Speaker 1 0:43

Good morning. And let me add mine to everybody. Else's happy new year. And for those of you join us online again to you happy new year as well. So glad that you're here with us, we are , um, starting off this new year, getting back into our study through the book of Matthew and of course with new year's , there always is the new year's resolutions. And so I thought I would start off just with this idea. Um , I , I actually looked at the top 10 new year's resolutions for nine , for 2019 for 2022. And you know, they're true because I got 'em off the internet, but here they are. Um , the top 10 new year's resolutions for this year, number 10 was to cut down on alcohol. About 15% of the population said, yeah, that's, that's one of mine. Uh, number nine is to quit smoking two really good ones right there. Uh, number eight was to reduce my job stress. 20% of the population said this coming year, I'm gonna reduce stress on my job, which I'm not sure goes with number seven, which is to improve my job performance. I don't know that that's the same 20% there, but , uh, that was number seven as most popular. Um , number six was to spend less time on social media. If you ask me that one should go to the top of the list , uh , number five, to live more economically, to get my finances in order and just kind of live a little bit more economically. Number four was to lose weight. That's always like one of the top. And then number three is to spend more time with friends and family. I Don know if that resolution was made before the holiday season or after , um , not really sure about that. One. Number two was to eat healthier. Anybody wanna guess what? The number one new year's resolution is for this year? Exercise more that's no number 10 44% of those surveys said that's gonna be theirs. Now, what was really interesting is I was doing some of the research for this. Um , on average, generally about 40 to 45% of the population makes new year's resolutions. When their asset are you gonna make a new year's resolution this year about 40 to 45% somewhere in there it's in the low forties. Um, this year people asked if they're going to make a new year's resolution. Only 29% said yes, this year I'm gonna make new year's resolution. That's like almost in half. So I thought I'd just take a quick survey this morning. How many here have made at least one new year's resolution for 2 20 22 . Okay. We don't even make the average on the <laugh>. Um, what's interesting though, is this has been studied year after year after year and a number of studies they've asked people , um, are you making a new year's resolution? And there's a good chunk that says, no, not even gonna bother. Uh , and then there's a another segment that's about , um, I'm thinking about it. I, I might, you know, I just haven't done one yet. And then, like I said, usually in the 40 to 45% range, say, yes, I am making a news new year's resolution. What they found is they studied this through is after two weeks. Of course, those who said, no, they didn't even check with them. But those who had said they were con contemplating or thinking about making a new year's resolution after two weeks, they found out that 51% actually did and did stick with it. But of those who said firmly, yes, I am making new year's resolution. And they were asked after two weeks, if they're sticking with it, 71%, after two weeks were still sticking with it. And then they went back like after six months and went back and checked again and again, the nos , they didn't even bother with them cuz there was nothing to check. But the, the contemplating group after , after six months, it went from 51% sticking with it down to 4% sticking with it. But what they have found is for those who firmly made a new year's resolution, it was 71% after two weeks. But even after six months, 64% of those people were still sticking with their new year's resolution. So something about making a decisive choice and a decisive change that kinda locks you in and , and sharing that with somebody else or writing it down or somehow making it official, they find out there's a greater sense of sticking with the commitment once it's made you ever wonder why we do this? I mean, obvious, most of you don't, but those of us who do, where did this whole idea of new year's resolution, you know, what, what makes the start of a new year so much different than any other day of the , of the year? And, and why is that ? We decided to make some of the changes going into a new year, where did this come from? And I've been thinking about that. And I thought, you know, I think because deep down inside, <affirmative> we all carry around this sense that I could be better. That, that there's a better version of me than I'm not really living up to. And, and I need to make some changes. I need to make some improvement. There's a , there's a better, a better life for me than the life that I'm now living. And I think we all kind of carry that a little bit. Like I , I could do better. And it's kind of with that thought in mind that I, that I wanna, as we begin this new year and we are , we're getting back into the book of Matthew. I thought that's kind of a really good way to start off this be attitude study, or actually it's a , it's a beginnings it's introduction to a whole sermon that Jesus gave that we call the sermon on the Mount. And that's, we're reengaging with this , uh , this book of Matthew study. And by the way, we do have these , uh , journals that you can take and, and do your own reflections. Or you can use them for taking notes and they're free. They're available to you. If you've been coming for a while , you've got one of these maybe , um , we're on page 66. If you wanna take notes this morning, if you don't have one of these, they are available at our new friends table out in the , uh , in the lobby on your right hand side, stop by and pick up one of these. It's a good way to start out your new year. So here we go. We are in Matthew five, chapter five versus one through three, says this. