The Poor that makes Rich

But turn your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 5, we're going to be looking at a message entitled, The Poor Makes Rich.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

The Poor That Makes Rich.

As you open up into Matthew chapter 5, we see Jesus' earthly ministry being started.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He was about 30 years old, and as he started his earthly ministry, it started off, he went in Matthew chapter 4 off into the wilderness, and he began a fast for 40 days.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

He got alone with the Lord, and it was in that Judean desert that he went off to that he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

And soon after that temptation, he starts walking off in a path.

There's about 80 miles between the Judean desert and the Mount of Beatitudes.

And so Jesus began to amass a crowd.

He began speaking and teaching.

By the end of Matthew chapter 4, says crowds were following him.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

He began healing, the ministry of healing.

And so Jesus begins to draw a crowd.

So it's no surprise that he would go up into a mountain.

You would see him in different places.

He went out into the sea and would stand on a boat and preach, and there were masses.

And man, I can picture the day where people are coming in this building, and we can't get another seat in.

But Jesus, when he spoke as someone who healed with authority, there was always a mass.

And so he gets on to the Sermon on the Mountain.

It's called the Great Sermon on the Mountain.

In fact, the greatest orator of history speaking the greatest message, probably, arguably, in history on this mountain.

And we have a couple of pictures that I want to show you just to kind of give you a sight of where that would be.

So go ahead and throw one of those pictures up this morning where we see the mountain.

And I have one more shot that can show you a little closer of what it looks like today.

And so as you go through that, you see right there above the Dead Sea, off to the left under Jerusalem, okay?

And so Jesus sits down on a mount and he begins speaking the great sermon on the mount.

St.

Augustine said this about it.

If any will consider the Sermon on the Mount, they will be fed the loftiest of meals.

It is the perfect standard for the Christian life.

And so he begins to orate this great sermon.

And the audience I need you to understand today would have been Jewish people looking for a Messiah.

They were looking for a promised hope, and some of them did not understand that hope was there in the flesh.

And so Jesus begins to give this sermon, and he was talking directly to the eyes of his disciples, knowing that there was an intended audience on the outside hearing all that he was saying, and he was knowing this, because people have argued it, but it's as relevant in that moment to his disciples eye to eye as it is to us here this morning.

The great Sermon on the Mount.

Let me pray, Father.

I pray as we try to dissect just a few words of yours, Lord, that we would understand the weight of what is said.

Lord, help us that are Christians in here to know this is as relevant right now as it could ever be.

And God, speak to our hearts.

God, everything we do here from the musical worship to the baptism at the end of this service, Lord, is about you being known and lifted up.

And so, God, I pray, Lord, get us out of the way.

People here brought in a lot this morning from their week.

I pray for the next few moments, Lord, it would just be about you.

Speak to us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's read Matthew 5, 1 through 3.

It says this.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And so your first point this morning is this it's a promised salvation.

If you haven't had a worship guide this morning, you can raise your hand up.

I think everybody's got one, but if you need one, we can get one of those to you.

So the first point on that is a promised salvation.

Now many theologians get caught up on verse number three and verse number nine.

They differ from the eight beatitudes, and this is how they differ.

In the writing tense, it says, There's is at the end of verse three.

And the verses in the middle, in between that and nine, say it shall be.

And so the promised blessings has created a great conflict among many.

There's theories and there's things, ethnic views, all kinds of views written out about this tense.

And so I want you to understand the promised blessings are a future reward, the kingdom of heaven.

And what that means is if we'll live upside down compared to culture, it says, people who have been saved, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The disciples, he says, the Christian life.

Theirs is.

Now don't miss the weight of the tents.

There is something to this.

In the tents, he's saying there's a future reward, but those that are living this way now experience my presence.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The others shall be, but those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is right now the kingdom of heaven.

Don't miss the weight.

And the other verse, we won't like it, but the other verse that says theirs is, it says, Blessed are those who are persecuted.

For that type of person right now understands my heart.

Theirs is right now, my presence is with them.

Someone willing to give their life, but that's another beatitude for another day.

And this is what he says.

My disciples, he's looking to him, he says, Listen to me.

This is that one thing.

