Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
Kingdom Living: The Beatitudes Part 1
Jesus's Sermon on the Mount reveals a life-changing perspective on what it means to be truly blessed in God's kingdom, turning our conventional understanding upside down.
• The word "blessed" means being blessed even when living through circumstances others wouldn't consider blessed
• Entering the kingdom starts with spiritual bankruptcy—recognizing we cannot produce anything worthwhile in our lives through religious self-help
• Those who mourn receive comfort because Jesus provides both an answer to sin now and eternal hope
• We can experience both genuine mourning and deep joy simultaneously in this "now but not yet" kingdom
• God's blessings in our lives are never just for us—they overflow to impact everyone around us
• Reading Jesus's words isn't just about memorizing nice sayings but learning how to be people of God
• Kingdom blessings supersede temporary circumstances and can't be stolen, lost, or destroyed
If you're feeling poor in spirit today, if you're mourning, if you've failed, rejoice—you're in the perfect position to receive God's blessing. Accept it, expect it, walk in it, and grow in it.
When I was first started playing basketball. I played basketball a good bit in my life. It was not my favorite sport, it's just a sport I ended up playing the most, for whatever reason. But I started playing whenever I was in. I guess it must have been third or fourth grade, something like that fifth grade somewhere around there and it didn't take long for me to start grasping the basics right. You know, dribble, shoot, don't got to bounce all the basics and what happens is, if you keep playing, is you slowly. You know, the sport sort of grows a little bit with you. This goes for any sport or any hobby that you can do, but in particular for me.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking about basketball and over time, you know, basketball became a little bit different than the basketball I played when I first started playing. So by the time I was a junior in high school, the game I was playing was a lot more nuanced than the game I was playing as a fourth grader or fifth grader. Does that make sense? Okay, and the reality is that game. If I would have kept playing, I had no reason to keep playing, obviously. But yeah, you know we get it in here. But if I'd have kept playing in college. The game gets more complex, the pros it gets even more complex, and really the rules are the same, the ball is the same, the course is the same, the goals are the same height, but the game you watch an elementary team play and the game you watch an NBA team play is wildly different, but yet the same.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I say all of that because we're looking at a scripture or we're going into a scripture series that really I've preached on probably about seven or eight times, and the first time I preached it was back in 2011, 2012. And I've now preached this scripture several times since then, and the first time I preached it and the second time I preached it, they were the same but different. Okay, because that's the beauty of scripture you can get the general gist of a scripture, sometimes by reading it and talking about it, but the more you look and the more you connect it with something else, the more nuanced. And one day you're looking at a scripture and you might have this focus, this might stand out to you. Another day you're looking at a scripture and this word might jump out to you, and so every time I've preached this, it's been the same as I first preached it. The basics of what I first preached are there, but it grows and it's slightly different every single time.
Speaker 1:And we're looking in Matthew today. Matthew, starting Matthew, chapter five, it's it's the the great, not the great commission, but it's the sermon on the mount, sermon on the mount. In particular. We're looking at the beatitudes. Well, that's not the beatitudes, there's the beatitudes right there, right there. And uh, we're looking at that and I don't know. I just I don't know. I I like this.
Speaker 1:One of my, one of my first professors in college basically said if you ever don't know what to preach about, you know how? About you just read the words of jesus in Sermon on the Mount, because that's his first sermon In Matthew in particular. As we look at the book of Matthew, we have a pretty linear story. Right, we have his birth story, flees to Egypt, comes back from Egypt once Herod is dead. You have sort of John the Baptist and Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist and Jesus goes into the wilderness. He's tempted, he doesn't succumb to the temptation, he defeats the devil. Amen. See, that needs an amen Anytime. You just say that, I like that.
Speaker 1:And so you have this linear story and Jesus is growing in influence and power and Jesus starts preaching and he starts teaching and crowds start gathering around him. He starts finding disciples and gathering disciples around himself, and of course, that's where we find our scripture. Today we have the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and what's called the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, verses 1 through 11. Now you can throw it up there. Yeah, you got it. I like that.
Speaker 1:But let's read this, one of my favorite scriptures, because it's pretty simple and easy to follow along. Seeing the crowds, this is Jesus. He went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they. For so they persecuted the prophets who are before you.
