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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 4. 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 kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted this is the word of god morning church welcome back to fbc ministry of the word we're going through the gospel of matthew today's topic is the norms of the kingdom
00:00:56 dealing with the first two beatitudes the poor in spirit and those who mourn matthew chapter 5 verses 1 to 4. let's start with the word of prayer lord we ask that this morning that you open up your words to us that we may understand what the first of these two beatitudes mean as they enrich our lives so we ask for jesus sake amen the context of jesus ministry in this very famous sermon on the mount we need to go back and we have to go back as far as matthew chapter 4 versus what 15-16 in the land of zebulun and
00:01:32 the land of naphtali the way of the sea beyond the jordan galilee of the gentiles the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region a shadow of death on them a light has dawned so the context of the land of israel is there is a change the people who are dwelling in darkness have now seen a great light and those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death on them have a light has dawned it this the context of some of the mount has come at a time where there's a
00:02:12 change from darkness into like some things happen across the land not very much different if you look at the presidential inauguration a couple of weeks ago where a new administration has taken place and like to look at this beautiful poem by a youngest poet there called amanda gorman she wrote a poem called the hill we climb and this poem actually reflects the sentiments of even the time of the sermon amount when the day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid a new dawn blooms as we
00:02:47 free it for there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it if only we are brave enough to see so there's a passing from darkness into light and that light is the light of jesus and so therefore the message which jesus brings because darkness is going away the light is coming a new administration is coming a new kingdom is coming from that time jesus began to preach saying repent for the kingdom of god is at hand the greek word is metanoia basically is a change in mindset a mindset that is appropriate for darkness
00:03:20 changing to a mindset that is appropriate for light and so therefore we come into this several mountains that talks about all the blessedness all right so jesus vision is now the vision of the kingdom of light vision for the kingdom of living and we need to understand how important this particular passage is this is a similar setting to moses seeing the crowd he went up on the mountain and he sat down on he sat down his disciples came to a similar setting as a mountain just like moses and the setting is just like moses moses
00:03:53 brings in the law of the old covenant jesus brings in the paradigm of the new covenant there a lot of similarities between moses and jesus both had dreams connected to their bus both experienced slaughter babies associated with their birth both had a narrow escape from a despot to return later moses spent 40 years in the desert jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness both had miracles associated with ministry and moses brought the people to the promised land jesus said that we would inherit the new heavens and the new earth so
00:04:29 this is a dramatic new covenant initiation now the kingdom mindset all right and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven the word blessed is basically makarios in greek right now it's been variously translated by certain bibles the good news bible but carius is translated as happy smiley but i don't think it does much uh credit to the word happy comes from the root of an old english word called hap which means luck as if happiness depended on chance or
00:05:08 luck or been haphazard events remember pharrell williams song happy i'm so happy clap along if you feel like a room without a roof or that old toyota ad where you buy a new toyota over the feeling happiness depends on something you've bought or any event that's happened to us another way of translating this beyond happiness which i don't think it should be rightly translated as such is macarius is blessing which is the most common translation but the problem is that this is divine effectual speech
00:05:41 some good which god confers on a person it's like going to the temple this is a japanese temple in tokyo people go they come to the temple to get a blessing and look at the blessings you know education and learning past exams relationship good luck get a good girl right but everything costs money in in 500 yen 1 000 yen you need to give something or you get something and the problem with this translation of makkaris the blessing is that blessed are the poor in spirit this is something that must be taken a condition
00:06:13 that must be fulfilled and then the blessing comes for death is the kingdom of heaven this is the good that comes to a person blessed are those who mourn this is the action that must be taken in order for the condition to be fulfilled and this is the action to the good may come to that particular person this is a distortion that's why this is a prosperity gospel uh pastor called creflo dollar it says but the blessing is much more than that it's actually an empowerment to prosper and have success in every area of our lives
