Beatitudes Part 1

Good morning, everyone. God bless you. You know, every once in a while we need to have a sermon just to get back to the basics.

That's been my heart as I prepared this message. I remember hearing a story once about Starbucks, you know, we think of Starbucks as being a pretty successful chain, but there was a time in which it wasn't doing so well, and it began to not prosper. It began to notice its sales were going down, and I don't remember all the details, but I just remember reading that they shut every chain across the U.S., and they flew out these baristas to teach all their people, and they said, we have to get back to the basics.

Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics of Christianity. You know, we can talk about a lot of interesting things, but this morning I want to consider what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I want to consider what would Jesus have us to know and to do.

I want to stop and think about the importance of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. I want you to think about who Jesus was. Jesus was the Son of God. He came from heaven, not just to die for our sins, which we're all here grateful for, but he also came to teach us, to teach us a new and a living way, as we consider the Old Testament and how everything it had in the past pointed to Jesus.

The saints were waiting for Jesus when Jesus came on the scene, those old prophets and saints that were in the temple. Everything in the law and the prophets foreshadowed him. All of the commandments, the sacrifices, the festivals, the traditions, they all led to Christ.

In the New Testament it says they were a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. You know, the Old Testament is not just a collection of a bunch of disconnected stories. It's a unified witness that points to Christ.

As we think about the apostles that came after Jesus, you know, Peter and Paul and all of them, all their letters and their sermons they preached weren't just some new ideas. They were about Jesus. And even to this day, I'm standing here preaching about Jesus.

Christians for thousands of years, when they get up to preach, if they're a true Christian, preach about Jesus. He is the pinnacle, the foundation, and he is the axis which everything revolves around. He's not just a figure among many, but the center towards which everything moves.

In the scripture in the New Testament says, by all things through him they consist because of him. By him all things consist. His teachings are the most important teachings in the entire world.

You stop and think about that. His teachings are the most important teachings in the entire world. We sit here this morning because we claim, I hope each one claims, to be followers of him.

We confess that we've renounced ourselves and that we have made him the ruler of our lives. And we've heard his teachings many times. One of the sad things when we hear things over and over, you've probably heard that term, familiarity breeds contempt.

And sadly, familiarity in our circles can dull our reverence. We can read the Sermon on the Mount sometimes and just gloss over it. Think about what they were thinking on that day when he sat up there on the mountain and he preached these things.

I want to go through them, but as we go through them, I want you to think about what would it have been like to hear this for the first time. The opposite values of what you were expecting the Messiah to be. You were expecting the Messiah to come in and be a king.

He was going to overthrow Roman oppression. He was going to get rid of all those taxes. He was going to bring in prosperity.

And he starts preaching things that are exactly opposite. When we read these things and these sayings, they are the most important sayings on the earth. Jesus said himself, he that receives, not my words.

If we do not receive them and we do not take them into our hearts, Jesus said, has one that judges him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in that last day. Jesus himself said he wasn't even going to necessarily be the judge, but the words that he spoke, he put his words at such a high level.

His teachings will be our judge. He said this, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Now Jesus died himself and so he must have meant eternal death.

He must have meant he will never eternally die if you keep my words. Another passage in John 15, we hear so much about never being able to lose the love of Christ. But Jesus said, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Jesus placed extreme weight and value on his words because they were actually God's words. He said this, my teachings are not mine. In John seven, he said, but him who sent me, he said, for I have not spoken of my own authority, but the father who sent me, he has given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.

Jesus knew that he was speaking God's own words when he spoke that day on the mountain, not even his own. His sayings weren't some poetry or some proverb. They were a revelation to man, which God called God's people and showed God's people how to live.

They were words that gave definition, what it takes to be in his kingdom, in his community of believers and what it means to be his followers. I'm trying to, maybe like Glenn does sometimes, give a little preamble, right? Trying to get us a little more excited about Jesus' words, about the Sermon on the Mount, about how important they are. I think we've all, many of us in this room have been raised in Christian homes and have heard these things from little up.

And if we're honest, we hear these words and they're just words anymore. They're not the words of the son of God. I don't know if you knew this, but Matthew was the early church's favorite gospel.

It was placed at the beginning with purpose and reason in the New Testament. When they canonicalized, or however you say that word, the scriptures and decided which books and where and how they'd be laid out, they put Matthew first. Now, I don't know what it is and why it is.

Today, you go around and somebody wants to give out a book, one of the gospels, the first thing we go to is John for some reason. Why is that? I don't know. Something's changed.

