WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:26.559 This series is actually so great because I do feel I was telling somebody uh after first service, you know, I feel zero anxiety being here. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:27.519 You know, it's so nice. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:29.039 I feel like I'm back home. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.000 And that's like, yeah, great, okay, yeah. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:37.280 I I feel like this series is perfectly titled, you know, The Way Back Home. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:40.719 Uh I was thinking about that flying into good old SJC. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:42.560 I was like, this feels like home. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:43.920 And what a gift I have. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:47.920 What a great privilege that I have like two places I can call home. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.640 You know, we're in the Bay Area, we've worked here for four years, but we're total in the Bay Area for like seven years. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.200 And it just feels uh like home. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:56.640 And what does home feel like? 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.240 You know, it to me, it feels like Portland and it feels like the Bay Area. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:06.560 And it feels that way because the people that I am with when I'm in those spaces are comforting presence. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:12.959 I feel like they understand me, I understand them, and it feels like kind of the place I'm supposed to be, where I'm supposed to be. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:14.480 That's what home is like, you know? 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:18.799 And some of us maybe grew up with different homes that we have never felt that way. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:28.879 God, in his rich mercy, is provided and is providing for us a home, a place to be with him, rightly related with him, rightly knowing him. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:37.120 And even if you grew up in a dark home and a difficult home, God is the good father with a good home, leading his good children back there. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:39.280 And that's what this series is all about. 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:41.439 The Beatitudes is what we're looking at. 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:48.799 If you have a Bible, we're in Matthew chapter five, and last week Nassim brought an incredible, incredible message on uh the being poor in spirit. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:50.879 Blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:56.640 And what she said in there is that Jesus is granting us a benediction. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:59.920 Blessed are, fill in the blank. 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:01.599 Poor in spirit was last week. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.760 Jesus is also gonna bless those who mourn. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:04.719 He's gonna bless today. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:06.239 We're gonna look at the meek. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.520 He blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.520 He blesses, he's giving these blessings. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:19.120 And what she said was that one of the ways to translate that term, which in the in the Greek is makarios, is congratulations. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:20.800 Congratulations. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:29.599 I love the way that Ray Ortland, he's a pastor, he says that blessed is like a divine pat on the back. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:31.680 Like you're doing great, you know? 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:33.280 Kind of makes me think of Father's Day. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:39.840 If you had a good dad or even a decent dad, maybe you got that pat on the back from your dad one day of like, good job, you're doing great. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:48.319 I love to describe that term blessed as not just congratulations, not just a divine pat on the back, but like you're headed in the right direction. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:50.879 You're going the right way, you're doing great. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:52.800 This is where you should be. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:54.960 Keep going, be encouraged. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.680 That's the blessing that comes from Jesus. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.400 Heading towards rightly relating with God. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:10.080 And these beatitudes and benedictions, it it they're blessings, if you if you really pay attention to them, they're blessings of a kind of state that people are in, right? 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:16.159 Those who mourn, those who are poor in spirit, those who are persecuted, that's another one. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:18.639 That's a kind of state that you're in, right? 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:25.439 And the beatitudes, they're less of God like blessing of virtue, which we kind of think they are. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:30.560 A virtue is like a moral or a kind of countenance that we should aspire to. 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:33.599 Like you should be poor in spirit, something like that, right? 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.240 But that's not really what the beatitudes are about. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:41.199 They're less about God blessing a virtue, they're really more about God blessing a void. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:54.400 When something is lacking, not so much an attitude, like the kind of person I am, but a condition in which we find ourselves desperate before God. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:08.639 Poor in spirit, hunger and thirsting for righteousness, mourning, meekness, all of these things are a condition we find ourselves in that Jesus points at and goes, congrats, that's the right direction to go in. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.800 This is what Frederick Dale Bruner says in his commentary on this passage. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:19.680 These beatitudes do not, first of all, describe people, look at this, with good spiritualities. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.720 You know, the people who are up to date on the mindfulness podcasts and reading all the good books, you know, those are the people of good spiritualities. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:27.759 It's not really describing those. 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:30.000 If that's you today, congrats in another way. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:30.560 I don't know. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:33.439 But that's not who Jesus is congratulating. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:34.399 That's important to know. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:39.439 Not people with good spiritualities, so much to describe people in bad situations. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.920 Mourning, persecution, poverty. 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:44.480 Okay? 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.240 He's blessing those people. