The Great Reversal Pt. 2

[Music] open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew at chapter 5 gospel record of Matthew at chapter number 5 again verse number 3 in the beginning of a series of sermons entitled the great reversal blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven thank you may be seated the grass withers and the flower fades with the word of our God shall stand forever the great reversal blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven everything in this sermon on the mount on the mount is a reversal of everything we think we know it's counter culture it's counter self it's against everything that the world calls success and without Jesus Christ it would be impossible to do any of what Jesus mentioned in this sermon but he calls us to a state of blessedness blessed are he says the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven it's not something that we merit but rather is something we inherent indulge me for a moment to read a note to me it's an anonymous letter I came across in preparation for this message an individual wrote this note to himself and I want to read it to you because it's a note to mean and when you listen to it it's a note to you it says dear me I've known you for as long as I can remember I once heard that's a friend who sticks closer than a brother and yes that's us though I doubt it's what the proverb was talking about I've been close to a lot of people but you and me we have quite an attachment looking back it's fair to say I've treated you pretty well me as a matter of fact more times than I can count I've put you ahead of anything and everything else as we were growing up I tried to make sure you were always at the front of the line I saw to it that you got the biggest cookie on the plate the best parking spot the comfiest chair in any room we entered in school I noticed the little things you liked and I went after them you always loved attention so I did everything in my power to see to it that you've got it you still like the spotlight so I've maneuvered to keep you in its glare how did we have the Internet I have more tools I post only the pictures that show you at your best anybody would think that you're living the dream have you seen the comments people write about you me when you have struggled or had a hard time I've done my best to keep that a little secret I've tried me to make you happy sure it was a little easier to keep you happy when we were cute little tykes a simple temper tantrum got the job done then as we grew older I had to be a little more discreet you wanted to keep winning and getting your way all the while looking humble and unassuming that gets tricky not to mention tiring me I know how defensive you can get but you have had a tendency not to give me all the information as a matter of fact you never seem to care about dull stuff like bills and consequences and what happens tomorrow I've said more than a few harsh words on your behalf to certain people and you never warned me about the mess you never told me that I could never unsay what I said I love you me but I can't keep living for you you always insisted that if I just keep you happy then I'd be happy as simple as that but you know what it's not as simple as that it never has been me I'll let you be in control and sit in the driver's seat but it's clear that you can't be trusted you keep insisting that you know the way we should go but it always seems to be a dead end I've looked into some other options and I've decided to begin a journey down a different path it's a narrow and difficult and not many choose it but it leads to real and abundant life however and there is no easy way to say this I can't take this path if I bring you along so me this is the end of you sincerely me you will never come to worship Jesus Christ until you come to the end of me the world does not revolve around you I wish I had one or two more witnesses in the Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known teaching of Jesus though arguably it is the least understood it is certainly the least obeyed of all of Jesus's words it's the closest thing to a manifesto that Jesus ever uttered but it is his own description in his own words of what he wants his followers to be and to do the Sermon on the Mount is the most complete the linear nation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counterculture here is a Christian value system a Christian ethical standard a Christian religious devotion and attitude toward money ambition lifestyle and network of relationships all of which are totally at odds with what the world calls success there's no single paragraph in the Sermon on the Mount in which this contrast between Christian and non-christian standards is not drawn brothers and sisters although these standards are not readily attainable by every man neither are they totally unattainable by any man which is to say that the only way you can do what Jesus says is to be born again because the sermon I'm preaching this morning is not for everybody because everybody can never understand the true meaning of what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom because we are so comfortable in the world the simplicity of the sermon and the profundity of this thought have attracted Christians for years there are eight qualities that together constitute the responsibilities of the kingdom and there are eight blessings that correspond as privileges to our responsibility as Christians we are large on privileges but short on responsibilities it's significant that Jesus begins this sermon this this dis Sermon on the Mount with Beatitudes or rather than imperatives we heard these Beatitudes called be happy attitudes that's a that's a misrepresentation of the text because Jesus has not called us to be happy matter of