Matthew was quoted more by the early church fathers than any other gospel. And then within Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is quoted more times than anything else in the book of Matthew. Early church manuals such as the Didache, baptismal instructions were all founded on the Sermon on the Mount, the concept of the things that Jesus taught.

The early church treated the Sermon on the Mount as normative behavior. What that means is how Christians should live. What you read in the Sermon on the Mount is what your life should look like and what you are working towards to be a Christian.

It was a manual for Christian living. For the first two to three centuries, they didn't teach like we hear modern theologians say that it's impossible to live. I remember I was at a camp one time and somebody who was a special speaker there, and he was from the Dallas Theological Seminary, he said something along the lines that the Sermon on the Mount is like a mirror.

We read through it, we realize how awful we are, and then it causes us to cry out for grace and to forgive us of our sins. But no power to live it, just left there, it causes us to see our sins and cry out for forgiveness. Is that why Jesus sat on that mountain and taught for three chapters? Is that why the early church found it their most favorite sermon to live by, just to show us how sinful we were? The early church actually required the Sermon on the Mount to be lived.

They baptized people who committed to obey it, they disciplined people who refused it, and they preached it as the rule of Christ's kingdom. So I'm beseeching you, I'm begging you this morning, do whatever you can in your heart to take these words seriously, to reverence them, to ponder what they mean. You know, when Jesus first said his first opening statement in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit, what do you think was going through their mind? Here are the Messiahs, here the Savior, the one that's gonna free us from all oppression, and then he says blessed are the of all things to start your sermon.

What would you have started your first sermon with? If you had the audience of thousands of people, and you had three chapters to preach a sermon, what would you have started with? And what did Jesus start with? So let's turn to Matthew chapter 5. Lord, we just ask you to open this to us, open our eyes that we may see. Lord, show us, as the scriptures say, that blessed is the man that meditates on your word. And Lord, we want to meditate on the things Jesus taught.

Lord, may your Holy Spirit open the eyes of our understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen. Matthew 5, and we'll just start at the beginning here.

And seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, the disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, let's stop there. So as we see this sermon begin to open up here, it starts off in verse 2 that he taught his disciples.

Now, many other places in the New Testament, it speaks in parables. Jesus speaks in parables. He speaks in mysteries.

But here we have Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the longest consecutive teachings and practical ways of living with authority. He says, you've heard it in the law, but I say, he preaches with authority, the most practical things, the most direct message cuts to the chase right here, starting off. He taught his disciples.

Now, the first thing we have to stop and think about this morning is, are you a disciple of Christ? Because if you're not a disciple of Christ, then this isn't for you. The Sermon on the Mount is for disciples. Notice it says, he taught his disciples.

He opened his mouth and taught them, saying. And so that begs the question, what does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? Before we can even start reading what are known as the Beatitudes, we have to ask the question, are we disciples of Christ? And what does it take to be a disciple? I have several scriptures here to meditate on this morning. The first one that Jesus said himself in Luke 9, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.

If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, the first thing you have to commit to in your life is denying yourself. The best way I could say it is you need to decide to denounce self-rule in your life. Jesus requires us to get off the throne, get off the throne in our hearts and put God in his rightful place.

That means we deny our desires that are contrary to Christ. And in the same way that Jesus denied Christ that day for himself, he stood there. They said, do you know him? And he said, I do not.

And denied him in the same way we are to deny ourself in the opposite manner. When our desires come up and say, do this thing and it's contrary to Christ, we are to deny ourselves. We cannot be a disciple of Christ if we cannot learn this simple yet profound truth to deny ourself.

And therefore we shouldn't even read on in the Sermon on the Mount. We shouldn't even try to practice these things until we come to a place that we are willing to deny ourself to be a disciple of Jesus. He goes on and says, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.

So not only is this idea of taking up your cross once, denying yourself once, but it's a daily continual effect. You can't just make one decision, but he that endures to the end shall be saved, Jesus said. The Roman word and concept of a cross was, I wrote down four things here.

First of all, public shame. To be put naked, pinned to a cross with nails was very shameful. All your rights are taken away.

That's the second thing, total loss of rights. The third thing is it's a painful suffering experience. And last, it means certain death.

And so when Jesus says, you must deny yourself and take up your cross, you have to be willing to have shame on the count of him. You have to be willing to lose your rights. You have to be willing to suffer and die for him.

