Well, we almost got snow. It was close.

I saw a picture from my hometown up in Louisville, and they had plenty of snow, and I was jealous. I must say I was jealous. I like snow, so we just get cold rain, I think, is all we get. I was teasing this last night. Yeah, yeah, a little.

So, we’ll be in Matthew this morning, Matthew chapter 5, verse 5. Matthew chapter 5, verse 5.

If you have your Bible, I encourage you to turn with me to Matthew 5, 5.

And here’s what Jesus said. He said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

When you get older, I think, and you start driving, one of the great frustrations you can come across, you can deal with this, maybe you have, good for you if you haven’t, is getting a speeding ticket.

The first speeding ticket I got, it was on the way back to Kentucky from Alabama. It was the first time I’d been to Huntsville. I was checking it out. I had a job interview, so I was racing home to get back to… I worked night shift at UPS back then. And I’m racing back, and I’m going faster than I should be going, I guess. I had my reasons, and the cop didn’t think they were very valid reasons. But not only was I speeding, I was in a work zone.

So, the ticket was double. The ticket ended up being, I think it was over $400. It was bad. So, I was very, very unhappy about… that it was not good. But when you get a speeding ticket,

what are you going to do? Because on the one hand, it’s aggravating, because you have to deal with the consequences of it. It’s your fault when you speed, right? We all know we’re not supposed to do it. On the other hand, well, you know, it was just, and it was a consequence you deserve. So, it was right, but man, I hate that it was right, because now I’m eating the consequences of what I’ve done. But past, I think, the consequences that we deal with like that, that on a daily basis, that frustrate us. So much of what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Beatitudes, He’s trying to prepare us for what will be the consequences of eternity.

And as I say it, I think often we lose our bearings on the brevity of this life and on how long forever goes. And so Jesus says, I think, this amazing thing here in verse 5. He says, In His kingdom, the meek disciple will not get what they deserve. In fact, the meek person in His kingdom will enjoy something far greater than what he deserves. And I think when you hear the word meek, I don’t think a lot of us even know what that means. And I don’t think a lot of us are rushing to be meek. It’s not something that we value as a society, to be a meek person. So, Jesus says, though, in His kingdom, blessed are the meek. Because they’re going to inherit something far greater and something far better than the consequences of their lives, of their actions, of what they deserve. So that’s what I want us to consider this morning. Why are the meek blessed?

So Jesus says, blessed are the meek. So here again, Jesus is doing what He’s been doing. He’s working out these, what we’re calling, upside-down priorities of the kingdom. Right? This is the way and this is the manner of that disciple that wholeheartedly looks forward to desires to live with Jesus in His kingdom. So Jesus is describing these virtues of a kingdom citizen. If you want to be in Jesus’ kingdom, you better manifest all of these qualities. Because all of these qualities, they’re manifested perfectly in the king of this kingdom. So they better be in you. Perfectly. Jesus says, As my heavenly Father is perfect, so you must also be perfect. So see what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus is doing in the Beatitudes is He’s schooling us in the perfections of His Father. Jesus is schooling us in His own perfections. That’s what He’s doing. And so He says, Blessed, fortunate, happy, favored is the meek person. Now, I don’t want us to get the idea that any of these Beatitudes stand on their own and they’re divorced from the rest. Now, each of them does have a particular point to make. They each draw out a heavenly quality, yes. But they together make up one whole happy heavenly man. They’re complementary. So it’s the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, perfectly observed all together. But this Beatitude here in verse 5, the meek, it is most closely linked with the Beatitude we considered last week. The first one. Blessed are the poor. And spirit. It grows out of the poverty and spirit. You would be a meek person if you truly were someone who’s poor in spirit. So the question then becomes, why are they connected and how are they connected? I want to go back to Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. Let me read that. And here’s what the prophet writes. He says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous. And having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So Israel, up to this point, has long been thrown into Assyrian captivity. The southern kingdom of Judah has been thrown into Babylonian captivity. And shortly after, the Persians defeat the Babylonians. And the Persians allow some of the Jews to go back home, home to Judah, and rebuild the temple. But you have to ask, now why are they in captivity in the first place? And why is the temple broken down in the first place? I thought these were God’s chosen people. Well, they’re in captivity because they became rich in spirit towards God. They started loving false gods. They stopped depending on God. They loved wickedness. They intermingled with the nations. They walked away from the riches of God. So God said, hey, you want to have your riches? Go for it. And where did it land them? It landed them in captivity with the temple of God broken down. So these people, they should really be annihilated. That’s what they should be.

