Those Who Hunger and the Merciful

Several years ago, in an article entitled, or an Eternity Magazine by Dr. E. M. Blalock, he referred to a book by Major V. Gilbert titled The Last Crusade. In that book, Major Gilbert detailed part of the British liberation of Palestine during World War I, and he talked about a combined force of British, Australian, and New Zealander troops who were pursuing the retreating Turks northward to try to take the Holy Land from them. They had been fighting in Bursheba way down in the Sinai, and obviously the Sinai area is very dry. It is a wilderness, it is very much desert, and they were surging up the road towards Jerusalem over this desert. It's a fascinating article when you consider here in a moment the tie-in to our spiritual walk with God. Now, the two forces were very close. They were not separated by miles, they were separated more by furlongs, and I had to look that up. A furlong is about an eighth of a mile, or 220 yards. So about the length of two football fields is as far as the Turks were ahead of this British army.

And of course, the British commander was very eager to press his advantage because he knew he had an opportunity to wipe out or to destroy the escaping Turks. However, his speed had an unintended consequence. The fast-moving British force out-distanced its water supply, which was going at the pace of a camel because actually their water supply was being transported by a camel train. And so the water can only go fast as a camel, but these troops were just pushing forward and they had out-distanced themselves from their water supply. It was just a matter of hours that their water bottles were empty and they were still going full tilt towards Jerusalem. Of course, the sun did not go away to help them. It was blazingly hot out of the brazen sky and vultures were circling, knowing that there would be fresh meat. Major Gilbert writes, our heads ached and our eyes became bloodshot and dim in the blinding glare. Our tongues began to swell, our lips turned to purplish black and burst. Any soldier who dropped out of the hastening column was never seen again. Without water and desperate for it, the article goes on to say, the army's aims switched from pursuing the Turks and annihilating them to making it to Shira town where there was an abundant well. It was on the way that they knew that the Turks were going to get there first, but they were going to press on because they wanted that water as well. They failed to capture the town by nightfall. Thousands of soldiers would die of thirst. Major Gilbert writes again, we fought that day as men fight for their lives. We entered Shira station on the heels of the retreating Turks. The first objects which met our view were the great stone cisterns of cold, clear drinking water. In the still night air, the sound of water running into the tanks could be distinctly heard, maddening in its nearness. Yet not a man murmured when orders were given for the battalions to fall into too deep facing the cisterns. What was dismaying about that was that the officers commanded a strict priority list of those who could drink. First, the wounded were given the water, and then those who were assigned guard duty, and then and only then, company by company. The British are very well known for their orderliness, and this time they probably hated the fact that they were. It took the assembled army, and remember they are standing too deep around the cisterns, the article says, four hours before the last man took his drink of water, and in all that time they had been standing barely 20 feet from the low stone wall that separated them from thousands of gallons of fresh satisfying water. Major Gilbert concludes, I believe that we all learned our first real Bible lesson on that march from Bursheba to Shearer Wells. In an explanation, Dr. Baylock comments, if such were our thirst for God, for righteousness, for His will in our life, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit would we be?

It's an interesting illustration. I think we can put ourselves, even if we haven't served in the military or been in that before, we've we can put ourselves into the mindset of how thirsty these men were, the impact it was having on their life, even their ability to concentrate. Their focus shifted from annihilating fellow human beings to what? Preserving their own life, even. A drastic shift from when they woke up that day to in that moment, and then to have that water nearby for four hours, but following instructions, when it's your turn you can have some of that water, it would have been almost maddening, right?

Do you think that they just sat back and was like, oh, it's no big deal, I'll just wait my turn? Or was their focus like, did they take their eyes off those wells? Maybe they had to because it was maddening, in a sense, but they knew that water was 20 feet away and they knew their time would come. I don't think their focus was on many other things other than looking after one another and making sure they get a drink when their time came. In the last sermon I shared with you, we continued looking at the beatitudes that we see recorded in Matthew chapter 5.

As a reminder, the word beatitudes is a 15th century word that means ultimate blessing and supreme happiness. And what we see at the beginning of Matthew chapter 5 is the blessings that God wants to give us. But as Jesus came, and as we know, and as He flipped the world upside down with many of His teachings, He wanted us to reconsider what blessings God really wants to give us. In that very first sermon, we examined and considered for a while that if we were to take the message that Jesus Christ shared in this sermon on the mount out to our communities out beyond these walls, and we said, do you want to live a blessed life?

People would say, absolutely. And we asked that question, and then we read them the beatitudes. I don't think that they would say, well, that's not the blessings that I had in mind. Physical health, prosperity, a nice home to live in, a good place to raise my family. These are the blessings that I would hope God would give me through being obedient and drawing near to Him.

