20Something 10-26-05 (Scot Pankey)

The dictionary defines Beatitude as extreme blessedness or happiness. When Jesus speaks of the Beatitudes he names situations that seem more likely to produce unhappiness than happiness. He talks about those who mourn, who are persecuted, who are poor in spirit, etc.

Here are the Beatitudes:

Matthew 5

1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The past couple of weeks have hit on what it means to be poor in spirit and to mourn. The third beatitude is our focus for this week.

5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

We live in a society where there seems to be less gentleness and kindness and more aggressiveness and rudeness. Sometimes it comes as a pleasant surprise to others when we treat them with gentleness. But it is this virtue of meekness that God treasures, for it reveals that we are truly children.

According to Bill Farmer's newspaper column, J. Upton Dickson was a fun-loving fellow who said he was writing a book entitled Cower Power. He also founded a group of submissive people. It was called DOORMATS. That stands for "Dependent Organization of Really Meek And Timid Souls -- if there are no objections." Their motto was: "The meek shall inherit the earth -- if that's okay with everybody." Their symbol was the yellow traffic light.

That is the opinion many people have of meekness.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS TO BE MEEK?

A MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT MEEKNESS.

Many equate Meekness with weakness. Many associate meekness with an attitude of allowing everyone to run over you because you are afraid of them. This is not meekness. In fact, some of the strongest men and women who have ever lived have been meek. Look at a list of some people that the Bible says were meek and see the misleading notion of such thought.

Moses was a great leader. He stood up to the most powerful leader in the world, Pharaoh Ramses. He led God’s people through the wilderness to the border of the promised land. Numbers 12:3 - “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.”

Then there was Jesus. He could stand up to the winds and the waves. He also chased the moneychangers out of the temple twice with a whip made out of chords. Matthew 11:29 - “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Meekness means a calm temper, someone who is not easily provoked. It does not mean weakness. The greatest leaders among God's true people were meek i.e. strong, but not swaggering: Meekness is a self-control quality that Christians are instructed to learn and develop, not just for the interim, but for the powers and responsibilities that await them. Thus meekness is curbing the "natural" desires to rebel, fight, have our own way, push ourselves forward, etc. We submit to the Lord in obedience to God’s will.

Why do people need to be meek and humble?

Share a time in your life when you had to have self-control.

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all people, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV)

What problems are caused by pride, ego, and lack of self control?
Matthew 16:24 - 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
This is an excellent definition of "meekness," without using the word. To be meek is to deny self.
The selfish person says "I want this, I want that...." True meekness says, "So what! So what! What does God want?" Is this really best according to God's way? God's ways are so much better than ours that we will submit.

Why is so hard to “deny self”?

One who is truly meek and humble does not seek to belittle or neglect the good qualities of others so that they can receive glory and honor and recognition above others. Romans 12:3 - Don't think more highly of self than you ought to think, but think soberly.

Do you have people in your life that do this to you? How do you handle it?

Some people want to please self first and everybody else comes somewhere down the line.

Other people will do first what other people want of them. The rule followed by the truly meek and humble person is: God first, others second, self last.

How can our lives live up to God's standard of meekness and humility?

THE MEEK “SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.”

Those who are meek (faithful Christians) have an inheritance here in this life. They are truly satisfied. They are content. The wicked, in their rush to possess, usually miss or overlook the best of this world, or else, having seen it, they refuse to pay the price to gain it, or having gained it, they are miserable. Philippians 4:11 - “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

The meek will also inherit that new heaven and earth - Heaven.

Romans 8:17 - “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

CONCLUSION : A.W. Tozer once wrote, The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto."

Final thoughts.
Pray and dismiss.

20Something 10-19-05 (Jen Austin)

20Something 10-19-05
The Second Beatitude

The dictionary defines a Beatitude as extreme blessedness or happiness. When Jesus speaks of Beatitudes, he names situations that seem more likely to produce unhappiness than happiness. He talks about those who mourn, who are persecuted, who are poor in spirit, etc. Here are all of the Beatitudes:

1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Last week we discussed the first beatitude, what it means to be poor in spirit. The second beatitude is our focus this week.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

What things do we mourn? How does it feel to mourn?

Why is it a blessing to mourn?

Have you mourned the loss of something recently?

When the word “mourn” is entered in a Bible search, it produces 138 different entries. There was a lot of mourning going on in Biblical times.

Genesis 23:1-4

1 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. 2 She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.
Sarah and Abraham had been through a lot together, to say the least. Sarah was barren, yet God gave Abraham and Sarah a son (Isaac) when they were both near one hundred years old. What emotions must Abraham have been feeling?

