Beatitudes II

I'd like to uh give a warm welcome againto our online audience watching fromaround the world wherever you are it'smy prayer that the holy spirit will moveupon your hearts as surely as he movesUpon Our Hearts here within ourcongregation in Village 7th AdventistChurch in baren Springs Michigan uhtoday I'm going to be looking at thesecond and third Beatitudes um inMatthew Chapter 5 yesterday we looked atthe structure of the Beatitudes in Lukewe see that Jesus Jus is in the heart ofthe Beatitudes he's in the fourthbeatitude the message being that ourlives are to revolve around theteachings of Jesus we also looked at thestructure of the Beatitudes in Matthewwhere you say Jesus is in the last ofthe Beatitudes in the beatitude relatedto persecution and again the messagethere is that are our lives focused onmeeting Jesus himself uh yesterday wespoke about the first of the Beatitudesblessed are the poor in spirit fortheirs is the kingdom of God and todaywe're going to focus on the second andthird Beatitudes the first first ofwhich is blessed are those who mourn forthey shall be comforted and so I inviteyou to open your Bibles to MatthewChapter 5 and we're going to be lookingthrough this beatitude and the followingone together this morning uh we askourselves why do we talk about thebeatitude as Adventists we like talkingabout Jacob's time of trouble the littletime of trouble and the significant timeof trouble and the time of trouble inthe end and the time of the end and theend of time and we love talking aboutprophecy and but just as important asknowing where we are in history it'simportant to know how we are to live inthis stage of history and in a polarizedworld it's my invitation to all of us torefocus on the teachings of Jesus in thegospels and particularly in The Sermonon the Mount and in this seminar on theBeatitudes because Jesus explains to uswhat it means to reflect our heavenlyfather what it means to live out hischaracter in a world that is yearningfor manifestation and demonstration ofhis love for lost Humanity so I inviteyou wherever you are to Bow your headswith me we'll invite the presence of theHoly Spirit to open our hearts and ourminds so shall we pray our heavenlyfather I thank you for these teachingsof Jesus I thank you that we have thefreedom to gather here today whether inperson or online to uh hear anexposition of what Jesus was talkingabout I pray father that the same Spiritwho inspired Matthew to write thesewords that your same spirit will moveupon our hearts and our minds todaywherever we may be that we indeed willreflect the love of God more perfectlymore fully more beautifully within ourhomes within our marriages within ourcommunities and our countries I askfather that your spirit will speakthrough me that you will anoint me thatthe words I speak will be straight fromyour throne of grace thank you Fatherfor hearing this prayer because I prayin the name of Jesus our lord and savioramen so our first beatitude that we'relooking at today is found in Matthewchapter 5 5 and verse 4 and if we havethe screen uh there it is there up onthe screen blessed are those who mournfor they shall becomforted some years ago in 2015 it wasmy privilege to be in Northern Iraq andIsis was conquering their way acrossNorthern Syria into Northern Iraq and Ifound myself in the city of irel irul isin northeastern Iraq it was in what isknown as the Kurdish autonomous regionand Isis had just con the city of mosulwhich was about 40 50 mil to the west ofbbal when Isis came to um mosul theygave the Christians 48 hours they had achoice to make you leave you die or youconvert and overwhelmingly theChristians simply left and uh I Iarrived a few days later there werereally very very few defenses betweenmosul and bbal uh Isis were no more than45 minutes driveway they were huntingfor westerners and I was spending timewith some of the displaced people in oneof those warehouses of herbal and I cameacross a lady sitting on the floor anduh she had a bowl of beans in front ofher and some rice she was sitting on amat and I sat down beside her and Icould see that she was lost in thoughtand so I I asked through my translator Isaid could you just tell me your storyit's an important part of ministry togive people time and space simply totell their story to vocalize what theyhave gone through and so she told herstory how she left with her husband andher daughters and how um when they gotto the outskirts of mosul they wereintercepted by ISIS her husband wastaken from her behind a sand June andshe'd never seen him again they tookeverything of value of her body herwedding band her watch her shoes herglasses and she was left with her twodaughters they her daughters were aged10 and 12 those daughters were alsotaken by ISIS for other purposes and uhshe was now sitting in grief overwhelmedthe loss she had experienced at thehands of Isis uh when you're faced withsuch um depravity and