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.