Name some ways to comfort someone or be comforted during the mourning process.

Joel 2:12

12 "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."

In what was does mourning allow us to “return to God?” How does mourning produce a closeness with God?

John 16:19

19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, "Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me'? 20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, God will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Why does grief eventually turn to joy?

Jesus reminds us that even though he may not be physically present, there is power in his name. We can mourn the loss of something that no longer seems to be ours, but it’s not as final as we make it seem. There is power beyond our immediate circumstances.

Jesus says, “you will no longer ask me anything” and then, “God will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Jesus’ spirit lives on and there is great power in that. How can we better claim that power? How does our joy become complete?

Mourning is temporary. God is eternal. As we change our focus to the bigger picture, we begin to experience extreme blessedness and happiness. Have a blessed week!

20Something 10-12-05 (Scot Pankey)

Matthew 5 (New International Version)

1Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying: 3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

When you hear “Blessed are the poor in spirit” what do you think of?
I saw this poster recently with the message:
A prayer to be said,
When the world has gotten you down,
And you feel rotten,
And you're too doggone tired to pray,
And you're in a big hurry,
And besides, you're mad at everybody . . . HELP!

Have you ever felt this way? Share a time in your life when this has hit home. When all you could pray was HELP!

We've been taught all our lives to be independent, indispensable, and stubborn and supper efficient. An inner voice says, "Prove it to them! You can do it. You don't need anybody's help. You can do it all by yourself."

At the very heart of our problem is pride. It is our single greatest detriment to coming to Christ, as well as spiritual growth and maturity.

King Saul of Israel is a good example of this spiritual problem. He was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel. He had a problem with pride that he never dealt with and it became his downfall. Saul’s son Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines in Geba and his father stole the show.

It was nothing but cheap pride and vainglory at the expense of someone else’s work. King Saul got the credit for his son’s triumph. It is just one of many examples of the wicked pride of Saul. He was disobedient to the core. His life is a string of disobedience and lies to cover up his evil ways. He is disobedient and uses deception to cover up his evil heart. Saul stooped so low as to try to use worship as a scheme to cover his trickery.

Finally God gave up on Saul. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king” (v. 23). Saul rejected the Word of God and God rejected him (v. 26).

Have you ever felt rejected by God? Was it because you rejected God first?

King Saul had a problem with pride and he did not want to face his problem. Sometimes we don’t want to face our problems as well. We want to think that we have it all together. We can put up a fake faced. It’s then when we need God most.

John W. Shepherd said, “The poor in spirit is one who recognizes his poverty in spiritual things and seeks the blessing of God in his own spiritual enrichment.”

THE PAIN OF SPIRITUAL POVERTY
Recognize the problem
You can never deal with a problem until you recognize that the problem exists. As we have just observed, Saul wasn’t willing to face up to the fact that he had a problem.
The worse kind of disease you can have is one that effects the nerve endings so you cannot feel pain. Our culture is a culture saturated with a preoccupation with self which emphasizes happiness, bliss, and all the comforts of life with no emotional pain.
Pain, in whatever form is the pressure that motivates us to look outside of ourselves for help. It provides motivation to get up and do something. God can use our emotional pain to make us aware of our spiritual poverty and promote change.
Spiritual growth doesn’t take place until there is change. We cannot stay the same and go with God. God won’t allow it. We will find every excuse under the sun to prevent change from taking place in our lives. It is uncomfortable. We don’t like it. We resist it. But our spiritual growth won’t take place until we are willing to face the need for changes.

Have you ever fought change? How did it turn out?

When you stop growing, you stop living. When you stop changing you stop growing. You get into a rut and you rust out spiritually. J. H. Newman well said, “To grow is to change, and to have changed often is to have grown much.” We fear change because it is unpredictable. Our security blankets are all gone. The old ways of doing things is always safe, but not necessarily healthy. The new is untested and discovering our spiritual “blind spots” is not always easy. The truth is it is not easy for anyone to grow. There is emotional pain when we become aware of our spiritual failures. Growth never takes place in a vacuum. It comes through conflict, pressures and circumstances.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

The word Jesus used for "poor" describes absolute and abject poverty. The root means "to crouch, or to cower." It describes the poverty that is beaten to its knees.

The Holy Spirit brings us to the place where we realize, "I am not as spiritually mature as I thought I was." "I am a sinner; I have a need." “I have a problem and it is really worse than I ever thought. God I want Help!”

