In Matthew 5:9-12, the message centers on peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom. Explore Matthew 5:9–12 and Jesus’ teaching on peacemakers, persecution, faithfulness, and the surprising values of the kingdom of heaven. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Matthew 5:9-12, peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Matthew 5:9-12 teach about peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom? It also considers how should peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Matthew 5:9-12 teach about peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom? | How should peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Matthew 5:9-12 in everyday life?
Matthew 5:9-12, peacemakers, persecution, and the kingdom, matthew 5, 912 Jesus’ teaching on peacemakers, the kingdom
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Come on. Hey, today's going to be a great day because we get to go into the word of God. If you have your Bibles, uh turn with me to Matthew uh chapter 5. We are going to finish up our biatitudes series, our citizens series. And uh if you're taking notes, I'm going to have quite a few scriptures today. And I make no apologies because the Bible can preach better than me. Amen. Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan. I love that big amen. There we go. Let's read this together. I'm going to read it. You don't just read along with me. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the kingdom. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. And biatitude number seven, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. I just want to pray before we get into this. Lord, would you bless this word? These are your words spoken by you and written for us that we would follow in this way. That we would live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven here and now on this earth. Lord, help us open up our hearts to receive. Lord, challenge us to see the the beautiful thread that you have woven into this for our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Blessed are the peacemakers. Peacemakers, he's not talking about people who live in peace, but people who actually bring about peace. Somebody say bring about peace. >> Peace in Hebrew actually means shalom. And when you when you get into kind of the the depth of the word, it's actually talking about bringing about wholeness. It's performing an action. It's making something complete. Shalom. And so a peace maker is very much that it's a maker. Not a peacekeeper, but a peace maker. Someone who's making something happen, making something whole. Peace is not just an absence of conflict. Somebody say, "Amen." You can have peace in the middle of conflict, but it's actively pursuing making something whole and right and even overcoming evil with good. It's reconciling something in peace. So, I just want to say this. We can pray for peace. We can be a peaceful p person. But the greatest way that we can overcome evil in this world today and bring peace to the world is by spreading the good news of Jesus. >> That we can be saved and become like Jesus. You again we can try to be a peaceful person but at the end of the day the gospel of Jesus Christ is what brings peace to this world. >> And this is a mandate. This is a a ministry call for each and every one of us. us. And I I I can see this in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation." Aren't you grateful that the old things are passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all things are from God, who reconciled us. Notice that word, reconciled us to himself through Christ. And he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. It is our mandate. It is our call to reconcile people to Christ, to share the good news of of Jesus and to bring people into the kingdom. If we want to see peace take place in someone else's life, if we want to see peace in this nation, in our families, we need to bring Jesus into it and bring people into the kingdom of God. >> Amen. >> That's what being a peacemaker is all about. And again, there's this beautiful phrase here. It's the ministry of reconciliation. And if spreading the gospel is the is the greatest way that we can bring peace, then evangelism is a way that we can make peace between man and the God that they have rejected. We are ambassadors of peace, ambassadors of the gospel. And when we can bring someone who's far from God to become a son and daughter, we are reconciling them. Amen. We call people out on their sin to be reconciled to God to become a child of God to create peace between God and people. It's interesting too when you notice there's this beautiful progression of all of these biatitudes. The first one being poor in spirit because again everybody can be poor in spirit right? We can all start in this place, but there's almost this building effect that we see throughout, especially as we get to number seven because it's really hard to be a person of peace if we're not pure in heart. That's why purity of heart is mentioned first, then being peaceable. The peace that we're looking for is not in agreement with sin. It's it it's difficult to call yourself a peacemaker when you are tolerating sin in your life. It's it's not making peace to tolerate sin. When you're allying with sin, it's not making peace. When you're coexisting