Well amen. Let's continue with our study in the book of Matthew. We are in the fifth chapter of Matthew often referred to that part of Matthew as the Beatitudes. And we are at verse 5. So let me encourage you to take the Word of God, open to Matthew, first book in the New Testament, find chapter 5 there and And actually we'll try to just begin a little bit before that. We'll go back to verse 3 and we'll read up to verse 5 because it kind of sets the context and the tone for verse 5. You really can't get to verse 5 without the first two verses. So we'll start in verse 3. Those willing and able to, I'm going to ask that you stand with me please as we share together the reading of the Word. And so the Lord is teaching and He says in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Some people say or some translations are the meek. Let's throw the meat. So let's pray together. Father, we thank You for the Word. We thank You for its reading. We thank You, Heavenly Father, for the division that it gives to our soul and spirit. Now we pray, Heavenly Father, that we'll be attentive to Your Spirit and to the Word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Thank you and please be seated. Well, Jesus is introducing to us who we are in Christ. Paul talks a lot about being in Christ. Well, you want to know what it means to be in Christ? That's what you're reading here in the Beatitudes. This is what it means to be in Christ. Jesus has called his apostles and he's now teaching them to accurately reflect accurately reflect to the world the change that has taken place inside of them. I realize that not everybody probably shares my enthusiasm about what Jesus is doing here, but I can't help but overemphasize how monumental this Sermon on the Mount is. Everything that Jesus has said and taught is important, no doubt about that. Nothing is more important than any other point that Jesus Christ makes in his preaching and his teaching. However, the timing of the Sermon on the Mount is important. Jesus is establishing the church. Right before our very eyes at this very moment, the church is being born, and the foundation upon that church is being established in the Sermon on the Mount. So that's why it's important for us to study it and to know what it is. Of all the things that we think about the church today, of all the things that we think a church should be, these are the defining characteristics of the church. Think about the churches today, and most importantly, our own church. Central Baptist Church. And think about the image that we are projecting to our culture or to the world in which we live today and to our community. Are we projecting the Beatitudes? What is the image of Central Baptist Church? When our culture thinks about us, what are they seeing? What are they recognizing within us? Are we projecting the Beatitudes? And what if you went home today and you said to yourself or you said to your family, you know what? We're gonna begin to model the Beatitudes. From this point forward, we're going to take seriously the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ. How would that change your life? How would that change the image of you as far as your wife is concerned, as far as your husband is concerned, as far as your children is concerned, as far as your boss is concerned, as far as your coworkers are concerned, How would all of that change if we really took seriously the Beatitudes and began to demonstrate them to our culture? You know, the paradox of it all is that Jesus says, this is your way to joy. It's the thing that we really want in life is we really want joy. And Jesus Christ is laying down the path to true joy in our lives, being poor in spirit. mourning over our sins. And yes, as we're going to learn this morning how to be meek. Those things are the foundation of joy. And I realize that's a paradox because people say, what do you mean? How can you be mourning and sin and find joy? How can you be poor in spirit and find joy? How can you be meek and find joy? That is what Jesus is teaching us this morning, that great paradox. And the world looks at it and says, you can't be poor in spirit and have joy. You can't mourn over your sin and have joy. You can't be meek and have joy. And the world looks at that and says, that's impossible. You can't think that way. That's not the way the system works today. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. How can you put those things together? And the world looks at you and says, you're just crazy. And if the world says you're crazy, you need to take that as a compliment. That's the best thing they can say to you is that you're crazy, because you're not like them. We're not like the world. We're distinct from the world. We're different from the world. And if the world says you're like us, then you're not living your Christian life like you ought to be living it, folks. The outstanding characteristic of the Christian life is joy. Are you sure about that preacher? I'm sure about that. You say, how can you say that? I can say that because for 10 verses in a row, Jesus says, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. And that word blessed means to be prosperous or it means to have joy. And so 10 times in a row, Jesus talks about the Christian having joy as the basis of his life. And he gives us the outline of how to have that joy, how to accomplish that joy. If you really want a smile on your face, if you really want joy in your life, then you're gonna have to be poor in spirit. You're gonna have to mourn over your sins. You're gonna have to be meek if you really want joy. Beloved, I can promise you that the source of all of your unhappiness And of all of your discouragement and your despair and your depression is a lack of poverty in your life. You're not poor enough. Sin says, what do you mean? Sin says, I want, the only thing that's gonna make me happy is I have more. I want, the world says, if you're really gonna be happy, really find joy, you're gonna have more of this