Being "Blessed" Isn't What You Think — Here's What Jesus Actually Meant

I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinOcala.com and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you. Because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today. Peace.

Have you ever noticed that in life, sometimes it feels like three steps forward and two steps back? That's not bad, right? It's those three steps forward moments in life, right? It's going good, it's going my way, right, right? At work, in the family, in your health, those three steps forward, but then there's those one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight steps back, right? And it's frustrating, but it's also discouraging. And then, right, you throw in this idea of life and the blessed life, like, we all want to be blessed. We want God to bless us. But like, what does that even really mean? Like, we say, God bless you. God bless you. And you're like, well, thank you, that's very kind. Well, what does it look like if God blesses you? How do you even know if God is blessing you? And is the blessing in the positive, the three steps forward, is that the... What about those neutral moments where I'm not making any progress, and the good news is I'm not going backwards? Is this the blessed life? Hey, what about those deficit moments in our life? We live in a culture where when we think about blessings or success, it's always about, like, the competition. It's like making more sales compared to their sales.

It's a square foot of this house compared to that house. It's the kind of vehicle that you drive. It's this consumption, and then if you arrive here, then this is the blessed life. And the tragedy of here is often, right, you get here, you're like, okay, if I could get from a three-two to a four-three bedroom home, then that would be the blessed life. But then you get there, right? And it's like, you're like, it's good for a while, but then it's like the target moves, and it's the blessed life is now over here. You're like, if I could just get married, I'd have the blessed life. And then you're married, you're like, if I could just get unmarried, I'd have the blessed life. It's always moving. Then the pressure to protect yourself because a relationship, what someone might've said, that certainly doesn't feel blessed when you've been betrayed, criticism. We just get exhausted. We get exhausted trying to prove ourselves, prove ourselves at work, prove ourselves to our family, to our parents, to our teachers, to coaches, to a college, to get into that particular college. And this is not lost on Jesus. That's why in your copy of God's Word, we're in Matthew chapter five. All summer, we're gonna talk about the higher ground

because what we believe is. that the blessed life is in the higher ground. And he starts off this entire message to his disciples. And part one was last week, and go back online and look at that. We're gonna jump in today at verse seven. But Jesus doesn't just save you for eternity, he transforms your identity. And when we get to know who we are, and you really begin to believe that you are more than enough, you belong in this space and you have what it takes, we begin to lean into the better life. And where we're at in the scriptures, some theologians call it the Beatitudes, some call this the Sermon on the Mount, as if the Beatitudes are individual characteristic traits, they're personality types, that if you say, well, you know, I've got this, I'm kind of good on the whole meekness part, but man, the mercy part, I'm not so strong on, like you can pick and choose. Listen, these are building blocks. It's not that you pick and choose, they build on top of each other, because the conclusion that we're gonna see as we walk through chapter five, chapter six, and chapter seven, is that this thing called the Christian life, which you've already come to the conclusion,

it's impossible to live out. To live out what Jesus is going to say and to ask us to be in the coming pages, it is far too challenging. That's why he gives us these Beatitudes as foundational building blocks to build our life on. So you got your copy of God's word, we're in Matthew chapter five, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, I'm gonna read out of the NIV, and then what we'll do is we'll come back and build the block on top of each other, and I'm also gonna share with you Eugene Peterson's version of the message, okay? You ready? You got your Bibles, you ready? You got your notebook, you got your journal out. This is transformative. We are believing all year long that when you and I become more like Jesus, the world becomes better. You become better, your family becomes better, businesses become better, our city, our county, our state, our country becomes better when we become more like Jesus. So here we go. Look what it says in your copy of God's word, beginning in verse number seven. There's that blessed statement. Blessed, we want to bless life. The blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they'll be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted. It certainly doesn't feel like a blessing when you're persecuted, right? But blessed are the persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you. Really, God? When they persecute you, come on, and falsely say all kinds. When they post things online about you that's not true. When a text gets sent out, I'm blessed, I mean, what does God mean by that? Then verse 12, rejoice and throw a party. Be glad, why? Because great is reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So what's happening here? What is Jesus trying to establish and how can you and I in your life, in your family's life, how can you experience the blessed life? So you take a note, number one, let's start with that first statement.

