Well, it is so good to see you here at church. I'm so glad that you are here.
And if you have your Bible, you can go to Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five. We are kicking off a new series and I'm super excited about it. And so if you kind of stumbled upon the service here today, this is a great day to be here. I always encourage you to be here, especially on the start of a sermon series.
Cause a lot of times when you kick things off, that's an important day so that you know exactly where things are going. And we are talking today, starting today over the next couple of months, we've entitled this series, The Greatest Sermon Ever. The Greatest Sermon Ever. Now, let me just say to you, I can assure you of this, that today in this place, this is not going to be the greatest sermon ever.
Okay? But we are going to over the next couple of months, is we are going to look at what many believe the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, which was preached by the greatest preacher ever, the greatest teacher and his name is Jesus. So over the next few weeks, we are going to look at Matthew five through Matthew chapter number seven. And I want you to know, if you're like me, you might've been in church your entire life. And I know I grew up in church. I've been around it my entire life. Church is like all that I know. And if that's your experience, it's easy to come to a passage like this, that you've heard preached, you've heard talk about, or talked about from the pulpit a lot over the years.
It's easy to kind of just brush it off like, hey, we have this under control, we're good and things like that. I want to assure you that whether this be the 70th time that you've heard a message on the Sermon on the Mount, or possibly you've slipped in here and you don't even know what the Sermon on the Mount is, and it's your first time, there's something for all of us. And there's something for every single one of us here in this place that we can learn. It is called the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus, he goes into a mountain, and that is where he delivers the Sermon on the Mount.
So that's why it's called that. But I'll tell you this, as I've studied and outlined this sermon, and what we're going to look at over the next few weeks, here's what I would tell you. Yes, it's called the Sermon on the Mount, but probably a better title than that is it should be called a mountain of a sermon, a mountain of a sermon. Because in this sermon, we're going to look at a lot of things over the next few months. Jesus speaks about some of the most controversial, some of the most cultural things that people would deal with. Like, how do we be happy? How do we handle anger?
Why we should not judge other people? He talks about loving your enemies. He's going to talk about marriage and divorce. He's going to talk about becoming a cheerful giver.
And here's all I'm going to say, that probably wasn't the best setup to encourage you to come back over the next couple of weeks. And, but Jesus deals with some of the most hot button, controversial issues that we even face today here in this sermon. It actually starts back in Matthew chapter four, might be on the same page for you. But if you look at verse number 23 of Matthew chapter four, it says this, and Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments and those which were possessed with devils and those which were lunatic and those that had the palsy and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. And so if you look in verse 23, I want you to see, cause this is the theme and this is what sets up the entire series on the sermon on the Mount is this. And in verse number 23 of chapter four, he goes around and he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
He's preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Now Jesus, when he came and he walked and he taught on this earth, he talked regularly about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, here the gospel of the kingdom. And the kingdom was something that really made everybody curious. They want that kingdom. They look forward to that kingdom.
They long for that kingdom. Some of us are there today, aren't we? We're longing for the kingdom and what he's going to do here in Matthew five, Matthew seven, he is gonna start teaching his apostles, the disciples, many critics that gathered. Anytime Jesus went anywhere, a crowd of people would gather around him and not all of them were there to follow him.
Not all of them were disciples of him. And so he's gonna teach this large multitude of people. And as he's going to teach them, here's what the theme of Matthew five through seven is. This famous sermon that Jesus preached, the sermon on the Mount is in this, he's talking about the kingdom. He's talking about the kingdom.
And here's what Jesus is saying in summary of the next few chapters that we're gonna look at. He's going to tell them that this kingdom that he's talking about, the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom that you long for, the kingdom that we desire to see, he's gonna tell them that that kingdom looks absolutely nothing like our kingdom. In fact, that kingdom, it's gonna be so far from what the kingdoms that we try to build here on this earth.
It's gonna look different. The people of that kingdom, they behave different. The people of that kingdom, they respond different.
