Skip to content Becoming the Christian That the World Truly Needs - Serving Saves Lives, Part 2 Sep 17 · 53 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Serving saves lives. That you are here because somebody served before you got here. Somebody set up chairs. Somebody welcomed your kids. Somebody, greeted you in the parking lot or in the buildings. And beyond0:12 that, somebody helped serve this church, serve God through this church to make a comfortable place for you to come and hear God's word. And if you're thankful for those people, just say amen.0:23 Amen. Now it's time to pay it forward. Now it's time to go beyond what you've received and turn from a reservoir into a river. There's a lot of Christians, they wanna be reservoirs. They want the goodies from God. But0:34 not many Christians think about this. God doesn't want you to be a reservoir. He wants you to be a river. Rivers let water flow into them and out of them, flow through them. Reservoirs just collect water. And we are not0:45 reservoirs, we are rivers in Jesus' name. So today, I wanna talk to you about movement number 2 in this series. Movement number 1 last week, talked about serve here. Somebody say here.0:57 Here. Here is in the church, in the building, and that's a nice place to serve. It's a safe place to serve because if you mess up here, we will forgive you. We will give you another chance.1:10 And that's that's a good place to kinda stretch your legs in doing something for other people. I see a lot of young people in this service particularly. Of course, you're here at the1:22 later service because you like to sleep in. And I remember when I was young and I used to sleep, and now I can't sleep past 7 30. That's what happens when you've had 3 children and 2 dogs. But when I was young, I slept1:33 in. And you are probably more good looking than us older people because you sleep in. Is beauty sleep anybody? So young people, here's what I'd love to see. Young people in the lobbies welcoming
1:45 people. Let's put our good looking people in the front. Amen. And young people in the front. Not that older people are, you know, bad. We could put some older people there as
1:57 well. And a lot of good looking older people. And I gotta get out of this trap that I've just set for myself verbally. And I'm trying to think about a way out of it right now and I can't, so forgive me. Like I said, if
2:08 you mess up here, we'll forgive you and everybody who forgives pastor for what he just said said amen. Woah. How did I get to that? Okay. So sign up to
2:20 serve here. Now here's movement number 2. Serve there. Serve there. This microphone is too hot. I'm getting feedback all over the place up here. It was great for a service. It's not so good to service. Okay. Serve there.
2:32 So serve here and then serve there. Where is your there? I want you to think about beyond just this building because this is training
2:44 ground. Let's get out of this building and serve where we are. Key thought, write this down if you're taking notes. If you're not taking notes, write this down. Okay. Well, first let
2:56 me just show you the title of the sermon is becoming the Christian the world truly needs. That's the sermon title. Becoming the Christian the world truly needs. How many know there's a lot of bad Christians out there? I
3:06 wanna I wanna develop a church filled with Christians who the world needs. Notice that the message title is not becoming the Christian the world likes. Sometimes what they like is not what they
3:18 need. You might like the Oreo shake at Chick fil A. You don't need it. Okay. That doesn't stop me from having a lot of them.
3:30 But what I do need is vitamins. What I do need is broccoli. Right? You know, sometimes we gotta be broccoli to people who want an Oreo shake, spiritually speaking. Okay. So now write this
3:42 down. This is the key thought. Am I serving where I'm stationed? Last week, I talked to about America's theme of serving, and I brought up the
3:54 military. Our military members, how many of you are thankful for our military members? Let's give them a hand. Thank God that that they served
4:05 our nation and protected us. We are alive today because of service members. Amen for them. But did you ever think about that the Bible has many
4:17 metaphors for the church? The Bible calls us members of God's family, children in God's household, parts of God's body. Have you ever
4:29 thought about this? We are soldiers in God's army. You are a soldier and you are stationed all over our communities for the purposes of God.
