Are You Poor? (Hix)

Matthew 5:3-“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Attitude-There was a football team one time, that had a lot of good players, they had a lot of talent, they had a good coach, and they were expected to go all the way to the playoffs maybe even the super bowl, but as the season progressed you began to see the team fall apart, you had some who were getting more attention from the sports media, and they began to complain about the other players, then that turned into a friction at practice, and a friction in the game, and they kind of fell apart before the season was over, because they had a bad attitude.

That can happen in church, a lot of things that happen within a church, things that break a church apart, is when you get one or two people who have a bad attitude and they say things or do things to hurt people, then pretty soon you have empty church or a split church.

This is so important that Jesus starts out His message with dealing with this having the right attitude! Remember God hasn’t spoke to His people in 400 years and this is the subject He wants to start with!!

Being poor in spirit is recognizing that without Christ you can do nothing, you can give nothing, you are nothing!

Isaiah 64:6-But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

Romans 3:10-As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;

It is realizing that we are helpless, and dependent upon God, we are like Lazarus the beggar, who was laid at the rich man’s gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.

We can’t earn salvation, we don’t deserve salvation but God has proved this wonderful gift to us!!

Not just salvation are we depended upon God to proved but every breath we take, every step we make.

That is why Jesus taught us to pray…Give us this day our daily bread!

So that we would recognizes our dependence upon God!

Everybody is depended upon God, it is just the poor in spirit that recognize they are!!

There are a lot of people who are rich, they are rich financially, they got a lot of things, cars, boats, homes, vacation homes, Rv’s but they don’t understand how poor they may be spiritually!!

Some people come and they are poor physically, they need help physically, they need the church to pray for them, they need God to heal them.

Then there is the poor financially, they need the church to help them financially, they need a help up, I believe that is one of the responsibilities of the church is to render aid to people but the sad part is that a lot of people that you are trying to minister to, when you go to talk about their spiritual condition, they are not poor, or lest they don’t believe they are poor, now they will admit that they need to go church, or get right with God, but they are alright!

They have not come to realize their need for God, they know they need help ever once in awhile, but they don’t realize they need Him ever day!!

It is not just a one time deal, it is every time you open up God’s word and as you read it, knowing how bankrupt you were without Christ!

It is being able to say, “I can do nothing without Christ!” and in the same breath, you can say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the peacemakers, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

All these things that Jesus has said about being blessed is not in things we possess or even gifts someone has (We often times say, “God has blessed us with a new car, house, job,

Spouse” or “God has blessed them with a wonderful talent!”) and that is true but this list is more about what we can become, are what we are!!

Best Description Of The Kingdom Of Heaven:

Kingdom of Heaven-Grace now, and glory to follow!