"The Blessed Life No One Talks About" by Hiram Kemp

Down through the centuries, there's been a burning question in the hearts of humanity,

and people have gone to various lengths to try to figure out the answer.

What is the good life, and how can I have it?

The Eastern philosophers have sought to try to figure out this answer.

Sociologists, economists, and philosophers have

all tried to offer up what they think is the way to the good life.

Bestsellers promise it, but at the end, they all come up empty

with varying answers and various approaches for how you can have

and ultimately enjoy what they describe as the good life.

Dr. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and a grad school

professor at NYU. And he wrote a book a couple years ago called The Happiness

Hypothesis. And what Haidt did, as he describes it, is he surveyed wisdom

down throughout the ages from various ancient traditions and cultures.

So he went from Buddha to Confucius, Aristotle, and Plato.

And his whole approach was, how can I figure out what ultimately

leads to human flourishing? And as you might imagine,

Haidt's intelligent and skilled, but he came up empty. He was

looking for how do people get the most out of life, and he had various

answers. Some said finances, some said experiences,

some said academics, others said, no, throw yourself into meaningful

work. And at the end of Haidt's study and what he describes as the happiness

hypothesis, he had no answers. And for all

we can say about the ancients and about the moderns,

really, are we any better in our quest to figure out what makes the good

life, what leads to an individual ultimately being blessed? I think if you

were to survey our city, survey this auditorium, you too will

come up with various answers on how individuals think we should approach that question.

The truth is sometimes we're also guilty of curating our own definition

of what it means to truly live and have the blessed life.

Think about how we even use that term, I'm blessed. It's typically

followed up with something positive. Retirement's been secured,

posting the pictures from our vacation, we just

announced we're having a baby or getting married, all of those things. And while those

things can and are blessings, And even the Bible describes those things

as blessings, to receive prosperity and good from God, Genesis 24:35.

Genesis 24:35

That's not the primary way that the Bible describes an individual

being blessed or the primary way that the Bible even uses that word to talk

about what it means to live the blessed life. Almost 2,000 years ago,

Jesus sat on a hillside outside Galilee and

he began what's known to us as his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the

Mount. And it's in the way that Jesus begins this sermon that he answers for

all time. What really leads to human flourishing? What really leads to

a person living the blessed life? He says, blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those that mourn, for they'll

be comforted. Blessed are the meek, they'll inherit the earth.

Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they'll be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they'll receive mercy. Blessed are

the pure in heart, for they'll see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, because they'll be

called the children of God. Blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness'

sake, because yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile

you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for

my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, because great is your reward in heaven,

for this is how they persecuted the prophets which were before you.

Jesus says, here's what it means to really live a blessed life. And the

word that Jesus uses throughout Matthew chapter 5 to describe being blessed,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

it's a word that means this is how God pronounces his approval

on people who live a certain type of life. It's less about what

you get from God and saying you're getting good things from God, so this means

you're blessed, and it's more about I'm in a good place. And so God pronounces

his approval, his applause, and his congratulations on the

person that lives this kind of life. And if you have your Bible, go ahead

and turn it to Matthew chapter 5, because that's where we'll spend our time this

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

morning as we walk through this text and see here's what Jesus says about what

it really means to live a blessed life. And at the conclusion, what we may

find is our lives, contrary to what we think, are far more blessed

and far more God-approved than we could have ever imagined. But we might also find

at the conclusion of this study that perhaps the things that we're chasing after,

the things that we desire, are really low on God's

priority list, and maybe we need to make some changes. Because in Matthew 5:3-12,

Matthew 5:3–12

Jesus offers to us the blessed life that no one talks

about. But that everybody needs to adhere to. And here's what he says it

consists of. Number 1, blessed by brokenness and sorrow.

