The Gateway to God's Kingdom

Lesson Transcript

Well, good morning as well. You can turn your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5. Now, I know we just studied the Gospel of Matthew, just come through it, but it— I don't have track, I don't know if anybody does. How long ago did we start Matthew and Sunday school discussion? How long were we in that, just any idea? Two and a half years. So it's been quite a while since we looked at the Sermon on the Mount.

And if you allow me to, I'd like to do a series of messages on the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in chapter 5 through 7. It's a well-known, probably the most popular sermon that Jesus ever taught, probably the most misunderstood one, and the most debated one among the Christian circles and so on. Just a few things I want to note before we get into that, as by way of introduction. I just— where we closed in Sunday school there today, I think John just touched on that, verse 10.

While we did talk about the simplicity of the Gospel and so on, but verse 10 says, "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." So there's that other side to the Christian. We're not okay with just being okay with the— how should I say— just the ordinary things of the Christian life. Wow, it's simple, but I think we should be on a journey all the days of our life to search out the deeper things of God, to somehow learn more of His great wisdom and His great ways for His people.

And we definitely will find that in this sermon. This sermon that Jesus taught, the Sermon on the Mount, is a very strange sermon. In fact, somebody said it this way: if you would take the Sermon on the Mount and you would turn it inside out, it would sort of describe the human race. Just totally upside down and backwards from our human nature. How many of you ever visited Gravity Hill out here in Western Pennsylvania? John's been there.

Well, if you see the billboards along the turnpike, they advertise the place where gravity has just gone berserk. I think it says gravity is defied at that place. My wife and I went there, our family, I think our children are young yet. We visited the place, and it says the rivers run uphill, or the streams run uphill, and your car will drift uphill. And it's just that optical illusion.

And if you go there— I think Kurt Stewart told me once, they were there, he said he was so convinced that our car should be going this way when it actually went the opposite way. "I got out of the car," he said, "and I put my face, my eyesight, down on the road to somehow measure, to see this in real life." It's just upside down. It's backwards from the way things should flow in our minds. And you know, the Sermon on the Mount is sort of that way.

The things that Jesus teaches us in this message, it just simply goes against the flow of humanity. In fact, in the sermon, I just want to notice this: he addressed six groups of people that he sort of zeroed in. One group was the scribes and the Pharisees. He said, "Don't be like them." And another group of people is the publicans. He said, "Don't be like them." And another group is the hypocrites. He's like, "Don't be like them." Another group is the heathen. Don't pray like they pray. They make long prayers.

Did you ever hear a heathen pray? Jesus said they stand in the corner of the street with these long prayers to be seen and heard of men. He said, "Don't be like them." Another group of people he used is the Gentiles. When it comes to the pursuit of security and things in this life that bring security, he said, "Don't be like the Gentiles." And then another group was the false prophets.

Now, if you take the false prophets and the Gentiles and the heathen and the hypocrites and the publicans and the scribes and the Pharisees, and you take them out of the human race, what do you have left? Think about it. It's going to be a narrowed down, screened out few people that are actually taking their instruction from Jesus Christ. This kingdom that he is introducing in this message has no armies. This is a kingdom with no weapons.

Let's just turn our Bibles to Isaiah 2, Isaiah chapter 2, a couple verses there that I think is a really good introduction. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 1 through 5. "The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, 'Come, ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." I don't— I'm saying, I'm sure there's a lot of commentators that would say we're taking it out of context. But I see something here that I think is an introduction. It is to the people that were there and they heard that prophecy. What do you think went through their mind? He's talking about a time when there's going to be peace. The weapons are going to be taken and used to do yard work and prune trees and plow the fields.

And there's going to be no more war. I had a man tell me once, "It can be talking about the time of now, of Jesus' time, because it says the nations will not learn war anymore." And the nations still are learning war today. So he said it doesn't apply. But the nations here could mean the nations of God, the nations of Jesus Christ.

Remember Jesus told the scribes and the Pharisees that, "I'm going to take this kingdom from you, and I'm going to give it to a nation that brings forth fruits thereof." And that is the new nation that I think is pointing forward to in Isaiah, is the nation of the people of Jesus Christ. Those that have yielded and listened to Jesus and become the new children of Abraham, descendants. You notice there it says in verse 2 that this is going to be established on the top of the mountains.

