This Present Kingdom | Week 1 | Jean Stockdale

good morning ladies and welcome back to bellevue women and to our study of the sermon on the mount this present kingdom yes we are so excited to have y'all back with us this week and since we last met we have actually had over 200 of you register to join us for this week which is super exciting that's awesome ladies yes so ladies continue sharing on your social media feeds letting all your girlfriends know and if you have not already you can go to bellevue.org women to get registered for our study that's right and one of those new registrants is my very own mother hi mom good to well i'm glad that you're watching today and we have a great morning in store for you ladies many of you have asked about this beautiful set behind us and so this morning we wanted to give you a closer look yes so welcome back for her second appearance on the preview our bellevue women director miss dana street welcome miss dana i'm dana yeah well thank you paige and lauren and thank you ladies for joining us for our set tour today on behalf of all of those who have worked so hard to make this set come to life i am excited to be able to share some of the details of it with you today dana we know that each of our sets have a different a a deeper meaning behind the design and everything that we do so would you mind just sharing with us the vision for this set and how that design came to be sure to put the vision for the sat in a sentence it would be the kingdom of god is here and now and actually the set begins at the front of your workbook have you noticed that the girl in the front of your workbook is looking at something have you wondered what that is she's looking at the kingdom of god this present kingdom and that girl she's you a daughter of the king when you look at the set our desire is that you would be reminded that you don't have to wait for eternity to live eternal life god's kingdom is available to us right now within the ever-present rule and reign of god in our lives that's beautiful dana you know one of my favorite parts about the set is the table and ladies you haven't had a chance to see it up close yet but it is beautifully set and it has a seat for each one of us dana could you tell us a little bit more about the table and the details on it i'd love to you know when jesus sat down to bring his message in the sermon on the mount he was about to set a feast before his disciples he was going to teach them how to live in the kingdom of god but the sermon that he preached then was not just for his disciples it was for you and it was for me it was the feast that he puts before us and then tells us blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied or they shall be filled the blessed that's written here on the plates in the place settings is a reminder of how truly well-off we will be as we live into the kingdom that jesus is calling us to the crown on each plate is a reminder of who we are in christ you'll notice that all of the chairs have been painted white because as we are in christ we are whiter than snow but you'll also notice that all the chairs look a little bit differently because each one of us is different but his invitation to the feast is the same for every one of us and ladies you'll also notice throughout the table and really all over the set little touches of moss that's because moss is dana's love language so we always have to include moss wherever we go because i always say moss makes everything just a little bit more beautiful you know dana i've learned a lot of things from you but that has to be at the top of the list and y'all may have also noticed that there is one more crown here on our set today so dana would you point that out to our lady certainly it is the wind vane crown that's at the top of the castle the wind vane serves as a reminder of god's rule and reign in our lives the highest point on the set it is there in honor of the king of the kingdom well thank you dana for giving us a special tour of the set today i know all the ladies at home and those here in the room are excited to see a closer look yes and i know i love having more ladies up here for our preview we are so glad to have y'all joining us today and if you have not already don't forget to share it on your social media feed you can register for the study at bellevue.org women and you're definitely going to want to do that because last week we launched the afterword which is our bellevue women podcast and it's just a special time with donna and dana and jean to just get to dive deeper into our studies each week so ladies those of you here on campus if y'all want to go ahead and stand up as we get ready to worship and those of you at home don't forget share with your girlfriends as we get together to worship our lord [Music] well good morning ladies let's get ready to worship our lord together come set your rule and reign in our hearts again increase in us we pray unveil why we're made come set [Music] invaders now your church and we need your power in us [Music] we are your church and we pray revive this earth gonna sing build your kingdom here here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] here we pray [Music] [Music] fill us [Music] [Music] [Applause] our [Music] [Applause] build your kingdom here we pray fear show your mighty head heal our streets and land set your church on fire we pray amen [Music] that is our prayer today that you would build your kingdom here father that you would open our hearts to your