The Blessed And Happy Life (7)

Today we are in part 7 of our series on the Blessed and Happy life as taught in the Bible.Our journey to learn this started in Psalm one where David taught us that there are two types of people.Some are like trees and some are like chaff.He said the blessed person is the person that is like the tree planted by the water where it bears fruit in its season, meaning that even when the storms of life come it stays strong and stable.Where the other person is like chaff. Where when the storms of life come you are just blown around by them.There is nothing happy or blessed about that.His lesson was what makes us strong is when we have God in our life.Not just a belief in God but where God actually is the main part of your life.Where the godless, meaning those without God they will always be victims of life’s circumstances.From there we went and spent several lessons looking at Jesus’ view in the Sermon on the Mount about the Blessed and Happy life.What we have learned about Jesus’ message is that it was given to people that were going through huge times of suffering, some of which are like ours.And Jesus didn’t address their issues but pointed them to God.He gave the road map to God and HIs blessings, If you were poor in spirit meaning dependent upon Him, If you mourn your sin and look to Him, if you don’t let your emotions control you but God control you and if you hunger and thirst to be right with God and to please Him Then you will be blessed because God will give you the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, He will comfort you, He will give you what you need and best of all you will be totally satisfied.Pretty great truths to learn but even better to experience.With all of that in mind let me tell you where we go today.All of the lessons we have learned about the blessed and happy life have pointed us straight to God.Because without Him there is no blessed life, there is no stability.He is what makes us the tree and not chaff.And as we meditate on these it should do one great big thing in your life and that is drive you to God.As we learned last week that is such a satisfying place to be.So it is easy to get the place where you say I just want more of God and you can develop an attitude that He is all I need.It’s just me and God and we can live happily and blessed ever after.I will just be that stable fruit bearing tree.There is just one slight problem with this. Actually there are 7,684,150,241 problems with that thinking.That’s the number of people you share the planet with.It’s not just you and God we have to learn to live with people.What we will start learning for the next three weeks as we finish this study is the first part of getting the Blessed and Happy life is you get this right (Vertical) but then you have to get this (horizontal) right.We can never have the blessed life if we don’t learn to live with people.What Jesus does here today is once He deals with the being right with God and pleasing GodHe moves right to where we must start staying connected with people.Our take home for today is the first step. We must be merciful.Today we will learn what this means and how we do it.If we don’t we will have trouble with ever being Happy and Blessed.Actually we will have 7,684,150,240 possible reasons why we will not experience the blessed and Happy life.Let’s read

Matthew 5:2–10 ESV

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

As I have read these Beatitudes again and again over the last week I would have thought verse 6 would have been the perfect ending to the story.where That’s the verse Jesus points out that the blessed or happy person is the satisfied person. That all comes from having the strong desire to be right with God and to please Him.If you do then satisfaction comes.I love that thought. Satisfaction. I want to enjoy that.But Jesus doesn’t end there. He goes on.Like all the Beatitudes He points out the rout to a blessing.And this one is interesting because the blessing and the rout is the same.Jesus said the the Blessed person is the person that is shown mercy, and the way to be shown mercy is to show mercy. It’s a circle.So let me start by giving you the definition of mercy.Probably the easiest way to understand mercy is that it is not getting what you deserve. Or another definition is that mercy is Free and immediate forgiveness for wrongdoings. Rather than giving you what you deserve.Let me repeat these because I find this important to learn if we want to understand how to apply this.

