The Happy Life: E1 Poor in Spirit

Jacob Creighton: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Forums podcast by Steel City Church. We are back, took a little break, and now we're back with something new for you guys. So, good to be back. ⁓ Post Easter, yeah man. We're...

Chris: Good to be back, isn't it? Post Easter, it's warming up. We've had what, four winters, and now we're finally back, finally in spring, I think.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, we're not waiting for another winner for sure. We're fully here. That sun is shining. We're putting the ACs in. We're ready to go. Yep. We're starting a new series, little mini series in the formed podcast called The Happy Life. And Chris, let me tell you, I'm living the happy life right now. The Pirates, The Pirates have a winning record. It is Masters Week as we're on this podcast.

Chris: Here we are, AC is going next week. How you living the happy life, Jacob? Talk to me. what are the masters?

Jacob Creighton: The grass is green, the sun is shining. This is what we're talking about, the happy life. I feel it.

Chris: It's great when the bucks are one game over 500 and it's the happy life for you. I love that.

Jacob Creighton: I We're celebrating. We got nothing to complain about right now. Nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for our listeners, we want to kind of mirror this podcast with Chris's sermons. So we're going to try to tie it as closely to following up from his sermons as we can. So you can go check out his sermons every week on our YouTube page. The full sermons are posted there.

Chris: I played about. Let's go.

Jacob Creighton: and then following that. This is kind of just some dialogue to kind of talk about it in everyday language that we try to provide for you guys, and so that's kind of the point of this. And so this can kind of be a companion. This is a great way for you to interact with us and leave comments and questions for us to kind of circle back and answer ⁓ and help as best as we can, and really just pull you into this conversation as we dive into the scriptures and learn more about Jesus. So... ⁓ continuing on from our formed series. We're in this series called The Happy Life. ⁓ Chris, how does this series, what is this series first of all, and how does it relate to spiritual formation?

Chris: Yeah, mean, the beatitudes are, of course, in Jesus' first public sermon, and he starts it ⁓ basically flipping everything up on its head. mean, I've heard people call this, like this series are going into the Sermon on the Mount, like the upside down life, or he's just taking everything and almost turning it on his head of what is normal in his particular context. but first century, around that first century Mesopotamian area, Mediterranean area. And, ⁓ you know, he's talking about, you know, blessed is, it's like these are the people that are happy. These are the people that actually have it together. These are the people that actually are the closest to the reality of who God is. We called it the abundant life in ⁓ our form series. Here we're calling it the happy life. And it's talking about these people that are at a kind of a certain posture or a certain position that in a cultural context seem to be a long way away from what the cultural Christianity says that they're supposed to be. And Christ is saying, no, these people in their like basic form are actually the ones that are closest to me, closest to finding who I am. closest to understanding what abundant life or the happy life is.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, that's good. So we are in the book of Matthew, walking through the Beatitudes, looking what Jesus says is the happy life or is the blessed life. We're starting off episode one from Matthew 5 verse 3. says this, is the kingdom of heaven. So starting with this word blessed or happy, what is, as we start out, what is the happy life or the blessed life? And how would Jesus define it? And how is that different than how we would define what the happy life is? Or how would we define what the happy life is?

Matthew 5:3

Chris: I mean, I the easiest way is for us to, I think we start with a definition of what we think it is. And I think, you know, I think it's like circumstantial. I mean, you even said it, like you're living the happy life. The bucks are one game over 500. The Masters are going on this week. Like, nice bougie lattes, like that's the happy life. You know, for me, it's like a hot dog, a turkey blind. ⁓

Jacob Creighton: Right, exactly. ⁓ That's right. I'm eating my egg salad, drinking my sweet tea. That's right. Mm-hmm.

Chris: you know, old beat up truck, like that's just like, that's it for me, man. My girls hang, you know, all three of my girls hanging around, like that's it. You know, I think so often we think of the happy life or a life that is happy being circumstantial. And I think while God honors that, obviously, I think here, he's talking about like fullness and flourishing of life. And I think that ⁓ That's where it's hard for us to wrestle with because it's not this just like tangible thing. It's hard for us to say, it's when we have these things, there's this almost like internal stance within the external circumstances of fullness or fulfillment and ⁓ a drawing close to God and what he has to offer us. I think it gives us allusions back to what we read in the first part of Genesis in the Garden of Eden, where it's walking in the coolness of the day, it's intimate fellowship, it's satisfaction, it's worship, it's these beautiful things that even within circumstances of life sometimes don't bring. I mean, the bucks are one game over 500. Let's go bucks. How really fulfilled are you though, Jacob? Hahaha!

