Jesus lays it out there pretty clearly! We are blessed if we’re poor in spirit, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mourn, and are persecuted. But, woe to us if we’re the opposite of these. So, where are we? Hard to really see what’s going on inside with all the noise of life. We need to find some downtime and assess our heart and we will find that it’s going to be dark, selfish, wicked…and…it’s OK to not be OK, but it’s not OK to stay there. We’ve learned what it means to live a blessed life.

So far, Jesus’ ministry has been operating in a “Come and See” way. These verses switch gears as He calls people to come and follow Him which means they are getting ready to engage in a “Go and Die” life. It’s no longer just listen to the sermons, receive ministry, stand at a distance b/c these men are about to get a total life overhaul of their lives and the world will never be the same as a result. We will look at some of the early disciples lives and consider how to dive into the deep end of what it looks like for us as a disciple of Jesus where we move from “Come and See” to “Go and Die” so that others might “Come and See” and learn to “Go and Die”…it’s the church or it’s lights out!

In Luke 6 we see that the battlefield is the Sabbath, but the issue at stake here is LEGALISM. Just like the previous week, we see religion pop up again! On one side we have Jesus who is a rescuer, redeemer, and restorer inviting people into relationship VS religion who is a punisher that pounds people into submission out of devotion to the regulations and rules. Martin Luther said: “Religion is the default mode of the human heart” and we’re going to do battle with that tendency this week!