The Life That Flourishes – Week One – Less Is More

Follow along there if you'd like. As we

are beginning a a new series today that's

gonna take us over the next 8 weeks

or so.

From Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Well, it was in 20 10 that a

multi millionaire from

New Mexico had an idea.

Was an idea that he hoped would see

America turn off the televisions a bit more

tune out of the video games a bit

more and go on an adventure. So this

gentleman forest fern, or fan, excuse me. Forrest

Fan is a Vietnam vet run, a pilot

and he became a a an art dealer

that he made a fortune in in art

dealing, and he had a bronze treasure chest

that he had created.

Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains

in early 20 10.

The chest was filled with gold coins and

diamonds and Emerald in jewelry and other valuables,

worth a small fortune.

Now, mister Fan encoded the secret

to finding the treasure

within a 6 stands a poem at the

end of his auto

entitled the thrill of the chase.

And thousands of people went off looking for

this hidden treasure

using that poem with its 9 embedded clues.

Thousands of people. Look.

Thousands failed. In fact,

many

underestimated the dangers of the wilderness of the

rock Mountains and had difficulty along the way.

And at least 5 people even died while

searching for this hidden treasure.

That was not until July of 20 21,

11 years later,

that a 32 year old medical student from

Michigan finally

found the treasure

in the Wyoming wilderness.

And then mister Forrest fan,

He died just 2 months later in September

of 20 21 at the age of 90

years old.

An auction of some of the selected items

from that treasure chest took place in December

of 20 22,

and it resulted in sales of more than

1300000.0

dollars.

Now in his auto,

mister Fan writes this. He says, the most

valuable things.

The most beautiful things are not easily found.

They're just out there.

They're hidden. He says.

And you've got to search for them. You've

got to get out seek, look for the

valuable

things

of this life.

And folks, he wasn't writing about diamonds and

gold coins.

Well, today, we're beginning a a new series

of messages We're calling this series, the life

that flourish.

And over the next 8 weeks, we're gonna

explore the

introduction

to the most famous

Sermon ever preached.

The sermon of Jesus

called the Sermon on the mount. It's recorded

in Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

6 and 7.

Our focus is just gonna be on the

first 12 verses

of Jesus sermon section that is often known

as the beat attitudes.

We're gonna go on, I guess you could

say a bit of a treasure hunt together,

and it's my hope that

for... We will discover together what a rich

rich treasure is provided

by Jesus himself, a secret treasure.

That reveals the truth of the kingdom of

heaven. And like any treasure,

we will all have to look for it

seek after it, pursue it. In fact, later

in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus speaks a

couple of parable

using the analogy of hidden treasure

to illustrate the truth of his kingdom, Listen

to these words from Matthew chapter 13. The

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

words of Jesus He says, the kingdom of

heaven is like treasure hidden in a field,

which a man found and covered up And

then in his joy, he goes and sells

all that he has and buys that field.

Again, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is

like a merchant

in search of fine pearls who on finding

1 pearl of great value

went and sold all that he had

and bought it.

So let's begin this treasure hunt together. We're

gonna read from Matthew 5. And by the

way, we're gonna read this entire passage

over the next 8 weeks, several

different times from several different

versions, English versions of the new testament,

though we are only going to explore 1

small portion of it each week. And by

doing so, it's my hope that we will

be firmly

placing in our minds, the treasure map

that Jesus provides for us to discover the

reality

of his kingdom. So let's read Matthew 5

Matthew 5:1–12

verses 1 through 12 together. The words are

on the screen.

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the

mountain and when he sat down, his disciples

came to him. And he opened his mouth

and taught them saying,

Blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall

be comforted.

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 mer for they shall receive

mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they

shall see God.

Blessed are the peace

for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness

sake.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others rev revive you

and per you and utter all kinds of

evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is

great in heaven

for so they persecuted the prophets

who were before you.

Amen. The words of Jesus.

So

we call this section the beat.

And today, we're gonna be exploring the very

first statement in verse 3. We're calling today's

message, less

is more. Less is more, But before we

get into that part, I wanna do just

a bit of background on this whole section

of the sermon under the mouth that we

call the beat attitudes. Now we might think

of this as 8 clues

that Jesus gives us to find to discover

the treasure of kingdom life. To find what

it really means

to live life as citizens of God's kingdom,

which we partially enter when we come to

Christ when we're born again, but we

will not fully enter the kingdom

until Jesus comes again. And so these clues

that Jesus

gives us in this sex of scripture, help

reveal

the real life, the full life, the kingdom

life

that God has for us beginning now

and stretching into

eternity.