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:05:00.560 We will miss the gospel or like the good news of Jesus' blessings, and we will miss their worldwideness too, if we prematurely hear Jesus blessing virtues or good attitudes. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.240 Today, I think the bad news is I can't tell you how to be meek. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:07.199 I would love to. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:10.240 In fact, it would make me feel super good about myself, right? 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:11.920 Pastors love to tell you what to do. 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:13.360 Hey, you want to be meek? 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:14.879 Here's four ways to be meek. 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:16.399 You know, one, two, three, four. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:17.759 This is how you develop meekness. 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:18.879 And then let's get out of here. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:20.639 That makes me feel better and you feel worse. 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:21.920 Sounds like a good day. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:24.000 Um, pastors love doing that. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:32.319 I can't do that today because it would be dishonoring the text, be dishonoring the greatest benediction ever given to humanity, the Beatitudes. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.160 Uh but it puts me in a precarious position. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:37.600 How do we preach this? 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:45.680 Because Jesus is simply pointing out something in us as human beings that he is affirming and blessing. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:51.439 The Beatitudes, the good news though, is they're not a list of heavy burdens, a to-do list. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:59.360 They're a list of these attributes of those who are knowing God rightly, a state they are in or will be in one day. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.120 They are that condition. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.240 In that condition, we hear Jesus blessing us. 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.279 Today I want you to hear Jesus blessing you if you find yourself in that condition. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:18.319 And these, don't make, make no mistake, these blessings Jesus gives, uh, they are not blessings our culture gives, even our Christian culture gives. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.680 Our Christian culture applauds the gifted. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.839 Our Christian culture applauds the testimony that is done, right? 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.800 The person who's like, didn't know God, they wrestled with God, they went through addiction, now they know God. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:32.000 We applaud. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:42.959 We don't applaud the person who stands up and goes, My life is a mess, I'm currently mourning, uh, I do not know what to do, but I hope God helps me. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:45.680 We're like, that's awkward, that's confusing. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.360 But Jesus looks at that and says, Congratulations. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:53.040 What a different word. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:57.519 And Jesus today says this in Matthew 5, 5. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:06:59.439 Blessed, congratulations. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:03.120 You're heading in the right direction, those of you that are meek. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:08.879 For they shall inherit the earth. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:09.600 Meek. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.000 This word in the Koine Greek. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:13.040 You want to learn some Greek today? 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:13.839 You're gonna have to. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:14.879 Wake up. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:16.160 Look at me. 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:18.319 The word is prous. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:19.199 Can you say it? 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.519 Prous, thank you. 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:28.240 The Greek word, it's translated meek here, it's also translated in other passages as gentle, as mild. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:29.600 I like this one. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:39.199 Those who make no claims for themselves, this scholar also said, like, or who can't make claims for themselves because they don't have any power. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:51.199 Aristotle, not in the theological tradition, but in the philosophical tradition, he defines this word, he also wrote in Greek, in Koine Greek, classical Greek, as strength under control. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:52.560 He talks about a horse. 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:55.040 I don't know a lot of horses, I grew up in the city. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:58.800 Uh, this metaphor was lost on me, but it might help you. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:05.199 A horse, apparently, you know, you look at it and it's like, this thing could kill me. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:11.839 But it has a control to its strength, especially when it's harnessed and when it's, you know, tied up. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:18.720 That actually, though it has great power, it is a meek animal in that it is strength that is under control. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:22.560 Maybe that helps you if you're from somewhere I'm not from. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:23.920 This is that word. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 I'm trying to get you a flavor for this word. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.720 This is the kind of person that Jesus celebrates. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.720 And make no mistake, this person, look at these descripting terms, right? 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:35.200 They are not getting retweeted on the internet. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:37.679 They are not going viral. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:43.519 This person, I might prophesy today, would never win political office in this country. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:46.399 It just won't happen with these characteristics. 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:50.240 The culture does not congratulate this person. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:52.960 And Jesus does. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:53.919 Why? 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:03.360 If I can't tell you today how to be meek and give you a self-help sermon, I can show you, though, meekness biblically. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:16.639 And I can show it to you through the one who lived it, which is the one who gave this blessing, Jesus Christ Himself, the meek one, the one who came in gentleness and a mild heart. 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:30.720 And today I can only hope and pray that God would show you who he is and his heart, and that might help you see the meekness in your own heart, the meekness of Jesus, his gentle heart, his humble arrival, and his profound promise. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:32.000 That's the plan for today. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.120 I gotta pray because I don't know how to do this without the Holy Spirit. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:36.159 Let's pray. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:40.799 Oh God, what a tall order you've given us. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:48.559 It's impossible for us to understand this blessing, to receive this blessing, which is all the whole point of a blessing. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:54.159 It's impossible for us to receive this blessing unless your Holy Spirit impresses it upon us. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:10:03.440 And so may your gentleness and your meekness be present with us, and may our hearts be soft enough to hear something we're kind of fidgety to hear. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:28.240 And I pray particularly for those that have their metaphorical arms crossed, a distance, an ambivalence out of grace and out of gentleness, kindly destroy that pride in me and in us. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.279 Because we gotta hear something that's good. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:32.480 We need your good news. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:33.679 It's only gonna come from you. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:34.799 We pray this in Christ's name. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:35.440 Amen. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:36.480 Amen. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:41.919 The meekness of Jesus, his gentle heart, his humble arrival, his profound promise. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:44.240 Jesus has a gentle heart. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.279 He has a gentle heart. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.639 I told you this word pops up, prouse, a few times in the New Testament. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:54.399 It's translated different ways. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.120 Shows up in Matthew 5.5, blessed are the meek. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:06.720 If you go a few pages to the right to Matthew chapter 11, it appears again in this verse where Jesus says these profound words that I know Ryan has preached on recently. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:11.120 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:12.480 Why? 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:15.279 Because I am gentle. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:17.120 There's that word, prouse, I am prouse. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:26.240 I am meek, gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:31.039 Why does Jesus congratulate the meek? 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.879 Why does he say they're going in the right direction? 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:38.879 Because they are headed straight for his heart. 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:44.480 They're going right to the meekness that is the heart of God. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:48.399 They're headed in the right direction. 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:57.440 This is the only time, Charles Spurgeon says, the only time in all the gospels where Jesus directly tells us what his heart is like. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:11:58.559 Isn't that interesting? 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:04.799 Now there's many times in the Gospels where like you can assume or presume where Jesus' heart is. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.240 It says he has compassion on people. 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:07.279 It says he's moved. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:08.320 It says he weeps. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:09.919 It says that he mourns for people. 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:14.559 There's moments where Jesus shows us his heart. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.440 There's one place he tells us his heart. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:18.480 Right here. 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:23.919 Emphatically, out of the word, the mouth of Jesus, he looks at us and he says, Take my yoke. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:30.639 You know what a yoke is, it's like the the thing that would be laid on an animal as they're going and plowing and working in the field, right? 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:34.960 It's like, put this on because it's gentle, because I am gentle. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.879 My yoke is easy, my burden is light, he says later. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:41.840 I am gentle and lowly. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.159 That's what my heart is. 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:49.919 Now, the heart, to you and me, is the center of our emotional life. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:56.240 When you say I have a heart for something, it means that you emotionally care about it and are emotionally invested in it. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:13:02.320 In the ancient world, the heart was not the center of emotions, it was the center of everything about you. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:10.879 It was the center of your emotions, but it was also the center of your will, the center of everything you want, your desires, the center of your behaviors. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:15.279 The heart was the center and the seat for all understanding about an individual. 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:18.320 You want to know somebody, you can know their heart. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:21.360 That's why Scripture says, guard your heart above all else. 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:22.879 Proverbs 4.23. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:25.120 For from it flow the springs of life. 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.360 Everything flows from the heart. 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.960 Now, knowing that, look back at this verse of Matthew 11, 29. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:36.000 I am gentle and lowly in heart. 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:45.039 The center of God's being, the very essence of his nature is prowess. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:54.639 He's telling you directly, gentle and lowly, meek, in the words of the Beatitude. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:14:02.639 You know, God is described most often in the Old Testament in a funny phrase, English translation is slow to anger. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:03.919 Slow to anger. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.039 I'll always remember learning the Hebrew word for that phrase. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.360 It's one word in the Hebrew when I was in seminary. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:12.399 It literally means long nostriled. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:16.639 Because like when you're pissed, your nostrils flare up, right? 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:22.799 So the Hebrew word is like God takes a long time to flare the nostrils. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:24.799 He's slow to anger. 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:30.399 And it's repeated, it's the most quoted scripture in all the Old Testament. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:35.600 And when I was thinking about when else does God directly tell me what he's like? 