The Beatitudes - happiness and blessings

-

Matthew 5:1-12

Jesus tells us how to be happy

The Beatitudes is supernatural to human nature 

Makarios- oh how happy

True happiness is a byproduct of a right relationship with God

8 Christian Characteristics of the Beatitudes

1. Blessed are the poor in Spirit

- Poor in Spirit is giving all authority to God

- You can’t be full of pride and selfish ambition

- You can’t love the things of this world


2. Blessed are those who Mourn for they shall be comforted 

- The most intense kind of mourning

- Mourning: deep sorrow of losing a loved one; sorrow over conditions of the world; sorrow over our own sinful state


3. Blessed are the meek

- Meek: happy medium between two extremes

- Meekness isn’t weakness

- Power under control 

- Jesus is our best example

- Jesus loved those who mocked and beat Him

- You choose not to use your power against others

- A God-controlled life is meekness


4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness 

- It’s desiring ALL of the righteousness of God

- Unrighteousness brings all the sorrows of the world

- Happiness shouldn’t be the main goal but the result of a godly life

- People are hungering for happiness not righteousness 

- Happiness is fleeting


5. Blessed are the merciful 

- Justice is getting what we deserve 

- Mercy is not getting what you deserve 

- Grace is getting what you don’t deserve 

- We deserve death and hell

- Jesus gave us mercy from that

- And God gives us grace of things we really don’t deserve 

- Mercy is putting ourselves in the position of other people’s struggles

- God sympathizes with us because He understands us


6. Blessed are the pure in heart

- Pure refers to washing and cleansing 

- Jesus talks about the cleansing of the heart

- Instead of being concerned of rules, God was concerned with our hearts

- It’s only the work of the Holy Spirit that can change our hearts 


7. Blessed are the peacemakers 

- Peace is more than passive; it is a positive state of good

- A peacemaker brings goodness to other people’s lives 

- We should be encouraging, loving, and finding the better part of people 

- Jesus is our ultimate peacemaker 

- Real peace can never be found in a compromise 

- We can’t coexist with the world, compromise, and sin

- Light and darkness can’t go together 

- God wants to destroy sin, but He loves the sinner

- To be a peacemaker, we don’t accept sin but love the sinner and bring them to God

- There’s a longing in everyone to return to paradise

- Peacemakers bring God to people’s lives


8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness 

- Rejoice and be glad if you are persecuted for doing good

- People won’t treat us kindly because of Jesus

- Jesus was perfect. He never hurt anyone ever. He loved everyone; but the world sought to kill Him

We are Christ’s ambassadors.

Popular posts from this blog

Sin Doesn’t Come From Temptation

-
Image
I grew up thinking temptation was where sin came from. On any given day, I would be going about my business and then temptation would spring to life: a pretty girl would walk by, a friend would launch into a dirty joke, a copy of next week’s test would fall into my hands. It was my duty, then and there, to fight temptation by saying no to it or fleeing from it altogether. Temptation was the enemy. Defeat meant sin. But the problem is not temptation. The real problem is in the heart where our desires lie.  Temptation cannot exist where desire does not first exist. You cannot be tempted to do something you do not first want. The Bible teaches that desire brings about temptation. “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death” (1:14–15). When does temptation occur? After the desires have enticed us. Temptations do not produce desires, but desir...
Read more

The Wrong Way To Fight Sin

-
Image
When you want to stop doing a sin, what do you do?  Do you try to deprive yourself of something, keep away from tempting situations, or try to distract yourself with more innocuous activities?  You have probably already learned this through practice, but none of these techniques will ever work. You cannot deprive yourself, ignore your desires, or beat your will into submission. Why? Because your mind and will aren’t the center of your decision-making process. Your heart is. If you don’t love something you won’t do it. If you don’t hate something you won’t leave it alone.  Yet in so many of the self-help books and even sermons today, people are preaching this strategy. There is always some new “wisdom” for how to stop bad habits and start good ones. Many of them treat sin like a diet. Starve out the bad. Feed the good. But sin doesn't work like this.  In our passage for today, Paul is going up against similar religious tactics of his time. He is trying to help his aud...
Read more