Jacob Creighton: Good question, Chris. That's too deep. Yeah, we would ⁓ define the happy life, and we often do, just culturally and everyday language, is like we want to share the peak moments and say, man, this is the happy life. I finally got the degree. I got accepted into this program. I got this job. ⁓

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: this great thing is happening. And we kind of only define those moments as like, man, this is kind of the peak or zen or whatever it is. ⁓ but yeah, I think as we go through these, we're definitely going to be shocked with how Jesus would describe fullness and blessedness and this state of happiness. So, ⁓ yeah, like I said, first verse, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Kind of in your sermon, how you're pulling this out is... ⁓ you're helping us define what it means to be poor in spirit by looking at the story of the prodigal son. I want you to kind of tell us that in the Chris Notes version of it and yeah how do we see what it means to be poor in spirit from the prodigal son story.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, Jesus like drops this bomb, you know, and just so everybody knows, this is his very first like public statement is the happy life is the poor in spirit. And so we felt like it would be good to go to the prodigal son as kind of an example for this. here you have, Jesus says there's a man that has two sons, this is in Luke 15, and.

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm.

Chris: The youngest son has always gotta be the youngest. mean, Jacob, you're the youngest, I'm the youngest. I think we were just like born to be troublemakers or something. And the youngest is like, dad, give me what you owe me. Like give me my half of what you're gonna give me when you die. And so essentially saying is like, dad, you really are like dead to me already. Just give me what you owe me and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna make something of myself. I'm gonna control it. I'm gonna do it. And the father, father does it.

Jacob Creighton: That's right. Yeah. For sure. Hmm.

Chris: And I guess we can talk about kind of what that entails, all that the father actually gave his half. He went with it. And then of course, in the next verse, it says, the son went to a far off land and squandered it with foolish living. And it just kind of like, it all fell apart from there. And you see the younger son's life kind of fall on this, this like despair, degradation, ⁓ isolation. It's not what he had planned as he was

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Right.

Chris: searching for this life beyond anything the father could give him. And now he's essentially a Jewish man working in a field of pigs, longing to eat what he's feeding the pigs. And the pigs won't even share. So it's like, he wanted this happy life and he ended up with this. Now what's he gonna do? Now what's gonna happen?

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Chris: I think this is where the key is in Luke 15, it actually says this phrase, says, he came to his senses. It's like something like clicked in him, he realized, I mean, there's no lower that you can get in this context for a Jewish man to be working in a field of swine, longing to share the food of the pigs and not getting any. I he's at the bottom, he's at the end of his rope, there's no floors below where he is.

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: and he comes to his senses. And I think that is the example of poor in spirit. He knows that wherever he is, whatever he's done, all that, you know, within his circumstances, pieces, there's nothing that's gonna pull him out of this. There's nothing he can do to undo all that he had done.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: There's nothing that what he has experienced can offer him the fullness and the joy, the protection, the love, the care, the mercy, the grace of what his father could. And so you see him hit this point and he says this interesting phrase. He's like, even my father's hired hands, my father's slaves have more food than they could ever need.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: And here I am begging for food from the pigs.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: And it's just kind of this, like you realize there's this poverty here. There's nothing that he can do on his own. He has to go back to the father.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah, it's at that moment when he's kind of realizing there's nothing else he can really do for himself or say for himself or anything that I think is kind of nail on the head what means to be poor in spirit. He spent all of his financial inheritance that he got early. He didn't even make more of it. He made less of it. He's now in the slop with the pigs and he's got nothing else to do. He's got nowhere else to go. ⁓

Chris: Yeah, I you think of someone that's just impoverished, just materially impoverished. And we used to talk a lot in education when I was a principal and working in low income settings, like we would even talk about like the poverty mindset. And I mean, this is it. I he is completely impoverished. There's nothing that he can do from where he is.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, this is kind of leads me to my next question. It's more of like a, uh, personal application or maybe cultural application question. We see, you know, the, the prodigal son, he kind of gets what he wants or what he thinks he wants and the father gives it to him. Um, there are probably a lot of instances in our own lives where we want something and we maybe go about our own way of getting it. Or we even ask God for it repeatedly and eventually he's like, okay, whatever. Here you go. This is what you want. What is so bad about getting what we want?

