WEBVTT 00:00:04.346 --> 00:00:10.314 Tonight I'm going to open our time with something that I don't know if I've ever seen done before. 00:00:10.314 --> 00:00:14.650 We're going to open it with a quote from a 80s film. 00:00:14.650 --> 00:00:23.074 So when Alexander sold the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. 00:00:23.074 --> 00:00:29.342 So that's a quote from Hans Gruber from the Christmas film Die Hard. 00:00:29.342 --> 00:00:42.313 This is not a I would recommend filtering for any of those films, but this quote that's misattributed as being from classical literature. 00:00:42.313 --> 00:01:00.545 I mean, I guess, depending on your opinion of the film as to whether it's classical literature, it sums up perfectly the world's system and the world's mindset Take until there is nothing left to take, conquer until there is nothing left to conquer, and be strong in your own cause. 00:01:02.468 --> 00:01:07.921 Tonight we're going to look at how Jesus takes this entire concept and entirely turns it on its head. 00:01:07.921 --> 00:01:33.362 So just to really quickly recap where we've been the last few weeks Tyler kicked us off looking at the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, eben walked us through what being poor in spirit means, which is being fully dependent on God, and last week Nick took us on a deep dive into what it really means to mourn on the inward, on the inner man, as opposed to just on the outside for the whole world to see. 00:01:33.362 --> 00:01:37.742 So tonight let's go ahead and read our verse for this evening, and we're going to take a running start. 00:01:37.742 --> 00:01:40.490 So we're jumping in Matthew 5, 3 through 5. 00:01:40.490 --> 00:01:43.644 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:01:43.644 --> 00:01:44.852 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 00:01:44.852 --> 00:01:45.566 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:01:45.566 --> 00:01:47.093 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 00:01:47.093 --> 00:01:49.736 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:57.105 So, again as a reminder, the original audience for the Sermon on the Mount could be broken up into three different groups. 00:01:57.105 --> 00:02:01.240 There were the disciples, those who were already following Jesus. 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:02.382 There's the crowds. 00:02:02.382 --> 00:02:13.866 Those are the people who wanted to know more, they were curious, and then those were his enemies and those were those who came to find fault with him, whether or not they left the same way or not. 00:02:13.866 --> 00:02:17.133 All of these people were predominantly Jews. 00:02:17.133 --> 00:02:38.526 They were a people who were so desperate to cling on to their own right standing with God right Through holding on to rabbinical law and holding on to who they right standing with God right Through holding on to rabbinical law and holding on to who they were, and they were a people who had been oppressed under the boot of one group after another for generations First the Babylonians, then the Assyrians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. 00:02:38.526 --> 00:02:47.530 So they knew from very, very strong personal experience that this is a dog-eat-dog world. 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:51.812 You look out for yourself, you do everything right or you get steamrolled. 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:59.234 So from that perspective, putting yourself in those shoes, how would blessed are the meek have struck you? 00:02:59.234 --> 00:03:01.888 This is actual audience participation. 00:03:01.888 --> 00:03:04.806 How would it have struck you if somebody comes up and says blessed are the meek. 00:03:04.806 --> 00:03:07.552 And that is your nation's history? 00:03:07.552 --> 00:03:13.389 Anyway, it's yeah, right, right. 00:03:13.389 --> 00:03:17.806 That doesn't make any sense, it doesn't compute. 00:03:17.806 --> 00:03:22.034 So let's go ahead and jump in then. 00:03:22.115 --> 00:03:23.099 For what is meekness? 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:25.943 Because, again, it clearly is a word that Jesus used for a reason. 