And this, this commitment has to happen daily to continue to be his disciple. He says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross. And then he says, and follow me.

Now, I want you to imagine if we were going up to the hosens today, to the funeral, and I, somebody, you didn't have GPS, George, you didn't have GPS. And you said, I said, just follow me. And I leave, you know, maybe 10 minutes late.

And I take, you know, the worst possible route. You know, I take, you know, you know, in your mind, the best way to get there. And, and, and, but I told you, just follow me.

So now we're, we're going, and you're thinking, Jeremy, we're stopping at every stop, full stop, no rolling through the intersection. I'm putting proper blinkers on, and I'm turning very, very easy around the corners. You know, every, I'm driving the speed limit.

Now, you're behind me, and you're starting to think we're going to be late, right? And you're thinking, I know better. If I would just veer out and get away from this guy, I could get there on time. That's the idea, really.

To follow means you give up your rights. If you're going to follow me, you have to stay behind me no matter what I'm doing. And if I go the worst route, you have to trust that somehow I must know better.

If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, not only do you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, but you have to follow him, which means you give up control. You give up the right to navigate your own life. You surrender to what he thinks is best.

Those are three things he said. He went on to say in another passage, Luke, if any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brother, and sisters, yea, in his own life, he cannot be my disciple. So we're studying the Sermon on the Mount, and we want to know this is a teaching for his disciples.

You have to ask yourself this, have you truly come to the place where you hate father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters? He used a very strong word. He used the word hate in Greek. Why does he use the strong word? He wants to make a point.

His point is this, have you renounced all allegiance, not only to yourself, because the end of that verse says to also, but have you renounced allegiance to everyone else, and you're willing to follow? I heard a preacher put it like this one time. It's kind of like the stars in the sky. You go out at night, and they're so beautiful, and they're so bright, and they're twinkling, right? But when the sun comes out during the day, you cannot see the star.

Our love is for our parents. We're supposed to love our wife, and our father, and mother, and our children. But the love for Christ should be so great that when it is compared to the stars, you don't even see it.

It's so strong. Have we renounced all earthly allegiances, because we love Christ more than any of them? It's not an emotional hatred, but it's an absolute reordering of love and loyalty. Have we done that? The third thing here, Jesus said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

The question you have to ask yourself, are you abiding in his teachings? Are you abiding in his word? Are they things you meditate on? Are they things abiding as the idea of remaining, continuing? Abide in the vine is like a branch staying connected. Is his word, is his teachings flowing through you? Are you connected? Another passage, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The mark of a true disciple of Christ is that you love other disciples of Christ.

And last, he said this, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you prove to be my disciples. Your works, the things you do each day, should be proving you are a disciple of Christ. If you were put, I think Ben brought this up, if you were put and tried in a court for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence from the people you work around, from the people that, not from anybody here, it's easy to put on a great show on Sunday, but from your co-workers, from the people you run into at the store, wherever you run in, would there be enough evidence to prove you are a disciple of Christ? Would they, would it be able to be said that they could prove that you bear much fruit in your life? That's the mark of a true disciple.

So as we even begin into the Sermon on the Mount, we have to ask ourselves, are we disciples of Christ? Do we deny self and take ourselves off the throne? Do we take up the cross each day? Do we follow Christ instead of ourselves? Do we hate our father and renounce all earthly allegiances? Are we abiding in his teaching? Are we loving each other? And are we bearing much fruit? These are words from Jesus that say whether or not we're disciples. He said it himself. I didn't have to define him.

He defined it. Discipleship is not admiration. Oh, I just admire Jesus.

He's such a great guy. It's not a moral agreement with him. Yes, he's right in all the stuff.

It's not even spiritual improvement. Well, I want him to make my life more spiritually better. Discipleship is a complete transfer of ownership.

It means you have, you have signed the title over to your life to Jesus Christ. And if you haven't done that, then you're not truly a disciple of his. And therefore, really, the Sermon on the Mount is not for you yet.

It's great teachings, but it's for people who are truly followers of Jesus. So back to Matthew chapter five, we're going to start in verse three. Now, these are known as the Beatitudes.

Anybody know where we get the word Beatitude from? I didn't know until I studied it out, but anybody here know? When I first heard it, I thought maybe it's like B-attitudes, like these are the attitudes we're supposed to be. But that was way off. It actually comes from the Latin Vulgate.

The Latin Vulgate was a Bible used before the English translation. It was the translation everyone used. So it went from Greek, and then it went to the Latin Vulgate, and then later it went to English.

