The Real Flex | Kyle Idleman

Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. If we've never met before, my name is Derek. I'm our online campus pastor here at Southeast and it's an honor to get to worship with you today. So thank you for clicking on this video. Thank you for clicking on this worship service. I think it's going to be a great day of worship with you. And we would invite you today, or over the course of this next week to write us here at Southeast. If you didn't know, there are a lot of people just like you that write us every single week from no matter where they're at in the country. Letting us know how we could be praying for them. Letting us know their story and how we can walk alongside you in your faith in this season. And so to do that, you can find the address to our church in the description of this video. And like I said, if you are not alone in this journey with us on Pando, there are over 35,000 people that have taken that next step to subscribe to our Southeast Christian Church channel. Because when you do that, you're not only going to have the access to our weekly worship services, but we have podcasts and Bible studies that drop podcasts that drop every week, Bible studies that drop several times throughout the year with the goal and the intention of being able to help you follow Jesus in the best way that you can. But today, even along those same lines, you're going to get to hear from our senior pastor Kyle Idelman, who is going to be taking us through week two of our new sermon series this month called Flip It, where he's walking through the beatitudes in Matthew 5, where we're looking at how what Jesus values in his kingdom is kind of upside down from what the world values. And so today, he's going to be talking about what it looks like to hunger and thirst for righteousness. So y'all, we hope that you are ready to go prepare your hearts and let's go worship together. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [MUSIC] I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, I'm as good as me. Oh, I've been luring, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. Because of you, oh, I've been there. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] You chose to grace the world that you're so loved. [MUSIC] The hands that turned the universe, surrendered to the cross. Despite the sin that separated us, you took the full sin for all, salvation's in your blood, what a worthy name. Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, and you deserve the praise. Oh, yes, you deserve it all. [MUSIC] The hope had grown too cold to resurrect. [MUSIC] You eat the greatest you were raised, the firstborn from the dead. And everything you have, we have made it. [MUSIC] The first the last, the creed I am, beginning in the end. What a worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. What a worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, and you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise.

Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, and you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name of Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, right in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name, Jesus, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. Oh, the worthy name of the righteous, son of God, high in lifted up, you deserve the praise. ♪ All these rocks and shirts will stand ♪ ♪ Songs of joy will rise again ♪ ♪ I believe ♪ ♪ The name holds the Lord ♪ ♪ Christ will reign forevermore ♪ ♪ I'm the name ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ God, the name ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ The name ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus ♪ ♪ So what a worthy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, Son of God ♪ ♪ I am lifted up ♪ ♪ You deserve the praise ♪ ♪ What a worthy name ♪ ♪ Jesus, Son of God ♪

♪ I am lifted up ♪ ♪ And You deserve our praise ♪ ♪ We thank You Lord ♪ (audience applauds) ♪ So where the ♪ ♪ So lonely ♪ ♪ I don't wanna play a part ♪ ♪ And anything that isn't holy ♪ ♪ I don't wanna clean Your heart ♪ ♪ Lord, I pray that You would meet me ♪ ♪ A place we ought to rise ♪ ♪ A place we ought to speak ♪ ♪ For You ought to have Your way ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ It's room for You to move ♪ ♪ Prove for You to breathe ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit's day ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ To come and dwell ♪ ♪ And hide my heart, hide it all ♪ ♪ Humble me with holy fear ♪ ♪ Never to abuse Your mercy ♪ ♪ Consecrate and keep me near ♪ ♪ It's my joy and honor to be ♪ ♪ A place for You to rise ♪ ♪ A place we ought to speak ♪ ♪ For You ought to have Your way ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ It's room for You to move ♪

♪ Prove for You to breathe ♪ ♪ And Holy Spirit's day ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ Make me hands while in place ♪ ♪ Oh, You're dwelling place ♪ ♪ Feel me young ♪ ♪ It's your heart ♪ ♪ To come and live ♪ ♪ Set apart one day ♪ ♪ A song that's when You're worthy of ♪ ♪ Clean it ♪ ♪ Your heart ♪ ♪ To be set apart more than a song ♪ ♪ A song that's when You're worthy of ♪ ♪ Clean it ♪ ♪ Your heart ♪ ♪ To be set apart more than a song ♪ ♪ A song that's when You're worthy of ♪ ♪ Clean it ♪ ♪ Your heart ♪ ♪ To be set apart more than a song ♪ ♪ A song that's when You're worthy of ♪ ♪ Clean it ♪ ♪ Your heart ♪ ♪ To be set apart more than a song ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ And even in your heart ♪ ♪ Holy instead of heart ♪ ♪ Word in the soul ♪

♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ A place for you to rest ♪ ♪ A place for you to speak ♪ ♪ For you to hide your way ♪ ♪ Make me a dwelling place ♪ ♪ For you to move ♪ ♪ For you to breathe ♪ ♪ The Holy Spirit's there ♪ ♪ You make me a dwelling place ♪ ♪ And even in your heart ♪ ♪ Holy instead of heart ♪ ♪ Word in the soul ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ And even in your heart ♪ ♪ Holy instead of heart ♪ ♪ Word in the soul ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ That's what you're worthy of ♪ ♪ Where are you been born ♪ ♪ You can hide my dreams ♪ ♪ No praise the name of the Lord ♪ Come on, let it rise. ♪ Oh praise his name ♪ ♪ For endless days ♪ ♪ We will see your praise ♪

♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Lord, you just lift your hands to them all over the room ♪ ♪ Would you give me a praise ♪ ♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh we praise you Lord ♪ ♪ Lift him high ♪ ♪ Lift him high ♪ ♪ We'll sing your praise ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I God ♪ ♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord I God ♪ ♪ Oh forever more ♪ ♪ We will see your praise ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I God ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I God ♪ ♪ Give him praise ♪ ♪ Give him praise ♪ (audience applauding) - God, we just declare together that there's no name like your son Jesus. Jesus, your name is above every name. It makes demons tremble. It makes broken people stand up straight. It's the name one day every tongue will confess. And Jesus, you're described in scripture as both a lion and a lamb. You've got all the power in heaven and yet you're gentle and you're kind.

And so the same hands that flung the stars into place kneeled down and washed dirty feet and the voice that tells the wind and the waves to be still as silent before his accusers. Jesus, you could have ridden in on a war horse but you come in humbly on a donkey. You could have called down 12 legion of angels instead you carry across. And so Jesus, you never once used your strength and your power to crush the weak. You used it to carry it. And so Jesus, we confess that we are not like you. We flex and we graph our control and we fight the way the world fights and we try to look strong. But the truth is a lot of us are just barely hanging on. God, we fill ourselves with everything but you and then try to understand why we're so honky. Not just curious and not just entertained today, but make us hungry, ruin our appetite for anything that won't satisfy our souls. Jesus, in the next few minutes, as we open your word, would you open our eyes? We pray this in a strong and the gentle name of you, Jesus. You are the lion and you are the lamb. It's in your name, we pray. Amen, amen. You can be seated. Wanna welcome you to church? It's good to see a lot of Kentucky fans in the house.

(congregation cheering) Like you spent the first minute of overtime negotiating with God. You promised you'd be here and you're here. I'm glad you came. I was reading about this experiment from the 1890s from a psychologist named George Stratton, and he ran this experiment actually on himself. He built this set of lenses, like eyeglasses, that turned everything upside down, and he put them on and he wore them for eight days. So think about what that would be like. The sky's at your feet and the grass is over your head and the trees are hanging down like chandeliers and every step you take feels like you're about to fall off the ceiling. And since then, other researchers have repeated this experiment. Sometimes they've worn those upside down lenses for weeks at a time, and here's what they found. Kind of surprising, at first, like it was miserable and they were dizzy and nauseous and they were bumping into things, but after a while, they adjusted. They learned to read and write upside down. One of them learned to ride a bike through the streets of town wearing those lenses. And at some point, they stopped noticing the world was upside down and what was upside down started to feel normal.

What gets me is when they finally took the lenses off, the normal world felt upside down. Like for a while, right side up looked upside down. And I think this is where a lot of us are. Like we have been wearing the world's lenses so long that upside down feels normal. And we look at the loudest person in the room and we think, oh, they're the strongest and we look at the most staged house and we assume they're the most blessed. We see self-promotion and we call it confidence and Jesus just gives us a different set of lenses, flips everything. And so the world says, go to the front of the line and Jesus says, I'm gonna flip that. First she'll be last, last she'll be first. The world says climb the ladder. Like greatness is having people serve you. Jesus flips it in Matthew 20. Whoever wants to become great among you must become a servant. The world says, protect yourself. Look out for number one. Jesus flips it in Matthew 16. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. Whoever loses their life for me will find it. The world says, get even. Jesus flips it, love your enemies. The world says, promote yourself. And Jesus says in Matthew 23,