Yet, they don’t deserve. God allows them to survive as a people. He’s promised it. God’s also promised a future Messiah who will save them from their sins. So see Zechariah’s prophecy. It’s coming to a people who are in a great depression because of their captivity, because of what they’ve lost. Yet, it comes as a very warm, undeserved reminder from the Lord. You should rejoice. Because as bad as it is, listen to me, a Messiah is going to come and save you from your sins. So it’s a good word to a people that don’t deserve it. It’s a good word to an undeserving, undevoted people. But even in that, I want you to see this. It’s not just a reminder about the Messiah to come. It is a graphic word picture. Because for these people, here’s what they’re thinking, and they were thinking this in Jesus’ day. When this Messiah comes, He’s going to come in like royal garb, and He’s going to come with the prestige of a kingdom, and He’s going to be like on this mighty war horse, and He’s going to have this sword in His hand, and He’s going to take out our enemies. That’s not how He came. And what they don’t realize is you don’t want Him to come like that. Because if Jesus came like that, you know what that would mean? We would be counting enemies too, because Jew or Gentile, Jesus is coming to address the sin problem. So they don’t even realize what kind, what kind of Savior they need. What kind of Messiah? Yet Zechariah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 21 when Jesus comes in on the cold, on the young donkey, and everyone’s waving the palm branches at Him, His triumphal entry. So see what Jesus has done, okay? Jesus has come in a disposition of humility and gentleness to deal with people with humility and gentleness in a way they do not deserve. So understanding what meek is. Meek does not mean someone who lacks vigor, strength, and power. That’s not meek. Meek is someone who could aggressively attack, who could deal harshly, yet the meek person chooses to treat all people as they don’t deserve. It is a power of self-control to deal kindly and gently with those who do not deserve it. It is a refusal to be offended or take offense. Is that not how God in Christ Jesus first treated us in our sins and our rebellion? It certainly is. When we receive that grace and mercy, we’re changed. I’m changing my dealings with God. I realize I am poor in spirit and God could have wiped me out, yet He didn’t. He came gentle to me and loved me. So now my disposition towards God’s changed, but here’s what it does. It changes my disposition with people to love them as Christ loved me, to treat with them as they don’t deserve. That’s what meekness, that’s how I guess it grows out of the poverty of spirits, how it translates. I surrender myself to God, but then with Jesus I also surrender myself to the welfare of other people. And I think you’d have to agree with me, that’s a great feat. And I don’t have to tell you why. Because you’re a sinful person, living in a sinful world with sinful people. And getting back at or taking revenge, that’s a hallmark of sin. That’s a sinful human nature. And before we even outwardly get back at people or do what we could do, even if it’s deserved at that person, we inwardly struggle to hate. And we have bitterness and it festers inside of us against that person or far worse. We let bitterness and malice just fester and grow over a long period and it’ll ruin your life and it does ruin people’s life. You just let someone else own you. We just can’t stand being wrong. The pride of life wells up. And we defend, we protect our character. It’s my reputation. It’s my possessions. It’s my loved ones. The counterattack becomes the only logical and effective move to self-preserve from the one who is hurt. That’s what it is.

But, the person then that has encountered the meekness of Christ has been dumbfounded. You ever been dumbfounded?

