WEBVTT 00:00:01.624 --> 00:00:02.004 Hey, what up? 00:00:02.004 --> 00:00:02.587 It's Mark Carter. 00:00:02.587 --> 00:00:03.870 I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:04.892 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.892 --> 00:00:07.208 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.208 --> 00:00:16.728 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. 00:00:16.728 --> 00:00:17.871 Enjoy the message. 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:20.864 Sometimes we just have the wrong impulse. 00:00:20.864 --> 00:00:25.481 Sometimes we do the thing that comes to mind and it's not necessarily the right thing. 00:00:25.481 --> 00:00:30.731 When I moved into my very first apartment, I was with my friend Travis. 00:00:30.731 --> 00:00:34.908 We got our first apartment and the windows wouldn't open. 00:00:34.908 --> 00:00:38.564 We went in there it was a hot summer day trying to get these windows open and they wouldn't open. 00:00:38.564 --> 00:00:45.210 Now I only have one impulse for when something isn't moving at that age, and that is push harder. 00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:46.841 So I kept pushing. 00:00:46.841 --> 00:00:48.994 Some of you know you can already see what's going to happen here. 00:00:48.994 --> 00:00:50.320 Kept pushing, kept pushing. 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:51.706 Man, nothing is giving here. 00:00:51.706 --> 00:00:54.073 I pushed it up. 00:00:54.073 --> 00:01:01.581 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. 00:01:01.581 --> 00:01:04.748 It was time to go to the hospital that day, and so we did. 00:01:13.939 --> 00:01:16.165 It was an example of you can have the right goal in mind but still the wrong impulse that you execute. 00:01:16.165 --> 00:01:16.686 We've all done that. 00:01:16.686 --> 00:01:17.769 You've probably done that. 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:19.420 You probably do that now, even more than you think. 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:23.108 Sometimes our impulse is just experiential. 00:01:23.108 --> 00:01:26.081 People have rejected us in the past and we're like you know what? 00:01:26.081 --> 00:01:40.748 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. 00:01:40.748 --> 00:01:42.001 We're going to sit down for a couple minutes. 00:01:43.724 --> 00:01:45.406 You might be dealing with stress right now. 00:01:45.406 --> 00:01:52.867 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. 00:01:52.867 --> 00:01:54.391 I got to get out of this. 00:01:54.391 --> 00:02:00.162 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. 00:02:00.162 --> 00:02:00.885 That's the impulse. 00:02:00.885 --> 00:02:05.700 The truth is with a little more thought under it. 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:06.100 That's the impulse. 00:02:06.100 --> 00:02:06.662 The truth is. 00:02:06.662 --> 00:02:08.366 With a little more thought, you'll realize I really just need a little rest. 00:02:08.366 --> 00:02:12.234 I maybe need a few fewer commitments, but I don't need to totally bail. 00:02:12.234 --> 00:02:18.001 It might be that you get feedback like I've gotten in the past, like many of you got in the past. 00:02:18.001 --> 00:02:31.123 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. 00:02:31.123 --> 00:02:32.587 It was the impulse that came. 00:02:32.587 --> 00:02:34.372 It just wasn't the right impulse. 00:02:35.841 --> 00:02:44.027 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. 00:02:44.027 --> 00:02:50.352 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. 00:02:50.352 --> 00:02:52.024 But we can follow the wrong impulse. 00:02:52.024 --> 00:02:57.966 One of the wrong impulses is to work really hard to secure his favor, to become a super religious person. 00:02:57.966 --> 00:03:00.292 We're going to find out in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:03:00.292 --> 00:03:01.641 That is not the right impulse. 00:03:01.641 --> 00:03:05.328 Many have that impulse, they follow that impulse, but it's just the wrong impulse. 00:03:05.328 --> 00:03:22.520 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. 