I think it fits the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus went up on the mountain and he sat, and the multitudes were there. And if you read of the multitudes there, they were Gentiles and Jews from Jewish cities and Gentile cities. And here he says that the nations shall flow into it, meaning Jews and Gentiles. They shall flow into this, and many people shall go and say, "Come, ye, and let us go to the mountain." Now, a picture of Jesus there giving that sermon that is so upside down and backwards from man's thinking.

But it is a very positive pointing forward to something so much better that these people ever experienced. No more weapons, no more war, no more armies, no more taxes in that kingdom. The Bible says, "Freely you have received, so freely give." Let's think of the purpose. Look at the purpose of this sermon, just a few, and I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm missing in this list here. But a few things that stood out as we do a little overview of the Sermon on the Mount.

I think one of the purposes is found in verse 17 of chapter 5. He makes it clear to his audience here, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill." He wants his audience to know uphand. So he's just minutes into this sermon, and he makes that expression. So every preacher or teacher that gets up, often the audience is trying to figure this person out. Maybe you're trying to figure me out this morning. Well, they were trying to figure out Jesus there.

Who is he? What is he saying? Where's he come from? And then he just clarifies that. He said, "I didn't come to destroy the law and what the prophets were saying for thousands of years, but I came to fulfill him." That is letting his audience know that he is the promised one. He's the anointed one. He is the Messiah. He came this way with a purpose. The next thing I want to notice for a purpose is in verse 20 of chapter 5. He says to his audience, "This one thing I want you to know.

I say to you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." What do you think that did to his audience? Now, he's lifting a standard way above, way higher, and way deeper than these folks ever knew. So the purpose of the sermon, and I think the overarching, the ultimate purpose of this sermon is found in the closing of it in verse 7. Sorry, chapter 7 in verses 24 and 25.

When he finished his sermon, he told his audience, "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." Folks, there is no better place than that, is there? When you're in a house—now, they tell me in the state of Kansas and some of these tornado-prone states, they have a new code with it.

When you build a new house, you build the house with a storm shelter, a tornado room built right into the house. And that room is so disguised in the rest of the house, but it has a set of pillars, anchors, cables that are binding it to the earth. And when a storm comes, the tornado comes, everything blows away, but that room. That's a picture that we get.

When Jesus says, "The wind's going to blow, the floods are going to come, the waters are going to raise, and everything else is going to go, but your house, because your house is built upon the rock." Folks, we're not going to get into that house without—we're not going to get—there's only one way into that house, and it's through the teachings of Jesus. He says, "If you hear them, that's not good enough, but if you apply them, you're going to be in that house." So that's the positive part of this sermon.

The Sermon of the Mount's purpose is not to deprive us from life, not to deprive us from the good things of life. It's to put us in a good way and to put us in the house that's going to stand throughout all eternity. And the very burden of Jesus' heart in this sermon comes also, I believe, from where he said to Jerusalem once, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together? As a hen gathers her chickens under her wings." That picture is a picture that we see right here in these verses.

Now, a chicken with her hens—you young folks, just for education here, I don't know how many of you ever saw a mother chicken with a brood of babies. That's something we don't have on our farms today or in your backyards, do you? The picture of that—I'll just go back. At home, we had these mother hens often running around the farm. And the picture that Jesus gives here is so beautiful. I remember one day there was a thunderstorm coming up. It was one of those that got up.

I mean, the next thing, the skies blew and dark in the west. And it seemed like minutes later, some of them can come very quickly, and this was one of them. And here was this hen out there with all her scattered brood all around the driveway and back in the shed and so on. And this storm hit. We didn't even make it to the house. We made it to the barn. And that mother chicken did her clucking sound, and she gathered all her babies together. And she didn't make it to the barn.

When the storm hit, she was sitting in the middle of the driveway with her chickens under her wings, safely protected. It was a beautiful picture. That hen was there just weathering the wind and the rain, the storm, and every little chicken was safe. That's what Jesus says. "My heart for my people is just that way." But he said to Jerusalem, "But you would not. You would not." "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it.

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail." There's something so different about the kingdom of God from the Old Covenant. Jesus brings it out in several ways. He says in Luke 16, verse 16 and 17, he says, "Every man presses into it." We don't really see that in the Old Covenant, do we? It was a different rule there. You were a part of the family of God, not so much by choice. You were born into it.

