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Jesse and Seb discuss the Sermon on the Mount and its teachings on how to live as a Christian. They focus on the Beatitudes, which emphasize the blessings that come from being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering for righteousness, being merciful, having a pure heart, being a peacemaker, and being persecuted for doing right. They also discuss how these teachings are a guideline for Christians to strive towards, even though they may fall short at times. They highlight the importance of being salt and light in the world, letting their good deeds shine so that others may praise God. My name is Jesse, I'm Seb, welcome to Sesame Street. Hi, today we're going to be talking about 7 on the Mount ASMR edition, because right now we can hear someone outside our studio and we don't know what they're doing. So right now we're going to be whispering. 7 on the Mount starts at chapter 5. Wait, wait, wait, how's your week been? How's your week been? Good, good, great start to the episode. Yeah, how's it good? What have you been up to? Are we actually going to start like that? Yeah, why not? Yeah, I've had a good week, just getting ready for assessments. Very nice. Yeah, not very nice, but just church Bible study on Sunday. Good. Yeah, too good. How about you? Yeah, I've had a good week, just school, youth, church and stuff. I was able to do communion on Sunday, so that was really fun, and then I had a bunch of other stuff with mates and family and stuff going on, and that's been really good. But yeah, if you didn't know, today we're going to be speaking about the Sermon on the Mount, and how cool is the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, it's going to be good. And it talks about so much, how to live as a Christian. It's legit. I feel like a majority of our encouragement and convictions come from this one sermon that he's done, which is kind of crazy, because we've done, this is our 10th episode, Is this our 10th episode? Yeah, this is our 10th episode. I know. That's crazy. And some people, in the fact that he did this all in one sermon, to 10, you have all this stuff. But would you like to start? Because obviously it's big, we've got to get into it, and this might end up being more parts than one. But yeah, would you like to start? Yeah, sure. So I guess we'll start from 5, or we'll just start from 5 actually, from the start. 5 says, Now then Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to a mountainside and sat them down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said, 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 meek, for they will inherit the earth. I'll probably stop there, just so we can actually unpack those. Damn. That's already been like a few verses already. So what did you read up to? Blessed are the meek, so 5. Yeah, I'm in an NLT, so I'm going to be jumping between versions. But how good is it to start with a reminder in the Sermon on the Mount is that God blesses those who are poor and realize the need for the kingdom. What do you think it means by poor in spirit? Poor in spirit. It doesn't have that in my own translation, but I think when it means poor in spirit, it means that you can only find our spirit in God, and if we don't have that spirit, we'll only find it in other things that won't give us the full amount of what God is. So I feel like when we have poor spirit, and say we find a poor spirit in things that only give us a little bit of satisfaction for a moment, then it's only for a moment. Jesus' spirit is something that lives in us. It's constant. It's 24-7. It doesn't shut down on a weekend or only is there when it's on the high. It's there every single day, every single minute, every second, if we call upon it. It also says when we realize the need for Him, God blesses those that actually realize their need for Him. We are poor in spirit, and we actually have to know that the only way that we can be filled with the spirit is through Him. That's good. That's very good. What do you think? I think the same thing. And it says in, where was it? It was Luke, I think it's 7 verse 20, which I think is also, I'm out of here. Luke 6 verse 20, sorry. I just jumped it. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you are satisfied. So, I guess it's not, as you were saying, it's not the physical things that bring you closer to God. It's having the richness in the spirit. Yeah. Not physical things. Yeah. Because I feel like we've spoken about it on other episodes as well, but I've noticed in my life that when I tend to find spirit in things that aren't God, I get let down pretty easily. Because God is everlasting, God is forever, God is beginning and end, alpha and omega, and no one can ever reach those qualifications, and no one can ever satisfy us and validate us like God does. And God validates us and satisfies us through the death of his own son. And I don't know if anything else could ever do something out of love for us. And I think it's quite crazy to even know that he actually blesses us, that he knows that we aren't going to find spirit in anything else, and he blesses those who are poor, but he blesses the ones that actually realize that they need him, and we do need him. We need him every part of this. Life actually says, the kingdom of heaven is theirs, which is quite cool. It also says later in verse 10, God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And how many times do you feel like you get persecuted for doing the right thing? Do you get me? What do you think? I think all of the attitudes are absolutely, I think they're just all spot on. I think especially for the time period that Jesus would have been in as well. Oh, definitely. People without, I mean, it's still a problem today, but people without money look down on so much. And also, I guess, it's just so spot on that it has every point of the Christian faith and the characteristics of God. He will comfort those who mourn. He will bless those who are meek. And then after that it says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. So it's like all, God is merciful, God is righteous. He's going to bless us with all these things. And then we should also try to act like that as well, based on the attitudes. Definitely. I think if you look through the entire of the Beatitudes, it says God blesses, God blesses, God blesses. God actually blesses us and blesses those who are seeking Him and seeking for a life with Him. And these are the things that you can actually be blessed by. If you're poor, you can be blessed. If you mourn, you can be blessed. If you're humble, you will be blessed. If you're hungry and thirst for justice, you'll be blessed. If you're merciful, you'll be blessed. If your hearts are pure, you'll be blessed. Those who work for peace will be blessed. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right. God blesses those who are mocked and persecuted. And how good is that? God doesn't just see what we're doing for His name, but He actually blesses us and He actually has our hand over us. And we shouldn't do things like wanting that reward, but we should do things knowing that God sees us, God sees what we're doing and that we can actually find righteousness through God, through living a life through Him. It even says in verse 12, Be happy about it. Be very glad for a great reward awaits you in heaven. Remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. All the prophets went through all sorts of these things that were going on in the Beatitudes. And then really, we go through the same things as Christians as well. Just because it was a couple hundred years ago when the prophets were persecuted for doing what they were doing doesn't mean we don't get persecuted at all. Exactly. Plenty of Christians and plenty of people get persecuted for their beliefs. I also wanted to say, I would just say one of the later parts in the Assumption of the Mount is the fulfillment of the law. I think, because my Bible, it's a study Bible, so it has different questions. And it says, how can anyone live up to these standards? And I was kind of thinking, because obviously none of us can always be merciful, none of us can always be pure in heart, none of us can always be peacemakers, right? But it's like the law of Moses. The law of Moses shows us, we're never going to be perfect and we're never going to be able to live up to these standards. But it shows us what we should be living like, and guidance-wise, so that we can know how to live as Christians. It's like a guideline, basically. God knows that we're not always going to be on track with that guideline and we're going to make mistakes and there'll be times where we might fall off track. But the greatest thing of all is, God still is there with us. He still forgives us. And the very fact that we have that decision in our mind to still go back to Him, to run to Him, to ask for a renewal of our mind, is a very fact to show how we are saved, to show how we are being saved by Jesus' death. How good is that? Even when we do make these mistakes, God is still living in us. Very lucky, because we always do. And then we've got the salt and the light. Do you want to read that? Yeah, sure. It says in verse 13, You are the salt of the earth, but what good is it if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed in a stand, where it gives life to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all who see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. How cool is that? I love that verse. And how encouraging that is. It should be an encouragement to everyone. The way that you live your life for God actually can be a reflection. It can be something that God shines over us, and it can reflect onto the people around us. Let your good deeds shine for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Through your good deeds, and through following the Word, and through following what Jesus is doing, you can actually bring people to know God. It doesn't always have to be evangelism, or getting up on a stage and preaching His Word. It can legit just be living a life for Christianity that can bring someone, and they can realise, they can see, that person is living life a little bit differently, and that can be a complete life changer for someone as well. Yeah, definitely. I think that's something that's difficult to keep in mind, especially when you're trying to evangelise people who have already made up their mind that they're so against Christianity. And if they've already made up their mind, I think it's probably one of the easiest ways to show them and glorify God is through your actions. Definitely. Yeah, and it's crazy. It says at the start, you are the salt of the earth. We are the salt of the earth. His followers are the salt of the earth. But what good is it if the salt has lost its flavour? How can you make it salty again? Be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You know, we constantly have to be finding our saltiness. It's just kind of lost its thing nowadays. Saltiness is reflected as anger or something like that. But we have to have that saltiness. We have to have that touch that only God can gift us. If we don't have that saltiness, we're not going to be able to reach people. You know, when you go to a restaurant, you can taste when something's salty. Be the saltiness of people's lives. They can realise that there's something different about this. If you put salt onto someone's food, they're going to notice it most of the time. So if you're being the salt in someone's life, they will see you. They'll recognise you as well. What do you think? I was just thinking about how, but if a salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Like I was saying before, if you were a believer and then you decide to stray away from the faith, what can make you believe again besides some encounter or something with God that He shows you how much He loves you? Exactly. Or even having to make the decision yourself to go back to Him as well, to find that saltiness. A lot of people go away from God and they're looking for something that only God can fulfil. And they're like, I want to have the feeling that I once had, but you actually can only find that when you're with God. And that's a really big reminder that I've had a few times where I'm like, oh my goodness, how do I feel you God, but I'm not actually going to God. You have to be in your word, you have to be praying, you actually have to talk to Him. He's not always going to just jump into your life and be like, yeah, I'm here now. No, you've got to reflect and go back to Him. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah. And the same thing with the light, there's a lot of analogies that is used throughout the Sermon on the Mount, which is super, super sick. And at some point in verse 15, it says, no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket so the lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. When you have this joy and you have this rejoicing for Christ, don't just hold it in. Actually, go and shine that light and stuff. Shine that light into people's lives by living the way that Jesus would want to. Go start a podcast. Go start preaching the word to your mates. Go read the Bible at an assembly or go try and be part of your church or even go to communities and do things that can show a reflection of what Jesus would have done on earth. And you don't want to be that lamp that is covered by a basket. No, you want to be that lamp that is placed on a stand for everyone to see. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I think we're called to be different. And so if you're hiding your faith because of some fear that you have or I don't know. And I understand it can be a scary thing, especially if you're in an environment that is unfriendly to Christians. Yeah. But imagine you're telling someone you're a Christian, and you're like, oh, I never knew that. I know. That'd be, yeah. That'd actually kill me. I'd be like, damn. It's so good that, it's a good reminder, but it could also be quite convicting to remember that this relationship we have with God is not just a thing to hold on to, like it's a precious gemstone, which it is really precious and it really is something that's so important. But it's called to go make disciples of all the nations. And like Jesus has called us to go and make disciples of all the nations. It's one of the last things he even says while he's on earth is to go and remember him through talking to people about it and actually spreading the word and spreading what he's done to us as well. You know, it shouldn't be something that we're just handed down to as a gift and hold on to it as a possession but bring it into the next generations. Yeah. Like the parable of the, what is it, the pearl? You sell every single thing in your life to get it. Yeah. Like that. Yeah, and it speaks about, later in Matthew, it speaks about how to join Jesus you actually have to lose your life to find everything in God. I can't remember where it is in Matthew but it says how Jesus says when you choose to support him it means you lose your life. It means you lose every single thing that you've ever wanted to do in your life and you lose all those satisfactions. You pick up your cross and you follow him. Not because your life is boring now and it's not going to bring joy but it will bring you things greater than that and greater than life itself could bring you. But really, only God can give those things through your faith in him. Yeah. Yeah, I think especially when you're in the things of the world it's so, so, so difficult to see the light especially in yourself because that's where Satan wants you to be to be comfortable in the things of this world. Definitely. And a lot of the time if you don't have the Holy Spirit you will be comfortable with it and it might even sometimes be more comfortable than talking about your faith with other people and making those decisions not to sin. So, yeah. Yeah, I was speaking to you recently and people recently about uncomfortability which isn't a word but being comfortable. Is it? No, it isn't. I found out about that today when I tried to write it down. Yeah, I know. But God calls us to be uncomfortable because he never wants us to settle. He wants us to keep moving into his plan but with that he wants us to be uncomfortable to realise that we can't do life without him. If we are always in the comfortability of another word that doesn't exist but if we are always okay with being comfortable in every situation we're never going to step out into the new situation or the new thing God has called us into that we actually are called to go into situations and into trials that might seem really hard to find triumph in but we know and we have to realise that and God wants us to know that we can only do this with him. The uncomfortability brings out the truth that we can't do this life without him. We actually need him and that's the most important fact. Well, stay tuned for a future episode. Yeah, on being okay with uncomfortable... Uncomfortability. Oh, uncomfortability. Uncomfortability. I wish that was a word. That would be sick. I can't believe... Why wouldn't it be a word? It makes no sense. It sounds right. I know, it does. It sounds right. Well, if we want to keep going in the sermon it says the next thing is teaching on the law. Do you want to speak on that? Yeah, sure. I can read it. It's Matthew 5.17-20. It says, Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. Truly I tell you, Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will be by any means disappeared from the law until everything is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commandments and teaches others accordingly will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Wow. That's like a mic drop on everything. That's crazy. But like, how good is it that Jesus did not come to abolish the law but came to fulfil the law and he has fulfilled the law and now we can follow him through living a life. He is the perfect example of not the attitudes but also the ten commandments, also the way to live life. Like I think on one of the first episodes we spoke about how the Bible and Jesus' way of living life is really like a dummy's how to live life book. Like it's really a tutorial on how to live life is the life of Jesus. To look up to it and to study it and to really understand how we can live life to the most and the most fullest potential is only with God. Yeah. What do you think? Yeah, I wanted to quickly talk about because it does say we'll be the least in the kingdom of heaven and in the grace in the kingdom. I think what it means is just like showing like what God values. Yeah. Like if you're being deceptive and like ignoring parts of his teachings and then teaching other people that then like obviously he doesn't value that. Yeah. What does it say in anyone who but whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Yeah. So it's kind of it's just showing what God values and like you will be rewarded for following the commandments. But it's not like there's going to be some some like I don't know totalitarian society in heaven where you have I don't know there's some people like that are like poor or whatever and rich and whatever. It's not going to be like that. Yeah. No, that's so good. And like it's so cool how I feel like a lot of times we can feel like we're the least or sometimes like we're not seen for what