Let it Shine- (Matthew 5: 1-16 Tim Robinson)

And encouragement. We thank you that you would be with him while he's away at baseball camp. And we lift up our brother, Russell. Father, Russell's been through a very difficult time in this last week and we pray for our brother.

Please, Father, bring healing to him. He must be in pain, Father. We pray for that. Father, we also pray for our sister, Terri Kamlin, as she's recovering still from the surgery and we're so thankful what you've done there.

And Father, we lift up VBS to you. Father, we're thankful for all the workers. We're thankful for the parents that are bringing their children to hear the Bible, to hear what you have to say about the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, Father.

We're so thankful, Father, we can lift this before you and we pray in your mighty name. Amen.

Congregational Singing and Psalm 145

Those of you who are standing, stay standing. And those of you who are not standing, get on up. I made a joke for the first service. I said, in recognition of all the decorations, I tried to throw in some extra these and thou's in the lyrics.

So we're gonna do some hymns this morning, in my own weird way. So sing nice and loud. Help me out. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. How he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean.

How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How, how is my Savior's love. A garden he prayed, but sweat drops of blood for mine. How marvelous, my song shall ever be. My Savior's love, whom I saw and suffered and died.

My Savior's love, his face I at last shall see. We do stand amazed. There's no one like you. I want to read from Psalm 145. And it's kind of a large bit, so we're gonna put the words up on the screen so you could read along.

This is starting at verse 10. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power. To make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in their due season. You open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. And even, I just think, Jesus, when he gave the disciples, the disciples' prayer, and it started out, Your kingdom come, your will be done.

And I just am reminded that God's kingdom goes forth one soul at a time. And one soul at a time, his kingdom goes forth and goes forward in this earth. So, Lord God, we just pray that you would draw us to be the disciples that you have for us to be, Lord.

God, we are so dependent on you for everything, Lord. Without you, we would have no hope of salvation. We would have no hope of heaven. We would have no hope of seeing you. Matthew 5, 8 says, Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Without you, Lord God, we could not even be pure in heart to see you, Lord. Everything that we have depends on you. God, so just even give us the praises in our hearts to sing you this morning, I pray in Jesus' name.

God's Love Gift and Redemption Before the Foundation of the World

Preachers of our God and King, your boy, Olive, your big son. Jesus, I love thee. And I think when I first think of this song, I always think of the verse in 1 John that says, We love him because he first loved us.

But if we stop there, there's just so much, so much of God's love. I think of the verse right now, but it says, it's in Titus and 2 Timothy. It says, Before the foundations of the world, before the beginning of time, God the Father made a promise to God the Son to present him, to give him a redeemed humanity as a gift, as a love gift from the Father to the Son.

And just like in all the ancient times, it was the Father's responsibility to choose the bride for his Son and to present his Son with the bride. And it just makes me think of that love gift for the Father, for the Son, to present him with a redeemed humanity.

And it's not because of us. The gift of the bride has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with our lovableness or our goodness. But the value of the gift is intrinsic because of the giver. And I know I'm going on a little bit, but you could think of some things probably that you've been given in your life as a gift that really might not normally have that much monetary value or things like that.

But because of the person who gave you the gift, that's where the value comes from. I even think about like a drawing that a small child might make and give it to their parents. There's so much, and that'll go on the refrigerator door and that'll stay there for years because of who gave the gift.

And that's how I think about the love gift that the Father gives to the Son. It's nothing to do with us. It's nothing about our lovableness. But because the Father gave us to the Son and presents us and will present us as that bride, then we have great value to the Son.

And when we think of love, I just think of the great love for the Father, for the Son, which is what caused God to put into plan of redemption and to create everything that we have here. God didn't need to create an earth, and He certainly didn't need to create a fallen humanity.

But because He sees the picture, the end result of the work, the person and work of Christ and what He's done in our redemption, that is love. Amen. Jesus, I love you. Thank you for this time where we can lift our praises, our song of praise to you, Lord.

We pray that you're glorified. And Lord God, we lift up Pastor Tim as he brings the word. And we just say all these in Jesus' holy and precious name. Amen.

The Beatitudes and the Character of Kingdom Citizens

Have you guys heard of the Sermon on the Mount before? This is the Sermon on the Castle. Thank you all for coming. We have kind of a packed house. Thank you. A couple of Karen friends in the back. My cousin Jesse and Amanda, thanks for coming.

Professor from Karen in the back, you'll probably hear him a little bit today. Thank you all for coming. Doesn't this place look awesome for VBS? It looks so good. Some people in your life you'll recognize are sent by God.