00:03:25.943 --> 00:03:33.155 It's not one that we really use much in the modern day, and when we do, it generally means something different than what it actually means in scripture. 00:03:33.155 --> 00:03:48.144 Meek, from a modern perspective, what does that mean to you? 00:03:48.144 --> 00:03:49.466 What other synonyms immediately jump to your mind? 00:03:49.466 --> 00:03:49.826 Anybody Weak, okay. 00:03:49.826 --> 00:03:50.929 Humble, okay, humble. 00:03:50.929 --> 00:03:52.891 Gentle, okay. 00:03:52.891 --> 00:03:55.961 Any others Kind, okay. 00:03:55.961 --> 00:03:58.186 These are all good words. 00:03:58.186 --> 00:04:02.983 Some are right in line, but some are a little bit off from the actual biblical definition. 00:04:03.584 --> 00:04:08.574 When we think of the word meek, we often think of it as being a weak person or a pushover. 00:04:08.574 --> 00:04:16.139 If we do actually associate with scripture, we associate it with the Jesus that you probably saw over your grandma's fireplace. 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:33.274 This is a weak, pale, pasty, mamby-pamby guy with perfectly straight hair, a perfectly trimmed beard, a perfectly white tunic that has never seen anything of the outside world and a little white, fluffy lamb in his arms. 00:04:33.274 --> 00:04:34.362 Right. 00:04:34.362 --> 00:04:37.379 That's what we think of if we think the word meek and we're associating with scripture. 00:04:37.379 --> 00:04:45.447 But that's Jesus was gentle, yes, and we're going to see what gentleness is and we're going to see more about what meekness means to Jesus. 00:04:45.447 --> 00:04:49.485 But it's not weakness, it's not being a pushover. 00:04:49.485 --> 00:04:52.850 That version of Jesus is not the version of Jesus that we see in Scripture. 00:04:52.850 --> 00:04:58.466 So meekness is also translated. 00:04:58.545 --> 00:05:08.161 This word that is used in Matthew is also translated as humbleness, gentleness, and it's the Greek word praos, but it's a different word. 00:05:08.161 --> 00:05:12.440 That's, interestingly enough, a different word than is used for gentleness in the fruits of the spirit. 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:15.387 So it is gentle, but it's not the same word for gentle. 00:05:15.387 --> 00:05:17.413 That word is praotes. 00:05:17.413 --> 00:05:19.605 Praotes is the derivative word. 00:05:19.605 --> 00:05:23.317 Praos is the root, praotes is the derivative. 00:05:23.317 --> 00:05:25.906 So whenever we're talking about what Mark talked about a few weeks ago about the root and the shoot the root prautes is the derivative. 00:05:25.906 --> 00:05:36.531 So whenever we're talking about what Mark talked about a few weeks ago about the root and the shoot, the root and the fruit praus, the meekness of the Beatitudes is the root and the gentleness of the fruit of the spirit is the fruit. 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:41.185 Real meekness is yieldedness. 00:05:41.185 --> 00:05:44.192 It's strength under God's control. 00:05:44.192 --> 00:05:49.670 It is a quiet and gentle confidence born of complete faith and trust in the Lord. 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:53.523 I'd like to read for a moment from the outline of biblical usage. 00:05:53.523 --> 00:06:02.213 Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. 00:06:02.213 --> 00:06:06.528 Gentleness or meekness is the opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest. 00:06:06.528 --> 00:06:10.403 It stems from trust in God's goodness and control over the situation. 00:06:10.403 --> 00:06:13.654 The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. 00:06:13.654 --> 00:06:16.723 This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. 00:06:16.723 --> 00:06:27.201 So what we're talking about here is a humility that comes from taking ourselves off of the throne of our lives and placing the one who should be on the throne there. 00:06:27.201 --> 00:06:33.374 It's recognizing that he is the king and not us A great example of meekness. 00:06:33.413 --> 00:06:47.949 In scripture we're going to look back at the Old Testament for a minute, we can find that in the life of Moses, in Numbers 12, when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, particularly questioning his right to lead the people of Israel, they're questioning the very core of what he's doing. 