Trinity Baptist Church

 

Take your Bible, if you will, and let's look at Matthew Chapter 5 together, Matthew Chapter 5.   Sometimes I think the shorter the verses the more I can think of to say. And usually that's because when you only deal with one verse you deal with it as one verse because it is so full of meaning. It is so pregnant with truth and we're going to find that as we go through the Beatitudes, and we'll go one Beatitude at a time, that even though they're one simple statement and only one verse, we have to take them one at a time because they're so loaded with tremendous truths. So tonight we're going to be looking at verse 3, the beginning of the Beatitudes, the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Verse 1-3

 

As we studied in our last lesson, Jesus came to bring men happiness. Jesus came to bring men blessing. Jesus came to make life meaningful, and the key to the kind of happiness and the kind of blessedness that's talked about in these beatitudes, the word blessed was our theme for part of our discussion last time, the key to that kind of blessedness is following a new standard for living. A new kind of life, and that is what Jesus sets forth in the Sermon on the Mount.

 

In Matthew Chapters 5 through 7, our Lord is establishing a counter standard of living, counter to everything the world knows and practices, a new approach to living that results in blessedness, makarios. 

We saw that this makarios, is a deep inner happiness, a deep and genuine sense of blessedness, of bliss that the world cannot offer, not produced by the world, not produced by circumstances, and not subject to change by the world or circumstances. It is not produced externally; it cannot be touched externally.

 

The promise of Christ then in the Sermon on the Mount is at the very beginning. He is saying if you live by these standards you will know blessedness. 

 

And so in verse 3 it is blessed and verse 4 it's blessed, and verse 5 blessed, verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, 10, 11, and finally as a result of all this blessedness, verse 12 rejoice and be exceeding glad. The whole Sermon on the Mount introduces itself with a promise of blessedness, happiness, deep inner satisfaction.

 

Now we said, also, last time that this blessedness, this well being, this bliss, this happiness in which believers live and, which they enjoy, is really a gift of God. For makarios or blessedness is characteristic of God. The greatest possible understanding of the term blessed comes when you understand that God is blessed. 

 

So happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord, for He above all is blessed. Blessed by God, says the Bible. Blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ and if they are blessed, if they have this deep inner bliss, this deep sense of contentment and blessedness because of the virtue of divine nature, then only those who partake in that divine nature can know that same blessedness.

 Only as we partake in the very nature of God can we be blessed can we know this happiness. It doesn't belong to anyone outside those who know God.

 

So Jesus came offering a new standard for living and His emphasis was not on externals; it was on internals. He was not telling them a new way to live every day; he was telling them a new way to think first that would result in a new way to live every day. It was not talking only about behavior; He was talking about attitude. He was saying that the inner part of a person's life is the real key to happiness. 

 

And last week we talked about the fact that you can pile up all you want, stuff on the outside, and it never brings any happiness to the inside. So that we see that Jesus is offering blessing and happiness based on a new standard of live, a new kind of living, a righteous standard, and, if you will, and this will be a key word, a selfless standard, a selfless standard. 

 

This great sermon, the greatest sermon no doubt ever preached, focused on this kind of happiness, this kind of blessedness and the amazing thing about it is, as we said last time, the only people who can know this blessedness are the people who know they can't live this way on their own, and so they're totally dependent on Jesus Christ.

 

Now remember that I told you last time that the multitude was there and they were hearing and they were listening, but the message was really directed to the twelve because no one outside faith in Jesus Christ could ever know this blessedness. No one who didn't have the power of God operating in his life could ever function this way.

No one who had not come to this particular point of humility could ever know and experience any of these great blessings. Only the partakers of the nature of God can know this blessedness. And I believe, beloved, that this message is for all of us. I know that historically some evangelicals have objected to the Sermon on the Mount and said it's for another age, its for the millennium. 

 

The problem with that is the text does not say this is for the millennium. Secondly Jesus preached it to people who weren't living in the millennium. 

 

In fact, it becomes meaningless if you push it into the millennium because is says, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake; blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely." 