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:24.626 My impulse is now to pull away. 00:03:25.568 --> 00:03:37.478 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. 00:03:37.478 --> 00:03:40.671 That's what we're going to talk about today the inner person of the heart. 00:03:40.671 --> 00:03:43.643 It's really tempting, especially in religious circles, even though you know better. 00:03:43.643 --> 00:03:48.573 It's really tempting to just work on the exteriors, just work on looking better for people. 00:03:48.573 --> 00:03:51.347 You learn how to fake it till you make it a little bit. 00:03:51.347 --> 00:03:52.610 You learn how to say the right things. 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:56.597 You learn how to go through the right motions and you can get away with it. 00:03:56.597 --> 00:03:59.123 You can even get away with fooling yourself for a little while. 00:03:59.906 --> 00:04:04.736 But that's really not how we enter or progress in the kingdom of God. 00:04:04.736 --> 00:04:12.925 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. 00:04:12.925 --> 00:04:28.511 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. 00:04:28.511 --> 00:04:39.769 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. 00:04:39.769 --> 00:04:41.843 We have to be this thing called poor in spirit. 00:04:41.843 --> 00:04:48.144 We have to start with looking inward instead of working on the outward. 00:04:48.144 --> 00:04:48.966 Here's what we're going to find out. 00:04:49.968 --> 00:04:52.442 Flourishing, which is another way to talk about being blessed. 00:04:52.442 --> 00:04:54.990 Jesus talked a lot about being blessed in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:04:54.990 --> 00:04:58.468 It's really God's favor plus human flourishing. 00:04:58.468 --> 00:05:00.656 That's what blessed means Flourishing. 00:05:00.656 --> 00:05:14.735 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. 00:05:14.735 --> 00:05:23.083 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. 00:05:23.083 --> 00:05:28.391 Others of it seems like chaos, and some of that chaos let's just own. 00:05:28.391 --> 00:05:33.593 Some of that chaos is because there's people that have chaos inside, that are trying to help everybody else. 00:05:33.593 --> 00:05:35.963 And Jesus says it actually works a little bit differently. 00:05:35.963 --> 00:05:40.560 To progress with God, to progress as a person, you need to start with the inside. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:44.007 Let's put the inner person, the inner man, the inner woman together. 00:05:44.007 --> 00:05:45.189 So I want to give you a little one-liner here. 00:05:45.189 --> 00:05:48.721 We're going to say it a lot Fix the inner life first and the outer life will catch up. 00:05:48.721 --> 00:05:53.773 Fix the inner life first and the outer life maybe it'll catch up. 00:05:53.773 --> 00:05:54.680 Don't worry about that so much. 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:56.302 Let's just get the inner life right. 00:05:57.423 --> 00:05:58.685 Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount. 00:05:58.685 --> 00:06:00.687 He says this is his most famous sermon. 00:06:00.687 --> 00:06:06.973 He says when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 00:06:06.973 --> 00:06:09.314 He opened his mouth and began to teach them. 00:06:09.314 --> 00:06:10.896 And here's what he said. 00:06:10.896 --> 00:06:20.314 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. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:29.826 To really access this flourishing life, we've got to practice getting over ourselves because, number one, you're not religious or righteous. 00:06:29.826 --> 00:06:35.305 Hear this as a gentle coach, not as like somebody slapping you upside the head. 00:06:35.305 --> 00:06:37.591 There's a way to hear this that is just helpful. 00:06:37.591 --> 00:06:41.526 It's not mean spirited, but Jesus starts where nobody else starts. 00:06:41.526 --> 00:06:42.790 He says number one. 00:06:42.790 --> 00:06:43.591 It's not about you. 00:06:43.591 --> 00:06:46.117 Jesus starts where nobody else starts. 