with sin, it's not making peace. Hear me, church. We set our lives against sin. And once there's purity in our own hearts, once we've gone to the Lord and and repented, then we can make ourselves men and women of peace. Oftentimes, peacemaking is reconciling people fighting. They're mad at each other, marriage, children versus parents, co-workers, friends, or political ideologies. And peacemakers are seeking reconciliation and peace. And it doesn't just happen. It takes action. When there's conflict, who will be the first person to lay their life down and say, "I want peace. I want to be the peacemaker." Who will lay down their offense first? I would challenge each one of us today to be that person. Be that person in your in your friend groups. Be that person in your job. Be that person in your marriage. Again, we talk about meekness coming before this as well. It takes meekness and humility to say, "I want peace. I may not be wrong or I may feel hurt, but I'm willing to lay this down. You hurt me, but I want to move forward with you." Or, "I offended you. Would you forgive me?" Again, being a peacemaker, I I I love the distinction for me, is not being a peacekeeper. It's not trying to, all right, let's just make sure everything's okay. Let's just let's just calm down, chill everything out and sweep things under the rug and move forward. Or pretending that everything is still okay when we're still holding on to hurt. That's not being a peacemaker. That's not reconciliation. You can be the peacemaker when you're the one in the argument as the injured one or the one who's offended. But doing this is not easy. And again, it requires purity of heart. It requires meekness. It requires mercy. again see the thread and the building of all this. And I would say this too that being a peacemaker is recognizing God's desire for reconciliation and the devil's desire for division. >> Hear me. God wants reconciliation. The enemy wants division. The enemy would love for things to stay divided or to drive a wedge between you and someone else. This is why we have churches split. This is why we have marriages split. This is why we have friendships split. It's because a wedge was driven. And and neither side chose to lay down their offense or to lay down their hurt or to say, "I'm sorry," or whatever it is. That is why we have division. And the devil loves it. Loves it. again all the marriages, friendships, relationships, all because neither side was willing to reconcile. And it's stopping in the middle of an argument and realizing this and realizing that there's another voice in the room. When two people are arguing and there's division coming, there's another voice that's speaking and it's the accuser of the brethren. It's the devil. Revelation 12:10, he's called the accuser of the brethren. I can't tell you how many times, baby, I'm going to call you out right now. We've gotten into arguments and it's clear to me after about two hours that there's someone else speaking in this argument because because of my love for her and her love for me, there is desire for reconciliation. We want to see peace, but for whatever reason, the enemy will keep driving that offense over and over and over again. But it takes usually one of us. It's not usually me. I call myself out who stops and says, "We want peace." And that may look like laying down my offense. That may look like admitting that I'm wrong. God loves peace among his people. And that's why it says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." The reward for peacemakers is that they're recognized as true children of God. They share his passion for peace and reconciliation, the breaking down of these walls between people. And so it should be as followers of Jesus, as citizens of heaven, it should be our desire to be peacemakers and to do everything in our power to get to that place with our meekness, our mercifulness, our purity of heart, becoming less so that peace can reign, so that Christ can reign because he is the prince of peace. Amen. I shared this in our our small groups uh this last week, which our small groups have been amazing the last few weeks. Isn't it great? I I challenge all of you to to join us for small groups. Um we always have extra chairs. We may have to roll out more tables um this week cuz last week we were we were topped up and full. But it's been amazing to see God move in our conversations. Iron sharpening iron. And one of the things I shared is I believe that the measure of a man or woman of God is how quickly we drop to our knees and pray. >> When there's division, when there's arguments, when there's struggles going on, how quickly are you going to the Lord? Because again, we can argue and we can fight for hours on end or we can allow Jesus to be at the center of what's going on. like kick the accuser out of the room and allow Jesus to bring peace. Again, the hard thing with this as a peacemaker is you're blessed by God, but you're often hated by man. Like, if you're if you're the first one to talk about peace, there's accusations that begin to be thrown out. Oh, you're just trying to again dust this under the rug or you're being disingenuous or you just want to push past this big problem in the room, right? You're caught in the middle of people's offenses. You can be accused of lots of things and often times you're misunderstood. How many