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00:00 the sermon on the mount dealing with primarily the biatitudes then one or two more verses beyond that then for the
00:07 rest of the year we'll be doing the gospel according to David so um we're
00:12 going I'm going to be doing the first two of the beatatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit who mourn let's ask the
00:18 word the lord to uh just imprint this word in our hearts lord we ask that you be with us that this be your word not
00:26 mine that your holy spirit will move in our hearts and do his work to glorify
00:32 your name for you ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. So we're going to look at three points basically very simple one blessedness is
00:39 better than happiness. Blessing comes from spiritual poverty. Blessing comes from mourning. Three very simple but yet
00:46 very difficult uh issues to deal with. The sermon on mount is
00:51 one of the shortest sermons ever preached, but it is one of the most profound,
00:57 life-changing, society changing kind of um ethic that's ever been taught by anyone. Mahatma
01:05 Gandhi when he first uh read the New Testament said that this sermon ran straight to his heart and that's where
01:11 he learned this idea of passive resistance. Leo Toltoy, a famous Russian
01:17 author, used the sermon on mount as a political goal for the nation of Russia
01:23 that this uh nation should should basically aspire to this ethic in the sermon of mount and he was persecuted
01:30 for that. Others have thought that sermon of mount is basically the preconditions under which we must
01:36 achieve in order to enter the kingdom of god. But it's a little bit uh this is
01:42 not really possible because when Jesus was speaking in Matthew chapter 5, he was speaking to the disciples. He wasn't
01:48 speaking to the rest of the crowd. He was speaking to people who are already in the kingdom. Um others have thought
01:53 this is basically ideals that it's so high up, so lofty you will never get
01:58 there. It's the perfect disciple. Uh again, um Jesus wouldn't be telling folk
02:04 about stuff that you couldn't achieve in any rate. So what we believe the S mount
02:09 does is that it basically gives you kingdom goals. You've got a goalpost in front of you. You're watching football.
02:15 This is where you run. You may hit the goal, you may not. But the running, the moving towards that goal, it is possible
02:21 for all. We will be perfect one day when we are with God. But while we're on earth, this is the kingdom ethic. This
02:28 is the goals to which we must base our lives. Uh the structure is very simple. There's an ascription. Blessed are you.
02:36 Then there's a description the character and then there is a reason. The first thing is my first point to you is
02:41 basically the blessedness is better than happiness. When we uh the the good news Bible translates this as happy are those
02:48 who know they are spiritually poor. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Happy
02:53 are those who mourn. God will comfort them. And for many many years people
02:58 have focused on the sermon on the mount as a way to be happy. The word happy is
03:04 a very funny word. It actually comes from the word lucky or fortunate. Every
03:10 Indo-Uropean language from the beginning of time until the Greek time always based the the this idea of happiness on
03:18 luck because in those days life isn't certain. You could be killed, you could
03:23 be raped, you could be taken off into captivity. So it's very dicey. You're
03:29 very seldom happy. All right? So therefore, happiness is a matter of luck. Even you got on to the 17th
03:35 century onwards. Uh this is a picture of called the allegorories of happiness.
03:41 And here you have happiness is in the middle surrounded by prudence and justice. And right at the bottom here
03:47 you have a wheel. This is called the wheel of fortune. If you are fortunate in life then you will be happy otherwise
03:54 you will not be happy. Then we came the French revolution. uh this is the French encyclopedia and this is the bible of
04:02 the European enlightenment and this encyclopedia brought forth the idea that you know we've come to a time in the
04:08 world where where everyone has a right to be happy and that's where Thomas Jefferson of the United States got this
04:15 idea in the constitution there that everyone has the right to pursue happiness not necessarily you get it you
04:22 get to pursue happiness um today science says uh with certain techniques we sort
04:28 expect happiness in life. If anything bursts our bubble that we need to get rid of that there are ways and
04:33 techniques of which we are to be happy. But the word here isn't exactly happy.
04:39 The word is macaras which is basically blessed. What does it mean to be blessed? Let's get back to the original
04:46 word how it was used. It was used to describe an island macarios which is
04:51 basically Cyprus a beautiful island which is all on its own self-contained
04:57 with abundance of food and fish. Everybody there was happy. There was no marauders from outside. There's nobody
05:04 to come and rob you. People loved each other. They were content within the shore. They had enough food. They have
05:10 enough shelter. They have enough beautiful weather in the Mediterranean. This is macar, the basis of blessedness.
