Speaker 1: Hey, what up?
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we just have the wrong impulse.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we do the thing that comes to mind and it's not necessarily the right thing.
Speaker 1: When I moved into my very first apartment, I was with my friend Travis.
Speaker 1: We got our first apartment and the windows wouldn't open.
Speaker 1: We went in there it was a hot summer day trying to get these windows open and they wouldn't open.
Speaker 1: Now I only have one impulse for when something isn't moving at that age, and that is push harder.
Speaker 1: So I kept pushing.
Speaker 1: Some of you know you can already see what's going to happen here.
Speaker 1: Kept pushing, kept pushing.
Speaker 1: Man, nothing is giving here.
Speaker 1: I pushed it up.
Speaker 1: The windows were painted shut and so they weren't going to give, and then the glass breaks, slices, my elbow open, big shard of glass sticking out.
Speaker 1: It was time to go to the hospital that day, and so we did.
Speaker 1: It was an example of you can have the right goal in mind but still the wrong impulse that you execute.
Speaker 1: We've all done that.
Speaker 1: You've probably done that.
Speaker 1: You probably do that now, even more than you think.
Speaker 1: Sometimes our impulse is just experiential.
Speaker 1: People have rejected us in the past and we're like you know what?
Speaker 1: I've seen this before and even though this person is actually very different and even though the circumstances are very different and lots of things are different, you still say I'm going to follow my impulse and not invest in this relationship that might have been a very strong and robust and happy relation.
Speaker 1: We're going to sit down for a couple minutes.
Speaker 1: You might be dealing with stress right now.
Speaker 1: You might be in a place where it's just too much and you're getting to the point where you say something like I just got to quit everything.
Speaker 1: I got to get out of this.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I accepted all this responsibility and now I just got to do whatever I got to do to get out from under it.
Speaker 1: That's the impulse.
Speaker 1: The truth is with a little more thought under it.
Speaker 1: That's the impulse.
Speaker 1: The truth is.
Speaker 1: With a little more thought, you'll realize I really just need a little rest.
Speaker 1: I maybe need a few fewer commitments, but I don't need to totally bail.
Speaker 1: It might be that you get feedback like I've gotten in the past, like many of you got in the past.
Speaker 1: You've gotten feedback that challenged your self-perception and instead of wisely listening to it and being like, oh, let me objectively stand back and see if this is true and how I can adjust and improve my life, you reacted defensively.
Speaker 1: It was the impulse that came.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't the right impulse.
Speaker 1: Some of us, when we think about things like Jesus and like being spiritual and growing spiritually, we have the right even goal in mind.
Speaker 1: We think I think it'd be cool to be close to Jesus, I think it'd be cool to have a sense of God's really on my side and God is with me.
Speaker 1: But we can follow the wrong impulse.
Speaker 1: One of the wrong impulses is to work really hard to secure his favor, to become a super religious person.
Speaker 1: We're going to find out in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: That is not the right impulse.
Speaker 1: Many have that impulse, they follow that impulse, but it's just the wrong impulse.
Speaker 1: Others of us we might have thought that was a good idea at one point, but now we have had such a beat up life, we've had so many things go wrong, that we kind of think God is against us and we're drawing the conclusion hard things mean God doesn't like me.
Speaker 1: My impulse is now to pull away.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage everybody, wherever you are on that spectrum, you can have the wrong impulse a lot and still turn around and get it right when you begin to work on the inner person of the heart.
Speaker 1: That's what we're going to talk about today the inner person of the heart.
Speaker 1: It's really tempting, especially in religious circles, even though you know better.
Speaker 1: It's really tempting to just work on the exteriors, just work on looking better for people.
Speaker 1: You learn how to fake it till you make it a little bit.
Speaker 1: You learn how to say the right things.
Speaker 1: You learn how to go through the right motions and you can get away with it.
Speaker 1: You can even get away with fooling yourself for a little while.
Speaker 1: But that's really not how we enter or progress in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Remember, last weekend we started the Applause of Heaven series and we talked about the kingdom of God as the rule of God, starting here on planet earth.
Speaker 1: It's when people willingly not because they're forced to, not because they're in heaven, and everybody does willingly decide I'm going to submit to God's ways, because I'm learning to know him and love him and I'm just going to act like he's the king, because he actually really is and someday it's going to be shown to be true.
Speaker 1: For us to enter the kingdom, for us to always re-access the kingdom, for us to progress in the kingdom, guys, I gotta tell you, man, we got to focus on the inner life of the heart.
Speaker 1: We have to be this thing called poor in spirit.
Speaker 1: We have to start with looking inward instead of working on the outward.
Speaker 1: Here's what we're going to find out.
Speaker 1: Flourishing, which is another way to talk about being blessed.
