Bridge Church Virginia Beach

I want you to take out your Bibles.

Turn to Matthew chapter 5.

We began a brand new series today called The Counterculture Christ.

We're going to look at this little subject, Upside Down Blessed.

It is a message that I think we all need to hear.

It's going to come out of Matthew chapter 5.

I want to ask you a question before we get into that.

Here's the question.

Are you happy?

Are you happy?

Really?

Are you happy?

You ever heard this phrase, man, I want to go to my happy place.

Anybody got a happy place?

Is it the beach?

Is it the mountains?

Is it your backyard?

Is it watching the Dallas Cowboys win?

Whatever you are...

Come on, don't shout me down while I'm preaching.

Whatever your happy place is, we often go to that happy place.

But I found out after pastoring 30 plus years, many people's happy place is not actually a physical place.

It's more a place in the past, a moment in time where they experienced happiness.

And when they get into distress or when they get depressed or when they feel down, they often drift there in their minds.

And over the last several days, we've seen this on social media, people drifting into the 80s.

The 1980s.

And my daughter used AI to dress up her dad and myself.

And look what it appeared like.

My Lord, big hair, mullets, track jackets in all.

See, my wife would look good in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2020s.

I had a Timex on.

They put a Timex on me.

I don't know if I ever owned one, man, but that was simple days.

We often drift back into those times.

Happiness.

Happiness.

When Jesus came to earth, he began to turn the world upside down.

He became a counterculture to the culture that was in existence.

Jesus did not come to give us a subculture to live in.

He came to give us a counterculture to exemplify in the world in which we lived in.

Jesus came into a culture that was dominated by Greek understanding of theaters, arts, and buildings.

Along with the Romans who brought law, engineering, and military dominance.

These two cultures merged into the Greco-Roman culture.

And Jesus was born into this culture.

And Jesus brought a radical new way of living and existing in the culture.

It was almost like when Jesus entered the culture, he was slapping people.

The Greeks and the Romans in the face, not literally, but metaphorically, when he began to teach on the kingdom of God.

He began to instruct them that happiness was not based on military strength, military might, or physical or material success.

He began to equate happiness with values that he began to teach about his kingdom.

See, Jesus didn't just come to earth to give us a way to heaven.

He came to earth to show us who God really was.

He came to earth to bring about a new kingdom.

In fact, Jesus preached the kingdom of God is here among us right now because he was the representation of the kingdom of God.

And so he began to reconstruct God.

Happiness and joy in a way that the world had never seen before.

Because the Romans, happiness for them was success.

Military success.

Financial success.

domination of other cultures.

Greeks, their success was theater, arts, and big temples, and paganism.

But Jesus came in and he began to say, this is what success looks like from heaven to earth.

And I'm going to give you a picture of happiness that you've never seen before.

John Piper said this about happiness.

He says, happiness is a state of well-being and its attendant feelings of joy and satisfaction that persist in spite of being embattled.

Poor and persecuted.

That's what he says happiness is.

Jesus comes in and he says the definition of blessed is the exact opposite of the culture's definition.

And it's far better.

It's actually better than what the world deems as success.

Are you happy?

Are you blessed?

I read a recent report.

It's called the World Happiness Report.

The U.S.

ranks 23rd among all the nations of the world in the happiest nations.

I just read a report this week that Virginia is the 16th happiest state in the Union out of 50.

And I begin to think of that.

With all our material wealth and with all our gadgets, with all our cell technology, with all our AI and with all the devices that we have in our hands, with our vehicles, our cars, our clothes, why are we the 23rd happiest nation in the world?

If we're one economically, why aren't we one in happiness?

Here's the reason, because society

Things and materialism can never bring you happiness.

Not the happiness that only Jesus can bring you.

Not...

The joy that Jesus can bring you.

And so this thing happiness becomes very elusive to us.

And we're in search of happiness.

And we think circumstances and situations and material things are going to make us happy.

But when we get them and we get the material things and we get the success.

We realize that it has no power for lasting true inner happiness.

happiness, and joy.