05:16 basically it's it's being self-contained on yourself. But nowadays if you go to Cyprus today there'll be a lot of
05:22 bankruptcy and a lot of unhappiness going on because there even Cyprus is
05:28 not an island. Uh so therefore this idea of blessedness is actually being
05:34 approved by God. When you are blessed you actually have joy and happiness that
05:39 comes out of the approval of God. The two kinds of blessedness you want to be in the world. One, you are happy because
05:46 of man who approves of you. The other one is you're happy because God approves
05:51 of you. Jesus said um how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that
05:58 comes from only God. So Jesus is actually saying there are two kinds of blessedness. You you either seek the blessedness that comes from approval of
06:04 God or you seek the blessedness that comes from approval of man. For example, if you're a pop star, if you're an icon,
06:11 an American idol, yes, that's the glory of man. You either seek that or you seek the glory of God. And that's a little
06:17 bit different. So blessedness is approval of God where you actually live
06:22 for his smile. And living for his smile doesn't really uh depend on external
06:27 circumstances. However, the gospel has been somewhat twisted nowadays. We have pastors of megaurches. This is Creole
06:34 dollar. And he writes, "But the blessing is much more than that. It is actually
06:40 empowerment to prosper and have success in every area of life." See what he's doing? He's not saying that blessedness
06:47 is approval of God. He's saying it's actually empowerment to have success in
06:54 every area of our lives. He writes a book, Total Life Prosperity: 14 Practical Steps to Receiving God's Full
07:01 Blessing. You want God's Full Blessing? No longer poverty, sickness, addiction, fear have have caused to rule and reign
07:07 in our lives. You no longer have to allow the circumstances of marital discord, rebellious children, unemployment to dominate your household.
07:14 So therefore, he promised you that your happiness can now be rooted in external things. Um, and there are 14 steps for
07:22 you to do this. And one of them is, so how do we activate the blessing in our lives? Now you come to another church,
07:27 you will hear this sermon. I watch u, by seeking the word of God. God's word is
07:32 blessed when we begin to understand the power of our words. Align them to what the Bible says. We will turn on the
07:38 power of blessings. See, you can turn on blessing like a tap. You know, switch on or you switch off. And how do you do
07:45 that? Read very carefully. Uh it will begin working for us and around us when we use our mouth to declare the word
07:51 with boldness and faith. So therefore, just because you say I shall be rich, I shall be prosperous, I shall be famous,
07:57 then tomorrow you'll be famous. and and and you can use a Bible verse because if you use a Bible verse it's
08:03 more powerful right so this is what's happening the the word blessing has been
08:08 distorted and taken out of context now blessing comes from the most astounding
08:14 things is here we are God is saying something blessing comes from embracing
08:19 our spiritual poverty if you go in any suburb in this country and you see poor
08:25 people they're usually not happy and God is telling us that Actually, you can't get blessing until you actually plum the
08:32 depths of spiritual poverty. The church of Ladosia is a rich church. And this is
08:37 what Jesus said to the church of Ladosia. For I say to you, I'm rich. For you say, I am rich. I have prospered. I
08:44 need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and
08:49 naked. This is a rich church. And the problem being a rich church, not the fact that they're rich, you know. All
08:55 right? So, you don't have to look so nervously around this church. Especially a new extension. You look at the word
09:02 there. It says for you say I am rich. I have prospered. I need nothing. Which
09:08 means the fact that you are rich means you depend on your riches rather than depending on God. And so the the church
09:16 that's actually rich is rich in deeds that glorify and honor God and depend on
09:21 God's power in order to achieve those purposes. The word poor is actually
09:27 dirt poor. All right? Living hand to mouth. We are given the picture of poor
09:32 in spirit. Someone who's really destitute, who's basically so poor that is covering her eyes and just lifting
09:38 out the hands in order to reach out to God. Basically nothing to offer God. Uh
09:44 it is taken from Isaiah. If you go back to Isaiah, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me
09:51 to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives to the
09:57 opening of the prisons to those who are bound to proclaim the year of Lord's favor to on the day of vengeance of our
10:03 God to comfort all who mourn to grant to those who mourn in Zion. So God has anointed Jesus to preach the gospel to
10:10 the spiritually poor. This is Isaiah 66. But this is the one to whom I will look he who is humble and contrite or poor in
10:18 spirit and trembles at my word. This is the one that God looks to in the kingdom
10:23 of God. Then we have the parable where Jesus tells of this Pharisee who goes to
10:30 the temple and he prays and the back of him is what? Anybody recognize the guy in the back?
10:36 Tax collector. All right. And this is what the Pharisees says. He told this parable to
10:42 some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. The two men went up to the
10:48 temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisees standing by himself prayed, "Thus God I
10:54 thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a
11:02 week. I give tithes of all I get." So here the problem with the the the
11:07 Pharisee is that he's going to the temple. He's standing before God. And basically we look at this picture, he
11:13 he's standing. He's not even crawling. He's standing. He's lifting up his hands and he's saying, you know, I fast twice
11:20 a week. You only, you know, Pharisees usually fast once a week. He's allowed to do extra. He got extra credit. He
11:26 fast twice a week and he gives tithe on all his income. Everything that he has,
11:31 he gives tithe. And because of that and the other thing is that I am not like other men. So that what he does is that
11:37 he compares. He puts himself on one side and he compares to everybody else. So therefore, I can stand before you, God,
11:43 because compared to everybody else, I'm okay. And that is the biggest problem with us
11:50 today. We have a Pharisee problem. Whether you're a Christian or somebody out there, we tend to think all our
11:57 spiritual achievements are something of which we could compare with other people. You know, I come to church every
12:02 Sunday. They have a little hard come Christmas. Don't we compare? We we love to compare.
