The other day I needed something from storage here at the church, and to maximize our space here at the church, a lot of our storage is actually up high. And so we put storage kind of above some spaces. And so I, I came into this room and the air conditioners weren't really on or I set at a higher temperature because no one was in here. And I was like, oh, I'll just pull out the ladder, I'll move the curtains, I'll climb up, get the thing and move on with my day. Um, and I realized in a hot room, up a ladder in a dark space, you start to sweat. And I was like sweating and sweating and sweating. And so like I knew in my head where the thing was until I didn't. You know what I'm talking about, you know, like, I, I think I know where that is. And so I pull out the ladder, I move the curtain, I climb up, I get to the space, and it was at the top in the dark, in the sweat. It's like, I went to the wrong space. So in other words, I climbed up the ladder that was leaning on the wrong wall. Why do I share that? Well, this morning, we're asking the question, am I living the good life? Am I living the good life? Because we ask ourselves, what actually does the good life mean? When I say good life, if you were to close your eyes, what would you picture? Maybe it's having money, maybe it's having a beautiful house. Strong marriage, successful kids. A career, travel, freedom. And, and all those things have some good elements to it for sure. But I share, I share all that because. When it comes to what we define as good, our understanding of a good life shapes what we think. Shapes how we feel, and ultimately shapes what we do. But what if our definition of the good life is wrong? What if we spend our lives climbing up a ladder. That is leaning against the wrong wall. That at the end of it, we won't actually find what we've been searching for. You see, that's what makes the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 so interesting. Over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be studying the Sermon on the Mount. It's the longest sermon in the Gospels, and it's the words of Jesus. And it's fascinating because it's so disruptive. See, Jesus is the way. The truth and the life, meaning he brings about salvation, but he also gives us the model by which to live. And his words, written down 2000 years ago, actually have much to say how we live here today. He talks about money and our wealth. He talks about health and our attitudes and our actions, and our relationships, and our worries and our doubts. And so for the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be asking this question every single week. What if Jesus was right? What if Jesus described life how it's supposed to be? You see, if Jesus was just a teacher, Then you could take or leave his opinions. Now, based on my earlier commentary during announcement time, you understand that I'm a sports fan. And if you watch sports, you tend to watch commentators on sports. And if you don't get sports, those people make no sense. It's a bunch of angry people that shout at one team should win and other coach should do this, and this player should run that and, and they, and they all just share their opinions, right? And we treat the Bible the same way. We treat Jesus or the authors of the New Testament as just commentators, sharing their opinion. But if Jesus was just a teacher, then you could take or leave his opinion. But if Jesus is God, then he gets to define what is good. If Jesus is God, then he gets to define what is good. So to start with our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 5. And something described and probably shared commonly in the church world as the Beatitudes. Beatitudes comes from the Latin word for blessing, which is beatus. And so it's where we get our the word beatitudes. But what if the beatitudes was not simply instructions for how to become blessed, but rather, it's Jesus announcing who is welcome into the kingdom of God. You see, in Matthew 4:17. In the narrative of Matthew's Gospel, he says this, he says, from that time, Jesus began to preach, saying repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That sounds very cool and sounds very spiritual, but the question is, what is the kingdom of God? We don't really talk about kingdoms much today. We think of it as a a streaming show on a platform or a game on a smart device that we play about building kingdoms and reigning and ruling, but what actually is the kingdom of God? Why define the kingdom of God this way? Is that the kingdom of God is the power of God working through the people of God. It's the power of God working through the people of God. The word kingdom in the Gospels alone was found 126 times in the Gospels. And the people, the audience in which Jesus is preaching this sermon is a little bit of a mixture. So you have the Jewish believers, you have Hebrews, right? Who are found through living in a predominantly Greek culture where the common language was Greek, but yet ruled by the Roman Empire. And you throw in some Aramaic as well. It's kind of an interesting mix, if you think about it. You have the Hebrews, you have the Greeks, you have the Romans. And