Hope Church LV Sermons
Be Happy :: Happy are the Humble
Well, every single day of our lives, we are bombarded with products and companies and plans and people who promise us a better way of life. These products and these companies and these advertisements all claim that if you will use their product or follow their plan, or shop in their store, that you will experience a radical departure from the life you're currently experiencing and you will have a fundamental, better way of life. Let me give you a few examples. There's a website out there called betterlife.com and on betterlife.com, they make a claim that they have the pathway to a fundamentally better way of life. And you can get on that pathway by simply using a line of nutritional products that they claim will fundamentally give you a better way of life. For the low, low price of three easy installments of $49.95, you can have a fundamentally better way of life. Coca-Cola made the claim several years ago, they're disclaimer was Coke is life. You may remember that. And they were basically claiming that if you drink their product, their sugar water, then your life will fundamentally be better making a promise of a better way of life. Now there's a well-known department store chain. Perhaps you've heard of it and they have a slogan and their slogan is this. Save money, live better. Better, right? Walmart basically says that if you shop in their store and you purchase their products, you're gonna save money and you're gonna live better. You will have a fundamentally better way of life. Now, I've been to Walmart and I've driven through the parking lot and my life did not get fundamentally better. But that's the claim. So every day we're bombarded with these claims of there is available out there somewhere a fundamentally better way of life than you're presently experiencing. Is that possible? Well, 2,000 years ago, a man from Galilee stepped on the scene and he made the most radical claims in the history of the world. He stepped into his day and into his culture and he made a claim that there was indeed a radically fundamentally better way of life than what they were presently experiencing. He said it was a drastically better way of life than what they knew. He made claims that there was a way of life that was characterized by peace instead of fear. He said there was a way of life that was characterized by satisfaction instead of emptiness. He said there was a way of life characterized by healthy relationships instead of broken ones. He said there was a life of genuine authenticity instead of hypocrisy. He said there was a life of pursuing real treasure and not the kind that fades away. And he made these claims that there was a fundamentally different way of life but he went on and he made even more radical claims and he said the pathway or the means to that way of life is not what you might expect. He made some really obscure or radical statements. He said things like if you want to be full then you must acknowledge your emptiness. He said if you want comfort then it begins with mourning. He said you desire true satisfaction, you got to be hungry. He said you want to get along with your enemies, pray for them and love them. He said you want to be treated a certain way then you treat others the way you want to be treated. He said to the religious crowd of the day you want to be right with God, genuinely right with God then lay aside your false pretentious outward forms of righteousness and trust me. Made some radical claims. He said there's a fundamentally different and better way of life available but the means to that way of life is not quite what you expect. Jesus Christ was then and is now offering a fundamentally better way of life than what the world has to offer. And in no place in your Bible are these claims more clear and are more laid out than in the Gospel of Matthew chapter five through chapters seven. And I want to invite you to turn there this morning. If you have a copy of God's word, Matthew chapter five. And this morning we're going to begin a series that's going to carry us for a little while here at church. We're going to begin to dive into what's known as the sermon on the Mount. It's been called the greatest sermon that was ever preached. And you find it there in Matthew chapter five through seven. Don't worry, we're not going to cover all three chapters this morning, okay? In fact, it's probably going to take us about 18 months to get through these chapters. There's a lot there. But this sermon on the Mount that you find there in these three chapters has been called the greatest message ever preached. It has been said that this is the most influential teaching in the history of the world. One preacher said that these three chapters have impacted more people than anything else in the history of the human race. Jesus Christ stands and proclaims the greatest message ever taught. And what we're going to do as a church family is to dig into that over the next few weeks together. Now before we start actually reading the sermon on the Mount this morning, I kind of want to paint the context for you and paint the picture. There's been a lot of misunderstandings about the sermon on the Mount. A recent Gallup poll was taken among Americans and Americans were asked, who do you believe preached the sermon on the Mount? Well, the majority of Americans responded and said they believed that the sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. And 