Discover the transformative power of the Beatitudes in this enlightening episode. Hosts Barbara and Kimberly discuss how these ancient teachings can act as remedies to modern life’s challenges like pride and gluttony. Learn how adopting an attitude of humility, mercy, and peacemaking can lead to a more fulfilling and spiritually rich existence. This episode invites you to re-examine your life’s priorities, offering encouragement and guidance for those who long for a deeper connection with God’s promises and the strength to navigate life’s wilderness.
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom. I’m so glad you joined us today. Kimberly has the job of cleaning off this desk from all the dust and the summer dust and the darkness from all of the things. There are so many little boxes connecting the jacks to all the microphones.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know if it’s my job. I just, I started… Rachel, it’s okay. I just started in on it, and then I started moving your papers around and bugging you.
SPEAKER 04 :
You remember at the airports, we would be waiting for your father and waiting for your father.
SPEAKER 03 :
It wasn’t just airports. It was every restaurant. It was everywhere, every public place.
SPEAKER 04 :
Why is he late? The plane is just about to go. And he’d be in the restroom. He’d be cleaning off the counters.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wiping down all the counters. Mm-hmm. Wanting to leave it better for the next person. The next person, yes. I still do that, I know. It’s not really an OCD thing. It’s just caring about the world.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, on your part it’s not OCD. If I did it, it’s OCD. Okay, we’re good. No, we can care about the world together. That’s right. Well, I’m glad that you joined us today. This is a wonderful day. God has made it. He’s created it just for you. Do you know that you are loved today? Yes. Love is a choice, it’s a commitment, it’s an action, and it’s a gift, a gift from God. May the Spirit of God give you wisdom to follow your heart in the way of love today. Oh, I’m so grateful that you are here and you’re listening, and your heart is open and receptive to what the Lord has to say in His Word. And you are blessed to dispense, for in Him you live and move and have your being. And…
SPEAKER 03 :
I love the idea of following the heart. I hope some of you will follow your heart and join us for our meeting this coming Saturday.
SPEAKER 04 :
That was a good segue. Darren would love that.
SPEAKER 03 :
We would love to see you Saturday. So if you would like to join us for brunch, breakfast, lunch, whatever we want to call it at 10, 10 o’clock, or if you would like to join us at the house at 11 o’clock for some Bible study, some time of worship, um, Please call us at 877-917-7256 and we’ll give you directions and we’ll give you an address and we’ll look forward to seeing you. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Praise the Lord. That’s wonderful. It’s always good to find new friends online and new friends that are contacting us. But, oh, my friends, Kimberly, that have been in this space. Ministry with Darren and me and now me for 25, 30 years. God bless you for your perseverance and your endurance and your faithfulness to this ministry.
SPEAKER 03 :
And if you’re hearing this at two o’clock in the morning, five o’clock in the morning, you can still call that number. And we’re talking about August 9th, 2025. This is not a recorded earlier program. August 9th, 2025. If you’re interested in joining us, just call that number any time of day, 877-917-7256. And we will get back to you. We might be sleeping at two o’clock in the morning, but please feel free to call that number anyway, and we will get back to you.
SPEAKER 04 :
We found out the 530 listening group, there are more there at 530. Isn’t that amazing? Got some early risers. At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, people are zipping around, having lunch, going to and fro. And so there aren’t a whole lot of listeners at 1 o’clock. But we just love you. We love having you listen any time of the day. Our memory verse for this week is Psalm 119 and verse 89 and 90. As John said when he called in yesterday, it stands firm in heaven. Thy faithfulness continues throughout all generations. And Kimberly, the message is so beautiful from Psalm 119, 89 and 90. What you say goes, God, and stays as permanent as the heavens. Your truth never goes out of fashion. Listen to that. God’s truth in this word, the Bible. is never irrelevant. It never goes out of style or fashion. It’s as relevant as the earth when the sun comes up. Your word and truth are dependable as ever. That’s what you ordered. You set the earth going. If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so, I would have given up when the hard times came. But I’ll never forget the advice you gave me. Oh, the advice God gives us.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And that, I think, is really the way that we’re tying into the Beatitudes, because his word is causing us to be formed, molded, fashioned in his image. And the way that he wants to do that is through the fruits of the spirit. that we find in Galatians and also through the Beatitudes. Anytime that we’re able to study his word that stands firm in all generations, that’s what causes us to rise up and out of our place of need and the neediness that we have in this life. tends to lead us toward what I believe are those seven deadly sins. It leads us toward lusting and envy and greed and anger and pride and gluttony.