these first followers that Jesus would call out. Um, really. Aren't what you would think. See, he, he declares the coming of the kingdom of God. And then two verses later, he calls his first disciples. He says in Matthew 4:19 to Peter, he says to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And he calls another set of brothers and, and then in chapter 4, verse 23 to 25, it says that Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching, proclaiming the kingdom, healing diseases and restoring broken people. And so Jesus actually demonstrates what this kingdom looks like. The power of God working through the people of God. Pastor David Platt put it this way. He said that the kingdom of God is all about the rule and reign of Christ. Or Matt Chandler put it this way, he said the kingdom of God includes dwelling and dominion and dynasty. So when we think kingdom, think simply who's in charge of your life? Everyone has a kingdom. And everyone has a king in some way, shape or form. Who's making the decisions? And what are the motives behind your decision making? And, and who's receiving the end result of that? Because somebody's in charge of your life. It could be the culture, it could be money, it could be the world. It could be yourself and your desires and pursuit of pleasure. But Jesus has this conversation with these people to describe a kingdom unlike any they'd understood before. If you have your Bibles open up to Matthew chapter 5, and we're gonna jump into things here in Matthew chapter 5, verse 1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So, you have some of the early disciples, but also, you have people who are typically left out or looked over or passed by in society. You have the sick, you have the broken, you have the blue collar, you have the no collar. Right? And he's sitting down on the mountainside. To share what he was already showing them. He was already teaching, he was already healing, he was already preaching. And Jesus is about to give one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful sermon anyone's ever given. And what's fascinating here is that this sermon over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna see elements of the Old Testament. Even the picture of him sitting mountainside to share the word of God with the people who desperately need it, really gives this image of Moses. And in fact, he actually quote the Torah or the 1st 5 books of the Bible. And then he's gonna fulfill it and add even more commentary and context to what was already known. He's gonna say things like, well, you have heard it said, and now I share with you. So it doesn't negate the previous law, but rather fulfills it. And then he's gonna speak in a way that mirrors the Greek philosophers of the day. Right? You think of Greek philosophy, if you studied it in school. It's a lot about asking questions and getting people to think and and discussion around character and virtue. And so you, part of this feels like the Torah. Part of it feels like Greek philosophy. Part of it's going to feel like proverbs and wisdom. And then he's even going to quote Isaiah and Jeremiah and others. And so he actually has this sense of Old Testament prophets as well. And there's this beautiful, intricate mosaic coming together of Hebrew culture, Greek culture, Roman culture, with the Torah, with the prophets, mixed in with the new covenant and the New Testament and the new way of living. And Jesus puts this together so masterfully. We start off this morning talking about something known as the Beatitudes. Again, we shared that comes from Latin word beatus. The Greek word there is, uh, makarios, which really can get translated in certain places as the good life. And he's gonna share 9 characteristics of the good life. And I'm gonna tell you that the 9 characteristics really don't feel like what we would define as success. And this good life, and I want you to notice too, it's broken into three triads. So 3 statements, 3 statements, 3 statements. And in the 1st 8 statements, he uses the third person. Blessed are those blessed are and it refers to people. But then he's gonna like a door hinge, turn it and go into second person and be blessed are you. It makes it really personal. And it's so powerful. So here's how we can understand what is the good life. It's really from the Beatitudes, we see three movements. We see Jesus talking about your condition, Jesus talking about your character, and then Jesus talking about your conduct. Your condition, who, who enters the kingdom of God? Your character? What are the people of the kingdom of God? How, how do they live, right? Who, who are they? And then conduct, what do they do? But don't just take my word for it. Let's jump in this together. We continue reading here. Matthew chapter 5, verse 2. And Jesus opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. When you look at those statements, the things on the right side of those phrases, I think we can all want. Kingdom of heaven, we want comfort, we we want inheritance. Those are all positive things. But if you look at the left side of the column, the things, the way he described the people who received those, it's