00:06:46.117 --> 00:06:46.939 He says number one. 00:06:46.939 --> 00:06:48.321 It's not about you, number one. 00:06:48.321 --> 00:06:49.884 You're actually not as good as you might think you are Number one. 00:06:49.884 --> 00:06:59.184 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. 00:06:59.184 --> 00:07:01.548 Yeah, sure, compared to the people around you, I'm sure, dude, you're dope. 00:07:01.548 --> 00:07:02.992 I mean, you're just the best one. 00:07:02.992 --> 00:07:11.343 You're the most religious one of all of them. 00:07:11.343 --> 00:07:15.314 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. 00:07:15.314 --> 00:07:16.357 Your obedience level is. 00:07:16.357 --> 00:07:25.668 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. 00:07:25.668 --> 00:07:30.240 But according to God's word, no one is righteous, not even one. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:31.483 That's why we need a Jesus. 00:07:33.107 --> 00:07:36.821 My dog, chesterton man, he's pretty obedient, like he's a good dog. 00:07:36.821 --> 00:07:40.148 He's pretty obedient until food comes out. 00:07:40.148 --> 00:07:45.375 If I was to compare my dog to other dogs, I'd be like my dog is pretty. 00:07:45.375 --> 00:07:47.043 He's more obedient than most of y'all's dogs. 00:07:47.043 --> 00:07:51.100 I'm saying he is, look at that, he's falling asleep on my son's head, just like that. 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:52.964 He's pretty obedient man. 00:07:52.964 --> 00:07:56.733 He's good, he's gentle until until the food comes out. 00:07:56.733 --> 00:08:01.846 Food has captivated his heart and so, guys, it's like he can't hear me. 00:08:01.846 --> 00:08:02.747 I'm talking to him like chef. 00:08:02.747 --> 00:08:03.528 No, no, guys, it's like he can't hear me. 00:08:03.528 --> 00:08:03.908 I'm talking to him. 00:08:03.908 --> 00:08:04.189 I'm like Shep. 00:08:04.189 --> 00:08:04.670 No, no, no, don't do that. 00:08:04.670 --> 00:08:06.052 He's just looking at the food and drooling. 00:08:06.052 --> 00:08:07.334 That's all he can do. 00:08:07.334 --> 00:08:10.942 He's closed his mind to the rest of the universe. 00:08:10.963 --> 00:08:12.687 That's kind of how we are with sin. 00:08:12.687 --> 00:08:22.267 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. 00:08:22.267 --> 00:08:23.449 And God gets very, very quiet. 00:08:23.449 --> 00:08:25.372 And this is what I want and this is what I'm after. 00:08:25.372 --> 00:08:36.225 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. 00:08:37.187 --> 00:08:42.583 And so Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. 00:08:42.583 --> 00:08:45.051 Blessed are the ones who are the beggars. 00:08:45.051 --> 00:08:46.725 They're the ones who don't have anything. 00:08:46.725 --> 00:08:57.365 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. 00:08:57.365 --> 00:08:58.509 All they can do. 00:08:58.509 --> 00:09:07.772 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. 00:09:07.912 --> 00:09:08.653 And so Jesus starts. 00:09:08.653 --> 00:09:13.861 He says I want everyone to start. 00:09:13.861 --> 00:09:15.587 If you want to walk with me more in my kingdom, just understand. 00:09:15.587 --> 00:09:16.331 You got to start with humility. 00:09:16.331 --> 00:09:18.399 You got to understand that you don't really have anything. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:19.160 See, the prideful. 00:09:19.160 --> 00:09:22.991 Here's what you know about prideful people, and you and I probably are one of them. 00:09:22.991 --> 00:09:26.022 So let's just listen closely. 00:09:26.022 --> 00:09:28.309 The prideful are quietly impressed with how humble they are. 00:09:28.309 --> 00:09:32.890 They won't say it, but they're like yeah, but I'm pretty humble compared to all these other suckers. 00:09:32.890 --> 00:09:39.611 The truly humble have godly sorrow about how prideful they still are. 00:09:39.611 --> 00:09:48.207 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. 00:09:48.207 --> 00:09:49.471 It still hurts people. 00:09:49.471 --> 00:09:51.687 It still even breaks God's heart sometimes. 00:09:51.687 --> 00:09:55.970 But Jesus, man, he's all into the childlike, he's all into the humble. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:59.309 One day some parents were bringing Jesus their kids. 00:09:59.309 --> 00:10:01.827 They see, man, this guy's some kind of prophet. 