27% of those who responded believed it was preached on horseback, the sermon on the Mount, get it? It wasn't Billy Graham on horseback, okay? I want to just make that clear. It was Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. And we have a record of it right here in your scriptures in Matthew chapter five through seven. Now I want to set the context a little bit this morning and I want to challenge you a little bit. Because if you've grown up in church and you've been around this a lot, maybe some of you have, maybe some of you, this is the first time you've ever heard of it. But I want to encourage you this morning, what I'm going to try to take a few minutes this morning and do is try to paint the picture so that you will hear the sermon on the Mount like they heard it when they were sitting there. This massive people that heard this sermon, I want us to try to hear it like they heard it then. And I want you this morning to try to hear the sermon on the Mount, maybe like you've hearing it for the very first time. And you asked yourself the question, Lord, what are you really saying here? And how does this apply to my heart today? See, Jesus did not preach the sermon on the Mount merely for information. He preached the greatest sermon ever preached to change lives. It wasn't about dispensing information. And this morning I pray that we begin this study in the sermon on the Mount asking the Lord to change us. Lord, give me fresh ears and fresh eyes. Let me hear what you're saying and change me and change us as a church. All right, now I want to begin actually in chapter four over in verse 23, because I want to set the context a little bit so you understand what the scene was, what was going on, who was there, so we can try to hear this as if we were sitting there on that day. Verse 23 of chapter four says this, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee and he was teaching. He was teaching in their synagogues and he was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Now stop right there for just a second. When we hear the gospel of the kingdom, maybe we immediately think of a place, the kingdom of God. But what Jesus was proclaiming was not merely the kingdom of God in its literal sense. He was proclaiming a way of life, a distinctive way of life that was different than anything they'd ever heard. It was a kingdom way of living. See the great expectation of the Jews during that day of every Jewish person was someday our king is coming. Someday the Messiah is going to come and he's going to inaugurate and establish his kingdom on earth and everything is going to be as it ought to be. Everything is going to be made right and Jesus stepped on the scene and they believed he was the Messiah and he said basically, I'm not establishing my literal kingdom yet, but there is a kingdom way of life available to you now. And he is proclaiming this kingdom way of life different than anything they'd ever heard before. And he's going about proclaiming this kingdom and that's why the crowds are coming to him. They've never heard anything as radical as this before. That their life could be like this. Bible goes on and says he was healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. He was a teaching a kingdom way of life and he was demonstrating kingdom power. Verse 24 says, the news about him spread throughout all Syria and they brought to him all who were ill and suffering with various diseases and pains and they were bringing demoniacs and epileptics and paralytics and he was healing them all. Verse 25, large crowds followed him. Why? There was something different about this man and something different about his message. We've never heard anything like this before. They were following him. Says they were following him from Galilee and from the Decapolis. That's an area of 10 cities and Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan. For miles around, word had got out about Jesus in this message. They were reading about him on Facebook and Twittering him and emailing it out. It was... Word was spreading about Jesus and people were saying, have you heard what this guy's saying? Have you seen what he's doing? There's something different about him and the crowds were coming to hear this message and to see this man. And it's with that context that Matthew launches into the Sermon on the Mount in chapter five and hopefully that paints a little bit of a picture. The context around this message that he's getting ready to preach. Chapter five, verse one, the Bible says, when Jesus saw the crowds and stopped right there. You say, if you keep stopping like that, I know why it's gonna take us a year and a half. We're never gonna get through that. There's a lot here, okay? Bible says, when Jesus saw the crowds, that's really easy just to read right over that and but I want you for just a minute to try to see the crowds like Jesus saw them. We just described the crowds to you and we kind of have an idea of why they're all coming around but how did Jesus see the crowds? Well, Jesus looked out into the crowds and he saw different kind of people. He saw some people who were empty and they were empty because they had followed all those empty pursuits of how to have this better life and they had pursued all these things that the world had to offer it. They found out that they don't deliver on their promises and they were empty. They heard something about this better way of life