And joy.

So Jesus comes.

In Matthew chapter 4.

He is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil and he overcomes the devil with the word of God.

And then he comes out of the wilderness and the power of the spirit.

He picks his 12 disciples to follow him.

And then he goes about healing all who are sick and who had disease.

And people began to follow him from Jerusalem, Judea, Egypt.

The Decapolis began to follow him from regions beyond the Jordan.

And Jesus was inundated by large crowds.

And eventually he gets tired of the crowds and he goes to the mountain.

And the Bible says in chapter 5, he sits down with his disciples on the mountainside.

And he begins to teach them.

What does that mean to teach them?

He begins to instruct them on how to think as a kingdom man or woman.

he begins to reframe their understanding of happiness, success, and joy.

See, they were raised in a Greco-Roman culture which touted strength and domination and material wealth and success and the arts and the theater, and they worshiped many gods.

And so Jesus comes into this culture and picks 12 guys, and he doesn't first teach them how to behave.

He teaches them how to think.

Because all behavior flows out of thinking.

It flows out of attitudes.

And in chapter 5, he begins to preach his famous message, the Sermon on the Mount.

And he starts the Sermon on the Mount with attitudes.

Attitudes.

Have you ever had someone to tell you, you got a bad attitude?

No.

Jesus didn't really tell his disciples that, but by teaching the Beatitudes, what he was saying, boys, you got a terrible attitude.

I'm going to adjust your attitude.

And it's actually called the Beatitudes because it's the attitudes that we should be.

It's the attitudes that all Christ's followers should exude from their lives.

It's the attitudes that we should possess as believers in Christ Jesus.

This word beatitude comes from a word that means attitude.

He starts every one of these beatitudes with this word blessed.

The word blessed in the Greek can be translated blessed.

Say happy.

So when you read these Beatitudes where you see that word blessed, you can put happy or fortunate.

Look how he begins the Beatitudes.

And let's read chapter 5, 3 through 12.

It says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Look here, poor in spirit.

The poor in spirit recognize they need someone or something greater than themselves.

Right?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the kingdom or the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they... Come on.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown what?

How many of you in here need mercy?

What do you need to do to receive mercy?

Show mercy.

Show mercy.

Show mercy.

Give mercy.

Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you.

Because of me.

Rejoice.

He says rejoice.

My Lord.

Jesus is saying rejoice when you're persecuted.

Don't fight back.

Get joy.

And be glad.

Because great is your reward where?

heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you so look at these these eight Beatitudes the last couple verses restate the last beatitude Jesus is giving us a way of thinking he's giving us an attitude adjustment and

He's adjusting the way we think and the way we believe and thus the way we will behave in culture.

So if I want to change my behavior, I don't start with behavior.

I start with belief.

I'm going to say that one more time.

If I want my behavior to change, I don't start with my behavior.

I start with the way I believe because my behavior flows out of my belief system.

And Jesus didn't come to give us behavior modification.

He came to give us life transformation that begins with the way we think.

And if we don't adjust the way we think, we never adjust the way we behave.

See, religion is behavior modification.

Man, we just want you to act the way we act on Sunday morning for one hour.

And you can do what you want to after that.

That's religion, folks.

Jesus did not come to bring us a religious system or religious rules.

Jesus didn't die to institute another religion.

Jesus died to bring you into a kingdom from another world...

The kingdom of God here on earth.

And he came to introduce his kingdom.

The Bible says that Jesus is the door.

And most people come through the door.

And never enter into the fullness of the house.

Into the kingdom of God.

And so they stop at the door.

They have salvation.

But never transformation totally.

Because they stop at the door.

Come on.

I come home every day.

What if I came home, unlocked the door because I had the key.

You've got the keys to the kingdom.

And I stepped inside the threshold and I just stood there.

3,300 square feet and I'm just standing there.

I've got access to the refrigerator.

Amen.

The food pantry, amen.

Got access to the microwave, amen.

The stove, I don't want access to the dishwasher.

