Jeff Miller

March 9, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to the Pure in Heart

Jeff Miller

March 9, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Congratulations to Pure in Heart! (Matthew 5:8)

Who Are the "Pure in Heart"?

Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 15:19 - For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 - And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Psalm 24:3-4 - Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

Why Are We Congratulating the Pure in Heart?

John 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Hebrews 11:27 - (Moses) endured as seeing him who is invisible.

How Do I Become Pure in Heart So I Can See God?

James 4:8 - ...purify your hearts, you double-minded.

1 John 3:3 - ...everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 Peter 1:22 - Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth…

How to Purify Yourself (Philippians 4:8):

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Think True thoughts.
Think Honorable thoughts.
Think Just thoughts.
Think Pure thoughts.
Think Lovely thoughts.
Think Commendable thoughts.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-01:20
Amen. Open your Bibles with me please to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five as we continue our congratulations party. You ready to party? Pastor Taylor's ready party, the rest of you overly affected by that hour change. I think we'd be used to that by now, right? Matthew chapter 5, are you there? This is Jesus' first sermon, and I still contend it's the greatest sermon ever preached. And this is the introduction to Jesus sermon. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
01:22-01:26
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
01:27-01:32
"Blessed are the peacemakers, "for they shall be called sons of God.
01:34-01:50
"Blessed are those who are persecuted "for righteousness' sake, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And in these statements commonly called the Beatitudes, we have a spiritually logical flow.
01:50-01:56
You have to see the Beatitudes like a ladder or a staircase.
01:56-02:01
This is a progressive journey Jesus is talking about here.
02:03-02:18
And over and over and over and over, he says, "Blessed, blessed, blessed." You grab a Bible commentary, And most people say, "Well, that means happy." But it means a lot more than happy.
02:20-02:42
What Jesus is saying is, if this describes you, He's saying, "Congratulations, "because God has something awesome in store for you." This, this is what Christ followers, are meant to be.
02:45-02:51
So I'd like you to bow your heads for a second, and I'm gonna ask that you would please pray for me.
02:56-03:01
I am keenly aware that I am inadequate.
03:04-03:09
It's just that sometimes I feel a lot more than other times.
03:10-03:42
And I get to tell you today's one of those days. With the verse that's before us today, I feel so grossly inadequate to capture the grandness of this verse. The Bible says our sufficiency is from Christ. It's not about me. It's about the truth of His Word. It's about the power of His Holy Spirit. So I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to that end.
03:43-03:46
And I will pray for you as we get into God's word together.
03:47-03:47
Let's pray.
04:01-04:08
Father in heaven, we're always completely dependent on you for everything.
04:15-04:21
And I don't know if we'll ever feel that more than we will over these next few minutes.
04:24-04:29
God, I pray that your light shine in the dark places.
04:33-04:39
that we're not so concerned with what other people think we should be.
04:40-04:44
Father, let us be concerned with what You say we should be.
04:47-04:52
Father, we thank You for Your commitment into making us those people.
04:55-04:57
Father, exalt your name.
05:00-05:03
Let your word be greatly exalted in our hearts.
05:04-05:06
We pray in Jesus' name.
05:07-05:10
And all of God's people said, amen.
05:12-05:21
So the party continues today as we say congratulations to the pure in heart.
05:23-05:26
(congregation applauding)
05:37-05:38
Let's look at the verse again.
05:39-05:51
I can't think of any verse in the Bible that's more majestic and more awe-inspiring than this verse.
05:52-06:12
when Jesus, in describing our spiritual journey, says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Where do you start with a verse like that?
06:15-06:18
Well, let's talk about, first of all, who are the pure in heart?
06:19-06:19
Let's start there.
06:20-06:22
Who are we congratulating?
06:23-06:23
Who are the pure in heart?
06:24-06:27
Well, I guess let's do a little Bible study here, shall we?
06:27-06:28
Let's talk about the heart.
06:30-06:34
When we talk about the heart, we're not talking about the muscle that pumps the blood here, okay?
06:35-06:38
Biblically, the heart is the center of your personality.
06:40-06:43
Your heart is the part of you that you don't see in the mirror.
06:45-06:46
It's who you really are.
06:47-06:52
It has to do with your will and your emotions and your intellect.
06:53-06:54
That's your heart.
06:54-06:56
And biblically, there's a big problem.
06:59-07:01
Your heart is bent to sin.
07:01-07:03
We inherited that from Adam.
07:05-07:15
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick." Who can understand it?
07:17-07:22
We are born with a heart that is not pure.
07:23-07:28
And according to Jeremiah, your heart is a sick liar.
07:30-07:31
What did Jesus say about the heart?
07:32-07:43
Matthew 15, 19, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, "murder, adultery, sexual immorality, "theft, false witness, slander." Look, mankind is evil.
07:45-07:49
And sociologists try to pin that on environment.
07:50-07:59
And yes, yes, how you were raised and where you were raised does have a bearing on who you are, absolutely true, but that's not the root problem.
08:01-08:06
And some people wanna put the problem on education.
08:07-08:08
Well, you know what the problem is.
08:08-08:09
People just need more education.
08:10-08:12
I am not against education.
08:14-08:16
That's not the root of the problem either.
08:17-08:19
You know what the root of the problem is according to God's word?
08:20-08:21
Your heart is evil.
08:22-08:28
My heart, by birth, inherited from Adam, is evil.
08:29-08:30
That's the problem.
08:31-08:41
So that's what the heart is, but Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart." Well, what do we mean by pure?
08:44-08:48
Pure means to be cleansed from the filth of sin.
08:51-09:02
Because we are, as we said in the first part of our party here, because we are poor in spirit, we are not naturally pure in heart.
09:04-09:06
We need God to cleanse us.
09:06-09:08
We've been talking about that, right?
09:09-09:17
Actually, you know, God does something better than cleanse your heart.
09:19-09:26
Ezekiel 36, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
09:26-09:32
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
09:33-09:41
And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
09:41-09:47
So you see, God does something so much better take our old nasty sinful heart and clean it up.
09:47-09:51
He takes that out and he gives us a new heart.
09:52-09:55
A heart that loves him and a heart that wants to obey him.
10:00-10:02
That's what it means to be pure in heart.
10:03-10:06
You're like, okay, alright, alright, I got the concept.
10:08-10:11
But what does the pure in heart look like?
10:11-10:18
What does that, okay, I get you're hitting this with these theological concepts here, but just brass tacks.
10:19-10:20
What does it look like to be pure in heart?
10:21-10:25
Well, we don't have to guess that either because God tells us that in Psalm 24.
10:27-10:27
I love it, look at this.
10:28-10:31
It says, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
10:32-10:36
"And who shall stand in his holy place?" It's like, who can stand before God?
10:36-10:41
Look, he who has clean hands and a pure heart.
10:42-10:44
Like, well, what is that?
10:44-10:53
He tells us, "Who does not lift up his soul "to what is false and does not swear deceitfully." Did you see that?
10:54-11:08
The psalmist says, "How am I going to be worthy "to step into the presence of God?" He says, "You gotta be pure in heart." That means, first of all, you don't lift up your soul to what is false.
11:08-11:14
That means you are 100% dedicated to the glory of God in every area of your life.
11:15-11:21
Not just an hour on Sunday morning, every area of my life is holy ground for the Lord.
11:21-11:23
It is all dedicated to God.
11:26-11:28
And he says, no deceit.
11:29-11:30
There's nothing hidden.
11:31-11:33
There's no hypocrisy.
11:35-11:38
There's no, I put on a face for church, but they don't know who I really am.
11:41-11:44
You're pure in heart, everywhere.
11:47-11:52
To sum it up, the pure in heart is someone who has been transformed from the inside out.
11:52-12:00
It's evidenced by a manner of life motivated solely by a desire to make every aspect of their lives an act of worship.
12:01-12:03
That is the pure in heart.
12:06-12:09
So, why are we congratulating them?
12:17-12:19
You know, there's something in us right now.
12:21-12:22
They're like, this is so hokey and nerdy.
12:24-12:26
Like we're celebrating somebody that's pure.
12:26-12:28
There's something in us that rails against that.
12:30-12:32
And that's an indicator that we have a problem.
12:34-12:37
We should be celebrating the pure, not making fun of the pure.
12:39-12:40
Because Jesus celebrated the pure.
12:41-12:41
Why, why?
12:42-12:43
Why are we celebrating the pure in heart?
12:44-13:01
Well, he says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, "for they shall see God." Again, the word they, in all of these beatitudes, is emphasized in the Greek.
13:02-13:06
And Jesus is pointing out it's exclusive.
13:07-13:08
Like who sees God?
13:09-13:19
Jesus says, "The pure in heart, they, they shall see God." And the verb tense is continuous.
13:20-13:24
Not you see God once or twice in your life.
13:25-13:28
It's I'm constantly seeing God.
13:32-13:41
And I gotta tell you, it's just, it is so hard for me to capture this verse in the way that it needs.
13:43-13:48
Because this statement, this should fill us with awe.
13:53-13:59
People who are pure in heart get to see God.
14:06-14:08
What does that mean?
14:10-14:12
What does it mean to see God?
14:16-14:22
Well, it's impossible in the physical sense to see God, right?
14:23-14:27
John 1:18 says, "No one has ever seen God.
14:30-14:53
God, the only son who is at the father's side, he has made him known." So you see, John says, "Nobody's seen God, but when we saw Jesus, we saw God, but no one has ever seen God." Well, you're like, "Well, what about Moses?" Well, Moses in Exodus 33 asked to see God's glory.
14:56-14:57
But do you remember what God said to Moses?
14:58-15:17
He said, "No one can see me and live." But that takes us to a very peculiar verse in the book of Hebrews about Moses, where it says, "Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible." What?
15:19-15:26
Moses endured as, you see this?
15:28-15:33
As seeing him who is invisible.
15:36-15:38
You're like, how do you see someone who's invisible?
15:42-15:43
The answer is faith.
15:46-15:53
You see, every one of these beatitudes, every single one of them, have both a now and a later fulfillment.
15:55-15:57
Yes, will we see God later?
15:57-15:58
Yes, we will.
15:58-16:01
Eventually, yes, in heaven, we are going to see God, right?
16:01-16:03
Revelation 22, four tells us that.
16:05-16:16
Absolutely, someday we are going to see God, but now, like Moses, we do get to literally see God with eyes of faith.
16:20-16:22
I'm like, how in the world can I explain that?
16:25-16:32
And it occurred to me that to the people that get it, I don't really have to explain it.
16:34-16:40
And to the people that don't get it, there's not a thing that I can say that'll make it make sense.
16:44-16:47
But the people who get it, get it.
16:47-16:50
The pure in heart see God like no one else can.
16:51-16:55
The pure in heart see God in a way that you just can't, you can't describe it.
16:58-16:59
Like, well, what do you mean?
16:59-17:02
Well, the pure in heart, you know, we see God in nature.
17:04-17:07
We see God's hand in everything that he created.
17:07-17:10
We're just like, wow, look at the design of this.
17:10-17:14
Wow, look at the glory of God reflected in what He made.
17:15-17:17
We see God in history.
17:18-17:22
We see God at work in world events, especially through His people Israel.
17:22-17:25
We're like, well, look, that's obviously God.
17:27-17:32
We see God in His word, His wisdom on every page, promises fulfilled.
17:32-17:39
Oh, and not just like reading it in the book, but we see God when we apply His word.
17:40-17:45
and watch his hand at work fulfilling the promises that he made to us.
17:48-17:50
And that's, look, that's the objective stuff.
17:50-18:01
And I could go on and on and on, but there's a subjective sense of this that we cannot deny, that we see God personally.
18:03-18:21
We see God in His sovereignty and the events in my life, that I look back, I can't deny God actively at work every step of this journey.
18:22-18:26
I can't deny that, because I couldn't explain this any other way.
18:29-18:31
We see God personally through the peace that he gives.
18:31-18:33
We were just singing about that, weren't we?
18:34-18:38
Like the whole world is crumbling around us, and we're like, God's got this.
18:39-18:41
Yeah, it's a rough patch, but God's got this.
18:42-18:44
Where does that peace come from?
18:44-18:45
That's seeing God.
18:48-18:52
You see, you'll never convince the pure in heart that God is absent.
18:55-19:02
Because the pure in heart are constantly seeing God everywhere.
19:04-19:08
So, that really leaves us with one question.
19:12-19:17
As we've been asking, and all of these, let's ask it again.
19:20-19:24
How do I become pure in heart so I can see God?
19:27-19:37
You know, you might be sitting here saying, you know, that sounds pretty magnificent able to see the Creator, the sovereign of the universe?
19:37-19:42
Like, how, how can I become pure in heart so I can see God?
19:49-19:54
You know, maybe there's a better question to ask.
20:01-20:02
Do you really want to see God?
20:07-20:08
Do you really want to?
20:15-20:16
Because here's the truth.
20:18-20:20
Not everybody really does.
20:25-20:33
You're like, "What do you mean?" Do you want to see the police?
20:38-20:39
You're like, yeah, why not?
20:41-20:42
What if you're speeding?
20:48-20:48
You get it?
20:49-20:50
It's the same with God.
20:52-21:03
If you're living in sin, if your life is lived in such a way that you know you're dishonoring God, you sure don't want to run into Him.
21:08-21:10
So do you really want to?
21:16-21:31
Would you rather just explain this away, make this some silly, flowery, poetic concept, Sort of dismiss the impact of the truth of the words of Jesus Christ.
21:32-21:35
Just go about your day and live however you want to live.
21:35-21:36
Would you rather just do that?
21:36-21:37
I think most of us would.
21:41-21:50
Because you got to admit there's a real scary sense in which we say we will see God.
21:56-22:01
If you wanna see God according to Jesus, you gotta be pure in heart.
22:03-22:04
Like, how does that happen?
22:06-22:08
Well, we've already talked about that.
22:08-22:09
Only God can change you.
22:10-22:12
Only God can do that work.
22:15-22:18
But you know, I do a lot of reading.
22:18-22:19
I do a lot of reading.
22:19-22:25
And I read so many times this week and study in this verse, so many people said, "You can't make yourself pure.
22:26-22:27
You can't make yourself pure.
22:27-22:29
Listen, you can't make yourself pure.
22:30-22:32
You can't make yourself, I read that so many times.
22:33-22:38
And I had, I kind of had a little problem with that.
22:40-22:42
Do you know why I had a problem with that?
22:43-22:46
Do you realize how many times the Bible tells you to purify yourself?
22:48-22:53
There is a real sense in which you carry some responsibility for your purity.
22:53-22:55
Yes, God changes your heart.
22:56-22:57
100%.
22:59-23:05
But over and over and over, God says, "Purify yourself." What do we mean?
23:05-23:07
Well, James 4/8.
23:09-23:10
We studied this one a few weeks ago.
23:11-23:14
James says, "Purify your hearts, you double-minded." That's a command.
23:16-23:19
Well, you're like, well, James is kind of a hard guy, right?
23:19-23:20
Well, what about John, right?
23:20-23:21
1 John 3, 3.
23:21-23:28
"Everyone who thus hopes in him," I'm like, there it is again.
23:28-23:29
You see that?
23:30-23:38
"Purifies himself as he is pure." Do you see the responsibility put it, it's on us in a sense, isn't it?
23:41-23:46
You're like, well, yeah, that was John, but you know, Peter wouldn't say something like that, would he?
23:47-23:48
Well, look at first Peter.
23:49-23:56
"having purified your souls "by your obedience to the truth." Oh, and there's more.
23:59-24:03
Well, like 2 Corinthians 7, 1, Paul says it.
24:04-24:08
So there we have James, John, Peter, and Paul all giving a command.
24:09-24:12
Look, you have a responsibility here.
24:17-24:23
Because every New Testament writer tells us here that we have to purify ourselves.
24:27-24:28
Like, well, how does that happen?
24:31-24:37
The battle for purity is waged between your ears.
24:39-24:40
It's in your mind.
24:43-24:50
Listen, what goes in your car affects its performance, doesn't it?
24:53-24:57
What goes in your body affects your health, doesn't it?
24:59-25:04
What goes in your computer affects the kinds of programs that it runs, doesn't it?
25:06-25:10
What goes in your mind affects your purity.
25:11-25:19
Because what goes in your mind, we're not only talking about your thoughts, but we're also talking about from there comes your words.
25:19-25:21
From there come your actions.
25:22-25:24
What goes in your mind affects your purity.
25:26-25:29
And I gotta tell you, America, we have such a problem there.
25:30-25:46
Because we fill our minds with so much sewage, from the TV and the internet, Everything is sexual images and crude jokes and violence and hatred and...
25:50-25:59
We're pumping that stuff into our heads and then we wonder why we don't really feel or act in a pure way.
26:01-26:04
It's because you're allowing too much impurity in here.
26:08-26:10
Well, what do we do about that?
26:12-26:14
One verse, how to purify yourself.
26:14-26:15
Let's just look at one verse.
26:17-26:25
That if you're willing to commit yourself to this verse, you are going to see exponential growth in this area in your life.
26:26-26:27
How to purify yourself.
26:28-26:29
This is from Philippians 4, eight.
26:30-26:31
Oh, and it's a loaded verse.
26:31-26:32
Well, let's look at it.
26:35-26:56
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
27:00-27:01
So how to purify yourself?
27:03-27:04
This is not complicated.
27:06-27:07
Just look at the list.
27:07-27:08
We're gonna go through these very, very quickly.
27:09-27:09
All right?
27:10-27:12
How to purify yourself, first of all, number one, think true thoughts.
27:16-27:17
Like what are true thoughts?
27:17-27:25
Jesus said in John 17, "Thy word is truth." God gave us, he gave us a book.
27:25-27:27
Do you know why God gave us a book?
27:28-27:32
He didn't give us a digital download or a Blu-ray.
27:33-27:35
Why did God give us a book?
27:36-27:39
Because a book engages our minds.
27:42-27:43
Get into it.
27:45-27:47
Do you have a Bible reading plan?
27:48-27:48
Get one.
27:49-27:51
And that doesn't have to be complicated either.
27:52-27:54
You know what my Bible reading plan is?
27:54-27:55
Open it.
27:57-27:58
Read it.
27:59-27:59
Repeat.
28:03-28:04
but you need to be reading this.
28:04-28:09
You need to be praying this back to God as we talked about in the youth group last couple of weeks.
28:09-28:12
You need to be meditating on it.
28:12-28:13
You need to be memorizing verses.
28:13-28:16
You need to get this in your head and in your hearts.
28:17-28:22
And you're going to find it so much easier to catch thoughts that don't line up with God's word.
28:22-28:25
And you're gonna be able to replace those thoughts accordingly.
28:27-28:29
So think true thoughts.
28:32-28:34
That's what should be swirling around your head.
28:34-28:35
Is this what God said?
28:36-28:37
Does this line up with God's word?
28:37-28:40
And the second one flows straight from that.
28:40-28:41
Think honorable thoughts.
28:44-28:45
Think honorable thoughts.
28:46-28:47
Like, well, what does that mean?
28:47-28:52
Well, any scenario you face, something you should immediately be considering is this.
28:54-28:55
How would Jesus think about this?
28:59-29:02
Remember the WWJD bracelets, remember that?
29:03-29:03
Some of you do.
29:04-29:05
What was that, 90s?
29:07-29:08
We're bringing them back.
29:10-29:15
How about WWJD armband tattoos?
29:17-29:17
Too cultish?
29:24-29:34
I got to admit though, I like the concept, constantly asking, how would Jesus think about this?
29:35-29:40
You see an attractive opposite sex person, where does your mind immediately go?
29:42-29:45
Like, well, what would Jesus think about this?
29:47-29:48
What would Jesus think about her?
29:50-29:59
You've been sinned against, and you're tempted to retaliate or one up Or what would Jesus think about this?
30:01-30:03
Or you heard that juicy rumor.
30:07-30:10
What would Jesus think about that if somebody went up and said that to him?
30:12-30:17
You see, that's why the Bible says, think honorable thoughts, right?
30:17-30:19
Number three, think just thoughts.
30:20-30:20
Think just thoughts.
30:23-30:25
You're like, just what?
30:27-30:34
Not just as in only, just as in what's right, what's fair, what's proper.
30:35-30:48
And that's so important because you know where our minds, because of our bent to sin, because of our sinful flesh, our thoughts oftentimes immediately go to what's best for me, what's going to be to my advantage.
30:49-30:52
Instead of that, we need to be saying, what's the just thing?
30:54-30:56
How can I do what is impartial?
31:00-31:02
That's the kind of stuff that needs to be swirling around your head.
31:03-31:05
Number four, think pure thoughts.
31:08-31:09
Think pure thoughts.
31:13-31:16
It's a little embarrassing that I have to say this to the church.
31:18-31:20
Get your minds out of the gutters, okay?
31:22-31:25
Not everything has to turn into an anatomy joke.
31:27-31:28
It's not funny.
31:28-31:29
It is so not funny.
31:32-31:35
But for some people, that's immediately where their mind goes.
31:35-31:36
That tells you where their heart is.
31:39-31:42
It's not funny, it's not appropriate, and it's certainly not pure.
31:44-31:46
Look, are you interested in seeing God or not?
31:51-31:55
You have to ask yourself, does this thought that I have line up with God's design for sex?
31:57-32:05
And that's why pornography is the biggest purity killer, men, and sad to say, even for many women.
32:07-32:11
We put images in our minds that have no business being in there.
32:16-32:27
Pure thinking is my affection, physical attraction, thoughts, all of the stuff in that area, those are all reserved for my spouse.
32:28-32:29
Like, well, I'm not married.
32:29-32:31
Okay, your future spouse.
32:33-32:34
You're like, well, I'm not planning on getting married.
32:34-32:36
Okay, well then think about something else.
32:38-32:39
But get your mind out of the gutter.
32:41-32:44
So dishonoring, so impure.
32:47-32:48
Number five is think lovely thoughts.
32:51-32:52
Lovely.
32:55-32:56
That word's right up there with chili.
33:01-33:03
Here's what it literally means though.
33:03-33:07
I know it sounds very flowery, but literally the word means friendly towards.
33:09-33:12
It's just talking about, well, you know what should be in your mind?
33:12-33:16
Things that are pleasing and attractive and positive.
33:19-33:25
There's so many ugly things that we think about and we dwell on them and that leads to impurity.
33:25-33:27
Things like envy.
33:28-33:30
Why does he have something I don't have?
33:30-33:32
I deserve that, he doesn't deserve that, I deserve that.
33:32-33:34
We get that stuff in our minds, that leads to impurity.
33:40-33:45
Another ugly thing that swirls around our head is being critical, just critical.
33:46-33:53
Some people just like, they're ready to slap down a Yelp review on everything, everything.
33:55-34:00
Like, wow, look at her coat, three stars.
34:01-34:06
Wow, look at Pastor Taylor's shoes, one star.
34:06-34:07
Do not recommend.
34:08-34:08
(congregation laughing)
34:12-34:13
There's nothing wrong with his shoes.
34:15-34:16
But you get my point.
34:16-34:21
Some people are just in that constant, harshly critical mode.
34:23-34:25
Constantly turning their nose up at everything.
34:27-34:29
Think lovely thoughts, whatever's lovely.
34:29-34:32
Another ugly thing that goes into our head is hatred.
34:33-34:35
Some people just have something against everybody.
34:37-34:41
That's how you look, how you talk, where you're from, how you dress, the kind of car, whatever.
34:42-34:44
It's just hatred.
34:48-34:51
But you know, the Bible tells us we need to purify ourselves.
34:52-34:59
That when those thoughts come into your head, you say, "No, no, no, that's going down a dark and negative place.
34:59-35:00
I don't need to go there.
35:03-35:09
My mind isn't going to go there." And then finally, number six, think commendable thoughts.
35:12-35:13
Incommendable thoughts.
35:19-35:23
Have you ever been around that guy?
35:25-35:26
You know who I mean.
35:27-35:28
You know that guy?
35:30-35:30
The guy that,
35:31-35:32
(laughs)
35:33-35:35
not that guy, that guy.
35:36-35:40
The guy that constantly has to rip on everything.
35:41-35:44
Oh, look, I love a good yuck as much as the next person.
35:44-35:51
But some people are just constantly looking at everything through the lens of how can I make fun of this?
35:56-35:57
It gets old.
35:58-35:59
It gets old.
36:01-36:04
So instead of thinking, how can I make fun of this?
36:04-36:12
Thinking commendable thoughts means Instead you're thinking, how can I be an encouragement?
36:14-36:18
Are you constantly looking to tear people down because you think you're so hilarious?
36:20-36:25
Or instead, are you looking to build people up as God commands us to do?
36:30-36:31
Okay, that's a lot.
36:31-36:31
Can you sum it up?
36:32-36:32
Sure.
36:34-36:46
He says, "If there's any excellence, "if there's anything worthy of praise," that sums it up, doesn't it?
36:47-36:49
Your mind should be on what's excellent and praiseworthy.
36:53-36:57
Here's a good sentence to, a good question to ask yourself to sum it up.
36:58-37:03
When you have these thoughts going through your head, ask yourself, is this something that people think about in heaven?
37:05-37:08
If not, then I should be thinking about something different.
37:11-37:13
And Paul says, "Think about these things.
37:16-37:27
You know there's very little that you can control in your life." And that is a glaring truth that has become more and more obvious to me with every passing year.
37:28-37:41
so little that I can control in my life, but there is one thing, there is one thing that I and only I can control, and same for you, one thing that only you can control.
37:44-37:47
And that is what you choose to think about.
37:50-37:51
So God's given you a new heart.
37:55-37:56
You're commanded to keep it clean.
37:59-38:03
So, are you pure in heart?
38:04-38:12
Are you pursuing and growing and being pure from the inside out?
38:14-38:15
Is that your desire?
38:16-38:17
Is that what you're after?
38:20-38:33
that on behalf of our Lord, on the authority of His Word, and speaking on behalf of the leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel, I would like to wish you a congratulations.
38:47-38:56
I would like to congratulate you because if that is you, you are going to see God.
38:57-38:57
Let's pray.
38:59-39:15
Our Father in heaven, I don't even know what to say.
39:20-39:28
And Father, it just seems so hard to preach a concept that seems so foreign to our culture.
39:29-39:31
But you have called us to be a different culture.
39:33-39:38
You have called us out of the world and into your glorious kingdom.
39:39-39:47
You have called us to live as citizens of heaven now while we're making our way through our short time on earth.
39:49-39:56
Father, we thank you for the glorious promise of regeneration that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
39:56-40:11
But Father, we sometimes are just too content to ignore the very clear commands of your Word that we are to purify ourselves.
40:14-40:27
Father, I pray for all of us here at Harvest Bible Chapel, those who are watching this and listening to this all over the world.
40:32-40:52
Father, give us a desire to pursue you that includes eliminating everything in our lives that is fighting against purity.
40:55-40:58
Father, we want nothing more than to glorify you.
41:00-41:10
We want nothing more than to know you and we have this glorious promise from your Son that we will get to actually see you.
41:11-41:16
here and now, and I can't think of a better promise that you would give us.
41:18-41:22
Thank you, Father. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:8 & Philippians 4:8