but they knew they didn't have it. And he looked out on some people and they were weary. You know why they were weary? Is because they lived in a religious climate of the day that this promise of a better life was available to those who followed the rigid law and the rigid religious practices and dotted all the eyes and crossed all the tees and followed these men called the Pharisees that taught you must live out all of these perfect rules and regulations and then maybe then God will have mercy and then maybe then you'll have part of the kingdom and they were bearing this yoke of external religion and it was wearing them out. And they heard that Jesus was preaching a message not of rules and regulations but of life and relationship and love and joy and truth and grace and he looks out and he sees those who were wearyed by the religion of the day. And he looks out and he sees some to be honest who were proud and that was those religious leaders of the day who felt like they had all the externals together. They had their life together and they were following the rigid rules and regulations and they were keeping all the commandments and they were doing all the do's and not doing all the don'ts and they were all their religious garb and their funny hats and their flactories and they were standing there probably and listening to all this talk about a better way of life and they thought, well, he's talking about us. I mean, if anybody's worthy of this better way of life and if anybody's worthy of this kingdom, well, it's gotta be me. Jesus saw them out in the crowd and then there were the followers. There were those who had heard his message and seen his life and realized, wait a minute. That's him. He's the promised one. He is the Messiah. He is the king and he does have the way to eternal life and they've dedicated their life to him and it's to those crowd that Jesus stands up and he sees them and the Bible says, when he saw the crowds, not just a massive humanity, but he saw not like we see. The Bible goes on and says, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain. What does that mean? Well, you read that and you would conclude that Jesus didn't like the crowds. He saw crowds, he says, guys, I'm going up on the mountain, I'm out of here. But that's not what he means. The word mountain of probably a better translation in his hill or an elevated place. In other words, Jesus saw this massive humanity and saw these crowds and he stepped back and he moved to an elevated place. Why? 'Cause he wants them to be able to hear what he's getting ready to tell them. Saw the crowds and he moved up on a hill or he moved up on a mountain. The Bible says, after he sat down, why does Matthew put that there? He was Jesus tired? Guys, you're wearing me out, I got to sit down, I got to take a break. No. Now, again, I want you to get the picture, okay? You're there with these crowds. You see this man who's teaching these radical things and you see him pull away from the crowds, he kind of goes up on a mountain or a hill and you can see him and he sits down. What did that mean to those who saw him? In that day, a rabbi or a teacher who was getting ready to teach and getting ready to share truth, he did not go behind a pulpit like we do today or he did not pull out his music standard, his lectern, he would take a posture and he would sit down. So everybody in the crowd who had come to hear these words of life, they see Jesus pull back and they see him go take on the position of a rabbi and here's what they're thinking, he's getting ready to teach. He's getting ready to share this way of life, these truths and that's why the end of verse one says this and his disciples came to him, why? 'Cause he's getting ready to share truth and we don't wanna miss it. And as a church family, that's basically what we're gonna do over the next few weeks and months, we're going to sit at the feet of Jesus and we're going to listen to him teach this way of life and reveal to us the truths of the sermon on the mount. You see that, you see the scene? Bobble goes on verse two and he opened his mouth and he began to teach them saying, now why did Matthew say it that way? Why did Matthew just say and he said, again, every word has meaning in that day if you used a phrase like and he opened his mouth and he began to teach them what you're basically saying is not that he's just talking this conjured up the idea of those who heard and those who read in that day that this person is going to stand and he's not just going to teach, he is literally getting ready to open his heart up to you. It would be like me standing up here and saying, all right, I'm gonna share from the depths of my heart to you. Now listen, and Matthew says he took the posture of a teacher and he began to open his heart to those who were there and opened his soul and he began to teach them. And that is the context of the sermon on the mount as we get ready to read it together. See that? Now, before we even read these verses, I want to share just a few things with you and I kind of want to share four things to kind of sit the framework for the sermon on the mount as we dive into it over the next weeks and months. I want to share four things with you to sit the framework, number one is this. I want us to know that the sermon on the mount reveals our desperate need for a relationship with God in other words, I don't want us to read the sermon on the mount and go, okay, we had the