Now, Here's an important piece of information to

know as we dive into this section. Jesus

was a rabbi.

That word and hebrew literally just means teacher.

He was a hebrew

religious teacher. And every rabbi had disciples.

That word means followers,

learning, doing followers. They listen to their rabbi.

They breathed in his teachings, and then they

copied or followed

those instructions.

Now in those days, in the first century,

every rabbi had their own unique

interpretation, a different

application of god's word. And so a certain

rabbi would study God's word and he would

say then here's how I interpret it.

And therefore, here's how you should live it

out.

Then followers

of those rabbi would determine who they would

follow based upon that rabbi

interpretations an app location of God's word.

Now it's interesting to me what a rabbi,

interpretation and application was called.

It was called the yoke of the rabbi.

If you're familiar with that term, A yoke

is a wooden harness that is put over

the the neck of an animal or 2

animals

like oxen,

and this yolk guides and directs the animals

in the way that they should go.

And so a rabbi would say, here's my

yoke. Here's my understanding. Here's my

application of the holy scriptures. And then the

follower was would say, okay?

I'm gonna put that on. And that's what

I'm gonna use to direct to guide my

life.

And so friends, I tell you that because

that is exactly

what Jesus is doing for us in the

sermon on the mount. And particularly

in this opening section of the beat attitudes.

He's saying, okay. People of God. People seeking

God. Here is my yoke.

Here is my teaching. Here is my

application of the word of god. Here is

what should really

guide and direct your life

because I'm no ordinary

rabbi.

I am the sun

of God.

And 1 thing that is just blatantly

obvious right away is that Jesus yoke is

very much different from what these people who

are listening to him initially have ever heard

before. In fact, it's gonna be counter

to them. It's gonna be the opposite

of what people would expect. And opposite things

can be very

disconcerting at first, Can't they? For instance. Do

you remember when you first learned how to

drive?

And then at some point, after you got

the the driving part down pretty good, you

had to drive in

reverse.

Right?

And

maybe some of us are still learning to

do that part. Right?

It can be difficult

to drive to learn to drive and reverse

because it is counter

intuitive.

Right? You have to do the opposite

of what feels right. And so, yeah, you

turn around

and you look over your shoulder,

or if you got a newer car now,

you got a little screen there and you're

trying to watch that thing,

and it's counter

intuitive.

And that word

it it just means not easily

understood in an instinct,

unconscious way.

On the surface, it doesn't seem to make

sense.

But it works.

It works. And friends, this is the hidden

nature of the teaching of Jesus Christ.

So much of it is counter.

It doesn't always seem to make sense, but

it is, in fact, what works.

It is the yoke that leads to real

life.

Even though it seems at times

to be the opposite

and the upside down

of what we might think is the right

way.

And so Jesus begins this sermon on the

mount with this

introduction of the beat attitudes, and each beat

attitude

begins with the word blessed or blessed.

And so Jesus says to the crowd, do

you want to be blessed?

And the folks listening to this new exciting

rabbi say, yeah. We want some of that

blessing, man. Bring it.

We wanna be happy.

And then Jesus says,

blessed

are the

and then he gives 8 distinct characteristics

of a life that is blessed.

The kingdom life of a disciple.

A learning,

doing follower of Jesus.

To live this blessed life to put on

his yoke

to walk in this direction to think like

this, act like this, believe this truth, follow

my example.

Says Jesus.

That is blessed. And then finally, before we

get into today's attitude, I wanted define just

a couple of words a little further. The

words of Jesus seen in our passage today

I've already mentioned, we call them the beat

attitudes.

Now you might think that it means, oh,

be beautiful

attitudes. Right? But that's not what it means.

That has a catchy ring. That's kinda cool,

but that's not what it means. The beat

are blessed sayings.

Blessed sayings, The word be attitude, it it

comes from a Latin word be,

meaning, blessed ness.

The phrase bless said are seen in each

of Jesus statements

implies a current

state of being.

It's not something off in the future.

Strange and far off. It's right now.

And this expression held a powerful meaning for

these first century

listeners of Jesus.

Blessed

refer to divine joy

and perfect or complete happiness.

