Strength Under Control: Lessons from the Beatitudes

And finally, it forces us to make a decision. Jesus' sermon forces us to make a decision. Jesus ends with these two foundations. You either build on his words or you just collapse. There's no middle ground here. There's no middle category. You can't just admire it and then ignore it. I mean, I guess you can, but you will collapse. That's why it's the greatest sermon ever preached because it was delivered with divine authority. It exposes our heart, and it overturns world values, and it it defines what true eousness looks like and then it demands us to have an allegiance with Christ to be on his team. [00:51:33] (45 seconds)  #BuildOnTheRock

Heaven values self control. I think Jesus is saying, we need to value self control over conquering things. Meekness is not the absence of strength. It is the strength surrendered to god's control. Being meek doesn't mean that we're weak. It means that we have strength but we're giving that strength and surrendering our strength to god's control. Kinda like, I don't have to win every argument to be a man. But sometimes I sure think that I have to win every argument to be a man. Right? There comes a time to where I need to have a little bit of self control over this argument [00:55:25] (49 seconds)  #MeeknessIsStrength

When I was younger, I thought this word meek was just another way to say weak. It's kinda sounds the same. Meek, weak. You know, you think of the word meekness. I think sometimes we think Jesus was this soft man that was weak and and and meek and or however we wanna look at it but I I I was thinking more this week. I think Jesus was a manly man. I think Jesus was a manly man that had authority and that was one of the reasons why the religious leaders really hated him is because not only did he have this spiritual boldness about him, but he was a manly man. [00:53:27] (41 seconds)  #MeekNotWeak

So meekness isn't about being weak. Meekness is about being strong but having control because we've given god full control of our lives. Point two, the meek trust god with outcomes. Psalm and delight in peace. So when Jesus is preaching this message, he's actually quoting the Psalm. He's quoting what David said here, but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. So, the context is that wicked people maybe prospering but David says, don't grab that. Trust in the lord. [00:57:54] (48 seconds)  #TrustGodsTiming

So, we can look good. We can put on the right clothes, put on the right front, that right face, but we can't fake our heart before the lord. We can't fake what's inside of us to god. Third, it flips the world's value system upside down. Again, the series is is called upside down kingdom. So, when when Jesus teaches us this, it flips the the whole world upside down. Jesus is really good at flip flipping the script on us. The poor are blessed. Ethan taught us last week that the poor are blessed because they have the kingdom of god and the ones who mourn will be comforted. [00:49:39] (48 seconds)  #UpsideDownKingdom

And Jesus doesn't adjust the system here. He doesn't just say, let's make the system better or let's just make a few adjustments. He overturns it. Fourth, it's practical. And it's not just practical. It's really, really practical. There's no, Jesus isn't given a parable here. He's not given some kind of a mystery or some kind of a a here, you figure this out. It's practical. It addresses again, anger, marriage, money, prayer, anxiety, judgment, enemies. This isn't this theology floating around. This isn't hey. We gotta dig deeper into the Greek words of what Jesus is saying or what does this mean in Hebrews. This is it's a daily obedience where we actually live today. [00:50:39] (53 seconds)  #EverydayObedience

Maybe though, maybe we can look elsewhere in the Bible. Maybe we can kind of talk to Peter about. Maybe we can listen to Peter about this. Peter was a fighter. Remember? Peter pulled out a sword and started trying to chop heads off of soldiers that was arresting Jesus He had a sword. He's a fighter. Maybe Peter is going to tell us something different. Maybe Jesus is or Peter's going to say, nope, let's just go ahead and and fight, kill our enemies Actually, Peter tells us in first Peter five and six, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. [00:59:58] (40 seconds)  #HumbleUnderGod

and have and that's not being weak. That's being having strength with the control of god and this is where the king kingdom gets flipped up flipped upside down, doesn't it? Because man, we want control. We always want control. We want control of every situation. It's kinda like driving home Oklahoma with Shane. I want to be the driver of the U Haul truck. I don't wanna be the passenger no more. It was fun for eight hours, but guess what? I want to have control of this vehicle because if we die, I wanna know that I controlled my own death and you didn't have anything to do with it. I wanna be in control. [00:56:15] (42 seconds)  #ReleaseControlToGod