Speaker 1: Jesus talked a lot about being blessed in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: It's really God's favor plus human flourishing.
Speaker 1: That's what blessed means Flourishing.
Speaker 1: A flourishing life is putting together your inner life, then the outer life and then the other life, meaning first I put myself together, then I worry about what it looks like on the outside, then I worry about helping other people out.
Speaker 1: You may have noticed as you watch social activists on TV some of it's really important, some of it's really great, it's really called for, it's really needful.
Speaker 1: Others of it seems like chaos, and some of that chaos let's just own.
Speaker 1: Some of that chaos is because there's people that have chaos inside, that are trying to help everybody else.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says it actually works a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: To progress with God, to progress as a person, you need to start with the inside.
Speaker 1: Let's put the inner person, the inner man, the inner woman together.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you a little one-liner here.
Speaker 1: We're going to say it a lot Fix the inner life first and the outer life will catch up.
Speaker 1: Fix the inner life first and the outer life maybe it'll catch up.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about that so much.
Speaker 1: Let's just get the inner life right.
Speaker 1: Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: He says this is his most famous sermon.
Speaker 1: He says when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Speaker 1: He opened his mouth and began to teach them.
Speaker 1: And here's what he said.
Speaker 1: He's talking about a flourishing life and he's going to start in a place that you might be a little bit surprised by, and we need to hear it with humility, but also with understanding.
Speaker 1: To really access this flourishing life, we've got to practice getting over ourselves because, number one, you're not religious or righteous.
Speaker 1: Hear this as a gentle coach, not as like somebody slapping you upside the head.
Speaker 1: There's a way to hear this that is just helpful.
Speaker 1: It's not mean spirited, but Jesus starts where nobody else starts.
Speaker 1: He says number one.
Speaker 1: It's not about you.
Speaker 1: Jesus starts where nobody else starts.
Speaker 1: He says number one.
Speaker 1: It's not about you, number one.
Speaker 1: You're actually not as good as you might think you are Number one.
Speaker 1: You are not as religious as you might think you are, and it's because sometimes you're just comparing yourself to the wrong people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, compared to the people around you, I'm sure, dude, you're dope.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're just the best one.
Speaker 1: You're the most religious one of all of them.
Speaker 1: But when you compare you to Jesus, according to God's word, you don't really seek God at all, compared to how you should, given who he is.
Speaker 1: Your obedience level is.
Speaker 1: You might think it's really high, but that's because you're ignoring a bunch of your habits that you don't even really pay attention to anymore and you're doing a little bit better than the other things that people show you about themselves.
Speaker 1: But according to God's word, no one is righteous, not even one.
Speaker 1: That's why we need a Jesus.
Speaker 1: My dog, chesterton man, he's pretty obedient, like he's a good dog.
Speaker 1: He's pretty obedient until food comes out.
Speaker 1: If I was to compare my dog to other dogs, I'd be like my dog is pretty.
Speaker 1: He's more obedient than most of y'all's dogs.
Speaker 1: I'm saying he is, look at that, he's falling asleep on my son's head, just like that.
Speaker 1: He's pretty obedient man.
Speaker 1: He's good, he's gentle until until the food comes out.
Speaker 1: Food has captivated his heart and so, guys, it's like he can't hear me.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to him like chef.
Speaker 1: No, no, guys, it's like he can't hear me.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to him.
Speaker 1: I'm like Shep.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 1: He's just looking at the food and drooling.
Speaker 1: That's all he can do.
Speaker 1: He's closed his mind to the rest of the universe.
Speaker 1: That's kind of how we are with sin.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're like man I'm good with God, I'll obey God and I like God, and it is all I can see right now.
Speaker 1: And God gets very, very quiet.
Speaker 1: And this is what I want and this is what I'm after.
Speaker 1: It can be internal sins of the heart, it can be exterior sins, but whatever it is, we're just dude, we're just doing a little less good than we might pridefully think of ourselves.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Blessed are the ones who are the beggars.
Speaker 1: They're the ones who don't have anything.
Speaker 1: They're the ones who actually they're used to relying on God because they don't have any money, they don't have any power, they don't have any influence, they don't have any hand with anybody.
Speaker 1: All they can do.
Speaker 1: Now you can be very prideful and poor, but there is a sense where poorer folks even Paul, the Apostle Paul, points this out Folks that have less, tend to rely on God more.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus starts.
Speaker 1: He says I want everyone to start.
Speaker 1: If you want to walk with me more in my kingdom, just understand.
Speaker 1: You got to start with humility.
Speaker 1: You got to understand that you don't really have anything.
Speaker 1: See, the prideful.
Speaker 1: Here's what you know about prideful people, and you and I probably are one of them.
Speaker 1: So let's just listen closely.
Speaker 1: The prideful are quietly impressed with how humble they are.
