept this and accept that, accept everything. Don't be mean. Don't ever say anybody's wrong. Don't trigger anybody. I'll tell you what, some people need to get triggered. They need to get triggered because then they'll be scared of God and they'll get saved. Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. That's something to be worried about. He wasn't worried about triggering. He was worried about waking people up. The Bible says, blessed are the meek. It's like this concept of power under control. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is people, this is a disposition, right? And that means I'm always wanting more. I want more of God. More about Jesus would I know. More of his wonders I would show. I can't remember how that song goes, but it's all about know about Jesus. More about Jesus. More, more, more about Jesus. You see, we need more of him every day. Do you know they got manna in the wilderness traveling? It was funny because when they got up after they were out in their wilderness journey, the Lord gave them manna to eat. When they came out, they found this stuff on the ground and they tasted it. And it tasted like coriander seed and honey and like angels. It was sweet and good. And you know what they called it? They called it manna. You know what manna means? What is it? They called it, what is it? Hey, hand me some of that, what is it? Because all for 40 years they were calling the man out, what is it? Guys, there was a picture there. The Bible says these things are written for our admonition, our learning. Jesus is the bread of life. He's the one who feeds me. But I only can kind of take Enough for the day. I can't hoard it away for tomorrow because I got to trust him. There's going to be some more tomorrow, right? And then on the Sabbath day, he said, oh, you get double portion because on the Sabbath day, you're not supposed to go out of work. So I'm going to give you that day off to relax. Take two portions. And it was fine. But anybody who took two portions the day, middle of the week, it would turn to worms the next day. You see, because it was telling us, we need Jesus today. We need him every day. We need him every morning, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. The Bible says, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And when you look at that, it's kind of an interesting consideration for us in verse 6 that we can look in scriptures and see how this works. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29, verse 13, you shall seek me. See, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, where's righteousness? Jesus is righteousness, right? There's no righteousness in the law. There's no righteousness in your friend. There's only righteousness in Jesus. So you're hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you're going to go right to Jesus. When He said, you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, I showed you that because you need to know something. You have to be perfect to go to heaven. And if that doesn't rattle your cage for a second, You're not listening, okay, because you've got to be perfect. And the only perfection is Jesus. He fulfilled the law, and then He died a death He didn't deserve to die for you and me. And then He rose again the third day, saying and sealing the truth that it was paid in full. We trust Jesus, we get his righteousness imputed to us. So blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. He says, you will seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. Proverbs 8, verse 17 says, I love them that love me. And those that seek me early will find me. When I talk about being comforted and him doing that, you remember perhaps the night of the crucifixion, they had this last supper and Jesus took a towel and he gird himself up and he washed the feet of the disciples. Peter says, no, Lord, no, don't wash my feet. I need to be washing your feet. He said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me. Even that teaches because he goes on to say, that everybody who is cleansed is fully cleansed, but they go out into the world and their feet get dirty, and they need me to wash their feet for them. So I'll clean that up tonight. I'll clean that up as soon as you get down there and pray about that. You give that to me, I'll take care of that. And you'll know all good again. The Bible says that John 6, 66, interesting word, it says, from that time many of the disciples went back and walked no more with Jesus. Then said Jesus unto the twelve. The whole crowd left. Then Jesus said to the crowd, or to the disciples, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him and said, To whom shall we go? You have the words of life, and we believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Are you sure? Because once you're sure who He is, everything else can kind of shoot its lines from that truth. Psalm 42 verse 1 says, As the heart, H-A-R-T, as the heart, like the deer, pants after the water brook, so pants my soul after thee. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. As the heart pants after the water brook, so panteth my heart, my soul after thee. Psalm 38 verse 8, I am feeble and sorely broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." You ever been there where just nothing is right? Everything is a mess. He says, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hidden from Thee. My heart thirsts. My strength fails. For as the light of mine eyes It also has gone from me. Do you thirst for it? Do you want more of Him? Because if you do, you're on the right track. And that's the guy. That's the gal. Those are the true born children of God. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Moving on, verse 7, it says, blessed are the merciful. Which is interesting, because this goes kind of hand in glove with meek. Because the meek have truth. They have understanding. They see every offense of the wicked. We can see it. Can we talk about abortion doctors for a minute? Every day, all day long, that's what they do. I saw a video of one of these doctors out on the front kind of getting in a pro-lifer's face, and he was like a crazy man. And why not? How do you go to bed at night, right? You know right now they're telling us and they're showing us all this information behind the scenes, these undercover reporters, how they sell body parts of these babies that are aborted? These things are like, we've been going on since 73, we've overturned it now and yet, how are we doing? What have we said to the poor girl who didn't know because she was told something that was untrue? Because if I'm meek, I've got power, but it's under control, and I'm merciful. That's my disposition. I want to have some mercy for that poor girl, because the baby's lost, but the kid's in God's hands. He takes care of all that. Yes, you. You've got a wound, and Jesus can fix that thing. Wow! Really? Yeah, really. He can take care of that. He can heal that wound, because He died for that. Do you think it shakes him up that these things are happening? He knew it all along. They used to offer their children to fire on purpose. They had a little valley called Tophet, place of the drums. They played their drums really loud so you couldn't hear the screams of the children. And all of this is hard, but it's harder if you don't have a place to go with it. The Bible says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And if you're a child of God, you're still going to need some mercy, right? Charles Spurgeon made it very clear. He said the saint's favorite attribute of God is his mercy, because we need it all the time. We need it all the time. Blessed are the merciful. The Bible says in Psalm 18, verse 25, it says, with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful. With the froward. you will show yourself forward. With the upright, thou wilt show thyself upright." Do you know what's funny is that that is such a simple verse and yet people are like, uh, no, I don't know. He said, no, I'm merciful and I'll be merciful to you. And it's important that you realize that because then you can turn around and be merciful to somebody else because you realize you don't really deserve to be here either. When you start feeling like you deserve to be in the family, you deserve to get a pat on the back, some recognition. Well, that's another day. You might have a little wandering in the wilderness of your own to do until you finally come to your senses and say, I'm kind of hungry. I haven't had any bread lately. Because you're staying around with Jesus. He's all merciful, right? You stay hanging around with him, you're going to be like him. Ancient words ever true, changing me, changing you. Blessed are the merciful. You see how it's tracking. It's something, one brick to the next brick. Starts out with poor in spirit, mourning over that sin. It comes to the concept where you get to the place where you're literally mourning and then you get meek. You say, I collect myself, I get it because I've been fed, I've been comforted. And then hungering and thirsting, that's what you're going to do in life. That's the beautiful thing about being a Christian is it doesn't really get old. It never gets old because His mercies are new every morning. The Bible says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning. The Bible says that the inner man is renewed day by day because you're God's child. He's going to see to it. The Bible says in Psalm 41, Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Now, do you know who the poor are, right? We've just sold the poor. It's not just somebody who's without money, although the poor are the ones he's chosen as rich in faith. Go over and read that in James. It says, have you not realized that the poor are rich in faith? They got nothing else. They're praying. All right. But he says, blessed are they. Blessed is he that considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. So be careful. You'd be looking for the mercy of God, as Jude says. We're supposed to be living that way every day. The Lord will preserve him. He will keep this man alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and thou shalt not deliver him under the will of his enemies. Do you know what he just said? Told my boys when they were overseas, man, be an essential personnel. Be essential personnel. Be essential crewmen. Back in the days of the early Star Trek, they beam down Scotty and Spock and Captain Kirk and three guys you don't know and you think, those guys are going to get dead. They're not essential, but Scotty and Spock and Kirk, they're going to be fine. Be an essential crewman. Be somebody who's literally there for Jesus, right? Those bullets will whiz by because nothing can touch them. Read Psalm 91, no terror at night, no fowler, no snare, nothing. God's got your back because he wants to keep your boots on the ground. And He wants to use your testimony. Reading further, He says, The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed upon the earth. Thou shalt not deliver him under the will of his enemies, Lord. It