Summary: Jesus’ words just take the conventional wisdom and turn it on its head! "Happy are the poor and sad?" But let’s look closer - Is He right? *HANDOUT INCLUDED*

Mt 5:1 ¶ And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.

2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 ¶ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

12 "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The next several weeks, we’ll be looking at Jesus description of how to live your life to get along with God and others. Jesus, for the next few weeks, is going to be your Life Coach – he’s going to give you his tips, his commands for living a life that satisfies down here, and ends in heaven up there.

I’ve always loved coaches. They fascinate me. I don’t care for Bobby Knight, but Vince Lombardi, Phil Jackson, John Wooden and those guys fascinate me! A man who can take a bunch of players, and get them to play all together as a unit, and bring out the best in them – that’s neat.

I think all good coaches have one thing in common, and that’s what the great coach Vince Lombardi said. “The secret is that those guys out there playing know that they’ve only got one person they’ve got to make happy. They don’t have to make the crowd happy. They don’t have to make their teammates happy. They don’t have to make themselves happy. But they do have to play to make me happy.”

That’s what this life is like. Jesus is your coach – he’s the only one you’ve really got to make happy. Not you. . . not the rest of the world. . . just him.

The thing you’ll notice is that in the next few weeks, the life that we’re talking about is completely UPSIDE DOWN compared to the normal human life!

Jesus takes everything that you THOUGHT you knew about life, and turns it all upside down, and says, “Here’s how to REALLY live!”

Practical people know how to get what they want.

Philosophers know what they ought to want.

People who follow Jesus’ words know how to get what they ought to want.

Jesus opens his sermon with a series of statements that are commonly called the “Beatitudes.” I’m not sure why they’re called that – what they are is really statements of how to be truly happy by getting along with God and others.

Each one begins with the words “Blessed are. . .” The word used here is interesting.

The Greeks always called Cyprus he (GSN3588) makaria (GSN3107) (the feminine form of the adjective), which means The Happy Island, and they did so because they believed that Cyprus was so lovely, so rich, and so fertile an island that a man would never need to go beyond its coastline to find the perfectly happy life.

So Cyprus was to them what Hawaii, Tahiti, etc. is to us. And they used this word “Blessed” to describe it. They thought that it was so great that perfect happiness could be found there.

So THAT’S what this word blessed really means. “Perfectly happy is the person who. . .”

So let’s look at these ways that Jesus says we can make ourselves completely happy.

1. The world says: Happy is the self-made man.

The success stories in the business world, the entertainment world. . . the sports world. . . they are all about the person lifting himself up. We love to hear about the guys who started in the slums, and wound up at the top of their field.

But here’s the problem – It’s become popular to be a kind of self-made Christian. If you’re just a good person, and believe in God, then God ought to be proud of you. It’s kind of like “Well, God, here’s what I’ll give you – take it or leave it.”

A woman named Sheila, interviewed for Bellah’s Habits of the Heart, embodies this attitude. "I believe in God," she said. "I can’t remember the last time I went to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It’s ’Sheila-ism.’ Just my own little voice." (Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 98.)

The problem with this modern religion is allows anyone including the Devil to go to heaven. REALLY! James said it like this: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!” (James 2:19)

BUT JESUS SAYS: Happy is the man who realizes he can’t make it without God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . .”

In the Bible times, when this was written, there were two words for poor. There was one word that described the “working class”, which worked hard every day, and was paid just enough to buy food for themselves and their family. But that’s not the word that is used here. The word that Jesus chose here is a word that means “in complete poverty.” In other words, they don’t have anything – they’re “dirt poor.”

How does this apply to your life? Just this: You and I have to realize that we don’t have anything that we can offer God. The best we can do by ourselves isn’t good enough.

A popular term today is “accepting Christ”. (By the way, I don’t mind the term, because you do have to accept Him and his rulership in your life) – but really, being a Christian is coming to Christ and having him accept YOU!! The only way to do that is to admit that you don’t have anything good in your spirit that you can offer him.

This means realizing that I can’t be good enough to earn a place in heaven. Trying to be good enough without God leads only to despair.

The Mormon religion (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) teaches that if you are good enough, you can become a god. However, Utah, which is 75% Mormon, has the highest suicide rate in the country! You know why? Despair!

There are no self-made Christians. There are only God-made Christians!

This is completely upside down from what the world will tell you. But it’s what your coach is shouting from the sidelines. So remember, it doesn’t matter about the crowd. . . it doesn’t matter what you think. The only thing that matters is what the coach thinks.

By the way, the last half of this verse tells us what God gives you in return when you come to him admitting that you can’t do it yourself.

REWARD: Everything God has in this life and the next he will give to that person. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The kingdom of heaven is God’s rulership in your heart down here, and God’s eternal reward in heaven.

2. Happy is the man who follows his desires.

We get this message everywhere we turn.

From music:

- Frank Sinatra and Usher sang songs called, “My Way.”

- LeAnn Rimes sang, “It can’t be wrong, if it feels so right.”

From popular culture:

- If it feels good do it.

BUT JESUS SAYS: Happy is the man who is broken hearted for his sin. “Blessed are they that mourn. . .”

The word used here is not one of a little bit of sniffles, and it’s all over. It’s the same word used for grieving for a loved one that has died. We’re talking about serious sorrow here.

Christianity begins with a sense of sin. Blessed is the man who is intensely sorry for his sin, the man who is heart-broken for what his sin has done to God and to Jesus Christ, the man who sees the Cross and who is appalled by the havoc wrought by sin.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the great British writer, told of a day when he had traveled to India on business. He was out walking along the beach, and saw, in the distance, a woman swim out to a rock in the water, and sit on it. He said, “I decided in my heart that this was the day I was going to betray my wife, and commit adultery. I dove in and swam out to the rock. As my head broke above the waves right beside the rock, and I saw the woman, I was apalled to see that she was a leper. My immediate thought was ‘What a disgusting woman!’ Then the thought struck through my heart like a dagger: ‘What a disgusting heart!’”

We will not change until we see our sin not as unfortunate, but disgusting and awful.

Let me quote a guy who had done horrible things, and found God’s forgiveness. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-These, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

REWARD: That person will know the comfort of God’s forgiveness. “They shall be comforted.”

There’s nothing like knowing that God has forgiven you. Nothing.

The way to the joy of forgiveness is through the desperate sorrow of the broken heart.

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Jesus: Life Coach

Sermon #1: Happy are those who are poor and sad.Matthew 5:1 “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.

2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

12 "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What does it mean to be “blessed”?

The word was used to describe the island of Cyprus, because it was said a man could find perfect happiness there. (It was like Hawaii or Tahiti to them.)

So “blessed” really means. “Perfectly happy are those who. . .”

These statements of Jesus are a contrast of the way the world says to be happy, and the way Jesus is coaching us to be happy.

1. The world says: Happy is the ___________-_________ man.

BUT JESUS SAYS: Happy is the man who realizes he can’t make it without God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . .”

This means realizing that I can’t be __________ enough to earn a place in heaven. Trying to be good enough without God leads only to ______________.

The ________________ religion (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) teaches that if you are good enough, you can become a god. However, Utah, which is ________% Mormon, has the highest ________________ rate in the country.

There are no ______________-made Christians. There are only ___________-made Christians!

REWARD: Everything God has in this life and the next he will give to that person. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

2. The world says: Happy is the man who follows his ______________.

BUT JESUS SAYS: Happy is the man who is broken hearted for his ________. “Blessed are they that mourn. . .”

The word used is the word for ________________ for a loved one who has died.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-These, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

REWARD: That person will know the comfort of God’s __________________. “...for they shall be comforted.”