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:49.120 Again, so many places where he shows me what he's like, many places where the prophets say this is what God's like, what the psalmist says, God, you are this, but where does God, out of the mouth of God, say, This is my nature, this is who I am? 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.080 It happens with Moses in Exodus 34, is one time. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:15:01.360 There's a few other times, but one to highlight is he's passing before Moses, and Yahweh, God Almighty, is proclaiming this about himself. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:23.600 Yahweh, Yahweh, that's the Hebrew, the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, there's our long-nostrelled word, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:28.879 In other words, he won't like pass over the guilty and like forget about grievous things that happen. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:37.120 Instead, he will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:39.600 Look at that verse, keep it on the screen. 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:48.320 God's constant state, the core of who he is, is found in his heart. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:58.159 And this heart, in Exodus 34 and Matthew 11, is one of relaxing love, gentleness. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.799 He is meekness, strength under control. 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:08.480 His anger, Psalm 30, verse 5 says, His anger is but for a moment. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:09.679 Just a moment. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.279 His anger is for a moment. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:13.279 His wrath is for a moment. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:17.679 His judgment is absolutely real. 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.720 God judges evil in this world and he will judge it. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:26.159 His wrath is cataclysmic. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:28.639 You do not want to be on the other side of it. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.039 But that is not his heart. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.120 Let me repeat that. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:37.600 His anger is real, his judgment is real, but that is not his heart. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.679 Nor is it God's primary countenance. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:45.919 God will punish the guilty, but he's not always doing that. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:47.519 What is he always doing? 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.320 What is the common disposition of his nature? 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:51.919 Prowess. 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:58.480 Gentleness, meekness, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:08.240 This is shocking to a lot of us who generally believe that God is mostly disappointed with our life. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:16.000 I don't know about you, but I grew up thinking that God was generally disappointed with my life. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.759 I grew up in the Catholic Church. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:26.880 I grew up after that when I first came to Christianity in a pretty conservative evangelical church. 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:34.559 And I would say for a lot of my life, I did not believe myself to be the object of God's love. 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:39.119 I believed myself to be the object of his scrutiny. 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:43.839 Many people walk around living this way. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:53.039 Constantly thinking that God is the divine substitute teacher, waiting for the assignment to be turned in, and when it's late, there's deep disappointment. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:59.680 Constant uh assessing of small, minor moral infractions and going, what the heck. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.039 Now, you would never say that to me, especially not me. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:03.599 I'm a pastor. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:05.359 You'd be like, no, God loves me. 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:07.039 You'd never say that. 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.119 But you you live under that anxiety. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.319 You're anxious about how God feels about you. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:22.000 And let's throw on top of that, it's Father's Day, we might as well go here. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.319 We all grew up in homes that were imperfect. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.480 It doesn't matter how great your dad was or not. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:33.599 I grew up with a decent dad who left when I was late in life, and we have no relationship. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:35.359 Some of you know my know my story. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:54.559 The environment in which we grow up shapes the way that we view God, and then the surrounding culture and all these things, and then the Bible tells you to call God a father, and these things are get so mixed up that you're not really seeing who God actually is, even when he's emphatically telling you directly, I am gentle. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.079 Why would you live as if he's not? 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:02.000 Because we're we're broken. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:06.240 Because the condition we are in is prowess. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:08.000 We're meek. 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.839 We've been the strength has been taken out of us. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:13.440 We don't even have the strength to be under control. 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:14.960 We're poor in spirit. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:20.480 We're mourning the loss, the absences in our life. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:23.519 See, we are in the Beatitudes. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:28.799 And if we're if we're truly gonna be honest with each other today, that is our condition. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:37.839 And we are constantly unable to receive the loving kindness of God because of that broken state. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:45.279 We are convinced that God is not loving us right now, he's critically inspecting us. 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:54.160 And so, unable to receive God's love, we go two routes. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:57.359 We either go towards apathy or towards ambition. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:03.759 Depending on your kind of your own disposition and personality, you you might be in the apathetic route. 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:14.559 Unable to receive God's love, in the words of Romans 2, chapter 2, verse 4, you presume upon the riches and the kindness and forbearance and patience of God. 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:15.519 You presume upon it. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:16.640 What does that mean? 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:18.960 You just think it'll all work out one day. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:20.880 Hopefully, God loves me. 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.920 God's a loving God, I know that. 