A Blessed Attitude - A Brief Look Into The Beatitudes

A BLESSED ATTITUDE

”A Brief Look into the Beatitudes”

TEXT - Matthew 5:1-12

The principles Jesus is teaching in the text are commonly referred to as the “Beatitudes” because the word “blessed” at the beginning of each verse is translated from the Latin word “Beati” and because this should be our attitude. My objective over the next two weeks is not necessarily to go too deep into the Greek but to confront what we so often try to avoid in the English. The text teaches us what it means to be truly blessed. The chapter starts off with the saying “And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him”. We learned in the last series that Jesus calls us up to show us something about Himself and calls us apart to take us apart and show us something about ourselves. Jesus took the disciples up and apart after the saying “And seeing the multitudes”. As a good bible student, I know that if a chapter starts with “and, but, wherefore, or therefore” I have to go to the previous chapter to see what the “and, but, wherefore, or therefore” is there for. From chapter four, we can see what Jesus saw about the multitudes. He saw the multitudes as people that followed Him for what He could do for them. Most church people think being bless is receiving the blessings of God. Jesus is teaching us in Matthew 5 that in order to be blessed we must be the blessing. The issue is never whether or not God can get a blessing to us. The issue is always whether or not God can get a blessing through us. What are you willing to sacrifice for God? The word blessed means to be happy, fortunate, or to be envied. The only real happy people are helpful people. The only real blessed people are people who are willing to be a blessing and a conduit. The only real blessed people are people who are not looking for a window of heaven to open above them for God to pour a blessing out of it but are willing to be open windows of heaven for God to open them up and pour them out. The reason God has given us power in our hands to get wealth is so He can establish His covenant upon the earth. The reason we receive God’s blessings to be a blessing. Let’s look at Matthew 5:3-12 to see what we need to be blessed and to be a blessing.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

A. To be poor in spirit means to recognize and realize everything I have and nothing I have is enough without God. In other words, blessed people know its not all about them. Its all about Him! Therefore my being blessed is bigger than what God gives to me. Its about what God can give through me.

B. The kingdom of heaven is a storage place. In the beginning, God create the heaven and the earth and all the host thereof and on the seventh day He rest from all His work. Therefore God has made everything He is going to make and if it is not in the earth it is stored in heaven. When we recognize and realize that we are nothing without God, He then gives us access to everything He has stored for us in heaven! Once I recognize and realize that being blessed is not about what God can give to me but what God can give through me, then He can give me anything and everything! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

A. To be blessed and be a blessing, I have to have the capacity to be moved with compassion by someone else’s situation and circumstance. The way most people cope with the problems they see around them is to become callous and cold in an attempt avoid the pain. In order to be bless and be a blessing, we have be able to feel something because if we feel nothing, we will do nothing! Because Jesus has given unto us the keys to the kingdom of heaven for us to gain access to what we need on earth which is stored in heaven, until we are moved by compassion to do something, God will do nothing. He has already done His part! Until we are moved by compassion to do something, nothing will ever change. But if we are moved by compassion, God is moved by our faith and we will be comforted because situations will change. We can either let the problems around us change us or we can be moved by compassion to change them.