4:42 You're stationed there. In about 45 minutes, you're gonna go from here to there. Maybe, you know, you're home there and then your work there tomorrow or maybe
4:54 tonight or your school there tomorrow morning or tomorrow night. But you're here now to bless there. I'm here to bless you here
5:06 so that you could be a blessing there. That is really my heart. Every time I preach, the last question I ask before I preach a sermon, do you know what it is? I ask myself, Lord, is this message
5:18 gonna help your people? Because if it's not helping you, it's not worth saying. I wanna help you so that God does a good work in you and then you do good works to
5:29 everyone around you. What you're there? You are there on purpose. Look at this verse from Acts chapter 17. Paul speaking. He says, God,
5:41 he made from 1 man, that's Adam, every nation of mankind to live on the earth, on the face of the earth. And then look at the night, the next line. Having determined the allotted periods and the boundaries
5:53 of their dwelling place. So what that means is this, that God determined when you were there and where you are there.
6:05 The job that you have is not an accident. It may have been it may have looked like an accident that that got you the job, but God is gonna use the accident to produce good things through you there.
6:16 You might not like the family that you're in, and you might be thinking, goodness, the holidays are coming up. But and it's like intense family time. But God had
6:28 put you in that family. You're there on purpose to make there a better place. God does not accidentally put
6:40 you anywhere. Has stationed you there. You gotta have it. You have to have this mindset or you will go crazy, and you will be depressed, and you will look at everybody else's life, and you will think, I
6:52 want what they have, instead of thanking God for what he has given you. Comparison is a garrison. It traps you into a stifled life. God doesn't want you trapped
7:04 by comparing your life to other people. He wants you advancing in the life he has given you. I think about some bible characters and bible heroes who had to serve where they wouldn't have chosen
7:16 it. Like Moses would not have chosen to be serving his father-in-law by watching his father in law's sheep for 40 years on the backside of a desert. You can divide
7:28 Moses's life, hundred and 20 years, into 3 sections of 40. 40 years he was in Pharaoh's palace, and he decides he's gonna deliver Israel. And the first thing that he does to deliver Israel is he kills an Egyptian. And
7:39 God says, no, I'm not gonna let you do the killing Moses. I'll do the killing. How many know God kills better than we do? Amen? I don't know why you should say amen to that, but it's true. It's it's true. It's a biblical
7:49 fact. So 40 years he's in the palace. He kills a guy. He gets found out. He runs for his life, and then he spends the next 40 years in the middle of nowhere watching somebody else's sheep. That is not a there
8:00 people aspire to. Nobody goes to 4 years of college and 3 years of master's degree to pastor sheep in a wilderness. Yeah? It's not an ambitious calling. But he was
8:12 in that there for 40 years faithfully. Listen, until 1 day he saw a bush that didn't burn up. And we all know the rest of the story from that point forward. Yeah?
8:25 I wonder who here needs to realize that there is a burning bush waiting to happen. Stop comparing your life and start thinking about how can God use
8:36 me where I am there. Think about Joseph. Joseph was hated by his family. His brothers couldn't stand
8:48 him. Now, he did have a little bit of an arrogance about him. He used to tell them about his dreams. Oh, you're going to bow down to me. I mean, that's the best way to get hated by your family is to tell your brothers,
8:59 you're going to bow down to me 1 day. But they sell him into slavery. He goes into slavery. He serves well there. He serves as a slave well. Then he is falsely accused of
9:11 rape, and he's thrown into prison. And guess what he does in prison? He serves there well. And it is 1 day, 2 of his fellow inmates have a dream. And you would have thought,
9:22 man, Joseph would have said, you know what? I ain't I ain't doing anything with your dreams because I know everything that I've done with my dreams just got me here. So forget dreams. No. He serves well. There, he
9:34 interprets their dreams, and his interpretation of 1 of those guys' dreams leads to a conversation with Pharaoh. And in 1 day, Joseph goes from the pit to the palace. Because he served
9:46 well, where? There. Who here has a family that gives you heartache and trouble? Who here doesn't like the family that God has given you? Who here feels like, I don't even know if they like me. I don't even know
9:58 if I belong here. But God is saying, you've got to serve well there to set up your ultimate there. That's not a mistake. You're not an accident. You're not You aren't God did not lose you. You're
10:09 not misplaced. You are perfectly positioned for the ultimate plan and purposes of God that he has for you because you are not just a member of his home. You are a soldier in his army, and you are on mission to
10:21 conquer the devil's kingdom in Jesus name. I am there on purpose. I think about Esther.