holy spirit and invade this place with your presence in your name we pray amen well good morning and welcome to bellevue women thank you so much for being here with us today for our week one study in this present kingdom the disruptive message of the sermon on the mount this week we began looking at the beatitudes or the how to bees the first four beatitudes we're looking at today are actually vertical they have a god-centered orientation and there's intentional purpose in the sequence that jesus gives these first beatitudes that speak directly to our relationship with god first we recognize our spiritual poverty we are poor in spirit next we repent of our self-sufficiency we mourn then we quit trying to call the shots and we surrender completely to the control of god in our lives we are meek and then finally we are so grateful for his presence that we hunger and thirst for more of him one way that we demonstrate our hunger and thirst for god is through worship one of the disciplines that we looked at in our kingdom exercise this week about 20 years ago a church in england was experiencing tremendous growth the worship music in the church was cutting edge and droves and droves of people were were coming there every week especially those who were in their teens and twenties but the pastor sensed that there was something missing in his words they had lost their way in worship so he pulled the plug literally for a few weeks simplified things no sound system no instruments no music leader the first week the silence was almost deafening when it began very very awkward until someone in the congregation just began to sing a cappella a song of worship to the lord others joined in and before you knew it there was this beautiful sound going right there from the floor of the church to the throne of heaven over time the congregation realized that they had been consumers of worship not producers of worship you see when i consume something it's all about me but when i produce something it's all about someone else when we produce worship it's all about god when we produce worship ladies we will encounter him in a fresh and new way you know in time the instruments the music leader returned to that church and the music leader matt redmond wrote a song that has become very familiar all over the world that song heart of worship and as we sing that song this morning let me ask you right there wherever you are will you be a worship producer will you worship the lord your god with holy abandon shut out everything everyone else and just lift your voice and worship to him all is stripped away and i simply come longing just to bring [Music] [Music] song in itself is not what you have required [Music] you search much deeper within through the way things [Music] and it's all about you [Music] it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made it when it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made and it's all about you it's all about you jesus nothing else nothing else nothing else we'll do i just want you nothing else [Music] nothing else nothing else we'll do i just want you nothing else [Music] nothing else nothing else we'll do i just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else to do [Music] i'm caught up in your presence [Music] i just want to sit here at your feet i'm caught up in this holy moment i never wanna leave oh i'm not here for a blessing [Music] jesus you don't owe me anything but more than anything that you can do i just want you i'm sorry [Music] when i've just gone through the motions i'm sorry when i just say another song take me back to where we started sorry when i've come with my agenda i'm sorry when i forgot that you're enough take me back to where we started i open up my heart i'm caught up in your i just wanna sit here at your feet i'm caught up in this holy moment i never wanna leave oh i'm not here for blessings jesus you don't owe me anything but more than anything that you can do i just want you so i'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made when it's all about you [Music] it's all about you jesus and i'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made it when it's all about you it's all about you jesus [Music] [Music] would you pray with me oh father father look down upon us with your favor spirit of the living god would you settle in upon us as we open your word today father we are your daughters and we are gathered in this place to hear from you lord speak speak through your word speak by the power of the holy spirit but speak and lord with upturned faces we are listening expectantly to hear a word from you lord would you bless in this time lord would you bind every distraction every disturbance every demonic force that might somehow attempt to penetrate this place would you set your angels round about us lord jesus christ that we might be so focused upon you today that when we leave this place we will know that we know that we know that we have met with you face to face father i'm asking i'm pleading today that when i opened my mouth you would feel it that you would be the teacher and the speaker that you would speak to every one of our hearts by the power of your word and the power of the spirit of the living god that you would clothe yourself in my humanity and hide me behind the cross that father we might have a fresh word from you lord we need to hear from you today would you bless those in this room those who are in this building watching and those who are online that father the word