SPEAKER 04 :
Explain that a little bit more about the seven sins, because I think most people listening are ignorant about where it originated and what it involves. And you’re right, the Beatitudes are really focusing on the sins that we have to overcome through the wonderful humility and purity of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, yeah. Each one of the Beatitudes comes with a promise. So they’re all connected to a promise to meet a need in our lives. Jesus knows the human condition, that we as humans would like to have guarantees. And we’re addicted to certainty. We want to be certain that we’re on the right path, that what our choices are leading us to is a better life, that everything’s going to work out. We want to know these things. We like certainty. And we want to know that we’re going to have a better future. But the only true guarantee… of a better future is found in someone else’s plan, not ours. Oh, that’s so good. And we have a tendency to grab onto our own plans and our own ideas. And when we are refusing to let go of those, when we are tight-fisted hanging on to our ideas and our opinions and our plans, it leads us into pride because we think there’s no other way but our own.
SPEAKER 04 :
And boy, we had such a great time. Oh, wow. It was the best of the whole group that we were with. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our suggestion was not listened to, not cared about, right? It was tossed aside. And then what do we do with that? So we want to learn to be poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You will inherit more if you learn these beatitudes, right? And blessed are the peacemakers, the ones that are willing to make peace over it instead of hanging on to that pride. So that’s the idea of the Beatitudes. And I liked this morning, you and I were just talking about the Beatitudes and be in the attitude of being poor in spirit. Be in the attitude of gentleness. Be in the attitude of mercy. Be in the attitude of peacemaking. When we choose to be in those attitudes, we’re taking on God’s attitude toward human beings. Those who believe that he is this almighty one that’s full of so much justice that he’s just sitting up there waiting to strike you with lightning. or give you some kind of punishment or consequence. That is not our God. That is a human way of thinking. Our God is so full of love and mercy and gentleness and generosity, kindness and goodness. He’s so good.
SPEAKER 04 :
He is. And it’s like we were watching an episode of The Chosen last night, and it was the episode where John and James think they needed special favors from Jesus. And they asked if John could sit on his right and James on his left. And Jesus was so perturbed at that moment. He just turned around, walked away, knowing he needed to be with his father. It was something that hit him suddenly. He didn’t realize they were going to ask him to do that. And so he went away and he was with God.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you’re right. And I don’t know. Jesus was 100 percent God and God knows all things. So maybe he even knew it was coming. And the grief. Allowing ourselves to be grieved when there’s something that’s not right, not in right standing with the father. That’s okay to allow ourselves to be grieved and to be truly sad over it. To even be angry that there’s something here in our situation that is not right before God. We can be angry. We’re told to be angry and do not sin. That’s right. Ephesians four. And that’s what we want to recognize is that our emotions are not bad. They’re only bad if we begin to sin in those emotions and those sins can manifest as pride in us because we are not agreeing with God’s way of handling it or even other human beings way of handling it. We’re not in agreement. So pride comes up. Let me just mention that if somebody pays you a compliment and you shake it off or you say, no, no, no, that’s not true about me. If somebody tells you that you’re beautiful If the Lord himself says in his word that you are lovely to him and you say, oh, I’m not lovely. No one wants me. I’m not successful. I am not worthy. If you continue in that mindset, that’s pride. That’s pride because you’re not in agreement with the one who created you. That’s right. So anything that’s not in agreement with God is pride. And there’s also anger. Anger is a good emotion to have as long as you do not sin in that anger. And that’s holding onto it, believing that some kind of justice that you are thinking of is the better way. It can cause resentment and bitterness. It causes us to get stuck, really stuck in this life. And then if we’re not offering forgiveness, we’re not receiving the gifts that God has for us. There’s lust. Lust is when we are overvaluing or undervaluing. Now, this is part of the seven deadly sins. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. These are the ways that we start thinking that we need to have our way. And instead of having those beatitudes have their way in our lives, and that’s what we’ve been talking about this week, are those beatitudes of having a poor in spirit mentality that knows that you’re in need. You’re in need of what your father can bring you. And he wants to bring you so much more than what you think. Mm-hmm. of having an attitude of mercy or gentleness or pure in heart, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. These are all those, I would say, remedies to our sin, remedies to greed and to gluttony. Gluttony is an interesting one. Because in gluttony, I think that is where we actually find addiction. Gluttony falls into this place of trying to meet your own need in a way that is actually harming you. That’s what gluttony is.