4 things God blesses

Intro

Did you know that God LOVes to bless people? did you know htat He actually created us to live in a way that we constantly recieve blessing from Him? Did you know that it is part of His plan to bless you??

We will get into that :)

The Sermon on the mount intro

This is the sermon on the mount! Before we look to see what Jesus has for us I want to tell you something special about this part of the Bible. THetre are so many areas of the Bible where we look at Jesus teaching, HIs amazing words., actions, and stories and we learn from it. This part is different. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus specifically lays out so many things. He does this for anyone interested in following Him. He begins HIs ministry by showing the people of the world “this is who I am”, He explains “this is who my people are”, He illustrates “This is what it looks like to live with me.

It is so interesting to me to see how often Christianity gets explained in such a sad way. People will ask “what is a Christian?” or “how do you know you are a christian?”.

Far too often, questions like these are answered with things Christians DONT DO. Someone asks what a Christian is and we say, well I try not to cuss, or I dont think it is good to have sex before getting married, or I try not to be mean to people or whatever. We find ourselves explaining what a Christian ISNT. Well, This morning we get to see it straight from Jesus. He clearly explains the kind of life that God blesses.

He is surrounded by people who are just trying to figure it out just like everyone else. And Jesus knew that they were lost. they had no idea how to live a life that honored God. They did not know How to live their lives for God. This is exactly the kind of thing Jesus came for so He shares a few ways to think.

So Jesus doesn't leave them lost, He shares with them exactly what it looks like to live a life that is blessed by GOd.

Passage

Matthew 5:1–12 NIV

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

These are those who are completely without financial means and are FORCED to rely on God.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven

When we realize our need and turn to God, something very special happens. He shows us that we actually DONT need material possessions. He shows us that He is all we need.

As a result of turning to God, there are 2 things that Jesus says He gives us here. The first thing He gives us is His kingdom here on Earth right now. God actually uses Christians to build His kingdom here on Earth. He build His kingdom by using us to spread His love and change the world around us.

The 2nd part here is that, not only do we get to live life with Jesus here now, we get to live with Him forever in heaven AND THAT IS TRULY GOING TO BE BREATH TAKING. The Bible says that, what we see now as a dim reflection, we will one day see clearly. If we know Jesus, we will experience the purest life with Him forever in Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn

The word “mourn” is talking about someone who experience hard times. You can think about something bad happening to someone and them crying or being upset about it. These are people who get upset about something and turn to God for help.

This is hard for us today. If we see someone doing this we often take it the wrong way. We go through great lengths to avoid crying in front of people. We have so many things that we use to attempt to distract us from hard things that we go through. You know, God wants to see you through that pain. It is not uncommon at all for people today to be sad or upset and just go do something that gets their mind off that sadness. We may even get close to crying and we do whatever we can to think about something else.

well, Jesus says something different about this short term sadness. He says that there is actually something good about getting it out. It is so important for us to process when we are upset. When someone who we love moves away or dies, instead of trying not to think about it, it can be really good to just get it out, pray about it, and move though it.

well, Jesus says something different about this short term sadness. He says that there is actually something good about getting it out. It is so important for us to process when we are upset. When someone who we love moves away or dies, instead of trying not to think about it, it can be really good to just get it out, pray about it, and move though it.

For they will be comforted

Jesus is showing here what the result is when someone hurts and turns to God. He says that they will be comforted. I dont know about y’all, but I know for me there have been many times in my life when I have been upset and done things to try and get my mind off of it. There have been plenty of times when I was sad and did things that I thought would help. Jesus shows us the one thing that actually works. Jesus shows us the one way that actually TAKES AWAY THE PAIN. and thats taking your pain to God.

You have to imaging all the people who were present there listening to Jesus. Many of these people had been going through so much and they were so excited to finally here the way to make the pain stop.

Blessed are the meek

The word meek refers to a person who realizes their place in God’s world. A meek person knows that they are a sinner and have messed up and they dont deserve GOd’s love. This is a person who, when hurt or bullied, or picked on, trusts God to deal with the person who did them wrong.

When someone treats us wrongly we often want to take things into our own hands. We want to get them back or same something back to them or when someone says something mean to us we think its okay to put our hands on them to teach them a lesson. THAT IS NOT WHAT GOD CALLS US TO DO. this is us acting like GOd Is not in control and He does not know what hes doing and so we take it to our own hands.

For they will inherit the Earth

So what happens when we are meek like that? What happens when we control our urge to retaliate evil for evil? What happens when we rely on God to take care of the situation rather than take it into our own hands? GOD WILL USE US IN THE FUTURE AS LEADERS IN HEAVEN WHEN HE RETURNS!!!!

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

All Jesus is saying here is that God blessed people who want what God wants. He is saying that God actually blesses people who what the things that God says are right. God blesses people who Make what is important to Him, important to them. SO HOW DOES HE BLESS THEM?

For they will be filled

This is such a cool blessing. As Jesus is telling the people gathered How God blesses those who want the things that God wants, He said That, if you want what God wants then you will be completely satisfied. He says that God will one day give you all those things in heaven.

Blessed are the merciful

For the will be shown mercy

Challenge:

it is almost impossible to live for God when we dont know His word. Your challenge is to memorize

We will start helping you do this right now, but whoever can do it this Wednesday night will win extra chocolate for their entire small group!