Am I a Person After God's Own Heart? Part 3

The Church of God is an interesting group. It's people who have been called, come to understand God's truth, His way, and to have a special relationship with Him. If we're not careful, we can take our old human nature and combine that and see how we might get into the Kingdom and might be important. You know, Jesus gave some examples. The Bible includes some examples of people who sort of came in to mine that opportunity, wanted to sit on His right hand, wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, wanted something for themselves. And if I'm not careful, I can get my human nature to look at the Kingdom of God in a similar fashion.

How does God give us entry into His Kingdom? And how do you and I obtain entry into God's Kingdom? There are many notions among us people of the Church, those who feel that we are sealed, that we are hopefully going to be the bride of Christ at His return. Actually, we are the bride of Christ now, but we're going to be elevated to a full married wife of Christ in that analogy and serve as a helper. How do we obtain that? Well, in our church groups and in our church, and maybe in me, we have various notions. Let's think about some of those.

Being a church member. That's a great one. If you're really baptized and you're really a member of the church, especially if it's the true church, well, you're home free. You're ready. You're done.

Of course, there's that thing about the five foolish virgins and people who are expecting this to happen that it doesn't, that Jesus warns about. So maybe there's a little more than that. So it must be membership in the right church group. You can't just have one. You've got to have the right church group. Maybe you can sift through all the 350 or so church groups that you might hear about and find the right one. But if you're a member of the right one, surely that must carry it. Or we could add to that. Membership in the right church era. Now, that's the one, because if you look at the eras, if you subscribe to that theory in Revelation 2 and 3, Philadelphia looks like a good one. So if you join a church, the right church, the true church that says it's the Philadelphia era, bingo! Is that good enough? Well, how about membership in the right church group, membership in the right church area, with the right church governance?

Well, now we're getting somewhere. See, now we're really nailing it down to ensure that I'm going to be in the kingdom of God. Membership in the right church group, the right church era, with the right church governance, with the right calendar. That would be an improvement.

With better prophetic predictions, right? With the right leader. Hey! Even dividing the church to go get those things and to sift through and break away and maybe cause a little division, but as long as you end up in the right church group, with the right church area, with the right church leader, with the right church prophecy, at least you're pretty much guaranteed, right, of being in the kingdom. Too bad for all those other people. Now, if in that situation you also are able to make significant contributions to that right church leader and have a relationship and be able to name-drop for big leaders, that even adds a little bit more goodness and feeling there, doesn't it? Having a role, some job, a title ordained, deaconess, elder, pastor, super pastor, major super pastor, super duper pastor, leader of super duper major pastors, I don't know, you know, pretty soon you end up where I think I'm pretty good to go here. You know what I'm saying? Now, on top of that, you're prayerful, you study, you've been healed once or more times, you're having prayers answered, and you're receiving blessings, you feel like you're a very blessed person, then I think we're pretty much ready for Jesus Christ's return, right? I mean, you pretty much have to put the old Chinese stamp seal of approval, you know, bring it on. But that's not what Jesus said. Let's go over and listen to him for a minute in John chapter 3 and verse 3. John chapter 3 and verse 3. If you think I'm picking at somebody, I am. And it makes me feel uncomfortable because, you know, I'm picking at me and I like to push in prayer and in fasting and look and try to see what could I be deceiving myself in assuming that I am kind of ready for Christ's return and miss out.

John chapter 3 and verse 3. Jesus answered and said, And most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We didn't mention anything that in the church groups when I grew up, all this stuff through the last 62 years has been sort of a thing on many people's focus. Didn't even mention that. Talks about something about being born again. The Greek words geneo-anothon, engendered or fathered from above. A different father, a different mindset. Getting self, getting human nature, getting Ophelia pushed aside in agape, a concern, an outgoing concern, this full heart of God instilled from a new father. That's who God is looking for. And if you don't have that, he's saying you can't even see the kingdom, let alone be in it.

Verse 5, he said, And most assuredly I say, unless one is born, he's engendered of water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Oh, but I got baptized, I have the Holy Spirit, so I'm good. Oh, that's not what he said. Geneo, to be engendered, fathered, in other words, taught, influenced by the repentance that goes with baptism, and the Holy Spirit that causes one to totally convert into the mind of Christ and of the Father. That is what's required for us to enter the kingdom of God.

