Emphasis Preaching Journal

I've heard the Beatitudes so many times that I am usually tempted to tune out when I hear them read. I also tend to focus on the Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus' discourse. But one day, I heard a sermon on the Beatitude, "Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you, defame you, and so on." Perhaps my ears were keen to pick up on that because at that time I was in a particularly unfriendly work situation.