 

Now in the kingdom, my friend, no one's going to get away with that stuff. Our Lord will rule with a rod of iron. Matthew 5:44, along with many other things would become meaningless. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." It's the same idea. There's not going to be any of that in the kingdom.

 

And by the way, another reason I believe this is for all believers of all ages is because every principle found in the Sermon on the Mount is found somewhere else in the New Testament. This isn't just for some super saints living in the kingdom. This is for us. It is the distinctive lifestyle of a believer of any age. It calls upon us to come to a new standard of living. 
It is Jesus saying to us, "Look this is the way you must live if you are to know happiness, if you are to know blessedness," and isn't it wonderful that God is offering us that? That God is not a cosmic killjoy, that God is not defining His greatest joy and raining on your parade. God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be blessed and He gives us here the principles.

 

What Jesus is really saying here is God wants you to live differently. God doesn't want you to live the way everybody else lives, and if you'll life this way you'll be happy, if you live this way you'll be blessed. 

 

True spirituality then starts on the inside and touches the outside. Now as you look at the Beatitudes you'll see that they're like sacred paradoxes. They are almost given in absolute contrast to everything the world knows. 

 

Now as we look at these “blessed”, happy is the one who does this, who thinks this way, we see a sequence. 

 

Look with me quickly at verse 3. 

 

First we see the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit is the right attitude towards sin, which leads to mourning in verse 4, which leads after you've seen your sinfulness and you've mourned to a meekness, a sense of humility, then to a seeking hunger and thirst for righteousness. You can see the progression. 

 

And that manifests itself in mercy, verse 7, in purity of heart, verse 8, in a peacemaking spirit, verse 9. 

The result of being merciful and pure in heart and peacemaking is that you are reviled and you are persecuted and you are falsely accused. Why?

 

Because by the time you are poor in spirit, mourned over it, become humble, sought righteousness, lived a merciful, pure, and peacemaking life, you have sufficiently irritated the world so they're going to react. But when it's all said and done, verse 12 says, "You can rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven." 

 

And when you live like that, poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, that is the result of becoming merciful and pure and peacemaking and having the world revile and persecute and say all these things against you, then you can be sure that verse 13 is true, you are the salt of the earth. That's what it takes. You are the light of the world.

 

In other words, you can't start in verse 13, you can't be salt and light, until you start in verse 3. 

 

So let's look at verse 3. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is so basic, yet so necessary. And I'm going to ask you five questions tonight and I want you to just answer them with me as we look at this one statement.

 

When He's talking about a new kind of living, a new standard, a new way to live, why does it begin here? Why is this the source of happiness? Well simply because it is the fundamental characteristic of a Christian. 

It is the very first thing that must happen in the life of anybody who ever enters God's kingdom. Nobody yet ever entered God's kingdom on the basis of pride. Poverty of spirit is the only way in. The door to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is very low and the only people who come in crawl. Jesus begins by saying there is a mountain you have to scale. There are heights you have to climb. There is a standard you must attain, but you are incapable of doing it and the sooner you realize it the sooner you'll be on your way to finding it. In other words He's saying you can't be filled until you're empty. You can't be worthwhile until you're worthless. 

 

You know it amazes me that in modern Christianity today there is so little of the self-emptying concept. I've seen a lot of books on how to be filled with joy, and how to be filled with this, and how to be filled with the spirit, a so forth, and lots of books on how to be filled, but I don't think I've ever seen a book on how to empty yourself of yourself. 

 

Can you imagine a book entitled How to be Nothing? It would really be a great seller in our day: How to be a Nobody. So much of our modern Christianity is fed by pride. Poverty of spirit, on the other hand, is the foundation of all graces. You know if you don't have poverty of spirit, beloved, you might as well expect fruit to grow without a tree, as the graces of the Christian life to grow without humility. They can't! As long as we're not poor in spirit we can't receive grace.

 

So at the very beginning, you can't even become a Christian unless you're poor in spirit. 

 

And as you live your Christian life you'll never know the other graces of the Christian life as long as you violate poverty of spirit. 

