“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”

       Dr. Bob Pierce was a war correspondent who traveled to China with Youth for Christ in 1947.   On that trip, his heart was broken when he was confronted with the need of one little girl whom he longed to know God’s blessing. That inner longing led Dr. Pierce to begin World Vision to help children who had been orphaned.  In a few years, to provide long-term, ongoing care for children in crisis, World Vision developed its first child sponsorship program in Korea.  As children began to flourish through sponsorship in Korea, the program expanded into other Asian countries and eventually into Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.  We all know that now the compassion and justice ministry of World Vision addresses a broad range of areas of human need and is global.

       And, I think the famous quote from Dr. Pierce is something fully consistent with Jesus opening words in the Sermon on the Mount often called the beatitudes.  Look at Pierce’s words again.  The flow is this:

            * Pierce had an inner life surrendered to God. 

            * This led to him longing to have his heart become like God’s. 

            * This longing led to a changed life – to real action in this world that has made a difference.

      This is exactly the way Jesus said things should happen in his opening words in the Sermon on the Mount when we follow him and surrender to the kingdom of God.  Let’s see how Jesus describes that in his beatitudes.

The Starting Point:  Blessed lives begin with our inner beings surrendered to God’s rule (5:3-5).

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.

      The kingdom of God in people made in God’s image always works from the inside to the outside.  God’s work is not so much one of restoration as transformation.  He’s not a cosmetic surgeon (which is good for physical flaws but not for spiritual ones) but a heart doctor.  Last week we talked about those three characteristics of an inner life that has said, “I surrender all” to Jesus:

*Poor in spirit – Acknowledging your utter dependence on God for all things, especially forgiveness and righteousness.

*Mourn – Possessing a deep sorrow for your own sin and the sin and injustice in the world.

*Meek – A turning from self and a commitment to using whatever God gives to benefit others.

      You see, this kind of person always has this attitude:  “Who am I to be approved by and blessed by God?  I’ve failed.  I’ve bee a fraud – but God knows all about this and is ready to welcome me anyway.”  We should be giddy with joy.  And that disposition in our inner beings always leads to the kind of longing that Bob Pierce had.  We long to please God.  We long for what he longs for.  How does Jesus put it?

From disposition to desire:  Blessed lives long for what “glorifies” God (5:6-9).

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Longing 1:  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:6).

      I imagine you can see how this first longing flows directly out of the inner disposition that I am poor in spirit and acknowledge I have not always been righteous.  I’ve fallen short over and over again and, beatitude #2, I mourn that fact.  So, I’m not proud and self-righteous.  I mourn my own sin and I mourn the effect of sin in the world.  This leads to this deep, deep longing that first, my own life will be made right and second, God might use me to make right some of the wrongs in the world. 

      And, Jesus uses strong language to let us know how strong our longing should be – we are to hunger and thirst.  Most of us don’t like to hunger or thirst for anything – certainly not for long.  Few see joy in any kind of deprivation.  Ours is a world demanding immediate and total gratification of virtually every desire.

      For many, to be dissatisfied is to be miserable.  Jesus counters this with a whole new worldview,  “Joy comes when you are hungry and thirsty for wrongs to be righted."  The whole notion of hunger and thirst loses its umpf in a world of abundant material goods and an excess of water.  Remember, that Jesus is speaking to disciples who often were in the desert.  They knew what it was to thirst.  The Psalms are filled with the language of “panting by streams of water” longing for something to drink. Jesus is saying that 1) the person with God’s heart has a deep passion for personal righteousness and holiness.  And, he’s saying, 2) when he is our Lord, we long deeply for the wrongs in society to be made right. 

      One of the best examples of this I’ve seen was when I was in a section of Thailand damaged by the pervasive influence of the trafficking industry.  Missionary Randy Nelson said, “I walked through the streets here and saw people trapped in this industry and said, “That’s wrong.”  I longed for people to be set free – to know their worth as people – to experience the grace of God.”  That hunger led to action and to a community with Jesus as Lord being formed.  It started with a man who was poor in spirit experiencing God’s frace.  That led to a longing for others to know God’s rule in their lives too.  At its heart, this beatitude is a desire for God’s rule and reign to come in its fullness and make things right.

      I’ve put this first longing of the blessed person into my own words in this way:  My heart’s desire is that those things wrong in my life and in this world will be made right.

Longing #2:  Blessed are the merciful (5:7).