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:53.130 We get an interesting statement about Moses' reaction in verse 3. 00:06:53.130 --> 00:06:56.610 So this is Numbers 12.3, and all this is ESV. 00:06:56.610 --> 00:07:02.031 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. 00:07:02.031 --> 00:07:07.110 Now this is a little bit funny whenever you realize that it's actually Moses who's writing this. 00:07:07.110 --> 00:07:12.904 But whenever we actually look at his actual reaction, we actually see that backed up. 00:07:12.904 --> 00:07:16.454 It's not just a statement from Moses. 00:07:16.454 --> 00:07:21.886 He doesn't defend himself, he doesn't argue his own cause. 00:07:21.886 --> 00:07:25.713 He does nothing to secure his own authority over the people of Israel. 00:07:25.713 --> 00:07:38.894 The Lord thunders forth on Moses' behalf and Moses' only reaction recorded in scripture to this whole incident is him crying out for his sister when she struck with leprosy. 00:07:38.894 --> 00:07:43.348 He let the Lord work on his behalf. 00:07:43.348 --> 00:07:47.583 He learned the lesson at the Red Sea to stand and watch the salvation of the Lord. 00:07:48.788 --> 00:07:52.802 There are many other examples that are awesome in the Old Testament of meekness that we could touch on. 00:07:52.802 --> 00:07:55.711 There's Abraham when dealing with Lot and his herdsmen. 00:07:55.711 --> 00:08:08.026 Knowing that God had given blessings to Abraham himself, he left it to Lot to choose which direction he should go, trusting in the Lord to determine who's going to prosper, what the outcome of this situation was going to be. 00:08:08.026 --> 00:08:21.021 David when his men wanted to turn on him, after all their possessions and families had been taken, he turned to the Lord for strength and didn't defend himself, but he looked to the Lord for strength, to the one who could solve the situation. 00:08:21.021 --> 00:08:24.651 And there are many more that we could dig into, but those are just a couple. 00:08:24.651 --> 00:08:30.543 But since it's really and truly Jesus's own definition of meekness that really matters here, this is Jesus talking. 00:08:30.543 --> 00:08:31.507 He is our example. 00:08:32.061 --> 00:08:37.722 I wanna jump into several examples from his life in the temptation in the wilderness. 00:08:37.722 --> 00:08:48.725 Each one of the temptations from the enemy was a way to shortcut God's master plan, to have the nations bow down before him, to show off his power, to see himself made king without going to the cross. 00:08:48.725 --> 00:08:56.520 It's all shortcuts of the plan and the purposes that God had set forth, but Jesus maintained his eye on the goal and resisted every one of those. 00:08:56.520 --> 00:09:02.722 If we skip ahead to the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, matthew says in Matthew 21,. 00:09:02.722 --> 00:09:03.604 Four through five. 00:09:04.885 --> 00:09:07.750 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying. 00:09:07.750 --> 00:09:16.761 Say to the daughter of Zion behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. 00:09:16.761 --> 00:09:19.708 The word humble there is our prowse from the Beatitudes. 00:09:19.708 --> 00:09:23.184 Jesus was humbly entering Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. 00:09:23.184 --> 00:09:34.203 In the garden of Gethsemane, in Jesus' prayer, not my will, but yours be done, we see Jesus humbling himself and entrusting himself to the father's will, even though he could have called down legions of angels to rescue him. 00:09:34.203 --> 00:09:41.302 In none of these situations was Jesus being weak, and not one of them. 00:09:41.302 --> 00:09:46.506 He was as much of a warrior as a manly man as we see in any other time. 00:09:46.506 --> 00:09:55.304 In the wilderness temptation, he's going toe to toe with the prince of this age, using scripture to combat every single attack, not giving up an inch. 00:09:55.304 --> 00:09:58.865 He was enduring and destroying every lie with scripture. 