fact Jesus is not particularly concerned about your happiness the Holy Ghost has not come to make us happy he's come to make us holy because blessedness does not necessarily have to do with anything that involves happiness because happiness depends on what's happening and sometimes what's happening will not make you happy but blessedness is not happiness because you can be happy and never be blessed but you cannot be blessed without being happy I can look on the faces of people in here this morning until the folk here who are truly blessed well you may not have what somebody else has but that doesn't have anything to do with who you are you may not live with somebody else lives or drive with somebody else drives on earned with somebody else earns on half the size bank account that somebody else had but you are comfortable in your own skin you've learned how to be a resident in your own skin you are happy with Jesus alone [Applause] the doesn't doesn't language that that that satisfied people have that comes from Paul's writing he says I'm learning I wish I had a Bible reading in whatever state I find myself in to be content you gonna help me preach this once I know how to act when I'm up I know how to hide when I'm down I know how to conduct myself when I got money and I can still shout when I'm broke because the secret of my contentment is not in what I own but in who owns me if anybody asked you who I am tell them I'm a child of God I'm excited just knowing they saved me to be poor in spirit means to acknowledge our spiritual poverty to be poor in spirit is not talking about poor in wallet you miss read the text if you read it blessed are the poor there's nothing particularly spiritual about being broke kkeok why are you getting ready I'm not I'm not with that spirit I'm not with the spirit of poverty I'm with poverty of spirit but not the spirit of poverty likewise you got again God has nothing against riches God is not mad with you for having material goods it's not a sign that you're holding because you can't pay your bill that not godly that's not a shining example of Christianity to have a run in your stocking to have mix-match socks in and holding your shoe and and and don't make your face up and don't get your nails did that's not a sign of spirituality that's up what's your name he says on Martin get your nails deal that's not a sign that you've been born again that you can't have any money I am with having money and if you don't want any give me your money no no I'm a child of God talk back to me if you can God wants me to live in a nice house and drive a nice car and have nice clothes God wants me to have money to take care of myself and my family that is not what the tax is teaching what the text is teaching is I've got to have a poverty of spirit that means I'm bankrupt in the presence of a holy God [Applause] when I come in God's presence there's nothing I bring that God needs God is not lucky that I showed up this morning someone ought to help me preach it God let me wake up this morning God gives me the opportunity to even come in his presence if he wants to he can cut me off right now and to cover the sins I committed last week he should've cut me off last Tuesday but where sin did abound I wish I had one or two more witnesses grace did much more abound [Applause] the people here folk here who come to church and whatever church you go to folk who shout and give God praise don't do it cuz they're so good they do it because they've been forgiven he looked beyond my for have a got a witness and I came here on purpose to thank him for forgiveness to beg him from listen ask him for grace so that my sin would not be uncovered I wish I had a sinner here this morning who know you've been saved by grace you're not pretending you're not showing off you're not acting like you all that you just glad God let you be in the service one more time you should have been dead sleeping in your group of gray [Applause] it's a few people here like me there's a few people here like me who know that if the Lord took his hands off me I'd be the biggest fool in Houston but goodness and message follows me have we got a witness all the days of my life and when I would go all the way roll he pulls me back by his grace to let me know I know you're fool but you might die I know you deserve hell but I will give you heaven I know you deserve to die but i'ma let you live there is that for now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit if you want to know how you can be blessed I'm not talking about no handkerchief I'm not talking about no oil or all that's good I'm with that but but that's not the secret to bless it now I'm gonna take my coat off and throw it in the audience thing and you get a piece of my code and you be saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy go don't don't don't get in my shadow to get healed cuz all you're gonna get in my shadow is shade there is no good thing in me no not one that's none righteous there's none that do it good none of us could stand up under a 24-hour FBI investigation jiya quad you got ready I can't have no cameras following me 24 hours a day because I'm not always what I say I am I might as well go on tell you I'm as well the truth I might as well listen on a little secret the good that I would do I find myself not doing and the evil that I don't want to do that's exactly what I do all wretched man not that I was but that I am we are so we are so enamored with ourselves that everybody lives almost like be on a reality show everybody think be Beyonce everybody think they they Snoop Dogg everybody imagines that that they are the Real Housewives of Atlanta oh I love hip-hop and and and you can see them in Papa doors just just taking pictures of their food and you know like like you some kind of celebrity