10:32 Esther, do you know what she did? Did she have a theology degree? No. Did she have, you know, this feminist mindset? I'm gonna pursue career instead of family and kids.
10:44 No. Did she have some business skills, some intellectual acumen? No. What did Esther have? Good looks. That's it. And because she had good
10:55 looks, some guys in Persia around the eighth century BC, Some guys noticed her and said, you would be a perfect fit for this beauty pageant we're putting on, where the king is
11:07 gonna select his new bride from among you. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the idea for ABC's The Bachelor comes from the bible. Did you ever think about
11:19 that? The ancient king of Persia was like, will you take this rose? And Esther was like, okay. She was the 1 she won the first
11:31 episode of the biblical bachelor. Then she was put into a harem. Do you know what a harem is? Do you know what this is? A harem is a collection.
11:43 Any unsaved guys, you're gonna love this. It's a collection of women for the king to have sex with whoever he wants anytime he wants. That's where she was. She was in a harem.
11:56 She served in there. But she didn't want to at first. There was a decree that went out that was gonna kill all the Jews. And and and she's like, I'm gonna go into hiding. I'm not dealing with this. I I thank God I'm in
12:08 the harem. I'm I'm hiding. She has a cousin named Mordecai who says, woah, woah, woah, you're thinking about this all wrong. He says, and this is a great line from Esther chapter 4. He says, who knows if you haven't come
12:19 to the kingdom? And this line is very famous in English vernacular. What? For such a time as this. She served in a
12:31 misogynistic, patriarchal, oppressive environment. She she didn't complain about it. She served in it. And to this day, the Jews
12:42 celebrate a feast called Purim, where they commemorate the day that Esther, the bachelorette, saved the nation.
12:55 Okay. If Joseph can serve in prison and Esther can serve in a harem, you can serve
13:07 there. It's all a matter of perspective. And I am offering you a better way to think about your life, because the alternative is to think, God, lost me somewhere along
13:19 the way, and I am not fulfilling my dreams and my purposes and my passions. And I am no op there's no opportunities here, and I live amongst pagans, and everybody hates me, and life stinks, and I got no purpose. Sure.
13:30 You can go that way, or you can go the way that I'm offering you here to find purpose and find a place to serve wherever you're there. With that in
13:42 mind, let's take a look at what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5. Would you stand with me? Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 to 16. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste,
13:54 how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and
14:04 put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father
14:15 who is in heaven. This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these words. Thank you for Jesus who spoke them to us. Help us to receive
14:27 them and help us to serve wherever you have stationed us. Help us in this moment to see
14:39 Jesus so that others will see him through us. In his name, pray. And everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. There's a lot of Christians who like to
14:50 sparkle. They like to sparkle. I call this the Taylor Swift effect. Sparkle. I remember I was watching when this tour went
15:02 You know, she came to Foxborough up here, then she came to Tampa. You know, we have churches in both areas. Right? And I I was on I don't know how I ran across these pictures. I must have followed I must have seen, like,
15:13 some hashtag online. Grown women with sparkle on their face to go see Taylor Swift. Some of you are 1 of them. That's why you're so quiet right now.
15:25 I just wanna be honest with you and, tell you you're weird. Okay? I'll I'll be honest. Okay? So but a lot of Christians wanna sparkle. They wanna shine. They wanna be seen. They want
15:37 people to celebrate them. Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. Look at me. God, give
15:42 me the husband that I love, that I
15:43 want, so that I can sparkle. God give me the kids that I would really like, so sparkle. Even some of you came to church today for God not to challenge you, but to just help you.
15:55 Sparkle.