 

Jesus is saying start here. Happiness is for the humble. Until we are poor in spirit Christ is never precious to us because we can't see Him for the looking at ourselves. Before we see our own wants and our own needs and our own desperation we never see the matchless work of Christ. Until we know how really damned we are we can't appreciate how really glorious He is. Till we comprehend how doomed we are we can't understand how wondrous is His love to redeem us. Till we see our poverty we cannot understand His riches. 

 

And so out of the carcass comes the honey. It is in our deadness we come alive, and no man ever comes to Jesus Christ, no man ever enters the kingdom, who doesn't crawl with a terrible sense of sinfulness and repentance.

 

Proverbs 16:5 says, "Cursed are the proud. God gives grace to the humble." This has to be at the very beginning. That's why it's first. 

 

It is illustrated in the life of Paul. He says, "However I have no confidence in the flesh," no confidence in the flesh.  

 

The church at Laodicea said, "I am rich and have need of nothing." And the words of Jesus to them were, "And you don't know that you are poor and blind and naked." You think you're rich, you aren't. How many fools there are in the world that never see the truth? 

 

And so Jesus begins here because this is where you got to begin. This is where you’ve got to begin to get saved, and this is where you got to begin to live the Christian life in blessedness. There's no room for pride.  

 

 

Now some people suggest that it's material poverty. They take Luke 6:20, which says, "Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the kingdom." And they say, "You see it's just plain poor." 

 

No, when you have two records in the Bible in the gospels you compare them. Blessed are the poor, what poor? There are all kinds of poverty, right? You could be poor in terms of money, you could be poor in terms of your education, you could be poor in terms of friends, you could be poor in terms of a lot of things, so when you read Luke say, "Blessed are the poor," and you find Matthew "Blessed are the poor in spirit," you make the conclusion simply that Matthew tells us what kind of poverty Luke was referring to. That's all; it's no big problem. We just put the two together comparing Scripture with Scripture.

 

What kind of poverty? Well He tells you, poor in spirit. 

 

Let's take that term. The word poor, ptochos, interesting word. From a verb, now watch this one, the verb in the Greek means a shrinking from something or someone, to cower and cringe like a beggar. That's what it means, like you just kind of cringe and cower like a beggar does. 

Classical Greek uses this word to refer to one who is reduced to beggary, who crouches in a corner of the dark wall to beg for alms. And the reason he crouches and cowers is because he doesn't want to be seen. He is so desperately ashamed to even allow his identity to be known. Beggars have all that stuff piled on, all those things pulled over their face, and they reach like this lest they should be known.

 

By the way the word poor here, the very word is the word used in Luke 16 when it says Lazarus, the beggar. That is what it means. It is not just poor, it is begging poor. And by the way, there is another word for normal poverty, penace. 

 

Penace means you're so poor you have to work just to maintain your living. But ptochos means you're so poor you have to beg. You're reduced to a cringing cowering beggar. 

 

Penace you can earn your own living, you can earn your own sustenance. 

 

But chos you are totally dependant on the gift of somebody else. All you've got going for you, no skill, no nothing, in many cases you're crippled, you're blind, you're deaf, you're dumb, you can't function in society and you sit in the corner with your shamed arm in the air pleading for grace and mercy from somebody else. 

 

You have no resource in yourself to even live, total dependence on somebody else. Not just poor, begging poor. "Now that," says Jesus, "is a happy man." You say, "You've got to be kidding. 

 

 

But remember, He is not talking about physical begging, physical poverty. He's talking about poverty of spirit. 

 

Listen, this is the best diagnosis of man you could ever find. Man is empty, poor, helpless. Can he work to earn his own salvation? Is he penace poor so he can do just a few things and if he cranks out hard enough and works hard enough he may get in by the hair of chinney chin chin? Do you think he can cut that? No. He's not penace; he's ptochos. He is absolutely incapable of anything and totally dependent on grace from somebody else. 

 

So He says, "Happy are the destitute cowering cringing beggars." Boy what news folks. The world says happy are the rich and the famous and the self-sufficient and the proud. 

 

What does it mean “in spirit”? 