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What did Jesus mean when He said the pure in heart will “see God”? How would you explain “seeing God” to a brand new believer?
What does controlling your thoughts have to do with purifying yourself? How are these connected?
Which of the “things to think about” from Philippians 4:8 do you personally find the hardest to dwell on? Why?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

March 2, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to the Merciful

Jeff Miller

March 2, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Who Are The "Merciful"? (Matthew 5:7)

Ephesians 2:4 - But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us...

Titus 3:5 - he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy...

Acts 7:60 - And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Why Are We Congratulating the Merciful?

Matthew 6:12 - and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Matthew 6:14 - For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you...

Luke 6:37 - ...forgive, and you will be forgiven...

Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 - ...forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

How Can I Be Merciful?

Matthew 18:21

5 Excuses People Give for Not Forgiving:

They have to Come To Me .
I'll forgive but I won't Forget .
They'll just do it Again .
They don't want to Reconcile .
I just Can't .

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Matthew chapter five.
00:05-00:19
And we are in the middle of like an eight week long party, a congratulations party that comes from Matthew chapter five.
00:19-00:24
We're gonna be going through the Sermon on the Mount and this is Jesus' first sermon.
00:25-00:29
And this is the introduction to his first sermon.
00:29-00:33
and over and over and over you see a theme, right?
00:33-00:41
Look at verse three, Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
00:42-00:46
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
00:47-00:50
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
00:51-00:55
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
00:57-01:00
Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
01:01-01:05
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
01:06-01:11
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
01:12-01:17
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
01:19-01:26
Now that word blessed, most people say, well, that just means happy, but it actually means more than just happy.
01:27-01:40
What Jesus is doing here is congratulating his followers to say, "If you're this kind of a person, "then this is what is going to result from that." There's a glorious promise attached to it.
01:40-01:50
And in these Beatitudes, you have to see these, it's not like Jesus was just randomly coming up with cool little proverbs he was throwing out.
01:51-01:55
There's a spiritually logical flow to all of this.
01:55-01:56
These are like a ladder.
01:57-01:58
It's describing a journey.
01:59-02:01
This is what Christians are meant to be.
02:03-02:13
And something we're going to see in the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes specifically, and it's our theme for this whole series, is God wants your heart.
02:15-02:17
It's not about the externals.
02:20-02:27
A Christian, listen, a Christian is something before he does anything.
02:29-02:45
And today we're looking at verse seven, where Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful, "for they shall receive mercy." Will you bow your heads with me for a moment?
02:45-02:53
And I just ask that you would pray for me, please, as I will pray for you, as we get into God's word together.
03:00-03:00
(P)
03:09-03:12
Father in heaven, this is a message for all of us.
03:13-03:19
I suppose there are some messages that people can sort of excuse themselves from.
03:21-03:22
Not this one.
03:23-03:24
This hits us all.
03:29-03:54
So I pray, Father, that you would help us to shelve any distractions in our hearts, and that, Father, you would help us to silence our own objections to what you've said, and that as true, obedient followers of Jesus Christ, we are just, right now, we are poised, to do whatever it is you said in your word.
03:55-03:59
And I thank you ahead of time for the fruit of righteousness that comes from that.
04:00-04:05
I pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, amen.
04:05-04:12
So we would like to say congratulations to the merciful.
04:14-04:14
(congregation applauding)
04:19-04:20
Wait, there's another wave.
04:20-04:21
Okay, there it is.
04:26-04:27
That is who we are celebrating today.
04:28-04:32
That is who we blew all these balloons up for, the merciful.
04:32-04:42
If you are merciful, that on behalf of our Lord and on behalf of the leadership of this church, I would like to say congratulations.
04:43-04:46
And you're like, who are the merciful?
04:48-04:51
Well, on your outline, Who are the merciful?
04:52-04:53
Are you ready?
04:54-04:56
We're gonna get really technical here.
04:57-04:57
Who are the merciful?
04:57-04:59
They are people who show mercy.
05:03-05:05
I didn't put a lot of time into this this week.
05:08-05:09
That's what I came up with.
05:12-05:15
But that's what the merciful really are.
05:16-05:17
It's people who show mercy.
05:17-05:19
We don't need to overly complicated, do we?
05:19-05:20
It's people who show mercy.
05:22-05:24
But the question is, what does that mean?
05:26-05:35
I don't know about you, but when I hear mercy, sometimes my mind goes to this more, I don't know, like this magnanimous place.
05:36-05:56
When I hear merciful, for some reason, just that concept, that word, it makes me think of like, please back me up here, if you're like me, but it makes me think of like some like 80s kung fu movie where the good guy finally has the bad guy or he wants them.
05:58-05:59
And he deserves it.
06:00-06:01
This guy definitely deserves it.
06:03-06:12
And he's like, "No, I'm going to show you mercy." You know, roll credits.
06:14-06:16
That's where my mind goes when I hear merciful.
06:21-06:26
But I think what we're more concerned about here is what does the Bible mean by that term, right?
06:27-06:28
And here it is.
06:28-06:29
Don't miss this.
06:30-06:31
Don't miss this.
06:32-06:34
Do you know what mercy is biblically?
06:35-06:37
Mercy manifests as forgiving other people.
06:39-06:40
That is biblical mercy.
06:40-06:44
It's forgiving other people who have sinned against you.
06:46-06:47
That's mercy.
06:49-06:52
And I heard a illustration many years ago it's from Pastor Bob actually.
06:54-06:55
I wanna share it with you quickly.
06:55-07:02
Some of you've heard this before, but this helps me understand mercy more than anything else.
07:02-07:05
But in this illustration, just imagine you have a teenage son.
07:05-07:08
Some of you do, some of you did, some of you will.
07:09-07:19
But imagine you have a teenage son and he goes to this party and there's another teenage boy at this party that he just hates your son, hates him.
07:20-07:29
And it got to the point this other boy's like, when your son goes to this party, this other boy's made up his mind, he's gonna murder your son.
07:29-07:30
He hates him that much.
07:32-07:33
Imagine that's what happens.
07:33-07:40
Your son shows up at this party and an act of just cold-blooded wickedness.
07:41-07:44
This boy murders your son.
07:47-07:59
If you track that kid down and you killed him for murdering your son, that's called vengeance.
08:01-08:10
But if you track that kid down and apprehended him and took him to the authorities, and he was arrested, that's justice.
08:13-08:36
But if you were in court while this young man is standing trial for the murder of your son, if you were in court and somehow, somehow, the judge leaves the sentencing up to you, since you are the victim, and you say, you know what?
08:36-08:37
I wanna let him go.
08:38-08:39
Just let him go.
08:40-08:41
And the judge grants that.
08:41-08:45
They open the door and this young man goes, he just walks out the door.
08:46-08:48
That is called mercy.
08:50-08:56
But if you, again, courtroom scene, kid on trial, judge says, it's all up to you.
08:56-09:03
If in that moment, you said, your honor, what I would like to do is I would like to adopt this young man and raise him as my own son.
09:04-09:05
That's called grace.
09:08-09:12
And you see what we're talking about here today is mercy.
09:13-09:21
The, you severely wronged me, but I'm gonna let you go.
09:22-09:23
That's mercy.
09:25-09:28
And note this, mercy is a feeling.
09:29-09:33
is feeling pity for someone's condition.
09:35-09:37
Okay, so that's what mercy really is.
09:37-09:42
Somebody has sinned against you and now they're coming to you for forgiveness.
09:42-09:44
I've wronged you, I am so sorry.
09:45-09:47
And they are under your power.
09:48-09:50
Maybe it is like the Kung Fu movie.
09:50-09:52
They're under your power now.
09:54-09:57
And mercy manifests as forgiveness.
10:00-10:05
Mercy is actually imitating God, because that is the gospel, right?
10:05-10:07
God felt pity for us.
10:09-10:13
God felt pity because of the miserable consequences of our sin.
10:13-10:14
What did sin bring us?
10:14-10:18
A life of misery and death and separation from our creator.
10:19-10:20
Miserable.
10:20-10:28
So God says, "I'm going to show mercy." and his mercy moved him to deal with sin and grace.
10:29-10:30
But look at these Beatitudes again.
10:31-10:34
Do you notice the first four that we looked at here?
10:35-10:41
Being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness.
10:41-10:49
Do you notice all of those are about God moving in me, God changing me, God going after my heart.
10:49-10:57
But now we've sort of turned a corner here because now when we get to mercy, This is God moving through me to other people.
11:01-11:08
And Jesus says on this journey, on this spiritual journey, when you get here, you don't see people the way that you used to.
11:11-11:20
Now that you have this new nature that we talked about last week, this new nature, God's spirit in you makes you want to imitate God.
11:21-11:23
And that makes you wanna show mercy.
11:28-11:35
Speaking of God's mercy, and if we're going to imitate it, look at Ephesians 2, 4, we'll have it on the screen here.
11:36-11:38
Look at this, follow this flow here.
11:39-11:58
It says, "But God being rich in mercy "because of the great love "with which he loved us." So you see in this verse, it's God's love that produced mercy.
11:59-12:13
All right, hold that thought because then you jump to Titus 3, 5 that says, "He saved us, "not because of works done by us in righteousness, "but according to his own," what?
12:15-12:15
Mercy.
12:17-12:26
So you see, when you put these verses together, what we see here is love produces mercy and mercy produces forgiveness.
12:29-12:33
That's what Jesus is saying at this point in the journey, I have the love of God in me.
12:34-12:36
And that means I want to show mercy.
12:37-12:39
And showing mercy means that I forgive people.
12:41-12:43
Those who wronged me.
12:46-12:47
I feel bad for them.
12:50-12:52
I want to restore the relationship with them.
12:54-12:58
I want to show mercy to them by forgiving them.
13:01-13:02
Like, but they sinned against you.
13:02-13:03
Yeah, yeah, they did.
13:05-13:05
They did.
13:06-13:08
But you know, I don't want to retaliate.
13:10-13:12
I don't want to hold a grudge.
13:14-13:18
And I don't wanna spend my life being bitter towards someone.
13:21-13:25
I wanna show mercy by forgiving, right?
13:27-13:35
A great example of that is Stephen in Acts chapter seven, martyred for his faith while he was being killed.
13:35-13:36
Do you remember the story?
13:36-13:37
We went through the book of Acts.
13:37-13:38
This was years ago.
13:38-13:42
But while he was being killed, what did Stephen do?
13:43-13:46
He prayed for his attackers.
13:48-13:57
Acts chapter seven, verse 60, it says, "And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice." These are people that were pelting him with rocks, by the way.
13:59-14:07
He cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Why would Stephen say such a thing?
14:10-14:12
Well, first of all, doesn't that sound kind of familiar?
14:14-14:21
Can you think of anybody else that said something like that while he was being killed, praying for forgiveness?
14:22-14:23
Can you think of anybody else?
14:24-14:25
Oh, Jesus, right?
14:27-14:30
You see, Stephen, like his Lord, knew.
14:32-14:35
These people, they're lost.
14:37-14:39
These people are blind.
14:40-14:47
And these people are literally, they're literally mad with sin.
14:47-14:49
And when I say mad, I don't mean angry.
14:49-14:51
I mean the right sense of the word.
14:52-14:57
These people are literally crazy because of their sin.
14:57-15:00
And he says, "I pity them." That's what our Lord cried out on the cross.
15:00-15:02
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
15:03-15:05
Stephen, I pity them.
15:05-15:06
God have mercy on them.
15:07-15:08
Forgive them.
15:08-15:09
Don't hold this against them.
15:13-15:15
Sin has blinded them and they just, they don't know what they're doing.
15:17-15:18
I feel bad for them.
15:22-15:24
And you see that falls onto our laps, my friends.
15:27-15:55
When people lie to you, or people lie about you, or people are out slandering you, spreading stories about you that aren't true, making up what they don't know, when people steal from you, when people lose their temper and you become the brunt of their rage.
15:58-15:59
Do you know who the merciful are?
16:01-16:12
They're the people, like Jesus Christ, like Stephen, that say, you know, they're mad with sin right now, I feel bad for them.
16:13-16:15
I want to show mercy.
16:17-16:18
That's who the merciful are.
16:21-16:23
Like, all right, so why are we congratulating them?
16:25-16:26
Why are we congratulating the merciful?
16:27-16:29
Well, what does your Bible say?
16:30-16:40
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." Like, hang on, time out, time out.
16:40-16:52
Is Jesus saying here that if I, that if, if I give mercy or forgiveness, then, then, then, and only then will I receive it.
16:52-16:54
Is that what, is that what Jesus is saying?
17:00-17:04
Well, you can't earn salvation.
17:05-17:07
We already talked about that, poor in spirit.
17:08-17:10
You are guilty and helpless.
17:11-17:12
You can't earn your salvation.
17:13-17:14
You can't do a thing.
17:16-17:29
And when it comes to mercy, when you think about it, mercy isn't even something you could technically earn, because mercy is when you don't get what you actually do deserve.
17:31-17:34
So that's not really technically something you can earn.
17:36-17:46
But when you go through the New Testament, there's a theme about mercy and forgiveness.
17:47-17:49
This is all through the New Testament.
17:49-17:51
Let's see, let's play a game here.
17:51-17:53
Let's see if you can catch the theme.
17:53-17:54
You ready?
17:54-18:01
Matthew 6, 12, Jesus teaching us to pray Give us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
18:01-18:02
Matthew 6, 14.
18:03-18:07
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
18:08-18:09
Luke 6, 37.
18:09-18:10
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
18:11-18:21
Ephesians 4, 32 says, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you." Colossians 3, 13.
18:22-18:26
Forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
18:26-18:29
So you also must forgive.
18:30-18:31
Did you see a theme?
18:31-18:32
There's more by the way.
18:34-18:35
But did you see a theme?
18:37-18:46
There's a definite connection between forgiveness from God and forgiveness to other people.
18:49-19:04
And Jesus is teaching in this beatitude consistent with the rest of the New Testament, that if I give mercy, it's evidence that I've received mercy.
19:07-19:10
In other words, forgiving people, forgive.
19:14-19:17
See, mercy isn't the plan of salvation.
19:19-19:20
Mercy is the proof of salvation.
19:23-19:26
So now it makes a little more sense celebrating, right?
19:27-19:33
Because people who are merciful are just simply demonstrating that they know God.
19:34-19:36
And what bigger thing would there be to celebrate?
19:37-19:41
You know your Creator, your Savior, your Lord.
19:41-19:42
You know Him personally.
19:42-19:44
You've been forgiven by God.
19:44-19:45
Well, congratulations.
19:49-19:50
Blessed are the merciful.
19:51-20:00
Therefore, on that day, When the merciful stand before God, they'll receive mercy.
20:00-20:03
That's why we're congratulating the merciful.
20:04-20:09
So, let's bring it home here.
20:09-20:11
How can I be merciful?
20:15-20:20
I want you to turn over to Matthew chapter 18.
20:21-20:22
(congregation laughing)
20:24-20:26
The question is, all right, all right.
20:27-20:28
How can I be merciful?
20:28-20:34
Well, that's not a hard question to answer because we already saw this.
20:36-20:40
God's love produces mercy and mercy produces forgiveness.
20:40-20:42
So if you wanna be merciful, do you know what you have to do?
20:43-20:44
You don't wanna say it.
20:47-20:49
If you wanna be merciful, Do you know what you have to do?
20:51-20:52
You still don't wanna say it.
20:54-20:56
I'm gonna give you one more chance.
20:59-21:01
If you wanna be merciful, do you know what you have to do?
21:03-21:04
You have to forgive.
21:06-21:18
When you've been sinned against, no matter by who, no matter how they did it, no matter why they did it, you, you have to be ready and willing to forgive.
21:19-21:19
(audience laughing)
21:21-21:34
Yeah, many years ago I was teaching a high school boys, we're doing a purity class, and I was on my way to the church, and I was driving past Dunkin' Donuts.
21:35-21:38
I thought, I'll get a couple dozen donuts for the boys.