such evil it'shard to know what to say in fact in theBook of Job it says that um this isperhaps the most helpful thing job'sthree friends did when they came to jobin Chapter 2 and they saw the extent ofhis suffering they sat in Silence withhim for S days there are times in lifewhere our grief and our mourning and thereality of evil is so immense thatsilence is the only response that we cando to sit in silence in human solidaritywith those who mourn and this beatitudeof Jesus blessed are those who mourn forthey shall be comforted it touchesdeeply on the reality of human sufferingin all of its forms this beatitudetouches The Human Experience of everyhuman in our planet today and thus itrepresents the Fulfillment of more ofHumanity's hopes than almost any of theother Beatitudes so what does thisbeatitude teach uswell first of all here in the west manypeople love watching Hollywood moviesand it is a tragedy but um Hollywood isbuilt on our fallen desire to enjoy thesuffering of others Blockbusters arebuilt on the assumption that people willpay to watch gory deaths and the moregory the more the laughter within thecinema but nothing could be further fromthe character of Jesus At The OtherExtreme our Western societies are builtwe have many social um um pads andcushions because we don't like pain orsuffering in any form and so we havepain pills we have dieting fads we haveexercise fads and so forth that promiseto reduce human suffering eat all youlike never act wisely never exercise yettake this pill and everything will beokay but this beatitude of Jesus blessedare those who mourn or blessed are thosewho grieve it has nothing to do withthese Fallen attitudes there is mourningin our world because there is sufferingand God never created us to suffer yetthrough the Divine passive that's a agrammatical way of understanding thisthis beatitude for they will becomforted Jesus is telling us that Godpersonally will bring Comfort to hischildren as they go through seasons ofgrief God looks to comfort Us in themidst of our distress God is not blindto our distress uh when Hagar is drivenaway from uh from Abraham by Sarah andshe's in the wilderness and she's she'ssitting and watching ing her boy Ishmaeldying there is a name for God in thatchapter of Genesis chapter 16 I believeand God reveals himself to hagga as Eloyin Hebrew which means the God who seesit means God sees us in our distress Godis not asleep he is not blind he's notelsewhere in the midst of the chaptersof pain in our lives one of the namesfor God is Elroy the God who sees us inour distress we also learn from thisbeatitude that suffering is anextraordinary teacher suffering can openthe door to profound wisdom when I firstgot married my wife uh was raised in theSoviet Union when I got married when wewere married my wife gave me a book forour first Christmas it was by TL storyit was called War and Peace and uh Ithought this is a nice book and for thesecond Christmas for our uh for mywedding present my wife gave me anotherbook by doovi called Crime andPunishment and I thought oh maybe she'strying to send me a message here uh forour third Christmas as she gave meanother book um by I think it's by tolstto called the idiot idiot paroski inin Russian it's called idiot the idiotit's kind of this um this religioussimpleton who acts like a court jesterand everybody doesn't take him seriouslybut he can speak truths to people it'scalled the idiot and so I said to mywife are you trying to send me a messagethrough these classical works of Russianliterature she said no not at all andthe next year for Christmas I got a bookentitled history's hundred worst tyrantsat which point I really started tobecome a bit paranoid about the state ofour marriage but the truth is is thatsuffering opens the door to profoundwisdom we know little about the depthsof the human Spirit until we haveendured suffering which is why some ofthe Russian literature that was born ofthe concentration camps of the Zar andthe Communists is so profound in itsunderstanding of The Human Condition tobecome a refugee is horrible butrefugees very quickly learn what isimportant in life it is not your houseit is not your car it is not your job itis not your clothes but it is lifeitself pain rearranges our prioritieswhether we like it or not great naturaldisasters do strike our world we havetsunamis hurricanes and earthquakes uhtyphoons I remember one of our speakersspeaking about yes they down there in inGuam Micronesia but as a broadgeneralization and this is ageneralization and I've spent many yearsworking in disaster zones earthquakes inpistan tsunami in Sri Lanka umstarvation in Ethiopia and so forth I'veseen a lot of human suffering in my lifeand in Ministry I've leared this thatthere's a striking different differencebetween the survivors of a disaster andthose who arrive shortly after thedisaster those who arrive after adisaster such as an earthquake or atsunami are