Speaker 1:This is really the first recorded lesson teaching sermon that we have from jesus. He's been preaching and teaching before this, but this is the first time that it's written down. It's sort of a big collection of sort of what his mission statement and his thought process was about, what it meant to be people who were living in the kingdom of heaven, followers of God. And now he's in this place, he's got this large crowd, his disciples are near him and he's teaching them how to do life. There's a new way to do life, everybody. That's what he's proclaiming. You're following me, I'm here. It's going to be different now. This is going to mean something to you, and so this is fantastic.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, this ties directly into the Great Commission, because in one line of the Great Commission, it basically says teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Well, this is why he's commanding and, thankfully for us, matthew takes the time to write down. There's basically four big chunks of Jesus's commands. Matthew writes them all down so that we can actually look at them, read them and obey them. Obey them.
Speaker 1:There's a unfortunately, there's a lot of people, people in church settings nowadays. They sort of like the idea of Jesus, they sort of like the idea of church and scripture. They like feeling good about showing up. But there is something lost in translation sometimes about this obedience to my commands, because he does. It's not just sunshine and rainbows and happiness whenever you get salvation and grace in your life in Jesus. There's also this part where it says okay, I've given you this gift, obey what I'm telling you to do. Right, and sometimes people just don't do that because we want to do whatever we want to do and I understand, we read this and we'll read all of the Sermon on the Mount go ahead and tell you there is some exceptionally challenging things in here, very challenging. We'll talk about that briefly in a second.
Speaker 1:Also, before we dive into the specifics of what we just read, we've got to understand that almost always Jesus is talking to different groups and sometimes talking to those different groups at the same time. Here we have three different groups sort of represented. We've got the disciples right followers of Jesus, they believe, they're locked in. They are good to go, they're learning. Then we've got the crowd, and in the crowd we've got people who are just sort of there to be entertained. Maybe they're curious about this Jesus person. They've heard about the miracles. They see the crowd. What's going on? I'm going to go see.
Speaker 1:And then in this crowd you also have sort of religious leaders. You've got the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and what Jesus does very often is, as he is addressing one group in particular, he's addressing the disciples. Here he's teaching the disciples here. He's teaching the disciples but the crowd is listening. So he's teaching one group but he's also addressing the crowd. He's also talking to the pharisees while he is trying to teach the disciples what to do. It's a very unique thing. He's a very skilled communicator. On a technical level it's difficult to do this right.
Speaker 1:That's what's happening, and so, as we this, we've got to understand that these instructions that he is giving, these commands that he is giving, this life that he is describing that's available to people in the kingdom of God, is for people who are bought in. He's talking directly to people who already believe. Does that make sense? He's not just. I know the crowd's there and partially he's talking to them, but primarily he's talking to people who are already part of the kingdom of God and he is saying this is what life is like now that you follow me Now, along the way there's invitations for the crowd to join in Along the way. He's talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees and addressing their religion and their sort of false hope and their own laws and stuff like that. But he's talking to disciples and that matters because, as I've already said, what we just read and what we will read throughout all the rest of this, it's a challenge, it's tough.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you it is not easy to live up to this on your own. And if you try to live up to on your own, if you try to come to this from the perspective of an outsider of the crowd, of a Pharisee, you're going to get it wrong. You can't do it. You have to have Jesus at the center of your life in order for this to matter in your life. You've got to have his grace to cover your sins. You've got to have his mercy to keep covering your sins. You've got to have the Holy Spirit at work in your life, building you up into who God needs you to be. Without that, without being a disciple, a believer, having that connection, you're going to miss this because you cannot do on your own. Matter of fact, that's one of the reasons why he preaches this, and where he preaches this is because he's trying to get people to understand and recognize they need help. They can't do it on their own, can't do it on their own.
Speaker 1:I believe fairly certain that I'm preaching to people who already believe, which is the good news. So you can take these instructions and don't be discouraged. Don't beat yourself up because you're not at this level yet or whatever. Be encouraged that you're invited to this type of life and Jesus wants to give you the tools necessary and has given you the tools necessary to live like this. It's great news. So, no matter where you are in your relationship with God, don't be discouraged whenever you compare yourself to the words that you're reading. Be encouraged that you are invited to this life and that it is possible. No matter what you're struggling with right now, no matter what attitude that you have in your life right now that doesn't belong in the kingdom of God, you have the opportunity and the chance to get rid of it and be different tomorrow and the next day. I've watched a lot of people. They get saved and they get frustrated because their life isn't changing immediately. Right? Sometimes there's certain things that take time. Some things go away immediately, some things don't. I don't know why, but the good news is Jesus is there. You've got grace, you've got mercy, you've got the Holy Spirit. Be encouraged, be encouraged.