00:09:58.865 --> 00:10:06.625 With it is written During his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, jesus was more of a king than anyone there living had ever seen. 00:10:07.394 --> 00:10:18.326 Not only was Jesus fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah in riding out a donkey, he was claiming himself to be king in the line of David, echoing first kings when Solomon rode into Jerusalem on David's mule. 00:10:18.326 --> 00:10:21.082 It's a sign of humility combined with authority. 00:10:21.082 --> 00:10:26.865 Here, jesus is not being the type or the shadow riding in on an animal of mixed origin. 00:10:26.865 --> 00:10:35.054 He's riding in on a pure animal, on the donkey, claiming himself to be the king of kings, lord of lords, and to be in the line of David. 00:10:35.054 --> 00:10:40.003 To anybody who had eyes to see and ears to hear, this wasn't a weak act. 00:10:40.003 --> 00:10:46.157 He was coming into Jerusalem as king to conquer death In the garden. 00:10:46.157 --> 00:10:50.683 He was getting ready to storm the gates of hell and deliver a death blow to death itself. 00:10:51.514 --> 00:11:12.034 In this meekness there he's not rolling over but was willingly, actively, agonizingly, to the point of shedding drops of blood, submitting himself, his will and his life to his father it says in Philippians 2a and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, and moving even further forward. 00:11:12.034 --> 00:11:24.280 We see that when he went to the cross, he did not open his mouth in his own defense, but endured the full penalty for sin as a sheep before the shearer winning our salvation the full penalty for sin as a sheep before the shearer winning our salvation. 00:11:24.280 --> 00:11:33.647 In every single one of these examples, the one who's calling us to live a life of meekness is not showing us a life of case or a seraph, flippancy or inaction, or being an unmanly weakling. 00:11:33.647 --> 00:11:40.287 I know, for guys I'm using the word manly a lot because for guys, whenever we hear this, it grates at who we are. 00:11:40.287 --> 00:11:40.586 We go. 00:11:40.586 --> 00:11:48.782 I need to be strong, I need to protect, I need to provide, but this is not a call to be weak. 00:11:48.782 --> 00:11:49.664 It's not a call to not stand. 00:11:49.664 --> 00:11:56.140 It is a call to stand when there is no other, when it seems that there's nothing behind you, except if you know who is behind you, you can stand in meekness. 00:11:59.065 --> 00:12:04.580 Something to note here as well is that a key element of Jesus' work on the cross was his meekness itself. 00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:07.567 I just read Philippians 2.8, but let's look at the surrounding verses. 00:12:07.567 --> 00:12:13.467 We're going to look at Philippians 2, verse 5 through 11. 00:12:13.467 --> 00:12:29.687 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he found himself. 00:12:29.687 --> 00:12:34.086 He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:12:34.086 --> 00:12:42.442 Therefore, god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven. 00:12:42.442 --> 00:12:44.625 Jesus is eternally God, but we see something special here. 00:12:44.625 --> 00:13:01.735 He is glorified by the Father in a special way because of how he humbled himself in doing this. 00:13:01.735 --> 00:13:03.621 He purchased us through that act as a people and inheritance for himself. 00:13:03.621 --> 00:13:11.264 He made himself through that known as savior and has been exalted for all to see as king of kings and Lord of lords, and he reigns forever. 00:13:12.754 --> 00:13:24.940 Meekness is not the normal human condition, but it comes from rightfully understanding who we are, who Christ is and who we are in Christ, comes from rightfully understanding who we are, who Christ is and who we are in Christ. 00:13:24.940 --> 00:13:33.471 Meekness allows us to be humble and gentle, even as we stand strongly, as we've already said, and moving into the second half of the passage, it opens the door to inheriting the earth. 00:13:33.471 --> 00:13:42.375 So let's take a step back, as we have this little transition point to looking at the blessings found, and I wanna look at the progression of the Beatitudes in this point. 00:13:42.375 --> 00:13:51.464 As we look and as we continue and I hope everybody will be continuing to come back week after week there's a progression that we see where one Beatitude builds upon another, builds upon another. 00:13:51.464 --> 00:13:54.342 So first week we're poor in spirit. 