Mercy is giving free and immediate forgiveness for wrongdoings and or not giving you what you deserve. Think about this for a moment.In this teaching that Jesus is giving us He has spent the first four steps to the blessed life taking us to God.The person who gives us stability no matter what we face.Why on earth would He now talk about our need to show mercy.Why would our path to the Blessed and Happy life include me needing to not give people what they deserve and needing to give free and immediate forgiveness?Why?Let me to you exactly why.If you have been in this church for a while there have been a few times where I have asked you to look at the person next to you and the person in front of you and behind you.So let’s do it again today. Please introduce yourself.Aren’t they nice people.Now If we went back to Psalm 1 and remember that blessed person is like the tree, they are planted, they are stable and when the storms of life come they are not going to be broken but still standingThey are not like chaff that just gets blown around by the storms and trials of life.Right? We have learned that.Well here is the a truth.That person you looked at and met very well could be the reason for your trial and the storm that you are going through.They are what test you to see if you are a tree or chaff.You don’t even need to look at the billions of other people, you can just look right in your home and church.BECAUSE If you are around that person you MET long enough that person will HURT your in some way, That person will FAIL your expectations, They will DISAPPOINT you from time to time, they very well could BREAK YOUR HEART, they will SAY something that will affect you and pierce you, They will LET YOU DOWN, They will make a MISTAKE and they will BREAK A PROMISE, maybe steal and lie.And if you happen to be married to that person you can’t hide from them or avoid them.People will cause you more storms than you can possibly imagine.I would say people problems hurt far worse than all the other ones.Because that is the reality of life - Jesus couldn’t end with just teaching us how to be satisfied with just you and God.He is now teaching us how to deal people. He doesn’t start with teaching us how to relate to the people that we like and are being nice to us.He starts with how to deal with the people that disappoint us, break their promises, let us down, lie to us, fail and hurt us.BECAUSE NOBODY IS PERFECT WE ALL DO IT TO EACH OTHER. HOW?Well Jesus doesn’t say correct them, show them where they messed up, confront them or anything like that.He starts with telling us we need to show mercy.Give free and immediate forgiveness and don’t give people what they deserve.It is the first step we must know and do when it comes to (Horizontal)AND I BELIEVE THIS IS ABOUT THE HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD TO DO.WE don’t naturally like to give free and immediate forgivenessWe like to see people get a little of what they deserve.Jesus is saying that is not the rout to the blessed and happy life.The way to get the blessed and happy life is to learn to give free and immediate forgiveness to people and don’t give people what they deserve.Let me point out the obvious. The reason you need to forgive is because they hurt you not because they are so good.Jesus said if you learn to do this you will receive mercy - you will be freely and immediately forgiven and not given what you deserve.It’s a circle.If you want to experience the mercy of God and I believe the mercy from others you must show mercy.Let me give you the application of where we go wrong.The teaching of Jesus is not hard to understand but why is it so hard for us to do.Also you test to see if this is a big one for you.First ask yourself, are you constantly having people problems?Are they your big trial? Do you find you have a hard time showing mercy - Meaning quick to give free forgiveness and not want to give them what they deserve?Matthew 7:1-2 teach us something that will helpBefore I read it let me give you the background.Matthew 7 is somewhat of a recap of Matthew 5 & 6What I mean by that is Jesus is now taking some of the real important teachings He gave and tells us how to apply them.Expanding upon them.Guess where He starts. It’s how to deal with the 7 Billion potential problems we could have.Let me read what He says

Matthew 7:1–2 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

If you want to show mercy you must deal with your judgmental attitude.How do we do that? It has to do with how we measure people.Jesus said with the measure you use it will be measured to you.Here is the picture.We all have a measuring stick.It could be, if you are nice to me I will be nice to you.If you give to me I will give to you.If you are mean to me I will be mean to you or ignore you.If you let me down, hurt me, say something that offends me then we will not be connected.We all have that.Jesus’ teaching is simple.Change your measuring stick.The stick He wants you to use is mercy.Just know the reason the person you met earlier is going to hurt you, break their promises and all those other things.Is because nobody is perfect.So because of that, use mercy as you stick.Just know that they are hurt and broken in some waySo be quick to to give free and total forgiveness and not want to see them get what they deserve.If you do that you will be much happier and fulfilled.People wont bother you and be your storm.There is a spiritual law. How you judge others, the stick you use is the stick others will use on you.Do you want others to quickly forgive you. You need to start the process.Of course who is the model? JesusWhat if He gave you what you deserved?