It Depends on Who You Depend On

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

I’m Virgil Grant. I’m one of the leaders around here, and I want to make sure that today we haven’t done this in a season. But I want to make sure that everyone has a copy of today’s program. If you came in today for any reason, they’re going to turn the lights up so you can take extensive notes. But if you did not get a copy of today’s program, raise your hand. One of our ushers will be glad to get some down front. Right now, hold your hands up if you need one. We’ll be glad to get you one. But I want you to take notes this morning because of the nature of the message. And we’re going to begin a brand new sermon series called The Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes are found in the most famous Sermon that Jesus ever preached. It’s called the Sermon on the Mount. And you can find that Sermon in Matthew chapter five through Matthew Chapter eight. And at the very first part of Matthew Chapter five, verses 1-11, you’ll find the Beatitudes. And we’re calling this sermon series A Blessed Life in a Broken World. And would you not agree with me that your life and my life it is blessed, even in the midst of the brokenness of our world. That’s the reason that we can give glory and honor to Jesus. And when we look at these Beatitudes, there are eight of them. And these eight Beatitudes really tells us how to be blessed and how to receive the blessings of God. And I just want you to know that I love you, and I want God to bless your life. I want God to bless your relationships with your husband, with your wife, with your children, with your relatives, and with your families. If you’re in school, I want God to bless your studies. If you’re married, I want him to bless your marriage. If you are having trouble with your finances, I want God to bless your finances. I want him to bless your health. I want him to bless your talent and your future. I want everything that you possess to be blessed by God. Here’s the deal. You know this. And I know this. Being blessed is not a problem with God. The problem lies with whom? With you and I are becoming blessable. We understand that God is not blessing sin. God does not bless apathy or indifference. God does not bless arrogance or anything else. There are a lot of things that God does not bless. So God wants us to get blessable. And in these Beatitudes, God says, You want to be blessed? Let me tell you how to be blessed. And we’re going to dive into each of these eight Beatitudes so that you and I can understand how to be blessed by God himself. And so we’re just going to jump into this Matthew chapter 5:1-3 And as it comes up on the screen, notice what happened. 

“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom

of heaven.”

Matthew 5:1-3

Now, I think that’s interesting. I think I should sit down and you should stand for 35 minutes. That would be interesting, wouldn’t it? But that’s what happened in ancient days. And we’re going to focus on the very first six words. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now you have to understand what he says here. He is saying that he wants to bless our lives. If we’re going to bless our lives, then we have to understand what our part is. And don’t you just love a preacher that starts with the blessings rather than the curses? And this is what Jesus does. He actually starts with the blessings, and he says, Here are eight ways. I want to bless your life. And notice what he says. He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Notice he did not say blessed are those who have physical poverty or those that have economic poverty or material poverty. He says blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Now, for you to understand this, I want you to take out your program, and on your program, I’ve given you some different translations. At the top. You have the NIV blessed are the poor in spirit. Then look at the other translations of Matthew five three. It says God blesses those who realize their need for him. In the contemporary English version, it says Bless those who depend on him in God’s word who recognize they are spiritually helpless. Or the new century version who knows that they have great spiritual needs. Now you begin to see a pattern that is developing is that without God in my life, without God in your life, then we are spiritually poor. The next verse, Psalm 146:5, helps us a little bit better. It says

“The Lord God blesses everyone who trusts him and depends on him.”

Psalm 146:5

Now, I want you to circle the word trust, and the word depends because I want you to understand something. You want God to bless your life. Then you have to trust God, and you have to depend upon God. Now, here we are, ready for what a definition of poor and spiritual means. 

To be “poor in spirit” means:

I HUMBLY DEPEND ON GOD INSTEAD OF MYSELF.