00:13:54.342 --> 00:14:00.119 We recognize our inability and this is the entry point into the kingdom of heaven those who mourn. 00:14:00.119 --> 00:14:03.182 We recognize our sin and how we have to have the Savior. 00:14:03.182 --> 00:14:07.086 And then through that, through that humility, we're comforted by the work of Christ. 00:14:07.086 --> 00:14:20.178 And now those who are meek, those who are no longer seeking their own earthly wants, desires or needs, but are submitted to the sovereign kingly will of their father, and then we inherit with the Son. 00:14:20.178 --> 00:14:22.865 So the first thing to note about this blessing for they will inherit the earth. 00:14:22.865 --> 00:14:28.988 This is inheriting, this is not taking. 00:14:29.434 --> 00:14:36.504 Looking back at that quote at the beginning, with the Hans Gruber quote that looks at the world system we take, we take, we take because it's all up to us. 00:14:36.504 --> 00:14:44.100 Inheritance comes from having a lineage where there is somebody who has the thing and it is given to you because you're a child. 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:47.727 That's not the way the world works. 00:14:47.727 --> 00:14:51.440 Inheriting is based on recognizing our father. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.106 The king has placed all things under Christ's feet. 00:14:54.106 --> 00:14:58.283 So, even if we did want to take it, it is not ours to take for ourselves. 00:14:58.283 --> 00:14:59.628 It belongs to Christ. 00:14:59.628 --> 00:15:05.923 If we are not sons of the king, if we're not in right standing with him, we cannot inherit. 00:15:05.923 --> 00:15:12.091 The inheritance that comes to the meek, does not come to just anybody who has a false sense of humility. 00:15:12.091 --> 00:15:15.057 It comes to those who actually have set Christ on the throne of their lives. 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:25.159 This promise is a perfect example of the already and not yet of the kingdom and, more specifically, of the Beatitudes. 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:27.611 As we look at each of these things, there's an already. 00:15:27.611 --> 00:15:29.597 The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:15:29.597 --> 00:15:31.322 The kingdom of heaven is here. 00:15:31.322 --> 00:15:34.918 The declaration that Jesus came to make is that the kingdom of heaven is here. 00:15:34.918 --> 00:15:35.899 God is with us. 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:40.179 But there's also a not yet, where all things are brought into full consummation. 00:15:40.179 --> 00:15:41.684 This is a great example of that. 00:15:41.684 --> 00:15:47.794 It's very much mirroring another already and not yet statement. 00:15:47.794 --> 00:15:52.626 That's later in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, 33. 00:15:52.626 --> 00:15:57.863 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 00:15:57.863 --> 00:16:07.153 We are called to renounce our own thrones and to seek the heavenly kingdom, and as we do that, all that we need will be provided for us by our caring father. 00:16:07.153 --> 00:16:13.398 This isn't a prosperity gospel you get everything that you want whenever you just believe. 00:16:13.398 --> 00:16:14.841 That's not what we're talking about. 00:16:14.841 --> 00:16:17.937 We're talking about a loving father giving what is needed to his children. 00:16:17.937 --> 00:16:22.967 It is a promise, again, for now and for the not yet. 00:16:22.967 --> 00:16:26.298 Again, there's a not yet. 00:16:26.298 --> 00:16:29.947 As followers of Christ, we are strangers in the land where we live. 00:16:29.947 --> 00:16:37.840 We are dual citizens, both here on earth and of the heavenly kingdom, awaiting the day eagerly when the earth is made new. 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:39.104 I want to look at Hebrews 11, 13 through 16. 00:16:39.104 --> 00:16:40.971 I want to look at Hebrews 11, 13 through 16. 