How do you know if Christ is your desire? At the beginning of this series we looked at how and why God is so interested in the heart. Our heart is responsible for deciding what is most important to us. Whatever is most important to us becomes the object of our worship. We mould our lives around it, we talk about it, write about it, listen to it, play with it, learn from it and do everything we can to see to manifest it in our lives.

Whatever we worship satisfies us. That’s why we worship it! We would never worship something or someone who does not satisfy us.

To make Christ your desire simply means to find your satisfaction in Him. In other words, in your relationship with Jesus you are completely happy and you find joy in Him. This means that YOU GET everything you need to be satisfied in life, from God.

It does not mean giving everything up and trying to live as best as you possibly can. Doing everything you can to serve in the church, pray every morning and read your bible. It means that YOU GET everything you desire that makes you satisfied from God. Does this sound selfish? YES! We has human beings are driven by our desires. What we want and makes us satisfied!!

Seeking to be satisfied in God means to pursue God. To make His will our will, to let Him and His will become the very thing that brings us joy. Our joy needs to come from Him. Our ‘wants’ need to be directed by Him.

To have joy as a Christian is not optional. Without joy we cannot worship because we worship what brings us joy. No one worships what does not bring us joy!

The chorus ‘As the deer pants for the water oh my soul longs for you…’ has profound wisdom. What does the deer do for the stream? Nothing!! It does not serve it, it does not help it, make it better. It simply drinks from it and it is satisfied and renewed. (Excerpt from John Piper sermon)

Come to God to gain satisfaction like the deer pants for the water. Drink enthusiastically so that your can satisfy your thirst. God wants to satisfy your hunger and thirst he says so in the beatitudes:

Matthew 5: 6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

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The devotion that we will look at today is again a counter cultural call that Christ has placed on us as Christians, it is the last in the beginning of the Beatitudes that speaks about our attitudes. We are going to look at four verses today, Matthew 5v10-12. It is possible to split up verses 10 and 11+12, but there is merit in looking at them together, as we’re going to do today.

Let’s all just get along…
“Blessed are the peacemakers…” What do you think of when you hear the word “peacemakers”? For myself it was the idea of a weak person who really hates conflict, and is willing to do pretty much anything to avoid it. Many think of peace as meaning the absence of war, but is this really what Jesus means when He talks about peace? It isn’t; Jesus said that He didn’t come to bring that kind of peace (Matthew 10v34-39), but it was prophesied (Isaiah 9v6) that He would be called “Prince of peace”. So then, obviously Jesus has a different definition of peace to us, what then is peace?

Peace?
The peace that Jesus brings, is not a “…why can’t we all get along…” peace, but rather a peace that resolves the conflict between God and us. Through what Jesus did on the cross, taking the undiluted wrath of God on our behalf, He bought peace between God and us. This peace is such that not only is there no more enmity between God and those who have accepted Him, but now we are called His children, He has adopted us! So when Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers, He is saying those that take the message of the peace that God is offering to humanity (the Gospel), they are sons of God.

War!
In the verses following this (V10→12) Jesus gives us a clear warning; when we become Godly peacemakers, when we take the Gospel to the world, we will suffer for it! This is hard, we have this difficult tension, we desire to see God’s grace spread in the places where we are, but we know that some people hate it. However, as people who are living out this counter cultural revolution call of Jesus here in the beatitudes, we desire to please God more than we fear people, and therefore Jesus comforts us. Suffering will come in many different forms, some of it is severe physical suffering, like Gao Zhisheng is currently suffering for Christ, for others it may not be so severe, but as Paul wrote to Timothy: all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2Timothy 3v12).

But…
He doesn’t deny the difficulties that we will face in this world, but in order that we can get through them, Jesus reminds us that we aren’t living for the here and now, our home is in heaven with Him. We aren’t the first people to suffer on God’s behalf, and we probably won’t be the last. So when that opportunity arrises for you to share the Gospel of God’s peace with those who have not received it, don’t be shy, remember that this is what God has called us all to. Although you may suffer, although you may get ridiculed, don’t be not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes!

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Today we’re carrying on making our way through the beatitudes of Jesus, and we can see how He is calling us to a style of life that is opposite to the culture that we live in.

Mercy is not something that the culture that we live in is known for, if someone dents your car it is only fair that they pay for it. Yet this is what Jesus is calling us to in this next part of the counter cultural revolution, not to pay back an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, rather to show mercy. But, why should we be merciful?

Isn’t it the right thing for someone to repay you when they wrong you, if they broke it, then they should fix it, if they stole that then they should be punished, etc, etc… But let’s take a step back for a second, what if God was like that with us. What if God was up in heaven with an all seeing eye, a clipboard marking down all the times that we messed up, marking down all the times that we messed up and making sure that we pay that back fairly. He isn’t like that, God has shown us mercy upon mercy, and grace upon grace… God is merciful, that is why we should be merciful.

