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[0:00] So open up your Bibles now to Matthew chapter 5.! Before we get there, I want to say that the song they just sang was by a group out of Australia called City Alight.

[0:18] ! And if you have not been listening to City Alight, you are missing out on some of the golden music of this generation. Some beautiful hymns for the church, some beautiful worship songs for the church.

[0:30] I highly, highly, highly encourage everyone to listen to City Alight music. Very, very beautiful, very scripturally based music. So, alright. We are in, again, Matthew chapter 5.

[0:43] We're going to be looking at the first three Beatitudes. The first three Beatitudes. I'm going to read them all. So I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 all the way through verse 16 because that kind of gets grouped together and you can follow along in your Bible.

[1:01] But the word of the Lord here says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Let me pause. I said blessed. You ever notice that we say blessed whenever we're reading this passage? Instead of blessed?

[1:12] I've always been conflicted by that because I always want to say blessed. But then I still say blessed. Does anyone else do this? Okay, so it's normal if I read blessed. Is everybody okay with that?

[1:23] Okay, I just, look, it throws me off. I want to make sure that we're all going to be able to read together. So, blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

[1:34] Blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

[1:46] Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. For the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

[2:04] Be glad and rejoice because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth.

[2:17] But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

[2:30] No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

[2:44] This is the word of the Lord. So we're looking at these first three beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

[2:55] And blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth. Verses 3 through 5. Now before we get to those three, I want to ask the question, what are the beatitudes? What are the beatitudes?

[3:06] When I explain the beatitudes, when I teach the beatitudes to kids or youth, I like to use this simple little phrase. It's kind of helpful. Beatitudes are the attitudes that God wants you to be.

[3:17] Okay? In other words, they're the qualities or characteristics that God desires for his people. But it's more than that, so permit me for just a minute here to dive a little bit deeper on what the beatitudes are.

[3:28] The beatitudes in Matthew's gospel consist of eight characteristics or qualities which are blessed, along with eight promised blessings secured by those who possess the characteristics.

[3:40] The beatitudes are similar to the promises of blessings in the Psalms. Psalm chapter 1 is probably the most familiar beatitude of the psalm.

[3:50] It comes from a Latin word, but it means blessed. Psalm 1, 1 through 3 says, That's Psalm 1, 1 through 3.

[4:21] And it's very much like this same formula that we see in Matthew's gospel. You have the characteristic that is blessed, and you have the promised blessing for the one who possesses that characteristic.

[4:33] In the case of Psalm 1, it's the person who's righteous is blessed, and everything he does will prosper. It's important to understand also, as we look at the beatitudes, that these are not eight characteristics that describe eight different types of Christians.

[4:48] These are characteristics or qualities that Jesus expects of all kingdom citizens. Much like the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5 is intended to be the fruit or the outpouring of the work of the Spirit for all believers, the beatitudes are expected and anticipated to be the qualities that make up every single follower of Jesus.

[5:12] So yes, you are to be merciful. You are to be a peacemaker. You are to be poor in spirit. These are the things that God expects for all of his followers, that Jesus expects for all of his followers.

[5:27] Now with that, the promised blessing is also promised then to all of his followers. Each of these blessings should be given to every single person who claims to be a follower of Jesus.

[5:42] And you'll also notice in the Sermon on the Mount and in these beatitudes a progression. You'll find that the qualities first relate between an individual and God, and then it goes to the inner man and how that inner man relates to God, and then how that inner man pours out into his dealings with others, his or her dealings with others.

[6:00] So there's a progression in the beatitudes. So the final thing that, again, I just want to reiterate, is that these are the qualities that should mark every single believer.

[6:13] In fact, it could safely be said that if a person claims to be a follower of Jesus and does not possess any of these qualities, then they would probably not truly be a follower of Jesus.

[6:24] Because this is the minimum requirement. This is the base level qualities or personality traits or the characteristics that are expected of the followers of Jesus.

[6:35] So my plea to each of you is that as we look at the beatitudes this morning, on Friday evening and next Sunday, my plea to each of you is that you take this study on the Sermon on the Mount, and especially on the beatitudes, as a time spent before a mirror.