i'ma go over than to eat that cuz that's what you got a picture of on your Facebook account ci quad you're getting again I might be talking about some of y'all in here and you can't pass by a mirror that you don't fall in love with you always take him selfies of yourself and and just loving yourself so much but if you want to really be blessed let me give you some secrets here wean yourself offer yourself get off a Facebook and put your face in a book are you listening to me young people get off Facebook and put your face in a book I went to the I went to do I want you to clean us and I brought my clothes that my son some shirts to be clean of laundered pressed and the computer the cash register computer wasn't working and and and my shirts were eight dollars and 74 cents listen listen to me young people and I gave her a ten dollar bill and she said this this thing ain't working wait a minute hold on yeah she went to her purse to get her phone to get her calculator on her phone I said you owe me a dollar and twenty sixteen she said I this thingy wiccaning and I'm gonna get my phone cuz they expect us to use our brain [Applause] I said Shaniqua [Applause] you owe me a dollar and twenty sixteen and she didn't believe me she worked it all on her calculator oh that's right a dollar in 2016 she said they expect us to use our brain your head is on your shoulder for a particular reason not for you to stand at the cash register with customers they're hitting yourself on the head because you can't scratch it [Applause] stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it get out of Facebook and get your face in a book so you can go to school and learn something so that you don't have to work out on your phone calculator a dollar and 26 cents wean yourself off yourself the world does not revolve around you you are not a reality show star we don't get up in the morning wondering what you're eating it does not make any difference to us what's going on in your life because we are more concerned about our own life than we are your life the secret to blessedness is not in being self-absorbed self-centered self-assured it's not until you come to the end of you that you can worship Jesus Christ and then brothers and sisters a second secret after you wean yourself from yourself is to get lost in the wonder of Christ Church Church don't sound like it used to sound because we are so self-absorbed that worship now has become almost a spectator sport where you watch other people praise God and you look around and wonder what's going on you let somebody else do all the singing somebody else does all the praying in and somebody else does all the worshiping and you never get lost in the wonder of the man who is Jesus Christ but when you truly worship when you truly get lost in his wonder you forget what time it is you forget what you got to do tomorrow at work you forget who likes you and who does not like you who's on your side and who's not on when you get lost in the wonder of who Jesus Christ is you take the focus off yourself and put it away it really belongs on Jesus Christ now I want you to do it now because they're gonna know you're looking at it but you ought to have my vantage point sometimes of watching people in church yes that asset is flat their face never changes expressions you don't know if they are happy or sad or up or down because they looked in the same way the entire time worship is going on because Treach has become just somewhere to network just somewhere to meet and greet and eat that's not what the church is all about I get lost in the wonder of who Jesus is first of all I wonder why he loves me so much I wonder why he keeps forgiving me every time I mess up I wonder why he keeps looking beyond my faults and seeing all my knees I wonder why he keeps blessing me the way he's blessing me I know I don't deserve it but I'm not talking to you who think that you pretty good that some of us will know we ain't got no business in this church this morning but the Lord is just so cool I said the Lord is just so good the Lord is just so good I said the Lord is just so good but I get lost in the wonder of his mercy I get lost in the wonder of his grace just just look in the rearview mirror of your own life and see how far God has brought I'll come on here look in the rearview mirror of your own life and just see how far God has brought you that's some who thought you'd never be where you are right now but look how far God has brought you they thought you never would have made it with your background with your pedigree the all the drugs you used to do all the night you used to spit out late I thought you'd never be anybody but look at what the Lord has done in your life and listen don't let anybody intimidate you about how you thank God for that when you get lost when you get lost in the wonder of his goodness you don't let anybody dictate to you you'll praise because they see your glory but they don't know your story they don't know how many nights you cried in the midnight they don't know how many doors God has opened for you they don't know how many ways God has made for you you look like you got it all together but if you just knew the inside story I wish I had somebody to help me if they knew how many heals God brought you over how many storms God has brought you through how many prayers God has answered that you didn't deserve how many blessings God sent your way that you weren't even looking for that's why you shout so much on Sunday morning that's why you cut up and give God the glory and so you tell folk in your section you might want to go sit somewhere else because this man is talking about how good the Lord is he's talking about how many ways the Lord has made and I need some room right now because I'm getting ready to tell God thank you I'm getting