Blessed Are

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1 through 12. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain and He sat down.

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His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and He taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

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Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

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And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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And blessed are you when others revile, persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice, be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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In the name of Jesus. I've been looking forward to this text for some time.

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And the reason for it is actually quite, well, bad. Let me put it this way. In the annals of Christian history, there are littered literally the wrecks of terrible sermons that utterly miss the point of the

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Beatitudes. And as a result of it, if you get this wrong, you end up laying a very heavy burden on people.

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Because it gets read like this. You can be blessed if you do this.

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That's law. But if you pay attention to what Jesus is saying here, this isn't law.

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This is proclamation of gospel. The revealing of how things really are.

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Now let me give you an example of some bad preaching on this from somebody who's passed away.

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Do you all remember Robert Shuler? Hour of Power and the Crystal Cathedral?

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This was a guy who was really, really into positive thinking. And he wrote a book, apparently about the

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Beatitudes, called the Be Happy Attitudes. And let me read from the book sleeve. Here's what it says.

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Many seek happiness in wealth, fame, relationships, even drugs, and of course they fail.

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So the question is, how can we be happy? I thought the song just said, don't worry, be happy.

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I digress. In his most inspirational, best -selling book to date,

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Dr. Robert Shuler, the spiritual host of the weekly telecast, the Hour of Power, probes the

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Beatitudes for the answer and discovers eight universal positive mental attitudes that have been used for their healing value through the ages.

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Through them, you can make real happiness truly possible in your lives. And you're looking at me like,

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I don't think that's what Jesus was getting at. Right. Let me give you some examples.

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So the Be Happy Attitudes. Number one, I need help. I can't do it alone, so I need to learn the miracle working statements,

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I need help and I am sorry. That's his explanation of Beatitude number one. Beatitude number two,

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I'm really hurting, but I'm going to bounce back. Learn when bad things happen to good people, they become better people.

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Does anyone see the problem with that statement? Learn that when bad things happen to good people, they become better people.

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I thought scripture said that none is righteous. Not even one. Or how about Beatitude number three,

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I'm going to remain cool and calm and corrected. Blessed are the meek is a poor translation.

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Apparently meek in the Bible means the mighty and the stable. And Beatitude number four, I really want to do the right thing, so I need to learn how to adopt a go -for -it attitude toward my life and my dreams.

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The awkward silence in here is palpable. I suspect that you all are thinking, that doesn't sound quite right.

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And the reason why is because it's not. Jesus nowhere in the Beatitudes was telling you to have a go -for -it attitude.

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And the Beatitudes are not about steps that you take, affirmations that you speak, so that you can have a happy and fulfilled life.

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That's transaction talk. We all know how transactions work. I do this, the agreement was that if I do this, you will give me that.

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Transactions work well at Walmart. They work very well with employers. If you work for me 40 hours a week, then

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I will pay you this amount of money. Deal. These are good deals.

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That's a transaction. And when you talk about the Beatitudes in this way, you turn the

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Beatitudes into a transaction. Now let me give you another example. The Purpose Driven Fellows have put together their own recovery program akin to like Alcoholics Anonymous.

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Now I am not saying that recovery programs are a bad thing. But I am saying that what the

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Celebrate Recovery folks have done by taking the Beatitudes and turning them into eight recovery principles, they've totally missed the point of what the

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Beatitudes are about. And so here's how they treat the Beatitudes, that I need to realize that I am not

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God, which is like a no -duh kind of thing. I must admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing, and that my life is unmanageable.

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So step one, based on the first Beatitude, is happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor.

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That means I need to earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has power to help me recover.

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Beatitude number two, happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This means I need to consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ's care and control.

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You hear the law in there? I must consciously commit all of my life and will to Christ's care and control.

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How long is that going to last? 60 seconds? Five minutes?

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And if you're really gutsy, maybe 10? I've made the decision that I'm going to commit all of myself to God.

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Was that a Ferrari I saw coming over here? I seem distracted. Sorry, that's kind of the point.

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We still have a sinful nature. So when you turn the Beatitudes into law in this way, you miss the whole point.

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Now, the late Ken Bailey, who was a good biblical scholar and the author of the book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, I think he has some great insight as to how to properly understand the

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Beatitudes. Here's what he says. The Beatitude should not be understood to mean if you are meek, then you will inherit the earth.

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You see the if then, that's law. He says as a group, the Beatitudes do not mean blessed are the people who do

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X because they will then receive Y. The point is not exhortation for a certain type of behavior.

