Why Intergenerational Faith Matters

The Beatitudes And Kingdom Now

Poor In Spirit Defined

Mourning And Real Comfort

Meekness As Strength Under Control

Quiet Reflection And Closing Invitation

Study Resource And Dig Deeper

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey friends, Mandy here, back for episode two in the So Blessed series. We're walking through Matthew chapter five, looking at Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, talking about what does it mean to live a blessed life, to experience God's blessing. Because we all have some ideas, the world has some ideas, but Jesus has the truth. And so we're going to go to his word together. If you're not already going there, we want you to get there because his word is truth and it leads us in what is true. And when we experience what's true, we are transformed. And that's what we're looking for. So here at Brave Girls Gather, we are all about gathering together, growing in Christ, and going and making disciples. And that's what we want to see you do. We want to see you and the women in your life and the girls in your life grow closer to Jesus and each other. That's why we come here. That's why we show up. That's why we create these resources because we believe that this is God's design for his church. We're never meant to be alone. He meant for us to have each other. And so before we go a second further, I want to take a moment and pray for us. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for each person who's made it to the other side of my voice, whether it's a young middle school girl trying to navigate her faith or a young adult woman who's leading a group of girls or just trying to grow alongside the girls in her life or an older woman of the faith who's desiring to pour into the young women around her. Father, I pray that you would bless them. I pray that you would be with them. I pray that you would open their eyes, their ears, their hearts, and their minds to receive something from you today that allows them to walk away from this time, change, better, transformed, so that they can go and be poured out for others. It is in your beautiful and precious name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Something so important to us that we want to make sure a vision that we want you to catch here at Brave Girls Gather is the power of intergenerational relationships. So you're always going to come to places in our content where you're seeing us encourage you to talk to a more mature believer. Don't skip out on those parts. Seek out those relationships in your life. They're worth it and they're what God has for you. And that woman, that girl that God's calling you to, she's already there. Just pray and ask God to open your eyes to see who he's calling you to reach out to and who he's calling you to invest in. So in Matthew chapter five, at the start of the chapter, we have nine sayings. They're called the Beatitudes. Maybe you've heard them before. But before we get into those, last week I want to remind you that we went into chapter four and we saw Jesus launch into his ministry with the words, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That means it's right here in our midst. It's here with us now. And throughout scripture and throughout things that Jesus said, there's this whole understanding of there's things that are here right now, and there are things that are yet to come. And the kingdom of heaven is one of those things. It's here with us now, and it's coming again in its fullness when Jesus returns. So these nine sayings, these beatitudes, all start with the same word. And that word is blessed. Now, what does that word mean? I looked it up in its original meaning, and I was kind of floored by what I saw. Its original meaning means to be envied. Like we're not supposed to envy, but we get to envy this. We get to envy the blessing of God. And what this blessing means is that we have joy that is rooted in God's salvation and favor, regardless of circumstance. This means that no matter what is going on, I don't care if it's the worst thing, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God and the joy that God has for us. We can have sorrow and joy at the same time. We can have suffering and joy at the same time. That is a blessing that we most certainly need. Let's understand it better. In this episode, we're gonna dig into the first three sayings and then we'll work on the other six in the next two episodes. But in this one, we're gonna start with the first three. You'll find them in Matthew chapter five, verses three through five. And the first one says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And so if you can envision the people of this time, if we can we just like, can I just like take us back for a minute and take a look, kind of kind of like sideline us for a minute and go back and look at verse one? In verse one, Jesus, it says, he sees the crowd and he goes up on the mountain and he sits down, and his disciples come to him. And so Jesus is there and he's with a crowd. I want you to envision this crowd. It's full of all different kinds of people, all different kinds of walks of life. And as we go through these three beatitudes that we're going to go through today, I want you to envision this crowd. And Jesus' disciples right up there at front, listening to him. And what I love about this is Jesus is talking to his disciples, but the crowd is listening and also learning. And so at Brave Girls Gather, when we consider our model and we consider, like, what is our objective? What are we trying to do here? We want to invite girls who know Jesus, and we want to invite girls who want to know about Jesus, and we want to invite girls who don't know Jesus. And we're going to speak to the girls who do know Jesus and the girls who don't are going to learn more about him. And they're going to get that craving and that thirst, that envy for what we have. So these people during this time were probably thinking when they thought of blessing, they were probably thinking, like, the kingdom of heaven, the blessing of heaven has probably come for all those super, super righteous people. You know, during that time, there were religious leaders who weren't seen as like the top of the religious food chain. And they