So today we're looking at part 3 of a three-part series on am I a person after God's own heart? Not him, not her, not somebody else, but am I a person after God's own heart. Part 3 is humble, sacrificing, and serving. Part 3 is humble, sacrificing, and serving. Today we're going to look at what the Bible says about this further attribute of the agape mindset of God and in the God family. This isn't something that is beyond reach. This isn't something that's lofty or just an ideal or just a platitude or a good wish. This is a requirement, because we just saw Jesus Christ say, you're not going to be in the kingdom unless you become one of us, unless that becomes who you are, to the point where it can't be taken out of you because that's who you are. They couldn't take it out of Jesus Christ no matter what they did to him because it's who he was. They shouldn't be able to take it out of a true child of God because that's who we are, that's who we've become, that's who we're growing into. And it's not just a matter of taking down some principle that we're using to get the kingdom, some list of attributes that we try to cling to so that we qualify to the kingdom, but rather who we've become, godly in the sense of our heart, in our character, our mind, how we live, how we act. Let's review God's goal for the firstfruits who will be in his kingdom, for that wife that he will give to his son, Jesus Christ, at his return. They're to be children after God's own heart. They're to have the ability to be a wife and a helper of Jesus Christ. You know, what does that mean exactly? You look in Ephesians 5 and you see that the church is in Christ is the reality of the type that husbands and wives are in marriage. That's the reality. What does that mean? Some of you, half of you in this room, are female, and half of you are male. How does this work out? Well, a real simple explanation is found back in Genesis 2, verse 20, where in creating Eve for Adam, like the type is, that's a type of God creating the church for Christ to reign with Christ, not just to be in the kingdom of God, but a special role, a one-time role, for which these individuals are extremely blessed.

This one opportunity role of reigning with Christ for a thousand years as his bride, as his wife, is like what we would see in this phrase from Genesis, chapter 2, verse 20, a helper comparable to him. That's the statement God used when creating a wife for Adam, a helper comparable to him. Not something that is incomparable, comparable. So God, you see, wants us to develop a heart that is comparable to his, a nature comparable to his, to inherit a likeness comparable to his. This is family in the true sense. And if we go back to the selfish view and say, oh, I want to inherit the kingdom, I want eternal life, I want to get something for me. A totally different concept than actually converting into a godly person, into family.

Oneness and unity in the family of God is described as one of Jesus's greatest ambitions, desires in John chapter 17. You know, the individual who had created everything, worked for billions of years with the Father, lived on earth, went through 33 and a half years, and finally, a staring death in the face, he's now going to go to sheer terror. He's going to be persecuted, tortured, just to the extreme. And what does he want? What's he praying about? Is he asking God, you know, keep the pain low, you know, don't let it hurt too much? No. He's saying, oh, verse 21, that they may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us. Verse 23, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

That's his desire, and that's why he died. He died so that you and I could get rid of the things that make us two, separate us. Sin breaks it apart, and we can't be one with God. We can't be one with God. We can't be one with each other. And so the wall of division was broken down through his body and blood. We see in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16, his body, his spiritual body is defined as stitching itself together through agape love, if you want to call it the heart of God, by what every part does it share in that agape love. It's not rocket science to get the concept, it's beyond rocket science to apply it, however. That is beyond any of us. And that's where we need fasting, prayer. It's where we need opportunities to stop and think about what I am like, and ask God to show me what my true heart is like, because my heart is deceitful. His heart is something different. I want his heart. But God is very gracious, merciful, slow to anger, to those who are repenting and trying to develop a heart like his.

And as we progress in this stitching together, we accomplish justice. We accomplish fairness. We accomplish equality. If you stop and think about this room full of people, we don't have much equality here as far as how the world, how society, when you walk out these doors, you know what it's like in your workplace, in your school, in other places. There's not a lot of respect, a lot of a cross-level respect and appreciation, depending on your age, the color of your skin, some of your issues that you have, personality issues, height, weight, ethnicity.

People just judge each other and this world just breaks relationships apart. It just does.

