Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Thank you for helping out yesterday at Mikey’s Celebration of Life.

Thanks for bringing food!

Thanks for setting up, tearing down, and cleaning up!

The Revelation Bible study continues this Thursday June 30 at 6:30pm with Kevin.

If it is too hot in the sanctuary or Bible study room, we will meet downstairs.

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.

Thank you for that wonderful message of music and for the faithful of the worship teams.

Please pray for the worship teams church, because there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that most of us do not know about.

Like practice, practice, practice, learning new music.

Meshing schedules so they can practice...

Differences in personalities, experience, the list goes on.

Know that we are grateful for your commitment and perseverance even when things are not going well, or you are in a difficult season of life, or your schedules are jammed packed, but you still make things happen because you love the Lord and his people!

We have come as far as Matthew 5:7, so let us open our Bibles there.

Has anyone memorized the first 5 beatitudes?

Read Matthew 5:1-7

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father, we praise you that your mercies are new every morning and that your compassions fail not.

Thank you Lord because of your mercies we are not consumed!

Great is your faithfulness!

Lord together we say as Jeremiah that you are our portion, therefore are hope is in you.

As we continue our study in the beatitudes, we ask that everyone of these would become a reality in our lives and that the blessedness that comes because of these, we would return to you and others would know that we are your disciples.

God, changes are hearts, renew our minds, and help us to grasp what it means to be merciful!

Remove any and all distractions and encourage those that are not here.

In Jesus Name, we love You! Amen and Amen

Review

In looking back over the last few weeks, we have discovered what it means to enter into The Kingdom of Heaven.

But we have also learned that it is not only about entering the Kingdom, but allowing God’s Kingdom to live through you.

Because after all, God is certainly about others, amen!

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for their is the kingdom of heaven.

This is the opposite of self-sufficiency.

The religion of the day was works based and therefore self-sufficient.

This speaks of the deep humility of recognizing one’s utter spiritual bankruptcy apart form God.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

This means that God comforts those who are mourning.

Mourning over sin and the sins of others.

Godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation (2 Cor 7:10)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

This means having humility and humility is the precursor to being teachable.

Meekness is the opposite of being out of control.

It is not weakness, but supreme self-control, empowered by the Spirit.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled our satisfied.

There must be a great spiritual appetite on the part of Christians for holiness of life or they will never have it.

Only Jesus can fill us to over flowing church, nothing else, no one else!

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

If we took inventory of our lives, could we honestly say that the number one appetite we have is for Jesus, for the Word of God, for prayer, for fellowship, to be with our church family?

This beatitude causes us to look at our priorities and realize we need to make some changes.

So we come to verse 7 and it is here that the natural progression continues.

Note: That the first three beatitudes are talking about brokenness.

Jesus is being totally counter cultural, he is teaching them simple, yet profound truths that can only be grasped through humility and through brokenness.

If indeed you have the first three beatitudes operating in you life, then the hunger and thirst for righteousness will indeed be a natural by-product by the Holy Spirit.

It is when I have pride in my life church that I become a self-sufficient Pharisee who attempts to please God by my works.

When this happens in my life, it is then that my appetite for righteousness decreases and thus I begin to hunger and thirst for things that do not, or will not satisfy.

NOTE: There are many unhappy Christians today because they are seeking happiness through experience.

Christians are not meant to hunger and thirst after experiences or even after happiness itself, for that will lead only to frustration.

If Christians want to be truly happy and blessed, they must hunger and thirst after righteousness.

It takes time, effort and concentration to develop positive practical holiness.

To become Christ-like a person must often think, will and act in ways contrary to what his human nature, culture or background has taught him.

Our Lord is telling us the truth about how we enter His kingdom and how you live while we are in His kingdom.

Only the poor in spirit enter.

Only the mourners enter.

Only the meek enter.

Only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness enter.

And once they enter, they continue to be poor in spirit, mournful, meek, and hungering and thirsting after even more righteousness.

The progression continues church and here we become merciful to others.

But not just others, but to the outcast, to the leper, to the underdog, and to those the world system has deemed as unlovable.

Jesus again is turning the tables of the hearts of those who are listening because he is placing all the emphasis on the inside, which is upon the heart.

While sadly, the Jews of His day had put all the emphasis on the outside.

The religion that Jesus faced in His day was shallow, it was superficial, and it was external.

The Jewish leaders thought that God was pleased with the outside, their apparent external self-righteousness, their formalized religion.

They were proud about it.

They were self-centered about it.

And Jesus dismantled it.

God is a God of mercy and it is one of his attributes.

If a person is born again church, then we should naturally be merciful to others.

Why?

It is because he has been merciful to us.

God extends his love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness to us church, so we can be his hands and feet, the salt and light of the earth.

He gives to us freely, so we can give to others.

Merciful- eleēmōn (el-eh-ay'-mone) n. — a person who shows leniency, compassion, or forgiveness; especially towards someone who has offended them.

Actively compassionate, not merely unhappy for the ills of others, but willing to relieve them, not merely pity, but promptly aiding them.

Wow!

This is a big order that the Lord is calling us to!

Who did Jesus go to?

The sinners

The Outcast

The Broken

The Lame

The Deaf

The Leper

The Tax collectors

The paralyzed

The marginalized

Jesus went to everyone who the religious folks of the day despised, rejected, and considered unclean.

Do we do the same?

Or do we keep comfortable and avoid this group?

When I look back over my life, I can see the merciful hand of God and others, can you?

It is hear, that I want to share three things that will change your life, if you allow them to.