When I was a kid, we would go to Bible camp and it was like a homestead frontier little house on the prairie style Bible camp, not like a mountains and pine tree Bible camp for the fancy rich kids. And so we would go out there and I really did enjoy this very much. But you know, like most kids, I'm a little socially afraid, especially of like the girl that you have a crush on. And I was maybe 14 at this point, maybe 15. And I had a crush on this girl named Amber. She was just lovely and sweet and really was uh just a very nice girl. And I thought, well, I'm a nice boy, that could work out. And so the deal was that we were gonna do a traditional box social. And the way this works is that the ladies go and they make a little box lunch and put all the touches on it, and they decorate the little box, and then on the last day of camp, they come out and they line up all the boxes and they stand behind them, and all the boys get to bid on the privilege of buying that box lunch, and in doing so, you get to have lunch with the girl who made it. So I had a plan. I need to win that box lunch, and then I can sit with Amber and we can talk and no doubt fall deeply in love. And the currency that we were using to make these purchases was some kind of Bible Jesus buck thing. I don't know what they called it, but the camp bucks you got by memorizing Bible verses. I wasn't too shabby at memorizing Bible verses. And so they gave us this sheet, and I realized the more of these I memorize, the less chance I have of being outbid. So I memorized the entire sheet, all of it. And then I thought, hmm, somebody else might catch up with me. I'm gonna go in secret and ask the camp director to give me more verses to memorize. It's not like they're gonna say no, it's Bible verses at a Bible camp. So I memorized copious amounts of Bible that week. In fact, a lot of the Bible that I quickly recall and still have rattling around in my head is from trying to buy Amber's box lunch. So I won hands down. I was a Jesus Bible buck billionaire, and I was gonna tycoon my way into this thing working out. So we line up all the boxes and the bidding starts and the poor poppers who only memorize like John 1135 got their crappy box lunch. But I was lining up to get the beautiful box lunch made by Amber, and we're coming all the way down to hers, and hers is gonna be the last one that we're gonna bid on. And the numbers, the math somehow didn't quite work out right. And so the the last camper who had a box out there was her, and there's me and this other guy, and I'm stretching out and I'm like, huh, it worked, I'm gonna get the box lunch, and a little folded-up paper football note comes to me. And so I opened the little note and it was from Amber, and it just said, Don't you dare bid on my box. I'm like, Oh. And that sound that you still hear, maybe a tiny bit, of my poor little boy heart being deeply, deeply wounded. Yeah, that's real. Because that made me that's like one of the saddest things I remember feeling growing up. It honestly was kind of crushing. I was like, okay. And I didn't bid at all. And this other kid did, and everybody knew that I'd memorized all these verses and they'd figured out my plan, and they couldn't figure out why I wasn't bidding, and I kind of maybe started to tear up a little bit, but I kept it together. I mean, you can't, you cannot fall apart like that. And so I did keep it together, and the only other remaining box was one that the older grandma lee lady had made as a backup in case the math didn't work out, and so she and I ended up having lunch together. And as much as it might feel like the joke was on me, she was a really nice lady, and she saw what had happened, and she went out of her way to make sure that I felt better about things. I won't normally take four minutes to tell you a story on the front end of the podcast, but it really means a lot to me that you listen to that whole thing. The point of all of this is one, well, that was a formative experience for me, and I don't know what you should make of it. And two, the currency thing was fascinating. I was trading in one currency, which was this camp assigned Camp Jesus Bible buck thing, whatever it was called. But Amber was trading in another currency, which was actual social value and credibility. I thought that the currency I had was going to get things done. I quickly realized I was a millionaire in an ineffective currency and it was gonna do me no good. As we get into Matthew chapter five, and we get into the place where finally we're gonna hear what all of this is about. Why are we even doing this, Jesus? What's with the miracles? What's with the miraculous birth and the wise men and the baptism where all of this headed? What are we supposed to do? And you got all these people following you around. What's the big ask? As we get into this, we will find that it's not the idiot level ask, which is, oh no, I need your money and your stuff. Mm-mm. No. It's not the sophisticated cult leader Long Con. Nope, he's not setting that up either. Instead, he's gonna go with something completely off the wall. He is going to start describing a set of values and a set of currencies that are totally different than the ones that people are espousing and trading in at the time that he sat them down to talk to them. Everyone in this group, and I mean everyone in this group of the original audience members who are following Jesus around, and I mean the in-person original audience, they were trading in one currency. Uh like money. Maybe social credibility would be another one, but money, like the normal one that you and I trade in too. So Jesus does one of the weirdest things ever for being at the here's the big ask moment where he turns over his cards and reveals what he's going for. He changes the currency. Well, you can't do that. You have to earn all the credibility with people. You have to have power before you can just change what actually has value. But he leads with that. He's gonna open with here's everything that in your system you think is valuable and worthwhile, and here's everything that is actually worthwhile. He's going to describe to them an upside-down, backwards, reversed set of values than everything they're pursuing and chasing in life. So instead of making this brilliant, slick cult leader sales pitch, instead of cashing out of this situation as quickly as he can at the high point of his popularity, he is instead going to do something that frankly is probably more likely to run people off, but is also going to demonstrate how utterly profound this thing that he's building and that he's calling people to is. And in the same way that I had a pretty keen moment of awareness that I was trading in a currency that did not have value anymore in the situation, so I believe the people who heard what we're going to look at next in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' first big speech of it in front of everybody, would have also realized that if what Jesus is saying is true, all the things that they're hoarding, that they're chasing, that they're valuing, that they're jealous of other people for having more of, they don't matter. But that if this Jesus thing is real, and if he is who he claims to be, there's something else that does matter. Something that is accessible to anybody on the fringes of culture, right in the center cut of culture. And so I think what we are going to look at next as we move into the Sermon on the Mount would have been confusing, would have been scary, would have been a refreshing change from what other claimants to the role of Messiah would be about, and also would have been weirdly exciting to consider. If Jesus is legit, this changes everything. Forget what you know about religion, forget what you know about all the other weird claims to power and cult leadership, and this church and that televangelist and this politician who cites Jesus a little bit here or there. Stuff is about to get weird. And I don't want to leave you without reading any Bible, so I'm gonna give you a preview of what we're gonna look at a whole lot tomorrow. And again, I guess the second night or day, or I don't know when you listen to this. This is the second time in a row that I'm giving you homework, but try to think about these words in a fresh way. For those of you who've heard them before, and for those of you who are about to hear them for the first time, get ready to hear some of the weirdest, most important stuff that's ever been said or written down. It says now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they'll inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they'll be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You're smart, you can understand words on a page, and as you can see, what Jesus is doing in his very opening foray into speaking publicly and explaining what this is all about, he's not asking for anything. Instead, he's challenging the notion of the currency, either visible or invisible, that everybody assigns value to and trades in, and is instead propping up the value and beginning to articulate an entirely different currency. I want to mention again that my friend Shane Heilman is doing this Psalms project. If you like Bible stuff and you like music, and if you're here, I guess you like Bible, and if you're a human, I think you like music, you're gonna really like what he's doing. There's a link down below, but you can find it on Spotify or anywhere. The call to action is nothing other than just go listen to it because it's good and it'll make your life better. All right, more on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' first big speech in front of everybody, and about changing currency coming up next time around. I'm Matt this is Demon and Bible Hour Podcast. Thanks for doing this with me. We'll talk to you soon.