12:07 Um and then uh uh the whole thing is our self-esteem needs to be built up by the
12:13 things uh that our counselor tells us about the things that we can achieve if we fix we we try to to look at ourselves
12:19 and and fix our self-image. This is Homer Simpson. You know this episode where you know Homer Simpson has a big
12:25 problem. You know what he's got problem is like me no hair.
12:30 So he got a problem no hair. So no hair because he got no hair. He got loss of hair. you know some of us a loss of
12:36 color you a loss of self-esteem you don't look as handsome as you do anymore
12:41 and so therefore he always bemons that one day he discovered this wonder drug called minoxidil which is available in
12:47 the market if you want to ask me about it later and he takes minoxidil and then he he
12:53 gets uh a full head of hair look at that whoa and after he gets a whole head of
12:59 hair then then basically he he he's so confident he gets promoted in his uh uh
13:05 power plant. He got two assistants also. Okay. But again when he stops using minoxidil he he he loses his hair and
13:12 then he becomes ordinary Homer Simpson again. And the trouble is this is our self-esteem. We're based on what we can
13:19 do how we can look. Uh we give our own self our own rules. This guy is saying look I ti people tithe uh people give
13:27 arms you know uh uh twice I I pray twice a week. I I fast twice a week. Make our
13:32 own rules. um you know look in the society. This fellow tells us that all money in the Malaysia earned by Petrona
13:37 belong to Malays only. I mean makes his own rules you know and we got somebody
13:42 who doesn't even obey what the high court tells him to do. I mean we live in a country that everybody makes their own
13:48 rules and and this is not unusual because human nature is like this. I make my own rules. I'm a Christian. This
13:55 is what I'm going to do. I'm going to come Sunday and that's about it. all the rest maybe I give few dollars here few
14:00 dollars there and that's my own rules as far as God is concerned I've done my bit
14:06 I don't as long I didn't hear from him that's a problem spiritual pride when we
14:11 make our own rules and we have God on our own terms this is a rich young ruler
14:16 who came to Jesus remember uh in in in the gospels and he said what must I do to be saved and Jesus said you know
14:23 follow the commandments yeah I did all of them every single commandment 10 of them but I think he's telling us a lie
14:28 that he actually fulfilled then then Jesus said very clever okay then you you sell everything you have and follow me
14:34 and he walked away he couldn't do that because what he had done that he has set
14:40 the ten commandments couple other things as his terms he didn't want to give all of his life he set god on his terms and
14:48 that's spiritual pride then we look at the other person the tax collector standing far off wouldn't even lift up
14:55 his eyes to heaven he beat his chest be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house
15:01 justified rather than the other. For the one who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. If you're a tax collector, you
15:08 know, you basically cheat people. You take more than the tax for yourself.
15:14 Sounds very common. You know, in this country, we give different names. I won't say.
15:20 But this guy actually comes to the temple and he has nothing to offer God
15:26 because he knows he has cheated. He knows he has lied. He knows he has embezzled. He knows he's a scum of scum
15:33 and God accepts the scum of scum. So therefore when says when God says
15:38 blessed are the poor in spirit he's saying blessed are all of you who are
15:44 spiritually bankrupt. VA Carson says, "Emptying yourselves of our self-righteousness, moral self-esteem,
15:51 and personal vain glory, that means you're worth nothing. You actually declare yourself bankrupt. You have got absolutely nothing to offer God. If you
15:58 come to God with that kind of attitude, that's where you enter the kingdom of God." But these are Christians. These
16:05 are absolutely right. You're absolutely right. They're Christians. Even Christians need to come to God with no
16:13 pretensions that we have nothing to offer God that we are actually spiritually bankrupt. And we are. I mean
16:19 um this is Jim Fallon from University of California Irvine. And he was famous
16:25 because he has a test uh uh on on CT scan, PET scan uh that looks at the
16:32 brain flow on certain parts of the brain as well as genetic studies and he's able to predict and actually catch 30 out of
16:39 70 serial killers. He says look at serial killers their brain pattern their
16:45 blood pattern in the brain and serotonin levels are of a certain type and he's able to do that. So one day he ran this
16:51 scan on himself and you found that he on the the part of the brain is supposed to have a lot of
16:57 empathy you don't have. I mean he's a serial killer you know and he's looking my god the sin
17:04 is in me. I mean basically the point is that sin is so pervasive it doesn't matter who you are you are spiritually
17:12 morally bankrupt. If you look in the history of of biblical history, who does God choose? He chooses Sarah and
17:20 Abraham. This is the worst of the people you could choose. You know why? Because you cannot have babies. And if you can't
17:26 have babies in those days, you're worth nothing. God chooses worthless people.