00:16:40.971 --> 00:16:51.866 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 00:16:51.866 --> 00:16:55.288 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 00:16:55.288 --> 00:17:04.105 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country that is, a heavenly one. 00:17:04.105 --> 00:17:09.180 Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 00:17:10.201 --> 00:17:15.560 I don't know about you, but whenever I hear songs that sing about all things being made new. 00:17:15.560 --> 00:17:19.679 I'm specifically thinking about the music from Rich Mullins back in the eighties. 00:17:19.679 --> 00:17:25.176 I get teary because there's a sense of homesickness that I get in my heart. 00:17:25.176 --> 00:17:32.679 There's a longing for home, there's a longing for all this to be made new, and a lot of this is. 00:17:32.679 --> 00:17:34.785 It's a longing to see Jesus face to face. 00:17:34.785 --> 00:17:40.226 It's a longing for him directly, but it's also to see him receive all that he was promised. 00:17:41.555 --> 00:17:50.488 The consummation of all things, all things being made right, sees a new heavens and a new earth where all the good things that God has made but have been corrupted are made new. 00:17:50.488 --> 00:17:57.243 It sees Christ receiving his bride, a people from every tribe, nation, people and tongue. 00:17:57.243 --> 00:18:01.317 It sees us receiving our portion, our reward, jesus himself. 00:18:01.317 --> 00:18:08.809 We fully receive our inheritance as sons in that day, and that is what we are looking forward to in the not yet. 00:18:08.809 --> 00:18:23.443 Romans 8, 16 through 17 says the spirit himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 00:18:23.443 --> 00:18:31.982 So just to recap how all this works right Knowing we are citizens of a kingdom, knowing that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. 00:18:32.675 --> 00:18:37.204 We can stand as confident sons, knowing that we don't have to stick up for our own rights. 00:18:37.204 --> 00:18:43.003 Yes, we'll be stirred up for a zeal out of a zeal for the things that make the Lord's heartache. 00:18:43.003 --> 00:18:46.082 Yes, we will be stirred up for those that he's given to us that make the Lord's heartache. 00:18:46.082 --> 00:18:54.642 Yes, we will be stirred up for those that he's given to us, but whenever it comes to ourselves, we don't have to stand up for our own rights. 00:18:54.642 --> 00:18:58.388 Meekness does not breed inaction, but it breeds the right action. 00:18:58.388 --> 00:19:03.212 We then, from that place, operate in confident assurance of who is behind us. 00:19:03.212 --> 00:19:09.280 There's a greater strength than the world can ever know inside of us, and it does not matter if the odds are against us or not. 00:19:09.280 --> 00:19:13.239 We humbly occupy this broken world until he comes. 00:19:13.239 --> 00:19:18.317 So, with that knowledge, we don't conquer the earth in the same way that earthly kingdoms do. 00:19:18.317 --> 00:19:19.480 We are more than conquerors. 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:23.759 Through him who loved us, and we are looking for the kind of inheritance that the world is looking for. 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:33.507 When we, as co-heirs with Christ, inherit the earth, we're being a part of what Christ has promised, receiving that people that was his that was promised to him people from every tribe, nation and tongue. 00:19:33.507 --> 00:19:38.142 I want to close by specifically looking at the hope we have in that not yet. 00:19:39.586 --> 00:19:43.936 Meekness means letting go of our own control of our own destinies. 00:19:43.936 --> 00:19:46.902 It means letting go of our pride, not seeking self-interest, of our own control of our own destinies. 00:19:46.902 --> 00:19:49.566 It means letting go of our pride, not seeking self-interest, not engaging the way the world does. 00:19:49.566 --> 00:19:51.449 This is entirely counter to nature. 00:19:51.449 --> 00:19:52.550 It's terrifying. 00:19:52.550 --> 00:19:57.259 I don't know if anybody here has ever scuba dove before. 00:19:57.259 --> 00:20:04.423 I got an opportunity to do a beginner scuba diving class but you put that regulator in your mouth and you know you've got the tank and you're breathing, fine, right. 00:20:04.423 --> 00:20:12.604 And then you go under the water and every fiber of your being screams that if I do that, I'm gonna die. 00:20:12.604 --> 00:20:17.603 This is completely counter to nature and this is what meekness is in the Christian walk. 00:20:17.603 --> 00:20:28.857 It only works if we serve a sovereign, truly reigning God, if someone has already done the work for us that we could not do to purchase the work for us, that we could not do to purchase the inheritance for us. 00:20:29.579 --> 00:20:30.762 Revelations 5.5. 