The story goes that there was a boy and his dad on a camping trip, they were camped next to a river that was known to contain crocodiles. The dad said to his son can fish as much as he wants, but he must only fish from the jetty, and not take the boat out, because of the crocodiles. By the second afternoon the boy couldn’t contain himself anymore, and he took one of the boats out. A while later the dad heard a loud scream, followed by splashing, and he knew. The dad raced down to the waters edge and saw his son being attacked by the crocodile, without thinking he dived into the water and grabbed his son, swimming him to safety. The boy stands up, and sees his dad’s leg bitten almost clean off, steps over his dad laying there and gets into the other boat to carry on fishing.

That is obviously absurd, the boy would have been completely heartless to do that! This is the second charge of Jesus here, to those who have been shown mercy by God because of sin, will desire to be pure in heart. Notice this, pure in heart, not only in what they do, but in their very heart. God has saved us, and we receive mercy upon mercy from Him day after day, shouldn’t it be our greatest desire to live for Him with a pure heart, or are we like that boy in the story, do we look at the cross of Christ, and carry on doing those very things that He died for?

Let’s be a people, who love mercy, and desire purity, that is the opposite to what the culture is trying to teach us, but it is what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is…

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“So, when you grow up, who do you wanna be like?” This phrase may bring to mind an image of two little boys standing in the playground, talking to each other about their heroes. The one may say that he wants to be a famous soccer player, the other may want to be a fireman. As little children we iconize those people who have done great things, and set them as our heroes, and as we grow up we still do this to a certain extent. But as Christians, as people who want to please God, what type of person should we aspire to become like? Well Jesus carries on here in Matthew 5v5+6 telling us about the kind of person God wants us to be, the type of person that He uses to revolutionise a culture.

Power under control…
After Jesus showed the importance of our sorry at our sin, He then moves onto describe the characteristic in a counter cultural revolutionary that will inherit the earth. It’s not money, it’s not fame, it’s not power, it’s not influence, it’s not leadership, but it is meekness. Jesus said that those who are meek will be blessed, they will inherit the earth! That is exactly opposite what the culture of our day says, “Get rich, own much, and influence people” that is what we are trained to do by the culture that we live in. “Not so…” says Jesus “…see your sin, be sorrowful because of it, live in meekness, and inherit the whole earth!”

So what exactly is meekness? It is not weakness, it is quite possibly the opposite! Meekness is the having power but yet controlling it, the meek person is humble, patient, and submissive to God. Moses was said to be meek, but our ultimate image of meekness is seen in Jesus, He is all powerful, and yet He allowed Himself to be put to death on the cross.

True Satisfaction…
Jesus goes on to describe the inner desires of the person that He will use to turn the world upside down. Jesus cannot be fooled, you cannot trick Him, He knows you better than you do! He is calling for a total change of your desires, the things that you deeply desire, for you the turn your culture upside down, you need to be turned inside out. Jesus says that the person who desires true righteousness above all else will be truly satisfied, and that by Him!

Do you see how Jesus is taking us on a journey here, we have seen how unspiritual we truly are, we mourn over our sin, we have lost any reason for arrogance and pride, and now we crave righteousness! We have come to the One who can give us true righteousness, Jesus Christ. He calls all of us to come to Him.

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We all live in a culture, and the chances are that the culture you live in is not Godly. As we open up this series, we are going to look at a revolution that Jesus is calling us all to begin. Culture influences us, it defines things for us, and it impacts us everyday of our lives. As Christians, we are called to be different, we are called to be revolutionaries, and we are called to change things. Over the next few weeks we are going to taste and see the Counter Culture Revolution that we need to begin, we won’t be the first…

Revolution?
When you think of the idea of a counter culture revolution, you probably think of someone like Che Guevara, or maybe Ghandi, or perhaps even Nelson Mandela… but what about yourself, did you ever see yourself, as a Christian, called to be a revolutionary? Maybe not, and definitely not like some of these people that we’ve just mentioned, but Jesus is calling us to become revolutionaries, except this revolution is on a scale unlike any other, and for a cause greater than any other.

Do you hear?
All calls to revolution involve a great speech, and a great leader, and this call is no different. Read through Matthew 5v1→10, the beatitudes, this is the beginning of the greatest sermon ever preached. This is the call of the greatest revolutionary leader of all time, calling for the greatest revolution that will have an impact that will reach outside of time!

You see here Jesus shows us the beginning of the counter culture revolution that must take place within every single Christian, so that we are not transformed by our culture, but rather so that we can transform our culture. These are the beginning steps of what is required for us to radically impact our culture with a change that will last into eternity!

He’s calling you!
As we go through these changes that Jesus wants to see in us, we will begin to see how radical these words are, we will begin to see how awesome a task this is, and we will begin to see how amazing the effects of this internal revolution will be within our culture. We have not been called to be influenced by the culture that we find ourselves living in, although God placed you where you are for a reason, but we are being called to be changed by God, so that we can influence our culture for eternity sake!

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