0:00 So, we've been looking at the sermon on the mount and we saw the whole sermon on the mount. Jesus spoke about nine right attitudes and nine wrong attitudes. Keep that in mind as we go through it. 0:19 And we need to develop all the nine right attitudes and avoid all the wrong nine wrong attitudes. Okay. So [clears throat] we were looking at [cough and snorts] blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who consider themselves as zeros in 0:35 verse three the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Those who are interested in earthly kingdom will not be interested in becoming zeros. Anyone who doesn't want to be a zero is one who's seeking a kingdom of earth. It's only those who 0:50 are seeking a kingdom of heaven who say Lord I'm willing to be a zero so that you will be number one in my life. that the zero has got a value. Please remember this. Remember that picture we put up. A zero has value only when 1:03 there's a one in front of it. Otherwise, a thousand zeros is worth nothing. But Jesus makes the difference. Blessed are those who mourn. Uh they shall be strengthened. Not just ask but mourn. It means a tremendous longing. And then the third 1:23 thing that we see is blessed are the gentle which we saw was being meek and mild. They will inherit the earth. The the world is full of people want to inherit more and more of the earth. They want to inherit property. They want to 1:37 inherit money and they fight for it. So this [clears throat] is the opposite. Many of these things are the opposite of what the world says. These are the people who are not fighting for anything. The gentle person says I will 1:48 not fight. That means in a conflict over something he pulls out and say okay you can have it. Anything of this earth if you want to fight have it. Ask yourself whether you have that attitude concerning earthly things. You 2:01 know the world is full of people who fight for property. Especially when a father or mother dies the children are fighting for property. This is mine. That is mine. Blessed are those who say listen I'm not interested. I'll accept whatever God gives me and 2:16 what somebody grabs and takes you can take it. And God says you you have that attitude that one day the whole earth will be yours. Not just that small bit of property that your father left for you. The whole earth will be yours if you are 2:30 gentle. That means you don't fight for property. God will give it to you. I'll tell you something. [clears throat] We can taste a little bit of that even on this earth before Christ comes back. Have you had an experience in your life 2:44 at least one experience in your life where somebody fought with you for something in the office or in your family or something and you yielded it and say okay naked and you did not lose out cuz God gave you something far 2:56 better. I have experienced that so many times in my life not in terms of earthly property but in so many other ways. So I want to say to you, you've missed out something if you have not learned this habit of being mild in order to 3:11 inherit what God will give you which inherit. The word inherit means something you get from someone like inheritance and God gives that to earth to those who are don't fight for it. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness 3:26 if we are not more righteous in any area let's take the matter of eyes or tongue. Jesus spoke so much about controlling our eyes. The Bible speaks so much about controlling the tongue particularly these two. These are the two organs 3:41 which we need to control. We can control our hands and our legs. That means we can control where we go and we can control what we do. We don't go slapping people. But controlling the eyes and controlling the tongue, these are 3:55 the two organs in our body which we really need power to control. And if you hunger and thirst for righteousness in your eyes, for righteousness in the way you speak, you 4:11 will get it. You'll be satisfied. So if you find any of you, any of us here who feel, well, I'm not getting control over my eyes. I'm not controlling getting control over my tongue. You know the answer is right here. You're not really hungering and 4:27 thirsting for it. You ask for it in a casual way. Lord, please control my eyes, control my tongue. And it doesn't matter if you don't do it. That's okay. Even if you don't do it, Lord, I Yeah, I have to do my go through my prayer. 4:40 Please keep my eyes pure. Please control my tongue. But I'm not serious about it. Hungering and thirsting means a man who's been wandering in the desert for weeks on end. Desperate. Desperate. That's the type of hunger and 4:54 thirst is spoken of here for righteousness. That means I want to be absolutely pure in my eyes and I want to be absolutely pure in the way I control my tongue. And it says you'll be satisfied. Satisfied means you'll get complete 5:09 satisfaction. Ask yourself, are you completely satisfied with the way you look at things and pictures and people and what you read? Are you completely satisfied that it is all righteous and pure? If you're not satisfied, it's because 5:29 you don't hunger and thirst for it. In the same way, are you are you satisfied today, brothers and sisters, the way you speak to each other as husband and wife? How do you