00:06:44 and how do we get this success how do we activate the blessing of life by speaking the word of god god's word is blessed and when we begin to understand the power of our words and align them with what the bible says we turn on the power of blessing it will begin working for us in us around us when we use our mouth to declare the word with boldness and in faith is this what the blessing is about it's some good to be activated by a particular condition people have taken these extremes here's a article recently where the
00:07:12 russian orthodox church has been blessing nuclear weapons in their particular country now the actual meaning for markarius what is it well bakaryos is a group word which describes the internal disposition of a person it describes someone with the ultimate state of inner joy that's not really dependent on circumstances it's a flourishing it is satisfaction of life beyond care and in god's eyes someone to be envied and emulated it's like jesus is pointing out to these disciples sitting on the sermon
00:07:46 mount on the mountain and saying these are the blessed and these are the ones that the ultimate state of inner joy these are the ones who are flourishing these are the ones that are going to have a satisfaction with life beyond care these are the blessed and it's actually counter-cultural because if you look at all the beatitudes it is completely different with the values of the world in the world we celebrate the rich jesus said you need to be poor in spirit in the world we celebrate rather to be
00:08:13 mourned in the world we perhaps want to be proud and aggressive rather we meek in the world we hunger for money but jesus tells the hunger for righteousness in the world we're vindictive but jesus tells us to be merciful in the world we're self-serving other in jesus tells us to be pure-hearted the world we are divisive jesus tells us to be peacemakers the world persecutes christians christians are persecuted so whatever jesus is doing here is actually counter-cultural but it's something that describes what
00:08:43 kingdom living truly is this is eugene peterson who wrote the translation a bible called message and he encapsulates it very well in these words scripture does not present us with a moral code and tell us live up to this nor does it set out a system of doctrine and say think like this and you will live well rather the biblical ways to tell a story and in the telling invite live into this this is what it looks like to be human in a god-made and god-ruled world this is what is involved with becoming and maturing as a human being
00:09:18 truly being in the image of god it's like mother reading to a child about superheroes how brave how full of integrity and when you read that fairy tale you're actually inviting the child to live into this it's like looking at the captain of marvels and all the the superheroes their wise invitation to the kind of life that will flourish on this earth this is what jesus is saying by makaria's blessed are they so beatitudes are actually a redefinition of who the people of god are right home today if you are the people of the god if you
00:09:54 are the people of the kingdom if you are living in the light this is what you must be blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now there's a parallel passage in luke chapter 6 verse 20 blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of god there's a discrepancy here on one hand luke talks about being poor materially poor matthew talks about being poor in spirit so actually what matthew is doing is giving a wider explanation of what being poor in spirit means she's basically
00:10:31 no merit or works that were actually ingratiated before god really totally dependent on him uh well luke is talking about being physically poor but there is probably an element of both in what this beatitude means d.a carson actually describes spiritual bankruptcy is emptying ourselves of self-righteousness moral self-esteem and personal vain glory the problem is is not spiritual bankruptcy the problem with us is that we don't recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt so i would be better to say blessed are
00:11:08 those who actually recognize that they're spiritually bankrupt because everybody whether you recognize or not are spiritually poor we're all bankrupt but it's the recognition that's important it's like being ill remember the diagnosis of schizophrenia people who are quite mad lost contact with reality what are the diagnostic criteria schizophrenia is that you've got lack of insight the moment the person understands it because schizophrenia means he doesn't have schizophrenia it is a lack of insight and spiritual
00:11:37 bankruptcy is actually like that people who are spiritually bankrupt have no insight to the fact that they're actually spiritually bankrupt here's a spiritual challenge to the church we're looking at the book of revelations our grammar studies and there's a letter to the leidestein church now this letter led this in church illustrates this perfectly because ladasia was a rich banking center in the middle of the trade routes at a famous medical center that has special eye ointment so the people who are blind
00:12:05 could have their site restored it was so rich that when they actually had an earthquake in the area they didn't need any funds from rome in order to rebuild and this only city with two amphithe to have an amphitheater a stadium would be a great luxury they had a roman theater and they actually had a greek theater and last year only as forty thousand people well ephesus with two hundred thousand people had only one theater this how rich they were and jesus jesus saying to them for you say i'm rich i've prospered i need nothing
