Flourishing: Blessed Are The Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Since it's heritage day, I wanted to say it in Zulu.

That's uh I'm Zulu, so I could have done it in Sutu and whatever, but um the whole idea here is that we have been going through a series called Flourishing.

Uh flourishing according to Jesus.

And today, this morning, we are looking at flourishing without self-assertion.

Flourishing without self-assertion.

As as we dig into the word today, um, I want to have you uh just like index your Bible in uh Psalm 37.

So we'll be uh quite like cross-referencing with in uh those two uh texts, um Psalm 37 as well as um our text this morning, which is Matthew 5, specifically verses number 5.

So um as Sean would say, you have homework, and your homework is Psalm 37, those 40 verses.

Uh but as we just walk through Matthew 5, and and so much of what is going to be derived from our text this morning is found in uh uh Psalm 37 because Jesus had that text, as it were, in mind when he was uh sharing his message on the Sermon on the Mount, specifically in terms of verses number five of Matthew 5.

Are we clear on that, guys?

And then another text I want you to kind of index as well is um uh Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 to 11.

Philippians 2:5–11

Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 11.

Philippians 2:5–11

Now I want to paint a picture for us as we uh go through the text this morning, but the picture is not necessarily found in the text, it's just uh quotations that I thought, man, it would be nice to have some trivia as you are listening in.

Quotations that our culture have uh given to paint a picture of what is called flourishing.

First quotation would be, I am God's vessel, but my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.

Close quote.

Second quote, it's it's hard to be humble when you are as great as I am.

Lastly, this one I'll name the uh person who says it.

His name is Salvador Dali.

Uh he's a he's an illustrator or an artist.

He said these words every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy, the joy of being Salvador Dali.

So, friends, these are quotations from different worlds, uh, the world of sports, music, and art.

But but but but listen to the vision of flourishing underneath all of them.

Make something of yourself, establish yourself, become someone whose greatness is unquestionable.

And that's not merely friends, celebrity culture.

For those of you who are not into art and music and sports, here's one more.

One of the books that have been on high rotation, when you go to exclusive books, you won't miss it.

It's got a red cover with a bit of blue.

Uh it's called uh 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green.

So whether you've read the book or not, you understand its instinct just by looking at that cover.

That man, you what he's proposing or saying is or stating is that you cannot be naive.

You you need to build a sense of leverage, you need to protect your position.

Don't allow yourself to become powerless.

And many of those spaces, friends, we occupy understand that instinct very well.

Whether it's business, corporate life, uh, school, or or families, even in churches, that there's an underneath there's an underlying assumption that the the the book proposes, or even these quotations that I've highlighted propose that the people who inherit the earth will be the powerful people, the the powerful people who are powerful enough to take it.

Then here's a man on the mountain, Jesus sits down, says, Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn.

Now he says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Hang on, the meek.

Over the last two weeks, friends, as I said, Jesus has been confronting us with a radical different vision of what it means to live under his lordship.

As it were, this is not you performing your way into the kingdom.

This is you, it's like your birthmark.

This is your identifier, this is your passport of the kingdom, this is who you are in light of what he has done.

Blessed are the meek.

In other words, as he paints this picture of blessedness, the word we've been uh reiterating week after week is makarios, meaning the picture of flourishing.

Jesus isn't merely describing, friends, a passing feeling of being happy.

He's making a pronouncement about the good life.

Not the good life, Kanye West quotes, but the good life that that is under his reign.

That those who are flourishing are the poor in spirit.

Those who are flourishing are those who mourn.

And now those who are flourishing today are the meek.

They will inherit the earth.

Friends, if you are being honest as you're sitting there and it's your first time, what is this guy saying?

This sounds awfully odd.

Sounds backward.

What do you mean being meek is equated to flourishing?

So, because friends, we we hear the word meek, and perhaps we hear the word gentle, we hear the word mild, we hear the word humble, but somewhere in the back of my mind, our minds, we we also hear the word weak, timid, push over, agreeable.

And perhaps something inside of you wants to say, Jesus, have you seen how the world works?

Have you seen my boardroom?

Meekness is not exactly the rhythm of momentum and growth in our culture.

It's not the meek who inherit the earth, it's the powerful.

So either Jesus, friends, as we look at this text this morning, is fundamentally misunderstanding what it means to flourish, or we are the ones who are duped by the waters we are swimming in in our culture.

As we dig into this big extraordinary sentence this morning, we are going to follow three movements.

Number one, we're gonna see the self-assertion we uh grasp for.