But in Matthew chapter 5, which we'll dive into, if you want to go ahead and start turning there, these blessings are not what the type of blessings that we normally think of from our own nature. But yet, these are the blessings that God wants us to receive. And so, as Jesus flipped the world upside down, and as we've looked at in the other two sermons, we have to flip our mindset upside down, as we have done as we're leading into this spring holiday season, as we've examined ourselves and will continue to examine ourselves in the next six days.

We have to flip our life completely around. As we have given it to God, and then we have walked in newness of life, we have to also change the way that we think about things. We have to reverse our thinking when it comes to many things in our life, and we need to think in opposite ways to align our thoughts and focus with God's thoughts and focus. So today, we'll continue looking at the passage often referred to as the Beatitudes, as we reflect on the true blessings God desires for us to receive.

Again, let's look at Matthew 5, and we'll start at the beginning of the chapter in verse 1. Matthew 5 and verse 1, and it says, "...and seeing the multitudes, he," talking about Jesus, "...went up on the mountain, and when he was seated with his disciples came to him, and then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Bless are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." So that's that blessing.

They would receive the kingdom of God, ultimately, because they're low and poor in spirit. They have humility before God. They recognize where they stand before God. He says, verse 4, "...blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." And we know that the mourning we mourn when we go through hardships, we mourn through trials, through the challenges that other face, we also mourn at the fact of what sin has done to mankind, to our society, the impact that wrong choices have on the world.

And the blessing is not the lack of mourning, right? The blessing is the comfort that God gives us as we mourn. So he says, he doesn't say, Bless are those who don't mourn.

That's not the blessing. It's, we should be mourning the hard things of life, and we should be mourning the state of our society and the impact that Satan has on mankind. And he says, if you do that, if you have that mindset, that heartfelt movement of that movement of your heart, he says, I'll comfort you. I'll relieve some of that that mourning that you have. Verse 5, which we looked at last time, "...blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." This is not weakness. Meekness is not weakness. But rather, it's strength under complete control. It's bringing our emotions, our thoughts, all aspects of our life into submission, so that we respond as God would want us to respond with clear-headedness and clear-mindedness, and with motivations of loving God and loving our fellow brothers and sisters. It's his strength. And he says, if you do this, if you bring all things into control, you'll inherit the earth again. Inherit the kingdom of God. Which brings us to the next beatitude, which is in verse 6. He says, "...blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." And that blessing is that we will be filled if we hunger and thirst for God's righteousness.

I think when we first read this blessing, our mind naturally goes to times where we've been without food or without water, maybe a day of fasting. And that's okay, because that's part of the illustration that Jesus is bringing forward, similar to the opening illustration, the mindset that those men had going through the desert and how they hungered and they thirsted for that water.

We live in a very blessed nation, and I don't think many of us have ever been really hungry. And I'm talking about where we would have gone for days without food or days without drink, or where we've been chronically, or where we've dealt with chronic food insecurity, where you don't know where your next meal is going to come from. Most, I don't think we've been through those types of situations. People who are in these situations become desperate. Their mind shifts. They are really hurting inside. Even if there's, sadly, there's situations where children are being raised in homes where there isn't a lot of food in the houses. Poor choices are being made by parents or by those caring for the children. I think a lot of our teachers have seen, sadly, some of these situations with students in their school, and maybe even you've seen some yourself. These children develop coping mechanisms. They start hoarding food. They make choices that you and I don't have to make because of the lack of something in their life. But people who are in these situations, they're not comfortable. They're really hurting inwardly. Those who are chronically food insecure or those who haven't had a meal in a long time or something to drink, they are in the brink of becoming frantic and maybe even being driven to panic. Many of those listening to Jesus share this blessing would have understood this more intimately than we would probably understand today. The closest many of us have been physically to the state is when we fasted, maybe on the day of atonement or as we fasted other times through the year. But we know the impact of just going a few hours, right? Because we sleep through the night most nights without a meal and maybe without a drink of water. Just those waking hours of the day, it's amazing how just a few hours and all of a sudden your legs start to have a little bit of a tremble in them because they're feeling weak. The blood sugar levels are off. You start thinking about, what am I having for dinner? And sometimes it's not so much the food. I could really use a glass of water right now, right? And God designed our bodies that way. We can maybe go days without food, but you can't go too many days without water. Our body's just the composition of them and the importance to water to our bodies. But it doesn't take long before our focus starts to shift over to that. Even if we've remained focused through the day on a holy day or on a day we're fasting, it doesn't take long. And that's just a few hours of our waking day where we don't have a meal, but we have this deep inward desire to have something that satisfies our thirst and our hunger.