21:38-21:39
Like, who doesn't love donuts, right?
21:40-21:42
I mean, really, who doesn't love donuts?
21:43-21:53
So I pull into Dunkin' Donuts, and I was kind of in a hurry, So I go through the drive-through and I said, I'll just, I want two dozen donuts, any kind.
21:53-21:54
I don't care what kind, it doesn't matter.
21:54-21:56
I don't want to get into the, okay, you have three left.
21:56-21:58
All right, a Boston cream, okay, you have.
21:58-22:00
I don't want to get into all that stuff, all right?
22:00-22:02
Just two dozen donuts, whatever.
22:03-22:06
Okay, so that's it, just two dozen donuts.
22:06-22:07
So I'm sitting at the drive-through.
22:08-22:14
I tell them that and they're silence, like waiting, waiting.
22:17-22:31
And finally, the guy comes back on the speaker, he goes, "Hang on." He says, "I have to see if we have that." So I lean my head out the window.
22:33-22:40
I'm like, "I'm not in Taco Bell, am I?" I'm like, "No, Dunkin' Donuts.
22:40-22:48
No, I'm in the right place." Like, you have to see if you have that.
22:51-22:56
Like, look, pardon my ignorance, but isn't this a donut store?
22:58-23:01
Shouldn't you have, I don't know, donuts?
23:05-23:09
We laugh at that because we're like, well, how foolish is that?
23:09-23:11
Like Dunkin' Donuts, donuts is their thing.
23:12-23:12
You got donuts, right?
23:14-23:16
Like they should understand donuts more than anyone, right?
23:18-23:24
And I would say, we laugh at that, but Christians, what's our thing?
23:26-23:27
You're like, still donuts.
23:27-23:29
No, no.
23:31-23:32
What's our thing?
23:33-23:34
Our thing is forgiveness, right?
23:35-23:40
Didn't we just stand and sing to the God who forgave us in Jesus Christ?
23:40-23:41
Isn't that why you're here?
23:41-23:43
Isn't that why you go to small group?
23:43-23:44
Isn't that why you pray?
23:44-23:46
Isn't that why you're in his word?
23:46-23:52
Because we're all about this God who I have sinned against has forgiven me in Jesus Christ.
23:53-23:54
Doesn't that change your life?
23:55-23:57
Isn't like forgiveness our thing?
24:01-24:08
But sometimes, church, if we're honest, we're a lot like the donut store that day.
24:11-24:16
If someone sinned against us and all of a sudden, we don't know a thing about forgiveness.
24:19-24:20
That should be our specialty.
24:23-24:34
I have to ask you, is there someone in your life right now that if they were here in this room, you would try to avoid them when church is over?
24:35-24:37
You're making your exit strategy.
24:37-24:39
If I walk this way, I won't run into them.
24:40-24:41
Is there somebody like that?
24:44-24:45
You're like, yeah, they're sitting over here.
24:47-24:48
It might be for someone.
24:49-25:02
Is there someone in your life right now that if they tried to call you and you pick up your phone and you see their name on your phone, you immediately send it to voicemail?
25:02-25:03
Is there somebody like that?
25:06-25:17
Is there anyone that I would go to that would say about you, yeah, we have issues.
25:21-25:28
Matthew 18, Matthew 18, look at verse 21.
25:28-25:43
It says, "Peter came up and said to him, to Jesus, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times.
25:44-25:49
You see in the previous verses, Jesus was addressing how to forgive someone.
25:49-25:54
Now Peter comes and asks, how often do I forgive someone?
25:55-26:00
Because you see the rabbis in this day, they taught the three strike rule.
26:01-26:04
I always wondered if that's where like baseball got it from.
26:05-26:06
I don't know, somebody looked that up.
26:06-26:10
Not now, but they had a three strike rule.
26:10-26:17
If somebody's sinned against you three times, you were only on the hook to forgive them three times, but strike three and you're out, pal.
26:19-26:26
So Peter, I think Peter here probably thought he was being pretty, he was going to impress the Lord with his righteousness.
26:27-26:29
Like, hey, Jesus, how often?
26:31-26:32
How about seven?
26:32-26:34
Boom, mic drop.
26:34-26:39
He's probably looking around at the other guys like Jesus about to pat me on the back.
26:40-26:43
Jesus about to give me a yogi button.
26:44-26:45
So what did Jesus say?
26:47-27:00
Verse 22, Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven." I don't think Peter was expecting him to say that.
27:02-27:05
70 times seven, don't worry, I did the math ahead of time.
27:05-27:07
That's 490.
27:09-27:10
So is that the magic number?
27:12-27:14
Is that the magic number, 490?
27:17-27:18
Oh, Jesus didn't stop there.
27:19-27:27
He says, "Therefore the kingdom of heaven "may be compared to a king "who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
27:28-27:33
"When he began to settle, one was brought to him "who owed him 10,000 talents.
27:34-27:47
And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made." Stop there.
27:48-27:51
Now, you know how much a talent is worth?
27:53-27:55
A talent's worth about 20 years wages.
27:57-28:03
And this man owed 10,000 talents.
28:04-28:06
So again, we'll do the math here.
28:08-28:14
So a talent is one year's wage times 20 years, we already said, right?
28:15-28:17
And this man owed 10,000 talents.
28:18-28:24
So this man owed the king 200,000 years wages.
28:25-28:29
Now this is math you can do on your own, not now, but write it down.
28:29-28:30
This is math you can do on your own.
28:30-28:36
just calculate how much you make in a year and multiply that times 200,000.
28:37-28:38
That's what this guy owed the king.
28:41-28:46
I think it's safe to say it was an unpayable debt, right?
28:47-28:50
You're like, how does that even happen?
28:52-28:54
How does somebody get that far into debt?
28:54-28:58
Like, at what point did you put away the credit card?
28:58-28:59
Come on, man.
29:00-29:10
200,000 years wages, that is so irresponsible and that is so unpayable, and that is so much like every single one of us before God.
29:11-29:16
We have before God an irresponsible and unpayable debt.
29:21-29:22
Look at verse 26.
29:24-29:47
He says, So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me, "and I will pay you everything." I want you to listen to this statement really closely.
29:49-29:57
A person who needs forgiveness can never properly calculate what is really owed.
29:59-30:01
I'm gonna say that again, you need to write that down.
30:04-30:12
A person who needs forgiveness can never properly calculate what is really owed.
30:13-30:15
I want you to think about that.
30:17-30:30
Moving on, verse 27, "And out of pity," ding, ding, ding, "out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
30:32-30:33
Do you see that?
30:33-30:34
We've been talking about that.
30:35-30:38
Pity, mercy, forgiveness, right?
30:38-30:39
That's the flow.
30:40-30:42
And he released him from the debt.
30:45-30:47
Oh, we don't need to read the rest of this story, huh?
30:47-30:49
We can probably guess what happens next, right?
30:49-30:53
This guy went out and he was doing back handsprings all the way down Galilee.
30:54-30:54
Woo-hoo!
30:55-30:55
Can you believe this?
30:56-30:59
I was just forgiven 200,000 years wages.
30:59-31:01
I was just forgiven of all that.
31:02-31:06
He was probably high-fiving and hugs and handshakes.
31:06-31:10
And he was probably, probably had a big congratulations party, right?
31:17-31:19
No, not in this story.
31:19-31:20
Look at verse 28.
31:21-31:29
It says, "But when that same servant went out, "He found one of his fellow servants "who owed him a hundred denarii.
31:30-31:41
"And seizing him, he began to choke him, "saying, 'Pay what you owe!'" What?
31:42-31:45
Oh, you're like, well, hang on, Pastor Jeff, let's not pass judgment so quick.
31:46-31:47
How much is a hundred denarii?
31:49-31:51
That's about three months' wages.
31:53-31:57
The denarii was a day's wage, so 100 days wages, that's about three months wages, right?
31:58-31:58
Is that payable?
32:00-32:00
Yeah.
32:02-32:10
Yeah, and compared to what this man owed the king, it was pennies.
32:12-32:13
But what did this servant do?
32:16-32:17
Says he choked him out.
32:17-32:19
I need a volunteer to come up here, I wanna demonstrate.
32:20-32:21
(congregation laughing)
32:23-32:25
No, I don't wanna demonstrate.
32:30-32:31
But look at verse 29.
32:36-32:45
He says, "So his fellow servant fell down "and pleaded with him, "have patience with me and I will pay you." Does that sound familiar at all?
32:47-32:48
It's kind of ironic, isn't it?
32:49-32:53
Now this man is hearing the same speech that he just gave.
32:53-32:54
Same speech.
32:59-33:04
It says, "He refused, went out and put him in prison "until we should pay the debt.
33:05-33:10
"When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, "they were greatly distressed.
33:11-33:13
"And they went and reported to their master "all that had taken place.
33:15-33:23
"Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt "because you pleaded with me.
33:24-33:39
"And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant "as I had mercy on you?" And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.
33:40-33:51
"So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you "if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Like, what's the point of Jesus' story here?
33:51-33:52
It's a pretty clear point, isn't it?
33:55-34:05
I show mercy by forgiving, listen, not because people deserve it, not because I think they're really sorry this time.
34:08-34:10
The story has one point, and that's this.
34:10-34:14
I forgive because I am forgiven.
34:17-34:19
And if you're someone that says, you know what?
34:20-34:22
I can't forgive that person.
34:22-34:25
I can't do it, I can't forgive.
34:26-34:31
Then I have to respectfully ask, do you really understand the gospel?
34:33-34:37
Do you really understand the death that you've been forgiven?
34:38-34:41
for you to not be willing to forgive someone else.
34:45-34:47
This is where it hits us all.
34:49-34:56
But you know, even Christians think that they've found personal loopholes.
34:56-34:58
'Cause I know how this goes right now.
34:59-35:12
That there are people that are like, "I hear what he's saying, I see what the Bible says, "but honestly, if Jeff really knew, I mean, if Jeff really knew my situation, he would understand why I can't forgive.
35:13-35:20
Like if we were like at Pantera Bread or whatever and talking about this and I explained, Jeff would be like, yeah, I can see why you can't forgive.
35:26-35:28
I don't see loopholes in this.
35:30-35:31
But even Christians give 'em.
35:33-35:35
Write these down, five excuses people give for not forgiving.
35:39-35:40
Here's one.
35:40-35:41
People say, "You know what?
35:41-35:42
"They have to come to me.
35:44-35:49
"They have to come to me." Well, jot these verses down.
35:50-35:54
Matthew 5, 23 through 24.
35:54-35:55
Just jot that down.
35:55-35:58
And then jot down Matthew 18, 15.
35:59-36:03
Also two passages very close to the two passages we looked at today.
36:03-36:06
Jot them down, but here's a paraphrase of the passages.
36:08-36:24
In the Matthew 5 passage, Jesus says, "If you have sinned against someone, you need to go to them." And in the Matthew 18 passage, Jesus says, "If someone sinned against you, you need to go to them." So whether you did the sinning or you've been sinned against, both times Jesus says go, so you're not off the hook either way.
36:25-36:28
You have a responsibility either way.
36:31-36:33
Second excuse people give for not forgiving.
36:33-36:35
Number two, I'll forgive, but I won't forget.
36:38-36:41
I'll forgive, but I won't forget.
36:44-36:48
That is such a backward statement.
36:50-36:54
You can't forget if you won't forgive.
36:55-36:57
You know why you can't forget?
36:57-37:00
Is because you're making a choice to dwell on the offense.
37:01-37:07
And forgiveness means, you know what, I choose to stop thinking about it.
37:08-37:13
Didn't God in the gospel promise, "I will remember their sins no more"?
37:13-37:15
God is willing to forget.
37:18-37:18
Why aren't we?
37:23-37:24
Another excuse people give for not forgiving.
37:27-37:30
Well, they'll just do it again, right?
37:31-37:33
"Oh, I'll forgive them, but you know what?
37:33-37:41
They'll just do it again." Like, "What do you think about that, Pastor Jeff?" "They'll just do it again." And I say, "Yeah, you know what?
37:41-37:45
They might." That's their problem.
37:46-37:47
Don't make it yours.
37:50-37:51
70 times seven.
37:52-37:54
He's really counting at that point.
37:57-38:01
Number four, excuses people give for not forgiving.
38:02-38:03
They don't want to reconcile.
38:05-38:16
I would forgive them, you know what, I would, but they don't wanna reconcile, so I'm not gonna, you know what, that's their problem, don't make it yours.
38:19-38:30
You need to see it like, you ever stayed in a hotel where there's the two doors joining the rooms?
38:30-38:38
You know, like if a bunch of people are staying, you need two rooms, and then like, you have your side of the door that you can open, but then there's another door.
38:38-38:39
Have you ever seen that?
38:40-38:41
You know, I thought that was a closet.
38:42-38:43
I'm like, I can't fit anything in here.
38:44-38:45
(congregation laughing)
38:46-38:48
My shoes are too big.
38:48-38:51
No, it's to join the rooms, right?
38:51-38:53
Like a big family or whatever.
38:54-38:59
You need to have your side of the door open, right?
38:59-39:01
To say, "Look, my side of the door is open.
39:01-39:08
When you wanna talk, I'm ready to talk." You can't kick their door down, but you can ask them to open theirs.
39:09-39:10
But regardless, yours has to be open.
39:13-39:15
They don't wanna reconcile.
39:15-39:19
They don't want to, oh, by the way, by the way, they don't wanna reconcile.
39:20-39:22
Are you sure about that?
39:26-39:27
Have you seen their heart?
39:28-39:29
Have you been in their mind?
39:30-39:39
Maybe they are just so hoping that you'll reach out to them because they're afraid.
39:42-39:43
So let's not make assumptions.
39:44-39:46
Five excuses people give for not forgiving.
39:48-39:53
last and maybe most used, maybe least amount of substance.
39:54-39:54
I just can't.
39:56-39:57
I just can't.
39:58-40:02
Like I hear what you're saying about all this, but look, I just can't.
40:03-40:06
And here I have to remind you that forgiveness is a matter of the will.
40:08-40:17
And I want to lovingly say to you, if that's where your heart is, if your heart is like, you know what, I know I need to forgive, but I can't, I would lovingly say to you, You need to get with God on that.
40:18-40:21
You need to get with God on that and confess that to him.
40:22-40:24
Say, "God, I know I'm supposed to forgive, "but I'm not there.
40:25-40:30
"God, I need you to get me there." Do you think the Lord wants you to get there?
40:30-40:31
Do you think he will help you get there?
40:32-40:33
Get with God on that.
40:36-40:41
Because I can tell you by the authority of his word, he's expecting you to forgive.
40:46-40:52
So Christians, how many sins have you been forgiven?
40:54-40:54
Anybody know?
40:55-40:59
Could you ballpark how many sins you've been forgiven?
41:03-41:04
You're like, oh, it's at least a dozen.
41:07-41:08
What, this morning?
41:13-41:14
How many sins have you been forgiven?
41:16-41:20
Oh, by the way, in Christ, you're forgiven of the sins that you haven't even committed yet.
41:20-41:21
So you gotta count those.
41:23-41:24
So how many sins have you been forgiven?
41:27-41:36
So how in the world can we hold one or two or even 490 sins against someone else?
41:39-41:53
Because not only were your sins more in number, but your sins were greater in kind because you sinned against a holy, perfect God.
41:57-42:07
The only way you're going to be merciful is to live in the understanding and freedom of Christ's mercy on you.
42:09-42:14
So today, today I would encourage you, Send a text.
42:18-42:20
You can do it right now, I won't even care, go ahead.
42:24-42:24
Send a text.
42:29-42:31
Or if you're older, send that email.
42:35-42:39
Or if you're really old, make that phone call.
42:39-42:40
(congregation laughing)
42:41-42:42
Get on your rotary phone today.
42:43-42:44
(congregation laughing)
42:44-42:45
Send that pigeon.
42:53-42:55
However you get word out.
42:56-43:01
Can you send a text today to whomever you have unfinished business?
43:03-43:05
Look, you're like, I don't even know what to say.
43:05-43:06
Well, I'll tell you what to say.
43:06-43:07
Write this down.
43:08-43:16
Look, I know we had some problems and I'm sorry something has come between us and I would love to have everything be okay between us." Something like that.
43:18-43:19
Start the process.
43:22-43:23
Start the process.
43:24-43:31
We are called to show the same mercy that we have been shown.
43:33-43:40
And when you truly understand what God has done for you, the mercy he's shown you in Jesus Christ.
43:41-43:49
Now, I'm sympathetic towards lost people, towards people who sin against me.
43:50-43:58
I'm understanding towards people who sin against me because I've sinned against people.
44:00-44:05
And I'm willing to forgive because I've been forgiven.
44:06-44:16
So, based on Jesus' definition and explanation, are you merciful?
44:19-44:35
Well, for those of you who are, I would say again, on behalf of our Lord, on behalf of the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel and our AV team, I would like to say, congratulations to the merciful.
44:37-44:37
(congregation applauding)
44:44-45:02
And I gotta tell you, this could be the most heartfelt congratulations of this whole series so far for me because if you're merciful, someday you are going to stand before God and you are going to receive mercy.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:7 and Matthew 18:21-35