add those who exalt themselves will be humbled. But if you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. The world says, get more. And Jesus flips it. It says, no, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And so we've been given these lenses and the teachings of Jesus seem upside down to those things, upside down from how we've been taught to see the world. Like the lenses we've been wearing, it goes against it, but Jesus gives us this new set of lenses as we go through the Beatitudes. So we're in Matthew chapter five. There are eight statements here as he begins the Sermon on the Mount. And they kind of turn everything upside down, but really turn everything right side up. He's explaining God's intention for you. What a blessed life actually looks like. And here he's going to change how we see strength and ambition. Matthew five verse five, here's what Jesus says. "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth." Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek." Well, meek rhymes with weak, and most of us assume it's the same. Like through the lenses we've been given, meekness feels like weakness. And so we think of meekness as the kid who gets his lunch money taken at school or it's the guy that lets everybody cut in front of him

and line and then apologize us. It's the guy who gets the haircut and he hates the haircut. But he says he loves it and he tips 25%. Like meek to most of us sounds weak. Doesn't sound strong. Like look what we name our trucks, the ram, the titan. Nobody's driving around a truck called the Ford meek. Like if you're filling out a job application it says, "What three words best describe you?" Like there's nobody that's going to say, "Well, meek." Like no employer looks around the office and says, "You know what we need around here?" More meek people. No politician runs on a meek platform. No athletes at the end of the year wants the meekness award. If you look up synonyms for meek, you get words like mild and docile and timid. And look, unless you're a newborn, Like we want to be strong, at least we want to look strong. Some of you know that I turned 50 this year and at 50 I thought, you know, need to get more serious about my health, need to get in shape. I was told to write down my goal, so I wrote down, get off the floor without making a noise. That was kind of the goal. (audience laughing) By getting in shape, a lot of work,

putting on muscle at this age is a lot of work. Maybe it would take months and months. But I found out that you can order something online called a muscle shirt, it doesn't take six months. (audience laughing) It's next day shipping, so I got this shirt. I don't know if you can see the abs. (audience laughing) Maybe from balcony, it works. (audience laughing) Like this shirt might make me look strong. But if there was an emergency right now, like if somebody in the front row needed to be carried out, I'm not your guy. Like this shirt is not gonna help either of us. Like it looks, it looks strong. That I can't, I can't lift something for me. I'm gonna cover this back up because, I don't want to be a stumbling block for 30 minutes. (audience laughing) (audience laughing) But this is what most of us do. We pursue the appearance of strength, even if we're not strong. And looking strong really isn't worth much when the heaviness of life hits, like when you're tested. Doesn't really matter how strong you look. Like you can look strong in your marriage, or you can look strong in your faith.

You can look strong on social media, or at work, or at school. And it's fine to look strong, and tell something heavy shows up. And it's a phone call from the doctor. It's a text from your spouse that says, "We need to talk." It's a meeting where they tell you that your position's been eliminated. It's a night that your kid doesn't come home. And in that moment, it doesn't really matter how strong you look. It only matters what's real. Where does your strength really come from? And so when Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek," He's reminding us where real strength comes from. He's taking our perception of what it looks like to live a strong life, and he's gonna flip it. Like someone who is meek is someone who says this to God. Here you go. They say to God, "God, take the reins." Take the reins. And the Greek word for meek is prose, and in that culture, very visual culture, Greek words often came with a word picture. And the word picture for prose is a horse that's been tamed. That's the picture for meek. It's a powerful and strong animal that's under the reins, under the control of the rider.

And so the rider holds the reins, and the horse goes faster, slower, left or right at the rider's direction. That's meekness. It's power and strength, under control for the benefit of others. It's power and strength, under the reins for the benefit of others. It's not a lack of power, and it's not a lack of strength. It's strength that's under control of reins. And so last week, I told about chasing horses through my daughter's neighborhood at night. And those horses are like 1,200 pound animals that broke through the fence, and they crossed the street. But the problem wasn't their size. It wasn't their strength. It wasn't their muscle. The problem was they were not under reins. No one had the reins. And they were putting themselves and other people in danger. It's the opposite of meekness. It's this horse with no reins. It's bucking and rearing, and it's putting people around them in danger. They're at the mercy of the moment. And so as we think about meekness, here's the question, like, who has your reins? That's the question. Who controls how you respond? Who controls your strength and power?

