Prayer Works Morning Devotion March 30, 2026

A Chapter By Chapter Study Of The Gospels To Know And Teach Who Jesus Is And What Is Required Of The Sons And Daughters Of The Most High God

Luke Chapter 6

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

21Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

22Blessed are you when people hate you,

when they exclude you and insult you

and reject your name as evil,

because of the Son of Man.

23“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

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Good morning, good morning everybody. Happy Monday. I hope you had a wonderful restful night and you had a great weekend. I know some who have been traveling on spring break and I hope you're back and the kids are off to school and we are going through yet another week. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning. This is the day that you have made. We rejoice and we’re glad in it. Thank you for redeeming us from the cross of the law. Even though we are crucified with you, we still yet but live.

Not yet us, but Christ lives by faith in us. Thank you that your word dwells in us richly, and we are able to say we are blessed, we are healed, we are set free. Sickness cannot dwell in us. The number of our days will fulfill.

Sin will not dominate us because the seed of God's word lives in us. We believe that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross. And we now have the promise of the abundant life that He provides.

Therefore, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. We are more than conquerors because of his great love. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and we can do all things through Christ who strengthened us.

As the redeemed of the Lord, we say so in Jesus name we pray. Amen. If you are joining us for the first time, we are centering our morning devotions around a chapter from the Gospels and we started way back in January in Matthew.

Now we are in Luke and this is going to run us about June. So today we are back in Luke and we are in chapter number six. And what I want us to really look at today is the Beatitudes. But we cannot read the chapter and get to where we need to get to.

Verse number one, one Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Some of the Pharisees asked, why are you doing what is unlawful on Sabbath?

Now, in the Gospels we have seen, we have highlighted how the Pharisees are constantly trusting Jesus. Wherever He is, whatever He's doing, they are right there, asking questions. Verse number three, Jesus answered them.

Have you never read that David did when he and his companion were hungry? He entered the house of God and taking the consecrated bread, he ate it. He ate what is lawful only for priests to eat and he also gave some of his companion.

Then Jesus said to them, the Son of Sabbath, the Son of Man is the Lord of Sabbath. On another Sabbath he went to the synagogue and he was teaching and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law are looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they washed him closely to see if he could heal on Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand.

Get up and stand in front of everyone. So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, I ask you which is lawful on Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?

He looked around at them all and then said to the man, stretch out your hand. He did so and his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Now, one of the things that Jesus is showing them in this discourse concerning the Sabbath, is that when the kingdom of God comes, it is going to challenge culture, it's going to challenge the way people think.

Nothing about the kingdom of God comes to fit into the way mankind have always lived. Remember, when we pray, Jesus instructs this prayer. Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

God's desire is that His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven at every juncture. It doesn't matter where we are, what we are doing. He wants His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Which means that wherever the will of God is, it’s going to supersede or impose itself on culture, on the way things are done, because the Kingdom of God is not governed by the things and culture and laws and things that we are put in place to govern ourselves.

So what they are asking Jesus to make sure he observe is things they have put in place in observance of who God is. And Jesus comes and does the opposite to prove to them that the kingdom of God is going to supersede or impose itself on everything that might be going on here on earth.

So immediately after this, Jesus picks His twelve disciples. And we have the entire twelve now. And right after He has His group, He then preaches His first sermon. The way He starts again.

You're going to see that it is going against everything that everybody has always believed. So we're going to look at the Beatitudes. So the Greek, there's debate. Some say there's nine, some say there's eight.

We're just going to look at what is in the scripture. The Greek word translates blessing. Blessing means happy, blissful, or literally it is translated as to be enlarged, to be broadened, to be enlarged.

And when you read the Beatitude, they state something that those who experience the first aspects of the Beatitude, which is poor, mourn, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure, peacemakers, and persecuted.

Those who experience this will also experience the second aspects of the beatitude, the kingdom of heaven, comfort, inheriting the earth, feel mercy, see God, call the sons of God, inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The blessed have a share in salvation and have now entered the kingdom of God, experiencing and experiencing what will become of them later on when we get to heaven. That's why the Beatitudes are there.

So when we read this, you want to know and see that the Lord is telling you the prerequisites to experience the culture of heaven. In fact, when you want to know how to act or to be in this kingdom is to follow the Beatitude.

They are the blueprints or a code of ethics or you could say a constitution of how things ought to operate in this kingdom. That's what the Beatitudes are. So let's start from verse number 17.

He went down with them. This is Jesus going with all his disciples and he stood on a level place, a large crowd of his disciples. So this is just his disciples. So everybody who's sitting here is now in the kingdom.

A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed for their diseases.

Those troubled by impure spirits were cured and the people all tried to touch him because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at his disciples.

So he focuses his attention on his disciples, those who are in the kingdom, and he's addressing them in the midst of everybody else. Then he opens his mouth. This is the very first thing Jesus ever said in preaching.

Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. When you read some other manuscript, it says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

So in other words, when you possess a poor spirit, you will have a desire to constantly be filled which is a blessing. The desire to refute is a blessing because that is the prerequisite for you to receive the Kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh later. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you, and reject your name as evil, because of the.

If people do it because of Jesus, then you are blessed. Verse 23, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24, But woe to you who are rich, you have already received your comfort. Oh my God, that's a powerful statement. And in there you can see why extremely rich people want to live long? Because this is the best comfort they will ever receive.