15:57 Help me to live a better life, help me to have a better husband, help me to have a better wife, help me
16:01 to have better jobs. Sparkle, sparkle, and then there's a lot of preachers. All they wanna do is sparkle. Preachers wanna be sparkle, sparkle, look at me, look at me serving God in my capacity. Woah, woah, woah, woah,
16:11 You know what? We're not sparkle, we're salt. Stop sparkling. Start salting. Amen? Amen. You are the salt Of the earth. Of the earth. And this salt is going wherever
16:23 I tell it to go. You do not choose the salt, pellets, grain, grains. What? The salt what? Grains. Grains. Yeah. They don't tell me where they wanna go. I tell it where I
16:35 want it to go. That's what God has done with you. He has shaken you out onto the place where you are. Be careful if you come up for prayer at the end of service. There's a lot of sparkling. Salt there. And I thought
16:46 about the the 2 metaphors in this passage that Jesus uses to describe the church. Salt and what? Light. Jesus could have chosen anything. He could have said, you know what you guys are? You are the basil
16:58 of the earth. You are the garlic of the earth.
17:01 I'm an Italian. I'm half Italian.
17:03 I would've liked garlic. Garlic is good. Amen. He could've said, you are the butter of the earth. How many know that to make any meal good, just add butter? Yes? You don't like lobster. You don't.
17:15 You don't. You like butter, and lobster is the vehicle to get more butter into your gullet. That's the truth. Okay? But he doesn't say butter. He doesn't say saffron. He doesn't
17:27 say basil. He says salt. You know why? Because he made it, and he knows how useful it is. There are 14000 documented uses for salt. 14000 documented uses
17:39 for salt. We season with it. We think that's it. You know that you can't survive without salt? Your body has a percentage of salt. If it falls below that percentage, you die. Salt keeps things alive.
17:52 Do you know why you're where you are even if they don't like you there? You're keeping it alive. I don't like the biz I don't like this office that I'm in. Everybody's a pagan. Everybody swears, cusses, makes jokes,
18:01 crude people. I don't like them. I don't understand why. They don't like me. That's right. You're there to preserve. In Jesus' day, salt was a preservative. It literally kept meat. My wife, she does this for us at our
18:12 home. She makes something called biltong. It's South African. And calling it beef jerky does a disservice to it because it's so much better than beef beef jerky. But she salts it, and then she hangs it, and she puts a
18:22 fan on it. And 2 days later, you have the most delectable dried meat ever. But it's salted to preserve the meat. So in Jesus' day, that's what salt did. Salt preserves. Where why are you there?
18:34 You are there to preserve it. You are there to stop it from destroying itself. You are in that family with all of those people who hate Jesus so that you can be a
18:46 light. Do you know how many uses for light there are? Thousands. Not just illumination. Also, if we don't have light, we die. And everybody who's been through seasonal affective disorder in the winter knows what I'm
18:57 talking about. If you don't get enough light, you get depressed, you feel like you're gonna die. Light brings life. Light brings joy. Why are you there? You are there to bring life. You are there to bring joy.
19:08 Don't think you're unuseful. God has made you useful and declares you useful in the name of Jesus Christ. You're not a mistake. You're not an accident. You didn't just
19:20 land in that place. God has you there on assignment. Oh, man. So many uses. I could go on about salt, but you have to understand that's what you are. So
19:32 think about this. If you are salt and salt is meant to preserve and you are light and light is meant to illuminate, that means that the place where you are is decaying and dark. So write this
19:44 down, point number 1. A dark and decaying world world needs devoted Christians. I said it backwards. A decaying and dark world needs
19:55 devoted Christians. If you're salt, that means that where you are needs preservation. That means that where you are is decaying. So don't be
20:07 shocked when God puts you with some of the worst people. You're on mission. You're on a side. You know, you call the Nobody has their plumber over the
20:18 house just because. You know what I mean? Unless you're friends with them. But I only call the plumber when crap is everywhere. I don't need
20:30 the plumber, you know, when my when my daughter's about to go to prom. I don't need him there then. I don't need him to come take pictures. I don't need him to plant my plants. I need the plumber when the crap shows up.
20:44 God needs Christians when the darkness shows up. God needs Christians when the decay shows up. So if you're in a dark and decaying place, rejoice and be glad. You have been
20:55 assigned by your heavenly father who has gifted you and provided for you the power of the holy spirit so that you can shine in Jesus name. You gotta see it this way.