But justice, fairness, equality come through this aspect of the heart of God. Humility, sacrifice, and service. Humility, sacrifice, and service breeds equality, fairness, and justice for everyone. So within the body of Christ, within God the Father, when Jesus said about one, about being one, he meant it. And when he said, we're going to inherit God, so we're going to inherit equally all the universe, everything that his Son owns, there's equality.

And more than fairness, more than whatever we might consider justice. Yeah, sacrifice and serving and humility, these all go together. While society is not about humility, it's about pride and vanity, it's not about justice, it's about unjustice and unfairness and inequality or inequality.

Takers, people who are proud of themselves. Let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1. It's very important to realize that in the last days, men will be lovers of themselves, their own money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient, unthankful, and loving, unforgiving, slanderers, brutal, traitors, headstrong. So we have the human nature expressing itself in the freedom of the age, and we also see that this generation takes itself to the brink of genocide. Jesus must step in and stop. So God is very, very different, and the God family's mindset is uniquely different than this world. It's about doing the things of humility, doing the things of sacrifice and service. Not just thinking about them, but actually doing them. Let's go to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7. Here's probably, well, to me it's sort of a main description of this point through the example of Jesus Christ. It's defined very well here in Philippians chapter 2 verse 7.

How this God who created you and me, and if you stop and think about that creation and how just incredible it is, just your own system, how it works, your own ability, and the things that surround you that you're able to interface with and create in your environment, things that you can do, things that you can know, it just goes beyond what the human mind can ever understand.

And we should be very thankful for that. So the person who did that in verse 7 then made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself. He came humbly. He came not with great glory and a reputation and all kinds of honor and a great looking guy and, you know, double six pack and, you know, tall and handsome and powerful and could fly like Superman. He can climb like, I don't know, some guy with a net. No, he just came with no reputation. Taking the form of a bond servant, a person who would, in a sense, sell himself as a slave, bond servant form, and coming in the likeness of men, the lowest form of a spiritual world, humanity. I mean, look at your body and mine, you know, they don't always work so well. And he took on that sort of a fragile, if we could say, limited human body and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the tree, the stake, and that whole thing that transpired there was very, very difficult. Now, the point here that Paul makes in Philippians is that's our example. That wasn't some unique thing. Oh, whoa, let's have a pageantry every year. Let's go and rehearse this. Let's play a film about it. No, become it. You just miss the whole thing. If you sit around praising him for it, you're missing the lesson. That's an example for you and me to follow. That's why it's there. You know, we're told to develop that. Let's look up in verse 3. Let nothing of yourself be done through selfish ambition or conceit, like it wasn't done with Christ by Christ. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself, which is what Jesus Christ did. He was here to serve others.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. Yes, he was going to inherit all things, but he wants to bring us along and help us do it, too.

This is an interesting family that we are growing into, that we are joining, as it were. If we go to Galatians 3, verses 26 through 27, Galatians 3, verse 26, For all, for you are all sons of God. This is how God sees it. He doesn't say, well, some of you are better than the others, and some of you are more valuable. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you, as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. This is what the church does. This is what the body of Christ is. All of us together. I don't know what it says. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's no ethnicity. There's no race. There's no color. But there's more than that. There's no slave nor free. There's no rich, no poor, no important people and less important people.

There's neither male nor female. Wow. It's just slicing through everything. You talk about fairness, justice, and equality. This is the body of Christ. There is none of these things, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That is how we fulfill what He prayed about before He died. He wants us to be one. This is family. In the next life, when we're resurrected, we will all be whatever God makes us. We'll be God-like beings in His family. Or we won't be there. We simply won't be there. But it won't be because we were, I don't know, related to somebody who lived in ancient Israel or not. It won't be because we're male. It won't be because we're in some relationship with another human being or know somebody. No. It'll be because we're sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And if you are Christ, then forget this nonsense about whether or not you have roots that go back to Israel. Because you do. You do. If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to that promise. Not the first promise. If you want to go back and try to find your roots in Issachar, or Zebulun, or Judah, or you know, wherever, fine. You get that inheritance. You know what that was? You get to go live over in the Holy Land and die as a human. I think we have a better covenant than that. I think we're all aware of that. Better promises. Better promised land. Better inheritance. Better bodies. Better future. And that is what God through Abraham brought to us. A blessing for all humanity through Jesus Christ, if we are faithful like he was. So you're Abraham's spiritual seed and heirs of the kingdom of God according to the promise. That should be our focus.

