Speaker 1: Well, we're in this series written and read the revolutionary ideas of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus did not come to this earth in order to make everybody feel happy and comfortable.
Speaker 1: And, and if you were really excited about the status quo, you probably weren't going to be very excited about Jesus.
Speaker 1: Um, he, he taught some things that were revolutionary.
Speaker 1: He, he thought ideas that were revolutionizing the, the concepts of the day.
Speaker 1: And I would venture to say even the concepts of two day, because as he was sharing his ideas, his words led the way and words change
Speaker 2: Worlds.
Speaker 2: We've been saying
Speaker 1: That every week, we'll continue to say that if you want to change the world that you live in, change the words that you say.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus, at the very beginning of his ministry, he gives this sermon called the sermon on the mountain.
Speaker 1: It's the longest sermon on record for him.
Speaker 1: And in Matthew, we find Matthew chapter five through chapter seven, we find the most comprehensive text of this sermon.
Speaker 1: It's referenced in other, in others of the gospels, but it's most comprehensive here in the book of Matthew and he's, he's telling them, Hey, um, I'm changing the way you think about things, but when he does, he does it from a place of positivity.
Speaker 1: He, he, uh, I think that's an important statement to make because it's easy.
Speaker 1: And in our world today, many things began with a negative it's Hey, this is horrible.
Speaker 1: And so it's probably always going to be horrible.
Speaker 1: And so this is kind of the best way we can figure out to not be as horrible even while it's still hard,
Speaker 2: Very uplifting.
Speaker 1: This is teaching.
Speaker 1: And he says in Matthew five, three, blessed, he starts off with blessed.
Speaker 1: This is, this is, I want to be blessed.
Speaker 1: And so you've got my attention.
Speaker 1: Jesus blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: And he, he teaches us in this verse that the first work of the Holy spirit is the work of conviction in our life.
Speaker 1: Pastor Chris did an amazing job this morning, and he's talked about being convicted by the Holy spirit and his life conviction from the Holy spirit does not say you are wrong.
Speaker 1: It says you have done wrong and here's how to get yourself, right?
Speaker 1: Again, here's how to fix the problem that you've, that you're facing in your life.
Speaker 1: So the first work of the Holy spirit is conviction.
Speaker 1: The first work of grace in your life and in mine is the work of repentance.
Speaker 1: That's how we realigned.
Speaker 1: We say, I'm sorry, God, for how I've gone, astray, how I've done something wrong.
Speaker 1: And I'm getting myself back in alignment with you by repenting.
Speaker 1: And by turning away, repentance means a turning away.
Speaker 1: It's not just that.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It's a turning away from the thing that we've done that was wrong.
Speaker 1: And so last week we continued with his sermon and he we've learned that blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Speaker 1: The morning shall be comforted.
Speaker 1: And we learned that morning and it is an external expression of internal grief.
Speaker 1: It's the thing on the inside that we're feeling.
Speaker 1: But unless we mourn, unless we allow expression on the outside, then it's more difficult for comfort to come into our life.
Speaker 1: But when we do, when we express on the outside and address the hurts in our life, that's when we can receive comfort and we can heal in our life, addressed, hurt, heal.
Speaker 1: The thing that you don't allow to be known is it's very difficult to heal from, and it could affect you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: But if you will address it, it can heal.
Speaker 1: And today we're talking from Matthew five, five, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Speaker 1: The earth.
Speaker 1: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: Now every week we've defined the term, blessed, blessed being supremely blessed or happy, fortunate.
Speaker 1: Well off.
Speaker 1: This is something that every one of us would, would appreciate.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind being defined by any one of those words or any one of those concepts.
Speaker 1: And then he says blessed or the meek meek.
Speaker 1: The word there in the Greek means mild, not spicy.
Speaker 1: Blessed are the not spicy figuratively speaking.
Speaker 1: It's the humble.
Speaker 1: So he's saying blessed are those who are mild spirit.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: And then what, what happens?
Speaker 1: What's the result of this mildness of this not spiciness it's they shall inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: Now the concept there is they are an heir of the earth.
Speaker 1: There's an inheritance in the earth for them.
Speaker 1: Now this is a revolutionary teaching.
Speaker 1: It's a revolutionary idea because when you think about people that are going to inherit the earth, people that are going to gain influence, gained power, gained some gain, some level of in the earth.