Everything about that kingdom is much different than the kingdoms that we build here on this earth. And so he begins this sermon, as he's gathered all these people around and he begins to talk about what that kingdom is going to look like. And he's gonna say that that kingdom that is far different than any of the kingdoms that we build here on this earth, it's gonna look much different. And that kingdom, we as followers of Jesus, we can start to exemplify what that kingdom looks like down here on earth. Remember he prays, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Listen, he's saying this, that that kingdom that we look forward to, that kingdom that we desire to see, that kingdom that we wish everybody would act and behave and function like, he said that we as followers of Jesus, we should be looking and acting like that kingdom.
In verse number one of chapter five, says, and he saw the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and when he was set down, which was customary for them to sit down and teach, for rabbis to sit down and teach, his disciples came unto him and in verse number two, he opened his mouth and he taught them saying. Now, he's gonna begin this famous sermon with something that is very familiar to all of us. He's gonna start with the beatitudes, the beatitudes. This is something that, like I said, if you've grown up in church, you've heard these preached, you've heard these talked about, many of you might have memorized these at some point in your Sunday school class or your Awana class or Word of Life or something like that. And this is something very familiar, but the beatitudes, I wanna explain.
So if you've never heard of these before, I want to kind of mention what that is. And the word beatitude is actually a Latin word. The word literally means blessed or to be blessed, which is what you have translated here. The original word, that word blessed, that we have in English is from a Greek word and the Greek word is makarios, makarios.
Let's all say that together just to have fun. Here we go, makarios, all right, there you go. There's your Greek class for today. And the word makarios, and this is where we gotta understand what he's talking about here in the next several verses, is the word makarios in Greek, it actually can be translated blessed, which is what we have, but it can also be translated as happy, as happy. And so I want you to know that the word in Greek, it's more than a superficial type of happiness. It's really talking about our spiritual well-being, our spiritual well-being or a deep joy that is in our soul. And so when we see that word blessed, I want you to understand that what it's talking about is our spiritual well-being, what can provide the joy down deep in your soul that you are looking for. When we think about happiness, a lot of times we think the things like here on this earth, right, you know, what makes you happy?
If I was to ask you that, that might mean a bunch of different things to a lot of different people in here. Some of you, it's like getting away and going to the beach. How many of you are happy when you're at the beach and your feet are in the sand and the sand is in your shorts and it never goes away? You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not my idea of happiness, okay, at all.
I do not like the beach and stuff like that. But some of you think, man, that's what makes me happy. Others, it's more the mountains experience, right? How many of you are, that's where you are.
You got a view of the mountains and that kind of thing. Those are the spiritual people and stuff, you know, but it's a joke. But you know, you have things like that. Some of you might say, hey, you know, what makes me happy is a few days away from my kids and stuff, anybody in here? It's Father's Day, we can't say yes to that, okay?
The ladies, you can raise your hand on that, but guys, you can't do that today, all right? But we look at things and we think like happiness and what we do is happiness a lot of times. We think what makes us happy, it all is determined by our happenings. What is happening around us, the circumstances that we find ourself in, the vacation that we are longing for. All these happenings around us, if we can control the happenings around us, then we will be happy. I want you to know that what he's gonna talk about in the Beatitudes, it's not that superficial happiness like that.
It's not the superficial. No, he's saying that your spiritual wellbeing and what provides the deep joy down deep in your soul. He's saying that is what he's gonna talk about and that's what all of us long for. How many of you want that joy down deep in your soul? I know I do.
Every single one of us, I don't think any of you came in here and said, you know what? I don't want any joy today. You want that.
We desire that. And he's saying that the way to do that, the way to experience joy down deep in your soul is found in the beginning of this sermon. And we're gonna look at this, we're gonna dissect all the Beatitudes here today. It's gonna be a little bit of a different sermon. So for some of you regular people that are used to kind of taking notes and things like that in our sermons, that's great.
And you'll have some things up on the screen that you can do, but I'm a traditional Baptist pastor and preacher. So I like three points and stuff. I don't have any points today. Now, here's what some of you are thinking.