Number two, we're gonna see the meekness that entrusts itself to God.

And lastly, friends, we're gonna see the inheritance that God promises.

So, so check with me as we go through the grasping, the entrusting, and the inheriting.

Number one, the self-assertion we grasp for.

Now, friends, I want to be careful here as we uh think through what Jesus is saying here.

Today we are preaching just one sentence.

Matthew 5, verse 5, as it were.

Matthew 5:5

Just to remind you, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the what?

The earth.

We we we need to be careful as we uh reflect on that, that Jesus is not condemning strength.

Jesus is not even condemning leadership, he's not condemning authority, he's not condemning ambition, he's not even condemning competence, money, education, and influence.

He's not condemning those things in and of themselves.

These can all be good gifts that that can be stewarded for the fame of God.

These can be good gifts, but but but what Jesus is gonna unearth in this text is this question that uh whether or not I I keep asking, even in Hosea asking this question, that the question is what your heart is asking these things to do to you or for you.

That's that's where the question of self-assertion comes in, as we define that self-assertion in the text is using whatever power, leverage, or resources I possess to secure myself, to establish myself, to protect myself, to vindicate myself, or even get my own way.

And those leverages vary, friends.

You you're gonna see immediately what this has to do with the text, but but I wanna kind of highlight that that the issue or the problem with money is that you you you you you you when you have it, you don't necessarily need to raise your voice.

You don't need to raise your voice, you just pay.

Or you withdraw.

You you take your business somewhere else.

For those who are with authority, I'm the boss.

That that that's all it takes.

I'm the boss, I'm in charge.

You don't need to sweat.

Maybe those who are uh leveraging these different variables, some are leveraging their intelligence.

Like you know how to make another person feel small without ever insulting them.

That's how intelligent you are.

Others even use religion, being right, being moral, knowing more Bible than the person sitting next to you.

And sometimes the most powerful person in a family is not the person who shouts, it's the person who goes quiet and withholds affection until everyone falls back in line.

You see, friends, there are different ways we leverage all these resources for power.

And and underlying that is the same temptation.

I will use what I have to make sure I get my way to establish myself.

That's not meekness.

Unless you think, friends, well, none of these things are really me.

I don't have money.

What do you mean, money?

Give me some of that.

I don't have it.

Let me say this: it's not only those who are confident and resourced with uh my financial means or the boss or whatever.

Sometimes it's those who are very, very quiet.

Uh, one theologian by the name of Jonathan Dodson uh made this point uh to to helpfully distinguish this these pictures of pride, as it were.

These pictures that are opposite of meekness.

He he kind of says, Man, there is strong pride and there is weak pride.

Strong pride says, I need your applause.

I need to show up in the room and I need to be felt, I need to exert myself, I need to assert myself, I I need you to applaud me.

But weak pride says, I need your approval.

One looks down on others, the other looks up.

But both friends have the self at the center.

So, friends, the deepest problem isn't that people uh are domineering, as it were, as opposed to being meek.

It's it's that all of us in different ways are tempted to ask created things to do what only God can do.

We ask a title to tell us who we are, we we ask money to make us safe, we ask approval to make us matter, we we ask control to protect us from ever feeling powerless again.

It's the oldest story in the world, friends.

Started in the garden.

Humanity reached for uh what God had not given to be like God, to be God, as it were.

That that that that self-autonomy that that that that refuses to leave live under the authority of a creator.

That ancient grasping instinct, friends, that says, I will secure my life without God.

That's what we do, friends.

Perhaps you are here this morning and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian necessarily.

You may not share what Christians believe about God.

But I want to challenge you and say, maybe you may have a sense of man, I recognize this project.

The the if project, if I can become successful enough, if I can become respected enough, if I can become independent enough, if if if only then I can I do this, then maybe I will finally feel secure.

And I need so so much of the hustle, friends, is that quiet conviction we all share in this room.

I must secure myself.

Some of you say, I must secure the bag.

But underneath, friends, the securing of the bag is often the attempt to secure the self.

If I can just get enough money, enough influence, enough power, enough control, then perhaps nobody can threaten me.

Perhaps I'll finally be okay.

But the problem with that project is that it never ends, it never finishes.

There's always another bag to be secured.

Another promotion, another number, another level of influence, another person whose recognition suddenly matters to you.

Whatever you grasp friends to secure yourself, you then have to guard to remain secure.

I've seen a status that person is in this room, so uh forgive me.

Uh the person said, Some of which which is a point I want to make here.