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Is Jesus teaching that receiving mercy (from God) is contingent on giving mercy (to others)? Why or why not?
What does it mean that the word “mercy” is associated with feelings? In other words - what role do feelings play in being merciful?
Give a short summary of the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35). What’s the main point of the parable?
How would you respond to someone in your small group who says “I will never forgive that person for what they did.”?

Breakout
Pray for one another. Who do you need to forgive? Hold each other accountable to pray for that person and reach out to them.

Jeff Miller

February 23, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to the Hungry

Jeff Miller

February 23, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Who Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness"? (Matthew 5:6)

Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

How Do I Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

Philippians 3:8-12 - ...For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Why Are We Congratulating the Hungry?

How to Grow Your Appetite:

Taste .
Psalm 34:8 - Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Eat .
Fast .
Psalm 42:1 - As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:05
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Matthew in chapter five.
00:05-00:13
As we continue an eight-week-long congratulations party.
00:15-00:17
Now, who is ready to party?
00:18-00:19
(congregation cheering)
00:21-00:23
Sounds like the back corner's ready to party.
00:24-00:25
You party animals.
00:28-00:29
(congregation laughing)
00:32-00:33
I think some others are catching on.
00:36-00:37
Hopefully you all do.
00:38-00:42
Because we're having the party, we blew up the balloons, right?
00:47-00:49
So, like what's the party all about?
00:50-00:55
I was thinking if like there's a visitor here for the first time right now, you're probably like, what is going on?
00:56-00:56
Here's what's going on.
00:57-00:59
We're having an eight week long congratulations party.
00:59-00:59
Why?
01:00-01:07
Because we're going through the Sermon on the Mount and the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount is a passage that is commonly called the Beatitudes.
01:09-01:16
Now these Beatitudes aren't just like random like grocery list of statements that Jesus kinda like hodgepodge together.
01:16-01:21
There's a spiritually logical flow to the Beatitudes.
01:22-01:25
It's like a ladder or a staircase.
01:25-01:28
Each step sort of leads you to the next one.
01:29-01:32
And in these Beatitudes, we find what Christians are meant to be.
01:33-01:36
We're meant to be all of these.
01:38-01:39
So let's look at the flow here.
01:41-01:58
Again, Matthew 5, verse two, it says, "And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
01:59-02:02
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
02:04-02:09
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
02:10-02:14
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
02:15-02:19
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
02:20-02:24
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
02:25-02:32
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
02:34-02:35
See, that's the congratulations.
02:37-02:37
It's the word blessed.
02:38-02:40
A lot of people say, well, blessed, that just means happy.
02:41-02:44
Yeah, it does, but it means more than that.
02:44-02:55
What Jesus is doing in the Beatitudes, He's saying, "Congratulations." If you find yourself in this condition, congratulations, because there's something glorious in store for you.
02:57-02:58
That's why the word blessed is repeated.
03:00-03:05
So before we get this party started, let's just bow our heads for a moment and please pray for me as I will pray for you.
03:06-03:09
Pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.
03:10-03:18
I will pray for you and for me to have all of our hearts open to receive what God wants to speak to us today.
03:18-03:19
Let's just take a moment.
03:28-03:37
Father in heaven, open our hearts up to receive what it is you wanna say to us today.
03:42-03:45
Thank you, Father, we praise you in Jesus' name.
03:46-03:49
All of God's people said, amen.
03:49-03:59
So, we wanna wish you a congratulations to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
04:01-04:02
(congregation applauding)
04:09-04:11
Oh, then there's another way, there you go.
04:11-04:13
(congregation applauding)
04:15-04:18
You guys are way readier than the first service was.
04:22-04:24
Who are we congratulating today?
04:24-04:26
Well, who's our Lord congratulating more like?
04:27-04:28
Look at verse six.
04:28-04:29
This is our verse today.
04:30-04:40
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
04:42-04:45
So on your outline, first of all, who are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?
04:49-04:50
Kind of a weird statement, isn't it?
04:51-04:53
Jesus is like, congratulations to the hungry.
04:53-04:55
Like, who congratulates the hungry?
04:58-04:59
Well, let's look at what our Lord is saying here.
05:00-05:03
First of all, hunger and thirst, hunger and thirst.
05:07-05:08
Everybody hungry for something.
05:10-05:11
Right?
05:12-05:15
For some people, they're hungry for money and stuff.
05:16-05:20
Some people are hungry for success and fame and popularity.
05:20-05:23
And some people are hungry for pleasure.
05:24-05:26
What's going to make me feel good?
05:28-05:32
Jesus says the kingdom people aren't after those things.
05:33-05:36
Here Jesus says kingdom people are hungry for one thing.
05:36-05:37
What is it?
05:37-05:38
Bible say?
05:40-05:41
Righteousness.
05:41-05:55
Jesus said, "Disciples of his, followers of Christ, kingdom people are hungry for righteousness." And you go through the flow of these first three, you see this whole staircase idea, right?
05:55-06:02
You see, Jesus says, "It starts with being poor in spirit." You're this guilty, helpless sinner, right?
06:03-06:07
And that makes you mourn over your sinfulness.
06:09-06:11
And then you get to the place where you're meek.
06:11-06:13
You're like, I'm done with myself.
06:13-06:14
I'm done.
06:15-06:20
I'm done constantly trying to assert my self-interest and everything, I'm done with that.
06:21-06:22
That's meekness.
06:22-06:24
Pastor Rich talked about that last week.
06:25-06:26
See what the issue is?
06:27-06:29
Sin, sin, sin.
06:29-06:30
Do you see that?
06:30-06:31
Sin, sin.
06:31-06:33
That's what Jesus is addressing here.
06:34-06:38
And we get to this one, we have to ask, well, what does the sinner need?
06:40-06:42
A sinner needs righteousness.
06:43-06:45
That's what a sinner needs.
06:45-06:47
Like, well, what's righteousness?
06:49-07:01
Righteousness is simply being right before God and living right before God.
07:03-07:04
"Oh, but there's a problem.
07:06-07:10
"The problem is people wanna be happy.
07:12-07:16
"That's a huge problem." Wait, what?
07:18-07:20
It sounds like he said the problem is people wanna be happy.
07:21-07:22
Yeah, yeah, that's what I said.
07:23-07:24
That is the problem.
07:28-07:30
The Bible never tells us to seek happiness.
07:31-08:01
You know why? Because in our flesh we're gonna start looking to things of the world to make us happy. But according to Jesus here, in this statement, happiness results from seeking something else, and that's righteousness. See, that's where the problem comes in.
08:02-08:09
If you put happiness before righteousness, you are going to be absolutely miserable.
08:14-08:16
So hunger and thirst, what's he talking about here?
08:17-08:20
Well, note this, it's a continual action.
08:22-08:23
Hungry and thirsting, it's continual.
08:24-08:31
It's not, yeah, I gave my life to Christ in 1995 and boy, I was hungry for righteousness back then.
08:34-08:38
No, it's not a one-time thing, nor is it like an occasional thing.
08:38-08:43
You know, like a couple times a year, I kind of get a hankering for righteousness.
08:46-08:48
No, that's not it either.
08:52-08:56
See, the tense here is I'm always hungry for righteousness.
08:58-09:11
It's the word picture here is like those who hunger thirst for righteousness need that the way a body physically needs food and water, right?
09:12-09:13
Constantly, right?
09:14-09:15
We need it.
09:17-09:22
True Christians hunger and thirst for righteousness.
09:25-09:27
Like, why is that?
09:29-09:32
Because God's Spirit changes your appetite.
09:33-09:34
That's how that works.
09:35-09:40
By nature, you're not naturally hungry for righteousness.
09:40-09:43
You're not naturally hungry for the things of God.
09:43-09:46
By nature, you're hungry for sin, right?
09:46-09:47
You enjoy sin.
09:47-09:49
You indulge in sin.
09:49-09:50
That's what you love.
09:54-09:56
And that doesn't satisfy, by the way.
09:57-09:59
You look at people that are addicted to drugs.
10:00-10:04
I've known many people, unfortunately, that have had addiction problems.
10:04-10:05
It's never enough.
10:06-10:09
It's never like, "Oh, I've done just enough drugs.
10:09-10:11
I'm good now." It's never enough.
10:12-10:12
It doesn't satisfy.
10:13-10:22
There are people that are addicted to physical intimacy with various people, it's never enough.
10:23-10:24
You're never satisfied.
10:26-10:36
People that are addicted to affirmation, constantly wanting, you know, constantly needing applause from people, it's never enough.
10:38-10:43
You see, when you come to Christ, the Bible says God's Holy Spirit comes in and dwells you, and he changes you.
10:44-10:51
Don't tell me for a second that the God of the universe who created all things and has infinite wisdom comes and dwells in your heart and you're no different.
10:52-10:57
Everything changes, including your appetite.
10:59-11:01
I'm not hungry for sin like I used to be.
11:02-11:04
Now I'm hungry for the things of God.
11:08-11:10
Yeah, some people come to church hungry.
11:12-11:13
Not for righteousness.
11:13-11:15
They come to church hungry for a temporary fix.
11:16-11:19
Like, man, I'm really out of control in my finances.
11:19-11:23
Maybe if I get serious about God, things will get taken care of.
11:24-11:27
Boy, my marriage, my marriage is in a really bad place.
11:27-11:35
So let's go to church and maybe she'll think that I'm serious and sort of patch things over and they're just looking for a quick fix.
11:39-11:50
Not great, because when things start to feel a little better or we get out of crisis mode, we stop coming to church.
11:52-11:54
Like, whew, glad that's over.
11:54-11:56
That's not hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
11:58-12:01
That's wanting to eliminate the pain, not the problem.
12:03-12:05
That doesn't work physically, does it?
12:06-12:10
Could you imagine if you went to a doctor And you're like, "Doctor, I got these stomach pains.
12:10-12:16
"It feels like there is a knife twisting "in my stomach all the time.
12:17-12:29
"I think there's something seriously wrong, doc." What would you think if the doctor said, "Well, take some Tylenol." Like, "Well, is that gonna heal up my stomach?" "Well, it'll mask the pain.
12:30-12:33
"You won't feel what is bad, that's good, right?
12:34-12:40
"You'd wanna see another doctor." Like, no, no, no, you're not addressing the real problem.
12:44-12:49
The people that hunger and thirst for righteousness, they have new appetites.
12:49-12:51
They're going after the real problem.
12:54-13:00
I'm not looking to God just for healing or a quick fix or some gift from God.
13:00-13:03
I'm desperately hungry for God.
13:06-13:11
not just what I can get from Him, not just giving my get out of hell ticket.
13:13-13:15
I want fellowship with God.
13:15-13:20
I want for my life what God wants for my life.
13:22-13:24
That's the person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
13:27-13:38
The hungry and thirsty person desires to be free from sin because I know if I'm gonna be right with God, I gotta be free from sin because sin separates me from God.
13:39-13:41
I wanna be free from sin's power.
13:42-13:46
I wanna be free from sin's desire, from sin's bondage.
13:46-13:51
I wanna be, my sin so dishonors my God.
13:53-13:55
I wanna be done with that.
14:00-14:07
See, the person that's hungry and thirsty for righteousness, They want God not just to forgive them.
14:08-14:14
And listen, the hungry and thirsty person doesn't even just want God to save them.
14:16-14:22
The person that's truly hungry and thirsty for righteousness wants God to change them.
14:25-14:28
Do you have a desire for God to transform you from the inside out?
14:29-14:32
If you don't, then you don't know him.
14:35-14:44
You know, it always strikes me, Psalm 51, you know, David committed all these sins, and Psalm 51's like this psalm of repentance, right?
14:44-15:00
Where he's crying out to the Lord, and you know the verse that really always caught my attention was this one, verse 10, where he says, "Created me a clean heart, O God, "and renew a right spirit within me." Do you see what David's saying?
15:01-15:06
He's not just saying, "God, I want to avoid bad consequences.
15:06-15:16
"I want to avoid the shame that I'm experiencing now "because of Israel knowing about my sins." And he says, "You know what I want?
15:18-15:19
"God, I don't want to be that guy anymore.
15:20-15:31
"God, I want you to change me from the inside out." That is the heart cry of the person.
15:31-15:33
who is hungry and thirsty for righteousness.
15:35-15:43
Not just God save me, but also God change me." That's who we're congratulating.
15:45-15:53
You're like, "Well, why are we congratulating those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness?" I'm so glad you asked that because it's on your outline.
15:53-15:57
Because it says, first of all, they.
15:58-15:59
Jesus says they.
16:00-16:05
I wanna remind you again, in the Greek, that's emphatic.
16:05-16:07
That kinda tells you how Jesus said this.
16:08-16:21
He says, "For they will be satisfied," meaning these are the only people that really experience any kind of satisfaction, are the people that hunger and thirst for righteousness.
16:23-16:25
Like, all right, well, what does the word satisfied mean?
16:27-16:32
Well, actually, that Greek word was used to describe an animal that was filled up.
16:33-16:36
Feeding an animal until the animal can't eat anymore.
16:39-16:40
That's what it means to satisfy.
16:42-16:50
And right away we recognize, I can't satisfy the righteousness hunger on my own.
16:51-16:52
That has to come from Jesus.
16:56-17:00
See, when I received Jesus Christ, He gives me his righteousness.
17:01-17:02
That's called imputed righteousness.
17:02-17:13
2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sin, God made him "who knew no sin to become sin, "so that we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus gives us his righteousness.
17:16-17:19
He changes me by the power of the Holy Spirit.
17:20-17:24
Now, because of that, I'm hungering and I'm thirsting.
17:25-17:43
So what Jesus is saying here is congratulations to those who have been born again, people that are new creatures in Christ, 'cause they're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and they're gonna be satisfied.
17:45-17:50
You know, it's a paradoxical statement when you think about it.
17:53-17:57
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
17:58-18:02
How can you be hungry and full at the same time?
18:03-18:11
I mean, just taking that statement on its own, how can that be?
18:12-18:14
Like, what is Jesus saying?
18:15-18:19
If we're to always be hungry, how can we always be satisfied?
18:22-18:28
I think in order for us to understand that, we need to understand the nature of righteousness.
18:29-18:31
You ready for a quick systematic theology lesson?
18:32-18:33
Oh boy, am I?
18:34-18:36
Yes, you am, all right?
18:37-18:57
All right, when it comes to righteousness, holiness, salvation, there's three words you gotta know, three big theological words that describe salvation, righteousness, holiness, and past, present, and future tense.
18:58-19:00
The first word is justification.
19:02-19:05
When you receive Christ, your sin is taken away.
19:06-19:06
You're justified.
19:06-19:08
Second word is sanctification.
19:09-19:16
That's the Holy Spirit working in you to make you more mature in Christ, to make you more Christ-like, to grow you as a believer.
19:16-19:17
That's sanctification.
19:17-19:19
The third one, anybody know what it is?
19:19-19:19
Shout it out.
19:20-19:23
Glorification, you've taken this class before, yes.
19:24-19:30
Glorification, that's when you get to heaven and you are actually made perfect.
19:31-19:33
We will be like Jesus.
19:35-20:00
So you see, in justification, you say, "I was saved from the penalty of sin." And in sanctification, you say, "I am being saved from the power of sin." And with glorification, you say, "I will be saved from the presence of sin." Now, do you see where the satisfaction comes in?
20:04-20:07
I'm satisfied knowing that I've been pronounced righteous in Christ.
20:08-20:10
There's a satisfaction that comes from that.
20:12-20:21
To know there's nothing that I can do to save myself, but Jesus Christ and His love and grace and power and wisdom, He has taken away my sin.
20:21-20:23
I'm satisfied knowing that I've been pronounced righteous.
20:23-20:24
That's justification.
20:26-20:26
And you know what?
20:27-20:31
I'm satisfied now in pursuing the things of God.
20:35-20:46
But ultimately I'm going to be satisfied in heaven when I'm out of this fallen flesh that still craves sin.
20:48-20:55
That's when I'm going to experience the fullness of the satisfaction that Jesus promises.
20:57-20:59
You're like, "All right, thank you, Pastor Jeff.
20:59-21:02
I learned some great three-syllable words.
21:03-21:04
Wait, just...
21:04-21:14
No, five-syllable words that I'm sure will razzle-dazzle my friends." So, what does this look like on the day-to-day basis?
21:16-21:17
What does it look like?
21:18-21:23
Now, I want you to consider a few verses from Philippians chapter 3.
21:25-21:26
The apostle Paul wrote this.
21:31-21:45