[6:51] Let the word of God expose to you what in your heart needs to change, what in your life needs to change. Now, if you, after the study on the Sermon on the Mount, on the beatitudes especially, if you find that you are truly a follower of Jesus, then celebrate the work of transformation that God has done in your spirit.

[7:10] Because I promise you, no one in his or her natural state will always be what the beatitudes describe. It's only by the grace of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can get there.

[7:22] So take this time and treat it like it's a mirror, exposing what needs to change, where God is working on you. And if you find through this study that you are not a follower of Christ, then respond accordingly.

[7:37] Respond by submitting to the word of Christ. And with that, as our foundation, we're going to look at these first three beatitudes together. But let me pray for us first. Dear God, we humbly come before your throne right now.

[7:50] And God, we pray that you would just fill us with your word and fill us with truth. God, we pray that you would change us and mold us and grow us into your likeness. Amen.

[8:02] All right, again, Matthew 5, 3 through 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.

[8:14] This morning, we're going to talk about the blessing of total dependence, the blessing of godly grief, and the blessing of a meek life. Total dependence, godly grief, and a meek life.

[8:26] We're going to start here with the blessing of total dependence. And as I mentioned, the beatitudes are a progression. They build off of one another, which means that Jesus started with this one, blessed are the poor in spirit, on purpose.

[8:40] That was intentional by Jesus. And it's because it is a call to total dependence on Jesus. Let me ask you a question.

[8:50] Did you know that Christianity is the only major world religion, only world religion, that teaches an entirely grace-based salvation? Did you know that?

[9:00] A Muslim will reach eternity if he or she accomplishes, or does, the five pillars of Islam. A Hindu will receive eternity of sorts if they do enough good to build up enough good karma to outweigh the bad and to take themselves out of the reincarnation cycle.

[9:25] A Buddhist will reach nirvana, that peace of nothingness, which is wild to me. They'll reach that nirvana if they empty themselves of all ego and desire.

[9:38] There's a lot of work involved in every other religion, but in Christianity, we have a Savior who did the work for us. We have a grace-based salvation.

[9:50] So contrast all of the major world religions with the teachings of Jesus. Instead of work hard for grace, Jesus offers it freely and in abundance. It's no more, I hope that you did enough good and more good than bad, and you'll find out whenever you close your eyes that last time.

[10:08] I can't really tell you until then. It's none of that. We have a certain and a secure salvation because it's based not on the work that we do, not on our own merit.

[10:19] It's based on the broken body and shed blood and resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is our Savior and our hope. So that's very, very different from anything else in the world.

[10:32] And Jesus begins this list of qualities with blessed with the poor in spirit because he is declaring what is required for anyone who desires to enter his kingdom.

[10:44] You see, the promise is blessed with the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. So the kingdom of heaven, that is what we would just, let's summarize, salvation, okay? Entrance into the kingdom is available to the poor in spirit.

[10:57] So Jesus declares what is required, base level requirement for anyone who desires to enter his kingdom. One has to realize his complete spiritual poverty.

[11:10] Complete spiritual poverty. We have to accept what we cannot do. Accept the simple fact that we are not good enough to save ourselves. That we cannot earn salvation.

[11:21] salvation. We are not good enough and we have to come to terms with that. It's not Jesus and. It's not Jesus with. It's Jesus alone who saves.

[11:33] You also have to accept that you must be totally dependent on Christ for salvation. The Bible is very, very clear on this. Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says, There is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.

[11:48] That means not my name, not your name, not Caesar's name, not the president's. No other name will save us. The name of Jesus alone, the work of Jesus alone is what secures our salvation.

[12:02] Jesus himself says in John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ.

[12:12] We must depend totally on Christ for salvation. Again, it's not Jesus and some of your good works. It's not Jesus and your giving to the church. It's not Jesus and your baptism.

[12:24] It is Jesus and Jesus alone who saves. We have to accept that. We have to understand that. That is the basic requirement for anyone who desires to enter the kingdom of heaven.

[12:38] Now, being poor in spirit is not having a low view of yourself or your self-worth or constantly walking around with that attitude or mentality of, oh, it's me.