Got access to three bathrooms.

Got access to every room.

Got access to a flat screen TV.

Got access to a shower.

Got access to a backyard.

Got access to a back deck.

Got access to a pool.

And I'm just standing there looking and I never take advantage of the access because I don't know who I am.

and I'm the owner or the steward of the house and I never take access or I never take full reign of the house.

That's the way most Christians are today.

They've been brought into the kingdom of God and they never made their way.

fully into the kingdom of God and received all the blessedness of the kingdom of God and received all the joy of the kingdom of God because they've never learned how to access the rooms that are in God's kingdom.

And Jesus said, I am coming to give you another kingdom and give you another life, give you another way of living.

But we just sit here and we get saved and we're waiting to go to heaven.

And nothing in our life changes.

And we're dull.

We're confused.

We're not maturing.

We're not growing.

And we're just standing here inside the threshold.

I've got Jesus and we never mature into the fullness of the kingdom.

And what God has for us here on earth.

I wonder what Jesus is going to say to us when we get to heaven.

Man, I prepared all this for you.

And you just stepped through the threshold and you sat down.

Called kingdom life.

It's a way of living.

Jesus in this Greco-Roman culture.

That the epitome of success was military domination on Rome's part.

And engineering and law and architect.

And on the Greek side, the epitome of success was theater and arts and philosophy.

And Jesus comes into this culture and says, guys, you got it all backwards.

I'm going to flip this thing on you and show you what true life is.

He gives them a new definition of happiness and being blessed.

Here it is, guys.

Culture's version of blessed is a moving target.

It's a moving target.

I've got an iPhone, 17 Pro Max.

The highest memory because I do a lot of work on my phone.

All my sermons are on my phone.

And I was sitting down last night because culture's happiness is a moving target.

I got a text message from Apple.

The new Pro Max 18 is coming out.

And if I'm not secure, guess what?

I'll feel like I'm left out.

Culture is designed to make you feel like you're on the outside looking in.

And if I'm not secure in God's kingdom and if I don't understand happiness according to God's kingdom, you know what I will do?

Every four months, every six months, every year, every time they come out with a new iPhone, I got to go get one.

So I'll spend $1,200, $1,300, $1,400, $1,500 every six months just to keep up with a status, not understanding that the goalpost keeps moving.

They keep moving the goalpost.

They keep moving what success looks like and what it's supposed to be like.

And it's all designed to make you feel like you're not good enough.

You can be sitting there watching the Cowboys dismantle the Giants tonight.

This is church, folks.

You can be sitting there, man, and a commercial will come up and make you feel like you lack something.

beautiful commercial.

They'll show you a juicy hamburger, a Diet Coke, large fries, and say, you need it.

You feel like you need it, even though you just ate 12 chicken wings.

Because they know how to move the goalpost on you.

Culture constantly moves the goalpost and says, well, this is what success used to be, but here what success looks like today.

If you don't have this, if you don't obtain this, if you don't go to college, if you don't have a master's degree, if you don't have a doctorate, you're nobody.

How many of you know all of that is moving the goalpost?

It's designed to keep you feeling less than and insecure about what Jesus has called you into.

And now you feel like, man, I don't have what everybody has.

And so Jesus comes in.

And he names the opposite conditions as the doorway to blessings.

Say opposite.

The totally opposite is the doorway to blessings.

It's amazing what Jesus does.

He comes in and he gives us correct attitudes to correct the attitude of the culture in which he came into.

You say, why are you messing with your iPad?

Well, I've been preaching without an iPad because it was updating.

And so he comes in and he begins to preach and he begins to flip it on its, he begins to flip the world right side up.

And he says, this is a doorway to blessings.

See, Jesus's goalpost is not a moving target.

The world, the culture in which you live in is a moving target.

It is constantly moving.

You can never keep up with it.

You can never get to a point.

And he says, hey, I'm going to bring you into a kingdom.

And Paul understood this.

He begins to reiterate what Jesus taught in the Gospels.