Chris: Well, in some ways, I mean, I think it kind of depends on how you look at it. I think that so often we get what we want is based on some type of like temporary fix. know, we're looking for, you know, a fix in the moment. We're looking for a, you know, that's why we overeat. That's why we... indulge in pornography, that's why we go into destructive relationships, that's why we make bad business deals, that's why we ⁓ fly off the handle that our kids, mean, it's like all this in front of me is, that's all it is, it's temporary. And I think there's times where, I mean, you see throughout scripture, God gives the Israelites what they want, He gives them over. to their desires. And I don't think that's like him like striking them down in that. think that's him saying, all right, here's what you want because I know you're gonna keep pestering me for it. Take it, it's not gonna go well, but the father being faithful knows that he's always there. And so I think like, it's like, man, like what do we wanna do? Like, what are we asking for? And why do we want this thing? think is the questions that we have to ask ourselves so often. Because I think it indicates in us this desire for like a right now thing. Or of course our father, know, God is eternal. God has massive plans throughout all of eternity for glorification and whatnot. Not necessarily a temporary glorification of Chris's taste buds for the moment.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Typically, ⁓ getting what we want, I think you're right, it only leads to like a very short gain that isn't really even gain. That we have such a kind of a narrow mindset on even what we ask for, we desire. That when we get what we want, we actually miss the long run of what God would want for us. ⁓ And so, I mean, that's what we see in the story. That's what I see in my own life when I think that I want something and that I get it and, you know, what it leads to is, yeah.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, it's the kid who eats the, I mean, I'm a parent and I mean, how many times have my girls, you know, we just got done with Easter, how many times have the girls wanted to hammer that chocolate Easter bunny? And it's just like, okay, I eat the chocolate Easter bunny. And then that night, you're holding them hair back over the toilet, because they got an upset stomach because they ate the chocolate Easter bunny.

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, not that daff in chocolate Easter bunny, would never.

Chris: And it's just, I would never do that. Yeah. Daffy's chocolate is superior.

Jacob Creighton: right. ⁓ Yeah that's good. we see the character arc, obviously the prodigal son, he gets what he wants, he's in the slop, but then he turns and he goes back to his father. This is kind of what you were even saying in answering that previous question is the father gives the son the inheritance and takes his hands off and says, all right go ahead and live. But then as the son comes back, we see the father's reaction. Then he welcomes him and everything. But this tells us a lot about the grace of Jesus and how it works and how it transforms us. I'd love to hear you talk about, man, how does the grace of Jesus, when we do have that moment where it's rock bottom, we realize we got really nothing to say for ourselves.

Chris: Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: How does the grace of Jesus work and transform us ⁓ in that?

Chris: Yeah, I mean the... In the story, everything within just kind of our kernel state screams like that this isn't right, something's wrong here. Where the son comes to his senses and then he starts like practicing this thing he's gonna tell his father. I'm gonna tell my father I'm sorry and that I've sinned against heaven and earth and you and everybody and I'm horrible. I don't deserve to be your son. Just make me be a hired hand. And so he, tech says he goes back to his dad and while he's a long way off, I can just imagine, I don't know about you, Jacob, but like when I do something, like I sulk and I'm an internal processor, so it just rolls through my head and I go through these like different scenarios and situations and I think for other people and it's gonna go this way and then they're gonna hate me then they're gonna cuss me out and they're gonna whatever else and it just never goes well in my mind at least.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris: And so here, this son is coming from a long way off to go back to his father. And you're like, okay, here he goes. mean, dad's about to, big daddy's about to put the beat down on his son, on this youngest son. Yeah, like, and where has he been? Where's my money? Like, what you do, son? And it says that when the son was a long way off, the father sees him.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, he's at least gonna ask where he'd been. What's he been doing? Yeah.

Chris: and he's filled with compassion and then he runs to his son. And it's just like, hold on, what? And then he, and you're like, okay, he's running to put the smack down on, you know, it's like, don't step on my property, you already got what you wanted, don't come steal anything else. But it says that he kisses him and he hugs him around the neck. And there's this like intimate reunion here. And it's like, wait a minute, like this guy just squandered everything, like this cat's poor in spirit, like this cat, he doesn't deserve anything, like, what is he, what are you talking about? And then. You know, the son then goes into his spiel, ⁓ daddy, I'm not worth anything, I've sinned against you. And then he's interrupted by his father who's yelling at his servants to go get, go find the fatted calf, slaughter it, let's party, get him a robe, get him a ring, let's go. And like, this is just like everything flipping upside down in what we think of when we come to like the end of our road. you know, our, our, like, pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps kind of mentality. And here the, the father demonstrates grace. gives mercy to the son and celebrates. And it's like, wait a minute, blessed are the poor in spirit. And then he finished this sentence, of course, with, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of the father. And the son was poor in spirit. He comes back and what has he given? But everything again, the father has to offer.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah, so goes kind of without saying, but needs to be said. How was the one who was poor in spirit blessed or happy? mean, they're in the presence of the Father, fully known, ⁓ everything exposed, not experiencing the shame and guilt that comes with it, but the acceptance and love and celebration that comes from the Father seeing them.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, the father's thinking too, like, I mean, the son already squandered everything, you know, and not in like a negative way, but like, he, there has to have been a lesson here that he learned. You know, like, it was, it was obviously, it obviously went bad. And so here he is pouring everything out because the son, like, why wouldn't he? He loves his son.

