Transcription

Chris
So Jeff, I have two observations. Okay. The first one is only two. Yeah, two. Okay. Number one is I think my attitude most of the time is A+ really. And I think that yours is sort of a beatitude a beatitude.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. Well that’s what we’re talking about today.

Chris
That’s amazing. That is amazing. Wow. I just made that up actually.

Jeff
Right? And this isn’t even a corny dad joke. No, it’s not so. Hey, he’s Chris, and I’m Jeff, and we’re the Bible guys.

Chris
All right. Well, we.

Jeff
Should tell our listeners it’s not going to get any better than that today. No, that’s not that’s about it.

Chris
That’s it. Yeah.

Jeff
That’s the peak. You peaked.

Chris
Yep.

Jeff
Okay.

Chris
So what is today dude?

Jeff
So today is one of my favorites. And that is it’s finished the lyrics where I have to read some lines to songs. Yeah.

Chris
This is I’m dreading this moment, number one, because you could already tell we’ve talked about it all morning. My throat. I’m losing my voice. That’s the first thing. Second thing is I’m not good at lyrics.

Jeff
Well, you’re pretty good at lyrics. You’re better at lyrics than I am.

Chris
Uh, well okay.

Jeff
Yeah, okay. Here we go. Oh, geez. Uh, so I’m going to read five lines and I’m going to see if you can finish each of these. Okay. This is going.

Chris
To go horribly.

Jeff
There’s no load. I can’t hold a road so rough this I know.

Chris
Oh geez, I know this here’s the reason why I know this. Because if you ask my family, what is your favorite Disney Pixar film? It’s cars.

Jeff
Oh, there you go.

Chris
And this is the theme song by Rascal Flatts. Oh, there you go. Can you read that for me?

Jeff
There’s no load I can’t hold a road so rough. This I know.

Chris
There’s there’s no. Oh, because I can’t. Okay, uh, there’s no road I can’t. Oh but is it, there’s no road A.

Jeff
Road so rough this I know there’s no.

Chris
Road.

Chris
This I know.

Chris
Uh, I’ll be there when the. Yep. I’ll be there when there’s something. When the.

Jeff
Light comes in.

Chris
Light comes in. Tell them all we’re survivors.

Jeff
Tell them we’re survivors.

Chris
Hey, I got something for you. I got something.

Jeff
You found it.

Chris
Man, I got something. Now.

Jeff
You know this one. Strangers waiting up and down the boulevard.

Chris
Oh, this is really strangers. Yeah. Uh, up and down the boulevard. The shadows searching in the night. Is that it? There you go. Okay.

Jeff
Good, good. So, hey, you’re.

Chris
Two for two. All right. Well, no. Not really. You hit.

Jeff
A lot.

Chris
50% of the first one.

Jeff
Uh. This is a funny one. I know that I can’t take no more. It ain’t no lie.

Chris
No. Jeez. Okay. All right. So she chose good ones. I know that I can’t take no more. It ain’t no lie. I.

Chris
I something, something out that door, baby. Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye. There you go. What is it? I want you.

Jeff
To see you out that door.

Chris
Yeah. See I’m not good at lyrics.

Jeff
Bye bye bye I’m not good at it. Yeah, you’re really good I wouldn’t even gotten close. Oh, it’s the circle of life. And it moves us all.

Chris
The circle of life. Which, by the way, is from Lion King, John Elton, right? Or Elton John, Elton John. I can’t believe I just said John Elton. Yeah, whatever. Uh, I hate that song. Really. I don’t know the song. I couldn’t even guess the song. Really. What are the lyrics?

Jeff
You hate that.

Chris
Song? I do. It was irritating.

Jeff
What kind of. What kind of monster are you? Hey hey hey, sir. Listeners like listeners, just write in all the hate mail you want to send and send it to kaisarbagh at the Bible guys.com.

Chris
It’s this. It fits in the movie, you know, like, so quit whining about it. But but as a song, think of.

Jeff
All the other songs.

Chris
A song to listen to. No. Okay. What’s the lyrics?

Jeff
Um, it’s the circle of life, and it moves us all through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place.

Chris
If you would have given me a million guesses and put a gun to my head, I was getting them all wrong and been dead.