Speaker 1: They won't say it, but they're like yeah, but I'm pretty humble compared to all these other suckers.
Speaker 1: The truly humble have godly sorrow about how prideful they still are.
Speaker 1: The truly humble have godly like they're more sad about it than bragging about it, because they recognize how much it still gets in the way.
Speaker 1: It still hurts people.
Speaker 1: It still even breaks God's heart sometimes.
Speaker 1: But Jesus, man, he's all into the childlike, he's all into the humble.
Speaker 1: One day some parents were bringing Jesus their kids.
Speaker 1: They see, man, this guy's some kind of prophet.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's the prophet, maybe he's the one.
Speaker 1: Whatever he's doing, he's doing all kinds of miracles.
Speaker 1: I want him to lay hands on my kids, because who wouldn't?
Speaker 1: I know I would.
Speaker 1: I'd bring him my kids, jesus please.
Speaker 1: And the disciples try to stop it.
Speaker 1: They're like what are you guys doing?
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, you don't have any backstage passes here, get out of here.
Speaker 1: When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples.
Speaker 1: He said to them let the children come to me, don't stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children, these ones who they're not trying to impress anybody, they're not trying to be important, they're excited just to be around Jesus.
Speaker 1: My friends, that's where we now listen.
Speaker 1: We have to re-access God all the time by coming again through the tunnel of poverty.
Speaker 1: It is the doorway, it is the access backstage pass.
Speaker 1: If I will return to a spirit of humility, to a spirit of poverty, to just reorienting myself around the, actually, carter, you ain't all that Like.
Speaker 1: I mean, just pay attention to how much you've done wrong lately.
Speaker 1: And yet the poor in spirit, like those children, are super excited to lean in and hug Jesus Right.
Speaker 1: The poor in spirit have realized I'm worse than I ever dreamed I could be, but I'm also more loved than I ever thought possible.
Speaker 1: That's what they know.
Speaker 1: They know it's okay, I'm not okay, but it's okay.
Speaker 1: I'm not okay but it's okay, because Jesus loves me so much and, just like with these kids, he opens his arms.
Speaker 1: He's not like these other religious leaders of the time.
Speaker 1: He opens his arms and says guys, come on in, because you can be assured of a glad welcome from me.
Speaker 1: He's telling us what God is like.
Speaker 1: I felt like, even as we were earlier here in the worship experience, I felt like the Spirit just wanted to say to some people I'm gracious, I'm gracious.
Speaker 1: What I feel like he meant was there's folks who came in with some stuff clinging to you, like God's mean, or like God's angry, or God is harsh, or God is cruel, and I just want to encourage you.
Speaker 1: That's really just not who he is at all.
Speaker 1: Look at Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's the perfect image of the invisible God, and Jesus' arms are wide open.
Speaker 1: He says oh man, come, just come.
Speaker 1: I don't care where you've been, I don't care what you did, I know, come, just come, be with me.
Speaker 1: That's the poor in spirit, but that means you're not going to bring them your religious stuff.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be like you should accept me, god, because of all this, and sometimes, my friends, there's a pride.
Speaker 1: It keeps people from God because they're like I'm even too good for religion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just want to encourage you.
Speaker 1: Bruuh, that's not going to help.
Speaker 1: Like that's really not the badge of honor you think it is, it's really just, it's more examples of your fallenness, because it's just pride and you're not even really that good at it.
Speaker 1: So I would encourage you.
Speaker 1: We've all got to get to the point where we say I'm worse than I ever dreamed, but I'm more loved than I ever thought possible.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to ditch my sin and run toward the Savior, knowing I'm going to still be sinning, but I'm poor in spirit, I'm humble, I don't need to bring him my perfect score.
Speaker 1: Now, when we come poor in spirit, we get greater access to the kingdom, the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: It's this interesting thing.
Speaker 1: The Bible depicts it as it's already, and not yet.
Speaker 1: It's already happening and yet the fullness of it is not quite here yet.
Speaker 1: So it's breaking forth into the world through the people of God who are violently, aggressively, taking it by force.
Speaker 1: They're pressing into the presence of Jesus, to the word of God, because they want to be in his presence, and the kingdom, through them, is breaking out.
Speaker 1: You can tell sometimes you can tell it in a church where the culture is just very, very loving that's the kingdom.
Speaker 1: It's a little outpost of the kingdom breaking forth.
Speaker 1: It's not the full version, it's not the heaven version, but it's a little taste, it's a little snapshot that the Lord's saying this is the beginnings of what the kingdom of heaven is like all the time.
Speaker 1: Years ago I had a neighbor who would go mow another of our neighbor's lawns.
Speaker 1: She was a little bit older and he didn't even know her.
Speaker 1: But he'd just get up and go mow her lawn and ask him why do you do that, man, like she doesn't seem, like she couldn't do it, why do you just get up and go mow the lawn?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like the Lord wants me to my friends.