And so the Latin Vulgate, in Latin, it was Beatus, where it's like baptismo for baptism. In English, Beatus is Beatitudes. So we say Beatitudes because it was the actual word in Latin for blessed.

So when you hear, a real translation would be the blessed, right? The blessed ones, maybe you could say. This section is about the blessed ones. He says in his very first verse here, verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, I want you to think about, once again, like I said earlier, what would it have been like to hear this for the first time? And Luke, it actually says, blessed are the poor. Can you imagine the Messiah who is supposed to overturn all oppression of the Romans, who is supposed to bring in a kingdom, and all the ways these Pharisees and Sadducees and Israel thought of who Jesus should be. Can you imagine when they heard this opening to the sermon, what it would have thought, what they would have thought? Poor, poor.

Why? Now, you're all thinking from little children up and heard this, but I want you to put your yourselves into the feet of them, the shock. Then when they went home that night and thought about that, the only way we get the kingdom of heaven is to be poor, poor in spirit. Not many translations translate this word happy.

One does, but I think it was the Young's Literal, but most of them all translate it blessed. Now, happy is kind of a fleeting thing. If you've ever noticed, you can be happy one minute, and by the end of the day, you're sad, or the other way around.

It's based on our emotions, but blessed is not so much that. Blessed is a state of being. This word Jesus uses much deeper.

It was more of a concept. You might call it fulfilled. You might call it even an enviable state.

Maybe think of somebody you know that you think, man, I just, and I know this sounds bad, but I just envy their life. It seems like everything they do just works out well. I wish I could be like them, and we shouldn't do that.

We shouldn't envy, but that would be how the world would look at it. Somebody that it just seems like things are fortunate for them. They just seem to have fortune.

Might be a worldly way to say it. In fact, the Septuagint uses, the Septuagint, by the way, is a Greek version of the Old Testament. It uses this same word blessed in Psalm 11.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Another place it says, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Same word.

They would have had the idea, before they came in to hear the sermon from Jesus, they would have had the idea, more of the Old Testament idea. If we do the right things, God will prosper our lives. We'll have lots of sheep.

We'll have lots of cattle. We'll have wealth. We'll have abundance.

Things will go well. We'll have peace, and God promised those things. They would have had that mindset.

When we aren't doing well, all these things won't happen. When Jesus comes on and says, blessed are the poor, it's a little bit backwards to what they were expecting. Now, the lexicons say that it means supremely blessed, like a supreme deity blessing you.

The Bowers lexicon says, of humans' privileges, receipt of divine favor. In other words, a God is pouring out favor on this person's life, and everybody's trying to figure out, why does it work like that for him? I've heard people say, it never works out good for me. Works out always fine for him.

That's the idea. The Greeks at the time saw it as fortunate, somebody flourishing or favored, blessed by the gods. And so now, as we think about this, it's not just a feeling.

It's a complete fulfillment. It's being fulfilled. It's being in an enviable state.

And Jesus goes on to say, that blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, how does the world define being in an enviable state? Let's just stop and think about that for a minute. How does the world say, if you want to get to an enviable state where everybody looks at you and says, that's the guy, what should you do? Well, I would say they would say, first of all, wealth, right? Wealth and material success, financial abundance, property, investments.

Not that I know some of you youth like to invest, but not that I'm going to say it's wrong, but in the grand scope of where the blessing is, where is Jesus saying? What does the world say is the blessing? Where does Jesus say is the blessing? Visible success. And we do this so we don't have to depend on others, right? The world goes on and says, the way to get blessed is by power and status and influence. So not only is it wealth and material security, but power and influence.

I can have authority over others. We look at people that climb the ladder and they command authority over other people or social ranking, leadership, recognition. That's another worldly way to get blessed.

Enviable success. Another would be pleasure, right? Comfort, entertainment, ease, travel. Hey, that guy, I mean, my old boss, he just bought like a $3 million house in Hawaii and it was crazy.

The thing opens up, you look up the windows, there's the ocean down, there's a massive pool. I mean, that guy is the enviable success, right? He's done well. And the world would look at him and say, a $3 million house in Hawaii? This guy is blessed, they would say.

He has leisure, he has travel. I remember when I worked for him, you know, every couple of, every while he'd be off skiing and then he'd go to Hawaii again and then he, it was an amazing schedule. Okay, what else? Oh, independence and self-sufficiency.

I did it myself. We would say that guy, he's a go-getter, he gets things accomplished. Or finally approval.