of god might give life to the hears we want to live for your kingdom right here right now we want to live in the power of god in the fullness of christ by the power of the spirit of god according to your word so we are just waiting for you to come and move among us with power we bless you we praise you bless the lord oh my soul and all that is within me lord i bless you i praise you my sisters are joining me now in this moment of corporate prayer we praise and worship you together meet with us now in jesus name we pray amen and amen oh god bless you would you be seated what a holy moment i'm going to have to collect myself girls it's so good to be back with you i have missed you so badly i don't know about you but this whole quarantine locked down pandemic it has messed with my little sanguine soul so badly not only that thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you that we're back today oh lord jesus thank you thank you that you have made a way for us to safely gather today and just be together let's just drink in this moment as we prepare to hear the word of god beloved mr stockdale has had to have two surgeries since thanksgiving he had carpal tunnel surgery on each wrist a few weeks apart and because of that and because of the current situation we have been on lock down since before thanksgiving just let that just settle on you for just a moment now we live in the middle of nowhere and i've got to tell you when the fedex guy would show up it would be like grabbing grab it quick quick let's see what's going on in the outside world and so craig was recently very thankfully the surgeries have gone very well he was very recently released from his doctor and we're very grateful for that but when that happened you can only imagine the list of things that needed to be tended to not the least of which my little honda accord needed to get into the dealership to have the uh airbag dealt with and so on a particular day this past week i believe it was last friday although anybody else the days are just morphing one right into the next it's just hard to keep track isn't it i believe it was on friday we had an appointment at nine o'clock and so i followed mr stockville in and i brought in my little honda accord and we were headed on to the dealership and so i arrived at the dealership right on time i pulled up into the service bay they had an automatic door it opened i pulled my little car right into the service bay i took the key uh turned off my car gathered my stuff going to get out of my car and leave it there for service when one of the servicemen walked over to me and said can i help you and i said well i'm gene stockdale and i'm here nine o'clock appointment i'm getting my airbag adjusted i i had a notification i've set up an appointment and so on and he looks at me and he says ma'am you're here to have this car worked on and i said yes yes i am nine o'clock gene stockdale made an appointment and he said and you want this car worked on yes yes i do and he said ma'am this is a honda and you're in the nissan dealership well of course i am of course i am so being able to come back together with my sisters in the lord getting my spiritual equilibrium regained craig and i have been out of church longer because of his surgeries i believe then we have the entire time we walked with the lord and sunday we got to come back and i've got to tell you it was just this moment of drink this inn to be back in the community of christ what a blessing what a blessing and then today to get to come and be among you would you open your bibles to matthew chapter 5. and i want you to join me as we join the disciples on the hillside above the sea of galilee where we are watching now in wrapped attention as the lord jesus sits down he takes the posture of a rabbi the disciples would have recognized that immediately he sits down and begins to speak and he brings the disruptive message of the sermon on the mount dr john phillips says this we have come now to the famous sermon on the mount there is nothing to compare with it in all the literature of the world even the greatest of the words of the world's moral religious and philosophical statements blush and stammer in the presence of this sublime declaration beloved the seed of this study was planted in the heart and mind of dana and donna several years ago and yet for such a time as this oh how we need the message of the sermon on the mount how we need this disruptive message of how then shall we live in the midst of a pandemic in the midst of a culture that has gone mad in the midst of cancel culture in the midst of dramatic and radical changes in our culture that are affecting the christian life for such a time as this how we need this message the disciples needed it as well they lived in a time in a culture when the scribes and pharisees had an external righteousness that was based on the law they concern themselves with strict adherence to rituals and rules and jesus as he begins to open his mouth and teach brings an entirely different message true righteousness is imputed through a personal relationship with jesus christ by grace through faith so join me as we read his words and in your mind's eye can you just see him as he's speaking forth these words his words are soothing his voice is kind his delivery is impeccable and his message it's revolutionary it was in the hearing of the disciples and it is to us as we try to navigate the time that god has planted us in in this discourse jesus does not teach the the