speak to your wife or your husband at home? Is there a control on 5:40 your tongue? If you're not satisfied, you know the reason. You're not hungering and thirsting for it. any area any part of our body which with which we sin and we are not able to control it there is only one reason 5:59 you're not desperate for it you got a casual sort of attitude well if I get it well I'm good and if I don't get it that's also okay but I'll tell you in a million years million years you will not get righteousness is the person who's 6:11 hungering and thirsting in one week you'll get what another person doesn't get in a million years why is it some people are getting it and you're not getting it. The only reason is they are hungering and thirsting for it. They are 6:22 desperate about it. Okay, we got to move on. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. We saw a little bit about it last time and that is we have to have a very forgiving attitude. Mercy is a forgiving attitude towards the people who hurt us 6:40 and harm us. As long as we live in this world, let me tell you this. To the last day of your life on this earth, you are in danger of somebody or the other hurting you. Maybe not physically with words, with their attitudes or with 6:57 their ignoring you. There are many ways in which people can hurt us. Are you able to forgive them? There are many ways in which people can take advantage of you or your family or your children. Sometimes it can hurt us more 7:13 if somebody took advantage of our children. Can you forgive them? That is mercy. Mercy means I'm not saying we should allow our children to be exploited. No, parents are here to protect our children. I believe in protecting my children and you should 7:29 protect your children. But if in spite of all that we do somebody hurt them certainly if it's a matter of concern there and that person needs to be discip for example if somebody treats your child badly in school you certainly 7:44 should go and report it to the principal of the school because we don't want such violence in any school I'm not saying that we ignore hurt that is done but my point is are you willing to be merciful and forgive and particularly as adults 8:00 If somebody hurt us in some way, the Bible says you must forgive, speak to that person. Let me show you a passage in Matthew chapter 18 which is relevant to this being merciful to others because it doesn't you know sometimes 8:15 when we read something like this you may think that God is the Lord is encouraging unrighteousness. That means somebody keeps slapping and hurting your child at school and you ignore it. That is not the meaning of mercy. To me that is stupidity. If your 8:29 children are being hurt by somebody else in school, you should go and report it to the teacher or the principal. So don't misunderstand what it means here. He's talking here about you. Matthew 18:15, if your brother sins, 8:43 what should you do? Don't ignore it. If it's a stranger who sins against you, ignore it. Forget it. You got no relationship with him. Your neighbor hurts you. Forget it. But if your brother sins, Go and tell him, 9:01 "Hey, this is not right. This is not the type of relationship we should have." If he listens to you, you're one your brother. See, sometimes we think it's more spiritual to ignore it. Somebody did something against you, ignore it, and 9:17 you keep it in your heart. That's worse. The most spiritual man that ever walked on this earth, Jesus Christ said, "If your brother sins, go and tell him about it." Who is right? You saying, "Ignore it." Or Jesus saying, "Go and tell him about it. 9:36 I'd follow Jesus. If your brother sins, go and tell him, hey, this you did was not right." Is it is it proper to go and tell a brother in the church, "This thing you did, brother, was not right." That's what Jesus said. If your brother 9:48 sins, go and tell him. If he listens to you, you have saved him. [clears throat] And if he does not listen to you, go to the elders, take one or two with you and confirm it. You know, this is an amazing statement that Jesus said because Jesus wants 10:06 righteousness. If it's a stranger, ignore it. But if it's your brother, he's done something wrong, he's guilty, you want to try and clear him of that guilt. And if he doesn't listen to these others you took also, then tell it to the 10:23 church means tell the elders about it. In other words, settle the matter privately between you and him. And if he does not settle, go to the elders. Jesus is not teaching if somebody does wrong, ignore it. Is that what he taught here? 10:37 That's how some people understand it. If it's a stranger, [clears throat] ignore it. By all means, don't go fighting with him. But if it's your brother, somebody, it's like, you know, some brothers means a part of your body 10:49 and it went out of joint. What do you do? Ignore it. If you some part of your body goes out of joint, you don't ignore it. You try and fix it. You put it in plaster because you want to it work again. And if it's a brother in a church 11:01 with whom a relationship has been broken for some reason, a misunderstanding, [clears throat] what should you do? Forget it. I'll just avoid him and ignore him. That's not God's way in a church. With a stranger, that's okay. Avoid him, ignore him. But 11:15 