This is the meaning of life.

He says, This is what you need to get.

And they probably thought to themselves, what manner of person can say and offer a promise like the kingdom of heaven?

What manner of person can offer this?

Onviewing lookers probably thought, and I want to tell you something this morning, church, only one person.

Only one person, letter A underneath of your point one is this, a promise based on authority.

Only one person in the history of time could ever give a promise like the kingdom of heaven.

We see a couple of clues to his authority in verses one and two.

Number one, he went up on a mountain, and look at what it says after this.

You would miss this.

And when he was seated, his disciples came to him.

Jesus sat down, and in Jewish culture, rabbinic posture to teach was to sit and have your audience looking at you and be seated because you were going to give them something.

There was a great crowd, and it seems interesting that Jesus, with a great crowd of people, would choose to be seated.

It wasn't lost on him what he was doing.

Jesus was showing his authority in that moment.

Colleges and universities use this still today.

You understand?

Every department head is called something today?

You know what they're called?

A chair.

A chair is a semblance of somebody who's going to be seated and it's going to teach with authority.

And so Jesus sat down.

He was the chair, let me tell you something, church, of all things that ever would be.

He was the chair.

And so he sat down, showing his authority.

You know, as a youth pastor, I've developed over the years a youth pastor yell.

Now, growing up, my parents would tell you, teachers, everybody always said to me that I was quiet.

They couldn't hear me.

And so they'd always say, What did you say?

You mumble.

I can't hear you.

And so I understand that's how I grew up, but when I got into ministry and became work someone who had to work with youth, I had to develop.

It's either eat or be eaten, right?

With teenagers.

And so I began to learn for authority purpose to yell.

I've been in Chick-fil-A's on a booth saying, Students, clean up, as I'm dirtying a table with my feet, right?

I've been at Six Flags.

Have you ever been to Six Flags Great Adventure with 50 students and tried to calmly and quietly corral them?

All right, guys, it's time for us to leave.

Everybody come in.

We're leaving now.

It's time to go.

You know, you've never seen anything like this, and so I had to develop a yell.

I've yelled in 10 to 15 states, okay?

I've been all over yelling at people.

Jesus doesn't step on the scene and do this.

He has all authority and don't miss the weight of everything that's ever done.

He's been there since creation.

And he sat down and he said, Come listen to me.

Come listen, my disciples.

He shows authority because he was seated.

Then a strange statement happens after this, verse number two, again about his authority.

Look at what it says.

Then he opened his mouth.

Well, that's a weird statement.

Then he opened, he's going to teach, of course, he's going to open his mouth.

It's like, and then the singers got up today and they stretched their fingers to play the instrument.

Jesus opened it.

Why did Matthew say that?

He opened his mouth as a Hebrew idiom that's indicating something of great importance is about to be said.

And as a writer, Matthew goes, get ready.

Buckle up for what you're going to hear.

Get ready.

I mean, he says, get ready for what's getting ready to be said with authority.

So I want you to look at somebody next to you this morning and say, go ahead and get ready.

Alright, go ahead, your second choice, and tell them too.

Get ready.

Get ready.

It's no wonder, as the Sermon on the Mount finished.

You should see this if you want to turn your Bible to just a couple of pages, Matthew chapter 7, verse 28 and 29.

Matthew 7:28

It's no wonder when he finished the great sermon.

Look at what they said in wonderment.

And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority.

He taught with authority.

Of course, Jesus taught the great sermon with authority.

Have you ever needed help from somebody?

You probably didn't call for help to the third, fourth, fifth person down the list, am I right?

And so, how many of you here, now not everybody's gonna get this, but may I hope you don't have to, but how many of you here have ever had to go to the Apple store?

Some people have been to the Apple store, okay?

You go to the Apple store if you have a computer problem, and listen, this is what it's like when you step up, okay?

You go to the Apple store, you've got your thing, and it's like Star Wars meets the Matrix, okay?

And you get there only to get in the first line, which is outdoors, right?

And you feel lucky just to be one of the selective few that are out there, like you've camped out before a concert.

And so you're outside and you're waiting to be chosen to go into line two.

And you take notice while you're out there of the dress code of the employees.