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:31.440 Uh He probably loves me, but it doesn't drive you, it doesn't possess you, it doesn't control you. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:34.240 It just informs you lightly. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:40.880 God loves me, I guess, and so I'll just kind of do my best, live my best, but ultimately be apathetic towards it. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:45.039 But beware of confusing God's gentleness for ambivalence. 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:50.720 God is gentle, God is meek, God is slow to anger, but he is not ambivalent. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:56.799 Remember, the word gentle in Matthew 11, the word meek, it's strength under control, right? 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:58.880 The image of the horse, right? 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:03.039 Exodus 34, the one we read, uh it's still up there, right? 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:09.200 Notice in here, he says abounding, like his nature is abounding in steadfast love and slow to anger, but notice what he says. 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:14.160 He will by no means clear the guilty, he will visit the iniquity, the sins, he will come back to the sins. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.920 Again, but he's not always doing that, but he will do that one day. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:24.799 He will judge, he will provide an execution of judgment upon sin. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.200 He's not ambivalent. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:43.759 Matthew 11, where we were earlier, if you're there right now, where he's talking about being gentle and lowly, the one that we love to put on coffee mugs and put on as like, you know, our Instagram profiles, right before that, he denounces cities and he provides woes to them. 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:44.799 You don't know what a woe is. 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:46.000 You're a 21st century American. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:46.799 You got no idea. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.160 I don't, I didn't know until I studied. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.720 Woes are these pronouncements of complete desolation on people. 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:56.480 And he says this to a couple cities like Tyree and Sidon. 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.759 He says, It's gonna be worse for you than some of the cities that. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.200 Receive judgment in the Old Testament. 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:03.200 You think the Old Testament is rough? 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:05.680 Wait till after the New Testament is completed. 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:11.279 There is judgment coming for these cities that are destroying poor people and wrecking the lives of women and children. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:12.480 Judgment is coming. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:15.200 That's right before the gentle and lowly passage, all right? 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:20.640 The domesticated Jesus must be let loose, okay? 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:22.240 That is not a real Jesus. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:25.519 He says that, and then he says, I'm gentle and lowly. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:30.480 And again, both things can be true because the general nature of his heart is meek. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:35.359 The core of his being is slow to anger, but he executes judgment. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:41.440 See, Jesus' anger and God's wrath, it's not like your anger and wrath or like mine. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:42.640 We fly off the handle. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:43.680 We have the short fuse. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:45.680 We have all these phrases we use for anger. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.200 We lost control. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:49.759 God doesn't lose control. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.680 God does, it's not just that God has a longer fuse. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:56.640 It's that God does not have that relationship to anger that you have. 00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:10.799 He has it totally under control and executes it for just a moment and then is back in and still in, even when he's in his anger, he's still in his gentleness and his lowliness and his love, steadfast love. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:12.559 He is nothing like you. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.519 And that's great news to hear today. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.119 So beware of confusing God's gentleness for ambivalence. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:24.960 The heart of God is the definition of the kind of father I aspire to. 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:27.200 And maybe if you're a dad today, you aspire to it. 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:30.079 A God that has strength under control that's truly meek. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:36.880 But we also dismiss God's own love and his own meekness, his gentleness in our life, like him gently loving us. 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.279 We refuse it and we show ambition. 00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:50.240 Christian ambition or creative ambition or secular ambition towards success, you name it, we don't want to hear that we are loved. 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:52.960 It's part of our own brokenness. 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:57.680 We would much rather get the sermon today about how to be meek. 00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:00.079 This is again, some personality types are just built this way. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:03.920 I would like the sermon for how to be meek so this week I can go and do it. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:05.039 Give me the list. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:05.599 And you know what? 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:08.319 I'll be honest, pastors love giving the list, man. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:12.720 We love, and I'm guilty of using the word should. 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:18.480 You should do this, you should do this, you should do that. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:24.960 And if you've grown up in that culture, just as a pastor here sitting before you today, I am sorry. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:26.160 I'm sorry. 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:30.160 I mean, this misses the very heart of who God is. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:38.079 To give people a list and tell them that that list of doing those things would help them access God's love. 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.039 As if behavior was a prerequisite to mercy. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.480 How backwards is our gospel. 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:50.000 How much of a burden have we laid on people? 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:51.839 What a disgrace. 00:24:53.039 --> 00:25:02.000 God's love is not a burden of should, and don't forget, I told you I grew up Catholic, don't forget the shouldn'ts. