Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 5 Study # 4
October 21, 2007
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<386> Thesis:   Tears arising from godly sorrow will be turned into laughter. Introduction:   When Luke began to record the teaching of Jesus at the time when He had some down from the mountain, He deliberately selected those parts of what Jesus said that made the most fundamental issues stand out. In our studies of these teachings, we have seen that Jesus put the foremost issue -- being able to participate in the eventual and eternal Kingdom of God -- foremost. Then He explained what was fundamentally required of men for this "blessing". First, there is the issue that is so tightly wrapped up in men's attitude about wealth: the issue of whether, or not, a person comes to real grips with his/her absolute moral bankruptcy before God. Those who recognize this kind of "poverty" as theirs, are welcome to God's riches. Then, there is the issue of men's experience of true hunger; not that hunger that is of the belly, but that hunger for righteousness that resides in the souls of them who are so committed to the will of God that they will not give their bellies "lordship" over them. Those who come to this commitment shall be filled in that Kingdom which has, as its "scepter", the standard of righteousness. This morning we come to the third most crucial issue: what is it that makes you cry?