Speaker 1: That's an example.
Speaker 1: It's not a church-wide example, it's not a city-wide example.
Speaker 1: It's a neighborhood example of what was happening right there.
Speaker 1: The kingdom is breaking out in that lady's yard because he was doing it for Jesus, unto Jesus, to demonstrate the love of Jesus toward this woman.
Speaker 1: That's the kingdom.
Speaker 1: It's that simple.
Speaker 1: When the kingdom comes, my friends, you can tell, because it feels good, it feels like there's order, it feels like there's affection, it feels like there's encouragement.
Speaker 1: That's what the kingdom is like.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: In heaven it's going to be perfect, but here it's a little bit of chaos.
Speaker 1: Heaven is going to be awesome.
Speaker 1: Here it's a little hard to take sometimes.
Speaker 1: I want you to imagine that you're at one of your least favorite people, least favorite person's home.
Speaker 1: You're there, that's where you are, and it's bananas.
Speaker 1: It's chaos.
Speaker 1: They're mean and ornery.
Speaker 1: The walls are like all cracked and there's, you know, drywall falling off and there's holes in the floor and everything is, and there's kids bouncing around, they're screaming, they're running around in circles and it is chaos and you've got to stay there for another hour.
Speaker 1: Now while you're there you're like, oh my gosh, it is so incredibly bad here, but I know I'm going to be home in an hour so I can endure it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be chill.
Speaker 1: It's psycho here, but I'm going to be chill because in a few minutes, in just a little while, I'm going to be home.
Speaker 1: As you and I are here on the rebellious planet, on planet earth, where the kingdom does break out, but it's not here fully yet.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like we're in that chaotic neighbor's home.
Speaker 1: We're just like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: When you see stuff going on on TV, when you see riots and fires and people just being cruel to one another, you're like this house is psycho.
Speaker 1: This is insane.
Speaker 1: Then again I can put my hope in the Lord because I'll be home in a few hours.
Speaker 1: I ain't going to be here much longer.
Speaker 1: None of us is going to make it probably more than nine more decades.
Speaker 1: Okay, the youngest of us, that's the most time you've got left Before.
Speaker 1: You're going to be back in your own home, in the things that are familiar to you.
Speaker 1: You're going to get there and be like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I remember the pockets of this.
Speaker 1: I remember when I felt this.
Speaker 1: I remember when my heart would get strangely warm and fiery because I was around this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Now it's just all over the place.
Speaker 1: Now I'm back home.
Speaker 1: Now, poverty of spirit.
Speaker 1: It's a posture.
Speaker 1: It's not just a thing we do.
Speaker 1: It's a way we posture ourselves before the Lord.
Speaker 1: But check it out, it's also.
Speaker 1: It's a posture the Lord has to give us.
Speaker 1: So I'm not asking us to go home today and, okay, now be poor in spirit as much as I'm asking us to go ask Jesus.
Speaker 1: God, would you give me a poor in spirit posture, an attitude of dependency and humility on you, and let it play out, let it burst out into my life in kingdom ways, like I'm no longer just rushing to the thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to spend a little bit of time in prayer because I'm poor in spirit and I recognize that only my wisdom is not very wise.
Speaker 1: That means I'm going to spend some time during the day because I'm growing in my poverty of spirit posture.
Speaker 1: I'm going to spend some time at the end of the day asking for forgiveness and confessing to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know I'm trying to make it like my angry outburst wasn't a big deal, but actually it was a big deal, lord, you saw it and it was a big deal to you.
Speaker 1: It didn't represent you.
Speaker 1: I probably made you look bad to some people, and so I just want to pause and be humble and have a poverty of spirit and say, jesus, I did wrong and praise God.
Speaker 1: I can just return to you and get forgiven, but I did it.
Speaker 1: I might spend a little bit more time listening God.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to, I'm going to wait on you.
Speaker 1: I know, I know some of us, dude, you try so hard because your insides are like that chaos house, like it's all over the place.
Speaker 1: You're playing music to calm down, you're smoking weed to calm down and instead of that, why don't we just hey, man, let's just get it, let's just go after it, let's learn how to have peace before the Lord.
Speaker 1: And you know how you get it.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily wake up peaceful.
Speaker 1: You sit down and you try to be still and say Jesus, give me your stillness, train me in how to do this.
Speaker 1: A disciple of Jesus would actually be learning how to do this over time.
Speaker 1: That will be a sign of the kingdom breaking out in me and you might have to fast.
Speaker 1: You might need some medication from time to time to help you calm down if you're in a crazy season of life, if that's something that's going on for you, but whatever it is, it's still a necessity to learn how to be still.
Speaker 1: So we can hear him, dude, if we're going too fast, we can't hear.
