like a reading disability I mean could be dyslexia but just they struggle reading but if they can hear it boom it sticks so it doesn't matter how you get it listen to it read it tattoo it on your [Music] forearm it would be a lot would thank you D how we doing good how are you good good good good we're here we're ready to interpret for Mark so super thank you so much you hope you're getting overtime paid for this oh no we're doubling it doubling we just keep adding zeros just add zeros Dan wanted to be here so bad but just got I haven't had one in years [Applause] [Music] know m Al for [Applause] all right all right good good evening everyone Welcome to Night number two of connections Bible Institute I'm especially glad that you made it this evening because it was a challenge to get here I mean I literally live like 3 and a half minutes away and it took me like 20 minutes to make my way over here so I'm glad that you made it we'll probably have a few people showing up a little bit late completely understandable no problem here's what I want to do I want to pray for us as we get started and then give you a little bit of instruction for some time to spend at your table interacting with the people that there by the way how many of you are sitting at the exact same table with the exact same people as the week one okay so all of you whether you know it or not you're Baptists just telling you I grew up in a Baptist Church you sit in the same place with the same people every time so congratulations welcome to the denomination or or the recovery group or whatever whatever you want to call it all right let's go ahead and pray father thank you for a beautiful evening thank you for what you're doing in our lives in our church in our world world we we hear the news we read the news we get the feeds we get the programs and we get pumped with a steady dose of what a mess everything is and all the problems that exist everywhere but all that news isn't even the major storyline going on in the world you are building your kingdom you are pursuing and reaching human beings with the good news about your son and they are being saved and changed you are restoring multitudes of human beings into the people that you created and saved them to be and what you're doing lasts forever everything else going down here is transitory and fleeting I pray that we will keep our hearts and Minds fully Anchored In Your Kingdom loyal to you are king and knowing this kingdom is eternal and can never be shaken please help us by virtue of our interaction with e other this evening to grow and be more like King Jesus help us to become better in our understanding of this life that we have been given to live and may we leave not too many moments from now knowing that you met with us and something good profound something that altered us altered us in a small but real and Lasting way happened we entrust these moments to you for that very end and as always we pray these things through the one who makes it all possible Jesus amen okay here's what I'd like you to do I'd like you to take about 10ish minutes or so and just at your table I want you to interact a little bit over the homework assignment that we had from last week reminder it's in your book and by the way I think you see that your new pages are at each seat just plug that into your notebook it should all work fine I did discover that I printed the version that didn't go through the final edit so there's grammatical mistakes in it and that's just my fault so and here comes my wife who trust me will take a red pen out Circle every single one and let me know before the evening is over okay so interact table especially was there anything that just stood out to you as you read through or listened through the sermon of the mount in three various areas and then how did it go when you reflected on how you think you actually stand out from the culture that you live in and then finally did you have that conversation with another Christian could have been anyone about a Christian subculture and how did that conversation go so for the next 10 minutes interact at your table and then after we're done with that we'll move on with the lesson for tonight okay e is can is you right there there you go inter they 4 [Music] yeah my whole life [Applause] yeah for sure oh yeah yes you're there for for e e e okay we'll go ahead and kind of wrap it up now um it is so vital as we move through the weeks that we're taking time during the week to Think Through wrestle with make applications of the things that we're learning remember Jesus did not give us his word his instruction so we could know more stuff he did it so we could live better lives and the only way to live a better life with the stuff that he teaches us is to wrestle with it and think about it and figure out how to put it into practice and then try and sometimes fail if you're like me and you stumble and you go okay I need to do better on that and that's the process of changing and growing so it's critical and the opportunity to share how it's going with other people is also critical it's critical perhaps I'll just highlight one big reason why it's so important we all need to know we're not the only one having the same struggle we need to know that we're we're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 10:3 there's no temptation and that word temptation is translated in other places of in the Bible as trials because what the word actually means is a time of extraordinary pressure or difficulty there's no time of extraordinary pressure or difficulty that is overtaken you except such as is common to human kind we all Wrestle with it and there's something about sharing our experience where so often we go me too I thought of that or I struggled with that or whatever the case might be that is so helpful so these times are important to make sure we're not just knowing more but we're living better now I got I got a question for you be honest with me okay you promise don't you love that I have a question you're going to answer in public promise you'll be honest and we all go yes but we have no intention it all depends on the question I get it so is a tough one how many of you want to be happy that's pretty good everybody that I saw in this room wants to be happy if you do I just want to say welcome to the human race because everybody wants to be happy it is a driving need in every single one of us that we find happiness the problem is maybe you've experienced this happiness can be really Elusive and it's like we can capture it and then it's gone and something seems to bring it and then it it doesn't and and so we wrestle with where do you find lasting happiness where do we find that is it even possible in this world as it is kind of jacked up is it even possible in a world like this to be able to experience some significant measure of actual lasting happiness in the world and if it is possible where in the world do you find it now Jesus Jesus knew knew that every