00:10:01.827 --> 00:10:04.465 Maybe he's the prophet, maybe he's the one. 00:10:04.465 --> 00:10:06.729 Whatever he's doing, he's doing all kinds of miracles. 00:10:06.729 --> 00:10:08.471 I want him to lay hands on my kids, because who wouldn't? 00:10:08.471 --> 00:10:09.052 I know I would. 00:10:09.052 --> 00:10:12.581 I'd bring him my kids, jesus please. 00:10:12.581 --> 00:10:13.701 And the disciples try to stop it. 00:10:13.701 --> 00:10:14.602 They're like what are you guys doing? 00:10:14.602 --> 00:10:20.447 Hey, hey, you don't have any backstage passes here, get out of here. 00:10:20.506 --> 00:10:22.947 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. 00:10:22.947 --> 00:10:36.518 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. 00:10:36.518 --> 00:10:42.826 My friends, that's where we now listen. 00:10:42.826 --> 00:10:45.139 We have to re-access God all the time by coming again through the tunnel of poverty. 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:49.749 It is the doorway, it is the access backstage pass. 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:58.580 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. 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:00.707 I mean, just pay attention to how much you've done wrong lately. 00:11:00.707 --> 00:11:08.109 And yet the poor in spirit, like those children, are super excited to lean in and hug Jesus Right. 00:11:08.109 --> 00:11:18.499 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. 00:11:18.499 --> 00:11:20.081 That's what they know. 00:11:20.081 --> 00:11:22.053 They know it's okay, I'm not okay, but it's okay. 00:11:22.053 --> 00:11:27.121 I'm not okay but it's okay, because Jesus loves me so much and, just like with these kids, he opens his arms. 00:11:27.121 --> 00:11:29.331 He's not like these other religious leaders of the time. 00:11:29.331 --> 00:11:34.658 He opens his arms and says guys, come on in, because you can be assured of a glad welcome from me. 00:11:34.658 --> 00:11:36.921 He's telling us what God is like. 00:11:38.023 --> 00:11:47.755 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. 00:11:47.755 --> 00:11:58.902 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. 00:11:58.902 --> 00:12:00.794 That's really just not who he is at all. 00:12:00.794 --> 00:12:02.220 Look at Jesus. 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:07.113 That's the perfect image of the invisible God, and Jesus' arms are wide open. 00:12:07.113 --> 00:12:08.554 He says oh man, come, just come. 00:12:08.554 --> 00:12:12.880 I don't care where you've been, I don't care what you did, I know, come, just come, be with me. 00:12:13.140 --> 00:12:16.625 That's the poor in spirit, but that means you're not going to bring them your religious stuff. 00:12:16.625 --> 00:12:20.390 You're not going to be like you should accept me, god, because of all this, and sometimes, my friends, there's a pride. 00:12:20.390 --> 00:12:25.216 It keeps people from God because they're like I'm even too good for religion. 00:12:25.216 --> 00:12:29.802 Yeah, I just want to encourage you. 00:12:29.802 --> 00:12:33.527 Bruuh, that's not going to help. 00:12:33.527 --> 00:12:43.897 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. 00:12:43.897 --> 00:12:46.134 So I would encourage you. 00:12:46.134 --> 00:12:52.782 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. 00:12:52.782 --> 00:13:01.782 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. 00:13:04.270 --> 00:13:10.384 Now, when we come poor in spirit, we get greater access to the kingdom, the kingdom of God. 00:13:10.384 --> 00:13:11.652 It's this interesting thing. 00:13:11.652 --> 00:13:14.197 The Bible depicts it as it's already, and not yet. 00:13:14.197 --> 00:13:17.543 It's already happening and yet the fullness of it is not quite here yet. 00:13:17.543 --> 00:13:24.375 So it's breaking forth into the world through the people of God who are violently, aggressively, taking it by force. 00:13:24.375 --> 00:13:31.357 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. 