Speaker 1: You don't think of not spicy people.
Speaker 1: You don't think of mild people.
Speaker 1: You think of people who were, who are making themselves known.
Speaker 1: You think of people who are setting themselves apart.
Speaker 1: You think of people who are loud, the people in our world today, who are, who are trying to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Let's say they're trying to make a difference in politics.
Speaker 1: Uh, all of them are running ads.
Speaker 1: All of them are trying to get noticed.
Speaker 1: All of them are saying things in order to be, to spice up the dialogue in order for somebody to go, Oh, I know that you exist.
Speaker 1: If you, if you watch the news right now, you're going to see two minutes of news in 45 minutes of ads.
Speaker 1: And, and if you watch a show on television, you're going to, the, the show is actually like 30 minutes long.
Speaker 1: And the other 30 minutes is advertising because companies want to be noticed and everything in the world today says, if you want to make a difference, you first have to be noticed.
Speaker 1: If you want to make a difference, you've got to push yourself out there.
Speaker 1: And there are people in our world who are amazing.
Speaker 1: Self-promoters amazing.
Speaker 1: Self-promoters they do a good job of putting themselves out there.
Speaker 1: They get noticed they are spicy enough to where everybody knows that they exist.
Speaker 1: Whatever the meal may be, they're out there.
Speaker 1: And so it's a revolutionary thing to say, no, the mild, the humble will inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: They're going to gain some kind of influence, some kind of power, some kind of, uh, some kind of a ruler ship, if you will, in the world.
Speaker 1: And it could be that there's listeners said, well, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: If we were in Rome, if we were Romans, maybe this would make some sense.
Speaker 1: Why doesn't Jesus go on with himself and go to Rome and preach this to Caesar and to those in power in Rome.
Speaker 1: But we are the servants of Rome.
Speaker 1: So how does this make any sense
Speaker 3: To us?
Speaker 3: And in fact, I, as a young man, really struggled with the beatitudes.
Speaker 1: I struggled with it because I think I came out of my mother's womb, wanting to make a difference in the world.
Speaker 1: I always have wanted to make a difference somehow.
Speaker 1: And the people that I admired, the people that I looked up to men and women were men and women who, who had made themselves known, who were known, who the world knew that they existed.
Speaker 1: The, the, the community knew that they existed.
Speaker 1: They were not, they were not people who, when I read the meek inherit the earth, I think meekness and meekness seems to me to be timid.
Speaker 1: It seems to be, to be afraid somewhat and maybe kind of in hiding and, and the people that I was looking at say, wow, I think I'd like to be like them.
Speaker 1: I'd like to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Like them.
Speaker 1: They weren't timid.
Speaker 1: They weren't hiding.
Speaker 1: They weren't, uh, afraid.
Speaker 1: And they, they seem to be bold and courageous.
Speaker 1: And, and then I tried to put that with scripture and I said, well, the Lord has called us to be bold men and women of faith.
Speaker 1: He's called us to be a witnesses for him.
Speaker 1: So to stand out in the world and testify of his goodness and his grace, and, and he's called us to raise good kids and have good families and be strong spouses he's, he's caused us to call this to lead companies and to lead ministry and delete churches and to, to make a difference in the world around us.
Speaker 1: And we're supposed to hide at the same time.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to be mild at the same time.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to be meek or timid in my opinion at the same time.
Speaker 1: But here's where the conflict with the Bible came in for me in this regard, because it's really hard to discount what's being said and say, well, it doesn't really mean when it's gee, he's us doing the teaching.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, I believe him over here.
Speaker 1: But if he's going to say that he, he should have counseled with me prior to making that statement, I would have set him straight.
Speaker 1: He should have sent me his notes and let me do some editing on his sermon.
Speaker 1: Oh, young preachers need an editor for their sermons.
Speaker 1: Some of us who've been doing it for a minute should too, but Jesus didn't ask my opinion before giving the sermon.
Speaker 1: And so if Jesus is saying it, maybe there's something I need to learn about meekness that I did not already know.
Speaker 1: And here's what I did not understand.
Speaker 1: Hindering is our big idea today, controlled strength, ultimately rules, controlled strength, ultimately rules.
Speaker 1: You, you think about strength.
Speaker 1: You think about power and, and the what has power.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter what kind of car you drove in today.
Speaker 1: Your car has power within it.
Speaker 1: It, the engine is a powerful thing.