[12:49] No one wants to be around me. I'm the worst. You know, we say those things so that people will tell us, no, you're not. You're great. You know, that's not at all what poor in spirit means.

[13:00] It's also not related to your financial status. You can be a very wealthy individual and be poor in spirit. You can also be a very impoverished individual and be poor in spirit.

[13:13] Now, the word poor, obviously, it has some connotation or some connection to the idea of financial poverty. But the meaning here of this word is one that is so impoverished that they utterly depend on another for life, for sustenance, for provision.

[13:29] And in our case, we are so spiritually bankrupt that we have to rely only on the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ for salvation. There's nothing that we bring to the table here.

[13:41] We have to realize this. We don't bring anything to the table for salvation. It's been well said, except for the sin that made it necessary. That's it. And now, look, I'm not trying to make you feel bad about yourself.

[13:53] I'm trying to help you understand this basic human reality from Scripture, which is called sin. We are all sinful people.

[14:03] We have separated ourselves from God. And because we've separated ourselves from God, we cannot save ourselves. Those who readily confess their dire need for the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ, those who look to Christ for all of salvation, not just the small parts that we feel like we can't finish out ourselves, those who rest in the arms of Christ alone with the cry of the great hymn, Rock of Ages, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.

[14:36] Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior, or I die. That is the heart required for one to enter the kingdom of heaven.

[14:50] A complete recognition of our lack of ability and his total ability. So to those, our dear Lord Jesus offers a great promise.

[15:03] Life in his kingdom. If you've come to that place where you've recognized your spiritual need, your lack of ability to save yourself, and you've cried out to Jesus, I am nothing without you.

[15:16] I can do nothing on my own. Jesus, save me from my sins. I know I've sinned against you. If you've come to that place and cried out to Jesus, the promise is great.

[15:28] Yours is the kingdom of heaven. We're going to go on to the second beatitude. Bless, the blessing of godly grief. Verse four, it says, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

[15:43] Now look, there's a two-fold meaning to the word mourn here. Literally, literally the word means mourning, or grief, or to be sad. But in scripture, there were two biblical uses in the New Testament.

[15:54] Two primary uses. The first was the idea of mourning or grieving the loss of a loved one, which is a totally valid experience, part of the human experience, right?

[16:05] The second use is what we actually see here in this text, and that is to mourn or grieve your sinfulness, or sin in general, or the effects of sin before a holy God.

[16:18] And that's the use that we find here. So look, sometimes people, when we know friends or family who are experiencing a season of grief because maybe they've lost a loved one, will use this verse as like the promise of comfort.

[16:31] And I just want to be clear, this verse, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, is not a promise of comfort for every experience of grief that we face.

[16:42] That promise is in scripture, for the record. Second Corinthians, chapter one, read the first eight verses. God promises to comfort us, okay? This promise is to those especially who mourn the sin of the world.

[16:56] So if we mourn the death of a loved one because sin made death a requirement, then yes, there's absolutely a promise here. But only mourning is not what this is referring to.

[17:06] Does that make sense? Okay, it's important to understand that for this verse. So here's the thing, what is godly grief? I said the blessing of godly grief. What is godly grief here?

[17:17] Godly grief occurs when we're able to look at a situation with the heart of God. He allows us to enter into his perspective to see whatever the situation is so that we may be moved to grief at various times and for various reasons.

[17:33] So in this case, here in Matthew chapter five, godly grief or deep mourning occurs when we recognize how corrupt and sinful we are apart from Christ. It's a recognition of our brokenness before God because of our offense to him.

[17:48] And not only our offense to him, but also the offense of others. It's a mourning, it's a grief over the reality of sin. This verse right here contains a lot of depth in the doctrine of sin.

[18:03] It's something that we should really dive into as believers. But I'll give you some biblical examples of what godly grief looks like. In 1 Corinthians chapter five, verses one and two, Paul calls out the church in Corinth because they've turned a blind eye to public, blatant, unrepentant, even grotesque sin.

[18:26] They've turned a blind eye to it. Instead of being grieved by their brother who was sinning, they were unbothered. And they let this man continue to worship in church and act like nothing was wrong at all.