Jacob Creighton: For sure, for sure. Yeah. Loves him. Yeah. That's good. Any ⁓ closing thoughts or remarks? Even how we would experience the same type of welcoming that the prodigal son would receive? How did we maybe even take this step from this story, looking at it ⁓ objectively, to man, how does this kind of hit us in real life?

Chris: Yeah. Well, I think a couple things just, I guess off like the, know, Christ stepped into a world of like checkbox religion. I mean, it was very much like you're gonna, you have to do these 600 laws and then that's how you're gonna experience God's goodness. And it was not that way. I mean, that's what Jesus is saying here. He's like, mean, like how do you go and earn poor in spirit? Like you don't. Like, and this isn't encouraging us to go and like squander a whole bunch of things, go higher, you know, go.

Jacob Creighton: Right. It does encourage us to be honest about where we're at though, you know?

Chris: Yeah, well, and that's the thing is this isn't a like accomplishment per se as it's more of like a posture of our hearts. And this is kind of what we're trying to get through with the form series. It's like, man, I have seen people from all walks of life demonstrate porn spirit. And so I think some people will misapply this verse and they're like, so you gotta be poor to love Jesus because. You know, it's easier for a rich camel to get to the eye of the needle than a rich man to get to heaven, but that's not what this is saying here. It's this poverty in spirit. There's a man that was at my church that I grew up at and he was an incredibly wealthy man, incredibly wealthy man. And I feel comfortable saying he was poor in spirit. It was not his possessions or his wealth that was gonna save him or what. provided for him. I mean, he made it a very purposeful time to say, is but the grace of God. But I've met poor people that aren't poor in spirit, they're just poor in possessions or poor in money. So there's this, and I think that can go for every different situation we put ourselves in. So you can't, this isn't like an earning-based thing, it's a posture that we grow into before God. I mean, think just for myself, it's kind of random. I'll keep it short, but you know, was told the other day, I'm probably gonna have to have a pretty extensive surgery on my foot. And like, I was super bummed, man. I mean, obviously being a guy that runs and is pretty active and moves around a lot, it's gonna put me down for a pretty substantial amount of time. And I was really bummed.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, I mean, yeah.

Chris: And you know, having studied this, poor in spirit, like in that situation, what does it look like for me to be poor in spirit? Well, I found myself like pulling out of the doctor's office parking lot. Like I'm thinking about all these things that I am entitled to in the moment. Like I'm about to go and get me some McDonald's because it was breakfast time, because I was hungry and I was gonna like eat away my sorrow, or I was gonna go do this, or I'm gonna go watch this, or I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna listen to my book, my fiction book instead of whatever, because I just need to get my mind off all of this. And I don't know why, but it was like pouring spirit, kind of, you know, it kind of like hitting me. And I was like, dang, like what does it look like even in this moment for me just to come before God and say, God, I can't earn my way out of this. There's something that's happening, whatever it is, and you can build my faith, you can. I can trust in you. don't have to trust in my own whatever, even attempt to like bypass these things, but I can actually sit in these things. And I don't know what it was, it was really cool, because it was like like that like almost like happiness kind of filled me. was fulfillment in a moment of sadness. It was a reminder of God's plan in a moment of just frustration and anger towards what I was gonna be facing. potentially facing depending on how the MRI comes out. And so I don't know, that might be a bad example, but definitely something that I've been sitting in this week about how even I can demonstrate or posture myself as poor in spirit before God.

Jacob Creighton: I mean that's a good ⁓ Illustration how it hits practically because ⁓ I mean that's real life, you know You're going through something hard and it's ⁓ easy to just go and operate by. Well, since I didn't get this thing that I feel like I'm entitled to, what other things can I fill it with my wants rather than just simply coming before Jesus and saying, hey man, this is how it is.

Chris: And God gives us over to those things and not in like a mean way, but in a way of like that reminder of, that's not gonna fulfill you. And man, I can think of just countless people that I have come in contact with that they're so angry at the circumstances of life that they just can't let themselves like open their hands to the poverty of spirit to say, God.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah? No. Yeah. It's not going to. Yep.

Chris: I've got nothing left.

Jacob Creighton: All right. Yeah. That's.

Chris: And the thing is, man, once he sees, once the Father sees you from far off, not even close, far off, he's coming. He's gonna close the gap that you can't close.

Jacob Creighton: i know good. ⁓ It's a good start to our series. We will see you guys next week. Don't forget to drop us a comment, any questions you guys have. We would love to answer them here on the Forum podcast. give us a rating, review, share us on social media. We got several clips that go out every week. So ⁓ yeah, get the word out.

Chris: That's right. Answer questions, us a ⁓ rating or something too, right? Doesn't that help us?

Jacob Creighton: We will see you guys next week on the Formed Podcast. Have a good week.

Chris: See you everybody.