Speaker 1: And so if we all got in your car today and we, you, you, you know, you revved the engine and maybe you have a three cylinder engine, or you've got a 500 cylinder engine, but you rev that engine.
Speaker 1: And then we, we look around and we realize that something that we expect to just take for granted to be there is missing.
Speaker 1: We might ask you, Hey, where's the steering wheel.
Speaker 1: And if you say, well, you know what?
Speaker 1: I don't really believe in steering wheels because I feel like it just, it just restricts the potential of the vehicle.
Speaker 1: If you have a steering wheel, I mean, you think about it.
Speaker 1: It's got so much potential in it, room womb.
Speaker 1: But if I put a steering wheel and it's going to restrict the potential of the steering wheel, and I don't want to do that because I want it to live up to its full potential.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to, I drive a car with no steering wheel.
Speaker 1: My response, I don't know about anybody else, but my response is you're going to do it all by yourself because con cause power uncontrolled is damaging.
Speaker 1: It's damaging ultimately to the things around it, it's damaging to itself.
Speaker 1: And if you're riding in that car, it's going to damage you as well.
Speaker 1: Strength that's controlled, ultimately rules.
Speaker 1: And I have three thoughts for us today.
Speaker 1: Thought number one is this meat.
Speaker 1: This is controlled strength.
Speaker 1: It's controlled strength because meekness is defined as mild or, or humble.
Speaker 1: It's offered often pictured at least in my mind as this like super nice guy, super nice girl
Speaker 2: Who is kind of weak, kind of, uh, get along, just go along with whatever.
Speaker 2: And not really
Speaker 1: When I make any waves, I'm just gonna kind of sit back and you guys do whatever you're going to do.
Speaker 1: And I'll just kind of tag along with you.
Speaker 1: Anything goes kind of person.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was picturing when I was picturing a meek
Speaker 2: Individual.
Speaker 2: But when
Speaker 1: I look at the scripture and how scripture defines certain people as meek, I have to, I have to question my understanding because the Bible says the number of chapter 12, verse number three, it says now the man Moses was
Speaker 2: Very meek above
Speaker 1: All the men, which were upon the face of the earth.
Speaker 1: So, so Moses is the meekest man on earth.
Speaker 2: And he leads Israel
Speaker 1: Out of slavery, into the promised land.
Speaker 1: The first thing that he has to do is have an understanding of God.
Speaker 1: And so when the Bush is burning in the desert, he walks over to it.
Speaker 1: And then when it starts talking to him,
Speaker 2: He doesn't just run away.
Speaker 2: He has communication with God.
Speaker 1: He throws down a staff and it becomes a serpent.
Speaker 1: And then he picks it up again under the direction of God.
Speaker 1: This is not something that a timid and afraid person
Speaker 2: Would generally do.
Speaker 2: Then he goes
Speaker 1: To one of the most powerful people on planet earth at the time looks at them face to face and says, let God's people
Speaker 2: Well go.
Speaker 2: That's not what it is.
Speaker 1: Person, a backward person, person that too afraid, afraid of their own shadow does.
Speaker 1: And then he leads Israel out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: He leads them from a place of slavery, to a place that they are their own independent nation with laws and, and, and culture and everything that comes along with being a nation.
Speaker 1: And he leads them through all of the transitions that have to be made there.
Speaker 1: He fights Wars.
Speaker 1: He deals with, with, uh, people that are rebelling against him.
Speaker 1: He does all of these things as a powerful man of God.
Speaker 1: And yet he's described as the meekest person, the meekest man,
Speaker 2: Then you go to the new Testament and anything.
Speaker 1: Then it goes up a notch because Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, Jesus is speaking.
Speaker 1: And he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for, I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest into your souls.
Speaker 1: So the savior of the world, the one who has all power and authority given to him, the one who came to earth willingly to pay the price for your sin and mine self describes
Speaker 2: Meekness.
Speaker 2: He said, I am meek.
Speaker 2: Now both of them,
Speaker 1: Role models.
Speaker 1: And one of them isn't even a role model.
Speaker 1: Moses is a great role model.
Speaker 1: We told, be like, Jesus.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, he takes role model to the next level.
Speaker 1: And both of them are role models in our life at both possess great power.
Speaker 1: He said, well, what kind of power did Moses actually have?