So the question for us today, do we hunger for righteousness as much as we would food or drink on a day that we have gone without either? Let's first define righteousness. One way to define it is personal character as demonstrated in appropriate behavior and being right before God.

I'll repeat this because I know some of you like to write these definitions down.

Personal character as demonstrated in appropriate behavior and being right before God. Another way it can be defined is righteousness refers to the quality of being right in God's eyes, encompassing character, which is our nature, encompassing conscience, our attitude, encompassing conduct, our actions, and encompassing commands or words.

Righteousness, and this is an important aspect to keep our focus on as we go through the sermon, as we continue through these next couple weeks, righteousness is a God-centered attribute, meaning that we cannot obtain righteousness through our own efforts. If we make good choices in life, where did we get the instruction to make those good choices? God. If we're able to extend mercy to others, where did we get the ability to have mercy in the first place from God? And so as we go forward and as we demonstrate and we develop this character in our lives, it's because God has first shown us the importance of His way and His graces and His mercy and His love. And so that's where this righteousness, when we do the things we ought to do in life, it comes from a mindset that we are being Christ-centered. We're being God-centered in our life as we go forward and that we have not deserved. We can't just build up and pull up this righteousness on our own. It comes from our relationship with God as He's the one who has first shown us what is right and He's the one who guides our lives. We know according to Scripture, our righteousness is like dirty rags as compared to God's righteousness. That's in Isaiah 64 in verse 6. When we do make good choices, it measures so little in comparison to God's righteousness and His love and good works towards us. The Proverbs capture quite a few thoughts regarding righteousness. Let's turn to Proverbs 12 in verse 28. Proverbs 12 verse 28 Solomon and others who wrote the Proverbs and captured this wisdom for us, it says, in the way of righteousness is life and in its pathway there is no death.

In the way of righteousness is life and that's what God ultimately wants to bring to our lives, is eternal life. He wants His righteousness to be in our hearts. He wants us to choose life. We talked about the doors a couple weeks ago. We get opportunities to choose which doors we walk through. We talked about how God lets us make choices, right? We get to choose life, but the way of righteousness is this life. And so we have to allow God's righteousness to be the center of our life and allow His word and spirit to guide our everyday decisions. Solomon also writes here in Proverbs 15 and verse 9. I think I said a few minutes ago others wrote some of the aspects of Proverbs, so they didn't. I was getting confused with Psalms. Psalms are not just, all the Psalms are not written by just David but some others, but the Proverbs are written by Solomon.

And in his wisdom in Proverbs 15 and verse 9, he says, the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who follows righteousness. God's love is with those who follow righteous decisions and make righteous decisions. Let's look at Proverbs 21 and verse 2 as well.

This will be the last section of the Proverbs that we'll look at here. Proverbs 21 and verse 2. In this book of wisdom that God gave Solomon, of course, the wisdom, but then Solomon captured this.

It mentions this aspect of righteousness and the way that we're to live our lives. Proverbs 21, verse 2, says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes. And boy, do we know that, right?

And how many times we've gotten burned by that. But the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice, it's interesting these two are combined together, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. And then later in verse 21 of the same chapter, Proverbs 21, 21, he who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.

Again, it's interesting that Solomon put righteousness and mercy, tied them together, saying if we do this, we find ourselves righteousness and we find honor before God.

Similar to that great commandment that we see where God said if we love God and we should love mankind as ourself, we love God by showing this righteous behavior, but then we extend mercy to others as God has extended mercy to us. It's interesting the action components of righteousness and mercy. The Apostle Paul shares at the beginning of Romans chapter 1, and also an important thought. Romans 1, and we'll look at the beginning in verse 16.

Romans 1, and verse 16, Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek, for in it, speaking again of this gospel of Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And this is why that example of Jesus Christ in the life that he lived and died for you and for me is so important, because this gospel of Christ, this message that he brought forward, this way of life that he lived is this example of righteousness for you and me. We know if we look at the the law of the and the Torah, the law of Moses, the law that was under the Old Covenant, they had its expectations. God placed that law there for us so that for our safety guardrails to show us his holiness, to show us the expectation for us to live our life. And then we know that Christ came and magnified the law. He showed that the depth of what it should actually do in our lives, not just keep the Sabbath. Okay, check the box. Why are you keeping the Sabbath? What is the motivation? It's not enough. Don't kill your brother. Don't be angry. What is the motivation that's causing you to be angry?

Where's this originating from? And he says, this is the righteousness of God, this example that Christ came and lived. And it says, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Faith as a just shall live by faith. Peter also in 1 Peter 2 verse 21 references this important relationship that we have with God and that Christ, all that Christ gave and did for you and for me and for all of humanity. 1 Peter 2 and verse 21.

