The Blessed Within

Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God, which is both present and future. He offers a spiritual kingdom and promises blessings to those who follow Him. The Beatitudes describe the attitudes that believers should have, which come from the inside and are reflected outwardly. Being blessed means being approved by God and having everything that is needed spiritually. It is not just about outward circumstances or actions, but about the inward transformation of the heart. this morning. We are going to look at the blessings within. We've been taking a journey all summer long, really looking for the promised land, and of course we come to the New Testament and now we have discovered that Jesus Christ come in and that the actual promised land is for the Israel, and we won't be a part of it until the millennial reign, that there is a kingdom that still reigns. There is a kingdom that is here right now, and as we started these new messages, as we kind of switched over to the New Testament, we discovered that John came onto the scene, and of course his message was repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and the kingdom of God, or some of the gospels refer to it as the kingdom of heaven, can sometimes in the New Testament refer to all of God's sovereignty. In order to have a kingdom, there must be a king, and when we're talking about the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, we're talking about that reign where God has the authority, where God is supreme, and it sometimes is the way He reigns over all of this kingdom that He has. He never relinquishes the authority, and we have to understand that. God is in control, and we are not owners of this kingdom. We're stewards of this kingdom, and it's our job to represent and to take what the king gives us to do and live it out in this world that is here, and so when we look at this kingdom of God, or this kingdom of heaven idea, we're referring to the authority that's coming through to save man. He's referring to this saving authority, this authority to give life. All of us, as we were easily reminded this morning as you pulled into the church parking lot, if you looked across the street, every single one of us eventually will wind up there or a place like it. Every one of us was born to eventually die, but Jesus Christ said, I didn't come to steal, to kill, and to rob. I said, I came to give life and life more abundantly, and so in this earth that is saturated with sin and sickness and death, we find that in the kingdom of heaven, we're talking about that authority to save lives, the authority to change lives. It refers to the exercise of His reign, which goes after man, and so really, if we sum down the kingdom of God, we could sum it down very easily to eternal life. It means the same thing. The problem is, and the thing that we need to understand, is that the kingdom of heaven has this present connotation to it, but it also has this future connotation with it, and if you enter the kingdom of God, you enter into eternal life. They are one and of the same, and the kingdom idea, nevertheless, has with its notions both the authority from God's perspective and the obedience from ours, and so therefore, when we look at this obedience, when we see this dependence to God, whose kingdom it comes out again and again in these pages, and that's at the very end of the Sermon of the Mount. We see that Jesus wraps this message up by saying in Matthew 7, verse 21, "...not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." And so even in this deal, we see in this verse this idea of not only the reception of the authority of God, but there also is this sense of obedience. There's this present kingdom, but yet there's this future kingdom. There's this place that we are working now that we will be later. And so the kingdom is both present and future, and there's a sense in which God's saving authority was exercised through Jesus Christ when He came into this earth. And that's why John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and he was trying to usher in and turn men to Jesus Christ. He said, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and Christians are already in the kingdom. That's the present part. But in a sense, the fullness of that authority, the fullness of what God is going to do, will only be displayed when Jesus Christ comes again and sits on the earthly throne. Then we will see the full effect of His authority, and so that is future. So sometimes when Jesus promises certain blessings, and we look at these blessings in the Bible, and we see these promises in the Bible, we have to understand this idea from the kingdom of heaven idea that some of these promises can be fulfilled now, but some of them will be fulfilled in the future. And so we have to look at the context to understand which of these are now, which of these are actually later. And so we see here that Jesus Christ, if you remember back a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the end of chapter 4, and Jesus Christ is all of a sudden, He's been baptized, He has now called His disciples, He's been in the wilderness and tempted of Satan, and He went out because He was obedient to His Father, and then He went about all of Galilee, and He began to heal people, He began to change lives, He began to feed the hungry, and take care of those that had need, and all of a sudden, man, great crowds was coming out. Great crowds was beginning to follow Him. And as we think about that this morning, Jesus Christ looking upon these crowds, and understanding that the physical kingdom that they were looking for, even His disciples, as we read over and over through the Gospels, was looking for Jesus Christ to establish that physical kingdom here and now. But yet, Jesus Christ wasn't offering a physical kingdom, He was offering a spiritual kingdom. The physical kingdom is going to come, but the spiritual kingdom has to be met first. And so, seeing this problem, seeing this misunderstanding of the people, Jesus immediately pulls His disciples aside, and He begins to go up into the mountain and teach them privately. Now, we know by the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we don't really know how long this sermon took. I imagine it took a little bit longer than if you would read it that's here. But what we find