Speaker 1: Well, one time when Korah and his gang Rose up against Moses and started talking bad about him, Moses prayed and God opened up the earth and swallowed up everybody that was talking bad about him and Moses and along with Cora and his and his bunch.
Speaker 1: That's a little freaky.
Speaker 4: I think I pay attention.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: God's going to do that.
Speaker 1: When Moses prays, Hey, Moses Warren coffee, how did he take your Starbucks?
Speaker 1: Um, Jesus could call down angels from heaven at any point and take out whatever he wanted to.
Speaker 1: In fact, he, his kind of authority was such that when the Roman soldiers came to arrest him, they just said, Hey, we're here to arrest Jesus.
Speaker 1: And he said, I am he.
Speaker 1: And when he said, I am here, they all fell down.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't even scripted.
Speaker 1: As he say, even say he got up, he didn't even like twitches wrist or anything.
Speaker 1: He just said, I am he.
Speaker 1: And they all fell down.
Speaker 1: He could have taken any of them out.
Speaker 1: In any particular moment.
Speaker 1: They both had amazing power and strength, uh, granted to them by God.
Speaker 1: But what differentiated them from others in the world that had great power and authority was that before Moses prayed for the ground to open up first, he wept for the people first.
Speaker 1: He said, God, I don't want to see this.
Speaker 1: Is there some way to help change Cora's mind?
Speaker 1: Is there some way to fix this problem in a way that, that it would not cause destruction of anyone before Jesus one day will judge the world.
Speaker 1: He first gave his life for the world, but before he, before he came and used his power to, to, to discipline, if you will, he first used his power to save both, have the ability to strike out with incredible efficiency, but both controlled their actions to make the greater difference.
Speaker 1: And when, when you read this passage of scripture, keep in mind that Greek culture dominated the Falk and the writing at this time.
Speaker 1: And Greek culture characterized meekness as power under control.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is saying, yeah, that, that works.
Speaker 1: That works in the kingdom of heaven because when you and I become believers, the Holy spirit becomes an indwelling presence in our life.
Speaker 1: And as an indwelling presence in our life, you and I are under the control of the Holy spirit.
Speaker 1: As much as we will allow the Holy spirit to control us, to lead us.
Speaker 1: And to us, meekness is power under control.
Speaker 1: So as a believer, the meek one who is meat can be a rich person that is made a poor person that is meat.
Speaker 1: It can be someone who seems to have earthly authority that is meek.
Speaker 1: And it can be someone who seems to have no earthly authority at all.
Speaker 1: That is considered meat.
Speaker 1: They can all be meat because meekness means that whenever I have the ability to strike out against someone, I may temper that response when, when bitterness would rise up and I, and I want to go crush something.
Speaker 1: Instead, I, I refuse bitterness and I allow mercy to rise up in my life when the desire to do harm comes up in my world and your world too.
Speaker 1: Because, because that's what happens whenever somebody is cuts me off in traffic for no reason.
Speaker 1: And, and I want to not be meek.
Speaker 1: I want to say things.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we do in the privacy of our own vehicle.
Speaker 1: Well, don't judge me.
Speaker 1: I know better than You.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be me.
Speaker 1: You want, you want to take control of the situation.
Speaker 1: And then there's times when, when you have the strength, you have the power, you have the ability to, to move situations or leverage and a situation for your own benefit.
Speaker 1: And instead of doing it for your own benefit, you leverage it for the good, the best good, the good of the whole.
Speaker 1: It might be the whole of your family.
Speaker 1: It might be the whole of your business.
Speaker 1: It might be the whole, it may, it could be the whole of any particular area of interest in your life.
Speaker 1: But it's for the whole that you do something good that you leverage that strength, that power, you can do all things through Christ within your creation.
Speaker 1: That's a strength that you have, but we choose to apply that strength, where it offers the greatest benefit.
Speaker 1: And at its core, meekness is lived out in our relationship with other people it's lived out in community poor in spirit is our relationship to God morning is our relationship with our own internal fees.
Speaker 1: Meekness is our relationship with our community.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to thought, number two, that meekness is maturity in action, maturity and action.
Speaker 1: And it aligns with Christ's call to see ourselves accurately be poor in spirit means to see ourselves accurately.
Speaker 1: And so when I'm poor in spirit, I say, here's the strengths that I have.
Speaker 1: And here's the weaknesses that I have.
Speaker 1: I don't think more of myself than I should.
