There is a commercial my wife told me about recently that asked the question, "Do you want to get rich quick?" After it asked that question, it showed the camera view from a parent spinning their cute little boy around in circles. All you can see is the smiling, excited face of the little boy with the world whirring by in the background. After showing this scene for awhile, the commercial answers its question, "Do you want to get rich quick?" by saying: "Count your blessings!"

Whether you are rich or poor, I make you the same offer: Do you want to know how to get rich real quick? Count your blessings! Today I am not talking about the blessings you may have of family, friends, home, food, clothing, and health. I am talking about greater blessings. Blessings that make you eternally happy. Blessings that make you rich. Maybe not rich in the eyes of the world, but rich in God's eyes and the eyes of his children.

Jesus tells all believers in Him that they have blessings. Blessings that make them rich! But what Jesus calls blessings are a radical reversal of everything we have learned from the world are blessings. Do you know what makes Jesus consider you rich? If you are poor, hungry, sad, and persecuted! Say what??

Let's let Jesus explain Himself here. Verse 20 says, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours in the kingdom of God." So, poor people are going to heaven and rich people to hell? The Bible tells us that is not the case. Then this can't be talking about earthly wealth. The "poor" are those believers who recognize they have no riches to bring to God. In fact, the word for poor here is talking about dirt poor - people who must beg! True Christians recognize they are, by nature, nothing in God's sight. All of our deeds are worthless to merit anything from God! As that tax collector once did, we must simply beg, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." We come before God with our empty pockets hanging out. And here Jesus says that all who realize they are poor in this way are blessed! Are you blessed in this way? Rather than depending on your own riches or your own works, are you depending on God's mercy? Then you are blessed! In fact, God showers you with forgiveness of sins, peace, joy, life, and salvation!

Now, verse 24 gives us the opposite: "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort." Those who think they are rich before God because of what wonderful people they are and how nice they have been are sadly mistaken. Instead of blessing them, God will curse them, because the only righteousness which counts before God is the righteousness which Christ gives. And this righteousness they don't have. They have the comfort here in this world of having people praise them for how "righteous" they are. But that's it. That's as good as it gets. That will mean nothing on the last day when they find out they are cursed by God.

In verse 21 Jesus says, "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied." The "hungry" are those believers who are not satisfied with what they know about God. They want to know more and more about their Savior. When they open their Bibles to read, they devour the bread of God's Word like a person who has been starving for weeks. Jesus says they are blessed. Are you blessed by being hungry in this way? If you are, you will learn more and more about your Lord, and will be drawn closer to Him in love. Your life will be richer, fuller, and filled with more meaning. Best of all, you will have the answers you need to prepare you for eternity.

On the other hand, in verse 25 we hear, "Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry." Those who think they are well fed before God don't bother to continue to feed on his Word. They will be surprised when they find out they don't really know Jesus. Maybe they did once, but since their memories aren't that great, there is a lot they have forgotten. Maybe they have even been led astray. So now they will go hungry forever. Don't let that be you.

In verse 21 Jesus says, "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." Those who "weep now" are the believers who see the sad results of sin. Not only is there sin in the world all around us. But Christians see in their own lives the many times they have had the chance to do God's will, but didn't. They see the many times they thought, said, or did things which they knew were contrary to God's will. When they see how often they have failed to live as children of God, it brings sorrow to believers' hearts. And when they realize this is how they acted in spite of the love God showed them in Christ, it may even bring tears to their eyes. Jesus says they are blessed! Are you blessed with this kind of sadness? Being sad this way will bring great happiness into your life! You will laugh! When you are in heaven, there is no sin there to make you weep. You will be able to do God's will perfectly! You will know true joy!

It's better than laughing now. Verse 25 says, "Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep." Those who laugh now are ones who enjoy the pleasures and lusts of sin in this life. Now they might enjoy their drunkenness, their cheating others, their disobedience, their sexual sins, and their days spent with evil companions. However, since they did not hate sin and did not feel sorry when they sinned against the will of their Savior, they will be cursed. They will mourn forever. Because Jesus is your Savior, you need not fear this dreadful end!

Finally, Jesus says "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man." In this blessing, Jesus speaks to those who suffer persecutions from those who are not Christians. There are various kinds. Unbelievers might just hate us, but to be hated by anyone is not a happy thing for a Christian. That hatred might show itself by the fact that they want nothing to do with us. They will try to make us feel lonely. They might try deeply insulting us. Behind our backs or to our faces. They might snarl the name "Christian" as though it is something evil. But these things happen to us because of Jesus. That's why we are blessed! We are blessed when we suffer these things for Him because it just proves we belong to Him. And we have a great reward waiting in heaven. This is not a reward we have earned but a reward of God's grace. God is not forced to give this reward to us. Because of his mercy He wants to give it to us. He reminds us of this reward of his grace so that whenever we suffer for Jesus, we are strengthened in our faith. Have you been persecuted? Then you are blessed!

On the other hand, those who deny Jesus instead of suffering for Him will be cursed. Maybe humans will "speak well" of them instead of hating, rejecting, and insulting them. The fathers of the Jews Jesus mentioned spoke well of false prophets in the OT. Those prophets never suffered for Jesus, and now they are cursed. That is what will happen to anyone who would rather be friends with those on earth rather than stick up for Jesus. Don't be one of them.

So much of our worldly happiness is something we are always going to find just around the corner. We are going to be happy, we always say, just as soon as we get a good job or make a lot of money or get married or get divorced or get something else. But the action is always somewhere out in front of us, and we can never quite reach it. I am reminded of the story of the donkey that had a long pole attached to his neck. A carrot was tied to the end of the pole, just a few feet in front of the donkey's mouth. You know what happened: as the donkey moved toward the carrot, the carrot remained an equal distance out in front of the animal's reaching mouth. In similar fashion, the happiness that is offered to us by the world is something that is always going to happen at some time in the future. But, to our dismay, it never actually happens.

God's kind of happiness, on the other hand, the kind that He gives us through faith in his Son as our Savior, is a present reality. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor." "Happy are those who mourn." "Happy are those who are humble." Each one of the Beatitudes is in the present tense. Each one of them congratulates the Christian on the happiness he is already experiencing as a disciple of Jesus. Each of them tell you that it is a wonderful, blessed, happy thing to know that you are forgiven and loved by God. And that matters more than any other thing, good or bad, in this world!

So, do you want to get rich quick? Be poor in spirit! Be hungry for righteousness! Be sad about sin! And be persecuted for your Lord instead of denying Him. These are blessings you already have. Do you want to get rich quick? Count your blessings! Forgiveness, joy, and peace with God. You have these blessings now. There is another one coming though: Eternal life in heaven with God. You are blessed! Amen.

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