00:12:39 not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked and so therefore people who are spiritually poor never recognized it that's why the uh in revelation the symbols used for the system of the world is actually babylon the great babylon or the prostitute that attracts people in but actually are full of abominations revelation chapter 18 verse 3 talks about the world drinking the people world drinking the world's cool aid for all the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality and the kings
00:13:18 of earth have committed immorality of her and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of a luxurious living luxurious living influence of the world makes us blind to our spiritual bankruptcy the thing that makes us blind or spiritual bankruptcy is is love there are three kinds of self-love one a natural self-love where we actually look after ourselves for example if i had a dog come and chase you you probably run away why because you're trying to preserve yourself you're sick you see a doctor why because
00:13:49 you're trying to preserve yourself it's a natural self-love but there are two other kinds of love one is a sinful kind of self-love and this sinful kind of self-love is described as when our thoughts or our affections and designs center only on our own fleshy interests and rifle or deprive god of his honor thus the natural self-love in itself good becomes criminal by the excess and when it would be superior and not subordinate to god so the sinful self-love tends to push ourselves up above everybody else in the world and above
00:14:29 rightful owner of honor who is actually god 1960s there was a book written uh by some authors called the lovables and this book started the uh the emphasis on self-esteem it was actually based on the teachings of john vasconcellos who is basically the california lawmaker he put forward the idea that of self-esteem being center to all the belladeptive behavior in the world he said if low self-esteem is tied to so many male attempted responses to so many forms of underachievement and bad behavior then surely raising
00:15:06 kids and others self-esteem could bring with it untold benefits so you've got drug addiction you've got truancy you've got gangsterism now if you actually raise the child's self-esteem then maybe all those things would disappear right if you can just improve self-esteem it will solve a lot of problems and so therefore we actually live in a climate we live in a society where it's very hard to admit your spiritual bankrupt it's very hard to say sorry it's very hard to say we're wrong because all the time we're trying to bolster our
00:15:42 self-esteem see our self-esteem is based on our wealth our success our ability and so therefore to preserve that we over plan we can't sleep because we're worried about our jobs we're angered at someone else because there's someone else when he actually insults us chips away at our self-worth and self-esteem we're anxious about our financial situation we we are anxious about tomorrow why because it all eats away on who we are we avoid certain people we're defensive when people criticize us or we
00:16:15 retaliate because we're actually protecting our self-esteem why does the lgbtq movements move so ferociously in society to gain their rights and part of the reason is to reduce the shame am i a bad person just because i'm gay and even my parents accept me do i disappoint them so they're trying to raise their level of self-esteem so much so that they're not looked upon in a bad way by society and this therefore reduces this idea of of billy being spiritually bankrupt guess which ex-president said this i
00:16:56 know more about isis than the generals do i know more about courts than any human being on earth nobody knows more about trade than me i know more about renewals than any human being on earth technology nobody knows more about technology than me now you could say all these sort of things and later on you can find after he's left the white house this is deborah bucks who's basically in charge of his covit 19 task force and she said i saw the president presenting graph that i never made someone inside was creating a parallel
00:17:25 set of data and graphics that were shown to the presidents so we choose the facts that will fit the narrative that we want that will bolster the lies that we tell why because we're trying to preserve our self-esteem in that climate when the whole society is moving in this particular direction it's very difficult for a believer to come to a situation in his life when he spiritually bankrupt but when reality hits you can see whatever you say the kovit 19 graphs goes higher and higher the spiritual reality of life hits us
00:18:01 just like the virus in this life we have a physical life but the trouble is the physical life is not all there is in life we often forget there is an eternal life for every single person in this world there is an afterlife and and and then we should actually be looking on all of life all of life is actually including our physical life now and our eternal life later on and the third dimension of self-love is a gracious self-love we should love ourselves so much so that we're actually preparing our eternal life and our physical life
00:18:39 preparing it for the best reality woe to you who are rich for today you have received your consolation if we only focus on our self-love here we're not really loving ourselves through all eternity into all of life now paul tripp a renowned pastor actually shared these words which was very insightful he said in my tears i had no idea how blessed i was i had no idea of the horrible deceitfulness of sin i know idea that the natural self-righteousness that is in my heart of every sinner i had no idea that most