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s like eating to live instead of living to eat. Mm hmm. Yes. I mean, vice versa. Yes. Gluttony. You’re just living for the food, the meals, morning, noon, and night.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and it doesn’t have to just be meals. It can be any substance. And it can be shopping. You are just living to shop. And that’s how you feel fulfilled. And you do it until you’re harming yourself financially. Gluttony can be in any area. And that’s why I say it can fall into addiction. Gluttony can be alcohol. It can be drugs. It can be a lot of different areas. It’s a need for comfort. That’s good. That’s what it is. It’s a need for comfort. And if we will adopt the attitude, the be of the attitude, the beatitude, if we will adopt the attitude of mourning, like grieving, just not being afraid to be sad about the things that are not in our life that would bring us comfort. Because this world is not a very comforting world. But if we will be willing to mourn and be sad, Jesus promises that he won’t leave us stuck there. Yeah. That we will be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted. So we just have to take our hands off of our own comfort and those comfort measures that we reach for. We trust Jesus instead that he will keep his promise when we wait on him. That’s especially hard, I think, for those of us in the Western culture who are not accustomed to waiting.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
We get anything we want right now. We’re a fast food world. And so I think it is hard for us to wait. And especially if we’re sad about what we’re missing, it’s hard to wait in that sadness and in that mourning. But if we will choose to let those tears flow, don’t keep them bottled up. Don’t try to cover them up with what you think is going to comfort you. Yes. Trust Jesus. So there it is. There’s a remedy for our gluttony in mourning and letting Jesus be the great comforter.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father. of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s a lot of comfort.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a lot of comfort.
SPEAKER 03 :
And it’s supernatural comfort. It’s not the same as the fleeting comfort we get in a moment with our shopping or our eating or our drinking or the drugs. And it can be any drug of choice. It can be reading. It can be movies. It can be exercise where we are just addicted to the point where we’re tearing our bodies down. Well, I don’t have that problem. Well, I’m simply talking about being of the attitude of God, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Beatitudes.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Beatitudes are wonderful remedies. They’re remedies that have promises with them. And what I what I have been curious about in my life is the Lord has promised us so much, so many good things. And he’s come through. He’s come through on those promises. I have wondered what would it be like for me to say I don’t need that guarantee? I don’t need your guarantee anymore, Lord. I love you for who you are, and I am trusting that I was created for you and that you have oceans of comfort and oceans of goodness in store, that you have oceans of of, of satisfaction and fulfillment that I can’t even imagine, but I trust you. I trust that that’s what you have for me. So I just want to be in this for you. What is, what is it that I can do today that will cause your dream to come true so that I am enjoying your oceans? I just want what you want. So that’s how I’ve been learning how to pray. And I’m hoping this Saturday when we are worshiping together that we will have an opportunity to just sit in that for a while and let that comfort that we’re offering to the Lord, which is our own choice of being in his presence and wanting him more than we want anything that he could give to us. Yes. I think another way that we can get trapped and lost in our own ideas is envy. Envy is actually a lack of contentedness. And usually that comes because we’re comparing. We’re comparing ourselves to others. We’re wanting what they have. And therefore, we are hungering and thirsting for something in this world. Yes. And by the way, we’re never going to fill that God-sized hole that is inside of us in our heart with something from this life. We’re never going to fill it with whatever we’re comparing ourselves to. And it doesn’t even have to be comparing to another person. We might be comparing ourselves to our own dream, our own idea of what we think we need in this life. So when those comparisons are really competing with God’s idea, then we find ourselves in the sin of envy. We’re envying. And when we’re craving status in this life, whether it’s a health goal or a wealth goal or an education goal, It might be a relationship goal. The remedy for our deep, deep longing and this envy that’s going on inside of us, the remedy is to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And that’s a beatitude. Be of the attitude of one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. That is a right standing with what God wants to give us. And it is so much more than what we want for ourselves. It’s greater than our wildest imagination can come up with. That’s what Ephesians 3.20 tells us. And we want to believe the word of God is more true than our feelings and our cravings and our desires in this life. That his promise of satisfaction and fulfillment is complete. It’s complete. Ours is not.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So be of the attitude. Be of the attitude of a peacemaker. Be of the attitude. You know, we didn’t finish those last three Beatitudes, right? I think we left off with blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. We left off there yesterday. And in verse 8 of Matthew 5, it says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