We're gonna get out early. Now, I mean, I can't guarantee you that. But I'm just gonna tell you, if you're looking for point one, point two, you might not see that. I'm just gonna slowly work through these Beatitudes with you and give you a little bit of application.
And that's what we'll do today. So in verse number three, he mentions the first one. So he opens up his mouth, he sits down, he's speaking to a multitude of people, people that were followers, disciples, sick people. They had everybody in that audience and all of them are gathered together to hear Jesus teach.
And as Jesus opened up his mouth, he starts this famous sermon, the greatest sermon ever with the Beatitudes. And he says this, blessed, macarios, happy, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, if you look at this and you think of happiness, happiness and poor, does that really go together?
How many of you kind of sit out and say, man, I'm gonna be really poor one day and that's where I will find deep happiness, right? Nobody says that. So when he uses this, you can imagine the kind of people in the crowd, the disciples and the people listening, they're thinking like, really? Like what in the world? And remember what Jesus is doing in this sermon is he's contrasting his kingdom with our kingdom. And so it's going to look different. It's going to feel different.
It's going to behave different. And he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, what he's saying is this, is happy are those who have experienced a deep poverty in their spirit. Here's what it means.
If you write in your Bible, you can write this down next to it. Here's what poor in spirit can refer to. It's spiritual bankruptcy.
It's spiritual bankruptcy. He's saying those that are poverty in your spirit. It's those who recognize they are unworthy. And it's those who recognize that they have full dependence upon God. He's saying, when he says poor in spirit, he's saying those who show up every day and realize that they have nothing in and of themselves to offer.
And that's all of us, right? The scripture talks about that. The scripture says this, that on your very best day, okay, this isn't going to encourage us today, okay? So if you're looking for just a real positive message, this might not be it, but here's the thing. It says this, that on your very best day, you know what your righteousness is like?
Filthy rags. That doesn't sound good, right? That doesn't sound like, wow, I'm pretty good in and of myself. I can do things on my own. That's the point. He says this, that his kingdom, happy. True happiness, true joy down deep in your soul. The thing that will make your spirit have wellbeing.
The thing that we're looking forward to. That thing, he says, here's what it requires. You have to be poor in spirit. You have to recognize that and embrace your total dependence upon God, regardless of what you have. In other words, this beatitude is a prayer saying, God, I am just as dependent on you today as if I had absolutely nothing. It's you waking up every single day saying, God, I am dependent upon you for everything. The breath that I breathe, the people around me, everything, God, I need you because in my spirit, I have nothing. I am poor in spirit, but in a relationship with you, I have everything that I ever need.
Listen, I'll tell you this. God always fills empty hands. You wanna know why God struggles to fill your life?
It's because your hands are full of the things that you think you've accomplished. The things that we can bring. God, here it is. God, I got everything.
Man, I'm smart and I'm all these different things and you have this list and stuff. Here's the type of hands that God wants to fill. It's those that come with absolutely nothing. The empty hands that you say, I have nothing worth giving. Those are the hands that God wants to fill. Listen, blessed, happy, joyful are those that are poor in spirit. He goes on in verse number four to give us the next one. And remember, this is so different than our kingdom because we would think, no, blessed are the rich, right? Our kingdom would say that. Our kingdom would say in verse number four, blessed are those that don't experience sadness, right?
No, you know what he says, verse four? Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Like, what is Jesus trying to tell us?
He's saying that his kingdom is so different. This mourning can mean a bunch of different things because life, we mourn, right? I was at a funeral service on Thursday for Ms. Quinda's mom and there was mourning, such a phenomenal service by the way. But like, it was crazy, like we're mourning, right? Grief, it provides mourning and it's difficult.
Some people were like, you know, that's what it means. Some people say that here in verse number four, blessed are they that mourn. It can mean mourning over your sin in your life, the sin in your life. And here's what I want you to know, is he's saying that happiness, true joy in your soul, the thing that you're looking for the most is for you to show up every single day mourning and hating and being broken over the sin that you've committed. He's saying, blessed are those that mourn. And by the way, those that are mourn, you know what it says, Revelation chapter 21, which is way down as God's gonna institute his kingdom. You know what he says then, is that at that point, like we might be mourning now over our sin now and happy are those that do it, that recognize that they have nothing to give God, that's poor in spirit. And also beyond that, we are broken, sinful and in need of God's grace and mercy into our life, we mourn over our sin. You know what he says, Revelation chapter 21, one day when he comes to institute his kingdom, he says that every tear that you cry is gonna be wiped away. He's gonna wipe it all away. And what he's saying is here, mourn over your sin.