struck with they overwhelmedwith the horror of the devastation andit is true there is profound Devastationwhen a tsunami hits or when anearthquake destroys your town but thosewho remain those who went through thedisaster those who survived they are notstruck with a sense of horror of thedevastation overwhelmingly they have asense of gratitude that they made it outalive there is a difference betweenthose who go through disaster and thosewho arrive after the disaster and onlysee the physicalaftermath we also see in this beatitudethat the healing of human Brokenness andalienation in all of its Dimensions wasand remains at the part of jesus'Ministry they will be comforted is hispromise to us today since in the time ofJesus sin was popularly believed to bethe cause of human suffering jesus'authority over sin was manifest ordemonstrated by his ability to healdisease if sin is if sin causes diseaseum then if if Jesus has the authority toheal disease that means he can eradicatesin as well Jesus it says in Matthew8:17 took our infirmities and bore ourdiseases in the gospel of Matthew Jesusis the only human the only person theonly person in human history who is ableto heal all of our causes for mourningincluding alienation from ourselves fromothers and from God in the Book ofMatthew um as you go through it if youtake the time to study it there arethree layers of infirmity or physicaldisease the first kind of disease isknown in the Greek as nosos translatedas disease or ailment you find that forinstance in Matthew 423- 24 Matthew 8:17Matthew9:35 or Matthew 101 this is a problem ofthe body you know where does it hurtdoes it hurt here yes ouch this is aphysical ailment like having bumps andbruises in the school playground thesecond level of of infirmity and diseaseis a problem of communal relationshipsand the question here is who is to blameyou find this expression used in thegospel of Matthew through the word cacosin the Greek you find it in Matthew21:41 and in Matthew2448 but the most serious kind ofalienation and illness that we find inthe gospel of Matthew is um is is is uhwhen Jesus has to bring uh not just umtherapain that means that means to curewe get the word therapy from it Jesusprovides therapain or therapy for nososand kacos that is physical ailment andcommunal problems but when it comes tothe most serious kind of illness theGreek calls it malakia in in the bookBook of Matthew we find that in Matthew4:23 Matthew 9:35 and Matthew 101 Jesusdoes not just merely provide therapainor curing he provides cathine which iscleansing at its deepest level so lepersum experience cleansing they don'texperience healing they experiencecleansing because this is a disease untodeath and it requires a deeper level ofintervention from from Jesus only Jesusin The Gospel of Matthew is able to healall the various levels of humansuffering whether it be physicalsuffering whether it be communalsuffering or whether it be alienation ofthe heart and wherever we are today asas we watch this this this seminar Iwant to invite you to open your heartsto Jesus as the Divine healer who indeedcan bring comfort for all these levelsof alienation and healing and disease sowhat are the implications of thisbeatitude well firstly while we live inan entertainment oriented society and itis true Hollywood and the mass media andYouTube and um all the online streamingservices Hulu and Netflix and so forthum this dominates our Western Societythe reality is that excessiveentertainment only leads to boredom itdoesn't lead to Joy entertainment leadsto boredom and ultimately to a sense ofmeaninglessness whereas suffering revealRS a depth of meaning that we may neverotherwise achieve and if in ourentertainment we choose to Revel andenjoy the sufferings of others not onlyare we fostering meaninglessness withinour own lives but we are separatingourselves from Jesus who never looked ona suffering crowd with anything otherthan compassion Jesus never said to thedisciples you see this crowd do you seethis suffering let me give you let mefeed you and you can watch theirsuffering and enjoy it for the day Jesusnever looked looked upon a crowd withanything other than compassion and thishard-heartedness to the sufferings ofothers means that we close ourselves toGod's comfort and the promise of beingblessed by God ourselves so if we are toexperience God's comfort in the midst ofour suffering Jesus is inviting us inthe beatitude to look with compassion onothers who are suffering and to slowdown and to take note of it and tominister where we can the righteousmourn over Injustice and they do notsuccumb to compassion fatigue in turninga Blind Eye in switching channels inlooking the other way we are actuallyclosing ourselves to God's blessings andcomfort in the midst of our own pain themore that we focus on our own need forcomfort and ignore those who mournaround us the more we close ourselves toGod's blessing and in actively