Jeff
There you go. Okay, here’s the last one. Yes. All right, this is it. So you’re three for four up to this point?

Chris
Not really, but okay.

Jeff
Every night in my dreams, I see you.

Chris
Oh, that’s Titanic, right? Uh uh, my heart will go on. Right. Okay. So what is it?

Jeff
Every night in my dreams, I see you.

Chris
Oh, this is the beginning of the song. Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you. That is how I know you.

Chris
Go on. There you go. Near far. Right?

Chris
Yeah. There you go, I got it, I got it.

Jeff
So you were four for five today? No, I was not sure you were. I got just a little.

Jeff
Bit of help on the Rascal Flatts one, that’s all. Yeah. Good job buddy. See, that’s that’s why she does it.

Chris
No, I don’t like that segment. I feel pressure, I.

Jeff
It’s good for you to feel pressure every once in a while. Yeah. That’s true. Yeah. Just remind you you’re not all that.

Chris
Okay? Not all that. What are you from?

Chris
What are you from the 90s? You’re not all that. No, I’m.

Jeff
From the 80s. So. Yeah. That’s true. Okay. I’m just trying to be hip, like all those young. Oh.

Chris
Just stop.

Jeff
Okay?

Chris
Stop while you’re behind.

Jeff
Okay, so, uh, the beatitudes, this is Jesus longest message. So it’s not just the Beatitudes, but it comes from what’s called the sermon on the Mount. And, um. Uh. So we’re going to break the sermon on the Mount up into segments over the next several episodes. And the beginning is what we call the Beatitudes. We’ll talk about this. This idea, or the sermon on the Mount comes up in two different passages. Matthew chapter five is maybe the more famous one. And then also in Luke chapter six, where the two, uh, parallels come in. So it says one day, as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those who whose hearts are pure, for they shall see God. For they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you, and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it. Be very glad, for a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember the ancient prophets who were persecuted in the same way. Jeff
So that’s Matthew chapter five in the sermon on the Mount. Then in Luke chapter six, same thing it says. Then Jesus turns, turned to his disciples and said, God blesses you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh. What blessing await you? What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil, because you follow the Son of Man? When that happens, be happy. Yes, leap for joy, for a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way. What sorrow awaits you who are rich, for you have your own happiness. Now what sorrow awaits you who are fat and prosperous? Now for a time of awful hunger awaits you. What sorrow awaits you who laugh now, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow. What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds. For their ancestors also praised false prophets. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. So similar, but a little different between those two. A little bit.

Chris
Different. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah. So this is, um. Uh, what Wierzbie was famous, right? With, uh. Didn’t wasn’t, weren’t Wierzbie famous for writing those little b b books? Yeah. What was it called? The B series. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, uh, and so, uh, are those these.

Jeff
Uh, no. No.

Chris
Okay. I was just, I was just thinking. Oh, these are blessed. Are they? Yeah. Yeah yeah.

Jeff
Yeah. These are the blessed are.

Chris
Yeah.

Chris
You’re like you’re like, why are you bringing that passage.

Jeff
Up I don’t know.

Chris
Well eventually get to that passage.

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Well so so he has, uh, a whole series of all the different character traits.

Chris
Be wise, be kind. That’s right, that’s right.

Jeff
Yeah. So it’s. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah. Okay. So, um, uh. Okay, so here’s the thing. This to me sounds like delayed gratification.

Jeff
The whole thing.

Chris
Well, I mean, think about it. He says, blessed are those who are poor, uh, for the kingdom of heaven as theirs. Blessed are those who mourn for one day they’ll be comforted, right? The humble will one day inherit the earth. Yeah. Uh, the hunger and thirsty, uh, they will be satisfied one day. Uh, you know, they will be shown mercy, implying in the future. Right. And, uh, and I think that, uh, it’s interesting because what he’s doing, number one, to me, it seems like he is, uh, you know, the awareness is, is he’s talking about the greatness of those. It reminds me of the, uh, comment that he made about John the Baptist. Remember? He said there’s none greater than John the Baptist who basically doesn’t own a thing. He hangs out in the wilderness, and he basically has nothing, and there’s no human being greater. It feels to me like he’s really just elevating and recognizing the greatness of those who serve God. And yet are poor, hungry, humble, you know, and these kind of things. Yeah.

