The Core Values of Happiness Part 1: Matthew 5:1-3 - Matthew: Kingdom of God Revolution

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Disneyland should not be the happiest place on the earth.

The road should be.

We should be the happiest place on the earth.

I'm not gonna let Walt Disney have that.

No way.

We're gonna see that the Sermon on the Mount begins with blessed, which is from the Latin beatus, which means happiness from the word in the Greek letter Macarias, which has the idea of long, lasting, deep, seated peace and joy.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit the road.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

You know, Jesus is probably the most misunderstood character in all of history.

He never came to start a religion, he came to start a revolution.

I was listening to an interview this week with a particular pastor, well-known pastor.

Some of you may have heard of him or not have heard of him, but it's not important.

But he was being interviewed, and they had captured it on this particular broadcast that I was watching.

And they were asking him about how he presents Christianity to his church.

Let me just say, you're never going to hear about Christianity at the road.

I'm not interested in experiencing nor proclamating about Christianity.

Christianity to me is a religion of being a Christian.

And we're not here to produce Christians.

We're here to produce Jesus followers who bring a kingdom of God revolution.

And that kingdom of God revolution has values, it has a way of thinking, it has a way of living.

And we're getting ready to do a sermon series, you guys, that might be the most important we've ever done at the road.

It's a sermon on the mount.

The sermon on the mount is the magnum opus of Jesus.

He never mentions Christianity, he never mentions religion.

He mentions the kingdom of heaven, Matthew's way of speaking of the kingdom of God.

Turning your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

For you that are regular at the roads, you know we've been going through chapter by chapter and verse by verse through the book of Matthew, calling it the Kingdom of God revolution.

And we looked at a couple weeks ago, Matthew 4, 17.

Let me just remind you of what's being said here.

He says, and it says, Jesus began this way, and then he repeated again and again.

Actually, it's interesting because John the Baptist began this way also.

Repent.

Repent.

For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

If you recall, I mentioned what repent means.

Repent means a change in your thinking.

Because here's what's interesting about Jesus.

Jesus was not interested in how many people he could get into heaven.

Jesus was interested in how much of heaven he could get into people.

You see, Jesus came, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The presence of the kingdom has come.

Change your way of thinking.

Change your way of living, for the kingdom is here.

And in so doing, church, he's about to give us a proclamation of what that kingdom looks like, what that kingdom is about.

The values of the kingdom.

Because we're a citizenship of his kingdom, and as citizens of his kingdom, we carry the values of that kingdom.

And in carrying those values of that kingdom, wherever we go, we either bring heaven with us or we don't.

And we bring the presence, that's what happened yesterday on these two pieces of property back to back, contiguous with each other, is the presence of the kingdom came.

And these two owners, all they could do was cry all the time.

They didn't know what was going on, but something emotionally was touching their heart because they weren't accustomed to the way in which we acted, the way in which we talked.

And I'm not saying there was perfection by any means, but I am saying that when the kingdom comes, it really makes an impact on the kingdoms of this world.

Because do you realize that the whole purpose of the coming of Jesus was the kingdoms of this world that would become the kingdoms of our Lord and King?

That's what God's doing.

The kingdom is moving, it is moving across the globe.

Do you realize what's happening in China right now?

Communism is on the run.

These little house churches are popping up by the thousands daily.

We can't even keep up with it.

We can't even keep a record of it.

It's happening so fast.

What's happening in India?

I've been to India six times.

And everywhere I go, I'll be introduced to another house church when I'm traveling from one place to another, and I'll go in and it'll be just packed with people.

Packed with little kids and grandmas, every age group, all packed in there, and everybody wants to tell me about the miracles they saw last week or that or the week before.

Healings, deliverance from the demonic.

And they're just reading their Bibles.

They're just reading the Bible and just doing it.

Indonesia is booming.

Africa is booming.

God's on the move.

Repent.

He says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He's saying, look, I want you to change your American way of thinking.

I want you to change your thinking, and I'm going to show you how to change.

And that's the Sermon on the Mount.

He's about to give us, I'm going to call it the Kingdom Manifesto.

Anyone heard of the Communist Manifesto?

Where the Communist Manifesto is what Marxism is built from.

It was the manifesto that brought the Bolshevik Revolution into Russia.