And I think for our church, Drew and Jill Deegan have been sent by God. And they've been such a blessing to our church. We have over 50 people helping out with VBS this week. They are kind of like the team captain.

So it's a team effort, but they have really done just an amazing job. And I'm just so happy with how the church looks and how it turned out. Why don't we pray? Father God, thank you so much that we can gather here in your name as your children.

You've called us all out of the world to live for you. And we thank you for the things that you have prepared for us ahead of time to do. That we would walk in them. We thank you for VBS. We pray that you would send some of your elect children here, Lord.

Your elect little ones. That they would come and that they would hear the word and believe. That you would save them early, Lord. And that you would use them for your kingdom. We pray that people would repent and turn to you in Jesus' name.

And we ask for your guide and your Holy Spirit to help me preach the word today in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So, I am going to be preaching from the Sermon on the Mound. If you have your Bibles, you can open up to chapter 5.

We're going to be in verse 1. Now, the Sermon on the Mound is probably the most famous sermon that's ever been given. By the most famous preacher that who has ever preached. We all know who that is, Jesus Christ.

But not only the most famous preacher and the most famous sermon, Jesus was also the most famous human to ever live. And not only was he the most famous preacher and the most famous human, he also was the best preacher and the best human to ever live.

Jesus is the only one who has ever lived a perfect life. He's the only one worthy enough to inherit the kingdom of God. But because of him and what he did when he was here, the miracles and everything that he did were great.

The life he lived was awesome. But him, his main mission, God sent him to die on the cross for our sin. And God raised him from the dead, giving him the stamp of approval and giving us the hope of eternal life and the forgiveness of sin.

Jesus is better than all of us. And when we read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, even the New Testament, but especially the Gospels, we learn very quickly that Jesus is better than us. Jesus is better than you.

Jesus is better than me. Jesus is better than anyone who has ever lived. And when Jesus, when he preached the Sermon on the Mount, and he sat down, and his disciples came to him, and he opened up his mouth, and he taught them, Blessed are you when others revile you, 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. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Amen. That's Matthew chapter 5, verse 1 to 16. And that's what I'll be preaching on today. So let's take it from the top. Chapter 5, verse 1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Sometimes Jesus would see crowds and he would have compassion on them because they were sheep without shepherds. Sometimes he would see crowds to escape. In this particular instance, it looks like he saw crowds and he took it as a teaching opportunity.

And in Jewish tradition, the teacher would sit down when he taught, and the congregation would stand up. So it's kind of the opposite of what we do today. I'm sure you guys like the way we do it better.

But they did that for a reason, right? Because they probably preached a little longer. Those who were standing up in the audience, they wouldn't fall asleep when the speaker was speaking, right? But although that did happen once when Paul was preaching, a young guy was standing near the window, and he fell out because Paul preached so long.

But God raised him from the dead. But Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time. So when he preached, he had authority, none like anyone's ever seen before. Jesus was the best preacher, and people knew it.

They knew that he was different. They knew that what he was preaching, he believed. He preached it so confidently that people were like, this is an amazing teaching with authority. Some people still listened to it, even though they didn't believe it.

But his disciples came close, and his disciples heard the message and were listening to him, and came to believe the message. So Jesus, he opened up his mouth, and he taught them. And what Jesus is about to teach them on the Sermon on the Mount is what his disciples, is what it's going to be like for his disciples to live in the kingdom.

And Jesus reveals to his disciples who it is that is truly blessed. Do you ever wonder, looking out in the world, who it is that's really blessed? Who it is that's living the good life? Who's living better than other people?

I used to think that. A man came to me when I was a younger guy, and he said, you know, I just want you to know, young man, life is a big game. And I don't know why he told me that, but he felt the need to tell me that.

I don't think he was a really wise man, but because he was older, I thought maybe he was wise. And I said, wow, if life is one big game, then who are the winners? Who wins the game? Who's winning life?

So I start to think, like, hmm, is it the people that have a lot of money? Because a lot of them seem like they're still miserable to me. Or is it the people that are really happy, even if they don't have a lot or do have a lot?

And I thought, well, it seems like I'd rather be happy than just have a lot of money. So maybe the people that are happy are doing well. But now I've come to realize that the true winner in life was Jesus.

He was the only one that won. He was the only one that lived a perfect life. But those who believe get to enter into that. And Jesus teaches us who it is that is really blessed. And not just blessed but happy.

Blessed means happy. These people are genuinely happy. Not just a little bit happy where it goes away, it's temporary, it fades away. But this is a deep joy of the soul, happy. So I think that Jesus is going to preach a present, but he's definitely going to preach a present blessing in the Sermon on the Mount, but also a future blessing.

