It's easy to come up with a brand of faith that doesn't make strong demands on people. It's easy to preach things that help people to leave church feeling good. But the problem with that is that to do so you have to ignore what God says and replace it with man-made lies. The beatitudes -or blessings- which begin this great Sermon of Sermons are simultaneously both the description of a Christian and the goals of discipleship. It is appropriate to hold this teaching up to our lives and make a comparison.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-

The first four beatitudes obviously have to do with a person's response to God.--That's the first four beatitudes. Beginning with this one, we see those previous inner qualities as they are expressed outwardly in the presence of other people. To introduce this beatitude, I want you to see a universal principle built into the world of men by God from the beginning.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-

The fourth beatitude is regarded as the final of a package of four attitudes toward God which He promises to bless. When we turn to the fifth beatitude we'll see a change. Instead of the response of the saved person to God, we begin to see the results of being saved in terms of how redeemed people treat others.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-

The fourth beatitude is regarded as the final of a package of four attitudes toward God which He promises to bless. When we turn to the fifth beatitude we'll see a change. Instead of the response of the saved person to God, we begin to see the results of being saved in terms of how redeemed people treat others.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-

The Pharisees dominated the training of rabbis and held nearly total control over what was taught week by week in the synagogues. If you asked anyone in the crowd who was the most spiritually mature, they would direct you toward the nearest Pharisee. They wanted a king who would validate them for their zeal to show how righteous they were by keeping minutia of spiritual rules and regulations they came up with. The Pharisees and what they taught were the primary targets of this sermon. It was a bombshell to this crowd when Jesus stated the theme of this entire sermon.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-

We learned last week that this passage -The Beatitudes- is all at once the definition of a Christian, the blueprint of God's plan for shaping your character, and the outline of the attitudes required for entrance into Heaven. This one describes the kind of mourner who is blessed by God.--1 - who is blessed--2 - what does the blessing include-