Merry Christmas!

Redeemer men's ministry group meetings will be on break until the week of Jan. 7, 2008. However, we should never be on break from the qualities of leadership that we learned from our studies in the Beatitudes.

May your appreciation of Christ and his love for you deepen this Christmas season.

Persecuted for Righteousness Sake

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This final beatitude is perhaps the most sobering and searching of them all. The spiritual character quality spoken of here is a willingness to suffer joyfully for the sake of righteousness.

The righteousness of which Christ is speaking is a moral righteousness of character and conduct that comes from knowing Christ as our Savior and following Him as our Lord. Most immediately, Jesus is referring to the righteous spiritual qualities that He has outlined here in the Beatitudes.

Men, when you pursue Christ and His righteousness at work, home, and among the church family, you won’t always be the most popular person. At times, Christ’s way of life attracts people to Him and they end of up coming to Him in faith and glorifying their father in heaven (v. 16). But more than not, you will experience some degree of persecution (see also, Phil. 1:29; II Tim. 3:12). You may not think of it as persecution—you won’t be beaten or thrown into jail, at least not at this present time in our country, but you may be laughed at, harassed, overlooked for a promotion, have to deal with your angry teen, or some other form of persecution, because you have chosen to do what you believe is right according to Christ’s standard.

To encourage your faithfulness to Him and His way of life, Jesus urges you to “be glad and rejoice” when you suffer persecution. Why? Two reasons. First, your reward will be great in heaven. You may suffer material loss here, but what God has in store for you in heaven will more than make up for any earthly loss. The second reason is that you are in good company with the prophets of old when you suffer for righteousness’ sake. God’s Old Testament spokesmen suffered for righteousness’ sake—Isaiah, Jeremiah etc..., so from God’s perspective you are in good company.

· What “persecutions” do you face that challenge you to “be glad and rejoice”?

· Are there areas in your life where you fear possible persecution and you could use encouragement from your brothers to be faithful?

Being God’s kind of man—that is, being like Jesus Christ as He outlined in the Beatitudes—requires a commitment. Guys, it’s a commitment worth making because yours is the kingdom of heaven!

The Redeemer Men’s Ministry is here to help foster such a commitment so that each man will grow to be more like Christ. Let’s be zealous in this effort for Christ’s sake!

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Matt. 5:9

Men, when you became Christians, you became the sons of God. As sons of God, the Holy Spirit granted you the spiritual capacity to develop the character and likeness of your Heavenly Father. The old saying, “Like father, like son” is a fitting expression of your relationship with the Father and ought to be something that you pursue.

Peacemaking is the particular fatherly quality that Jesus mentions here. God the Father is a peacemaker. The Scriptures teach that your Heavenly Father is the “God of peace” (I Thessalonians 5:23). This peacemaking quality of your Father in Heaven was clearly demonstrated when “He made peace through the blood of His (Christ’s) cross” (Col. 1:20).

Since the Father is a peacemaker and you are His son, you ought to be a peacemaker too. Men, your leadership in this area of peacemaking is needed at home, work, and at church. Conflicts, fights, division, and broken relationships are far too common. Can you think of a situation or relationship right now where help is needed to bring peace? (If not, the day is sure to come soon). Are you providing leadership to bring peace? Or are you part of the problem—are you adding to the fighting and conflict?

There is so much that can be said about how to be a peacemaker; just look at some of the passages that speak of it: Romans 12:14-21; Ephesians 2:11-22, 4:1-32; Phil. 2:1-18, and Colossians 3:12-17. For our purposes though, just think about how the other beatitudes that we have already looked at could help you in your peacemaking efforts (poor in spirit, mourning (over sin), meekness, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, and pure in heart). You might flesh out some of these in your men’s meeting this week. Which qualities do you need most to practice to provide leadership as a peacemaker?

Christ ends by saying that you are blessed if you a peacemaker. Why? Because you will be recognized as a son of God at the judgment. The heavenly Father will look at you and see the reflection of His wonderful peacemaking character in you, which is the evidence of a genuine faith. In response, you will hear Him say something like, “welcome home, son”! That is something to look forward to and that ought to spur you on to being a peacemaker.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” — Matthew 5:8

Purity of heart means a heart that is undivided, fully loyal to the Lord Jesus and free from all compromise with sin. So Christ is telling us as Christian men and leaders to be unmixed and undivided in our loyalty to Him. Our loyalty to Him ought to supersede and rank far superior to other loyalties we might have, such as family, work, hobbies, the church, etc.... While it is fine and of good character to be loyal to people and good causes in this world, they are to never rival or supplant our loyalty to Jesus Christ. He is God the King, so our allegiance must be first to Him.