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:06.640 Some of you ambitious people love a good list of shouldn'ts. 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:13.200 Give me the stuff I don't do so that I can feel better about myself and feel like God loves me. 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:16.720 Now I'm making light of this because I'm uncomfortable, because this is me. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.400 I mean, pastors, like we're paid to be good, you know? 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.960 Like, at some level, we work and operate in a moral environment. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:31.519 And as long as we're not doing certain things, people think we're maybe a good pastor. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.079 What a tragedy. 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:37.599 What a tragedy to think that that's all we have to do as pastors. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:38.960 No, the vision is so much larger. 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:41.200 It's not just about should, nots, and shoulds. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:50.559 I'm grieved at my own life when I have linked my moral performance to my ability to access God's profound grace and mercy. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:58.079 We think the two are interconnected, and we think that one is dependent on the other. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:08.640 But really, God is offering us this love, and as Tim Keller has put it, like we don't behave to be loved. 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:14.319 We are loved and we behave differently because we experience that love. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.519 So we hear the Proverbs and suddenly we want to do the Proverbs. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:23.839 Not because God might love us, but because God has loved us. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:25.519 I look at the Proverbs with joy. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:27.279 God help me do these things. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:31.920 I want to do these things because I know they're for my good and I know you love me. 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:37.359 And we hear the commands written through the New Testament, and they are not a heavy burden. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:39.440 They're not a heavy burden. 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:55.359 I read the Proverbs and I read the commands of Scripture, which are numerous, and I don't read them as heavy burdens because I know my relationship with God is not hinging upon my potential to accomplish those commandments. 00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:02.480 And some of you are living disrelated to God because of that. 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:08.000 You're missing how you should be relating with God in his countenance. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:11.519 I've been studying this term burden in the New Testament. 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.720 Uh, I don't know why, I think the Lord's just kind of brought me to it. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:27.119 And the word burden, it pops up a few times in Jesus' passage in um Matthew 11, where he says, My yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:34.240 And it's interesting, he later will denounce the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 4. 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:35.200 He says this. 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:46.000 He says, Woe to you, Pharisees, you tie up heavy burdens and you lay them on people's shoulders, and you don't even move a finger to do them yourselves. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:47.759 You lay on heavy burdens. 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:54.000 Later in the book of Acts, uh in the New Testament, this church is getting started and there's like a theological emergency. 00:27:54.079 --> 00:28:00.000 They're like, How do we incorporate the people who are not Jewish into this faith that is tied to the story of Israel? 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:02.480 Do they need to do all the ceremonial laws? 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:17.039 And they have this big meeting in Acts chapter 15, and the disciples say this: It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements. 00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:18.240 And you know what they say? 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:24.000 Stay away from food sacrificed to idols and the blood in the sacrifices and watch your sexual life. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:26.160 Don't commit sexual immorality. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:32.559 Now, that doesn't summarize all the commands of scripture, but in that moment to those churches at that time, you know what their heart was? 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:35.599 We don't want to lay a greater burden on you. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:41.279 I think spiritual leaders often want to. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:45.279 They want to put a better, bigger burden on you. 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:49.039 They want to say, here's all the things you should and should not do. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:29:10.000 But is our heart, like what I was convicted of, is is my heart as a spiritual leader, like the heart in the book of Acts, that there would be no greater burden laid on anyone other than the easy burden of Jesus, knowing that their prime, their their pure relationship with Jesus is based off what he has done. 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:16.960 The meek understand that the burden of Jesus is light because he bears it on their behalf. 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.440 Here's John Tyson, a pastor in New York City. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:23.200 He says, You don't need to unburden yourself to come to Jesus. 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:30.480 Actually, your burden is the very thing that qualifies you to receive his gospel because he'll ask you to lay it down. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.720 You don't need to unburden yourself. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:37.200 Jesus wants to show you mercy more than you want to receive it. 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:48.799 Beware of making the basis of your walk with God your moral performance. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.640 It's stifling and you miss the very heart of God. 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:57.920 Notice, God in all of the beatitudes, does not bless moral behavior. 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:00.559 Even when he blesses righteousness, you know what he says? 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.839 Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:10.720 He's like, I'm congratulating you if it's just in your desire to live rightly with me. 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:14.079 He's not saying, Blessed are those who are morally perfect. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:16.000 He does not bless the do-gooders. 00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:19.920 He blesses those who cannot do anything for themselves. 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:34.160 When you are sitting in a condition where you have nothing to offer God and you have stumbled and fallen and not done anything, the meek and gentle heart of God looks at you and says, Congratulations. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:38.480 You are headed in the right direction. 