Jeff
I think that, um, so the Greek word there for blessed. Right. So this says God blesses those who are humble. The sentence in the Greek, just blessed are those right is so it’s an understood God. But the word blessed that is used, um, indicates happiness, which is a weird one because most of the Bible talks about joy, right? So so the God invites us beyond just happiness. But it’s not unreasonable to say, hey, I want to be happy, right? Um, and so we did a whole message series one time back 100 years ago, just called I Just Want to Be Happy, and it was an eight week series. We went through the the Beatitudes and it was one of the best series, one of the best responded to series.

Chris
Did you bring Warren Wiersbe in it?

Jeff
No, no, he didn’t have anything to do with this message. So Warren said, Jeff, you’re doing a good job. Yeah.

Chris
Oh, wow.

Chris
That’s pretty.

Chris
Good. Yeah.

Jeff
So, um, but the idea is Jesus is really going almost completely antithetical to the way the world thinks. So the world thinks, man, you’re going to be happy when you’re the top of the heap and everybody’s looking at you and you’re famous. And Jesus said, actually, be happiest when you’re humble. Yeah. You think you’re going to be happiest when you are fabulously wealthy. And Jesus says, actually, you’re going to be happier when you’re poor. Um, and he’s not talking just there poor physically. He also is poor in spirit. Right. So a lot of people think you’ll be happy when you finally have all the answers of the universe. And Jesus is like, no, you’ll be happiest when you’re poor in spirit and realize your need for God, right? And so he kind of he changes all of the way that humans think we would be happy. But hey, let me say this. If. If the world knew the way to happiness, shouldn’t everybody be happy? Should if the world knew if we just. Because everybody is going the world’s way. Everybody is trying sex, drugs and rock and roll. Everybody’s trying to climb the ladder. Everybody’s trying to get more. And hardly anybody I know says that they’re truly happy. Right. And so what Jesus is trying to do is he’s trying to back them off of the world system and come the other way. But then he says these, these things, these eight things are all indicators of what one of my disciples is really going to. If you want to know what a disciple of mine looks like, it’s a person who’s poor in spirit. It’s a person who’s humble. It’s a person who hunger and thirst for justice. It’s a person who’s merciful. Jeff
It’s a person who chooses a pure heart. Right. That’s what my disciples are going to look like. And then he says, so don’t be surprised when people hate you. They’ll pursue you because you’re so different from the rest of the world. They’re going to hate you for it. And by the way, there’s a great reward in heaven for you. Yeah, yeah. So it’s not a very good selling point, I would say that. Jesus.

Chris
Right, right. Yeah.

Chris
So, um, I remember great reward.

Jeff
In heaven is.

Chris
I remember the very first time that I went on any mission trip whatsoever. Uh, it’s hard to believe, but it took me years to go on my first trip. But my first trip was to Africa. Excuse me. And, um. And when I went to Africa, uh, we just went out in the middle of the bush. I mean, it was just. We landed and we drove, like, 11 hours north, uh, north of Kapenguria. And we were out in the middle of the, uh, it seemed like just a wasteland of just, you know, just just shrubs everywhere. And all of a sudden you walk another two miles in the 120 degree heat, and then all of a sudden, you come upon this village. And according to Julius, our guide, he said that, uh, he’s pretty sure that there are some people in this village who had never seen a white person before. Yeah, yeah. And I thought, what? How does that even exist in the world today? Right. But that’s what he said. So we get there. And, um, I had first of all, the first thing I was realized is I had one of these things. I had my water bottle. Bottle of water. Yeah. And, uh, they don’t have clean water over there.

Jeff
It’s horrible. Yeah.

Chris
And so they have the dirty, nasty, mucky water that they that they all drink. And so when I was holding this, uh, the first thing the kids did is they walked up and I thought they were fascinated with me, and they just wanted my water. Yeah. And so I was like, I felt super bad. And of course, I gave him my water, right? And it was just like a treasure. The second thing I noticed, they probably.

Jeff
Wanted your water bottle.

Chris
Yeah, well, everything, they just wanted it. Right. And then, uh, then the second thing I noticed was, uh, that, uh, their possessions were a rock and a stick. Literally.

Jeff
The kids toys.