old rules. Now Jesus is giving us a new set of rules. And if we could just adhere and abide to all these things he says, then then we'll have a relationship with God. Well, listen, if that's your approach, I encourage you to start with Matthew chapter five, verse 48, which says, "Jesus said you are to be perfect "as my heavenly Father is perfect." How about that one? I fall way short of that one, how about you? So Jesus is not saying, okay, follow this and then you'll have a relationship with God. He's saying, look at this way of life. It's not difficult, it's impossible. It's only possible through a radical transformation through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Secondly, the sermon on the mount provides clear instruction, explaining the life Christ desires to live through us. Even as a believer, we're not to read the sermon on the mount and say, okay, I'm gonna exercise more spiritual elbow grease and I'm gonna try harder and try harder, oh, if I can only live out the sermon on the mount, guess what? You can't, I can't, but he Jesus in you will live this out through you as you trust him and walk in faith and dependence on him. For example, there's a verse over here that says, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Can you imagine a life without any worry whatsoever? Can anybody imagine that? Could you imagine a life without worry about tomorrow or next month or next year? Jesus says, there is a life characterized by peace instead of worry, guess what? We can't do that on our own, but he does it through us. See that? Number three, sermon on the mount demonstrates the radically different life of a Jesus follower. Listen, if Jesus is living inside of you, he offers to you this way of life that is radically different from those around you. Now listen, not different, weird. This is not a call to be weird, but it is the revelation of a way of life that is rare and different and unique. Jesus said in five, 16, let your light shine before men in such a way that they'll see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. There is a way of life that you will appear as a light in darkness. It's a different way of life. John's thought of this passage says, no comment could be more hurtful to the Christian than these words, but you are no different from anyone else. Jesus is demonstrating a life here that's radically different for the Jesus follower. Then fourthly, the sermon on the mount invites us into a life of true genuine happiness. See, the sermon on the mount begins with a word that's repeated nine times. Sermon on the mount begins with the section that we know as the Beatitudes. And nine times through that section, he uses a phrase, blessed, blessed, blessed. He's inviting us into a life that is fundamentally better and different, it is a place of blessedness. And that's what Jesus is inviting us into. So with all that background and all that context, I want us to set on a hill, so to speak, with Jesus speaking into our lives and listen to the first few verses of the sermon on the mount as I read them to you, okay? Verse three begins, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, 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. Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad. For your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And with this, Jesus launches into the greatest sermon in the history of the world. In the first few verses, a section that we call today the Beatitudes. I don't know about you, but for me, in most of my life, when I read the Beatitudes, and maybe some of you have them memorized, and maybe some of you even have them on your wall at home, and you're very familiar with the Beatitudes, and for most of my life, when I read the Beatitudes here and here's how I read them. If I will do this, then they'll be blessing. Or if I could just maintain this attitude, then they'll be blessings. In other words, I simply read the Beatitudes as an instruction of what I was being told to do. But as I study this week, I'm not completely convinced that that's exactly how we're to read the Beatitudes. And as we introduced the first Beatitude this morning, I want to, again, try to let you hear it like they heard it in that day. See, in that day, if you use the phrase blessed, or blessed are the, when you heard that phrase in that day, it could mean one of two things. One thing it could mean is it was an instructional phrase. People would use this phrase in that day, and it would work like this. If you do this, then there will be blessings. It would be like saying, blessed are the hard working. If I just work hard, then there'll be blessings. But there was another way in this day that this phrase, this blessed are the phrase was used, and it was called a surprise announcement or a declaration of what was true. See, I'm not following you yet. Okay, hang with me. In other words, the Beatitudes could be read of, okay, do this and this will happen. Or I think more likely what Jesus is doing is he is standing up before this multitude, and he is making a statement that is a surprise announcement of a reality that they had never heard before. In other words, here's how you can read the Beatitudes. I want to put this up on the screen 'cause we read these over the next eight weeks together. The Beatitudes can be called declarations of a radical way of life made possible in Christ, resulting in real, unshakeable happiness. And the first declaration