 

Let me talk about that for a few minutes. It means just what it says. The reference is to the spirit, which is the inner part of man, not the body, which is the outer part. He's begging on the inside, not necessarily on the outside. 

 

Isaiah put it this way, Isaiah 66:2, "But to this man will I look," here's God talking, now listen, "To this man will I look, even to Him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word." It's the man who shakes on the inside because of this destitution.

 

 

 

Psalm 34:18 put it this way: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." 

 

Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God Thou wilt not despise." 

 

Isaiah 57:15, adds this: "For thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in the High and Holy place with Him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones." 

 

Listen: God identifies with people who beg on the inside, not people who are self-sufficient, not people who can work out their own salvation, not people who believe in their own resources, but those who are destitute beggarly. It doesn't mean poor spirited in the sense of lacking enthusiasm. It doesn't mean lazy or quiet or indifferent or passive. It doesn't mean that at all. A poor in spirit individual is one with no sense of self-sufficiency. He is bankrupt. 

 

Let me give you an illustration. Look with me at Luke 18. In Luke 18:9 we read a story. "And He spoke this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." 

 

There's the opposite. Here are the opposite of the poor in spirit. Here are the proud in spirit. "Who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." We'll do it on our own, got all the resources, etc. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even as this publican," over here. "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven." 

 

Ooh like a beggar; he's cringing. He won't look up. He won't even look at God and he cringes, "And he beats his breast and he says, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'" Want to hear the diagnosis Jesus gave? 

 

"I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

Listen, that's as clear as you'll ever hear it. It's the broken and the contrite. Blessed are the beggars says Jesus. Blessed are those whose spirit is destitute. Blessed are the spiritual paupers, the spiritually empty, the spiritually bankrupt who cringe in a corner and cry out to God for mercy. 

 

They're the happy ones. Why? Because they're the only ones who tap the real resource for happiness. They're the only ones who ever know God. They're the only ones who ever know God's blessedness and theirs is the kingdom.

 

James put it this way, it's not just the Sermon on the Mount, James said it. He said in James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of God and He will what, lift you up." 

 

 

The poverty here is not a poverty against which the will rebels, but it's a poverty under which the will bows in deep dependence and submission. I'm afraid this is a rather unpopular doctrine in the church today. We emphasize celebrities, experts, and superstars, and rich famous Christians. But happiness is for the humble.

 

May I illustrate it to you? Just listen: Jacob had to face the poverty of spirit before God could use him. He fought God all night in Genesis 32, and finally God dislocated Jacob's hip, remember that? 

 

He dislocated his hip, He put him flat on his back and he said I give. I can't do it alone. And the Bible says in Genesis 32:29, I love it, "And God blessed him there." God made him happy. 

 

Or I think of Isaiah used wonderfully by God, but he couldn't be used at all before he was poor in spirit.   King Uzziah died and he was so upset and he was thinking only of his loss and only what it was like not to have King Uzziah around and God graciously invaded his life and God showed him who really mattered and it wasn't Uzziah. 

 

He showed him Himself high and lifted up in a vision. And the result was that Isaiah said in Isaiah 6, "Woe is me for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King" and at that point God blessed him. 

 

And Gideon, in Judges 6:15, became aware of his inadequacy and he said, "Oh Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house." You must have the wrong address. 

"And the Lord said, 'The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.'" You know who the mightiest man of valor is? The man who knows that within himself he is impotent. 

 

That was the spirit of Moses. God said, "Moses I want you to lead my people." He was so desperately unworthy of the task, he was so horribly fearfully conscious of his inadequacy and his insufficiency that God used him. 

 

It was the heart of David when he said, "Lord who am I that Thou should come to me?" 

 

We see it with Peter, aggressive, self assertive, confident by nature, and he says, "Depart from me oh Lord, for I am a sinful man," the beginning of the beginning for Peter. 

 

The apostle Paul recognized in his flesh is no good thing. He was the chief of sinners, a blasphemer, a persecutor, everything he had was dung, refuse, all things he counted lost, no confidence in the flesh, he was sufficient for nothing, his strength was made perfect then in his weakness.