There, I'm gonna wipe it all away. He goes on in verse number five, says blessed are the meek. Once again, like meekness is not something we like to do or achieve. They shall inherit the earth, right? We sometimes think of meekness as weakness.
Don't we? Right, we don't desire, you know, like I don't see a lot of young people saying, you know, when I grow up, here's what I wanna be. I wanna be meek, right? We don't have a lot of men probably in the audience saying, really, I want my daughter to find the meekest guy in the world. Meekness, a lot of times we associate it with like a weakness, if you would. Here's what meekness is. And by the way, the Bible celebrates meekness.
This is a fruit of the Spirit. It's something that once you have a relationship with God, meekness is a result of that relationship with God. Here's what meekness is. It's a proper estimation of yourself in the context of God's creation. In other words, meekness is viewing yourself properly. It's humility. It's recognizing that you are a part of God's plan, but you are not the center of God's plan. Some of us like to be the center of everything, don't we?
Right? We like for everything to be about us. And here's what meekness is. Jesus is saying this. Hey, His kingdom, it's those who are poverty in spirit, they have nothing to give. His kingdom, those who mourn over sin. His kingdom, those that are meek, recognizing that life is not all about Him or all about us. It's all about Him.
It's not about me. I'm a part of His plan, but I'm not the center of His plan. He goes on in verse number six. It says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. You know what Jesus is saying?
He's saying those that hunger and thirst. And some of you are saying, man, I'm pretty hungry and thirsty right now. Like pastor had me at Coke and steak, right? Any of you like that? And so when I see people walk out of the service in here, I'm thinking, man, I wonder if they're just going out and grabbing a piece of chicken real quick and coming right back in.
I don't know. And so, but here's the point is like, we hunger and thirst after things. We, you ever been really thirsty, right? You ever been really hungry? You're just ready to eat and you need to eat right now. And any of you get grumpy when you're hungry? Or let me ask you that a different way. How many of you would say the person next to you gets grumpy when they're hungry? Okay. Listen, we want to hunger and we want to thirst.
That's a part of life. And what Jesus says about his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the gospel of the kingdom, here's what he says. He says his kingdom, blessed, happy, makarios, those that want that joy deep down in your soul.
Here's where it's found. Hungering and thirsting, not for physical food, okay? But hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Say what's righteousness? Jesus is saying, happy are those that are committed to doing the right thing.
That are committed to doing the right thing. Just like we hunger and thirst for physical food, we should have that same spiritual hunger and thirst for spiritual things. Those that are right, the right things about life. And if you think about it, is this, look at your life. Many of you have lived a long life.
When you look back at your life, I'm 39, and so I hope God has a whole lot of life in front of me, but when I look at my short life, here's what I can tell you. Is that the biggest regrets that I have about my life and my experiences, you know what it is? The regrets always typically involve the wrong thing, don't they? Like when you look back at your life, I don't really have a regret obeying too much. I don't really look back at my life and say, man, when I was in my house growing up, mom and dad, I obeyed them too much. I wish I hadn't have done that, right?
Like I don't have a regret, no, but you know what I have a regret in is I have a regret and I couldn't keep my mouth shut in school, so I became a pastor so I could just talk all the time. But here's what I'll tell you. It's like I just couldn't keep my mouth shut in school and so here's what happened is I literally, I was a regular in the principal's office.
Like I was just a regular. I know that's surprising to everybody in here. I know you're like, what, really? I thought you were perfect and stuff, trust me, struggle. But I regret that, and when you look at your life, you look back and you regret and here's the regrets. It's the wrong things. What he's saying is this is happy joy down deep in your soul. It's found in hungering and thirsting and desiring the right things. The righteousness of Jesus, wanting to please him, wanting to obey him, wanting to do the right thing.