tenants of salvation rather he is speaking how then shall we live those of us who know the lord jesus who name his name how shall we live so the sermon of the mount opens up with a series of conditional blessings commonly referred to as the beatitudes the beatitudes are the how to bes attitudes that ought to be present in all of us who name the name of jesus christ so look with me if you will in matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 1 when jesus saw the crowds he went up on the mountain and after he sat down the disciples came to him he opened his mouth and he began to teach them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied the first thing i want you to see is what i call our attitude towards self look again in verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god while each beatitude stands on its own each is linked progressively to the one following it stuart weber says it's like pearls in a necklace that are strung together each one builds on the previous one and it begins beloved with being poor in spirit now john macarthur says that word poor means to shrink or cower or cringe it is the term that does not mean simply poor but rather begging poor it is used in luke chapter 16 and verse 20 to describe the beggar lazarus it means to be reduced to a total destitution not just to be simply poor but to be destitute to have no hope and no help and poor in spirit refers to those who recognize their absolute spiritual destitution and their other utter dependence upon god and the blessing of that attitude beloved is because it moves us towards the saving knowledge of a personal relationship with jesus christ you remember when adam and eve sinned that by the work of their own hands they gathered fig leaves and sewed them together and tried to make a covering thinking somehow they could earn god's favor by the work of their own hands beloved the one who is poor in spirit discards and discounts any vain effort to gain god's favor and simply cast themselves upon the mercy and the grace of god being poor in spirit means that we recognize that we are a sinner in need of a savior and beloved it is this attitude that facilitates our entrance into the kingdom of god it gives us a correct assessment of who we are apart from god a sense that is awakened by the holy spirit drawing us to him allows us to recognize ourselves as we are sinners in need of a savior and to understand that christ jesus is the one and only way to be reconciled with god that he died to purchase our freedom and that when we repent and receive him by faith we are grafted in to that personal relationship with christ and we are redeemed our sins are forgiven and beloved the bible said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god beloved that is redemption that is redemption the second thing i want you to see is what i call our attitude towards sin look in verse 4 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted those who are poor in spirit recognize their utterly bankrupt and in desperate need of a personal relationship with jesus christ having come to faith beloved we then mourn grieve over our sinful condition beloved it is the picture here of mourning has the idea of inner agony the deepest most heartfelt grief beloved when we see our wretchedness when we see christ's holiness it should prompt us to grieve over our sin why because godly sorrow works repentance and repentance brings about god's forgiveness the blessedness is not in the morning the blessedness is what the morning produces it produces repentance and repentance works in us and brings us to that place of reconciliation where god forgives us and restores us and comforts us oh beloved it is more than simple regret it is much more than remorse it's not just being sorry that we got caught it's not just being grieved over the consequences of our sins it beloved looks beyond the sin to calvary recognizing that our sin is an affront to a holy god that's what it means to be poor in spirit and to mourn over sin but praise god god meets us in that place first john 1 9 tells us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness and to cleanse us of our sins hallelujah what a savior and that beloved is blessedness that is satisfaction in christ that is living in the fullness that christ has offered us beloved sin cannot sever our relationship with god but it sure does spoil the fellowship with him and when a woman or a man but when a woman is seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of jesus christ we will naturally grieve over sin earnestly seek to be forgiven and will be comforted for blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted beloved that's repentance that's repentance redemption repentance blessed are those who are poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn and grieve and are sorrowful for their sin the next thing i want you to see is our attitude towards strife look with me in verse 5 blessed are the gentle your bible may translate that meek blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth now remember that the jews were looking for a military messiah that would overthrow rome and restore them from their captivity and so this talk of a meek messiah was not only offensive to them they could not even begin to comprehend that the one they were looking for was going to come in meekness and he would be leading a people who were meek and humble and gentle john macarthur says the word gentle basically means mild or soft the term sometimes