Leading up to these verses, Paul was sort of bragging about his religious pedigree, his background, his history, his position, he was bragging about all the things that, or he was actually saying all the things he could have been bragging about, right?
21:47-21:59
But look at this in verse eight, he says, "Indeed, I count everything," all that stuff I could have bragged about, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth "of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
22:01-22:22
"For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things "and count them as rubbish." "In order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
22:24-22:36
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
22:36-22:37
All right, that's a lot.
22:37-22:45
But what he's saying is, he is satisfied in his justification because it comes from Christ by faith.
22:46-22:47
He knows it's not from him.
22:47-22:51
He says that there's the righteousness that comes by faith.
22:51-22:53
But then look at this next verse.
22:53-23:05
He says, "Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
23:09-23:16
Do you see this Paul saying, I have a righteousness from Jesus by faith, but I'm not perfect.
23:19-23:20
So I have to press on.
23:21-23:27
Listen, this is what the Christian life is really all about.
23:29-23:33
The Christian life is becoming what God has already pronounced you to be.
23:37-23:42
You are perfect and becoming perfect at the same time.
23:43-23:47
You are righteous and you want to grow in righteousness at the same time.
23:48-23:56
It's a paradoxical thing that somehow we can be satisfied in Christ, yet have this drive to want to know him more.
24:02-24:09
So you see, Christians are pronounced sinless, but we don't live sinless, but we should sin less.
24:11-24:14
Wait, sin, sin, okay, thanks, Jay.
24:14-24:15
No, that's right.
24:19-24:36
I live right before God, and at the same time I hunger and thirst for righteousness while I'm satisfied by the presence and promises of God.
24:39-24:45
That is why we are congratulating those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
24:46-24:47
They're the only ones.
24:49-24:57
that have ever and will ever experience true satisfaction.
25:01-25:02
Nothing else will do it.
25:05-25:06
So I could stop there.
25:07-25:13
But there's somebody asking, all right, how do I hunger and thirst for righteousness?
25:21-25:24
Well, everybody hungry for something.
25:27-25:34
I just have to ask you, do you really hunger and thirst for righteousness?
25:40-25:43
I can't answer that for you.
25:46-25:53
I mean, if you're hungry, you know it and God knows it.
25:56-25:57
I can't tell.
26:02-26:25
But you have to ask yourself, "Do I really hunger for the things of God?" And honestly, I think in churches, what we experience is a whole lot of people that say, "I know that I need to.
26:25-26:38
Yeah, I know that I need to, but I don't as I should." Right?
26:38-26:39
I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand.
26:41-26:47
Is there something stirring in your heart right now that you're asking yourself, why don't I hunger and thirst for righteousness?
26:55-26:57
I knew somebody would be thinking that.
27:00-27:02
So you know what I was thinking about this last week?
27:02-27:06
Why aren't people hungry?
27:13-27:15
And then you know what I got thinking about?
27:16-27:17
I got thinking about my dog.
27:20-27:21
I think of my dog, Wanda.
27:24-27:27
Like if she's not hungry, why isn't she hungry?
27:30-27:31
And I thought, you know, there's three reasons.
27:33-27:34
If you've got a dog, right?
27:35-27:35
I mean, dogs are dogs.
27:36-27:45
If you get a dog and your dog's not hungry, it's gonna be for one of the same three reasons, right?
27:46-27:47
If your dog's not eating, why?
27:47-27:48
You're like, why is it?
27:51-27:53
You're like, well, maybe she's sick, right?
27:54-27:58
Dogs don't eat if they're sick, well, except maybe grass, right?
28:00-28:00
Ain't that a treat?
28:03-28:06
Maybe your dog's not eating because she's sick.
28:09-28:12
And I'm like, you know what, another reason your dog might not eat?
28:13-28:14
She's distracted.
28:16-28:17
Like, what are you talking about?
28:17-28:23
You know, I've never in my life had a play motivated dog until Wanda.
28:24-28:26
Anybody else have a play motivated dog?
28:27-28:30
Every other dog that I've had has been food motivated.
28:31-28:33
I've never had a play motivated dog.
28:33-28:34
It's crazy.
28:34-28:48
You could put like a bowl of like beef and gravy on the floor and throw a ball and she will chase the ball and leave the food behind 10 out of 10 times.
28:50-28:53
So maybe she's not hungry because she's too distracted.
28:57-29:00
And then I thought, you know why else my dog won't eat?
29:02-29:04
Is maybe she's already full.
29:05-29:07
Maybe Aaron fed her and I didn't know about it.
29:10-29:13
And I thought, you know what, church?
29:20-29:22
Maybe it's one of those three reasons that you ain't hungry.
29:26-29:28
For some of you, you're not hungry because you're sick.
29:31-29:33
And what I mean by that is you're not saved.
29:35-29:44
What I mean by that is you're not saved, you've never experienced the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, therefore your appetite was never changed.
29:46-29:48
You're still sick in your fallen condition.
29:53-29:56
You're like, I've never really been hungry for righteousness.
29:56-30:01
then you don't know the Lord, because when you do, you're hungry for Him.
30:04-30:07
And some of you are just like the dog, too distracted.
30:09-30:14
You're too distracted, just too busy, even with good things.
30:16-30:19
But these good things have distracted you from the best thing.
30:23-30:25
But you know what I think a lot of it is in the church?
30:25-30:28
You know why I think you're not hungry for righteousness?
30:29-30:34
Is because you're already full of other stuff.
30:36-30:40
You fill up on sin, right?
30:41-30:56
You're filling up on sin and you're just constantly consuming sin and you're looking at things on TV that you shouldn't look at and you're looking at things on the internet that you shouldn't look at and you're worried, what's gonna happen?
30:57-30:58
What if this happens?
30:58-31:03
And you're all worried and you can't get out of your own head and you're gossiping.
31:03-31:10
Oh, you just love to tell stories about people and give the latest news and rumors about people and angry, right?
31:10-31:14
Just like hair trigger, short fuse, ready to blow.
31:14-31:18
And you're constantly looking for something to be angry about and addicted.
31:18-31:23
And this chemical or whatever, this habit that's just addictive.
31:23-31:24
I gotta have it, gotta have it.
31:25-31:29
And you're so full of all of these things.
31:30-31:42
Listen, you aren't hungry and thirsty for righteousness for the same reason that a guy who ate a box of Ho-Hos isn't hungry for vegetables.
31:46-31:47
You're full of garbage.
31:54-31:58
Like, yeah, I'm guilty.
32:01-32:02
I haven't been hungry like I need to.
32:04-32:06
Like, well, how do I get there?
32:07-32:12
Well, let's keep the hunger gimmick going here, right?
32:12-32:15
There's three ways to grow your appetite that I can see from Scripture.
32:17-32:18
Three ways to grow your appetite.
32:18-32:20
Excuse me, I'm gonna go through these quickly.
32:21-32:22
Three ways to grow your appetite.
32:23-32:24
Number one, taste.
32:25-32:26
Taste.
32:28-32:38
Psalm 34, verse eight says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." First thing you gotta do is taste.
32:38-32:42
You know a day that really changed my life?
32:43-32:51
I mean, I'm talking like, a day that set me on a whole new course and I haven't looked back.
32:52-32:57
And you're like, oh, the day you received Jesus, that was an awesome day, but that's not the day that I'm talking about.
32:58-33:06
And then wait, wait, wait, the day you got married, that was a good day too, but that's not, that's not even what I'm talking about.
33:06-33:08
You're like, oh, the day that your kids were born.
33:09-33:11
Like, yeah, that was okay.
33:11-33:15
But that's not the day, That's not the day that I'm thinking about.
33:16-33:24
You know, the day that I'm thinking about is the first time that I ever tried General Tso's chicken.
33:31-33:34
Holy moly, amigos, have you tried this?
33:36-33:39
Look, I didn't, this was in college, okay?
33:40-33:42
I didn't have Chinese food until college.
33:43-33:44
Like, how did that happen?
33:44-33:46
Look, I grew up in Shakora, okay?
33:47-33:49
Not a lot of Chinese restaurants in Shakora.
33:50-33:52
Not a lot of any restaurants, actually.
33:53-33:54
I think they have one now.
33:55-33:59
And a few dollar Generals, but when I was a kid, none of that.
34:00-34:16
But I remember when I was in college, this guy was like, "Hey, hey Jeff, you gotta try this." I'm like, "What is that?" He goes, "It's General Tso's chicken." I'm like, "Nah, I don't really want to." "You gotta try it." "No, I don't really want to." "You gotta try it." "No, I don't really want to." And it was one of those things where it's like, it's on the fork and he has it like an inch from my mouth.
34:17-34:18
You gotta try this, you gotta try.
34:18-34:18
I'm like, I don't wanna try.
34:19-34:19
You gotta try this.
34:20-34:21
I tried it.
34:24-34:25
And I never looked back.
34:27-34:31
And I'm like, I don't even know who General So is.
34:33-34:35
But I am enlisting in his army.
34:38-34:43
And since then, I have eaten a lot of General Tso's chicken.
34:47-34:49
You know what changed it for me?
34:49-34:50
You know what turned that franchise around?
34:52-34:53
I tasted it.
34:55-34:56
That's what I love about this verse.
34:57-34:59
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
34:59-35:02
Some of you don't have much of an appetite for righteousness because you never really tried it.
35:04-35:12
You never really tried spending time in the Word, Like slowing down and it's incredible.
35:13-35:18
The wisdom, how can this be so simple and so profound at the same time?
35:19-35:26
Some of you have never slowed down to consume it.
35:27-35:34
Some of you have never slowed down to really pray, fellowship with God in prayer, like dedicated time alone, privately.
35:35-35:37
Some of you have never taken the time to do that.
35:39-35:43
Some of you have never trusted God with finance.
35:45-35:50
You don't have any wonderful stories about God's provision because you haven't been faithful in giving to him.
35:53-35:54
That's why I love this verse.
35:54-35:58
He says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." Taste and see.
35:59-36:01
It's an invitation to experience.
36:01-36:02
I mean, I can tell you.
36:04-36:05
I've been a Christian since '95.
36:05-36:09
I can tell you some stories about how awesome it's been to follow the Lord.
36:09-36:11
It has been incredible.
36:12-36:16
I can tell you all about it, but don't take my word for it.
36:18-36:18
You taste and see.
36:21-36:28
Like that General Tso's chicken, you're not going back when you really taste and see that the Lord is good.
36:33-36:35
Now I want General Tso's chicken.
36:40-36:42
Number two, how do you grow your appetite?
36:43-36:45
Number two, eat.
36:47-36:48
Eat.
36:51-36:56
You know, I can't make this plant grow.
37:00-37:01
I can't.
37:02-37:03
I mean, I tried.
37:04-37:06
I tried bribing it.
37:07-37:13
Like, look, listen, please, if you get a little taller, I'll put you in a nicer place in the house.
37:13-37:16
I could try bribing it.
37:16-37:17
That didn't work.
37:17-37:18
I could try threatening it.
37:19-37:24
Like, if you don't grow this week, I'm throwing you into the forest.
37:24-37:25
That doesn't do it either.
37:27-37:28
Right?
37:28-37:29
I could beg it.
37:30-37:31
Like, oh, please grow.
37:31-37:34
Please, everybody thinks I'm so lame because you're so little.
37:34-37:35
Please grow.
37:38-37:42
I can't do a thing to grow this plant, can I?
37:44-37:44
Do you know what I can do?
37:46-37:50
I can put it in a place where it'll grow naturally, right?
37:54-37:56
You know what, this is plastic.
37:56-37:57
It was never gonna grow anyways.
38:01-38:02
It's an illustration, people.
38:03-38:05
And I killed all the real plants.
38:06-38:08
But look, it's the same for you.
38:09-38:12
Look, you can't make yourself grow.
38:12-38:13
You can't.
38:13-38:15
But you know what you can do?
38:15-38:19
You can put yourself in the places where you'll grow naturally.
38:19-38:20
That's what you can do.
38:23-39:45
Put yourself in situations where you can know Jesus more, where you can experience fellowship more, where you can consume righteousness more. Like get to church, right? And not just show up as a spectator, show up and serve. Get involved in a small group with people who will love you and encourage you and pray for you and keep you accountable. Listen to worship music throughout your week. Listen to biblical sermons and podcasts. Get to where you'll grow. And you're going to find the more you know the Lord, the hungrier you become to know him more. And finally, the last way to grow your appetite is to fast. If you're a believer and you find that you're not hungering and thirsting for righteousness the way that you should, then you need to fast. Like, well, what is fasting? Fasting is stopping the feeding of ourselves with other things to focus on our relationship with God. We stop eating other things because we want to focus our appetites on the Lord.
39:45-39:49
Pastor Taylor, do you want to come up here and demonstrate for us what fasting looks like?
39:50-39:51
(laughing)
39:52-39:54
It's pretty self-explanatory, right?
39:55-39:56
Don't eat!
39:59-39:59
Right?
39:59-40:01
But it's not even just about food.
40:04-40:11
You only can consume so much every day.
40:13-40:45
And what you do with fasting is you take a season instead of eating, and maybe it's other things, instead of watching TV, instead of scrolling mindlessly on the interwebs, instead of playing video games for hours, if that's your thing, instead of watching every sport on TV, instead of all of that, it's, you know, I'm cutting that out for a season, I'm going to use that time and I'm gonna spend time in the word and in prayer.
40:48-40:51
Fasting is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us.
40:51-40:54
And I think it's the most underused gift that God has given us.
40:57-41:02
Fasting allows you to focus all your appetite just on seeking the Lord.
41:04-41:09
So if you're sitting here right now and you're like, man, I'm just, I hear what he's saying, I'm just not very hungry.
41:09-41:12
Well, then maybe you need to stop filling yourself up with other things.
41:15-41:25
Maybe you say, "I'm skipping lunch every day this week "and I'm gonna spend that lunch hour "just in the Word and in prayer." I'm not being legalistic here.
41:25-41:27
You know, figure out how it's gonna work for you.
41:27-41:33
Maybe you're gonna say, "I'm gonna go without eating "for the next three days just to focus." I'm gonna, whatever that looks like for you.
41:34-41:39
The fasting is I'm cutting other things out to redirect my appetite.
41:42-41:44
So you want to watch your appetite for righteousness grow?
41:47-41:49
I would encourage you to taste and see that the Lord is good.
41:49-41:57
I would encourage you to eat, put yourself in a place where you'll grow and fast.
41:58-42:02
Maybe cut some stuff out so you have room for other stuff.
42:04-42:09
Our worship team would make their way back up front and join me on the platform.
42:09-42:13
You know, everybody hungry for something.
42:17-42:18
What are you hungry for?
42:25-42:27
Have worldly things lost their appeal to you?
42:30-42:32
Are the things of God precious to you?
42:36-42:42
Do you find yourself hating sin the way God does?
42:47-42:50
Are you becoming more and more dissatisfied with yourself?
42:55-42:57
Can you say this with the psalmist?
43:00-43:07
As a deer pants for flowing streams, So pants my soul for you, O God.
43:09-43:11
Is that the cry of your heart?
43:13-43:19
I am desperately hungry for the Lord.
43:21-43:22
Is that you?
43:25-43:44
Well, if it is, I am pleased to announce on behalf of the leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North, the elders, ministry team leaders, and nursery workers, we would like to wish you a sincere congratulations.
43:45-43:46
[APPLAUSE]
43:59-44:03
because if you're hungry, you're gonna be satisfied.
44:04-44:04
Let's pray.
44:05-44:22
Father in heaven, we confess before you that we have stuffed ourselves with so much, and then we wonder why we're not hungrier for you.
44:24-44:51
I pray, Father, today, We want nothing more than to be in your presence, to grow in Christ, to not only be satisfied with the salvation he purchased, but to be satisfied in the pursuit of growing in righteousness ourselves.
44:53-45:06
I pray, Father, you would lay a heavy conviction on people who haven't been hungry and thirsty for you, and that you would make that the appetite that truly drives everything that they do.
45:08-45:10
Glorify your name, Father, we pray in Jesus' name.
45:11-45:11
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:6-7 and Philippians 3:8-12

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How would you respond to someone who says, “I don’t really hunger and thirst for righteousness.”?
What are some practical ways a believer can increase their appetite for spiritual things?
Jesus said the hungry and thirsty will be satisfied. What does this satisfaction actually look like in the life of a believer today?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Rich Sprunk

February 16, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to the Meek

Rich Sprunk

February 16, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Who Are the "Meek"? (Matthew 5:5)

Forsaking all Self-interest to the Will of God for the Sake of others .

Philippians 2:3-8 - Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Why Are We Congratulating the Meek?

How Do I Cultivate Meekness? (Psalm 37:1-11)

You Don't Fret over the wicked or the state of the world.
You Wholly Depend on God to Deal with Wrongdoers .
You Wholly Depend on God for Vindication .
You Ask God to remember those opposed to you.
You Pray for pportunities to be Trained and Tested .
Congratulations to the poor in spirit, you have the kingdom of heaven!