completely backwards or upside down to what the society described as blessed at that time. Blessed are the poor in spirit. See, there was this idea of, of brokenness that you, you know, you, you need God. But also think about the context of the crowd that was surrounding Jesus. They were literally poor, literally broken, outcast, sick. Struggling, hurting. What I love about this is that Jesus starts with what society leaves out. Because if you start with achievement, then it'd be very easy for a group of people to think, I will never get there. Or if you get there, you think you did it on your own. Jesus talks and speaks into the reality of life. He's not just pulling you out of a trench, but rather he's jumping in the trench with you. Meaning you exactly where you need to be. And where you are. So the poor in spirit are those who are hurting, but literally those who are struggling. You don't have to raise your hand, but just mentally think to yourself, is there anybody exhausted in here? Anybody who just barely made it in today. Anybody whose life looks like the ducks swimming on the pond. Have you seen ducks? They, they look so peaceful, crack, right? The sun is gliding. But if you looked under the water, their feet are like this. And some of you walked into the church that way. How are you doing? Doing great. Good to great to see you. God is good all the time, all the time. God is good. Meantime, meanwhile, your head is like. And if it's not your head, it's your heart or your shoulders, right? Maybe we get that pinched neck nerve, right, for stress, or your stomach is in knots. It's like yours is the kingdom. And he goes, morning. Why do we act like grief is not part of life? He says, are you hurting? You're crying? You're struggling. The Kingdom brings comfort. The meekness. It's not weakness, it's really strength under control. You don't need the power when you recognize God has it. When you take these three together, what we're saying here is ultimately, it's, it's humility. And humility admits I need God. Now, it's important to be humble before God, 100%. But anybody ever been humbled by life? You know what I mean? Like you thought you were cool. And then, and then you had a conversation with your teen and you learned quickly you were not. Right? Anyone been humbled by life? Right? You're going along. This is great. And then life, boom! Phone call, loss of job, health diagnosis, betrayal, broken like. Like ever trouble doesn't come whispering like, hey, I'm coming. Trouble's coming. Thursday at 3 o'clock. It doesn't schedule an appointment. It just comes. And rocks your world. But it's the people who realize that Jesus is all you have. It's those people that come to realize Jesus is all you need. One of the most powerful worship services I was ever a part of was in prison. I was in prison in Mexico, and we were sharing the gospel with some inmates, and it was, it struck me so incredibly powerful in that these men who were physically held captive, were spiritually set free. And they had some of the most joyful expressions and understandings of the gospel of anyone had ever seen. Because you realize you will not make it on your own. Earlier we sang that song I surrender. I surrender some. I surrender a little bit. And if it's a sin that I don't struggle with, then I surrender all, right? I surrender on Sundays between 10 and 11, once or twice a month, maybe a second time if I'm feeling spiritual. I surrender when I've had enough sleep and everything's going my way and everything's going great. But if God were to ask me to give the thing that I don't want to give, but I know I need to give, but he doesn't want me to give to Him, then I will only surrender a little bit. We don't sing those songs, do we? But that's how we live. Here's the challenge today, OK? Can you admit where you need God? Because can I tell you on your best day, you're not gonna make it without him. That if you're struggling, if you're hurting, that God will meet you where you are. Can we stop pretending? That I need God in this area, but I don't need God in this area. You need God in every area. That's why he could say blessed are the poor in spirit, because you bring nothing to the table except for the sin that caused Jesus to die. Do you get that? But in your lowest moment, God is there. When you got nothing left to give God, you remember that God created the universe out of nothing. So when you got nothing left to give, God goes, I can work with that. This week, what I want you to do is to begin each morning with a simple prayer. God, I need you today. Imagine how your mindset would change if you opened each morning with a simple prayer. God, I need you today. I don't wanna pretend. I need you. Blessed are those who do that. That's our condition. Those left out, those who are broken, those who are hurting, those who are grieving and exhausted. God says, yours is the kingdom. But then he starts to talk about our character. Verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Again, we want the things in the second half of those sentences. Right? We want to be satisfied. We wanna receive mercy. We wanna see God. But the heart of the people in the