Everything else will be burned up in time. And God wants us to be forever in his divine family, not temporarily in a physical group that he was working with, or is working with, and he will be working with. You know, we could summarize all of what we've been learning throughout this series by looking at a single passage in Scripture, which I want to do in just a few minutes. Before that, I want to build up that Scripture just a little bit, because we might just read through it and not realize the full intent of it.

If we are going to have God's heart—remember, in the first part, we looked at having not only what we're talking about here, humility and sacrifice and serving—but we looked at those other attributes. God has many attributes, and don't think that I'm covering them all in three parts. I'm just covering part of them here. A person after God's own heart includes humility and sacrifice, as we just showed Jesus Christ. But this is not the same as just random acts of kindness. Sometimes we'll give ourselves a break and say, oh yeah, let's see, humble, sacrifice, and serving. Yeah, that's me. And what I'm going to do, instead of developing that as part of my nature, part of my character that I do every day, I'm going to do it one time. I'm going to be ready to do a big deed that might cost me my life. And I'll so impress God that, wow, it would be almost like what Christ did for us. See, we can start thinking that. If all this other stuff doesn't buy us the kingdom, I'll buy it by taking a bullet. You know how that works. Human beings sometimes do things that are very loving and very concerned for other individuals, such as random acts of kindness. They're random. They're acts of kindness. If you think about some of them, you can remember people in recent months have plunged into rivers or a lake, or somebody fell through the ice, and they jumped in to save them. And quite often those individuals in the news also died, because people don't realize sometimes when a person is drowning, there's a reason they're drowning. And if you get in the same situation they're in, you'll drown too. Do you remember once upon a time there was a plane that landed, I believe, in the Potomac River? And there's a woman out there, and it was freezing, and there's ice, and a guy jumped in and went out and saved her.

And I think he survived, and they say, well, you're a hero. And he says, no, I'm not a hero. There's a woman out there. That's what you do. That's what guys do, you know? They're helpless in the video. You jump in and save them. As a kid, you reach out and you save them.

Your brother or your sister's in the pond drowning. You jump in and you try to save them. You know, you're in a military outfit, and somebody's hurt or whatever. You run through the bullets, and you grab ten guys, and you drag them out. You don't think anything for yourself.

Somebody's going to shoot somebody else, and you jump in front of the bullet, and you take it.

Not remembering that, usually, guns have a lot of other bullets left, so not sure what that always accomplishes. But you see, something about every situation I just mentioned, they're always friends. Always friends. Somebody of your country, somebody that you know, somebody in your outfit, somebody they're friendlies. When did you ever hear of somebody who was, say, Jewish, getting out of concentration camp, and they're going to hang the people who created the atrocities at Nuremberg? Say, oh no, hang me! Let Eichmann walk. You know, this other butcher, let him go. I'll take his place. You ever hear of those? Don't let me just take the bullet. Instead of shooting that guy over there in the other army, in that other place, in the world that hates us, like, let me run over there, let me run over there, and I'll take the bullets, our army shooting at them. I'll catch the bomb. I'll take the torpedo. No, that's stupid.

I'm not going to die for an enemy. I'm not going to go and volunteer to die for the enemy. You know, in Romans chapter 5 and verse 7, we see something that doesn't make a lot of sense to our own personal character. It says, for scarcely a righteous man will one die.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. In other words, if they're good people, as far as you know, they're good people or an instant enemy, they look at children, a woman, a friend, a relative, I'll give you a kidney, whatever it takes, you know.

