Welcome To So Blessed Series

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Hey friends, it's good to be back for episode four and the So Blessed series. We've been walking through Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount in chapter five of the book of Matthew. Now, the Sermon on the Mount is actually three chapters, but in this reading plan and study, we are emphasizing chapter five and encouraging you afterwards to read six and seven together in community with others. Here on the podcast, we want to encourage you. We exist to encourage you to grow closer to the women and girls in your life to gather together, grow in Christ, and go make disciples. Before we dig into today's content, I want to pray for us. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for each person who's made it to the other side of my voice, whether that's a girl or a woman, Lord, a mom or a leader, Lord, you know her personally and you know why she's here. I pray that through the power of your spirit, you would minister to her heart today, that you would awaken her to unsearchable things that she did not know, and that she will experience transformation in your presence and through the study and revelation of your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Something that we really emphasize here at Brave Girls Gather is we don't want just to have good information. We want to experience transformation. And we believe that happens when we invite the Holy Spirit into our study and into our opportunities to learn and grow when we gather. It is the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that changes us. Another thing that we emphasize, and you're always going to hear us talk about it, is the power and impact of intergenerational discipleship. We're always going to be encouraging you, hey, take this to a more mature believer. Hey, do you have a person in your life that you can trust that you can process this with and talk it out with? Because that is what Jesus designed community to be like for us. And we want you to experience the fullness of that. And not only do you have someone pouring into you, but who are you pouring into? Who are the girls that God has called you to see and know and invest in? Or maybe it's a younger woman if you're an older woman. Uh, this is God's design, and it's a powerful tool that He has given us these intergenerational relationships. So let's dive into our content. We have been walking through the book of, well, sorry, chapter five of the book of Matthew. And we've started with the Beatitudes. And there's nine of them. In a couple episodes ago, we went over the first three, and that was telling us who has the kingdom of heaven come for? And it has come for the powerless and those who are hurting and those who feel unseen. And then last episode, we talked about what makes the kingdom of heaven feel like home. We looked inward and we found that it's hungering and thirsting for righteousness and extending mercy, receiving mercy and extending it to others and having a pure heart. And that pure heart, remember, it's not what we do. That pure heart is given to us by Jesus' finished work on the cross. That's how we get the pure heart. There's nothing we're striving for, there's nothing that we're trying to prove. We're simply loving God back with the love that He has given us. So today we're going to talk over the last three Beatitudes. And these three are all about comfort and maybe discomfort. Or they emphasize that being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is not always going to be comfortable. And I don't know about you guys, but comfort's kind of a thing. You know, um, I like to be comfortable. I like my cozy socks. I like a cozy fuzzy blanket if I'm cold in my house. I like my favorite coffee mug. Uh when I'm hungry, I like to eat. And so uh comfort is a thing. And depending on where you live in the world, it could be really easy to make yourself comfortable. But being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven invites us into moments of discomfort. And it's important to remember that. And so we're gonna look at the first one, and that is blessed are those.

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So let's take a look.

Blessed Are The Peacemakers

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So let's take a look at these three beatitudes. So let's take a look at the first one. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Now, when we look in the world around us, this is very counter-cultural to make peace. The world will tell us, you know, get even, protect yourself, uh, look out for you. And Jesus, let's take a look at that first beatitude now. So let's look at this first beatitude.

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Blessed are the peacemakers. So let's jump into this.

When Doing Right Brings Persecution

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The first beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. In in the world, we're gonna hear all types of things about what to do when there is a lack of peace in our life, right? We're gonna be told, hey, look out for you. Hey, um, get even. And God has called us to a different way of being. And this way of being is the blessed way of being that brings us peace as his peacemakers. And so what we're encouraged to do here is instead of fighting each other, trying to get what we want out of something or trying to force on someone that they understand us, is we are called to fight for one another. And that comes through listening first, attempting to understand where the other person is coming from. And this doesn't just mean peace between me and those in my life, but it also means that sometimes God's gonna put me in a situation to advocate for peace between others. We are his vessels of peace. As we come into the kingdom and Jesus begins to transform us, we become a people who are quicker to listen, quicker to try to understand what someone is saying, quicker to forgive, um, faster to um own our wrongs, to examine our wrongs and see them and own them quickly and not put off or delay an opportunity to reconcile with someone else. And certainly there are gonna be situations where you've done all that you can do, and that's all we're called to do. We're called to do everything that we can do to make peace, to be vessels of God's peace. But there are gonna be times and situations where it's just not the case. The other person can't receive the peace that you're trying to offer. And in these situations, God calls us to pray. He calls us to lay it at his feet, surrender it over to him, and pray. And these types of situations are also where we need that more mature believer in our lives to help us because it's hard to sit in a lack of peace. It's hard to sit when we've done everything that we can do, right? When you've done all you can do, and there's still not that peace that you're craving. It can be a difficult difficult place to be. And so having that more mature believer who can speak into that, who can pray with you, who can help you release the situation over to God and trust him to do what you can't do when you've done all that you can in him. The second beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are those who are persecuted. The second beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are those who are persecuted, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