human being wanted to find happiness he knew that there was a driving need inside of every single one of us so he did something amazing he kicks off his Christian Manifesto he kicks off his speech on the ethic the value system that all of the subjects of his kingdom are to embrace and live out he kicks It Off by going here's how to be happy that's how it actually begins in verses 3- 12 there's a section of scripture known as the Beatitudes anybody ever heard that term before the Beatitudes yeah churchy people like we we've heard that one the Beatitudes the word beatitude comes from the Latin beatitudo I don't know Latin but I do know how to look stuff up it's it's a it's the it's a Latin word a and that word means fortunate or happy that's how it got the name the Beatitudes the Greek word that's actually found in Matthew in all of those verses between verse three and verse 12 is the Greek word marcaras and what's fascinating about Macario is that it happened to be a subject of philosophical and religious discussion in the Greek world in the Mediterranean world where the New Testament is set for centuries in fact the Greek philosophers the Greek mindset understood macaros as a Transcendent happy happiness beyond the cares of the world beyond the labor that we all have to do and even Beyond Death so whatever marcaras whatever this transcended happiness was it was on the other side of the cares of the world it was on the other side of the hard work and sometimes frustrating work the human beings have to do is even on the other side of death so consequently a good Greek and this was the philosophy of the world in which Jesus spoke a good Greek believed that the only people that could really ever experience macaros Transcendent happiness lasting happiness the only ones were the ones who lived an honorable life and died a glorious death because if you did both you went after you died to the aisle of the Blessed see the the the Greek philosophy thought after you die there's an afterlife and they said like the low level is Hades and then another level where at least things are tolerable is is The Meadows of Asphodel but then there was a higher level they called seeum anybody ever seen Gladiator well then you've not seen the best movie ever made so you should watch it so Gladiator because they talked about you know meeting each other in elisium if they die with Glory it's a better play but then very very few people made it to the aisle of the blessed and they're the ones that got to experience Transcendent lasting happiness so as you can tell it's reserved for just a few people and you got to die to get there but you got to Die the right way now the Jews had a different notion right understand everything Jesus spoke into he spoke into a bicultural world it was steeped in Greek culture which is what the Romans were all influenced by Greek culture and Jewish culture now the Jews had a different notion of macarius they use the word to but to them macaros was a happiness a Transcendent lasting happiness that was experienced when you got the favor of God that's different because that me his possibil hear in now Jud just to here after they further believe that the way to experience the favor of God was number one you got to be a Jew that's what they believe got to be a Jew cu the Jews were God's people and that means everybody else was not you got to be a Jew and then second you got to be an obedient Jew that is you kept the law the Torah that God gave to Moses for the nation Israel to live by and if you were a Jew who would keep the Torah well enough God would Prosper your life he would Prosper you financially he would Prosper your business he would Prosper your family you would Prosper you would have blessings everywhere and because you had such a prosperous enjoyable life boom you could be happy so happiness was dependent upon an enjoyable good prosperous life that you got because you got the favor of God you earned the favor of God so Jesus is about to kick off the manifesto of his kingdom he's go here's the ethic my followers live by and I'm going to start by letting you know how to be outrageously transcendently lastingly happy and here's what I want you to know you can experience in the here and now you do experience when you receive the favor of God but anybody can experience the favor of God and the favor of God that leads to Lasting happiness is independent of any Earthly circumstance not only do you not need a prosperous enjoyable life you could have a life that is hard and harsh and difficult and you could experience lasting happiness because it's not dependent on circumstance it's dependent on being in the favor of God no matter what your circumstance is and by the way there's a word littered throughout the old test the the New Testament that describes the lasting happiness of being under the favor of God and you know what that word is Joy that's what that is Joy the lasting happiness to comes because I found the favor of God independent on circumstances in my life this is how Jesus is kicking off this sermon of all sermons and by giving us these teachings Jesus is doing some things that are profound wow you know what he's doing first of all he is saying our hunger for happiness is righteous he is saying the fact that you hunger to be happy is that a bad thing it's a good thing cuz guess what God created us to live a happy life let me see if I got this right okay let me tell you what I think and you correct me if I get the Bible wrong Fair God created human beings as perfect beings to live in Paradise did I get that right I'm I'm I'm trying to figure out Genesis 1 in Genesis chapter 2 two different views of the same creative act of God how everything got here and human's unique place in it all and he said I'm going to create two beings in in my image that are going to rule and Reign on Earth they're going to interact and do this all in partnership with me and I'm going to put them in the middle of a paradise so they can enjoy their hearts Delight God created us to live in an environment that brought happiness and our hunger for it is a reflection of God's creative intent you ever think about this human beings hunger for happiness is really a hunger for home it's a hunger for God it's a hunger for being reconnected to him and restored into what human beings were supposed to be in an environment in which human beings are designed to live only it gets misunderstood as a desire for something else that can make us happy when happiness is focuses God and on his ways Jesus is sanctioning our hunger for happiness second he wants you to experience lasting happiness now that becomes incredibly important as we move through The Sermon on the Mount because every time Jesus lays down a you should be like this or uh you should you should not do that or uh don't be like this or a conform your life to that every time he lays something down that he expects the his followers members of his kingdom to comply to every time he does