“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Jesus calls us into the life of the kingdom, an undivided heart that is committed to participating in God’s change for the world.

Guest speaker Steve Park, Executive Director and Founder of Little Lights Urban Ministries, shares his story and reflections on the Beatitudes, asking God to clean us in these tumultuous times.

In Jesus’ pronouncement, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” we discover a satisfaction that encompasses all of our lives when we hunger and thirst for the most important thing. Satisfaction and blessing aren’t to be sought after, but a result of craving for righteousness.

Mercy is at the core of God’s character. In God’s self-disclosure on Mt. Sinai, God leads with mercy (Ex. 34:1-8) and in his earthly ministry, Jesus showed mercy to all who asked for healing or forgiveness. Just as God shows mercy and compassion to us, God calls us to show mercy to one another. We are blessed when we show undeserved mercy because each time we do, we are reminded of God’s gift of mercy to us and we are acting in the way God created us to live.

“Everything that exists on earth is at my service: friends, enemies, success, adversity. All things, willing or not, must serve me. I do not think of them at all; I strive to be faithful to God and to love Him to the point of complete forgetfulness of self. And He Himself looks after me and fights against my enemies.” - Early 20th Century Polish nun and mystic, St Maria Faustina Kowalsa

Listen to last week’s sermon, “True Strength”, on the third beatitude, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”.

In a culture that celebrates self-confidence, self-assurance and self-expression as the greatest ideals, Jesus invites us to discover a different sort of greatness—that is, the greatness of God in our poverty of spirit. Or perhaps, it is through encountering the greatness of God that we realize the poverty of our spirits and experience the promised blessing.

Our new sermon series, The Beatitudes, begins today as we reflect on the pithy, yet profound disclosures of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Jesus announces that a new way of life is coming true in his ministry, one of joy and celebration, and we are invited to consider to what degree we are pressing into this new, richer life.

Our new sermon series, The Beatitudes, begins today as we reflect on the pithy, yet profound disclosures of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Jesus announces that a new way of life is coming true in his ministry, one of joy and celebration, and we are invited to consider to what degree we are pressing into this new, richer life.