Blessed To Be Poor
Blessed To Be Poor
Sermon Summary:
In this powerful exploration of the Beatitudes, we’re invited to embrace a radical perspective on happiness and blessedness. Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5:3-5 challenge our worldly notions of success and fulfillment. We’re encouraged to find joy in spiritual poverty, mourning, and meekness – concepts that seem paradoxical at first glance. The message emphasizes that true flourishing comes not from self-reliance or worldly achievements, but from complete dependence on God’s grace. This shift in mindset allows us to offer grace to others, find comfort in our sorrows, and approach life with genuine humility. As we reflect on these teachings, we’re called to ‘go bankrupt’ spiritually, surrendering our plans and pride to align ourselves with God’s kingdom values.
Sermon Points:
Main Idea: It’s blessed to be poor in God’s kingdom.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
The poor in spirit are:
Those who recognize their dependence on God.
People of grace.
The consequences of not recognizing our spiritual poverty are:
We lose the ability to offer grace to others.
We lose the blessing of doing the Lord’s work.
“Blessed are those who mourn.”
Permission to mourn
Mourning as an act of faith
“Blessed are the meek.”
Bridling our aggressive tendencies
The connection between happiness and humility
Key Takeaways:
- The Beatitudes are paradoxes that reveal God’s upside-down kingdom
- Spiritual poverty means recognizing our total dependence on God’s grace
- Mourning is a healthy and faithful response to personal loss and world’s brokenness
- Meekness is not weakness, but controlled strength and humility
- True happiness and flourishing come from embracing these counter-cultural attitudes
- We cannot force God’s kingdom on others; we must embody Christ’s character
- Flourishing begins with surrendering to Jesus and seeking His will for our lives
Scripture References:
- Matthew 5:3-5 (The first three Beatitudes)
Stories:
- The pastor’s personal story of being humbled after thinking he was “God’s gift to the church”
- Reference to the Pixar movie “Inside Out” to illustrate the importance of embracing sadness
- Analogy of a meek horse in ancient races to explain the concept of meekness
- Story about the pastor’s father as an example of genuine humility and happiness
Transcript
Now we’re going through this series over the Beatitudes.
Blessed are these people and blessed are those people.
Last week, Dr. Wiles did, blessed are the pure in heart.
Today, we’re gonna focus on the three first ones in the list.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the meek.
I want y’all to notice something as we continue throughout this whole series, but certainly today, I want y’all to notice in the Beatitudes, the future sense of them
Part of the blessedness of some of these things, because they don’t seem blessed at first, part of the blessedness is that one day the Lord will fix the ailments of all of these people.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
There’s an eschatological sense in the Beatitudes, just as there is with much of the faith, certainly with the Lord’s Supper today, too. we also look forward to something being completed.
Matthew chapter 26, when Jesus is with his followers at the Last Supper, after they take it, he says this to them in Matthew 26, 29, he says,
I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
So the thing that we’re doing here today, it’s a symbol certainly of what Jesus has done for us, but I want you all to remember that it’s also a symbol of what Jesus will do for us one day.
One day we’re going to be in heaven. that new heaven and that new earth.
And we’re going to get to eat and drink around a table with Jesus himself.
And it’s not gonna be just the little pieces of bread that you get.
And it’s not gonna be the little plastic cups of juice.
It’s going to be a feast like you’ve never seen before.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to that day.
So would y’all pray with me?
Father, we do look forward to that day when we get to be with you again. and all of the saints in the new heaven and the new earth.
Father, as we take these communion elements today, we do remember your sacrifice.
We remember the cross.
We remember your blood that you poured out on that cross, your body that was broken so that we could have life today and life in eternity.
Thank you, God. for your marvelous love, for your deep sacrifice, for suffering on our behalf.
May this act today be a model to everyone around us.
May it inspire us as we go out from here to also embrace the cross in our daily lives so that others can see you clearly.
In your name that we pray, amen.