it it's because he wants us to be what happy isn't it Fascinate well fascinating to me I always say is isn't it fascinating what I really mean is I'm fascinated by it I hope you are too in the in the Garden of Eden right in order to destroy the happiness of human beings Satan deceptively in a different form has to convince Eve and then Adam that God isn't good uh Eve yeah about that uh fruit yeah we we can't eat it or even touch it well they could touch it but anyway we can't eat it or touch it or we're going to die huh you won't die but you will become like God knowing good from evil you know what he's doing there he was going God's holding out on you there's something really good you can experience but God wants to hoard that good thing for himself alone but you could have it too and so because God is not good you need to cast off what God Said and do this instead because then you can really find the Pinnacle experience Satan had to convince humans that God wasn't good in order to get them to choose that which was would destroy them and he still works the same way today he's got to convince people God's not good he's restrictive and harsh he's a cruel Taskmaster he will suck all the joy rout out of life when the exact opposite is true he's trying to infuse it into life Jesus wants you to be happy third powerful ramification his kingdom is characterized by lasting happiness not only is wanting to be happy good that is Jesus want you to be happy which is why he says and teaches the way that he does but he also goes in my kingdom the sphere of humanity under which I rule because they Place their Faith in Me In My Kingdom we're happy people we have lasting Happiness joy it doesn't matter what our circumstance is is because we've got the favor of God on our lives and so we're a happy people and that is what the church should be known at a group of people that are found lasting happiness and that happiness is so stubborn that when they go through grief and pain and difficulty and hardship and persecution and all sorts of horrible stuff they still have Joy what can explain that oh thank you for asking let me explain that to you that's our opportunity because circumstances are always going to turn bad for virtually every human being at some point and when they do for us and we don't freak out it makes people wonder what is up with you let you ask Jesus is up with me I'm explain it to you I'm supposed to get through four Beatitudes tonight and we haven't got to the first one what's the over under on four anybody how many go over we're going to do more than four well thank you thank you for that vote of confidence how many think we're going to hit all four no matter what how many think hopeless maybe two yeah okay let's dive into the Beatitudes very first one here's what Jesus said this had to blow people's minds verse three of Matthew Chapter 5 blessed are the PO in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven notice the condition for blessing being poor in spirit uh you you probably know the New Testament was written in Greek Street Greek actually common language of that everybody in the world knew that's why it was written in Greek there are two words for poor one word for poor meant of meager resources you had very little do you remember um when Jesus told the story about how people would come with big bags of money and they would like make a big to-do about how much they were giving and then this woman came and threw in two copper coins and Jesus went she actually gave more because she gave all she had she was that kind of poor she had very limited very meager resources and her life was difficult but the other word for poor and that's the word used here is a word that is at its root meant to cringe or cower in shame see when when you were like actually destitute not just meager resources you were destitute you had nothing you were reduced to begging and when Beggars would beg they would adopt a certain posture they would take one hand and they would cover their face because they were ashamed that they had nothing and were reduced to the pity of others to live they would cover their face with one hand and with the other hand they would hold it up in the hopes that they might be given something to be able to live a little longer and this was the pure of the destitute beggar and that's what the word used here describes but this kind of poverty this being absolutely destitute isn't financial right blessing of the poor in what spirit it's a spiritual poverty and Jesus is painting this compelling picture of someone who is so morally bankrupt that they have nothing to offer God and are forced to throw themselves at God's mercy for spiritual life there's this fascinating story it's found in the Gospel of Luke chap 22 if you happen to have your Bible we'll turn there Luke chap 22 and um Jesus begins with let let either I didn't mark my Bible right or I have the wrong passage Luke 18 yeah I had the wrong one that's where I couldn't find it Luke chapter 18 Jesus tells this story beginning in verse 9 to some who are confident of their unreading from The New International Version by the way to some who are confident in their own righteousness and look down on everyone else Jesus told this Parable two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee what was a Pharisee pH was a religious leader who memorized all 613 laws that Moses gave his people and dedicated their life to keeping those laws and teaching everybody else to do the same I was a Pharisee one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector who were Tax Collectors they were Jews who basically betrayed their own people by going to work for the Romans to extort their own people in order to pay taxes and make more money themselves M elves they weren't just collecting taxes they have the freedom to Lev any tax they wanted as long as Rome got their share they got to keep the extra they were despised a Pharisee and a tax collector the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed God I thank you that I am not like other people robbers evildoers adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get but the tax collector that at a distance now that's that's powerful it's like the temple represented the presence of God and the Pharisee walks into the middle of it all and starts to pray God I'm glad I'm not like all the Riff Raff of the world the tax collector is I can't even get that's the presence of God I can I can't even get close he stood at a distance he would not even look up to heaven but he beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner can I suggest that the posture of that man in this story looked like this he knew he was utterly morally bankrupt he had nothing to offer God to get God's favor and was utterly dependent upon the the mercy and grace of God for spiritual life verse 14 I tell you that this man the tax collector rather than the other the Pharisee went home Justified before God went home right with