But the kingdom of God is made up of those men and women that choose for it, and they press into it. Jesus says another place that the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violence take it by force. I don't know what all that means, but I get the picture that like the mother hen that says, "Cluck, cluck, cluck," there's a storm coming. Every little chicken has to make a choice to run to safety. And Jesus is teaching his audience here, "There are many other ways, but there's only one way to safety.

Hear my instruction." Now, verse 1 and 2 of Matthew 5. I'll read them. We're not going to get very far in this here today. "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying." Now, if we back up a verse in 25 of chapter 4, "And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and so on, the different cities." If you look at those cities on your map, you'll see it covers about a 100-mile radius.

And in those cities are Gentiles and Jews. So you have a mixed multitude. We just assume. And he just got done doing some healing and casting out and so on in verse 24. And I assume, we assume that in verse 1 of 5, that this is the multitude that is following him. Now, we don't know for sure if this multitude followed him up to the mountain or not. It does say that when he sat, when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And there's some commentators that say that this message is only for the Christian, for the believer. It was only for the disciples. It was not a public message. How they know for sure, I don't think we see that here. I tend to believe that the multitudes that were following, some made it there and others maybe not. They were more in a distance. It says the disciples went unto him. He taught them. But it still doesn't say if he taught only the disciples or part of the multitude or the whole multitude.

We don't have that for sure. But I would like to believe, and I would like to argue the fact that this message has enough of content in it that whether you're a Christian or not today, that it's going to do a good work in your heart. It is definitely for the Christian. But I'm going to say in my own testimony that the Sermon on the Mount was very instrumental in my own life to bring me to Jesus Christ.

When I looked at the high standard of holiness, the high standard of expectation that Jesus had, victory over lust, victory over anger, and I say, "I don't measure up to that. I can't be that." And it brought me to the place where I realized I need Jesus in a deep way. I need him in a deep way. So I believe there is a gospel message in the Sermon on the Mount to bring even the unbeliever to Jesus Christ.

While he was setting, I don't know if the crowd was standing or not, but in history, we see it seemed the rabbi's way was to sit. The Bible talks about Moses' seat. And so apparently the teachers in that time, they sat. Maybe the audience stood, but that was his teaching position, was sitting. He had a purpose in this message, and we talked about that a bit. But I see this as a new Moses. The prophecy was that Jesus is going to come as a Moses. And we see that he's going into the mountain.

The covenant, the teaching of the Old Covenant were given on the mountain to Moses. Just what set Moses and the Israelites apart in the covenant in the Old Testament. So this sets us apart as God's people from the rest of the world. And back to Gravity Hill again. If you're going with the flow today, let me say this, and let me warn you, if you are going with the flow, you're flowing the wrong way. It's just that simple. Jesus teaches that very clearly. All right, the Beatitudes.

Verse 3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Now, the title in our Bible says the Beatitudes, and that word is not necessarily found in our Bible. The word Beatitude simply, I guess, blessed is an English word that's a little hard to define. Beatitude simply comes from a Latin word, the way I understand, that has the idea or in it has the idea of being blessed. Well, what does blessed mean? It's not really an English word that we use.

I think some of your translations say happy for the word blessed. There's some other words that are synonyms for blessed. Happy is one of them, possibly, but to me, happy just doesn't really fit because happy are those that mourn. Does that fit? So I'm mourning at the same time I'm happy. Don't know if that really fits. What about we're happy when we're persecuted? Well, we can be joyful. I don't know that we're really happy when we're persecuted. So I think it goes a little deeper than happy. It doesn't quite fit.

I don't know exactly how to explain it. One definition I saw, it has the idea of being beautified. And I sort of like that. Jesus is glorified. We're not glorified, not yet. Trust, we will someday. But we are beautified as Christians, are we not? When our character and our spirit has come under the rule of Jesus, we're made beautiful. The title of this message this morning is The Gateway to God's Kingdom as we look at the Beatitudes. The Gateway to God's Kingdom.

The first thing he said when he opened his mouth and taught them, he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." That word blessed is found in the next nine statements, and then every one of those is backed up with a reward. The word blessed, whatever it means for sure, it is a great Bible word because it is used hundreds of times in the Bible. And if we think of it, the opposite of cursing. When someone curses you, have you ever been cursed out? Just one person here is nodding yes.

I've been cursed out at least once, probably in life. And there's a heaviness that goes with that. I don't know if there's some sort of a spirit that comes on you from the person cursing you out. Let's think of the opposite of that. When you are blessed by God, you're lifted up, you're enlightened, you're made beautiful. You add all the nice words to that word blessed. Well, what is the poor in spirit?