[18:40] And so Paul says to the church that they did not remove him from the church because they were not grieved by sin. They didn't possess this godly grief over sin.

[18:55] So godly grief leads to an action of some sort or a response, you know, either in yourself or publicly. And in the case that Paul was writing to in 1 Corinthians chapter five, the response should have been they were grieved and then moved to action which was to remove him from the church.

[19:13] And you're like, wow, Joe, remove a sinner from the church? Isn't the church for sinners? Well, listen, here's the deal. Yes. Yes. If someone is living in blatant, unrepentant sin and is refusing to confess their sin, to be held accountable, to repent and turn from that sin, absolutely you remove that person from the body.

[19:34] It's for the sake and the protection of the rest of the body. You don't let sin corrupt the body of Christ. You remove it. If they don't respond to repentance, then you remove it.

[19:45] That's biblical church discipline. But here's the thing, if we in the church aren't grieved over sin, then we'll never be able to practice church discipline. If we always turn a blind eye, if we always let our brothers and sisters in Christ who intimidate us a little bit, win the day, we'll never, we'll never hold people accountable the way that scripture calls us to.

[20:07] This is the blessing of godly grief. In 2 Corinthians 7, verses 8-10, Paul expresses this concern over the fact that his previous letter to the church had caused them to grieve.

[20:20] He was like, ah, he says basically, I'm conflicted because at first it made me sad that you were caused to grieve. But now I rejoice because he says that this godly grief led to repentance.

[20:33] So godly grief leads to repentance. He called them on their sin, they were moved to a place of godly grief, and they repented of their sin.

[20:44] The point is this, until we see sin the way that God does, we will never grieve our own offense. The one who loves the Lord Jesus and has been granted entrance into his kingdom must mourn the sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross.

[21:00] We have to. Our sin put him there. We have to grieve our sin. Sin offends God's nature and it requires death. And friend, if we mourn sin, if we grieve sin, and we're comforted by God, it leads to a thankfulness and a joy in salvation that we haven't known otherwise.

[21:21] So Christians cannot allow a light view of sin to creep into their heart. Now listen, that does not mean that we need to become the big, hypocritical, heavy-handed, rude people that just call people out and act all high and mighty.

[21:35] That's not what I'm saying at all. What it means to grieve sin, especially to grieve when our brothers and sisters in Christ are walking in sin, what it means to grieve sin is that you mourn it.

[21:45] You don't celebrate it. You confess sin and you flee from it. You don't hide it and live in it. You're grieved when a brother or sister sins and you hold them accountable.

[21:56] You don't turn a blind eye. You call them to repentance in love. Not saying that I'm better than you. Not saying that you would never be as good as me. In love, you bring them along.

[22:08] You call them to repentance. That's what godly grief should produce in us. We should shed tears because of our sins. We should literally, we should shed tears over our sins.

[22:20] If you've never shed tears over the fact that you've sinned before a holy God, then I would suggest you might not understand sin good enough. We should be completely broken over our sin because it's serious.

[22:35] Our sin is so serious that Jesus left the glories of heaven to live on this earth, to die a sinner's death on the cross, to take the punishment that we deserve.

[22:49] Jesus did that for us because we couldn't stand in God's presence otherwise. Sin is serious. We should mourn our sin.

[23:00] But listen, there is a great promise. There is a great promise. This blessing. They will be comforted. Thanks be to God that he will comfort those who mourn their sin.

[23:13] You'll be comforted in salvation. You'll be free from guilt. You'll be comforted in the very presence of God one day. Comfort, at the hands of God, means freedom from shame and it means freedom from a sick and twisted conscience by the effects of sin.

[23:30] Comfort means forgiveness. And those who mourn the sins of the world, you'll be comforted by seeing God work, by seeing God use your godly grief to hold others accountable, to walk with them in love.

[23:44] And to those who mourn the effects of sin, you have great victory. Because listen, there is no persecution, there is no illness, there is no death that has the final say.

[23:59] What a beautiful comfort that God offers to us who know him. So we have to see sin as God does. We have to grieve and mourn so that we will confess and repent.