It's that manifesto that guides any form of communism that's popping up around the world.

In America, we would call it maybe the Declaration of Independence.

So this is God's kingdom being declared to us.

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 72.

So keep your finger in Matthew 4 and look at Psalm 72.

One of the most interesting proclamations in the Bible because it's repeated so many times.

It's actually repeated at least 10 times that I'm aware of.

There may be more.

Blessed.

So we're going to learn about blessed.

Beetus in Latin.

Happiness.

Happy be his glorious name forever.

Blessed be his name forever.

And let the whole earth, let the whole earth be filled with his kabbod, his glory.

Amen and amen.

Repeated all through the Old and New Testament, this idea of the glory of God, the kabod of God.

It means the weight.

It means weight.

It means heaviness.

One of the great, great messages ever given by C.S.

Lewis is called the weight of glory.

The weight of glory.

So it's so funny.

Many of us know quotes from the weight of glory, but very few of us have actually read the treatise, the discourse that he gave on the weight of glory.

I read it last night, and it was just fascinating to read that.

But it's the weight of glory.

Glory means weight.

Listen now, don't miss this.

It means imprint.

It means imprint.

It means actually values.

God wants his glory, his imprint, his impact all over the world.

All over Colorado Springs.

All over the Rocky Mountain region.

He wants his values imprinted upon every place.

Listen, his citizens go.

You're not members of the kingdom, you're members of the Kiwanis Club.

You could be members of this church.

You could be members of the Chamber of Commerce, but you can only become a citizen of the kingdom, and the only way you can become a citizen of the kingdom is you have to be born into it.

You have to be born into the kingdom.

Some of you here are members of churches through the years, but you've never become a citizen of the kingdom.

You've never been born into the kingdom.

You can't sign up, you can't write your name, you can't get on a list, you can't be on a mailing list, become a part of the kingdom.

You can to become a part of a church, part of an organization, but Jesus said you must be born again.

You must be born into that kingdom.

And when you're born into that kingdom, you're not an illegal alien.

You actually become, you get a passport of the kingdom.

And you're now a kingdom citizen.

So wherever you go, listen up, wherever you go, you bring the values of the kingdom, the kebad, the glory of God wherever you go.

That's what we did yesterday.

It was really fun.

So we go in to this restaurant.

I'm not going to tell you the name of the restaurant because this young lady might be here this morning.

I hope she is.

So I'm going to, she already knows who she is, but well, she won't doesn't yet, but she will.

I had the kids, Liz was gone, and whenever and kids are always like, mom's gone, Dad, Dad, mom's gone.

And what they mean is go through that little, get one of those gift certificates that we have.

Because I keep a little drawer with some gift certificates or different things like that that come my way.

And then I pull one out.

So I had two for this particular steakhouse here in town.

So we grab the two.

We haven't been there in at least seven or eight years.

We go there, I've got most of my kids with me.

We come in, and it's one of these really popular places where you always stand in line.

Anyway, we got in our seat, we sit down, and this girl walks up.

I start to talk to her.

She's our waitress, and she goes, I know you.

You're the pastor at the road.

And she got this kind of deer in the headlights look.

And I go, Yes, I am.

And we both started laughing, you know.

Yeah.

And then she goes, No, I was there for Haley Popovich's funeral.

And you let you led that funeral.

I just loved it.

And then she told me how she knew Haley.

And Haley, you guys know, suddenly died on her trip overseas.

And we had shipped her body back and everything.

We had the funeral.

Really, really popular girl around here.

Everybody loved Haley.

Haley was like 21 when she died.

That's right right after her birthday, actually.

She died.

And um, so this girl was with her.

She had she knew her, she had been around her.

And so she starts sharing.

And I said, Well, I said, but honey, here's the thing.

Do you realize this was set up by God?

Because I never come to this restaurant.

I like this restaurant, but it's too expensive for me.

But I came here because I have these gift certificates, and I promise you I'll tip you, even though I've got these certificates, you know.

And I tipped her really good.

Okay.

Really good.

Okay.

Like about 150%.

And um so we prayed for her.

The Spirit of God came, you guys.

She just started weeping.

We were all weeping.

I mean, Spirit of God was there.

See, that's the Kingdom of God revolution, gang.

That's that's we we bring the culture of the kingdom.