Some of you rub shoulders with billionaires.

In your corridors, you have billionaires, powerful people who who are powerful in the continent.

And you've seen that power.

And and it doesn't necessarily end their hustle.

They still show up, they still work twice as hard.

In other words, friends, power doesn't really give you a sense of security, it just raises the stakes.

So if self-assertion says I must secure myself, then what does Jesus say this morning?

What does Jesus mean this morning when he says the meek are the ones who will inherit the earth, the meek are the ones who are flourishing?

Point number two, friends, the meekness that entrusts itself to God.

In other words, the illustration I just gave now is just to say the idea of self-assertion is that even if you try to find and put together all the variables and all the resources in this life, they cannot give you finally the security you want and need.

They can't give you security.

Because now you'll have to exercise your energy to keep these things so that you don't lose them.

Now the question is, friends, what is Jesus saying this morning?

What does Jesus mean when he says the meek are those who are flourishing?

Let's look at it quickly.

We hear the word meek and think, Ah Hashem, that sounds so weak.

I I just mentioned that just now.

But but the word Jesus uses describes as someone who is gentle and humble.

Breaking news, uh, sorry.

Jesus speaks of someone who is what, friends, gentle and what?

Gentle and lowly, gentle and humble, someone who does not aggressively insist upon himself.

That was the prayer this morning from Philippians 2.

And most importantly, friends, it is someone who understands that yes, I am gentle and humble, but I am completely in control.

You see, friends, what Jesus is suggesting here is compatible then with strength.

Meekness is not necessarily uh uh averse to strength.

Friends, meekness isn't being a coward.

Being meek isn't being timid, being meek isn't being indecisive or, as it were, passive.

And friends, being meek certainly doesn't mean permitting abuse or of yourself or anybody else.

The the meek person may possess enormous strength.

The the question is what they do with that strength.

That's the question this morning.

People sometimes define meekness a strength under control, but there's more to that.

That's a helpful definition, but there's more to it, and I and I I think here Jesus goes a bit deeper in defining and highlighting what meekness is, friends.

Because when Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, as I said, he is drawing from Psalm 37.

Now, in Psalm 37, what is happening there?

It's a fascinating Psalm, as it were.

It's it's fascinating because it's written for people living under a world where the wrong people seem to be winning.

The wicked are those who are prospering in Psalm 37.

That's why David says, Fret not yourself because of evildoers, be not anxious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and weather like like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and I 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 justice 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 desires.

You watch people being being being called to sit at the hot seat of the Madlanga Commission who are driving and wasting so many resources.

It says, fret not, refrain from anger and forsake wrath.

Fret not yourself.

It it tends only to evil, for the evildoers shall be cut off.

But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Don't be angry, wait.

In verse 10, it says, In just a little while the wicked will be no more.

Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

I I beg of you this morning to reflect on Psalm 37, all of these 40 verses.

And and Psalm 37, friends, is fascinating because it is written, as I said, to a people living in a world where the corrupt are flourishing or seem to be flourishing, where the wicked are the ones who are prospering, where where people cheat and get ahead, where where people use their power and apparently get away with it, where the righteous look around and think, if that's how the game is being played, perhaps we need to learn how to play the game too.

But God says, Don't do that.

Don't outplay them.

Listen to the language of the Psalm.

Trust in the Lord, do good, commit your way to the Lord, trust him, and he will act.

Be still before the Lord and wait for him.

And then it says, But the meek shall inherit the what?

The land.

The land.

Do you hear the movement, friends?

It's it's moving from a sense of trust, commit, be still, wait, and there's an inheritance underlying the the committing, the being still, the waiting and inheriting is the what, friends, is the trust.

That's what takes us beneath, friends, the surface then of meekness.

When we hear the word meek, we we have to understand it's it's a word that that is showing us a sense of calling us to trust.

The meek don't have to seize their future because they trust God with their future.

They don't have to avenge every wrong because they trust God with justice.

They don't have to manipulate every outcome because they trust God to act.

They can loosen, as it were, their grip because their future is not finally resting on that grip.

Notice, friends, Psalm 37 doesn't say that the world is safe.

It doesn't say that.

It's actually saying quite the opposite.

There are wicked people in Psalm 37.

There is injustice in Psalm 37, there are people plotting against the righteous in Psalm 37.

So, friends, meekness is not possible because the world is safe.

Meekness is possible because God is trustworthy in an unsafe world.

And that's a crucial point, friends.

Because otherwise, we we might think meekness means being naive about how the world works.

That's not what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus isn't naive.

