I like to look everyone back to spiritual impact. I'm an associate pastor Steve Rose and I'm here with my pastor, Jim Parton. And again, this is our time to sit around the table and talk to our friends about the Word of God. And I love it in the Word.
It says that when we sit around and talk about the Lord, he says, we will be put into a book of remembrance. We sit around and talk about him out the book of Malachi. And I tell you, this is precious time to spend with our friends out there. I don't know, I thank them for their support of this ministry through your prayers and financial sports.
And I tell you, praise God, Hallelujah. They share in these blessings and I tell you we're blessings together. It is, it's exciting to be part of God's family. The great God of glory, the Creator of the universe, I just constantly am in awe of his goodness and what he does.
I was asking one day, just praying, I said, Father, who is I and what was I that you would do all this for? And he spoke in my spirit, your mind, you know what? It's good to be, long to Jesus. It's good to be, to God's family and his Word and all the things that his Word says that we can be, that we can have.
Our life consists not in the abundance of things that we possess, but I tell you what, we are rich, Pastor Steve, yes we are. We are rich when we have God's Word, we have him dwelling on the inside of our heart, we have the precious Holy Spirit to guide us, direct us. It's the times when we fail to heed the warnings. And you'll always, God will always warn you before you step out and make a mistake.
And that's the good thing. He's always looking out for us to pay attention. Let's listen, let's watch, let's pray. He's soon coming back.
And that's, if anything we want to get across the people, this whole world's winding up. We're not going to live here forever, but you're going to spend eternity forever. And Jesus has made the way that you can spend it with him. So that's your choice.
But you know, Pastor Steve, when Jesus first comes on the scene and people begin to hear other things that he was doing, the Bible says that his fame began to spread. Good news travels fast, and sometimes bad news travels fast too. You get something started and you'll be amazed at how fast bad news can travel. But the enemy does.
The enemy always tries to counteract what God is doing, but you know what? He just can't get it done. He can't get it done. But we're going to be reading today in the fifth chapter of Matthew's, and this is the Beatitudes.
We call this powerful sermon of blessings. Sometimes blessings come different than what we're expecting. I have come to realize in my Christian life, Pastor Steve, that sometimes Father will say no, not because he doesn't want to bless us. He's actually keeping us from harm, because what we're asking for, we don't know the results that will follow that next week, next month, a year from now.
And there's a lot of times when he's told me no, that I look back later and I'm thinking, God thank you for not answering that prayer. Somebody asked me one time and said, I prayed and God just didn't hear my prayer. And I said, God hears all our prayers, but when we're praying out of his will, then he's not going to give us something that will cause us harm. But begin reading here in the first verse, but right before that in chapter 4, I want to read starting at verse 23, and says, Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
And healing all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease among the people. Then his fame went out throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments. And those who were demon possessed, epileptics and paralysts, and he healed them. The great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from the capitalists, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan.
So he's doing all this, he's famous, spreading, they're bringing all the sick people, demon possessed, people that have issues of the body, people that have issues of the mind, constantly multitudes coming from everywhere, because Jesus was different than anybody that had ever walked the earth. And that's something we look at too, you know, at one point, you know, when he'd fed the multitudes of the bread, they followed him across the sea. And he said, you follow me not because of who he was, but because of the miracles that you've seen. And see, when he was talking about, you know, what makes us rich today, I always told people it's not what I possessed, that makes me rich, but who I know.
And say, that's it, we're a child of the king, our relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. But this is a powerful sermon that Jesus gives. And he says here, and seeing the multitudes, and so we're probably talking thousands and thousands of people here.
He went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him, then he opened his mouth and taught them saying, I want to stop right there from when Jesus is speaking, it's a good time for us to be listening. That's when we read his word. And here though, I am trying hard just because we're all busy, finding, making time, actually getting up a little bit earlier in the morning, so that the first thing I can do is spend time in God's word so that I can hear from God. I can listen as he is speaking to me because the nuggets that he gives us, and sometimes we may not always understand everything at first.
But you know what, when we continue to keep searching, we continue to keep listening, we continue to keep seeking like these multitudes were. Everybody wants and needs something, but we have to realize what it is that we truly need, and that's Jesus in our life. But he tells them here, and this is a series of what we'll call things that he says that we're blessed in. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now, we can look into what exactly is being poor in spirit that simply humbled us, I believe. And you know, it also knows that we can't save ourselves. Because when you look at that next verse, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Those are not necessarily people mourning just because they're in something bad.