Speaker 1: And I think of myself exactly as I should.
Speaker 1: And I use the strengths that I have to best use, and I try to do what I can to mitigate my weaknesses from effecting those that around that's around me.
Speaker 1: And it takes maturity.
Speaker 1: It takes maturity for all of us.
Speaker 1: You think about an infant, a child.
Speaker 1: They throw a fit whenever they don't get what they want.
Speaker 1: If they're, if they're hungry, they throw a fit.
Speaker 1: If they're, if they're angry, they throw a fit.
Speaker 1: If they're wet, they throw a fit.
Speaker 1: If they don't like that toy, they throw a fit.
Speaker 1: The only response that they know in the world is fit throwing.
Speaker 1: And, and I think that in some ways, that's kind of how our world is right now.
Speaker 1: If you want to see a fit, just log on to any social media, media channel of any kind and say anything, and somebody will be happy to throw a fit for you.
Speaker 4: [inaudible].
Speaker 1: And on one hand, it's funny and it's humorous.
Speaker 1: And it's only funny and humorous because it is true, but it's also, it's also difficult because the more strength we gain in life, the more impacting our fits are.
Speaker 1: So, so you think about a child throwing a fit, and everybody goes all, unless you're the parent, then you're like,
Speaker 4: Oh,
Speaker 1: But when you're the parent and you throw a fit in out of now affects your children.
Speaker 1: And believe me, we all parents in this room understand what throwing a fit as a parent looks like.
Speaker 1: But then when you're an employer that throws a fit, now it's affecting all of your employees and all of their families.
Speaker 1: And whenever you're an employee and you throw a fit, then it's affecting everybody around you there.
Speaker 1: And, and the, the more influence you have, the more strength you have, the more power you have in this world, the more impacting and affecting your fits become.
Speaker 1: And here's the problem.
Speaker 1: The more intense the moment and the longer the delay of gratification, the more difficult it is to operate with maturity.
Speaker 1: I can be mature when that first person cuts me off in crap in traffic, I'll just drive along, hit my brakes just a minute and continue.
Speaker 1: And then the second person cuts me off in traffic and I'm like, Hmm, but by the fifth person, I'm on the phone, I'm screaming out the window.
Speaker 1: My maturity level has dropped dramatically, by the way.
Speaker 1: That's not a true story about my life.
Speaker 1: Just FYI.
Speaker 1: Did you see pastor other day?
Speaker 1: He had his head out the window and he was screaming and on the horn.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: And I think that's, that's one of the reasons you're seeing what we see on Facebook, on Twitter and in the news and everywhere else is because the intensity of the times has ratcheted up.
Speaker 1: And the, the, the gratification that we were all hoping for, with COVID with economic issues and with many other things has been delayed over and over.
Speaker 1: And as that happens, it becomes more and more difficult to act with maturity and responsibility with meekness.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the, the audience that Jesus is talking to right now, they're not too thrilled about this because they've been humbled.
Speaker 1: They've been humbled by life.
Speaker 1: They're saying we are the, the servants of Rome where we are servants, and we want to be Kings.
Speaker 1: And you're talking to us about meekness and humility.
Speaker 1: You're talking to us about, Hey, answer.
Speaker 1: Softly turns away wrath.
Speaker 1: You're talking to us about being kind about being mild.
Speaker 1: Now I'm looking for something spicy.
Speaker 1: I want something that rises up with power.
Speaker 1: That makes a difference.
Speaker 1: I want somebody who's going to take us from this place to where we overthrow the Roman government and become our own free nation.
Speaker 1: Again, that's what we're looking for.
Speaker 1: We think that you might be our savior.
Speaker 1: Our Messiah by here you are teaching blessed are the meek, and that don't make no sense.
Speaker 1: That's what they say in Southern Israel.
Speaker 5: So maturity
Speaker 1: Often differs immediate gratification for the purpose of greater gain.
Speaker 1: I don't go spend that$10 on what I want right now.
Speaker 1: I invest that$10.
Speaker 1: So that later on I'll gain more than$10 Maturity, defers, immediate gratification for them, for the purpose of greater gain and an earthly Jewish kingdom could not accomplish what the kingdom of God manifest on earth could.