is by the end of it, all of these people had gathered around and come in close and was listening to the words of Jesus Christ because it said there was many that was there that saw the authority that He taught with, like no other scribe or person had taught before. And so as He begins this sermon, as He begins this teaching, He does this in verse 1 of chapter 5, And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And we're just going to stop right there and we'll look at the other ones and the rest of them in two weeks. But I want us to know, in these other ones, I did have you a bulletin last week. And so over on the far back page in the little red box there, I kind of summarized what we discussed last week because if you were not here or you haven't had a chance to listen to the message online yet, it's very, very important and very, very critical that you understand what this idea of these beatitudes and this word blessed actually means and what Jesus started with in this list of blessings that God is going to give us and that He is offering to His disciples. And notice this word blessed. A lot of people just translate it happy. If you have some of the newer translations, you will see that they took this word blessed and they changed it to happy. And it does kind of deal with happiness, but it's a whole lot more than being happy. It's not just being happy because you and I, guess what? Some days we're happy and some days we're not. And so happiness is really determined by our outward circumstances. And so this is not really talking about the outward circumstances because you're going to find out that the outward circumstances are not very good. But the result, the inward stuff that takes place is what is there. So if we were really going to understand what this word blessed means, it has more of the connotation of being approved by God. And therefore, it means having everything that you need. Everything that you need. And so when we look at this, having everything that you need spiritually, that is being blessed. And we look over our lives and yes, there's a lot of things that you and I here in this congregation this morning can say that God has truly blessed us physically. But I want you to go deeper than just the outward blessings. And I want you to look at the inward blessings. What God gives us as a member of His kingdom. Last week we discovered these first two in what I like to call, not necessarily actions, the law in the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments dealt with our actions. What we do and don't do. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. These have to do with our actions. These Beatitudes in the New Kingdom have to do with attitudes. And so I like to call them the attitudes that you and I should have because they're something that are not created from the outside. You can't just become poor in spirit. You can't just be meek. You can't just mourn and hunger and thirst. It is something that starts from the inside. It is something that builds on the inside that is fleshed out outwardly. And that's what so many of us get messed up with when it comes to Christianity today is we get like the church at Galatia where we get very legalistic because we want to look at the outward stuff. And God doesn't look at the outward. God looks at the heart. And if our heart is right, the outward will come. But we try to spend a lot of time working on the outward, right? And we forget about the inside. I think Jesus Christ even rebuked the Pharisees over that. He told them, you're just like these graves over here, right? You've got the beautiful flowers on them and they're painted and clean and it looks so pretty looking at it. But when you step into that grave, it's just rotting bones and flesh. It's death that is there. And so when we look at this, the first attitude that he mentions is this poverty of spirit. And this is where it kicks off everything. When we talk about the poverty of the spirit, we are talking about a conscious acknowledgement of an unworth before God. It's in this idea of this deepest form of repentance. John's message was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. If you notice, and I thought it was kind of ironic this morning as we read Isaiah chapter 6, and I don't know if you picked it up or not, but basically Isaiah in the year of King Uzziah looked up and he saw this vision of heaven. And he saw the seraphim standing there. And the seraphim, it said it had six wings. Did you hear that part as we read the Scripture this morning? And what was he doing with his wings? He wasn't clapping them in praise for God, was he? No, he says there at the throne, he said he took two of the wings and he covered up his eyes. He took two of the wings and he covered up his feet. And he took two of the wings so that he could fly. You see, and then what did Isaiah, immediately when Isaiah left the angels and focused on God, what did he say? Whoa, hey, wait a minute. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. See, that's this poor in spirit. When we get as a sinful, fleshly individual, when we come into the presence of God, it is not about raising our hands and saying, look at me, take notice of me. It's about the reality poor in spirit is realizing that, you know what, it is only by the grace of God that I am allowed to be in this service this morning. It's only by the grace of God that I can call God my Father. It's only by the grace of God that I can call Jesus Christ my brother. You see, that is grace. That is something that we don't deserve, but God gave it to us anyway. And that's this idea of repentance, this poverty of spirit. And he says when you have that attitude, when you come to God saying I am absolutely nothing, but you are absolutely everything, I am going to repent because I try to be what I want to be, right? But I'm going to do what you want me to do because you're God. He said, then you shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. It's yours. Of course, when we put that in real simple terms that you and I all know, you cannot be saved without repentance. You cannot be saved without realizing that you are a sinner and that God is holy and that it's in His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. And so that is the first step. That is the entrance into the kingdom of heaven. But then notice the