The Pain of Blessing

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, saints. What a blessing it is to be back again today. Really excited to get back down into the scriptures.

Huge shout out to all of you guys that are able to be following along in Luke.

We're slowly making our way through little by little. We're not doing a full chapter a day because when there's an opportunity to just rip apart a piece of the word, I'd like to take the time to stop. But a huge thank you to all of you guys that are sharing it out.

I can just see through the, the amount of downloads and listens that there are more and more people out there that are listening. And hopefully you guys are enjoying what we're doing here.

But without further ado, let's get down to it. We're going to continue going through Luke today. So off we go. So yesterday in Luke, we were breaking down how Christ took the time to make decisions in his life. And we took an overview of that. We saw Jesus assemble his posse. He called his Avengers together, if you will. The assemble call came out. Apostles selected and went down and got to work right away, immediately to healing. Multitudes gathered, and when you've got multitudes, what does Christ like to do? He likes to teach. So today we are going to go through the blessings and woes. For those of you that are listening and don't have access to a Bible, don't worry. I read through the scripture every day that we're going to be examining and pulling apart. So I'm going to be reading from Luke chapter 6, verses 20 through 26 in the ESV.

We're going to break that apart today.

For those of you that Like to follow along wherever you are. If you do have access to a Bible, whether it's on an app or physically, um, please feel free to follow along whatever translation you'd like. But again, I will be reading from the ESV. Let's get down to it. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil.

On account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For so their fathers did to their prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all the people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Interesting and challenging little section here. Oftentimes when we talk about blessings, we like to talk about blessings in kind of an isolated way. We like to focus on the good, right? When it comes to focusing on the woes and the travesties, we hope that they don't apply to us. And oftentimes we leave them behind, or if we are going to study them, we study them from a distance. The reality is, I don't think Jesus here is separating these 2 things. He's setting the stage. He's laying the foundation for what's about to follow.

And there's other lessons that are going to build on this and explain in more detail what's going on. Yeah.

But one of the things that I really want to draw attention to here is that Jesus, without skipping a beat, without a breath, without a pause, moves from blessing to woe, almost as though they go hand in hand, almost as if that's by intent. If one is true, the other also must be true. And I think there's so much of this in our lives. And when we're looking at that duality of things, of, well, there is this and it's going to be this and there's going to be this, and that also means this, we've got a cause, we've got a reaction. Yeah. What I love to see here, though, is Jesus literally just taking the understandings of the time, the knowledge of the time, the wisdom of the time, and he completely flips it, just takes it and flips it. And even today, this still applies. This is timeless teaching. And when we're looking at it, it's okay. Well, if we look at society, they tell us what is the thing that you are supposed to be heading for? Well, when we look at programs on TV like American Idol or we look at viral sensations and, and TV hits or esteemed actors, politicians, Business people. There are some pretty standard things that we see. Wealth is among them.

Being being rich is there.

Being full, and when I'm saying full, I don't mean full as in satisfied spiritually.

I mean full in the sense of worldly possessions, worldly wealth.

So you've got your wealth. Yeah, I've got lots of money. You've got your things. Yeah, I've got food. I got cars. I got a house. I got all this stuff. You've got joy, or at least seeming joy. When the cameras are on, you're smiling. You're happy. Everything looks like it's it's. Great, and everybody loves to love on you. Well, I mean, for the most part, people like to love on you. Think of your favorite celebrity, your favorite actor, your favorite whoever musician. You'll see that these things are pretty standardly true: wealth, prosperity, false appearances of joy and happiness. There are some genuine ones in there too. I'm sure they have some happiness, but they almost always have a crowd of people around them that are just mobbing them with "You are so great! You are so wonderful! You're awesome!" And Jesus takes these things that society says, oh, this is fantastic, this is great, these are— these should be the priorities. Society says these are them, and Jesus goes, uh, yeah, all those things, it's great that you've got them now, good for you, uh, but, uh, all of those are worth nothing. They're your woe, because all of those things are drawing you further and further and further from the blessings that could be yours. Uh, and then before that, he precedes it with, with having people shake their heads. Blessed are the poor. People are looking at the poor and going, are you nuts? Why, why are they blessed?

Well, yours is the kingdom of heaven.

kingdom of God. God didn't come for those that were obsessed with this world. God came for those that are obsessed for the next. Blessed are you who are hungry, you shall be satisfied. And we see that in John. We see that as he's talking about, I have water that you do not know of. I've got food that you do not know of. I've got water that quenches eternally. I've got food that will satisfy you eternally. I've got happiness that will last forever. I have these things and I give them to you. There will be satisfaction. And yes, you may be hungry now here in this world, but you're going to be satisfied.

Amen.