And here's the big idea. God, if you're gonna have the blessed life, we have to mirror God's mercy to others. We've gotta be a mirror of the mercy of God to others. He said, blessed are the merciful, they shall be shown mercy. You see, the blessed life has open hands, not clenched fists. And so when someone's done something wrong to you and you're kind of holding on to that anger, you're holding on to that bitterness, you're thinking, how can I kind of repay what they've done to me, right? You're holding on to life with clenched fists. This is not the blessed life. And God has given us enough mercy. Matter of fact, God has given us so much mercy that it overflows out of us. Now, let's be honest, this is not the reality. I'm telling you what God has done. For most of us, we are holding on to the mercy. When someone's done you wrong, when someone said something, that coworker, that boss, that person in traffic, your neighbor, somebody's done something that you don't like, mercy is the last thing that we are thinking about giving to them. So notice Matthew chapter five, verse seven, from the message. You're blessed, I want blessed.

Do you, I mean, I know it's rhetorical, but do you really want the blessed life? I mean, do you want your kids to be blessed? I mean, I know what you're thinking. You think that the way for your kids to be blessed is an SAT. I'm all for SAT scores. Or they're the captain of the football team. Or they make more money. I'm for everything, but all I'm saying is this. How's that been working for you? Some of you graduated top of your class. It's graduation season. Some of you have great SAT scores. Some of you are high school honor athletes. But in this world, those things that we put so much attention on often fail us. So Jesus is showing up right now in real time in your life. And what he's saying is this. The blessed life, you are blessed when you care. At the moment of being careful, you find yourself cared for. We're a mercy. We're a mirror of God's mercy. God has given us mercy. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Every person has sinned. Every person has failed. Every person has done wrong. But God has chosen to give us mercy.

We didn't deserve it, but he has given it to us. There's a story. You can write it down and read it later. It's in Matthew chapter 18. Matter of fact, Matthew chapter 18 is a phenomenal conflict chapter. Anybody ever have conflict like in your family? Sometimes? Anybody have conflict like at work? Employees not showing up the way that you're supervised or whatever? Anybody have conflict in your neighborhood? Right, whatever that thing is, Matthew 18, God steps in and gives you an outline for dealing with conflict. He tells this story where we're at in Matthew 18 is there's this man and he had incurred a great amount of debt. He did not have the ability to pay back the debt. In our culture today, we call that being bankrupt, right? And there's an actual procedure that you can go and file bankruptcies. There's consequences for that. They might foreclose on your house and take your house back, right? They might come, the repo guy might come and take your $110,000 SUV out of your driveway. We get that. In those days, hello, they came and took your kid. Now I know, some of you are like,

well, let me think, $110,000 SUV. We're laughing because we've all thought it, right, right? But I mean, and they would be put into servitude. And so this guy goes before the lender and says, listen, please, please, please, kind of like king, would you please give me some mercy? I don't have what it takes. And I'm sure he gave a big old excuse, maybe he's laid off from work or maybe he got sick or something. He was caring for his parents, something. And the king said, all right, I'm gonna give you mercy. I'm forgiven the debts that you owed me. Now you would have thought that little boy would have been the most grateful guy in the community. But you know what he did? He went out and he found somebody who basically owed him coffee money. So little of an indebtedness that it was about the cost of a cup of coffee. He said, hey, listen, listen, hey, I need that five bucks back. Now, depending on your Starbucks order, it might be more than five bucks, but give me that five bucks. And the guy said, listen, I can't, man. I don't have it right now, I promise. He said, no, no, no, no, listen, if you don't give it to me right now, I'm calling the officials. And he said, I don't have it.