It's sort of like hipster meets wrinkly clothes, right?

Disheaved hair, they're kind of a mess.

And uh you finally get into line two once you get indoors.

And an employee with an iPad that you've never seen comes up to you, right?

It's a real cool one with gadget, and he's like, uh, I need your name, height, and blood type.

And uh he gets all of this stuff, and you wait for a little while, and he gets you into line number three.

Line number three.

Once you get in that line, a man who looks a little more put together shows up.

He's wearing all black, he's a little taller, a little more confident.

He steps up to you and he says, What seems to be the problem?

And you tell him, you know, your noise, or as best you can, I think I've got a uh slowness megahertz problem, and he's looking at you and he goes, Okay.

It sounds like what you have is a megahertz processing.

Um and he kind of smirks at you and he says, Let me have it.

You give him the device, he walks to the back.

I don't know what happens back there.

Twenty minutes past, there's some Apple magic, right?

And they come back and you've got the thing, and it's good as new, right?

And so imagine if you have a computer problem and you had to take your issue to Steve Jobs, right?

The creator of Apple.

Probably he can handle it like this.

I had a mechanic call the other day, and um I'd talk into the mechanic, and he said, uh, explain to me what the noise was like over the phone, and I'm like, uh it was loud.

How do you explain a noise?

He's like, no, no, no, what did it sound like?

And I'm like, you know, like it was a noise, and he goes, Oh, okay, well, we can help you with that.

And I'm like, All right.

Here's the thing I know, he's an authority in the field that he specializes in.

Jesus is the authority in every field.

In fact, his names give us some ideas to that.

He's called the author and the perfecter of our faith.

That's an authority.

He's called the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

Jesus spoke with ultimate authority.

Since the creation of all things, he's been the authority.

And so he spoke in this authority.

A promise that he gives is based on his authority.

The second thing, letter B, is this is a promise based in acceptance for your blanks.

It's based in acceptance.

He offers a promise.

Blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But it has to be accepted.

John 1 12 says this.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God.

That promise, the kingdom of heaven, the requirement is what it says in the beginning.

You have to be poor in spirit to accept it.

No man filled with entitlement accepted Jesus.

No man entitled ever enters heaven.

Let me say that again.

No entitled person ever enters heaven.

He has to come to accept, and we receive the kingdom of heaven through acceptance of a Savior.

You can't, church, accept Jesus apart from being poor in spirit.

You don't come being too much in his presence.

We can only come being broken.

You see the blessing.

I love this how Jesus enters the scene.

Jesus enters as a gentleman.

He enters sweet and friendly, and he begins immediately with a blessing.

Man, don't you like that when you walk through the doors and somebody blesses you with their words, they compliment you, they encourage you.

Man, we do everything we can to get away from negativity in this world.

Jesus comes on the scene and he doesn't stand up and incite the crowd about things or the religious freedoms they've that's been against them.

He doesn't come and get negative about the Pharisees or the scribes or the way the world is.

He comes and he brings a blessing.

I've heard people say over and over, Pastor, I've been beat up.

I've been beat up.

I just need to be reminded of the love of God.

Can I tell you something, CCW?

God loves you.

Billy Graham used to say in the most eloquent way, he said, He loves you with an everlasting love.

He loves, loves, loves you.

He loves you.

He loves you.

Blessed means literally, it means happy.

And in this instance, throughout the Beatitudes, it means literally divine congratulations.

Jesus is not saying, you've got to live like this to be saved.

In fact, that would be against other scripture.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith.

It's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man would boast.

And so he's not saying, do this, and then the kingdom of heaven is yours.

He's saying this is the literal activity of those who have accepted Jesus.

This is the conduct and character of a Christian to be poor in spirit, the attitude of a Christian.

He peers into the eyes of the disciples with onlookers, but he's peering and he's saying, This is how we live.

This disciples is how we act, this is how we carry on life.

But remember in John 3.3, we cannot be this type of Christian except, John 3.3, except a man be born again.

Except you be saved and enter a relationship with God, which comes through the humbling of myself, looking in the mirror of my sin and pride, being poor in spirit.

And that's what he's saying.