Psalm 37 isn't naive.

Christianity, friends, isn't asking you to pretend that people won't hurt you.

It's not asking you to pretend that people won't betray you, overlook you, abuse power, or take advantage of you.

The question it's asking is that when they do, who are you going to trust in?

Who are you going to trust with yourself?

And that's why, friends, when we hear Matthew.

Matthew 5:5

5 verse 5 against the backdrop of Psalm 37.

I think we can confidently say this: that meekness is the freedom to stop asserting myself for myself because I trust God with myself.

I want to say that again.

Meekness is the freedom to stop self-assertion.

To stop asserting myself for myself.

Because I trust God with myself.

That doesn't mean I never speak.

It doesn't mean I never confront.

It doesn't mean I never lead.

It doesn't mean I never defend someone who is being harmed.

In other words, friends, as I said, meekness is not the absence of what?

Of strength.

It is strength that has been liberated from the exhaustion, exhausting project of establishing me.

That's the difference, friends.

Self-assertion says, I must secure the bag.

I must secure myself.

But meekness says I can entrust myself to God.

Self-assertion says, if I don't make this happen, who will?

If I don't defend my name, who will?

If if I don't secure my future, who will?

Psalm 37 says, trust him.

He will act.

That's what meekness is, friends.

And perhaps that's why meekness feels so frightening to most of us in this room who are high performers.

Because eventually meekness requires me to surrender the illusion that I'm the one holding my life together.

We need to do that, friends.

We need to let go of I can make this work.

I can plan wisely, I can work hard, I can lead courageously, I can confront evil, yes, but I need to do this in light of trusting God and not myself.

I need to move away from the center.

Yes, you you have the liberty to make decisions, but move away from the center.

Trust God.

You don't have to, as it were, be God.

I don't have to guarantee my own future.

It's okay to say, I don't know.

God knows.

I don't have to vindicate myself before everyone.

Not everyone is gonna like you.

I don't have to make every person recognize my value.

Some people in your office are just gonna overlook you.

I don't have to control every outcome.

You're not God, but you can entrust yourself to God.

Now, if you are here this morning and be like, why?

Why?

Why do that?

Why should I trust God like that?

Why can't why can why can I loosen my grip in a world where people who grasp seem to get ahead?

Why can I stop trying to secure myself without fearing that in the end I'll be left with nothing?

And Jesus' answer is very simple here.

You have an inheritance.

The question to the why of the beatitude, the question that the meek shall what, friends, inherit the earth.

And that brings us to our last point, friends.

The inheritance God promises.

Notice the word Jesus is choosing here.

Look at it in verse 5.

For they shall what?

Come on, trust.

They shall inherit.

The meek shall what?

Inherit.

Not conquer.

Not not seize, not grasp, not earn.

The world says, friends, assert yourself, acquire, protect, and possess things.

But Jesus says, trust, receive, and inherit.

An inheritance isn't seized by superior strength, it is received because it has been promised.

An inheritance simply says, friends, you are not an orphan.

You are not an orphan.

You do not have to seize what God has already promised to give you.

Jesus takes this promise onto his lips and places it within the horizon of his kingdom.

And as the New Testament, friends, unfolds, that hope, that inheritance stretches all the way to the resurrection life in God's renewed creation.

The point here, friends, is that yes, we need to be careful here.

When we say inherit the earth, it's it's not God promising uh uh uh that that you will cruise through property 24, just acquiring land and acquiring properties.

It's not promising your your biggest salaries, as it were, it's not even promising influence in Joburg.

The inheritance is ours now by promise.

Uh uh Sean used the the word of already, not yet.

Um for homework, uh, read up on overrealized eschatology and the dangers of you trying to uh superimpose God's promises to the here and now.

You'll you'll you'll find yourself disappointed.

But we're not there tomorrow this morning.

The the point here, friends, is this inheritance is is ours by promise, and one day it will be ours in its fullness.

In other words, there's the promise of resurrection life in a renewed new creation.

This is a big word, eschatological promise.

Where where evil is judged, where where death is defeated, and and God dwells with his people.

If you are you, I'm not shouting at you.

I'm just passionate.

So, friends, what what what how do you make of this then?

It says basically, today we live as heirs.

See that free you from from a sense of insecurity.

One day we come into an inheritance, today we live as what as heirs, isn't Lalifa, as heirs, uh uh in Soto, as heirs, in other words, you you you're not living as an orphan, you're living as a son.

One with a home.

How can people like us receive an inheritance like that, friends?