bringingComfort to those who are suffering weare actively Opening Our Own Hearts tothe promise of of comfort that only Godcan give and secondly the one who islashed by the stor form is the one whois most grateful to God while we are notto seek suffering nowhere does Jesuscommand us to seek for suffering we dotend to grow the most spiritually duringthe storms of life when people maketheir New Year's resolutions and theythink what do I dream for in the nextyear most people dream well maybe Icould have a nice vacation maybe I couldfinish off a project in the house Imaybe want to lose some weight I want tofeel better about myself I want to getthat promotion we were looking for thegood things of life but if you asksomebody when when was the time you grewthe most spiritually it was not whenthey got the promotion it was not whenthey got the new job it was not whenthey went on vacation and it wasn't whenthey finished the extension to theirhome it was when they journeyed withtheir spouse through a cancer diagnosisit was when they nurtured their childrenthrough an illness or a challenge atschool we grow the most in the difficultstages of life and yet nobody asks forthat in their New Year's resolutions wewant the good things of life and we wantto grow at the same time spiritually butthe reality is that the greatestspiritual growth is engendered by thereality of humansuffering the the righteous mourn overtheir own sin at a heart level and theyare comforted through the Forgivenessthat only God can bring in embracing theworld's Brokenness and mourning as Jesusdid in Matthew 8:17 Jesus is able tocure all who are experiencing humanalienation in all of its forms and sowe're invited in this beatitude to maybejoin with David in his of penit in Psalm51 we admit that the most significantsin and alienation in our lives is notthe externals of life but it's thoseparts of our lives and those parts ofour hearts where we have yet to allowGod to rule where the kingdom of selfrather than the kingdom of God issupreme as we withhold parts of ourinnermost beings from our heavenlyfather we are actually alienatingourselves from our heavenly father andunable to receive the full Wonder of hiscomfort and his blessedness Jesus speaksa lot in Matthew's gospel about thecardia that is a Greek word it meansheart we have Cardiac Arrest today butJesus speaks a lot about the cardia thatwhere your treasure is there your cardiawill be also as an example later in TheSermon on the Mount unless we open ourhearts to God our fallen Hearts will beat the center of our lives and they willbring nothing but that which causessuffering as Jesus says in Matthew 15:19for it is out of the cardia the heartcomes evil intentionsif God is Not The Treasure of my heartMatthew 6:21 then I will be alienatedfrom God thus to mourn for our ownalienation from God and to mourn at thesuffering of others requires the miracleof the new heart and without this newheart experience we cannot experiencethe blessedness and comfort that onlyGod can give when Jesus announced hisministry in in Lazareth in Luke chapter4 he was basing his announcement on whatIsaiah prophesied about the Messiah inIsaiah chapter 61 and we see there thatum that mourning is turned to comfort bythe presence of Jesus in our lives wesee that oppression is replaced by theannouncement of good news we see thatthe Brokenhearted are promised that theywill be receive a binding up from theirHeavenly Father we see that the captivesare promised the proclamation of Libertywe see that the prisoners are promisedrelease we have seeing that those withfaint of spirit are promised a mantle ofPraise we see that those who experienceashes today are provided a Garland aGarland of flowers that they may praiseGod and those who are experiencingmourning today are promised the oil ofgladness and of comfort you know we eachof us we experience life in many ways Ijust want to use a simple example here Iwant to encourage you um most peoplewatching this we we use tin vegetablesand cans at home most of us have potsand pans and um I'm banned from cookingat home over one INF incident where mywife was recovering from um surgery andshe asked for vegetable soup and so Iwent down to dutifully prepare it and asI was um scraping the carrot in on TheGrater into the soup I shaved about athird of my big thumb nail off and itwent into the pot and a copious amountof blood flowed in I couldn't find it inthe pot so I decided to blend it all upand my wife ate it uh she asked me whatthe magic ingredient was and why I wasbleeding from my thumb I confessed andsince then I've never been allowed tocook again it's a great trick if younever want to be allowed to cook againso anyway most of us we come to lifelike this can all right now this is astandard aluminum can and uh we we cometo church we live our daily lives and onthe outside we look nice and shiny andclean just likethis and yet the reality is that insidethere's a lot