I heard a saying that says that the closest thing to heaven a rich person will experience is their life here on earth. And the closest thing to hell a believer will experience is your life here on Earth.

Because when you get to go to the afterlife, what comes is the opposite of our challenges here on Earth. Blessed are you when people hate you. When people are hating, it says you are blessed.

When they are excluded, when you are excluded from things, and you are insulted because of Jesus, oh you are blessed. Rejoice, because in that day, and leap for joy, because greater is your reward in heaven, for this is how the ancestors treated their prophet.

Verse 24, But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated false prophets. In other words, if you are a teacher, a minister of the gospel.

If you find yourself, if you find yourself in the midst of everybody constantly giving you adulation, it means that your words are not challenging the very existence of this worldly culture.

So as you can see, everything that Jesus is teaching here is contrary to the beliefs and culture of this world. And He's trying to show us that when the Kingdom of God comes, it is going to challenge the status quo.

Everything that we have learned and known will be challenged. Because God's desire is that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if that is going to be so, definitely we are going to have friction.

If you impose God's will on earth, you are definitely going to have friction. And mankind is going to hate you because of Jesus. Because there is no way you can impose a culture on a people group and they continue liking you.

So brothers and sisters, let's understand that as believers, we are part of a culture that is contrary to the things this world is offering. And that's going to cause friction.

But ultimately, God's job is to make sure that what we experience in this Beatitude is the very true thing that we will experience later on when we go on home to be with the Lord. So the Kingdom of God will challenge the status quo.

And this is one of the reasons in our jobs, in the places that we go, that everything that we do causes friction. It's not because there are tests and there's challenges. It’s because the spirit behind the culture of this kingdom will challenge everything that is ungodly, Amen. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you. We thank you for your goodness and your mercy towards us. We thank you for all that you are teaching us and reminding us. We pray, Lord, a special blessing to all that you are doing.

We know that your ways are not our ways. We know that the way you do things is totally different from the way we would do things. Hence we are willing, by all means, to subject ourselves to the culture of this kingdom.

You desire by all means to see your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now help us in our efforts to not stray away from the truth, but Lord to continue persevering in faith, knowing Lord that you are our sovereign victor.

Father, we pray for repentance and cleansing of the church. We pray, Lord, for laborers in the kingdom building and discipleship making.

We pray for faith among believers throughout this world, that the name of Jesus will remain steadfast in our midst, in our discussions, in everything that we do, and that we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit as we continue to follow the statutes and the values of this kingdom.

Father, we pray for true shepherds, pastors, elders, deacons, board members, and servants of churches that are responsible for taking care of the house of God. That God it’s by your faith that will push that which is right in this hour.

Thank you for great grace as you continue to bless the shepherds of your people in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for the nation of Israel with all that's going and taking place over there.

We pray for grace to abound and peace to abound. Father, we pray for Christian marriages all across this world, men and women who are raising up godly children, that may these marriages remain intact because of the power and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you, Lord, that as you continue to help us in our effort, we want to be examples of carrying the Kingdom of God within us. Father, I pray for guardians, those who have thrown their names in the head to look and to take care of those who are in need of parents and homes.

We pray, Lord, that may you provide all their needs according to your riches and glory. We pray for those who are taking care of aging parents, that may you bless us emotionally, physically, mentally, in everything that you want us to do.

So that we can be at peace with our aging parents, but also to be great helpers in this hour of need for them. Father, we pray for parents who have kids, who are teenagers, that God, may you continue to bless us in strengthen us, in our course to educate them in the things of the Lord.

I pray, Lord, for students who are in college, that God, may you provide according to your riches and glory, that all our children, our kids, nephews and nieces who are in college will not lack for anything in the name of Jesus.

We pray for sons and daughters, for the blessing of the Lord to be added to their lives, and may it add no sorrow in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for believers who are working in ungodly environments.

Let these environments be godly because we are standing there. Thank you for your great grace. Thank you, Lord, for even the place of employment where we earn a living.

We pray, Lord, that as we continue, that may what we carry in us continue to challenge the culture of this world. For we know the desire is for us to carry this kingdom and for the kingdom of God to impose itself on the cultures of this earth.

Father, we pray for this country and everybody who's being sent to war. Protect them from harm and danger. Help our leaders to walk in godly things in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray for those who are in local government, judges, law enforcement, state and local level school boards.

That God, may we be aligned by your Spirit as we do that which you have asked for us to do. So we bless you and we bless the communities that we are part of. May we continue to anchor those communities.

Because you are sovereign and you desire your will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for unity amongst believers all over the world. May you grant us favor with men and angels as we continue to execute the will of God.

Father, heal those of us who might be sick. Heal everybody in the name of Jesus. We pray this prayer knowing Lord that you hear us and knowing Lord that we are going to walk in expectation because we know you love us so dearly and you're so quick to hear and to answer our prayers.

Now Lord as we go throughout this day, bless the works of our hands, bless the works of the one who sent us and Father we pray that may the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ continue to follow us for the rest of our days.

Now, lead us not into temptation, continue to deliver us from the evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen. Brothers and sisters, as we go in the day, may the Lord bless you mightily.

Walk in the expectation, know that the culture of this kingdom is going to challenge everything that is ungodly. And may the Lord bless you and bless your families and we'll see you back here tomorrow, 7 a.m. Central, 8 a.m. Eastern Standard.

And may we all have an incredible, phenomenal week in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.