Jesus hear my prayers. I have two beautiful boys both have special needs. My husband passed away years ago. I continue to struggle to provide the basic necessities like food and clothing for my sons seemingly every month is a struggle. I have faith, you will provide, Lord Jesus. Amen.🙏🏾

This really convicted me. Hearing this really shows me how much I don’t have it together and how much more I need the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

0:000 Welcome to the connecting podcast with Paul Trip. My name is Shelby Abbott and this podcast exists to connect the
0:077 transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life right here, right now. Paul, what are we talking about today?
0:1414 Well, I first want to say I I love doing this with you. Yeah, thanks. So much so much gospel fun. Mhm.
0:2222 Uh well, we’re we’re spending our podcast year uh focusing on how to live a vibrant,
0:3131 hopeful, courageous, joyful Christian life in the middle of a world that’s gone absolutely insane.
0:3838 And we’ve we are rooting our conversation in the sermon on the mount, uh Jesus longest uh recorded teaching.
0:4848 And it just has all the things you need to think about as you think about how am I
0:5555 supposed to live in this world. Uh the more I I read um and study the sermon of the mount,
1:021 Minute, 2 the more current it it feels to me like it’s just Yeah.
1:061 Minute, 6 It’s just form fit for what we’re dealing with right here, [clears throat] right now.
1:121 Minute, 12 So why don’t we start by just reading it again? Sure.
1:141 Minute, 14 And then we’ll jump into our conversation.
1:161 Minute, 16 All right. So this is Matthew 5:es 1-12, right? Yeah. Okay.
1:211 Minute, 21 Uh seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his
1:291 Minute, 29 mouth and taught them saying, „Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
1:361 Minute, 36 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
1:461 Minute, 46 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are
1:541 Minute, 54 persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
2:052 , 5 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. All right, that’s the first 12 verses. Yeah.
2:152 , 15 I as you were you were reading I was just thinking man it would be a great thing to every day just pray the biatitudes into our lives.
2:242 , 24 Yeah.
2:252 , 25 Because these these are not natural for us. Uh they’re they’re this life of blessing is
2:342 , 34 only ours by means of God’s empowering grace. Remember, God’s grace isn’t just forgiving grace and finally destiny
2:422 , 42 grace, but it’s grace for everything we face right now. Well, we’re looking at blessed are the meek.
2:522 , 52 Mhm. I would entitle this episode Stay Small.
2:572 , 57 Stay small. I’m great at that. uh because uh
3:043 , 4 it is by far for me the most counterintuitive, unnatural of all the biatitudes.
3:153 , 15 Um, meekness is this
3:223 , 22 uh stature of humility that just recognizes I’m not in the center of the world. Life is not about me.
3:333 , 33 Uh, I’ve been born into a glory story.
3:373 , 37 That’s not my glory. It’s the glory of God.
3:413 , 41 And in order to really talk about meekness, we got to do the theological background.
3:503 , 50 In 2 Corinthians 5 around verse 15,
3:573 , 57 Paul says that Jesus came so that those who live would no longer live. Here’s the here’s the words for themselves.
4:104 , 10 So this is this is the Apostle Paul arguing something. It’s very important to grasp and it’s really helpful to use it as a way of examining yourself.
4:224 , 22 He’s arguing that the DNA of sin is selfishness in the true sense of what that means.
4:314 , 31 It’s it’s making life all about me. And in saying that, Paul is
4:414 , 41 uh warning us for the danger of what I call center of the world living where
4:484 , 48 I get up in the morning and what floods into my mind is my wants, my needs, my feelings. Mhm.
4:594 , 59 And I want my needs uh addressed, my wants fulfilled,
5:075 , 7 and my needs affirmed. That’s that’s it. Um,
5:155 , 15 you know, if you’re a you’re a parent, you know exactly what that’s about.
5:205 , 20 Yeah. You see it all the time in your kids. Uh, a child isn’t born longing for somebody to rule them.
5:285 , 28 [laughter]
5:295 , 29 Just give mom and dad, if you love me, just give me some more commands. Uh, it’s just not not what happens.
5:385 , 38 And those those fights against your rules, uh, safety rules in the home,
5:455 , 45 what to eat, what to go to bed, they’re not actually about the issue.
5:525 , 52 They’re about the child not wanting to be ruled because they grow, they are born
5:595 , 59 wanting to be at the center of their world. That’s what sin does to us. Right?
6:076 , 7 Another observation is if you go back to Genesis 3, uh the temptation and disobedience of
6:166 , 16 Adam and Eve, what’s the issue? You can answer that. What’s the issue? What are they after? They want to be their own gods.
6:236 , 23 That’s exactly. They want to be God. It’s not about fruit.