of stuff going on but werarely open up to anybody about it do wewe have a public Persona we have aPublic Image we have a public faceum often times we don't even knowourselves what's in that can we don'tlike to admit what's going on and wehave these public shiny personas um butuh we're rarely we don't know who we canopen up to in these days of social mediayou tell someone a secret and it goes totheir 5,000 friends within a few minutesthere is no such thing as reallyconfidentiality anymore including sadlyin many parts of the body of Christ butwhen we turn to God forcomfort we find that God is infinitelygreater has the capacity to hold all ofour problems when we turn to God forcomfort and I just need to make sure Idon't drip all over theum all over the uh the podiumhere when we turn to God in our hour ofgrief and uh we ask for the promise ofcomfortwe find that we can indeed giveeverything over toGod when we give everything over toGod wediscover we discover that God is capableof holding everything we can possiblygivehim we discover that God is so big thathe's not going to leak it out anywherehe's not going to broadcast it on socialmedia God is confidential he's largeenough to cope with all of our problemsthere's no big problem in our littlelife that's too big for him to hold andwhen we give everything over to God wefind that uh he actually can drain thepain and in the empty space that is lefthe promises to fill that with theComfort only he can give the next timeyou're preparing something in thekitchen ladies and gentlemen those ofyou who are still required to cook thatis next time you prepare prepingsomething in the kitchen you look atthose pots and pans I want you toremember that God is large enough andbig enough and safe enough to takeanything we can give him and he promisesas we empty out our souls to him as wepour out our souls to him he indeed canfill us with Comfort the comfort that weneed so there are some questions fromthis beatitude I want like to invite youto reflect on this morning first ofthose is this is there a form of comfortfor all kinds ofmourning that's a question for us toponder this morning secondly may I howmay I bring God's Comfort to those whoare mourningtoday who today can I bring God'sComfort to is there somebody that youknow of in life that is suffering todayI want to encourage you from a pastoralperspective as you seek to minister tosomeone who is comforted who is mourningGod will bring you the comfort you needin your own life for where you areexperiencing alienation and painyourself the best way to receive healingas a disciple of Jesus is to minister tothose who are Hur hurting and in turnGod will minister to you blessed saidJesus are those who mourn for they willbe comforted and so then we come to thesecond of our Beatitudes for today andthis is found in Matthew Chapter 5 andthis is found there in verse five itsays blessed are the meek for they willinherit the earth there it is on thescreen blessed are the meek for theywill inherit the earth now I think it'sa fair assumption or a fair conclusionthat today meek is not celebrated wouldyou agree with me we don't celebratethose who are Meek those who are Meekare viewed as being timid or submissiveeasily dominated there was a very famousstory there was a man called Charleskeing here in the states who headedLincoln Savings and Loans and he sent anin-house memo before the uh Savings andLoans Scandal of the 1980s and 1990s hesent an in-house memo to his staff andthis is what he said and I quoteremember the weak the meek and theignorant are always good targetsuh this man Charles keing was ultimatelysent to jail for his role in that thethe banking and the saving scandals inthe 80s and 90s here in the States butwhen Jesus said blessed are the meekwhat and who was he talking about seethe Greek word land that he uses is gaywe get the word geography from it and itmirrors the Hebrew word erets like eretIsrael the land of Israel and in generalthese words in the Old and New Testamentrefer to land in general they refer toto the promised land or the land ofpromise they refer to the inhabitedEarth and they refer to the Earth as thetheater of God's actions and salvationhistory and in this beatitude here Jesusis drawing extensively on Psalm uh 70Psalm 37 I invite you to turn yourBibles to Psalm 37 to understand whereJesus is coming from with thisparticular beatitude you see Psalm 37says this but those who wait for theLord shall inherit the land but the meekshall inherit the land and Delightthemselves in abundant Prosperity therighteous shall inherit the land andlive in it forever so Psalm 37 talksabout the meek inheriting the land andPsalm 37 talks about two ways in whichwe may live in the Land There are twoways the first of those ways is throughviolence and the second of those ways isthrough meekness you see those who seeksecurity um often manifest an excessivedesire for power for materialpossessions