Speaker 1: And many people today feel like we might be in the same position as these Jewish listeners, as it seems like nonbelievers flourish
Speaker 6: And have ease
Speaker 1: And believers are struggling to make sense of the world that you're in.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we can just fall prey to wanting to win in life.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 1: I've been there when we've told the story about how a big treat for us as a family was to go to McDonald's and order off the value menu.
Speaker 1: Once a week, we would odor odor off the dollar menu, uh, all four of us.
Speaker 1: And we would sit there and McDonald's, and we would nurse those fries and eat that hamburger slowly because we wanted to make this last as long as possible, because we were not coming back until next week.
Speaker 1: Cause we couldn't afford to come back till next.
Speaker 2: And,
Speaker 1: And there were times whenever I'd be at the house and I'm not in front of anybody, nobody had to know this, but I would say to Christie, I'm just so frustrated.
Speaker 1: You're working, I'm working, we're doing everything that we can to make ends meet.
Speaker 1: And the only thing we can do is go to McDonald's once I don't even want McDonald's.
Speaker 1: I don't even like McDonald's, it's just the cheapest food that we can eat somewhere else that we don't make ourself.
Speaker 1: And I would throw a fit,
Speaker 2: But
Speaker 1: Surety would kick in and I would wait until next Wednesday to go buy McDonald's again.
Speaker 1: I just want to win for a minute.
Speaker 1: I just keep getting beat down over and over.
Speaker 1: I just, is there any area I can win?
Speaker 1: And sometimes we even build theologies around two very popular theologies in our world right now.
Speaker 2: And we swing from one end to the other
Speaker 1: Popular teaching, says that God chooses us.
Speaker 1: He saves us.
Speaker 1: Then almost without us realizing it, he uses us to reveal himself to the world that we live in.
Speaker 1: And we live our life.
Speaker 1: According to our own design, we don't even realize that God is using us to reveal his glory
Speaker 2: To the world.
Speaker 2: And
Speaker 1: There's another side of the pendulum that says we have all authority and we have all power and we must use all authority and all power to bring heaven to earth.
Speaker 1: And if that's not happening, it's because we're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1: And so we swing from little responsibility and little authority to all responsibility and all authority, trying to find a place in which we can win.
Speaker 1: Where can, where can we win?
Speaker 1: Because if we're following Christ, we should be winning.
Speaker 1: We, there should be a win in here somewhere.
Speaker 2: And the truth is this
Speaker 1: Have some authority now, and we have access to all authority in Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 1: We have some understanding now and we have access to all understanding in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: The one with all understanding also has all authority.
Speaker 1: We don't have it all now, but what we do have, we must use wisely.
Speaker 1: And I liken this to parents.
Speaker 1: Many of us who are raising children, we have some wisdom that it would be great if they would listen to the wisdom that we have and apply it in their life.
Speaker 1: Can any parents say amen to that?
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: So, so we know that's true, but what we also recognize is that you and I, as much as we might know, we don't know everything.
Speaker 1: And our children are facing things that we, we never had the face and maybe we will never face in our lives.
Speaker 1: Our children are going through stuff that, that we don't have all of the understanding around it.
Speaker 1: And so we can give them a lot of information.
Speaker 1: We have some knowledge now, some authority now,
Speaker 2: But we don't have all of it
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that we just abandoned ship and say, well, I can't tell you everything that you will ever need.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you nothing
Speaker 2: Or I
Speaker 1: Can't re I can't save you from every situation you will ever face in life.
Speaker 1: So I'm giving you nothing.
Speaker 2: We don't do that.
Speaker 2: And we don't say, I'm going to give you
Speaker 1: Every single thing that I have and act like I know all and son, daughter, I can save you from everything you'll ever experience.
Speaker 1: Neither are true.
Speaker 1: We have some, and we have access through Christ for a whole lot more.
Speaker 1: And Jesus was teaching.
Speaker 1: You're not powerless.
Speaker 1: You have strength,
Speaker 2: Control it.
Speaker 2: Uncontrolled
Speaker 1: Bold strength is pride.
Speaker 1: And action.
Speaker 1: Meekness is maturity, inaction, uncontrolled strengths, as I'm going to do what I want, how I want when I want, because
Speaker 2: Can meekness says I could,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do what I I'm going to control.
Speaker 1: The strength that I have in order to benefit the whole.
Speaker 1: Look at the tenses here.
Speaker 1: The scripture says the poor in spirit.
Speaker 1: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven is present tense.