[24:14] And we have to hold others accountable in love. And trust that God will comfort you with his special, loving, unique touch, both now and forever.

[24:27] So having looked at these first two beatitudes, the blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are those who mourn, and the two promises, the kingdom of heaven is theirs and they will be comforted, we turn now to the third, which is the blessing of a meek life.

[24:41] The blessing of a meek life. So the third quality that's listed here is that of humility or meekness or it could also be gentleness. Matter of fact, let's do a little test here in the room.

[24:53] Get everybody back in here with me. Raise your hand if your Bible, that you're holding, and you're all holding a Bible, right? Alright, cool. Raise your hand if your Bible says humble.

[25:04] Raise your hand if your Bible says humble. Okay. Me and a few. Alright. Raise your hand if your Bible says meek. Got a lot of KJV folks here. I'm just kidding.

[25:16] Raise your hand if your Bible says gentle. Anybody say, we got a few gentle. Okay. So it's a pretty, it's a pretty wide word in the Greek. We could use any of these words. Alright.

[25:26] Now this word is used four times in the New Testament, three of which come in the Gospel of Matthew. The first one is here in Matthew chapter five, but the second one is in Matthew chapter 11 verses 29 through 30.

[25:40] So in Matthew 11, Jesus uses this word to describe himself. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am lowly and humble or gentle or meek in heart.

[25:53] You will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So we have this beautiful picture of Jesus describing himself as lowly and meek or lowly and gentle, lowly and humble.

[26:04] The humility of Christ is on display. Now second, get this. This is so cool guys. I'm gonna, this is the kind of stuff that excites me, okay? Like, I didn't plan this at all.

[26:14] I was like, we're gonna go through the Gospel of Matthew and whatever happens, happens. But today is Palm Sunday, right? And some of you are like, brother, you haven't mentioned Hosanna or Palm Sunday or anything really at all.

[26:26] So what's going on here? Well listen, check this out. The other use in the Gospel of Matthew is found in Matthew chapter 21 verse 5, which is in the prophecy of Zechariah about the triumphal entry of Jesus.

[26:44] This is pretty cool. What a connection. Matthew 21 5 says, tell daughter Zion, see your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey and on a colt the foal of a donkey.

[26:56] Isn't that amazing? Like, I was talking to my dad about this the other day. I was like, I couldn't have planned that if I tried. I'm not smart enough. And dad was like, yeah, you can't plan it but God can, right?

[27:06] How cool is that? Like this word to describe our Lord Jesus Christ, first he tells us that his followers should be described of this quality, they should have this quality, they should possess it, and then he is described by himself and then prophetically described with this same word.

[27:24] Jesus is gentle. He is humble. So I just, I love that. This passage, this third beatitude pushes us, points us straight to this day that we celebrate, the first day of Holy Week, the triumphal entry of Christ.

[27:41] Now, if you weren't excited about that, you're not as nerdy as me, okay? Someone just get a text or was that like a notification? Like a, was that like, yeah, you are nerdy.

[27:52] Beep, beep. You know. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, whoever that was. But you embarrassed me first, so, no, I'm just kidding.

[28:05] All right. So let me, let me, let me apply this, this, this word here, this, well, this promise to us, this promise of blessing, and to do that, I want to, I want to walk through each of these qualities, the English translation, the English gloss, humble, I want to look at, humble, I want to look at gentle, and I want to look at meek just for a moment.

[28:24] Okay? Because this is what, this is what Jesus desires each of us to be. All right? So, first, Jesus expects his kingdom citizens to be humble like he is.

[28:36] Humility is not self-abasement, insecurity, or timidity. Humility is not that trait which avoids self, or is that trait which avoids self-absorption, pride, and selfish living.

[28:46] Humility is caring for others more than you care for yourself. All right? Humility is perfected in Christ himself. In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, Jesus says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

[29:01] Jesus was humble. And the humility of Jesus is the aim for kingdom citizens. Kingdom citizens have to be consumed by a deep care and a concern for others before themselves.

[29:17] Now, the second word that we'll look at is gentle. Jesus expects that his kingdom will be filled with people who are gentle. Gentleness is not to be confused with a lack of passion or excitement or drive.