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:05
All right, Matthew chapter 5, are you there? I feel special, I got fresh balloons.
00:07-00:09
I think the little kids took all the other ones.
00:12-00:18
All right, Matthew chapter 5, let's read there. We'll start at verse 1.
00:21-01:15
"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to 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 those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
01:16-01:37
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So we're in week three of our celebration of the Beatitudes and today we are kicking off Meek Week. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
01:43-02:19
Okay, okay, some of you, some of you are enthused, but maybe we don't seem to be too excited to be meek. Are you not enthused about the next step in our progression through the Beatitudes? I mean, why not? Well, because it's not something we aspire to, is it? Our human nature recoils at the thought of This is one of those uncomfortable verses in Scripture that we tend to pass over.
02:20-02:47
Or if we do dwell on it, we find the idea of meekness so unappealing that we just push it away. That's because of what we think meekness means. We think meek people are timid, they're weaklings, they're cowards, they're pantywaists, they're sissies, wussies, simps, and pusillanimous pipsqueaks. Meekness is for the timid sheeple.
02:49-02:52
When I think of meek, I think of piglet.
02:54-03:16
Yeah, the word has negative associations in our culture. No one, no one rolls out of bed in the morning thinking, "Today's the day! Today I'm going to be more meek! Carpe piglet!" No, no, we don't do that. But we're told right here in verse 3, did I get that right?
03:16-04:10
Verse 3? Yeah, no, verse 5, I'm sorry. Verse 5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." We're told that being meek is a good thing. Followers of Jesus ought to be meek because He is meek. He says in Matthew 11 29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle that is meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls so we must figure out what it means sometimes we're told well meekness is not weakness we hear this a lot in the church we we must soothe the ego with the reminder that if you're meek it doesn't mean you're weak god doesn't expect you Of course not. So let's just stop right there and not pursue this meekness thing too much further.
04:12-04:49
Other times we're told that the Greek word "praos" that is translated as meek really means "strength under control." You like that better than "meekness isn't weakness"? I do. In fact, there are a lot of writers who say that in ancient Greece, Prous described a horse trained for battle. One writer put it this way, "Wild stallions were brought down from the mountains and broken for riding. Some were used to pull wagons, some were raced, and the best were trained for warfare.
04:50-06:20
They retained their fierce spirit, courage, and power, but were disciplined to respond to the slightest nudge or pressure of the rider's leg. They could gallop into battle at 35 miles an hour and come to a sliding stop at a word. They were not frightened by arrows, spears, or torches. Then they were said to be meeked. To be meeked was to be taken from a state of wild rebellion and made completely loyal to and dependent upon one's master. Another metaphor for meekness is an iron fist and a velvet glove. You know, great strength covered with a kind and humble exterior. We like that image, don't we? It conjures up notions that I'm kind, I do good to everyone, but push me too far, antagonize me too much, and I'm gonna to be within my rights to let you have it. Yeah, I can be as humble as the best of them, but I got something in reserve. I got my ace in the hole that I can play when it's called for. Yeah, we like these metaphors, don't we? A lot of guys here right now are thinking themselves, "Yeah, yeah, I'm comfortable with those descriptions of meekness. I can work with those." Just now skip down to the part where you tell me how to become meek, wrap it up with a bow, and I get to go on with my day off.
06:23-06:35
Except none of those metaphors is any more true or accurate a meaning of meek than the idea of being a sissy boy. Meekness has nothing to do with physical or moral strength or courage.
06:36-06:44
Biblically, meekness has nothing to do with tamed horses, because Jesus isn't a tamed horse.
06:45-06:51
He's the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah, and we aren't tamed horses either.
06:52-06:58
We're his sheep and the people of his pasture. We need to live accordingly.
07:00-07:05
I think I might be stepping on some toes this morning, so this would be a good time to pray.
07:07-07:13
If you'd pray for me that I would faithfully preach God's Word, And I'll pray for you that you receive it.
07:15-07:15
Let's pray.
07:26-07:29
Father God, your Word is truth.
07:31-07:40
I pray that your Word would penetrate us to the joints and marrow, That you would plant your word deeply in us.
07:42-07:53
That you would rattle our cages. That you would shake us up. That you would make us meek like our Savior Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.
08:00-08:04
So who are the meek? Why does meekness matter?
08:05-08:16
The opening of this series, Pastor Jeff explained that the Beatitudes are like a ladder or a series of steps. They're all connected and one leads to the next.
08:17-09:13
So far we've learned that we are poor in spirit. As Pastor Jeff said in week one, being poor in spirit is our default setting as sinners. And pride keeps us from recognizing it. We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate our true condition and bring us to confession and repentance. Then last Sunday we learned that we must mourn over our sin and the wrong that we've done. So step one, what we are is spiritually bankrupt. Step two, what we must experience, that is godly sorrow. And now step three, what we must be, meek. Before we define it, we're going to take a moment to understand why this step is crucial and why we can't skip it.
09:15-09:25
If we consider the world from the Bible's standpoint, that is a biblical we understand that all wrongdoing, wickedness, and injustice is due to sin.
09:26-12:02
We can't expect fallen human beings to do what is right and obey the commands of God. We know the world is broken. There's evil and injustice at every turn, and we object to injustice across society. And we usually we point our finger at other people and identify them as the cause of most, if not all, of the So we look to our leaders at the local and the state and the national level to fix things. We want them to sweep into power, restore sanity and order. We also object to injustice in our own lives. It isn't fair. It's been uttered by every one of us at some point in our lives. We get upset when people say or do things that that hurt us or our families our friends our neighbors we want we want justice we want things to be made right and we long for righteousness the next beatitude anticipates this actually Jesus says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness I'm not trying to steal Jeff's thunder from neck for next week but but we're on a ladder remember we can't really hunger and thirst for righteousness until we deal with being meek. Meekness is a prerequisite to truly hungering and thirsting for righteousness. But our tendency is we go from mourning over the wrong we've done straight to hungering and thirsting for righteousness. This is actually natural. We think to ourselves, "Well, I broke it and now I got to fix it," or "Jesus has done great things for me in my salvation and and I want to do great things for him now." You know, those are all admirable thoughts and Jesus recognizes this, but it is a proud desire to do right and fix things. Even though we have an incomplete understanding of righteousness, it is good to hunger and thirst for righteousness, but our perceptions of right and wrong are often subjective based on personal experience and tainted by pride. And if we don't deal with our pride first, our efforts to set things right can and will go sideways. After all, how does a person who's been wrong typically seek justice? It's payback time.
12:03-13:35
It's time for revenge. It's time for retaliation, retribution. Those are all people try to right wrongs. And if our hunger and thirst for righteousness is not grounded in meekness, and we try to do right things from a place of pride, our righteous deeds will be like filthy rags, and we will expose Jesus and the gospel to contempt for the wrong reasons. Because, beloved, we're going to encounter people who don't appreciate our dedication to the gospel and biblical righteousness. We know they have very different ideas about what constitutes justice and righteousness and they're going to push back with mocking and insults and attacks and persecution. And if we don't have a solid understanding of meekness, we may respond in kind and our efforts to bring about righteousness will look like retaliation, retribution, and revenge. If we fail to become meek any good we might do will look no different from the world's methods of handling problems we will act just like everyone else in the name of Jesus will be brought into disrepute so we have to firmly understand meekness so what does meekness really mean well as I said the Greek word is prowse and and it's translated variously as meek, gentle, humble, and considerate.
13:38-14:50
It is described as the positive moral quality of having a mild disposition and dealing with people in a kind manner with humility and consideration. A meek person isn't loud, boastful, easily angered or pushing. Why a meek person is just nice and kind. Is that it? Is that all there is to it? It's not even the half of it. Biblically, meekness is an outlook, it's an attitude, it's a disposition, if you will, of the heart and mind toward God and other people that's founded on our relationship with God and our trust in Him. It is a disposition that remains fixed regardless of what God brings our way, what people do, what events transpire, and whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. So I've got some definitions here regarding God. Whoa, that didn't even didn't fit, did it?
14:52-15:21
All right, but anyway, regarding God, the meek are disposed to accept all of God's dealings with them as good, and this disposition is founded on trust in God's character, omniscience, and omnipresence. The meek person is not occupied with self or even self-preservation, but rather the glory of God first, and then the well-being of others. All right, so that's the vertical regarding God.
15:21-17:59
Regarding people, the meek are disposed to treat others considerately with honor and respect. A meek person is not easily provoked, disturbed, or angered, and when wronged, the meek person responds with humility and relies wholly on God for defense, deliverance, and justification instead of taking matters into one's own hands. What do you think Pastor Taylor? Should I should I get that down to one sentence? Would it be better to have this in one sentence? That's that's I acknowledge that's all pretty long. You might say one sentence, "Love the Lord your God with your whole self and love your neighbor as yourself." That's pretty familiar to us, isn't it? But I thought we need to get to some really granular level. We need to put this under a microscope. Here's meekness in one sentence. Meekness is forsaking all self-interest to the will of God for the sake of others. Forsaking all self- interest to the will of God for the sake of others. You might say that poor in spirit was our old default setting. Meekness is to be our new default setting in Christ Jesus. Note that meekness has nothing to do with strength or weakness, fortitude or timidity, courage or cowardice, or anything else that we commonly associate with meekness or our opposition to it. It has everything to do with our estimation of God and his providential care. This meekness is not something we can attain by our own effort. Strength under control or the iron fist and velvet glove, those qualities might be attained by human ability. That's why we like them. We can do it ourselves. But you know in the wild horse analogy, the horse's strength has been harnessed. The horse has been trained, not transformed. But to be this, to be this, this is impossible to do apart from the Holy Spirit's transformational renewing of our minds.
18:01-18:40
So what does meekness look like? True meekness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that grows out of dependence on God. See Galatians 5 23. You could say that our meekness quotient is directly proportional to our dependence on God. So Joseph, who despite being sold into slavery by his brothers, served God and his masters faithfully and looked to God to vindicate him. When his brothers came into Egypt looking for food, he had it in his power to abuse and mistreat them.
18:41-19:23
It's payback time. That's not what Joseph did. Instead, he showed them mercy and took actions that ultimately brought about confession and forgiveness and led to reconciliation and his family's deliverance. Meekness looks like Moses who is meeker than anyone on the whole face of the earth. When God said he was going to wipe out all the people because of their idolatry with the golden calf and start over with Moses, Moses said, "Really? You'd do that for me, God? Well, Now that might set your plans back a little bit, but hey, if you want to start all over with me, that's fine with me.
19:23-19:28
I'm already tired of leading these miserable, complaining people around the wilderness.
19:30-19:31
No, that's not what Moses said.
19:32-19:40
No, Moses interceded for the people and called upon God to remember his covenants and his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
19:42-20:00
of Moses's meek intercession, the Lord relented from the disaster that he spoke about bringing on all the people. You see in the examples of Joseph and Moses, we see men who had the ability to act in their own self-interest, but they did not.
20:01-22:07
They had God's favor and power and resources backing them up, but they forsook those resources for the glory of God. They put the will of God before their own self-interest for the sake of others. Meekness looks like the Apostle Paul when he was wronged and stoned and beaten, imprisoned, maligned, and persecuted. How many times did he fight back? Shout it out if you know. How many times did he fight back? How many times did he carry out retaliation and retribution. Anybody you know? And how many times did he round up all the believers for street fights with the Jews and the Gentiles? Zero. You see, Paul's meekness can be summarized in a comment he made to Timothy. "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds." Meekness looks like Jesus because he's meekness personified. Remember when Jesus was arrested, Peter, who was not being meek, lashed out with a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant and Jesus said essentially, "Enough, enough, Peter. This isn't how we fight. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels." Jesus was going into battle but as a meek lamb and it looked unlike any combat the world has ever seen. What does meekness look like in a disciple? Well in Philippians 2 verses 3 through 8 Paul points us to the meek Lamb of God and he says "do from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
22:10-22:16
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
22:17-24:12
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You see, Jesus gave up his self-interest and submitted to the Father's will for our sake. Defending himself with 12 legions of angels would not have resulted in our salvation, but his meek submission to his father's will did. So now that we have a biblical definition of meekness and a few examples of what it looks like, why are we congratulating the meek? Because they will inherit the whole earth. Inheriting the land is a God promised to give the land that Abraham could see to him and his offspring forever. Throughout the Old Testament we read about the land which I'm giving you, the land which I'm bringing you into, the land that I'm giving you for an inheritance. There are at least a hundred and seventy instances where God unconditionally promises he will give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's offspring the land of Canaan. At least 55 times he confirms the promised gift with an oath, and 12 times he states that the covenant is everlasting. But here in verse 5, Jesus promises the whole earth. This is a future promise as well as a right now promise. We know that right now the whole earth belongs to God.
24:13-25:12
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, according to Psalm 24. So it's his and he can do whatever he wants with it. In fact, in the beginning he gave humanity dominion over the whole earth according to Genesis 1, but our ability to exercise that dominion was corrupted by the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. It was necessary therefore for Jesus to redeem it through his sacrifice and then give it to his people as an inheritance. So when do we get this inheritance? We now or do we get it later? The answer is yes. If you're a disciple of Jesus, if you're in Christ, you have inherited the earth now because everything that belongs to Christ belongs to you. What is his is yours and you will receive the earth to come because Christ is making all things new including a new earth.
25:13-26:21
but but you cannot skip over meekness you only inherit the earth if you are a meek disciple of Christ and it's at this point we run into something of a stumbling block this reward sounds great but there's something nagging there's something you can't quite put your finger on some idea about meekness that is troubling you. Let's go back to the definition of meekness again. Forsaking all self-interest to the will of God for the sake of others. Our problem is we do not trust God enough to be meek. The reason little profound spiritual growth occurs in our lives is because we refuse to be meek. Our hearts are not fully with God, instead of depending on God, we act primarily out of pride and fear. We don't embrace meekness because we're afraid God won't take care of us in all things.
26:23-26:27
So instead of depending on God for all things, we operate from a place of pride.
26:28-28:55
We subscribe to "God helps those who help themselves" school of theology. As the old song says, "God bless the child that's got his own." On the one hand we say, "I believe in God. I believe he'll take care of me." But on the other we think and act along the line of self-sufficiency. We look out for number one first. Why do we do this? Why do we not fully trust in and depend on God? Because of what our I see and what our hearts have experienced. We see horrible things happening throughout history and in the world around us. We ask, "Where was God when those things were happening? People have done bad things to me and I've been deeply hurt. Why didn't God stop that from happening?" We suffer a great deal from death and loss. Why did my parent die? Why was my child taken from me? Why did I lose my job? Why do I have this terrible disease? Why was I in that terrible accident that left me maimed? We think it's strange that we suffer disappointment, pain, and hardship when we are children of God. Wasn't I supposed to be set free from those things when I believed in Jesus? At least, weren't those things supposed to decrease? We think it's strange that we suffer, but we serve a suffering Christ. My aim is not to revisit the recent series on Job and what we learned about suffering and the sovereignty of God there. My aim is to point out that we make our suffering a barrier to fully depending on God. We are afraid that meekness will only lead to more suffering. We will lose out what we need to live. We will fall prey to the wicked, will be misused and abused. We don't want to be victims. We don't want to be the world's designated doormats. By our thoughts and actions we demonstrate that we are not confident that God will do what he promises. Like the Israelites in Elijah's time who tried to cover all the religious bases by worshiping Yahweh as well as Baal and other gods.
28:56-29:26
We are afraid to fully depend on the Lord and as a result we go limping back and forth between self-effort and God, failing to realize that A) we're even doing so and B) the consequences of such wavering. I'm going to make what might seem like a brief detour here, but it illustrates the consequences of rejecting complete dependence on God and seeking one's own way in the world.
29:28-29:33
Remember in Genesis 1 we had the whole earth and then we lost it in the fall?
29:35-31:16
Well, ever since people have been trying to get it back. In Genesis 10 we read about a guy named Nimrod. You might laugh, but Nimrod was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. You might think, "Mighty hunter before the Lord? That's a compliment. That's a sign of God's approval." It's not. It's a description of self-sufficiency and independence, and built the cities of Babel and Nineveh, two empires that in the future would torment Israel. It's likely that Nimrod is the one who led the people to glorify themselves by building the Tower of Babel, and ever since God threw all the people there into confusion, human beings have sought to build their own version of Babylon and to get what they can for themselves. Human history is a seeking to conquer the earth. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, the British and other European empires, even the American Empire, have all sought self-glorification and dominion at the cost of great destruction and millions upon millions of people perishing through war and starvation, disease and genocide and unspeakable cruelty, and not one of them ever gained or possessed the whole earth.
31:18-31:33
We are born into this wild and reckless world and we come to believe that the only way to survive is to look out for number one. We go about staking our own little claims on the earth, in building our own little empires, and striving to make our own names great.
31:37-32:26
and what wreckage we have left in our own wakes. None of us is anywhere close to gaining the whole world, but we are very much in danger of forfeiting our souls. But then we hear a still small voice, "Come to me. Come to me, you who are poor in spirit. Come to me and mourn over the sin and pride that has caused so much devastation and be meek. Be the opposite of all the sinful things you have ever been. As much as we embrace the appeal of salvation though we hesitate at meekness. We turn back at meekness because we know how the world works and we trust more in what we see than we do in God's promises.
32:27-33:12
We must learn how Jesus works. We must push past the barriers of fear and pride that lead to self-preservation and go all in, depending on Jesus, if we're going to meekly inherit the earth. Ironically, when we have Jesus, the things of this world begin to lose significance. The things of earth will grow strangely dim, as the hymn says. Pastor Jeff is going to elaborate on this more next week, but this morning we should recognize that when we become meek, we stop striving and clawing for a little patch of dirt and a smidgen of self-esteem, and we inherit everything. We inherit the whole earth.
33:15-33:32
All right, if you're persuaded that meekness is essential for a disciple of Jesus and that the reward for meekness is great, you want to know how do I cultivate meekness? How do I grow in the fruit of this Spirit?
33:34-33:53
Turn to Psalm 37. You want to look in your Bibles. Tom, turn to Psalm 37. We're going to do something a little different this morning. I'd like to read through this responsibly, verses 1 through 11. I'll read the odd-numbered verses and I ask you to read the even-numbered verses.
33:58-34:55
All right, well, if you have your Bibles, please open your Bibles. I'll start at verse 1. "Fret not yourself because of evil doers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, For they will fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Self in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your injustice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
34:56-35:05
Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the evildoer shall be cut off, but "But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
35:06-35:09
"In just a little while, the wicked will be no more.
35:10-35:14
"Though you look carefully at his place, "he will not be there.
35:15-35:24
"But the meek shall inherit the land "and delight themselves in abundant peace." All right, thank you.
35:25-35:26
That's good, thank you.
35:27-35:28
All right, so number one.
35:31-36:33
read it all later read it all later it's it is it is an excellent song so number one how to cultivate meekness you don't fret over the wicked or the state of the world three times the psalmist says do not fret it is don't worry don't be anxious about what is going on around you or about what the wicked are doing Now I'm sure there was no one here fretting about people and things the past four years. Am I right? Yeah indeed there was much to fret about but we shouldn't have been fretting. Why not? Because the Psalm says, "Because fretting yourself tends only to evil. It leads us to say and do things that are unmeek." And right now you don't have to dig too deep into the news or social media to see that people are completely losing their minds over the new political situation.
36:35-37:01
Never in my life would I have imagined that some of my family members and friends could be so angry and swear the way that they do. This is fretting on steroids. We're seeing fretting dialed up to 11. But what about us? In past time did you spew venom and anger and unkind words out of a fretful spirit?
37:02-37:06
Are you doing it now in response to people who think differently than you?
37:08-37:14
Or maybe you fret silently. You don't lash out, but you do worry incessantly.
37:16-37:51
You're anxious all the time about many things. Beloved, we are called to depend on God alone. So do not fret, put away anger and wrath, lest you make your faith in Christ appear fraudulent. What is the remedy to fretting? The remedy is you wholly depend on God to deal with wrongdoers. You must have full confidence in the Lord that he is taking care of you in good times, in sorrow, in success, and in disappointment.
37:53-37:54
Look at what the psalmist says.
37:55-38:05
Trust in the Lord, delight yourself in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
38:06-38:08
You have believed in Him for salvation.
38:09-38:14
Do you not believe He is a good Father who will care for you and shelter you?
38:15-38:19
You have trusted in the Lamb of God to save your soul.
38:19-38:23
you not depend on the Lion of Judah to defend you?
38:26-40:37
Depend on the Lord to act in your behalf and he will give you right desires. He will vindicate you and he and he alone will deal with the wicked. He will bring them to account in this life and in the life to come. The wicked will be cut off and be no more but those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the land and we know it means the whole earth. Yes, the meek, that'll be you, shall inherit the whole earth and delight themselves. Delight yourselves in abundant peace. Next, the meek wholly depend on God for vindication. By this I mean you patiently wait for God to prove you right and you will, and he will, I mean if you proceed from a place of meekness. We so often want to assert ourselves and justify ourselves. I know I'm right. But once again, the the morass of social media gives ample evidence of people verbally assaulting others and asserting their own point of view is correct. But that should not be us, beloved. The meek looks to God to bring forth their righteousness as the light and their justice as the noonday. Next, you ask God to remember those opposed to you. The psalmist says to trust in the Lord and he will act, and also to refrain from anger and forsake wrath. When we've been hurt or someone is opposing us, we should ask God to remember them. Now when the Bible says God remembers, it doesn't mean he forgot to do something. It means he's about to take action. Therefore, to ask God to remember those who've harmed you or insulted you or taken something from you is to ask him to take appropriate action from his viewpoint, not yours, and in a way that will give him great glory and do the most good for you and for those opposed to you.
40:39-42:02
Finally, you pray for opportunities to be trained and tested in meekness. If you're going to bear the fruit of meekness, you need to have your buttons pushed from time to time. How will you ever know if you're becoming meek if you aren't confronted with situations in which you have a choice to a) behave proudly, blow your top, deny the Lord and ruin your good confession, or b) respond meekly with humility and grace and display your complete confidence in the Lord to take care of you. This seems like a dangerous prayer, but I assure you it is better to be prayed up about it, to ask for the Lord's help ahead of time and for skill level appropriate training in meekness. Then it is to be confronted out of the blue with a situation in which you fail miserably. The best way to cultivate the fruit of meekness is to prepare and practice so that when you're in the orchard of life and the game isn't going your way, you'll be ready with the ripe fruit of meekness. How's All right, so if our worship team will come back to the stage, we'll look at what we've learned this morning.
42:03-42:09
We've learned that meekness is not what we imagined it to be, or even what we would like it to be.
42:10-42:15
We've learned that real meekness is a fruit of the Spirit, born out of total dependence on God.
42:17-42:22
we've learned that our resistance to meekness reveals that we don't fully trust God.
42:24-42:58
And that realization has brought deep conviction to your heart. But it's time to stop wavering and to depend fully on God for his providential care in all of life and to demonstrate to others the fruit of meekness that grows from such dependence. If you will make this commitment, If you will get out of bed tomorrow morning and say, "Today's the day I start becoming meek," then congratulations, beloved. The earth and everything in it is yours in Jesus Christ.
43:00-43:18
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our Lord and our God, make us meek. Make us like our Savior, Jesus Christ, so that we can be like Him in all things of life to all people. We pray in His great name. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:5 & Psalm 37:1-11