00:13:31.357 --> 00:13:37.619 You can tell sometimes you can tell it in a church where the culture is just very, very loving that's the kingdom. 00:13:37.619 --> 00:13:39.936 It's a little outpost of the kingdom breaking forth. 00:13:39.936 --> 00:13:50.312 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. 00:13:52.017 --> 00:13:55.913 Years ago I had a neighbor who would go mow another of our neighbor's lawns. 00:13:55.913 --> 00:13:58.520 She was a little bit older and he didn't even know her. 00:13:58.520 --> 00:14:07.695 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? 00:14:07.695 --> 00:14:08.316 I don't know. 00:14:08.316 --> 00:14:12.101 I feel like the Lord wants me to my friends. 00:14:12.101 --> 00:14:12.962 That's an example. 00:14:12.962 --> 00:14:15.452 It's not a church-wide example, it's not a city-wide example. 00:14:15.452 --> 00:14:18.741 It's a neighborhood example of what was happening right there. 00:14:18.741 --> 00:14:27.417 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. 00:14:27.417 --> 00:14:28.099 That's the kingdom. 00:14:28.099 --> 00:14:28.900 It's that simple. 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:37.447 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. 00:14:37.447 --> 00:14:38.630 That's what the kingdom is like. 00:14:40.735 --> 00:14:40.855 Now. 00:14:40.855 --> 00:14:44.604 In heaven it's going to be perfect, but here it's a little bit of chaos. 00:14:44.604 --> 00:14:46.113 Heaven is going to be awesome. 00:14:46.113 --> 00:14:48.538 Here it's a little hard to take sometimes. 00:14:48.538 --> 00:14:54.171 I want you to imagine that you're at one of your least favorite people, least favorite person's home. 00:14:54.171 --> 00:14:57.076 You're there, that's where you are, and it's bananas. 00:14:57.076 --> 00:14:58.058 It's chaos. 00:14:58.058 --> 00:15:00.004 They're mean and ornery. 00:15:00.004 --> 00:15:13.277 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. 00:15:13.277 --> 00:15:20.716 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. 00:15:20.716 --> 00:15:21.618 I'm going to be chill. 00:15:21.618 --> 00:15:28.697 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. 00:15:29.678 --> 00:15:37.775 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. 00:15:37.775 --> 00:15:40.042 It's kind of like we're in that chaotic neighbor's home. 00:15:40.042 --> 00:15:42.072 We're just like, oh my gosh. 00:15:42.072 --> 00:15:49.639 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. 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:51.121 This is insane. 00:15:51.121 --> 00:15:54.772 Then again I can put my hope in the Lord because I'll be home in a few hours. 00:15:54.772 --> 00:15:56.339 I ain't going to be here much longer. 00:15:57.202 --> 00:15:59.773 None of us is going to make it probably more than nine more decades. 00:15:59.773 --> 00:16:04.311 Okay, the youngest of us, that's the most time you've got left Before. 00:16:04.311 --> 00:16:07.780 You're going to be back in your own home, in the things that are familiar to you. 00:16:07.780 --> 00:16:09.134 You're going to get there and be like, oh my gosh. 00:16:09.134 --> 00:16:10.759 I remember the pockets of this. 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:12.505 I remember when I felt this. 00:16:12.505 --> 00:16:17.681 I remember when my heart would get strangely warm and fiery because I was around this kind of thing. 00:16:17.681 --> 00:16:19.052 Now it's just all over the place. 00:16:19.052 --> 00:16:20.397 Now I'm back home. 00:16:20.778 --> 00:16:22.442 Now, poverty of spirit. 00:16:22.442 --> 00:16:23.346 It's a posture. 00:16:23.346 --> 00:16:25.292 It's not just a thing we do. 00:16:25.292 --> 00:16:27.177 It's a way we posture ourselves before the Lord. 00:16:27.177 --> 00:16:28.360 But check it out, it's also. 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:35.634 It's a posture the Lord has to give us. 00:16:35.634 --> 00:16:38.663 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. 00:16:38.663 --> 00:16:52.940 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. 00:16:52.940 --> 00:17:00.913 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. 00:17:00.913 --> 00:17:07.794 That means I'm going to spend some time during the day because I'm growing in my poverty of spirit posture. 