Speaker 1:Now let's get to the meat of this. We don't have time to look at all of the verses. We'll talk about some today, some next week and then we'll keep on going from there. But this blessed word, blessed, blessed are those blessed, are those blessed, whatever it comes from a word makarios, makarios it's a Greek word and it's translated as our common English blessed, okay, but it's more than just blessings like we think of it sometimes. Okay, it's not just stuff, it's not just good things, it's not just good feelings, it's not just you know, happy and all this stuff. The word really means is this perspective that you are blessed, even whenever you are living through things that other people wouldn't consider being blessed. That's why this word it's a deeper blessing. It's a deeper blessing. It's more than just a good time. It's more than just being able to buy a brand new car. It's more than that mess. It's something deeper than that, that supersedes reality. Because here's the reality, and we all know this as Christians, we can live through some mess, we can live through some problems, we can be going through some things that we don't want to go through, that the world will certainly look at and say that's not blessed. But we know. But we know because of God, we're still blessed Somehow, someway. We are still blessed, even when we are walking through the literal gates of hell. Okay, we're blessed, blessed.
Speaker 1:Being blessed in the kingdom of God is deeper than the surface level stuff that we easily associate with blessings and happiness. That's what we're talking about here. So when we say the blessed are the poor in spirit, I'm not just saying you got a good bank account even though you're poor, like that's not what I'm saying. It's deeper than that, deeper than that Blessed are the poor in spirit. It says the poor are those who are living through unfortunate circumstances financially, from an economic point of view, like we know that that's what it means to be poor. But we're not just talking about that here. We're talking about that plus persons who spiritually or emotionally, are oppressed and disillusioned with their own life and they recognize they can't do it on their own and they need God. The poor in spirit covers a lot of different brokenness and lack that we can have in our life. Don't raise your hand, but you can probably think of a season in your life whenever you were poor in spirit. A lot of different meanings for that. A lot of different meanings. It covers a whole lot.
Speaker 1:There are people who they're normal on multiple levels physical, spiritual, financial that they recognize they don't have what it takes, they don't have the resources to make their lives anything. There are people who recognize very early on I'm a bad person. I keep making the same mistake over and over again. They are spiritually poor. What we're really talking about is those who recognize they cannot produce spiritually or through religious self-help anything worthwhile in their life. They're spiritually bankrupt.
Speaker 1:We get a sense of this in Psalms, chapter 40, and it says yet I am poor and needy. May the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Oh my God, do not delay. It's at the bottom of the barrel of our life spiritually, emotionally, financially. That creates a humility and that humility, as we experience it in the harsh realities of life, makes us open to the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. You can want the kingdom of heaven, but if you think you're going to get there on your own, you're not going to get there. But if you know you can't get there on your own, well then you're on the right track. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. They're interchangeable. Right, it belongs to those who recognize they have no resources. Right, that's the starting point for the kingdom of heaven. They're materially and spiritually poor. They can't help themselves.
Speaker 1:These are the poor that Jesus says that he is coming to proclaim the good news to. When he's quoting Isaiah 61 later in Matthew in the book of Luke, he basically says I'm coming here to proclaim the good news to the poor, to the captives, to the broken. That's who he's talking to. He came for the hurting and broken. And you might think well, I'm not hurt and broke. Well, he's also talking to you because, whether you recognize it or not, all have fallen short of the glory of God. So we're all broken. We're all broken. So he has come to proclaim the good news to our brokenness that you are now, because you are broken, have an opportunity to the blessing, to the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:This first beatitude here sort of undercuts the predominant worldview that Jesus was dealing with in his time, and it's also a worldview that we have today. And the worldview basically says, if we're not careful that a person who is super wealthy, who has everything going on for them, someone who maybe is spiritually secure in themselves or religiously secure in themselves, that they are approved by God, that they are truly blessed, instead, jesus sort of flips this on its head and says the norm for the kingdom of heaven doesn't start with blessings, it starts with bankruptcy. That's where the entry point is to the kingdom of heaven. It's bankruptcy. It's recognizing you are nothing. It's recognizing you do not have the answers. It's recognizing that you can't do what you want to do on your own. You will never be good enough on your own, and so you are bankrupt spiritually, which means you are open to somebody helping you, and that help is Jesus Christ. Amen. It's different. It's different the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They thought they had it all under control and Jesus was sitting there teaching them. You've got it wrong. Even though you think you're following all the rules, you're still broken. You still need help. But those who recognize they need help get the help. Recognize that you need help, get the help. You're not good enough on your own.