Like for a lot of you, maybe you've handed the reins to your emotions, and how you feel determines how you respond. And since you don't know how you're going to feel at any given moment, like your guess is as good as anybody else's around you, nobody knows how you're going to respond. So your family, like they check your mood, the way you check the weather app. Like, what's going to happen today? It's like partly cloudy with a chance of yelling. They don't know. So unpredictable, your emotions have the reins. Some of you've handed the reins over to your spouse. Like, I wouldn't be the way I am if he wasn't the way he is or she wasn't the way she is. Like, they're the ones who are making me be this way. Like, some of you have handed the reins to a toddler. Here you go. You're in charge now. You've got a 30-pound dictator in your house that doesn't know how to use a zipper, but they can really-- Or maybe you're handed the reins to a teenager and the teenager knows it. Like they know exactly what to say to control the volume of your voice. Like with the role of their eyes, they can control your reins. And maybe some of you've handed your reins

over to like your college football team. Like your whole weekend is controlled by a 19-year-old running back. Or maybe you've handed the reins over to a political pundit or politician and you listen to them first thing in the morning. And whatever they say about what's happened in the world, it determines how you're gonna go that day. And I know some of you grew up in a home where meekness was missing. Nobody was holding the reins. It was like a minefield. And you didn't know where to step. And one minute, everything's fine. And the next minute mom's yelling, dad shouting, you're hiding. Maybe you grew up in a house like that. Maybe you're raising your kids in one. But Jesus said, blessed are the meek. Power and strength under control. When he gives us this beatitude, he's actually quoting from Psalm 37 verse 11, says, the meek will inherit the land. And if you go back and you read this Psalm in context, you learn a little bit about what meekness looks like in real life. So verse one, do not fret because of those who are evil. Verse seven, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways.

Verse eight, refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret. It only leads to evil. Be still, he says. Refrain from anger, he says. Turn from wrath. And then three times, don't fret. Don't fret. The Hebrew word for fret, kind of an interesting word. It literally means to burn, to get the temperature turned up, to get heated. So when David says, don't fret because of evil doers, he's not saying, hey, it's no big deal, don't worry about it, just chill out. No, he's saying meekness is power under control. I'm not gonna let somebody else determine my temperature. I'm not gonna give somebody else my reigns. I'm not gonna let my reaction be determined by someone else's response. So meekness, in its original setting, it's not about being a doormat, it's about how you respond when the wrong people seem to be winning or circumstances aren't going your way. Like, are you impatient? Or can you wait? Can you wait on the Lord? Can you be still and let him fight for you? Do you have this peace or do you get heated? And yet there's a reason, I think, where I especially these days,

a lot of us struggle with feeling heated. Researchers at NYU studied hundreds of thousands of social media posts and they found that outrage posts, like words that kind of capture disgust with other people or culture, like outrage posts increase the spread of that post by about 20%, meaning that outrage travels, that fretting is contagious and platforms know it. Like, if you wanna build a platform, here's how you do it. You get upset about lots of things. And a lot of Christians have taken the bait on this. They have become fluent in outrage, upset about everything all the time. We confuse being offended with being righteous, that they're more offended, somebody is, the more courageous they must be. We see somebody getting heated and we assume, oh, that must be righteousness 'cause they're clearly just so passionate, they're so upset, that must be righteousness. And it gets a lot of likes and it gets a lot of follows. Like, if you're a Christian who stands up and says, "Followers of Jesus, we've been soft for too long." Like, meatness has gotten us nowhere. Kindness is weakness and empathy is dangerous and the time to turn the other cheek is over. It's time for us to fight like the world fights. Maybe the first Christian to try that was Peter. It's the night that Jesus would be arrested in the garden,

the soldiers come with torches and clubs and Peter decides it's time for the followers of Jesus to stand up, stop being so soft. We try to your way, Jesus. I got this and he pulls out a sword and he takes the swing and Jesus says to him in Matthew 26, "Put your sword back in his place." Then Jesus says, "Do you think I cannot call on my father "and he will at once put at my disposal "more than 12 legions of angels?" 12 legions, that's 72,000 angels. In the Old Testament, one angel took out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. So you do the math on this. Jesus had enough firepower that night on standby to end the Roman Empire in about two seconds. He's got all the power and all the strength. Peter, put your sword up. needs to stand up for the truth, somebody needs to say something, put your sword up. Jesus has already modeled what meekness looks like. He did it earlier in the garden a few hours earlier. He prayed, and he prayed this prayer in Luke 22, "God, not my will, but yours be done." What's he saying? "Father, you take the reins, you take the reins," and then a few hours later, he's standing in front of Pilate and he says to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight. If you want to know what kingdom someone belongs to, you pay attention to how they fight." And when Christians start fighting the way the world fights and grab and power, the way the world grabs it and talking the way the world talks and mocking people who disagree with them, they've told you which kingdom they belong to.

Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the alphas." He said, "Blessed are the meek," and built into that blessing, really built into each blessing is always a warning, a warning to the opposite of meekness. So I just want to talk to a moment to the strong ones in the room, not the quiet ones and not those who shrink, I want to talk to those in the room with the title or the temper or the money, the power, the platform, the ego, meekness is strength under control, which means if your strength and power is not under control, you're not living a blessed life and you're dangerous to yourself and to other people. Like if your wife walks on eggshells around you, if your kids go quiet, when your truck pulls into the driveway, like that's not respect. If the people who worked for you have learned to read your face before they open their mouth, if the people around you have learned to manage your moods, you're not leading them. They're surviving you. If your wife has one version of the truth that she gives you out of fear but another version she gives everyone else, you're not strong, you're an unbroken horse and you're using maybe your size or your words or your volume or your money or your strength or maybe your silence as a way to control and you think that's power. Maybe you think that's being masculine, like you think that's what strength looks like, but there's nothing strong about not being in control. A toddler can throw a fit, like a toddler can get upset and yell until he gets his way. A toddler can put a whole room on edge, it's not being a man, it's a two-year-old in a grown man's body and eventually here's what happens, it always happens, power out of control turns on the person, turns on you, you'll lose your marriage or just as devastating, you'll keep it but lose her heart. Your kids will either become you or they'll run from you and ladies, I know some of you, you've never raised a hand, but you've learned to use your words like a weapon and you dismiss your hostility or your anger, you dismiss it, blame other people for it, but it's an un-range life and you're running over people you love. Some of you have a platform online where you do this, like you use it like a club and you punch down and you pile on, you love to do it and you call it, tell it like it is, but

you do it from behind the screen, it takes no courage at all and you burn people down, you never had a single conversation with them. And the fact that you can maybe end an argument, it doesn't mean you want it, the fact that nobody challenges you doesn't mean you're right, this means they've done the math and you're a horse that's out of control and they don't want to get too close. You're un-range and Jesus saved some of his most terrifying words really for people who would use their power or their strength to make those who are vulnerable stumble. Jesus says in Matthew 18, "It would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." And one day you and I will stand before Jesus, the one who had all the power in heaven on earth but never once abused that power and will give an account for how we use our power and our strength and our words, blessed are the meat. We can get a little twisted in this, I think, because sometimes we're like, "Okay, yeah, yeah, I'll do this. I'm going to pray. God, you take the reins here, I'm going to be still, you get to drive." But really, it's not so much this humble submission. It's more of like, it's like ordering an Uber. God, you get to drive, but... There's a scene in the Old Testament right before Israel takes the Promised Land where they cross the Jordan River and they're just a few miles from Jericho and Joshua is kind of in a tough spot. Moses is gone. The man that God's been providing has stopped. Jericho, the city is an incredibly fortified city with these huge walls, gates are locked. So Joshua's walking around like, "How are we going to do this?" And these walls are huge. As he's walking though, he looks up and there's a man standing in front of him with the sword that's drawn. Turns out this is the commander of the Lord's armies making an appearance.

Most likely this is Jesus showing up in the Old Testament and Joshua goes up to him and asks this question. Joshua asks, "Are you for us? Are you for our enemies? Are you for us or for them?" The message paraphrases it, "Who side are you on?" And in Joshua chapter 5, the commander of the Lord's army says, "Neither." I love that. "Neither. I'm not on anybody's side. I'm on my side." Like Joshua wants to know, "Are you on my side?" And we do this in politics. The candidates seem very confident that God's on their side. We do this in relationships. Have you ever been in an argument with somebody and they're like, "Well, I prayed about this." And God told me I was right, so like we're trying to pull God onto our side. The question is not, "Is God on my side?" Because he's always on his side. The question is, "Are we on his side?" I mean, what's that look like though? Just practically to be meek in conflict and in disagreement, maybe instead of asking God to let you win, you say, "God examined me." Psalm 139, search me, oh God, it's a prayer of a meek, of a meek person. In politics, if it turns out that Jesus agrees with you on everything, it turns out that He just lines up perfectly with your political perspective, chances are your politics are discipling more than He is. You need to focus more on being on His side. In marriage, in the next argument you're in, start praying and say, "God, show me where I'm wrong before you start praying that He would show your spouse how they're wrong."