There are many reasons why this is difficult for us. As the hymn writer said, “Prone to wander — Lord, I feel it — prone to leave the God I love....” Add to our own human tendency to wander away from our loyalty to Christ, the tempting reality that the life of sin is constantly portrayed as pleasurable and satisfying by the people we work with and by the media (movie stars, TV commercials). And that’s not all; peer pressure is at times a strong influence in moving us away from an undivided heart. We inordinately desire approval and acceptance by our peers (we want to be one of the guys) so we end up compromising in some way — participating in dirty joking with the guys at work, or passing on pornography received via email, or perhaps lingering at or even frequenting these same sites and on and on we could go.

How do we move toward a pure heart? First, it is received by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9). Jesus lived a pure life. He never compromised with sin. And He was always entirely devoted to God the Father. In Christ we have been given the purity of heart we need. His purity of heart has been credited to our account. We need to recognize this and rejoice! Second, we need to pursue a matching pure heart of our own. How so? We need to ask God in prayer to give us a pure heart, the way King David asked in Psalm 51. Then we need to read the Word of God which has the power to purify our hearts (Ephesians 5:26). Men, look at your men’s groups as a practical means of helping each other develop and maintain pure hearts for Jesus Christ.

What does Christ promise? The pure in heart will see God. This means that we will be admitted into the presence of the King of Kings so that we see Him face to face and behold His glory. We now see images of His glory in the words and works of Scripture and in creation. But when we get to heaven, His glory will no longer have to be deduced. We will experience and enjoy it directly (Rev. 21:23). As John Piper says, “The beauty of His holiness will be tasted directly like honey on the tongue.” Such a promise ought to be plenty of motivation for pursuing purity of heart.

Men, consider these questions as you pray for purity of heart:

What interests or activities do I have that tend to compete with my loyalty to Christ?

To put this first question into perspective, how conscious are you of always being in God’s presence?

What matters more to you – honoring that presence of God or not wanting to be different from the guys when off-color stories are told?

What desires do I need to say no to in order to put Christ first?

How can I pray for my brothers and encourage them to greater purity of heart?

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy — Matthew 5:7

Mercy and men surely don’t go together! Maybe machismo, but not mercy. Well, the world’s only perfect man, Jesus Christ, speaking to Christian men, calls them to be merciful. He goes against the norms of the prevailing culture and says, Men in my kingdom are to have the character quality of mercy.

Mercy is compassion for people in need. It involves seeing a person in distress, feeling pity for them in your heart and then taking concrete action to relieve the distress regardless of the person. The Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is a great example of mercy. He sees the distress of the Jew left for dead on the side of the road (v. 33). His heart wells up with pity (v. 33). He proceeds to take concrete action to relieve the distress (v. 34). To cap it off, the Samaritan does all this for an enemy — the Samaritans didn’t get along with the Jews.

Opportunities for mercy abound in our lives as men. Think about it. What opportunities confront you right now? This week? Maybe the following examples will remind you of a situation in your own life:

· From time to time someone at work will be going through a rough time at home or because of job pressures. This can be an opportunity for you to come along and inquire if there is something you can do to help.

· Perhaps your spouse or one of your kids make a bad decision that creates problems. You could either blast them or realize their frail nature, take pity and work to assist them in correcting the problem.

· The Lord may bring a poor person along your path; more often than not, our hearts ought to be moved with compassion to wisely assist him.

Do you have any situations right now where mercy is in order? What is holding you back?

A merciful heart comes from a person to whom God has shown mercy in Christ. God the Father saw your plight, He took pity, and sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to bear your wrath and suffer your punishment. As a result, when you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ, you were forgiven and made right with God. (See Psalm 103:8-14.)

Christ ends this beatitude as he has all the others, pointing out why a disciple is blessed if he has the character quality of which He is speaking. Here He says that you will be shown mercy. In other words, when Christ returns, those who will receive mercy from Him are people who have been merciful themselves. Christ will look at the evidences of your trusting in Him for salvation. And when He sees works of faith, such as mercy, He will pour out His mercy and welcome you into His heavenly, eternal kingdom. This is something to motivate you to show mercy now, and something to look forward to in the future.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied — Matthew 5:6.

Men, God made you with the natural desires for food and drink. When you become hungry you desire food and when you become thirsty you desire something to drink. And when you get something to eat and drink you are satisfied, until the next urge comes. This is how you were made. You were also made to be spiritually satisfied with righteousness, that is, with living in right relationship with God. Adam lived a spiritually satisfying righteous life prior to the fall. Christ certainly did as well when He lived on the earth (John 4:34, Hebrews 12:2).