The Gospels are the manifestation of Jesus into the world.

The small books of the New Testament is the appropriation of what Jesus did in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Paul teaches us how to live out the Gospel in the world.

He says in Romans 12, do not be conformed to the world, but

be transformed by the renewal or the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to test and approve what god's will is his good pleasing and perfect will and then he goes over in colossians 3 2 he says your mind set them on things above and not earthly things

2 Corinthians 4.18, fixing your eyes on eternal things.

Philippians 3.20, you are citizens of heaven.

So if I'm a citizen of heaven, God is trying to teach me to no longer think from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth.

To think from an earthly perspective is death.

To think from a heavenly perspective is life.

So I began to think differently so that I began to live differently.

Live differently.

Did you know it's hard to change your mind?

It's hard to change the way you think.

Jesus, to illustrate this point, that second beatitude, he says, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Now there's two primary interpretations of this.

The secondary interpretation of this is people who mourn because they have lost someone.

They have lost something.

Loss always creates pain or mourning in our life.

So if I lose a loved one, I'm gonna naturally mourn.

And Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

That word comforted, it actually is the same word in which we get the Holy Spirit, parakletos in the Greek.

So Jesus is teaching that when you're in mourning, the comfort of the Holy Spirit comes to you and helps you in your grief.

Anybody ever lost a loved one?

Let me tell you something.

I don't know how people without Jesus endure it.

I need Jesus, the Holy Spirit with me to comfort me.

But the primary meaning of this verse, blessed are those who mourn.

Mourn over what?

Over their fallen nature.

Over their sin.

Over missing the mark.

over their perpetual sin nature.

Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.

They will be comforted by understanding that if we do sin as a believer, we have an

advocate with the father and first john 1 9 says if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and and jesus is saying if you're going to be blessed if you're going to be happy you got to understand that you are a

broken person and the way that you begin to be comforted in your life is to come to Jesus who is the great comforter and his Holy Spirit will comfort you and bring you into a position of sonship with God himself and through the power of salvation he'll make you one with God bless you will become happy when you realize your self-righteousness will not marry you heaven

That's when you get happy and understand that, hey, it's not by my works.

It is by grace that I am saved.

William Barclay, a great commentator of the Word of God, he said, The kind of grief which takes such a hold on a man that cannot be hid, not only the sorrow which brings an ache to the heart, but the sorrow which brings the unrestrained tears to the eyes.

This is the kind of grief that Jesus was talking about.

But can I tell you, when I'm mourning over my own lack of righteousness, my own sin, the Bible talks about sorrow.

And it talks about sorrow in two ways.

It talks about godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

2 Corinthians 7.10 says, Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

So when I'm mourning over my own personal sin, I got to determine, is this worldly sorrow or is this godly sorrow?

Godly sorrow is focused on God.

And we understand that our sin grieves him.

It leads to repentance, a change of mind and direction.

It leads to salvation in life.

It leaves no regret, and it produces humility in my life.

But worldly sorrow is focused on self.

It grieves that I got caught.

It leads to regret.

It changes nothing.

It leads to death.

It leaves shame.

It produces self-pity in our lives.

Godly sorrow looks up and moves forward, but worldly sorrow looks in and stays stuck.

In the New Testament, there's a great picture of godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

Or worldly sorrow and godly sorrow.

The first one is Judas.

He exemplified worldly sorrow.

The second godly sorrow is Peter.

Both of these guys followed Jesus.

Both of these guys failed Jesus.

Both felt crushing sorrow.

They had the same failure, the same tears, the opposite direction though.

Judas, worldly sorrow led him to go kill himself.

Godly sorrow led Peter in tears to reconnect with Jesus and to receive life.

That's the difference.

Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

See, this blessing is received.

All these blessings and these beatitudes are received, not achieved.

And it changes what you carry into the world.

What are you talking about, pastor?

I can't earn the blessing of God.

Paul teaches us in Ephesians 2.8 that we're saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast.

It is the free gift of God.