[29:29] Gentleness is that trait that allows you to turn the other cheek and be patient in the throes of trial. Being gentle means that you seek the good of others before you seek your own.

[29:39] It means that you're so aware of your personal failures that neither praise nor disparaging words of anyone have any effect on you or much effect on you.

[29:49] Jesus is gentle. It feels odd to say again, but he described himself in this way. Jesus is our gentle Savior. He was gentle in his dealings with sinners.

[30:03] He was gentle when he was accosted by the religious leaders. And think about this. We're in the Passion Week. And when Jesus was on trial, and he was being accused left and right, and false accusations were coming at him, and he was hit, and he was spit on, and he was reviled, all of these things that happened to Jesus, he never spoke a word against them.

[30:27] He was gentle when he could have called down the angels from heaven and wiped them out. But Jesus is gentle. Gentle men and women receive this blessing that they will inherit the earth.

[30:40] So we have to reject the idea that we have to fight for us first. You know, I'm number one, me first. We have to reject that idea as Christ followers. Now the third word that we're going to look at is meek.

[30:51] Jesus expects that his followers will be meek like he is. Meekness is the quality a person possesses when they properly estimate their importance compared to God and others.

[31:03] By this I mean that the meek man knows well who he was before Christ saved him, and he knows with confidence who he is because of the transforming grace of Jesus Christ.

[31:18] He doesn't seek the praise of man because he is whole in Christ and needs no other fulfillment. The meek man isn't a weak man or ineffective or fearful, and we shouldn't think of meekness in those terms.

[31:33] In Christ, one can be strong, confident, a leader, and accomplish great things and still possess this beautiful quality of meekness. The major point of clarification here is that the meek man doesn't prop himself up.

[31:48] The meek woman doesn't prop herself up as better than everyone else. That person doesn't always have to win or be proven to be a genius, right, or always be right.

[31:59] So look again at Jesus. Jesus entered Jerusalem with a regal, kingly, yet humble entrance. He could have taken whatever throne he wanted, and yet within four days, Jesus hung on a cross and died for your sins and for mine.

[32:20] That is meekness at its finest. Jesus was meek, and he expects that his followers will be meek like he is.

[32:32] To be meek is to be one who is totally surrendered to the will of God. The will of God was supreme for Jesus Christ, not fighting for his own authority or his own autonomy or anything like that.

[32:45] Jesus first sought the will of the Father, and a meek person does the same. So we need to set aside our personal preference, and we need to completely surrender.

[32:57] We have to surrender everything, pride, selfish ambition, winning. We have to set it all aside, because you cannot consider yourself to be the most important person in the world and be meek like Jesus.

[33:10] Jesus knew he was the most important person in the world, and he came to serve. And the promised blessing in this case is unbelievable. They will inherit the earth, if you're meek like Jesus, you will inherit the earth.

[33:24] And do you see the paradox to this blessing, by the way? In our world, in our culture, someone who's meek or gentle doesn't take anything or rule over anything.

[33:36] But Christ in his kingdom turns everything upside down. And so, you will be a co-heir with Christ and reign with Christ for all eternity if you would be meek like him.

[33:51] So if you're in Christ, you'll be broken because of your sin. You'll recognize your poverty before God. You'll recognize how far sin is from the holiness of God.

[34:05] And that realization of your sinfulness before God and your need and dependence for a Savior should produce in you a life of humility, a life of meekness, a life of putting others before yourself.

[34:19] Because here's the thing, we will inherit the earth with Jesus because 2,000 years ago Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. And then he went to the cross and he died.

[34:32] But he did not stay dead. And we're gonna celebrate the resurrection next week. But every time the church gathers, we celebrate our risen Lord Jesus. Amen? Amen? Let's practice for next week.

[34:45] He is risen. God is good. Listen, we celebrate the resurrection because Jesus is coming back. And when Jesus returns, he's not returning in meekness.

[35:00] He's returning in power. And today he offers salvation to those who do not know him. But on that day, when he returns, that offer, rescinded.

[35:12] It is too late. He's coming in power. And friend, we don't know when our last day on earth is. We don't know how long we have. But Jesus offers salvation freely because he is our humble Savior.

