The Village Church
Blessings of the Kingdom, Pt 2 - Audio
them to Matthew chapter 5, the kingdom, the kingdom is the renewal of the whole world through the entrance of supernatural forces. As things are brought back under Christ's rule and authority, they are restored to health, beauty, and freedom. This is what Pastor Tim Keller says about the kingdom. This is his description of it. The kingdom is the renewal of the whole world, the whole world, through the entrance of supernatural forces. As things are brought back under Christ's rule and authority, they are restored to health, beauty, and freedom. Last week we began our discussion on this kingdom focusing on the blessings of it. We talked about the blessing of for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, that one blessing, which is simply the blessing of kingdom citizenship. And as I said, citizenship in the kingdom is a prerequisite for getting all the other benefits of the kingdom. Basically you got to be a believer. You have to be a Christian for believers are the citizens of this kingdom and they are on the Christ's rule and authority and they are being renewed and restored by Him. Believers are being changed from the inside out by grace through the work of God's Spirit. We have blessings that are given to us in this kingdom. And there's also character marks that are produced in us as well, which changes our being, B-E-I-N-G. And last what we talked about, poor, poor in spirit, Christ-like humility before the Father. It changes our doing, D-O-I-N-G, persecuted for righteousness sake, living with a Christ-like integrity throughout our life. This week we're going to continue looking at more of these blessings. We can continue to look at more of these character marks that are produced in us and so if you have your Bibles we're going to look at verses 4 through 6 this morning. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Please pray with me. Father, as we come to your Word, it's your Word. It's your truth, not mine. It's not the Villa churches. I don't have authority over it. It's yours. And so I come, pray, you give me great humility Lord to know that it's not about me. It's not about me. It's about you. And so we call upon your spirit to move because if he does not move, nothing happens. Nothing happens apart from your spirit moving. And so we pray him down that he will move this morning in my heart in the hearts of everyone here, that he will take this Word, Lord, that he will take it and apply it to all of our hearts and meet us where we are this morning. We're in different places, dealing with different issues, dealing with different junk, but your Word, Father, can speak into our junk, speak into our issues and provide comfort, provide healing, so spirit, you know where we are, meet us where we are this morning, and cry in my prayer. Amen. The first blessing I want to look at this morning is one of comfort. Verse four says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." The blessing of comfort is given to those who mourn, to those who grieve. He says, "Happy are they who mourn?" They know it for confidence. Conferences are come to them and amiss to them. And if you notice here, this blessing of comfort is written differently than the one from last week. The one for last week for theirs is the kingdom, present tense, this week, for they shall be comforted, future tense. What does that mean? What is Christ saying here? He's saying that this blessing, this future blessing that is to come is yours now too, that it will happen. You will experience it in this life. Have you experienced God's comfort? Have you? So it's true. You will be comforted. It will happen. All citizens of God's kingdom taste comfort in this life. You will taste it, not just some Christians. Sometimes you feel like I'm different, you're not different. You will taste God's comfort. He will come. It is a promise. It will happen. You see, he's the agent. That gives the comfort. And you are just a passive recipient of it. You just receive it. You don't work for it. He just freely gives it to you. He gives it to you why because you are his in Christ. He does not withhold his comfort from his beloved. If he sacrificed Christ for you, I hear we not give you all things also through him. He does give comfort to his people. It's a present reality with a future hope, comfort, it's ours. Now what does it mean to mourn? This morning here I think it's a character mark that is produced in every believer by grace through the Holy Spirit. You see the tendency is to read through these Beatitudes and to pick and choose which character mark you want. You know you just not a buffet line. Every believer will have all these marks produced in them by spirit. You don't do it to yourself. He produces those things in you through grace. Just like poor in spirit. Just like being spiritually poor before the Father. This morning is produced in your being, in your soul. And in your being you are mourning grieve over your sin. This is what this character mark is talking about. You will grieve over the fallenness and brokenness in the world. You are no longer take pleasure in your sin as a citizen of a kingdom. You agree over it. It would become bitter to you. Not sweeter but bitter. Where there was no conviction of sin. Now there is conviction of sin because those who are in the kingdom of God are convicted of this sin. That's what this verse means. That's what he's talking about. So you grieve over it. Not in a legalistic way where you beat yourself up constantly. But with a godly sorrow. A godly sorrow that leads to what? What does a godly sorrow lead to? Repentance. Repentance. Repentance. Think about it. Will you ever repent of your sin before you became a Christian? No. You didn't care about it. Now that you are Christian, you are. Why? Grace is at work in you. Grace has changed you. It leads you to the conference of God's grace where forgiveness awaits you. That's the conference he's talking about. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. With certainty. With certainty. You're going to get it. Let's say last week these blessings here in Matthew 5, verse 10 are our riches in Christ. These are how we become rich. Remember Paul says in Second Corinthians, "For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet for your sake and my sake became poor." Why? So that by this poverty we might become rich. By his poverty we might become rich. Comfort. Kingdom citizenship. Those are our riches in Christ. You don't get that stuff without him. You don't get those things without being a good person. By coming to church on Sunday and doing all the good things that we do. You get all that through Christ. There's nothing we do to get earned that. You're rich in him. Not rich in him because you do good works. Every believer in this world has these kingdom blessings. Every believer in this world has them. And every believer will also have these character marks produced in them. By God's grace. These kingdom blessings or blessings of grace. It's the blessings of grace. You see grace blesses us. We understand that part of grace. But grace changes you too. By that same grace. It's blesses and it changes us. It changes us in our being. It changes us in our doing. It produces this warmth for spirit. This produces this sense of conviction of sin. Grace does that. We don't do it to ourselves. And it produces in us this spirit of importance before the Father. What happens to a person who is exposed to a lot of violence, death and abuse and crime? What happens to that person? If you see all this stuff on TV or even realize a lot of crime, a lot of violence, a lot of death, what does that do to a person? Over time. Yes, it desensitizes them to it. To the point where there's no longer shocked by crime, death or murder. It's like that's this life. It no longer phases them. They become numb to it. You see, the conference of God's grace has the opposite effect in our life. It sensitizes us to sin. It sensitizes us to the brokenness, to the crime, to the violence in the world, the opposite effect of it. The more you embrace this grace, the more it sensitizes you to your need, to your sin. Sin, sin as sin against the Father. It synthesizes you to the surfing of others and the effect of sin in the world. Grace does that. The warmth of grace melts your frozen heart. It alone. It melts it away. It does it. There were blessings and through which work in your life. The blessings of comfort, the character mark of mourning, is all producing us to the power of grace for all eternity and nothing else. Grace sensitizes us. And so that's the blessing of comfort, the character mark of mourning. The next we have in verse 5, another blessing. Blessed are the mink, for they shall inherit the earth. Like the blessing of comfort, this too blessing is written in the future tense. For a matter of fact, all these blessings here are written that way. And again, the point Jesus is making is that these future blessings are being experienced now, by His people, by all of us. You taste them in this life. You are already a citizen of heaven. You don't have to wait till you die. You already are a citizen. You already receive comfort. And according to Jesus, you have already inherited the earth. And I know how the world is that true. How have we inherited the earth already? Like this, when a woman says she is a kelp woman, what does she mean? If a woman says I'm a kelp woman, what does she mean by that? Congregation, participation please. If you are a kelp woman, where are you? Basic needs are provided for. She has no worries. And all, because her husband takes care of her. And that same is true for Christians. We are a kelp people. And I believe that's what it means that we have inherited the earth. That all of our needs are taken care of because of who we are. We shall not want. Why? For the Lord is our shepherd. He is our shepherd. He provides for us. He takes care of us. All of our needs and well-being is provided for by another. Do you realize that? It's not because of you. It's not because of who you are, or because your education, or your family name is because God's hand has blessed you. Even the unbeliever lives under the sovereignty of God, even though he refuses and rebels against it. We all do. David said in Psalms 27, "I believe that I should look upon the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living." This is what it means to inherit the earth. We see God's goodness here in the midst of fallenness. Don't think that God is not still God. This is still his world. This is still his creation. His, not the enemies, not evil people, is his world. He's the king of it. He is restoring it and transforming it. And as he does that, his people can enjoy his creation. You can enjoy it. He can be a good steward's over it, but not worship it. But not worship it. He calls us what he's doing. We can enjoy his creation. Do you enjoy his creation? Do you? You can enjoy it without worshiping. And if we do worship it, repent of it and move on. He's giving it to us to enjoy it. Now don't think this doesn't mean that gonna have hardships and disappointments. I'm not saying that. But God's provision in his care over you includes him working all things to your good. That's part of inheriting the earth. He even works the good, the back to your good. That's how good our God is. As a believer, you are blessed to be a kept person. And you also change in being me. That's not a meek, but