However, after the fall man became discontent. Adam decided to disobey God and no longer live in right relationship to God. At that point satisfaction was replaced by discontentment. All of us come into this world with the same discontentment. And many of us try to replace it with scenic vacations, sports, drugs, romance, career advancement, money, peer acceptance and approval, and many other things that were never meant to satisfy. The discontentment creeps back every time. This is why Isaiah poses the question, “Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and you labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:2)

Do you live with an underlying discontentment? Are you frustrated with your life? Maybe—perhaps unconsciously—you are seeking satisfaction from the wrong things, and those things are leaving you unsatisfied and discouraged.

According to Christ, the only thing that can satisfy man spiritually is righteousness. Sinful man needs to be forgiven and declared right with God on the basis of the righteous life of Christ. True heartfelt satisfaction can’t be had unless this acceptance is granted by God through faith in Christ. In addition to this legal standing, the Christian man needs to live a righteous life by obeying the Word of God in dependence upon God’s grace. When you men know that you are right with God and are seeking to live in right relationship with God, you will be satisfied.

Christ says you are blessed if you experience such satisfaction. Why? Because you were made to be satisfied in God by being and living in right relationship with Him. Now complete satisfaction won’t be experienced until Christ returns and you are made fully like Him. As the psalmist says, “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake —Psalm 17:5.

Men, are you spiritually hungry and thirsty? Where are you seeking satisfaction? In
God or ?????

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth — Matthew 5:5

“If you want to be successful and happy, put yourself first. Be assertive. Be aggressive.” This is the philosophy of many in our society. In the workplace and business world some people assert themselves, to the point of taking advantage of others, in order to get all they can — money, power, prestige. Some will even lie and cheat, if they need to, in order to achieve success. In the arena of relationships (home or church) this “put yourself first, be assertive” attitude results in a person being controlling and harsh in order to get what he wants. It can also lead to difficulty in receiving criticism and the tendency to look down at others.

In this week’s beatitude, Jesus counters such a worldly attitude when He says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” The quality of meekness is not to be equated with weakness or being a pushover. Jesus was meek and lowly. By no means was He a wimp. Meekness is a gentle and humble attitude that expresses itself in acts of kindness towards others in various life situations. It is present in a person who is poor in spirit and mourns over sin and in one who has an unwavering trust in God.

In the business world or workplace, the meek person works hard and wisely, but he doesn’t run over people or lie and cheat to succeed. His trust is in the Lord to bring him success, if that is what He wants. This enables him to treat those with whom he does business with respect, honesty, and integrity. If the boss criticizes him, he has the humility to receive it and make whatever changes he needs to make. The meek are teachable — James 1:19-20. If he is the one who has to give the criticism, he does it gently and constructively so as to help the person being criticized.

If meekness makes you teachable, it also makes you approachable. If you are going to lead well in your family, at your work place, and at church, those you lead must feel free to approach you without fear of being shut down. Meekness is essential to being approachable. Men, God wants you to lead in such a way that your wives and your children are eager to come to you with their struggles. Take a moment to evaluate whether those closest to you are eager to seek your help.

The world says that those who put themselves first and are self-assertive have it made. Christ says that is wrong. From His perspective, the meek are those who are truly blessed because they will inherit the earth. Yes, many in the world succeed because of their aggressive, put yourself first spirit. They get rich and acquire lots of stuff. But they will leave this world one day the same way they came in — with nothing. The believer may not have much to speak of in this world, but in the world to come he will be rich beyond measure. He is a fellow-heir with Christ, which means that at Christ’s Second coming, you will inherit your share of the new heavens and earth — I Peter 1:3-5; Revelation 21.

“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” — Matthew 5:4.

In this beatitude Jesus is calling the Christian and Christian leader to mourn over sin. For a person to mourn over sin means to be personally grieved or pained in his heart over it. Isaiah the prophet mourned over his sin when He cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” — Is. 6:5. Christ is talking about the kind of mourning that leads to repentance. Paul speaks about this in II Corinthians 7:5 where he mentions a godly sorrow over sin. This kind of godly sorrow or mourning leads to true repentance, which consists of a change of mind and lifestyle. This is in contrast to worldly sorrow or mere regret over the consequence of sin, which doesn’t lead to genuine repentance. For example, Judas betrayed Christ, regretted it, and then hanged himself.

Sin is infinitely offensive to God. It contradicts everything in His character. And when you couple that with the love of Christ for us on the cross so that we might be forgiven, we should mourn over our sin all the more and turn from it to a lifestyle that honors God.

Mourning over sin and turning from it is an attitude and practice that none of us will outgrow prior to heaven. Sin will always be a problem in this life. Repentance was required to enter a relationship with God and it is required to maintain a healthy relationship with Him. This includes those who are leaders. In fact, we are to set the example for those whom God has given us to lead.