of truth, of reality that Jesus stands up and makes is this, to the strong of people, he says, blessed or a place of blessing to those who are poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And I'm convinced in that crowd that day, there were some who heard that statement, and they stood up and they said, what are you talking about? This was a radical statement that Jesus was making. He is not talking about how you earn the kingdom of heaven. He is saying, he is declaring to whom the kingdom way of life is now available. Let me say that again, okay, you ready? He is declaring to this multitude to whom this kingdom way of life is available. And it was completely opposite what they thought he would say. Because in this day, remember, in this day, the religious climate of the day was this, if you wanna talk about the kingdom and you wanna talk about this kingdom way of life and who is going to experience that kingdom way of life, well, everybody in that day knew who was gonna experience that kingdom way of life, right? It was the spiritually elite. It was the spiritual giants of the day. It was those who had it all together spiritually. It was those that we call the Pharisees or the religious leaders of the day. And they were those who stood there in that crowd and they thought, oh yes, this kingdom of heaven, well, of course it's for me. And everybody in the crowd thought, oh, this kingdom of heaven, this radical way of life, of course it's for them. They're the spiritual giants. I mean, these Pharisees, remember, in this day, they were seen as the heroes because externally they had it all together. I mean, there were the guys who were the experts in the Mosaic Law. They were the guys who had the first five books of the Old Testament memorized. How would you like to memorize Leviticus? (congregation murmuring) They fasted twice a week. They were all the external spiritual garb. They had the funny hats and the tassels and the robes and they walked around and people kind of followed them and said, oh, I wish I could be like a Pharisee someday. I wish my children could be like a Pharisee someday. They were the heroes because externally they appeared to have it all together. But then everybody else looked to them as the spiritual giants and they saw themselves as spiritual zeroes. We could never live up to that. And Jesus steps out and drops a bombshell in the middle of this crowd and he says, let me tell you who this kingdom way of living is for. Let me tell you who the kingdom of God is for. And I just imagine the Pharisees were over in the corner saying, well, I know what he's gonna say. He's gonna talk about me. And Jesus said, it's for those who are poor in spirit and the crowd went, what? Because that little word poor, you know what that means? You know how they heard that word? Well, in that day, the word poor had two different meanings or two similar meanings. One meant you're poor, but you have a little. It was like the woman who brought the two coins to Jesus. You remember that story? The word that was used for her there. She was poor, but the word there meant she was poor, but she had a little, she had two cents. But there was another word for poor that was used in that day and it meant you were poor and you had nothing. You were poor and you were destitute. You had absolutely nothing. It was used of the blind beggar standing on the side of the road completely without any resources of his own. And Jesus said, if you want the kingdom, the kingdom of God is now available and this way of living is now available, but it is not to those who come to me and have it all together. It is not those who have this spiritual pedigree. It is to those who are absolutely bankrupt in spirit, he said. In other words, you recognize in your heart, I have nothing to offer, I have nothing to bring. I have accomplished nothing before you. God, I cry out to your mercy and your mercy alone. That is what it means to be poor. Banker up before God in spirit. You know who those poor in spirit are today? Me and you? 'Cause can we just be real honest with each other for a minute? I hope you can handle this, but I don't have it all together, okay? And neither do you. But Jesus says there is a place that God reveals of our hearts by His grace when we come to the place that we realize we're bankrupt spiritually. God, I have nothing to bring to you. You understand you do nothing to contribute to your salvation. You do nothing to contribute to your position before God. In fact, all you bring to God, all I bring to God is sin. But when we buy the grace of God, realize we're spiritual zeroes. He says, "Then I've got something I can work with." John MacArthur said it this way. He said, "Poverty in spirit, the poor in spirit, "are those who recognize "their total spiritual destitution "and their complete dependence on God." They perceive that they have no saving resources in themselves, and they can only beg for mercy and grace. They know that they have no spiritual merit. They know that they cannot earn any spiritual reward. Their pride is gone, their self-assurance is gone, and they stand empty-handed before God. And to those who recognize that in the crowd, they heard something they had never heard before. "I have no spiritual pedigree. "I have nothing to offer." And you're telling me the kingdom of God is available to me? Yes! That's grace. And that's something to rejoice and recognize there is a place of blessedness, not because of what you bring to the table, but you come to God empty and say, "I have nothing, I've accomplished nothing." And he says, "Yes, that's what I'm looking for. "I flood your life with my grace and mercy." But to the spiritually proud who think they've got it all under control, and they wanna rehearse their own spiritual accomplishments, Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is not for you." And those who heard that, that was a radical concept in that day. See that? Now I wanna demonstrate to you what poverty and spirit looks like. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Luke chapter 18. I wanna show you a picture Jesus paints for us for what poverty and spirit really looks like. The difference between being poor in spirit and being proud in spirit, because they're two very different things. Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse nine, Jesus is gonna teach another parable. It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. And just like the radical sermon, Jesus is preaching here, this story when he told it was radical. It was scandalous. Jesus begins teaching in verse nine over in Luke 18, and he says this, "And he, Jesus, told this parable. "To some people who trusted in themselves "that they were righteous "and viewed others with contempt." Aren't you glad we don't have a problem with anything like that? I'm so glad I'm past that. Very proud of my humility, aren't you? Verse 10, Jesus says there was two men. He's gonna contrast two men. He says, verse 10, there were two men who went up to the temple to pray. Now watch this, one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. Now when he begins teaching this story and telling this story, everybody who was listening saw it like this, okay, Pharisee, hero, yes. Tax collector, villain, boo. That's the way they heard it. Tax, Pharisee, many is a spiritual giant. Externally he's got it all together. He dots all the eyes and crosses it all the teas. He wears the funny hats and the robes, and man, he prays these long prayers in the streets. Externally, outwardly he's got it all together. Jesus says over here, there's a tax collector. And everybody thought, scum, spiritual zero, loser, and Jesus turns their story upside down. He says, verse 11, the Pharisee, the hero, stood and was praying this to himself. Listen to this, God, that's the way Pharisees talk. If you don't know, they all speak King James English too, by the way. God, I think you that I'm not like other people. Can you imagine that? We would never do anything like that with me. We would never have the thought, Lord, I'm doing okay. I mean, compared to Pastor Mike. Pharisee student said, Lord, I think you that I'm not like other people. God, I thank you that I'm not like these swindlers and these unjust and these adulterous. And Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this tax collector over here. He says, I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. I'm at the synagogue every week. I'm in a small group. With weird people. Let me ask you, is that a picture of poverty in spirit or pride in spirit? It's a picture of a guy who externally had it all together. The heart was empty. Jesus says, but on the other side, we've got the villain. We've got the tax collector, verse 13, with the tax collector standing some distance away. Was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his chest or his breasts saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Here's this guy who was a spiritual zero. He had no pedigree. He had no spiritual lineage. He couldn't even find Leviticus. He had never even heard of it. But he stands before God imputes his Lord. I have nothing to bring to the table. I am bankrupt before you. And Jesus says this to this one who was poor in spirit, verse 14. I tell you this man, the villain went away to his house justified rather than the other. Another way of saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. See that? And which of those more characterizes your life? I mean, do you see the differences between pride in spirit and poverty in spirit? See, proud in spirit always focuses on self. But poverty in spirit forgets self and focuses on God. Poverty in spirit, now listen, is not belittling yourself. Don't fool yourself to think that you are poor in spirit because you always talk about how poor in spirit you are all the time. Oh, I'm such, I'm so broken, I'm so messed up. I'm so the, I'm so that. Listen, poverty in spirit is self-forgetfulness. Beth Moore said it this way, she said, "We have a serious pride problem "that masquerades as low self-esteem. "Pride is self-absorption, "whether we are absorbed in how miserable we are "or how wonderful we are." Poverty in spirit, you forget about yourself. Poverty, pride in spirit compares themselves to others. Poverty in spirit confesses our sins to God. In other words, the pride in spirit, we always establish our standing before God by comparing ourselves to somebody else. That's what the Pharisee did. But poverty in spirit recognizes, man, I'm bankrupted and God only hope I have is your mercy and grace. Pride in spirit expects blessings from God. Pharisee came expecting a blessing like us. He had it all right. He had it all under control. Poverty in spirit pleads for mercy and expects nothing. See, a beggar on the side of the road expects nothing and is thankful for anything he gets. Pride in spirit complains and criticizes. Poverty