Speaker 1: It might even be that we're so in a posture of being humble and broken before the Lord that we begin to even ask for his help in little things.
Speaker 1: I've heard some of us say you're like, well, I'm not going to bother God with that, that's just a small thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wait for the big things.
Speaker 1: You know, somebody's sick or something's really going wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask God, you know to, you know, make sure that treat that I like is at the store, or something like that.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do little things.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to ask God to make sure that thing's in stock for when I order it.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 1: God is powerful, he's way more powerful than you.
Speaker 1: There's a lot that you can't do, and if he's willing to do it for you see, it's a poverty of spirit, it's a dependency to say, god, you just can do anything and you can do anything for me, like I don't need to rely on my own strength, and maybe it won't happen, but maybe it will, and maybe, as it does, I'll learn more and more.
Speaker 1: You are my heavenly father and you take care of me in a bazillion little ways, even ways that seem insignificant.
Speaker 1: So our most favorite and flourishing life is when we practice getting over ourselves.
Speaker 1: We return to that.
Speaker 1: We're not religious or righteous.
Speaker 1: And number two you're a solution when you recognize you're the problem.
Speaker 1: Now let's listen with an open mind.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm not trying to diss you.
Speaker 1: I promise I really am trying to help, even though this sounds like a harsh statement, it's actually good theology.
Speaker 1: It's actually what the Bible teaches.
Speaker 1: You are a solution when you recognize you're the problem.
Speaker 1: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Speaker 1: You and I probably get sad all the time about stuff that is happening on the broken world.
Speaker 1: The world is broken.
Speaker 1: The world as you look at this world is not what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: You can see what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: You can see in the beauty, but then you also see all the marred, trash and difficulty in hell and danger in the world.
Speaker 1: That's the fallen part.
Speaker 1: That's the part that God didn't want.
Speaker 1: We can look around and we can even see the fingerprints of Satan.
Speaker 1: We can see the fingerprints of the enemy in choices that people make and ways they choose to partner and the pain they choose to enjoyably inflict on people.
Speaker 1: You can see that.
Speaker 1: But if you look closely, my friends, this is where the world gets it wrong.
Speaker 1: The world is trying to fix the world without fixing people.
Speaker 1: If you look closely, my friends, you'll see it's also in you.
Speaker 1: You're not what you were supposed to be.
Speaker 1: Here's a picture of an old, corroded boat.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good model, a good example.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can see what the boat looked like once upon a time.
Speaker 1: You can see that it probably was seaworthy and it's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Now it's not even in the water.
Speaker 1: It's not doing what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: But also this corrosive corrosion, doubly corrosive corrosion, is eating away at it.
Speaker 1: My friends, that's a good picture of the world, but it's a good picture of you and me.
Speaker 1: That's what sin is doing to our motives, our thinking, our hearts.
Speaker 1: That's what it does Now.
Speaker 1: Thank God, jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus is so dope, he's so awesome.
Speaker 1: He's here to fix it.
Speaker 1: That's what he's here to do.
Speaker 1: He's here to comfort.
Speaker 1: And just a little side note, a little trivia on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: What you're going to see is what people are hearing is different than what you and I are hearing now.
Speaker 1: What people would have been hearing at that time was they would be hearing quotes of Isaiah and quotes of Ezekiel.
Speaker 1: See, jesus, he's referring to promises that they already knew about, that were deep in their scriptures.
Speaker 1: So he's dropping Easter eggs all over the place and this is one of them, and it's from Isaiah 61 too.
Speaker 1: He has sent me.
Speaker 1: So, this prophecy about Jesus.
Speaker 1: To tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come.
Speaker 1: To tell those who mourn.
Speaker 1: To tell those who look at the world and say this is corrosive man.
Speaker 1: To tell the ones that are sad about what's going on inside of them Jesus is here to comfort you.
Speaker 1: Jesus is here to fix it.
Speaker 1: Here's another dope thing to know about those who mourn Ezekiel 9, 4.
Speaker 1: Now an angel is being set by God.
Speaker 1: God is bringing judgment on Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: This is one of the times God is bringing his discipline, and there's a lot of people that are hurting, that don't agree with the ways of evil.
Speaker 1: And so God sends an angel.
Speaker 1: This is what he says Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: What I love about that.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been going through a hard, difficult time?
Speaker 1: And just telling somebody about it made it feel a little bit better?
Speaker 1: Because someone else knows.
Speaker 1: Someone else knows I'm not crazy dude.
Speaker 1: Somebody else knows.
Speaker 1: They feel a little bit sorry for me.
Speaker 1: They understand this is not totally just and I've got to go through this.
Speaker 1: And God sends an angel to take note.