6:296 , 29 In fact, uh, one of the hooks for them is
6:376 , 37 that this fruit was desireful, gaining wisdom.
6:416 , 41 That’s very important to understand because they were already connected to the ultimate source of wisdom. What is it? What is being promised?
6:506 , 50 independent wisdom that doesn’t depend on God. Yeah. Mhm.
6:536 , 53 So from uh the moment of the fall, every human
7:007 being born is born with this godlike quest.
7:077 , 7 That god-like quest is the exact opposite of meekness.
7:147 , 14 Um, you could you could argue that
7:217 , 21 the idol of of idols is not some physical created thing. The idol of idols is the idol of self.
7:317 , 31 Mhm.
7:347 , 34 So the prayer for meekness
7:397 , 39 uh is really a prayer to be rescued from me
7:477 , 47 because that as long as sin still lives inside of me that desire to be in the center
7:567 , 56 uh still exists inside of me. the the blessing, blessed are the meek. The
8:058 , 5 blessing is that God is ready and willing and able to rescue you from you.
8:118 , 11 Yeah. I think it’s helpful to to even even have you kind of give definition to the word meek because it’s not a word that we use very often in our culture
8:198 , 19 right now. It’s not something that gets tossed around even in in church circles.
8:248 , 24 And so helping uh to give some legs to the fact that this is what meekness is helps us to see what makes it what
8:328 , 32 meekness is not which actually helps us to examine ourselves.
8:368 , 36 Yeah. And meekness is the willingness not to be first, not to be in the center, not to rule,
8:458 , 45 uh not to have your wants always indulged.
8:498 , 49 Mhm. Um, and I I was
8:558 , 55 I was watching a three-year-old being said no to,
9:039 , 3 and I watched this little guy clinch his fist, stiffen up his body, and scream.
9:129 , 12 Mhm.
9:129 , 12 Now, that it wasn’t a cry, it was a scream.
9:169 , 16 Uh, and I thought, well, it sort of broke my heart, but I thought, there it is.
9:229 , 22 Yeah, that’s that’s us. That’s the struggle of of meekness.
9:319 , 31 And there’s a really great example of what meekness, the lack of meekness
9:399 , 39 creates, that sinner of the world living creates. It’s in James 4.
9:459 , 45 You you know that we very seldom live a
9:529 , 52 day in our lives without observing conflict or being part of conflict.
9:599 , 59 We surely don’t live in conflict-free families.
10:0410 , 4 And except you, I know that you and Rachel have never had a conflict in your entire marriage. And I think if we called
10:1210 , 12 Rachel, she would affirm that. totally would 20 years 20 years no conflict whatsoever
10:1910 , 19 and we don’t live in in a conflictless world and so
10:2610 , 26 James 4 asks the ultimate question it’s such a current question it’s what causes
10:3510 , 35 quarrels and fights among you it’s a great question yeah it really is because you think oh man I know with lam
10:4310 , 43 and me you Oh, we’ve been doing this for 54 years. Can’t we be on the same page?
10:5210 , 52 Can’t we not irritate one another?
10:5410 , 54 I remember when we recorded the the interview about your 50th year anniversary. We were sitting right in this room and you guys had a little spat
11:0211 , 2 and you looked over me and you were like 50 years. We’re still working on it.
11:0611 , 6 [laughter]
11:0711 , 7 Yeah. Oh, when we when we celebrate our anniversary, you know, last one was 54 years, we celebrate about 30 good years
11:1611 , 16 of marriage. [laughter] So, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Is it not that your passions,
11:2511 , 25 a passion is a ruling desire, are at [clears throat] war within you? There it is.
11:3211 , 32 You desire and you do not have. So you murder, you covet and you cannot oba obtain. So you fight and quarrel.
11:4411 , 44 I mean there it is. I now if you ask the average child, teenager or adult, why were you angry?
11:5511 , 55 They won’t talk about themselves. Yeah. They’ll point at someone else.
11:5811 , 58 They’ll talk about a situation or they’ll talk about a person. And James says, no, no, no. If you ever want to understand your anger, you have to look
12:0612 , 6 at yourself. That’s very humbling. And then he says something that
12:1512 , 15 you think, what is he talking about? He says, you adulterous people.
12:2112 , 21 You think maybe James has had a senior moment and changed the topic. Like when do we turn turn left here?
12:2812 , 28 Well, what he’s saying is, and this is really eloquent to me, that human conflict is rooted in spiritual adultery.
12:3812 , 38 It’s when the love for God that’s supposed to rule me, where I’m willing
12:4512 , 45 not to be first and not to be in the center and to live for a glory that’s not my own. When that’s replaced by love
12:5412 , 54 for me, that’s adultery. That’s spiritual adultery. Yeah.