God blesses those who depend on him and not themselves. This is a problem for many of us today. For many of us, we are self-reliant and self-dependent, and we’re not dependent on God. God is a 911 call. God is an emergency kit. God is a fire extinguisher. He is a resource in case of emergency. But God says you want me to bless your life. You want to receive blessings from heaven. Then you have to be dependent upon me and not yourself. Now the question becomes how do I express my dependence upon God? Now, I think there are many, many different ways that we can express our dependence upon God. I just want to give you what I think are the two primary ways. You may see it differently, but these are the two ways that you depend upon God. And when you depend upon God and trust in Him, then you become blessable. The very first thing if you take your notes. 

Two Ways to Express my Dependence on God:

I depend on God’s WISDOM, not mine.

Now, for many of you, you know, that’s elementary. That is simple. But we’re going to do a deep dive into what it means to depend upon God’s wisdom. It means I’ll listen to what God says, and I actually do what he tells me to do. Now, I love this next verse. Proverbs 14:12. Now notice what it says here. It says. 

“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

Proverbs 14:12 

Now I want you to circle the word appears. Now I want you to circle that word. Have you ever had in your life the feeling that something was so right? I mean, like, you had this feeling. You had this hunch. You had this intuition. I mean, you had this gut-level reaction that you needed to do this. You needed that individual. You needed to make this decision. And you make that decision. And what happens? It falls apart. I mean, it’s a debacle. I mean, it’s a fiasco, right? I mean, it’s a complete failure. This is what this verse is talking about. There’s a way that appears that seems to be the right way. It is intuition. It’s the gut level. It is the thinking that everything is the way it’s supposed to be. But in the end, it leads to death. We all could stand up here this morning, and we could give a testimony of how we had a hunch, how we had intuition. We had a prompting. We followed through with it, and it was a complete failure. I just wrote down some of the things that I’ve thought about. I thought that for some of you, you took a job because you thought it was a perfect job, and it ended in a complete failure. For some of you, it was the perfect relationship. I needed him. I wanted him. I needed her. I wanted her. Whatever it is. And that relationship ended up at a dead end. Then I talked about the perfect person that I should marry. Oh, he or she is the perfect individual. And everybody’s saying, No, no, no, no. And you end up marrying the person. And it ended up as a complete flop, and it was miserable. Sometimes as parents, we think we know the right thing to say at the moment. We say what we think is the right thing. And then it flops miserably as well. It happens in friendships. It happens in investments. And we think this is a sure thing. We think this is a home run. There’s no way that we can lose. There’s no way that we cannot get a return on the investment. We make the investment, and then it is a complete flop. Now, here’s the question. If you want to get wisdom, if you want to get fewer dead ends, if you want to get fear defeats, fear failures, then what are you to do? Well, look at the next verse, if you will, from Proverbs 3:5-7. I love this. Notice what it says. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.”

Proverbs 3:5-7

You have to depend on God’s wisdom, not your wisdom. Now, here’s the question I have for you. How do you and I get God’s wisdom? How do we get his wisdom? Where is he telling us here in Proverbs three that we should have his wisdom, but how do we get it? If you’re taking those two ways that you get, God’s wisdom is that you pray and you read the Bible, you pray, and you read the Bible, and some of you you think that is so elementary. You said, Well, I read the Bible about a month ago. I read the Bible last year, and there was nothing that really happened. See, folks, here’s what you have to understand when you pray today maybe you say a prayer out loud, maybe you pray for a minute or 5 minutes, or maybe you read your Bible today. You don’t wake up tomorrow, and you’re completely changed. What happens is, is a cumulative effect of attending worship, observing, going to life group, reading your Bible, praying, and then what happens as you abide It remained in Christ. Then he bears the fruit in and through your life. Then notice what the next verse says in James Chapter 1:5. 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

James 1:5 

Do you understand that God is ready to give you wisdom? He’s ready to impart wisdom to you. Here’s the thing you know about Tim. You don’t even have to pre-qualify for wisdom. You don’t even have to fill out any qualification paperwork. You don’t have to do any of that because wisdom is available to all without finding fault. And it will be given to you is that God will readily give you wisdom. Why does God want to give you wisdom? It’s because God doesn’t want you to make dumb mistakes. God doesn’t want you to make mistakes. God doesn’t want you to hit dead ends. God doesn’t want you to experience one failure after another, failure after another failure. Because why? God wants you to succeed in life. God wants you to be wise. God wants you to be smart with him. Make smart decisions with your time, your talents, and your treasures. And it’s not like we’re waiting on Him. God is waiting on us to ask Him to help invite him in, to help us in our lives, and to give us the wisdom to make the decisions that we need to make. Now friends listen to me. 