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do we find unbiblical definitions of meekness either unappealing (e.g., it’s weakness) or more appealing (e.g., it’s strength under control) than the definition presented during the message?
Do you find the definition presented during the message unappealing? If yes, why? Utilizing Philippians 2:3-8, how would you define meekness?
Why is genuine meekness essential to hungering for righteousness?
What is one characteristic of meekness that you can commit to cultivating this week (Psalm 37:1-11)?

Breakout
Pray that the Lord will impress on you the imperative to be meek, and that as a congregation we will be committed to Biblical meekness.

Jeff Miller

February 9, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to those Who Mourn!

Jeff Miller

February 9, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Who Are the "Those Who Mourn"? (Matthew 5:4)

Why Are We Congratulating those Who Mourn?

Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Romans 7:24-25 - Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

How Do I Mourn? (James 4:8-10)

What Keeps Me from Mourning?
James 4:8-10 - Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
1. You aren't Drawing near to God.
2. You're too Invested in your sin.
3. You don't see Sin for what it is.
How Do I Know I Really Mourn My Sin?

2 Corinthians 7:10 - For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

→ You Repent without Regret.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
So who's ready to party?
00:02-00:03
(congregation cheering)
00:04-00:05
Good seven of you.
00:09-00:10
Awesome, hey, seven's a party.
00:11-00:11
All right.
00:12-00:16
I know, you're like, I'm saving all my energy for that game tonight.
00:19-00:20
Right?
00:23-00:24
Is that what it is?
00:25-00:28
Show of hands, who's going to some Super Bowl party tonight?
00:29-00:30
Oh, am I allowed to say Super Bowl?
00:31-00:33
Who's going to the big game party tonight?
00:34-00:34
Raise your hands.
00:35-00:39
So I can see that those of you that are like, you're like embarrassed to say that.
00:39-00:42
You're like, me, yes, but I don't want anybody to know.
00:44-00:49
Our youth group's having a big game party here tonight.
00:52-00:57
So who's, again, show of hands, who's cheering for Taylor Swift's team?
00:58-00:59
(congregation laughing)
01:02-01:04
Just Jane Auer and Justin.
01:05-01:05
Wow.
01:06-01:06
Wow.
01:07-01:10
Two spiritual giants cheering for Taylor Swift's team.
01:11-01:12
I'm starting to...
01:16-01:18
On that note, who is cheering for Philadelphia?
01:20-01:21
Okay.
01:21-01:22
That's hard.
01:23-01:25
That's hard to be from Pittsburgh and cheer for Philadelphia, isn't it?
01:27-01:28
All right, they need Jesus too.
01:30-01:35
All right, since we're on the subject, slightly different poll, who thinks the Taylor Swift team is gonna win?
01:35-01:38
Whether you want them to or not, who thinks they're going to win?
01:40-01:44
Okay, how about, who thinks Philadelphia is gonna win?
01:45-01:58
All right, well, we're gonna have a much better party right now, because we're going through the Sermon on the Mount, And this is Jesus' first sermon.
01:59-02:01
And this is his introduction.
02:01-02:10
He starts it by saying, "Blessed, blessed, blessed." In this section, this introduction to his sermon, we call it the Beatitudes.
02:10-02:12
Let's look at it again, shall we?
02:12-02:24
Matthew chapter five, verse two, it says, "And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
02:25-02:44
"Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, "blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness "for they shall be satisfied, "blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
02:46-02:51
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
02:52-02:56
"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.
02:58-03:05
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
03:07-03:10
Blessed over and over, blessed, blessed.
03:11-03:17
The Greek word is mekerios, and most people say, well, that means happy, but we talked about this last week.
03:17-03:18
It means more than happy.
03:20-03:24
It is literally a blissful condition of the soul.
03:25-03:42
So what you're reading as you go through Jesus' introduction here is what Jesus is saying is, "Congratulations." If you are this kind of person, congratulations because God has something awesome in store for you.
03:43-03:50
What we see in the Beatitudes, again, we talked about this last week, but there's a spiritually logical flow.
03:51-03:55
You have to see these as steps on a ladder.
03:57-04:02
And Jesus here is describing what Christ followers are meant to be.
04:03-04:05
So let's just pause for a moment and pray.
04:06-04:10
I'm gonna ask that you please pray for me as I will pray for you.
04:12-04:13
And then we're gonna get this party started.
04:14-04:15
Let's just take a moment and pray.
04:23-04:31
Father in heaven, we come in here today with so many distractions.
04:33-04:42
Not just a football game on later, but much deeper and more important things that are weighing heavy on us.
04:42-04:54
And I pray, Father, that your Spirit would help us to just shelve those right now, and our minds and hearts would be laser-focused on what your Word has to say.
04:57-05:06
And when we do, we'll find that maybe those distractions aren't as big as we think they are when we put them next to you.
05:08-05:10
So, Father, glorify your name.
05:11-05:14
as we study your word together today.
05:16-05:20
In Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, amen.
05:21-05:25
So congratulations to those who mourn.
05:25-05:26
Look at verse four.
05:27-05:35
Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, "for they shall be comforted." Do we get that video?
05:36-05:37
Are you ready, church?
05:37-05:38
Congratulations!
05:52-05:57
See, last week sort of prepared you, but let's be honest, that was kind of weird, wasn't it?
05:59-06:01
It's like, "Hey, are you mourning?
06:04-06:08
"Well, congratulations!" Like, what?
06:08-06:16
I just imagine like a visitor coming in here, somebody watching this stream for the first time like, "These people are weird.
06:17-06:25
Congratulations to those who are sad." What's that all about?
06:28-06:29
Mourning.
06:29-06:34
Like, you know, the obvious question is mourn what?
06:36-06:39
'Cause there's so much we mourn over.
06:41-06:43
What's he talking about?
06:44-06:45
Well, we gotta start here.
06:45-06:49
Jesus wasn't just talking about any kind of mourning at all.
06:51-06:58
Like we said, the Beatitudes, there's a logical, a spiritually logical flow to the Beatitudes.
06:59-07:04
So just look at verse three again with me and flow it into verse four.
07:04-07:06
And you'll see exactly what Jesus is talking about.
07:08-07:13
Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
07:13-07:19
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Do you see the flow?
07:22-07:26
You see, Jesus is talking about the person that says, "I'm spiritually bankrupt.
07:26-07:36
I'm begging for grace and mercy, and I'm mourning over what put me in that condition.
07:37-07:38
And what is that?
07:39-07:40
It's sin.
07:42-07:44
It's mourning over your sin.
07:46-07:48
And right now you might be like, "Wait, wait, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
07:49-07:54
"Are you telling me that God wants me to mourn?
07:54-07:56
"I thought God wanted me to be happy.
07:57-08:07
"And you're telling me that God wants me to be sad?" And I would say that if that's your response to this, you're not really looking at it the right way.
08:10-08:17
Because mourning is just appropriate.
08:20-08:21
Here's what I mean.
08:23-08:26
You know, we talked about being poor in spirit last week, spiritually bankrupt.
08:26-08:30
you've got nothing to offer God, you're broken spiritually.
08:32-08:45
But can we just stop and acknowledge for a second that simply acknowledging that you're guilty about something doesn't quite seem to be enough, does it?
08:46-08:49
Just a simple acknowledgement, it's not enough.
08:50-08:50
And here's what I mean.
08:51-09:01
Husbands, did you ever get that sense that your wife is upset with you about something, but she hasn't verbally articulated what that is?
09:02-09:08
Don't raise your hands, 'cause you gots to go home, hopefully with her.
09:10-09:13
Okay, this is just a raise your hand in your heart question.
09:14-09:20
But have you ever had that feeling like she's mad at me about something, but she hasn't articulated what that is?
09:21-09:32
Well, husbands, how would it work if you went to your wife in that moment and said, "Apparently I'm guilty of something and I'm acknowledging that." Can we be done with this?
09:36-09:38
How would that fly in your house?
09:41-09:45
Not well, I can tell by the uncomfortable laughter.
09:45-09:47
That would not go well in your house.
09:48-09:50
Now you see where we're going here?
09:51-09:54
Or what about somebody that's in court?
09:55-09:57
They committed a heinous crime.
10:00-10:09
And I've never been in a courtroom to actually see this, but you ever see like in those TV shows and movies where they're like, are you sorry for what you did?
10:09-10:10
Have you ever seen that?
10:11-10:18
But could you imagine the guy's, he's guilty, and he's just like, yeah, I did it.
10:22-10:28
Wouldn't you feel that like, that's not enough just simply acknowledging that you're guilty?
10:28-10:29
You see what I'm saying?
10:32-10:43
Many many years ago, this is a horrible story, but there was a young man in my former church that was having a hard go at things.
10:45-10:50
He's having a really hard time in life as a young man, and our camp manager took him in.
10:52-11:00
So they took him to the camp, put him up, gave him some work, trying to help this young man get on his feet, and the young man stole from the church camp.
11:01-11:04
Stole money from the church camp.
11:05-11:11
Well, even with the police, and I'm giving you the short version, even with the police getting involved, the camp manager did not want to press charges.
11:11-11:13
He says, "I'm just trying to help this guy out.
11:13-11:15
"He's had a hard go at things.
11:15-11:18
trying to help him out, and the police said, "Well, this is a probation violation.
11:18-11:24
"There's nothing you can do." So he went to jail, where I did prison ministry.
11:25-11:42
Well, the boy's mother came to me, and she said, "He's so, "she said, 'He's so torn up about what happened.'" She goes, "Are you gonna see him?" And I said, "Well, actually, I'm going in this Friday "to the prison." She goes, "Well, he's just so torn up about what happened.
11:42-11:44
"I hope you get a chance to talk with him and pray with him.
11:45-11:49
Well, I went in that Friday, and he did, he came to Bible study.
11:50-12:17
And he came up to me, and I said, "Hey, how we doing?" He's like, (laughs) he goes, "I guess you heard about what I did." I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I heard about what you did." He's like, "Yeah, yeah, you heard about." He was laughing the entire time he was talking about it.
12:19-12:20
And I'm like, why are you laughing?
12:21-12:23
You stole from a church camp.
12:24-12:25
Like, are you proud of that?
12:25-12:27
Like, I don't understand why you're laughing.
12:28-12:32
And he just giggled the whole time he was talking about it.
12:34-12:38
Well, a couple of days later, his mother came back to me.
12:38-13:04
She goes, "Hey, did you get to see him in prison?" I said, "Yeah, I talked to him." "He's really broken up over this, isn't he?" I said, "Not at all." And she was like, "What are you talking about, not at all?" I said, "He laughed the entire time he was talking about it." Would you say that something was missing there?
13:09-13:17
Now we kind of see why this is logical that this is the next step in the Beatitudes.
13:17-13:18
Are you seeing it?
13:19-13:22
Because mourning proves sincerity.
13:29-13:30
It's not just for show.
13:32-13:36
And look, you can pretend to mourn and you can fool me, but you can't fool God.
13:37-13:48
But when you're really mourning in your heart, when you are really broken over your sin in your heart, you know it and God knows it, and that's all that matters.
13:50-13:58
And you've gotten to the place where you're like, look, no excuses, no blaming other people, no comparing myself with others.
13:58-13:59
We talked about that last week.
14:00-14:03
No rationalizing why I did what I did.
14:06-14:11
I have to ask you, have you mourned over your sin?
14:13-14:19
Have you, you personally, have you mourned over your sin?
14:24-14:29
Have you considered who your sin has hurt?
14:34-15:03
who trusted me that I've taken advantage of. An addiction I've had that has caused me to lie and to steal and to live this deceptive lifestyle. My gossip and slander that has damaged the reputations of the people that I talk about. What is it for you? Have you You mourned over those things?
15:07-15:18
And maybe it's not just like the sins that you've done, but the sins that are things that you haven't done.
15:20-15:27
I think that's been a bigger struggle for me, realizing that I haven't been the husband that my wife has needed me to be.
15:31-15:45
I'm sure every dad in here can relate to the sleeplessness that comes when you realize you haven't been the father to your kids that they've needed, and you mourn over that.
15:48-15:49
Have you done that?
15:54-16:02
You know, we disregard our creator, the God who loves us, and we so often just treat him like he's not even there.
16:02-16:06
Oh, and then we need something, and then we're gonna act religious for a while.
16:10-16:17
Can we really take inventory of our lives and our sin and not mourn?
16:23-16:23
Have you done that?
16:27-16:31
Because mourning is just the natural response.
16:32-16:37
And if you really understand your sin, you know that whole blessed are the poor in spirit.
16:37-16:48
If you really, really understand what that means, and you're not a sociopath, then you're going to mourn over your sin.
16:56-17:02
Second question, why are we congratulating those who mourn?
17:02-17:03
Right?
17:05-17:11
That's the those who mourn, but why are we congratulating these people?
17:11-17:15
Just like we said in the first Beatitude, we're gonna say it again this week.
17:15-17:19
Could you imagine if Jesus stopped at the word mourn?
17:20-17:22
If he's like, blessed are those who mourn.
17:26-17:28
Amen, end of sermon, you're loved, go home.
17:28-17:29
Could you imagine if he stopped there?
17:30-17:31
Like, happy or the sad?
17:32-17:36
Like, what do you, why would you say such a thing?
17:36-17:52
Oh, but he goes on, he goes, "For they shall be comforted." They, just like the previous, the word they is emphatic in the Greek.
17:53-17:55
It shows us the sense in which Jesus said this.
17:57-18:01
It emphasizes how this is contrary to expectation.
18:01-18:06
What Jesus is saying here, again, this is so paradoxical.
18:06-18:18
But Jesus says, "Only the sad are happy "because they alone are comforted." There's the congratulations.
18:21-18:35
Jesus said, "The people that are tore up over their sin," he says, "Congratulations, because those are the people that get comfort." Like comfort, what do you mean comfort?
18:35-18:39
Well, the word in the Greek literally means come alongside to help.
18:42-18:51
It's this picture of somebody broken and somebody else comes alongside and puts an arm around and says, "Hey, hey, we're gonna get through this.
18:52-19:03
"I got you, you're not alone." And this is what God does for us with his Holy Spirit.
19:05-19:07
He comes in and dwells.
19:11-19:15
So he's the comforter, but what is the comfort that we receive?
19:17-19:19
You see, he doesn't just come along and say, "You know what?
19:19-19:25
"Yeah, you're a broken sinner and you should be upset." Yeah, that's true, but it doesn't stop there.
19:25-19:27
Here's where our comfort comes.
19:27-19:29
Our comfort comes from the promise of the gospel.
19:30-19:38
You see, what is the most comforting thing someone who mourns over their sin can receive?
19:40-19:43
The answer is forgiveness.
19:47-19:49
Don't you see the picture?
19:49-19:54
God Himself puts an arm around you and says, "Yes, you sinned against Me.
19:58-20:03
But My Son took your sin on Himself.
20:05-20:08
I punished Jesus for what you did.
20:11-20:13
You are forgiven because of Jesus Christ.
20:13-20:16
I'm not going to hold your sin against you.
20:18-20:20
And nothing will ever change that.
20:23-20:28
So you see, we have this glorious comfort in the promise and hope of the Gospel.
20:28-20:37
And someday, someday when we stand before God Himself, He's going to comfort us in person.
20:39-20:41
Revelation 21.4, can we put that up there?
20:44-21:13
It says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." I've had people ask me, "Wait a second." I've had people ask me in this verse, "It says He'll wipe away tears, But then later in the verse, it says, "There's no mourning or crying." So what's going on there?
21:17-21:32
I believe that when we stand before God, in that initial moment, we're going to fully realize the price that was paid for our sin.
21:34-21:35
I mean, I think we understand it.
21:35-21:38
And if you're a born again believer, you understand it now.
21:38-21:47
But I think on that day, you are going to fully understand it in a way that you never have on earth when you see your God and your Savior.
21:49-21:58
And I think the full magnitude of the price that was paid for your salvation is going to just...
21:58-21:59
It's going to cause you to weep.
22:02-22:03
What does God say He'll do in that moment?
22:05-22:12
Like a dad, He's gonna stoop down and He's gonna wipe the tear from your eye.
22:16-22:18
And that'll be the last one that you cry.
22:20-22:22
So do you see the flow here?
22:23-22:26
I realize that I'm a broken sinner.
22:27-22:28
That brings me sorrow.
22:28-22:34
I go to God for grace and I'm comforted by forgiveness.
22:36-22:44
And by the way, if you're a born again believer, this isn't a one and done thing.
22:47-22:53
It's not like, you know what, I came to Christ in 1995 and I can't stand there and say, well, yeah, you know what?
22:53-23:01
Back in '95, I mourned for my sin pretty hard, but that was a tough couple of weeks, but glad that's over.
23:01-23:09
No, no, for a true Christian, we never get over mourning or sin.
23:13-23:19
And at the same time, we never get over the comfort of forgiveness that we receive from Jesus Christ.
23:21-23:27
A true Christian lives in both of these at the same time.
23:28-23:35
That we live a life of mourning our sin and rejoicing in the gospel simultaneously.
23:39-23:46