was used to describe a soothing medicine or a soft breeze it was used of colts and other animals whose naturally wild spirits were broken by a trainer so they could be able to do useful work as a human attitude it means being gentle of spirit meek submissive quiet tender hearted that reminds us of the fruit of the spirit of which gentleness is involved when christ is ruling and reigning in our life beloved we will respond to strife with meekness with gentleness we'll refuse to seek vengeance and revenge rather we will trust in the sovereignty of a holy god who is the ultimate judge to work out every circumstance and every situation in our life for his honor and for his glory in the area of strife what is required of us what is called forth from us is to be gentleness and meekness especially in circumstances and situations where there is strife and we are living in a culture that loves to argue and spread discourse and division if you have been on social media at all and i would warn you to be very careful to what it is that you are paying attention to on social media because so much of it is so destructive it's divisive it's mean it's cruel it's petty but beyond that it's just full of strife and division and what jesus is saying he is humble he is meek that word means strength and weakness under control he says come to me all of you who labor and are just plain worn out because i am humble and meek and my burden is easy my yoke well it's it's easy for you to take upon you that's the call beloved so in situations of strife you and i are to respond whether it's difficult circumstances or difficult people and as the tension and anxiety is building in the times in which we're living we're seeing more anxiety and frustration and it's often breeding difficult relationships amen difficult difficult situations difficult people and what jesus is saying is you are blessed if you will respond to strife with meekness with gentleness allow the spirit of god to produce gentleness in you so that your words your actions your reactions are under the control of the spirit of the living god beloved this attitude of kingdom living will result in us in sharing in the rich inheritance that is ours in jesus christ right here right now as well as in the next life well the next thing i'd like you to see is what i call our attitude towards the savior if you look in verse six jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied the psalmist says as the deer pants for the water brooks so my soul pants for you oh beloved we enter into the kingdom by being poor in spirit we live well by mourning and grieving over our sin knowing it crucified jesus christ and held him to the cross we come into this life this christian life the fullness of christ with an attitude of gentleness allowing the fruit of the spirit to be developed in our life as we surrender to the holy spirit and oh if we would hunger and thirst after righteousness practical righteousness and personal holiness should mark us out beloved the way we act and the way we live the way we love the way we serve the way we live in kingdom living it should so separate us from those who do not have a personal relationship with jesus christ so that we are the aroma of christ the fragrance of christ we should pursue righteousness and he says those who do they will be satisfied they will be satisfied all together blessed in the fullness of jesus christ beloved when we pursue after him when we hunger and thirst for righteousness and truth it produces in us a life that gives a testimony to jesus christ it produces a renewed mind and that will produce a transformed life just as being poor in spirit produces redemption just as mourning and grieving over our sin produces repentance just as being meek and mild produces restraint especially in situations of strife this attitude of being hungry and thirsty for the things of the lord it produces renewal that our mind begins to be renewed by the things of the lord and that renewed mind begins to produce a transformed life jesus is the door to salvation and he is the path to the process which is progressive and sometimes even painful the process of sanctification whereby you and i are conformed to the image of jesus christ now there's not a lot we can do to speed up that process but we can engage beloved in this process called sanctification as we hunger and thirst after the things of the lord as we desire to know more and more of his word as we come to him in obedience to the word of god surrender and submission to the spirit of god confidence in the finished work of christ as we begin to live beloved out our faith hungering and thirsting after righteousness we will find ourselves satisfied in him and the things of this world will go strangely will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace that's kingdom living beloved please do not reduce our salvation experience to just heaven when we die that's a glorious byproduct of it but that's not the end result if all this was about getting this out of hell and into heaven i believe the lord would have taken us home at the moment of our conversion if that's all this thing was about is heaven when we die it's not beloved it's not heaven is the byproduct of our salvation in christ he gives us the spirit of the living god he's given us the word of god as our external control and the spirit of god as our internal control so that we might live right here right now in kingdom power and kingdom authority doing those things he's called us to do