Amen. and talk with it again in the morning.
Thank you.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Here’s what else Matthew asked to say about that night.
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat, this is my body.
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,
Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Lord, thank you for all the many wonderful things you’ve given us.
Speak to us now, Lord, as we engage with your word.
It is your word.
More importantly than anything I have to say, we’re concerned about what you have to say through this sermon to us.
It’s your voice that we’re after.
So be with us, Lord.
May these words become the word in our life.
In your name that we pray, amen.
Thank you.
You know, I love a good oxymoron.
An oxymoron, if you don’t know, just in case if you don’t know, an oxymoron is a figure of speech in which you take these two contradictory words or ideas and you put them together in an unexpected way.
Here are a few of my favorite oxymorons.
Now, before I say them, I’m just going to be up front with you and admit these aren’t that funny.
I’m not going to get a big belly laugh out of you.
I would like a little laugh out of you, though.
However, a chortle, if that’s all you can manage, I’ll take a chortle today while I read some of these.
Here’s some of my favorite.
Number one, devout atheist.
I asked her if she was religious, and she said no, that she was a devout atheist.
Here’s another good one, jumbo shrimp.
Excuse me, sir, why are these shrimp so expensive?
Well, these aren’t regular shrimp, these are jumbo shrimp.
Pretty ugly.
Yesterday, I tried to groom my dog myself and now she’s pretty ugly.
That one’s actually a true story.
I did that this weekend.
I tried to cut my own dog’s hair and she looks awful right now.
I was gonna put a picture up for you to see, but my wife was too embarrassed to let me show you.
You know, some people read Jesus’ Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, and they think of them kind of as oxymorons.
I mean, we’re saying happy are those who are, and then look at the list of some of these things.
Happy are those who are poor.
Happy are those who are mourning.
But they’re not really happy.
They’re not really oxymorons.
There may be a touch of that in these Beatitudes, but really they’re more like paradoxes, a good paradox.
And a paradox, if you don’t know, is a statement that initially seems contradictory, but the more you read it and the more you look at it, the more you study it, the more it starts to make sense.
That’s certainly true. of Jesus’s beatitudes.
The more you read and engage with them, the more sense they start to make.
And I would even offer this one when it comes to Jesus’s beatitudes, the more you live into them. the more sense they start to make.
The more deeper you follow this Jesus way, the more sense it starts to make in your life.
The Beatitudes remind me of Anish Kapoor’s series of outdoor mirror sculptures titled, Turning the World Around. upside down.
We have pictures that are just going to kind of scroll behind me as I talk about these things.
Anish Kapoor is an artist who creates these enormous mirrors that create a topsy-turvy effect.
The sky suddenly resembles a patch of grass.
A group of people appear upside down.
Jesus’ Beatitudes do the same thing.
They take wisdom and the world’s wisdom, and it turns it on its head.
They take our notions of what it means to be blessed or happy, and they turn it upside down.
It’s almost as if Jesus just keeps saying, happy are the unhappy.
Take as an example the first three Beatitudes.
Would you stand this morning as we read from the Gospel?
Matthew chapter 5.
Verses 3 through 5.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Thank you.
Please be seated.
Now, I didn’t choose to speak on these three Beatitudes today.
I don’t know if y’all know how things work around First Baptist Church of Arlington.
Let me just tell you a little bit about how things work around First Baptist Church of Arlington.
Dr. Wiles told me what I would be preaching on today.
That’s how this rodeo goes.
Dr. Wiles said, these are the three Beatitudes you’re going to preach on.
And Dr. Wiles even titled the sermon, and he called this sermon, Flourishing in Poverty.
And so he said, Ryan, you’re going to preach on these three Beatitudes, and the theme is going to be Flourishing in Poverty.
And let me just tell you, that threw me for a loop.
Because I spent a good portion of my week trying to figure out how do these three Beatitudes connect?
And what do they have to tell us as a whole?