They're mourning over their spiritual state. It's something that when we have the word of God preach to us, the word of God brings convicting power. And it should bring convicting power because I've had people come up and say, well, you know, you stepped all over my toes today, but you know, I didn't notice them on the altar. All right, coming up to Jesus when he's dealing with them, but blessed are those that mourn.
How would you say that? Oh, you're mourning blessed are you. But that's what he's saying here is blessed are those because they understand where they're at in their spirit. Yeah, well, in mourning, there's a weeping process.
There's a broken process there. You know, it's not always because somebody died. I mean, we realize and know that the pains of life that we all face, that we all endure, that when we get overwhelmed and that we can take those to Jesus, we can sense in our spirit that we need help. We need God's intervention and things that were going on in our life.
And we are blessed because not only do we realize this, but it's the Holy Spirit's guidance that is taking us in the right direction. And sometimes a vessel that has not been made correctly needs to be kind of broken so that the master potter can put it back together. So I think, you know, hurting and the humbleness and things like that, when we are spirit senses that we need God in our life, that we need His help, we need His guidance, we need His deliverance, those are blessings that money can't buy. And see, when you're talking about that, you're talking about it in context.
A lot of times, a lot of people get scripture out of context on what it means, but when you're looking at that, blessed are they that mourn you had it can mean that times are sorrow. But you know, there's a lot of people that's in the world at mourn. And you know what they don't have? They don't have the help of the Holy Spirit because they haven't put their faith in trust and Christ.
I've been through things in my lifetime, you know, break your heart. But you know, through all these things, even when the shocking times come, there seem like there's still that small voice going. Everything's going to be okay. And that's the witness of the Holy Spirit.
And that's more blessed are they's that mourn when they have the spiritual knowledge to know and understand they can't do this by themselves. You know, also here, blessed are those who mourn before they shall be comforted. And I was reading a thing here I've got that says, the Greek word when comfort, when it's translated, is used to describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Is he not called the comforter?
Yes, he is. So in sadness, the Holy Spirit moves us to joy for the joy of the Lord is our strength. And when we mourn, we will be comforted. That's it.
Hallelujah. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Meek does not mean weakness. No, it does not.
Come on. Moses in his spirit had that meekness. Jesus Christ had that meekness in spirit. But Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.
There's nothing weak in that at all. And you know, when you look at that meekness too, because one of the things you see is submission. A lot of times we talk about being a submission to the Lord, wise being a submission to the husband. And they think that's weakness.
That is not weakness. That is power according to the Word of God. Power under control. I was actually there.
That's what it is. And it's a really powerful thing. And people go, well, it makes a mess. They think it's weakness.
And when you apply it spiritually, it's not weakness. It is power. It's a source of power. Power under control comes when we submit ourselves to the authority of God, then we are placing his will above ours.
And when we are seeking his will, then it becomes an open channel. All the blessings can be poured into us. Because if we are trying to hold on to our will and not letting go, first off, we don't have any power then. The meekness in spirit comes through the power of God.
And the control belongs to him. The authority belongs to him. We have to realize the part we play and give over to the part that God and His Holy Spirit plays within our heart and life. We are not our own.
We have been brought with the price. A lot of times people want to serve God on their own terms. They want to use the gifts that He has given them. How they want to use them.
I use an example, when I was a teenager, my mother felt God impress her to put something in my hands before the devil did. And her and dad bought me a guitar. I was tickled to death and I started learning to play, started writing songs and everything. But something my mother told me I never forgot.
And I knew that my mother had enough faith and trust in God that she had a way what God had told her to do. But she put some fear in me. She said, Timmy, if you ever use that gift that God has given you to praise the devil, I pray God takes it away immediately. And every time I'd start to do something, that would haunt me.
My mother's voice would come back in my mind because I knew that's not Tim's gift. That gift is not for Tim to be, well, look at him. Listen to that's the glorified God with. I tell you bring him back to Scripture right there, train the child in the way she goes and we grow, she'll not depart from it.
Right there's talking about that training. No, that doesn't mean I didn't ever stumble and follow. But the words of my mom would echo in my mind. I would get back to the right path quickly.
But they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. We're not a good promise there. Absolutely.