We bring the imprint of the culture of the kingdom of God wherever we go.

If you start, listen, if you guys start praying for people wherever you go, like you make it, you make it a personal conviction.

I'm gonna look for an opportunity to pray for anywhere I go.

I don't care if it's King Supers, the post office, the coffee shop, or wherever I go or at my job, I'm looking for opportunities to pray for people.

How can I pray for you?

Pray for them.

You'll start to you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Spirit of God will come and people start to cry.

They'll be touched because that's what we're here for.

That's the kingdom of God revolution, is that we are bringing the kabbad, we're bringing the glory of God all over the earth, and that's what's happening in these countries, and that's what's happening around the globe right now.

It's not happening here, it's not happening here yet, but it's going to.

It's coming.

It starts here, it starts in your heart.

If you're not experiencing the revolution of the kingdom, listen up, keep coming, hang out with us.

It's gonna get on you, and you're gonna get all messed up.

We're here to mess up your life.

We are here to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come.

That means change your thinking.

Change the way you've always done everything before, change the way you work, change the way you treat people.

That's what Jesus is saying.

I am the kingdom.

I bring the culture of the kingdom.

I want the culture of the kingdom all over you, Israel.

Repent, change your thinking, change your way of living.

And then we know from the passage because we looked at it a few weeks ago, he's healing the sick, he's casting out demons, he's bringing a word and deed message, not just a word message, but a deed message.

He's helping people, he's serving people, he's loving people.

And now, Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter five.

How many of you have been to Chinatown in San Francisco?

Whoa.

Okay, I met Liz in China, so I know a little bit about China.

We were only there for two weeks when I met her, so it's not like I know a lot about China.

I know Japan a lot better, but I've been to Chinatown, and so have you.

You've been to Chinatown in San Francisco, and um when you when you go through those arches in Chinatown and you've now entered Chinatown, you've entered China.

I mean, you've effectively entered the smells, the feeling, the language, and what?

The culture of China.

But you're not in China.

Because the culture of a country is not the country, the culture of the country is the citizenship.

You see, Chinese brought China with them.

Over a hundred years ago, the Chinese mainly were recruited to work on the railroads.

They came over and they began to develop communities, and it was a little China, they brought their culture with them, and it's such a strong culture that it's still there today.

So in Matthew 5, what Jesus is going to try to communicate to us is this is the values of the kingdom because I'm on a colonization project.

Jesus is the first colonizer.

He wants to colonize the earth.

He wants to recolonize the earth because he first colonized the earth in Eden.

Then we broke away and we became of a different kingdom, and now he's recolonizing the earth through his church, and it's called redemption.

And so he's using men and women like us to bring the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of earth.

He's not interested in getting you into heaven.

That's a good deal, by the way.

It's a really good deal.

We all want to go to heaven, but you're not in heaven yet.

So Jesus wants heaven that you're going toward.

Don't want to minimize that.

He wants it now on the earth.

That's the point.

That's the point of Genesis 1, 26 through 28 when he said he created man and women in his own image, the image, the culture of the kingdom, that we might be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over what?

The whole earth.

You see, Genesis 1.26 could be overlaid over the Great Commission of Genesis 28, 18 through 20.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

That's just a repeat of Genesis 1, that kingdom command to have dominion, to bring the culture of heaven down to earth and colonize it.

That's why this church, this building, this property here means it's nothing.

This building in and of itself is nothing.

This parking lot is just a bunch of pavement with stripes on it.

This building is just some scaffolding that has walls on it.

But when we come to it, when we enter into it, we change it.

It becomes the kingdom.

It becomes part of the kingdom by the values that we as the citizens bring to this territory.

We own this territory.

God owns this territory.

Disneyland should not be the happiest place on the earth.

The road should be.

We should be the happiest place on the earth.

I'm not gonna let Walt Disney have that.

No way.

We're gonna see that the Sermon on the Mount begins with blessed, which is from the Latin beatus, which means happiness, from the word in the Greek, later makarios, which has the idea of long lasting, deep seated peace and joy in your life.

So we're not very good at it.

We at the road are not very good at it.

Most churches in this city aren't good at it.

The church at large isn't very good at it.

But I want to get better at making this place the happiest place it can be.

That the fruit of the kingdom, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit would be all over this facility.

Would be all over your house.

