Christians Under Construction
Humility and trust
FUM Carroll 8/4/19
Jack from the video has some work to
do on himself, doesn’t he? He’s got quite an attitude, but at least Tom has him
thinking.
To be honest, I guess I have a lot of
work to do on myself too. Maybe you do too.
That’s OK though. For these 8 weeks,
we are a construction zone. I don’t mean like you had here two years ago. The
beautiful remodel of the church was nothing compared to the remodeling we need
in our hearts and lives.
We could just go slap some paint on
our attitudes or throw some cold patch in the potholes of our hearts or prop up
our precariously leaning love for others. But God is not in the patch it up,
cover it up, prop it up --business. God is in the life makeover business of
making us new creatures in Christ. Paul writes, “So if anyone is in Christ, (if
anyone is a Christian) they are a new creation: everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!”
Hear that? Everything has become new.
We are God’s fixer-uppers.
The problem is that we are a mess.
Years of neglect and decay have taken their toll. The bad news is that Chip and
Joanna Gaines will not be here to help us. So, God has some heavy construction
to do. Let’s strap your tool belts on and let’s get to work.
2 First, let’s build the foundation.
A “beatitude” is a literary form that was used in other ancient documents.
These 8 beatitudes are original to Jesus, but they rely heavily on the Old Testament
which Jesus and his hearers knew inside out.
“Beatitude” means blessing. Some
Bibles translate the beatitudes using the word “happy.” Happiness, however, is
based on outward prosperity or comfort and therefore is temporary. Some have
suggested the word “lucky” … That is an unfortunate translation because luck
has a certain randomness to it. There is nothing random about God’s blessing.
No, blessedness is an inward and lasting joy or contentment in our relationship
with God.
I want us to think of blessedness as
“divine assurance.” Maybe we could call it “holy confidence” in God. It is an
assurance in God’s provision, God’s goodness, God’s love, God’s grace, and that
God is enough. Biblically we can see this kind of assurance in Romans 8. “When
we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Christ.” It is by the
blessing of the holy spirit in our lives, that we can have full confidence in
God. To be blessed is to know …that we know… that we know that God is… and that
God is enough.
Fanny Crosby says it better than I
could ever say it.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
0 what a foretaste of glory Divine!
Heir to salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His
Blood. —
Blessed Assurance is foundational to
all the beatitudes. They all start with “Blessed are.” So, as I studied each
beatitude, I was looking for the quality that Jesus was lifting up that would
help us to experience contentment or assurance that God is enough for us and we
are enough for God.
Let’s say the first beatitude it together…
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
We know that those who are poor in
spirit will receive “blessed assurance.” So, what is “poor in spirit? Like any
fixer-upper project, we have to start with demolition. We have to start by
getting rid of the stuff that keeps us from experiencing blessed assurance.
That’s why I have the sledgehammer and crowbar. To be Poor in spirit we have to
get rid of the illusion that we are rich in spirit.
Our culture says
'Blessed are those who are always
right.
Blessed are those who are strong.
Blessed is the popular person'.
Blessed are those who get what they want
at any cost.
In order to be poor in spirit, we have to
knock down our stubborn self-reliance.
We must pry lose the “I am my own
boss” attitude.
We must rip out our need to always be
right.
To be poor in spirit, we must smash
the illusion that we are strong enough.
We must blow up our need to get what
we want at any cost.
It all comes down to, “we have to get
over yourselves!”
It is only in getting over ourselves
and acknowledging our spiritual poverty that we can receive the blessed
assurance from God.
Obviously, in order to get over
ourselves, we may have to tear out some walls, pull up the carpet and maybe
even get all the way back to the framing of our lives.
The engineering problem with that is
we may have to take out some load-bearing walls. If we take out load-bearing
walls the weight of the roof and the upper stories will come crashing down on
top of us.
We need to be very careful not to prop up our house of faith with the
sane kind self-reliance which has held us back for so long. Fortunately, the
beatitude for this week does just that. Read with me, “Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.”
Meekness may be the exact opposite of
what you think.
We think of meekness as weakness. We
think of meekness and being a doormat. We think of meekness as gullibility.
Not so! Meekness is being strong
enough to set aside our own rights for the benefit of someone else. Notice I
said “strong enough” … being strong enough to set aside our own rights for the
benefit of someone else.
That takes real strength, real faith,
real trust, to be meek in a culture based on our individual rights, in a nation
that has a history of protecting the rights of the individual.
In our every day lives, we might see
meekness as we set aside our plans for the day to help our spouse or children
with what they need to do. We might see it in business if you work for an
organization that says the customer is always right. You might see it in the
church when we make a change in order to make some group comfortable even
though we really liked the way we were doing it.
Spiritually, of course, what Jesus is
talking about is meekness before God. Once we humbly acknowledge that we are
“poor in spirit” or empty and powerless, we set aside our own lives for the
benefit of the kingdom of God. We set aside our own plans for God’s plans. We
set aside our own needs for the needs of the least of these. We set aside our
own concerns to care for the hurting and hopeless in our community.
That takes real trust! Spiritual meekness is
demolishing the wall protecting our rights which limits our willingness to
serve God and replacing it with a wall built entirely out of trust in God. We
trust God to set the boundaries We trust God to set the direction. We trust God
to set the priorities. We trust God to set the agenda for the day.
I believe it was the famous pastor
Eugene Peterson who taught that ministry is found not so much in our plans but
un the interruptions to our plans. I think that is true for all of us. A life
lived for God is found not so much in our plans as it is in accepting the
surprises God has in store for us. If we are too fixated on our own plans and
rights. We will miss those surprises.
To be meek means to trust God in all
things and place your, rights, plans, hopes dreams, and life entirely in God’s
hands.
Perhaps meekness is best expressed in
John Wesley’s covenant prayer that we prayed a few months ago. I invite you to
pray it together.
“I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me
with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid
aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for
thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have
nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be
it.
And the covenant which I have made on
earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
Blessed are the poor who understand needing
God --and blessed are the meek who are willing to trust the leading of God.
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