Speaker 1: Those who mourn shall be comforted.
Speaker 1: The future tense, the meek shall future tense, inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: So when we see ourselves accurately and we're poor in spirit, and we live in repentance, the kingdom of God becomes a present reality in our life.
Speaker 1: If you are in Christ and he is in you, you are living in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Right now you are ambassadors of Christ.
Speaker 1: You are the embassy of the kingdom of heaven right here right now.
Speaker 1: And that is a reality.
Speaker 1: When you live in repentance before God, now you don't always mourn.
Speaker 1: I don't always mourn.
Speaker 1: But when I do mourn, I find that the comforter has already gone before me.
Speaker 1: So when I'm born, I shall be comforted.
Speaker 1: The Holy spirit is already there, ready to comfort me.
Speaker 1: And so I don't have to fear a time of mourning.
Speaker 1: I don't have to fear grief.
Speaker 1: For instance, today is my mother's birthday.
Speaker 1: If I forget to call her today, there will be a future grief in my life.
Speaker 1: I know the Holy spirit is going before me and he will bring comfort into my world.
Speaker 1: If I have to grieve, I don't plan to, but if I do, I know he's already there.
Speaker 1: Now I'm making a joke, but obviously grief can be much heavier than forgetting your mother's birthday.
Speaker 2: And
Speaker 1: He saying, you shall be when you come to that point of grief, comfort will be there.
Speaker 1: And then he says, every desire of the meek will not be realized immediately,
Speaker 2: But you
Speaker 1: Are an heir to a great inheritance.
Speaker 1: So there is
Speaker 2: Blessing for the meek on the earth.
Speaker 2: There is.
Speaker 1: And you say, is that prosperity gospel?
Speaker 1: No, that's the words of Jesus right there
Speaker 2: Written in red.
Speaker 2: And then,
Speaker 1: And he's saying there is an inheritance for you on the earth.
Speaker 1: Why, why can't he say that first Corinthians 10, 26 for the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing on this planet that he does not own nothing, that he doesn't have authority with him.
Speaker 1: And I want to explain, I'll explain it, even closing this way.
Speaker 1: I know a gentlemen, uh, he is no longer as young as he used to be, but as a young man, he got a job.
Speaker 1: His first job working at a tow truck company, and this wasn't a tow truck company.
Speaker 1: Like, uh, they had one truck, they had probably 30, 40 trucks.
Speaker 1: They did towing all over the South.
Speaker 1: And, and, um, and so he went to work at that place and, and he would watch people jump in the rigs and, and head off to, to tow the, to go on the road and find, you know, cars that needed towing and to take the calls and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And that's what he was thinking of when he was thinking I'm going to go work at this company.
Speaker 1: But when he got there, he found that he was sweeping a lot.
Speaker 1: And then he would clean the trucks whenever they came in and use de-greaser on them and, and, and work on the trucks and make them clean.
Speaker 1: And then he would clean the restrooms and he would do all, all the jobs that it seemed like nobody else wanted.
Speaker 1: And, and the longer that went on, the more frustrated he became and he started kind of pushing his weight around a little bit saying, yeah, I want to be this.
Speaker 1: And I want to do that.
Speaker 1: And he, I mean, woman didn't know why it was that he couldn't do what he saw other people doing.
Speaker 1: And he wanted to do it too.
Speaker 1: And he became bitter.
Speaker 1: But one day as he was sweeping, he tells the story that he suddenly had a revelation.
Speaker 1: And for the first time he thought, I'm not like every other employee here.
Speaker 1: I am unique.
Speaker 1: And I know you might be thinking, yes, every young person thinks that they are unique and that they are above sweeping the floor or cleaning the bathrooms or whatever.
Speaker 1: But this young man to finish his statement, his owned
Speaker 7: The company, and he realized all of a sudden in this moment of clarity, he said, I am sitting here, sweeping this floor, and I'm watching other guys get into the rigs, get out and do what I want to do Monday.
Speaker 7: They're either going to retire or move on to another position.
Speaker 7: And they're probably, they may stay in the same kind of world that they're in right now.
Speaker 7: But one day today I'm sweeping this floor.
Speaker 7: But one day I will own everything in this car.
Speaker 7: All the trucks are mine.
Speaker 7: All the cash flow is mine.
Speaker 7: All these people, should they be here at that time, they will be employed of mine.