Chris
The kids toys? Yeah. It’s like. It’s like, what do you own? I own this rock and this stick. Right? And that was theirs. And that’s all they had. And they were happy as crickets, right? I mean, they were just. They had so much joy. Yeah, they were running around and I thought to myself, how could somebody live in these conditions and have the definition of nothing? I mean, it’s like, yeah, right. Yeah. I mean, how could you how.

Jeff
Could you don’t know that there’s more. Right? You tend to be happier. You know, this is at the original sin. The original sin was they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right. There’s there’s a lot of happiness and joy in innocence. I think it’s one of the reasons why we have to be careful about how quickly we introduce our young children to all of the bad things in the universe, right? Right. I think right now there’s a massive push that adults just need to treat their children like adults and and just be honest with them and tell them all the stuff. And I’m just like, I reject that concept. There’s a there’s a certain amount of joy in being innocent, and I think we should preserve our children’s innocence as long as we can. Yeah, but that’s one of them is, hey, when you don’t know that there’s kids in in, you know that your kids have a whole room full of plastic toys, right? Right. You’re happy with your rock and your stick because you’ve built your game and you’ve, you know, the other kids are have their rocks and sticks too. And it’s fun. Yeah.

Chris
And and by the way, how many, you know, people our age, how many times you’ve heard somebody say, we grew up, we grew up really poor, but we didn’t know we were poor. Yeah, yeah. You remember those phrases?

Jeff
That’s me. Yeah, yeah, Chris
i bet you I heard that phrase a thousand times. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
And and your frustration with life tends to be the fact that you’re comparing your life to other people, right? Right. You. So we are as Americans in general, if you have more than $50,000 in household total household benefits, uh, that’s not just income, but total household benefits. Uh, you’re in the top 1% in the history of humanity, right? Right.

Chris
It’s hard to believe it’s unbelievable.

Jeff
But we don’t feel rich because we know there are people who are richer than us, right? Right. The fact that I know there’s somebody richer than me makes me feel like I’m not that rich, right? Until you meet somebody who’s absurdly poor, which is two thirds of the planet, right. And so we tend to look down on our certain circumstances because we know there’s a few people richer than us. And that’s the whole idea of envy. That’s the whole idea. Uh, yeah. It’s it’s a whole other thing. So he’s not only talking about poverty here, right? Right. He’s talking about being poor in spirit. Right. Which is which is far more it’s realizing that I am I am empty and poor without God. Right?

Chris
That I’m completely dependent. That’s right. I don’t I don’t have it within myself.

Jeff
Right. I’m impoverished spiritually without God.

Chris
Right? That’s right. Yeah.

Jeff
Which is great. So that’s a big part of it. And then he, he two different times, he says, you’re going to be blessed. Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing right. For the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And blessed are you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you. So he he has two blessings for when, uh, when you’re being threatened to be canceled, when you decide you’re not going to go along with the party line at work, uh, because what they’re saying is sinful and wrong to do, and it might cost you your job. Jesus is saying, listen, it might cost you something here on earth, but be glad because there’s a great reward for you in heaven, right? So do the right thing. I think sometimes we I think we get tempted to be like Jacob. Uh, remember in Esau. Yeah. When Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge?

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
Um, I think sometimes we’re willing to sell out and miss out on the great reward in heaven just to keep one more paycheck. Right. And so we look for gain here and feel like. And we sell away the great blessing that would be in heaven. And Jesus keeps trying to remind them, hey, listen, this is just temporary. So whatever you’re going through here is temporary. Your real reward is in heaven.

Chris
You know, one of the greatest thoughts that I’ve ever. It’s actually a sermon I heard, uh, that I’ll never forget. And I never rate sermons tens. Right, right, right. Like I always give them, you know, never.

Jeff
Except mine.

Chris
But no, not not yours, not mine, not not anybody’s. For me, for a sermon to be.

Jeff
Not yours. Not even.

Chris
Mine is sort of how I said it. It’s just how I said it.

Jeff
I don’t I certainly never yours. I don’t even rate my own.