This is how Jesus starts the sermon in verse 3. He says, blessed are the

poor in spirit. And then in verse 4, blessed are those that mourn. The poor

in spirit will receive the kingdom of heaven. Those that mourn will receive

comfort. When Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit,

he uses a word that references financial need. Those individuals

that were not totally dependent on themselves, but needed other individuals to

come alongside them and aid them. But here Jesus is not talking about physical

resources or finances. He's talking about our spiritual status. And he says,

congratulations, the person that's in this state, the person that's poor in

spirit, that realizes apart from God, I've got nothing to recommend

myself to him. I really need God to make me who I am. A person

who doesn't think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, Romans 12:3.

Romans 12:3

Jesus says this person is living a blessed life and ultimately

will receive the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus says, blessed are those that mourn,

he's not talking about sadness over physical hardships or ills.

He's saying, blessed are those that mourn their own sin, their own

shortcomings, and their own need for God. And throughout

scripture, what you find is this is the person that's close to God. This is

the person that God approves, the person that sees themself in the same light that

God does, the person that's poor and impoverished in spirit, knowing the

only way to really receive the riches from heaven that God wants

to pour into every person's life is to realize that without God,

we don't have any of it. In Psalm 51:17,

Psalms 51:17

David says, here is what pleases God in sacrifice: a broken

and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 34:6,

Psalms 34:6

David says, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and he was attentive

to his prayer and delivered him out of all of his trouble. Isaiah 57:15,

Isaiah 57:15

God says, I dwell in the high and lofty place, and also with the

one that is of a broken and contrite heart. And Jesus comes alongside

of all that ancient wisdom, all of that inspired information, and He says,

if you really want to live the God-approved life, you've got to

be poor in spirit. You've got to see your life from the vantage point

of God and ultimately a life that says, without God, I really am nothing special.

In verse 4, when He says, blessed are those that mourn, that's about

seeing your sin the very same way that God sees your sin.

James chapter 4, verses 9 and 10, James says, be afflicted and mourn

James 4:9

because of what I'm doing that ultimately offends God when I fall short.

Realizing that the only person that can really fix me is not travel experiences.

It's not a job promotion. It's not academics. It's not my own works.

Ultimately, it's God. That's what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 17:14

17:14, heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me

and I shall be saved. For you, O Lord, are my praise. When Jesus

says, be poor in spirit and mourn, this doesn't mean you hate yourself.

It means you hate your sin. And if you hate your sin and you see

it rightly, God says, now here's a person whose life has value.

Here's a person who's headed in the right direction. Here's a person,

contrary to popular belief, that really is living

a blessed life. When you think about people who

really saw themselves in the right way, who really had a proper handle on here's

what my life is all about, here's what God wants from me, and here's how

to live a God-honoring life, few people did this as well as the 4th century

theologian by the name of Augustine. Augustine saw himself and

all of his failings and hardships perhaps more clearly than most

people do in history. He wrote a book about his life before his conversion entitled

Confessions, and throughout the book he says, here are my issues, here are my

problems. And in one of the lines he says, this is why it was so

hard for me before conversion. He says, my sin was

all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner.

Augustine says, my greatest problem was God couldn't help me because

I couldn't see myself in truly being of need of God's mercy and grace.

And God can't help anybody until we bring ourselves to this

point and we say, you know what, God? I'm a sinner and I ultimately need

your help. Jesus looks out on this crowd that's gathered to hear him preach and

he says, blessed are you who are poor in spirit. Blessed are you that mourn.

It's what Paul means in 1 Timothy 1:15 when he says, this is a

1 Timothy 1:15

faithful saying and worthy of acceptance everywhere. Christ Jesus came into the

world to save sinners. Of whom I am chief, 1 Timothy 1:15.

1 Timothy 1:15

Paul says that in the present tense after having been an apostle for decades.

Paul sees himself as he truly is. And Jesus says, when you see

this, it'll change you. It'll change what we're doing right now.

Because you see, pride hears a sermon and says, I know all of this already.

Humility says, I need to hear this again. It's about being

broken in spirit and mourning over sin, not because God

won't forgive it, not because we hate ourselves and think lowly of ourselves, but because

we know all of the true greatness and all of the true goodness is

located in the person of God.

Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune

disease or deficiency that basically keeps people from being able to cry and

to shed tears. People with Sjögren's syndrome, they may get

sad, they may feel intense emotion over hardship and over difficulty,

but in the end, they can't really bring up any tears. They can't cry

though they might want to. They've got to find some other way to express it

because the tears physically, they just won't come out. I've never

known anybody that's been officially diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome,

but I've known people throughout my life who've kind of boasted about the fact that,

oh, they just don't cry. Maybe you know people like this. I've heard people say,

you know, I lived my whole life, I never seen my dad cry. Or maybe

somebody says, I've lived my whole life, the last time I cried was in 3rd

grade, you know, when I spilled my chocolate milk. Or I went to the doctor

as a kid, they gave me shots, never cried, nothing ever bothers me.

And if that's you, Congratulations, Macho Man Randy Savage.

I mean, good for you. If you never cry, if nothing ever gets to you,

well, that's good. But just beware, beware that

that physical toughness doesn't translate into spiritual

stubbornness, because God's favorite people realize

their sin and aren't afraid to express it. It doesn't necessarily mean you've got to

cry physically, but you've got to have this broken spirit. David says

in Psalm 38:18, he says, I'll confess my iniquity.

Psalms 38:18

I'm sorry for my sin. The publican in Luke 18 strikes

his breast and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

When Peter realized he disappointed Jesus in Luke 22:62,

Luke 22:62

he went out and he wept bitterly. Isaiah says, woe is me, I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people

of unclean lips. Isaiah 6:5. Jesus says,

Isaiah 6:5

this is what it really means to be God-approved. This is what it

means. It means that in our lives, we realize the biggest room in our house

is the room for improvement. And it's only then that we

can make room for God. The blessed life involves brokenness,

and it involves this idea of mourning and sorrow. But number 2, the blessed

life nobody talks about also involves humility and hunger.

As Jesus makes his way through the sermon in verse 5, he says, blessed are

the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And here Jesus is referencing Psalm

Psalms 37:11

37:11. In Psalm 37:11, David says the meek will inherit the

Psalms 37:11

earth and enjoy all the goodness that God has to offer them.

When Jesus says blessed are the meek or the humble because they'll inherit the

earth, he means that the meek and the humble person will enjoy the best that

God has to offer in this world, but also in the new world, the new

heavens and new earth of 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1-2.

2 Peter 3:13 Revelation 21:1–2

And then when he says blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness

because they'll be satisfied, Just think about Jesus's

earthly ministry. Think about how many times people followed him because

they were physically hungry. Matthew 14, Matthew 15,

Jesus feeds the 4,000 and the 5,000. But here

Jesus is saying something different. Here Jesus is talking about the spiritual

hunger that must be true of everybody that's going to follow him and ultimately live

the blessed and God-approved life. And Jesus says,

blessed are the meek, the humble, Because they'll inherit the earth.

No, the blessed life involves seeing yourself in need of God's

goodness, in need of God's grace and mercy. And it's a lowly view of self

that says, you know, all of the attention, all of the glory ultimately belongs to

God. This hunger and thirst for righteousness, it means my true and deepest desires are

the things that ultimately please God. It's Matthew 6:33, seek ye

Matthew 6:33

first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added

to you. Jesus described God's will as his food and his sustenance.

He says in John 4:34, my will, my food is to

John 4:34

do the will of him that sent me. So if I'm a person that hungers

and thirsts for righteousness, yes, it means to seek the kingdom of God first,

but more than that, it means I want to see God's righteousness done

in the world, but first and foremost, in my own life.

It's what Jesus means about himself in John 6:38

John 6:38

when he says, I have not come to do my own will, but the will

of him who sent me. The blessed life nobody talks about. Listen, Jesus had

to tell us this because the world doesn't preach this. The world has a gospel

of its own. Prove yourself, protect yourself, promote yourself.

