The Goodness of God - Part 15 - The Beatitudes, Part V

We're living in victory The battle's won in victory We've overcome whatever comes our way We're working just to see We're living in victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ Hello, this is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. Thank you for joining me again today. We're going to continue our series on the goodness of God. This is part five of a portion of the series on the Beatitudes. We still have to cover ministering spirits or angelic beings in this series and how they are here to help us. We still need to cover the names of God that define His goodness and who He is. So there's still more to cover in this series. If you would, join your faith with me that I can speak the word of God, the oracles of God, properly, truthfully, that get examples to help us learn and grow and see His goodness. Amen. Heavenly Father, we come to You. I ask You for revelation, for help, to share Your good news about Your goodness to us, Father. I ask You to open up all the eyes of everybody who's listening. Help this word get to the right people that they see Your goodness, walk in Your goodness, live in victory, and experience everything You have for us, Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Well, the series is based on two scriptures. Psalms 34, 8 says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him, who has faith in Him. And in the second verse is John 10, 10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. In this portion of the series on the Beatitudes,

we've covered the first four characteristics, which are progressive, dealing with relationship with God. The poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Then you will be filled. And then we started on the progression of the Beatitudes that have to deal with loving our fellow brothers and sisters. Blessed are the merciful, pure in heart, the peacemakers. Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness. These deal with other people and their issues. And then it goes into the rewards. In the last message, we started on blessed are the pure in heart. Matthew 5, 8 says, Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Jesus himself spoke of the pure in heart. He talked about it comes from our inner being. The root is from our inner being that leads us to actions that we take. From our hearts come our motives, our desires, our goals, our emotions. The inner self eventually will reveal itself in our outward action. You can only hide what's in you so long. The word says what's in you will come out, right? If your hearts aren't right, our actions won't be right either. They may look like they're right, but with the wrong heart, the wrong motives, the wrong intent, it's manipulation, it's hypocrisy, it's deception. God's not in it. Jesus described the inner man in Mark 7, verse 21. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murderers, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,

deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Now there's not one of us here that has not done these. You say, well, I've never murdered. Oh, you've done some of this. You've lied. You've had a foolishness idea or thought or action. You've acted in pride. You've looked negatively with an evil eye on people. All these things come from within and defile a man. So we're not here to judge, amen? But how do you become pure in heart? As I mentioned in the last message, you stay in the word. You meditate on it day and night. You speak the word. We control our minds. It's our thoughts, our mind, we can control it. Watch what you say. It's your tongue. You can determine whether you bite your tongue or whether you're going to give them a piece of your mind. mind. No, you need every cell you got. You need to keep your mind. Amen. The scripture warns about evil communications that corrupt the mind, off-color jokes, things of that nature. The definition of pure in heart is important in order to understand the beatitudes. To be pure in heart is not sinlessness. That's not reality. We're flesh. Even the Bible says we all come short. We've all made mistakes. 1 John 1 7-9 says, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, in other words, walk in what we know, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses, not just it has, it cleanses. Cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we come to God in faith and ask for forgiveness, he makes us pure in heart through Jesus before him. God wants us to have pure hearts because he's a good God and he wants to bless us. Amen. We need to watch our thought life. You know, we need to be aware of Satan. He is a trickster, a liar. He starts off with a small little lie, a small little idea. He never shows you the end of something. He never showed Hitler the end of what Hitler was going to be to the point where he lost everything and committed suicide. He doesn't show the person that took a drag from a cigarette to pot to the next thing, coke, heroin, meth, to being homeless, divorced, fired, overdosed, dead. He doesn't show you that at the end. He shows you the party, the good time. Amen. You being cool, man. Psalms 139 verse 23 says, search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I prefer this in the new live in the living Bible as well as the message. I think for me, it gives me more clarity. The living Bible says, search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Test my thoughts. Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad and lead me along the path of everlasting life. The message Bible, it says, investigate my life, Oh God. Find out everything about me. Cross examine me 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. In other words, reveal to me, Lord, areas where I've made mistakes, where I've come short, bad decisions I'm making, things in my lifestyle that I don't even see that I need to change, improve, clean up and show me how to get out of it. Show me how to come up. You say, Oh, I can't come out of this. You don't know how deep of a hole I've dug. Oh no, God can get you out. You may say, I am in bondage. Well, he will set you free. He who the son sets free is free indeed. It could be pride, gossip. It could be spending money. It could be pornography. Whatever it is, God can help you and get you up and out. But you need to come to him honestly with a true heart and say, examine me, point it out to me, Lord. Help me. Have mercy on me. Amen. If that's you, let's pray right now and ask the Lord to help us to reveal things to us. Now, if you aren't real about it, if you really don't want to come up, you really don't want to come out God's help, then don't even say the prayer. He knows your heart. Amen. But if you truly want to get right with him and live in the blessings, live in the goodness and come up because he has plans to prosper you, but you've got to do it his way. Plans to protect you, to bless you. So Heavenly Father, we come to you and we ask you to examine our hearts. Examine our thoughts. See what's in us, Father. Bring it to our attention.