Speaker 1: He's keeping notes when you are suffering in the evil world and bad things are happening around you and you don't agree with it and you're kind of raising your hand and saying, hey, just so everyone knows I'm not down with this.
Speaker 1: God, I don't like this.
Speaker 1: This isn't home.
Speaker 1: This isn't the way it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with these ways of evil.
Speaker 1: God takes note of it.
Speaker 1: God writes it down in his little notebook, this one.
Speaker 1: I know that they didn't mean for that to happen.
Speaker 1: I know that they don't approve of this.
Speaker 1: I know that they have to endure it, but it's not what they wanted to happen.
Speaker 1: See, god's got your back.
Speaker 1: God is paying attention to even the little things of your heart.
Speaker 1: When I was a boy I was probably 10 years old I was over at a friend's house.
Speaker 1: We were out in the woods and we were going to walk back to his house.
Speaker 1: We were going to spend the night and we're walking through a field of very tall grass.
Speaker 1: Now, this tall grass was also very sharp and I was wearing probably my Umbro's shorts for those who remember what that was about and my legs got all cut up and even bloody.
Speaker 1: But not only that, they got full of hives.
Speaker 1: And so I get back to my buddy's house and it's like in a lot of pain and just kind of like shook up, because now I've got blood on my legs and my buddy's mom lays me down, up because now I've got blood on my legs and my buddy's mom lays me down and I was going to spend the night.
Speaker 1: But she lays me down and she, you know, helps my wounds a little bit, cleans it, puts some ointment on there and I was a little bit comforted.
Speaker 1: I was a little bit like okay, yeah, like this is a little bit better than laying there in the field.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't home, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: You see, I wanted to get to my mom.
Speaker 1: My mom would have her own ways of making the whole thing go away.
Speaker 1: My buddy's mom, she's okay, I want my mom and my friends.
Speaker 1: That's how the kingdom of heaven is.
Speaker 1: It's an already not yet.
Speaker 1: There's ways that the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus, encourages you.
Speaker 1: Now, when you're discouraged, when you're sad, he'll send you a word through the preacher.
Speaker 1: He'll send you something special from the Bible.
Speaker 1: He'll just cause people to react to you well and encourage you and say uplifting things, or just in his presence, he'll just be with you and you'll sense him and he'll hold you, and that is a version of the comfort of God.
Speaker 1: It's okay, but it's not home.
Speaker 1: Home is a whole different level.
Speaker 1: Baby.
Speaker 1: Home, you will be constantly surrounded by and comforted by the Spirit of God, who watched you go through all that hell, and he's like now you're going to get your reward.
Speaker 1: Now you're back with Daddy, now everything is times a billion awesome.
Speaker 1: That's going to be pretty dope.
Speaker 1: So I just want us all to know when you're walking around and you're seeing the hardship of the world and you even feel a little bit of God and you're like why is this all still going on?
Speaker 1: The answer is because you're just not home yet.
Speaker 1: You'll be there soon, but you're not there yet, and so your legs are going to get cut up.
Speaker 1: You're going to get hives from time to time.
Speaker 1: What does that mean that we should do when we're mourning One?
Speaker 1: I know this sounds cliche, but it means we should decide to celebrate.
Speaker 1: We just decide to.
Speaker 1: We just decide to celebrate everything.
Speaker 1: I just said that Jesus is with you, that he cares about you, that he's given you some comfort now and he's going to give you all the comfort later as you start to praise.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, guys, it just is Most of the time maybe not all the time, but most of the time, your heart and spirit start to like.
Speaker 1: Cooperate with that.
Speaker 1: Another thing you can do when it's especially sad is serve, as there's nothing like getting our minds off ourselves.
Speaker 1: Remember, we started with.
Speaker 1: It's not about you, we started with.
Speaker 1: Go the humble way, get your mind off yourself.
Speaker 1: Serving is powerful, and some of us, I think, we're a little bit depressed because we're not serving enough.
Speaker 1: We're just not helping other people enough.
Speaker 1: We're not taking responsibility for improving the place.
Speaker 1: We're waiting for our stuff to be improved and not improving anybody else's situation.
Speaker 1: Here's number three For the most favored and flourishing life practice getting over yourself.
Speaker 1: And number three you'll gain more denying yourself than by asserting yourself.
Speaker 1: You'll gain more by denying yourself than asserting yourself.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm kind of an assertive person, so I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having a personality that wants to get things done and let's move the ball forward.
Speaker 1: But there's a place in us that is trying to just push stuff.
Speaker 1: Be domineering, be sharp.
Speaker 1: So the thing just gets done or the thing just progresses.
Speaker 1: And yet the Lord tells us again hey, man, fix the inner life first and the outer life will catch up.
Speaker 1: So Jesus says blessed are the gentle.
Speaker 1: Many translations say blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: Now, these Israelites, yo, these people that are listening to Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount, they ain't got no land, they ain't got no money, they ain't got no power.