So he says these people are blessed right now because they will inherit something greater later. So a blessing, a promise, and a reward for the blessed who are blessed right now. Jesus is going to describe the lifestyle or the attitudes of what it's like for those who are called to his kingdom.

Now I used to think that the Beatitudes were blessed attitudes that people naturally had. And that might be true to some degree, and maybe because they're a little bit more humble, they're more open to receive the kingdom of God.

And I used to think that because their attitudes were blessed, maybe they would be saved or have a greater chance of being saved. And that might be true. But after further study of the Sermon on the Mount, I've realized that I think Jesus is talking about what life is really like for those who are already saved.

Those who are already his disciples. Those who are already living in the world, but are now made new and trying to navigate life. So who it is? Do you guys really wonder who it is that are really blessed?

Who are happy? Well, Christ tells us who it is. And because Christ says these things, we know that they're true. So, spoiler alert, the blessed people are those who already believe. The believer in life is blessed.

Only the believer will enter into life. Only the believer will enter the kingdom of heaven. As believers, we should be joyful about this. We have eternal life. One time I went to a coffee shop after church, right?

And I walked in there, and I ordered something to drink, and the girl kept looking at me, staring at me, and she looked like a little bit miserable, but she looked confused. And then after a while, she was looking at me, and she finally was like, why are you so happy?

And I was like, oh. I could have given any answer. I could have said, oh, I'm just having a good day today. But I said, I have eternal life. That's it. I have eternal life. That's really it, though. That's why I'm happy.

That's why I'm joyful. No matter what happens in life, I know that God has saved my soul. And that makes me happy. That makes me joyful. So those who are saved are genuinely happy and should be happy.

So Christ describes the attitudes of these believers who are not of the world, but are in the world, but will indeed be in the kingdom. They are not the folk that you may think they are. In fact, I was going to title this message, title this sermon, Blessed Are Who?

Because they're not what you think are blessed, right? People think, maybe the world would think that blessed people are those who have a lot of wealth, those who have a lot of money. Blessed are those that are really good-looking.

Blessed are those that are big and strong, that have a fancy car, fancy house, that have a good job, that are really successful by the world's standards. No, that's not what Jesus says. Jesus is very counter-cultural.

So he's not going to tell you what you want to hear, but he's going to tell you the truth. So he says things that seem a little odd, but they're true. He starts off, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And in Isaiah 66, it reads,. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and a contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. So the poor in spirit are viewed by God. God is more concerned with the inside of us, right, than the outside.

And those who are poor in spirit tremble at his word. They fear him. They have a healthy fear of the Lord. They fear God. That's the beginning of knowledge, right? But also, don't fear, little flock. It is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom, right?

God, who is on the throne in heaven, who uses this earth as a footstool, it delights him to give us guilty sinners the kingdom of God because of the work that Christ has done for us. The poor in spirit see that they need help.

See, the poor in spirit know that they don't deserve it. We don't deserve the kingdom. We don't deserve to be blessed the way we are. We don't deserve to see life because of our sin. But God, having mercy and being rich in mercy, has loved us with a great love.

The poor in spirit rightly see who they are. They are self-aware that they are poor, nothing without God, spiritually bankrupt, and they're empty. But Christ comes and he fills them up with his spirit.

Also, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And this is a mourning over sin. When you become a Christian, you're very aware now of your sin. You're more aware of how guilty you are, and you see yourself as someone that really needs to be saved, a wretch.

But you look to Christ and you see him as an even greater savior. They see that they are sinners, those who mourn, and they have trouble living in this dark, sinful world. Things seem to be not as they ought.

And this world, let's face it, isn't very comforting. Not all the time. Not most of the time. Because it's a fallen world. And we're fallen people. We fall short. And the Apostle Paul understands this very well.

He says that the things that I want to do, the things I want to do, I do not do. And the things that I don't want to do, the thing that I hate, I do. So how is that? The Apostle Paul is probably one of the greatest men who has ever lived.

And he did probably more work for the kingdom than maybe anyone ever. But he also persecuted the church, so maybe that's why. But I think he's talking about his present self. Like, I still struggle. I don't do.

And the things I don't want to do, that I hate, I somehow do. That's the Christian life. It's a battle. And he also, Paul, he calls himself chief sinner. And you know who else calls himself chief sinner?

You guys might know. You might have heard this. But Jeff Cleaver calls himself chief sinner. So when I seen Jeff for the first time, I perceived him to be a very righteous man, a good man. And when I met him, he says, Oh no, I'm chief sinner.