of you have been misunderstood when you wanted peace? Thank you for that hand. Hallelujah. Here we go. But again, looking at the thread that puts all of these biatitudes together, it takes meekness. It takes a hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart. Again, it all compounds together. How can you truly start the process of making peace without first having a heart that's transformed in this way? And often times, that's why we get accused of being disingenuous because we say, "I just want peace." But people see your heart. I just want peace. But where has your mercy been? I just I just want peace. Are you really poor in spirit? And again, it's not to negate your desire for peace, but people see your heart. They hear your words, but they want to see that we're living these biatitudes out, that we're truly citizens of the kingdom in this way. And remember, the greatest work of Jesus on the cross was to be a peacemaker between God and man when he was on the cross, dying for our sins. He stood in the gap of God's wrath that should have been poured out upon us, but he stood there to reconcile God to man. That is the gospel. And I and I think sometimes we we we forget about that and we make Jesus just into this image of a of a man on a cross and we feel good that he died for our sins or whatever that means. But when we really see the fact that he chose to reconcile us so that we could be also sons, that we could also walk in power and authority so that we can be like Christ. To me, it just shifts everything that he would do this for us again. So that peace may be made between God and man. Colossians 1:19. For it was the father father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace through the blood of his cross. It's by the blood of the cross that we get to walk in peace. Again, that's why spreading the gospel is the greatest way that you can be a peacemaker. That's why bringing Jesus into all situations is the call for all of us. Moving on to our our final beatitude because how does the world receive citizens of the kingdom? When we really live these things out, poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirsting for righteousness, mercifulness, being a peacemaker, pure in heart, all the things. How does the world receive citizens of heaven heaven? What's the world going to do with us? And the answer is persecute us. Right? Again, Jesus lays it all out for us. You'd think that the final beatitude would be something a little more exciting, right? You'd think like, "Oh, this is going to be like the huge reward, the huge thing. This is so awesome." And he says, "No, you're going to be persecuted." Says, "Blessed are those who've been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And then it goes on, we get the double whammy here for persecution. says, "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. For in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Again, you'd think that everyone would love citizens of heaven. You would love godly people. You know, I I remember in in high school, there were so many kids where it's like, well, I'm a good person, you know? So, like when I walk into the room, like everything's good. I remember I saw this study recently where they talked about popular people and that the most popular people in schools, it wasn't because of a financial status, it wasn't because they had a cool car. It wasn't because of the clothes they wore. The the the most popular people were the ones most interested in others. where they chose to to walk around and be like, "Yo, what's up, Stacy? High five. Let's go. Daniel, how you doing?" You know, let's go. Yeah, we're going to talk by the locker later. Like all the all these things like Austin, how you doing, man? Good to see you, brother. Come on. I love the man bun. All about it. If I had hair, I'd be like you. But it's the person that chooses to go and love and choose to to be interested in others. But when our focus is not on trying to interest or be interested or be interesting and our focus is just on the Lord and being like him, that puts us in a negative spot with the world. Again, it's not popular to live like Jesus when the rest of the world wants nothing to do with him. Jesus lived every single one of these biatitudes and he was persecuted, was he not? He was persecuted for righteousness sake. And I want to say this and I and I mean this in so much love because I I don't know what it is but like growing up in this area because we're kind of ultra Christian in a lot of ways. We have lots I had lots of friends growing up that were in Christian homes that had never read their Bible before but they called themselves a Christian. And anytime that I remember I had this one friend who anytime somebody was mean to them, they would go, "I'm being persecuted for Jesus." Have you ever met someone like that? Where it's like if if something bad is happening, it's like, "Oh, this is just persecution, right?" Maybe that's just me. I I I that's just kind of how I grew up with friends. But persecution is being persecuted for righteousness and living a righteous life. Persecution comes when you're living for Jesus. You're persecuted because of Christ, not because of you and your stupidity. >> Can I say it? >> Okay. Just because like you you're dealing with the consequences of your stupidity does not mean that you're being persecuted. >> Just because you're dealing with the consequences of your sin does not mean that you're being persecuted. and and and and I'm and I'm seeing again we've got so many things happening on the news and people that are standing, you know, on the word of God or they're they're standing up for our country or whatever it might be. And I I appreciate that and I'm not going to knock it by by any stretch of the imagination. But are we living our lives for Christ? Are we living righteously? Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? And are we calling a spade a spade? I guess is the best way to put it. Because there are times in my life where I could say I'm being persecuted. But I know too many people who have lived and died for the message of Jesus Christ. >> And I can't say that my life has been threatened because of the walk that I have with Jesus. I cannot say that my life has been threatened because of the words that I've said. There's been some times again on the mission field where it's like, hey, you probably shouldn't talk about Jesus here because they're they're all Muslim or they're all radical Buddhists and this is not a good thing like for our safety. But that was just okay, let's just be safe here. Let's be cool. Let's not die right now, right? But when it says that you'll be persecuted for living in righteousness and following Jesus, it it really speaks to where the world is. And I think what's so interesting is it's it's so sneakily been happening in our own nation, where the division has happened on such a deep level, but almost in the unseen places, and now it's starting to rear its head a little bit more. Now it's becoming a little bit more nefarious. The enemy doesn't want you to be talking about Jesus. He would rather us be silent in this day and age. And it's kind of it's kind of funny, too, like I I I've always heard the the phrase, you know, preach the gospel and if necessary, use words. >> Y'all heard that before? That's a load of crap. I'm sorry. Excuse my language. We need to voice the gospel. If we do not speak it, if we do not preach it, then how will they hear about it? We And again, the the beauty of the gospel and the and the beauty of preaching this is people are going to hear your words and then they'll look at your life. Are you living the things that you're saying? But for whatever reason, we want to have people be so interested in us because people are so interested in other people in this self-centered nation. We think that people are going to look at us and see there's something different about you. And I've said it many times and that's been my prayer that God would see something different about you or that that people would see something different about you and want to engage with you and find out what is it that makes you so special. But we're living in a day and age where we need to speak and we need to preach the gospel. If we want to see peace in our in our families, if we want to see peace in our schools, in our jobs, we need to bring Jesus in. We can't just be good people who love Jesus. We need to be people who preach the good news. Again, growing up, I uh you ever got you ever hear the song Jesus Freak by DC Talk? Anybody? What would people think if they hear that I'm a Jesus freak? I'm gonna sing it until you sing it with me. What would people know? Okay. All right. They find out it's true. Yep. Thank you. I don't really Okay, keep singing it. I don't really care. They labeled me a Jesus freak. It's really funny because I I think my dad actually first gave me this book. It was it was at some conference or whatever and he brought it back for me and uh you know this is the DC Talk book, Jesus Freaks. And I started reading it and the first story in it was about a man in Russia. I think this is the first story. A man in Russia who was put outside in the cold with his summer gear on until he denounced his faith because he was following Christ and it was illegal at that time. It's like, "No, you're going to be a communist. You can't be a Christian." And he they put him out in the cold and he stood there and they they kept checking on him and he was just fine. The the Holy Spirit had been over him in that moment and it was just this like powerful standing for faith moment. And all throughout the the book there's all these stories of people who laid their life down as Jesus freaks. They were persecuted. They were tortured. All all their money was taken. their their many of them their families were killed. The stories of churches being burned to the ground and bombed, attacks on pastors and all these things. And even when we lived in Thailand, we would hear stories of of this. There were times too when we lived in Bangkok where there were bombings that took place because of radicalization. And many many times those bombings happened near churches to intimidate believers. And so we're so blessed that we live in this nation and that there's freedom of of religion and we're free to follow the Lord. But there are sons and daughters of God who are being tortured and persecuted and they need us to pray for them. We need to pray for those who are living in places where the peace of God is not there yet. Can we just like can we just take a moment right now actually and and pray? I just just feel the Holy Spirit. God, we lift up the sons and daughters