Scarcely for a good person will one die. Yet, perhaps for a good man, someone will even dare to die. We'll take a risk. You know, I'm not just blowing smoke here. I've done this three times in one hour. I've saved three humans from death. Let me tell you a little bit what that's like. Thankfully, when I was a teenager, I took what's called WSI, Water Saving Instructors, a form of lifesaving and instructing lifesavers. So I came away from that, knowing how to not get drowned by victims and how to save them. It's a nice course. You know, what are you going to do with that? Years later in the ministry, I've gone with a group of members to the east coast of the United States. They'd never seen an ocean before, some of them, and we went out to a place called Cape Hatteras. Cape Hatteras is the east coast up in the northeast and wowed as the waves come rolling in there and the storms and it batters the seashore. And the people came down on the sea, on the beach, and set up, and they were looking at the waves and they switched into swimsuits and started swimming. And the teens, I got the teens together, I found a little sandbar. If you went through the deep part, there's a sandbar out there. You can see it was only about that deep. So we swam out to the sandbar and we were standing on the sandbar.

Well, as I was out there with a teen, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, you know, off the end of the sandbar, there's a person out there that's been trying to get your attention for a while. Nobody told me. Yeah, they've been swimming against a riptide that's taking them out to sea and they've been staying in the same spot until they can no longer swim and they keep going underwater. You're kidding! So explain this to me really quickly. And sure enough, there was the person who weren't swimming anymore. They were just floating out to sea. Well, this is one of young adults in my church. I dove in the water, swam out to them as I approached, dove underwater, grabbed them by the ankles, spun her around backward, came up behind her because drowning victims want to get air. They'll climb on top of you and hold you down so they can breathe, drowning you. That's typically what happens when people go to save someone else. Got my arm around the neck, bumped up with the hip in the back to elevate the head and swam her back to the little sandbar with the teens. Whew! That was close! Oh, by the way, Mr. Elliott, there's another person going out to sea. Oh, this is odd. This is five minutes later. And this person is out there, another young adult. My wife and I still have contact with him. He's a married man now. This is pretty bizarre. He was a very strong person, more muscular than I was, and he was going out to sea, back in, approached him from behind, got him to struggle this time. I mean, I was tired. I was pulling. I was doing everything I could and finally got up to where there was something below our feet and drug and bump on the shore. And he was lying there with the other young adult lady on just catching their breath and just saying, thank you, I thought I was dead. I had no more energy, none whatsoever.

Oh, Mr. Elliott, I think there's somebody else out there. Look at the waves once in a while. You'll see ahead. Sure enough. When the waves were up, you didn't see it, but when the crest of the wave went down in the gap, there was a face looking at me. No arms, nothing moving, just blank eyes staring with the mouth open, like that. I thought, wow, this person had a slight difficulty with thinking and all, and he is just, that was it. He was done, too. And I thought, I don't know if I can do this again, but I yelled at somebody. I said, please go tell all the adults, get out of the water, get everybody, tell nobody, get in the water again, because what they'd done is just parked right in front of the exit. You know, the waves come up, and then the deep, you don't see it, but down deep underwater, there's a trough, there's a ditch, and the water swings out and goes out, comes in with the waves and goes out in the ditches, and they'd camped right in front of a ditch. And as soon as they got in the water, out they went. So I approached this individual.

He would once in a while get a breath. Mouth was pretty much full of water. He just stared with his blank death stare at me, and I didn't have a lot of strength. So what I did was I went down underneath, and he had been under so much that he needed a breath. So thankfully, I was able to stand on the bottom and take his ankles and push him up to where he could breathe. And I did that a few times and then walked him as the bottom of the ocean went uphill. I walked him out to where finally we could both get to that sandbar. And by then, I'll tell you, I was very, very exhausted. Now, I just told you something you might think is a real big deal. Well, you can blame me. I'm the one that picked the beach. I've always felt pretty bad about that and thankful to God that somebody didn't die that day. But on the other hand, did that buy me entrance into the kingdom of God?

It was kind of selfish. I was responsible. I was trying to save my tail, right?

They were my friends, every one of them. They were my church members. They're nice people.

I liked them. I didn't want to lose them. I had a lot to gain from saving their lives.

No, in short, saving their lives was not some thing on high that says, oh, we'll have him in our kingdom. Selfish guy, you know, kind of not real bright.