Do you think it takes us to get to this place before we need God’s help?

It is an attitude of utter dependence upon God. Until we admit our need we can never receive what God has for us. God always gives the best to those who leave the choice with God.
Poverty of spirit is the opposite of spiritual pride. Jeremiah saw the depravity of man when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (17:9). What a contrast this is with the cleansed pure heart of 20:9 when grace is experienced.
Alexander Maclaren observes: the word “poor does not only signify one in a condition of want, but rather one who is aware of the condition, and seeks relief . . . to be inmost reality conscious of need, of emptiness, of dependence on God, of demerit; the true estimate of self, as blind, evil, weak, is intended; the characteristic tone of feeling pointed to is self–abnegation.” Our proud, arrogant self-confidence must be broken. It is a “lowly and just estimate of ourselves, our character, our achievements, based upon a clear recognition of our own necessities, weaknesses, and sins.”

Do you think that when we feel the pain of our depravity so badly it’s then that we can finally receive help?

Do you think it is important to be aware of your spiritual poverty?

How do we come to a sense of spiritual poverty?

We must accept the responsibility for our own lives. No one else can accept it for us.

We must know ourselves––our strengths, weaknesses, fears, hidden desires, ambitions, gifts, natural abilities, etc. and be honest with ourselves. We must see ourselves the way God sees us.

We must accept that which cannot be changed, change that which can be changed, and have the wisdom to know the difference (Romans 7).

We must make a commitment to change and begin now. Ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your life.

Be yourself to the glory of God.

Would you add more to this list?

What are the results of such poverty?

You become completely detached from things, and God means everything to you. That is the greatest benefit. You come to the place in your life where you realize your utter lack of resources to meet life and you find your help and strength in God. You realize you can do nothing without divine assistance; you have no power in yourself to do what God requires. Jesus put it this way, “I am the vine, you are the branches; whoever abides in Me and I in them, bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:5–6).

Is it worth the pain?

That is determined by the blessing. The spiritually prosperous person is poor in spirit so that he can receive the kingdom of heaven. Remember the blessing that comes with this beatitude? “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The pauper is rich! He is under the sphere of God’s rule where at any given time His rule is acknowledged. We cannot have that if we are self–righteous. The poor recognize and submit to the sovereignty, royal power and dominion of the Lord. God rules over the hearts of those who are poor in spirit.

Any last thoughts?

Pray and dismiss.

20Something 10-5-05 (Jen Austin)

Patience

We all know having patience is a good thing and that we should be working toward having more patience, but it would be a lot easier if we could have it now! There are just so many things that seem to come along and test our patience; it’s hard to maintain the right attitude when tested.

What are some situations in which you get frustrated and lose your patience?

How does our society contribute to our impatience?

Do you think that patience comes naturally, i.e., you have it as a child, or is it something that is learned as you get older and more mature?

In the dictionary, "patience" has several meanings: 1) bearing pains or trials calmly and without complaining, 2) not being hasty or impetuous, 3) being steadfast despite opposition or adversity, and 4) showing forbearance under provocation or strain.

We often think of patience as something benign, or as something that we have to use in order to properly wait through something. But the dictionary definitions and Bible imply that pain, trials, adversity, and strain may also be involved.

James 1:2-4—Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

1 Peter 2:20—But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

Romans 5:3-4—Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Romans 12:12—Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Patience is more than just waiting on something. It is part of an active process that may include suffering, trials, and setbacks. It also includes hope.

When you’re going through something where patience is required, what keeps you from becoming discouraged?

Can you think of examples of patience from the Bible? (Jesus, Job, Paul, etc.) How did these figures exhibit patience? How did it benefit them?

The concepts of perseverance and patience are mentioned together in other places in the Bible as well. Here are some other verses:

Galatians 6:9--Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Hebrews 10:23, 10:36-- Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:36--You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

James 1:2-4-- Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

In what ways does having patience pay off?

Why are perseverance and patience so compatible? What is the difference between them?

The Bible also frequently mentions a promise along with patience and perseverance.

Psalm 37:7-9--7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for the Lord ; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil persons will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

Psalm 40:1-3-- 1 I waited patiently for the LORD; God turned to me and heard my cry.
2 God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; God set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

James 5:7-8-- 7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near.

Looking at the big picture, why is patience important?

Why should we be patient in the short term as well?

How can we have more patience?

God is patient with us. The least we can do is attempt to be more patient with God, and with the trials that we go through in our lives. We can make it through anything when we rely on God’s strength.

Take prayer requests, pray, and dismiss.
Have a blessed week!