And we can feel all of these things in our heart. We want to please people, we want to be famous, we want to be admired, we want to be liked. These are things for the blessed, right? From the world's point of view.

But Jesus doesn't say that. Those are all temporal things. You might feel a little happiness, a little blessing, but it's not what's going to last.

It's not what's going to be eternal. Jesus has upside down values. Somehow his values are not the same.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This word poor is the idea of a beggar. Not just, you know, there are two kinds of poor.

There are the poor that were like the working class poor. Okay, I can work, I can make ends meet, but I'm just really tight. I still, you know, need maybe some food stamps, but I'm able to get by.

This word in the Greek was the lowest. This was like the guy on the side of the street that broke his leg and you can't do anything to work and he's begging for mercy from you as you walk by. Would you please give me some money? I cannot work.

Not the guy that's on drugs, but the guy that's cannot work. He is desperate. This is the word Jesus used.

In fact, it has the word as cringing. What does that supposed to mean? Cringing. Poor or a beggar as cringing.

And that means like huddled down in the dirt kind of concept, crouched. So you can imagine this guy kind of maybe like the guy you think of outside of little Lazarus. Remember Lazarus in the parable and he's out there and the dogs are looking at Lazarus and he's out there and you can almost imagine huddled in a corner and people coming by.

That's the idea of Jesus used for poor. Cringing. A person who has had to lower himself in society to beg because he has no way to provide for himself.

It's awkward. It's embarrassing, right? Would you, if you had to do that, it would be socially anxious. There would be, there would be a terrible situation to be in, but this is what Jesus used.

He didn't use the word with the guy that lacks, but is able to cope. He used the word that illustrates total destitution, total need. And he said that that's how our spirit needs to be.

Not just poor in physical things, but poor in spirit, he said. Now, if you apply that same concept, if I'm bankrupt, if I can't do anything, if I have to rely on the needs of others, and it's now talking about my spirit, it's saying, it's an attitude towards God that without you, I could do nothing. I am spiritually bankrupt on you, God.

I am completely dependent. Now, how many, I just feel like raising hands, but I won't. How many really feel that this morning? And if I think we're all really honest, probably 98% of us don't feel that way this morning.

Maybe I'm just way too much of a pessimist, but I know my own heart that it's not easy to be in a place to be poor in spirit, to see our absolute dependent and need for God. If we're really honest, maybe we're the next Greek word up. Well, we're getting by, and we can kind of cope.

Maybe a couple food stamps here or there will help. Or maybe we're not even there. Maybe we're the middle-class Greek word, wherever that is, blue collar worker.

Do we really realize that our inner resources are empty and in need? Do we see that we need an external source, just like the guy on the side of the street? He needs mercy. He needs your help. Do we feel that way towards God? I believe that the only way, the only thing this possibly can mean, poor in spirit.

What does it mean, poor in spirit? I think it means humility, a humility towards God. And I find it interesting that the number one thing that opens in the sermon that Jesus chose to preach on is humility. I heard a preacher say once, and I've said it here before, the three keys to the Christian living is humility, humility, humility.

Right? And I think that's the key. Amen. And so, this is talking about someone that is truly humble.

That's someone that realizes their need for God, that they're bankrupt without Him. Are we spiritual beggars for God? He goes on and says in this verse, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And what is, we talked about that a little bit.

What is the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of heaven? If you trace the kingdom of heaven, all the different parables Jesus tells in Matthew versus all the parables He tells in Mark and Luke, they line right up. So we know that they're interchangeable. They're not some different thing.

The parables line up the same exact thing He's telling in Mark and Luke. It's God. And in Matthew is heaven.

Some people believe that Matthew was written in Aramaic. And so, and it maybe got crossed over in translation. Some people believe that the Jews didn't like hearing the word God.

And so, He used heaven instead to make it a little easier since Matthew is for the book of the Jews. Who knows? But at the end of the day, they line up. They seem to be the same thing.

So what is the kingdom of God? You know, is it something coming? Is it something afterlife? I think it's actually multiple things. I think it is after our life. And I think it is something that's happening right now.

As Roger said, a place, a community of people who have decided to make Jesus their King. But I also think it's talking about afterlife or eternal life too. And I'll give you the verse.

If you want to look it up later, look up Mark 9, 43 through 48. And in that passage, it's the passage where He says, if your hand offends you, cut it off, right? For it's better for you that you enter into life maimed than having two hands and going to hell. So He makes us parallel.

