Getting back on track

Intro

English Standard Version Chapter 5

The Sermon on the Mount

5 Seeing the crowds, ohe went up on the mountain, and when he psat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

2 And qhe opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 r“Blessed are sthe poor in spirit, for utheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are vthose who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the wmeek, for they wshall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and xthirst yfor righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are zthe merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are athe pure in heart, for bthey shall see God.

9 “Blessed are cthe peacemakers, for dthey shall be called esons1 of God.

10 f“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for utheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 g“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely hon my account. 12 iRejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for jso they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Making of bad coffee

When making coffee, the process is vital, it is important to focus on each step of the coffee making experience to make the greatest gift that God has given us. To ignore a step, radically changes the taste of the coffee. To get the steps out of order could cause for a mouth full of grinds. It is the same thing in our christian lives.

Often times, we seek sanctification before we seek being made pure through God. This is never our intention, but this is often our practice. We get caught up in legalism, seeking for people to look, act, talk, and feel a specific way, but in reality there isn’t change in their heart. In reality, there is no second half of their be-attitude.

Tonight, we wil focus on the process of salvation and justification in the life of a christian through the be-attitutdes. we will walk through each, focusing on their lesson, and seeing a natural progressoion in our souls of how we must seek God, See God, then Mirror God. In the rest of the sermon of the mount, we see that doors open for us to judge. Passages on lust, passages of on divorce, there is room for judgement in all these passages. But the way that Jesus starts this sermon is vital. it is the focus before you can get to anything else. It read the rest of the sermon without this intro is to take it out of context.

We see that this is a progression for our lived that we all live by. To Mirror God without the relationship is what we see causes legalism. Legalism is the absense of the spirit of God and if a failure to even listen to the beatitudes in our lives. Lets begin as we look into Seeking God in Verse 3

Seeking God:

3 r“Blessed are sthe poor in spirit, for utheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

3 r“Blessed are sthe poor in spirit, for utheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The first thing in looking at who we are in the spirit, is acknowloging our utter dependance on God. In it says “This is the man to whom I will look,” the Lord says, “he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (). These are the poor in spirit.

“This is the man to whom I will look,” the Lord says, “he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (). These are the poor in spirit.

Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 95). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Pres

The ability to be humble is one of the strongest characteristics of man. CS Lewis says it this way “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but rather thinking of yourself less”. The life of the christian is constantly a reminder that we are called to not be about ourselves, not seek our own provisions, seek our own comfort, but rather to seek God, and allow him to move us whereever we go.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

4 “Blessed are vthose who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Often times when we think of mourning, we automatically go to the passing of someone, but I believe that mourning is more than the absense of a person, but rather the feeling of an absense of anything. The ability to realize not only what we Have but what we dont have is a deep revelation. It is easy for us to think about what we physically dont have: bigger houses, larger paychecks, and bigger materials floods our minds and hearts. The ability to Mourn over what we dont have in christ, we see that God will comfort those needs. The ability to look at our lives as we are in a desperate need of God and his graces in our lives,

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 “Blessed are the wmeek, for they wshall inherit the earth.

Meekness is our ability to be reserved in our strengths. A ability to speak humbly and not to domineer is one that is opposite of what we have always been told. In our worklives we seek for people who stand out, people who present their knowledge, but rather what this tells us is to not boast in your strengths but be content with where you are.

look, when we see the first three of these attributes we see that Jesus is demanding the disciples to not work on their own rights, but rather the rights of God. Humility is key, not us.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and xthirst yfor righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and xthirst yfor righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are zthe merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Both of these show a deep desire to want more. The strong language of hunger and thirst is our ability to seek God for our righteouness. our ability to ask mercy is our desire to receive mercy.

Such a complicated desire is one that we often overlook. To give mercy is the ability to receive it. The more that we want to lean in our desire for mercy, we must realize that we must first give it. This changes how we interact with others. This changes how we look at our lives and

First we looked at Seeking God in our lives, now we see our need to see God:

See God:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 “Blessed are athe pure in heart, for bthey shall see God.

At the core of our life, we see that being pure at heart is only one that comes through in our salvation. Being pur in heart only cane come through Christ. in the past 5 verses, we see how our need to seek God, now we see that onc we seek God, once we find God, a pure heart follows. Jesus later said, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (15:19). The heart is not the place where we naturally expect purity,28 but Jesus demands purity right there. To be pure in heart is to be pure throughout (cf. )

not only w ill we see God in eternity, but the sense and measure of this is true in our life here and now. We are people that see God in a different way than the impure.

Jesus later said, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (15:19). The heart is not the place where we naturally expect purity,28 but Jesus demands purity right there. To be pure in heart is to be pure throughout (cf. )

Now that we have Sought God, we have seen God, now we Mirror God.

28 “All agree that purity of heart is the mother of all virtues, but there is scarcely a man in a hundred who does not put smart dealing in the place of the highest virtue” (Calvin, I, p. 171).

Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 100). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsit

Mirror God:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

9 “Blessed are cthe peacemakers, for dthey shall be called esons1 of God.

Do people really think that we are able to make peace? jesus isnt referring to peace keepers, but rather peace makers. it is easy to keep the peace. It is easy to take a non hostile situation and keep the peace going. The hard part of any life is to make the change of hostility to peace. Churches are constantly closing because this isnt a characteristic of their lives. Peace isnt a priority, therefore they are displaying the image of christ. It was always hard to change the mind of those in hostility, but thats what Jesus does. Does this mean you never stand for what is right? No, Jesus flipped the tables. Jesus caused division in the government, but it was all done in humility and with a peaceful heart. Often times, peace causes fthe most action in our lives.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

10 f“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for utheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 g“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely hon my account. 12 iRejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for jso they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The last 2 beattitudes are ones that are more of a promise. If you adhere to seeking God, if you see who God is and have a pure heart, if you are mirroring God, There will be persecution, and in that our reward is in heaven. Every single person who follows evil suffer from a punishment, but holding to these means you will have persecution.

Where are we?

Do we seek god? Do we mirror God?

Maybe we still need to see God.