Dumbfounded. Dumbfounded by heaven’s kindness that teaches us not to repay evil with evil, but to do this incredible thing, what man would never do, repay evil with good. So the why becomes irrelevant. Like, hey, why were you hurt? Like, who hurt you? How bad did they hurt you? Was it really bad? Because maybe if the threshold would go high enough, it doesn’t matter. And here’s why it doesn’t matter, because the Scriptures, whether you like it or not, it puts a blanket over this beatitude. The Scriptures say, live at peace with all. The Scriptures say, be kind to all. The Scriptures say, do honorably by all. So the why is irrelevant because if we’ve become new creations in Christ Jesus, what’s that mean? It means I’m going to deal with people as Christ does. How I would have before, it’s irrelevant. I’m empowered by the Spirit to do this. Suffer wrong at the hands of others. So then there’s a great deficiency in the Christ-less man to deal with people. He doesn’t deal well with evil when he’s treated evil. Why? Well, because evil is still his guiding compass. Self-preservation, his highest aim. But when we come to Christ, when we’re made new creations in Him, we forfeit a lot of things. And what we forfeit are our rights, our rights to defend, our rights to attack, and rather, here’s what Jesus calls us to do, to love as He loved us, to forgive as He has forgiven us, to show kindness, humility, and gentleness. Where it is not deserved as we experience. Friends, we have no home here. One song I love says, we have no abiding city here. Our treasure is hidden in Christ with God in the heavenly places. And no man can change that. No man can take that away. What matters most to us. And so when you and I choose to play the old game of revenge and getting back and sulking, you know what it does? It reinforces for the offending part There is no meek, mild Savior who’s come to love. There is no better news than defending oneself and throwing a punch when you are punched. We ruin the gospel message. And you know what else we do? I don’t know if it’s worse, but it feels worse. We lose our joy. We live in the false narrative we’ve been called out of. We start living like a way that Jesus showed us. Hey, don’t live like that. Let me show you how I love you. Friends, we must maintain our joy that we have been loved. And so learn in the Spirit to do the same out. So no one wins when evil is repaid for evil. But this is what Paul says in writing to Titus. He says, Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. To be obedient. To be ready for every good work. To speak evil of some people. Like the really big jerks. It’s not what it says, is it? It says speak evil of no one. No one. Avoid quarreling. Be gentle. Show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared, He saved us. Not because of works, done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Paul can just say things good, can’t he? He just says things well. Friends, we magnify the gospel of a loving, meek Savior when we receive evil, but we refuse to give it. With our words and our lives, we proclaim a God who woos, gently, sinners into His arms, sinners into His family, sinners into His kingdom. We proclaim a God that could have crushed us, yet He did not lift a finger to crush us. Rather, He came to wash our feet. This Savior came to speak kindly and gently with us. This Savior came and was crushed in our place. This is a humble, gentle, meek God and Savior. Are we this way? Let me ask you something. If this perfect, sinless, guiltless Savior, He did not respond, He did not react when evil was paid to Him, and He could have, and it wouldn’t have been wrong on His part, how is it that we in the pride of flesh dare offend and be offended? We so often do that. We demand our rights. Let us look to that holy, perfect Savior who on the cross said, Father, forgive them.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, says this, In the face of the cross, the disciples realized that they too were His enemies and that He had overcome them by His love. It is this that opens the disciples’ eyes and enables Him to see His enemy as His brother. He knows that He owes His very life to one who though He was His enemy, treated Him as a brother and accepted Him, who made Him His neighbor, and drew Him into fellowship with Himself. The disciple can now perceive that even His enemy is the object of God’s love and that He stands like Himself beneath the cross of Christ. God asked us nothing about our virtues or our vices, for in His sight, even our virtue was ungodliness.

And I can do this, and I will admit that I do this. I can think about things that people did to me or said to me months ago, years ago. I’m sitting there like, that person, gosh, it was so unfair. I should have said, you know what? Ugh. Ugh. Like a role playing in my head. Like all this stuff. Maybe you don’t do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. And you know what I’ve learned the best thing to do in moments like that?