God’s wisdom and God’s will are in God’s WORD.

If you fill in the notes, God’s wisdom and God’s will are found in God’s Word. That’s the next slide if you put it up. Thank you. There we go. See? There it is. God’s wisdom and God’s will are found in God’s Word. You need wisdom. You have to be in God’s Word. You need to know the will of God. You have to be in the Word of God. And you cannot be blessed unless you’re in the Word of God. Now, here’s the question. How do you know if you’re praying? How do you know if you’re depending on God’s wisdom rather than your own? Because here’s the deal, my friends. We think that is too simplistic. There’s no way that God could work like this. But this is how God works. Here’s how you know that you’re depending on God rather than yourself. Is that you wake up and you go through the day, and you declare to God, Hey, God, I’m going into this meeting. I need your wisdom. Hey, God, I’ve got this problem. How should I handle it? God, I’ve got this conflict. How should I handle it? What should be the approach? What should be my response? And if you’re not praying to God throughout the day, inviting God into your life. Listen to me, my friends. You’re not depending on God’s wisdom. You’re dependent on your own wisdom. If you’re not waking up every day and reading God’s Word or listening to God’s Word in the Bible and you are just relying upon your own wisdom, you’re not depending on God’s wisdom. You’re depending on your own, your own wisdom rather than God’s wisdom. And so here’s the thing, my friend, God wants you to depend upon Him and his wisdom for your life rather than you depending upon yourself. So how do you show dependence upon God? You trust in God’s wisdom and not your own wisdom. How do you get God’s wisdom? By praying and by reading God’s Word. The second thing I just want to suggest to you is this. 

 Two Ways to Express my Dependence on God:

I depend on God’s STRENGTH, not mine.

Now, folks, this is a big deal this morning. Please hear me out. You have to depend on God’s strength, God’s energy, God’s power, and not your own. I don’t know if you notice this or not, But I get tired. Does anyone else get tired? Does anyone else get to the end of the day and you’re like, You’re exhausted. Or maybe you get to the end of the week, and you’re like, Man, I have no more energy. You know why that’s true, Drew? Because we’re human beings. And you know what it is? Our energy is limited, but God’s energy is unlimited, right? Our energy is finite. God’s energy is infinite. Correct? God never runs out of energy. God never gets tired. I need to depend on God’s strength in order to succeed, in order to be blessed. Let’s look at some verses, if we will, Psalm 84:5. Notice what it says.  

 You bless all who depend on you for their strength.”

Psalm 84:5 

Do you want God to bless your life? Then you have to depend upon God. You have to rely upon His strength and not your own strength. Now, because why? Because we’ve run out of energy. We’re human beings. We only have a limited amount. Look at this next verse from Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 31. Folks, this is a verse that I have lived by. I don’t know if this is a verse that you live by or not, but this is the only way that you made it through the last 18 months is by this verse about here. This verse right here by friends has sustained me over the last 18 months. There’s no way that I could lead our church through a global pandemic. There’s no way that I would have ever gotten through the dark moments of my mother-in-law passing away and my father passing away over the last year. Because, folks, trust me, there’s been some dark, dark moments and some dark, dark days in my life. But here’s the thing it’s been God who sustained me. Notice what it says. 

 “Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.”