       This second longing flows directly from a disposition that acknowledges I am completely impoverished spiritually – my only hope is mercy.  When I have fallen fully on the mercy of God – and have received it, my longing is to have others experience it too.  The Bible’s message is that if we don’t love to show mercy, we probably never have really received it.  Those who have been forgiven, forgive.  Those who have received mercy long to show mercy.

       You know that desire for others to experience something inexpressibly wonderful that we have experienced.  Have you every seen a great movie (or YouTube video) and then gone to a friend and said, “You’ve got to see this!”  We have a longing to share wonderful things with those we care about.  This is why some YouTube videos go viral – when we experience something good, we want to share it with others.

       In this context, the beautiful word, “mercy”, almost certainly has two related emphases:

1) Compassion for those who are trapped in a godless way of life.  It’s the way Jesus felt about tax collectors, lepers, and prostitutes.  He knew mercy would soon be available and longed for them to experience it in the community of God’s people.   The one who has that heart, the merciful one, will make sure that any person who may not fit into a “respectable society” will be welcomed – at least by one person.  The merciful leader will make sure that his organization or institution makes decision that have a positive benefit for those who are less powerful.

2) A willingness to forgive.  Surely, forgiveness of this sort is spoken of as a virtue in most societies.  However, practically speaking, when it comes to forgiving others, little is actually seen. Revenge seems to be so acceptable in our world.  If we're wronged, then we're taught we have a right to lash back.  But the one against whom we lash, then also feels the right to strike-and, this time harder.  So, the violence of the world continues with acts of ever-escalating force.  The only way to stop it is for someone to step in and receive the blow and then offer back, not revenge, but forgiveness.

       This is not easy.  The only thing that makes it possible is the work of God in our hearts so that we truly are poor in spirit and mourn first our own sin before we criticize someone else for his. The one who is merciful has been shocked by receiving mercy from the God of mercy and will be joyous in a way that the condemning, blaming critical person never can be.  The merciful are those who have tasted God's mercy and are then ready to offer it to others.  I’ve put it this way: My heart’s desire is to show the same kind of mercy to others that God shows to me.

Longing #3:  Blessed are the pure in heart (5:8).

       I believe that this longing to be pure in heart is the most misunderstood beatitude of all.  Most think it doesn’t seem all that different from longing for righteousness.  But, there is a difference so let me try to explain it to you. 

       For us, when we talk about our hearts, we usually mean our emotions – right?  But, for the 1^st century Jews, the seat of the emotions was the stomach.  We say, “I love you with my whole heart.”  They said, “I love you with my whole belly!”  For them, the heart was the part of us that integrates and directs the whole of our lives.  For them the heart includes emotions, mind and actions -- the whole of who I am.

       And the word pure referred to a singleness of focus.  The one who is pure does not have diluted motives. This longing is seen among all godly people but perhaps the clearest place we see it expressed in prayer is when David prayed in Psalm 27:4,

One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.  

       So, there is no duplicity or hypocrisy in the one who is pure in heart.  When you afre pure in heart, you are focused on pleasing God – and that will lead to blessing according to Jesus.

       I must say this, “An increasing singleness of our whole beings to seek and honor God is what happens to us when we genuinely have been born again.  I know people think of being “born again” as a certain kind of Christian – usually one who is conservative, maybe critical of others, a bit wild-eyed…” But, Jesus says that all who trust in him are born again.  He says all Christians are born again. 

            When we trust Jesus, we are cleansed of our sins and God enters our hearts through his Spirit.  God’s Spirit comes into our hearts and, like a seed, he begins to bear fruit. When we are born in this way, we are made alive to God, we enter the kingdom of God – actually, the rule of God comes into us.  We begin to be freed from the reign of self, Satan and the systems of the world and God takes over.  Increasingly, the single-minded focus of our whole beings is to know and do the will of God.  Jesus therefore is calling us to focus our soul’s desires on God.  The one fear you should have is displeasing him.  The focus of your whole being is to please him.  When we are pure in heart, we long to see him, to know him and to become like him.  Do you long for that?

       This one, Jesus says, will see God.  In God’s presence, deceit will not be able to survive.  So, I’ve but this longing this way:  My heart’s desire is that I will be single-minded in seeking to please God rather than myself, anyone else or anything else.

Longing #4:  Blessed are the peacemakers (5:9).