That's why I debated, I debated for a week.

So, okay, should I do a Father's Day message?

It's Father's Day.

I should do a Father's Day message.

That's what you do when you're a pastor.

You do a Father's Day message.

And Mother's Day, you do a Mother's Day message.

And I'm looking, I'm going, okay, I'm doing the Sermon on the Mount, or at least I'm gonna do an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, or a Father's Day message, or the Sermon on the Mount, or the Father's Day message.

And I'm thinking, the Sermon on the Mount is the Father's Day message.

Because we know this fathers, husbands, you that are fathers who don't have a family right now, you young men and young women all across this sanctuary.

If we can get this, it'll energize our churches, it will transform our families, and it will transform our culture.

Anyone realize our culture might need some kingdom transforming these days?

So Matthew 5, and I'm just gonna barely begin.

We'll pick it up next week, but look at verse 1.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

So let's just stop right there.

First of all, this is Matthew's attempt in writing to Jewish.

I've told you before, he's writing to Jewish readers, Jews that were trying to debate whether Jesus was the prophetic one, was the messianic one to come.

He's making correlation, a prophetic correlation to Moses.

Moses went up on a mountain and he gave the kingdom people of that time, which was Israel, the law from Mount Sinai.

This is the new Moses.

He's about to give a new law.

He's about to give a new way of thinking.

He's saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come.

Change your thinking.

I'm about to give you a new law.

And the theme is Matthew 6 33.

Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added to you.

The whole Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, which we're gonna cover over the next couple months, is About happiness.

It's about the values of the kingdom, a new law, a new freedom.

So he begins with this.

He opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That's where it starts.

Write down if you're taking notes.

A lot of you taking notes, put down eight great values of the kingdom.

Write down eight great values of the kingdom.

And this is going to be the first one.

This is value number one.

It's the most important one.

Look at verse three.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Then look down to verse 10.

These are classically called the blessed verses, the beatitudes.

It says again, blessed are those who are persecuted of a righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So sandwich between verses 3 through 10 is these values of the kingdom.

He wants to know that the keynote of everything he's about to say is about the kingdom.

And he starts with blessed, because blessed is the happy word.

It's the happy word.

One particular pastor said these are the happy attitudes, the be attitudes, the be attitudes, the beatitudes, the beatitudes, happiness.

This is where joy is found.

And he says the first one is this blessed are the poor in spirit.

What does that mean?

It means your need for God.

One translation says, Blessed are the poverty of spirit, poverty of self.

Men and women, it's the beginning of everything.

The Catholic Church, other churches in ancient times have almost deified poverty.

I like what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says of this verse.

The error lies in looking for some kind of human behavior as the ground for this beatitude.

The idea that it's more blessed to be poverty stricken.

That's not what it's saying.

It's a heart attitude.

It is poverty of you.

It's poverty of your spirit.

It's you realizing you don't have it.

Have you read Ephesians 5?

Husbands in the room.

If you read my book, The Godwal Marriage, I take you through verses 18 through 33.

And I share that the most important treatise in the Bible on marriage is Ephesians 5, 18 through 33.

Never been said better.

Best book, best manual on marriage ever is right there in Ephesians 5.

And what does it say to us men?

It says, love your wife as Christ love the church.

Nice and simple and easy to do.

Love your wife as Christ loved the church.

What in the world is Paul talking about?

Jesus loved you and I so much that he left heaven, he came to earth, he identified with our pain and our suffering and our depression and our despair.

And then he died on the cross for our sins and was raised again into victory.

Christ calls us men to leave our comfort, to enter into our wife's world.

This is what leadership is.

Leadership is a man leaving his world, leaving his TV, leaving his fishing, leaving his hunting, enter into his wife's world.

By the way, I hunt and I fish and I watch TV.

But some of you do way too much of that.

But to leave our little culture, enter our wife's culture.

And does that ever need a passport or what?

If you're not laughing with me right now, then you are so far gone.

You need help big time, man.

Have you tried to enter your wife's world?

Men, try it sometime.

You'll know what I'm talking about.

So you enter your wife's world and you die there.

You die there, man.

That's leadership.

That's leadership.

You see, the reason we have so many, so much misogynism and masochism and all the issues that go with all the gender struggles we have today is because we don't have enough men doing what Christ told us to do, and that's to enter our wife's world and die there.