God the Pharisee didn't the PO in spirit recognize I don't have anything to offer God so that he might look upon me with favor I am morally bankrupt and why would this lead to happiness that does not sound like the beginning of a happy story does it here's the beginning of a happy story begging nothing to offer but look what it says it says um the reason that this brings happiness is you enter the kingdom of God you enter the kingdom of God this is another way of describing an event sometimes referred to as salvation Redemption conversion being born again there are different ways of describing the same transaction where something happens and a person is made right with God their sins are forgiven the Perfection of Jesus is credited or gifted to them and they are now approved by God and acceptable in God's sight and they enter into a relationship with him now you might go wait a minute I thought all that stuff salvation conversion Redemption being born again I thought all that stuff that came by faith and you are right but oh listen so carefully to what Jesus is teaching us saving faith is always born in the soul soul oil of of recognizing our moral bankruptcy before God saving faith God save me is the Cry of a heart that recognizes you got to save me because I don't have one single thing that would commend myself to you I am utterly dependent on your favor and your grace I have no hope unless you're good enough to just do it and give it to me as a gift to all of my Baptist friends on the side of the room I never remember hearing the gospel for the first time cuz my parents drugged me to Baptist Church wherever we lived and we lived in a bunch of different places and in every Baptist Church they would that we went to they would give the gospel Jesus died on the cross for our sins if we will repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ we will be saved I I heard that so much growing up I couldn't even tell you the first time I heard it I also can't tell you how many times I laid in bed at night as a kid as a teenager just like going I'm going to hell I I'm I'm I'm going to hell because I know what I did I I don't want to go to hell so I would go God I'm really sorry for what I did I want to ask you into my heart to be my savior and I promise I will be better I would get up the next morning and sometimes shortly before breakfast I would commit my first sin of the day and I could remember so many times doing it and going a it didn't work it didn't work I'm just like I was before what's the problem I'm asking Jesus in in my heart here was the problem I thought that I had to ask Jesus into my heart I had to trust him as my savior and be good enough I I I I had to trust in Jesus and I had to offer up to him some degree of Good Works in other words I didn't recognize that there was nothing I could ever do if I devoted my whole life to it to have enough good anything to earn one iot of the favor of God in my life so it was not saving faith I was not calling out in faith it was like God help me it's really what it amounted to until December 14th 1970 as a teenager I was sitting in the third Pew on the right side of the auditorium of Memorial Baptist Church in Rockford Illinois and the pastor was preaching a powerful message on I have absolutely no idea cuz I never listened and that is a grievous sin people so we I don't know what he's talking about I I I I have no clue and I know that at the end of the service we did what we did every single service we stood up we sang the song Just As I Am Without One Plea but that your blood was shed for me it was an imitation song and then you know like get right with God get saved whatever is that you need to do and so we're standing there and the organ and the piano are playing and people are singing and my head is bowed and I don't even know what I'm doing and in that moment it's really almost hard for me to describe but in that moment this overwhelming sense of guilt swept over me and here's the conscious thought that I had this is all going on in my head I'm going to hell I deserve to go to hell and there's not one one thing I can do about it I knew those are all true and in that moment in my heart three words just flew up to God God saved me and you'll never guess what happened he did that instant and here's why there was finally the right soil in my heart for saving Faith to spring up and shout out it was the recognition I am going to hell separated from Christ for all eternity I deserve it because of what I've done and there's not one thing I can do about it I am utterly dependent on the mercy of God or I'm lost and in that attitude I just cried out God saved me and God went you got it you got it and that moment he saved me now that's my experience yours may look very different but there will be a commonality if you're generally born again and that's that moment of recognition that we're lost we deserve Eternal judgment and we have nothing to offer God we're poor in spirit nothing to offer God no nothing moral to earn God's favor and we cast ourselves on his mercy and cry out save me that moment however we phrase it is common in every conversion experience and it's the moment we enter the kingdom of God the moment this happens we into the kingdom of God we're reconciled to God and we now have a relationship with him we hear this a lot it's true we should hear it a lot we actually have a relationship we are related to God we come back into a a connection a relational connection with God in fact the the the scripture describes this transaction and the result of it in three ways one when when we're pour in spirit and cry out for salvation at that moment we we become a member of the kingdom of God which means we're his subjects we swear absolute and undying loyalty to our King Jesus and his word is our Command but not only did we become members of the kingdom of God so we become his subjects we also become members of the Church of God so we become his servants see the whole point of a church the Greek word is EA it's a it's a called out group of people is that we're entrusted with the responsibility of of strengthening and expanding the work of God in the world we're his servants to do his bidding in the world but at that moment we also become part of the family of God which means we're children of God and as children of God we enjoy his love we enjoy his provision we are eternally secure in his love and if you wonder understand more holistically what it means to be saved you understand it from those three lenses uh kingdom of God Church of God family of God I'm a subject of King Jesus I'm a servant of his work in the world and I'm a child that enjoys his love and favor and provision that's what happens how do you become porn spirit I I think I put this in your notes first is by the work of the Holy Spirit I it all starts there God is the great initiator we human beings are responders Jesus said in John 16: 7 and 8 it's to your advantage that I go away actually he