17:31 God chooses the the the schemer Jacob rather than the strong man, Esau. God
17:36 chooses uh David rather than Saul who is like 7 foot five huge tall man handsome
17:43 and then David basically is a runt. God chooses Gideon and is amazing story.
17:48 Gideon came with an army of 130,000 Midionites were going to attack Israel.
17:54 Gideon came with an army of 30,000 and God said that's too many. He got rid of
17:60 most of them except 300. The reason why you do that is because God uses useless
18:05 people, spiritually bankrupt people. William Kerry is a great missionary who
18:11 was um uh uh served in Burma. This is on his tombstone. Born August 17, 1761,
18:18 died 9 uh June 1834, a poor, a wretched, helpless worm.
18:25 On thy kind arms I fall. So we as Christians number one we need to
18:31 consider ourselves like Carrie. Carrie is one of the he's called a father of modern missions and he is a worm. What
18:38 does the rest of us look like to this today's Christians? Are we going to walk around say oh my god I'm so
18:46 horrible. I'm I'm I'm spiritually bankrupt. I'm a worm. Um
18:51 he says he opens his mouth and taught them saying blessed is the poor are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom
18:57 of heaven. You're not a worm only. You're a worm that has received the kingdom of heaven. This is Paul. Okay,
19:05 let's take an example of Paul. Paul says, "I am circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe
19:13 of Benjamin." This is chosen race, Jew of Jew, Hebrews of Hebrews. Basically,
19:18 he's boasting of his pedigree. His self-esteem is based on his pedigree. He's actually a Pharisee. Very hard.
19:25 Only about 7,000 over Pharisees. Basically, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under
19:31 the law, blameless, popular guy because he's persecuting all the bad people, basically Christians.
19:37 This is Paul. And what happens here? If you look, but whatever gain I had, I
19:42 counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I counted everything as loss because of surpassing worth of knowing
19:48 Christ Jesus by Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain. So, embracing spiritual
19:56 poverty will allow us to take hold of what God has for us. Every bit of
20:01 achievement or spiritual pride in our life is actually useless. By letting that go, you're able to take hold of
20:10 what God has done for us. You see, it's like walking into a playroom and a bunch
20:17 of kids are playing Monopoly. Oh, they are very mature or they are billionaires. Then you walk in there,
20:23 you get a real $50 note. Guess what they will do? They throw away the play money and come to you. This is the real dice.
20:30 And God is saying if you keep on holding on to the monopoly money, you won't get the real money. The real money is
20:35 basically letting go of all your spiritual achievements as Paul did and
20:41 grabbing what the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Self-esteem is based on what Christ has done for us. Nothing of
20:49 our intrinsic worth because he died for us. That is what we base our self-esteem
20:55 on. So therefore, he allows us to glory in what he's done for us. We are his chosen people. You're a royal priesthood. You're part of his body.
21:00 We're children of God. We've got inheritance. We have got the love of God and good father felt pain on the cross
21:07 for us. These are the things that make us get up in the morning and fill our
21:13 hearts with pride. These are the things that should bring joy to us, not the
21:18 other things that actually uh um are so ephemereral. Now unless we embrace
21:24 spiritual poverty, we can never have God fill us with true values. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things
21:30 and count them as rubbish. So remember what has happened when you embrace Christ then you're able to look at all
21:36 the other things and count them as rubbish. If you don't embrace Christ, if I just tell you because you're a Christian, you must em you must count
21:42 all the stuff that you like as rubbish. You won't. You need to embrace something before you change your mind. Your child
21:48 is playing in a sandbox, okay? He's building sand castles. You bring him a
21:54 brand new house. Sand house. Not a sand house, a proper dollhouse, beautiful
21:60 with gold and all that. He'll drop that and he walk. You see, you won't drop something unless you go to something else. So we cannot actually count our
22:08 sins as rubbish and achievement rubbish unless we grab hold of something else and we grab hold of Christ. So for me to
22:14 live is Christ to die as gains. So we have a new this is Paul with a new ethic, a new goal in life. He delights
22:21 in Christ. He esteems what Christ esteems. And we are anxious. We are anxious because we fear losing the stuff
22:29 that actually doesn't matter anymore. So if we actually have Christ and Christ is eternal, do we actually have very much
22:35 anxiety? No. Because you can never lose Christ. If you ask the question, why are
22:41 you anxious? Why are you sad? Why are you depressed? A lot of times it's because you based your idols on the
22:47 things of the world that are actually rubbish, which you actually should consider rubbish compared to the
22:52 surpassing value of knowing Christ. It allows us to be servants because
22:58 Christ served. If we consider ourselves spiritually poor, nothing much to offer. If if the the Lord of heaven and earth
23:05 can serve, so we can serve as well. And what about our achievements? Well, we
23:11 can't use our achievements as a basis of of our salvation. If you can speak well,
23:17 you can preach well, you can teach Sunday school well, you help out uh in social uh work, it is an achievement
23:24 based on a consequence of our salvation. We value them, but we don't boast.