This old boy who had just had received mercy from the king, goes and finds somebody, owes him a few bucks, demands it. When the man can't pay it, he calls the officials and has that man thrown into jail. In our language, in our talk today, some people find out about this and they get on X and they start posting this. They're like, this is wrong, this is unfair. It's brought to the king and the king says, what? And that's where we pick up the story in Matthew 18 and 32. Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, I canceled all the debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed. This is how, listen, church. Listen Christ follower. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or your sister from your heart and You thought you could keep treating your ex that way didn't you? You you thought that you could you could you could be that way towards them because of what they did But right here the Word of God is challenging your behavior. You've got a decision to make this morning Will you mirror God's mercy to others see hurting people hurt people healed people help people Maybe your problem is you're really not healed You're playing the game you put on your Sunday best you kind of You act it out for people to think but deep down inside of you

You really haven't been healed from your sin see bitterness in prisons you longer than the person who hurts you Such a truth How do you do this when you start by forgiving them you mark I don't know how to do that. Listen, you don't know how to do that because you're a human We don't know how to do that. That's why God forgave you You mirror you don't have to work up something. You don't have to create something brand new You just mirror what you experienced from God then you care for that person You release them from it and you give them grace mercy is not giving them what they deserve and grace is giving them what they Did not deserve You got a mirror. I'm just talking about if you want to bless life I am convinced that the reason so many who will gather and I'm glad we're gathering together today We are Christ's followers. You're gathering online many of us as Christ followers are not living a blessed life We talk about one two, three steps forward. We find ourselves 30 steps back It's not because of who's in the White House. It's not because of the economy. It's not because the price of a fuel right now It's because you as a Christ follower have received mercy from God, but for whatever reason right now You have decided not to release it make a decision. You're gonna stop change that today Why because you want the blessed life? Here's the second thing if you're taking notes from verse 8 The idea the principle is daily surrender yourself to God The Bible says it this way and blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God see God is more concerned with your heart than your high right highlight real Stop trying to put on a dog and pony show for God your righteousness falls way short You're good behavior all the things you try. He's after our heart He's after what's happening on the inside that notice Matthew chapter 5 8 from the message. You're blessed. What am I blessed? I want blessed when you get your inside world your mind and your heart put right then you can see God in your Outside world you're blessed when you get the inside world put right See, unfortunately too many of us particularly if you've been around this thing. We call church in North America for a long time You basically many ways from Sunday school to youth groups to vacation Bible schools to your parents to everything Every examples you've been taught how to kind of clean it up on the outside

And have the right kind of haircut wear the right kind of clothes. Don't get this kind of tat Don't see those kind of movies. Don't go there. You know, don't you and don't go with girls who do I mean? You kind of behave your way on the outside, you know And you kind of put your proverbial Sunday best on Sunday, but then live however you want Monday through Saturday And that's that's why you feel so disconnected from God. It's it's not it's not the blessed life Notice how David put it in Psalms 139 investigate my life. Oh God find out everything about me Do you have the courage to pray that prayer today? Investigate my life. Oh God find out everything about me cross-examine and test me get a clear picture of what I'm about See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong then guide me on the road to eternal life God Purifies us not to expose us but to transform you from who you were into who He created you to become But we live in a world right people are always kind of a gotcha. They're asking in a question You feel like you're being set up. It's a gotcha. That's not how it is with God God's not trying to expose you to gotcha. He's trying to expose you so you can live your best life now God cannot heal a version of you that you keep hiding one of the great tragedies in This thing called Christianity is we've just become professional hiders We just stuff it and we hide it and we pretend and God says listen, don't hide that. I want to heal that I want to heal that wound. I want to take care of that that just get that that that disillusionment And that pain point, that pressure, that betrayal, don't hide it, don't stuff it, expose it to me. Purity of heart isn't perfection, it's undivided devotion. It's like, God, I'm going to be devoted, only you're the one that can heal my heart. And what I know is true is that what fills your heart eventually directs your life. What fills your heart eventually directs your life. And so you ask yourself, man, how did I arrive here? How, I mean, no one just wakes up and says,

I just want to throw away my marriage. How did I, you were holding something in your heart along the way. How did I arrive here where there's this addiction and I can't break free from it, right? How did I arrive here, right? I just, I don't know what, somewhere you were focusing. Rather than giving God that pain, you asked a can of Pringles to heal your pain. Instead of letting God's identity cool the heat of culture, you thought a gallon of ice cream would cool the pain of culture. Daily surrender yourself to God. That's how you get the better life is, I'm surrendering my heart. I'm surrendering my mind, God, only you. I'm not going to hide this from you any longer. We want the blessed life. You want the blessed life. I want, but the question you're asking is, okay, where is it? Is it in the three steps forward in the positive zone? What if I'm just kind of neutral? Or what if I'm in a deficit? What God is saying, it's not any of that. It's more than that. The blessed life is when you are mirroring the mercy that you've received to others. It's when you are daily surrendering yourself, why? Because God is your strength in surrender. And here's the third thing, if you want to write it down,