You, you have no desire. You'll be completely satiated. Blessed are you who weep now. For those of you that feel pain and suffering, we're told there will be no more tears. There'll be no more pain, no more death, no, no more sorrow. It will go away. And when that happens, there'll be laughter. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, when they revile you, when you spurn your name as evil on the account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day. Leap for joy. Your reward is great in heaven. You're not the first to do this. The prophets went through this. The judges went through this. Basically from the start of the Bible right through to the end, anybody that stood on God and stood for God went through this. And you get to have that joy because you get to go through it with them. It seems a simple thing for us to evaluate, but really take a look at where your priorities are. And we've been talking about decision-making. We've been talking about hearing God's calling. We've been talking about what direction we're supposed to be heading in. We've been talking about a whole ton of stuff that Jesus is showing us as far as how to shape and move and mold your life. So today, Saints, what I want to challenge you with is take a look at the Beatitudes and the woes. Take a look at the blessings and the woes and really understand for yourself, wrestle with it. Which of these things would you say that your decisions, your, your life decisions, your goals that we went through yesterday on the podcast, what are those things and are they grounded and rooted in the blessings or in the woes? Are your focuses on the gains of this world, what the world says, should be your priority and your focus and your target? Or are you centered first in the things that God has? God's focus is clearly on what comes next. It's focused on, are you pursuing Christ? Is Christ the heart of what you're doing? Is that there? Is that a reality? Are you focused on it? Is it, is it where you want to be? Or are you instead focused in working towards the things of this world? The decision is, is pretty apparent when you take the time to see it. But if you see that you're dwelling in the woes, Even though you may feel good right here and now in the world, you're swimming in wealth, you're driving that Lamborghini, you got a mansion up on the corner, everybody around you tells you how great and awesome you are. That should be a red flag. Should have giant red flag. Pray through that today. Question, caution, big red sign, warning. Pray through that today. Challenge you, do that. If you find you are in the blessings, pray about that too. Seek some comfort in that. Seek some comfort. Find some joy. All right, guys.

Last but certainly not least, we're gonna head into a time of prayer as you head out today.

So I'm gonna lift you guys up in prayer. A huge thank you to all of you that have sent prayer requests through social media or direct messages through emails. If you're looking to contact me to have a prayer request prayed for on the podcast, please do so.

The social media channels are in the description wherever you're watching this podcast: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email—all there for you. I do check those regularly, so please take the time to take a look. Let's get down to it.

Lord, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for the examples that you set.

And thank you so much that you constantly call us back to you.

You call us back from the distraction of the world, the things that are around us, and call us back to where our priorities and focus need to start and move from there. I pray that the men listening today that are in a place of woe, that they take the time to really wrestle with that and determine whether those woes are worth the cautions that you've given. I pray for the blessings. I pray for the blessings of those who are going through times of suffering, hunger, sadness, grieving, mourning, sickness, persecution in your name, that they would be able to find comfort in you, hope, joy, happiness. Happiness may be tough here in this world, but joy, joy is that promise of the thing that is to come, the ability to smile in the face of adversity and hardship. Pray that for all those who would be listening that are going through seasons of trial and hardship, Lord. That they know that those blessings that you call out are for them. Lord, I lift up Lissa's daughter to you. Continued praise for the healing that you've done and prayers for ongoing healing. Pray for her. Jim Webb, Lord, he's continuing to look for a place to stay, and I pray that you would continue to come alongside him and help him. He's in a place of woe, and I pray that you would be able to provide for him, Lord, as he clings to you. I lift up Eric Hoak to you, Lord. He continues his year of drawing near to the Lord. Amen. Stepping down from his lead pastor role wasn't probably not an easy one, but he's clearly identified that he needs to cling to your blessings in new ways, and I pray that during this time he would be able to do so. I want to lift up Anna to you, Lord. She is still suffering through bad PTSD episodes. The PTSD episodes can just be overwhelming. It's a remarkable hardship being diagnosed with PTSD and suffering through those flashbacks. Give her some hope and joy in that, Lord. I lift up Madison to you. Blessings on this one, Lord. Huge praise for you that Jennifer was able to bring Madison home. She is healthy or getting healthy. She is recovering. Thank you so much for that, Lord. And last but not least, I want to lift up J. Crumb to you, Lord. News came through that J. Crumb is Cancer and tumor free, and that that's such a feeling of relief. I'm sure a feeling of being set free in many ways. It's got to feel like salvation here on earth to be set free from death. It's such a tangible, real way to feel that. And I I pray that Jake Rum draws near to you in his healing, Lord. Thank you so much for who you are. Great healer, great physician, great father. Pray that all the men that are listening here today would be convicted. To seek out the woes and blessings of their lives, to challenge them, wrestle with them. Please be with us as we continue to move through Luke. In your name we pray. Have a great day, saints.

Again, thank you to everyone who has been sharing this out. Thank you to everyone who's been sending the prayer requests, and I will catch you tomorrow.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.