So everything in the kingdom of God, my salvation, my healing, my joy, my happiness, everything that God gives me doesn't come because I'm good enough or I achieve it or I strive or I work for it.

Religion tells you to work.

Jesus tells you to rest.

I'm going to say that one more time.

Religion will keep you on the hamster wheel of moving the goalposts and you never get good enough.

It keeps you on the hamster wheel of penance.

You never quite can get there.

So everything in these Beatitudes come to us by the grace of God.

We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast.

If I can produce the Beatitudes in my life, guess what?

I am gaining that through self-effort.

Therefore, I don't need God's grace.

I do not need Jesus' grace.

And I do not need a savior because I can save myself.

Jesus came to show us that all our good works are like filthy rags or self-righteousness or filthy rags.

They will not win us salvation.

It's when I come to him in my brokenness, in my humility, and I say, God, I am mourning over my sin.

And then he brings the comfort of the Holy Spirit my way.

And he gives me new life and new salvation, the free gift of the forgiveness of sin.

And I made a new creation in Christ Jesus.

God does something supernatural in my life.

Notice that each one of these are in the present tense.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

So it's in the present tense.

It's a present tense declaration over your life.

It's not a future reward for good performance.

That changes everything about what you're carrying when you leave the room today.

I understand that I am presently carrying these Beatitudes because I position my life in humility before God.

Instead of proving, you carry security.

Instead of scarcity, you carry generosity.

Instead of performing, you carry authenticity.

Most of the modern church in America is performance-based.

People put on a facade when they come to church and are no longer authentic until they leave the building.

They get home.

When you get home, you're the real you.

Instead of self-focus, you carry overflow toward others.

This is what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about, you don't need a facade.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest and learn the rhythms of my grace and the salvation that I've given you and walk in my kingdom and allow me to transform your life as you humble yourself under my mighty hand and I'm gonna exalt you in due season.

And so he lays out the attitudes of the kingdom

and they are counterculture to this world.

See, oftentimes the world, if it's persecuted, it stands up and it starts throwing fists.

It starts fighting.

You can tell how saved a person is during a political season.

You can tell how worldly the church is during a political season because it doesn't look nothing like the Beatitudes.

Man, if we get a Christian president, America will be Christian.

No, it won't.

Jesus never fought for politics.

He never fought over politics.

Let's go.

It's friend day.

Let's keep going.

He came and he introduced a new kingdom, folks.

It's not Republican or Democrat.

It's the kingdom of God.

Sure, my theology and what I believe about Jesus will inform me on my political persuasion.

But never mix the kingdom with Republican and Democrat.

When you do, you will be sadly broken and the church becomes a subculture.

When politicians get the ear of the church, the politicians manipulate the church, the church becomes a subculture and we lose the effectiveness of being a counterculture in a world that needs to see Jesus.

Amen or oh me.

He is a counterculture.

I know Jesus came to die for our sin.

But ultimately, Jesus' death was a political one.

Go study your Bible and go study history.

He died because he interrupted God.

to be the religious ones and the political ones because he showed them another kingdom.

And Caesar was the only one who wanted to be called Lord and his followers started calling him Lord.

Don't touch the power.

Don't touch the money.

Just stay in your little church.

Amen.

Stand up.

Amen.

Happiness is not something you achieve.

It's something you receive from God.

It's something that you receive from God.

I'm going to say this again.

The hope of the world is not a politician.

The hope of the world is Jesus, folks.

And as a church that is in love with Jesus, alive with Jesus, following Jesus, empowered by Jesus, strengthened by Jesus, looking like Jesus, acting like Jesus, thinking like Jesus, reacting like Jesus.

What would Jesus do?

It's just not a slogan that you wear on your wristband.

It's actually a lifestyle.

How do we live like Jesus?

I want you to bow your head.

Lord, I just thank you for the grace that's in this place today.

The grace to be transformed into the image of Jesus.

God, you've given us a new way of thinking in these beatitudes.

Help us to embrace the attitudes of your kingdom and not the kingdoms of this world.