Speaker 1: They're used to other people having the power.
Speaker 1: They don't have the power.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus says I know it feels bad to not have the power right now, but don't you worry, it's not through domineering that you're really going to gain power.
Speaker 1: It's through you embracing kingdom ways that you're going to get the whole doggone thing, the verse from the Old Testament that this is based on, that people are going to recognize, psalm 37, 11, but the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.
Speaker 1: Now, the land in the Old Testament was a literal land, it was the promised land, but it also began to be synonymous with the good things God wants to give you.
Speaker 1: And there's a land for all of us, some good things that God wants to give you, if we will be meek and not force our way into everything.
Speaker 1: Be tough and be strong when you have to be strong.
Speaker 1: Go for the gold man, go get the job and do all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying be irresponsible, but there comes a point where I'm trying to do this and God is not doing this and I'm going to back off.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to force people to get the job done when it just doesn't seem like that's the Jesus way to do this.
Speaker 1: It starts in our heart and it means at first, I'm just going to be teachable to God, I'm going to be directable.
Speaker 1: That means, instead of using force, I'm going to be gentle, I'm going to evaluate the situation.
Speaker 1: Is there another way to do this?
Speaker 1: Do I have to break this window open or is there maybe just another way to get around these painted shut windows?
Speaker 1: I'm going to trust God when I don't have the power, or I'm going to trust God when I have the power and I'm really tempted to lay the smack down right now, but I'm not going to because it's not the kingdom way but it's also action I'm going to refrain.
Speaker 1: The meek thing.
Speaker 1: The gentle thing would be to not gossip.
Speaker 1: I see the gossip happening around me because of the thing that happened at work and honestly I really don't agree with the thing that happened at work and everyone's talking about it and I feel like I could just jump into that.
Speaker 1: It would satisfy something if I did, but then again I should just be meek and I'm just going to meekly shut my mouth and not gossip.
Speaker 1: I'm going to meekly give this person grace rather than yell.
Speaker 1: When I'm tempted to yell because they didn't do the thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to when I feel overlooked.
Speaker 1: I am not going to barge into anywhere and say what about me?
Speaker 1: When I feel overlooked, I'm going to remember God gets me what's mine.
Speaker 1: God gets me the land that's mine.
Speaker 1: If it's really mine, god can get it for me.
Speaker 1: I don't have to be domineering, I don't have to embrace the ways of the world around me.
Speaker 1: I can just wait on Jesus, because Jesus will reverse the fortunes of everything.
Speaker 1: Jesus will do it the kingdom way.
Speaker 1: Now watch out, because I'm about to step on your idol.
Speaker 1: Jesus will do it the kingdom way.
Speaker 1: Now watch out, because I'm about to step on your idol.
Speaker 1: Some of you, we're coming up on a political season.
Speaker 1: We're going to even have, we're going to talk about political stuff in here, just so you know, but we're going to talk about it through the lens of God's word.
Speaker 1: I love my country.
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you, I'm ready to die today for my country.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love my country Absolutely.
Speaker 1: There's a version of that, though that gets twisty.
Speaker 1: There's a version of that that makes my country the most important thing.
Speaker 1: There's a version of that that says man, if everyone would just obey like they did in the old times.
Speaker 1: As someone who loves history, have you read about the old times?
Speaker 1: Do you really think that they were obeying a whole lot more?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 1: There were certain cultural presuppositions that were more religious.
Speaker 1: There were certain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people generally believed godly things in the West in old times, for sure.
Speaker 1: But you know, I read about preachers like George Whitefield who'd go to preach outside.
Speaker 1: He'd go into these towns and people would climb up into the trees and urinate on him while he's preaching.
Speaker 1: They'd whip dead cats at him while he's preaching.
Speaker 1: They'd get in brawls in front of the preaching Guys.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of murderous, rapist, all kinds of bad stuff that happened in the past.
Speaker 1: So let's just not make more of the past than it was.
Speaker 1: Sure, there were some presuppositions that were great, and we should be praying for folks in general, for the culture to improve, and if they embrace more of the kingdom ways, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: But can I just remind everybody, dear heart, this is not your home Like this, ain't it?
Speaker 1: And the right person getting into power will not make this place the kingdom.
Speaker 1: It can improve it and we should pray that it improves it.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and the less sin the better.
Speaker 1: But again, my friends, we don't have that many more decades and we care about who's coming next, but let's keep our focus on if I'm going to serve my country, if I'm going to bless my country, if I'm going to fight for the right laws and ways in my country, I'm going to do it in Jesus name, and that means that's just going to shape how I do it sometimes.
Speaker 1: And that does mean, dude, I'm going to charge hell with a bucket of water.
Speaker 1: I'm going to run toward the battle.