He says, life, hell. Then He says it again. He says, if thy foot offend thee, cut it off.

And He does the same thing. It's better to go into life with one foot than to hell. And then on the third time, He says, if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out.

And then He says this, it's better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into hell. So life and the kingdom of God are all synonymous. I believe Jesus Himself defined life, eternal life as to know God.

So it's not just after you die. When you become a member of Christ's community and you now know Him in an intimate way, you are experiencing eternal life. And so it's now and it's in the future.

So the very first thing we can learn from this passage, Matthew 5, 3, is that if you want to be and experience eternal life, if you want to know God, if you want to be part of His community, you have to first become poor in spirit. And if we're not there, then we really need to check whether we are in the faith. Are we truly followers of Jesus? Are we truly in the kingdom of God? If we're not, even walking in some form of being poor in spirit.

The world says, blessed are the go-getters. Blessed is the man that asserts himself. Blessed is the man that brags about himself.

Blessed is the man who is self-confident. And blessed is the man with high esteem. And Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

So the question that I would have then, the opposite for that would be, wretched are the rich in spirit. Which one are we this morning? Are we in the wretched category or are we in the blessed category? How do you become poor in spirit? That's a question I'd want to know. I don't think anybody here was born poor in spirit.

Or it's something you just naturally get. I'll just put it out to you. How do you think you become poor in spirit? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Anybody? Much time in secret.

Good. Someone else. Okay, so just acknowledging to God, being honest where you're at.

Good. Someone else. Seeing yourself as God sees you.

What I wrote down was a little opposite of that. Seeing God. How many times in the Old Testament when people saw God, did they then see themselves? Think about Job.

You know, he and his friends, he's like, oh yeah, I'm so righteous. I'll cling to my righteousness. And then God shows up and he's, he puts his hand over his mouth and he says, whoa, no, that's not it.

He says, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself. I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. You know, he's clinging to his righteousness when he's just talking to his friends.

But the second he sees God, he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. So I'd say a great way to see ourselves in light of God is to see God. Isaiah, when he was before God, when he saw God, I think something with touching his lips or I forget how it all went down, but he says, woe is me because I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips.

I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Daniel, when he saw a great vision, it says there remained no strength in him. And he says, for my comeliness was turned to me into corruption and I retained no strength.

He melted away, you might say, when he saw God. Peter, you remember that time Jesus met him out there and when he spoke to Peter, Peter fell on his knees and he said, depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. When we meet God, when we see God with our spiritual eyes, it causes us to become poor in spirit.

It says in second Corinthians, we all with open face beholding as a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. So as we see the glory of the Lord, we are changed from glory to glory by the spirit of God. We need to see God.

We need to cry out that God would show himself. Remember Moses, I think he said, that was his request to God, show me your face. The Hebrew says, looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.

As we see him, as we see who Jesus was, as we meditate, it will cause us to see God. And so I asked this question, if our mind is through the week, not on things above, if it's on things of this earth, if it's listening to things of this earth, if it's playing things in games and entertainment of the things of this earth, how will we ever see God? I think the only way we can change our desires is to change what we're looking at. You know, if you're not very hungry and you walk into a house and you smell the food cooking and you see the food cooking, pretty soon your hunger begins to start and the acids begin to boil, right? As we meditate on God, as we listen to things of God, as we set our mind on things above, we begin to see God.

Another way I think, I asked my wife last night, how do you become poor in spirit? She says, Oh God gives you a thousand times to try a day. All these little trials that come into your life are ways for you to become poor in spirit and to see God through them if you so choose. So there is a choice too in your life.

You can choose to humble yourself. You can choose not to humble yourself. The Bible talks about how tribulation creates patience and patience experience and the list goes on.

So we can look at those trials as ways to become poor in spirit and to see God. Jesus said this and I opened with this verse. Brother Caleb read it.

He said, Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly. So if you're here this morning and you're broken, if you're weak, if you're heavy laden, He has a promise.

He can help you with your poor in spirit. But you've got to get to a place where you are sick of yourself. You're sick of trying it so many times.

You're sick and trying it on your own and falling. You have no strength left. You're tired and sick and tired of your stubbornness and your own opinion in your own way and you're weary of yourself.

So that's my question. I'm going to close there. Are you weary of yourself? Are you weary of your own self-rule? You've got to get to that place.

Jesus says if you're weary and heavy laden, He will give you rest. But we have to get to a place of being poor in spirit. God bless you.