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If you or I walked into any book store and we’d find a lot of self-help books. I frequently

buy books at the Barnes and Noble in Fridley. I am always surprised when I go there how

prominently self-help books are displayed. Self-help is quite an industry in publishing.

SLIDE It started in 1936 with the publication of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to win

friends and influence people. I would guess that a lot of us have read this book. According to

the Wall Street Journal self- help book sales are $538 million a year and account for one in every

ten books sold.

Do you know the #1 selling book on Amazon.com earlier this week? A self-help book.

Here it is:

SLIDE Tell to Win: Connect, persuade, and triumph with the hidden power of story.

The #5 selling book earlier this week is called this:

SLIDE “Win: The Key Principles to take your business from ordinary to extraordinary”

There’s a common word in all three of these titles.

SLIDE: There’s a common word in both of these titles, right. You see it. “Win.” Even

Dale Carnegie in 1936 put the word “win” in his title. The underlying message of self-help is if

you follow the strategy of this book, you are going to be a winner.

God wants us to be a winner, but God’s idea of what it means to win is far different than

how self-help books understand winning.

We can find God’s understanding of being a winner. Today, I am beginning a sermon

series that will go through Lent on the Sermon on the Mount. I’m calling it “The Ultimate Self-

Help Book.” The aim of this series is to help all of us learn the basic teachings of the Sermon on

the Mount and then apply these teachings to our life. God’s vision for the world is contained in

the Sermon on the Mount. .

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Since the title of this series is the Ultimate Self-help book we’re going to give you a self-

help brochure every week in worship. I would encourage you to get out this brochure. On this

self-help book you’ll find a devotion. I’ve shared six Bible readings and devotions that relate to

today’s message. Today I’m going to talk about what Jesus understanding of being blessed.

This devotion shares six Scriptures and devotions about blessing. You’ll also find a place to take

notes. I believe that God will speak to you through this sermon, and I encourage you to write

down some ideas to take home. And you’ll find a place for prayer requests. I spend a lot of time

interacting with people who don’t go to church. When I do I ask the person if they have a prayer

request. If the person has a request I tell them that the people at Chain of Lakes Church will be

praying for them. Many of these requests were made by people outside our congregation. I

think it’s very cool that all of you would pray for people that many of us don’t’ even know.

We’re starting today by looking at the first sixteen verses of the Sermon on the Mount.

In this sermon I’m looking at what Jesus understanding of being blessed and how that

understanding can impact our life here in the north Metro.

Most of us know are familiar with blessing based on what we say after this: sneeze

Do you know the origin of God Bless you? One legend says that in the year 590 Pope Gregory I

ordered people to say “God Bless you” when people sneezed. The bubonic plague was just

reaching Rome in 590 and sneezing was thought to be a symptom of the plague. Pope Gregory

hoped that saying “God Bless you” would stop the plague

You and I know that antibiotics will cure most cases of the plague. But there is still

something that resonates with us in saying, “God bless you.” A blessing is when we share with

someone through our words or deeds a special favor. You might want to write that down. A

blessing is when we share with someone through our words or deeds a special favor. When I
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depart from people I usually say, “God bless you.” I’m not trying to be churchy or overly pious.

I truly want people to be blessed.

The opposite of blessing is cursed. Our understanding of what it means to be blessed and

what it means to be cursed plays a significant role on how we view people. Let me give you an

example from the news this week.

How many of us read in the newspaper or saw in the media the Supreme Court Ruling

about picketing at funerals of soldiers? A man who understands himself to be a pastor leads a

small church in Kansas. This pastor has extreme views on homosexuality. He and his cadre

believe that homosexuals are going to hell. They believe that the United States as a country is

going to hell because we tolerate homosexuals. They have decided to picket the funerals of our

soldiers. The logic is since the United States is going to hell, they should picket the people who

defend the United States.

What motivates them is their understanding of who God blesses or curses.

I find their views and actions terrible repugnant. What’s interesting to me is that their

own understanding of who God blesses and curses propels them to their actions. Our

understanding of blessing has a deep influence on our actions.