And it's because Jeff has an awareness that he's a sinner. So am I. I'm a sinner. We're not any different than the world. We are sinners. But now that we're Christians and we're born again, we have a greater understanding of sin.

And it does cause us to mourn over sin. Because we have a better relationship with God. We don't want to sin against him because we love him. So when we do sin against him, we feel it deeply because we love him.

And we confess that sin. But we mourn. Jesus himself, even though he had no sin, was a man of sorrows. So he had compassion on the world. And I have a friend of mine who's really becoming a man of sorrows.

He mourns over his own sin all the time. He mourns over other people's sin. And he comes to me. He even weeps a lot. But I think that's good. I think that's evidence that he's a disciple. A born-again Christian.

Aware of the sin that he has. The Holy Spirit comes to convict us of our sin. So the Holy Spirit does that for the true believer. Convicts us of sin. And points us to Christ who can save us. And who has saved us.

And will save us. I also think of a parable that Jesus told. One where two people went into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. And the Pharisee prayed, Thank you God that I'm not like that tax collector over there.

And then the tax collector prayed, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Please forgive me. And which one was more righteous out of the two? The tax collector, right? Because he had a mourning over sin. So maybe that's evidence that these attitudes truly are blessed.

God looks at the heart more than the outward appearance. Because the Pharisee, I'm sure, looked better to everyone else on the outside. People probably thought he was holy. But when God looks at us, he looks right to the heart.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The meek are those who do not assert their own will or desire on others, but they live with this relaxed confidence that God is in control. That God has their back.

That God is sovereign over everything. And that God will work things out in their favor in due time. They have an inheritance. It's the earth. In Psalm 37 it reads,. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

In just a little while the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The meek are self-aware that they're meek.

Did you know that? Moses wrote, he was the writer of the law, and he wrote in there,. Now the man Moses was the most meek man on the face of the earth. So the meek, I think, know that they're meek. They know that something's different about them.

They know who Christ is. See, when you're a Christian, you don't compare yourself to other Christians or the world. You look at Christ and you realize you fall short. And looking at Christ and seeing how awesome he is and how perfect he is and how wonderful he is and how loving he is, you realize that you're not it.

You're not Christ. You're not it. But you realize you fall short. We all fall short of the kingdom of God. But God has made a plan to send his son for us, to save us, to redeem us. But as Christians, we now walk in that.

We walk knowing that we're saved. And it humbles us. And we want to be like Christ. Christ left a kingdom on high to come live in this dark world with us, out of love for us. So now we're more meek and we love other people to a greater degree because we see how Jesus loved people.

It was unlike any other love before. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Because there isn't a genuine hunger and thirst for righteousness in the world.

It's only those that are Christians that genuinely hunger and thirst for righteousness because true righteousness is from God. And you start to desire God. You want to be with God. You love God. God is the ultimate source of real righteousness.

And Christians long for God to reveal that to the world and for the world to desire God and his righteousness. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied now to some degree, but will be completely satisfied in the new heaven and the new earth.

They look forward to that. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are self-aware that they fall short and look to Christ and long for his return. Verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Something happens when you become a Christian, a born-again Christian, and you have all this compassion and mercy for people that you might not have had that for before. Christians understand how much mercy that God has shown them, how much God has forgiven them, and they extend that mercy and that compassion and forgiveness to other people.

The best people at forgiving others are Christians, or they should be. How many times should Christians forgive their brother in a day? Exactly. So almost every time, right? Every single time. Always forgive.

Forgiving isn't just for the other person, but it's for your own soul. When you sit there and you don't want to forgive someone, the person that you're not forgiving is not affecting them in any way. They're off dancing somewhere.

But you are sitting there, all bitter, thinking about how you don't like that person or you want harm to come on that person or you want that person to say sorry. You could just forgive them. And it's free.

When you understand how much you've sinned against God and how much he's forgiven you, it's easy to extend that forgiveness to other people. And some sins, I think, are greater than others, so it's harder to forgive.

But God, I think, gives us the strength to forgive any sin because he's done that. The merciful are self-aware that they have been forgiven much and have been shown mercy, and so they extend that compassion, mercy, and forgiveness to others.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Psalms 24 reads, Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Now, God is much more concerned with the inside than the outside. The pure in heart are aware that their desires are different from the desires of the world.

