Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 27 of 50

TEXT: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

IDEA: The arrogant and belligerent don’t inherit the earth.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that the world view that sees only this world ultimately comes to nothing.

If the meek inherit the earth, then do you think it is true that the arrogant and the power seekers won’t inherit anything?

I. The arrogant and powerful seem to win, but in the end they lose.

Assyria, Babylonia, and Rome seemed invincible.  An observer in their day might have thought that “might makes right,” but if we examine them by years we discover that the arrogant and power-mad do not inherit the earth.

Adolph Hitler followed Napoleon and countless others who set out to dominate the world, but God isn’t on the side of the biggest cannons or the strongest armies. Hitler ran up against God in the form of the Russian army and the Russian Winter.

In the animal world the lions and the tigers should be dominant; the lambs should have been wiped out years ago. If we were betting people, we would put our money on the eagle, but the lion, tiger and eagle are on the endangered species, but there are plenty of sparrows and lambs.

II. This is also true in personal relationships.

The arrogant don’t win in personal relationships.  No one wants an arrogant, self-seeking friend. When you see these individuals surrounded by people, it’s usually because there are people who want something from them.

Men and woman who are hungry for power are often very lonely people.  They think they possess the earth, but the earth possesses them.

They always want more, and it is not unusual for that desire for more to control them.  In restaurants they fight over the best table.  At airline counters they become hostile if a flight is cancelled.  They suspect that the pastor is always talking about them in a sermon.

The kind, the gentle, the meek may enjoy the earth, whatever they have of it now.

When you see who you are before God, you know that anything you receive is grace.

The meek who live gentle and submissive lives know that one day Jesus, their King, will give the earth to them. They live with a sacred optimism.