ready to praise God for His goodness you might need to go sit by somebody else because it's about to get real noisy right here if the governor is about to get real loud right here because I've got so much to be thankful for never got a witness here it's not he's about to get real noisy right here cuz I remember when I was down the Lord pick me up when I was sick the Lord made me well when it looked like I never make it another step God took me by my hand so I came here this morning to tell them all thank you thank you for loving me thank you for guiding me thank you for protecting me thank you for building a fence around me thank you for keeping my enemies at bay thank you for just showering blessings on me I know I don't deserve it I know I did enough to be in hell this morning but you've been so good to me you brought me from a mighty long way and I just showed up to say thank you for your mini pool blessing thank you for your grace thank you for your message thank you for your faithfulness thank you for your kindness thank you for your tender mercy thank you for your compassion towards me thank you for your great faithfulness thank you for watching over my children thank you for taking child my Mama and Daddy thank you for a roof over my head thank you for food on the table thank you for clothes in the closet thank you for car the drive thank you for a job in the morning but most of all most of all thank you that one father you died in my place you don't help me close at once didn't he died he died till the Sun refused to shine he died until elements of nature separate bits of cosmic depilation he died until the centurion soldier said surely this must be the Son of God but I wouldn't be shot in this morning if he had stayed in the grave but right early Sunday morning he got up didn't he get up is there anybody here got something to praise and boy why don't you grab somebody why don't you shake somebody the hang telling you see my glory but you don't know my soul you don't know how many tears he's dry you don't know how many prayers Eve answer you don't know how many ways he's made and I want to say playing it from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same he's willing to be praised he brought me from a mighty long way he kept me when I didn't even know his name thank you Jesus rank is even right is he what is needed is by anybody here mama same the technibond is there anybody here gladdie Savior why don't you hurt somebody tell them you don't know like I know Western law [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yah-ha a risen slim he's in the world I know he is living whatever men may see I see in the hand of math with I'm hearing voice of Jim I'm just a common Edith he's always near he lives come on empathy he lives right Sheila live today he walked with me he talks with me along life's narrow way he lives he lives salvation to impart you ask me how I know he lives he lives in my heart how you're driving Worley open doors won't it make away [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] there's this the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who know they don't deserve the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who know that they are not worthy the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit those who come to God and said I bring nothing to the table because the world throws away broken things broken dishes broken furniture but God recycles what's supposed to be discarded God makes over again what the world has thrown away never ever there's a place as a place in Paraguay that's a landfill fifteen hundred tons of trash are dumped in that landfill every day and hundreds of people live in that landfill you can watch it on the internet they are they are rummaging rummaging through fifteen hundred tons of trash looking for food that's how they live but the internet can't show you the smell the smell of hopelessness smell of poverty and destitution well that was a young man named Chavez who didn't smell anything he heard something in that landfill in that trash right now you can hear the landfill harmonica you got some musical instruments from the trash and he has about a hundred children but play music in a landfill the stench the smell the hopelessness but I didn't miss the vet Chavez organized this little music school and they play music they use x-ray films for for the skins of their drums they got an oil can and made a cello out of it they got some tin cans and made some drums and a violin out of it and in the midst of that trash is music because everybody smells something but he heard something Jesus left the shining quarts of glory to come to a landfill the stench and the odour of hopelessness was on every last one of us but when other people smell something Jesus heard and he did not smell what other people's mean he heard what other people couldn't hear he got music out of that trash and that's what salvation is getting music in a landfill I don't care how beautiful your church is it's a landfill it's full of people with the stench of sin all over their body but thank God when other people smell something Christ hears something and he comes in the midst of your land field to bring music out of the junk that is your life thank God one day down in Eunice Louisiana I came to Jesus as I was weary warned and said but I found in him a resting place and he's made me glad he's made music in my land field he's brought sweet music out of the landfill that is my life [Music]

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 23,059

Rating: 4.7948718 out of 5

Keywords: Reverend Terry Anderson Pastor Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church Houston Texas

Id: iKUUUg44phw

Length: 41min 11sec (2471 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 27 2017