they shall inherit the earth. This character mark again is a work of grace producing this by the Holy Spirit and meekness is gentleness, submissiveness. It's like it's a sheep-like character. What comes to mind when you think about sheep? I wasn't going to say that, but I guess they are. Is it an animal? Is it a sheep? An animal with great strength? Is a sheep known for its strength? Like I'm going to be a sheep. That's going to be named my football team. The Huntsville Sheep. No one named the team like a sheep because there's not known for that strength. Do sheep pray on all the animals? Do they look in the woods and like, look at that little rabbit. You won't get it. No sheep or meek, the timid, that totally dependent on who? They're shepherd for their well-being. This is what grace produces in unbeliever. A sheep-like meekness. Where our pride or wanting to be independent for our shepherd is replaced with a God-centered view that we depend upon him more. That's what it means to be meek. Grace is replacing, you know, putting meekness in us. So we be more submissive. We be more dependent upon our shepherd that leaves us, that provides for us in his life. This is meekness also leads to contentment. Contentment with what our shepherd is doing in us. Are you content? What provisions God has given you? Are you content where you are, your family, the material things he's already blessed you with? Are you discontent? You know what discontent is? It's curses your blessing. It's what that is. Ungratefulness is what it is. I am not grateful what God has already given me because you are all blessed. Even if you don't have what other people have, you're still blessed. You're still blessed. You're still breathing. You have your family. We all have hardships. We all go through struggles. That's just part of life in the falling world. But God works through it all. He's shepherds us through it all. He's wants us to be content and not covet what other people have. While growing up, every time we went through hard times as a family, my mom had, I don't know if I shared it with you, but mom had this one phrase she would say all the time, "God is going to make a way." He is going to take care of us. Man, I got tired of hearing that, but that's what she was always saying. Every struggle, every thing we went through. God is going to make a way, Alex. He's going to take care of us. And I remember there was a time where I didn't want to hear that anymore. My mom had recently broke up with her boyfriend, and he kicked us out of the house that we were living in. So we got kicked out. So we had to move in with my grandmother. And the night we got to her house, I went out into her front lawn, and I was sitting down on the grass in tears, angry, frustrated. Anything crossed your mind is where I was filming. And I felt like my family could not get ahead. It's like one step forward will eventually lead to 10 steps backwards. It's just all a lot in life. Things never worked out for us. But my mom, she eventually came out of the house. She came and sat down beside me, and she asked me, "How are you doing, Alex?" And I said, "I'm tired, I'm tired of all of this. Tired of this frustration." And she said, "I know, Alex, but God's going to make a way. He's going to take care of us." That was the last thing I wanted to hear. And I said to my mom, "Why do you always say that? Why? Look at where we are. We just got kicked out of our home. How is God taking care of us? Where is he? Where is he? I don't feel like it." She said, "Alex, I know, but he will make a way." Then a few weeks later, he did. We eventually got back into the house, with my mom and us. But in that situation, my mom listened and trusted to the voice of her shepherd, not her circumstances, not even the voice of her son, not even the voice of her son. She listened and relied on the promise of our God, the promise that said, "I will take care of you." No matter what your circumstances say, I'm going to provide for you or mine. I'm going to provide. One theologian says, "Makeness is not like a backbone. Rather, it's a humble strength that belongs to the man who has learned to submit to difficulties, difficult experiences and difficult people, knowing in everything God is working for his good. Makeness is not a lack of backbone, but a humble strength that belongs to the man who has learned to submit to difficulties, difficult experiences and difficult people, knowing that in everything God is at work for his good. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Now we say sheep are dumb, but where's the one best quality about a sheep? It knows that shepherd's voice. If I call a flocking sheep but not going to move, with the shepherd call, they recognize his voice and follow. That's the good quality of a sheep. It recognizes that shepherd's voice, do you recognize your shepherd's voice when he calls, when he risks his truth to you? Can you distinguish between his voice and the voice of the enemy like my mom was able to do? Not listening to my circumstances, going to the promises of my God. He said he would take care of me, faith. We walk by faith, not by sight, and as grace grows you in submitting and depending upon him, you'll grow and listen to his voice, discerning his voice in the midst of your difficult circumstances. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. So we have two blessings we have talked about, comfort, inheritance, two character marks, meekness and mourning. Now we're going to focus on the last one for the day. Verse six, "Blessed all those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." So what does Jesus mean here about about hunger and thirsting for righteousness? This marked character mark is a little different from the other three. See the other three pouring spirit, mourning, meekness, it all deals with basically squeezing out self. S-E-L-L-S-E-L-L self. Squeezes self out and grace working in us does that. It squeezes out our self, abandonment of self, leaves it stranded on the road, self-sufficiency, self-concern, self-righteousness, self-unrighteousness, self-centeredness, self-focusedness. Grace does that. The blessing of grace is a good thing, but it's also painful because it murders me every day. It murders self every day because it reminds me you don't have nothing to offer, buddy. Get over yourself. You don't have anything to offer. So every day I'm taking shots and it's good because it humbles me, humbles all of us. You see, as that happens, as grace begins to squeeze out your self-centeredness, your desires begin to change, away from yourself and more to the Father. You see, hungering and thirsting for righteousness is about what we desire. As Christian. In Jesus talking about desire more of God, more of His characterness in your life. Your, yourself is removed from the thorne of your life and Jesus is there. The one king of your heart, the one king of your life. The psalmist says in Psalm 42, "As it did pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O Lord, my soul thirst for God, the living God." When was the last time that was true for you, for me, that my soul, my being thirst for God. Not for His blessings, not for material stuff, but just for God for who He is. That's hungry and thirsting for righteousness. That kind of thirsting, and we don't have much of it here in this world, we love Jesus for all that we profess. I say that a lot too. Easy here on Sunday, but we love Him for all that and we realize. Hungry and thirsting for righteousness is thirsting more for God, to know Him more, to love Him more, to live and fellowship with Him. Do you live and fellowship with God with Jesus in relationship? It's a relationship. It's not a business partnership, it's a relationship. And one other thing about Grace is that you can love God back because of it. Do you know that? And you can actually know Him. Some of us don't realize how big of a deal that is, that the Creator Universe calls you "friend." Like me, friend, God or the universe, creative, all things, calls me "friend." And sometimes just ward them, washing them down on my back. My friend or God thought, well, it's not much of a big deal. Everybody's a friend or God. You see, if we were really thirsting after Him, man, you'd be excited about that. Yes, my child of God, a child of the universe. And that's an amazing thing. St. Bernard says, "We tasty, old, out of living bread, and long to feast upon thee still. Long to feast upon thee still, drink of thee, the fountainhead, thirst our souls for thee to feel." This is who we are for the rest of our days. Thirsting after God. And guess what? He says He'll do. You will be satisfied. Does that excite you or just ward down your back again? That He will satisfy that desire to know Him more. Now, does it mean to the point where you're going to ask your She-God? No, that's in glory. But it means He will give you a desire to love Him more. Pray for it. I want to know you, my Father. Show me. And He says, and He promise you, I will satisfy that desire. He at this moment, in all of our hearts, in all of our lives, He's drawing our hearts closer to Him. Even through our difficult circumstances, He's doing that, drawing us closer to His heart. You got to realize He uses everything, even the small things that draws His people closer to Him. So come. Everyone who thirsts come to the waters. He who has no money, come by and eat. Come by wine, milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? And labor for that which does not satisfy. Listen, diligent to me. Eat what is good, delight yourselves in rich food. This rich food is yours in Christ, citizenship in the kingdom, comfort, provision, satisfaction. These blessings are available to everyone who receives Christ in saving faith. So the question is, where are you? Where are you? Do you know Him? Are you just going through the motion? You can know Him. Jesus says, for all who labor, and are heavy-laden, He would come to Him and He'd give you rest. He'd give you rest. Do you want rest? Are you heavy-laden? Are you tired? Are you burning out? Are you tired of going through the motion? Are you tired of trying to be the perfect good person, trying to earn your salvation? Do you just come to me? And I would give you rest from all your works performance. Take my yoke and learn from me. I'm gentle, lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. Rest for your soul is in Christ, only in Him. Only in Him, only in Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. So pray with Him. Follow that pray for anyone here who doesn't know you. For anyone here who is tired, burn out, the Lord, they will listen to your truth and come to you for rest. For the person who doesn't know you, I pray that your spirit be working in that person's heart at this moment. Show Him and her her need for grace, and then receive Christ in the saving faith. And be brought into the magnificent kingdom that every believer is a part of. Now pray for those believers here who are struggling and are tired and frustrated from life, that you'll give them encouragement that them know there is comfort for their mourning. There is satisfaction for them without a desire for you and that you are their shepherd and you're going to provide for them even when circumstances say different. You're not bound by circumstances. You stand above them. So encourage your people this morning. Encourage your bride this morning, your bride on whom you died for, and cry say my prayer. Amen.