and honor and this resultsin various forms of worry and envy lookat Psalm 37:1 it sayso not fret becauseof the wicked do not be envious ofwrongdoers seeking to control the landthrough Power often leads to anxietyverse 7 says Be Still before the Lordwait patiently for him do not fret overthose who prosper in their way overthose who carry out evil evil devices itleads in verse 8 to anger verse 8 of ThePsalm 37 says refrain from anger forsakewrath do not fret it only leads to eviland again in verse 12 the wicked plotagainst the righteous and Nash theirteeth at them this false sense ofsecurity this false security that I'mgoing to own the land I'm going to grabthe land and it's mine and you cannottake it from me this leads to evildoingas a way of protecting our lifestyle asopposed to to others it leads to usingforces within Society to protect myposition rather than to look out for theneeds of everybody the psalmist iswarning against using such landbasedattitudes against as the foundation ofOur Lives rather in verse three thepsalmist says this trust in the Lord anddo good so you will live in the land andenjoysecurity So scripturally speaking Earthand land are almost synonymous Conceptsbut in Jes J's day and in our day todaywe have separated these things out howis that so Psalm 24:1 we're familiarwith this verse it says the Earth is theLord's and the fullness thereof that isthe Earth and everything within itbelongs to God and we'd all say Amen tothat the problem is is the Israeliteshad come to distinguish between theearth belongs to God and this bit ofland belongs to me and so even in ourown day we say yes the Earth is God'sbut this bit of land with with my titledeed this belongs to me and I'mSovereign over this bit of land when theland is mine and does not belong to Godthen we must defend it at all costs andthis leads to the inherent potential forland-based violence and when land-basedvalue systems are paralleled withconcepts of National Honor or personalPrestige then national leaders are alltoo willing to go to war over aninsignificant loss ofland and so this is viewed as a matterof National Honor Within societiesviolence is often initiated by one groupagainst another through fear of losssome examples just within my lifetimeexamples such as aparte in South Africaethnic cleansing in Rwanda uh policiesthat load lead to social exclusion anddiscrimination often in the west andregressive taxation regimes these allcome about when one group feelsthreatened by the loss of its control ofthe land with its productive capacityand wealth making capacity to anothergroup at a national level thisunderlying fear of loss or lack of trustin God for our national security servesas a justification for preemptivestrikes now in jesus' day turn back toMatthew Chapter 5 where Jesus saidblessed are the meek for they shallinherit the earth uh Judea G Galilee andSamaria were inhabited by the Romans oroccupied by the Romans they were men ofmilitary might they were opposed by thethe zealots they were also men who saidwell we're going to claim the landthrough military might so there was onegroup in the time of Jesus who said thatmilitary might will ensure that youinherit the land there was another groupThe phes they insisted that the land wasthe Jews by virtue of descent fromAbraham alone but Jesus denies in thisbeatitude that the land will be dividedaccording to biological descent ormilitary might rather the land would goto the meek and the meek are blessedprecisely because they do not requireForce to develop to provide their ownsecurity their lives are built aroundtrust in God God will take care of themGod will meet their basic needs as suchthe meek are not consumed by the fear ofloss which dominates the lives of thewealthy and thepowerful have you ever noticed thatthose with extreme wealth are dominatedby fear of loss they watch the stockmarket by the minute I've been in someoffices where people have the the DowJones index literally ticking long onthe bottom of their screen they havemillions in the bank and they areconsumed every day by fear of lossrather than viewing their wealth as ameans to bless Society their whole lifeis consumed about how to preserve theirwealth and how to diversify their wealthso they don't have to experience loss sofear of loss is the Paradox that acompany is having incredible wealth andwhen you no longer trust in God for yourfinancial and physical security so whatare the implications of this beatitudefirstly well according to the scriptureswe ow nothing of ourselves when we getinto that stage of life where we have acondo we have a holiday home we have atenured position we live in a goodneighborhood we have a terminal degreewe have three cars in the garage we havesocial honor it is easy forget to forgetthat it was God and not ourselves whobrought us to this point of life we needto remember that the land is always agift from God it is an inheritance fromGod it is not