       Peacemakers are those who see divisions in relationships – all relationships -- and long for those relationships to be healed.  This part of our Lord’s heart led him to weep for those broken from God and from one another.  It led Jesus to give his life on a cross so that reconciliation might happen.  The one who longs for peace to be made will weep because so many relationships are broken all around us. 

       And, I must add, the job of a peacemaker is not easy.  Why do I say that?  Because peacemaking is not merely a passive acceptance of whatever happens.  It is, instead, an active engagement with a divided situation that almost always involves confrontation and patience, patience to work through the fractious situation until there is peace.

       The keeper of peace is rare.  The maker of peace is even more rare. 

*The peacemaker is often lonely because he cannot take sides.  He risks being viewed by all parties as disloyal.

*The peacemaker must be courageous and assertive because he cannot be inactive.  Time generally does not heal broken relationships.  To the contrary, bitterness festers in the heart. Angry people generally do not want reconciliation.  They want victory.  Someone has to step in and experience the anger from both sides, -- grab hold and not let go.

*The peacemaker often works at the risk of losing friendships and personal reputation. Peacemaking is a genuine act of biblical love.  It is sacrificing self to bring shalom to others.

       Those of us who are poor in spirit and mourn because we know it took the Jesus’ death to make peace possible between us and God know how beautiful it is to have someone we have been broken from say to us, “I love you and am ready to start over again with you.”  Peacemaking begins with our inner longings.  My hearts desire is that the broken relationships I know of will be reconciled – even more, that God will use me to do his healing work.

       I am going to stop there this week – with an examination of our heart’s desires.  Next week, I’ll speak to the difficult question of why such wonderful longings are often met with adversity and persecution in this world.  Jesus says that will happen to us in vv. 10-12.  And, next week, I will consider how what seems to be impossible is not impossible.  By that, I mean how will all things be made right in the world when so much is wrong?  And, how will the things even in a church be made fully right when there is still so much to be done among us?  Even more, how will God use people like us to do his right-making work when we ourselves still have so much that still is wrong?  Do you ever ask those questions?  Jesus had a few powerful things to say about them to encourage us.  We’ll hear them next week.

       Right now, I’m going to tell you a mostly true story to tie together the message (“mostly true” because I’m going to change enough things that you cannot figure out who I’m talking about).  I was in an academic community very, very recently and began talking about three people working in the same department who were not getting along.  Mostly, it was two very successful and gifted people who were struggling with the leadership of their supervisor – so, usually it was two against one.  Basically, they didn’t think he should be in his job – that he was qualified to be the boss.  So, there was tension – and almost everyone knew about it.  One of the men was given a quite prestigious opportunity and, through God’s leading, sensed that he should go to his supervisor.  He told his boss of the opportunity and then said, “I think this project could be more effective if I have someone to collaborate with and I’m wondering if you would join me.”  The supervisor, a man generally considered to be a lesser scholar, looked at him and began to weep.  He said, “Do you really think I could do it well?  Let me confess to you – there is nothing in this world that I would rather do than collaborate with you.”  So, the man then went to his colleague and told him of this prestigious opportunity and asked him to collaborate too but he said, “Before you say anything, I need you to know I’ve asked our boss and he’s said yes.”  The second man at first had a disgusted and repulsed look on his face – and then paused and he too began to weep.  He said, “I know this is right.  Everything inside me says this is right.  Because of that – yes.  Let’s do it and see what God does in us and through us.”

       This relationship among three Christian men is still a work in process.  But, I believe God will use it to do his kingdom work in these people’s lives and, eventually in the whole community.  The healing work began with the humble spirit of one who knew he was a recipient of God’s mercy and was therefore willing to give up pride and unwilling to let a broken relationship grow into ever deepening bitterness.  It began with a heart’s desire to show mercy, to make peace, to do what is right and seek what is right, and – ultimately – to do God’s will.  I don’t know what will happen.  The seed has just been planted.  But, I believe those men and their community will see undeniable evidence of the presence and kingdom of God.  Do you want that?

            “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God” (Bob Pierce).  Let’s bow for prayer guided by the words of Jesus.  Is your hearts desire?

• that those things wrong in your life and in this world will be made right,
• to show the same kind of mercy to others that God shows to you,
• that you will be single-minded in seeking to please God rather than self, anyone or anything else,
• that the broken relationships you know of will be reconciled – even more, that God will use you to do his healing work.