[35:31] So look, if you listen to these first three Beatitudes, they show you something. They show you what it takes to be saved by Jesus Christ and amazingly, it takes nothing from yourself. It takes a simple recognition that you cannot save yourself, that you are a sinner who needs to be saved and you can't do anything about it.

[35:48] And then it simply is falling on the grace of Jesus, repenting of your sin and trusting him to save you. That's what it takes. It doesn't take a spiritual assent.

[35:59] It doesn't take great genius. It takes a recognition of your own inability and a dependence on his ability. So listen, if you are a Christian, I hope sincerely that you are as gutted by these first three Beatitudes as I am because we have to remember our spiritual poverty before God.

[36:17] Right? We can't walk around with a high and mighty spirit like we're better than people who have not been saved by the grace of Jesus. We have to remember and depend on Jesus daily.

[36:28] Each of us do. All of us do. Remember Isaiah says that all of our, all of us have become like something unclean. All our righteous acts are like polluted garment or a filthy rag.

[36:40] Like we bring nothing to the table. So we have to remember that we are totally dependent on Jesus and Jesus alone. Pride comes before the fall. So also if you're a Christian in the room, we need to deepen our theology on sin and our understanding of how offensive it is to a holy God and why it's offensive.

[37:00] And we should grieve and mourn our sin. True Christians don't just pass off when they've walked into sin as, oh no, I slipped up again. True Christians are broken and grieve the fact that they've sinned against God even though he's offered them salvation so freely.

[37:16] We need to deepen our understanding of sin. And finally, if you're a Christian, we have to set our eyes to Jesus. We have to look to him because he is perfectly humble.

[37:30] He is the one who offers these promised blessings. We have to look to Jesus. If you have not yet given your life to Christ, if you've never received the grace of God in your own life, let me just tell you, I, this is going to sound mean, I have prayed and I do pray even right now that your sin is laid before your eyes and your heart in such a way that you have to recognize that you bring nothing to the table and that you stand before God condemned apart from Christ.

[37:59] I hope that God does that, that he opens your eyes to see that because until you recognize that, you will not turn to Jesus. If God has shown you that and revealed your sin, the depths of it and your need for a savior, then listen, please, today, come forward and give your life to Christ.

[38:19] You don't have to come to me to do that, but I'm eager to pray with you and to walk with you and to share with you in this amazing, amazing celebration called life, true life.

[38:31] So, so here's the deal. If God has shown you how sinful you are and how great your need is, what is stopping you from repenting and believing in Jesus today? As Eric plays, we're gonna stand and sing together and, and there's a few responses here on the table.

[38:50] So if you're a Christian, I want you to consider these three beatitudes and if you recognize a lack of humility in your life or an area in your life where you're walking in your own strength and not trusting in Jesus or if you recognize a prideful spirit where you feel like you've done something really, really good to save yourself or, or to make yourself more holy and you aren't resting in the arms of Jesus, then you should come forward and repent.

[39:17] These steps can be used as an altar. You can pray here and if you're like, but I'm Southern Baptist, I only walked the aisle once, here's the deal. If you're too prideful to walk down here and pray before people because you're scared that they might think that you've got something bad in your life, you need to find humility and meekness.

[39:36] Every time you walk out in faith, it's a step of faith. You're exercising your faith and yeah, you're showing people that I'm messed up because guess what? We all are. And if you've never, again, if you've never given your life to Christ, then you should come forward and pray to receive Christ and let us as a church celebrate that decision with you today because the same God, the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke these words, stands in heaven now and he will save you from your sins if only you would trust him.

[40:03] Let me pray for us and we'll sing. Lord Jesus, we thank you for who you are. Thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would move in this room, that you would move in the hearts of people. Lord, that by your spirit you would draw men and women, boys and girls, to yourself for salvation.

[40:18] We love you, Jesus. We thank you for this lesson on our need for you, our dependence on you, the way that we should grieve our sin before you and God, the way that we should walk in humility in front of men and before you.

[40:32] God, I pray that this word would be transformative in our lives. We love you, Jesus. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. You come as the Lord leads. Let's stand and sing. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:42]