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Instead, they should be read with this sense. Look at the spirituality and authentic joy of these people who have or will be given

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X. He continues. Instead, blessed be the happy daughter of Mrs. Jones because she will inherit the

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Jones's farm. The woman in question is already the happy daughter of Mr. Jones. She is not working to earn the farm.

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So everyone knows that a key element to her happy and secure life is that she and the community around her know that the farm will one day be hers.

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The first statement affirms a happy state that already exists. The second statement affirms a future that allows her to even now to live in that happy life.

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So you'll notice, it doesn't say in the Beatitudes, blessed will be.

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It says, blessed are. Now, I know that sounds pirate -y.

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So let me change that. Blessed is. How's that? You are already blessed.

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So with that, let's return to our Gospel text. Matthew 5. We'll start at verse 1.

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We'll pay attention to something going on here. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when

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He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and He taught them. Now this is important.

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Who is Jesus preaching to? Believers or unbelievers? Believers. And this makes all the difference in the world.

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Now, there is a big error that occurs in many churches today, and I'm not sure where this came from.

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But the idea is that a pastor literally goes to the pulpit and he preaches to the people in a

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Christian church as if they're not Christians. And I would ask the question, what is the result of that type of preaching in your own psyche?

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If the pastor doesn't assume that you are Christians, but assumes that you are pagans, then he's never going to boldly proclaim that Christ loves you, bled and died for you, that you are forgiven, that you are a child of God, that your sins are washed away, all of that.

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Instead, he's always going to preach with this kind of thing in mind. You may be forgiven.

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You might be one of those who is, but I'm not exactly sure, so I don't want to give you a false hope.

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Jesus here is preaching to believers as if they are believers.

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Now remember, Christians do good works because they are Christians, not in order to become

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Christians. So if you're doing your good works in order to go to heaven, you've missed the whole point and you're going to fall far short because there ain't no amount of good works you're going to be able to do to get you there.

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Instead, heaven is given to you. And Christians are regenerated, given a new nature.

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This is all a gift from God. It's not a transaction. Christ does this for you.

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So just like cows moo, cats meow, because cows are cows and that's what cows do, and cats are cats and that's what cats do,

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Christians do good works because they are Christians. So this isn't transaction talk.

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This is Christ literally revealing to you your blessed state as Christians.

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So, he opened his mouth and he taught them, and he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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This is a scandalous statement on this part and this is part of the reason why I spent so much time in last Sunday's sermon digging into what the kingdom is.

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We were to boil last week's sermon down. The kingdom has a king, it has a people, it has a land.

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Now in our case as Christians, we have a king, we are his people, and we do have a land, but you can't point to it anywhere on our globe.

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So right now, I'm looking at the kingdom because I see the people of the kingdom. And Christ is here present, our king.

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Now, the land we're looking forward to is, well, the promised land, the new earth. So keep that in mind.

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And so for Jesus to say, blessed are the poor in spirit, you can almost say spiritual beggars or those who are spiritually bankrupt, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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He's saying the kingdom, they have it already now, and it has nothing to do with kicking the

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Romans out of Israel. Nothing to do with that at all. So this is a very scandalous statement on Jesus' part, and it's important for us to know that Jesus is actually, in a sense, rephrasing and working with Isaiah 66, verse 2.

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And here's what Isaiah 66, 2 says. This is the one to whom

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I, Yahweh is speaking, whom I will look. He who is, and the ESV says, humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

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Let me put it back into Hebrew. He who is ani, that means poor or afflicted.

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He who is poor or afflicted and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

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What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Well, it's the person who, through the preaching of God's law, realized, well,

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I ain't got nothing. If I'm going to be saved by my good works, I ain't going to make it. Because every time

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I look into the mirror of God's law, the reflection that comes back is quite awful.

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This is why we confess, I am by nature sinful, unclean. I have sinned against God in thought, in word, and in deed.

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Check the Ten Commandments, and you keep coming up woefully short. And so to be poor in spirit is to literally turn your pockets out and say,

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Jesus, I know I'm supposed to have something in my pockets, but I've got nothing. And Jesus says of those who realize this, that theirs already is the kingdom of God.

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Because only when you have nothing can you receive from God everything.

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Does that make sense? So, this describes the humble and pious person who knows that they need

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God's grace and they tremble at God's Word. Next, beatitude.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now it's important to note, this is not talking about the mourning that comes as a result of losing somebody close to you.

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There are those who are unbelievers who experience this type of mourning. And that is not a blessed state in their case.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So, let me read from Ecclesiastes 7, verses 2 -5 to help us understand what this mourning is talking about.