very next thing that happens. And remember, this stuff is happening inwardly, and then it is professed outwardly. Paul put it this way in Romans. He said, if you will believe in your heart, then you confess with your mouth. You shall be saved. It starts inwardly, and then it is burst forth outwardly. And so that's why John, when he was baptized, and remember, baptism was a form of purification in that day. All of the Jews, when you read about the things that happened at the pools in Jerusalem and stuff, these pools were set up and they were there for Jews and Gentiles that were coming into Jerusalem to stop. They were all in the outer parts of the city so that they could stop and they could wash and they could clean themselves before they walk into this holy city before a holy God. And John is all of a sudden out there saying, you know what? You need a little bit better than just washing yourself. You need to be baptized. You need to repent. And he told the Pharisees when they came wanting to be baptized, he told them, he said, show me fruit of repentance. You say that there's going on that you're right and you want to be a part of this kingdom and you want to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ in your heart, but outwardly, you're not showing that. You're looking a whole lot different. As a matter of fact, he calls them vipers and some really bad words and names and stuff that is in there. And so, he tells us that when we realize that we are impoverished in spirit, that we are that bottom acknowledgement of our total unworth before God, he said the next thing, we begin to mourn. We mourn. And then he gives us a good thing though. If we mourn, then we shall be comforted. Now when we look at mourning, mourning is this deepest word for sorrow. It is a word of grief. It is a word that you see played out when a loved one loses their spouse or someone that is very close to them that has died or whatever. It is a very strong word of lament. It's not just, man, I feel bad for them or whatever, but if you've lost somebody close to you, this is the idea of this mourn that is here. And really, Matthew doesn't really give us what he's really talking about. When we look at mourning, there's two different things that God talks about that we should mourn. Number one, we need to mourn over our personal sin. Our life. Because we are sinners. We are not holy. And even though we have trusted Jesus Christ, guess what? Sins still come up. And so that ought to break our heart. That ought to make us that we cannot live up to the expectations that God requires, right? Even though Jesus Christ paid for us and we have received grace, there's still, you understand that grace costs God His life? It costs Him all of the suffering and all of the pain, and so it's not something to be taken for granted. And so we don't rejoice when we sin. It's not this idea that everybody thinks, well, you Baptists, you can sin all you want and you're still going to heaven. That is not what he's talking about here because if you're really in the Kingdom of God, if you're really a child of God, in the family of God, when you sin, you're going to mourn. Because you realize that breaks the Father's heart. It's what caused the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But not only does he refer to mourning for personal sin, but he also talks about mourning for the population's sins. We see in the churches today that we don't even mourn over our own sins, much less the sins of our nation. Much less of the sins and the injustice that is going on in the world around us. You see, when you come into the Kingdom, Jesus Christ, you remember what He did? He looked over Jerusalem. And what did He do? He wept. He mourned. Why? Because they were sheep as having no shepherds. They were scattered. He looked at them not looking at them as Jews, not looking at them as Gentiles, but He looked at them as individuals that were living their life thinking that they were going to be good enough, thinking that they were doing the sacrifices and everything that they needed in order to inherit eternal life. And He said they're running around and they're doing this and they're doing all of these things, and yet they're going to die and go to hell. That's the mourning. That's what He's talking about there because of their sinfulness. And so notice He uses the word comfort. Now we think in English terms, we think of comfort as just coming along and putting our arm around somebody, right? When somebody dies, I usually go hug them or whatever, you know. And we think of that as comfort. But this word comfort really comes from two different words. If you break it down, you look at the word come, which means with. You come alongside with. In other words, you're putting yourself in their place. And so you can't mourn with the population if you don't mourn over yourself because you're coming with them. And then the word fort. Fort, which simply means street. And so when you think about this word comfort, I want you to think about with street. In other words, if we mourn, then Jesus Christ, the blessing of this, is God gives us the street. You know, how many times have I heard people say, man, I am not worthy to preach this morning. But guess what? When I recognize my sins and I recognize what I am and who I am in the eyes of God, God gives me the strength and the ability to do it as a matter of fact, if you want to read and understand this word a little bit more, go to John 14, 15, and 16, where Jesus Christ promised them the Holy Spirit, which is what? He gave them a name there. He said, the Comforter. I'm not going to be able to be with you. And when was He giving this to them? Not before they die. He's fixing to die. He's fixing to leave them. He's fixing to ascend to the Father. But He said, I'm not going to leave you without strength. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is going to come alongside of you. See, I can only be where I can be in this physical body. But the Holy Spirit can be everywhere. And so the Holy Spirit is not there to comfort us and to put His arm around us and hug us every time we skin our knee or whatever. The Holy Spirit there is to give us strength even while we are sinners, we can still serve God. And Satan can't come and say, man, you're a sinner. Why are you doing that? How are you living for God? No, because the strength of God. Because I've mourned. I realize who I am. You don't have to tell me I'm an evil person. You don't have to tell me I'm a bad person. Because I know. And so therefore, God gives us the strength that is there. And so it has this idea of fortress. Fortress. God supplies the strength to overcome sin when we repent and when we mourn. And so today, we want to look at the next two. The next two. And both of these still have to do within us. Still have to do with this that is within us that is working out for our benefit. And it has to be for our benefit before it can be for the benefit of others. He says the meek will inherit the earth. Now, how in the world does meekness differ from poverty of spirit? Because poverty of spirit, I'm thinking I'm recognizing who I am. I'm submitting to that authority, right? And so I understand this, but the difference is poverty of the spirit has more to do with what a person is within himself where meekness has to do with the way that you are with God and with others. And so when we think about that, meekness has more to do with our relationship with other people in our lives than just ourselves. First, you have to be meek to God. And then you have to be meek to others. And it's apparent that meekness is not considered an ideal by the world, right? Nobody looks and says, man, my hero is the one that is meek, right? When you talk about the great quarterbacks, you talk about the great athletes, nobody ever mentions their meekness as their attribute of why they like them or follow them. So therefore, meekness though, definitely, understandably so this morning, cannot be confused with weakness. And so what exactly is meekness? Meekness means yielded. Yielded. It's an old, old, old term, and I've used this illustration before. And it flows out of this blessedness. It flows out of these blessings that God has given us on the kingdom, but in order to get the blessing, you have to meet the requirement. See, the blessing comes out of the requirement. And so we start with the condition of who we are that leads to a contrition. We mourn. We realize that, hey, I am a sinner. I don't deserve anything that God has for me. But then what happens? He gives it to me anyway. And so then I mourn. There's this contrition that is there because I'm really not worthy of that. Paul, and we've all talked about this before, how many of you really think that Paul was the cheapest of all sinners? You know, every time I walk into the prison on Thursday night, this hits me. You know, because there's some evil guys in there. There's some guys that have done some wicked and evil things. And I think, man, was the apostle Paul worse than this dude? I don't think so. But you see, Paul saw himself not in light of everybody else. He saw himself in light of God. And so therefore, there was contrition. There was mourning. Paul said, I may not be the most wicked person in the world, but Paul saw himself as the most wicked person. That's mourning. That's mourning. And so out of that contrition then leads to control. When you finally understand that you are nothing and you weep over this, you lament over this, you mourn over this, then you relinquish control. If I'm unworthy and I'm still a sinner, then what good am I really to God? What good am I really going to be for the kingdom of God? And so meekness is this idea that you know the world is only interested in itself. The philosophy of our world is do unto others before they do unto you. And so this is the mentality of the world that we live in and we see that this has crept into our church because we see people griping and complaining because maybe they didn't like the songs that were picked out. Maybe they didn't like the message that was preached this Sunday. Maybe they didn't like the temperature that was in the auditorium. Maybe they didn't like the thickness. You see, everything we do about religion and worship is what? Focused on us. When was the last time we walked up to somebody and asked them, is the temperature comfortable for you? Is that pew comfortable enough? Here, I've got an extra cushion here. You can have these. When did we start thinking about other people before we think about ourself? Meekness is with respect to God, the conscious acknowledgement that He is Lord, and with respect to my fellow man, that I desire to see their interests and their attitudes preceded before my own. So therefore, Paul in Philippians summed this up for us quite well. He said in Philippians 4, verse 11, not that I speak in respect that won't, for I have learned that whatsoever state I am there with, be content. Be content. And this whole idea of meekness has to do with this attitude of a horse. Has any of you ridden a horse before? Has any of you ridden a horse that was very, very meek? That was very, very broke? It's pretty simple. You know, Pawpaw, when I was growing up, he raised quarter horses and everything, and it didn't matter what time of the year we showed up or when we were coming, if he had it or he didn't have it, but by the time we arrived on the farm, Pawpaw always had a horse that would take care of us. One that he could trust us with. He had nearly 200 acres of wood. We had relatives around us. We had miles that we could explore and we could go. We would ride the horse down to the store. But Pawpaw had a horse that he knew that would not only take care of us, but they were broke. They were good for us. But he also had them that weren't so broke. And guess what? The idea is with that horse that he put me on, was it any less powerful than the horse that wasn't broke? No, they had the same strength. But you see that horse that was broke that Pawpaw would let me get on was the horse that had been meek, that had yielded its power to my control. And so I could tell it to go fast. I could tell it to go. I could flick my tongue and it would speed up. I could say whoa and it would stop. I could put a little pressure on the reins in the left and it would turn left. It did everything that I wanted it to do. Because it was much more powerful than I was. Especially as a kid. But what had happened, it yielded itself. And so that's what we're talking about. Paul said, it doesn't matter what state I'm in, I am yielded to God, so therefore I am content. You know that old horse thing? It got to the point though by the end of the week