| Beatitudes (527-556) (Series) | |
| Lesson Click to hear | Title Click to view |
| 527a | Oh, what Bliss! |
| It is a common thing to ask God to bless our loved ones, but often God's definition of blessing and ours aren't the same. In fact, much of the time, the things we are asking God to take away or make well so that a person can be blessed are, in fact, the blessings themselves. This lesson is the first of a series on the Beatitudes. | |
| 527b | The Poor in Spirit |
| How does God view you? Maybe more importantly, how do you view yourself in relation to God? In this foundational lesson of the Beatitudes, we come to understand more fully what it means to be poor in spirit. We will learn how this is the cornerstone upon which all of the other Beatitudes are built. | |
| 528a | Portraits of the Poor in Spirit |
| God has a physical portrait of every spiritual truth. We are called upon to see physical things in terms of spiritual application and thereby make the "spiritual switch". In this study, we will look at physical poverty to see an enlarged replica of the character quality in life that Jesus labeled poor in spirit. | |
| 528b | Relative Insignificance |
| Jesus told a parable concerning a publican and a Pharisee praying, asking which was the more spiritual of the two. Which one was truly "poor in spirit" and blessed by God? Are we comparing ourselves in light of who God is as the publican did, or are we seeing ourselves in light of how we measure up to others? There is a big difference, and God knows the difference. | |
| 529a | Relative Expectations |
| What do we expect from God? In this lesson, we will look at the expectations of a poor man. As we look at these expectations, we will see that right expectations involve living each day with an attitude of gratitude that the Living God loves me enough to provide for me in the physical realms whatever He think will bring glory to His name. | |
| 529b | Though He Was Rich, He Became Poor |
| Our quest to find out what it means to be poor in spirit brings us to Philippians chapter two. This lesson takes a look at the manner in which Jesus humbled himself. He tells us "to let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." In this lesson we will find out what God says about dying to self. | |
| 530a | Four Things That Make God Cry |
| Crying is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. It is a sign that the heart is open to the needs of others, that the heart has the capacity to feel, to grieve, and to enter into the hurts of others. Crying Christians are in good company as we see many strong men, as well as women, in the Bible crying. What are some things we should be grieving over to the point of tears? | |
| 530b | One More Reason to Cry |
| In this study, we come to find one final reason why Christians should cry. It is a problem Jesus never had, but a problem we face everyday. We are instructed in Scripture to weep, to lament, to mourn over our own sins. It is a painful subject, but one the Spirit uses to then comfort us and give us joy. | |
| 531a | Learning to Mourn |
| What does it mean to mourn over our sins? Do we see sin as God sees it? Have we learned to come before God with an honest, broken heart? Only a holy, loving God could take our mourning and turn it into joy, and that is exactly what He promises to do as we finish our lesson on "Blessed are those who mourn." | |
| 531b | Blessed Are the Meek |
| How do we respond to injustice? The meek man not only turns the other cheek, but loves and prays for his enemies. It is through showing meekness in a world that cries out for justice and fairness, that we can show a difference to the world. Meekness is a quality that can only come from God. It is a quality that Jesus used to describe Himself. God's goal is to overcome evil with good. Meekness is the vehicle. | |
| 532a | Blessed Are The Meek (Part 2) |
| In this continuation of our lesson on meekness, this lesson delves into three basic areas in which we need a meek response. We need to be meek when our reputation is challenged. We need to be meek when our authority is challenged. We need to be meek when our possessions are challenged. Meekness is simply trusting our reputation, our authority, and our possessions to the sovereignty of God. | |
| 532b | Hungering and Thirsting |
| What does it mean to be hungry and thirsty? Taking a look at what it means to be physically hungry, we can then make the spiritual switch to see what it means to hunger and thirst spiritually. God doesn't want us to be hungry as we know hunger. He wants us to have real starvation for spiritual things. He wants us to starve for righteousness. | |
| 533a | What is Righteousness? |
| What God wants from you and me today is for us to crave that kind of intimacy with Him more than our necessary food, as the Scripture says. Spiritually, He sees you as righteous. Bodily, He promises one day you will be righteous, but what He wants is a minute by minute control of your life. That is what righteousness is. | |
| 533b | Developing a Spiritual Appetite |
| There is a simple acronym to help us remember a solution to getting spiritually hungry. The solution is EAT. In this lesson we will learn what each of these letters represent, and thereby learn the process of personally experiencing the righteousness of God. It is that righteousness that creates a hunger for itself. | |
| 534a | Blessed Are the Merciful |
| Mercy is not a saccharine-sweet sentimentality that weeps and considers its job done. Mercy gets actively involved in rendering aid to the person in need, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan which we will study in this lesson. As we review this parable, we will find that mercy can be divided into seven parts. As we go through these seven parts, it will be clear that completion over the long haul defines real mercy | |
| 534b | The Purpose of Mercy |
| Mercy has a purpose. It is the meeting of physical and emotional needs to give opportunity for the meeting of spiritual needs. Ultimately, Jesus did not come to clothe or feed the world; He came to seek and to save that which was lost. We need to be careful we do not lose our direction. | |
| 535a | What is Compassion? |
| In this lesson, we are going to follow Jesus. We will superimpose our circumstances upon His responses and see if in some supernatural way God might communicate to us the essence of compassion. As we see Him walk through life, how does He view the needs of others and what action does He take? By seeing Jesus, we will try to grasp what the word compassion really means. | |
| 535b | What is Compassion? (Part 2) |
| Once again in this lesson, we will follow Jesus and see how He shows compassion to those around Him. God is waiting to give us that kind of compassion in the measure in which we seek it. He is waiting for us to move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We will look at eight final principles concerning compassion as we conclude this lesson. | |
| 536a | The Pure In Heart: What is the Heart? |
| The heart is what God is after. In the next few lessons we are going headlong into a look into our hearts. What does it mean to be pure in heart? What are the evidences of a pure heart? As we begin to marvel in our Saviour, He desire to give us a new heart felled with Godlikeness. It is a heart so pure that we can see God. | |
| 536b | Hypocrite of the Year Award |
| Using a television awards analogy, we see Jesus giving out Hypocrite of the Year Awards to various types of people who try to "act" righteous, but their hearts are full of deceit. The thing the Pharisees and scribes did are the things we do. Perhaps as we read this lesson we will see ourselves getting some of the awards. God says, blessed is the transparent man whose pure heart is without pretense, for through his transparency men will see God. | |