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Here's what it says in Ecclesiastes. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

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For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

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The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

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It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

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So the type of mourning we're talking about is the mourning of an introspective life as opposed to a life that basically busies itself and works really hard and then, well, lives for the weekend and then spends the weekend pretty much engaged in mindless frivolity.

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But we as Christians, hearing God's law and Gospel, we mourn as a result of the fact that we ourselves are evil.

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And we mourn over our evil, the evil in our lives, the evil in our world, as we realize our inability in and of ourselves to conquer it.

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We cannot. And we realize that we are utterly failures when it comes to loving

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God and loving our neighbors as we ought. And this then produces in us a godly grief and a godly mourning.

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And blessed are those who experience this mourning. Which is why it is all so important that pastors preach both law and Gospel.

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And they don't shave off the hard edges of the law fearing that they might offend or hurt somebody.

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We all need to be hurt in this way because this causes us to see the truth about ourselves and to seek

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God's mercy. Blessed are the meek, Jesus continues, for they shall inherit the earth.

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Now you'll notice our translations say earth. This could technically be translated the land.

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Which is it? The land or the earth? And I'm convinced that Jesus' original hearers, His disciples, would have heard the word, and they would have thought land.

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Because remember, a kingdom is a king, a people, and a land. But what does

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Scripture say is the promised land for Christians? Is it a small postage stamp sized piece of property out there in the

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Mediterranean which everybody in the world seems to love fighting over? Which doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

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Is that what we're promised? No, the text says they shall inherit the earth.

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Now I want to point you to a very interesting passage in the book of Romans.

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In the book of Romans chapter four. And we're going to note one particular word.

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But before we get to that word, I would like to remind you when God appears to Abram, before he becomes

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Abraham, he's living in Ur of the Chaldees. Decent neighborhood back in the day.

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And he's basically told to take his family and head to the promised land.

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And he gets there and lives as a sojourner and then he dies. Hebrews tells us that the promised land always pointed to the promised land which is actually the new earth.

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Here's another verse that will help us. Here's what it says in Romans chapter 4, 13.

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For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be the heir of the, what does the text say?

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World, world. Notice that the promised land here in Romans 4, 13 isn't talking about a piece of property in the

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Mediterranean. It's talking about every piece of property on the whole planet.

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So here's the idea. Coming back to this beatitude. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

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And brothers and sisters, if you are one who has been brought to mourn over your sins, if you are one who has been brought to, well, see yourself as poor in spirit, you are humbled by God.

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Remember, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up. The meek, the lowly, the oppressed, the foolish in the eyes of the world, not the strong or the rich and the mighty.

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The meek are the ones who will inherit the entire earth, because the meek are the ones who are the ones who can be given to, who have nothing, and by having nothing, have everything.

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And so you notice, Jesus is describing these people how they already are and assuring them that in this that you already are, that they are happy and blessed.

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Oh, and that blessing gets even better. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

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Now, Jesus does not say here, blessed are those who live righteously and maintain a righteous lifestyle.

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We've got to make sure we understand this. Rather, he affirms, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

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The statement presupposes that righteousness is something that the

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Christian continuously strives after. The blessed are not those who arrive, but those who continue at whatever cost in their pilgrimage toward a more perfect righteousness.

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This is the constant, relentless drive towards righteousness that characterizes the blessed because they are already blessed.

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Remember, you do what you do because you is what you is. Paul in Colossians 3 gives us an example of what this looks like.

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Remember in Colossians 2, he gives us that brilliant, wonderful Gospel that Christ has taken the record of debt that stood against us, and He nailed it to the cross.

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Disarmed it, completely fulfilled it. No longer can the law accuse us that we are saved by grace through faith.

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It's all a gift from God. And because we are regenerated through the water and the

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Word, because of that regeneration, we have now been raised with Christ. And listen to what he says in Colossians 3.

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If then you have been raised with Christ. Brothers and sisters, have you been raised with Christ?

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I would say, oh yeah. You bet your bippy you have. You have been raised with Christ because you have been buried with Him in the waters of your baptism.

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You've been raised with Him in the waters of your baptism. Your sins have been washed away. You have been regenerated.

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You are connected to Christ. You've died and you are now alive in Him. So because you have been raised with Christ, listen to this, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

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Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are here on earth. For you have died.

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This is most certainly true. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when

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Christ, who is your life, appears, you will also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death what is earthly in you.

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This is what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Knowing that we still have a sinful nature whose only desire is to do the wrong thing with an increasing appetite for more of the wrong thing.

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And so we as Christians, because we are Christians, are admonished to put to death, therefore, what is earthly in us.