Cardinal is the day is long. But he did save three people, so come on up. It's not the way God works, is it? So we kind of have to look at that, put that in perspective, because God created humans. And after he created them, he said, it is good. He created us pretty good people. Adam and Eve were pretty good people. You know, people generally, if you haven't noticed, are pretty nice people. Wherever you go in the world, people are nice. Now, when human nature gets going, you know, some of them can turn out to be pretty bad, but generally, if you can get out of the cities and into the country, you're not going to meet anybody out there that you wouldn't want to take home for dinner, and vice versa. That's just the way it is. So we as humans were created to have pretty good relationships. Then human nature comes along and tries to spoil it from there. Now, if we look at good people, we see here in Romans chapter 5 and verse 7 that we will scarcely die for a good person. We might risk our lives for a good man or a good woman or a good kid, maybe a good dog, but who's going to do that for anybody else? I mean, really. You ever heard, though, of somebody dying for an evil man? I mean, you see the guy's on the news, ooh, look at that! He's on death row! They can inject him tomorrow. I'll take his place.

I don't remember hands going up for that, do you? You ever think, I think I'll just run down there and see if I can swap out for the electric chair? No, that's not what we do. So when we look here in verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love towards us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is an attribute of the heart of God. This is about loving your enemies, blessing those who curse you. This is about being humble and sacrificed and serving for all humans.

Because in verse 6, when we were still without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't die for good people. You know, when he died, think of what the people around him were like, except for 120 people. Pretty much they wanted him dead.

So that's an element of God's nature that would be a little bit hard for me to subscribe to. We can play all day in the random acts of kindness, all day in doing this great valor thing. When do we actually get around to becoming perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect? Actually imitating Jesus Christ in all levels. This is the heart of God. And I know you're probably saying, ah, not sure. Well, let's go to Galatians 6, verses 7 through 10. Galatians 6, verse 7. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. We think, oh, yeah, he is. He's easily deceived by me being in the right church with the right prophecy, the right governance, the right man, the right donations, the right prophecy, and who knows what. And I'm going to slip in there.

No. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he reap.

Now, if you're going to sow to our flesh, says the next verse, you're going to reap rotting. Sorry, but that's what corruption means. Ever seen things rot is not real pretty. When I was a young person, you know, 12, 13, 14 years old, from time to time I would walk to school on this little stretch of railroad tracks, and nobody cleans up railroad tracks. What happens on the railroad tracks stays on the railroad tracks, okay? And one day there was an animal that died next to the railroad tracks. And each day, as I walked to and fro, the California sun, I got to see what happened to animals as they progressed to dust. And it wasn't pretty. In fact, it wasn't pretty enough that I didn't walk that way after a certain point, just to avoid the smell and everything. Now, that's what he's saying. He uses this word corruption. If we're going to sow to me, even me being in the kingdom and seeking first the kingdom without his righteous character, well, I'm sowing to something God can't use, and so I'm going to die. But he who sows to the spirit, spirit, God's mindset, God's character, will of the spirit reap everlasting life. It seems like a simple rule, but it is profound. So he says in verse 9, Let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all. He didn't say just the church. He says, especially those who are the household of faith, but he said, Let us do good to all.

That is an integral part of sacrifice. You have to sacrifice to do good to all. You have to be humble to do good to all. When your enemy is beating you down and making fun of you and cursing you and hurting you, you want to rise up and be arrogant and respond. It's not how Jesus did. He said he didn't even open his mouth at those who did that. He said as an example, the Bible says, that we should do likewise. He did good to those who were of all types.

We are to have that same mindset, to do good to all, especially to those who are of the body. That's fine, but it should be good to all. Now, let's notice that we're coming up to this passage. It's going to be in Matthew where Jesus makes it. But before we get there, let's go to Revelation 20 and verse 6 and just be reminded about the word that's translated into the English blessed. Revelation 20 and verse 6 says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. This is a very powerful statement. The word blessed, as I've mentioned here many times through the years, cannot be conveyed in one word. The Greek word blessed seems to mean something like, oh how supremely blessed! This angel is saying this group of people that's inheriting the first resurrection are supremely blessed. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years. These individuals become like Jesus Christ. They become a wife for him that is compatible. Comparable is a better term. Like New King James uses for Genesis chapter 2 and verse 20. A helper comparable. That's what they've become. These are like God. They'll be priests of God and of Christ. They will reign with him a thousand years. This is a select group called the firstfruits.