Not Matthew 5:5, to be humble. The world says, if you don't

Matthew 5:5

boast and post your own brand, nobody else will. And Jesus cuts

through all of that noise and he says, Matthew 16:25, whoever tries to save

Matthew 16:25

his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake He'll find

it. This point reminds us that ultimate success and

obedience in the Christian life must not ultimately be equated with busyness,

because it's possible to be busy for God but never surrender to God.

When Jesus says, I want you to seek first the kingdom of God, this is

ultimately about surrendering to what God would have me to do and seeking

His will above my own. Ask and you'll receive, seek and you'll

find, knock and the door will be opened. For everyone that asks receives, the one

that seeks finds, And the one that knocks, it's open. You will be satisfied

if you pursue this life. And so Jesus says the God-approved life, the blessed life,

is one where you hunger and thirst after the right things and where you humbly

see yourself as you truly are in light of all that God is and all

that God has done. You know, in Matthew 21,

Jesus rides through Jerusalem on that donkey in fulfillment of a prophecy

made in Zechariah 9:9. And the people, they shout out,

Zechariah 9:9

Hosanna! Praises be to our God. There's a fictional story

told about the donkey in Matthew 21. He goes out with Jesus.

Jesus rides on him into the city, and the next day the same donkey goes

back out into the city. And when he goes back out this time, nobody cheers.

Nobody praises him. Nobody acknowledges him. He comes back to his friends and he says,

what happened? Yesterday everybody praised me. Everybody acknowledged me.

Today it's like they didn't even see me. And his friends respond by telling him,

oh, don't be silly. They weren't cheering for you. They were cheering for him.

It wasn't you that they were trusting in and boasting in. It was ultimately Him.

The only thing that made them cheer for you is the one that you were

carrying. And Jesus says that to every one of us in Matthew 5:5.

Matthew 5:5

He really says this and shocks the whole world. Blessed are the

meek, because at the end of the day, Jesus means what He says in John

John 15:5

15:5, without Me, you can do nothing. People are ultimately

cheering for us, not because we're special, but because of the name that

we're carrying. And all of our lives need to be driven toward a hunger

and a thirst for God's righteousness over and above our own,

so that we can say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31,

1 Corinthians 10:31

whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all

to the glory of God. Every one of us should pray this prayer:

God, keep me from a need and a desire to be noticed,

but instead let me lose myself ultimately in pursuit

of you. Psalm 115:1, the psalmist says, not unto

Psalms 115:1

us, Not unto us, God, give glory, but to your name and

your name alone. Keep me from needing to be seen and desiring to be noticed,

but instead let me lose myself ultimately in pursuit

of you. And when we do that, Jesus says, that's what it means to live

a blessed life, to be humble and to be meek, to hunger and to thirst

after the things that only God can satisfy. And when that's our pursuit,

God always honors it because he satisfies us with himself.

Here's number 3. The blessed life nobody talks about is

the life of compassion. Matthew 5:7,

Matthew 5:7

Jesus says, blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

The word mercy here in Matthew 5:7, it's about having others' interests above

Matthew 5:7

your own and going out of your way to supply their needs and

to strengthen other people that don't have the things that they need to make it

through. This is one of the major themes throughout the prophets because Israel throughout

the Old Testament had gotten so far off base with what they really needed

to be about, and that's ultimately Loving God and then serving people.

In Micah 6:8, the 8th century prophet Micah

Micah 6:8

said, he's shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires,

but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Proverbs 21:3, Solomon says, to do justice

Proverbs 21:3

and to do mercy is more profitable to the Lord than the offering of sacrifices.

The blessed life that nobody talks about is the life of mercy and

the life of compassion toward other people that are in need. And Jesus

says, blessed are the merciful, Because they'll receive it.

There is an unbroken line throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation concerning

humans extending mercy to other humans, and in so

doing, also receiving the mercy that every one of us needs from God.