Father, and as you do, we choose to serve you and with your grace, with your help, with your mercy, we know we can come out and we will come out. So we ask you for your help. We ask you for your mercy, Lord, your revelation. And as we do, we know according to your word that we will Come up and out and live in goodness, live in blessings. We thank you for it, Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you said that with a pure heart, truly meaning it, in other words, not just some religious game, expect it to happen. Expect them to show you stuff. But when you do, make changes. Don't just, oh, that's cool, or yeah, probably need to do something about that. No, make changes. If you have to go to somebody you've been lying to and say, man, I've been lying. If you've been committing adultery, be honest about it. Get yourself clean, Amen. We see the mistakes and sins in the Bible from patriarchs, great leaders, even prophets. Abraham, I mean, he slept with Hagar. He slept with his wife's maid, right? David, King David, he slept with his best friend's wife and then had him murdered. Moses, whenever he came out of Pharaoh's house, he murdered another guard, Jacob, known as the trickster, the liar. So it's not that we're perfect. These were major, major people in the Bible that did miracle after miracle. Look at Paul who wrote two thirds of the New Testament. He murdered Christians, Amen. In Romans chapter seven, Paul states, he said, the things I didn't want to do, I did. Been there, done that. So it's not that you're perfect. It's that you come to him openly, honestly, with a pure heart saying, forgive me, Lord, help me, Amen.

And he is just and faithful to do it. Proverbs 23, seven says, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Peter has the idea of singleness, one-minded, not waving back and forth, not divided. Blessed are the undivided in heart, putting God first in your life, Amen. Psalms 86, 11 says, teach me your way, O Lord. I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. And Jeremiah 32, 38 says, they shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way. We just prayed. And if we believe what we prayed and act on the prayer that we prayed, he's going to give us one heart, one way that we fear him forever. In other words, give him reverence, give him honor, Amen. Honor is due. And his word says, if we honor him, he will honor us. And it says that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. For the good, he wants to do good in our life as we honor him, as we reverence him, but not just in our life, in our children, our great grandchildren, Amen. You can be a leader in your home, leading your children, your grandchildren towards the path of the blessing, protection, prosperity, and health. They have choices they have to make. I got off and away from God when I was younger. I got back. Thank you. And it was because I had parents that took me to church, parents that raised me according to the things of the Lord. You say, well, I didn't have that. Don't look back. Look forward.

Amen. Go forward from here. The next one, Matthew chapter five, verse nine says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are the peacemakers comes to us in the seventh position of the eight Beatitudes or the seventh one. You cannot be a peacemaker without mercy, which was in verse seven. We're in verse nine now. You cannot be merciful without being poor in spirit. Verse three, see they're progressive. A peacemaker in Greek comes from the word Irene Opoios, Irene Opoios. And it means free from strife. Strife is the manifest presence of Satan. You can walk into a house that you walk in. You can just sense that there's been strife there. You can feel it. It's the manifest presence of Satan. The Greek word, Irene Opoios also means free from disquieting thoughts or to be quiet. You've heard of people say, I want peace and quiet. We'll see this word, Irene Opoios. The first part of it, Irene means peace. The second part, Opoio means to make. We're supposed to be peacemakers, amen. I used to own a Colt .45 revolver. I blessed somebody with it not long ago man I like that gun it shoot true and I mean straight whatever you were aiming at man but it was had a barrel on it like that was revolver colt 45 long oh it's cool and it used to be carried by sheriffs in the old west and it was known as the peacemaker why because the sheriff made peace you see that colt 45 long pointed at you hands up amen see we are supposed to make peace we are to endeavor to make peace reconciliation I taught a series on the ministry of reconciliation which every believer has

part of that is to make peace true peace is based on truth of God's word a reward of being a peacemaker is being called a son of God you overcome evil by doing good that's a sign of a peacemaker the world is longing for peace man-made attempts of world peace have failed every worldwide beauty pageant what's their desired world peace now that's fake be real about it amen with sanctan on earth there won't be world peace there's going to be times that look like world peace but it's not just the true peace is not just the absence of war it's not just an agreement to stop shooting each other all these peace conferences over time have failed world leaders find themselves at an impasse every time they get together it could because they're approaching it from the wrong direction from a political social and economic perspective yes they need to be approaching it from a spiritual godly perspective right that will happen someday when Jesus comes back but until then there's a god this world that is here creating strife lies deception so the problem is not political social economic but it's spiritual this is why they fail the man the approach is man-oriented and not god-oriented but the bible gives us the answer very clearly the heart of man needs to change amen Jesus said that out of the heart of a man evil comes lies hate bitterness gossip murder adultery that comes out of the heart the source of the trouble is the heart of man so remember the seventh blessing follows pure in heart what follows purity of the heart peace if you've got a pure heart you're looking for peace you're willing to make peace now James 3 17 says the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace make peace wisdom from from god from above is pure right it's brilliant i have a friend he's in heaven but they were trying to figure out how to keep satellites in orbit that they wouldn't just put them up in the sky and they go out of here how they keep them in orbit around the earth and he sought the lord and prayed god gave him not nasa gave him the answer which now everything that we do with gps all this satellite-based stuff is all based on the technology god gave him you know being a peacemaker is not avoiding trouble or conflict at any price it's not creating peace so-called peace at any price it's not being a pacifist you try to nuke our nation we're going to attack we're going to defend ourselves amen you try to hurt my wife i'm going to make peace with you you're going to rest in peace it's not being a wimp it's not being a sissy you come after my wife you better be ready to meet your creator amen that's not arrogance