and nations around the world right now who need your protection, who need your strength in these days to stand firm and never turn. never turn from your gospel, from your truth. Lord, I pray even for boldness, boldness and wisdom to preach the gospel and to bring people into the kingdom, even in in places where it's illegal to be a follower of Jesus. God, I just pray right now. Pray for your people, Lord. those that are persecuted, Lord, let them see that theirs is the kingdom of heaven in Jesus name. Amen. Again, Jesus, he brings not just torture and and persecution in this manner physically into the equation, but he also brings in insults, spoken hate into the list of persecution as well. There's evil and wicked and mean things that people will say about you and that's also persecution. Again, I I I shared some different stories and many of I mean, they're all true stories. I I remember a missionary telling me recently about um I won't tell you what nation. I just sat down with a missionary and he was telling me how there was a man who young man who gave his life to Jesus and his family found out about it and the mother his mother actually threatened to kill him and ended up trying to turn him into the police in in this nation. And uh he ended up fleeing and getting away and is was in a neighboring country. Ended up meeting this missionary. Got baptized in a bathtub. Anybody get baptized in a bathtub? Got baptized in secret. Began to learn more about the word of God. And his family kept trying to figure out where he was. And so he would message him and then they would actually have the government track down where he was. And so he kept having to get new phone numbers and all these different things. And it's it's kind of wild, but he ended up connecting with one of his uh one of his sisters and she came out to him and she gave her life to Christ. And one of his brothers came as well. He gave his life to Christ. And so he's he actually has made it back into the country and he's secretly started two churches. one with his family because his entire family has given their life to Jesus >> and another with a with a bunch of random people on the other side of this city and they're meeting together. They're getting into the word of God. And one of the things one of the projects that we're going to focus on when we get to our missions gala is actually getting materials that are small enough to be smuggled into this nation so that they can have Bibles. It's interesting. For a long time, it was all about digital. We need it to be digital, but the the technology has gotten so good that people can scan your phones and figure out if there's a Bible on there. >> So, the like this is happening. This is happening in in many different nations, but there's opportunity now for us to be able to send materials in just paper. How cool is that? Paper Bible is winning over a digital one. But here's something powerful in Hebrews 11. And halfway through verse 35, it says, "Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they may might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in densing caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Here's what I love about following Jesus. that even in the midst of struggle, even in the midst of persecution, even when everything can be falling falling apart, we have a reward >> in Christ >> in eternity. Yes. Do we want to see heaven come to earth and experience him here and now? Absolutely. I mean, did you not sense his presence today in worship? He's here. He wants to encounter us here and now. But if everything if God never does another thing for you, we have an eternal reward with him that we're looking forward to. And so many times I think we get focused or fixated in on the promises of God or we hear God, you know, speak to us or we feel this passion or dream burning in us for whatever it might be and we can fixate on on that. And maybe even some of these followers of Jesus were doing the same thing. But God has something better than what you're dreaming for right now. God has something so much more than what you allow yourself to focus on. And what does Jesus say when you're persecuted? Verse 12, it says, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad." Exceedingly glad actually means jump for joy. If you're getting persecuted in this way, jump for joy. Why? Because your inheritance is the kingdom of heaven. It's the evidence. Persecution is the evidence of what God is doing in your life. I I I think about it with with Charlie Kirk. The evidence the evidence is that the enemy wanted him silent. And let me let me just put it out there to each and every one of you today. Does the enemy want you silent? Is he willing to persecute you, to persecute me, to silence your voice? Is what you're saying worth silencing? Is the gospel you're preaching, not just the gospel you're living, the gospel you're preaching, is it irritating the enemy so much that he's making plans right now to take you out? And this has been the challenge for me even as I've read this. I It's so funny. I I started this series and for whatever reason I forgot that the final beatitude was persecution. I'm like, God, why did I Why did I do this? Why Why is the call now so high? But it's his desire for every single one of us. Again, we jump for joy because we have a reward in heaven and because