Speaker 1: I'm going to run toward the bullets yes.
Speaker 1: I'm going to run toward the bombs yes.
Speaker 1: But it also means I'm going to speak a certain way and I'm not going to slander a certain way and I'm not going to point out this, that and the other thing that I can't even really more than speculate about a certain way.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it God's way.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, amen, whoo, I'm going to get a little ouch there on your tiptoes.
Speaker 1: Yikes, what do we do?
Speaker 1: We're gracious when things aren't happening at our speed.
Speaker 1: That means I'm going to trust God when it's not happening the way that I want it to happen.
Speaker 1: I'm going to trust God when I don't understand.
Speaker 1: Why can't I just have it now?
Speaker 1: Why can't I just force them now?
Speaker 1: Why can't I just make the decision now?
Speaker 1: Maybe you say I don't like my body the way it is and I want to change it through surgeries.
Speaker 1: Can I discourage patience?
Speaker 1: Maybe?
Speaker 1: Just wait on God.
Speaker 1: Just ask God what do you think about my body?
Speaker 1: Yeah, god, there's a lot of things on this planet that are discombobulated because of sin and it messes with my thinking and it messes with how I feel about myself.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, that's a real thing.
Speaker 1: But, god, what do you want?
Speaker 1: What do you want me to do?
Speaker 1: This is your temple, after all.
Speaker 1: What do you want me to do when something does go wrong or different, or just changes?
Speaker 1: Some of us have a real hard time with change and, baby, I'm sorry you can't stop change, so surrendering to it meekly, graciously, just saying you know what.
Speaker 1: This is the stage I'm at.
Speaker 1: This is where God has me and I'm going to say amen, lord, give me the grace to do it like a pro, do it like someone who's been a Christian for more than seven days, someone who can speak life and speak love while the thing is happening, because, after all, it's God's job to get me what's mine, and if the land is mine, he'll get it to me somehow.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be grateful in the midst of it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be as innocent as I possibly can.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be easy for God to correct.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be easy to flow with.
Speaker 1: If my world is shaking, I should be like well, you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm flowing with it because my king is still on the throne and, instead of get all hot and bothered, not saying we don't have passion, I'm a passionate dude man.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying fix the inner life first.
Speaker 1: Fix the inner life first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to work on the outer life.
Speaker 1: That's next week.
Speaker 1: Fix the inner life first, though, and the outer life will catch up.
Speaker 1: Let's end here, because it's really important, because we could hear this as a so, go now and do better, and that's really not what the Sermon on the Mount is.
Speaker 1: See, the reality is, and scholars agree about this Jesus is the one who fulfills the Sermon on the Mount for us.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that?
Speaker 1: See, jesus came and was poor, and he was poor even in spirit?
Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount for us.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that?
Speaker 1: See, jesus came and was poor, and he was poor even in spirit?
Speaker 1: He relied entirely on the Father.
Speaker 1: He emptied himself of his Godhead and did it.
Speaker 1: He took the cross as a man, not with cosmic power jolting through him, and he had to do it as a man for it to count, but he did it.
Speaker 1: He was poor in spirit so you and I could enter the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: He left the kingdom of heaven to come here so we could have it.
Speaker 1: Blessed are those who mourn.
Speaker 1: Jesus mourned as he made his way up to the cross.
Speaker 1: He mourned over Lazarus.
Speaker 1: He mourned when he was here on earth, and you know why he mourned.
Speaker 1: He mourned when the father abandoned him at the cross so he could face the judgment of God.
Speaker 1: For so that the time would come, dear heart, when you will never mourn again because of Jesus and Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus was always gentle.
Speaker 1: He had the most power and he had the most right to be offended, and yet he was always gentle so that you and I could inherit the earth.
Speaker 1: That's pretty doggone awesome.
Speaker 1: So how about let's start here.
Speaker 1: Let's go fix the inner life and trust Jesus that the outer life will catch up.
Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads.
Speaker 1: Lord, we want to thank you.
Speaker 1: Just, no matter how much work there is to do under the hood, here you are with your arms open wide, telling the world.
Speaker 1: Don't keep anybody from me.
Speaker 1: I want everyone.
Speaker 1: Father, thank you that you want us.
Speaker 1: We pray in Jesus' name that we would.
Speaker 1: We just keep growing up.
Speaker 1: God, show us how to believe these things ahead of time.
Speaker 1: Show us how to operate in meekness, in poverty of spirit.
Speaker 1: God, the things that were you today, that we heard, help us not forget them.
Speaker 1: Help them just not be out of our mind by the time we eat lunch.
Speaker 1: Lord, we invite you through this Applause of Heaven series.
Speaker 1: God, we don't want just another series, we want to come out more like the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, we'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development-related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe?
Speaker 1: Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.