Chris
I just meant nobody’s okay. I was trying to include myself in the equation. Right. But a sermon that gets rated at ten as a as a life changing sermon. Okay. For me, never, never forget it. And this one was a ten. I’ll never forget it. But anyway, here’s the concept. The concept is, um, when, uh, when, when we hear about God, we hear God introduce himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. And it should be the God of Esau, right? Right, right. But Esau sold away his right, his birthright instead. Now it’s the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Right? All of that was because Esau gave away his birthright. He gave away his blessings. He gave away his wealth, gave away his status. He gave away everything because he was, you know, quote unquote, starving to death. And, uh, and then Jacob went ahead and said, I’ll make you a trade. Right. And so the point is, is that here is the whole concept behind the sermon, is that when we are tempted to sacrifice our family legacy for an affair. Oh, yeah. Right. Like like, you know, like like, like, you know, just the destruction of our legacy with our kids, uh, with with our with our families and everything else. Or for politicians to, to, uh, you know, surrender all of their influence and all of their gain and all of their all their good name, you know, and by the way, that just goes down in history for anybody who’s tempted to do something bad. And the consequences are devastating and they go well beyond even their lifetime. Yeah. Their lifespan. Right, right. Uh, so the concept is it’s just a bowl of stew. Chris
Yeah, just a bowl of stew.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Chris
That’s it. Right.

Jeff
So, so in this passage specifically talking about, um, your reward is in heaven, right? A lot of times we make our decisions based on what we’re trying to keep here on Earth, right? It’s only temporary. That’s where that came from. So if you look at the rewards he offers. Because a lot of times we look at the at the struggles, we look at our need for God mourning, humility, hunger and thirst for justice, requirement for mercy and purity, working for peace, experiencing persecution. We we hear those and those sound hard, most of them. But the rewards are the kingdom of heaven. Comfort. You’ll inherit the earth. You’ll be satisfied. You’ll be shown mercy. You’ll see God. You’ll be a child of God. And he ends with the King of Heaven. Remember how, um, the Middle Eastern mindset, they start and end with the same big idea, right? So what he’s saying is he brackets all of these other things with this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Um, and he’s pushing back against pride and personal independence, uh, happiness at any cost, a pursuit of power, pursuit of just our own personal needs instead of justice. Uh, strength without feeling deception. That’s acceptable. Uh, personal peace pursued without concern for the world’s chaos and weak commitments. Right. So he’s he’s providing antidotes, but it’s almost exactly 180 degrees different than the way that you think. Right? And, uh, but he’s he’s trying to describe, I think at this moment in those 8 or 9 things, eight ideas, I think what he’s trying to do is, matter of fact, in the Matthew one, he takes his disciples and he sits them down and says this before he goes and preaches the whole message. And I think he’s trying to explain to them, listen, my kingdom is a different kingdom. Jeff
But man, the rewards are great and and it’s worth it. And so he doesn’t set these out as ideals. He sets these out as expectations. And I think if you read the whole rest of the sermon on the Mount, which may just be a conglomeration of a bunch of sermons, it may not have just been one big sermon. But if you look at it, Jesus does not set these out as ideals that are, hey, someday look up to them and maybe, you know, maybe you could aspire to them instead. These are things he expects his disciples to do, their choices he calls us to. And there’s a challenge to that. But the reward in heaven is going to be great.

Chris
That’s awesome. Uh, well, if I were to give a final thought, I would just say it stands out to me that when he says happy, is he right? Blessed is he, which translates into happiness. Happy is he or you know, a, b, c, d, e, f, g list all these different things. It dawns on me that, uh, people are probably less happy today than they’ve ever been. Yeah. Doesn’t it feel that way? Yeah. It feels like there’s more pain in the world than there’s ever been. More discord, more division. And it seems like, uh, you know, the happiness seems very elusive. Uh, you know, we try to grab it and we can’t quite seem to get there, and, uh, it’s just a it’s just a reminder that if we go God’s way and that if we listen to God and God who created us and knows us and, you know, knows our soul and knows our deepest longings and says, these are the things I promise you that I’ll make you happy. And they may seem counterintuitive. They may not be, you know, they may not make sense, and they may go against your desire or what you’ve been taught, or how you’ve been raised or what’s been modeled for you. But I promise you, if you pursue these things, this is what’s really going to make you happy, inside and blessed. Yeah. So just go God’s way. So. All right, well, that’s all the time we have. And we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.