ours to take but it isGod's to give thus we have no absoluteright over it we are merely stewards ofwhat passes through our possession on aday-to-day basis and our inheritance ofany land depend depends upon Fidelity toGod's vision for how we are to useresources to bless those in need youturn in your Bibles to Deuteronomychapter 6 we see there how God describesthis responsibility that we FaceDeuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 10 itsays there when the Lord your God hasbrought you into the land that he sworeto your ancestors to AB Abraham to Isaacand to Jacob to give you a land withfine large cities that you did not buildthen verse 11 houses filled with allsorts of goods that you did not fillheun system that you did not HueVineyards and Olive Groves that you didnot plant and when you have eaten yourfill we say Amen at that verse 12 takecare that you do not forget the Lordtake care in the midst of your materialwealth fellow Americans people watchingaround the world take care that in themidst of your physical abundanceabundance never forget that everythingwe have is a gift from God if we startbeing ruled by fear of loss this willresult in Social violence one way oranother as we feel threatened byFinancial loss at a personal level as asstewards rather than absolute owners werepresent God to his creation look atDeuteronomy just over the page chapter 8and verse 9 God promised his people thatwhen they got to the promised land itsays there in verse 9 a land where youmay eat bread without scarcity where youwill lack nothing it is God's purposefor his church for his people that welive in a way that we order our livesthat those around us lack nothing God isNot honored by poverty or humandeprivation or want or need God willprovide the fundamental resources oflife for his people and God promised hispeople in the promised land all theresources they would need for that sothat no nobody would lack anything herein Deuteronomy chapter 8 if they wouldorder their lives and their economyafter God'swill but when the land becomes oursrather than God's when we're focused onthe bottom line rather than God's willwhen we forget that everything we haveis an inheritance from God we becomeself-d delusional in our pride and weseparate our Pursuit ourselves from Godthe pursuit of land becomes an end initself the pursuit of wealth takesprecedence over over seeking God's willit's interesting that later in TheSermon on the Mount there in in Matthewchapter 6 Jesus specifically talks aboutthose who worry about what they're goingto eat and what they're going to drinkand what they're going to wear peoplewho worried about the finan the thematerial aspects of life he says seekyou first the kingdom of God and all hisrighteousness and I will take care ofyour basic needs it's an invitation toall of us to reorder the priorities inour lives the Greek word for house isoos the Greek word for a house hold isoeconomia that is where we get the wordeconomy from the national economy issimilar to the household economy how weorder our households how we order ournational economy is des is ideally to bea reflection of God's will that we takecare of the poor and the marginalizedthat we do not seek to use violence toexclude but we use the blessings God haspoured upon us to lift everybody withinSociety but when we operate from Pridewe operate ultimately from fear of lossand we are no longer counted among themeek the Meek work to ensure that theyhave all their basic needs met andeverybody else has their basic needs metthe meek are those who challengephysical structures that perpetrateviolence on minority or or marginalizedgroup the meek today cannot supportstructures or systems whose stewardshipof the Earth's resources leads toenvironmental degradation and displacesthe poor and the voiceless the meek askthemselves is it better to have whatthey want or is it better for the poorto have what they need the meek areinvited as was the Rich Young Rulerlater in the gospel of Matthew to useour resources sacrificially on behalf ofthe poor while governments have socialsecurity systems this does not removethe responsibility of the meek to shareon a personal level with those who havenot and many years ago I was working ina former Soviet Republic and my salarywas $200 a month I paid $100 rent it wasa war zone there was a lot of refugeesit was a desperate economic situation umI went down to about 110 so I wasliterally skin and bone back then andwhen I showed a picture of myself to mywife she she almost didn't recognize meand um and so uh it was it was adesperate situation there was fightingbetween Communists and and jihadis andpeople were desperately poor people wereselling their household furniture on thestreets in order to buy a loaf of breadat the end of the day and uh one day Iwas walking down the streets and I had Ithought I had in my pocket um a hundredof the local currency we'll call themmanats shall we and