This morning we dove back into Luke 6:20–26, where Jesus lays out blessings and woes that flip the world’s values upside down. On Friday, we looked at the big picture—how Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” compares to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount.” Today we focused on the heart of Jesus’ message: our Christian ethics aren’t grounded in this world—they’re grounded in eternity. Jesus says the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated are blessed, while those who seem to have it all now—the rich, the full, the laughing, and the praised—should be warned. Why? Because worldly success is fleeting, but the Kingdom of God is forever. When we live for eternity, we gain purpose, freedom, and a deeper joy in the here and now. So let’s aim at heaven—and trust that God will take care of the rest.

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Well, good morning. It’s good to be back with you again on this Monday morning. Hope you’re doing well. Had a great weekend. We had a great weekend at church.

Looking forward to a great week ahead of us. It’s good to be back with you in Luke’s gospel this morning. Today, I want to, pick up where we left Friday but I actually want to go back and reread it. Friday, we spent more time kind of talking more about the big picture while Luke has it a sermon on plain versus Matthew, Sermon on the Mount. So, we we we looked at the structural stuff.

Look specifically at the gospels. What why it mattered to Luke versus what mattered to Matthew. What they were you trying to emphasize. So, say I wanna go back and actually look at the content and see, the big picture of see what Jesus is actually teaching us. Friday was big picture.

Let’s look today at at what exactly happening here. So let’s go back and reread. Luke six read twenty two twenty six. Then he looked up at his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours are the kingdom of god. Blessed are you who who hunger now, for you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when you when people hate you, when they exclude you, when they revile you, and defame you, or the common son of man. Rejoice not only for joy. For surely your reward is great in heaven. For it is what their ancestors, for it, that is what their ancestors did the prophet.

But woe to you who are rich, For you receive your consolation. Woe to you who are full now for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now for you will weep. And mourn. Woe to you when people people speak well of you.

That’s what their ancestors did to the prophets. So Jesus is couple things. When you once again, contrast this with Matthew, Matthew is talking more spiritual. Bless those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Luke’s given the more practical.

I don’t know if that’s the right way to look at it but more practical. Bless you who are hungry now. So, Matthew is really talking spiritual. Luke’s talking very practical and we can see. So, Jesus says, Blessed are you who were who were poor For yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry. You’ll be filled. Blessed are you who are weak. Blessed when they’re mean to you. Okay?

So blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the ones being talked bad about. Jesus said, okay, woe to you who are rich, who are full, who are laughing, and their people talk nice about you. So we see Luke is giving you a direct contrast of the ones who are blessed or or or happy and the ones who should be filled with woe and it’s exact opposite what you would expect in the world. To the ones who should be the most upset, the hungry, the poor, the the weeping, the ones being being tortured, are mocked, should be consider themselves blessed and while the ones who should be most most joyous. Hey, we’ve got it all are the ones who should be weeping.

Jesus is showing us that his ethic and we’re going to see this all throughout. This this tone here, the beatitude. Well, it’s not really called the beatitudes here. But this tone here, this blessing and woes is setting the tone for the rest of the core of Jesus’ moral teaching. These teachings here are our moral code as Christians.

These teachings here show what what our ethics look like. Show what our life looks like and what we see here is that our ethics, our moral code, who we are is not grounded in the world. It’s not grounded in this context. It’s not grounded in this culture. It’s not grounded in these things but it’s grounded in eternity.

It’s grounded in god’s kingdom, in god’s time, in god’s world. That that’s what that’s what this is stressing to us is that our The only way you can be blessed when you’re poor instead of that this world is not your home and that the kingdom of god is our home. The only way we can be we can be blessed when we’re hungry is when we know that we will be filled. How can we be blessed whenever we are weeping? Because we know that there will come a time when we laugh.

How can we have hope, we bless, when people hate us, when they exclude you, how can we rejoice and leap for joy? Because great is our reward in the kingdom of heaven. Well, how can you be woeful when you’re richer, fuller, laughing? Are we able to talk well about you? Are we are we?

Because your reward is in the in this Earth and this Earth is so temporary. The the the world is passing. The applause of humans is quick to fade. The praise of humans is quick to pass. Jesus the Christian ethic our standard, our morality is not based in this world.

Because if we are going to live our lives in a way to be successful here, we will be exchanging long term faithfulness in life for such short term gain which is not actual gain. So, if we are living our life to be thought well of by humans at the sacrifice of our integrity, of our call, of our mission, our of our greater purpose. We have exchanged something great value which is eternity for something which is passing which is this moment. So, when we Christians, when we dig our feet into the reality of something better that is coming long term, we dig our fully plant our feet 10 toes in, saying it with all of our chest that this world is not our home, and that our true home is not here, and that our true desire is not here, then, we can actually live here in a way that makes a difference. If we’re not tethered to our identity being here, then, we can let go of here.

And live for eternity. Thus, being more faithful here. So that that see that’s the way it works. That that that’s the counterintuitiveness. If your only concern is earthly success and earthly fame and earthly finances and all these things, then, What are you living for?

CS Lewis says, aim at aim at Earth you and you’ll miss heaven. Aim at heaven, you’ll get Earth thrown in. If we’re aiming at heaven, if we’re aiming at eternity, if we’re aiming to live our lives by god’s values, if we’re aiming to live our lives and by god’s purposes, then, yes, we we can be blessed when we’re hungry because something better is coming. We can be blessed when people speak all of us because something better is coming. But if we’re living for here and we’re hungry, then we’re in trouble.

The only way we can have peace is to be filled. The only way we can find worth is when they when they like us. The only way we can find peace is whenever we’re we’re being it’s happening here. We aim at Earth. We miss heaven.

But if we aim at heaven, we gain something worthwhile for all of eternity. And and friends, if we aim at heaven, if we aim at heaven, it’ll likely make this life more livable. It’ll likely make this life have deeper value and deeper purpose, something really to live for. Jesus is telling us where life is found. He’s telling us our ethics as Christians.

He’s telling us who we are as Christians, telling us how we should live as Christians. It is not living for this world, but it’s living for eternity. And if we live for eternity, then we then we have this world. So Jesus is gonna and this this this teaching here on blessings and loaves, it’s set gonna set the tone for judging others, loving your enemies, do foundations, all these type of things. So, turn on the mount in Matthew, the turn on the plain, and Luke’s gospel is to me the height of our Christian ethics.

How should a Christian live? Look here. This is how we should live. Aiming at heaven. So let’s that be that go let let let that be our goal this week, friends.

Let’s aim at heaven, and we’ll find the life we desire. Hey. Thanks for being with us. Have a great day. See you in the morning.