Like when you read them all together, not individually, but together, what do these three Beatitudes tell us?
And so here, after much reading and studying and praying and a little bit of crying, I think I figured out what Matthew means and what Dr. Wiles wanted us to hear today as a congregation together, these Beatitudes reveal that in God’s kingdom, those who are poor in spirit, those who are mourning the meek, are happy people because they’re not happy because of their condition.
They’re happy people, they’re blessed people because they have learned faith.
Dependence, full, utter, and total dependence on God.
That’s what connects all of these different Beatitudes.
In other words, they have learned, these three people, or sorts of people, that it’s blessed to be poor in God’s kingdom.
So today we’re just going to unpack that idea.
And we’re going to examine each of these paradoxes, these Beatitudes, just a little more closely, and discover the incredible truth that lies within each one of them.
It’s blessed… to be poor in God’s kingdom.
So first, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now when Matthew refers to the poor in spirit, he isn’t specifically talking about those who are financially or physically poor.
He doesn’t disclude them per se.
But it’s not as obvious as it is in Luke’s gospel.
Instead, Matthew is addressing those who are spiritually poor.
Spiritual poverty is what Matthew is driving at.
The poor in spirit recognize that their lives depend entirely on God’s grace.
They understand that no one is good.
Not a single person in the world.
No one’s good.
I’m not good.
You’re not good.
Only God is good.
And therefore, only God can save us.
We can’t save ourselves.
The poor in spirit, simply put, are people of grace.
They understand who they are in God’s kingdom.
They understand who they are in their relationship with God.
And they recognize that the only thing connecting them to God is grace.
And this is hard.
I recognize for people in a culture like ours, it was hard too.
It was hard too in the first century.
Don’t get me wrong.
Even in the first century, it was difficult.
Their perspective that Jesus presents here contrasts sharply with how the Pharisees and the other religious leaders viewed themselves.
The religious leaders and the Pharisees, they believe that good works and strict adherence to the law would not only secure their place in God’s kingdom,
Not only would it get them into God’s kingdom, they believed that their good works and following the law would also bring into full realization God’s kingdom.
They believed the better they followed the law, the more they stuck to it, that that would initiate the return of the Messiah, and then they would take over everybody and rule again.
But the poor in spirit recognized that the only way
The only way that they’re getting into God’s kingdom is if God lets them in.
Because they’re not good enough to get in.
They’re certainly not good to initiate it.
It’s hard for them.
It’s hard for us to understand.
It’s hard for us on a different level.
For us, here’s why it’s hard.
In general, we’re pretty skeptical of grace.
In our culture, we’re skeptical of it.
We’re Americans.
We don’t like giving things away for free.
It’s anathema to us.
We believe in the Horatio Alger myth.
Do you know who Horatio Alger was?
Horatio Alger was an author who published a series of books at the turn of the century about a character who had nothing in life and through his own hard work, through their own sweat on his own brow, he picked himself up by his bootstraps and he made something of himself with no help from anybody else.
We like stories like that.
That story gets an American pretty excited.
We like those stories about people who had nothing and then through their own efforts, nobody helped me.
I did it all by myself.
I made it the American dream.
Well, let me tell you, in Jesus’s kingdom,
In Jesus’ kingdom, there are no Horatio Alger stories.
None whatsoever.
And the sooner you understand that, the better, because it has devastating consequences on our spiritual development.
First, if you don’t see yourself as a person of grace, you are not going to be able to offer grace to other people.
Gracious people are constantly giving grace to others.
And so if you don’t see yourself as a person of grace, you’re not going to be able to give it to anybody else.
And you’re going to lose your effectiveness in God’s kingdom because what God wants for you more than anything else is for people to be able to see Jesus clearly through your life.
And if they’re going to see Jesus, they’re going to need to see grace.
And so you know what God will do to you?
He’ll humble you himself.
In order to use you in his kingdom, God will humble you himself.