In the model prayer, one chapter over from Matthew chapter 5, in Matthew 6:12,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention Matthew 6:12

you remember Jesus says, God, and forgive us our debts as we also do,

what? Forgive those that are indebted to us. And then in Matthew 6:14-15,

Matthew 6:14–15

Jesus says, if you forgive men, God will forgive you.

But if you don't forgive others, God won't forgive you. One of the things

that'll help us be more merciful and compassionate to other people is realizing

and appreciating how much we need God's mercy.

James 2:13, James says, there will be no mercy

James 2:13

shown on the day of judgment to the one that's shown no mercy, and mercy

rejoices or triumphs against judgment.

The blessed life is the life of compassion, and our world won't help us

with this. It's not that our world is teaching us that we ought to be

mean people, though it does its fair share of that. Instead, our world is saying

to us, always be on the move. And it's impossible to

always be mobile and to be compassionate at the same time.

Our world's so frantic and so fast, it doesn't create any margin to be

compassionate. If you're going to be a compassionate person, there has to be time

in your life to be stationary. Jesus looked out on the multitudes with compassion

because they were as sheep without a shepherd, Matthew 9:36.

Matthew 9:36

To be compassionate, you've got to be still because you've got to wait for them

to start talking and tell you what's wrong. You've got to be still enough because

you know what? They're going to interrupt you and start crying about that same thing

yet again. You've got to be still because they're going to fall and

stumble, maybe in the same way that you helped them 2 and 3 times

before that. And if you're hearing this and you say, you know what? That's not

me. See, I don't have time for that. That's our problem. And we'll

miss the blessing of Matthew 5:7 where Jesus says, blessed are

Matthew 5:7

the merciful because they'll receive mercy. We've got to be able

to go out of our way to extend it. Henri Nouwen is right when he

says, let us never underestimate how hard it is to show

true compassion, because true compassion can tolerate not

knowing, not healing, and ultimately not curing,

but simply being present, and being prayerful.

That's what Job's friends do for 7 days in Job 2:11-13.

Job 2:11–13

They just sit there with Job and they're just present. And Jesus says, when that's

true about you, you'll receive a blessing. As the world rushes on to its next

task, blessed are the merciful, the people that stop, that see, that interrupt

their day and pause long enough to not only see a person's need,

but to get involved. That is the Good Samaritan of Luke 10:25-37.

Luke 10:25–37

Surely he had plans. Surely he had other things to do, But he saw

a man in need and he was still enough to do something about it.

And let me say to young people, maybe you hear this a lot from people

in your family, maybe from people in school that have a great

interest in your success. There's this constant pressure. You've got to use your talents.

What are you going to be when you grow up? What direction are you going

to go in? What's going to be your ultimate career? For whatever else that may

be true, make this your superpower: seeing other people's needs and then

getting involved. Because if you do that, whatever else you get involved in,

you ultimately will be a success. Cultivate and develop a sensitive

and compassionate heart that cultivates the unique gift of putting

yourself in other people's shoes, caring about them without at the

same time belittling them. Hosea 6:6, God says,

Hosea 6:6

I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He wants these compassionate,

gentle, and gracious hearts. And one of the blessings

that God says One of the things about the blessed life that most people ignore

is the blessing of compassion. But here's number 4, the blessing of purity.

Matthew 5:8, Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart because

Matthew 5:8

they'll see God. It's important that Jesus emphasizes blessed

are the pure in heart because it's possible for a lot of our lives to

be pure, but ultimately for our hearts not to be. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees

on this account. You remember in Matthew 23, 25 through 26, he says,

you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the dish, but inwardly you're

full of dead men's bones and hypocrisy. Instead, clean up the inside

and then the outside will be clean as well. Blessed are the pure in heart,

because the blessing to that is ultimately attached to seeing God. It's 1

1 John 3:2–3

John 3:2-3. When we— he appears, we'll be like him.

We'll see him as he is. And everybody that has this hope in him purifies

themselves just as he is. The blessed life nobody talks about is

the blessing of purity, because Jesus takes things up a notch.