00:17:07.794 --> 00:17:13.637 I'm going to spend some time at the end of the day asking for forgiveness and confessing to Jesus. 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:21.095 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. 00:17:21.095 --> 00:17:22.077 It didn't represent you. 00:17:22.077 --> 00:17:31.759 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. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.321 I can just return to you and get forgiven, but I did it. 00:17:34.321 --> 00:17:38.465 I might spend a little bit more time listening God. 00:17:38.465 --> 00:17:43.890 I'm just going to, I'm going to wait on you. 00:17:43.911 --> 00:17:47.134 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. 00:17:47.134 --> 00:17:59.145 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. 00:17:59.145 --> 00:18:00.006 And you know how you get it. 00:18:00.006 --> 00:18:03.392 You don't necessarily wake up peaceful. 00:18:03.392 --> 00:18:09.723 You sit down and you try to be still and say Jesus, give me your stillness, train me in how to do this. 00:18:09.723 --> 00:18:14.497 A disciple of Jesus would actually be learning how to do this over time. 00:18:14.497 --> 00:18:16.766 That will be a sign of the kingdom breaking out in me and you might have to fast. 00:18:16.766 --> 00:18:29.453 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. 00:18:29.453 --> 00:18:32.660 So we can hear him, dude, if we're going too fast, we can't hear. 00:18:33.541 --> 00:18:46.478 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. 00:18:46.478 --> 00:18:52.798 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. 00:18:52.798 --> 00:18:54.262 I'm going to wait for the big things. 00:18:54.262 --> 00:18:56.651 You know, somebody's sick or something's really going wrong. 00:18:56.651 --> 00:19:03.911 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. 00:19:03.911 --> 00:19:05.333 I'm not going to do little things. 00:19:05.333 --> 00:19:08.296 I'm not going to ask God to make sure that thing's in stock for when I order it. 00:19:08.296 --> 00:19:10.038 Why not? 00:19:10.038 --> 00:19:11.880 Why not? 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:15.924 God is powerful, he's way more powerful than you. 00:19:16.464 --> 00:19:32.038 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. 00:19:32.038 --> 00:19:38.939 You are my heavenly father and you take care of me in a bazillion little ways, even ways that seem insignificant. 00:19:38.939 --> 00:19:47.143 So our most favorite and flourishing life is when we practice getting over ourselves. 00:19:47.143 --> 00:19:48.916 We return to that. 00:19:48.916 --> 00:19:51.170 We're not religious or righteous. 00:19:51.170 --> 00:19:55.270 And number two you're a solution when you recognize you're the problem. 00:19:55.270 --> 00:19:59.701 Now let's listen with an open mind. 00:19:59.701 --> 00:20:00.682 Okay, I'm not trying to diss you. 00:20:00.682 --> 00:20:05.574 I promise I really am trying to help, even though this sounds like a harsh statement, it's actually good theology. 00:20:05.574 --> 00:20:07.983 It's actually what the Bible teaches. 00:20:07.983 --> 00:20:11.454 You are a solution when you recognize you're the problem. 00:20:11.454 --> 00:20:14.883 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 00:20:14.950 --> 00:20:19.240 You and I probably get sad all the time about stuff that is happening on the broken world. 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:20.323 The world is broken. 00:20:20.323 --> 00:20:23.239 The world as you look at this world is not what it was supposed to be. 00:20:23.239 --> 00:20:25.217 You can see what it was supposed to be. 00:20:25.217 --> 00:20:32.156 You can see in the beauty, but then you also see all the marred, trash and difficulty in hell and danger in the world. 00:20:32.156 --> 00:20:35.431 That's the fallen part. 00:20:35.431 --> 00:20:36.773 That's the part that God didn't want. 00:20:36.773 --> 00:20:40.342 We can look around and we can even see the fingerprints of Satan. 00:20:40.342 --> 00:20:49.897 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. 