00:19:16 people have no idea how dark their condition actually is he actually said the greatest gift in his life is awareness of sin to realize that spiritual bankrupt i no idea how skilled we sinners are at for at giving self-atoning arguments for what we have said and done in an attempt to remove any real guilt for sin remember the parable of the tax collector and the um pharisee luke 18 a tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breath saying god be merciful to me
00:19:53 a sinner i tell you this man went home went down to his house justified rather than the other here you actually have two people the pharisee who basically stands in front of god as it were rich in good works and then you've got the tax collector the tax collectors one says be merciful to be he's spiritually bankrupt he just says forgive me i am be merciful to me i am a sinner and and total counter revolutionary style jesus said this man the tax collector into the pharisee went home justified by god and there's a context
00:20:27 for this the context for the parable is verse nine he told this parable to some who trusted himself themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt and that is natural tendency when we trust ourselves that we are righteous we cannot see our blindness and that not only can we see the blindness we treat others with contempt those who are spiritually bankrupt have no insight into their lives we focus on false values matthew chapter 20 7 7 22 on that day many will say to me lord lord
00:21:02 did we not prophesy in your name and we cast demons out in your name and we do many mighty works in your name so therefore their self-esteem is actually filled with self-value as if they could come to god on that last day and ingratiate themselves to god and gain credit with god and say that the things that we did are the things that contribute to our spiritual richness and this is actually false value the solution to the ledesian church is the same solution to us for our spiritual bankruptcy jesus said i will counsel you to buy
00:21:40 gold from me refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and self to anoint your eyes so that you may see the solution is to ask jesus to open up our eyes to our spiritual nakedness is in the old testament you look at the story of abraham and sarah why did they wait 20 years before their son was actually born what about gideon and the 300 he had 30 000 israelite soldiers against a hundred thousand midianites
00:22:15 and god cut it down to 300 why because you cannot see we cannot see the glory of god unless you are spiritually poor unless they waited 20 years unless gideon had only 300 against a hundred thousand he would not be able to see the power and the glory of god and today god is telling us we need to recognize that we are spiritually poor apostle paul was a persecutor of church until one day on damascus road god confronted him a life transforming experience and he writes these words but whatever gain i counted as loss for the sake of
00:22:52 christ indeed i count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ jesus by love for his sake i suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that i may gain christ so he actually had an active process of looking to the past and he looked at all the things that he was proud of that were counted as advantages to him circumcision being part of the chosen race being the tribe of benjamin hebrew of hebrews a pharisee a persecutor a person who has kept the law
00:23:23 completely and he underwent metanoia a change in his mindset and then with his mindset of christ who came into his life suddenly he looks back to the past and all the things that he he thought were great that was part of his cd cv suddenly becomes very small and in fact he says the things i now i thought were great for my cv now are called xemia under greek which means harmful loss liability disadvantage he's got a completely different change in the mindset and repentance is like that brothers and sisters when we've repented
00:24:04 have we changed our mindset have we looked at the cv that we have in the past the things that we've valued that made us walk tall were those things looked at and when you look at it now do you see them in the same way or are they seen as liabilities disadvantages rather than advantages we used to think as urologists that if you took vitamin c sorry vitamin e that would actually decrease the rate of prostate cancer but years later on they did a study in the united states and they found out instead of reducing the rate of prostate
00:24:40 cancer it actually increased the rate of prostate cancer and then who takes vitamin e anymore nobody why because it's a disadvantage it's a liability you wouldn't want to take it anymore would you that's the same way at which we look at all our spiritual credentials or our righteousness what about fish oil good for your heart but bad for your prostate so therefore we don't take fish foil anymore because it actually increases the rate of prostate prostate cancer now that's why jesus said come to me matthew 11 all who
00:25:13 labor and are heavy laden i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i'm gentle and lowly in the heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is right light so therefore holding adding to our own self-esteem is the one that causes us a burden jesus needs us he's asking us to let it go stop striving for your own righteousness verse 9 of chapter 3 of philippians to be found in him not having a righteousness of my own because getting a righteousness
00:25:48 of your own is so burdensome we can't do it that comes from the law but we need to look at that it comes through faith in christ the righteousness from god that depends on faith so true pet repentance actually leads to true rest in christ and then we change our direction our mindset and we change the direction of our life verse 10 that i may know him so therefore we strive what is our ambition there may know him the power of his resurrection i may share in his suffering becoming like him in his death that by
