Latest / Cultivator Podcast / Episode 9 - Trio Talks - Blessed
Transcript
- Justin Stice: To establish what th this means biblically before we can go into I just did. No, I mean I mean, like are is your hearing going now too? You can't see, you can't hear, you're taller than we remember. I mean, you've got all the things going on. ⁓ Well, I stood taller when he said that. Dude, I hear you on that. Hey, welcome. Thanks for joining us with the Cultivator Podcast. Man, we're so glad that you guys are here, hanging out, watching, listening. Man, I'm excited. We're gonna be jumping into the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. And so before we even get there and jump into that, kind of the question I want us to think about and pause for a second is why? Like why would we, as this cultivator podcast, and we exist to cultivate cultivators with all that we're doing, why would it be important for us to jump into the Sermon on the Mount? One real easy answer is ⁓ a kingdom, which we talk a lot about, demands a king. Yeah. And this is the largest collected sermon that the king has left for us, right? I mean, five, six, and seven of Matthew, it's just red letters the whole time. ⁓ you know, this is this is Jesus and if we look at it, you know, as I was as I was looking today. There aren't many red letters in Matthew up till this. Jesus has not said much. Much has been kind of said about him. We're setting the, you know, we're setting the the table for what's going on, but then we hit five and it is just red letters all over the place. And if we want to whatever the word we use, reveal whatever the kingdom of the king Jesus, then we we probably need to spend a little time in talking about what he says is important. Yeah. I mean he's painting picture of what a king what his kingdom is like and what life in his kingdom is like and what kind of people you become when you step in and live in that kingdom. So yeah. So I think it's it's huge that we dive in here because I think this allows us it gives us an understanding of this this kingdom that we are to be about revealing cultivating. And and I think we have to start here, like Dave's saying is like we have to start with The king and what he's establishing, what he's saying is this. And so we have an understanding and idea of what it is this this thing that we're doing. Because we may have an idea and understanding of what the kingdom ⁓ of heaven is, but I don't know if it sometimes always lines up with what Jesus actually was saying. And it is. And so I think ⁓ that we have to start here, I feel like. And specifically today as we start, man, as we jump into the Sermon on the Mount, it starts with the Beatitudes, the first of Matthew, and Like the fur very first word that we read that was says is the word blessed. And ⁓ that's honestly as far as we're gonna get today. Because I think in our mind we have this idea and this version of what blessed or blessed is that honestly doesn't line up with what the word truly is. And so y my my Bible scholar friends right here, we're we're gonna I'm gonna lean on them heavily today. ⁓ And so th th the first thing we jump into Sermon on the Mount, the first part is the Beatitudes. And the first word that Jesus says is blessed. Yeah. And you know, before we kind of started recording, we were just kind of talking back and forth about what why why this, you know, why not do like the Beatitudes, a macro view, and then kind of well, because this word is the it is the key to unlocking the Beatitudes. And if we have a wrong understanding of what it means to be blessed. That's gonna throw off the whole, you know, the whole really the whole sermon, but certainly the Beatitudes. And I, I mean, personally, I think that Jesus hit him in the teeth with this word intentionally. I think that that is intentionally the first word. I mean, this is early on in his ministry. He is not called even all his disciples yet. I mean, according to Matthew's narrative, if we're following Matthew's narrative, and They have an understanding. Like they're s following the Messiah, the king, the ruler, and they have an understanding of what that looks like. This is one of the reasons why I think Beatitudes or and Sermon on the Mount as a whole becomes so important for us. Because we live in a world of kingdoms. Like we have a currently we have kind of a Christian nationalist kingdom that is trying to establish. Some sort of rule and reign, but I don't know that it always lines up with the rule and reign that we read about here. Yeah. And I don't think that that's much different than Jesus' followers. I don't I mean I don't think they went from fishermen and tax collectors to go and follow a movement that's gonna end with them dying. Like I don't think that was their plan. And so real early on, I think Jesus comes out by going, Look, you've lived in a world where you think this is what blessed looks like, this is what a blessing looks like. I'm gonna change that. Like right at the start. And so before we even dive in, I just