Isaiah 40:31 

Friends, listen to me. In the darkest moments of your life, you have to depend on God’s strength. It doesn’t matter the source of your darkness. It doesn’t matter how dark the darkest moments are. Here the reality is that when those dark moments come and they will come right through. They will come. They will come out of the left field. They come out of the right field. They come out of the center field. They’ll come from every different direction. But when those dark moments come in your life and they will. We’ll come. Who do you depend upon? Makes all the difference in the world. Now, folks in the ask your question. How many of you have known of someone who had gotten a divorce, but they’ve never recovered from the divorce? How many of you have known someone to go through a breakup and never recover? How many of you have known someone going through a financial storm and never recovered? How many of you have known someone going through a major illness? A major separation? They never recover. How many of you have had childhood wounds but never recovered from them. Or, you know, someone who’s gotten fired or laid off or they got arrested and they never recovered. Do you know why they never recover? You know why they stayed in the state that they were in is because they were relying upon their own strength rather than the strength of God to get them through. And the people who depended upon the strength of God got through the situation, got through the dark moments, got on the other side, and found wisdom and strength to move on. And those who depended upon themselves they’re still swimming in their pain and in their dark moments. There are people who are stuck and they’ve been miserable for most of their life because of why they depend upon themselves. And not upon God. There are a couple of verses I want to encourage you to memorize. That’s coming up on the screen. The first one. Psalm 71 verse 16. And this is a verse that everybody in the room should memorize. I would encourage you to take this verse. I would encourage you to put it on a postcard three by five card. I would put it on a sticky note. I would make it maybe a screensaver for my phone. But notice this, what it says. It says. 

“I walk in the strength of the Lord.” 

Psalm 71:16

This should be the most affirmative statement that you say over and over and over. Is that I walk in the strength of the Lord. You get up in the morning, and you don’t have any energy to get out of bed. You ever be like that? Some of you were like that this morning, right? No energy, no motivation. You know what you have to do? You have to get up on the side of the bed. You throw your feet over to the side, and you have to go, you know what? I have to walk. And the strength of the Lord this morning, for some of you, you get to work in the morning. And as you get to work, the very first thing that’s going to happen is that you’re going to encounter some problems, some issues. That has developed over the weekend and as it developed over the problems over the weekend. You’re going to go, oh, no, this is so overwhelming. But you know, what you have to do is that I will walk in the strength of the Lord. You say it with me next time, okay? For some of you, when you get to school. When you get to work. When you get to your place of socializing on Monday morning, there’s going to be conflict, and you’re going to ask yourself the question how to deal with this conflict. And you just quote some 71. I’ll walk in the strength of the Lord, and then you go on, and as you go throughout the day and the later the day goes on, the wearier you become, the more complaining, the more bellyaching that you have from your coworkers, from your direct reports. And as all of that’s going on, you go, I can’t take any more complaints. I can’t take any more bellyaching. And you are just going to quote Psalm 71, and you’re going to say what? I’ll walk in the strength of the Lord, and then you get home that evening. And the kids are fighting and fussing. They don’t want to cooperate. You’re tired. You’re exhausted. You don’t know if you can make it through the evening. And what do you do? You quote some 71, and you say what? I’ll walk in the strength of the Lord, and then you lay down your head on the pillow, and you’re exhausted, and you think about all the things that you didn’t get accomplished. You think about how your to-do list didn’t shrink, but it actually has grown. You begin to be filled with anxiety and tension because you’ve got a bigger day tomorrow than you had on this particular day. And as you’re dealing with the anxiety and the stress of your to-do list and what needs to happen the next day, you can’t go to sleep, and you’re tossing and turning. What do you do? You say I walk In the strength of the Lord. Now, when you get older, like me, you begin to have the pain and problems of aging. Can I just tell you it stinks and is getting old? It really does. And maybe your body isn’t working as it should. Maybe your mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Maybe you’re even getting little dementia. Who knows? This next verse, some 73 verse 26, is a verse that all of us old people in the room would need to memorize. Notice what it says. 

“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever!”

Psalm 73:26

Even though life may be falling apart. God is my strength. God is my source of power. God is the one that helps me to do the right thing in the right way. He is mine forever. There’s a missionary in China. His name was Hudson Taylor. He was a brilliant scholar. He was a brilliant man. He suffered many years bringing the gospel to China. He lived to be an old, old man. And one of the last letters he wrote, he wrote to a friend back in the US, and when he wrote this letter, his health was. Had been dwindling, and his mind had become very weak. He had become very weak. And it said this. 