life's goods if you really do want to be happy. Sin says, if people would treat me better, if my boss would treat me better, if my wife would treat me better, if my husband would treat me better, if my coworkers would treat me better, then I would be a lot happier in life. The problem with that kind of thinking is you're too rich. You say, what are you talking about here? That doesn't even make sense to me. How can you say that I am too rich? I mean that you're rich in yourself. That's what I mean. You're rich in yourself. We have a richness of self-worth. We have a wrong kind of self-love. Jesus said, listen, you really want to be happy, then you've got to be poor in spirit. What he meant by that is that every single fiber of your being must be dependent upon God, period. We are not to be self-sufficient. You say, I don't know about that. John was right when John said, do you not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked? That's what John said in Revelation chapter 3 verse 17. If we don't start here we will never make it to the second attitude of grieving over our sin. and will never receive the comfort of the Lord if you don't grieve over your sins." If we don't mourn over sin, we will never get to the joy that comes to the meek this morning. And while we may struggle with being totally dependent upon God, and while we may struggle with grieving and truly mourning over our sin, I would dare tell you this morning that being meek or gentle, as it says in verse five, may be the pinnacle of the most difficult thing you've ever tried to do in your life. I understand it's difficult. truly accept the fact that we are poor in spirit and truly accept the fact that we are to mourn of our sins. But what Jesus Christ is talking about here, this meekness that He is talking about here in verse 5 may truly be the most difficult thing you've ever tried to do in your life. It is so opposite of human nature because human nature only thinks in terms of dominance. not meekness. We only think in terms of power. We only think in terms of ability. We only think in terms of prowess. We only think in terms of aggressiveness. We only think in terms of self-assurance. We live in a world that says you need to get all you can get. You need to get what this world has to offer you. And the only way you can do that is to be stronger and mightier and better equipped and better trained and more intellectual and highly tactical. I'll go one step further and I will say that many of our churches today have adopted the attitude of the world. And I'm seeing in our churches a little bit of a militant attitude and I believe it is a damning cause to our churches. I've seen some Christian youth groups take on gang-like postures. And I see some Christian youth groups imitating gang signs and Christian youth groups imitating gang looks. That's wrong. That is absolutely wrong. Gangs are militant. Gangs are self-assertive. Gangs are aggressive. It is the total opposite of what Jesus Christ is trying to teach us in verse 5. And I've seen some preachers stand in the pulpit and they say, what we need to do today is we need to storm the gates of Hell. And what we need to do today is we need to take the world for Christ. You know I've heard this kind of preaching and I've And here's the thing, something that may cause some Christians backflips, but I don't see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus Christ has told us to somehow or another be a militant church and launch some offensive against the world. As Christians and as churches, I don't think our call is to attack the world. But you say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, preacher, doesn't the Bible tell us that we are at war? Yes, it does. The Bible does tell us. Doesn't the Bible command us to be soldiers? Yes, it does. It does command us to be soldiers. And don't we sing, onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before us? Yes, we do sing that. And I'm not against singing that. We are in a war, but we're not necessarily launching an offensive as much as we are standing for the truth. As much as we are standing for the truth. The truth has always been there, folks. The truth is from the very beginning when Jesus Christ created the earth and everything about it. The truth has always been, we are standing for what God has already said is righteous and true and good. That's what we're doing. You say, aren't we supposed to put on the armor that Paul tells us to put on? We are to put on the armor that Paul tells us to do. But you remember what Paul told us to do when we put on the armor? Paul said, you are to stand, you are to stand when you put on the armor. He didn't say put on the armor and go out here and make a militant church out of yourself or become a militant Christian. He said, you ought to stand. You see, when you're preaching God's Word and when you're standing for God's truth in your home or whether you're on your job or whether you're at the class somewhere in school, you're going to be attacked. You don't have to go out here and try to find something to attack. You just stand for what God said is right and moral and good and true. And you're going to already be in a war. You're going to be attacked. Every time Paul commanded Timothy to be like a soldier, it was always in the context of a soldier being ready to suffer and to die for what the truth is. In that manner, we are a soldier. We are ready to defend and we are ready to die for what we believe. Here's the problem. Here's what happens when a church or a Christian begins to think that they've got to launch an offensive against the world. Here's the problem I have with launching an offensive for Jesus Christ. When we decide that we've got to do this, Now we've got to charge the world for the gospel. Here's what happens. We begin to strategize, we begin to plan, we begin to come up with methodologies, we begin to promote our ideas, we begin to look at our abilities, and we begin to put all of that together and formulate