Pray. For them. For them. Lord, I’m a sinner too. You know, really how they hurt me, but Lord, you forgive me. Forgive them. I pray your best for them. I pray they would be holy and walk in you in all obedience. Bless them. Bless their life. And Lord, keep shaping me into the person of Jesus to love, to forgive, and to forget. It’s the only thing to do, actually.

And I say, that’s big scale. Here’s small scale. You know how many times I’ve told my kids, sit down when you eat dinner and they don’t do it? Every time.

And this past Tuesday night, Darcy’s bouncing around. She’s bouncing up and down like a frog while she’s eating. And she flies back and she lands and she’s crying. She’s on the floor and weeping. And I wanted to say, ha! It’s your fault. I told you. Told you. But I was preparing a sermon on meekness, so I just picked her up. And I, Darcy, you shouldn’t do that. And Jesse said, what are you doing? And I said, I’m practicing being meek.

The Lord throws it in our face, and that’s good.

Friends, it is, it isn’t that we must, but we get to be kind and gentle when it isn’t deserved. We get to magnify the Savior in our response to evil. We must consider Him who though He was in the form of God made Himself a servant of all. And let me say also, this is not a prohibition against anger or correction. Like meekness means like everybody gets, you know, away with everything. We all just have to kind of be jellyfish around each other. That’s not what it means. What it means is I’m going to change my approach and how I’m going to change my approach and how I correct you and how I deal with my anger. So for me, I would browbeat you. Right? Because I just want to do that. But for you, I’m going to take time and I’m going to like pray that through and I’m going to like work that out. Hey Lord, how can I go to this person and love them in a way that’s going to be for their benefit? The first way was for me. The second way was for you. And so I’ve got to always be considering in even the hardest places, Lord, what’s it look like to be meek and how I deal with people so that I can be meek? It exalts you.

Look back at verse 5 with me.

So it says, Blessed are the meek

for they shall inherit the earth. They shall inherit the earth. So the earth here in verse 5 is synonymous with the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven that we saw in verse 3. In verse 3, remember we talked about the kingdom of heaven. It was a present reality different from the other ones. It was something you get now. So like when you, I’m going to repent of myself. I’m placing faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is coming in me bringing back the spiritual life and what happens immediately, the spiritual rule and reign of God is in my heart and in my life. So that’s a blessed reality for the Christian now though we live in a fallen, broken world. Jesus talking about the future inheritance of the earth, that’s the kingdom of heaven fully realized. When not just one or two or three of us or those of us in the church have the spiritual rule and reign of God in our heart, that’s when the whole earth is filled with God’s glory. That’s when every person, every creature, the whole world, the universe is perfected and free from sin. In 2 Peter, the apostle says it like this, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So all things will be made new. All things will be, all things will be made right to future reality. And if you’re a Christian, you know what you should be doing? Looking forward to the future reality. But the problem with the future is what? It’s not now. So as good as it is, as great as, as much as we desire it, you can’t have it now. So the meek disciple has to learn how to do this thing. And we hate to do this as people. Wait.

We’ve got to learn the great art of patience. Patience is part and parcel with being a meek person. I can’t be meek in spurts. Like I was meek that one time. It’s pretty good. That’s not this. If I’m meek, it’s a whole new way of life in every situation. I want us to look at Psalm 37.7 because here the psalmist more fully contemplates the meek disciple. Look at it with me. The psalmist says, be still. That’s hard to do. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off. Future, they will be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord, what? They’ll inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked, will be no more. Though you look carefully at His place, He will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