 “I am so weak I can no longer work. I am so weak I can no longer study. I am so weak I can no longer read my Bible. I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in the arms of God like a little child in trust.”

-Hudson Taylor

Now I’m going to ask you to leave that quote right there until I tell you to take it off. I’m going to tell you a story that I’ll never forget. It happened on Monday. May 10th, 2021. My dad had been readmitted to a UK hospital. He’d been readmitted on Sunday. And we thought it was for dehydration, but it was a bit more than that. And so, where to go home on Sunday night because we couldn’t stay at the hospital? My dad got admitted to the hospital even though he was still in the ER. And on Monday morning, we were trying to figure out who was going to go over and who was going to be with him that day. And so my daughter Rachel works in the UK. Rachel, can you go up and see pap? Can you check on him and tell me how he’s doing? And she says, Well, give me a few minutes, and I’ll go. And she went and checked on my dad, and she called me back immediately. She said, Dad. Pap is not doing good at all. You need to get over here. And I dropped everything I was doing, just threw on a hat and shoes, and drove to UK Hospital. And I’ve been around a lot of death. I’ve been in the hospital. I’ve been in nursing homes. I’ve been at the bedside holding people’s hands when they have taken their last breath and slipped into eternity. I’ve seen a lot of death, and I knew that things were not good with my dad. I’ve just been around it enough. I just knew that this was the end. So my dad was lying there in the bed, and the E.R. Doctor, the attending physician, came in. You have to understand my dad’s lying there. He doesn’t have his hearing aids in. The doctor has an N95 mask on. The doctor speaks in a dialect. He’s from a foreign country, but his English is very good. And he says to me, he says, Well, your dad’s body is telling us that it’s tired. It’s through fighting it’s through. It’s just done. It’s just tired. It’s ready to be released. He goes, What’re the last wishes of your father? I pulled up my phone. Some paperwork that my dad had signed showed it to the doctor. He looked at it, and he said something to me that no other doctors ever said. You understand? I’ve been around a lot of hospitals. I mean, you know, you know your way around a shopping mall. I know my way around the hospital. Okay. And this doctor said to me. Is that Mr. Grant? It is one thing. To extend life. He says it’s another thing to extend death. And he goes if we do anything. If we take your dad to the emergency room and do emergency surgery, if we put a vent, if we put a tube in, if we shock his heart, if we do anything, all we will be doing would just be extending death. Not life. 

But you understand that doctors don’t come and have this conversation with you unless they’re about 99% sure that it’s over? They don’t do that because they understand that miracles happen. And I said to that doctor, I said, You know what? He’s got a big family. This is overwhelming. We weren’t anticipating this news this morning. He goes, I’m sorry. I go. Well, can I get my brother’s mom, sister, and my mom over here this afternoon? And you meet with them? He goes, Yeah. He said, Have them come over. 2:30-3:00, and he goes, We’ll have a conversation. Palliative care will be there. And so Rachel and I decided we would not text that. We did a facetime call with my mom and siblings and told them what was going on. Hung up the phone. They said they would all be over. And I sit down next to my dad’s bed, and, you know, I put my head down because I’m an emotional wreck. I’m crying and. As I’m crying. I mean, I’m just overwhelmed that this doctor says in the next 24 hours. I mean, he didn’t say it, but I knew what he meant. And for the next 24 hours, he wasn’t going to be around. And I’m crying and I get myself together and I go, I got to get myself together. And I look up to my dad. And I looked at my dad. He said. Virgil. He said. Are you having a good day? I go, dad. I’m having a good day. I said, What about you? And he went. I’m having a great day. He’s just been handed this death sentence. And how do you say that you have a great day when you’ve been handed your death sentence? It’s because of this. 

 “I am so weak I can no longer work. I am so weak I can no longer study. I am so weak I can no longer read my Bible. I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in the arms of God

like a little child in trust.”