00:26:21 any means possible i may attain the resurrection from the dead blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted what does that mean well mourning is a visceral reaction to spiritual poverty it's like looking at your bank account suddenly you open a bank account if it's zero you have a visceral response shock if it's two billion dollars you got a visceral response something else so it's actually if you really understood your spiritual poverty then you would actually have a reaction that would be
00:26:56 a sense of mourning morning is seeing the world the way god sees it psalm 51 for you will not delight in sacrifice or i would give it you would not be pleased with the burnt offering the sacrifice of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god which you will not despise god is not pleased or impressed with all the details of your cv he is impressed with a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart and so therefore we've got we're talking about emotions in luke 6 describes a situation where there are
00:27:37 beatitudes cast on one side and then there's woes cast on the other side and so if you look at it at 6 25 b says woe to you who laughed now for you shall mourn and weep blessed are those who weep now for you shall laugh so you actually should have a change in mindset you those of you who laugh now is simply because you're only looking at the physical side of life this is due to the sinful self-love you actually haven't taken the consideration all the rest because blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh and that's loving
00:28:14 your whole self eternal self life as well as physical life it's like the change in mindset is like looking at jeans i've got a couple of jeans which i'd be wearing in the 1970s you know what you used to wear bell bottoms love my belt buttons in 1960s and uh you know in 1970s when you walk around university your bell bottoms you walk proud everybody looking at you great try doing that today people will laugh at you you walk in university today you're gonna wear this one so therefore there are two emotions
00:28:48 today if you walk in university you wear a bell button you'll be ashamed if you wear this you'll be feeling proud each emotion accompanies a change in mindset isn't it right uh ezekiel chapter 9 verse 46 and the lord said to him a vision given to the prophet ezekiel and the lord said to him this is the executioner passed through the city through jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it so therefore the people of god in the city of
00:29:25 jerusalem passed through it and put a mark but the mark of god is only put on those who actually see the sinfulness to corruption and degradation of society and actually viscerally feel about it right and when they do that and the other said and to the others he said in his hearing pass through the city after him and strike your eyes shall not spare you shall show no pity kill old men outright young men made his little children and remember do not touch anyone on whom is this mark so the people of god are
00:30:00 marked out the people of god are the ones who actually sigh and groan have a visceral reaction to all the sin that's committed in the city see emotions arise from a mind change emotions arise from taking off the word and putting it into our dna some 119 136 my eyes shed streams of tears because the people did not keep your law not only i shared tears because of my own sin i also shed tears because your people did not keep your laws mourning is important because it produces the emotional capacity for
00:30:35 transformation for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret worldly grief produces death there are three kinds of grief one a natural grief which you get when you lose a lose a loved one you go to a funeral you see that kind of natural grief they're wailing jesus had that who cried over people who actually died then you've got the sinful grief and the godly grief all right and the sinful grief comes from self-pity because every sin has a passing joy with it and sometimes people grieve because they
00:31:15 miss the passing joy that comes with this particular sin revelations 18 9 rep says and the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality live in luxury with her which is babylon which system the world will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning the merchants will reap the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore they're not weeping out of pure love they're actually weeping for themselves because every sin has its passing joy with it and actually
00:31:48 weeping from self-pity so that two kinds of grief the grief that will cause self-presumption or the grief that will cause repentance and the grief that will transform us is the grief that causes us to change our attitude change our emotions and modulate our behavior the other worldly grief will bring death because there's no change in our behavior we're still insensitive to our sin and this whatever change is actually only transient it's a testimony from jesse golem a former youth pastor who actually was quite
00:32:26 active in the church until something happened to her life and she actually turned from christ and you know what she said she said our eternal life is wholly dependent on us loving god there's no choice how can that be true love love god or go to hell how cruel is that i no longer want to feel that i'm incapable or inherently flawed or unable to do things without god it feels more empowering great and wonderful to believe in myself and i know i can do things because i can and that i'm not a product of sin