I think we need to do a little bit of comparison in the other sermon that Jesus preached in the Gospel of Luke called the Sermon of the Plain, the Sermon on the Plain. He said in Luke 6:20, he says, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Why would Jesus call the poor blessed? Now, Luke, he says the poor, and Matthew, he says the poor in spirit.

Remember, Jesus said this, the quote from Isaiah, I believe, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." But Jesus also preached the gospel to the rich. It did seem the poor, for the most part, were the ones that responded, generally speaking, more so than the rich.

Remember, James says, "He hath not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him." Then he goes on and says, "It's the rich that oppress you, but God has chosen the poor." We see that in Jesus' earthly ministry as he went around sharing the gospel, that the poor often were the responders to that. But in this case, he says the poor in the spirit. And what does that mean?

David Burceau, in his commentary, points out that the early Christians understood this to mean one of two things. Number one, the humble in spirit. So poor in spirit, humble in spirit could be sort of the same idea, for sure. Number two was those who embraced poverty for spiritual reasons. When we look at those that were persecuted in the past and still today are willing to leave their things behind for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of their faith, that could mean poor in spirit.

They're willing in their spirit to leave behind the things that really matter for the sake of their faith. Isaiah 66:2 says, "But to this man was look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembloth at my word." God is going to look at that kind of spirit to do his work.

Micah 6:8 says, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God?" Jesus says in another place, "Except you be converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God." It was said of Saul that when he was little in his own eyes, in his own sight, God anointed him king. But Saul became big in his spirit. He became proud in his spirit, and God couldn't use him anymore.

And I think that is a good description of one that is poor in spirit is when he's little in his own sight. It doesn't mean he thinks nothing about himself or he beats down on himself. He just doesn't really think about himself, period. David said when he was repenting that God wasn't so interested in sacrifice or burnt offering, but a broken spirit and a contrite heart, "O God, thou wilt not despise." Now, Jesus is getting ready in his sermon in the next chapters to talk about some really hard things.

Like I said, that just goes counter to our own will and human nature. But first of all, he's preparing a heart that is teachable, pliable, a character that is broken before him. One that is poor in spirit, I think of blind Bartimaeus. He was just honest. He was blind, and he came and he cried after Jesus. And the crowd said, "Would you just shut up?" They got tired of his crying after Jesus. And Jesus paid attention to him, says, "What is it?" He said, "I want to see." He was honest.

Those are the people that Jesus came to. Those that received him, those that were honest, those that were that's who he's going to put in that house that is protected from the storm. It's those that are poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn, verse 4, "For they shall be comforted." What does that mean? Anybody want to say what does mourning mean in real life? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Any suggestions? We better figure it out because Jesus says you're going to be blessed.

And he says you're going to be comforted if you learn how to mourn. Any of the ladies have a clue? What does it mean? What does it sound like? What are some other words to describe it? Mourn. I would say inconsolable sorrow. Sorrow, inconsolable sorrow. That's, I think, a very good description. Not just any old mourning will do, will it? Because Paul says that the world mourns too. I mean, people are mourning right now over the high fuel prices. People are mourning over taxes.

I know a man the other several months ago, it looked like he was going to lose his job, and he cried. He was a growing man. He cried. I know a lady that when one of her chickens die, she cries. She mourns. The world mourns. There's a special mourning here, and I think it has direct connection with the sin that we commit. Do we take seriously the sins that we commit? David mourned before the Lord. He begged of God.

He took a whole chapter in Psalm 51, I believe, where he said, "My sin is ever before me." God, what are we going to do about this? It's so heavy. Would you take it away? It affected so many people. That is a sorrow, a mourning over our sin. And Jesus says, "If you mourn over your sin, you're going to be blessed and you're going to be comforted." Genuine mourning does not blame shift. It doesn't rationalize. James says it this way. In James chapter 4, he says, "Clean your hands, you sinners." How do we do that?

"And purify your hearts, you double-minded." Now, he's talking to the church. He's talking to Christians. In the church, there were those that were in sin. And he said, "You need to cleanse yourself." How do we do that? There were double-minded people right into the brotherhood in James.