started by going I tell you the truth it's to your advantage I go away it's like Jesus going no seriously I'm not lying I'm being honest with you it's actually advantageous to do that I leave because when I go if I don't go The Advocate the holy spirit will not come but if I go then he comes and when he comes he will convict the word world of sin righteousness judgment sin you are guilty before God and have nothing to offer him righteousness you need it and you lost it you are unacceptable in the sight of God and judgment there is a punishment separation from God which you experience right now and you feel the alienation in your desperate life but that becomes permanent after you die and you're forever separated from God and that conviction from the holy spirit is what creates that sense of poor in spirit it's a work of the spirit in our lives but here's the cool thing he's doing that work in everybody's life it's why it says he will convict the world that means everybody everybody he's trying to convince us all we're poor in spirit I know but that hurts I hate it it's it dashes my self-esteem it's horrible no it's the soil out of which you can cry in faith and be saved and become a member of the kingdom of God and the Church of God and the family of God and changes everything it also comes by seeing God as he really is Isaiah chapter 6 we you you can turn there if you want I'll just tell the story Isaiah chapter 6 first five verses uh it begins by going in in the year that you know a king died Isaiah goes I saw the Lord high and lifted up and I I saw angels worshiping him and I saw them crying out holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty and here was his response to seeing God in the Perfection that God actually has he says I fell down and says woe to me because I am unclean unfit unqualified to be in the presence of God there's there's just something about seeing God as he really is that exposes us as we really are and we recognize the big big big big big big big moral Gap is not between me and any other human being we are so similar the big big big big big big gap is between all of us and God the convicting work of the Holy Spirit getting a glimpse of who God actually is and it's also comes by humility a recognition of what we are actually like before God we're so good I am so stinking good at defending myself and justifying myself are you as good as me on that I mean it's like other people have problems but my problems I got a reason for them and and and and being poor in spirit goes I am without excuse I am just guilty this is who I actually am and does that mean we have no value no but it does mean we have nothing to offer God they could possibly purchase one I ow a favor from him so blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven they're like the tax collector they go home Justified because this is their posture and everybody else is like the Pharisee I don't care how good he is not justified because there's no saving Faith because you don't recognize you have no hope but God and God Alone Now who thinks will cover four Beatitudes the odds are going down as the moments tick by well we're going to get at least two here we go I'm just no seriously it's like at this point it's like I've I've given I I have no idea how this is going to work I I don't have any idea I am like going okay God we're going to plow ahead and you better part the seed because I can't figure out how we're going to get all this in here's something about me you might as well know it now I care little about about disseminating a bunch of Bible information I care a ton that the lights come on and we get it that's what I I care about and if we don't get through stuff we don't get through stuff but the stuff we get through I want the lights to come on I want to go we get it I see it I'm going to live it that's what drives me and it's why I preach too long and I never get everything in but that's that's just reality and you're going to have to deal with it beatitude number two just imagine Jesus saying the first one this blows up my mind you want to find last thing happiness be bor in spirit what yeah you get the Kingdom in Heaven huh I mean right off the bat he's just blowing people's minds battitude number two blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted I like the Sham version of this beatitude have Happ or the sad and that's really kind of true that's what he's saying the condition for lasting happiness for blessedness mourning this particular word morning refers to an overwhelming grief that cannot be hidden cannot be masked can't be covered up or subdued normally this kind of grief erupts in the face of death whether it's the death of a person a dream a hope a relationship mourning is always the appropriate response to a cleare eyed view into two awful realities the first first reality is an inward look where we clearly see how messed up we are and the Damage that we have caused ourselves and other human beings because we're messed up the other direction is looking outward on how messed up are the people that we love how messed up are the people around us how messed up is our culture look at the way they destroy themselves and each other look at how our alienation from God causes us to just damage ourselves and others look how it divides look how it fuels hatred look how it injures I think we could accurately def define this word mourning that Jesus used as clearly perceiving and deeply deeply grieving the Damage Done by sin both ours and others this does not sound like the path to happiness to me Jesus must know something I don't know it seems like there is this Spirit enabled objectivity that opens our eyes to the devastation that sin causes and if we have a regenerate heart it breaks our heart everywhere we look in ourselves everywhere we look around the world is damag and pain and suffering caused by people's bad choices this broke jesus' heart REM remember when Lazarus was really sick and so they sent word for Jesus to come and Jesus drug his feet because he never operates on the right timetable never Jesus never operates on the right timetable said he's got two speeds too fast too slow that's how he works in this case he's to slow when he finally made it to Bethany too late Lazarus is dead Lazarus sisters ah I know if you'd have been here you'd have been able to rescue him kind of a like I have faith in you along with a you'd have been here says Jesus looked around at everybody grieving and you remember show us verse in the Bible what was his response to seeing everybody's grief he wept he cried broke his heart what broke his heart was not that Lazarus was dead he could do something about that and he did what broke his heart was the broken hearts of all the other people remember on the occasion this this happened like the last week of jesus' Life triumphal entry Runing in on a donkey all the people palm branches clothed hosana blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord yeah