He goes on in verse number seven. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Jesus is saying this, that happy joy down deep in our soul is found, this is so good, and get this, because if you're searching for joy, which all of us want that, here's where it's found.
It's found in those that extend to others what Jesus has extended to you, mercy. In other words, Jesus is saying joy is found deep in your soul in the ones not seeking revenge, but the ones who experience mercy or give mercy. Happy are the ones that forgive, right? Happy are the ones that give to others what they do not deserve. Happy, blessed, makarios, joy down deep in your soul is found in those who don't hold grudges, those who demonstrate mercy, and here's why I'll tell you that's true, okay?
Because Jesus said it, but think about life. You ever met a happy person that's holding onto a grudge? I haven't, but I've met a bunch of unhappy people that can't get over something that happened a long time ago. You ever met a happy person that is harboring unforgiveness in their life, not willing to get over something that happened possibly 15, 20, 30 years ago, and so whatever happened to them, what somebody did to them, they're harboring unforgiveness, and here's what I'll tell you. That unforgiveness, it leads to unhappiness. What Jesus is saying is his kingdom's so different than our kingdom. His kingdom, happy. Joy is found in those that are merciful. Joy is found in those who are demonstrated mercy.
You could say it this way, happy are the ones that are relationally generous. Relationally generous, those that actually demonstrate and extend to others what we do not deserve, and here's the thing, none of us deserve God's mercy. If you believe that, can you say amen today? Listen, there's not a person in here worthy of the mercy of God, none of us, but you know what God did? God did not come, he did not send his son Jesus to die on a cross for the ones that deserve it. He did not die on a cross for the ones that grew up in a certain household. He did not die on a cross for any of the, no, you know what he did?
He died on a cross for a bunch of broken, sinful people that do not deserve the mercy of God, and what he's saying is his kingdom is all about a bunch of people that show up every day demanding, needing the mercy of God in their life, and out of that abundance of mercy, we're gonna demonstrate it and we're gonna show it to every person. You say, Pastor, you don't understand what that person said about me. Listen, I don't care because it pales into comparison to what you did to him.
It pales into comparison. Get over it, extend mercy. You say, Pastor, what they did robbed me of something.
Okay, but listen, the only one robbing you of the joy down deep in your soul that you long for is you because you are not extending the mercy that you have been given. He says, blessed, happy, makarios is the ones that are willing to extend mercy. He goes on, verse number eight.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It's almost, listen, it's almost as if here, Jesus, you know, the master teacher, and if you follow him in the gospels, you can see he's just incredible. It's the way he teaches and uses stories and illustrations and parables and different things like that. It's almost like he leans in. You know, he's middle of the sermon and he's been teaching on these things.
And it's almost like he leans in a bit and he starts to talk about something that every single one of them wanted to hear about. And that's how do we see God? How do we see God? That's what everybody, that's the question on our minds. How do we know God?
How can we see clearly? How can we see God at work in our life? How many of you want that?
Raise your hand. I believe everybody does. Listen, we wanna see God at work. You wanna go through a tragic time and see God's unseen hand in the middle of it? I want that. I wanna be able to see God. And he says, you know, that is the one thing to see that. There's one thing that leads there.
This is so good. He says, blessed, happy, joy down deep in your soul is found in the pure in heart. And here's the result. They're the ones who are gonna see God. Those that value purity.
And I'll just say this. We live in a culture that has lost all sense of morality. We live in a culture that don't even talk about purity anymore. We live in a culture that does not understand the word purity.
It's very rare that you can find a movie or a TV show or a song or any of those things that do not push the limits when it comes to morality and when it comes to purity. And here's what I want you to know is he's saying this, the way that we can see God, remember, you guys raised your hand. We all want that. We all wanna see God's hand at work in our life. We wanna know God. We wanna have that relationship with God. We wanna be close to God so that we can see him in all areas of our life.