You know, great example, we're not gonna read, we're not gonna read the whole chapter today, but just write this down, Romans chapter seven, that's exactly what Paul went through.
23:47-23:49
I'm gonna paraphrase it for you, but I do wanna look at a couple of verses there.
23:52-24:04
Romans chapter seven, again, this is a paraphrase, but Paul's like, "I believe that the law is good, "so why do I do the things that I don't wanna do?
24:07-24:12
"And the things that I don't wanna do, I do them." He goes, "What's the matter with me?
24:13-24:16
"I know what God said, but I keep disobeying.
24:17-24:35
"Like, what's the matter with me?" And he walks through that whole experience Sometimes I read Romans 7 and I'm like, "Wait, did I write this?" But the last two verses, this is exactly what Jesus is talking about with these first two Beatitudes.
24:36-24:40
Verses 24 and 25, Paul says, "Wretched man that I am.
24:41-24:46
"Who will deliver me from this body of death?" There's the mourning right there.
24:48-24:51
Like, "Oh, what is the matter with me?
24:51-24:57
What can possibly, who can possibly deliver me from this?
24:58-25:00
There's the mourning, but then look at the very next verse.
25:00-25:01
There's the comfort.
25:02-25:06
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
25:10-25:20
In other words, using Paul's terminology, you and I are miserable sinners in a body of death.
25:21-25:51
And Jesus would say, "Congratulations, because you have been delivered through Jesus Christ, our Lord." That's why we're congratulating those who mourn, because only when you get to the place where you are sincerely mourning over your sin, will you sincerely receive the comfort that God offers through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
25:52-25:55
That's why we're having the congratulations party today.
25:58-25:59
I could stop there.
26:03-26:14
But I know that there are some people right now, like, okay, I intellectually understand what you're saying, but emotionally I'm not there.
26:15-26:16
So how do I mourn?
26:18-26:19
How do I do that?
26:22-26:44
I gotta tell you, this is a hard sermon to put together because I can share with you some commands that say, you know, do this, or God says, don't do this, but this particular beatitude, it's really all about emotion, isn't it?
26:44-26:48
That's sort of a hard thing to command, right?
26:49-26:54
I just wanted to get to this point in the sermon and say, okay, church, mourn.
26:56-26:57
Go ahead, I'll wait.
27:01-27:02
Are you mourning?
27:04-27:05
Some of you are smiling.
27:08-27:08
See the challenge here?
27:09-27:12
How do I just, how do I get you to mourn?
27:13-27:15
Like sackcloth and ashes.
27:17-27:18
Let's do it, church.
27:21-27:26
I thought, wow, that's a really tough question to answer.
27:26-27:28
How do I mourn?
27:32-27:35
Mourning is an expression of sorrow in the heart.
27:36-27:40
And all I can tell you is, if you're really poor in spirit, you're really gonna mourn.
27:48-28:06
So instead of trying to answer how do I mourn, I think there's two better questions that we need to answer. And maybe these two better questions will help us get to the heart of the matter because God wants your heart.
28:11-28:39
So let's answer these ones instead. Maybe instead of saying, "How do I mourn?" maybe we should ask, "What keeps me from mourning?" Because right now I know there are people sitting here and there will be people sitting in the next service and there are people that are gonna be watching this stream and listening to this podcast that are just like, "Something's just not clicking here "because I don't feel any of this sadness "that he says I'm supposed to be feeling.
28:40-28:45
"Why am I not feeling it?" Well, the Bible has the answer for that.
28:46-28:50
We're gonna jump to James 4, verses eight through 10.
28:52-28:53
We're gonna go through this very quickly.
28:54-28:55
Look at what James says here.
28:55-28:59
He says, "Draw near to God, "And He will draw near to you.
29:00-29:04
"Cleanse your hands, you sinners, "and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
29:04-29:07
"Be wretched and mourn and weep.
29:10-29:14
"Let your laughter be turned to mourning "and your joy to gloom.
29:16-29:24
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, "and He will exalt you." Right there, what keeps me from mourning?
29:25-29:28
You're like, "Something's not clicking here." Teach me for mourning.
29:29-29:30
There's three things right here.
29:31-29:37
If you're not mourning right now, and you realize because of what Jesus said that you should be, here's why you're not.
29:37-29:39
Number one, because you're not drawing near to God.
29:40-29:41
That's why.
29:42-29:44
You're not drawing near to God.
29:46-29:51
You know that you should be spending time in prayer.
29:52-29:55
You should be spending time in his word.
29:55-29:59
You should be spending time in fellowship, you can be on Sunday morning, you should be.
30:00-30:02
You know that you need to.
30:06-30:08
And you certainly intend to.
30:12-30:14
But for a lot of people, it's just procrastination.
30:15-30:17
I'm going to, yeah, yeah, you know what, yeah.
30:19-30:26
You know what, it's summer break, but when the kids get back to school, that's when I'm really gonna buckle down and seek the Lord the way I know I need to.
30:27-30:52
Oh, no, things are so busy with school, but when we have Christmas break, and January's coming around the corner, and turn the calendar for new year, then I'm really going to, well, January was busy, so maybe once I get through President's Day, then I'll be ready to, and we just keep putting God off, that someday we're really gonna get serious about drawing near to God.
30:57-31:02
The Bible tells us that when you keep putting God off, what you're doing is you're hardening your heart.
31:03-31:06
And hard hearts don't mourn sin.
31:10-31:20
So I would say to you lovingly, if you aren't mourning, you probably aren't drawing near to God either.
31:24-31:28
What keeps me from mourning, letter B, you're too invested in your sin.
31:30-31:31
You're too invested in your sin.
31:32-31:54
James says, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners, "and purify your hearts, you double-minded." James says, "Your hands are filthy, your hearts are filthy." James says, "Knock it off." He says, "You're not mourning your sin "because you love it." And we typically don't think of our sin in those terms.
31:58-32:03
But if we're going to be brutally honest, you know, think about your favorite sin.
32:06-32:12
If we're brutally honest, what we would say is, I do love it.
32:13-32:14
You know, that addiction.
32:19-32:26
Like, you know, I know I should cut this addiction, but I, quite frankly, I love it.
32:27-32:29
I realize the damage that it's causing.
32:29-32:30
I realize it's a sin.
32:30-32:34
I realize addiction is a worship disorder that offends God.
32:34-32:35
I realize I should.
32:37-32:39
I just, I kind of like it too much.
32:41-32:42
James says, knock it off.
32:45-32:51
Maybe it's lust and the various expressions of that.
32:52-32:59
That you're like, I know I should stop that, but if I'm being honest, I enjoy it too much.
33:00-33:01
Knock it off.
33:02-33:14
That inappropriate relationship that I know it's not appropriate, and I'm married, and she's married, and it's just too flirty, and I shouldn't be doing that.
33:15-33:17
But I just kind of get a rush out of it.
33:21-33:22
Or all the gossip.
33:22-33:30
You know, I know I shouldn't be talking about people, but oh, I just love to be the one to give the news and update people.
33:34-33:42
Listen, if you've allowed sin to become part of who you are, you're not going to mourn it.
33:45-33:47
For some of you, you're too invested in your sin.
33:49-33:53
You love that more than you love Jesus, and that is a huge problem.
33:56-33:58
What keeps me from mourning?
33:58-34:00
For some, you're just not drawing near to God.
34:00-34:02
For others, you're just too invested in your sin.
34:03-34:05
And for others, let her see you don't see sin for what it is.
34:07-34:08
You don't see sin for what it is.
34:09-34:11
See again, James says, "Be wretched and mourn and weep.
34:12-34:19
"Let your laughter be turned to mourning "and your joy to gloom." You don't see sin for what it is, laughter, joy.
34:19-34:23
That's how the world views sin, right?
34:25-34:26
We laugh at it, right?
34:28-34:29
That's what the world does.
34:30-34:37
And sadly, too often, so does the church.
34:40-34:43
I read a quote this week, I can't remember who it was.
34:43-34:46
I think it was, I think it was Martin Lloyd-Jones that said this.
34:46-34:55
He says, "The church has a defective sense of sin." Yeah, we do.
34:58-35:01
We don't mourn over sin.
35:02-35:03
Even in the church, what do we do?
35:03-35:04
We laugh at it.
35:04-35:06
We make jokes about it.
35:06-35:10
We minimize it, and that is not of God.
35:13-35:15
That's not of God when we do that.
35:17-35:19
Think about it this way.
35:22-35:36
Would you tell a really tasteless, disgusting joke about suicide to a family that experienced that horror?
35:36-36:04
Would you do that? No! Would you tell a joke about drunk driving to a family that lost a family member due to drunk driving? Would you do that? Of course you wouldn't. So why do we think it's appropriate to joke about sin in in the face of Jesus Christ, who died because of our sin.
36:13-36:16
That's why James says, "Hey, you need to stop laughing at it.
36:17-36:19
And you need to take a serious look at it.
36:20-36:23
My sin killed my Savior.
36:23-36:24
You think that's funny?
36:28-36:33
If you were standing at the foot of the cross while Jesus was being crucified, would you be bragging about your sin?
36:37-36:38
Is your sin worth celebrating?
36:41-36:44
That's why James says your laughter needs to turn to mourning.
36:45-36:46
Your joy needs to turn to gloom.
36:47-36:49
You need to see sin how God does.
36:50-36:51
You need to see sin for what it is.
36:56-36:58
So maybe that's why you're not mourning sin.
36:59-37:06
You have just so minimized it and trivialized it and turned it into a joke.
37:14-37:15
That's what keeps me from mourning.
37:15-37:17
So you're like, OK, you know what?
37:18-37:20
Maybe some of you are like, I'm on board.
37:21-37:22
I'm on board with you.
37:22-37:23
I see what God's saying.
37:23-37:26
And so, how do I know that I really mourned?
37:28-37:33
How do I know that I really, really mourned over my sin?
37:34-37:39
That I really had that genuine emotion that Jesus is talking about here?
37:39-37:41
How do I know that I've done that?
37:43-37:45
I just want to close with one verse here.
37:47-37:51
But 2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us how you know that you've mourned.
37:52-38:03
He says, "For godly grief," some translations say godly sorrow, we could say the same thing, "For godly mourning," right?
38:04-38:18
"For godly grief produces a repentance "that leads to salvation without regret, "whereas worldly grief produces death." How do I know that I really mourn?
38:18-38:29
There's one way that you know that you are doing exactly what Jesus is commending in this beatitude.
38:30-38:32
It's when you repent without regret.
38:34-38:34
That's how you know.
38:40-38:45
Don't tell me how sorry you are over your sin if there's no repentance, because you're not really sorry.
38:50-38:55
Then tell me how bad you feel if there's no plan to turn from it.
38:57-39:00
See, that's what Paul does here in 2 Corinthians 7.
39:00-39:08
He compares, he says, "Everybody's sorry about something, but there's worldly grief and there's godly grief." Worldly grief, what's that?
39:09-39:10
What's worldly grief?
39:10-39:23
That's, "I'm sorry that I got caught." "I'm sorry that you're upset about what I did." Not upset about what I did, I'm sorry that you're upset about what I did.
39:24-39:25
Worldly grief is self-centered.
39:29-39:30
It's all about me.
39:32-39:37
I feel uncomfortable because of the results of my sin.
39:38-39:40
And Paul says that does not lead to salvation.
39:42-39:42
Where does that lead?
39:45-39:48
He says worldly grief produces death.
39:49-39:51
That's what you get from worldly grief.
39:53-39:56
He says, on the other hand, godly grief, what is that?
39:57-39:59
That's the person that's like, you know what?
39:59-40:01
I am so sick of this sin.
40:03-40:09
It dishonors God, it's hurt others, it's made me such a hypocrite.
40:09-40:11
This sin that I'm committing is wrong.
40:13-40:15
See, godly grief is Christ-centered.
40:17-40:21
Even if nobody else knows what your sin is, you know that God does.
40:22-40:23
Like, I gotta be done with this.
40:25-40:32
And he says it produces a repentance that leads to salvation.
40:33-40:36
See that repentance, repentance.
40:38-40:40
Now we're talking about mourning as the emotion.
40:41-40:43
Repentance is not an emotion.
40:43-40:44
Repentance is action.
40:45-40:48
Repentance is I am walking in my sin.
40:48-40:52
I'm turning my back on sin and I'm walking towards God.
40:52-40:54
Repentance is action.
40:58-41:02
Has grief over your sin led you to take action?
41:07-41:09
You're like, well, no, not really, seriously, no.
41:09-41:16
okay, then you haven't mourned your sin the way God calls you to.
41:20-41:36
Notice he says, "Godly grief produces a repentance "that leads to salvation," look at these last two words, "without regret." That's another key, by the way.
41:38-41:44
You know, the person that actually does turn from sin, but really deep down feels like, man, you know what?
41:46-41:48
I kind of miss that sin.
41:48-41:50
I kind of miss doing that.
41:52-41:53
Yeah, I would love to do it again.
41:53-41:57
Just, even if I could do it just one more time, I would love that.
41:59-42:01
But I guess I'm really not supposed to.
42:03-42:07
Now, without regret means no regrets in repenting.
42:10-42:14
Well, there is one regret for the sincere mourner, actually.
42:15-42:34
The sincere mourner says, "My only regret "is that I didn't repent sooner, "because then I would have received "the comfort of God sooner." "So my brothers and sisters, you are poor in spirit.
42:35-42:36
Last week we talked about that.
42:36-42:39
How do I get there?" You're already there.
42:41-42:52
Your sin has offended a holy God, and it's hurt others, and by nature you stand condemned over that.
42:52-42:59
And the reality of all of that should have you broken inside.
43:03-43:04
Are you there?
43:06-43:11
Has your mourning over sin led you to repentance?
43:13-43:17
Well, if that's you, then we got a message for you.
43:28-43:38
So my friends, on behalf of the leadership of Harvest Bible Chapel, I would like to extend to you a heartfelt congratulations.
43:39-43:41
Give yourselves a hand if you are mourning.
43:43-43:44
(congregation applauding)
43:47-44:00
Because our Lord said, congratulations to those who are mourning because you and you alone are going to experience the comfort of God.
44:01-44:21
If our worship team would make their way back to the stage here and those who are serving communion, you know, there's no better way that we can capture what Jesus is talking about than by ending this time around the Lord's table.
44:24-44:32
Because as we come to the Lord's table, There should be a brokenness in us in this moment, truly.
44:33-44:35
We're remembering what?
44:35-44:37
The body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
44:37-44:41
We're remembering this price that was paid.
44:41-44:58
And there should be a sense of mourning over this, but at the same time, there should be a sense of celebration and that my God loves me so much that this is the price that he paid so that I could be forgiven of my sin.
45:00-45:02
This is also the comfort.
45:03-45:04
So the worship team's going to play.
45:04-45:06
We're going to invite you to stand.
45:07-45:10
And when you're ready, come down the center aisles and receive the elements.
45:10-45:15
And when everybody has received, I will lead us in taking the Lord's Supper together.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:4 & James 4:8-10

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What exactly does it mean to “mourn” over your sin? Why is mourning necessary?
What would you say to someone that says “I’ve never mourned over my sin. And I don’t really see why I need to!”
How does God comfort those who mourn? What does that look like?
Read 2 Corinthians 7:10. Explain the difference between worldly grief and godly grief. What does it mean that worldly grief brings death?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Congratulations to the Pure in Heart

Introduction:

Congratulations to Pure in Heart! (Matthew 5:8)

Who Are the "Pure in Heart"?

Why Are We Congratulating the Pure in Heart?

How Do I Become Pure in Heart So I Can See God?

How to Purify Yourself (Philippians 4:8):

Congratulations to the Merciful

Introduction:

Who Are The "Merciful"? (Matthew 5:7)

Why Are We Congratulating the Merciful?

How Can I Be Merciful?

5 Excuses People Give for Not Forgiving:

Congratulations to the Hungry

Introduction:

Who Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness"? (Matthew 5:6)

Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

How Do I Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

Why Are We Congratulating the Hungry?

How to Grow Your Appetite:

Congratulations to the Meek

Introduction:

Who Are the "Meek"? (Matthew 5:5)

Why Are We Congratulating the Meek?

How Do I Cultivate Meekness? (Psalm 37:1-11)

Congratulations to those Who Mourn!

Introduction:

Who Are the "Those Who Mourn"? (Matthew 5:4)

Why Are We Congratulating those Who Mourn?

How Do I Mourn? (James 4:8-10)

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

Congratulations to Pure in Heart! (Matthew 5:8)

Who Are the "Pure in Heart"?

Why Are We Congratulating the Pure in Heart?

How Do I Become Pure in Heart So I Can See God?

How to Purify Yourself (Philippians 4:8):

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Who Are The "Merciful"? (Matthew 5:7)

Why Are We Congratulating the Merciful?

How Can I Be Merciful?

5 Excuses People Give for Not Forgiving:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Who Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness"? (Matthew 5:6)

Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

How Do I Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

Why Are We Congratulating the Hungry?

How to Grow Your Appetite:

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Who Are the "Meek"? (Matthew 5:5)

Why Are We Congratulating the Meek?

How Do I Cultivate Meekness? (Psalm 37:1-11)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Who Are the "Those Who Mourn"? (Matthew 5:4)

Why Are We Congratulating those Who Mourn?

How Do I Mourn? (James 4:8-10)

Audio Transcript