same people a week later crucify him but um he looked at that City that represented the epicenter of a of a culture and and and and a group of people that he longed to save you remember what he said he said Jerusalem Jerusalem oh you who Stone the prophets and killed those who sent after you who were sent to you how often I wanted to gather you together like a h gathers chicks under her wings but you wouldn't his heart was broken because they wouldn't come to him and have life and he knew what that meant in this world and in the world to come Isaiah chapter 3:53 talking about Jesus verse three it says he was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief in other words his life was a life where he frequently experienced sorrow and grief is something he knew really really well when was the last time this question when was last time you looked around the world and you realized that all the damage you see all the problems you see all the issues you see all the division you see all the hostility you see all the hatred you see all the killing you see all the human trafficking you see all the abuse you see is because of sin and you look around at that damage and your heart just breaks you get Beyond anger and you get Beyond disgust and you look at the root people enslaved to sin and it just slays your heart that's what subjects of Christ kingdom do they don't just rant on Facebook about what they're irritated over they're broken because see the devastation sin has caused in their life to other people in their life to themselves and everybody else's life to everybody else blessed are those who mourn what what because they will be comforted H the word Comfort by the way it's one of the your words used of the Holy Spirit the comforter the Greek word is par it's fascinating it it carries two main ideas idea number one is relational Comfort involves someone who comes alongside you who cares about you to just feel measure of what you feel you know when job remember he remember when the bottom fell out of his life and he lost it all in a way I I can't I can't even fathom and is he sitting alone in a garbage dump scraping the pus from the sores on his body utterly alone three friends show up now what we know about those three friends because a lot of the Book of Job talks about it is they tried to convince job he must have some secret sin because God is judging him for it obviously but that was after the first week the first week they were actually good friends you know what they did they sat down next to job in the dump didn't say a word and just suffered with him Comfort is is a relational it's somebody who cares who comes alongside to just feel a measure of what you feel see if we do grief alone grief will destroy us his will it'll overwhelm us and destroy us grief must be shared to be overcome the second idea is more conceptual and the conceptual idea is this it's it's that somebody who understands somebody who knows is able to share something that's true that gives hope in the midst of our mour some reality that puts it in the kind of light that causes us to have hope for the Future Hope for the situation hope for ourselves and for other people when Jesus says blessed are those that mourn they get it they see they're broken over their own sin and the Damage they've done the sin of other people the damage it does in this whole world those people who get it and are broken by it they're going to be comforted God's going to show up in their lives and he's going to feel a measure of what they feel so they are not alone and God is going to share realities with them that in the midst of their Brokenness give them hope hope for the Future Hope for the situation hope for the human being hope we're told in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse3 that God is the God of all comfort and some kind God just downloads that Comfort directly right into our souls sometimes he uses some of his people in whom his Spirit lives to provide that comfort for it as well but God gives it how can God how can God Comfort Us by giving us hope in the midst of all the Brokenness and Devastation in life and in the world here are some realities I think God shares one God is out there seeking the Redemption and restoration of every human being see that broken messed up jacked up world see everybody hurting each other guess what God is involved 247 365 in a Relentless pursuit of every one of those people to win them back to themselves and restore them into humans that he meant them to be number two all of the pain and Devastation is being used by God for that very purpose God never wastes any pain that he allows and he will use the very pain even the pain we have caused God love we're redeem right salvation is redemption something gets bought back even our stories of failure and damage to other people ends up being used by God to do something good for people down the road if we just stay faithful to him there's at least one other reality is God in the end will ensure that Justice is done every right will be rewarded and every wrong will be corrected nobody ever gets away with anything in the end and every piece of Brokenness is going to be attended to in the end and God lets us know these realities in the moment with specificity given the things that are breaking our heart I think the reason why Comfort bring such lasting happiness is because as God gives comfort as we're Uber aware of the Brokenness and damage all around us we increasingly become confident that there's always purpose in the pain even if I don't see it in the moment I become increasingly confident that God is on the Move in this broken world I become increasingly confident that all will be made right someday and I become absolutely confident that a perfect world is awaiting all the redeemed and because of that being acutely aware of the pain and damage in the world makes me sober and compassionate but being acutely aware of the positive realities in the world fuels my effort to share the gospel and make a difference in the lives of people and that's why the morning people are blessed because of what happens in the Comfort God gives how many of you guessed two Beatitudes for the day CU you are correct two two is the answer my my wife raised her hand she knows she if he gets halfway through he'll be doing good so here's what I what what I want to do I'm going to take a pause right here and I'm curious what are your thoughts what are your reactions what are your questions what's your push back that's cool too because whatever your questions are whatever your issues are your whatever your what about this those are the those are the important areas for Learning and application so Anthony's got a microphone and this is so that we can all hear your question and so that on the recording for those that want to watch it back or those that weren't able to be here tonight they can hear the question as well so if you have a question or you have a comment or you have a anything