"You need to purify," he says, "be afflicted and mourn and weep, and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." Don't excuse, don't blame, don't say it's because somehow my culture, my background, my parents, my siblings, whatever it might be. Take it and own it and mourn over it. Paul says godly sorrow brings about repentance to salvation.

Now, there is those that say, "Oh, you believe the Sermon on the Mount if you just obey it and live it, that it'll automatically make you a Christian." I don't think so. I believe it drives us to a place on our face before God because it begins, the new message begins with repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, chapter 4, Matthew. So it begins with repentance. And this mourning is a part of repenting. When I wrong someone, I better go make it right with a sincerity and a sorrow behind it.

It has to do with getting right and, according to James, staying right in our relationships. I think it also connects and speaks about the sin and the darkness around us. Jesus, when he was riding that young colt into Jerusalem, remember the crowds were rejoicing and putting out palm branches and the disciples were rejoicing so loudly, apparently.

The Pharisees said, "Would you just make them be quiet?" And Jesus said, "If they be quiet, these stones are going to cry out." But then as Jesus neared the city, the Bible says when he saw Jerusalem, he wept. That is a sorrow because Jesus saw the sin, the abomination, the rejection that was there. So Jesus knew what it meant to mourn over the sin around him. Jesus didn't look lightly at sin, and neither should we. Did you know that sin is the only thing that gets between you and your Savior?

It's the only thing that separates you from your Maker. It's the only thing that separates your loved one. Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's a neighbor that you dearly love. Sin is the only thing that will separate your neighbor from his Creator. And we shouldn't look at that lightly. We should mourn. And folks, as long as we're in this world, there's going to be a certain heaviness that sin does around us. Even when we have confessed and brought our sin to the cross, sin is still all around us.

And we're not completely redeemed from that, can I say. I want to be understood here. Revelations tells us it's part of the former things. It's okay for us to cry. Jesus cried when he saw the sin and the wickedness. It's okay for us to lament if you have a family member that's not right with Jesus. You can cry all night long. Jesus will understand that. And that will never go away. Does that mean I can't be joyful in life? No, it doesn't.

But it does mean there's a certain sorrow that's going to be with us until Jesus comes back and will fully redeem us. And Jesus carries that as well. We see that in Revelation chapter 5 when John the Revelator saw into heaven. Jesus, in his glorified body, he was still carrying the marks of sin of the world. He was seen there as a lamb that has been slain, still wearing the scars. Even in his glorified state. Now, I believe there's a time that's all going to go away when all things are going to be made right.

But while we're in this life, we are interacting with what Revelations calls the former things. In the list of that former things in Revelation, we see it is death, it is sorrow, it is crying, and it is pain that will always be here. We can't get away from it. We can't run away from it. And Jesus is teaching us here, there's a day coming. If you have a healthy sorrow and you sorrow over the things you need to sorrow over, you will be comforted.

And it's going to be that day when Jesus himself or God himself is going to get out his handkerchief and he's going to wipe away the tears of sorrow, the tears of mourning. Let's learn how to mourn healthily. Let's not look at sin lightly. Let's call it what it is. Blessed are the meek. We're going to be done shortly. Verse 5, "For they shall inherit the earth." What are the meek? There again, one of those words that there's other words that could describe it. It's a word with a lot of definition.

It's like some of the German words like "Gelassenheit." Takes a whole sentence to explain that one. We have a couple of those in Pennsylvania Dutch. My boys say there's no English word to describe that word and there's no sentence that completely describes it. What does meek mean? That has been, I think, a misunderstood. Well, this meek person must be a timid person, one that is easily run over, one that is sort of weak and well, Moses was the meekest man on earth, I think the Bible says. Was he weak? Was he timid?

Not really. I mean, he was very strong, very influential. Jesus was another example. He says, "I am meek and lowly in heart." Was he timid? Was he weak? I'm glad he wasn't. He would have never come to this earth, would he? Paul was a meek person. Was he easily run over? Not really. I don't know what it all means. James says, "Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your soul." That gives us a little bit of a window in possibly how James saw the word.

When we receive some instruction, we do it with meekness. A meek person is going to receive instruction. He's going to come under the greater rule. He's going to be teachable. He's going to be subject. He's going to be submissive. Ladies, wives, you're going to be submissive to your husbands if you're meek. If you're not meek, you probably won't be. I think of another word that would fit here, I think, would be surrender. Surrender would be there, I believe.