Just previously to this, to verse 21, Peter's talking about what credit is to you if you're beaten for doing good or beaten, beaten for doing bad. And it's kind of like, well, that's what you brought upon yourself. But when you're beaten, beaten for doing good. And then he gets into this example of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2 and verse 21. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. This righteous behavior that Christ was the example of, we must also do. He says, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled did not revile in return. This is that meekness that Jesus always showed. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, notice might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. This hungering and thirsting in order to live. It's not enough that Christ has come and died and that we are recipients of that grace and that mercy and that forgiving of sins. He says, so now what are you going to do with this newness of life? Similar to, I think I've shared, I think I've shared here, part of the counseling often do with baptism is kind of paint that picture that you and I, before baptism, we're in jail. We're on death row. We've received our sentence and it's not pretty. It's death for our sins. And then it said the illustration or the imagery is Christ walks up and asks them to open the cell door and then we step out and then he steps in to our place and then the door shuts back and he bore our penalty that you and I deserved. And as anyone who would be freed from a prison, do they just, is the expectation they just go on back out and continue to live the life they lived before or do they embrace that freedom? Do they embrace that newness of life that they've just been given? And so now go and do differently. Go and do better. And that's what we have received in the expectation that we might go and live for righteousness, as he writes in verse 24, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. So true righteousness is impossible to achieve apart from God. So back to our original question, how much do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do we seek after righteousness as we would food and water if we were stranded someplace that lacked both? We've seen maybe in movies. I've never driven through the western deserts. But I've seen photos of signs that they post along the road saying the next gas station is not for 80 miles. Make sure you have gas, make sure you have water, and it actually lists the supplies that you need, because they say pretty much if you break down, you're going to need these things. And so we've seen movies or heard stories of people who didn't heed this to that same degree, and then something happened. Something broke on their car, and they haven't seen somebody pass by for an hour. I mean, most people are not driving down these roads very often, right?

Imagine being in that situation. Would your focus just be like, oh, it's no big deal. We'll just lay the seat back, take a nap. I'm sure somebody will come by at some point.

You have children in the back seat, your spouse with you. Would your focus just be, ah, it'll work out. It'll be fine. Or would you start evaluating the situation that you're in?

Would you start maybe counting up how many water bottles you have? Would you evaluate, can I fix my car? Is there, can I pull a MacGyver? Can I grab some duct tape and somehow limp this car along to the next gas station? Would we recognize the seriousness of the situation that we are in? Would our thoughts be consumed by how we're going to survive? Would we even weigh out our next decision very carefully, recognizing it could be life or death? I think we would be very serious about these situations. We would be very consumed, very careful, very serious, and in our hearts and in our minds emotionally, I believe we'd be very uncomfortable.

And this is the lesson that Jesus brings forward by sharing this thought and the beatitudes.

As we would pursue our next meal very carefully, we should do the same regarding God in His way.

If we want the blessing from God that we will be filled, we should be uncomfortable to the point that our every thought is about seeking out God's righteousness. It's a big statement, isn't it?

It's one of those two by fours that hit me between the eyes, right? Because this, this is not easy to maintain. To maintain minute by minute, hour by hour, like we would in the desert, wondering, are we going to be okay? Because again, you're in the desert, in the car, car broke down, kids in the backseat. You're not reclining in the seat and just taking a nap and saying it's no big deal.

Every single thought would be consumed on how do we get out of this situation? Whether it's on a trail with a bear that suddenly appears, right? Wild animal. You don't just ignore the animal, right? All of a sudden, your focus, everything in you becomes first and foremost in front of your eyes. A dangerous situation. You've all experienced different things, things that you look back and you're like, wow, God got me out of that one. It's hard in our daily life to be uncomfortable to the point, because we're hungering and thirsting after God's righteousness, that our every thought is about seeking out his righteousness.

And that's why these beatitudes are not easy. These beatitudes, the example that Christ gave in his life and the words he gave in the beginning of this sermon, it's just not just this child's play, right? This is not just what we read through and then say, yep, that's a nice thought. This is hard. And I can't count if I want to just stand before you, and I'm not going to recount my whole week, but if I think back how focused was I at every single moment this past week?

There was plenty of times I wasn't focused, right? I think we'd all say the same thing.

Times we let other things seep in. It's not that we're not allowed to enjoy life, right? That's not the point. The point is, why are we making the choices and why are we doing the things that we're doing? This is not a passive approach we should take in our lives, but an active approach. Remember those troops that were seeking after the water? Other things became less important. They needed that water to survive. It was an action that they did in order to survive.