when it's a brother, let's make it practical. If in [clears throat] some situation something crops up between you and another brother in your church, what are you going to do about it? You have to settle it so that there's 11:31 not a strain relationship. It's like a hand that has been dislocated. You don't just ignore it. If you really believe that there's a the body of Christ is one and Christ is the head and the head does not ignore when there's a 11:45 fracture in the body wants to fix it. If it's somebody else's body, okay, we got nothing to do with. But if it's in the same body of Christ, that means in the same church. It's very important to recognize this because it's possible sometimes I've 12:01 seen this in many many churches. People just ignore it. They never talk to that person and they just avoid that person on Sunday. Go here and there. That's not Christianity. If your brother sins, go and settle it. Finish with you. You must 12:13 have a clear relationship with him. It's exactly like a dislocated part of the body. And at that time when Jesus spoke, the body of Christ had not yet been formed. He was preparing the disciples for the day when one day they'll be baptized in 12:28 the Holy Spirit and they'll become one body. That's a question I would ask you brother sister. Do you feel if you have committed yourself to this church? I'm not talking to visitors. I'm talking to those who have committed 12:41 themselves to this church. Everybody who comes here on a Sunday is not necessarily a committed member. Some are visitors and all are welcome. Strangers are welcome. Unbelievers are welcome. But when a person's born again and 12:52 committed to this church, do you really feel, you ask yourself now, don't judge others, that if there's a strain between you and some other person in this church, it's like a dislocated part of the body, a dislocated bone, a broken bone, 13:09 something fractured. What are you going to do about it? Ignore it? Would you ignore a fracture in your body? Then you know whether you consider this fellowship as a body of Christ of which you are a integral part and you want to 13:24 have fellowship with everyone here. You may not have as close fellowship with some as the others. I'll tell you for example this this part elbow has got a lot more closer fellowship with this body with this hand than this forearm 13:38 has. This forearm doesn't have as much closeness as this forearm has. It's because some are some are closer related but we're concerned about the whole body. So treat this church as one body and if the problem is still not solved, 13:53 Jesus said go to the elders. But we must learn to forgive. I want to point out Matthew chapter 6 here. We'll come to that later, but I'll repeat it here. Matthew 6:14 and 15 is a very clear statement. Is it not talking about unbelievers? It's not talking 14:11 about forgiving an unbeliever. If you forgive others, verse 15, your father, if you do not forgive others, verse 15, your father, he's talking about believers. If you don't forgive somebody, 14:33 your father, which means you're a born again child of God, will not forgive you. He he became your father some time ago when you were born again but now you don't forgive somebody and he won't forgive you and you die like that 14:53 what'll happen where do people go who are not forgiven after they die do they get another chance after death that is why I say it's very very important that you live in a perpetual state of being merciful merciful to others 15:12 because they only will receive mercy. Matthew 5:7. See, pray this. Say, Lord, give me a heart that is always merciful to other people. That'll never demand that people must treat me respectfully or speak to me respectfully. No, they can treat me 15:30 any way they like. They can deal with me any way they like. I'll forgive them. I may not have fellowship with them. I can fellowship only with those who have walk in the light. Even God says he can have fellowship only with those who walk in 15:42 the light. Do you know that you cannot have fellowship with God if you don't walk in the light? And if almighty God says that I also say that I say brother, we can't have fellowship if you don't walk in the light. If you walk in the 15:53 darkness, I can't have fellowship with you. But I can be merciful to you even if you walk in the darkness. So that's very important. We'll come to that again when you come to Matthew 6. Let's move on to blessed are the pure in 16:07 heart for they shall see God. Now this is different from verse six which speaks about righteousness. Pure in heart means in my heart I see God in every situation. That is purity of heart. Purity of heart 16:26 is where I see God in all my circumstances. Like when Judas came to betray Jesus, you know what Jesus said? The cup which my father has given me, shall I not 16:44 drink it? Who gave that cup? Who was the one who betrayed Jesus? Not the father. It was who betrayed Jesus? Judas's carrier. But when Judas's car came to betray him, Peter was going to swipe that chap's cut off 17:02 Judas's head, but he missed and he's cut off somebody else's ear because he's not a swordsman. His aim was not right. And that's when Jesus said, "The cup which my father has given me, who gave that cup to Jesus? Judas is carrying." 