 

Listen, when you admit your weakness, when you admit your nothingness, that's not the end, that's the beginning. 

 

But that is the hardest thing you will ever do. And Jesus is saying the first thing you've got to say is, "I can't. I can't do it. I can't." That's poverty of spirit. 

 

The first principle of the Sermon on the Mount is you can't do it by yourself. 

Jesus put the standard up there when He said, "Be ye perfect as My Father in heaven is perfect." He said unless your righteousness exceeds that peripheral whittled down righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you're not going to be in My kingdom. 

 

The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is the same as the purpose of Sinai and the giving of the law. It's to show you that you can't make it by yourself.

 

The Sermon on the Mount was to show them they couldn't make it and they had to come to poverty of spirit and total dependence on God. You can't just present these standards to an unregenerate man and expect him to live them. 

 

You know what that would be like? You think that James Boyce gives us this illustration, "In the kingdom the lion will lie down with the lamb, right? The lion will lie down with the lamb. Isn't that wonderful? If you want to try something go to the zoo and get to the lion's cage and teach that lion millennial truth. You teach that lion that he is going to lie down with the lamb and you get it clear in his mind, and then you take him over and put him in with the lamb. You know what will happen? No lamb! You know why? That lion will not cooperate on the basis of the sermon. The lion's got to have a new nature. 

 

You see, you can't preach the Sermon on the Mount to an unregenerate person and expect him to live it. You've got to have a new nature. That all begins with poverty of spirit.

 

 

 

So, we ask two questions: Why does Christ begin with this? because it's the beginning. What does it mean? It means humility, poverty of spirit.

 

Third question: What is the result? 

 

These are shorter questions so you can relax. What is the result? Well look and see, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Pronunciation is fantastic. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

 

This is an announcement. Theirs, and by the way, theirs alone is the thrust, just theirs. Who does the kingdom of heaven belong to? Just the poor in spirit. 

 

And by the way it's a present tense verb. Theirs mine, ours, is the kingdom. We're not just talking about the millennium. Someday it's going to be, but it's yours now. 

 

There is a future millennium in which the kingdom promises become full blown, fully realized, but the kingdom is now. The reign of Christ is now. Happiness is now. Blessedness is now. The kingdom of heaven is the rule of Christ. 

 

It has a future messianic aspect; it has a right now aspect. We are now a kingdom of priests. We are now subjects of Jesus Christ. We are now over comers. We have already, if says in Ephesians 2, been seated together in heavenly places the recipient of all of His grace and kindness from now throughout forever. We have the grace now, watch it, we have the grace now, the grace of the kingdom; we have the glory later. The kingdom, as I see it, is grace and glory; grace now, glory later. What a tremendous thing.

Now what does it mean in practical terms that ours is the kingdom of heaven? 

 

It means to possess the kingdom. That's what the word means, to possess. You possess the kingdom. It is yours. The rule of Christ, the reign of Christ, do you know what that means? You're His subject; He takes care of you. He gives you what you need. He fulfills every need of your heart.

 

Someone has written, "He keeps us abundantly full, full of grace mercy and strength. Whatever is ahead in the kingdom He now in the present provides for us a vast abundance of riches. He is ever faithful to us and makes us unutterably glad that we are His. In spirit we are rich. We have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It's here and now and someday even more."

 

That leads to the next question: if this is basic and so important, and if it means humility and spiritual bankruptcy, sense of total inability, then

 

 

How do we become poor in spirit? 

 

I'll give you three little principles. If you're going to know what it is to be poor in spirit look at God. 

 

We don’t do it on our own or by our self. That was the folly of monasticism. They all thought they could be poor in spirit by going somewhere, selling all their possessions, putting on a crummy old robe and sitting in a monastery somewhere and owning nothing. You can't do it by looking at yourself. 

 

And you can't do it by looking at other people. Don't try to find somebody else who will set the standard for you. 

 

There's only one place to look, if you want to become poor in spirit, that's to concentrate on God. That's the first thing. Look at God. Read His word. Face His person in His pages. Look at Christ, look at Christ constantly. As you gaze at Jesus Christ you lose yourself, you lose yourself. 