You can see right here, oh how supremely blessed is this group. There'll be no other group ever to have this same blessing. The other resurrections don't have the same. This is a very, very unique group. It's a one-time shot. Now, let's take that word blessed and this concept of the first resurrection and go look at what Jesus said back in Matthew chapter 5. We'll begin in verse 2.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 2. Before we get there, let's forget that somebody named these the Beatitudes. Let's just forget these titles that humans attribute them to. Let's forget that there's any poetry if there is any here. Let's forget that people put these things up as nice platitudes and it would be nice. And let's remember that every time that same word, oh how supremely blessed in conjunction with the first resurrection, is applied right here. So if we start in in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 5, blessed, oh how supremely blessed are the poor in spirit. Humble. An attribute of God starts, first thing he talks about is the humility. They're not some sort of ego maniacs. They're not vain. They're not egotistical. It's not about me. It's not about the self. No, they're poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. These are attributes that we've been learning about that this this passage right here summarizes all of the attributes that we've looked at in this three-part series. Blessed are those who mourn, who sigh and cry for the abominations, for for the problems and the pain that their fellow man humanity has been putting themselves through.

For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek. You know, Moses was the most meek man. Why?

Because Moses trusted God to direct him. The term meek, which comes from the Greek word preutis, is another word that you cannot define with a single English word. Meek doesn't mean gentleness. Meek doesn't mean weak. Meek, as one commentator said, meek cannot be defined like that. You have to get the concept of preutis, the Greek word preutis. It sort of combines various scriptural things, as best I can explain. One is it is not within man to know how to direct to steps.

Other things are the wisdom that we have is not going to get us where we need. We need the wisdom from above. So what that translates into is the concept of, I don't know how to live my life. I don't even know what I should do today. I've got lots of ideas. But what I need to do is get on my knees first and talk to God, ask for his direction, ask for the bread of life today, the spiritual bread of life to be given to me, then open his word and get some of that bread of life, and to reorient myself to the heart of God and how he would do things, obedient and lawful, yeah, and humility and serving. Those concepts of the mind of God put those in my mind, and then ask him, God, what should I do and how should I do it and help me accomplish your will? It's beginning to get to meekness. If you want to look at that physically, look at Moses. He's a guy in Egypt. He's supposed to go to a promised land he's never been to. He's got an ocean to go through. He's got all these people that are kind of unruly. He doesn't have a clue.

And he's going before Pharaoh. He's going to get himself killed.

And he takes things like sticks and and pronounce his plagues. Moses had to be meek. Moses had to say, God, I don't know what to do. I don't have a clue. So I'm going to follow you. You just tell me what you want to do. I'm going to follow you. There's me. Blessed are those for they will inherit the earth. They're going to reign with Jesus Christ. They're going to say, Christ, hubby, husband, spiritual, what do you want to do? I'm here to help. I'm your helper.

They will inherit the earth and they'll rule and reign with Christ as priests with him. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the application of God's commandments of his laws. Yes, lawful, obedient. Why? For they will be filled with righteousness. That's seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. That's an attribute of God's heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers. We looked at peacemaking, unity, oneness.

If you and I develop those, then oh, how supremely blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. This is how the bride is changed into the wife. This is how that final process of coming into the divine family of God takes place.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness. You're doing love. You're loving your God with all your heart, soul, and might. You're loving all your neighbors as yourself, and you're persecuted for it. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's an attribute of the God family. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and you respond properly like Jesus did, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. You will, because, as he said, if you're in the family, this is what we get from humans.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It's not just little incidental things. This is part of the heart of God that we are to grow into. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth. Jesus left and went back to heaven, and he left us as the lights, as the salt. We are the reflection. We are the taste, as it were. We are that pureness. Salt does not contain corruption. It doesn't contain sin. It is helpful in all situations. It's valuable. It's useful. It's enhancing. It enhances people's lives in many ways. We're salt in all the elements that salt is beneficial for.

In verse 14, you are the light of the world. He said, I'm the light of the world, but now I'm going away. Now you're the light of the world. We are to reflect and be like the heart of God, so that when people see us, they would recognize something that's unique. Just like a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, that agape nature of God, and then may not glorify you or give you any recognition, but glorify your Father in heaven.