That's what they heard when Jesus said that

word blessed. In other words, Jesus was saying

divine happy and fortunate.

Are those who possess

these

inward qualities

that we're going to look at?

The word seen in our passage for blessed

in the Greek language, the language of Jesus

day

means

super happy.

Super happy. Blessed this in the new testament

is infinitely higher and better than just mere

happiness.

Okay?

Comment William Barclay writes that in the Christian

faith, we have a divine and god like

joy.

And that the word blessed in this passage

describes that joy, which has its secret

within itself.

The... That joy which is serene

and untouchable

and self contained. That joy, which is

completely

independent

of the chances and changes

of this life.

I love that last statement.

Real joy is independent of the chances and

changes changes

of this life.

And so we we encounter this word blessed

in our passage. We're gonna understand that, it

means joyful, but that joy

is based on the right attitude,

a proper

inward thought pattern and not merely on current

outward

circumstances.

Right? We say, oh I'm happy because it's

a good sunny day or I'm down because

it's raining.

I'm happy because my bank account is full

or I'm bummed because it's over drawn.

See, our happiness is like a roller coaster.

But Jesus says happiness, his blessed,

his joy is not based on circumstances

on what's going on around us. And this

is important because as we've already mentioned, everything

that Jesus is about to say is almost

completely opposite

of what his listeners and what we

reading this 2000 years later have been taught

to believe

and understand. And so over the next week,

8 weeks you're gonna hear some things that

are just opposite

perhaps what you've believed or understood your entire

life.

Or maybe all the people around you going

in this direction, and these things are gonna

say, go in this direction. You're like, whoa.

What?

That's what Jesus

is talking about here.

Alright. That's the background for this whole section.

So now we're gonna get to the very

first be from versus

2, and 3. I'll read it again. Jesus

opened his mouth

and taught them saying,

blessed are the poor in spirit

for theirs is the kingdom

of heaven.

And so here, Jesus says that it when

it comes to the

spiritual realm, the kingdom life,

it is better to have less

than more.

In the economy of the kingdom of heaven,

less is more.

Now to most of us who have lived

our lives in prosperity,

This is strange math,

and it was pretty strange math in Jesus

day as well.

These words are a as astonishing

today as they were when Jesus first spoke

them. And so let's consider some principles.

Of this super happy

joyful

kingdom math. And first, I want us to

see this. First, in the kingdom of heaven,

less

is more

when we are compelled to see our need

to see our need. At the outset of

this sermon, Jesus kinda sends us reeling with

his opening statement, blessed are the poor.

What?

Blessed are the poor. Jesus links to seemingly

incompatible things. Poverty,

and blessing.

Now,

I suppose many of us have heard some

version of this passage or a sermon on

this passage before And so perhaps the shock

has worn off for us if it ever

registered in the first place.

We actually think

that what Jesus says here is kinda kinda

sweet,

but make no mistake about it. What Jesus

says here would have been

completely dis disoriented

to those people who were listening to him.

It's as if with a word.

He has suddenly turned the laws that govern

the universe

on their head

And in a way,

that's exactly what he did.

1 of Jesus goals in this sermon is

to contrast

the governing

principles of this world as we know it

with those of the kingdom of God.

So for a minute, I want you to

try and hear these words,

the way that Jesus

original audience

would have heard them.

So how would this statement have sounded? Blessed

are the poor?

How would it have sounded to someone whose

only

possessions

were the clothes on their back?

Blessed are the poor?

What are you talking about, Jesus? What would

have meant to that single mother

who didn't have any idea where her child's

next meal was gonna come from?

How would those

words from Jesus sound comforting at all.

Blessed are the poor.

How would those words fall upon the ears

of a beg?

Who was dependent on the hand outs of

strangers every day for survival.

You know, it's amazing that Jesus wasn't laughed

off the mountain at that point

because the crowd that was listening to him

was predominantly

made up of poor people

like these that I just

illustrated.

But here's what's important to know folks. Jesus

wasn't just teaching some theory,

some vague

idea.

Jesus

didn't say this because he gone on a

field trip or write a book or take

it a poll about poverty.

Jesus

himself

lived in poverty.

You know, according to Matthew chapter 8, Jesus

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

told 1 would be follower, 1 would be

disciple. He said to the man, foxes

have holes.

Birds of the air have nests, but the

son of man has no place to lay

his head.

That's how poor Jesus was.

Jesus depended on the charity

of others. You ever thought about that.