Matthew 6 and verse 33 gives us part of this action. You can put Matthew 6 33 in your notes, but seek first the kingdom of God, right? Check. We know that one, right? It doesn't end there.

And his righteousness. We are to seek it. We are to persevere after it. We're to go after it with full strength, running as fast as we can. Not only the kingdom of God, but his righteousness in our lives. Turn to 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11.

I know this is a big these beatitudes are heavy at times because this this gets to the core of what we've been called to do. This gets to the core of Christianity.

Doing the things we ought to do. We know what we should be doing. I got in trouble with my mom many times for getting caught doing something I shouldn't be doing. And my response was, what? I don't know if your kids ever did that. And she goes, I hate it when you do that because you know why you're in trouble. And I said, yes, but I want to make sure you know why I'm in trouble.

Because if I just tell you what I did, and then you're like, oh, I didn't know you did that, but you're in trouble for that one, too. So I got smart, right? Smart in a human nature sense, right? So when mom would say, Michael, I'd say what? She goes, you know what you're doing.

So many times we know what we're doing in life as it relates to the righteousness we should be living our life by, right? When God puts that into your mind and that feeling and that heart, and you're like, oh, yeah, I know I should have not responded that way. Or I did some things I shouldn't have done in that conversation or with that person. It's hard. It's hard. But yet, that's the mark. That's the level that God is asking us to continue to strive for. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11, he says, But you, Paul says to Timothy, but you, O man of God, flee these things. So that's an action word as well. And pursue righteousness. So go after righteousness. Work towards it. Pursue it. As those men were pursuing the water, because their life depended on it, he's saying, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. He says, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. You could say, fight for righteousness. You could say, lay hold on God's righteousness, righteousness, to which you were called and have confessed to good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Again, this illustration of hunger and thirst reminds us of our dependence on God's direction for our lives. God says, supreme happiness and tremendous blessing comes to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And so this must be that desire for our life.

God wants our lives to be aligned with his and he says blessings will come as a result of that.

Just as we eat a meal and then in a relatively short amount of time we're hungry again, we should continually hunger for God's word to more deeply live and be reflective in us. And unlike a meal that soon fades away and we are empty again, the feeling that comes from God is one that does not leave us lacking. Let's look at John 6 in verse 26. John 6 in verse 26.

I'm going to read through this kind of quickly. We're going to touch on it, I'm sure, with the upcoming Holy Days, whether it's Passover or First Day of Unleavened Bread, often this passage comes up because of the tie-in to these Holy Days. John 6 verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, Most assured do I say to you, you seek me. Notice, not because you saw the signs, remember the miracles, the things he did, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Many of those who were following after him, they liked the free meals that he gave out, the feeding of the 5,000 fishes and loaves. They were hungry. I remember this is Jerusalem, this is Galilee, this is different areas where the poor were really poor. And so he fed them spiritually in messaging, but he also fed them with food, and that kind of kept them tagging along some of them. And he says, you seek me because you ate of the loaves and were filled. He goes, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which a son of man will give you because of God the Father has set his seal on him. Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may do the works of God? And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. And therefore they said to him, What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? So they're looking for that miracle again. What work will you do? They ask him. Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. They recognize that God physically provided them the food in the desert. They know that that historical account. Then Jesus said to them in verse 32, Most assured I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And then they said to him, Lord, like it's not enough for the fishes and loaves. Give us this bread of life or give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. This is that bread of life that we have accepted in baptism. This is that bread of life that we continually get as we seek after his way and his righteousness. And so blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. You're gonna have to hang on with me for a little bit longer, Janet. We're 10 minutes from and I've still got one more to get through. Let's go back. Matthew 5 and verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Another one of those tremendous beatitudes that were given here in Matthew 5 and verse 7. Again, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Merciful is defined by the complete word-study dictionary as compassionate, benevolently merciful, involving thought and action. Notice that. Not just thought, not just that that's more of compassion. That's more of maybe even sympathy, but sympathy has an action component to it as well. But mercy involves thought and action.

And it's not merely those, the definition goes on, it says not merely those who express acts of mercifulness, but who have this attribute as a result of a relationship with Christ.

Goes back to that the mercy we have been extended and shown should bear fruits of mercy in the relationships as we interact with others. From Vines Complete Expository Dictionary, it says, when used as a noun, the outward manifestation of pity. It assumes need on the part of him who receives it, and resources adequate to meet the needs on the part of him who shows it. When used as a verb to feel sympathy with the misery of another, and especially sympathy manifested in action. And so to understand the depth to which we are to extend mercy to others, we must understand why we so desperately need mercy extended to ourselves. Let's look at Romans 8 and verse 6.