The pure heart is not ultimately about doing things that make us appear pure

to other people. Blessed are the pure in heart means we get our heart in

such a condition that we want to, we desire

to do the things that please God no matter what anybody else sees.

Matthew 15:18-20, Jesus says, the things that come

Matthew 15:18–20

from within, those are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed

hands, defiles no one. For out of the heart proceed murder, adultery,

blasphemy, covetousness. Jesus says your heart is the problem.

And once you fix your heart, your hands and your head and your feet,

everything else will follow. Blessed are the pure in heart because they'll

see God. And that's what God wants for us. He wants our hearts

and our lives to be pure. And so we've got to ask ourselves some hard

questions because sometimes a person says, you know what, I've got to guard my heart.

I've got to secure it. And the Bible teaches that. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse

Proverbs 4 · chapter mention

23, keep your heart with all diligence because out of it flow the issues

of life. And sometimes you keep things locked up because you want them secure,

but sometimes you've got things locked up because you want them secretive,

and you've got to figure out which one of those is the case. There are

some things in our lives that we say, you know what, this is secure,

this is important, nobody's business but mine. But then there are other things that we

say, I've got a lock on this because I don't want anybody else to see

in. And Jesus cuts through that and he says, Is your heart pure?

I mean, this is the thrust of later in chapter 5, the Sermon on the

Mount, Matthew 5:21-48. Jesus says, you've heard it said

Matthew 5:21–48

by people of old time, don't commit murder. But I'm telling

you, if you're angry without a cause, you already have the ingredients to

commit murder. You just lack opportunity. You've heard it said by those of old time,

don't commit adultery. But I'm telling you, Jesus says, if you

got lust in your heart, the ingredients are already there. You just simply lack

opportunity. You've heard it said, don't give false oaths. Jesus says, don't just

make careless statements of swearing. You can't make one hair white or black.

Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, because the blessed

life, it's a pure one. And it gets down to our heart where no— the

world says, listen, the only things that matter are the things people can see.

Jesus flips that on his head and he says, the things that matter most are

the things nobody can see. 1 Peter 1:15-16,

1 Peter 1:15–16

Peter says, as he who has called you is holy, so you be holy in

all your conduct, as it is written, be holy, for I'm holy. He hearkens

back to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 11:44,

Leviticus 11:44

11:45, Leviticus 20:7, where Israel was told, you've got

Leviticus 20:7

to be different from everybody else, but it's about an internal holiness.

And our world has trained us to look the part instead of

live the part. The people that heard Jesus in this sermon on this point had

to be surprised because if you were to say to anybody in first century Palestine,

who's the holiest people in the world? Without fail, they would have said this 6,000-member

group of people known as the Pharisees. They know the Bible better than anybody else.

They've got the largest phylacteries and the longest robes.

But to hear Jesus say in Matthew 5:17-20, your righteousness

Matthew 5:17–20

has to exceed theirs, would have shocked the masses. Because the

Pharisees were good at looking religious, but not living religiously.

And Jesus wants you, he wants me to live a blessed life. And that involves

not just looking the part, but we also have to live it.

Here's number 5. The blessed life nobody talks about also

includes the blessing of peace. In Matthew 5:9,

Matthew 5:9

Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers because they'll be called the children of

God. This is about reconciling 2 parties that are at odds with

each other and making this sort of harmony in relationships and in individual lives.

Nobody did this better than Jesus. You could say this is really the reason why

Jesus came. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

That is making friends again between humanity and ultimately

between God. That's what Jesus came to do, to make peace

between 2 parties. And in our lives, probably the most immediate

and the greatest application of Matthew 5:9 is what we do in

Matthew 5:9

evangelism. When you try to introduce other people to God and bring them

to a relationship with their Maker, you're on a peacemaking mission.

At the end of the day, the marks in your life that will make you

most blessed as a peacemaker, as you survey the totality of

your life, is how many people in my life have I tried to introduce to

God? How many people throughout my life have I attempted to try to reconcile to

their Creator? And throughout John chapter 1, that's exactly what you find.