that it knew that when we headed back toward the house, we were heading home. And sometimes it would become unbroke. Because it knew when we got back to the barn, it knew it was going to get rubbed down. It was going to get brushed out and it was going to get a big old tub of food and water. And so man, sometimes when we would turn, it would head to the barn and it didn't matter what because it knew the sun was coming down. It knew it was feed time, brush time, and they would go. But yet every once in a while, you could still. Even though you knew what its heart wanted to do. No, we're not going yet. We've got to go do this. And it would still stay. And that's what Paul's saying. Paul said it doesn't matter if I'm in prison. It doesn't matter what's going on in my life. He said I've learned that God is in control. That I am nothing to begin with. And so everything that I am and who I am is because of God. So it doesn't matter where I'm at or what I'm doing or what kind of health or anything else. God is with me. God is with me. And so I'm going to yield myself to God. I'm going to do what God wants me to do rather than what I want to do. Now let me give you a verse that you can write down and go look into a little bit deeper later. In Romans chapter 6 verse 19, he said I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanliness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Listen again. For as you have yielded your members. Who's he talking about? He said I'm talking to you living in the flesh. The things you do with your hands, your feet, your mouth, the way that you live, your eyes, your tongue, as you have yielded these to wickedness. You know, it's amazing that some of the greatest cussers that I know after I told them that I was a preacher, you finally learn, you know what, they can actually control what they're saying. But they've just yielded their mouths for so long that it just comes out and they don't even think about it. That's what he's talking about. It's not something that happens natural. It's something that's training. Parker said a word the other day that he knew he shouldn't have said. And immediately he knew when he said it, he immediately looked to see how Grandma and Grandpa was going to respond. Because that way, I'll know if I can do it again. If I can say it again. If I can get away with it. And so, as we have yielded these members to uncleanliness and iniquity and sin, look what he says. He says, even so now, yield your members, servants to righteousness unto holiness. You yield. You yield. You don't lose your power. You don't lose your strength. But what you do is you submit to God. A great example would be Billy Graham. Anybody think that he was a weak man spiritually? No. No, he was a powerhouse. He was strong. I mean, I would love to have Billy Graham's deep voice. When he spoke, you recognized it. I mean, I can remember mom and dad would be watching his deal on TV because they'd put them on there just about on national networks on the antenna there at least every spring and fall. And I can remember coming in the house from playing and immediately you hear that voice. And so, as a kid, you know, you kind of, oh, they're watching preaching tonight. You kind of ease on to the bedroom or the bathroom. I've got to shower and all that, right? Because you recognized it. It was there. But he was one of the most yielded men that there was. He would actually... I've read some of his biographies and stuff. He would actually go to these cities that he was going to preach week before. And he would stay in a hotel and he would literally have the hotel staff come and remove the TVs and radios out of his room. Because he didn't want it to be a distraction or a problem. So he could give himself and he would walk through the city and go about and literally pray that God would use him in that city. That's yielded. That's strength under control. That's things that you and I are not appearing in. And we wonder sometimes why in the world we don't have salvations that we used to have. When was the last time you got up early to come to church to pray for the services? I pray for the service. Yeah, while you're brushing your teeth and your hair and throwing on clothes, you're not really concentrated on what God's going to do in the service or not. And so we rush. And so, yielded. Having the power to go above and beyond to do what God has asked us to do. Three disciplines of yielding. Number one, you have to be filled with the comforting Spirit. Remember, those that mourn, He will comfort. You've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. And then notice this next one. Meekness. Meekness. In other words, you've got to be filled under the control and the power of the Holy Spirit if you are going to yield yourself to what God wants you to do. Number two, you must be submitted to the authority of Jesus Christ. See, you've got to recognize that God's the boss. How many times did Jesus... You know, you think Jesus Christ was the boss, right? I mean, God said all authority is given unto Him. But how many times do we read Jesus Christ and say, nevertheless, Father, not my will, but Yours be done. OK, Dad, I know I must go through Samaria today. And the disciples only speak probably what He was thinking. Why go through Samaria today, right? Well, God wanted them to. He yielded. He yielded. He was meek. And then you have to be responsive to the Word of God. See, I told a young man the other day that, you know, the problem is, is we want to live for God. And we want God to bless us, but we don't want to listen to what God tells us to do. You realize that's what the Word of God is? You cannot yield. You see, that's what makes a good horse. The meeker of the horse doesn't mean that it doesn't have any strength. You want to see something amazing? Go down here to Benton one Saturday or Sunday afternoon after church and watch one of the cutting shows. You want to see a meek horse with power? And I always used to ask Pawpaw because he raised cutting horses and everything. And when we'd go to these shows and his horses, some guy would be demonstrating his horses before a big sale or whatever. I'd ask him, man, this dude never does move the reins or nothing. And Pawpaw would say he controls everything from his knees to his feet. So controlled and so yielded that just the slightest shift in