Again, this is that board hitting, hopefully, all of us kind of between the eyes as we approach the Passover here this week, as we approach this time of the year, recognizing that God's mercy is without measure and without cost, as it did cost his life. But we have not paid for that in our own lives. We have not suffered unto death for our own sins. God has been so generous and so graceful with us. Romans 8 verse 6, Paul writes, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity, which is hostility or hatred.

That's what that word means, hostility or hatred against God. I mean, those are some hard words to say. And then to reflect and think like my actions, my previous actions showed that I hated God, that it was hostility towards God. God says, do this, and we're putting up our fists. We're fighting against it. That's our nature, is fighting against God. Because the carnal mind is this hostility or hatred against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So we recognize through this and other statements how desperately we need to be reconciled to God. So how desperately we need that pardon from God. And granted, so often in life, it's easy for us to hurt and to hold someone else responsible for our hurt, right? There are times in life where we're the recipient of someone else's bad will or poor decisions towards us. It happens. And granted, we may even have a right to feel hurt because it was unjustified, it was wrong. But realizing that we ourselves have hurt others, and in fact, at times, we've been enemies of God, this should set the stage for us to view ourselves for really who we are, which helps when those offenses come our direction, even if they're unwarranted and unnecessary, recognizing that at times we did the same exact thing to God.

Turn with me to Ephesians 2 in verse 1. I want to leave time for the last passage of scripture to really, hopefully, bring this point to life. Ephesians 2 in verse 1.

To remind ourselves before we even begin to consider the mercy we should extend to others, remind ourselves how we have been recipients of God's mercy.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2 verse 1, And you, he made alive, who were dead and trespasses and sins. The New Living Translation says, You were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. Verse 2, In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. That children of wrath, I don't know that we don't use the word wrath too often anymore, but another translation says we were subject to God's anger. Now, that one we get. We've all been the subject of someone else's anger. I may have made my parents angry a few times in life, and I saw that side, right? Any of us parents been angry with our kids at times? It's not a pretty picture for our kids. We've all been there. Can you imagine being subject to God's anger, His righteous anger towards us? It's a scary place to be. But notice verse 4, because this is what we have to strive for. But God, who is rich in mercy, who's rich in mercy, I'm so thankful this is one of God's attributes, so thankful that this is one of His characteristics that He carries and meets His existence by.

Because He is rich in mercy, but God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love.

See, it goes back to these characteristics that we have to be developing in our lives.

Love for God, love for our fellow brother. Being rich in mercy is God is rich in mercy.

Verse 5, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. If you want to just put in your notes for the sake of time, you could put Romans 5 verses 6 through 11 in there. Again, it's another similar passage that Paul writes here, talking about how we've been saved from wrath through Jesus Christ. We were enemies, but we were reconciled. So maybe just add that to your notes, because I want to make sure to spend enough time in this final story and account.

Because God is so rich in mercy, and we are to come before His throne and grace, where we can obtain that mercy. But as we reflect back on the beatitude, it does not simply read, blessed are those who receive God's mercy.

It's not what the beatitude says. It reads, blessed are the merciful.

That's you and me. We are to show this action of mercy towards others, because it then says, for they shall obtain mercy. The mercy we have received must be extended to others to receive this blessing from God. If we're not merciful, it's self-explanatory that we will not receive that mercy in return.

There are many accounts we could go to to review the depth of which we are to extend mercy to others. And if it's a topic on your mind right now or in the next six days or through Unleavened Bread, I encourage you to dive into it, because there's many, many passages.

But I'd like to kind of close out this beatitude in Luke chapter 10 and verse 25.

Luke 10 and verse 25. Jesus shares a story, parable, or passage that should ring as powerfully today as it did when he first shared the lesson. Luke 10 verse 25 says, Unbehold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him. So the lawyers knew the law. They were similar to scribes in the way that they knew the extent of the law. They knew how to apply it. They would make judgments. A certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? That's a good question. Fair question. And he said to him, Jesus did, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? And so he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. So the great commandment, right? I can only imagine as he says this back to Jesus Christ, maybe there's a smirk starting, a little bit of a smile out of the corner of his mouth, because he knows this is the right answer, right? Can't argue this one. Maybe some buddies in the room's giving him a thumbs up, a high five, and you nailed that question. Way to go on that one. And he said to him, Jesus did, verse 28, You have answered rightly, do this and you will live. And I think this is where there's a little bit, maybe, of self-righteousness coming in here, because, well, I think it's definitely a little bit of self-righteousness, because notice verse 29, but he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? This is kind of like those kids that start to get a little smirkier, a little snarky back. You say something, and then they're said, yeah, but what about this angle on it? I can only think that maybe this lawyer is trying to maybe, as it says, justify his own behavior to those maybe in his community, because at times he probably did love God. I mean, he knew the answer, so I'm sure he felt he was justified before God did the things he should.