And and how can a grasping people like us ever become meek?

And here's the truth about us, friends.

We spend our lives grasping to secure for ourselves what can only ever be received from God.

So, what happened here, friends?

The king comes who did not grasp.

The Bible describes describes them in Philippians 2 as though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.

The king became a servant.

The Lord of glory knelt and washed his disciples' feet.

And and in in the one place, friends, in the gospel where the heart of this king is described, is described as what as gentle and what, friends, as and lowly.

It says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.

Would you let go of that?

Would you let go of trying to secure yourself and and just trying to secure an identity?

Would you let go?

You've tried to be, you've been working so hard to be seen.

God says, I see you, I see you in my son.

He says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.

Perhaps you you you've been trying to be a moral person, you've been trying to do it with your own strength, you've been trying to be meek enough, to be acceptable enough, but but the meek shall inherit the the earth is a sense of this is who they are, this is their passport, this is what has been given to them.

None of this was worked for.

This is this is a sense of saying, Man, this is an identity we walk into.

This is an identifier, it's it's like a birthmark.

You're born again, you are meek, you have an inheritance.

Come to me, all who are lay, who are who are heavy laden, who labor.

For I am gentle and lowly in what?

In heart.

He says, Cast all your cares upon me.

Gentle and lowly and meek.

Friends, the holy one, that's Matthew 11, 28 to 29.

If you want to read it for yourself, but but the point here, friends, is that the holy one was numbered with transgressors.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Do you hear, friends?

If you read this and read um Psalm 37, the whole picture of this king who is meek, who is entrusting himself to the Father.

You cannot avoid it.

This this this king who is meek is the one who bore upon himself our sins.

He's the one who bore himself upon himself our sins and hung on a tree.

He he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

Friends, he died and and God raised him.

The humbled one was exalted, the rejected one was vindicated, the crucified king lived today, friends.

That's why I can say, with with all his might and authority, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

The meek king, Jesus Christ, inherits everything.

Here's the gospel truth, friends.

Jesus is not merely the finest example of meekness, he's the savior of the unmeek.

That's where we come in.

He's the savior of the unmeek.

His obedient life, his death in our place, his resurrection, his reign secures the inheritance for everyone united to him by faith.

That's where we come in, friends.

Paul says we become heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

That's where we're coming.

His inheritance becomes, friends, ours.

Not because our meekness has earned it, but because, friends, we belong to him.

And because, friends, our future is secured in him, our our present begins then to change.

This is why, friends, Jesus isn't saying, become meek enough and perhaps God will give you the earth.

No.

Meekness does not earn the inheritance.

Meekness is what begins to happen when an heir realizes he does not have to seize what his father has already promised to give.

See, friends, the risen king by his spirit begins making his people like himself.

And our clenched fists become open.

As I close, friends, I want to ask you this question.

Where in your life are you clenching your fists?

Where in your life are your fists still clenched as it were?

Where are you, where are you grasping?

What are you still chasing as though your life depends on getting it?

Is it a title?

Is it a salary?

Is it someone's approval?

Is it being right and being noticed?

I have a funny story.

My my grandmother used to do this.

Um my mom is here, so I'm now like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna get in trouble.

She's late.

So she used to do this.

She bragged differently.

So every time she had a friend over to visit, my my grandmom would kind of insert a bit of a brag about her grandkids.

And then the other grandmama, the other Goku, will raise the stakes.

You know, like, and then she'd she'd kind of raise the pie as well.

There was a sense in which I found it hilarious growing up, but when I became a young adult, as it were, it became embarrassing because I suddenly realized that I'm the material she's using.

But friends, the point here is this that we we have a version of doing that in our lives.

We are always looking for something we can point to to say, see, my life matters.

Maybe it's your salary, maybe it's your degree, maybe it's your children's achievements, maybe it's your career, maybe it's your reputation.

There's something you want to kind of raise the bar to assert and insert yourself as as the one who is like, you know, have a different step.

But but the gospel of friends gives us something, as it were, radically different.

You are not an orphan trying to create an inheritance.

In Christ, you are an heir who has been promised one.

In other words, friends, when when when when we know whose we are, as it were, I don't need your life to become smaller for mine to be better.

For for mine to to feel bigger, as it were.

I I don't need to demean your life.

I know I don't need to insert my story into yours and make it greater than yours.

For for me to feel good about myself.

I can celebrate your promotion.

I can I can give you credit.

I can open a door for you without needing my name on it.

You see, friends, your flourishing does not threaten my inheritance.