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples, came to him and he began to teach them. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the king of heaven . Now he used that word blessed a lot here, but this is we're only gonna do one of these. And it's actually just, it's a short section. There's only three sentences. And you're probably thinking to yourself, he's gonna talk for 25 minutes on three sentences. No I'm gonna do better than that. I'm gonna talk for 25 minutes on one sentence. Aren't you impressed. Uh , um , we're gonna talk about cuz there's , there's , there's a lot here just in that one. Verse blessed are the poor spirit for theirs at the kingdom of him . And it really breaks down into three different phrases and each of one of them has some real significant meaning to him . So I kind of wanna unpack this a little bit this morning with you. And I wanna start with this first word blessed. Now, some of your more , uh , modern translations, my be I've taken the word blessed out and they've used words like happy , uh , or, or fortunate, happy are the poor and spirit or fortunate are the fear in spirit because it's kind of one of those words that's really tough to get across. We, we use that O talked about this or earlier we used the word blessed a lot in church and we're not really sure. I think what it means. And, and our new Testament was written in the Greek language. And there's actually two words for blessed. One of 'em um , just simply means to say good things about, but the word that's used here is a particular word and it's not used often and Greek word, I'm gonna impress you now cuz three years of new Testament Greek, you gotta show off. All right , the , the word is Macs. That's the Greek word. And it comes from a root that shared with root macros, which again, aren't you impressed. So let me tell you how to , how to unpack this is for those of you who are familiar with , uh , photography, you might have a really nice singles re single lens reference re S SLR camera, and you might have a macro lens for those of you who aren't familiar with photo photography, a macro lens is the kind of lens you use for extreme closeups. When you want to, when you wanna photograph something very, very tiny to be able to enlarge it, to get a really good picture of that's called the macro lens. That's where this root comes from. So when he uses the word blessed , he's talking about an enlarged life, a a , a , a , a fulfilling life that the word macros actually has to do with this idea of being large or lengthy. And so what Jesus is saying is there, there is a life for you. There is this blessed life, and it is a life that is fulfilled and fulfilling. It is, it is a, that is , is living large, not in the sense that we kind of use that term, but, but a full, satisfying , um , gratifying life. And, and there is this sense of joy, deep, profound, joy, and contentment that comes with that. All of that is wrapped up in this word Mac Caros. So when we use , when we train , it's laid it blessed and we try to find other alternatives for it, like happy or fortunate . Those just don't really fit the bill because it's about something much deeper, much more profound. And so I'm gonna give you kind of my definition of this word blessed, and it's this to be blessed is to experience a profound, joy and full fulfillment of living in God's favor. I know that's a lot more lengthy than just using the word blessed , but, but that's kind of all that is entailed in all of this, that, that God has this life for us, this blessed life that is the most fulfilling life that you could possibly live. And that brings me to my first point, that God's desire for you is to live the fullest life possible. That God is for you. And if you don't hear anything else this morning, I want you to hear this. God is for you. God wants to bless you. Jesus introduces this whole sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings. And what he wants us to understand is God wants the best possible life for you. The most fulfilling life that you could possibly live God is for you. And we've kind of taken that thought up, actually, as our theme for this year, you see it all around our can here. There's banners that has four for this, for that four . And , and we've got people who we got the t-shirts, you know, it says four on it. We do that because we believe that God is for us. God is for you. And if we are followers of his, then we need to be for, and all too often, I think the , the , the, what we portray as Christ followers and the church portrays. So the world is what we're against. And Jesus said , no, God is for you. And I think there are far too many people. And I think there are far too many Christians, even who don't really believe that that, that are picture of God, is that grumpy old man on the corner. That's constantly yelling at the kids to keep off the grass and that all of