23:29 Whatever we have is because of what God has done for us. You know, fruit is valued. Um Jesus says in John 15, "By
23:38 this my father is glorified and you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples." So fruit is good. The fact
23:46 that you're serving, you're praying, you're growing in church, that's good.
23:51 But how do you do that? It's you're good because you abide in Christ. You
23:57 recognize the source of that spiritual achievement is actually in Christ.
24:02 Christ said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for
24:09 your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light." Here we have two cows or cows, ox, one big, one small. And you
24:17 know who's doing all the heavy lifting? The big one. And there's this picture of Christ and us. He's the big one. We're
24:22 the small one. He does all the heavy lifting. But yet, uh, we are so proud. You know why? We're part of a winning
24:29 team. Imagine you're playing for Brazil. Right. Every time they go, you know, our
24:36 friend, what's his name? Neymar. Oh, he's hitting all the ball goals and then you're standing there at the corner of the pitch there running slowly. You
24:42 know, you know, people running, you know, 50 miles per hour, you're doing 5 miles per hour. But but but but you have
24:49 the gold and the green uniform, right? So when Neymar hits a goal, who hits a
24:55 goal? You. Who when Neymar gets the Gold Cup? Who gets the Gold Cup? you
25:02 right? So basically what Paul what Christ is saying is that he does the heavy lifting. He kicks the goal. He
25:10 brings the team to victory you have to take his yoke which is very very light.
25:16 What about our failures? If if your focus is that you you got spiritual property whatever you fail in life it is
25:23 a way in which God humbles us and makes us teachable and God's grace is made
25:28 perfect in our weakness. So our failures no longer be just our failures. You know our failures are ways in which God makes
25:34 us teachable and God give us strength and God helps us grow. So our
25:39 achievements belong to God. Our failures also belong to God in either way. So
25:46 therefore not that I'm speaking of being in need or I have learned in whatever
25:51 situation I have to be content and know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any every circumstance. I have
25:57 learned the secret of placing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all
26:02 things through him who strengthens me. Uh and this is Paul. So therefore, he
26:07 has reached a level of contentment. So because no matter what, whether in achievement or in failure,
26:15 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. It's not him who works.
26:20 It's Christ who works within you. And if Christ works within you, you don't have to strive. You don't have to try so very
26:27 very hard in your own strength. You basically learn to respond to what God is doing in your life. He also enables
26:34 us to love others. Look at this uh verse here in Luke. He told this parable of
26:39 one to some who trusted in themselves. This is the the the Pharisee that they
26:46 were righteous and treated others with contempt. If you don't have spiritual
26:51 poverty, you think you are very clever. You're very spiritual. You know what you'll do? You start to treat other
26:56 people with contempt. And this happens a lot in church. They think you clean up real good, you come to church, you look
27:02 real holy, and you dress real good. And then everybody else who doesn't dress like you or maybe shorter skirt than
27:08 you, you treat with contempt because, oh, that one a horrible sinner. Uh, and
27:13 that's the problem. Because why? Because that skirt is shorter than my skirt.
27:18 That's not allow skirt. But that's the whole problem. If you start
27:24 to live life as a legalist having all these criteria to make you holy then you
27:29 start to say oh that one simply shouts that one has bad breath this one has this this I mean you want to look at sin
27:35 plenty come look around about 500 of you here plenty of sin to look so you spend the whole day oh that one no good you
27:41 know you know he's not very friendly fellow the other day he he walked past me I'm not going to listen to him when
27:47 he preach anymore yeah then then there's Malcolm at the back he's very quiet you You know, I
27:53 said hello and he ignored me just now. And then there's a bad day, you know,
27:58 uh, you know, someone may have a bad day and said a nasty word, right? Oh, because of the nasty word, that person
28:05 can is not a spiritual person. And we go around this whole church tearing each other apart because of small little
28:11 words. We say, but the whole issue is that everyone is spiritually bankrupt.