You see, friends, what what what being an inherit having an inheritance being meek says, it says then you can live your life with open hands.

You can live your life saying it's it's all of grace.

And and that's what meekness begins to do uh and look like on a Monday morning.

When you are misunderstood, you don't have to control everybody's narrative and perception of you.

When you when you are overlooked, you don't have to make sure everybody knows what you've contributed.

When somebody disagrees with you, you can actually listen.

And when you are wronged, meekness doesn't mean pretending they're wrong doesn't matter.

You can confront evil, you can seek justice, you can establish wise boundaries, but you don't have to become consumed with making the other person pay.

The meek shall inherit the earth, friends.

And if God gives you authority, yes, use it.

Lead, build, make decisions, carry responsibility.

But if if God gives you money, influence, educational access, use it, uh, give it, employ people, open more doors.

The gospel doesn't necessarily remove your power, as it were, it changes what your power is for.

Strength becomes service, ambition becomes obedience, money becomes generosity, leadership becomes stewardship, influence becomes love of neighbor because your power no longer needs to save you, because Jesus already has.

And perhaps you will never have the title, the money, or that impressive CV.

Hear these words from Jesus this morning.

You don't need somebody else's power to become someone in life.

Whether you're a CEO or a cleaner, you need to come to Jesus.

You can't we come to Jesus on exactly the same terms.

The ground, the foot before the cross is what, friends, is level.

We come all of us with empty hands.

That's what Jesus has been teaching us on this mountain.

Poor in spirit are flourishing, mourning are flourishing, meekness is flourishing.

Christianity, friends, isn't asking you to trade flourishing for faithfulness.

Jesus is redefining flourishing altogether.

And if you are here again and you are not a Christian, please don't hear Jesus say, Go home and become more meek.

That's not the gospel.

The meek king came to save me and you, the unmeek.

He lived the life we haven't lived.

He bore the judgment of our sin.

The judgment our sins deserve was on him.

He rose from the dead, he reigns, and now the gentle and lowly king says, Would you come to me?

Would you come to me?

Would you let go?

Would you repent and believe the gospel?

Would you stop trying to be your own king?

Would you stop asking your achievements, approval, money, reputation, or control to secure what only Christ can give?

Would you come to me with empty hands?

And that's faith.

It's entrusting your life to Jesus Christ.

And if you are here today, trusting Jesus, I want to encourage you to pray with us.

Prayer team will be here at the front.

If you are here today and saying, man, I wanna, I wanna I wanna entrust my life to Jesus.

I've tried to to the chase, I've tried the security, I've tried, it's just an endless red race.

I I I give up.

I want to entrust my life to this one.

I want to belong to Jesus.

I want you to open your hands this morning and stop grasping, grasping at straws, as it were.

The world is teaching us, friends, the waters we're swimming in are teaching us to grasp.

But Jesus is giving us this free gift, this free gift of of inheritance, of a life where there are no more tears, of a land where there is no more sorrow, as it were.

And you you can't inherit that by your work.

It is all of grace.

Let me pray for us, dear Lord.

We are thankful for your word.

Thankful that, as you say in your word, you emptied yourself, your son 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 the cross.

Therefore, Lord, Baba, you have exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the God the Father.

We are thankful for that promise.

That what preceded glory, Lord, was a suffering servant, a servant who was beaten beyond recognition, a servant whose blood was poured out for our forgiveness.

We thank you, Lord, for the gospel that continually forms us.

As Peter said, humble yourselves under his mighty hand, and he will lift you up.

Lord, would you grant us humble hearts in how we steward our resources and how we do life together?

Would you help us to regard others as more significant than ourselves?

For that is the heart of our King, gentle and lowly.

I ask all of this, Lord, in the precious name of your Son Jesus Christ, calling on you as the faithful one, as the King of Gory, as the one who is the Alpha and Omega, as the one who's at the center of our lives.

Baba, we pray that we are satisfied by that.

That we move out of the spotlight.

Would you help us through our lives glorify you?

And may that satisfy us.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Lord, for the work that you have been doing, planting and helping us with the church, Lord.

I pray, Lord, that your name may be all the more exalted.

Lord, would you remove any sense of self-significance?

May we make it all about you, Lord.

Um, the Redeemer who buys back the lost, who redeems the broken, who saves sinners and calls them home.

Lord, we can call you our Father, because of that work of the Son that gives us the right, Lord, to say we are your children.

And so we are by faith.

Thank you, Lord.

In the name of Jesus.