This is the beginning of all else.

Except a man be born again.

And so it's a promise based in acceptance.

We have to accept that offer.

And to stay poor in spirit, Christians, we have to continually accept that Jesus is Lord and I am not.

And that's hard today because in many places I am God and I just want the world to get that.

In order for this promise to take root in any human being, we have to see number two come to happen.

There has to be a position shift.

A position shift.

There's three different positions I want to show you this morning that we see in Scripture.

And I'm going to give you a couple of places to turn to so you can be there and be ready.

Luke chapter 18, and then we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 9, just a couple of passages.

Luke 18 · chapter mention Luke 9 · chapter mention

But the first position shift that we see, the first position I want you to understand is the Pharisees' prideful position.

The Pharisees' prideful position.

And we see in Luke chapter 18, we'll read in a moment their prideful position.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

But the term Pharisees, given by themselves, come enter our club, literally means we are the separated ones.

They are separated.

They've called themselves.

We are different, we are better.

We are above.

We are the separated ones.

It's a man-made term.

And there's many examples, but this is just one that really sticks out.

The prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18.

Look at verse 10 through 13.

Hear this prayer.

It says this.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisees stood and prayed this way.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men.

Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Seemed like one understood poor in the spirit and the other didn't.

He says, I'm not like a sinner, unjust, adulterers.

I'm not even like this man.

I fast.

It's no surprise that often Jesus, and you see John the Baptist, calling the Pharisees a brood of snakes.

Which literally means sons of the devil.

I have no proof, but maybe the Pharisees were demonic-filled people living on earth.

Satan himself fell in the same way.

He fell in pride.

They're boasting in speech.

They want to have high seats that people see.

They want to have clothing that reflects their authority, and they make loud prayers saying, Look at me! Look at their sin! Look at how good I am.

Be careful, CCW, how long you entertain conversations about the sins of others.

It's a scary thing to be entertaining how bad somebody else is.

Pray for them, please.

Go to them, please.

But it's so pharisaical to constantly be talking about the bad in others.

I don't believe Jesus would have done that for one moment.

There's a preaching sermon about four chairs, and the Pharisee sits in a chair that I think is the most scariest chair.

Chair one is the saved, chair two is the saved that has kind of fallen away.

Chair three is the person who believes they're saved, but they're not at all.

They believe I am self righteous, I do good things, I fast, I'm not an adulterer, I do these things.

Look at me.

But there's never been a change in spirit.

And so the Pharisees.

All needed a positional change.

Letter B is this disciples.

They have a precarious position.

Look in Luke chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

And as you're turning back there, I want you to see a video.

I found this clip of Muhammad Ali.

And y'all check this out for a moment.

Who knocks out everybody and no one can whoop him.

That's when that little Cassius Clay from Louisville, Kentucky came up and stopped Sonny Liston, the man who annihilated Floyd Patterson twice.

He was gonna kill me.

But he hit harder than George.

His reach was longer than George.

He's a better boxer than George.

And I'm better now than I was when you saw that 22-year-old undeveloped kid running from Sonny Liston.

I'm experienced now, professional.

Jaws been broke, been lost, knocked down a couple times.

Bad.

Been chopping trees.

I done something new for this fight.

I done rustled with an alligator.

That's right.

I have rustled with an alligator.

I done tussled with a whale.

Out of handcuffed lightning, throw thunder in jail.

That's bad.

Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick.

I'm so mean I make medicine sick.

Dude, fast.

Fast.

Fast.

Last night I cut the light off my bedroom, hit the switch, was in the bed before the room was dark.

Fast.

And you, George Fullman, all of you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him.

All of you.

I know you got him.

I know you got him picked, but the man's in trouble.

I'm gonna show you how great I am.

Could sell a fight, couldn't he?

Well, I want to watch him now.

But he said, I'm a bad man.

You know what Muhammad Ali said often?

He said, I'm the greatest.

And there's no doubt in his boxing ability, he probably was the greatest in history.

And I want you to see where the disciples are at in Luke chapter 9, verse 46 through 48.

Luke 9:46–48

Look at what it says.

A dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.

And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by him and said to them, Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me.

Whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

Listen, for he who is least among you, all will be great.

And so we see the disciples.

This is kind of perplexing because these men walked with Jesus.

They forsook all, their families, their homes, everything, and followed Jesus.

They believed in Jesus, they served with Jesus, they saw miracles, and yet still within the work of the ministry, pride could slip in.

Church, you can be doing the right thing in the wrong way.

If you're serving but you're negative, that's wrong.

If you're serving looking for accolades, that's wrong.

If you're constantly complaining, that's wrong.

Man, I was convicted of that this week.

Heather, I have to apologize in front of the church.

I am sorry that I complain about walking the dog.

I do.

And it convicted me finally when I heard myself say my complaint for about the 40th time.

Do it or don't do it, but don't complain, right?

Just do what you gotta do.

Alright?

We complain.

See, pride looks into our hearts and it says, look what you did, that's your accomplishments.

Look what you deserve, that's your entitlement.

It says, look at you, look at how bad they are.

That's comparison.

The disciples saw Jesus put everyone's needs first, barely got any sleep.

And they had the audacity to argue which one of us is greatest.

You can be in ministry and be doing it wrong.

You can be doing good things, parenting, doing it wrong.

Husbands, wives.

I'm serious.

I was convicted.

And I promise I'm not gonna say another word.

Walk them or don't walk them.

I'll get the kids up or something if I don't want to do it, but I'm not gonna complain.

The disciples had this precarious position.

They were following that leader.

Didn't you think about Judas?

I mean, right there with him.

Saw his miracles, served with him, and Judas messed up.

We're not apart from that.

Pride can sneak in, and it's not like you've ever conquered it.

You aren't poor in spirit today, and it's gonna be like that forever.

It's a daily, hourly thing to be yielded to this spiritualness.

It's not something that you just attained to because you were good for a few years.

It's constant.

So I want you to see the last person that I have an example.

John the Baptist, letter C's, powerless position.

I need you to turn for a moment to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And let's look at John the Baptist.

Look at verse 27.

John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

Nothing, you came here with nothing.

We didn't come to this earth and carry a you haul with us.

We came with nothing.

You are powerless.

Job said it this way Naked I came, naked will I leave.

Have you ever looked at a small child, a baby, and watch how hard it is for them to do really easy things?

Looked at a small baby, they they come into this world and they literally are helpless.

They are powerless.

You have to grab a baby, put it on your arm, and pat its back so it can burp.

Like a baby is powerless.

You pat its back just so it can throw up on your shoulder.

That's how powerless a child is, right?

Have you ever seen a small child sneeze?

They can't even wipe it off their face.

They just sit there for eternity, I guess.

They can do nothing, they're powerless.

Steps, there's a grand ceremony the first time this child takes steps.

And we're like, Yes! Like you do it every day constantly with no thought.

Next time you see a baby, I want you to go, ha ha ha ha, watch this.

You got nothing.

They're literally powerless.

And I've watched this with my children, and it's funny to me.

Shoes.

There's literally a foot-sized hole in shoes.

And I look at my children at those age, they're like, I can't do it.

Like, that's the foot, that's the hole, that's what you do.

I can't do it.

And so as a child, you're just powerless.

I say that because I was thinking about what John the Baptist said elsewhere.

He said, I'm not worthy to loose his shoe.

Talking about Jesus.

And this is interesting because in Scripture, Matthew 11:11 says of John the Baptist, Assuredly, there is no man born of woman that is greater than him.

Matthew 11:11

The greatest living man said, I'm not worthy to tie his shoe.

You see, I think John the Baptist's powerless position, he got what it meant to be poor in spirit.

He understood something.

It was about Jesus.

To be poor in spirit is to be able to say, I'm not God.

Paul said it this way, I die daily.

He said, I'm not God.

This life, the things that I accumulate, the way that I live my life, is not about me being God.

Now the rest of your life, church, hear me.

It's going to be wrapped up in one of two things: every dollar, every goal, every friendship, and this is what it is.

Who is God according to you?

John the Baptist lived for one thing.

To be the forerunner of Jesus Christ, to make much of Jesus.

He believed that living for God was everything.