the saddle and the horse would move a certain direction. Can you imagine if every Christian in Saline County was that yielded to God? That all he did was just have to shift his weight just a little bit. And we knew to obey. It's incredible. You have to be responsive. But see, we can't get that way. You know how many hours it takes from the back of that horse teaching and training to get to know each other before it happens that way? And we wonder why we can't be good Christians, but we never listen to the Word of God. We never read to the Word of God. Therefore, we never submit to Jesus Christ because you can't submit to something that you don't know what you're supposed to submit to. Right? And you can't submit unless you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And so meekness. Now look at what he says here. He says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 21, Therefore, let no man glory in men. Notice this. For all things are yours. He says those that are meek will inherit the earth. Now, and I'm doing some research into this because it just kind of popped out at me just yesterday. And so going back over my notes and looking at everything, and all of a sudden it hit me, those that are poor in spirit inherit the heaven. Right? And then all of a sudden it says those that are meek inherit the earth. And I'm like, what's the difference? Why heaven and why earth? There's a major difference between heaven and earth, isn't it? I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning with this frozen on my mind. There's a reason for heaven and earth. Why when we're poor in spirit, we get heaven, but then when we become meek and yielded, we get earth. You see, because it's the way that people view us. See, you can't be here what you're not there. Later on, He gives us the model prayer. And what does He say? Our Father which art in heaven, heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Right? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. See, we can't rule and reign and be good stewards and good ambassadors of heaven here on this earth if we're not yielded to the king, even when the king is not here. We're going to start studying. I think I finally determined and it's going to take a long time because there's a lot of parables. And I want to get to some of them that we're at the end. But on Sunday nights, I think we're going to start looking at the parables in a couple of weeks. Because all of the parables are short stories that God uses to teach us about the kingdom of God. And one of the parables is the parable of the good steward. The one that the king is not there. The king has left them in control and he went about to do something else. But when he returned, the good steward was the one that came to greet him because he had made better what he left them with than what he came. And I'm thinking, you know, God placed us as stewards here on this earth. Is it better in our hands than it is in His? It ought to be. Because guess what? The message of this kingdom, what did He tell us? He said go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We're the ones that are supposed to be sharing the Gospel. We are ambassadors of that heaven. But notice He said they shall inherit the earth. And so He says let no man glory in men. All these things that we think are great and wonderful that we strive for here on this earth that we will yield ourselves to long hours, to hard work, to different things, to gain different statuses and everything else. That's what He says. Let no man glory in men. For all things are yours. For all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things are yours. And, and here's the conclusion, and you are Christ. And Christ is God's. What was the church at Corinth doing? And they were arguing over, I was baptized by Peter. I was baptized by Apollos. I was baptized, right? Man, that made them more spiritual than everybody else. We just went through Corinthians not too long ago. You remember. So we're a lot more spiritual. We're a lot more better. And Paul said, quit glorying in men. Because everything that Paul has, everything that Peter has, everything that Apollos has, you have. It's yours. But not even the things that they have, but even much more. The things present. The things to come. It is already yours. No matter what happens on this earth, listen, if you are yielded to God, it is yours. It is yours. He wrote to 2 Corinthians in his next letter, in chapter 6 and verse 10, he says, "...as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessors of all things." The reality of it is, is it may not necessarily look like what we think it should look like. But that doesn't mean we still don't possess everything. And it's still not ours. I don't care what you have. I don't care how blessedness you are. You cannot enjoy it. Because blessedness is not in things. Blessedness is inside. It's what you are. Just like joy and happiness. Happiness is based upon your circumstances. Joy is there. Joy comes in the morning. Joy comes at night. Joy comes in the afternoon. Joy comes when it's good times and bad times. See, joy is already there because it's who you know. It's who you're there with. And so, He says, all things are yours as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Only when we have accepted our King, Jesus Christ, in the Kingdom of God, can we begin to inherit the blessings of this earth. You want to know why some of our lives are not what it should be? And we're not blessed? Because we're not yielded. We're not yielded. We're still trying to do it our way. Man, it's amazing how many times and I've seen it a lot over 35 years of preaching. You preach a message or something and you try to talk to somebody about something in the Scripture. Well, I don't really care what that says. This is what I've heard or this is what I feel or this is what... It's not yielded. And then we wonder why our lives are falling apart and we're not blessed. Let me get to the next one right quick or we're not going to get to it. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. He said, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now we have to understand the righteousness first. We have to understand what righteousness is before we can fully understand this. And I want you to understand that righteousness simply means being conformed to the will of God. In other words, none of us are righteous. What makes us righteous? And we hear right standing before God and that's pretty good, but just because I can't stand before God unless Jesus Christ is within me. Because it's really not me standing before God, because remember, I am poor in spirit. I am nobody. I am a sinner. So really what I'm doing is when I go and approach God, go back to Hebrews 4, that we approach God with boldness. His throne of grace and mercy with boldness. Why? Because we're not approaching it. We're there because Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession on our behalf. And so I'm not approaching God I'm approaching Jesus Christ who then stands me before God and says, Father, He's mine. Listen, you see the difference between just right standing? I have a right to stand there. That way I can stand there unless the King gives us permission. And so he said righteousness is this conformity to Jesus Christ. This is what God wants to do in our life. And this is the blessing of Christianity is to know that you're in the will of God doing the will of God. There's no greater blessings on earth than to know that Jesus Christ is well pleased in you, His servant, His steward. Christ's righteousness is reckoned to you, the sinner. And your sins are reckoned to Jesus Christ. So we are in Him, but He is in us. And so this righteousness has to flow and comes only through Jesus Christ. And it's an experiential righteousness. Paul understood this in his own life, in his own holiness, in his righteousness of speech and conduct. And it was the secret to all of his motives and everything that he did. Jesus in Matthew though really doesn't distinguish which righteousness is it. Is it the righteousness that we receive from Jesus Christ or the righteousness that He gives? And He doesn't distinguish that. He just uses the word righteousness. And so when we think about that, righteousness means blessed is the person who hungers and thirsts to be conformed to the will of God, for He shall be filled. When was the last time you came to church praying, God, I want to walk out of church looking more like You? When was the last time you opened up your Bible and said, God, speak to me because I want to look more like You? That's righteousness. That's right. Not only that we have been declared righteous, but Paul over and over tells us that we are to live righteous. We are to live it. We are to express it right here and right now. In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30, it says, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And why am I showing you this verse? Because look at the key there and I underlined it, but I needed to make it bigger. Who of God is what is made unto us. We look for righteousness, right? We think of righteousness as living the good life and doing good, but no, righteousness is in a person. It's not a what. It's a who. Righteousness is in Jesus Christ. God made Him righteousness. And so if we want to become righteous, we have to get into Christ. We have to be conformed into His image. When Jesus was talking about hungering and thirsting, He wasn't talking about a mere appetite. And I know some of you this morning are thinking, man, I am really, really hungry, right? And you may be really, really hungry, but I know you're not starving. That's the idea of this hungry and thirsting. It's starving. And literally, hunger and thirsting is this need for Jesus Christ. That's what righteousness is. Well, I'm hungering and thirsting for a need for Jesus Christ. When was the last time? And be honest with me. I don't want you to raise your hand or shout out, but be honest with yourself. When was the last time you really needed Jesus Christ? See, unfortunately, and what do we read when we read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation? Every one of them that He rebuked, what? They had found something that they could do, that they could control, that they could have, that they were in control of, and none of them needed Jesus Christ. And every one of them that didn't need Jesus Christ, He rebuked. He says hungering and thirsting for a need for Jesus Christ. Without righteousness, what happens? If we're not righteous, if we're not standing before God without any sin, then what is there? There's judgment. There's judgment. And so if I'm not right with God, then God says I'm going to judge. We just got through looking at that over and over in Israel, right? If you obey me, I will bless you. If you disobey me, I will judge you. We stopped in Judges and reread that whole entire book when they would what? Repent and say God, we're sorry. God would raise up a judge to do what? Deliver them. And there would be a number of years of peace until what? They forgot about their commitment. They forgot about their relationship and life got to being good and they didn't need God no more, right? Everything was hunky-dory. We don't need God, and so what happened? We don't need God. God doesn't need us. Our Lord allows us to have a perpetual hunger that we might have a perpetual feast, that we might have a perpetual satisfaction, and that's the way we go on and on in the Christian life as we continue to feast upon the Lord. If you've ever been really, really, really hungry... How many of you... Thanksgiving's coming up. Do you remember what happens on Thanksgiving Day? You look forward all week long to that big meal, right? And you sit down and you eat and you eat and you eat. And then what happens? You go sit down in that chair and man, you are so full you don't even want to look at food, think about food or anything else, right? And then most men on Thanksgiving either go out hunting or they sit there and they watch the football game, right? And what happens about halftime of the football game? We find ourselves meandering right back to the kitchen, right? And we find ourselves grazing again, right? Well, we just stuffed ourselves. We were miserable just a couple hours ago, but now all of a sudden, what happens? The more you eat, the more you create an appetite. That's why when elderly people get sick or anybody gets sick, what do they do? Start eating something. If you've been sick to your stomach, you know, start with brawls. Start putting something in your body because what? The more you start eating, the more you're going to develop your