please this is this is a perfect time to ask it all right shoot up your hand Anthony will come over and we'll tackle some questions now you have to understand if I don't get questions it means one of two things number one I did so well that I answered anything you could think of number two I did so poorly that you're like don't say anything let's just go home and I promise you when I go home I'm going to assume it's number two I'm going to go so spare me the grief tonight and ask a question how was that for being motivating I think it was just perfect and I think that we learned what we were supposed to learn I'm hop down I have a confession to make here's my confession I have one ear that doesn't work so I wear hearing aid to collect sound and I I broke them so right now I'm I'm having trouble hearing I think over I think that it was just perfect and then we learned what we were supposed to learn and we learned it effectively completely and totally I think there's a lot to cover and I think you did amazing and you think what you did amazing oh think you did amazing okay everybody else would think it's did amazing raise your hand cuz I no don't do that don't do that thank you see all right so in the beginning of sacred marriage the first page of it says what if marriage is assigned to make you more holy than happy so are we supposed to be happy or are we supposed to be holy yes who said it who said it who said both I heard it no that's the right answer because in the very re way this is so incredbly important and it's a veryit observation our happiness is tied up in our Holiness because happiness is a byproduct of something we can look at it this way to be increasingly holy means to be increasingly righteous increasingly conformed to what God wants and the more we conform Our Lives to what God wants the more we experience of him which leads to a greater happiness uh John 13 verse 17 I believe says if you know these things happy are you if you do them if I know and then do happiness and it's the same Greek word marcaras blessed is the result so holiness and happiness are absolutely tied up to each other but it's happiness that flows out of of Holiness not Holiness that flows so much out of Happiness over here Anthony I see yep oh yeah thanks okay so purpose and pain purpose and pain yep when I talk to people about Jesus and always the question is and because I I'm a therapist so I get a lot of people who are really hurting and when I talk to them about purpose and pain that's a really hard pill to swallow for a lot of people even Christians yes oh yes mhm and so how do you talk to people about that what do you say yeah it's it's like tell me if this is capturing correctly the spirit of what you're saying uh because you hear things like um if there is a God why would he allow pain suffering fill in the blank to happen and it's used as an argument against there being a God or certainly a good God if there is one he must be indifferent just out there somewhere is that kind of the yes so that and also it's the how could this how could anything good ever come from this oh yeah how could everything good ever come from this have a qual of two innocent people so yeah there you go yeah so what what Amber is saying is to to make this really really easy question harder is that what about the bad things that happen to innocent people in the world right um so you put all together and that becomes a very powerful um it becomes a very persuasive argument against there being a God so while the answer is the answer addressing it is complex as in there's multiple facets to it there's a couple of Notions that are tied up in that that I think are important to understand number one you're judging something as being evil or wrong How can there be something that is is universally evil or wrong if there is not a God if there's not a God everything is time and chance there is no basis for Universal morality like um I can't think of a culture in the history of the world that exists right now that would go torturing babies for fun is okay right I mean that's like and should and it's like okay so that is a universal moral statement How can there be something universally morally true and binding if there is not a lawgiver a a a a moral being who says this is how things must be so the notion that something is wrong that causes suffering means there can't be a God I look at it and go if there is a God there's no such thing as as wrong or evil that causes suffering it's just survival of the fittest and I'm so sorry that that little baby got cancer but guess what survival of the fittest time and chance happen to us all and suddenly morality compassion have no place in that in that world viw and so that's one of the places that I begin it's a long convers ation there a lot of back and forth but the very notion that pain and suffering the presence of evil and people hurting and bad things happen is a sign there can't be a good God is actually only explained if there is a good god that has labeled these things such and we all are in His image and we recognize it in terms of people say I don't see how anything good can come out of that I have read countless stories and I usually try to recount something within the sphere of what the person is talking about where the most inexplicably devastating things happen to a person and yet they end up coming to Faith and their very story is being used to change people's lives I think of and this would be an innocent person Heather to or Heather Amber to go to your example um everybody does does everybody remember I'm looking around some of you too young but you remember Napal girl it was a picture from the Vietnam War and it was a girl who was running down a road with others she was naked she was 10 what 10 or so years old she's burned from the napon bombs and it was a very powerful image I mean you can imagine I mean it's like rip your heart out and it's like what did this girl do deserve that what good can come out of that look up nap tomm girl story on the internet when you get home and read what happened to her because what she will talk about is how that horrible event and all the physical and relational trauma that happened ended up leading her to a place where she found and accepted Christ as her Savior and she now uses her story and experience to counsel trauma survivors on overcoming anything that happens to you so that you can live a productive happy healthy well adjusted life when someone like her and there are so many others that have had so much worse things happen to them that I have these people testify even the worst of the worst things that happen to a person even innocent people can be used by God in the future to bring great good in the world the story of Joseph in the Bible is a go-to example as far as a scriptural story but if you're dealing with someone that's like they're holding Christianity like this I go for real world stories something that they can connect to so those are places