SPEAKER 04 :
in the amplified it says anticipating and enthralled with god’s presence spiritually mature so we know that these things are a maturing process we know that it doesn’t some of these don’t happen automatically right there they go through uh perseverance and endurance and All kinds of things. But it’s wonderful to know that when we seek God’s presence, as you’ve been talking about, Kimberly, he fulfills you in every way.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, I know it was the book a few years back, Will You Choose the Wilderness? That really opened my eyes to the idea of, oh, wait, I’m made for him, for his presence. And there’s nothing else.
SPEAKER 04 :
That wasn’t a popular book.
SPEAKER 1 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
It wasn’t. You know, the majority of the people, ooh, they shy away from wilderness. Do you choose the wilderness? It’s almost like, give me patience, Lord, but not right now. I don’t need it. It’s one of those fruit of Holy Spirit. Love? Oh, I’ll take love. Joy? Yes. Peace? I’ll pray for more peace. And then patience comes up.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Whoa. People joke about that, right? You don’t want to pray for patients. No, that’s right. You don’t because you’ll be put in situations that are really difficult that you need more patients testing you. Yes. Yeah. So the wilderness, it’s not that we’re choosing the wilderness for the rest of eternity. We know that the Lord has given us a promise of a promised land and that’s flowing with milk and honey. But will we choose to say yes to the wilderness that this is his very best plan for us and that we will find him? We will see him. We will find his presence and be fully satisfied with who he is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. One of the things in Will You Choose the Wilderness that I saw as probably a high point of that book is FOMO, the fear of missing out. And most people, Christians included, they have that fear of missing out. And that’s why they’ve got to check their Facebook every day. They’ve got to check their phone. The news. The news, yes. All of that because they fear they’re missing out on something big today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that’s a good point. And when we know that we are fully satisfied with God himself, we trust his process in the wilderness.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then verse nine of Matthew five, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. So I think that one is also a really good remedy for pride. If we want status in, in a prideful way, we are the sons of God. We need to realize that we are the sons and daughters of God, the most high who created all of this. When we choose to seek peace in our thought life, That’s causing us to envy or causing us to be gluttonous and grab for things that are really harming us. When we choose to make peace with that, really sit with the Lord in his presence and be known as a son of God, a daughter of God. That’s a great remedy for pride.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. I ate a Mexican meal the other day that immediately I knew. that the jalapenos were too hot and the onions with them were too much for my system to handle. And what did I do? I kept eating. I kept eating and eating. Because it tasted good, right? Yeah, it was wonderful to my palate. But then when it went down into my stomach, it just did not satisfy. It was growling and it was going through all kinds of pain. So we’ve got to really measure what we’re eating, what we’re getting involved in. Is it good for us?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, or what we’re grabbing for in this life to bring us comfort. Is this really what’s going to comfort us? Or do we want more of the presence of the Lord in our life? Yeah. Verse 10 of Matthew 5. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So we inherit the kingdom of heaven when we don’t get so riled up over being persecuted or insulted. Let’s just keep going. Verse 11. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I know the amplified in verse 11 says, let’s see, be glad and exceedingly joyful for your reward in heaven is great. Absolutely inexhaustible. And we get tired in this world. But there’s a time that he’s going to refresh us. Holy Spirit will be refreshing us continually. Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, this goes on, this section goes on, and we’ll continue with this next week, I hope, but also this Saturday. So if you can join us, call us at 877-917-7256 and take joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