Every meal.

Dependent upon the charity of others.

And when Jesus died,

the only

possessions he owned were literally the close on

his back.

That friends is why people didn't laugh Jesus

off the mountain.

In this sermon?

But what does Jesus really mean? Is he

saying that poor people are more receptive? To

the gospel than others.

Now, some people believe that, they even teach

that.

But I, I... I'm not convinced of that

idea.

I'm not at all certain that people who

are

financially poor are

necessarily

more open to the gospel will simply because

their poor.

My concern is that we

who are not poor,

by the way, you're not poor.

I want you to understand that. If you

can... If you turn on your water this

morning, you are not poor.

Do you realize

that millions of people in this world have

to walk miles every day

to get a bucket of dirty water.

We are not poor at all folks. We

have no idea of poverty.

And yet we at times can romantic

poverty

because of what Jesus says here. If the

poor have an advantage over the rich,

then why does the wise man in proverbs

30

say this?

Give me neither

poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise,

I may have too much

and dis you and say, who is the

Lord,

or I might become poor

and steal and so dish honor the name

of my god.

You see, the poor and the rich, each

have their own unique

temptation. 1 condition does not necessarily provide a

spiritual advantage over the other.

Some might be hardened by trouble.

Just as others are loa into a false

sense of security,

by their prosperity.

So poverty does not automatically make us more

open to god.

So what is the benefit of being poor?

Because Jesus clearly says, there's a blessing.

The term that is translated

into English as poor I think can help

us understand the point that Jesus is making

here.

It means

to cow

and cringe

like a beg.

Get that picture in your mind,

object poverty, cow

cri

like a beg.

In the new testament, it bears something of

this idea

because it denote a poverty so deep

that the person must obtain

his very existence

by begging.

He is fully

dependent

on the giving of others. He can't survive

without the help from the outside, and this

friends is the kind

of benefit that Jesus is talking about the

blessing

of poverty

is in the awareness

of our need.

Let me say that again. The blessing of

poverty

is in the awareness

of our need.

That's the first press principle to recognize that

when it comes to god and to his

grace, you cannot

survive

without help from the outside.

That's a core tenant of the gospel of

Jesus.

The great

composer, Johan Sub sebastian Ba.

Was once standing outside and inn in the

city of Luna.

He was a struggling

student at the time. And Ba had just

returned from a long trip. He was hungry,

but he was too poor

to even pay for a morse of bread.

Or for lodging,

which is why he was hanging around the

back door of the inn.

When someone threw a couple of fish heads

out the door in the trash heap,

and our friend Ba.

Decided to retrieve them.

As he examined them to see if there

was any part that was still edible

Can you imagine being that hungry?

Ba was surprised

to see a gl of gold

in the mouth

of each of those fish.

Perhaps

aware of the young

struggling composer need someone

had placed a gold coin.

In each fish had for him to find.

That interesting story.

And friends in a way,

this is exactly what Jesus has done for

you and for me.

When he says,

blessed are the poor.

He shines the light of his truth

on the trash heap of our life.

And suddenly,

we see a gl of gold.

What we thought was lost

proves to be gained.

What we counted as worthless,

Jesus says has great value.

And Jesus shows that shows us that where

the economy of the kingdom is concerned, less

is more

The blessing

that Christ offers is reserved for those

who need it.

And who recognize

that need.

But there's also an important and necessary outcome

to that truth.

Poverty is a blessing

Only if it prompts us

to respond,

just like Ba had to pick up those

heads

we have to respond

to god's offer

of grace. And this leads us to the

second important principle

of Jesus super happy joyful kingdom math.

In the kingdom of heaven,

less is more when we are prompted to

call

on Christ.

To call on Christ, and it's important to

note that this blessing is associated

with a particular kind of poverty.

You see, Jesus is, he's drawing an analogy

here, rather than making a statement about economics,

it it's not about poverty in general, but

spiritual poverty that Jesus has in view. In

verse 3, Jesus says blessed are the poor

in spirit.

And the addition of the second part of

phrase is the important

clarification.

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the story

Luke 18 · chapter mention

of of of 2 men 1 day that

went up to the temple to pray. 1

of the men was a a ph. He

was a respected,

wealthy

religious leader.

The other was a tax collector,

despise by his own people, a notorious sinner

And as Jesus saw these 2 man listen

to what he says. The ph stood up

and prayed about himself God, I thank you

that I am not like other men, Robbers

and evil doers and adult

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give a

tenth of all that I receive.