Here's what he says. Purity leads to clarity. Purity is what will drive you and lead you to be able to see God. Every one of you that had your hand raised, you wanna know how to see him? It's found through living and being pure in heart.
That's what'll lead you. He goes on verse number nine. Remember, his kingdom, way different than our kingdom. Verse number nine. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Really? Jesus, does he not understand what people have done to them? He says, happy, joy down deep in our soul are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
You say, say why? Because God has made peace with us so he's telling us to make peace with others. That's the point. Is he saying, hey, God, he's made peace. And by the way, I'm gonna spend just a second on this here in a moment. But when you were born into this world, right? Like, we were born into this world into a relationship with him. That, or not us, but Adam and Eve. When God created mankind, you remember back in Genesis? He created Adam and Eve, and here's the beauty of that. Created the garden, and in the garden, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God. Do you ever think about that for a moment?
How awesome that must've been. Genesis chapter three, all of that changed. They sinned. And because of their sin, you know what was placed outside of the garden? Angels with swords, guarding the garden.
You know what they signify? Is now, in order to get into the presence of God, there had to be a sacrifice. And if you don't trust in the sacrifice, here's what happens.
You're the one that one day will experience the sword. We're gonna experience the judgment and wrath of God because of our sin. In other words, what the gospel says is that when you were born into this world, you and I, we were born with a hostile relationship with God.
There was no peace in between me and him. No, there was only judgment. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter two, we were enemies of him. We didn't come in here searching for him.
No, God sent Jesus down from heaven searching for you. And the point is, is we had a hostile relationship with him. And so what we're supposed to do, because God came and became our peace. Jesus became our peace so that now I can have a peaceful relationship with God. Now out of that peace, you should extend that peace to other people.
Listen, I'll tell you this. I don't know any troublemakers that are happy people. Any people that just refuse peace, right?
They refuse to reconcile. You know what happens? I see it all the time in church because in my world, people come to me when they have problems.
And so my job and my role is to let them reconcile, get them together, make everything right, forgive, forget, and that kind of thing. And here's what I'll tell you. I see a lot of people walk out of my office and stuff like that, and they'll walk out.
And then here's what's interesting. Those that refuse to reconcile, they live a unhappy life as a result. You can tell it on their face and there's not joy. But I see some that come out of it and they're like, listen, we're gonna forgive.
I'm gonna extend mercy because man, that's what God gave me. And they leave there and their relationship is reconciled. And you know what? They're joyful. That's what Jesus is saying. Blessed are the peacemakers. Happy are those that are reconciling. Happy and blessed are those that value the relationship more than our desire to prove that we are right.
You ever experienced that in your home? Here's why arguments happen in marriage. It's because you just want to be right. How many of you love, just be honest, there's no judgment in the room. How many of you love being right?
You just love it. You're like, man, my favorite thing in life is when they finally come to me and say, okay, I admit it. I admit it. You were right. And you just get joy in your soul, right?
I've never experienced that joy because I don't remember a time that's happened, okay? I'm not right to lie. But listen, here's the point. Here's the point. We all love to be right. Here's what Jesus is saying.
Sometimes we need to sacrifice that for the good of a relationship. Make peace. Happy are those that are peacemakers. Goes on verse 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then verse 11 goes on, doubles down on this. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
In other words, he's saying blessed are they which are persecuted. Happiness and persecution. Do those things go hand in hand very much? No.
Like I don't put those things together a lot. Yay, I got persecuted today. Most joyful I've been in a while, right?
No. But he says my kingdom, much different than your kingdom. Happy, macarius, joy down deep in your soul is found when you are persecuted for righteousness sake.
Here's the point. And young person, if you're in here and you're young and your life's in front of you and you got a long ways to go, here's what I want you to know because every adult will testify to this in the room. You are going to suffer in this life for either doing the right thing or for doing the wrong thing. You choose. Listen, I'll tell you this. I've experienced some suffering in my life because of the wrong thing. There's always suffering at the end of that road. You choose to do something bad. You choose to go against your parents.
Guess what? I'm just gonna tell you. And I'm warning you. There is suffering at the end of that path. And what Jesus is saying, because he knows this, there's suffering at the end of us wanting to do what we want to do.