says, The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of his languishing even. Thou wilt make all his bed all in his sickness. and said to the Lord, be merciful unto me, and he will say, be merciful unto me, heal my soul for I have sinned against thee. Sometimes the bed of affliction is a place to find God. I find it fascinating in Job 33, you ought to read the end of it, it says if your world goes crazy and then somebody comes and tells you about Jesus, what mercy God has shown you because that person who came is only one in a thousand. Not many people can do that. Boy, I wish my friend would have heard about the gospel before they died, that kind of thing. So that's Job 33. So these are about, this is all about that merciful thing. We're not real good at that because we're American. We're American. I'm American. I deserve better. I'm like a king. Got my own castle and everything. There's even a castle law. I got a castle. You see, we think we're something. We pick and choose our preachers. We don't want them to tell us we've got to do anything. We want them to do it, and then we'll mail it in. We'll do what we know. Blessed are these people, these people who really do hunger. These are the ones. Blessed are they that are pure. Look at verse 8. It says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You know, we look at that and we think, well, that's eternity. We're going to see God, and indeed we are. The Bible actually says that in the book of Revelation. It says, "...and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their forehead." Isn't that cool? But that's not what this is talking about in our passage. He's talking about seeing Him here, now. Just like eternal life doesn't start when you get dead. It starts when you get saved. You get life eternal. This is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. That's John chapter 17, verse 3. That's eternal life. Knowing God, having a relationship with Him. He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. How can you follow somebody you can't see? You see where He goes, and you follow Him. When there were three men cast into the fiery furnace there was a fourth man in there when things got dicey They were not alone. They saw God for he was right there with them You and I need to be mindful Blessed are the pure in heart if we're not pure in heart, we're not going to see him Believers walk for years in their Christian faith, having no desire to drill into their faith, and they're not even sure they're saved anymore. Half the time they're thinking, well, I go to church, and they start checking off their checklist in their mind. No, go to this checklist and ask yourself, how am I doing? This is the checklist. It's not, did I go to church, did I give up a little money, did I pray, did I read my Bible? That is not in this list. This list is about being something, being humble, being mourning over what's going on around you, what you see, being meek, being hungry, staying hungry, you see. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And verse 9 says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Now the peacemakers are not the ambassadors that serve at the United Nations. Frankly, they're anything but that. They're just trying to figure out how to control the war and make more money. Okay, many times, right? But what I'm saying is, he says, blessed are the peacemakers. And on the heels of this, he says, blessed are you persecuted because you're like the prophets. So these go together. You see, you get a twofer here, you become a peacemaker, now you're telling somebody how to be saved. And when that person gets saved, it might upset their apple cart, and their parents, and their family might not like them. There might be problems. Certainly their world won't like them. They might lose their job. Might be working for a nefarious business where everything's done under the table, and you're like, okay, I can do this. But once you got saved, you can't. You feel like, oh, I don't know what to do. And there's a dilemma. Nobody's dictating to you, your conscience. It's you and Jesus, right? The Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. Peacemakers are somebody who have a hand on God, and they meet their friend and say, can I introduce you to my friend? I'm a peacemaker. I want you to have peace. Like I have peace in Him. Blessed are the peacemakers. The Bible says that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And Jesus says, peace be unto you. As my father has sent me, so send I you." Did you hear that? That verse actually says, peace be unto you. You've got it now. And as my father has sent me, now I need you to go out and tell somebody else too. One of the first things you got to do is tell somebody you got saved. Especially somebody who's been praying for you. Mark 16, 15 says, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Matthew 28, verse 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. The Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. Now you know what the peacemakers are. Jesus says, peace Levi, give I unto you, not peace like the world give, give I unto you. He just sang about it, right? He sang about that. Peace. Peace like a river, never to be stolen. It's His peace. Why? Because He made peace with the blood of His cross. We now have peace with God. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, Romans chapter 5. We have peace with God. Peace on earth, goodwill to men. We sing about it all over the world and they don't even hear themselves. God already commends His peace to us. We've sung it all our lives and we were just in the midst of our clamor and we didn't pick it up, but it was there all along. Blessed are they which are persecuted to be congratulated, to be admired, to be mimicked. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, not just being persecuted. Some people have a persecutorial mindset in their mind, oh, everything's against me. No. If you're being persecuted for that, you might want to do a little inventory and say, what is it about me? Everybody's kicking me all the time. No. Just get close to Jesus. Spend a lot of time with him. If you kneel low before God, you'll stand tall among men. You get that thing figured out. You figure out how to grow up. Remember when I got saved, I didn't have a whole lot of wisdom, didn't have a whole lot of upbringing on the nuances of life. And I just said, God, make me wise. Please help me to be wise. And I read the book of Proverbs. And I found a verse in there that said, The prude man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." And that was a real encouragement to my heart, because I had walked away from a life that was debauched for a couple of years in high school. And it gave me comfort. I foresaw the evil and I hid myself, but my friends were passing on. And today, many of them are in eternity, apart from Jesus. Apart from Jesus. Blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Did you see that? What did he say in the first one? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What's he saying now? Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You see, when you're at the front door, it's important that you be part of the family. And then when you're at the you know, in the throne of life and doing the warfare, the spiritual warfare. We are soldiers enlisted by our God. It's also important to us. We know what our kingdom is. We know what our allegiance is. We know who our king is. We know what our mission is. And we are out there doing what we can. And people aren't liking it. Sometimes they don't like us anymore. So he tells you, be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. He says, blessed are you when you are persecuted. Jesus said these words. He says, these things have I spoken to you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Isn't that good? Acts 14 says, confirming, Paul went around after he planted some churches, he went back around confirming the souls of the disciples in those churches he had established, and he was exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that they must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. In other words, it's not easy getting saved. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for the mamby-pamby. It's not for the weak-kneed. It's not for those who are fearful and unbelieving. In fact, the fearful and unbelieving are said to be outside of the kingdom of heaven. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind. We understand what's true. The Beatitudes are what we're supposed to be. And when he lays this out, he says, it's going to be hard. In Philippians 1 29, Paul says this, for unto you, it is given in behalf of Jesus, not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake. Do you know why? If you read the next verses, it says, because it's a token, it's a token to the lost of their peril, that you have enough faith to suffer and to be in plunder and to take your Have somebody take their possessions from you, all that kind of stuff. You see, reality is, folks, is that when Jesus gave these Beatitudes, He pretty much here ended the door, the vestibule to the family. Next thing He does is He says, don't be angry with anybody, because if you're angry, that's almost like murder. He says, don't look at a woman in lust, that's like adultery. He says, don't swear by anything, let your yea be yea. You know, we're like, wait a minute, what? Wait, what about that third one? You know, what about that second one? You were just like, wow, you know, I can't do any of that. Yes, that's exactly right. Are you mourning yet? Are you poor yet? Have you gotten there? No, I'm not there, but I'm pretty good. I'm a Jew. That's who he was talking to. He says, no, no, no, listen to me. You've heard it said, but I say unto you. He gets him lost. Why? Because you can't be saved until you're lost. You won't be poor until you're bankrupt. You won't know your necessity till you see Him. And your comeliness is turned to corruption. And He takes you in His hands and He comforts you because you mourned over it. And then He says, I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha. Guys, I've heard about that man who was on a battlefield He'd been wounded pretty badly, and he was just over a little rise and gunfire and everything. And the boys said, Sarge, can we go get him? He said, I can't order you to. I can't order you to go get him. But if you boys want to go, I won't tell you not to. And when they broke into the open fire and ran and jumped into that little swell there, he looked up at them. And the boy said, I knew you'd come. I knew you guys would come back for me. Jesus came back for me. He did, and it was Him. And if you know Him, He's come back for you, too. He came back for you in the beginning, and He comes back for you along the way. He loves you. He will never leave you. He comes back. And that's why we love Him. Here in Islam, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave Himself for us. And that changes everything. Would you bow with me for a moment?