want to that word blessed. And and so if most people and I know we're taking very broad generalizations here, right? But if most people in West Texas and Lubbock, if if we said the word blessed, what do you what do you think they would say that is? What does it mean to be blessed? Most of the time when I hear it, it's like I've acquired something that has made my life better. I got the parking spot, right? I'm blessed. Or hashtag blessed I I got something. Yeah. It was given to me. And so I must be blessed. It's commodity based is what what it's usually meaning. Yeah, I know this is a dated example, but I remember from you know, years ago in my Christian walk when the little book, The Prayer of Jabez, came out, and you know, you pray this prayer and your land will increase and your money will increase and you will be blessed. Yeah. Yeah. I I I think that in the Christian culture of today. It definitely has a monetary primarily a monetary. That you're you are considered blessed because you have so much money. Yeah. Yeah. It just it just speaks to how saturated we are with consumer mentality. Yeah. No, you hear me I dude, I I wouldn't have lots of money and you have lots of money. That's awesome. I but there's a way it's a tool and a thing of any but The the way the idea of this idea of understanding that you are more blessed because you have more. Well it's just like ⁓ yeah, it's you get on the street with a microphone and ask some of what does the best life look like? And you're gonna hear about things most of the time. Yeah. What's the best life that that that's blessed? That's you know. So So but that isn't so y'all are telling me that that's not what Jesus was saying? No. I mean when we when we look at the Beatitudes you'll see it very quickly. Yeah. Because the things that he says are blessed are not those. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ but you know, w when we were when we were hashing kind of some of this stuff out over the past ⁓ several weeks just talking, ⁓ one of the translations and some of the that they use for this is the word happy. And Scott, you kind of you got that got your, you know, dander up because that's not what this word means. And so The word in the original language is makarios. Right. And so I I'd just like for you to talk maybe a little bit about what you were telling us about what that word means. Okay. It it's it's probably based on possibly two different Hebrew words. there's a prayer that ⁓ the Jewish people repeat, Blessed are you Lord God, King of the universe. There's it goes on, but that word that's bar baruch. And ⁓ and so y you you think about well how do you bl how do you bless the king of the universe? You know, what is it what what is what are you saying when you use it that way? Asre, and I'm not sure I'm saying that is the other one. The idea but makarios, makarios comes it is trying to carry the weight of those two words. And when it gets when you put it into Greek, one of the things you gotta know is that word was used to describe ⁓ the life of the gods. The gl god the the life of the gods were blessed. And and so when when this is presented in the Beatitudes, you're it's saying it's the idea of ⁓ to have a a ⁓ godlike life, th th y i y you will need this. To have the if you want a godlike life you need to be like this. And but it's like I can't th they're blessed and the rest of the Beatitude, whichever one you want to pick, and which we're gonna t we'll eventually talk about, it they go together because to Jesus saying, I want you to have my life because I'm divine. I want you to have my life and and here's what I'm going to do in you. So that you can. And that's the rest of the you know because what he describes in the rest of the Beatitudes, and we'll talk about this later, is he's giving a self portrait. Mm-hmm. So so do you see what I'm saying? So they go together. The word blessed or blessed and then the rest of what he says. So yeah. And I I mean anyone in the crowd would have been ⁓ they've been asking actually how do I have a better life? How do I have the best life? That's a human question. Yeah. And it's one we're still asking. And and and so Jesus' answer, he starts out by saying, This is what the kingdom is going to be. It's it's about blessed people. It's about people that I'm recreating my divine life in. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. You know, as as you're talking, Scott, I'm I I don't know ⁓ that kind of the today's version of that is that much different. It's just a matter of w what that blessing looks like. Does that make sense? Because yeah, I mean you know, it's easy to pick on the Joel Osteen blessing over everything, the parking spot that you talked about, but like that's how it's being used. Like I'm highly favored because I want to go in the mall and spend my money and look, there's a parking spot that I don't have to walk very far to get to it. So I think there's an element of that, but I think what we'll see when we jump into the Beatitudes is that the picture Jesus paints of what that blessing looks like is fundamentally different from what the prosperity gospel lays out. Yeah, the thing I think we have to extract that word away from things. Okay. Because it's a way of it's a life. It's it's holistic life. Not just a financial piece or a better okay. It's about who are you becoming. It's not about what are you acquiring. And so I think, yeah, I think you're right. So this idea of the word blessed isn't tied to the stuff that we have. It's tied to who we are as a person, who we are becoming as a person. And this is like To be a cultivator, you have to be a certain kind of person before you go do things. Because your being will shape your doing. And so that's why we're starting with this one word, because it's describing what you know what what are you becoming? Becoming blessed. ⁓ that that's a that's a a life that is being planted in you, cultivated in you. developed in you and hopefully you slosh it on other people as you go your normal routes of the day. Mm-hmm. Is that making sense? It r it reminds me of and this is it's been years ago, but ⁓ I don't even know why I would have been frequenting this particular McDonald's. But there was a there was like a a a lady there that, you know, you'd go up and I I'm all for small talk, right? I'm not gonna just w go up and order and Well, how are you? And it was blessed every time. And here's a lady who was later in life and is working the counter at McDonald's. I I think that the the Beatitudes in the sermon as a whole will will open up our perspective to what a blessed life really is. And I really believe with that lady that she was, and and this is not my faith tradition, but she was speaking that into existence. I think that if we live a life in the kingdom And following the ways of Jesus, that life is blessed. Now it doesn't always look like that. I mean, you know, how many conversations have we had about church finances where we're like, it didn't look very blessed, right? Or church numbers where it doesn't look like Kingdom Co op is being very blessed. But like this, what what I think this does is it shatters those expectations of what the world says blessed, and it replaces them with this upside down kingdom that says, no, this is really what it looks like. I think you have to start he starts the sermon there. I think that's where you have to start. It's like he is introducing that where it begins is him recreating himself in you. That's where it begins. It doesn't begin with doing and it doesn't begin with acquiring. It begins with him recreating his divine life in you. And then the rest of the Beatitude, which everyone is poor in spirit or mourning. This is him describing how he's gonna go about doing that. I think this is huge because I think so often when we talk about the kingdom and even revealing whatever, it starts about the doing of like what we're doing. And this he's very much starting with no that this is the being, this is who you're becoming. And I think so often we have to start with our own selves of our identity and who he says that we are and our being before there's any kind of doing, because we are We have say it all the time. We we are so much more human doings than human beings. We gain our value and our worth and all the things of what we do versus off of who we are in Him, in our being and our becoming in Him. And I think I love this because this word blessed is speaking to that before there's any action, before there's anything that we do. And and I know that's hard for us, especially in Western church, Western culture, that there's a invitation to To say, hey, you what, your worth and your value doesn't come from anything. And especially even the things that you do for God. Yeah. Right like no, that's that's that's not what he's saying. Like you're not blessed or you're not a blessed like before any of that stuff, like, man, it it comes from who he has called you and said you to be and us living into that reality. We were having the conversation last night that Justin were talking about kind of how culture plays in and what whether what we do shape culture or culture shapes us and all of that. And ⁓ I I think it it is impossible. This is one thing that people miss all the time because like my tradition, my faith tradition is let's just go back to what the Bible says and let's talk about what it meant then and that's well you can't do that because I bring myself, Dave Drake, 2026, all of my history to the text with me. I don't just come with No preconceived notions. And when I come, because I live where I live and have had the history, I bring capitalism with me to the text. Because we live in a world where we talk about ⁓ blessing comes, you know, with financially. I can pay the bills, I can buy these things. I we look and we go, ⁓ that person in that house on 19th Street, they're they're blessed because they can afford this big house. Or this business owner is blessed. And so I bring that in with me because we it's not just church culture, it's American