There's suffering there. What Jesus comes in and says is this. Since there's suffering at the end of both paths, happiness is only found in one of the paths that you choose. Joy down deep in your soul is only found when you're willing to do the right thing and be persecuted for the right thing.
You see, happiness is found in doing the right thing. Now, if you look in Matthew 7, and I'll be done. At the end of the sermon, and we're gonna come back to these last couple of verses a lot in this series. The very end of the sermon, Jesus, this is so good, and I want you to see this. So we've seen all of these things. His kingdom looks different than our kingdom, right?
Looks way different. All these things, there's joy with those who make peace. There's joy in righteousness. There's joy in mourning. There's joy in being poor in spirit.
All these things that are so far from where we are. And he says that's where true joy is found down deep in your soul. And he says something at the end of this sermon that is so important, because we're gonna look at a lot of things in the sermon. He says this in verse number 24.
Verse number 24, he says, therefore, whosoever heareth these things, which is everybody, that's you, that's me, that's everybody that was in his crowd that day. And then he says, whoever hears them and doeth them. That means to practice them.
That means to follow them. That means not to just to hear it and say, wow, that was really good and leave here and not put it into practice. No, he says here, whosoever heareth them and goeth out in practicing them, okay? He's gonna liken him into a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And then if you look in verse number 26, he says the flip side of that is everyone that heareth these sayings and doeth them not.
In other words, you leave here and say, wow, that was really good, but doesn't really meet my, what I wanna do, doesn't really fit my situation, you know, that kind of thing. So I'm just gonna leave it right here. That person that doeth them not, they're gonna be likened into a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And we know the end of the result of this story, this parable, right? You got one guy, he practices the Sermon on the Mount.
He does it, he goes out and lives this. And here's the thing. It's like a man that has, you know, on a rock, solid foundation, right? And here's the thing about this story. The storm came, didn't it? The storm came and for you, I want you to know, storms are inevitable. Storms are inevitable in every single one of our lives.
And here's the thing, he's saying the difference between a stable foundation and a faulty foundation, the stable one still standing in the midst of the storm, the sand foundation wiped away, nothing to show for it. And here's the point. Happiness, joy down deep in your soul. Here's what I want you to know.
If you forget anything I say, don't forget this. We sow and we reap our way to the joy that we're looking for. Think about it.
Think about that. Like, you want that joy? You want the blessedness that he says? Yeah, we want all those things. We want the kingdom of heaven. We want it.
You guys all testify to that. Here's what I want you to know. We sow and reap what we experience. Joy is an outcome of daily things that we do, choosing to do the right thing, choosing to live at peace, choosing to reconcile, choosing to show up with nothing to bring, choosing to be dependent upon God, choosing to be mourning every day over our sin, choosing to be humble before God, recognizing we have nothing to give. When you choose that and you sow that and you reap that, the joy that you're looking for is on the other side of that but here's what I want you to know. Happiness has found that joy that we're searching for, the joy that we're sowing and reaping, it's found in a who, not a what. Listen, some of you, you're searching for joy in the right circumstances, the right happenings around you and if everything's happening around you that's good, then happiness is the result but we all know when things around us are not good, it results in unhappiness.
What he's saying is the joy down deep in your soul that you're looking for, it's only found in Jesus. When you look at Matthew 5, one through 11 and you see the beatitudes and you're like, what, any of you kind of look at that and say, man, that's impossible for me to do it, right? That's impossible for me to apply that. That's impossible for me to practice that.
What in the world am I gonna have to do? Here's what I want you to understand. None of you, okay, don't forget this, none of us in here are capable to do the beatitudes and to practice them in and of ourself.
Nobody, not the pastor in front, you, whatever. Here's the only way that we can practice that and see God's kingdom come to your life and to this earth is this. It's in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Some of you are trying to achieve it and you can't. Perhaps it's because you're trying to do everything in your own spirit, everything in your own strength and you can never do that because the scripture says we always fall short. That's why God loved you so much. He knew you couldn't do this. He knew that we could never, that we don't have the power and the strength and the energy and anything in and of ourselves to ever look like that kingdom. So what he did, he said, I love them so much that I'm gonna send my only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die and when Jesus died on the cross, he became victorious over your sin, over your shortcomings to be able to ever do this.