in spirit gives thanks always with a grateful heart. Those who are prideful in spirit come full and leave empty. Those who are poor in spirit come to Jesus empty and he fills you up. See, it's impossible to be full of Jesus and full of yourself at the same time. Jesus, to those who are in the crowd, makes this radical bombshell of a statement and says, this kingdom way of living, this kingdom way of life, it is available. Not to those who externally think they've got it all figured out, but to those who recognize before God, they are absolutely bankrupt and they come and cry out for the mercy of God. It is to those that belong the kingdom of heaven. And that is the foundational statement and pillar for the entire rest of the sermon. It's not about your spiritual accomplishments. It's about our utter dependence on a holy God to extend his mercy and grace because before him we are bankrupt and empty. See that? You understand, this is how a person first comes to no Christ as Savior and Lord. If somehow you had imagined and thought that being a Christian and coming to Christ meant that you got it all together and you got your spiritual house in order and you brought all these accomplishments and you'd fulfilled all these expectations. I want you to understand that's not Christianity. Christianity is recognizing we're a beggar on the side of the road spiritually before a holy God and our only hope is the mercy and grace of God. I want you to understand if you're new here, you're in a church full of spiritual zeros, okay? And I'm one of them. And my only accomplishment of any significance is that Jesus Christ died on a cross to do what I could never do and offers me a life. I could never live available to me when I come to him empty handed and God, I have nothing fill me with your life and yourself. It's how a person comes to Christ. But I want you to know if you're here and you're a believer and you know Jesus, this is the attitude by which we walk with Christ. See, your Christian goal is never to get to the place where you say, man, I've got it. I'm doing pretty good, this God thing. Look at me, look what I've accomplished. Look what all I've done. Listen, every morning you wake up, you are desperate for the grace of God. Did you know that? I am too. I need God's grace to get out of bed. I need God's grace to open this book. I need God's grace to love my wife and love my family and even thinking about being a pastor of a church, even think about walking with Jesus. I am poverty, I am impoverished, bankrupt before him. And every day God, I need your grace today to do anything of significance. God, it's not look at me and watch me go, I got it all together. Lord, I am broken, I can't. I need your grace today just as much I needed at yesterday. That's how you walk with Jesus. To this crowd there on the hillside, Jesus drops the bombshell and says, you want to know about this radical way of life? It all starts with recognizing you're empty and you're poverty and spirit. But he says, if you will, come to me. All who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. For to them is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are the humble before God. Let's pray together this morning. (audience chattering) As you're seated there this morning, our team is gonna come lead us and we're gonna stand and sing in just a few moments. But please don't miss an opportunity right now for a moment or two to simply sit before the Lord and let him speak to your heart. Jesus did not preach the sermon on the mount for information. He preached it for life transformation. Let God speak to your heart this morning. (audience chattering) As you're seated there this morning, you may be that person who for the first time in your life realizes it's not about what I can accomplish. It's not about trying to do it all right. It's not about this external religion. And I've been trying and I've been trying this external way and Lord try to do all the do's and don't all the don'ts and I've lived this external way of religion but you're telling me it's a heart issue and Jesus makes it available yes this morning. If you recognize you're broken and empty before Jesus, he promises to fill you with his life and forgiveness and a relationship with him. How you come to him empty, Lord, I need you. God, I need your mercy, change me, live through me. I surrender my life to you this morning and this morning you can begin a genuine, authentic, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ right there where you're seated. In just a few moments when we stand and sing if you need to pray with someone about that or you have more questions about this thing called a relationship with Christ, there's gonna be some prayer volunteers around the room, some pastors go and take one of them by the hand and say, I prayed that, I realized my poverty now helped me. You may be here as a child of God and you realize the last few days and weeks and you're walking with Jesus have been characterized more by pride than brokenness. Tell him, he already knows. Lord, forgive me for somehow thinking I have it all together, God. Jesus, I am desperate for your grace and mercy in my life. Just tell him. (gentle music) Lord, we love you this morning. God, we thank you for this incredible truths that you shared with us this morning. Jesus, we long to sit at your feet and you speak into our hearts. We love you and we need you. In Jesus' name we pray. - Thank you.