But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven.

He beat his breast

and said,

God have mercy on me,

a sinner.

Jesus says that it was the tax collector.

Not the ph

who went home,

forgiven.

So here,

Jesus is not teaching the poor

to pray their own version of the ph

prayer. You know, say, oh, God, I thank

you that I'm not like other men, the

wealthy, the middle class, the 1 percent?

No.

You see, without clarifying

this phrase, blessed are the poor in spirit,

we might actually miss the personal

application that Jesus wants us to take from

this attitude.

You see,

you know, I kinda like the thought

that the poor are blessed simply because they're

poor.

And that's because it it relieve me of

the guilt that I might

feel over not being poor.

I don't have to feel bad about having

so much.

Because I can comfort myself with the thought

that Jesus also has a blessing for those

who don't have much.

But that's not what Jesus intends with this

statement.

Jesus isn't only talking about those folks who

have no money.

He's talking about you.

He's talking about me.

He didn't pronounce this blessing

to make the poor feel better

about the fact that they have no money.

He didn't pronounce it so that we could

feel better about being in the middle class.

Jesus is serving notice.

That when it comes to the economy of

the kingdom of god, the rich and the

poor enter on the same basis.

In the economy of the kingdom,

less is more.

The only ones who enter the kingdom are

the ones who know

what they don't have.

Those who know what they don't have.

Do you ever calculate your finances,

say at the beginning or the end of

the month?

And have you ever found yourself coming up

short?

No matter the amount you have, even if

you got extra that month,

the results are often the same. It's never

quite enough. Do you know that feeling?

We always wish,

I wish I had just a little bit

more.

Right?

Well, believe it or not, that's how Jesus

wants you to feel when it comes to

the kingdom of god

It is no accident that Jesus begins his

description of this blessed.

Super happy awesome life

with a negative,

blessed

are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are are those who know they are

lacking.

You see he wants us to calculate

our resources.

When it comes to our own righteousness

and recognize that as much as we may

think we have

It is not

enough.

We can go even further and say that

he wants us to calculate our resources

when it comes to our own righteousness,

and we need to realize that by kingdom

standards,

we are bankrupt.

The ledger book is in the red.

Once again, we come up against the strange

math

of the kingdom of God.

Less

is more.

Bankruptcy

is a sign of riches

spiritual bankruptcy

is the prerequisite

to blessing

because Jesus Christ

only offers grace

to those who know

that they have nothing to add.

It begins at the point of salvation.

We turn to Christ and say, God,

be mer on me, a sinner.

We recognize

that we have a debt before God and

we have no means

to make good on that debt,

and we also recognize that Jesus Christ

has canceled that debt

when he died on the cross.

The blessing

that Jesus talks about in this attitude

begins at the point of salvation, but it

doesn't end there.

Notice that there is a promise

connected

with this

attitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit

for

Theirs is the kingdom

of God.

You see this is Jesus

answer to the inevitable question and that's raised

by this be attitude. Why?

Why God are the poor in spirit blessed?

Because they know how to reckon

according to the strange math of the kingdom

of God.

They recognize that less is more when it

compels us to see our need. Less is

more when it prompts us to call only

upon Jesus Christ.

And so then this leads right into the

third part,

of Jesus super happy, joyful kingdom math in

the kingdom of heaven,

less is more when we are focused

on our inheritance

are inheritance.

When Jesus,

what Jesus says in this is beat attitude.

Is a word of

promise.

But it's also

a word of

correction.

It assumes

that we have a tendency

to live by different math than god's math.

You see, we don't live in a world

that believes less is more. Do we?

We live in a world where more is

more.

More and more and more, and everything needs

to be super improved and better.

Right?

There is a great

temptation to value

that which is of little value in this

world.

To consider to be gain

what may actually work

to our loss.

To think we have much when we really

have little.

And friends, frankly, that's 1 of the reasons

why

some of us are nervous

about following Christ.

We're worried about what we might lose in

the process.

What will I have to give up?

What will I have to?

And I suppose there's some basis for such

concerns

in those questions.

Jesus does talk about loss

in connection with being a disciple.

Following Jesus certainly

involves loss,

but it is not a matter of earning

the right

to become a disciple.

Jesus doesn't say

if you must give up this or that

to become a disciple. You know what he

says? You've gotta give it. All up.