i'm supposed to protect my wife that's a position as the as the head of our house as a man not to be weak being a peacemaker doesn't mean weak doesn't mean compromising in order to get along it doesn't mean sticking your head in the sand you know i've had friends in the past where oh their wife controls the house or the head of the house they lead it it's their house they're going to do it their way that's not what god says these are people in the church now granted the men need to step up and be leaders and lead their house but the word also says for women oh i'm gonna go there people don't like it but the bible says it it says men love your wives As I have loved the church. He died for us. Amen men You were supposed to be willing to die for our wives and that says women Submit to your husbands as unto God if they're doing it righteously God way now if they're asking you to do something unholy ungodly No, that's not what it talks about But so many women they're smarter. They can do things. You're not grace to be the head. I Know some of you don't like it, but God said it and he's much smarter than we are. Amen I'm gonna do it God's way. I'm gonna live in his goodness So that wasn't in my notes. I didn't plan on going there, but it's good. Amen. It's right It's not this wheat thing. Amen. It's not just ignoring a problem It's not sticking your head in the sand so that your turmoil drags on and goes over and over going around the bush another hundred times no, it means it's a just a means of Avoiding truth and order to keep the peace will fail Because truth sets you free. Amen a peacemaker Though he loves lost people sinners will not condone sin He's not gonna say oh, it's okay to create just so that there's not there's an atmosphere of so-called peace No truth will set them free. It doesn't condone sin. It doesn't judge him It just says now as for me in my house, we're gonna serve the Lord one more. We are one nation under God That's not right because I want them blessed even if they don't understand it If they want some of these ungodly things in our nation I have to vote and stand against it because if we go down the path of total sin the blessing then the protection of God comes off our nation, amen and Hebrews 12 14 it says follow peace with all men. Yeah, it says that

So why is this this is confusing? No, you need to read the whole thing the whole context That's how a lot of doctrines are created that are wrong as people take a part of a verse Hebrews 12 14 says pursue peace with all people in holiness without which no one will see the Lord Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau For who for one morsel of food sold his birth wife For you know that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was Rejected for he found no place for repentance though. He sought it diligently with tears Peace and holiness are corrected in the connected in this verse But there's also a connection between peace holiness and the blessing. Amen That's why God wants us pure in heart so he can bless us if there's a choice between peace and holiness We choose holiness. Amen The Bible tells us in Isaiah 57 verse 21 There is no peace saith my God to the wicked wicked people aren't going to experience true peace The NCV says there is no peace for evil people says my God It is not peace at the expense of truth love holiness God we took God out of our schools years ago. We took prayer Ten Commandments now we got shootings drugs No respect poor education because of the choices man-made Proverbs 23 23 says by the truth by the truth and do not sell it Also wisdom and instruction and understanding a true peacemaker does not unite themselves to error Amen, that's one of the problems with our politicians and governments They unite themselves with error for their own initiatives their own desires Jesus said in Matthew 10 34. He did not come to bring peace but a sword. Well wait I thought he was the prince of peace So is this confusing? No, we got to rightly divide the word Isaiah 9 6 says in his name shall be called wonderful Counselor the mighty God the everlasting father the prince of peace There's not a contradiction here

Let me explain that How can Jesus be the prince of peace yet? He does not but the Bible says he comes with a sword He comes with a sword Well, if you've got cancer in your body To get healed you need to cut that cancer out So Jesus comes with a sword to cut the sin out So that you there is peace in you peace between you and God. Amen You get the cancer cut out and you get that mass cut out then with Long life you can live, but if you leave that in there, it will spread and it will destroy. Amen. So it's just a misunderstanding Jesus had to come to bring peace by blood on the cross He was beat. He was whipped. He was scourged. He went to hell so that we could have peace He came to cut this thing of sin out of us so that we could have peace. Amen When you surrender your life to Jesus, he cuts out the sin He cut it away to the point where it is not in your life. It's out of your life like it was never there Amen So that's why in Matthew 11 12 He says and from the days of John the Baptist and to until now the kingdom of heaven Suffers violence and the violent take it by fourth Amen, take it by force. Glory to God The NLT says and from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and violent people are attacking it now That's just dumb. If you are going to attack Jesus his people the Creator You here's your sign. Amen. You gonna lose he gonna take you out. You aren't gonna win Amen, you don't want God to resist you to oppose you as James 4 6 s He resists the proud humble yourself come to him and ask him for forgiveness Amen, well, we'll continue and finish up there this portion of peace in the next message. There's a little bit more to cover This is Mike Kennedy with living in victory. I call you blessed Prosperous in the name of Jesus. Amen You