But they need to understand too that it's God's righteousness. Self-righteousness. Because when we look at that reminds me of Mark chapter 8 verse 15, Lord says, take in, the living of the Pharisees, you've got to have more than what they have because they're living which means the yeast with self-righteousness. Self-righteousness will get you to heaven.
You're going to stop at the rotsions of God. And it's good that there's no lack in that. When you come to that whale and to that water, there's no lack. There is no lack in the storehouses of God.
I remember as a child, and I do not remember the man's name, but I remember people talking about how humble that this man was and how much that he loved God. And it was to the point that when he went to the sink, they didn't have bottled water back in those days. He went to the sink or to the whale to get your water. But when he would turn on the spigot and get a glass of water, he would begin to worship God and be thankful for that glass of water.
Wouldn't it be great if us in the church world would get to the point that we just are constantly worshiping and thanking God for everything that he does. A lot of people don't even think about a glass of water, but this man, they said he would just worship God immediately when he would fill that cup full of water. I see when you think about staying that state of prayer, this is always praying without ceasing. I believe that's what that's talking about too.
He's left there and he's praying, thanking God. He's praising all the same time and worship. And there's so many things we don't see through the day. I mean, the ability to get up out of bed and go places, the ability to be able to read.
I mean, all these things, these are gifts from God and we take things for granted because we see them every day. Well, in the natural, when we're hungry, what do we do? We find something to eat for the natural body because when you're hungry, that's the natural thing. You're going to remain hungry until you feel that.
It's the same thing with the Word of God. When you're hungry for the Word of God, until you begin to absorb that. When you begin to eat that, you can't feel that emptiness until you start feeling it with what's your hungry for. You're going to be dealing with thirsting after the righteousness.
If I'm thirsty, I get a glass of water or a glass of milk or cup of coffee or whatever you like there. But you have to not only get that, but you have to turn it up and drink it to put that in our body. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will well up in us wells of living water. So when we're hungry and we're thirsty and the natural, we take the steps to fix that.
We know what we need to do. Same thing with when we get hungry enough after God, when we get thirsty enough after His we're going to start pulling back some things that are really insignificant. As I get older pastor's Steve, I begin to realize more and more what really needs paid attention to and what just let it go. And you really do.
I think it's called wisdom. It's got to be hope. Because some of the things that we see there, I noticed that too, there's some things that just used to matter to me now or the end that they do now because you look at it and you do a new car. I want a new car.
You know, once you get in that car, you drive down the road. I can't see myself in it. But you drive my window or something. So after a while that newness goes away, you know, you gots to do it.
So that newness is that where I put it. I like that. He says there's a guarantee when you come to Him. You know, you could be hungry in this world not have food to eat.
But he says if you hunger in thirst after righteous, he says you will be for you. You know, I like Bibles that have a lot of footnotes because you can get a lot out of that. And this one has a footnote when it's not about the hunger in thirst. It says the hungry.
These people seek justice and holiness. And most importantly, God in whose presence is fullness of joy. So the hunger in the really, we're going to seek God. And I've told this at church and I'll tell it here.
It's got to the point I'll get on. I have a little bit of workout equipment. I'm getting older. So I got to try to do something that joins hurting this net.
But anymore I used to, you know, I'd get on that and it seemed like it took forever. I have learned of the wisdom that the joy of the Lord is my strength. So now before I get on anything equipment wise, I turn on the worship music. And that goes back to the word though the outward man parries, the inward man is renewed day by day.
Amen. Amen. It's good that anytime we can, we can enter into his presence and that hunger and that thirst for him, I just can't get enough. And we talked about this in church, not too long back about it.
It seems like, and I believe these, we're living in the last days as we begin to open up the word, it's just like God is opening up. It's like this verse all of a sudden just opens up more and we're seeing things that we never saw in it before. But I believe that's part of the end times. God is trying to get us ready.
And we have all these blessings. I don't know, you know, the world is very sad because they have no joy. They have no peace. Well, if they were going to read these blessings, they'd find happiness.
It's in Jesus. But you know, they'll still fight it though. You know, there's a pressure you always say, you know, you can bring somebody to water, but you know, you can't make them drink, you can show them what the bread is, but that don't mean they'll partake of it. And the thing is, a lot of times we talk to people, I've seen it, I mean, you've talked to people about Jesus and they'll say, well, you know, I've tried, but you know, they're really not wanting that.