it's this, is that you've decided from verse eight that you're going to promote the peace of God. Every place that you live is, verse nine says it this way, "'Blessed are the peacemakers, "'for they will be called the children of God.'" Now, there's a difference. Many times I think we have misread that. We think that it says peacekeepers and not peacemakers. There's a big difference between a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. A peacekeeper is a mom or a dad who's at the end of their mind with these kids. So you know what they do? They take one kid and put him in this room and shut the door and say, you're staying here until 2046. They take the other kid and put him in the room and then the idea's right, they're keeping the peace. All the chaos that's in the house, they haven't solved a thing. They haven't made peace, they're just keeping peace. God calls us not to keep the peace, God calls us to make the peace, why? Because where Jesus rules, peace flows. You want peace in your marriage, invite Jesus into your marriage. You want peace in your family, in your kids, invite Jesus. Every place Jesus is, if you're in a unpeaceful space, if you're in a chaotic zone, Jesus is absent.

Wherever Jesus is, just like truth. Jesus doesn't do the truth, Jesus is the truth. Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth. Here, let me give you some verses that you can look at this week. In John 14 and 27, here's what Jesus says to you and says to me, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. He has deposited when Jesus, when you're talking about Jesus being in my heart. So here's the question, do you have peace in your heart? If you don't have peace, now I know the world's chaotic and I know your job and finances and I get it, but let's remind ourselves that in the times of Jesus, it was a chaotic world as well. The Romans had occupied Israel, Jesus was crucified. Notice Colossians 3 and 15, let the peace of Christ rule you. That's a picture like of an umpire in a sporting event. Peace, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Romans 15, 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then Philippians 4 and 6. And I'm so excited about Daryl Black being here next week.

I'm looking forward. I'm gonna be sitting right over here on the front row. I'm gonna have my notebook open, my journal, and ready to take notes. God has blessed Daryl. And so it's Memorial Day weekend. Lots of fun activities. I get it. We're gonna celebrate. Some of us are gonna do the MRF. Some of us are gonna go to cemeteries and remember and have a marked moment for those men and women who gave their life. Some of you are having cookouts and barbecues. Some of you guys are going to the beach. Here's all I'm saying, is incorporate all of those things into next Sunday morning. And in life, sometimes we have to give excuses because we can't be somewhere someplace. I get it. And I want you to be out. I want you to be an expert excuse giver for everything else next Sunday morning so that you and your family and your friends experience Daryl Black next weekend. But notice, do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, talk about a gift to step out in the summer with. By prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace, there it is, and the peace of God, which transcends all understandings, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's why in Matthew 5, 9, notice from the message, you're blessed. I want the blessed life. We all want the blessed life. You're blessed when you can show people, tell me we don't need this today. Tell me that God didn't put this on Eugene Peterson's mind. You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. Would anybody mind if like the country we live in, we just decided to cooperate with each other? Would anybody upset? Does anybody really want to keep on living this way? You're red, you're blue. I don't know, purple, somewhere in between. I hate you, I hate you. This craziness that's in our culture, you understand it as a Christ mouth. All year long, we're leaning in the scriptures, and the scriptures, be more like Jesus, why? Because when we're more like Jesus, the world is blessed. We can make our culture better. We can make our country brighter when we choose to be peacemakers. You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight.

That's when you discover who you really are in your place in God's family. It'd be interesting, jump into chat GPT or jump into Claude, whatever your AI is, and say, how to bring peace to the country in which I live. See what it says. Maybe AI give all kinds of answers. I promise you, this is the solution. When we choose to live out a way of what it looks like, and listen, giving peace doesn't mean that we avoid problems, and certainly, peace doesn't mean that we give somebody else whatever they want. That's not peacemaking. That might feel like peacekeeping. You're solving nothing, and what's actually happening, you are intensifying the problem. As Christ followers, we don't avoid the problem. What we simply do is bring the problem, bring the situation to God. We surrender ourselves to God because we believe that God will be the source and solution. We need to stop adding fuel to fires Jesus died to put out. If you can't be a peacemaker on Instagram, you need to delete your account. If you can't be a peacemaker with your mouth, you need to go to a surgeon and let them sew your mouth shut. We are followers of Jesus. We live a different way.