It’s happened to me.
You know, my wife asked me not to share any of this story.
She was nervous about me talking, so… honestly up here in front of everybody.
But I said, no, I’m going to say it anyway because people need to hear that.
There was a time in my life, seriously, I’m embarrassed to say it actually.
It’s written here on my paper and I’m embarrassed to say it, but I’ll say it.
There was a time in my life when I thought I was God’s gift to the church.
Honestly, I thought I was.
I thought that I was smarter than everybody else.
I thought I was more creative than the entire staff that I was working on.
I thought I was a better writer, certainly a better preacher.
I thought I was a gift.
My beatitude at that time, my beatitude was, happy is the church where Ryan Chandler is pastor.
Silly, isn’t it?
And God humbled me.
In a very painful moment,
And public way.
The Lord humbled me.
Took it all away from me.
Don’t get me wrong.
I did good ministry in those churches.
I still preach well.
I wrote good Bible studies.
I baptized lots of people.
If God can use Judas to accomplish his will.
Well then.
He can use anybody I guess.
But I wasn’t happy.
In any of that work.
See that’s the thing about this blessed thing.
This happy thing that Jesus is talking about here.
He can use anyone.
To do his work.
And you can do it.
But you won’t be happy doing it.
If you don’t see yourself as a person of grace.
It’s the second consequence of not recognizing your spiritual poverty.
You’ll do all the work of God and miss all of the blessing.
I was anxious.
Angry.
Judgmental.
Depressed, I was doing God’s work, but I was missing out on all of His wonderful gifts, the gift of joy and contentment and peace that surpasses understanding.
I had to learn it the hard way.
You don’t have to.
It’s blessed to be poor in God’s kingdom.
Happy are the poor in spirit.
Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
You know, what I appreciate most about this particular beatitude is it just allows us to be human.
It allows us just to embrace our humanity.
Grief, if you’re not aware, grief is a profoundly important emotion.
It’s important in your life.
You can’t just ignore or overlook or stifle.
Even though our culture portrays it as a weakness, it’s not.
It’s important for our overall health.
I think the best example of this is the movie Inside Out.
How many of y’all have seen Pixar’s Inside Out?
Okay, good.
If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a snapshot of emotions that are going on inside of a person.
And they make the emotions like little characters.
And it’s the story of this little girl named Riley.
Right? who suddenly is taken away from her home, taken away from everything she knows, taken away from her school, moved halfway across the country, and she starts to feel really bad about life.
But the character Joy, inside of her, tries to stifle that sadness.
And there’s another character called Sadness, and Joy keeps trying to push Sadness away, push Sadness to the side.
Don’t let Riley be sad, she can’t be sad.
And eventually, you know what happens to Riley?
She just breaks down.
She goes numb and she can’t handle life anymore.
And it isn’t until the very end of the movie that Joy finally realizes how important grieving and mourning is.
And when Riley finally just gets to mourn, just gets to cry, suddenly she finds healing.
It’s the same for you as well.
Can I just say this morning, whatever you’re sad about today,
Just whatever it is you’re mourning, whatever you’re grieving, and I don’t know what it is.
Maybe it’s the loss of someone you love or the end of a relationship or a job loss or a job transition.
Maybe it’s something really painful from your past that you’re just having a hard time letting go.
It’s okay to mourn over that thing.
And not because I gave you permission, but because Jesus gives us permission.
Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn.
It’s okay, Jesus says, I’ve got you.
And I’m going to comfort you.
Because contrary to popular belief, mourning is not an act of faithlessness.
I think there are some who would say, well, if you mourn and you throw yourself into despair, isn’t that a sign that you don’t trust in God?
I don’t think that’s true at all.
It’s actually an acknowledgement of our faith in God.
See, in our passage’s context, those who mourn include not only those who are experiencing personal loss…
But also those who are just grieving the sin of the world.
In fact, that’s probably more accurate to the mourners Jesus is actually talking about here.