and as we hunger and thirst for righteousness the spirit of god is loosed in our life so that we are able to engage and that which he's called us to do i've had the oddest sensation of late and that is i have gone to being hot all the time to freezing cold when i became a woman of a certain age i began to produce my own weather anybody understand what i my soul it would be like a furnace cutting on and something inside would rise up within me and i would be flushed and i am telling you i would sweat till it would drip off my hair now forgive me if that's too graphic but that's what was happening and trying to get that thing turned around i i went to my doctor and said i need you to help me and she said what's the deal and i told her i'm about to burn up i'm afraid i'm going to combust and her response in fact i've heard this a number of time over the last 10 or 12 years the problem is your age to which i said oh no you do not fix this fix this quickly i don't think i can live this way and lo and behold just recently my thermostat which is obviously broken has flipped and now i'm freezing cold all of the time all the time which thank you darling you and i are kindred spirits yes we are and so now i'm cold all the time so that leads me to this story several weeks ago i made a run into oakland you know i live in a very rural area and craig and i consider going into oakland going to town anybody you know you know we love small town living but it is funny to us that we think of this little community of oakland as being the big city but it is when you live out where we do and i buy my groceries in oakland and usually at kroger's or walmart so on this particular day i'm telling you it was so bitter cold that i have on two shirts a fleece vest two pair of pants leggings with pants on over them and two pair of socks when i change clothes i have had on i have been wearing what amounts to a load of laundry you see what i'm saying and so i'm all bundled up and now i have my long puffy coat on you're going to want to remember that it's knee length and i have it zipped up i have a scarf wrapped around to where you can barely see any part of my face of course i have on my mask in my sunglasses i stopped with the hat because y'all i caught a glimpse of myself in the hat and i decided it was best not some of you understand what i'm saying but anyways and so i'm just all wrapped up and i've got all my gloves and i get to krogers and it's so cold in kroger's that i don't take my gloves off i don't unzip my coat i pull it up around my chin i got my cart my gloves are on i'm going as fast as i can and i'm gathering up everything as quick as i can so i can get back home where it's nice and warm there in the cottage and as i am and i am by myself mr stockdale still recovering and so i'm by myself and i am tearing through kroger's when i hear someone behind me it's the voice of a man and he says ma'am i don't know how to tell you this but i believe you've torn your coat now i'm thinking to myself no i have not so he is not talking to me so i continue on and he says it latter ma'am ma'am i'm so sorry to tell you this but i think you have a hole in your coat and i'm thinking well i i didn't snag it on anything i i cannot how would he even know that and i'm still not sure he's talking to me but this time i do turn around and he's coming up right next to me and he says i'm sorry but you've got a hole in your coat and he keeps right on walking and i'm standing there thinking how does he know how did that happen but i looked behind me and y'all there was a trail of feathers [Applause] [Applause] i'm talking about down that is airborne from the door through the produce department and there in the deli and i'm thinking to myself is that me did i do that and how did this happen so i take my coat off and i look and right at the bottom of my coat just this time it wasn't even an inch the hem had opened up and i'm telling you feathers were pouring out i don't know what it looks like to pluck a chicken but try to imagine that in a kroger's and so i pushed back in as many as i could and i tried to roll it and seal it because i've got to have my coat on and i need to get my groceries so i i try to walk as carefully as i can i get the rest of my groceries and i i get myself checked out and no one else has stopped me i did try to avoid that man i let him get way on ahead of me so we didn't not have to make eye contact again but i get my groceries and i i get out there to the car and i'm still trying to figure out how how many feathers are in that coat and i'm thinking this cannot be a flattering look on me if that many feathers are in the bottom uh puff of it but anyways just in the channel but anyways i go i get my groceries in my car and i just i just can't believe how silly this must have looked and when i sit down i evidently slide across my leather seat which releases i i wish i had a video because my little honda was suddenly covered inside with airborne feathers and fluff y'all it looked like i was trapped in a snow globe i'm not kidding i'm not kidding i i in fact i got so tickled at myself and i was thinking i wish somebody i knew was here to see this with me because this is just too good this is just too good there were so many feathers i had to get out of my car to catch my breath lest i suck those in i'm not sure what that would do to a person but it did not seem like a wise thing to have i finally as it began to settle down and the down begin to settle in my car and i just want you