Speaker 1:Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who mourn, those who lack right, those who are poor, those who are missing stuff, important things in their life. Those who lose important things in their life will probably experience some type of mourning and sorrow in their life, whether it's losing some sort of financial blessing, or losing a loved one, or losing your health, or losing your status in society, or basically realizing and losing that, spiritually speaking, that you're not it right. That's going to produce mourning in your life. In particular, the psalmist says streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. When we reach a point, when we recognize that, ok, god has created life and he's designed life, and he's designed it in such a way that requires me to live up to a certain standard and I can't live up to that standard on my own that's where the streams start flowing from my eyes.
Speaker 1:When I recognize that it's emotional. It's emotional, it's mourning those who are self-satisfied, those who are self-reliant. They are tempted to rejoice in themselves and in their own accomplishments. We all know people who are super successful. Accomplishments right. We all know people who are super successful, and a lot of times what we see not every time, but sometimes we see that when they're looking at other people's lives and the failures and the troubles of other people's lives, they don't understand because they think in their head they made all their blessings themselves. They're self-reliant, and the temptation is that they're not going to recognize they need help. Now, not always there are plenty of wealthy and hardworking and blessed people who avoid this temptation, but that is the temptation.
Speaker 1:But those who have reached the bottom of the barrel whether it's spiritual, physical, emotional, financial, those who see the bankruptcy of their own lives, the bankruptcy around them, they're going to mourn. There's going to be some sadness involved in that. They're going to ask questions how is this happening? Why is this happening? How can this happen? How can I get out of this? How can I fix this problem?
Speaker 1:Mourning is this emotional response to life that opens us up to maybe something else out there, helping us get over our mourning. Right, have you ever been so sad? You didn't see a way through? Don't raise your hand. You've had those moments where you're I don't know how I'm going to get through that. How am I going to get to the other side. I can't fix this problem. I can't fix that. This person that I love has cancer. I can't fix this financial situation right now and I am in mourning over this loss, over this problem. I can't fix it. So what do I got to do? Well, the kingdom of God. And Jesus says I'm going to give you comfort, I'm going to give you comfort for they will be comforted. It doesn't say for they will comfort themselves. It doesn't say for they will make it through. It doesn't say they're going to survive and you can do it. Jesus says they're going to be comforted, I'm going to provide them comfort, comfort, comfort for my people.
Speaker 1:Jesus, or God, says in Isaiah the arrival of the kingdom of heaven in Jesus' ministry. Jesus shows up. Jesus shows up in Judea. He shows up to all of these Jewish people who for centuries have been hanging on to the promises that one day a savior was going to show up and help them take care of their sins, but also just give them hope for a future. And Jesus shows up and he says this is the moment, this is what's happening right now. All that hope built in the Old Testament is finding its fulfillment in me. Right now, you have hope, you have salvation, you have freedom, you have liberty. That's what Jesus is declaring to the people and it's why he declares to us today you don't have to stay more in mourning because you have an answer to the sin problem in your life.
Speaker 1:That's good news. You should be celebrating right now, at least in your head, like be, be I don't know, blowing those little birthday things, whatever. Like your sins are taken care of. Every bad thing you've ever done, every bad thing you've ever thought about, every bad thing you will ever do, has an answer in the blood of Jesus. Do you understand how significant that is? Do you understand that you don't have to live in shame? Do you understand that you don't have to stay stuck in a bad habit? Do you understand that you don't have to stay stuck in a bad habit? Do you understand that you don't have to keep living with this self-doubt? Jesus has done the work for you. That's fantastic news. No wonder he says we will be comforted, because that is life-changing, life-altering.