some kind of an offensive launch. In other words, it comes down to us doing it all rather than depending upon the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has given us a plan. Jesus has given us a strategy. We don't need to come up with a plan. We don't need to come up with a strategy. He's already done it all. It's called the Beatitudes. Beloved, I can promise you that if we begin to incorporate the Beatitudes in our daily lives, It will make an impact upon everybody who is around us. That is the strategy and that is the plan. Jesus is giving us a litmus test here. He is talking to His disciples and they are not the only ones out there. He is surrounded by various disciples who are following Jesus Christ. He has called 12 of them to be Apostles. But He is giving them a litmus test to determine who a true believer is and who is not. And you and I can look at these Beatitudes and we are to see how closely they are operating in our lives. Meekness is critical to this. Jesus a little bit later in the Sermon on the Mount is going to tell us to judge each other by their fruits. He said, you shall know them by their fruits. What kind of fruit do you think Jesus Christ is talking about a little bit later on in the Sermon on the Mount? He is talking about the Beatitudes, that fruit we are to be looking at. This is the fruit that we are to be manifesting. we are not manifesting the beatitudes in our lives we are not manifesting the fruit of a true believer. And we are not manifesting, if we are not manifesting meekness we are not manifesting the work of the Spirit. Meekness is not optional. This is not optional. It is as natural as breathing. So who is the meek person? What does it mean to be weak? Okay. So how do I know, how do I know if I'm measuring up to what Jesus Christ is talking about here? Obviously meekness is not a term that we use a lot today. You know, gentleness is not a term that we use a lot today. And even when we do use it, it's often misused. So meekness is inseparable. Let me tell you, meekness is inseparable from mourning over sin. The previous verse, you You've got to connect the two verses together. If meekness is a problem in your life, it's because you're not mourning over sin. You can't get from A to B. They're connected together. They're inseparable. Something you just got to get down into your heart and into your mind. Everybody, the ultimate definition of sin will have to do with your rights. You say, mourning over sin, what does it mean to mourn over sin? You've got to define sin. Sin ultimately boils down to you demanding your own rights. The concrete expression of pride is demanding your own rights. And we live in a country today that has become obsessed with rights. America has stepped over the line and we've become awash with a rights movement in our country today. And the result cannot be anything more than what we're seeing in our country today, which is division and war. That's always what happens when people begin to demand their rights. People are angry today. People are mad today. You can see it in their faces. You can see it in their attitudes. We have pushed this idea of rights to its limit, and it has created an aggressive culture that we live in today. The more we push this rights agenda, the more you're gonna see people become angrier and angrier and angrier. You're gonna see bitterness and harshness and meanness, and this world's gonna go even crazier than it is right now. Why do people get mad today? over the smallest offense, over the very smallest, why do people get mad today? Because they feel entitled. Entitled. People who feel entitled want to push their rights on everybody else. That's what it means to be selfish. Let me tell you, meekness is coming to terms with your rights. Meekness is coming to terms with your personal rights. Here's what I want you to remember. That as a child of God, you have come to terms with your sin. You mourn over the fact that you have used your rights to promote yourself. The child of God hates his selfishness. hates his self-centeredness. He hates his self-sufficiency. Meekness is exercised when we give all of our rights to God, and it is the very opposite of what the world is telling us to do. You remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. up. Paul said, I want you to present your bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable unto Him. That is the very definition of what it means to give up your rights. That is it. That is it. present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God that means you give God all of your rights all of the rights to your life all the rights to your body they're all his that means you also give up ownership you have the rights to something you also have the ownership of that over which you have your rights I don't have any rights over your car. You own your car. I don't have the right to come and take the keys and use your car however I want to use your car. I don't have the right to go into your house. It's your house. I don't have the right to go in and say, you know what, I don't like that color. I don't like the color of that bedroom. I don't like the color of your living room. I think I'm going to change that. I don't have the right to do that. It's your house. You own that house. Same thing is true with my relationship with God. I have given all of my rights to God. He owns my body. If He wants to repaint my body, He can repaint my body. He can use it any way He wants to use it. And since I don't have the rights to my body, I don't have the right to abortion. I don't have the right to homosexuality. I don't have those rights. I don't have the right to commit suicide. It's not my life. It's not my body. It's not my money. It's God's money. He tells me where he wants to spin it, how I should spin it. He has the right to pick my entertainment. He has the right to pick my TV shows. Let me give you a side benefit of meekness. Anger ceases to be a problem. If meekness is controlling your life, anger is