culture that this is what blessing looks like. And ⁓ I don't know, I mean there's there's a difference of degree, but I think the same thing was happening in in the hearing of this. Yeah. The disciples were ready for Israel to be restored to the power broker of the Middle East. And that's what they're expecting. And that's what blessing looks like to them. You know, I mean H here we're early, and I don't think it's in Matthew, but later in the gospel, j ⁓ James and John are so clueless that they're like, Hey, now when this all happens, can I sit on your right and him sit on your left in the kingdom? Like they still don't get it. Yeah. And so, ⁓ I'm not naive enough to think that we're gonna go through this how many ever weeks it takes us and at the end we're gonna be just these amazing kingdom cultivators and what we're planning and growing is absolutely kingdom and not anything having to do with consumer. I'm not. Yeah. Naive with that. But the conversation has to start somewhere. Yeah. And you know, we were talking before what the takeaway, and I think one of the takeaways from this is to maybe if you're a if you're a journaler, which I really want to be, but I'm not. But like if you're a journaler, to maybe write down two columns as you're studying this and what blessing looks like to what you thought what what the culture, the church culture, whatever says blessing looks like. And these are the things, you know. ⁓ happy kids, ⁓ Full bank account, ⁓ successful job, like l write all those down and then on the right side, just write out what blessed looks like in the Beatitudes. I mean, I think that would be ⁓ probably be a staggering contrast. And and I don't want I you to hear like w don't hear what we're not saying. We're not saying having money is bad, having happy kids is bad. Right. Those are all wonderful and great things. But when we reduce this word to that you're blessed because of this or That that's the that's where we're trying to push back a little bit is that hey, none of those are man, I dude, I have an amazing family, amazing wife. I mean, we all these things are great, but this idea that I I am being blessed. Does that make sense? I I don't know if that aligns up. That's the sign of that's the sign of blessing. I I I think Scott, what you said ⁓ earlier is absolutely right, and we've got to keep it in mind that there is a character building that is going on that shows that blessing. Yeah. Yeah. Well it's just if you're using the word to describe something that's happening outside of you, you're missing it. Because it's it's meant to describe something that's happening within you. Right. Which makes it real difficult, right? Because you can have two people that s financially are successful and one really is blessed and one is not. Like it it be because it's beyond external categories. Right. Right? Right. Okay. So I think as we're kind of I don't know where we're at time wise, but I think Just before we we're gonna dive in this next one, we're gonna dive into actually over kind of a macro view of the Beatitudes. But I this is kind of the challenge and takeaway for this one, is man, maybe consider your perspective of this word blessed and what you've always thought it was and compare it to maybe some of the things that we've been saying and saying, ⁓ maybe maybe there is a little bit of unlearning or maybe there's a new perspective that I should take ⁓ when I think about this idea of what it means to be blessed. And kind of Hold that on and then as we dive into this even deeper, like Dave says, we don't know how long this is gonna take. I mean, we we've been talking for thirty minutes on this one word, right? And so but I would say let be open to some unlearning and a a perspective change on what this word blessed means and what does that specifically mean when it comes to the kingdom. And we always talk about how there has to be the kingdom has to be cultivating within us before It can be cultivated out of us and through us. And I feel like this is a where Jesus is trying to cultivate the kingdom in us before there's anything that's going on outside of us. And so my invitation would be just to sit and think maybe what are the the ideas you've had around this word of blessed or being blessed or a blessing. and I encourage you to write ⁓ down. Like there is, you know, I mean, there's great value in a record of that. You know, we've had a lot of conversations about Because I I mean I desperately want to be a better journaler. But the the years that I did journal, there's a re there's a record of my spiritual journey. And so I just would encourage that not just think about it, but actually write it down to you. Yeah. Well, hey, thank you guys for joining in. ⁓ so yeah, we're gonna jump in, we're gonna keep on diving into this. And as we dive in, man, we're we would love to hear your feedback. ⁓ if that's in person, if that's a text message, if that's a message. ⁓ we would love to hear your feedback and if this is doing something for you. All right, man. Love you guys.