Speaker 1:And that's only part one. That's only part one of the good news, because there's a second part of this, because Jesus doesn't show up just for right now, for our right now sins. What Jesus does is he shows up for our eternity hope. We're not just happy right now, we're going to be happy forever. Matter of fact, in Revelations it says we're going to gather around Jesus, gather around the Lamb. It says, and it says God will wipe away every single tear from our eyes. Every tear, every reason to be sad, every reason, every reason that you've ever had to mourn and to have sorrow, everything, all of it, every single, every tear is gone in Jesus Christ in eternity. So not only is your sin taken care of now, your eternity is taken care of.
Speaker 1:No wonder we don't have to mourn anymore. No wonder we can have joy. No wonder and listen, we're going to mourn, we're going to mourn, we're going to respond to that, to life situations. That doesn't mean we don't have joy. By the way, right, it's a weird thing, and I only know this by experience it's a weird thing to be at a funeral of someone you love and to be mourning, but to have joy right, because right now, what we are doing, we're sort of living in a right now but not yet kingdom of heaven. He has come and he has initiated the kingdom of heaven. He has come and he has started this process. But we're not all the way there yet, and so we're still gonna respond to the troubles of life. We're still gonna have to deal with stuff. We're still gonna be moved emotionally by things that we are going through, but we have joy in the process.
Speaker 1:We weep with those who weep and we rejoice with those who rejoice, as Romans tells us. But our mourning doesn't turn into the type of hopeless grief that others have without Jesus, that Thessalonians tells us about. We mourn oppression and persecution because that's a horrible thing. We mourn that. We mourn whenever we fail on a personal level and we sin. We mourn that. We mourn whenever we look out into the world and there is evil in the society. We mourn that because God mourns that. Okay, just because we're mourning doesn't mean that we're living in sin. We mourn that. But as we mourn, as we work through this life, when that joy shows up in our life, whenever he turns our mourning into dancing right, it's a sign of his glory. It's a sign for his kingdom that others can see.
Speaker 1:When he shows up for you in your problem and in your pain, he's probably showing off for others to see. You see, it's never just about yourself. A miracle is never just about you. His grace and mercy is not just about you. It's never that. It's always bigger than you. Now it involves you and that's great news. But when God shows up in your life, he's not just showing up for you. He's showing up for your children. When God shows up in your life, he's not just showing up for you. He's showing up for your coworkers. He's showing up for your friends. He's showing up for the person next to you in the movie theater. He's showing up for the person next to you in line at the grocery store. When God shows up and he blesses you, the mourner, with comfort, other people will see that and know I need what that person has.
Speaker 1:You know there's brokenness out there. You know it. You know there's hurting out there. We got all kinds of people freaked out about a thousand different things. We walk out of these doors. It doesn't matter if you're liberal or conservative. People are struggling, people are hurting, people are afraid. There are people here who probably have zero understanding of the hope that's available in Jesus and they're out there trying to figure out on their own. And no wonder they can't figure it out. Get out there and be people of the kingdom of heaven. Be people of the kingdom of God so that in your poorness, the Lord shows up for you. In your mourning, the Lord shows up and comforts you, and people will see it and know. The knowledge that our sins are taken care of, the knowledge that we have liberty, the knowledge that our sins are taken care of, the knowledge that we have liberty, the knowledge that we have freedom, the knowledge that we have an astounding eternity waiting for us, carries us through the problems of life. It's a great experience for us, but it's an experience that others have to see as well in us. I'm almost finished.
Speaker 1:Like I said, we don't have time to keep going through all the verses right now. But listen, jesus is not just giving us some nice little, I don't know, easy to remember phrases. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there's the kingdom of heaven. Easy to remember Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. He's not just giving us stuff to remember. He's teaching us how to be people of God. That's what this is. Right? You want to be more like God. You want to be a good Christian, right? Don't go to another YouTube channel. Don't listen to another pastor, don't do anything else. Get into the Word of God, read His Word and say God, help me. It's that easy, it's not hard.