 

Second, starve the flesh. 

 

Now remember, the emphasis is on the inside, not the outside. This is not about material possessions and positions. It is primarily about the things that feed the pride in our life. And it is so subtle. 

 

There is a fine line between human appreciation and divine acceptance. 

 

I'd say a third thing. Ask. 

 

You want to be poor in spirit, ask. There's one thing about a beggar, he's always asking. Ever notice that? Always asking. 

 

"Lord," said the sinner, "Be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said, "That man went home justified." Happy is the beggar in his spirit. He's the one who possesses the kingdom. Why did Jesus begin with this because it's the bottom line? What does it mean? It means to be spiritually bankrupt and know it.  What is the result? You become a possessor of the kingdom here and now and forever. How do you become poor in spirit? Look at God. Starve your flesh. And ask; beg. He doesn't mind a bit.

Final question: How will I know if I am? 

 

How do you know if you're poor in spirit? 

 

I'm going to give you seven principles. They're coming rapid fire: 

 

How do I know if I'm poor in spirit? 

 

Number one: You will be weaned from yourself. You will be weaned from yourself. Psalm 131:2 puts it this way, "My soul is even as a weaned child." Oh what a great thought. One who is poor in spirit looses a sense of self. Self is gone. It's gone. All you think about is God and His glory and others and their needs. Self is gone. You're weaned from self.

 

Number two: You'll be lost in the wonder of Christ. You will be in II Corinthians 3:18, gazing at His glory. You will be saying, "Show me the Lord and it sufficeth." You will be saying, "I will be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness, lost in the wonder of Christ."

 

Number Three: if you are poor in spirit you will never complain about your situation. Never. You know why? You don't deserve anything anyway, right? What have you got to offer? In fact, the deeper you go the sweeter the grace. The more you need the more abundantly He provides. When you lack everything you're in a position to receive all grace. There are no distractions, you see. You will suffer without murmur because you deserve nothing, and yet at the same time you will seek His grace. 

 

 

How do you know if you're poor in spirit? You'll be weaned from yourself, lost in the wonder of Christ, and you'll never complain about your situation because the deeper you get the sweeter the grace.

 

Fourth, you will see only the excellencies of others and only your own weakness. You will see only the excellencies and only your own weakness. Poor in spirit, the truly humble is the only one who has to look up to everybody else. 

 

Fifth: you will spend much time in prayer. Why? Because a beggar is always begging. He knocks very often at heaven's gate and he doesn't let go until he's blessed. You want to know if you're poor in spirit? Are you weaned from yourself? Are you lost in the wonder of Christ? Are you never complaining no matter what the situation? Do you see only the excellencies of others and only your own weakness? Do you spend much time begging for grace? 

 

Sixth: if you're poor in spirit you'll take Christ on His terms, not yours. You'll take Christ on His terms, not yours. The proud sinner will have Christ and His pleasure. Christ and his covetousness. Christ and His immorality. The poor in spirit is so desperate he will give up anything just to get Christ, see. 

 

Finally, when you're poor in spirit you will praise and thank God for His grace. If ever there is a characteristic of someone poor in spirit it is an overwhelming gratitude to God. Why? Because every single thing you have is a gift from Him. And so in I Timothy 1:14 says the beloved apostle Paul, "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant to us." Those who are poor in spirit are filled with thanks.

Well how do you measure up? 

 

Why do the Beatitudes begin with this one? because it's the foundation. 

 

What does it mean? a deep sense of spiritual helplessness. 

 

What is its result? The present possession of the kingdom of heaven. 

 

How do I become like this? Look to God; starve the flesh, pray. 

 

How will I know if I'm there? You'll be weaned from yourself, lost in the wonder of Christ, never complaining of your situation, seeing only the excellency of others and your own weakness, you will spend much time in prayer, you will take Christ on His terms and you will thank God for everything. 

 

The hymn writer sums it up for us: "Nothing in my hand I bring," what's the rest? "Simply to Thy cross I cling."

 

Let's pray.