Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

We are currently searching for someone to take on the responsibility of producing a bulletin each week.

Church on the Lawn will be rescheduled

Worship team meeting coming soon to a theatre near you!

Communion

Good morning and welcome to FCC!

Here at FCC, we have declared the first Sunday of the month communion Sunday and it our desire that each time we take of the cup and bread, that we would understand the depths of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection more.

We welcome everyone who is here take to take with us provided Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.

I will pray us in and during this time of prayer, I will pause and allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts do we take corporately in a manner that is worth of the Lord himself.

After I pray and the Holy Spirit prompts you, please come to the table, and take the elements back to your seat and we will take together.

Prayer

Lord, we praise you for all the gifts, graces, and blessings that you so freely give each and everyday and we thank you for these gifts.

But as we think about these gifts, we cannot thank you enough for the finished work upon the cross.

This work is why we are here today, this work is why we have life and life abundantly and it is because you Lord exchanged our sin for your righteousness, and you gave up your life in place of ours.

You died a death that we should have died and because of this our heart beat is to worship you all the days of our lives.

Lord we ask now that your Spirit would search our hearts, so that we take communion in a manner worthy of You.

Pause

Father thank you for the forgiveness of sins and for allowing us to enter the holy of holies.

As we take this morning of these elements, may we know you more and understand the depths of your love for us and towards us.

In Jesus Name, We Love you!

Amen and Amen

Jesus was the passover Lamb, he was unblemished, humble, and willing to fulfill the Father’s will.

And here in Mark 14, Jesus institutes the Lord supper as they were at the passover meal or the last supper if may:

Prayer

Lord, thank you for your broken body and poured out blood for us.

Jesus we are reminded of your suffering and the meekness you displayed throughout your life as God in flesh.

As we open your Word now, we ask that you would speak to our hearts about what true meekness is and what tit should look like in our lives.

Lord, remove any and all distractions that could prevent us from receiving with meekness your implanted Word which is able to save our souls and please Lord, encourage and build us up.

Grant healing and hope where it is needed, and help us to remain steadfast and immovable always abounding in your work.

And one last thing, please oh please, calm the storms in our lives, but in the midst of them, help us to learn the lessons you desire and become more like you!

In Jesus Name, We Love you!

Amen and Amen

We have come as far as Matthew 5:4, so let us open our Bibles there and read our text for today.

I do not know about you, but so far Matthew you has been a blessing to my soul.

Each time I study, it seems like the Lord is refining and purifying my heart.

I have learned so much over these last few weeks of the areas of my life that I need work.

There are times that I have felt like I am a piece of precious metal being hammered out on an anvil, that God is fashioning me into what he wants me to be.

Or another great example, is the potter and the clay.

The lump of clay cannot become what the potter desires without first putting pressure upon the lump.

Without pressure the lump of clay would remain a lump and not be turned into a vase or a beautiful cup or bowl.

I want you to know that I have not arrived, which I am confident is not a surprise to you!

How has the Lord spoken to you?

What areas of you life does he want to shape and fashion.

Church, we could come here week after week, not felling pressure, not being challenged, but if we did this, we would all remain the same and for some reason I do not think you want that.

Do you come to remain the same ?

Or do you come to grow ?

I am hopeful to grow and as we grow together, our families, our communities, our work places will be strengthened and many will come to know Jesus through our witness not just in words church, but in actions...

ENOUGH

Review

In looking back, we know that Jesus has stepped into a religious and politically charged climate.

The Jews are enslaved by Rome if you may, and they are seeking a conqueroring King that can free them from the oppression and make Judaism thrive once again.

The sad thing here is that the religious people and leaders of the day, thought that they were walking with God, but reality is that they were keeping the rules that they had created and not God, therefore, making them self-sufficient and self-righteous.

They were convinced that what they did made them righteous, and then Jesus shows up and when he started teaching, he turned everyone’s world upside down that would listen church.

We must listen, because God’s ways and are not our ways, and he uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Over the past few weeks, we've been studying the portion of the Sermon on The Mount known as The Beatitudes.

And we've been focusing on the first three of the beatitudes, because they share a common purpose.

They teach us what it means, at the earliest stages, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and what being righteous is.

Their main intention is to show us that, to be a disciple, we must first come to terms with our great need for God's grace.

The first beatitude, you'll remember, taught us the very first step in our awareness of this need.

It says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God" (Matthew 5:3).

And in speaking these words, Jesus was teaching us that the man or woman who is truly on the pathway to blessing before God is the one who, before all else, realizes that he or she has nothing to offer God in order to earn His favor - that we come as "poor" sinners, who are utterly bankrupt in a spiritual sense.

That's the first necessary attitude to have in becoming one of Jesus' disciples.

And note the good news of His promise: that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who come to Him in such need.

And the second beatitude builds on that sense of spiritual poverty.

It says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (v.

4).

And in saying this, Jesus was teaching us that His disciples not only come to God in the absolute poverty of their souls and in desperate need of God's grace; they also must come with genuine sorrow and mourning over the sins that made them so needy in the first place.

And again, the good news is that those who confess and mourn over their sins in this way will be comforted.

Jesus is able to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Again, mourning over our own sins will lead to the mourning of the sins of the world.

But again church, this can also mean that God comforts those who are mourning over loss and there are many losses, but also over a broken heart!

And now, we come to the third beatitude.

And we wont rightly understand it if we don't see it in relation to the first two.

People who truly recognize the poverty of their own souls before God, and who truly mourn over the grievousness of their sins, are people who have a proper perspective of themselves.

They know that they cannot stand before God with a sense of pride and self-assertiveness.

They no longer see themselves as having any right to be "in control", and they stop denying Him His rightful rule over their lives.

They realize that, apart from God's grace, they are nothing.

It is importnat for us to realize that there is a natural progression here.

That these be -attitudes are building on each other.

They are like placing block upon block and building a beautiful structure.

A structure that leads to holiness and being like Jesus.

Blessed means to be blissfully happy, but not from outward circumstances, people, places, or things, but this blessedness come from having a relationship with the Lord on the inside.

What is this meekness that Jesus is speaking of?

Meekness is not weakness as some might say, it is actually the opposite.

The world teaches us to be self-sufficient, proud, and strong, and Jesus shows up and says that is not the way we should walk of be.

He turns the table again church, he is shaking them up because of there sufficiency, self- righteousness, and pride.

SELF-RIGHTEOUS ILLUSTRATION

A businessman well known for his ruthlessness once announced to writer Mark Twain, "Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

I will climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 Commandments aloud at the top."

"I have a better idea," replied Twain.

"You could stay in Boston and keep them."

Meek-praus- gentleness of spirit, humble, considerate, kindness, modesty, mildness of disposition, and leniency.

Church all those ideas imply the idea of strength or power brought under control.

The primary focus of the word isn't so much the basic nature of someone as it is their outward conduct.

It's an inward virtue expressed in an outward behavior toward others.

The world says, “Blessed are the aggressive, for they shall be successful.”

Yet, Jesus says it is the meek that shall be happy and really blessed of God.

Meekness is a spirit of humility before God and gentleness towards all men.

Meekness is an honest evaluation of one’s self and seeing his place in the total plan of God.

The truly meek person is not proud of himself, does not demand anything for himself and is not constantly defending himself.