He probably cared for his neighbors, and he cared for the others, Jews in his community, and he did other good works, and he may have even fed some poor. So he's kind of wanting Christ to say, yep, that's you. You've done everything. You're on the right train.

But then Christ knowing and judging and being able to sense this goes on to say, then Jesus answered and said, verse 30, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance, a certain priest, so this is a priest, someone who knew the law, someone who knew the understanding, someone who knows the expectation of God for his life, came down the road, and when he saw him, passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived, another person that knew the law, another person who should have done good, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. So Christ is turning this back to the Levites, the scribe, the priests. You know the law. You even know the law on the Sabbath. If an ox falls into a ditch, what are you supposed to do? Let it die? No. You work. You get it out. You water your animals on the Sabbath. It's okay. They need those things, but he's using this illustration. They know what they should do, but what's in their heart? Are they caring for this person? They may have been thinking, I'm reading between the lines of Scripture a little bit. That guy probably deserved what he got. Look at him. Look how he's dressed. Maybe they even knew his behavior. Who knows, right?

Maybe that's what he deserved. Look over. Maybe bump him with a boot. You okay?

But he goes on in verse 33, but a certain Samaritan. And when he said this word, Samaritan, it would have like hitting them across the eyes or across the forehead with a board.

Soon as he said, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. To understand the depth of this passage and how that board, how that would have smacked him, you have to understand who the Samaritans were. The Samaritans originated when the Assyrians conquered the northern ten tribes of Israel. And as the Assyrians conquered, their practice when they conquered nations were to take out the young, the strong, the educated, from those nations that they conquered to remove them, take them back to Babylon, take them back to their home area, and then to take other people that they captured, the not so smart, the not so great, or educated, or wealthy, or talented, and to backfill that void. So they would take other inhabitants from other countries that they had conquered, and then they would move them into this other land. And it was so that they never had this this heartfelt tie to that land. It wasn't their homeland. So if they're going to rise up and fight, no, you're not going to rise up and fight for something that's not yours. But if you leave that conquered nation there, then an uprising most likely will come at some point. They'll get their their buddies together. They'll have secret talks. And so their wisdom was to replace the inhabitants with other people, other foreigners. And they did that with Israel. They took out the rich, the smart, the educated. They took them away, and then they brought in Gentiles. They brought in people who were not considered God's people. And so these foreign settlers brought with them their pagan gods. They brought with them their worship and their past life. And they intermingled, and they ended up marrying with the Jews that were still left behind. Those who were not deemed important or worthy enough to be taken away.

And when they married in, they had children. And these children were considered half-breeds, half-Jew, half-Gentile. And the Jews really did not like the Samaritans because they had some of these false worship principles, these false practices, and at times even referred to them as dogs.

Now, I don't think you and I would look at our brothers and sisters in the world, and then our neighbors, our society, and refer to them as some kind of degraded animal lesser than us.

But the Jews did. The people here did. They would, they didn't hold back to refer to them as not even on the same level of God's creation of human beings. You're just a dog. Your worth is that of an animal. That was the way that those listening to Christ, the Jews, would have looked at the Samaritans. And so when Christ said a Samaritan had compassion, might as well said a dog, some lowly animal, so much lesser than you actually showed compassion. So what does that make of you?

Jesus goes on in verse 34, so he said and went to him and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan did pour in oil and wine, and he sent him on his own animal. So now not only did he give these things, but he's walking alongside on this path, letting the injured person be placed on the animal, took him to an inn and took care of him. I can't imagine what that night would have been like, right? You find someone at death's door, you're trying to help them, trying to care for them, not wondering if they're going to make it through the night. What else can I do?

And says on the next day, when he departed, he took out two Daenerys and gave them to the inn keeper and said to him, take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I come again, I'll repay you. I don't know what it's going to cost me at the end of the day, but if you take care of this man, this Samaritan, this person who's heard the Samaritan was caring for him, I'll make sure you're not lacking. I'll make sure you don't go negative.

I can only imagine the silence at this point in the crowd listening in the group.

You've got a lawyer. You would have had others that knew the law, knew the teaching, listening in.

Were they cut to the heart? I hope they were.

You can only imagine the silence in the room. Jesus says, so which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the threes? This lawyer who was like, tell me who my neighbor is so I can feel justified. Tell me who my neighbor is so I can feel good right now.

And the lawyer said in verse 37, he who showed mercy on him.