00:20:49.897 --> 00:20:50.740 You can see that. 00:20:50.740 --> 00:20:54.691 But if you look closely, my friends, this is where the world gets it wrong. 00:20:54.691 --> 00:20:57.117 The world is trying to fix the world without fixing people. 00:20:57.117 --> 00:21:01.258 If you look closely, my friends, you'll see it's also in you. 00:21:01.258 --> 00:21:03.484 You're not what you were supposed to be. 00:21:04.588 --> 00:21:06.529 Here's a picture of an old, corroded boat. 00:21:06.529 --> 00:21:07.090 Let's take a look. 00:21:07.090 --> 00:21:09.111 I think it's a good model, a good example. 00:21:09.111 --> 00:21:12.251 I mean, you can see what the boat looked like once upon a time. 00:21:12.251 --> 00:21:15.692 You can see that it probably was seaworthy and it's pretty good. 00:21:15.692 --> 00:21:17.432 Now it's not even in the water. 00:21:17.432 --> 00:21:19.874 It's not doing what it was supposed to do. 00:21:19.874 --> 00:21:32.769 But also this corrosive corrosion, doubly corrosive corrosion, is eating away at it. 00:21:32.769 --> 00:21:36.821 My friends, that's a good picture of the world, but it's a good picture of you and me. 00:21:36.821 --> 00:21:41.739 That's what sin is doing to our motives, our thinking, our hearts. 00:21:41.739 --> 00:21:43.982 That's what it does Now. 00:21:43.982 --> 00:21:45.326 Thank God, jesus. 00:21:45.326 --> 00:21:47.336 Jesus is so dope, he's so awesome. 00:21:47.336 --> 00:21:48.400 He's here to fix it. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:49.944 He's here to fix it. 00:21:49.944 --> 00:21:51.217 That's what he's here to do. 00:21:51.217 --> 00:21:53.102 He's here to comfort. 00:21:53.221 --> 00:21:56.538 And just a little side note, a little trivia on the Sermon on the Mount. 00:21:56.538 --> 00:22:01.238 What you're going to see is what people are hearing is different than what you and I are hearing now. 00:22:01.238 --> 00:22:07.652 What people would have been hearing at that time was they would be hearing quotes of Isaiah and quotes of Ezekiel. 00:22:07.652 --> 00:22:12.530 See, jesus, he's referring to promises that they already knew about, that were deep in their scriptures. 00:22:12.530 --> 00:22:17.665 So he's dropping Easter eggs all over the place and this is one of them, and it's from Isaiah 61 too. 00:22:17.665 --> 00:22:18.816 He has sent me. 00:22:18.836 --> 00:22:19.979 So, this prophecy about Jesus. 00:22:19.979 --> 00:22:23.796 To tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come. 00:22:23.796 --> 00:22:25.621 To tell those who mourn. 00:22:25.621 --> 00:22:28.957 To tell those who look at the world and say this is corrosive man. 00:22:28.957 --> 00:22:34.836 To tell the ones that are sad about what's going on inside of them Jesus is here to comfort you. 00:22:34.836 --> 00:22:36.440 Jesus is here to fix it. 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:41.156 Here's another dope thing to know about those who mourn Ezekiel 9, 4. 00:22:41.217 --> 00:22:43.962 Now an angel is being set by God. 00:22:43.962 --> 00:22:45.686 God is bringing judgment on Jerusalem. 00:22:45.686 --> 00:22:52.955 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. 00:22:52.955 --> 00:22:54.820 And so God sends an angel. 00:22:54.820 --> 00:23:07.008 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. 00:23:07.008 --> 00:23:08.569 What I love about that. 00:23:12.256 --> 00:23:14.964 Have you ever been going through a hard, difficult time? 00:23:14.964 --> 00:23:18.625 And just telling somebody about it made it feel a little bit better? 00:23:18.625 --> 00:23:20.259 Because someone else knows. 00:23:20.259 --> 00:23:21.701 Someone else knows I'm not crazy dude. 00:23:21.701 --> 00:23:23.038 Somebody else knows. 00:23:23.038 --> 00:23:24.403 They feel a little bit sorry for me. 00:23:24.403 --> 00:23:27.279 They understand this is not totally just and I've got to go through this. 00:23:27.815 --> 00:23:30.421 And God sends an angel to take note. 00:23:30.421 --> 00:23:41.414 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. 00:23:41.414 --> 00:23:42.756 God, I don't like this. 00:23:42.756 --> 00:23:44.156 This isn't home. 00:23:44.156 --> 00:23:45.518 This isn't the way it's supposed to be. 00:23:45.518 --> 00:23:47.559 I don't agree with these ways of evil. 