We have the power of the resurrection that lives within us. I'm not some ordinary man. You're not some ordinary person. We are followers of Jesus. We don't live in the way that the world lives. We don't step up and respond snarky with every snarky comment. We don't push back in an evil way. We are followers of Jesus and we need to stop adding fuel to the fires Jesus died to put out. That's why our mission is laser focused. We partner with all people, people who don't look like us, don't act like us, don't vote like us, don't identify like us, people who are far from God, why? So that they will discover the hope that we've discovered has a name and his name is Jesus. Absolutely, thank you. And I'll just give this bit of advice for life and particularly for those of us who are married and then I'll drill down one. step farther. Men, you don't win people and you don't win over your spouse by winning arguments. You got to decide in life, are you going to be a follower of the almighty God and his son, Jesus Christ? You're going to be a person who wants to win every argument. I promise you, I've never sat with one of your loved ones as we talk about me officiating your funeral. And they said, hey, would you get up there and would you stand up in there and say, hey, listen, my dad was awesome. He won every argument in his life. Oh man, he was good. He cuts you, he can slice you, he can dice you. Like never. And sometimes they've said, hey, listen, you know, dad had an edge to him. Can we make sure that we don't reveal that edge? It's a decision to make. We want the blessed life. Promote the peace of God. You maybe noticed in my life, I didn't always say this, but it started in 2019 after

I had visited the Holy lands. I stopped saying goodbye and I started saying the word peace every single Sunday at the end. The last thing I say to you is peace. When you and I talk on the telephone, we talk, you'll know, you've never heard Mark say bye. You've heard me say peace. Why? Because there's nothing more valuable in the world than peace. You can have as many followers as you want on your social media. Your bank account can be full with all the cash. You can drive whatever cars, homes, all the different things and still not have peace. The wealthiest person in this gathering today, joining us online is the person who has peace of mind. You put your head on a pillow at night and you can fall asleep. You can look in the mirror and know that the person looking back at you is the same person in private as they are in public. Here's the last thing I'll give to you is this is versus 10, 11, and 12. The big idea is focus on eternity, living for Christ today. I put these two together because I think they go together by focusing on eternity. That's a big picture. That's after I pass. Then of course, there's living for Christ today that brings the future moment of eternity and Christ into this day. Here's what it says in Matthew 5, 10, and 12 from the message. You're blessed. We want the blessed life. You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even to a deeper, deeper into God's kingdom. Not only that, count yourself blessed every time people put you down or throw you out to speak lies about you, to discredit you. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort. They are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens. Give a cheer even. For though they don't like it, I do. All of heaven applauds and know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. Here's the idea is live for the applause of heaven, not the approval of people. What's really important in this space is often the persecution that we receive because we've said something really isn't about what we said. Often it's how we said it. Just remind yourself that how you say what you say matters. A little grid before you say anything, at least the grid that I try to look through is number one, is what I'm about to say. Is it helpful? If it's not helpful, why would you say it? Second, it doesn't need to be said. Sometimes there's just things that just don't need, I don't need to say this or doesn't need to be said now. And you remove those, if you put that filter in front of your brain, some of the persecution that you're experiencing, it's got nothing to do with you

standing up for Jesus. It's got nothing for you for living the surrendered life. It's got everything to do with how you're saying that mean thing that you just said, that critical comment that you just released. I want you to see, and you can take a picture. It'll also be in the weekend guide that we send to you later today. If you're not subscribed, they'll put something on the screen or just use your card and say, I want to subscribe to this. But this image really outlines for you what this blessed life looks like. And I wanted you to see it. I want you to have it because it's the foundation for everything that we're going to. talk about, and notice the circle, the circle never ends. And it starts, right, with spending time with Jesus. That's how our entire life begins, is spending time. And then we have to admit, right, that I need, that was last week, right? And then we let him love us through our losses. Watch how this is the gospel. These are not individual characteristics. These are not personality traits. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was giving them the foundation of the gospel so that when we learn some of these challenging steps all throughout Matthew 5, 6, and 7, we've got a foundation to live upon. We live contented in Christ. We develop a hunger for God. Then notice, when I'm right with Christ, how at the bottom of that circle, now it begins to move towards how I interact with other people. I'm gonna be a mirror of God's mercy. I'm gonna surrender daily. The only way to get along with other people

