Sermon Tone Analysis

Happy Father’s Day

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Mikey Gullett’s Celebration of Life Service is this Saturday, June 25 at 11am.

Feel free to bring a dish, drinks, or deserts if you would like.

Worship Team Meeting is this Wednesday, June 22 at 7pm.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time, one book at a time.

Please continue to pray for Laura and Art Stubbs!

Praise God for Brent’s teaching last week !

Thank you for the cake, cards, and gifts regarding graduation.

God is good!

We have come a far as Matthew 5:6.

Read Matthew 5:1-7

Prayer

Father, we thank You for your Word for the amazing truth that we’re going to be looking at this morning, and Father, we would desire above all things that the Holy Spirit would teach us and would lead our time together.

Lord, help us to discover the nuggets of the passage we will study today and practical apply them into our lives.

Please comfort Laura and Art and bring forth healing and hope from the difficult season of life that they are in and meet us Lord we we are at, remove all distractions and speak to our hearts.

Give us ears to hear this day and all the days of our lives Father.

And as we close this prayer, we wanted to say thank you for our father’s and may you bless them on this special day, encourage the father’s that cannot be with their children and Abba Father, we honor and glorify you today!

Come Holy Spirit and teach us we pray.

In Jesus Name, we Love You! Amen and Amen

Researchers have found almost no correlation between income levels and happiness.

Between 1957 and 1990 income levels in the U.S. doubled.

Yet at the same period, people’s levels of happiness did not increase.

In fact, reports of depression actually increased tenfold.

Incidence of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse also rose dramatically.”

As you know, we are in the beatitudes and the word Blessed means to be happy, to blissful, to have joy that is not found outside of self, but through a realtionship with God.

The happiness that the Lord is teaching is not found in conformity to a bunch of religious rules or standards, but quite the opposite.

Have you ever met a religious person who try’s to keep a bunch of rules?

How happy are they?

Review

Looking back over the last few weeks, it is importnat for us to remember that Jesus is speaking things that are counter cultural to the religious folks and he is turning over the tables of our hearts.

He said if you want to be happy, joyful, or blissful in the midst of the most difficult circumstances of life then:

You must recognize your spiritual bankruptcy.

This means that no matter what you try, no matter what you try to fulfill your self with does not work, therefore you come to the place of being poor in spirit>> for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted and this is true for suffering, loss, and grief.

But the deeper meaning here is over our sinfulness and the sins of the world.

The Jesus said blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

In the midst of our brokenness when we turn to God church, humility and meekness is produced.

For we cannot or will-not come to Jesus without being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, meekness and humility.

But this is not a one time deal, but part of Christ’s character, thus it should be ours.

This means that we will discover the depths of our need and rely on the Lord for everything

And this means that we will have a change of heart dominated by and absorbed with itself, to a heart that reaches out for God and to others!

This marks a turning point in our lives from immaturity to maturity in Christ church.

And when we are poor in spirit, mourning over our sin, meek and humble, guess what will well up inside of you?

The answer is hunger and thirst for righteousness church!

What this means is that there should be a turning away from ourselves to his righteousness, and in finding his righteousness, we should be turned toward others in their need of mercy.

Look at the next verse church>>>

As we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will become merciful to others.

In the physical life the difference between childhood and adulthood is the transition from self-orientation to recognition of one’s place in the world.

So in the spiritual life the mature Christian is one whose life is centered on God and his will, and who seeks to serve others by God’s grace.

Before we come to Jesus we are driven into ourselves and when we have a come to Jesus moment in surrender, we begin the process of being driven our of ourselves.

For if you look at your self long enough, you will become miserable, depressed, and discouraged church.

You will isolate and the devil will torture you.

He will whisper thoughts to you that are not of God church.

This is why Jesus said:

Deny-aparneomai-(ap-ar-neh'-om-ahee)-to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests, to disown.

Paul said it like this:

The concept of “dying to self” is found throughout the New Testament.

It expresses the true essence of the Christian life, in which we take up our cross and follow Christ.

Dying to self is part of being born again; the old self dies and the new self comes to life (John 3:3–7).

Not only are Christians born again when we come to salvation, but we also continue dying to self as part of the process of sanctification.

As such, dying to self is both a one-time event and a lifelong process.

I find it interesting that when Jesus starts teaching and preaching his first sermon, he immediately goes into dying to self and be raised in the newness of life in Christ.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are those who mourn

Blessed are the meek and the humble

For they shall hunger and thirst for Him, they shall hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled.

For it is only when we hunger and thirst for Jesus, for the things of God, for the Word of God, for righteousness church will we ever be satisfied or filled!

Nothing!

Absolutely nothing in this world will fill or satisfy us church.

Nothing!

I think it is important to remember that hunger and thirst are a few of our most fundamental physical needs.

And it was in the days of Jesus, but the only difference is that they did not have grocery stores and great jobs, but struggled to make ends meet.

They understood what it was really like to hunger and thirst church, where many of us do not understand this concept.

So when Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, they could certainly identify because of the difficulty of finding food and water, but also because of the religion of the day left them empty and always searching for more.

One scholar says that water was at a premium and food was scarce.

therefore the imagery that Jesus is using here depict intensity.

As the be-attitudes are unfolding before our eyes and we know that Matthew is teaching on Jesus as King, we can also learn that these beatitudes are how we enter the Kingdom.

But they are not only how we enter the Kingdom, but how we stay in the Kingdom.

In other words, to enter the kingdom, you must be poor in spirit.

And as you live in the kingdom you continue recognize your spiritual poverty.

In order to enter the kingdom, you must mourn over your sin.

And as you continue living in the kingdom as a son of God, you will mourn over your sin.

In order to enter the kingdom, you must come in meekness, not pride.

A proud man can’t enter, and once you’re in the kingdom, meekness continues to be your attitude as you look at God and as God becomes more and more wonderful as you study and learn more.

And in order to enter the kingdom, you must hunger and thirst after righteousness.

And once you’re in the kingdom, you’ll continue to hunger and thirst for more of that same righteousness.

So it is both a condition for entrance and a characteristic of living in the kingdom.

This is a description of coming in and living in His kingdom.

What is interesting about this beatitude is that it is expressing a strong desire for something, it is speaking of a driving pursuit, not just a Sunday only experience church, but what is the driving factor every day of our lives.

There are both good and bad desires within each of us and therefore, we must learn the skill of dying to ourselves or our desires we run our lives church.

Let’s look at someone who was thirsting for more and his desires were the driving factor of his life and because of this, he forfeit entering into the Kingdom.

Read Luke 12:13-21

Our physical life depends on food and water.

Our spiritual life depends on righteousness.

You can’t live physically without food and water, and you’ll never live spiritually without righteousness.

What are you hungering and thirsting after?

Is it more money?