21:08 Verse 13, he says, you are the salt of the earth. Verse 14, he says, you are the light of the world. I put those up on the screen and underline you, and as you can circle you if it's not circled in your text on your
21:18 notes there because you is in the emphatic position in the Greek sentence. The bible was New Testament. It was written in Greek, not English. And Greek is an inflected language, so that means that we can know what word
21:28 is emphasized in the sentence based on where it is in the sentence. And the first word in the sentence is the most emphasized word in the sentence, and so you is first. So here's literally what Jesus is saying. You are
21:39 the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. And if not you, then who? Without you, the world won't do. How many rhymes do I
21:51 gotta go through to help you? See it. Okay. So this is emphatic. You matter where you are. Serve
22:03 there. Help there. Love there. Some of you are
22:06 like, I want God to just take me away. I want God to get me out
22:09 of the world. Don't pray that prayer. Here's Jesus' prayer from John chapter 15. Look at his prayer. He's praying to the father in John chapter I'm sorry, John chapter 17. Here's what he says. I do not ask
22:21 that you, father, take them out of the world. I ask that you keep them from the evil 1. This is Jesus' prayer for you. Jesus is not praying for you to escape the
22:33 darkness. He's asking God to protect you from the evil 1 in the midst of the darkness so that you can know that he might send you to a dark place, but the evil 1 cannot
22:44 overcome you. Does anybody understand that they're more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ? Does anybody understand that God is with you and he is for you? And if he is for you, no man can
22:56 stand against you. Does anyone believe today that every weapon formed against you will not prosper against you in Jesus' name? Does anybody believe today that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the
23:08 world? Does anybody here believe today that you are you are the head and not the tail? You are the sons of the most high God. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should call out of
23:19 darkness into his marvelous light. You're there. And he's not praying for you to escape. He's praying you to infect and affect the world. For him, he
23:31 says, are not of the world, verse 16, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. As you sent me, so I have sent them. Take your finger. Look at this. Look at this. Take your finger like this. Everybody,
23:43 and point it at you, and just say this after me. I am sent. I sent. Yeah. If it's dark, if it's decaying, that's what I'm here for. Point
23:55 number 2, a depressed world needs a delighted Christian, needs delighted Christians. Are you a happy Christian? And I'm not talking about always
24:07 happy because that's fake. I'm talking about just inwardly, there's joy. You will go through hardship. You will go through trial, tribulation. I believe that God allows Christians and non Christians to
24:19 get cancer. I believe that God allows Christians and non Christians to lose their job. I believe that God allows Christians and non Christians to be, you know, mistreated and mis maligned. And but he does that so
24:31 that the world can see that Christians react differently. Differently. Is there joy in your life? Here here's where
24:43 I'm going with this. Not all Christians are Christians. My grandfather was a pastor for 30 years. He used to always say, in every church, there is a church. In every church, there is a
24:55 church. Judas hung out with Jesus for 3 years. He was never part of it. Got it? Paul had several people walk out the door. He had
25:07 people turn on him and hate him, and they were formerly members of the church. I ran across a survey from Barna Research. Barna is a Christian research organization, and it produced some very
25:19 sad, tough stats about the church. I wanna share 3 results from the survey of the church. 56 percent of professing evangelical Christians, 56 percent of them believe that
25:30 Jesus is not the only way to heaven. 56 percent. Do you know what that means? That 56 percent of evangelical Christians are actually not Christians. There is no multiple
25:42 ways. There is 1 way. And some people and nonbelievers, you're gonna say it right now. I know you're saying it right now in your head. You're saying, that's what I hate about you Christians. We didn't say it. Jesus
25:54 said it. I'm not I didn't come up with this idea. I am the mailman. He's the writer. Don't shoot the postal service member. Amen, somebody. Okay.
26:07 So Jesus is So this is the evangelical church. 43 percent of professing Christians believe that Jesus was a great teacher but not God.
