(The Sermon on the Mount and Prayer - Session 1) - Part 10

He came to his father. He said to his father, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight. I'm not worthy to be called thy son.

He said, make me as one of thy hired servants. And ah, here comes the father. And brother and sister, wasn't that wonderful? The father just said, bring to my son the best robe.

He said, bring to my son the ring. He said, bring to my son shoes. You see what it is? It's the blessings of God, you know.

Ah, you see, brother Gerard, are you overlooking sin? No, my brother and sister. But we need to understand the balance. When God convicts us of our need of Christ, and He convicts us of the depth of our sin, He's not going to leave us in the depth of our sin.

In our hearts, He's going to take us to the reality of the crucifixion of Christ. And He's going to show us what God is able to do. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up.

Why? So that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Ah, you say, what happened in the wilderness? They were sinning against God. The serpents came.

They were dying because of the poison of a serpent. And Moses cried to God and said, God said to Moses, lift up a brazen serpent. And in their sin, they looked at the serpent and life came.

And so I wonder tonight, if you will allow me to ask you, do you know the blessings of God? My sister, can I ask you tonight? If you lost the spirit of Mavrut, you know, my precious wife, I so dearly love her, and I'm gone, and you can pray for us as a family. And you would probably say, oh, that's awful. If you even say and confess that, but this is the reality.

My daughter just turned 16 years old. In the last 16 years, I've seen her, eight years, you know. And that's very, very difficult.

But those eight years that I've been home, I've tried to just pour the life of God into her life. And she came to me the other day and she said, Daddy, I don't want to go to Bible college. I said, what do you mean? She said, they can't tell me anything that you haven't told me.

I thought, God, you've really helped me, haven't you? But you sit here tonight as a sister. Oh, my sister, can I ask you, do you realize how precious you are to God? Have you ever asked yourself, why in the gospel of Luke would Jesus put so much emphasis upon women? You know why? Because Luke was a doctor. And he brings us to the humanity of the Lord Jesus.

And we saw the compassion and there's a sense of sensitivity and the reality. Those of us here tonight, and you are the daughter of your mother and your father. Oh, can I tell you, your life is precious to God.

It's going to cost you more to miss the will of God for your life than it's going to cost you to find it. And may I tell you something tonight? It's better to stay single for the rest of your life than to marry the wrong person. You say, what is it? It's blessedness, blessedness.

And can I ask you, I mean, that's why Jabez prayed, oh, that thou would bless me indeed. And can I ask you tonight, my brother and my sister, do we know the blessings of God? So what is this, brother Gerard? Well, let me try to explain to you. Now, time is gone, but let me try to explain to you something.

You know what it is, brother and sister? It's wonderful. The Beatitudes, it's speaking about Christian character. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is speaking about Christian conduct.

You see, when Christian character becomes part of our lives, brother and sister, Christian character flows out into Christian conduct. And so when you study the Beatitudes, and you discover the life of Christ, blessed are the poor in spirit, and you discover the poverty in the life of Christ, when Paul said, God has made Him to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. When Paul said, He had become poor for our sake so that we might be able to become rich, he was speaking about the life and the poverty of Christ in the sense that He emptied Himself, brother and sister, so that we might be able to become rich.

And you discover the greatness of the life of Christ.