00:20:30.762 --> 00:20:33.715 And one of the elders said to me weep no more. 00:20:33.715 --> 00:20:51.086 Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals when the ultimate victory has been won, the ultimate victory over sin, the death, hell, the grave has been won in Christ, but we are still in hostile territory. 00:20:51.086 --> 00:20:55.901 We may not be conquerors in the earthly sense, but there's a form of conquering that we are still called to. 00:20:55.901 --> 00:20:59.924 I want to read Revelation 12, 10 through 11. 00:21:00.596 --> 00:21:18.201 And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of this Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives unto the death. 00:21:18.201 --> 00:21:20.606 That's how we conquer. 00:21:20.606 --> 00:21:32.046 We don't fight against flesh and blood, but we meekly, strongly, humbly and, as counterintuitively as it sounds, gently stand against the powers of this world. 00:21:32.046 --> 00:21:36.657 And we win by resting and standing in the finished work of Christ. 00:21:36.657 --> 00:21:40.125 But eventually, eventually, we will inherit the earth. 00:21:40.125 --> 00:21:43.960 Eventually, all that has been promised to Christ will be his. 00:21:45.844 --> 00:21:49.642 And he who was seated on the throne said behold, I am making all things new. 00:21:49.642 --> 00:21:53.361 And he said write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. 00:21:53.361 --> 00:21:54.961 And he said to me it is done. 00:21:54.961 --> 00:21:57.343 I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. 00:21:57.343 --> 00:21:58.542 To the thirsty. 00:21:58.542 --> 00:22:05.384 I will give from the spring of water of life, without payment, to the one who conquers, like we talked about in that last verse, to the one who conquers. 00:22:05.384 --> 00:22:08.699 Who conquers, like we talked about in that last verse, to the one who conquers. 00:22:08.699 --> 00:22:11.183 The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. 00:22:11.183 --> 00:22:13.669 That's Revelation 21,. 00:22:13.669 --> 00:22:14.277 Five through seven. 00:22:14.897 --> 00:22:24.397 When we entrust ourselves to our father, when we meekly, humbly, refuse to place ourselves on the throne, when we stand firm in the blood of the lamb, we operate as sons and we will inherit with these son. 00:22:24.397 --> 00:22:32.744 I would like to pray for us as we close and then want to let you guys get to the discussion questions and really look at how does this affect your own life? 00:22:32.744 --> 00:22:37.883 Operating out of meekness requires spiritual muscles that aren't naturally in us. 00:22:37.883 --> 00:22:47.263 It's not the natural way we want to actually operate if we're in our flesh, and I'd like to encourage you to really dig in with each other and look at the practical ways that this can be played out. 00:22:49.375 --> 00:22:51.476 Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this evening Again. 00:22:51.476 --> 00:23:02.355 We thank you for your people, we thank you for your word and, father, we thank you that you are on the throne, that we don't have to watch out for our own self-interest, we don't have to be looking out for number one Lord. 00:23:02.355 --> 00:23:13.499 We can entrust that entirely into your trustworthy, sovereign kingly hands, because you have overcome and you have conquered. 00:23:13.499 --> 00:23:27.749 I ask that you'd help us to look at our own lives and our own hearts and see where we've placed ourselves on the throne, and I ask that you would help us to remove ourselves from it, that we would not look out for our own self-interest, but we would look to glorify you in everything and, father, in every interaction and in every thing that we do and say. 00:23:27.749 --> 00:23:34.884 I ask the Trinity Community Church would be defined as a church made up of meek believers who stand strongly in you. 00:23:34.884 --> 00:23:41.880 So, father, I just thank you Again, I thank you for these people here and I just pray your blessings upon them in Jesus' name.