And it takes that poorness of spirit because this old flesh, man, it wants things, it feels entitled to deserve things.

And when you get living long enough, you say, I've dealt with plenty of this.

And things become beneath us.

I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to pick up that trash.

I have lived this long.

Somebody else can do that job.

Do you know who I am?

I'm the co-pastor with Pastor Danny Lovett of CCW.

Somebody else better get that trash.

Right?

We become something sometimes to ourselves.

John the Baptist got it.

And if you look at some of his life, his story, like it says he ran around with like, you know, bushes and clothes, and he was eating honey and locusts.

He didn't care about what this earth had to give him because he understood the next place.

Church.

We so get wrapped up about what's getting going on right here and now.

And I'm like, we're not investing in eternity.

We think this is it.

And if you think this is it, it's only going to get sadder.

Let me tell you.

You're not getting younger.

You're not going to get that much wealthier when you stop working.

I mean, what is going to be good if this is it?

Investing in eternity means we got to have a poor spirit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good.

Verse 3 said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That's the third point this morning is just this a poor spirit.

A poor spirit, letter A, recognizes its bankruptcy.

The world around us emphasizes a lot of things, which makes this difficult.

Listen, church, I'm speaking to me.

This is not easy.

Because culture around us, everything from a young age, from the time we can understand talks like this, it says, you gotta make you great.

The world emphasizes self-reliance.

Make something of yourself.

Go make you a lot of money.

You've got to have self-confidence.

You should have the freedom of self-expression.

You have to do you.

You literally in this world are told it's dog eat dog and you gotta be on top.

Now, I don't want you to hear misconceptions in what I'm saying.

This does not mean you need or have to be materially poor to be poor in spirit.

It had nothing to do with your bank account.

Maybe how you use your bank account.

But it's not how much money's in there.

God never says anywhere, you've got to be materially poor.

I think sometimes scripture alludes to it, it's maybe easier for the materially poor in spiritual matters because they are desperate.

They need that.

And sometimes the Bible talks about the wealthy man not being desperate enough.

But it's not the absence of wealth or worth.

Jesus is not saying you should degrade yourself or have low self-esteem.

It's not about that.

It's not about weakness or lacking courage.

Don't hear me wrong.

It's not like you should walk in here with your head down.

I'm just practicing being poor in spirit, Pastor.

It doesn't mean like you should whisper, I don't want to be heard as a loud person because I'm practicing being poor in spirit.

It's not what it's saying.

Romans 12, 3, Paul said this way By the grace of God given to me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you should, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.

God wants you to understand who you are, but in understanding who you are to be poor in spirit, you see who he really is.

It's not much about you, it's more about do you see who he really is?

Poor in spirit recognizes it's bankrupt apart from God.

We cannot be spiritual apart from God.

We don't have it in us.

Scripture says our righteousness is like filthy rags, alone.

And here's the good news, though, we don't have to be alone.

We don't go at it alone.

And if you're trying that, you're at a dead-end place.

It's a tug of war, and it's not a good feeling trying to be spiritual apart from God.

You can't.

So John says, a man, and John 3 27, a man can receive nothing of himself unless it's given to him from heaven.

The kingdom of heaven that's given.

The word for poor here, I would try to say it to you, but I'm just gonna spell it because I don't even know how.

Miss Susan could probably help me.

P T C H O S.

I'm gonna go in English.

There's probably a silent P.

Chose.

Anyway, the word for poor in the scripture means to crouch, to cower.

Like a beggar.

The recognition here is that spiritually, I'm a beggar without the capacity before my God to even attain to a beatitude.

I have to recognize first that I am without a God and like a beggar saying, please, mercy, God, mercy is all I bring to the table.

I can't broker something with God.

I don't have anything to offer.

And so all I can do is, like a beggar, say, God, I need your mercy.

I need you to do it in me.

And that happens if we have that relationship.

But I can't.

I gotta realize I can't do it on my own.

I'm crouching.

I'm a beggar.

Eating one crumb from heaven's table.

Romans 7.18 says, For I know that nothing good lives in me, Paul said.

That is in my flesh.

For the desire to do what is good is there, but there's no ability to do it.

I just can't do it.

