Sermon On the Mount - Beatitudes

Blessed Are You Who Are Stinky

Turn with with me to the book of Matty chapter 103:79-88. It says...

Blessed are you who stink for you will be single

Blessed are you who eat a lot of sugar for you will become fat

Blessed are you who survive eating the camp food for you have survived eating the camp food

Blessed are you who run for you will fall down and break your ankle

Blessed are you who jump for you will fall down and break your other ankle

Blessed are you who are smart for your homework will not be hard

Blessed are you who are dumb for your homework will be hard

Blessed are you who will work at McDonalds for you will receive a free lunch

Blessed are you who are able to listen through my whole sermon for you will be called my friend

But woe to you who fall asleep through my sermon for I will prank your cabin bed with spiders, crawdads, flesh eating scorpions, and other terrifying things of the like!!!

And bless your heart if you were convinced that there was actually a book called Matty and this was beautiful poetic piece of work was in it… for you will be called gullible and I laugh at you muwahahahahahah

Beatitudes Introduction

Okay, okay, get your giggles out now before I lay down some fire and bremstone teaching with a dash suffering in there!!! Jk

Anyway I will be preaching over the sermon on the mount mainly the beatitudes this evening! And what I want you to get, for those of you who are Christians in this room, is how blessed you are! I’m going to read this passage and its going to sound much more serious then the beatitudes! In fact for some of you its not going to sound like a blessing at all but by the end of this sermon I am you will be able to take your eyes of the things that are physical and put them on the things that are spiritual! Let’s get into to! So for realzys this time turn with me to the book of , it says...

Matthew 5:1–16 NIV

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Who is Jesus Speaking to at This Moment?

So who is Jesus speaking to at the moment? You might think it’s to the crowds, but actually from v1-16 he’s speaking to His disciples. In other words yes Jesus sees all these people that have gathered in His presence and yes He has compassion on them but before He turns to this multitude of people He turns to disciples first!

So I want to tell students, this passage is for Christians to hear. However I don’t want you who aren’t Christians (those who have not made the decision to make Jesus Christ your Lord and savior) to feel left out during this message, but the fact be made known its not for you, but I do hope and pray as I preach this message God will speak to your heart and maybe there will be something in the message that will make you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior! That is certainly my goal for this camp!

Anyway, Jesus is speaking to His 12 disciples those who are His and in retrospect those who are saved today because we are his disciples!

If you want to argue that Jesus is just speaking to his 12 disciples and not to us to today I will gladly show you that you are wrong by showing you the looping effect passage found in ! lol

Without further ado I’m kinda getting long winded and on a rabbit trail lets get to the passage itself!

The Poor, the Weeper, and the Meek

So at first glance I at this piece of scripture I became confused, appalled, disturbed even! I didn’t know what to think of it! I mean how blessed can you be if you’re poor, why is being poor make you blessed? Why are you blessed if your crying all the time! Why are you blessed if you are meek, sure its a cute word!

Do I have to be poor all my life?

Do I have cry and look all upset?

Do I have to be quit and meek all the time?!

How can I show Jesus if people see that I look misserable all the time?

What if I get a job that pays me decently can I keep or should I get rid of it and become poor?

Can’t I be happy sometimes?

Is it wrong to be bold and speak up?

It was confusing to me and I always asked those questions, that is, until I went to HLG and got a fancy smancy bible degree. It was there I actually understood what Jesus was saying here!

Jesus wasn’t saying that you have to be poor, He wasn’t saying your life has to be filled with mourning, and He wasn’t saying you have to be a meek little rabbit either.

But what He is saying, as you will find out in v10-12, that those of us who are faithful to Him will suffer. That yes that might mean you becoming discourage or physically poor, it might mean that you will mourn because of all the persecutions you’ve seen and faced (I am certain that the early Christians had tears come to their eyes when they and other Christians were being beaten and killed for the faith). Yes God is asking you are to be meek relying on God in every situation, in that you are to be arrogant!

The Reward Outweighs the Ugily

Now I know some of you might still be saying in your heads,

“Like how is being poor, mourning, and meek a blessing?! The Christian life doesn’t sound like a blessing but a curse!” Still other of you might say,

“If such suffering comes with the Christian life then I don’t want to be apart of it... at all!”

And to that I would say,

“Fine, but I’m sure the eternal fires of hell are a lot worse than anything you’d face on earth as a Christian!”

Let me direct your attention for statements. It says “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… for they shall be comforted… for they will inherit the earth.”

In other words the rewards outweigh the suffering! That yes there is going to be suffering in life but usually there is for all things that have immense value…

For example: If you were to build a multi-billion dollar company, you couldn’t honestly tell there wouldn’t be long hours, sweat, tears, times where money isn’t adding up, months of being sleep deprived… aka you couldn’t tell me that there isn’t going to be some suffering for you to build that company! News flash, unless you live in a very rich and wealthy family, there will be a lot of suffering. But let me tell you at the end of the day the suffering will direct your focus make and show just how worth it, it all was!

Just in this passage the suffering due to your faithfulness will put into perspective how worth it it all is, for the reward are great!

And it goes on to say in v6-10…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And then Jesus sums it all up by pointingly saying to His disciples in v11-12...

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is all to say that yes there will be suffering but the blessings that is stored because of your faithfulness in light of your suffer if far greater! And listen to me student we all want to partake in that blessing!

Salt and Light