Give it everything

up.

That's what he talks about

in his teachings.

Following Jesus

involves

complete loss.

It's

a matter

of exchange.

We exchange our life

for his life.

But in this first

attitude, He looks at it from a little

different angle.

Here, Jesus

emphasizes, what is gained?

What is there for the poor and spirit?

Well, there's a kingdom.

The kingdom of heaven is theirs.

So what does Jesus mean when he says,

the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor

and spirit.

We know that what he says is literally

true.

There will be a literal kingdom. The bible

tells us at 1 day, the kingdoms of

this world will come to an end, and

the kingdom of Christ will endure

forever.

Jesus will come in his glory, he will

reign as king,

but what will then be true is, in

fact,

true

today already. In principle

for those who belong to Christ.

In Luke chapter 17, we read that after

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Jesus had been questioned and again, by the

ph his critics

about when this so called kingdom of God

was coming.

Jesus answered. And here's what he said. The

kingdom of God does not come with your

careful

observation,

nor will people say here it is or

there it is.

Because

the kingdom of God

is within you.

It's within you.

At its very heart, the kingdom of heaven

is the reign of Christ within

his followers.

If it can be said that those who

are poor in spirit are heirs to the

kingdom of heaven, then it must also be

said that the poor and spirit

experience

the reign of Christ.

In other words, what is this treasure that

Jesus speaks of in this verse?

Is it

the pearly gates or the streets of gold?

Is it a mansion just over the hilltop?

Friends, those are just

those are just physical

pictures

of something that is so

so much more. The ultimate

treasure

of his kingdom

is Jesus

himself.

It is the person and presence of Christ.

But there's something even more. When Jesus speaks

of the poor and spirit in the kingdom

here in Matthew 5 3 he uses that

language of ownership. He says of the poor

spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

He doesn't merely say that they will see

the kingdom. He doesn't even say that they'll

enter the kingdom. Jesus speaks in terms of

possession.

It belongs

to those who follow him.

In the spring of 20 21, a man

was peru a yard sale new near New

Haven Connecticut. And he purchased a a blue

and white Chinese bowl for 35 dollars.

The small blue and white flu features motifs

of lotus and Pe and cr anthem and

pomegranate blossoms.

And it turns out that that garage sale

find

was originally

commissioned by China's imperial court

during the fifteenth century,

the Ming Dynasty.

And so what was observed to be simply

a quaint

decorative piece sitting on somebody's shelf,

turned out to be an exceptionally

rare

Chinese

artifacts.

What was purchased for 35 bucks

at a garage sale was later sold at

auction by So

for 721000

dollars,

721,

800 dollars.

The head of the Chinese art department Saw

revealed in a phone in interview ahead of

the sale, that the man who found the

bowl at the yard sale said he didn't

even h over the 35 dollar asking price.

Less

it's more

You see it? Less is more the friends,

the economy of God's kingdom is upside down.

It's counter.

It doesn't make sense.

According to the math of this world, and

that is because god often hides great value

behind the veil of the ordinary.

That's why they didn't believe Jesus was the

messiah.

He was just an ordinary rabbi.

He didn't look like a mighty king.

He wasn't a warrior.

Certainly wasn't rich.

Wasn't powerful.

Greatness

veil

in the ordinary.

Those who are poor in spirit might not

have much in this life. They might be

a 35 dollar garage sale find. Or even

an un sell piece of junk left in

the free box.

At the end of the sale,

but they do have this much.

They

possess

the kingdom.

They have an internal inheritance worth far more

than anything in this world with a value

so great it can't even be calculated

in terms of human wealth.

And friends if you've given your life to

Jesus.

These truths

are for you today,

to shape your thinking

to help you in your daily walk

in setting your priorities and your goals

and your purposes

if

you are a follower

of Jesus christ.

So friends are you tired of the temporary?

Have you found yourself searching and searching for

happiness only to come up

empty, short again, and again,

remember this happiness comes and goes.

But joy

is untouchable.

It's

unspeakable. We can't even fully

verbal

True, blessed ness. Real joy comes from above

and for those

who know Jesus Christ as savior and as

Lord. Those who will 1 day live for

eternity

in heaven who are heirs of the kingdom

they

have right now

ever lasting,

joy.

That is the truth available

to each 1 who would choose

to receive it.

That is the coin

in the fish head

available for you

today. Let's pray together.