his commands and , and all of his teachings and all of his, his principles and , and , and , and precepts, they are all there to keep us from having fun. Then God just doesn't want , if we're having too much fun, we're gonna make a rule against that. And that is not the nature of God . His nature is that he is for us, and he's not trying to squelch , uh , our fun. He's not trying to control our lives. He truly loves us. He loves you, and he wants the best for you. And he knows what is best for you. And so when you read his commands and when you, when you understand his principles and his precepts, they're all because he wants the best for you. Most of you know, many of you know , um, one of my great joys is sailing. I , I love sailing. There was something about, first of all, being out on the water, but sailing, just using the wind. And the only sound that you have is the sound of the wind and the waves. And it's just something so peaceful about it. I just, I just, even when we're like in competition racing, I'm still, and my happy place, you know, because there is something about it that just re-energizes me. But when you sail, you are also subject to certain conditions. There are weather conditions. There are wind conditions. You have to learn to read the wind on the water. You can actually begin to see where the wind is, where it's coming from, and when it's gonna reach you, there are tide conditions. There are all kinds of conditions. There's great freedom in sailing, but there's also conditions which, which you have to do it. And , and you , you also can get navigational charts that tell you what's going on, because it's nice to know what's going on under the water too, so that you don't run a ground or hit a rock or bust open the hall . What I would like for the next couple of weeks for you is as we go through each of these blessings, these be attitudes. If you will, is don't look at them as requirements. Don't because that's , I think too often, that's what we , we do. These are the things I need to do for God to bless me. No, God is already trying to bless you. This is how it looks. It's a description. These are not requirements for you to earn God's blessing. This is a description of the life that God designed for. You think of it as the navigational chart and the wind, the weather can conditions for your life of sailing. That it's good to know what the conditions are, and to be able to understand them. It's good to know what's going on beneath the water so you can navigate life the best you can. These be attitudes. If you will. These blessings are God's description of the fullest life possible for you. Please understand that. So we start saw saying, blessed are the poor and spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does it means ? What does that mean? Well, first of all , uh , this whole idea is to understand that , um, that the full life begins by acknowledging your spiritual poverty. Jesus says, there is this, there is this life for you, this fulfilling, gratifying, deep, profoundly, joyful life for you, but it starts, it starts with you acknowledging your own need. And those of you who are familiar, if you're familiar with 12 step program, what's the first step. The first step is I realize that I am powerless and my life has become unmanageable. That's spiritual poverty definition of poor and spirit. Those who have realized their own utter helplessness before God, that's what it is. And it's no accident that Jesus starts this series of blessings with this one, because it is the first step. It really is for all of us. Now, what that look like? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Well, fortunately Jesus described it by telling us a story, a parable it's recorded actually in Luke's gospel, but it's one of these stories that he told to help us understand what it looks like. And he did a comparison and contrast idea in this parable it's found in Luke chapter eight to, and put it up here for you. Two men went up to the temple to pray, won a Pharisee and the other, a tax collector. The Pharisees stood off by himself and prayed God. I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evil doers adulterers or even like this tax collector over here, I fast for twice a week and give a 10th of all I give, but the tax collector, so did a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you it was this man than the other that went home justified before God, that is a picture of spiritual poverty. See, none of us would be so blatant as that Pharisee, but the truth is every one of us have our own little list of , by which we compare ourselves with each other. We all have this in incredible ability to see ourselves in a better light than we see anybody else. Then we all have this little bit of, and it might be different standards that any of us, but every one of us has its own little list by which we compare ourselves with each other. We all have that list. Well, maybe you don't, but the person sitting next to you, I guarantee you, he does. We've got this list. And, and, and , and it's really just a picture of the Phee. We have our own standards that we live up to, and the other standards that we judge other people by, and that list is this opposite of spiritual poverty. Jesus said there is a blessing. There is a fullness of life and a deep sense of joy that comes when we acknowledge that we are spiritually impoverished. There is , there is a blessing in that, and I'll give you a few of