The second Corinthians says that when we fight, we don't fight with the weapons of this world. And if you want to see what kingdom someone belongs to, you just start paying attention to the weapons they reach for if we're a meek. Well, instead of reaching for an insult, we reach for a blessing. Instead of reaching for retaliation, we reach for forgiveness when we're attacked and instead of reaching for a comeback, we pray. When somebody comes at us with a sword, instead of us swinging back, we reach for a towel and we serve. This is what it looks like to be meek, but let's start the meek. And maybe you're not the kind of person that's very volatile, like you're not very reactive and you don't get heated, it's not your nature, but maybe you struggle with just not having control. And so you want to use whatever power you have to control outcomes or narrative or somebody else's feelings or what other people think. A few years ago, there was someone in this position of influence, I didn't know very well, and they seemed to have just decided that they were going to assume the worst of me and about our church and they were posting things. They just weren't true. They just weren't true, but they were acting like, "Hey, this is true." And it got under my skin, like I lay awake at night, like I knew what was true. I've got a microphone and I'll just get up and say it, set the record straight. But every response I imagined, it felt like it would just pour gasoline on it or bring more attention to it and make how what they were saying would look true. And so I was talking to a friend about this, it was kind of hope and he would say, "Okay, here's how you win." Instead, he asked me a question, "It's really hard for me," he said, "Kyle, are you going to trust God with your reputation? Are you willing to put on the altar what other people think of you?" Man, it's hard. Like I was holding the reins of it.

I wanted to use whatever power I had to grip those reins and I needed to hand them over. So I just would ask you, "What are you holding on to?" Like maybe it's your reputation, maybe it's the outcome of a decision, maybe it's your adult kid's choices, you're trying to control it, it's what other people might say about you and grip in it, "Blessed are the make. Blessed are those who can be still and say, 'God, you take the reins.'" Jesus said, "The strongest thing you can do is surrender the reins and then he's going to make the point that the most ambitious thing you can do is want more of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." This is the next beatitude. "I want more of you." I wanna say something about God here, that when I say it, you'll hear it and you'll be like, "Well, yeah, I mean, of course, "but I just don't think many of us live like this is true. "Here it is." God goes where he is wanted. God goes where he's wanted. The problem is, a lot of us say we want God, but then we make zero room for him in our lives. We don't pursue him. There's a term for this. I'm told in the dating world, I'm told it's called bread crumbing. It's where someone tells you they're interested, but all you get is crumbs. They say they're interested. Maybe you wanna have a relationship, spend some time together, but you just get a random text every few weeks,

or maybe a like on your post or a message that says, "And we should get together sometime." But they never do it. It's never a priority. Like everything else is a priority. So they give you just enough attention to kind of keep you on the hook. And so the question is, is this what we do to God? We kind of breadcrumb him. Give him a prayer. When we're in trouble, give him a prayer. Scroll through the verse of the day on social media. Come to church a couple times a month, like if there's nothing else going on. And then we'll say, God, I really want more of you. Really want more of you. But then we fill every empty space in our lives with something else. And so what Jesus does here is he uses this image of hunger to help us understand what it looks like to want more of God. There's a detail in the Greek that I think is helpful here. There's a word or grammar that in context of hunger would mean to just take a bite, to loaf of bread. I just want a sample of it. But the grammar here is different. It's not the idea of being hungry for a bite. It's the idea of insisting on the whole thing. I want the whole loaf. And so a lot of us, like we just want enough of God

to tie this over. And then we wonder why he doesn't satisfy us, why we're missing the blessing. Like we want just enough of God to feel safe, but not enough to be changed. Just enough of him to kind of bless our plans, but not mess with our plans. We want just enough of God for Sunday, but not enough for Monday. We want enough of him to calm our anxiety, but not enough to confront our idols that we have. Like we want just enough of God to keep our kids out of trouble, but not enough to make them a threat to the enemy. We want just enough of God to say grace before a meal, but not enough to extend grace to the person who hurt me. And so Jesus looks at a church full of people who are nibbling and says, no, I don't know. You want the blessing. Blessed are those who hunger. Blessed are those who want the whole thing, more than anything else. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That word, righteousness here means two things. First, first it means this being made right with God. And then the second thing it means is like wanting things to be made right in the world. It's a hunger for God, and then a hunger for God to make things right. A relationship and his will in the world.

And Jesus says, if that's your pursuit, if that's what you're chasing after with your life, you're going to be filled. You're going to be satisfied if that's what you hunger for, if that's what you deeply pray for and want. The problem is like our appetites have been largely developed by the world. We find ourselves being hungry for the wrong things. And you know this because this is how appetites work. Like what you eat is what you develop a hunger for. And once you've developed an appetite, it can be really hard to get rid of it and develop something new, right? Like if you've ever tried to cut out sugar, you know this, first week is miserable. You punch a stranger in the face for a bite of a cookie. But give it a few weeks, and you start to hunger for something new, I'm told. About six months ago, I had an appointment with a nutritionist and I was going to get on a diet plan. And I had to answer a lot of questions about what I eat. This is all embarrassing, a little bit depressing. But he got excited as we talked and he started telling me all the substitutes I could make. He said, "You could trade this for that and that and for this." But then he said to me, "What's your favorite candy?" And I said, "It was easy, sour patch water mums." And his eyes like lit up. He was like, "I've got the perfect substitute for you." Like really?