00:33:00 but a human being with wishes and hopes and dreams i have infinite possibilities and not because a god allows it to be so and here you actually have she feeling as if god is putting a gun to her head love god or go to hell how cruel is that that's what she said and the true reality is that spiritual poverty to her was actually illusion or something she had to believe in order to be saved and a lot of people like that even in our church today we've got kind of emaciated faith how do you know you've
00:33:34 got an emaciated faith well the faith has got no mourning why because the faith is actually merely intellectual ascent oh yeah i'm a sinner yeah jesus died on a cross but there's very little emotion associated with that it's a faith that is based on a sinner's prayer a repentance that's just based on admitting your sinner saying the word magical words of the sinner's prayer and then voila you're actually a christian and so therefore that kind of faith is an emaciated kind of faith that actually has no roots in spiritual
00:34:08 reality because person's not saved this is true repentance isaiah 55 verses 6 to 7 says seek the lord see there's a truth repentance is a seeking kind of faith the lord while he may be found call on him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the righteous unrighteous men his thoughts let him return to the lord that he may have compassion him and to our god for he will abundantly pardon true repentance is a total change in mindset and direction where you actually continually seek god
00:34:41 forsake your ways change your thoughts and return to god that is the essence of a true faith so blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted so when you actually get down on your knees and feel the terrifying effects of sin we mourn but that morning does not bring you to an end of your life in despair remember judas judas had regret but it was a not a godly grief it was an ungodly grief that it brought him so much so that his true studies a piece of silver and he actually hung himself true mourning does not bring you
00:35:20 to the end your life actually brings you to hope in christ see mourning is like a coin with two sides on one side is grief but the grief propels you to the other side the other side is hope if you have an ungodly grief it will hit us at one side the grief will be the end of yourself so true grief is actually important because it powers you it moves you towards hope and the hope is always in christ that's why paul says when we are afflicted in every way we're not crushed perplexed but not driven to despair
00:35:57 persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always carrying in the body the death of christ so the life of christ may be manifest in our body so therefore there's a mourning that that we feel that drives us towards the hope and the hope is the one that is manifested in our bodies because of what christ has done and so therefore because he now has a metanoia or basically a change in mindset the direction his life is different the morning causes him to turn to christ and that the only hope
00:36:30 in life is actually to know him to share his sufferings to be like him that by any means possible i may attain the resurrection of the dead there's a total mind shift so these are the things that we're looking for compassion meekness hunger mercifulness purity peacemakers and being persecuted if there is a genuine conversion if there is a genuine faith if there's genuine repentance these are the values that will shine out from our lives and if they don't shine out from lies we need to question whether we have an
00:37:04 emaciated faith that is not real like the youth pastor who actually left her faith christ should so fill us that at the bottom of our hearts the reason we have a bounce in our steps the reason why we have love and joy and peace and confidence hope and courage is because of what christ has done because mourning has driven us there it allows us to be real servants why because we can't afford to be real servants because we are rich we have been driven to the richest that is in christ and when good things happen to us we
00:37:37 don't boast of these things because of what we've done we we value them because their result of what god has given us when bad things happen to us failure does not define us because it's a manner which god is using to refine us from day to day so brothers and sisters in christ today blessed are those who are poor in spirit are you poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn yours you know if you are in poor spirit you are already in the kingdom of god if you are mourning you will be comforted let mourning drive you towards
00:38:21 you if you feel that the lord has spoken through you in matthew in a certain amount these two beatities you feel that you are actually in a situation where spiritually bankrupt you you you have no other way then there's a qr code voice look at if you decided to follow jesus or you'd like to speak to someone about jesus or you have a prayer request to run join alpha or live group scan this qr code and respond let not the words this of mourning just be words they must represent a turning point in
00:38:56 our lives where we see the beauty of christ and we decide to turn let's pray father lord we just thank you for your word this morning and we ask as we meditate as we go home as we sit in our homes today father we repent of all the things that we think in part of our cv that made us acceptable to you because nothing makes us acceptable to you except the death and sacrifice of our lord jesus christ grant us the humility to understand that we are spiritually poor grant us the emotional latitude to
00:39:37 actually mourn our sin and let that drive us to regard you as more precious as more beautiful each day we ask this for jesus sake amen