them. The first one is when I acknowledge my spiritual poverty, one of the things it does is it guards against the deception of comparison. God, I thank you that I am not like other people robbers, evil doers adulterers or even this tax collector. That, that compare thing , by the way, do you know which sins are the worst? Anybody know which sins are the worst? They're the sins. Other people commit <laugh> you know, which flaws and faults and failures are the worst. The ones other people commit. See this deception of, we start judging ourselves by the people around us. And here's the problem with it. Couple of the problems, you will always find people worse than you. And that leads to pride in judgementalism and a sense of superiority. And you will also find people who are better than you, and that will lead you to a sense of failure, despair, discouragement. It is a deception. And, and when you come to realize your own spiritual poverty, you've got no means by which to compare yourself with other people. You make yourself open and honest before, or God. Another blessing that comes from it is it frees me from performance, religion, cuz that's the other thing he says, I fast twice a week and I give a 10th of all that. I get, look at me, God, how faithful I am. Look at all the things that I do. I fast twice a week. There it is. I fast twice a week. I give a 10th of all, look at all the good things that I do. And that is performance, religion. And here's the thing is whatever your list of accomplishments are or whatever your acts or devotion or by the , by which you measure your own goodness or, or the intensity of your religious fervor, whatever your list might be, it will be good enough. It will never be good enough. And if you live that way, it will leave. You exhausted and defeated and even a little bitter because you start living with the sense of entitlement. Like God, you owe me. I mean, look at all that I do. I, I, a fast twice a week, I give a 10th of all. I have look it up . I'm such a good, you owe me something here. And then when life doesn't work out the way you think or the way it should be, or God doesn't answer the prayer that you prayed the way you wanted him to answer it, then it , then you become bitter at God. And that's no way to live. He says, that's not the fulfilling life that God has for you. But the biggest blessing that comes from acknowledging your spiritual poverty is that engages you in a life of mercy and grace. Because when you realize you have nothing to offer God, and you've got no way of earning his favor, but you realize it all comes to, to you through his grace, everything changes. And that's the last guy says he beat his breast and he said, God have mercy on, on me, a sinner. When I admit my own helplessness and I quit trying to perform before God. Now I'm ready for life in his kingdom, which is the third thing we're gonna unpack. And it's this out of your poverty flow. The riches of God's grace, Jesus said, it's theirs. Who's the kingdom of heaven. Those who are spiritually poor, theirs is the kingdom of heaven because to enter into God's kingdom, I need to surrender my own because we all have our own little kingdoms. We all have our own little ways in which we wanna manipulate and make things work out the way that we want them to, to be. We all want 'em to be around me. It needs to work out my , because that's what a kingdom is. A kingdom is where my will is done. And we start establishing these kingdoms low way, way early in our lifetimes. It starts when you're two years old and the , your favorite word is mine, me, mine, or no, <laugh> , I'm not gonna do it. This is my kingdom. And then that two year old becomes a six year old and he gets a little more sophisticated. He says things like, well, you're not the boss of me. And then the six year old becomes a 12 year old . And then it becomes a little more subtle. Cause now they don't have to say anything. They just do the eye roll . My , my daughter was pre team . Seriously. If we were having one of these serious conversations and I was telling her, you know what ? She was misbehaving or something like that and giving her some instruction, she would, she would walk away. And I knew, I knew as she turned around, she was rolling her eyes at me. And I would say, don't you roll your eyes at me when you walk away. <laugh> it's our own little kingdom. Then that 12 year old becomes a 16 year old and the kingdom gets a lot bigger. It just keeps expanding. And then that 16 year old with a license. Now it becomes an adult and now they've got their own little kingdoms. This is my lane. Don't cut me a off. Don't try to horn in on it. This is my , and , and , and it goes on and on and on. And, and each of our little kingdoms start doing war with all the little kingdoms around us. And if we haven't seen that in the last two years, <laugh> let me ask you, how is the kingdoms of this earth doing right now? Not so good. It's time to surrender our kingdoms, acknowledge our poverty, and then we're ready for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God has a completely different character. The kingdom of heaven is a quality and characteristics of grace. John wrote about this in his gospel. He said out of his fullness, we have all received grace and place of grace already given our poverty out of his fullness. We've received grace in place of grace already. Given God's kingdom is a place of grace. In fact, the kingdom of heaven. This is my