kingdom of God. Understand this truth, hunger declares, I want what God wants. I want what God wants. Everyone's craving something. Right. Everyone's craving something. But is it healthy for your body? Is it healthy for your mind? Is it healthy for your soul? We know intuitively the things of the world are not. Cause if you're pursuing the things of the world, you're gonna always feel empty, but then if you get the things, Then you realize, wait a second, I've spent my whole life trying to pursue this goal, this promotion, this thing, and then you realize, wait, I'm still empty. So are you willing to hunger for what God hungered for? Are you willing to bestow mercy? Because you've received mercy. So to have mercy. Right? It's not just a saying from Full House back in the day. But rather is to not receive something that you do deserve. And it's connected to grace because then grace is receiving something that you don't deserve in the positive. So when somebody should receive judgment, should receive a harsh word, to give mercy to that person is to withhold it. Knowing that God has withheld so much that should have come your way. And then we have in there too, blessed are the pure in heart. Can you be honest? Are you hungering for what God hungers for? See, when Jesus died on the cross, he dealt with the penalty of sin. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And when he gives the believers the Holy Spirit, We now have the power. To deal with sin. In other words, Jesus died on the cross to deal with the penalty of sin. Now with the Holy Spirit, we can work against the power of sin. And we continually preach that Jesus is coming back because there's gonna come a day where Jesus will finally wipe out the very presence of sin. And so in our struggle, can we turn to him and can we hunger for what God hungers for? So let me ask you this, can you examine what you're hungry for? What do you want most right now? Is what you want most? Is that something God would want too? It says in the Psalms talks about seeking after God. Right? And that when you seek after God, God will give you the desires of your heart. Well, if you are seeking God, God's gonna give you God. He wants to give you that relationship, that joy, that purpose, that peace that comes only through him. But we got a hunger for it. Challenge number one, begin each morning praying simply, God, I need you today. Challenge number 2 is to pick one of the 9 Beatitudes this week and to simply pray. And ask God to help you put into practice. Help me be merciful today. Let me be humble. Help me hunger after you. Right. So when it comes to our condition, God opens up the gates to all who humble themselves before Him. And humility says I need God. Then when it talks about the character of those in the kingdom. It talks about those who hunger after the things of God. And the psalmist also puts it this way, as a deer pants for water. So I long for you. When's the last time you longed for God? Or is it an afterthought? We have to stop treating God like the mint you get on your way out the door of the Olive Garden. You know what I'm talking about? If you've been to the Olive Garden, sorry, flexing fancy food, my bad. All you can eat breadsticks, Lifehack, order a little side of Alfredo sauce. Change your life with those breadsticks. OK, anyway, you're going through, you get the chilled salad bowl. I don't even know what olives are doing and things in those peppers. Just throw that aside anyway. Right? You're down the pasta, you have the meal, you get the check. And I, I've been frustrated before if I don't get the mint at the end, and I don't have those mints any other place in my life. But like in that setting, I want the mint, you know what I mean? Stop treating God like the mint. He is the meal. He is who you long for. We come to gather as a church to give God all that we got. We're not coming to God simply to get what we want. I need a little TED Talk, a little pick me up, go through the week. Everyone's got a case of the Mondays, huh. No, this is the savior of the world. Do you hunger for that? He's the way, the truth and the life. Do you ever stop to think about how crazy it is that God sustains our very existence for us to turn around and question whether he's in control? Who's telling their hearts to beat? Who's telling their lungs to breathe? Every day you are here is a gift and an opportunity to hunger after him who made you. Let's look at the last movement here. Because if you, your condition is humility. Broken by myself, broken by the world, but really just broken before God. And then your character is somebody who hungers after the things of God. Not perfectly, but honestly. Then it's gonna change your conduct and how you live. Verse 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Again, up to this point, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those, blessed are them. Ready for this? You see this? Notice it? Verse 11 here. Blessed are you. It's like he's leaning in. Blessed are you, blessed are you. Who others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. When you see the followers of God, you see persecution, you see challenge. And if