17:18 Jesus said, "No, he was only the male man. He was the man who brought the the postal service. He was the man who brought the letter. But the letter came from my father. So I don't look at the mailman Judas's carot. I look at my father who sent the 17:37 letter, the cup which my father gave me. Shall I not drink it? And that is what Jesus said. One of the worst sins that are ever committed to betray Jesus Christ. Is there a greater sin than that? The crucifixion of Jesus 17:52 Christ coupled with the betrayal of Jesus Christ is the greatest sin that was committed on earth. And Jesus called that a cup which the father had given him. So why can't we look at the evil that other people do to us? Even Judas's 18:07 scariot someone like that does betrays you or hurts you. Can you say he was only the mailman? The letter came from my father because I cannot nobody can ever do a harm to me which is not permitted by my father. If you have that assurance 18:27 then your heart is pure because in your heart you are convinced that you love God with all your heart and you don't have any grudge in your heart against anybody because everything you say my father gave it to me. So blessed are the pure in heart. And 18:45 the other thing is the other aspect of being pure in heart is that you see God in every situation not just in the betrayals that come to you but Lord I want my heart to be set on God so that he's primary in 19:03 everything. When I think of a job I think of what is going to please God here. I think of moving somewhere I taking any decision I want to take. I want to see God in it. I don't want to be blind to what God's will is for me in 19:18 this situation. You know, a really wholehearted person, [clears throat] a really wholehearted Christian will want to move in the will of God every single day of his life. And that's the person who will see God in every situation. He'll never be 19:33 disturbed because he sees God there. Something that other people will call a calamity, he sees God there. something that's threatening and supposeding there's a calamity coming up in the city. The person who sees God in all 19:45 situations will not be disturbed. So it's a wonderful thing to be pure in heart is more than pursuing after righteousness. Righteousness is an external thing. But to be pure in heart is to love God with all your heart, soul 19:57 and strength. That is to be pure in heart because they in every situation they see God. So look at it like this. If in a particular situation you're facing in your office or with your relatives or some other situation you 20:13 you see people and you don't see God there that means your heart is not pure. That's how I see it. If my heart is pure in every circumstance I face in my life whether it looks good to me or bad to me I'll see God is there. God is arranging 20:29 it with some purpose for me because I don't see anybody else. I see only God. If you meditate on this, you'll see it's a wonderful way to live. And if I don't see God, I have to say to myself, my heart is not pure. My heart is interested in something 20:47 else. My heart is interested in some gain or profit for myself. And that's why I have a complaint that this chap did this or he didn't do this. He promised to do this and he didn't do it to me and I'm upset with him. If you're 20:59 pure in heart, you will not see that person. You will not be upset with them. You'll see God. God did not allow that person to do that for me. He promised to do it, but he didn't do it. It's okay. I see God there. Can you see God there? If 21:13 somebody promised to do something for you and didn't do it at all, and the result was it brought great loss to you. Okay, I see [clears throat] God and I got nothing against him. When you see that person the next day, you're quite 21:23 happy. He let you down so badly. And maybe you lost a lot of money, but you see God in it. It's a wonderful way to live. I'll tell you that. I'll tell you something. [clears throat] Don't think you'll run at a loss because of that. 21:35 That if you live like that, you won't be able to live in that in the world. I have God is my witness. I have tried to live like that for 60 years. God is in it. Even when people took me to court on false charges, I said God 21:51 was in it that I could love them and I love them today because I saw God in that. God permitting that. I mean the persons are not godly people. No. But I see God in the circumstance that when we belong to God, God is the 22:06 one who controls everything that happens to us. He will not allow anyone to touch us or do anything to us which is outside of his will. So this is what it means to be pure in heart. So let's go to verse number verse number 22:19 nine. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. This is another very important thing because I want you to turn with me to Hebrews in chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 is a very important verse in this connection. 22:39 Hebrews 12 and verse 14. pursue peace with whom we were always earlier talking about the body that if 22:58 my fellowship with somebody is broken I must seek to restore fellowship now I don't have fellowship with people in the world so I can't think of fellowship but I can have peace here it says I must have peace with all men that means I 23:13 have no fellowship with that guy he's an unbeliever but I'm not going to fight with him for example if you have a very difficult neighbor who's causing a lot of problems. You don't have any fellowship with him. But from your side, you must have peace. 