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The second beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are those who are persecuted.

Reviled And Falsely Accused For Jesus

Rejoicing And Persevering Without Giving Up

Gospel Transformation And God’s Patience

Connect With God Moment And Resources

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The second beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. There is sometimes a cost to doing what is good and right. Some people are going to misunderstand your intentions, even when your intentions are pure. This is part of what it means to follow Jesus. Or sometimes because you're choosing to do what's right, you're gonna be excluded, or you're gonna be labeled as something that you're not, or you're going to be um you're gonna be removed from an opportunity because you're standing for what is good and pure and right. And when these things happen to us, we can be like, why is this happening to me? This this peculiar situation. It doesn't seem like it's right, but this is something that being a follower of Jesus comes with. We have these places where people just don't get why we're doing what we're doing, why we're saying what we're saying, why we believe what we believe. And so we don't need to consider it um a peculiar thing when these things happen to us. It is something that identifies us. If we're experiencing some type of persecution or rejection, it is an identifier as a child of God. It's something that we can look at and say, this is what shows that I am following Jesus because I'm experiencing this. And so when we experience that, what do we do? We put it before the Lord and we say, Lord, help me understand. Help me, help me to see with spiritual eyes what's happening here. Because in the physical, it can look different than what God sees in the spiritual. His ways are not our ways. And then if we're still struggling to grasp a situation, and really anytime we're in a situation where we perceive that we're experiencing some kind of persecution, having that more mature believer in our life again that we can take this to and say, hey, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm experiencing. Have them speak into it with wisdom, have them help you help guide you and navigate the situation with truth and love and pray over you. Finally, the final beatitude that we're examining, which is the final one in the nine, is blessed are those who are reviled. The final beatitude that we're gonna look at today is blessed are those who are reviled when all types of evil things are said about you because of your the final thing, the final beatitude that we're gonna look at is blessed are those the final beatitude that we're gonna look at, which is the last one of the nine, is blessed are those who are reviled when others speak all types of false things about you. The final beatitude that we're gonna look at, which is the last one in the list, is blessed are those who are reviled when others say all kinds of false things about you. The last beatitude that we're gonna look at, which is the last one in the list, is blessed are those who are reviled. When others utter all types of false things about you, they speak evil about you on account of Jesus. And this again might seem like a peculiar thing that people are talking about you even when you're not there, but you know that it's happening, or they're doing it bluntly, and you're hearing of it, or you're seeing it and you're experiencing it. It can bring you to this place of this just doesn't quite make sense the way that this feels. And sometimes it's gonna be someone with a worldly perspective. They're not gonna get you, and they're gonna, they're gonna say things about you, and then other times, and it might even be more, is those who are um considered righteous, religious. The last beatitude that we're gonna look at, which is the last one in the list, is blessed are those who are reviled when others utter all kinds of evil against you and say false things about you on account of Jesus. And this is another situation where we can find it a peculiar thing or a frustrating thing or a why is this happening to me kind of thing. But Jesus tells us to not worry and to not fear. He says to actually rejoice. He says, count it joy when others do this. And it happened to the prophets of old, so it will certainly happen to you. And it's not just the world who reviles you, but even when religious people, seemingly religious people, revile you because you're standing for what Jesus says is good and pure and true. You're standing for what is right. And this is also who the prophets of old were rejected by, including Jesus himself. He was rejected by the world and he was rejected by the religious leaders of his day. So this is another place where you need to take it to Jesus, lay it at his feet, ask him to give you discernment to understand what is going on, and then call upon that older, more mature believer to help you process and to pray over you as you continue to walk in what is good and right. When we walk in in what is good and what is right, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And God is giving us and has given us and has with us right now everything that we need for life and godliness. So if you're going through some things, if you're experiencing some of this, you're going to make it. Just keep putting