They desire to seek the face of God, and they shall. The pure in heart are self-aware that they were once evil and spiritually dead until they were given a new heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

It's only the pure in heart that get to see God and live with God, and God chooses to dwell with them forever. And it's when someone hears and believes the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, God gives them a new heart, a pure heart, one of flesh, and everything changes.

Because once the heart changes, everything changes from the inside out. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Have you ever met someone with an unhealthy desire for quarrels?

Someone who likes to instigate? Someone who's always causing strife? Someone who's always pinning people together? Someone who's instigating a fight? They want to see a fight? If there's not a fight, they'll make a fight?

Some of you might know people like that. You're thinking of them. Pray for those people. But the peacemakers are not this way. They don't instigate. They don't cause harm for anyone else. They don't want to see harm on anyone else.

They make peace. They don't like to see brothers fighting, especially in the church. They don't like to see brothers disagreeing on things that really don't matter as much, on secondary issues. It's okay to disagree.

Christians aren't supposed to be afraid to debate or afraid of conflict. I think if there is conflict, I think Christians usually win in the battle, especially for truth. It's a lot easier to defend the truth and be a keeper of the kingdom, because we have the truth, and it's a lot easier to defend something that's true than something that's false.

So Christians destroy arguments. They win every argument. They don't go looking for it, but they can win every argument. Not because they're good enough or smart enough and they know more than the other person, but it's because of the Word of God.

The Word of God is what changes people. And when we talk to people, we do it in love and compassion. We want to see them come to the Lord. The peacemakers like to bring peace. And those that were in enmity of God, they also like to bring the gospel to people who aren't saved, because they want to see that peace with God and that sinner.

So that's part of being a peacemaker. They want to see people come to God. But peacemakers resemble God. Children resemble their parents. Peacemakers are called sons of God, so thus peacemakers resemble God.

Peacemakers are self-aware that they reflect the character of their heavenly Father. Now you guys might be able to relate with all those blessings, at least a few of them. I hope all of them. But how about this one?

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How many of you are actually willing to be persecuted? How many of you are actually persecuted now or have been persecuted in your life?

There's going to be another young preacher preaching next week who has endured persecution. He was a born-again Christian in high school, and when he became a born-again Christian and when he started living for the Lord, when he came out of the closet as a Christian and told people that he was a Christian, people had a problem with that, right?

It's easy to come out of the closet and say you're gay now, right, or you're homosexual or trans, whatever. It's kind of hard to come out of the closet as a Christian, right? You see persecution. People don't like that.

People don't like seeing you do righteous things. People don't like you giving glory to God. People don't like that. And it's really not them, right? It's the demons inside of them. We battle against the principalities of the air.

But how many of us have really endured persecution? None of us to the point of blood, right? None of us to the point of death. But when you really are truly living as a Christian, life is different. You'll notice that the people that used to love you a lot don't really love you as much.

They actually seem like they're against you now. But that's okay. Do we listen to the people that are against us? They might want you to stop preaching the gospel. Or do we listen to God? He's the one that sent us anyway, right?

And we know that God is in control. But blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. What do you do when that happens? When people talk bad about you?

When people don't like you? What happens when you get word of that? Do you get angry? Do you go confront that person? Well, this is what Jesus tells us to do. Rejoice and be glad. For your reward is great in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So next time someone comes complaining to you about someone talking bad about you or talking bad about someone else, encourage that person and say, rejoice and be glad.

And you might say, oh, it's easier said than done. Well, I think we still should do it though, right? Rejoice and be glad. So when people are mean to me, want to throw stuff at me, want to fight me, want to argue, get all mad because I just wanted to share the gospel with them, I feel bad for them.

I feel compassion for them. I want them to be saved. But I also rejoice and I'm glad. Some people tell me they suffer persecution at work and things are hard or in the neighborhood they're in, someone doesn't like this person, the family member doesn't like me because I became a Christian.

Rejoice and be glad. That's good. Your reward is great in heaven. As Christians here on earth, we're not so concerned with stacking our treasure here on earth, but we're concerned with stacking it in heaven.

Is it good to do things for rewards? Yeah, it is. It is good. It's good doing things, one, because we love people and we love Christ, but also because Christ promised us rewards. We can stack treasure in heaven now.

And Jesus is the greatest treasure, but he also has a kingdom for us and things that we can hardly imagine what might be there. So Christians know things that the world does not know. The persecuted are self-aware that they are persecuted for righteousness' sake, on Jesus' account.

And the key here is for righteousness' sake and on Jesus' account. People might not like you just because you're mean. People might not like you just for a different reason, but the blessing comes when you're doing the right thing and you know it and God sent you to do it and you do it anyway despite whether people like it or not.