26:19 43 percent. That means that 43 percent of not, professing Christians are not Christians. You say, why is it so important that I believe he is God? Because he bore your sin eternally on the
26:30 cross as God, the son. And only listen. And only an eternal being can cover eternal sins. You got that? My blood can't wash
26:42 away your sins, only his blood can. For, this 1 really shocked me. 57 percent of professing Christians believed with this statement, everyone sins a little, but most people
26:54 are basically good. 57 percent of Christians believe that that's not true. That's not biblical. We've got a problem in the church. It's time for our house to get cleaned up. It's
27:06 no wonder why Christians are so ineffective. They don't believe basic stuff, basic truth. Yeah. I gotta read the bible about what the bible says. Jesus said, out of the heart of
27:18 man is anybody a man or a woman here? Yeah. Okay. We got more work to do than I realized. If you are
27:30 a man or woman, Jesus said, out of your heart, Jesus said, out of your heart comes evil thoughts. Some of you,
27:42 you're the sparkle Christians. Jesus is just about love. Jesus is just about love. That was his message. Yeah. You're you're listening to Madonna, not your pastor. Okay?
27:53 Jesus spoke truth. And he said, your hearts are wicked and evil. You're you're you're sinners unless you repent. What does that mean? Change
28:05 how you think. Unless you repent, you cannot see the kingdom of God. This is Jesus speaking. Mankind is not basically good. Mankind is totally evil.
28:19 Has anybody ever tried to be good? Not many of you. This is second service, of course. CS Lewis said, no man knows how bad he is until he has
28:31 tried to be good. And everybody knows that because come first of the year, you're gonna try to be good again, aren't you? And you're gonna fail in 13 days. That's what's gonna happen. Your your heart
28:43 is evil. You need Jesus to change your heart. Now why am I why am I digging deep in this? Because this is how you become delighted by God. If not every Christian is a
28:54 Christian, then when Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, we better make sure, listen, that we fit into that you. Who is the you? Well, remember
29:06 last series when I told you that if you wanna interpret the bible, you gotta read before and after the passage that you're reading? Yes. With Matthew 5 13, read it in context. Back up with me if you got your paper bible
29:15 out. Back up with me because it's not gonna be on the screen. Go up to verse 3. Jesus does something. He opens his sermon with beatitudes. These are attitudes of blessing, and
29:27 it starts like this. Matthew 5 3, blessed are the poor in spirit for there 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
29:37 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
29:44 they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous 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
29:54 you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And then keep reading, you are the salt of the earth. Got it? So
30:08 the measurement of if I fit into the category of salt of the earth and light of the world is the 9 statements of blessing that Jesus has pronounced
30:20 in the previous passage. Are you following this? So let's do some tests. He's talking about blessedness. Now the word blessed in in Greek is
30:31 I wanna put this up on the screen for what blessing here. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, blessed are the weak. Mekarius is not a feeling. It's not some people say, oh, it means happy.
30:43 Well, that's a feeling. It doesn't mean happy. It means fortunate, actually. It means that you have received. 1 translator said, it means that you should be congratulated for having arrived at a fortunate situation.
30:55 So what blessing here means is you should be glad that you have arrived at a fortunate situation or you are happy responsibly
31:07 to the to the work of God in your life. That's why I put it up on the screen. Blessing is not a feeling. It's the result of God's work in your life. Well, what does that look like? I wanna give you 8 points on how to be
31:19 a delighted Christian. And all the points begin with d. And this message, every point is a d. And so I feel like Sesame Street saying this sermon is brought to you by the letter d.
31:32 8 ways to be a delighted Christian. Write these down. Number 1, depend on heaven's resources. In other words, blessed are the poor in spirit. So what is Jesus
31:43 saying? He doesn't say blessed are the poor. He says blessed are the poor in spirit. The people who feel like they don't have what it takes have arrived at a very fortunate position. Here's why. And some of you have been
31:55 there. When life brings you to the place where you just know that you've got nothing but God, That is 1 awesome place
32:07 to be. Because sometimes the hard the the reason why so many people don't experience God is because they have too much other things to depend on. They have so many other things. This is
32:19 why it's hard for Americans. I'm not surprised at all that more Americans than ever are leaving the church. I'm not. We're so wealthy. We're so blessed. We're so saturated with so much content and consume. I mean, we
32:30 can we can watch any show from any generation. We can binge the entire series. We can go to any bar right now and drink ourselves into oblivion. We can accomplish amazing things in business
32:42 and in industry. We can go to school until our brains explode, and we've got all this opportunity to consume all the things in this world, and lust in all of it is the only 1 in whom our true souls delight.