knew all the Bible verses, they followed all the rules, they told everyone else about following the rules. They were very prestigious, they were very looked up to, and they had the power even. And the people of that time probably thought like that's who gets the blessing the prestigious, the powerful, the influential, the well-spoken, the well-educated. But Jesus, in this sermon, his breakout sermon, he wants to break down what we think about blessing. And he starts with telling us that the kingdom of heaven has come for the poor in spirit. Actually, these first three beatitudes are all about the who. Who has the kingdom of heaven come for? And he says, the poor in spirit. Now, what does that mean, poor in spirit? You see, if these religious leaders had all of this good information, they had all this scripture and they have all of these things that uh represent the kingdom of God, they might be considered as kind of like rich in spirit, right? And they have so much, but Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. And here's what the poor in spirit is the poor in spirit are those who recognize their deep dependence on God. Those who recognize that nothing good comes from them without Jesus, that it is Jesus that works in us to produce the godliness that we can see that comes out in our actions and behaviors, and that others see. And when we have this deep dependence on him, we become malleable in his hands. We become a place where the kingdom of heaven can rest and work. And that is why Jesus says, Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, because that emptiness produces room for me to come in and fill them up so that I can be displayed and so that my glory can be seen through them. Now, the second beatitude is blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, someone who's mourning has been through something hard. They're experiencing sorrow. Maybe they've experienced unthinkable loss. They've been through something. And so during this time, especially, if you were mourning, you were more so seen as unfortunate, like something unfortunate has happened to you. And maybe even in your own life, you're like, man, I'm going through this. And maybe it means I've done something, or maybe it means God doesn't really love me, or I'm not really his. Because if I was his, would this be so hard? Jesus turns that upside down and he says, Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are going through some things. Blessed are those who are brokenhearted. Why? Because they shall be comforted. The kingdom of heaven has come for you so that you can receive that comfort. What happens in that comfort is a miracle. We grow closer to God. If we'll allow ourselves to in our heartache to grow closer to God, we will experience a strengthening in our soul, a confidence in our soul that others will envy. Doesn't feel good. It's painful. But when Jesus comes in and brings the comfort, nothing compares to it. The final beatitude that we're going to look at is blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, if we go to Revelation 21, this isn't in the study, by the way. You can go take a look at it though. You can consider this bonus content. Go to Revelation 21 and take a look. You will find that when Jesus returns, there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. So when Jesus says the meek shall inherit the earth, he's saying, for the meek, the future is yours. Now, sometimes when we think of meek, we might think weak, and that is not true. Meek means strength under control. Now, this person doesn't need to be the most gregarious person, you know, they don't need to be the loudest person in the room, but there's a quiet confidence that they carry. It's the blessing of the meek. And it is something to be envied because we want that. We want to have a quiet strength that allows us to stay upright when others overlook us or when we feel unseen because we know who sees us. And we know the promises and the blessing that come from the one who sees us and the quiet strength that comes from seeing the one who sees us. That's what we're aiming for. You know, we want, we all want our lives to matter, but we want it to matter for what matters most, the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. Now, as we wrap up, I want to give us that moment to connect with God. We don't want to, again, just receive good information. We want to experience transformation. And that comes from giving him space to speak into our lives about what matters, including and especially his truth. So maybe one of those beatitudes just kind of hit your heart today. You really felt that. Let's take a moment and ask the Lord what he wants you to see and what he wants you to know. Father, I thank you for again each woman and each girl who's made it here today. I pray if you have stirred something in her heart that you would reveal more about what you want her to see and what you want her to know so that she can know what you want her to do. We're just gonna sit with you, Lord, right now and give you that space. Okay, I am hoping that the Lord has begun a conversation with you and that it's a conversation that you don't leave here, but that you continue even once this podcast is over. Finally, as we wrap up, I want to point out that if you're doing the study, if you're following along with the study, and maybe if you've gotten here and you're like, what study? What is this study? You can find the So Blessed study on the Brave Girls Gather website, or you can find it on the Bible app. Just search up Brave Girls Gather or search up So Blessed, and that should pull up for you. It will also be included in the show notes for this episode. There is a section in that study at the end of day two called Dig Deeper. Now, Dig Deeper is an opportunity to extend this time with the Lord and allow your heart to sink into the truth that He wants you to know. So for this dig deeper, we're encouraging you to write down the first three Beatitudes and their promises. And over the next nine days that are left in this study, write the other ones down also and work to memorize them. Until we meet again, our hope and prayer is that you will gather with the girls in your life, that together you will grow in Christ, and that you will go and make disciples.