What are we talking about here? Is there like organic watermelon gummy handmade by monks? Like what are you talking about? And he said, like lots of excitement. He said, "The perfect substitute for sour patch watermelons is prunes." (audience laughing) Let's walk through that. Like sour patch watermelons are sour and then they're sweet. And prunes? It's like a grape or maybe a plum that stays out in the sun too long. And it's wrinkled and it's kind of disappointed in itself. Like nobody walks into a movie theater and says, "I'll have a large popcorn and a box of prunes sounds good." Like it's not a candy, it's not even a snack. Like prunes more like a medical strategy, right? But this is what got me as he was talking about it, is like I realized he wasn't joking. He genuinely believed what he was saying. Like his eyes were sparkling. As he's talking to me about prunes, he thinks this is true. I had developed an appetite for sour patch watermelons. He had developed an appetite for prunes, and he could see the look on my face. And so he explained to me, "Someone's appetite isn't fixed, it's trained. "And whatever you feed grows, "and whatever you starve fades."

And that's true of every appetite you have. And this explains why we're hungry or not hungry for the things of God. In some ways, our algorithms tell the story of what kind of appetite we're developing. Like your algorithms know what you eat. They know your diet, and then it reinforces that appetite. Like it's watching what you scroll past, or what you stay on, or click on, and it'll serve you more of it. Like you click on outrage, and like, "Oh, I'll feed you more of that." And then you get hungry for it. You click on lost, oh, okay, yeah, yeah. I'll feed you more lost, and then that appetite goes stronger. You click on people's vacations, and marriages, and kitchens, and it'll feed you a steady diet of envy. So it's not just a mirror of your hunger. It's actually explains why you're hungry for what you're hungry for. I think I could probably do this for most of us. I could look at your phone and scroll through your feed for 30 seconds and tell you what you're hungry for, 'cause I can see what you're eating. And so maybe you have no appetite for the things of God, because you've stuffed yourself with kind of this junk food content all around us. So here's the challenge for this week. First, reset your appetite. Jesus says in this same sermon, "When you fast."

Not if you fast, but when you fast. So pick a day this week and fast from your feed. Every time you reach for your phone out of the habit, let it be a reminder just to pray and say, "God, I want more of you." Secondly, feed what you want to crave. Like before you reach for the screen, reach for some scripture. Maybe that podcast on your commute instead, listen to some worship or some silence where you talk to God, like read a song before you read the news. You're training your appetite. So number three, just pray for spiritual hunger. Just pray this prayer this week. God, make me hungry. God, make me hungry for you. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because then you'll be filled. You'll be satisfied. Blessed are the ones who learn to say, "God, I want more of you." I want to end this message by just inviting all of us into a time of communion. Go ahead and get your communion out. It's really on the cross that you see these attitudes on full display. On Friday, outside of Jerusalem, Jesus has nailed to a cross and the crowd starts in on them.

In Matthew 27, they mock him. Come down from the cross, Jesus, if you're the son of God. The religious leaders join in, saved others, can't even save himself. In some ways, this is the ultimate dare to flex. Jesus, prove it. If you're so strong, come down. He could have. Those 12 legion of angels are still standing by. With one word, those nails would have melted. Like with one word, his mockers would have been silenced forever, but he stayed on the cross and he didn't take the reins back and he didn't fight for himself and he trusted his father. This is the real flex, the most powerful man who ever lived, refusing to use his power to save himself for the benefit of other people. It's not a more perfect picture of meekness than that. And then Jesus on the cross, like with some of his last words, he says this in John 19, three words, I am thirsty. I'm thirsty. So just think about this. The one who said, blessed are those who thirst, hung on a cross and said, I'm thirsty. And so here's what we see. As we take communion, like he was meek,

so you could inherit and he thirsted so you could be satisfied. And so as we take communion, like just let these emblems, this bread and this cup be God's answer to your hunger. Let it be his answer to what will satisfy you. Jesus said in John six, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. [BLANK_AUDIO] and we've been trying to look strong and we've been gripping the reins of our lives. And sometimes that's seen in our anger and our words and we're gripping a hold of things, trying to look strong and keep up that appearance. But right now, God, we open up our hands. We say, God, would you take the reins? Would you take the reins of our temper and the reins of our words and the reins of what people think of us, the things we can't control? God, take the reins. We want to trust you, we want to be still. Would you fight for us? And God, we confess that we have been filling up on everything but you. Snacking on the approval of others, snacking on outrage and entertainment, but we're still hungry. In some ways, hungry are the never.