Jesus shared his understanding of what it means to be blessed in the first 12 verses of the

Sermon on the Mount. Let me give you some six very basic points about the Sermon on the

Mount. You might want to write these down in your self-help book.

One the sermon takes up three chapters in Matthew—chapters five through seven. The first time

in Matthew that we hear the words of Jesus’ teaching.

Two the sermon has some of the most well-known Scriptures in the Bible—the Lord’s prayer,

the golden rule, the beatitudes.

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Three, it’s a short sermon. If you read the Sermon on the Mount out loud it would take a little

more than ten minutes to read through it. I know—I did it this week. A wisecracker would say,

if Jesus can preach this sermon in 10 minutes, why can’t you preach ten minute sermons. I

would say, “we’re not as good of preachers as Jesus.”

Four we can find an abbreviated version of this sermon in one other place in the Scriptures. In

Luke it’s called the Sermon on the Plain and is in Luke 6

Five it’s the only place in the Bible where Jesus gave a sermon—which is a revealing for those

of us who make our living on giving sermons. Jesus taught people through parables, or he

healed people, or most of the time he shared life with his followers. An event would happen and

Jesus would teach about the Kingdom through the event.

Six—in this sermon Jesus shared a vision about the Kingdom. I believe that the vision of the

Sermon of the Mount takes place in heaven. And I believe that God wants you and I to create

the Kingdom here on earth. I dedicated my life to the church because I so want to see this

Kingdom of Heaven happen on earth. Our guide to creating the Kingdom is the Sermon on the

Mount.

For me this has been the hardest sermon I’ve written since I started here at Chain of

Lakes. Preaching on the Sermon on the Mount is like talking baseball with Joe Mauer, or talking

about the violin with Itzhak Perlman, or talking about being a police officer with the local

sheriff. These people know what they’re talking about. When I preach on it I feel like I’m

coming into the very presence of the Almighty and seeing what God wants to accomplish in the

world. I feel like I’m on holy ground.

Let’s get right into it. Jesus was at the start of his ministry. People were starting to take

notice of him. They were flocking from all over Galilee and other places to hear him. Jesus was
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like a modern-day rock star. He walked up a mountain—really a hill. In the tradition of other

religious teachers of his day he sat down to teach. He shared these blessings. Read these with

me:

SLIDE:
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake
Blessed are those who are scorned and reviled on God’s sake.

These nine blessings are called the Beatitudes. The word, “Beatitude” comes from the Latin

word for blessing. If you read the Bible in Greek the word is makarios.

Jesus understood blessing differently than our culture understands blessing. How many

self-help books have a title that says, “win in life through mourning.” Or if you went to

Amazon.com how many titles would say, “Three ways to ensure that you are poor in Spirit.”

I wrote some beatitudes of how our culture understands being blessed:

SLIDE:
Blessed are the self-reliant—for they don’t need to depend on others
Blessed are the professional athletes—for they get paid a lot of money and receive a lot of our
attention
Blessed are the good looking—for they command our attention
Blessed are those who can easily make their house payment every month for they can sleep at
night
Blessed are Hollywood actors whose lives are like three ring circuses—for they can get as many
TV interviews as they want

There is something about these blessings that attract us. We’re like spectators at a freak show

when it comes to people like Charlie Sheen. We can’t help but watch. Charlie Sheen opened a

Twitter account this week and got a million followers in a day. When Jesus shared these
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beatitudes I don’t think he intended for Charlie Sheen to share his damaged self on television or

the Internet and receive all of our attention.

What did Jesus mean in the Sermon on the Mount about being blessed? Let me share

three points.

First, Jesus had a special place in his heart for people who exhibited the qualities of these

beatitudes. Jesus loved all people. Jesus went out of his way to share love with people who

mourned, those who were meek, those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, those who

were merciful, those who were pure in heart, those who were peacemakers.

Jesus demonstrated this all the time. I love this quality of Jesus. Jesus went out of his

way to love the outcasts and forgotten people of his day.

Let me share an example. Right after Jesus finished the Sermon on the Mount he walked

down the mountain or hill and came upon a leper. Leprosy was a disease of terrible skins sores

and nerve damage. People in Jesus’ day thought that leprosy was contagious. So Lepers were

put in lepers colonies so that they wouldn’t infect others with leprosy. You and I living in the

21st century have the advantage of medical technology. We know that leprosy is not contagious

and can be treated with antibiotics.