Speaker 7: And he said that day, he fell so different.
Speaker 7: It changed the spirit.
Speaker 7: And instead of being prideful, instead of him kind of pushing his weight around, you know, my dad owns this company, you know, my dad, you know, he said, I developed a sense of meekness.
Speaker 7: Yes.
Speaker 7: And what he experiences, what I'm teaching you right now, let your future empower your present.
Speaker 7: It changed him.
Speaker 7: You are the heir of Christ on this earth.
Speaker 7: There's a lot of information.
Speaker 7: If you go read about meekness, the meek shall inherit the earth.
Speaker 7: You can find a ton of information on meekness.
Speaker 7: There's not a lot of information on inheritance.
Speaker 7: What is it that we inherit in the air?
Speaker 7: Here's what the scripture says.
Speaker 7: Jesus overcame the world.
Speaker 7: He defeated death hell and the grave and what he conquered.
Speaker 7: He gave to you and me as believers.
Speaker 7: He said, the earth is mine.
Speaker 7: The fullest Arab victory over sin victory, over death, victory over hell, it's mine.
Speaker 7: And I give it to you.
Speaker 7: You inherit it.
Speaker 7: He said, in acts one eight, you'll receive power or authority.
Speaker 7: When the Holy spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.
Speaker 7: So no matter where you go in this world, you will be able to operate on my behalf.
Speaker 7: You'll be able to operate on my behalf, family in your marriage, in your employment, in your career, in your company, in your mission, in your ministry, you'll be able to operate on my behalf.
Speaker 7: So you don't walk in there thinking I don't have anything.
Speaker 7: And I'm nobody you don't walk in there thinking I've got to prove myself to the world because there's two things.
Speaker 7: Two ways that you can look at this.
Speaker 7: The first is this.
Speaker 7: I will be meek so that I can gain an inheritance.
Speaker 7: I will be meek so that I can gain and inheritance.
Speaker 7: This is a works based inheritance.
Speaker 7: If I'm meek enough, then I will this thing.
Speaker 7: If I can just be lowly and mild enough, then I'll get something from my father.
Speaker 7: But the other way to look at this, and I believe the more accurate way to look at this is I am an heir.
Speaker 7: So we'll live with meekness.
Speaker 7: I am going to inherit all of this.
Speaker 7: And so I will live with meekness.
Speaker 7: I will be meek because I'm already in air.
Speaker 7: That is graced based inheritance because of the father's grace.
Speaker 7: The air has nothing to prove.
Speaker 7: You have nothing to prove to this world.
Speaker 7: You don't have to speak loud because God, your, your father owns it all.
Speaker 7: He he's speaking through you and for you.
Speaker 7: You don't have to prove yourself because he's already approved.
Speaker 7: Have you?
Speaker 7: The guy didn't get that job because he was the best sweeper the world has ever known.
Speaker 7: He got that job because his father 50 rungs up the ladder corporate structure, looked at somebody and said, hire my kid.
Speaker 7: Let him learn how to control himself.
Speaker 7: Let him learn how to manage his own life and his own emotions.
Speaker 7: Let him learn how to show up on time.
Speaker 7: Let him learn how to go home on time.
Speaker 7: Let him hurt or learn how to manage his time.
Speaker 7: Let him learn how to serve before he Lords.
Speaker 7: Let him learn to be meek.
Speaker 7: Before he inherits, would you bow your heads with me right now?
Speaker 7: Because you said we are strong and you've called us to be me.
Speaker 7: Holy spirit.
Speaker 7: What are you saying to us in this service right now?
Speaker 7: What are you saying to each?
Speaker 7: And every one of us, as we walk with you and represent you, let our hearts and our minds become clear right now, as your word penetrates our hearts.
Speaker 7: We stand with confidence before you.
Speaker 7: We are your children.
Speaker 7: You have given us an inheritance.
Speaker 7: And now you have, you have, you've given us a structure in which to live.
Speaker 7: We don't have to make much of ourselves because you are making much of us.
Speaker 7: I'm asking you to give us the courage to live with meekness, the confidence, to live with meekness and give us the trust that the inheritance that you will bring into our life, the value that inheritance is worth far more than the cost that we will pay.
Speaker 7: We give you thanks and praise for that in the awesome name of Jesus.
Speaker 7: And I encourage everyone to say, amen, let's stand on our feet and let's worship the Lord in closing today.