12:5912 , 59 There’s a whole book of the Bible that’s about that. It’s Hosea. The whole story of Hosea is is is that Mhm.
13:0813 , 8 And then so what is what is the solution for James?
13:1713 , 17 This is so important to understand what Jesus says back in Matthew 5. The solution is not conflict resolution.
13:2613 , 26 Mhm. It’s not anger management. It’s worship realignment.
13:3413 , 34 Okay. What does that mean?
13:3513 , 35 Well, it means my problem isn’t that I have anger that I can’t control.
13:4213 , 42 My problem isn’t the relations in my life. My problem is my worship. I worship me than I worship God.
13:4913 , 49 Got it. Yeah. And there needs to be a change in worship if I’m ever going to live at peace with the people around me.
13:5813 , 58 Guess what that change in worship is called? Meekness. Really good. It’s when God is in his rightful place.
14:0714 , 7 I’m in my small place. God is big. I am small. There’s a solution. Yeah.
14:1414 , 14 It’s so incredible. But I want to say one other thing from James 4 because
14:2214 , 22 without this James would be very discouraging right in the middle of this conversation. He says but he gives us gives us more grace.
14:3214 , 32 Yeah. Yeah. James gets it. Mhm.
14:3514 , 35 He understands this conversation is going to be tough. And he turns and says, „Oh, by the way, [laughter] there’s plenty of grace available for this conversation.
14:4714 , 47 Now, I just want to say to all the people that are watching or
14:5614 , 56 listening, you just you just know you’re not always meek.
15:0415 , 4 If you begin to um examine the places where you’re
15:1315 , 13 irritated or angry, it’s just it’s just there. Yeah. I don’t want to be disagreed with.
15:2115 , 21 Mhm.
15:2315 , 23 I don’t want somebody driving slow in front of me in traffic. Right. I want to be the first person in line.
15:3115 , 31 I want to be right. I want people to affirm that I’m right. And the arguments
15:3815 , 38 are not initiated by the thing, but about my position in the thing. Does that make sense?
15:4615 , 46 Yeah. So I’m bringing I’m bringing the sinner of the world thing to something that I mean you know most of the
15:5515 , 55 arguments we have are picky you dumb things that are embarrassing to look back at but they become arguments
16:0316 , 3 because I approach him with a center of the world mentality.
16:0916 , 9 Yeah. Asking yourself that question why am I irked right now? Why am I frustrated right now? It helps you to
16:1516 , 15 get behind the reason why there’s there’s this inter inner turmoil that’s happening when a circumstance
16:2316 , 23 goes wrong or a disagreement happens between two people. Absolutely.
16:2916 , 29 That’s absolutely true. And I I’ve got I’ve got to just look at this and say I need help.
16:3816 , 38 I need help. And help is available. And if you if you we go back to James 4,
16:4716 , 47 you see clearly that sinner of the world living is not a happy life. Mhm.
16:5416 , 54 As much as you may get a momentary buzz out of uh winning Mhm.
17:0217 , 2 you have harmed a relationship, you’re going to you’re going to harvest that fruit somewhere down the road. Right. Maybe
17:1017 , 10 that’s living in a marriage with a couple days of creepy silence or
17:1817 , 18 knowing that you have to go ask forgiveness for your child because you’ve responded to them in a way you should never respond because they interrupted you watching Netflix. Mhm.
17:2917 , 29 Um there’s always a there’s always a negative harvest. Mhm.
17:3617 , 36 With putting yourself in the center world because as God designed his world, that was never meant to work.
17:4517 , 45 Yeah.
17:4617 , 46 Uh God’s world is designed uh with him at the center and everything
17:5417 , 54 existing for his glory. That’s where that’s where peace reigns.
18:0018 And sin is rooted in idolatry. Sin is our pursuit of self glory.
18:1118 , 11 Uh the easiest definition of sin is
18:1818 , 18 the quest and the desire to be God and the actions that follow. And what’s the m main
18:2718 , 27 action that follows? Setting your own rules.
18:2918 , 29 Yeah. Yeah. Self-centeredness. And so for me, this may be the most convicting of all
18:3818 , 38 the biatitudes because it just exposes that the idol of self isn’t yet totally defeated in me.
18:4818 , 48 Mhm. And I I need to be met by God’s grace.
18:5218 , 52 Yeah. When you discover that you’re not meek, that [snorts] should point you in in a direction that says I need to throw myself on the mercy of God. you you
19:0019 you’ve got to do something here because if you don’t show up like I’ll never be the type of person that you’ve called me to be which is a meek person
19:0819 , 8 and and know the the freedom the joy of living for a glory that’s bigger bigger than my own.
19:1919 , 19 That is the the best most joyous way of living. Well, God help us.
19:2819 , 28 God help us. Uh I want to say pray for daily for grace to stay small.