In this story, the leper kneeled at Jesus feet and asked to be healed. Jesus touched him

and healed him. He blessed him.

Jesus went out of his way to bless the outcast.

Second—Jesus said the people who are blessed are willing to be vulnerable with each

other. The first beatitude is blessed is the poor in spirit. That’s always been a hard one for

people to understand. Let me explain it a bit. To be poor is not just financial poverty, it’s the
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understanding that we’re lacking something. To be poor in spirit means that we don’t have it all

together. We recognize that we need help.

Ask any recovering alcoholic how important it is to understand that they are poor in spirit

and they would say, “yes.” It’s a recognition that we can’t do this life by ourselves, we need

help from others. It’s a different understanding of self. It’s the acknowledgement that we don’t

have it together and we need help from others.

One of the reasons I’m so excited about starting a church is we are forming this new

community of people who didn’t even know each other two years ago. Two years ago all of us

were strangers; now many of us are friends; together we’re seeking to impact or bless the world.

To be in community with each other we have to learn to share our own poverty with others. We

learn to share with others in an authentic way that we don’t have it together. We learn how to

help each other. By helping each other we bless each other. We learn how to be vulnerable with

each other.

I know that this is very challenging because the world teaches us that to be blessed is to

appear strong. “Don’t let them know your weak; don’t let them know your struggles.” We’re

blessed when we learn how to share with others that we’re poor in spirit. For theirs is the

Kingdom of God.

An important question for each of us is how willing are we to share our messes with

others. How willing are we when others share their messes with us to love them like Jesus

would love. When we can consistently do this we will make an impact on the world. We’ll be

blessing each other and blessing the world.

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Finally we are blessed when we bless others through acts of justice. In our Purpose

Statement we at Chain of Lakes say we want to make an impact on the world. Another way to

say that is we want to bless the people whom Jesus had a special place in his heart.

This week there was an article in the Star Tribune about domestic homicide. Guess

which county of the seven counties in the Metro has the highest per capita rate of husbands

murdering their wives. Anoka County. Since November 2006 eleven women have been

murdered by their husbands. Per Capita the domestic homicide rate in Anoka County is twice

that of Washington County. Alexandra House, the women’s shelter in Blaine said that the

percentage of Anoka County residents among their clientele had increased from 30 to 42 percent.

There are many good agencies in Anoka County working on this issue. In reading the

article it was obvious that law enformance take this seriously. Alexandra Hous is a shelter for

battered women. That’s wonderful. Last spring Amy, Hannah and I participated in a walk-a-

thon at Coon Rapids High School for the Alexandara House. There’s no doubt in my mind that

Jesus would be blessing the women at the Alexandra House. In fact I believe that he would be

going out of his way to helping them. And I believe he would be teaching his followers to do

acts of justice—to do everything they can to prevent women from being killed by their husbands.

If Jesus was doing that, then we at the church should be doing that.

I’m not even asking for us to start a ministry to help battered women, though I would

support anyone who started it. Already at Chain of Lakes we send people to serve the homeless

at People Serving People; we partner with Manna Market once a month to serve fresh food to

low-income people. I can’t wait to see how we bless the world through acts of justice. d love to

see a mission trip to Cameroon or Haiti.

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The point is we are blessed when we as a community bless the people who are hurting in

the world. Right now at Chain of Lakes we are being intentional about growing in numbers of

people. But I never want to see our growth happen at the expense of blessing the world. Our

focus needs to be on helping strangers become friends, and we can’t do that at the exclusion of

sending people out as a community to bless the world. This is what Jesus would have us do.

Three points for our self-help book

First, Jesus had a special place in his heart for people who exhibited the qualities of these

beatitudes.

Second—Jesus said the people who are blessed are willing to be vulnerable with each other.

Finally we are blessed when we bless others through acts of justice.

Today we’re celebrating Communion. As we come to the Table may we have a new

understanding of how deeply God wants to bless us and how deeply God wants us to bless others

—especially those who are on the margins of our world