-Hudson Taylor

And sometimes that’s all you can do my friends say God is completely out of my control. I don’t have any strength. I don’t have any wisdom. I don’t have anything to offer God. I just put myself as a little child in your hands. That’s what my dad did. The next morning at 7:29, he slipped from Earth into Heaven. What a glorious day. And you know what? God wants you to declare total dependence on him. See, we have a thing in the US Called the Declaration of Independence. God doesn’t want you to exert the Declaration of Independence. God wants you to claim the Declaration of Dependence. God wants you to be fully dependent on Him. And you know how in Scripture we declare our dependence upon God? Do you know how we express that we depend on God? We express our dependence on God by baptism.

My First Step in Expressing My Dependence: BAPTISM

That’s how we do it. That’s how we let the whole world know that we’re in for Jesus. It’s how we let the whole world know that we’re all in for Jesus. This is how we let the world know that we’re not going to depend on our own. Wisdom will depend on God’s wisdom. We’re not going to depend on our strength. We will depend on God’s strength to get us through this life. And here’s the deal, my friends. God, who wants you this morning? For some of you, because you’ve been resistant, you’ve been hesitant to declare your dependence upon God. Today is your opportunity to declare your dependence on God. I want you to look with me. If you will, at Romans chapter six. 

“This is what happens in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old sin behind and when we came up out of the water, we entered into a new life of grace. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus: and when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. We are raised to live a new life.”

Romans 6:3-5 

And baptism is your public declaration of dependence upon God. Now, some of you, you know that this is your next spiritual step. Some of you, you’ve been hesitant. You’ve been resistant. And you’ve got all kinds of excuses received for some of you. Is that you said, Well, I was baptized as an infant. You know, a lot of people have been baptized as an infant. A lot of people have been dedicated to the Lord as an infant. Do you understand that when you dedicated or baptized an infant, there was a choice that your parent parents made for you? Now you get to make that choice. You see, Jesus, his parents, even took him to the temple when he was younger and dedicated him to the Lord. But when he was at the age of 30, he started his public ministry. What did he do as an example for you and me? He was baptized. And he declared his total dependence upon his Heavenly father. And for some of you this morning, that is your next spiritual step. And so the worship team is going to come back out, and the worship team is going to lead us in a couple songs during this invitation. I want you to look at this last verse. This last verse, Matthew five six. 

“Great blessings belong to those who want to do right more than anything else. God will fully satisfy them

Matthew 5:6 

And this morning, the right thing for you to do is to be baptized to take your next spiritual step. And so, in this service and the next service, we just have an open baptism. And we have clothes. We have towels. You may be worried about your children. That’s in ekids. We’ve got them covered. We have swimsuits. We have tops. We have everything that you need for male and female children and adults. It doesn’t matter the size range. We’ve got you covered in all sizes. This is a one-stop shop around here, my friends. We are going to have cameras. We got people taking pictures. We will videotape your baptism. You will send you the baptism clip. You can send it to your family, whatever you need to do. I’m just going to ask you to stand in this morning. And as you stand, I’m just going to pray. And I’m just going to pray that you would just step out and do the right thing this morning. And that you would declare your dependency upon God. You’ve tried it your way. You’ve done it your way. You’ve been secretive. You have not told anyone about your decision for Christ. And today, you get to go public. You get to declare you’re dependent on God. So, Father. Right now, we just praise you. That we get to declare a dependence upon you. And many have already done that through the years and through the ages. And Lord, today there’s going to be a new set of people, a new set of Christ followers, a new set of all-in followers. Who’s going to declare their dependence upon you? Lord they’re going to declare that their life depends upon you and not themselves. They are going to declare that they’re going to depend on your wisdom rather than their own wisdom. They will declare that they will depend upon your strength rather than your strength. And father, right now, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you would come and have your way. Amen. We’ve got people up here. If you want to get baptized, you come on down front. We’ve got a whole group of people right up here who will help you. You come as we observe the baptism’s