We have more of that happening.

We'd have every woman say sign up and say, I want that kind of man.

Well, how do you do that?

Well, first of all, it's right here.

You gotta have a poverty spirit.

You got every man in this room, you know what I'm saying, saying, I can't do that.

Are you kidding me?

Man, I came to the wrong church.

I took a wrong turn.

We are not coming here again.

Your wife's going, Yeah, we are.

Yeah, we are, yeah, we are.

But you can't do it, man.

That's the point of the first beatitude.

Is you have to be, you have to realize you can't do it.

Women, when it says submit to your husbands, that means support your husbands.

Be of support, not in sin, not in doing wrong stuff, not in not in behavior that we know is biblically wrong.

Not at all, it's not what it's saying at all.

But to learn to surrender to our husbands, I'm talking about a godly husband where you guys are working together, you're you're sold out to this thing together, and you're doing that, you can't do that.

Right, ladies?

You struggle just as much as we do.

You do.

I know.

I watch the elbows in the room when I'm preaching, going right into the side of your husband's ribs.

That's where you came from, man.

That shouldn't be hitting that fan.

That's where you came from.

We've got a missing place right there because you guys took it.

So bam! Ah, that's the E rib, man.

That's why he took it, because we could only take one shock into one rib.

We didn't need an extra one there.

But to be poor in spirit means that we realize that we don't have what it takes.

It's being poverty-stricken of your spirit to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Until you realize that you're poverty stricken, you're not open to the richness that Christ has to give.

And then here's what's interesting: He says, for that, for them, they get the kingdom of heaven.

You know what that means?

That means that when we become poverty, when we become humble, when we become surrendered to Christ completely in every area of our life, we get all the resources of heaven.

Man, what a deal.

He said, Man, I would love to see God work that way in me when we hear a testimony.

Oh, I'd like to see God do that in my finances the way God did it in his finances.

He can.

He's no respecter of persons except for people of faith.

People of faith who surrender to him, everything that we know to surrender to him.

We get all the resources of heaven.

He said, I can't forgive that person for what they did.

Well, of course you can't.

Just that's the first step to finding out the resources of the kingdom of heaven to say, I can't forgive that person.

Fantastic.

I wish we could hear that more often.

I can't do that.

I can't forgive.

I don't have wisdom.

I'm full of jealousy.

I'm full of envy.

Now, what you do next is the key.

But God, you can.

You can give me the spirit of forgiveness.

Father, you can give me the wisdom that I need.

God, I don't know what to do about this move.

Should I move?

Should I not move?

Lord, I'm not sure whether we should purchase that house or not.

Lord, I don't know if I should take that job.

Lord, I'm I don't have any more finances, but I'm still gonna give.

You just opened yourself up to the kingdom of heaven.

Because God's now found someone who's surrendered enough, he can start pouring his forgiveness into you, his wisdom into you, his power into you because you're open to him, because you're surrendered to him.

So today, if you surrender to Christ, it's how you get into the kingdom, it's how you start living kingdom values, is to realize you're poor in spirit.

If you're rich in spirit, this is not for you.

If you're self-sufficient, you've got it all, and you got the whole world whipped, you're not gonna get the resources of the kingdom of heaven.

I feel sorry for you.

I mean, it's okay, you're probably living a good life.

Cool.

Cool.

You got all you're gonna get.

Keep working hard, keep dealing with all your headaches and all your sleepless nights.

Or say, you know, Lord, I thank you for my intelligence, I thank you for my wisdom, but I know it's not enough.

I need so much more.

God, I want more.

I want the kingdom, I want the values of the kingdom, I want Jesus in my life.

I I surrender to you today.

God, I give it to you today.

And would you begin a fresh new work in my life to make me the kind of person that you want me to be?

Some of us are so full of anger.

We're so angry.

Give that to God today.

Give him your anger.

I can feel anger in the room.

I can feel bitterness in the room.

Some of us are carrying so much bitterness and anger, and you can't change.

You weren't designed to change.

I don't care how many counselors you go to, I don't care how many psychologists you go to, or how many books you read, they can help.

I'm a big believer in all that.

But total inner heart transformation that brings happiness of soul and happiness of heart is only found through the King, Jesus, and his kingdom.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.

If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.

Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.