to know last time i was in my car feathers are still in there they're just still showing up and i just i just got in my car and just just me and the lord began to just talk about that it was just the funniest thing to me just the funniest thing i got so ticketed i was leaning over my steering wheel just i mean just having to collect myself just laughing so hard at what that looked like and now i'm really worried about kroger's i haven't been back in a while because i thought it was perhaps best and so i began to think about walking and leaving a trail in my wake and i began to think what spiritual application could there be because you know there has to be one and i begin to think of psalm 91 that says he will cover you with his feathers with his pinions and under his wing you can seek refuge and i just began to see me and my puffy coat which is now not nearly as puffy as it was in the arms of the lord covered with his wing and i began to think about the fragrance and the aroma of christ and it has since that time been my prayer that just as i lost feathers everywhere i went that as his child as his daughter who wants to live out kingdom living who wants kingdom authority and power who wants to not reduce this christian life to heaven when i die but live in the reality of christ right here and right now the kingdom of god is here and now who wants to take these attitudes that need to be present in the life of every believer who wants this seriously wants this so that i might impact and influence those in my sphere of influence that like i trailed those feathers that the aroma of christ would so anoint my life as i walk with him that everywhere i go as his ambassador the fragrance of christ would linger the message of the sermon of on the mount is that we are to live in such a way so different from those outside a personal relationship with jesus christ that others would see the reality of christ in us would you pray lord jesus how grateful we are for the sermon on the mount and father these incredible words that you spoke so long ago still resonate with us and father i believe it's the hearts and desires of everyone engaging in this bible study whether they're here or in their small group watching online or those online i believe it's a heart's desire that we would live in such a way that the reality of jesus christ would be seen in us oh father help us to be poor in spirit and see who we are apart from you help us to mourn for our sin that we might not glibly traits along thinking that it's not that big a deal but that we would learn to mourn and grieve to see it through the eyes of calvary no father we would develop a humble gentle meek spirit especially in situations of strife that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness that is renewal of the mind that our minds and our hearts might be so defined by our personal relationship with jesus christ that everywhere we go the fragrance of christ would remain i'm thinking of mary when she anointed the lord jesus christ with that precious alabaster box of ointment what she lavished on him lingered on her and everywhere she went everyone knew oh she's the one she's been with jesus maybe said of our lives that we are kingdom dwellers in the unshakeable kingdom that we are living far beyond our own needs and ones and that we are looking outward being transferred from the inside out so that we might be usable vessels in the hand of the master the bible says in a large house there are many vessels some to honor and some to dishonor may we be honored vessels useful in the master's hand lord bless every one of these sweet ladies bless them real good encourage them urge them on inspire them and strike them father be to them what we all need especially in these difficult days but above all would you get honor and glory from the lives that we choose to live as we hunger and thirst after you we bless you now we praise you in the name of jesus christ amen and amen ladies let's respond with this chorus i'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made when it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made it when it's all about you it's all about you jesus so build your kingdom near let the darkness fear show your mighty head heal our streets and [Music] change the [Music] sphere build your kingdom here we pray well thank you for joining us today as we looked at the first four kingdom attitudes you know what jesus is talking about in the beatitudes and the rest of the sermon on the mount is a radical reconstruction of the heart it is an invitation to a new way of life a life that flourishes will you say yes to his invitation today whether it's the first time that god is calling you to his son jesus or if he is just calling you to a higher level of intimacy with him don't miss the opportunity to say yes to him today join me as we pray oh father would you seal the message that you've spoken to each and every one of us build the character of your kingdom within us so that you can look at us your daughters and call us blessed and father as we go out into the streets of our city into our homes into all of our places may we leave a trail behind us that points to jesus christ in his name we pray amen you

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

Views: 1,052

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church, Steve Gaines Sermons, Steve Gains Sermons, SundaySermon

Id: JHyabn_LUB0

Length: 64min 41sec (3881 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 03 2021