is to surrender to God daily. I'm gonna promote peace. The chaos that's around me, I'm gonna choose to be a peacemaker in this world. I'm gonna live for Christ. No matter what the culture says, I'm gonna make a decision. I know it's cool, and I know, and we're gonna talk about this in a few weeks. Okay, let's just move in together, kind of see if this works out. I know what the culture says. This is the way to live. But no, I am gonna live for Christ. That might bring some persecution. People might get upset. They might say I am too narrow-minded, but I am focused on heaven. And notice how that circle starts all over again. Put this in your phone. Put this as a part of your daily devotions. This is the gospel. This is what it means to follow after Jesus. See, you thought, or some pastor, so he could get you to raise your hand on some church service, said, hey, listen, just pray this prayer. Just pray this prayer, and now you're saved, and you can go live any way that you want. It's just not biblical.

Biblically, when you make a decision for Jesus, your entire life changes. Your mind changes. Your behavior changes. How you spend your money. Everything about you changes. Why? Because you move from being a dead person to being alive in Christ. Thus the term. You are born again. It's not who I was. I'm now a new person in Christ Jesus. Jesus didn't call you to fit in. He called us to follow him. Matthew 10 and 33. Everyone who denies me on earth, I will also deny him before the Father in heaven. In the message, it says it this way. Stand up for me against the world's opinion, and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail, I love that phrase, if you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you? There's no such thing as an undercover Christ follower. You're deceiving yourself and you're a liar. The only way to follow Jesus. Well, I'm a little bit more introvert. I know that's your opinion. I know that's how you think, but that's not biblical.

And you've got to make a decision. Am I a follower of Jesus Christ? Which the Bible reveals how you follow Jesus. The Bible reveals, if you want the blessed life, the blessed life is not your opinion. It's not an American way. It's not rooted in the constitution. It's not politics. It's not finances. It's not economics. It's not relational. It's not Peter Drucker. It's not Tony Robbins. It's not John Maxwell. The gospel of Jesus Christ is rooted in Jesus and what he has to say. You've been sitting for a while. I'm gonna have Corbin, the team come back up and give you a chance to respond. As they come, the Beatitudes aren't compliments. They are commands. The blessed life isn't found in the comfort. I know that's what America wants. I know people want you to think that, but it's found in becoming like Jesus. That's why this whole scenario, right? We want to think that the blessed life is up here in this positive space. And I wish all of life was in the positive, but there are times when life at its best

is just neutral. And for many of us, we get it. Sometimes it's in the deficit. What we need to embrace is that Jesus is blessing us no matter where we are, no matter what pressure points. And there are pressure points in this room. There are financial pressure points. There are relationship pressure points. There are immigration status pressure points. There's all kinds of pressure in this room. The blessed life has nothing to do with the external pressure. The blessed life are these building blocks that Jesus has unpacked. So who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to mirror mercy towards? Why don't you bring that name here in a moment when we sing and ask the Holy Spirit to change how you think. What's inside of you that needs cleansed? You're kind of hiding once you let God come in and heal you today. Where do you need to make peace? With who do you need to make peace? All men won't be at peace with you. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you be at peace with all men. I can't control how someone thinks or feels about me, but I certainly can control Mark David, and I can be at peace with all men. Maybe there's been a place or space in your life that you've compromised, and you want to come this morning and just ask God to give you the strength, the Holy Spring of the strength.

And then there is eternity. Eternity's in play. Although eternity in some form, it is this thing that's way out there, but it's also this reality inside that's shaping how I live today. You can reject Jesus' way today, but listen, don't be disappointed that the blessed life isn't a part of your DNA. That's what's at stake today. What's at stake today is a transformed life, a better and brighter you, better and brighter family, full of peace, anchored in purpose, steady in the suffering, and bold in faith. I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinocala.com and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today.

Peace.