28:16 Everyone is a sinner. So, you're less sinner. How can and so therefore this is unless
28:24 we embrace spiritual poverty in our lives and understand that we are actually horrible sinners. We cannot be
28:29 blessed of God because we keep on treating other people with contempt. This is how we treat others. This is you
28:35 know this guy on the tree his name is Zakius. horrible tax credit. You know, God, you know, God is like a magnet. The
28:42 dirtiest person in town, he's drawn to him, right? And Jesus walks around. He a whole bunch of people he doesn't see. He
28:49 sees a short man up there and he's a tax collector. He doesn't judge him. He
28:54 embraces him. He goes to his house. He doesn't go to Moah's house. He goes to his house. He doesn't go to Rama's
29:00 house. He goes to his house because he's not a tax collector. He goes to his house and embraces him. And we because
29:08 when we learn to embrace spiritual poverty in our life, then we begin to treat other with less discontempt. We
29:14 begin to love a person not because of his achievements. Some people like, oh, you go up to Leanne. Oh, I like you so
29:21 much. You know why you sing so wonderfully? What if Leanne croakkes like a like a frog?
29:27 Would you still love her? See, we love people because what we can get out of them, their achievements or
29:33 their talents. We should love each other for each other, for what God how God values them. So embracing the
29:40 blessedness of embracing spiritual poverty is because it allows us to take hold and glory of what God has done for
29:46 us. Enables us to base our self-esteem on him. And so therefore, we will never
29:52 be shaken because our self-esteem is based on an unshakable rock. Enables to love for him, live for him. And for him
29:58 to love live and work in our lives enables us to be servants, enables us contentment in life and enables us to
30:05 love others by seeing his value in their lives. So next uh ethic is blessing
30:12 comes from mourning. Now this is a more difficult one. This is something that is
30:17 absent in the church largely. Blessed are those who mourn. This is a present
30:23 participle. It is a continuous action. There are eight or nine Greek words for mourn and
30:31 the worst of the word is chosen here and it is for mourning for someone who has
30:37 died. It is a word that they use for Jacob when he thought his son favorite son Jo Joseph had died. You are really
30:44 beside yourself uh and you need to mourn. Now what is mourning? Mourning
30:50 authenticates our spiritual bankruptcy. You can say after this ser okay Peter
30:55 it's all right. Okay I'm a sinner. Okay, no big deal. You walk out, hey, hello,
30:60 there's something wrong. Spiritual bankruptcy is basically in the mind. When you change your mind, your heart
31:06 will change. Blessed are those who mourn. Is a visceral reaction to the intellectual concept that you are
31:13 spiritually bankrupt. It is the visceral reaction. If you look
31:18 at here, the first thing happened, anybody, anybody frightened? Nobody frightened. If you actually watch
31:25 the movie in those days when they're young, you get very frightened. You know, some of you don't even dare go to the bathroom at night, right? Why?
31:32 Because you have a visceral reaction to this fellow called Freddy Krueger. The movie is constructed so well. Whenever
31:39 you see Freddy Krueger, there's something inside you snaps. Okay? It's a visceral reaction. uh um and and
31:47 basically uh we we see this you know often I I talk to patients you know and I tell them look you've got cancer okay
31:55 that's fine let's carry on what else you want to do hey hello you got cancer
32:01 I had to do that yesterday you know this guy I mean what stage is it four it's okay how many stages are there anyway
32:08 four
32:13 I And it's tough because because sometimes spiritual bankruptcy is here.
32:18 It doesn't come to here because there's no visceral reaction. And God knows that
32:24 we are thinking and feeling people. If you don't feel it here, that means it's not here. And so God says, "Hey, you
32:32 can't escape. You blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt, but those who also mourn." And the whole trouble is
32:39 you should mourn. You know what this is? Well, you know what the sin is? Sin is the devil's. I cannot say in the pulpit.
32:46 It's a four-letter word starting with S. So, you know what that is? I'm showing you a visceral reaction to that. I show
32:52 you this picture to give you a visceral reaction. That is what is in your life. Yours. Yes. Your life. My life. No
32:59 matter how welldressed you look today with a tie, you're actually full of this. It is a fact. better embrace this
33:08 idea and have a visceral reaction towards it. You know, Martin Luther says, "Mournfulness is a rare herb. It's
33:15 an endangered species, something that you don't come across often in the days that we live. Nobody mourns." When's the
33:21 last time you have anybody in this church you met mourning about their sin? We hardly do that. We live in a world
33:27 where there's sin, there's mourning, then we look at grace and forgiveness, and then we short circuit here and just focus on the grace and forgiveness, and
33:33 everything else gone. I was mourning for my sin when I became a Christian 17 years ago. After that, no more mourning
33:40 already because I'm now by grace and forgiveness. But that's not what Jesus
33:45 said. Jesus says you are to mourn. They're all present tense. You are to
33:51 continue to mourn for your sin unless your sin finish in your life. Is it? If you're perfect, no need to mourn. The
33:57 fact that you're sinning all the time, you need to mourn for that particular sin.
34:02 We live in a society that that basically doesn't do this. This is a interesting
34:07 book by Neil Postman called Amusing Ourselves to Death. It talks of the impact of television on on on society.