And then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.

This is not easy even for me to read through, right? Because there's been times I've found other people thankfully not beaten up and to a pulp on the side of a road. That's a whole other situation. But have I ever made pre-judgment decisions on someone's life?

That person's never going to be in the kingdom. That person's got a major problem going on. Boy, steer clear of that guy, right? Kind of like they did along the road. Steer clear, don't want to get dragged into his mess.

I mean, we've all seen someone who had need, maybe homeless, maybe poor. And I get we're not without unlimited resources. We can't fix the world. We can't empty our wallet every single time we see a situation. And there are certain situations where we shouldn't involve ourselves because the person is driving themselves off the cliff and they don't need us to give them some more money so they can buy more alcohol, more drugs, and drive off that cliff. But I'm talking about maybe someone who needs a meal. And I'm not talking about anybody in this room. Because we should do good to one another, right? That's the expectation, and we do. Talking about maybe somebody who's not here, somebody you come across. Have you ever seen the kid thrown in tantrum and Walmart and the mom is kind of almost dragging them down the aisle? I've looked at that, not looked at her directly because that would be just embarrassing. But I'm like, man, what is that mom doing? Without putting myself in her shoes, without recognizing the situation going on, without knowing what the home life is, not knowing what her income level is, not knowing the example she had growing up in her home, that she may have never even known how to raise a child. There's so many things.

We can make a snap judgment and deem someone unworthy of our mercy. I told you guys last time that board's hitting me across the forehead.

This is the strength to these Beatitudes. I hope you're walking along with me on this journey.

This is the strength of the Beatitudes that Christ gave. It's flipping the world upside down because we have a way that we kind of operate because of our own nature, our own selfishness, our own pride, and fill in the blank whatever that is for you and for me.

And Jesus says, you've got to go further. You've got to walk with me. You've got to seek after my righteousness. You've got to live with this heart of mercy that I live with towards you.

And so we don't help someone in their path of destruction, right? We know we can't do that.

And we know we have limited resources. We're not to become poor and beggars because we ourselves give away everything that God has given to us. But when he brings a situation across our path that someone needs our mercy—and remember, mercy isn't just compassion. It goes beyond that. It goes with action as well. Don't shut the door on that.

Consider if God has brought someone into your path that you can be a light to and that you can be a help.

They don't need our judgment.

They need this mercy. And we can't help and fix the entire world. I get it. I know that.

But maybe we can impact someone differently. Or when we see a child misbehaving, not assume the worst of that parent or that child or the situation, but recognize maybe in that moment the best thing you could do is just offer 30 seconds of a prayer for that mom.

Because what she needs in that moment when the kid's out of control is God, right? We've all been there. As a parent, there's been those moments we just needed God helping us to deal with our kids.

Sorry, Kels. It's just the truth. Put in your notes James 2 and verse 13. This is important. James 2 and verse 13. Actually, let's turn there. It's too important not to look at. There's so much more we could talk about this subject, as you know, and I hope that God is bringing to your memory a few scenarios in your life where you have helped others, and so he can say, keep that up. And I don't mean to drag us all down because we've all fallen short in this area. There's times where I wish now, looking back in hindsight, I might have done something different, or at least in my mind thought something different, right? Not cast judgment, but tried to be more understanding of situations people are in.

Notice James 2 and verse 13. Apostle James says, and this is important, For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment. Maybe make that a memory scripture. Maybe write it down and put it someplace in your house this week as you go through these holy days. For judgment is without mercy, and boy would we be in a heap of hurt to the one who has shown no mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

As we wrap up, much of what, again, Jesus taught when he was here on this earth, flipped the Jewish community upside down. It wasn't that anything he taught went against God's word or what was recorded in the Torah or under the Old Covenant. It wasn't that he went against what those instructions were, but his teaching challenged the listener, right? These beatitudes, they should challenge you and me today as much as any other passage in scripture. He challenged people to go further in their walk with God and he pressed them to look differently at the blessings that they hope to receive from God, because these are the blessings God wants us to receive. He wants us to be recipients of his mercy. That's how much he loves us, but he says, then you better extend this mercy to others, because if you don't, it doesn't bode well for you. Jesus knew that it was not his time to fix all the wrongs in the world, so he shared these lessons, these beatitudes, to enable the listener to take their relationship with God to the next level and to a place, and to place their hope in him as they kept their vision on the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, bless are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they, and the blessing is, shall be filled. And he said, bless are the merciful, and the blessing is, for they shall obtain mercy. Again, these are not blessings the average person would consider a blessing from God, but we're encouraged not to think as others think, but as God thinks. May we continue to consider these teachings, and may we continue to be blessed.