I would start philosophically world view you can't exclude God and even have categories of right or wrong Moral Moral suffering his survival of the fittest and then examples of people that did find the good in the suffering that it led to a greater good in life um okay yeah I've got other stories to tell but I'll stop for right there so just a couple of prongs to maybe hang an answer on did that address what you're getting that it did yes I think the biggest thing that I've always struggled with is figuring out um like how I guess when you tell people your pain is is going to be turned into good you know it's it's that that uncomfortable feeling that I have even where I'm like yes that's it sheds the light on my own sin like oh like I do I really believe this too Ah that's so true that's so true and I know you know this but I will say this so that we're all just kind of reminded I mean step number one is going that sucks yeah that is painful and difficult and I would I I never say unless I can actually say it honestly I understand what you feel like because I hear stories like I can't I so it's like that is horrible it's terrible I am so sorry that happened to you anybody would struggle with that the good news about God is that he's available to be able to heal you from the trauma you experienced but that healing process requires in Trust trusting ourselves to the great physician so he can take us through the process but it as I know you know it all starts with going man I'm so sorry that is that's what because the pain is real the questions are real and they're all understandable for sure for sure Amber did in the example that I tried to give that that at all help at least some in the area of the Innocence to have this happen Okay Okay gives this such a deep intricate difficult subject that's filled with emotion it requires a ton of thought way more than we're giving it now but if we can at least get a few it's like if I can get a little foothold that I know here's some Solid Ground to stand on and I can work out from there it's it's a good place to start um was more how can God allow these terrible things to happen to innocent people the how can God allow portion but it's okay and yes so when it comes to yeah how can God allow that but there's no such thing as an inoc person no such thing as that's true there are however if you if you believe like I do that there are people that like they they end up having um suffering immensely or dying before they ever reach what we call an age of account ability where they can be responsible for their own actions right children absolutely okay so how can God allow that here is how I usually begin to address that question I go okay when it comes to things that I I either can't explain or struggle to explain I have to go back to my world view because everybody has a worldview how I look at the world how I interpret everything that happens and I'm either going to interpret what God is like through the suffering of an innocent or I'm going to interpret the suffering of an innocent through what God is like when I interpret it when I interpret God through that circumstance my conclusion is God is a fill in the blank with whatever Bad Name you want but if I inter in fact he can't even be real and then we're right back to what we talked about before in that case how can you even call that suffering but if I interpret the suffering through the lens of God I can go I don't know why but I know God and there will be a day in which we will look at the inexplicable and go oh oh okay God now I see what you're doing I I firmly believe that that will be the case because my default mode is well I know God and God is good there is a there is a life there is a life after this one where the suffering of people like that is corrected in a way that whatever the suffering is here is the mirror opposite in what their eternity will be like how do you answer that question for people who don't who are Christians and are ask yes it's okay no no that's okay because that's the point at which if be some people use it as a it's just an emotional thing to throw out because they don't want to discuss it but the people that really do then that's when you have to turn to worldview it's often helpful to Simply go that's a tough one to explain how do you explain it because the notion of evil pain and suffering especially the Innocents it's not like it's hard for them to or easy for them to explain what's their answer because if their answer is well I guess it's just what happens well then there's no purpose or meaning to anything so why do you even care so I would I tend to default to the philosoph opical worldview for the people that are that really have the the the um the um intellectual objection and they're being honest when they say I don't know how there can be a God or a good God if he allows this to happen then go Okay then if there's not you explain the situation to me and just get the dialogue going it I promise it's not going to get much deeper more complicated than what we're talking about right here this is is about as hard as it gets so thank you for bringing it up okay well it's almost 7:45 maybe it's a little later than 7:45 maybe maybe okay everyone sees what your assignments are for next week okay so rather than me reading them um go ahead and look them over there are some things I want you to reflect upon and I would really love it if you would record your answer somewhere you don't have to share it it's not going to be published this is for your benefit and your benefit alone but I want you to reflect honestly about a few questions some of them you don't have to worry about because they're dealing with topics we didn't get to tonight but the ones that we did you'll recognize them I want you to reflect upon them and then I I the things I want you to do I think revolve around things that are um that we haven't talked about so easy homework tonight if you see something to reflect on we talked about reflect on it and write it down and then when we meet next time we'll take a little bit of time in the beginning to interact over as we examine our hearts what did we see what did we think what did God do if that happen all right okay so class number two of 25 I don't know I have no idea this should be a two semester class I don't know is over father thank you for the evening thank you for your word thank you that you thank you that you you clue Us in on how to find a lasting happiness it seems really weird that being poured in spirit and Mourning would be Avenues of lasting happiness yet those are the things that bring us into your kingdom and those are the things that bring your comfort and being in your kingdom and receiving your comfort brings lasting joy for this we thank you help us to keep thinking and wrestling under your leadership as we move through the rest of this week use us as you lead us we ask in Jesus name amen thanks everybody can I because I know I'm GNA be out next we can I get