So God, would you ruin our appetites for anything that won't fill us and would you make us hungry for you? God, in this moment, we just declare we want more of you. And so God, in these next few minutes, I pray that you would let us surrender the reins over to you. We would surrender the reins and we would say, God, you take the reins. God, I want more of you. Jesus, thank you and you. We finally find the satisfaction that we've been so thirsty for. It's in your name, we pray, amen. Let's take communion together. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) Don't you, Jesus, I'm surrendered. Don't you, am I freely given? I will ever go and trust Him in His presence daily, then I surrender all. I surrender all. (soft piano music) We just stretch our hands, surrendering the reins,

surrendering your control all over to Jesus we sing. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) Glory to them in the bride, in Jesus, through all generations. Further and ever. Glory to them all alone. All power, all glory, yeah." With nothing going on, the cross, how is it a stream? Heavenly to heaven, for all eternity. Oh, I can't help but it's holding. It'll be a holy moment when we walk to heaven's door. They will be behind us and death will be no one. Oh, I can't help but it's holding. They lay my crowns down before Him. Now to end his able to so much more than we ask goodbye, Jen. In the bride, in Jesus, through all generations. Further and ever.

Glory to them all alone. All power, all glory, yeah." Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the side will be no one. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Oh, dear, how high, the love on the far. Well, Pando family, what a great service, what a great opportunity to get the worship together with you wherever you find yourself in the country today. And I think the question for each of us that Kyle brought up is what does it look like to hunger and thirst for righteousness? What does it look like to hunger and thirst for righteousness? I know I'm guilty. I am so guilty of consuming so many of the different things that come my way, that distract my mind, that fill my appetite in other ways, right, where the things of God are supposed to be the things that fill us, that fuel us. And I can literally physically and mentally and emotionally tell the days whenever I've been consuming, whether it's too much news, too much gossip, whether it's lust or whatever it may be that's going on in my mind. But I can see the difference in those days from when I'm consuming the word of God, right? Worshiping here at church, listening to worship music at home. I can tell the difference physically, mentally, and emotionally the difference of those days whenever I'm consuming things of the world and consuming the things of God. And so that's what our challenge is for you today

is that what does it look like in your context to figure out how to block out all those other things that tend to fill us into focus on watching Bible studies, listen to our podcasts, worshiping with us on panda, consuming as much of that godly content as you can or god-focused content as you can. But not only that, y'all, if you have a Bible, I would encourage you to start with reading just one chapter a day. Like Kyle said, maybe include some other people into that Bible reading so that you can consume the things of God and so that we don't become filled by the things of this world. And if you're looking literally this week for something that you can start doing with us on panda to be able to help with that, we have a brand new Bible study walking through the book of Ecclesiastes. If you've never heard of that before, that is totally fine. It's one of the books in the Old Testament. And our Bible study as we're calling it is called Chasing the Vapor. We're gonna be talking about how we tend to chase a lot of different things in this world. In Solomon, who we believe wrote this book, he chased a lot of things. He had the opportunity to chase the pleasures of the world, the wealth of the world, success, all of the things.

And he came to the conclusion that nothing matters. Nothing matters except for following God. So that Bible study drops this week. We look forward to be able to do that with you. And we also look forward every single week to be able to walk through our panda podcast with you, to take the sermons from the previous Sunday and help you walk through. How do we apply that to our life? So again, we don't become consumed by the things of the world, but that we can be filled with righteousness, filled with the things of God. Y'all, but before we head out today, I want to offer a prayer specifically for you, specifically for you. And so if you have a pen or a paper and you wanna write this down so you can pray it this week, I would encourage you to do that. Or maybe you just need to sit and receive this prayer today. But regardless of where you're at, let me pray for you. Jesus, thank you for being a great Redeemer. Even when life doesn't look the way I planned, you are good. I trust your promises. I feel your provision. I love your word. Please protect me from temptation. Please restore what I've lost. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Lord, I'm not in control. I am waiting on you. In chaos, I need your peace and loss. I need your comfort and confusion. I need your truth. I trust you with everything. I love you. And in your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, Panda family, we also love you. And we're grateful to get to worship with you today. Y'all, thanks so much for being with us today. Hope you have a great rest of your week. And we will see you next time. [BLANK_AUDIO] You