John 1 · chapter mention

You find Andrew saying to Peter, John 1:40-41,

John 1:40–41

come because we found the Messiah, the one called Christ.

It's what Philip does to Nathanael in John 1:45-46,

John 1:45–46

we found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write,

Jesus of Nazareth. It's what the woman at

the well from Samaria does as she leaves her water pot, goes throughout all of

Samaria and says, John 4:29, come see a man who's told

John 4:29

me everything I've ever done. The blessed life nobody talks about is the blessed life

of peace. How do you live the flourishing life? Help people to be reconciled

to their God. But there's another step, because here Jesus isn't just talking

about his work, he's talking about ours. And peace in the world involves not only

peace with God, but also peace with our fellow man. And if we're going to

be individuals that are peacemakers— this word literally means to be peace doers,

people that do peace— we've got to have peace with God, but then we've got

to have peace with each other. And this is the hard work. How good and

how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity, Psalm 133:1.

Psalms 133:1

If you're going to live a blessed life, you've got to be at peace with

humanity. Jack Lewis, in his commentary on Matthew in chapter 5 in this

section, he says the greatest issue with Matthew 5:9 is our own human tendencies

Matthew 5:9

and psyches. He says at the end of the day, it's the backbiting, it's the

gossiping, it's the belittling that keeps us from being the peacemakers that

God would have us to be. Listen, You can't be a peacemaker and pick everybody

to pieces at the same time, Proverbs 16:28. This means

Proverbs 16:28

I've just got to stop. You can't be Christ person and a chatty patty at

the same time. You just can't do it. God won't let you.

You got to just stop gossiping. Don't talk about people. Don't tear them

down. Be the person that says, I want to reconcile relationships

because that's the life that God honors. In fact, our itch

and our desire to be in the know sometimes just stir up confusion. Proverbs 6:19,

Proverbs 6:19

Solomon says, Ultimately, God hates those that sow

discord. He wants harmony. But don't miss

Matthew 5:9 where Jesus says, peace also has to be

Matthew 5:9

made. And so that means you've got to have hard conversations. You've got to do

difficult things. You've got to apologize and confront and harmonize where

you can, because that's what Jesus wants for us to do. Be individuals that bring

about the reconciliation and make the peace, even when it's difficult,

even when it's troubling. And he says, when you do that, you look

just like your heavenly Father because that's what Jesus left heaven to do and it'll

make you his child. But 6th and finally, the blessed life that nobody

talks about also involves the blessing of persecution.

Our world tells us, you know, you should avoid pain at all costs. Don't ever

do anything that's going to make you uncomfortable. Don't ever do anything that's going to

hurt. And of all of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12, this is

Matthew 5:3–12

most likely the most shocking one. Some people might tell you that poverty

of spirit is good for you, being humble, hungering and thirsting after the things that

really matter. But few people in the world are going to say to you what

Jesus says in Matthew 5:10-12, that your life and my life will be blessed

Matthew 5:10–12

through persecution. He says in Matthew 5:10, blessed are you when you're

Matthew 5:10

persecuted for righteousness' sake, because that means the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.

It means you're just like the prophets who went before you. He says,

don't step away from pain. But press into it. And throughout

the book of Acts, that's what you see the Christians doing. In Acts 5:41,

Acts 5:41

they rejoice that they're counted worthy to suffer shame for the

name of Jesus. Letters are written to churches. Philippians is one of them. In chapter

1:29, Paul says, to us it's given in behalf of

Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his

sake. Listen, this doesn't mean we're difficult people just for difficulty's

sake, but it does mean if our devotion to Jesus, causes people to malign us

and mistreat us and step away from us, Paul says, and Jesus echoes it

in the Sermon on the Mount, you just accept that because ultimately to be persecuted

for righteousness' sake, it's a great honor because above the prophets,

above the apostles, it aligns you with Jesus.