Now, if we fast forward to the kingdom, let's go to Revelation chapter 22 as we wrap this up in verse 1. Revelation chapter 22 and verse 1. We want to be in the kingdom, don't we? We've seen through this series who will be in the kingdom from Christ's own words, the apostles' own words.

We see that God is really looking for real children, not fakers. He wants to really see people who convert to their nature become really family. I mean, their citizenship is in heaven. Their country, their father, the whole package is a different family than what we've had here on earth. If we go fast forwarding to Revelation 22, we'll see what this looks like in the long term. It's a continuation of what we're doing now. Only it's perfect and improved. It's not some, if you do this now, give you something different later. If you work real hard and you obey me over here, then you can do something totally different later.

No, it's continuous. It's much more of the same. So in verse 1 of chapter 22, he says, here in the new heavens and the new earth with new Jerusalem fully established and everything has long since moved beyond the physical phase, he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Here's life proceeding from God. He is giving. God is put here with good things, a pure river, not corruption. It's absolutely pure. It's synonymous of that agape, spirit of God, that perfection that flows from him and it does good for all. The leaves of the tree in verse 2 at the end were for the healing, the stitching together of the nations.

God is still stitching together. His mindset, his agape, the sacrifice, the serving, the whole package of his laws, his love, the oneness, the peace. It all stitches together in the stitching together of the nations. Notice, no more curse like we would see today, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. So not only God is serving in his ways, but the family is also serving. You can't outdo the serving we've already read in the first verses by the serving that the other part of the family is doing.

They are stitching themselves together. They shall see his face, his name will be on their foreheads. This is the God's family, the Elohim Hebrew word. Not that it'll be in Hebrew, by any means. It'll be a new language. There'll be no night there, they need no lamp, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Not sure who the they is, but it looks like there's a lot of they that are serving and ruling and sharing and inheriting and it's family for all eternity.

In verse 14 it says, Oh how supremely blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to this tree of life that we just read about and may enter through the gates into the city. Our desire is to be in the kingdom of God. The new covenant has reached out and invited you. Hopefully it's embracing you and you're embracing it.

Really, if you want to summarize the new covenant, it might be something like this. If you want to be supremely blessed for all eternity and live forever in the family of God, and live forever in the family of God, get a new heart fashioned after God.

That's what God is doing here. That's what all of this creation is about. All this time, the opportunity, all the help and the mercy and his graciousness. It's what it all is about for us to get a new heart. How can we do that? Well, we might ask the individual who in the Bible is called a person after God's own heart. That might be helpful, too. Let's go look in Psalm 51 at this person who is said to be in the New Testament a man after God's own heart. He did it.

He did it in his way to certainly the developmental phase he made it to in the flesh, not that he is perfect.

But we see evidence here of the process in Psalm 51.

We look in verse 1, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness. We have to start somewhere. And even if we've been going at it, sometimes we have to stop again and fast and restart. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. That's how we start is repenting. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. That's a starting point because we remove the wall, but we haven't made the progress yet. You can't just be forgiven. You've got to move forward. Verse 6, Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You want it down here in my character, in my heart. In the hidden part, you will make me know to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. And then verse 10, Create in me a clean heart. That's how we do it. God has to do it. I can't do it. You can't do it. But we have to repent. We have to be cleaned on a daily basis, as the model prayer outline shows us. And then we have to desire and ask God to create in us His mindset. All of those attributes and more and think about them, pray about them, meditate on them, fast about them, and renew the steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me to the joy of your salvation. Uphold me by your generous spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. It's then that we can begin to be the salt and the light to others. It's then that we can be an example. Once we have the heart of God and represent the family of God, then we can be ambassadors. And then as we grow, all will know that we are disciples of God and Christ because that's the nature that He's developing within us. So what we need to do is remove a sinful heart.

And as we've seen in this series, we need to replace it with a heart of righteousness, obedience, and lawfulness, of peacemaking, of oneness, of unity, of humility, and sacrifice, and serving, because that is what our God is about. So if you become a person after God's own heart, you will be supremely blessed at the return of Jesus Christ. And you will live in the family of God forever. So ask yourself the question that I asked myself. Am I a person after God's own heart?