definition for you. This one, wherever God's will, is effectively carried out. And if I could add something with that, it's effectively carried out with grace. Our , the kingdom of God is not just for us to possess cuz see, this is what I thought when I was growing up and learning these be attitudes in Sunday school and memorizing them all. What I had in my picture was, you know, bless it are the porn spirit for theirs, that the kingdom of heaven, if I give up and , and I, and I receive Jesus forgiveness and I admit my sins and someday I'm gonna be able to go to heaven and that's the kingdom of heaven. But if you read through, we've seen it in Matthew's gospel and all of the gospels, Jesus kept saying things like the kingdom of heaven is upon you. The kingdom of heaven is among you. Jesus came to make his kingdom come to this earth. We just celebrated in a Christmas. The God became human in Jesus Christ. And he came to show us what the kingdom of heaven looked like. And then in a couple of months we're gonna be celebrating Easter, which is the celebr of Jesus, giving himself on the cross to give us that entry into heaven so that we could live in that resurrected new life. See that's the kingdom of heaven. It's not just for us to possess someday when we die. It is for here and now to live in and not just for us to possess, but for us to promote. And Jesus taught us to pray that way. He taught us to pray your kingdom, come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, my spiritual poverty gets me to the point where I realize I can't pay my way in and I can't earn my way in. I am completely dependent on God's grace because I have nothing to offer in return, but he gives it freely, not just for me to now enjoy for myself, but for me to bring to the neighborhood and the job site and wherever it is, I am every single day your kingdom come, your will be done on earth in me. So it's our job to bring a little bit of that kingdom to this earth, to my family, to my spouse, in my neighborhood, at the office, on the job site, in the classroom, wherever I live, I'm a little outpost of the kingdom of heaven. And it's my job to bring that kingdom to bear on those around me. Not by force, not by intimidation, not by coercion, but by living it. What does that look like? Looks like things like forgiveness and reconciliation, generosity, patience, serving, caring, compassion that's God's kingdom. And when I act in that way and I react in that way and in my relationship and in my encounters, I bring that kind of a life to somebody else. I am bringing a little bit of that kingdom here to bear on this earth. That's the kingdom of heaven. Come to earth. Jesus put it this way. Oh wait. He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. He has given us the keys and the keys are all of those things. Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. Self-control. Those are keys to the kingdom. Those are the keys to this fulfilling joyful life that we are to bring to the people around us. Again, Jesus put it this way. Very simply freely. You've received now freely give. So here's what I wanna ask you this morning. As we close you believe that could happen. Is that really possible? Could the kingdom of heaven start to invade this earth through me through you? Imagine what it would be like if we did imagine what it would be like if we did. So here's my paraphrase of this, the attitude. This is the KJV the Ken Jensen version. There is profound joy and fulfillment for those who have realized

Speaker 2 30:25

Their own utter helplessness before God for by his grace, they have entered into the life he designed for them. Did you bow your heads for a moment? Would you, if you make no other, no other resolute , would you this year decide in your actions and reactions and attitudes to be a kingdom bringer, and maybe you're here today and you are well aware of your own spiritual poverty. And you come to the end of 2021 moving into 1 8 22 and you realize I'm not measuring up. And I can't, I can't change myself. This is where I'm at. Good news is you are ready for the kingdom of heaven. And all you gotta do is remember that and it admit that. And then just say, God, would you change me and put my trust in you. Now , maybe you're here today. And you think, you know what? I gotta pretty much all together. You're not as blatant as the Pharisee, but you're kind of thinking to yourself, I'm better than most people. You don't realize how truly impoverished you are spiritually today. If you would just come to the realization, no matter how good you look on the outside, you know who you really are on the inside and you know, those attitudes and you know, those faults and those thoughts and all that and stuff. If you would just admit that to yourself before God, you are ready for his kingdom and then take the riches of his kingdom and bring it to others. So today we're gonna do just a little prayer of surrender wherever you're at. If you would just make this, your prayer Lord, you know me better than I know myself, you know, my flaws, my faults, my mistakes, failures, my sin, and I can't change myself. I've made enough new year's resolutions to prove that I, I just, that doesn't make it. I'm spiritually poor and I need your grace. So when you take my life here at the beginning of this new year and in the days and the we weeks and the months and the years ahead , just show me how to live in that blessed life. That fulfilling joyful life, Jesus name. Amen.