34:15 And in this book, he tells of a of a story of a of a train crash. And it's
34:21 this train crash where a mother lies strapped into her train seat and she's
34:28 dead. blood covering her and she's holding a baby and the baby has a box of
34:34 chocolates and they reached this tight compartment and they they reached down
34:40 to grab the baby as they were touching the baby the baby was laughing as mother
34:46 died you know the baby is laughing and then suddenly they they instead of
34:51 grabbing the baby they grabbed the box of chocolates and took it away then the baby starts crying and Neil Postman says
34:58 that's exactly tell you what's happening into our society. We have sinned and
35:03 destroyed our lives and our world and we're not sorry for it. We're
35:08 laughing like the baby. And when we take our chocolates away, which mean they take our health away, we take our our
35:14 bicycle away, our car away, our money away, then we start crying. We're crying for trivial things when the real things
35:19 of which we should be mourning as a person, as a people, as a society. We laugh. We hide. We avoid. We don't want
35:28 to mourn these things. We want to hide away. This is a a picture from a Sydney Morning Herald article last week where
35:36 uh parents noticed uh uh their child, six years old, her name was Lucius. They
35:43 live in the Blue Mountains. And what happened was Lucius woke up one night and and and was very distraught. And
35:50 they came into the room and he had a coloring book of different colors and Lucius had been taught by a uh church
35:58 member had gone to school and taught Lucius about the gospel about sin and he was crying said father
36:06 I have sinned and he turned to the the the first page which is black that's what the color of my heart is it's black
36:13 I lied to you two years ago when I said this this is a six-year-old girl boy remembering his sin you know I lied lied
36:20 to you. And then he turns another page that's red. That's the color of my heart when I lie. Then he turns the color page
36:27 again and this is green. This is when I'm acknowledging my sin. I turn the color and this is white is when I'm
36:33 actually asking God for forgiveness. And you know what? The two parents were so upset that they wanted to sue the church
36:40 the the the school because New South Wales has a chapy program which the Christians have put on board and the
36:47 government is trying to destroy. You see, we have a a generation that doesn't recognize evil, that doesn't recognize
36:54 mourning, that doesn't and this child has the correct reaction what they should have done and tell them about the forgiveness that come to Jesus Christ.
37:01 So you you many of us have sinned, but we don't cry about our sin. We're not ashamed of our sin, but no visceral
37:06 reaction to our sin. And this is a child actually who has one. What we do is we we change the channel. If life isn't
37:13 programmed the way we like, we change the channel. We don't want to look at it. and and and it's so many channels to
37:19 look at, isn't it? But you know what Jesus says? Jesus says, "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and you
37:26 shall weep." We are a society that has forgotten about God. And then the
37:32 enormity of sin in our lives. So therefore, we want to laugh. We don't want to cry. Mourning is the right
37:38 response to sin towards God. Here is David. He has sinned by having sex with Bath Sheba. And this is what he says.
37:44 For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of
37:50 God are broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, oh Lord, you will not describe. David recognizes when he sins.
37:58 He can't come up here on the stage and play his drums and jump. You know, many
38:04 of our songs that we sing all the time fall into this. We're always happy. But
38:09 do you know there's a time where we actually have to lament and cry over our sins because God says I will not delight
38:16 in sacrifice or the jumping up and down or I would give it burnt offerings. I
38:21 delight in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. And sometimes it's more appropriate for us even as a church to
38:28 come before God with a broken spirit and sing a hym or a song that reflects the
38:34 brokenness. It doesn't have to be upbeat all the time because the brokenness is part
38:40 is the correct response to God. We mourn. Why? Because we've sinned. Sin
38:45 has power over our lives. Sin has pain cause pain to our lives, the lives of
38:51 our spouse, our children, our community, our church. And it's pervasive. This is
38:56 everywhere. And that's what we need to mourn. Um,
39:03 we need to learn to mourn his sin but yet love the sinner. So often when
39:10 we see this picture in the newspaper, I must admit I feel like slapping someone
39:16 and that's the wrong response. Learn to love the sin. I mean Jesus came
39:21 tomorrow. Who do you think he'll visit? You think Rama's house? No, it'll be his house.
39:29 You know it's a fact because Jesus loves him. You learn to love this person and
39:36 hate the sin. Mourning produces the emotional capacity for transformation.