The word meek has been defined as a wild stallion that has been tamed by man and his strength has been brought under subjection to his master. That's a pretty good picture, isn't it? When I was about 16 years old, we had a neighbor that was an Amish family, and they had children that were younger than me. Their oldest sons were several years younger than me. And old Jake one day said, "Hey, our family's going to go on a trip.

We need to get away from this farm for a number of days." I can't say how long it was anyway. "Would you come and oversee our farm while we go away? And I'm going to let my two oldest boys here to help you." They had a dairy and we milked the cows and did all the chores. And I lived there, spent the night with them. And one night we were there just ready to go to bed and here comes two guys knocking at the door. This was in the winter and it was cold and dark outside. I'm like half spooked.

What are these guys doing this time of the night? And they said, "We just got stuck out here along the highway. We ran off the road and we got into the field and we got into not only snow, but there's mud underneath. The ground's not frozen and they have a heavy straight truck. Do you have a big tractor around here that you could pull us out?" And I said, "Well, this place farms with horses and we have no tractors around here.

But I think if we take a nice good team of horses out there, we could probably pull you out." And they just laughed. They said, "Well, the way we're stuck, you need a whole barn full of horses to pull us out." I said, "Well, we'll just come out there with four ones and see what four can do." Four mules. I went to John, was the oldest son of the family. I said, "You tell me which are your best four mules and we'll make a team and we'll go and pull these guys out." And they laughed. They got a kick out of this.

So I said, "Give us 15 minutes or so. We'll have a team out there with a cart and a chain." And we went out. Sure enough, it was a big heavy straight truck and loaded with I think they were construction workers, a load of tools or whatever it was yet. I'm like, "Boy, I scratched my head. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about this." But those were well-trained mules. And we backed them up to the truck and we gave them the word and they just pulled that truck out of the mud like it was a piece of toy.

And these guys just couldn't believe the strength behind these mules. And I'm here to say that those mules, if it wasn't for their subjection under their master, that loose power that they have would have never been captured. And I think it's that way with us. We have so much potential, just like the wild horse that has so much power and strength and potential. But if it's not harnessed and put to good use, it's pretty worthless.

If those four mules would have went out there on their own without a master, without training, without brokenness, without a heart that has been surrendered and made meek under the authority of their master, they would have never touched the truck. It would have never come out of the mud. It is that way with us, folks.

If we take all the resources that God put in here and we just focus them in on ourself and we just make bigger biceps with our muscles and strength and we never get it harnessed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, guess what? We're going to be vain and empty and we're never going to make it to this inheritance. We're never going to make it to the house that is sheltered and protected by Jesus Christ because we're doing our own thing. Just like the wild mule and the wild horse.

Folks, today, the call is to have a heart that is broken and contrite, as David says, and meek and brought under subjection and harnessed by Jesus Christ. And we're going to be shining. We're going to live the Sermon on the Mount with enthusiasm, not perfectly, but by the help and the instruction of Jesus Christ. We will make it. He says, "You're going to inherit the earth." God promised to Abraham the land to Abraham and his seed. We see the promises in the Old Testament to Abraham and to his seed for a land.

I had a man ask me once, "What does this mean in Matthew when it says, 'You will inherit the earth'?" Does that mean that if we abide by Jesus' teaching, somehow we're gaining the earth and earthly possessions and so on? What is this meaning? Well, let's go to Abraham.

Hebrews tells us, "By faith, Abraham sojourned in the land of promise." So Abraham sort of got part of the land of promise according to Hebrews, but he said he dwelt there as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

So if we look at that passage in Hebrews, the promise in the Old Testament to Abraham for the land, I don't think it meant something that is here on this earth. I think it was pointing forward to something much greater than soil on this earth. I think it was a shadow of a much greater place. According to this, he lived there as a stranger, as a pilgrim, and he looked for a city that is better than what he had.

Peter said, "According to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness." And that's not going to happen here on the soil of this earth, is it? Where all things are made right, there's righteousness. Peter says we're looking for a new one and it's heaven and earth. And I think this connects with what Jesus says, that there's something in store for you. He calls it earth. But it's going to be an earth that's new.

It's going to be an earth that dwells with righteousness and all things are going to be made right. That is what we'll end with today. Let's give God our best. Let's give Jesus a loyal heart. His eyes are looking for you. The Bible says, "Go to and fro over the whole world to look for those that are of a loyal heart." May God bless you. Any thoughts before we pray?