The Beautiful Attitudes-Poor In Spirit
CCCAG September 3rd, 2017
Scripture- Matt 5:3
Famous inaugural addresses
We are going to begin today by quoting a few lines from the most famous presidential inaugural addresses, and we will see if anyone can remember the president who said them:
Tammie doesn’t get to participate, because she’s already read the message.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1865 at the end of the civil war
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
John F Kennedy- 1961
In speaking of a down economy upon him taking office, this president said-
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Ronald Reagan, 1981
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
FDR, 1933
Inaugural addresses, whether they are given by a president, a leader of a company, or even a new pastor recently elected to serve a congregation are important because they communicate a vision. A vision statement is a way of communicating the direction and what that leader considers to be the important and non-negotiable principles in which they will lead a group of people.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is starting to attract large crowds of people so he gets everyone together to give His inaugural address as the Leader of the Kingdom of God, and tell us what is expected of the people who accept His invitation to be a part of this Kingdom.
Matthew Chapter 5 begins the Sermon on the Mount which is the vision and mission statement of the Kingdom- a kingdom that is transitioning away from justification by law into justification by grace.
Over the next several weeks, we will be studying the first few verses of Matthew chapter 5. Jesus begins this message by describing some characteristics that will be seen in the people who follow HIM.
These characteristics are called the beatitudes, and Jesus begins with the following Beautiful attitude that we will be studying today-
Matthew 5:3 ESV
“Blessed are the Poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”
Prayer
Big idea-
These next several weeks we will be studying the Beatitudes, or as I like to say, the beautiful attitudes, or the BE this attitude. I purposefully scheduled this sermon series after the 10 Commandments because they take us from the Old Testament understanding of God into the complete revelation of who God is and what His ultimate plan is for humanity.
The 10 Commandments say what to do
The beatitudes say this is who you should be
The 10 Commandments govern our behavior toward God and others
The beatitudes say this is how you should think of God and others
The 10 Commandments deal with the external
The beatitudes deal with what is really on the inside.
So let’s look at our first beatitude of Blessed are the poor in spirit and what it means to us on the practical level.
First of all, let’s look at the word “Blessed”. Understanding this term helps us to really grasp what Jesus is telling us by giving us the beautiful attitudes.
I. Pursuit of Happiness
A. The word used for Blessed here in the beatitude is best understood as meaning happy. In fact, the Latin word for “Really Happy” is Beautis, so some modern translations translate that verse to be-
B. “Happy are those who know they are poor in spirit”
That’s the exact opposite of what our world and our culture tells us isn’t it?
This concept of happiness that exists today says that I know what will make me happy, and an infinite God just needs to bless my finite knowledge of what will make me happy, and then I’ll be fine.
If we sit back for a second and think about it- Isn’t the pursuit of this nebulous idea of happiness the source of most of our problems?
Most of our bad habits come from this idea of pursuing happiness. Another word that the church uses for this is called besetting sin.
A “besetting sin” is some thing, some behavior, or some action that you struggle with all of the time. It has everything to do with a pursuit of happiness that is apart from God.
Besetting sin is like a behavioral cancer that seemingly goes into remission for a time, and then the stress of life comes and you turn right back into it and feel even worse that it got you again.
That’s what gives sin power in our lives. Let me illustrate this idea of pursuing happiness with a recent news story-
Recently there was a lottery drawing for the 2nd richest prize in history- 758 Million Dollars. When I was at the gas station in Onalaska before that final drawing I saw a person in line praying over their lottery numbers- they were naming it and claiming it saying to the effect- “God, you have promised to bless me, and I need this blessing so that I can live in abundance and be happy”
I think anyone of us would praise God for a winning that much money. We would initially would give a lot to some to worthy charities…for a short time.
Then you decide that rural Wisconsin is boring-winter is coming so I’m moving to where it is sunny all the time
Beverly Hills- the 90210 zip code
Then the sea side mansion overlooking the Pacific ocean
Then the yacht
Then the nice cars/trucks, hot rods…whatever your preference for automobile is
Then you decide that you can be troubled to maintain all of this, so you hire others to do it. Now you are worried if they are going to do their job, or worse yet try to steal that expensive silverware set.
Then you see that the millionaire down the road has put in a nicer pool, so you upgrade yours.
Then Bob the movie producer drives by in an Aston Martin, so you import a Bentley.
Then you realize that your spouse isn’t anywhere near as good looking at your neighbor’s trophy spouse, so you decide to trade them in for a newer and younger model, oops, there goes half of your wealth.
And through all of that, with all of that wealth that you try to buy your way into happiness, you never find it. It would be like going out this morning into a field with a bag and grabbing some fog to bring home with you- you will never be happy.
Ironically, I read in a few news articles that the suicide risk for a lottery winner is up to 5x the national average.
This is just one example of the danger of the pursuit of happiness?
Happiness is not a fruit or benefit of the Holy Spirit living within you- joy is. Joy is an assurance that come through faith that God is in control, you trust HIM, and you rest in what HE has allowed you to have and take your happiness from the joy HE has given you.
The pursuit of happiness doesn’t just exist outside of the church world, Sometimes it exists within the church.
Within the church, it often comes from creating a set of arbitrary rules that we are comfortable obeying and basing our happiness, security, and hope in following those rules.