Speaker 1:We make it difficult because we're stubborn. We make it difficult because there's a thousand distractions. We make it difficult because we're stubborn. We make it difficult because there's a thousand distractions. We make it difficult because we want to do things our own way. We don't want to give this up. We don't want to give that up. I like this too much. So maybe God doesn't really mean that, or God couldn't mean that, because that would make me so sad if I had to do this and do that. No, no, no, no, no. Teach them all I have commanded you. Here are his commands, not just little pithy sayings. This is astounding, astounding.
Speaker 1:If you've ever felt poor, if you've ever felt less than if you've ever mourned, if you've ever been in a position where you've been humbled, if you've ever had really important things or people taken away from you, if you've ever failed, if you've ever had really important things or people taken away from you, if you've ever failed, if you've ever not lived up to your own expectations, if you've ever not lived up to somebody else's expectations, you are in a good position to be blessed, blessed. Blessed despite the negative doctor report. Blessed despite the fact that your bank account looks the way it looks. Blessed despite the fact that your bank account looks the way it looks. Blessed despite the fact that everything is going wrong in your family. Blessed despite the fact that your foot hurts. Blessed despite the fact that your arm falls asleep at night and it wakes you up. You're blessed. You're blessed. It supersedes all the stuff that we think of as blessed. It just does. It just does. It just does.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, at some point in your life you are in a position of humility that makes you ready for the work of God in your life. You cannot do it on your own. You can't. You can think you work hard, you can think that you can be disciplined enough, but it all starts with bankruptcy first. It all starts with a place of mourning. It all starts with a place of mourning. It all starts with a recognition that I don't have it. I don't have it. I'm going to tell you, even as a pastor, I've been saved since I was like six years old at a VBS. I got saved at a VBS at six years old. Okay, I'm going to tell you, there are days I still don't got it and there are days where I severely am. I'm just humbled. I'm humbled and I remember that bankruptcy.
Speaker 1:Once again, it takes God. It's a blessing that supersedes our reality. It's a blessing that bubbles over to our family. It's a blessing that bubbles over to our friends. It's a blessing that supersedes our reality. It's a blessing that bubbles over to our family. It's a blessing that bubbles over to our friends. It's a blessing that bubbles over at the park. It's a blessing that bubbles over everywhere we step.
Speaker 1:Are you walking in the blessings of God? Are you walking in the blessings of God? I'm not saying are you walking in a brand new car? I'm not saying are you walking with a private jet? I'm saying are you walking in a brand new car? I'm not saying are you walking with a private jet. I'm saying are you walking with the blessings of God in a way that actually makes a difference? There are plenty of rich people who aren't saved. Not a lot of happy, poor people, but when you see one, you take notice. Be blessed today. Be blessed today. Accept the blessings of god. Accept them, expect it, walk in it, grow in it, but also know it might look a little different than what you expected. And that's okay, because god will use that, because ultimately it's all about the kingdom of heaven. That's it. That's it. I think we get'm almost done. I'll finish with this.
Speaker 1:But it is so easy to get distracted in life about what really matters, and you can even get distracted by good things, godly things. You can be distracted by your own kids. You can be distracted by your spouse. You can be distracted by a good job. You can be distracted by a good hobby. You can be distracted by hiking it doesn't matter. A good job, you can be distracted by a good hobby. You can be distracted by hiking or whatever, it doesn't matter. You can get distracted and your vision about what is matter and the point that you're aiming at in your life can get so disoriented that we forget that it's all about the kingdom of heaven. It's all about getting people in here, it's all about getting people to heaven, and whenever that is your goal, when that is your target, it really helps cut the mess out of your life.
Speaker 1:Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you, we thank you. I gotta pray right now that we would just have humility and recognize in our hearts and minds that we need you more than anything. Help us, lord, lord, in our hearts and minds that we need you more than anything. Help us, lord, lord, in our weakness, in our doubt, in our fear. Help us, lord, in our sorrow. I pray that you would comfort us and, through that entire process, let us be blessed in a way that no one can take away, that can't rust away, that can't be broken, that can't be stolen, that can't be lost in a stock market crash, that can't be broken, that can't be stolen, that can't be lost in a stock market crash, that can't be lost in a fire, that can't be lost in a hurricane or tornado. Lord, let us be blessed in a way that is secure and safe for eternity. Lord, and help us, lord, to share these blessings with those around us, to be lights. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.