They want something else. But not realizing understanding. It says, you know, when we trust in those lying vanities, it says we forsake our own mercy. Christ is the answer to the problems that you're facing, but they want to try to find things in the world to solve that form.
It's not coming in a person in this world. This person sits on the right end of our Father. Because they're hunger and thirst is not where it needs to be at. You try it broccoli.
You submit to God. I know. That's good. We get into the word.
I get sidetracked because the goodness of God is so great. But I'll try to get through these real blessed other merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And when merciful, you know, we're here to help one another, to encourage one another to lift one another up. If we don't show mercy, none will be shown to us. But what's with the good Samaritan?
All the Christians passed over on the other side of the street when the guy was wounded, fell in amongst these, the good Samaritan crossed the street and showed mercy. And that's what we need to do. Yeah. And I think that mercy also comes into the form of forgiveness.
Because a lot of people, they live with all in their heart and anger and their heart towards somebody. And even when you show them through the word of God and you need to let that go, they'll still want to hang on to that thing. And so many times you have told us when you preach the word of God to us there in a moment of life, you'll tell us, bring it here and leave it. Don't pick it back up and take it with you.
You can't fix it if you pick it up and take it with you. You got to leave it on the altar because he wants to help us. Amen. And pure in heart, those are people that they have right motives.
We got to have right motives. If you're just doing something to be seen, the Bible says you have your reward right there, reward of men, but we need to seek God. You need to take time. We could discuss this for a long, long time.
We just, we have barely scratched the surface in this and we hope that you got a little extra out of that and just get in there and seek God and we find out all these things. What I see more than anything, God always does His part. There's things that we have to do. That's what I see in this right here.
So we need to be doing our part. And our part right now, Pastor Steve, if you will, is to take these people that may be hurting, that may be looking for an answer to the throne. Father, we come to you where I'm coming to you by the blood of Jesus Christ as we stand in the presence of our Father. The only Father I'm asking you Lord today to help those that are viewing.
The only Father if they're hurting today, you have the bomb of Gilead. Father, you know how to mend the broken hearted. And the only Father Lord today Lord, you are a strength. Ever present, help in the time of need.
And the only Father I'm asking Lord today Lord, to the preaching of the Word and what we talked about here today, may Jesus Christ be lifted up and maybe even be glorified. That the people watching and listening to this Word wouldn't be seeing Him and Father turn their life over to Him for just a simple prayer. Asking that He forgive them and it come into their heart. And He said that, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Father, we praise you and we thank you. We thank you the promises of God that are true and yes and amen in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.
As always, it doesn't matter where you open Scripture up. There's something good there. Sometimes we find places where we realize we're falling short in, but that's good force too. We learn.
If we're doing something wrong, we need to learn how to correct it. And that's where if we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit, He teaches us these things. He guides us in these things. And you know what?
He sure is a good comforter. So important is the Holy Spirit in our life that Jesus told them it's expedient that I go away. That's right. You know what?
It's just good. God is so good. And I just enjoy. And I'd like to invite everybody to come see us at the Bunnellife worship center 923 Dolly Parton Parkway.
And also visit our website at alwc at Severereal.com. And you can't call us at 865-366-1173. And when you do, please leave your name and your telephone number so that we can get back in touch with you. That's been a great time to sit around here.
I feel like I'm sitting at home just talking about the Word and you know we got all these people here with us. They get to enjoy the Word too. And I like the spiritual impact because that's what we want with the Word of God to have them. We want to have application in your life.
We want to make life changing. Amen. He will impact your life in beautiful, beautiful ways if you will just trust Him. We hope and pray that you've received God's Word.
Plot to your life. We love you. Until next week, God bless you. And we'll see you next time right here on Spiritual Impact.
See you later. Hello everybody. This is Pastor Tim Parton of Abundant Life Worship Center. For those of you that live in the Severereal area, or maybe you just visit from time to time, we'd like to take a moment and invite you to come visit us at the church.
We're located at 923 Dolly Parton Parkway right here in Severereal. Our service times are Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Wednesday evening at 6.30. We just love sharing the Word of God.
And we're just a family church. So we invite you to come grow with us. God bless. We're just a little faith.
We are never alone. So this battle I won't fear. Cause I can hear the sound of...