It’s people who lament a broken world.
They see addiction.
And they see broken families.
And they see mental health problems and social crisis.
And they weep.
Over the problems in our culture.
With the Psalms as their model.
They cry out to God over the wreckage of the world.
They recognize that they don’t have all the answers.
But they know the one who does.
And so they just give it all to him.
And to those people, Jesus promises that one day God is going to intervene and he’s going to comfort them.
He’ll right all the wrongs.
He’ll wipe every tear from every eye.
Death, sorrow, mourning will be no more.
And in this light, mourning is not an act of hopelessness, but an act of bold faith in a God who will reverse our fortunes.
It is blessed to be poor.
In God’s kingdom.
And blessed are the meek, Jesus said, for they will inherit the earth.
See, the meek are those who have surrendered control of their lives to God.
The opposite of meek, the opposite of being a meek person is hubris, which is excessive arrogance. that leads to a downfall.
Meek doesn’t mean weak.
For some reason, a lot of people, not just in general, but in the church too, we think that meek means weak.
And I have no idea where that idea came from.
The only way I can think that that became an idea is because they rhyme.
That’s it.
That’s the only connection between them.
But it’s not what it means.
It means humble.
It means humility.
It means the ability to control our strength.
This imagery actually comes from races in the ancient world.
They would say at those races that a good horse is a meek horse because that horse responds willingly to the gentle guidance of its master.
Now, a horse isn’t weak, is it?
No, horses are strong.
Take it from a guy who grew up on a ranch and has some scars on his body from it.
Horses are strong.
But with the right training and the right guidance and the right bridle and the right bit, they can be controlled so easily.
Dr. Weil says that learning meekness, learning meekness means bridling our aggressive tendencies. bridling our aggressive tendencies.
Now, what aggressive tendencies?
In general, the aggressive tendency to want to go out and make our own way in the world.
That aggressive tendency to say, I don’t care what anybody else says.
I don’t care what Dr. Wiles or the church or my wife or anybody says.
I don’t even care what God says.
I’m just going to go and do whatever I want.
A little bit of that’s in all of us.
And learning to be a meek person means learning how to bridle those aggressive tendencies.
And their reward, Jesus says, here’s the reward for the meek person.
He says that they’re going to inherit the earth.
You could also translate that to say they’re going to inherit the land.
Now, what did the Jewish people want in Jesus’ day more than anything else?
What did they want more than anything else?
They wanted their land back.
They wanted Israel.
They wanted Jerusalem.
And they wanted their own king on the throne.
They wanted their land.
They wanted control.
Many of them expected that the Messiah was going to return and lead a violent revolution to reclaim it.
But when Jesus came along, his followers soon learned this wasn’t going to be the case at all.
His kingdom was not going to be taken through force. or coercion.
And let me tell you, there’s some Christians today that really need to hear that.
We can’t force Jesus’ kingdom on anyone by pushing our values on them or by manipulating them through force or coercion.
If we’re going to be an effective witness in our culture, we’re going to have to learn as a whole how to bridle our aggressive tendencies and do God’s work in a way that is consistent with the character of Jesus.
You cannot do God’s work your way.
You have to do God’s work in God’s way, which is the Jesus way.
But furthermore, there’s an internal consequence for adopting a spirit of meekness as well.
See, there’s a connection.
There’s a connection between happiness and humility.
Have you ever thought about the connection between happiness and humility?
Let me ask you this.
Have you ever spoken with an exceedingly arrogant person?
How fun was that?
It was a bad cup of coffee, wasn’t it?
They’re not happy, are they?
Arrogant people aren’t happy people.
Most of the time, they’re angry people.
And who can blame them?
They’re surrounded by idiots.
And so they approach life with anger, with a certain condescension and dissatisfaction.
But have you ever spoken to a truly, genuinely humble person?
Oh, you didn’t want to leave that cup of coffee, did you?