39:42 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret where worldly grief produces death. You
39:49 know many of my patients never change. You tell them, "Oh, you got kidney stone. You know, can you start drinking
39:55 a little bit more?" Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. walks out the door, nothing happens. You know who has the biggest effect on
40:00 people's lives? The cardiologist. After heart attack, everybody stops smoking one. You know why? You almost
40:08 met God, right? Because it produces a visceral reaction. You see, you see,
40:13 morning produces the emotional capacity for transformation. I never I almost
40:19 never drive at night at 4:00 anymore. nor do I drive in the afternoon at 4:00
40:24 because there are two instances in my life where at night at 4:00 I nearly ran
40:30 into a huge truck on the way to and I was at the side of the road my
40:35 hands were shaking and another time coming back from I I fell asleep in the
40:41 car and I wound at the side road I don't know where I was I basically fell asleep and when you
40:47 woke up you I still get nightmares to this day But you see the the mourning
40:54 produces an emotional response that allows spiritual transformation. If you
40:59 don't mourn if you don't feel you cannot change it be you know like
41:05 someone tells me oh the fellow says I s okay God forgive me let's move on there
41:11 must be within yourself a visceral response uh to to this. So, but then
41:17 some some verses say we are supposed to rejoice and then some verses say you have to mourn. How can you remour and
41:23 rejoice at the same time? You actually can. You look at Jesus Christ. Mourning enlarges our souls. He he he's in front
41:32 of the tomb of Lazarus, you know, and he knows Lazarus is dead, but he also knows
41:38 he's going to heal him, right? He knows he's going to heal him in five minutes. I'm going to heal him, right? But five
41:44 minutes earlier, you know what he does? He cries. Why would he do that? He cries. And five
41:52 minutes later, I mean, you and I going to heal the guy, be laughing all the way, right? Because we like to laugh.
41:58 But Jesus Christ cry. He weeps because he understands the condition of man, which is basically evil. And this evil
42:05 has brought about sin and the catastrophe that causes death. He weeps and then he heals. And so basically uh
42:12 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. This is a comforted which is not shall. It doesn't mean the
42:19 future tense in heaven. It means with regard to mourning. Every time you mourn you will be comforted by the blood of
42:27 Christ that saves you from your sin. So therefore you need to enlarge your soul
42:33 so that it has both mourning and sorrow as well as joy.
42:39 Many watch many of you watching World Cup right if you watch the World Cup match between Brazil and I forget this
42:46 fellow what was it Brazil and Costa Rica right horrible match fighting all the
42:52 way to the end goalless uh uh uh draw then they had penalty shootout is brutal
43:00 in the end Brazil won by 3-2 and the commentator in Australia said that's why
43:06 they call this a beautiful game it is most harsh and exhilarating. You got to
43:11 have the good and the bad. You got to have the pain and the glory. Without the glor pain, there's no glory one. And so
43:18 therefore, you enlarge your soul by learning to mourn for your sin. Then you appreciate the beauty and grace of his
43:25 sacrifice in our lives. So blessedness of mourning uh because it
43:30 authenticates our rejection of sin. It is a response to sin which god is seeking in us. It produces the emotional
43:37 capacity for transformation and enlarges our soul as we anticipates our the
43:42 comfort. So, uh can I have the musicians up here as we end?
44:05 Who am I? Okay, good.
44:17 Let's bow our heads.
44:26 Time of ministry before the Lord right now.
44:32 Lord, we are proud people
44:38 like society. We like to laugh. We like to sherk off our sin.
44:45 And yet the sin is so grave that has put you on the cross
44:51 and it paralyzes many of us even to this day. We look inside our lives, outside
44:57 our lives, it's full of sin. But by the grace of God, we are released
45:02 from the power of sin. And yet, oh Lord, this morning, you've asked that we we
45:08 are to acknowledge our sin every single day. We are to mourn our sin every
45:13 single day. And we are a church. We're a people who like to forget our sin. Father Lord, we confess that before you
45:21 that is what you want is from us this morning is a broken and contrite spirit.
45:27 the one that is serious with you, the one that will be acceptable by you.
45:34 We pray, oh Lord, that we are truly going to receive your blessing this morning.
45:39 And the only way we receive your blessing this morning is acknowledging that we are bankrupt. We are sinners
45:46 and we are sad and we grieve and we cry for our sin. I pray, oh Lord, that for
45:53 each of us tonight as we go back to our homes that we spend some time really
45:59 looking about the sin in our lives and having that visceral reaction to it and
46:05 yet at the same time feeling your sunshine, your rays or your smile of forgiveness on our hearts. Enlarge our
46:12 souls so that we can encapsulate both mourning and joy.
46:18 Transform us by your spirit. Who are we, oh Lord? We're no one. We're here today
46:24 and we're gone tomorrow. And yet you love us.
46:30 Help us, Lord, as we stand and sing this song that we live and glorify your name. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen.
46:38 Let's all stand. Let's ask ourselves,
46:44 who am I?
46:57 The door into the kingdom of Christ is low and you can't stand tall if you want
47:03 to enter. We must be humble in order to have God's approval because when there
47:10 is less of us, we can experience more of him. We will only be fulfilled when we own
47:19 our emptiness. We cannot be made worthy until we recognize our unworthiness.
47:26 Now for the benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and
47:33 be gracious unto you. The Lord lifts up his countenance upon you and gives you
47:39 peace this day and forever more. Amen. Please be seated. Having had your solemn
47:46 meditation and welcome to the globe carefully. There's anyone in need of prayers,
47:52 please come forward. Thank you.
48:31 Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.