00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:48.799 That meekness is met with a congratulatory applause from God because right there you're getting to know Jesus Christ. 00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:57.519 When you have nothing, when you bring nothing, when you are lowly, you see God's gentleness and God's kindness to you. 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:00.960 God has a gentle heart. 00:31:01.279 --> 00:31:04.000 Jesus also had a humble arrival. 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:05.759 A humble arrival. 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:12.000 The third time the word prouse is used is when Jesus is arriving in his final week on Palm Sunday. 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:30.720 He's riding into Jerusalem, not on a war horse, but on a donkey, and Matthew cites Zechariah, an Old Testament prophet, and he says, This say to Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, prouse, meek, humble, mounted on a donkey on a colt, not on a war horse. 00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:32.880 Your king is coming humble. 00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:39.599 And constantly, New Testament writers were obsessed with telling us the nature in which God came to this earth. 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:43.279 When God arrived on earth in Christ, he didn't thunder in. 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:49.119 When God decided to arrive on our planet and in our time and space, he did so in a particular way. 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:51.839 And the New Testament pays close attention to it. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:58.880 He was born in a barn, poor, in Bethlehem, a city you would never know had Jesus not been born there. 00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:05.680 He was born in Bethlehem, not in Rome, not in Athens, not in Constantinople, not in any of the major metropolises of the ancient world. 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:12.000 He came in a persecuted people group, the Jewish people, under the Roman rule, not in the ruling culture. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:16.960 He brought his strength under control in the humility and meekness he arrived in. 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:19.359 He grew up, I love Luke 2.52. 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:23.519 The boy Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge in the favor of God and man. 00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:24.799 Jesus grew up. 00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:31.920 Jesus learned to speak, developed into personal skills, did chores, learned the alphabet, memorized scripture, learned to trade, developed relationships. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:37.680 Ultimately, he subjected himself to his messianic mission and gave his life on the cross. 00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:48.880 And it's in the story of Jesus, in the arrival of Jesus, that we realize as we see God's great love, our condition of meekness arrives. 00:32:49.200 --> 00:33:11.680 And staring at the cross, this is why Paul put it this way in Roman Philippians 2, verse 5 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 he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself. 00:33:11.839 --> 00:33:15.279 I love that, becoming obedient to death, death on a cross. 00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:17.359 Look at the back of the start of that verse. 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:23.279 Paul's like, have this mind, because this is yours in Christ. 00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:27.759 When you know Christ, your brain and your mind start to change. 00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:34.799 According to Scripture, it is possible to develop the meekness, but it's only possible through Christ. 00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:36.640 It's yours in Jesus. 00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:39.920 Meekness is found in Christ, in knowing him. 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:42.720 Why do we find meekness when we find Jesus? 00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:52.960 Because we find out just how much strength he placed under control, just how much divinity he sequestered inside his humanity, and how much he gave so that we could receive. 00:33:53.119 --> 00:34:01.839 When you come to know God, you come to know a God altogether unpredictable, wild, uncommonly generous, large and glorious. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:12.159 You cannot control this God, and that is when you become and realize you've always been what God has congratulated you to be: meek. 00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:15.199 In the condition of meekness. 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:27.199 We all struggle to receive God's love because we struggle to receive it with empty hands. 00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:32.159 But God gives you also a profound promise. 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:33.920 A profound promise. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:41.280 I hate to tell you I've spent all but three minutes of this message, and I haven't even told you half the verse. 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:44.800 But now we're in the final three minutes, and let's get into it. 00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:49.280 It says that blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. 00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:49.920 You hear that? 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:52.960 They shall inherit the earth. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:55.280 What does this mean? 00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:05.280 I didn't realize this until many years ago studying this, that this is the only Beatitude where Jesus is not dropping an original track. 00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:07.440 This is not his original lyric. 00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:12.079 He had that first blessed are the poor in spirit, profound. 00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:14.239 Blessed are those who mourn, profound. 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:17.280 But this is a remix. 00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:19.440 It's uh a cover song. 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.239 He's just quoting Psalm 37. 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:23.119 Did you notice? 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:25.360 Psalm 37, verse 10. 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:33.920 In just a little while, the psalmist says, the wicked will be no more, or those who are oppose God, they will be no more. 00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:38.320 You're gonna look carefully at his place, and he will not be there. 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.360 But the meek shall inherit the land. 00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:43.199 And here's the part he left off. 00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:47.599 And delight themselves in abundant peace. 00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:51.440 Delight themselves in abundant peace. 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:05.599 I get that the Christian life is morally good, but is it gonna last? 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:13.119 It's about the struggle that we see when we see people who aren't following God having a super cool life. 00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:17.119 We go, they they look like they have it all. 00:36:17.679 --> 00:36:22.480 Like we say money doesn't buy you happiness, but it looks kind of sweet, you know? 00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:29.280 Greed doesn't seem like it should be good, but greedy people do seem kind of happy and powerful. 