we're doing for God but really God does see that. And I think that's one of the main points in the Sermon on the Mount and the attitudes and the salt and the light is God actually sees what we do. He sees the fruit we bear and he sees the life we live and just because we don't get the praise from it doesn't mean that we're not living it correctly. But God actually sees it. There could be a person that does so much for God but isn't recognized. That doesn't mean God hasn't seen it. Or it could be a pastor that does so much for God and everyone sees it. They're both doing the same amount. Only one of them is seen. And I feel like that's important that God doesn't there's no ranking system in heaven. If you're in heaven you're there because God has chosen you. You have that relationship with God and how cool is that? That's something that I think we all strive for and all long for one day. It's so good. On to murder. Murder? I've got anger. If you're a murderer damn. Do you want me to read it? Yeah, go ahead. You have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder. Oh, there's murder. There's anger here. If you commit murder you are subject to judgment. But I say even if you were angry with someone you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot you're in danger of being brought before the court and if you curse someone you're in danger of the fires of hell. So if you are presenting a sacrifice to the altar in the temple and suddenly remember that someone has something against you leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go be reconciled with that person then come back and offer your sacrifice to God. When you're on the way to court with your adversary settle your differences quickly otherwise your accuser may hand you over to the judge he'll hand you over to an officer and you'll be thrown and you'll be thrown in prison. And if that happens you surely won't be free again until you've paid the last penny. Wow. That is hard. Because I can tell you I do not want to be happy with people sometimes. People make me I do get angry. very annoyed sometimes. Man, that's that's really that's intense and that's hard. But um what do you think that's spoken to you through those verses about anger? Well, I definitely think it's the image that it puts in my mind it's kind of like you're you're praying you're praying for God to forgiveness that you haven't even asked for forgiveness from this person that you've wrongfully done something to or or already forgiven that person in your heart for for something that they've done against you. Yeah. But then like praying praying to God that they'll I don't know like be convicted Yeah. Um so I think it's you talk about like the the stick in your in your own eye Yeah. for later but um I think it's kind of it's kind of like that right? Um I think we should strive to not be not be angry with each other and not even not even like calling each other like names names in our anger yeah definitely. Yeah. And it makes sense right? All of these all of these commandments they make sense because they make sense in your relationship with other people um and it also like reflects on your character as a Christian as well. Yeah. Like it also says in 24 like leave your sacrifice there with the altar go and be reconciled with that person then come and offer your sacrifice to God. You know God actually strives for us to to settle things not always the way that we wanted it to be or the way that we imagined it to be or and I'm not meaning that in like you know beat them up or something like that to a certain degree sometimes the person might not have the best opinion of you sometimes relationships might change but you have to be okay with that but it's most important to reconcile with that person because you shouldn't you know you shouldn't ever really it's really hard but I feel like God says we shouldn't have a grudge over people and we shouldn't have this like this feeling that we don't like people and that's really hard because I can tell you there's plenty of people I can think of when I'm when I'm speaking this and hearing about this right now where I genuinely do have times where I'm like I still haven't forgiven those people and sometimes I will say I've forgiven those people but I haven't really because I'm holding onto it you know God has called us to let those things go even though we have been hurt even though sometimes we weren't even the ones in the wrong we have to actually strive for reconciling with that person because that's you know it's love that's what God did you know how do you think God feels? God gets betrayed nearly every single day you know we sin to him every single day and Jesus was like the ultimate example of being wrongfully accused of something exactly 33 years without sinning and he could he could have easily like called called down like and got himself down from the cross yeah in a split of a second got himself out of out of chains but he could have watched humanity yeah just being done and he so he he didn't even do anything remotely wrong there's nothing you could even say like his accusers had nothing nothing against him and he still still um knew and he prayed for them as well yeah and he loved them yeah it's crazy and I feel like that's why God is like such a good like it's someone that you should base your your life around and this isn't a reminder to anyone and it's just we have to do that and how good is it that we can actually trust the Lord with all our heart and then lean on that constantly so yeah alright this is this is getting too much okay anyways um as we wrap up should we pray? we definitely there's not even a question well I'll pray I'll pray I'll pray okay Father in heaven we thank you for today we thank you that you have given us a sermon on the mount that we can live our life off Lord Jesus you are so good we pray Lord you continue to guide us each and every single day and that we can step in faith with you we are so grateful for you we pray Lord you continue to work in us each and every single day and we ask Lord you have your hand over us going into next week and we are so grateful for you we pray all these things Lord in your name Amen Amen Amen Amen yeah oh my goodness what happened? what happened? oh there we are oh wait we got to do it again but we guys are so glad so glad that we can spend these first 10 episodes with you we are so glad and we will see you have an amazing week yeah have an amazing week and we will see you guys soon goodbye