And he's saying, apart from God, I can't be poor in spirit.

And this is what it means.

It means to be filled, you have to be emptied.

To be rich, we have to be poor.

And so we have to understand that.

Letter B is this a poor spirit rejoices in making deposits.

In making deposits.

John 3, 29 and 30, John says this I must, or he must increase and I must decrease.

The friend of Jesus makes him increase.

Again, John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, made his circle know the message of God everywhere he went.

How could he do this so faithfully?

He was a man who understood what it meant to be poor in spirit, to be spiritually bankrupt.

Christians that are poor in spirit today, they pray earnestly, they labor diligently and they give liberally to the work of Christ.

They live this upside-down life.

And that's what the Beatitudes kind of feels like.

It says that we're poor to be rich.

The next verse it says that we're happy to be sad.

You know, blessed are those that mourn.

And it goes throughout.

It's upside down to our normal thinking.

And so we see he says we have to live counter to culture.

Culture is going to be in your ear about being rich to be rich.

Be rich to be successful.

Be successful.

Be the top.

Accomplish things.

And I feel like God gives us it's a relief to know that I don't have to do what the world tells me I gotta do.

They go do things that would be impossible.

That's what happens for a disciple, someone that loves God.

It's impossible to the regular world.

And here's what happens when people see that in us, they go, huh?

Something about them is so different.

I don't know what it is, but they've got something that I don't got because they should have got angry in that situation, and yet they didn't.

They forgave somebody.

I don't even know how.

How they deserve to be I'm matter for them.

And they say, How do they do that?

How did somebody pass away in their life and they're just okay?

How can they do that?

It's because they understand.

This is not it.

Recently I came across a photo.

I want you guys to put this photo up, and uh, it was in a post, and um I knew, I'm gonna read the post.

I knew the little girl in the photo.

I'd never seen the man before.

The post of this little girl or this girl wrote, this was a post of her in her younger days.

It said this, my phone rang three weeks ago.

The number that came up was one I knew, but I'd never called, that it had never called me before that day.

I listened to the voicemail and it and called it back.

He began with facts.

I'm sorry for not being a dad to you.

I have some hard news.

My cancer is back.

Friday I will find out how long that I have to live.

She continued her her post.

I listened to a voice she said I knew well, but hadn't heard more than a dozen times in my life, trying to comprehend what he was saying, but remembering this very phone call from my mother in January telling me she had cancer, and the one in April from my stepfather telling me he had cancer.

And she said, Now this.

He spoke again to her on the phone and said, I know I can't go back and change my choices, but I'm sorry.

She said, In that moment, I began to pray before responding.

Give me grace, give me peace, Lord, give me strength, give me wisdom.

And she took a breath and she said these words.

If you have any guilt, shame, or regret, please let that go.

I have dealt with it between me and the Lord.

She said, five years ago, all of my expectation became surrendered to the Lord.

And she said, it was a moment with my dad that we shared.

It was a moment, I believe, that brought peace to his mind and soul before he passed away.

As I thought about in this message what it means to be poor in spirit, I considered this post that my cousin, Carrie Ann, posted.

She's been through so much.

Her mother, I went and flew out to Delaware.

She lost.

We went to the funeral, and she was a shining light to me.

She was a good aunt.

Her and her daughter went through 11 years without another man.

And she lost her biological father.

And I called her Wednesday asking for mission to show you this.

And she said to me, Rick, if I have to go through more pain, I will remain focused and surrendered because my God is a good, good father.

And how could she say this?

I don't even understand.

I don't understand cancer, and I don't understand evil men in Afghanistan, and I don't understand our world's government corruptions, and I don't understand COVID.

But I what I do know is I want to be more like Carrie Ann.

I want to be so spiritually bankrupt that I can say, if God needs to bring me more hurt, then I'll do it.

If it makes his name good because I know he is good.

And how could she forgive somebody who was never a father to her?

But be poor in spirit, that's the only way, how?

How can a person go through this life and not get bitter and angry?

To be poor in spirit is only how.

I want to live this life, church, poor.

This life, because one day in eternity, I know it's gonna be rich.

I want to be poor for his sake.

Can you bow your heads and