The best of us have at least a little of this mindset when it comes to our relationship with God. However, we have to confront that because it’s just as bad of a cancer as besetting sin, because it takes our eyes off of the finished work of Christ and put it on our human effort to gain our salvation.
I want to show you this in a practical way through a story that Jesus told his followers, and you will see the difference between putting your happiness and hope in following the rules, versus being poor in spirit and trust in something outside of yourself to gain your salvation.
Luke 18. Jesus is speaking to a crowd that contained a lot of religious people, and religious leaders.
Luk 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: (10) “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (11) The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ (13) But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (14) I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Pharisee’s were the religious elite- the holiest of the holy. They were the leaders of their church’s and the ones everyone looked to for spiritual guidance.
The tax collectors were the IRS on steroids. Not only did the collect taxes for the government, they collected taxes for the government that had conquered them and now was ruling over them. Most of them cheated people buy taking more taxes then they should and keeping the difference for themselves. They were considered traitors and even worse than a Gentile.
Jesus masterfully uses these two extremes in people to make his point, and the last verse here is the key and the central theme behind this story- religious pride.
This is going to sound very controversial, but give me your best ear for a moment-
As your pastor, when it comes to people in the church, I’m not so concerned about their besetting sin as I am about their religious pride.
Let me be clear- Any sin is bad because sin sent Jesus to the cross, and if you struggle with it after you become a believer it limits the ability of God to use us on an individual level in His Kingdom.
However, religious pride is destructive to the whole body of Christ.
That is why the first of the beatitude deals with it.
Remember Jesus’ audience here- who were they?
Pharisee’s and people who have been taught by their Pharisee’s their entire lives. People who have grown up, lived, and breathed performance based spirituality.
Jesus comes along and turns that over on it’s head, and says, “You think God is impressed by your obedience to 613 laws, and hundreds of clarifications to those laws? Because you following that method of drawing near to God has only produced a fruit of religious pride that makes you think you are better than other people.”
That’s why the first beautiful attitude pounds this truth home-
The 1st Beatitude says if you want
the blessing and favor of God
If you want to be used in His Kingdom to the maximum extent you can be
If you want to show people that Jesus lives in you-
You need to die to yourself.
You need to understand that you bring nothing to the table when it comes to your salvation.
Any talent or ability you have comes from God and therefore you can take no credit for it.
You and I are not all that unique. Our history and life are a subplot in HIS story of redemption and salvation, and that everything that has happened to you in your life is meant to grow Jesus within you.
That’s why our LORD said we need to be poor in spirit.
You need to pureness of the Holy Spirit flowing through you, and if you are so full of yourself that you leave no room for God, how can you expect His power to help you
His favor to bless you
Or His presence to guide you
These beautiful attitudes aren’t just the way we are to live, they are the steps we take to gain salvation.
If you are becoming a believer, you start with being
Poor in spirit- acknowledging that you have nothing to give God
You then mourn over your sin and are sorry and beg for forgiveness
Realizing who you are makes you meek and accept that you can’t save yourself and accept the free gift of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Then God gives you a hunger and thirst for righteousness that creates a desire to be His child and to be just like your Father.
But it starts with an understanding that me in of myself am nothing. I mean that- Apart from the work of Jesus in my life John Oscar is the worse scum you would ever imagine.
That’s why I really don’t like the term reverend when it’s applied to me. Websters defines Reverend - “worthy of reverence and respect as a member of the clergy”
I reject that.
There is only one worthy of our respect
There is only one worthy of our admiration
There is only one worthy of our worship
That is Jesus the Christ.
The 1st beatitude finishes with this-
For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven spoken about by Jesus?
It is the influence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, and when a group of believers who are poor in spirit get together, the gates of hell cannot stand against them.
We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What that means is that when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside you- filling you with His presence and assurance of your salvation. (John 20:22)
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the empowering for Kingdom work (Acts 2)
Let me quickly illustrate this a little to explain the difference between the infilling and the baptism-
Some of you might have heard of a movie series called the Fast and the Furious. Essentially, they are movies about people who race cars.
The cars they race have big engines. They have tight steering, new tires that are made for going fast and sharp cornering. They have manual transmissions so that they can quickly switch gears to give them the extra torque to make the car burst forward in speed. Everything that makes the vehicle a race car is there and in great working order.
That’s a person that receives Christ. Jesus comes in through the infilling of the Holy Spirit and cleans up our lives and creates within us a desire to be more like HIM and to serve Him. That’s what the infilling and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives does for us.
Then there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit-
In street racing, the cars have what is called a nitrous system. Nitrous makes the car go faster and increases RPM’s until the car is almost taking flight it’s going so fast.
The Holy Spirit is our nitrous. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is meant to take what God has already put inside us from the creation of the world, and supersizes it for Kingdom use.
All Stand
But the Holy Spirit cannot fill a container that is filled with sin
Our ego
Our self suffiency
Or Our spiritual pride.
He needs a people who are poor in spirit.
So he can make us rich in the Kingdom
We are going to spend some time in prayer this morning, refocusing on Jesus and let Him change our perspective on ourselves- because it’s all about HIM, not us.
Jesus paid it all.