00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:32.159 And maybe we should get some of that. 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:36.000 Psalm 37 is about that wrestle. 00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:41.039 Do we trust God with his ways and his will and with his love? 00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:44.480 That in receiving God's love, we would actually receive something in turn. 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:45.199 This is the struggle. 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:50.639 And the promise of Psalm 37 is the same promise as Jesus gives in Matthew 5. 00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:53.519 You will inherit the land. 00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:56.639 That is not, just so you know, metaphorical. 00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:04.000 When the Hebrew Bible talks about the land, and when Jesus talks about the earth, he's not talking about a metaphorical place. 00:37:04.159 --> 00:37:06.400 He's talking about the ground in which you walk. 00:37:06.719 --> 00:37:21.199 And he's saying, one day the meek, those who are gentle, and those whose strength is under control, under the gentleness of God, one day they'll get everything you can see in this whole world. 00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:22.320 They'll get it all. 00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:25.599 This is new creation language. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:29.119 If you're familiar with the end of the biblical narrative, where does this story go? 00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:32.480 Where does when God returns to this earth? 00:37:39.440 --> 00:37:42.239 It is the story of a city coming down to this earth. 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:44.320 And it says this in Revelation 21. 00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:53.119 God has prepared this place, and a loud voice says this behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, your finally home. 00:37:53.440 --> 00:38:00.400 He will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:02.239 Revelation 21, 3. 00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:06.559 The promise given to the meek is the great hope of the Christian life. 00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:15.519 That one day, though you possess nothing and give everything for the sake of the gospel and give everything to God, there is a day coming where everything comes back to you. 00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:18.719 The meek will inherit the earth. 00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:25.440 A day is coming where the world will be turned upside down and God will find his place with his people. 00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:40.079 But the temptation for us to fight against is to believe that through our own moral performance and our own ambition or ambivalence or apathy would be that we could grab as much from the world as we could right now. 00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:41.760 You know what Jesus says to that? 00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:46.960 He says, when you grab as much as you can from the world, that's all you get. 00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:48.400 You will get it. 00:38:48.960 --> 00:38:50.639 But that's all you'll get. 00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:57.280 So you can go for the money and enjoy it. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:38:59.840 Because that is what you will get. 00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:04.719 And you can go for the career, that sweet career that impresses all of us. 00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:06.400 We are all impressed with you. 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.199 But that is what you will get. 00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:20.960 And you can have the cultural significance and the enormous explosion of creative energy that people applaud, that is what you will get. 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:26.719 And for the rest of us that look around and go, I don't have much. 00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:29.760 I actually got nothing to offer. 00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:34.320 And we look to God and go, I don't even have anything to give to you. 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:37.840 God says, congratulations. 00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:41.119 You're headed in the right direction. 00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:49.039 One day it's coming where you'll look at those that tried to grab it all and you'll realize they're not there. 00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:56.320 Not out of anger, not out of wrath, out of justice. 00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:00.559 Some took and they got it. 00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:05.360 Others released and surrendered and they will get it all. 00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:08.400 But the meek will inherit the land. 00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:11.440 May it fall on us to be a blessing from God. 00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:13.119 Because I don't know about you. 00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:16.400 There's not a lot of days I feel like I have a lot to offer. 00:40:16.719 --> 00:40:19.280 There's not a lot of days where I feel like I have much. 00:40:19.920 --> 00:40:28.639 But I sense through this passage a whisper that God loves me with a kind of love I am often unable to receive. 00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:38.000 And if I open my hands today, I might one day, through his mercy, inherit much more than I could possibly imagine. 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:40.000 Let me pray for you. 00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.719 Uh it's hard for us to receive. 00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:07.920 We are we are generally arrogant people. 00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:10.400 We're generally kind of proud. 00:41:10.639 --> 00:41:16.960 We're generally resistant to hearing somebody say congratulations and patting us on the back. 00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:22.159 And especially so when we don't feel like there's anything congratulatory about our life. 00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:30.400 And yet, miraculously, graciously, through the power of your Holy Spirit and your word, uh, you're giving us that today. 00:41:30.559 --> 00:41:34.400 You're that's a gift, that's a promise, that is a benediction we are receiving today. 00:41:34.559 --> 00:41:38.159 Oh God, what I'm asking, help us receive your love. 00:41:38.559 --> 00:41:50.079 Help us lay down the apathy, lay down the ambition, lay down the pride, and look to you with humility and contriteness. 00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:57.599 But also look to you with a kind of strange expectation that we might receive something we could never generate on our own. 00:41:57.760 --> 00:41:59.840 So, God, do the miracle as we're worshiping. 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:01.199 Holy Spirit, come. 00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:04.079 Grant us your love in Jesus' name. 00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:04.960 Amen. 00:42:06.480 --> 00:42:08.719 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:13.280 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:15.599 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:21.679 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.