I I had a 100 manatswhich was basically cents a couple ofcents and uh I I see this pensioner andshe comes up to me she's an old Babushkaand she comes up to me and you see thedesperation on her face the SocialSecurity System had collapsed pensionswere not being paid she was selling afew um old socks and a few pots and panson the side of the street all herhousehold possessions that she had hadleft and she came up to me with herhands out like that and I was busy I wasgoing places I had things to do andpeoples to see and places to go so Ireached into my pocket and withoutreally thinking about it I just passedit on to her and I walked on thinkingit's just a few manats just a few scentsshe'll get a leoski that's a round loafof bread she'll live today from what Igave her but as I walked down the road Iheard this expression of Joy behind me Iwondered what is she upset about what isshe crying about I looked behind and shewas following me as best she could shewas a slow Walker and she was crying outGod's blessings upon me P may God blessyouum go with God sinok sinok means myson in Russian and she was saying gowith God may God bless you thank you somuch there were tears coming down hereyes and I looked at her and thoughtwhat is she talking about and then shewaved in my eyes what I'd just given herit was my $100 it was all I had to liveon that month I'd given her enough breadfor the for the rest of that year andshe was overwhelmed with emotion thatsomebody had just given her a bread tolive on for the rest of that year and inthat moment even though she was from aformer Soviet Republic and uh she was uhculturally from a Muslim background inthat moment the presence of God wasexperienced between both ofus all she could say was thank God mayGod be with you walk with s walk withGod sinok that means my son there was aconnection there God's presence wasmediated by that act of kindnessunwitting though it was and I've neverforgotten that experience blessed arethe meek said Jesus for they shallinherit the earth when we act inmeekness we follow in the footsteps ofJesus who later in this gospel describeshimself as I am meek and humble ofheart and so blessed are the meek is aninvitation to say day by day May therebe less of me and more of Jesus and as Iexpress the meekness of Jesus to thosearound me I actually start to experiencethe presence of God in my life in abeautiful way in the same way thatunintentionally unwittingly Iexperienced it with that old grandma inthe former Soviet Union when shereceived from me an Incredible Gift anduh and all she could do was Express hergratitude to God for what I done for herthat day blessed are the meek says Jesusfor they shall inherit the earth as wecome to the end of time this Earth islooking for a manifestation of God'scharacter a manifestation of God'scharacter that will cross thepolarization of our world that will thatwill seep through the boundaries ofhatred and bigotry and Prejudice we seearound us that will melt the hearts thatare separated into Political camps wherenobody wants to talk with each otheranymore God's character is to bemanifest in our world through arevelation through his servants of thegoodness and the character of Godblessed are the meek says Jesus they donot live in fear of loss they trust Godthat their daily needs will be met andbecause they do not live in fear of lossbut they live with trust in God they canbe a blessing within their community andso some final questions for reflectionas we wrap up here do I own myproperty or am I God's Steward of thoseassets in what ways do I in my familymarginalize the poor and the voicelessdo we take note do we stand up for themor do we just walk by on the other sideof theroad what do the meekness andnonviolence of Jesus teach us todayand finally what promise or invitationis there in this beatitude for me Jesusconcludes The Sermon on the Mount bytalking about a man who built his houseupon a rock and he contrasts that with aman who builds his house upon thesand and in our own lives if you applythat in a personal sense if I build mylife if I stand on Sand and that sand issinking sand the only way I can standupright and retain my posture is if Ipush down those aroundme but if I build my life and I stand ona rock that is the teachings of JesusChrist including these Beatitudes myfooting is sure I'm not afraid that I'mgoing to sink into the sand when myfooting is sure I can now lift otherpeople out of the sand blessed are themeek says Jesus for they shall inheritthe earth it's my prayer that as we livein these last days till Jesus comesagain people will see in us anexpression of the meekness of Jesus whohimself is Meek and humble of heart andin so doing their lives will be turnedfrom fear of loss to trust in God andthey will experience the blessednessthat only God can give may God bless usand may He bring us the promise of theseBeatitudes as we live for him todayuntil Jesus comes again amen