He became victorious over that and now if you trust in what Jesus did for you and in your place on the cross of Calvary, we have a relationship with him and the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity now comes to live inside of us and here's the beauty of that. The Holy Spirit living inside of you, one of the things the scripture says that he does, he convicts you of righteousness, sin and judgment. Here's the point is that God comes to live inside of you and now the only way you can live out and practice the Beatitudes, it's through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
You wonder why you can't reconcile something so bad? It's because you need to fix the relationship with Christ. You wonder why you just can't find the joy you're looking for it's all stems back to your relationship with Christ in the gospel and when my relationship with Christ is right, his strength comes out of me and now it's him working inside of me allowing me to be merciful to the ones that did me wrong, allowing me to be a peacemaker to those that don't deserve it, allowing me to show up every day with nothing to give him, poverty in my spirit and recognizing them. It allows me to move from pride to being me before God. See, that's the point is through the gospel. Some of you might need to trust in Jesus today and that's the missing component for you to experience his kingdom down on this earth. Would you pray for me? Pray with me today. Nobody's looking around, perhaps you're somewhat new to our church.
This is what we call an invitation, a response. It's a time where we can evaluate, where we can look into our soul and really start to look into our life to see, wow, are we practicing this the way that we should? Are we living out the things that Jesus has told us? If you're in here today and you say, pastor, like I'm not a Christian, I've never trusted in Jesus. Listen, nobody's gonna embarrass you, nobody's gonna come to you, nobody's gonna embarrass you at all, I promise you. I just wanna pray for you today. If that's where you are today, say I'm not a believer, I have doubts, I'm not sure about some things. If that's you, would you slip up your hand and if you don't feel comfortable, slip up your hand, make eye contact with me, I would love that so that I can pray for you. If that's where you are today, slip up your hand or make eye contact with me and say, pastor, I don't know Jesus as my savior.
If I were to die today, I don't know if I'm gonna wake up in his presence and I have doubts about that. That's where you are today, I wanna pray for you. But the rest of us in here that are Christians, you say, pastor, there's at least one beatitude.
I had a couple in my life this week. And if you're in here and you say, pastor, there's at least one of those that God spoke to me that I'm not putting into practice and I need his grace and I need his mercy to be living and breathing through me to help me with that. If that's you today, say one of those beatitudes really hit me like a ton of bricks. If that's you, would you slip up your hand in here today?
Yes, hands going up everywhere. Praise God for that, praise God for your honesty. Listen, just to be able to admit, hey, that's the step, right? Well, listen, I'm gonna pray for us. And I want you to stand at this time as I pray. Everybody's standing with me. Father, give us the courage to make decisions before you today. We love you for it's in your name.
Nobody's looking around. If your hand went up and you said, pastor, that's where I'm at, there was a beatitude that I struggled with. Maybe you need to come down here and pray, come down to an altar and make a decision or pray right there in your seat and ask God. Remember, it's not you. I don't want you to ever think that this sermon is about you just trying really hard every day.
Listen, your best try at it falls short. It's the gospel. It's his grace and mercy living and breathing through your life.
Ask him wherever you were like, man, I'm not reconciling. I'm not doing these things, just ask God for his grace and his mercy to give you the strength to be able to demonstrate to others what you have experienced in your life. If you're in here and you say, pastor, I'm not a Christian, I would love to talk with you after the service.
And I would love to show you because that's where it all begins. That's your next step today is to know Jesus as savior. And it's out of that relationship that you can live out and practice what Jesus said in the greatest sermon ever. Father, I love you. I thank you for your word, how it's alive, how it speaks to us.
It's practical. God, joy, that joy in our soul. God, it's only found in these things that you talk about, the kingdom of heaven. We're grateful. We love you for it's in your name we pray, amen.