appetite. And then all of a sudden, the next thing you're doing is what? We're not just eating at the buffet. We're not eating at the buffet one time a week. We're eating at the buffet every day. And then we're not eating at the buffet every day at lunch. What are we doing? We're eating lunch and supper at the buffet, right? Because we've developed this appetite. Look at America with food. This appetite has been developed. That's what Jesus is saying here. If you're really starving and you're really thirsty and you really, really need Jesus Christ, then guess what? God's going to fill you. And it's not just about appetite. It's not just so I can be filled where I don't have to come back again. No, the more you need Jesus Christ, the more it creates a need for Jesus Christ. You understand? Am I tracking with this? And so, you know, that's the sad thing. That's where we are in churches today is we really don't have a need for Jesus Christ. There's not a hunger and there's not a thirst. Oh, we have people filling the churches because we want to praise God. We want to do the things and we want to be a part of religion and everything, but we want to do it without really needing Jesus Christ. We want to come and check off some boxes and we did this and we did that. And then we want to rush home and do what we want to do the rest of the week. And then all of a sudden, we realize on Sunday morning, it's not really a need. It's like, you know what? What happens to a body if you fail to eat? It's one of two things. If you don't decide you don't need food, either you're already dead or you're dying. So every one of us understand no matter how sick or how bad, we've got to eat. And we haven't got to the place where we are like that with Jesus Christ. We don't really need Him. Oh, Jesus, if You want to show up at church today, that'd be great. That'd be grand. But we got it all worked out. We've got the songs picked out. We've got the message picked out. We don't really matter. And we walk out of here, we're still starving. And it's amazing at how many people sit under these stories and song service and all of this stuff, but yet they are starving for Jesus Christ. As much as you hate, as some of you hate going verse by verse through a book of the Bible, some of you have developed an appetite for the Word because of giving it to you. You have a need for Jesus. And the more you get into studying the Bible, the more you want to study. And the more you think and the more you read, the more you wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning, I need a snack. I need a snack. This has been bothering me all night. I wake up, my stomach's growling. I want to go to the Word of God. I need Jesus. I need Jesus today. And so the question that I want to ask you with is are you hungry and thirsty for Jesus? That's the culmination. That's where it has. You start with the important spirit and then you commit. You mourn. You understand that God, I've given you my life, but I'm not very good. And God says, great, that's where I want you. Now yield yourself to me and we're going to go places. But don't ever forget you need me. See, a cutting horse, a cutting horse, I'll go back to that illustration, is not very great unless the rider's not on them, helping them. As smart and intelligent as they are, they're not very good unless the rider's on them. A racehorse. Any of you watched a race and the jockey falls off? That super smart, powerful horse all of a sudden does what? He don't know where he's supposed to be running. He don't know what he's supposed to be doing. And we have a lot of Christians that think they're yielded, but they're not listening to the rider. They're not listening to the king. And then we wonder why in the world are we not blessed? Why are we not blessed? You may need to take another look at yourself. You may need to go back to the very first one and see yourself as God sees you. The sinner. Worthless. And then submit to His authority. And when we go down through this process and we get it right, man, I need Jesus. And we're going to pick up in two weeks and we're going to look at the last ones. And we're going to see that all of a sudden what happens on the inside, when you get to the point that you need Jesus Christ, boom, the outside happens. The outside. The influence. The power. The winning. The blessings begin to take place. And that's what Jesus is teaching in this sermon. Yes, you can come and I can heal you and I can feed you, but the problem is you don't need Me. Once you're healed, once you're happy, you go on, right? You go back to your houses. You go back to doing what you do. And I'm a great convenience. I'm great when you have a problem, when you have a sickness, when you have an issue. You don't really need Me. And so He says, listen, disciples, we need to come back and we need to get back to the basics of this kingdom. You will never be great and you'll never do nothing until you learn to need Me. And with Me, all things are possible. Because everything is yours that Jesus Christ has. That's where I want to live. That's the kingdom I want to be a part of. But it's a choice. It's a decision. Are you willing to make that decision this morning as we stand and have a verse of invitation? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you yielded? Are you yielded? Are you sorry about who you are and what you have to offer to God? I'm sorry, God, you don't have something better to work with. God says, you're perfect, right? Idiot! You're just the guy I'm looking for. But God, I'm not a warrior. I'm a thresher. And it's wheat whooping me right now. And you want me to go fight the army? You're perfect. Moses! I've been run out of Egypt. I have no more power or control in Egypt. I've been pushed out. I've been living out here in this desert, being a shepherd for 40 years. Perfect. Now you're ready for me to use you. See, you've got to yield. And you've got to need them. You've got to... Who's going to go? Who's going to speak? Who's going to help me? God said, I will be there with you. I am who I am. Whatever you need me, whatever you need me. Well, Lord, I don't know if you're sufficient. Well, here, take your brother Aaron with you. Take him and find out real quick. You know what? This is no good. God's enough. God's enough. That's all we need is Jesus Christ as we sing. Page 550.