Christ says that those who mourn over sin are very blessed. You are privileged and favored by God because you shall be comforted by Him. This means that God will forgive you of your sins when you mourn and repent. John says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness —I John 1:9. To be comforted also means that God will comfort you for all the pain and sorrow that comes from living in a sinful world. One day Jesus Christ will return from the heavens and at that time he will bring you into the new heavens and new earth where righteousness and peace will reign. At that time, He will wipe away every tear from your eye. You will never mourn again. You will be comforted!

Perhaps, as you read this, you are saying, “I don’t have as deep a sense of sin as I should. What do I do? Three things:

1. Remember and rejoice over what Christ has done for you. He perfectly mourned over your sin for you when He lived a righteous life. He then died to pay the penalty for your lack of mourning and repentance over sin. Remember and rejoice.

2. Ask Christ to forgive you for not mourning over your sin.

3. Read and meditate on the Word. Ask God to show you areas in which you have become insensitive or callous to your own sin. The Holy Spirit will use the Word to bring conviction, which will lead to confession, and then to comfort.

When was the last time you mourned and repented over your sin? Is it a regular discipline in your life as a Christian and as a leader?

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — Matthew 5:3

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — Matthew 5:3

The beatitudes are part of the Sermon on the Mount, which was a sermon given by Jesus, primarily addressed to His twelve disciples. The disciples were followers of Christ and they were the future leaders of Christ’s church. In light of this, it is appropriate to see the beatitudes as describing the character or inner spiritual qualities not only of a Christian but also of a Christian leader.

In this first beatitude Jesus is talking about spiritual poverty. A person who is poor in spirit is someone who acknowledges in his heart that he is spiritually bankrupt before God (Isaiah 57:15, 66:2). He has a strong sense that he has nothing to offer God but rather is utterly dependent on God for everything.

Man comes into this world rich in spirit — he is self-centered and self-sufficient. He believes that he can manage his own life. He doesn’t need God. Or, he might believe that, “God helps those who can help themselves.” By God’s grace, we were humbled when we were made aware of our sin and that we deserved to suffer God’s wrath. God enabled us to understand that we had nothing to offer Him to make us commendable for salvation — nothing to buy the favor of heaven.

As Christians and Christian leaders we must maintain poverty of spirit. Not only are we wholly dependent on God for salvation from the penalty of sin but we are dependent on God for salvation from the power of sin (sanctification) Romans 7:24-25. We are dependent on God for everything in life. Luke says in Acts 17:28 that, “In Him we live and move, and exist.” It is not easy for us to maintain poverty of spirit. We still have the sinful tendencies of self-sufficiency, pride, and self-righteousness.

In what ways do you struggle with maintaining poverty of spirit in your role as father, husband or at work?

For example, suppose you have an idea for a family outing for this coming Saturday, where you would all drive up to the mountains for the day. Your wife says she would rather drive down to Charleston for the day. Are you hurt or defensive or angry that your wife didn’t like your idea? Is your plan the only way the family could enjoy a day together? Is your first consideration to serve your wife or yourself? Does your attitude demonstrate being poor in spirit? Think of some personal examples to discuss.

What can we do as men to grow in our poverty of spirit?

One way to grow in this area would be to examine how many of your personal discouragements have to do with being disappointed in others and the way they treat you. If this is a pattern, discuss how you could replace it by focusing on how you can bring encouragement and joy to these same folks.

Christ says that the poor in spirit are blessed (that is, privileged and favored by God) because theirs is the kingdom of heaven! We live under God’s glorious rule; the power of the kingdom is at work within us producing in us righteousness, peace, and joy by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what’s more, when the kingdom God comes in all its fullness, you will experience infinite pleasures forevermore in the presence of God.

Seek First the Kingdom of God... Matthew 6:33

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear … 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25, 33-34 NIV

Great leadership means setting priorities that line up with God’s reality. In other words, your priorities must be aligned with what is really important in life.

God-centered leadership—kingdom-seeking priorities—will help those under your care to trust that your first concern is not for yourself, but for serving God—your first concern is to seek the kingdom of God. On the other hand, if you focus on your own priorities, such as work, sports, or recreation, you become, as Jesus says, like the world around you. Seeking your priorities first will not build trust in your leadership and decision making. Do not let the worries of day-to-day life crowd out seeking Christ and his righteousness for you and your family.

Look to Christ to rightly orient what your priorities should be. This week look carefully at this passage in Matthew 6. Where does your mind spend most of its time? Are God’s priorities first? Or are you consumed with getting that buck or worrying about bills or wishing your wife was more sympathetic to your desires? Is God really first? Your leadership is defined by how you answer that question.