So the psalmist says, hey, the wicked man, you know, really he does what he wants to do when he wants to do it. The wicked man takes what he wants to take when he wants to take it. The wicked man deals with people however he wants to deal with people. And yet, a lot of times, I think we look at godless, wicked people and it’s like, man, their life is blessed and they have a lot and they seem to be really happy. They seem to have like a lot of peace. But it’s not. The wicked man, through pride and self-assertion, has gotten what he has gotten. Many good things, but he’s gotten them in the wrong way. There are good things, but they can’t be attained in the wrong way. And so everything he has, it will sour in the end, the psalmist says. But then there’s the meek disciple. And the meek disciple, though he does not now seem to prosper as the wicked prospers, he knows his inheritance will be far greater than what the wicked man gets and it will never be taken away. He knows that the earth purified and perfected is so much better to have than it is now in that kingdom to come. It will never come to an end. So the meek man then, he shows himself to be a qualified inheritor of that kingdom. He shows that earth to come because he doesn’t try to take it. He waits on God’s timetable. He waits on God’s hand to give it. In gentleness and humility, he endures what God sends his way knowing that God’s way is best. So yeah, I think that’s very true if we’re following Jesus. We have to know adversity is going to come and here’s why. The Lord is enlarging. The Lord is perfecting. You’re my meek. You’re my meekness so as to make us new and ready for the new kingdom because pride and self-assertion, that person’s not going to enjoy God’s kingdom if he was admitted to it. In this coming kingdom, we’re going to love God and love one another perfectly. We’re going to depend on God for all good things. The wicked man doesn’t want to do that. So I don’t know you could say God keeps the wicked man from his kingdom as much as it is true the wicked man keeps himself from God’s kingdom and happily so. I don’t think he would want it. C.S. Lewis has a book entitled The Great Divorce and in The Great Divorce’s fictional tale these citizens, residents of hell get to take a bus ride to heaven to see if they’d rather live there. And they go and for the same reasons that they never wanted to accept Christ in their earthly life it’s the same reason they all choose to go back to hell in the book.

This meekness is a total surrender. It is a losing of all pride. Friends, this plainly means for us we must die daily to pride. Daily to self-assertion. Jesus did not say die. He did not say crucify your flesh. He said you’ve got to do it daily. Not once. The pride of life. Fully disregard self until I’m utterly spent on the welfare of others and the glory of God. I’m looking forward to inheriting that place where Jesus’ meekness, His gentleness, His love for me, me who didn’t deserve it is on display for all to see. It’s celebrated by everyone and it’s imitated by everyone. And so there’s a difference between I’m suffering now because I want something better versus I’m suffering now but I really love the thing that I’m suffering for. Like with my kids, like hey, y’all stop fighting maybe you’ll get like an ice cream. And they do stop fighting. Not because they want to stop fighting just because they want an ice cream. So I don’t say fine, I’ll be meek now so I can get like, you know, eternal happiness. No, I’m meek now because I love meekness and I know if I’m not meek I’m not going to enjoy eternity. I’m not going to enjoy Jesus the way that I should be. So I’m both glad that yes, eternity is coming but also that God right now is making me love more and more what it means to be a gentle, humble person and He’s ridding me of my pride right now. I mean, that’s both the process of and the arrival of God’s glory being worked out in me so when I show up I am glorified and I see it and I know it and I enjoy it as God always intended for me to do.

Paul says in Romans 8 verse 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions of sons the redemptions of our bodies. So I’m groaning and I’m waiting for that great day when it’s perfected but I’m also now glad that God’s making me and shaping me as He’s forcing me to wait. So the suffering’s never meaningless.

And I think about in the Old Testament the character Achan. Remember Achan? I was reading through Joshua a couple months ago and I was reminded of Achan. And they’re coming into the promised land they’re starting the conquest they’ve defeated Jericho and God says do not take anything anything kill everything don’t take anything. And what does Achan do? He takes in Joshua chapter 7

verse 22 it says so Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent behold it was hidden in his tent with silver underneath and they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and the people of Israel and they laid them down before the Lord and they said and Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold and his sons and his daughters and his ox and his donkeys and his sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them to the valley of Acre and Joshua said why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today and all Israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones

because Achan took. But you know the very next battle God said plunder it. He was right there but Achan had to do things his way and his timing and he lost everything.