And this is the blessed life that nobody talks about. Some of us, we can

hardly stand anybody to just be angry with us or to dislike us.

Jesus says, that's a part of what it means to follow me. And not because

you've done wrong or you've asked for it, but sometimes running in the direction of

righteousness is going to cause separation. But congratulations,

you're God-approved. You're living the flourishing life, even if it doesn't

feel like it when you do that, because God defines what it means to be

blessed and not people. The Japanese author Haruki

Murakami, he is a man who has written novels

for a very long time. But one day in his journey as an

author, he decided, you know what, I'm kind of getting out of shape. And I

probably should take up running. And so he did. He's run miles, he's run marathons,

he even wrote a book about it called What I Talk About— What I Mean

When I'm Talking About Running. And he decided that being a marathon

runner was going to help him to be a better author. And if you can

think about it, those 2 worlds are polar opposites.

In fact, when Haruki is out running, he's not writing, and when he's writing,

he's not running. Those 2 things don't seem to go hand in hand, but here's

what he decided. He decided that running, though it appears to be divorced from writing,

at the end of the day is going to make me the kind of person

that can write. Because he says writing is hard work, it's diligence,

it's putting in time day after day staring at a screen when it's just you

and the screen and you've got to make words come out. And he says,

if I can run miles solo in the heat and in the cold and push

myself, I'll turn into the kind of person that can write the kind

of books that I want to write. And we read Jesus's words in Matthew 5:10-12.

Matthew 5:10–12

And we say, God, I just want to please you. I just want to glorify

you. I don't see how persecution ultimately leads to righteousness.

Those 2 worlds seem radically divorced. And Jesus says, when you can

stand in and take mistreatment, when you can hold fast when

you're doing the right thing, oh, it doesn't appear like it now, but it's turning

you into the kind of person that belongs to the kingdom.

It's producing in you what can't be produced otherwise. And you ultimately

become a person that Jesus says, The kingdom of heaven belongs to

such as these. Men have read every book

in the library that they could. They've done every study known to

man to try to figure it out. What does it mean to flourish as a

human being? What does it mean to ultimately be successful? What does it

mean to have and live the good life? And how do we have it?

And 2,000 years ago, Jesus sat on a hillside outside of Galilee

and he told us. He says, if you seek the right things, the kingdom of

heaven is yours. If you mourn your sins, God will

shield you and blanket you with his comfort. If you are

an individual who's humble, the earth is yours now and

in the world to come. Our world says grind, hustle, go after it

for everything but God. But Jesus says, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness,

God will always satisfy that request. You'll be a peacemaker, you'll be his child,

and ultimately you'll enjoy salvation.

Phil's going to lead us in a song to encourage us. If you believe Jesus

is the Son of God and you know, you know what, I'm broken, I can't

be saved outside of Jesus, I can't save myself, I'm poor in spirit,

I mourn my sin, and I want to be made right with him. If you

believe Jesus is the Son of God and you're ready to turn away from your

sin and confess Jesus as the Son of God, we'll help you to do

what many have done here recently, baptize you into water for the forgiveness of your

sins, just like the Bible says. And no matter what else is true about your

earthly circumstances, God will mark your life as blessed. You'll have his applause,

his congratulations. We have the invitation for that purpose.

If you're a person hearing this and you think, I really need to do that,

Hiram, but listen, there is no way I'm ever going to come before this audience

and do a thing like that. At the end of this sermon, Neil will be

in the back. I'll be back there. On your way out, if you say,

you know what, I really need to be made right with God. I don't know

how to go about that. I don't want to do it publicly. Just let us

know. All you have to say is, hey, you were talking about me. I need

to do that. I want to be right with God. I'm poor in spirit,

but I really want his riches. You don't have to do it publicly. You just

have to turn to him and do it. We'd be happy to assist you.

If we can pray with you or pray for you or in any way help

you to make peace with God, let us know how we can do it as

together we stand and as we sing.