They’re a joy to be around because a humble person’s life is marked by deep, deep gratitude.
When I think of a truly humble person that’s just good to talk with, I always like to think of my dad.
My dad is a truly humble person.
Now, my dad’s lived a hard life.
He’s had a lot of hard things happen to him.
He’s made a lot of mistakes in his life.
And because he’s made a lot of mistakes and he recognized it, he sees himself purely as a person of grace.
And so you know what that does for my dad?
It makes him just a happy, fun person to be around all the time.
Ask anybody at the mall in San Antonio.
Oh, yeah, my dad’s that guy.
Have you ever run into one of those guys at the mall or at the grocery store?
They’re just standing there.
They’ve got nothing else to do, so they just kick up a conversation with you.
That’s my dad.
That’s him, and if you’re not careful, soon you’ll be back at our house eating dinner with us later that night.
It’s just who he is.
You know why my dad’s that way?
Because he recognizes that anybody he talks to, they’re not lucky to be in his presence.
He’s gone through some hard stuff.
He’s blessed and he’s fortunate.
He’s lucky enough just to be able to talk to anybody.
That’s what it’s like talking to a humble person.
They’re happy.
They’re happy to talk to anyone because they don’t see themselves as better than anyone else.
They recognize that anything good they have comes from Jesus’ generosity.
Now let me tell you this too.
Both of these type of people exist in the church.
Both of these people exist in the church today.
The arrogant and the meek both teach Sunday school.
Both rock babies in the nursery.
Both sign up to bring chicken to the potluck dinner.
But only one, Jesus says, is happy doing it.
Only one of those sort of people are happy doing the work of Jesus.
I know it sounds paradoxical.
But it’s blessed to be poor in God’s kingdom.
So are you ready to go bankrupt today?
You’re ready to go broke.
That’s what Jesus is calling us to.
Go broke and learn how to put your dependence on me.
Are you ready to admit that God’s plans for your life, whatever they are, are going to be far better than whatever you’ve cooked up for yourself?
You see, Paul part of this flourishing journey that our church is embarking on.
And maybe you’re embarking on it just as an individual.
You know there’s some stuff in your life that you need to get right.
Or maybe you’re doing it as a family.
You know there’s some stuff in your family you need to get right.
This whole journey that we’re beginning, it needs to begin first and foremost at Jesus’ feet.
This is where it needs to begin.
Otherwise, here’s what you’re going to do.
You’re going to go out there and you’re going to try to flourish and it’s going to be on your own terms.
And you’re going to try to cook something up.
And you’re going to try to plan your life to go in a certain direction.
And Jesus isn’t going to be part of it at all.
That’s the danger of some of this.
You have to start with Jesus.
It needs to begin with prayer.
Jesus, who do you want me to be?
What do you want us to be?
What do you want these next three years of my life to look like?
What do you need me to learn?
Where do you need me to flourish so that I can help other people flourish?
Why not begin this journey by remembering that there is no flourishing without Jesus and allowing him to shape the trajectory of these next three years of your life.
In fact, as we close today, I’m just going to offer an opportunity to just enter into a moment of silent prayer.
And wherever you’re at in some of these things, as you think about poor in spirit or mourning or meek, as you think about how that relates to flourishing and what Jesus is trying to do in your life and in our church’s life, I just invite you to just silently pray.
And after a moment of silence, I’ll conclude us and we’ll go into our invitation time.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we recognize our dependence on you.
We recognize that we don’t know it all.
We don’t have it all.
Lord, we’ve got nothing.
Our tank is empty.
We don’t get to run into your kingdom with our arms held high.
The only reason we get to be a part of it all is because you’ve invited and called us into it.
And you’ve forgiven us.
You’ve given us a new name and a new identity.
That identity is Christ.
And that, Lord, is what enables us to be part of this whole thing.
We’re so grateful for you.
Help us, Father, to take these beatitudes seriously, not to see them