23:27 That means you don't go for a fight with him. He comes for a fight with you. You say, "Well, I'm not going to fight." That is the attitude of a true Christian. Pursue peace with all men. And you must couple that with another 23:44 verse in Romans chapter 12 because the Bible is realistic. Romans chapter 12. Romans 12:18. If possible, there are not many there not many verses 24:05 in the Bible says if possible don't lust after women. If possible, don't tell lies. If possible, don't fight with people. No. But here is a command which says if possible. That means it may not always be possible to obey this command. But if possible, 24:22 as much as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Because there are some people on earth who will never want to be at peace with you. What to do? Don't keep working yourself up to try and be at peace with people. Let me tell 24:35 you right now, some people on earth are so wicked. They'll never want to be at peace with you. Ignore them. But if it depends on you, you don't be the cause of the trouble. This is a very liberating verse. if possible is the only command in the Bible says do 24:51 it if possible. Why? Because it involves another person and the world is full of evil people. The Bible is realistic. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace. That means you don't be the source of any quarrel. If that fellow is 25:08 quarrelome and doesn't want to be at peace with you, ignore him. Don't waste your time trying to even be friendly with him. Ignore him. Leave him alone. But be at peace. Don't go fighting with anyone. See, sometimes people take advantage of 25:23 us. I'm not saying that we should not stand up for our rights. We should ask, for example, if some injustice has been done in the office to you, it's right to ask for justice. But if it is not given to you, you say, "Lord, I don't want to go for a 25:40 fight here. I'll trust you to take care of the situation." These are very, very practical things. It looks as if you're going to lose, but I'll tell you from 60 years of my experience, you may lose out of some earthly benefit, but spiritually you'll become 25:56 extremely wealthy. Really, you will be extremely wealthy spiritually. So, I mean, I I know that physically and earthly wise, I've lost many times because I decided I would pursue peace. But the spiritual result was so much better than that earthly 26:13 loss. Don't count everything in terms of earthly benefits. If possible, be at peace with all men. Pursue peace with all men. And I'll tell you, you will not regret it in the long run. So that's the next 26:30 right attitude. Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the peacemakers. You remember when the angels came down on from heaven, they said, "Peace on earth." And I think it was peace on earth with those with whom God is pleased. Whenever Jesus met people after the 26:52 resurrection, do you know the first words he said to them? Peace be to you. Peace be to you. So peace is a very very important requirement in our lives and in our homes. I must always seek to be at peace in my heart. Whenever there's unrest in my 27:09 heart, I may say, "Lord, something is wrong. I want to be at peace. Somebody has irritated me and it's bothering me a lot. Let me die to it." Very often, do you have the habit of do you have this problem of sometime not being able to 27:24 sleep at night because you're keeping on thinking about what somebody did to you and how you going to teach him a lesson or all this rubbish. I remember the days when it was like that with me. It's gone. I can sleep peacefully every night 27:38 because I've forgiven everybody and I'm not interested in by taking up a quarrel with anybody on earth. If you have a problem with sleeping, consider the possibility there's some unrest in your heart in relation to someone. Everything that the 27:53 Lord says is for our good. Are you at peace about the future? Many of us have got a lot of insecurity living in this country is what's going to happen. Commit your way unto the Lord. And it says he will bring it to pass. That's 28:06 Psalm 37. Commit your way unto the Lord. So God wants us to be at peace. I I I see the words of the angel. Then he said when Jesus was born, peace on earth. You remember those words in Luke's 28:26 gospel. If you're not sure familiar with it, just look at it for a moment. Luke's gospel. Chapter 2. See verse 14. Have you read it properly? 28:48 The last part. On earth peace among those men with whom God is pleased. peace on earth among those people with whom God is pleased. That was the message that came with the birth of Jesus Christ. 29:06 That Jesus came to bring peace among those men whom God is pleased with. And if you're a person God is pleased with, he will give you peace and with all such people. We seek to live in fellowship with people who are like that. 29:23 Let's pray. Heavenly [clears throat] father make these truths real in our life lord so that does they don't remain as theories in our mind. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