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:49.401 God takes note of it. 00:23:49.401 --> 00:23:53.003 God writes it down in his little notebook, this one. 00:23:53.003 --> 00:23:55.766 I know that they didn't mean for that to happen. 00:23:55.766 --> 00:23:58.048 I know that they don't approve of this. 00:23:58.048 --> 00:24:01.871 I know that they have to endure it, but it's not what they wanted to happen. 00:24:01.871 --> 00:24:03.472 See, god's got your back. 00:24:03.472 --> 00:24:08.826 God is paying attention to even the little things of your heart. 00:24:08.866 --> 00:24:12.941 When I was a boy I was probably 10 years old I was over at a friend's house. 00:24:12.941 --> 00:24:17.819 We were out in the woods and we were going to walk back to his house. 00:24:17.819 --> 00:24:21.857 We were going to spend the night and we're walking through a field of very tall grass. 00:24:21.857 --> 00:24:35.047 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. 00:24:35.047 --> 00:24:36.662 But not only that, they got full of hives. 00:24:36.662 --> 00:24:51.106 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. 00:24:51.106 --> 00:24:55.501 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. 00:24:55.501 --> 00:25:00.060 I was a little bit like okay, yeah, like this is a little bit better than laying there in the field. 00:25:01.724 --> 00:25:09.595 But it wasn't home, it wasn't. 00:25:09.595 --> 00:25:11.439 You see, I wanted to get to my mom. 00:25:11.439 --> 00:25:13.301 My mom would have her own ways of making the whole thing go away. 00:25:13.301 --> 00:25:16.667 My buddy's mom, she's okay, I want my mom and my friends. 00:25:16.667 --> 00:25:19.378 That's how the kingdom of heaven is. 00:25:19.378 --> 00:25:20.761 It's an already not yet. 00:25:20.961 --> 00:25:24.978 There's ways that the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus, encourages you. 00:25:24.978 --> 00:25:29.127 Now, when you're discouraged, when you're sad, he'll send you a word through the preacher. 00:25:29.127 --> 00:25:31.123 He'll send you something special from the Bible. 00:25:31.123 --> 00:25:43.026 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. 00:25:43.026 --> 00:25:47.281 It's okay, but it's not home. 00:25:47.281 --> 00:25:53.238 Home is a whole different level. 00:25:53.238 --> 00:25:53.357 Baby. 00:25:53.357 --> 00:25:59.240 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. 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:03.260 Now you're back with Daddy, now everything is times a billion awesome. 00:26:03.260 --> 00:26:05.164 That's going to be pretty dope. 00:26:05.526 --> 00:26:12.758 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? 00:26:12.758 --> 00:26:14.943 The answer is because you're just not home yet. 00:26:14.943 --> 00:26:20.358 You'll be there soon, but you're not there yet, and so your legs are going to get cut up. 00:26:20.358 --> 00:26:22.101 You're going to get hives from time to time. 00:26:22.101 --> 00:26:26.946 What does that mean that we should do when we're mourning One? 00:26:26.946 --> 00:26:29.609 I know this sounds cliche, but it means we should decide to celebrate. 00:26:29.609 --> 00:26:31.192 We just decide to. 00:26:31.192 --> 00:26:32.980 We just decide to celebrate everything. 00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:41.738 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. 00:26:41.738 --> 00:26:53.192 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. 00:26:53.192 --> 00:26:53.714 Cooperate with that. 00:26:55.275 --> 00:26:58.538 Another thing you can do when it's especially sad is serve, as there's nothing like getting our minds off ourselves. 00:26:58.538 --> 00:26:59.858 Remember, we started with. 00:26:59.858 --> 00:27:01.941 It's not about you, we started with. 00:27:01.941 --> 00:27:04.703 Go the humble way, get your mind off yourself. 00:27:04.703 --> 00:27:08.928 Serving is powerful, and some of us, I think, we're a little bit depressed because we're not serving enough. 00:27:08.928 --> 00:27:10.808 We're just not helping other people enough. 00:27:10.808 --> 00:27:13.451 We're not taking responsibility for improving the place. 00:27:13.451 --> 00:27:22.971