we're in good company with the sons and daughters of God. Because to welcome the cross is to welcome everlasting life. for each and every one of us today. Again, many of you know the story in Acts 7 of Stephen who was a deacon in the first century church and he was preaching to a group of radical Pharisees and they did not like the truth that he was sharing. And it's very long and I'm not going to read the whole thing this morning, but by the end of it, he said, "You men are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart." This is after he preached the gospel, just so you know. He's not just like hurling insults at people. uncircumcised in heart and ears and are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Verse 53, you who received the law as ordained by angels and yet you did not keep it. You know so much about the word of God and yet you're not living it out. That's what Stephen's saying. >> He's reconciling them back to God in this moment and saying, "Yeah, I know you know all these things. I know that you've been following the teachings of of of Moses and all these things, but do you know Jesus? >> Do you know the Holy Spirit? And again, Steven was pure in heart and desired to call these so-called God followers to be reconciled to God. They knew the word, but they didn't know God in their hearts. And this enraged them. I said it last week. People are going to be enraged by the truth of God because they reject it. When someone is is so filled with anger and hatred because of the truth, it's because they're rejecting the truth. And I can't tell you how many times I've even myself have been face to face with the truth and my heart is full of offense because the gospel is offensive and it should offend your flesh. It should offend the sinful nature that each of us have been created in. And we wrestle with it and we take it to the Lord and we purify our hearts. Say, "God, I repent. Forgive me." But the Pharisees, when they heard all of this, they were infuriated. Verse 58, "When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, picking up stones, hurling it at him. They went on stoning Steven as he called on the Lord and he said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And having said this, he fell asleep. In between there, there's a verse that says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, full of the spirit. And that's my desire for us that we would be full of the spirit today. I I there was a moment during worship I looked over at where's where's Dustin? I don't know if he's in the room. There he is. I looked over at Dustin. I was just like I'm shaking. I can't stand right now in his presence because he's so good. And just the weight of his glory was I just sensed it so heavily here. And my desire is for us to constantly be living in that place where we would invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. That we would be quick to drop to our knees when we need him. Like what would it what would our lives look like if we stopped trying to do it all on our own? If we actually began to live out these biatitudes. Stephen, he was martyed. He died for the truth that he shared. He died because of the life that he chose to live. He died because he chose Jesus over everything else. And that's what we're called to do today. Again, the world persecutes because of the character expressed in these biatitudes. But if no one persecutes us, if no one speaks against us, how real are these biatitudes in our lives? And this has been the challenge of my heart in even reading this. How real is this? Am I being persecuted? Are you preaching a truth that the enemies want silenced? Again, I love that God has been moving in our church. And I said it during our prayer time today. I I keep hearing stories of beautiful moments taking place in kids' hearts and and parents and people in this church of God doing some deep work, healing, transformation, and it's powerful and so so much of it it's it's happening inside and the fruits coming out slowly. But we often assume that the inner qualities and biatitudes can only be developed or displayed in isolation. that these are only things that are the unseen things. But Jesus wants us to live them out before the world and to speak and to preach. Again, we need to ask ourselves, am I living a life that is seen and heard as a citizen of heaven? Am I living a life that is seen and heard as a citizen of heaven? Jay, you can come. I'm wrapping up. It's really hot in here. Anyone else hot? All right, just me. Sorry, someone. Holy Spirit. Oh, man. I'm wearing black and an undershirt. Here's what I love. At the end of the biatitudes, after he's he's finished this setup, he talks about being the salt of the earth, right? And then it goes on in Matthew 5:14, it says, "You are the light of the world." Light is seen, right? It's not just something that happens here, but it's seen by all. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. But you put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all those who are in the house. Verse 16, your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. That you would be seen not just by God, but you would be seen by the world as a light in dark places. that your words would be heard by those and it would begin to challenge people and call them to be reconciled to Christ, that the gospel will bec