the next foot in front of the other. And I know that it sounds crazy that you would rejoice that people are speaking false things about you or that you're experiencing being pushed aside or left out because of what you believe. And in some places of the world, persecution looks like death. And so we need to honor and remember our brothers and sisters who are experiencing the height of persecution. And for us in our corner of the world, if you're living in the Western world, it doesn't look like that. It still hurts, but it doesn't look like that. But regardless of what it looks like, we can trust that when we experience these things, that it is a mark of a follower of Jesus. We will experience them. And when we do, we can say, thank you, Jesus. I am yours. I am blessed. Your blessing is upon me. Unspeakable joy is mine because I'm following you. And I also want to remind us as we wrap this up that none of this can be produced in our own strength. None of this can be something that we manufacture on our own. And none of this should be something that we beat ourselves up over when we can't do it. Because we might be looking at these things and hearing about these things and going, I just can't make peace with this person. You don't understand what they did, you don't understand how they're behaving. And so this is where the transforming work of the gospel begins to take hold. The more we follow Jesus, the more we love Jesus because we see the mercy that he's extended us, we see the grace that he's given us, we see the love that he's showered upon us. We love him back. And in that process of loving him back, he begins to transform us and gives us the ability to love others in a way that they don't deserve because we were loved in a way that we did not deserve. That transforming work is not up to us, it's up to Jesus, and it comes through us loving him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. And that loving him, we have that intention. God, I want to do this. This is who I want to be. It's hard, and I find myself not being able to do it again and again. Even the apostle Paul said that himself, that he did the things that he did not want to do, the things he wanted to do, he didn't do, and the things he didn't want to do, he did. And so Jesus is gonna come into that place along and upon our heart's desire and help us to change. And God is patient. This stuff doesn't happen overnight, it happens over time. And if God is patient with you, then you should be patient with you. So as we wrap up, I want to give us that connect with God moment. And uh just to put our hearts before the Lord and say, and if you're doing the Bible study, if you're uh doing the Bible reading plan in the Bible app, or if you're doing the Bible study on our website, both free resources, you can find them on our website, BravegirlsGather.com or on the Bible app, look for Brave Girls Gather, and you'll find this so blessed Bible reading plan. You will see that the Connect with God moment encourages you to read the Beatitudes in the Message version. If you haven't done that, please go do that. Don't skip over that. Um, it just words it in a way that hits different and just really can open your heart and mind to some new things. And then after you read that, you just put your heart before the Lord and say, God, what do you want me to see? What do you want me to know? But we're gonna do that with today's conversation. Um, I'm just gonna have us be quiet for a short period of time, hear from the Lord. If you need more time, pause the podcast and spend that time with Jesus. Uh, so Heavenly Father, we come before you. Um, these are some hard truths. Heavenly Father, we come before you. These are some hard truths, and we want to live them out. And we want to know, God, what do you want us to know personally from these three beatitudes? What do you want to emphasize within our hearts today? We give you that moment, God. We give you more than a moment.

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We give you our hearts right now for you to speak. Again, if you need more time, I want to encourage you to hit that pause button.

Connect With Others And Closing Charge

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Spend that time with Jesus. Or after the podcast is over, if you haven't went to the message version of Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 12, I want to encourage you to do that and put your heart before the Lord. Such a great question to ask him. Ask him every day. God, what do you want me to know? And then a follow-up question to that is God, what do you want me to do? Finally, the connect with others moment in this day of the reading plan and on the Bible study is for you to take what you have seen here today, what you've heard here today, what you've studied if you're studying it to a more mature believer. We've echoed that throughout the podcast today. I can't emphasize that enough. These are hard truths that can be hard to live out. And I'm certain that every girl, every teen girl, every woman on the other side of this podcast can relate to what's been shared today in some way. So take that to someone else. Have a wonderful conversation. And until we're back here again, our hope and prayer at Brave Girls Gather is for you to gather with the women and girls in your life, grow closer to Jesus and each other, and go make disciples.