impossible. Always, without exception, anger is the result of us demanding our rights. That's what anger is. It is us wanting our selfish ways. If we have an anger problem, we have a meekness problem. That's what we have. Well, preacher, when are you going to get to the good stuff? Okay, I've had enough of this bad stuff. I'm tired. I don't want to listen to it anymore. When do we get to the good stuff? For they shall inherit the earth. What? For they shall inherit the earth. Jesus said that our joy is dependent upon what we're going to get in the future our present joy Our present joy is dependent upon something in the future You know right now things may not be going so great for us, you know And we may not have very much of this earthly goods and and we may be poor physically but Jesus has promises look You know what? You don't worry about anything in this life. You don't worry about anything in this world because you're going to inherit it all. You're going to have it all. It's like your dad coming up to you and telling you, you know what, son? I'm going to give you my truck. I'm going to give you my car. When you're 16 years old, I'm going to give you my car. I'm going to give you my truck. You're old enough to drive it. I'm going to give it to you. It's going to be yours. And for when you're 14 years old and your dad tells you that in two years, for two years, you're looking and anticipating and you're actually filled with joy about the prospects that one of these days dad's truck is going to be yours. Dad's car is going to be yours. And that future promise secures the joy in your heart. That is what Jesus Christ is doing here with the apostles. He is securing the joy in their hearts by promising that one of these days, it's all going to belong to you. You are going to inherit the earth. And I love that word inherit. You know why I love that word inherit? Because it's a kissin' cousin of grace. When you inherit something, you don't get it because you worked for it. You don't get it because you earned it. You get it because somebody else worked for it. My mom and dad, they worked all their lives. And when they died, I inherited part of what they have. My other brothers and sisters, they do. But I didn't work for it. I didn't do anything for it. I inherited. It is a kissing cousin to grace. I got something that I did earn, that I did merit, that I didn't work for it, but I got it anyhow. And I got it because of relationship to my mom and dad. We related to Jesus Christ. We're going to inherit the earth. Everything that you see, everything that has been created, everything you lay your eyes upon through Christ is gonna belong to us. Right now we don't have ultimate authority and control. But one of these days we're gonna be kings and priests. And we're gonna rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years. And God's gonna give you authority over this earth and everything on it. Every child of God, a king and a priest. The day is coming when things are gonna be better than you could ever imagine. The day is coming. when things are going to truly change. And Jesus has promised us something that is greater and better than anything you could possibly obtain in this life, in this world. We're able to be meek and we're able to rejoice in being meek because of what we have. In Christ, you don't really lose anything in this world when you serve Christ, when you serve Christ. Now, the truth is we all struggle with meekness, even though it is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Truth is there's some of you here this morning, and you need to yield your bodies to Christ. You know, if you're a young person in particular, You need to yield your body to Christ. What does it mean to yield your body to Christ if you're a young person? It means you yield who you date to Christ. It means you yield who you run around with to Christ. It means you yield who you're going to marry to Christ. You yield your rights to Christ. You yield what you wear to Christ. You yield your music to Christ. You yield your TV shows to Christ. You yield your revenge to Christ. You yield all your rights to Christ. I'm going to ask our musicians to come forward. as we prepare for an invitation hymn. More importantly, if you're a lost sinner, you need to yield your sins to Christ. Trust the blood of Christ to pay for your sins. The curse of God on our sins is eternal death in a place called hell. Jesus Christ paid for your eternal death when he died on the cross in your place. and you paid for your sins. The question you face today is if you're going to believe and trust what He did, or if you're going to continue to trust and believe in your failed, imperfect, flawed righteousness, which is really unrighteousness, and somehow think you're going to meet God's standard of perfection. You're not. Let's stand together as we begin to prepare for the invitation hymn this morning. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the day, we thank you for the hour that is before us, and now that we're going to make some decisions about being obedient to you, about being obedient to the Word of God. Meekness, very, very difficult. We are partial to our rights. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you'd help us to realize that we're here to serve you. That's the only reason we have life. It's the only reason we have breath in our lungs. It's the only reason our heart pulse. It's that we're here to serve you. Any way and any manner in which you see fit to use us to magnify yourself and to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray, Heavenly Father, that we'll be like that old Apostle Paul willing to face whatever the future holds, anything that will give you glory. Bless now, I pray, if there's one here without Christ, that they will turn to Him in absolute and complete dependence upon Him and His death on the cross to pay for their sins. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I can hear my Savior calling I can hear my Savior calling