32:56 So I that's why Americans can be so empty and so full at the same time. But God will bring you to a place where you've only got him. Jesus says, congratulations. Depend
33:08 on me and watch me come through. Paul says, I will boast of my weaknesses because in my weaknesses, his strength is made perfect. The second beatitude. Blessed are those who mourn. Number
33:20 2, delighted Christians disdain my own sins. Disdain whose sins? My sins. Pro tip for being a Christian,
33:31 hate your sins more than the sins of others. You know what I said? Jesus said, hey, when you are pointing out the speck in somebody else's eye, watch out for the log in your own.
33:44 Yank the plank, my friend. Yank the plank. Hate your sins more than others. That's how to be the light of Christ. That's why he says blessed are those who mourn. He's not saying blessed are
33:56 those who are sad. Mourning, this is a biblical concept for mourning over your sin. Mourning over your your your the evil that's in your heart. And Christians
34:08 get this because once God changes your heart, you hate the things that you do that are offensive to God. And you still do them sometimes because you're still warring with the flesh, and then you do it and you're like, I
34:19 can't believe I did that to the Lord. I can't believe I said that thing. I can't believe I thought that thing. I hate that. But why did I do that? Because the flesh is still warring with the spirit of God in you. And so
34:29 mourn over that because God says, I'm going to forgive you. I'm gonna cleanse you. His mercies are new every morning. Come on somebody. Great is his faithfulness. He never gives up on his children. You cannot out sin the
34:40 grace of God, but you must hate your sin. Then number 3, demure to God's protection. This is I went deep on the thesaurus for this 1 to find the d word. Demure to God's protection, which
34:52 means let God fight your battles. Let God fight your battles. That's what blessed are the meek means. They shall inherit the earth. You know who
35:04 inhabited this inhibit you know who who who really exercised this? David. David knew that God would fight his battles. He never fought for his own personal reputation. He always fought for God's
35:15 reputation, and God always, fought for his reputation. I think somebody needs to hear this today. If you fight for God's reputation, he'll fight for yours. We're we're that's what here's what that means. Stop
35:26 picking stupid fights. Not every not every comment has to be insulting to you. Not every person, you know, needs to praise you. Not not
35:38 every battle needs to be fought by you. Let God fight your battles. That's meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. That's what meekness is. Another
35:50 translation reads gentleness. It's you know, who who should inhabit gentleness? Listen up, men. Fathers should be the most gentle people. Here's what a a good father
36:02 is. A father who knows that he could rip the kid's arm off, but hugs him instead. Who disciplines with a measured hand,
36:15 but after the discipline goes out of his way to restore the relationship with the wayward child. Are you hearing this? That is who our father is. That is who our Too many fathers are weak.
36:27 They need to be meek instead of weak. Strength under control. Fight the right battles and let God fight the other battles for you.
36:39 Amen. I've had people attack me in this church. I've had people malign my character on Facebook in this church. Some of them, and I don't say this with pride at all.
36:50 And some of you know this, they've died. They've died attacking this church. And it was heartbreaking for me to see that. I'd rather them repent, but they
37:02 wouldn't. And God took them out. And I didn't do it. God did it. That is God fighting my battles. I am not concerned about my reputation. I really don't give a rip what you think about me.
37:14 I care about what you think about Jesus Christ. I want his name to be glorified. I want his name to be pre preached from this pulpit. I want Jesus to be known in Massachusetts and in Florida. Come on, somebody.
37:26 It's about Jesus. And if you fight for his reputation, I know he'll protect yours. I got too many witnesses on on on the backside of my life. I got
37:38 too many people that could testify to my history. I shouldn't be where I am today, but God held me fast. There's a song we sing. This is how I fight my battles. This is when I'm surrounded, I know I'm surroundedShow more
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