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And this includes sexual immorality, impurity, evil passions, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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That's right, you farmers. If you keep looking over at the other farm and thinking, man, I wish I had that combine. Beware. Beware.

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On account of these things, the wrath is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.

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Put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

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Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its

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Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,

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Scythian, slave, Norwegian, Polish. You get the point. But Christ is all and in all.

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So put on then as God's chosen ones, because you are already His chosen ones.

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And you are holy and you are beloved. So therefore, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

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Bear with one another. If one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the

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Lord has forgiven you. So too you must forgive. And above all these, put on love which binds them all together in perfect harmony.

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And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

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And so you'll notice here, Scripture in spurring us on to good works.

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It's that hunger and thirst for righteousness that is already there because we are new in Christ.

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And so we have our sinful nature. We have the new nature. They're warring with each other. I get it.

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So take your old Adam, bring him to the waters of baptism, and hold his head in the water until the bubbles stop.

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Unfortunately, he can hold his breath for a long time. I'm just saying. That's the idea. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to say

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I can't stand what this guy wants. I want the things of Christ.

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And you hunger and thirst for them. When was the last time you were hungry? I mean, really hungry?

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I remember my kids, they'd go out and play in the yard and they'd come back, Mom, I'm starving. No, really, you're not.

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You'll be just fine. But you kind of get the idea. Hunger and thirst is something that's like all -consuming. That's kind of the idea.

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And we are already this in Christ. Blessed are the merciful. They shall receive mercy.

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And I can think of no better words to explain this than the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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Remember, we forgive because we are forgiven. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

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God. And you're thinking, how can I get me one of those? Well, remember, Scripture says in Romans 2 .29

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that circumcision is a matter of the heart, done by the Spirit, not by the letter. And that in Colossians 2, we hear that you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism.

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In other words, you have been given by God this gift of a pure heart. And because this is gift, well, you will see

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God. You don't have to make your heart pure. You've been given a pure heart in Christ.

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Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called sons of God. What does this mean?

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Well, I think Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 -21 are quite apropos here.

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Because what was Jesus doing on the cross? He was making peace between us and God.

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Here's what it says. All of this is from God, through whom Christ reconciled us to Himself, and He gave us, that's us

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Christians, the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation totally implies that, well, there was a hostility that existed.

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And so now, the hostility between us and God has been reconciled by Christ. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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Therefore, all of us Christians, we are now ambassadors for Christ. And God is making

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His appeal through us to all of the people we know. And He's imploring people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

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For our sake, God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

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So a peacemaker, well, that's simply one who tells everyone what Jesus has done.

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To make peace with God for us. And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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And we all know, if you tell people that they are sinners and that Christ has bled and died for them, that they cannot save themselves by their good works, but they must be brought to repentance and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, that when you start talking this way and say

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Jesus is the only way, or you basically say, you know, that Allah, God, that the

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Muslims worship, that He's an idol or whatever, or you make some kind of an affirmation on your social media, on Facebook or whatever, that affirms what the

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Christian faith teaches, what's going to happen to you? People are going to unfriend you.

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They might begin gossiping about you and saying, well, awful things about you that aren't even true.

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And Jesus says, when that happens, understand this, that you are already blessed and that yours is the kingdom of heaven.

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You have it already. And rejoice, for your reward in heaven is great. And you think, man, if it's all gift, how can it be a reward?

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That's one of the great mysteries of Christianity, because we are given to and we receive. And why is it that the world rails against the good news that we have to proclaim?

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Well, our epistle text says it so succinctly. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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And we are being saved. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm here to pronounce to you that you are blessed.

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You are poor in spirit, have been brought to mourn over your sins. You are peacemakers, because Christ has made you, all of these things.

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And the kingdom of heaven is yours and you will stand before Him someday, face to face, not in shame, not to hear, depart from me,

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I never knew you, but you will stand before Him so that He can say to you, well done, good and faithful servant.

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Because your sins are forgiven. Because you have been given a pure heart. You have been united with Christ in His death and His resurrection.

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You have heard the absolution. Your sins are forgiven. There is no better blessed state than the state that you are in.

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And understand this, what we believe by faith now, because you might say, well, I don't feel blessed and I don't exactly look it either.

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But that doesn't take away from the fact that you are. That someday, our faith will give way to sight and you will see

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Jesus face to face. And He will say to you, like I said, well done. And you will be with Him forever.

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Jesus is King. You His people in the new earth that He is bringing with Him when

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He comes back. And in that new earth, He Himself will even wipe away every tear from your eyes.

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You are blessed. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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