And let me be clear I don’t think any of us are thinking this morning I should go rob a bank. Like I should do that. Like I should start like money laundering.

I hope you’re not thinking that. I really hope you’re not thinking that. And that’s not my concern. The concern is this.

Again you lose bearing on how short life really is even though sometimes it feels long and on how eternity will never end and when you lose that bearing it changes the disposition of the soul and you stop being meek and you start self-seeking and living for self. So the meek disciple always is aware it turns just around the corner. It’s just right there and that’s what I’m living for. I’m not living for now. So I can wait. I can wait on the Lord. He’s sustaining me. He’s growing me. He’s changing me through everything. Let us not act against the Lord but in humility and gentleness let us wait. And this comes back to daily. I want to hang on the word daily because I don’t think Jesus would have said daily if daily didn’t matter. But you and I we’re forgetful. And like I get in these good seasons like I’m mindful of the Lord and I’m praying but then like work and family and this and that and I just get in this big blur and I’m like oh I’m not like daily seeking Jesus. I can’t seek Jesus here and there and there. Like I got to seek Jesus and I got to seek Jesus daily or I will lose my disposition that looks like Jesus. So I think here then is the understanding Jesus is not to be sought in seasons. Jesus is to be sought daily. Daily.

So the meek are blessed because they receive what they don’t deserve and they never get what they do.

The meek are blessed because they receive what they don’t deserve and they never get what they do. And it’s not because of anything that they’ve done. It’s only because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Jesus says in Matthew 11 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When I was a kid I used to hate that image of Jesus. I used to see Jesus as like this really soft like frail man and you know like these big giant baby blue eyes and like a sheep under both arms. It’s like lowly and meek. Am I supposed to be like I don’t know what that meant. But as I get older I realize Jesus is lowly and meek towards my sin and my problem. And so I think so often I misunderstood I was wanting the Jesus that the folks back that Zachariah was talking about and what I realized was I needed the Jesus who is willing to be lowly and meek and gentle with me in my sin. Because if Jesus isn’t lowly and meek with me in my sin I’m going to experience Jesus as he is in his full glory and power when he does return to deal with people who aren’t meek and I’m not going to deal with them. I’m going to want to experience that Jesus. So this Jesus is gentle and lowly towards a low sinner.

Jesus Jesus never tried to rush the process. He did what God called him to do. He got on the cross and he endured it completely and he said it is finished. Jesus endured evil from all people. Jesus alone did that and because of that I can look at Jesus as my great Savior who was meek and mild and when I place faith in that Jesus his goodness I’m covered in friends and we are taught in the Spirit to be meek. It’s only because of Jesus that we don’t get what we really deserve and we receive everything that we really don’t deserve in the heavenly places but that’s the good news of the gospel, isn’t it?

So let’s be meek

for us because Jesus wants us to enjoy what it means to be like him and to know him but let’s be meek for a world that doesn’t know him. Let’s know it. Let’s be gentle and loving with those who are fighting fighting to figure out what life’s purpose is fighting to understand why they are always self-preserving always defending and say hey look there’s a meek and mild Savior and his name is Jesus and he loves you and he’s not going to deal with you as you deserve. It changes. It changes a person. But it starts with us as the church going out and being the light of the world in that way. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Let’s pray. Amen.

Lord this morning we exalt you for your goodness. We exalt you for your grace. Amen. Amen. We exalt you for the love that we do not deserve.

Your kindness Lord.

Lord I don’t know that we’ll ever really know the end of it.

So Lord we ask that your spirit would ever keep us mindful keep us aware of

Lord your great grace that we would continue to grow in the knowledge and person of Jesus that we would be changed and shaped but Lord so also that we could be the church together

and show the world your grace and your love and your mercy.

For there is none like you.

Lord we don’t want to lose that truth. We want to in all things say you are good. We wait upon you.

So Lord Jesus we just bless your name this morning. And I just thank you for your grace.

And it’s in your name we pray. Amen.