Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

“At about this same time Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his troops. He recruited in addition thirty-two local sheiks, all outfitted with horses and chariots. He set out in force and surrounded Samaria, ready to make war. He sent an envoy into the city to set his terms before Ahab king of Israel: “Ben-Hadad lays claim to your silver and gold, and to the pick of your wives and sons.” The king of Israel accepted the terms: “As you say, distinguished lord; I and everything I have is yours.”

So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched on that roundabout route seven days; and there was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them. And the king of Israel said, “Alas! For the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

The order of the beatitudes are important because when we realize that we are poor in spirit, we will realize that we are bankrupt before God. We can offer nothing for our sin. We will begin to mourn. That mourning over our sin produces meekness, which is humility. That meekness creates a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. After we are filled with the righteousness of Christ, we will be able to be merciful. When we are merciful, then we will be pure in heart. When we are pure in heart, we will become peacemakers. When we help others find peace with God and with others, we will be persecuted. When we are persecuted for helping others be at peace with others and with God, we will leap for joy. If we are going to make peace with God, if we are going to make peace with others, we need to know what peace is.

In Psalms 66 and Jeremiah 17, the Bible talks about God’s faithfulness and how we are blessed when we place our trust in him. In this message we will use an equation to explain the relationship between our efforts, the tests and trials we go through, and how we can expect God to show up for us. The formula is B + T = R, and it stands for “Best + Test = Rest.”

In our culture, we need to recognize that we were created to celebrate someone and something. If we don’t celebrate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we will begin to put other things in the place of praise, and we will allow those things to produce passion in us. On Palm Sunday, we have a reason to celebrate, worship, and praise God because he has spoken to us and given us his word. All we need is one word from God; we don’t even need a whole sermon. One word from God can change the trajectory of our life. There is power, hope, and healing in God’s word.

God is both justice and mercy. Psalm 136:1 says that God’s mercy endures forever. In other words, God would have to cease to exist for his mercy to run out. The cultural definition of mercy is to have or show compassion on the poor or guilty. From the Beatitudes, we know that we are poor and guilty before God. But, God is mercy in action. This mercy is available to us, and we are happy if we receive it and pass it on.