you start living in the way of the kingdom of God, The world's not going to like that. I do appreciate the clarification, by the way, persecuted for righteousness' sake. Meaning you can be persecuted for just dumb reasons. I've talked with people like, oh, I'm just being attacked. No, you're just making some bad decisions, you know. But understand this, that if you follow God, if you hunger after the things of God, the world's not gonna like it. We got 2000 years of evidence. It doesn't say blessed are the peacekeepers. It's, it's blessed are the peacemakers. They're the people that run towards the brokenness. One of our uh local elementary schools here this week had like an America Day. So cool. filled up the auditorium or in the gymnasium or cafeteria or whatever, they brought in like, like 101st responders. It's so cool. And they're just talking about and thinking, and why, why do we Honor and thank the first responders and fire and police and military, all, all these people, like, why do we honor them? Cause they run towards the brokenness. Their whole job is sacrifice and service. When you join the army of God, the family of God, the body of God, we are called to become first responders for the kingdom of God. We don't escape the fire and say, whoa, we made it out. See ya. But we go back and we bring people with freedom this way, forgiveness, this way, purpose and meaning this way. So we read this here is that hope declares, I will live God's way. So, when the world is broken, you have humility, realizing I need God. And when you embrace the characteristics of the kingdom, you start to hunger for the things of God. And when you hunger for the things of God, you are reminded of how broken this world is. And you say, you know what, my hope is not in wealth. My hope is not in health. My hope is not achieving the things of the world. My hope is in the God who created and saved the world and it's coming back. And in the meantime, I'm going to be a spiritual first responder, and I'm going to bring as many people with me as possible. And if persecution comes, it's OK. They persecuted these guys. They seem to be doing OK. Because we don't live for this world, we live for the next. Here's the challenge, the 3rd challenge, OK. Will you move towards one broken person or one broken situation this week? Start by praying, God, I, I need you today. And then move towards taking one of these 9 statements and say, God, help me put this into practice. And then think about it, is there a broken situation that you can take steps towards? You're not gonna solve it overnight. You didn't get there overnight, so don't, it's gonna be solved overnight. Do you need to have a hard conversation. Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there someone you need to ask for forgiveness? Is there somebody hurting or struggling? Is there someone who's just making some bad decisions in life? Is there another person whose life just seems to be happening to them? See, as people of God, we can take a step towards the brokenness, because we have the one who makes us whole. People of the kingdom are not of this world. And Jesus defines what is good. And if Jesus is God, And he is. Then he gets to define what is good. Christians, we believe in Jesus and we say this phrase that we believe in him as Lord and Savior. We like the savior part. There's entire movie franchises based on someone being rescued by someone else. But are you willing to follow the Lord part? Are you willing to surrender at all to Him? Are you willing to let King Jesus, Creator Jesus, Sustainer Jesus to reign and rule in your life? Are you willing to let him make the decisions in your life, to set your priorities, to what you think about, to how you speak, to how you treat others? Or do you limit your faith to an hour on a Sunday? That's not the people of God. The people of the kingdom. For those who are humble, those who are hungry, and those who live in hope. It's available to you and to me. Rejoin me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, You are God. And Jesus, your son is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. And since you are God, you get to define what is good. And the blessed life is really Accepting of our condition, knowing that you come near to the brokenhearted, to those who grieve, to those who hurt. That we have to humble ourselves and admit that we need God. That God, our character should be shaped by hungering after you. Not perfectly, but honestly. Help us want what you want. And then God, may our conduct be like those of peacemakers. That even when we are persecuted. Even when we are challenged, may we count it as joy. Because our reward is not in this life but in the next. May we be spiritual first responders, and with hope and breath in our lungs, we declare, I will live for you. May you reign and rule in our lives. And where we live in Cave Creek, Anthem, Scottsdale, Cave, Cave our carefree. Phoenix, the valley, the rest of the world, when we live in this place as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come, your will be done. We lift up our church, our community, and our lives to you and your sons, and we pray. Amen.